when i look back upon my life it's always with a sense of shame

howdy pop pickers

yes, indeed i am (quite) aware of how the title for all of this (if you read on) is totes from a different song and a different artist. just seemed (or felt) apt, look you see. 

further indeed this is a post (yet again, or once more) concerning Derek "David" Bowie. is it is so that for the particular date this is published i always consider something of more personal significance. my imagination, in this instance, stretched all the way to exploring the "how and why" of me becoming a Bowie fan. there is every chance such is of little or no interest to anyone, but, well, here it is. not that i have ever wished to understand it, but who knows, with the clock ticking and the little green wheels following me, might be of some (passing) interest to someone. 

so, allowing for an awareness of Bowie before this, that moment, some 41 (!) years ago, was the coming to my ears (and indeed eyes) the song Blue Jean.

remember all too well, i do, the heavy promotional advertising what Channel  (of at the time four channels) did to announce they were exclusively screening something called Jazzin' For Blue Jean, which was a short film about a new song off of that David Bowie. so, i watched it, on a portable tv in my bedroom. 14" screen, if i recall. didn't think to video it. this is a video i have written of before, and if i remember will add links at the end. for the perspective of an 11 year old watching it, some of it was quite boring, some of it funny (the Frankie t-shirt), some of it was confusing (why was this great pop star being presented as a bumbling idiot not very good with girls) and the song was ace. 

the song, if i am being honest (which i trust i am) was hugely influential on me. it's almost accurate to say that the lyrics (or the words i heard) came to define which way aspects of my life would take. that's a remarkable amount of weight that i am putting on not just a three minute pop song, but one that for some reason over the years many have discarded as "second rate" and what have you. 

oddly it's only in the last year (or so) that i have taken ownership of the song as a 7". i found it on the market and instantly purchased it, not caring for the price. but, anyway, those lyrics. 

she got a camouflaged face and no money

what i heard at the time, and it was more recent than you might think that i looked at the actual, proper lyrics, was "she got a camouflage face in my mind". hmn. i would not say that i came up with a better set of words than Bowie, but what i heard, incorrectly, had a massive impact. it was like, wow, what an amazing image to create, that's impressive describing someone as an ever present, hidden though in your mind. dare i say that was the first grasp at a definition of "love" i had encountered, or become aware of? find someone who you feel like that (misheard) lyric was to be my quest. 

one day i,m gonna write a poem in a letter

right, thank you Mr Bowie, so that's how it is done. when there's a girl you like then you send them a poem in a letter. and that's been my, for the real (true) want of a better phrasing, approach over the years. at first "borrowed" lyrics, then my own musings. mixed results, for those interested. some spectacular failures, but when it worked it did indeed work. 

perhaps, possibly, probably a combination of the above all indirectly led me to years of studying literature and having some consider me, no matter how bad the writing here often is, quite good at it. going to say it directly led to me doing so is inaccurate, for that is something i remain forever grateful to a very special teacher and good friend. 

for fun there's (yet) another image of the Tonight tape (actual) i pinched out of Dad's car. had i thought to pinch the box and cover too, well, who knows, maybe i would have learned the actual (proper) lyrics for Blue Jean and beyond. this tape has travelled far and wide with me. back in the 80s i used to play the start of side one, which was the equally brilliant Loving The Alien, then flip the tape over, rewind a bit and listen to Blue Jean. 

one day i'm gonna get that faculty together

woah, there! of course what 11 year old me heard was "i'm going to get the f*****g thing together". this impressed me no end. not the actual swearing (which did not exist), but the fact that you could swear on a song and, presumably if you were David Bowie, it would get played on the tele and on the radio, for it was all right as "David was doing it and he was allowed". impact on me of the misheard lyric was, once again, significant. not that i have always followed what i had learned from this line that did not exist, but it was saying to me it's ok to be critical of yourself, it's ok to gee yourself up and make you work towards what you wanted to be. 

since i mentioned the song, a brief detour for Loving The Alien. much of it was lost on 11 year old me, but it remained intriguing and frequently played. just not as much as Blue Jean did. to this day i am not sure i fully comprehend the song, yet consider it a masterpiece. well, special to me. 

the video for Blue Jean also set a level of expectation for what it was like in these "nightclub" places i had heard of, and yearned to be of an age to visit. yes, the bar was set quite high, then, and no, as it turned out, the clubs of Middlesbrough did not quite live up. oh well. it was all going to be glitzy and glamorous, apparently, with beautiful ladies just sat there in some contrived nonchalance, daring anyone around to try and impress them. for the most part what impressed me was the (i assumed) impromptu way all on the dancefloor followed the same dance patterns naturally. it felt like it would be wonderful as and when i would get to experience, that sense of belonging, of being not alone. 

certainly it was so that i eventually discovered nightclubs were not as were promised off of the video. no, far removed. i have no idea what they are like now, but soon i was faced with a reality of them being places where people went to get smashed, stoned, to f***, to fight, to fall either in or out of love and not appear top care which, or if you will they were a pool where one went not to bathe in the joy of life but rather momentarily drown the misery of it. quite a shame. 

hearing that dramatic, thunderous opening to Blue Jean never fails to lift my spirits. perhaps, in particular of late, i should really listen to it more. i really neither care nor mind that some elect to be dismissive of the song, each to their own and all that. for me Blue Jean was the moment i went "right, i was aware of him, now i am a fan" and certainly i was in for quite a ride when i undertook the odyssey of exploring his work before this. 

i am not sure i have worded this all as i would have wished, no clue if i have underlined the impact of this song and unaware of anyone having the slighted interest. but, there it is. as ever, my thanks for reading, or simply glancing at the pictures. 

unlikely, but if you wished to read even more of what i have written of Blue Jean, and the Tonight album (and also Loving The Alien), here's a few links 

mostly the Blue Jean video 

the Loving The Alien "bloody nose" oddity

random bowie Tonight post

and just because even more people unfairly sh!t on it like they do Tonight

the Tin Machine myth

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

trolley

now then

it does feel like quite some time - perhaps over a year, look you see - since i last wrote any thoughts or similar about seeing a shopping trolley in an unusual location. quite a lot of that would be down to not really noticing too many about no more, but also there is the fact that i have possibly exhausted all discourse or conversation (as one sided as it may be) in regards of them. 

go on then, since i have little else to write. i checked and it seems April 2023 was the last time i made reference to a trolley. blimey, that's nearly 2 years. for those who(m) insist on specifics, 22 months ago, give or take a few hours and days. either people are foolishly reading the signs which ask patrons to leave the trolleys (trollies) at the supermarkets or scrapyards are back in business accepting them for some lovely, lovely cash. 

oddly this post breaks a "thing" of mine. usually i try to avoid doing consecutive posts on a similar theme or subject. here, however, is a weird one. this trolley was located not too far from where i saw a goose of undetermined nationality (but likely Egyptian). a few steps away, as point of fact. so that kind of counts as a similar subject, i suppose. no, same setting is closer to accuracy. the writing is rather unlikely to get any more interesting, by the way. 

with the above in mind, yes, then, this was all in a rather if not posh then certainly wealthy area of that there London (innit). they would definitely prefer to be seen as posh, but as the sadly late David Lynch exposed one does not have to scratch too far below a surface to find not all is what it seems. my suspicion is that the residents of this area would claim to have never experienced the joys of pushing a trolley around, instead allowing their staff or "people" to do it. which potentially makes where this one came from, and how it ended up where it was, a slight mystery. 

above is, potentially, the single most pointless video i have ever added here. indeed i do appreciate the gravity or bold nature of such a statement, contemplating as i momentarily am some of the truly awful videos what i have added. little can be gained in terms of insight from watching the above, but then there may be some entertainment in trying to work out the shadowy figure moving in the background. yes, the shadowy nature is down to me using VHS mode, but still. 

did the trolley have anything of interest in it? considering how close this all was to the Thames i suspected a rat, a fox or indeed both may be in it or nearby, so elected not to go too close. from what i can see, and you may well be able to yourself in the picture below, it looks like a few cannisters which may have had some gas in them. perhaps this trolley, which i saw sat there for a couple of days untroubled, is a main distribution point for that "hippie crack" stuff so beloved by trendies, professional footballers and other, similar wastes of space. 

my days of wandering the wastelands of that there London (innit) are, for better or worse, to reach closing time quite soon. at least from a verk perspective. this is kind of the best of times, the worst of times. nothing lasts forever, if it proves to be so i shall miss certain aspects (many of them being entirely money) and other things i would not care to see or experience again. 

everyone, i think, should at least consider thinking (to borrow a phrase) about keeping a trolley at home. one could see it as a tribute to Dale Winton's Supermarket Sweep. failing that, there will always be a scrapyard with cash to buy it from you. see it as a kind of "crypto" thing, but actually of genuine value and a more realistic way of having something in the bank. 

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

goose

greetings

yes, then, as the title (kind of) gives every indication, this post concerns a goose what i gone done saw. well, ostensibly, look you see. sadly i think, mostly, this shall just showcase how bad the camera is on one of them "samsung galaxy" things, for the pics and videos are rather wanting. no idea how it is that they have become "market leaders". if you are going to weld a camera to a phone, at least make it a decent one. doesn't have to be fancy, just serviceable. 

my apologies for those of you who(m) saw the title and assumed that this would be about the goose, as in Goose out of Top Gun and, kind of, Top Gun Maverick. little i can immediately think of would bring me as much pleasure as writing of him, but i am doing this one now. 

for matters of provenance, yes, once more i was in that there London (innit) this was for a verk concern, and yes it will be quite likely that the majority of my days will be there for the year (2025). as most of you shall have worked out i was "north of the river". on stepping outside my hotel momentarily to do a certain thing (sorry) i could not help notice this goose. well, it would be hard to miss. he, she or it, whichever is right, was sort of mooching around, picking at the occasional bit of lawn for reasons i am not sure of but likely relate to food. 

it may (or might) be a good idea to take in that image above again, really. as suggested, or directly stated at the start, the quality of the visuals here is not so good. indeed such could be said to be true of any images what i have recorded and added here over the last 20 (!) or so years, but still. please, LG, start making phones again, yours were class and the best i had used in the "touchscreen" era. 

above is one of two (2) video things i took, with the second (of two) being below. if there's any issue with focus or what have you and you are all that bothered it is samsung you want to tell all about it. now that i think about it i am sure their slogan was, once, "the quest for zero defects". presumably they remain steadfast on that quest, with the completion a fair way off. 

there was some surprise (since things get worse when i try and zoom in) that i could get as close as i did to this goose. i had no wish to startle it, for the goose was simply doing goose things. or what i take to be goose things, i am no expert. also i had no wish to get knacked off of the goose. not sure if they are quite so territorial as a swan would be, or as vicious, but it did not occur to me to find out. 

what "sort" of goose was this? as in which "breed" or even species if that is the proper, more better term to use for an unsolicited presumed question? owing to what little knowledge i had of potential types of geese in the area i initially assumed one of them Canadian geese. a proper one, mind, and not one of the ones off of Canada that for some reason think it quite class to be French. my research on that google thing, however, gave every indication that such geese had a much darker top of head and eye area. 

my thanks to a good friend, though, with who(m) i shared the (at a push) better quality image with, long before i added all this here. it is her considered and learned opinion that i had, as point of fact, had a chance encounter with an Egyptian goose. does every single country on the planet have a type of goose named after them? no idea, but it would be boss if it were so. 

exactly how does an Egyptian goose, or a cleverly disguised Canadian goose, end up wandering the somewhat expensive wastelands of the northern side of the Thames? not sure, but i do have a vague theory. it strikes me that there's an alarming number of people in that there London (innit) with vast wealth and little to do with their time. would not at all surprise me to learn that one of them had gone right ahead and imported some, setting them free, as a simple matter of something to do to pass their time. since, on my experience (limited as it is), the one goose has no quarrel with this, no real harm done, except the momentary bewilderment of asking why. 

here's hoping i get to see some more kind of interesting things and share them here. otherwise, well, if you opt to read the usual stuff i do, thanks for doing so. 

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

nosferatu

hello there

and so my somewhat unexpected interest in going to the cinema last year (2024) continues into this one, look you see. with me ending up being based, for a week, near a cinema within walking distance, off i went to go and see (at this moment in time) a fairly recent release. true, i wasn't all that bothered about seeing Nosferatu, but the reviews were rather good. should you be in a rush, i am glad that i did, for it is a fine if not radically life changing film. 

if you are wanting plot details, essentially (as in actually) it's a slightly altered version of Dracula. for some reason the current "myth" being floated is that Nosferatu was a German story which "just so happened" to come along around the time of Dracula. not so, except the German bit. it was a deliberate and flagrant rip off, which a court confirmed when the makers got sued for copyright. you could do worse than read up on it all as it's quite interesting. 

the ever so slight spin to the usual plot here (and by the way, spoilers from here on out) is that in the first instance it is the central female character, Ellen, who "summons" the vampire into existence, kind of out of boredom. oddly, actually, the spin works. beyond that, much the same. 

yes, then, once again it was off to the Ealing Project to see the film, where i went several (i think actually seven) times last year. it is still so that Tuesday is an agreeable "half price", which meant in coins £7.50 for the ticket. regular (or medium) popcorn and a large (actually massive) coke came in at £9. also they had a sign up which indicated that the air conditioning was busted. not a problem, and i figured that i would just take my jumper off if it got too hot. alas, as it turned out the aircon was busted in the other direction, and it felt like we were all sat in a fridge watching the film. kind of apt, since i am reluctant to say "cool", way to watch a gothic film. 

when the film started i had a bit of a "meh" sense. the leads, Lilly-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult, at first felt they were a little wooden, and nightmares of Keanu Reeves "doing" an English accent came to mind. as it all progressed, however, fears went away. the performances were accurate to the characters, and not (thankfully) a sort of odd tribute to the somewhat weak parts of the otherwise superb Dracula of 1993 (or thereabouts). 

on that note, the vampire, here named Orlok, was given the "less is more", hidden in the shadows approach. very wise, really, as to play a full tilt, charismatic, out in the open variation of the character is to invite comparisons to Gary Oldman and, of course, Christopher Lee. few mortals can do well in such a comparison. Bill Skarsgård does fine in the role as it was done. standout for me was Simon McBurney who was outstanding as Knock, the enslaved servant to the vampire. in respect of the main cast draw, Willem Dafoe does his thing. i liked the approach they took with the "vampire hunter", not making him a noisy loud eccentric, rather a highly educated man who had seen enough to know that so much more lurks in the places we cannot, or dare not, see. 

my main thoughts on what makes this film so good is its pacing. that may sound strange, but bear with. the only real flaw with what was probably my "best" film of last year, The Substance, was that the wrong bits were either dragged out or rushed. over the course of north of two hours Nosferatu manages to successfully hold audience attention, no matter how familiar one is with the story, by delivering a superb example of how to structure and pace a motion picture. that's what overall elevates this to being a really good film. student learning their craft would, from my audience perspective, do well to study how this was put together. 

further there was, unexpectedly, quite a bit of nudies (female) on the go. this was a very welcome surprise, except for the one bit of nudies what featured (and you sort of had a spoiler warning) rats. also there were one or two scenes featuring special effects which suggested that those what made this had seen both The Evil Dead and The Exorcist and liked what they saw. 

no idea what film next, or when i shall next be close enough to the cinema. from what i can remember of the trailers Sinners looks excellent, Mickey 17 looks really funny and Wolf Man might be all right, if unlikely to rival any of my favourite werewolf films. 

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

air max

howdy

if you are surprised that i am doing a post on some new shoes so soon after the last one on the very same subject (link, look you see) then i am too. whereas nothing overtly bad or untoward happened with the last pair, all the same it was so that i needed new ones. undoubtedly i shall reference such as we go. 

as the title gives every (and all) indication of, indeed i am now the owner of a pair of air max shoes, or trainers (or "kicks" as one good friend called them) off of nike. my surprise here is twofold, if that does in fact mean there are two aspects to it. first off that they were available in my size was a new one, and the second thing would be that they were if not "affordable" then relatively within a kind of impromptu cost that i felt kind of comfortable paying. 

to address the first element of surprise there, well, us of a larger disposition (or whatever you wish to call it) do struggle. my size 13 (!) feet generally means my choice of quality footwear is limited to one of two pairs a shop may have. by the way, that size (according to the box) translates as being 14 in the realm of America, and some arbitrary, stupid made up number in the frankly ludicrous way them over in that mainland Europe (EU and beyond) give shoe measurements. one suspects the limitation on choice i and others face is economics. with the vast majority of people in this world having feet what measure a 12 or below ("fewer") it is not cost effective to make too many larger. this is of course different to other garments, in particular shirts, where the "well known" brands don't make sizes beyond 2xl. quite frankly that's all prejudice; the companies do not want large people wearing their clothes. 

yes it was quite by chance, and some strategic placing in the shop, that i saw these. having not ever seen a fancier pair of trainers in my size available before normally it would not occur to me to look at the more designer section of shoes in a shop. but, i did, i found them, and here we well and truly are. 

so how are they? well, with so many pictures uploaded i would not wish to jettison all i had to say in one paragraph, as easier as that might be for you. overall i have found the shoes closer to acceptable than agreeable. they do just about all asked of them, so not bad, but also not the single greatest pair of shoes what i have ever come to own. 

for some of you it is so that partially provenance and mostly price shall be of some interest. to commence with the least interesting part the provenance is, of course, Sports Direct. it may well be so that some have quarrels with the way that nice Mike Ashley does things, but to be fair his celebrated store is just about the only one where i can walk into an actual shop and find at least one pair of shoes what will fit me. virtually every other purveyor of shoes just tell me that for my size i shall have to order them online. i get that mine is an out of the ordinary size and space for storage is limited, but is it all that bad an idea to keep at least one serviceable pair in a non-standard size? 

coin cost, as is surprisingly clear in the above VHS mode image, was £70. indeed i did wince a bit, and have a little cry. my understanding, though, was that these shoes normally cost well north of £100, as is somewhat clarified by that close enough to £115 price at the bottom right. ultimately, as i shall get to quite soon, i really needed new shoes, and so despite some hesitation elected to make the proprietor of this famous store just that little bit richer. 

not at all sure why they are called air "max". is it that they do an air "standard"? or even a "minimum" variation of these? possibly do, but i did not think to look in the shop. 

often i have been guilty of seeking to get certain things on when cheap despite it being an act of folly to do so. i am sure i am not alone. yes, it's lovely to get things cheap, but in some instances that saying of you get what you pay for is true. when it's a physical comfort thing, like shoes or even something like a mattress, buying silly cheap usually means an inferior product which shall do a job but not be at all beneficial to your wellbeing. no, i mean don't immediately buy the most expensive of everything, just that the default "the cheapest will do" is not always the wisest. 

what, exactly, happened to the previous pair? should you have missed it above, here is the link to my celebration of that pair. frankly they were a disaster. not long after purchase and wearing them they, or at least the left one, commenced making a hideous squeaking noise. also, not that you can really make it out in the above (VHS mode) image, they just soon embraced a look of being all busted. to be honest, the appearance was of them being like i had ritualistically slaughtered a cow (or similar), roughly cut some hide and tried to stitch it together. yes, they were also nike, which i kind of forgot when i went right ahead and bought another pair. 

do you want to know what has happened to that pair? off they go on an adventure. i have diligently placed them in a receptacle which implies they will be "recycled". my understanding of what that involves means one of two paths lay ahead of these shoes. either they will be thrown into some sort of landfill site or incinerator in our country, or we will pay a developing / emerging nation (once they were called third world but that is now deemed prejudicial) an awful lot of money to take them and similar items, and then they will either throw them in an incinerator or more likely dump them in a quiet area of an ocean. wonderful how our enlightened world works.  

easily the most controversial aspect of these shoes is the "gel heel" thing. i believe, but do not know as fact, that this is what makes them "air max". my suspicion is that this is a clever marketing ploy, whereby they sell you around 25% less ("fewer") shoe for more money, making the claim that it is quite class to have that there. no, this scheme is not unique to the shoe industry. think of the music business, for instance, where some record labels will sell you albums by the likes of Ed Sheridan (or whatever) or the former (ex) Mr Kym Kardassian (or whatever) instead of actual, proper music. 

quite problematic, really, this "gel heel" thing. i did not really expect to have to deal with all sorts of administration matters with a new pair of shoes, but here i am. obviously this gel thing isn't marketing, with it giving my performance (so to speak) a real boost. so far i have informed the IOC of my purchase and, as expected, i am no longer allowed to compete in the Olympics due to the significant edge i have. so far them what do the Commonwealth Games have been partially more reasonable. a lot of noise is on the go about how Tyson Fury opted to retire from boxing around the time i got these shoes, but that's a bit unfair. people need to stop calling him a coward, there wasn't much beyond some provisional talks in regards of a potential bout. 

i do indeed have quibbles with these shoes beyond the (not unfair) Olympic ban and being excluded from the chance of getting my f*****g head caved in by the self-styled "gypsy king". for a start they have more white elements than i really considered. annoyingly it's "shiny" white that nike have gone for, rather than a dull or if you will "off sh!t" white. this is distracting as i walk along, especially with my special stride, or strut if you like. the laces are them avant garde, oooh look at me threaded ones, which just easily tether or snap. and no, they are nowhere near as comfortable as sketchers, but the only ones of them they had close to my size were those ridiculous, stupid "slip on" ones. still, already one or two ladies have conversed with me, saying they like the shoes, so there we go. what, exactly, would i have done with a gold medal anyway? 

my simple, earnest hope would be that these shoes last (considerably) longer than the previous pair. which, in practical terms, means that best they be useable for at least four (4) months, and by that i mean no development of a distressed look and very much no annoying squeaky noises. but that said, yes, assuming i make it that far, i would not be surprised to bring news of yet more new shoes later on in this very year. 2025, for clarification. 

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

now that now have stopped doing now

howdy pop pickers

bit of a peculiar one, this. ultimately, or realistically, i have gone done that thing of spending real coins of money for, mostly, the sake of a blog post, look you see. one may argue it was "only £5", but still. at the time of doing so it felt vaguely interesting, but now i am not so sure. well, you decide, if you read on after me doing a stellar job selling it. 

mostly this relates to the compilation Now That's What I Call Music 18, or if you will Now 18 as it appears to have been most commonly abridged to. it does not feel all that long ago when i got it and did the usual, obligatory post on it. yes, here is the link to it. whilst it wasn't the single greatest compilation of vibes ever to exist it also wasn't that bad, and a surprising reminder that there were indeed some pretty decent songs in the first couple of years of the 90s when memory suggested it was a bit of a wasteland. 

for quite some time - say the last 6 of them, possibly 8 - these Now re-releases on tape (disc) have had a bit of a pointless feel to them. granted the music on them has been occasionally excellent, but they were issued on compact disc at the time. it was great to get the earlier volumes, never put out on disc, and there was some surprise that they just went on and on re-issuing more and more. just for the curiosity of it all, then, i picked up an original issue of Now 18 down the market. 

no less than two (2) major issues have been widely commented on with all these re-releases. the first, and the most disappointing, is that "different versions" (or if you will mixes) have been used. easily the big one here was on Now III, where they used the "standard" 7" mix of Frankie's Two Tribes when the original release had the somewhat different "picture disc" 7". the other issue was that the sets were coming out not as exact Now replicas, for some songs were missing. in one instance it was so that they elected to exclude a not particularly memorable single from Sir Gary Glitter for not unreasonable and somewhat understandable reasons. other than that one it seems tracks got excluded from that pain in the backside of the modern world, "rights and royalties" issues. 

whereas i had not (reasonably) expected to ever play Now 18 again, the lure of getting the original issue of it was obviously irresistible, hence me having something to write of. the re-issued version of 18 excluded (or if you prefer) omitted four (4) from the original release. if you are interested in learning which ones are missing you can play "spot the difference" with the image below, or scroll down a bit more and i shall list them for you.

so, to confirm the difference you spotted, or just to tell you, the missing songs are - 

The Joker off of Steve Miller Band (think it was used in a Levi's jeans ad)

Something Happened On The Way To Heaven off of Phil Collins

Suicide Blonde off of INXS

Fascinating Rhythm off of Bass-O-Matic (no, me neither)

i really have no clue how, exactly, all that rights and permission stuff works, but the omitted tracks are quite strange when compared to what remains. again, no expert, but i would have thought securing the use of songs by the likes of Elton John, Pet Shop Boys, Sting and The Cure (plus others) would be as problematic (and by that i mean costly) as the ones missed off. also i would have assumed that including Nothing Compares 2 U would have been a battle, for a Sinead O'Connor recording of a Prince song doesn't particularly sound cheap to licence. 

a trademark, hallmark or signature move of the Now re-releases and "issued on CD for the first time" experience has been the "cheap and cheerful" nature. up above is that illustrated for you. the booklets with the "new" ones are just one folded thing, with the text below the artist images being so small you can't really read them. for the original issues, as you can hopefully make out, the wisely and kindly went and made proper booklets, so you may read provenance and chart history of the songs.

how does the sound quality differ between the two version of Now 18. to be honest i have a quite decent Sony "ghettoblaster" which does the job but isn't in the hundreds or thousands of pounds area of music equipment you need to tell that much of a difference. also no, i would not know how to do an "analysis" of the discs on a computer. others have claimed that the re-issues have effectively been little better than putting some mp3s on a CD-R, but i don't know. both sound decent. 

if they have indeed cancelled all future re-releases (i believe so but don't have it confirmed as fact) why now? not sure. there were "logical" points at which to stop, being the point at which they reached never before on CD, or when they reached volume 10 (ten), or when they arrived at the end of the 80s. a speculative guess would be the latter is of some relevance, likely that sales dropped off significantly with the last few, as i suspect there's nowhere near the viable size market for nostalgia for the early 90s as exists for pretty much all of the 80s. 

should it really be so and the Now re-issues have ceased, well, that's me not feeling obliged to purchase them any further. they weren't badly priced at around £8 a go, to be fair. also my all time favourite one of the series, Now That's What I Call Music 4, somehow got released more or less exactly as it was the first time around. oh, they are continuing to release variations on compilations, with some new collections being called Now That's What I Call and then whatever the link or year is. every now and then i pick these up, depending on the track list. 

overall, if this really is it for the re-issues, it's been a really fun journey. not just a nostalgia thing, but rather (if there is a difference) a wonderful memory jog, with some stuff being surprisingly better than i would have recalled. unless i am just a bit more mellow in my three quarters life crisis. 

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

koala endorsement

g'day

i would, truth be told, suspect that it is no bold action on my behalf to suggest that few, if any, of you are even in the slightest interested in what goes on in my bathroom. doubtful there is much concern either, look you see. rather unfortunate, then, that the only thing i have to write of momentarily pertains to the purchase of an item which (conventionally, at the least) is used in the bathroom.

for context, as some of you are (vaguely) aware my verk adventures are of a nature which see me spend quite little time at home, my lodgings in this era of exile. i would not care to speculate on exact numbers, except i shall. at a guess well north of one half of a calendar year sees me away. it may well be closer to two thirds, or if you like 66%. the relevance of this is that i don't usually need or require all that much in the way of "the basics" at home. for example i have just bought a "mega xl" pack of them washing pods which (for some reason) American kids got all excited about eating a couple of years ago. such a pack would likely last a usual household 3 or so months, but for me i would reasonably expect that the number of pods in the pack (north of 50) shall last the year. 

normally i have a reasonably good sense of when i need to stock up on things such as, for example and also specific here, toilet paper. just before the most recent Christmas (2024) it turned out i had oddly miscalculated how much i had. despite not running out (fairly close but still) i made a solemn pledge, or if you will vow, to ensure such was avoided again. which has led to a change in direction. 

yes, i have indeed changed brands. well, no, you would not be aware of what my "usual" brand was, and as per the above i genuinely suspect you are not at all interested. for clarity, though, normally i would have purchased the celebrated Andrex brand. this was not from any particular preference, or any sense of loyalty to the brand. in the days when she was with us and i went to do some shopping Gran had a preference for a particular type of Andrex, and i kind of just always bought the same for myself, since it seemed all right. 

with my penchant for all (legal) things koala, actually i suppose in retrospect (rather than some tales of future legend) it is a surprise it has taken me so long to switch to Cushelle. much like how Iman, EMI and the Bowie Estate have clocked writing "Bowie" on something (anything) is a pretty good way to extract money from me, from a branding perspective putting a picture of a koala on something is quite a good way to get me to buy it. 

there was no general dissatisfaction or argument with Andrex, by the way. just a simple, straightforward economic argument for changing brand. a certain supermarket (it starts and ends with l) gave a generous discount on the Cushelle ones, and then gave an even more generous discount on my shopping entire. in actual and real terms (or possibly either/or) i think the net (or gross) cost (or spend) for me to have a go at some Cushelle toilet paper was south of £2. for that money i got a lot. 

absolutely not is the answer to any question you may have in regards to (or in respect of) exactly how long i believe it shall take me (and the quite rare visitor) to get through 24 rolls of koala endorsed Cushelle toilet paper. for a more general, quasi thumb suck guess, i would be somewhat surprised if i needed to purchase more at any point of the first half of this year (2025). it might be that in the time between the Glastonbury corporate weekend and the Oasis shenanigans i will note a depletion of my stock, but that would (i suspect) be dependent on how much time i am actually at home before then and, well, exactly how much of it i propose to use. 

switching (and this is a rare if not serious then not intended to be humorous observation, yes i know i am rarely funny) brands is a decidedly risky move when it comes to personal, or if we are honest intimate, intended use items. we are creatures always seeking comfort, and that is no criticism. one generally sticks with a brand because they know it and are comfortable with it. outside of companies ceasing to make stuff (i refer you to my Dad and his beloved love bead toothpaste, search away) it would be usual only for people to switch such brands for economic reasons. to evidence that, well, look at my plight with illicit (ahem, sorry, independently imported and distributed) cigarettes. gone is the financial ability to enjoy Marlboro Red all day every day, here is an era of goodness knows what i am smoking on the cheap but it gets the job done. 

once more i state that i would take as a given no one shall have much interest (if any) in this, but then again if you have read all the way to this point my thanks for doing so. as of yet no, i have not actually tried this new toilet paper (i was not so close to running out as i thought), and also no, i shall not be sharing any sort of performance review here. sorry for that. 

be fair dinkum to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

педалі ротманаў

прывітанне

despite being slender in the grander scheme of things (such as the whole world population, look you see) there are a surprising number of people who(m) do not wish me ill. certainly some of you reading that will consider them absurd, but still. if anything they wish me a much (more) better health in this life, and would like nothing more than me to abstain from (as in quit) smoking. up to now, alas, i have not really been able to meet this lovely wish. and no, i am not breaking news of me doing so. 

just a reminder, which very much echoes the above, that smoking is quite bad for you. if you do smoke, seek help, guidance and assistance in quitting, even if i do not. also don't start doing it. there, that shall do as some form of disclaimer. 

a "thing" what people do with the coming of a new year is to make resolutions. for some reason the vast, if not overwhelming, majority of people what do so elect to do so for positive reasons. why does no one ever declare a wish to be more harmful, or eviler, for the year ahead? quite a few end up being this, after all. no matter, and in moving on many, of course, go "new year, new me", and decide that this new year is the year in which they shall quit smoking. such is to be applauded and encouraged. 

well, no, i have done no such thing. i cannot recall ever making any resolution, although now i think i did, a couple of years ago, set myself a target of reaching my bestest ever score on River Raid. having managed to do that really early in that year, the remainder of it was a bit of a breeze. 

on something of a whim, though, i have, it would seem, made a slight adjustment to my choice of smoking product. well, sure, still cigarettes, but different. from an independent distributor, with who(m) i believe i have a good working relationship, i have taken quite a shine to some Rothmans cigarettes. not really "regular" ones, but smaller, thinner ones which have one of them "click balls". that last aspect makes them all the more illicit, then, as for some reason flavoured or "menthol" cigarettes are entirely banned, rather than just taxed beyond any rational level. 

these are not the cheapest independently distributed (ahem) cigarettes available. for a price guide these are costing me £6 a pack, which is £1 a pack more than "regular" independently procured ones. in a sense yes i am paying more for less (or "fewer"), but still paying considerably less than "proper" overtly taxed ones from regular shops. which can't sell this type. 

for scale, then, one of these cigarettes next to a tape. yes, if you are saying that's a really, really smart looking tape, i agree. quite likely it would be (much) more better for me to have put a standard cigarette next to this one for a better scale sense, but, well, i didn't.

provenance of these cigarettes? yes, i know they are "fags", but i get into a lot of needless silly bother when i use the proper name, for our friends in America have a different understanding of that word. going on the lettering (or text) on the packets i had a wild guess that they might be off of Russia or Greece, and it turns out i was somewhat close with half of that. some (quite) small print in the lid of the packs has a vague web address. i didn't visit the site but some research suggests these, despite being branded as Rothmans of London (innit), are off of Belarus. oh. not ideal, since that means i am likely and inadvertently funding some Russian concern, but go ahead and take that up with them what put such ridiculous tax and "duty" on similar products here in England. 

review? they are actually a decent, if somewhat lighter than i would usually have, cigarette. no real insane overwhelming sense of chemicals and toxins when you smoke them, which isn't always the case when indulging in other independent cigarettes. on pressing (or "clicking") the red dot on the filter the cigarette flavour changes to an unexpectedly enjoyable cherry like one. 

up to now these are the only cigarettes what i have smoked this year (2025). well, no, not just four packs, these are showcased purely as they have the "least worse" warning images on them. i suspect that i might have some "proper" (albeit independently procured) sized cigarettes soon, but these are pleasant thus far. 

i would be reluctant to deliver any sort of "hope" or positive signs for those that happen to wish i remained a concern and further would (very much) like me to quit smoking, but these ones have got me giving some consideration to trying all that "vape" thing again. right now i am enjoying inhaling and exhaling this cherry flavoured stuff. isn't that what "vaping" amounts to? let me, at the least, give you assurance that i am considering it. now if they came up with a perfect, spot on Marlboro vape, well, all this would be academic and it would be a done deal. 

once again, in closing, a reminder that smoking is quite bad for you, and if you do smoke then please consider quitting. should you not smoke, really, don't start. 

будзьце выдатнымі адзін да аднаго!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

laundry visit

hello there

my instinct is to say (or write, if you will) that if you were looking to spend some time reading all about something that is mundane or of little interest then you have reached the right place. however, on reflection, i just might try and make this of some vague use, look you see. 

as the title not so much suggests as it does state i made a visit to a laundry service recently. no, this year has not commenced in a way which was quite so exciting as last. the reason for this visit, other than the obvious, was to get some bedding washed. for day to day laundry concerns i have agreeable ways to wash and subsequently dry clothes in my lodgings in my place of exile. it is simply not so that i can do bedding in such a way, for there is no practical means to dry it. 

perhaps some of you are interested, if not intrigued, to know if i went full tilt Nick Kamen since i was in an appropriate place to do so. the answer is a straightforward no. other than me somewhat lacking the physique to do so, i also didn't have any Levi's on, and nor was there any classic music playing. where i reside is reasonably cosmopolitan, but i suspect that had i gone done Nick Kamen then the authorities would have been contacted and i would have been placed on some register or other. sorry.

how much did this laundry adventure cost me? and yes, i appreciate that's a definition stretching deployment of the word adventure. well, the wash element cost £5.50 and the drying element cost me £3.50, so a flat £9 in total. this cost did not seem unreasonable when various factors are considered. such factors would be needing to get the bedding washed, relevant equipment for doing so available, maintenance and business costs, energy use, etc. or not etc, as that's about it. for comparison, of sorts, when i dropped off a similar number of bedding items at a laundry in Ealing the fee, bearing in mind we speak of London (innit) was north of £20. on one (1) instance William agreed to do my bedding for a fee close to what Ealing charges, but he grew tired of doing it. not that i go through all that much in the way of bedding, but still. 

for some form of "practical" information here, on an energy cost basis to do washing and drying at home would be somewhat cheaper. some brisk, quick internet research, and do be mindful of how energy prices are not fixed and we are in some crisis or other, suggests that the wash would have cost around £1, whereas the tumble dryer run time would have cost £1.50. that, however, is reliant on one having both a washing machine and tumble dryer at home. such equipment is not cheap. i would reasonably expect one would have to make an outlay of around a grand (£1,000) to get a decent one of each type of machine. 

just how many loads of washing and drying would one need to do to "negate" (or balance out) the cost of the most modest priced laundry service i could find? not really sure. i could try and work it out but it feels like a bit of a headache, especially when you factor in maintenance and what have you. also fluctuating energy costs over time. hang on, i think i can sort of work it out, but first some video. 

exactly how useless the camera on one of these Samsung A14 (or whatever it is) phones is appears to be rather exemplified by the above, does it not. around ten (10) seconds of footage and it is incapable of staying, or remaining, in focus. oh well, perhaps some of you like such video clips. 

right, is using a laundry (like what i gone done) ultimately more cost effective than doing it at home? let us assume that i would do one (1) load a week, and leave transportation costs out of it since it's all in walking distance. factoring in the cost of washing pods and (likely) fluctuations in energy costs, that more or less (kind of) comes in at £550 a year, or "per annum" for those what like to sound quite posh. ergo, or rather very roughly, it would likely take one north of two (2) years to "break even" on buying a washing machine and tumble dryer and just doing it at home. but then you have to factor in convenience and all that. with this, of course, being based on the laundry of one (1) person, moi. 

to state the obvious (for those who require such) the above is "more the vibe of it" than any sense of a fact based conclusion. still, it enabled me to write of this laundry visit in a more facts and figures, if not particularly interesting, way than i had expected. 

what did i do as the laundry equipment did its thing? read, actually. those of you who(m) for some reason read this blog on a regular basis (thank you for doing so) shall be aware that of late, as in the last year, i have had a "drop off" in interest in reading. merrily the book i have selected to read now is most engrossing and enjoyable. also i nipped in a nearby shop to get a drink (sadly no coffee available, it may well be i take a flask next time) and i think that's about it. 

not entirely sure at this stage if i can commit to making sure any further adventures (or exploits) during the year (2025) ahead will be more interesting than this. well, i have at least 4 (four) gigs booked at this stage, with not a single one of them being Oasis. presumably at least one of them might be a bit more exciting than the laundry. a temptation exists to write here of how, unexpectedly and potentially inexplicably, actually the laundry visit was more interesting than the James gig last year, so probably for the best if i just sign off now. 

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

hope is the future with oceans of cheer

howdy pop pickers

yes, indeed i am aware that there's a certain other event of (significant) music meaning for me which happened on this day, with the date today being the tenth of january. i do, however, believe that Bowie gets quite frequent mentions here, look you see. giving over one day to Frankie doesn't seem all that much in the grans scheme of things. 

once again it was so that i said "no", there's nothing left for me to say or share in regards of the day when i went and gone done saw Frankie live. with my Uncle, of course (no, the other one). but then i got messing about with an older "netbook" device, needing some file or other from it, and there sat the bootleg tape (transferred to mp3) of the actual gig i was at. also sat there was the software to edit it down a bit, so as to present another song from the show. 

due, mostly, to the poor quality of the audio on the below video i am not too sure how much interest it shall be to anyone. for me that the recording exists at all is a happy thing, and that will suffice. i cannot confirm it but i am assuming someone bootlegged it on a very fancy walkman that had a microphone on it. believe me, this was not a standard feature of such devices. 

well, here you go, on the off chance you were at the Manchester G Mex (as it once was) on January 10 1987, behold the sound (on a black screen video as it is the only way i can add it here) of Frankie Goes To Hollywood (very much) doing Rage Hard. 

this song, Rage Hard, was famously the "comeback" single for the band. it came out in 1986, and was just about the first "new" thing heard from them since 1984. well, if you allow for the only release of 1985, the Welcome To The Pleasuredome single, being rather widely heard in the year before. a strange thing, for as exciting as their return was, it pretty much marked the start of the end. not sure exactly when in 1986 the single came out (i vaguely recall late summer), but within a year of it making it only to number 4 (four) in the charts, the band ceased to exist. oh. still, i got the chance to see them.

how and why did Frankie fall, or possibly fail? lots of reasons, with the most prominent and likely ones being related to how members of the band were not exactly keen to work together no more. personal and professional reasons, really, none of which are likely things i am best placed to write of. 

mostly, i think, it was that the fun element of the band had gone. sure, there were a few bits of fun hidden away, like the riotous tour of the twelve inch and Ped swearing on the b-side of the 12" single of Rage Hard, but it wasn't in your face. also, 86 was a time of colourful pop, overall. here came Frankie back with a single that had dowdy coloured fists on the cover, a not too much fun (yet still brilliant) song and a wish to be if not shades of grey then black and white. after four brilliant, iconic and in many instances groundbreaking promo videos, Frankie returned with a video that was effectively them stood on a bit of scaffolding, shouting and looking poignant. 

perhaps it was always meant to be that Frankie would personify the idea of how the light which burns twice as bright burns half as long. they did indeed burn so very bright. rather, perhaps, that the fell and disintegrated than plodded on in mediocrity. 

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

book reading

greetings

a peculiar thing to have happened over the last year or so is my experiencing a lack of interest in reading. not entirely sure you are interested in such a plight, but then again here you are reading this. moving away from that slight (sorry). can't really understand why. perhaps i have just been too busy, and vaguely social, look you see, to read, yet also i am aware of a lack of motivation to do so. i am not sure this is something to be concerned of, what with various medical concerns being warned of when one loses interest in things, or just me simply not being in the mood for reading. 

of more relevance, and quite possibly the reason you are here, is that i have done some reading, albeit taking far longer with it than usual. not, as i encourage people to see it, that it's a sort of race. as would be the standard for such posts i've finished off reading two (2) novels. and so for the sake of having something on this blog, here we go with my thoughts. 

keeping with the "tradition" or style of how i do these, this is to be the last paragraph which is certain to be free of spoilers. for a brief overview, the long awaited, much anticipated Year Of The Locust by Terry Hayes is sheer brilliance for about 400 pages and then isn't. one that somehow slipped me by on its original publication three (or so) years ago is The Twist Of A Knife off of Anthony Horowitz. it once again features the author himself as a quasi-fictional character and narrator. sadly this one is just a bit too much on the "meta" side of meta, which might well be why i didn't catch it on initial release. 

from here on out, then, one of them *** SPOILER WARNING *** things is very much in place. if you have an interest in either novel yet for some reason have paused to consider my view on either, well, you are best off working out if you should read them or not from the previous paragraph. 

such was the brilliance of Terry Hayes first novel, I Am Pilgrim, i was eager to read his next. just how eager is illustrated by how i very nearly bought the hardback, and then came close to getting the fancy digital "ebook", despite me not enjoying reading either of those formats. but, ultimately, i waited for the paperback of The Year Of The Locust. actually can't recall the provenance. most probably Tesco, and i will have bought it no matter if there was a "card member" discount or similar offer. 

plot? with mercy not a sequel, but a standalone thriller. sometimes i think authors in this weird century overlook that they can write a one off novel with no care or thought for follow ups or "expanded universe" shenanigans. oh yes, plot. 

the narrator / protagonist (of many names) is a "denied access agent", meaning he gets sent off to all sorts of dangerous places where the Americans aren't allowed an official presence but suspect that those places have some quite naughty people who mean to do harm to their way of life. it just so happens they stumble on some disturbing news, that a feared terrorist believed dead (nicknamed The Locust with an initial lack of name) is very much alive and planning a "major" strike on America. so off our narrator is sent to sort it out, kind of, with the plan being to discover what the event will be, stop it and if at all possible actually make sure this feared terrorist is dead. it doesn't all go smooth. 

i can comfortably say that the first 400 pages of this novel are superb. all of it is truly gripping, riveting reading, with some surprise twists and turns in the somewhat generic plot, all presented with some wonderful prose and exceptional turn of phrase. everything about the first 400 (or so) pages is very much something that makes a reader go "yes", and made the lengthy wait for the novel worthwhile. 

not so much the last 200+ pages. you all saw that spoiler warning, yeah? well, i am sure this has all been covered online over the last two or so years. there was a lengthy "delay" in the publication of the novel, and the excitement went away quite quickly when it came out. i would imagine the "delay" was due to publishers begging, pleading and insisting that the part where the novel goes "Hunt For Red October time travel what the f*** is this a rewrite of The Final Countdown film" be changed, and that the novel not become some ludicrous, ineffective science fiction mess. alas, and sadly, The Year Of The Locust becomes the personification of how "subvert audience expectations" can go really, really bad. 

once again i draw your attention to the spoiler warning. the whole "time travel submarine" idea is just completely f*****g stupid, even when allowing for a "suspension of disbelief". it undermines the other parts of the novel. the technology which ("accidentally") lets the sub travel in time was first used on a radar defeating missile. how come that missile worked as intended and did not time travel? leaving aside the bizarre way in which the narrator survives the (conveniently precise timing) time travel in the sub, how on earth could they have set it "back" to present day when they had no idea at all how it managed to travel "forward" in time? i am quite sure i shall not be the first to wonder such. 

the truly disappointing thing is that this farcical, ludicrous "time travel" segment pretty much ruins the novel, and for no good reason. all of the plot points, even (or particularly) the "cosmic space dust accidentally gives super powers" one, could have been resolved without the submarine stuff. rather baffling that a novelist would come up with a work they must surely know was fantastic and the seek out ways to make it a frustrating, unenjoyable mess for readers. 

next up then is The Twist of The Knife, which as i mentioned i must have somehow missed when it came out. that or Tesco did not bother to stock it for some reason, or hid it quite well. anyway, i got my copy off of WH Smith when i spotted it, with a friend very kindly purchasing it as a gift. 

once again this is novelist Anthony Horowitz using himself as a somewhat kind of fictional character, and once again following the investigation work of detective Daniel Hawthorne (who i take as a given is entirely fictional) in solving a murder. the twist with this one, however, is that the primary suspect in the murder (of a theatre critic who was unkind to one of his plays) is Anthony Horowitz himself. 

whilst i can't recall exactly how long it took me to read this i think it took two or three months to plod through it. quite pedestrian and surprisingly dull, to be frank. the other Horowitz / Hawthorne novels were incredibly compelling reading, i think i tore through each of them in two to three days, for they were just irresistible. perhaps it is the plot premise at fault here, as you just know it's not going to be Horowitz that's the killer and also you know that Hawthorne will work it out. with so much of the narrative being about Horowitz taking a most decidedly the English way of doing things approach to fretting about being arrested for murder one doesn't really get all that much to be interested in who the actual killer is, or why they gone done it. 

earlier (rather than later) i mentioned this novel was all a bit too "meta", even in the context of the overall meta concept for these books. it's quite like the author new he had a reasonably good idea for a story but one that was simply not as good as the others. still, the written style remains absolutely superb, and whilst it's disappointing overall it was still a good read. although i did get rather tired of the frequent reminders of other works by the same author cropping up in the novel. 

yes, of course i shall be reading any and all other works by these authors. as it happens i have a more recently published one by Anthony Horowitz sat here, but i imagine it will be one of a few John Grisham novels i appear to have stockpiled next. not quite sure how much "brand damage" Terry Hayes has managed to do with this novel, indeed for all i know many readers may have liked the absurd, yet needless, twist. it might be that he's not allowed to do another one, but as with everything money talks. 

perhaps, or maybe, my year (2024) of global travel, theatre experiences, cinema visits and celebrity encounters just took away all the time i would have usually used to read. oh well. i am hoping to find some novels that are truly engrossing (or similar), though, as it would be a shame if i ceased reading all together, or found myself doing it from a sense of having to. 

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

agfa horror trailers

hey there

and so on to (another) new year. not sure, to be honest, if i actually have the will, stamina or interest to keep doing updates here. but let me try and plod on, look you see, for what else would i do with what little time i have. quite possibly getting a new keyboard might make writing more interesting, as i really do not care for the one i am presently using. 

oddly i have had (considerably) more time than i would be used to having "off", as in not being at verk. taken annual leave, as it were, or on "holiday". mostly i have spent this kind of laid up doing little, feeling the rather unpleasant affects (or effects if that is right) of a nasty bout of ebola laced man flu, which is the worst kind. 

still, i have at the least tried to watch some of the videos (discs) i have amassed over the year. a problem with doing this was becoming aware of just how many i had picked up, and thus wondering where to start with them all. it might be the case that i don't need to get any new ones for a while, although i very much will be purchasing the video (disc) of The Substance when it comes out. 

in the mean time i watched the one above, called (as it is) The Agfa Horror Trailer Show. my assumption was that the "agfa" part there was something to do with a camera film company (and possibly cameras too) that i can vaguely recall from the 80s. not so, i believe it is initials, or an acronym since (to be fair) it is a kind of pronounceable word, for "American Genre Film Archive" or something like that. 

my purchase of this, as part of some "2 for £15" deal, was purely based on the idea that it was highly likely some of the trailers on the disc would feature an agreeable level of nudies. bit hit and miss on this front, really, as there are a few moments of very pleasant nudies, but perhaps not quite so much as i would have liked for the money. a friend and colleague who was with me when i purchased it commented that it was "f*****g ridiculous", the idea of paying for what essentially amounted to watching some adverts, may well have had a good point. 

there are a few points of interest on the disc. certainly an unexpected highlight was a (brief) advert for cigarettes, as pictured above. yes, indeed i have had the chance to try a few of them, some quite frequently. unlikely that i will play the disc again, though. although who knows. the kind of grainy, rough "real" film feel was most enjoyable compared to the usual smooth, sickly and quite nauseating sense one gets from new "digital" film. but that said the "extras", a set of trailers for films made on video directly for the video market (and featuring far too many Nigerian films) was awful. 

likely it shall just sit as yet another eccentric, off the beaten track volume in my video (disc) collection. perhaps it would have been a bit better if there was some sort of thematic link to the films for which the trailers are included here (if that sentence makes sense), or if there was an idea that the trailers were all set out in some specific order. just randomly taped together and shoved on a disc appears to have been what they went for. 

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