After a 25-year hiatus, I have now eaten trifle twice in the same week. I am wondering if this is a sign. Are we in for some kind of 70s party food revival? Will there be cheese footballs and sausages on sticks? Will it lead to joyless wife-swapping, Nana Mouskouri and oversized spectacles?
I have some pictorial evidence (not of joyless wife-swapping), but New Blogger isn't letting me upload photos just at present.
In foreign media news: I started giggling twice in the paper shop this morning; once at the title of a magazine I hadn't seen before, called Psycho Enfants, and once at French Elle Decoration's giddy declaration: 'On craque pour le style girly!'*
(Must buy floral teacups immediately.)
In music news: Chicago's finest unsigned twee electro-country band, Track a Tiger, have a new album. Possibly the only US indie band to link to Cricketing Dave from their website, Track a Tiger are generously giving away two tracks from the new opus, viz:
Track a Tiger - Saint About To Fall (mp3)
Track a Tiger - All These Accidents (mp3)
As ever, it isn't going to change your life, but it'll sound nice while you're potting geraniums, having a bath or sipping Lapsang Souchong from a floral teacup. Which, after all, are what Sundays are all about.
* The lovely Mr BC promptly translated 'on craque' as 'on crack', which made me laugh a lot.
About Father Christmas
2 days ago
23 comments:
I have, of course, you to thank for any US indie band knowing anything about me.
Co-incidentally, I had just got out of the bath when your post came up in my news reader.
That sounds like I keep my computer in my bathroom. It also makes it sound as though I am starkers, dripping onto my keyboard.
I don't and I'm not.
Funnily enough, this morning I spotted the Thai edition of Elle Decoration, telling me that the next big thing is "Baroque Minimalism".
This is so different from the aspirations of the Thai middle classes that I think they must have been taking the piss.
Very nice. They may well make an appearance on next weeks show. :D
Dave: It is true, I am the unsung champion of obscure American electro-country bands. Sigh.
Roland: To be honest, it makes you sound like you have some kind of Borg implant. Do you ever refer to the bathroom as your 'regeneration chamber'?
Tim: I desperately, desperately want a copy of Thai Elle Decoration. I love all and any incarnations of that magazine. Also, I can't possibly imagine what 'baroque minimalism' looks like. A lone putto in a sea of white? Would the Thai bourgeoisie not go for that?
Loganoc: If I was going to recommend a Track a Tiger song for you to play on your show, it would be 'Seashaken Heart', off their first album, which I think you can still download from here. I listened again yesterday too - you were much more talkative! But Flock of Seagulls and the Human League made me feel terribly old.
Oh my God, I too ate a trifle the other day. Maybe they're taking over, like that book, Day of the Trifles.
Nobody has mentioned your splendid pun in the title. Splendid pun, P.
Yes, Tim, I'm curious to know the aspirations of the Thai middle classes, do tell.
Biscuits: I like it. Loads of renegade trifles, lumbering about stinging blind people with their poisonous sponge fingers. It could happen.
Annie: Thanks! I was inordinately proud of that pun.
Prawn cocktails and garlic bread are surely the best of the 70s food.
Or that awful orange curry.
(This is only by people telling me, I was only three months old when the 70s ended)
I thought 'baroque' was a post way of saying 'fancy'.
PS - I have figured out how bloglines works - finally. I'm planning to discover You-tube some time in 2008
If this revival you speak of is on it's way, I look forward to aking my guests "wouldja like another cheesy pineappley one?"
If you are keen to take this further, Anthony Warral-Thompson had some suggestions in The Guardian a few years back which might interest you.
If there really was a 1970's catering revival, you should be slurping Bird's coffee with powdered milk in an orange and brown swirly patterned mug rather than sipping Lapsang Souchong from a floral teacup. Mellow Birds will make you smile, apparently.
They link to Dave and Aimee, but not you? Most odd. An unsung champion indeed. Maybe you somehow fall outside their vocal range?
Spin: I'm trying to ignore the existence of YouTube, as I don't hold with moving pictures. Although I *have* seen you on Twitter, which I'm afraid puts you firmly in the nu-meeja vanguard. I hope you're wearing your best retro ra-ra skirt and thick black glasses.
Matt: I love the way the mini fish and chips have to be served 'in a cornet of Guardian newspaper'. Just in case the postmodern-ironic wit was somehow in doubt.
Actually, I went out this New Years Eve dressed as Nana Mouskouri. But I couldn't find any glasses so I didn't *quite* look the part.
But some friends of mine had an ironic 70s shindig last year. THe non-veggies had coq-au-vin and we all had black forest gateau. It was great.
Betty: The mugs we used to have in the 70s bore a striking resemblance to Orla Kiely's latest homewares range. Mmm, retro. Now, where's my Coffee Mate?
OPC: I know, I'm like the Invisible Man of the Internet. Only female, obviously.
Hello, hooray, what a nice day!
I played Beverley (in "Abigail's Party") in a amateur production (obviously!) many years ago. I remember a blonde wig, false nails and eyelashes. Happy days.
You're all musing over a 1970s food revival and no-one has mentioned the prawn cocktail! I remember shovelling tons of the stuff down myself as I wore my lurid floral outfits.
Friday nights were also great as my brother and I would scoff our own personal M&S family sized trifles..... Happy Days.
Do M&S still do those trifles? That glow in the dark custard was to die for........
Marsha: Ooh, I didn't know you had thespian tendencies. Are they still ongoing?
Sylvia: Don't know about trifle, but M&S do very nice individual portions of lemon cheesecake.
It occurred to me that M&S gets more mentions on this blog than any other 'brand'. This probably means that they have me to thank for their recent dramatic turnaround in fortunes. In which case, I wouldn't say no to a year's supply of lemon cheesecake portions to see me through my exile.
Thanks for this hot tip. I've been putting a 3 pin plug back on my electric cheese fondue set.
...just need to find some electric cheese now...
Trifle is good, but cheescake is better.
I'm having a flashback into Generation Game conveyor belt hell here ... fondue set ... Hobgoblin teasmade ... pop up toaster ... "stereo" record player, complete with speakers ... set of Pyrex dishes wobbling about ominously ... beer homebrewing kit ...
Oh dear god, that is pretty much an inventory of my mum's kitchen.
Well, technically it's *my* kitchen, but she's got all her stuff in it. Apart from the authentic 1970s 'stereo' record player, which I left in a house in Exeter in 1993, as documented here, and have missed it ever since.
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