Monkey see. Monkey Spew.

Captain Sensible - Happy Talk

Happy Talk

How you going to make a dream come true? Tru dat cap'n.

Stuff I want... PT.6

Harris Tweed Jacket


Brutus Trim Fit Button down navy Gingham shirt



Aquascutum Camel Coat

Crombie cashmere scarf

Crombie slim fit leather gloves

Sorry!

Great theme tune.

Destroy!

Sartorial has gone too far...

Floyd on Ice

The Stranglers - Waltzinblack

Keith Floyd has done one and joined the great cooking circle in the sky.

It is unavoidable that people you grew up with will begin to give into the demands of the flesh and shuffle off the mortal coil. For those of the TV generations, the deaths of those familiar faces from a TV childhood can take on a lot of meaning. I remember when Percy Thrower died. Wow. Did his passing really strike me.

There was a wonderful documentary on the BBC, two or so years ago, about how death has been handled in the UK historically and how we deal with mortality now.
The undertaker, so feared for so many years as the harbinger of death has now gone. That profession has morphed into the funeral director. This user friendly, 2.o version of the undertaker now insulates us away from the death itself. They now "take care of the arrangements for us". In turn we get to concentrate and deal with the grieving.
I think that it does makes us less well equipped to deal with the reality of death itself. And perhaps that is why we go a little bit more ga-ga when someone from the telly, who we 'grew up with' passes.

Floyd is such a person for me.

We would be forced to gather around the TV for one of his wine soaked adventures in Oz, Italy or on an emu farm in the 80's/early 90's. Mum would go ballistic if you talked through one of her programmes. And we would attempt to drive her round the twist by doing so. The impact of Floyd is personally still felt by me. I CANNOT feel comfortable cooking if I don't have a glass of something in hand to aid the cooking experience.

So march on Keith. Clive and I salute you.

Stuff I want... PT.5

Shofolk ‘Bobby’ Chesnut Oxford Shoe

It's late. I'm bored. Mystery chefs has finished and I have a phone.

Football. Football. Football.

vs.

Simple Minds - New Gold Dream

New Gold Dream

Watching The Informers yesterday and this track popped up in the midst of a fairly standard 80's soundtrack of new wave tunes. I never realised U.S.U.R.A used a sample from it on Open Your Mind but by god is it brilliant on its lonesome.

The Informers however is shit. Simone said it was a 21st century conception of what the 80's looked like and to some extent that is true. It suffers from that lab technique, in its costume and production design, of taking the germs of the 80's and concentrating them into an 80's superstrain and then spraying that all over the sets. Everything looks like the 80's should look but isn't somehow real or perhaps that is the directors point?

Stuff I want... PT.4

El DeBarge - Who's Johnny?

Who's Johnny?

I was watching Short Circuit earlier. SO SHIT! I couldn't stand to watch it after about 10mins.

Wolf Suschitzky Photos

http://www.wolfsuschitzkyphotos.com/index.html

I was listening to the film programme earlier on and as part of their summer season of interviewing the less celebrated names of British cinema, they had an interview with Wolfgang Suschitzky.

Wolf is a retired cinematographer who famously photographed the rugged and industrial landscape of sixties Newcastle in Get Carter. He originally began as a photographer and I was fascinated to know that he spent a great deal of time photographing London and Charing Cross Road in particular.

I feel very jealous of the people of Hamburg who can enjoy his photographs of pre-war London.

Slap Her, She's French

I need to see this!