For quite a while now I have subscribed to the dictionary.com word of the day e-mail. Some days it doesn’t really do much for me, but on other days it really makes me think. It was from one such e-mail that I learnt about the zarf. I posted about that in my sister blog With Just A Hint Of Learning (Click here to read that post) However todays word of the day has a bit of a musical link, in a way that is quite amusing. Had this been the word of the day on April 1st I would have assumed it was an April Fools joke.
The word in question is kef. It is a noun, pronounced keyf and it has two definitions;
1 A state of drowsy contentment
2 Also, keef, a substance, especially a smoking preparation of hemp leaves, used to produce this state
Have you sussed the musical link yet? Why it’s Keith Richards off of the Rolling Stones of course. He has been known as Keef to many of his thousands of loyal fans for years. It’s fair to say that his has probably had quite a few smoking preparations made with hemp leaves too.
Clearly the moniker Keef was made for Mr Richards wasn’t it?
So now go and roll yourself a smoking preparation with your own hemp leaves while you enjoy a couple of Keef’s finest riffs below. But don’t forget the Government says that too many smoking preparations are bad for you so don’t forget to keep a spliff upper lip.
Recently one of John Lennon’s teeth was put up for auction. Lennon gave the tooth to Dot Jarlett his housekeeper in the 60s. At auction it raised £19,500 as it was bought, rather appropriately, by a Canadian dentist who goes by the name of Michael Zuk. He has written a book about celebrities teeth and intends to display the molar at his surgery! I wonder if Lennon lost the tooth because he ate most of the Jelly Babies thrown on stage on their US tours in the 60s. The jelly Babies were a result of Ringo answering a question about his favourite sweet in a fan magazine. Alternatively of course perhaps Lennon bit off more than he could chew with the ‘Beatles are bigger than Jesus’ comment. No doubt there are some Christian Fundamentalists in the US who actually believe that kind of crap and see it as divine retribution.
Karen Fairweather from Omega Auctions, described the tooth as: “rather gruesome, yellowy, browny with a cavity” Lennon gave it to Jarlett on return from the dentist. He is alleged to have asked her to dispose of it or “better still give it to your daughter as a souvenir.” Her daughter was apparently a Beatles fan.
The tooth was a part of Alan McGee’s (Creation Records founder and Oasis manager) collection of memorabilia. He is selling his collection as he is sick of the music industry.
Before I finish with some appropriate tooth related music I would like to thank my good friend Tom Wycks for pointing me to this story. All I did was fill in the gaps. Tom and his Mum also selected the three tooth songs that you are about to listen to. The third choice is Tom’s Mums pick and I must say I think that is probably the first time that Max Bygraves has ever appeared in this blog!
In response to a formal request from the We The People website where any petition gaining 5,000 or more signatures will be considered, the US Government has stated that they have never had any contact with extra terrestrials. They went so far as to say that “no evidence that any life exists outside our planet”.
But there appears to be no formal denial of the existence of the Men In Black, although to be fair that question wasn’t asked! Personally, given the diversity of life on our little planet, I can’t believe that there is no life elsewhere in the universe. Remember people, ‘The Truth Is out There’ Click here to read about it on the BBC.
By the time you read this it is likely that the largest asteroid to pass close to the Earth since 1976 will have already been closer to us than the Moon. Apparently it doesn’t pose a serious threat, but of course if no one ever gets to read my latest drivel then maybe those threat assessments were wrong! Remember this piece of rock is as big as an Aircraft Carrier.
The closest that Asteroid 2005 YU55 will get to us will be 202,000 miles and the next close encounter with an Asteroid, assuming we survive this one, will be in 17 years. Then in Aril 2029 Asteroid Apophis will pass even closer at a miniscule 18,300 miles. Apophis has been seen as a major threat of collision before but has now been downgraded.
Click here to read about it on the BBC and then enjoy a couple of Asteroid related songs (well more rocks than asteroids really!)
Those of you that are regular readers of this blog will know that I really don’t like UKtabloid newspapers and I hold a particular disdain for The Daily Mail and the Mail On Sunday. However I was watching a review of the papers on TV this morning and a wonderful Mail On Sunday story was referred to.
It concerns the senior German NATO official who had a bit of a fling with Russian spy Katia Zatuliveter. The paper has been banned from revealing his name. All they are able to print is that he is a 56-year-old grandfather and a picture of him dressed as a banana.
Zatuliveter is also alleged to have had an affair with a Liberal DemocratMP; Mike Hancock. Is this not a brilliant story? A German NATO official gets it on with a young blonde Russian spy and he wears a Banana costume. Who would have Geest it! Could it be more fruity? read the Mail coverage by clicking here. As usual let me get back to music, here are three banana related songs to honour this hapless German bloke!
I learnt a piece of music trivia today that I am pretty sure I never knew before! Perhaps this should have been added to my With Just A Hint Of Learning blog, but as it is purely music related I have kept it here.
Anyway that bit of trivia concerns how Sham 69 got their name. The name supposedly came from some faded football related graffiti that Sham 69 front man Jimmy Pursey once saw on a wall in his home town of Hersham. The graffiti celebrated the local non league football teams success in winning the Athenian League in 1969. Allegedly the original graffiti said “Walton & Hersham ’69” Can you guess which bit had faded? In theory I suppose it’s possible that they might have been called Walt 69.
I was reading an interview with Nile Rodgers off of Chic in the latest issue of The Word magazine. He is promoting the publication of his memoirs entitled ‘Le Freak‘. There were two parts in the interview that really sparked my interest. Firstly Nile has documented his recovery from cancer in his blog, ‘Walking On Planet C’ It’s really candid and very well written, click here to read it. I hope that Nile completely kills off the Big C and is able to produce even more great music.
Secondly Nile and his Chic cohort Bernard Edwards once produced an album by uber diva Diana Ross which included some great stuff; “Upside Down”, “My Old Piano” and “I’m Coming Out“. Whilst I don’t consider any of these to be Ms Ross’s career peak they sure as hell knock spots of that dreadfully awful song “Chain Reaction” which sadly made the top of the UK charts. Anyway I would like to focus on Mr Rodgers’ comments about “I’m Coming Out” which when you listen to it is such a very obvious gay song. According to Nile when Diana Ross asked about the sexuality of the song she was informed it wasn’t a gay song. However Nile also confirmed that it most definitely was a gay song when he revealed the inspiration for it. He had been at a transvestite club called the Gilded Grape and the call of nature took him to the urinal. It was here that he spotted three or four Diana Ross styled trannies! As soon as he got home he called Bernard Edwards and that is how “I’m Coming Out” was born!
Whenever Ms Ross meets Lil Kim she feels a right tit............ or is it a left one! Danger, Danger...... wardrobe malfunction!
Coming home from work today I was listening to Jessie J’s song “Price Tag” Ever since I first heard it I have liked it. But today I must have listened with a different head on, as scary as that sounds! I began wondering whether the lyrics to this little nugget of great pop music were actually Jessie J’s successful attempt to predict the current Euro zone financial crisis. Let me tell you about it by taking small excerpts of the lyrics to explain my reasons. please note that my tongue is lodged somewhat firmly in my cheek ok!
Okay, Coconut man, Moon Heads and pea; you ready Clearly Coconut Man is George Papandreou the current Greek Prime Minister (well at least for tonight anyway). He looks like a coconut and clearly he is nuts. The Moon Heads must therefore be the heads of the G20 nations currently working hard/ living it up in Cannes. As for Pea, that must be a special nickname for President Sarkozy of France, because he is very small isn’t he?
Seems like everybody’s got a price, I wonder how they sleep at night. Obviously the banks and Greece seem to have a price, although I’m not sure what it is. Bankers have no morals so it does make me wonder how they sleep at night
When the sale comes first, and the truth comes second, just stop for a minute and smile. Because when you’ve sold or lost all you have (for the Greeks read dignity and the Elgin Marbles) and the lies of financiers and politicians have dropped you six feet deep in poo you can’t do anything but smile can you?
Why is everybody so serious? Acting so damn mysterious? Got your shades on your eyes and your heels so high. That you can’t even have a good time. This part is about Berlusconi I believe. He is seriously mysterious, wears shades and as a short man I reckon he wears Cuban heels. I think our Jessie got it wrong on the having a good time front, Mr Berlusconi seems to like a bit of Bunga Bunga
Everybody look to their left (yeah), Everybody look to their right (uh) This must refer to the fact that it doesn’t matter what flavour your political party is you’re pretty much all in the shit
Can you feel that (yeah) We’re paying with love tonight. More on Mr Berlusconi methinks only I think it probably should read he’s paying for his ‘love’ tonight.
It’s not about the money, money, money. We don’t need your money, money, money. We just wanna make the world dance,
Forget about the price tag. Well looking at the way Greece appears not to want to accept a massive debt write off from those incredibly generous bankers (NOT!) it can’t really be about the money can it? I’d bloody accept an offer like that. In fact if Greece don’t take it can I have it please? But maybe the Greeks do want to make the world dance, anyone fancy the twelve-inch vinyl DJ Bouzouki remix of ‘Zorba The Greek’ Yo’r probably want to forget about the price tag too if your wages were cut. What’s a Grecian earn? It’s a big old vase isn’t it?
Ain’t about the (uh) Cha-Ching Cha-Ching. Ain’t about the (yeah) Ba-Bling Ba-Bling Back to Berlusconi again, the political leader with the most bling!
Wanna make the world dance, Forget about the price tag. We need to take it back in time, When music made us all unite!
And it wasn’t low blows and video hoes, Am I the only one getting tired? Why is everybody so obsessed? Money can’t buy us happiness. Can we all slow down and enjoy right now. Guarantee we’ll be feeling alright. This is a plea to take us back to the days when we all loved Greek music. How could we forget that classic slab of rock music “Forever And Ever” from the King of Kaftans himself Demis Roussos. The money can’t buy us happiness reference is a topical pointer to Macca’s recent nuptials.
[B.o.B rap]
Yeah yeah. Well, keep the price tag and take the cash back. Just give me six strings and a half stack
And you can, can keep the cars leave me the garage and all I, yes all I need are keys and guitars
And guess what, in 30 seconds I’m leaving to Mars. Yeah we leaving across these undefeatable odds
It’s like this man you can’t put a price on a life. We do this for the love so we fight and sacrifice every night
So we ain’t gonna stumble and fall never waiting to see a sign of defeat Uh uh
So we gonna keep everyone moving their feet
I feel that Mr B.o.B’s rap has missed the point or perhaps he just hasn’t got that same Nostradamus gene that Ms J has. Although he does mention those Bouzoukis and perhaps the dancing is more about Zorba. As for the mention of Mars, well that’s a schoolboy error from Mr B.o.B isn’t it; Mars is a Roman God and a chocolate bar, nothing to do with Greece!
Jessie likes a bit of Greek bubblegum, because the bubble is always about to burst
What do you think and do you know of any pop songs that might predict the future? I won’t accept “I Predict A Riot” from those nice boys from Leeds, the Kaiser Chiefs. That is just too obvious!
One of the subscribers to the blog has reminded me of the plight of Babar Ahmad, currently in prison for 7 years without charge or evidence. He needed 100,000 signatures on this petition site to trigger a debate in the Commons, and that might free him, or at last restart the justice system for him. I am pleased to say that I just signed and the total now stands at 100,106 (in the time it has taken me to compose this post it has risen to 101,126. But let’s try and push the total even further. The following text is lifted direct from Ben’s e mail. Please read it and more importantly please sign the petition. However you arrived at this site, if you’re a UK citizen please take the time to sign the petition.
Babar Ahmad’s story, widely covered in the Guardian and elsewhere, is a horrifying account of what the ‘war on terror’ has meant in particular for British Muslims.
Baba Ahmad has been in prison for seven years, pending extradition to the US on charges of terrorism for which no evidence has been given. If this petition gains enough signatures there will be a debate on his case in the House of Commons, which could increase his chances of going on trial prior to extradition. A trial would compel the evidence against him — if there is any — to be produced. Whether convicted or cleared, he would at least have had justice.
Babar Ahmad was originally arrested in 2003, assaulted at midnight in his home by several officers from the ‘territorial support group’ (the riot police), and then immediately released. A year later — 5 August 2004 — he was rearrested on an extradition warrant from the US and has been in prison since.
In 2007, the European Court of Human Rights suspended his extradition pending presentation of evidence. Under the Extradition Act 2003, the US does not have to provide evidence when seeking extradition from the UK, including for British citizens (which Ahmad is); there are stirrings of dissatisfaction about this within the current parliament.
In 2009 the Metropolitan Police admitted liability for assault during Ahmad’s first arrest and paid him £60,000 damages. This year, in a separate trial, the officers were found not guilty of assault. Evidence of the officers’ histories of racist assaults was not shared with the jury (see BBC story here, including CCTV footage of Ahmad being brought, injured, into police custody; see also this Guardian account, and this Guardian story; be warned that the accounts of the behaviour of police officers Roderick James-Bowen, Mark Jones, Nigel Cowley, and John Donohue are unpleasant).
Maybe you won’t will take much persuading about this, but anyway I urge you to sign the petition, and to circulate it to anyone who might also support it. The deal with the Number 10 ‘e-petitions’ site is that any petition that gets over 100,000 signatures must be debated in the Commons. The petition currently has 50,000 signatures, and the deadline is 10th November.
If extradited to the US, Baba Ahmad faces life in solitary confinement. He is not the only UK citizen still held in the UK without trial or evidence; he is just the longest-serving.
This is not just about justice for Baba Ahmad; it concerns the moral character of the entire UK legal and political system, and so concerns each of us personally: if it can happen to him, it can happen to me and you.
As I have said many times before, this is a music blog, so here are some appropriate(ish) songs;
This is probably bigger than my own little world view and maybe there’s a lot of it that I don’t understand. But what is it with the Euro bail-out for Greece? The great and good (well not much greatness or goodness really is there?) leaders of Europe held a series of summits to resolve the Euro crisis. Focussing in particular on the parlous state of the Greek economy. In simple terms the solution was that major banks would write off 50% of Greek debt and the rest would be funded through stringent austerity measures to be introduced by the Greek government.
Well it looks like they can't produce can they? A T Shirt slogan on a bag........that is so FAIL!
So just a few days ago everyone was patting themselves on the back on what a spiffing job they had done; crisis over….. for now. Then comes the news that before they accept these actions the Greek government will ask their voting population what they think in the form of a referendum. Now I may be a little simple at times but on this occasion I suspect that the there will be an overwhelming no vote? What do you think?
I think that our erstwhile leaders should have taken a look at the car washing scene in Pulp Fiction before any back slapping took place.Well, in particular the line ‘let’s not start sucking each other’s dicks quite yet’. So what happens next? I presume that Greece will default on their loans. After that who knows, do the banks send in the bailiffs to repossess Greek property. Unlikely really; all their crockery is broken and they lost their marbles ages ago.
But at least the forecast looks good....... actually so does the forecaster don't you think?
Just a couple of questions from me to close this post;
If Greece doesn’t want the bailout money can I have it?
So then, let’s get back to music as this is really a music blog, but there is often the odd rant from me. Here are a few songs that I feel are appropriate. Especially the last one of the three from Jarvis Cocker
