Tales From The Crypt - Tuesday 11th October 2022

Back to work again, but with the added excitement of a dentist visit, though in all other respects it's likely to be a quiet day, excepting work.

I started the day by creating samples for two separate bowel-cancer screening tests.  Now that's what I call entertainment! Not.

Work is definitely the better option.

After an additional lunchtime meeting that I volunteered to attend, it's time to get ready so that I can present clean teeth to the dentist. Obviously the teeth come with my head and the rest of me. I didn't get then couriered across. Just to avoid the possibility of misunderstanding. 

Back from the dentist after my hygienist visit and check-up.  I need a ruddy filling. No wonder dentists go on holiday to such far-flung destinations.

Managed to juggle a few appointments to keep the week of 24th October free (I will be working still, naturally).  Plans are emerging.

Son #1 has done a little better in establishing his new routine and has managed a call with the GP surgery.  Eating the elephant.

I get dinner underway and son #2 takes over part way through.  We sit down and eat together, mostly, and start watching the new Dylan Moran comedy series 'Stuck', which is as funny as I'd hoped for.  Great dialogue. 

Over dinner (between episodes - they're only 15 minutes long) we discuss some aggro son #2 is having at work.  We try and help but it's some internal politics that only he can navigate.

After the second episode of 'Stuck', son #1 and I watched more of 'Sensationalists: The bad girls and boys of British Art'. Great series with some fine music from the 1990s.  I shall have to find time to watch the whole series from beginning to end.

My journey to sleep is navigated along a route that includes chatting with Q, reading a poem, reading a music magazine ('On Your Feet or On Your Knees' is a clue to the subject of the article I finished), and listening to BBC 6 Music.

Scritti Politti / 'The Sweetest Girl' / 'Songs To Remember'

[[One of those songs...

This is enjoyable on so many levels from the Canterbury sound keyboards (played by Robert Wyatt, another hero), to the deceptive lyrics.  When the band began, Green Gartside (singer and writer), was heavily into the politics of language, philosophy and how to subvert the medium.  The lyrics are both a love song but also a critique of the well-worn nature of the language of love (also listen to 'The Word Girl', which I think was originally released as ''The Word' Girl' with the placing of the quotes being significant), as well as having a political (gender and governmental) dimension. 

The album from this comes also includes a song titled 'Jacques Derrida' which gives another clue to Gartside's headspace at the time.

For added interest (?), the band's name is an indirect reference to Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, whose name I know, but about whom I know 2/3 of 4/5 of FA squared. I should rectify that at some point. 

Whatever you take from the song, it is simply exquisite.]]