broken britain cancel culture

now then

most of this (if not all) will, i appreciate, seem like a whine. well, that or a moan, groan or what have you. ultimately, though, one can easily dismiss pretty much anything said (ever) in such a way. someone will always say "oh there's worse thing" or similar, look you see. but, on i go. 

this all relates to what most would describe as the absolute sh!tshow that is the state of trains here in England, or if you will the United Kingdom at large. overpriced and unreliable are the two main words you will hear to describe them from anyone you are brave enough to ask. in respect of the former, well, indeed, it is more expensive, with many instances to prove just how we get fleeced. from memory i can recall one person worked out it was cheaper to fly (as in on a f*****g aeroplane) from Manchester to Spain and then from Spain to London than it was to get a train from Manchester to London (innit). but no, of course such a ludicrous highlighting of the situation changed nothing. my concern here, anyway, is the latter part. the "unreliable" thing. 

pictured above, in an unusual just "normal" image mode, is a train i caught. this was the first of its kind i got on a regular journey in several months which was (more or less) on time. as in it was not delayed, cancelled outright or ran "a bit" (like to one station) and then got cancelled. for context in terms of my weekly (at least attempted) use of this service it actually ran and ran on time once (one time) in just north of 40 (forty) instances. off the top of my head i believe it has in that time been cancelled entirely at least five (5) times, possibly more. not really good enough in respect of public transport for a supposed leading country, is it? especially not when other public transport (buses) don't do the route i need to use on a sunday. 

i think what irked me more than having to shell out for a taxi (well, one of them uber things which, even when i throw in a decent tip, is £10 south of a regular taxi yet 4 times the cost of a train) is the absolutely pathetic nature of the cancellation notice. that's for you to see in the below image, one of them screenshot things what i gone done to work out, and it kind of illustrates what an absolute bag of sh!t bunch of cowards them what are somehow in charge of the trains really are. 

yes, i am sure you saw what they did there. i did too, eventually. that's just brilliant, isn't it? an entire service gets cancelled because one (1) person did not turn up for work. obviously they stick that out purely to divert your anger. the idea is that you stand there cursing and swearing the one person who did not turn up to do the job they are paid very well to do. meanwhile the real issue is that, apparently, them what run the trains are so completely and utterly f*****g incompetent at it that it just takes all of one absence to cause the service to be cancelled. normally i am against this kind of thinking but now i have reached the point where i take the view of the sooner we have fully automated trains the better. get rid of the staff that keep demanding more money for less ("fewer") work, let the machines do their thing. anything for a reliable service that lets me see my (known) children once a week, thanks. 

car? indeed getting one again would kind of solve the issue of needing to rely on public transport. however it just strikes me as (to be blunt) stupid to throw myself onto the crippling debt pile this country seems to crave for the sake of a weekly journey. it would be quite boring to go through all the astronomical costs of a car, which is quite the statement considering just how dull stuff on here i do is. some do suggest that the perpetual destruction of public transport is all deliberate, for more cars on the road means more revenue. no, then. already i meet the train people more than half way, what with the peculiar hours the service i need runs. 

reasonably, one might think, i should have been refunded for a ticket for a service that, ultimately, did not exist. alas (as pictured above) no, not to be. due to the "improved" ticket pricing system refunds for services are no longer given unless you took insurance out. more on that in a bit, since yes going forward (rather than backward) i at least looked at that one. 

beggars belief, really. we are in a world of "consumer rights" and what have you, with some fairly staunch levels of protection for us, the members of the public paying for goods and services. yet it would seem the train people (and i suppose this is a bit like them what do the water) can just take money off of us, not do their jobs and not have to give it back. whilst getting tax money. 

so, for the next ticket i decided to look at what, exactly, insurance would involve. as you can see above, the cost of insurance for my ticket would be (hang on just using a calculator) an extra 38% to pay (yes i know it is low price ticket). great. and even then it would be a refund "for certain circumstances", and a fee to pay on the refund. not really viable, is it? especially not when they exclude the train you wanted that was cancelled from a refund, saying that you could have used the ticket on a later (and impractical to take) train. 

oddly this is not the only time i have encountered just what a con some of this "insurance" business is. for those interested (strange but thank you) here is a link to the perplexing complexities of taking out insurance on concert tickets. for those not inclined to read that but still want to know, basically never ever, under any circumstances, take insurance on concert tickets as you are just giving someone money for no reason whatsoever. 

every now and then, of course, the trains do actually run as they should. and i can use it as a reason, or point of departure, to take a selfie with the eldest of my (known) children, showcasing how usure i am of which way to look with a phone thing on selfie mode. 

very much so, dear reader, would be my (fairly obvious) answer to if public transport should once again be a public owned concern. it is f*****g stupid that buses and trains run on a minimal service to maximise profits for the owners whilst they still claim government (as in our) money. using a bus to go and see my (known) children would be class, but of course the buses do not run the route i need on sundays or public holidays as it is "not economically viable". that kind of misses the point that public transport isn't meant to be about profit. 

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

player days of boba fett

greetings

over here (England, or if you will the UK, look you see) we have about a hundred (give or take) free to air television stations. well, maybe less ("fewer"), but still, a lot more than the 3 and then 4 what i grew up with. usually, or invariably, there's a variable (to be kind) level of quality to what each of them elects to screen. every now and then, mind, you stumble on a gem. well, if not a gem, then something or other of note, or partial interest. yes, this is going somewhere. 

it has now come to pass that, more often than not, at 10pm each evening i shall tune into one particular channel, the one called (i think) Together TV. why would i do such? because that's the time, and so far in my experience it is daily, they broadcast some "classic" 70s example of British (if we are honest) smut. yes, a bit of cheeky, rude, saucy cinema. extraordinarily tame by the standards of today of course, but as it happens that is what i kind of prefer. not that i am against any such filth. 

whereas they only have half a dozen (or if you like 6) or so such films that they rotate generally i will sit and watch whichever one is on for half an hour or so before retiring to bed for the evening. and why not, for seeing some very pleasant, lovely nudies prior to going to sleep is most agreeable. difficult to say which, exactly, of the ones they constantly show is my favourite. ultimately kind of a tie between one called Au Pair Girls and the one this blog post is about, Can You Keep It Up For A Week, as they, from what i can tell, have the most nudies in them. actually likely Au Pair Girls, as you get loads of full tilt nudies from the start, whereas you have to wait a bit for some "plot" stuff with this Can You Keep It Up For A Week one. 

somehow it took me a lot longer (as it were) to work out who(m), exactly, was the (male) lead star of this particular film. which is, as the below picture confirms, is Jeremy Bulloch. as in the Jeremy Bulloch. yes, that one. he who was, for those of us there at the time, Boba Fett. once again, yes, that Boba Fett, as in the one out of Star Wars. whereas for those comfortable in the 21st century it is now so that Temuera Morrison is Boba Fett (and a damned good one), for those of us who kind of prefer to linger in the 20th century (for it was better), it shall always be known that Jeremy Bulloch was he. 

not, in retrospect, too much of a surprise that i didn't immediately clock it was him. usually i don't see the credits of Can You Keep It Up For A Week for i know there are no nudies on offer so i nip outside momentarily for a cigarette (sorry). also, famously, Boba Fett (as a 20th century concern) always kept his bucket like helmet thing on, so it's not like you (or one) would recognise him. being as honest as i possibly can, it's also not him (appreciating he is the ostensible protagonist) that i watch the film for. 

plot? yes, there is one. i paid vague attention to it once. from what i recall it's that the fiancé of the Jeremy Bulloch character (nope, no idea on the name) refuses to get married unless Jeremy can keep hold of a job for at least one (1) week. much of the film seems to be the plight of Jeremy trying to do this, but somehow end up losing the job prior to seven days due to some sort of indiscretion, the nature of which is him ending up in quite a (very enjoyable looking) compromising sexual situation that in some way or other displeases his (brief) employer. 

honestly i had never bothered to look at the other films what Jeremy Bulloch had been in. yes, as is widely known his presentation of Boba Fett made him the third best character in Star Wars, just behind Lando and Lobot. but still, not interesting enough to see what else he had been in. now that i think, though, i really need to see what actor played Lobot and see what other films they gone done, on the off chance i have missed out on some other saucy filth. 

quite the insight into the casting decisions George Lucas made, this. or at the least the casting choices made in regards of English (or British) actors playing characters what face you never see. famously David Prowse got cast as Darth Vader based on being in A Clockwork Orange, a film which doesn't immediately suggest "space dude with laser sword", but there was no flaw in the Lucas view of "good enough for Kubrick is good enough for me". presumably, or maybe, George Lucas sat and watched Can You Keep It Up For A Week, possibly enjoyed aspects of it like i did, but he also saw the lead actor and said "you know what, he would be quite class with a bucket on his head and a missile firing jet pack on his back". this has been proven as a categorically excellent view. 

leaving aside the Jeremy Bulloch aspect for now and alarm bells rang when i once got more than half an hour or so into the film and was confronted with Richard O'Sullivan. as in yes, the Richard O'Sullivan. who, to be fair, is there right from the start of Au Pair Girls, but i had no idea he had done more than one of these "saucy" films. for my generation (born in the 70s) Richard O'Sullivan was the darling of early evening family (by 70s standards) entertainment, featuring in stuff like Man About The House, Robin's Nest and of course Dick Turpin. i had no idea at all that, and presumably our parents knew, initially the idea was to market Richard O'Sullivan as a "British John Holmes", or if you like Dirk Diggler. well, at least as far as the prudish "none of that sort of thing" sorts at the BBFC would allow, with nudies and intimacy being things they did not believe the British public should be allowed to see. 

for his role in this one (in Au Pair Girls he is just the understandably quite randy son of a wealthy business owner) he seems to play an effete hairdresser or something. think it might be a hairdresser, but the emphasis is very much on the effete part there. yes, oh yes, it is so that Richard O'Sullivan and Jeremy Bulloch do share a scene. an image of it is below, and it appears to be the point in our history at which things like "gender fluid" and "non-binary" were invented. 

just done a bit of research (unusual i know) and as it turns out this was the last film role Richard O'Sullivan did. i wonder if it was due to him feeling he had reached a peak, or zenith, and from a cinematic point of view he felt this was the way to leave his legacy. or just that he wanted to concentrate on his television career, and anyway around that time (early to mid 70s) someone thought it was a good idea to start casting Robin Askwith in this kind of role for that sort of thing. anyway, as at the time this will appear on the internet thing it is close to christmas, no doubt as usual at least one newspaper will run a story on how the much beloved Richard O'Sullivan lives in a lovely retirement home which is kind of exclusive for famous types and celebrities. 

do i recommend Can You Keep It Up For A Week? well, that's tricky. if we take as a given that the only reason i have frequently watched first half hour (or forty or so minutes) of it is the nudies, well, that's up to you to decide if that is also what you want from a film. admittedly when i have paid attention to the other parts it does seem light heartedly amusing watching, mostly from the perspective of the numerous absurd ways it turns out that Jeremy ends up in a (somewhat) compromising position. 

yet some caution is required, and not just on the off chance you are upset by even more revealing images that the carefully captured one above. if you watched, say, Empire Strikes Back and went "i really liked the way that one actor just stood around with a bucket on his head not doing much" and wished to see him (Jeremy Bulloch) do more of the same, this probably isn't what you are after. 

certainly a temptation exists to do a (sort of) quasi companion piece to this post and share more thoughts on that other film, Au Pair Girls, but Jeremy Bulloch isn't in it. maybe if i see there's a significant level of interest in this i will do one, but at this stage no plan for it.

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

daring double down delight

hello there 

looking back (rather than forward) it does strike me that there are "phases" of various things being focused on here. focused on or obsessed over, i suppose, for the line between those definitions is quite abstract, look you see. one such thing, for i did a bit of research here prior (rather than after) to writing this, would be KFC. 

a bit of a warning that this might get a bit "link heavy", if that is the right term. not really intended as a shameless (or shame free) plug, for all will be to my own blog, but rather just "handy" for anyone who is for some reason interested in all of this. moving on, then, and in regards of previous KFC moments here there was of course that time i did meticulous research to establish that The King, Elvis Presley was likely alive and well in China based on the number of branches of KFC (and Cadillac dealerships) there. which my friend Mike went and researched, with inconclusive results.

perhaps of greater (as in actual) relevance here is the occasional thing off of KFC called the double down. this is something i have determined to be one of the best, greatest and most important things ever to exist. effectively, for those unaware, it is something that started as an April Fool's "joke", but was clearly a bit of cheeky, opportunistic marketing to see if it would work (verk) or be popular. the idea was that KFC "did" a chicken burger, but in a bit of a "f*** you, bread" move, they replaced the bun with another two (2) chicken fillets. 

sadly, or alas, they have never gone full tilt with the idea. as and when KFC have made the double down available what one gets is the two fillets, but not a chicken burger in the middle. disappointing, of course, but here we are. for more along the lines of "here we are", well, behold this link festival. by no means is this a conclusive (or comprehensive) list of the double down featuring here before, but here we go. all you Grant enthusiasts can rejoice, as to start with here is he (Grant) trying one of them over in the wonders of New Zealand way back in 2011, which is further away than you might think. unless i missed one i believe it was only in 2013 i got to try a double down for the first time, as detailed right here. immediately prior to this post (at least as far as i can tell) the last time i encountered a double down was five years ago. yes, i have found an extraordinary number of words to write here. 

it, as you can see above, has returned once again. by it i do (indeed) mean the double down, and i suppose it would be fair to say it has "kind of" returned, since inexplicably you can only get a variation of it that is a "zinger". really would prefer just regular fillets, thanks, but for whatever reason (my guess would be slanted, wonky or dubious market research) KFC in the UK is obsessed with making as many items as it possibly can the "zinger" ones. so yes, as you can see above and below, i went right ahead and took the decision, or dare, to go and try one again. 

not an easy decision to make, dear reader, and one that i wrestled with for some time. i am, after all, living a different life in a radically different world. for those unaware (and i would entirely understand anyone having little interest in my plight) i have had quite the medical odyssey this year. with my proclivity being to post on nearly everything what i experience, the start of it all can be found by clicking here and the most recent post on the subject is here. quite likely there are links in the latter to highlight all the progress.

for those not inclined to look at the links there, well, medically i should be avoiding things like KFC, or any such (similar) take away food. to be fair, i indeed had done sone. my visit to KFC to once again indulge the delights of the double down was the first time i had been to a "take away" or if you like fast food place (to eat, at least, i have stopped for coffee) since that initial episode where i really, really thought that this was how it ended, that i was to be no more, that i would not be here writing this. 

oddly (perhaps) i have not missed such dining options. whereas i didn't really ever have what one would call a healthy or well balanced diet it's not that i was frequently eating things like this. wouldn't really be able to put an exact figure on it, but from what i can remember before the "episode", well, i believe my take away intake was limited to a weekly KFC treat, usually to mark returning to my lodgings in my place of exile after a week of verk in that there London (innit). all things considered, i figured i was due something akin to a "treat", and ultimately went for it. 

how was it? since there is every chance someone might have clicked on this for a "review", i suppose some time had best be spent doing such. disappointing, really. the packaging they are doing is awful, with the poorly constructed double down sticking to the box which is awkward to open. for taste, well, not bad as such, but what a needless, convoluted mess it was to eat pretty much distracted from any appreciation for a sense of flavour. 

maybe, if they are just going to do it for the sake of it, KFC should stop reviving the double down. the joke element of it dissipated quite some time ago and the novelty factor has been erased by a combination of poor presentation and the insistence on doing them only as a "zinger". still, when they first came along, yes, they were wonderful. 

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

 

of four new christmas tapes

ho ho ho pop pickers

well, yes. strictly this is about eight new christmas tapes (discs, look you see), for one of the sets contains five (5) of them. but four new "albums" procured on tape (disc) ahead of the festive season it is. so of course i have every intention of, for want of a better word, showcasing them here.

fear not, not that i believe anyone would, for i shall still be playing my usual christmas tape collection, which includes a Barbra Streisand one, a couple from The King, Elvis Presley, a most excellent set from Chas & Dave and of course a serviceable collection of agreeable songs by Mr Sinatra. there shall also be the traditional playing of the b-side of the 12" (so to speak) of The Power Of Love off of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, so that i may hear their christmas wishes.  these new tapes i just happened to see on my travels and felt an obligation to get them. 

pictured above, they are, in the not particularly satisfactory mode of "psychedelic". really disappointed with this "app". for clarity, then, these new ones are Elvis Christmas off of (ostensibly) The King, Elvis Presley, 80s Christmas Party off of several people, 100 Greatest Christmas off of a number of people, with some artists (artistes if you will) appearing a few times, and then A Christmas Gift For You from no less than Phil Spector. indeed, that one. 

saying i am not sure how interested anyone shall be in this lot feels kind of like stating the obvious, for i never know what here will be of interest, either at all or to anyone. but you are here now, and as this is one of the few internet things not to have adverts, well, read on. and why not. 

who is it that could tell me a more fitting place to start than with The King, Elvis Presley? this, for provenance, is a tape (you know) which caught my eye down the market. essentially it features His vocals from songs that are now somehow copyright / royalty free (public domain, i think, is the term) but dubbed over some new music off of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. however, rather than chancers releasing it this is an official thing off of His estate, and for good measure features some lovely liner notes off of Priscilla Presley. can't really argue for £1.

but is it any good? of course, for it is He, The King, Elvis Presley. a nice "mix it up" of the two (2) other christmas branded tapes of His what i already have. if you are wondering what the highlights of this tape are, the answer is all of it.

perhaps the most interesting aspect of this one is the memories it jogged. in younger, arguably more innocent times (say south of 10) i took it as "Royal" anything meant it existed mostly (or maybe even exclusively) to serve the Royal family. had i any concept of what a "Royal Philharmonic Orchestra" was at that age i would likely have assumed they existed to play music for the Royal family as and when they wished to hear it. like, for instance, if P[TEXT REMOVED ON LEGAL ADVICE] invited renowned friend of the elite Sir J[TEXT REMOVED ON LEGAL ADVICE] over, along with some [TEXT REMOVED ON LEGAL ADVICE] and they wanted to cover themselves, for a laugh, in tinfoil and pretend to be G[TEXT REMOVED ON LEGAL ADVICE] then they may have commanded them over to play some of his classic songs, such as [TEXT REMOVED ON LEGAL ADVICE] but obviously not the Led Zeppelin one. 

quite frankly the above pictured 80s Christmas Party very nearly didn't get bought, even though it was all of a modest 50p in a charity shop. why not? because of the bewildering number of songs which are neither christmas themed nor the sort of thing one would play at a "christmas party". as in things like Digging Your Scene off of Blow Monkeys is on there. there's also Pass The Dutchie off of Musical Youth on there, which brings to mind presently my chum Spiros is busy trying to claim he was the original lead singer for that band before they changed direction. if we are honest anyone that plays Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now off of Starship at any sort of party wants their f*****g head kicked in, they really do. 

but then, being thorough, i noticed what the very last (actual last) track on the set was. at this point i went yes, i don't actually have that on tape (or disc), let me put up with the drivel on it so that i may have a decent copy of that boss tune. yes, some video, here is a snippet for your pleasure. 

might be that i have no need to clarify this, but also i do. the origins of the sample you are hearing are all down below, but the above is indeed Christmas In Hollis off of Run DMC. should the importance or relevance of this need expanding on, this is the song what Argyle is playing in the limo in Die Hard. no, i am not going to get into that "is Die Hard a christmas film" thing, rather just celebrate how that magnificent film brought this outstanding tune to as wider audience. 

yes, ok, on the plus side this tape (disc) does also feature that Peace On Earth thing off of David Bowie and Bing Crosby which, oddly, i am not certain i had a copy of. but it also has Spandau Ballet on. even when giving money to charity one has to be careful of what they are knowingly procuring. 

this one may well be one of the most curious, if not controversial, purchases what i have ever made. again it was from a charity shop for 50p. so we have arrived at A Christmas Gift For You, which as the cover says is from Phil Spector. indeed it may well be that this ends up focusing on him rather than the music contained on the tape (disc). 

briefly leaving aside that side of this tape (disc) and what youf  have here is a truly stunning set of classic christmas songs off of some great artists. doing three or so songs each are Darlene Love, The Ronnettes, Bob B Soxx & The Blue Jeans and The Crystals. sheer vibrant, beautiful, passionate takes of some well known songs. with the sound, of course, being as great as it is because of the of the greatest record producers of all time was behind it. you even get a poster of him dressed as Father Christmas...

yeah, Phil Spector. if you were unaware of his fate, well, he died in prison a few years ago, and he was in prison for the not inconsiderable crime of murder. generally when someone famous does something like that they get shunned, quietly erased (or airbrushed) and quietly forgotten about. bit difficult to do that with Phil Spector, though, due to the incredible records he produced. and the least of those is most certainly not a Beatles album. presumably an awful lot of mental gymnastics goes on, with people deciding (or declaring) that he was "only" the producer and so it is all right to play the songs. 

he has certainly not been the only casual beneficiary of such double standards, and another christmas themed song comes to mind as being the thing that rescued someone. when you consider what, exactly, Boy George went to prison for (here) one can be left baffled as to why he has not been "cancelled" or whatever they call it these days, but remains positively celebrated. laughably a BBC interview, i think by Chris Evans (the sh!t British one), brushed it all off as him being "quite conflicted". maybe if he had done what he did to a woman rather than another man it might have been different, but also the prospect of not being able to play Band Aid ever again conveniently saved him from being blotted out. 

finally, then, a large five tape (disc) one hundred song set claiming to be the Greatest Christmas one, even if it is the 100 greatest cheapest to license songs. and a few songs which do not immediately scream christmas, such as the (admittedly superb) cover of Somewhere Only We Know off of Lily Allen. 

it is mostly done on the cheap, featuring as it does covers of I Believe In Father Chistmas and Frankie's not intended as a christmas song but f*** it here we are The Power Of Love rather than the originals. still, you get some Kylie, some (reasonably rare to appear on compilations) Pet Shop Boys and, of  course, Sir Cliff. the two main draws for me buying this down the market were the presence of 2000 Miles off of The Pretenders, and this one (the video below) which may sound familiar if you have already played the video above. 

what you are hearing there is the magnificence of Back Door Santa off of the very sexually aware Clarence Carter, dear reader. indeed this is the song that Run DMC sampled extensively for their one. and why not, for sampling done to create something new isn't that bad, so long as it's creative and makes a genuinely new dynamic listening experience. so yeah, i love both songs equally and am delighted that my christmas soundtrack shall feature both. 

as usual i will say it's highly unlikely anyone shall be all that interested what i listen to this christmas as i sit alone in my place of exile, lonely and longing to be not alone but knowing that will not change. that said, you never know, some of you may well have picked up a few tips on what tapes to get so as to get your very own groove on over the festive period. 

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