Well I'm sorry, but, as a bright new Tory dawn bathes the land in an unaccustomed blue light, what I'm exercised about is this. Radio 4's Today programme filed a perfectly decent report on the upcoming Dawn Chorus Day (I'm sure regulars have it noted in their diaries already), including an interview down the line with bird man Chris Packham (the post-punk Bill Oddie), at the end of which they decided to test his birdsong identification skills by playing him a rather lovely snatch of song. Is it British? he asked. Oh yes, they said. Well, he said, it sounds a bit like a thrush, a bit like a nightingale... Got it! they cried. It's a Thrush Nightingale. A Thrush Nightingale? Well excuse me, Today programme, but that's hardly a British bird. It's a scarce visitor, seen on average about three times a year. Chris, sue the bastards! That's what Bill Oddie would do.
Nothing much else has gained a foothold in the tumbleweed prairies of my mind - it's a sunny morning, it's been a long week and a restless night. Somewhere in the small hours I caught more bad news (is there any other kind?) from the wider shores of Islam - I wonder what Captain B makes of it? - and good news about this behemoth, faltering at last.
And Boris, it seems, is going to win.
And, for any confused newcomers, I am not Bryan Appleyard.
Friday, May 02, 2008
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
Are you sure, Nige? Perhaps Bryan, with his newly acquired shamanistic skills, has learned to project himself through you and all your blog offerings will henceforth be his. I suspect he has no plans to return to the UK and is busy setting up a cult in a cave in the desert, where he will survive by eating small dusty creatures and licking water off rocks. His hair and eyebrows will grow unchecked, as will the profundity of his utterances.
ReplyDeleteAh, Bill Odie, the binocular manufacturers front man, tweeter par excellence, and, hopefully, congrats to the toff, at last it's looking like toffs r us.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget Nige, if Starbucks goes then so will Borders Books, maybe no bad thing.
Borders will be no loss to me Malty - and as for Bill Oddie, binoculars are the least of it. You can scrcely buy any bird-related product now but it's been branded with the name and face of the original Bearded Tit.
ReplyDeleteSophie, I suspect you may well be right about Bryan, but I'm not channelling much profundity yet. His communications from the desert are sparse and enigmatic. He seems to have lined up an interview with the Invisible Man...
Well, Bryan, about you not being Bryan but in fact Nige, are you trying to confuse us all?
ReplyDeleteAre you sure?
ReplyDelete