The People's Republic of Ramonia

I am starting to come to the conclusion that we might just be a sort of a folk band. Not your usual finger in the ear, sandles and beards and all acoustic folk band. More of a folk band for thr 21st century, making use of all the latest technology to spread our folky type tales. This is a bit of a revelation to me, as folk has generally been in my list of "music without merit to my ears", alongside Country, Heavy Rock (actually anything calling itself rock really - I spent a good few evenings removing the words punk and rock from my itunes genres and calling them all "indie" instead - all except The Darkness, who are quite obviously rock and are only on my hard drive so I can remix them when I get round to it as a favour for a friend), and warbly "I've forgotten the tune, but I'll fill all the gaps with squaking noises and I hope no-one notices" R&B singers.
I suppose I do have a bit of folk here and their, including a brief daliance with Suzanne Vega (if she counts), and a penchant for medieval and tudor lute type stuff. I have also found myself quite enjoying some Morris Dancers, but mostly because they were from Bacup and wore clogs and called themselves "The Nutters".
Anyway, I think we are folk in that we tell stories in our music, and can create it anywhere, travelling light - have laptop will play. I think that if laptops had been around in days of yore, then folk music would sound more like Soft Cell or the Pet Shop Boys now. Both of them tell stories, or address issues. The Pet Shop Boys latest targets a number of things including slavish devotion to the US of our great and mighty leader, and ID cards ("If you've done nothing wrong you've got nothing to fear..."). In reality I think the Pet Shop Boys are closer to the spirit of folk than any of the token folk entries to the Mercury Music Prize, albeit with a full backing band, Orchestra and Trevor Horn and chums to prop them up.
Which leads me (slightly tangentially) to my realisation after many years that not only my musical tastes, but also my televisual tastes are quite gay. I really should have realised that something as camp as Doctor Who would attract a large gay following, but I hadn't realised it was quite that big! I'm starting to wonder if the amount of hatred for poor old Rose on the many fan forums, is more down to the fans being jealous that she gets to travel and sometimes canoodle with The Doctor/David Tennant. Or maybe they just find her a bit annoying. I sometimes do (but then not not being gay, I do have a certain fondness for her ("Excellent Bottom" as Captain Jack once remarked)), and I don't mind searching for a Rose action figure for my youngest daughter, who doesn't really get on with my Slitheen, Moxx of Balhoon or Sycorax Leader. They are darned hard to get hold of though, so maybe not all the fanbase is gay.

Ok, so I said I would write more often, and proceeded to write only 1 entry in May, but hey, maybe I'll write 2 in June! It is my favourite month after all - only slightly influenced by my birthday on Devils Day (6/6/6 - it works worldwide no matter what bizarre order you want to put it in).

I had quite the finest birthday ever. I took a few days off work and so had a leisurely morning playing with all the lovely Dr Who figures my lovely family had bought me - including a remote control Dalek and remote control K9 which battled each other despite the Skaro representative being 20 times bigger than the plucky hound. Then, we went to Blaze Farm to pick up some pots the girls had painted last week which had been nicely glazed, and also to sample some more of their fine ice cream. I had Licorice, which was a brave attempt, but I'm not sure altogether worked, as it was quite bitter and looked quite a lot like it had come from the wrong bit of the cow. The other flavours we had were all fantastic though! Then we went to Poole's Cavern in Buxton, and explored the weird underground world, before wandering around in the woods above - slightly further than we had anticipated, so then we had a swift journey home for my birthday tea complete with a custom Mrs Ramon created Tardis Cake.

Then I picked up Mr and Mrs Mutt and we went to see The Tiny live supporting Ed Harcourt (who was also supported by "Hush the Many" who were quite spiffing too). The Tiny are an amazing trio of Voice/Piano, Cello (and sometime Musical Saw) and Double Bass from Sweden, who should by rights be huge, and hopefully soon will be. We were also lucky enough to meet Ellekari and Leo from The Tiny for a chat, and for Mutt to blag another poster from them. Ed Harcourt, of whom none of us knew that much beforehand, was brilliant too, starting the gig at the back of the room playing Banjo with his guitarist and Trumpet player, and then working his way around the room.

So anyway, a top day all round. Then today I received my letter from the local health authority inviting me to come in for a Heart Attack prevention health check, now that I am officially middle aged.