The GOAT? Or just a goat? By The Landlord “Americans especially love superlatives. The phrases 'biggest in the world,' 'finest in the world,' are on all lips.” – Isabella Bird “When the first-rate author wants an exquisite heroine or a lovely morning, he finds that all the superlatives have been worn shoddy by his inferiors. It should be a rule that bad writers must start with plain heroines and ordinary mornings, and, if they are able, work up to something better.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald “From scarlet to powdered gold, to blazing yellow, to the rare ashen emerald, to the orange an ..read more

We’ve got shoal: silver herring By Maki Have you ever stopped to ponder the peculiarities of language? From the inventive to the downright bizarre, collective nouns never fail to add a dash of flavour and colour to our conversations. Let's take a dive into the linguistic menagerie, shall we? First up, we have "The Shoals of Herring". Picture this: a shimmering expanse of silver darting through the ocean depths, herring are so social that the collective noun for our scaly friends seems to fit them better than most. My personal preference however is for a brace of kippers. Next, we soar into ..read more

Through the darkness … By Nicko An All-Night A-List There’s a bright light Spiralling ‘round Tonight. – My Friend the Chocolate Cake  A lighthouse is for warning. To keep mariners real or metaphorical safe by showing them the way not to go. A guiding light is for showing someone the way to go. But it’s really the same difference. A beacon sits in the middle. Don’t come here or do come here. Or letting someone know something is happening in the olden days.  But it’s all points or beams of light. Not really to illuminate but to pinpoint. And although I did feel all at sea in the choi ..read more

Sound waves and beyond … By Loud Atlas One of life's simplest pleasures is waving at a stranger on a passing steam train. If they're game they'll wave back, and most of the time they do. It's an 'I see you, you see me' gesture which engages us in a split second of harmless frivolity that's almost impossible to replicate. Gesturing is a way of forming connections for bad or for worse. Come hither (he types, with a beckoning finger) as we explore the results of a week spent exploring musical gesticulation. SaluteAC/DC start us off with a salute of respect to their fellow rockers in For Those ..read more

This joint is jumping … By pejepeine Leaving This Planet: Songs about Jumping I only learned recently that a recurring dream of mine is fairly common. It involves walking, springing on my toes and suddenly taking flight, bouncing higher and higher into the sky. It's more of a jumping dream than a flying one, and it's always exhilarating to spring away from the earth.  That thrill of briefly leaving the planet is also one of my first memories, leaping off a wall over some flowers onto a patch of grass – the fear and the excitement and that moment when there is nothing beneath your feet ..read more

One giant leap: Bob Beamon’s long jump record at the Mexico City 1968 Olympics stood for at an unusually lengthy 23 years By The Landlord “Art is a leap into the dark.” – Pablo Picasso “A wounded deer leaps the highest.” – Emily Dickinson “We are the hurdles we leap to be ourselves.” – Michael McClure “This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” – Neil Armstrong “With my little band, I did everything they did with a big band. I made the blues jump.” – Louis Jordan “I own a '66 Jaguar. That's the guitar I polish, and baby - I refuse to let anyone touch ..read more

Itching to have a go … By EnglishOutlaw The Itch It starts with a tingle. A gentle brush against the skin. Nothing to worry about. Surely. A caress of mild panic. It creeps. Spreads. Marches down your arm. Just advancing, little by little. Harder to ignore now. You look down. Nothing there. But there is. You feel it. It gnaws. Bites. But most of all... it itches. Itch – Ani DiFranco (Maki) Hell's Itch – King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (Nicko) Itchy Itchy – James Domestic (Carpgate) Itch – quinnie (Mussolini Headkick) Seven Year Itch – Willie Nelson (severin) The Scratch You find the s ..read more

Bear with us … By The Landlord “Happiness is having a scratch for every itch.” – Ogden Nash “Sex is a momentary itch, love never lets you go.” – Kingsley Amis “Your skin starts itching once you buy that gimmick about something called love.” – Iggy Pop “It shakes me, it quakes me. It makes me feel goose-pimply all over. I don't know where I am, or who I am, or what I'm doing. Don't stop, don't stop!” – Marilyn Monroe, The Seven Year Itch It's that odd, prickly, tickly space between pleasure and pain, something all of us  naily-hairy apes and other mammals can't help ..read more

Blessed or cursed? How how will it play out…? By Maki A Curse Lifted In the heart of a forgotten town, nestled between towering mountains where the Slow West Vultures ruled the skies and veiled in perpetual mist, stood a mysterious establishment known as the Song Bar. Its dilapidated façade exuded an eerie charm, drawing in all who sought refuge from the mundane or relief from their troubles. Legend spoke of a curse that clung to the bar like a ghostly shroud, a malevolent force that intertwined with the music that echoed within its walls. The Song Bar had been a fixture of the town for as l ..read more

Fatoumata Diawara By ajostu Treasure! The lure of ill-gotten wealth and fortune. As the Landlord pointed out, there have been several loot-related topics that have come up in the past – money, gold, coins, pirates. However, not so long ago, we also had the topic of quests. Treasure isn’t necessarily something you have to go and hunt for. It’s not always at the end of the rainbow, buried on a distant isle or waiting to be found in a newly discovered goldfield. There is the personal treasure of family and friendship, for example. Or memory. But, for me, the association between treasure and qu ..read more