Does it Get Cooler Than This?

Oh My

Of course, after buying the scooter, I had to watch Quadrophenia obsessively ...

Then I got curious about what became of "Jimmy," Philip Daniels. Seems he was a major part of Eastenders at some point. I don't know why I would assume he'd be frozen in time ... but here is a little before and after:

Poor Tony

Blair didn't make it.

He has been trying to become the next president of Europe for ages. But that Iraq business will follow him to his grave. Some bloke from Belgium or something got it.

Photo by Andy Mettler

For Queen and Country

It's called Veterans Day here. It's Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom and many parts of the Commonwealth.

Harry Patch died in July at age 111. He was Britain's last World War One Veteran. So 2009 is the first year he will not be marching in the parade. We won't have that continuity. Within many of our lifetimes, the same will be true of World War Two vets.

What would Harry think of Gordon Brown's latest dustup?

For those who haven't been following, a grieving mum of a soldier killed in Afghanistan and he have been at loggerheads.

It seems that Brown writes handwritten condolence notes to the families of the fallen. When the mother of Jamie Janes, Jacqui Janes, received hers, she blanched at the 25 spelling errors -- including both her name and her son's. Brown called to apologize, a call Janes recorded and later released in which she suggested to the PM that her sons death could have been prevented if the forces were better supplied and supported.

Now, so many years into that conflict, we wonder what can be done to find "peace in our time." Many people didn't know that the visually impaired politician even wrote these notes (he lost much of his sight in a rugby accident) -- and the spelling errors prove that they are personal.

Meanwhile, mothers continue to grieve.





Photo by Jim Ross

Hammer: Another Uncovered World

As I've said before, one of the great things about being an Anglo-fan is discovering a whole amazing parallel universe -- one that speaks English! I remember Mike Starr, now a well-known TV critic and still a Peter Sellers fanatic telling me about Sellers's early films, including a classic in which he plays a prison inmate. Who knew?

Just last week I heard Madeline Smith and Valerie Leon, queens of the Hammer Films being interviewed on Radio 2. Hammer Studios was the prime B-movie factory in the 50s and 60s. It's a whole world of previously unknown (to me) shlock and the training ground for just greats at Roger Moore.

The movies weren't always top shelf, but the women [insert gesture of a stereotypical Italian chef with his fingers to his lips: "Delicious!"]

I guess I'll have to find some free YouTube and Roku time to mine this new vein.

A Thousand Days Until the London Olympics

Just worth noting.

Britannia Rules the (Air)waves.

Just got around to watching Away We Go. Of course, I thought the soundtrack was some newly discovered Nick Drake sprinkled with some Stranglers. But the original music was actually relative newcomer Alexi Murdoch, born in London, raised largely in Scotland.

Talk about a monoploy. It seems as though the British are still to music what Koreans used to be to grocers and what many people thing Jews are to banking.

Did those feet in ancient times ....

Nice article in the Times on a trailway I never knew about.

Such a surprising island. Last week, Radio 4 did a show about the geological history of Britain. Reminded me of seeing the dinosour fossils in Lyme Regis.

Look, North America is very varied too. But it's so huge. On this mini-continent, there's so much.