More Space Books

What do you do when you have no money and no more room for books in the house? In my case you buy more books. My name is Gary Smith and I am a bookaholic.

Before we get to the books though I’d like to say a big thank you to Michelle, aka Cowboys and Custard, for the fantastic rocket gift she presented me with on a recent visit to her lovely house. Thanks Michelle, as you can see the rocket has proudly taken its place alongside some of my other space ornaments.

So, on to the latest additions to the space library. First, Norman Mailer’s “A Fire On The Moon”. Mailer was asked to write about the moon landings by Life Magazine and this book is the result. I haven’t read it yet but I gather it’s not altogether complimentary about the endeavour but then he was a wife beater and something of a miserable bugger, so what can you expect?

Last year the brilliant Taschen published “Moonfire” a book that added Mailer’s writing to some amazing NASA photos to create a really special book and one that’s definitely on my “must have” list. If money was no object though I would absolutely have to have the special edition of the book. The special edition was limited to just twelve copies, it comes in packaging that opens out into a lunar lander and it comes complete with a piece of actual moon rock! Unsurprisingly, it costs thousands. Come on lottery! Meantime, I’m more than happy with my second hand copy of Mailer’s original.

Next up is another copy of The Obverser’s Book of Manned Spaceflight. Yes, another copy as I already have the second edition of the book with a picture of the ASTP on the cover.

This is the third edition with the space shuttle and a space station on the cover. Now of course I’m on the lookout for the first edition with a picture of Skylab on the cover. The Observer’s books are just lovely aren’t they? I found some interesting websites about them recently, so if you are into the Observer’s books you might want to have a look here, here and here.

Finally, I bought the latest edition of Spaceflight Magazine as it had an article on Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke and another on Russian spacedogs. I couldn't not get it could I?

Keep watching the skies.

Suggested reading: “Moonfire: The Epic Journey of Apollo 11” by Norman Mailer

The Joy Of 6

The BBC Trust has rejected the proposal to axe 6 Music. Well done to everyone who made their displeasure about DG Mark Thompson’s insane idea known to the BBC and in particular to the BBC Trust. We did it. Thank you.

Suggested listening: 6 Music

Big Money

This may well go down in the history of our small family as the summer of car boot sales. The weather has been lovely so it’s well worth being outdoors. Also Mrs Kitsch has been quite industrious and sold a number of things online, so we’ve been out there looking for lovely kitsch and vintage items to re-stock her online shop. The trouble is of course that we also end up buying stuff for ourselves and all the good work we did de-cluttering when we moved house a few years ago is being undone. Still, what ya gona do? Well, actually, we could go to a car boot sale and sell stuff rather than buy it, but who wants to get up that early? Exactly.

Being the eagle eyed scout that I am I completely failed to spot these two fantastic items, fortunately my other half was on the ball and got them for me.

I’ve had a brief look online but haven’t found anything out about them yet. They’re metal, quite heavy, about the size of a digestive biscuit and obviously souvenirs, possibly paper weights, rather than proper coinage. I’ve put a £2 coin next to them for comparison but maybe I should have used a digestive biscuit after all. I was thinking of including coins in my art work so these things are just right to help me with that.

Unfortunately, the Americans still deem it necessary to put the phrase “in god we trust” on their money; well it is the official motto of the United States so it’s not much of a surprise really. As I’ve mentioned before, I refuse to paint anything religious in case I’m mistakenly seen as endorsing religion, so I won’t be using that phrase in my work, however, the Latin phrase “e pluribus unum” meaning “out of many, one” seems to sum up America far better to me and I’ll be happy to include that in any future work. I’ll probably make up a coin design rather than try and reproduce an actual one anyway.

We’ve also been hitting the charity shops hard recently too where I spotted a couple more books. Blimey, not more books Gary? Yes, more books. This one about The Flaming Lips was only 50p so how could I not get it?

I’ve been a fan of The Flaming Lips since I saw them at Glastonbury several years ago. If you ever have the opportunity of seeing them play live then grab it with both hands, they have to be one of the best live bands of all time. I don’t know that much about them though so this book is a welcome addition to the library. Did I mention it was just 50p? Anyway, then there’s this little book.

Now I picked this up intending for Mrs Kitsch to make badges out of as it’s full of cute little pictures of squirrels and other woodland creatures. But then we sat a read it the other the day and it’s quite delightful. It tells you all about a year in the life of a squirrel in a very factual way and frankly if I had kids I'd get the whole series and read it with them. I learnt things from it, for instance, when the female squirrel is about to have her young she evicts the male squirrel from the drey (nest) and he and some of the other evictees move in together for the duration. It’s full of stuff like that, brilliant. Anyway, it’s really sweet and I got rather attached to it, so I’m keeping it. What can I say, I love squirrels. They’re the British equivalent of monkey’s so what’s not to like.

I rather like the grey squirrels, unfortunately, not everyone shares my opinion and there are plans to cull them in Cornwall so that the less attractive (I’m not keen on those silly tufts on their ears) but native red squirrel can get a foot hold again. This seems mad, not to mention racist, to me but what do I know about it? If we’re going to get rid of, or at least reduce, so called “non-native” species where do we draw the line? Rabbits aren’t native to this country, probably being introduced here by the Normans. And how far back do we go before we regard something as British? If you go back far enough there were once lions and elephants and all kinds of plains animals roaming around what is now Britain but I don’t see anyone suggesting re-introducing lions back into the country.

I suppose you could draw comparisons with the American grey squirrel taking over the land from the native British red squirrel with the white settlers in the United States taking over the land from the Native American Indians. Bury my nut at Wounded Knee. Still, I like the greys so I say move over Tufty, there’s a new squirrel in town and this town ain’t big enough for the both of yous. Anyway, it’s called evolution and obviously the reds simply aren’t up to the job.

Suggested listening: “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots” by The Flaming Lips

The Folk Art Of Cactus County #18

Howdy partners, here’s another gem from the world of Cactus County. This is called “Cactus County Desert Scene” which pretty much speaks for itself.

I’m afraid that at the moment I can neither confirm nor deny rumours that some of my work has been bought by Charles Saatchi for his Museum of Contemporary Art, as I’ve only just started these rumours and I want them to spread a bit first. Anyway, this piece is acrylic on canvas, 18cm x 13cm.

Sunburn

So much for the new job. Long story short it hasn’t worked out so I’m back on the market again. Any offers? On the plus side I can now take advantage of the good weather and take Mrs Kitsch on an impromptu trip to the seaside.

I don’t know what it is about the seaside, and in particular the sea, that draws me back. I’m sure I can’t be the only person who gets the urge every now and again to be by the sea, or better still in it. Is it a primal thing? It has been suggested that the hairless ape that is our species evolved into modern humans because we left the jungles and forests for the coast, the so called aquatic ape hypothesis. Living off shellfish and swimming in the oceans shaped us to become what we are today and in evolutionary terms that wasn’t so long ago. So maybe the urge to return to the sea is a primal thing after all. All I know is a trip to the seaside was very much in order, the weather was good, we had the time, so off we went with phasers set to “fun”.

The music that accompanied us to and from our seaside destination was a two disc collection of work by Ron Goodwin, which may seem an odd choice for an ex-indie DJ but “Elizabethan Serenade” and “Miss Marple’s Theme” simply can’t be beaten. There are some real classics in there too like “633 Squadron” and “Where Eagles Dare” but the best bit was trying to guess those tracks we didn’t know or at least what type of film they came from or what its basic theme was. Good old Ron’s use of the musical cliché kept us guessing along nicely with tracks like “El Morocco Tea Rooms”, “Tropical Mirage”, “Laughing Sailor” and “Handyman”. It certainly passed the time in an entertaining manor, especially on the return journey through all the many stretches of motor where a speed limit of 50mph was imposed because of road works, two separate incidents of upturned cars on the hard shoulder and the threat of “pedestrians” on the road. The upturned cars and the warning signs of “pedestrians” on the road were around the Bridgend area, so it’s possible the incidents of suicides in my old home town haven’t abated. Tragic.

However, disc one of Ron Goodwin came to an end as we entered The Gower in South Wales, a favourite place of ours that we’ve visited on a few occasions. The beaches there are very good and there are a lot to choose from. This time we selected Oxwich Bay not far from The Mumbles. Within about 15 minutes of settling in a spot by the dunes we were in the water. I floated about on my “turbo sport surf attack” inflatable ring (how long have I had that thing?) while Mrs Kitsch, unable to resist the lure of the briny, was soon swimming about like a West Country Esther Williams. Marvellous, just what we needed and the water wasn’t too cold either.

The plan was to go back in again a bit later but there were sufficient clouds to prevent the sun from keeping the water warm enough and we only managed a paddle later. In between our aquatic adventures there was much relaxation with Mrs Kitsch reading and me stretched out fast asleep (insert your own gag here about locals trying to rescue a beached whale).

Now although I said there were some clouds, there was still a lot of sunshine and the sensible thing to do would have been to put on some sun cream like my other half did but I deliberately decided to forego being sensible and get a little bit sunburnt. I can’t remember the last time I got sunburnt. All the talk of skin cancer and frankly the simple lack of really hot weather over the last decade or so mean that I just haven’t had sunburn in a very long time. So I thought, sod it, a little bit of sunburn, why not? How bad can it be?

Its twenty four hours later and you can fry an egg on the heat coming off my knees. My pink knees. My very pink knees. And it’s not just my knees, I’m a bright neon pink on my legs, the tops of my feet, my neck, shoulders, arms, and my chest and belly. I’ve totally irradiated myself; I look like lobster boy from a carnies freak tent. It stings quite a bit too. And do you know what, its fine. I’m sunburnt, it hurts and its fine. I didn’t intend to get quite so burnt but I really don’t mind that much.

I’m reminded of family holidays in Porthcawl more than 30 years ago (bloody hell am I that old? unfortunately, yes) and a time before health scares and rubbish summers. I remember playing on the dunes there, trying to fly a red kite with my brother and my dad. I remember that the sunburn hurt a lot which I didn’t like obviously, but the skin peeling off later on was pretty good in a ghoulish sort of way, you know how kids are.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you shouldn’t take precautions against sunburn and I’m not advocating getting sunburnt as a good thing that everybody should do. Not at all. It’s just that I haven’t experienced it in a long time and I just wanted to feel what it was like again.

A one off shouldn’t cause any long term problems and I’ll go back to covering myself in protective creams again after this but just this once, I wanted to experience a bit of sunburn. However, I do think I might have over done it somewhat, I certainly didn’t expect to feel quite this bad. But I can’t honestly say it wasn’t worth it.

We ended our lovely day out at the seaside by driving to The Mumbles for fish and chips and ice cream (is this another primal urge? Could it be that our aquatic ape ancestors also enjoyed fish and chips and ice cream? I think more research needs to be undertaken in this area). Even here I indulged in excess and purchased a rather large strawberry flavoured 99 with nut sprinkle from the wonderful Joes Ice Cream Parlour. It was brilliant though.

So what with the sea, the sun, the fish and chips, an ice cream and spending all day with Mrs Kitsch, all to a Ron Goodwin soundtrack, it was a pretty good day.

I slept for ages last night and dreamt about a thrash metal band called "Our Message Is Older Than Your Message Is". I even heard a couple of their songs in my dream, they were pretty good too, a bit like Slipknot, a far cry from Ron Goodwin. In my dream the band members also toured as solo performers and had a song about that as well. I have no idea what any of this means, if it means anything at all but it seems like a pretty cool name for a band.

Suggested listening: “That Magnificent Man and His Music Machine: Two Sides of Ron Goodwin” by Ron Goodwin

Avantgarde Hummings

A lot has been written about popular composers over the years but very little has been written about the worlds least popular composer, Avantgarde Hummings, from Salzburg.

You know more of the works of Herr Hummings than you think you do. His work is performed daily across the globe by an army of devoted followers despite most of the rest us disliking his music intensely.

Avantgarde Hummings has rejected conventional methods of both composition and instrumentation in favour of a more industrial method. He also insists that his work is not performed in the more traditional concert halls or music venues or indeed at the more regular time of early evening. Instead, the maestro is adamant that his works are performed outside in the streets of residential areas, most often in the early hours of the morning or late at night.

His preferred instruments are pneumatic drills, cement mixers, steam-rollers, skips, lorries and most vehicles from the JCB range. As well as his “works for road gangs and builders” he also composes more intimate pieces; I am sure you will be familiar with his various chamber works for lawn mower, hedge trimmer and leaf blower. He has also written some solo pieces like “Man With Hammer” and “Man With Drill”. You may also have heard extracts from what are regarded as his two masterpieces “Concerto for Black and Decker Workmate” and the massive “opera for road movers” called the “Ring Road Cycle”. However, two of his most performed works would have to be “Erecting and Dismantling of Scaffolding at Dawn” and “Bin Men In The Morning”.

Some of his more experimental works from his “after dark” period include “Car Doors Slamming at Midnight”, “Argument for Couple at 3am”, “Dog Barking Incessantly” and the ever unpopular “Car Alarm”.

So next time you are woken by an unexpected clamour just lie back and enjoy one of the many works of this most prolific and unpopular composer, Avantgarde Hummings, from Salzburg.

Suggested listening: Extracts from “The Complete Works of Avantgarde Hummings” outside your home shortly.

For Fox Sake

Experts will tell you that fox attacks on humans are about as rare as hen’s teeth. So why is it that just weeks after the Tories get into power we see in the news that there have now been two attacks on children by foxes, one in Northern Ireland and another more recently in Brighton? Why? I will tell you why. It’s because the Tories want to overturn the ban on fox hunting.

After the first attack I said to my brother that we would see more such stories in the news as a way of getting the public “on side” for this change in policy. And what do you know, a couple of weeks later, another fox attacking a child story.

There’ll be more of these in the coming months; foxes spreading disease stories; foxes killing pets stories; foxes claiming expenses they’re not entitled to stories; foxes in league with Bin Laden stories. You wait and see, it will happen. And then in about a year or two, if they’re still in power, the Tories will overturn the hunting ban. I’ve watched Spooks, I know how these things work.

Frank Sidebottom, Thank You

What a terrible year this is turning out to be for rock stars. It seems like we’re losing at least one a month; Jay Reatard, Paul Gray and Mark Linkous to name just three. Now tragically, Chris Sievey has died. You may not recognise that name but he was the man inside the papier-mache head that was Frank Sidebottom.

Frank Sidebottom is dead. I don’t ever remember writing anything quite so sad as that last sentence. Frank was an indie hero who spanned the worlds of comedy and music. He loved space, football (particularly The Robins), Timperley, singing and colouring in. And those of us that saw him perform live or bought the records or all too rarely saw him on TV, loved him.

I was lucky enough to interview him once. I still have his mobile number in my phone. I bought him a pack of colouring pens for his fantastic drawing. He told me he went through a lot of pink doing Little Frank’s face, so I got a couple of extra pink ones. Here’s a really bad photo of me with the great man.

That was taken at Moles Club in Bath in 2007 during the comeback tour. I must have seen him about three times in all. He was a truly unique and gifted performer. You can read some of the tributes fans are leaving on his website here.

I can’t believe that Frank/Chris has died, but he has. You know he has. He really has. Thank you, Frank/Chris.

Update:
I've just discovered that there is a campaign here to get Frank's latest world cup song "Three Shirts On My Line" to number #1. What a tribute that would be. They need to get make it available on i-Tunes and Amazon first and then decide on a which week to got for, so keep an eye out for that. Meantime go here to see the fantastic video.

Suggested listening: “Frank Sidebottom's ABC And D: The Best Of” and "E F G And H: The Best Of Vol #2" by Frank Sidebottom

Why Did This Have To Happen?

Why did this have to happen?

Why?

Suggested listening: "Steady The Buffs" by The Buff Medways

Space Is Really Big

I’ve added another fine book to my personal library of space literature with the bargain purchase of “Space: The Ultimate Frontier” by Michael Sharpe from the British Heart Foundation charity bookshop.

OK, so there was some water damage to this book but it wasn’t too bad and the book cost just £4.50. To put this in context, new the book costs almost £30 and even good condition second hand copies go for about £25. Why is this book so expensive? Well, it is enormous coming in at a massive 59cm x 43cm x 2.5 cm, so it’s over half a meter high. I think a pictorial example of exactly how big this book is would be helpful at this point.

See what I mean, it’s huge. As well as the slight water damage to this copy, I have discovered online that there are some errors in the text with some later editions of the book coming with an update sheet to correct them, which my second hand copy doesn’t have but really, look at the size of it. And the photos inside are marvellous.

The book covers all the manned space flights from Gagarin’s historic Vostok 1 in 1961 to China’s second manned space flight in Shenzhou 6 in October 2005. It also includes a couple of X-15 sub-orbital flights, so it’s pretty extensive. However, it’s the large scale photos that really make it.

And all for just under a fiver. Bargain. One online reviewer of the book says he keeps his copy in the corner of a room and turns a new page over every day, which seems like a splendid idea to me. However, I’m not sure we’ve got a room in the house where we could do that at the moment. Oh well.

Buying this book has reminded me again of a question I ask myself from time to time; why do I keep buying so many books? I’ve bought and read a large number of books on the subject of the space race and have several more waiting to be read. I also intend to buy yet others and read them too. However, I also have a large number of books on many other subjects, some I’ve read, many I haven’t. Surely it would make much more sense to just borrow books from the local library when I actually have the time to read them. I’d save a small fortune and have less clutter in the house. I can’t even use the old argument of having them to hand for reference purposes, not since the introducing of the world wide web.

No, there really isn’t a justification for it at all when you think about it rationally. But as I’ve mentioned before, I really do enjoy the process of browsing in bookshops, an exercise made all the more pleasurable when it’s for something in particular; the thrill of the chase and all that. But also, how wonderful to come across an unexpected delight, as in the case of my most recent and oversized purchase. It may not be my only vice but as vices go it’s not such a bad one, is it? If all I leave this world when I die is a house full of books, well, that’s not such a bad legacy really.