The Player

Just to let the UK Vixens know - if they haven't already spotted it - that The Player is on Film4 on Tuesday 5th August at 11.10pm.

They give it a five-star rating in the Radio TImes preview, but don't mention Vincent once (or Greta for that matter).

This needs editing

But I don't dare try, in case PissBucket loses it. The pictures seem to be in a rather strange order, and I've no idea why I made it this way, but the whole file is all over the place, with pictures from other episodes mingled in.

Well, it's all Bobby, so who cares?

Just for JoJo

Knowing how much you loved bugs of all kinds, I thought I 'd share this googled picture of a male stag beetle with you. They are rare and endangered, so I think you'd probably feel you had to find it a new home rather than destroy it, JoJo. Beautiful, isn't he? The Vincent D'Onofrio of beetles!

The female I found was only just over an inch long, and they don't have the antlers that give the species its name, but it's still a whole lot bigger than most beetles you find in a British garden.
The larvae are big, white, squishy things that live in rotting wood for several years before maturing into adult beetles, so in these days of gardens preened to within an inch of their lives, it's no wonder the beetles are becoming so rare.

Suspicion of Innocence

I thought it was about time for Vincent's beautifully observed portrayal of young Davey Baylor to get another outing.

Another missed opportunity for the Emmy nominating committee. And years on, they still haven't realised their mistake and rectified it.

Central London 8 miles

Wildlife Wonderland - in my back garden.

I am sitting here, wireless, in my garden, where I looked up a while ago and saw one of these at my peanut bird feeder:

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

Just last week, for the first time ever (and possibly the last!) I saw a pair of these on the fat feeders:

Long-tailed tit

I have lived in this house for 31 years. At first, I could hear owls at night, and bats whirled round at dusk. Both are long-gone.

When I first started feeding birds in the garden, greenfinches were regular visitors. It's years since I saw any.

Then, year after year the feeders went untouched. The sparrows that had been common visitors came no more. No-one knew why this common garden bird was disappearing off the map. Starlings fared no better.

Now the starlings squabble daily at the feeders, eating me out of house and home. Sparrows are increasing in number. At the weekend I looked out of my bedroom window and saw up to about 20 of them poking around in my neighbour's garden.

We are one of the few areas in the country that has stag beetles, and though I have not seen any big males for a few years, this year I had to rescue a small female a couple of times as she attracted the attention of one of my cats. I know they breed in the nearby undisturbed wildlife area that our friendly developer wants to build on. No chance.

It's that bloody woman again!

I'm sure you will all have received the latest Google Alert which contains a link to yet another whinge from Grotty Greta.

I thought she'd got over it - last week in The Observer she did a whole interview without even mentioning him. I was wrong.

This TimesOnline article mentions the break-up when Leila was 6 months old, but says there was a custody battle when Vincent "walked away". It also miraculourly has her period out-of-work as only 18 months, not the 4 years she has previously claimed.

I can't make a slideshow to illustrate how Vincent must feel at this constant sniping, but this one from The War At Home has some pictures which might indicate a smidgen of irritation, and some more of emotional exhaustion.

Anti-Racist

New Cross, August 1977

In the late 1970s there were a couple of occasions when the racist organisation, The National Front, organised marches in the multi-racial area of London where I live and teach. Anti-racist groups were determined to show solidarity with the racial minorities being intimidated by these racist thugs. The police tried to thwart us at every turn, while marching proudly beside the racists and calling out to us that "we aren't on your side". The picture above is of the first march, wth police horses charging the crowd. As someone near me said, "I don't fancy this on an empty stomach". But we got it anyway. It's true that missiles were thrown by some people in the crowd, but the frustration of being denied the right to march in the morning when the racists were allowed to march that afternoon had brought out the anger of some of the anti-racists at the partiality of the police.

A year or two after the demo in the picture, a further demonstration took place against another march a couple of miles away in Catford. Once more, the police took the racists' part, and laid into the counter-demonstrators with truncheons, provoking something akin to a riot. At one point, a high-profile local mixed race actress was dragged off by police by her bright pink hair after she tried to tell those arrested who to contact for legal help.

When it was all over, I was waiting at a bus stop with group of black youths who were making joking comments, first to a bus load of police officers, then at some mounted police. Both these had been amused, and had moved on when a further three mounted officers rode towards us. I was daydreaming, and did not notice at first that the bus queue was being charged by these horses, and I almost did not make it into the shop doorways where everyone was now huddled.

And the transgression for which an innocent group of citizens had been punished? Someone had sworn. Yes. In the words of the police when they had subdued this unruly crowd of - well, people waiting for a bus: "OK, so where are the big boys who were swearing?"

This incident came back to me after reading JoJo's account of her husband's defence of a single homeless man in the face of a massive police intervention. Amazingly, a trainee police officer (who used to be part of the VDO bunch), nearly 30 years the junior of JoJo's husband Brian, from her immense experience of one year wearing a uniform, had the barefaced cheek to say he should have kept out of it.

I have vivid memories of trying to advise this young woman on her attitude towards older people when she was about to start her training. I also remember receiving a bunch of abusive emails (proving my point, really) because I had dared to call her "sweetie".

Somebody lock me up for using an affectionate term to address her.

Two I made earlier

At the risk of being shut out of my own album, I have not yet tried today to make a new slideshow. But with lots of episodes winging their way across the airwaves at present, I have lots of potential posts to choose from.

Recent broadcasts include:

Silver Lining -


and Stress Position -

Suck on this, Photobucket!

Still unable to do PB slideshows because "the issue has been filed and escalated to the Development Team so it can be investigated and resolved. Unfortunately there is not an estimated time frame for when this will happen." - ie. "we don't have a clue what's wrong so we've passed the buck. Don't expect an answer anytime soon." So Windows Movie Maker and Photobucket to the rescue, and here is a mix that will melt the eyes and ears.

Bad Joke

Well, how about this. Not only has Photobucket failed to solve my slideshow problem YET, I log on early today because I'm going out this afternoon, and this evening I will be showing my friend Vanishing Act, and when I try to get to my pictures I find that they are doing some "maintenance" on the site.

Well, let's see what we can find on YouTube, then:

Magic

Thanks to the uselessness of the Royal Mail, I have yet to receive the copy of Vanishing Act Eliza kindly sent out to me ON MONDAY. Usually I can rely on it arriving on Tuesday, but this week it hasn't put in an appearance at all so far.

Luckily, the genius that is our top V-Vixen has an online link that she emailed me last night, and I was able to download it, then burn a copy. This made it possible for me to cap it, so here is my take on this great episode full of VERY happy Bobby doing his usual magic, and some actual magic, too.













































































































Doesn't Christopher Lloyd look frail? Thinking back to Star Trek 3, when he was this apparently massive, strong Klingon, he seems to have shrunk out of all recognition.

For Drowsey Monkey

It's not possible to get unblurred pictures of this scene because he moves so fast, but you get the general idea...

Impenetrable

That's my opinion of the plot of Eosphoros.

Bobby looks cute, though


Just look where his leg is!

Lots of good neck and lash shots...