some films

hello there


rather unexpectedly, then, i am one of the (many) millions in, on, around and across the world, look you see, who has more "free" time available than had previously been anticipated as likely. and, just like a fair few, i would suspect, there has been something of a wrestle in mind as to what to do with the expanse of moments.

once more like a fair few, it struck me as an ideal time to "catch up" on, or otherwise get down to, watching a film or two. well, more than two. in this brave era in which one can barely move for having thousands (and then some) of films "streamed" into our homes, so often the temptation is to browse what is available to watch rather than actually watching anything. this has mostly been true for me.

for anyone remotely interested in such, here are not four, not five, not seven and not twelve, but six movies which i have had a watch of. with mixed levels of success. if such information is at all relevant or of peculiar importance, just about all were watched at around 8am on one day or the other. that would be because by then i would generally be up and have spent the requisite time needed to do any given range of household tasks, but yet all else are asleep, and so i would be left to myself to find entertainment, stimulation or amusement.

yes, indeed that is a sort of quasi "collage" thing of the six films which i watched. mostly, i would have every reason to suspect, you will instantly know the title of each one from those specific, iconic images. but yes, i will give names as i go.

those of you who like statistics, provenance, data and so on, well, yes, this paragraph is for you. some 33% in total of the films watched were via the conduit of digital disc technology, be it dvd or blu ray. further, 50%, as you will have noticed, feature performances by Nicolas Cage. and of that 50%, 100% of them are from that strange, weirdly specific era (or period) of the 21st century in which Nicolas Cage chose to channel his acting prowess via the conduit of wearing glasses or spectacles of varying purpose and degree of reason.

right, then, a look at each of the 6 (six) in separate ways. do please be warned, as whereas i shall do everything i can to avoid such, inevitably in the eyes of someone somewhere what might be considered or classed as 'spoilers' will feature. so a **** POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING *** is in place.

let me be honest and level with you, i really, really cannot be bothered to place these movies in any sort of order. be that chronology of watching, age of the film, quality of it, or anything.  here they are randomly, then, except for it being so that they appear here in the left to right order of that image above. so that means i shall be starting with The Colour Of Space, unless you are a fan of, or are most enthusiastic about, American spelling, and so for you it is called The Color Of Space.

what's this one all about, then? it is based on the HP Lovecraft story of (i think at least) the same name, and is concerned with an unknown thing crash landing from space, spreading pretty colours, and aliens or some mystical force or something like that infecting or taking over people, causing all sorts of problems and issues. things like that. yes, it gets a bit violent and tragic.

if all of that above sounds overtly, or maybe even slightly, familiar, well then that is because it probably is. other than the some three hundred and twenty eight "official" adaptations of this particular title (you would think maybe someone would consider filming a different Lovecraft title, but no), the concept has been "borrowed" frequently, in everything from The Thing to Invasion Of The Body Snatchers to, in a weird roundabout way, E.T., kind of.

any good? kind of. to focus on the positives, Cage is not sh!t in it, the "colour" light effects and visuals are really impressive, and shows what a promising director we have missed out on for many years, since this is the first "major" film what Richard Stanley has done since the "incident" that was The Island Of Dr Moreau. there's some fairly gruesome visual effects, so do be warned.

worth watching? tough one to answer. yes if you really wish to see some amazing shades (and variations) of purple, and Nicolas Cage giving a halfway decent performance. but there are some also rather troubling, upsetting visuals, the pacing goes from excellent to dragging to let's just wrap this up, and there is absolutely zero new, "fresh" or from a different perspective in the fundamentals of telling a story that has been told many, many times.

to be blunt, frank, honest and direct with you, i had absolutely zero intention of watching Total Recall again, or at least not when i did sit and watch it again. no. my choice was, for reasons i cannot explain, Never Say Never Again. as it turned out my disc of that seems faulty, or requiring something of a clean. rather than mess about doing that, i just grabbed the next nearest disc, which turned out to be a shiny blu ray of this film.

plot? a construction worker (Schwarzenegger) dreams of going on holiday to Mars. his wife (Sharon Stone) wishes him not to. despite her advice, and indeed that of Harry from verk (Robert Costanzo), off he goes to a company called Rekall, which can plant fake memories of any holiday or event in your mind to make you "feel" like you did it. the wheels fall off, and lost of violence follows, when it turns out that someone prior to Rekall has implanted some memories in his mind......

a story, or concept, which has several high level thinking levels of philosophy is, but of course, pretty much turned into an exploitative ultra violent action film, thanks to the presence of him what did RoboCop (Paul Verhoeven) and the Arnold. despite such, much interested debate or conversation happens, partially to this day, about which aspects of the film are "real" and which are just implanted memories, or if you like "dreams". mostly, though, i would expect, think or indeed imagine that the film gets rather fondly remembered for the outrageous violence and witty one-liners.

quite class, it is, to be sure. this was made as the 80s gave way to the 90s, and one did not give many, many millions of lovely, lovely dollars to Arnold Schwarzenegger to be in their film unless they were going to utilise his immense talents and looking smart whilst absolutely battering many, many people. i am certain that i went to the cinema to see this twice, and it's possible i went more. one big draw would be the superb supporting cast, with Michael Ironside in particular being proper smart in it, very nearly almost as smart as he was in that boss V tv series.

overall, i would think this film is mostly remembered for being the last time Arnie was ludicrously, care and consequence free violent for just the sh!ts and giggles of it all in a film. after this it was all morality and reason, be it the wet blanket "i swear i will not kill anybody" of Terminator 2, or Kindergarten Cop, or even the "hey i am a good guy" of good but needlessly bloated True Lies. well, them were the days, and at least Arnie didn't make Stop! Or My Mum Will Shoot.

back to a more recent release, then, and indeed back to the modern reality of Nicolas Cage films with The Frozen Ground, with it being made (or released) in 2013. the would appear to be an absolute stack of Nicolas "Nic" Cage films on NetFlix at the moment, which is how my attention was drawn to this particular one.

the plot? one which is, apparently, more or less based on real events. a copper (Nicolas Cage) is made to become aware of a serial killer (John Cusack) on the prowl in Alaska when one of his would-be victims (Vanessa Hudgens out of High School Musical) is rescued. steadily he pieces together a frightening number of previous victims, over time and distance, that no one had ever linked together before. with some resistance from the powers that be (of course), he sets about tracking down the killer and, yes, of course, bringing him to justice.

a frustration of Nicolas Cage appearing in four, five or even six films every year (believed as a result of his well documented financial and legal "issues", highlights of which include owning more than one f*****g castle and a dinosaur skull or two) is the assumption that they will all be poor or mediocre, a la other rather prolific "actors", be its Seagal or Snipes. they are not. well, to be clear, so far in my exploration of the multiple films of Cage of the 2000s i have not found any lost gem or overlooked masterpiece, but they almost always turn out to be "good" or "just above average". and, yes, in some instances his performance, or presence, is what takes it up to that level.

i am not sure what the "point" of The Frozen Ground is. whilst it was good, what was it that the film is supposed to be saying, i find myself wondering. should the idea have been to give an account of the real life killer at the heart of the story, Robert Hansen, then one just gets fleeting, peripheral glimpses and no insight. mostly, i would say, my lasting impression was the illustration of how "real" police work goes, with the astonishing resistance Cage's character gets from his own side to diverting resources in the direction of tracking down and stopping a killer. but also an impression would be that Alaska was, or maybe is, absolutely laced with prostitution and drugs. this was quite interesting, as my assumption was that the place was simply dull, cold and boring.

worth watching? yes. a pretty good Nicolas Cage performance, but perhaps more so good casting choice for John Cusack. he plays the role as it should be done, which is to say that he looks and seems intelligent enough to have gotten away with so much for so long, and also compellingly deviant enough so that you would believe his character would do such unspeakable things.

from what i can remember of it all the film You Were Never Really Here was thrown at me by Netflix as a recommended watch. probably, maybe undoubtedly, because of all the crime films i had watched, which is undoubtedly, or probably, due to just how many of them Netflix have available.

plot? a highly traumatised, disturbed chap called Joe (the apparently ever excellent Joaquin Phoenix) uses his apparent proclivity for violence for good, which is to say as a hired quasi mercenary, specialising in rescuing lost or stolen young girls and dispensing stark, graphic violence on both those who abducted the children or those he feels might either be involved with it, or get in his way, or just look like they deserve it. when called in to rescue the daughter of a prominent politician, the consequences come thick and fast. the juxtaposition of dealing with these consequences with his perpetual, internal struggle as to why do this, why live at all, makes for some strong stuff.

it feels wrong for me to just say "this film was brilliant". the temptation to exist is there, but i need to resist it some. much of the ostensible, or given, plot, is discarded or given superficial treatment in advancing the complex psychology which seems to be the true crux of the film. how, for instance, the protagonist is able to locate the missing with such simplistic ease is given only superficial attention. yes, i get that it is because the psyche / psychosis of the character is the real story being told here, but still, it serves as a distraction.

this film is dark. none more dark, really. if the ostensible plot presented is not dark enough, then the exploration of alienation, isolation and chronic, crippling and very much unresolved mental health issues explored (magnificently) by Joaquin Phoenix should certainly be. this is a towering, astonishing performance to watch, but not one you would rush to witness a second time. if that makes sense. but also you do want to watch again, to see if you can somehow "identify" if at any stage some of the narrative switched between "dream" and "reality", or if indeed any of it might be a flight of fiction upon the death of a character.

oddly, and this does feel peculiar, as You Were Never Really Here went along, with each passing key sequence a little shine of Joker was rubbed away. this film was made a year or two (give or take) before, and seeing this now gave me every sense the direction given to Joaquin on Joker was along the lines of "well do that thing you did in You Were Never Really Here, but only with no beard".

and so here we are at what is the last (of three) Nicolas Cage films in this post. unfortunately, this is just the poorest of the three, with Running With The Devil being guilty of a ludicrously missed opportunity of being if not excellent then an above average, maybe even great film.

plot? when a shipment of cocaine goes missing, the bosses send who they think is the best and most trusted (Nicolas Cage) to trace the smuggling steps and see what may have gone wrong. as we watch him take those footsteps, we are treated to the life of another supposedly trusted member of the gang (Laurence Fishburne), whose reckless ways give the authorities a clue to the operation, and who also might know of the missing shipment.....

where this film is brilliant is in following Cage following the path of cocaine. it is remarkably insightful into the world of just how the devil this drug makes it all the way from plants in South America to the widely used drug in the "western world", and beyond. the trail is never anything short of fascinating, and Cage gives a really very good, convincing performance, be it part "bad guy", part tourist travel guide on the journey the stuff makes. this aspect of the film alone makes it well worth watching, even if you are not particularly interested in the subject.

mostly where the film goes wonky, or rubbish, is the Laurence Fishburne character. he does a reasonable job, as ever, and at times gives flashes of why i like him usually, why i tend to be patient even when he is in rubbish and is being rubbish. it all goes wrong, or went f****d, with a very ill-advised, poorly executed and frankly absurd scene involving him and a bizarre pastiche or "homage" to a scene from A Clockwork Orange. unnecessary comic relief that is plain distracting and very quickly makes you lose interest in the film. an extremely bad idea, and i would wager a release of the film with that scene missing would get far more positive reviews across the board.

i really do miss A-list, truly excellent Nicolas Cage, where the plot, cast and production matched his talent. here i speak, of course, and among others, stuff like Wild At Heart, Con Air, Face/Off, that one he got an Oscar for, National Treasure (both of them, and where is the third please), and stuff like that.  but, at the very least, when he is doing these films which seem more focused on resolving any legal or financial peculiarities he has, he is putting in the effort and does deliver a decent performance.

and so, finally, on to Inception, then, which i appreciate that i am, oh, about ten or so years (maybe a touch south) "late" to in respect of when much of the rest of the world saw it. yes, it was indeed a film that i did always wish to see, but looking at the running time i was never sure i had such available to commit to it and "concentrate", for i was led to believe the film was fairly complex. but now i do have the time, and so watched the disc which i purchased in good faith. remarkably, i had managed to avoid any "spoilers" on what it was exactly, except that it was, vaguely, something to do with "stealing information from people's dreams".

oh, dear me. what a disappointment this movie was. should you be an acolyte or advocate of the film who believes it to be a masterpiece, or genius, or brilliant or similar, then you may wish to cease reading now so as to not upset yourself.

the first fifteen minutes of this film are superb, as it generally does what it is spoken of as doing. which is showing how ostensible lead actor Leonardo Di Caprio and his merry gang gain access to the dreams of others and pinch things from the subconscious. it is perfectly executed, engaging, and makes a relatively high end concept very pleasant viewing. alas, the following two (or so) hours are dedicated to doing the reverse, which is putting ideas into a dream. with no clarification or explanation as to how this is done. unless is was there, somewhere, but got lost in the disjointed, confusing narrative track for it they opted to use.

i had been led to believe this film was revolutionary, groundbreaking, innovative, creative and genius. alas, no, not really. there is absolutely nothing new here. virtually everything on offer here, be it the high-end, complex plot intricacies or the "stunning" (dull) action bits, has been done twice over. should you have never, ever seen things like Blade Runner, The Matrix, Vanilla Sky, A Clockwork Orange, Total Recall, even Plughead Rewired  and a few dozen others, then yes i guess i could sort of almost get why you might think this film is in some way innovative or original. but it really is not, and isn't even a decent homage to any of them.

my basic understanding is that this film was a "pet project" for director Christopher Nolan, one he always wished to make. from what i can tell, such films always go awry. well, nearly. for years it was said that Scorsese wished to make Gangs Of New York. when he did, well, it turned out to be a film which was effectively three hours of watches being stolen. how very strange that the same lead actor links both films.

just about everyone with any sort of interest in seeing Inception has probably done so by now, or this point. if not, well the answer is a frank and stark just don't. it's just sh!t.

right, well, that's about that for each of them, then. as would be usual, and perpetually shall no doubt be the case, i have no concept or notion of this has been of any use, interest or value, but here it is, or was. but yes, still, my thanks as ever for reading.

oh, yeah. there was another film i watched, if i forget to include in the next similar post. it was on the Horror channel on the tele, and was called Retreat, featuring or starring Cillian Murphy and Thandie Newton. really good it was, to be sure, but some aspects or elements of the plot may be a little too close to the home of the world in which we now live.

anyway, off and on i go.




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

FAGS โดย SPIROS

สวัสดี


indeed (or simply yes), as the title makes abundantly clear, this is one of them more "irresponsible" posts i do from time to time, look you see. so, for the sake of clarification, disclaimer and to be cautious, smoking is of course a very, indeed tres, silly thing to do/ it is something one should either not start, or if that comment is too late then seek assistance to cease. please don't read any of this if you consider yourself to be of a mind likely to be swayed or influenced to contradict this advice in any way.

but, in the here and now (and such could change, true, granted), cigarettes and the smoking thereof remains perfectly legal, and a matter of choice. indeed, now is a strangely happy time for such, as in an unexpected change cigarettes and smoking are all of a sudden not the most popular thing for people to hate. no, that honour presently falls to that coronavirus business. so, for those with an expressed or even just passing interest in the subject, and activity, here's one of those irregular looks i have at cigarettes from around the world.

as would be usual, and most agreeable, my ability to taste the wonders of nicotine, tar and chemical laced fags from corners of the world which are so very far away is courtesy of Spiros, a noted traveller and the greatest legal mind of his generation. or any generation.

regular readers shall be aware that it was so by necessity Spiros was spending some time in exile of not entirely his own choice.  it turned out that coronavirus managed to bring an end to free flowing flights around the world, in such a manner that cigarettes has never caused and equally in a way that the angry lass off of Sweden (or wherever) that keeps having temper tantrums will be pleased by. this allowed Spiros time to consider and contemplate matters.

also, it allowed him the (speculative) opportunity to seek out and source some fine fags for me. which is how come i have now tasted a brand i'd not heard of called Mevius, and can now give you some of my thoughts on them.

fag connoisseurs will know this, to be sure, but i did not. Mevius is a brand out of Japan, although as the lettering on the packets show these were not procured in the Japanese market. still, all the same, it is smart to experience the Japanese way of smoking. perhaps these are ones what them Yakuza types have, but i will assume that, as a round eye, there is absolutely no need for me to cut one of my fingers off as a sign of loyalty, or for whatever reason they do such.

upon opening the packet of fags, which of course involved deftly overlooking the rather graphic warning image (what a shame i cannot understand the text which accompanies it, but i will presume it says nothing good), i observed that the filters were white, or if you will ขาว. this can be an indicator or sure and certain sign of the cigarettes being menthol. oh dear. whereas i don't mind such, they are not a preference.

on ignition, or lighting, it turned out that no, "original" blue is neither Japanese nor unspecified Asian terrain for menthol. which, to clarify, means that no, these fags are not menthol. or if they are, well, it is so that in that part of the world menthol implies a taste which is not quite so minty as we have come to understand it here.

so, if not of mint or menthol, what is the taste, then? quite a pleasant one, really. exceedingly mild and smooth as it happens, and really good. well, at first. perhaps, mindful of the region (or area) from where these came and where they were intended to be enjoyed, there is a suggestion or involvement of some unspecified opiates blended in with the usual chemicals, for there was quite an alarming head rush off of the first couple. also, there was something of a kicker tickle upon the upper throat region on completion, but this i took to be a sort of deliberate "f*** you round eye" gesture in the general direction of western sensibilities.

would i consider trading in that most beloved type of fag of mine, Marlboro, for Mevius on a long term basis? let us steady on here. sure, they are good. but not that good. i very much doubt any cigarette could be, for it was Marlboro what Bowie smoked. although he did quite like Japan, so maybe he had some of these ones when he was there. or any of his mates went over that way and got him some duty free.

it is quite unusual for me to do much in the way of extensive (or any) research on things that i write of here, relying instead on previous knowledge, wild guesses or assumption. however, the more i read of Mevius, or Mild Seven as they were known, the more interested i get.

across a number of years, Mevius and/or Mild Seven have been engaged in some quite class things. like, for instance, counterfeit, or fake, ones apparently being produced in North Korea to prop up that perfect economy. and paying people to actively promote the brand(s) on social media things (note, any fag makers, i am open to such payments). best of all, though, is the idea that circulated of tobacco for Mild Seven then Mevius fags being grown in the grounds of Fukushima nuclear power plant fake. the latter of course turned out to be untrue, but all the same i can pretend that i am engaging in smoking such splendor.

the lengths gone to in order to warn patrons of the dangers of smoking are quite a thing, as you can see in the above image. and the one before it. such are all well and good, and i suppose if they assist those seeking to stop smoking then so be it. but, the current thinking appears to be that smokers, via smoking, have an unusually high level of resistance to all that coronavirus business. see, it isn't all bad news.

many thanks, as ever and as usual, to Spiros for the kind consideration in fetching these fags for me off of his travels and out of his exile. undoubtedly the idea that they might (and for legal clarity no they were not) be off of a nuclear power plant leak in part inspired his selection. bravo, to that, i say, bravo.

right, well, so, that's that. if this has been of some interest to someone somewhere, well then that's just great stuff, it really is.



เป็นเลิศต่อกัน!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

movie malady misdirection

hey there


well, first off, an apology. although there is every chance that one or two things on here may well upset some, look you see, it is simply not so that i set out to cause distress. but, with that i seem to think is more akin to innocence than ignorance, i appear to have made mayhem for some, leaving old wounds open and exposed, which is of course upsetting. so, sorry.

just what did i do to cause such disappointment? i not only willingly watched the atrocious film Collision Course, by writing of it i unwittingly reminded those who had suffered it and buried the pain that the wretched thing existed. should for some reason you wish to read of what i wrote (and in fairness reading it would make this post make more sense), here you go, click these words to see it.

exactly how, if i am seriously and genuinely sorry (which i am), is writing further of the monstrosity going to make it any better? well, up, down, in and around all the pain and suffering the film caused in the (mercifully small) audience exposed to it, some key moments in the film are crucial, if not actually flat out essential, to the healing experience.

those moments are (of course) the ones in which jay leno is depicted as experiencing pain, agony, harm, suffering or other such torment. by bringing to the fore such moments, like in the above picture in which leno (the ostensible protagonist and "star" of the film) is getting his face punched in, well, hopefully those left traumatised by the film can concentrate and focus on such, feeling better.

not that i (personally) wish any harm or ill on or two jay leno. from what i recall, he was not half bad when cast as himself in films and shows, in particular those chat show things. it's just that he was absolutely appalling in this truly terrible film. as it is widely believed, or considered, that the film was little more than a vanity project for him, or a "vehicle" upon which the idea was to carry him to further cinematic appearances of a similar nature, well, what can i say. it is rewarding to see him getting his head kicked in.

another image of jay leno getting punched in the face in Collision Course? yes, of course, sure. why not. to tell the truth, i think this next one is my favourite, you can almost feel the f*****g teeth flying out of his f*****g mouth with this blow to the jaw / mouth area.

it is highly likely that some sort of film producer, director or "executive" was also in a position where they had to endure Collision Course and were left most apoplectic by it. hopefully the sight of the by default lead actor in the film getting battered allowed them to redirect some of that anger. a lovely thing would have been if the actor decking leno in the above got a few jobs in other films purely as a very much appreciated and well done thank you for this scene.

one thing i was unaware of was just how far reaching the consequences of just how bad Collision Course was on the world, in particular the American social and political landscape. it, the film, effectively split the nation into two camps - those who blamed the republican party for not stopping the proliferation of the movie, and those who held the republican party responsible for the fact that the film even existed. which is how, and why, democratic party candidate Bill Clinton was elected just as soon as the voters of America were given the next possible chance to express what they thought of the film and of the republican party just standing by and letting it happen.

from a strictly therapeutic perspective, it would be wrong (although not immoral) to extract pleasure, or satisfaction, or even a sense of recovery, just from scenes in which jay leno gets punched in the face. no, there are other forms of harm which befall him, which can also heal. in the above image, for instance, someone is grabbing leno's face, presumably to either smother him or just gouge his eyes out a bit.

could i provide some video of jay leno getting punched in the face? sadly not. i tried to do so, but my rather limited set of editing skills (although in fairness to moi it was more rather basic, as in free, editing software that was the issue) prevented this. but, fear not, here is some footage of jay leno in what looks like a tremendous amount of pain.

that bit was taken from quite late on in the film. yes, jay leno has been shot in the leg in the scene above, so he is quite sore as it is, and made all the more sore by trying to walk on the shot leg and falling over. also, as you should be able to see, there is a lot of blood on his face and shirt, which are signs of a decent beating being given.

again, i would like to stress and make clear that i bear no ill will, or malice, towards jay leno at all. but he did really make an awful, appalling, rubbish film, and the only way i and others can come to terms with experiencing it is to focus purely on the bits where he gets lamped in the film.

yes, the above is one final still image from the film of jay leno getting punished. as a nice touch, this picture, as you probably do not need me to clarify, is him getting a really, really good, hard and solid blow to the stomach. that will have smarted, that will have, to be sure.

well, anyway, enough for this post, and perhaps for the whole concept of Collision Course in regards of future posts here. if any of you are tempted to get the film as a consequence of these posts, well, that is on you. but you have to fast forward it about 50 minutes in to see the bits where jay leno gets battered.



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

comb

hello there


and so the invisible war wages on, look you see. the new plague marches still, taking many blows as we seek victory but remaining standing, and fighting, still. hey ho, so be it. victory shall be ours, eventually. ferocious opponents have been beaten before; let us not forget it took, for instance, a second nuclear bomb for Japan to work out to cease.

of the many casualties of this battle we wage, few (if any) could be considered anywhere near as succinct as my lack of opportunity to "observe" things whilst out and about. that, mostly, comes down to the fact that (strictly speaking) we are not supposed to be "out and about". actually, supposed is polite, we are not allowed to be, and if we are found to be doing so for no go reason we get knacked for it.

but we are allowed out for "essential" reasons, such as (but not limited to) travelling down to London for bread. or up, i guess, up to London, if for some reason you live south of the place. even then, though, mostly people are interpreting an essential need to be out as prescribed by the ruling classes, informed by them scientist and expert types. up to the point of me writing this, such a list of reasons does not include arbitrarily leaving random items in abstract locations.

it was with some merriment and delight, then, that i saw the above. yes, as you can see clearly in the the clarity afforded by Commodore 64 mode, and have also presumably worked out from the title given to this post, that is indeed a comb left in a quite conventional area designated as a car park.

with regards to the comb itself, one would have to (not unreasonably) say it is fairly standard. it may lack any sort of bespoke signature qualities, but there is much to be said for the usefulness of mass produced items which are designed and manufactured for a rudimentary, basic but required purpose.

to consider the purpose momentarily, i am rather taken by the idea of someone having used this comb as intended. one can surely only presume that they took a moment, upon getting out of their car (or other such vehicle), to ensure that their hair was suitably styled prior to conducting some reasonable and essential being out and about movement. and then took the decision to discard the instrument which had satisfied their need for such.

perhaps it's just the normality of the above which took my interest. should one stop to consider the circumstances in which we find ourselves in too much then it is all too easy to be overwhelmed by it, to get that sinking feeling in your mood. but to try and distract from it all with no real sense of distraction is to succumb to the boredom of the mundane.

right, well, anyway, not a great deal more can be said of this comb, i would think. should it be so that any other arbitrary items of a random nature come to be visible on my essential travels, then yes, i dare say that i will make every effort to capture or record them.




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

how fast falls a fallen comrade

Привет


a particularly well remembered quotation from a previous glorious leader, look you see, is that which speaks of a week being a long time in politics. so, too, then, would be two hundred and thirty eight weeks (238 for clarity).

that, comrades, as you would hardly need me to tell you, is the numerical value of how long glorious leader comrade corbyn reigned as supreme leader of, in name, the labour party and, in spirit, the nation. strictly speaking, no, he was not technically ever elected as the most supreme equal of the politburo and thus was never officially supreme leader (or "prime minister"), but as he and his acolytes have stressed, he won the argument, which is as good as winning an election, only worth more.

it was so, of course, that when class traitors, conspirators of the bourgeois elite and other such enemies of the people sought to bring his downfall that his legacy would live on. by means of shrine, song, statue and so forth, he was to be commemorated as hero of revolution, as the fair and right and just leader of our socialism infused nation.

except, of course, to have done so would have betrayed all of his glorious achievements delivered for the good of we, the people. to celebrate him now that he is an unperson would make us all guilty, and condemned as a consequence, of thoughtcrime. for the harmonious survival of the state it was important that newspeak be adjusted as soon as possible to ensure that he, whose name may now not be spoken, was removed from the vocabulary of the proletariat. innocents must not be allowed to become dissidents by their own free will; to become so is the reserve of the state.

with this in mind, to ensure that loyalty to the state was maintained (and not just because i was bored), i took upon my humble self to ensure that one of the more treasured state instruments of darkness ensured that the proletariat of their own free will were able to comply.

so, yes, then, i was playing google feud, and this happened.

quite a great deal of satisfaction is drawn from being servant to the state. even more satisfaction is drawn when the state shows total compliance. and, as you can see in the above, it is so that he, disgraced betrayer of the state and the people,  has been unpersoned. our glorious celebrated ministry of truth has excluded the disgraced from the list of equal but still top ten so-called "results" for "jeremy", and so it is he does not exist. no one consults the ministry of truth beyond the selected ten, it is so.

glory to the state and the revolution for protecting us, but of course there can be no personal celebration of satisfaction, for such would be a thoughtcrime.

for those seeking further information on anything jeremy related, you can click here if you so wish, so long as the ministry of truth does not censure you for so. but that is your risk of your own free will.





быть отличными друг другу!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

classic album : pills 'n' thrills and bellyaches

howdy pop pickers


this probably should not be happening, look you see. not meant to be, this, a (very) nearly 30th anniversary celebration of an album. its lyricist and singer should be either dead or serving a custodial sentence, in either eventually as a result of a penchant for drugs. he should not be revered as an amiable, cheeky grandfather figure to the nation. the novelty factor dancer is meant to be an obscure footnote reference in rock history, not some treasured "the fun uncle in the family" which a country holds a warm place in the hear for. and that groove which the band (and producers) carved out should sound dated and wonky, not remarkably fresh three decades later.

and yet here we are. if you were to read a chronology of the band the Happy Mondays, you'd assume it to be improbable that they would have been able or allowed to record a second record, and just flat impossible that they'd ever do a third. but, in the face of little critical love and less commercial success, they did, producing pills 'n' thrills and bellyaches, a record which has somehow managed to be precisely of its perfect storm of a time and remarkably perfect to this very day. well, to my ears, and i dare say to many others.

what, before we go on, exactly makes an album reach a point where it gets called a "classic" album? good question. answering it is a little better than trying to clarify what a "best" of anything is, for one is able to deal with more objective, or rather less subjective matters. in broad strokes, a "classic" album isn't necessarily the  best work an artist has done, it's just one that as a complete entity could not possibly have been made better to say what it says. moving away from the turntable with it, and it's an album which either was informed by or influenced its era, or over the years came to be seen and identified as such.

under no circumstances whatsoever, in any way, shape or form, would anyone at all ever have even remotely thought to consider suggesting, not even in jest, that such a work would stem from the Happy Mondays. well, one did, and that was Tony Wilson. for everyone else, it was a band of musicians with intermittent talent, fronted by a general Manc junkie degenerate who in fairness had a quirky, clever turn of phrase with his words, with some wide eyed dancing clown, clearly and patently permanently ripped out of his mind on pills, sellotaped on the front as some form of window dressing to distract from the other (lesser) qualities.

depending on (or relative to) your level of hatred, contempt, admiration or love for the Happy Mondays, this shall seem either generous or harsh. prior to pills 'n' thrills and bellyaches it could be said that the complete works of the band consisted of three genuine great tunes, several which, via quirky lyrics or decent beat were average and a good dose of "this will do". let us trouble ourselves solely with the positive. the three greats would be twenty four hour party people from the debut album (a song only included at the last minute due to legal wrangling over another song), along with lazyitis and wrote for luck from the second (and what many reasonably expected to be last) album by the band, the charmingly named bummed.

it was those three songs which suggested there was (possibly) something more to the band just doing this for the sake of it, to fill in the time between dole payments and the subsequent squandering of that on illicit sex, copious drugs and booze to round it off. the infectious vibe and the beat was very much influenced by the burgeoning house scene, penetrating the world from American origins, and the flourishing underground "acid" scene, only it was "done with proper instruments", as would be very much part of the English way of doing things. lyrically it was all witty, acerbic and frequently profound, something made baffling as it appeared to emanate from a mind already (in)famous by this stage for being able to stretch all the way to the ceiling of poisoning pigeons to watch them fall from the sky as a form of entertainment.

musically the album is just about any (or even all) positive wording you can throw at it. astonishing, astounding, ambitious, daring, catchy, brilliant and, well loads others. the most important word you can throw at it, though, is groovy. it's all flat out, full tilt, tote tapping, infectious ear-worming bliss. maybe it's just me and several others, but it all sounds remarkably fresh and crisp (hello, Faye) to this day. it is of those halcyon days where music was meant to be expansive, a freedom to run across limitless plains, rather than today's weird, downbeat obsession with limiting sound to fit in with a wallpaper like "streamed" small box music narrative.

exactly who to credit with the audacious sound of pills 'n' thrills and bellyaches is to engage in one of them often futile mass debate things. rather than the actual band - Gary Whelan, Mark Day, Paul Ryder and Paul Davis - many would leap to say the real genius of the sound was held by visionary producers Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne. a little give and take, i would suggest, is needed. could the band have delivered the sound without expert producers and "engineers" (whatever the hell they do in a studio) who got the groove and knew how to refine it? and would the producers have been able to craft such a classic without the raw materials provided by the band? no and no.

should for some reason they have taken the decision to release pills 'n' thrills and bellyaches purely as an instrumental record then it still would have worked, it would have filled dancefloors, it would likely still be recalled to this day as a club classic. but, there's that extra layer of poetic genius to the record. no matter how phenomenal (and it is) the sound of the album, the music (quite) remarkably sits in the shadow of the lyrics of Shaun Ryder.

quite the divisive figure, Shaun Ryder. for some, maybe apologists, at the time he was viewed as "a bit of a lad", or a "character", indeed a "good laugh". others of a different perspective would lean towards the idea of dismissing him as a sexist, obnoxious, misogynistic, uncouth, uneducated foul mouthed Manc sh!tbag junkie. every chance exists that he was (for many is) all of those and more. despite and due to it all, though, he delivered remarkable poetic genius across this record.

defining "poet" comes to be as complex and subjective as defining "classic album". how about we go with something generic, then. to be poetic is to evoke a sense of universal concepts and ideals via the conduit (or forum) of fragmented words relating to an instance which provoked the sentiment of thinking beyond a finite and to within an infinite. yes, i probably threw something like that sentence into an essay or two on my path to several qualifications.

the kind of thing i am getting at in the above oozes out, across and over pills 'n' thrills and bellyaches. and it does so in a wide range of ways. realities of working class domestic life for the less affluent areas of society are covered, to degrees which range from light hearted to hard hitting, in Kinky Afro, Grandbag's Funeral and Dennis And Lois. then you've got the individualistic resistance to oppression of expression in Loose Fit and Step On. perhaps someone suggested the band do a "love song" or ballad, hence having the dirty, perverse and sexually provocative Bob's Yer Uncle. you can also go right ahead and hear the scathing attack on the hypocrisy in society illustrated via God's Cop (for which an understanding of the copper James Anderton would be handy), or just enjoy the hysterical episode (or incident) presented in the riotously, self-depreciatingly exceedingly funny Holiday.

context of the release of the album? what feels like a now strangely, alien, impossible to comprehend how we let it go brief era of hedonistic optimism. it, for a brief while, felt like we, one generation under the same groove, were finally moving free of the shadow and the sin of all which came before us. the feared Soviet Union was reverting to Russia, the Cold War over, the threat of nuclear destruction seemingly gone. a band called The Stone Roses played Spike Island and cemented the idea that no longer was it that Beatles and Stones were a benchmark, their formidable reputations had at last been surpassed. bit by bit the Berlin wall continued to be taken apart, and it seemed like Europe could indeed just all get along without strategic or political force. rather than getting smashed on booze and starting fights there was a movement towards an idea that it was better to trip out on ecstasy or lsd and everyone just have a good time all the time, man. a man called Nelson Mandela walked free from prison, symbolic of an idea that all oppression and division was to be brought to an end everywhere. to that end, we even had a "happy" and "right" war, over in that faraway Middle East place, where former opponents like the USA, Russia, Britain and Germany deployed united forces to stop a bully. just for good measure, within days of pills 'n' thrills and bellyaches being released, Thatcher fell from power.

but that's all gone, now, we soon managed to make sure the world was the usual mess we are aware of and strangely find more comfortable. the idea of unrestrained happiness, everyone just dig what you dig and just get along and get by could not last for the population, or the band. in respect of the latter the only true direction for the Happy Mondays after this album was self-destruction. this they achieved to a spectacular, catastrophic level with crack cocaine and Yes Please!, a drug which nearly killed them and an album (which it is believed only a thousand or people bought on release) which wiped out their record label. any other ending (although they each enjoyed a strange resurrection) for both would have been to have failed.

as close as it comes to doing so, no, pills 'n' thrills and bellyaches does not cover an era entire. if for some reason you wanted to hear a comprehensive sound of how we gave up on the 80s by entering the 90s with promise of even greater to come, this record would be played alongside The Stone Roses by The Stone Roses, Some Friendly by The Charlatans and the album generally (fairly) regarded as the personification of the sound of the time, Screamadelica by Primal Scream. a session of listening to these soaring sounds of ambition can only leave one wondering where it all went wrong after, why now have we let the wheels fall off of how important creating new music should be. that sense, at least, in the sounds which dominates the airwaves and now fake charts.

yes, please, then, you should (in my humble yet considered opinion) head off and give a spin to this album.





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

writing about a film? maybe watch the f*****g thing first?

greetings


yes, indeed, it is very much that Star Wars day thing today. well, if you are reading on the date it went live here, look you see, which would be the 4th day of May. every year, i suppose.

no, i had no particular inclination or wish to write anything on the subject. but, my hand feels forced by somewhat continuous bad, maybe lazy, journalism (of sorts) off of the bbc. whilst some might argue that such is very much the hallmark, if not exclusive preserve, of the bbc, it really should not be.

given the amount of material available, and the substantial audience interested in such things, it is not exactly difficult to either write something or other about Star Wars and have it become reasonably popular. one can elect to compose something widely accepted, say "Star Wars is quite good", and get a favourable response, or you could go with being a bit antagonistic - "Star Wars was not as good as the proper version of Battlestar Galactica", for instance - and get a lot of people reading, but also make them quite cross.

for some reason the bbc (bless them) have come up with a third way of gaining substantial reading off of the Star Wars audience. this is done by, or via, producing any number of articles on the subject, all whilst apparently being unaware of what a Star Wars is.

my first encounter with such was one of those standard, baiting, deliberately and for no good reason provoking and prodding articles some do. it is on the subject of The Empire Strikes Back, which was or is either the 2nd or 5th Star Wars film, or even 6th or 7th or 8th depending on how you could some other films in chronological order, and is normally well thought of. except for one person, who, and you can read this if you click here, believes that the film is "over rated".

well, ok. considering it is (thus far) the only film to feature all three of the greatest, the best and most important characters in the series - Lando, Lobot and Boba Fett - my initial reaction was "no, it is not over rated". but, always if not keen then at least open to different points of view or interpretations, i had a look. just maybe there were some parts of the film they had seen which i had overlooked, or seen in a different way. ha ha no, of course not. for a start, i had at least actually seen the film, and some other Star Wars things. it appears that the writer of that piece had not, or not recently.

a significant part of the article makes little sense. there is criticism of poor pacing and flimsy sets with poor effects. well, maybe for anyone of the current generation, where all is preferred as computer generated, and instant gratification is followed by swift disposal. but it was this line which sounded alarm bells, suggesting that the person writing it had no idea of what they spoke - But here’s where things get tricky. My grievance with The Empire Strikes Back isn’t that it sticks to the winning formula established by Star Wars: that’s what most sequels do, after all.

except, it does not do that? in no way does the film follow the structure, or "formula", of the first? for a start, this is one of the few Star Wars films not to have some sort of planet destroying device key to the plot. also, whereas the first film was a very enjoyable but overtly simplistic David vs Goliath, good vs evil and of course good always wins tale, here the lines between good and evil become murky and crossed, with the ostensibly good getting a right proper f*****g hiding.  these are fairly obvious points or conclusions, and simply watching the film would have made them visible.

it is not for the bbc to be content with articles which lack coherency or otherwise fail to make any sense. why not go right ahead and get information is quizzes wrong, too?

the above is a question which, as you can see, asks if lightsabers were "turned on" more or less times in the first film than there are films in total. first off, there are somewhat more than nine films. they have for some reason not counted Rogue One, Solo and The Clone Wars, the latter which was an animated film that very much did get a cinema release before spawning a series. also, there are at least two "Ewoks" films, but i am uncertain if both got cinema.

still, the answer is correct, as them fancy lightsaber things were switched on less times than there are films. but, only three? well, let's have a look, shall we?

01 the nancy boy fake orphan farmer is given his (very much alive and well) father's lightsaber by an elderly religious zealot who is keen to brainwash the simple farmer into joining his jihad. he switches it on whilst his homosexual tin man has a snooze.

02 the nancy boy fake orphan farmer is in a pub and is about to get his f*****g head kicked in. as a way of winning his trust, the elderly religious zealot switches on his lightsaber to dismember the bloke at the bar.

03 so as to best prepare him for blowing himself up for the cause and to become a martyr of the jihad, the elderly religious zealot trains the nancy boy fake orphan farmer how to use the weapon of the holy war, which involves switching on a lightsaber.

04 as it happens, the nancy boy fake orphan farmer is rubbish with the weapon. fearing that it will not be possible to brainwash him as he has gotten bored, the elderly religious zealot encourages the nancy boy fake orphan farmer to try again, switching on the lightsaber but doing it blindfolded, so only faith, and not any hidden trickery, makes it work.

05 a former brainwash victim of the elderly religious zealot, who got cut up as punishment for disobeying the instructions and turning his back on the jihad and just so happens to be the father of the nancy boy fake orphan farmer, is understandably eager to get justice if not revenge against the dithering old conjurer. he switches on a lightsaber to dispense such.

06 showing an, in fairness, impressive level of commitment to the cause, the elderly religious zealot switches on his lightsaber so as to fight his former failed brainwash victim. an interesting twist is that this is purely for show. the elderly religious zealot was always planning on being a suicide bomber, sacrificing himself so as to mislead the nancy boy fake orphan farmer into thinking he was a martyr, thus totally convincing the nancy boy fake orphan farmer to pledge loyalty to the jihad.

even if one puts 03 and 04 together, despite how one clearly watches the item in question being switched off and then switched back on, that, i believe, comes in at a number north of three.

why does this matter? perhaps it does not. but, the bbc are supposed to be, and prides itself on, being a news source which is "impartial" and is as "objective" as possible, showing no bias. many, many people claim that this is nonsense, and they do not do this at all. usually, though, it would be those who happen to not like the news being broadcast that decry it.

if they are unable, or not prepared, to get basic facts about a series of light-hearted, entertaining family orientated and well known adventure films right, what does that say of the other "facts" which they present? or, if you are more accusatory, should they know, or be quite aware, of the information being published in their name is incorrect, what does that say about considerably more serious news stories? feet of clay, etc.

mostly, though, i would just say sit back, watch and enjoy the Star Wars films if they are your bag, or simply watch something else if they happen not to be your bag. dig what you dig.

right, let it not be said that i did not in some way mark or acknowledge all of this Star Wars thing on what is widely considered to be Star Wars day, thanks to the phonetics of a phrase and the proclivity of some ancient monks with the calendar we use.




live long and prosper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

isolation continuation

heya


and so (at least at the time of writing) measures to keep us all apart from each continue. measures taken with good reason, look you see, for this plague thing would appear to still have some venom and bite yet.

some - say one or two - of you might be interested in how i am getting on with it all. but, let us take a few steps into the real world. it is so that the overwhelming majority of visitors here shall have little or no interest in me or my plight, or at least have such to a considerably less degree than they do in who, how, what, when and where Spiros is doing with it all, to be sure.

the last update on Spiros was roughly, approximately, roundabout or maybe exactly one month ago, and can be found by clicking here. so far the ambitions of the new plague had opted not to test itself on him, the greatest legal mind of his generation. my understanding is that, happily, this remains so. but, yes, he is taking precautionary (if not preemptive) measures.

reasonably as fine and well as ever, then, as you can look, and see. for those wondering why he went for an "old school" selfie in the mirror, rather than using one of those "face forward" camera shots for this, well, go on then. it seems he has gone all throwback Da Vinci Code and there are possibly some matters hidden in the image which could only be seen so by taking the picture this way. don't ask me, i don't know any hallways.

exactly what impact has "social distancing", where we are obliged to keep some 2 meters or in proper measurement terms 6ft away from others, had on the passion of Spiros to form short term but yet all the same mutually beneficial friendships with men (often in uniform) in various restroom and other such lavatory facilities open to gentlemen around the place? not a particularly good or positive one, in truth, but as we know sacrifices must be made. from what i can work out he and his, i think this is the correct term, chums have made some "workarounds" which are all perfectly legal. or at least are in terms of social distancing. he has been engaging in a number of social activities with exciting names such as seagulling and pancakes, and i would prefer not to discuss what either of them involve in any greater detail.

well, there you go. if there are any other top level, or maybe trivial, updates in respect of how Spiros is getting on with it all, certainly and decidedly i shall bring details here.




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

rough winds do shake

hello


and so another month dawns, or comes into being, in this most decidedly peculiar (so far) year, look you see. now has come to be the time, then, to consider the calendar for such in a variation of ways.

there is little, if much of anything, that i can tell you of the month of May which was not expressed at around the same point as last year, or would in any way add to that which you already know. with this, if we may do so, being accepted as the case, then on, let us marvel at the magnificence of the calendar for this month.

indeed, so as to "mix things up", starting off with the calendar off of Mum and Dad in New Zealand seemed like the way to go here. further such "up mixing" was attained by doing a regular picture, rather than a Commodore 64 one. fear not, for both the Star Wars calendar and Commodore 64 mode have a footprint in this post, below. where one would reasonably expect a footprint to be.

surely, yes, to confirm what those of you with keen eyes shall already have detected, this month sees the beauty of Lyttelton Harbour. with air travel set to be a thing of the past, presumably views like the above will be he first such experience visitors have of New Zealand. much nicer than an airport, which would generally (worldwide) be full of miserable staff employed by horrible companies.

would there be any dates, anniversaries or things like that of consequence this month? ones which might be worth (even the briefest) pause for thought? indeed there are. here, for your consideration, are some of them.

1 - a very happy birthday indeed to Marvin Cabrera, widely considered to be the best, greatest and most important Mexican footballer ever, born on this day in 1980. yes, in Mexico.

thanks Hefebreo

2 - this day, in 1989, saw The Stone Roses by The Stone Roses released. rather not read anything i or anyone else could say of the album, just listen to it.

3 -  it was on this day in 1978 (nineteen seventy eight, for clarification) that the first ever go at spam email happened. rather than being of the nature we know it now (cock pills, "SEO" or Russian brides) it was off of someone called the Digital Equipment Corporation, and was sent to every known at that time equivalent of email address in the world.

4 - yes, it's Star Wars day, but never mind that now. on this day in 1986 it was revealed, around tea time on a fine sunday afternoon, that enough members of the British public had purchased either the 7" or the 12" (or both) of Rock Me Amadeus by Falco (of Austria) to make it the number one single of the week. also, Snooker Loopy by Chas and Dave and some snooker players went straight into the chart at the coveted 37 position. more? sure, The Chicken Song off of Spitting Image also made its debut on the chart, at 11.

5 - Napoleon, inventor of the water slide, occasional Emperor of Europe and short dead French dude, did indeed die on this day in history, 1821 to be precise.

8 - two dudes, Reinhold and Peter, got to the top of Mount Everest without "supplemental" oxygen on this day in 1978. presumably they just relied on that oxygen what everyone else does. whereas mounting everest is undoubtedly fun and shall forever conjure fond memories, i don't see what the fuss is about walking up some (admittedly quite big) hill without any extra equipment.

stunning picture courtesy of Luca Galuzzi

11 - so long, and thanks for all the fish. one of the truly greatest, most beautiful comedic minds in British or World history, Douglas Adams, left us on this day in 2001.

12 - meanwhile on this day in 1991 it was so that Shiny Happy People by a then still relatively obscure band called R.E.M. entered the UK singles chart at number 35. they would, i am led to believe, go on to do better songs and get higher chart positions.

15 - Abraham Zapruder was born on this day in 1905. for those unaware (or simply don't know), he was the (i am sure co-incidental) Russian chap that happened to record the only known footage of JFK's assassination. Zapruder would also go on to die in Dallas, but presumably not in such similar dramatic fashion.

fair and reasonable use of image

17 - in a move that many would question why it took so long, whilst others would ask why they did it, it was on this day in 1990 that the World Health Organization officially removed homosexuality from the list of "known psychiatric diseases". just dig what you dig, and be excellent to each other.

19 - duel of the fates indeed, for it was on this day in 1999 that Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace was released. whilst it disappointed some, and angered one or two very rabid "fanboy" types living in Momma's basement in Wisconsin (or similar), it's nowhere near as bad as some make out, and remains totes fun to watch. also, i am pretty sure that this was the first ever "pirate vcd" that i ever encountered.

20 - well, hello sailors! today is european maritime day. on this day, citizens of europe, of their own free will but encouraged by the european council of the european union, are encouraged to observe and be acutely aware of how important the seas and oceans are.

22 - the Trevi fountain was unveiled to the public on this day in 1762. yes, in Rome, where it is to this day. despite being lovely, it was more or less ignored and forgotten about for just north of 200 years, until Holly Johnson drew world attention to it by mentioning it in his solo single Love Train.

24 - back (rather than forward) in 1962, what many consider to be the best, greatest and most important ever episode of Music For Guitar With John Williams was broadcast in the UK. for those with an ability to time travel, details below.

27 - g'day, what a lovely, lovely day for today is the day which is the birthday of the vastly talented, wonderful Neil Finn out of Split Enz, Crowded House and, most recently, Fleetwood Mac. in respect of the latter, it is unknown how he survived trial by Stevie Nicks, but we can only hope he is ok and endured the experience.

29 - Irene Cara, in a very real sense, entered the UK singles chart on this day in 1983 with the completely class song that is Flashdance. what a feeling indeed. much of the welding i have done over the years was inspired by this song.

but, as ever (or as usual) my advice is not to worry so much about other events and things in the world, rather dwell upon that which is important to you. although it is entirely possible your own dates of importance and things highlighted here overlap. if you are for some reason really bothered about Falco, for instance, or if you happen to be Neil Finn. or Tim Finn, i suppose, and are glad of the reminder to get a birthday card in the post, not that he would forget to do so. they do strike me as being very civil, proper and polite, that lovely Finn family.

meanwhile, yes, some of you will want to know what is on the poundland £1 Star Wars calendar, bought for £1, this month, with this month being May. and here you go.

yes, it's the quasi hispanic talking frog from Star Wars for the month. great, that is. in terms of popular culture, on the all important list of best and most important imaginary frogs in society it is so that for quite some time Yoda, for that is what this frog is called, ranked 4th. he (or she) sat behind Kermit out of Muppets, the frogs out of Frog Chorus off of Sir Paul McCartney and Rupert, and the frog out of Frogger the arcade game. actually, there was a seven or eight year stint when Yoda leapfrogged (ha ha am i not witty and clever with words) into third place due to dwindling interest in the Frogger arcade game. normality was restored, however, when a massive revival of interest in Frogger happened due to that smart episode of Seinfeld where George expressed his passion for the game.

now, of course, he, she or it is down to fifth place, with fourth place presently being occupied by the so-called "new Yoda", the so-called "baby Yoda" out of The Mandalorian. but still, you know, he, she or it still has a lot of fans, and being declared the fifth best imaginary frog is no disgrace, actually it is quite a position of prestige. well, for those who take time out from pondering other matters in their existence to consider the subject of imaginary frogs.

well, anyway, that would be that for this. once again i am not sure why anyone feels it is easier to use a poorly framed image of one of my calendars than it is to have their own, but you are very welcome to do so.




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