Futtocks

I just went through my collection and realised I don't have that album after all, so I'll be getting it this afternoon.

The Monkees are releasing a new album this year!

The Day that Dally Messenger nearly signed for Celtic. And I don't mean Dewsbury Celtic, either.

'Tammy & the T-Rex'. A scientist implants the brain of Michael, a murdered high school student, into an animatronic Tyrannosaurus. He takes vengeance on his high school tormentors and is reunited with his sweetheart Tammy. In the end, Michael's brain is removed from the robot lizard and, now just sitting in a jar. It is, as far as I can tell, played for laughs. Not many laughs, mind. There is also some magnificently bad SFX, especially when the T-Rex uses a phone box. Tammy is played by Denise Richards, who has actually been in some reasonably good films, including the funny and underrated 'Drop Dead Gorgeous'. I think, if you mentioned 'Tammy & the T-Rex' to her now, she'd start crying uncontrollably. So if you meet her, be kind.

Strap yourselves in for possibly the most overwrought performance ever!

That's impressive!

I spotted the Coltrane one (issue #2) in Sainsbury's yesterday. As I have both the first two albums already, I'm still waiting before I buy. Not 100% sure I'll get the Billie Holiday one, but the Charlie Parker and Dave Brubeck issues are very tempting.

Here at the Clawphin © skunkworks, progress never stands still. Only yesterday, one of our team crossbred a sense of deja vu with a dolphin.

Long before Peter Jackson, back in the fabled Eighties, there was a feature film of 'The Hobbit'. No, not that one. Or the other one you might be thinking of. This was the USSR's attempt and it is, at least, shorter than the Kiwi bloatmeister's trilogy. Provided with what I suspect are not entirely serious translations in subtitle form, here is "The Hobbitski". Some swearing.

Actually, Scotland is Berwick-upon-Tweed North and England is Berwick-upon-Tweed South.

The bass player is Kim Gardner, who also played (with Ron) in The Creation, before Kim became the middle name in Ashton, Gardner & Dyke.

To mark the death of Frank Finlay, I was watching 'The Deadly Bees' (1966). Early on in the film, you see a performance by a band called The Birds (not Byrds). Who's that familiar figure playing a pretty funky-looking guitar? Just Ronnie Wood!

A sort of Spanish surf'n'turf, eh?

Here's one for Paul Kantner.

John Coltrane next, then Billie Holiday. While I think partworks in general are for mugs, even the full price issues (from #3 onwards) are well priced for the 180g market. And the extras you get if you subscribe seem quite decent: https://www.deagostini.com/uk/collections/jazz-vinyl/ Plus a £50 discount on a Pro-Ject USB turntable.

LFD as well. Owners are reluctant to part with these brands, so the prices stay high.

I saw the TV advert, but haven't been to a newsagent that carries DeAgostino partworks yet. I think I know a place that does, so I'll have a look when issue 2 comes out. I already own 'Kind of Blue'. Issue 2 is at a higher price, yes, but still competitive if the quality and condition is good. Where did you get your copy?

...and here's another, shorter, video on the subject.

McDonald Bailey's first and last Rugby League match. At the time, he was joint holder (with Jesse Owens) of the world record for the 100 metres.

Scottish tennis players are in four finals at the Australian Open! Current tally - won 2, lost 1. Andy Murray is the last to play, tomorrow morning.

Good aftersales care, good electronics, good company, even if they did carry on using DIN sockets long after everyone else had gone RCA. Any upgrades, or was it just a straight refurb?

Proper glossy Eighties rock. Jean Beauvoir (The Plasmatics and countless other bands) plus, oddly. the guy who played keyboards on Nena's '99 Red Balloons'. And sundry other herberts with less notable CVs.

Slow roast silverside of beef tonight. Cheapest beef joint in the supermarket. I seasoned it with salt & pepper, then slowly brought the internal temperature up to about 50-55 degrees centigrade (oven set to about 90-100 degrees) and held it there for an hour or two. The cooking time was about 4 hours in total. This was all a bit seat-of-the-pants, as I don't have specialist equipment and my electric oven cycles off and on, but close is pretty much good enough, as long as you have a thermometer that keeps you aware of what's going on in there (most ovens' dials are a bit inaccurate). A joint of meat cooked this way releases virtually no juices, so if you want gravy, you'll have to make it from other sources/sauces (see what I did there?). A fair amount of juice comes out when you carve it, though. Deep red inside, but tender. I also took a couple of peeled whole shallots, oiled them and put them in the roasting pan underneath the joint (which was on a rack), to catch what little juice was released. After the full cooking time, they kept their structure but were very tasty. Next time, I think I'll cut them in half and see how they come out. Then, I seared the meat in a hot pan with salted butter and a couple of thyme sprigs. It was served up with the shallots, mashed potatoes and peas. On the side, horseradish. In the mouth, delish! And, of course, I bought enough meat for coldcuts in sandwiches tomorrow!

'The Last Waltz' could have been better, but Scorsese had to continually kill the momentum with badly-lit, coked-up band reminiscences.