Category: Apropos of Nowt

Let’s Kick Some Ass…

It’s a little know fact, this, but every Renaissance Man since Pongo Waring himself has had a deep appreciation of the action movie genre. Imagine how chuffed we were, then, to receive this link from fellow renaissance man Paul McGhee:

Incidentally, Paul’s blog Gold & Popcorn is a fantastic read.

Feed Him Flapjacks

BEARDS!

Possibly the most apropos of nowt thing ever posted on here (and that’s saying something), here’s our name spelled out in BEARDS…

X-Factor Silence…

Last year I was occasionally writing about X-Factor here, as do most other Country/Folk artists on their own sites.  This year, I’ve kept reasonably quiet on whole thing. There are two reasons for this…

1) It’s a lot more fun to participate in the live bile-fest that occurs each Saturday night over on Twitter

2) The nice folks over at Holy Moly do a much better job than I ever could. Matt Edmondson’s videos in particular are well worth a gawp at.

For those that hate X-Factor: Don’t worry, it finishes soon.

ELO Spaceboy

I love ELO. I think they rule. One of my many half-arsed ambitions for the future of Friends of the Stars is to make a record with Jeff Lynne. That would be awesome. Anyway, some bloke just made a new animation starring the ELO spaceship. Here it is… 

 

Hats off to Jon Bounds for the find

FOTS: Now available in Cartoon-Flavour

After recently discovering the joys of Xtranormal, Friends of the Stars will now occasionally be communicating via the medium of cartoon.  Here is Episode 1, which finds Craig housesitting for Elton John when he gets an unexpected visit from Executive Producer Robson, with hilarious conseq…..well, he gets a visit.

Warning: Contains swearing.

Radio Spiritworld and free Conet Project

Thanks for the CD Uncle Campbell

Thanks for the h-h-hyperlinks, Uncle Campbell

Hi-ho folks,

I finally remembered my log-in so I can unburden myself of things that my brain tells me all the time… that’s what the Internet’s for, right?

Things are progressing on the album front - most if not all of the recording is done now but we might add a few more sparkles before we start final mixing with the mighty @bethmcgowan

Other musical projects are being cooked up - more on them when it’s safe to break cover, but I can say that, at some point before we die, we might actually have a… gulp…body of work. Yikes but also hoorah! Hoorikes!?

Ok, the main point of this post was to recommend the Podcast Radio Spiritworld by the brilliant Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz .

I first listened to this a few months ago so it isn’t new but if you haven’t heard it, you have to. Even more than their two hilarious series’ of Look Around You

Ghosts

…Radio Spiritworld somehow manages to spot-on spoof something that never existed.

I won’t spoil the Radio Spiritworld fun by describing this anymore because I’m pretty sure you’ll get a real kick from how original and weirdly familiar it is (maybe it does exist after all). Apparently they are making a series for Radio 4 too - well done the BBC, you big daft twat, you did a thing right.

Having said I won’t spoil it… if you, like me, scared the living crap out of yourself as a youngster by purposely listening to shortwave radio late at night, you will either be pleased or sent wimpering in abject fear to the corner of the room, curled up in a foetal ball, by this - a link to the entire Conet Project files to download.

Indeed, I dunno, you might even be pleased that you have finally found means by which you can send yourself to the corner of the room, wimpering in abject fear, curling up in a foetal ball (different folks etc…).

Good friend of FOTS, the venerable Dubber, has written about these Number Stations before- although that was probably five or six of his different blogs back (I cannae keep up with you Andrew old chap!). They also inspired one of the remixes he did for us a couple of years ago. No one really knows, verifiably, what they were (and, I think, still are) but it seems pretty clear they were a means of transmitting code between Cold War spies?… governments?…aliens?…the dead?

By the way… while i was writing the last bit, iTunes Genius decided to play  - tcp d1 17 4 note rising scale irdial -  you scary Genius!

Anyway, after I discovered Radio Spiritworld I discovered Robert Popper’s blog - a place of daily hilarity. (my new hero) Robin Cooper’s phonecalls and podcasts are a reason enough to explore and there’s lot’s more greatness therein… he even used a recommendation of mine a few days ago and was kind enough to mention our blog, thanks Robert.

OK, see you soon for the gig in November supporting Beth Jeans Houghton (I’ll be the one in a foetal ball!)

Stay great chums and remember, if you have kids yourself, blast The Conet Project into their rooms before they go to sleep every night - it’ll be good for them.

Nighty night …

Kids need shortwave radio to prevent them becoming X-Factor obsessives

Kids need shortwave radio to prevent them becoming in anyway involved with or the slightest bit interested in X-Factor

…beep…beep.. (Greensleeves played on a Glockenspiel)…beep…beep ..ACHT… zwei… sieben sieben… ACHT… ACHT… sieben.. ACHT

Business Guys On Business Trips

More nice stuff from the web…

Business Guys On Business Trips is a satire on the increasingly baffling/boring/stupid world of modern business. The  simple line drawings it uses reminds us of the wonderful Get You War On.

(Thanks to also-great Intercourse With Biscuits for the heads up)

Crikey..

Christopher Cross performs “Ride Like The Wind” with The Roots AND Michael McDonald. Hat tip to  Joe Muggs for the find.

Random Crap Off The Internet

IWANTMYBEARSUIT is a website collection of weird and wonderful images from the internet. I am finding it mildly, pleasantly diverting .