BLAH BLAH Posted February 22, 2023 Author Posted February 22, 2023 So there I am, lazing away, late arvo...lazyboy recliner in just the right laid back prone possi...tv remote clutched limply with right hand fingers, trying to concentrate on the garbled news...eyelids fluttering away like a pair of circling nervous moths trying to make sleepy snooze sense of the silvery bright screen that I'm supposedly watching...Lazy Sunday afternoon, I've got no mind to worry, I close my eyes and drift away-aaaaa...Root-de-doo-de-doo, a-root-de-doot-de doy di A-root-de doot de dum, a-ree-de-dee-de-doo dee Doo, doo, doo...I snooze, I awake, I snooze and I awake...Life would be ecstasy, you and me endlessly . . .Groovin' . . . on a Sunday afternoon, Really couldn't get away too soon, Ah-ha-ha-haaaaa...I'm nearly there, nearly, just on the tippy edge of going under/over into a delicious black oblivion...Black night is a long way from home...then I hear it! Shrill loud voice blasts through the open front window slapping me awake...Is anyone home?!?...I jar awake blinking and rat puzzled...WTF is this all about?!?...what we don't use the door bell any more?!?! Don't want to go to the trouble of pushing a button and getting your fingers dirty?!? I'm really annoyed now, nahhh cranky cos of my shattered slumbering cosiness...I summon up a loud voice...it takes it's time like a rising bucket on a long rope out of a deep well...I even take the time to pretty it up with heaps and heaps of edgy gruffiness...finally it arrives, long rope uncoiled, who wants to know?!?! Silence...dead silence...not a whisper, nada, nix, zilch, zip, zero...was I dreaming?!? Seconds pass and repass...Silence is golden, But my eyes still see, Silence is golden, golden, But my eyes still see...then I hear it again! We got chocolate! We?!? I think...what?!?!...chocolate?!? puzzled and not wanting to be one-upped by anyone...I yell out...chocolate is the magic word! Slowly I uncoil my large frame and walk to the front door, open it, and peer out from behind the dark fly screen. At over six foot high...I see nothing! I hear nothing! I know nothing! nuffinggg!!!...again once more I hear...the loud shrill voice...We got chocolate! The voice is coming up from down near my feet, I peer down, fmd! Oompa Loompas!!! Two little girls and a boy. Baby chicks looking up from their nest! Again the loud shrill voice...chocolate eggs two dollars a packet! I canna shoo them away! And besides I love chocolate! Wait I say...I'll get my money! I come back with four golden coins...I open the screen door and squat down...The youngest girl is still lower than my kneecap...skinny arms straining straight out in front of her holding a cardboard box full with blue plastic packets of chocolates. Again that voice...that's four dollar$...skinny young arms still straining but that voice is still clear as a ringing bell! The older taller girl steps forward for the money, in her palm it goes. I pick my two packets and say to the young boy...I hope you help your sister by carrying that box?!...I get the quick confident loud reply...she's not my sister! And off they scoot! I marvel about the exchange. In my day it was being seen but not heard! 1 1
BLAH BLAH Posted March 26, 2023 Author Posted March 26, 2023 (edited) Never been a fan of yours...never, ever, ever. In fact I can honestly say that their is not one piece of your recorded music/song/catalogue that has ever managed to appeal to me...not one!...and I have heard quite a few of them over the years on the rad-ioh. Nix...nadda...zilch...no appeal...If I had to come up with a reason why I think that is the case...I would say its your voice...your damn voice! Its the sound of your voice...it just grates and irritates me...sounds like a slightly curved metal rip-saw going back and forth jaggedly through cheap splintery pine-wood, rough throat addled coarseness from too many smokey ciggies, your voice to me sounded old from birth...the Benjamin Button of vocalise! I'm still awaiting for it to sound younger as you age! (You must have been a peculiar sounding baby!) Knowing of my disdain for your voice would not bother you in the great scheme of things...your simply too famous and I'm simply a nobody...and so I simply rail my disdain with impunity. But wait! Their is one solitary song of yours I do love...but Its a cover...ahahahhaaaa...so well covered in fact that I rate it up there with the best of music...of all time...from all genres...amazing! It towers above all other music imo...I could watch it play over and over again on YouTube all a long time! But I simply digress... Speaking of covers...and in particular, LP covers...I simply adore one of your LP covers. Leonard Cohen had his famous blue raincoat song...covered by many...Ah, the last time we saw you you looked so much older Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder...but you sir have that green raincoat being worn pictured on that cover. Leonard Cohen has his Suzanne...Now, Suzanne takes your hand and she leads you to the river She's wearing rags and feathers from Salvation Army counters And the sun pours down like honey on our lady of the harbor And she shows you where to look among the garbage and the flowers...but you sir have your suze... Your pictured with your left arm encircled by Suze's green rain coated arms. Like something out of a robert crumb 60's cartoon your caught trucking down a light snow dusted NY street...at a guess I would say you are pictured wearing brand new levi blue jeans, recently washed, and still unfaded. With a light brown jacket, you sir look sartorially smick! Arm in arm you are both caught in a moment...frozen...for all time to see and freely observe. Sir your Suze is gorgeous, beautiful smile...bright eyed, blond haired...she walks in step with you with her head pressed hard up into your left shoulder, both her arms wrapped tightly around your left arm. You sir have a knowing smile on your smooth uncreased face, so impossibly young, so fresh. (Spawning such an aged gravelly voice!) Hunched shouldered walking together you are both obviously chilled and cold...but there is something between you...a warmth...spark...hot ember...so carefree together.... forever young...walking past Jack Ubaldi's light blue VW splitty. Edited April 3, 2023 by BLAH BLAH 1
BLAH BLAH Posted May 14, 2023 Author Posted May 14, 2023 (edited) Sometimes...not a lot of times...just some time...(not often as in regular)...just once in a while...a very casual while...I feel the desire to hear the musical sounds that had the most impact upon me...the young me...the young growing me. Those instant familiar opening notes and lyrics that through repeated heavy playing and hearing that somehow takes a form and physical shape and transforms into that mysterious of all creatures...called an ear-worm. Slyly it enters my ear and burrows deep, deep down into my brain leaving a familiar trail of lyrical breadcrumbs and piecemeal sandwiched forgotten lyrics that one can follow back into my past...the young me. It just takes a song...my songs...my precious...song...to do it...they call me mellow yellow... But I digress...my teenage friends and I use to play a song guessing game when driving home late at night from our local pubs...when the traffic was so much lighter back then...called 'guess the song' played on the white Holden HR car rad-hio...who was the quickest in recognising the opening song chords, the familiar lyric, tune, beat....so intense was the competition...the concentration...the arguing as to the correct naming of the said song title/version/band...that sometimes, unbeknownst to us, we would find ourselves miles out of our way from home...lost! Other times I would find myself watching an old TV show or series and then find myself blurting out loud the name of the song used in the soundtrack...as the familiar sounds awaken my ear-worm. Ahhh but I digress...I love the YouTube...it is my time machine extraordinaire...it is the best entertainment invention mankind has made in my opinion. It contains all the songs of the young me. All! Everyone of them! I browse, I listen, I choose, and the tunes and lyrics stir and awaken my invisible ear-worm...it vibrates, shakes itself out of deep slumber, rattles and rolls in my brain...like the seeds in the shaken gourds/maracas of a mad musical witch doctor...and I am back, floating through time. Ride, ride my see-saw, Take this place On this trip Just for me. Ride, take a free ride, Take my place Have my seat It's for free Rideeee...the young me fascinated with English Prog Rock! Then my ear-worm takes another hit...Venus She's got it Yeah, baby, she's got it I'm your Venus, I'm your fire And your desire Well, I'm your Venus, I'm your fire And your desire...Aaaaaaahhhhhhh...And another one bites the dust...Jump into the fire...One is the loneliest number One is...And another one bites the dust...little green bag...my little ear-worm is now fully awoken and is beating upon my ear drum like a crazy Keith Moon with his blurry drum sticks...try to remember, deep in September...what a marvellous night for a moon dance...there it is...the hint of passion...the fire...I recall it, it flashes ever so briefly, then candle flickers, expires, and is gone...the old body cannot stir alive again, no matter the frenzied beatings of the ear-worm upon my ear drum...no matter how loudly it plays... Now it is the You-Tubes Time Machine's slow return in bringing me back to the future me...Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light...and the over whelming sense of cloyness of too many sweet memories recalled...Memories Light the corners of my mind Misty watercolor memories Of the way we were...Can it be that it was all so simple then? Or has time re-written every line? If we had the chance to do it all again Tell me, would we? Could we?... Edited May 14, 2023 by BLAH BLAH 1 1
doogie44 Posted May 14, 2023 Posted May 14, 2023 1 hour ago, BLAH BLAH said: If we had the chance to do it all again Tell me, would we? Could we?... Yes! We would...and we could. Thank you Alan & Marilyn Bergman for those great lyrics. Any you, B-B for your reminiscences 1
BLAH BLAH Posted June 22, 2023 Author Posted June 22, 2023 (edited) Ahhhh retro...ahhhh vintage hi-fi equipment...let me count the ways I do so love you all!...one...two...three...four...let me shut the man-cave door and count you all! Most of my Hi-Fi gear/equipment is years old...many years old...Sansui, Wharfedale speakers...a herd of black faced Sui Amps...Sui TT's...Pioneer CDP...and taken quite a lot of time, dedicated searching and money to acquire....and all by me lurking amongst various Electronic Sale sites...credit card cocked, poised, aimed and ready to acquire...and I got them! I am older than all of them...they are all younger than me. I am their sole care giver/provider and they are all collectively dependent on me for their safe survival! It's a good arrangement I reckon...I hear the music and they all get nice accommodation...no dissenters, though I thought I did hear the Sansui Amp AU-999 arc up at times about being at the long end of all those Kevzep (from AudioKarma's Sansui Site) stereo modifications! The only issue that could arise and cause us all problems is if the units stop working for some strange unknown technical/electrical reason...then it's Panic Station times (and I hope to have my Myki card at the ready! )...then the need to find a competent technician willing to take the time and effort to do the repairs...ahhh but that's another story! Till that scary moment arrives I will enjoy their company! I love their looks and the sound that they all put out...retro and/or vintage is only for me...it just speaks in a language that this old fart understands/appreciates...old style, old school (uniform)...matured like me, like a good aged/matured cheddar cheese but without the smell...just the salt of the earth! I understand they all need care and maintenance for proper function...a little like my good self as well...it will be a slow race to the death with them by me...I think I'm up for the challenge! Though I do suspect/think the Sansui 999 Amp has other ideas...good luck I reckon! (Evil Laugh recalling Deadly Ernest!) I flick the dust of the hi-fi units with a high quality makeup brush...Estée Lauder Powder Brush...as described on their website...“The bristles are soo soft and lovely to feel. They feel great on the skin, super smooth and you’ll find yourself running it over your face as much as you can because it feels nice”...ohhh yes it is so nice to feel...I imagine my hi-fi units appreciate such quality care from such soft bristles on their metallic/wooden and glass surfaces...and always right handed use in a right hand circular motion! I avoid alternating left and right hand dusting so as to avoid disturbing and confusing the faint air currents of fine dust particles in my room...I want those dust particles to settle down in the far edges and corners of my room...like white pebbled japanese gardens. Relaxed, not agitated and exfoliated, in rising confusion like a snowstorm/dandruff and/or Snow Globe, resettling on all and sundry...Get down deeper and down Down down deeper and down...down...down... I always wash my hands with a new bar of Goat's Milk Soap, before touching them all..."it is well known for its soothing, moisturising properties. It is ideal for people with sensitive skin or skin conditions such as eczema or psoriasis. Our soap is lovingly hand-made using real goat milk - not powdered milk like some commercial brands. Why pay more for inferior mass produced products when you can buy a hand-made boutique soap for less"...and then my clean washed hands...left and right...wear XL sized white cotton gloves...made from the highest grade Egyptian cotton...individually wrapped in clear cellophane bags...a new clean cotton pair opened whenever I need to touch my preciousness's... I only ever play my preciousness's on a full moon. A large silver Orb overhead is best. When the collective Hi-Fi's herds hard metallic/glass/wooden surfaces are all gently bathed in the soft moon light...no harsh electrical LED/lights to age/wrinkle/fade their surfaces...I care for my retro/vintage gear...Hey Carrie Anne What's your game now, can anybody play Hey Carrie Anne What's your game now, can anybody play You were always something special to me Quite independent, never caring You lost your charm as you were aging Where is your magic disappearing... Edited June 22, 2023 by BLAH BLAH
doogie44 Posted June 22, 2023 Posted June 22, 2023 Look through Blah Blah's window, yeah What do you see? Smilin' faces all around Groovin' with the vintage sound (Where does he go?) Music on his way Listening down the highways and the by-ways (Where does he go?) Music on his way Blah Blah with his shy ways and his sly ways Ohh, there's Sansui amplifiers all around Ohh, you can see the Wharfdale speakers Looking down, when you Look through Blah Blah's window, yeah Any time of day There's an ending yet untold But the music's never old... [Repeat first verses] Music on his way Music on his way Music on his way Music on his way... (fade out) Time for another record! More dusting. More fun. Just a small tribute (with apologies to The Hollies and the songwriters) in view of your dedicated & evocative nostalgia. Best Wishes, David 2 1
BLAH BLAH Posted June 26, 2023 Author Posted June 26, 2023 (edited) Discs...what can I say about them! Silver...silver threads and golden needles...Discs or Black...black is black, I want my baby back...Discs...shiny small rounded CD's or the big shiny black pristine vinyl discs. For me right at the very start...it was black...black tiny shiny reflective sequins with tiny holes in their precise middle. Mother's flat black cocktail hat, held securely to her lacquered stands of auburn hair with a long shiny silver needle, buried deep inside. All faced with a black mysterious fascinator, a fishnet delicate veil of caught glittering black sequins, strange caught black goldfish, more or less! Fascinator catching and hiding from view, bright green eyes fringed with lacey black thin pointy eyelashes, all settled above shiny glossy red lip-sticked full lips...clasping round a lit white cigarette, releasing smoke from it's black ashed pointy end...all mixed with a mysterious wafting perfume. All so ready to meet. greet and deal with what the World has to offer! (All so very delicate but just as effective with disguise/front as the slitted metal visor of a horsed black knight with raised jousting lance at the ready...astride a sweaty, steaming, snorting black stallion.) Black as sooty...black as liquorice squares at two thick pieces costing a hard earned brown round head and tailed penny, those black squares separated by impossibly crowded tiny, tiny perforated holes...black as the starless and bible black night arching across the globe's far distant horizons...black as my very first leather jacket, heavy, thick, un-creased, creaky and shiny and evocative on the nose as Old Holborn's tinned dark tobacco...black shiitake domed mushrooms...black odourous truffles...and round flat tins of opened black Kiwi shoe polish...Black night, black night, Black night is a long way from home...Black is black, I want my baby back...I see a red door and I want it painted black No colors anymore I want them to turn black... Listening to that big shiny black pristine vinyl disc on my Hi-Fi...Marin Marais - Works for Viola da Gamba...Jordi Savall...my fascination with the Viola da Gamba continues unabated...I drift away...thoughts quietened...sinking deeper into my soft leather chair...the cartridge needle is gliding along the black vinyl grooves...I am seated dreamily at the front of it...like riding a crazy roller coaster, arms akimbo...gripping a steel bar for safety(has to be a steel bar there!! ) and rocking from side to side between a sharp black valley, rising sheer on both sides, left and right...then entering a never ending right breaking motorcycle corner....faster, faster...on a wooden seat swing yelling higher, faster to my pushing father....ride, ride my see-saw... Like the bow of the Titanic cutting through sea wave after sea wave arcing large plumes of white foam to it's sides...I am the King of the World!...faster, faster...like the surfer riding the all encompassing fast closing tube of water trailing a thin white wake...faster, faster...diminishing circles of groves...spiralling to the vinyl end seeking the unobtainable goal/hole...like the frantic, agitated, silver pin-ball in colourful noisy motion...then it happens...the cartridge needle rocking from side to side in the deep black vinyl groves hits an obstruction...a speck of dust?!...it jumps, jiggles...leaps and settles (recalling Hey Hey It's Saturday's Red Faces episode of four guys on chairs doing their version of bobsleighing, lean left, lean right, up, down...)...it elicits a pop...a crackle...my musical revelry is snapped, broken...jumbled thoughts of impossibly high coiffed many coloured wigs, both men and women, perfumed waving handkerchiefs, short trousers laced tight over sheer stockings, beautiful canes, dressed servants with trays of champagne bubbling in glass flutes, snuff and their beautiful boxes, embroidered fans, silks, so many colourful silks, dainty lacey white ruffles, glittering gold rings and jewellery, red square toed shoes of leather, mad gavottes, minuets, gigues, gigantic ball-rooms suddenly disappear...and I am back in the moment...a very dark moment! Ok Maxwell let's go Silver then!...P.C. Thirty-One said "We caught a dirty one" Maxwell stands alone Bang, bang, Maxwell's silver hammer Came down upon his head Do do do do do...do CD's... Edited June 27, 2023 by BLAH BLAH 1
BLAH BLAH Posted July 16, 2023 Author Posted July 16, 2023 (edited) Have always loved Tim Buckley's Album "Greetings from L.A."...to say I was gob smacked when I first heard it would be an understatement. That awesome dirty brown hazy picture of L.A. on the front Album cover always stuns me. My young mates and I were in Ian's bedroom to the far side of his parents brick veneer house, far from his parent's Lounge room, and more importantly out of their listening range! Ian was first-gen Chinese, and always practising on his electric Gibson guitar cos he wanted to sound like Santana! But he never did, not even close, (not bad Ian, not bad really!) so you can stay Ian! Not sure if his younger brother Jan was there. He was a surfer with long black hair nearly to the waist and the physical stature of a young Bruce Lee! Jan was the only one with a Panel Van, a blue EH with the mattress in the back and all the girls seemed to like Jan! His sweet Buddha smile and infectious laugh! Not sure if you can stay Jan! (Not happy Jan! ) Reckon Lawrence who was welsh was there cos he was Ian's best mate, a roly-poly Welshman who looked like the face on the LP cover of debut English band "Gentle Giant" (but later fell out with him (not the Band but Ian!) for some reason I do not care to remember about) Lawrence liked the blues, Big Bill Broonzy to be exact, so you can stay! Maybe Phil who was English, was there, and who had a long mop of frizzy brown shoulder length oily hair roughly parted middling on his head (as if he had just woke up from a long sleep, in fact I never saw Phil use a hair comb or brush...just his finger nails from both his hands, daintily and gently parting his hair strands!) he had full lips like Mick Jagger, spoke like a cockney, and wore glasses that were thick as coke bottle ends. He also suffered from a bad case of red acne, and there would always be a fresh krakatoa eruption or two or three on his red tinged face accompanied by the constant cigarette smoke from one of his port wine rollies. ( I always wondered how you managed to shave your face phil without turning it all into a leaking beetroot!) Phil always fancied hisself as a ladies man and that's as far as it went for Phil! Which was really weird cos Phil was the first out of our group (Jan doesn't count!) to end up finally with a girlfriend. But that's another story...Ok let's say Phil was there...you are there Phil! ( no don't thank me and why haven't you replied to my FaceBook message yet!) And me, Johnny, the clown of the group, and with/from a Baltic background. So let's stay it was a Saturday Arvo, a beautiful sunny Melbourne Saturday arvo. With clear blue skies!?!, yes alright!, pleasant temperature in the mid 70's, not too hot. And we are all slightly under the weather in that room and Ian decides to play "Greetings from L.A." on his record player...(not Santana Ian?!?) (for the umpteen time!)(yeah Ian!) Now Sasha my Russian Blue wants in on this gathering as well, the little tart! But it's just imaginary Sash I tell him, it's all just make believe! But Sash is having none of it and jumps up on my puter table in front of the puter screen just as I hear the opening Youtube track "Move with me"...begin...I went down to the meat rack tavern...And found myself a big ol' healthy girl...Now she was drinkin' alone...Aw what a waste of sin...So I went on over to sweet talk that girl...Lord I moved on in...Lord I whispered come on and move with me...move...move...move.....move...I can hear the piano tinkling about in there as well...I have both my hands on Sasha's back now and I am pretending to play the piano and sing along to T.B....you've got to move baby...move...I canna see the puter screen...move baby move...baby move...But Sasha arches his back and looks at me with big open green eyes and is not sure if he likes being in this band as I rifle my fingers up and down the fur of his back, from neck to tail end...move baby move...move baby move...finally after the third grand sweep of my rifling fingers on Sasha's back with his fur hairs erect...he's had enough and jumps off! Back to listening of "Greetings from L.A"....Back then after the second listen of the whole Album I rouse myself alert and mumble aloud to whoever's listening...I think he's singing about sex! I get a non committal group reply...a bunch of low volume vagaries fly slowly around the room and settle with heaviness...nahh?!...what!!...really.!!..how can ya tell?!?... Listen to the lyrics! Song tracks!!...he's not singing about family life in the Burbs!...Phil!...and then the sinuous vocals of Tim Buckley opens up and sings the second track...Get on top let me breath...our collective teenage minds struggle to imagine...but we are alert to the possibilities! Then Tim follows through with..."Sweet Surrender"...and I am mesmerised by the vocals...this little man wants to be a hunter again...then the thrill of...redneck son of a gun...mysterious, sultry...devil eyes...blunt...sweet sixteen...weird sounding...Make it right again...Ah, make it right It's been wrong too long, Oh, Johnny dreams...Johnny dreams...Johnny certainly did that day! Edited July 16, 2023 by BLAH BLAH
BLAH BLAH Posted July 19, 2023 Author Posted July 19, 2023 (edited) In my World...I am browsing through vinyl albums in Melbourne's premier Imported Records Shop..."Archie's and Jugheads"...located at 5 Manchester Lane...in my hands I am holding a gatefold double album, cellophane wrapped and sealed, imported from the States. I love the feel of heft from its cardboard sleeves...solid, stiff and thick...not like the thin bendy playing card Aussie dealt ones. It feels so nice in hand, I am almost tempted to do a Rolf Harris 'wobble board' with it...(tie me kangaroo downn bo...and I quickly remember where I am...not cool...not cool at all!) This double album is so thick, I wonder if could fit it into a protective clear plastic sleeve?! Never mind...if it doesn't fit I'll carefully slit open the protective cellophane with either my thumbnail or one of Mum's brown handled butter knife's with the rounded tip (In my World...that would go down really well with one of Bread's Albums! and I snort a little laugh...stay cool...stay cool!) Hopefully, then the cellophane lasts and doesn't tear...for a good while! Oh, so I'm going to buy it then?!? I'm not sure...who is it?!? You never know who or what your gonna end up with at Archie's...Melody Maker, New Musical Express, Rolling Stone, Creem write about all these new groups...so many...you just canna keep up or afford them! I flip turn the record over to the front between my hands whilst thinking ...tie me kangaroo downnn sport...tie me kangaroo down...stop it...you drop it and both David N Pepperell and Keith Glass the owners will have your hide hanging in their shed! In my World, it's a new release with friends by an American artist called Tim Buckley...hmm never heard of him! Weird Album cover design though, by a guy called Crumb...bright garish colour and people shapes as weird as a Trip...looks like scenes from Alice in Wonderland...****** smoking caterpillar...sounds good to me, I'll buy it...phew $18 dollars! It's produced By Jimmy Page at Abbey Road Studios so it must be good...it's got a couple of yanks called Walter Becker and Donald Fagen helping out in production as well... Oh lookey here, first track is a song by The Rolling Stones called "Time is on my Side" now that sounds good...sung by another yank/canadian called Neil Young...ok now that's interesting. I go towards the front of Archie's, down the brown coloured stairs and stand by the cash register...Keith looks me over, and I hand him the record...$18 he says...nahh I say, I want to hear that first track and if it's any good then I'll buy it!..Keith looks down at the record, goes still for a second, then says...ok! Keith does the thumbnail trick on the record and pulls out Side one...places it on the TT and brushes the surface...presses play and turns away from me. In my World, I hear a slow guitar intro that reminds me of Donovan's 'Sunshine Superman'...nice...then a soulful childlike voice reminding me of Neil Young's 'Till the morning comes'...singing slowly...softly...blues like...building...Time is on my side, yes it is...Time is on my side, yes it is...Yes time, time, time is on my side, yes it is...Time, time, time is on my side, yes it is Oh, time, time, time is on my side, yes it is...I said, time, time, time is on my side, yes it is...Oh, time, time, time is on my side...Yeah, time, time, time is on my side, yes it is...that guitar by that Page guy is really wonderful, really bluesy, so raw...reminds me of the single by David Bowie (The Manish Boys) - I Pity the Fool....and...and......and.......a very early PJ Proby - Jim's Blues (proto Led Zeppelin) the song finishes...Archie's and Jughead finishes, and in my world finishes...and I'm left humming...you'll come running back...you'll come running back...to me....e...eeeeee.... Edited July 20, 2023 by BLAH BLAH 3
BLAH BLAH Posted July 28, 2023 Author Posted July 28, 2023 (edited) Supermarket checkouts and their queues...one can never avoid them! Their are no helpful detour signs highlighting a quicker, faster exit...no siree...nix...nada...nope...one simply has to go through the whole rigamarole of the checkout. One rolls along with one of their big shiny heavy metallic silver trolleys...and of course it has to be the chosen one, the one with the sticky right front castor...the castor that sticks with a loud regular attention seeking nervous tic. The loudest and most useless wristwatch on castors ever...tic...tic...tic...the time after the third stroke will be...wait its the...Time of the Season What's your name? (What's your name?) Who's your daddy? (Who's your daddy?) (He rich) is he rich like me? Has he taken (has he taken) Any time (any time) (To show) to show you what you need to live? Its the Time of the Season...to push the zombie trolley with a demented life of its own! There is no way I could get lost in them crowded aisles...down near the mysterious bermuda triangle of cheap price$ of dog/cat and canary food...down, down where the prices are down...the loud tics of the zombie trolley would certainly give me away...tic...tic...tic... Over the supermarkets loud speaker system would come the exasperated voice of the cashier lady...will the noisy gentleman in aisle two...no make that aisle three please take the time for a rest stop!... I stop...that's me?!?! how do they know?!?!...how?!?...thank you sir... I pay no further attention now...I am in a fierce death struggle with the zombie trolley, I have both my hands clenched on it's handle...it's castor pulls us both slowly to the right...I resist it's crazed erratic action and push/pull it back on a straight line. Down we both go, down the aisle from one side to the other...down, down prices are down...a slow big shiny heavy metallic silver trolley imitating a pin ball...the slowest rolling pin ball of all time, the slowest rolling bowling ball of all time! We both stop when it pulls a mighty righty for the umpteenth time...tic...and I am looking at toothpaste, rows of toothpaste...charcoal toothpaste...and over the loudspeaker I hear...I want to paint it black I see a red door And I want it painted black No colours anymore I want them to turn black...Eventually we both make it back to the filled up crowded checkout queues...tic...tic...I choose one...of course she is in front of me and of course she has heaps of items and of course her friend is the cashier. It goes like this...one item is cashiered then a discussion of meat recipes...one item is cashiered and then a discussion of meat in a slow cooker and how hubby loves his meat slow cooked....I told him it needs more potatoes...he just wouldn't listen...I know...I know...they just won't..time drags slowly on and I am sure new worlds have been born out of the Cosmic slush, stars formed...dinosaurs have come and gone...so have the ice ages...the Dodo just became extinct and we are suddenly back to Margret Fulton's Cooking Age...I know...I know...I told him Osso Bocco would be the go one day...my eyes glaze and I crack...stop it I yell loudly...both the cashier and her friend start...and both look at me seriously...again I repeat stop...and lip my lips and smile...your both making me hungry! They both smile and go back to their ongoing recipe chit chat...welll at least my big shiny heavy metallic silver trolley has stopped ticking...supermarket queues!!! Edited July 30, 2023 by BLAH BLAH
BLAH BLAH Posted July 30, 2023 Author Posted July 30, 2023 (edited) I love movies...I love watching good movies...and I reckon Revenant is a good movie to watch! Something I learnt today about Revenant that I did not know before...ok maybe I ought to yell out spoiler alert...I'm not sure...Anyways...I love how at the start of the movie...there are quite a few fur trappers camped in the newly entered dark mysterious woods...their nefarious activity is winding down in the late afternoon and in the dying of the afternoon light...as a viewer you get the feeling everything is slowing down...dark shadows grow longer and fall heavily and wearily to the ground...the bird song ceases to entertain....the many camp fires are inevitably lit and their twinkling yellow light pushes back valiantly against the mystery of all this new encroaching territory...primeval...dense vegetation...thick tree trunks abound and surround and their thick canopies shut the night starred sky out...a proper peaceful scene...or so one is led to believe...cos through the surrounding dark vegetation, not dark enough to shut out/exclude...the viewer suddenly gets various camera close ups of painted 'injun' faces quietly and intently popping through...so close up we get lost momentarily on even more undiscovered human territory of fierce parted lips, angry teeth, crazy coloured stripes, smooth oval heads, black eyes, scowls, beads, glistening skin, mole...whoa we need to back up out of here immediately!...heart in mouth, nervously, we retreat slowly until we see the whole picture start to unfold slowly back up on the big screen...phew made it out of there! INJUNS!!! is the loud cry now and so predictably the camp jumps from peaceful to mayhem within seconds! Think ant colonies disturbed! Think seagulls fighting over a lone chip! Think footballers fighting for possession of the footy! THINK?!?! Feck thinking, this is good! The fur traders have no guards or sentries set up around their camp perimeter...it's a right royal feck up...what do you expect! That's right...MAYHEM!!! YEE HAWW!!!! Loud war cries fill the heavy air, wooo wooo woooo...rifles discharge, bang, bang...arrows are released wyfft bumpp burrrr...white faces peer out of tents only to get suddenly and swiftly split open with heavy tomahawks...indians drop in interesting star form shapes from those pesky bullets...heads are balded by sharp knives and their scalps are ripped off bloodily...oh this is good, very good!!! Suddenly we see him...a white fella getting up off a makeshift toilet...he only has his white undies halfway up his legs...and like a meerkat surveying the scene...he decides to run! The white fella is running naked...dodging fires, left, tents, right, trees, left other trappers, right and various assorted dead bodies...is he gonna make it to safety...you must be joking, no way! Inevitably the lone injun arrow arrives...through the darken shadows, missing giant tree trunks, past jostling hectic bodies, past large tents, smack dead center in the back of a running naked body! GOT HIM!!! And I hear a tiny voice say...why is that man nekkid! And I laugh...I laugh out loud, long and hard in that crowded cimema as the naked white man finally sprawls dead to the ground. HAHAHAHAaaa I laugh at the total incongruity of it all, the abrupt black humour. There is total mayhem on the screen now, everybody is fighting for their dear life...blood...guts...death...screams...cries...and in the midst of it all, someone is puzzled by the sight of a naked man running past...even has the time to look and then ponder...?!?...stops and asks questioningly...why is that man nekkid?!...hahahhahaaaa...totally love it! So many months later as my better half and me are watching Revenant once more at home...I wait for the showing of my favourite scene...the naked running white man...accompanied by those hilarious words...why is that man nekkid?!? Together we watch the scene...and I mumble confused...what?...what?!?...and my better half also mumbles...what?!? to me. I reply, WHAT...what happened to someone yelling out...why is that man nekkid?!? That was the best bit of the whole scene! Then the better half informs me that it was her good self asking me that question in the cimema...Seriously?!? Yes!!! (So now I am remembering sheepisly...me laughing uproariously and loudly at the killing of the nekkid running white man in a crowded Cinema) postscript (well I think it should have been in the script, it was that good!...why is that man nekkid?!) But didn't you see that white fella rise from the toilet...?!?!? Edited July 30, 2023 by BLAH BLAH
BLAH BLAH Posted September 5, 2023 Author Posted September 5, 2023 (edited) Just because we g-g-get around (Talkin' 'bout my generation) Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin' 'bout my generation) I hope I die before I get old (Talkin' 'bout my generation) This is my generation This is my generation, baby My, my, my generation.... Wow how quickly we forget...how quickly we grow old... From youthful energetic sung anthem to a slow easy listening dirge and refrain... No chance of dying before I get old now...no sirree, nix, nope, nada, zilch! The marvels of modern medicine is keeping our generation old, alive, kicking and thriving! Our injections, pills, X-rays, ointments, lotions, walking frames, walking sticks, edema wraps, radiation clinics, artificial limbs. Our doctors, surgeons, blood transfusions, clinics, hospitals, ambulances, nurses, glasses, transplants, heart pacemakers. Its now... Our, our, our generation... None of that Entwistle's throbbing Bass line... None of that Moon's manic drumming... None of that Daltry's screaming vocals... None of that Townshend's guitaring... This is my generation , baby Its more...Boom, boom, boom the Boomers! Why don't you all just f....f....F....F....feck orff right now! People try to put us d-down (Talkin' 'bout my generation) Our, our, our generation! Edited September 5, 2023 by BLAH BLAH 2
Ian McP Posted September 5, 2023 Posted September 5, 2023 especially for you BLAH BLAH, great youtube channel, very entertaining and informative https://www.youtube.com/@YesterdaysPapers a sample of what's within 1
BLAH BLAH Posted September 5, 2023 Author Posted September 5, 2023 50 minutes ago, Ian McP said: especially for you BLAH BLAH, great youtube channel, very entertaining and informative https://www.youtube.com/@YesterdaysPapers a sample of what's within Ahhhh one of my fav tracks...Pictures of Silly...Silly oh silly!!!
Ian McP Posted September 7, 2023 Posted September 7, 2023 the wrinkleys are back, oh dear! https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66720789 The Rolling Stones confirm details of new album Hackney Diamonds 1
BLAH BLAH Posted September 7, 2023 Author Posted September 7, 2023 ANGRY?!? Angry...substitute Relevance for Angry.... Relevance, relevance...re...lllll...e....v..aaaaaa...n....cccc...ee....for me!!! What relevance have the wrinkleys for meeee... Relevance, relevance...what relevance have the wrinkleys for me... I am aged 71...compared to these wrinkleys I am a smooth skinned new born! I have yet to fully hear all of 'Exile on Main Street'...being played! Or witness the frenzy at Altamont... Midnite Rambler with an elderly stroller more like it! My love affair with RS started with 'High Tide and Green Grass'.... And still continues with 'time, time is on my side'.... Oh how I wish Radio Station 3AK was still active...where no wrinkleys fly!
BLAH BLAH Posted October 25, 2023 Author Posted October 25, 2023 (edited) No music today...no muzak todayyyy...sung in my best vocal...todayyyyy.... I finally realize and work out, I have sung the words to the tune of Hermans Hermits...'No Milk Today'....what a great song, they just don't seem to write them like that any more, I wonder why not?!?, it is simple enough, simple lyrics for a more simpler time...no muzak todayyyyyy!! But...there is always a big but...I have bought six CDs cellophaned wrapped, advertised on Discogs, arrived from overseas todayyyyy. The postie...ahhh yes the postie with whom I have not seen or spoken to now for weeks has managed to cram all them CDs, like playing cards, into my front, dull sun aged, green tin letterbox with the broken lid...the lid that rattles with a clang, every time someone places it down, clanging loudly out into the street and back inside to the house...our very own postal alert...or so I try to convince SWMBO!...the CDs reside in there until I feel the urge to investigate...or when SWMBO...tells me that I feel to do so...todayyyyyy...not fridayyyy!!! I walk outside and stroll down the dull grey concrete path, slightly pock marked by years of rain, to the letter box, standing upright by the giant silver gum tree. What a pair! The Stimpy and Ren Show! I ignore the regrown weeds...persistent lil buggers no matter how many times I cover them all with the swept up dead gum leaves and try to smoother them! So walking past the weeds I do my best Royal impersonation...nose high...and look away. But out of the corner of my left squinty eye I can make out all the lil green buggers pointing up and jeering at me big time! Time to weed us all todayyyyy!!!! I lift the letter box lid, see the brown packages packed inside, I count them...five...four thin and one thick...ahhh six CDs! But I notice I have been beaten to them...black ants! Black ants wandering around my CDs...nosy lil parkers checking everything out...its not enough they hide, rent free, in my letter box from the hot afternoon sun...they also have to rummage through my mail as well! I flick and vigorously shake down the packages... Finally finishing the walk of shame. I am back inside seated at the brecky table. I open my packages...The Hip Walk by Nathan Davis Quintet, starring Carmell Jones on Trumpet!, Fishbelly black, Abstract by the Joe Harriott Quintet, Genius by Joe Harriott, It is and it isn't by Gordon Haskell (King Crimson alumni) the better Blueprint Studio recording...and It is and it isn't again by Gordon Haskell...what the?!? I stare down at the two Gordon Haskell CDs shaking my head!...the black ants appear on them...we have music todayyyy! Edited October 25, 2023 by BLAH BLAH
BLAH BLAH Posted December 5, 2023 Author Posted December 5, 2023 Simon and Garfunkel were not on my Radar when I was a teenager growing up in the late 60's early 70's...it was mainly Beatles this and Beatles that! And of course the Radeohh! Melbourne radeohh churning out commercial hit after commercial hit! Come to think of it just like the old man, when he was on a cooking roll, Sunday mornings making Blinis as thin as crepes...with his modified, over the countless years, his own developed secret recipe. Little bit of this and a little bit of that till he finally settled on and declared that joghurt was his key magical ingredient! Out they would come...frying pan smothered in western star/uncle norman butter with the sizzle of his Blini mixture, roll after roll! The sizzle and smoke would make my mouth water! He was a klutz with most physical things, that involved his hands, really...but with the Blini he reached his peak, his undisputed right to talk all things Blini! Up there finally with the big boys of town, finally respected! After the loud pan sizzles and heavy smoke dissipated he would manage to reveal a blini so thin as to rival a Kleenex tissue, a playing card...thin as...it was a wonder...a marvel of creation...be still my beating heart and saliving mouth! Then ever so gently he would teaspoon jam, strawberry, plum...in a thin line across the center. As garish as red lipstick! Satisfied, he would then roll the mixture up in a hot thin tube ready for eating! The blini ceegar with the red jammy tip! One after the other out they would come...butter would be on my lips, fingers, plate...and I would easily eat a good half dozen or even more! Ahhh now where was I?! Ahhh yes Melbourne commercial radeohh and their playing of hits, churning out hits! That was when I first heard Simon and Garfunkel...the sounds of silence...bridge over troubled waters...mrs robinson...parsley sage rosemary and thyme...doo te doo doooo doooo and here's to you mrs robinson jesus loves you more than you will know...but jesus did not love the old man's blinis more than I did! Where was I now?!? Ahhh at a 16yo birthday party held for me by a special person called margaret, with lots and lots of school friends attending! I heard Chicago Transit Authority and Moondance and more Simon and Garfunkel...it was wonderful...the unheard of new music, the cold VB beer, and the hot coursing hormones. And now its only after all those passing years I have finally managed to hear S+G's Bookends...for the very first time! wow is all I can say! How good is this then. Its like an unreleased, long lost Simon and Garfunkel record!... "Kathy, I'm lost", I said, though I knew she was sleeping, I'm empty and aching and I don't know why, Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike, They've all come to look for America, All come to look for America, All come to look for America...listening to those beautiful harmonies I am taken back...back over the years...looking for that young teenager...and wanting to see what he saw for the very first time... 2 1
Bisguittin Posted December 7, 2023 Posted December 7, 2023 Wonderful times! I vividly remember my Year 8 English teacher introducing "I Am A Rock" and "The Boxer" to a somewhat surprisingly receptive class. 1
BLAH BLAH Posted December 7, 2023 Author Posted December 7, 2023 16 hours ago, Bisguittin said: Wonderful times! I vividly remember my Year 8 English teacher introducing "I Am A Rock" and "The Boxer" to a somewhat surprisingly receptive class. AAAAAhhhh wow...now that would have been something I would have responded well to. Instead of the almost constant and indecipherable old english Chaucer and Shakespeare we were subjected to! And I don't mind Shakespeare and his wonderful language....just that back then it would have been a nice change to experience contemporary works for both a refreshing change and comparison... Why did everything have to always both end up and be such a drudgery...I suppose that was my lot...having to go to a Public School in the western subs of Melbourne!
aussievintage Posted December 8, 2023 Posted December 8, 2023 6 hours ago, BLAH BLAH said: AAAAAhhhh wow...now that would have been something I would have responded well to. Instead of the almost constant and indecipherable old english Chaucer and Shakespeare we were subjected to! And I don't mind Shakespeare and his wonderful language....just that back then it would have been a nice change to experience contemporary works for both a refreshing change and comparison... Why did everything have to always both end up and be such a drudgery...I suppose that was my lot...having to go to a Public School in the western subs of Melbourne! Public school in country town here, but had good teachers. We studied Jesus Christ Superstar in English (along with 3 Shakespeare plays) 1 1
BLAH BLAH Posted December 14, 2023 Author Posted December 14, 2023 (edited) On 08/12/2023 at 5:39 PM, aussievintage said: Public school in country town here, but had good teachers. We studied Jesus Christ Superstar in English (along with 3 Shakespeare plays) Very jealous...lucky you! And out in a country town as well! Must of been dreamy looking out the window and seeing blue sky and sunshine...not my vision which was darker and had soot covered bricks, traffic and vehicle fumes... At a guess I reckon the 3 Shakespeare plays were King Lear, Macbeth, Hamlet! Though Billy boy could write, when I could understand it,..without subtitles and/or eNotes/Monarch notes!... or seen and heard through a teacher's dry and laboured perspective...scribbled in white powdery chalky, hard to decipher, script on a black turning grey blackboard! Some of his words still resonate within me today...the impact and magic...hits immediately...as flies to gods are we to wanton boys, they kill us for their sport!...but as an 15yo student I was just blown away by its power! To be physically picked up by giant fingers and to be rolled between index and thumb...until squeezed dead!...definitely please be a god's fingers!....if I must be killed! More kudos being killed by a god than a pimply face wanton boy ...to be or not to be...oh yes right on! Now that I think about it...why couldn't I have studied Godspell's...day by day...Oliver's Good morning starshine...the world was pulsating with goodness...Aquarius...when the moon is in the seventh house...so much change and magic was permeating the air(with incense, among other things) Hair...by Cowsills...she asked him why, why I am a hairy guy! Every young person, girl, boy and even some oldies had hair...long beautiful hair, shining, gleaming...As Bill Lawry use to proclaim....it was all happening...and suddenly, quickly and before we knew it...we have Steely Dan with their...those days are gone forever, over a long time ago, oh yeah!... Edited December 14, 2023 by BLAH BLAH
aussievintage Posted December 14, 2023 Posted December 14, 2023 34 minutes ago, BLAH BLAH said: At a guess I reckon the 3 Shakespeare plays were King Lear, Macbeth, Hamlet! 2 out of three It was Julius Caeser, Macbeth, and Hamlet. 1
BLAH BLAH Posted December 18, 2023 Author Posted December 18, 2023 (edited) Ahhhh retirement...what can I say! Let me count the ways I love thee! Nahhh void that, far, far too many counts...puts away the upright middle finger with the gentle shake of his head! As Willy would put it...to be...to be...to be or not to be...well, well...that is the intriguing question right there! Old Willy must have had a few off/down days his-self then to have penned that bit of questioning... My vote?!?...for now...not to be! Not to be bothered...not to be bothered by the trials and tribulations, constant demands of so called modern life! Not to be enamoured, over stimulated by 43 beans in a cup and/or the relentless blare of insane talking heads of Medja! The glare of Supermarket lights and recorded muzak...ohh how I just need them to discover LED lighting (inducing migraines/epilepsy) to make the grocery trip for a few expensive item$...a trip to hell and back! The relentless wave of consumerism, the advertisements, the attacks of spam on letterbox and mobile phone. And if one is lucky enough to dodge that curling giant sucking wave then one is hit by the undertow and rip(off) as it drags you back into its gaudy clutches...just when I thought I got out, they pull me back in! Oh where art thou Lifeguard! Oh how I miss the dulcet tones of willing Covid subjugation. The lockup! Not to leave from home, house or hearth...no traffic noise, no overhead planes, television off...the over whelming stillness...the magnified bird songs...the cool fingers of the breeze and the gentle wash of rain...to be...to be still... For one strange moment in time...we were all together, taking all a collective breath...bigger than Quo Vadis...bigger than a football match...bigger than QLD,...to be...to be all in it together! I don't know who was the most scared by that novel idea of massed togetherness...those in charge...or those not in charge. Well somebody got right and proper scared...cos everything now seems to be...to be back in order. Keeping the wheels of Industry turning. Apart from the weather! Where was I?!? Ahhh retirement, let me count the ways I love thee! Early morning...cool, grey, moist...sprinkled with various bird song...sprinkled with grey hair stubble on chinny chin, chin...wrapped in white dressing gown...polar bear style...I sip my morning's hot bushells tea with milk appreciatively, contemplate ...what ever happened to Lanchoo tea...and take a bite out of my lightly toasted rye bread covered with avocado...lightly sprinkled with black pepper...maybe I should have had the prosciutto sliced and fried with two eggs sunny side up... is all I can think off...it's not to be....then I hear the magpie warbling...a very pretty sound...not to be outdone it is joined by several of his mates...but the yellow crested cockatoo is having none of it....it smoothers their group song with a crash of loud discordant squawks. Then I remember...last night I was watching the movie The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry the sound track had a singer called Sam Lee...such wonderful soulful sad vocals...I must follow him up...to be, to be continued! Edited December 18, 2023 by BLAH BLAH 1
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