I Love Seeing People Smile

I love seeing people smile , I love seeing people happy and I love smiling and being happy. Seeing a smile is infectious , I always smile back and sometimes I smile at people and they smile back at me. Yes the context has to be right  (I watch Gotham and have seen some very worrying smiles) , but a smile does make you feel better.

I know society is not good at the moment and I am hopeful we can progress , I detest spitefulness greed and idiocy which seems to be the modus operandi for the government , but my friends and their friends are positive and pleasant people. I love going into work and the only pressure is to get the job done well and that means that there are plenty of opportunities to smile at work as there are lots of wonderful people that I work with.

It does help that the weather is generally summery at the moment , I woke up early and , the sun is streaming through the window although I am still very tired so will be going back to bed after this.

Steffen .. Exit Stage Left with two chairs

There have been a lot of free concerts in South Shields and tomorrow UB40 play Bents Park in South Shields , I tried to get to The Proclaimers and Lindisfarne the other week but I was a bit late and the gates were shut, and there were still huge queues outside , and I was amazed at the number of people complaining that the gates had been shut . It was very popular and public safety is paramount. Oh and my friend Steffen Peddie is playing The Customs House tonight ... now he WILL make you smile (and laugh loads).

Anyway I chose UB40's Sing Your Own Song as it always makes me feel good , and I hope it does the same for you.


Anyway , the weekend is just starting , so smile lots and enjoy other peoples' smiles. It's a simple concept and I know some people are only happy when they are miserable (Usually Mancs and soap opera characters... try Coronation Street and Eastenders, although I have met some brilliant Mancunians in my time such as John Cooper Clarke and others)

Gravity Clones and Seven Nation Armies

One of those phrases that just came to mind for no apparent reason . Clone can be a noun or a verb in this context and Gravity can be a noun or an adjective. Again this could be used as a band name , like Beach Canaries that I used earlier on in the month.

I am thinking of posting a series of songs on here that for me just don't fit into what we expect. Captain Beefheart made me realise that technical ability was subservient to actual ideas. An idea put into practice is far better that the musical ability to play all the notes perfectly , though maybe I am saying that because I can't really play any instrument. The sort of artists that spring to mind are David Bowie , Beefheart , Zappa, PJ Harvey and Siouxsie & the Banshees and that's just a start.

We're coming to the end of July and next week we hit August , the days are getting shorter and soon people will be complaining that we haven't had a summer despite the current heatwave.

Remind You of Anything?

Yesterday I too a photograph in the stairway at work and a friend of mine remarked it reminded him of Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes which is a possibility of a cover for the band I am practicing with although they will be leaning towards the Postmodern Jukebox version so I've included both for you delectation. And that is another coincidence.

So it's a lovely day so enjoy it , it's turning out to be a great week

Atmosphere

I am quite surprised that I don't seem to have ever mentioned Joy Division in this blog. I have written about New Order and The Hacienda and I am sure a few other related bands, but for some reason Joy Division came to mind this morning , and particularly the song Atmosphere ,  then thanks to youtube I found this promotional video which amazingly I've never seen before.

I love it's rickety pretentious mystery and and the black and white graininess. I don't know if the black and white hooded plus and minus figures are stock footage or commissioned for this video but it certainly is a mind stimulating four minutes with and obviously excellent soundtrack.

Scariteletubbies

I first heard the song on John Peel and that's where I heard a lot of artists for the first time. Looking for image from the vide (I know I could have snipped it , the scary black and white Teletubbies image came up so thought it would be fun to include that.

Anyway , the sun is shining, it's the start of a new week , so everyone have a brilliant time today

Relax and Enjoy

I must admit I haven't been too happy with the events of the last couple of weeks , and I really want this blog to be positive , so I have set up another called And Annoyingly for me to post anything that annoys me and I feel I have to rant about.

So this weekend I have managed to relax , sort the garden out , though I have not managed to get out to Summertyne and was sad to miss my friend Teresa who was playing on Friday afternoon when I was at work , but that's the thing we have to do things like work to be able to do the things we want.

This week I have also been enjoying Gotham and the recent reboot of Dredd and think I am ready for another week.

Here is The Weather

It's raining outside but still humid , but apparently we are due a torrential downpour tonight. I have been amazed at the number of people I have seen watering their gardens , but I'm no expert.. I havent watered the garden for two years .. that's how good I think the weather has been and the grass is still green and looks good. I do tend to look out the window to find out out what the weather is like, though it's amazing how many people eschew this method and turn to their smart phone to get the information






Anyway enjoy the rest of your weekend, I certainly will. I really should get dressed , the music is Pearl Jam covering The Beatles' Rain ... one of my favourite Beatles songs

Have a good one

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.

The Kindness Of Strangers

This morning I got off the bus and thought I'd get a couple of bottles to see me through the morning given the lack of air conditioning in our building. I then realised I'd left my wallet at home so wandered into the office remembering that my bank and Samsung Note 4 phone could supposedly do contactless payment. And that is what I thought this post would be about.

So went to local supermarket , though I will try with one item , then thought no it'll work so had about a tenners worth of stuff which I scanned then thought tap and pay. Well tap tap tap and nothing happened , I'd followed the instructions switched on NFC and all that but nothing. So the helpful girl in Tesco's said she'd put the stuff back.

Then I noticed an option on the phone app  so pressed it and it said I had thirty seconds to do the transaction. I though great, this should be no problem , so re scanned my shopping basket , pressed the button, tap to pay ...... no way ... so handed back another bag of stuff.

Eat Me

Sort of gave up , but thought maybe it's their machines. So I went to Gregg's. Same result , so I was destined to go hungry , but here's where it gets interesting. I use Gregg's quite regularly but didn't know the server, but the guy said  "Just take it" , I said know , but he said it would be OK , but I didn't want him having to explain why he was £2 down on his till , but thanked him anyway.

Then as I was walking out a guy came after me and said "Here's £2 for the sandwich" , I said I hadn't had one, was slightly confused, but this guy was offering to buy me a sandwich , he said he'd been in the same position. I said no again , but thanked him for his kindness.

It's funny how we are often reluctant to take genuine help from others , but my failing phone brought me in to contact with some wonderful unselfish kindness today. I am glad I forgot my wallet because as a result I know there are more kind people near me that I thought there were.

Anyway it's really hot , so there's only one song , from Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate , "It's Too Darned Hot" , though I've gone for the Ella Fitzgerald version.

A Little Online History

Around fifteen years back I started my Song of The Salesman website and then I realised that I could ad advertising and sell related music from it. At it's height it was bringing in £500 a month , not it maybe hits £30 , but I keep it going as a hobby with monthly updates. Yesterday I removed two more online music links , namely GEMM who have gone to the wall and Play / Rakuten who have become fairly rubbish. This leaves Amazon and iTunes left as the only online iusic sellers that I can link to.

Emusic used to have a great model but that became shot to hell so I had to drop them , but the problem is that for the sellers that disappear there are no replacement models that will pay me for linking .

Ebay dropped me because I didn't make THEM enough money .

There are online services such as Spotify , but their model wouldn't mesh with mine, others come and go.

Below is a list of the affiliates who have come and gone, a lot still exist in one form or another:

• Napster
• GEMM
• Some Russian Site
• HMV
• Virgin
• Zavvi
• Emusic
• 7Digital
• WE7
• Woolworths
• Tesco
• Asda
• Ebay

There are probably a lot more but I just find it sad that I feel as though for music , online there is much less mainstream choice. There is still a lot of online presences worth looking into such as Noisetrade  who make a lot of albums available free to promote music, Bandcamp  , Soundcloud and many others. Music is certainly not dead , it's thriving , but  it's the grass roots music makers who give us the choice , not the mainstream.

Grainger Market

I suppose it's like the Supermarket model , their ultimate aim is to close down all the competition. Luckily I live in Newcastle and have The Grainger Market and lots of great local food shops like Medina.

Also if you look at online , many people will not venture beyond Facebook and Amazon when the sum of all human knowledge is at their disposal. TV is the same , with have a plethora o f media available but some people don't get beyond Eastenders , X-Factor and Britain's Got Talent.

The thing is there is so much out there if you just open your eyes, but as the bible quote says "There are none so blind as those that will not see"

Anyway , it's gorgeous out there , go out and find something worthwhile to enjoy , me , I'm going to see The Reet Hot Chilli Peppers tonight.