Wrestle Poodles And Win

After the smiling positivity of my last two posts yesterday I saw the news that Neil Innes had unexpectedly died. I'm not sure when  I first was exposed to him via the Bonzo Dog Band, possibly on "Do Not Adjust Your Set" , the the hit single with "I'm The Urban Spaceman" and listening to "The Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse" in the Sixth Form College common room  to the annoyance of the "cool heads" but there was a guy there who took no shit from them and we continually played it, and when they listened they liked some of the stuff.

Although essentially born in trad jazz the Bonzo's were the English equivalent of The Mothers of Invention (Frank Zappa's lot) seemingly anarchic and chaotic but absolutely spot on musicians and composers covering all sorts of genres meaning you didn't necessarily know what to expect. They incurred the wrath of politician Quentin Hogg for crediting him with "Piggy Grunt" on "The Intro and The Outro", and the band continued to delight and surpries.

While Bonzo's songs were often credited to Innnes with front man Vivian Stanshall , they were not a two man unit, with other members contributing much of their repertoire.

But this is essential my remembrance of Neil Innes who along with the Bonzo's was the mind behind the Rutles , absolutely spot on Beatles pastiche band and many other musical and comedy collaborations including beith dubbed the seventh Monty Python member.

So although our Urban Spaceman has left the plane he will always bring a smile to my face , and he's now joined Vivian in the next phase of existence.

Ring Out The Old, Ring In The New

This Christmas and New Year break has seen me hit by 'flu' and a cold and I am still probably only functioning at 50% but still smiling and looking forward to the new decade. We lost the wonderful Neil Innes but we have his digital, musical and comedic legacy to keep smiles on our faces. Technology has enabled some amazing situations, if we lose someone their immortality is now virtually guaranteed (as long as they leave something behind). It is one of the many reasons I post on this blog.

In previous years I have sent texts to people on my phone lists but this year I just see that as spamming them, they know I am thinking about them and I know they are thinking about me.

So this is my "Happy New Year" post taking a line from George Harrison's "Ding Dong" which sort of sums up some of my feelings:

Go Forward

Be Happy

Smile

Look Out For Others

Accept Compliments

Stay Positive

Look For New Things

Enjoy Yourself

Be With Friends

Make Me Time

Make Time To Be Social

And Have a Happy New Year

So this is my Happy New Year to you all.

A Handkerchief

We hear so much about recycling these days yet still get our milk in plastic or cardboard disposable cartons and use paper tissues instead of handkerchiefs  and when we see  that we need to sort our rubbish into separate containers so that things can be recycled, I think if we reused things there would be little need to recycle thing. Things would be built to last.

I used to work on a farm and bottled milk which was delivered to customers, and went it was delivered the used bottles were returned and then reused. The only disposable part of the operation was the disposable aluminium foil tops.

Now we use disposable paper tissues when I clean handkerchief feels good to touch , and after use can be washed and reused for a long time. I used to like having a handkerchief although you do need somewhere to put it and keep it, but we are generally good at things like that.

Similarly with nappies / diapers, again washing and reusing saves the need to recycle create landfill.

I think a perfect song for this is "Recycled Vinyl Blues" by Neil Innes written at the time of the early seventies oil crisis when vintl prices went up , but also saw the advent of the 12" single, as if 7" wasn't enough.

So just a few thoughts on recycling when we should be reusung.

So Glad and English As Tuppence

That people are enjoying my blue sky pictures, it's always nice when you do things that people like. Today we've had more gorgeous blue skies. I've been out for a couple of walks and yesterday mowed the lawn for the first time this yeatr and the garden is looking fine after the winter.

I'd ordered some Aftercut from Amazon and Yodel delivered in a huge box on Saturday, so we shall see how that performs. I need to change the bird feeders as the plastic perspex ones don't seem to do for the birds here, so I'm going to pick up a couple of wire ones and hopefully the birds will enjoy that.

The Local Church

I'm listening to Radio 6 and an advertisement came on for a program called "English As Tuppence" about Vivian Stanshall singer with the Bonzo Dog Band, presented by their musical leader Neil Innes. You can listen here for the next week, though it is three hours long. Now this would be ideal to listen to on the way to work but as you can get a consistent signal between Newcastle and Darlington and they don't let you download radio broadcasts I'll just listen at home.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, I certainly will do

Second Hand Plan - HMV , Poundland and Magpies

Many moons ago Music Magpie started buying CDs and DVDs from people , I wasnt sure exactly where this was going. Then That's Entertainment appeared on the high street , selling the second hand stuff to people as a proper record shop.

The thing is you can pick up a Robbie Williams , All Saints , Sugababes , Take That back catalogue for under a tenner second hand. The reason I'm posting this is that I've noticed Poundland are now selling second hand CDs for a pound , so I'm wondering if there is a connection.

Then yesterday I was in HMV in Stratford and noticed that HMV now have a second hand section where they sell stuff for £2 a throw. This was in addition to the Orange concession , the Apple / iPod Dock and DVD player display , T-Shirt section etc. They are so losing their identity .




The biggest irony is that despite selling CDs they don't sell anything you can play a CD on , well maybe their Blu-Ray and DVD players .....

Think Neil Innes Recycled Vinyl Blues is appropriate :