That bloke

I hadn't thought about Bad Lip Reading for years, then I remembered the clip with Bush and Clinton, watched it again, and laughed until my ribs hurt.

Anyway, here's a transcript because I couldn't find one.

Clinton: We made a sorry attempt at tricking Alicia Keys into going ice fishing.
Bush: We could float on my dream shuffler. Them parrots have always jumped on me, and I actually hurt them.
Clinton: Bitch, everybody in here is safe from your crazy goat 'n' demon fear, and we will not watch the game.
Bush: Well, I'm braver than a lion. Now who's ready now for beer and doritos?
Clinton: You're fired, and the knives will be safe.
[fart noise]
Clinton: There you go!
Bush: I tooted.

A while ago I posted a lot of "amusing" locations from What 3 Words. Here are a few more.

• Lost & found:
  • Lost scout hike is at a house in San Jose, California.
  • Lost kittens found - they're just outside Shanghai.
• Politics
  • Stop climate change in a river in Gabon
  • Stop Trump today in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

I've been looking at Victorian photos. The people look somehow different. It's not just the outfits, or the very staged look. In a modern photo I often think "that face is a bit like so-and-so" but the older the photo the less that seems to work. Until I came across photos of 19th century black women. They're like modern people in costume. I worked with someone who looked like the first one (apart from the extremely long hair) and the third one was her boss. Well, not exactly, but they're similar.

The past is famously another country. But I like these photos because they don't feel so foreign.

There's an NME list of the best 500 albums. Obviously there's a lot of stuff on there I've never heard. So it occurred to me that I could listen to all of them. Today I started at number 500 with Stankonia by OutKast.

There's a lot of problems with this while idea. I won't see this through to the end (which, spoiler alert, is The Queen is Dead by The Smiths). I would have to listen to things I know I don't like (for example, I can tolerate but am unlikely to enjoy Bob Dylan; I can't stick Bruce Springsteen - both of them are on there). I have to overcome prejudices (which started right at the beginning - Outkast have funk elements that I'm enjoying, but hip-hop elements that I'm managing to sit through).

If were to listen for 8 hours a day, assuming 45 minutes per album, I could be done in about a month and a half. Why not play along at home?

Hmm, hip-hop. There are two things that bother me. Testosterone-fueled self aggrandisement, anger and mysogyny aren't something I want to hear. Outkast were asking me repeatedly if I "want to hear about the gangsta shit?" No, not much, and stop calling women bitches. I accept that this is me manifesting white privilege and having less to be angry about, but realising that doesn't make it enjoyable. The other thing is that I want rappers to stop rapping and sing. That's why the more funk parts of this album work for me. But then I suppose it wouldn't be hip-hop, would it?

If this ridiculous music experiment carries on for long, I'll be able to explain why I don't like a whole lot of other things too. The music industry must be trembling.

Edit: I'm moving these to fartoomuchmusic

Bookmark for self: https://bicycles.dreamwidth.org/40350.html

Work on the first Dartford tunnel was begun in 1936. It opened in 1963.

I had a book delivered in this time of minimal shopping. As a child I read about a bear who lived in a basement flat and wrapped tinsel around the trunk of his Christmas tree. Armed only with this information, the internet found me Albert's Christmas. Thank you to the blog post with the relevant key words! I bought it through Amazon, a company I'd rather avoid, but they had a hardback copy.

I binned the packaging, put the book aside and washed my hands. Can't trust anything nowadays. How long do I have to leave it before it's safe? Apparently sensible sources say it can survive for 24 hours on cardboard (because it absorbs the droplets that carry the virus), but days on hard surfaces.

While googling (I can't say "DuckDuckGo-ing") for a particular Tom Lehrer song, I came across this one about Oedipus. That was fun.

Apparently in Bali (and probably elsewhere) your hotel will serve you "floating breakfast" in the pool, which looks nice in a photo. But who wants to get out of bed and into a swimming pool to eat? I'd choose a table and chair, and I bet that in Bali I could sit outside with a nice view. Have another croissant. They're yummy.

Lots of good stuff here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-46528185