like a portrait in flesh

howdy pop pickers

well, a bit tricky to know how to classify this one. indeed this will all feature things what i have a proclivity for, but then there's a different, modern day dimension to it all, look you see. certainly this is as confusing as my opening paragraphs tend to be, but if you read on then it might make some sense. also it might not make any sense. 

it would be a truth universally acknowledged to state that me going off and purchasing some new music tapes (discs) is neither a surprise nor a new thing. less ("fewer") so, perhaps for me to do this when i have never even heard of the bands (or artists) in question, and not knowingly heard any of their music. what would compel me to make such "blind" purchases? actually deaf, not blind, for seeing is the key here. so yes, then, all of the albums in question featured (on the cover) nudies of the female variety. in all instances the artists who had gone done made the records, so far as i can tell. 

my main challenge here was taking some images to add for this which (kind of) showed the album artwork and yet (somehow) made this all reasonably safe for all to look at. i gave some consideration to using an image of Larry Grayson to "censor" things with, which i have gone done on previous posts, but i could not be bothered. let me hope the wonders of thermal and psychedelic mode on my phone camera thing has worked some wonders. 

no, i am not going to sit here and pretend that these albums all "just happened" to feature nudies. i see little sense in pretending or denying that i really rather like observing female nudies, it has always been very pleasing. this is not to say that i go around constantly (or perpetually) seeking out such, but yes it is all lovely when such sights come along. here's where the possibly most relevant aspect of this post comes along. whatever you may think i didn't sit there typing in "nude album covers" on a search engine. rather it was these albums found me off of internet adverts. 

this sequence of tapes (discs) with a common trend across album covers being bought all commenced with an advert off of HMV. such adverts pop up on my "facebook feed", for i have a pretty decent track record of clicking links to vibes and buying them i guess. anyway, in this instance HMV were having a sale, and the cover for If I Can't Have Love I Want Power off of Halsey caught my eye, since there was clearly one breast of female nature exposed on the cover. for a price of (just) south of £4 it seemed interesting enough to buy. 

upon receiving the album (via the miracle of postal services) and admiring the cover for a bit i looked at the notes. it turned out that this album was produced by some of the chaps out of Nine Inch Nails. had i been aware of such that (genuinely) would have been a selling point anyway, since i rather like the way Trent Reznor makes things sound. but yes, the cover is very nice indeed, sorry that i cannot show it off in full here for you. also having guest artists such as Lindsey Buckingham, Mike Garson and, to a lesser extent, Dave Grohl appearing on it makes me wonder how i missed the album on its initial release. 

not sure if there is any (or much) value in me trying to do a "review", as i would imagine much more better written ones are out there for your perusal. but, if it is of the slightest interest, happy days, as i really, really like this album. as in i played it through three or four times on getting it, and it's had a few spins over the last couple of months or so. 

how very interesting that, not long after clicking on the social media (facebook) link for that album, an advert for another tape (disc) featuring (female) nudies should appear for my (ahem) consideration. just a co-incidence? like, what when you have been talking about something with friends and all of a sudden you get adverts on websites (and apps) related to the subject of speaks? yeah. indeed this is the aspect which is likely to be of more interest than my proclivity for eroticism. 

so, the second (2nd) tape (disc) i bought purely for the somewhat provocative cover was Origin Of The Alimonies off of someone called Liturgy. indeed, in my ignorance, i wasn't immediately aware which was the name of the artist and which was the name of the album. pretty sure i have them the right way around now, apologies if not. whereas Halsey was on sale (i believe south of £5) it was not so for Liturgy. this once cost me slightly south of £15, but i was curious enough to buy. 

quite an interesting album, it is. not necessarily something i would have pursued in itself, but all the same a curious obsession with the female form in a natural state has opened a door to a different type of vibes experience. despite their being follow along lyrics in the book it is, to my ears, a fascinating instrumental work. a google search suggest Liturgy is something called "death metal" or "black metal". that may well be, i found it more of an esoteric jazz odyssey. of course i am far too thick to understand all of the overriding concept of the piece, but the atmospherics of the sound make it a most intriguing listen. rather good to have on as i read or write things, like for instance this. 

did i all of a sudden get any more adverts on facebook featuring (female) nudies on the cover. yes, indeed, of course i did. the next one to come along (so to speak) was End Of Everything by the rather curiously named Mega Bog. a slightly different sort of nudies, i suppose, as this was full tilt full on naked, presented in the form of a painting of the artist sans clothing or such garments. no, i did not really bother to look up or find out what sort of music it was, i just went why not and ordered. 

wise move, as wow. this is likely (probably) my favourite find of the four tapes (discs) in this sequence. and that's not to say any of them are bad. i am loathe to make comparisons to other artists, but for a feel, or if you will vibe, of End Of Everything, what struck me was a kind of quintessential sound of The Cure, or perhaps the more daring, artistic driven works of Depeche Mode that are found on the albums to the side of their more (devastatingly brilliant) accessible singles which draw people in. of all the releases bought for nudies on the cover this is the one i would say "go and buy" to anyone without the slightest hesitation. 

fourth, and so far final, one to get advertised to me (facebook again) was (is) Death By Rock and Roll off of The Pretty Reckless. as a clear indication that "they", them what do the advertising and that, have clocked my likelihood of purchasing nudies, they presented an advert which showed the cover, the disc and the fold out booklet, with the latter being the business end one (nude picture on it).

by no means it it a bad album, it's just a bit (or somewhat) curated for popular sensibilities. there's absolutely nothing wrong with artists trying to make a living, but at times it feels rather, well, contrived to be successful rather than being what the artist had in their heart. shout out, however, to one particular song on the tape (disc), 25. it starts with a quasi hint of the classic James Bond theme and very much comes across as one of the best Bond themes we (sadly) never got. 

and that seems to be it. for now. yes, indeed, facebook does keep showing me adverts for music, because that's clearly a "click rate conversion" or what have you box i tick. up to now, though, whilst some of the records (or tapes) advertised feature "raunchy" or "suggestive" covers, no others have had nudies (female) on them, so my bank account has not been troubled. quite likely this shall change. 

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

koala collection

g'day

yes, indeed it did fair dinkum occur to me to call this post koala kink or even koala kick for the alliteration, look you see, but ultimately neither felt right. nor, for that matter, any other "k" word. briefly i did consider calling it koala koala koala koala koala koala, so as to reflect the number of koala related items on display, but that just seemed silly. particularly when, if i was going to go that way, then i may well have been more better off calling it koalas. 

quite often it does rather feel that paragraphs such as the one above are (very much) conversations i am having with myself, for i have no one else to have such speaks with. perhaps that's why i still carry on writing here, who knows. habit, therapeutic, cathartic or plain on the off chance someone finds it all interesting, if even only in passing. 

moving on, then, or towards the (proposed) subject, and yes. koala related stuff, or if you will things of koalas. i appear, over the last twelve or so months, moved away from randomly collecting items of a hedgehog nature and towards items of a koala nature. as you can kind of see in the below picture, presented as it is in VHS mode. because why not. 

i suppose i have always had a soft spot for, if not outright fascination with, the wonders of the koala bear. this is not a subject which has always been at the forefront of my mind, and over the course of the last few decades i suspect i have gone an entire year, or two in a row, without even thinking about them. well, maybe, i can't remember so as fact, but there we are. and here we are. you should be able to make out a variety of koala related items, even if it is so that the majority are of the stuffed toy (or similar) variation of the theme. 

provenance is something i have assumed (likely incorrectly) a matter some are concerned with, so from the left and in a circumnavigatory "circular" or horseshoe way around, the impractical koala mug was off of Morrisons (£3 i think), the spherical one (billed as a stress ball but i am not squeezing it) was £6 and found on my travels for verk, the little blue one was a surprise find at a Japanese shop i was surprised to find in Portsmouth, the small but regular looking one was off of Edinburgh zoo, the large one was off of the market where i go to buy videos (discs) and tapes (discs) and the bedding was a recent online purchase, cost being less ("fewer") than a 'legal' packet of cigarettes in the UK. nope, no idea what anyone would do with this information, but do as you will. 

certainly it has occurred to me that my recent spate (of sorts) is some sort of filling the void exercise, perhaps even a deconstruction of the past (and who i am) whilst i remain in solitude in my place of exile. it could well be that i draw some level of comfort having them around, but no i am not (as of yet) at the stage where i sit them all around the tele with me. or have tea parties. that latter one sounds like fun, though. mostly i just think it's that they are cute, or lovely, looking, and it's pleasing to have them scattered around my home for the instances i am there. should some clever person have a better idea, or even understanding, of this well, good for them. 

now that i look at them, well, with the exception of the blue one (presumably blue to be symbolic of the general natural state of a koala to be stoned out of its bracket on the blue fumes emanating from eucalyptus trees), maybe it's the grey shade which all of a sudden appeals. whereas all is transient, and time as we know it is entirely a fabricated design just so we can clutch to something, i am now pretty much all grey and white too. hang on, no, this is all getting rather too close to suggesting i in some way do that "gender identify as a koala" business. probably not, then. 

for the two non stuffed (or cuddly) toy things, as mentioned the mug is woefully impractical. not sure why they make things like this. the top, as is the open bit of the chalice from where you are supposed to quaff, drink or sip, is all small and leaning inwards. usually i would spill drinks on myself anyway, but with this i might as well just pour it all over rather than even pretend to try and drink off it proper. likely i shall eventually just put it on display. although display for who(m) is a matter i would have no real notion of, since i get few ("less") visitors. the bedding is one i shall make use of later in the year, as opposed to doing so earlier in the year when i did not have it. 

well, that's that. some items to consider or even speculate about, or just a few pictures to have a bit of a fair dinkum gander at. should you have strayed here seeking affirmation for your own interest the the magical, whimsical ways of the koala bear, i really hope to have delivered. 

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

greek tragedy

γεια σας

recently it has been so that i have watched a fair number of videos. well, not actual videos, but discs what have videos on them. or films, look you see. normally i would take to here, being my blog, to write of all such incidents. time is what it is, though. so no i haven't. but go on then, i shall write of some, or the ones i can remember. 

usually, when given the chance to watch a film or two, i shall generally favour complete trash over anything with more overt merit. having (kind of) been there, done that with all of the classics, my inclination when selecting something to watch is the entertainment value. more often than not this would be what is deemed as trash, especially as normally there's a good deal of nudies in such. and i make precisely zero apologies (or excuses) for such preferences. suck it down. 

it turns (or turned) out that two of the films what i gone done watched were both "directed" by the same bloke off of Greece. which would be someone called Nico Mastorakis. by chance (certainly not design) they happened to be the first two (ever) films what he gone done made. admittedly i watched them in reverse order of that, but here they are in the correct way. 

no, i am absolutely not doing screenshots of either. you can all make do with psychedelic and thermal pictures of the new artwork both came with, and then some quality VHS mode of the reverse sleeves, which are (i believe) the original posters or artwork. 

for his first film, then, which (to needlessly clarify) was the second i watched, Death Has Blue Eyes. some of you for some reason care for provenance. if that's you, i think i paid about £9 for this at a branch or chapter of HMV. i had gone along for the new Eminem album, but was told i was rather early for the tape (and/or disc) of it as it's a "streaming only" thing until mid-September (2024). oh. 

plot? you kind of have to go with the flow of it. essentially two criminal types - mostly con artists but other stuff less savoury - somehow end up in (or rather on) a Greek island and mixed up in some sort of hunt or chase for a lady who can do all that psychic / telekinetic stuff. which involves being able to kill people with "thought" or what have you. as this is all Cold War Era (look it up, kids) yes, the Soviets and the Americans would like to "obtain" her for fairly obvious reasons. not telling who(m), if anyone, does, as why would i present spoilers on the off chance you wanted to watch. 

badly made, poorly written, woeful acting, vague plot. these would not be massive issues as such if only there was considerably more nudies in it, so as to distract one. what you do get in that regard is some scattered topless moments, and full frontal kind of via very see thru underwear. also a good deal more male nudies than i might have perhaps wished for, thanks to the quasi homoerotic, sort of bi moments the two gents i mentioned seem to have now and then. quite rubbish, then, and really not worth the effort of watching. don't let me stop you if you insist. 

 

my main motivation for procuring Island Of Death (provenance fans take note) was that it was on offer for all of £5 on the Arrow Video website. it was a film i vaguely recall seeing the cover (well, the version of it above) before and i knew it was a "video nasty". this film was just banned outright here in the UK for some time. with morals now being "different" it got released "uncut", so i figured why not. actually i am assuming uncut, but if there was anything in this that was removed, well, on the basis of what was left in i have absolutely no wish to see that, thanks. 

compared to Death Has Blue Eyes it is so that Island Of Death has a vaguely coherent plot. kind of. it all starts with a couple (male and female) arriving on a Greek island. they appear to be being hunted down by someone, and the likely reason for this is soon clear, as they go on a spate of rather violent and very unpleasant crimes. mostly it seems they are "punishing" those they believe what have gone done wrong, or live what they deem an immoral life, but in a few instances it would seem the couple themselves have instigated this behaviour. when similar acts of violence are taken out on them there's no sense of "revenge" or "justice", it's just all unpleasant. 

the big surprise here is that the BBFC gave it a certificate in this version, be it uncut or in some way edited. i get that anyone can more or less get any depraved film they wish off of the internet, but the value of the BBFC is go give guidance and informed choice. let's put it this way - when the blurb or description on the back of the tape (disc) box offers up "opportunistic bestiality" and similar you know you are not dealing with arthouse stuff. it was always my understanding that certain things were a really big no-no for the BBFC, and top of that list was creating any sort of impression that a lady might enjoy an assault. well, that's very present here, unfortunately. 

yes, sure. there was a fairly decent amount of full tilt nudies on the go in Island Of Death, but not in a particularly enjoyable or interesting way. perhaps i am being too fussy, but frankly it's really one rather repulsive film with absolutely no artistic merit and limited enjoyment. i am sort of "glad" to have watched it as i can now understand why this was one of the "video nasties" all and sundry went on a crusade about around 1984. fans of cinema here in the UK would not have missed out on too much if it remained banned. 

sorry if you hit upon this because you are passionate about Greek trash cinema and were hoping for a celebration of it. i am fairly sure that someone in Greece has made a decent film somewhere along the line of cinematic history, but it's not one of these two.

were it so that you wished to read more of European based filth (or "art") then you may well wish to click here to look at some Tinto Brass (and related) stuff i gone watched.

να είστε άριστοι μεταξύ σας!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

full tilt cockney

now then

it was so that i did indeed have some conflicting ideas for the title of this post. at various times i wrestled with a vaguely connected musical inspired one, such as the first cut is the deepest or even the final cut, look you see. further, although not as much as you might think, i did deliberate using the "silk" aspect of what i write. my imagination, however (or alas) could only stretch as far as "silk road", and by all accounts that carries somewhat different connotations on the internet. 

oh, yes, to sort of get to some sort of point. recently, with thanks to the kindness of a good friend, i have been smoking some of them silk cut fags. well, silk cut cigarettes to use a term which is likely to be more appropriate and of an increased level of sense to our friends in America. no, it is not that i would have chosen these for myself. so far as i am aware this is the first time i have (knowingly) smoked them, although maybe at some point Spiros got me some as the idea of me smoking them, knowing how, who or even what they are associated with, may well have entertained him some. 

for clarification on the title, well, no cigarette is more closely associated with the lifestyle of that there London (innit) than silk cut. not, at the least, now that JPS (in particular the sleek black boxed ones with the royal seal on them) are no more, quasi replaced as they are with the salty sea dog rough ways of the "players". undoubtedly i shall waffle on about this aspect a little later. rather than earlier. 

how are they? as in, some sort of actual review? well, they are not so bad as i was expecting. for an item intended for the gentrified, sensitive elite of the south i was surprised to find that they were not all that light. my expectation, knowing what i do of the ways of the London (innit), was that they were likely to have no kick at all, and be equivalent to inhaling water or one of them "vape" things. 

but, that said, the name "silk cut" remains a mystery. at least, dear reader, as in to how or why they are called so. it's not that the smoking experience is particularly "silky", and nor do they have any sort of harsh "cut" effect, as would be the case with the previously mentioned intended for salty sea dog types players. no, they are nowhere near as good as Marlboro, for nothing (for me) would ever be, but they are not as hopeless as i may have suspected. which could indeed, in light of how much time i spend there, well be symptomatic of me going full tilt cockney. hopefully not, but for the most part my journey in life has been with eyes open so i cannot complain. 

quite late into the post, i appreciate, but there above is the usual advice, warning, disclaimer or what have you. yes, smoking is a very "bad" (or silly) thing to do. no good from a health perspective can come from it, so either don't start smoking or if you do presently smoke take some sort of measure, if you can, to quit or at least cut down considerably. indeed i do like that "over 70 substances" on the warning. did they get bored of counting? 

my coming to try these silk cut (purple, apparently) was, as mentioned, down to the generosity of a very dear friend. she wished to get me some as a gift, which is always welcome if unnecessary. normally she would purchase Benson & Hedges, for personal reasons, but the tobacconist of choice (a bloke working in a corner shop or supermarket kiosk, at a guess) urged her to purchase these. so far in this journey i have yet to meet the cigarette i had any significant quarrel with, as it happens. 

to the association these cigarettes (or the silk cut brand) have (or has) with the London lifestyle. much like the Apple iPhone is today, so too were silk cut cigarettes in the 70s and 80s. which is to say whilst functional, not really the best one could get, but priced and (in particular) marketed in such a way as to tap into the aspirational desires of many. the image and the price made one feel as though they were in some way part of an elite class of society they wished to be if not part of then accepted by. 

probably, and most famously, it's the kind of social circle what (or that), say, Princess Margaret had. to be part of her gang it was not enough to be simply wealthy, or hold a position in society of any combination of wealth, influence or adulation. one had to live the part too, beyond merely describing things as je ne sais quoi and what have you. they tended to drink wines which were horrid, being mostly of a taste resembling vinegar with harsh tonic water and sugar added, but were of such price and provenance that they got celebrated. this is the lifestyle for which silk cut cigarettes were a thing. 

such days are gone, of course, with successive governments here in the UK bewilderingly managing to convince the huddled masses that cigarettes are the root cause of all that is wrong in our world, every fault or flaw or thing what is not perfect. not being able to smoke inside no more means that people can no longer present themselves as a member of the elite by wearing the right tuxedo and producing a packet of silk cut from one of the pockets of it. 

just how likely is it that i, moi, myself would buy more silk cut fags? not very. i mean if one of the more financially agreeable, independent cigarette distributors of the country offered to sell me some then yes, of course. but these are more the sort of thing what they have on offer. you never know, though. actually, you do. if it were so that i was off somewhere and felt some sense of needing to buy a pack of silk cut so as to impress people (or be accepted by them) then no, i would just get Marlboro. 

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

indulgence

howdy pop pickers

ostensibly this post concerns the most recent box set of tapes (discs) to be released at the time of writing. for clarification that's Rock N Roll Star!, look you see. not sure i would call this a review as such, primarily because i don't think i am as skilled or as clever as to be able to write such. mostly i just hope this isn't all too much of a whine. 

full well i recall when news of this box set - two books, 5 CDs (not tapes) and 1 blu ray - was announced. indeed i was filled with much merriment and excitement, pledging to all who were near, whether they were interested or not (they were not), to purchase it. obviously this i did. but oddly not upon its release. quite nearly placed the order, but found myself inexplicably hesitating. instead i made some sort of quasi, internal pledge to wait a few weeks (or a month entire) and if i still wished for it then to proceed. which i did.  

any particular reason for the hesitation, or if you will sense of doubt? well, the set was/is an awful lot of money. risking sounding like "hey look at me", thanks to some quite hard verk i did have enough to get it as a treat, or some great reward. my question was if i was getting value for it. 

rather than run up the cost of this set any further it was so that, when i resolved to buy, i went into an actual proper music shop to do so. something of a ritual happened. i pointed to the set behind the counter and asked the member of staff if i could please have it, but would she be so kind as to not say the price of it out loud. to this she consented. when it came time to pay i sort of put my hand over the screen part of the card machine so as not to see the price. but, for the sake of clarification (or context, maybe), i paid a flat, straight, on the nose £150 for it. no that's not missing a decimal place. 

did i get £150 value, in the form of David Bowie stuff, from this purchase? at this stage i am still not certain that i have. i mean, it's a beautifully put together set, with the books being of a very high quality for a start. my interest, though, would be the music. and bewilderingly this is where it all falls somewhat short. 

perhaps some of this shall be a whine. it is not intended as such. however, to start with, if i am spending that kind of money on compact discs related to the album The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars then i wouldn't have thought it too much to ask for, you know, the actual album itself. indeed i have at least three (3) copies on CD, the vinyl and what have you, but still. also it was somewhat confusing that this "new" version of the album, Waiting In The Sky, wasn't included as a CD in the set. yes, both are there on the blu ray, but more on that in a bit.

to instead concentrate on what you do get on CD, well, that amplifies the problem. whereas i do not have a complete Bowie collection, for many box sets i have gone "no" to, it is a fairly extensive one. with forever thanks to my Dad i am lucky enough to have the original Ryko Sound+Vision USA only box set which features nearly all of the live in Boston tracks you find here. also i have the 89 or 90 reissue of Ziggy Stardust which features the best of the rare / unreleased songs to feature in this set, and the Bowie At The Beeb set. the latter has nearly all of the songs you find on discs two and three here. 

it is so that discs (or tapes) two and three on Rock N Roll Star! make you feel as though you have somewhat been taken advantage of, that this set isn't well thought out at all. these two discs feature a whole load of performances recorded for and broadcast by the BBC during what you would call the Ziggy era. barely a handful of them were previously unreleased, and you soon work out why that was so as the sound quality is really, really bad. 

were you to go up to someone and say (or ask) "what was the best thing about Ziggy Stardust" i would suggest that few, if any, would at any point in any conversation that followed say "oh, easily all those BBC radio shows he did". it's not that they are bad, they are just standard. there's no realistic reason i can think of as to why anyone would think two discs covering the BBC broadcasts was a worthwhile venture with this set. 

breaking briefly from the music and there's a look, or insight, into the books. whereas the images in the main book are lovely, one feels a little let down (if not depressed) that the first thing you see on opening it is an advert for another book of pictures of Bowie, taken by Mick Rock. it's like "thank you for all that money but we would like some more, thanks". also exactly how "definitive" is this Ziggy Stardust box set if not all the best or most significant pictures are in it? as for the recreation of Bowie's journal from the time, well, it's got a certain curiosity value, but mostly it's lyrics and some vague ideas for the tracklisting. 

going back to the music, and what would i have liked to have had instead? well, i do appreciate that not everyone has the already released recordings i do, but i wouldn't think someone would buy this just to get the BBC sessions. if you are going to sell me something twice (or, admittedly, four or five times) then come on, make it worthwhile. far more better (and relevant) would have been to include the legendary Santa Monica 71 live album. also, as mentioned, Waiting In The Sky as a standalone CD in the set would have been appreciated. i think you can kind of make a tape of it with some of the tracks included here, but then one buys a CD set with the not unreasonable expectation of it being ready made and all set to go. 

yes, some of what i suggested should be there is in the set, on the "blu ray audio" disc. you get the original version of Ziggy Stardust, a reasonably recent "remastered" version and indeed the Waiting In The Sky variation. plus, from what i could tell, all the tracks off of the CDs that are not live. unfortunately, or regrettably, i don't have a massive, expensive sound system with a blu ray player as part of it. whereas i have a decent tele it's certainly not high end. playing this disc through the player and tele was all right, but not particularly practical. 

no, oddly, i don't feel ripped off, cheated or in any way f****d over. i am not so stupid as to not know i was buying a set that was a bit "hmn". there is no doubt that the money is there, this is a beautiful, well produced set. it's just a "why bother" kind of thing, really, when the books are not going to get looked at too often and it's unlikely the discs shall be played much. right now i can pretty much guarantee that the BBC discs, two and three, are unlikely ever to go near the stereo again. 

ultimately i suppose i felt i simply had to buy this set. not to underline any sort of "proper fan" credentials, or just because it was affordable. were it not for Ziggy Stardust then there would be no Bowie as we know of him today. that in itself made it feel necessary to purchase this set. if anything, it has vindicated my decision not to buy the Divine Symmetry box set, which seems to just feature more and more BBC sessions recordings. 

right, well i think that about covers most of what i could say on this set. no regrets and i am happy to have it sat there looking pretty, even if it is only moi in my place of exile likely to ever cast eyes over it. mostly it feels like this set exists to emphasise that all you really need to know (or more importantly hear) about Ziggy Stardust is all right there in the album as it was released. 

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

aquatic wood hedgehog sighting

ahoy

yes, this is all maybe on a subject i have written of before. well, not quite the same, but similar, look you see. for those who like fancy terms, it's all about something along the lines of pareidolia and apophenia. if you are one of them ones that don't care for fancy terms, preferring more straightforward things, it's that thing when (or where) you "see" something in a pattern that isn't deliberately there, but either your mind has made an association or someone has pointed it out. 

no, the above doesn't feel like i have made it any clearer. perhaps the most common way the above is expressed, or occurs, is "seeing the face of Jesus". indeed i do mean that Jesus. off the top of my head, or from memory, it is most common for someone to "see" the face of Jesus in patterns on a piece (or plank) of wood, or (believe it or not) a piece of toast. mostly this is psychological association to rationalise and interpret in the mind, rather than it actually being the case that an image of the face has deliberately appeared there. 

let me try and untangle this (on the off chance you are still reading) with an example. of sorts. and one which doesn't feature Jesus or any other such religious / historical figure. 

i noticed the above, although (obviously) i didn't see it in VHS mode, recently. this was once again sat by the river where i recently lost a cigarette. should for some reason you be interested in that exploit then i think it was three or four posts previous to this. anyway, with my packet of cigarettes reasonably secure in a trouser pocket, i looked over (or across) the water and saw the above. 

perhaps (or maybe) it's just a case of how my mind makes associations, but to me the way that trunk of a tree had come to rest gave the appearance of a hedgehog, apparently merrily enjoying the water. yes there is a somewhat (slightly) clearer image lower down, as well as some (VHS mode) video. but, hopefully you can see, just middle off right in the below, what looks like a hedgehog "snout" and spiny back. 

considering i don't have that much to say here, beyond "i saw some wood in a river and it vaguely looked like a hedgehog", i thought it wise to try and "spice" this up. for this i went to the "what 3 words" website, to see if something similar to my post title came up with an interesting place in the world. nearest closest i could find for you was water.tree.hedgehog, which is apparently, on the map of all things what 3 words, close to Port Elizabeth in the Grenadines. 

beyond it being extremely useful, from time to time, at verk, there isn't all that much else i could tell you about the what 3 words thing. you would be better having a gander at their website. well, yes, ok, there was that time we doctored a screenshot, so for a lot longer time than you might think Spiros believed the what 3 words location for his house was pet.shop.boys. 

really not sure the (VHS mode) video above adds anything. maybe a moving visual might let someone see the hedgehog i saw in the river, although it wasn't a hedgehog. mostly, i suppose, i kind of keep forgetting that i spent money on that VHS mode camera, so it's nice to use when i remember it is there. 

great is the number of things what i miss, that i am aware of no longer being a present in my life, whilst remaining in my place of exile. on a list of such things one would very much find the inclusion of not being able to see Spiny Norman rambling around the garden from time to time. or members of the Spiny Norman family, as we were sure a clan resided in the bushes. or overgrowth or, oddly enough, old tree stump. perhaps, now i think, that's all become an association thing what led me to interpret what i saw as a sort of quasi hedgehog natural carving in the river. 

above is the previously promised (rather) poor quality "zoom in" picture i took. the more i look at it the more i remain convinced of the hedgehog like nature of the appearance. 

for how long will i be able to see this hedgehog in the water? as in, for real and not just in the pictures, or video, i have taken? these things they go away. i believe this is what they call "driftwood". whereas right now it is in some way "fixed" or lodged in a place, it is so that the tides shall, eventually, take it away. but how lovely that i got to see it whilst there. 

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