The Bark Side Of The Moon

Apologies To Astronomers
Well, a little.  Fans of Pink Floyd?  You don't even begin to count!
     I should start by saying that we begin today's blog with a referral to that Pink Floyd For The Noughties: Radiohead.  If you *really* appreciate 'Planet Telex' then you are in the approximate ball park.  "Pablo Honey", not so much.
     Anyway, what I wanted to focus on is what is easily the best track from 2016's "A Moon Shaped Pool" - "Burn The Witch".  Art?

Witch burning ahoy!

     Do you see where the Moon comes into play today?*

     QUICKLY!  FLUSH YOUR PLUMBING!  YOU CAN NEVER TELL WHEN THE KILLER EELS ARE LURKING, WAITING TO POUNCE!!**

     Where was I?  O yes, about to take the medicine.  The song comes with an hilarious video animation in the style of all those early Seventies animated series like "Trumpton" et al.  Art?

The real thing

     However.  It most certainly is not one of those early Seventies animated series, as it gradually gets stranger and stranger.  Ritual sacrifice?  Living mannequins?  Gallows worship?  All this and more.  Art?

Ticks all the boxes

     Now, this is eldritch enough, were not some bafoon bestruck of the idea "I know, this video is definitely out there, so - LET'S PLAY IT TO A LOAD OF CHILDREN! and see what they think."  People get paid to think up ideas like this?  Where do I sign up?
     The kids were quite perceptive.  "OH MY GOSH!" was frequently repeated.  I also noticed "This is creepy" - quite true - and "the people who made this are messed-up!" - again true.
     I don't know why, but I just love the way Thom Yorke warbles out the line "This is a low-flying panic attack", which is probably what those kids suffered afterwards.

"You'll believe a man can fry!"

     Personally, I thought it was extremely funny, to the point of laughing out loud.  Of course, that might just be me.

Get Your Smutty Brains Out Of The Gutter
I can tell what you're going to be sniggering to each other at the back of the classroom when I broach the next subject, that of organs, for Conrad is a happy camper now that his latest copy of "Organ news" has arrived.  Art?

NO!  Art, you hapless witless wart - just let  me get my atomic tazer -

<puts Tazer back in drawer and squints horribly at Art>

     I missed the Autumn Shades event last October, but I shall pencil it in for 2018.  The world of organs and organists - a little subculture like <thinks> Subbuteo or Pylon-Spotting, which you normally never encounter.
     Also, that verdammt Coincidence Hydra is nibbling on my nethers again - note the ringed clue there:"What the organ pedals will produce - see below (8)" and of course the answer is "Footnote".  You need special shoes to play organ pedals, you know.  I wonder if you can get ones that are proof against coincidences?

Watching Dimya
 - that being the diminutive for "Vladimir", which, if I said it in Russia, would probably be considered a criminal offence (Tsar Putin not known for a sense of humour).
     Yesterday I caught a jolly interesting clip on Youtube, about a NATO battlegroup present in north-east Poland and I may even be able to add in a link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NfWWw0cR58


     There you go.  The British are training at a location known as "Bemowo Piskie", which borders Lituania, Belarus and Kaliningrad, which latter is a kind of independent polyp of Russia that sits on the coast of the Baltic.  The idea is that these forces will act as a tripwire if Dimya begins to get itchy feet and a blind spot about borders, or claims to be running from an infestation of - Killer eels!  Nipping at his heels!  Eating through his window seals!  Raising vicious skin-defacing crimson weals!
     Sorry, where was I?  Oh yes, the medicine - I'll be all better soon.

Masurian and Lakey

    
     Why am I dipping my long, mis-shapen toe in the turbid waters of Current Affairs and Politics (and State Religion too if Dimya got his way)?  Because this particular part of Poland used to belong to the Teutons, and was known as the Masurian Lakes region.  This is where the only invasion of the land of the Teutons took place in the First Unpleasantness, by our noble comrades in arms the Ruffians.
     Makes you think eh?






*  This is a metaphor.  Just so we're clear.
**  I apologise for using 2 exclamation marks in what approaches Continental levels of hysteria, but KILLER EELS!