Futtocks

Just been watching a bit of Kanye West at Glastonbury. If his act is actually some kind of vicious satire on the music industry, then he is a towering comedic genius. If that was a serious attempt at a gig, then I think the poor little chap needs professional help. I'd rather watch Oasis, and that's swearing.

Well, he was Exterminatey at first, then ZZZZZZTTTTey a bit later...

Bhel Puri again tonight, only this time I remembered to get the potatoes done (new potatoes, boiled/steamed and chopped into half-inch cubes, or near enough). So damn good, and once you've done the spuds, there's no other cooking needed.

...with a funnel!

Australia have just dumped Brazil out of the Women's World Cup. Their Ashes tourists are favourites in the Cricket... ...and the Kangaroos will spend the post-Grand Final months of the year doing, well, nothing except stew on their ANZAC battering.

Two potty-mouthed Soul legends... NSFW language.

Kung Fu movies and Funk in one wonderfully overwrought Philly package.

Back from the 2nd-hand shop, with... Jimmy Webb - Words and Music Los Lobos - And a Time to dance Stevie Wonder - Journey through the secret Life of Plants The Chambers Brothers - Unbonded The Philadelphia All-Stars - Let's clean up the Ghetto

If you missed it, the brand new series of 'The Clangers' went out earlier this week, with narration by Michael Palin. Available on iPlayer.

In the Women's World Cup, the late Kirsty McColl's score prediction is currently spot on.

I just identified a TV series I remember watching as a nipper. The theme tune was what clinched it. Watching an episode on YouTube, the acting is truly wooden and irritatingly stilted, but I had more than a bit of a crush on Georgia Slowe (centre of picture) at the time.

Just the weather today for defrosting the freezer. I can now see the back of it for the first time in about 2 years. There's something satisfying about removing a giant chunk of ice when it comes loose.

My heart bleeds for them... yeah, right!

The last pre-recorded segments of the previous presenters' Top Gear will be broadcast first - in other words, the material for the three final episodes that were pulled following SteakGate.

I had an Ortofon OM (can't recall the model number), followed by a Goldring and a Grado. Despite taking plenty of time/care on installation, I always had the sneaking suspicion that I hadn't done the setup exactly as right as it could be. With the Rega's preset mounting system for their own tonearms, it takes a lot of the neuroses out of cartridge adjustment. Bolt it in, set the VTF and tracking, then play music.

Which Rega did you have? I currently have an Exact 2, and as well as sounding pretty good, I appreciate the fuss-free 3-point mounting.

A 2M? Ooh, very nice!

Repeated this Saturday at 5:45pm, again on ITV4.

'Fastest' on ITV4 right now, is a documentary about Valentino Rossi, narrated by Ewan McGregor, and is brilliant! Quite emotional to see Marco Simoncelli again.

Just finished editing metadata and comparing duplicate files for quality, correct filenames etc. of the venerable proto-Goodies radio show I'm sorry, I'll read that again. That's 99 episodes in all. My eyes and typing fingers are knackered.

He had a Radio 4 show a year or so ago. I don't get him at all. He just seems stilted and awkward and not funny (to me at least).

It was too hot/humid to cook today, so I made Bhel Puri instead. Well, almost. I forgot the potatoes until it was a bit too late, so omitted them. The spiced puffed rice, sev (dry noodles), groundnuts, raw onions, tamarind sauce and coriander/chilli paste were all present. Delicious! Just enough chilli heat to balance the sweetness. I also included some creamed coconut in the coriander sauce, just to see if it worked. It did, and will be used next time I make this dish. The rice/sev/nuts mix can be found at many supermarkets, and is nice enough as a dry snack. After looking around unsuccessfully for a bit, I found the tamarind sauce at Waitrose, as part of Anjum Anand's Spice Tailor range. The green sauce was made by putting coriander (leaves and stalks), a green chilli, a bit of creamed coconut and a squeeze of lemon juice into a blender and whizzing it for a few seconds.

I've only watched it all the way through once and, apart from the famous chase, the pacing of the film is pretty slow.

Agent Double 007, aka OK Connery, aka Operation Kid Brother. Released in 1967, despite protests from the parole board. Yes, this is a Bond ripoff. And Connery's in it. Well, Neil Connery. That's Sean's little brother. No, really! Bernard 'M' Lee and Lois 'Moneypenny' Maxwell also appear, but their characters are called Commander Cunningham and Miss Maxwell (original!). Neil looks a bit like his brother. Only a bit, but with a beard and a dubbed-on American accent, although he's supposed to be a Brit. His character is called - wait for it - Neil Connery! And there are references to his secret agent brother, which makes no sense when you think about it for oooh 3 picoseconds. Neil's character is a top-notch plastic surgeon, lipreader, archer and hypnotist... oddly enough, the exact bizarre skillset (no more and no less) required to carry out this humungous farting rectum of a mission. There's also a Netto Rosa Klebb and a few other genre clichés that obviously didn't quite trip the plagiarism alert. But nothing too expensive-looking. The plot makes even the worst Roger Moore-era turkeys look coherent. The SPECTRE equivalent, THANATOS, use various preposterous methods to steal the wherewithal to build a machine that will stop all machines. This doesn't stop the machine that stops the machines, by the way. That would make far too much sense. Ho hum, anyway... the Bad Guy (who played Emilio Largo in 'Thunderball') swans about in various gold lamé muu-muus and fetish outfits, groping his skimpily-dressed henchbabes. Chief babe is Daniela Bianchi, who was in 'From Russia with Love'. You may realise that this was a deliberate (and cheap) tie-in, as it was released by United Artists, just like the proper Bond films. Reasons why they did it are still unclear. Anyhoo, Connery foils Baddie, the secret HQ explodes for no apparent reason, the end.