Showing posts with label Winter Solstice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Winter Solstice. Show all posts

Thursday 21 January 2021

Keep It Dark

 Although we are way past the shortest day (on the Winter Solstice) it is still dark in a morning although lighter in an evening. It's 8AM now and coming light but we will soon be implementing daylight saving again (slightly pointless in a 24/7 society) and will be back to even darker mornings.

This is another post that I started a couple of days ago and then have picked up to finish today. The weather has been dreich although last night we had snow again which you can see on my Instagram channel here.

I have been doing a work course in Power BI yesterday and today so not much time to listen to music, but yesterday I picked out a free copy of "True" by Spandau Ballet and wasn't too impressed , but luckily it's only thirty six minutes. "Lifeline" is good , but the rest is dross although the title track was successfully integrated into the excellent "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" by PM Dawn.

Anyway the song I am going to share is the excellent "Keep It Dark" by fourth phase Genesis from "Abacab" which I believe was titled after it's chord sequence and is one of the many great songs they produced after Peter Gabriel left.

It's light now and it's 8:18am.

Monday 21 December 2020

Winter Solstice - 2020

 Today is the shortest day of the year, that is there is more darkness than light, so after today the days start to get longer.

This always reminds me of the final book in F Paul Wilson's "Adversary" series, where the days just keep getting shorter.

I have been out for a short walk to post a Christmas card to a good griend and outside it is dark and very cold. As I walking I noticed th elights on the West Road which looked almost magical , I would have loved to capture that in a photograph but the were to far away and my Google Pixel camera , good as it is, couldn't capture it. I always think back to twenty years back when we had film cameras and if you took a picture you then had to wait til you finished the film, then send it off to be developed before you knew when the photograph was OK.

Here is a write up about the Winter Solstice which is far better than what I could tell you, although any excuse for a celebration is good for me.

This is also an excuse to share the excellent "Solstice" by the incredibly talented Matt Berry who I also recently found out was one of the voices in "Disenchantment", as well as being part of teh wonderful "What We Do In The Shadows".

Enjoy this year's Winter Solstice , knowing that tomorrow there will be more light.

Thursday 27 December 2018

Grey Christmas


Weatherwise this must be one of the greyest Christmases I have ever seen. Christmas has been fine but the weather has not been too cold and seriously is just plain grey. The good news is that since the Winter Solstice we are getting more daylight, as I noticed leaving a desolate workplace at around four of the clock today.

That always makes me think of F Paul Wilson's "Nightworld" the finale of The Adversary series which kicked off with "The Keep". The shortening of the days doesn't stop when it should and hence the title of the book. Check it out, well check out the whole series, there are six excellent book and "The Keep" was turned in to a half decent film by Michael Mann.

I've been listening to a lot of Jethro Tull recently and decided to put a couple of albums on my phone, but managed to just load up the "Aqualung" out takes, but I have since rectified that. Basically the out takes didn't include "Locomotive Breath" which I included in a recent post when it was used as an opener to "Fargo". So a few Tull albums and my complete Janelle Monae and Jordan Reyne collection have been installed for my listening pleasure.

So who do I choose to share with you, maybe Jordan Reyne who's new album "Bardo" is just out but I will choose the piece that stunned me when I first saw her many moons ago at Think Tank, the hypnotically beautiful and disturbing "Shadow Line".

Friday 22 December 2017

Winter Solstice - The Longest Night


I thought this was the 23rd of December but it's actually the 21st, yesterday. That means the days are going to start getting longer and we will have more light. It's dark outside at the moment but it's good to know the days are getting longer as we nudge towards Christmas Day for a Cool Yule. Here's the Wikipedia entry for the Winter Solstice , make of it what you will.

I do prefer the thought of Druids at Stonehenge to Coke lorries crashing through towns , and I've previously mentioned on how Coke put their red and white all over Christmas.

We don't have snow and it is quite mild, but we shouldn't complain too much, we are at the weekend and for lazy people like me it's a sort of four day weekend. As a bonus the guy who was coming to fix my boiler flue tomorrow (between 7am and 7pm) came today, so that means I don't have to wait in tomorrow for him , and he get's a less fraught day before Christmas Eve.

So this is the third #SuddenlyItsChristmas post and it's another excuse to share Jethro Tull's "Ring Out Solstice Bells" which is a wonderful seasonal song, and still sounds wonderful. Enjoy and tomorrow maybe I'll post another seasonal classic.


Saturday 21 December 2013

Today Is The Winter Solstice


Today is the Winter Solstice so the days are now going to get longer and lighter.  Though because of the nature of nature , nothing remains totally constant.

Sigur Ros always remind me of winter , I've heard their music and described "for glaciers" and can't argue with this. They are from Iceland so I think I can definitely describe this as a seasonal beauty.
A quote from the Youtube feed :

"The only reason for autumn and spring, is to jump in puddles." -- 
+John Kellden 

Which I can fully understand. The video for Hoppipolla is , well maybe , just what you'd expect from the band, I was hoping for one full of Arctic landscapes as the wind and rain blows outside my window.  Today I was contact by the son of a former work colleague who returned to Australia many moons ago , thanking me for the song I'd posted on his wall for the birthday , It was totally out of the blue , but is always nice to hear from people. The last Christmas song I posted by Glasvegas , I thought some people  may find a little depressing but I am glad friends saw the beauty in it. They are a wonderful band, and I remember my friend Kate saying how much she loved them because of they sing in a broad Glasgow accent (another friend now living in Africa)

Anyway enjoy , this and enjoy the rest of your pre Christmas Weekend.

Friday 20 December 2013

20 Days In


Apparently the Winter Solstice begins tomorrow. So we finally reach the shortest day of the year and then the days start to get longer for us in the Northern Hemisphere and shorter for all my wonderful friends in the Southern Hemisphere. You win some , you lose some. Still we get the cold , rain and drizzle and in the Southern Hemisphere you have wonderful sunshine and warmth so everyone has some good news. I always concentrate on the good news and positives, not the bad , negatives.

At this point in the post I haven't a clue what to days song or music piece will be. I had considered The Goons "I'm Walking Backwards For Christmas"  but don't really think it fit's in with what I want, then I remembered the Glasvegas Christmas EP, so chose this lovely sounding , if very slightly depressing, song by them. I remember this was very expensive when I tried to get hold of it , but eventually found a copy. You can still pay £30 for it though the download is a more reasonable fiver.

Anyway , it's cold , but we can make it warm in our hearts. Be nice to everyone, show compassion , and enjoy your pre-Christmas weekend, and keep on smiling.

Tuesday 22 December 2009

Winter Solstice 2009

The Winter Solstice was yesterday, Dec. 21, 2009, the day when the Earth tilts farthest away from the sun.

The solstice marks the shortest day of the year and the official start of winter. The word "solstice" comes from the Latin "sun stands still" and celebrations of the solstice pre-date Christmas, though you wouldnt think so the way some Christian Fundamentalist go on. Anyway the days get longer from here and I've put together some winter images backed by Jethro Tull's "Ring Out Solstice Bells" which can be downloaded here: