MonkeyVarnish

Saturday, January 08, 2005

The Boss

In all his glory
There's a new link on the right there for your convenience. It has nothing to do with Bruce Spr*ngsteen cos he's really really rubbish. It has everything to do with Jerome. It is supposed to be his blog, but instead we all use it to take the piss out of him. Nobody seems short of material.

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Not Even Near the Board

Missed!

Estimated MonkeyVarnish readership has risen by 100%!

Dan has blessed us all with the latest instalment of The Kiwi Diaries. It's like Christmas! Click here.

Tunes of the moment:

(More) Led Zeppelin
Tangerine
A lovely tune, and the most satisfactory fruit, too. Easy to peel without getting all juicy, consistently tasty when in season. Sometimes a bit pithy I spose. Not to be confused with the nectarine, which is inedible. Marv?

The Stone Roses
Ten Storey Love Song
All the "cool" people at Sixth Form liked the Stones Roses, which put me right off. I was too busy listening to Eric Clapton. Oh dear. But 15 years later, they were the soundtrack to The Shoogventure. I like this one for the lyrics, and the way the chorus sort of ebbs and flows and sounds real irregular, but in fact it isn't really. Waterfall is nice too. It has the word "brigantine" in it, which Dan explained is a type of ship.

Saturday, January 01, 2005

Loyal Subject

Example

Since I've been away I seem to have deliberately become some sort of stereotype of a grumpy old Englishman. (Or maybe I was before.) I insist on owning a large box of PG Tips teabags, and found myself boasting that the suncream I brought with me was by appointment to The Queen. So on Christmas day I got quite excited about the prospect of The Queen's speech, and made everyone try to guess what colour she would be dressed in. I think Adam won.

It was nice to get some Xmas greetings from Her Majesty, and the "everyone should try to get along" theme is obviously good. But I thought the "focus in on all the non-white kids in this choir" was very unsubtle. The really funny bit was the footage of Prince Philip being diplomatic.


A quote from Phil:
If it has got four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane, and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it

More gaffes here, as reported by the British Broadcasting Corporation.