22 May 2009
Daily Chat 22/05/09
On this day in 1377, Pope Gregory XI issues 5 papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of John Wycliffe. In 1906, the Wilbur and Orville Wright were granted a patent for their flying machine. And in 1980, Namco released PacMan. Little white dots haven't been safe since then. Celebrating birthdays today; Charles Aznavour, Jerry Dammers and that poor Katie Price or Jordan or whatever she's calling herself today.
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When I saw Nadine Dorries on Question Time two weeks ago, incredulously asking how Trident could be a weapon of mass destruction, I thought I'd dosed off while watching Gavin and Stacey and was listening to one of the walk on parts from Essex putting the world to rights after a curry and too many Chardonnays.
ReplyDeleteThis morning I wake to discover she's really a Tory MP.
This is so bittersweet for a lifelong Labour supporter.
Bitterweed,
ReplyDeleteHeard her on Radio 4 talking about how bad the atmosphere was in parliament and how everyone is worried about each other (the "suicide fear" she wrote about on her blog - which frankly I think that is a totally inappropriate thing to write) and the witch hunt by the papers. Oh boo hoo, what's that? If you have nothing to hide you've nothing to fear right?
She made me very angry.
It’s an allowance, not expenses, we can use it on whatever we want... No prime minister has had the courage to award us a pay rise... Told it was just our due...
ReplyDeleteYeah alright.
At any other time this would have been a six pointer for Labour... alas...
ReplyDeleteVote Green ?
I'm fed up with the lot. Just moved though so don't know about the candidates in my area and need to register. Considered deliberately spoiling my ballot. It all feels a bit useless.
ReplyDeleteStill..
ReplyDeleteThe sun is shining and it's a bank holiday weekend and my boss says I can leave early :-D
I've got the day off today, wife and mother-in-law sipping Pimms and bickering their way round Chelsea Flower Show, daughter at school... may do a spot of grass-cutting, may even change the strings on my guitar (a job I hate doing, I've got to say).
ReplyDeleteOriginal
ReplyDeleteHah, good stuff. Sometimes it's the little things...
Swifty
"may even change the strings on my guitar (a job I hate doing, I've got to say)."
Get amongst it, and give the old girl a polish wile you're at it. You know you want to ;-)
I'm not little, or white (got myself a farmer's tan!) am I safe?
ReplyDeleteDotterel
ReplyDeleteCareful... What.. sort ... of .... farming ? (You did you read yesterday's disgraceful thread didn't you ?)
Bitterweed
ReplyDeleteSkim read, and I have been in fields with sheep, but only on my way to the river, and I was wearing chest waders the whole time.......
Mmm... chest waders...
ReplyDeleteUh oh, what've I started? Chesties, really? You like the whole boil in the bag thing?
ReplyDeleteDamn. Someone mentioned Diane Abott on CiF. I'm all depressed again now.
ReplyDeleteAnd then a Kiwi takes umbrage at this
ReplyDelete----
TomRainsborough
22 May 09, 10:18am (23 minutes ago)
@prodigy
I didn't know they had banks in New Zealand.
I've always assumed people bartered with sheep.
Is that what they call it these days?
-----
Oh dear. That "tradition of the left" thread should be fun.
ReplyDeleteHi Swifty. God, I love changing my guitar strings except after a few chords I think, fuck it, I'm crap and then leave it alone for another 6 months. My problem is rythm (how do you spell rithum?), I jest aint got it. In my early enthusiastic days I bought a Fender Strat copy for £150 but after a couple of months my wife and children gave me an ultimatum so I sold it...
ReplyDeleteMy most successful piece used to be "Wonderful World" (Don't know much about history, don't know much biology...) which I sang loudly.
I did actually change the strings on my Fender jumbo acoustic before Christmas and haven't touched it since.
So what do you play, Swifty? (Me, I'm a big Dylan fan)
... and balance is restored !
ReplyDelete@ room101
ReplyDeleteIf you call by to read the news and views as I suspect you do -
I remember that "Western Terrace's" event your were trying to tell SB about!
The other chant was-
"Shipman ............Shipman.............SHIPMAN .....Where's me fucking Gran"
I've been playing guitar for while now, and I'm still fairly crap.
ReplyDeleteI reckon the most you need to be able to enjoy it properly is the ability to accompany yourself with a few chords. Which is quite easy.
A bit of Dylan is always good, nothing too taxing though, To Ramona, Times They are a-Changin', Love Minus Zero.
Yes, I am that bad. ^_^ I also change my strings about once every three years or something. I've only changed them on my electric once and I haven't actually changed acoustic at all yet.
Anyway, I'm off.
@DanP:
ReplyDeleteI like Dylan too, but this week I are mostly playing country, bluegrass and alt-folk/Americana. I'm a right little redneck me.
I've got a lovely second-hand Martin acoustic D18 which I've had for a long time (cost a lot of money, don't tell the wife...), a Blueridge acoustic which I bought a couple of years ago for £240 but plays and sounds like a guitar worth three or four times that... and a fender Strat which I've had since I was 13.
I'm pretty much acoustic only these days, the Strat's not been out of its case for the best part of year I reckon.
I've got some nice medium gauge strings for the Blueridge but I just reckon string changing's such a chore. I'm going to hire a guitar tech when I win the lottery to do it for me.
BW, try and keep up mate - I made almost exactly the same comment about bartering yesterday. Great minds, eh?
ReplyDeleteCif contributor Emily Hill was on 5Live last night talking about 'celebrity' MP's. And what a smug, ignorant, obnoxious, patronising twat she was too. On the positive side, she got a thorough kicking from everybody in the studio and every single caller too. Restored my faith in humanity a little.
scherfig
ReplyDeleteEmily Hill epitomises CiF...
@scherfers:
ReplyDeleteA lot of people seem to like Emily Hill but I just can't stand her.
Right, one episode of Alan Partridge series 2, The Colour of Alan I reckon, then it's out into the garden for a bit of mowing and some staking up runners/peas etc.
@ Original
ReplyDeleteI was talking with a lady recently who had the same view re - spoiling the ballot paper.
We agreed in the end there is a desperate need to include "non of the above" on the ballolt paper
Scherfig
ReplyDeleteApologies
SwiftyBoy
That Martin sounds good. I've just got hold of an eighteen watt valve amp to play me telecaster through... rehearsed Wednesday and it soounded sweet... gigging tomorrow night, can't wait. Got a Johnson Dobro too, for slide.
"Wings. The band the Beatles could have been."
Titter...
@B/W:
ReplyDeleteThe Martin's a lovely guitar. Good enough for Tony Rice is good enough for me. It's got the odd scratch on the bout and I had the bridge replaced about 5 years ago, but it is in very good nick overall.
Any clips of you on the dobro out there in internetland? I'm a big fan of the dobro as I've said before, Jerry Douglas obviously but Tut Taylor and others too.
PS I've got a Deering banjo as well, but it's so bloody loud when I'm doing the old Scruggs-style on it I can only play it when alone in the house. Hmm, like today, in fact. Now there's a thought...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gukFvG8VbK4
ReplyDeleteAw hell JD, you're just showing off now. I loved the Transatlantic sessions. And mostly because of this beauty of a song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su06XlGI-w8
Played this at an open mic night once, you could have heard a pin drop when I'd finished... I was that rubbish ho ho.
"I loved the Transatlantic sessions".
ReplyDeleteNow I know you are a player and a gent, and if you can play Harlan you've got it sorted ...
Douglas is in a class of his own... when I heard him the first time (with Krauss) it was like I was sixteen again and hearing Jeff Beck for the first time ;-)
(BTW I'm a blues rather than country player - steel dobro. I play with Cherry Lee Mewis, 23 year old blues singer from North Wales, she's great, done a couple of festivals nothing you-tubed yet though...)
Do you like Drive By Truckers ? Black Crow Medicine Show ?
Wow! A Martin! They are the best. Lucky you- I bet you're good. Mind you, anybody's good compared to me.
ReplyDeleteMy mate, who's a pro, has a Martin. He used to play a Gibson SG but the poor sod had a nasty crash on his push bike and broke his shoulder blade and it got too heavy for him. Still, he plays a bass now but he must sit down to play it. He worked with John Cale for quite a time. Right now he's in Nashville mixing an album with the band he plays with and produces- they're a German band called "Elements of Crime"
I stayed with him in Berlin a couple of years ago while they recorded an album. Fun for a bit but recording studios get very boring very quickly.
Berlin's a great city, though.
Oh, and I can play the arse of a telecaster, but give me a banjo and I couln't hit a cows arese with it let alone a tune... good stuff!
ReplyDeleteSo you're a guitarist too, Bitterweed?
ReplyDeleteI didn't know what music was until I was 12- my parents were totally unmusical. I remember the first time I realised what pop music was all about- We were on holiday (staying with my gran in Dawlish, Devon) and we were at a funfair and they played Cathy's Clown by the Everly Brothers. It was about the same time I realised what sex was about.
My one big regret was not taking music seriously at school...
Afernoon all, any chance scherfig can re-post the info on adding hyperlinks on here, and that we all commit it to memory. Sure there's loads of classic youube clips being posted here (well, maybe not Bitterweed's obviously xx) but I'm too bleeding lazy to type them into the address bar.
ReplyDeleteAlways happy to click on a linky though..
Btw, just in case billp's looking in, that's not me getting all dictatorial again, just a suggestion (-;
Dan
ReplyDeleteYes, used to play professionally til my second breakdown fifteen years ago (!) Still play with a couple of bands.
My intor to music was mum and dad, letting me watch the Oscar Peterson show... played piano when I was a kid.
HankyTheChristmasPoo
right back atcha !
Dan
ReplyDeleteThe Everlys made some wonderful music...
Someone once described them as like two crystal birds harmonising in a tree...
Just ordered Jeff Beck at Ronnie Scotts DVD...
ReplyDeleteYour wish is my command, Hank.
ReplyDeleteInfo found hereOnce you've done it a few times it's easy to remember the format.
Everyone, quick, Phibbs is at it !
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/22/conservatives-bnp?commentpage=1&commentposted=1
Let's kick his c@nt in.
I saw John Martyn once at Glastonbury. LOVE to play 'May You Never'- even Clapton does it reasonably well.
ReplyDeleteAlso like to play stuff from Blood on the Tracks- Tangled Up In Blue, for example.
Love blues but can't play it to save my life...
Dan
ReplyDeleteBlood on the Tracks... what a f@cking great album. Simple Twist of Fate captures failed love like no other song I've ever heard...
And John Martyn, in the seventies, was hard to beat. He was magnificent on the Whistle Test, repeated the other week...
@DanP:
ReplyDeleteI bought my Martin in Nashville, oddly. While "on furlough". Had a mate who moved out there, ex-RE, ostensibly as a civil engineer but primarily cos he loved the music.
He's moved since, he lives near Chattanooga now. Plays stand up bass in a bluegrass band on weekends. Lucky bastard.
@B/W: I love Old Crow Medicine Show. David Rawlings pops up with them occasionally (he's the carnie taking the money in the video for Wagon Wheel, funnily enough), and I'm a big fan of his. Not a bloody mentalist, like Alan's no.1 fan Jed, but still...
And of course Gillian Welch is standing right there next to Rawlings as well.
ReplyDeleteWhich is nice.
SwiftyBoy
ReplyDelete"Plays stand up bass in a bluegrass band on weekends. Lucky bastard". Hell yes. I had dinner last September with a guy who went to school with David Lindley, and was in a band with him. He also played with Clarence White. Some f@cking stories that guy had...
Lucky Bastard²
Rawlings ? Have to check that out.
Gillian Welch also to be, er, checked out...
Nickle Creek ?
test
ReplyDelete@B/W:
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of this turning in the Prairie Home Companion...
Clarence White!!! He's a particular fave of mine, of course, love them Kentucky Colonels. I don't think I'd have dared pick up a guitar around him though. or maybe strummed very quietly in the background. This is a classic bit of telly. Poor Bob Baxter...
Nickel Creek were quality - Chris Thile is obviously an awesome mandolin player.
Bugger - BW and Swifty have cracked it, I can't follow that at all. I don't get the "link" option coming up and whe I press Ctrl+shift+a (letter a or @?) nothing happens.
ReplyDeleteNor can I, but do this
ReplyDeleteTEXT
where "http://URL" is your URL, e.g.
http://cifthreadrefugee.blogspot.com/
and TEXT is the linked word
The code, in speech marks is
ReplyDelete"TEXT"
Bollocks, cocked it up. Speech marks don't stop the code embedding. Sorry...
ReplyDeleteHank, what browser are you using?
ReplyDelete"Hank, what browser are you using?"
ReplyDeleteSee, you're getting waaay too technical for me, scherfig. Windows Live?
Internet Explorer? Firefox?
ReplyDeleteAh, yeh, Explorer, that's the one...
ReplyDeleteHank, highlight the text you want to use as a link. Go up to the tool bar, and click the hyperlink button. Paste in the copied webpage (http: etc) in the box.
ReplyDeleteIf doesn't work, use the href format on that link I gave.
I'm not trying to link text, scherfig. Generally it's the youtube address I'm trying to link so that I can post a hyperlink here to a youtube clip, rather than having the whole url posted which you would then have to type in manually in the address box. Does that make a difference?
ReplyDeleteApologies all for hijacking this thread.
@Bitterweed - nice post over at Phibbsy's (-:
Hank, in your comment write something like the name of the song and by highlighting that text you can make that into a YouTube hyperlink that we can just click on and go direct to YouTube. Like this:
ReplyDeleteI've written this textYou just click on it.
I always find infantile obscenity works best ;-)
ReplyDeleteHank, when you cut and paste a URL into the hyperlink, the name is what you choose yourself - it can be one short word, and that's what we see. We won't see the full URL. Does that make sense?
ReplyDeleteOk, nearly there, scherf - but where the hell's the hyperlink facility in the toolbar?
ReplyDeleteHank, you have to script it yourself, the script is like this:
ReplyDeletetext
Shit, it codes it, I'll spell it out for you with line breaks:
ReplyDeletetext
The bastards, I tried to put line breaks in and it still reads it...
ReplyDeletethe word or sentence you want in blue
Oh for crying out loud!
ReplyDeleteI'll deliver it in several posts
[a href=
"the website's address"]
ReplyDeletethen the word or sentence you want with the hyperlink
ReplyDelete[/a] that's at the end after the word/sentence
ReplyDeleteJust one other thing: Instead of the square brackets, use pointy ones like this: <>
Hello there
ReplyDeleteI'm banned again. Monkeyshark is no more. Maybe he stopped swimming and drowned (is that a myth?...about sharks)
Dunno what happened really, it was all a bit out of the blue. Tried to post on the Phibbs thread..no comment box; checked my comments...all gone. Can't think why...had a slight dig at la Toynbee the other day, nothing scandalous, but the post stood.
I was going to point out to the Phibbster that the BNP exhibit another fascist cliche: their irrationalism or antimodernism. That lot are as anti-enlightenment as any religious nut or poststructuralist.
No room for individualism or dissent, we're all to be subsumed in one big monolithic national identity. Whereas the postmodernists, at least posit a plurality of potential identities which one can opt into, fascism places a monopoly on such choices. If you want to remain an individual old style socialism is the only game in town. (well the only game that avoids the swamp of libertarianism, infested as it is with free-market absolutists)
Well that's what I was going to say anyway...and give Sunny Hundal a big thumbs up. I've had a few digs at him lately over his multicultural pseudo-leftie proclivities...he was back on form today.
What d'you think of monkeybarracuda..or monkeypirhana...maybe even monkeywhale..gives me a sorta mammalian quality...human almost.
Monkeydolphin...everyone loves flipper.
test
ReplyDeleteTried that, olching. Getting a message up saying "your HTML cannot be accepted. Tag is not closed." I've stuck in the < > an' all...
ReplyDeleteYay
ReplyDeleteThanks Olching
I'll try
ReplyDelete<
then
a href
then
"thewebsitesaddress"
then
>
then
WORD
then
<
then
/
then
A
then
>
**Olching missed the first > out (I think) whish may explain your tag not closed message
ReplyDeleteWhere the WORD bit is what you want the blue link to say
By the way. Some of youse read books. Well, something tells me I should read some Thomas Pynchon
ReplyDeleteAny recommendations ? And why ?
Thanks.
damn forgot the = between href and the web address in quotes.
ReplyDeletesorry
also if you use the preview button it will show if it will work or not.
ReplyDeleteMonkeyphibian ? (Or is that too close to that bovine faced would be hanger of mandela ?)
ReplyDeleteMonkeyphibian ? (Or is that too close to that bovine faced would be hanger of mandela ?)
ReplyDeleteA bit. Could try monkeyhanger but that always reminds me of that cunt Mandelson....guacomole and chips, anyone?
Nah, religiously followed your instructions, original. Still getting "Tag is not allowed."
ReplyDeleteIs it cos it's a youtube link? Can anyone else post youtube links as hyperlinks?
Clash
ReplyDeleteCracked it, thank fuck for that. Cheers scherfig, olching and original (-:
ReplyDeleteYay - well done Hank
ReplyDeleteBy the way. Some of youse read books. Well, something tells me I should read some Thomas Pynchon
ReplyDeleteAny recommendations ? And why ?
i recommend you also go ask the nice folks over here they are all GU types but from the books/poetry blogs
http://misharialadwani.wordpress.com/
all the comment about links did not touch on the fact that you can just copy and paste an address
into the skinny white bit at the top of the page,
you really dont have to type it,,
i see i missed the guitar hour,,i play,,
bitterweed,, by happy coincedence misharis blog has heavy on guitar (players) at the moment also
monkeycuda
Hi mf - did you "out" monkeyshark on here as your new id? If so, BTH will have been lurking and reported you to Seaton. Thats how MrPinchy got into hot water.
ReplyDeleteI'm using chrome - no white bit that I can see...
ReplyDeleteWell he might have done. He responded to a couple of monkeyshark posts referring to the author as monkeyfish, but that was about a week ago. And I'm sure someone else did the same. It was a bit of a giveaway. I'd just assumed they'd decided to let bygones be bygones.
ReplyDeleteMore fool me. They're like the mounties that lot: always get their man. Never trust a media luvvie on a horse...it's what I've always said.
Rair play MF
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks 3p4, will do.
Guys, have a great weekend, I'm romancing Mrs Weed tonight, then gigging tomorrow and looking after me ma for a couple of days, may pop in later to check for Pynchon recommendations...
Fight the Power
Finally, Hank, nice one. Looking forward to some easily accessible YouTubes now. And time for A Groucho Marx quote:
ReplyDelete'A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.'
Letting bygnes be bygones? You've seen Seaton performing below the line. Petty and small-minded doesn't do him justice.
ReplyDeleteYeh, I know scherfig. I've been feeling a bit Harpo through this whole troubling episode!
Btw, olching, am listening to the Christy Moore 81-91 collection atm. Not bad at all.
Have a good weekend, BW. Send my love to Mrs Weed x
I'm using chrome - no white bit that I can see...
ReplyDeletesorry ,,was being homer simpson,,i meant the address bar,,
Have a good weekend, BW. Send my love to Mrs Weed x
ReplyDeleteditto
My bad - I read that completely wrong. D'oh
ReplyDeleteHave a good weekend, BW. How about doing a version of thison one your future gigs. Get that steel dobro working.
ReplyDeleteBitterweed,
ReplyDeleteI tried to read Pynchon's 'Gravity's Rainbow' a couple of times about 30 years ago but found it incredibly hard work and got about a third of the way through before I gave up. Really obscure stuff.
If you want a really cracking good read, get hold of 'Libra' by Don DeLillo- a semi-fictionalised novel about Lee Harvey Oswald and the Kennedy asassination. Fucking brilliant.
A bit of a change of subject here, but I've just been reading some of Seaton's recent comments on various threads. His continual swings between pathetic attempts at 'I'm really just one of you guys' humour and outrageous bizarre 'serious' comments (many of which he later has to apologize for, excuses being eg, low blood sugar or endorphins?) really makes me wonder why he's editor of Cif. I think he's a certifiable loony. It's embarrassing to see, and does not bode well for the Guardian's future.
ReplyDelete"What d'you think of monkeybarracuda..or monkeypirhana...maybe even monkeywhale..gives me a sorta mammalian quality...human almost."
ReplyDeleteWhat about SimianSqualus? Or Mankyfish?
monkeysharkfin
ReplyDeleteIn homage to yesterday's thread, how about monkeysheep? Or something more subtle & species-oriented - macaqueweram or woollymonkey (actually a real species but with references to that sheep thing again, or to one-of-the-fallen-from-CiF, WML)?
Or Sun Wukong (the Monkey King)?
What about Hankthewoollymonkey?
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday to Kiz, who is presumably quaffing celebratory wine right now!
ReplyDeleteAnd very much liking the Hank theme to monkey's new moniker here ...
Thanks for the suggestions. Particularly liked..er...well all of them really.
ReplyDeletescherfig
Thank you...thought it was just me. The cunt's certifiable.
BassGuerilla
ReplyDeleteCan't be arsed with the link thing. This is from Mrs Weed to you all...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJp6JkI5Hv0
Oh, and thanks Dan, read Ddl's Underworld when it came out... that opening riff at the baseball game - a 'tour de force' indeed...
ReplyDeleteYep, Kiz has lots of birthday well-wishers on the mummy bloggers thread, including mswoman & sarka.
ReplyDeleteGet out ? Mickey Jupp ??!!!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyhVCO7YBlI
Sweet: Stevie Ray Vaughan howlin, only a twelve string to support him...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7ZPMScX9-k
Thanks for the info btw mschin
ReplyDelete....
Bit pissed now... hardly surprising.. just comin on to give snogs to everyone xxxx
ReplyDeleteKiz.... it's more than a feeling....
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=IcsVPis1iNs
PS: The bass player's not well is he ?
How bitterweed... am I supposed to cope with those kind of moustaches at this point of the game...?
ReplyDeleteBugger, didn't realise we were running the party in two rooms. Monkeydolphin will lurve this song, what about u BW?
ReplyDeleteGram
Trim them... ha ha !!!
ReplyDeleteWhat you got Hank? I'm not phoneboothing unless in emergencies...
ReplyDeleteGotta gram or two, Bitterweed...
ReplyDeleteNever mind Hank, we've all lost bitches like that
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyxEO9dqi44
This ????
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24IGgYOx8Vs
@BW - even I can do linky things now, man. C'mon, shape up...
ReplyDelete'Bert Lee
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PscAZyOMGiA
Ha ha fucking love it, get back in a minute you gobshite.
ReplyDeleteAnd then...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37QUUwp9xIs
Hank, Monkey, Kiz, Scherfig, Swifty, Beautifulburnout. all those above and previous; FUCK THE BNP. Ok?
You all turned in ?
ReplyDeleteDamn.
Well early.
Harry Chapin about Big John Wallace
ReplyDeleteGet it people. Please.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wLtvgSxafQ
Nadine Dorries is still a humungous tit, plus ca.... etc, etce.
ReplyDeleteThis is still ineffably cool though...
Georges Thill Rehearses With Canteloube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyZm-I-M7gY
Yeah. Or "Oui" even.
Going to the country agin:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcTo7lsDYPU&feature=email
Yes....
Or not....
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5Ztamg0GnE
Can anybody explain to me why I usually cannot copy paste on these pages? Means that unless you post it as a hyperlink I have to manually copy the darned thing into the address bar which is a pain in the arse!
ReplyDeleteJust occasionally I can - its wierd!
Oh btw - Phibbs - what a suitable name!
ReplyDelete