one lost shoe at last

hello there

for those of you who have missed posts of this nature rejoice, as here is one more, look you see. weirdly it is so that of late i have not seen all that much in the way of discarded footwear. perhaps such was an unforeseen victim (or change) brought about by the invisible war on the new plague. 

it was so that, once more, i was at the site, or if you prefer locale, where i had made an observation previously shared here. as opposed, indeed, to one in the future. if such is possible. details of that one can be found by clicking here. quite a few have read that, and i trust it has been most informally informative and generally useful. 

yes, in the greater glory of Commodore 64 mode, there is an abandoned shoe. juxtaposed, quite by chance, as it is by a tree. admittedly it is not too clear in the image, but if you wish to play a game and guess where it is, scroll down for the non-Commodore 64 mode picture and see how close you go. 

exactly how did one single, solitary shoe end up where it did? obviously i have no idea. also, i know that it was not alone. the other shoe (well, they vaguely looked like an intended pair, i did not study or explore too much or in any detail) was a few steps away, say ten or twelve. but yes, what with this being all so close to that halloween business, i thought i would omit that so you could, if you were so inclined, come up with something spooky or untoward as reason.

and there is the one shoe not in the greater glory of Commodore 64 mode. if you decided to play a game with the first (or initial) picture, it is my sincere wish or hope that you were either successful, or not too disappointed with being a bit off. 

well, there we have it. no, i am not sure the title is correct. i doubt that this shoe is so much lost as it being the case that it was deliberately, some might say wilfully, discarded. probably an episode or incident of that "flytipping" business one often hears of. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

barbs beautifies bowie

howdy pop pickers

just another musical interlude, look you see, taking up precious, some may well say valuable, space here on the internet. thanks for reading (if you do), and i shall take it as a given that for some reason all other, more interesting stuff is presently unavailable. 

mostly, or indeed even partly, this is all about how i came to listen to the album Butterfly by Barbra Streisand. yes, that one. both artist and album, with regards to that one. 

no, i do not have the version of the Butterfly (or ButterFly as Barbs would appear to prefer it be styled) with the cover what has a fly on a chunk of butter. that is what i ordered, but instead came a version of the cover what seems to have elements of butterflies emanating from the mind of Barbs. and why not. 

ostensibly, as in actually, ButterFly (to respect the wishes of Barbs) is, or was, the sixteenth studio recording to have been released by Barbs. not her finest hour is perhaps the most diplomatic way to give you a general overview of the quality of the record. but, more of that as we go. if you keep reading. 

how is it that i came to not only be aware of this record, but went off and procured a copy of it from the great car boot sale area of the internet? as with a lot of things in my life, Bowie. 

for some (valid) reason i was recently of a mind (so to speak) to listen to something a bit breezy, whimsical, fun and possibly uplifting. this is something one would rarely need to look further than Bowie's VH1 Storytellers performance. what it lacks in any (immediate) sense of "greatest hits" it amply amplified makes up for in top notch performance by an artist performing what songs he wants, how he wants. 

as i have (probably) bored you with before (if you read other posts, that is) and shall probably not do so ever again, Bowie's storytelling part of Storytellers is a masterclass in deflection. rather than reveal too much about himself, he tells wonderfully amusing stories of other people instead, where his presence happens to be secondary or similar. 

going somewhat non-linear, due to how i put the pictures up (i ordered them, so blame no one), that's the tracklisting for ButterFly. you can probably identify what the main crux or focus will, if by default alone, shall be, but to indulge. i am not sure that Guava Jam means what Barbs thinks it does, and if she does that is even more disturbing. unsure how Bob Marley felt of her cover. indeed, Love In The Afternoon is perfect for conjuring up scary images. also, her take on Since I Don't Have You kind of foreshadowingly in a retrospective future seeing way (?) vindicates the Guns N Roses version. 

so, in a rare instance of Bowie saying something about Bowie during the Storytellers performance, David speaks at some (comparative) length about the Barbra Streisand cover of, yes, you spotted it, Life On Mars?. he does not speak in a favourable way, at all. to qualify his dislike, he cites one issue in particular, which is that the record was produced by her at the time boyfriend. Barbs' hairdresser boyfriend, that is. a most noble, skilled profession, but not one which tends to suggest an immediate grasp of the nuances and technicalities of music production. 

weirdly, and by sheer co-incidence or statistical fluke (or what have you), i switched on the tele whilst i set about creating the little video thing below. and sorry for the lack of spoiler warning. anyway, on was a late 90s repeat of Wheel Of Fortune, hosted by Bradley Walsh during his most infamous phase; when he had a very dodgy and suspicious Oasis era Manchester haircut which did not suit at all. neither did his suit, in truth, but i am one to talk. how very strange that a puzzle to solve on Wheel Of Fortune should randomly relate to what i was messing about with at the time. 

the Barbs interpretation of Life On Mars? was something that i could vaguely grasp at some sort of semblance of remembering hearing years ago, but had forgotten all about it. hence the prompted memory (or recall) by Storytellers and the wish to hear it again. to see, or hear, if it truly was as what David described, or if he was being a trifle protective. 

above is a little snippet thing i knocked up. took f*****g hours it did, so someone please just play it, if only once. and once shall probably be enough. yes, i suppose it is a bit like the south america thing i knocked up some time ago. 

it was, as you shall be aware if you have already played the above video thing (and i did encourage such), the point at which Barbs delivers the "sailors" line from the song that i, well, lost it. or the song lost me. maybe it just tickled me, or made me aware of why Bowie may not have cared for her versions all that much. yes, snippets of David delivering the line (both in studio and live variations) pepper the mix for balance, or clarity. 

what you are looking at above (if you look) is an image of the inner parts of the booklet for the edition of the ButterFly CD what i obtained. interesting. whilst i was expecting some linear notes, so as to see how Barbs came to the decisions she did with the record, the record label instead provides you with a whole list of albums which you might have spent coins of money on rather than the one you did. kicking someone when they are down, i believe, is the expression. 

usually it is so that when people do them "best, greatest and most important" lists of Bowie songs, as in top ten sort of things, Life On Mars? gets voted, selected, chosen or randomly picked as the finest, or features within the top three. fair enough, i suppose. i guess there is some way of choosing what is the best by whoever, but with Bowie i would not know how to narrow it down. mostly all good. 

but no, the Barbra Streisand recording of Life On Mars? would not feature anywhere near a list of the greatest best or most important songs what Barbs has recorded. and that is no insult or slur for the song itself, just rather a commentary on what Barbs elected to do with the material. 

should you depart from this post (so to speak) and seek out a copy of ButterFly to listen to, please note that this is on you. yes, sure, there is a school of thought which says it's so bad it is good enough to check out for the novelty factor. but one might rather wish they had been to a different school entirely. 

my thanks, as ever, for reading. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

harm you or touch your defences, vanity and security

hello there

in this life, or world, there are many things that one would not have thought would ever be so. rather than waffle on as usual, look you see, let me cut to the business end of this. for reasons which i am ill prepared to disclose, some pictures of me (moi) were taken recently, and caused some alarm. possible distress, too. 

like, i totes knew that i was (in the hair stakes) going grey, this is something visible within a mirror and quite, so far as i am aware, the inevitable way of such things. or such a thing. just how grey gave me quite a fright, and i am now also convinced that a bald patch is forming, at the rear. 

these are factors - elements, i suppose - which i thought would never ever bother me. maybe it is more true to say that i did not give them all that much thought, but as and when i did, just indifference is all i can recall considering. and yet now here i am, waffling away, reconsidering the distress. 

a very distinct possibility is that the image is a simple illusion, that it is not so. one of them iTwat devices off of Apple was used to take the image, and little to do with them or their products is to be trusted as a formality. 

not long after my most recent haircut, provided by my (considerably) better half (at time of writing), it did strike me as the middle bit at the top, as well as receding, seemed generally thinner than would be usual. that seems to have grown back a trifle thicker, though. oh. 

above is the view i would generally (normally) see alone in the mirror. i can get by with that. other than it being an uncharacteristically not bad image of moi (me) where i do not look so frightfully awful, the hair is not all grey, and looks reasonable. 

yes, that is the legendary, famous and celebrated 199 steps of Whitby behind me. i did indeed walk up them, of a necessity for verk, strangely. during my walk up them i had reason to believe that i had contracted, or been infected with, this new plague thing, the coronavirus covid thing. one of the symptoms of it is a shortness of breath, and as i smoked a cigarette walking up them somewhere between steps 34 and 48 i certainly felt such. 

certainly, i bombarded a selection of people with copies of this image, and expressed my dismay in what i saw. weirdly, the general consensus is that i am not going bald, people from different parts of the world with no communication between them all said it just seems that i have been out in the sun a bit too much. for the grey, well, my sister said that i should just "own it".

for the most part, the concern concerning going bald isn't really much of a vanity or insecurity thing. i just don't think i have the particularly correct sort of shaped head to suit it. decidedly, i doubt that if the balding i suspect happens that i shall be able to keep my outrageous moustache and beard, for it will look ridiculous. 

no, i am not concerned that bald or grey gives credence to the rumours spread that i was ageing fast. in this day and age one cannot move for people quoting "the science" at you, with a vague understanding of what that actually means being sufficient to justify any point. with that in mind, as i have pointed out before, all of science says that i am indeed immortal, for i have not died, so there is no scientific fact to say that i will. assumption and theory, yes, to be sure, but not fact, especially not with us all being unique snowflakes or similar. 

right, well, anyway, let me get on with observing some more of whatever it is my hair is deciding to do at the moment. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

why can't we give love that one more chance

hello

well, yes, look you see. i too am quite surprised at the rather overt turn towards culinary things in posts of recent times, but as i said in a post a while ago perhaps i am quite close to exhausting all that i could write of. but, here i am again, to be sure. 

there is little (quite) so enjoyable for dinner as a KFC. it is not often that i can indulge such, for reasons of time and location. certainly, there is no way that i could have KFC as frequently as, say, The King, Elvis Presley, as (for a start) i am not able to instruct a plane to fetch me some no matter where i am in the world. 

but, fairly recently, i was able to stop off for some for dinner. and by dinner i do mean that middle of the day meal. in proper areas of the world, this is called dinner, but i am aware that some people call this "lunch". they are decidedly wrong to do so, although it does help identify them as being from a not particularly proper corner of the world. 

so, anyway, it was a completely spontaneous, off the cuff (or similar) decision to head to KFC that day, and my did it turn into a random element of delight. as you can see, in the greater glory of Commodore 64 mode, it was truly a most happy day, for the legendary "double down" was and is back on the menu. for a brief period, granted, but here it is. 

if for some reason you are unaware of the delights and joys of the KFC double down burger, well. somewhere across these blog pages you will find celebrations of it, as well as stern criticism of the false fake south african version of it. but, to give a brief insight, several years ago KFC launched the idea of a burger which used two chicken fillets instead of a bread bun as an April Fool joke. such was the interest and demand that they went right ahead and made it for real.

yeah, that's the official story. my guess, or suspicion, is that they floated the idea when they did to see if it would be popular or mocked. doing that sort of marketing research on April Fool's Day is a certified winner, as you can easily back out of it and not look like you made an error in judgement. no reason for them to have been so cautious, really. what's not to like about a KFC burger which just gets down (in a double way, apparently) to the business end? 

that's the poster which greeted me as i arrived, then. i could have wept with joy when i saw it, or even perhaps done a little dance of celebration. the double down has returned, albeit in a limited way, and is on sale here in the UK until November 15. whilst i wish they would just leave it on for purchase permanently, yes i did try and calculate if it would be possible for me to stop off at KFC every day up to and including the end date for dinner. alas, it seems not viable, for reasons of finance, location of KFC outlets and, to be honest, the likely damage such would do to arteries and whatever other bodily systems i have which are not quite so enthusiastic about this culinary delight. 

as far as one aspect of the above concerns go (in respect of not going for a daily double down), the cost of a double down meal (burger, horrible chips and a drink not subject to sugar tax) is £5.99, or if you prefer even things 1p south of £6. for comparison, this is just a bit over what usual KFC meals cost (i think), well above the average McDonald's meal cost and somewhere just south of the outrageous prices Burger King (that i also really like) slam on their menu. 

one thing i cannot recall is how they came up with the name "double down" for it. doesn't matter, i suppose. perhaps it was a popular (most likely American) colloquialism at the time they did it, and they just culturally appropriated it, presumably with little fuss for whatever anyone was doing with the term at the time is unlikely to have been as class as this burger. very little in the world is. 

further, or if you will, another thing would be that KFC seem quite determined to ensure they maintain custodianship of the term "double down" by means of expansion. look, please, at the below image, sent as it was all the way from New Zealand. 

yes, Grant enthusiasts, this is off of him. i of course sent him images of the double down back available here, for i know he is as passionate about them as i am. only they cost quite a lot more down there, from what i remember. this is what they are offering in New Zealand, then. probably America too, for i don't think they would get away with not doing so. 

i am not sure how keen i am on that, to be honest. the whole thing looks like mixing your pudding, or afters, with your main meal. or breakfast, i suppose, as i am reliably informed that in some places, and by that i mean America, waffles loaded with all sorts of sugar stuff is quite the done thing for breakfast. to clarify, though, yes, if it turned up for sale here i would give it a go. what, after all, would i stand to lose by such a go?

my review of the double down, in its returned form? well, as thoroughly enjoyable as i recall, but also a lot quicker to eat. as in it appears the double down burger has become (considerably) smaller this time around. maybe it is a case of "shrinkonomics", or it is possible that the raw materials needed to make a double down burger with have been diverted to something else, such as making munitions for the invisible war against the new plague. yes, the answer to this aspect of the problem probably is to simply buy two double down burgers, making it a double double down meal.

well, anyway, that's that. it would strike me as the clock is ticking to November 15, so best i cease simply writing of the KFC double down and make my way to buy another one. or two. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

more trolley stuff

hi there

as i sit to compose this i get the sense, look you see, that i am running out of things which i could possibly put here. this is a sentiment which has visited before, but has been shown as mistaken. however, after somewhere north of 15 years doing it and somewhere north of four thousand (!) things put up, maybe closing time draws. 

that said, there are some post dated things scheduled for the next two (at time of writing) years, so we shall see. but, for now, let me go all circular and just compose more of the same sort of thing what i have been doing on an infrequently regular basis. 

so yes, then, more sightings of shopping trolleys (trollies) in generally irregular, unexpected or surprising locations. although one of them is featured somewhere that you would expect, but not quite. which might add an unusual level of excitement to all of this. 

every picture tells a story is of course the name of a super album by the (not at the time Sir) Rod Stewart, and indeed a saying proven true time and again. something of an obvious thing to say, but run with it. and, to get onto some sort of point, the above might not be quite such a casual abandonment of a trolley as it may seem. 

rather telling (in the above picture) is the sign above the trolley. that is indeed an advert, or if you like billboard, for a taxi company. what you cannot see in the picture is a, or rather the, supermarket from where that trolley is off of. or at least is branded. my interpretation, or guess, is that someone went shopping, called a taxi, and emptied their shopping into the taxi and just left the trolley where it is. 

or, as an alternate theory, behind me (when i took the picture) was (is) a train station. maybe someone brought the trolley to this spot via a train for unspecified and unknown reasons, or also it is possible that they did some shopping and took it home with them on the train and the train conductor would not let them take the trolley onto the train. 

now we are talking, in the above picture. well, i am. although not talking, i suppose, but writing. just look at the elegant, unassuming and sophisticated way in which someone has taken the trouble to store the two trollies (trolleys) they have procured. that is dedication to keeping them, that is. 

i am unsure if i should really share the below, but it's done now. here's confirmation, or if you will, and should it be the right word affirmation, of sorts of (some) of the places i have been to in order to get you these pictures. and, yeah, do some other stuff, as my life is not yet quite so sad as to just cruise around taking images of trolleys (trollies). close, but not yet. 

please don't get too excited about the number of cities listed. for a start, i think perhaps it is counting ones i drove through rather than stopped at. also, that there "google" thing is American, so far as i am aware, and they have an easily excited and exaggerated idea of what is a "city". they seem to like rather grandiose titles for things, do our American friends. in businesses, for instance, Americans tend to declare some staff members "vice president" when here in England, or the wider UK, we would use the title "assistant manager" or "staff member". but, each to their own. 

yes, indeed my September map (and i appreciate this is August) looks almost as exciting as that one. perhaps i shall post it, we shall see if i get really (very) short of other stuff to put here. 

now, the above may well (or might) look like a trolley where it is supposed to be, which is in a shop. this is only partially correct. whereas yes, a trolley would usually be found in a shop, it is normal for such to feature the branding of the store. as you can clearly see, it is an Asda trolley, and yet here it was in a chapter of Spar. 

looking at the most recent economic data, alas the economy still continues to shrink, or not grow. we are heading for trouble. these lockdown measures to fight the invisible war against the new plague are of course important, but the sooner we are able to take trolleys (trollies) to scrapyards to cash in then the sooner we shall all taste economic recovery. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fish and chips in a number of cinque ports

hello there

just some more stuff off of my (relatively recent) visits to places in the south east, look you see. specifically, as the title suggests, a bit of a consideration of the fish and chips one may purchase at a number of the cinque ports. and, to clarify, two (2) is a number. 

whatever the actual origins of fish and chips are, as in whoever first came up with the idea to serve them as a meal, in the here and now it is a meal considered quintessentially British. it is, in the eyes of many, a seedy, heinous crime for one to visit any given coastal aspect of our land(s) and not dine on this most agreeable of meals. 

having no (immediate) wish to either burden the already presently overworked constabulary or, for that matter, experience a custodial sentence, it was so that on my south east sojourn experiences i ensured that i complied with this unwritten but upheld law. some of you for some reason may wish to have proof or evidence of this, or simply to see such for sheer curiosity. 

above, then, are the first fish and chips what i had in a cinque port, or in the area of one. for the sake of more specific provenance, this meal was thoroughly enjoyed in the southern aspects of the south east. no, for the life of me i cannot recall the (exact) name of the place, but it had some variation of sea and or sand in it, and end or similar. i think. 

for an even more specific locale, it was some sort of (and i am genuine in this) boutique bistro artisan thing, weirdly located behind a petrol station and just over the road from where some quasi cockney lads were being most vocal in their appraisal of the world as they erected some scaffolding. a chance find, and one that i was most happy to have made. 

overall, one of the finest fish and chips i have experienced, or tasted, if all of that is worded in any way that makes some form of sense. i hope it does. so good, as point of fact, i went to the very same place for a second time during my adventures. what helped considerably was that i went during those rather hedonistic (and possibly, in retrospect, hasty) "eat out to help out" discount days, so the above meal (plus a can of Coke or Dr Pepper, i forget which) cost neither north nor south of £5 on each instance. 

just some of the postcards what i picked up on my travels in the south east, presented of course in the greater glory of Commodore 64 mode. many did i get, and have already sent, with these to be sent at some stage to select addresses. if you like postcards then the south east is ace, as loads of places have them for sale. this is not so in some areas of the UK. for instance, a trip to Dudley found not one postcard for sale showcasing the place (or even Tipton). i should think this is an aspect of shame which guilt should be felt for, as even Hartlepool sell postcards of their area of the country, and believe you me, Hartlepool is no Dudley and it is certainly no Tipton. 

generally it would be fair to say that rather than lacking ambition i prefer random things to present themselves as "targets". attainable or otherwise. but, that said, i did set out with hopes of having, at some point, fish and chips within the sacred grounds of Margate. sadly, or alas, the place was just too busy, swarming as it forever seems to be with pilgrims paying homage to the place what Chas & Dave did a song about. instead, then, i settled for fish and chips in Ramsgate, which is relatively close to Margate up in the northern parts of the south east. 

to be honest i am unsure if that picture does it all justice. for a start my memories of the fish were of it being a particularly bright yellow, and the chips were of the nature what they used to be off of all chip shops in the UK in the 70s and 80s before people decided to bring in food safety and hygiene measurements and standards and other such sh!t.

i purchased the above from one of those no nonsense, no boutique or bistro nonsense solid, old school takeaway by the harbour, or port if you will. despite the meal not looking quite so elegant or as sophisticated as the south of the south east one, you have my word that this was a most tasty and thoroughly enjoyable dinner. 

some of you (for some reason) prefer images of things not in Commodore 64 mode, so there you go, them postcards from earlier. i particularly like the one of Walmer Castle. as and when they make me lord high priest of the cinque port barons (or whatever the correct title is), i believe there is an expectation for me to live there. this i suspect i shall find most agreeable. 

my abiding memory of Deal, seeing the card, involved narrow, rubbish roads, very bad displays of parking and shoddy driving by my fellow motorists. this, i note, they did not draw attention to with the images selected for the postcard. but, take my word for it, that is what you will find there. 

well, anyway, that's that for this. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

varied reading

hello reader

so, i have read a further two (2) books, look you see. and i chose the word books carefully there, for only one, or fifty percent, of them would be defined as a novel. no, i have not delved into the world of non-fiction which i rarely do, although there is a significant temptation to read the Ronnie Wood understanding of an autobiography, what i got off of HMV for 99p. 

after the slight experimentation with the last lot of books what i read, yes all two of them, i feel compelled to make the presentation here more conventional, or as i would normally do this sort of thing. no, not that sort of thing, just this sort of thing. which means a look at the books, a brief spoiler free overview and then some more (by my standards) detailed comments. and it may well be that the detailed comments contain elements which people may feel as being 'spoilers'.

in the order i read them, then, and indeed as they line up in the picture above, Cruel Acts was an above average, often superb British copper novel. after that Trigger Warning is a collection of "short fictions", or so it says on the cover, and so is the one which was not a novel that i read yet remains (at least as far as i am aware) in the realm of fiction. quite a mixed fortune, with the tales presented ranging from brilliant to "meh" and in some instances feeling a waste of paper. 

just a quick note, the Jane Casey one (Cruel Acts) was indeed a novel which features recurring characters. giving some of my review comments away, whereas this did not affect my reading or enjoyment at all, obviously i am disappointed as there are a number of novels set prior to this which i probably would have enjoyed. maybe seek out the first ones, up to you. 

one further note would concern Trigger Warning. to try and catch the google search thing, should you read the introduction for Trigger Warning before you read the stories, as it seems to go story by story and potentially risk spoiling that which you read? after some uuum and aaah deliberation i elected to read after, and that was wise. no overt spoilers as such, but often a bit too much was (in hindsight) intimated at in the introductory parts. 

right, then, more detail on each. although i have said the main things what you would probably need to know of the first already. but, for those that wish to read on, well, as you knew (or were advised) would be coming, a *** SPOILER WARNING *** sort of thing is now in place. 

once more to start where i did in terms of the order of reading, first up is this now frequently mentioned Cruel Acts by Jane Casey. 

quite a standard, or recurring, thing for me to do is purchase books, mostly novels, which i see that take my fancy as and when i see them at a reasonable price. a consequence of this is having a pile of books, say ten or even twelve, unread, and some of them remaining so for some time. to this effect, with regards to provenance of my copy, it was clearly from Tesco, based on the price sticker. however, i am still annoyed that they changed the 2 for £7 offer to 2 for £8 a few years ago, so no, i won't have paid that. more likely is that this was their £3 or £3.50 book of the week, or came at a cost of £2.50 if you bought it in conjunction with a newspaper. the latter shall have gone straight to recycling, no doubt. whereas i cannot recall exactly how long ago i bought this one, the copyright date gives every indication that it was published in 2019. so, i may well have been sat on this for some eighteen months, or maybe less. 

plot? due to 'something' of a technicality (and i am trying to avoid spoilers so no details) a particularly heinous criminal is released from prison. his guilt appeared quite clear cut and, upon his release, sickening crimes similar to the ones which he was convicted for happen again. a stretched, sometimes bickering and frequently questionable yet always dedicated team of police officers with somewhat conflicting levels of motivation must work to establish new evidence for a retrial and stop the crimes happening now from happening again......

the only real weakness with this novel was the title. it feels either as being the 'brilliant' idea of the work experience kid in the marketing department of the publisher, or otherwise was settled on as a "this will do" sort of thing. leaving that aside, and it does feels to be somewhat nitpicking, this was a superb read. 

what made it so good? on top of being very well written, it has a precise degree of realism. the challenges to the police doing their job, be it the public, the press, the courts or even themselves, gives every sense of how dedicated one needs to be to persevere and do this sadly all too often thankless yet important job. sure, there are a few contrived, for dramatic effect moments which break the sense of realism, but this is fiction, and is intended to be for entertainment purposes for the most part. 

i am a little loathe to draw comparisons, but also i am not. my other frequent reading of the British constabulary is, as regular readers of this blog shall know, Peter Robinson. he presents the police force of our nation operating in a frankly absurd way - a copper sits around in a pub thinking on things, ponders some musical favourites, and then lo behold the criminal or villain of the piece either hands themselves in or needlessly gives themselves away at the end. this novel feels a great deal closer to presenting, or representing, how it all really goes. 

again a significant regret is that i found, midway through the novel, that i had parachuted into a series which had several novels involving the same characters. for me it is perhaps too late to go back and explore or discover the other novels, but you could well do so if you wished. or just get straight into this one, really. very much recommended reading. 

to the next book, then, which takes the form of Trigger Warning by the somewhat celebrated and rather well known (in certain circles) Neil Gaiman. indeed, i was aware of him prior to reading, but had mostly avoided. sat here is a copy of American Gods which i have yet to read. i do wish to, purely because hearing the sentence "Gillian Anderson plays David Bowie" about some tv or "streaming" adaptation of it grabbed my attention, as it felt inspired. 

saying that i have deliberately avoided reading anything by Neil Gaiman would be incorrect; rather i just have never sought him out. truthfully it is that some of the things i have heard of him suggested "sixth form w@nkery" laid ahead with his works, or other such geeky, dorky, misfit like stuff. were it that i had an interest in such then, you would think, i could just as easily read the rubbish i write here and beyond. 

but yet here we are, with me having now read one of his works. how did this happen? a very good and very specific friend insisted that i very specifically read this work. with no offence to others over the years who have tried to steer me towards his work, in this instance it just seemed, through universal alignment or whatever, that i should act on the instruction. and so, i did. 

provenance of my copy? i could not find it in a bookshop that i visited, although they did have a hefty number of other books (mostly novels) by this bloke. he would seem to be prolific. so, off i went to the car boot sale of the internet, securing a very good condition second hand copy for a price beyond what i would normally pay for any book, with the price being south of £10 yet north of £5. done. 

the intention of the stories, as the title of the collection gives every indication, is to "trigger" something or other in the reader. quite often this worked for me. i found a couple in particular resonated in my mind long after i finished reading them, and after reading further stories they kind of came back into my thoughts and tapped me on the shoulder. 

no, i would not particularly wish or care to identify which overall i was taken by, but am happy to give some comments on ones which may or may not be on that list. in respect of easily identifiable ones, the Sherlock Holmes story is first class - imagine Hammer Horror going to town on a story with him, and there you are. the Doctor Who one was all right, but perhaps understandably as pedestrian and as predictable as stories concerning that character by default must be. for a third and final one, the story to feature the protagonist out of American Gods was brilliant, and if that is a hint at how the novel is then best i read it soon. 

let me not comment on ones which i was not that keen on. it wasn't like any of them were all that bad, and besides, some of you may well favour ones i would discard. so i shall decline to run the risk of upsetting anyone. 

well, anyhow, that's that. i am steadfast in being unsure as to whether i have said too much or too little on either volume, in truth. but, the phrase of this era is that it is what it is, and with good fortune some aspect or another of this has been of use, or interest, to someone. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but there's a shop on the corner that's selling papier mache

howdy pop pickers

this shall come as (something of) a surprise to several of you regular readers. most of you would be aware, from what i write, of my dedication to exhaustive research and attention to detail, look you see. it is out of character (a bit) for me to simply skim over something, get the basics and move on). but this, as it happens, is what i did, and nearly missed out on a rather special release. 

when they announced (yet) another Bowie release for the year that is 2020, all of the references and comments concerning it - and let "it" be known to be ChangesNowBowie, or however one should write the name - said it was to do with Bowie's reasonably well known of (and extremely heavily bootlegged) 50th birthday gig, back in 1997. all of the comments what i glanced at in passing said it was so, and thus i lost interest. 

for what reason would i lose interest in either a Bowie release, or a (presumably) landmark gig? partially because at only nine (9) tracks it would not be the whole concert, but mostly, having already heard it (refer bootleg comments above), it simply was not any good. i mean, i am sure it was fun for David and his mates, and the cake looked ace, but nothing about the gig as a listening experience was one i ever had any wish to revisit. 

but there, in the greater glory and good of Commodore 64 mode, is my copy. yes, indeed, as (and this makes no sense to me) it is a limited edition, i do indeed wonder where the 2499 other copies are. since i missed the official channels of sale for it, i had to buy it off of the internet equivalent of a car boot sale, for a reasonable and not too profiteering amount north of the initial asking price. oh, if only the official Bowie store would send less mails about baseball caps i would not wear and t-shirts that shall not fit, and more about, you know, his music. 

so, how did this happen, since i wasn't interested? well, the little voice one sometimes hears, whispering impure thoughts from behind your shoulder to your ear (the one which keeps me away from edges of tall structures, cliffs and so forth), suggested i "try" and get it. there is that collector streak in me, one which always insists on gratification. also, it's Bowie, is it not. 

a metaphorical (or whatever the correct word is) alarm bell rang as i inspected the disc, noting the back cover. on it there was a statement to the effect of it being recorded in November 1996, which was not when he gone done his birthday gig. upon placing the disc in the stereo and pressing "play", there was not so much an alarm bell but me (quite) nearly falling over (face first, probably), as it was clear that this was not the less than satisfactory actual birthday concert "proper", but something else. 

i took to that "internet" thing to do some research, and it transpired that i had been a trifle hasty in seeing the words "50th birthday concert" as giving every indication not to pay too much attention. as it happens, and many of you will know this but i did not, these are songs what he did for some pre-birthday gig "session" for the BBC, or similar such broadcaster. oh. 

erm, yeah, so this is superb. no idea why they marketed it so heavily as being pertaining to his 50th birthday celebrations, other than it being "partly" connected. had they thumped on about it in its own right and i had bothered to pay more attention, i would have joined the quasi virtual queue online at midnight, or whenever, to purchase it on day of release. 

just what makes this selection so good? i mean, other than the fact that it's a David Bowie record? well, the best i can describe it is there's an "intimate immediacy" to the songs. with some slight qualification in place, these are mostly what one would have once called "off the beaten track" song selections, although now the term used for non-hit compilations is, for some reason, "deep cuts". much like the VH1 Storytellers set what he gone done a little while after this set, he was clearly in a mood to perform which of his songs took his fancy, and did not give a flying f**k for any commercial considerations anyone might have had. 

the qualification to the above is, of course, the opening track, which would be The Man Who Sold The World. in the 90s it was not quite a time of the frighteningly rapid disposable ways we have today. just north of two years after his demise the shadow of Kurt Cobain still very much lingered in memory, and one of the final images was of him (and of course Nirvana) playing this then really relatively obscure Bowie song on MTV Unplugged. for reasons never expressed (that i am aware of), the Nirvana revival prompted David to all of a sudden include it in sets, when he had not done so for decades. if ever, really, as it was known he was never too pleased with any version of it he gone done himself. 

beyond that, and at the very great risk of "gatekeeping" (which i would have zero wish to do), the set is predominantly characterised by songs which maybe those of us who insist on owning all of the albums would be immediately familiar with. i would suggest, for instance, that many more are familiar with the name, and iconic look, of Aladdin Sane than the actual song. the presence of Shopping For Girls was an interesting one - yet again Bowie, some years after the band vanished, wasn't quite keen on letting the songs of Tin Machine just vanish. 

one real highlight, for me, is the Velvet Underground cover White Light / White Heat. this was a frequent staple of sets, from 70s to 90s (indeed even early 00s i think), and, well, i have never quite liked it "proper live", instead preferring his cover of the same band's Waiting For The Man. anyway, here, in this quasi session, it sounds to me as excellent as how i imagine David assumed it sounded excellent when he did it at bigger gigs. 

infuriatingly this was, then, made a "limited edition" thing. from what i remember only 2500 copies of the CD were pressed, which is an arbitrary number. why? i mean, all that happens when they do this is a huge chunk of that number end up being bought purely by people looking to sell it on ("flip it") for their own profit. no, i do not criticise those who do this, for that's just working the market they are presented with, and also how i came to be able to get it. but if we take it as a given that there is somewhere considerably north of 2500 Bowie fans left in this world, then it is unfair to have some, arguably many, miss out, and strange that the Bowie Estate - or indeed the War Child charity, in this instance - would happily miss out on income. 

my understanding is that ChangesNowBowie is available on those "streaming" services, and probably also available "freely" on the independent music distributors of the internet. great that everyone so inclined to do so can hear it, but really, fat lot of good a "stream" or download is to collectors. even though Bowie was one of the first to predict music becoming a streaming thing (in early 2000 he said it would "one day soon just flow like water"), many of us still want the physical product. especially when it comes with such lovely album art. 

anyway, very happy to have got my hands on a copy!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

some bookmarks (well two) from canterbury cathedral

greetings

just a bit more from my accidental (or incidental) adventures towards the south east of our land(s), to be sure, look you see. in this instance, yes, showcasing and presenting things what i bought. two, as you may well, no doubt, have worked out off of the title. 

in previous, as opposed to future, posts i mentioned that i (very much) inadvertently ended up within the grounds of Canterbury Cathedral. or on the grounds, if that is correct, for my wielding of the english language is cumbersome and not as good as what it could be. yes, it could be more better. whilst some brief insight was given to the postcards i got from there, and let us not forget how such appeared to distress the New Zealand Post Office, it is so that i also bought, or if you like purchased, something else. bookmarks, as i believe you may have ascertained already. 

yes, above is an image of the two (2) different types of bookmarks what i bought, presented in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode. i am quite keen to point out that they had several other types of bookmarks. actually, no, the "type" was always the same, for they were conventional, traditional bookmarks, but they featured different designs. and were of different colours, too. but these were the ones which caught my eye, or took my fancy.

as it happens it was so that i purchased 2 (two) of each, but have since sent one (1) of each to two friends; ones i know full well are readers and may well have use for such. so far i only know of one being delivered by the relevant postal service, but i have every confidence that the other shall be delivered by the time this is published. hopefully. 

there exists, truly, a third person i have contemplated sending one of these to. whereas i am quite aware of how they do indeed read, i suspect they might have moved on to them "ebook" things, going on their reaction to the fact that cassette tapes of music still exist. for the most part the ebook appears to be a needless and incomprehensible means of destroying the bookmark industry, but if that is what the people wish to do then so be it. should it turn out they read books as books still, i will indeed forward one of these to them, unless they object to such. 

something of a (brief) history of Canterbury Cathedral is displayed on one of the bookmarks, as can be noted above, i hope. quite colourful doodles to illustrate it all with. and, why not, for doodles make everything better (almost). 

yes, as i think i mentioned somewhere, i have retained one (1) of each of these bookmarks, but i suspect that i shall not use them. presently i am using one off of of that Sherlock Holmes "museum" what we attended by accident. when not using that i have a rather splendid (interestingly wooden) Boba Fett one that a noted member of the aristocracy presented to me as a gift. 

on the other is simply, yet elegantly, 'Becket 2020', then. perhaps 2020 is some significant anniversary regarding the life (or indeed plight) of Becket, i know not. but i do know that Becket is one of the finest films what i have ever seen, it showcasing acting masterclasses from Burton and O'Toole. maybe they just issue a Becket bookmark each year and indicate it with the year on it, like what Kasabian tried with their albums before the wheels fell off the band. 

with respect to the fiscal element of these bookmarks (although it is crass to speak of coins of money), it was so that the Becket 2020 was the more pricey. from what i recall the splendid doodle history one was £2, whereas the elegant, sophisticated yet minimalist Becket one was 50p north. i made a brief, fleeting, off the cuff joke about no longer wishing to purchase it at the higher price. alas, the lady in the shop was unaccustomed to poor, dry humour and took me a trifle seriously. eventually i was able to persuade her to let me purchase it. or them, since i got two. actually four. 

indeed there are many, many fine reasons to visit Canterbury Cathedral, even if done so quite by accident, like what happened to me. should you be considering a visit, and the prospect of being able to obtain (or procure) bookmarks of this nature sways you towards doing so, well then so much the better. 

thanks, as ever, for taking the time to stop by and read this.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a tape which i wasn't going to buy, bought

howdy pop pickers

so, a little south (i think) of two weeks ago, or if you will a bit north of a week ago i published some writing on the subject of the reissue of the album Goats Head Soup off of The Rolling Stones. and it was so, look you see, that i spoke of it being very good indeed. 

also, from what i can recall, i gave some mention (if only in passing) of how the album had been re-released in cassette tape format too. maybe that comment came up in the James Dean Bradfield album comments, but no matter. the basics, or gist, was that i was not going to purchase the album in tape form since the asking price was a little high compared to what others were charging for tapes, and no extras were on the record in cassette format. 

indeed, then, and perhaps predictably in a pedestrian way, i am now an owner of Goats Head Soup in its cassette form. 

how, and / or why, has this come to be? mostly due to the people what run all of the internet and marketing stuff for the Rolling Stones sending me an email. 

well, yes, there is a bit more to it than that. in the email they let it be known that, for four days only, a competition was underway. place an order for Goats Head Soup and you stood the chance of winning one of six (6) copies of the sheet music for Angie (what is on the album) signed by Sir Mick Jagger (who is also on the album). 

that lured me in as far as considering purchasing the album on tape. especially as i had played the CD a few times and gone yes, this is an excellent album. visiting the website, seeing that the tape had rather mysteriously dropped in price by at least £1 and the prospect of winning something what Sir Mick had touched was all sufficient to secure my purchase, then. 

unlike other "modern" tape (cassette) releases, it is simply not so that the Rolling Stones have in any way, shape or form f****d around. far from it. as you can see, in the image above and below, they have gone full tilt with a proper cassette release, with a decent inlay and packaging, like how we used to get them in the 80s and 90s. bravo, chaps. 

being fair, the other cassettes what i have bought in the last 2 - 3 years have had a decent quality to them for the sound, which of course is the most important thing. but, alas, the packaging has been very much "this will do", to be honest. especially the cassette variant of Ripples by Ian Brown. 

at the time of writing, no, i have not heard if i am a winner of one of the sheet music things signed by Sir Mick. i didn't note any sort of time frame on when they would select the fortunate six, or how the winners would be named or, in this era of data protection, notified. perhaps one will just turn up in the post, or maybe it will not and after a few weeks of it not turning up that is how i shall know that i did not win it. best of luck to all who entered, by the way. 

is it now my avowed and dedicated intention to purchase every new album released on cassette? honestly i am uncertain. of recent releases, i didn't get the Morrissey one on tape, or either Liam Gallagher's second solo album or his (i had forgotten about it already) MTV Unplugged thing. the main reason for this is that i couldn't work out how, or where, to order Morrissey on tape, and Liam didn't put either of them records out on cassette. 

on a Liam related note, a cassette re-release of (What's The Story) Morning Glory has been announced. yes, i tried to order it. no, i did not. this is because Oasis have the single most sh!t and rubbish web thing ever, and you get blocked from ordering because of a "postcode error". at least three times i tried to give Noel even more money, and on each instance it was declined, which has to be the most unlike Noel Gallagher thing ever to happen. 

so, between James Dean Bradfield and The Rolling Stones that's two (2) tapes what i have bought in the month of September. it's accurate to say that this would be more than i had anticipated purchasing, but a more better way of describing it is probably that, if i asked, i would have had no (zero) intention of buying any. a very good friend of mine had no experience of surprise that i was buying tapes when they were put in front of me, but expressed some incredulity that anyone had thought to make them. 

will any further tapes be bought during the year (2020)? i am not sure. of the releases coming this year i am certain to purchase there is no indication that the lavish, 4CD set of Sigue Sigue Sputnik's Flaunt It shall come out on tape. weirdly, the Bowie Estate have not cottoned on to the inexplicable but perfectly understandable revival of cassettes, so it is unlikely that the "re-imagined" issue of The Man Who Sold The World will be in the format. beyond them two, absolutely nothing of any variation of the 20th anniversary (!!) edition of U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind looks worth buying. it is rumoured that Duran Duran propose to release (unleash) a new record this year - if it is a proper album then it will get bought, if there is any hint or suggestion of it being "more of the same" or "building on" Paper Gods then clearly i am no longer their target audience. 

anyway, dig what you dig, and if like me you really, really like tapes, hope some of this has been of interest at some stage. 

UPDATE - nothing in the post, so presumably i have not won anything what Sir Mick has signed. hey ho, still have a great album on tape.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

controversial carwash conundrum

hi

yes, this is all (very much) against my better judgement. although far be it from me to suggest, or even imply, that my ability to cast such on any subject is any better than anyone else at doing so, look you see. but, in this day and age, what with all this ill-defined, rather threatening and i am not at all sure i understand it claims of "woke" and "cancel culture", i thought i had better do some balance here. 

so, as the title suggests, once again i have been to (and done business with) a car wash facility. the same one what i would mostly visit, if such is important. but no, not presented here in Commodore 64 mode. instead, so as to avoid being accused of being some sort of "ist" or advocate of some form of "ism", here you can see how it went in (sigh) ZX Spectrum form. 

i really think this is a waste of everyone's time. or just maybe mine. you are, after all, reading this, so i suppose you have some sort of interest in how things look in the realm of the ZX Spectrum. perhaps this is some sort of curiosity on your behalf, or you freely admit to being misguided and consider presenting things in ZX Spectrum mode to be a good idea. when it is not. 

maybe some good can come from this. looking at the beauty of a car wash mechanism doing its thing in a way that is desecrated by the (severe) limitations of the ZX Spectrum can only serve to underline how much more awesome the same looks when presented in the greater glory of Commodore 64 mode. 

an animated moment from the car wash is presented above, then, also in ZX Spectrum mode. i hope it is enjoyable despite the inferior format used. for those interested in such, the above image used somewhere north of 4 times the maximum computing power the "Speccy" inflicted on those unfortunate souls who punished themselves using the infernal machine. or something like that. 

one of the biggest problems with the ZX Spectrum (somewhat exemplified here) was that it did not know how colour worked. for some reason them what made it (a bloke called Sinclair, as i recall) could not comprehend that things might be more than one colour, or even different shades of just one colour. 

certain other issues existed with the ZX Spectrum, mind. like no joystick port, the rubber keys, the woeful sound and the propensity it had to "crash" if you used it for more than thirty consecutive minutes. it was very much a computer for someone who did not particularly want a computer but all the same felt obliged to have one. and, indeed, for those who indulged in (or engaged with) that "buy British" mantra. 

how did the car wash go? it was just as enjoyable, or rudimentary as ever, i suppose. no, i did not particularly like recording it in ZX Spectrum mode, but here we are. 

just another of them "animated GIF" things (or just GIF) for you, to finish it off. actually, this last one, whilst of course not up to Commodore 64 standard, isn't so bad. basically the only advantage you got to owning a ZX Spectrum instead of a Commodore 64 was that the games were usually £1 cheaper. that they were ten times worse on the Speccy is, i suppose, neither here nor there nor anywhere for one who looks on such things as important. 

whereas i shall likely be using a car wash again in the not too distant future, i do not for one moment believe that it will be recorded in this format. either i shall revert to Commodore 64 mode, or maybe even experiment with another. 

for what it is worth, hope that someone somewhere found this interesting. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the fallen leaf

hello there

so, October it is. the 8 sounding month which is, look you see, actually 10. yes, this is down to some monks or something.

i am pretty sure that last year (or the one before) there was an exhaustive and comprehensive look at the origins of the month (in terms of name), so no such shall be here. but, to clarify, indeed it was the case that the month existed before the U2 album of the same name, so no, the month was not named after the album. but, if at some stage someone could rename a month after a U2 album that would be fine. 

going somewhat against how i would do these calendar things, here, take a look. this is a close up of the Star Wars calendar for this month (October 2020), in non-Commodore 64 mode. it's that less than a second, blink and you would miss it moment from The Empire Strikes Back when all them bounty hunter characters were shown together, and all but one were either not seen again ever or not seen again for many, many years. 

why, exactly, beyond the aesthetics, did this particular image (and yes, mostly Boba Fett) become some iconic and so treasured by those what tend to take Star Wars rather more seriously than intended? a fair and interesting question. i think maybe it's because this was the first instance of something different being hinted at in the Star Wars world; something as darker, harder an unexpected as bounty hunters wandering space. a good friend once did say that science fiction films are generally just westerns with lasers. 

anyway, for those of you who (weirdly) just come to this blog once a month to grab a more conventional calendar image so as to use it for practical reasons and save the expense of buying your own, well, sure. here's the month that is this month (October 2020) as displayed on the smart New Zealand calendar off of Mum & Dad.

i probably have no need (or little) to clarify, but yes, indeed that is a quite remarkable image of the equally quite remarkable tasman lake. 

any remarkable, noteworthy or interesting dates in the month of October? well, yes, every single date is going to be of some significance to someone somewhere. but, for the sake of giving reason to pause for thought, and since we are here now, here's some milestones, anniversaries or stroke of luck co-incidences for your indulgence. 

1 - it was on this day that Catalonia held an independence referendum, back in those comparatively easier days of 2017. the Spanish government did not particularly like this and made it known, but they are notoriously difficult to please. 

2 - as far as i am concerned it's a very happy birthday indeed to Philip Oakley, born on this very day in 1955. yes, i know most just call him "that twat out of Human League", but he did the vocals on Electric Dreams, and that is one awesome song. just let him do his thing, man. 

4 - Graham Chapman became the first (official) Monty Python member to (officially) die, and it happened on this day in 1989. aspects of his funeral were filmed and broadcast, with it all featuring a good deal more use of the word "f***" than one would usually expect at such an event. 

6 - Jan Hammer enters (so to speak) the UK singles chart at number 30 with Miami Vice theme on this day in 1985. making this all the more satisfactory is the fact that, on the same chart, Elton John could only shift enough copies of Nikita to make number 41.

7 - the to date, and seemingly ever increasingly likely to be, final appearance of Sean Connery as James Bond, Never Say Never Again, got released on this day in 1983. improbably it was the second James Bond film to come out that year. more here. 

9 - Pope John Paul II and the Dali Lama had a private meeting at the Vatican on this day in 1980. maybe they met to discuss Che Guevara, as he was executed in Bolivia on this same date but in 1967. or, you never know, maybe Dali brought some duty free fags, John Paul II got some cans in, and they watched a video or something. 

11 - Marcus Bai, widely regarded as Papua New Guinea's best, greatest and most important rugby league player ever, was born on this day in 1972. 

thank you for the picture

13 - Paul Simon, the short(er) one (and most grumpy one) out of Simon & Garkfunkel, was born on this day in 1941. 

17 - the film Playing God got released on this day in 1997. officially, at least, as i can recall seeing a pirate video of it well before then. for some reason it got bad reviews, which is a shame as it was a decent film. it stars Mulder out of X Files, the excellent Timothy Hutton and Angelina Jolie. well worth finding a copy and watching, to be honest. 

19 - on this day in 2001 the BBC got most excited (and enthusiastic) about the (brief) return of Top Of The Pops and Sir Jimmy. more details here, but the basics would be that for some reason the BBC were eager to present Zoe Ball as the Sir Jimmy for the new century. hence, presumably, the cigar. 

20 - g'day, for strewth, the Sydney Opera House was formally and officially opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on this day in 1973. it opened a mere ten (10) years after expected and the budget only went slightly over planned, to the tune of 1357%. ad hoc concerts, presumably for the benefit of people working on the site, were held there years before the official opening. for trivia fans, it is widely accepted that the first ever performance in front of (such) an audience at the Sydney Opera House was by Paul Robeson in 1960. 

21 - Carrie Fisher, most noted for being Princess Leia out of Star Wars but someone who was also once married to the shorter, grumpier one out of Simon & Garfunkel, was born this day in 1956. 

23 - we tend to think of politicians doing stupid things as a modern phenomenon. in 1812, yes on this day, General Claude François de Malet (which has to be the most French name ever) attempted to have himself declared Emperor of France simply by going around telling everyone that the incumbent Emperor, Napoleon, had died whilst (sort of) on holiday in Russia. did it work? no. 

26 - The Smiths enter the UK singles chart at 16 with Ask on this day in 1986. for some reason i have always felt that The Smiths are an exceptionally October band, so yes i did some more research than usual for this to find that out. 

27 - and straight in at number one on the UK singles chart on this day in 1991 was The Fly by U2. in a very small way i helped by heading from college to town on the bus to go and buy the CD single. eventually i gave that CD single to a dear friend that i've not been in touch with for a while, but do very much miss. no doubt they do not feel the same, but may life be treating them well. 

that's a few dates for you to think of then, but as ever i would suggest you are much better off just focusing on things what are important to you. although, of course, if The Smiths are important to you, or for that matter any of the many failed attempts by anyone French to do anything, well then there you go. 

for the sake of uniformity, then, here's a complete look at the complete (kind of) Star Wars calendar for this month, assuming you define "this month" as October 2020. 

it was, of course, that for many years Boba Fett was the single most memorable of the bounty hunters which (or what) were presented in The Empire Strikes Back. now, not so much. the one that looks like a metal pole, IG something, has had a revisionist revival thanks to The Mandalorinan. whilst Dengar has been wisely discarded, Bossk has emerged as the best of them all. this is because he (assuming he is a he) in some video computer game called Battlefront II, is f*****g awesome. in it he makes a smart "blergh" noise all the time, and has Predator style vision. 

now is, of course, the time for me to consider investing in a calendar for next year. that would be if i and everyone else have confidence enough to assume another year shall follow this. let me go and inspect what range of calendars Poundland have decided to make available. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!