The return of the[last word]thread

[westgrandboulevard]

Yes, I think so, too. Or should that be 'la'.....

[arr&bee]

So i'm not[willum wordsless lungfiller]but i'm on my way.

[westgrandboulevard]

You'll just have to live life one word at a time, and get a lot of rest.

[arr&bee]

Rest???no time for it got poetry to write.

[westgrandboulevard]

Oh dear. You mean, we have to sit through more of it....?

[arr&bee]

Brings a tear to your eyes don't it?

[westgrandboulevard]

I'd prefer onions.

[arr&bee]

I got a poem for that.

[westgrandboulevard]

I just got a whiff of it....

[144man]

I was told you don't cry if you peel onions under water, but I nearly drowned.

[westgrandboulevard]

Haha. You might have guessed when you saw the French onion seller using a snorkel.

[arr&bee]

Do you know that if you are in total darkness with your eyes closed you can't see a darned thing.

[westgrandboulevard]

I'm not sure I'd see anything in total darkness ,even with my eyes wide open

[arr&bee]

I saw something once,and i don't wanna see it again.

[westgrandboulevard]

You'll need to be on the lookout.

[144man]

It was just your imagination running away with you...

[westgrandboulevard]

As long as I'm being taken somewhere nice, I'll go along quietly....

[144man]

I predict a riot.

[westgrandboulevard]

Not to worry. Ralph will simply press 'delete', and then we'll all completely lose the thread.

[moe]

And our minds..............

[westgrandboulevard]

If you don't mind, then I don't, either.....

[arr&bee]

Um guys,i don't know if ralph actually knows we're here he's so busy with threads that actually make sense so let's be very quiet..shhhhhhhhh!!!

[westgrandboulevard]

Threads that make sense? I can only say that Ralph deleted a thread yesterday that was really starting to sound like a bar room brawl....

[moe]

I'm glad I didn't know about it, westgrand!!

[westgrandboulevard]

You mean you didn't peek even just once at the "Supremes Petition thread", moe?

In fact, you hardly needed to peek. You could practically HEAR the raised voices.....LOL

[moe]

No, really. I am just too busy. I would rather be on hooch with all of you than mess with a Supremes thread!!!

[arr&bee]

Heck i had to duck just passing by that place,i went in with a white flag and they still threw a supremes argument at me they're angry over there.

[westgrandboulevard]

This could soon become the only forum where Supremes fans hold an annual carnival procession.

[144man]

There's more chance of peace in the Middle East than between Supremes fans.

[westgrandboulevard]

The music's better, though...!

[144man]

Cinderella Rockerfella? Viva La Diva?

[westgrandboulevard]

You mean Abi and Esther? Katherine and Darcey?

[144man]

I thought you meant music's better in the Middle East.

[westgrandboulevard]

If you were born and lived in Bradford, Leicester and parts of London, you might well agree that their music is better- but I meant the music's better from The Supremes.

Mind you, on those arduous whistle stop tours endured in the 60s by some of the Motown artists around the UK's more seedy theatres and ballrooms, I'm certain they often found themselves facing Mecca......

[144man]

...which brings us back to Ian Levine.

[westgrandboulevard]

I recently bought his Northern Soul 2012 CD. Atfter 2 or 3 plays, at least some of the tracks have a way of going round inside my head. A very good, and annoyingly catchy, cover of Connie Stevens' 'Tick Tock' by The Fantations. Just the sort of thing the UK should go back to using as our entry for Eurovision. I'd perhaps describe it more as spirited pop music than 'soulful', but very pleasant company all the same.

[144man]

Just listened to it on Youtube where it's part of Ian Levine's Top 40 and had a quick dip into it. Laverta Lewis' "Better Times Ahead" is also quite good.

[westgrandboulevard]

Will listen for Laverta. Not on this particular disc. Try The Concentrations 'My Word Of Honour' , or The Four Vandals 'Brick by Brick, Stone by Stone' [[lead singer is Steve 'X Factor' Brookstein) - just good little pop records.....

[arr&bee]

What is connie stevens up to these days,she was sooooo cute on[hawiian eye].

[westgrandboulevard]

She wrote, produced and directed her film 'Saving Grace B. Jones' a few years ago,

Does a lot of good work for the Screen Actor's Guild, the Republican Party, and the United Services Organizations. And still seems to do it with glamour....

[moe]

What about her in "Palm Springs Weekend?"

[arr&bee]

One of my favs from back in the day.

[westgrandboulevard]

She beat off some UK cover versions and had a hit here with 'Sixteen Reasons', but is not well known here.

I'm unsure if Hawaiian Eye was shown here, although I remember 77 Sunset Strip.....

[moe]

Cookie, Cookie, give me your comb........

[westgrandboulevard]

I remember Billy Smart's big circus coming near us in the 60s, so the family went to see it on a day out. What an event for a young boy like me.

It had a number of elephants, accompanied by The Digger Pugh Elephant Girls - all dressed in gold spangled one piece outfits, gold shoes and blonde wigs.

When the elephants put their front feet up on stools in the ring, the girls danced, weaving their way in and out, and sometimes underneath the elephants, while the band furiously played the theme from "77 Sunset Strip"...

[moe]

What did those elephant girls look like?

[westgrandboulevard]

You mean "were they huge"?!

No, they were very glamorous - but I was at an impressionable age! All were obviously dancers - similar height, tall, slim, wearing identical uniformed outfits in gold [[I think they were all-in-ones, in something like lycra, but with mini skirts attached ) matching wigs pulled back with a long 'fall' and gold shiny 'high-kick' dancer shoes [[think 'The Rockettes').

Each girl rode in on an elephant's neck. Ten elephants, ten dancers. Funnily enough, I recently bought a book on eBay called 'Spinners of the Big Top', about Billy Smart's circus. When I spotted it, I had one of those "I wonder whatever happened to the copy I had of it when I was young?" moments, which made me buy it again.

After I posted earlier, I then went to the book to see if there was a photo of the elephant girls. There wasn't, but it did remind me that the elephants actually stood on very wide, circular [[and presumably incredibly strong!) plinths, and then raised their front legs onto the elephant next to them, forming a tableau - so the elephant girls could dance-march right under them, keeping exact time to the '77' theme tune which you'll know went at a fair pace. Whenever the girls actually passed under the elephants, I remember the way they stretched out their arms [[like "Stop! in the name of love") in complete synchronisation but then crossed their forearms from the elbow over their faces, palms outwards, as if walking 'blind' under the elephants [[The Marvelettes had a similar move, dipping their knees, but keeping their hands lower, at shoulder height)

I was completely entranced with the sights, sounds and absolute showmanship of it all.

[moe]

Funny how we remember things!!
Now I'm not sure if R&B can remember anything!!

[westgrandboulevard]

Yes, it is strange, isn't it?! Very often, it's random events. I have this photographic thing mentally, which is generally reliable, if not completely. Fortunately, my 'snapshots' are good, positive ones, which have inspired me towards something else - as in 'looking outwards'.

It's the 'snapshots' of bad memories which aren't so good. They start to affect some people, in ways they can't always control, by 'looking inwards' and then holding them there. It needs a little window opened somewhere, and a light breeze.....

I bet arr&bee has a good recall...when he remembers to use it...!

[arr&bee]

Snapshot???um i'm kind of camera shy,i've never seen myself even my shadow doesn't know what i look like.