flook in the perth daily news march 1-15 1952

 

I apologise for falling down on my Flook duties a bit, I have been distracted by work. So, not a lot of consequence storywise is happening here but the drawing is incredible, absolutely top-notch. To think that these drawings would almost certainly just be thrown away afterwards is a bit horrible to contemplate. 

You might recall some time ago I relayed the possibility that Wally Fawkes was a bit of a pot smoker when he was at work. I think the Nelson's Column stuff might reinforce that likelihood, not necessarily because it's almost psychedelic and trippy but just the general intense concentration that some people find is aided by soft drugs. 

More in a week or so... 

i was made for these times

 

I don't know who this person is, perhaps he's AI? He seems to go to some pains to keep his identity a secret, in any case, which is his business, or the business of his creator. Anyway, because I'm sixty, white, and like (or am interested in) some things, youtube shoves this channel in my face all the time, so I finally decided to watch one. Well look he might be AI, but his opinions (as exemplified here) are as rote a collection of perceptions as anyone of his age (I am a bit concerned because he's apparently not even 60, at least 1968 is in his URL, and yet he looks like that) could possibly have on as boring a bunch of records as you could imagine someone opining on. I mean obviously when you start out to compile a list of the ten worst albums ever that a mass audience (of middle aged men) is going to respond to, you naturally draw from a small pool of 60s-70s rock stars, each of whom have some extreme or other in their catalogue. So he goes in on Loaded (making the typically stupid observation that, had it been a Doug Yule solo album it might have been ok - so - fuckwit - it's actually an ok album but it's just in the wrong sleeve? That seriously makes it amongst the ten worst albums ever??!), Two Virgins, Landing on Water (admittedly I can't comment, never heard it) Down in the Groove (ditto) Cut the Crap (see what I mean about predictable as?!) Mardi Gras (Creedence, I have to admit I now want to hear that), Leather Jackets (an Elton John album) and three others, I don't remember. Oh a Van Morrison album of recent vintage. 

I guess in the present day you can always find some rarified piece of crap that will tell you anything you want to know, or don't. It's all geared to some of us. This sucked, but I watched it (distractedly) and just as was the case with the fool I caught on threads yesterday posting 'ten random songs' which just happened to all be by white men, bar one, it doesn't matter to the algorithm whether I hated it or loved it, point was I engaged with it, and so I will be getting more soon. Fuck my luck!

I wouldn't start to try a worst albums list, not because it's subjective, though that's reason enough. Frankly I just know the worst album is not the low point in a great musician's career, it's the best album by a terrible artist. Dark Side of the Moon, say, or something like that. Although most major artists aren't that terrible, even if they're bland - they still, by definition, have something to keep people interested. I can't stand Floyd or Mac but I know they, too, have the juice for many-most people at least in my age/ethnicity bracket. It's not a terrible situation. 

Anyway I hate this fake guy, I hate his delivery, I hate him constantly reading shit off to the side and I don't ever want to see his head again or hear his English voice. 

bearable sunday

 

It has been a bearable Sunday. Mainly doing a lot of writing for a book chapter I have had all the materials sitting around for for yonks now, but I haven't had the time/motivation to get it done, but now I've started it's coming together pretty nicely really all things considered. I have to write 4000 words and I have written over 2000. That's ok isn't it. It's mainly quality narrative, it's not just mapping out crap, though some is mapping out. Also, I took Perry to get some snacks and dinner food at the pet shop and have a wash in the wash place, and I combed quite a bit of matted junk off his leg (one leg is fine now, one still has a bit of stuff on it, he only has so much tolerance for the tugging). When we were in the pet shop there was a child at the counter with two rats. They seemed nice enough but I didn't know how Perry would feel if he saw them. Or what he would do. Anyway the woman at the counter - who knew Perry's name, I don't know how - advised the child to leave for a short time so I could make purchases. 

Yesterday we went to see Nirvanna the band the show the movie (I think that's what it's called) which was actually pretty impressive and funny. I would like to go to Canada someday. I wonder if there will still be much of a planet left when Donald Trump dies or if we are all going to die together, with him. At least he would then be dead but I think I've earned the pleasure of outliving that moving lump of shit. 

helmi on a pillow

Imagine being so small (and sad) that you can sleep on half a pillow at an awkward angle (I know it doesn't look like she's sleeping but she was a split-second before this picture was taken - story of my and every photographer's life, more or less, you take the picture just too late). 
 

back to d. p. nelthorpe

 

Since I can't sleep (again) I am showing you the sum total of what I know about D. P. Nelthorpe aside from the previously mentioned exhibition. There is the above, which was in a book the state library has of D. P. Nelthorpe's, called, yes, The Island of Triska. And there is the book itself, which is copiously illustrated as per below. 

Now I will try to go to sleep, again. 
 

listening to side 1 of born again on the bus this afternoon

It is odd in hindsight that I was very aware of Randy Newman's Born Again at the age of 14. It has always been a favourite of mine. I looked it up on wikipedia and the story seems to be that not many people liked it when it came out. I guess it was RN's first album after he had a hit in his own right (with 'Short People') but of course he had had other hits previously but covered by other people. 

I had a little listen. I think that really the drumming on 'It's Money That I Love' doesn't work, but it's the same drummer on 'The Story of a Rock 'n' Roll Band' and that drumming is amazing, especially all the toms after the bit about calling ELO 'The Renegades'. That song btw is still hilarious almost 50 years later.

Perhaps it's the sequencing that people didn't like, or someone should have put all the 'dark' songs on one side and the 'funny' ones on the other, that might have worked, whether they were labelled as such or not. I mean 'Pretty Boy' is such a great track in itself and would undoubtedly go on the 'dark' side though I suppose it might have flummoxed a few people at the time because its narrator is, I guess, homophobic and this was a time when that was cool. 'Ghosts' goes on the dark side too. 

I remember in 1979 or 80, whenever I heard the album (it came out in late '79) talking with a friend about the song 'Mr Sheep' and how weird it was (it really isn't) but I think possibly what we were reacting to was the unreliable narrator who is a prick, then starts to be conciliatory, then becomes a prick again. These days I really like that but then it possibly confounded me. 

'They Just Got Married' possibly troubled me as well because while it is kind of resolved, it seems to portend a terrible outcome, but it really doesn't - the first wife dies and the second one seems a bad choice but she is also very wealthy, so the second marriage might be (in the conventional way of thinking) a bad choice but it's also one that will at least end up with everyone being rich. I guess there's a kind of tossed-off feel to this too, which is not problematic for me now but might once have been, for me and everyone else. 

Anyway, it's still my favourite RN album, I will listen to it again soon (I had it playing on spotifuck while I was in the supermarket and it just cut off at the end of side one, I don't know why but it was ok as I had to go and stand at the checkout while two ladies who both worked for Woolworths one of whom was buying stuff but had some discount coupons, fiddled over the coupons for an excessively long time which I decided to be nice about because a smile costs nothing). 

not sleeping

Whatever I'm doing (trying to do some admin, trying to write a chapter, cutting Nancy's claws, emptying the dishwasher) I'm definitely not doing what I want to be doing, which is sleeping. It's 2am and I went to bed 3 and a half hours ago and got up 2 hours ago because it wasn't working. 

I can't stand sleeping, but at the same time I know it has to be done. It's a sort of maintenance thing, isn't it, like I can't stand washing my hair, but I do it every day (I just do ok?). 

So, what do you know about D. P. Nelthorpe? This caught my eye in one of those taggs. I'm interested. 

Alright I'm going to go to bed again and try to sleep properly this time.