Spoken Word Poetry

Thursday, 30 August 2012

Kippers

On my honeymoon recently we stayed at a very nice B&B in Llandudno and on the breakfast menu were kippers so one morning , fed up with the usual cornflakes, muesli and banana smoothie I decided to have kippers as I remember liking them as a teenager. Indeed they were delicious and I wondered why I hadnt eaten kippers for breakfast or even for lunch, tea and supper, for so long! The only trouble with kippers is that they tend to repeat on you all day long. Kippers kippers kippers. I don't mind the hundreds of little bones - it's the repeating of kippers that really is their undoing. Kippers, there they go again. Wikipedia says - "The exact origin of kippers is unknown, though fish have been slit, gutted and smoked since time immemorial. According to Mark Kurlansky, "Smoked foods almost always carry with them legends about their having been created by accident—usually the peasant hung the food too close to the fire, and then, imagine his surprise the next morning when …". For instance Thomas Nashe wrote in 1599 about a fisherman from Lothingland in the Great Yarmouth area who discovered smoking herring by accident. Another story of the accidental invention of kipper is set in 1843, with John Woodger of Seahouses in Northumberland, when fish for processing was left overnight in a room with a smoking stove. These stories and others are known to be apocryphal because the word "kipper" long predates this. Smoking and salting of fish—in particular of spawning salmon and herring which are caught in large numbers in a short time and can be made suitable for edible storage by this practice predates 19th century Britain and indeed written history, probably going back as long as humans have been using salt to preserve food. Kippers for breakfast in England. "Cold smoked" fish, that have not been salted for preservation, need to be cooked before being eaten safely (they can be boiled, fried, grilled, jugged or roasted, for instance). "Kipper snacks," (see below) are precooked and may be eaten without further preparation. In the United Kingdom, kippers are often served for breakfast, tea or dinner. In the United States, where kippers are less commonly eaten than in the UK, they are almost always sold as either canned "kipper snacks" or in jars found in the refrigerated foods section. In Haiti, kipper is eaten with scrambled eggs for breakfast or mixed with pasta or ri Kippers are produced in the Isle of Man and exported around the world. Thousands are produced annually in the town of Peel, where two kipper houses, Moore's Kipper Yard (founded 1882) and Devereau and Son (founded 1884), smoke and export herring. Mallaig, once the busiest herring port in Europe, is famous for its traditionally smoked kippers, as well as Stornoway kippers and Loch Fyne kippers. The harbour village of Craster in Northumberland is also famed for its kippers, where they are prepared in a smokehouse, sold in the local shop and exported around the world." Kippers kippers kippers.

Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Sorry I'll Read That Again

This was a great radio show from the 60's and 70's with John Cleese, Graham Garden, Bill Oddie etc. Still makes me laugh today. Wikipedia says - "I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (often abbreviated ISIRTA) was a BBC radio comedy programme which originated from the Cambridge University Footlights revue Cambridge Circus. It had a devoted youth following, with live recordings being more akin to a rock concert than a comedy show – a tradition which continued right through to the days of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. The pilot programme and Series 1 were broadcast on the BBC Home Service (renamed BBC Radio 4 in September 1967). Series 2–9 were broadcast on the BBC Light Programme (renamed BBC Radio 2 in September 1967). It was first broadcast on 3 April 1964 – the pilot programme having been broadcast on 30 December 1963 under the title "Cambridge Circus" – and the ninth series was transmitted in November and December 1973. An hour-long 25th Anniversary show was broadcast in 1989. It is comically introduced as "full frontal radio". I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, a spinoff panel game show, was first produced in 1972. The title of the show comes from a sentence commonly used by BBC newsreaders following an on-air flub: "I'm sorry, I'll read that again." Having the phrase used to recover from a mistake as the title of the show set the tone for the series as an irreverent and loosely-produced comedy show."

Monday, 16 July 2012

Pilfered Quotes From Decent Coves

"The Christian god – the external personality – has been replaced by the intelligence of the First Cause…the replacement of the old concept of God as all-powerful by a new concept of universal consciousness. The 'tribal god, man-shaped, fiery-faced and tyrannous' is replaced by the 'unconscious will of the Universe' which progressively grows aware of itself and 'ultimately, it is to be hoped, sympathetic'" - Thomas Hardy
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mORe oF tHe SAmE fROm ThE mAGpIE mEMOrY pOOoL.

Friday, 15 June 2012

New Collaborative Online Book

Just one of the many collaged pages from a new collaborative bookwork with Norman Conquest of Beuyscouts Of Amerika fame. Get it FREE HERE.

Wednesday, 9 May 2012

Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata

If this doesn’t move you someway, somehow, then you are probably an exhibit in the British History Museum. This is Beethoven at his best. This illustrates perfectly what genius really is but also reveals how a talent such as that displayed here by Wilhelm Kempff can best interpret it..
Kempf lived a long life. He was born in 1895 and died in 1991. He was highy regarded for his work on Bach, Liszt and Chopin but it is for his incredible empathatic performances on Beethoven that he is remembered.
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OtHEr dIp INtO
ThE mAGpIE mEM
OrY pOOoL.

Friday, 27 April 2012

Pimped-Up Quotes from Pumped-up People

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"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.”


Terry Pratchett
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mORe TidBiTs fAlLeN FroM tHe LANdLorDs tAbLe.

Sunday, 15 April 2012

NORMAL SERVICE WILL SHORTLY BE COMSUMED
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aNOtHEr dIp INtO ThE mAGpIE mEMOrY pOOoL.

Sunday, 1 April 2012

The early Olympic Games were celebrated as a religious festival from 776 B.C intil 393 A.D, when the games were banned for being a Pagan festival. Then, in 1894, Pierre de Coubertin, proposed a revival of the anceinet tradition and bingo! the modern day Olympic Games were born.
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aNOtHEr dIp INtO ThE mAGpIE mEMOrY pOOoL.

Thursday, 1 March 2012

Fuzzy Old Facts From a Fuzzy Old World

The Olympic flag has a white background with five interlaced rings in the centre. They are blue, yellow, black, green and red. This design symbolises the five continents of the world united by the Olympic ideal. These self same colours are those to be found on all the national flags of the world at the present time.
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 aNOtHEr dIp INtO ThE mAGpIE mEMOrY pOOoL.

Wednesday, 15 February 2012

Pimped-up Quotes from Pumped-up People


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"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"

Douglas Adams
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aNOtHEr dIp INtO ThE mARmItE jAr.