Elephant Talk
Wrapped in the Tundra!
The massive snowstorm that’s gripping the mid-Atlantic region of America is very serious. Just ask Tundra Boy.
Lyrics, below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »
Gnomery
Band of Electric Gypsies
Since at least 1995 the script on the net for the Cash episode of The Young Ones has egregiously mistaken the band responsible for the music playing in the fourth act. Here’s the incorrect bit from the net transcript:
NEIL: No, listen, Stonehenge…No, listen, everybody, right, listen…
[frustrated, Neil silences the loud music by smashing the record player with his truncheon. Everyone is quiet.]
Right, listen…
[he realizes what he's done]…
Oh, no…Led Zeppelin! Anyway, listen everybody, right, like I don’t want to bring the whole evening down or anything, okay, but basically you’re all under arrest.
[Stonehende collapses aginst her wall. Warlock discovers Neil's radio and takes it out of his belt.]
Okay, roll the film!
What we are hearing are the strains of Electric Gypsies by Steve Hillage. Fifteen years later, the very commercial, radio-friendly Led Zeppelin are still getting the credit for music they’ve nought to do with. Whatever else the late Willie Dixon might’ve thought, they’re not even close:
The Canterbury scene (or Canterbury sound) is a term used to loosely describe the group of progressive rock, avant-garde and jazz musicians, many of whom were based around the city of Canterbury, Kent, England during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Many prominent British avant-garde or fusion musicians began their career in Canterbury bands, such as Hugh Hopper, Steve Hillage, Dave Stewart, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen, Mike Ratledge, Fred Frith, and Peter Blegvad. Over the years, with band membership changes and new bands evolving, the term has been used to describe a musical style or subgenre, rather than a regional group of musicians.
Here’s the Gong in its entirety.
Elephant Talk
Everybody Look at the Moon
The many faces (not phases) of the moon as we journey through time and space, to the world of The Mighty Boosh!
Gnomery
Meditation On a Tiny Book
Manny searches for the right passage
In the episode, Manny Bianco (as in white), an accountant under a great deal of stress, who hates his job, accidentally swallows his copy of The Little Book of Calm during an unpleasant exchange with his supervisor. He bought the book for £2.50 (decimalized British currency) from Bernard Black, the putative proprietor of the Black Books establishment located in some London High St area.
Whilst Bernard searches for distractions from doing his accounts for the Inland Revenue menace, engaging Johovah’s Witnesses in philosophical discussion and folding a huge pile of socks, Manny, now in hospital, is being advised by an NHS doctor, played brilliantly by Martin Freeman, that his chances of survival were 30% which was consider quite good by current standards. He reinforces this prognosis by reading a passage from the The Little Book of Calm visible on an X-Ray of Manny’s abdominal area. The surgery scheduled for Manny is abruptly canceled when it’s discovered the book once lodged in him has disappeared without a trace, apart from an odd transformation in his disposition. The doctor surmised that the book must have been assimilated. Read the rest of this entry »
Elephant Talk
Microcar Moment: Smart Car vs. Goggomobil
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Shep supports self on 2-tone T-700 Goggomobil
We floo back in time to revisit Jean Shepherd’s WOR radio broadcasts on the Goggomobil, one of the earliest line of microcars of which the present day Smart Car is a descendant.
The wikipedia entry about Shep lists some of his favorite modes of transport: “At the time of the WOR radio show, Shepherd rode a Vespa motor scooter and parked it in the lobby of the WOR building, while at other periods during his WOR years, he drove a Morgan, a Rover, a Goggomobil*, a motorcycle, and a variety of other vehicles.” The picture above is from an advert in a 1959 issue of the literary magazine, Evergreen Review. Audio of his Goggomania phase will be available here, soon. Meanwhile take a look at how one 1957 model leaves the Smart Car in the dust.
More Goggomobils, in a family way.
* According to Shep’s audio commentary, his car was a TS-400 coupe. The model featured in the magazine advert was a T-700 coupe.
Update: Audio of Shep’s May 1959 Goggo pitches have been added to the caption above.
Further Update 10/01/11: Daimler’s Smart Car Sputters in Size-Obsessed U.S.
Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!
Rumpole vs. Beardyman: Human Beatbox Showdown
Leo McKern's Barrister
Beardyman
The winner takes silk, becomes QC (Queer Customer), and moves to the front bench.
Music Review
Beardyman
I find this young chap quite amazing. His main schtick is human beat box noise making and he’s quite accomplished in that area, without a doubt. There are a lot of people out there who do this well, but Beardyman’s musical chops and comic sensibility takes the genre to another level. He clearly has the creative genius needed to keep himself as well as other people interested and entertained for as long as he wants. Best of luck and thanks for all the fish!
The official Beardyman website.
Other videos:
The Memory Hole
Move to Dedicated Weblog
This will be the final post here on updates at The Memory Hole. Future items in this category will be posted on The Gnomic Tracker, from now on. Watch for new entries and other news there. A permanent link to that weblog will be added to “sites of interest.”
Elephant Talk
Bagged Milk in Canada
The problems with the type of containers used for packaging gallons of milk in the U.S. was a subject of discussion, recently. The main one being the disposal of emptied containers. Another was the best way to decant milk from a gallon container. The foremost problem for those who recycle is temporary storage space.
If you’ve ever saved recyclable plastics for delivery to recycling drop points you’ve probably experienced the problem of accumulating plastic gallon milk containers in a limited space. They have this annoying tendency to take up quite a lot of space in a short space of time.
Go north!
It turns out that, in Canada, people get their milk in plastic bags rather than in the containers made of plastic suitable for guitar picks that Americans find in their local High St moo juice shoppes. It’s very counter-intuitive, to be sure, if you consider the implications for shipping and handling, not to mention, end-use. Well, people in Canada have managed quite well with this type of milk packaging for years, thank you very much.
Bagged milk comes in a 3 litre size as opposed to the 1 gallon size Americans are accustomed to. You see, Canada is a more advanced society than America. They use the metric system, for one thing. People in America, albeit less anglophilic, prefer the barbaric, English units of measurement (length, weight, volume). So, straightaway, they are going to need a way to understand how much 3 litres yield in terms of English units. A litre is about a quart. So, a bag of milk is about 3/4 of a gallon at sea level.
Now if you’re going to measure the milk at sea level to verify that my estimate is indeed correct, be careful not to allow the bag to take on marine salt water and other possibly equally unsavory things, as that would undoubtedly have a qualitatively negative effect on the taste and bouquet of the milk. Instead of going to so much trouble, you might just take my word for it, unless you happen to live in a seaside villa, in which case, knock yourself out!
Read the rest of this entry »
The Memory Hole
Mubarak Awad’s Quest
This is a new entry destined for the Civilian-Based Defense category. Originally published in the The Jerusalem Post, Friday, November 25, 1983, it takes a look at non-violence activist, Mubarak Awad, and his ongoing effort to encourage Palestinians, Muslim and Christian alike, to follow in the footsteps of Great Spirits facing violent opposition of mediocre minds. The influence of Gene Sharp’s The Politics of Non-Violence is noted. Here’s the link:
An update from Wikipedia is appended to the article. It is hoped that the 12-page pamphlet mentioned in the article will be added to TMH in the near term.
Update (12 Sept 2007): The pamphlet has been acquired and now resides here.
