SpiffoSpeaks

Monday office fashion tip …

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:06:43 +0800

Monday office fashion tip …

… bloody Mondays. Perhaps I need a pair of Lee...

Mon, 06 May 2013 14:38:27 +0800

… bloody Mondays. Perhaps I need a pair of Lee Fastbacks.

“Away ahead of the fashion boundary. A casual duo defined in rugged velvet cord. Hi-lo plush cut cotton for the wide-wale corduroy look. The jacket with yoke detail back & front . Hi-standing saucy collar …”

Donna … about to be inducted into the US Rock & Roll...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:25:00 +0800

Donna … about to be inducted into the US Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. (Incidentally Donna Summer won the inaugural Grammy for Best Rock Performance Female in 1979 for this very song.)

behindthegrooves:

On this day in music history: April 16, 1979 - “Hot Stuff” by Donna Summer is released. Written Pete Belotte, Harold Faltermeyer, and Keith Forsey, it is the first single from the landmark “Bad Girls” album. The rock oriented dance track will broaden Summer’s audience and is an immediate smash. For the song’s blistering solo, Doobie Brothers guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter will be brought in to play the part (on a vintage Danelectro guitar). Initially, “Hot Stuff” will be released by Casablanca Records in two versions, an edited single for radio play and an extended white label promotional 12” that is serviced to club and radio DJ’s. The extended mix will be later issued commercially, segued together with the follow up single “Bad Girls” (the way they appear on the LP, but with a shorter version of “Hot Stuff”). Entering the Hot 100 at #79, the single will rocket to the top of the chart six weeks later, spending 3 non-consecutive weeks at #1. It will yield to The Bee Gees “Love You Inside Out” for one week (on June 9th), then regain the top spot for an additional two weeks (on June 16th). Summer will also win a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female for the song, becoming the first woman and first African American artist to ever win that category.

… style. unkamatt: As promised, some of the photos of me,...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:22:50 +0800

… style.

unkamatt:

As promised, some of the photos of me, by my friend David.

I love these shots, and I have some good ideas for some other pictures, so I may be going down to Tucson next week to do some more. The night we took these I could tell he was tired, so we only did this for a short time, but they turned out awesome.

DK Photography website.

laughingsquid: Tim Harris, A Restaurateur with Down Syndrome...

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 10:13:35 +0800

laughingsquid:

Tim Harris, A Restaurateur with Down Syndrome Who Doles Out Hugs

You might not know that the blood of a Greyhound can be used by...

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:07:34 +0800

You might not know that the blood of a Greyhound can be used by all other dogs, regardless of blood type. For that reason many owners make their hounds available as blood donors, just like this sweetie above.

musgreyslov:

We donated blood tonight, and we’re so, very, tired

Vale Raymond Cusick (1928-2013) - Designer of the Dalek. Terry...

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 01:27:04 +0800

Vale Raymond Cusick (1928-2013) - Designer of the Dalek.

Terry Nation made millions out of the Daleks but the staff BBC designer who actually interpreted Terry’s words to create one of the most enduring designs of popular culture was paid a £50 bonus by the BBC for his efforts.

The Daleks are arguable the first instance of mass media marketing. They were everywhere in the UK in the 1960s. Dalek toys, tea-towels, costumes, games, books, comics, jelly-moulds etc.

Ray was a regular on the Doctor Who convention circuit and always had time to speak to fans of the show. A humble man.

Thank you Ray.

decoarchitecture: Images from Metropolis by Fritz Lang, one of...

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 11:13:51 +0800

decoarchitecture:

Images from Metropolis by Fritz Lang, one of the seminal films of… ever.

Metropolis …

The Diva Song from Fifth Element

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 13:55:29 +0800

The Diva Song from Fifth Element: One of my favourite films is The Fifth Element (dir Luc Besson...

Vale Brooke. My mate @GreytFriend in the US had to make that...

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 21:20:13 +0800

Vale Brooke.

My mate @GreytFriend in the US had to make that hardest & most horrible of decisions earlier today; to help her beautiful companion Brooke make that last journey over the bridge. You may remember I posted about Brooke a few weeks ago. The old girl had broken her leg, in the middle of a snow storm. Well although she responded initially quite well the underlying cancer has proved to be far more virulent than first thought.

Goodbye Brooke, you leave your huMum and Greyhound brother Razor better for having had you in their life. Run free now girl.

The wee birdies have piled it on over the past week.

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:24:00 +0800

The wee birdies have piled it on over the past week.

… oh my! superseventies: Little Nell, 1970s.

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 15:34:31 +0800

… oh my!

superseventies:

Little Nell, 1970s.

(My) Top 5 Albums of 2013 5 Amanda Lear - I Don’t Like Disco -...

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 15:15:00 +0800

5 Amanda Lear - I Don’t Like Disco

4 Donovan Frankenreiter - Start Livin’

3 Melody Gardot - The Absence

2 Claudia Brucken - The Lost Are Found

1 Cosmo Jarvis - Think Bigger

+ Special All-time #1 Donna Summer - Bad Girls

(My) Top 5 Albums of 2013

5 Amanda Lear - I Don’t Like Disco - Of my three favourite Disco Divas (Donna Summer, Grace Jones & Amanda Lear), Amanda was the only one to not have released a recent album. (Donna released Crayons, & Grace Jones released Hurricane, both in 2008) This is a fun, ironic, typically saucy outing from Lear. She must be in her late 60s and she’s still the ‘chanteuse’ on the cusp of Diva-hood. Yes she was Salvador Dali’s partner, yes she was a model in the 60s & 70s, hung out with the Berlin crowd, Roxy Music et al., and skirted the mainstream Disco scene in the late 70s. She did some really funny stuff on Italian TV & continues to perform in nightclubs across Europe. Good get up and go music; fun.

4 Donovan Frankenreiter - Start Livin’ - Twenty first century Californian vibe … so laid back it’s like an astral trip to some strange paisley surfie utopia.

3 Melody Gardot - The Absence - Yep she’s weird, no denying it but in those rare moments when she’s lucid Gardot produces musical gem-stones. Her albums are like secrets; they whisper to you. Her jazz sensibility is flawless which makes me want to believe in reincarnation because how does someone so young have such deep (musical) waters running through them (maybe it is her madness).

2 Claudia Brucken - The Lost Are Found - I first encountered Claudia via Propaganda (ZTT) an 80s ‘band’ that got manipulated by Trevor Horn. Great stuff. Then I saw her at a Jazz Club in Munich in the early 2000s; she put on a brave but triumphant show. This album is a laid back but an emotionally raw journey. There are real songs with real lyrics and they are a joy to hear.

1 Cosmo Jarvis - Think Bigger - young, full of confidence and full of talent. I just like this guy. He’s old school singer-songwriter that blasts an urban folk. He likes noise but he’s not afraid of the quiet times.

+ Special All-time #1 Donna Summer - Bad Girls (1979) - an album that get’s better every time I hear it; and given I’ve been hearing it since 1979 that says something about it. The trio of Summer, Moroder and Bellotte was never better than on this album. Disco, rock, soul, pop, r&b, blues, ballads, electro, it’s all here. Donna’s vocals are perfect. This album is perfect.

IMO 2013 was a bit of fizzer when it comes to ‘good’ music. I know that’s subjective but that’s how I feel. One of the highlights was the re-release of remastered versions of a huge chunk of ZTT Catalogue; the Propaganda albums sound really good. But the bummer of the year was the death of Donna Summer. Now I may have eclectic and wide-ranging musical tastes but my appreciation of Donna Summer, which began in 1975 when I was a (rabid) boy, continues. I lament the fact that she is gone and we’ll never hear anything new from her, let alone, never hear her sing live again (which is where she excels/excelled). Vale Donna Summer.

A little bit of fun ...

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:12:39 +0800

nefertaris-tarot: For some reason of all my blogs, this one, Nefertari’s Tarot, when ‘gizoogled’...

gizoogle.net

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:01:21 +0800

Oh I hope you all know about gizoogle.net

Bittersweet … @bigfinish have just released ‘The Auntie...

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 21:03:40 +0800

Bittersweet … @bigfinish have just released ‘The Auntie Matter’ a new Tom Baker Doctor Who Audio Drama, featuring the late Mary Tamm. Mary, a true lady. She once indulged me, at length, with good humour and graciousness. I remember her parting words quite clearly; “… thank you for still liking my work.”

And I still do Mary.

Vale Mary Tamm (1950-2012).

Sandstorm on the ocean (north Western Australia) … yep...

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:28:48 +0800

Sandstorm on the ocean (north Western Australia) … yep these images have been everywhere for the past few days … but I wanted them on my timeline.

picstreet:

Enormous sand wall / Narelle Cyclone / West Australia.

(AFP Photo / Brett Martin / Perth Weather Live)

Tweetie bird update - Day 2 - they are both(!) strong &...

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 20:26:00 +0800

Tweetie bird update - Day 2 - they are both(!) strong & keeping mum busy feeding them.

Update have identified the birds as Brown Honeyeaters. Some info from Wikipedia about their song:

The nondescript Brown Honeyeater has a noteworthy song, usually described in superlatives.[4] “A glorious voice, easily the best songster among Australian honeyeaters,” is how one study of West Australian birds noted.[8] “As a singer it has no superior among the Honeyeater family, or for that matter, among Australian birds,” said another report.[6] It has a clear, rolling, musical call,[9] rendered as “sweet-sweet-quarty-quarty”,[10] which is very loud for the size of the bird. Both sexes call, usually early in the morning, though the male calls throughout the day during the breeding season.[4] The alarm call is a harsh “ke-ke” given several times at short intervals.[10]

… oh, clarity, a good teacher. amarilloo: xfreischutz: I...

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 14:28:03 +0800

… oh, clarity, a good teacher.

amarilloo:

xfreischutz:

I was going to review my french and linguistics but then this happened instead.
Except it’s 3.30am so it’s half-assed. //shotdead

But hopefully people will find this of use. \o/ Sorry this took so long, Anon, and I hope it answers your questions.

yeeesssss

this is beautiful

Two little birds hatched this morning. Mum very proud. Noisy...

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 16:18:00 +0800

Two little birds hatched this morning. Mum very proud. Noisy little blighters. They’re right outside my bedroom window.