Entertainment For Lively Minds
Unbridled Pleasures
Posted by itfc1959 on 14 November 2010 - 10:14pm.
I now want to turn our attention to what makes us happy. By this I mean the songs, music, books or films that we turn to because they make us happy, and on special occasions, glad to be alive.
It doesn't matter how corny or crap these may be. If they lift your spirits then let us know. I'll post mine later, once we're off and running.
Allez!
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Happiness...
...difficult subject. nothing but misery around these days, it seems.
However... I couldn't sleep a few nights recently and got up to have a cup of tea and find something on headphones or low volume TV to cheer me up circa 2am and found that the first Bread LP, which I hadn't heard in ages, went some way towards that. Ditto, one of the recent BBC radio dramatizations (on CD) of 'The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'... Ditto, the Basil Rathbone Sherlock films (on the fabulous UCLA restored box set edition). I can keep coming back to these things and they remind me of better times, or feel comforting in some way.
I could say the same - the strange comforting thing anyway - about the detective novels of Freeman Wills Crofts, an Irish writer who worked from the 1920s-50s who weas first recommended to me a couple of years ago. There's around 33 novels with some of his stuff reprinted in later editions - though none in recent years. I have about 14 of them, mostly Penguin green & white editions from the 40s/50s bought from ebay, and while he's not the greatest writer in the world there's something mesmerising and soothing about his style that I find very appealing these days. Trouble is, the books of his that I own thus far are definitely the most common - to acquire the rest will mean around £15-20 a time, even for a 'reading copy' paperback.
So if any of the massive have any they'd like to get rid of for a fiver each, do get in touch! We need all the comfort blankets we can get these days.
There seem to be a few on Amazon.com
...ranging from cheap to teeth-shatteringly expensive. If any of them are of interest, I'd be happy to pick them up for you and bring them to the UK with me when I pop over in December.
Thanks for the tip Nick..
...I'd never checked the marketplace sellers on the US amazon for FWC for some reason! I've just had a look. Of those available at affordable prices there were 2 that I didn't have, so I've ordered these (a few dollars plus a few dollars postage - so no need to collect your end, but I appreciate the offer!).
When I said his books hadn't been reprinted recently, I wasn't exactly counting the House Of Stratus editions of 2000-2001, of seemingly all his works. There's something odd about these - they went out of print extraordinarily quickly (I suspect they were pirated/not cleared with the Society of Authors, who own FWC's copyright) and are now routinely offered for sale at crazy prices - often in three figures (as you can see on amazon.com) - whereas the vintage editions, even first editions, can be hard for c.£25-£60. It's generally only the Penguin reprints of the 50s I can afford, and as I said above, I seem to already own the dozen or so of these that appear to be most common (and hence always the ones under a tenner on ebay).
Anyway, I'm sure nobody's teribly inteested in all this so I'll stop now...
Sherlock Boxset
Couldn't agree more about the Basil Rathbone Sherlock boxset. They're absolutely wonderful. Nigel Bruce's Watson is also fantastic as an exceptionally bumbling counterpart to the great detective.
I picked these up for under a tenner in the HMV sale earlier this year. Well worth it!
Cup of tea
The ultimate source of happiness and comfort.
Uncle Wheaty asked the same question recently
Lots of sources of joy here - http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/what-one-thing-you-can-always-go-b...
Beating Chelsea 3 nil
at Stamford Bridge has made me pretty happy.
word.
:)
A few suggestions
1) PG Wodehouse. Give Young Men In Spats a go
2) Sam Cooke
3) A nice malbec
4) The films of Bill Forsyth. Especially Gregory's Girl and Local Hero
5) Almost any music I have heard which originates from New Orleans
6) Eddie Izzard
7) Real ale. If you are in the south west, flat cloudy cider.
8) James Yorkston, King Creosote, almost anyone involved in Fence Records
9) Most of Radio 4
10) Michael Palin
11) Clare Grogan (see 4)
Good list
just want to say that:
1) my favourite is "The Luck Of The Bodkins" ( but they're all good )
4) am I alone in cracking up watching "That Sinking Feeling" ? One of my absolute favourite comedys ever.
5) yes yes yes!
That's all. As you were...
That Sinking Feeling
is brilliant, as long as you can get the original version, not the recently released DVD with the badly dubbed soundtrack.
Unbridled Pleasure
sounds like Bareback Riding, although unfortunately that could be interpreted as a sexual metaphor...
Cats
.
The Dude Abides.
If I am ever feeling low, I find a(nother) hour or two spent in the company of El Duderino will always perk me up. It's good knowing he's out there, takin' 'er easy for all us sinners.
Wish he didn't have to use so many cuss words, though.
El Duderino
If you're not into the brevity thing.
Nice Marmot.
Sometimes, there's a man
And I'm talkin' about the Dude here.
Excellent choice. TBL is the gift that keeps on giving.
Who is the man that'll risk his neck for his brother man?
Isaac Hayes' Theme from Shaft never fails to make me smile. Can it be said to increase the sum of human happiness? Dammmn right!
Where's Me Shirt? by Ken Dodd and the Diddymen
Sorry Liverpudlians, but when Ken Dodd says: 'Where's Me Shirt?', it always makes an old woolyback like me smile.
Uncle Loudon's
version of "Tip That Waitress" off the mighty "Career Moves"always puts a smile on my mug!
Lots of things.
Notably my family, cups of tea and coffee and "Bitches Ain't Shit" by Ben Folds.
rogering the missus senseless
always brings about a warm glow
So, about twice a year then