Regular readers will know I've been very taken with the See No Evil event in Bristol and I make no apologies for posting another few pics from the event.
The last of this selection - an image of Christ - is one of my favourite pieces from the whole project. The first is of an empty hazardous waste suit lying in the window of an empty building. Attached to its chest is a sign saying "Banksy is not here" and a further sign on the window says "Banksy is not coming (he said to say "hi" though)". You can also see some of the other art and, ahem, myself, in this one!
Welcome to what I intend to be a new regular feature, the Tuesday Titter. I've decided to start with a couple of clips from the brilliant BBC Scotland sketch show "Chewin' the Fat". Just as catch phrases from UK-wide shows such as The Fast Show and The Catherine Tate Show passed into the popular consciousness, Chewin' the Fat became a part of Scottish culture in the late 1990's and early 2000's before spawning the fantastic Still Game.
First, here's a medley of News Bulletins, with interpretation for Neds courtesy of Rab McGlinchy:
and here we have a clash of culture when the Teuchters meet the Neds...
As they say in the Dear Green Place*: it's pure dead brilliant, so it is.
I heard this during the week, for the first time in years. I loved this song when it was released - and still do. Sam Brown has a wonderful quality to her voice and this showcases it brilliantly.
This is the first in a new series of musical posts in which I share some guilty pleasures... and they don't come much more guilt-laden or pleasurable than this:
Here's another collection of pictures of the Wow! Gorillas which are going up for auction to raise money for Bristol charities next week, after a few days on display at Bristol Zoo Gardens:
Well, here we are, at the very end of Not an A-Z of my CDs and the entry for Z. But we're not going to end on a low, oh no. Instead, we're going to Rock Out with ZZ Top and their cover of The King's Viva Las Vegas:
I'm still undecided as to what I'll do next... I may go round again, or I may start some other music-related strand - stay tuned!
Andrew
P.S. For those of you who may be wondering, last week's two entries, Yazz and Yello, were from 1988.
A cross-post from Lib Dem Gains, my occasional blog which I have neglected of late - this may give me a kick up the proverbial posterior.
Total Politics is currently in the process of publishing the results of their annual awards, voted for by political bloggers across the bloggersphere. Yesterday they published the list of the Top 100 Lib Dem Blogs which I was pleased to see featured the following blogs so highly (amongst many other favourites);
What I didn't see, and it took a Twitter message from a Lib Dem conference attendee who was up 2.16am to catch his plane to Birmingham to alert me to, was this list: Top 100 Lib Dem Bloggers and, in particular, the entry at number 58.
Given that it has been (let's face it) some time since I updated this blog and that my main blog is largely politics-free, this is very flattering - especially as I didn't even vote for myself. So if you did vote for me, many thanks. Here's to future Lib Dem Gains and more blog posts!
At the beginning of the month, I posted this, featuring pictures from Bristol's Balloon Fiesta. As mentioned then, I also took some pictures of the Night Glow - the (loosely) choreographed lighting of the balloons to music:
This week it's an eighties double header with The Only Way Is Up by Yazz and The Race by Yello (albeit a 2007 remix version). Don't say I don't spoil you...
A bonus point if you can identify which year both tracks were origially released... No Googling!
On Saturday, I took advantage of Doors Open Day in Bristol to visit, as it happened, a number of churches (more of which anon). One of the these was St. Stephen's, where I climbed their tower, rang one of their bells and took a number of pictures. Here are four of them - views to the North, East, South and West respectively:
As well as the image of the two stricken towers in flames but still standing, I've also included a picture of the memorial now occupying the site of the tragedy in tribute to the almost 3000 people who died in the various attacks.
Over the summer Bristol's streets were invaded by Gorillas which have now been removed ahead of a display at the city's Zoo Gardens and their subsequent options. Here's another selection of some of my favourites:
Splodge
Apple of my Eye
Distinctly Different
Spider Monkey
Suebo
You can see my first two selection of pics here and here.
It's time for kick off in Scotland's first match of the Rugby World Cup, so it's only right that I post the Scottish anthem: Flower of Scotland. Of course, it's completely coincidental that it should be from the Grand Slam decider in 1990. And we all know what happened then...
It's nice to hear the late, great Bill McLaren's voice on that clip too.
One of the places I've always wanted to go is New Zealand - a feeling which was only enhanced by it's casting as Middle Earth in the filmed version of The Lord of the Rings (and now, of course, The Hobbit...). This promotional video for the Rugby World Cup, whcih kicked off this morning, only serves to enhance that desire:
And here's a video showcasing the types of treats that are in store for us over the next few weeks... set your alarms, people, there are going to be some early starts!
Today marks the start of the 7th Rugby World Cup and over the next few weeks there will, I'm sure, be a number of Rugby related posts... I'm going to kick things of with some music. Specifically Dame Kiri Te Kanawa's version of the Rugby World Cup anthem "World In Union" from 1991:
This year's version has been recorded by Hayley Westenra and you can hear it here. To my ears though, it lacks the richness of her compatriot's version which I've loved for 20 years(!) now. I even had it on cassette single...
Last night I was browsing You Tube for videos and ended up looking at a number of my home town - including some which featured lots of pictures of the town as it was in time gone by. While I enjoyed these a lot, they are probably of limited interest to readers without an immediate connection.
I decided I did want to post something about the town, though, and have opted for two videos. This first has pictures of the Monastery ruins and the Abbey with a short (and slightly repetitive) commentary. The Monastery was founded by Queen (also Saint) Margaret, who was the wife of Malcolm Canmore. She is the queen after whom North and South Queensferry is named and there is also a chapel in Edinburgh Castle named after her - indeed it is the oldest building in the castle. Her son David I founded the Abbey although he moved the Scottish Court to Edinburgh.
The Abbey is the burial place of Robert the Bruce, as mentioned in the video. His heart is, however, buried at Melrose Abbey - after an attempt to take it to be buried in the Holy Land had to be aborted. Anyway, enough history - enjoy:
This second video features pictures of the Abbey, Monastery and the adjoining Palace ruins:
And so we reach X... I must confess that I had almost given up on choosing a track for this week. Having done various internet searches, consulted my Guinness Book of Hit Singles and Albums and considered choosing a song or album with X in the name, I alighted on this, which should please the older demographic of my blog readership...
The music video can be found here - very creepy but unfortunately the sound isn't as good as on the video above.
Simon's Cat is back and, as ever, Simon Tofield has captured the essence of cat behaviour - this will be sooo familiar to owners of computers who also have a cat or cats...
It's time for 5 on the 5th! This month's theme is "mess" but I've not really stayed on message; Indeed, I apologise in advance for the tenuous links to the topic...
Keep Britain Tidy
Oh dear, the trees have been littering
You won't believe how long it took to clean this up...
Ehm, this ship probably has an Officers Mess...
...and you'd never find any sort of mess on a Bowling Green!
Make sure you follow this link to see the other entries - and why not post some pics yourself?!
A week ago yesterday, whilst in ASDA doing my messages* I heard today's Sunday Sound for the first time in a long time - Joan Osborne's One of Us. I instantly earmarked it as a potential posting and here it is:
*I make no apologies for dropping into the Scottish Vernacular there. "Doing/getting the messages" means doing the shopping, normally grocery shopping although not necessarily.
Here are some more pictures from Bristol's Street Art event, "See No Evil". You can see the first batch of pics here.
The last one is my favourite of this batch and one of my favourites overall... note the bikes in the corner are real - there just happens to be a bike rack there!
*I reserve the right to completely disregard that I have called this the final Harry Potter post and to post again on the topic in future should the whim take me.
Well, I suppose this post is better late than never... but when your mode of transport depends on the direction and intensity of the wind then arrival times can be erratic... Anyway, a couple of weeks ago it was the annual Bristol Balloon Fiesta. Here are some pics from the mass ascents that are a key feature of the event.
I've also sorted some pictures of the Night Glow, when tethered balloons are lit up in time (well, kind of in time) to music, which will feature in a future post.
