Thursday 18 September 2014

Party Tricks

Here's a neat trick question to pose if the opportunity presents itself, in such circumstances as a genteel gathering with family members, one where such pastimes as charades and word games might be practiced:

Who was the first person to be appointed Prime Minister in the British Parliament?

Make sure you write the question down because Robert Walpole, is the answer that will spring forth from all the smart alecs in the room. Although he's is reasonably considered to be the first Prime Minister, the actual title of such, that is: Prime Minister, didn't become official until much later, the official title being, First Lord of the Treasury. You need to write the question down of course, to quell the dissent and quibbling over your wording, when you, oh so graciously, enlighten your companions with the correct answer, that being: Henry Campbell-Bannerman.

Campbell-Bannerman was Scottish of course, so it seemed rather apt to me, on this auspicious day, to highlight his contributions to political life, which were not at all meagre. Campbell-Bannerman was the sane man in the monkey house when the nation was gripped with war fever and its his opposition to and resolution of, the second Boer War that most resonates with me.




I wonder how history would've played out without his contribution? It's impossible to draw any conclusions of course, other than those born from speculation but it seems to me that his, methods of barbarism, speech is a pivotal point in our history.





Friday 12 September 2014

Jacques Brel

I've been to Brussels and it's a place that doesn't live to the stereotype, at least in my eyes anyway. It was quite a while ago and I'm sure it's changed a lot since, but I witnessed a city of quite eerie contrasts. I'm told the city was built up substantially from the profits of  Belgian colonial exploits and it was interesting to see that, although the northern baroque portion of the city was well tended and restored, the 19th century quarters were left in incongruous state of the decay. Almost as if the city were a living entity trying to leave the past behind, as it chased a future as a modern European hub of commerce, free from the associations of colonialism.

I was there scouting for a project that never took off the ground but it wasn't an altogether fruitless trip, the museum of modern art was well worth the effort alone. Unfortunately though one of the main attractions, Le Théâtre Royal de Toone, Toone's, as we refereed to it on the trip, was inaccessible, being booked solid. 

Name a famous Belgian is a game oft spawned when the subject turns to that nation and although I'm no expert on the country, I know enough to disrupt the anticipated hilarity. The person in question would be Jacques Brel, yeah that's right he's not French but Belgian, there's at least a chance though, that you've never heard of him. If that should be the case, then think of some of those embarrassing songs peddled by the balladeers of yesteryear like: If You Go Away--Dusty Springfield, et al and Seasons in the Sun--Jerry Tacks or would that be Terry Jacks? Well it turns out they're rather mawkish translations of Brel's original works, which, in their original form, are rather more--vibrant. Anyway to prove the point, here's Brel performing one of his own works, that happened to be one work of his that wasn't accompanied with a wobbly chin when performed in English by Alex Harvey, of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band.


Monday 1 September 2014

Dirty Helmut

This one's a littler further than a doodle, I even did it on paper. It's for a single page comic strip I've been pondering, I'll probably wont take any further than the pondering, but who knows. If you take a close look at the image you might spot one of the disadvantages inherent with graphite pencils, the metallic sheen that is usually apparent to some degree, it's conspicuous here because I snapped it with a flash.



Sind hier sieben Schüsse raus oder nur sechs?