living legends..forever!

Jeff Buckley:Live ; October 11, 1992: Corpus Christi Carol (acapella) (Benjamin Britten) The carol was written in 1504
"One recent interpretation is that it was composed about the execution of Anne Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII, whose badge was a falcon...."{wikipedia}
[n.b. the footbally-challenged might need to know that  West Ham's ground in London's East End is known as "The Boleyn Ground" because ,in those wacky olden-days,she used to go a-hunting there......]


This image was taken in Manchester this week at The National Football Museum   
A Get-Well Present from me to Phil the x-fireman.
Phil is in his 6th week of Chemo & radiotheraphy for throat cancer.
Like me,Phil is a massive West Ham United fan.
On the mug are illustrated Martin Peters,Geof Hurst & Bobby Moore.It reads "Living Legends:Forever"
Phil's mouth is always very dry.He is always wanting fluids.This is practical.
 Phil finishes his treatment in a week's time.I'm hoping eventually he might want/be able to visit the Museum with me once he has more spare time (his NHS treatment takes up 5 full days a week at the moment)The mueum is right next door to Victoria Railway station.Not a long walk for him.
 Phil said last week that all he seems to do at the moment is "sleep & take drugs".I cheered him up (i think) by telling him he was turning into Ken  Before my very eyes........
Dexy's Midnight Runners:Live at Haarlem, The Netherlands; October 27, 1982.

June 18th in Hebden Bridge.Phil,Me,Ken .taken just prior to Phil's news..........

did i see you planting seeds in the forest?

The 4th October is the date in 1941 that Norman Rockwell launched a series of Saturday Evening Post covers depicting Willie Gillis. Rockwell described Gillis as “an inoffensive ordinary little guy thrown into the chaos of war”. Willie made his debut carrying a food parcel and suddenly everyone wanted to be his friend.

This is a sepia saturday post.

I remember hearing on the radio recently about the birth of the movies.When the first "film story" was made. It was about how they never imagined that "Stars" could never possibly be  created.
Quite the reverse infact.It was thought that the audience would never accept the same actor in a different role/movie ever again...Once seen in one context,an actor would never be able to appear again the another film.
 Part of me (the part that thinks about Jennifer Aniston ) regrets this didn't happen.....
 I was thinking about the prompt image to this week's topic. I am going for "facial expression". I wonder when the first photographic smile was.?Not an in situ smile :but a "say cheese "smile. The first time someone realized that this smile would stay fixed forever.The first time someone realized they could be surrounded by shit,but lie about it!
 All very existential really.The first time we smiled at an unknown stranger...
 A possible  problem of course is how to  stop it once you've started.
Look at those tragic celebrities and politicians we see around us today.[The false existential smile that stays fixed forever...I am thinking here about Batman's Joker.....]
So here then dear sepians  is a nice (and relatively rare?) example of a group of people fair oblivious to the camera.
Yes.They know the reason they are there is to be photographed.But they dismiss the camera and  smile at each other instead.We are dismissed!

SILVER RAVEN:Gene Clark - guitar, vocals Michael Clarke - drums Richard Manuel - piano, vocals Rick Danko - bass, vocals Blondie Chaplin - guitar, vocals Evansville, IN; May 15, 1985
(.try to listen towards the end of the audio .Nice to hear both Gene's speaking voice & his mention of Rick Danko......).
Meanwhile...today.....In the Scottish Free State ,lives a rather fine band called Young Fathers.I am really pleased they have been nominated for this year's MERCURY.
 No doubt the winners will turn out to be a group of public schoolboys from Surrey.But never mind ,its brought Young Fathers some richly deserved attention.Remember,I've been blathering on about them for over a year here .They are rather special. (although the american interviewer in this video is a bit of a tit...)

we followed Rosencrantz to the chippy on Exchange Street.

See all my photos today [here] .

By the way Capo Martin,we went to The Scuttlers Bar off Shude Hill ....../opposite the station & tram stop.Worth a visit sometime?

a fine photo Cath took of the gentle author in The Scuttlers Bar.

  Me and Cathy went to see Maxine Peake's new production of Hamlet at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre.
It opened late last week.
We went to today's matinee performance[.3 hefty bum-numbing hours.]
Straight after the performance ,as we left the theatre, Rosencrantz (a chick) still dressed in her stage costume of punk leathers,short skirt & tattoos, ran passed us along Exchange Street to the nearby chippy
.The cast would only have a couple of hours before the evening show would start.
Her hunger & urgency was fair enough.
 So far ,the play has only had moderate reviews (3 out of 5 in both The Telegraph & The Guardian although a 5/5 from The Times)
I found it fine myself .
Maybe its the gender thing they had difficulty with?Not only are Hamlet & Rosencrantz chicks..but Polonius and the gravediggers too! I loved those fucking gravedigging babes! Broad Scouse accents & (at the end of the play) one of them breaks into Frank Sinatra's MY WAY!
Generally,to be fair, Maxine is pretty loyal to the story + the Set Design was pretty groovy ! Dr Who sprang to mind!
All in all , a great bouncy play.
 A young lad in the audience sported a Bob Dylan teeshirt..& i must admit ,His Bobness does have something of The Prince of Denmark about him.
 Have I ever told you, in 1972 i went on a Youth Hostel holiday to Denmark & visited Helsinor Castle! Which is more than Shakespeare ever did.........

he's the hairy handed gent who ran amuck in Kent

It was Ken Kersley's 62 birthday today.We went into Halifax tonight for a few drinks  to examine the Olden Days.......
Here are some pictures of that.......

Happy Birthday Comrade Ken!

 By the way.... Jack The Ripper was NOT Polish !The media,she tells lies..... (read the truth  here)