Give A Girl A Break

I caught the infamous Miley Cyrus vid yesterday. In an ideal world such things wouldn't exist- and neither would Hannah Montana- because everybody would have an artistic conscience.  In the real world, a girl's gotta live. 

Fabrizio, Christa, Miguel

At five Fabrizio likes to be called by his full name, so I need to stop thinking of him as Fabi. He can hold a tune and is into break-dancing.

At three Christa has a big vocabulary and a burgeoning Scouse accent.  She's smart. I find myself dealing with her person to person not adult to kid.

At four months Miguel is- well- what can you say about a baby? He seems like a happy soul. 

Resuscitating The Parrot

Radio 4 had the bright idea of sitting some contemporary six formers down in front of the dead parrot sketch. None of them found it particularly funny. It was slow, silly, not their style. That's the trouble with cutting edge humour; It goes blunt very quickly. Funny things are only funny in context. John Cleese doing a silly walk in a bowler hat depended on there still being bowler hats to be seen on the streets of London. They're gone now and the joke dies along with the cultural signifier.

Python was very wonderful and important in its time. I loved it. But I'm not remotely interested in getting tickets for the reunion- or at laughing at the memory of a laugh. I gather John Cleese isn't as rich as he thinks he ought to be- though I bet he's richer than anyone who lives round here.