New daylight fluro tubes over my workstation.
7% pay rise.
The Notorious P.I.G burger at the Varsity Bar.
Author: Purple Wyrm
Why Crispin Glover is the Greatest Human Being in History
1: He was in Back to the Future
2: He wasn’t in Back to to the Future Part II, and changed the rules of Hollywood as a result
3: He recorded the greatest song in human history
It’s cold outside, There’s no kind of atmosphere…
Wikipedia really does teach you something new every day. I had no idea that Jawaharlal Nehru (first Prime Minister of India and architect of the modern Indian state) was a mechanoid!
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Well, I never claimed to be Shakespeare
Pop Sonnets is great! Try figuring out each song before you read the tagline.
And while I can’t claim the same skill with letters as the bards behind the original, I couldn’t help but turn my hand to a bit of conversion from the modern…
Cruel seconds chase their course around the dial,
Sly minutes follow surely in their way,
Fast fading hours in darkness bring no smile,
And man may run no faster than the day,
Time’s arrow slips the clutch of all our care,
No method or design to stay its flight,
Small time remains, one night our love to share,
No morning shall come forth from out this night,
If dream this be I truly cannot bear,
A cynic’s coat I always having worn,
My hopes arise in contrast to despair,
God grant my plea to never see the dawn,
– Fain I would have the timepiece handless be,
One score and four hours left to spend with thee,
Now, who’s that by?
Stadtkrones Ahoy!
For all my fine words about taking a break from the Peter Grant series I bought volume 4 – Broken Homes – on Wednesday evening and finished it on the way to work this morning. Another great read with some fascinating information on German architectural theory (the idea of a Stadtkrone intrigues me). But that ending! How could you do that to us Mr Aaronovitch?! How?!
The Mythbusters were great! Apparently we were the biggest crowd they’ve ever performed to. And Adam was greatly amused by the idea that people from Perth should be called Perthlings. I was sitting right at the very back but still managed a few decent photographs, which I’ll put up once I get the chance.
No Accounting for Crows
It’s weird when you stop and think about it. How could the band that produced a masterpiece like this…
…go on to commit an act of heinous musical vandalism like this?
Hmmm.
I’m off to see the Mythbusters tonight. Maybe they’ll be able to explain it…
Not Cool YouTube
So you’re working away on your computer at the office and decide that you need some music to make your life feel like it’s worth living. So you go over to YouTube and line up something soothing and melodic, a piece by the Shins for instance. Then you switch windows and continue work.
But then without any warning, without any kind of alert or alarm to advise you that some kind of vile, brain killing, hazardous toxin that should not be played to children or other living things without arrest and trial in the Hague is incoming, you are subjected to an unskippable, ten second auditory assault by Nicki Minaj.
Not cool YouTube! Not cool!
Miscellany
Got my hair cut over the weekend. I decided that when random youths on the street start shouting “Wolverine!” at you it’s probably time to get your sideburns trimmed at the very least.
I quite liked Peter Capaldi as the new Doctor. A post-regeneration episode is never going to give you a proper look at the new version, but I approve so far. I must note however that they should have included some kind of explanation as to why the dinosaur was almost as tall as the Elizabeth Tower – I’m fairly certain that theropods never got that big.
I also really like the latest single from Bertie Blackman, Run For Your Life. It has a ominous, mysterious sound to it that puts me in mind in equal parts of the Cure and Halogen’s On a Bridge, with a comparatively triumphant, soaring chorus that resolves some of the tension from the verses. For some reason it also reminds me of Terry Dowling’s Blue Tyson novels – if they ever turned them into a movie (a prospect in equal parts fantastic, terrifying and unlikely) I’d lobby for it to be on the soundtrack. Have a listen!
That is all.
Where the Pink Flamingos Stand
I’ve really been getting into Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant series of late. For those not in the know it’s a series of urban fantasy books about a rookie cop in London who finds himself apprenticed to the UK’s last operating wizard, who also happens to be an Inspector in charge of a department of the Metropolitan Police that they don’t like to talk about. They’re great reads with sharp, funny writing and plenty of geeky references to both popular nerd culture (book number three mentions Space Hulk for crying out loud!) and the history of London – both subjects dear to my heart.
I’ve read the first three so far. I actually enjoyed the first one (Rivers of London or, if you’re American and thus can’t be trusted with proper book titles Midnight Riot) so much that within ten minutes of finishing it I had purchased and was reading book two, Moon Over Soho (it helped that I was in the city at the time and hence only a few minutes walk from White Dwarf Books). On two occasions while reading the series I almost shouted out loud in a public place – the first when I figured out who the villain in Rivers of London was (a full two pages before his give away catchphrase I would like to point out ;)), and the second from sheer astonishment at Nightingale’s reminiscences about tiger hunting – which is pretty impressive for someone as reserved as my good self.
Prior to picking up Rivers of London I was chiefly familiar with Ben due to his work on Doctor Who, he being responsible for the classic McCoy era story Remembrance of the Daleks and its brilliant novelisation. I was already a fan simply because he included in that work a reference to the British Rocket Group, but he has now been elevated into the pantheon of my absolutely favourite authors. I’m very much looking forwards to reading the continuing adventures of PC Grant, but am taking a break before moving on to Broken Homes to minimise my risk of hyperthaumaturgical degradation.
Now, it’s inevitable that the title of book two in the Peter Grant series – Moon Over Soho – would not as intended remind me of jazz music, but of The Drew Carey Show. As such I’ve been wandering around the flat singing to myself…
Moon over Soho bring my love to me tonight!
Guide her to Lambeth, underneath your silvery light!
We’re going shopping! So don’t lose her in Wapping!
Moon over Soho, tonight!
(I cannot see any reason why someone would travel from Soho to Lambeth via Wapping, but when the Muse calls you gotta accept the charges).
After several weeks of such awfulness it occurred to me to do some poking around to try and find the source of Mr Carey’s first season ditty, and with very little trouble I tracked down the original, as broadcast on Cleveland area TV station WJW in what would appear to the early 70’s, but based on contextual clues can be no earlier than 1988…
I really like it. Singer/Songwriter Bob “Mad Dog” McGuire has a fine voice, and I enjoy the way his slightly tongue in cheek lyrics depict the North Coast of Ohio as a setting for romance equivalent to Hawaii or Capri. Well done Bob!
On top of his cut down opening theme performance Drew Carey actually recorded a full version of the song, giving it more of a swing…
Also, in an act of wonderful lunacy, 90’s Canadian white boy rapper Snow also did a version for the final season of The Drew Carey Show, which is one of those things that you need to hear to actually believe…
So yes. Read the PC Grant series, keep an eye out for anything involving Ben Aaronovitch and consider Lake County Ohio for your next romantic getaway!
PS: I wonder if Mr Aaronovitch is aware that a branch of the river Tyburn passes almost exactly underneath the Folly? This cannot bode well…
