No Parlez

This is the second post about albums where the CD was an extended version of the vinyl artefact. Prior to his solo career Paul Young hand been in excellent voice as the lead singer of the Q-Tips and possibly with the awful Streetband and their awful single "Toast".

"No Parlez" contained some decent covers such as "Wherever I Lay My Hat, That's My Home". "Love Will Tear Use Apart" and "Love of the Common People" , but the stand out for me was the cover of Anthony Moore's "No Parlez" , and I have featured a few Anthony Moore songs on this blog , check here, Anthony Morre collaborated with Peter Blegvad in Slapp Happy as well as Henry Cow so off the commercial spectrum but still managed some great singles.

Then I though of the phrase "No Parlez" and thought although we are more connected than ever, there was a couple on the train up to Edinburgh who spent most of their time texting on their phones rather than speaking to each other, and this is something you see more often than not, people preferring the company of their device rather than the company of real people. Sometimes I am guilty of this too though I will excuse it by saying I am looking up something or trying to find something out.

Still my preference is for face to face conversation and today I received the first video message on my phone from my 83 year old dad, being cajoled by his girlfriend's daughter to reply to a video that I sent her. Technology is great at times but it should be used judiciously.

Some Days

Some days you just can't seem to get out of first gear. Today has been one of those days. There's things I tend to do on a weekend but have just not been able to get motivated to actually do anything. Though having said that I have gone into town and was disturbed by a huge Nazi rally in the centre of Newcatstle.

I then went down into the Monument Metro and there was an old guy sort of busking. He sank Perry Como's "Catch A Falling Star", Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" and Dean Martin's "Little Old Wine Drinker Me" in a very pleasant melodic Geordie burr to recorded accompaniment.. The only problem was the timing of his songs and the timing of his accompaniment were completely out of sync. If he had been unaccompanied it would have been technically better, but ....

... on the station platform everyone was talking about with a smile on their faces, this guy was raising money for charity and putting a smile on everyone's face including mine. He was cheering everyone up and bringing lots of happiness to a grey day in Newcastle, especiall considering the idiocy that was happening above.

Anyway I went over to Gateshead to The Doll At The Black Bull to see if I could sort out why their website was juts showing advertisements. I couldn't find a real reason for it but it was working when I left . It's here , and I hope it works for you.

Anthony Moore

Anyway despite this potentially being a waste of a day, it turns out lots of good came out of it, and at the end of the day I'm quietly satisfied with my small contribution to the world. Hope you all sleep well. The music I was going to choose was Anthony Moore's take on Perry Como's "Catch A Falling Star" but it;s not on Youtube yet, so I chose "Judy Get Down" which is another song I love.


 I remember years ago when Bryan Ferry was asked his opinion on Cockney Rebel's "Judy Teen" he said he preferred the Perry Como version. How cruel ... and funny.

Facebucked

It looks like Facebook is blocking by blog posts. There's only a handful of hits now, which I assume is from friends, and given that the blog has only three followers I'm hardly headline news.  Last month there were hundreds of visits via Facebook, but now you can count them on two hands. The thing is they've done the same to Spoongig which normally gets a decent amount of hits.

As I mainly write it as a diary it's not a problems, but if I was trying to monetise it or run a business then it could be quite annoying. You should never rely on just one source for anything you do, because if that source dries up then you are fairly screwed.

As I write this I'm attempting to make my own take on an Aloo Chole curry, which Rajanagar do so brilliantly. I was thinking that I'd go for a takeaway, but decided to try my hand at it myself with extra greens and a few olives.

After a busy couple of days, looking forward to a relaxing night maybe even watch some TV, but I will leave you with "Judy Get Down" by Anthony Moore for no other reason than it's an absolutely brilliant song.

Enjoy your Tuesday night.

Imperfect Memory

Two thirds of the way through "Coldheart Canyon" and I do not remember it going like this. Huge chunks of it are like a newish book to men. That's the benefit of my imperfect memory, I forget things which means I can reread books and enjoy them as I did the first time round.

I suppose the same can be said of films and TV series, I generally remember overall part of the narrative and major incidents and occurrences, but they can still surprise me , so I can revisit and enjoy time after time.

I wrote that my hard drive had died, but I couldn't find an ethernet connected disc and thought I would just have to link via the USB connection on my router and access my content via that. My Kindle wouldn't connect but I found that my phone would, which was useful. Today I discovered that the ES File Explorer app on my Amazon Kindle could not only see the drive but also play content from it , so as the only disks I have is a backup disc (1 Tb) and a second backup (500Gb) , I have now ordered an 8 Tb one. I can't connect my DVD player up yet , but that's hardly an issue as if I want to watch something I can put them on a stick and watch them

As I write this I am listing to "No Parlez" by Paul Young , which is a bit of a curates egg , good in parts. Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and Anthony Moore's "No Parlez" are week takes on th ethe originals , but Paul Young has an excellent voice and loved him with the Q-Tips (but not Streetband) , so I found a live take of "Some Kinda Wonderful" which is quite impressive.

It's always good to revisit the good stuff

You Can Make Me Sing , Dance or Anything ... #2 - 1958 - Catch A Falling Star

Yesterday had more than 100 people wish me a happy birthday via Facebook which made be feel nice.

It's quite amazing how much dross hits the charts , but I always loved this song , and wile never an avid Perry Como fan I still like this . I will never forget Bryan Ferry's riposte to interviewer who asked him his opinion on Cockney Rebel's Judy Teen , he said he preferred the Perry Como version.

In Stoker

This weekend will be spent in the Stoker Room in La Rosa in Whitby , which is my favourite hotel in the world bar none. I would love to hire it for a long weekend and fill it with my friends. The room does have a view across the river to the Abbey which I will be visiting also.

These posts are going to be by their nature heavy on video and light on the text. Some may even just be the video, but I wiull try and find something interesting to say.

Whitby is one of my total favourite places and no doubt I will be instagramming  .

I took the title of the Faces compilation that my lovely daughters bought me for my birthday because it is such a great feelgood sentiment and we need lots of those.

But my favourite take on it was the wonderful Anthony Moore.