AAARGH! Christmas...

Doesn't it just creep up on you (like a mugger...)?

Anyhow, apart from the seasonal greet about "where the hell is our funding notification from the Scottish Govt?" and other such fare, I haven't got much to say (or rather I have LOTS to say, but am too angry/depressed/ranty to even begin to discuss how truly awful the current Westminster Govt is, or how they are creating poverty and social inequality so deep it will take generations to repair, or how whenever I watch the news of TV my immediate thought is "what fresh level of hell now..." Ach, you get the gist.)

Instead, here's one of the few tolerable Christmas themed songs I know.

Seasonal whatevers, folks.




40 - Love

So, I am now exactly 40 years and 1 month old.  It takes a little getting used to. A sort of "oh, holy shit, I really am that old" kind of getting used to. Not bad, just, "oh" & "holy shit". 

Of course, it comes with the requisite, "but what have I done with my life?" moments (answer: more than some, less than others *shrug*) and "what will I do with my life?" moments (see previous answer...) but I would have to confirm that becoming 40 was indeed a blow lessened by being taken to Paris by my most significant  -  indeed, affianced -  other.  I think all difficult moments in life could be improved by being taken to Paris (Parisians might want to go somewhere else, perhaps, but probably not...). Positive moments in life could also be made even more shiny and gilded by being taken to Paris. Paris, je t'aime indeed.

The photographic evidence is below, for your delectation.


Spot the Mona Lisa...

Il n'y a pas des bossus

Like Blackpool, but bigger

'But where's the inverted pyramid? Where's the inverted pyramid?'
Otherwise, well, I suppose now that I have finished studying (I am now a fully qualified "manager". Don't ask what it means, I haven't a clue...) I probably should return to this blogging mallarky. I'm sure I have things to say.  I mean, I must have, mustn't I? Hmmm...

Crap Dads

Just got off the phone with my dad. (It's his birthday as well as FD). I now feel like a drink (and nothing stronger than Vimto has passed my lips since Hogmanay...)

So, here's to all of us with crap dads.
Where's our day, eh? Eh? *sigh*

posted from Bloggeroid

Not what you usually get from a Poet Laureate

A CUT BACK, by Carol Ann Duffy


It’s no go the LitFest, it’s no go up in Lancaster,
though they’ve built an auditorium (still quite wet, the plaster)
a bar, a bookshop, office space … well, they won’t need wheelchair access.
All we want is a million quid and here’s to the Olympics.

London’s Enitharmon Press was founded in 1967,
but David Gascoyne and Kathleen Raine are writing now in heaven,
with UA Fanthorpe, John Heath-Stubbs; dead good dead poets all.
The only bloody writing now’s the writing on the wall.

It’s no go the national art, it’s no go cake with icing.
All we want are strategic cuts, it’s no go salami slicing.

It’s no go the Poetry Trust, it’s no go in East Suffolk;
Aldeburgh’s east of Stratford East. As Rooney says, oh f-fuck it –
because it’s no go First Collection Prize, it’s no go local writers.
We’ve been asked to pull the plug, the rug, by coalition shysters.

National Association of Writers in Education?
No way, NAWE, children and books, the train’s leaving the station.
It’s no go your poets in schools, it’s no go your cultures.
All we want is squeezed middles and stringent diets for vultures.

It’s no go the pamphlet, the gig in Newcastle no go.
All we want is a context for the National Portfolio.

Three little presses went to market, Flambard, Arc and Salt;
had their throats cut ear to ear and now it’s hard to talk.
They remember Thatcher’s Britain. Clegg-Cameron’s is worse.
Deathbyathousandcuts.co.uk, the least of which is verse.

It’s no go the avant-garde, it’s no go the mainstream.
All we want is a Review Group, chaired, including recommendations.

Stephen Spender thought continually of those who were truly great;
set up the Poetry Book Society with TS Eliot, genius mate.
But it’s no go two thousand strong in the Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Phone a cab for the Nobel laureates as they take their curtain call.

It’s no go, dear PBS. It’s no go, sweet poets.
Sat on your arses for fifty years and never turned a profit.
All we want are bureaucrats, the nods as good as winkers.
And if you’re strapped for cash, go fish, then try the pigging bankers.

(published in The Guardian, 9 April 2011)


 *For them that's wondering the what and why of the form, seeing as it's not what might be considered CAD's usual style, see below -  and of course, it probably has a big knowing wink to Scots Makar, Liz Lochhead's "Bagpipe Muzak" too...)

Bagpipe music

It's no go the merrygoround, it's no go the rickshaw,
All we want is a limousine and a ticket for the peepshow.
Their knickers are made of crepe-de-chine, their shoes are made of python,
Their halls are lined with tiger rugs and their walls with head of bison.

John MacDonald found a corpse, put it under the sofa,
Waited till it came to life and hit it with a poker,
Sold its eyes for souvenirs, sold its blood for whiskey,
Kept its bones for dumbbells to use when he was fifty.

It's no go the Yogi-man, it's no go Blavatsky,
All we want is a bank balance and a bit of skirt in a taxi.

Annie MacDougall went to milk, caught her foot in the heather,
Woke to hear a dance record playing of Old Vienna.
It's no go your maidenheads, it's no go your culture,
All we want is a Dunlop tire and the devil mend the puncture.

The Laird o' Phelps spent Hogmanay declaring he was sober,
Counted his feet to prove the fact and found he had one foot over.
Mrs. Carmichael had her fifth, looked at the job with repulsion,
Said to the midwife "Take it away; I'm through with overproduction."

It's no go the gossip column, it's no go the Ceilidh,
All we want is a mother's help and a sugar-stick for the baby.

Willie Murray cut his thumb, couldn't count the damage,
Took the hide of an Ayrshire cow and used it for a bandage.
His brother caught three hundred cran when the seas were lavish,
Threw the bleeders back in the sea and went upon the parish.

It's no go the Herring Board, it's no go the Bible,
All we want is a packet of fags when our hands are idle.

It's no go the picture palace, it's no go the stadium,
It's no go the country cot with a pot of pink geraniums,
It's no go the Government grants, it's no go the elections,
Sit on your arse for fifty years and hang your hat on a pension.

It's no go my honey love, it's no go my poppet;
Work your hands from day to day, the winds will blow the profit.
The glass is falling hour by hour, the glass will fall forever,
But if you break the bloody glass you won't hold up the weather.

(Louis MacNeice)

*tap tap tap*

Is this thing working?
One two. One two.

Ok


I'll be back in a bit...

posted from Bloggeroid