Mission Statement: "To do very little, for very few, for not very long." Disappointing the easily pleased since 1819. Not as good as it used to be from Day One. "History is Bunk" - P.T. Barnum. Eudæmonia, hermeneutics, phenomenology, ontology, chronotope, heteroglossia and mnemetics out th' ass! Artificially Intelligent before it was fashionable. Fat Camp for the Mind! "Nothing lasts, but nothing is lost." Proudly Content-Free since last August!
Sunday, November 15, 2020
Something For Sunday Dept. - Chris Rea
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Trust me. This is cool vanilla, toes-in-the-surf. Remember?
ReplyDeleteWhat's your favorite ice-cream, while we're here? I have to say vanilla. Used as an insult to signify "bland", it's a fine and subtle natural flavor bullied out by fancy Ben n' Jerry concoctions. But go ahead, if you like Strawberry n' Kale. It's a free beach.
The classic ice cream vendors when I grew up always had concoctions, but far from the Ben & Jerry's stuff. So if you were in for a marzipan ice cream like I would... Other classics would be straciatella (milk cream and chocolate bits) or After Eight (mint and chocolate bits, like the sweets). Now we have 'branded' ice cream that's supposed to taste like, you know, famous chocolate snacks etc. This summer I tried 'Kinder' ice cream which was supposed to taste like Kinder chocolate. It wasn't half bad...
ReplyDeleteIs there such a thing as "bad" ice cream? I don't think I've had any. Wish I could try that straciatella - i've had some sensational ice cream in Italy but not that.
DeleteSeriously? I thought that was, like, a world-renowned ice cream flavor. Huh. Different places, different ice cream cultures.
DeleteAs a kid, in the rare occasion that we would do a sit at the table visit to the ice cream vendor, a favorite was "spaghetti ice", essentially a trompe l'oeuil, with vanilla ice gream sent through a meat grinder type to look like spaghetti, a strawberry sauce being the fake tomato sauce and thin slices of white chocolate being the parmiggiano. All simple stuff, really, but as kids we loved it. Then again, who wouldn't...
Ice Cream? It's hard to beat Fox Terrier Brittle.
Delete(...3rd try's the charms blow pop...)
ReplyDeleteYou are Rellllly old if you know what Spumoni is. Or Farrells' infamous "Zoo"...
Gimme a double dip on an ol' skool "waffle" type sugar cone. None of that Styrofoam-flavored cake cone stuff for me...
Foam Isles, Okay. Foam edibles, not so mush...
Fool if ya thinks it's over...
Stealth Link?
ReplyDeleteBuried in the sand:
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I was halfway through digging when it dawned on me.......
DeleteLOL
Cheers,
obeygravity
Farq, you sneaky son of a gun. Buried in the sand...yeah, right!
ReplyDeleteShhhhh! Don't tell dose cheap bums where it is!
DeleteChris Rea is of Italian blood and no doubt knows his ice cream. I hear you about vanilla, Farq, and as you're a man of simple, uncluttered but quality tastes, I'd recommend a beach-friendly takeaway kilo of mascarpone and nutella ice cream from Monti in Cesena. You're allowed six flavours, but it's better left to just these two to duke it out.
DeleteTruly tops, Farq! Meaning the stealth as well the aforementioned assets' wealth. Think i'll skip the audio the rest of me miserable life, though, after having gone thru that creaset.Never cared much for Chrisses, generally, 'xcept for Hillman, i guess. Thx anyway
DeleteOuch, the 'assets' bit refers to yer previous post & comments, sincere apologies; and 1 more Chris whose efforts i DO care about: Mr. Stainton. What am i whinin', anyway? Who needs this?
ReplyDeleteChris Stamey, Chris Darrow, and Chris Thompson (acoustic guitarist) spring to mind.
DeleteFrontal lobe rejuvenated, aaah. Darrow as in Kaleidoscope and NGDirtBand, sure!. Stamey's Db's... Guess i'm th'one needing reminders like yours
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DeleteMaybe Rea was big in France, like Jerry Lewis? Or, maybe Big in Japan, ala Mr. Waits?!? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVdfDoXHdZc
ReplyDeleteHis "Driving Home For Christmas has been on my Christmas Mix for years, usually between Perry Como and Frank Sinatra......
ReplyDeleteFool if You Think it's Over, is another favorite.
"Unexceptional niceguy journeyman rocker" seems just about right for Rea. When I was young, the sort-of MOR station my dad was seemingly always playing Chris Rea and I never dug him. Then, a couple of years later I picked up his "Auberge" album for really cheap and then was surprised at what a nice, easy going album it was. One of the songs on it is called "Gine Fishing" and that's exactly what it sounds like...
ReplyDeleteMan I should really proofread better. Or, like, at all.
ReplyDelete...my dad was listening to...Gone Fishing, duh.
Remember driving to work one morning when 'Tell me there's a heaven' came on the radio, listened to it then pulled over and sobbed my heart out. True talent that Mr Santini
ReplyDeleteIt's Hello Friend on this that has me manfully holding back the sobs - "where you been so long ..."
DeleteYes, a very fine track.
DeleteAs a bonus to you, Mr. Freeloader, I stripped off the three bonus tracks on this edition. While none of them is bad, they don't add anything to an already perfectly-paced album.
ReplyDeleteChris Rea is not exceptional but is certainly not unexceptional. Where does that leave him then? In a musical hinterland with other niceguy, talented musicians who should be famous but are just well known (Paul Carrack, Paul Brady and others) or unfairly unknown (Emitt Rhodes, John Butler of DPW and others). That's where.
ReplyDeleteLast time I saw him in concert Colin Hodgkinson was his bass player. Fanboy that I am I waited at the stage door hoping that Col would sign my ticket stub. As he did so, I asked if any more Back Door albums would surface (meaning from the vaults). He unnecessarily but correctly reminded me that as the other two in the trio where dead, it was unlikely. How we laughed.
Doesn't anyone else hear similarities to Mark Knopfler? Good tunes, acceptably professional eighties production, very nice guitar work, and er, better vocals?
ReplyDeleteKnoplfler always struck me as a very cold fish indeed.
DeleteAs for Mr. Rea's other works, "Tell Me There's A Heaven" is choice. And "Road To Hell Part I" reprises that melody in the intro. Nice touch. Very Pink Floydish. Gotta have both parts I and II, though. "Son, what are you doing here?" gets me. "Texas" resonates rather a lot these days, too.
ReplyDelete