Stig Goes Folk

Subject: Stig Goes Folk
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 11:04 AM

Stranger things happen in the name of The Tradition. Here's the proof:

May Day, 2009

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: Bernard
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 11:24 AM

He's wearing some top gear, isn't he?!

;o>

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 11:56 AM

Who is Stig?

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 12:06 PM

He's ( may she's) a mystery test driver on a TV motoring programme.

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: Mr Happy
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 12:08 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stig_of_the_Dump

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 12:25 PM

As this has been relegated to BS where most of the UK posters aren't, nobody will ever know. I know the rules but I do wish some of the Mods might exercise just a bit more pragmatic lenience occasionally (like has happened with the re-Imagined thread for e.g.)

LH, it's a light British in-joke about a semi-mythical TV figure (the Stig) who appears on cult low-brow UK telly programme about motors.
Alternatively we also have this: Braindead

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 12:31 PM

Tearing around more than one kind of ring, it seems.

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 02:36 PM

I did the picture! A couple of near random downloads & a bit of cropping & pasting and - hey-presto!

Even as a non-driver I'm more of a fan of Top Gear than I am of Morris Dancing. I have my son to thank for this relatively recent conversion to the funniest mainstream TV show for many a long year. James May's caravan airship in the latest episode was a work of deeply surreal genius.

I'm with CS here, this is a folkloric celebration of genuine English Popular Culture. I didn't put a Folklore prefix in there because usually some ignorant Mud-elf removes it anyway.

As a parody of Sting Does Folk it belongs above the line.

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 07:13 PM

"the funniest mainstream TV show for many a long year. "

Oh Poopoo SO'P - yeah it can be funny *sometimes*. But I guess I've been watching it so long the joke wore thin. Those guy's are just too predictably smug now for my liking. Time for the slippers and pipe methinks.

For funny boy telly Gimme 'Brainiac: Science Abuse' any freakin' day! Yeah, Vic Reeves Blowing Stuff Up plus Benny Hill Nurses - it's a young lad's wet dream.

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 03:26 AM

It may be a dump but that's not Stig.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 04:23 AM

The weird thing is, I actually preferred Brainiac when Hammond presented it. I've been a fan of Vic Reeves since his early appearances on Saturday Night Live, but somehow Brainiac didn't quite work for me - maybe because it wasn't his from the outset and his influence didn't go as far as it should. Enjoyable certainly, the Benny Hill elements notwithstanding, though since we moved to Lancashire back in '07 I've lost touch with Sky rather. We get Sky 3 but we rarely look at it - and for Life on Mars USA we rely on Rapunzel's folks with their super duper home cinema Sky Plus HD.

What would be the ideal vehicle for Vic Reeves' singular genius these days? We got glimpses of it in the recent Shooting Stars, but are the glory days of Big Night Out, The Smell of..., and (my favourite of all) Bang, Bang well and truly behind us? Though Monkey Trousers dumbed it down & diluted it, it had its moments too; and I really don't think the world was quite ready for Catterick which is up there with Oh Whistle as some of the best British TV ever. We saw Vic Reeves performing as part of the Durham Literature Festival a few years back, supposedly reading from his autobiography Me : Moir but halfway through he gave up on the idea and treated us to some new fiction* he was working on at the time, much of which featured his character Inspector Fowler, aka the American Eagle, from Catterick (who'd appeared in Bang, Bang as club entertainer Kinky John Fowler). To do the voice he needed some paper hankies to stuff in his mouth, and we were delighted when he accepted our offer, though we didn't retrieve them when he spat them out afterwards - fandom only goes so far after all! Though we did wait in line to get our books signed by his remarkably taciturn private alter-ego, including my cherish copy of Sun Boiled Onions at which he looked surprised. You like this? said he; My only complaint is that there's not enough of it, said I, at which he smiled. Reeves as an artist I regard as a master, and the appearance of The Vast Book is an utter joy for me. His approach is that of the shamanic curator of The Nature Table; his genius is in his juxtaposition of the common place in the creation the surrealistic sublime that inspires both awe and hilarity, though I myself wouldn't draw any sort of line between the two.

Top Gear is, for me, an hour on another planet. I've even taken a shine to James May, whose recent series celebrating vintage toys I found similarly inspiring. I have no interest in cars nor of vacuous celebrity, but I love the extended features and travelogues which I have found to be the most absorbing, and entertaining, TV for too long a while. That said, I'm not complaining about TV standards these days - in fact on certain respects I think we're in something of a Golden Age thanks to BBC3. I love The Mighty Boosh, and I think Ideal is the greatest sitcom ever - more Manchester! But any sitcom that kicks off with the characters miming to The Fall's Popcorn Double Feature, or features Mark E. Smith as God is bound to get preferential treatment in Chez Sedayne!

Maybe this should be on the re-Imagined Village thread?   

* These featured in his recent series on Radio 2 House Arrest, essentially a low-key solo vehicle it featured some memorable contributions from Bob Mortimer and Noel Fielding.

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 06:03 AM

Yes, maybe the mods might link it up?

I didn't like Brainiac at first, but it's grown on me loads.

I don't have a good memory for telly programmes, but there are some folks that you wonder 'where did they go', I used to like the Adam & Jo show specially for the action figure stuff.

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 10:52 AM

Come on you Mods, give us a festive break, eh? Besides which it's getting well tedious above the line right now (RIV notwithstanding of course, as ever...) and it could with lightening up - and besides, every time I look at my Stig Goes Folk pic I fall about laughing.

Spread the cheer!!!!

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: Stu
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 11:30 AM

Tiswas for me. Still the best, with surreal humour born from the second city where I grew up. I was pleased and honoured to get my Spit the Dog puppet from Mr Carolgees himself in his candle shop near Frodsham earlier this year.

I'm bored of sketch shows and as for modern sitcoms, it's either Curb or the long wait until Arrested Development reappears . . .

I agree that Top Gear is an hour on another planet, but thank Lug I'm not on it.

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 04:07 PM

Curb is proving hard to beat I must admit. Trouble is, after a few episodes it starts bringing out my own enthusiams I ordinary try my utmost to curb as the spirit of LD takes over.

Anyway, there's a baby mammoth under scrutiny on C4, so...

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 04:30 PM

Yes, what is it about Top Gear that is so appealing (at least to me)?
I also find it very funny. And I know I shouldn't!! It is silly, puerile and hilarious. I'm a deeply committed environmentalist and I should find Top Gear to be completely 'beyond the pale'. But every Sunday night I settle down on the sofa, with a couple of tinnies, and sometimes I fall off the sofa through laughing so hard.

I suspect that it's partly because so many British environmentalists (like so many British leftists before them) are such insufferably pious prigs - added to the fact that I suspect that many of them don't actually know a lot about the environment but have clambered aboard the bandwagon so that they can broadcast their superiority to others. Top Gear just drives a 4 x 4 through the lot of them and scatters the pompous gits like ninepins.

In the end though I find it's irreverence quite bracing, it is genuinely funny and it appeals to my 'inner child' (I have heard that lots of children like it - and I can see why).

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: Gurney
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 11:17 PM

I just like Top Gear because it absolutely isn't Politically Correct.

I get very tired of P.C., and the promoters of it.

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: Will Fly
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 04:34 AM

For fans of "Top Gear" and Staffordshire oatcakes (see thread on "Oatcakes and pikelets. Yum!"), I've just purchased a T-shirt which reads:

Some say...he can eat a dozen oatcakes at once

others say he prefers bacon & cheese

but we only know
him as
THE PIG

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 04:03 AM

Last night I discovered the delights of cheese & olive bagels from the Energy Kitchen food stall in Selfridges in The Trafford Centre. Suffering for it now though. Also had my first experience of beef jerky c/o an obliging assistant who gave me a piece by way of taster; quite a sensation! Best of all are the Finest Coconut Macaroons in the World which are to be had (hot) from the Xmas market by the town hall in Manchester, an indulgence in which has now become an Official Advent Tradition of Rapunzel, Ross & myself seeing we did it last year too - and next year, God willing.

Musically: drooled over a 5-string fiddle in Johnny Roadhouse; tried an electric one in Forsyths but it was pretty poor given the price.

Top Gear: any amount of Stig merchandise on offer, though not at Johnny Roadhouse or Forsyths...

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: Stu
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 11:18 AM

We'll be sampling the delights of the Bavarian Market next Saturday (I got a brilliant flat cap from there last year but left it in the only cab I've taken for sneck know's how long - gutted) and after a beer or two heading to the best Chinese Buffet ever (and it's not in Chinatown). I can provide a recommendation if you're interested. And then . . . perhaps the Jolly Angler for the Irish session or home depending on the time.

Did the Trafford Centre on Friday, and apart from the Apple store and Selfridges food hall it's more like one of Dante's Circles of Hell, even if Yang Sing's Express is excellent and the model shop sells real olde style Action Men.

As for jerky, there's a place in Wales makes it that's very good and if you ever find yourself on the Isle of Wight there's a shop in West Cowes that sells the real thing: Ostrich, Springbok and Kudu biltong. It ain't cheap but it is bloody good.

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 11:42 AM

the best Chinese Buffet ever (and it's not in Chinatown).

I'm proud that Rapunzel & I have somehow found the willpower to pass on Chinese Buffets; to quote Malcolm in the Middle, we used to take all you eat as a personal challenge. Best in our experience was Buffet @ Preston (in - er - Preston) from which you didn't get the MSG Hangover, though one of my chief delights is quenching an MSG thirst with ice-cold Stella. The last buffet we frequented with any sort of regularity was Uncle Joes's in Lancaster which is half Chinese and half western with delicious battered fish, pizza, lamb roast, Yorkshire puddings and trifles etc. etc. Amazing food, better the dried up crap they served up in Big Luke's in the Metro Centre. That said, we're quite fond of Harvester's these days, with the free all-you-can-eat salad bar extension to the main menu. For the duration of the season though we're more than content with the Xmas Dinner Leftovers Subway, a 6" of which can do me for most of the day.

Old style Action Men, eh? As a kid we used to fill them with tomato sauce, seal up the joints to prevent leakage then shoot them to bits with 2.2 air rifles. Ah, the innocent days of childhood!

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 01:16 PM

Make that Mr Jones's Buffet in Lancaster. And maybe I'll have that MCR buffet recommendation after all, Sugarfoot Jack - it is Xmas after all!

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: Stu
Date: 07 Dec 09 - 04:29 AM

Here's the place: Tai Wu Cantonese Restaurant

Click on the buffet link and marvel; it's worth going for the Crispy Aromatic Duck alone which appears in a magic tray which never runs out (or a new comes along in a second).

It's not far from The Palace and two minutes from The Bridgewater Hall. There's the usual restaurant at ground level but go through the double doors to the right and down the stairs and you're in.

Subject: RE: Stig Goes Folk
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 07 Dec 09 - 10:21 AM

Cheers, SJ - might well look into that next time we're passing...