Elvis Presley was a fan, apparently, and would quote the ‘Knights that say NI’ scene from The Holy Grail. My own Python-years came twice. Once during their first run on Dutch television. (Early Seventies?) The second time was when I went to college and a lot of the series were repeated on the BBC. I bought the transcript books then, which I’ve since sold since you can find everything online anyway.

These last two weeks I’ve been enjoying this their back catalogue whot I acquired both legally and illegally. Their DVD’s are filled to the brim with extra-funny, extra-unseen footage. The sketches still make me laugh and I’ve become quite fond of Gilliam’s animation. I didn’t like them much as a child. Too creepy, I think. Back then, ‘The Ministry of Silly walks’ and Cleese were my favourites, now I am quite keen on Terry Jones’s female impersonations (and his marvelously toff self) and Chapman’s mad genius.

If I could, I’d buy the 14 disc ‘The Complete Monty Python’s Flying Circus Megaset’, but that’s a USA release only and I reckon Dutch customs would make me pay through the neck, so I made do with sharply priced (57 euro) The Best of Monty Python’s Flying Circus Volumes 1-3 which features all the ‘best’ sketches.

Quotes I still use or hear used:

‘She’s a witch, she’s made of wood!’
‘… and now for something completely different.’
‘NI!’
‘I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition!’
‘I’ve had a terrible feeling fo déjà vu!’
‘SPAM, SPAM, SPAM’
‘Mind if I call you Bruce?’

Some of my favourite sketches are: ‘The Bishop’, ‘Crunchy Frog’, ‘Dead Indian’, ‘The Masons’, ‘Northern Playwright’ and ‘Spanish Inquisition’. How about yours? (Look ‘em up.)

Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, know what I mean? (http://orangecow.org/pythonet/sketches/n..)
Marcel (link) – 30 May 2005 – 16:46

Well, since you’re coming to NYC in November, you really should see Spamalot. Caught it in previews here and it was loads of fun (they did a test run in Chicago before that, so it got here almost completely polished).
lia (link) – 02 June 2005 – 23:05

An overview:

On U2log.com we have currently 11 authors, most of which are doubles or dormant. Current active authors: 4. When U2 start touring next year, our team will grow to between 6 and 10 authors.

I was going to pay for the new 3.0 release anyway, but with the recent changes to the license, it works out even better for U2log.com. I’m impatiently waiting for the personal release so we can switch ASAP. TypeKey is a godsend for our site.

But of course I use MT elsewhere too. Here at prolific.org, the free version will cover things nicely.

Then there’s gavinfriday.com (1 author, 1 blog, but possibly more in future). All MT does there is run a simple news log. I don’t really have to upgrade from 2.6, unless things change drastically with this year’s impending rethinking and redesign. Gavinfriday.com is an odd fish, in that it is an ‘official’ site, but it’s not commercial – I do not get paid for the work.

Virginprunes.com (2 authors, one blog) is completely MT driven. Static pages as well as the main news blog are all done with MT templates. No real need to upgrade, although it would be nice to be able to switch comments back on with the upcoming re-release of the band’s entire back catalogue.

Then there’s a new site I was hoping to start. 1 blog, 3 authors or more. I could use MT, or I could use Pivot. I don’t mind using other software for it. It’s nice to stick with what you know best. Eventually, I would be ok with paying for a second license for this one – it would be great if there was some sort of discount for that.

My main concern is with these multiple installations of the free version. I’m not sure I am allowed to do that – I bet I’m not.

(… and by the way, I’ve just noticed that control-shift-a (to link text in the editor) doesn’t work anymore in MT3.0)