Who is he and who's he talking about?

One of my quirky little collecting habits has been collecting snippets from overseas television. I particularly liked Clive James and keep hoping his London Weekend Television show will go to video.

Over the years I carried these around in VHS and Betamax format (if you're wondering where the Betamax system went, visit the Philippines - it's alive and well). Later I managed to convert a few to DVD, and then I hit upon the magic of video editing.

This has always been one of my favorite clips and is from either the 70s or 80s. What's driving me spare are these two questions:

What's this UK news presenter's name, and what politician is he talking about?

The video clip is only about 25 seconds long and perfectly safe for work.

That sounds like ... Steppenwolf

I was listening to XM Radio this weekend when a song by Steppenwolf came on. I'd forgotten how much I liked them; my earliest inspirations were my older brother's LPs. This is a band that's been mostly, sadly forgotten for reasons I don't really understand. Maybe it's because Born to be Wild was overplayed.

Anyway, I eventually realized that the lead singer of Steppenwolf, John Kay, reminded me of someone else - the lead singer of the Electric Six.

Unfortunately it's most noticeable during the Electric Six's song Danger High Voltage. I say "unfortunately" as it's downright weird hearing the lead singer for the Electric Six, Dick Valentine, channeling John Kay while singing:

Fire in the disco!
Fire in the Taco Bell!
Fire in the disco!
Fire in the gates of hell!

It gets even weirder when you realize that Jack White is the other vocalist, sounding downright feminine (yes, I'm aware this is disputed).

But when you throw in the video for this song, the Weirdness Meter pretty much tops out. Although I really liked the paintings, which were all done in a weekend by a local teenager. I keep hoping one of them will show up on eBay.

solitude reigns

The Estranged Husband departed for regions south yesterday, leaving me cheerfully alone. Although I'm still unsure why it was so odd and uncomfortable having him in the house - he is as uncomplaining as ever - I'm not going to waste any more time trying to analyze why I feel this way.

I've also decided to turn down his offer of further renovations for the simple reason that it's worth it to me to have Chez Melina to myself. It's not like I'm dying to Invite Boys Over, as that's what hotels are for. I just don't like other people around 24/7. If this makes me a grinch, I'm cool with it.

My only yearning these days is for my own motorcycle. Like I mentioned before, it's just as well I didn't spend my $3k on the Suzuki, as I will most probably spend the rest of it on fixing stuff at my mom's house. Her second bathroom needs work and I also wanted to put up those ballet bar thingys in the hallways. The bike can wait. It's already getting too hot to ride anyway.

Perhaps I'll compromise and snag something from the Mio Destino sale. This corrupting message was in my email this morning, and 30% off the Aubade range is not to be sneezed at:

the biker's progress

Last weekend I managed to head south and ride the Suzuki for a while. This is the same Suzuki Ryan purchased much to my chagrin. Although I recently ended up spending most of my bike funds on parental home repairs, so it's just as well I guess.

I decided to start out in a parking lot, as it had been so long since I'd ridden a motorcycle. And they're kind of complicated, especially for those of us with no aptitude for this sort of thing (like me). You have clutches and throttles and two brakes and non-cancelling turn signals and six gears to fiddle with. In addition to all this, you have to re-learn how to get into first gear without killing the engine. Which I did several times.

And there's also the Beginning Biker Irony to cope with: the slower you go, the easier it is to fall over. But this never happened.

So, at the end of the exercise, I managed to ride the bike through some residential neighborhoods without splattering myself or anyone else. I was just getting to the stage where you stop obsessing about brakes and clutches and begin to enjoy yourself. But then it got dark, and was time to return the bike and head home.

One more reason to be kind to your local proofreader