THE BRITISH THREAD

Oh- I don't know Clary. Everybody does what they think best I suppose.



Prof Carrie Paechter is one of the signatories.

I'm inclined to be negative about people who sign petitions and that would go more than double if they were telling the Isreali government what to do from the safety of a London wine bar.

The Prof seems to have something of an obsession with tomboy types and gender issues.

But hey- whatever turns you on is the modern thing innit?

I can't imagine my being enthralled or educated by anything the lady might have to say but I hope others will be if that's what they want.

I incline to the Eric Gill way of thinking regarding the education of females.

And I'm not shy. Shyness is a sign of a fat ego and I had my ego trashed a long while ago.

I don't think "art" can be taught.

Money is the only art anyway according to Andy Warhol.

"Where Ma Raney and Beethoven once unwrapped their bed roll
Tuba players now rehearse around the flagpole
And the National Bank at a profit sells road maps for the soul
To the old folks home and the college."

Bob Dylan Tombstone Blues.

I could never get away from teachers fast enough. The salary scales garuantee mediocrity. Great literature is all you need.

I'd bet the Prof can't make head or tail of Spengler or Ted Hughes's Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being.

Check out Thorstein Veblen. She will hate that.

Sorry, clearly a misunderstanding...

Wow for the first time ever A2K did not send me any posts overnight.

An early breakfast then.

Today, I'm making a handrail.

'money making is the only art'
I think you interperet that to literally spendius.
If warhols work was concerned with commercialism, then maybe he meant it in terms of that.

Maybe.

Maybe not.

'Tis me (on someone else's comp).

Hiya!

I'm in...

No telly, no comp, upstairs and the lounge finished, start work on the kitchen and bog tomorrow.

Finally put up my genuine Black Forest (German) cuckoo clock that I got for Xmas 2005... it's quite loud really... it's gone from applauding it for the first series of full hourly cuckoos, and even the quarter hour one, to being locked in it's 'nest' at night as it wakes me up with a start! Still... someone told me today that they shot their cuckoo with an air rifle when they were 13 and got battered!

Can't get used to being overlooked... and it's DEAD quiet, I could dance naked in front of my bedroom window, should the fancy take me, but I've given up naked dancing for lent.

See you soon...

x

Good on ya, Smorgie.

Do you feel settled in now?

You want your street to stay quiet, though, forget about the nekkid dancing, is my advice this evening.

Tomorrow is another day.

I see you poor pommies got a tough draw (group C) in the cricket world cup.

Never Mind you wern't going to win anyway.

well done happy landings this made me laugh thanks

Echt schwarzwaeldiger Kukuksuhr, sagst du? Fandabbydozie.

Bloody hell, did you see that Grand Designs this evening?

Bloody hell.

no, missed it. Please give full account, including all gruesome detail. (assuming it was gruesome)

Are you serious Steve? You surely don't want the gruesome details. You know how easily upset you are.

http://www.channel4.com/4homes/ontv/grand-designs/index.html

The first episode of the new series.
Catch a repeat if you can, this week.

They started with a ruined "Ancient Monument" -four walls, no roof, and the main interior wall fell down during the clearing of rubble.

They finished with a magnificent job.

Totally stunning, high quality, few if any compromises, unbelievable outcome.

used to be. This site has immunised me against gruesome. Quite like it now. With a little milk and sugar of course.

I saw about 15 minutes of GD last night.

It was terrible. The stonework was exceedingly amateurish. It was all about using expenditure and created jobs to work power plays. Not to put too fine a point on it it was sadistic.

Every line delivered made me laugh.

When the job is finished the house will overpower its occupants and they will drive themselves nuts insisting it is wonderful.

I daresay the guy was being driven by his wife and daughters and semi-educated nitwits in the bureaucracies he had to deal with.

It was an advert. The whole show is an advert.

What was the source of his finance?

Er...speaking of semi-educated nitwits, Spendy's opinion is, as ever, his own.

The project and the programme were inspirational, if you ignore Kevin McLeod, whose style is beginning to get on my tits.

I thought it was just wonderful, and so did Mrs McTag. It certainly puts your average DIY into a different perspective. And the stonemasons were fantastic. What can I say? I'd like to see it again. Look for the repeat.

Give over Mac- the stonework I saw was the equivalent of a 3-yr old's writing style. I've seen walls encircling large estates miles better than that. It was pretension foaming at the mouth.

I have a book on stone building. I built a three car garage out of sandstone from a demolition contract. And a ten-ton fireplace out of slate stone and teak from a robber baron's office. You can't beat teak.

You were probably taken in by the cash splurge and control freakery the programme exhibited exhorbitantly. The guy was a gink. A Grauniad reader probably. The truck driver delivering the last output of the bankrupt quarry was the best. And then it wasn't bankrupt after all- so what was that doing in the story? Lazy stuff there. Cheap rate. It was all seductive rhetoric. Bullshit actually. Mindless pap.

You would have been better off reading Naked Lunch and getting hard-wired into the world we live in.

Yeah yeah yeah whatever.

Well done on the building front- my stone building efforts have been limited to a wall, with reclaimed red sandstone.
I have built a house extension in brick, though, by myself. It's still standing.

Steve, if you're there, that programme is on again tonight at 10:00 on More4.

Have a look and then you can support my point of view. If you agree with it.