Bad and Superbad

Bad and Superbad

or

Irony Byrony What does it matter as long as you love your sister.


The inspiration for the first title was the idea of Nietzsche suffering a cold. The second came from Freud. Incidentally, Goethe believed that this style could not be rendered in German. After all Bismarck was never called the Irony Chancellor. It is in the form of letter to his friend Thomas Moore, the Irish Poet and Lyricist by Lord Byron. This letter was lost for almost 200 years, until his Lordship was kind enough to inspire the hand of Moore's descendent, John Moore. Following this inspiration, the latter assumed the title Don Juan el Moro. He awaits further calls from his muse in his grave at Hucknall for his services as amanuensis .

Bad and Superbad

Dear Thomas

I have taken to writing to you often, and with vigour, as you are most outstanding man of letters of the era bar one. Aside from the greatest poet hero of age, you alone have the edge to cut like the flashing blade of a Scythian chariot, and the burnished reputation to shield you from our hero’s reflection as when Perseus pursued Medusa.

Indeed there are those among the fair when alone,
who metamorphose, not to cold stone,
by the agence of the Gorgon’s snakes,
but to the quivering vibrating shakes
that look to all the world like rapture jelly
as she dreams of our hero’s serpent in her belly.

Last Shrove’s Bacchanal was of a particular fine vintage, although the custom of masque seems wouldst seem to dull a lady’s pleasure in my company. Although I might quaff a bushel I would certainly never hide my light under it.

I encountered within the midnight hour,
as doe eyed a houri as ere sat in a bower.
Although her don was of a great estate,
her desire for pleasure he n’er could slake.
I, her Apollo did seduce her with my lyre.
By half one I was lying by her.
Her skin was brown; her lips both full and soft.
By two was George’s proud English lance aloft
Oh how strange the ways of the east,
as I stoked her hair, she swallowed the beast.
But then delight! Her sister, a Sapphist by repute,
who strummed on languid and lascivious lute,
her inclinations shown only by her dungarees.
Soon removed in a voluptuous striptease.
Shapely as a nymph, she was no dyke this woman,
and did surpass her skill on lute, with tunes on Gordon’s organ
As one steed fades, so the rider takes another saddle.
By the break of dawn could our hero scarce waddle.

After pleasuring the pair with such rigour,
they took to water to revive proud George’s vigour.
Two hour’s natation at the Lido,
did the trick for his libido.
Returning the kindnesses of the dusky donnas,
did with his purple striped pole propel their gondolas.

As their boats did heave upon the lagoon,
our heroines at last did cry and swoon.

After a month a sadder George did realise,
that it is always folly and never wise,
to have one night of unbridled Venus,
and a year of Mercury in your ....

Please forgive me if my rhyming skills desert me there, Tommy, as I am feeling a painful tingling sensation. By the way who is the Minstrel Boy? Why did he go to war in the first place? Give my love to my daughter, but not in the same way as I gave to her auntie. Apparently she is showing unhealthy interest in horse racing and computational techniques. At two, this is to be severely discouraged. (She gets it from her mother, the Princess of Parallelograms, you know).

No good will ever come from computation. It can only erode the creative imagination. People who do that sort of thing will start believing that one dimensional fantasy characters:

Wizards, elves dwarves etc on some mythic quest constitute literature,
And if you state as much you show what a twit you are

Please see to it that my daughter’s reading material, is improving her wisdom and character. Personally I recommend your good self, Wycherley and Pope, (Alexander that is, not the infallible one from the Hitler youth). Under no account should she be allowed to read Wet Willy or his Dottie sister.

Incidentally if that descendant of yours again dares to parody me,
I shall box his ears in hell, with Old Nick as referee.


Incidentally, would you hurry to tap John Murray for an advance. He is making a mint out of me. And do make sure you get the right John Murray this time, the publisher. I am sure that the Middlesex wicket-keeper was most disconcerted when you asked if I might approach him. He kept looking over his shoulder all through the afternoon session. I was sure he was wearing his abdominal protector back to front. He ended up suffering an attack of Dropsy. Six toes Titmus was unimpressed. I was something of a cricketer in my time. My ability to swing both ways was legendary. I helped set up the Eton vs Harrow fixture at Lord's, mostly in the hope of meeting other young men of sound education and burgeoning physique. I was most flattered that the county side based there, took its name from my reputation.

Your humble and suffering servant

John Moore

alias

George Noel Gordon Byron

6th Baron of Rochdale

Tuesday, 19 February 2008

"Every girl crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man" - ZZ Top



I return home from Cuba, and what happens? Fidel decides to retire. I swear that I had no influence on him. I wish him a happy retirement. Perhaps Cuba will open up a bit for business now, but please no Starbucks, Wendy's or MacDonald's. They make travel pointless, and once you have Starbucks, you can't get a decent cup of coffee, anywhere.

And who the hell wants a blueberry muffin anyway?

Why don't anti globalisation protesters attack Starbucks in preference to MacDonald's, smashing the windows with day old muffins. At least when I have been in a MacDonald's I have enjoyed what I was eating, even if it did me no good. I can't say the same of my two visits to Starbucks.

Amersham Tesco's used to have a wonderful cheap and cheerful all day British Breakfast Greasy Spoon cafeteria, full of nice customers who weren't too rich or too bent on proving that they as a woman can be every bit as nasty, pushy and unpleasant as a man. Now it's got a Starbucks.

Cuba has a lot going for it:

1. Its people who are even nicer than the British back in the 40s and 50s when the latter had just fought off Nazism and were justifiably proud of it.

2. Its gorgeous weather in Winter.

3. Its Spanish Colonial Architecture.

4. Its defiance of the US desire to dominate and make everyone a buyer of its products and culture.

5. The literary heritage of exiles like Graham Greene and Ernest Hemingway.

6. The warm waters of its coast.

7. Its education.

8. Its healthcare

9. The government's encouragement of the arts, and their vitality.

10. Its people get a boringly healthy diet.

11. It is the world's greatest open-air automotive museum full of working models.

12. It has no Starbucks.

Viva la Cuba Libre

Wednesday, 13 February 2008

Marxism and Cigars

Cigars put me in mind of this piece of dialogue in a Marx brothers film.

Man: "I have fourteen children. I love my wife very dearly"

Groucho: "Well I love my cigar, but I take it out of my mouth occasionally"

The background temperature of the Universe is three degrees Kelvin

If the background temperature is 3 degrees, does that mean we can hear Sheila Ferguson anywhere in spacetime?

Friday, 8 February 2008


I post this photograph not so much for the charms of the building but for the attractiveness of its floral decoration.

As my father once wrote to my granny from the top secret location of HMS Arthur (Butlin's Skegness): "Arn't these flowers lovely, mother".

On the picture side of the postcard were bulb fields near Spalding. It was an undoubted clue to his whereabouts, Lincolnshire

The message was so sparse and bare of sentiment, I am mildly surprised that it did not excite suspicion in 1940, as being a coded cover for something more sinister.

It was probably followed by a further 6 months communication silence. During this time he learned boat drill on the boating lake, with a tethered boat and oars with holes in them, so as not to overstrain the tether. Clearly our Jolly Jack Tars would not be taking on the U-boat menace, under-prepared.

A lovely mudéjar style building, roughly opposite the Sevilla Hotel arcade in Havana. I photographed it on Friday 8/2/08 with my Nokia 5070 phone

An architectural gem


A small Hispanic architectural gem from near the "Bodeguita" and the Cathedral. I took the photograph with my phone on 8/8/2008 while standing in a really scruffy car park with holes in it. The corrugated iron shack in the front, is the parkie's place.

Bacardi Building, Havana 08/02/08

One for any Essex Girl. The place where your breezer originated. The Bacardi Ron building in Havana, an Art Deco masterpiece of which no post cards seemingly exist. An Essex girl may ask: 'What happened to Ron?" Well after Fidel, Raul, Che, Camilo and the rest of the Barbuta Boys hit town, he do ron ron, da do ron ron all the way to the USA, along with Batista and a number of American businessmen of Italian descent who may or may not have been personally acquainted with Frank Sinatra.

Raul's 53 Oldsmobile Convertible with Gianni Moroni in the back outside the Grande Parque hotel


Me in Raul's 53 Oldsmobile Convertible. Photograph courtesy of Charles Bronson lookalike, Raul.

The legend, 'Rentar una Fantasía' on the side of the car refers to the car and not it's occupant, ladies and gentlemen.

Raul and his beautiful '53 Oldsmobile Convertible


Raul and his beautiful '53 Oldsmobile Convertible with red leather upholstery and white walled tyres, outside the hotel Parque Grande. I took a tour of Havana in it. Vehicles like this are frequently used for weddings with the bride perched precariously on the boot, (sorry trunk), riding in triumph through Havana.

Vedado across the promenade

I took this shot from the back of Ramon's Oldsmobile taxi as we were driving along the promenade. I think the large L-shaped building is Melia Hotel where our party spent the first night in Havana. I woke up pulled back the curtains, and there was just Atlantic Ocean and sky. It looked beautiful, warm blue-green and inviting, but I had to get ready and go. I went to breakfast. I met Tina. I was able to point out the black pudding. It was a tasty delight for us both.
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Nacional Hotel, Havana, Cuba

The impressive facade of the Nacional Hotel, Havana. I took it from the back of Ramon's taxi as we drove along the promenade. It is another part of Havana's splendid Art Deco heritage.

The Nacional has seen very many infamous guests including Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Errol Flynn, Meyer Lansky and Santo Trafficante Jr (the head of the Florida Mafia. Al Capone once rented a suite as he did with the Lexington Hotel in his power base, Chicago.
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Thursday, 7 February 2008

The old man and the spiv - Papa and me at El Floridita, Havana, Thursday 7 Feb 2008


A photograph of me enjoying a daiquiri with 'Papa' Hemingway at El Floridita in Havana. Ernest looks very bronzed. Tina took the Photograph. The cocktail was expensive but did have an Atkinson of Ron in it.

Perhaps my appearance evokes unhappy memories of the Batista days for the Cuban in front who appears to recoil. I do look like the sort of man that the FBI might want to Hoover up.

As Cuba's statues of Hemingway and Che show, there is an 'Importance of Being Ernest' in Cuba.

Eeyore perks up

When I first spotted him, this particular mule had his head down, looking just like Eeeyore the donkey. It seemed as though he perked up at the moment he saw my camera on him, wanting to look his best for what could be his only photo-opportunity. This was taken at about 08:10 am in Spritus Sancti
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Wednesday, 6 February 2008

Dinner alfresco under the colonnades in Spiritus Sancti

Clockwise from the left, Gabriela, Tina, Sue, Ken, Jacinta, Roy (probably) or John, Dinah.

The Spanish colonial building was delightful, but a plug for the washbasin would be appreciated.
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Waterfall at the Parque Nacional

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Our delightful guide reminds us where we are

Our guide to the National park at Guanayama, shows us the route. Our guide was lovely with a bright personality, ready smile and good sense of fun. She was a delight to be with, and made the walk interesting with her observations of the wildlife and features of the route through this delightful area. Her English was very good. I cannot praise her too highly.

We saw lizards, a hummingbird and the trogon, Cuba's national bird.

Batista Bombastica


This is a spa hotel up in the mountains. It's open for business and is probably a refreshing resort in the humid summer

It's overbearing appearance made me think that it had been designed by Soviet bloc architects, when such bombast was in fashion.

Nothing could be further from the truth. It was put up under Batista.
The Zil ex red army lorry awaits the VJV patrol at around 08:30 at Las Cuevas. In front of the lorry are our guide Mariela in red and the lorry driver. The trip which followed was a highlight of the holiday. I thought that the lorry tyres were a bit worn and small, as though the Siberian winter class originals, had been substituted with a set off a Morris Countryman.

Yo may remember that the Morris Countryman was the vehicle of choice for modest, genteel folk to tour the Cotswolds. They rarely went more than 100 miles from Cowley.

Perhaps the lorry was discovered jacked up on bricks in Wazzockstan; it's original wheels now adorning a 4x4 bullock cart.

Zil Limo


The Zil truck which took the VJV party from las Cuevas, Trinidad to the mountain national park for the day. The truck was robust. It was really nice to travel up top in beautiful scenery over rough roads, sometimes standing up, knees bent clinging on and half wedged to avoid the effect of the more dangerous bits of road. The driver did really well. We wouldn't be allowed to travel that way in Britain. The health and safety Nazis wouldn't allow it.
The Zil was ex-Soviet Army. It has had a very honourable discharge.

The Zil will become the latest aspirational vehicle for the school run.

Tuesday, 5 February 2008

The fit members of the VJV 2/2 to 9/2/08 "Return to Havana" tour loll on the beach after bathing

The members of the VJV 2/2 to 9/2/08 "Return to Havana" tour who are still fit, loll on the beach after bathing near Trinidad, on Cuba's Caribbean coast. Wisely, Tina in black stays in the shade, here looking like Kate Bush, which is appropriate for a lover of the Brontes. John Daniels in red is talking to her. Sue with white towel covers up. I think it is Gabriela who is lying back. Amelita is looking very pert and sophisticated in her sun visor. Not for the first time Brian Williams resembles the Cubiquitous 'Papa' Hemingway.

We all went in the Carribean except Tina. It was warmer than the sea off Southwold, but there wasn't a pier where you could listen to a recording of the Buena Vistas all afternoon.

Thank you Tina for lending me the bus fare back to the hotel.

We were about to encounter the hotel's jobsworth again. He was a park keeper manque worthy of portrayal by Derek Guyler. Previously he had stopped us using sunbeds or resting under the hotel's umbrellas. He took Winston Churchill's exhortation to repel invaders on the beaches too literally. He never surrendered. I am pleased to relate that this was the only instance of officiousness we found in what is supposed to be a totalitarian state. Everyone else was warm, friendly and welcoming.

The graininess of all my photos puts me in mind of Seurat.

¡Viva los Cubanos y las Cubanas!

Iguana


At a comfort stop between Havana and Cienfuegos was a small menagerie. Among the detainees, behind chain link fencing, was this handsome but lugubrious lizard.

Monday, 4 February 2008

Cienfuegos - a corner of the main Plaza


This is not my picture. This particular roll of film produced no results after it Tesco's labs had processed it. However this is one of my favourite buildings in all Cuba. It is at a corner of the main square in Cienfuegos. It used to belong to a rich man who once entertained the Italian tenor, Enrico Caruso, and who was in the habit of throwing money to the poor from the roof. It is now the home of a music school.

Sunday, 3 February 2008

Alfonso y su Verson play at the bar of the Rum Museum.

Amid the distortions of fierce mid day sunlight streaming into the lens, Alfonso and the band play boleros and cha cha cha and salsa and guajira (must be Cuban country music). Sue applauds in the right of the foreground.

Our guide to the Rum museum was a most attractive Muleta girl with more african genes than European. She had an exuberant afro hair style the like of which I had not seen since they heyday of Free (in the imperative) Angela Davis and Jimi Hendrix.

Bar Habana Club


The bar Havana Club at the rum museum was my favourite in Cuba. I loved the dark stained mahogany covered surfaces and the overhead fans, and the lovely music from Alfonso Pino y su Verson. With the barrels outside it bore a superficial resemblance to Yates's wine bar on Long Row, Nottingham in about 1969. There were differences. The Havana Club was mostly populated with tourists. Yates's had more Caribbean customers than the Havana Club. Yates's had women who looked like Devine the drag artist, before Devine ever did, and girls who looked like Amy Winehouse but never gave off the same air of sober restraint.

Alfonso collects


Alfonso Pino the leader and composer of Pino y su Veron sells CDs and collects "Nobbins" at the bar of the rum museum. My apologies that I have managed to get the entire picture out of focus. Normally I only do that with the main focus of interest.

They're bootiful

The national monument at Revolution Square. The black flying object situated against the cloud is the turkey vulture which is found everywhere on the island. On the ground, it does indeed resemble the traditional table bird of Christmas, which came into England in the same year as 'Heresy, Hops and Beer' according to the rhyme, making it about 1521.

The statue in the shade is of the national hero of the war of independence, José Martí.

"Hasta La Victoria, siempre!"


The "Wolfie" Smith outline representation in Revolution Square, Havana. This is taken from the popular image in which we wears his man of destiny expression. I really had no idea, he was quite so popular here. Quite a feat for an actor from Ilkeston.

The legend reads: "Hasta La Victoria, siempre!", until the victory always. The former Cuban industry minister's sign off statement should not be confused with that of the governor of California, which is 'Hasta la vista baby'.

Tricycle Taxis


If Lance Armstrong is getting bored, Cuba needs him. I'd bet on the steroid powered beast over coco the clown any day.

Meanwhile is that ZZ Top cruisin' past the blue colonnades, which are even cooler than a barbuted Texan boogie band.

A Capitol copy


One of my favourite photographs for proportion, focus, contrast and vanishing point. An impressive life-size Cuban copy of the more famous building in Washington DC.

Cadillac?


A pink (cadillac?) cruises past a gorgeous mint green saloon

Cuba's multi-faceted public transport


Illustrating Havana's transport for hire: the 3-wheeled, motor-cycle engined coco taxi in the foreground, a taxi, an American convertible, but not the normal yellow cab livery as that apparent red chequer pattern is in fact flames. This may be tempting fate. There is a yellow American style school-bus parked down the side street of the 3 storied colonnaded building. Finally, most reliable and eco-friendly, and significantly the only one in motion is the pedal tricycle rickshaw.

The edge of the capitol building with the performing arts theatre in the background. Some of our party went to the ballet here. The Cubans in the foreground are typical of the mix on the island.