Photos from Yesterday

Arrived back from Brighton today this midday , twelve to be precise, as i caught the early bus.

More photos from the previous day and evening festivities.



Bags of records. My bag of records is just off the picture to the left.




Jake Hollywood talking to a punter about his eighties music. The man had the nerve to play a Tina Turner track!



Ville cueing up a record




Jake Hollywood mingling with the customers. The youg lady on the left in the white vest was he one who hugged and kissed me for playing her favourite song.




Inside the trendy Cask ale house



A wide choice of drinks at the bar in Cask



Another view of the Evening Star.



Jake trying to decide which was his drink.



A shopping mall in Tunbridge Wells

On Yer Bike

I rarely speak about politics in these pages, but sometimes I see trends which are worrying.

Social mobility is not so much an aspiration but as a weird blip: a few people got away with it 40 years ago, but normal service - the class system - has been resumed. More people believed they were middle class more, but in fact the wealthiest have further ahead and those at the bottom are clumped together in worklessness and despair. The reality is that class is not loosening but tightening its grip on the education system that is systematically choking off the exit routes for anyone not born to rule.

Meanwhile, Adrian Beecroft gives the Tories money and has his plans for clubbing the workers given serious consideration by these Tory plutocrats. The plans were halted by Vince Cable, but it proves one thing, the bad old rich kids are not to be trusted, and like a leopard a true Tory never changes his spots.

Marx was right, capitalism will eat itself., and generally rotten to the core.

Book 25 - Guy de Maupassant "Selected Short Stories"

Guy de Maupassant "Selected Short Stories" (Penguin)



Guy de Maupassant was best known for his short stories, and it's not hard to see why. He doesn't always seem too concerned with closure of a story, which was a little disconcerting for the first two or three, especially his well-known "Boule de Suif", about a French prostitute on a journey with some other, more "respectable" French when France was losing the Franco-Prussian War, and the heart-wrenching hypocrisy of her comrades when a Prussian officer takes a fancy to her and detains the travelling party until she submits to his desires. There are several gems here, some poignant, some tragic, some almost surreal in their absurdity. I especially liked "An Old Man", "Rust", "Two Friends", "My Uncle Jules", "Regret", and "Guillemot Rock".

A few of these stories are pleasantly macabre, and Maupassant surprises by his refreshingly modern attitudes about love, sex, relationships, religion and culture, not what one would expect of a Frenchman of the late 1800's. Or perhaps it's just what one would expect. Kudos also to the translator, who does a fine job of keeping the stories fresh and accessible.

My tweets

• Sat, 18:05: Funkathon - Northern Lights 25 May 2012 http://t.co/gqkvt4z9
• Sat, 22:59: RT @brightonbulldog: Eurovision 2013 - Vera Lynn to represent United Kingdom...;)
• Sat, 23:00: Once again i manage to avoid the Eurovision Song crap by being asleep!
• Sat, 23:06: Isn't it time the Eurovision Song contest was scrapped? Useless as music by one hit wonders never seen again. Plus the music is shite!
• Sat, 23:09: Another night of listening to Spot cough all night
• Sat, 23:28: Photos from Yesterday http://t.co/uXYqT6N0
• Sun, 08:15: Book 25 - Guy de Maupassant "Selected Short Stories" http://t.co/e7g61Rsv