Saturday 31 January 2009

Tom Waits

We have a right to know.

Thursday 29 January 2009

ROTFL ...




Gruff thanks to Tuscan Tony.

Friday 23 January 2009

Missing Tricks

Tuscan Tony has posted a photograph of the view from his terrace, taken this morning and I found it so inspiring that I was moved to post my own breakfast view:



No It's nothing to do with me, nor Mrs Gruff, who is the tenant here (I'm just a non-paying, long-staying guest): The landlord seems to take pleasure in preventing anyone from doing anything about it (including the proprietors of the Chinese chippy next door - whose rubbish that is) merely to assert his rights over the property. We'd take care of it, though having spent almost a thousand on the garden of the last property, with the agent's agreement, only to see it all ripped out on the whim of the landlord I wouldn't invest any of my own money, but he won't allow us to. I'm stuck here for now but there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon. I don't expect that particular sun will rise but one never knows.

The moral of this tale is that if one is not careful one can end up living (?) in a decaying hovel in a local environment over which one has not the least influence, and you can forget any thoughts of anything as liberating as control.

Tuesday 20 January 2009

Knocking One's Bollocks Off for Whatever One Deems Currency

I've no idea what Spotnicks Amapola means but this is what they sounded (and looked) like:



Heroes of the Soviet Union or just another group of 'hopefuls' from elsewhere?

Wednesday 14 January 2009

The Shadows (and singer)


Vince Taylor

I always preferred Rockabilly to Rock and Roll but this was a notable exception:



Vince Taylor was English, born of English parents and brought up in the USA. He was back in England in the late 1950s but was never very stable and is said to have told people that he was Christ re-incarnated. I believe that he committed suicide. Vince is on the right and the fellow on the left is (or was) Eugene Vincent Craddock.

Monday 12 January 2009

Dada

There's nothing new under the sun, to quote the females in the Gruff line.

Another Almost Forgotten Track ...

... from my time as an art student in the early seventies:




I think we were all very lucky to be young then, but we weren't aware just how lucky we were. Now everything's been turned to shit and we must earn our keep and fight for what we know to be decent, right and proper.

Looking at Pink Floyd on YouTube I came across this:



Just keep taking the drugs ladies and gentlemen, everything is under control, and I keep thinking 'drugs, drugs, drugs and more drugs, and alcohol, and a great deal more alcohol, and then more, and then put the politicians up against the wall and they won't need any drugs of any sort again, and nor shall we'. It's all under control, so don't you worry your little heads about a thing. But there are people who worry and they are themselves a worry simply because they worry and we can all do without worries so what do we do with those people? The answer is that we drink less and we don't smoke and we don't take drugs and although they don't stop worrying, and they don't go away, they can rest assured that we are healthier because they have worried. And that's all that counts to worriers: not what we worry about; merely what we do that worries them.

Fuck them!

The Groundhogs Again

Cherry Red was the track on Split that I listened to most after 'Split Part 2'. Although I've heard Split Part 2 a few times since the early seventies I haven't heard Cherry Red since then until this morning (I sold the album, for 50p I think). I think it's worth sharing:

Show of Hands

Just in case you've forgotten:

Patchmo

Beaker has a new tank mate called Patchmo (for reasons that I will not go into). He's a calico shubunkin and considerably smaller than Beaker so I've given him a plastic toadstool to hide in (don't ask).

Saturday 3 January 2009

Prudence Regained

Prudence is now back in captivity. A little careful investigation revealed her location, which was precisely where I thought, and the offer of an open exercise ball, with a little patience, resulted in her re-acquisition. Transferring her to roomier accommodation was hazardous however, since she is very agile and does not like to be handled, and she thrice escaped my gentle grip, though I was just as fast and just as determined.

Naturally, she immediately set about working for her freedom again and she is now busily engaged in looking for a weak spot in the bars of the small cage, where she will live until the guinea pig cage is rendered escape proof. She cannot be allowed to live out again: There are signs that she tried to escape from the sitting room (the gap under the door is very small and she is very big) by digging through the carpet, which is the landlord's property.

I think I'll glue some glass sheets to the outside, with silicone, and prevent enlargement of the hole from inside by gluing a piece of flat stone or tile over it.

Friday 2 January 2009

Prudence Located

She's in one of the ring binders that live on the lowermost bookshelf, chewing up statements. I could hear the sound of hard plastic or compressed and coated cardboard being chewed and knew immediately what area she was in. The sound of paper being shredded guided me to the spot. A trap has been laid. It needs only patience (and Prudence's prudence in not chewing through any of the numerous live cables - mains and IT - that lie in that area) for the return of the wanderer.

'Slowly, slowly catchee monkey', as Pater Gruff used occasionally to intone, and catchee the 'monkey' I shall, eventually. I do hope she doesn't electrocute herself, and I earnestly desire that no vital documents are destroyed in her efforts to make herself comfortable, bless her.

She's Done It Again!

Prudence has escaped once again. This time she chewed a hole in the upper lip of the lower part of her guinea pig cage. I was aware that she was working on one, and had intended taking steps to block it up today, but it wasn't anywhere near large enough for her to wriggle through yesterday. What an industrious, and determined little rodent she is, and what a free spirit too.

I'll just have to leave suitable nesting places in quiet corners, with a tasty food supply, until she's safely incarcerated again.

And she didn't need a vaulting horse.