Friday, April 27, 2018

"Dad, I went on a School Trip to London and all I brought back was this book on the Millies . . . "

Via Facebook:

A follow up to the album challenge.

Day #10
With no explanations, post ten books that have made their mark on your life. Once a day, post the book cover and nominate a new person.

PDH (The Tractor Millie)





Thursday, April 26, 2018

The Philatelist Club delivers . . .

Via Facebook

A follow up to the album challenge.

Day #9
With no explanations, post ten books that have made their mark on your life. Once a day, post the book cover and nominate a new person.

RW (Syd Baritz's clone.)


Wednesday, April 25, 2018

A Pint, a Punch Up and a Punt to Cordoba . . .

Via Facebook.

A follow up to the album challenge.

Day #8
With no explanations, post ten books that have made their mark on your life. Once a day, post the book cover and nominate a new person.



Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Watford Shopping Centre

Via Facebook

A follow up to the album challenge.

Day #7
With no explanations, post ten books that have made their mark on your life. Once a day, post the book cover and nominate a new person.

JP (QPR)


Monday, April 23, 2018

The Philatelist Club

Via Facebook.

A follow up to the album challenge.

Day #6
With no explanations, post ten books that have made their mark on your life. Once a day, post the book cover and nominate a new person.

PC (Perspex Metalwork)


Sunday, April 22, 2018

I'm a sucker for a good front cover . . .

Via Facebook

A follow up to the album challenge.

Day #5
With no explanations, post ten books that have made their mark on your life. Once a day, post the book cover and nominate a new person.

Pigs Feet (North London)


Saturday, April 21, 2018

It was always much more than just Walker . . .

Via Facebook

A follow up to the album challenge.

Day #4
With no explanations, post ten books that have made their mark on your life. Once a day, post the book cover and nominate a new person.

MM (The Portland Dandy.)


Friday, April 20, 2018

Carr trumps Newell . . .

Via Facebook

A follow up to the album challenge.

Day #3
With no explanations, post ten books that have made their mark on your life. Once a day, post the book cover and nominate a new person.

JG (The Timperley Anarchist)


Thursday, April 19, 2018

"That email address is a passing phase . . ."

Via Facebook

A follow up to the album challenge.

Day #2
With no explanations, post ten books that have made their mark on your life. Once a day, post the book cover and nominate a new person.

Kaz


Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Casablanca (1942)


A Reread is a Good Read . . .

Via Facebook

A follow up to the album challenge.

Day #1
With no explanations, post ten books that have made their mark on your life. Once a day, post the book cover and nominate a new person.

Cherry Death Soda


Sunday, April 15, 2018

Lest we forget . . .

. . . they were cheering their heads off when the draw was made:




Rumour has it the self-same individuals were throwing themselves into the Clyde after this.

Friday, April 06, 2018

My British Invasion: The Inside Story on The Yardbirds, The Dave Clark Five, Manfred Mann, Herman's Hermits, The Hollies, The Troggs, The Kinks, The Zombies, and More by Harold Bronson (Rare Bird Books 2017)



Members of almost every English rock band of that time—The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, The Zombies, The Animals, The Yardbirds—had gone to art school. The Yardbirds and The Who even described their music as “pop art.” This exposure inspired progressive and creative concepts and helped to magnify and color the resulting sound. For instance, when The Who debuted their second single, “Anyway Anyhow Anywhere,” many were confused by the purposeful inclusion of feedback. Pete Townshend had attended Ealing Art College, as had Freddie Mercury, Ronnie Wood, and Thunderclap Newman’s John Keene. In interviews Pete kept referring to Gustav Metzger and his auto-destructive art as an influence. Other effects were more nuanced. At Hornsey College of Art and Crafts, Ray Davies watched people in train stations and sketched them. This helped shape his writing, where many of his songs, like “Waterloo Sunset,” placed him in the role of the detached observer.

Wednesday, April 04, 2018

Sunday, April 01, 2018

Take away the tanks . . .

. . . it does explains why I have not gone out of my way to make a 'new' friend in 49 years:



It's Not a Runner Bean...: Confessions of a Slightly Successful Comedian by Mark Steel (The Do-Not Press 1996)



Geordie

'This is Mark, he's a comedian,' the man who'd set up the comedy night in Newcastle told his four mates. They looked like the four people you would choose from thousands if you wanted extras for a film set in a Newcastle pub.

'Ar, so yoor the comedian, well ah hoop yoor funna mairt,' they chipped in. We all went to the bar and ordered a round of drinks, and the stockiest among them decided to tell me a joke.

Ay, what do yer chuck a Paki when he's drooning? His wife and kids.' The others laughed.

What to do? Walk away and they'd have just thought I was weird, whereas anything that might have ended in violence was hardly an option.

The tough part of these situations is that when bigotry hides behind a joke, it's so much trickier to deal with. Launching into a tirade about racism would have only made them think, 'What a stuck-up, miserable bastard’. 'All right, it's only a joke,' they'd have said. And gone off muttering, 'He's not much of a comedian.' Besides it was quite possible that he wasn't a serious racist but had never come across the idea that jokes like that are just appalling.

The one thing I decided in the two seconds after he'd finished was that I'd say something. 'What's the matter?' he said, perturbed that I wasn't laughing. 'Doon't yer get it?’

’Na.he's a comadian,' said his mate. 'He's hewered it before.'

There's probably one time in most people's lives when, instead of thinking of the perfect answer the day after the event, it comes out at the time. I don’t remember thinking it but from somewhere came, 'Yeah, I have heard it before. But I heard the funnier version. What do you chuck a Geordie when he's drowning?'

There was another silence and for a moment I was expecting to end up lying on the floor, clutching my ribs, with blood pouring from my nose, mumbling, 'I was only making a point.'

But at the end of this tense three seconds he burst out laughing and said, 'Ya can see wha he's a comadian.'

With any luck he'll now be the Equal Opportunities Officer for the Anglo-Asian Community Relations Department on Tyneside Council.

Wait for it . . . wait for it.

. . .