Scared sheepdog, Mumford and Sons and Jessica Harper

The above four legged fellow is named Ci (no, I don't know how his name is pronounced either - Sy?). Anyway, Ci is a sheepdog in the west of England. Except as a sheepdog, he's rubbish.Why so? I hear you cry. Because he's scared of sheep, that's why. Apparently sheep, despite their reputation for being - well - sheepish can be quite aggressive and if they sense that they have the upper hand will gang up. They gang up on Ci, sensing his fear, and he backs off. Like soooooooo...... Notice how the sheep look well in control. Unlike Ci. His owner wouldn't swap him for the world despite the fact that she has to be her own sheepdog. Another heartwarming animal story from rabbit central.

The rabbit has been following Glastonbury from the comfort of his armchair rather rather than in the middle of a pile of mud with Wayne Rooney for company (apparently the egregious scummer and Colleen are doing Glasto this year accommodated in a £100,000 Winnebago). Last night he caught Mumford and Sons (yes I know it's Mumford & Sons but embed can't cope with the ampersand), of whom he was generally aware of Mumford & Sons as a folk rock type band of some recent note but no more. Instant conversion! They are good! They are better than merely good. The rabbit is a total fan. Here are the rabbit's new heroes with Winter Winds

By way of contrast as regards the rabbit's estimation, after mature reflection the rabbit concludes that it is inevitable that Wayne Rooney (below before and after hair transplant) should be awarded the third rabbit Knob Of The Week award in succession to Grant Shapps and 'Cranmer' for (a) turning up at Glastonbury in a Winnebago (b) being a scummer (c) being himself.

Finally a plea to all readers of goodwill. Fellow blogger, actress and all round sweetie Jessica Harper has entered the Next Model Competition 2011. Jessica just wants to come in the top 250 but languishes at the time of writing at 721. Be good sports and vote for her! It only takes a few seconds and voting ends in a couple of days. In a way, it's a kind of experiment. Let's see if the power of the blogosphere can create a flashmob in support of Jessica. There's nothing to say that you have to be UK resident to vote and there are only 2 days left for voting. Go on - vote for Jessica - and tell everyone you know to do so too. Let's move her up the rankings!

 

Clarence Clemons 1942-2011

Another light goes out with the death of E Street Band saxophonist (and lots of other things too) Clarence Clemons. I've never thought of the saxophone, tenor or otherwise as particularly rock and roll but Clemons could do things with that instrument that were very special indeed. Okay working with Springsteen would have to give anyone a huge running start (yes I know that there are people in this world - even readers of this blog among them - who don't think Springsteen is a genius but I say he is) but Clemons brought a very special gift to the party. His size (he wasn't commonly known as 'Big Man' for nothing) and startling taste in suit colours made him stand out but mostly the verve and raw honesty of his saxophone playing stood out - raw, moody and eloquent. Try his playing here on Drive All Night - a rabbit Springsteen favourite - something very special...



Two random Clemons related facts (1) He was married five times - which to some may seem like overdoing it, and (2) his middle name was Anicholas. Don't ask me why.

A kiss is just a kiss (or possibly not)

 

The rabbit confesses to not having ever heard of the Vancouver Canucks or the Boston Bruins until a day or so ago. They are ice hockey teams and played in the final of something called the Stanley Cup this week. The Bruins won 4-0  whereupon the Canucks fans rioted. This strikes the rabbit as distinctively Un-Canadian behaviour. The rabbit is familar with - and largely in favour of - Canada, and Canadians do not generally riot. All very odd. The rabbit also pronounces himself in favour of the Bruins winning for reasons not to be gone into at this very moment (Hi Carol!).

In any event, a Canadian photojournalist named Richard Lam took the above photo in the middle of the riot. It looks as if a pair of young lovers are engaged in a passionate embrace, oblivious of the mayhem around them. Too good to be true?

'Fraid so...

Here is a second image, showing people gathering round. Are they concerned? Or simply preternaturally nosy? It's the former. The young couple are Scott Jones, a 29-year-old Australian and his girlfriend Alex Thomas, a Canadian. A police line had rushed the crowd and the couple tried to stay together but couldn't react in time and were knocked over my two riot police officers.  Alex Thomas was knocked over and landed head first on the pavement with her boyfriend landing partially on top of her. She was in visible pain, crying, but the two officers gave them a parting shove and moved on. Bystanders went to go make sure she was all right.

So that's it. No passionate embrace - just human concern. But the posting title is plainly cue for a song..

It seems that the young couple are both okay. Ice hockey? Yes, I quite like it. Best to keep the violence on the rink, though. And on a completely different topic and in case you have missed it, here is a rather hungry lioness and - erm - intended dinner...



And on a completely different (again) topic, there hasn't been too much music on rabbit central of late. Regular readers will know of the rabbit's partiality to sixties stuff and here is something for the weekend - Northern Soul classic from The Flirtations - Nothing But A Heartache - enjoy!



You want some more sixties soul? oh okay then. If you insist.

A surreal reprise...

There was a World War II catchphrase - endlessly recycled - 'careless talk costs lives'. Above is an example from  the wall of a military bunker underneath Dover Castle. Below is a poster from the same era - I do like the 'Mr Hitler' - he may have been a homicidal maniac we were at war with, but there's no excuse for bad manners as I am sure all will agree.



 

Bizarrely, the Ministry of Defence has just done a reprise of the 'careless talk costs lives' routine. On YouTube! It is a warning to service personnel and their friends and relatives as regards putting information about their whereabouts and activities on social networking sites. And bizarre stuff it is too. Take a look...

This is video 2 but the more fun one in the rabbit's opinion. Mother has put a load of indiscreet stuff on facebook and then has the nice young terrorist round for tea. As you do. For the sake of completeness, here is video 1 in which two navy personnel go out for the evening with unintended consequences, complete with terrorists strutting their stuff in the disco. .

All very odd. I think I prefer the World War II posters. While on the subject of very odd, there has been a lot of guff in the papers recently about Gully Wells who had a relationship with Martin Amis. And then didn't. Blah. Drone. The thing that puzzled the rabbit was 'why name your child after a (cricket) fielding position?'

At least she wasn't called 'Square Leg' or 'Extra Cover'. It turns out on further researches that her real name is Alexandra and Gully is a nickname. Don't ask me why...

Endearing animal picture time...

For overseas readers and the one person in the UK who has missed this by virtue of having been under a stone for the past however long it has been, here are the 10 orphaned/abandoned owlets whio have been rescued by the St Tiggywinkle's wildlife hospital. The little chaps and chapesses (don't ask me - I'm not very good at owl sexing) will be released back to the wild when fully grown.

Apparently owls invariably hang about in pairs in the wild so the non-related group of ten is something of an oddity. Big talons, though! The rabbit is still time poor having just moved hutch yet again (he is now a resident of Croydon - which will do for the time being) but still has good intentions as regard to getting down to more blogging and visiting many more blogs).

And here is a warning to the new, more sociable type of owl from old bill with Hat Tip to Old Holborn 

Quite so...

Now this is beyond ridiculous...

The above person - who has hitherto escaped the rabbit's attention - is named Jim Shannon. He has recently achieved fame as having been voted Britain's least sexy MP. Mr Shannon - who it emerges is Member of Parliament for Strangford in Northern Ireland - appears to have taken this all in good part.

'When I married my wife 24 years ago, I did so because I thought she was the sexiest woman in the world, and hopefully she thought I was the sexiest man, and that is all that matters to me' pronounces Mr Shannon.

Bless!

What is going on here? I hear overseas readers and the sensibly hitherto ignorant ask. The short answer is that some jokers have set up a website called sexymp.co.uk which invites the public to rate MPs in terms of their - erm - sexiness. What horrors follow is illustrated below - viewers of a sensitive disposition should look away now.

Above is Ian Paisley Junior, voted Northern Ireland's most attactive MP. Now the rabbit may be no judge of male beauty and Mr Shannon may not pose serious competition but...

BLOODY HELL!!!

Viewers are offered a choice of mixed, male and female MPs to rate for sexiness. The home page has pictures of two MPS and the question...

"Which MP would you rather have sex with?
Choose one"

Generally the only sensible answer is 'no thank you'.

Or in many instances...

YOU MUST BE BLOODY JOKING!!!

All right then... I'll stop the air of superiority as regards this stuff. I can hear you ask. "Okay rabbit. If you really, really had to vote who would it be for?"

Ermmm...

Ummm...

*shuffling of feet*

If really, really forced to vote the rabbit would cast his vote for Charlotte Leslie, the member for Bristol North West. 'Tis pity she's a Conservative as John Ford  didn't quite put it.