Thursday, March 23

On the fringe of country

Don't blog, they say (thanks DCI), if all you do is walk the dog. If only.

I have done considerably less than that over the last few days.

This particular corner of surburban Oxfordshire seems beset by a nasty flu-like virus. Our infestation has had all the children running around saying 'bird-flu'. Well, one of them anyway. But he says it a lot.

Associated with this bug has have been some very weird and unsettling dreams. But for reasons that I can not begin to explain last night's dream involved the Edinburgh festival of about 1983 (ish). I was there for two full weeks and saw a lot, much of which remains fresh in my memory. Highlights included seeing the late very great Ian Dury twice, the Liverpool poets twice, a production of Equus that blew me away, Jeremy Hardy at the start of his career and Hank Wangford.

He was appearing at the picnic. Thousands (well a dozen or so) (OK, five) balloons took off and floated benignly over the Edinburgh evening. Two of the photos I took then were used only last year in a brochure. Hank played on the back of a flat-bed for an hour or more and sang several of his classics. The one I remember best was called "Drop-kick me Jesus through the goalposts of life".

I am inclined to always make space in my life for people who write songs with titles like that.



PS: In his day job, Hank is a Gynaecologist. Insert your own joke here. He does a lot of good stuff in sexual health. Something we should pay more attention to in the UK.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm very envious that you saw Ian Dury twice. Great man.

the Beep said...

Sadly missed

Anonymous said...

Yep, same one. And thanks.

Anonymous said...

Sympathy (re bug) having had a chest infection myself last week.

*coughs discreetly*

the Beep said...

Dave - thanks for sympathy. Any tea with that?
Are you familiar with Dr Wangford and this song?!

Anonymous said...

hey that's so unfair! thought I made it clear that I find your dog-walk posts very inspiring (or maybe that just shows what a sad old cow I really am?)

maybe you should post the whole article, so your readers see it in context

*winge*winge*winge*

Anonymous said...

How could you ever forget a title like that!
I must say, Beep, you go through the good the bad and the ugly in your posts with style..always appropriate.
I never know what I'll find next!

Anonymous said...

The only time I ever saw Ian Drury it was because he was the celebrity reporter at a telethon for which I was answering phones at the top of the BT Tower. He didn't do much singing, sadly.

the Beep said...

DCI: don't always assume that everyone is on your case. I name checked you because it was your comment that gave me an inspiration to start my post. That it ended in a completely unexpected way is serendipitous. I was saying 'thank you'.

Ta MIG - see you tomorrow (fri) probably

And Pash: It was wonderful. Very hot, very sweaty and right at the height of his fame. He was absolutely m a g n i f i c e n t