Anybody got this? Any good?!

Just came across this touching illustration of technoflash rock behemoths RUSH.

It comes courtesy of Jennifer - yes, she's a real, live woman and she's into Rush - Albright.

http://www.hireanillustrator.com/i/portfolio/jennifer-albright/#rush

In a stupid mood. Sorry.

I'd like to think that some wag put it there deliberately.

I'm about to start a CELTA course to learn about teaching English before I head to Italy for a year at the end of February. I'm thinking of buying a new mobile phone as the one I currently have is somewhat antiquated (doesn't "do" the Internet, wouldn't know an "app" from a kick up the arse).

I would really appreciate some advice... that is of the "dead simple" kind. I know there have been other threads on this topic but they were too complex for a simpleton like moi. I want to buy a smartphone, but one that doesn't cost vast sums of money like an iPhone. And I really don't understand (or want to spend the time trying to understand) mobiles, so I would respectfully ask you to avoid technical jargon.

What I'm looking for:

* I want to have one SIM card for the UK and another for Italy and pay as I go.
* Something that works well as a phone.
* Something with which I can use the Internet.
* Something that is easy to use.

I'm not very interested in apps and all that guff. I want a phone with which I can surf the internet. Maybe a Samsung?

Here's the Heep.

Feel free to share any more notable examples. The hairier and uglier the better.

What a beautiful, emotive voice she had.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16232543

I shall start with Roald Fendahl.

If this is too stupid an idea, even for me, please ignore.

Not being very "dahn wiv ver kidz", as the saying perhaps still goes, I hadn't been aware until today that a new record shop had opened in Oxford. It's called Truck and it's in the den of vice and iniquity otherwise known as the Cowley Road. Popped in there today and found lots of lovely vinyl records going cheap. Made me happy, it did, being able to flick through long playing platters like in the good old days when these shops were commonplace on the nation's high streets.

Parted with fifty sovs, like a proper 42-year-old should. Bought Troubadour by JJ Cale, All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes by Pete Townshend, How Dare You by 10cc, The Very Best of Eddie Cochran and a couple of Soul Jazz Studio One reggae compilations.

Nice.

and I will broach no argument on the matter.

http://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&produc...

and it's struck me that this was probably the first time that an artist released a best of with two new songs on it (Slip Slidin' Away and Stranded in a Limousine) and the only time that they were as good as the rest of the record.

Just saying...

I'm listening to the gorgeous LP Gerry Mulligan Meets Johnny Hodges. The liner notes by Nat Hentoff contain a pearl of wisdom that I'd like to share with you all:

Commenting on the shallow view of some critics that men like Hodges have become superannuated, Mulligan says that "the compulsion to say something 'new' every day is a significantly immature way of looking at life. The constant drive to force musicians and other artists to constantly invent something 'new' is one of the banes of the creative life; and this particular kind of pressure, incidentally, also reveals something of our whole culture. In any case, if there are people who cannot hear how thoroughly mature and individual Hodges is, I'm sorry for them."

That's the truest thing I've read in a long, long time. And it was written in 1959.

Just discovered some wonderful footage of Paul Simon from 1975 on a BBC TV special.

Here's a great version of Loves Me Like A Rock. More in the comments.