Chart Music

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

btw, I watched one of the clips that they posted up. I don't think I'd ever seen Simon Bates. There's no fucking way that cunt is 36. He's the Birmingham Yakubu.

[Hot Pepsi]

Well, yeah. These days we all know about the origins of Halloween (or at least, anyone who's discussed it on here does). The point they were making in the podcast was that is that in most parts of England, at least, it was something that we were aware of, but didn't celebrate, and when it did arrive, it was a tawdry, commercialised form of the American version. I mean, they have it in Germany now, where there was never any kind of tradition for it, and it's just as much of a money-making scam.

It’s not a scam. That implies people are buying something different than what was promised.

[Stumpy Pepys]

I was relieved the cast didn't lay into Barry Manilow. Quite the opposite. But overall top notch. Filled an entire flight between Cyprus and Munich.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

It’s not a scam. That implies people are buying something different than what was promised.

Last night my Next door neighbour From upstate New York, turned up with his three year old, and they had matching tigger costumes. I don't think I've ever seen a grown man look happier. My neighbour from across the road Foz (Cypriot parents, but from Devon) turned up dressed as the happiest looking witch I've ever seen, with one little daughter as a blood stained mass killer, and the other daughter as a rather worrying ninja. (I think she is taking her Karate classes too seriously) I am unconvinced that these people were the victims of a scam. The thing is that this idea that the house calling element (Trick or treating) being for kids is the modern version. we then all repaired to Scott's house where Edina broke out the romanian moonshine and we all got hammered. It was great. Drinking home made spirits is an important part of a traditional Halloween.

I don't understand people complaining about Halloween. People complaining about modern manifestations of it on authenticity grounds generally have no idea about the history of it, because everything, down to the decorations, to the fancy dress for adults, to the costumes for parties, to trick or treating is all in the original. It's just that people have more money, because they're not subsistence level cottier farmers. It's just an occasion for a bit of fun, and you get out of it what you put into it.

[Hot Pepsi]

Last night my Next door neighbour From upstate New York, turned up with his three year old, and they had matching tigger costumes. I don't think I've ever seen a grown man look happier. My neighbour from across the road Foz (Cypriot parents, but from Devon) turned up dressed as the happiest looking witch I've ever seen, with one little daughter as a blood stained mass killer, and the other daughter as a rather worrying ninja. (I think she is taking her Karate classes too seriously) I am unconvinced that these people were the victims of a scam. The thing is that this idea that the house calling element (Trick or treating) being for kids is the modern version. we then all repaired to Scott's house where Edina broke out the romanian moonshine and we all got hammered. It was great. Drinking home made spirits is an important part of a traditional Halloween.

I don't understand people complaining about Halloween. People complaining about modern manifestations of it on authenticity grounds generally have no idea about the history of it, because everything, down to the decorations, to the fancy dress for adults, to the costumes for parties, to trick or treating is all in the original. It's just that people have more money, because they're not subsistence level cottier farmers. It's just an occasion for a bit of fun, and you get out of it what you put into it.

Well, adults trick or treating is considered bad form because adults shouldn't be hogging the free candy. That's the idea, anyway.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Hold on, Adults look for sweets? That's mental.

[Alderman Barnes]

Last night my Next door neighbour From upstate New York, turned up with his three year old, and they had matching tigger costumes. I don't think I've ever seen a grown man look happier. My neighbour from across the road Foz (Cypriot parents, but from Devon) turned up dressed as the happiest looking witch I've ever seen, with one little daughter as a blood stained mass killer, and the other daughter as a rather worrying ninja. (I think she is taking her Karate classes too seriously) I am unconvinced that these people were the victims of a scam. The thing is that this idea that the house calling element (Trick or treating) being for kids is the modern version. we then all repaired to Scott's house where Edina broke out the romanian moonshine and we all got hammered. It was great. Drinking home made spirits is an important part of a traditional Halloween.

I don't understand people complaining about Halloween. People complaining about modern manifestations of it on authenticity grounds generally have no idea about the history of it, because everything, down to the decorations, to the fancy dress for adults, to the costumes for parties, to trick or treating is all in the original. It's just that people have more money, because they're not subsistence level cottier farmers. It's just an occasion for a bit of fun, and you get out of it what you put into it.

Blimey, I didn't want to come across as the Halloween Grinch. I'm just saying that the version of Halloween that has established itself in non-traditional Halloween regions is a horrible commercialised version that has nothing to do with either the Irish or or the American originals. I've never been to Ireland or America, but one year when the kids were little, we took them to a part of Berlin where there's still an American colony, and it was lovely. The people who lived there were well into it, with displays in their gardens and pumpkins and big baskets of American sweets. It was great. A proper Charlie Brown Halloween. Completely different to the alternative, which is traipsing around in a shoddy costume ringing on the doorbells and demanding Haribo from people who are mostly hiding with all the lights turned off.

See also attempts by Rheinländer to introduce Karneval to Berlin. Some places are naturally miserable, and I suppose I fit in.

[treibeis]

Completely different to the alternative, which is traipsing around in a shoddy costume ringing on the doorbells and demanding Haribo from people who are mostly hiding with all the lights turned off.

See also attempts by Rheinländer to introduce Karneval to Berlin. Some places are naturally miserable, and I suppose I fit in.

Last night, I had little kids, accompanied by their grinning bastard parents, of course, demanding Haribo off me, even though selling Haribo is part of what makes me a living.

I didn't try explaining this to the little kids, as they're little kids. I tried explaining this to the fucking parents. I may as well have tried explaining it to a dog.

Not that I'd have given them anything anyway. I give beggars stuff when it's obvious they need it. I don't give stuff to people who are begging because it's part of a dressing-up game.

[Hot Pepsi]

[Alderman Barnes]

I would like to point out at this juncture that Treibeis is, as usual, right.

[Jah Womble]

Usborne books were the business

Despite the publisher seemingly having little grasp of how to use an apostrophe.

They were generally pretty good, it must be said. I even illustrated for them back in my previous career.

[Lang Spoon]

Their illustrated mediavel ones were great, and the ones with bathyscapes, undersea farms or space stations or whatever the 21st century was supposed to bring. A brilliant house style.

[Lang Spoon]

I must have gotten this one out 20 times from the library.

[Jah Womble]

Their illustrated mediavel ones were great, and the ones with bathyscapes, undersea farms or space stations or whatever the 21st century was supposed to bring. A brilliant house style.

I recall drawing/painting several cut-aways for them - generally natural history-based. Trees featured a lot.

[Hot Pepsi]

I think I mostly agree with Taylor about Boy George, though I don't recall hearing that horrible story about him kidnapping and beating somebody. Good God.

[Gerontophile]

Not sure it was kidnapping. I think it was an ex-boyfriend or something, and he tied him to a radiator.

Which I suppose counts the same.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Not sure it was kidnapping. I think it was an ex-boyfriend or something, and he tied him to a radiator.

Which I suppose counts the same.

He was an escort.

[Gerontophile]

Amazing what tricks the mind plays.

Unacceptable in either case.

[Hot Pepsi]

Not sure I agree on Barry Manilow. Knowing you're naff doesn't make it not naff.

I don't recall any first-hand experiences with pop music before 1983, so this episode is right at the edge of me remembering anything. But I didn't realize "Mad World" was originally by Tears For Fears and I don't recall seeing the video for that. I'm sure I would have remembered the throw-in-based interpretive dance. My first memory of them is "Head Over Heels, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and "Shout," which I always liked.

I do recall interviews with them on MTV talking about how well-read they were, or thought they were, and how their favorite part of being in a band was the international travel. As a young nerd who took everything too seriously, that appealed to me a lot more than the soon-to-be-ubiquitous hair bands who just talked about how much they drank and how many [fill in a vulgar name for young women here] they had relations with.

But I didn't know anything about what they were talking about - I was 10 - so I didn't realize they were probably just full of pretentious shit.

However, I have a lot more tolerance for teenage purple poetry and angst than the guys on the podcast. Most of the interesting people I know went through a phase like that.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Oh HP, just look at this. He's just having such a good time. He's just a professional doing a job, singing american Schlager, (He's appearing with James Fucking Last), but like a lot of Schlager singers all around the world, he was a gay man in a homophobic world, hiding in the plainest of plain sight, and having a whale of a time.

[Hot Pepsi]

I was mostly objecting to the suggestion that because Barry Manilow is not taking himself seriously, he doesn’t deserve the stick he takes. Not that he necessarily deserves it either. It’s neither here nor there.

But I remain unmoved. Perhaps my hatred of 70s-ness and Vegasy stuff is so burned into by brain now that I can’t keep an open mind, but that’s just too fucking cheesy, even to be enjoyed ironically. Recall that I don’t like ABBA either. There must be a connection.

And the 70s strings and background singers slathered all over it ruin any shot that song has of not sucking. It just feels lifeless. To have any chance of being interesting it needs even more drums, perhaps some flamenco guitar, no strings, and should probably have faster tempo.

I don’t really get “camp.” Not when it seems to be so self-aware and winking at the camera, so to speak. I’m more into stuff that is over-the-top while appearing to take itself seriously. That’s why soap operas work (when they do).

[Jah Womble]

Barry Manilow 'not taking himself seriously' is only a recent-ish development, though. He'd not have viewed himself that way back in the day.

(See also: Michael Bolton)

[Auntie Beryl]

...Richard Marx, James Blunt...

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

The Song Copacabana and the accompanying video would suggest that he has been ripping the piss since before I was born.

This story is properly mental.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

But I remain unmoved. Perhaps my hatred of 70s-ness and Vegasy stuff is so burned into by brain now that I can’t keep an open mind, but that’s just too fucking cheesy, even to be enjoyed ironically. Recall that I don’t like ABBA either. There must be a connection.

Abba are what Schlager did next. They're the evolution of this sort of thing. If you're not going to like one, you're not going to like the other. See I think that you were probably far more exposed to this sort of carry on, the real undiluted Vegas nonsense than people over here. People like Manilow were hugely popular in the UK, but they were relatively rare, and had an air of exoticism.