#Simon Banker

[singeratlarge]

MONDAY MATINEE MUSIC VIDEO—“Sad Simon Lives Again” 55th Anniversary Version:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2N9fZs0Nbo  ...This was the first single by Tim Andrews a.k.a. Chris Andrews after he cut loose from Fleur de Lys in 1967. He was signed by renowned producer, promoter, and music executive Tony Hall, who’d plugged The Beatles, Carmen McRae, and later inked Black Sabbath’s first record deal. “Sad Simon” was tailored for Tim’s voice by songwriter Mike Noble (who went on to work with Joan Armatrading, John Kongos, and Ralph McTell). It’s a bittersweet song about waiting for love, but Simon is going to rebound. The single didn’t chart when Parlophone issued it in December 1967, but it was a solid debut and it eventually found an audience with fans of the “baroque/chamber pop” subgenre —when classical music forms and instrumentation are integrated with psychedelic rock, championed by The Beach Boys, Beatles, Bee Gees, Left Banke, Moody Blues, Procol Harum, etc.—though the jazzy bridge comes out of the Zombies playbook.

If this is your introduction to Chris Andrews, he’s a British singer-songwriter and recording artist whose songs have been covered by Roger Daltrey, David Essex, and Davy Jones (Monkees). Under the name Tim Andrews he was a champion of late 60s psychedelic pop and (later), as Kris Ryder, he released New Wave synthpop sides in the 80s, and he’s still cranking out new music to the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2N9fZs0Nbo

#simonbaker #timandrews #chrisandrews #fleurdelys #sadsimon #tonyhall #beatles #carmenmcrae #blacksabbath #mikenoble #parlophone #baroquepop #psychedelic #Britpop #beachboys #beegees #leftbanke #moodyblues #procolharum #benedictcumberbatch #songwriter

[honeypipin]

Everyone's Favourite Banker!

You get to grips with 141 and others this time! (no, not in that way)

Mafia!Price who invites you to one of his company galas! He even payed for your outfit, and he knew what size you were! how?

When you finally show up to the gala in your newly bought attire, Mafia!Price comes over to greet you with the biggest smile on his face. He is just so smug that you are wearing the outfit he chose for you, and you look damn good in it.

Mafia!Price who introduces you to his associates with a respectful, firm grip on your waist, and well, you've had him as a client for ages, this is just him being friendly, right?

And boy do his associates love you.

Mafia!Laswell and her wife are so sweet to you, they even let you know there's a table with appetizers and more drinks at the end of the hall, well, now you know exactly where you're planning to go.

Mafia!Soap who laughs with you over the champagne and is so convincing when he asks you to become the mafia!141's personal financial advisor, I mean look at that smile, so charming! You can't help but swoon over handsome scotsman (and he could say the same about you).

Mafia!Gaz catches you at the appetizer table, where you both chat about jobs only to learn that He, Price, Soap and Ghost all work as a corporation? He's also very happy to find out that you have been advising Price and Ghost, he was just in need of a new financial advisor, especially since the old one had...disappeared. And this new one was pretty cute too...

Mafia!Nikolai who comes over to talk to gaz but quickly shifts his focus when he sees you, introducing himself and sounding out the name you told him, apparently, he liked it. Would be a nice name to sound out in bed too, but he wasn't just going to tell you that here, you deserved somewhere better, and somewhere not as public. Maybe the private booth of a restaurant?

Mafia!Ghost who you find a while later in a private room that you just happened to wander into, well you did need a place to fix your shoes and clothes, and the bathroom was no where to be found, this wasn't what you planned, you swear! The other men that Ghost are talking to seem quite happy with your surprise visit, Mafia!Rudy asks you to join the conversation, much to Mafia!Alejandro's delight and Ghost's annoyance. The two men are also quite interested in your position, and have started asking for your contact details, wow! Price was right, this party was worth it, such great networking. The two men are happy to receive your details, but a certain mancunian can't help but glare. Fucking brilliant, more competition for you.

You return to the ballroom where Price is happy to see you back at his table, and hooray, the main courses are just coming out! Lucky you, you were getting hungry.

After a night of eating, talking, dancing and the feeling of being stared at, Price kindly offers to drive you home, and to be fair, you may have had a bit too much champagne for the food you were eating. But your car! It's ok, Price lets you know he'll drop you off tomorrow to get it too, what a gentleman. He carries you to your house the second you stumble out of his car, elliciting some drunken giggles from you, which he just loves the sound of.

He watches you let yourself into your house and wave him a toothy-grinned good bye, now he does chuckle at it, but he also wishes that you invited him in. He saw the way you looked at him tonight, but you were just too good of a financialist, savy and professional, you wouldn't just let yourself drunkenly confess to him. He did respect you for it though.

Once he drives away, you charge for your bedroom, throwing your dress on your chair, dirty clothes in the wash, pyjamas on and collapse into bed. God, what a long day, you already knew you were going to sleep in tomorrow morning.

[flipperbrain-awakes]

MARGIN CALL ~ 2011

[cinematic-literature]

Sherlock S01E02 (The Blind Banker)

Book title

Snow Blind (2006) by P. J. Tracy

Fermat's Last Theorem (1998) by Simon Singh

London A-Z (1984)

The Lost Symbol (2009) by Dan Brown

Blood’s a Rover (2009) by James Ellroy

Coutts & Co 1692-1992: The Portrait of a Private Bank (1992) by Edna Healey

The Secrets of Codes: Understanding the World of Hidden Messages (2009) by Paul Lunde

Porcelain Through the Ages (1963) by George Savage

Kickboxing Geishas: How Modern Japanese Women Are Changing Their Nation (2007) by Veronica Chambers

A book about Le Corbusier

When Markets Collide (2008) by Mohamed El-Erian

Miller’s Antiques (1996) by Judith Miller

[ultraericthered]

This time, Takashi turns it around on Simone! Good lord, these two are such shady, slithery, backstabbing little bastards!

[cod-dump]

They’re playing Monopoly, Soap has both Boardwalk and Park Place, both with hotels. Ghost already has only a hundred dollars to his name and lands on Boardwalk. Price is the banker and is about to tell him he’s out of the game when Ghost turns to Soap.

“I’ll suck your dick if you don’t charge me.”

“SIMON!”

Price and Gaz are mortified while Soap THINKS ABOUT IT.

“Hmm… Well-“

And that’s the last time they played Monopoly.

[thebrickinbrick]

Disorder a Partisan of Order

Bossuet muttered in Combeferre’s ear:

“He did not answer my question.”

“He is a man who does good by gun-shots,” said Combeferre.

Those who have preserved some memory of this already distant epoch know that the National Guard from the suburbs was valiant against insurrections. It was particularly zealous and intrepid in the days of June, 1832. A certain good dram-shop keeper of Pantin des Vertus or la Cunette, whose “establishment” had been closed by the riots, became leonine at the sight of his deserted dance-hall, and got himself killed to preserve the order represented by a tea-garden. In that bourgeois and heroic time, in the presence of ideas which had their knights, interests had their paladins. The prosiness of the originators detracted nothing from the bravery of the movement. The diminution of a pile of crowns made bankers sing the Marseillaise. They shed their blood lyrically for the counting-house; and they defended the shop, that immense diminutive of the fatherland, with Lacedæmonian enthusiasm.

At bottom, we will observe, there was nothing in all this that was not extremely serious. It was social elements entering into strife, while awaiting the day when they should enter into equilibrium.

Another sign of the times was the anarchy mingled with governmentalism [the barbarous name of the correct party]. People were for order in combination with lack of discipline.

The drum suddenly beat capricious calls, at the command of such or such a Colonel of the National Guard; such and such a captain went into action through inspiration; such and such National Guardsmen fought, “for an idea,” and on their own account. At critical moments, on “days” they took counsel less of their leaders than of their instincts. There existed in the army of order, veritable guerilleros, some of the sword, like Fannicot, others of the pen, like Henri Fonfrède.

Civilization, unfortunately, represented at this epoch rather by an aggregation of interests than by a group of principles, was or thought itself, in peril; it set up the cry of alarm; each, constituting himself a centre, defended it, succored it, and protected it with his own head; and the first comer took it upon himself to save society.

Zeal sometimes proceeded to extermination. A platoon of the National Guard would constitute itself on its own authority a private council of war, and judge and execute a captured insurgent in five minutes. It was an improvisation of this sort that had slain Jean Prouvaire. Fierce Lynch law, with which no one party had any right to reproach the rest, for it has been applied by the Republic in America, as well as by the monarchy in Europe. This Lynch law was complicated with mistakes. On one day of rioting, a young poet, named Paul Aimé Garnier, was pursued in the Place Royale, with a bayonet at his loins, and only escaped by taking refuge under the porte-cochère of No. 6. They shouted:—“There’s another of those Saint-Simonians!” and they wanted to kill him. Now, he had under his arm a volume of the memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon. A National Guard had read the words Saint-Simon on the book, and had shouted: “Death!”

On the 6th of June, 1832, a company of the National Guards from the suburbs, commanded by the Captain Fannicot, above mentioned, had itself decimated in the Rue de la Chanvrerie out of caprice and its own good pleasure.

This fact, singular though it may seem, was proved at the judicial investigation opened in consequence of the insurrection of 1832. Captain Fannicot, a bold and impatient bourgeois, a sort of condottiere of the order of those whom we have just characterized, a fanatical and intractable governmentalist, could not resist the temptation to fire prematurely, and the ambition of capturing the barricade alone and unaided, that is to say, with his company. Exasperated by the successive apparition of the red flag and the old coat which he took for the black flag, he loudly blamed the generals and chiefs of the corps, who were holding council and did not think that the moment for the decisive assault had arrived, and who were allowing “the insurrection to fry in its own fat,” to use the celebrated expression of one of them. For his part, he thought the barricade ripe, and as that which is ripe ought to fall, he made the attempt.

He commanded men as resolute as himself, “raging fellows,” as a witness said. His company, the same which had shot Jean Prouvaire the poet, was the first of the battalion posted at the angle of the street. At the moment when they were least expecting it, the captain launched his men against the barricade. This movement, executed with more good will than strategy, cost the Fannicot company dear. Before it had traversed two thirds of the street it was received by a general discharge from the barricade.

Four, the most audacious, who were running on in front, were mown down point-blank at the very foot of the redoubt, and this courageous throng of National Guards, very brave men but lacking in military tenacity, were forced to fall back, after some hesitation, leaving fifteen corpses on the pavement.

This momentary hesitation gave the insurgents time to re-load their weapons, and a second and very destructive discharge struck the company before it could regain the corner of the street, its shelter. A moment more, and it was caught between two fires, and it received the volley from the battery piece which, not having received the order, had not discontinued its firing.

The intrepid and imprudent Fannicot was one of the dead from this grape-shot. He was killed by the cannon, that is to say, by order.

This attack, which was more furious than serious, irritated Enjolras.—“The fools!” said he. “They are getting their own men killed and they are using up our ammunition for nothing.”

Enjolras spoke like the real general of insurrection which he was. Insurrection and repression do not fight with equal weapons. Insurrection, which is speedily exhausted, has only a certain number of shots to fire and a certain number of combatants to expend. An empty cartridge-box, a man killed, cannot be replaced. As repression has the army, it does not count its men, and, as it has Vincennes, it does not count its shots. Repression has as many regiments as the barricade has men, and as many arsenals as the barricade has cartridge-boxes. Thus they are struggles of one against a hundred, which always end in crushing the barricade; unless the revolution, uprising suddenly, flings into the balance its flaming archangel’s sword. This does happen sometimes. Then everything rises, the pavements begin to seethe, popular redoubts abound. Paris quivers supremely, the quid divinum is given forth, a 10th of August is in the air, a 29th of July is in the air, a wonderful light appears, the yawning maw of force draws back, and the army, that lion, sees before it, erect and tranquil, that prophet, France.

[controversialhottakes]

That last episode left me with so many questions.

How does Wille feel about Erik now? Him throwing that snow globe away broke my heart. He didn't even hesitate or flinch, so clearly he doesn't feel bad about getting rid of something that his dead brother had given him and which meant so much to him for so long.

Why aren't Sara and August together? They seem to be very compatible and they deserve to be happy, so why can't she just give him a second chance? They're clearly still in love with each other, so why can't they at least try?

What happens after the break when Simon and Wille go to different schools?

What is Wille's plan if he wants to officially renounce his right to the throne? What is he going to do with his life? A (former) crown prince can hardly get a part-time job at a cafe. Is he going to be living off lånekassen (or whatever the Swedish equivalent is called) until he gets a degree and can find a more suitable job as a lawyer/banker/something in that vein? The boy doesn't know shit about budgeting which is the only way you can survive with no additional income other than the grant/loan. Is he going to write books about how bad the royal family is? That's the literal opposite of "private," he'd literally depend on media and public interest to survive. What is the plan??? Love's all well and good but it won't keep you fed, clothed, or put a roof over your head.

Am I really supposed to believe that Wille forgave August after threatening to shoot him not so long ago and being petty af just one episode earlier? Because he saw him cry and felt bad for him? Are you for real? I'm glad they talked it out but where did it come from???

What are they going to do about the class divide? Wille won't go from upper (literal royalty, it doesn't get any higher than that) to working class overnight (or ever, if you ask me, this isn't just about finances, etc.) and Simon is clearly very passionate about his current social position, I can't imagine him wanting to move anywhere beyond (lower?) middle class, so what's going to happen? Wille doesn't care but Simon does, so what is he supposed to do? Give up on his beliefs?

Is Felice going to just dump her friends and only hang out with Wilhelm, Simon, and Sara now?

There's probably more but I'm tired. We needed at least one more season. At the end of season 3, I ended up with more questions than I had when it started.

[fleet-admiral-hiba]

Istg, seeing you actually write these requests just makes my day

The harbingers randomly hear some sort of muffled cry turn into full on sobbing

turns out, we where having a really bad dream

though the whole palace becomes havoc seeing as no one could find out what was going on until 30 minutes later when we had calmed down

poor reader

-Simon

HUSH LITTLE BABY, DON'T SAY A WORD

In the stillness of the night, a quiet, muffled cry arose.

Steadily increasing, getting more distressed by the minute.

Sobbing, uncontrollable sobbing. A sound they heard once in their life. And that they never ever wanted to hear again.

Everyone stood up, rushing to see what could have been happening. While some checked the palace, some rushed to you.

Nowhere to be found.

Panic. Pure and all encompassing panic.

Where did you go? Did something happen?

Rushing around trying to find you, the continued to heart that heart-wrenching sobbing.

Almost an hour passed, and it all quieted down. Someone had found you.

A sigh of relief, seeing you in Pantalone's arm, being lulled back to sleep, unharmed was freeing, it felt good.

They waited until you were back on your bed, with his coat as a safekeep. Peace again.

Your peaceful face undisturbed once more.

.

.

.

"What happened?" asked Sandrone, thinking about the multitude of ways she could have killed any intruders, had there been some.

"Bad dream, and it was distressing to hear. Something about seeing us dead, missing, leaving our love alone in the cold weather of Snezhnaya... And it got worse" said the banker. He heard the rest but he was too shocked to go on.

"The rest was? I wonder what could have been worse than that" mused Arlecchino. You had dreamt of them dying. What other horrors had you seen?

"Tortured slowly by the traveler in front of them" finished Dottore, having heard this part from you when he checked for any type of injury.

Frozen gazes watched the room behind them. No, it would never happen. Not if they had a say in it.

"Let's establish rounds around this room. I don't want to see our baby fox so distressed in any other lifetime" ordered Pierro.

They agreed.

.

.

.

The next morning, to make up for your troubled night, they organised a day dedicated to you. Spoiled by the fearsome powerhouse of Snezhnaya, they wanted to cancel that horrible image from your head.

You will never suffer like this.

Never.

But in the meantime , they would soothe those nightmares with love and affection.

It was the least they could do

[mudgazing]

TF141 HOME DECOR HC'S

Ghost: 

(I like to think that Soap and Ghost are roomies, so they compromise on a lot of their flats’ decor) 

His bedroom though? Dark colors for the win

Charcoal gray sheets and comforter

Considered painting the walls gray but decided 

Wanted skeleton sheets as a joke (not), but couldn’t find one to fit his bed so he settled with a decorative throw 

100% has a window that he only opens to peek at whatever bullshit’s going on in the street

Both of them have a display cabinet they share

 Simon’s side is full of his fave knives and “chest candy” (medals) neatly lined up 

Soap: 

Johnny’s side of the display cabinet has old campaign polaroids and some silly little souvenirs 

Light blue walls and tartan sheets for sure 

Messy organized, but it works 

Definitely has a clothes chair and to-do lists tacked onto a corkboard 

Simon can’t wrap his head around his method of organization. Stopped asking questions a loooong time ago

Stacks of used and unused sketchbooks on the nightstand  

Has a minifridge so he can get a ‘nip in the night’

Ghost jokes about swaddling him like a baby and giving him liquor to nurse on (no pun intended) 

Has a photo of Graves he throws darts at as stress relief. He’s good, but not as good as Ghost so there are a couple tiny dents on the walls 

Gaz: 

The award for coziest bachelor pad goes to … 

Flat smells GOOD. Like that gentle, fresh laundry smell

Type of guy who has a spreadsheet tracking all of the furniture he wants to buy off FB marketplace (Price put him on) 

Sad that he can never own plants since he’s away often 

Has a few things mostly for ‘easy maintenance’ (out of sight, out of mind) 

Makes sure these few things look and feel high quality. Won’t settle for less 

Blue sheets with tiny mid blue stripes 

Ghost and Soap don’t understand why he owns art but agree it looks neat 

Definitely has a balcony with a small chair specifically for smoking and thinking 

Only things he has on his nightstand are a lamp, metal cigarette holder and matching ashtray Price gifted him

Price: 

This man has a house … and that house is his baby 

Especially the front yard. Do NOT fuck with his front yard 

Subconsciously anti-lawn and has a beautiful low maintenance garden

Has beef with his neighbors (cause of said garden). Shoots the shit about them with Gaz on his front porch 

 Shed for all his handy shit. If Gaz picks up some furniture for his crib he will turn it into ‘father-son bonding time’

The interior? Rustic and neutral, with modern touches ... nice n' warm

Mid century modern enthusiast. Fell down that rabbit hole once he joined Pinterest and never came back out. This man has probably had Pinterest since it's inception -- his username is probably his first and last name XD

Burgundy comforter vibes. One of those soft, smooth quilted ones. 

His office’s desk is his prized possession. It's one of the fancy wooden ones with the mini built-in drawers on top. Keeps his best cigars along with stationary there 

Photos of his boys (sons) of course

 Definitely has a bankers’ lamp 

[movies-to-add-to-your-tbw]

Title: 007

Rating: PG-13

Director: Martin Campbell

Cast: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, Giancarlo Giannini, Caterina Murino, Simon Abkarian, Isaach De Bankolé, Jesper Christensen, Ivana Miličević, Tobias Menzies, Claudio Santamaria, Sébastien Foucan, Malcolm Sinclair

Release year: 2006

Genres: thriller, action, adventure

Blurb: Banker to the world's terrorists, Le Chiffre is scheduled to participate in a high-stakes poker game in Montenegro, where he intends to use his winnings to establish his financial grip on the terrorist market. M sends Bond - on his maiden mission as a 00 agent - to attend the game and prevent Le Chiffre from winning. With the help of Vesper Lynd and Felix Leiter, Bond enters the most important poker game in his already-dangerous career.

[cordeliawhohung]

Chapter 8 anon from last night. I just finished the series and I don't know how to describe how bittersweet I feel after having read the series, I'm tearing up!! I love dramatic events for the sake of drama but I don't think I realized til now how this series was really about healing from everything together and in such a thoughtful way and the two of them finding ways to be together in a healthy way. The way it started with something as little as a handkerchief and morphed over time to these two falling in love was perfect. And Johnny seeing past all Simon's walls?? I was so happy he took the guy under his wings and wormed his way in there so that Simon and Spook had someone other than each other in the end. And the mayhem I know baby Ghost is gonna cause because of Johnny in their life is so ridiculous. I just imagine a happy found family in the end with the social worker, maybe the bankers, and the 141 and I hope they die the oldest and happiest people. Idk why this impacted me so much but I loved it! And my own little Boo is helping me cope.

i will not lie and i am also not being dramatic when i say Soft Spot was just one really long, poorly disguised trauma fic lmfao. but you hit it right on the head. throughout the angst and the turmoil, everything both of them had to suffer through, it all turns out okay in the end. they get to heal from their trauma and live their lives unbound from the things that had been haunting them for too long.

i'm so glad you enjoyed it and that the message impacted you as much as it did! there's lots of foreshadowing/hidden things that i put in there (which reminds me, i need to continue with my dissection so i can explain it lmao) and it makes me so giddy when people pick up on it. hope you and your little boo have a very good day <3

[redjaybathood]

привіт!!

were you the one that mentioned the solar machine? i know i saw it mentioned on my dash a few days ago and meant to ask this but completely forgot until now. i wanted to ask if you could share what the book is about because it seemed really interesting based on the title! i was trying to find some info on it on my own but had trouble since my ukrainian is still pretty basic and there wasn't much available in english. eventually i would like to try reading it along with more ukrainian literature :)

i hope you have a good day, and слава україні!

Haha I sincerely don't recommend starting with it when you start with Ukrainian literature. Stylistically it's a very heavy-worded book, Vynnychecnko himself wrote that he kinda shoulda worked on editing it for a few years before publishing. But, him being in exile, and I guess there are not a lot of job opportunities for a former head of the Ukrainian government.

I would describe it as a book that would be perfect for an anime adaptation. It also has a Chinese web novel about the revenge of a rich girl turned destitute vibe (not entirely, because there's a whole lot more to it, and Elisa doesn't really take that much screen time! but if I were to adapt it, she would be in the core cast)

Plot in short: Germany lost the WWI, now aristocracy is irrelevant and capitalists - bankers, factory owners etc - are taking over becoming essentially the new aristocracy. Which, people still being people and power being attractive, that doesn't make Germany any better off.

An old aristocrat loses everything on the stock market. Out of honor, he just kills himself and his elder son, masking it as a tragic accident, because god forbid someone finds out he treated the stock market as a casino, and now the only thing that is staying before the public finds out that he's broke, all his property taken away etc etc - is an arranged marriage of the head banker with his daughter. So yeah, at least he didn't sell off his kid and just went away and died.

So now princess Elisa has to take revenge.

That's the Chinese web novel vibe. It also comes through the romance subplot, the love interest of the "perceived as useless and ugly by the people in power but actually really handsome and capable. And also of how the novel consent between MC and ML. The dubcon vibes (as the inciting incident of them getting together).

And the anime vibe starts with the, you know, actual Solar Machine subplot. The sci-fi part of it - except for the social fantasy - doesn't really start up until, I think it was halfway through the text? I didn't care about it as much as the whole Inarak subplot. I don't think he really thought it through enough. Thus the debate, is it utopia or anti-utopia? I would argue the former, or rather, it progresses from anti-utopia to utopia.

(also, you need to be aware that it is written in the early XX century; for example, he rightfully calls out racism via the duke's description of people and MC's reaction to it, all the while not breaking the character of the MC, bc she's coming from the same background. At the same time, in narration, he's constantly giving men "women traits": ass, lips etc. And I'm a shipper of Simon Petlura/Volodymyr Vynnychenko, so I would love to believe it's something other than a bit of period-typical background misogyny; like, he writes women so differently and with much empathy, but he still cannot escape the notion that a man having a woman's trait in his appearance is a symbol of weakness.

At the very same time, he gets it: God is with those who have money. There is no God, and all the misfortune of a woman is that she has no money... )

(in response to the older duke's daughter telling her younger sibling about what amounts to her husband stopping short of pimping her out and then forcing her to have sex with him, with financial abuse on top)

All in all, Vynnychenko is great with characters. You can like or dislike them - and he doesn't make an effort to make you one way or another, except maybe with the main antagonist and people who serve him. But they are engaging and, yes, would be great to see on screen, imo.

And I would expect tumblr leftists to love Solar Machine, actually, for its critique of capitalism, for Inarak (they so would stan Max! and possibly Trudy but for other reasons) - and for the end message. I've seen exactly the same message spread around on tumblr so I would have said I'm shocked he's not popular among them, but then again, he's a Ukrainian.

[freakingoutthesquares]

If you look closely they have mistaken Steve for Russell in the photo caption.

NME January 1997

Senior Service Over With Pulp.

Pulp guitarist and violinist Russell Senior, the longest serving member of the band apart from Jarvis Cocker, has decided to leave despite pleas from his fellow band members to stay.

Senior and Pulp announced his departure in a joint statement on Monday, January 20. It said: “Russell Senior has decided to leave Pulp after more than 13 years due to his desire to pursue new projects. The split is entirely amicable and although the band is sad to see him go, they wish him all the best for the future. Pulp are currently rehearsing prior to recording their next album.”

A band spokeswoman denied that there had been any ill feeling or that Senior was unhappy with the musical direction the band was taking. She said although the rest of the band had tried to persuade him to stay, Senior was determined to go and confirmed his decision on January 20.

One friend of Senior’s said: ‘It's a complete surprise to all of us. I saw him last week and he didn't say a thing about it. He's kept his cards very close to his chest. He's not the kind of person to drop the band in it - I've got no idea what's got into him.”

The band spokeswoman said Pulp had still not made it clear whether Senior would be replaced. She would not say what the new projects he was working on were.

Pulp’s management declined to comment on the split.

Senior joined the band in 1984, the year after they had released their debut album It. He first came across the band in 1980 when he interviewed them for his fanzine, The Bath Banker. Jarvis, Russell, and Magnus Doyle - brother of Candida, who joined in 1985 - formed a new Pulp line-up and direction.

Pulp went through almost 20 members until reaching a period of relative stability around 1990. In the early line up, Simon Hinkler, who would later leave to form The Mission, and Jarvis's sister Saskia, were in the band.

All members of Pulp are credited equally as songwriters, so it is unclear how much of a contribution Senior made to their material.

[racefortheironthrone]

How did Lincoln's economic policy set the GOP on their path towards corporate domination?

To be fair, I do approve of much of Lincoln's economic policy - the first income tax, the use of greenbacks, land grant colleges, etc. - so it's more that there are a couple areas of economic policy where I think Lincoln's administration had that effect, and the extent to which I think it's fair to hold Lincoln accountable for the long-term implications varies:

Procurement: to be fair, Lincoln inherited a Federal government that really didn't have a modernized procurement system. However, between that and the pretty thorough corruption of Secretary of War Simon Cameron and others within the Federal government, a lot of businessmen got rich selling substandard goods to the Union army and navy at a markup in exchange for kickbacks - so much so that the term "shoddy" became generalized and popularized as a result. (Previously, "shoddy" had specifically referred to reprocessed wool.)

Bonds: in order to finance the Union war effort, the Lincoln administration sold an enormous amount of bonds - and Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase basically turned the Union's bond drive over to Jay Cooke, a politically-connected Philadelphia banker. To give him credit, Cooke was very good at selling bonds both to ordinary bankers and the man on the street, but Cooke's personal commission meant that he (and the men he hired as his sub-agents) became staggeringly wealthy and thus a major donor to the Chase presidential campaign in 1868. Cooke ultimately was bankrupted when his Northern Pacific Railway went bust in the Panic of 1873.

Banking: while the National Banking Act of 1863 had many good elements - nationalizing the currency, and establishing Federal charters that allowed the Federal government to regulate banks on capital and reserve requirements - it also had the effect of further concentrating currency and credit in Northeastern banks (which could more easily meet those requirements due to being better-capitalied to begin with), which was a bit of a problem when you realize that the U.S didn't have a central bank to ensure that all regions of the country had decent access to currency and credit.

Railroads: the Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862 and 1864 provided for the Federal subsidization of transcontinental railroads through the granting of Federal land. While this got the railroads built, it didn't come without a healthy side-order of corruption: understanding that they stood to make a fortune if the railroad acts went through, railroad companies gave out a lot of free stock to U.S Congressmen, who in turn made sure the Acts passed and the Federal government was generous with land grants, loans, etc. This wouldn't blow up until the Credit Mobilier scandal of 1872, but the roots go back in the 1860s.

As you might expect, a lot of the bankers and railroad executives who had gotten rich off the Civil War became major donors and activists and party leaders and elected officials of the Republican Party. This had a significant impact on the party's political and policy direction: by 1868, the Republican Party's national platform mixed calls for civil rights and equal suffrage with demands that Civil War debt be redeemed in gold rather than paper money (which contributed to post-war deflation and represented a repudiation of the Greenback Acts), and that progressive taxation be done away with.

[richwall101]

Blaise Castle House - Bristol - UK

In the later 18th century the estate was owned by a sugar merchant and investor in the slave trade, Thomas Farr, who bought it from Astry's descendants in 1762; Farr went bankrupt when ships he owned were blockaded during the American Revolutionary War, and the estate was bought in 1778 by Denham Skeate, a lawyer from Bath. Eleven years later he sold it to John Harford, a wealthy Bristol merchant and banker, who demolished the old house in 1789 and had the present two-storey Neoclassical Blaise Castle House built in 1796–1798, designed by William Paty. It is a square stone block with adjoining domestic offices which are faced with stucco. The north west entrance front has five bays with a central semicircular projecting porchwith Ionic columns. It is a grade II* listed building, though described by Simon Jenkins as "solid, simple and unexciting". John Nash added a connected conservatory or orangery around 1805 or 1806, and in 1832–1833, Charles Robert Cockerell designed the Picture Room for Harford's son, John Scandrett Harford, who had inherited the estate after his father's death in 1812. The Picture Room extends into a portico which has six Ionic columns. This now houses a display of paintings from the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery. The hall has bas-relief medallions by Bertel Thorvaldsen.

The lower picture of the house was taken by Martin Hewer (2023)