The Bleak

This is just a coal town
And all the people there
Are sheltering from the cold winds
On the crest of the big bleak hill

And Mary's got an argument
The argument's quite loud
And the shouting's entertainment
To the other folk around

And the gossip's been getting out of hand
It's a ruthless old sound
And no–one's out there working
'Cos there's none to be found
And when the steam builds up inside you
And there's no place to fall
Well there is nothing quite as harmful
As the slow moving day

It's a town that they make films about
Because the bleak's quite beautiful
When the light and the delicate features
Are captured very still

And so much for all the history
The Martyrs and the Kings —
When the fight that was the good fight
Was the fight that you didn't win

— David Bridie 'The Gossip'

Mind The Gap

He knew the world and its absurdities as only an intelligent Irishman can; which is to say that where his knowledge or memory failed him, his imagination was always ready to fill the gap.
— John Fowles 'The French Lieutenant's Woman'

The Darkest Corners

A valueless collection of hopes and past desires.
— Ian Curtis 'Twenty-Four Hours'

The Edge Of No Escape

Confusion in her eyes that says it all.
She's lost control.
And she's clinging to the nearest passer by,
She's lost control.
And she gave away the secrets of her past,
And said I've lost control again,
And of a voice that told her when and where to act,
She said I've lost control again.

And she turned around and took me by the hand
And said I've lost control again.
And how I'll never know just why or understand
She said I've lost control again.
And she screamed out kicking on her side
And said I've lost control again.
And seized up on the floor, I thought she'd die.
She said I've lost control.
She's lost control again.
She's lost control.
She's lost control again.
She's lost control.

Well I had to phone her friend to state my case,
And say she's lost control again.
And she showed up all the errors and mistakes,
And said I've lost control again.
But she expressed herself in many different ways,
Until she lost control again.
And walked upon the edge of no escape,
And laughed I've lost control.
She's lost control again.
She's lost control.
She's lost control again.
She's lost control.

I could live a little better with the myths and the lies,
When the darkness broke in, I just broke down and cried.
I could live a little in a wider line,
When the change is gone, when the urge is gone,
To lose control. When here we come.

— Ian Curtis 'She's Lost Control'

Away From The Shoals

You live your life as if it's real,
a thousand kisses deep.
— Leonard Cohen 'A Thousand Kisses Deep'

Jealous Guard

But whose head is this she's dancing with on the threshing floor
whose darkness deepens in her arms a little more
— Leonard Cohen 'The Gypsy's Wife'

Over

The stars in the heavens still shine
up above me:
how lovely they'd seem
if you were with me
but you're gone through the looking-glass
and I am left to pass these nights alone.

I'm lost, I'm dumb, I'm blind,
I am drunk with sadness,
sunk by madness,
the wave overwhelms me,
the mirror repels me,
the echo of your laugh
drifts through the looking-glass
and I am alone.

No friendship, no comfort, no future, no home,
the past lingers with me:
you're all the love I've ever known
and without you I'm nothing
but empty and silent,
reflecting on all that I've lost.
I let you slip away so soon.

Can you hear me? This is my song:
I am dying; you are gone.

These words are not enough to save my soul,
they just mock me from the mirror.
I'm cold and I'm yearning,
I've told you I'm burning,
my eyes can't stand the light...
like a stray dog in the night
I'll shuffle off alone.

We all make our futures
but I have lost mine;
I'm hoping for a miracle
but finding no sign....

The stars in their constellations,
each one just sadly flickers and falls...
without you they mean nothing at all.

— Peter Hammill 'This Side Of The Looking-Glass'

The Prayer Of Power

I can't run no more
with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places
say their prayers out loud.
— Leonard Cohen 'Anthem'

Wall Street

We all know that filthy behaviour and arrogant decadence are endemic in the investment/banking milieu of New York …
— Doug Anderson

Re Joyce: It's Bloomsday

A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.

Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges to the past.

The heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit.

The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea.

I fear those big words, Stephen said, which make us so unhappy.

We feel in England that we have treated you rather unfairly. It seems history is to blame.

— James Joyce 'Ulysses'

Dated Carbon

A much updated ruin
From a much outdated style
— Nick Drake 'Fruit Tree'

Tradition

One generation treading on the toes of its predecessors — that’s what tradition means.
— Alan Bennett 'Forty Years On'

Police

There is nothing more unæsthetic than a policeman.
— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 'The Sign Of The Four'

Original Dark Intelligent Television

Psychoville
The League Of Gentlemen
Human Remains
Marion And Geoff

Magic

I never felt magic crazy as this
I never saw moons knew the meaning of the sea
I never held emotion in the palm of my hand
Or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree
But now you're here
Brighten my northern sky.

I've been a long time that I'm waiting
Been a long that I'm blown
I've been a long time that I've wandered
Through the people I have known
Oh, if you would and you could
Straighten my new mind's eye.

Would you love me for my money
Would you love me for my head
Would you love me through the winter
Would you love me 'til I'm dead
Oh, if you would and you could
Come blow your horn on high.

I never felt magic crazy as this
I never saw moons knew the meaning of the sea
I never held emotion in the palm of my hand
Or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree
But now you're here
Brighten my northern sky.

— Nick Drake 'Northern Sky'

Military Service

You fought in a war for me, you mug!
— Alan Davies

Letters To The Editor

I'm so worried about what's happenin' today, in the Middle East, you know. And I'm worried about the baggage retrieval system they've got at Heathrow. I'm so worried about the fashions today, I don't think they're good for your feet. And I'm so worried about the shows on TV that sometimes they want to repeat. I'm so worried about what's happenin' today, you know. And I'm worried about the baggage retrieval system they've got at Heathrow. I'm so worried about my hair falling out and the state of the world today. And I'm so worried about bein' so full of doubt about everything, anyway. I'm so worried about modern technology. I'm so worried about all the things that they dump in the sea. I'm so worried about it, worried about it, worried, worried, worried. I'm so worried about everything that can go wrong. I'm so worried about whether people like this song. I'm so worried about this very next verse, it isn't the best that I've got. And I'm so worried about whether I should go on, or whether I should just stop. (pause) I'm worried about whether I ought to have stopped. And I'm worried because, it's the sort of thing I ought to know. And I'm worried about the baggage retrieval system they've got at Heathrow. (longer pause) I'm so worried about whether I should have stopped then. I'm so worried that I'm driving everyone 'round the bend. I'm worried about the baggage retrieval system they've got at Heathrow. 

  — Monty Python 'I'm So Worried'

Why Humans And Chimps Belong To The Same Genus

Humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) and the two chimpanzee species (Pan paniscus and Pan troglodytes) are more closely related to each other than horses are related to donkeys.
Horses and donkeys are of the same genus, Equus.

If more distantly related species like horses and donkeys form a single genus, so too do more closely related species like humans and chimps.

This means that all extinct species that share a common ancestor with humans and chimps, including Australopithecines, also belong to the genus that includes humans and chimps.

Genera and species are biological categories, and biological categories are defined on biological criteria only. The allocation of humans and chimps to different genera derives from the mythological tradition of the West — the three Abrahamic traditions that actually go back to Zoroaster of Persia — which separates humans from the rest of Nature, which it sees as 'fallen'.

Standards

Standards always ARE out of date!
That's what makes them STANDARDS!
— Alan Bennett 'Forty Years On'

Genius

Solitude is better for weeding out ideas than for creating them. Genius is the summed production of the many …
— Edward O. Wilson