poliphilo: (Default)
poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2007-10-28 10:14 am

Odds And Sods

1. So did I have an early night or was I late to bed? It's now 10.15 am according to the clocks, but really it's 11.15 . Bah, I should stop thinking about it and just go with the flow.

2. I dreamed I was in Sheffield- and it was the most spectacular city. My in-laws were there too and being generically annoying. I was trying to take photos and kept being thwarted- by things getting in the way, by people hustling me along, by the buildings morphing. Eventually the batteries on my camera died and I had to give up. So much beauty and I wasn't able to capture any of it!

3. Bruce Forsyth has always irritated me- so vulgar,  so pleased with himself, so unfunny. He annoyed me when I was a wee, small boy and here he still is - aged God knows what- fronting Celebrity Come Dancing and annoying me now I'm an arthritic greybeard.  You've got to give him respect for lasting so long, but why, why, why?

4. I'm reading Malcolm Lowry. How come?  Because I won the book in a competition and he's a classic and I believe in furthering my education. He's heavy.  James Joyce threw down the gauntlet and said, "Look we really ought to be able to cram the whole of human experience into a single, foursquare piece of writing"-  and Lowry was one of those who took up the challenge. I think it was maybe always a doomed adventure. Because however much you cram in there's always more.  And the more you cram in the harder you make it for the reader. You certainly don't read Lowry for the story. And he doesn't reward you with passages of otherworldly beauty the way Virginia Woolf does. The piece I've just finished is a "journal" of a sea voyage from Vancouver, through the Panama Canal, to England. It's all sorts of rewarding things but never exactly fun.

[identity profile] richenda.livejournal.com 2007-10-28 11:05 am (UTC)(link)
>>>>>You've got to give him respect for lasting so long, but why, why, why?

Perhaps one set of viewers watch it in spite of him and another set approved of him then and still do?
I don't remember ever seeing him in the past - we hadn't got a TV at the time of Beat The Clock, and I don't know what else he's done
I watched a few of the Dance things in spite of him, and then got bored with the whole thing.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2007-10-28 12:17 pm (UTC)(link)
I remember him from Saturday Night At The London Palladium- the TV variety show which ran from 1955-67.

I got caught up in the last season of Celebrity Come Dancing but I'm bored with it now. Ailz still enjoys it so it's on in the background and I can't shut it out altogether.

[identity profile] idahoswede.livejournal.com 2007-10-28 12:11 pm (UTC)(link)
It's all about appealing to the lowest common denominator, that's Brucie. Appalling little man.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2007-10-28 12:20 pm (UTC)(link)
But the jokes are so lame. Even the studio audience only titters politely. I feel embarrassed for him.

Does anyone like him- I mean really like him?

[identity profile] veronica-milvus.livejournal.com 2007-10-28 01:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I can't stand him. When he did the Generation Game in the 70s I used to finish up my tea and go off upstairs to my room with the aim of being safely away from the TV before the theme tune finished. Dad, however, used to guffaw regularly at Brucie's smarmy antics.

And then there is Terry Wogan...

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2007-10-28 01:49 pm (UTC)(link)
I hate Terry Wogan too.

I've listened to his radio show in the car- it's a bunch of old farts laughing at impentrable in-jokes. And, like Bruce, he's so insufferably pleased with himself.

YO

(Anonymous) 2007-10-28 03:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Hey dad know its been a while since we spoke but i have been off the wall busy at work paying off the holiday me and vickster went. Am at work now actually doing manager shift which is on side of a painful headache . Hope you and ailz are really good and am planning ahead of time to come over and spend some quality time with you cos i know it is long overdue. Been reading these book recenly by author conn iggulden about ceaser and the warlord known as genghis khan you should take a look if you have the time. Will ring this week some time love you loads

Re: YO

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2007-10-28 04:14 pm (UTC)(link)
I've heard of Conn Iggledenn. Was he a soldier before he became a writer? I know there's some reason I'm familiar with the name.

Take care. Look forward to seeing you soon.

Much love to you and the Vickster,

Dad