On Demand

Yesterday I didn't even listen to the live radio, because now you can listen to shows on demand. I was using the BBC Sounds app on my Kindle Fire. I noticed there was something featuring Stephen King , who , like Terry Pratchett, I don't really like his books , but I like him as a person and like the TV and film dramatisations of his stories.

First up was the 6Music "Paperback Writers" show and the listing didn't include The Rolling Stones song "Dance Little Sister" which came between Jan & Dean's "New Girl In School" and KC & The Sunshine Band's "That's The Way (I Like It)" . King's attitude to disco is the same as mine, and we both love it.

I was looking forward to following this with his "Desert Island Discs" but it ran into Irvine Welsh's show and as I am an admirer of Irvine Welsh I let it run , and his music choices were stuff that I would have played , listened to and maybe even picked.

Both authors' shows were illuminating and gave a good insight into them and their tastes. The only slight black mark for me was Stephen King closing with "My Sharona" by The Knack , but each to his hown and when the other choices were so good you have to allow some leeway. Irvine Welsh's choices were all more than acceptable to me.

I then went back to "Desert Island Discs"  which was more talking and less music but a decent listen nonetheless.

The thing is you can cherrypick what you want to listen to these days and that means that live radio is up against a formidable library of sound, so my listening to live radio is about to get a little less. I think I will share "It Came Out Of The Sky" by Creedence Clearwater Revival" because it is on Stephen King's list and it has the "It" connection too.

Documentation

My intention this morning was to walk into work, but I awoke to a deluge, it's dark and cold, so I think it may be a bus journey. Lots of thoughts going through my mind, a bit difficult to put into works because while not bad or downers they are not particularly positive and are the sort of thing that can put you on a downward path if other bad things happen.

It's another day, and another opportunity and I need to start on some documentation at work, effectively redoing documentation I have already written in a new template. Don't you find that often they template takes 75% of the documentation? The good thing about this is it's a single page, which will obviously expand when it's fleshed out.

I'm a great fan of a combination of white space and laconic text in documentation, because then, in my opinion, it's more likely that people will actually read it. Just like instructions for an IKEA flatpack , you think , sod it I'll just do it.

So as the black sky turns to grey the rain seems to have stopped, so why don't we go for "Have You Ever Seen The Rain" surely a rhetorical question by the brilliant Creedence Clearwater Revival.

This excellent video is part of the 50th Anniversary Vinyl Release (on the stripe below) , and I just love the lyrics to the song that opens with:

"Someone told me long ago 

 There's a calm before the storm

 I know it's been comin' for some time

 When it's over so they say

 It'll rain a sunny day

 I know shinin' down like water 

I want to know 

Have you ever seen the rain? 

I want to know 

Have you ever seen the rain 

Comin' down on a sunny day?"

Enjoy your Thursday my friends.

Listening To John Niven

On Sunday 6Music broadcast a show by one of my favourite authers John Niven. The series is called Paperback Writers and has a writer talking for an hour about music that has shaped him and influenced him.  If you want to catch it (before September 2018) you can listen to it here.

Now I'd missed it on Sunday, but then remembered there;s a BBC Radio iPlayer app that you can download onto your phone, and thought "Aha" . As well as music and podcasts I can listen to radio shows on demand on my phone.

So that was my listening for my walk to work this morning. He opened with Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Up Around The Bend" a song I loved since I first heard that razor sharp opening riff, although the lead guitar parts seem remarkably muted compared to the main riff.

He played a lot of great music including Television's "See No Evil" which I tried to emulate in my song "Communication" for The Bok  (and failed totally), and actually pointed out a very dark concept of Middle of The Road's "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" that I hadn't countenanced before about losing your mother as a child.

He also talked about and played a song from The Wishing Tree, the band he was a member of in his early twenties who, from the song he played, well worth a listen.

Basically this has given me another option for listening on my walks, which is all very good.

A Day Of Rain

Well yesterday was overcast and very very wet, and some people were saying well that's the end of the summer, winter's here , implying that it was all misery doom and gloom from now on. As I walked out of Darlington Station a guy was walking up wearing only a shirt, no jacket and no umbrella , and I thought why his is only wearing a shirt , when really I should have been admiring his optimism. Although he my have just not been prepared , but I like to go with the optimistic view,

On Thursday I mowed my lawn , saw the lawn and garden got a good watering, and it definitely was not walking out weather unless you had at least an umbrella. It's still warm here, and it's four in the morning , I've had six hours sleep , and the rain has finally stopped . There was a serious amount coming down last night.

We shall see what the weekend brings, but after a brilliant but hard week at work, it will be nice to relax with may a nip out somewhere to relax even more.

I'm just writing this because I realise that I should actually still be asleep for another three or four hours, although I am feeling absolutely great. Still buzzing from my doctors visit on Thursday for my diabetic catch up where she was so pleased with what's happening to me . I'm just feeling good and I love the rain as musch as the sun , because you need both in your life.

The song is John Fogerty with Bruce Springsteen performing one his Creedence Clearwater Revival songs, which I've loved since I first heard it in the seventies.

Now , I might go back to bed, I know that's where you are .