Gabriela Cilmi revived this song for me, but the Martha and the Muffins’ original has the edge, despite featuring a sax solo.
I think this might be the next song I do a badly-sung acoustic cover of on YouTube.
La Flaca has 32,500 views now… and apparently being told “tio eres el puto crak” is a good thing in Spain. Those crazy iberians…
All seems well enough down in Southern California, round Downey way that is… One of these photos is Atticus exercising his remarkable rehabilitation skills on Martin who’s looking very well indeed despite his recent surgery. The other is the house that M & S will be moving in to in a month or two.
Flickr’s got the hiccups today, so the photos might not display right just yet…
In other news, I got my laptop back from the repair place with a hefty bill for a new fan. Windows was nagging me to activate it again despite it being genuine paid for software and giving me grief from all angles. T’was the final straw. Am presently installing Ubuntu, Heptatic Hedgehog or somesuch. Seems to be going smoothly enough.
Gave the Lente Tapatio peeps the heads up today on upcoming visits. One of these days I shall plan some kind of itinerary for next week’s guadalajaraing. Can’t wait…
…And I took a few snaps… This is going to be FUN 😀
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If you’re interested in one, it fits on the end of most DSLR lenses and I may manage some kind of review soon. Here’s the Amazon link in the interim.
…said Zebedee. Playing around with 2 second exposures at dusk in a playground in Oakland.
I think it’s Central, anyway…
César honoured me with an artist’s digital rendition of what it might be like if Central Avenue was an infinite tree-lined highway. And if the speed limit was higher than 25mph. Check it out in the comments for this post. Best viewed on an empty stomach…
It reminds me of this old internet chestnut.
Hippies too sell their wares at Alameda’s Antique Market at the Air Strip on the first Sunday of every month.
I nudged Josh and Liz in the direction of kittywigs the other day. Josh just alerted me to this, arguably better, site, in an email entitled “To Hell with kittywigs”. You’ll visit for the photos of cats dressed up, but you’ll stay for the brilliant Engrish:
It is spring new work! They are frog transformation goods!
Do you also attach to a cat and do hair? It is the costume play of a masterpiece “Anne of Green Gables”!
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here. This is the hat and shawl for disguising oneself.
You’ll probably have to wash them when they get dirty though in coleslaw.
The problem with not posting for a while is that it builds a certain level of expectation that the next post will be somehow life-affirming and brilliant. But there comes a time when you just have to bite the bullet and shove something up so that rumours of the blog’s demise don’t get too out of hand. Consider this preamble a gentle invitation to lower your expectations, dear reader.
Two items jostle for the title “News of the Fortnight” round our way:
Sita is handing in her first draft of her dissertation today. It’s sociomological dynamite. No, it’s more alliterative than that. It’s Social Science Semtex. It’s going to change the way people enjoy Mexican beverages both nationally and internationally. And then some. It has something for everyone and shall be available from all good university libraries very soon. Seriously, in my capacity as someone with a 2:1 from the University of Wales’ Hispanic Studies dept., let me assure you it’s an entertaining and academically thorough addition to the canon and would make the perfect late Spring gift. If you’re reading, Sita, you can use that on the cover. Pepper it with any of the following too: “five + years in the making” “tour-de-force” “you’ll never look at tequila the same way again” “Contains the unedited ¡Mary Poppins! ¡Mary Poppins! ¡Mary Poppins! anecdote…” “A sociological treasure you’ll keep coming back to…” & “I even read the foot-notes”
Can’t believe we’re this close to finishing… and I couldn’t be prouder of young Sita.
Big news #2: Return to Guanatos… This time it’s personal.
I’ve spent enough hours working in front of LCD screens to warrant a trip back to Guadalajara to catch up with my good friends who refuse to buy land line phones so I can ring them… I’ll be there from the 20th to 26th of this month and, frankly, can’t wait. I’ve had requests for “smuggled goods” and “weapons” in reponse to the question, “does anyone want me to bring anything down for them from gringolandia”. As of yet no one has asked for gringas, which is the traditional reply. But it’s probably only a question of time. So get your orders in now to save a few bucks and playing the Mexican postal lottery. Soonish I’ll post some kind of itinerary, but I think it’s safe to say Tuesday: La Fuente. 6pm to closing…
And now once again, back to matters more prosaic.
If you have a blog, I’ve found out you are contractually obliged to mention Vampire Weekend. Turns out I’m not the first person to notice the Vampire Weekend / Ski Sunday similarity, but I might just be the first to post videos of both songs for you to draw your own conclusions. Left: Vampire Weekend M79, Right: Ski Sunday (Bach goes Pop)
Can’t get enough of it. Thanks to another ongoing, but separate investigation I’ve got the theme to 80s/90s nonsense-fest, LoveJoy ringing round my synapses too. That glissando electronic bit gets me every time…
Newquay Steam Cider
Bert sent me a picture of our tipple of choice that he saved from 1993. It was one of the few vegan/vegetarian ciders out there and lethal at 8+% alcohol. I wish they still made it. Another thing that brought back memories of student life is a repository of Fruit Machine games you can download & play on your PC. Snakes and Ladders/ Andy Capp / Road Hog are the best. Anyone know if trivia games are available somewhere too?
Doc the big dog is with us for another 24 hours since Jerrod’s stuck wherever it was he went. Doc’s been pretty good on the whole though he’s a bit possessive of his food, but generally is a calming influence on our hyperactive little mutt. They certainly love their play dates at the dog park, and the other day it was actually nice to watch the sunset while they did their canine stuff. Here’s a picture…
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Mexico 501’s published another excerpt from my Moving to Mexico post along with other ex-pats, and is a nice read if you’re into that kind of thing. Still not sure why it’s called Mexico 501… Either it’s a directory enquiries reference or an invitation to a long darts game.
And that’ll be all for now. Though I’ve slacked off on this blog, I’ve managed a photo every day or so at me photoblog. So you can always check over there if this page offers slim pickings. Cheers!
And Jesse, let us know if you do ever get to place WAFQ or QFQQ or whatever it was in Scrabble. With a picture or screen grab please. And a photo of your opponent’s face as all hope drains from it. Ta 😀
The view from Alameda’s dog park at sunset almost makes up for having to follow them round with a plastic bag…
