A gamble that paid off news: a Belgian art dealer who bought a painting that caught his eye for under €100,000 (£86,600/$115,000) "on a hunch" is now the owner of not only a Rubens, but a Rubens "two-in-one" - if you flip the picture upside-down. [click any pic to embiggen]
It's another snippets post, dear reader:
- Preposterous delusions of grandeur news: The tatty, backward, uncultured city of Plymouth, birthplace of Madam Arcati (and the city where we met) has announced it has placed its bid to become the UK's next "City of Culture"! Both of us were convulsed with laughter at the very thought of it...
- Pointless rebranding news: Whatever next? The iconic London Underground Tube signs on the Bakerloo Line have "temporarily" been taken over by a promotional advert for Heineken Zero, and people - particularly disability access campaigners on behalf of people with learning difficulties - are really unhappy about it. I am not surprised! More of our "beloved" Mayor Sadiq Khan's attention-seeking, money-making shit. Of course.
- Vinyl's not dead! news: Iconic London indie record shop Rough Trade is marking its fiftieth anniversary in 2026, with a year-long series of events and special edition vinyl record releases. Keep the faith!
RIP, Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert.
- Human zoo news: Staff at a zoo in Japan have been dressing up as pandas, and encouraging the public to "feed them", because their last real pandas have gone back to China. It really is another world...
- Pompeii in Port Talbot? news: A vast Roman villa has been discovered under the largely-undisturbed Margam Park in South West Wales. Why the fuck they chose to settle in the godforesaken Port Talbot, of all places, is a mystery.
- God news: David Bowie's childhood home in Bromley, South London is being restored and is set to re-open as a museum/cultural centre in 2027. "Fame (fame), what you need you have to borrow..."
- And finally: Happy 70th birthday wishes today to the coolest French singer you never heard of, Étienne Daho. Oh! Les années 80!
And the weather? Rain, mizzle, rain, ad infinitum...
I like this song video. First I’ve seen or heard it. I wish we still had our vinyl. We gave away an enormous collection while downsizing. Maybe THAT would have been a blog retirement fund.
ReplyDeleteMonsieur Daho is an absolute icon in France (people have called him "the French George Michael), but it took a collaboration with our own - similarly named (in tribute perhaps) - Saint Etienne on their hit He's On The Phone to even get his name mentioned over here... Jx
DeletePS I still have all my vinyl collection..!
Port Talbot??? Calls to mind a Max Boyce joke about 2 old geezers sitting on a bench . One says: "Is that the moon or the sun?" The other says:"I doan know.I'm from Por' Talbot." And as for the stupid mis-spelling on the tube...words fail me.To think of the hours I spent helping foreigners navigate the English language!
ReplyDeleteGawd bless Max Boyce - our unofficial "Chief Bard". His LP We All Had Doctors' Papers was a staple of my youth (we knew all the songs and routines), and indeed topped the UK Album Charts in 1975 (the only comedy album ever to have done so).
DeleteAs for adulterating the iconic Tube signs and maps for money, I despair of just how low this country will sink... Jx
When Hull won its bid to be UK City of culture in 2017 mother and I laughed so much she nearly wet herself, we were in fits again when the Queen visited a rough council estate (Bransholme) and had tea inside a commoners pebble dashed council bungalow.
ReplyDeleteIt does make me laugh - rough shitholes are still shitholes, even if they do have a temporary stage with some "multicultural" events on them for twelve months. What changes? Fuck all. I went a couple of times in 1992 to the "City of Culture" predecessor, the "National Garden Festival", when it was in Ebbw Vale "up the Valleys". It left, and what is Ebbw Vale now? Still an absolutely loathsome dump where more people leave every year than the birth-rate replaces, so no "regeneration" legacy whatsoever. Jx
DeletePlymmuff has a museum and an art glallery
ReplyDeleteand once I sat behind Dame Ninette de Valois at the Ballet !
Dear old Dame Ninette soon scarpered when she realised where she actually was, though, taking Wayne Sleep with her... Jx
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