Joker

I like the card.

One question though. What is a Morris Kit?

--
juggle508 - Street unicyclist.

If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.

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that's cool...on the back of Bicycle cards, there's pictures of angels
riding bicycles, but it's from head on, so it looks like they're riding
those old penny-farthing unicycles.

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juggle508 said:

*
One question though. What is a Morris Kit? *

A Morris Kit? Remember Knightrider, the TV series where David
Hasselwhatsit played Michael Knight, a fearless crusader for justice?
His technologically implausible car was provided by Knight Industries
and was called "Kit" which stood for something like "Knight Industries
Technology".

Well, in the little known pilot episode, rather than using a big
expensive American car, they used an old British car: a Morris Oxford.
This was the original Morris Kit.

The technology in the Morris Kit was pretty basic, with a Super8 cine
camera set up on a tripod on the passenger seat. The voice was an old
voice box from an Action Man doll, and Michael Knight (in the pilot
episode, played by David Jason) had to pull a string. Morris Kit would
then respond with a random selection from a number of phrases such as
"Action Man patrol, fall in!"

The pilot episode was a failure, but was discovered yrears later by a
happy accident during research for a "100 worst pilot episodes"
programme to fill up the Saturday evening slot when everyone is at the
pub anyway. The basic idea was seen to have potential, but with a
different plot, cast, theme, location and car.

I have always been quite a fan of bad pilot episodes series based on of
car-related crusades for justice, and I have been building an exact
replica of the original Morris Kit. I managed to find an original 1963
Morris Oxford, and I have painted it black with Hammerite Smoothrite
paint.

I have been unable to find the voice box from an Action Man, but I did
get one from an old Bugs Bunny doll that my brother used to own. The
car now responds, "Ner, what's up doc?" in every situation. The
original Super8 camera housing has been used to conceal a modern digital
video camera and I will in due course be posting a number of galleries
of the Morris Kit performing various authentic stunts from the original
pilot episode: a three point turn; reversing around a corner, and a hill
start.

The card has been lacquered onto the bonnet to recreate the original
image of a clown (David Jason is best known for his comedy roles) riding
on the disc of the Sun (symbolised by a unicycle, and representing the
burning quest for justice) and brandishing the Ace of Spades - which
symbolises individuality and hard work in the garden.

Now, the Morris kit, on the other hand, is the costume I use for Morris
dancing.

Mike
Fule, Dolphin Morris Men http://www.dolphin-morris.co.uk/

--
Mikefule - Roland Hope School of Unicycling

"As it was, the tip of my nose barely touched the road"

(Steveyo, philosophical in the face of near disaster.)
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Wow - your prose never fails to entertain me, Mike. Morris Kit
indeed.

Thanks also for the link to the Dolphin Morris Men site. It really has
me curious, though, about the jig mentioned in your bio on the "team"
page!

Chuck

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Mikefule said:

*A Morris Kit? Remember Knightrider, the TV series where David
Hasselwhatsit played Michael Knight, a fearless crusader for justice?
His technologically implausible car was provided by Knight Industries
and was called "Kit" which stood for something like "Knight Industries
Technology".

Well, in the little known pilot episode, rather than using a big
expensive American car, they used an old British car: a Morris Oxford.
This was the original Morris Kit.

The technology in the Morris Kit was pretty basic, with a Super8 cine
camera set up on a tripod on the passenger seat. The voice was an old
voice box from an Action Man doll, and Michael Knight (in the pilot
episode, played by David Jason) had to pull a string. Morris Kit
would then respond with a random selection from a number of phrases
such as "Action Man patrol, fall in!"

The pilot episode was a failure, but was discovered yrears later by a
happy accident during research for a "100 worst pilot episodes"
programme to fill up the Saturday evening slot when everyone is at the
pub anyway. The basic idea was seen to have potential, but with a
different plot, cast, theme, location and car.

I have always been quite a fan of bad pilot episodes series based on
of car-related crusades for justice, and I have been building an exact
replica of the original Morris Kit. I managed to find an original
1963 Morris Oxford, and I have painted it black with Hammerite
Smoothrite paint.

I have been unable to find the voice box from an Action Man, but I did
get one from an old Bugs Bunny doll that my brother used to own. The
car now responds, "Ner, what's up doc?" in every situation. The
original Super8 camera housing has been used to conceal a modern
digital video camera and I will in due course be posting a number of
galleries of the Morris Kit performing various authentic stunts from
the original pilot episode: a three point turn; reversing around a
corner, and a hill start.

The card has been lacquered onto the bonnet to recreate the original
image of a clown (David Jason is best known for his comedy roles)
riding on the disc of the Sun (symbolised by a unicycle, and
representing the burning quest for justice) and brandishing the Ace of
Spades - which symbolises individuality and hard work in the garden.

Now, the Morris kit, on the other hand, is the costume I use for
Morris dancing.

Mike
Fule, Dolphin Morris Men http://www.dolphin-morris.co.uk/ *

Some lovely bullshitting there, Mikefule ...

--
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Chuck Webb said:

*It really has me curious, though, about the jig mentioned in your
bio on the "team" page!
*

Serious answer:

My team does what is called Cotswold Morris which is a style of
traditional dancing from Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

At one time (1800s) each village had a team of dancers. each village
had its own distinctive style and repertoire, although of course there
were many similarities between neighbouring villages. The styles were
identified by particular steps and hand movements, as well as different
figures (patterns) in the dance.

A typical Cotswold dance has six dancers performing a set piece routine
to a solo musician. There is often a Fool (as in Mikefule).
Historically, the Fool just sort of improvised and skipped about through
the dance, hitting people with his inflated pig's bladder for allegedly
comical effect. These days, the Fool in a modern side borrows ideas
from street entertainment to add to the show.

A jig is a solo dance (or sometimes a pair dance) performed to a solo
musician. My special jig is one that I dance whilst playing the
harmonica. I use a small sized harmonica, and grip it with my mouth and
play the meoldy whilst I dance with both hands free. As far as I know,
I am the only person in the world ever to have done this, although I
know that it was quite common for blues guitarists to use a similar
harmonica technique before the availability of the Bob Dylan harness.

I have seen a fiddle player dance a jig, self accompanied, and a
concertina player do the same. The difference is, of course, that they
don't have the opportunity to do the hand movements for the dance.

--
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"As it was, the tip of my nose barely touched the road"

(Steveyo, philosophical in the face of near disaster.)
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my mates cards ave a joker on a uni aswell

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yer you're right, but only when i say you are )-o

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"Mikefule" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

My team does what is called Cotswold Morris which is a style of
traditional dancing from Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

Quoted message said:

A typical Cotswold dance has six dancers performing a set piece routine
to a solo musician. There is often a Fool (as in Mikefule).
Historically, the Fool just sort of improvised and skipped about through
the dance, hitting people with his inflated pig's bladder for allegedly
comical effect. These days, the Fool in a modern side borrows ideas
from street entertainment to add to the show.

I was once told, in all seriousness, that one should try everything in life
except Morris Dancing. ;-)

But it's not that bad, honest. It actually looks fun, and seems to have a
lot of interesting history behind it.

Nao

--
I hate keyboards: I never seem to get mistypes with a biro.

it is not all that odd for a joker to have a man on a unicycle, or clown

--
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It takes twice the man to ride half the bike.
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While I was in Turkey (from where I've just returned) (sorry, something
wrong with my grammer there), I was watching the traditional dancing and
thinking that we didn't do much in the way of traditional dancing in the
UK.

In Wales, ofcourse, we do have traditional welsh dancing in the
Eisteddfod, but in England ...

Mikefule, you've just restored my faith in traditional english
dancing.

Cathy

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My mother-in-law dances with a Leicester based border-morris group, shes
CONTINUALLY badgering me to be their unicycle riding "fule". But I'm
having none of it... well, er, apart from going to Jack in the Green
Festival (in Hastings) 2 years on the run. But that was before I could
Unicycle so it doesn't count.

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stevenbrandist said:

*My mother-in-law dances with a Leicester based border-morris group,
shes CONTINUALLY badgering me to be their unicycle riding "fule". *

No. I am The Fule. All others are Fools. I am aware of no other
Morris Fool who has adopted this spelling.

Which Leicester-based Morris side?

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The poor lack much, the greedy, everything.
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cathwood said:

*While I was in Turkey (from where I've just returned) (sorry,
something wrong with my grammar there), I was watching the traditional
dancing and thinking that we didn't do much in the way of traditional
dancing in the UK.

In Wales, ofcourse, we do have traditional welsh dancing in the
Eisteddfod, but in England ...

Mikefule, you've just restored my faith in traditional English
dancing.
*

Nothing wrong with the grammar.

UK dancing? The Welsh have some. The Scots have lots. The Northern
Irish have lots.

As for the English, we have
Cotswold Morris
Border Morris (Shropshire/Welsh border area)
Molly dancing (East Anglia)
North west Clog (teams of clog dancers)
Step Clog (solo clog dancing, similar to tap dancing.)
Rapper (from the north east)
Longsword (also mainly northern)
3 living Derbyshire traditions in their original villages.
The Bacup Britannia Coconut dancers (yes, really)
The Abbot's Bromley Horn Dance from Staffordshire.

There are three umbrella bodies organising Morris events. These speak
for a total of over 15,000 dancers and organised a rally in trafalgar
Square a year or so ago which was attended by thousands, protesting at
attempts to enforce a new licensing law which would effectively make
Morris dancing illegal at many small pubs with no entertainment
licence.

Go to www.morrisdancing.org
for further details

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habbywall said:

*it is not all that odd for a joker to have a man on a unicycle, or
clown *

But this Joker is obviously riding a Coker.

Mmmmmm...Coker-Joker.

--
Memphis Mud - Student of GrandMaster 2T

NAUCC 2006 in Memphis, TN.
Beale Street. Graceland. Blues Music. BBQ. Deep woods MUni. Rolling
Crosscountry. Jump over the Mississippi River (really!).
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"Mikefule" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

UK dancing? The Welsh have some. The Scots have lots. The Northern
Irish have lots.

As for the English, we have
Cotswold Morris
Border Morris (Shropshire/Welsh border area)
Molly dancing (East Anglia)
North west Clog (teams of clog dancers)
Step Clog (solo clog dancing, similar to tap dancing.)
Rapper (from the north east)
Longsword (also mainly northern)
3 living Derbyshire traditions in their original villages.
The Bacup Britannia Coconut dancers (yes, really)
The Abbot's Bromley Horn Dance from Staffordshire.

Well, with names like those I had to have a quick google. Especially at
the last two: The Bacup Britannia Coconut dancers and the Abbot's Bromley
Horn Dance. What a visual feast their websites are. Well worth a browse.
British eccentricity at its very finest, but with it comes a history of more
than 700 years. I think it wonderful that such idiocy can survive though
the centuries and still make it into the corners of our modern world. Long
may it continue to do so.

Nao