Send Out The Clowns

"How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered The World" by Francis Wheen worries me more as I read it. Don't get me wrong it is an excellent book, but the remarks on the front say it is hilarious and funny, to the point you expect comedy, but it is genuinely frightening, just going over the fatwa issued on Salman Rushdie and how western governments and religion seemed virtually OK with it.

I feel Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Rishi Sunak are treated as jokes and figures of fun when the reality is that the clowns are very dangerous. They are bullies who think they are above the law when they should be behind bars. People defend them, saying what they do is legal, but it is their mates who make the laws and if they don't like them they just ignore them because they are allowed to get away with breaking the law.

This is my first post in July and I am hitting three thousand visits a day, so if that keeps up, in theory, I could hit a hundred thousand this month, but we shall see. Last year I did twenty posts, this year I am already up to twenty-six.

Recent posts were usually lucky to get twenty visits but recently they are hitting fifty and the last one is up to seventy-four, so I don't know what is happening.

If you want to buy a book my dark poetry is on the link below.

The music is "They Murdered The Clown" by Graham Parker, just an amazing song.

I recently discovered 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.

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. Barter Books - An Amazing Bookshop In A Railway Station In Alnwick
2. The Plagiaristic Poetry Series - Poems Taken From Random-Themed Lines
3. Another Raven - A Take On Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"
4. The Cleaner - An Autism-Focused Christmas Special
5. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
6. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
7. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
8. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer

Tommy Can You Hear Me?

I had a dream in which a lot happened last night but the only specific thing was me chucking a pint of water over Donald Trump who was sat in a sink. I don't know if it's related to the fact that there are some tea spoons being bleached in a pint glass by the sink down stairs or what, but the dream involved country roads , cottages , buses and the aforementioned incident.

This is my sixtieth post this year , so that is averaging fifteen posts a month , although there is a lot of April to go so I am expecting maybe two hundred posts this year.

This week has seen me listening to a lot of music and realising that I have ten copies of  "Tommy" by The Who in one form or another and the Ken Russell film sort of set a blueprint for decent pop videos with Elton John's "Pinball Wizard" and Tina Turner's "Acid Queen".

I have the original , orchestral and film soundtrack but all my live Who CDs have a live take of  "Tommy" included , including "Who's Next". So it's gotta be Tina Turner's "Acid Queen" to play out with.

A Meme - #Oktoberfest #8 - Escape (The Piña Colada Song) - Rupert Holmes

I wasn't going to post this, but saw an amusing meme which referenced the song in the latest Donald Trump criminal activity. The problem is with Trump and Johnson we laugh at them when we should be jailing them, they are allowed to get away with murder literally and there are always people defending them often citing the law, But essentially this is a funny meme and the song to go with it.

"If you're big into Nazis and don't have half a brain

If you pay for sex from pornstars then try to bribe it away

I'm the putz that you looked for, 

Vote for me 'cause of hate"

No doubt I have the song somewhere in my collection on some compilation because it has appeared on many soundtracks, but for such a slab of cheese, divorced from the awful lyrics the tune is actually quite good. It did appear on the "Guardians of the Galaxy" soundtrack and is always part of standard 1970s fare often served up by local radio and wedding DJs (if they still exist, I recently saw one in Dalgety Bay so they are still around).

Sleep well, I am flagging now.

Strictly Not Strictly

I do find Strictly Come Dancing as tedious as Come Dancing was, but that is life, we like different things and why I am not watching the big telly at the moment and writing this post. I would rather do anything (within reason) than watch a Dancing program.

The contestants all work hard and I appreciate this but they really don't catch my attention so I would rather write , listen to music , watch other TV and TED Talks  on my computer or portable device. I loved Groucho Marx' quote about TV:

"I find television very educational , every time it's switched on I go into another room and read a book"

That's roughly what he said and is both funny and educational in itself. It's great when things cause you to do something that results in the creation of something. So Strictly caused me to think about things and write this and watch an educational TED talk about satire today which is both informative and funny and educates you with some great ideas by Patrick Chappatte , so I've included it below. It includes some excellent cartoons taking on Trump, Brexit and more.

The song I was going to include is obviously "Come Dancing" by The Kinks, so I hope you are having a great Saturday night whatever you are watching.

Kill 'Em All

We're approaching the end of February and because I've walked enough steps my daily walking has slowed down a bit. I'm also getting used to coffee made with Almond milk , which tastes a bit weird but is not undrinkable and it is supposedly better although dairy milk contains more protein which uses more calories to digest so in theory both are equivalent, but we shall see. The Almond milk I've been buying is only slightly more expensive than normal skimmed milk.

Last night I made an Aloo Chole so the last two days have been fairly vegan, which can't be too bad. I do find it strange that people have a problem with veganism, though these sort of people are always looking for something to have a problem with, so veganism just goives them an excuse to raise their blood pressure.

Currently I'm two thirds the way through "Kill 'Em All" the latest novel from John Niven following up "Kill Your Friends" although "Second Coming" was also a sort of follow up to "Kill Your Friends" and his referenced in "Kill 'Em All". The Simon Cowell charater is all you would expect and more, a total git , and the NOT Michael Jackson character (he can't be because he is white, and is vaguely compared with Jackson) is frighteningly possible as this takes in the whole post Trump election scenario and the fact that anything can be excused or dismissed as fake news.

So what would be a good song to accompany this, possibly my favourite late Jackson song "Black or White". Have a great day.

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".

Vietnam

Vietnam?

Every so often I get a reasonable amount of views from some places. Recently it's been Russia, Germany, Peru and Brazil an dthe latest one is Vietnam. I haven't a clue why this happens in this way, it may be that the save up the figures for a month or a quarter and send the to google causing a spike in my viewing figures.

I don't think I've been hit by any spy bots, but only Russia may have been in that area,. Maybe if I mention ISIS, Trump's assassination, Boris Johnson drowning Theresa May there may be a little interest but I doubt it.

But it is weird how these countries apart from Russia don't really seem to repeat their visits.

The USA has little interest in this blog although I do hav mant American friends who may or may not read this.



This is just a very short post (though a lot longer that some of my early posts) about this situation.

I think an appropriate sng for this will be New Order's take on Jimmy Cliff's "Vietnam" which appeared on the "Best of War Child"digital only album release.

Have a rather excellent Wednesday everybody.

Walk This Way ....

I wasn't expecting a great start to the New Year with my walking but the first three days I've passed 40K steps , which is a good return. February will be more difficult as I will need to hit 12K a day and part of me thinks I can't do that, but part of me is determined that I WILL do that.

I was looking It a post I'd done about Tideswell and Litton in 2009 here which contains less than 100 words, and looking at it I'm surprised that there are that many. It is remarkably sparse, although it is my ambition to do a coherent post of maybe ten words, though I am not sure that would be possible. While I can ramble on about something and nothing sometimes I do need to be reigned in to stop me from going off at such a tangent that I fall of the edge of whatever I'm actually doing.

At this point this post clocks in at around 170 words, so the Tideswell post would have probably finished after the first paragraph.

Anyway people will probably expect me to include "Walk This Way" by Aerosmith, a band I missed when they first came round and still don't think I missed much. The only song of their's that I really like is the excellent "Livin' On The Edge" though I am sure lots of people will tell me how wrong I am.

Instead I've been listening to the excellent "Quark, Strangeness and Charm" by Hawkwind a thouroughly enjoyable album from start to finish, but while the opener "Spirit of the Age" is great, my favourite is still "Damnation Alley" based on the book by Roger Zelazny (turned into a rubbish film but it works well as a backdrop for the song) and probably appropriate given Donald Trump's "My Button is Bigger Than Your Button" Shenanigans with Kim Jong Un

Connections - Would You Push The Button?

Just finished "Escape From LA" and started watching "American Horror Story:Cult" . Both feature an idiot, semi theocratic American President (one has a Trump like character the other has Trump) and at the end of "Escape From LA" Snake Plisken has the opportunity to destroy all electronics (and by logical progression banks and the way society is run) and send the world back five hundred years.

When you see the hysteria and fright and Trump's election victory you feel the world is coming to an end.

Would you press that button? No one would die .. immediately .. but would you want to go back to before computers existed?

To some that would be very tempting. Debts and fortunes would be wiped out. Tracking of personal data would be gone. We would have to start with pencil and paper on everything.

Seriously though I would be tempted I would be too scared of losing all the good things along with the bad things. Think how health and life expectancy has improved. Would you want to lose that , and the conveniance of power at the flick of a switch?

I think not , but if that decision was in the hands of a thoroughly disillusioned person , they just might.

Kate Tempest's "Don't Fall In" is appropriate for these observations. Sorry if I have depressed or upset you but the leaders of the UK and the USA don't exactly inspire me at the moment. Hopefully this will change sooner rather than later.

Russia?

Russia on Top

The last few days visits to this blog have increased due to visits from Russia. I don't know if these are robots looking for evidence of anti Putin / Trump / May or other appeasers, but every so often visits spike due to attention from Russia.

The other one that spikes now and then is Australia, but as you can see there were no antipodean visits yesterday, almost totally European bar Russia, Ukraine,Canada and the USA.

The blog is in English as you can see so it's unlikely to attract people from countries where English is not spoken or written.







Anyway it's just something I noticed this morning so I think we should have something that at least has a Russian feel, so we'll go for The Leningrad Cowboys backed by The Red Army Choir in Helsinki singing ZZ Top's "Gimme All Your Lovin'".

Have an excellent day my friends.

The Last Few Days

Has been sore and painful, and I'm not talking about that pair of morons Trump and May leading our nations into oblivion. Monday was and work and having to go for a wee about every fifteen minutes, but felt ok, Tuesday morning was  lots of horrible bodily stuff resulting in me be unable to eat, and feeling like I'd been punched from the outside and the inside, Tuesday night was unable to sleep but finally decided to take a couple of Ibuprofen which seemed to ease the pain. I've not slept so much for ages as I have over the past two days.

I was in bed but had 6Music on and in a really weird turn Stuart Maconie talking about The Chain entered my dream and I was just about to say something to him when I woke up about 3pm. The dream involved me working at BT based in somewhere that was vaguely familiar, meeting a lovely girl called Kiki and Stuart Maconie and moving desks and being on a rather odd bus ride that involved being covered in a protective tarpaulin, you know the average sort of dream that I have.

While I am not back to 100%, I have managed a tomato sandwich and some pea and ham soup and toast, so hopefully I will be fit and raring to go tomorrow.

Was wondering what song to put on this and somehow Randy Newman's "Putin" came up in my feed. I didn't even know this song existed but it's Newman at his satirical best,  I sure Vladimir would agree.

I didn't intend this post to have any political content, but I managed to mention Trump, May and Putin and that makes them sound like a firm of bailiffs, which I suppose they really are.

We Have To Stay Positive

We knew it was coming, we knew it was getting in the Whitehouse because the electorate knew him as the face of the Apprentice and that's why they voted. If Simon Cowell stood for Prime Minister in the UK the idiots would come out in their millions to vote for him.

This is called democracy

So what do we do?

We be ourselves.

We try and educate people that their vote matters

We foster respect and tolerance and a love of diversity.

We do what we can to make things better for us and for others.

We make life good.

WE know the dangers of what has happened the USA, but there are a hell of a lot of sensible people in the USA , like there are in the UK and maybe the Trump success is the kick up the arse that good people need to realize you cannot take things for granted.

Anyway we will deal with this and we will make things better by being positive, doing our best for ourselves, our friends and family and those who need our help.

Last Monday I was a little apprehensive about my Liver Biopsy. Today I have a biggish bruise on my right side and all is good. I knew it was going to happen and some brilliant people in the NHS made it perfect for me,

I have sort of neglected this blog but I will choose a song that is positive and the Mitchel and Webb Apprentice sketch which is hilarious. What better than Public Service Broadcastings's "Go" , totally positive and that is what we should be.

Find Something Good To Enjoy and Smile

I was going to write a post on And Annoyingly but decided to write something positive about enjoyable stuff. I am sick of people defending Donald Trump and attacking Jeremy Corbyn, Corbyn has his faults but is still the best option for a Labour leader. That's all I am going to say.

Vinyl Beauty

Maybe I shouldn't go on Facebook, but I do I have interactions with some wonderful friends on there, and then I feel better, and put on some music such as Stomu Yamash'ta's Floating Music. I remember buying it on Island's mid priced label for £1.49 when it came out around 1972, I had seen Man From The East on TV so I bought it and loved it. Just an example of me liking something that no one else in my social circles had even come close to , and when they heard hit they weren't exactly supportive, but that's their loss. It's always good to try new things but I've never been taken by smooth lounge jazz , but this was a complete different universe.  You can hear a bit of it here and here.




While this may not be the most exciting way to spend the last day of the bank holiday, it makes me feel good and therefore it is good. It is very easy to get sidetracked by negatives but have just booked La Rosa for my birthday as well , and it's my favourite hotel in my favourite holiday place, Whitby. On the phone they know who I am even though it's a year since I stayed there.

I also phoned and spoke with my dad, and over the weekend gave my eldest daughter something towards a Big Daisy Kiss Star Wars hand bag that she wants for her birthday. At least this year I won't forget that. That's inspired me to put up Meco's Disco take on Star Wars and that WILL bring a smile to your face.

Anyway as the sun sets on the Bank Holiday , smile , enjoy yourself and set yourself up for a brilliant week. I have done, so you do the same.

Brrrrr........Exit Stage Left

My final thoughts on the referendum results , supporting it with a couple of videos from The Daily Show's John Oliver.

I always go with the majority , because it's the right thing to do, that's the way democracy works. However the Referendum is not a legally binding thing , we don't have to leave the European Union, and the Government have stated that it will be at least twelve months before they invoke Article 50 , but want to start dismantling Human Rights as soon as possible, see here. But I have several points that still trouble me:

Lies, Lies , Lies

• The Money That was going to be saved to give the NHS , according to Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage  they never said that , it isn't going to happen
• If we are withdrawing from the EU , a single entity , why have we appointed Boris Johnson to build new relations with European Countries (28 of them)  for trade? I thought that's why we were getting out
• All of a sudden we can't close our borders to other countries if we want to trade with them , so the immigration situation is not going to change
• Cameron wanted to remain so he resigned , and Farage and Boris Johnson disappeared to
• A lot of people voted leave because they believed the lies of the Leave Campaign , or just wanted to protest against the Government, but if the reason people voted was based on numerous lies , then is their vote valid? People have said they should have realised that what the Leave campaign was saying was lies  , but if this were subject to "Sale of Goods" rules the Referendum would be declared null and void
• Also the "Take Back Control" slogan , we already have all the control we need who are we taking back what from?

 The thing is a lot of people had valid reasons to want to leave, but thousands have been conned. A lot of Leave voters couldn't tell you why they wanted to leave , they just did, some where shocked with the result came in. I certainly was , though I did vote stay.

In the USA they reckon the country will not be so stupid as to vote in that allegedly racist , misogynist serial liar Donald Trump , but the UK voted in the tory party for two terms and have capped it with a vote to leave a flawed but beneficial economic and mutually enhancing bloc, the potention of the electorate to shoot itself in the face in the name of democracy never fails to amazy me.

Watch the John Oliver videos , although it may be too late as we have another Witch in Westminster now.