Ho Hum

Colin Paterson in The Guardian's "The Guide" (Sept 7-13 2002):

"Now this is not talking about nostalgia. Anyone can listen to a local radio retro chart and derive enjoyment from hearing Calling All the Heroes by It Bites. A person tired of that joy is tired of life. ... What's Up by 4 Non Blondes... worst single of all time."

But we thought It Bites were tiresome when they first appeared. (Traitorous thought, when the ravens had the same music teacher as most of them at the same school.) We liked 4 Non Blondes though.

Ho, whatever, hum.

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Oh well, since we promised ourselves we would, and tomorrow is the final day we can do it, we're flapping off to London to see "The Fabric of Vision: Dress and Drapery In Painting" at the National Gallery for Sunday afternoon.

Miscellanea

Bateman's Banana Bread Beer

A deferred pleasure, this. I failed to sample it before supplies ran out at the folk festival. I bought a bottle several weeks ago, but have since had to resort to Co-Proxamol at inconvenient times and hence to avoid alcohol. Finally, an intense banana aroma when the cap comes off and a pleasant, albeit slightly metallic (that could be the pewter tankard, but it doesn't normally intrude), ripe to the point of over-ripeness banana flavour remaining in the mouth. Reminds me of the state I like bananas to get to before I make them into banana cake. Doesn't strike me as particularly potent (and heck I could do with a bit of oblivion right now), but I suspect I'd be better company now than I have been in days (and here I am on my own). A touch of the standard "beery cheery" effect.

Nice, and there's no competition for bananas around here! All mine, all mine.

Abandoned Schemes

I once pointed out a gap amongst all the themed poetry anthologies, of which there are probably more now than there were in my student days, for The [...insert your favourite imprint here...] Book of Dead Pet Poetry. Plenty of candidates for this one. I'm sure there's a market.

I also, more recently (probably drunkenly at my birthday party last year), proposed a compilation album of tracks based on Greensleeves. Just from the pile of CDs on top of the TV I find: Amsterdam on Scott Walker Sings Jacques Brel, Leaving Greensleeves on Leonard Cohen's New Skin for the Old Ceremony, and the eponymous track on Blackmore's Night's Shadow of the Moon. I've a horrible feeling there are many more. Perhaps we'll stick to the sad and cynical renditions.

Sweet (?) Typo

In last week's Grauniad's Review section's contents page, the following item is listed: "33 Children's books: the enthralling Neil Garman, by Philip Pullman". At least the name was correct on page 33. (Obsessive-compulsive proof-reading: spot the technical writer. The ravens passed the "offending" page to other technical author in the household, who failed to spot the typo. So that's competitive obsessive-compulsive proof-reading.)