Ha! I Rubbed My Long Scaly Talons At That One
You'll see soon enough. Today's title will only make sense to readers of a certain age in This Sceptred Isle, or their parents, because what's this? Art!
What you're looking at was a television series aimed at 'young adults', or in other words, those who have moved on from Lego and Barbie and are eyeing alcopops with interest. The 'Byker Grove' of the title was a youth club, where hopeful adults kept their underage charges away from the temptations of WKD or Hooch. Art!
What many people have found unforgivable is that BG brought onto the world stage this pair of miscreants, Anton Partonsky and Decland McDeclandson (sp?), who have gone on to transcend their Geordie roots and infest the airwaves ever since. Thank the lord aloft their career in pop music tanked. For those unaware, people in This Sceptred Isle from the North East have a strange and arcane accent, where their 'a' sounds like 'e' and 'Oh' sounds like 'Four', which can make the transcription of telephone numbers a bit fraught. Art!
To warn unsuspecting visitors of their arrival in alien lands, the statue above has been erected, known as "The Angel Of The North". Quite why a gigantic man with arms for wings stands for the North East is anyone's guess, as I'm not even going to venture one.
Those of you with eyes to see and wits to realise will notice that today's title is not spelled as the television program, which is because this Intro is not about the television program. But it does concern bikers. And trees. And a stand of trees can be called a grove, which is enough justification for me. Art!
Behold! A campground in a South Canadian forest, which are maintained and overseen by the Forestry Service, part of the Department Of Agriculture that Elong Tusk is going to get rid of as he's one of those 'Glass is half empty so set the world on fire' kind of chaps. Perhaps.
ANYWAY the South Canadians take their campsites in the forest seriously, because when Mother and human nature collide, it tends to end up messy. Art!
You will often see containers such as the above for the disposal of waste, especially food waste, because bears are inveterate scroungers and go after all kinds of barely-edible junk.
Also, campsites try to enforce what is known as 'Quiet Time', usually between the hours of 22:00 and 06:00, so that people pooped from peripatetic park pastimes can recuperate overnight, and the younger members of the tribe aren't disturbed after their bedtime.
Remember this, it comes into play later. Art!
This, gentle reader, is a biker gang on a poker run. More like all the biker gangs, if you ask me, and you can se#
ANYWAY the teller of this tale was part of a biker gang that went on 'Poker runs' to raise money for charity, which involves long journeys across multiple locations, at each of which a card is given out, and the best hand at terminus wins the deal, whatever that might be.
One of these long journeys - South Canada being a large place to motor around - involved an overnight stay at a campsite, where the gang raised a modest ruckus until Quiet Time, upon which they put on their pyjamas, said their prayers and went to bed. Possibly. Art!
Sadly there were other, far less careful occupants of the forested campsite, who insisted on drinking, singing, shouting, dancing and ignoring camp staff telling them to keep it down. They eventually collapsed into drunken stupors about 03:00 in the morning.
Our biker boys were up very early next morning, since they had to strike camp and move out for their next card-collecting rendezvous. They saw the dereliction and debris left by the Jackbottom Campers and were struck with malicious inspiration. Most of the obnoxer's supplies went into the park dumpster, a few coolers of beer were retained by the bikers and they set off.
Surprise! by the time the drunken reptiles came to, the camp dumpsters had long been emptied and the bikers were far far away, enjoying free beer.
To top it all, the Jackbottom Campers were banned from ever returning to the campground. Point and laugh.
"The War Illustrated Edition 205 29th April 1945"
Back to the central montage again, and what do we have this time? Art!
Say hello to the first Bailey pontoon bridge over the Rhine, where the finishing touches are being applied by the Royal Engineers. Art!
Here the pontoons have been assembled ready to become part of the new bridges in lieu of those that the Teutons have demolished. Not very glamourous or exciting, yet quite vital.
Our Journey With Bernie
Continues, in rather bumpy fashion, as I've already explained that it's quite difficult to get either or both of the FPG card pictures or the information Bernie added on the reverse to explain about how the picture was created, or what the theme ought to be. Art!
This is #88, "Eels". Allow me to add what Bernie might have explained; for one thing, there is no background present, implying this isn't a finished illustration. The eels themselves have very low contrast colouring, and a lot less of it than the unfortunate chap trying to avoid being bitten by flying fish. Perhaps the background was going to be underwater? Or, Bernie wants us to fear eels that can fly.
More Of Michael Mann's Film Plans
There are directors who rehearse rehearse rehearse, hoping to get their actors word-perfect, and also get the best possible performance, having done numerous takes. Stanley Kubrick was perhaps the epitome of this. Art!
This is a risky strategy and it takes skill and experience to realise when to go for spontaneity over repetition, when you can't get 100% a second time no matter how many times you try.
More Popcorn, Please
Conrad is sniggering at the value of Tesla shares again today, late of the afternoon here in This Sceptred Isle, which is probably several hours ahead of when the market stops trading over in South Canada. Art!
O and what's this? Art!
Finally -
We've not addressed the issue of 'Whisky Galore' in today's blog, so perhaps tomorrow, when everyone is nursing a hangover thanks to over-indulgence on Saint Patrick's Day.
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