besides the thames at dusk

from an occasional series of gratuitous juxtapositions ... ( part 99 )

metafilter points me to good stuff every day ... today i like this ...

http://sveidt.deviantart.com/art/How-to-Live-with-Introverts-291305760

3BT

Slowly turning at a dangerous corner in Ashdown Forest, I look down from the cab of my truck on a jay that forages on the sunlit floor amongst dull copper coloured beech leaves, and for just a second or two I am able to enjoy the underlying pink tints in his iridescent plumage.

Three people are talking loudly to their mobile phones during the journey home on a red double-decker at dusk.  Two are speaking in languages that might be from tropical Africa, and one from somewhere in Asia, like China, and being seated close to one another, each feels they must raise their voice.

A visual anomaly appears on a busy corner at Clapham Junction.  A young woman is leaving a fancy dress shop wearing a lightweight reindeer costume made from a thin soft stretchy tactile sort of fabric with a little wagging tail sewn on the butt, and somehow that wiggly tail communicates more about body form and body language than any little black dress might do.

gentlemen prefer ...

mick, from sligo, probably the best irishman that ever lived, bids me farewell at the end of the week

we speak about painkillers ... in his opinion the best is and always will be beer

which reminds me, i tell him, that i have a bottle waiting in the fridge

i am too ashamed to admit it has lain there almost a month

he says' " i expect you can hear it talking to you ?"

the fridge is five miles away from our workplace

i cup a hand behind my ear for a moment

"no, mick ! she's singing to me !""

schrodinger's old tom cat stays for the party

schrodinger's old tom cat would be delighted to engage each and every one of you in a socratic enquiry in to the possibility of there ever being an appropriate occasion for gold and imperial purple

schrodinger's old tom cat gets lost in space

schrodinger's old tom cat wants me to put him on page one of my advent calendar ... almost a certainty !

apropos de nuffinque ...

lost in translation .... excuse his french !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x71PRL3IxYs

time breaks in to a gallop ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20454757

3BT, 25th November 2012

A little flock of starlings are “grazing” on the west end of Clapham Common, a minute or two on the grass alternating with a minute or two in one then another of the big trees.  Their gentle conversations are carried on in soft sweet whistlings.  The morning sun is very low, barely grazing the rooftops and as they fly away before wheeling back towards me, so their glossy backs catch the light and turn from steely grey to shining bronze.

I download a novella from Project Gutenberg, first published in 1888 by Henry James, called the Aspern Papers.  By “editing” every line whilst I transfer it from one page format to another, I am able to read it closely.  In the first paragraph, I learn that the setting is Venice, a favourite location.  How easily he evokes the charm of an old palace by the naming of parts.  And then he makes me smile at his protagonist’s gentle folly … on every page.

The soggy leaves are breaking down in to a brown porridge along the verges and hedgerows.  I had hoped for an opportunity to gather and preserve some dry leaves for a little memorial bonfire at the solstice.  I remember sitting in the cab of the truck during a morning break last week before the storms, and watching a fat wood pigeon who was pottering amongst such dry leaves at the kerbside until a curious squirrel had approached.  The wary bird took off vertically and the downdraught from his beating wings left a clear circle, about four feet in diameter, as the leaves were blown aside.

best headline of the week so far ... Mark Kennedy sues police for 'failing to stop him falling in love'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/25/spy-mark-kennedy-sues-police

my place in the scheme of things ...

a room with a view ... chapter 99 ... those are fireflies that were his eyes !

alvi

ellen just took this picture of alvi testing his new gnashers

but what's it gonna be like when i walk down to catch the 4am bus ?

when we used to drive cars for a living, my wonderful friend joe bialik asked what i thought was the best driving record ever ? ... maybelline, maybe !

ecoutez ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RAfxiyMKAk


MaybelleneMaybellene, why can't you be true
Oh Maybellene , why can't you be true
You've started back doin' the things you used to do 

As I was motivatin' over the hill
I saw Mabellene in a Coup de Ville
A Cadillac arollin' on the open road
Nothin' will outrun my V8 Ford
The Cadillac doin' about ninety-five
She's bumper to bumper, rollin' side by side
Maybellene 

The Cadillac pulled up ahead of the Ford
The Ford got hot and wouldn't do no more
It then got cloudy and started to rain
I tooted my horn for a passin' lane
The rainwater blowin' all under my hood
I know that I was doin' my motor good
Maybellene 

Solo guitar 

Maybellene 

The motor cooled down the heat went down
And that's when I heard that highway sound
The Cadillac asittin' like a ton of lead
A hundred and ten half a mile aheadv The Cadillac lookin' like it's sittin' still
And I caught Mabellene at the top of the hill
Maybellene 

Solo guitar 

a suitably patriotic colour choice for an incognito expedition to ponty market in search of a dozen welsh cakes ...

... you could drive the effing thing right up to the effing counter in the effing market just like effing macdonalds