Global Scouse Day

Something must be done!

Something must be done

Do you know that in the Toxteth Riots of 1981

Michael Heseltine stood on a balcony of the Adelphi Hotel

And with a glass of wine in his hand enounced

“Something must be done”

Now am I right in thinking that Edward VIII said the very same thing

When he visited Tonypandy, before he abdicated for love.

The Toxteth/Tonypandy Dichotomy

Dai Bach and Ladi Di

Did it!

You see, “it just isn’t on old boy” for the Royal Blue Blooded Elite

To tell us what to do

But they do!

All in it together?

The Big Society?

The people of Toxteth & Tonypandy won’t be shopping in Waitrose.

So yes, something must be done.

After my little walk today I realise that

Revolution

Must be Done!  

The bastard browser of bold street

The bastard browser of bold street

 

 I am the Bastard Browser of Bold Street,

Blazing in my Boater

Becalmed, bedecked in Blue

Bending into books

Bright, brassy and breezy 

Bumping, Bopping & Bleeping

"Buy?"

"Bugger Off!

"Boracic Mate!"

 

Boracic Lint - Skint



Hey Mate!

 

 

 

"Hey Mate!

 

Can you spare some change?"

 

"I don't think I've got any mate!"

 

Said I, standing there with a Regular Latte to go,

 

looking like a metropolitan metrosexual monster

 

compared to kind, toothless old Joe.

 

"Will you check for us?"

 

I duly checked and found a pound.

 

"You're a diamond,

 

Have a good day mate!"

 

I thought I'd given somebody a pound too much earlier,

 

in paying for something.

 

I'm always paying for something,

 

but I hadn't and apologised.

 

"No worries", said he

 

So I am down two pounds

 

But now have two friends

 

but know that these two

 

would not give me a pound

 

if I needed one.

 

That's just the way it is!

 

 

Come On Soft Lad!

Come on soft lad, your public are waiting! They are demanding another blog post. I know you have called by, salivating for another literary morsel. Well here goes!

My Liverpool Lou, lovely Liverpool Lou (Behan)

What have they done to you?

1984 Lime Street Station

Donkey Jacket/Miner/Bucket/50p dropped

And then looked at by the unsmiling statue.

Again, another time

Same City

The Basement of a Huge Department Store

It could have been George Henry Lees

Holly Johnson’s ‘The Power of Love’

I stood mesmerised

This City where I saw O.M.D, Tears for Fears, Nic Kershaw and Howard Jones Live

Live for Liverpool

The Pool of Life

The 1980s where it was substance over style but I revisit in 2014

And it is style over substance

Shops, Capitalism, ‘Kerching’ Madame

This is the sound of today’s city.

Money didn’t matter to me back then and it didn’t seem to matter to Liverpool

The Port on the Wrong side of Britain, The Land that the Tories Forgot.

It matters in Liverpool 1 today

My Liverpool Lou, lovely  Liverpool Lou (Behan)

What have they done to you?   



Blackboard Jungle

There is summat shady going on in the smoke & mirrors world of Academia and its called the Blackboard Jungle. Now I am enrolled with my comrades and compatriots on an MA in Playwriting and so far so good but now my age, my failing eyesight, the fact that I still only tap the keyboard with two fingers means that I have now entered the murky world of the 'Blackboard Jungle'. An IT whizz would say that it is a central forum for the dissemination of information to the student body from Tutors and course organisers but from where I am sitting it is a confusing jumble of titles, headings, marking criteria, appendices, bibliographies and reading list. Now I didn't come on this course to be an Academic and win the prize for bullshit baffles brains, I came on this course to learn the craft and discipline of Playwriting. I understand that there has to be an academic 'whatever' to use a complicated term but I feel that this 'Blackboard' is again symptomatic of the 'Divide & Conquer' mentality. You go into most libraries now and the whole system is automated. Vast swathes of the elderly were cut down by machines, who confused them by asking if they wanted to borrow or return books, whereas they had been used to wasting the librarians time with inane questions.
Now it is Bar Code, Beep Beep, Britain.
I am posting this because I am annoyed. If it wasn't for a good Samaritan in the first semester that notified me that I had 24 hours to get a 2,000 word essay in, then I would have been penalised heavily and the Blackboard Jungle leaves you in no doubt of the penalties for late submission. Castration and Hanging are obligatory.  Keep the Customer at arms length, keep the student at arms length, keep the job applicant at arm's length. We can deal with you as long as you fit into our 'one size fits all model of behaviour'. I did not see the link for this particular assessment and now in the second semester I am struggling again because I am going back and forth between the Jungle and the Student Email account which has two different Addresses and Passwords.
I am drowning, not because of Plays and Playwriting but because of the inner tension required to think of a Research Project Title with Appendices and Bibliographies and nits and facial tics. Having put all sorts of weird and wonderful search titles in Google over the years I realise that computers don't have all the answers but that people don't either.