The Explorers Club
№ CCLXII - The bucentaurs, the state galleys of the Doges of Venice.







We here at the Explorers Club prefer not to use the same images as are found on the Wikipedia, but the model of the last bucentaur's figurehead really has to be seen & we could find no rival to the above photograph, courtesy of the Wikipedia.

Coming in five days, a very special "Operation AXIOM" commemoration of "The Explorers Club."

The Queue
The Craft of Intelligence is a good, thorough introduction to the world of espionage, a book best read before such in-depth examinations as Defend the Realm: The Authorized History of M.I.5* & The Secret History of M.I.6: 1909-1949. Still, interesting to read the thoughts of a longtime head honcho of the C.I.A.

Recently
Kim Newman, Dracula Cha Cha Cha
John Marks, Fangland
Allen Dulles, The Craft of Intelligence

Currently
John le Carré, Call for the Dead

Presently
David Ignatius, Body of Lies
Len Deighton, City of Gold
Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars

The Rebel Black Dot Songs of the Day
Dance Hall Crashers, "Triple Track" from Short Music for Short People (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: Selected in honor of the Feast Day of Saint Cecilia, patroness of musicians. As I was selecting today's R.B.D.S.O.T.D., I was struck by how many songs on the compilation Short Music for Short People are about the act of musical composition. The runner-up was "The Miracle of Music" by Bog & Doug McKenzie, from their comedy album Great White North.

"Got in a fight with Fat Mike when he called and told me
To write a thirty-second song for his little C.D.
Tried to explain that I needed more to go on,
What motivation? Where is he coming from?

So I distract with a triple track of 'Ahhh-ahhh-ahhh-ahhh,'
Get to the end with my good old friend, the 'Ahhh-ahhh-ahhh-ahhh.'"

This album version of "Triple Track" clocks in at a hefty thirty-three seconds. The even faster live version from D.H.C.'s The Live Record, in twenty-nine.

Monday, 21 November
Lily Allen, "LDN" from Alright, Still (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary:

"When you look with your eyes
Everything seems nice,
But if you look twice
You can see it's all lies."

*Note my inconsistency, using the American title Defend the Realm instead of the original British The Defence of the Realm, while in the same breath using the original British title Dracula Cha Cha Cha instead of the American Judgment of Tears. I should be a happy boy indeed if inconsistency was the gravest of my sins.