don't get angry at the stones store

howdy pop pickers

the original title for this post was going to be you can't always get what you want at the stones store, but just sometimes you might find you get what you need at another record store around the corner. whereas that would have been something (or a bit) of a mouthful, it pretty much sums up this post, look you see. 

so, it is that The Rolling Stones, often now simply referred to as The Ro££ing $tone$, have a new single out. an actual, proper physical format too, being ostensible available as a CD single, a store exclusive 7" single (remember that part) and a "limited" 10" single. in each instance just the one (1) track, as has become the unfortunate norm when acts put out a single these days. 

being in central London (innit) (see previous post) gave me a wonderful opportunity, then. i, your humble narrator, had a chance to go to the official (note this) Stones stone, located on Carnaby Street. on one side i have grown weary of spending coins in the vicinity of £10 (!!!) for one track singles, yet i do for some reason still feel a need to purchase at least one (1) single a year. making the provenance of the single this year being the actual Stones shop sealed the deal. in mind if not reality. 

off i went to the Stones store, then. i had, with it being the week of release of the single (Anger, by the way, is what it is called), expected a display in the store. no. a member of staff approached, so i asked for a copy of it. they said sorry but they had decided not to stock it. i politely pointed out that one version (the 7") was a "store exclusive", to which they replied yes, but still no. apparently they might elect to have a copy or two available on October 20th, when the full tilt album, Hackney Diamonds, gets released. oh. 

how is it that i am displaying my copy of the single here? well, as it happens, what i consider to be the single (excuse the pun) best vibes store in London (innit), Sister Ray, had as many copies of the 10" variation of Anger as i would care to purchase. just the one, thanks. indeed i asked about the CD single, but they had sold out. never mind. 

any good? i mean is the song, single, Anger, any good? yes, actually. better than it has any business being. it's getting huge radio play, so the PR machine is in full swing. when i play the song back in my mind (which is cheaper than trying to buy it) it feels like it has "borrowed" from Should I Stay Or Should I Go off of The Clash, but then when i hear it properly, it does not. that said, considering how many bands have "borrowed" off the Stones over the last 60 (!!) or so years, it's hardly an issue if they opt to borrow back. 

rather confusingly it is being referred to as the "first" single off of said new album. which is called Hackney Diamonds if you missed that. my understanding was that the single they released in those hardly missed lockdown (plague) days, Living In A Ghost Town, was the first single off of the album they were working on. looking at the tracklisting announced, thought, suggests that it has been ditched. 

for what you can actually buy at the Stones store, if not their new record, well. quite an ecclesiastical selection of items. you can get some highly expensive chocolate, apparently made by (the incumbent) Mrs Ronnie Wood. or you can buy some very expensive prints, signed by Ronnie Wood. they also have t-shirts, jackets and what have you, all of a size ideal for bean poles or garden rakes. and a couple of records off of the Stones, just not the new one. 

yes. i have not bought may records this year, as the U2 one sounded f*****g awful and is overpriced, the Depeche Mode one is very overpriced and the James one is them deciding best they do a sleepy breezy acoustic record too, but i shall purchase Hackney Diamonds as and when it comes out. possibly not chance it on the Stones store having it, though. 

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

what are they doing in the hyacinth house

greetings

just one of them random (and possibly pointless, look you see) posts to take up a bit of space here. i would suppose, ostensibly, it's here to say yes, indeed i exist and have updated. but, then again, there might or may well be a comment or two of value. 

once again, then, as i am so prone to being, i found myself in that there London (innit) for purposes of verk related matter. this instance, or interlude, brought moi to the "business end" of the place. as in the central parts with all the fancy stuff what everyone pictures when they think or consider the city, and not the horrors of the suburban outskirts. 

fancy is perhaps the best, or most, apt introduction what i have ever done, then, as it could well be argued, and argued well, that one does not get all that much more fancy than the (i think it is so) official resident of the incumbent monarch, Buckingham Palace. at the time of writing such (the monarch) very much remained being HMKC3(PO). 

by chance, or design, i had a colleague driving, so i could perfectly legally take the above image for you, which of course is in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode. yes, we do indeed have a video too, which is below. 

let me word this section quite carefully. under no circumstances am i suggesting or acknowledging we were in such, but as it happens there are signs just by Buckingham Palace (and indeed The Mall) which give every indication that one is not allowed to drive down them in a commercial vehicle. however, unlike virtually every other part (or aspect) of London (innit), this is not enforced by camera. one has to be stopped by a member of the constabulary on this road and be issued with the fine directly. the amount, not that i have ever had one, of the fine is £100 flat i believe, with no margin or ground to dispute or get a discount. 

as an aside, or on the same subject, if you have received a parking fine in London (innit) and it was issued based on evidence of CCTV or similar cameras (and they have many), well, go back and dispute it or claim a refund. recently they had a court case and declared that all parking fines in London must be issued via a warden placing a ticket on the offending vehicle. no more can they issue retrospective ones for this act based on footage, images, etc. 

you have undoubtedly worked out that just above is the video i if not promised then suggested would be here. indeed it is in that fancy VHS camcorder format, via the app i purchased for my new la-de-dah phone what has a camera welded to it. no idea if this footage will be of all that much interest to you, dear reader, but there it is to watch (or not). 

certainly it was so that i drew attention to my colleague, the ostensible pilot, of our vehicle. no, the particular designation or clarification of which i am not going to discuss. he happens to be more of a classical, or if you will traditional, geordie, more so than a metropolitan or perhaps cosmopolitan one, and so he had little time for such caution. i believe his exact words were akin to "f*** the coppers", but he may also have likened them (in exceptionally crude terms) to a female reproductive organ. by this stage i had become so used to his use of this particular phrase of varying endearment levels that i could no longer work out in which sense it was being applied. 

well, there you go, or have it. undoubtedly there shall be some more of this splendid VHS type footage to come in future posts. let me see what i can do in respect of making them vaguely interesting. 

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

use

howdy pop pickers

if you were to do some sort of poll, or survey, asking which was the single most bloated, ego feeding, overproduced album of the 90s, most likely you would get the answer Be Here Now off of Oasis. except, look you see, it wasn't actually that bad; instead rather good. what that most probable answer does offer, however, is a glimpse at just how far from the collective consciousness the double Use Your Illusion albums off of Guns n Roses have fallen. well, yeah, ok, them and Second Coming. 

just over a year or so ago (at time of writing) there was a half decent attempt at some fanfare and a reasonable stab at creating excitement about the Use Your Illusion albums getting re-released. more better efforts were made around the previous re-issue of Appetite For Destruction, but then that had the advantage of being a very good album, and at least some effort was put into the re-release. in many respects it did feel like they went and gone done Use Your Illusion special editions as they felt compelled to, but no, no one has thus far put out a Second Coming anniversary edition or what have you. 

upon their release i did, to be fair, go and have a gander at the re-issues, down at HMV. it was with no surprise at all that i found the "extras" were (sigh) live recordings that at most would get played once. also, the sets were priced at a ridiculous (even allowing for HMV standards) £18 or so each. that would have been nearly £40 for two albums it would be unlikely i would wish to hear again, with some live stuff that held no interest. so no, i didn't get them. of course i have them now (hence this post) as the price, in just over a year, has fallen to a reasonably sensible £7 (well £6.99) each. as in it was possible to buy both for less ("fewer") than the cost of one on original release. those poor, poor people who got lured into purchasing when they came out. 

no, to be fair, they didn't immediately seem like ludicrous, overblown rubbish at the time. on release, when i was, what, 19ish or so (!!!), it did seem ace that a band were releasing 2 (two) double albums on the same day. back then, you have to recall, people had to actually go and buy the music they wished to listen to. or, yeah, tape it off of a mate. which kind of leads to the problem here. after trying to listen to each album once (and saturation point arrived fast, as i recall), one made a decision to simply make a ninety (90) minute tape (actual) of the "best" bits. doing so ended with you having quite a lot of the tape available to you all blank. oh. 

with some luck, and this luck requires you being interested, if you click on the above image you may get to see a larger version of the pic, showing the tracklisting for each of the Use Your Illusion albums. leaving aside the ho hum, hit and miss albums, a look at the live selections is very ho hum. quite surprised to see they skipped a decent marketing opportunity and declined to include any live cuts from the Appetite For Destruction album, but then i suppose that would have left we, the people, being reminded of how superior those songs were. are. 

looking back, Geffen records has (had) a lot to answer for. they took (ostensibly) the two biggest bands of the end of the 80s, Guns n Roses and The Stone Roses, gave them a (frankly) ludicrous amount of money and told them to do "whatever". Axl insisted on a double double album, Stone Roses went off to Wales and considered sounding like Led Zeppelin to be the way to go. at any point them, the record label, could have stepped in and said "no", but did not. how on earth it ever seemed to be a good idea to allow bloated egos to become more bloated is a surprise. 

since i am having a good moan, above is an issue with the Appetite For Destruction special edition thing which irks me. for some reason they insisted on declaring one song included, Shadow Of Your Love, as a big deal as it was "previously unreleased". except it wasn't. as you can see next to it, the song was used as a "b side" for the Live And Let Die CD single. no, also, it really isn't a good song. 

but but but but but but surely it's not so that all of the Use Your Illusion albums are a disaster. gosh, golly, f*** no, it is not so. heavily buried across the two albums one can find enough material to cut down to a single, regular album length record that is at least worthy of being classed as by the same band what what Appetite For Destruction. sure, it may well not be that ballads are what made them famous, or for that matter made them "the most dangerous band in the world", but don't overlook just what astonishing songs November Rain and Don't Cry are. just too much dross around them on the records, to be sure. 

from what i can ascertain, here in the present day it is so that many fans are paying a lot of money to watch the remnants of the band desecrate the corpse of the band, whilst Axl, Duff and of course Slash are very much enjoying the rewards of desecrating the corpse of the band. i think i tuned out for good when it turned out someone thought it might be wise to let Duff sing. 

yes, my copies of the Use Your Illusion re-releases are still in their plastic (or cellophane) wrappers. it may well be that they remain so, for i am in no rush to hear then. honestly, whenever i put on the rather poor 'greatest hits' disc, i find myself skipping the Use Your Illusion tracks until i just give up and put the tape (disc) of Appetite For Destruction on. it's all one really needs.

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

independence, freedom, etc

greetings

and so i ended up in Scotland, again. this was not supposed to be, look you see, but it is done now. made it back, evidently, so one could suggest that there was no lasting harm or damage. except for them who would have preferred me not to. 

on this trip i was (at the least) able to tick an item off of my peculiar bucket list, which is more things what come to mind to do than a list, and it's not kept in a bucket. actually not sure i even have a bucket, in truth, and anyway the term only came about off of that film of same name. moving on, and that ambition, if i may call it so, was to get an edition or two (actually just 2) of The National. 

for those of you unaware, and perhaps if you gone done google that's why you are here, it is so that this newspaper, as i believe it is legally defined, The National, is something of a print mouthpiece for those seeking what they term "Scottish independence". quite like this movement, and the main political party pushing for it, it's rather right wing leaning, yet somehow (clever marketing, i suppose) manages to masquerade as being to the left, or socialist. having seen only a few front pages of it, ones circulated for absurd levels of anti-English statements, i was curious as to how the whole paper looked. so, i found out. 

perhaps it's semantics (or being pedantic) but i've not ever quite understood how the nationals, be it of the newspaper, the politicians or what have you, have been allowed to get away with calling what they seek as being "independence". this implies they believe Scotland to be a sort of colony, which it most decidedly isn't. saying that they wish to breakaway from a union just isn't as catchy, i suppose. besides, in those pre-Brexit days, the vision was that Scotland, as a lone nation, would somehow retain the British Pound (meaning control of it would remain with the Bank of England) and the British monarch as head of state. where is the independence there? post-Brexit it has of course changed, with the plan being to immediately (at least this seems to be their hope) join the EU, which would mean adopting the Euro as their currency and being subject to all laws, rules, requirements, regulations and what have you of that ostensible trade body. neither appear to be "independent" changes, but what do i know. 

indeed that last part does lead rather nicely onto this (above) first section off of the paper. by sidestepping things like all them in Scotland who voted to leave the EU, the SNP absolutely not caring about EU membership at the time of the referendum and no indication at all that they would come close to qualifying to join, apparently an "independent" Scotland would immediately join the EU, where they would be embraced and they would embrace in return. rather secretive documents which the SNP claim exist, and who(m)ever heard of a politician being dishonest, apparently prove that Scotland would be a "net contributor" to the EU, and not just a financially draining economic basket-case like, say Greece. 

the logic of if is pretty easy to understand here. by "demanding" a deal be brokered with the EU right now, even though Scotland cannot engage in such talks and the EU, by their own rigid rules and regulations, cannot, the plan is to have an oven ready deal all lined up to take to voters as and when another referendum on the matter is held. one cannot fault the hope and ambition, no matter what level of desperation underlines it. 

baffling, that above one is. again, this mostly relates to the point that the "national" movement by default is right wing, no matter how much they dress it up or try and pass it off as some sort of socialist concern. it is remarkable that so much print was given over to Scotland "needing" a national anthem and then explaining what it should be. as far as i am aware, as and when Scotland has a reason to play what one would term a national anthem (sporting events, mostly), it is indeed already Flower Of Scotland which is used. surely this is not as preposterous as either The National or other such nationalists seeking to take credit for something already pretty much in place? i mean, presumably, if they did break away from the union they are in, they wouldn't play the UK anthem anyhow? 

yeah, go on then, a selfie. so far as i am aware this is (possibly) the first such one i have taken with my new phone what has a camera welded to it. unlikely to be the last, but you never know. 

certainly that is moi by the big sign (or what have you) which warns that you are about to go into Scotland. it's not really practical to turn around and go back at this point, but to be fair if you see the big billboard then you have every option to perform a perfectly legal u-turn as soon as possible thereafter. 

how about a nice bit of video? indeed yes, we have got a video. and it's something different from the usual on here. very much certainly this is the first instance of me using this kind of video. 

should that look like i filmed it with an 80s (or quite early 90s) video camera, then excellent, as that is the general idea. for some reason when i got this new phone with a camera welded to it i was of a mind, or wish, to get something "a bit VHS" on it. just (ever so slightly) south of £5 i paid for the "app" what turns my high powered camera thing into this. money well spent. 

right, then, back to the joys of The National, if you wish. should you not, well, please, feel free to look at that there video above a few more times, then move on. 

a particularly curious trait of the Scottish nationals is to "Scottish" pretty much everything in the world. for some reason they are convinced with the idea that all and sundry across the entire planet just simply love all things Scottish, to the extent that they will do what they can to emulate what i suppose one could call the Scottish way of doing things. i am not sure this is true. 

for some reason, then, The National elected to declare no less than Sunderland as the "most Scottish club" to be found in England. why they would worry about such a status needing to be in place is not a question i care to ask. off the top of my head, if i (absolutely) had to name the "most Scottish" football team in England then it probably would be either Manchester United or Liverpool, due to the sheer number of immensely talented Scottish players and, of course, managers either club has had. yes, i did show the above article to a couple of people i know off of (or out of) Sunderland, and i am afraid that i cannot repeat their comments. 

just whipping up a rather jingoistic national sentiment isn't enough, of course. it is so that The National absolutely welcomes contributions from readers. this must be a delight for some, as it lets them take a break from posting anonymously online whilst giving them the immense pleasure of seeing their name in print. 

i would suggest letters (or "think pieces") like the one above see all of this moving to a whole new dangerous level. well, not really. perhaps one or two people, as ignorant as they are extreme, might try and do something silly, but there's no real chance of a "Scottish IRA" developing. for a start far too many factions within Scotland simply hate each other. also, who would bankroll such a thing? the IRA had foolish Americans ready to bankroll their illicit activities. probably the only person stupid enough to fund some anti-English dissident campaign is Putin, and that he has not done so speaks volumes. 

last one above, then, and that's rather precious. apparently the SNP are losing support not because of the general incompetence shown in the job, but via being nowhere near extreme enough. see all of the above bits really. it's possible to box off such thinking as being the warped thoughts of one individual, but then a newspaper has gone done publish it. not sure encouraging such thinking is wise, but what do i know. 

yes, Scotland is a lovely place. but it is a troubled one. just about all of these troubles are entirely self inflicted, but they pass the blame on instead of addressing it. mostly, then, Scotland is kind of a nice tourist place for Americans who have found it's no longer trendy to claim Irish heritage and this all works as a perfectly serviceable replacement. 

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

just to spite the viz

now then

doing things out of spite is, most likely, childish and petty. yet i would wager each and every one of us has gone done such at some stage, look you see. let it not be spoken that i am above such tasks. although i somehow doubt it ever occurred to those who know me to speak so. 

in terms of the fairly lengthy relationship what i have had (or gone done) with The Viz, it is not so that they have ever really upset me. or, to use the popular term so many like to take shelter behind these days, no, they've not offended me. equally it's true that they have not really made me laugh so much in recent times, what with their insistence on publishing incomprehensible, humourless rubbish such as Wee Radgie Joe and, worse, Nash Gordon. of course i still buy it. 

but, still. i was quite surprised (taken aback, as point of fact) to see, in a recent edition, them what go and do The Viz take a decision to not support one of their more prolific and appreciated contributors. someone what writes them loads and loads of letters, right, asked them if they would not at all mind giving mention to the fact that she has a book out. a non-fiction work, so no, not a novel. 

rather alarmingly, as you can see above in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode, and below, in kind of regular mode (but also first pic, i think, to feature here off of my new phone with a camera welded to it), it was so that them (The Viz) dedicated an entire quarter page of their magazine to state categorically that they were not promoting it. foolishly in doing so they let slip the name of the book, Ashes To Admin, and where one can (or may) purchase it. so yes, i did go and buy a copy, so see what you think of that, The Viz. quite Rik out of Young Ones anarchic, that. 

as for the book itself (Ashes To Admin to clarify), it would appear to concern the trials and tribulations, or if you will plight, of a council officer dedicated to addressing matters of funerals for those in society who pass away with no friends, family or anyone of similar stature coming forward to address such. once again i have to (sigh) state that according to science i am presently immortal, for i have not died, well not remained deceased, so there's no empirical evidence to state that i can do so. but, if it turns out that i can, well, such a fate as depicted here may well befall me. such bothers me not, for realistically i simply won't be there to have any concern in the matter. 

purchasing it is one thing, and an act of defiance against The Viz. something of a "f*** you", if you like, although i would encourage one not to speak in such crass terms. getting to read it, well. my time to read appears to drift away, and when chance permits my enthusiasm to do so oddly wanes. i have about ten (or a dozen) novels i wish to read already sat here. this one is now in "the pile", at the very least. maybe one day. some vague understanding of the present day use of the word "irony" shall certainly be kind of applicable if it turns out to be the last text what i ever read. 

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

 

new socks

hello there

i am reasonably (as in quite) certain that not too many people would have much concern for the specific nature of what socks i elect to wear. but, well, to use that phrase of passing popularity, here we are, look you see. at the least, i do have some hope that one or two reading this shall give fair consideration to making a purchase of socks from the place where i got these. 

so, there i was (or there was i) browsing some social media concern or other. as has become quite the normal i was treated to the occasional advertisement. it is, as a peculiar aside, supposed to be that the things one frequently searches for on the internet that crops up as adverts, but thus (or so) far i have not had one (1) single advert for nuns come up. or midgets. conversely, making this paragraph all of a sudden neither peculiar or an aside, i had not searched for socks (that i can recall), yet it is sock adverts i keep being presented with. which led me to Thomp2 socks. 

within a few moments of the advert video playing i was quietly confident that some banking details of mine were going to be used. i had no idea what they would be used for, but the warmth and love, from father to son, on display had me as sold. perhaps i am all too easy to sway from an emotive perspective, but ultimately we are all wounded animals, looking for a home. how very splendid that it should turn out that what was on offer (as you know) were some rather splendid socks. 

normally, or usually, an advert for socks would be wasted on me. same goes for shoes. i am, alas, afflicted with a condition known as "big feet". size 13 (thirteen) here in the UK, which i believe, going on boxes, translates as 14 in the USA. to be honest, f*** knows what that is in European measurements, as they have some most peculiar, undoubtedly French, numbering system on the go. it was so that these socks were advertised as for being for "up to size 11", which was Nigel Tufnel enough.

of the range on offer when i went and gone done a purchase (the designs are forever expanding, it seems), above, in a style away from the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode, are the three pairs i bought. the number three (3) came about via the offer of a discount. which ostensibly provided some good value on the impulse, but still these are high end compared to what i would usually spend on this particular form of garment (socks). 

for the reasons why these 3 (three) were selected, well, i should suspect such is obvious. yet here is such anyway, for the sake of being complete. the rather fine (to the left) volleyball ones are, of course, symbolic of my dedication and enthusiasm for Top Gun, with particular emphasis on Val Kilmer. in the middle are a rather fetching pair of ones featuring a lighthouse, which for some reason i felt were a sort of kind of metaphor, or to use the term again, symbolic like thing for moi. and on the end, or the right if you will, some rainbow ones, because why not. 

giving an actual, sort of proper and (hopefully) useful review, these songs are indeed excellent. despite me having clown feet of a large outside of the suggested size it is most decidedly so they are a very, very comfortable fit. also a nice conversation piece. kind of. the rainbow ones prompted several conversations of varying (but mostly good) quality, whereas the lighthouse ones mostly saw people staring in the general direction of my feet to try and work out what was being depicted. am saving the volleyball ones for a special instance. 

being honest i am not sure i shall buy more from Thomp2, to give a link again (please visit). it is true that i am delighted to support, am thrilled with the socks and believe that i very much got value for money, or "bang for buck" if American. just not sure that i am ready to deviate away from bulk black socks off of that nice Mike Ashley on a regular basis. maybe (or perhaps) since i am full tilt into my three quarter life crisis i should indeed just wear socks of this nature from now on. let me meditate or what have you on the matter some more. 

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

outside it's society

greetings

as regular readers will know, and that's a phrase i feel not used for a bit, i tend to do a fair bit of travels. well, why not, doing so lets you escape ghosts and make things seem not as bad as they do when you elect to stand still, look you see. much (most) of these travels are vehicle based, and are accompanied, as you may well expect, by some quality vibes. disc based, sadly, for i am bereft of a device on which to play actual tapes. 

every now and then, which is to say quite often (at least weekly) i do indeed pick up some new tapes, or if you will discs, to listen to on my travels. it was with immense, indeed great, delight that not so long ago i found a tape (disc) of the Natural Born Killers soundtrack. sure, a copy has existed in my collection ever since it was released, but it was lovely to get another to listen to as i travel. and yes, this very much inspired a recent re, or if you will re-re-re-rewatching of the film. 

not sure if it is representative of a film being brilliant, iconic or what have you, but watching it again saw me see it exactly as i remembered (or recalled) it, in all its vaguely disturbingly shockingly funny brilliance. at the time it was obviously and undoubtedly "controversial", due to its stark and unapologetic violence, as well as some murmurs or mumblings about how Oliver Stone elected to partially alter the original Tarantino script. well, whatever. 

indeed what i watched (again) was the "original uncut version" which, as you can see clearly below, also gets labelled the "director's cut". rather confusingly there's another version of similar name what sticks a load of deleted scenes in. yeah, avoid that one. they were, as much as i love Denis Leary, deleted with very good pacing and dynamics reason. nice to watch as an extra, as i did (again) on this fancy video (blu ray), but just disjointed when shoved into the film. 

for the brilliance of the film, well, five (5) outstanding performances from Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr, Tommy Lee Jones and a very scary Rodney Dangerfield. appreciating that one really should not speak ill of those sadly no longer with us, the big let down (and this isn't the first time) is Tom Sizemore. he's out of his depth here, and the performance sticks out for all the wrong reasons. quite the shame. 

the soundtrack tape (disc) what i was so excited to get another copy of remains brilliant. produced by Trent Reznor (that one), it's a chaotic reflection of the film, mixing dialogue and music as per the soundtracks for Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction (but weirdly not True Romance), separated into tracks but absolutely no gaps or pauses between the, well, anything. 

my memories are of going to see this motion picture four (4) times at the cinema, in each instance with different people. unless i went on my own once. during one screening i actually did bear witness to that thing i had only heard of people doing, when a few walked out. perhaps they had to be somewhere else, or were just generally distressed by it all. no, i haven't willingly walked out of a film myself, but i did get dragged out of one. that's another time, another place, though. 

has it all, the film and soundtrack, aged well? no idea, mate. that's eye of the beholder, etc. for me, yes, it's as excellent now as it was nearly 30 (!!!) years ago. when i put the tape (disc) in the player mostly i am inclined to just let it play again and again, whilst also having a wish to watch the film yet again. perhaps i need help, or maybe it's just that good. 

viddy well.............................................

stupid pretend pop stars indeed

howdy pop pickers

there's really, really no point in pretending otherwise - this is another post celebrating the legendary, the infamous, the brilliant and the (very) metal Bad News. quite a surprise to find (yet) another reissue of their album, look you see. if i have the mathematics of it all correct this will be the 4th time it has turned up in a compact disc form. first there was the as is lp, then a "deluxe", then (i think) as part of a ludicrously overpriced and badly put together box set, and now here we are. 

yes, i have purchased nearly all of them. it was the box set i gave a miss, for it simply wasn't worth the near £100 price. especially not when the only item of true interest (and some value), the previously unreleased (and poorly recorded) live bits, got a separate release. from what i recall this latest one came in at slightly north of £16 but still well south of £20, and was an automatic purchase when it turned out the main inclusion was all of their second album, Bootleg, in its entirety. never before has this been put out on compact disc; how nice of them to have done so for its 35th (!!!!) anniversary. 

i keep reading reports on how the compact disc is "dying", how sales are falling, the kids these days do all that "streaming" stuff, which is incredibly convenient but loses the tactile sense of holding a record. yet someone thought it made commercial sense (for it cannot have been done just to please me) to put this one out in that format again. and blessed be they for doing so. sure, at this stage (and perhaps this shows little or no limited decay) i can recite the whole of it, the works of Bad News, from memory, but nothing beats listening to them. so yes, then, it remains very good (and very metal) indeed. 

of course the bits in-between the songs, where they are shouting and (frequently to the point of exclusively) swearing at each other, remain the true gold. when it came to Bootleg, essentially bits (so it is believed to be) recorded but not used for the first album, it's basically 90% them shouting and swearing, with the odd song (AIDS, HM Farmer and kind of Bad Dreams as well as Cashing In On Christmas) appearing almost by accident. Vim, Spider, Den and Colin shouting and swearing shall forever be ludicrously funny. 

unfortunately no, i am not going to link to every (mistake imaginable) post i have made on the subject of Bad News. but, go on then, a few. here you go, from a random search, read if you like all about the first deluxe edition, the bit dodgy fancy video (disc) release of the Bad News films, and the more recent release of two poorly recorded, badly presented live performances which has a stack of extras inexplicably not listed on the packaging. 

sure, it's been a brief while since i last played them (probably when i got the live one), but my word this has remained just as funny and entertaining as when i first got the record. that was on vinyl, and i believe off of a branch of John Menzies. do they even have shops any more? probably not. 

needless to say, if a great deal of shouting and swearing is not really your thing, is is absolutely a compact disc set to avoid. for all and everyone else, well, even if like me you own loads of copies, there is space for this one, celebrating the Frilly Pink years of their career. 

many thanks indeed to whatever record label executive, or who(m)ever it was that gave the go ahead for this most excellent release! 

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

he'll think about paint and he'll think about glue

heya

more consumer action activity for your consideration. once again i have been out and about, look you see, and made a purchase more or less on the basis of an immediate sense of value. this may well be closer to the less side, as to be fair it's a thing what i would have been interested in even if not on a sale price. 

can't recall if i mentioned this before, but if i did, then it was so that once more i was within attending distance of the Tate Britain in that there London (innit). which, as it turns out, is rather different from the Tate Modern. a bit different, for the basics (displaying art) remain. during this second visit i discovered a second shop from my first being there. indeed i found a few items, but of relevance to this post, i found this one. 

so yes, then, in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode, i have procured a magnet which has on it an aspect (or selection) of Andy Warhol's celebrated Marilyn Monroe portrait. lovely stuff, especially as the cost was as equally south of £2 as it was north of £1. quite the bargain to get an official item of Warhol for such a fee, i suspect. 

is it so that i consider myself a "fan" (or admirer) of Warhol? well, i am certainly intrigued by him or at the least interested in what he gone done. certainly i watched his somewhat less conventional (or if you will fewer linear) adaptation of A Clockwork Orange a decade or so ago. that thing of his where, "in the future", everyone shall be famous for fifteen minutes has been amplified somewhat. given an infinite amount of funds to procure whatever art i wished for in my lodgings in exile i would probably go for a nice Monet or two, but would consider a Warhol. leave it, perhaps, as it was true he (Warhol) made the world more interesting. also Bowie wrote a song about him and played him in a film. quite the double honour, there. 

yes, there's the magnet on display, to the left, surrounded off of some magnets i made myself (i can gone done things when motivated) and the ones i got off of The Viz what James re-arranged into a J, because of course. 

do i intend on inviting people over to look at my Warhol magnet? probably not. i mean, if i went up to someone (preferably female, but it's confusing these days) and said "do you want to come and see my Warhol" it's likely that they would do so anyway (were they to say yes), or possibly interpret the item being seen as a euphemism. which might not be so bad. anyone agreeing purely on the off chance of seeing an actual, genuine (bona fide) Warhol is just going to be disappointed, though. or anyway they may well just say no. perhaps i shall just enjoy it myself (or use it to keep notes on the fridge), and then if anyone does end up visiting and seeing it, well, a random happy moment. 

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

betrayal

hello there

well, here we are. the last (or if you will final) month of 2023 what has a single digit representation. it's not so much that my perception of thus year has gone by fast, look you see, but with each passing dawn it feels like life up to now has an ever greater sense of being compressed. just don't get why, say, many aspects of the 80s feel so fresh, vivid and relevant to primary memories, when much of the 90s feels further back, fading away. hey ho. 

none of that, of course, excuses sin. and i have indeed done that. should anyone declare me to be a class traitor or sell out, well, i have no defence. a reason, but not avoiding condemnation. on a particularly hot, warm, sunny drive down the country, as i am so prone (and contractually obliged to do) i said, you know what, a packet of opal fruits would go down a right treat. but of course they stopped selling them under the proper name, so i caved in and bought a pack of the false named ones. 

yes, indeed, the packet of (ugh) "starburst" is sat upon the box for the tape (disc) of a "best of" Split Enz set; one which i was equally delighted and thrilled to find on offer at a preferred market stall. quite good it is, covering most of the very best of the best. like, for instance, Dirty Creature, Six Months In A Leaky Boat and of course the one song of theirs to make impact around the world, I Got You. no She Got Body, She Got Soul, but i don't think they released it as a single. indeed this distracts. 

of all the obscenities of this century it was probably taking away the name, or brand, opal fruits what was the worst thing ever done. things like wars and natural disasters come and go, we rebuild. but you can't put back what you have taken away. well, i suppose you sort of can, thinking of the next image that shall be presented, but it doesn't stay as it should. violence isn't really clever, appropriate or the right thing to do, but i can't help finding myself hoping that who(m)ever took away our beloved opal fruit name got punched in the face. quite hard. repeatedly. 

above is my sole surviving proper bag of opal fruits. i have held on to it as if it were for dear life. but this must end soon, as the expiry (or best before) date happens in the business end of this month. i shall indeed be eating them, but with a heavy heart as it may well be so that they don't put the proper name back on them ever again. 

for more of my potentially over the top but also entirely justified issue with this subject you are welcome to click here and read my original "think piece" or what have you. as for me, well, i can but hope to avoid disgracing myself so again. but it wouldn't be happening if they just left well and good alone, and if they acknowledged the mistake and called them opal fruits once more. 

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