FRIDAY MUSIC: The Chapman Stick, by JD

What is a Chapman Stick? It is a new musical instrument, invented by Emmett Chapman and is a sort of cross between a guitar and a piano. The strings on a guitar are plucked and the strings on a piano are struck with hammers so the stick is basically a guitar which is played by the fingers striking or tapping the strings above the frets. Quite simple really and guitarists often use it as a technique. But the stick has ten strings or twelve where the guitar has six. You can read more here -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapman_Stick

New to me and I first came across one when I found a Rachel Flowers video of her trying one for the first time so I decided to explore some more and the videos here are a selection of what I have found.

Brexit For Dummies

                                                                                                                            Sackerson

Boycott the Daily Mail !

Here is a letter I am sending today:

Mr Geordie Greig, Editor, Daily Mail
Northcliffe House
2 Derry Street
Kensington
London W8 5TT

Wednesday, 21 November 2018

Dear Mr Greig

Why I am cancelling my subscription to your newspaper

I have today instructed your marketing department to cancel my Direct Debit for the daily and Sunday editions of the Mail.

I have been a subscriber for a very long time but I cannot support your otherwise entertaining and informative publication while, presumably under your direction, it mounts a biased and vituperative campaign against those who are working to see the result of the EU Referendum carried out.

May I also say how illogical it seems for a Scot to desire independence for his country within a profoundly undemocratic and micromanaging European Union, moreover a Union determined to become a single nation in which Scotland’s fate is to be a negligible backwater; and how contradictory it seems for him to wish this peculiar freedom for his country while doing his best to deny genuine self-government to the rest of the United Kingdom.

Yours faithfully...

Cc: Mr Paul Dacre; The Bruges Group

Weekend Wonders: The Arctic Moth

FRIDAY MUSIC: Mellifluous Melly, by JD

Many years ago I saw George Melly with John Chilton's Feetwarmers. One of the most entertaining and enjoyable shows I've seen. Melly was a showman through and through with his immaculately tailored eccentric elegance and his outrageous humour. They don't make 'em like that any more, sad to say.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Melly

(The final video here is from the TV show 'This Is Your Life'- unfortunately the last ten minutes or so are missing.)

Capitalism or Socialism: a false dichotomy? Open thread

"So much of our history since the mid nineteenth century has been about the people with money and power doing their best to push socialism into extremes so as to make themselves the only possible choice."

Right or wrong?

Defenestrate the trollop!

A new book has been widely reported. It lists 600 English words that are in danger of falling out of common usage.

I think I have found a use for two of them already; the British Cabinet, the 1922 Committee, the Labour Party, the House of Commons and the electorate at large may find them most apt at the moment:

"Defenestrate the trollop!"

Placards under construction now.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6388837/Gadzook-Writer-says-600-endangered-words-including-conk.html