Friday, October 05, 2007

David Russel

Crop circle researcher David Russel is dead at 85.

How did he die? He crashed his microlight!
That's how I'd like to go at 85.
Especially if it was shot down by a jealous husband.
---
RonC comments:
Roger McGough, the Liverpool poet, offers some other suggestions in his poem 'Let Me Die a Young Man's Death' -

Let me die a young man's death
not a clean and inbetween
the sheets holy water death
not a famous-last-words
peaceful out of breath death

When I'm 73
and in constant good tumour
may I be mown down at dawn
by a bright red sports car
on my way home
from an all night party

Or when I'm 91
with silver hair
and sitting in a barber's chair
may rival gangsters
with hamfisted tommyguns
burst in and give me a short back and insides

Or when I'm 104
and banned from the Cavern
may my mistress
catching me in bed with her daughter
and fearing for her son
cut me up into little pieces
and throw away every piece but one

Let me die a young man's death
not a free from sin tiptoe in
candle wax and waning death
not a curtains drawn by angels borne
'what a nice way to go' death.

One of the few 'laugh out loud - and then notice that you are thinking harder about what was said' poets, perhaps ?

But for a photographer like Eolake, maybe a poem taken from the Barkers' pix 'n poems collection 'Portraits of Poets', where Roger McGough's photograph is accompanied by his poem The Survivor:

Everday
I think about dying.
About disease, starvation,
violence, terrorism, war,
the end of the world.

It helps
keep my mind off things.

20 comments:

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

"Especially if it was shot down by a jealous husband."

But was it? :-)

Anonymous said...

"But was it? :-)"

Perhaps by a jealous crop circle researcher?
I saw it first! It's mine!

It's strange that we still haven't adequately solved crop circles. I certainly don't know how they come to be.

Anonymous said...

It's strange that we still haven't adequately solved crop circles. I certainly don't know how they come to be.

They were solved a long time ago. They were made by those same weird aliens who came up with the Cadbury Secret.

Anonymous said...

I'd tell you but then I'd feel like I'm telling a kid the truth about santa claus or the easter bunny. ;o)

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

"I saw it first! It's mine!"

Not very sporting, old chap, is it? Crop circles belong to all of Mankind. (And Womankind, of course.)

The Cadbury Secret? Ah, yes, you mean their carefully kept chocolate recipe. :-)~~~

I know the truth about the Easter Bunny: no MALE animal lays eggs, therefore it's an Easter She-Bunny! Like, D'UH!

Anonymous said...

"I'd tell you but then I'd feel like I'm telling a kid the truth about santa claus or the easter bunny. ;o)"

I already know the truth about Santa Claus: He was a real life person. (By a different name of course.)

They say there's a group of people making those Crop Circles. But why? And how? You would think that after all these years they'd lost interest. Or start self-sabotaging their work by taking their subjects from popular culture and what not.

Anonymous said...

"Especially if it was shot down by a jealous husband."

That's a good one, indeed :-))

Anonymous said...

"I already know the truth about Santa Claus: He was a real life person. (By a different name of course.)"

Yeah, sure, and he flew around in a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer giving out presents. You're one dumb fuck, ttl. But then you know that.

Anonymous said...

I'm a coward who calls people names and hides behind an Anonymous tag. :o(

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

Actually, reports of Santa FLYING with his reindeer originated from a hippie community known for consuming psychedelic mushrooms that grow in the Arctic Circle. But maybe it was just a mirage. Sometimes sober people will see boats sailing in the sky.

Mirages can occur at both temperature extremes, BTW.

Anonymous said...

"I'm a coward who calls people names and hides behind an Anonymous tag. :o("

Yeah, you're right, I could put a meaningless name on it that would tell you nothing about me - nothing at all about my identity. That makes a lot of sense. Nice to see you exercise that big brain, genius.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

You keep saying that. But it would allow us to put a handle on one person, so all anonomice don't get tarred with the same brush.

Anonymous said...

Pascal said: "Actually, reports of Santa FLYING with his reindeer originated from a hippie community"

This may well be. I am not aware of any kind of flying or even reindeer belonging to the original "Santa" story.

Anonymous said...

You're a fucking idiot, ttl. I think you just pulled a Charlie Gordon.

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

Hey-hey-hey! Watch it there!
A little respect for Charlie Gordon, if you please. Even when his superior brain fried from the inside he was a great guy with a heart of gold.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

And at times he was quite sharp, actually.

Anonymous said...

This began less about crop circles - and 'bloggers slagging' one another (blagging??) - than about Eolake's preference for his 'way to go' at 85, I think.

Roger McGough, the Liverpool poet, offers some other suggestions in his poem 'Let Me Die a Young Man's Death' -

"Let me die a young man's death
not a clean and inbetween
the sheets holy water death
not a famous-last-words
peaceful out of breath death

When I'm 73
and in constant good tumour
may I be mown down at dawn
by a bright red sports car
on my way home
from an all night party

Or when I'm 91
with silver hair
and sitting in a barber's chair
may rival gangsters
with hamfisted tommyguns
burst in and give me a short back and insides

Or when I'm 104
and banned from the Cavern
may my mistress
catching me in bed with her daughter
and fearing for her son
cut me up into little pieces
and throw away every piece but one

Let me die a young man's death
not a free from sin tiptoe in
candle wax and waning death
not a curtains drawn by angels borne
'what a nice way to go' death".

One of the few 'laugh out loud - and then notice that you are thinking harder about what was said' poets, perhaps ?

But for a photographer like Eolake, maybe a poem taken from the Barkers' pix 'n poems collection 'Portraits of Poets', where Roger McGough's photograph is accompanied by his poem The Survivor -

"Everday
I think about dying.
About disease, starvation,
violence, terrorism, war,
the end of the world.

It helps
keep my mind off things."

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

RonC said...
"This began less about crop circles - and 'bloggers slagging' one another (blagging??) - than about Eolake's preference for his 'way to go' at 85, I think."


Upon reflection, I think you think correctly, Sir. :-)

Still, a young man's death in a sports car tends to be rather messy, usually. What was it James Dean purportedly said? "Live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse." Easier said than done.
I've seen things I prefer not to describe. As you say (quote?), let's keep our mind off things.

Didn't know about this Roger McGough, but he sounds like my kind of guy!
I think this is a good place to mention a poem by a fellow countrywoman that I translated on my blog. It's a bit in the same spirit.

P.S.: Are you perchance the same RonC who does a weekly monday cartoon?

Anonymous said...

Not I, Pascal - as I told Eolake when he asked the same questions some time ago, I'm the other one - who couldn't draw a glass of water - unlike Ron Coleman, whose cartoons you must mean?

Roger McGough - one of the 'Liverpool Poets' (with Adrian Henri and Brian Patten) and the pop group 'The Scaffold' in the 60s and 70s - remember "Lily the Pink"? Biog and bibliog at British Council index of authors - http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth202.

Hope this helps.

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

Yes, I meant Coleman. No biggie, your case isn't desperate. "If you can type, you can draw."
For starters, try to copy-paste this :

\-/ "Glass of water, side view"
O "Glass of water, top view"

Hope this helps. ;-)