11 Quick Thoughts About Stones And Other Subjects

Tom Cox

Tom Cox

— 6 min read
11 Quick Thoughts About Stones And Other Subjects
This year I was absolutely flabbergasted to discover that the sign which inspired 'Stallions Bite', the 1986 debut album by my short-lived hair metal band Caution, is still intact, in the exact place where I originally found it.
  1. Today brings the excitement that the Everything Will Swallow You audiobook is finally here. I wasn't permitted the privilege of an advance listen so I'm looking forward to checking it out later today and I could not be more intrigued to find out what Justin Avoth, the narrator, has done with it (his performance of Erotic Vagrancy by Roger Lewis - and it really was a performance - was a full throttle, 101% committed masterclass in voice acting). I'm told that, if enough people download EWSY on audiobook, there's more of a likelihood that audiobooks of Villager, 1983 and Notebook will follow, to join the ones of 21st-Century Yokel, Help The Witch and Ring The Hill that I recorded in Leicester a few years ago, and the one Mark Meadows recorded of The Good, The Bad And The Furry over a decade ago, in which, to my amusement, he made my dad sound not totally unlike Sean Bean's character in Game Of Thrones. Not that you should feel any pressure, obviously.
  2. My dad went to see the doctor this week. My mum tells me that while my dad was in there, the doctor - a man of 30ish - complimented his Shetland wool sweater and cord trousers. "I THINK I HAVE OCD," my dad told the doctor. "Oh, really?" said the doctor, in a concerned tone. "YEAH,” replied my dad. "OBSESSIVE CORDUROY DISORDER.” The older I get, the more I suspect the condition might be hereditary.
  3. I decided the best option would not be to spam you with a series of visually-orientated agriculturally-themed emails this week, so I'm linking to these photo essays about cattle, scarecrows and ponies and horses here, where you can dip into them at your leisure instead. You might also have already spotted the sheep and goat versions, but maybe not. Personally I think the sheep and scarecrows just have the edge on the others. Whatever the case, they confirm to me that I have been fortunate enough to meet many many great sheep and scarecrows over the years.
A French scarecrow who spends most of her days dreaming about being in a more sophisticated urban environment, alongside people who are important.
  1. The Oxenham Arms pub in South Zeal, Devon, boasts the unusual distinction of being in a building originally constructed by 12th Century monks around two prehistoric standing stones. The pub that stands there now, while extremely old, is several centuries younger than the original monastery but the stones remain. If you’re lucky and visit at the right time of day, as I did a few days ago, you might also even witness the smaller of the two being recharged with sacred energy by the sun.
  1. Speaking of stones: I have been enjoying the new BBC archive on YouTube lately, which goes much deeper than the one on iPlayer, and includes this clip of one of my childhood heroes, Tony Hart, creating Stonehenge very quickly using pastel and black marker pen, and which might actually be better than season 4 of The Wire:

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