Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts

Sunday 31 October 2021

Belling on Halloween


 I am really enjoying "We Are Bellingcat" by Elliot Higgins, and just getting amazed by their methods which are essentially a meticulous attention to detail. On instance was tracking down a Russian War criminal though the Russian disinformation and obfuscation by finding a name and mobile phone number on an insurance application.

Thing on this when you fill informs and especially those one offs to find out what kind of potato you are and the like.

I would highly recommend this book to everyone for pointers and how investigative journalism has been turned on it's head.

It is Halloween and published a Halloween playlist here on Vocal if you would like to check it out. When I see all the costumes and creatures out on Halloween I think how would people react if these suddenly became real. Now that would be interesting.

My friend Ana has just had a book published , "Light and Darkness" which you can check out here.

Musicwise as it's Halloween , we are going with "Hellraiser" by Ozzy Osbourne ad Ian Kilmister which I never knew existed but it ghosted in on me, and I really like it.

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. The Never Ending Story - An Index of All My Vocal Writing
  2. A Halloween Film Evening
  3. A Waterfall of Clouds
  4. The Witch's Promise
  5. Waiting For The Green Light - The Genius of Bill Hicks



Sunday 1 November 2020

Hello November


Today I will see my grand daughter , Alexis ,  for the first time so a walk over to my daughter and son in law's will do for my step count on the day after Halloween. Although there are grey clouds scudding across the sky it is a pleasant walk across the central motorway skirting Cow Hill through the Town Moor.

Last night I bought a tub of sweets for Halloween , but due to lockdown, of course , there were no groups of kids out so I have a tub of chocolate to myself that will obviously go down very well. Today is All Saints Day or All Hallows Day or Hallowmas (hence the day before was Hallow's Eve or Halloween) , although this is another Christian theft to replace the Celtic festival of  Samhain. While I know lots of good people who are practicing Christians , the history of Christianity is one of total control of the populace and that permeates society today cherry picking the constantly rewritten Bible to forward their controlling agenda.Jesus would not be pleased and I could see a thieves in the temple scenario ensuing if Jesus returned.

Now who'd have thought that Jello Biafra would cover a song by two ex members of Mungo Jerry. Paul King and Colin Earl left Mungo Jerry to form the King Earl Boogie band and penned and released "Plastic Jesus" which Paul King must have raked in a lot of royalties from the myriad covers, so I've included two versions. The Mojo Nixon / Jello Biafra is available for download but the King Earl Boogie Band original is only available on the Dawn singles collection (at the moment £1.29 on Amazon) . Have a wonderful day everyone.

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

Thursday 31 October 2019

Samhain - #Oktoberfest #37 - Gong Flying Teapot


Today is Samhain the Gaelic festival (wiki here) that takes us into the "darker half" of the year. Traditionally, it is celebrated from 31 October to 1 November, as the Celtic day began and ended at sunset. It's also the time for a number of much lesser and more commercialised evens such as Halloween , and I always think how these lot would would run and scream if a real vampire ,zombie , with real blood and dismemberment turned up. I'll probably get a tub of sweets to keep the children away.

So the drink list for #Oktoberfest as this will probably be the last one in the sequence (unless I do one later tonight). Scotch , Bourbon come under Whiskey so that's why I may seem to have missed things.
  • Whiskey - 7
  • Beer -4
  • Wine - 4
  • Tequila - 1
  • Gin - 1
  • Champagne - 1
  • Brandy - 1
  • Coffee - 3
  • Milk - 2
  • Tea - 2
  • Cocktails - 2
  • Fruit Juice - 2
  • Water - 1
  • General Alcohol - 8
  • General Juice - 2
  • Soda - 3
There's thirty nine there but some sontion mention more than one drink so it's about right.

So this #Oktoberfest ends (or it may not) with "Flying Teapot" by Gong and about four minutes in there is the the refrain:

"Have a cuppa tea
  Have another one
 Have a Cuppa Tea"

And that's a good way to start the day.

Friday 2 November 2018

Halloween Minimalism - The Sound of John Carpenter


My last post was about being post Halloween  and I was considering using John Carpenter's "Halloween" theme as an accompanying video. John Carpenter is unusual in that he makes films and also does the soundtracks. His compositions are minimalist  but stick in your mind often using repetitive notes an motifs that carve themselves into you psyche.

I'm not sure what his first film was but I remember seeing "Assault on Precinct 13" and being maightily impressed with it's unknown cast simple but frightening set up and one of the most unexpectedly shocking scenes I've seen in a film, and... of course ... the soundtrack. It's still stands up today despite it being a remake and resetting of "Fort Apache".

John Carpenter recently played at the Tyne Theatre in Newcastle and it's not many directors could even think about doing that.

He is responsible for some of my favourite films and all are marked my him, often working with Kurt Russell such as in the remake of "The Thing" and in "Scape for New York" and "Escape From LA".

So it's Friday , enjoy your day and weekend.




Tuesday 3 November 2015

Foggy Morning - #37 - 1993 - House of Pain - Jump Around


We are into November , heading towards Guy Fawkes Night and wishing that maybe this year he could succeed. Outside the fog is making it look cold and grey and unwelcoming unlike yesterdays eventual sun. There is a Music Quiz Tonight that I am wandering out to which is bonfire night related and I was just thinking of how relatively civilized  that night has become. In the seventies idiots would think nothing of chucking lighted fireworks , bangers and worse through people's letter boxes. I was guilty of the odd gate swapping and pinching as well as playing knock-a-door run. So anyway it's over for this year and we can sleep without fear of door knocks with small people asking for sweets until we get the Christmas Carol singers round. Oh dear , it's only November and I have already mentioned the 'C' word.
Horse Race

Oh and Australia's Melbourne Cup ran a few hours back and I lost a few pennies as the favourite came in a out tenth and Pride of Penzance won , the first win by a lady rider in that race.









The Odyssey continues into year 37 and the 1993 charts contained a lot of rubbish , but Jump Around by House of Pain is a great record and was one of half a dozen possibilities , though as I write this the Jam's Eton Rifles is playing on Radio 6 so this morning is jammed full of amazing music.

Have a totally amazing Tuesday everyone.


Saturday 31 October 2015

Trick or Treat? I'd Rather Celebrate Samhain - #34 - 1990 - KLF - What Time Is Love?


Celebrate Samhain
It's Saturday and it's been a good week, but today is Halloween or Samhain depending on yuor viewpoint or religious or non religious religious. I do detest the commercialisation of the whole thing where plastic bats and witches costumes seem to be the norm , and the whole American  idea of threatening somebody is little more that preparatory gangsterism , Give me something or I will do something bad to you. Tonight I will get teenagers not even dressed up coming demanding stuff, and of course I will have tubs of sweets because I don't really want to find out what the malicious little imps will do. The reality is that is it's an excuse to dress up and collect free sweets , although about ten years back we were burgled on Halloween.

Samhain means Summers End so is probably the most appropriate description for today , and the best
way to celebrate.

Anyway enjoy the night in whatever way you see fit . I will be watching Preston North End play Bolton and jump into Australia versus the All Blacks for the Rugby World Cup Final, so that's my night sorted , though I would welcome any Pagan's or Druids round for a drink if you are reading this and know where I live.

Anyway into year 34 of the Musical Odyssey and we hit 1990. The year the KLF released the awesome White Room. This is an excuse to play the excellent "What Time Is Love? Amerika" which was a thunderous revamp of the already amazing version on the album.

So enjoy Saturday , Samhain, Halloween and the Rugby World Cup Final. It promises to be an amazing day my friends.

Some people have asked who Lee his (Good Evening Lee) . Lee is a great friend who live in Japan doing translating stuff I believe , and lives near to Mount Fuji . We worked together at the PPA in the early 90s around the time of the KLF and reconnected of Facebook a feww months back. Facebook does sometimes throw up good things.

Wednesday 14 October 2015

Getting Better - #14 - 1970 - The Witch - The Rattles

Halloween is Coming

Another rushed post , so , as I said , some would just be about the song that I'm posting. This is one of those. 1970 was my 14th year , I'd never thought of it in that way be for. I've been surprised by how much good music inhabited the charts and this was probably when my core music opinions took shape. Any appreciation of classical music was destroyed by my school (I  regained it in later years) , but despite the plethory of incredible music , I've chosen The Witch by The Rattles , a German Group , which I loved at the time and still sounds as fresh today. And I suppose with Halloween on it's way is sort of appropriate

Time for work now

Saturday 1 November 2014

Halloween is Gone.November is Here and a Tenuous Link between The Toon and Nick Cave



Janus Looking Forward and Back
Well it's the ninth month (of the Roman calendar) and one of those where they'd run out of gods and politicians to name them after (it's been like that since September and will stay the same til the new year when Janus hit's us). The good news is it's Saturday and though it's five am I've had a decent night's sleep despite another early night.

Last night we had a few trick or treaters which were all young kids accompanied by their parents which was nice with on young witch deciding she wanted a tour of the house. They were all well costumed and very well behaved.




Although I find the initial concept of Halloween great fun , it's essentially adult and there's nothing cute about it.  While dressing up as a vampire or zombie can be great fun I wouldn't want to be one or live in a world populated by such creatures.

A friends of mine asked why women had to make their Halloween Costumes sexy , well all I would say is that it's personal choice, and you can still have a great costume without displaying any flesh, but the main thing is to have fun. There's a local Goth Night called the Charnel House and they published some pictures which I used for a slide show of one of the Spoon recordings from a long time ago which I have included as the video for this post , and it contains a lot of different costumes , but more to the point a lot of people having fun and enjoying themselves.



Added to that Newcastle fans are on a high after dumping Manchester City out of the League Cup . City did put out their second string , but their second string was still multi million pound buy internationals , Newcastle put out their second string with a lot of names I hadn't heard of. A Very impressive win. I've just realised I need to include two more videos because of this ( the match and The ShireHorses Nick Cave misappropriation)




Anyway, it's Saturday, I'm going to have a major rest because my body feels like it's been beaten with big sticks , so I think I'll be lounging on the settee watching catch up TV, and still enjoying the weekend. Take a leaf out of the Charnel House crowd's book and have a brilliant weekend everybody.

Wednesday 29 October 2008

Halloween....

It's that time of year again , and parties and events are happening all over . There was a queue for costumes outside the Magic shop on Percy street , so your as well going online somewhere like this:



Local radio will be playing all the cheesey scarey records , and there'll no doubt be lots of film nights featuring slasher classics such as Halloween and Scream.




The Goths will be abroad in Eldon Square.....