Yes, it's Paddy's Day again! Time for everyone to pretend they have any kind of connection with the Irish, as an excuse to dress in green and get utterly mullered on Guinness.
It's also time for the very welcome return of these two lovely laddies - with the fanciest footwork and the bulgiest trouser-fronts the Emerald Isle has to offer!
Sláinte!
After a lovely weekend in Dorking for Lou's 60th [more on all that later, no doubt], it's back to the same old shit-show again...
...but there is salvation at hand on this Tacky Music Monday, courtesy of a little something from the archives.
How about Belgium's answer to Anthea Turner murdering a beautiful aria by Mozart - and with a dance remix?!
If this doesn't wake you up, nothing will!
Have a good week, dear reader.
Happy (belated) [it was actually on 12th, but the party's tonight] 60th birthday, Lou!
Once a Goth, always a Goth...
...and here's the "Gothiest" of all Goth anthems, by way of a celebration:
Oh, the heads that turn
Make my back burn
And those heads that turn
Make my back, make my back burn
The sparkle in your eyes
Keeps me alive
And the sparkle in your eyes
Keeps me alive, keeps me alive
The world
And the world turns around
The world and the world, yeah
The world drags me down
Oh, the heads that turn
Make my back burn
And those heads that turn
Make my back, make my back burn, yeah
Yeah-hey...
The fire in your eyes
Keeps me alive
And the fire in your eyes
Keeps me alive
I'm sure in her you'll find
The sanctuary
I'm sure in her you'll find
The sanctuary
And the world
The world turns around
And the world and the world
The world drags me down
And the world and the world and the world
The world turns around
And the world and the world and the world and the world
The world drags me down
Sanctuary
Sanctuary
Indeed.
"Normal" service might be resumed tomorrow on our return from Dorking. Or maybe not. We'll see how it goes...
Another Friday the Thirteenth? This must be a very bad year for paraskevidekatriaphobics... Good job I'm not superstitious. Touch wood.
The weekend will soon be upon us, and for a change we do have a genuine party to go to - for our friend Lou will be celebrating her (gulp) 60th tomorrow, and we're all travelling from across the country to her home town of Dorking to celebrate.
Meanwhile, something (ahem!) subtle is in order, to get us in the mood - so Thank Disco Cha Cha It's Friday!
Have a great weekend, dear reader!
Secrets & Lies, Topsy-Turvy, Cranford, Poirot, Harlots, Phantom Thread, The Crown, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, myriad theatre productions - she's done it all. One of our most admired actresses Lesley Manville is 70 years old today! Gulp.
She's a great chat show guest, too:
Many happy returns, Lesley Ann Manville (born 12th March 1956)
Miss Manville happens to share her day with a number of assorted "names" - notably our Patron Saint Liza Minnelli [and you can read my tribute to her today over at the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp] - including Edward Albee, Agathe von Trapp (yes - of those Von Trapps), Googie Withers, Jack Kerouac, Graham Coxon of Blur, Thomas Arne (of Rule, Britannia fame), James Taylor, Al Jarreau, the decadent poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, Steve Harris of Iron Maiden, Dame Virginia Bottomley, David Mellor, Dame Karen Bradley, and - ahem - Amy Winehouse's ex Pete Doherty...
...and this classy gentleman, born 105 years ago today! Altogether, now, "Don't throw pork pies at me...":
Albert Gordon MacRae (12th March 1921 – 24th January 1986)
Another snippets post, dear reader:
And the weather? Almost Spring-like, but more rain is on its way. Dammit.
War with Iran is disrupting fuel supplies worldwide, with the RAC urging Britons to drive less. Unfortunately impossible when you have to make critical journeys like these:Impressing non-existent girls
Young men driving around small towns to impress hot girls is a key mating activity, though hot girls often refuse to line the streets staring at cars for hours and you may encounter none. Nonetheless, groups of four men in a 2007 Citroën Saxo will continue because it works in Fast & Furious films.Buying a single tin of tomatoes
You’ve committed to making forgettable spag bol and you’re fucked if you’re going to spend 90 seconds rethinking your food plans, so driving to a shop 500 yards away is unavoidable. Offset the wastefulness of this journey by picking up a few other things that would facilitate easy meals in the near future? Nah. You’ve got a car.Collecting a takeaway
Sure, the takeaway does deliveries, but them you’ve got to either pay a £3.50 delivery fee or take your order up to £20 with stuff you don’t want, the leftovers of which will look disgusting in the fridge the next day and make you doubt the wisdom of getting takeaways three nights a week. Better for everyone you collect it.The school run
Non-parents can’t understand the joyous convenience of getting rid of all the little bastards in one roundabout journey, rather than trailing along while they marvel at the wonders of nature and shit. Explain you only have one life and you can’t spend it waiting for an eight-year-old to get bored of looking at dew on a bloody spider’s web.Listening to techno in a supermarket car park
Not the activity of the average Volvo owner, but but if you’re a 17-year-old with a modded hatchback you absolutely will drive to a deserted car park at night to listen to music in the cold. Donuts may be involved, but it’s still a miserable activity that would be considered unacceptably cruel if the state made petty offenders do it.Taking your kids to activities they hate and will give up
If middle-class, transporting your progeny to lessons they hate is 80 per cent of every evening. Whether piano lessons or gymnastics, whether Scouts or tap dance, it’s pointless and necessary. A longitudinal study of what proportion of children made to learn the violin play it in adulthood should be carried out. The economy of north London would collapse.
Of course.
