Sunday, 24 July 2011

roxyrama at the georgian theatre richmond








Off with the FPO to the Georgian Theatre Royal last night to see Roxyrama. who are a tribute band of Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry. They were pretty good, and we had great seats next to the stage, but by the time of the interval, we had seen enough (too many later slow songs) and went for a drink at the Cavern instead, where we chatted to Mark (the owner) for a while. Another lad (Steve) and his wife/girlfriend came in, and it was good to discover that he also collects comics and records, and keeps a little list of the comics he still needs (who in their right mind dosen't?). Back to sunny Catterick afterwards for a quick one in JT's and The Wine bar, then it was back home for some Vodka and coke while we watched Elvis in Vegas (which was pretty rubbish). Another date night ticked off! Hurrah!!

toodle pip

oasis - liam and noel argue cartoon style


This is an old argument recorded during a 1994 interview with John Harris from the NME , after being thrown off a ferry, which was released as a single (Wibbling Rivalry), but it makes it funnier when it is done as a cartoon. Classic stuff.

toodle pip

Saturday, 23 July 2011

size of a planet

I am sure l have posted this kind of stuff before, but space and the planets, they are big....very big. People always think we are so important, we have souls, we are special, created by God or whatever, but in the great scheme of things, we are all insignificant in the vastness of time and space. Here are the sizes of the planets in relation to one another. As l said, space...it's big (l would argue infinite).

toodle pip

scarborough flat in a church for sale





This is a Church in Scarborough that has been modernised and is presently for sale. It looks pretty impressive, but l am not sure l would want to be staring at the plate glass window in the top photograph every day. Is that sort of filth allowed in a Church?

toodle pip

Friday, 22 July 2011

the oslo bombing and the news



The bombing and shooting in Oslo has taken everyone buy surprise, but l was annoyed at the news coverage as it was unfolding, as all the commentators (and obviously the editors/producers etc) were trying to do was blame it all on Al Qaeda, without a shred of evidence to support their statements. Reasons for the so called Al Qaeda attack were debated, such as the reprinting of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons, the Norwegian troops in Afghanistan etc, but with not one jot of evidence put forward to substantiate the claims by the mouth pieces and (so called) experts. It is conveniently forgotten that some of the past worldwide attacks have been by citizens attacking their own people, such as happened with the Oklahoma City Bombing and the Admiral Duncan pub, so don't be amazed if this turns out to be the same. The News...Pah!! Don't trust anyone and always be cynical. Saying that, l am still amazed at the destruction a car bomb can make.

toodle pip

Thursday, 21 July 2011

some new york city photographs









I don't know who took the photos, but as they say, only in America.....

toodle pip

olly moss posters for captain america


Very good indeed. I like the German one the best.

toodle pip

a short history of tractors in ukrainian - marina lewycka

Even more Majorca stuff. Two daughters, one a hard faced capitalist (Vera) and Nadezhda, the narrator of the story (and a bit of a hippie), try to deal with their ageing father, who has decided to marry a young woman (Valentina) with outrageous (like twin warheads) breasts. Throw in some history about war, tractors, and the Ukraine (it's better than it sounds) and it turned out to be a lot more readable than l was expecting.

toodle pip

catcher in the rye - j.d salinger

Still with the Majorca stuff, this is a book that gets some bad publicity, and with good reason. It's protagonist, Holden Caulfield, is one winging spoilt (yet intelligent) kid who is on a downward spiral and who whines about everything, especially the people and things he deems to be ''phony'. After being expelled from school, he returns to New York, stays in a hotel, and gets in trouble. He visits his family home to see Phoebe (his younger sister) and wants to preserve her innocence (he worships and admires her, as she does with him). He eventually realises he cannot save children from running through the rye and falling off a cliff, (the catcher in the rye bit). This is through mishearing Robert Burns' Comin' Through the Rye . Holden realises he is sick and ends up in some kind of institute, although he states that he is to start school again. This was a lot better when l read it as a teenager, and l can see why someone disturbed such as Mark Chapman (who shot John Lennon) could take it at face value and act disproportionally, but reading it as an older person, you just want to slap him (Holdon). OK, l know he is ill and all that, but still....

Robert Burns (1759-1796)
Comin' Through The Rye

O, Jenny's a' weet,[A] poor body,
Jenny's seldom dry:
She draigl't[B] a' her petticoatie,
Comin thro' the rye!

Chorus:
Comin thro' the rye, poor body,
Comin thro' the rye,
She draigl't a' her petticoatie,
Comin thro' the rye!

Gin[C] a body meet a body
Comin thro' the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need a body cry?

(chorus)

Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the glen,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need the warl'[D] ken?[E]

(chorus)

Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the grain;
Gin a body kiss a body,
The thing's a body's ain.

(chorus)

Ev'ry Lassie has her laddie,
Nane, they say, have I,
Yet all the lads they smile on me,
When comin' thro' the rye.

  • A weet - wet
  • B draigl't - draggled
  • C gin - if, should
  • D warl - world
  • E ken - know

toodle pip

brave new world - aldous huxley

More Majorca stuff. I have obviously known about this book for years but had never got around to reading it, but it was pretty good. a bit clichéd with the names (Bernard Marxs, Polly Trotsky etc), and also a bit stilted, but l enjoyed it. A tale of the future when everything is regulated and in order, people are preconditioned for certain roles and sorted by caste, and soma is taken for enjoyment. However Bernard is dissatisfied with this and visits the Malpais in the Savage Reservation, from where he brings back John. It does not end happily.

toodle pip

the double - fyodor dostoyevsky

One of the books l read while l was in Majorca (in between the hard work). I like Fyodor Dostoevsky's tales and at least this one was short. The main character, sees a double of himself and very quickly loses his sanity. Lots of unpredictable actions, free association gibberish and rambling from 'the hero of the story', until he is finally carted away. Similar to work by Nikolai Gogol, especially The Nose, which l thought was great when l read it about 20 years ago (in fact l remember starting to read it on a bus into Northallerton). I still wish the Russian names were a bit shorter though. Next up for holiday reading,The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov.They should keep me busy and out of mischief.

toodle pip


Wednesday, 20 July 2011

the 'original' forest gump with james stewart and marlon brando


Clever work by Ivan Guerrero ( http://whoiseyevan.carbonmade.com/)

toodle pip

old sugar packets





To continue with the collecting strange theme, here's some old sugar packets
collected by ussiwojima which can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/41606952@N07/tags/sugar/
I already have a few myself, so this is a collection l could be cracking on with.

toodle pip

old bread wrappers






I could easily go crazy and collect all sorts of junk (the FPO reckons l do already), but this is a new collection l would not have thought of accumulating. Old bread wrappers. Pretty cool looking and much better than the crappy wrappers we have nowadays.

toodle pip

majorca scans





Obviously as l was hard at work, l did not frequent, witness, involve myself or participate in any of the above. l was somewhere else at the time guv - honest.

toodle pip

Tuesday, 19 July 2011

the borneo rainbow toad is rediscovered

The last time someone saw one of these was in 1924. It's a colourful little bugger.

toodle pip

sarcastic man praises the orlando police department


The Orlando police have been arresting people who have been feeding the homeless, and there have been protests about their actions. This man turned up with a sign supporting the police, but is outrageously sarcastic when questioned by a TV crew. A really great idea and well pulled off.

toodle pip

taxidermy gone wrong






I have a friend who used to be a taxidermist and is pretty damn good at it (Colin Moore knows the score). However, when a bad taxidermist is involved, the results are not always what was expected.

toodle pip

saucy weather illustration from usa today

To continue with the warm weather theme, this is from USA today. Whoever designed this must have known what they were doing. How it got passed is another thing.

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