Into The Realm Of Swords

 I have "The Magic Labyrinth" in the "Riverworld" series and although it was a bit of a slog it was a good read, but I am taking a break from "Riverworld" now. Although this was originally a four-book series it does finish on a cliffhanger and there is then "Gods of Riverworld" to follow it up, but that is another day.

I am impressed with "Rings of Power" and have revisited one of my favourite Michel Moorcock series "The Swords of Corum" and am almost finished  "The Knight Of The Swords" and finding it remarkably easy to read. It is a wonderful fantasy with love, violence and some incredible imagery, some people describe Moorcock as the greatest fantasy author since Tolkien though there are many who could claim that mantle.

This is the first of six books and I know this will be an easy twelve hundred pages for me to read.

I also found out that my American Amazon Author page has a feed from this blog which you can see here. It only shows on the .com site but not others. C'est La Vie.

Music is "Black Blade" by The Blue Oyster Cult and co-written by Michael Moorcock.

Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. The Never Ending Story - My Directory
2. The Never Ending Music - My Music Directory
3. The Never Ending Poetry - My Poetry Directory
4. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
5. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
6. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
7. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer

Coincidentally ... Ken Nordine

A couple of days ago on my Instagram #MusicWhileYouWork sequence i shared some of "Stay Awake" a collection of off the wall takes on Disney classics and the opener "Hey Diddle Dee Dee, An Actors Life For Me" from "Pinocchio" featured a spoken rap by someone called Ken Nordine who I was sort of unaware of but I, and you, have probably heard his voice.

His perfect enunciation was ideal for voice overs and "Dispepsi" by Negativland features a lit of uncredited adverts and I am sure that Nordine is in there. 

You can listen to him in the video above but while a lot of the beat poets hit the listener hard and fast , Nordine gives the listener time think and absorb the words and idea.

In the documentary "Tom Waits: Under The Influence" Tom Wait's influences' get mini documentaries themselves and Nordine has his and was active until his death in 2019, a very well spoken man and someone who I will be investigating further as he takes listening in another direction.

It's not everyone's taste, but I am glad to have discovered someone else that stimulates my imagination.

Take a listen and see what you think.

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#FruitfulSeptember #1

I often think that I will just not write anymore on this blog , but then it's a diary and diaries never stop. It also is a method of recording things that I may want to remember. So I will keep writing , I am very contrary in my mind at times.

This morning I took a four mile walk to the Freeman Hospital for a check up and all seems to be in order . They now have an impressive fruit and vegetable stall out the front of outpatients but it is farly expensive, but it is in a prime location.

TV wise I have one episode of "Veep" to go although there is an Amazon Prime Veep vs Trump stream which I shall be watching tonight, which has reminded me , I've still not caught the "Parks and Recreation" COVID reunion show.

This morning was a little grey and now we have rain, so I'm not sure if I will get an evening walk. I know we're past the longest day but the nights and dark mornings are drawing in and after yesterday's heat , today is quite chilly.

I'm sure I wanted to say something else in this post but it's gone , and that will be an excuse for another post tomorrow.

I was, then I wasn't, going to do a sequence based on fruit for September but then thought , yeah I will , and #FruitfulSeptember is a good tag to go with, and to start off with "Overnight Sensation" by The Raspberries who have never featured on this blog. Although this was an excellent record , Eric Carmen went solo and produced som excruciating AOR so it's unlikely you will be seeing any of his solo stuff on here, but you never know, there may be hidden gems in his back catalogue.

Oops, I Did It Again - #AnimalAugust #15

Although my Tivo is 80% full and there are a few series I am watching on streaming services (Netflix and Amazon Prime) I decided to pick up on Bosch (partly because of Hieronymus Bosch) , and am already for episodes into the first of six series featuring Elliot Gould look alike Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch as the main protagonist in another crime solving series which is rather enjoyable.

Also the new series of Lucifer has started and I am still working through The Boys and The Umbrella Academy, so I am not going short of anything anytime soon.

We do live in an amazing age for visual entertainment, I have watched quite a few series in the last few months so I know that half a dozen series is no bar to me watching something, it's a joureny you don't think about because you are just there to enjoy the ride.

So I am writing this quite late (for me) , so it's quite a short post.

For #AnimalAugust I'm going to go with "Cuckoo" by Lissie from the album "Catching A Tiger" which I played and really enjoyed yesterday. I've always loved her singing and material, and I also enjoyed her album of covers, so if you haven't heard her , take a listen , you may like.

PAYTV - #AnimalAugust #12

I've been binge watching TV again , this time "The Rook" on Virgin . When I first started watching it was on Virgin's UHD channel , but when I hit episode three it said I had to upgrade to continue. Needless to say I didn't though apparently it's STARZ production , though "Ash vs The Evil Dead" was included in the package.

Amazon Prime is similar , you pay for the Prime package , and you see some programs advertised and when you select you have to take out another subscription to another provider. It's like charity and lottery adverts, there are more and more spring up and if it keeps on like this we may have to go back to buying DVDs.

I also get annoyed that pay channels carry advertisements on th elive feeds, I don't mind advertisements on say All 4 as I see that as my price of admission, same with all commercial channels.

I am grateful for the plethora and cornucopia and good television programs available, this is from someone who grew up with a choice of two TV channels. Also when you watch recorded items you can fast forward through adverts , and when you watch Sky or Amazon Prime Streams you have no adverts so to speak (possibly some short ones) .

To be quite honest I do watch very little live TV which means , apart from All 4 and other commercial streamers I am not usually troubled by adverts so generally things are good , although you do get some very good adverts.

So what should we go for #AnimalAugust ? Well "Toad" by Cream is playing , essentially a Ginger Baker drum solo bookended by a solid simple heavy riff , the live version has a bit more guitar work in it , but Ginger Baker's drumming is the star here.

Postless

This is my lowest posting month since January 2017 which was a sort of aim this year, so that is good, although I now have an idea for a pig posting next month, sharing songs which feature an animal, which should be fairly easy to maintain, but we shall see what I feel like on Saturday. It is easier to write if you give yourself a theme or thread to follow,

I suppose it's similar when you write a story or a book , you need something to hook the reader , and ideally keep them involved. I'm currently watching "Tales From The Loop" on Amazon Prime and finding it a little depressing, but some of the sets are great , looking like a vaguely alternate 1950's close to dustbowl America. The thing is you are captured because you want to know what The Loop is and does , featuring time slips , stopping and starting time , and conspiracy. It's only eight episodes but if there is a series two I probably won't continue with it , but need to hit the end of series one, so it has me in it's clutches.

I use Google Sheets to track my steps and noticed there was a discrepancy is the running total and the summed total , this meant checking earlier sheets , they all balanced, so I individually checked the daily totals and found one in error which I corrected. It was a really odd error but must have happened when copying cells. It's fixed now.

I have two CDs to listen to in the Velvet Underground "Peel Slowly and See" box , then it's going to be Public Image Limited's "Metal Box" and then maybe "Plastic Box" which should keep me going for the rest of this week (probably ten hours of listening.So I'm going to go with "Fishing" for it's awesome looping guitar riff which I first heard on "Plastic Box" by is from "Album"

Afoot

I have been using some comfy trainers for my walking and this week I pulled out an old pair that feel as though I'm walking directly on the road, but actually make walking much more productive and easier. The comfy ones I suppose are almost like walking on grass whereas the "uncomfy" ones are actually more suited to the job of walking.

Since I've decided to keep to the 11K steps a day target , whatever the month , it's been a lot easier to meet the targets and I am not halfway through this month but already 30K steps up (mainly due to walking into town to post a couple of Discogs orders to Spain and Sweden) , so maybe this month I will hit my target again.

This week I binge watched (for me ) "Space Force" on Netflix , the episodes are only thirty minutes and there were only ten episodes  and I was very impressed by it. I am also up to series five on "Vikings" which just seems to spread further and further round the world with every episode.

The weather is is still dreich and as such is not very inspirational , I've had the guitar out and looking at using keyboard to provide bass rhythms but still no nearer producing anything. Part of this is that I want by backing to to be instant and also get distracted by TV , listening to music and reading , although they should be providing inspiration rather than distraction. I am not good with self practicing.

I wasn't sure what  music to share but last week heard this Nina Simone take on Bob Dylans' "Just Like Tom Thumbs' Blues" , the thing is Dylan's voice often put's people off but I think that people will listen to Simone's version. I obviously love the original but this is a song that can transcend the performer, bu t this is and awesome performance.

Listen all the way through , I challenge you to be unimpressed.

April Shower

Yesterday got a phone call from my practice (Thornfield Medical Group) telling one of the drugs I am taking should stop if I get Coronavirus. Shows the excellent service I get from them and why I have been with them for twenty years. I am going to keep on taking it but know if I get hit with the Coronavirus to stop the tablet (Forxiga) .

I didn't think I would hit my monthly walking target and normally I have a few free days at the end of the month , but I need to walk 6K steps today to hit the target , so that's a target hit although May may be a different kettle of fish as it is getting a bit samey and that is something that I don't particularly like when I go on a walk.

The last few days have been decidedly dreich so April is ending with showers.

I'm into the Christopher Brookmyre book "Not The End Of The World" (an appropriate title for our current situation) put was put off because after the large print of "A Shadow on the Wall" by Jonathan Aycliffe this is small and densely printed and I don't like the font so it looked challenging , but there was an interesting prologue and there is a lot happening in it. For some reason his style reminds me of John Niven , well in the same universe as hom.

I've just finished series three of "Lucifer" on Amazon Prime , although the final two episodes (which were after the series finale) were entertaining but a little disjointed, so now it's either Netflix but I have rejoined "Vikings" and have four series of that to work though.

There are two records that have could my ear while working at home, I share the second tomorrow but today the almost wrong doom laden  piano motif driven rap of "Ooh La La" by Run The Jewels, an absolutely excellent record.

A Play(List) For Today

Thanks to Sky Comedy I am working my way through Veep and 30 Rock. 30 Rock is not on demand and is broadcasting three episodes a day, which I am trying to keep up with, and am now just two episodes in arrears after watching four of five episodes a day for the last few days. It is an easy watch , and the episodes are short as well as being on the nail funny, but am I watching too much TV?

I'm also going through Lucifer and Picard on Amazon Prime as well as having two Clive Barker books on the go, sio am I doing to much being entertained rather than actually doing stuff?

Also today I went to a local supermarket who's shelves were being cleared by panic buyers and the queues at the tills were backed up with huge loaded trolleys, I laughed , walked out , and went to a smaller local shop, got what I needed and came home. Most of this is fuelled by a lying media and a government that is only bothered about lining pockets of the already wealthy, but c'est la vie , what do I know.

After my earlier post I thought I could list a few songs relevant to our current situation, though it's still not that long when you had to put together a tape in real time rather than a playlist. All the songs link to a Youtube video for you to watch and listen to.

So here we go:

• Panic in the World - Be Bop Deluxe
• Spreading The Disease - Queensryche
• Isolation - John Lennon
• Panic - The Smiths
• Virus - Iron Maiden
• Splendid Isolation - Warren Zevon
• Virus - Bjork
• Shake The Disease - Depeche Mode
• Isolation - Joy Division
• Hot, Hot, Hot!!! - The Cure

I had to have something by The Cure in , didn't I? And from 30 Rock we have Alec Baldwin in a quartet singing on the underground.

Phone

I've just watched a short series on Amazon Prime called "Silent Eye" and it was shot on a Samsung Galaxy S8 (see here) . I remember seeing the film "Tangerine" that was shot on an iPhone and it's quite amazing that we still refer to this devices as "phones" . They can do everything in a hand held package.

I still think they are not ideal for watching a big film, but when they work on normal or holographic projection even that might be just another thing to do. As yet we can't use them to teleport (like Star Trek tricorders and communicators) but how near might that be, although that is something that has always philosophically confused me. If you are teleported then you need to be deconstituted and reconstituted so is the reconstituted you really you?

Obviously reading Stephen Hawking has got me (over) thinking big thoughts, but that is not a bad thing, and I've included "Star Trek Dreaming" by Spirit from "Future Games" for your enjoyment.

Fifty Shades of Grey

That's the colour of the sky this morning. As you can tell I have not got that much to write about. Listening to Huw Stephens on 6Music but a lot of the music is just passing me by but was impressed by a new one by DJ Shadow (ft De La Soul) "Rocket Fuel" so some good has come of me switching on the radio this morning.

So basically it's go out , pick up train tickets , go to work and that's my Thursday.

I have ordered "Another Green World" on vinyl to complete my Roxy Music related collection (first album , "For Your Pleasure" and "Viva" all from Vinyl Guru in Newcastle) and they sound a lot better that I thought even with the slight paint mark on "Editions of You" (it was second hand and cheap and plays fine). It's amazing what watching a Brian Eno documentary can cause you to do, while it's not exactly advertising but it did influence me and "Another Green World" is coming via Amazon Prime.

There's a little Roxy on my Instagram posts here and here


So we obviously go with "Rocket Fuel" this morning.

Turtle Power

Switched on 6Music this morning and Chris Hawkins was playing "Gravel-Pit" by Wu-Tang Clan which for some reason reminded me of  "Turtle Power" the theme from the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, which was a surprisingly excellent song and the film wasn't that bad either.

My daughters Juliet and Kirsty were huge fans and the action figures were very difficult to get hold of, but I remember walking into Asda at Boldon just before Christmas and there were two huge baskets filled with the figures. Christmas was sorted, sometimes things do unexpectedly drop into your lap.

So it's Friday and this is effectively my diary entry to fine the Partners In Kryme song should ever want to listen to it, so just a very short post before I get off to work wondering if I've got that record, it's probably somewhere in my digital collection and that has just reminded me of a couple of streaming service surveys that i've seen.

Basically streaming music is being pushed in many forms , including podcasts and the like. The thing is when you stream music or video you have to remember that if you are not on wifi then you are using up or paying for your data and this is what the various communications companies are pushing. From an artists point of view the Spotify business model doesn't work but most of my friends are aghast when I say I don't have Spotify. Apple Music, Amazon and the rest will all devour your data.

I had a chuckle at the latest EE 5G advert advertising "Hannah" from Amazon Prime where Kevin Bacon says you can download it in seconds when the girl says she hasn't got time. If the network is that good why not stream, the data use would be the same. Also while you can download something in seconds it still takes 90 minutes to watch and generally it's better to watch on a big TV that a relatively little phone, I'd rather watch on a fifty inch screen than a five inch screen.

So now it's time for work.

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. The Never Ending Story - My Directory
2. The Never Ending Music - My Music Directory
3. The Never Ending Poetry - My Poetry Directory
4. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
5. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag

 

JFDI

Many years ago when I was still being paid by the PPA , a team played a trick on their manager. In IT there is always a new "better" methodology and you hear word like "agile" , "structured" and many others , we used JSP and Bachman as well, anyway there was an article on JFDI and how it always delivered on time and fast. The manager said they had to sort out training courses in this methodology as soon as possibly (ironic considering what JFDI mens). I'm quite surprised at the number of toned down meanings of the phrase, and Nike dropped the "F" for their tag line, not surprising for a company that has never made any of it's branded products, they outsource everything.

So yeasted after god knows how long I had lunch at Snack Wallah with my friend Nicky Black (one of her many names) and we had a long catch up discussing art and Facebook bans and what we were doing and going to do. Also the fact that last time I saw her I mistook her for another friend, and this is the problem when you don't see people often enough. We always can find a reason to put something off til next week but we should really do things as soon as we can.

I need to go and visit my dad and his girlfriend , see my girls , and know that this will happen eventually but really we should have much more JFDI in our lives, and we will enjoy life much more.

So for no reason other than it's a great record and he was mentioned in the Brian Eno documentary "The Man Who Fell To Earth 1971-77" which I am watching on Amazon Prime , when Island put together the Ayers , Cale , Nico, Eno (unfortunate acronym) gig at the Rainbow  to celebrate the the signing of ex Velvet Underground members John Cale and Nico, I'll leave you with "Barracuda" from the album "Fear".

Sleep Now

A lot of this is coming from Matt Haig's book "Notes on a Nervous Planet" and it is so good that I am about to order "How To Stop Time" which I think was inspired from a page in "Reasons To Stay Alive" which is another of his excellent books. I have read others, my introduction to him was "Humans" which I gave away on  World Book Night before it degenerated into commercialisation. The thing is I'm not sure if I have read and bought "How To Stop Time" because it is a paperback book and my real books are not stored digitally although Amazon will tell me if I've bought it before, then I just have to find it.

Anyway one section I have come to is a short section on sleep and the fact that generally we don't get enough. We need seven to nine hours per night and lack of sleep does cause problems. The odd night or two is fine especially if you are interacting withe real people of real things. The problem is that people use what should be sleep time to bings watch TV, be on their electronic device, with phones replacing alarm clocks and therefore living on people's bedsides. This si not a good idea.

The CEO of Netflix said that their biggest enemy was sleep and it was a huge area to increase consumption of their product. I have not yet taken out a subscription to Netflix, because by TIVO Box is filling up from my Virgin subscription, I also have access to Amazon Prime, and NowTV which I can stop and start when I want it. I worked out that it will take six hours to illegally download a TV series or film yet for £8 you get a month of Netflix or NowTV, a far better use of my time to pay that rather than steal, though we have been conditioned to think we shouldn't have to pay for digital content.

When we sleep we cannot be consumers so the whole commercial world hates us because we are not buying, but to buy we need money, but we are always having credit pushed at use rather than being paid enough to actually buy without going into debt.

Another point that Matt Haig makes is to turn off notifications on your phone to give yourself control, and that is something I have always done as I can't deal with things popping up all the time.

So it's gotta be "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" by the sadly missed Warren Zevon as the music to accompany today's post.

Bingewatch

I know a lot of people, mainly Netflix subscribers, who's normal mode d'etre for watching television series in binge watching. It's something that I can't actually do, I feel that I'm overdosing on whatever I'm watching. I completed "Britannia" in a week due to my NOW TV subscription coming to an end, and i have been watching "Black Sails" but have never exceeded three episodes at one sitting.

I also have a number of series to work through, and often I watch films over two or three sessions, maybe I have a short attention span. One of the good things about Amazon Prime and subscription schannel box sets is that you aren't interrupted by adverts, although what you are going to to watch does take the time it says it's going to take.

The blog posts still don't seem to be getting the hits that they were, but I keep getting chunks of hits like 140 yesterday from Hungary so I don't know how that is working. It maybe that Google Reporting is being a bit flakey at the moment but that is difficult to quantify or identify.

So I've banged on about watching television and my blog and it's probably time to share some music with you, and for not reason at all I am going to share Nazareth's "Silver Dollar Forger (Parts I & II)" essentially for Part 2 which I just love, amazing phased guitar out to coda, from "Rampant", which is a brilliant album, Manny Charlton was a wonderful guitarist.

Grey Day To Grey Week

The sky is a uniform grey still, and now the rain has turned up. This is not the most inspiring of weeks, although the fact that in the USA the Democrats have retaken the House of Representatives giving Donald Trump a metaphorical bloody nose (I wonder if he bleeds orange) is a definited bright spot although the Republicans still hold the Senate, just. There's info here thought not sure if it will stay.

I watched this weekes episode of The Walking Dead and there was a major event which should have been a shocking surprise but the Fox announcers kept telling us about it in the ad breaks. It loses it's impact if you tell people about it, but I'm not done with the series yet and am still working through Black Sails and Constantine, and maybe I will watch the film at some point but cant see Keanu Reeves providing as much entertainment as Matt Ryan.

Tonight I am going to see Thousand Yard Stare supporting House of Love at The Boilershop, so it's not exactly a quiet week for me, things are happening and keeping me on my feet.

So hopefuly the clouds will disperse so I will share Kate Bush's "Cloudbusting".

Doing More or Taking Longer To Do It?

Recently , maybe over the last six months or longer , it seems I have less time to do things, or that's how I sometimes perceive it. I'll often look at the clock and think bloody hell I need to do this that and the other. Sometimes it seems that time is running away with me . There's lots I want to do , and I have to drop things because I'm doing other things. Recently a friend was over from Australia for three weeks for his sons wedding , but because of us being in different places when each of us had some free time we missed seeing each other.

I have close friends I haven't seen or spoken to since before Christmas, which is one of the positives about Facebook , because you can be aware of what is happening to others even if you don't see them.

In January I was made redundant, which I thought would mean have a lot of free time. The reality was that because of voluteering (Oxfam) , helping out (Geektalent) plus looking for a job, and doctors appointments , I did not wake up once wondering what  I was going to do that day.

I have two song snippets prepared, but need to knuckle down and make time to get things done there.

Catch up TV is growing by the day , and I don't have Netflix or Amazon Prime and cannot see even contemplating that in the future.

I almost missed the Journey To Justice Exhibition at the Discovery Museum , but forced myself to take time to see it as a good friend was heavily involved.

Then I have been to three gigs this week seeing seven bands and written blog posts on all of them here

So thinking about the situation , I would say I am doing quite a lot , keeping active and that's why sometimes I feel as if I don't have time to do what I want. Yes it is nice to relax at times , but it's even nicer to do something that you want. Really I'm in the position of having a choice of a number of gorgeous sweets at the end of a meal , knowing the reality is that, for today anyway, I can only choose one.

Journey

So the choice of song is Time Captives by Kingdom Come although the song lyrics say Time Captains, if you plan your Time you're fine if not well you know ......

You always have options and the ideal idea is to always have a choice you can take that you want. This comes off for me most of the time so at the moment life is very good.

I think I've said this before , sometimes you just need to step back ,  get a different perspective and then things look so much better.

Have a brilliant day , and there's another Bank Holiday at the end of the month