Dom's Rambles

That Must Have Stung! (WARNING: Definitely Not Work Friendly Or Appropriate For Minors)

2009-07-05T14:44:00.013Z

I was searching for online inspiration for another mid-life crisis tattoo design this afternoon when I came across a couple of pictures that had me sitting up in my chair and taking a sharp intake of breath!

Check out this and this.

Slowly But Surely

2009-07-01T20:17:00.002Z

Apologies for the lack of posts of late but I am trying to concentrate all of my literary efforts on finishing the main story. The thing is coming together, although a death threat or two would certainly speed the process along (I haven't had one of those for a while and I do so find them an inspiration).

Later folks.

Persil Black Snake Commercial

2009-06-21T17:12:00.002Z

I've spent years trying to find a copy of this superbly funny advert and now it's finally appeared on YouTube!

Politics: What A Fucking Boring Subject.

2009-06-03T22:32:00.003Z

I understand there are some elections tomorrow. Well whoopie fucking shit. Should a politician advocate a platform that involves keeping their thieving fingers out of my wallet, their meddlesome noses out of my business and not kowtowing to every misanthropic, eco-fascist witch-doctor who wants to drag Western civilisation back to the Dark Ages then I'll consider giving them my vote. Until then they can all get fucked.

In any case, I have more pressing matters to attend to. Sophisticated juxtapositions of the parallel demise of the Eighties heavy metal scene and a star-crossed love affair that was born of it don’t just write themselves you know!

2009-05-29T21:58:00.002Z

Listening to the news this week I couldn’t help being reminded of this video to the track I Want More by Faithless which features the preparation for, and performance of, some vast North Korean propaganda spectacular. One of my favourite political blogs flagged this a couple of years back and pointed out that although the spectacle is certainly impressive to the point of awe inspiring, when you consider what’s being celebrated it’s also deeply disturbing – not to say obscene. Doubly so when you look at the forced smiles on the faces of those robotic children.
Whether provoking this uneasy mix of emotions was the band’s intent or whether the whole thing is intended as a misguided homage to that basket case of a regime, I don’t really know. However, given the moronic ideological sensibilities of 99% of politically engaged celebrities I suspect the latter.

This Time It's A Jensen Interceptor!

2009-05-20T21:18:00.010Z

Apologies for not having completed the much trumpeted Chapter 9 as yet but it is coming together nicely - even if I am taking my time. Getting an account of these events into the readily accessible public domain is the principle reason I embarked on the Down & Out... project so I'm only going to upload the thing when I'm entirely happy with it (and if anyone disputes my version of events then I'm up for a public debate on the matter any time they fucking well like).
In the meantime, here's a pic of another recently spotted automotive wet dream. As always, click the thumbnail for the full size shot.

Ain't She A Beauty?

2009-05-07T19:35:00.001Z

Snapped this morning near Lincoln Cathedral (click the thumbnail for the full size shot).

Can Anyone Seriously Doubt...

2009-05-03T02:17:00.005Z

...that with the right kind of promotional weight behind it, this song would have made Danielle Dax a superstar? There's no fucking justice!

A Literary Snapshot.

2009-04-29T21:55:00.002Z

My current reading and reference bookshelves, as rearranged this evening when the creative muse was sadly absent.

And A Fine Time Was Had By All!

2009-04-26T20:42:00.012Z

Like the title of this post says, it was a splendid night at the The Anthony Nolan Trust fund raiser in the pub last night – and on a number of levels. First off the sheer number of people who I hadn’t seen for years was staggering. I still liked a certain Mr Hill every bit as much as I always did and had another old pal introduce me to his friends as, “…the wittiest person I’ve ever met.” Which bolstered my ravaged self-confidence somewhat!
I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that Perfect Helen’s best friend from back in the day was a major Down & Out… fan. “I knew who Helen was straight away”, she told me. “And the villain too – that evil bastard!”
In the summer of 1983 the villain, i.e. that evil bastard Stu Llewellyn, as I called him in the book, had held a loaded crossbow pointed at this girl’s then boyfriend’s head.
I was also able to get the last major weight off my conscience. A girl I call Chloe in chapter nine, who was the one Sally and I originally split up over, was out too. And if any of my old flames had a legitimate reason to hate me it was this girl. I’d wanted to apologise for my disgusting behaviour for nigh on twenty years but the last time I tried – which would have been early Nineties in Vienna’s nightclub - she’d just blanked me. Last night she accepted my apology with a gracious smile and the relief I felt to finally be rid of the guilt was so overpowering that it made me feel quite lightheaded.
The only downer of the night was that I drunkenly crashed my mountain bike on the way home and twatted my face on the floor - which hurt like all hell!

Breaking Glass: Another Distraction.

2009-04-22T21:10:00.003Z

I went to see the movie Breaking Glass with one TN back in 1980 and at the time was far more interested in getting my tops and fingers than watching a film! Something I found more than a little unsettling about our T was that her arms were always covered in scratches and bruises and she once met me wearing her arm in a sling! I discovered after we had split, via an old classmate she had confided in, that she used to get beaten up by her old man – which explained all kinds of things about her weird behaviour!
But I digress.
I watched the movie again a few years later and found it so excruciatingly embarrassing that I could barely peek through my fingers at the thing. A take on the punk scene lifted straight from the Society pages of The Guardian, populated by contrived working-class stereotypes so patronisingly romanticised that it would have made a member of the Socialist Worker Party blush. I found the only two saving graces to be the criminally underrated Phil Daniels, who is always brilliant (check out his performance in the series Outlaws or as the sleazy drug dealer in The Long Firm for a master class in acting), and Wesley McGoogan’s hauntingly beautiful saxophone solo on the track Will You? No matter how many times I hear that it still makes me go misty eyed and is one of the very few pieces of music that really does take me to somewhere else.
This girl captures it nicely.

And this...

2009-04-19T21:11:00.002Z

...is how many notebooks I've filled with stuff pertaining to the last two chapters! Inspiration can strike at the most unexpected times so I make sure that I always have a notebook and pen with me.

And Here's Hanoi Rocks...

2009-04-19T21:02:00.000Z

...with another favourite song of mine.

Dead, Jail Or Rock & Roll.

2009-04-19T20:20:00.004Z

I always loved this song. I think it's another of those tunes that epitomises the sheer joy and exuberance of the late Eighties hard rock scene.

I'll Be Damned!

2009-04-17T21:31:00.003Z

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Moderate
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very High
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

Take the Dante's Divine Comedy Inferno Test

Ooooh Mrs!

2009-04-13T20:17:00.002Z

Here's a picture of Mrs Fiend (of Alien Sex Fiend fame) that I found online tonight. I've posted it for no other reason than I find her incredibly sexy. I think it's the almond shaped face that does it for me.

My Strap Dilemma.

2009-04-12T11:43:00.002Z

I can never find guitar straps that are long enough. I like to play with my axe slung at groin height which necessitates extending a standard strap by about four inches (and before anyone starts waxing Freudian, yes, I'm perfectly well aware of the phallic connotations of a low slung guitar - especially one with a rather blatant willy bit like my Iceman). I’ve thus far done this with a length of shoelace but circumstances now require a more secure - not to mention less scruffy - solution.

And here it is. A trimmed down leather belt from Poundland. You know, sometimes I even amaze myself with my resourcefulness in the face of adversity!

I Like This Song - Especially This Version Of It!

2009-04-07T22:29:00.003Z

Another one for the potential covers list methinks!

This Week I Have Mostly Been Playing My New Guitar.

2009-04-03T22:20:00.005Z

And what a beauty it is too, lightning fast, light as a feather and such a metal sound as you wouldn't believe.

"Fly like an Eagle, let my spirit carry me..."

2009-03-30T22:39:00.003Z

Today I happened to find myself at a certain bird sanctuary and, while I usually place animal rights cranks in the same misanthropic basket as fanatical eco-mentalists, I can't help feeling a sense of outrage when I see a majestic predator like this bird tethered in such a humiliating way.

"You'll have someone's eye out with that..."

2009-03-27T22:16:00.002Z

I had all but given up on trying to find one of these little beauties (a limited edition reissue of the mid-80s Washburn HM-20) on this side of the Atlantic when up popped a batch of five on an eBay shop - and being banged out at the bargain price of £299 each. How could I possibly resist that? The thing should be here by the middle of next week.

At the risk of giving someone who is either a paranoid schizophrenic or is very good at impersonating one, the satisfaction of rising to the bait...

2009-03-26T22:29:00.007Z

By the way my anonymous pain in the arse, I've actually exchanged correspondence with Seb Hunter and he strikes me as a very pleasant and genuine guy.

This Did Make Me Giggle!

2009-03-25T20:56:00.003Z

An 18-year-old has secretly painted a 60ft drawing of a phallus on the roof of his parents' £1million mansion in Berkshire. It was there for a year before his parents found out. They say he'll have to scrub it off when he gets back from travelling.

Scrap Value.

2009-03-19T21:16:00.004Z

Here's hoping that the price of scrap metal starts to rise before I totally run out of space to keep all my empty beer cans. Aluminium cans have been fetching £200 a tonne - or, if you like 20 pence a kilogramme - for several months now whereas prior to that, and for the past couple of years, the price has hovered somewhere around the £400-500 mark (which equates to around a quid per bin bag full).

Until it hits at least £400 it really isn't worth the trouble of carting them down to the scrap yard and weighing them in.

A Moderately Productive Sunday.

2009-03-15T21:08:00.007Z

@ Yahoo! Video

Chapter 9 is coming along nicely and is turning out very differently to how I originally envisioned it - but different in a good way. In fact I'd even go so far as to say that it's looking very much like being the best thing I've ever written!

However, I encountered a major logjam this afternoon which resulted in me having to fire off a series of text messages and e-mails to see if I could jog anyone's memory and clear it. Although I didn't get a definitive answer to my original question I was reminded of a related matter that I'd completely forgotten about and which has had me giggling to myself ever since.

Check out the above video to Cher's 1989 hit If I Could Turn Back Time. At around -3.06 she starts doing this 'skippy little dance' which, back in the day, a certain person used to do her clumsy best to imitate at Lazers nightclub on Friday and Saturday rock nights.

At the time - and right up until today - I didn't realise that anyone else had noticed!