Meanderings of a Monkey Juggler

Grumpy people complain about "List-shows".  You know the sort of thing.  "50 Greatest ever haircuts" etc... 

I watched one of these shows last night and it was pretty good.  This one was "50 Greatest One-Hit Wonders".  What was surprising was how good many of the songs were.  The voters had generally avoided novelty songs although both versions of Axel-F were played.  The artists were some talented folk as well but for some reason they hadn't managed to get around to following up their initial hit.

Minnie Ripperton was on (Loving You - you know with the high note) and she only didn't get any further hits 'cos she died.  Richard Harris was on with "Macarthur's Park" (Someone left the cake out in the rain.  I don't think I can take it, 'cos it took so long to make it and I'll never find that recipe again); he didn't follow up 'cos he couldn't sing (damn fine actor though).  Neil Innes was on with the Bonzo's and they never had another hit because they didn't really want to. Her wot did "Hey Mickey" was on and she's now a choreographer (she did the Gap ads as well as freaky dance stuff for Talking Heads).  Him from the Buggles (Video Killed The Radio Star) is now a well respected musician/producer.  Even Jaz-Man (SpaceMan) runs a record company now.

But then we got the crappy stuff like Chesney, Shampoo and the Baha-Men etc...  Sort of letting the side down somewhat.

I had a great 3 hours re-living many moments of my youth because of this show; and somehow it's "lazy programming".  Sigh.

Have fun.

"...higgledy piggledy

Ahhh-welcome-ahhh.....

To herr-varn..."

Well it's happy birthday to me today and what better way to celebrate than a concert down the Charlotte.  Me and D went to watch The Fall.  And what an evening.

"Ah know, ah know, ah know, ah know, ah know..

Hey hey hey hey!"

First impressions were good.  The place was stuffed full of men in their 30's and older.  All of them looked me and D's demographic.  A band was playing as we arrived and they were excellent.  They were a 3 piece consisting of drums, double bass and sax.  Mad jazz and mental singing do go well.

"We're not Galatasaray (Hey!)

We're Sparta FC!"

Eventually the Fall stumble onto the stage without their main man.  They get cracking and he lurches into view looking very "special".  Throughout the show I was wondering who he reminds me of.  The best I could do was "a staccato John Cooper Clarke chewing a wasp".  Not a very good description; the man's definitely a one-off.

"Azerbaija-hn! Azerbaija-hn! Azerbaija-hn! Azerbaija-hn!"

The rest of the band were excellent.  The guitarist was way off to the side and looked superficial to the mayhem created.  The bassist was smack in the mddle and looking bored.  But they have a female keyboard player who was stood quietly by and looking listless and uninterested throughout. 

What to say about the music?  If you take an amateur band and ask them to find a catchy riff they could do it but few would build an entire song of just that riff.  The Fall do this and smack you into submission by sheer repetition.  The mongaloid shrieks of Mark E Smith counterpoint all of this leaving you with a clearly unique sound.  Like nothing you've seen or heard - unless you've seen the Fall another time.

Wow.  How this band have released 27 studio albums and about 100 live and retrospective albums but remains relatively anonymous is beyond me.

Have fun.

(and Happy Birthday me)

Music

Just re-discovered the joys of whacking the volume up and wrecking my headphones with some Slovenian techno or Finnish yelling or Japanese noise.  I wonder why I'd stopped listening.

Those Wacky Bulgarians TM

I've trademarked the title here because it should be a show on Five.  We were watching the Bg version of Millionaire tonight and they had a kids one where they could have a grandparent with them.  The kids must have been no older than 10 but there was something a little strange going on.  I eventually put my finger on it.  They are all not shy about talking on camera.  There was none of the clamming up that passes for interviewing kids on our tv.

Juggling

Just downloaded the Leeds show video.  Quite good but the criticisms of Tiff and Eek's choice of prop colour was fully justified.

Tempei only came 3rd in the WJF diabolo contest!

And have you seen the Gatto, Dietz and Walker video? Worth a look if only to see the 2 best jugglers in the world with another who's damned close to 3rd.

Civil Partnerships

Big news as Elton gets married for the second time.  More newsworthy as his new lady isn't.  Any road up this has been news at work (at least at one of the practices).  My colleague was sat in the staffroom and subjected to one woman's rant against such "disgraceful ideas".  Not sure if this woman realises that my colleague may well end up in one such union.

Incidentally I really like the term "Civil partnership".  It sounds very British.  It could even be a cricketing term.

"They had a very civil partnership of 138 before tea"

I wonder if me and K could ever be considered an "uncivil partnership"?

Those Wacky Bulgarians 2 TM

K asked me to go to the fish market yesterday.  So off I trot to pick up her pre-ordered carp.  2 of them to be precise.  I had to pay the remainder of them, and the total cost was £30!  For 2 bleedin' fish.  The purpose of this wastefulness and profligacy was so her mum could cook me a "special" meal of stuffed carp.  The stuffing was to be walnut and onion.  Sounds fair enough but then I had to go and get more walnuts.  Sigh.

The result of all this faff?  An average meal of ok fish with ok stuffing.  Certainly nice enough but nowhere near worth £35 plus having to drive all over town to get it all.  Kudos for the thought tho'.

Work

It's nearly Christmas so the number of people not attending is rocketing.  Scum!  You know who you are!

I'm in charge at the mo.  That's fun.

Oh I also discovered today that I'm now the junior's clinical supervisor.  Nice to be informed of this 3 weeks after it was decided (without my input).  It's not a problem and I'm pleased I've been put up for the task.  It's a vote of confidence at the very least.

Family

I was going to give my old PC to my bro and family as their prezzie this year.  Decided not to as they've no room at the inn (and they can't really keep the PC in a stable).  Anyways the day after I decide that they wouldn't be able to fit it in the house my bro phones up asking for advice re buying a PC.  Yay!  They'd like a laptop but I think that a freebie would go down very well.

After discussing that he tells me that he's had a bad back.  First I'd heard of it!  Why didn't he bother asking me about it?  If I had a beans query (as an example) he'd be the first person I'd phone for info.  Anyway he'd been referred to a local physio who'd given him the best advice I've ever heard from a physio.  Remember that about 60% of a general physio's job is backs. 

"You've got a bad back mate, it'll always be bad, live with it"

No no no no! Hasn't he read PhysioMonkey?  What an idiot!  I can't believe that physio is getting a salary.  What a waste of space.

Computers

Cheers to D for re-sorting my wireless jobby.  Ta.

Have fun.