419: They haven’t forgotten me after all

It’s been so long since I received a solicitation from a 419 scammer in my email. It’s made me come over all nostalgic for the good old days of alt.folklore.urban, and analysing minute changes in these scam-mails as they got sent around.

For any of the old mates feeling equally nostalgic, the wording is beneath the fold. Note how it now includes warnings against listening to warnings from authorities or contacting them about the emailer.

Filed under: law, nostalgia, urban legends

Ad hoc hoyden

When I was putting the banners for this blog together, I trudged through the intertubes in search of pics of my favourite hoydens and found heaps, but obviously I couldn’t put all the pics in, or I would have had eleventy-gazillion headers. But I might share some that didn’t make the final cut with you anyway, every now and then.

This week, in deference to those who shrieked when they thought I’d lost Mrs Peel from the sidebar (she’s not on the main page, but on all the others), let’s see some more of Diana Rigg.

Filed under: nostalgia, performance, photography

*That* was exhausting

Just returned from an afternoon of centenary celebrations at a local landmark building. The theme was a sampling from what was going on in 1906, with readings from newspaper clippings (from all around the world, not just locally) and musical offerings, along with displays dotted around the building. People were asked to come in period dress.

I was asked to sing Land of Hope and Glory. I said yes, even though its been well over a year since I performed in front of any audience, performed anything. I wasn’t worried about my instrument (as we more pompous singers are wont to refer to our vocal apparatus) but I should have been a little more concerned with my crowd-readiness.

Filed under: Life, music, nostalgia, performance

Even death won’t save you from James Blunt

From a list of the UK’s most popular funeral songs:

1 – “Goodbye My Lover” – James Blunt

2 – “Angels” – Robbie Williams

3 – “I’ve Had The Time Of My Life” – Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley.

4 – “Wind Beneath My Wings” – Bette Midler

5 – “Pie Jesu” – Requiem

6 – “Candle In The Wind” – Elton John

7 – “With Or Without You” – U2

8 – “Tears In Heaven” – Eric Clapton

9 – “Every Breath You Take – The Police

10 -”Unchained Melody” – Righteous Brothers.

Selection number 9 just goes to show that some people never learn to actually listen to the lyrics. Poor old Sting is bemused enough already by people who insist on playing the song at their weddings, let alone funerals.

I’m trying to persuade mr tog that the Ding! Dong! song from the Wizard of Oz will lighten the mood nicely when my time comes, but he’s too much of a sentimental softie to go along.

Filed under: Life, music, nostalgia

Weekend Flashback: first Swords and Sandals edition

I feel like I jinxed this last week with my bragging of weather warm enough to wear sandals in the first week of spring. Tonight it is blowing a gale and downpouring buckets of rain. My palm tree shed its dry fronds all over the street two days ago – I guess it’s one way to meet a new neighbour as he helps get them off the roadway.

Anyway, to inaugurate the sandals season, it has to be the one by which all others are measured: are they bigger than this?

This was the hugest of the post-war epic dramas – Cleopatra spent more but never truly matched it. William Wyler cemented his reputation as a hysterical tyrant during it, while introducing a venerable Hollywood tradition: as he was deliberately attempting to create parallels between the righteous Judah Ben Hur and the American revolutionaries in his emphasis on Judea as an oppressed colony, Wyler made sure that every Roman who spoke a line was played by a British actor.

Filed under: nostalgia, performance

Weekend flashback: chainmail chicks and boots galore

This movie didn’t do very well. Partly because this movie poster promised a lot more Conan/Arnie than was there (so the word of mouth was ‘what a ripoff’) and partly because they didn’t give Brigitte Nielsen exactly the costume the fans were expecting, which was more along the lines of this eminently practical warrior garb – the chainmail bikini:

Filed under: nostalgia, peeves, performance

A source of minor joy

is just discovering that the Ermine Street Guard exists. It’s so peculiarly British to take one’s weird hobby involving dressing up in strange outfits so seriously that one’s group ends up as a respected resource for academics pursuing a proper understanding of Roman military engineering and craftsmanship.

Even if they probably wouldn’t let me play with the onager

or the ballista or scorpion bolts for the catapulta either because it wouldn’t be archeologically correct, so girly old me would have to be a civilian, I’d still be thrilled to look at all the stuff they’ve made from old plans and descriptions in memoirs. Toga! Toga! Toga! (Well, palla and stola anyway)

The next time I go to the UK I am so going to check out their schedule of events.

Filed under: Life, history, nostalgia

Weekend flashback – boots of revenge and high adventure

To set the tone just right for the first non-meta post at the new digs, I offer you possibly the best cheese of the early 80s:

General: We have won again. That is good! But what is best in life?

Warrior: The open steppe, fleet horse, falcon on your wrist, wind in your hair!

General: Wrong! Conan, what is best in life?

Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!

General: That is good.

Is that some portentous cheese or what?

Filed under: fun, nostalgia, performance