Very probably bad....

(Barely) containing such wonders as "Alligator Ass" and "Dust my Broom", Steve Knockers Seagal delivered his second album, Mojo Priest straight through the letterbox of bad taste earlier this year. Your equine correspondent is very afraid of what he might do next.


I'll keep 'em coming just as long as I keep missing my flight to France. What a silly nag.

Yours,
Chives Eclair & Thunderbox

It haunted the fucking budgie...

Busher?
Here's a fantastic live rendition of sounds of silence by Simon and Garfunkel. Incidently, this is Colin's first post. I'll let him say a few words now -

Harmoneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.



Colin

PS
Er, well, that is to say, um... yes? This is what happens when you blog and booze - it gets ugly. No, you're not really supposed to understand much of the jibber above unless you were there - and since there were only three of us - that about counts you out, I'd imagine. This post was part of a rather super evening at Colin's house, where there was feasting on pheasant, fine wines and a not few rounds of Winner's Circle. But there'll be more on that later...

And just before I sign off, and finally leave Colin's post alone, I'd like to formally welcome him and Chives Eclair to the P club. Do you aspire to number in the select ranks of the P Clubbers? Well, get in touch with me and your dreams may very well become a reality.
- Mr. Ed

Blogging in your Bloghole for 2007

Mr Ed kindly stopped by mine well-furnished stablings and, with the promise of frequent nose-baggery, persuaded your very own Chives Eclair to get a-blogging. With no more of a fanfare than that I present the first Chives Eclair Musical Handbag: a very enjoyable snippet of Tucson's wundermensh and daytime "hosers", Giant Sand, hard at work in their backyard. Yee, and verily, Haw....



See you at the track,
Chives Eclair

Dylan DJ fantastique!

Yes that's right, Dylan is manning the decks on radio 2 this evening - well actually right NOW. Unfortunately, tonight is is his last show until march, but you can listen again if you click here.

- Mr. Ed

From the cozy by the fire committee:

Seasons greetings P Clubbers. If you ask me, bad TV, by the fire, with a nice cuppa, is what Christmas is all about. No mince pies yet, but I must be patient - in time there will be pies and pints and pigs in blankets aplenty! So, I imagine the bloggery will probably be pretty light through the rest of my holiday-get-away-break-now, but look out for a celebration of one whole year of horseyness early in the new year...

Time for a jaffa cake, I fancy.


- Mr. Ed, Beigey and Bluecupboard

To Our Friends in Thanet and Beyond...

To all P-Clubbers east of Margate (Scout and Phillip This Means You), a warning this evening to be on the lookout for a strange masked character getting all limber down down at the Temple. More info can be about this dastardly type here. In the mean time, remember, he is NOT as mild mannered as he seems...

- Bluecupboard

See you then

I'm off to Blighty in a few minutes. See all you P Clubbers on the other side of th'Atlantic!

- Mr. Ed

Santa, baby, slip a sable under the tree...

Having seen how well these so called 'polls' are going down at our brother publication Zvayam.com, we of the pony set felt it was time for our own little survey of you out there in Netsville. So vote my pretties, vote vote vote like a Florida voter...

What the Pony Club wants for Christmas...

All I want for Christmas is... My two front teeth a snake a hake a rake a cake intimacy intimacy with a Hollywood starlet an Erotik Kabberet an erotic beret reindeer games Current Results

- Bluecupboard

More shameless promotion

Well, hello and happy Sunday, from a frankly frikkin' cold Chuckcity. This is just a quick post to let you all know that some things have been added to Zvayam.com. There's a web-venture, something to do with marching bands and even a NEW poll. You should have a look. NOW.

-Mr. Ed

Flatt City tonight

Photo from Charleston City Paper Left to Right: Chris Robinson, Stephen Schabel, Dave Okey, John Svenson, and Michael Bruner

Steiners and I are off to a crimble party this evening, but we'll be making our excuses and sneaking out by around 9:30ish so we can catch Flatt City at West Ashley Bait and Tackle. They don't sell bait and they don't sell tackle, but the do have a pickin' porch where the grass is blue and the bourbon flows.

Here are some excerpts from this week's music feature in the City Paper:

Often, the best parties are pickin' parties. Whether it's a bonfire or a living room, after the milling about and catching up, it's time for all capable hands to find an instrument and chuck, strum, or bang away.

The guys in James Island-based Flatt City agree. They've taken the drink-and-play impulse, polished it up, and put it on stage. They recently bought suits ("It feels good to play in a suit, as long as you're not sweating too bad," they say), adding an air of respectability only slightly contradicted by the multiple cans of PBR strewn about the stage at a typical show. Their fingers only seem to move faster as the night goes on, unfazed by the multiple whiskey shots folks seem to buy them at every performance.

"It takes a lot of practice," explains mandolin-player and unofficial spokesman Stephen Schabel. "But I heard the recordings sober, and there were still people clapping."

-snip-

How these five players came together is a puzzle of mixed bands, gigs, and chance meetings. Okey and Svenson grew up together in Charlotte, playing together in a blues/punk/rock band in high school. Schabel was half of the acoustic duo Wheelhouse, who won City Paper's best album of the year award in 1998. He hooked up with Okey, who was living with Svenson and Robinson, and late night jam sessions soon commenced.

"They lived in a party house where we could go and pick until four in the morning and not have to worry about making anybody mad," says Schabel. "Except for that one guy who threw a log in the window."

-snip-

Judging by the quality of their songs and their synchronicity with each other, you'd think Flatt City played full-time, but it's really a just-for-fun, couple-nights-a-week hobby. Svenson's getting a PhD in molecular biology, Schabel is the education director at the International Center for Birds of Prey, Bruner is an award-winning glass artist, and Okey and Robinson both work at NOAA, as a web developer and an image analyst ("what the hell is an image analyst?"). Still, they're as polished as many full-time touring groups.

Yippee-yay.

- Mr. Ed

Talking Point Blank

Joshua Micah Marshall is one of the brightest shining lights in American journalism today. I was particularly taken with two of his most recent posts, so I thought I would share them with P Clubbers in their entirety:


December 08, 2006 -- 12:24 AM EST

Below I favorably note Sen. Carl Levin's (D-MI) statement that he's willing to start handing out subpoena's in the hearings he's going to hold into the Pentagon's conduct of the war in Iraq. I won't deny for a second that there are hearings I'm looking forward to just to see some of the Bush administration's crooks and incompetents get their comeuppance. This isn't one of them.

Think how much might have been different if Congress had exercised any meaningful oversight role through any of this catastrophe. The level of irresponsibility, the lockstep indifference has been nothing short of depraved. Calling it an abdication of responsibility is like saying a murderer didn't have enough concern for his victim's health.

Even at this late stage in the game, there are basic dimensions of what's going on in Iraq that we're just clueless about. And I don't mean the policy answers we can't find. I mean, the facts about the conduct of the war that the administration -- the ultimate unreliable narrator -- just won't share with the public or the Congress.

Consider: why did we have to wait for the ISG, the ultimate band of CFR foggies, to tell us that the US has been systematically undercounting the numbers of Iraqi dead? This is hardly the most shocking of the lies I'm sure we're being told. But it does highlight the point. How can we find our way out of this mess if we're left in the dark?
-- Josh Marshall



December 08, 2006 -- 12:10 AM EDT

That's more like it (from the Post) ...

Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) said he plans to hold a series of hearings on Iraq soon after becoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee next month when Democrats take control of Congress, and he said he is prepared to use subpoenas to get relevant documents from the Pentagon.

And this ain't bad either ...

Hamilton also told the senators that they are part of the problem. "I, frankly, am not that impressed with what the Congress has been able to do," said the 34-year House veteran. "I think the Congress has been extraordinarily timid in its exercise of its constitutional responsibilities on the question of warmaking and conducting war."

More please.


-- Josh Marshall

Amen.

- Mr. Ed

Spooky

The other day, I saw a TV ad for a variation on the old 20 questions game, where you think of something and this computer box thing asks you questions - it's supposed to be impossible to beat. To be honest, I thought it looked like a bit of a gimmick. But then my mate Kenneth E. found this online version and I couldn't believe how good it was. I did beat it with "cup of tea", but it beat me with hammock and spider - it's really creepy when it gets the answer right.

- Mr. Ed

Frugal Food

Here's a recipe that I made up recently, based on the meagre ingredients I had to hand - my fresh herbs on the porch really came in useful. Basically, it’s a poor man’s penne alla bosciaola, but it turned out to be rather tasty. (If you want to make the real deal - penne alla bosciaola - just add pancetta or bacon and porcini mushrooms or shitake mushrooms)



Penne all’ indigente

Ingredients.

Olive oil
Salt
Pepper (lots and lots)
Some Parmesan cheese (to taste – no such thing as too much in my opinion)
A few tablespoons of cooking wine (or dry sherry, dry vermouth etc)
One bowl of penne (I use Barilla or DeCecco)
One shallot (roughly chopped)
One clove of garlic (crushed)
Two teaspoons of flour
Some thick cream (maybe a cup and a half?)
A few fresh sage leaves
Some fresh parsley for garnish

Soften the shallots over a medium heat in the olive oil. Then add the garlic and the sage and cook for a minute or two on medium heat, but don’t brown the garlic. Turn the heat up to high and then add the wine (or sherry or vermouth) to deglaze the pan. Allow to simmer, and boil off a little of the liquid, before adding the cream and turning the heat down to medium/low. Cook for a few minutes, then add the sieved flour and stir well. Season well with salt and pepper to taste. Allow the flour to cook and thicken the sauce, and when the sauce is nice and thick you’re done.


In the meantime, you should have boiled some water and cooked the pasta according to instructions (in general around 8-10 minutes). If you time it right, the sauce should take slightly less time that the pasta. Add the drained pasta to the sauce – mix well and serve with a heap of Parmesan cheese and a sprinkle of parsley and some fresh ground pepper.





Yum!

-Mr Ed.

Bus Good - Car Bad

- Stiffrook.com

Your Daily Monster

Apparently, 344 loves you. How much you ask? Well, enough to draw you a monster everyday.

Here's today's monster:



Raarrr!

- Mr. Ed

My new Neighbourhood - Nice !

- stiffrook.com

Tunetastic Tuesday Seven

What ho! Tuesday is upon us again, so it must be time for a tune. This week it's Wilco, live on Later with Jools Holland, with an oldie but a goodie, War on War, from their meisterwerk Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.



Thank you very much,

- Mr. Ed

The inevitable

Well, it looks like England are headed for a draw in the second test against Australia. That’s if we can’t snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, as we have so often in the past.

And in other news, Simon finally got his way - despite my repeated attempts to dissuade him - and jumped in the toilet. This had been a goal of his for some time, and yet, judging by his reaction, it was a bit of a disappointment. Well that's not a move he’ll be repeating, I thought - another valuable life lesson. And though my first instinct was to console him, since that involved touching him, I thought better of it.

Oh, and Zvayam.com is also suffering some technical possibilities. I’ll advise when it’s back up and running.



Update 1:58am:

Zvayam.com* is up again, England have collapsed, and Simon is all dry and back to his naughty, naughty ways.

Bedtime!

- Mr. Ed

* with a new feauture - lab art.

Well...

Image from BBC Sport

bugger me backwards with a pitchfork, England are in with a chance. It's 2:35am here, and we're 545-ish for 6. Massive 'cred-ay' has to go to Paul Collingwood for his magnificent total of 206 runs, scored off a knackering-just-thinking-about-it 392 balls. Impressive. But, can we keep it up?

- Mr. Ed