new phone

heya

 

another of them "posting for the sake of it" posts, i'm afraid. well, mostly it is, look you see. one never knows what may or may not be of interest to anyone out there. for the specifics of "it", well, as the title rather gives every indication of, indeed i have a new phone. does one need to qualify that these days, as in clarifying it is a "mobile" or "cellular" or even "smart" one? my understanding is that they (whoever it is that "they" are, exactly) are trying to get rid of "landlines" as a phone thing. goodness knows what fate shall befall the beloved fax machine if that is so. 

phones are (to state the obvious) something of a necessity these days. or are they? i did manage to go to various shops as and when i needed to without scanning some sort of app, although to be fair the discounts and rewards are agreeable. vaguely i can recall an era when we did not need to be "contactable" all of the time, and as far as possible i try to remain steadfast in the view that, for messages, calls and what have you, the device exists for my convenience, and not that of anyone who happens to have my number. no, it is not all that many what would call or message anyway. 

that image of the above, taken (of course) in some variation of VHS mode, is the new phone. it also, for whatever symbolic meaning you wish to attach, likely the last (or final) picture what i shall gone done take with what has become the "old" one. below, oddly enough, is the first image taken (or if you like captured) with the new phone, which is a picture of the old one. i suppose there's a level of symmetry there, or perhaps straightforward continuity. or what have you. 

should you (for some reason) be a regular visitor here you might, if you had the slightest interest in anything what i gone done, be curious as to why i have stuck with Samsung. of late i have moaned and groaned about the poor pictures and (considerably) worse video what it did, with particular emphasis on trying to capture moments of gigs. which, to be fair, i probably should not have been trying to video. better the devil you know, i suppose. my preference is to just buy a new phone as and when i need one, and stick with "pay as you go" rather than a contract. quite happy to have a "modest priced" phone that does what i wish it to, rather than some flash, expensive thing with all sorts of features i would not really use and has "specs" that i don't particularly understand. 

if we leave aside that i shall forever miss BlackBerry as the best mobile phone ever (it did all you could possibly want before people invented things you would want) then in truth i remain sad that LG elected to cease making phones. theirs were excellent. as i can only get what gets made these days, a sort of kind of quasi "entry level" Samsung seemed the best option. moderate price, at least compared to what Apple believe a phone should cost, reasonably reliable and a brand name one can trust. so far as one could ever trust any sort of corporate concern. 

farewell and thank you, then, old phone, pictured above as referenced earlier (rather than later). it has, or had, been quite class, serving me well over a couple of years and travelling to the other side of the known world and back. over the course of this year, however, it had gone all "clunky" or "blocky" or, as i believe the term preferred is closer to, "bricky". just kept "freezing" and not responding. the final push to replace came when it (the phone) elected to only charge with one specific cable (the black one pictured with it, for the sake of completeness), one that i mostly only used to take on the train with me for any sort of "emergency charge" scenario. which was plausible, for train and plane tickets now seem to exist only on apps. i assumed, or took as a given, that it would be wise (if not prudent) to change phones "now" whilst i could still "transfer" info from it, rather than leaving it to such a time that it decided to work with no charger. such would make setting up a new one more tricky. 

yet still it was a bit of a faff (if not as extreme as a "right f*** on") to get this new one set up. going in and out of things to retrieve passwords to set all up and what have you is a bit of a pain, but i suppose it could be worse. mostly, so far as i can tell (or for all i care), i think all done now. as to the fate of the now "old" one, well, not sure. probably just sit in a drawer or cupboard. doubtful it is of any value, what with the faults (or flaws) that exist in a way that inspired getting a new one. 

how is the new phone, or am i in some way happy with it? not sure, really. certainly it does not "brick" or freeze, which is a plus. seems to do what i wish (although i have not been to a gig to video random moments, true), but i have observed that the battery appears to drain with speed and enthusiasm. on the off chance that the cable pictured caused the "charging" issue with the old one i am reluctant to use it again with this new one. perhaps i shall get a new one of them. as i recall this particular cable was found, in that there London (innit) no less, so fair enough. 

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

five tapes

greetings

it feels like posts on here of late have been slanted towards movies, or films if you like. usually i would try and "mix up" what i put here, look you see, but not to be right now. as the only thing of much interest what i have gone done of late is watch a few videos (discs) that's pretty much all i have to offer up. 

so, anyway, at the risk of making another ludicrously long post, here are five (5) films what i watched on video (disc) lately. the higher percentage of them are, for a change, ones that i hadn't seen before. actually of the two that i had seen before i am not convinced i watched one of them all the way through. 

below are the five (5) videos (discs) what i have most recently watched. well, outside of the two recent releases i did a post on not so long ago. they are not presented in any specific order, just how i picked them up from a pile to take a picture of. 

the usual "spoiler warning" thing is pretty much, if not more or less, in place for the remainder of this post, then. although exactly how much one could "spoil" these particular films is up for debate, but still, for the ever increasing number of sensitive people in this world, there you are. 

pretty sure, mindful of the above declaration (or statement), that the first one of this batch i watched was the nostalgia pick up (off of the market) of Monty Python Live At The Hollywood Bowl. we, many years ago, had the video of Monty Python And The Holy Grail, which had all the trailers for their other cinematic adventures to that point (it was before Meaning Of Life) on it. this one had always intrigued to some extent, since it was a time when one couldn't easily access the Flying Circus tv show. 

quite likely, to try and limit any indulgent tale of woe, that i put this on so desperately in need of a boost, an adrenalin rush of laughter, something to clutch on to in the face of a melancholic life. alas, i think i should have gone with one of their other, more "regular" films. 

curiously Monty Python Live At The Hollywood Bowl just isn't particularly funny. i have been trying to work out "why" it doesn't work, mostly to see if it wasn't my mood swaying me. for a start an awful lot of it is the Pythons not on stage, with a reliance on previously filmed footage and other performers. this at least is what gets showcased. a lack of the "classic", grade a sketches (in particular the most beloved parrot sketch) does not help things. yes, you get Ministry Of Silly Walks, Argument Sketch and a couple of others, but still. when the funniest performance, Four Yorkshiremen, isn't a Python original, you get the sense of the issues. 

one can't really say that it's down to Monty Python somehow not "working" live. that is really very far from the truth, with the Live At Drury Lane album being, what, fifty odd years old, still one of the most inspired, brilliantly funny comedy recordings of all time. at the risk of sounding all "maybe they should have mixed it in dobly", perhaps the issue here is the way it was filmed, cameras and what have you all set up in a way that doesn't capture the latent comic genius. but, what do i know. 

vague memories swirl of trying to watch Maniac Cop once before, somewhere north of 30 years ago, but getting bored with it and not seeing the whole thing. as with select titles from a previous post i would imagine seeing it was inspired by reading Fangoria. that Bruce Campbell was in it would also have been a big selling point. 

every now and then one gets to see an example of really, really poor filmmaking. sometimes these get listed as "goofs and gaffes", and go beyond just "continuity errors". or things like the coffee cup what turned up in Game Of Dragons or whatever it was, or the watches on display in, i think, Gladiator. with regards to watching Maniac Cop, i got somewhat distracted by a microphone boom visible in a sequence of shots. 

 

plot of Maniac Cop? actually a "not bad" premise, with a city being terrorised by a, well, maniac cop apparently running around killing "innocent people". yes, very dated to the 80s, that idea that the police wouldn't go round killing (vaguely) innocent people. as it turns out it's a kind of "back from the dead" copper what got brutally killed in prison that's somehow been resurrected into a killing machine. 

not too bad a concept idea, mixing police thriller with horror slasher, but doesn't really work. lacks much of anything in the way of nudies, which doesn't help. also they cast Bruce Campbell to "play it straight", which is to ignore his strengths. my "collectors edition" is also quite badly and poorly censored, with it being obvious that they have cut some of the "maniac cop" getting brutally killed in prison, the soundtrack being disrupted by it. overall, whilst no means being "bad", this isn't particularly good, and not likely ever to achieve mythical "cult" status.

for some reason the idea has entered my mind that i, along with many others, have never quite appreciated the cinematic adventures of Dolph Lundgren as much as should have been the case. nope, no idea why. ideally i think i would like to have tested this with Red Scorpion, but alas down the market all i found was a "double tape" (disc) what had The Peacekeeper on it.

quite good, as it turns out. i mean yes, sure, it coming out a year or so after The Rock kind of gives a sense of the "plot inspiration", and i would suggest that the writers were aware of Die Hard. which probably means i don't have to describe the plot. but, if you want it, basic "threat of terrorist attack in America", which seemed impossibly absurd in the 90s, the hero (Dolph) somehow infiltrates the impenetrable base for the villains and has to get it sorted. 

well, as i said just above, pretty decent really. Dolph was quite class in the role, mixing action with a degree of deadpan humour just as well as any of the "a list" action stars of the 80s and 90s. from what i can sort of remember this was one of Roy Scheider's last film roles, and lovely that he got to play the president once. i think there is an unwritten rule that American actors can only ever play the head honcho once in their careers. not game changing or a "classic", all the same this would have been a good choice to rent from down the video shop. 

how predictable would it be for me to say the best of the videos (discs) what i watched just so happens to be the one what has an abundance of nudies in it? well, yes. admittedly i only purchased this one, She Killed In Ecstasy, either off of Fopp or HMV in that there London (innit) because it promised such. nice that it turned out to be a rather good film, too. 

in respect of the plot of She Killed In Ecstasy, well, some sort of unconventional scientist has been busy doing "gene / dna" splicing or what have you. when he goes to present his boss work he is taken aback that he's viewed as a monster, with a horrified panel of doctors condemning him and taking his medical licence (or what have you away). this all leaves him in a depressed quasi coma state, and so his wife elects to get revenge on the panel of doctors. which she does by seducing them one at a time and killing them "in the heat of passion", as it were. 

yes, i have been busy with copy and paste with the video (disc), along with MS Paint, to bring a sequence of images from the film together for you. prior to watching She Killed In Ecstasy i had absolutely no idea at all that the humble drink of sherry played such a dramatic part of the ritual of lesbian seduction. not that i had given much thought to the subject. 

certainly the constant promise (and frequent delivery) of nudies kept my attention, but further it was a surprisingly good film. at the risk of "spoilers", it is indeed so that all of the doctors from the panel are aware of what's going on, but all the same cannot help but fall for the seduction and their inevitable fate. that the "killer" embarks on this from a morally questionable stance of justice gives it all a rather unexpected, interesting dimension. if the question was posed of whether i would still rate this with if not an absence then a general reduction of the instances of nudies, oddly the answer is yes. 

most peculiar extras on the video (disc) for She Killed In Ecstasy, with the highlight being the director of it, Jess Franco (often credited as Jesus Franco), describing it as "not as good as Vampyros Lesbos". quite strange to see someone dismiss their own work. no, oddly, i have not actually ever seen the film of his he says is more better, my assumption is there is no way the film could be as class as the title. 

last video (disc) for this batch is another market find, Trailer Park Of Terror. i kind of knew it would probably be quite disappointing, and it was. not terrible, as such, but could have been quite decent if only they had inserted some nudies in. and there was loads of margin to do so. 

basic plot is that a lady living on one of them celebrated "trailer parks" in America does a deal with the devil sort of thing to exact revenge on other residents who tormented and killer her boyfriend. the price of this turns out to be that she becomes a "zombie", with those she has killed also coming back from the dead and in some form acting as her servants. somehow a bus with college students (or whatever) breaks down by the trailer park they (still) inhabit, and, well, you can guess the rest. 

not an entirely bad throwback to 80s "classic" slasher/horror films as such, but really does so desperately lack nudies. such was an important ingredient to those movies. they have quite a few, ahem, romantic scenes in, which are bafflingly done fully dressed. my understanding is that people what make this sort of film no longer feel a need to include nudies as a selling point, as such is "freely available" across the internet and is thus no longer a draw. trust me, some films need it included, and Trailer Park Of Terror would have been classed "quite good" if they had put some in. wouldn't rush to watch this one, and no idea what i am supposed to do with the "mini comic book" included. 

right, that's that lot done. my intention, oddly, was to watch a number of other fancy videos (blu ray discs) what i have that predominantly feature nuns exploring their sexuality. this has long been known as a subject of great interest to moi. perhaps i will watch them and make that the next post on the subject of films in any format. or not. 

usually i would say that i have no idea if this has been of use/interest to anyone, and that is very much the case. presumably it kind of must have been for you to have read this far. no, by the way, i have not watched the other film what came with The Peacekeeper. i tried reading up on it, and the only two things i could find were "no nudies" and "Robert Downey jnr was at a low ebb and only did it for a quick payday". that screams leave it unplayed. 

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

türk ibneleri

selamlar

just one of those (quasi) irresponsible posts i do from time to time on cigarettes(sorry), look you see. so, once again, smoking it quite bad for you, and you should either under no circumstances start smoking or, if you presently do, seek assistance to quit. with regards to the latter aspect there and how it relates to me the answer is, alas, no. 

recently, via my preferred independent cigarette distributor, i came to try a variation of Marlboro that i had not encountered before. this would be Marlboro Touch, to spell it out for them what might have done a google search for it. i think, if i remember another career in another town right, you are supposed to get a "key word" in the first 100 words or so of a web page so as to be all "seo", whatever that is. anyway, to say that i had not encountered them isn't that i hadn't heard of them, i had just assumed, or taken as a given, they would be them "click ball" flavoured ones, since "touch" would appear to be the go to marketing name for that sort of thing. far from being the first time i was not right. 

it is (decidedly) not so that they are such, but rather "regular" if not normal cigarettes. being quite the 

advocate if not acolyte for Marlboro (if you are hiring, them what make them, i am available) i of course was all too eager to give them a try. yes, smoking is bad, etc. 

how, to skip to the "review" section, are they? quite good. in terms of "strength" and i suppose to an extent taste they are somewhere between Marlboro Gold (which used to be "lights") and Marlboro Red, with that last one (latter) being the ultimate cigarette. lukewarm sounds like a really lousy description of anything, so i would suggest that if cigarette companies were allowed to use any word they so cared to in branding these would likely get called "Marlboro Mild". having typed that and considered it, now that i think i am fairly sure once upon a time there was such a thing as "Camel Mild" but don't think you could get them for long. that or they made them change the name. 

for all i know, and it has been mentioned before that i am a deeply ignorant person, it could well be that touch means "mild" in the language of the country what these fine cigarettes are off of. and where, precisely, is that? provenance is Turkey, no less, although i believe the preference is to refer to the nation as Türkiye, which i was happy to do just then for you. with respect to the (kind of) more specifics of provenance as to how i got them, well, legalities likely suggest that it's probably best not to disclose. 

peculiar, and unexpected, to mention Camel twice in a post concerning Marlboro, but i am sure that they used to proudly state that Camel were a blend of "Turkish and American" tobacco. so it is very much the case that Türkiye has some stature (or credentials) with decent cigarettes. restrictions on what they can and cannot put on packets means that one never knows where the tobacco in cigarettes comes from any more, but i suppose it doesn't matter. once someone told me that the tobacco used by (or in) Marlboro is off of Africa, with Zimbabwe being mentioned. i have no idea if that is accurate. 

a friend of mine who has quit smoking (for reasons of finance rather than health) saw the above warning image and commented that there is a quite artistic "erotic" feel to the picture, which he kind of withdrew from when i mentioned being reasonably sure that was meant to be a child. oh. it's not like the quality of the image sent makes such clear. still, this discourse prompted him to speak of how he rather enjoyed hanging around smokers, predominantly at bus stops, to catch a whiff of smoke as displayed in that warning image. 

the really, really big plus with these Marlboro Touch being off of Turkey is that, so far as i am aware, and once again let me remind you of my level of general ignorance, it is not so that Türkiye are engaged in any sort of war, or random acts of terrorism so as to bring attention to their plight. i am assuming, then, unlike with cigarettes procured from more eastern European nations, i am not "funding" anything untoward as i sidestep (if not bypass) the farcical taxation placed on cigarettes in the UK. best of my knowledge suggests that Türkiye is a quite class place to go, and attracts many tourists. you can, i think, get all sorts of medical work done there, but i have no need for such. 

yes i should (in all likelihood) have probably given a warning that a selfie is imminent, but done now. that is indeed an image of me (quite) enjoying one of these Marlboro Touch. also yes, my hair has got rather long (it is always a mess). don't rightly now if it is, as i tell people, that i am currently amused by the idea of having long hair or if really this is a sign that i am giving up, that i no longer care for myself or wish to continue, and so just let all "go". either or neither is all that interesting. 

beyond "mild" i would suggest there's a slight "sweet" taste to these. no, not flavoured, or sugary like an Australian wine. perhaps "not bitter" and certainly not coarse are more better ways to saying it, or at the least closer to accurate. really very pleasant, truth be told, if we (once again) accept that no, you are not supposed to mention that smoking is enjoyable or pleasant. with regards to cigarettes at the least, for all and sundry seem eager to broadcast how class smoking marijuana (or what you wish to call it) is. 

sure, it most certainly is an old joke, but as a male sort of boy, the above warning image is my preferred one. there is no evidence to suggest that at the moment i am pregnant, thus no harm shall befall me when i smoke these. your guess is as good as mine as to what the text says, unless you speak the language what it is written in (Turkish, presumably). 

north of four years ago i wrote of how i would very much like to be reincarnated as, or just flat out exchange my current life with, a monkey that for no apparent reason scientists make sit in a lab and smoke all day. having meditated on this idea a bit more, yes, i can confirm this remains so. 

birbirimize karşı mükemmel olalım!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

recent movie releases

hello there

well, recent for the time this was written, look you see, which would be September 2025. if you are reading this quite some time into the future (or just a little bit) i suppose they are not "recent" as such, but then as a good friend once taught me a "new" movie only becomes an "old" one when you've seen it.

yes, i have indeed done my usual "thing" of watching a bunch of films from years ago on video (disc), but that post can wait. no idea who(m) exactly reads all of this, but i thought some of you may appreciate a look at, well, more recent films. and why not. 

for a sort of "spoiler free" overlook, F1, or if you will (as the poster suggests) F1 The Movie was surprisingly, unexpectedly really, really good. i so desperately wanted to love the revamped, next generation variation of The Naked Gun but, alas, it's a sad failure. 

right, that above will do you if you're in a rush. should you wish to watch either film (or both for that matter) with no "spoiler" information, probably best you skip the rest of this. although goodness knows who(m) would base their watching decisions on my opinion. 

at no stage at all did i have any declared or tacit interest in watching F1. i mean i was aware it existed, but just "no", really. but then it (ahem) came up on the internet library to (kind of) rent, and it looked like a reasonably safe enough title to borrow (so to speak) for Mum & Dad, especially as Dad has developed a taste for Brad Pitt films. having had a few mishaps (mostly sound) with some of the videos that i have gone done for them i checked that the video (disc) worked ok, and found myself drawn in, not being able to go "yeah it works" and taking it out, but watching it all. 

this film really, really should not work. at all. it does because of a superb lead cast doing all the heavy lifting, as a popular phrase presently would say. essentially all car / motor sport films have to navigate the fact that, for non-enthusiasts of the sport itself the "racing" bit is quite dull, and so that's countered by superb acting, no matter how flimsy the plot/script is. Javier Bardem and (of course) Brad Pitt are at their eminently watchable best here. so yes, i am aware of the fact that i rated this film quite highly mostly because of the enjoyment of watching them two, but partially as it was well structured and very well made. 

i am also aware that what i have watched here in regards of F1 The Movie is a somewhat desperate piece of advertising, a means for the sport to "claw back" some popularity, prominence and, i suppose if we are honest, relevance. things have not been going at all well for it. a general decline in interest commenced when they opted to move it all to "pay tv", which significantly cuts any audience and can be quite fatal for "niche" interest ones, no matter how lucrative the deal may seem. what fanbase remained got impacted somewhat by the bizarre, inexplicable end to the 2021 season where they at the last moment threw out their own rules to "facilitate" one driver winning the whole thing, seemingly making all other races and results of that year moot. the vague interest i had in it all promptly disappeared then, and i think this film is the first time i have actually recalled such a thing as F1 exists since then. 

plot? make no mistake, entirely predictable. i am not going to try and relate it here, for to do so gives you the entire film. as pedestrian and colour by numbers as it is, it all surprisingly works. simple, uncomplicated entertainment is what F1 gives. no classic of cinema, but has any motorsport film ever come close to being referred to as such? 

oh dear. i really, really wanted to love this new version of The Naked Gun. my intention was to go and see it at the cinema, but such trips now are a life changing financial decision. enough of the trailer said give it a go, yet enough in the trailer screamed "woah there, hang on". sadly the latter was right. 

could i at least find some positives in this to start? sure. Pamela Anderson, taking the (for want of a better term) Priscilla Presley role, is excellent. every now and then there's some true comedy gold, like for instance the "romantic getaway" music video montage (do they even do music videos these days and would "modern" audiences understand the parody nature?) and the full "infra red" scene only hinted at in the trailer. beyond that, mostly you have an 80 minute film which shockingly feels like it drags on for much longer. as in F1 was about an hour longer but you didn't notice. 

biggest failure is probably the cast. if it is to be based on this alone (and i can think of no other instance of him having a go) Liam Neeson, for his talents, just can't do comedy. the supporting cast, outside of Ms Anderson, are just awful. whoever it is playing Ed seems to have just decided to give acting a whirl. the lad playing Nordberg's son seems to be in it for that "nah" scene alone. perhaps the worst is the villain of the piece. i "get" that "megalomaniac tech billionaires" are about the only "safe" target for comedy these days, but they are inherently, and by default, terribly dull and boring people. so it is here. none of the charisma of Ricardo Montalban from the original. 

having a poor cast is only part of the problem. the story is dull, and the ongoing visual gags (in particular the coffee one) aren't funny to start with and get tiresome quickly. also, it's supposed to be silly, slapstick comedy, which generally requires brightness and colour. this has all been filmed with quite dark lighting and set at night, which is a no-no for visual comedy. warning signs are there at the start when they ditch the classic theme music for some "edgy" nonsense that you would expect to be the theme for some straight to video/dvd/streaming d or e grade film. 

right, don't think there's much else i can say on either, bar one was an unexpected hit and the other was an unfortunate miss. neither come anywhere close to dislodging Superman as the best film what i have gone seen this year, and i don't think there's all that much chance anything coming along will. 

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

yet another car wash

greetings

yes, indeed it has only been quite recently what i gone done a post on this subject, look you see. no, i have absolutely nothing new to add on the subject. well, that is true so far as any text what i could think of to produce, or if you like write. should you be here purely for the images (and videos), which i would suspect many are, then there is something different here. quite different, or not that much different, i cannot determine, but i trust you to. 

to set a vague sense of scene i (once again) was at a car wash. whereas i have indeed been to one or two and not documented it, for this instance i had a reasonable reason to do so. you may disagree with what i deem to be "reasonable" here, but still. earlier (rather than later) i was messing about with my "VHS mode" camera filter app thing and discovered all sorts of "effects". so i kind of vowed to use them the next time i was at a car wash. which i did. 

granted that first picture (above) doesn't look all that radically different from the things what i would put up here. can't even rightly recall which of the filters i used. pretty sure it was something called something like poster mode, but don't hold me to that. or do, if you like. that image will be, i would think, the big floppy brush on the windscreen, splashing soapy water all around. 

unfortunately this blogger thing is doing that thing again where it flat refuses to let me add the images and videos were i want them. presumably it knows better, and we are (it feels) rushing to a world in which we just let machines determine what's best and get on with it. no idea if that's good or bad and, like most, i have lost the level of interest in it all required to care. 

quite sure that image above is with a filter called "poster mode", although i think it might (may) be called poster size. doesn't look all that much bigger than usual, with it mostly just messing around a bit with all the colours. could be one of the colour filters i found i guess, but none of them looked all that interesting to try. 

what may (or might) be of interest, if not interesting, are some of the filters i have tried out in, you know, actual video mode. i would think that's what they expected people to mostly do with a VHS thing, but regular readers shall be all too aware that i rather like the VHS format for images. pictures, even. anyway, moving on, and here's the main new (actual) video format i got a bit excited about. 

it, on the menu for the app, says that the above is "video wall", and it's rather accurate. basically films it all as nine (9) small screens rather than one, which is quite class. kind of quite class, at the least. perhaps i should look at the settings again, see if there is a way to have 9 (nine) regular small videos as one, rather than them doing some sort of "inverted mirror" spinning or what have you. 

memories, of course, come to mind (for where else would they go) of when they started using this particular effect on Top Of The Pops. probably, or likely, late 70s and early to mid 80s. i think my view, and maybe that of others, that the first time you saw it was quite class, but when they kept doing it to performances (mainly mimed ones, because unions) every 30 seconds it got a bit annoying. hopefully, if you do indeed play the above video, it is short enough for you to get the idea and not too bothered. 

just another two (2) videos here, then, one above and one below, which i think are that "poster size" filter what i found. it certainly said "poster" but don't recall the rest. senior moments with my memory happen all too frequently, alas. and no, i cannot be bothered to switch on the app to see what it is called. 

oh go on then, since i have nothing else to write of. indeed it is "poster size", but they call it such as one word, or if you like "postersize". to my eyes it doesn't look any bigger, with (as previously mentioned) it seeming to fiddle with the colours mostly. 

for the sake of completeness, if not clarity, them last two (2) videos were indeed the big soapy floppy wet brush going past the passenger side of the vehicle. or what is the passenger side for vehicles in countries where they wisely drive on the proper (as in same as England) side of the road. previous posts have dealt with the folly of the French and our friends in America in this respect. 

no, nothing really much else to add, beyond the usual (somewhat whimsical) expression of a wish, if not hope, that someone somewhere has drawn a moment of interest off of this. 

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

antidepressants

howdy pop pickers

and so Suede (or The London Suede, if American) have a new album out. their tenth in a career spanning (on and off and on, look you see) north of 30 years. for some reason they struggled with a title for this one, with them early days (wisely) dismissing "X" as a crap name for a record. so they have gone with a somewhat straightforward choice of Antidepressants, which is also kind of weird as it is the first time ever that one of their albums has been named after one of the songs on it. 

should you be seeking some form of unbiased, "critical" review of Antidepressants off of Suede then this is probably not what you are looking for. whereas no, it is not so that everything the band has done has been brilliant, it's not too far off being that for me. i can try to be "fair" but shall likely fail. and it is not like failure is ever too far away from all i do. 

that said, mind, whilst Antidepressants is excellent, it is perhaps not as immediately "woah, genius" as a couple of their other releases this century. specifically Night Thoughts being a masterpiece and the more recent Autofiction being an album that just grows in stature and excellence the more you play it. getting close to the immediate impact them two had is, in itself, quite the triumph. 

my instinct, or if you will tendency, would be to say here just go and play the album, preferably via means of "physical media". that would be all the more true with the lavish, meticulous packaging that they have gone done for it. but, since we are here, i will try and write some mildly decent stuff. i do worry so about my lack of ability to convey praise for that what i worship in words. 

if left to the band to describe the record, well, they have said that this is their "post punk" album to the "punk" album they see Autofiction as being. not sure i agree with either definition, but far be it from me to question either the creators or those vastly more talented than moi. certainly there's a (quite) hard edge to some of the songs here. ultimately i guess it depends on what you define as "punk" or "post punk" really. 

apparently i ordered the deluxe edition of the CD and the (proper, actual) tape early enough to qualify for the most splendid signed A4 pic of the band, which is lovely. yes, like a few things i have, do need to get this framed and on display, despite a lack of visitors to my place of exile. as far as i can recall i have a few things signed by Brett off of his solo material, but nothing of the whole band.

favourite track off of the album? well, as i write this the record is on play six (or seven) and nothing is getting skipped. i am cautious about ever saying "the first song is the best", but still, huge wow factor on the opening track Disintegrate. starts off with Mat Osman going "hey check out what i can do with a bass", then the rest of the band do their thing and grab you and do not let go. one quibble is that the lyrics in the booklet say the one line is "come down and disintegrate with me", which is a shame. ever since i got the "single" (digital download when you ordered the album) i have been singing along as "calm down and disintegrate with me". they missed a trick there, for what i heard would be the single most eccentric English way of doing things line from Brett yet, which is saying something. 

no matter how convenient (and cheap) streaming is, absolutely nothing shall replace the tactile sensation of holding an album in your hands. above is the "deluxe" CD (with the tape at the top), with the contents being the disc, a booklet with liner notes (and lyrics), stickers of the artwork (indeed based on a famous Francis Bacon painting and photo of said artist), an insert of the artwork signed by the band and another booklet of variations of images of the cover. the band care about the quality of the product, they care about the fan experience. shove your streaming. 

to the titular track (yes, alliteration fans, i shall take a bow) and the "proper" studio version of Antidepressants took me somewhat by surprise. i was one of those fortunate enough to hear the song, twice, last year when the band did the ace joint tour with the Manics, and then again recently when a recording of the song from one of the gigs i was at was put out on a promo disc. whilst it is very much the same song it sounds.....different. generally i am loathe to draw comparisons, but on this studio version, with particular emphasis on the vocal delivery, i got a very big sense of the Buzzcocks from it. and that is (very much) meant complimentary. if Buzzcocks fall within the remit of "post punk", well, that's me told isn't it, the description from the band is correct. 

yes, i bought the tape. the pic above (and below) are what you get, since some shall have purchased it but declined to open it. when my favourites release an album on tape i will, more often than not, go ahead and buy it. can't quite fathom the "revival" of tapes, but i am glad for it. i hold a deep rooted, emotional, perhaps existence, bond with tapes that i simply can't or possibly won't ever try to explain. 

quite a few tapes issued over the last, what, ten or so years have been (to be honest) awful. poor quality ones shoved in a cardboard slipcase and blatantly made to just sell to people like me. in this instance it is so that Suede absolutely have not p!ssed about, but have gone done it proper. these pics don't do it justice, but that cover isn't a cover, it is a sleek, black embossed case. also an insert. bravo and thanks. 

if there's a song that took me by surprise then it's Broken Music For Broken People. when i first saw the title (used as some of the branding for when the album was launched) it made immediate sense, for if we are honest that's the unspoken banner, or statement, which the band have waved for all these years. despite not being sure exactly what kind of song it would be, the quasi pop, faster beat tempo caught me slightly off guard. wasn't entirely sure i liked it at first, but once i found its groove, or if you will narrative, it feels like a natural, if quasi, follow up to Trash or, to a lesser ("fewer") extent, Beautiful Ones. not a "sequel" or "where are those people now", just existing in the same transience. 

suggesting a sense of nihilism pervades a bit of the album is possibly inaccurate, as it's not all that dark. yet there's a fair bit of delving into loss, specifically loss in the form of death. three (3) songs in particular are relevant here, Somewhere Between An Atom And A Star, the exceptional June Rain and the album closer (excluding bonus tracks) Life Is Endless, Life Is A Moment. honestly at some points listening to these songs i briefly entertained the possibility that Brett Anderson was "doing a Bowie" and feared some of this was all going a bit like his very own Blackstar. i trust not. 

going surprisingly linear, or if you will non non-linear, and for some reason i get a bigger "vibe" of a Bowie influence on lyrical flow here than on any other Suede (or Brett solo record) record i can think of. certain phrases (inexplicably "videophone") and flows to words just on some level sound like something what Bowie might have gone done. well, as i recall it, Suede first turned up on my radar, or t least i elected to pay attention to them, when NME did a comprehensive joint interview thing with Bowie and Brett. i wonder if it is online anywhere. 

much like Autofiction, this album has been released as summer ebbs away in favour of autumn, plus a tour to support it has been announced for the new year (yes, of course, in answer to that question). for the former, and i really needed this album now, its ethos, what it's saying, even if i haven't expressed what it is saying or i simply can't define it. for some reason i have been more affected - flat out saddened - by the days getting progressively shorter than usual. if it isn't quite rage, rage against the dying of the light stuff, it's a bold, stark reminder to remain defiant. 

no idea at all, at this stage, if this one shall "grow" in whatever sense as remains the seemingly perpetual case with Autofiction. certainly this is not an album that will just get played a whole lot in this immediate era of its release and then discarded. quite likely this one shall remain fairly close to the stereo for a while, perhaps all the way up to their next record. 

right, that shall do. not sure i have either "explained" or "sold" the album, but that's not what i am here for. as per the earlier comment, all i can say for certainty is that this is a record you should totes go and listen to. 

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

baby spiny norman

hello there

well, actually, to be fair i am not entirely sure that this features a baby spiny norman, or whatever the proper name would be for a younger hedgehog. oh yes, indeed, this post is very much about an unexpected chance (and to me exciting) encounter with a hedgehog. it certainly seemed to be a smaller one. 

so i was out and about as would be usual (for verk concerns), late one afternoon as the official metrological summer was drawing to a close. i was parked up near a sort of miniature park or at least grassy area when some slight movement caught my eye. no, not "ninja reflexes" or anything like that what i gone done have, just that thing where you notice something in what i think is called your peripheral vision. yes, indeed i could "google" to make sure i have all the right terms here, but why bother, i am sure it's entertaining if  don't and you know the proper words. 

as far as i can tell what i saw, and of course pictured, was a baby hedgehog trundling along. certainly it seems on the small side of small, even when allowing (of course) that hedgehogs are not usually celebrated or noted for being particularly massive. except for that one in the Monty Python thing which has me calling all hedgehogs variations of spiny normal. for clarification, seek out Ethel The Frog or simply The Piranha Brothers off of said Python. 

my immediate reaction after elation at seeing one of the creatures i love so was, of course, one of concern. rather likely i have mentioned this in a previous post (no, i lack the imagination to search for it and link here), but all the same it is not usual to see them roaming open lands, or out in the daytime like this. normally it's a sign they are unwell, or desperate for food and water. the latter i did not have, and for the former so far as i could tell the critter was not overtly distressed. 

quite unlikely that you would be able to tell (or otherwise ascertain) the health of the hedgehog in the rather brief video above, but enjoy playing it anyway. yes, in "normal" video mode. mostly, or for the most part, i didn't really have time to "faff" with the various picture "apps" i have, and i was worried about frightening him (or her) away. but yes, some VHS video is below. 

just noticed that i have done that thing again where i add quite a few pictures (and two videos) with not all that much to say about them. one can only stretch "i saw a hedgehog recently" out so much. 

exactly where this hedgehog lives is, alas, a mystery. the sort of quasi park area appeared to hold no natural habitat, such as (well) hedges, but i suppose there were a few around in gardens. it would be unlikely that it lived in the area where i saw it with an apparent lack of shelter. 

do i consider hedgehogs as my "favourite" (or preferred) animal? not especially. well, that's harsh but i can't be bothered deleting it. likely they area  reasonably close second to koala bears. koalas are awesome, and i long to spend my days sat up a tree getting stoned off of eucalyptus fumes. 

 

there you go, above is some slightly longer footage, but in VHS mode. for better or worse. certainly better if you like VHS mode. i tend to forget that the VHS camera "app" thing comes with a zoom function, which i have (indeed) used in the above clip. might make it a bit more interesting than my usual videos, that's up to you to decide. all you have to lose in finding out is ten, maybe twelve, seconds of your time. 

perhaps i am mistaken, and again yes i could google but no i won't, but i seem to recall reading in recent times that both koalas and hedgehogs are heading to the "endangered species" list. generally it is only when what we consider "cute" animals head in this unfortunate direction that anyone pays any attention. my favourite remains "dolphin friendly tuna", a thing in either the late 80s, early 90s or even still to this day. a good deal of fuss was made of ensuring the world that dolphins didn't get killed when fishing for the tuna they were buying, but never mind about the poor tuna. 

right, not the best picture of the three to finish this off with, but the point would be that (somehow) i have vaguely managed to add some sort of writing around the pictures and two (2) videos. an entirely reasonable assumption would be that most here are just looking at those rather than reading what i wrote anyway, but still. 

well, that will do. i may well consider thinking about adopting a "less is more" approach with how many pictures (and videos) i add here. to be honest it's not like there is any sort of shortage of either across the whole of the internet. 

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

enjoying nearly a whole minute of an obscure yet classic album

howdy pop pickers

regular readers here shall be all too aware that i am an advocate of what has come to be known, if bewilderingly so, as "physical format music". i really, really don't like all this "streaming" business, to be sure. the music experience should be more than just listening to the music, look you see. owning the album, holding it, admiring the artwork, reading the liner notes, all that. much more better sound, too, especially pre "computer everything" music sounding like the artists actually wanted it to be heard, rather than how some "boffin" (or work experience kid) made it sound when "compressed". 

but that's not to say physical media is without flaws. true, streaming has "buffering" if not an overt reliance on being "connected". tapes (actual) stretch, snap and get jammed. records, be it standard vinyl or another material get scratched and can "warp". compact discs are fairly robust, but every now and then one gets an issue with them. hence this post.

it (this) all starts with a random message off of my Dad. oddly he has recently mastered the dark arts of both "streaming" and "casting" said "stream" to another device. during this he found an album called The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions, and encouraged me to check it out. 

having read up a bit on the record, which you can also do starting here, i soon decided that this was an album one should totes hear properly. not one single aspect of the musicians involved suggested that computerised faffing with the sound to make it "stream" would be an agreeable thing. so off i went looking for a copy, which i eventually found for sale online. not (it has to be said) particularly cheap for a second hand disc, but all the same an not entirely unreasonable price was being asked for a relatively obscure, over fifty year old (!) album. let's leave it as being decently south of £10.

skipping (if you will excuse the term) ahead a bit and the disc (actual) eventually landed, coming on one of those rare days that Royal Mail elected to, you know, do the f*****g job they are supposed to and actually delivered post. i had a look at the disc, liked what i saw, and put it on. 

the first fifty seconds (or so) went very well indeed, and i was immediately pleased that i had opted to listen to the album in arguably the finest, best quality possible. and then, if you will indulge playing the below video with sound "on", it went not so well. 

oh dear. i stopped playing the disc (obviously), took it out, looked at it, saw no blemishes or marks, but all the same gave it a light clean with a soft tissue. played it again and the same thing. gave it another clean, could still see no flaws or marks, tried again and, well, the 4th instance of me trying after that one is what you can see (and hear) in the video. 

quite the pity. figuring maybe if it was just the one (1) track that was a mess i could reasonably live with it, at least until i sourced another copy, i skipped to track 2 two). alas the very same kind of jittery stuttery thing happened again, only after 20 or so seconds. which meant that was pretty much that, especially since track two featured an uncredited (for no apparent reason) Ringo Starr on drums. 

every now and then one gets this with a compact disc, but usually its a slight smear (like a fingerprint) or bit of dirt that can soon be wiped off and mend things. the "theory" with compact discs was always that they were kind of "self cleaning", with the logic being it is a f*****g laser in the machine; it will simply (effectively) "burn off" any dust or similar. having given this disc a decent clean, it seems alas it has a "mastering", "manufacturing" or "pressing" error. 

nope, no idea why i have bothered including a picture of the playing surface of the disc, for you shall be unlikely to see anything different, and whatever is up with it isn't visible. still, look at how shiny it is. 

well, these things happen, but not often. in close to 40 years (!!) of purchasing compact discs duds are a rarity. from memory there was a copy of Joshua Tree i had that "jammed", i think on In God's Country, but i have a dozen or so copies of that one. most bizarre one i can recall was purchasing a Grateful Dead disc (for my sister, she wanted that Truckin song), but an INXS album had been pressed on the disc instead. so, three "duds" in thousands bought isn't all that bad a ratio. problem here though is it may prove somewhat tricky to procure another copy of this one. 

yes, then, "the kids" (and my Dad) who do all that "streaming" stuff can (presently) hear this album a good deal more better than i am able to with my supposedly superior format. hey ho. 

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

makes you wonder how the other half die

greetings

a somewhat unexpected update on my health plight. well, perhaps sooner than expected, look you see, if being pedantic about semantics is your thing. there is every chance, barring another "incident" (and i have learned to rule nothing out), that this could well be the final one. 

just for a while mind. for those that had hopes there would be no further updates on my health due to me no longer being a going concern, well, disappointment is yours. i appear to be doing quite well. likely better than that, but i am inclined to err on caution. 

for those of you just becoming aware of my being medically busted, well, i would suggest some other reading before continuing. right here you can read the somewhat exciting first episode. after than there's the quite boring follow up which is to be found here. then there was the most recent, before this one, other follow up session here. 

i shall indeed give some explanation to the above picture (yes, VHS mode), but some context first. after the last appointment (see links above) i was told that the next one would be a telephone only check in. so i was somewhat surprised, and had fears for the worst, when an actual in person appointment was raised for me. these fears were fed by the request for more and more of my urine in them smart sample test tube jar things. 

my fears did not exactly abate when, on opening my various test results, the attending physician said, with some surprise, "oh my god". as it turns out this was a good use of this phrase. within the space of about four (or just south of five) months i had managed to get my blood sugar level down from a "why are you not dead or in a coma" level of 107 (!) to a close to normal (or at the least acceptable) 50. hence the coin representation of 107 and 50 above. 

there was an unexpected sensation of elevated joy at this. perhaps such was stimulated by fearing more bad news was coming, but also i had no realistic expectation things would "move so well" and so relatively quickly. especially not with memories of the sensation of that "incident" remaining relatively fresh in mind, along with the fear of that ever happening again. 

yes, i would suggest that mostly (or for the most part) this rather miraculous (going on the reaction of a medical professional) change in medical fortune has be propped up by pills. lots and lots of pill. but, dare i say, some of the reason is down to the changes they guided me on, with particular emphasis on amending my diet. i would suggest, for instance, that in the last four (or so) months i have consumed more carrots than in the collective months before then. since i don't have all that many images here i though it best to add a pic of one particularly large carrot i recently washed, peeled and grated to go in with some mince, with a packet of cigarettes (sorry) for scale. 

under no circumstances at all would i claim to be an "expert" or have expertise in this, but i am mindful there's a chance someone is reading this as they have searched for help. even if any help i could be, like with all in my life, is kind of abstract. all i really did was follow the advice. for a start i have not had a takeaway since all this happened. other than that the guidance was to cut down sugar intake as much as possible and generally eat more better, to use a phrase. 

with regards to eating more better, well that's been an accidental if not incidental taking in the often spoken of "five a day". must confess i am getting somewhat bored of stir fry now, but also it (with chicken, mostly) is a quick and easy meal to make and the ingredients tick the boxes. further i have taken quite a shine to mince, with peppers, carrots and onions mixed in. beyond takeaways "snacks", in particular chocolate, are now pretty much gone from my life. well, i have a couple of packs of sugar free sweets. 

pills are, i suspect, going to remain a constant. at the least for now. my physician raised the idea that if i were to keep up this "recovery rate" it might be possible i get to a stage where medication is no longer required, that the diabetes is being "managed naturally". this is not something i am either working towards or (nor) counting on. i would suggest i am "indifferent" to the medication side, really. yes, some do get upset at the idea of daily pill taking, which i understand. my view is it is "just one of them things" what i need to gone done do. really, i suppose the fear of any repeat of that initial episode would see me gladly take as many tablets as they care to suggest. 

no, of course it is not all "good" news. there was the small matter, so to speak, of the need to do further tests on my urine. apparently my kidneys are, and this is my interpretation, in an "oh" state. they are not working quite like they should, yet also they are not busted (or f****d). a theory exists that this new tablet i am on, what does something to whatever it is kidneys do, will "fix" what issues are on the go with them. mostly that will be the one pill i am now on which is one of the types them yuppie tw@t bellends are using for weight loss, but no not the most famous (ozempic?) one. 

since on that subject, weight loss has become a thing. i was reasonably surprised that i had not specifically been told to lose weight when all of this commence. this appears to be happening anyway. between my two most recent appointments no more nor less time than two weeks had passed, with me losing between 4kgs - 5kgs in that time. which i believe is really good going. there is a danger, then, of me rather fading away than burning out.

breakfast pictured above, just to showcase taking in some of them five (or more) a day. yes there probably are even more food images i could add here, but that's not really my sort of thing. 

for future medical appointments and, well, none planned any time soon. as things stand i need to go do more blood tests and check on the results around february 18 next year, which i should be all right remembering. then it will be that eye and feet test thing again around may 26, which once again is a date i should remember. unless they collapse, or spaz out (or whatever it is they do) i shall need to do some more urine tests for the kidneys around august 9, which once more is a date i have every confidence that i will remember. 

quite unexpected for a medical professional to tell me to "keep doing what i am doing", but here we are. oh yes, on that note, exercise. i was asked what i am doing, and the answer to that it walking. this is just about the only exercise i am prepared to do, since it is just about the only one which allows, perhaps even encourages, smoking as you do it (sorry). i try and get a couple of miles of strolls in a day, hence the recent ipod resurrection. yes, i have been advised to (at least) cut down on smoking. maybe. 

right, that's that. when i first wrote of all of this happening, or kicking off, i would not have thought that i would be doing a "i got better post" at all, never mind so relatively soon. let me leave it to you to determine if that's good or bad. 

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