From Singing In The Rain to How The West Was Won and The Singing Nun, Debbie Reynolds appeared on stage and screen for almost 70 years. She had her own TV show, her own dance studio, and her own museum of movie memorabilia. Not to mention her own pop career...
Rightly or wrongly though, for my generation at least, she will best be remember as Princess Leia's mum. Debbie died in December 2016, one day after her daughter Carrie passed away. The official cause of death was a stroke, though many believe it was brought on by a broken heart.
How does Debbie do on the jukebox? Let's start by asking Robert Plant...
No, no, no, Miss Debbie Reynolds promised someone out there always to obey...
(For some reason, I can only get All 4 on the kitchen TV, not the one in the lounge.)
Is there a chair or do you stand to watch it?
It's the kitchen. There is a dining table and chairs. Although, as a family, we spend more time playing Ticket To Ride there than eating.
Europe or America?
Europe. Wild West. 1812 expansion pack. France. London. New York is in the cupboard, but we haven't played that yet.
I think New York is my favourite as it's only a 15 minute game.
Use it as more of a warm up game before something with a lot of depth.
So is London, but I prefer the games to go on. I'd rather have an unlimited supply of trains and just keep building more and more routes. It's preferable to actual adult responsibilities and stuff.
(Bit obvious that, I know.)
Louise is going out tonight, so I was looking forward to having the big TV to myself...
Only now we've had a power cut.
And since you're no longer at The Bad Place, you don't want to just sit in the dark crying?
Saturday night crying in the dark... reminds me of my 20s.
Do you have six dice?
Farkle could be something a bit different.
Or if you have two dice and 12 paperclips or other small objects, you can play Pickup.
Both quick games. Farkle is a point scoring game, Pickup is chance.
Though not discussing the game itself, these articles clearly indicate the qualities of the game Blind Man's Buff as a stand in for more serious issues that are mirrored in the gameplay.
That sentence made no sense at all. You're just trying to bamboozle me with words now.
Also, I note that it took you quite some time in between replies. Long enough to write a couple more website articles to back up your fallacies.
Sage has an average of 8 months before an article is accepted for review, more if they want any changes or amendments. If not, it's still three more months until it goes online.
I'm not sure about Wiley as I've not sent anything through them.
Presumably that's powered by ACME.
If I had done such a quick turnaround, then it most definitely wouldn't have been cited in at least 7 other papers which also need to go through a similar process.
Now you're just trying to blind me with academia.
Me, I found only one song that referenced Blind Man's Buff...
Whereas I found loads that reference Blind Man's Bluff, including Depeche Mode, Aerosmith, Rush, The Inspiral Carpets, Del Amitri, The Blue Osyter Cult... and this:
I know who I believe.
I didn't realise that being a successful musician meant you had to have knowledge of the history of children's games.
And anyone that can be grouped with the Inspiral Carpets is a group I would go to great pains to distance myself from.
The Typhoo Tea of Britpop.
Clint Boon was a god.
I'd rather take advice on children's games from him than Robert Plant.
Also, they were way before Britpop.
They're older than you!
I have no respect for a band that does a reunion show once a week at The Leadmill.
Either write some new music or commit to a tour that's not also full of washed up bands.
This Is How It Feels is an anthem of my late teenage years.
Meant a lot to me, that song.
I thought you were in your late thirties when that came out.
I was 18.
They were the equivalent of The Rakes to my generation.
I prefer Boon's quirky solo stuff though.
White No Sugar was great.
Power still off.
Keeping ourselves entertained though... Sam has created his own version of Ticket To Ride. Geography is a bit suspect.
Meanwhile, I'm currently lighting a bonfire out of CD inlays in the back garden to cook a dead rat on.
24 hours and you've already resorted to savagery.
Is it at least CDs from Uncut?
I'm starting with the Morrissey CDs.
Taking them out of circulation rather than donating. Smart.
It's kind of the opposite of burning a KKK cross.
This is my Morrissey substitute these days. It's like Morrissey Methadone...
Has the power returned to the house or are you even more feral?
Louise was just about to saw off my leg when the electric came back on.
Taken from Rufus Wainwright's album of Shakespeare Sonnets, Take All My Loves.
Onto the business at hand then: what did you have for me this week?
Let's start with last week's winner, Douglas, who found himself struggling a little this time...
"I can offer little new regarding the 29s from my own corpus of beloved songs and artists, despite having scoured through some 2500 LPs, 500 CDs, and a few thousand files on the hard drives and mp3s."
Blimey - that's dedication.
"So I hit the search engines, and came across a few songs that were new to me, with 29 in the title, including:"
"29" by Loic Nottet (who, despite being a young male Belgian singer, here most puts me in mind of Adele)
I can definitely hear that. "Loïc Nottet", on the other hand, is an anagram waiting to happen.
"Ryan Adams - 29 (an artist entirely on my periphery, and who, on the strength of this song, seems likely to remain there)"
Ryan Adams made two or three excellent albums early in his career, although he lost his quality control over the years and has recently been dragged into a bit of a #metoo scandal, so he loses points for that as well.
"And perhaps the best of the 3, Gin Blossoms - 29, who at very least fit in some nice jangly guitars into a pretty decent tune with some appropriately wistful lyrics."
Yes. I'm rather fond of the Gin Blossoms also, so that would be my winner from your selections.
Over to Martin, who ticked quite a few off my list...
Then came Alyson, who's petitioning for a return of Randy Tuesdays or Kenny Wednesdays. One thing at once, eh? I'm still not back up to full steam. She did have this to offer though...
"A date this week rather than a time but Chicago did an anti-war kind of song called Someday (August 29, 1968) - Included is real audio of the crowds at an infamous demonstration."
Never heard that before, but I did like it. I always enjoy early Chicago when they had a brass section.
Martin stole many of Rigid Digit's suggestions this week, but RD did dig out the following...
"Simultaneously the best and worst album ever released..."
"From it, Pachuco Cadaver opens with the philosophical line:"
A squid eating dough in a Polyethylene bag is fast and bulbous
"Fanciful nonsense?"
I've to admit, RD, I tried very hard with TMR back in the day, but couldn't ever find my way into it.
"But the 29 bit comes later:"
Got her wheel out of a B-29 Bomber, Brody knob amber
I'm less surprised nobody predicted this week's winner though. It has featured on this blog previously, but probably isn't that well known in the real world.
My dad is a joiner by trade, and though he didn't pass any of those woodworking skills on to me, I think he's proud that at least one of his grandsons did follow him into the trade. A joiner is a carpenter, in case you were wondering, though arguably more skilled... I'll let you google the arguments on that one.
Special mentions to The Carpenters (of course), Mary Chapin Carpenter, Cold Chisel, Woodkid, Harrison Ford, Jesus and Ron Swanson...
You better give me the chance
I'll cut you down with a glance
Yeh, with my small axe - so help me,
And tho' I'm only one
And tho' weak, I'm strong
And if it comes to the crunch
Then I'm the woodcutter's son
And I'm cutting down the wood for the good of everyone!
Once I was a carpenter, man my hands were calloused
I could swing a metal mallet sure and straight
But I took to the highway, a poet young and hungry
And I left the timbers rotting where they lay
I know... you thought this was going to be Number One, didn't you? So did I, until I remembered...
1. Johnny Johnson & The Bandwagon - Breaking Down The Walls Of Heartbreak
He's a carpenter of love and affection!
I could have chosen the equally smashing (if slightly less legible) cover by Dexys Midnight Runners... but that didn't have Pan's People dancing like this...
