FR
Allow me to feel nostalgic as the fall season is coming to an end and I miss London and its beautiful parks so much.
© La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.
My Iron Lung
Faith, you're driving me away
You do it everyday
You don't mean it
But it hurts like hell
My brain says I'm receiving pain
A lack of oxygen
From my life support
My iron lung
We're too young to fall asleep
Too cynical to speak
We are losing it
Can't you tell?
We scratch our eternal itch
A twentieth century bitch
And we are grateful for
Our iron lung
The headshrinkers, they want everything
My uncle Bill, my Belisha beacon
The headshrinkers, they want everything
My uncle Bill, my Belisha beacon
Suck, suck your teenage thumb
Toilet trained and dumb
When the power runs out
We'll just hum
This, this is our new song
Just like the last one
A total waste of time
My iron lung
The headshrinkers, they want everything
My uncle Bill, my Belisha beacon
The headshrinkers, they want everything
My uncle Bill, my Belisha beacon
And if you're frightened
You can be frightened
You can be, it's OK
And if you're frightened
You can be frightened
You can be, it's OK
The headshrinkers, they want everything
My uncle Bill, my Belisha beacon
Original text by THOM YORKE
The Beastles Are Back
“Come on, come on, baby, tweet that cat...”
“Oh, little beast, there will be an answer...”
“Gently, you do not want to make my guitar weep...”
“It's been a hard day's night...”
© La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.
Emerald City
While surfing on the web, I was surprised to come across many videos of Dramarama, an American underground band I had the chance to interview... 25 years ago (!!!) I thought they had long disappeared so I was happy to find John Easdale is still alive and kicking and has finally gotten some public recognition at home even if owed to some reality show. Worry not, I'm not about to revel in cheap nostalgia and sort through the old junk from the attic. For a moment I just wanted to share this sweet (additive-free) little acoustic song with you about Emerald City, the capital city of the fictional Land of Oz in Frank Baum's books (creator of the Wizard of Oz) since its writer/performer had kindly written down the lyrics for me on a old piece of paper now turned all yellow — but thanks to digitalisation it looks as good as new hey hey.
Emerald City
I've finally found it
I'm feeling my way all around it
I'm going to surround it
Soon everything's going to be fine
Hey hey
I can do what I say
I'm lost in a sweet dream
I'm living on chocolate ice cream
I'm letting off my steam
Now everything's going to be fine
High high
I think I'll learn how to fly
I went for the rental
Those costumes were so continental
How coincidental
They said everything would be fine
Ho ho
I think I'm ready to go, go, go...
About Emerald City
Located in the exact center of the Land of Oz, being the countries official imperial capital, the Emerald City can be found at the end of Oz's famous yellow brick road, which starts in the eastern quadrant called Munchkin Country.
[...] In the earlier books, the city's architecture was described as being completely green, but in later Oz books, it is revealed that green was merely the predominating color and the buildings are also constructed out of solid gold and silver as well [...] The citizens of the city originally wore all green costumes with real emerald jewels for bottons, but eventually added other gems and colors to their clothing and attire in later Oz books.
[...] Scholars who interpret The Wizard of Oz as a political allegory see the Emerald City as a metaphor for Washington, D.C. and unsecured "greenback" paper money. In this reading of the book, the city's illusory splendor and value are compared with the value of paper money, which also has value only because of a shared illusion or convention. It is highly likely that the Hotel del Coronado influenced its description in later books, as well as in the artwork by John R. Neill.
Source : Wikipedia
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How to Partially Remove Colour From Photos
A simple straightforward technique you may use with any image editing software such as Paint Shop Pro (the one I used), Photoshop, GIMP, PhotoFiltre, etc.
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Materials
- a colour picture with detailed background
Instructions
1. Open two copies of the image you wish to manipulate.
2. Select the second copy and convert it to greyscale in order to obtain a black and white picture. Copy and past the output as a new layer on top of your colour image.
3. Activate the layer you've just pasted and use the Freehand tool to outline the part you wish to restore to colour. Once selected, press Delete then unselect and save as JPEG. That it!
NOTE: You may also use the Eraser tool for small areas but the Freehand tool will provide more precision. Apply in small increments when you deal with detailed shapes.
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For the above variation, I lowered colour saturation to 35% for the bottom layer and increased blue and cyan hues by 20%. For the top (grey) layer, I just lower opacity to 85% so as to get a slightly tainted black and white to enhance the faded look of the picture.
Have fun with your pictures!
© La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.
A Crêpe for the Guy
Radiohead just won the Guy Fawkes Award for Best Pancake Seller. Thom Thumb and Ed A'Fleck seized the opportunity to literally set the House ablaze. Far too cautious, their three other companions remained hidden in the phonebooth in the background. They promise they'll make waffles for Candlemas!
© La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.
Gluten-Free Crêpes
As promised here is the recipe for Thom Thumb and Ed A'Fleck's famous crêpes. Highly digestible, quick and easy to make, they won't stick to the pan and may be used exactly like traditional wheat pancakes. Try some ratatouille fillings with it, it's delicious!
Ingredients
Makes 12-18 pancakes:
2 cups (500 ml) oats milk, rice milk or almond milk
9 oz (250 g) rice flour
3 eggs
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Directions
Mix all ingredients together until it forms a smooth batter without lumps.
1
Leave to rest in a cool place for 30 minutes then cook like ordinary pancakes.2
Endnotes
- ^ If you wish to use sweetened fillings, you may add some (natural) orange flower/vanilla extracts or rum to flavour your pancake batter.
- ^ While Radiohead use guitars, it is best to use a frying pan as it requires great skills to get the crepes off, striking hard on the guitar strings after each verse (roughly what it takes to cook them).
© La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.
Funeral Pyre
Let's have some English jam that went out of date several decades ago but is still edible as much as you like. It contains no added sugar or artificial sweeteners and preservatives (the word here in French is “conservateurs” and it's the same word used for Tories who weren't much popular in the UK during the Thatcher years). Released around the time of the annual celebration of Saint John's Eve, this "Funeral Pyre" by The Jam is more reminiscent of the bonfires of the 5th of November when the leader of the evil conspirators who had plotted to bring down the nice elite oppressing the people is burned in effigy. How paradoxical!
Ey@elDown in amongst the streets tonight
Books will burn, people laugh and cry in their turmoil
(turmoil turns rejoiceful)
Shed your fears and lose your guilt
Tonight we burn responsibility in the fire
We'll watch the flames grow higher!
But if you get too burnt, you can't come back home
And as I was standing by the edge
I could see the faces of those led pissing themselves laughing
(and the flames grew)
Their mad eyes buldged their flushed faces said:
“The weak get crushed as the strong grow stronger”
We feast on flesh and drink on blood
Live by fear and dispise love in a crises
(what with today's high prices)
Bring some paper and bring some wood
Bring what's left of all your love for the fire
We'll watch the flames grow higher!
But if you get too burnt you can't come back home
And as I was standing by the edge
I could see the faces of those led pissing themselves laughing
(and the flames grew)
Their mad eyes buldged their flushed faces said:
“The weak get crushed as the strong grow stronger”
In the funeral pyre
We'll watch the flames grow higher
But if you get too burnt you can't come back home
(well I feel so old, when I feel so young
well I just can't grow up to meet the demands)
About this song
A few years after the fact, Paul Weller explained to author Paolo Hewitt that The Jam had written "Funeral Pyre" as a reaction against the smooth sounding records that were currently flooding the market, “so we thought it would be good to do something rough.”
© La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.
