Showing posts with label Coca Cola. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Coca Cola. Show all posts

Monday 16 December 2019

The Flavour of Drink


I find it odd how manufactures add different flavours to drinks. Whisky (or whiskey) seems always unadulterated but you can mix it with whatever your preferred dilution is. But Gin seems to have many variations like Whisky but when you start adding fruit flavours isn't that a bit odd? But then wine while usually grape based I think can have other fermentations.

Beer and Lager seem again unadulterated , but Stout sometimes has chocolate, and what is this with flavoured Ciders ? Ciders are Apple flavoured , Perry is Pear but when I see every other fruit flavouring cider I do find that odd. They seem to be the new Alcopops.

Then with the soft drink, Cola should taste of cola, not Vanilla, Ginger , Mango , Strawberry or whatever. I drink Coke because I like the taste of Coke. They don't need added flavour. But what do I know.

I mean Fanta is Orange, but now there are so many flavours that I lose count.

So we go with "Drink It Up" by Negativland  from the "Dis-Pepsi" album, you can listen to it all here because it's almost impossible to track down in any form.

Tuesday 15 October 2019

Dis Pepsi Max - #Oktoberfest #17 - Drink It Up - Negativland


Yesterday I decided I had a motherlode for #Oktoberfest in the songs of Tom Waits, which is obviously true enough, but I don't think I've touched The Pogues, The Dubliners , Thin Lizzy and many others and I saw an ad for Coca Cola and this reminded me of one of my favourite albums ever "DisPepsi" by Negativland and fantastic discontruction of advertising and the Pepsi / Coke war. It is a bit difficult to track down now but it is available at the time of posting on Youtube here. An absolutely essential listen.

It's chock full of subversive tunes that are probably more relevant today that when it came out around 1990, still often played by me and I am listening to it as I type this, "Happy Hero" is so pertinent to Trump, Johnson and Michael Jackson.

The song I've chosen is "Drink It Up" which mainly refers to Pepsi but lists lots of other promoted beverages, but the whole album is an essential listen but I have never heard it on the radio on any station.

So what else?

The blog has hit 20K visits for this month and we are just approaching half way so it would seem it's very popular (with robots). I'm even getting the odd comment (though mostly advertising links) which I may or may not remove.

I have finished "The God Delusion" and is has hardened my attitude to religion significantly but it's time for another book now. I would still accept God if that God turned up and demonstrated that was actually what he was.

Time for Tea.

Thursday 22 August 2019

Drinking Cherry Cola in Unmarked Cars


I don't know what put this into my head , possibly the fact that the BBC (and virtually all the media, see here) had reported that the outcome of the meeting between Angela Merkel and that dangerous clown Boris Johnson was that the UK had thirty days to sort out the brexit backstop when what she had said was a sarcastic comment that it might be thirty days or two years to sort out the backstop, but I cannot find any trace of that , all the media just mentions the thirty days, but really these days , generally we can't trust what's being said.

This made me think of when the BBC were so anti product placement that songs had their lyrics changed to ensure they weren't banned from the radio. One example was the Kinks "Lola" which was fine addressing gender fluidity in majorly homophobic times but Coca Cola was an absolute no no and had to be changed to Cherry Cola, the irony being that there is now Cherry flavoured Coca Cola (and lots of other atrocious flavours) , I wonder if "Lola" gave them the idea?

The when Mott The Hoople were going to call it a day David Bowie gave them "All The Young Dudes" which kicked off their singles sales bt was only approved when the line "And Wendy's stealing clothes from Marks & Sparks" became And Wendy's stealing clothes from unmarked cars"  although eventually the original words were restored.

Again the censors didn't like that but let though:

"But she never lost her head 
Even when she was giving head"

again addressing trans and sexuality in Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side"  a hit single from the Bowie produced album "Transformer".

So I'll leave you to savour "All The Young Dudes" but seriously check out the rest of the songs.

Tuesday 21 August 2018

I Don't Want


I was thinking of a maybe writing a poem that started:

"I don't want coffee
 I don't want tea
 I don't want alcohol
 I don't want soup ..."

Then I thought I couldn't really stretch it out any further.

I never understood the phrase "I need a drink" refering to alcohol. I've only ever needed a drink when I have been thirsty. I understand also, the need for stimulation so coffee and other caffeine based stimulantscan be beneficial.

Most alcohol tastes attrocious, though I did acquire a taste for Guinnesswhen I was in hospital recovering from ITP in the mid eighties, and the odd alcoholic drink has been pleasant, I still love the smell of Southern Comfort.

Flavoured Ciders are the new alcopops, Cider is Apple flavoured not berry or mango or whatever. They are very easy to drink though and I also used to like drinking Cider, it was usually quite refreshing.

I don't mind Diet Coke and often use it for a caffeine fix but am well aware of the damage Aspartame can do, so if I do indulge it's generally two 500ml bottles a day, or maybe two 330 ml cans. It does surprise me that a 500ml bottle is classed as two servings.

So as I've been on about drink what about The Dubliners' "Seven Drunken Nights"

Saturday 25 February 2017

3AM


It's 3AM and because it's Saturday I don't really have to get up for a few hours. Yesterday I had to get up for work and I was really tired, but when you don't have to get up , you can be up during the night and do things like write blog posts. I'm sitting here with a bottle of Coke, well Diet Coke (though I have just noticed it only mentions the name Coca Cola in very small writing on the label.

How times change, Cocaine was once an advertised ingredient in the drink, not they've replaced it with another "bad for you" ingredient , aspartame. The alternative of six teaspoonfuls of sugar in a can is not pleasant either.

This post comes after me eulogising my excellent vegan breakfast at Wildflower, but hey , it's Saturday morning and it's an excuse to bring up Negativland's 1997 album Dispepsi which you can listen to here or attempt to buy here. Definitely one of the best albums ever made and more relevant today than when it came out, with it's cut and paste dissection of marketing and media.

Enjoy your Saturday my friends.

Thursday 29 September 2016

#LikeNoOther #5 Dispepsi - Negativland


This is a slight deviation from the formula but also the first time that an album taught me a lot about market manipulation and controlling the minds of the masses who buy products. The album was, I think legally challenged by Pepsi and possibly Coca Cola and there is a Wikipedia entry here which mentions the legal shenanigans.

It contains lots of samples including many famous people , digs at artists selling themselves to corporations and includes some clever and witty songs , woven together into a coherent blast at market manipulation.

Drink It Up
It's one the albums that I still listen to end to end, and suggest that you do the same. It came back into mind after watching a TED talk that said that 90% of the media production was now owned by six companies who an make us think about whatever they want.

That is very frightening and Dispepsi predicted what they are doing now over 25 years ago. The album is very difficult to lay your hands on though Amazon have a few very expensive copies here.

Listen to the Youtube link here, if you want a copy, contact me, I will direct you. Below is the TED talk by Christopher Bell that reminded me of this amazing , educational and subversive record, with its demonstration  that Disney are anti powerful female heroes. Listen then watch my friends.


Saturday 12 October 2013

Let There Be More Light



Well I'm still looking after myself, trying to eat healthily and I haven't touched coke for week, but the weight is only coming down very slowly . But its is coming down.

This morning I had to go and pick up a package for the local Royal Mail sorting office because my friend Jo from Darlington refused to do it for me (only joking), but rather than wait for the bus I walked and almost didn't notice the journey. Well I didn't until I walked back when I realised that the mile and a half walk to the sorting office was slightly downhill, and therefore the walk back was up hill. Still it would have done me good and I didn't really notice it.

The 3w LEDs Fitted and Working
Anyway I was picking up some LED bulbs for my new kitchen light fittings, fitted expertly by my brilliant mate Dave. The fittings had halogen bulbs and basically when switched on were using about a pounds worth of electricity a day. That is fine because you don't have the lights on all the time, but I just fitted the new LED ones and they are using £1 to £1.50 electricity a month even left on 24/7 !!

LED is the lighting to have if you can get it. And that's why I had to use the Pink Floyd song on here.

So a good start to the weekend, I hope you all have a great one .

An addendum to this , if you fit the LEDs and use them for 2 hours a day they will save you a penny a day (each bulb) against halogen. I have 12 bulbs in my house so over the year that'sover £40. No doubt the power companies will have to claw back their profits by increasing prices.

Saturday 31 August 2013

...but I'm Feeling Good



.. rather physically better than I have for a long, long time. If something is working then you tend to do more of it , even if it may not seem logical or you don't actually know why it's really working. Still I haven't noticed that I've lost any weight but three sets of scales say I have , so I'm going to try and keep doing what I've been doing in the hope that I can get weight down a lot further.

I've made efforts in the past and read articles that diet drinks can actually cause you to put weight on because they mess with your metabolism , but the six teaspoonfuls of sugar in your average full fat Coca Cola can't do you any good either.  The guy at the hospital says if I lose too much weight I'll be pulled from the trial for the fatty liver treatment , but if I'm losing weight I'm not going to stop for the sake of a trial , they can find something else, just hope it's not the tablets that are causing the weight loss.

I think it's something else that is helping me with the weight loss though , which will sound too mental to be true , but I'm going to keep on with it. Anyway basically despite the odd cloud on todays horizon , I feel good and we had victories for Preston , Newcastle and Crystal Palace which also means Sunderland are still without a win in the League so good times are coming ..

Sunday 15 July 2012

And Tonight They're Gonna Party Like it's 1936



Well the 2012 Olympics are upon us and in case any one was in any doubt the signs in every city throughout are proclaiming it's "London 2012" . I thought generally that the world was some sort of democracy , didn't Thatcher and Reagan rescue us from the Red Menace. Joe Stalin , State Censorship , Nanny State Control , Nazi scare tactics and the like?

Well look what we have here . The original Olympic Ethic allowed all to compete . Wars stopped for the Olympic Games and competitors were given free and safe passage to and from the games. These days David Cameron's arms dealer cronies would be demanding compensation for ost revenue if that happened.

Peopl have trained for years to realise their their dreams , generally in the true Olympian spirit , but it is becoming swaped with Nazi / Communo stype restrictions on fans and market competitors.

Want an Olympic Ticket , Let's face for most of us this will be the only time in our live we can see one. But we have to run the hurdle of the lottery , and can only paty by Visa !! Surely that's as bad as the banks fixing interest rate . What if I don't have a Visa card , what if I want to pay by cash.

Then Coca Cola , Visa and MacDonalds are grabbing all the advertising space to the exclusion of everyone else. I thought this was a fairly free country.

Another thing the NHS has been committed to providing free treatment to anyone who is related to an Olympic competitor . Who sanctioned that Mr Cameron ? I though the NHS was meant to be hard pressed.

I won't be watching the Olympics or taking any interest in it whatsoever. It's been hijacked by corporates and freeloaders, and that makes me annoyed for the competitors and fans who DO embody the true Olympic spirit.

There's a sigh outside St James' Park Newcastle that proclaims "London 2012" . Anyone watching on TV will think the stadium is in London!! How wrong is that:

This is the only Olmpic Theme you will ever need