Showing posts with label Clive Barker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clive Barker. Show all posts

Saturday, 8 May 2021

I Read It In Books

I am constantly surprised at the number of people who do not not read books. They give excuses that they are too busy , they can’t concentrate and it’s easier to watch the film or TV series. I was saddened when my mother gave two sets of encyclopaedias to my brother and sister because she decided she didn’t like books. She taught me to read before I hit primary school when I was 4 , so she was well aware of how important reading was, and I am thankful for that. I also did the same for my daughters, much to the chagrin of some of their teachers.


Reading is a very useful habit and tool to have in your armoury to help you through lie. It can help you understand things , tell you how to accomplish things , although I mostly use it to go on adventures and to experience other worlds that are not my own.


As I have said people say they would rather watch a film , but that is the film makers take on that particular story and, especially since CGI became the norm, anything can be rendered on the cinema or TV screen, and that is no bad thing.


For instance “The Lord of The Rings” and “The Hobbit” films last about twelve hours altogether and people complain that Frodo or Aragorn was not how they imagined and places were not the same, but this was Peter Jackson’s take on the story, it was not Tolkien’s , or mine, or yours , it was his. 


Also despite the work that goes into making a film, the resultant film is about two hours long. Jackson managed to compress the six books of “Lord of the Rings” into three two hour films , but managed to spread the single book of “The Hobbit” over the same amount of film, therefore trimming a lot less from the original story. My friend Keith Mole also had a bit part in “The Hobbit” movies.


I suppose what I am working towards is saying that to enjoy a book you do need a decent imagination to be able to go where the words in the book intend to take you. There are, of course reference books and encyclopaedias that you will dip in to find facts  but I am talking about books that you will read start to finish, these are the ones that you need your imagination to be fully immersed in the experience. Maybe some people don’t , or can’t read because their imagination can work with what the book tells us.


We see lots of examples of people unable to watch a program, eat a whole meal, or listen to a song or an album from start to finish, and the thought of a book becomes a brick wall to them. Sometimes I see large books as a challenge, same with long pieces of music and long films, but I immerse myself and often find I do not want the book to end.


My favourite book is “Imajica” by Clive Barker which clocks in at around 1200 pages. I gave my paper copy to a friend and am revisiting it on my Kindle Fire, and I still love it when I drop into it and explore and experience the characters , places and events in there. As I write this I think I may get “Lord of the Rings” on my device and enjoy that in the same way. 


I am also revisiting the Adversary Cycle by F Paul Wilson which is basically six books at around 400 pages each , so the whop lot is twice the length of “Lord of The Rings”, and last rear I revisited some of the “Eternal Champion” books by Michael Moorcock which are usually trilogies or quadrilogies with each book 150-250 pages so a little shorter but still some wonderful adventures, although the only book that Moorcock wrote that resulted in a film was “The Final Program” which was “Eternal Champion” related but based on another Armageddon scenario.


The Philip Pullman series “His Dark Materials” was started as a film “The Golden Compass” but the American Christian right were against it’s anti religious sentiments so no more films were made , but HBO and the BBC came out with a stunning take on it, and although they are a TV series and have created a very believable rendition of the books for me there are many who don’t like it because it’s not their rendition.


So basically before you read a full book , prime your imagination before you take the plunge.


Sunday, 21 March 2021

Reading Books

I am still sort of enjoying "Steppenwolf" , but one of te things about books is I prefer a font that I can read regardless of whether I have contact lenses in or not , ie a dark high contracts font that is not to tiny. Some fonts are very faint so unless you have a decent light they become difficult to read. This is where an e-reader scores because you can change the font and even get it to read the book for you. The print in "Steppenwolf" is excellent and I can read it with or without contact lenses in almost any light.

"Steppenwolf" itself despite hitting on suicide and murder pacts , being anti right wing jingoism in a society that is pro right wing jingoism , is very hopeful seeing Harry Haller reluctantly buying a gramophone , learning to dance despite his abhorrence of jazz and eventually realising that socialising and fun is actually enjoyable and something he wants to do. I have actually read over 150 pages in a week so that is quite fast for me and I am not sure whether I will go for another reread next or hit an unread classic.

Books are a wonderful way of exploring whatever you want to explore and it does amaze me the number of people who say they don't have time or can't read books. I am looking at some of my sets of books that I want to revisit including "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" and the F Paul Wilson "Adversary" series while I am still working through "Imajica" on my Kindle. I also feel I need to revisit some Dean Koontz although my problem with him is that he seemed to publish books quicker than I could read them, but he did publish one of the few novels "Dark Rivers of the Heart" that I read in one sitting, and I may be wrong , but I think that was around seven hundred pages. Another was Matt Haig's "Reason's To Stay Alive" which I gave away on a World Book Night , gave to my friend Paul Campbell the writer for his 50th birthday, but I also read on the train journey to London.

So we need a song to go with this., and what about one of my favourite Beatles songs "Paperback Writer". The B side is "Rain" another of my favourites and it makes up a perfect single. Macca's bass on "Rain" supposedly was so heavy that it made the needle jump the groove and while it is impressive my copy plays OK so I don't know if the bass has been calmed or what, and "Strawberry Fields" has just started playing and for the first time ever I've noticed the morse code snippet near the start.

Sunday, 14 February 2021

Three Books

Temperatures are rising but the snow is still on the ground , and when I started to type this , nothing happened. Thought the batteries on the wireless keyboard may have run out so checked in notepad , which was working fine and then the blogger software started working again.

It is a cold Valentine's day and the footpaths in places are like ice-rinks, not very safe if you are not steady on your feet.

Anyway the subject of this post is the two books I am reading . "Left Out" is about Labour under Corbyn , and is almost like reading a newspaper. You are not part of what is happening , it's also a physical book so sometimes I can't read it with my contact lenses in. It is very engrossing and interesting but the reader is not drawn into it, and I suppose that is the nature of any book reporting facts, especially when it highlights the faults and frailties of an organisation and person that you have admiration for. Unfortunately , because of our first past the post electoral system , the only alternative to the current government is The Labour Party. It is a book I would recommend to anyone interested in the UK political situation.

The other is "Imajica" by Clive Barker which at over a thousand pages I  gave away my physical copy and bought it for my Kindle Fire. I am about a third of the way though and am slowly making my way through it once more, and this draws me into the book itself , you are there, you are part of it, and I know that I will not want it to end (again) but that must come, but although Clive Barker is not everyone's cup of tea , he certainly drags me into he books, stimulating my imagination and leaving always wanting to read just one more page, and then another. This is my favourite book ever, and reading it today , I know why that is.

This week I am considering the abridged audio book of Richard Osman's "The Thursday Murder Club" which is available on BBC Sounds here. I find Richard Osman an intelligent engaging quiz show host and person (as well as Fulham supporter) so a book of his really is something you need to engage with. I have downloaded it on my Kindle Fire so that is queued up for this week.

So what do I share today, I have The Byrds "Untitled" playing as I write this and teh studio album contains "Chestnut Mare" , one of my eldest daughter, Juliet's favourites , and one of mine too , so we can go with this on this Valentine's Sunday afternoon.

Friday, 5 February 2021

At The Double

Yesterday was a non work day for me , so I went out walking and managed to meet and chat to two of my neighbours , Emma and Manjit , twice. Now in this lockdown it's unusual to see people to speak to in person, we can , phone and videocall but two even meet two people is unusual , and to meet them twice in one day is definitely out of the ordinary.

There's been a cold North Wind today and the weather is dreich , cold and grey still , absolutely uninspiring, and though I walked different paths today it was more like a chore than an achievement.

My reading is still between the excellent in a car crash kind of way "Left Out" and the excellent in an excellent type of way "Imajica". The thing is although reading "Imajica" on the Kindle is very slow , it just means I will spend so much longer in that magical universe,

TV is continuing with "The Daily Show" , "Shrill" , "Cobra Kai" and a new one "Resident Alien" and today the Queen Platinum Collection has provided all my #MusicWhileYouWork  and there is a lot of good music in there. Although that is only three hours I did have a lot of meetings.

The reason I was listening to Queen is because my mate Jim had posted on Facebook about "Innuendo" containing his favourite Queen song ever, which is a high recommendation given that Jim must be close the the world's number one Queen fan to the point that his scrap books were used on official Queen releases. However he didn't mention the song , and I  don't have the album, but knew the ludicrously amazing title track graces Volume II of the collection , but I'm going with another favourite of mine "Las Palabras de Amor" featuring Mr Bulsara in a very smart suit.

Wednesday, 3 February 2021

Three

It's a long while since I posted three times in a day , but I am doing it just because I can. It's quarter to ten at night and I know tomorrow I can have a lie in. 

As I have said before , I do like a good night's sleep. but even ten years ago on a work night I could be up a three o'clock and then back to bed before properly getting up at six o'clock or whatever.

I  hit the last episode of "Silicon Valley" not realising it was the finale, but there are plenty more series to pick up on that have not even started, and as well as that there are books and music to continue on with.

"Imajica" is being quite slow on the Kindle but it's why I love it so much, it is so broad in scope and really does drag you right into it  (well it does for me), and "Left Out" is a good dissecting of the effective shambles of the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn , who started out well but was never suited to be the leader of the party. I still respect him, but do wish the Labour Party could actually stop the infighting between themselves and direct their energy against the current government who are destroying this country with their self serving incompetence.

I would like to see a similar book about the Conservative Party but because they won the election they are seen as a success, but it wasn't really a case of them winning , it was more Labour didn't even try to win.

So that's just a little of where I am tonight, and I know I can lie in tomorrow so I will share "A Humorous and Interesting dialogue" by Edward II, taken from a 19th century Manchester broadside ballad (from their excellent and beautifully presented album "Manchester's Improving Daily"). It's a dialogue between a master and his workmen, illustrating the never-ending struggle for fair pay and decent working conditions, but used to illustrate how NHS staff are treated by our government.

Wednesday, 16 December 2020

GriefDreich

The weather over the last week has been so depressing , grey and featureless, nothing to photograph and it's too cold and wet to go out. At night there is the odd good photograph to be had , but it is extremely demotivating. Add to this pressure at work (although that is become much easier as I manage to resolve the problems besetting me) , it's already dark and I have finished "The Frankenstein Chronicles" nut still on "The Other Log of Phileas Fogg" and "Imajica" , though TV wise I look at all the series that I could start and at the moment I am shying away from it , though I recently watch a German take of "The Colour Out Of Space" and the unexpectedly excellent remake of "Whiskey Galore".

I usually don't take to remakes although there have been good remakes of bad originals and bad remakes of great originals ("Psycho" and "The Haunting") come to mind.

So I'll just go with Elvis Costello's take on the Leon Payne / Eddie Noack song "Psycho" .

I know this is very short , but it's grey and dark and "Pointless" is coming on and I can't be bothered to do an evening walk.

Saturday, 12 December 2020

Temporally Speaking

I find it amazing how time flies by if you are doing something that needs to be done , or you are enjoying it, but drags like hell when you are waiting for something , doing absolutely nothing , or doing something that bores you. 

I love doing things that interest me and detest boredom but when time is dragging or flying I always call to mind "The eighty Minute Hour" by Brian Aldiss, where the controllers slow down timepieces when you are at work and speed them up when you are not. If that were the situation , how would we know.

This morning I started out extra early , got things done then , had to do more thanks to a milk leak in my rucksack meaning that had to go in the wash , and suddenlty you don't feel any further forward that you thought you would be but you actually are.

It's a bit like my current paperback "The Other Log of Phileas Fogg" , it's only 166 pages but the font is so tiny it is going much slower than I expected. Having said that, though I know the overall concept and have seen a couple of films I have never read Jules Verne's "Around The World In Eighty Days" , although my girls as children used to love the cartoon character Willy Fogg, but this book is giving me a good grounding in the original book while setting my mind off on lots of "What is happening here" questions. I am enjoying it and , unusually , this is taking longer than expected , and "Imajica" on the Kindle Fire is going very slowly , but , in all honesty , that is a book I never want to end despite having read it several times.

The weather this week has been totally dreich and showing no signs of changing , but weather is weather. The thing I don't like about it is the featureless skies.

There are lots of songs that refer to time , but I'm going with Todd Rundgren's "Time Heals" from the album "Healing", the video was a staple of MTV in the early eighties.

Friday, 4 December 2020

Here Comes The Rain Again

Today has been cold and miserable out , persistent precipitation that just makes it uncomfortable to be out. Today I took a day off work , got a haircut from my local Turkish Barber Skin Fade which apparently refers to a hair styling technique and Ahmet gave me some very nice Turkish Delight which I have already partaken of.

Today has seen me finish off American Horror Story:Freaks which , although there is a lot of graphic violence as generally more a tragedy than a horror story , despite having the scariest clown I know , and the finale was actually quite uplifting (I think) . I am watching "Prodigal Son" with Michael Sheen sort of stealing it amid a brilliant cast and have now started on "The Frankenstein Chronicles" which is wandering the realms of "Ripper Street".

"Coldheart Canyon" is now finished and I don't remember the rather quiet but still decent ending of another excellent Clive Barker novel. The next one is "The Other Log of Phileas Fogg" by Philip Jose Farmer , a book which I have totally forgotten reading but the title gives you clues.

The rain is still falling and there are rumours of snow, although I haven't seen any yet.

I just realised that because I have had a relatively restful day , I can actually do a blog post and am under no pressure to get up early tomorrow and it is nice to feel completely unpressured.

So I am just left to choose a song to go with this and the simplest option is to go with the Eurythmics one that I stole the title from.

Monday, 30 November 2020

Physical Book or EBook on St Andrew's Day


p> I am currently reading two Clive Barker books , "Imajica" (my favourite ever book) and "Coldheart Canyon" (rather excellent) the former on my Kindle Fire the later a hardback edition . The former I'm only a quarter through (though this is the biggest ebook I have ever read) and the latter I am 90% through though it's half the size of of "Imajica" but I still find physical books easier to read than ebooks although ebooks are very convenient.

With a device like a Kindle you can carry a library with you and if you have an internet connection you can add to that very easily , but it must always have power, but that does allow you read in the dark, but reading is dependent on the device having power and working.

ebooks are great for reference books of any form as they allow you to easily search and can be updated and annotated, though you can do the latter with physical books. 

Both formats have their benefits and I benefit from both, although I have added to my ebook library with numerous free volumes which I have yet to read , whereas with physical books I think I whether I have somewhere to put them (I don't but that never stops me).

Today is St. Andrew's day and I have a feeling that Scotland will soon be leaving UK much to the delight of the Scots and Little Englanders, so maybe we will go for the excellent "Little Britain" by Dreadzone.

Sunday, 29 November 2020

Leaving The Devil's Country

On my walk on this foggy Sunday I noticed a few cars with a full set of flat tires and two tire outers that had come off something. I would think that if you can't be bothered to keep your tyres up then get rid of the motor rather than sit and let it rot. The cars were all fairly neglected and soften used as a dump for detritus that they had decided not to bin.

Coming to the end of "Coldheart Canyon" and the Devil's Country has served it's purpose and has now unraveled and been taken apart by Lilith and the ghosts and there is still seventy pages left in the book , which has been rather excellent. The Devil's Country is almost a McGuffin as the story could have been told without it, but it's the only part that really stuck in my mind from the first time I read the book.

But the finale now has me wondering what is going to happen next, which is always a good thing when you are reading a book.

So it's a long time since Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877 , that's not last century, it's the century before last, and I have been enjoying a lot of vinyl over the weekend , and for some reason Cozy Powell's "Fance With The Devil" comes to mind with the riff lifted from "Third Stone From The Sun" which my friend Harry Clark reckoned was lifted from the "Coronation Street" them, listen to them all on the Amazon links below and see what you think.

Thursday, 26 November 2020

Goozlegogs

"Coldheart Canyon" is a lot more interesting that I remembered, though I am down to the last hundred pages now, and don't have a clue how it is going to finally end.

I'm quite surprised it's a week since my last post, although I've kept to my promise to post less this year than I did last year, and I think I may end up with around two hundred posts.

Though I've lived in Fenham for twenty years , there's still lots of places I've never visited and one is the Moorside Allotments Association shop , who sell gardening related stuff and other things and I finally visited them this Sunday morning past, and bought three jars of their home made jam, one of which was Gooseberry which I have not had for years, and certainly not homemade. I think my great , but sadly missed friend Chris used to call Gooseberries Goozlegogs , which I think is a great word, though it generally seems to be Goosegogs an the internet. If you live in or near Fenham it's well wort a visit , though only open Saturday and Sunday ten til 12.

So I've been listening to a lot of music this week as always and am wondering what to share with you, I would like something gooseberry or jam related and I suppose a gooseberry is the one who make it a crowd so for some reason the song that has sprung out at me is "The Uninvited Guest" by Marillion, which is a wonderful song and a good one to share as Friday draws ever closer.

Saturday, 14 November 2020

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

Monday, 2 November 2020

Into The Devil's Country

Finally , nearly halfway through "Coldheart Canyon" we get to properly find out what "The Devil's Country" is about. It's been a great read getting there , covering lots of stuff I had forgotten about ,but now I am there. I probably won't tell you what happens but I do recommend the book.

This incidentally coincides with my first time in the office (just to clear my locker so they can rearrange floors) since lockdown began. I just emptied my locker and was in and out in less than ten minutes, ironically coming back home to actually start work.

I did walk into work and saw some amazing skies , and the moon was also very clear, the days are getting shorted and it is dark by five pm so my walking my be curtailed although today and yesterday have been fine. The problem is when I work in the office I always go out for a lunchtime walk , but at home I just tend to work through.

Today's listening has been the first official live Bruce Springsteen plus his first two studio albums , which has been another rather good listening day , with some great songs, and this time no repeats.

So music wise we'll go for "Devil's Sidewalk" by Graham Parker , although Neil Young also has a song with the sleep well and the dark nights draw in people.

Saturday, 31 October 2020

Back Into The Canyon

 My reading , as it often does, has taken me back to Clive Barker and "Coldheart Canyon" . Title wise I think it's pretty awful sounding like some sixties doomed romance soap , and maybe that was the intention. While I remember the basic premise of the book , finding "The Devil's Country" I don't think I am giving anything away by mentioning that.

There are adverts for "The Secret Garden"  on Sky at the moment and that has vague reminders of what is happening in "Coldheart Canyon" , as well as Halloween references which given that it's Halloween tonight , is another coincidental link. Thanks to the lockdown I doubt there will be any trick or treaters out tonight although today has been rather miserable weather wise.

My listening this week has included "The Business" by Madness which is early singles and rarities, but is enhanced by lots of interviews about the history of the band, that was followed by the eight disc "Smiths Complete" box although three of the discs are compilations so there are a lot of repeated songs , but all rather excellent. This was after finishing the Bruce Springsteen "SoundStage" box which was five concerts over fifteen discs and again a lot of repeated takes on songs but all worth listening to.

Next week I have my first Bruce Springsteen box which is all the studio albums up to "Born In The USA" and that will probably be followed by the live 1975-85 box , so next week will be another Springsteen binge.

As I've mentioned "The Secret Garden" and Bruce Springsteen that's the obvious song that I need to go with , even though it's not on the albums I'll be playing next week. I'm using the video from the film Jerry Maguire.

Have a great Halloween

Sunday, 11 October 2020

Back & Romania


 I'm back from and extremely relaxing holiday in Thirsk , on which I did nothing strenuous, didn't walk very far although I maintained more than five miles a day, but I now feel as though I need another week to recover. Maybe I just don't want to resume work, although I set my alarm for 5:45 AM tomorrow morning, and I am sure that I won't want to get up.

I keep thinking I'm not writing as much , because I'm not listening to as much music, although yesterday while posting off some Discogs orders I listened to "Meddle" by Pink Floyd, and "Echoes" is still my favourite Pink Floyd piece, and today I listened to my new vinyl acquisition , a recording of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" , my favourite classical piece.

I've been watching a lot of streaming shows, all excellent , namely "Better Call Saul" (the "Breaking Bad" prequel) , "Disenchantment" , "Cobra Kai" (forty years later follow up to "The Karate Kid") and working through the "American Horror Story" series that I've not seen , starting with "Murder House", and "Silicon Valley".

A strange coincidence is that three of the last books that I have read and revisited have been partially set in Romania , the firs was "The Lost" by Jonathan Aycliffe , "Spear of Destiny" by his alter ego Daniel Easterman and the lastest is "Coldheart Canyon" by Clive Barker, which I had forgotten where it started. It's not surprising with the Romanian connections with Vlad The Impaler and Dracula.

So at least I have written something, So what music should I share. Tom Robinson is playing "Ice Cream For Crow" so I think that is definitely worth a share as we fall into next week.

Monday, 7 September 2020

In The Dark - #FruitfulSeptember #3


I am not coming to terms with being woken up by the alarm and it's dark. I'm sure last week it was still light when I got up. I know it's autumn but it seems to have been a very fast transitions from light summer days to what we have now. While I like autumn generally, I don't like grey silent skies.

At the moment there is a uniform greyness in the sky, which brings on the sad feeling of Seasonal Affected Disorder, although for me that's just a general lacl of motivation and positivity.

Tonight I will watch teh final episode of  "Veep" although I have plenty of other things to watch , and "Silicon Valley" will keep me supplied with caustic one liners even though there's not a Donald Trump type imbecile figure in yet, although there are a few Jonah equilavents to be going on with.
 
I'm also on the final chapter of "Venus on the Halfshell" and though I know what's coming , it's been a wryly amusing observation of the general human condition , so wil lnow have to get abother book to be going on with, although I am still reading "Imajica" on the Kindle  which , although it's my favourite ever book, I am quite happy to stop and start reading whenever I feel like it, although different devices seem to conspire to lose my place in the book . I have a Kindle and also the app on my Google Pixel 2XL phone, and you would think it would be fairly simple to maintain a book position give the state of technology today.
 
So for #FruitfulSeptember I will share "Blueberry Hill" by Fats Domino with you, and I know it's an obvious one, but there will be a few of those, but the thing is setting yourself the target in the first place.

Saturday, 8 August 2020

Homework - #AnimalAugust #5


This week has been another working from home. Using Microsoft Teams means that you can contact people when they are at work so it's not a problem and you don't feel isolated.

This week has also allowed me to listen to a lot of CDs including some that are for sale on Discogs because I don't really play them all that much , although ironically my sale pile is the closest CD group to my CD player. The reason for this is that generally  I am finding 6Music a bit samey , although the DJ banter makes you feel you are with somebody and you do hear new music which is a great reason for listening to the radio.

The Cds I went through include "The Raven" by Lou Reed and the first Stone Roses album, plus a Fotheringay box set  (I am fairly eclectic which you know if you follow this blog, but that's only half a dozen people). Also for the #AnimalAugust we will go for a live take of "The Raven" by Lou Reed based on the writings of Edgar Allen Poe.

On the book front I have finished "Everville" and while it is an excellent book it left a lot of unanswered threads, possibly ripe for a third book of the series. I am now rereading "The Lost" by Jonathan Aycliffe which is a bit lighter than his normal stuff with some wry black humour similar to the recent BBC take on "Dracula".

The weather is good so enjoy your Saturday.

Tuesday, 4 August 2020

The Midgard Serpent #AnimalAugust #3


Still another sixty pages to go in "Everville" and still have no real clue about the Uad Uroboros, the monsters of the book. The Uroboros part is based on Ouroboros , the self sunstaining perpetual worm or snake that surronds the world based on the Midgard Serpent Jörmungandr from Norse mythology.

While thoroughly enjoying the book , I am still confused as to why I bought this and never actually read it, it will definitely be revisited, and I know one of the characters Harry D'Amour maybe just from "The Scarlet Gospels" or "The Great and Secret Show" , so it is slightly surprising.

It is a very grey Tuesday but the rain has stopped and I have been listening to a couple of CD boxes today. One was the first five Alice Cooper albums and this just confirmed that they didn't really take off until "Love It To Death" with some impressive songs with one of their best (and creepiest) "The Ballad of Dwight Fry" sseguing with with frightening but originally funny synchronicity into Rolf Harris' "Sun Arise" . The Cooper song refers to a child stalker and well you know what I mean. The album is still excellent.

"Killer" is even better , but not of the albums hit forty minutes so that was a great morning's listening.

I am now listening to the "Zang Tumb Tuum" box set which is 3CDs and a DVD , and while there is some good stuff on there, I liked the Alice Cooper albums better.

In keeping with #AnimalAugust (and the Midgard Serpent) I am going with the excellent Northern Soul song "The Snake" by Al Wilson , a truly great record that always grabs your attention when it comes on the radio.