Encountering The Adversary

Possibly an unexpected title given that England play Germany in the Euros tonight but that is not what this is about. This is the least I've posted in a month on this blog for over ten years, it's not that I've not been not writing, but have been publishing on Vocal which has changed the way I write and also actually increased my writing in a year when I said I was going to slow it down. You can see my Vocal posts here.

The benefit of posting here is that I don't need to wait for story / article approval , which may be a good or bad thing, but I should not neglect this blog.

I have been suffering from a cough / cold possible after effects of COVID jab and since Thursday I have lost 3Kg in weight , probably because of my effective total fasting on Thursday and Friday. Yesterday my weight was 91.8Kg which is 202lb or 14 stone 6 lb , I haven't been that low since my early twenties, so I am now thinking maybe one day a week I will try fasting. Today my weight is 92.1 Kg.

So to the point of this article, I am currently rereading The Adversary Cycle by F Paul Wilson and while I know the overall picture I was surprised to find that the publishers push it as a six book series when in reality two of the books are only marginally related. I thought I was going to start what is sometimes advertised as the third book "The Touch" but looking through my collection I realised I didn't have a copy (I think I borrowed it from my mate Steve Kirby about twenty years back) so I ordered a copy on my Kindle Fire.

I am currently on book three of the four, "Reprisal" having read the excellent "Reborn" which soon became obvious was the real follow up to "The Keep" the start of the series (also a Michael Mann film).

When I reread "The Tomb" I was thinking "This has nothing to do with The Adversary" although the hero (or anti hero) Repairman Jack reappears in the Adversary Finale , "Nightworld", 

All the books are excellent trending towards eventually apocalypse mixing mystery , horror and detective genres which some excellent characterisations and given that I am normally a slow reader , this series is one that I will revisit when I am finished.

So I am going to share Mussorgsky's "Night on Bare Mountain" a scary bit from Disney's "Fantasia" which is a good soundtrack for this piece from one of my mums favourite films.

Contact

I was touched by the comments on Facebook on my first post ban post, although I think a few might just like but not bother reading the blog post. The biggest lesson out of this is not not rely of a Facebook as a single means of contact. Facebook does allow to share an email or phone number. My phone contact list is very big , and my blog gets updated regularly. So if you're worried about me you can email or text me or even phone me (I might not answer but leave a message and I'll get back to you).

This is just talking about me, but also think about how people would contact you if they were worried about you, do you have at least an alternate email of Facebook. My ban included messenger so when people contacted me by Messenger I could see their message but could not answer, luckily one of those friends had an alternate email contact which they also used so I could answer that way.

Last night I watched the film "Buried" 90 minutes of Ryan Reynolds in a coffin with a couple of mobile phones with which he tries to contact various people to try and facilitate his escape. An amazing and intense film. It reminds a little of Tom Hardy in Locke, except this ramps up the claustrophobia whereas Tom Hardy is in a car and not about to run out of power or air. This is the tagline:

"Imagine waking up in the dark and realising that you've been buried alive for reasons unknown to you, with nothing but a lighter, a mobile phone and only 90 minutes of oxygen left. Ryan Reynolds delivers an utterly compelling performance as everyman, Paul Conroy that is filled with fear, frustration, emotion and even a couple of dark laughs along the way."

So this morning we have bright sunshine and the Women's World Cup semi-final between England and the World Champions , the USA to look forward to, so that is tonight sorted for me.

So going with the title of this post we have to go with Edwin Starr's "Contact" don't we?

Apathy In The Uk

Apathy From The Uk

This is nothing major. Although I am English and live in the UK, I would expect my UK visits to be top 3 normally but they are not.

UK Visits are less than half the USA and Germany and only 20% of the French visits. As I have said before the Unknown region has me flummoxed, maybe some rogue robots.

I'm not complaining, this is just an observation, and lets face it the uSA is far more populous than the UK though I don't think France is (though it is much bigger. Germany is slightly bigger (though that may be completely wrong as I am too lazy to check it out at this moment, but I am glad for the visits)

The recent visit explosion (for me) has boosted the site income from about 10p per week to £10 per week which is a significant increase which I wasn't expecting.

The blog is not about making money but acting as a diary and sharing interesting stuff with people.

I wasn't intending to do this post until tonight, and the title came to me and I thought I'll make a start on it. Although it's about people visiting this blog the title could also apply to political engagement and taking an interest in things that actually affect your life, but most people would rather watch a soap and make a cup of tea.

So maybe I should take the song that I stole the title from and Share a little Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias (a typical Manchester name) with you. I bet you thought I would go with The Sex Pistols didn't you?

Seven By Seven

It's the seventh day or the seventh month and England are in th elasteight or the World Cup Finals where all the media darlings have been unceremoniously dumped out  leaving a wide open competition.

Keeping on the seven theme Preston North End put seven past  Bamber Bridge in their first pre season friendly and setting an example for England to follow, hopefully.

The heat is still on and it is showing no signs of abating.

I've been listening to a couple of albums and for a compilation Primal Scream's "Dirty Hits" is both eclectic and impressive and they're a band who have demonstrated they have Rolling Stones style longevity and "Rocks" could actually be a Rolling Stones song coming close to "Rocks Off" from "Exile on Main Street".

Then I revisited Genesis' "Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" which is a remarkably coherent album of a dream of Peter Gabriel's which has the full libretto on the album's sleeve, but you really need the vinyl copy to be able to read it. A remarkable number of songs have a single one note heavy bass line I think produced by bass pedals, and some remarkable keyboard solos on "Riding The Scree" and "In The Cage", and The Slipperman are an incredibly worrying creation. Well worth searching out the video on line or just buying a copy of the album to hear the story of Rael and his brother John who continually screws up the situation.

Right I'm going to watch England play Sweden.

 

 

Stay Happy

Didn't get out to AKQ Stottin' last night but I know Trillians would have been packed and it meant that I could watch some good films and get a reasonably early night. Today looks incredibly dreary , grey , wet and not exactly the ideal summers day.

I also didn't realise that England and Wales were in the same UEFA 2016 group , and Wales are top and Russia got a last minute equaliser although the bits of the match I saw looked fairly good, but whether Russia are meant to be the group fall guys I don't know ,  because Wales are looking good.

Anyway today is going to be a relaxing day , I will be practicing songs , listening to music , perusing the papers , getting irked by the Red Tops whicjh will tells us how immigrants will cost Europe £20 Billion (while the UK allows Corporate Tax Evasion / Avoidance of £200 Billion) ,  but knowing that they are rags written by idiots for morons.

Stay Happy

Anyway today is going to be another positive day, enjoying the abundant greenery , maybe taking awalk with a hat or an umbrella , because walking is good for you and does make you feel better and does not cost you anything but time and energy and you can find lots of unexpected things if you go in a random direction. And that thought has given me a song for this piece , George Harrison's "Any Road".

There are so many reasons to be happy , find them and have a great Sunday my wonderful friends.

When Not To Trust Technology - #10 - 1966 - Roy C - Shotgun Wedding

Yesterday I was going to go along to Vamos Fantabuloso to see friends and write up for Spoongig so I cut the address ¡VAMOS! Social, Market Street, NCL from the website pasted it into Google Maps on my phone and it sent me to the middle of an estate in West Denton. Turned out to be a residential block , right house name and road , but totally wrong place . Because it was off the beaten track getting a taxi or bus back was not an option (UBER don't work for me , never any cars) ,so came home and missed out because I believed Google and didn't question it for once , c'est la vie.

Shotgun Wedding

Anyway to my tenth year on this mortal coil and it's the year England won the World Cup and a song I remember was this really racy one according to an acquaintance of the time. Roy 'C' s "Shotgun Wedding" , ironically not too far removed from todays attitudes fifty years on , but nonetheless a wonderful record.

Middle Of The Night

I've not been too prolific lately with this and there's lot's going on like The World Cup in Brazil and other things. Work has been interesting and today , well later on today it's Fathers day.

I've just watch the excellent documentary cum whodunnit Searching For Sugarman  about the singer Rodriguez which is really a brilliant true life fairytale that anyone with an interest in music should watch. I won't say anything in case you don't know the story but it really is an uplifting must watch film. I've the his albums for ages on the recommendation of a good friend but it's taken me this long to get round to watching the film.

Anyway it's time I went to bed 

Engelbert the English Eurovision Entry

Gerry Dorsey better known as Engelbert Humperdinck is England's surprise entry for Eurovison this year with "Love Will Set You Free" . I don't know if it's age or what but I personally think the song is fine , if reminiscent of Jim Croce's "Time In A Bottle". It also has shades of a Jacues Brel song sung by Scott Walker , and I think is all these reminders it causes are the reasons why I like it rather than the song itself.

Engelbert himself is a sprightly 75 years old and so a change for the X-Factor rejects we normally get , bringing a bit of quality and a sense of humour to the proceedings. I really wish him well and if the song doesnt get a decent placing , well it just shows what idiots voters can be (hey the put David Cameron in charge here!!).

With a sense of mistiming Roy Hodgsons's maiden England game takes place against Norway , with the tabloid hacks sharpening their paws waiting to pounce , no doubt the Sun will have sum pathetic headline again on Roy's pronunciation of the letter "R". And least you can understand what Roy Hodgson is saying unlike teh bleatings of your average tabloid journalist.

Oh What A Beautiful Morning

Well after a holiday week of cloud and rain , I'm greeted this morning with glorious sunshine. Great for driving home it and hope it keeps that way until Tuesday wen it's back to work.

This week The Sun have shown how low they will stoop for a headline in their abuse of Roy Hodgson , the latest because some German didn't know who he was . 

Still remember they are part of Rupert Murdoch's News International that also owns Fox News , so could you really expect anything else? Oh and the Sun has replaced the News of The World as the scum classes' paper of choice on a Sunday.

On that note I hope you all you West Bromich Albion and England fans follow Billy Bragg's advice: