John Lydon

Happy Birthday to John Lydon / Johnny Rotten, 54 today.

When there's no future there can be no sin

We're the flowers in the dustbin

We're the poison in the human machine

We're the future, your future

God Save The Queen - we mean it, man

There is no future and England's dreaming

Revenge Of The BSOD

So, my home PC has crashed again and is displaying the dreaded Blue Screen Of Death. I'm posting this at work which is something I really hate doing.
I'd been out of the loop for a week or so, due to my Mum being ill, but now it looks like I'll be out of action for a while longer. Hopefully I won't be away too long.....

( The above picture has nothing to do with what I've just said - I just like it! )

Randomiser III

Your (more or less ) weekly random selection from the dusty visual vaults of the Glass Walking-Stick.....

Can't stop the signal

Forgive me Blog, for I have sinned: this is my first confession in 10 days.

My Mum's been ill for the past week ( but seems to be on the mend now ), so I've been stopping over her place to look after her and consequently haven't been messing about on t'internet. Got loadsa catching up to do.....

I've been watching a lot of Firefly recently, so I thought I'd share the following with you - one of the best fan-made videos on YouTube. It really is a great piece of editing and is set to my favourite Killers song: All These Things That I've Done.

Enjoy.

Before The Thaw II ( Last snow pictures...honest! )

Before The Thaw

Randomiser II

Let's get random.....

.....with more from the visual vaults of The Glass Walking-Stick.

The Big Man and The Time Traveller

Happy Birthday to The Big Man, Clarence Clemons, 68 today. Bruce Springsteen says of Clemons: "You all want to be him but you can't."

And Happy Birthday to Rod Taylor, rugged leading man of The Time Machine and The Birds, 80 today.

Great Brrrrrritain

England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland under a blanket of snow 7th Jan. 2009.

Steranko Saturdays: Way Out West

Tex Dawson, Gun-Slinger no.1 from Jan. 1973.

Yet another of the reprint titles that flooded the American comic book market in the early '70s. As far as I can find out this was the only issue and reprinted 1950's cowboy stories by John Romita, George Tuska and Al Williamson.

A very minor footnote in Marvel's history but a lovely cover by Mr. S.

Soundtrack: Here Comes The Sun by The Beatles. ( I don't think so: just more snow! )

Elvis Aaron Presley

8th Jan. 1935 - 16th Aug. 1977

Do you feel lovely, er, lucky...punk?

I'm grateful ( not to mention amazed! ) to have received a One Lovely Blog Award from super-cool blogger, Wiec?, overlord of When Is Evil Cool?, Random Picture Day and Doom Base. Phew! He's a busy guy! How he finds time for his world domination plans as well, I don't know!

Seriously, check out his blogs, they'll add an extra layer of awesomeness to your life :-)

As a recipient of this prestigious virtual award I'm supposed to pass it on to 15 worthy individuals who brighten up the blogosphere with their words of wisdom. That's a tall order, as I Follow so many great blogs and I'd hate to upset anyone I leave off the list. Suffice it to say, the following 15 are some of the most interesting, diverse and just plain cool blogs around, and if I did leave you out - I still love ya!

I'd like to nominate the following bloggers/blogs for the One Lovely Blog Award:

( Drumroll please..... )

http://adventuresinnerdliness.blogspot.com/

http://www.badlibrarianship.com/

http://booksteveslibrary.blogspot.com/

http://bronzeagebabies.blogspot.com/

http://bronzeageofblogs.blogspot.com/

http://calvinscanadiancaveofcool.blogspot.com/

http://capesonfilm.blogspot.com/

http://draculand.blogspot.com/

http://heartinajar.blogspot.com/

http://momo-musings.blogspot.com/

http://www.my-silvermac.com/

http://paiwings.blogspot.com/

http://scaresarah.blogspot.com/

http://thatbaldyfella.blogspot.com/

http://vaultofthebankrobber.blogspot.com/

OK, as you can see, I've linked to these blogs' web addresses. Now, I'm not the most internet-literate blogger around these 'ere parts so, although most people would just change the link to an underlined title or a word e.g. "here", I don't know how to do that. Something to do with html I should imagine. If anyone wants to help out an old dinosaur such as myself, any tech advice would be appreciated.

Once again, thanks be to wiec? and to all a good night.....

Soundtrack: Lungs by Florence & The Machine

Snow joke: this weather's a nightmare!

The snow that's crippled most of this country over the last week finally hit Gloucestershire today. As you can see, James was up for it!

( Here's Jasper enjoying (?) his first experience of the cold, white stuff. )

But while some people were having a good time.....

..... It was taking me nearly 3 hours to do my usual 20- minutes -journey- home from work!

Which was no fun at all.

Randomiser

Random treats from the visual vaults of The Glass Walking-Stick.....

Steranko Saturdays: The Invaders

I found this artwork on t'internet today but I can't remember where I nicked it from, so apologies etc.

Apparently Steranko produced this for a trading-card company as a triptych of images, depicting the greatest heroes of Timely/Marvel's Golden Age. ( So, no room for The Whizzer or The Fin. Shame. )

Soundtrack: Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite! by The Beatles

Songs of 2009

Now that everyone else has got their Best Of lists out of the way, or refused to write them, or refused and then did them anyway :-) I thought I'd have a go, ridiculously late or not.....

I don't think it was that good a year for the music we call Rock. The UK indie scene has been pretty ho-hum with most hip, NME-stylee bands being underwhelming, and most of the best American bands taking time off. Some memorable songs:

Zero by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs ( the coooool Karen O above )

Dominos by The Big Pink

Fire by Kasabian (no longer content with trying to be Oasis, they now want to be Primal Scream)

Invaders Must Die / Warrior Dance by the Prodigy

The '59 Sound by The Gaslight Anthem ( great live band! )

Outlaw Pete / My Lucky Day / The Last Carnival by Bruce Springsteen ( of course! )

I'm ashamed to say that I own the latest albums by The Flaming Lips and Green Day, but haven't listened to them enough to form an opinion. Must try harder.....

The real action in the pop charts has come, yet again, from female musicians. With artists like Florence Welch, La Roux and Lilly Allen kicking arse on the dance floors the music scene is much more interesting and colourful than in the male-dominated '90s. A small (!) list follows.....

In For The Kill / Bulletproof by La Roux ( so '80s it hurts, but it's a good kind of hurt )

The Fear by Lilly Allen ( her best song yet? )

Rabbit Heart / You've Got The Love / Kiss With A Fist by Florence And The Machine

( What can I say? A fantastic Siouxsie/Kate Bush hybrid who conquers all before her )

Poker Face / Paparazzi by Lady Gaga ( see above for the new Queen Of Pop! )

When Love Takes Over by Kelly Rowland ( & David Guetta )

Please Don't Leave Me by P!nk

Untouched by The Veronicas ( Guilty pleasure alert! )

Halo by Beyonce ( you may have heard of her... )

New In Town by Little Boots

Of course, the pop world is dominated by dance and r'n'b ( Do we have to call it "urban" now? ) Melting the dancefloor are.....

Ready For The Weekend by Calvin Harris

Evacuate The Dancefloor by Cascada

Dance Wiv Me / Bonkers by the bon-bon-bonkers Dizzee Rascal

DOA ( Death Of Auto-Tune ) by the omnipresent Jay-Z, who is also responsible for.....

My Favourite Song Of The Year:

Empire State Of Mind by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys

A fantastic performance, a duet that actually works, a wonderful video, the beautiful Ms. Keys, it's all good!

Phew!

Soundtrack: Most of the above.

Updated 05/01/10

Continuing a tradition I started last year when I missed MIA's Paper Planes off my list, this year's How The Hell Did I Forget That? award goes to the wonderful Winter Winds by Mumford & Sons. ( With honourable mentions to Human by The Killers, and White Winter Hymnal by Fleet Foxes. )

Goodbye 2009!

This is us last night at my Mum's place, celebrating New Year's Eve by drinking mulled wine and releasing some Sky Lanterns.

The trick is to light their fuel packs without setting fire to the paper. Or yourself.

Note the concentration on the face above. ( Also the double-chin! That New Year's diet is calling!! )

The idea is to make a wish as you send them floating up into the sky. I think we all shared the same wish.

2009 has been a pretty hard year for us, what with my Mum's illness, the constant battle to keep James in education and the bloody recession doing its best to hammer us some more.

It felt to me that we were sending the old year away with the Lanterns: a good feeling!!