Early Risers.

[monkeysarefun]

Can I mention there's not a cloud to be seen here? Thought not.

 

Currently sitting in the cinema waiting for the film to start. In my mind therre was meant to be 100s of people which is why I booked on the internet but turns out it's just me and one couple. It's Mad Max - what's happened to Australians these days?!I   remember when the first one came out the queue of cars waiting to get into  the drive-in stretched right out onto the highway.

 

Cinemas seem so automated these days that they don't even have anyone at the door to check the ticket, I could probably have just walked in off the street and wandered in for free.

[jjb1970]

I was watching Mrs JJB welding a cleaver this morning,  preparing something for tonight's dinner. As I marvelled at that Asian skill at using a cleaver (they love cleavers, who needs a chefs knife?) I couldn't help thinking it's probably a good idea not to risk upsetting her.

[AndyID]

The stubby blue ones have died off but these seem to be doing OK.

 

 

[jjb1970]

I seem to have drawn the long straw, I am blessed! I can't think of a better time to be on the opposite side of the world, missing weeks of being promised everything in the world if we are only wise enough to vote for the right party accompanied by endless media talking heads talking b*ll*x. Good luck to y'all to get through it without throwing a heavy blunt object at the TV.

[AndyID]

15 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

I seem to have drawn the long straw, I am blessed! I can't think of a better time to be on the opposite side of the world, missing weeks of being promised everything in the world if we are only wise enough to vote for the right party accompanied by endless media talking heads talking b*ll*x. Good luck to y'all to get through it without throwing a heavy blunt object at the TV.

 

I know how you feel. But even in the completely insane politics of North Idaho the iris keep on blooming.

[Ozexpatriate]

16 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Some other songs get misinterpreted though. The Police “Every breath you take” isn’t romantic, it is about a stalker .

Just about every Police song is dark - and the upbeat 'pop-rock' sound is incongruous.

 

Roxanne - a prostitute

Don't stand so close to me - A teacher* struggling with feelings of pædophilia

Message in a bottle - loneliness

Every little thing she does is magic - an unrequited crush

Invisible sun - how many depressing outcomes can you count - is it "hopeful"? maybe, but it's still dark

King of pain - enough said

An Englishman in New York - Gordon solo - commentary on guns and immigration in the US: "Gentleness, sobriety are rare in this society"

 

I could go on.

 

Everyone of them is a fabulous song - great for singing along. It's weird but there it is.

 

* The phrasing of:

He starts to shake and cough

Just like the - old man in -

That book by Nabokov 

 

Is quite brilliant.

 

Edited May 23 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

14 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Bryan Adams “Summer of 69” isn’t about 1969. 

It is about a yearning for lost youth, but it's not nearly as dark as The Police.

[Ozexpatriate]

13 hours ago, DaveF said:

It might be HMS Patia as it appears he was probably still serving on her when she was sunk by UC-49 in June 1918.

No dazzle stripes on the funnel here.  Caption says:

Quote

Believed HMS Patia, described in one source as "sank upright in shallow water", but uncertain 

Your vessel did not sink upright - at least at the end. Inconclusive though.

 

Ooops - @Hroth was there first.

13 hours ago, Hroth said:

Found an interesting resource, the log book of HMS Patia, an Armed Merchant Cruiser, converted from a refrigerated Banana boat in 1914.

Catching up is hard sometimes.

 

Edited May 23 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

13 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

an old Mickey Rooney movie is way darker.

James Cagney. Angels with Dirty Faces. Cagney was "Rocky" In Angels with Dirty Faces - seen in the newspaper at the end.

 

From the comments: 

Quote

Clips from Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), Each Dawn I Die (1939), Brute Force (1947), and I Want to Live! (1958)

 

Cagney was in Each Dawn I Die as well. The other two starred Burt Lancaster and Susan Hayward.

[Ozexpatriate]

8 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

the actions of the elected government of the day, affects us, but we don't get a say

No representation eh?

 

You need to convince le compte de Vergennes to talk Louis XVI into lending you his army for a while. 

 

Perhaps not. It worked in 1778-ish.

[Ozexpatriate]

3 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Can I mention there's not a cloud to be seen here? Thought not.

Passing showers were forecast here after a persistently drizzly day yesterday. In the end partly cloudy / mostly sunny with not a drop of rain that I noticed.

 

3 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Cinemas seem so automated these days that they don't even have anyone at the door to check the ticket, I could probably have just walked in off the street and wandered in for free.

They closed all but one of the cinemas near me because a British chain (Cineworld) that owned a US subsidiary that served this area went bankrupt. Such is life in the global economy.

 

They kept the newest one open and it is consequently slammed - at least when I go there. Before all the others (three in reasonable proximity) closed they weren't thronged but had scaled back service such that the overheads were relatively low and I was happy to go to the cinema and sit in a mostly empty auditorium.

[AndyID]

9 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Passing showers were forecast here after a persistently drizzly day yesterday. In the end partly cloudy / mostly sunny with not a drop of rain that I noticed.

 

 

It was whizzing down here enough last night and this morning that I put the car out to let it get washed 😀

[Ozexpatriate]

11 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

Hate to say it, but,   

...

At least you've got limits on the time and money spent on pre-election sabre rattling 

To borrow our resident umpire's expression - Pah!

 

Primary election day in Oregon was yesterday. We've had weeks of blue-on-blue crime as candidates from the same party attacked each other over the right to contest two house seats in November. It was ugly. One of those seats might influence the balance of power in the House of Representatives for the next Congress so there was a conveyor belt of funding for television commercials. 

 

A foretaste of what we will see in upcoming months, where it will get even more acrimonious. 42 days sounds a lot better to endure than the more than five months we will see here.

 

There was a recent article about a $10m television ad buy commitment for the November election to support flipping the insecure seat. $9.5m of that will be in the Portland market. (This is only one source of advertising money for one candidate. There will be much more.)  Cha-ching! for television stations. None of that money will benefit the local community - it goes to the corporate parents of the television stations nationally.

 

Edited May 23 by Ozexpatriate

[AndyID]

5 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

To borrow our resident umpire's expression - Pah!

 

Primary election day in Oregon was yesterday. We've had weeks of blue-on-blue crime as candidates from the same party attacked each other over the right to contest two house seats in November. It was ugly. One of those seats might influence the balance of power in the House of Representatives for the next Congress so there was a conveyor belt of funding for television commercials. 

 

A foretaste of what we will see in upcoming months, where it will get even more acrimonious. 42 days sounds a lot better to endure than the more than five months we will see here.

 

If I wasn't so old I would perhaps be inclined to try to do something about the idiotically non-democtratic system we have here.

[monkeysarefun]

13 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

Shouldnt you have watched Mad Max 4 for the sake of continuity? 

 

 

Ha ha ........no!

 

Mad Max 5 takes place BEFORE the events in Mad Max 4, In fact the end of the new movie sets up the opening scenes in Fury Road, which I shall now watch next and thus keep continuity perfectly in step.

 

 

 

Mad Max 5 though - phew.... not many quiet moments!  But wow, what a wild ride, Chris Hemsworth should get the best actor Oscar for his role as evil villain that he  injected sly Australian blokeness into  -  "Are you questioning my bossivity?"

 

I'd rate it over Fury Road and probably better than Mad Max 2, so My mad Max preference list now becomes
Mad Max 1 (A sentimental favourite)

Mad Max 5

Mad Max 2

Mad Max 4 (Fury Road) -  (Lost points for having Tom Hardy rather than Mel Gibson  in it, especially  since its just been revealed what a complete tool he was on the set!)

Mad Max 3

 

 

Taking the morning off work in order  to see Mad Max:    5 stars!

 

Edited May 23 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

11 hours ago, Hroth said:

And possibly to note that we're now due for 6 weeks of fabrication and mudslinging on all sides

AND, at the end of it all yous don't even get a sausage sandwich out of it!

[enz]

36 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

No representation eh?

 

You need to convince le compte de Vergennes to talk Louis XVI into lending you his army for a while. 

 

Perhaps not. It worked in 1778-ish.

Army, or Navy. I'd go Navy - the Fraggle Rock Liberation Army can do the land work. Or , if it doens't succeed, renamed the Fragged Rock Liberation Army.

 

[Ozexpatriate]

2 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Mel Gibson

Persona non grata these days.

[Ozexpatriate]

Just now, enz said:

Army, or Navy. I'd go Navy - the Fraggle Rock Liberation Army can do the land work. Or , if it doens't succeed, renamed the Fragged Rock Liberation Army.

My earlier comment was a bit flippant. It was la Marine Royale that made all the difference in 1781. L' Armée Royale Française helped - a bit.

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

No dazzle stripes on the funnel here.  Caption says:

Your vessel did not sink upright - at least at the end. Inconclusive though.

 

Ooops - @Hroth was there first.

Catching up is hard sometimes.

 

To make it trickier ANOTHER HMS Patia was sunk in 1941.....

[Ozexpatriate]

13 hours ago, DaveF said:

Many thanks for this.  I have sent one of the photos to the IWM to see if they know anything.  It is certainly a similar ship, a number were lost in WW1.

There is an image on Wikimedia labeled as the sinking of HMS Patia. It has dazzle stripes - on hull and funnel.

 

One from 1913* - very dazzle.

 

* Per filename - which makes no sense. No dazzle was used until after hostilities began (as far as I know).

 

Edited May 23 by Ozexpatriate

[enz]

14 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

My earlier comment was a bit flippant. It was la Marine Royale that made all the difference in 1781. L' Armée Royale Française helped - a bit.

 

So was mine ;).

 

Although a thought has occurred - anyone considering liberating the Isle of Man from it's tyranny (if any of it's taxes go to support the London govt? - I don't know), now may not be the time. Recalling that an unpopular leader of Great Britain was able to be re-elected on the strength of a successful war over some small islands in the south Atlantic, this might give the current incumbent ideas for a rerun... .

[Ozexpatriate]

21 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

To make it trickier ANOTHER HMS Patia was sunk in 1941.....

There's a nice picture of the (un)converted catapult ship here.

 

Ironically bombed by a Heinkel He111 while on her way to collect her one Hawker Hurricane for convoy defence when she was sunk.

Quote

HMS Patia was just on its way to pick up her first Hawker Sea Hurricane fighter. Near Boulmer, off the coast of Northumberland, a Heinkel He111 attacked the ship. The bomber surprised the crew and dropped two 250 kg bombs. Although the bombs missed their target, the bomber's machine gun fire killed four crew members of HMS Patia. The bomber returned and now dropped two 500 kg bombs. This time the gunners from HMS Patia were ready and shot down the bomber. However, one of the aircraft's bombs struck HMS Patia, killing many crew members. The ship immediately began to sink and had to be abandoned. 

 

Apparently the fighter catapult ships were configured to launch "a" fighter for convoy defence on a one-way mission, even if not shot down, the fighter (a Fairey Fulmar* or Hurricane) would ditch and the pilot hope to be rescued.   Nothing says desperation like intentional one-way missions.

 

* Yikes! Perhaps a suitable flying machine for a one-way mission?

 

Edited May 23 by Ozexpatriate

[polybear]

7 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

Looks like a Penstaman but might be wrong.

 

7 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Gladiolus Byzantinus. Not that I knew that.

 

"The tall purple one" works for this Bear.

 

4 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

I was watching Mrs JJB welding a cleaver this morning,  preparing something for tonight's dinner. As I marvelled at that Asian skill at using a cleaver (they love cleavers, who needs a chefs knife?) I couldn't help thinking it's probably a good idea not to risk upsetting her.

 

Bear's Tip of the Day:

 

Always count all Mrs JJB's fingers n' thumbs before scoffing that meat pie she's just made.

 

 

[Grizz]

5 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

I was watching Mrs JJB welding a cleaver this morning,  preparing something for tonight's dinner….. Snip… I couldn't help thinking it's probably a good idea not to risk upsetting her.

Yes the same thought has crossed my mind many, many times when Mrs Grizz is in the kitchen. I suspect that she could separate me from my most precious possessions in a split second, were I to really really upset her. 
 

I think it is in her Viking DNA. It isn’t so much a learned skill with culinary weaponry, it is more a genetic predisposition to subconsciously wield weapons, that luckily up until now have taken the form of razor sharp kitchen tools, whilst absentmindedly multitasking……which includes watching the tv. 
 

So far I haven’t noticed any missing fingers in any pies………….Mmmmmmmm pies……custardy pies…..mmmmmmmmm…….custard……

Edited May 23 by Grizz
Selipign