tumblyweed in the howly howly void

Song lyric Corner

I DEFY even Betty to I.D. this wonderful lyric on my mp3 this week:

You ask me what I'm doing
I just picked out my nose
My lady's in the kitchen
Not wearing any clothes

go on, prove me wrong!

While I was away

You know, working on a new reality game thing for C4 with Jerrers and Joan Bakewell called "Knob Idol". Looking to go into pre-prod in May. You wanna be in it, mail me, man.

Also working on a musical based on the lives of Lembit Opik MP and the lovely Sian. Note to self: email Sir Cameron and Sir Andrew first thing Monday, or else!

It's NOT OK, OK?

The Guardian tells me today "It's OK to like Hall & Oates again. Really."

Up in the morning look in the mirror
I'm worn as her tooth brush hanging in the stand
my face ain't looking any younger
now I can see love's taken her toll on me

AND she's GONE OOH AAH OO-OO-OO-AH
(why am I shouting?)



No it isn't OK. Never has been. Never will be. Really.

Obfuscation

In my profile I describe myself as an IT Obfuscator. No-one has ever taken issue with that wacky self-description. Probably rightly.

I wrote this in an email the other day, without irony, humour or any other saving grace:

"This will have been related to print distribution s/w resource issues this end."

Had I chosen to write in English I'd have said "the PC that takes care of your printing stopped working for some reason until I did something about it". More words certainly, but with some hope of being understood. Obviously the last thing I wanted was to be understood...

I'm not proud of wot I done.


D-I-D

1. Big-Eyed Beans From Venus - Capt. Beefheart. (Tho' veering to "Abba Zabba")
   
2. Leader Of The Pack - Shangri-Las
   
3. Valley Of Rain - Giant Sand
   
4. Mack The Knife - Ella Fitzgerald
   

Tree

Taken on a pleasant walk up by Warden Hill with the mutt yesterday.

Desert Island

(see previous post) This week I'm thinking:

Big-Eyed Beans From Venus - Captain Beefheart
Leader Of The Pack - Shangri-Las
New Rose - The Damned
Blue Monday - New Order

Prize* Quiz - the connection between no. 2 & no 3?



*yes of course, I'm just going to go out and buy you something just for Googling for the answer. Nah.

Say No to Dreary Slavs & Tedious Old Records

Seems we're going to Italy after all, so all those turgid Czech writers can keep their reputations intact.

We're having a Desert Island Discs Party. We're only allowing 4 songs each or it'll go on all night. If it was tonight, this is what I'd have:

Something by early Santana - Oye Como Va?
10:15 Saturday Night - Cure
Big-Eyed Beans From Venus - Captain Beefheart
Leader Of The Pack - Shangri-Las

If I keep doing this it'll just prove to myself what a twisted personality I have, 'cos I bet none of these will be in my final picks. None of them was on my list last time we did this.

Czech this out.

Boggins, in massy company, will be in your area next August - provided your area is North-Eastern Bohemia. In a hintellectual hendeavour to ingratiate himself with the locals he has identified some authors with whose works he plans to become familiar.

• Josef Skvorecky
  
• Bohumil Hrabal
  
• Ivan Klima
  
• Karel Capek
  

... will do for starters. Mr Hrabal, it is said, was a Prague "defenestree" in 1997:

According to some sources, he was trying to feed the pigeons, according to others he commited suicide.

Plenty there to get me going. Any suggestions or comments gladly received, as ever, apart from the usual one.

Dám si jedno pivo prosím.

Space Is Dark. It Is Cold.

Boggins is at a funny age. This is the trite but only possible reason that he finds himself listening to old Hawkwind records, and re-reading Michael Moorcock potboilers like "The Warlord Of The Air" and thoroughly enjoying both.

Here's a lovely lyric, Hawkfans:

Lives of great men all remind us we may make our lives sublime
And departing leave behind us footprints in the sands of time

so far, so Longfellow. We continue:

Of hewn stones the sacred circle where the wizened sages sat
Let us try to remember all the times where they were at.

- pure Dave Brock.

So your thoughts they were expecting
assault and battery on the human anatomy
Assault and battery on the human anatomy, man.

Ah, those ear-splitting nights at the long-gone Queensway Hall, Dunstable. The acoustics were immense. Pardon?

I am indebted to Betty for getting me going down this particular memory-lane again.
Lyrics purloined from here. Hope they don't mind.

Next week: Trumpton, probably.

Not Dead Yet

... just haven't got any words in my head. I'll be back, but not for a while. Happy Christmas !!!

Great Books on-line

Where do the Google Book-Scan scheme and Yahoo's similar-sounding idea leave Project Gutenburg, one of my original "10 reasons to get on the web" (the others were probably either salacious or plain stupid)?
For years, Project Gutenburg has provided, free, out-of-copyright classic material, including many good things not provided by the mighty Penguin Classics. The great thing about PG is that it provides all its texts in .txt format, a simple, if limited, plain ascii-text format that's been around for ever, and as far as one can see will always be readable whether you're using the simplest text editor or the flashiest WP, no matter what the operating system. No need for special software, continuous upgrades to readers or to imaging products, just download and read. I really hope Project Gutenburg doesn't get buried under all the Flash generated by the others.

boohoo

The unruly people at VillagePhotos disabled my (free) account, and the very attractive photo in my Blogger profile disappeared. I cock my snoot at them. The very attractive photo is now hosted by the lovely people at PhotoBucket, with whom I anticipate a long and frabjous free-account relationship. Perhaps I should start by uploading an even-more attractive photo.

Today is a sad day as I bow to the inevitable and logoff my HATTRICK account for the last time. I put Gundolf Wimberwepper up for sale, fired my longest-serving player and will let the rest of the "players" play out their time without me. It's been fun and I recommend Hattrick to anyone who quite likes that kind of thing, but I just don't have the TIME.

Anyone for winky-kinkies?

Helpful

B & Q own-brand Lemon Ice (Silk).

Three things

Here are three things I want to see, all utterly different, all available to me, all proof that the ice is still thick enough, for now:

* The Persians at the British Museum.

* Henri Rousseau at Tate Britain.

* "Howl's Moving Castle", a new film by Hayao Miyazaki who made "Spirited Away", one of my All-Time Favourite Films.

Thin Ice

We're all skaters on the pond-ice that is civilisation. For most of us in the West it feels solid and good beneath the feet.
When did you last feel the ice cracking? Was it during a power-cut? Was it while you were in a queue on a motorway, unable to move? On a train or waiting for one that didn't come? In the airport or on a 'plane? In a crowd of people, stuck, powerless? These things are trivial, but through them you can sometimes feel or intuit the terror of the cold water beneath, and this piece by Timothy Garton Ash says a lot about the world to come.

Greatest Painting Vote

In fine Boggins loser tradition, my preference, for which I voted at least 01 (one) times, came last. (If you don't know what I'm on about click the heading to this post).
My and everyone's personal favourite - if they are being truly honest with themselves - was scandalously not shortlisted due to snobbery and malice.

Important

Don't ee be forgetten! yarr!.

Traditional Christmas Message...

Last year my this fine gentleman got in a Traditional Christmas Rant on September 12th. This year I intend to prove him a rank amateur.

Any minute now. Plastic Santas. Bunting. "Seasonal" goods. You can feel it.

They're "gearing up".

Have you bought all your presents yet? Better hurry.

This year, mine will all be wrapped in brown paper and hairy string.

Can you still get hairy string? Will someone please hold onto my sanity until January?

Alsace-Lorraine

Alsace-Lorraine.
See what I did there?


[If you are as gripped by the Schleswig-Holstein question as I and all my readers (I'm afraid Lord Luvaduck's Mrs Trellis has been sojourning in Baluchistan and has been replaced by an animatronic doppelganger), drop me a comment and I'll make sure that the whole boiling is placed somewhere where you can reach it. In doing so you agree that you are part and parcel of the whole copyright infringement, and that you started it.]