Saturday 3 September 2016

Vegan Bonnets to play Bestival!



Umm.  It’s been a while - I'm sorry!   My intention to write something halfway meaningful when I finally got round to actually writing anything at all again has gone to the wall, and it may be a while yet.   Oh, I’ve tried, but the words won’t come.  So instead I’ve been spending half an hour or so of an evening these last few weeks looking for them.  And I found some!  I found them online, in a game of Word Link!   

Maybe you know it, a classic test of one’s linguistic prowess (erm, sort of) based on a grid of random letter tiles…  you just have to connect ones that touch each other to try and form as many words as possible. You can increase your score by using special coloured tiles which pop up in each round too.  Fast as you can go… clicking away… it’s not usually too hard to find plenty of three letter words once you get in the swing of it, but it’s especially good when you can form much longer ones, or use up a pesky Q, J or Z for instance, which have higher values than a run-of-the-mill T or A, etc.  I've also noticed  you can get away with both English/US spellings, slang and expletives (it has to be said, 'wanky' usually scores well).

At the end of three minutes the bell rings, a load of fruit falls out out of the sky and the little monkey in a loincloth looks decidedly happy (maybe you have to be there).  Then you find out which two words scored (a) the most points by value and (b) used the most letters.  Like:

Most valuable word: VEGAN

Longest word: BONNETS

And then if you’re like me, you look at those two words at the end of each game and every now and then you think: ha, that could be the name of a band, and you jot it down in the back of your notebook for no other reason than you just like the sound of it and the thought of a band with that name playing at next year's Bestival, or maybe the Exeter Phoenix.  Next thing you know, you don't really care about your final score any more, you just want to play with your new random band name generator.  I'm reminded of those other name generators - like finding your porn star persona by combining the name of your first pet and your mother's maiden name, and the John Peel band name one I remember reading about - take the name of a charity and follow it with a parent's job.  (Mind Cleaner surely should have really existed?)

Thus several games of Word Link later and according to my notebook, it looks as if the Vegan Bonnets are going to be on the same line-up as a number of other interesting sounding acts, such as:

Zee Queens
Jingo Jingo
Cash Reborn (must be a tribute band)
Vox Quarry
Yeti Diners
Ham Panda
Zen Jello
and 
Quim Slings (sorry, but it let me have that so it counts)

I would book my tickets now...

16 comments:

  1. Sounds like an archive Peel show
    I believe David Boeie used a similar technique to write some of his songs

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    1. It does, doesn't it? - I can just visualise the names on the inlay card of an old TDK C90 too.
      Bowie, Burroughs...proof that random generators can do wonders, I reckon - I'm hooked.

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  2. I am mildly dyslexic ( at school they could get me to write words out a hundred times and an hour later Istill couldn't spell them correctly, thank goodness for spell check) so any word game or crossword brings me out in a cold sweat, as for scrabble .......but I think Sylvester McNamara would be a great porn persona!

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    1. Oh I can imagine then that Word Link may not be so much fun, but there's always Candy Crush ;-) Now that sounds like a porn star persona if ever there was one....
      Sylvester McNamara sounds good too - mine is a Cleo or a Twinkle!

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  3. This has to be the best way of naming anything! (good post - it made me smile)

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    1. Thank you Anon, and thanks for stopping by, I'm glad you enjoyed. I played Word Link again last night and got Titch Goose (has to be a solo artist, blues maybe?)

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    2. It's a game I know well lol but your method of creating fun is way better than chasing elusive Pineapples!!! and Titch Goose is definitely Bluesy ;)

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    3. Thank you. I'm happy just to get a watermelon! ;-)

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  4. I don't know this game, but I feel I must seek it out. Yeti Diners made me smile broadly and Quim Slings nearly caused the coffee in my mouth to be redistributed across the screen of my laptop!

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    1. I reckon we should all play the game and compile a database of potential band names that come from it, which we could then sell for a tenner each... A whole new enterprise.
      Yeti Diners and Quim Slings - I think it's true to say you couldn't make 'em up!

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  5. Great stuff C. I love cut up techniques and all that.

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    1. Thanks SA, yes I do too, love the randomness and the surprise outcomes (latest band names to come from this particular technique are Tinty Drifts, Quit Ruling and Vice Quota... there has to be some potential in these, surely?!)

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  6. I've just discovered your blog via Charity Chic page. Love it.
    Yeti Diners is a terrific name for a band. And any blog that mentions the Exeter phoenix is fine with me.
    Swc.

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    1. Hi Swc, oh thanks, so glad you like! I'm considering copyrighting Yeti Diners... or maybe buying domain name yetidiners.com, there has to be some mileage in this!
      I've seen your comments on the other blogs that we both visit - wondering if you have a blog too?

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  7. Hi yes my blog is when you can't remember anything commonly known as wycra. Check it out more

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