Mary Cigarettes is Gone, but that sweet voice lingers...

Again, apologies for being away for so long, and for the lack of cartoon and comic book related posts.  I will get round to it.  Meanwhile, a lot has happened, a few friends have died, including my old Twitter chum and friend from our DJing nights in Edinburgh, Flash Harry, who died earlier this year. Flash was a fantastic DJ, working full-time at Tiffanys Dance Hall (where he regularly had hundreds of adults sitting on the floor in a huge conga) and the main floor at Clouds (where the youngsters would often forget to dance as they stared at the star on his stage, precariously perched atop one of the enormous speakers).  His given name was Paul Lerwill, and it's how he was known when he was with the pop groups Rosetta Stone, and Perfect Crime (who toured with U2).  He was also known as Gregory Gray, when he was a solo-artist in the US, and in his latter years as Mary Cigarettes, working with Fish Go Deep, and on his many solo projects. Paul/Flash/Gregory/Mary was as exciting and intriguing as his many aliases suggest.  Although his health was a concern at times, his death came as an enormous shock.  He is greatly missed. Tom Robinson put together a very informative, if slightly complete tribute to Mary on his radio show, which I've linked to here..  It's probably NSFW, which is exactly how Mary would have liked it :)  I've added various links to his different incarnations under the photos below.  Also, there's a link to his thoughts, and those are most certainly NSFW. LOL. RIP Mary Cigarettes.

https://fanningsessions.wordpress.com/2019/05/18/gregory-gray-tom-robinson-tribute/

https://fanningsessions.wordpress.com/2019/06/21/perfect-crime-1982-session/

https://youtu.be/Pdy0SYBYlqo

https://www.paulgormanis.com/?p=22138

https://youtu.be/hnpbp0lV33w

Bernard Cnut Jenkin MP

I'm currently banned from Twitter for calling Bernard Jenkin MP a cnut.  I'm perplexed by this because I don't see any way Twitter can prove he isn't. He's a Brexit supporting twat from the ERG party-within-a-party Tories, who have constantly attacked Theresa May on the grounds that Brexit is crap because she's a weak negotiator and a woman, not because Brexit was pie-in-the-sky promises from a bunch of rabid old misogynist has-beens and their fanatical unicorn-worshipping fans. I called him a cnut because of his most recent outburst during England's council elections he said, I paraphrase, it didn't matter if the voters had now changed their minds, they've made their bed so they can lie in it. Not a philosophy he applies to his own grey hair, which has darkened considerably on top since some ludicrous poll amongst mad Tory women - gone to his head you might say.

As my old friend GT has pointed out, he is just one cnut, amongst many others in the Commons.

Staggering out of a Fog

I do feel like that every so often, like I'm staggering out of a fog into a slowly brightening day. I'm sure it will be a familiar feeling to some of you.  What's helped this time is understanding that by imagining I can do everything I've planned to do, in a rigid kind of way, that if the first part of that isn't done, then nothing gets done.  And the problem is, in the work I do, 'staring into space' can be a big part of the work. However, when you let it become the main part of the work, you're basically a cat. 

So, this coming week, I'll get round to looking at this manga, 'Happiness', by Oshimi Shuuzou.  It was my intention to do it some time back, so it's not a new title, but its one I enjoyed. It's a seinen title, in both senses, and a vampire tale that owns more than a little to Swedish writer John Ajvide Lindqvist's 'Let the Right One In'. The book, if you haven't read it, is more subversive than the movie.