ART/ILLUSTRATiON: The Rainbow Goblins, Ul de Rico (1978)

I first drafted this post in September or October, 2022. But I’ve only now finally gone back to and finished it!

If I’m honest this isn’t my normal mug o’ Java. But I’ve been softened up for it by Masayoshi Takanaka’s wonderful double-album of the same name, that’s both based on the story, and uses Ul de Rico’s art on’t the packaging.

I love this!

Sometimes getting an entry into something this way – so, the fabulous Takanaka album predisposes me to being more receptive to the artwork/story that inspired it – widens one’s aesthetics. If I’d only seen the book, I might’ve rejected it out of hand.

Pretty amazing, eh!?

Some of the artworks, such as the one that adorns Masayoshi’s album cover, or the one directly above this paragraph, really do draw me in, and seduce me. Others, like the one directly below, I’ve grown to love.

And this in turn leads me to dig stuff like this:

The rainbow goblins’ dream. Far out!

And in the end I’m won over, and full of admiration for the simple charms of the story, and the intensity of the artworks. How about this for endpapers:

Flowers melt into a marbled ink pattern.

Ul de Rico did a follow up, called The White Goblin. And Masayoshi Takanaka followed suit! I’m listening to the latter right now. I’m not as immediately smitten by it as I was by his Rainbow Goblins project. It’s a bit more mainstream rock/pop.

The saga continues!

But, truth be told, I feel myself being sucked in and won over. Seduced ever further from my own usual aesthetics. In the end, it feels to me as if I’m relaxing and letting Ul de Rico and Masayoshi Takanaka take me, one by each hand, into their visual and sonic worlds.

And I think that’s a good thing…

MUSiC: Days of Hair & Roses (Pentangle, Live in Colour, 1970)

Thanks are due to Jonny Trunk for the ‘heads up’ on this one. The ‘Angle are caught here on film, in glorious colour, playing Sally Go Round The Roses, from an ITV show called Songs From The Two Brewers

The audio of the whole – well, more of it (if, perhaps, not all of it; it starts after the first number of the set, Pentangle!) – can be heard here.

The BFI have some scant info on numerous episodes (view a page about them here; click each entry to find who the performers on each episode are) of this show intriguing show in their archive. But they don’t make it easy to access/view!

FiLM: The Party

For a bit of rock’n’roll trivia intersecting with Peter Sellers, here’s a link to a real party Sellers three, in L.A., 1975, for his 50th birthday.

Keith Moon and Joe Cocker, on the mic’. (Photo, O’Neill)
Wyman, Wood, Madaio, (?) and Bowie on bari’(?). (Photo, O’Neill)

HOBBiES: 1/72 Tiger I, Pt. 4

Detailing the radiators…

Today a rather groovy set of hole-punches arrived, via Amazon (along with Egg’s last album, 1974’s Civil Surface).

No, not miniature organ pipes.

They range from 0.5 mm to ???. I only used two tonight, the 0.5mm, for the radiator detailing covered in this post, and the 0.8mm, just see how they looked.

The 0.5 mm punch, and the bits it yields.

I used two different thicknesses of plastic card; the thinnest I have for these bits. I’m very pleased with the tools and the parts they produce.

Ta-dah!

I suppose such stuff still looks a bit rustic and home-made, compared to what the kit manufacturers themselves can do. But it’s a significant improvement on how I’ve made such parts up till now.

So I’m very happy!

DAYS OUT: Er…

Panoramic views of the river (?)…
… at (er… where?)

Some pictures from todays delivery routes. After a rainy start the day turned out really nice.

Whew… A tiny prison!
Malefactors enter here.
The Eaton Socon Cage, no less.
View through the bars…
The church at Eaton Socon.
And the picturesque graveyard.

Ecclesiastical architecture really is my bag, baby. Although I’m a staunch humanist/atheist, or ‘naturalist and free thinker’, as A. C. Grayling styles it, I do love churches.

The church of (?), at (?).
A sublime pano’.
Gorgeous!

MUSiC: Low Rider, WAR

Wow! We used to play this tune a lot in my band, Capricorn. I didn’t know there was a little film for the song. I only found that out today! What a great number, what a great little film, and what a terrific band.

DAYS OUT: Rogues Lane, Elsworth

What a great street name!

A lovely little back-road – which actually climbs what passes for hills in the flatlands of East Angular! – I far prefer to drive on than the A-roads in this area.

Being just off The Great North Road/Ermine Street, ‘Rogues Lane was noted for highwaymen.’ According to a local history website (read more here). I’m not sure about this, but I fancy Dick Turnip might’ve been fairly local.

The local gibbet, in yesteryear.

And not far away, lay Caxton Gibbet, where such rogues might wind up, dancing the Tyburn Jig, for the entertainment and edification of locals and passers by!

And more recently.*

Teresa and I looked at a property on this fab country road. I can’t recall now if it was a rental, or sale? Would’ve been nice to have a home address that was on Rogues Lane, methinks.

* In the background, the burnt out shell (now replaced by a complex of McDonalds, Subway, etc.) of what was once the Gibbet Inn, and – when it (was?) burned down – the (rather good) Yim Wah Chinese restaurant.

DAYS OUT: Cars – Morris Minor

Funky Mogg’.

Another nice car spotted whilst out delivering. This one is for sale. But I didn’t bother asking the price. As I have absolutely no money. A beautiful model/colour. But a bit ‘souped up’. The alloy wheels are alright. But the red grill!? Hmmm… not so sure!