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Lemon Jelly.ky - Lemon Jelly [#670]

Long time readers will recall the very first album write up in the project being Lemon Jelly’s ‘64-‘95 and how much has changed since then, musically, globally and culturally. Just listening to this, their first album released in 2000, brings back memories of an almost alien world- no social media as such, no 9-11 paranoia, no politically induced panic attacks and no mediascape flooded with…

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The Cat Committee

The cat committee would like it to be known that, as 2024 was exceptionally horrible for all, 2025 will be an improvement. At least, that is, if they get extra skritches, treats and hot box before it is house humans time to return to work on Thursday.

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Leftism- Leftfield [#669]

Another soundtrack of mid nineties culture. A time where less seemingly mattered and the optimism of a new millennium was peeping over the horizon. Leftism was never one of those albums that I went and bought but it seemed to be in most people’s music libraries or displayed proudly on their coffee tables having been cited as one of the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die in either the 2005…

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Left of the Middle - Natalie Imbruglia [#668]

That actor from Neighbours jumps on the “Actors from Neighbours who want a pop career” wagon and releases an angsty “men are utter shits” album. Not entirely sure why I have this as it’s not really my usual fayre but that said there are some catchy tunes that capture the late 90s zeitgeist here. From Torn (a bitter ballad describing the emotional fallout from the realisation that the man the…

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Burns Night

Haggis, neeps and tatties Now an annual tradition, at D&D last night our esteemed host Mark put on a fine spread of haggis, neeps and tatties. Haggis, as you know are small tartan coloured animals that roam free in the rugged highlands of the North. Their little nasal wails and toots can be heard across the mountains from many miles away and are often hunted by toffs for their fur which is used…

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Cottage Pie for One

AI-Generated Cottage Pie Picture I asked an AI text generator to create a short monologue called “Cottage Pie for One” in the style of Alan Bennett. This is the result: As I stand alone in my tiny, dimly lit kitchenette, surrounded by the mundane aromas of a bygone era, I find solace in my comforting ritual of making cottage pie for one. The humble ingredients intertwine, creating a symphony of…

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Picture of the Day: Holy Well, Southam, Warwickshire [2010]

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Picture of the Day: Walking Along [Braich-y-Pwl, Aberdaron, 2018]

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Picture of the Day: Do you want chips with that? (1984)

International Garden Festival Liverpool 1984

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Picture of the Day: Come-t Again? (2020)

Comets in 2020

2020 was a weird year for all of us. Moreover it was a time when a book I read as an impressionable child warned of comets and them being harbingers of doom, woe and U2 albums.  Load of old toss The book, Comet Catastrophe by Roger Sutherland (available from Amazon here), talks about how whenever theres a comet, human society goes through a dramatic change, or theres some sort of disaster or…

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Picture of the Day: Ghost proof fireplace — Saltergate (1998)

The fireplace at the Saltergate Inn

Fire – Keeps ghosts down. Back in the olden times, like way back, before even 1998 — we’re talking the 17somethings — salt, the stuff you might sprinkle liberally on your chips, was a valuable commodity with a similar value to iPhones, though mostly only because of the high taxes imposed on it by wigged gentlefolk in London. Often people would risk life and limb to smuggle small amounts to…

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Last Days of Twitter - Part 2

Long form bollocks that nobody will read about social media. By a guy who once taught social media.

Last time I wrote about the end of social media was in November 2022 . I say wrote, in effect I shouted into a dark room and nobody heard me because of all the other people shouting into the dark room. At the time Elon Musk had begun his terminal fiddling with the Twitter platform and people threatened to leave in droves. Some did, and never returned, while others left for a period of time then…

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Picture of the Day: He rises [2023]

In the mid-80s Tomy brought out a range of toys for boys that mixed the thrill of building with dinosaurs and robots. Sounds mad but it was a thing and it was called Zoids. Being a child at the time, I was gifted the flagship Zoid – Zoidzilla -by my eldest brother when I was probably about 10 years old. It was constructed and lived a happy dusty life through my teen years sat proudly on top of…

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Picture of the Day: City of Badeggs [2017]

Venice - Ver' Nice: A trip to Venice 2017

Today in 2017, Mrs Gnomepants V2.0 and I embarked on a day trip by boat from Pula in Croatia (where we were on holiday) to the lovely, but slightly fusty smelling city of Venice. Venice was always one of those “be nice to go one day perhaps but no worries if I don’t make it” kind of places. Of course I’d seen Roger Moore’s James Bond drive a hovercraft converted gondala across St Marks Square in…

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Trip to the seaside

It’s bank holiday and lovely weather so what better than a trip to the seaside for fish and chips, ice cream and a lovely walk by the sea. Mrs G suggested Swanage and that she would drive, so I thought why not. Let’s begin with a bit of driving past Oxford Roads were fairly empty at 9am on a Bank Holiday Saturday then typically hit traffic at Bournemouth But it’s quicker by chain ferry I see…

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In Beefa enjoying the sun. Blending in with the locals by drinking before sundown and being stereotypically British and obnoxious.

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Leaving Backstage - Sylvan [#667]

Leaving Backstage – Sylvan [#667]

Sylvan are a German progressive rock band with a sound akin to Porcupine Tree meets Glass Hammer. We last saw them on the Music Project in #486 where we established that in the time between #90 and #486 I’d started to like them a little bit. Music, as we discuss here frequently, is fluid and stains us all culturally, often indelibly, whether we like it or not. Sometimes, like a litchen it grows…