h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I infiltrated myself into the Law School wintermas party yesterday, for a small sherry, and ended up swallying Hume knows! how much vino and whusky. Fortunately there's enough of me to soak up a goodish lake of alcohol, and, as the evening progressed I remained one of the soberer persons in the room. Caius was about dead of exhaustion having only had three hours sleep since the viva, and I route-marched him round the campus in the snaa to wake him up a bit and clear his head. Susan came to the rescue, and we had food and went to our homes and beds.

It was all demme entertaining and acads were making fools of themselves left right and centre and great fun was had by all but Thank Hume! it only happens once a year. I will now erase the night from my memory, as should everyone else who was in the room, though this does not mean that I will not cast things up to Caius, and I will be deleting the video taken on my Blackberry...

A snowy thesis chamber prospect. The trowzers are in the machine washing and I hope they will get dried in time for tonight's panto, otherwise Elaine C Smith may well get upstaged.

Shocking news re. Gail Sheridan. I don't mind her getting off - she is, after all, a victim - but the general trend bodes ill.

... demmy, I have just had a vision of myself going round the tables last night hoovering up people's unfinished drinks, and I now realise that this conduct may well have been observ'd.

Demmy.

Och, well, nae worries.

I listened to an atrocious BBC R4 Today interview this morning - a shouty-fest between John Pilger, some other journo and the Today interviewer. All three came over as being wholy unspeakable, tho' the Pilgerman was the worst of the lot. http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9301000/9301452.stm

Oh, that's Keith Still on Saturday Live http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wmwxg


Douglas

Did you see this?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/dec/18/captain-beefheart-died-provocative-unpredictable

Saw him live in Glasgow in 1972 with the Magic Band. They were late arriving because their bus had broken down on the motorway. On arrival they came straight on stage and played. No fancy costumes or special effects - just the music.

Petal will be subjected to Trout Mask Replica tonight. All 4 sides!

PJ's OH

Oh dear, all four sides?

I never saw Beefheart. I did once see Ian Underwood reciting Neon Meate Dreams of an Octafish http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCmzSEAiVNw


Douglas

Captain Beefheart's 10 Commandments of Guitar Playing

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GUITAR PLAYING as given to moris tepper by captain beefheart. they are not arranged hierarchically - each commandment has equal import. also, to help clarify their intent, each commandment is followed by an exegesis.

LISTEN TO THE BIRDS
that's where all the music comes from. birds know everything about how it should sound and where that sound should come from. and watch humming-birds. they fly really fast, but a lot of times they aren't going anywhere.

YOUR GUITAR IS NOT REALLY A GUITAR
your guitar is a divining rod. use it to find spirits in the other world and bring them over. a guitar is also a fishing rod. if you're good, you'll land a big one.

PRACTICE IN FRONT OF A BUSH
wait until the moon is out, then go outside, eat a multi-grained bread and play your guitar to a bush. if the bush doesn't shake, eat another piece of bread.

WALK WITH THE DEVIL
old delta blues players referred to amplifiers as 'the devil box'. and they were right. you have to be an equal opportunity employer in terms of who you're bringing over from the other side. electricity attracts devils and demons. [so now you know what you are, dear visitor of this page!] other instruments attract other spirits. an acoustic guitar attracts caspar, the ghost. a mandolin attracts wendy. but an electric guitar attracts beelzebub.

IF YOU'RE GUILTY OF THINKING, YOU'RE OUT
if your brain is part of the process, you're missing it. you should play like a drowning man, struggling to reach shore. if you can trap that feeling, then you have something that is fur bearing.

NEVER POINT YOUR GUITAR AT ANYONE
your instrument has more clout than lightning. just hit a big chord, then run outside to hear it. but make sure you are not standing in an open field.

ALWAYS CARRY A CHURCH KEY
that's your key-man clause. like one string sam. he's one! he was a detroit street musician who played in the fifties on a homemade instrument. his song "i need a hundred dollars" is warm pie. another key to the church is hubert sumlin, howlin' wolf's guitar player. he just stands there like the statue of liberty - making you want to look up her dress the whole time to see how he's doing it.

DON'T WIPE THE SWEAT OFF YOUR INSTRUMENT
you need that stink on there. then you have to get that stink onto your music.

KEEP YOUR GUITAR IN A DARK PLACE
when you're not playing your guitar, cover it and keep it in a dark place. if you don't play your guitar for more than a day, be sure you put a saucer of water in with it.

YOU GOTTA HAVE A HOOD FOR YOUR ENGINE
keep that hat on. a hat is a pressure cooker. if you have a roof on your house, the hot air can't escape. even a lima bean has to have a piece of wet paper around it to make it grow.

Never seen that before. Brilliant.
PJ's OH