Manchester (United) And Rochdale

The Stuart Maconie book "The Pie At Night"  is now in the North West and is in Manchester via Rochdale which apparently is the most unsuccessful English football club of all time.

He's now at the Theatre of Dreams telling how the Glazers bought Manchester United with money they didn't have and transformed it from a very rich debt-free club into one where most of its outgoings are on debt interest and other fees, rather than players and wages. This is modern football, which has all to do with marketing and little to do with sport.

I am also reading "Carol" by Patricia Highsmith, a recommendation from my work LGBT+ book club, so I will have two on the go, and that is not a bad thing.

He is also an excellent writer and DJ and worth checking out in print or on the BBC. 

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 on others. C'est La Vie.

The music is "United" by Judas Priest

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 and this is her Instagram

Southport

The Stuart Maconie book "The Pie At Night"  is now on the North West Coast and apparently the author lived in Southport at the same time I did. He remarks about the desert between Southport and the Sea before moving to Blackpool and the Tower and finally Bispham for fish and chips with wine.

I am also reading "Carol" by Patricia Highsmith, a recommendation from my work LGBT+ book club, so I will have two on the go, and that is not a bad thing.

He is also an excellent writer and DJ and worth checking out in print or on the BBC. 

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 on others. C'est La Vie.

The music is "Up The Pool" by Jethro Tull

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 and this is her Instagram

Berwick

 

I have never been to Berwick, but in the Stuart Maconie book "The Pie At Night"  we find out that it was a favourite place of LS Lowry although we tend to associate him with the North West. We also are reminded of the Jewish origins of Fish and Chips, among many other culinary delights which has given me the ideas to write a Vocal post about the eateries in the Grainger Market in Newcastle.

I am also reading "Carol" by Patricia Highsmith, a recommendation from my work LGBT+ book club, so I will have two on the go, and that is not a bad thing.

He is also an excellent writer and DJ and worth checking out in print or on the BBC. 

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 on others. C'est La Vie.

The music is "The Night Watch" by King Crimson from the album "Starless and Bible Black" that takes it's title from a line from "Under Milk Wood" by Dylan Thomas, because the only Lowry related song is the appalling Brian and Michael song "Matchstalk Men"

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 and this is her Instagram

Crown Green Bowling And Pies

The Stuart Maconie book "The Pie At Night" is coming along very well covering various sports in the North of England including Speedway which, along with the TT is the only going round a track sport I can watch. Also, Speedway bikes are the only ones I can ride coz they only have an accelerator, no clutch or brakes therefore I can concentrate on keeping reasonably upright.

I also found out that Crown Green Bowling is so-called because the green is raised in the middle where the target ball is placed,

I am also reading "Carol" by Patricia Highsmith, a recommendation from my work LGBT+ book club, so I will have two on the go, and that is not a bad thing.

He is also an excellent writer and DJ and worth checking out in print or on the BBC. 

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 on others. C'est La Vie.

The music is "Take The Skinheads Bowling" by Camper Van Beethoven

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 and this is her Instagram

Pies

 

This is only the third post of 2024. Just back from holiday in Alnwick, my weight has gone up by 0.7Kg which is not too bad after a holiday.

This morning I nicked myself shaving and have gone through three plasters, there was a lot of llood.

I have finished "Pies and Prejudice" by Stuart Maconie and am now picking up "The Pie At Night" which covers a similar area slightly differently. I suppose the title caught my attention because of finally finishing "Supernatural".

I have also started "Carol" by Patricia Highsmith, a recommendation from my work LGBT+ bookclub, so I will have two on the go, and that is not a bad thing.

He is also an excellent writer and DJ and worth checking out in print or on the BBC. 

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 on others. C'est La Vie.

The music is "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas

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 and this is her Instagram

Three Graces

 

This is the first post of 2024

"Pies and Prejudice" by Stuart Maconie is excellent moving slowly north and reaching Liverpool and the Three Graces (they wanted four but the final one was rejected, if you want to know why read the book)

So eighty pages in I will probably be finished in less than six months.

He is also an excellent writer and DJ and worth checking out in print or on the BBC. 

If you want to buy a book of my poetry there is one on the link below.

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 on others. C'est La Vie.

The music is "Heart As Big As Liverpool" by Pete Wylie .

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

Scally, Scally Pride Of Our Alley

 

This is the final blog post of 2023

"Pies and Prejudice" by Stuart Maconie is an excellent read and I have reached chapter three, whose title I have chosen for this post. The writing, for me, is excellent and I can't skim-read it for fear of missing something. I must admit that Douglas Adams' "Mostly Harmless" had me skim-reading.

Anyway, Stuart has taken us through Crewe, Warrington and Wigan and explained the difference between Rugby League and rugby Union.

So sixty pages in I will probably be finished in less than six months.

He is also an excellent writer and DJ and worth checking out in print or on the BBC. 

If you want to buy a book of my poetry there is one on the link below.

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 on others. C'est La Vie.

The music is "Long Tall Scally" by Pete Wylie as I found the Gerry Monroe song from which the title was stolen (Sally not Scally) still makes my blood run cold.

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

Two Pages At A Time

 

I am generally reading "Pies and Prejudice" by Stuart Maconie two pages at a time. This is because it contains so much interesting stuff like Port Vale is the only football league club not named after a place, it's named after Port Vale House where the club was instigated and Robbie Williams is a huge fan.

He is an excellent writer and DJ too and is worth checking out in print or on the BBC. I was worried that it was a book with no chapters but I have reached Chapter  Two.

Again I thought this would be a difficult read but it is not, at two pages at a time it will take me six months to finish, but we shall see.

If you want to buy a book of my poetry there is one on the link below.

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 on others. C'est La Vie.

The music is "One Piece At A Time" by Johnny Cash cos it sounds like Two Pages At A Time

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

A Few More Pies With Prejudice

 

"Pies and Prejudice" by Stuart Maconie is about him returning north. He is an excellent writer and DJ too and is worth checking out in print or on the BBC. I was worried that it was a book with no chapters but I just reached Chapter 2.

Again I thought this would be a difficult read but it is not, but I can see it taking me all of January to finish as it has 352 pages.

If you want to buy a book of my poetry there is one on the link below.

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 on others. C'est La Vie.

The music is "London" by Thea Gilmore and Sandy Denny

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

The Split

I have decided to stop posting my Vocal writing on SevendaysIn. I will continue posting on both platforms but this will be less focussed that the Vocal posts , and more just to record what is happening and to share music and links to books , and not to be too bothered about how many words I am posting.

This week is mainly not doing anything in Thirsk, and spending time away from work, although I have had a nice Whatsapp chat with my lovely boss.

The place I am staying is excellent and has a smart TV that is allowing me to watch whatever I want to, so I have re picked up "Better Call Saul". I find it amazing that now you can go on holiday and take the minimum of entertainment with you because ereaders mean you can take books on a device and it's the same with music and films and TV thanks to streaming services such as BBC iPlayer and All4, so I'm not short of anything to watch although I took an age to work out how to get rid of subtitles off iPlayer. You need to pause the program and then the subtitles icon appears on the pause screen.

So I'm not writing for Vocal so I can share the semi appropriate "Holiday Road" from "Nationl Lampoon's Vacation" by the genius Lindsey Buckingham. I call also reign back my posting on here although my Vocal posts may continue on an almost daily basis.

Colder

Although we have not had snow, temperature have been continually less than zero for more than a week now, meaning that snow has not melted and pavements are covered in frost.

The temperature has warmed a little and though there was a flurry of snow , it's now just continuous rain, and still cold.

The BBC has just stated it's going to be a dry day , but snow and rain in Scotland (for the Scotland being anywhere north of Watford)

Music wise I listened to a lot of Lou Reed the other day , a 5CD set featuring "New York" , "Songs For 'Drella" . "Magic and Loss" , "Set The Twilight Reeling" and "Ecstasy" , and every album is excellent , all far outstripping the David Bowie produced "Transformer" his breakthrough solo album and often listed has his peak.

These five albums prove that Lou Reed solo was far from a one trick pony. "Transformer" contains some stunning songs (my favourite is "Vicious") but we will go with the opener from "New York" "Romeo Had Juliette".

Have a great Thursday everyone.

Growing Old is Mandatory but Growing Up is Optional.

yesterday I was feeling in a black and down mood that I couldn't shake off, not sure why, but it was like I couldn't snap out of it , but there is always part of my mind that says YOU CAN hit normal again. The weather ranged from sunny to overcast , and overcast doesn't hely.

I have a dripping tap that I can't fix and don't want to risk a flood despite the online help that shows how to "simply" fix , but I have contacted someone to actually do the job so awaiting a call back (it is a Bank Holiday).

I don't think my mood was helped by watching episodes of "White Lines" , "Vikings" and "Altered Carbon" , all excellent TV but not exactly taking you to happy place (and still 50 episodes of "Vikings" to go)  , but actually watching "Spy" with Melissa McCarthy and Jason Statham really lifted my spirits ant the end of the day , both of them providing comedy gold in this James Bond spoof  with lots of violence and swearing but absolutely great entertainment.

I also couldn't even be bothered to write, but enjoyed listening to a few records. Sat at the keyboard to learn Tom Waits' "In The Neighbourhood" and then at the guitar for a run through "Crossroads" and "Cocaine" all of which were adequate but not yer shareable.

I didn't even want to walk, but then got myself out and actually completed my 11K steps for the day and that again made me feel better.

For me , it's basically find something that makes you feel better and do that that. Hitting targets is usually good , but maybe avoid the darker things.

Having said that I am going to share Tom Waits' "I Don't Wanna Grow Up"  which featured in the "Cracked Jukebox" documentary broadcast on the BBC, and is really one of my aims of life. The song appears on the soundtrack of the film "Jojo Rabbit" as well.

Apparently the Ramones covered this , so I need to find that don't I? I did, and really OMG that is soooooo god The Ramones covering Tom Waits , almost as revelatory as Hendrix covering Dylan, that is brilliant and has made this weekend end on a definite upward trajectory.

Great quote from the Youtube feed:

"My dad always said growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional."

Today is Bank Holiday Monday and I intend to enjoy it very much.

Drinking Cherry Cola in Unmarked Cars

I don't know what put this into my head , possibly the fact that the BBC (and virtually all the media, see here) had reported that the outcome of the meeting between Angela Merkel and that dangerous clown Boris Johnson was that the UK had thirty days to sort out the brexit backstop when what she had said was a sarcastic comment that it might be thirty days or two years to sort out the backstop, but I cannot find any trace of that , all the media just mentions the thirty days, but really these days , generally we can't trust what's being said.

This made me think of when the BBC were so anti product placement that songs had their lyrics changed to ensure they weren't banned from the radio. One example was the Kinks "Lola" which was fine addressing gender fluidity in majorly homophobic times but Coca Cola was an absolute no no and had to be changed to Cherry Cola, the irony being that there is now Cherry flavoured Coca Cola (and lots of other atrocious flavours) , I wonder if "Lola" gave them the idea?

The when Mott The Hoople were going to call it a day David Bowie gave them "All The Young Dudes" which kicked off their singles sales bt was only approved when the line "And Wendy's stealing clothes from Marks & Sparks" became And Wendy's stealing clothes from unmarked cars"  although eventually the original words were restored.

Again the censors didn't like that but let though:

"But she never lost her head 

Even when she was giving head"

again addressing trans and sexuality in Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side"  a hit single from the Bowie produced album "Transformer".

So I'll leave you to savour "All The Young Dudes" but seriously check out the rest of the songs.

2012

This is post 2012 ans 2012 was the year that the UK staged the Olympic Games with those amazing opening (mastered by Danny Boyle) and closing ceremonies celebrating the diversity and history of this country resulting is a racist tirade from the Daily Mail denigrating the Windrush citizens who came here and help rebuild this country after WWII , the article on their website was eventually pulled.

The celebrations included our NHS and industrial heritage and each of these ceremonies last a while but these days you can watch them on your big screens.

There is also a plethora of music featuring David Bowie, Queen , Muse and many, many more.

This post is one of those diary posts so that I can easily find this in the future. There was a great TV series on the BBC about the "preparations" which I can't find on iPlayer but I can find "W1A" that morphed out of it with much of the office comedy.

So enjoy your Wednesday and if you have eight hours spare get these videos on your big screen.

Where Was I?

I really don't know how to handle weather, if it's too hot I want to get inside and go to sleep, also today is grey and overcast and I would have loved to just stay in bed but it's start of the month and quarter end at work so I really need to go to work.

It looks like I'm unbanned from Facebook though I have a feeling that may only last until I share something. I won't share anything from Instagram, Facebook itself, photo uploads maybe just the posts I do on my blogs, and maybe youtube shares for birthdays but that's going to be a limited set of videos.

I will install Messenger back on my phone so that people can get in touch with me, but if you look at these posts you can see the pathetic bans have served with. One of the best things was that they give the opportunity to dispute the ban but you cannot submit a dispute because you are banned, very Kafkaesque. YOu can see the posts relating to the bans here if you are interested. Have spoken with a couple of people who say they know people who continually get banned for posting explicit content but usually just get a weeks ban.

But I have enjoyed the BBC coverage of Glastonbury, allowing me to enjoy the music without the discomfort, I also watched the finale of Deadwood which was just like an extra TV episode to wrap it up with the same amazing dialogue and acting, also the finale of The Looming Tower which effectively posits that when people don't work together then bad things can happen, a definite must watch. I followed that with Wild Bill with Rob Lowe which contained at least one OMG moment so that could mean another TV series to follow.

So I found a great live take of the The Mekons "Where Were You?", one of my favourite singles ever, for the the people who noticed I was "inactive" on Facebook during this ban.

I Played A DVD

I am definitely becoming lazier and lazier. Also while I have a large CD and digital music collection, there are big chunks of it I have never heard and probably never will. It's similar with DVD. This week I have actually taken the DVD from it's place on the shelf, switched on the DVD player and switched the channel on the TV and actually watched  the films. The two I watched were "The Golden Compass" which was excellent but has been on the shelf unplayed for ten years, and "Fight Club" (adapted from Chuck Palahniuk's novel) which has been there for even longer. Both these films are excellent, and I should have watched them years ago, but apathy and laziness has meant that despite knowing how good these are ("The Golden Compass" was the film of the first book in Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series which is coming on TV from HBO and BBC).

I don't know if this is just a digital malaise, because my vinyl collection is always played when I purchase anything and I often share things on my Instagram Channel , but when you buy digitally it is so easy to put it on one side for later, and after a week or so it's forgotten about. If anthing gets put in a box or a drawer then thats usually it. I still listen to music digitally from my network and on my phone, but still eschew streaming services such as Spotify or Amazon as to use them without wifi means that your data gets consumed fairly quickly, so I load albums from my network to my Google Pixel which I may upgrade to a Pixel 3A in the future.

So one of the good things of being in the digital world is that I can share suitable music with you as I post entries on this blog, but I do think digital storage has turned us into magpies , buying things that we don't actually use or properlay appreciate. With that I will share "Digital" buy Joy Division with you with an excellent video taken from the equally excellent film "Control".