Showing posts with label Hawkwind. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hawkwind. Show all posts

Monday, 15 March 2021

Steppenwolf

On the back cover this is described as "the hip bible of 60's counter culture". I remember seeing people with bookcases at home thinking "they've never read any of those books" and to some extent that is true of me. I bought several  sets of classic books , in their own boxes and yesterday decided to extract some , and in two of them the books were actually stuck together, only slightly but nonetheless , theses were books I have bought and never read.

I finally decided to read at least one of these, and the one I chose is "Steppenwolf" by Hermann Hesse , the English translation from the original German because like most entitled English people I am effectively monolinguistic. The book is potentially very dark although the author does describe it as hopeful in the preface.

When I started it , I thought it was going to all be the preface after the foreword, because there is not chapter listing , but then I found a break at page 50 and hit another at page 30.

Although the book's preface seems very boring , a lodger staying in a guy's aunt's guesthose the style of writing has me captivated, just wondering how this is going to pan out. As yet it is not the most dynamic or uplifting tome, but I am enjoying , though possibly not the best choice after finishing the excellent but worrying "Fake Law" by The Secret Barrister,

No doubt I will keep you updated as I progress through "Steppenwolf" and my musical accompaniment was going to be something by the band Steppenwolf (I wonder where they got the name from) but then remembered a Hawkwind song from the "Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music" album called "Steppenwolf" though it refers more to a werewolf rather than the nan in the book , our Mr Haller.

Friday, 5 March 2021

Two A.M. Too Late or Too Early?

Thanks to virtually a week off , last night I stayed up while 1:30 AM , I think I could have stayed up all night , not sure how I would have felt today but isn't that why party animals only get up in the afternoon , which then means it's easy to stay up all night,

Now if you are partying or at a rave the question in the title doesn't matter , but if you are just at home is 2 AM too late or too early to watch a film , make some coffee or tea or a bacon butty.

I have the dates for my COVID injections and the systems , while a couple of glitches went through fairly quickly , unlike almost all the contracts outsourced to the government's mates and cronies.

I had planned to try a marathon this week , but the thought of maybe spending 12 hours to do 60K steps in 12 hours  in cold weather somehow lost it's appeal. At some point I will go to top my 15.5  miles but that may be at the end of March , but even then it may not happen, we shall see.

I have listened to a lot of music this week and still written nothing . I really need to learn how to use my simple Kindle recording studio as I can't get anything that links up to my computer to use Audacity to record it.

This week's vinyl included Alice Cooper's "School's Out" and maybe their finest album "Killer" , as well has Hawkwind's "XIn Search of Space" and "Space ritual" and as I write this I am listening to "This Time It's Personal" the excellent covers album by Hugh Cornwell and Dr John Cooper Clarke.

But I will share , what is in my opinion Alice Cooper's finest song , the amazing "Halo of Flies" , love the image the title conjures up and the song is eight minutes of aural adventure. I also found this cover's band Pretties For You NYC doing a cover which I also have to share as it is rather good.

Saturday, 6 June 2020

Every Piece Of Vinyl ....


I was looking at all the books I have,  and was thinking "Will I ever read all of these?" . The same goes for DVDs and CDs . With the digitalisation of music, plus streaming , and the phenomenal fall in price music has become easy to buy without listening to it.

People used to make tapes and that had to be done in real time , but now it's just a playlist and if there is little effort in producing it then there will be little attention payed to it by listener. I see loads of playlists shared each day , but will take more notice of a single song in some format or other.

Digital media is so easy to aquire , put aside for future listening, then never revisit. Books are slightly different in that you may put them aside, but usually you have them displayed in a bookcase or something and always tend to buy them with at least the intention of reading. That is not always the case with digital media, and you can include ebooks with that , so easy to acquire and so easy to forget about.

I have bought very few ebooks but have acquired a lot as many are public domain and available for free or very cheaply.

Back to vinyl , every record I have has been played at least once, and many times more often. Buying vinyl creates a sort of tangible connection with the music, the covers are often an adventure in themselves (thinking Hawkwind's "In Search of Space" and Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick" newspaper cover).

I have a few picture discs including Kate Bush's zoetropic picture disc of "Running Up That Hill" and the Star Wars and Jack White " Lazaretto"discs with the etched holograms all of which need lights or strobes to bring out the images, but I can't find the Kate Bush one although I posted it on instagram a few years back, maybe I will try doing it again soon and put it on Youtube.

So what should I share this time, we'll go with "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath because of the Vertigo Swirl which is one of the best simple optical effects I have ever seen , and you don't get that on digital, sometimes it's great to watch the record just  play.

Thursday, 14 May 2020

Choose Your Masques


I think facemasks in close contact with people you don't know are probably a good idea, but there are people who think (or probably don't think) they are a fashion accessory. I saw a guy in the street the other day wearing one, pull it down and then sneeze into the air, obviously didn't want any germs polluting HIS mask. As far as I am aware the point of facemasks is to stop YOU spreading anything to others, rather than protecting you. Only the surgical type ones protect you from close contact with infected non mask wearers.

I've given up on th erolling million steps every three months and halfing it to two million steps per year which is around 5.5K steps a day until I get to easily wander again. The main problem is a relatively small area that I am walking in resulting is a boredom / familiarity scenario which is why I don't do gyms and only do swimming very infrequently.

In other areas "Not The End Of The World" by Christopher Brookmyre is rather excellent, although it covers a heck of a lot and the initial "Marie Celeste" event of the prologue has not featured too much , but I expect will be resolved in the final quarter of the book. I home it doesn't turn out like many episodes of "Elementary" where everything is wrapped up in the final two minutes.

So I simply chose the title becasue of the name of the Hawkwind album, but if I wera one it will just be a bandit / neckerchief or scarf , though was also thing of a balaclava / motorcycle helmet inned balaclava thing.

Wednesday, 18 December 2019

Opa Loka


Yesterday I used some recording software to create a blog post. The name Opa Loka came to mind, I know it is a song by Hawkwind and could refer to the city in Florida , which I didn't know existed.

I had to edit it and it's still messy so I need a lot of practice to start using it in earnest.

==========================================================
Right I'm just going to actually try this as a blog post.

I'm walking.
I just walked across the frozen Leazes Park and I want to see if this actually captures the text, so that I can actually use it for a blog post.


I'm actually walking while I've just put out a stream of consciousness and ,so to speak, a lot of writers  use software to actually scripts or whatever, and then you've got to go through and edit.

I've actually done one of these once before, but obviously I've not done this much, but this one I'm trying to actually hit 366 posts this year and I need to do maybe another 16 .


I'm just walking back now. It's very very cold so I'm not too sure what music I'll use to soundtrack this but obviously I'm going to get this text, get it back, format it, and it'll make  no sense whatsoever so it's going to be a "Stranger Things" for you and  just another test for me but it would be great if I could actually talk and make sense as it means that you can actually say things and nobody's stopping you you can put it out and you can say what you want.

Really I use mine as a diary to remember things or just record things that I either have missed or I want to remember and want to be able to go back to, and I'm not too sure how the police siren is going to affect this because that's what  was happening as I'm recording but I'm going to actually stop this now as my hands are absolutely freezing at St. James's Park.

Need to get across the road to Citygate and hopefully get in the warm have some porridge and maybe a cup of coffee and thinking maybe some Hot Chocolate. I know that Tesco actually sell that so I will divert via Tesco's get some hot chocolate and maybe we'll have a soundtrack by the band Hot Chocolate you actually did some very very good records so this is the end of this ok

================================================================

We'll go with "Brother Louie"

Friday, 21 June 2019

It's The Summer Solstice


This came upon me quite suddenly , it's the longest day , the most light , there's sunshine, and it's Friday so basically a very very good day. Although we always assume Friday is good , many people I know work weekends so the Friday thing is not always a huge positive, but I do definitely like Friday because tomorrow provides the opportunity for a lie in , though I probably won't take it.

There's a lot of events and celebratins of The Solstice and thanks to the Internet we can find out out where they are happening and if we want go along to them. Obviously Stonehenge is a husge focal point for this as a sacred place for the Druids to see the Sunrise there.

Then we start getting into the pagan and natural religions which would later be homogenised and corrupted by Christianity, but the Pagan stuff is always more respectful and more fun to be involved, although I am very irreligious.

The number of videos about Stonehenge is big (see here) with lots of facts, theories and hokum, but it is a totally impressive structure, and though simple there's a lot of weight in those stones and remarkable accuracy in their positioning.

Hawkwind played many  festivals around Stonehenge so we will go with the "Watching The Grass Grow" thirty odd years back and the 1984 Festival. Wouldn't surprise me if they tried to be there today but todays corporate security will never allow it.

Sunday, 5 May 2019

Battery Acid


This is just a short post about problems that I was not aware of with batteries. I ordered a replacement battery for a laptop and Amazon delivered via their lockers in 24 hours. That was great.

However that battery was not for my laptop even though it was on the list of compatible items so I followed the return procedure. I had to put a label on that stated this was a hazardous item and should not be sent via post or airmail.

I then searched for couriers who would take batteries but couldn't find any. I thought I had found one, but the just used established couriers and were going to send via DHL who do not take batteries.

In my search I found that people said the carriers scan for batteries and if they find they they just destroy them and you lose the battery.

Because of the nature of batteries they could actually burst into flames, but are apparently ok if they are in the device that they power.

Personally I would think that would make them more dangerous.

Amazon then recommended Parcel Monkey , great name but they are very clear about batteries as they state here. . Another call to Amazon and they game me a refund and told me to keep or dispose of the battery, so all was resolved in the end although I still need to source a replacement battery.

I got a call from Parcel2Go who said I could send a battery through them but it wouldn't be covered for compensation, so I will bookmark them in case I need to send anything in the future.

So an appropriate piece of accompanying music would be "Battery" by Metallica though I could have chosen other songs by Hawkwind or Genesis.

All is good

Tuesday, 30 April 2019

In A Parallel Universe


Well I was in bed before nine, but have woken with a dry cough, so I thought I'd post another piece just before midnight. I'm having a Morrison's Solero equivalent that is soothing the dryness and hopefully I can get back to sleep, but I am feeling refreshed after my sleep.

I thought I'd try and read more of the excellent, if swirling, "White Wolf's Son" while listening to the Hawkwind compilation "Parallel Universe" and I started with CD3 which opens with the band's take on "Ejection" which was from Bob Calvert's "Captain Lockheed and The Starfighters" album and I first heard as I walked into a record shop in Preston Guildhall as the opening jet sound crossed the shop very loudly, needless to say I bought it immediately.

I switched my side light on remembering it's only an energy saving bulb , not LED to it took a while to hit full brightness and I read while regressing to my teenage years as "Urban Guerilla" (also covered by Primal Scream) followed, which I think had a radio ban, so another that I bought immediately, and possibly still maybe you won't hear on mainstream radio, then we have selections from the sublime "Hall of The Mountain Grill" album culminating in a live take of Lemmy's "The Watcher".

I will share "Urban Guerilla" with you because it is rather good pop / rock and am now going to listen to CD1 which concentrates on their first two albums and takes me even further back, where I remember paying £1.50 for a copy of "Hurry On Sundown" b/w "Mirror of Illusion" on a Liberty Records single from a guy at a youth club I used to go to. They were the opening and closing tracks from their excellent trippy debut album.

OK it is time to hit the sack once more, it is a school night so to speak.

Thursday, 25 April 2019

#AprilSongs #25 Thursday's Keeper


Hitting the final Thursday in the sequence and we will take "Thursday's Keeper" by The Orb from the album"Cydonia". It past years that would have been enough for a post and I am tempted at some point to do a one word post , a nonsensical post and a gobbledegook post just to see who actually reads them.

Anyway I've always liked the Orb with their generally long trippy  tracks and songs , particularly "Little Fluffy Clouds"  with their mix of samples and rhythms and sounds, which inspired a heck of a lot of other bands while harking back to space rock and kraut rock such as Hawkwind, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream and Neu!, all bands I have mentioned or written about before in this blog so you can use the tags if you want to explore a little further.

Anyway it's Thursday so have a good one everybody.

Monday, 18 March 2019

Sonic Icons


There's a hairdressers on Two Ball Lonnen called "Icons" and I was on the bus and realised that Icons is an anagram of Sonic (and Coins) and that that Sonic Icons would be a great name for a band , a music book , a music compilation or a Festival.

Some of the bands that come to mind are The Sonics, Sonic Youth and Hawkwind masqueraded as The Sonic Assassins and opened their "Space Ritual" with their excellent Michael Moorcock spoken word "Sonic Attack".

The description Icon is vastly overused and I find it difficult to think of anyone who may be described as a true "Sonic Icon". Here are a few who I would put in that list:




The list could go on , but these are just a few artists who are true Sonic Icons, who challenged the norm on went over the borders of what was defined as the norm and what was acceptable. Without people like this no doubt our soundscape would have been extremely bland and unchallenging.

So who should I choose .......

While Delia Derbyshire with her work with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop enabling the realisation of Ron Grainer's "Doctor Who" theme is tempting, I'll go with Beb and Louis Barron's "Forbidden Planet" which was the first completely electronic film soundtrack.

Again showing how easily I get soundtracked where the name of a hairdresser takes me into groundbreaking electronic soundscapes.

Sunday, 24 February 2019

Early To Bed


Well it will be once I've written this. I've had a quiet weekend, though I expect my steps for February to be complete by the end of tomorrow. The weather has been a little warmer and soon it'll be time to release the lawn mower, a chore I really don't like doing , but it has to me done. It does amaze me the way that grass, bushes , flowers and trees grow with little more than sun and rain to feed them.

I've been playing Scrabble recently and while you always want to win, you really do need to get beat once in a while to bring you down to earth. I started playing with a lady who normally wipes the floor with me, and I know she has been through hard times recently but aware she is still active on the Scrabble circuit but I have beaten her twice (never happened before) although the third game looks like reverting back to type.

So I've been adding more CDs to my Discogs list and sort of realised that I buy stuff to support the artists usually. Sometimes I may not like the music, but almost always I listen music digitally or on vinyl, it's very seldom I actually play a CD although I do have quite few DVD masters and often listen to "Thick As A Brick", "In The Court of The Crimson King" or "Space Ritual" and the sound on these discs is amazing. I also managed to get hold of a copy of the Newspaper vinyl issue of "Thick as a Brick" from the Skipton Sound Bar so I can listen on DVD or vinyl or just the MP3 ( which I listen to quite often on my walk to work).

So I'll share with you a live take of "In The Court Of The Crimson King" before I hit the sack for tonight

Thursday, 22 November 2018

Spirit of the Age


I don't know if it's getting older , diabetes sided effects, our current grey weatrher, but at times I seem to be getting a little narkier when things don't turn out as expected (buses being late or not turning up, Post Office trying to deliver items on a work day in the middle of the day and not leaving it with a neighbour then offering a redelivery option to "my local Post Office" but not giving me the option to deliver to my local Post Office but only to a smaller one three quarters of a mile away, then the item not being there because they don't deliver til after two.

I know these are just situations caused by events that usually can't be predicted or catered for, and I just decide to calm down because anger is a wasteful emotion unless positively channelled (thinking Public Image Limited's "Rise", "Anger is an Energy").

As I've mentioned the weather is attrociously dreary, so not exactly inspirational so I wasn't sure I was going to write anything today, I didn't yesterday.

A propos of nothing I noticed a Tupperware contained of sliced cucumber in the work fridge, not the most appetising of snacks or meals.

Anyway "Spirit of the Age" was the opener from Hawkwid's excellent "Quark, Strangeness and Charm" so I will share that with you today. I love the concept, story and black sense of humour in this extended take on the song.

Sunday, 21 October 2018

Did Digital Nearly Kill Music ... And is Vinyl Bringing It Back To Life?


Three years back I wrote a history of music media in a post here, and at the weekend I nipped into Vinyl Guru and got talking with the lady in there about how when you buy vinyl you feel you have actually got something. You have sleeves, booklets and picture discs. I'm sure I did a post that said CDs were the McDonaldisation of music, all of a sudden you could skip songs , program the order , and the CD jewel cases are not something that look good, though they are very functional.

MP3 became even more dismissive of musical content, and a lot of the iPod generation can't even listen to a full song. When you wanted to record a tape for someone it had to be done in real time, even from CD, but now it's all Spotify and Deezer playlists which, lets face it can be done in thirty seconds, although a well done one can take time to put together.

These days I see a lot more people browsing the vinyl sections of shops and Newcastle now has a lot of shops where you can buy vinyl and this post has a list of them. One thing is there don't seem to be that many impressive covers such as Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick" newspaper cover, or Hawkwind's "In Search Of Space", although "Space Ritual" is a available in it's full six square foot fold out. I was in Reflex and noticed  "Faust Tapes" was £25, when I bought the original release it was 49p !

Vinyl provides more than just music, and the shops often provide coffee and food while you browse. People still complain about the cost of music, but remember if albums had kept pace with inflation you would be paying £80 for an album.

When I was in Vinyl Guru I spotted a 12" copy of Biko by Peter Gabriel, which I mainly wanted for the "B" side "Shosholoza" which I don't think is officially available digitally, but I found this lovely rendition of it for you to enjoy.

Saturday, 1 September 2018

I Was Going To Write A Poem Today


Of course I'm not exactly a writer, not even close but several lines came to mind and this is a snippet

Fat bloke on a mobility scooter
Wheezing as he lights a second tab
Moaning and coughing 
As he tries to hail a cab
The "Sorry Not in Services Bus" 
That almost mows you down
These are everyday things
You see when you hit the Town

I'm surprised I remembered that much, but I've written it down now, and these are the dangers of wandering around the Clayton Street / Newgate Street area on a Saturday morning.

I've been quite amazed how hot it was this afternoon almost like Summer had invaded Autumn like when Winter invaded Spring and Summer. As I say to people , Weather is Complicated.

Darkness is falling and the nights are drawing in though I'm not sure what tomorrow might bring, probably more good weather, which is always a good thing.

I'll leave you with "The Aubergine That Ate Rangoon"  from Hawkwind's "Astounding Sounds,Amazing Music" album, a bit of laid back mental music that actually fits with the #SongsYouveNeverHeard sequence.

The title is a steal from "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago" a title that I knew and thought it was a book or play, but is actually another song by Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band and was actually penned by Norman Greenbaum of "Spirit In The Sky" fame. So that's a song that I have never heard and may be sharing it with you tomorrow.

Just had a quick listen on Amazon preview and it's about an Alien Invasion and fairly close to a jug band versionSheb Wooley's "Purple People Eater" so I won't be sharing it with you tomorrow.

Sleep well my friends.




Saturday, 7 July 2018

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.
 

Monday, 7 May 2018

Remake #TenAlbumsInTenDays #2- #10 - Blue Oyster Cult - Extra Terrestrial Live


A friend of mine, Bill has nominated me for a third #TenAlbumsInTenDays and because I have an eclectic taste in music and a reasonable amout of friends I will be able to complete the third lot.  I had listed Hawkwind's XIn Search of Space which is a great trip album but the cover by Barney Bubbles was and still is a wonderful vinyl package. The Hawkwind Log is the most sought after part of this package and can jack the price up by close on a hundred pounds but you can download it and print your own here. If this infringes copyright and you are the copyright owner please contact me about it.

Today has been hot again but I went for a walk and decided to give Blue Oyster Cult's ETL (Extra Terrestrial Live) a spin. I'd always regarded this as an inferior addition to their live canon of the superlative "On Your Feet or On Your Knees" and "Some Enchanted Evening" and it came after "Fire Of  Unknown Origin" and essentially was a potted history to date and included a cover of The Doors' "Roadhoad Blues" (also covered by Status Quo).

While the album starts out similar to "On Your Feet or On Your Knees" with "Dominance and Submission" , the sound is excellent and viciously dirty. The first huge surprise is "Doctor Music" which in my opinion was the ruinous opener to "Mirrors" but here is an excellent live work out. THe album's take on Godzilla and ETI are so good that by the time the album closes with "Don't Fear The Reaper" it is just another brilliant song.

This is the first time I have listened to this in many years and I have been missing a brilliant if fairly short live album from a truly great heavy metal band. I will share ETI with you as it is one of my favourites with an absolute killer riff and brilliant metal lyrics.

I've just discovered that the Columbia BOC Boxed set which did cost me about fifty quid is now selling for over a grand on Amazon.

Enjoy

Wednesday, 11 April 2018

Kerb Crawler


I've been listening to a couple of albums, one of which is Hawkwind's "Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music". "Kerb Crawler" was the lead single if I remember rightly and it's a great song song taking on creeps with their state of the art "extensions" cruising to pick up "ladies". It has some great sax playing but dates badly  as it lists ultra modern accessories such as FM Radio and 8-Track Stereo. Also the "stylish" white walled tyres sort of singled out the occupation of the vehicle's owner, not the sort of person you would want to spend time with.

It's strage that while Hawkwind's song emphasises the seedy side of cars , Bruce Springsteen's "Cadillac Ranch" from "The River"is a full blown nostalgia trip and the images brought up by the lines

"El Dorado Fins, Baby
White Walls and Skirts
Rides Just Like A
Little Bit of Heaven
Here On Earth"

are just fine by me. There's no doubt the Springsteen song is a nailed on classic, while the Hawkwind one is just a fun work out.

Going back to 8-Tracks, while they were sort of state of of the art I was unaware of actual recorders. It was great that they played on a continuous loop and if I remember there were sort of four "sides" on the wide tape, the playing head jumping to the next section at the appropriate juncture , each "side" having two channels hence the 8-Track.

OK it's time for bed now , sleep well.


Saturday, 24 March 2018

The Audacity of Psi Power


I finished "The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets" by Simon Singh and now I am embarking on "The Catcher In The Rye" by JD Salinger, which is one of those books that everyone has read apart from me, I'll let you know how it goes.

Today I also managed my first multi track recording using Audacity and managing to deal with teh Windows Latency issue. It involved a little lateral thinking and switching off the sound pass through for the recorded track in Audacity. This basically means letting the recorded tracks play through the computer sound system while listening to the track being recorded through the U-Phoria box which feeds into Audacity via the USB connection. This means I can actually start building songs on my computer, they won't be sophisticated but will end up on Soundcloud here.

Over the last few days an odd thing has happened with my listening, normally I listen to album once or twice at the most but I have had an album on repeat and have listened to it four or five times so far. When I first put on I though the production was a bit lacklustre but the songs were more than listenable. Each song was excellent and slightly influenced by the punk ethic at the time. The album is the debut by the Hawkwind alter ego band Hawklords, and almost every song has a two word chorus refrain., the album is "25 Years On"  and clocks in at just over half an hour.

It opens with "Psi Power" (using the title as the catchy refrain) segueing into "Free Fall" with a slight lull for the short "Automaton" before hitting the title track. "Flying Doctor" is great an it's refrain is "Cabinet Key" and that's the song I will share with you.

The fact that I only gave it a cursory listen when it first came out but now I feel I know all the songs intimately shows just how good it actually is. Definitely another on ethat every one should have.

Friday, 26 January 2018

Work


I suppose a sign of you enjoying your job is you don't begrudge thinking about solutions to problems when you are away from work. I'm wrestling with a problem of testing a system updateby  basically replicating the live system using Excel. The set up is all over the place so there is no consistency between units. When Iasked to do this last year I set out what needed to be done and was then told that the testers were taking "a different approach". If I had a COBOL set up this would be a cinch to set up , though I think I may be able to do it using SQL but stepping back it's OK how differnt units need to be treated differently but then you get the exceptions thrown in , sometimes for no other reason than "they need to be treated differently". The thing is solving things like this makes time fly, especially when you are working with good people. The other thing is failure is not an option, so it will be done, and there is a tedious manual option, but that is a last resort.

I can;t believe this is the first time I've mentioned COBOL on this blog, though I've not used it for fifteen years it was my first programming language and as far as I know is still used for large batch processing operations in places.

Anywaty it's Friday Morning, the weekend is closer, the weather is mild but boring so I will be walking to work and am currently listening to Hawkwind's "Space Ritual" which I bought on vinyl recently and still looks wonderful and sounds excellent, over the top riff driven space rock smattered with poetry readings. I saw Hawkwind a couple of times and loved the music and light show, and listening now I'm impressed by how simple the song constructions are while still sounding impressive (well they do to me). I've chose "Orgone Accumulator" which lifted the "Green Onions" riff and went on for ten minutes but it's still a great song.

Have a great day everybody.

Friday, 12 January 2018

Another Foggy Friday


Well today is the first full week that I have done this year, or it will be when I finish today, and I have done a lot this week so am looking forward to the weekend, most definitely. Outside we have fog or low lying cloud (which I assume are the same thing) as will as a fine drizzle, but it's not windy or freezing so a walk into work is a distinct possibility.

Yesterday I only did 10K steps so that was the first lapse this year but I'm still ahead of where I need to be, which is good. This was because I took the bus in and used that time to watch a couple of TED talks, my first so far this year.

I'm still on a Hawkwind listening trip (literally) and yesterday put on "XIn Search of Space" , I'd been putting off listening to it, because while it has one of the most impresive album covers and packaging the opening track "You Shouldn't Do That" goes on for sixteen minutes. Well I played it and it sounds even better that I remembered , all sixteen minutes , great riff rock for walking to and I will be playing it a lot more in coming months. The album also contains some other great songs like "Master of The Universe" plus extras such as the two sides of the "Silver Machine" single (that and the excellent "Seven By Seven) and "Born To Go" which I first heard taking up most of a side of the "Greasy Truckers" charity album.