Ian Burdon

Is it just me or does this season's mRNA COVID vaccination pack a punch?

I rather enjoyed Prog-Rock Britannia too. Not saying it was 'accurate' but just enjoyable.

many things previously unimaginable are considered normal in Whitley Bay

Reminiscent of what a lecturer in Tax law used to wear 30 years ago...

El Ministerio del Tempo

Narrator voice over: It wasn't stopped.

my 16th birthday

yeah, that snippet has made it across the pond. And I have family and friends over your way who keep me informed.

and I guess they get their pay and health insurance.

as far as I can see, at a Federal level at least, you haven't had a goverment since January.

Five years ago, I wrote something to the effect that just as Sgt Pepper shaped the latter half of the 60s, Abbey Road ought to have shaped the early 70s but didn't. I've decided that was wrong because Dark Side of the Moon is basically a Beatles album.

It's a strange day when I find myself agreeing with Simon Jenkins. Stopped clocks, etc...

I saw the decent reviews for the film and thought I'd give it a go. I thought it was shite.

Salad Cream
Superman (2025)
Imagine

I saw them live in 1980-ish and think they played at least some of the 2nd album. Does that count?

Photo of paragraph in Pynchon's 'Shadow Ticket's.

I get irritated by journalists writing short, single-sentence paragraphs. I don't mind when Thomas Pynchon does it though ...

Theatre programme for War Horse before the show

I enjoyed that

I used to translate the songs of Georges Brassens for my own amusement. Subjunctive everywhere.

Hmmm. My instinct would be '...were one to believe...'

I think 'if' is redundant (because it is iimplicit in the subjunctive voice in this case).

based on my tax returns - as a pensioner! - I know that I would have paid £98 less tax in 2023/24 had I lived south of the border. Not huge but not completely de minimis either

One of my humble self-published efforts was pirated but is not included in the claim. Zero I can do about it and no redress. WTF is this about the work must be registered with the US copyright office? Leaves everyone relying on international norms swinging in the wind. A garbage settlement

YouTube video by Paul Walker 8 The Walk of Life - Charles Mann

I like this Louisiana bar band version though (first heard on Andy Kershaw's show I think)

youtu.be/eZOvIga4aLY

hope you're both having a great time.

I do not particularly like modern DC films and generally avoid them. On the basis of a video by @damiengwalter.com I watched Joker: Folie a Deux. It is excellent in every respect.

Annoyingly, we were there yesterday.

Street poster advertising a previous rapture. Taken Barbados, January 2012. Contax 137MA and expired slide film.

Advertising a previous Rapture

Right then, I have a couple of weeks to decide between surgery or radiotherapy. Not an easy calculation: both ought to work, both have consequences.

#prostate #prostatecancer

Emerson Pond and Palmer

Great news and reassuring - I was caught early (stage T2C) and am about to decide on treatment. The big worry, of course, is 'what if it comes back' but current progress gives hope that won't be a problem.

Does anyone still read the Guardian?

It has never been the same since Araucaria died.