Fifty Up

This is my fiftieth post this month. I suppose the quality of a lot of these posts has not been up to my usual standard, though that's not very high anyway. I know a lot of my friends read the posts but find it odd and virtually no one leaves any comments . positive or negative on the blog, although my friend Julie leaves a lot on Facebook.

Still the main point of this blog is to keep a diary and store memories for myself, it is a fairly selfish endeavour and therefore by extension is fairly selfish to expect people to leave comments. Life does take it's toll and even leaving a short comment can sometimes take a lot longer than you think it will.

When I share these posts on Facebook (where most of my interactions come from) I tend to give a short resumé of wat's in the post, I don't know if that puts people off.

Given that each post will be around 200-250 words this month has seen me put down 10K-12K which is enough for a short novel, although this will be short on interesting narrative but high on  interesting music content.

I am wondering if I can hit 300 posts this year, which should only require twenty posts a month, which is obviously more than feasible given that that has been my lowest monthly total this month (in June) and this is post 221 this year.

My next project will be #SongsYouveNeverHeard which I will start with this post and continue til the end of September, I would love you to leave a comment letting me know if you have heard the song, if you like it and any other thing you like.

So how do we start this .. Earle Mankey's "Mau Mau" which I heard once on John Peel and then never again. I tracked down a vinyl copy on Ebay about fifteen years back, and still love the record. I wrote about it here, and also created a Youtube slideshow featuring among other thing my dog as a teenager Simba and my first dog when I left home Jasper.

Earle Makey was a guitarist with Sparks but that about as much as I know about him. Also don't you think Russel Mael looks like Freddie Mercury on the cover of "A Woofer In Tweeters Clothing" ? Enjoy.

What Am I Talking About?

It's the middle of the working week and the clouds are dispersing giving way to blue skies and sunshine. Everybody seems to be checking apps on their phones, tablets and computers to see what the weather will be like , I still stick with looking out of the window and if I think it's gonna rain I take my umbrella and if it's going to be wet and windy I take my hat (it's water and windproof).

The weather is a complex thing and while it can be influenced by governments with the right resources, nothing can be guaranteed.

A worrying development is the replacement of grass with plastic at Cowgate near me . In the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter, but in Earth's ecosystem plants take in CO2 and exhale O2, it's part of the balance of nature. The thing is if all the grass is replaced by plastic it will have a detrimental effect on the environment. It looks nice and new when it's laid but it soon gathers rubbish and I reckon it's going to soon get very tatty and it WILL affect our environment.

Astroturfing Paradise

Also we see trees being removed . An oak tree may take 50 gallons of water a day. I look at the plants and bushes and trees round my garden. The garden seldom gets too wet to walk on and those plants , bushes and trees are doing very well thank you . Take them away and I have a swimming pool. We are getting more and more floods and a big part of it is tree decimation. Trees can have negative effects , their roots can destroy buildings, roads and footpaths, but they need to be conserved and managed not destroyed.





Anyway I am not a scientist, but these are just some thoughts on stuff I have seen.

Anyway , I am going to leave for work soon and I supposed the line from Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow
Taxi" is coming to pass:

"They Paved Paradise, and Put Up A Parking Lot"

Though Cowgate is hardly Paradise, it does have the best fish and chip shop in Newcastle DG Gorman's Fenham Fish Bar.

Anyway with that thought I will get off and you have a brilliant day.

Oh and Craig Charles just mentioned my Earworm  on his 6Music Show , just before the 7:30 news. It was Earl Mankey's Mau Mau.