I Heard Through the Barnyard

It is not even spring yet and here they are, constantly flying at each other, calling themselves names and having spats about anything and everything. Between canaries here, robins there, clueless suckered pidgeons, sappy ostriches, stuffed turkeys, cocky parrots, cunning crows, smelly hawks, cockerels on coke, and blasting peacocks showing off, it's too much droppings, racket and whooshing about nothing. For while the stakes are high, they never rise above their own respective grounds — no matter how high these are. And it's starting to look like a bad remake of an Hitchcock movie.

Ere you flout old ends any further, examine your conscience.

William Shakespeare, Too Much Ado About Nothing

Watch out for the great washing off...

and unchained ducklings¹ having a blast.

That's for telling them to shut their traps²

or stuffing them with too much smelly fish.

Endnotes

1. ^ In French slang, we use the same word for duck and newspaper, which is canard. There also is a well-established (since 1915) satirical paper called Le Canard enchaîné (The Chained Duck) featuring investigative journalism and leaks from sources inside the French government, the French political world and the French business world, as well as many jokes and humorous cartoons. Le Canard enchaîné does not accept any advertisements and is privately owned, mostly by its own employees. Hence the pun with ducklings taking a flight despite increasing censorship from the actual French government.
2. ^ Another pun referring to a French idiomatic expression that literally says “You gulls, shut your trap” used against people who get their kicks in stirring arguments and do not care about the outcome or the stakes at play. They're usually on the lookout for any piece they could grab.

© La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.

Cover picture: Marinus

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Muscle Deep

As someone who hates looking back, the other day I got a full blast of nostalgia while rummaging in an box tucked away in some drawer from which I dug up some old gig tickets, letters, postcards, autographs and a couple of souvenir pictures from a previous life. The moment I picked up a backstage pass for the two shows Then Jerico performed in a small club in Paris back in 1988, this song (about Apartheid in South Africa) I had not heard again since over 30 years ago, started playing in a loop inside my head. A band I had discovered two years earlier, while still unknown, at the legendary Marquee Club in London. And much to my surprise, I found that Then Jerico still exist, at least their charismatic singer who clearly hasn't lost any of his verve nor poise and still has it “muscle deep”. That said, however, there aren't many “ressurected” groups of the 80's who successful regained their past glory while reinventing and improving themselves along the way. The only example I could think of is Indochine of which Nicola Sirkis is the last surviving founding member. Mark Shaw probably never will, but I'm pleased to hear that he still has an audience and that he's having fun. The obvious kick it must have been to his ego didn't kill him after all and that's great news. The feeling's not gone and it's not pretending. L♥ve this song!

Ziggy played guitar,
Jammin' good with Weird and Gilly
And the Spiders From Mars.
He played it left hand,
But he made it too far,
He became the special man...

"Ziggy Stardust", David Bowie (1971)

Ey@el

Some of them want to break you down
And its alright when the fear is theirs
But it kicks you in the face sometimes,
When the cold is biting muscle deep.

Well, I don't know if it matters
Or if i can say it doesn't fool me
When the fear is strong enough to hold its own way
Then you know it's gonna spread around.

What am I gonna do about you
(Across the border)?
When the feeling's gone, it's all pretending
And the living is always easy —
It's a fine line.

So you do what you can just to survive
And it gets too close for comfort sometimes,
Everyone i ever knew agreed
The prejudice lies muscle deep.

Well, I don't know if it matters
Or if i can say it doesn't fool me
When the fear is strong enough to hold its own way
Then you know it's gonna spread around.

What am I gonna do about you
(Across the border)?
When the feeling's gone, it's all pretending
And the living is always easy —
It's a fine line.

Come on look at my world
And I'll take you by the hand.
It doesn't take too long to see
We're living in a land
Where faith and hope and glory
Count for more than life and peace
Bitterness and breaking point
Are only muscle deep.

Well, I don't know if it matters
Or if i can say it doesn't fool me
When the fear is strong enough to hold its own way
Then you know it's gonna spread around.

What am i gonna do about you
(Across the border)?
When the time breaks up, it's all pretence here
And the living is always easy —
It's a fine line.

What am i gonna do about you
(Across the border)?
When the feelings run, it's all intense here
And the living is alway easy —
Its a fine line.

Original text by MARK SHAW © La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.

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The Year of the Pig

If you didn't care what happened to me,
And I didn't care for you,
We would zigzag our way through the boredom and pain,
Occasionally glancing up through the rain,
Wondering which of the buggers to blame
And watching for pigs on the wing.

"Pigs On The Wing", Pink Floyd (1977)

Now that the big bad wolf has left, Fifer, Fiddler and Edmund may relax. At least until the 24th of January 2020 that will mark the beginning of a new cycle of the Chinese zodiac, the Year of the Pig (or Boar) being the last. Certainly, our national Obelix will be the last to complain about it. So expect 2019 to be a twisted corker-screwer with lots of #Metoo, dirty tricks and junk of sorts on the menu. A good year for delis for as the French saying goes, “every part (of pig) is the best part”. No need to wonder whether they're playing possum or not, when the rats come out of the sewers at the end of this Jupiterian cycle, the filthy will come to understand that when the goose is ultra-cooked, even sheep may take a bite. First and foremost to the annoyance of Lady Piggy.

In their sties with all their backing,
They don't care what goes on around.
In their eyes there's something lacking,
What they need's a damn good whacking.
Everywhere there's lots of piggies
Living piggy lives.
You can see them out for dinner
With their piggy wives,
Clutching forks and knives to eat their bacon.

"Piggies", The Beatles (1968)

© La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.

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