Not The Best

Today I thought I was getting a lie in as they burglar alarm service team were coming. They did ... late ... and will be charging me for a new battery as they only last five years. Prior to that a serious roof leak reappears soaking a mattress and sheets and I am trying to get the person who should have fixed it to fix it..

This is what causes stress, when something affecting you is out of your control. Because of that I didn't go to the Queercastle finale party even though it was only six to nine with people I like to see, although I wasn't missed.

The day has been muggily hot so not comfortable at work. There's been rain and sun but I managed to get some stuff done at work then left phone messages about the roof.

I then watched some catch up TV finishing off with Janelle Monáe and The Cure's Glastonbury sets.

It's still hot and muggy so I hope to be able to sleep.

A work colleague recommended the Youtube Subliminals for weight loss and other things but the rten hours of rain sound is very relaxing although at odds with what is happening to my roof ate the moment. I listened to a few ten minute ones and an hour of the rain this morning , may download some as MP3s to listen to when walking into work.

So what music should we have,  Last night I listened to "Go" by Stomu Yamash'ta and it's one of my many favourite albums, so we'll have a live take of "Crossing The Line" featuring Stevie Winwood from the album.

Sleep  well.

Truly Original

Can anything be truly original.?

This question is usually asked about art forms and will have been debated and answered by people far more qualified and intelligent than I. If you ask the question on Google you get this list but I am just going to put down a few of my thoughts on this.

The question came into my head last night and I started wondering about it.

Science (I know that's a huge umbrella) is probably the main area where someone can be truly original in methods for discovering existing things and creating new ones, but it still works within an existing framework.

Religion is usually based on some kind of moral code with an off world figurehead and an on world leader group. AGain based on a defined framework.

Then we come to art. Thom Yorke once said Radiohead were going to dispense with melody, but I still hear tunes in their work. Surrealism takes us away from the norm but it still anchors itself in familiarity. If it didn't you could not connect with a desired audience.

That is usually the point of everything, is to share and connect in some way, whether to benefit, control or make money.

Sometimes simple board games require true originality (I'm thinking Edward De Bono's "L" game), but again they start with the defined framework of a board.

All art is a rearrangement of existing letters of the alphabet and grouping them into words, and in music you have a set number of notes augmented by sounds from nature and electronic devices , and as soon as it becomes liked it becomes familiar and becomes part of the framework.

This is just a few thoughts with no real conclusion and is not very original but I just wanted to put this down.

For some reason Roxy Music's second album "For Your Pleasure" has come to mind and while I was thinking firstly "Editions of You" with Brian Eno's synthesiser sol , I then ping ponged between the sinister title song and "The Bogus Man" and I will go for the latter with the 2011 tour visuals.

Things

This week I decided to see my friend Krista so messaged her as I hadn't seen her for a while. She messaged me back and asked if we could meet at six. My first thought was that I was going to to be leaving work at 4:30 and wanted to go home, but thought so be stupid and decided to stay at work another hour so I could catch up with Krista. It was a half hour drink together in the Tyneside and she told me of a film she had been to see and invited me to Queercastle - Nocturnal Novocastrians closing party on Thursday , but it is on all week. so that will be a great thing to visit this lunchtime.

Then I woke up to my biggest ever Discogs order, it may not come off because of postage but we shall see.

I think the point of this is whenever you see an opportunity take it. A half hour chat with a friend can really make your day, whenever you do it, so if you get the opportunity take it.

I came home made my tea (Curried Chickpeas , Fish Fingers and Alphabites due to a Co Op offer though the Chickpeas came from Medina whire I mistakenly picked up a bunch of Mint instead of Coriander - how useless am I at times?).

I then watched the last two episodes of Waco  which to me had just been a suicide cult, however if the series is to be believed this was a group led by David Koresh who was a nutjob , but incredibly intelligent and potentially very dangerous but this was effectively a vicious attack by the FBI and ATF which resulted in the deaths of 75 people because of gung ho incompetence and cover up. Firing incendiary devices into building after you have filled with tear gas ( remembering there were 25 children in there) shows blatant stupidity and disregard for life. A truly great TV series.

So "Zombie" by Jamie T was on 6 Music , I love that record , a great chorus , so that's what we shall have.

So have an excellent Tuesday everyone.

Before Bed

This is post 1977. There can only be one song, can't there. Is this going to be the shortest post I've ever done?

Well not quite because this was my first ever blog post, and it was fairly short maybe about fifty words (I can't be bothered to count but you can do it yourself.

1977 was the year that punk really got underway. but it started way before that. The Bok sent demos to John Peel , Stiff Records and Rabid Records in Manchester. John Peel said we were primitive , Stiff sent a rejection letter , but Rabid wanted us. It was only when Rabid asked which studio we had recorded it that it dawned on us the reason for Peel's reaction. We'd never seen a studio and recorded direct to 2 track cassette. The single was decided, people stopped talking to be because the bassist said we were going to be on Top of The Pops , then Rabid went bust and the band split.

We formed on a Tuesday and played our first gig on the following Saturday, and it that time we managed to write and learn songs for something like a one hour set, including "Waiting For The Man" , "Gloria", "The Passenger" , "Egyptian Reggae" , "Shot By Both Sides" and the demos on the link above.

One of my favourite guitarists was Ollie Halsall who recommended learning with heavy gauge strings and playing with light gauge strings. What this didn't take into account was the fact that in the heat of the gig they went out of tune almost immediately. After a gig one guy said he was impressed with my in song tuning.

Anyway 1977 was the year of The Roxy , any number of punk bands , many still around now, and off course "1977" by The Clash , the "B" side of "White Riot".

"No Elvis, Beatles or Rolling Stones

 In 1977"

Absolutely brilliant and The rolling Stones are still going but The Clash aren't , two trully great bands

Restart

I've decided to start sharing things on Facebook again (ie Instagram photos) but trying to generally keep it to positive items. If Facebook decide to ban me again there is nothing I can do, there is no option to contest a ban, but it's their club.

This weekend has been varied and busy, yesterday was at Sarah's birthday gathering in North Shields and then I got a friend request from a niece who I have not seen since I was hospitalised with my first bout of ITP in the mid eighties, and though my timeline is gonna look very sparse isn't it. One of the problems is that complaints , bad news and rumour spreads like wildfire while good news is seldom shared but it makes people it touched feel better and if I can do that to one person then it's worth doing.

Today I was thinking I needed to do something, but was feeling a little lethargic , but mowed the lawn, then caught an angry bee in the bedroom (well it was angry in the tube) , but I let it out the window and it went off at some speed.

This week I intend to see a lot of friends including Krista at Kota who I've not seen and Claire at Glamorous Owl who I manage to keep missing, and whoever happens to be about at RPM and Snackwallah and if the queues are low I may try Acropolis another addition to the Grainger Market.

Although I have been feeling apathetic and lethargic I'm obviously not as I've done a lot and have plans to do more. Sometimes you just have to do things and then that makes you feel better.

I was originally going to include Monty Python's "Eric The Half A Bee" (which you can listen to on Amazon or here) but the decided that " Flight of The Bumble Bee" from Tsar Sultan by  Rimsky Korsakov would be more appropriate with this animation. Remember Bees are important to the survival of the human race so always ensure you look out for them, they will only sting you if they have no other option , as it kills them and could very well kill you.

Look after the bees, without their pollination work , plants would not grow and we would very soon be starving.

With that thought have a great Sunday

What Happened To Cyberpunk?

Reading 2023 it definitely falls into the Cyberpunk genre. The Amazon series "Mr Robot" (with Rami Malek and Christian Slater)  was a classic TV example of the genre. I first became aware of it with William Gibson's "Neuromancer" although the film of "Blade Runner" is a possible starting point, although this then harks back to Philip K Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep"..

The reason I ask is that Steampunk seems to be ubiquitous and also seemingly easily defines, although putting cogs on something DOES NOT make it Steampunk. Steampunk is an analogue , non digital world often accompanied by Victoriana and has it's origins in many of the Disney takes on HG Wells stories, but I digress.

How often is Cyberpunk mentioned, or seen as a genre, it's certainly passing me by. It's not that I miss it as such but it seems to be lost under the general science fiction banner. I would love to be pointed in the direction of recent Cyberpunk, and no doubt people will ask me why I haven't noticed "XXXX" or whatever.

So music wise we go with "Love Missile F1-11" by Sigue Sigue Sputnik which fits snugly with the genre.

2023

I've just finished reading "The Silent Companions" by Laura Purcell and while it's not my normal fare  it was fairly creepy and well written , and at the last sentence you don't know whether it was madness or supernatural evil, it is well worth a read it that is your particular taste.

My follow on from this is 2023:A Trilogy by The Justified Ancients of Mu Ma AKA The JAMS (Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty) . This seems to have a similar dynamic to "How To Burn A Million Quid" the BBC Radio 4 Podcast about Cauty and Drummond burning a million quid. I wasn't too sure but bought it (along with "The Illuminatus Trilogy" by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson on the back of listening to the podcast. They were wondering about possibly annoying certain artists and corporations but Twitter doesn't have it's name amended.

The book is over 350 pages but I don't think it's going to be a problem as the introduction and initial page set up (among other things) a Mister Robot scenario.

So we got to share some KLF don't we? I found the slower remix of "justified and Ancient" with Tammy Wynette for your enjoyment.

The books are great fun though I thing I will be reading some Matt Haig ("How To Stop Time") after this