The Numbers Game

I've just realised that this is already my second highest posting year ever (2013 was the highest with 244) so given that I am three and a half months away from th eend of the year there is just a possibility that this will be my highest posting years ever. The last two Octobers I have themed a post a day and I may do that again this year as it's my birthday month. Again, going back to the point I made in my last post but one, when you don't think about what you are doing, it makes it a lot easier to succeed.

It's ten of the clock and this is my third post today, and I am looking forward to a good night;s sleep and an extremely relaxed weekend with a little catch up to TV and maybe even not doing a huge amount of walking. It is a long time since I had a real lie in, so long that I have actually forgotten.

I am quite pleased that my Discogs store is going well with another four gone today, I'm not looking to start a business just to trim my collection slightly. This reminded me of  "Rock and Roll Records" by JJ Cale which is so laid back it's almost comatose, but a good record anyway. It is time for my bed now, who's coming?

Just noticed Amazon says:

Includes FREE MP3 version of this album. 

It's not Free, you have to buy the album first to get a copy, and you could rip it yourself anyway without the tags that Amazon include.


Goodnight my friends


See you when daylight hits.

On Writing

The thing is, like anything you do, writing is easier the more often you do it. I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but the numer of hits per post have also actually gone up. The "Coincidentally Opencast" post is still the most read one currently and that is getting a lot of hits despite being more about the Happy Mondays and their John Kongos covers and the fact that John Kongos was the first person to use a recorded sample in the single "He's Gonna Step On You Again" . Follow the OpenCast link for video and download links.

I've now started reading Alexei Sayle's "The Weeping Women Hotel" and after the Jordan Ellenberg book I was struck that the pages will be solid text, no diagrams and graphs breaking it up every few pages, but words have the ability to stimulate the imagination, though for some reason I found it a bit odd about about a man writing about a woman's experiences. I'm only ten pages and it has my attention so I am looking forward to enjoying it.

So it's time for another walk to work, it's a couple of weeks since I bought a weekly bus ticket now (and they are good value for money), but if I don't have a ticket I will walk and I get to listen to lots of music.

I now look at people at bus stops and think, "You could probably walk to where you are going".  It's true we have inbuilt laziness programmed into us. Twice in recent weeks I've seen people panic because they have missed their floor by ONE floor, as they press the button then go up to the 7th floor before (I assume returning to the second or third, when it would take them a minute to WALK DOWN to their floor)

I've been selling a few CDs that I don't really listen to on Discogs. The pile I had would probably bring me in fifteen pounds from CEX or a bit more for one of Newcastle's second hand record shops. Amazon wouldn't let me sell CDs but the four I have sold on Discogs have brought in £50 so it's been a success. My store is here.

Given how I have been critical of people not walking , I found some film of Deep Purple performing "Lazy" in 1972 for you to enjoy.


Anyway I'm going to set off again so enjoy your Thursday.

So Much For Targets

Well I actually did get a lot done today. I have maintained the step level visiting Newcastle Central STation among other things and am getting the hang of Wordpress , though not as quickly as I'd like. I managed abouth fifteen minutes of "I Frankestein" but it was like everyone was reading from an autocue and while the CGI was excellent the story was so threadbare that I hit the delete button. There is too much good stuff to watch to waste time with things like that.

The new Song of The Salesman site is here but there's another weeks work to do. I want video embedded on the pages just to make things easier for people,

FLK OR KLF?

Anyway I am home now and listening to The FLK (yes that's right) , it is an interesting folk / techno / sample mix, an album so rare it's not even on Amazon so god knows how much it's worth, though it's going from £23 on Discogs whis seems to have replaces GEMM as the global record marketplace.

It's not often that you can't find stuff on Amazon.











Anyway the two albums that I have been listening to today are:

• Airhead - Boing: Second division Britpop (in sales not quality) akin to another of my favourites , The Milltown Brothers, I think they went under the name Jefferson Airhead in the USA, but I this was their only album. "Funny How" was a brilliant single and it sounds as good today as it did then. They were on the excellent Korova label, just look it up and see how good company they were keeping.
• Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City:Almost a modern equivalent of AIrhead although Jit (African) influenced power pop, some amazing songs and a great follow up to their second album.

 Anyway I am now listening to my favourite Kraftwerk song "Ruckzuck" but willshare a Vampire Weekend song for your delectation.

Time for tea now , enjoy your Sunday evening.

New Month New Challenge

Well not quite but by the time I hit my birthday on the 1st of October when I will be in Whitby, I want to have hit 340K steps and be under 100Kg , both "easily" doable , but as I keep saying I don't do regimented stuff. Today I have reduced my insulin intake by another 10% and we will see if that works.

I had to but the lights on this morning so the days and nights are drawing in.

I have started trimming my CD collection by selling stuff I'm unlikely to play again online. This will include stuff that I've bought and then decided it wasn't as good as I thought , or just to support gigging bands. People shouldn;t have to play for free. My Discogs shop is here. I was going to sell on Amazon but they won't allow you to sell CDs, maybe they just have too many sellers.

Anyway I am going to set off for work now, with an increased daily step target which I may just aim for permanently, because essentially it's the walking that has enabled me to reduce my insulin intake.

So I'm just going to include one of my favourite somngs with "Walkin'" in the title, "Walking To New Orleans" by Fats Domino, and I can't believe I've not ever mentioned Fats Domino in this blog before as he is one of my (admittedly many) favourite artists. I will definitely rectify that this month. For today I found a great live version at Superbowl WX in New Orleans.

It's Friday , go and enjoy yourself.

White Heat

When I was having my second lot of blood taken at the hospital a nurse told me she's been looking for a CD copies of a Newcastle Band called White Heat, I'd never heard of them but said that most things could be found. Anyway there's a few things on youtube (see them performing their debut single above) and this is what you get on Amazon. Discogs is also a good place to look here.

There's info about Bob Smeaton their lead singer here.  There's more stuff here. Their stuff was released on the Valium label , not Virgin as she thought. You can get the album on CD here though from Retro Records who do classic vinyl on CD.

Unfortunately I think there are also some poodle rockers who get in the search mix, but this post is for that nurse who took a lot of blood without causing too much discomfort.

This has been a public service announcement.