New Crisp Flavour Proposal

Crisps are available in many flavours.
Beyond the obvious Cheese & Onion, Salt & Vinegar, Prawn Cocktail and Smokey Bacon, such delicacies as Tomato Ketchup, Worcester Sauce and Roast Ox are available.

I think there is one important flavour missing.

How do people absolve their guilt when tucking into a 10oz Steak and Chips?  A side Salad
What occupies about 80% of shop bought sandwich filling? Salad
Why do people go in such high numbers to a Harvester? Free Salad

Can you see the link?

Salad Flavour Crisps

The guilt free flavours of lettuce, tomato & cucumber whilst consuming deep-fried potato snacks

Why is my brain full of this rubbish?

A recent conversation reminded me of the old playground card game Top Trumps

Brilliant game - used to have loads (Cars, Bikes, Military Jets, Fire Engines) but the sets I had most of were the football ones.

The conversation with my wife turned to all things Football Top Trumps, whereupon she was informed that:
- Kenny Daglish had the most international goals (18, only equalled by Don Givens)
- Brian Flynn was 5' 2" (in a Wales shirt), but in another pack has was 5' 3 and a half (in Leeds colours)
- John Cheidoze had only played 16 games
- Charlie George is in one pack as a Derby player, and another as a Southampton player (but the picture is the same)
- Allan Clarke is the best for League Goals as he has 201

and a whole load of other particularly useless information from the Football Top Trumps of 1978-1980.

Why do I still know this stuff?
Will it ever leave my brain?

There must come a point where no other stuff can fit in the grey matter, and when asked a question, I will reply with the 1981 Ipswich Town team (Cooper, Burley, Mills, Thijsen, Osman, Butcher, Wark, Muhren, Mariner, Brazil, Gates)

Two great sources of Football Top Trump (and other Football cards) information

www.footballtoptrumps.co.uk

Nigel's Webspace - Galleries of English Football Cards 1965/66 - 1979/80

I've wasted HOURS trawling through these two sites, and generally wallowing in nostalgia

Re-make, Re-model

What is it with film & TV?  There seems to be, and has been for sometime, an awful lot (and some are awful) of re-makes of past offerings.

TV series Survivors from 1975 - re-imagined for the 21st Century
An attempt to revive Minder (starring Shane Richie)
Ealing Comedy 'The Ladykillers' remade by Hollywood starring Tom Hanks
Fame
Get Carter
The Italian Job
Rollerball

and the list goes on (Wikipedia - List of Film Remakes)

and now in 2011, two of the first major films of the year so far are: True Grit (first made 1969) and Brighton Rock (first made 1947)

Have TV & Film writers run out of ideas?
Are TV & Film commissioners unprepared to invest time & money in new ideas and happy to just go for the tried & tested of the past?
Can we look forward to a re-imagining of It Ain't Half Hot Mum in the next couple of years?
Will novelists soon be staring at blank manuscripts awaiting inspiration, and then decide to just copy Moby Dick, but update the references, setting & dialogue to give the "new" novel a 21st Century feeling?

What is a Guilty Pleasure?

Guilty Pleasure is defined as: Something that you shouldn't like, but like anyway.

In reference to music, I believe it comes from Sean Rowley's regular club nights, and was originally a celebration of those great, sometimes borderline-naff, but generally forgotten songs (eg Starlight Vocal Band: Afternoon Delight, Brian Protheroe: Pinball, 10cc: The Things We Do For Love, Andrew Gold - Never Let Her Slip Away)

The Guilty Pleasure "franchise" has since expanded to include TV, Film, Books, indeed any form of media/entertainment/sport (or so it seems).

But, with this expansion appears to come mis-understanding of what it actually is.

Now it just seems to be an excuse to celebrate the extremely naff ("I listens to The Nolans - it's my Guilty Pleasure", "I watch 'Terry & June' - it's my Guilty Pleasure").

There is no such thing as a Guilty Pleasure, unless you are really worried about what others think of you so you have to a reason/excuse for listening to or watching what you enjoy.
A good song is a good song, a good film is a good film, good TV is good TV - there is no need to describe it as a Guilty Pleasure to justify your actions - if you like something, enjoy it.

Personally, I wouldn't usually listen to The Carpenters, but there is this one track ('Goodbye To Love') which has just about the greatest guitar solo in it.  Is it a Guilty Pleasure, or is it just a good song which should be recognised and celebrated as such?

Whos Next

Listened to this again yesterday - bloody good it is too.
Any album that starts with this:
Baba O'Reilly

and ends with this:
Won't Get Fooled Again

can't be that bad.  And the bits in-between are pretty good too

Brian Eno Cover Version Surprise

On another site which I regularly frequent (Word Magazine) a discussion took place regarding Bands/Artists that had never recorded a cover version.

With a great deal of confidence I posted the suggestion Brian Eno, who I believed had never done such a thing.

My suggestion was supported by The Covers Project which informed that: "No, Mr Eno has never recorded someone elses stuff"

But - I was wrong.  Brian Eno has recorded a cover version.  It was 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' and was released as a single in 1975

Having only recently become "Eno Aware" (I bought the first 4 albums in July last year), I don't think this would sound out of place on 'Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy'

Joke Of The Moment

There are only 10 types of people in this world - those that understand the binary system and those that don't