Reading

Nearly finished the appendices of "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" and if anything they are madder than the main part of the book itself. Conspiracies and mysticism fantasy with maybe the odd sprinkling of truth with recognisable names and images. I has been a wild and wacky ride and hopefully this will be the last time I mention it, but probably won't be because of the links and influences it has over so much music and writing that are in my admittedly large and eclectic sphere  of stuff that attracts my attention.

I'm not sure what will be next and have a number of disparate tomes lined up including Richard Dawkins, Matt Haig and Brian Eno but they are just three of many, I could easily go for something else and at some point want to reread "Imajica"and "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" or even "Bored of the Rings" although like Spike Milligan's "Puckoon" that starts out brilliantly funny but does eventually fizzle out

So after that brief literary interlude I'll leave you on this Saturday morning with the vaguely literary connection of Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" which recalls Lewis Carroll through a drug fuelled tango time haze.

Fifty Shades of Grey

That's the colour of the sky this morning. As you can tell I have not got that much to write about. Listening to Huw Stephens on 6Music but a lot of the music is just passing me by but was impressed by a new one by DJ Shadow (ft De La Soul) "Rocket Fuel" so some good has come of me switching on the radio this morning.

So basically it's go out , pick up train tickets , go to work and that's my Thursday.

I have ordered "Another Green World" on vinyl to complete my Roxy Music related collection (first album , "For Your Pleasure" and "Viva" all from Vinyl Guru in Newcastle) and they sound a lot better that I thought even with the slight paint mark on "Editions of You" (it was second hand and cheap and plays fine). It's amazing what watching a Brian Eno documentary can cause you to do, while it's not exactly advertising but it did influence me and "Another Green World" is coming via Amazon Prime.

There's a little Roxy on my Instagram posts here and here


So we obviously go with "Rocket Fuel" this morning.

JFDI

Many years ago when I was still being paid by the PPA , a team played a trick on their manager. In IT there is always a new "better" methodology and you hear word like "agile" , "structured" and many others , we used JSP and Bachman as well, anyway there was an article on JFDI and how it always delivered on time and fast. The manager said they had to sort out training courses in this methodology as soon as possibly (ironic considering what JFDI mens). I'm quite surprised at the number of toned down meanings of the phrase, and Nike dropped the "F" for their tag line, not surprising for a company that has never made any of it's branded products, they outsource everything.

So yeasted after god knows how long I had lunch at Snack Wallah with my friend Nicky Black (one of her many names) and we had a long catch up discussing art and Facebook bans and what we were doing and going to do. Also the fact that last time I saw her I mistook her for another friend, and this is the problem when you don't see people often enough. We always can find a reason to put something off til next week but we should really do things as soon as we can.

I need to go and visit my dad and his girlfriend , see my girls , and know that this will happen eventually but really we should have much more JFDI in our lives, and we will enjoy life much more.

So for no reason other than it's a great record and he was mentioned in the Brian Eno documentary "The Man Who Fell To Earth 1971-77" which I am watching on Amazon Prime , when Island put together the Ayers , Cale , Nico, Eno (unfortunate acronym) gig at the Rainbow  to celebrate the the signing of ex Velvet Underground members John Cale and Nico, I'll leave you with "Barracuda" from the album "Fear".

Vinylisation

I don't know if that's a real word , but just refers to the fact that I prefer these days to buy vinyl as opposed to CD or digital. I will probably still buy certain boxed sets but  now very seldom look at normal CDs.

I definitely like listening to vinyl and  often think I would like to buy certain music on vinyl, an example being after watching the film "Nico 1988" although the cost of Nico on vinyl is prohibitive although I do have her performances on the fisrt Velvet Underground album so it's not as though I have no Nico on vinyl.

I particularly like her take on "The End" by The Doors which then tempted me to purchase the first Doors album but I have that digitally along with a live Nico take from the live Ayers, Cale, Nico , Eno album at the Rainbow. That would be also a nice album to have on Vinyl but again I have a digital copy so I should be satisfied with that.

I really do have enough vinyl but, as with Oscar Wilde, "I can resist anything but temptation" , although that temptation does have to be something special.

So what music should we go with, maybe Nico live in Tokyo performing "The End" would be fitting

The Oblique Grapefruit

Thanks to reading 2023 I am probably going to end up buying the book "Grapefruit" by Yoko Ono , metamorphosed in 2023 to "Grapefruit Are Not The Only Bombs", essentially a series of instructions to direct people to do things to create radical art or change the world in radical ways. The book consis of "event scores" such as:

"Imagine the clouds dripping. 

  Dig a hole in your garden to 

  put them in.  

   — 1963 Spring"

There is more information here. and a few more event scores here

This reminded me of the "Oblique Strategies" card set by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt (who also collaborated on the cover of "Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy". You can use and online implementation of it here.  , and the first card says "Is It Finished?" the answer , for me, on this post , being "No"

The second card says "Don't Be Afraid To Display Your Talents" so you can see how this could randomly help you in the creation of an artistic piece. I often say to people that for something to be art you just have to say that it is art, and that should cause an effect in the viewer. The effect may be positive or negative but if you have an effect  then the art piece is valid.

Follow the Oblique Strategies link and see where it takes you.

If you want to produce something these two methods may help unblock any mental brick walls, and these are probably just two high profile art aids or directors and they may help with everyday life, not only art.

"Emphasize Repetitions"

So will take the opening song from from "Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy" with an image of the album cover.

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.

Let It Rain

The sky is grey and it's raining. I normally like rain but at the moment it's a threat because I have an intermittent roof leak  that I have been waiting three weeks for the roofer to sort out. He's an OK guy but  not as quick to deal with this as I'd like.

I'm reading Matt Haig's book and one of the things we should listen to to relax and unwind is rain and waves, things that you hear but are constant but don't grab your attention but give your mind a relaxing bed to sleep on, it's a good idea. Youtube has some sequence of up to twelve hours of natural sounds (waves, rain etc) that you can put on and fall asleep to, check here.

When  I was starting to write this Chris Hawkins played "Sometimes" by James which brings up rain and waves and water in its lyrics and I will share that with you this morning.

I often go to sleep listening to lots of music, Brian Eno's "Thursday Afternoon" is wonderful because like natural sound there is nothing that grabs your attention. The night before last I listened to Alice Cooper's "Killer" and I got through most of that. Last night I put on three Weather Report albums  ("Heavy Weather", "I Sing The Body Electric" and "Mysterious Traveller")which is excellent jazz instrumental but fell asleep before the first piece had finished. I got up three times to go for a wee (I am old and diabetic and it was one of those nights but that is life) but each time chose a different Weather Report album and went straight back to sleep.

I think I will also include "Birdland" which was going to be my original piece for this, but we can have both.

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #4 - 9 and 10

Today I completed my #TenAlbumsInTenDays #4 and the last two I posted were "Another Day on Earth" by Brian Eno and "What Came From Fire" by Sound of Guns so I did manage to just include albums for this Century / Millenium.

As I have said your natural propensity is to go back to your teenage years and choose albums from when your musical opinion was being formed, so I did try and and limit my choices to lstuff from the last 19 years (although originally I wanted to do it from from the last ten years but the Carbon/Silicon album was from the last decade but still within this millenium.

The Brian Eno album struck me with the killer opening song "This" which is just based on a rhythm built by repeating the word "This". The rest of the album is just as good but that is a fine example of a killer opener and was his first song based album in about ten years.

I saw Sound of Guns at The Hoults Yard festival with my daughter Kirsty in Byker many years back, which was great but under advertised. There were a lot of great bands on but Sound of Guns weren't one I knew or had even heard of. They are used on a base jumping video  by Turbolenza  so I will include that video which features the songs "Sometimes" and "Alcatraz" plus a love video of "This" .

Enjoy your Tuesday.

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #4 - 7 and 8 and The Record Store Day 2019 Aftermath

This is just a short post to record numbers 7 and 8 in the #TenAlbumsInTenDays sequence adn they are:

• Tempest by Bob Dylan
• Have One on Me by Joanna Newsome

Both these albums contain a lot of long songs and the Joanna Newsome one is a three CD set. I first heard Joanna Newsome on the soundtrack to the excellent New York Blackout Orange advert ("THis Side if The Blue" from "Milk Eyed Mender") which you can watch here this was when the company that became EE had consistently excellent adverts , unlike the populist Kevin Bacon rubbish the continually push these days. Joanna Newsome's instrument of choice is the harp, and I think she is the only  harpist I listen to apart from Alan Stivell.

The Bob Dylan album is was his best with the thirteen minute title track about the sinking of the Titanic, but it is full of seven and eight minute stories that keep you riveted throughout the album.

For Record Store Day 2019 I picked up a Carter USM 12" single "Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere" and Brian Eno's "Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy" on vinyl as well as an amazing tea towel from Powder Butterfly , check out the website to see some amazing stuff.

So now it's time for bed as it's Monday tomorrow.

#AprilSongs #4 - Thursday Afternoon

I'm still on my Facebook ban for daring to share the Helmut Newton image on the wall of No 28 (see here as it is still on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, go figure) . A lot of people will call Facebook Fascists or whatever, but essentially Facebook is a club, and you can opt to be in or out and if you are in you HAVE to abide by their rules no matter how petty they may seem. You have to decide if the rules are worth the benefits of being a member, and I enjoy being able to know what friends are up to and being able to share things. I just thought the Newton picture with the lights looked great, and it is , in my opinion, a vision of empowerment.

Anyway today's post in the #AprilSongs sequence is the one hour long piece "Thursday Afternoon" by Brian Eno. This is not a song or even really a song , it has no tune, but is a go to album to go to sleep to, because it is their but does not demand your attention. Brian supposedly invented Ambient Music when he had put on an album but it was too quiet for him to hear properly, but he was too ill to actually get up and turn up the record. This then gave him the idea to just have sounds that did not demand the listener's attention but still added to the atmospherics of the situation.

Last night I was wondering if I could actually complete the #AprilSongs sequence so, as I don't have a decent MP3 catalogue I thought I'd try just using Windows Explorer to search based on the day, and it worked, so as long as I actually post something each day, which shouldn't really be a problem.

Desert Island Discs

Today my friend Krista published her Desert Island Discs selection on Facebook here, and as such inspired me to do one. I thought I best read the concept of what it is, though I roughly knew it, but here's a definition:

"Each week a guest, called a 'castaway' during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usually, but not always, music), a book and a luxury item that they would take if they were to be cast away on a desert island, whilst discussing their lives and the reasons for their choices."

So that's basically what I'm going to follow, Krista had annotated hers with years and events but  maybe mine wont be that detailed, though hopefully it will provide you with a little insight into what makes me tick. Although this will be albums it is not necessarily my favourite album list, just albums that mean something to me and I wouldn't grow tired of. It also dates me fairly and squarely in the late sixties, early seventies but that's just the nature of the beast.

So here goes:

1. Future Games by Spirit: Still my favourite album of all time and it's sort of a film for the ears featuring dialogue from Star Trek and Sci-Fi "B" Movies with some fine songs and plying. I still listen to it a lot and it still makes my mind fly.
2. Electric Ladyland by Jimi Hendrix Experience: An absolutely gorgeous cornucopia of blues, space rock and containing his take on Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" which must rate as the best cover version ever, a double album that again takes you places that you want to be.
3. Live At San Quentin by Johnny Cash: My dad introduced me to Johnny Cash, and my friend Chris Waring reinforced that, although he was not deemed cool by my school contemporaries, though he is now. This is one of his live prison albums and just encapsulates the outlaw spirit that a lot of us would like to live.
4. Stranded by Roxy Music: Always one of my favourite bands, and though this was the first without Brian Eno in contains what is probably their finest song "Mother of Pearl" and that is something that would have to be in my music collection.
5. Quadrophenia by The Who: Their second concept album which actually makes a lot more sense than "Tommy" and contained a photo story book about Jimmy the Mod ending up on Brighton beach, which I spent time on when I was down there. Lots of unforgettable songs with motifs for each band member, each representing a facet of Jimmy's "quadrophenia".
6. Blood on the tracks by Bob Dylan: There are lots of choices for Dylan but this has "Lily,Rosemary and The Jack of Hearts" one of my favourites story songs that I never tire of, and "If You See Her, Say Hello" which still makes me think about my split with my first girlfriend. The album was about Dylan's divorce so no surprise there.
7. Scary Monsters and Super Creeps by David Bowie: Again not even my favourite Bowie album but a consistently excellent one with not a dud on there. Maybe tomorrow I would have chosen differently but I wouldn't complain if you put this album on.
8. Li'l Beethoven by Sparks: This is just like a box of musical fireworks. Sparks always surprise and delight and bring a smile to your face and this is probably my favourite album of theirs.

Book:

Clive Barker's Imajica: A thousand pages of majick, adventure, magical creatures spanning five dimensions, and one of those books you just don't want to end, but it is always a delight to read again.

Luxury Item:

A Guitar: And maybe one day I can learn how to play, though just making noise on one is always very therapeutic for me.

So that is my Desert Island selection, tomorrow it may be different but I wouldn't complain if this was all I had on that Desert Island.

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #8 & #9 - Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy - Brian Eno

Dispepsi by Negativland was my #8 choice for #TenAlbumsInTenDays but I have already commented on it for my #LikeNoOther series here , and it really is an album worth investing some of your time in.

#9 is Brian Eno's "Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy" his second album after falling out with Bryan Ferry and leaving Roxy Music after their excellent "For Your Pleasure". I've just realised that Ferry and Eno despite sharing a common first name spelt it differently.

The album breezes in with the beautiful "Burning Airlines Give You So Much More" and the songs on the first side of the album never drop in quality culminating in the closed groove ending of "THe Great Pretender" if you listen on vinyl. Side two opens with the proto punk of "Third Uncle" before lurching into the Portsmouth Sinfonia backed silliness of "Put A Straw Under Baby".

The album closes with the totally engrossing and beatiful title track almost making you feel as though you are climbing Tiger Mountain' I will leave you with that song to tempt you with.

This album was concieved using Oblique Strategies , a series of cue cards developed by Brian and Peter Schmidt, who also did the cover featuring four prints for a seris of 1500 lithographs. This is another of my favourite albums that I constantly revisit.

Sleep well my friends.

Edinburgh 2017 #3 - Vinyl Villains

The final new shop I visited in Edinburgh was Vinyl Villains, just a bit closer to the centre and down the road from Elvis Shakespeare. It opens around 10:30 on Saturday and again the uy who runs it is very helpful and very knowledgeable about his stock.

On Friday night on BBC4 Danny Baker was presenting a seventies show with a rock slant including Brian Eno's "Seven Deadly Finns" the clip you can see here is from a Dutch pop program, but later in the show was Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Two Tribes" , one of the most vicious and agressively brilliant dance tunes you will ever hear. I loved the video featuring "Boris Yeltsin" and "Ronald Reagan" in a fighting pit , and really that's the way any war should be fought but we all know what cowards politicians really are, they always get someone else to fight for them.

Anyway back in Vinyl Villains  (they are on Facebook too) they had a lot of albums suspended from the ceiling and I noticed a picture disc of "Two Tribes" and thought "That has my name on it". The guy said he thought it was an interview disc but he got his ladder out and brought the disc down to check, It turned out it was "Two Tribes" backed with their take on Edwin Starr's "War" so I parted with a fiver for an excelent slice of vinyl.

Again this place is not too far from Edinburgh centre and will be on my list when I am next there.

I revisited Coda who are just off the Royal Mile and came across Underground Solu'shn next to The Malt Shovel when we were out with Maureen and Scott , but that's one for the next visit to Edinburgh.

30th Century Man

I'm currently watching the ten year old documentary "30th Century Man" (I seldom watch two hour programs in one session) about the reclusive and supposedly evasive Scott Walker. One the the big moments is when he comes into the studio wearing a pulled down baseball cap, and you think what's he going to be like, is this going to be a car crash, but his latest album is a collaboration with drone noise band Sunn O))) so you know he can talk to people and he comes across as open, knowledgeable and easy to talk to.

The film features contributions from lots of musical icons (see the tags) and I noticed one very interesting parralel. Scott had been drinking at the opening of the Playboy Club in London, got very drunk got talking to a girl who could drink more than him. They went back to her flat and he noticed that she had a lot of Jacques Brel albums which she kept playing and translating for Scott.

He became hooked on Brel from this and a couple of days later he met Andrew Loog Oldham for afternoon Black Russians. Scott mentioned Brel and Oldham said that's a coincidence, there's guy sent some piano versions of Brel English transciption that he'd done which were not that good. Scott said I'll have them. Andrew Loog Oldham was the guy who sued the Verve for using the orchestral tape loop of "The Last Time" on "Bitterweet Symphony"but that's an aside. So a girl in a flat got Scott Walker into Jacques Brel.

In the sixties the BBC gave Scott a TV series expecting a middle of the road entertainer, The show last six episode and the BBC destroyed all the tapes so all that is left are fragments and photographs. They got Scott Walker not a Jack Jones or Tom Jones.

Cut to David Bowie (Executive producer of this documentary):

David was dating one of Scott Walker's ex girldfriend, and was a bit pissed off that she had lot's of Scott's albums, which she kept playing which pissed him off even more. But the more she played the more he realised what a great voice this guy had, and so became a real Scott Walker fan. So a girl in a flat got David Bowie into Scott Walker.

They both covered Jaques Brel's "Amsterdam" so were obviously both fans.

Apparently they contacted Julian Cope who is a big fan, but Julian is even more interview shy than Scott so they just show the letter he sent in reply.

The song I will choose is a Brel translation from the sixties, but that voice is amazing, so for you education I'll include his debut solo TV performance on the Dusty Springfield show "Mathilda" or "Mathilde" depending on how it's listed .

Enjoy your Friday.

Calculus,Nice Biscuits and Sky Saws on This Day on Earth

Shaun Keavney has just mentioned Nice biscuits and taking two buttered digestive biscuits with a sklice of cheese in between and dipping it into your cup of tea. That's definitely not MY cup of tea. My new book has now hit calculus , that was where maths became too complicated for me, but we shall see if I get any further with calculus. Also wasn't Professor Calculus a character in Tin Tin, which confused me because I got it wixed up with Rin Tin Tin which I thingk was a dog.

Anyway this week I am having a rest from walking. Apparently the average number of steps most people do is about 5K a day , so at 8K and 7K over the last two days I am still above average and my steps effectively lift the average, but not as much as the proper , walkers , runners and athletes.

Anyway this is just a very short post as I am quite tired and just wondering what song should we , and I have decided, for absolutely no reason at all to go with Brian Eno's "Sky Saw" featuring Bob Fripps sky saw guitar from "Another Green World". I loved this the first time I heard it and it still sounds brilliant and strange today with it's vicious noise guitar over an almost lounge jazz / ambient backing. Also unusual in the the main / lead instrument plays the same note all the way through.

This  idea was repeated on the song "This" from the album "Another Day On Earth" where the main rhythm is provided by the word "This" repeated 35 times. That's included at the end of the post.

Sleep well my friends.

In The Middle Of Nowhere

Clay Bank View - One of Many

This week I have been near Stokesley in Yorkshire. You can find stuff on TripAdvisor here about the area but the cottage I am in is here. It's at the end of a half mile track but has provided a great relaxing week with the opportunity to to take walks and relax and see some amazing scenery.

I do wonder what possesses people to build houses in such remote places , but I suppose the rest it has given me is testament to that . I had hired a 3 door Corsa from Enterprise and they gave me a 5 door Fiat 500 Monster car,  which was handy for getting up the track.

On The Way Up

I was hoping to get up to the Cleveland Way and see The Wainstones but when I walked up the first time and there were lots of "No Right Of Way" signs , although I could see people walking along the top. It just seemed there was no way for me to get up there. I was a bit disappointed but thought I would chance a bit of internet research.

Wainstones

There was This and I found the Wainstones Walk here which indicated I follow the fence for a while where I had stopped, and sure enough I went through a gate rounded the corner and then saw a stone path leading up to the Wainstones. I met a couple of girls who had been walking since 8 in the morning , shared my Pepsi with them and took some photographs before they continued on their way to Clay Bank.





When I got up there I was presented with amazing views and it goes to prove that if you want something you should not give up on it . Yes this was a small thing , but too many times people give up because things aren't easy. Some people want things on a plate , and while it's nice to get things like that , you get great satisfaction when you succeed due to effort that you have put into things.

The result of this is a lot of photographs and videos of me sort of in the middle of nowhere,  getting very Zen and peaceful, and I feel good about it and about myself.

So if you want something , and it is possible to do it , then do it, you won't regret it.

I was trying to think of an appropriate song and the title track from Brian Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) is so beautifully appropriate. I love this

Just Three Words

I saw a post on Facebook asking people to describe their day in three words. What shocked me was the amount of negative sets of words . While there is a lot of negativity happens , it's just something to deal with like missing a bus ,  losing your wallet , and there are really big bad things , but when it gets that bad you call on your friends for support , because that's what they are for.

So an example of a couple of things yesterday is someone asked me how things were going , as usual , I said "Absolutely brilliant" , and they said it was such a refreshing change for someone not to be moaning about something , which actually made me feel even better.

A colleague asked for a favour , she was feeling under pressure, as things had conspired to corner her,  and she needed to get some information for a deadline . We sat and worked through and very quickly got what she wanted. I told her to set up a short "informal" training session for next week for her team. That was great and she did her presentation and apparently some senior people were so impressed that they will be joining next week. I just emphasized it would till be informal but we all felt very very good.

Enjoy

Then I checked an email and saw I had missed a mail from my  friends at Geek Talent. A quick change of plan meant I had tea with them at Za Za Bazaar in the Gate and met lots of new people and many old friends had an absolutely wonderful day.

The song I've chosen is just so uplifting , and had to put it in because the way I'm feeling even though I used it in a post about Peru recently, Big Day by Phil Manzanera featuring Brian Eno.




Oh yeah my three words "Loving Every Second"

Peru - Three Directions in One Description

I suppose on of my consuming passions is music and this morning , Peru came to mind, probably because I'd won a small bet on them beating Bolivia, and that recalled the song Big Day from Phil Manzanera's album Diamond Head which features Peru prominently in the lyrics , Brian Eno taking the lead vocals on it. To me Peru related music meant those bloody awful pan pipes (which I sure can sound good when used properly instead of a bloody awful lift music rendition of Berlin's "Take My Breath Away" , incidentally written by Giorgio Moroder

Really I know next to nothing about Peru apart from itin the North West of South America (Three Direction in One Description) . Without looking I can't even tell you if it has a coastline and off hand I don't even know the capital of the place. I do know that Nolberto Solano , one of Newcastle's most loved players , as well as playing trumpet is going to have the first Peruvian restaurant in Newcastle (details here) named after him. Newcastle is well served for restaurants , but as far as I know , never had a Peruvian one.

Heres the Wikipedia entry for Peru and I now know it has a shoreline on the West Coast , but still don't know what the capital is. There is certainly some amazing scenery there, and they obviously have a pretty good football team.

So just a short post , but enjoy the song , and I need to educate myself about Peru.

This is Peru

Twelve Hours Into 2015

Well it's now 2015, after a great New Year's Eve Party at Mark and Helen's managing to catch up with lots of friends and people I haven't seen in ages, talking about all sorts before a round of Auld Lang Syne to ring in the New Year.

Built On Glass

The first album I've put on this year is Built on Glass by Chet Faker recommended by a great friend, which reminds me of Brian Eno and Van Der Graaf / Peter Hamill smoothed down , just wondering if the name is a nod to the great Chet Baker , that's a lot of musical references I wasn't expecting to make in my first post of 2015. They are all worth following up as well as the excellent Chet Faker album.

I'm sure this year will find me liking lots of new music, just like last year and every year before that. There will be books to read, films and plays to see, people to meet, songs to write , my book to finish , which is now two months overdue, this blog to keep going , songs to write, and to try and get Garageband to work properly with the Alesis connection deck on the iPad.

So it is going to be a busy and brilliant 2015, I am so looking forward to it. It's my dad's 80th Birthday in January so there's a surprise party for him and I will have to think of a suitable present to get him. So without further ado I'm going to wish you all a Happy New Year and going to enjoy the rest of my day.

I've include some fireworks from Newcastle / Gateshead last night . Happy New Year again.

We Are The 801

This is post 801. In 1974 Brian Eno had a dream , or was inspired , and came up with a chorus for a song "The True Wheel" which went:

"We Are The 801,

  We Are The Central Shaft"

He wrote the song and later, apparently discovered that the number 801 represent the central shaft in Geomancy / Geomantics . This has always fascinated me, but always seemed far to esoteric for me to understand or delve into. Now I have the biggest information repository ever at my disposal, I writing this as I listen to the song, and am still bamboozled by the cabbalistic and magical symbols and numbers that make up the geomantic character set, and also wondering about their purpose. 

One of the definitions is:

 

 " a method of divination that interprets markings on the ground or the patterns formed by tossed handfuls of soil, rocks, or sand. The most prevalent form of divinatory geomancy involves interpreting a series of 16 figures formed by a randomized process that involves recursion followed by analyzing them, often augmented with astrological interpretations."

Which may or may not pique your interest.

Taking Tiger Mountain

The song is from "Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy" probably my favourite Brian Eno album , full of interesting side stories like the unique lithographic production of the cover, the fact that the vinyl version finished on a closed groove, and songs were produced using Oblique Strategies while being incredibly accessible . This wiki article is a great jumping off point.

Anyway that's it for 801 , my next post will probably be a little more on the normal side , but I hope this has made you want to at least listen to the album.