If going through things I like, books, old movie stars and design would probably come up pretty high, which could explain why last nights trip to the Taschen site made me want to salivate at the prospect of some coming books...

...five movie icons books that are coming soon. They've picked great people for these ones, I was thumbing through the Orson Welles one in Baltic a few weeks ago and they're everything you'd expect, a few hundred pages of high quality, well layed out images interspersed with just enough text to make it flow right. I love the Icons books and would probably pre-order all five of these were it possible to pay now instead of having them take money on some random day that I don't know when..

• So, I decided to set up a skype account in my real name for work related things and potential clients, and tried to add my boss, only to accidentally add a random Australian with the same name and send him an introduction message involving the phrase 'Billions of Billous Blistering Barnacles" Um. Yes. So much for having the new account to be more professional.
  
  
  
  Go on, Tug my beard.
  
  
  
• That new "How to save a life" single by the fray? Is it just me or is it a real grower? I quite liked it first time I heard it, but the more I hear it the more I like it. Somewhat more worryingly I actually think Christina Aguilera's new song is quite likable too, it's entirely throwaway bubble gum pop, but it's enjoyable and she's pretty good at it. I understand that what I have just said is entirely wrong, but hey, this is a blog, where else am I meant to put my deepest darkest butt shaking to pop secrets? She seems to be going for some retro, brassy style pop.
  
  
  
  Aguilera - going retro.
  
  
  
• I loathe my Local News paper, in fact I loathe almost all local newspapers. It's pointless, this town is a pointless place, full of pointless little things that matter nothing, apart from to give the local paper something to write about. Anyway, I got past this loathing enough to write a letter to the editor last night about the local MP's bid to have Thatcher removed from the Lobby, predictably enough it was roundly ignored in favour of a poll of locals baying for the removal of the statue. I'll bet it's the only time in his Hicksville career that he'll be formally addressed as "SIR -" though, the letter writing standard in the Hicksville Gazette is not exactly high; For that matter, neither is the journalism.
  
  
  
  Provider of Cat Litter tray liners for 150 years!
  

Dear Bob Shrum,

First of all may I offer belated condolences on your candidates failure to achieve there goals in the last two elections, I'm sure this is no slight on your abilities as an adviser, after all, who would have foreseen hanging chads or swift boats? At any rate, I'm not writing to you about politics, but instead about your an analogy you're quoted as having used in last week's Sunday Times.

While I am all for the use of analogies that reference British History, I did find it somewhat odd that you should be using them too, after all, your particular former colony has a whopping two centuries of history now, perhaps you could have found some analogies of your own. This is, however, by the by, my problem is with your analogy itself, in that it's incorrect.

The Charge of the Light Brigade
- Not actually all that bad!

You suggest that the charge of the light brigade at the battle of Balaclava was not successful, from your phrasing of the analogy, I'd even go so far as to say you suggest it was a failure. On the contrary, my dear boy, the charge of the Light Brigade was spectacular not only in the fearless courage shown by the combatants, but also in the fact that the objectives of the charge were in fact achieved against all odds. The guns at the far end of the valley were taken and the twenty battalions holding said guns repulsed. Now, due to the unfortunate fact that more than half of the horses and almost a quarter of the men lay dead on the field, the only possible option from this point was to retreat back along the valley, such a position as they had attained being indefencible due to their high casualty figures, however the fact remains that they objective was achieved in the first place.

Permit me if I may, to suggest a better analogy, I'm sure we could find one, if we tried. I was at first going to suggest one of the major defeats inflicted upon the British in that era, however at Islandwhana and Khartoum we were attacked, as opposed to attacking, thus rendering them entirely useless for the purpose of your analogy. I considered the Hicks-Pasha column, however, while Hicks himself was British, the column was Egyptian and Soudanese and they were ambushed before any attack was made upon the Mahdi's forces.

To make your analogy work we need an all out attack by the forces, on this count Badajoz would come into contention, however again this resulted in success, albeit after many assaults of the most bloody and nightmarish nature. This leaves us with somewhat of a problem in that, as a general rule, when the thin red line attacked, it did so successfully. If I may venture to offer a Naval analogy, perhaps you could consider the battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife? Not only were the attackers defeated, but their commander lost his arm. Of course, the defeat was in fact a negotiated surrender with full military honours, again it seems to fail you.

For an example of an unsuccessful attack, may I suggest you look elsewhere, perhaps at a nation with a less distinguished historical track record. I can think of a few, Napoleon's 1812 jaunt into Russia was rather less than successful, and Hitler didn't fair overly well when he attempted a similar manoeuvre 169 years later. Of course, we must assess also the ability of your audience to be familiar with the business end of your analogy, so perhaps we should look elsewhere, perhaps one may find some examples of failed military aggression a little closer to home, I don't know for certain, but perhaps Vietnam, Korea, Iraq may give some scope for thought.

Yours

amillionpieces

Alas, I was wrong, the local rag had not ignored my letter, it was in yesterday's paper.  Quite why it takes a five day turn around to print an e-mail regarding an issue that was only ever going to be news for a day or two is beyond me, but mine not to reason why.  They even edited the "Sir, I am writing to you with regards to your front page story today" to reflect their inability to publish promptly.  Nice, very nice, make it look like I was slow to write it.

Being as I had blogged about said rag last week, and complained that they did not publish, I must now set the record straight.  It's still a total rag, just one that published my letter.  (foxinthesnow and awesomelies may want to look away now, should they be reading)

Anyway, like any true blogger would, I scanned it for internet show and tell.  My next letter writing target should perhaps be The Economist.  I think I may need to up my game somewhat...

There are some songs that require a bit more than a voice to sing them, they require a background, they require something else, some special ingredient in the performance that takes them beyond mere music. Which is why I was somewhat displeased to see baby faced X-factor loser Ray Quinn is releasing a cover version of My Way. Now, I haven't anything against Ray, I really don't know the boy, and I'm sure he's probably a nice enough chap, but why My Way?

When Frank Sinatra sang my way you knew he'd been through a lot, you knew he had life experience, you wouldn't doubt for one minute that he liked to have things his way. When he thinks about it I think of his life, I think of JFK, of mafia connections, of film roles, of money and excess. I think of nights out on the strip with Dean Martin; neither of them drunk of course, because as Deano would tell you, you're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on. I think of Ava Gardner (never a bad thing) clocking him with an ash tray in their tempestuous marriage.

Ray Quinn - Does it his way, apparently.

Which is why I have a problem with Ray Quinn's version, the irony of a manufactured poppet singing "I did it my way" seems somewhat lost on the music industry as the package up another youngster to try to make a star. What has he done his way, what is all this massive life experience that gives him the passion to pull of a track like this? My way evokes thoughts of someone who has been through the mill and came out standing, not been through a brief spell at drama school and came out deciding to sing. He has a good voice, my problem isn't with a lack of talent, but why this song, amongst so many big band tracks, why My Way?

One this is true though, when he sings "I bit off, more than I could chew" he ain't lying.