The Collected Works Of Billy The Kid

 "Creation Stories" by Alan McGee (that's the record label, not religion or history) is finished. It's still Oasis being the biggest band in the world (I think they are an adequate pub band) The Libertines were a band who's only button was self-destruct, but then McGee found Glasvegas.

My next book is The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by the Canadian Michael Ondaatje. Part diary part poetry drawing on contemporary accounts, period photographs, dime novels, and his own prodigious fund of empathy and imagination, only a hundred pages but like nothing I have read before. This will be finished on my next post I think. The nearest I can compare it to is "taRaNtula" by Bob Dylan though it is nothing like it.

I recently discovered that my American Amazon Author page has a feed from this blog which you can see here. It only shows on the .com site but not on others. C'est La Vie.

The music is "Geraldine" by Glasvegas

Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. Barter Books - An Amazing Bookshop In A Railway Station In Alnwick
2. The Plagiaristic Poetry Series - Poems Taken From Random-Themed Lines
3. Another Raven - A Take On Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"
4. The Cleaner - An Autism-Focused Christmas Special
5. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
6. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
7. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
8. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer and this is her Instagram

Today Is The Winter Solstice

Today is the Winter Solstice so the days are now going to get longer and lighter.  Though because of the nature of nature , nothing remains totally constant.

Sigur Ros always remind me of winter , I've heard their music and described "for glaciers" and can't argue with this. They are from Iceland so I think I can definitely describe this as a seasonal beauty.
A quote from the Youtube feed :

"The only reason for autumn and spring, is to jump in puddles." -- 

+John Kellden 

Which I can fully understand. The video for Hoppipolla is , well maybe , just what you'd expect from the band, I was hoping for one full of Arctic landscapes as the wind and rain blows outside my window.  Today I was contact by the son of a former work colleague who returned to Australia many moons ago , thanking me for the song I'd posted on his wall for the birthday , It was totally out of the blue , but is always nice to hear from people. The last Christmas song I posted by Glasvegas , I thought some people  may find a little depressing but I am glad friends saw the beauty in it. They are a wonderful band, and I remember my friend Kate saying how much she loved them because of they sing in a broad Glasgow accent (another friend now living in Africa)

Anyway enjoy , this and enjoy the rest of your pre Christmas Weekend.

20 Days In

Apparently the Winter Solstice begins tomorrow. So we finally reach the shortest day of the year and then the days start to get longer for us in the Northern Hemisphere and shorter for all my wonderful friends in the Southern Hemisphere. You win some , you lose some. Still we get the cold , rain and drizzle and in the Southern Hemisphere you have wonderful sunshine and warmth so everyone has some good news. I always concentrate on the good news and positives, not the bad , negatives.

At this point in the post I haven't a clue what to days song or music piece will be. I had considered The Goons "I'm Walking Backwards For Christmas"  but don't really think it fit's in with what I want, then I remembered the Glasvegas Christmas EP, so chose this lovely sounding , if very slightly depressing, song by them. I remember this was very expensive when I tried to get hold of it , but eventually found a copy. You can still pay £30 for it though the download is a more reasonable fiver.

Anyway , it's cold , but we can make it warm in our hearts. Be nice to everyone, show compassion , and enjoy your pre-Christmas weekend, and keep on smiling.