Tony was one of the great jazz / popular / swing singers of the 20th Century. Here's one of his finest moments; a song composed by Sacha Distel.

It's long been an ambition of mine to watch all four series of Monty Python's Flying Circus. I bought a complete series box set in Hong Kong about 20 years ago, but I only got as far as the second series.

I tried to play them on my PC recently but they're Region 1 and I couldn't get them to work.

Happily though the entire series has been restored, upscaled and digitally remastered for BluRay, and I have the first series in this format now.

It looks great. It doesn't look high definition and nor could it - there's a limit to what you can do with material mostly captured to videotape about 50 years ago. But it's comfortably better than the broadcast quality of the time and certainly better than my old NTSC DVDs.

There are in all 45 episodes so I should get through them by the end of the year, though I'm not going to commit to one per day.

Earlier this evening I watched the first one, "Whither Canada?".

God knows what the TV viewers of October 1969 made of it, but I loved it. Very solid start. As usual there's a surreal running gag running through most of it and sometimes the sketches are cleverly segued together. A piece about Picasso painting while riding a bike is possibly stretched a bit too far.

The very best bit is an animation created by Terry Gilliam from early 20th century monochrome photographs. Genius.

Wasn't familiar with this YouTube channel, but Alex has done a webcam interview with them to talk about his solo in Limelight. Alex does this interview from the studio / guitar mancave of his 24th floor apartment.

Note the LERXST brand on the headstock of his Strat-a-like.

Caster has won a case with the ECHR to the effect that her human rights are being violated by being forced to reduce her testosterone levels to take part in athletic competitions.

https://news.sky.com/story/olympic-800m-gold-medallist-caster-semenya-wins-human-rights-court-appeal-over-athletics-testosterone-rules-12918935

This is a very different case from the usual controversy about trans athletes taking part in the opposite gender's sporting events with an unfair advantage, because she has been brought up since birth as a female, which is why I'm using the female pronouns in this post.

You might think, as I did, that she's a biological woman with freakishly elevated tostesterone levels. But I've just done a bit of reading about this and it seems that she is, in essence, biologically male. She doesn't have a womb or ovaries. She has undescended testicles, and an XY chromosome set.

Difficult one for the sporting authorities, eh? She has an obvious massive advantage over conventionally female athletes.

https://matthewbrealey.medium.com/caster-semenya-male-or-female-c5502364d564

Without wishing to step into a minefield - is this latest scandal, in which a BBC presenter, as yet unidentified, is said to have paid a 17 year old for naughty pics a bit of an overreaction?

I didn't understand why the police had been involved given that the age of consent is 16, but apparently taking pics makes all the difference.

I mean clearly it's embarrassing and distasteful, but headline news?

I'm hoping to install a feature onto the site that will allow users to save drafts while composing a post. If you're composing a long post, this will guard against your own PC (or phone / tablet) or the site going down and taking your meticulously considered prose with it.

Will try this later today, so I'll take a disk snapshot first. The site will go down at 11:15 this morning for about 25 mins.

Thanks!

This piece in Business Insider from 2019 reports that physicists have discovered that black holes might be used as portals for hyperspace travel.

https://www.businessinsider.com/black-hole-travel-space-galaxy-2019-3?r=US&IR=T

But what really amuses me about this is that, in his over-generous review of A Farewell To Kings, Sounds journo Geoff Barton quoted from a piece which made the same claim, forty-six years ago.

http://www.2112.net/powerwindows/transcripts/19770900sounds.htm

"IT HAS ALSO BEEN THEORISED THAT BLACK HOLES - SPECIFICALLY, ROTATING BLACK HOLES - MAY BE TRAP DOORS THROUGH TIME AND/OR SPACE. THAT IS TO SAY, IF SOMETHING FOR SOME REASON PLUNGES INTO A BLACK HOLE, IT COULD WELL EMERGE FROM THE OTHER SIDE IN A DIFFERENT DIMENSION, CENTURIES INTO THE FUTURE OR MILLENIA BACK INTO THE PAST. SOME SCIENTISTS BELIEVE THAT WE COULD UTILISE BLACK HOLES IN THE FUTURE TO MOVE OBJECTS/PEOPLE ACROSS GALAXIES WITH A MINIMUM OF TIME AND EFFORT, PROVIDING THE PROPERTIES OF THE 'HOLES COULD BE HARNESSED OR UNDERSTOOD, OF COURSE."

.. and actually (I've just checked), Barton got the above text from Carl Sagan's book The Cosmic Connection which was published in 1973.

Creditable performance in this second round Wimbledon match from the diehard Brit, though he's undoubtedly benefitted from a day off yesterday while his opponent was taking part in a gruelling five-setter.

Andy has just lost the first set on a tie-break but it's pretty evenly matched.

This photo of Phil Spencer from Location, Location, Location has stirred up a bit of anger on Twitter. My own attention was drawn to it after Rick Wakeman asserted that he'd like to shoot Phil. I've also just noticed that Glenn Hughes has called Phil a "complete cunt".



I don't think I'd enjoy shooting deer myself, but I can't really get worked up about this. They aren't an endangered species. I assume this creature will be eaten. And the instinct to hunt is what kept our species going before we could get Tesco to organise industrial quantities of animals to be killed on our behalf every day.

I just don't feel even slightly annoyed about it.

Geoff Barton was Sounds magazine's principal Rush enthusiast back in 1977 when I was first a Rush fan. I read his review of a gig at Sheffield a couple of days earlier on the train on the way to my first Rush gig, and he wrote the notes for the tour programme that I bought when I got there.

So I have a real sentimental fondness for Geoff's writing, and an abiding respect for his place in the UK perspective of Rush fandom from that time.

Yet I lost confidence in his own perspective quite quickly.

Geoff wrote the most positive review imaginable of A Farewell To Kings; a florid piece brimming with improbable superlatives, in September 1977. I read it the day before I got my hands on the album myself and it had piqued my anticipation off the scale. But when I heard it for myself, I realised that he'd been spouting rubbish. It was a flat, crude, misstep of a record, not the "total, out-and-out, honest-to-God, five star studded, complete, utter, unmitigated triumph" I had been led to expect.

Conversely, a little over a year later, Geoff reviewed Hemispheres on its release. He was decidedly lukewarm and disappointed, yet in truth it was a stunning, genuine, breathtaking, dazzling return to form - finally a worthy successor to 2112. I was so excited by the prospect of a new Rush album that I'd actually phoned the Sounds offices to speak to him, after he'd mentioned in an earlier piece that he had an advance copy. And when I asked him what it was like he said "it's alright, I suppose".

I've just found this piece written by Geoff this year, in which he describes how he "fell out of love" with our favourite band. While I can't understand his point of view at all, it was a real pleasure to read this - I always enjoyed his distinctive, tongue-in-cheek style.


https://www.loudersound.com/features/how-i-fell-out-of-love-with-rush

I'll start this thread with some words of wisdom from a famous player.

The final UK Rush tour kicked off ten years ago this evening at Manchester.  I had a pretty good seat, just a few rows from the front.

It was a good night, but the set was almost entirely composed of post-'70s material. I suspect a lot of fans would have felt a bit alienated. For me though, despite the absence of the earlier material, this tour was the most enjoyable of all the 21st century outings - mainly because I really liked Clockwork Angels.

It's a bit sobering to think that this is ten years ago. I well remember setting off in the direction of Manchester at midday, the tram ride into the city centre, meeting up with some Rush chums in a pub in the afternoon.

I was reminded of this today because a news piece about Lee Rigby, murdered on the same day, came up on the BBC news site earlier. The news appeared on a TV in the pub while we were in there, although above the general noise, it was difficult to work out what had happened.

https://eurovision.tv/event/liverpool-2023

I'm considering doing another bike ride to Wales and back soon, and looking for an alternative route to the one I did the last two times. This photo, taken from Street View, contains both England and Wales. The camera is in England and everything behind the telegraph pole is Wales.

I listened to Van Halen III this afternoon. I was interested to see the negativity that it provoked in the Horrible Albums by Brilliant Artists thread (and others), so I was intrigued to have a listen for myself.

I made notes as each tune came up, and here they are, for what they're worth.


Neworld - feels like a bit of a throwaway instrumental - nothing wrong with it

Without You - snappy little hard rock tune. Definite AIC influence in the vocal harmonies, although overall the tune is more generic hard rock - it's sharp though, and there are some lovely perky guitar fills. But nothing special.

One I Want - this is actually an OK tune but the vocals spoil it a bit - just a bit too hackneyed. There's none of the charisma or personality that DLR would have imbued in this. On balance though, I like it in a lukewarm sort of way.

From Afar - strongly reminiscent of Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love in the guitar intro. Pretty standard (moderately) dark & moody rock tune, again though I wished DLR was singing it. I don't know that Sammy Hagar would have improved it. Very average.

Dirty Water Dog - this is really nice, I like it. Clever tune, really nice understated, precise guitar part. Reminds me slightly of Math Rock. Best tune so far though (again) the vocal doesn't do it any favours. But it doesn't detract too much either.

Once - something a bit different again, but yet again the vocal spoils it for me. It's not bad otherwise. At least it's not formula Van Halen. I quite like the metronomic beat. It's definitely overlong. I don't think that the simple idea of the tune really merits being sustained for over seven minutes.

Fire In The Hole - this feels a bit more like classic Van Halen, but it's a bit of a plodder. Doesn't really bite. It's OK.

Josephina - quite a pretty 12 string guitar intro. And a sweet tune, as well until the bass and vocals kick in. It outstays its welcome.

Year To The Day - actually a decently powerful performance with a bit of brooding, dark energy, but it's overwrought and the tune itself is boring.

Primary - As far as I can tell this is just Eddie playing with a guitar effects processor that does octave doubling and a sitar sound. But he does noodle away pretty inventively and tastefully, as you'd expect. Just checked and apparently he plays an electric sitar. It's short, it's a bit of fun.

Ballot or the Bullet - Quite an engaging little tune. I liked it; it has an energy that's mostly lacking elsewhere on this album. And the vocal style, annoying on some of the other tunes, does complement it. Super guitar solo as well. The lyrics are super dumb, though.

How Many Say I - WOW, I loved this. Harmonically a pretty clever composition and the last thing you'd expect to hear on a Van Halen album. No-one could argue that Eddie was a great singer but there's a sort of couldn't-care-less Leonard Cohen vibe that really appealed to me. For me though it would have been better to leave the strings off and keep it stripped to the bare bones, but even so this was great. Of course this sort of thing isn't why people buy Van Halen records.


So - overall, yep it's not terrible, it's not really very good. I can't see myself revisiting it except for the last two tunes and Dirty Water Dog.

Dead at 89. Always one of my favourite comedians.

I did hear that he was ill a few days ago so I did wonder if his time was up. An absolutely brilliant man.

I well remember the first time I ever saw Dame Edna on television. Must have been about 1978. She offered her guests a suggestive dish composed mainly of an upright banana accompanied by two cherries, and later sang a song about British spunk. "Spunk, spunk, spunk, you're so full of British spunk", it went.

My dad was convinced she was a woman in real life; an actual dame no less.

But Sir Les Patterson was his greatest achievement.

The biggest rocket ever built .. as long as it didn't destroy the launch pad the launch would be considered successful.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who had masterminded the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1942, was considered by the Americans to be a brilliant military strategist.

US Naval intelligence intercepted and decoded a message indicating his intention to visit to the Solomon Islands on 18th April 1943. It included the exact arrival time and the specifics of the types of aircraft that would transport and escort him there.



Yamamoto's strictness over punctuality was a contributory factor to his downfall. He arrived exactly on time, to be met by a flight of USAAF P-38s sent on the longest combat mission ever flown at that time - a round trip of roughly 1,000 miles - to find and kill him.

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/killing-yamamoto-operation-vengeance-from-roger-ames-cockpit/

I'm not familiar with Prog magazine myself, a UK publication apparently - but this is its 139th edition, and it's out on Friday.



https://twitter.com/ProgMagazineUK/status/1645759891628236803

The first mobile phone call was made 50 years ago today, in New York.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-65112048

But six years later, the technology was still in its infancy as this Tomorrow's World piece from 1979 shows. Sometimes it's hard to believe I was alive in those times.