Yesterday Clicky posted The Okie Devil’s latest missive whilst I was otherwise engaged. It was very good of him do that…
*Oi! You’ll have your turn…*
However, it appears that in his haste to complete said posting before I got home, Clicky neglected to include a gif from Cade’s carefully prepared text. To wit, exhibit A…
*/stern expression… Take it out from behind your back, Clicky, and show it to Dear Reader… /flares nostrils… Come on…*
*That’s so Cade… /winsome smile…*
*For goodness sake, Clicky… /holds up hands… You completely changed the ending. What were you thinking?*
*I’ll say! You turned it from a gritty rendering of his thoughts and feelings into…*
*/sniffs… Well quite! …/blows nose… I’m pretty sure that wasn’t what he was going for… /lights up… I’ll have to apologise to him…*
*/squints… Oh, and that roaring fire you so thoughtfully lit?*
*Yeah, the library doesn’t have a fireplace, Clicky… /blows smoke…*
*…And some suspicious gaps have appeared on the shelves in the Religion/Politics section… /taps ash… Honestly Click, what to do… /wrings hands…*
*NO! Jesus fuck! …/stubs out butt… I’ll just have to replace with some new stuff… /sigh… Okay, I’m off to apologise to Cade… /pulls on helmet…*
*I’ll smooth it out… /cocks head… Well? …/waits… Song?*
When I saw your Calendar cover today about George Michael, “the reluctant pop star,” my first reaction was he should thank the good Lord every morning when he wakes up to have all that he has. And that’ll make two of us thanking God every morning for all that we have.
*Calendar? Hmm… I’ve posted about a Calendar recently, Clicky…*
*Well unlike a standard calendar, it did have 13 months, Clicky… /wink… Come on, back to the frank letter…*
I don’t understand a guy who lives “in hopes of reducing the strain of his celebrity status.” Here’s a kid who “wanted to be a pop star since I was about 7 years old.” And now that he’s a smash performer and songwriter at 27 he wants to quit doing what tons of gifted youngsters all over the world would shoot grandma for — just one crack at what he’s complaining about.
*Oh, in a musical mood are we, Clicky? …/furrows brow… I don’t know about ‘moving’ so much, the letter does seem kinda pointed…*
Come on, George. Loosen up. Swing, man, Dust off those gossamer wings and fly yourself to the moon of your choice and be grateful to carry the baggage we’ve all had to carry since those lean nights of sleeping on buses and helping the driver unload the instruments.
*1990… /tilts head… Maybe Frank’s words did hit home, then…*
And no more of that talk about “the tragedy of fame.” The tragedy of fame is when no one shows up and you’re singing to the cleaning lady in some empty joint that hasn’t seen a paying customer since Saint Swithin’s day. And you’re nowhere near that; you’re top dog on the top rung of a tall ladder called Stardom, which in Latin means thanks-to-the-fans who were there when it was lonely.
*/smiles… The lad from Hobo Ken did have a point…*
Talent must not be wasted. Those who have it — and you obviously do or today’s Calendar cover article would have been about Rudy Vallee — those who have talent must hug it, embrace it, nurture it and share it lest it be taken away from you as fast as it was loaned to you.
*Yeah… Seems George did manage to turn ‘the tragedy of fame’ into somethingelse…*
Trust me. I’ve been there.
*Ahh… Thanks, Clicky! …/shakes head… Wow! You’ve managed to knock the song-worm out of my head…*
This time last year, Dear Reader, I was still embarked on a ‘Pointless Exercise‘. I’ve not touched on the show since but it remains a treasure trove of synchronicity, wrapped up in the innocent garb of an amusing teatime TV quiz show…
*George Michael, who recently died, Clicky… Where are you going with this? …/furrows brow…*
*Okay… Red Frank’s MEROVEEpost… You’re not being rude are you? …/squint…*
*Ah! Yes, apparently MRS REIGN is a fan of ‘Pointless’… Clever, Clicky… /rubs snout… No, don’t pout… Of course I had faith in where you were taking me… /glances away…*
Armstrong later corroborated the source in a Radio Times interview, where he said a Palace insider affirmed that Pointless was indeed on Her Majesty’s TV viewing schedule.
It’s highly unlikely we’ll ever see The Queen make a guest appearance on the show herself. However, it may make other fans of it rather chuffed to know that they can count on the Head of the Commonwealth amongst their ranks.
Armstrong, Dear Reader, the name Armstrong occurs twice in the Pointless sync I am about to relay…
*/grins… Yeah, Hugo… He’s involved in my Pointless sync as well, Clicky… /continues grinning…
So, on Thursday evening Thoughtful Man and I were watching a back episode of ‘Pointless‘. It was in the ‘head-to-head’ round when the subject of Royalty came up, as it occasionally does…
It wasn’t Damien of ‘The Omen‘ fame of course, but Viscount Linley, 2nd Earl of Snowdon, a.k.a. David Armstrong-Jones…
*No… /rolls eyes… Yes, that’s Doctor Who as a ‘father’ but that’s not ‘Who’s father’, Clicky… /shakes head…*
… I mentioned Lord Snowdon’s passing to Hugo in conversation on Friday evening, but only after he sent me a news story about ‘Road Rage‘. It was unsolicited – I hadn’t told him of the silly Pointless answer I’d given the night before…
*/sings… You give me road rage… Love that strong Welsh accent, Clicky… Hey! Snowdon is in Wales… /smiles…*
*/gasps… OMG! Clicky, the brilliant sci fi book I’m currently proofing for Leggy… You are so clever! …/holds out arms… Come here, you impossible creature…/rubs snout…*
Dear Reader, I hope you have enjoyed this pointless sync at the LoL. I’m off to continue my reading, so if you have any questions or observations, please avail yourself of the comment section, below…
For her upcoming trip to New York, Sister Juju has bought herself a pair of shoes.
*’Converse’, Clicky… adjective or verb?*
converse (adj.)“exact opposite,” 1560s, from Latin conversus “turn around,” past participle of convertere “to turn about” (see convert). Originally mathematical. The noun is attested from 1550s in mathematics. Related: Conversely.
converse (v.)“to communicate (with),” 1590s; earlier “to move about, live, dwell” (mid-14c.), from Old French converser “to talk” (12c.), from Latin conversari (see conversation). Related: Conversed; conversing.
*Both! /Claps hands… Okay you start*
*Black star, white star?… /thinks… Oh, David Bowie!*
*That reminds me, the smiley face badge – Thoughtful Man and I watched ‘Watchmen’ the night before last. Now that was extremely dark… I feel-good romp if ever I saw one.*
*DB’s first hit song, but you really don’t have to slow down on my account, Clicky. Cheek!*
*Yes, he smoked. Do you know, some fuckwits believe that was what killed David Bowie? Even though he’d done their ‘right thing’ and given up.*
*Painted black on the inside… well, that’s the world we live under now, Clicky… he did rather predict it…*
“Actually, I want to say a few things on the album.
“Like, ‘Right’ is putting a positive drone over. People forget what the sound of Man’s instinct is – it’s a drone, a mantra. And people, say: ‘Why are so many things popular that just drone on and on’. But that’s the point really. It reaches a particular vibration, not necessarily a musical level.”
And that’s what ‘Right’ is…
“Oh, alright … let’s talk about the rest of the album. Very decadent this is [laughs]. ‘Somebody Up There Likes Me‘ is a ‘Watch out mate, Hitler’s on his way back’… it’s your rock and roll sociological bit.
“And ‘Across The Universe‘, which was a flower power sort of thing John Lennon wrote. I always thought it was fabulous, but very watery in the original, and I hammered the hell out of it. Not many people like it. I like it a lot and I think I sing very well at end of it.
“People say I used John Lennon on the track … but let me tell you … no one uses John Lennon. John just came and played on it. He was lovely.
“‘Can You Hear Me‘ was written for somebody but I’m not telling you who it is. That is a real love song. I kid you not. And the end of the thing is ‘Fame‘ which was more or less sung about what we’re doing now.”
*Back to the other side of Juju’s shoes, Clicky? Yes, well currently things are looking rather ‘in the soup‘ /titter… *
Clicky for a Song
*That’s right, David Bowie portrayed Andy Warhol in ‘Basquiat‘… sounds like ferocious biscuit, if you ask me 😉 *
I was woken this morning by the hairy warmth of Thoughtful Man nuzzling into my back and a stinky breath dachshund intent on licking the sleep from my eyes.
“Bad news,” he whispered in my ear. “David Bowie’s dead.”
“What?!” Eyes and mouth suddenly open, Poppy took it as a come on for a French kiss. I wiped mouth and attempted to sit up in bed. “What?”
“Yeah, cancer.” He paused. “That’s two now,” he looked at me solemnly.
“Two what?” I lightly batted away Poppy’s energetic attempts to snog me some more.
“The ‘CD of Death’,” Thoughtful Man explained. “I made a CD up for the cab just before Christmas. The first song was ‘Ace of Spades‘ and the second track was ‘Starman.’
“You called it ‘The CD of Death’?” If it wasn’t for the insistent tongue exploring my right nostril, I could have sworn I were still dreaming.
“Well, I do now!” Thoughtful Man pulled Popstar off me, expertly turning her over for a calming belly rub.
“Shit. Well, who else did you put on it?”
He took a deep breath. “George Michael, Barry Manilow, Taylor Swift…” He reached out to the bedside table before placing a silvery disc in my hand. It was blank save for a thick black marker pen ‘X‘ on one side.
“You’ve marked it with cross? Isn’t that a bit morbid?”
“No.” Thoughtful Man looked affronted. “I did that at the time to show which way up to put the CD in the player.”
“Oh, okay. So then, who’s next?”
*******
Round Two of this ‘Pointless Exercise’ will be available later today. As I mentioned on Part 2.1 – it’s a ‘Words’ round.
15th of January was Mum’s birthday. On that date in 2003 she turned 58. She’s deadnow; now I’m the elder mother in the family.
costume (n.) 1715, “style of dress,” an art term, from French costume (17c.), from Italian costume “fashion, habit,” from Latin consuetudinem (nominative consuetudo) “custom, habit, usage.” Essentially the same word as custom but arriving by a different etymology. From “customary clothes of the particular period in which the scene is laid,” meaning broadened by 1818 to “any defined mode of dress.” Costume jewelry is first attested 1933.
OMG, Clicky! How can you be bored with language? And English is the language of angles. Let’s carry on, shall we? If you can be bothered to, Click.
custom (n.)c. 1200, “habitual practice,” from Old French costume “custom, habit, practice; clothes, dress” (12c., Modern French coutume), from Vulgar Latin *consuetumen, from Latin consuetudinem (nominative consuetudo) “habit, usage, way, practice, tradition, familiarity,” from consuetus, past participle of consuescere “accustom,” from com-, intensive prefix (seecom-), + suescere“become used to, accustom oneself,” related to sui, genitive of suus “oneself,” from PIE *swe- “oneself” (seeidiom). Replaced Old English þeaw. Sense of a “regular” toll or tax on goods is early 14c. The native word here is toll.
Click. Tell me about it… 😉
play (v.)Old English plegan, plegian“move rapidly, occupy or busy oneself, exercise; frolic; make sport of, mock; perform music,” from West Germanic *plegan “occupy oneself about” (cognates: Old Saxon plegan “vouch for, take charge of,” Old Frisian plega “tend to,” Middle Dutch pleyen “to rejoice, be glad,” German pflegen “take care of, cultivate”), from PIE root *dlegh-“to engage oneself,” forming words in Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, and possibly Latin.
Meaning “to take part in a game” is from c. 1200. Opposed to work (v.) since late 14c. Related: Played; playing. To play up “emphasize” is from 1909; to play down “minimize” is from 1930; to play along“cooperate” is from 1929. To play with oneself “masturbate” is from 1896; play for keeps is from 1861, originally of marbles or other children’s games with tokens. To play second fiddle in the figurative sense is from 1809 (“Gil Blas”). To play into the hands (of someone) is from 1705. To play the _______ card is attested from 1886; to play fair is from mid-15c. To play (something) safe is from 1911; to play favorites is attested from 1902. For play the field see field (n.).
Please, Clicky, for the love of god, no..!!
Phew! That could have been sooo much worse…
*flicks lighter* At the beginning of the month, 3rd October to be exact, I wrote an email to MJ, my online friend who lives in Tennessee, US of A:
Mary Jo, I like the title, I want to use it for a post at the LoL – I will quote some of this email, just so’s you know 😉 It’s how WE get to write the script 😉 …Vik’s ‘crack the code’ *shakes head*. And it’s all true – this is an after thought, another level… Clicky!
Now MJ, what do you and Charlie have cooked up, costume-wise for this Halloween? The boys did costumes once for a Halloween party that some woman at work threw. It was horrendous. The less said, the better. If I wrote a post about it for the LoL, it would be called ‘A Freakishly Boring Night Out’.
We don’t do Halloween, so wishing to live vicariously… MJ, you are my only hope!
I love your Charlie photo updates – he’s a gorgeous child and you are a gorgeous mum. You’re just the sort of mum I never was to my boys. I made a decision, you see, to treat them exactly the same. Very noble of me 😉
As it happens, they are complete opposites to each other and have very different interests, and to split my time and energy in half… no, there’s Steve and WORK (a huge amount of my time is spent there)… to give equally, I just let them get on with their own play. Mostly I did homework with them or painting. Costumes were for school trips & photos and mostly shop bought. Cheap and cheerful and the boys weren’t really that interested in them anyway. Now if it was Star Wars school trips…
Also, Halloween is not that big of deal in the UK and the night itself is celebrated more by adult- kids than children-children. Well, where I live anyway. And Steve will tell me all about that when he gets home from driving them about that night 😉
So spill, I want to enjoy knowing what I didn’t get or choose for in my life… a proper Mother and Child run up to Halloween… 😉
*deep draw* A nice woman, MJ, she replied straightaway. Now how long would it have taken, to correspond with your overseas girlfriend, in days of yawn ?
Roobee! So good to hear from you! About to run some errands so this won’t be as long as it should be. Charlie is going to be
and I’m going to be
But we probably won’t look just like that. We will probably look more like
😀 😀 😀 😀
It doesn’t mean we aren’t “super” though!
Oh Clicky! You shouldn’t hide stuff behind MJ’s illustrations. I know you do it to mine, but did you ask her? …*tumbleweed*… No, I didn’t think so *tut*
Then *flick, flick, shakes flick* then today, 30th October, I arrive at my place of work, with a Song playing in my head, to find it’s Dress Down Friday. Goo goo g’joob I’d forgotten… nobody needs to see me in my jimjams… except maybe for me and I really don’t think that’s what Management intended.
I took off my hat and coat, fired up my PC (no resemblance to The Flash in that piece of hardware, believe me) and ventured into the kitchen to make myself a cuppa joe.
Now I must tell you, we’re getting new toilets at work, so all kinds of doors that are normally held open have been allowed to close. To cut down on the noise and the dust, from the men at work.
On returning to my desk I had to turn the handle of a door that I never normally have to touch. As I pushed it open, more concerned with whether I’d forgotten to add sugar (again), I was surprised by the looming presence of another, on the other stood of the door. I look up and to my utter astonishment, there stood… MJ!
Okay not Tennessee MJ, Clicky, but a woman who looked so like her I just stood there staring…
I told you, Click, I’d forgotten it was Dress Down Friday *rolls eyes*
*Exhales plume* Who’d of thought? I had the title of this post weeks ago; I had no idea what kind of shambles it would make. The whole idea of ‘Selfie Sounds Like Sophie’ on Sync Miss For Him was to develop a long exposure selfie of the goddess, in an ‘as below, so above’ amateur experiment.
On Merovee, the site of MJ/Isis’ love Frank/Osiris, ‘WE’ is major meme. Shambles are magical things and I’d managed to conjure a goddess 😉
In honour of that fact, I decided to do something I’ve never actually done before, unless you count capturing the odd stray hand or foot in the odd photos I taken. I took my very first selfie. And I took it in what our office new ladies loos is going to look like, courtesy of the 2nd floor, which has already been renovated…
LOL! A ‘now you see me, now you don’t’ sort of thing, Click? Blimey that’s a grey tongue – must be all the smoking. Or it could be that the manufacturers have missed a trick 😉 Maybe I should tell them…
Why? Y knot, Clicky? ‘Cos play’s the thing *wink*
Have a happy Halloween everybody and… Do, please Doo have a Song 😉
I have been doing other things. Different things. So I haven’t visited the LoL much in recent days…
Okay then, Clicky, over a week.
And I confess my lack of shambling was playing on my mind when I jumped into Thoughtful Man’s van for the journey to work this morning. This is the route we normally take…
We like to go via the seafront because it’s a much pleasanter drive than negotiating the traffic and barmy light system through the centre of town. The accompanying music was selected randomly by Thoughful Man, from a CD he’d made himself for the previous weekend’s shifts.
“Thank fuck!” I thought, as he started pressing buttons. Local radio is utterly banal, full of unreasonably chirpy presenters, repetitive traffic updates and government sponsored ads intent on telling us how we should live.
1. (Informal) a state of total disorder. “my career was in a shambles“
2. a butcher’s slaughterhouse (archaic except in place names): “the shambles where the animals were slaughtered”
3. A shamble (also called a shambles) is a handmade device used by witches to detect or amplify magic. It can even be used for protection or to send a spell.
Discworld, Clicky, yes and its inhabitants riding it. I hadn’t talked to him about those thoughts at all – how did he know?
“I’ll post a shambles tonight.” I decided, as I bobbed my head in time to the music. But where? Here, at the LoL, or on Sync Miss For Him?
Point B – Song No.2: The Look of Love by ABC
Look of Love… Library of Libraries… LOL. I had my answer 😉 Not only that, but Hugo brought up Lexicon on the latest Merovee post, just a few hours earlier…
Lexi tells her parents she’s wise to the con and the ABC album housing the song. The journey had been smooth and I enjoyed singing along. That’s probably why Thoughtful Man decided the dial should be spun.
Point C – Song No.3: You Spin Me Round by Dead or Alive
Cross, Clicky? Not at Thoughtful Man; he has an aversion to listening to a song all the way through. I don’t think it’s just my singing 😉 Butlots ofthings do make me cross thesedays.
Which brings us to…
Point D – Song No.4 – Something About You by Level 42
You betcha, Clicky! We were still Kinging it as we pulled up outside Point E 😀
Hugo emphasizes ‘Blackbushe’ in posting the story of the Bin Laden plane crashing into a car auction yesterday.
Ironically, for the man seen as behind the 911 Twin Tower attack, a lot of his family seem to have been killed in plane crashes.
Osama bin Laden’s stepmother, half-sister and brother-in-law died after a private jet owned by the family exploded into a fireball after overshooting a runway while trying to land outside London.
Stepmother, half-sister, brother-in-law join his father and brother…
Bin Laden’s father Mohammed originally registered the tail number of the aircraft involved in yesterday’s crash in the 1960s.
He was flying the aircraft with the number HZ-IBN, when he died in another crash in 1967, however his family retained the registration.
The aircraft was registered to Salem Aviation – which was named after the dead terrorist’s eldest brother, who himself died in a crash in 1988 when he ploughed into powerlines in San Antonio, Texas.
On the same day, it was reported that Saudi Arabia was making an appeal to be dropped from pending and future 911 lawsuits.
*Ground Zero was a bit of a scar, wasn’t it Clicky? And it was only yesterday that Thoughtful Man was showing me images of sCARification he’d just seen on Facebook page…*
*That’s right, Clicky! Scar is Simba’s evil uncle in ‘The Lion King‘… based on ‘Hamlet’, voiced by Jeremy Irons…*
*Of course, I spent quite a bit of time discussing the similarities between ‘Memento’ and ‘The Matrix’ with Hugo last year, Clicky…*
*Main does sound like Mane, Clicky, and Leo was the main character in ‘Memento’…*
But what of ‘Blackbushe‘ I hear you ask: Hugo specifically emphasized ‘Blackbushe’ in his comment. Well, that’s where ‘Pointless’ comes into the equation and yesterday’s episode featured an obvious black bush… can you see where it is yet? 😉
‘Pointless’ is the only TV show Thoughtful Man and I regularly watch. Obscure answers are best but a pointless one is the holy grail. Because he works on a Friday night, we watch the show in the wee small hours of Saturday morning, feasting on Maccy Ds whilst the children sleep soundly…
So before I’d read Hugo’s comment or even knew about the plane crash (Thoughtful Man told me about it when he got in, in the midst of the grease/brown paper prison-break from his bag laden arms), I watched Pointless, with a warm, oleaginous chin, and wondering about the bushy, blackness of contestant Ian’s facial hair…
I love the fact that ‘sidekick’ Richard Osman (a 6’7″ giant) has a laptop for a prop. He addresses the audience and particularly the fourth wall… he is the audience’s confident…
There was banter about the black, bushy beard… Apols, moustache…
I’m just going to focus on Ian in this shamble, though goodness knows the whole show is a syncfest 😉 The first round was ‘Beverages: Types of tea, coffees and herbal infusions from around the world’… this was the board, filled with my answers, shouted out between delicious beefy mouthfuls…
Ian was up first…
Flat… White..?
Luckily he survived to Round two or this shamble would end here, but partner Louise completely fucked up her answer to ‘Name a chemical element beginning with the the letters A through to M…’
Before poor Ian had a chance to answer, they were already eliminated from the show…
*/squints… Oh, and that roaring fire you so thoughtfully lit?*
