Poets Going Pop

When I first heard that Paul Muldoon (poet, role model, old enough to be my dad) had started playing guitar and writing lyrics for a band called Rackett, I was horrified. For some reason, it really got to me. If I gave my brains a good rack, I could probably remember when exactly I found out - a couple of years ago, I think. I'm over it now, though I've not become a fan of his 'three-car garage rock' outfit. (For one thing, I don't like the lazy boast of wealth that fuels the 'three-car garage rock' gag.) I met someone this summer who had been to one of Rackett's few gigs. What did she make of it? Well, she thought the lyrics were good.

Just this afternoon I've been reading about the rock'n'roll adventures of Simon Armitage (poet, role model, almost old enough to be my dad). And my reaction to his band, The Scaremongers, is pretty much the polar opposite of the way I felt about Rackett. The new sounds from New Jersey, and the very concept of Muldoon's combo, made my stomach turn; The Scaremongers, and their story-so-far, make my heart beat faster. Not that their record is so wonderful, although it's certainly worth a listen, and I am quite taken by Armitage's northern croon.

I have a few ideas as to why I feel so differently about these two middle-aged poets dabbling in indie-rock, and enacting a teenage dream or two to the accompaniment of some measure of self-deprecation. But I shan't bore you with them right now, partly because they have so much to do with my own teenage dreams, and so could quickly get embarrassing. I just hope that my enthusiasm for The Scaremongers holds up: with Rackett, the journey from distress to indifference was a short one. Indifference is a miserable place to end up. In the meantime, I'm looking forward enormously to the debut LP from Huddersfield's finest!

(Having said all that, I do really enjoy Muldoon's delivery of the lyrics - and the lyrics themsleves - to Rackett's song 'The Sideman' .)

best Bahnhof?

they have come to save us

boy, we know how to have some fun

horchata

Not, strictly, a milkshake. 'This chilled almond milk is on tap in heaven.' Who said that?

Kielce

Concealed by the woman's head: the word 'you'. Sometimes you're in a hurry and you can't find a 'native speaker' to run your new slogan by ...

ea

A strong contender for '2-letter Word of the Year 2007'?

From the OED: 'A river, running water. Still in use in Lanc.; in the fen-country applied to the canals for drainage, in which sense it is usually spelt eau [as if a. F. eau water].'

Unlike many of the two-letter oddities with which internet scrabblers have been confounding me of late, this one I could see myself getting some use out of.

who really is the patron saint of the milkshake?

just a little axolotl

(molto) ben trovato

se non è vero è (molto) ben trovato wł., jeśli to nie jest prawdziwe, to jednak (bardzo) dobrze wymyślone.
	Etym. - z Giordana Bruno (Gli eroici furori; 1585 r.).

I didn't know what ben trovato meant. Now, thanks to this place, I do! It's probably the best Italian phrase of all time, wouldn't you say?