Nelson Mandela has passed away

95 was a good innings and he outlived Thatcher. Rest in Peace.

And, I'll be honest; I was part of that generation who only first heard of him because of this great song:

Monday Toonage #4

I'm currently plowing through a doorstep of an e-book that purports to be the definitive oral history of punk so, in light of that wee morsel of literary information, for Monday's Toonage I have to plump for  'Nobody's Scared', the Subway Sect's debut single from 1978:

One of the great lost punk bands from that era. And Mr Godard and assorted friends are still doing the business 35 years on. First class!

Monday Toonage #1

Back in the day when I used to still buy cassingles:

Only got to number 52 in 1992, despite the fact that it's one of Aztec Camera's best ever songs and it was produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Elvis has left the building . . .

 . . . to grit the roads.




Hat tip to 'Clint Iguana' over at Urban 75.

Bookmarked

Too clever by half . . . but in a good way.

Reading books is the new rock and roll.

Happy Aimee Mann Day!

Breaking Stuart's heart

That sound you hear over at Big Chief Tablet's blog is the sound of a grown man sobbing. I share his pain.

(Very late in the day) conclusive proof that the 'Wanking Bankers' clip was a very funny set-up.

I guess I knew it all along. Mentioning the working class was the giveaway.

'Idiot with a Tripod' in Astoria, Queens

A fresh blanket of snow in New York overnight allows me to right a blogging wrong by posting this wonderful short film by the filmmaker Jaime Stuart on the blog.

'Man in a Blizzard' was filmed and edited in the space of few hours this past boxing day when New York got hit with that blizzard which resulted in Bloomberg's approval ratings taking a skid and, at one point, thirteen vehicles being abandoned in the road outside our apartment building.

Roger Ebert thinks it should win ". . . the Academy Award for best live-action short subject". One of the funnier trolls on the internet thinks that Roger Ebert should "see more movies". I just think it's beautiful.

That music? Yeah, I thought it was Blur, too, but it turns out that it's Trent Reznor.

UPDATE

Just realised that you really don't get the full experience of the film from my embedded YouTube link. You're better off checking the video out here over at Vimeo.

Marshmallows and bacon sandwiches

Before Santa tries to break and enter later on tonight:

Still the best Christmas flavoured article ever to appear in the pages of the Socialist Standard.

As much as I love Kirsty Pogue; Slade; Graham Parker; Greg Lake and Wizzard for their yuletide offerings, this is still the best ever Christmas song:

I couldn't find a proper video for The Waitresses's classic. Surely there's one out there somewhere?

He shinned it.

Wesley Sonck's wondergoal for Lierse S.K. against Racing Genk from a few days back.

I miss orange footballs.

Simon's Cat in Santa Claws

Whilst I try to locate my mp3 of Graham Parker's 'Christmas is for Mugs', and as recommended by Owen:

Check out more snippets at the official Simon's Cat website

Hat tip to Tami over at Facebook.

"Do you know, sir?"

Is it a scripted set up? Who knows, but it is hilarious and wonderful class anger gets an edge way in-between all the expletives . . . and the after-thoughted politeness to the interviewer.

I have a new hero:

Love of a Brunette with an acoustic guitar

'Cos I just finished watching an Ivan Passer film, and 'cos I think this is bloody wonderful.

Czech 'n' Roll

Peter Bodak versus Man City, January 1982

Don't ask me why but I just thought of this goal, and YouTube was good enough to confirm that the goal and the goalscorer weren't just a figment of my imagination.

I had totally forgotten about that red and white Coventry City away kit, though. My memory was still locked on their chocolate delight from the Wallace and Ferguson era.

Sadly, Bodak doesn't have one of the more informative wiki pages but this article which dates from 2005 fills in some of the gaps.

Look Back And Wonder

It's over twenty years since I read John Osbourne's Look Back In Anger, but have I really misremembered it this much?

That trailer is like one of those Comic Strip spoofs from the mid-eighties. I keep expecting Peter Richardson and Ade Edmondson to turn up at any moment and gurn at the camera. What with him chewing up the scenery, I'm surprised Burton isn't playing Jimmy Porter on a bare sound stage.

As the original uploader explains:

"This is the [very] American trailer for the screen adaptation of John Osbourne's groundbreaking play Look Back in Anger.

It misses the whole point of the play and the character of Jimmy Porter, but it is fascinating to watch.

And yet for all its wrongheadedness that American trailer is still infinitely better than Branagh and Thompson's tv version from the late eighties.

It turns out that the misery of the late eighties wasn't all just down to Thatcher, bad pop music and ill-designed Socialist Standard front covers.

A Peace Envoy from Polmadie

It's getting repetitive but I can't resist another YouTube clip via the good folk at Urban 75.

Absolutely hilarious and, as the uploader on YouTube points out, beware of the:

". . . dangers of running clips of people with strong Scots accents without checking what they're saying. BBC North West Tonight, 6.30pm, September 14."

Hat tip to 'Strung Out'.

Insert Tears For Fears album track title here

Curt Smith from Tears For Fears does a hilarious turn in last week's episode of Psych.

It shouldn't work but it does . . .

I read some Marx (and I liked it)

A boy band not coming to X-Factor soon.

I don't know about their politics being out of date but a Pokemon T-Shirt? 2002 was a long time ago.

File alongside this, and not to be confused with that last disastrous reunion tour by Consolidated.

Hat tip to Louis Proyect.

SubLIME

I don't know about the 'Derry Pele' nickname but, going by this brilliant individual goal against Inverness Caley Thistle yesterday, Pat McCourt does a pretty good impersonation of Socrates.

And as my man crush on Pat McCourt grows a pace, a two year old clip from an Irish football show where McCourt talks about his move from Derry City to Celtic. Nice selection of highlights from his time at Derry City are also included in the clip.

Business Growth in Conflict With the Environment

Film of a Socialist Party talk given by Glenn Morris in London on the 3rd July 2010. You can access all five parts of the talk here.