Where there’s music and there’s people

My first blog in a few days for reasons known to some of you. I am dedicating this latest of my inane and pointless blogs to a very special person who I know would have appreciated it and would not only have encouraged me to keep going with the blogging, but would have wanted it to be cranked up to 11 with extra cheeky innuendo and gross bits. Too early to restart the blog? No, life is too short and is for living in the moment and making others smile and feel free of stress and everyday pressures.

Marvel. DC. I have never understood the appeal of these superhero films. To the embarrassment of my son Bob Jnr, I have been unable to explain the difference between Marvel and DC. I may be born again.

On Thursday I visited son Will in Canterbury and he took me (with me paying) to see The Black Panther. Well wowee it was really good and I learnt that a) in Marvel films that Stan Lee always has a cameo appearance and b) that if you wait to the end of the credits there will be two extra scenes. This made me watch Antman the next night (8/10) and then The Fantastic Four last night (a 7?) (is it Marvel??). Anyway I know everything about stuff like this now. I don’t need to watch any more such films in fact as I know it all.

For some reason this has just reminded me when me and my friend Pete (who I shall refer to as P for the sake on anonymity) watched – in around 1988 – our one and only blue movie. We thankfully bottled it in the video shop and got out ‘Naked Werewolf Woman’. The plot seemed to be that when she became a werewolf her clothes fell off and she got a furry nose. I seem to remember we put the football on instead. And pants.

Blimey just looked it up and find we went for a 1977 Italian dubbed film that Sky Cinema gives a whopping two stars to.  As you will not we were not ‘lads’.

I did say in my last blog that I would tell you all about the churches we visited in Florence and Pisa. I lied. It was like a fake trailer to lure you into this blog. Ha ha! You were getting all excited to hear about the plaque to Marconi; the tomb of Michelangelo; the Bernie Clifton memorial; etc. I gotcha! What happens in churches stays in churches as far as I am concerned and all I will give you is this picture.

I bet you are desperate to know more ecclesiastical stuff now but I won’t tell you. Nor will Mrs Bob. Our lips are sealed. With superglue.

Of course I now regularly go to Italy with my VSC comrades / inebriates. We next go to Turin in March to see our beloved Fiorentina (the 2nd best team after Stockport County, and just ahead of Clapton FC) and if I can remember anything I will report on this in true and honest fashion at that time.

When we went to Bergamo last year though we had a day trip to Brescia and the fabbo castle there. This saw the birth of a supergroup.

 

 

 

Yes, Pigeon Drumstick. If you have not seen them as yet then watch out for tour dates after Easter. Like Oasis for bad boys; five Keith Moons, none of whom play drums; Ant & Dec teamed up with Jedward. And one other person. Chesney Hawkes perhaps. Or Demis Roussos.

Lock up your beer, the boys are coming to your town soon – assuming you live in Stockport or Swinton.

The good thing about a blog as a hobby is that it need not appeal to anyone. The above feature will appeal to one or two at most and I don’t care as it is making me snigger like an asthma-free, hairier Muttley.

Talking about Muttley, who remembers Josie and the Pussycats? I loved that but they don’t seem to have reformed like The Vapors have.

BLIMEY! This has led to a brilliant discovery! I had in my mind that I used to watch The Space Age Adventures of Robin Hood when I was young. I have just found the intro and theme tune to what it was really called, Rocket Robin Hood. Fantastic!

That has made my day! If you remember that then you get a prize – it may be a pigeon or an artichoke or a photo of a church.

Oo oo! Who watched White Horses on a Saturday morning or in the summer holidays?! Idiots.

Back to Italy. Can’t recall if I got onto the Leaning Tower of Pisa last time and I can’t be bothered to check.

Now that is a lean and a half.

So I assumed that gradually over time, the 800 year tower (built 1173 – 1372) had begun to lean. Oh no. Apparently the tower started to lean about five years into its construction when the builders finished the third tier (about 23m high).

“As the original design planned a total of eight tiers, it became immediately evident that the construction had to be stopped until a solution to the problem of sinking foundation was found…….  As there are little records of the original construction documents of the Tower, the details of “who did what and when” are not entirely clear”.

Now is it me or would you have thought that after three tiers had been built, and it was already leaning that a) the builders would have though ‘oh no, its a disaster, let’s start again and b) the patrons would have said ‘this is crap, give us our money back?

Instead it seems that the 12th / 13th century cowboy builders (who I assume had also offered to tarmac their drive) said ‘oh no mateo, that’s quite normal for towers these days. They all lean and the more tiers you add then they straighten out. Now that’s another €1m we need up front for materials, is there a decent trattoria round here for a mortadella bap mateo?’. Incredibly this was accepted at face value.

Now as you will note above, no one seems to have any record of who did the building!!! They clearly folded immediately afterwards and then reformed the company with a different name the week after. Dodgy Medieval Pisa builders. Bloody typical. Makes me mad.

If you ask for a Cornetto in Italy they only hand you a bloody croissant. Truth.

This has been mediocre I know. No apologies, me fool you if you read it. I finish with a photo of me in my student modelling days. A belated Valentine’s Day gift to get your hearts racing just a little bit faster. Ciao.

 

 

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