First, I don't have a lot to spare for BOOJUM! tonight, having been on a late shift and only getting in at 7:20 p.m. and with the Pub Quiz looming at 9:00 p.m. Not only that, PC has been running with all the speed of a sedated silicon slug. Typical!
In the second sense - hang on my stomach's giving me a warning, I'd better go put something in it - that's better. Well, the second sense needs a bit of preamble.
The recent "Star Trek" retrospective in Empire laid a claim to it being the longest-running sci-fi series on television, an honour that Conrad is happy to concede, as, although Doctor Who began in 1963 (that is, two years before "Star Trek"), it is a re-eneactment, not a fiction. Your humble scribe is not quite sure how they know what's going to happen in the future but he has faith in that TARDIS technology.
Which is only tangential to the matter at hand*: Jim'll Paint It and his Doctor Who tee shirt. How many characters can you identify? I'll gloast a bit over at least the first four Doctors -
First Doctor, Susan, Dalek, 2nd Doctor, Jamie, Cyberman, Ice Warrior, Third Doctor, Jo Grant, The Brigadier
Auton, The Master, Sea Devil, Giant Maggot,Time Warrior, Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, K9, Davros, Zygon
Giant Robot, The Manky Master, Jaggaroth, Fifth Doctor, Adric, Tegan, Cyberman, Sheraz Jek, Sixth Doctor, Peri -
- and I'll leave some for you to complete.
There Are Some Constants In Life
Such as the charge of an electron, the half-life of Strontium 90, and North Korea shouting loudly whilst shaking a very small stick. So, too, First Bus will deliver an execrable service. Today we had a single-decker, with no Metro (so NO CROSSWORD!) that came 5 minutes early. Your modest artisan, however, expects this kind of - we can't really call it "service" can we? so we'll call it "slackness" instead - and was early himself. Call it honours even.
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| "Thankssss!" said a First Bus spokesdemon |
A Little Musical Critique
Normally this is a cue for Simon to run screaming to the storm cellar and for Garfunkel to neck a whole bottle of Wild Irish Rose. Not today, chaps! Instead we focus on the "Tra La La Song", the theme tune to that terrifying childhood trauma-fest "The Banana Splits Show". Take it away Drooper!
"One banana, two banana, three banana, four."
Clearly delineating the mutability of language, note how the lyricists skillfully avoid pluralising the varied multiplicity of bananas on display, indeed going so far as to refer to them in the abstract.
"Four bananas make a bunch and so do many more."
Bordering on controversial, since this excludes the possibility of three bananas being a bunch, if not a hand. This is still under consideration by the US Supreme Court.
"Over hill and highway the banana buggies go,"
Subtly hinting at the sheer grit and determination of the cast and production team and my! those banana buggies are kinda cool.
"Coming on to bring you the Banana Splits Show."
The banana: our favourite fruit yet also a symbol of serendipitous disaster and a fitting emblem for a show featuring an anthropomorphic mammoth**. |
| That's Snork, right there. |
In order to boost the word count with as little effort as possible, I am posting here what I posted three years ago - about the Poles marching into battle. Tonight they do the same except on the football pitch, against Portugal and Conrad, ever controversial, is rooting for the Poles. Now, that post -
Bitwa Warszawska 1920!
Or - "Battle of Warsaw 1920" for those who don't speak Polish. Finished watching this last night, with the TV screen having to sit two feet away - the subtitles are tiny. An interesting film, showing how the Polish army in the immediate aftermath of World War One was composed of those who had served in the German, Austrian and Russian armies. The hero is a bit underwritten - I liked the Polish Commissar, who was crude, ruthless but also amusing. Natasza Urbanska is also quite easy on the eyes. One curious scene comes near the beginning: the interior of Leon Trotsky's train carriage, where everything is in primary colours. Odd and rather jarring given the realistic cinematography otherwise.
The CD cover art is an inaccurate mish-mash, though - all the background stuff is from WW2 <goes into military pedant mode and the world switches off>
I notice that this was posted absent photograph, a dereliction I would now like to correct:
| The Polish Commissar |
* Typical Conrad. It's why people love me so.
** Do I have this right? Snork was a mammoth, wasn't he?
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