A C Grayling and Christopher Hitchens on The Allied Bombing Campaign

To avoid the tedious introductions in the first video, especially George Gibson's grating 'umm aah' rich ramble, go straight in at 6:15:

Shadow of The Vampire

This is an unfinished piece. I publish it because I am sick of deleting unfinished pieces.

Here it is:

There's an amusing production available, for a limited time only (as you'd expect from a hierarchical, monopolistic, statist organisation with delusions of commercial competitiveness making a pretence of social inclusion and democratic accountability), at BBC iPlayer.

It's a very camp production, or at least it seems so to me, although you'd have to be of a certain age, upbringing and education to see that, with some very theatrical performances, perhaps 'inspired' by the overly theatrical performances of the actors and actress in 1920s horror films; it's enjoyable none the less. Willem Dafoe plays Max Schrek, the actor who played Count Orlock in the original Nos Feratu. The theme of the plot is that the director FW Murnau has discoverd the vampire Orlock in a remote rural hidey hole and done a deal with him to make the film. The deal being that he gets to keep the actress. Willem Dafoe is unrecognisable as Shrek and it's a valid criticism of the film that he looks too robustly healthy; in the original film, Orlock looks sickly and diseased and Shreck should too. The curse of the vampire is not only that he is condemned to feed on human blood, and so steal the souls of others and condemn them in turn to an eternal living hell as vampires but that in feeding the vampire feeds on the diseases of others and suffers from those diseases in turn, each disease building on the those he has ingested before, suffering and torment building with each meal, in the knowledge that as diseased and tormented as he might become he can never find the release of death.

It's a pity that the make up did not suggest that.

Crap, as I'm sure you'll agree. It's one saving grace is that I've published it.

Bobby Vee: A Forever Kind of Love

The Norrie Paramor arrangement, recorded in England for the 'U'K and Australia:

White Sauce

I taught myself how to make a white sauce, almost by accident, and, perhaps because simple things are said to please simple minds, I always take great pleasure in making one. Watching this video is no less enjoyable.

PS: I use milk straight from the fridge and have never had a problem with lumps.

Cooking With Dog: Pork Kakuni

I May Have Dreamt It.

It's 03:46, on Thursday, 24th, by the clock on my PC, despite what the timestamp on this post says, and I've just heard an electric milk float pass by outside. To reassure myself that I'm not yet completely demented I peeked through the curtain in front of me and saw the vehicle 'as large as life' as it sped past.

It must be almost thirty years since I last heard that sound at this time of day.

A Dog's Life For Me

A pat on the head, some kind words, somewhere warm to sleep, a full belly with a few treats, and better health care than is available 'on the NHS'? I'll be your dog:

For Ubermouth

Rave On, M Ward

It's Not My Fault

Unfortunately it's all my fault; I have no one else to blame.

Eating Balut

Balut is a duck embryo cooked in its shell.



I'll admit that I'm not at all sure I could eat that.

Bop Bop Baby and Hip Shakin' Momma

I've always liked Hank Burnette's records. He managed to combine a driving, hard core Rockabilly and raw live sound with just enough of what seems at times to be self-parody to suggest that he did it for fun and the love of music, without dreams of international stardom, which makes him, in my book, bigger than many better known artists.

For Some Strange Reason

... this appeals to me:

How to Deal with Petty Fascists.

I think that was nicely done.

Here's another example:

A Perfectly Good Tyre

What Every Woman Should Know

Top Gear: Proving That BBC Comedy is Not A Thing of The Past

Tom Petty: Free Falling

The Devil Is Supposed to Love His Own

I celebrated my fifty fifth birthday earlier this week and logging on to Live 365 this evening I noticed a list of 'Rock 'n' Roll' birthdays. Gene Vincent's birthday was on the eleventh of the month, others fell on the tenth and the sixth but none on the eighth, except that of Terry Melcher. I could only laugh: I have the same sort of luck as Mr Melcher, without his success.

Children of the Dammed?

I'm fucked if I know.

Oriental Cooking

There's a teppanyaki* restaurant in St Annes. I haven't been there for a while, and am unlikely to go again in the near future, sadly, but the fun of the place comes from the active participation of the diners in the culinary spectacle. Had it not been for my enthusiasm, and that of The Mrs Gruff, lubricated by several flasks of sake, our last visit might have been a very flat occasion, so miserable were the miserable gits sitting beside us.


* Iron plate grilling.

Tommy Cooper: Spoon, Jar - Jar, Spoon

When You Simply Must Get to The Pub, Regardless of The Weather

Angle Grinder Man

He's real, unlike all those American Super Heroes and just to prove he's famous ...

Aaaaaahhhhhh.

There's a bird singing outside my window. It's dark (18:59) and I'm about to check on the dough for this evening's dinner (pizzas), which should be rising nicely. To add depth to the Cheshire Cat grin on my face I saw Marston's Oyster Stout at £1.00 per 500 ml bottle in Booths and spoiled myself, despite our desperate financial circumstances, with two.

The Musket (Again)

I'd love one of these:



With silencers:



How it was made:



More beautiful than any woman.

The builder's web site is here.

The Crew Cuts

One of my most liked songs, for more than forty years.

The Harptones

Dion and The Belmonts

Yesterday was my fifty fifth birthday. Is is really nearly forty years since I bought the long playing record on which was this track?

Tempus fugit and it really is time I started thinking of what I'm going to do when I grow up. I've always thought that death would obviate such considerations but I'm beginning to realise that having spent so long avoiding taxes I cannot reasonably expect the other certainty to save me when I'm down and with no idea how to climb back.

Bollox.


Addendum: This post was submitted in the early hours of Wednesday, 9th February, the day after my birthday. I have no idea how to adjust the Blogger clock to GMT.

More bloody bollox.

Code Pink

Gruff apologies to those who are still digesting lunch and Gruff thanks to pinegrove33 (Bernard Chapin), at Chapin's Inferno, for my first sight of the image above.

Janis Joplin

I have no idea why I have not thought before now to post a clip of Miss Joplin.

With A Little Help from My Friends

Again:



Mr Cocker older and larger, and perhaps a little wiser, than forty years and more ago but still enjoyable none the less.

Here is an appallingly irreverent presentation of his Woodstock 'magnum opus':



Disgraceful.

Dear Prudence

Here's a version by some Scousers:



RIP Prudence.

Pretty Vacant

The Onion on Female Soldiers

Army Program Pairs Female Soldiers With Male Chaperones

It would be chauvinistic, not to say ungallant, of me to allude to hearsay concerning the effectiveness of women in the forces; suffice it to say that there are some sexist pigs in the Royal Navy, army and Royal Air Force.

Sex With Horses and Mextex

Breaking: Anti-Gay Senator Caught In Affair With Horse

A Robust Defence

Indian Classical Music