Does Anyone Care About Tokyo?
the Tokyo Olympics I mean
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There is a thing called The Olympic Ideal which is to promote sport, culture, and education to build a better world. I wonder which advertising company came up with that not-very-catchy slogan? If ever there was anything noble about the Olympic Games it’s just gone down in a flurry of money-making, horse-trading, cheating, corruption, and grubby politics. It’s a circus, an ideological, geo-political, power-grabbing battleground where the sport is just a secondary sideshow.
The circus is currently being held in Tokyo, Japan ~ and more than 80% of the Japanese are of the opinion that the whole thing should have been scrapped. Here in England we have coverage on the BBC, except the viewing figures are in the cellar while complaints about the appalling standards of coverage have reached new heights.
Arguments and complaints among competitors, coaches, national Olympic associations, and officials are a more enthralling spectacle than the actual sports. And as for the sport, when will tiddlywinks be accepted as an official Olympic sport, because it seems that medals are available for everything else.
Just WTF are artistic swimming, beach volleyball, BMX freestyle, rhythmic gymnastics, surfing, and FFS golf doing as Olympic sports. And these are all ‘professional sports’. If you ask me, the Olympics lost its way in 1986 when professionals were first allowed to compete.
It’s all about the TV rights and advertising.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
track cycling is an Olympic sport, but not proper road racing
Random Jottings ~ Never
never give up on life
~
it’s worth waiting for
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some say that life’s a bitch
until they marry a bastard
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never give up on what you want
because giving up means he wins
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It’s very nice to go travelling
because you get to be a long way away from your spouse
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for some people being alone is safe
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alcohol does not cure all ills
but it helps a lot
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
just when you thought you were supposed to be draining the swamp
Tunes on Tuesday ~ England Swings
if you can remember the swinging sixties
you were never there
Now that England has finally seen the back of, (most of), the stupid coronavirus restrictions, the country is getting back to normal again. England isn’t quite swinging, but I still think this Roger Miller song is appropriate for the mood of the day
Of course some of us are old enough to remember the swinging sixties, when both skirts and cars were tiny minis.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
real mini coopers
very swinging sixties
Songs on Saturday ~ I’m a Believer
belief is not a given thing
Amazingly, the weather here has been so fabulous over the past couple of days that on Friday I walked 10 miles in the sunshine. This song got hold of me for some reason, and made me smile even more, because it made me think of someone I know.
I know I should have played either The Monkees or Neil Diamond version, but I think this one is even more fun.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
this guy steals those movies
Tunes on Tuesday ~ Danger Zone
I feel the need… the need for speed
Following my post Blinding Lights earlier today, I thought that we would all like to see this classic Kenny Loggins track from the movie Top Gun.
Well, it makes me smile, and smiles are in short supply right now.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
before the F-14 Tomcat
this was the big stick
Food on Friday ~ the Nanny State
when did Mary Poppins say that the English can’t eat meat?
the fish and chop van has arrived!
Here in England the government, its bureaucrats, and unelected busybodies are never happier than when they are telling other people how to live their lives. Now the overweight and unhealthy-looking Prime Minister Boris Johnson has appointed an overweight and unhealthy-looking ‘restaurateur’ Henry Dimbleby to be the national ‘food czar’ with the task of getting Britons to eat healthier.
Dimbleby’s big ideas include a 6% salt tax to go along with the 18p per litre sugar tax we’re forced to pay. (a Big Mac would increase in price by 20p just because of all the salt in it) The same guy wants a meat tax, ‘in order to save the planet’, and aims to cut the consumption of dairy products by 20%. There is also likely to be a tax on saturated fats. (butter, lard, suet, cheese, ghee, and palm oil are all targets for new taxes)
Meanwhile the government here is spending £100 million on an anti-obesity campaign ~ they should look at their own waistlines first.
In another move the government here has banned fast food advertising from the television before nine-o-clock in the evening, when all good children should be fast asleep in bed.
And, the Prime Minister’s latest wife Carrie Johnson, (nee Carrie Symonds), wants to takle fish suffering, including protecting their mental well-being, by banning fishing.
The arrogant stupidity of some people appalls me.
Some say that all idiots went to Eton College and Oxford University. And that the experience warped their brains. All I know is that if you look at any really facile, incredibly stupid idea, then some Oxford University Graduates will be behind it.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
can’t have salmon for dinner
the mental well-being of fish is at stake here
Songs on Saturday ~ Don’t You Forget About Me
and don’t you throw, those spears, at me
If you have ambitions as a mimic then that’s one of the two Michael Caine lines you need to practice ~ which has nothing whatsoever to do with this cool song and great 80’s movie clips. Zulu came out in 1964, and I bet that today’s woke film producers wouldn’t make that picture.
I must have gone to the cinema a lot in the 80’s because I can remember every single one of the clips in this mashup.
Of course you also have to learn to do an Aussi accent if you want to say; ‘that’s not a knife…. that’s a knife….’
You know what, people tend not to forget about me.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Zulus, thousands of ’em
Tunes on Tuesday ~ Big River
I might be broke, but the fog on the Tyne is all mine
Not many Americans will have a clue who Jimmy Nail was, nor the character he used to play in a TV series they’ve never seen. Auf Wiedersehen, Pet was compulsive viewing when there really were dole queues in England. Bits of Newcastle still look like the monochrome scenes in the video clip.
Please listen with some nostalgia for better times.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
the famous five bridges
Tunes on Tuesday ~ Rio Bravo
they invented ‘hey you in the jail….’
Following this morning’s musical post from Paint Your Wagon, here’s a slightly atmospheric song from Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson, from the John Wayne Movie Rio Bravo. It has the not very catchy title of My Rifle, My Pony and Me. Some dowgies and a campfire would be good.
Of course, Walter Brennan steals the scene as ‘Stumpy’.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
somebody should apologize for
‘Brokeback Mountain’
Tunes on Tuesday ~ Wand’rin Star
hitch your wagon to a star
Maybe the most unlikely singer ever to reach number one in the UK ‘hit parade’ ~ back in the days when we had such a thing. Lee Marvin and a song from the movie musical ‘Paint your Wagon’. But then who would ever have expected Dirty Harry to burst into song either?
And, then again, John Wayne started his film career as a singing cowboy.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalknet
a singer not a fighter
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