Savvy Article – Boris & Donald

Dear Boris and Donald,

Overlords. Overlords and outsiders. Oppressive order. Savvy! The stuff, Boris and Donald, of dystopian novels. Or is it?

Is the word dystopia really a synonym for the here and now, for your here and now?

For a world in which your narcissistic selves climbed over piles of others, in your desperate scrambles to get to the top – to step into the roles that you were both bred and born for. Bred to stand on precipices, born to lord it over your admirers!

And now?

Now you the main characters in a real-life Lion King fairytale!

But where is the good guy, Mufasa? And why, Boris, have you settled for the role of understudy – to Scar?

Overlords, look again! Is it admiration that you see, or are the people mocking, laughing at you – waiting for you to fall?

It’s time. Time to maintain your sense of self. Time to hold onto a semblance of dignity. Tome to accept the inevitable.

Come on down, Boris!

It’s time!

Donald’s hand is reaching out to you …

It’s okay, Boris and Donald, you can come on down together, hand in hand.

And at the bottom?

At the bottom, you can stand together, as you survey the chaos around you – the chaos that you both played giant-blown-up-balloon hands in! And, together, you can make a plan. United in purpose (as always), you can put on your work gloves, let go of each other and begin to …

…sift through the rubble.

Any survivors?

Yours savvily, Jay Cool

P.S. Give me a hand up, will you?

 

Copyright owned by Jay Cool, 25th September, 2019

Prefer fictional dystopia to reality? Me too! Bury your head in the rubble and get reading. Please peruse these reviews of some of my favourite reads:

Savvy Book – Fuse

Savvy Book – The Legacy

Savvy Book – The Declaration

Savvy Book – The Killables

Next on my reading list:

The Testaments

The Girl in Red

The Wall

The Children of Men

Prefer reality? Time to reconsider! Is the reality really that attractive?

Featured image courtesy of Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Savvy Book – Fuse

Imagine a post-apocalyptic world in which all the computer game obsessed teenage boys have survived their parents. Hours and hours … days … months and years, as the physically inactive controllers of their own alternative realities, rewarded! Rewarded with survival.

Whilst the basement-based boys live on, oblivious to the detonations of nuclear bombs, their above ground and physically-active parents and peers, are blown into the air. Aerated sole advertising claims come into their own, as the Nike symbol – a tick or the swoosh of an enormous wing – takes on new significance. Running shoes become truly airborne! The majority of victims are, of course, blasted apart, but others become fused with nearby objects or animals.

One young man is forced to struggle on, accompanied by the flutter of wings, as the birds fused to his back become restless.

This is the world depicted in Julianna Baggott’s novel, ‘Fuse’.

And what happens to the winged youth? That, I have yet to find out. Which is why, having just devoured all of the ‘ash’ from the fallout in ‘Fuse’, I’ve now started on the final book in the trilogy –   ‘Burn’.

I’ll be letting you know!

Copyright owned by Jay Cool, September 2019

A very enjoyable and moreish read!

5/5 star rating!

High praise indeed!

 

Savvy Book – The Legacy

Pure

 

Savvy Poem – This is Important

Stop!

Go away!

Shut up!

It’s not going to make me any faster, if you keep shouting

at me…

… if you keep telling me to get ready!

It’s not going to make me any faster, if you tell me to brush my teeth,

or find my PE kit.

I’ve still got to get ready, still got to get dressed, still can’t go any faster than I

can go

in a minute ..

when I’ve done this …

… this is important …

Stop!

Stop going on at me!

I’ve just got to finish this …

it’s just three more minutes until

the end

of this video clip ..

just three more minutes …

Stop!

This is important!

Stop!

It’s nearly finished ..

Where’s my PE top?

Now, I’m going to be late and

it’s your fault!

Where are my PE shorts?

I can’t find …

my trainers and

it’s not my fault …

If anything’s making me late, it’s

you …

I was getting dressed

so it’s not my fault ..

I had to keep stopping for you to keep telling me …

so it’s hardly my …

Where’s my deodorant?

What did you do with it?

Where’s my blazer …?

Who’s packed lunch is this?

I don’t know where my blazer is ..

What? What?

Explain to me how it’s my fault I’m late?

 

You can’t, can you?

Explain!

That’s why you’re not saying anything isn’t it?

Because you can’t explain …

Because it’s not my fault …

And it’s not all down to a Youtube clip ….

You can’t blame everything on a YouTube clip …

Come on, explain!

 

You can’t, can you?

 

Copyright owned by Jay Cool, September 2019

 

Savvy Poem – Boulder Dough

Silly Poem – To Be Eaten

Vagabond: A Savvy Poem

 

 

 

 

Savvy Comedy – Lamarsh

No mango cider? This has to be a mistake. Why am I not at my local, The Brewery Tap, glugging down one of my five a day?

What’s lured me out of my comfort zone? Who’s lured me out?

PJ, why Lamarsh? I’m rather partial to The Tap!

Ah, now I see it! Louie Green! I must be here to see the top notch comedian Louis! Almost missed him – think he’s attempting to slim himself down with vertical strips. But this all a bit too much – he blends in with the walls and carpet so well, he’s virtually in his camouflage gear!

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Still, once I’ve got my eyes into focus, I realise that Louie’s telling some hot jokes about the love of his life – Theresa May! Yes, he really did say that name in the same sentence as talking about his favourite film, Love Actually, and he even looked a little teary as he said it, so I actually think he’s genuine. He’s claiming the affinity comes from her dancing skills (reckon he’s hoping for a spot on Strictly, with Theresa as his coach!), but I suspect that he just wants to undress her – and all for the sake of sprucing her up again! I’d even go so far as to suggest that he’s the real author of this article in the Daily Mail! I mean, just take a look at the 7th image – it’s all Louie!

Louie and Theresa … Sweet!

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Anyway, moving on from Louie Green and his cruder than crude (just up my street) jokes about Theresa May, James Corden and sympathy sex (a threesome that doesn’t bear thinking about!) ….

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…, I need to check out this evening’s second comedian – none other than the international celebrity, Martin Westgate!

Martin’s here to represent Norwich, which goes some way towards explaining his appearance!

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And judging by the raucous female laughter, then I’m guessing the ladies are no strangers to the temptations of Norfolk’s hotspot. Sure enough, when I zoom in on the audience, I catch many a fond glimpse, as the ladies look towards their loved ones.

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I guess there aren’t too many menfolk in the marshes to be had for procreation purposes.

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Yes, the ladies of Lamarsh are lapping it up, or, rather, lapping Martin Westgate up. They’re weeing themselves over everything Norwich that spills from his mouth, be it ‘mustard’, ‘Alan Partridge’ or ‘inbreeding’.

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What I really don’t get, is why the BGT judges, given Simon Cowell’s penchant for all things canine-related, gave Norwich’s Martin Westgate the golden buzz-off! Simon, Cheryl, Amanda … get this man, this thing, this hybrid back up that stage! He’s about to hit the big time, with or without you, so you may as well take the credit!

And, on that final note, buzz off Martin! PJ, East Anglia’s funniest emcee is on …

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Oops, false alarm … I was seeing things again ..

“PJ, where are you? Stage fright?”

It’s not PJ at all – it’s Mad Ron!

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But what’s happened to the ladies of Lamarsh? Why have they all gone silent? Why are they shaking and reaching for their comfort chews?

Is Mad Ron why!

Even I, Jay Cool, the Coolest, most-mellowed-out blogger in the country, am trembling. And, no – not with desire – but with fear! Ron is not just mad, he’s scary in the same way that his doppelganger, Phil Mitchell, is scary! This is not someone to be sought after, dated or laughed at – this is a man to avoid!

Ladies, sit back down! You’ve paid for your seats – the bangers and mash were only a small part of the evening. Best to stay and confront your demons – confront the beast!

But whilst I’m still working out how to get hold of at least one of my five-a-day cider rations, Mad Ron’s banging on about his five-a-day crimes! I decide not to call in the cops – Mad Ron could be useful.

Ron, next time you nick a 40inch flatscreen TV from PC World, pick up a spare one! I still haven’t progressed beyond the old tanker model – and now I’ve given up the day job – there’s little hope of a replacement anytime soon! But we could do a deal Ron, in return for my PR skills!

(I surely can’t be the only one in need of a flatscreen, can I?)

Or, perhaps I can be of service to you for your forthcoming tour. You need a driver don’t you, to rescue you from your next performance in the HSBC venue? I’m here!

(Do they even have flatscreen TVs in HSBC?)

But Mad Ron doesn’t want me. Seems my 5cc Dacia Sandero isn’t the thing either – whether that be for a quick getaway or a quick resale! No recommendations from Jay Cool for you, Mad Ron!

I’m off!

Sadly, the Dacia (DD)’s not playing ball. The SAT Nav’s playing up, and just as I contemplate whether to turn left or right out of The Lamarsh Lion‘s carpark, DD coughs and splutters to a stop.

“PJ! PJ! Any chance of a lift?”

But PJ’s standing there in the car park, gazing at an empty space where, once stood his very elegant Llamborghini Aventador!

“I guess we’re both walking then? How many miles from Lamarsh to Sudbury? How are your knees holding up these days, PJ?”

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Copyright owned by Jay Cool, Wednesday, 18th September, 2019

Images of comedians Louie Green, Martin Westgate, PJ and Mad Ron by photographer Jay Cool (don’t purchase a Nokia 5!)

All other images courtesy of Pixabay.com

The Suffolk Punch Comedy Club advertises events on its Facebook page. For those in the market for a free event, be at The Brewery Tap, Sudbury, Suffolk, on the first Wednesday of every month by 8pm. Donations for prostate cancer research always welcomed!

P.S. For those who insist upon it, then here’s the real Martin Westgate – spot the difference!

 

 

 

When you have found at least five differences, read, like and comment on the following posts:

Savvy Comedy – Beyton Bear

Savvy Poem – Boulder Dough

Silly Article – Savvy Clown

Savvy Book – Giving a F**k

 

 

 

Savvy Poem – Boulder Dough

Climate change, trolls, homophobia and racism

dominate the news.

Is this refreshing, not to hear about

Brexit?

Or, does it all roll in together –

all kneaded up in a lump of dough –

until, ball-like,

it’s pushed

nudged

down,

until

it crushes

us.

 

Copyright owned by Jay Cool, 20th September 2019

Please read, like and comment on the following posts:

 

Savvy Comedy – Beyton Bear

Silly Article – Savvy Clown

Savvy Book – Giving a F**k

 

Image by Andreas Lischka from Pixabay

Savvy Comedy – Beyton Bear

Disclaimer: Please note that all content is tongue-in-cheek, and prone to hyperbole!

It’s the start of the week, or rather, the end of the start of the week – it being Monday evening, and I’m due to hang out with the usual comedy crew at The Bear in Beyton. Unfortunately, no thanks to Sprog 2, who after hanging out with his mates after school, called out his taxi service (me), I’m on the drag!

I arrive at The Bear with a sore head, and minus a few essentials. In the chaos that preceded this trip, I forgot to stock up on my ‘Silly-Savvy Salopian’ business cards, and failed to recharge my Nokia phone’s battery. No matter, what I do have is some bog roll and an ancient Samsung WB690! I’m a party pooper and a blogger, not a photographer, so what’s the problem?

My way over the threshold is almost blocked by a pop-up ‘all eccentrics are barred sign’, but, just in time, the image-recognition equipment registers my stunning Suffolk Punch Comedy t-shirt and I’m in!

The gig’s already in full swing and that ‘Back to the Future’ nutter (you know, the frizzy mad scientist), short of Hollywood bookings, is trying his luck with comedy. He’s making claims to be called Mr Cole and says he’s got a very small willy. So, thinking that he’s about to do a flasher, pencil and notepad in hand at the ready, I do a quick identi-sketch. The police will, I’m sure, be very grateful to me for the exposure!

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Tragically, without my zoom-in glasses, I don’t manage to capture the essence of his other bit! No wonder he likes to get handy with the hairdresser’s scissors, when it comes to men with big …

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Oh! The Samsung actually works. Just take a look at this snap – almost identical to my sketch! Anyone need to commission a portrait?

Poor Mr Cole’s still fumbling around down there, searching for his t****r, when our emcee, PJ, comes to the rescue!

I say to the rescue, precipitously, because PJ’s rescue mission involves regaling the ladies in the audience with great whoppers about his own t****r! Just as well that with all that expended energy, the next slots about to be filled up by the battery-powered David Mark.

Turns out, though, that David’s about as energising as my flat mobile phone and my almost-defunct Samsung. And it’s not beyond probability that he’s gone the whole hog of defunctness. I mean, just look at him – he’s the mere ghost of a man!

mark beyton

It’s no matter! The audience love him! They’re guffawing their little grey curls off the top of their heads and their …

What is this place? Have I come to the right venue? Is this The Beyton Morgue? Am I in the morgue? Is any of this real? Somebody pinch me! Just to quell my doubts and fears, Mark’s now bemoaning is lack of s**life, since he was ‘nearly run over by a Royal Mail van’. No wonder you’re currently celibate, David! Judging by the pic, then you passed on over long ago!

royal mail van

Onto Louis Green – he’s real, and alive, isn’t he?

louis green beyton napa

Not sure why he’s so angry, but at least he’s got some colour in his cheeks! Now, now, Louis – calm down! There’s no need to duff the audience in because they laughed more with Mark than at you! It’s really not your fault – they can’t laugh with you, because they can’t see you. You’re just not quite one of them yet. I can see you though. To me, you glow like the red light on the top of one of those vans … No, not the squealing sort of van parked up along the seedier end of Champs Elysee in Paris!

alarm light

And not even Mark’s sort of van …

More this kind of  van …

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SONY DSC

Can the punters see you now? Are they laughing?

Yes, Louis, yes, yes – I know that you ‘know how old’ I am and ‘where I live’!

eery

But, as soon as I’m out of here, after Trish has been on, I’m moving ship!

shut lid

 

First, though, before my removal van arrives –  here’s Trish!

Things are looking up! Seems that Trish might even be one of those rare species of poet – you know, the sort with red blood still running through their veins! I only say this because, Trish is already up there, boasting about still having her original teeth (hate you, Trish – one of mine’s a falsie!). And, as if this isn’t proof enough of existence as the living know it, Trish goes one step further, and gives us a live demo of her bowel movements – becoming hysterical over the volume of her own flatulence! Her partner in crime, Aunt Agnes, only recently deceased, insists upon Trish testing out her own ability to defecate by insisting that Trish helps her out by sticking her hand up her a***! So rude! And the stench is appalling.

The longer I’m here for, the more I feel like I’ve walked straight into my own worst nightmare. This is the Beyton Morgue and I, Jay Cool, blogger extraordinaire (with Louis on my heels) am on my way out …

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… and over.

Copyright owned by Jay Cool, September 2019

P.S. PJ has kindly provided me with some photos from the other side. From left to right, going clockwise: Mr Cole, David Marks and Trish.

Sorry Mr Cole, and David Marks, the punters thought the pair of you were hilarious, but it’s Trish who’s hit the No. 1 hotspot with this evenings ladies! The alternating bouts of constipation and trots, with a lot of flatulence in between, sums up everything us getting-on-a-bit-but-not-dead-yet felines can effortlessly purr along to!

Coming up …

To see more comedians in action for yourselves (not sure we can resuscitate this lot!), please come along to one of our Wednesday gigs at The Brewery Tap in Sudbury, Suffolk. Free entry. Donations for charity (prostate cancer research) welcomed!

Or, check out Suffolk Punch Comedy Club on Facebook and purchase a ticket to book a place on one our ‘curry’ or ‘burger’ and beer events, at venues across East Anglia.

In the interim, check out some other posts by Jay Cool:

 

Silly-Savvy Poem – Obedience

Savvy Book – Giving a F**k

Silly Article – Savvy Clown

Savvy Comedy – Three Years Sillier

 

 

Silly Article – Savvy Clown

A response to an article written by Bradley Jolly in ‘The Mirror’.

What a fantastic idea to hire a clown as company for a redundancy meeting! Why give employers the satisfaction of believing themselves to be passing on bad news?

A redundancy is, after all, an occasion to be celebrated. An opportunity. The chance for a person to be themselves at long last.

All too often, a person’s individuality, instead of being given a space in which to flourish and grow, is quashed by the mundane, by the monitoring and moulding process that begins the moment they sign on the dotted line. All of the jagged bits of us, all of the sparky bits, the bits that stick out and say, “Hey, look at me – I’m unique!”, are smoothed down and sealed in – all in the outdated concept of uniformity.

Who wants to look like this, …

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… if one can look like this?

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Okay, so, if that’s still a little too smooth and shiny to stomach, how about?

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Come on, add in the colour, frizz up, bring in the clown and …

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… leave the boss to it! Get out of there and forget …

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Because, one things for sure – the boss …

bow tie man

… will always remember!

Copyright of article belongs to Jay Cool, September 2019

All images courtesy of Pixabay.com

 

 

Silly-Savvy Poem – Obedience

A response to the post ‘More Intelligent Species Tend to be More Obedient’ by Hamed M Dehongi.

Obedience.

Rules.

Lies.

Business?

Disobey, disassociate and, from a distance –

take a stance.

Stand!

Copyright owned by Jay Cool, September 2019

Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay

Savvy Book – Giving a F**k

Silly-Savvy Poem – Fully Flipped

Still Laughing – Still Silly!

Silly-Savvy Poem – Fully Flipped

A response to First Date by Glenn Thomas.

Full of it.

Full of freedom and

full of fear.

Fear of going forward for

fear of fluffing it.

Freedom.

Fullness.

Fear.

Full.

Flip!

Copyright owned by Jay Cool, September, 2019

Image by Iva Balk from Pixabay

 

Do read, like and comment on further posts by Jay Cool:

 

Savvy Book – The Legacy

Savvy Book – Giving a F**k

Savvy Book – Giving a F**k

 

 

Just tackled Mark Manson’s book: ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck’. The key to happiness is, it seems, to be savvy enough to accept one’s own mortality!

Personally, being silly as well as savvy, I’m having none of Mark’s other side. If he wants to step on over there, and plunge into the depths of oblivion, that’s obviously up to him – but I don’t need to!

I don’t need to because, I, Jay Cool, get younger every day!

With each passing year, I become a little less worried about what other people think of me, and a lot more eccentric. To me, this is youth – the freedom just to be! And stripped of all the anxieties associated with worrying about what other nutters with similar anxieties might think, I feel a lot lighter. There is a spring in my step that was definitely missing in my teenage years, when dancing entailed robotic shuffling on the same spot – for the fear that, if I put too much effort into enjoying myself, other teenagers might ridicule me.

At the age of ‘nearly’ fifty, I have become a Goddess. I am immortal. So, no, Mark Manson – I absolutely and categorically deny death. The end has nothing to do with me!

And, no, I am not going to sit on a precipice at the Cape of Good Hope just to see what being on the edge of death might feel like, for the same reason that I no longer take the route up Snowdon that entails doing a trapeze artist act over a narrow ridge. Sheer drops to my left and to my right are not for me! So why sit on a precipice and add a sheer drop to my front into the scenario. No, no, no! 

I live. I am getting younger. I will live forever!

So take that, Mr Mark Manson!

Other than that fundamental difference in our beliefs, then there is just one point Mark Manson makes that I can relate to! Like Mark, I hate ‘being told what to do’ and ‘prefer to do things my way’.

And, if doing ‘things my way’ means living forever (I have an infinite number of books to read, review and rant about), then so be it!

Copyright owned by the immortal blogger, Jay Cool, September 2019

 

 

Savvy-Star Rating: 4/5 a highly-entertaining read

Favourite quote: ‘prefer to do things my way’

Best reading location: a book for one’s backpack, to be read wherever the feet stop

Savviest bookshop: Obviously Waterstones!

Image by Nici Keil from Pixabay

Other fascinating reads:

Savvy Book – The Legacy

Still Laughing – Still Silly!

To Be Eaten