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

Belling The Cat

 My friend Julie lent (is that the past tense of lend) the book "We Are Bellingcat: An Intelligence Agency for the People" by Elliot Higgins. It is a decent size and the print is a good size for my old eyes , but it is slow reading for me because you really have to read every line.

There are only six chapters but the second one about the genesis of Bellingcat is almost sixty pages , a third of the prose in the book. 

This is the blurb about it , I was gonna try and tell you but this does it far better.

 "Bellingcat, the home-grown investigative unit, is redefining the way we think about news, politics and the digital future. Here, their founder - a high-school dropout on a kitchen laptop - tells the story of how they created a whole new category of information-gathering, galvanising citizen journalists across the globe to expose war crimes and pick apart disinformation, using just their computers."

It is thoroughly absorbing and frightening but amazing that a group of people who's main investigative tool is an incredible attention to detail can actually bring such essential news to our intention in a world swathed with absolute disinformation.

An appropriate record is "John Walker's Blues" by Steve Earle from the album "Jerusalem".

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 Doors of Perception
2. Too Lazy To Learn
3. Days
4. Remembering Sophie Lancaster
5. Heart as big as Liverpool

The Thurber Album

I am currently reading "The Thurber Album" by James Thurber which I probably bought because of his funny but misogynist line "A Woman's Place Is In The Wrong", and to be quite honest I am not too impressed. It is the sort of book you would be given by a particularly obnoxious English teacher.

Admittedly I am more than halfway through it and will finish it and there were two instances that brought a smile to my face.  

"On his death bed he was asked if he forgave his enemies, he replied I ain't got any, I licked 'em all"

and

"He instructed the students that they didn't need to take notes, at which point forty of them got out their fountain pens and wrote that down.

My friend Julie has just lent me (is that the right form) "We Are Bellingcat - An Intelligence For The People", which I am chomping at the bit to read, but I need to finish "The Thurber Album" first.

Although it has nothing to do with this post I've included Mungo Jerry's "Lady Rose" because I think it is a beautiful song and I love it.

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

1. The Operation
2. Lady of the Water
3. Words With Friends, Our Vocal Connections
4. So You're A Racist Now MikeyDred
5. Mountain Climbing
6. Home
7. Your story has NOT been approved
8. Sonnetwo
9. Snackwallahnelle
10. Why Write?

All these are well read and loved , and you never know you may enjoy them.