Random song of the day

Rather randomly I found myself humming Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm by The Crash Test Dummies yesterday. Here it is in its full glory:

Andrew

Wha's Like Us? Damn Few - and They're A' Deid!

As a Scot living in England I normally avoid parochialism but as today is St. Andrew's Day I'm going to make an exception. Today's blog entry is from a postcard written and published by T. Anderson Cairns in 1979.

Wha's Like Us? by T. Anderson Cairns

The average Englishman in the home he call his castle slips into his national costume, a shabby raincoat, patented by Chemist Charles Macintosh from Glasgow, Scotland.

En-route to his office he strides along the English lane, surfaced by John Macadam of Ayr, Scotland.

He drives an English car fitted with tyres invented by John Boyd Dunlop, Veterinary Surgeon of Dreghorn, Scotland.

At the office he receives the mail bearing adhesive stamps invented by John Chalmers, Bookseller and Printer of Dundee, Scotland.

During the day he uses the telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell, born in Edinburgh, Scotland. At home in the evening his daughter pedals her bicycle invented by Kirkpatrick Macmillan, Blacksmith of Thornhill, Dumfriesshire, Scotland.

He watches the news on television, an invention of John Logie Baird of Helensburgh, Scotland, and hears an item about the U.S. Navy founded by John Paul Jones of Kirkbean, Scotland.

Nowhere can an Englishman turn to escape the ingenuity of the Scots.

He has by now been reminded too much of Scotland and in desperation he picks up the Bible, only to find that the first man mentioned in the good book is a Scot, King James VI, who authorized its translation.

He could take to drink but the Scots make the best in the world.

He could take a rifle and end it all, but the breech-loading rifle was invented by Captain Patrick Ferguson of Pitfours, Scotland.

If he escaped death, he could find himself on an operating table injected with penicillin, discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming of Darvel, Scotland, and given chloroform, an anesthetic discovered by Sir James Young Simpson, Obstetrician and Gynecologist of Bathgate, Scotland.

Out of the anesthetic he would find no comfort in learning that he was as safe as the Bank of England founded by William Paterson of Dumfries, Scotland.

Perhaps his only remaining hope would be to get a transfusion of guid Scottish blood which would entitle him to ask:

"Wha's Like Us?"

Have a great St. Andrew's Day!

Andrew

In which the widow rediscovers Supergirly

After posting about Frisky and Mannish yesterday, I was put in mind of Supergirly whom I saw a couple of times in Edinburgh in the early 2000's. At the time they were a duo and for a while they achieved a degree of fame when they became a fixture on Live and Kicking.

They used to perform great parodies of (then) current pop songs and extracted a great deal of fun from the banality of the lyrics as well as the acts themselves.

Supergirly were Louise McClatchy and Jai Simone. A short trawl of the interweb/You Tube establishes that Louise has gone solo but is still performing as Supergirly, while Jai seems to have been airbrushed out of history. Even the Wikipedia entry redirects you to Louise's details - there is surely a story to be told there.

There is more of the above performance (but in poorer quality) here - including "When's he going to come out", a Ricky Martin parody.

As ever, enjoy! 

Andrew

Dead Until Dark

As I've previously mentioned on these pages, I am a fan of True Blood. I may not have thought to read the books, however, if it were not for the recommendation of a friend.

Dead Until Dark is the first of the Sookie Stackhouse novels and forms the basis for the first series. It introduces Sookie, a waitress in Bon Temps in Northern Louisiana with the power to hear other people's thoughts.  She lives a simple life although thanks to her disability/skill/gift it's not as quiet as she would like. And then Bill Compton walks into the bar.

Bill is a Vampire who is attempting to mainstream, following the outlawing of discrimination against them and the availability of synthetic blood.  Sookie's life is never going to be the same again...

The TV series can be seen as an analogy for black (or homosexual) rights but this subtext is less obvious in the novel. The issue of race does get a couple of mentions but the characters of Tara and her mother who are central to the one of the main sub-plots of True Blood series 1 are entirely absent. The absence of this plot - which would have left a whole in the programme - did not diminish the enjoyment of the book.

Dead Until Dallas is an easy and enjoyable read which is at least as good as the TV series. My initial reticence about what to expect in terms of the quality of writing proved  pretty unfounded. Sure, it wouldn't make the Booker Prize shortlist but it's better than, say, Dan Brown's prose. Having just finished watching the second series, I'm looking forward to reading Living Dead in Dallas and the rest of the series...

Andrew

In which the widow discovers Frisky and Mannish

At my friend's house yesterday I was flicking through a copy of Venue (Bristol and Bath's events guide) and I found a feature on a double act called Frisky and Mannish. Intrigued, I took note and, thanks to You Tube, I would like to share them with you too.

Firstly, here's a 5 minute showcase from the launch of their show at last years' Edinburgh Fringe Festival:

and here's a cover of Destiny Child's Independent Women:

You can find plenty more here and here! Enjoy!

Andrew