Engine Punk

I've been digging away at my IT problems over the last few weeks. The most significant ones were of video quality, stemming from dropped video frames and invalid arguments. Well, I think I now have the answer. As I thought it means a new PC. Laptop hard drives only work at 5400rpm. Typical desktop speeds are 7200rpm. My little Acer is just not quick enough on the uptake. So to what should I upgrade? I did the sensible thing and asked my webhosts, Flying Flounder. Eric and Helen live not far from me in the Cornish countryside. "Have you ever seen a pig eat?" Eric asked me. I have but not recently. So we put on some boots and visited Babe and Curly in their comfortable sty. We even tried Eric's Farmer's Boy weighing tape on them. You put it around the amiable pig's armpits and the circumference of the said pig then translates into weight. Babe and Curly turned out not to be too fat but "nearly ready." Later we retired to Eric's ...

I attended a very thought provoking talk in Liskeard last week given by Phil Hosken, chairman of the Trevithick Society. The subject was Bio-Fuels and how they might used to provide an environmentally sound power source. Since then, my thoughts are in a state of constant provocation. Phil set the scene for ethanol by explaining how Brazil, with a surplus of sugar beet, has adopted ethanol as a partial substitute for petrol. The US is also developing it for use in internal combustion engines. Henry Ford intended it for use in all his early models Model T Ford, reckoning a farmer like Henry’s dad could produce enough ethanol from an acre of ground to run a Model T for 15,000 miles a year. Hitler relied upon ethanol and the Volkswagen Beetle was designed with this fuel in mind. This may have influenced the Brazilians interest in the fuel as the Beetle was built there until 2003. Ethanol was virtually the only fuel in the early days of motoring until the oil companies set up their su...

Don Letts introduced punk to reggae and was a member of Big Audio Dynamite with ex-Clash rocker Mick Jones. He was in Plymouth last night, where the Arts Centre showed two of his films, and participated in an all-too-brief question and answer session as part of the Flipside film festival. My main interest centred on his Grammy award winning documentary on The Clash, Westway to the World , but also showing was Dance Hall Queen . The patois on this Jamaican film was so difficult for my west country ears that sub-titles would have been useful but by the end of the film I could pick up the gist of it. It's a kind of West Indian Calendar Girls but instead of stripping off the central female character empowers herself through dancing - provocatively. Don revealed how he wasn't at the Rock Against Racing gig thirty years ago. Methinks we could do with another of those. He said Joe Strummer had just stolen his girlfriend so he was sulking. He read extracts from his autobiograph...

Phil Hosken, chairman of the Trevithick Society, tells me that, when it comes to branding, a five letter word is important. Some companies go to great lengths to create a suitable five letter word for their corporations and trademarks. It's not universal but once you start the five letter word game, it's difficult to stop. Says Phil, "One sees companies like Toyota and Panasonic choosing prestige names such as Lexus and Lumix for their top of the range models. Think of made-up names like Yaris. Notice the Austin 7 cars weren't called Chapmans (or Colins come to that!). What happened to Turners? Have you noticed a change in emphasis from Chrysler to Dodge for imports from Daimler-Chrysler? General Motors, which wavered about using the acronym GM, is now solidly known as GM (Gee-em). Same with BLMC. A whole host of names from Wolseley to Nuffield Tractors filtered down to Em-Gee Rover." Consequently, Phil chose the name Be-Tec for his zero carbon ...

Of all the four wheeled contrivances at Wiscombe earlier this month the Salamanda Special was the one I wanted to take home the most. It was cute enough to wear as a badge. It looked as if it might have been piloted by a glamorous aviatrix, like the Wind Flower from Phillip Reeve's Mortal Engines quartet. The Salamanda Special is a recently built Austin 7 special but it looks like no other. The overall style, craftsmanship and attention to detail are what made it stand out. The more I looked at it in the paddock at Wiscombe Park at this month's recent VSCC meeting, the more I noticed to admire. The rear bodywork is beautifully made out of laminated strips of birch wood ply. A wide leather strip running down from the filler cap prevents fuel spills from staining the woodwork or affecting the varnish. Inside, the aluminium bracing hints at airship construction. The headlamps are authentic Marchal items and contribute to the Salamanda Special's frontal expressio...

I've been listening to this double compilation album for weeks now, ever since I went up to Bristol to see Stiff Little Fingers. My mate Gary lent me an album by The Saints a few years ago and I was bowled over by them. Here was that late seventies punk vitality but with a sound that's very distinctive to my ears. In short, I began to rave about The Saints and everyone thought I was going on about All Saints who are prettier, have sweeter voices but lack the power of guitar and drum. Amazon suggested Do the Pop! to me using previous purchases as a guide. I added it to me wish list and eventually I succumbed. I didn't listen to it until Gary and I undertook the long haul from Plymouth to Bristol. And the more we listened to it the more we liked it. And with 50 tracks there's an awful lot of it to like. I like contemporary high octane stuff but Do the Pop! features two and a half hours of authentic Ozzie surf rock and garage punk. It's from that musical period t...

Definitely a Vintage Thing At risk of sounding blasé , I've had fan e-mails before now. However, last week I had my first ever real piece of fan mail and I'm very excited about it. Here it is and what a good choice of subject for a postcard. I know it's not cool but I still get excited that some complete stranger has enjoyed my work. And thanks to it being a postcard, my postman must be pretty impressed as well. I think this justifies the funny feeling that I've had for some time. I seem to be creating ripples on the internet and in people's minds. Sometimes the ripples reach the far shore and come back to me. Meanwhile, I've been trying to drum up some local media interest but so far it hasn't happened. (That's why I haven't been blogging for a while, that and Blogger not accepting blogs for a bit.) So far the ripples haven't come back to me but I have that funny feeling that if I splash around a bit more they will. In the meantime,...