Ryco's three favourite songs of the week 3!

Wunderbar by Tenpole Tudor
From the album Eddie, Old Bob, Dick and Gary



Ah Tenpole, best known for two things, the first being their leader singer's incredibly tight pants and Swords of a thousand Men. While I like Swords, I prefer Wunderbar (Not named after the chocolate made by Cadbury, nor the bra made by playtex) the as it's so bouncy and chantalongable (Which shall be my new favorite made up word of the week). Ed Tudor Pole, the lead singer of Tenpole is best known for his spell hosting the Crystal Maze, a cult British TV series, admittedly his spell wasn't as memorable as Richard O'Brian's, but he was a hard act to follow, just ask anyone who's performed in stage productions of the Rocky Horror Picture show. Ed is also a descendant of Henry the Eighth which is kind of funny really, someone who rose to fame during the Punk era being a descendant of someone who helped found the establishment as we know it. ^.^

Good Boys By Blondie
(From The Curse of Blondie)



Each time Blondie come back with a new album, people say 'They've still got it' like it's some sort of surprise... It's not, they're still as awesome now as they were in the albums released before I was born. It's funny, Deborah Harry doesn't have the best voice and the songs aren't spectacular lyrically, but it all just clicks and works for me. Good Boys has a Giorgio Moroder vibe to it, Moroder even providing a remix for the Album. Brian May is credited as a songwriter because one of the lines is a homage to We will Rock you and Queen threatened to sue... One of the many reasons why the current Queen lineup are thoroughly unlikeable.

Blondie have a new album out next month called Panic of Girls, featuring a cover of Don't Stop by Michael Jackson, which is pretty goshdarned awesome, hopefully the rest of the songs will be of that standard.

Red Dragon Tattoo by Fountains of Wayne.
From Utopia Parkway



I first heard this song in the Stephen King Series, Kingdom Hospital (Based on The Kingdom, by Lars von Trier) where it seemed to be played just before anything bad happened in the modern day, people getting flattened by vans and so on. Adam Schlesinger from the band providing the theme song to the series and Stephen King is meant to be a big fan of this band, and so am I... Otherwise I wouldn't be making this blog post. ^.^ It's your typical song about a young guy, desperately trying to get the attention of a girl by any means possible, something most people who've been a teenage boy can empathise with... Not me though, I spent my teenage years trying to be invisible, but that's another story.

-Ryco.

And I'll form the head...

Well, at long last the election season is over and we finally have a new government, a Liberal Democrat/Conservative government led by Cameron and Clegg and I for one couldn't be happier... In our current circumstances, it's the best outcome we could hope for.
There are many reasons I'm happy to be led by Cameron and Clegg, firstly, it's because they sound like a pop duo like Hall and Oates, Simon and Garfunkel and Pat and Mick... A part of me will always hope that they'll hire Stock, Aitken and Waterman for their first single, which will no doubt chart as highly as the SAW produced first release by the girls from the Sheila's wheels advert did. I also like the way their name has been shortened to people on the internet to Cleggeron, which I can't help but imagine as a twisted conservative form of Lion Voltron with Liberal Democrats for arms... Lets face it, they're the arms as without them, Voltron won't be able to do much other than run around, making noise, kicking things ineffectually with the occasional argument over who forms the head.
Seriously though, this is the best government anyone could have hope for given the circumstances and is considerably better than the alternatives on offer.

The first option was for the Lib Dems to team up with Labour, Plaid Cymru and the SNP, which would destroy both the Labour party and the Liberal democrats in England as it would be seen as stealing an election. I can't believe that it was ever seriously considered by either the Liberal Democrats or Labour really as there is no way the SNP having power to make policy that affects England would end well, it would be like asking a vulture for help crossing the desert. The only way the SNP can get what they want is by creating as much friction as possible between England and Scotland so it's not in their interest to do what's best for the country. The moment that the labour party stopped giving in to the nationalists, they would walk out and Labour and the Lib Dems would be annihilated in the following election, giving the conservatives carte blanche to push through whatever crazy legislation they want for the next 5 years.

The second option would have been to let the conservatives govern alone in minority, which wouldn't have been in the best interests of anyone, it would have led to political paralysis in the end which is the last thing any country needs at this time... And again, there's always the chance of them getting a majority if they were re-elected, saying the other parties were unwilling to help run the country in it's hour of need.

The third, the Lib-Conservative coalition is the best option, the party that won the most votes is in power and the liberal democrats are there to help cut out the crazy. The Toreies know if they try to push through things that will be to the detriment of most of the population it'll never fly, we'll have actual debates to get legislation passed and the New Labour project is dead... At least it should be if there's any sanity left in politics. Hopefully labour will spend their time in the wilderness rediscovering the policies their party was founded on, equality and socialism, and British politics will once again have a left rather than two versions of the right.

I must admit that I get some pleasure from just how upset some labour supporters are about it, claiming that the sky will fall under a Lib Dem/Tory regime while ignoring just how right wing the labour government has been. Honestly, if you're upset because you feel you wasted your vote because you voted for the Lib Dems just to keep the Tories out rather than because of their policies, I feel no sympathy for you at all. I vote green despite them having little chance of getting into power as I feel votes should be used for what you believe in, not to try to screw over people who believe different. People have no right to complain when a party they don't believe in, but voted for, does things they don't believe in. The Lib Dems are a centrist political party, not a sock puppet to be put on the left hand only when it's convenient.

One final thought before I stop ranting, when Cameron takes paternity leave in a few months, Nick Clegg will be Prime minister, a thought that's made all the sweeter by his religious views. See, in America, you can't get elected if you're not a devout Christian, but for a brief time, our PM will be an Aetheist. I'm sure the religious right in this country will be thoroughly mortified... All three of them. For those people, I have one word... Good. ^_^

-Ryco.

Ryco's three favourite songs of the week 2!

You know it was coming, so here it is! More musical ramblings, just whatyou always wanted. It was either this, or Transformers. ^.^

I Feel for You by Prince
From the album Prince

Now, it was only a matter of time before I mentioned something involving Prince as let's face it, he wrote a hell of a lot of songs (Rumoured to be over 1000), a large chunk of which were either awesome, bizarre, or hits when performed by other people, I feel for you is one of the latter. Prince was known for performing and recording songs he'd written for others first and having them duplicate his performance in the studio so there are some rather interesting bootlegs out there, like his version of Martika's Kitchen and Manic Monday.

Most people know the Chaka Khan (I almost typoed that at Chakat Kahn, which is nightmare fuel, really) version with the rapping bit at the beginning by Melle Mel (who is best known for performing White Lines which is often miscredited to Grandmaster Flash despite Flash having nothing to do with the record) and there was also a version by the Pointer Sisters which was never released as a single... Still, I must say that this is my favorite version... His vocals just do it for me far more than Ms. Khan's or the Pointer Sisters, which isn't to say they're bad, he's just far more funky. Admittedly, the song is basically about people who confuse lust with love, but at least he's honest, he doesn't pretend that it's anything other that a physical thing.

Prince and Prince's people are notoriously obsessive with keeping all his work off the internet, so I have no doubt that most of before long the links here will be dead, so enjoy them while you can.

We All Stand Together by Paul McCartney
From the album Give My Regards to Broad Street

Paul McCartney has done some questionable things in his time, Heather Mills, Wings, most of the songs on McCartney II (I'm sure this album is the soundtrack to one of the many levels of hell, Bogey Music... No, just no!) and to some, this song is up there with them... Still, I don't care what people think, I love it, I think it's a decent, if slightly cheesy pop song with a rather charming video... Well, for the most part, I have a random hatred of Rupert the Bear (I'm not a fan of morphic bear characters, but I really hate Rupert.... stupid sickly sweet albino, ugh), and the cats and the owl are creepy as heck, they look like they probably devoured most of the cast after the end of the video.

For some reason, the Headmaster of my highschool decided that this should be played at random assemblies as our school's anthem... He was a stramge, strange man, but charming, so the song fits to him, really.

How will you go? by Crowded House
From the album Woodface

(Not the original version, but it's still pretty good.)

Escape is on your mind again
Escape to a faraway land...

Sometimes I wish I could run away and keep running until I get to where I need to be... This is a good song for those times.

-Ryco

Powered by Qumana

Showbiz for ugly people.

So, the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru are launching a legal action over the Beeb's decision to exclude them from the televised Leadership debate... Hmm, I'm sure they'd both have more of a case if they put candidates up for election in the rest of the country and had received more than a combined 2.1% of the total UK vote in the 2005 election, then they might have have more of a case for getting on national TV. I'm sure they'd get more support for independence if they did give the majority of voters in the UK a chance to say what they feel about the issue as lets face it, most people are sick and fed up of people like Alex Salmond preaching to people who think that the events depicted in a certain Mel Gibson film are an accurate representation of history and a representation of the state of play in modern Britain... Seriously, appealing to people who think Braveheart is real is like using Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome as the basis of a case for Australia to become a republic. Damn you Queen Tina Turner, damn you to heck! Thinking about it, I think I'd prefer Tina Turner as our head of state, if only to get 'What's Love Got to Do With it?' as our national anthem... I'm sure 'Simply The Best' would be considered, but that's more of an America type of song, you know... We're far too self deprecating and slightly cynical.

On the subject of voting, the Lib Dems want electoral reform as a precondition if they're to form part of a coalition, a switch to Proportional Representation which the European Elections have shown is an absolutely dreadful idea. Seriously, the system we have right now is poor, but PR will bring all the screaming nutjobs a step closer to actual power as it has in the European elections. I know parties I lean toward like the Greens would benefit greatly from that system, but it would mean we get UKIP loons and god forbid, the BNP reaching parliament which is nightmare fuel. I don't want those nutjobs anywhere near power, it'd be an embarrassment to the country and to my species, I want to vote Lib Dem, but as long as proportional representation remains such a big priority for them, I'm not sure I will. Seriously, if a political party makes me seem sane, they shouldn't be allowed near power, ever... Then, that would disallow 99.9% of all political parties everywhere... Which probably wouldn't be a bad thing.

-Ryco.

Ryco's three favourite songs of the week!

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I listen to a -lot- of music so I thought I'd use my shiny new blog to ramble about it. So, with no further adieu, here are my three favourite songs of the week! *plays a fanfare on his thumb* Tantadada!

Bu Bu Poruche by Melody Chubak
From the soundtrack to Loco Roco.



Aka, Yellow's theme, it's a song from the soundtrack to Loco Roco, which the only reason I ever touch my PSP. (Seriously Sony, sort the browser out or let someone who can write a decent browser do so.) It's bright, sunny and written in a delightful nonsense language, I can't help but smile whenever I hear it and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

The longest time by Billy Joel
From the album An Innocent Man.



I'm a sucker for Billy Joel and his flirtation with Doo-wop in the mid 80s, Uptown Girl is pretty awesome too, but this song is far prettier and far more impressive, considering Billy Joel did all the voices on it. Admittedly, this song seems to have spawned a thousand Youtube impersonators, but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and unlike Uptown Girl, it is yet to be murdered by an Oirish boyband... I'm pretty sure Westlife were created to stop U2 being the most embarrassing band to come from Ireland. (Hi, I'm Bono and I'm planning a lifelong poverty fight and to start, I'm moving my business abroad to pay less tax.)

Days by Kirsty MacColl
(From the album Kite)



A cover of a Kinks Track which, unlike the afore mentioned Billy Joel cover version and 95% of covers in general, manages to be better than the original. It makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck at times and it makes me feel more than a little melancholy. Listening to it takes me back to when I first heard it, reminding me of simpler times when I was still in bright eyed and innocent and I was more in love with life. It also reminds me of all the people I've known who I've let go without ever saying thankyou, people who I've just drifted apart from for various reasons and found that it's far too late to thank them now I'm grown up enough to appreciate them more... Still, I'll remember those days all my life and treasure them, it's all I can do.

Still, melancholy thoughts aside, it's a beautiful song and Kirsty's version is outstanding. It shows off just how wonderful a voice she had, it's more than a little haunting given her tragic death, still this is the song that made me fall in love with her work and the song that I point people at when I feel like telling someone just how wonderful an artist she was.

-Ryco.

I hate the Transformers Cartoon.

You know, if anyone ever wanted to torture me, they wouldn't need to need to waterboard me, they wouldn't need to deprive me of sleep, all they'd need to do is make me sit through the original Transformers cartoon as it's horrible on so many levels and manages to make my heart sink whenever I have the misfortune to have to sit through it.

It's a wasted opportunity that somehow managed to run for nearly a hundred episodes, only a handful of them anything approaching watchable. The rest were an ungodly mess, filled with dodgy animation and zero continuity, with nearly all the characterisation provided by the voice actors. In three and a bit seasons, only one character received anything approaching growth, Rodimus Prime, and that was wiped out before the end to make way for more Optimus Prime. I wouldn't mind that much if it weren't for the fact that a huge chunk of Transformers fans want everything to be just like it, or their hazy memories of it, and sadly the people in charge of Transformers Generation 1 fiction want to actively target these people, throwing out interesting stories in favour of making everything like that mess and it breaks my heart. There's are so many potentially interesting stories to tell based on the first generation of Transformers, but people seem to favour an incredibly stunted version where every story ends with Autobots cheering and waving their arms in the air over letting the series have anything approaching depth. It's a lot like expecting all Spiderman or X-men fiction to be based on Spiderman and his Amazing Friends as that was popular back in the day.

In the early 80's, a reasonably decent writer at Marvel, Bob Bundiansky, was assigned the task of fleshing out the Transformers universe, he assigned names, detailed characters and made an interesting universe and it was all ignored by writers with zero passion for their art, writing stories that even they will admit were weak. All the characters intended to have depth were relegated to the role of stooges and crowd filler. I know this was standard for cartoons of the time, but the comics that ran simultaneously handled everything so much better, working from the same material aimed at the same audience.

To give it it's due, it was good at what it was made to do, to sell toys, it was better at that than a lot of it's contemporaries, it was a heck of a lot better than Masters of the Universe, or Go-Bots, but that doesn't make it any more netertaining. Comparing it to the Franco-Japanese productions of the time shows just how poor it was, heck, even comparing it to other Transformers fiction from the time does too. As a kid, I hated the way that ITV treated Transformers, breaking each episode up into small chunks, to make room for more Timmy Mallet, then giving up most of the way through the first season, but as an adult I'm glad they did as it made me seek out the comics which made me forget all about the toon. The comics were decent fiction for the day, that tried to treat intelligence of the audience with some respect which treated Transformers the same as any other Marvel property at the time... Thinking of which, I can't help but feel we'd have gotten much better modern day film adaptations (I am quite fond of the 86 Movie, it falls into the 'handful of good episodes' category) if the rights to Transformers were owned by Marvel, but that's a different rant.

-Ryco.

New Lib Dem vote grabber!

Watching Channel 4 news earlier, I was surprised to see that the Lib Dems have a new tactic for the upcoming election. They've started putting Muppets up for election, aiming to get the elusive felt skinned vote! Admittedly they've changed Beaker's name to Danny Alexander MP, but it's undeniably him!

It's a bit of a shame that Bunsen Honeydew is working for the Conservatives, under the name of William Hague, but the tories have been putting Muppets up for election since before I was born so it doesn't come as much of a surprise.

I'm left with one important question, which party will Animal represent? Squirrels need answers!

-Ryco.