Bat for Ashes? nah! La Roux i like em a lot never mind the BOLLOCKTICS

I was talking to old mate Sean Hurl,in Glasgow and listening to his "Stagestruck" tooons on MySpace...I said it brought back memories (maybe false ones) of standing uncomfortably at the Caribbean Club,Basingstoke, clutching a plastic cup of warm lager in 1984 or something.He said they didnt play the Caribbean club,so ..."Troops out now"!( a reference to N'Ireland,sean is from Irish stock)
The Ashes" series looms.Seems they are starting the matches a day earlier? On wednesdays? Will you be able to watch or listen on line?..
I couldnt really get into the "20Twenty" ,just too quick for me... but above all i am a radio fan so TMS rules..did i say before that an old lady currently living at the Residential home is a relative of John Arlott..sister of his nephew i think,something like that. She lent me a video of his appearances on "Parkinson",and they were "personal" non-commercial copies,nice to see. He also narrated a history of Basing and Basingstoke which she lent me...
I will definitely take more interest in the Tests...and The Tour De France should be good for the Brits,mainly Mark Cavendish. At Last a "verified" Lance Armstrong...
Musicwise..i'm hearing about bands getting fans to fund their records and tours.. For instance Patrick Wolf (electro-pop i'd say) ,sort of making themselves mini public companies ..as far as oldies making comebacks,i heard that "The Blow Monkeys" for instance were up for hire..fans clubbing together to get them to play. In their front rooms even?
I guess that Michael Jackson is outselling most stuff this week...lets face it dying was the only way he was going to clear his debts!..
What english bands are you selling lots of lately?.. "Florence and the Machine"
are this years festival darlings.("Along with Bat for Lashes"..even worse) Nige recommended them over a year ago,as they are sort of rock/folk... I find it dreary,overrated. "Little Boots"? also overrated.. but very pretty and pop.
"la Roux" i like! "Bulletproof" sounds like an update of "Dont go" by Yazoo meets Daft Punk...(the singer's mum is "June" in "the Bill").."Bulletproof" number one last week, beaten only by Jackson's."Man in the Mirror" Are they buying it again? just out of sentiment?...
Basement Jaxx's new single "Raindrops" also caught my ear,just coming out along with new album..it seems that electro pop and house are my faves at the moment!...the last CDs i bought were "Santogold" (now SantIgold) last year..along with "the Kills" and Elvis Costello!! (Momofuku)..
The Clark Springs MySpace page gets regular hits,and addition of "friends",usually from Europe,and small record companies...i should take a look at sprucing it up maybe..

You may have noticed that British politics has been shaken to the core by revelations ,leaked to the Telegraph,of what M.Ps claim on expenses and their second homes.. Some of them revealed indefensible abberations,like not knowing their mortgage had been paid off,and continuing to claim..avoiding capital gains tax on second homes..claiming they were using one home when they were living in another ( Tory couple Kirkbride and ,forgotten his name,both designated "the other" of their two homes as the "main" one) Offenders numbered some 100 or so,NOT all the MPs,and most made perfectly reasonable claims,but most of it just looks so fuckin bad, Like the chancellor,Darling,claiming his tax advice ON EXPENSES. It just demonstrated a culture of,if you can claim it do so,matched only by JOURNALISTS i'd say. Speaker Martin was scapegoated to some extent,with the unliked John Bercow now in place. Michael Martin did ,as a parting shot turn things back on the MPs,pointing out that they could have had this problem aired and sorted over a year ago. The expenses allowance,introduced as a fiver a day in the seventies had ballooned out of control,rising exponentially in the last few years to cover bigger and bigger mortgages on second homes,with the other approach of big pay rises to keep up with this necessity always being avoided..
Stories began with MPs Ministers even ,claiming for second homes ,sometimes parents houses,within easy commuting distance of Westminster!

Gordon Brown is gradually clawing his way back into some semblance of authority,but the most powerful man in Britain right now is undeniably Peter Mandelson!..he is the P.M. in all but name. Gordon owes his ,just slightly less than precarious position largely to him. Gordon knows he will not threaten his position,and is rivalled only by ex-Tory Shaun Woodward for loyalty..no matter what happens though,it seems we are heading for a Tory Election win next year. Despite the fact that there is no great love for Cameron,and no real knowledge of any new policies.. I guess you would share my disgust at the non-turnout for the last euro Elections,resulting in the fuckin BNP gaining two seats!..by default. I wouldnt have minded if it had been a Tory landslide,but they gained on a lower vote. The Labour vote just disappeared altogether.The Greens increased their overall share of the vote by FIFTY percent,but still didnt gain an extra seat!..so much for the "fairer" PR system!...at this rate the Tories will get in on less than 40% of whatever pathetic turnout we get.
Have you tried "twitter"? i really like it, I just cannot be bothered with "Facepoop",
i've used "Flickr" for years..i set up the Clark Springs MySpace of course,just pissed around with my own page before that...i continue to dabble/hobby learn javascripting,and flash for web-development..."twitter" is not just frivolous.there is some serious interaction,even though it's best for the good-natured banter.
In that linked example,Graham Linehan,(Father Ted IT Crowd etc) was outraged by a Mail On Sunday story and pressed for a complaint to the PCC..another example last week,a Daily Mail on-line pole was hi-jacked and came up with the result that 80% of respondents wanted "Travellers" to be able to take priority for health care from their local NHS hospital. The Mail story headline being sort of ."Gypsies are jumping "our health queues"..the story behind it being that,quite reasonably,"travellers ",should they "travel",often miss out on vaccinations for kids and other health issues.So local councils wanted to fast track them so as to catch them before they left the area.
Ah,i've just been added to list of followers by "the DuckworthLewis Method".. Divine Comedy Neil's latest thing..A loving tribute to Cricket, they were playing live on afternoon radio. I have never bought any of the D C stuff but i think his voice is great,and this sounds very good,think "Village Green Preservation Society" Kinks...

G.M bale-out

I have no sympathy for GM whatsoever,and ,despite being a "Libertarian Leftie" i am WITH the American Conservatives on this,the feeling being that the Government should NOT have baled out a basket case company.
I was amazed during FiveLive Simon Mayo's coverage of the election ,visiting Detroit,to hear that the G.M idea of a fuel efficient car was TWENTY FIVE miles to the gallon!!.
No wonder that as soon as "GAS" prices started to go up to the sort of levels we have had for years ,and that they SHOULD have had to pay. the SUV ranges started to look RIDICULOUS to all but the likes of P Diddy,Scharzenegger or Al Gore..
If the British and other European plants have to suffer it will be cruel irony,as Vauxhall and OPel,have,of course been producing EXACTLY the sort of cars that the American G.M will now be FORCED into producing.

Car S Crappage Deal

I just dont see how the "scrappage scheme" "helps" anyone OTHER than those who were going to buy a new car anyway. Plus the negative knock-on effect of putting independent car maintenence companies out of business is potentially disasterous. The side-effect in relation to maintenence being,that, well-maintained ,low-emission cars get scrapped,but the real smoky "old bangers" just carry on,as their owners,even with £2000 off,plus all the "deals" STILL cannot afford £5,000 for a new car! Going down this route potentially destroys the well-maintained second-hand market.
£5000 in the second-hand (under ten-year-old) market,could buy them something excellent,and if someone can afford,or get credit for a £20,000+ car then why should they get another two grand off anyway?
..Someone may well be driving quite a large 10 year old car,why would they want a tiny £7000 car? The cheapest Vauhxhall 4-door"Insignia" is over £17,000..
This scheme is DAFT on so many levels.
Having said all that,it's just a short-term measure anyway,and in no way "Green" or sustainable or anything!

FAULTY TOWERS that was then...

Re "Fawlty Towers"
Yes it's the thirty year anniversary Of "Fawlty Towers" ,and watching a couple of episodes tonight confirms that it still has plenty of laughs in it,but also that it is very much "Of it's time" and could not really be repeated on BBC 2 now.
Maybe this is reflected in the documentary,that is going out,however it's on an obscure subscription channel,which i do not have and consequently that "Televisual Feast" will probably only be seen by a relative handful of people.
A friend gave me an original Beeb tape. Luckily i had access to an ancient working "VCR".
First ep,"The Hotel Inspectors" starring Bernard Cribbins, has it's moments.I enjoyed seeing it again Slapstick is always funny.
Being a tape we run straight into "The Germans" This is the episode that everybody supposedly "knows and loves"(?) A few minutes in to this i was reminded of the "vintage" shall we say,of the show i was watching...
Everybody remembers the "dont mention the War" lines ,famous ,but questionably funny now. An under-current of, acceptable(?) thirty years ago racism runs through the whole series.and this episode in particular. However,I didnt even get to the "goose-stepping".
Along with the Benny Hill type references to Manuel's Spanishness, a glaring "Carol Thatcher" type moment looms up early on in the ep. The Major (forgetful"senile"? elderly character) is recounting how he took a girlfriend to "See India... At the Oval"... John Cleese made a point,yesterday,talking to Colin Paterson, of how ,he and Connie Booth spent SIX WEEKS on the scripts for these shows. I've got an idea that ,given THAT amount of thought NOW,they would not have had the Major explain that his date insisted on referring to the Indians as N-Word and that he had to put her right,and say that the West Indies were N-Word ,that "these people were WOGS"!..Funny line, got a great unembarrassed sounding guffaw at the time,but i would contend that it would NOT get on T.V in this context now,9'o'clock BBC2 as i recall?
. I'm obviously NOT suggesting that John Cleese or Connie Booth are or were racist,just that how DATED these shows are,and that "they dont write them like THAT anymore" could not be more precient in relation to Fawlty Towers". Indeed,to that assertion i would say,"good thing too" ,and when anyone "offended" by todays "foul-mouthed" stand-ups ,"poor taste" and swearing in comedy in general might venture to offer "Towers" as representing that "Golden Age" of wholesomeness or some such rubbish,i would invite them to actually watch the shows again,and prepare to be disabused of that notion.30 years is a hell of a long time in terms of popular culture.
Chris Morrell

BOB QUICK a bit slow?

Are you,like me totally mystified by the enforced resignation of this Bob Quick bloke?
Just who would have taken the photos,or video that the exposed document could be read on?.Surely only registered CRB checked press phtographers are allowed in Downing St? To extrapolate,that the photographing of this piece of paper, blown up to readable size would find it's way un-filtered to "tip off" the alledged "Terror" plotters. provided for a price by one of these shameless photographers,is surely paranoia,verging on the HYSTERICAL!
The beardy guy at the back from "Al-Qaeda" weekly...,(for the thinking Taleban) would be the only one we would have to worry about. Front cover Women in Burkas ,with eyebrows pixellated.
Did the photos HAVE to get ANYWHERE near publishing? This is just a ridiculous situation. A normal sized reproduction of any of these pictures in the printed press,would have been NO problem whatsoever. They were only readable when viewed digitally,in the editing suite. Why did it even become a news story? What it amounts to is a "blunder" story,"look the silly bugger is holding a "Top Secret" doc outside of a folder! What a twit! ..and for that we have to have an unplanned early intervention on the alledged plotters,and a complete upheaval in the security services,with this trusted ,"Safe pair of hands" having to be replaced. Add to this a political row as Boris pipes up to take credit for the new appointment,his deputy slating Ken ,Ken putting in a "scaremongering" line or two. Home Secretary undermined and pissed off again.
The Terrorists "WON" again,and they havnt even set off a bomb yet!

Didn't See it coming? ,Didn't see it coming?

Hands up everyone who saw the housing market crash "coming" right from the start. We've been watching it on T.V the whole time!.
We added the "property development/selling/makeover" show to the list of guilty pleasures headed by "Saturday Morning Kitchen" all the "Ramsey" shows and ALL their forbears.
"Property development" became the new trendy lifestyle choice. Two retired,possibly lesbian ,advertising executives,cash in their share options ,sell their own houses and start renovating their way across the country,straddling the "property ladder" with a film crew in tow.
"The Property Ladder"..the first rung is now impossibly high for the majority of the working population,and most people feel like they are trying to crawl up one of the "Snakes"...
In the last section of the programme after the Estate agent's "Valuation" has taken place ,the protagonists are assembled in their masterpiece.
Our presenter, surveying their work, gives the verdict. This is the "money shot" the "stainless steel,and chrome shower" moment.
This scene always irked me,coming over as an insidious nasty undertone to the show.
"So how much over budget did you actually go"? went the line. "How much do you think you put on the asking price,by stapling those sheets of MDF over that crack and hanging those IKEA pebble pictures?".."and of course ,you did lose money waiting for the kitchen to arrive,insisting as you did on all left handed handles,and the sink unit that converted plug-flow to the southern hemisphere"...
"Well the thing is ,i can tell you ,that if you had done NOTHING at all to the property,this area is really sought after at the moment,and you would have made just as much,without all that hard work,including as it did,the broken ankle,and the suicide attempt".
Another damning with feint praise,or outright put-down,and it's all down to where the house actually IS anyway.
I guess they had a whole season of these sort of shows "in the can",but lets hope this sort of "Property development Porn" is Dead in the Water.

RED PHONE BOXES why do they still exist?

What are these bastard things still doing around? Take a look at one and you will see the sign "coins not accepted here" Well what the HELL?
Just what kind of troll,goes out walking,taking in the smarter villages of the Home Counties,maybe stopping at a local hostelry to sample some "real Ale" or whatever, WITHOUT a mobile phone,BUT, CARRYING a selection of credit or debit cards?

Closer than usual inspection reveals that ,to use these phones,where the coin slots once were, is another familiar slot, to stick a credit card!

How ridiculous.
I'd say that these Red phone boxes are little more than "nostalgia street furniture" . Nasty,divisive,largely unusable tokens of "Ye Olde Wolde" charm that help win the "best preserved village green" contest..they think. Pathetic.
I always used to carry some change for an emergency call,when out cycling.If,as i first feared my mobile had been smashed in the pedal breakage crash i had recently,then all one of these red cages would have been useful for, would have been a place to pee,before finding a charitable phone lender.Pah!