Archie Valparaiso

6/10. Capital, country, film song and comet.

It's ASD, I've just realised. Sunday typing, innit. Her voice grates even more than his for me, though, and even more than Priti Patel's g-droppin'.

And if you pitch Starmer's voice up, he *is* Rachel Reeves. Both have voices that present typical clinical symptoms of ADD (adenoidal strangulation disorder).

The initial advice that masking up was actually counter-productive, and that simply by washing our hands every half an hour we'd all be fine, was disastrous. Arguably even more damaging than the delay in calling for lockdown.

A great album cannot be called a truly great album until someone hates it at great length. This piece is amusing enough and not entirely wrong but the exaggerated snark soon wears thin. (Example: I don't much care for Björk myself, but "the most overrated artist of the last forty years"? Really?)

As you may have noticed, I can't even type Oa**s.

I can't express an opinion because I ignored them so completely I've never knowingly heard anything they did. I've never liked any Manchester bands - Buzzcocks, Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths, Simply Red - just no. Can't go there.

(Full disclosure: I'm a Manc.)

He was a rum 'un, our Kit, and that's a fack.

I've been reading about a kid, the son of a cobbler from a small provincial town, who got grants and scholarships to enable him to go to Cambridge, where he went on to do post-grad studies. But that was 450 years ago and the kid was Christopher Marlowe. He probably had it easier than kids do today.

'"Franco [...],” said the grief-stricken prime minister “[...], has given his life, burned day by day, hour by hour, in the fulfilment of a transcendental mission.”'

He was cremated? #SaveOurTranslators

Will the absurd but presumably effective sneaky tricks be addressed, like "Bic biro for sale. £350 o.n.o. Free gift of Bruce Springsteen ticket with every purchase"?

Something about Sir Oswald Muesli no wait it'll come give me a minute

@tomb_urges - Whenever I see someone on one of these, I like like to imagine they started out with a much larger vehicle and their journey has been riddled with mishaps. [pic of guy on a unicycle type thing]

"Among the youngest group of Vox voters, 38 per cent were men, while 20 per cent were women"

And the remaining 42 per cent identified as non-binary?

See also "at/to (the) school/church".

Right, but learning the words would take some fairly serious research and dedication, unless they just la-la-la'd it. I suppose they might have been printed in a large encyclopaedia at a library, but otherwise, it'd have to have been Searchlight or some equally vorwärts-looking publication.

I do that when my bear is itching.

It's different, strange, sad, fun - and the confidence with which it swims against the tide of the last 25 years or so by having hardly any percussion (a few bits of cajón and the odd hand clap) and so little low end it often sounds like a scratchy 1960s Mantovani recording! Grammys incoming.

No potential Reform voters will vote Labour, no matter how close their immigration policies may become. A good number of potential Labour voters, though, may feel there's no choice but to vote for the Magic Grandpa or the Mammary Mesmeriser.

Keep venting on here. Even if we don't see/like/reply to every post of yours, just remember that everyone's wishing you well. And keep reminding yourself that you always knew recovery would sometimes be a painfully slow, painful process. It may not seem like it today, but you'll get there.

I know it's verging on old-wives'-tale territory, but might not the prevailing damp have something to do with it? My gammileggitis plays up when it's been as wet as it has recently, even here. Anyway, here's hoping you get your arse back in gear soon.

Unless someone gives it a firm leftward kick up the arse very soon, this government will make Blair and Brown look like mad Corbynistas.

How many trilogies not originally conceived as such have had a good part three? Books, films, TV shows... by the time a sequel gets a sequel, the only route left to take is either tedious repetition or risible shark-jumping.

#ASongOrMovieForTypesOfCars Maybe I'm a Mazda

Great piece on a great new-to-me site. I was at a party last night with other people of a certain age, dancing somewhat laconically... until "You Sexy Thing" came on. The best commercial pop of the '70s and '80s was so well crafted it deserves as much attention and admiration as any "serious" album.

The only change I'd make to the mechanics is if they're going to cast a mother/son combo, make one of them a traitor to put strain on their loyalties, otherwise it's pointless. They tried it in the Spanish version too, with a mother and daughter as two faithfuls and equally damp-squib results.

I've just watched series 2 of the "civilians" version, which I'd missed. "Fuck! I've won 95 grand!" makes for so much better telly than charity donations, but I suppose there's no other option.

The first iteration of the story was fine. Tack on the last three minutes of the third and that's it. Done. A decent half-hour's television. But as it is, what a tedious mess.

Pretty much the only thing I can think of that I had access to in my early 20s but young people today are denied is the choice and affordability of live music. I was a washer-up living in a seedy bedsit yet I was able to go to at least half a dozen gigs a month (Nashville, Dingwalls, Marquee etc...)

Football violence. The permathreat of nuclear annihilation. British Leyland cars. Vesta curries. The Black and White Minstrel Show. The fug of blue fag smoke in the projector's beam at the cinema. Lookshreh!