White Rabbit

Alice: 'How long is forever?'

White Rabbit: 'Sometimes, just one second.'

Should you find yourself in a rabbit hole, do not resist. It spoils the fun.

The Men Who Sleep in Trucks

I'm indebted to Mark at So it Goes - as you can see Mark watches 500+ films a year, so you don't have to. Instead, take a look at his shortlist and cherry pick your own. That's how I came across The Men Who Sleep in Trucks. Made by Marc Isaacs in 2016 and commissioned by BBC3, it's a seventeen minute vox-pop with long distance lorry drivers filmed in various truck stops just before they get their heads down for the night. Once you've got past a bunch of fat lads without their tops on, it reveals just how sad, lonely and isolated these kings of the open road really are. Compelling viewing.

Rooster

Being a Rat (b. December 1960) and with the approaching year of the Rooster (Chinese New Year - commencing 28 January), 2017 is, apparently, going to be a 'colourful' year for me; whatever that means. I'll keep you posted.

Here's Mick Taylor, the finest guitar player the Rolling Stones ever employed (and, D-O-B 17 January 1949, a fellow Rat), singing an ode to that noisiest of farmyard creatures. And/or his cock.

Mick Taylor - Little Red Rooster

What about the Diddy Men?

Suit you 'Sir'

I woke up this morning to see Ray Davies' mug staring back at me from the telly. 'Christ, not another one!' I bellowed. Turns out Raymond Douglas Davies is very much alive - fit as a butcher's dog in fact. No, the reason he's on the news is because Her Majesty has given him a New Year's shiny thing: a trinket for services to Waterloo, or somesuch. Which is all well and good, fair play to the lad, but what about our kid?




Without Dave Davies there would be no Kinks (it was Dave's band, let's not forget), no Ray Davies the songwriter, no Knighthood. Someone needs to have a word with Queenie. You can't do one without the other. It'd be like honouring Ken Dodd but forgetting the Diddy Men - the young lads who did all the spade work and made him so tattyphilarious; it couldn't happen.

Changes

It was my birthday today. And I've had a great day. James and Janneke made it special. Janneke showed me how to make a Gibson. And an Espresso Martini. And she's going to knit me a bespoke scarf. James on the other hand is taking his old man to the Royal Albert Hall next year to see Seu Jorge perform The Life Equatic live.

2017 will be a year of changes. And lots of them. Some bigger than others, but changes nonetheless.

Seu Jorge: Changes