Category Archives: Editorials

Sid turfed out by London 2012 Olympic types?!?!

Sid, the intriguing homeless man who resides in a little shanty shack by my work, appears to have been move on by a load of London 2012 Olympic media ruffians!!!!

The Olympic torch is due to pass through Croydon on Monday the 23rd of July, 2012; Patrick Stewart will be carrying it during the final stage before it goes on to Bromley and it looks like a camera and security crew have set up a temporary base of operations in the vacant lot that Sid considers his front yard!

Two cars turned up initially and a ground crew of three people bagged up all of Sid’s rubbish.  It took him ages to make that much mess!  Have they no heart???

For all intents and purposes, it looks like Sid has been evicted and it remains to be seen whether our mysterious lodger will return to his estate or not.

Either that or they have picked Sid to be a torchbearer?  I suppose that would be a great ‘lefty’ BBC News story wouldn’t it folks?

LOCAL HOMELESS MAN CARRIES OLYMPIC FLAME!

Come back Sid, we’d all miss you if you vanished 😦

Jon Lord RIP

Jon Lord, Deep Purple’s keyboard player, has passed away.

It all began with Deep Purple for me; I listened to various tracks back in my teens and this paved the way for my obsession with Hendrix, Zeppelin and the Spice Girls.  The latter may or may not be true.

My Grandfather instilled a huge love of JS Bach into me with his classical influences and I loved how Jon Lord fused classical movements using a Lesley/Hammond organ combo into songs like ‘Child in Time’ and ‘Highway Star’.

Holy fuck, those two tracks STILL blow my mind and are regularly played at an irresponsible volume in my car!

How anyone can listen to the intro of ‘Highway Star’ and not say ‘dun dun dun dun dun!’ in time to the opening riff is beyond me!?!?!

The thing about having retro music tastes is that the artists are pretty much already dead, mad or in their twilight years, however it was still a ‘shock’ to see that Jon Lord had passed away.

I can only say that it made me a little sad because it reminded me of a much simpler time in my life and one when I was probably most creative, that said, I couldn’t hold a candle to the talents of Mr Lord if I lived several lifetimes!

Rest in Peace Jon, you absolutely legend!

Samsung Galaxy S3

I have just invested in a Samsung Galaxy S3 phone, it’s like a mini version of my Samsung 10.1 tablet!

The Google Android operating system is slick and I like how easy it is to upload video to youtube; my iPhone 3G 8mb was 4 and a half years old and it was time to put it to rest!

Very impressed with the S3 though!

The ‘Discovery’ of Higgs

CERN’s announcement today about the ‘Discovery’ of the Higgs-like particle at the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) is astounding news;  If the ‘discovery’ is proven, the existence of the elusive Higgs particle will have the same level of impact within physics as Apollo did by putting man on the Moon.

I was really humbled by the footage as the announcement went out, wizened old scientists jumping for joy as their decades old search looked to finally be over within their lifetime.

What must it be like to have an ambition like that in life?  To utterly revolutionize the way in which we perceive and consider the Universe around us?

I think it’s mind-blowing personally and an exciting step into understanding the reason for our existence…………..

…………..or, as I like to think of it, another nail in the coffin of religion.

Eric Sykes

I was sad to read the news today that Eric Sykes has passed away, aged 89.

I am a huge admirer of Eric Sykes, both as a scriptwriter for legendary British comedy acts (The Goons benefitted from his genius) and as a performer.

Seeing him perform with Spike Milligan or Tommy Cooper always has me laughing like a proper pranny let me tell you! Google the show ‘Curry and chips’ and you’ll see what I mean!

My Godfather (who met him once at the BBC) often told me the story of how Eric Sykes took time to talk to people in the audience and was a humble and genuine man for it, not to forget, very, very funny when ad-libbing.

I often flick through the TV and find myself uninterested from offerings like ‘Mock The Week’, ‘8 out of 10 Cats’ and heavens forbid, ‘Top Gear’. They are all shows that contain sarcastic and shock-tactic comedians who couldn’t hold a candle to the class and genius exhibited by someone like Eric Sykes.

Many modern comedy programmes like the above have a reputation for having a witty and spontaneous format; people that I know who have sat in the audience for said shows generally conveyed an annoyance of how ‘canned’ and scripted the shows actually were!

That’s why the passing of Eric Sykes makes me sad, it’s the end of an era?!

Rest in peace.

The Sky Is Falling!?!

There is currently a health awareness campaign advert doing the rounds in the UK at the moment, I personally heard it on the radio the other day and I mused at the time “Bet the usual scaremongering types are going to love that!”.

Lo and behold, they have!!

The advert tells the listener that they should report a cough to their doctor if it lasts more than 3 weeks; a cough lasting this length of time could be the early signs of lung cancer!

Nobody panic! Don’t panic!!!

“Yer but no but yer but no; I didn’t know that!! Ooooh! I best keep a look out for that!, how worrying?!?”.

So that’s it, all the paranoid Chicken Licken’s (also known as clucking hens) are now petrified that the sky is falling!!!

Also due to cancer, probably.