Over the last couple of years,
across Liverpool, unusual graffiti styled lettering has appeared in odd places.
It took a while for people to really notice and it’s only since last autumn
when there seemed to be more and more of it that it registered widely. The question was- what does it mean? Surely this was
some subversive political or social campaign? Under the heading `Sine Missione`
there are well known quotes by culturally historic figures such as Martin
Luther King, Bob Marley and others. These appear
in a stencil style writing reminiscent of certain types of street art but are
uniform in colour. They sit on walls or on the side of those metal
cable holders or even on the outside of pubs, exactly where you might expect to find graffiti. However is it graffiti at all?
A blog about new and old culture + photo posts + more. / Website: www.johnconnorswriter.com / Instagram: johnconnors100 / X (aka Twitter) @JohnConnors100 / Also visit my alt blog : thiswayupzinealt.blogspot.com
29/07/2016
25/07/2016
Top of the Pops 30 July 1981
Top
of the Pops 1981 currently on BBC4. Watched by Chris Arnsby
Steve
Wright: "Hello, good evening, welcome to another edition of Top of the
Pops. Among the stars tonight, Kim Wilde, Spandau Ballet, Stevie Wonder, and
this lot, Duran Duran."
Duran
Duran: Girls On Film [23]. It's the day after the big wedding of Charles
and Diana and the schedules have quickly got back to normal. At 7.25pm Top
of the Pops slots in between Bellamy's Backyard Safari and Citizen
Smith giving the discerning viewer a chance to avoid BBC2 and the Six
Fifty-five Special. "Songwriters B. A. Robertson and Chris de Burgh
perform and discuss the triumphs and failures of the music business."
Pass. On the popular channel Duran Duran do great but it's one of those boring
competent performances we've been seeing so much of recently; so there's not
much to say.
Kim
Wilde: Water On Glass [35]. Pity the poor cameraman whose job is to point
his viewfinder at some water running down a sheet of glass. All his colleagues
get to ogle gorgous-pouting-Kim-Wilde who is lit appropriately in the colour of
envy; lurid green. Sexier than Kim Wilde is a new switch on the mixing desk.
Vision Mixer Hilary West uses it to produce a very alluring wipe between shots
that breaks the picture up into tiles; phwoar check out the alpha channels on
that!
Kim Wilde `Water on Glass`: Is that the tap she's got there? |
20/07/2016
Pokémania!
Someone reportedly gave up their job so they could spend their time catching Pokémon according to one website last week. I doubt if this is actually true but even so reflects the current Pokémania happening all over the world. Who would have thought that some oddly proportioned anime creatures based on real animals, birds and insects could cause such a commotion? Pokémon were originally created in 1985 by Satoshi Tajiri and are fictional creatures rounded up by human trainers to battle each other for sport. Yep, it’s a fun franchise whose origins appear to lie in the lineage that gave us bear baiting and dog fighting! There have been animated tv shows, trading cards, video games, comics and probably sponges over the years with a seemingly never ending flow of oddly monikered colourful creatures. In terms of video games, only Mario Bros has been more successful. Now there is Pokémon Go a game that has already taken the world by storm though given how unexpected 2016 has been so far this should not surprise anybody.
19/07/2016
Looking through my 1986 Diary!
Oh my word 1986 was thirty years ago and I can
remember it like it was last week. Or can I? To put this to the test I’ve
unearthed my diary from that year - itself a relic from the days when people
had diaries. Think of them as blogs that you wrote with a pen and which had-
unless you were unlucky- one view. How did all this even start? As you do
sometimes, I drift back in time. Not literally of course, that time machine is
still in its box in the shed, but I mean in memory. Mostly this seems to be
random; it’s amazing what you do or don’t remember almost as if your mind is
filtering for you. Anyway the amount of actual tangible stuff I have from my
past is fairly limited as I appear to have followed a persistent scorched earth
policy when it comes to momentoes and the like. I will clearly never have any
valuable antiques. Yet the weird thing is that when you come across something
from the past it looks different from what you remember. For a number of years
my polling station was my old primary school. The voting booths were in the
main hall and they fair filled it up, this supposed hall. There it was with
about four polling booths, the polling clerk’s tables and it was full and I
thought `we used to get the whole school in here!` How did we do that?
17/07/2016
Ten exaggerated things we say
We all do it. We all say things that actually
make no sense at all. And here are ten of them but there are zillions more.
"They're all on the gravy
train." This
came up a lot in the recent EU referendum. People griped and moaned about “the
EU gravy train” which of course is that well known rail service transporting
gravy from Paris to Munich via Brussels. Except it isn’t! There is no such
thing as a gravy train. When have you ever seen one? You see; it does not
exist.
“I waited years for the train / bus/ taxi.” Mmm, You didn’t actually did you? You waited a while. Imagine if you had waited for years, slowly accumulating things like a portable shower and loo, fresh clothes, a foldaway bed etc. When the train /bus/ taxi finally came all of your stuff wouldn’t fit in it. You will wait many years for a gravy train though!
“I waited years for the train / bus/ taxi.” Mmm, You didn’t actually did you? You waited a while. Imagine if you had waited for years, slowly accumulating things like a portable shower and loo, fresh clothes, a foldaway bed etc. When the train /bus/ taxi finally came all of your stuff wouldn’t fit in it. You will wait many years for a gravy train though!
15/07/2016
Now You See Me 2
A
refreshing change from the superhero and special effects driven films
dominating 2016’s cinemas, this sequel about a team of magicians who use their
skills to expose corruption is just as intriguing as the first film. It teases
its characters with twists and turns and also its viewers by explaining some
but not all of the tricks we see. So for example a scene in which a character
appears to have control over the rain is then explained to the audience
watching as being a trick involving lights and large fans. Then the character
is seen to fall backwards into a puddle and all that is left is his coat. So
how did he do that? We never find out. This literal and conceptual sleight of
hand means NYSM2 maintains the momentum of it’s predecessor.
10/07/2016
Top of the Pops 23 July 1981
Top
of the Pops 1981 currently on BBC4. Watched by Chris Arnsby
Richard
Skinner: "They always say it, welcome to Top of the Pops. And tonight it's
just the same as ever. Great music tonight, starting off with a brand-new hit
for The Vapors. It's called Jimmie Jones."
The
Vapors: Jimmie Jones [44]. The Vapors (must remember to drop the U) return
with a song about the defensive tackle for the Dallas Cowboys. Or possibly the
other Jimmie Jones who played defensive end for the New York Jets. Or possibly
the other, other Jimmie Jones who was a running back for the Detroit Lions. (John- He was actually a pelican wrangler from Hartlepool)
Sheena
Easton: For Your Eyes Only [16]. "A great bit of film now for people
who like James Bond, and also have a little spot in their heart for Sheena
Easton. For the first time on British television." The dullest theme song to the dullest Roger
Moore James Bond film -myself, I always preferred Moonraker. This is
Maurice Binder's title sequence without the credits, and the end result looks
oddly like a really high budget Legs & Co dance sequence.
08/07/2016
Mouldy Old Dough
1972’s unlikely
classic hit
It’s the
oddest single you can imagine but there is something impossibly catchy about
`Mouldy Old Dough`. It takes elements that you would never think might make a
hit and somehow it works. A bouncy tune led by an old bar room piano, no lyrics
except someone growling “mouldy old dough” every so often and a group with the
unlikely moniker of Lieutenant Pigeon fronted by someone’s mum. Yet the tune
is contagiously memorable and that piano has the slightest echo on it (possibly a result of two pianists) and you
keep thinking; is this mouldy dough money or baking related? What is the song
about? Who was Lieutenant Pigeon and is
he now promoted to General Pigeon? If you've never heard it, here it is...
04/07/2016
Chips Ahoy!
If you had to name one
item of food without which the entire Western world would collapse into complete anarchy and chaos then it would have to be chips. Without chips the
community would stutter and stop. Health experts are usually right, if a little prone to
panicky outbursts, but they are wrong about chips being unhealthy. They are (as long as you don't cook them in a vat of oil) full of vitamins and
energy and they are good for you. Granted, too many chips are not good for you but that is true
of anything. Even broccoli. What is important though is what sort of chips you are served.
There are a lot of variations on the form, including soggy, dry, fat, thin or crinkled. There are oven chips, straight chips; in fact it's reckoned there are at least sixteen different varieties. Scallops
are nearly chips and would be more popular if they were called Nearly Chips. Then there's the salt
and vinegar equation. Salt? Vinegar? Both? Neither? A dilemma and a half.
01/07/2016
Top of the Pops 16 July 1981
Top
of the Pops 1981 currently on BBC4. Watched by Chris Arnsby
BBC1,
7.25pm. Bellamy's Backyard Safari has just finished and now something is about
to happen. Something wonderful.
Multi-coloured
records fly out of fog towards the camera. The words Top of the Pops flicker on
screen. Numbers flash and disappear. More words, like searchlights. Top. Of
The. Pops. A large pink tinted record flies to the centre of the screen, again
the words Top of the Pops flicker, and the record explodes. All backed by a
staccato drum beat, swooping electronic noises, and a weird ethereal voice.
I'm
not sure when Top of the Pops last used a proper title sequence. Best guess
13th June 1974. That was the last programme broadcast before a 7 week strike,
and when it returned the new format was a DJ introduction followed by the
charts backed with Whole Lotta Love. A format which persisted in one form or
another until the end of a different strike, the 1980 one by Musician's Union
members. Michael Hurll has been producer since then, and he's experimented with
different ways to start the show. There was the preview of the night's
attractions -ditched along with the doomed dual presenter format- and since
then the show has just sort of lurched onto the air with a DJ awkwardly trying
to welcome viewers to the programme over the introduction to the first record.
I don't doubt that in 1974 it seemed exiting and immediate to cut straight from
the continuity announcer to the DJ talking directly to the home audience but by
1981 it was time for a change. A good title sequence should evoke the spirit of
a programme and this fifteen second strip of film does that perfectly. It's
fast, exciting, a little bit spooky, and it's not about music or bands or
instruments; it's about the singles.
(The
new title sequence actually premièred last week -1981 relative time- for the
900th edition of Top of the Pops but that can't be shown on BBC4 because of the
presenter)
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