An interesting radio doc about ‘Long Player’. It’s a piece of music composed by Jem Finer that will continue for 1,000 years, at which stage it will start again.

BBC - https://www.bbc.co.uk - The longest musical composition - Witness History

It’s been playing in a lighthouse in East London since 1999.

It made me think about the Fairy Tale of New York, which has been playing in pubs, clubs, shopping malls and supermarkets since 1987, but just for a couple of months a year.

Jem Finer co-wrote that too, and I wonder which will last longer.

I think clichés are there for a reason. They should not be messed with. Not in any form, shape, or way.

I jogged over this footbridge a couple of weeks ago.

I’d like to think it wasn’t me jogging over it that did the damage

What song makes you feel like you’re in a dream?

“Last night I dreamt I met Ali Baba and his 40 thieves…”

John Holt is maybe best known for his versions of soul and pop hits. I’d call this rocksteady, but I’ve never been very clear on where ska ends and rocksteady begins. Or where rocksteady ends and reggae begins. Whatever, it’s fantastic

Today’s prompt: What song makes you feel like you’re in a dream? #CrucialTracks

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I admire the ambition….but I would take some convincing.

James Garner coming on for England ⚽ #EngCze

#TodayILearned that women weren’t allowed to sit in the House of Lords (the UK’s second legislative chamber) until 1958

I guess the clue’s in its name

Currently reading: Between the Stops : The View of My Life from the Top of the Number 12 Bus by Sandi Toksvig 📚

It’s the first day since around April that I’ve been able to go out whenever I want without sunscreen. Woohoo!

#TodayILearned that:

Get-Item SomeFile.txt -Stream zone.Identifier

shows whether Windows see the file as having been downloaded from the internet. If that returns anything other than an error, it’s from the internet so it either has to be digitally signed, or you need to set the execution policy to run it

Via AI, and PowerTip: Use PowerShell 3.0 to Identify Zone Information of Files - Scripting Blog [archived]

#TodayILearned that the word ‘eleven’ comes “from an Old English word meaning “one left over.””

Making English Gooder - A.J. Jacobs

I ♥️ Battersea Arts Centre

Today I have been wondering whether Unai Emery might be related to Dick Emery

Pic: twitter.com/skrike_ Derivative:Avraham Aizenbud, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

This much I know. #1

If the people in a BBC Radio 4 comedy have regional accents, then it will probably funny. If they don’t, then it probably won’t.

Note 1: in this context, ‘London’ counts as a regional accent

Note 2: YMMV

I didn’t watch the proper 70 UP but I very much enjoyed this 1965 off-shoot. Hats were clearly very much a thing for older women at the time.

Watched: 70 Up: The Victorians 🍿

I like the word ‘hoax’.

“Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty, hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to talk French.”

Currently reading: The luck of the Bodkins by P. G. Wodehouse 📚

What’s a song that helps you focus or concentrate?

If I’m honest…

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Share a song that tells a great story.

As I understand it the historical detail in this song isn’t quite right. However, it’s a great story, rooted in the truth of how the people of the East End and anti-fascists stopped Oswald Mosley marching through Aldgate

(Oswald Mosley is the posh fascist in Peaky Blinders)

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Share a song that makes you want to dance every time.

This is the four women who are on Rock and Groove LP doing bits of the songs somewhere outdoors that looks a lot warmer than it is in the UK at the minute.

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As Socrates almost said, “The untested backup is not worth having”

Pic: Al-Mubashshir ibn Fatik, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This is about Bud Flanagan, from Wikipedia. Flanagan was most famous for being one of Flanagan and Allen, and for ‘Underneath the Arches’ and the ‘Dad’s Army’ theme.

“Flanagan was born in Whitechapel, in the East End of London. His parents, Wolf Weintrop (1856–1932) and Yetta (Kitty) Weintrop (1856–1935) were Polish Jews who were married in the city of Radom, Poland, and fled to Łódź on their wedding day to avoid a pogrom. Wolf and Yetta Weintrop intended to escape to the “New World” from Eastern Europe – they paid for a ticket to New York, but a dishonest ticket agent gave them a ticket to London.”

The bit I like is this:

“In the Army, he worked as a driver and entertained the troops with his singing and impersonations. Here he met the anti-Semitic Sergeant-Major Flanagan, on whom Reuben later had his revenge when he adopted the name “Flanagan” as his stage name.”

The vid is ‘Underneath The Arches’

youtu.be/q7HoMWuXC…

Back at the home of the Champions of the World

I didn’t entirely expect this would be 3rd against 4th when I got the tickets

⚽ #ChelseaFC #cfc

I should have got this stencilled on the kids' bedroom walls

“Honour thy father and thy mother, Daughter, authors of thy being, upon whom a heavy charge has been laid, that they lead their child in innocence and righteousness along the fearful narrow path to everlasting bliss, and render her up at last to her God a pious and a virtuous soul; reflect, Daughter, upon the joy in Heaven as the souls of these tiny creatures wing upward, released before they have learned aught of sin or faithlessness, and make it thine unceasing duty to remain as pure as these”

Currently reading: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson 📚

Pick a song from an artist or band that’s had the biggest impact on your life.

The song that supposedly introduced the word psychobilly to the world.

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#TodayILearned that I can do emoji’s in vim, and I’m inordinately pleased. Some of them look particularly good in a green-screen style