SATURDAY NIGHT STRANGLER'S NIGHT.

The Stranglers were instrumental in bringing punk rock to the UK, although you wouldn't say so for a lot of their songs. They originated in 1974 in Guildford, Surrey, southeast of London, a place a much younger Outlaw Mike passed through all alone on a bike ride after finishing high school in the blessed year of 1984. Wonderful memories by the way. Passed the tea clipper Cutty Sark on the way back through Greenwich, where at that time it had been berthed for thirty years. Anyway... here's "All day and all of the night", a cover from The Kinks:





... I will always like Golden Brown. Even young and naive and far less proficient in Englis, I suspected it had a lot to do with funny sntuff you sniff thru your nose. Cool video imho.




A far darker number is La Folie, sung in Fwench. This number is the result of Jean-Jacques Burnel's insistence on producing a French sung hit. It didn't tick in the UK, where it reached #47, or elsewhere. It did with me, but then, well, I was born and raised practically on the fault line between the latin and germanic cultures, in an ancient Flemish town a stone's throw away from Wallonia, and French is actually my second language, more in fact so than English. I think you really got to have your brain wired partly in French to enjoy a song like La Folie. I will post it anyway because of the fond memories. I also think this really is an essential Strangler's song.

Oh f*ck. "Embedding disabled by request". Wasn't so last week. Then some lighter stuff: Always the sun.



It seems to me that when Hugh Cornwell left in 1990, The Stranglers stopped producing hits.



MFBB.

THURSDAY NIGHT OPEN THREAD (DON'T CRY FOR ME ARGENTINA).

Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson deceased. May they rest in peace and if you are a christian, say a prayer for them. I chose iconic pictures of these celebs because, well, if I have to remember them I'd rather remember them how they were in their heyday. I never saw Charlie's Angels - I knew Mrs. Fawcett primarily because of her romantic interest with Lee Majors, who, when I was a kid, was "De Man van Zes Miljoen" (the six million dollar man - never knew how this series was called in the States itself). I think by and large Mrs. Fawcett was a decent character - I've never known her to behave like the current crop of godawful sluts. I'm sorry for Mr. O'Neal, dunno if they managed to marry yet - hope so.

I never - NEVER - was a fan of Michael Jackson, unlike he was the one writing books 'bout Beljun beer. That said, I DO acknowledge the baffling impact of his personage, the reasons of which elude me completely, but then I must be sort of an alien myself. RIP Mr. Jackson and may God forgive you your sins.

And then Mark Sanford.

The Huffington Post would not be a leftist f*ckwad rag if they didn't spin the story of Mr. Sanford's journey to Argentina as follows. Here's Bonnie Fuller's take:

... Instead, this Mark Sanford has been moondogging over an "impossible situation of love". It's clear from his eloquently romantic emails to his "Maria" - I can almost hear the giddy strains of West Side Story -- "I've just Met a Girl Named Maria" -- that he's a lovelorn goner.

He emails Maria, comparing himself to the Richard Chamberlain priest character in The Thornbirds mini-series. Chamberlain's character famously chose ambition over his true love for a young Australian woman, called Meggie, played by the beauteous Rachel Ward. He writes "I was always upset with Richard Chamberlain for not dropping his ambitions and running into Maggie's arms (real name Meggie) ... my heart wants to get on a plane tonight and be in your loving arms..."

So do it Mark. That's exactly what you should do. If you are truly and passionately in love with the Argentinean Maria, why ruin several lives by denying it. You're not doing your wife, Jenny, any favors by resigning yourself to a marriage that's no longer working.

People who deny love and stay in loveless marriages become sad and bitter. Jenny may be boiling mad right now because you have betrayed and embarrassed her, but in the long run, she'll have a chance to find a new love of her own....

In other words, give up, retreat, surrender, cut and run, leftozoid boondoggle all over again. Same shit as always, whether it's on Afghanistan's plains or in the sleeping room. Look at that pic. LOOK AT THAT PIC. Mark, you got a lovely wife and fantastic kids. DON'T RUIN ALL THAT DUDE. You been a naughty boy but, well, if you haven't strayed earlier in your twenty years of marriage maybe you can get a sponge wrapped over it. Now fall on your knees for your sweetheart (no, not Maria), and ask - beg - if she wants to forgive you. Hormones are a weird thing. If she's still willing, give it another chance man. Have some payback arrangement, for God's sake, if it has to be then tit for tat. But keep that wonderful family together. Advice from Outlaw Mike.

But oh yeah... as for deserting your office... that's another matter. I'm not saying you should drop out of the GOP 2012 contender list... but if I were an American, you'd be up to a MIGHTY job of persuasion before I considered you again as a viable candidate.

Hey, nite all.


MFBB.