saintbletch

If I had a preference, it would have to be C) dress like Mike Ashley.

FYI...I have a couple of invitations to buy the OnePlus One phone... Now used...

Ah, but I'm not sure I'm able to pass unbiased judgement any more lifeintheslowlane. Like a Tory in The Lounge, I fear I can see no wrong in anything they do. I have to say that the earlier stuff is more interesting to my ear - try Picaresque or Her Majesty. They have broadened their appeal more widely in the last several albums. That said, and for what it's worth, I personally think this album is the best in a while. The In-Session that KRG linked to explained that they recorded the album over a year or so with no pressure - a couple of songs at a time. And it definitely seems to have that sort of eclectic/non-sequitur feel to it, whereas previous albums (Like the Crane Wife to a small extent, and Hazards of Love to a greater extent), were quite often single-themed concept albums. Take a punt. Go on, you know you want to. What's the worst that couple happen....I guess you could end up following them round the UK and Europe...

Thanks for the link KRG, I enjoyed that. I also stumbled across an excellent and totally wired feature on The Fall. Yes, I've been a long-time fan of Belle & Sebastian, but I've never seen them live. Really looking forward to that one.

Another song from the new album - lyrically sublime. [video=youtube_share;_cErckfwG_8]

Off to see The Decemberists on Friday at the Brighton Dome with a mate which promises to be the second most camp gig I've ever attended. I'm then off to see them again at the Brixton Academy on the Saturday with the family. It's close to an obsession. And then Belle and Sebastian in Portsmouth at the beginning of May. [video=youtube_share;Yb8oUbMrydk]

Introspection over. I've concluded that they're all ****s.

Oh, that's not very adult, Col. I shall be turning the other cheek for ericofarabia to punch and pummel. But that's twice now I've managed to upset people in TMS - three including you Col, and the doesn't include the millions of lurkers that I'm probably boring. It makes me think that perhaps I really AM the annoying arse I aim to be on here. Time for introspection...

I'm mortified that my posts have made you feel that way ericofarabia. I thought that you might have understood the TMS meme of me embedding Toke's a **** at the end of my pompous and long-winded posts (that's most of them BTW). I thought the principle was well understood in TMS, where Toke tells me my posts are too pompous and long-winded for him to read to the end, and therefore I can safely insult him at the end - knowing that he'll never make it that far. Ask anyone here... Anyway, as you'd recently joined my growing band of anti-acolytes by complaining about my length and pomposity, I thought it would be amusing to add you to my list. This isn't Perrier Award winning humour, I'll grant you, but it left my brain intended to make you chuckle. I guess I misread you ericofarabia, for which I am very sorry. But I'm sure we had an exchange before which ended with you telling me I was taking you too seriously. Perhaps I'm thinking of someone else, or perhaps you're a little stressed at the moment? Perhaps I'm guilty of thinking that everyone would understand my posting style? Perhaps your response is in fact humour itself? Perhaps I'm over thinking things? Either way, consider me admonished regarding your wife. Given that you failed to spot any of my attempts at humour, I can see that you would think that just a nasty and inappropriate remark, whereas I thought we were in the middle of banter. Again, I'm sorry you took it that way. P.S. I'm well aware that this post is even longer and more pompous than usual.

Apparently not, Col. BTW, I did ask if you could edit the post, as I went to be (literally) with Jon Hamm's penis embedded in my head. Perhaps you could replace it with something like this?

Gulp. Yep, yeah good point BTT...soon be back...normal guy dimensions, and that, eh erm. BTW did you know that Jon Hamm's penis has its own Facebook page. I'd like to point out that I have ONLY JUST found that out. And the picture Lou posted doesn't seem to be a one-off. There are lots of other pictures of him, cold, having been swimming, and looking very much like a subnormal man. He'll have someone's eye out one of these days if he's not careful. Where he got the sheep's heart to put at the end of that tin of Vim, I really don't know. But I can't believe that Lou is so shallow. I mean, apart from a subnormal penis, charm, wit, good looks and being an excellent actor, what's she doing with pictures him on her PC?

The lads have asked me to come and have a word, Lou. We're sorry about posting all those pictures that exploited women. We've now realised that it's not big and its not clever. But please, please no more pictures of Jon Hamm with a baby's arm in his trousers. Can you edit it, and take it away please? Whilst that thing is here, it makes it very difficult for some of us to continue the illusion that we are real mean. Anyway, that was photoshopped wasn't it, Lou? Tell me it was photoshopped. Or at the very least, tell me it was FULL. Personally, I was just checking in before going up the hill to bedfordshire to dream of old books and the great library of Alexandria, and Jim McNaught-Davis lending me a copy of Down and out in Paris and London, and telling me that I really should be doing O Level English, and now? Now, I'm going to have nightmares. Toke's a ****, and so is ericofarabia.

You see the lips moving, but you can't quite make out what's being said.

They are referred to as mumbling trousers 'down our way'.

URWLCM

I've answered that one before on page two, Bear. You are indeed correct. The Bletchley Illustrated English Dictionary (co-authored by the Goddess that is Susie Dent), shows this illustration alongside the definition All ass, not tittie.

Coxford_lou? I would, but I'd wipe the seat first.

Bear's right, Col. You need to be prepared for hurtful things to be said about you - especially in the pursuit of the art of hilarious fun with words.

The problem with your supposed "sex" proof is that, like with Fermat, I'm just not sure I can believe it. We all know that pap's a woman, and Bucks is pre-op transexual. So if you're relying on hairy and Mary then, well, all I can say is that neither of them would "stand up in court". Anyway, Col, being Col here should be seen as acceptance. You should wear it like a badge of honour. You think when Bear (inadvertently - and hilariously) calls me Beltch, that I take that to heart. It's just Bear being chummy and telling the world how close we are as BFFFs. Right, Bear? Bear? You think when others playfully say "Bletch you pretentious, boring, pompous, overly verbose ****", that they mean that? I hardly think so. So you should be proud to be Col here, Col - no matter whether we think you are, or are not female. P.S. I hope you parked up while posting!

I want you to know Lou, that I'm purposely shooting wide from 5 yards here, and deliberately missing the open-goal opportunity to say that you're not the only female to say I'm too long (or male for that matter. ericofarabia was the last to cry "enough" whilst trying to accommodate my length.) But for the record, I didn't call you 'holier than thou'. Or, if I did, I didn't intend to. I actually (think) I said that you might need to be holier than thou in your arguments - if you're going to call others on inappropriate sexual stereotyping. You may recall that you had deeply offended my sensibilities by intimating that I slept with my secretary, and said that us guys (presumably all of us) have a notion of women being angels on pedestals.

True. In these art house films you...'watch', is it a usually a biological Mum or a step-mum/mom? I only ask because a friend (who watches a lot of these films), told me that they all end in an apparently contradictory way - a mother and daughter fighting over the same DNA, yet sharing none.

Nope, just RfD. It was a tantric post, and to be fair ericofarabia, I didn't realise you would be furiously 'cleaning your glasses', waiting for the 'punch line'. Apologies for that. (Feel free to stop reading here, eric? eric?...) Anyway, Bear is a tantric practitioner, he and Toke have been subjected to my posts for some time now. They are the Sting and Trudie Styler of TMS. (Not sure which one is which). I know sometimes it feels like you've just got to give that gloy gift, but I'd urge you to see your todger in a transcendental context, and imagine its brain being fulfilled only once it has aligned its chakras. Probably. With practice my son, you will make it to the end, and Mrs ericofarabia will PM her thanks to me 'personally'. Again.

It's an interesting credo Lou, and I've been running scenarios through it, and I agree that most of the time it seems to work. I'm sure you'll tell me that you also see "shades of grey" in between the black and the white of your christo-hedonistic philosophy, but one area where the test fails - or at least comes under strain is where two people view the same act differently. Let's assume that Cubicle Woman was in the toilets with Robin from Despatch, and not Robin from Wilmslow. And let's assume that no photographs were taken, but instead many people in the male toilets saw her in the act. Let's then assume that one of the males that saw the act told his mate, who told his Mum, who is best mates with Cubicle Woman's mother in the tiny village where they live. Perhaps Cubicle Woman felt she was living life to the full and enjoying the sort of sexual freedom that her generation has 'fought' for, but it might be that in the tiny village where they live, her mother may not hold the same view. And to show balance, the story works the same way if the offended party was Robin from Despatch's mother - or father for that matter. My reaction to the story, and perhaps that of a few others here, comes from imagining the sort of scenario I've described above. I recognise that if social norms weren't challenged, then you might still be living in the barn with the cattle, so the situation above might be the motivation for Cubicle Woman to sit down with her mother and persuade her that things have changed, and that her mother must adjust her now-prudish views. But even in that scenario, someone was still going to be hurt. No?