The Monkeysphere

This has probably been around since the dawn of the net, but if you have the time, it's a thought-provoking read (in good ways and some less good ways). Thanks to Rita for passing on this on via her usual mails.

Am somehow reminded of the Ferris Wheel sequence of The Third Man... one of the little dots.

McSweeneys on renting movies

Sorry. This is silly but it made me laugh. I need a holiday to improve my sense of humour. Cloud is reading The Joys of Yiddish at the moment - that should help.

Music of our years

Following the ongoing discussion on Inveresk Street Ingrate and Hak Mao on the topic of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, I tracked this rather nice site. Nice to see others obsessively going through their musical life history...

Norm and the Oirish

Couldn't resist a brief blog link to the Norm and his post on Irish for Beginners. Tipped from elsewhere, and I am sure today is replicated in many variations... funny none the less.

Obscure Song No. 3: "Tarmac"

Female trio Hazeldine aren't that well known. I'll be honest, I've had zero luck tracking down any of their stuff in the UK. But back in Sept. 1998 Uncut magazine gave away the first of their Sounds of the New West compilations, and the first track on that CD was the blasting and memorable "Tarmac," by Hazeldine.

The track discussed here also appears on their CD How Bees Fly, released on Glitterhouse.* As so often with the songs I love, this has a cracking lyric, but is considerably more upbeat in tempo than my previous two recommendations.

This town forgets to draw its blinds
I've seen its last ditch carnal crimes

The band is made up of Anne Tkach (bass); Shawn Barton (lead vocal); and Tonya Lamm (supporting vocal). Between them, they create a wonderful soundscape of country-esque thoughts driven by a powerful guitar-lick. But best of all, and this is what everyone will pick up on if you trace the song, there is the line about "Batman"...

I'm saying nothing more, 'cos it would spoil the surprise. Surfice to say that when we first played it, both Cloud and I looked at each other and said "did she really just sing what I thought she sang?"

And she did...

* Glitterhouse. Also home to David Thomas and the Two Pale Boys... Need we say more about this record label?

Demented Marxist Sect: aka the Tory party

Sorry, I know it's terribly incestuous to constantly blog to and fro with Cloud, but this was too good to resist. The idea that anyone would confuse the Tory party with a "demented Marxist sect" (scroll down) is just too....

... I'd like to say ridiculous, but the word seems too inadequate.

Page 45: reading the Lucifer books

I know, I know John (for when you get back off your much deserved holiday)... I said I was not going to be blogging and yet here I am...

Well, whilst I have energy and time I'm blogging. It's just I needed a get-out clause for if I felt unable to... and anyway, tonight I really HAVE to do my marking... sniff... whimper...

ANYWAY!

Page 45, for those who don't know it, is the best comic and graphic novel store in the UK. They even have an award to prove it. This weekend, as well as reading the Armstrong books, I also got through vols 5 (Inferno) and 6 (Mansions of Silence) of the Lucifer series. These take the Lucifer Morningstar character from the Sandman novels and have developed an entire other storyline. Mike Carey et al have continue to do a great job of bring the characters to life. Good stuff.

Kelley Armstrong: Weekend Reading

Over the weekend I felt rather disinclined to be marking. So instead, I had a reading fest and sped my way through some enjoyably frothy novels. Yes, I'm back on the novels of Kelley Armstrong. Having read Bitten, this weekend I finished reading the second Elena Michaels novel, Stolen, and then did a mad continuous read-through on the Paige Winterbourne books, Dime Store Magic and Industrial Magic. Those interested can follow up on these books by checking out Kelley's website, with extract chapters giving a good indication of the style of the narratives.

I'm rarely a fantasy fiction gal, but these are relly good page turners (not little though).

The next one, Haunted, is due out in May so the idea is that Celeste and I will read it together... if we have that much patience I will be amazed!

12 eggs in a box; or, how come I am mathematically challenged?

Friday night, Cloud and I contemplated the weekend's breakfasts. Last weekend, we had purchased a box of 12 eggs to save faffing about getting one on Saturday and one on Sunday to provide 4 eggs between us for each day. Somehow though, I was convinced this left us with 6 eggs and that if we got another box of 6 this would leave us with way too many eggs than we would need...

It took some great persuasion and thinking on my part to recalculate the problem. I am deeply ashamed. We had watched Blackadder the previous night with the "2 beans plus 2 beans = some beans" sketch. The whole experience left me feeling like I had just managed to say that "12 egss minus 4 eggs, minus another 4 eggs leaves 6 eggs!" Thus making me the very dim kid sister of a boy Cloud and I once passed in town:

Mum! Three and another three and another three is NINE!

He was about 6 years old...

Normblog and the composers

Norm has just posted his results from the classical composers blogpoll (unfortunately abbreviated in his post title archive to "The Great Compo," which suggests an entirely different type of poll... best "Last of the Summer Wine" character anyone?)

Beethoven, Mozart and Bach are the top three by a long chalk (or should that be baton?), with Schubert a clear "4th" - though Norm makes some interesting deductions about Schubert's status given the closeness between the top three and then subsequently numbers 5 to 11. Just 10 points separated Chopin, Wagner, Mahler, Brahms, Haydn, Handel and Shostakovich.

Blogging at the weekend: comment on the Tory Billboard

Felt compelled to blog and write a letter to the Guardian today. Following my previous comments on Beeston's Tory billboard ("It's not racist to impose limits on immigration"), imagine the fury I felt to see the Guardian today using a photograph of that same billboard as part of an article on middle-England's racism and turn against Labour (Sorry: the online version doesn't have the pictures but you know what I'm on about).

How I wish I had been able to take a photograph of the board when the "Bullshit" comment was on it - and what a shame the Guardian didn't get its image during that period. I'm not saying that the area of Broxtowe doesn't have some residents with offensive views, but the article tarnishes us all with the same ideology. And THAT is truly offensive.

Blogger comments for Counago & Spaves

Every now and then the Blogger system has a bit of a wibble. For example, I just tried to add a comment on John's blogpost at Counago&Spaves about pink kitchens but the system failed completely. I too despair of the pink female brigade: purple, I get, but not pink! The living room Cloud and I have has a red chimney breast with walls that are orange for the top half and blue on the lower half... trust us, it is a lot more appealing than it sounds (if I was blogger-picture enabled I would post a pic!)

Sociology lecturer or not, it can be tough going to avoid slipping into cliched stereotyping. But John is right - a pink kitchen is an unforgiveable culmination to a well-marshalled building project.

A lack of concentration

Due to my gammy leg from my fall on Monday (which makes me crankier than usual); heavy workload (covering for colleagues and general pre-Easter essay stresses from students); the demands of trying to get some reasonable essay completed on time for the ChickFlicks project; and my major disappointment that we will not be getting up to Aberdeen over Easter to see George (sniff!)... I am hearby informing my readers that for the next three weeks posts could be somewhat erratic.

Sorry, but that's the way it is. This is not say that there won't be any number of random posts appear over the next few weeks, but that I can't guarantee my blog presence.

If you're really unlucky I'll be reduced to delivering my seen/unseen remarks on the remaining films from the Ultimate Film List I have been ploughing through since the dawn of time.

Book recommendation

Courtesy of our friends at Counago&Spaves, who just had their blog's first birthday, this looks like a good investment. As part of our book collection, Cloud and I have a number of texts on the Wobblies et al, so this would certainly make a good addition. But if you're feeling generous, get it for John at C&S: he deserves it.

True life signage

Tree surgeon company Grant Brothers (as seen in Nottingham). Sign on back of truck:

Branches everywhere

I kid you not...