A thousand hairy savages
Sitting down to lunch.
Gobble gobble glup glup
Munch munch munch.
I happen to like that poem very much much much, and it is served up as an introduction to the Goon Show, a serial radio play in which Spike Milligan, who wrote that inspiring poem, starred along with Peter Sellers and Harry Seacombe. I hesitate to suggest one should actually listen to them on mass, without accepting that you are first entering an alternate universe. Most astonishing:
If you do want more, there is a lovely site I stumbled upon called My Old Radio that seems to have many episodes, including the classic:
.
I am a big fan of audio, partly because my dyslexic brain makes a stew of letters and numbers, and possibly because I am so, um, patient. We often listened to radio drama at the cottage when we could find it, and the Shadow and Green Hornet were childhood treats. That was how I first experienced Douglas Adams and the Hitchhikers Guide, and I still think it was the best version by far. What Hollywood has done to good books would be an endless post, and a dreadful rant, best left to the imagination. [Or saved for a rainy day, ed.] And what better medium than radio for a play that has a book in starring role?
There is something special about listening and filling in all the spaces oneself. [You were writing about humour, get back to it, ed.] Which brings me back to humour. I think some of the odder but awesome British comedies, like Red Dwarf, are much more explicable when you consider their radio roots, but one cannot argue with the appeal of video:
Rowan Atkinson grew out of this, and his eponymous series Black Adder is bizarre, intellectual, funny and serious all at once. The episode in which Black Adder and Baldrick burn the only copy of Johnson’s dictionary is hysterical, highlighted by the speech Black Adder gives using words that were not included in that dictionary in reality:
And then their attempt to re-write it:
Black Adder makes more sense if you start from the beginning … a true enough statement in many situations, but the beginning is so hard to determine for most things human.
This began with the goons from the Goon Show, and so it will end. It is sad to think that Peter Sellers had such a hard time being happy, when he brought such happiness to so many. He could make so many voices that he apparently lost his own. Life is strange, especially when you fail to exercise will power, which is what I took from the story of his unfortunate personal life.
But his humour lives on, and I will leave it to Spike Milligan, one of his partners in crime when they created the Goon Show, to tell you to “Have a Nice Day”:
A big fan of audio here as well. With audio, as with books, the mind can fill in the details with far more delicious detail than any ready made video. Video is lazy!
My single favorite, by far, is a recording from my childhood of Lionel Barrymore telling the story of Rip Van Winkle. I still have the scratchy old record, and some (many) years back I made a cassette recording off of the record. But being fairly certain that both of those will turn to dust someday I was overjoyed today to find it on the internet.
It doesn’t want to link directly, but from the linked page, go part way down, on the left. The proper links are the ones below the picture of the record cover. Enjoy.
http://www.kiddierecords.com/mgac/index_2.htm
And sure enough, someone has put it on youtube as well, though the audio is a bit subpar. The record in the video is the one that I treasure, and looks to be in about the same condition as mine.
postulating with myself.
像一個娘養的石頭砸死
nice fire here. gonna work some zzzzssssss in eventually.
sCarleT beGonyays.
help on the way,
mean mr. mustard.
still dealing with some stuff. thought i’d post this link though because there is a Haiku contest at the end. not my medium, but i do believe that there are several poets hanging about the place.
nice tunes 44. i’ll be back later.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/chases-twitter-gambit-devolves-into-all-time-pr-fiasco-20131115
Some good humor in this morning read.
Stupid Things Finance People Say
And…Good Morning!
fire going with my windows open ..aka camping in the living room.
for da woodpecker…as we ponder and wander.
kinda/sorta. possibly an old crush.
bits of Stevie.
yeah.
http://www.golemxiv.co.uk/2013/11/the-new-world-order-part-1-the-destruction-of-the-nation/
Saw this in my web travels yesterday. Fits a lot of scenarios…
and now…a tune
Update on the miners, in haiku…
much fun days of yore
rollercoaster screaming fire
now still like the night
haiku ain’t my thing
skills are lacking obvious
strict format ouch
When in doubt, some Dylan
nice one, there is a local musician here that plays guitar and harmonica and does the most incredible Dylan renditions. hi all (insert beating heart).