Thanks to Jeff, a fellow member of The Coalition of Awesomeness for pointing me in the direction of this one:
Youtube
Pillock Conquers The World
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before on the blog, but my brother has recently been talking about it and has re-sparked my interest.
In the late 60s my Dad, my Uncle, and a bunch of their friends went round the world in a double decker London bus. Yes, like Cliff Richard in Summer Holiday. They traveled through Europe, Asia, over to Australia, then finally through the USA before reaching home again.
Oh, and they paid their way partly by playing folk music to bemused locals. Bloody hippies.
My dad never actually made it all the way round. He met my mother in Oz and returned back home with her. It’s a lovely story, which to be fair, didn’t turn out to end happily ever after – but at least it resulted in the birth of a blogging genius (and two sub-human imbeciles).
Over on his blog my brother Sam is currently recounting some my Dad’s stories of the trip, including positing up some of the footage from the film they made on the journey. Seeing as though his blog is criminally undersubscribed I thought I’d post a video up here too.
I really should do a proper series of posts at some point about their journey, as it is well worth chronicling. However for now a few youtube posts and my brother’s jottings will have to do. I recommend watching the clip below as it really is fascinating. Even more so because the places they were traveling through would be completely impassible at the time.
For the record my Dad is the one playing the accordion near the beginning of the first video and my Uncle Clive is the chap with the guitar (I think).
On another note – If you have not already done so please consider heading over to the Bloggers For Haiti Justgiving page and donating whatever you can spare. All kudos go to those that have set this thing up.
A Blue Beetle from Australia
Due to me working over Christmas and a few other reasons, my family have decided to exchange gifts on New Year’s Day this year. So later today Kerry, the kids and I are going over to my Mum’s to meet up with my brother, sister and their respective partners.
I’m hoping that someone has been considerate enough to buy me a new Xbox – but seeing as though we’d set a maximum cap of £15 I think it’s unlikely. If they really loved me enough they’d have made the effort to find one that cheaply though, so I’m going in with expectations deliriously raised. I can’t see how that could possibly go wrong.
But even if my family do hate me so much that they won’t even spend measly £15 on a new Xbox 360, at least I know that someone cares about me.
No, not my wife. She’s only with me for my money and my raw pulsating sexuality.
Yesterday morning a couple of eagerly anticipated parcels arrived from Australia. Lee, my antipodean pop-culture guru and fellow Midnight Movie Club member had sent me a present. Hurrah!
And a damn fine present it was too. In fact it was the best kind: thoughtful, cool, and something I’m really glad to have but never knew I wanted.
For those of you without the necessary geeky genetic makeup, it’s a Blue Beetle action figure. You may scoff, but it’s an incredibly well thought out gift.
And so to show Lee my thanks I recorded the following video for him. It serves a duel purpose: Not only does it express my gratitude for his very generous gift, but it also serves as a warning to him that it’s probably best we don’t attempt a podcast when I’ve got my kids in the room. Behold, total anarchy (the breaks in the film are where I turned the camera off to beat my children round the head):
And speaking of podcasts: our second Midnight Movie Club supplemental podcast is available to download now. To quote Lee over on our blog:
Honestly this week’s podcast reaches what I consider to be a new low.
Which is hard considering this is only its second week.
We’re unprofessional, we giggle at rude words that mean different things in other countries, I marginalise the Star Wars fandom, we stay completely off topic for at least 98% of the time.
It’s a shambles and I beg you not to be sucked in to listen.
With salesmanship like that how could you resist.
To be fair to Lee though it is rather rambling and overlong, but I had a real laugh making it and enjoyed listening back to it so I’d still argue it’s worth a go. We’ve both made a pledge that future podcasts that will be tighter and no longer than 20 minutes, so even if you find the latest episode a little too wandersome you should still subscribe to us on iTunes.
I’m going to back off a little on promoting the Club here from now on, although I’ll still mention it when I think there is something you should see over there. I’m sorry if it’s grated on you, but it’s something that I’m currently very enthusiastic about – and what’s a blog for if not to enthuse about your passions?
Reasons to love blogging, part 1
In a conversation in the comments section yesterday Insomniac Mummy inspired me to start up a sort of “Things I Have Got Out of Blogging” series of posts. So here we go.
I’ve been incredibly fortunate to make a number of really good friends through this blog. And many of these friendships have transcended their “virtual” boundaries and grown to be as solid and as real as any I’ve developed through traditional means.
All my blogging friends are incredibly important to me, and my life is enriched by them immeasurably. But my friendship with a chap called Greg has a particular importance to me.
You probably don’t know Greg. If you do it’s probably only because you’ve read one of my sycophantic posts about him. These days he rarely engages with the blogging world, either in comments or over on his own blog. But nearly four years ago when I first dipped my toes into blogging, he was my mentor. His was the first blog I ever read, and his were the first comments I ever received. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be doing this, and so I am truly grateful.
He also bought me my first ukulele, and therefore has incured the wrath of my entire family.
He also happens to be the funniest writer on the whole internet. His is the only blog that I’ve gone back through the entire archives and read every single post ever written. Twice. And I ended up in tears of laughter both times. And there’s a fair few posts to get through too – this guy was one of the pioneers and his first entries date back to 1999.
Unfortunately Greg’s just about given up on blogging over the past couple of years, and the internet is a far poorer place for his absence. I keep trying to persuade him to start up a joint blogging venture with me. I’d happily mothball All That Comes With It for the chance to collaborate in a trans-atlantic “Tales of Two Families” type site. But he just smiles at me, mutters various polite platitudes, and then changes the subject. Damn his eyes.
We’ve flown over to the states to visit Greg (and his fantastic wife Deb and their two kids) twice. Once in 2007 and once earlier this year. Those two visits have been amongst the best holidays I’ve had in my life – and considering that they live in deepest darkest Wisconsin that’s really saying something for their prowess as hosts. They also came over here to visit us too. Despite the distance between us, he and his family are among the Hughes’ most valued friends.
In short, I like the guy and I like his family.
I’ll stop now as I’m probably pissing him off. However in order to illustrate the man’s comedy genius I thought I’d repost a video he did for me.
Just as a quick explanation: A couple of years ago a younger, fatter, me attempted to start my own meme based around pretending to be an orangutan. Here are the rules, followed by my own video:
The Every Which Way but Loose Meme.
The rules:
1. You are auditioning to be in the latest orangutan related comedy blockbuster: Dunston Checks In II: Return of the feces flinger.
2. The Screen Actors Guild restrict non-human primates to only three facial expressions in order that they are not used as cheap substitutes for actors such as Jean-Claude Van Damme and Rosanne Barr. These are: The Raspberry, the Head Shake, and the Face Slap.
3. Create an audition video exhibiting your talent in these three areas.
4. Try and persuade some other idiots to do it too
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Now here’s Greg’s response. To quote The Holmes in the comments section of the original post: “His timing is…it’s awesome.”
I’m sorry Greg. I know you’d have rather I hadn’t posted this. But what can I say, I like to sing your praises.