Too cool for consonants...

The question on our minds here in The Carpathia, is simple: is this man too cool for consonants?

After watching an episode of Cadfael on DVD, we found ourselves with time to spare, but no short programmes to watch either on DVD or any of the many fine digital TV channels open to us. Since we had only just recharged our G&Ts, we decided the obvious thing to do was dig out the nearest iPod, slap it into the docking port and hit play in the reassuring shuffle mode. A few minutes in, the iPod produced for our delectation, Chris Isaak performing Blue Hotel. It is clear, that the man has little use for consonants; he gets away with the barest minimum he can to get the idea across. I have never heard anyone pronounce 'hotel' without the 't', but also without an Estuary glottal stop. It's quite fascinating.

Check out this live version on YouTube. I reckon he dispenses with a good 60% of the consonants a normal person would use:

Too cool for consonants.

Too cool for consonants...

The question on our minds here in The Carpathia, is simple: is this man too cool for consonants?

After watching an episode of Cadfael on DVD, we found ourselves with time to spare, but no short programmes to watch either on DVD or any of the many fine digital TV channels open to us. Since we had only just recharged our G&Ts, we decided the obvious thing to do was dig out the nearest iPod, slap it into the docking port and hit play in the reassuring shuffle mode. A few minutes in, the iPod produced for our delectation, Chris Isaak performing Blue Hotel. It is clear, that the man has little use for consonants; he gets away with the barest minimum he can to get the idea across. I have never heard anyone pronounce 'hotel' without the 't', but also without an Estuary glottal stop. It's quite fascinating.

Check out this live version on YouTube. I reckon he dispenses with a good 60% of the consonants a normal person would use:

Too cool for consonants.

Everything has to be done last week.

I have just received an email telling me that the Departmental intranet is off line and just before that one of my colleagues had grumbled that he couldn’t access it. This rather surprised me as I was using it at the time – not something I generally do; it’s rather boring.

I am having motivational issues this morning. It is nice and sunny outside, decidedly spring like. I feel tired still and really don’t find myself caring much about all the stuff on my desk. When everything is labelled ‘urgent’ or subject to a comedy deadline, frankly it’s hard to find the energy to sort out what to do next and whether the individual piece of work really is any more important than the others.

I think I really, really need to win the lottery jackpot.

Everything has to be done last week.

I have just received an email telling me that the Departmental intranet is off line and just before that one of my colleagues had grumbled that he couldn’t access it. This rather surprised me as I was using it at the time – not something I generally do; it’s rather boring.

I am having motivational issues this morning. It is nice and sunny outside, decidedly spring like. I feel tired still and really don’t find myself caring much about all the stuff on my desk. When everything is labelled ‘urgent’ or subject to a comedy deadline, frankly it’s hard to find the energy to sort out what to do next and whether the individual piece of work really is any more important than the others.

I think I really, really need to win the lottery jackpot.

Action Comics #1

Is it a bird, is it a plane?

It’s times like this that I regret my Mum culling my comics collection when I was 11 or 12. Everyone who ever collected comic books has the same story: one day you come home from school to find your prized collection has been spring-cleaned to the bin and that’s that. I never had anything quite as valuable as Action Comics number one, or Detective Comics number 27 (I think that was the first appearance of Batman?) but I had a number of silver age Marvels that went on to become collectible, albeit at somewhat more modest amounts than $317,200 that the first appearance of the Big Blue Boy Scout has just raised at auction.

I managed to rescue and indeed, augment my Fantastic Four collection – the earliest I have is issue number 10, though it is in atrocious condition and I have a full uninterrupted sequence of somewhere between 2/3 and ¾ of the Kirby-Lee run from 1962-1970, including annuals. Collectively they are worth a bob or two if ever I could be parted from them and there is the odd issue worth a little more on its own: Annual number one, with a still-white cover with barely any chipping, for a start, I think.

But I wonder what issues like Iron Man number one (ie the first in his own title rather than sharing with Captain America), the first Submariner and Silver Surfer would get me now if I still had them. Or more importantly the short run of Ditko Spider-Man comics I managed to acquire. Happily not single-number issues: that loss would have been just too much to bear!



I would say that parents shouldn’t be allowed to devastate comic collections, but there are few titles printed today or even in the last 20 years worth anything in the medium term, though who knows what they may be worth when time has thinned numbers? Sadly though, even original printings of such worthy titles as The Dark Knight Returns are not worth much yet after 20 years. There may be a narrow window for Watchmen issues 1-12 of the original print, while the movie is big news, but so many copies have been printed of so many issues, with so many alternative covers, that it’s not worth the expenditure of time, effort or more importantly money in building a collection of anything newer that about 1980.

But I still mourn the collection of 100-200 old 1960s Marvels that got binned while I was away at school on day nearly 40 years ago…

Action Comics #1

Is it a bird, is it a plane?

It’s times like this that I regret my Mum culling my comics collection when I was 11 or 12. Everyone who ever collected comic books has the same story: one day you come home from school to find your prized collection has been spring-cleaned to the bin and that’s that. I never had anything quite as valuable as Action Comics number one, or Detective Comics number 27 (I think that was the first appearance of Batman?) but I had a number of silver age Marvels that went on to become collectible, albeit at somewhat more modest amounts than $317,200 that the first appearance of the Big Blue Boy Scout has just raised at auction.

I managed to rescue and indeed, augment my Fantastic Four collection – the earliest I have is issue number 10, though it is in atrocious condition and I have a full uninterrupted sequence of somewhere between 2/3 and ¾ of the Kirby-Lee run from 1962-1970, including annuals. Collectively they are worth a bob or two if ever I could be parted from them and there is the odd issue worth a little more on its own: Annual number one, with a still-white cover with barely any chipping, for a start, I think.

But I wonder what issues like Iron Man number one (ie the first in his own title rather than sharing with Captain America), the first Submariner and Silver Surfer would get me now if I still had them. Or more importantly the short run of Ditko Spider-Man comics I managed to acquire. Happily not single-number issues: that loss would have been just too much to bear!



I would say that parents shouldn’t be allowed to devastate comic collections, but there are few titles printed today or even in the last 20 years worth anything in the medium term, though who knows what they may be worth when time has thinned numbers? Sadly though, even original printings of such worthy titles as The Dark Knight Returns are not worth much yet after 20 years. There may be a narrow window for Watchmen issues 1-12 of the original print, while the movie is big news, but so many copies have been printed of so many issues, with so many alternative covers, that it’s not worth the expenditure of time, effort or more importantly money in building a collection of anything newer that about 1980.

But I still mourn the collection of 100-200 old 1960s Marvels that got binned while I was away at school on day nearly 40 years ago…