I sometimes wonder whether, in 100 years time, Bob Dylan might mostly be remembered as the guy about whom Joan Baez wrote this song.
BBC Soul Music - Diamonds and Rust
I don’t think it’s likely, but it’s a terrific song.
I really, really hope Nizaar is right but I’ll believe it when it see it!
Rosenior is a long-term appointment for Chelsea - Nizaar Kinsella
Liam Rosenior is under contract until 2032 after signing a six-and-a-half-year deal.
The 41-year-old is seen as anything but a stopgap and is regarded as a long-term replacement for former manager Enzo Maresca, having joined from sister club Strasbourg in France.
It reflects the stability Chelsea believe they need, with long contracts not only for players but also for staff.
If I was in charge of picking the word of the year for one of the dictionary organizations, then the word for last year would have been ‘parasocial’
It’s not a new word, and I don’t particularly like it, but I seem to be hearing it every couple of days.
Me thinking of Christmas at this point in January is a weird, and weirdly intense, form of nostalgia
Bob Dylan on Willie Nelson
I saw this on the Christy Moore guestbook page, which I very much recommend. It’s originally from the New Yorker
“It’s hard to talk about Willie without saying something stupid or irrelevant, he is so much of everything. How can you make sense of him? How would you define the indefinable or the unfathomable? What is there to say? Ancient Viking Soul? Master Builder of the Impossible? Patron poet of people who never quite fit in and don’t much care to? Moonshine Philosopher? Tumbleweed singer with a PhD? Red Bandana troubadour, braids like twin ropes lassoing eternity? What do you say about a guy who plays an old, battered guitar that he treats like it’s the last loyal dog in the universe? Cowboy apparition, writes songs with holes that you can crawl through to escape from something. Voice like a warm porchlight left on for wanderers who kissed goodbye too soon.. or stayed too long. I guess you can say all that. But it really doesn’t tell you a lot or explain anything about Willie. Personally speaking, I’ve always known him to be kind, generous, tolerant and understanding of human feebleness, a benefactor, a father and a friend. He’s like the invisible air. He’s high and low. He’s in harmony with nature. And that’s what makes him Willie.”
“If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were done quickly”
….but sad about the way it’s turned out
⚽ #ChelseaFC #cfc
Contestant on The Chase says his favourite actor is Rafe Feinnes, then gets The Beast as the Chaser. No mention that they went to the same school. Feinnes was the year above me and the Beast was the year below
Poor result, really.
But I am enjoying the fact that I have to wait for the slow motion replay to be able to see what Estavoa is actually doing….he’s too quick for the naked eye
⚽ #ChelseaFC #cfc
This was de Gaulle’s big day, and he engraved it indelibly on the public memory when sniper shots rang out as he crossed Concorde and, later, when he was walking towards Notre-Dame Cathedral. On both occasions, practically everyone, soldiers and civilians alike, dived for cover except de Gaulle. Cynics have suggested that the shots were pre-arranged, but it is far more likely that de Gaulle simply felt totally invulnerable.
This rings true, from what little I know of French history
Currently reading: 1000 Years of Annoying the French by Stephen Clarke 📚
Podcast episodes I enjoyed this month - the etiquette of revolving doors, Kim Yo Jong, Chuck Berry, the Labour Party, Dr No as a monkey, 'civilizational erasure', the New York Shakespeare riots, Mary Beard, and Tom Hanks on the moon-walkers
These are the podcast episodes that I particularly enjoyed last month.
Episodes I’ve enjoyed previously are on the podcast pages for this year, for 2024, 2023, and for 2022
Word in your ear - Al Stewart - Al Stewart was rooming next to Paul Simon, and was the first to hear many of Simon’s songs. Simon played him Richard Cory and Homeward Bound on the same day. Stewart said Richard Cory would be a massive hit, but didn’t think much of Homeward Bound
The Penguin Podcast Episode 8: Christmas gifting with William Hanson - etiquette advisor William Hanson says that in Victorian times if a lady and a gentleman had to go through a revolving door then the etiquette was that the gent would go round twice so the lady would not have to push the door at all
The Hated and the Dead - Kim Yo Jong - South Korean scholar Sung-Yoon Lee refers to the Kim dynasty as a “royal family”. He says that the one thing he wishes people knew more about was the starvation in North Korea
McCartney: A Life in Lyrics - Back In the U.S.S.R - Chuck Berry’s original song was inspired by a visit to Australia, especially by seeing how poorly the indigenous population had been treated
Talk ’90s to me: Thelma & Louise – The ’90s most important chick flick - a suggested ending of the film was that Thelma pushes Louise out of the car (or vice versa), just before it goes over the cliff
Origin Story - Labour Party part 3 - there are some great ‘factoids’ for political geeks here. An effort to rid the party of the Trotskyist Militant Tendency was known as Operation Ice-Pick. Tony Blair told Michael Foot that ‘he came to socialism through Marxism’
Documentary On One: Harwood, Johanna Harwood..Meet the Irishwoman who wrote the first James Bond movie. - Johanna Harwood wrote the first draft, and most or all of the final draft of Dr No. In between, at one stage some more established screen writers had decided ‘Dr No’ himself should be a monkey. She was responsible for ‘the Goya joke’
Full Disclosure - Alistair McGowan: My friends laughed when I said I was doing comedy - MacGowan says that impressionists' shows don’t get repeated because they are seen as too ‘of their time’. This is a shame - I really enjoyed listening to old Dead Ringers episodes
Strong Message Here - Civilizational Erasure - according to Reuters, a new executive order requires enhanced vetting of Visa applicants “to see if they have worked in areas that include activities such as misinformation, disinformation, content moderation, fact-checking, compliance and online safety"
Origin Story: The Labour Party – Part Two – War and Peace - Harold Macmillan said that “it wasn’t Churchill that lost the election [in 1945] but the ghost of Chamberlain "
Inheritance Tracks - Sandi Toksvig - Toksvig says that her father, Claus Toksvig, arranged for Tom Lehrer to play an anti-nuclear protest song before the UN Security Council
Where There’s a Will: Finding Shakespeare - Episode 1: Is Shakespeare American? - a dispute about Shakespeare sparked the 1849 Astor Park riot in New York. Over 20 people were killed.
The Rest is History - Classics - Mary Beard says that the inscription on the statue of Boudicca, on the Embankment, says something like ‘Your descendants’ empire will be bigger than the Roman empire '
The Moonwalkers, with Tom Hanks - The Rest is History - Hanks says something like Kennedy’s “We choose to go to the Moon” is “about as bold a statement as was ever to be made, I think, by any politician. "
About the Warminster Thing
BBC News - The Warminster Thing: 60 years since town’s UFO fascination began - BBC News
Paul McCartney on a Beatles work-in-progress “It’s complicated now. If we can get it simpler, and then complicate it where it needs to be complicated.”
64 Reasons To Celebrate Paul McCartney - by Ian Leslie
This is reminiscient of the quote attributed to Einstein - Everything Should Be Made as Simple as Possible, But Not Simpler – Quote Investigator®
Because of what I’d have to say was a disappointing service by Wiltshire Reds buses, this was as close as we got to Stonehenge for Winter solstice this morning.
We were there for an hour and there was one bus.
Felt sorry for the people who’d travelled to get here
Retirement project number 7
Rewrite the words of Ken Dodd’s ‘Happiness’ on the theme of ‘Spursy-ness’
:)
⚽ #ChelseaFC #cfc à
Pantomime at Salisbury Playhouse was, again, terrific
My favourite line, excluding the filthy ones
Swindon? It’s practically the Cotswolds
I don’t know if I’ve read something about Hawksmoor in the past that’s been filed in my subconscious somewhere, but there’s something about his churches that I find a bit disconcerting. Beautiful, but disconcerting.
