Interesting People

Nostalgic pop music post....

I've been thinking for some time about pop songs featuring places in London - in the title, which lets out 'Dedicated Follower of Fashion' poncing around various parts to be admired, or 'Lola' down in Old Soho - and having a bit of a struggle (maybe one would do better with Ye Olde Music Hall numbers?) but anyway, came up with these:

This one is perhaps pushing it a bit, as it was actually spoofing 'Rock Island Line', a cover of which was a UK mega-hit for Lonnie Donegan:

Take it away Jim Dale, on the Piccadilly Line!

and to continue the London Underground motif, suburban pastoral from the New Vaudeville Band:

further Tube mentions, this time more urban pastoral, with the Kinks:

Getting down and dirty in Soho with Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich:

And finally, rocking down to Electric Avenue with Eddy Grant:

What I read

Finished Persuasion - but felt a bit out of sync with the online reading.

Then I went on to something Entirely Different: my interest was aroused by rydra_wong posting about Rachel Rosen's Cascade (2022) and Blight (2025) (The Sleep of Reason, #1 and #2), so I went and discovered that the ebooks could be obtained directly from the small Canadian press in question. Got stuck into Cascade and while I would not have thought I was up for grim eco/magical dystopia with festering political intrigue before everything goes to hell, I was absolutely gripped.

Pretty much the only reason I then read LM Chilton, I Think We Should Kill Other People (2026) was I had finished that and had not yet downloaded Blight. This was a not entirely happy mashup of rom-com (this part I thought worked least well), serial killer, and version of 'cut-off country-house' mystery (small airport shut down in middle of snowstorm trapping relevant characters), with added 'reality tv show that includes AI setting' and 'comic intentions'.

On the go

Have now gone on to Blight and may be some time (these are not your slender novellas).

Up next

Alexis Hall, Father Material arrived this week; also KJ Charles, How To Fake It In Society is currently a Kobo deal so have also got that on the ereader.

Still have not yet got to Slightly Foxed, and the latest Literary Review recently arrived.

Took my wonky knee to the GP this afternoon - the GP, as they are these days, appeared to be about 12 years old from my advanced perspective, but v competent, did a thorough interrogation and examination, and came to the conclusion that it looks very like a damaged meniscus -

- and guess what?

We treat that with PHYSIO! like what I am doing for other assorted bits of anatomy. They are sending letter to appropriate quarters and no doubt it will take 6 months at least to get an appointment.

***

In entirely other news:

An investigation into acts of self-pleasure among parrots and other birds has reached a climax, with the results providing welcome relief for vets and researchers, not to mention the birds themselves.
Bird keepers are often advised to discourage and even punish birds for masturbating, but the study found the activity was more common in the wild than in captivity, with researchers concluding it is part of a bird’s natural behaviour.

'Don't forget to feed pleasure the parrot!!!' (so that nature will not turn sour in its veins.)