Just the links, ma’am

The Dr Frank Weakly Reader for 5.08.2020

4 min readMay 8, 2020

Welcome, friends to another Dr Frank Weakly Reader, that thing I do where I create my own index of the previous week’s Doctor-sphere. This edition is a bit “bare bones” without a whole lot of augmentation, expansion, etc. But there’s good stuff nevertheless, if you’re into that sort of thing. I do this mainly for my own index and archive purposes, but as always you’re welcome to read along if you like.

And away we go.

IT’S MTX

— Keep the Freaking out to a Minimum: Sounds Rad has some new super limited pop up MTX (and Mopes) shirts for pre-order, plus many deals on many things. (Do ya know the song?)

— Valentines Day: it came late this year, due to manufacturing issues, but those Valentine’s Day “More than Toast” flexis have finally materialized and have been arriving along with signed posters, some of which have wound up pictured on the internet. e.g. here, here, and here, in which I, instructed to draw a robot, attempt to draw a robot:

— Mtx forever — still a thing. Illustrated and dramatized by Our Man Klode. Second pressing still available here.

— Good enough for Ryan: a nice review of Mtx forever. [Link was broken — fixed now — ed.]

— coupla guys on twitter playing “Even Hitler Had a Girlfriend.”

— …and your Friday morning “Love Is Dead”, from Ukulele Hiro:

If you don’t know it, the original is here; and the covers playlist is here.

DR FRANK

— Dr Frank at the Garage Upstairs, London, 2001. Daz dug up an old pic.

— Jim and I (I in a great big social-distancing hat) in May 1996, for Cinco de Mayo.

—That time I went for a long walk up a big hill.

— Dept. of bons mots:

I do the best I can despite limited talent and resources. Anything “punk” in that resides entirely in the word “despite”.

and

In my capacity as a pretend rock star, I trust I can count on your pretend indulgence for my pretend excesses.

— Odin XXV: the latest compendium of Songs for Odin “minor secrets”. Table of contents: “Monongahela Bridge,” “I’m Like Yeah…”, “Green Eggs & Ham,” “I Want to Hold Your Ear,” and “Jill,” plus “Bitter Homes and Gardens.”

— Dr Frank — “Swallow Everything” live in Bergamo, Italy, 2006, this week’s Song for Odin.

“Minor secrets” here. Songs for Odin playlist here.

OTHER PEOPLE’S MUSIC

— “Glory of Love” by the great Big Bill Broonzy:

— George Jones — “High Tech Redneck”

— Kraftwerk — “The Robots”:

Florian Schneider RIP.

— The Stranglers — “Hanging Around”:

Dave Greenfield RIP

PICTURE BOOK

— Roman calendar: Athanasius the Great (with Eusebius) from an illuminated manuscript; Helena with the True Cross, by Cranach; the site of the Tyburn tree (the Forty English Martyrs); Jutta of Kulmsee; St John before the Latin Gate; Domnius; the Apparition of Archangel Michael at Gargano (lower right)…

— Behold: that’s why Tom left me: he was mixed up with Communists (for May 1); Wall Street Journal in spacescape; runestone; Willow; they’ll never keep me here; welcome UFO people

NOTEBOOK

— From an article called “The Story of My Only Novel” in the Spectator:

The novel was in no wise autobiographical, but I learned to my discomfort that all fiction is assumed to be thinly disguised, if occasionally embellished, memoir. I had to spend a solid year assuring readers that I did not prematurely ejaculate.