xxxx insert wedding musical references here xxxx

While we were waiting for Escape to the Country to come on and thereby complete our evening, Mrs VVB and I were kind of obliged to watch the nuptials. I was quite taken with the two bros done up like human Christmas trees - I have never seen so much gold braid since Field Marshall Amin departed the scene - and that Harry's hair has probably never seen a comb since he was two.

Anyway it was a jolly jape for Mrs VVB and me and then they announce some hymn commissioned especially for the occasion. The opening bars sounded and - I swear this is the truth - Mrs VVB and I looked at each and said, "Rip off! But what from?"

It took me a minute or two. Electric Dreams. I kid you not.

Anyway Escape to the Country's on, so ta ta.

love and marriage

More ways to celebrate the impending hereditary lineage extension process than you thought possible!

Fortunately, some of these are singularly tasteless. More tasteless than you thought possible! Hurrah for human ingenuity! And bad taste! Hurrah for those of us who revel in the bad taste!!!

the music, i haz it inside

Yesterday, after 30 sec0nds of morning TV (please don't tell me people actually watch that stuff) I decided to delve into the mountainous mountains of concert DVDs what we own. Ended up having them on most of the day, what a day it was. The highlights:

Toto in 1990. Every rock star pose cliche known to man. But with fabulous musicianship such as you would only get from a bunch who began as session musos.

Cat Stevens in a very intimate concert singing songs from Teaser and the Firecat, accompanied by another bloke on guitar and - very occasionally - a bloke on bass. Apparently I was got this as a gift for Christmas, Mrs VVB was not happy when I did not recognise it as such.
What a voice. Then he introduces a song as one "I wrote before I entered my second life as a pop star." This was On the road to find out which of course contains the lines, "Kick out the devil's sin, pick up pick up the good book now." This of course before he picked up a different good book and entered a third life. At the end of the DVD, a short cartoon of Teaser and Firecat which I swear was voiced by Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan as most of it sounded like Ned Seagoon and Eccles.

Mid 70s Fleetwood Mac. Holy moloney can that Lindsay Buckingham play guitar. Gives you - or me, at least - the shits.

ELO. Great music, I retain a wholly irrational dislike of Jeff Lynne. But playing Do Ya is very cathartic, even me on an acoustic.

Neil Diamond - after 34 hours, it all sounds the same, but again, a great talent.

So today we went to JB and picked up a few more. The Who at the Isle of Wight 1970. I'd previously never seen any footage of Keith Moon in action. Once you have, the rest becomes clear.

Powderfinger's final concert at the Brisbane Riverstage. I wish I'd been there. Nothing short of magic.

papperbock writer

In the matter of writing and reading English - surely the more accurate order, chronologically speaking - I see Ms Pants has been at it also. Ms Pants observes that, despite her meticulous attention to detail, she will certainly have overlooked some minor point that will undermine her entire argument. And indeed she has. I will direct her to hyphens and apostrophes. Note lack of paragraphical (insert hysterical laughter here) formatting herein, it is supposed to have no fewer than four.

even shorter answer

No.

short answer

Gerry has requested I do some more posts to test for patterns in the myriad ways that Blogger has been buggerising about with formatting etc in recent days. This is one such post. Its topic, should I ever in fact get around to reaching it, is the time-worn one of people being interviewed who don't answer the question. Usually it's pollies but today it was a senior seat-polisher being interviewed about the success - or otherwise - of his organisation in catching international croox. The question put was whether the organisation's work had resulted in the po-lice catching more of said croox. The response went along these lines: "We have increased coordination, collaboration and working together with other agencies and we are taking more strategic positions." I thought it was pretty priceless, hence my ability to remember it almost word for word even though it was way back in the morning when I heard it. Now let's test that formatting, nicht war?

all shook up

I see that Blogger is unilaterally removing paragraphs, and probably other things as well. Just so you know, it wasn't me.

turn the beat around

In this extract we turn the protagonists around, thusly: "Meanwhile, in other news the conservative NZ government presses on with a PP ploy to deliver UFB - which is to say Ultra Fast Broadband - to 70% of the citizenry at speeds approaching 100 mbps. Naturally the Labor opposition fiercely opposes the waste and the extravagance, and condemns the plan as certain to fail. Which leaves the citizenry lost in a wasteland featuring the most appalling and expensive broadband service to be found in an allegedly civilised country ... Mention viewing videos on the full to overflowing intertubes and contemplate the blank faces. Viz and to wit, indeed. If you are of suitable disposition you can read the whole thing, follow the links to the Sheehan article, poke your eyeballs out while reading that, then note that the comments which follow are hardly supportive of that same poor benighted journo. And they reckon that News Ltd moderates its comments pages? Hardly! Mind you, they are in an increasing spot of bother in the Old Dart, eh what?

am I ever

(gonna see your face again) The politicosphere is so shallow (I'd like to create a verb from shallow as I believe it could become, like, so institutionalised and, like, ubiquitous and stuff) so I ain't gonna be writin' about none o'that sheeeeeeet evah again. unless John Howard comes back. But other stuff, well it, like, you know. So I'm just gonna have to share it with everybody, like, you know.