Eyes Adrift

On Sunday I noticed my left contact lens was a bit curly at the edges but still put it in anyway. By the afternoon my left eye was stinging and I took my lenses out and had to bathe it as it had become very uncomfortable to the point of being painful. Monday and Tuesday I wore my glasses for work and my eye seemed to be better although the aircon at work does dry the eyes out a bit,

Wednesday morning I walked to work ( you can see some of that on Instagram here) with contact lenses back in but when I got into work suddenly I could hardly see out of my left eye and it was also affecting my right eye as well. I ditched the left eye contact lens but was feeling awful and disorientated and got myself back home. At 11:45 I rang C4 Sightcare , my opticians of 20 years, told them the problem, my left eye felt like it was filled with grit or sand, and they asked if I could get it by 12:15 which I said I could. By this time the sun was shining and due to Blackett Street being closed for the Christmas Market I had to walk a fair way to the opticians but I could hardly see due to the bright sunlight and the discomfort in my left eye and nearly walked into a few people.

My optician examined my eye and said the cornea was cloudy, but there was no major problems, although the pressure jets were painful, and prescribed me some GoldenEye Antibiotic Cream. I went home and slept for 5 hours and today has been much the same but the eye in improving. I will probably do without contact lenses over the weekend, although I don't like wearing glasses all day.

So when Kurt Cobain died Dave Grohl formed the Foo Fighters, but bassist Krist Novoselic formed Eyes Adrift who I think only made one album which featured a beautiful song called "Inquiring Minds" which I have found a live acoustic version of  but click on the title for the album version, or buy it from the link below. This is possibly the first paragraph I have written that mentions every member of Nirvana.

You can see that my eye is improving because I can actually write a blog post, so things are improving.

Helium Echo

This morning I bougght some water from Tesco and for once used one of the auto checkouts. For weeks the echoey voice on many of them has disconcerted me and I've dicussed this while chatting with the real staff and had a laugh about it. This morning it sounded like it was on helium as well as echoing, sounding weirder than ever.

This comes on top of the Poundland ones that great uyou using the voice of Elvis, which  is also very offputting, wondering if next they're going to have some hologram greeter to freak you out even further.

This reminded me of The King, an Irish Elvis impersonator who had an album out called "Gravelands" featuring covers of songs by artists who have since deprated this mortal plain such as Freddie Mercury of Queen, Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy and Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, (apologies for spelling errors) and it is a more than listenable album, so I'll share his take on "Whiskey in the Jar".

Have a disconcerting helium filled Thursday.

Busy Doing Nothing

Today is my first day of home recuperation after the Liver Biopsy and it really has been a case of being busy doing nothing. For me that has been trying to find something that requires as little input from me as possible.

It hasn't stopped me walking a little, and reading a little and choosing a little music, but most of the day has been watching four Mary Beard documentaries about Rome , which are very interesting and so I've gained a little knowledge today, so that is a small win.

Thoough it's grey and cloudy it's still very hot and humid so not the most comfortable, though is an excuse not to wear too much.

I thought I may have done a lot of blogging today but, obviously I haven't.  I mean this is barely a hundred words and this has not been easy to drag out of me, so obviously I am not going to producing anything worthwhile today.

Tomorrow is going to be more of the same, unless I get some inspiration, although I have been surprised by the number of well wishers based on my last post, I wasn't really expecting that. I know that people care but sometimes that results in "Oh I must let xxx know I'm thinking of them" and I am as guilty as anyone for that, and I do know who cares about me.

Anyway what should I leave you with, just looked at my pile of CDs and there's a best of Beverley Knight so I think "Come As You Are" (hers not Nirvana's) would be a good one to leave you with.

The Art of Not Getting Up

Strange how when you stop trying to do things you suddenly have the ability to do it.
 I wanted to do fifty posts in August for #August50 but got nowhere near (I think I did about thirty), although to be honest the further behind I got , the more difficult it became to catch up. It's like riding a bike or remembering songs when you are playing live , as soon as you start thinking about it you fall off or forget what you are supposed to be doing. In September we're up to the 4th and this is my eight post already. I know that it will tail off but at this rate I could easily hit fifty for September.

Anyway after yesterday writing about how to get up easily, this morning I feel really tired. It is Monday, I do have to go to the Post Office to pick up a Nirvana box set, I have to go to work , and it's grey outside though not dark, and I was dreaming of being in bed at mid day listening to something on vinyl through a system with a decent thump for the bass subwoofer, then the alarm went off and I didn't want to get up.

I managed (mostly on autopilot) to shower and wash , read some of Jordan Ellenberg's "How Not to Be Wrong: The Hidden Maths of Everyday Life" which is more about statistics and probabilities, and while interesting it's as far from what I consider maths as pilotting and airplane is from riding a bike, and that analogy probably shows how unintelligent I really am. I found a disted read on the Guardian site here if you would like a taste.

Anyway it's ten to seven so time to get myself into gear and maybe a little Nirvana to start the day, withem covering a song from one of my many favourite Bowie albums, "The Man Who Sold The World". Have a great  Monday, I managed to get up , now it's your turn.

After All ... How Good Is The Man Who Sold The World?

One of the good things about walking and having mobile music and random play technology is that as well as hearing tracks from albums that hadn't caught your attention the first time round (Sparks and XTC are currently doing this for me) you are also thrown stuff that you haven't heard in ages because you haven't played the album and it doesn't get radio play.

If you analogised David Bowie's album output to a terrestrial mountain range it would be The Himalayas and in my opinion "Station To Station" would be Everest, and "The Man Who Sold The World" would be K2. Like Station to Station every song is amazing and it has a no skip factor from the eight minute opener "Width of a Circle". Everyone knows the brooding title song covered by Lulu, Nirvana and many others, but a few weeks ago "All The Madmen" came on to my player, which made start to remember how good the album.

The yesterday "After All" came on , an almost twisted Victorian music hall piece that could have come from some Neil Gaiman / Salvador Dali scripted take on Oliver.

Every collect should have a copy of  "The Man Who Sold The World" and "After All" is just another amazing piece of that wonderful musical jigsaw that fits together so perfectly. I was unaware that Tori Amos had also covered it , she makes it a Tori Amos song but for me it loses the sinister aspect of the Bowie version but it made me think I would love to hear a Joanna Newsome take on it.

I spent yesterday afternoon fight with my Windows roaming profile, therefor not actually getting any work done. The positives is that it gave me a reason to speak with the support guys and girls. I am hoping it's sorted this morning, but we shall see.

It's Friday, so have a great day.

Justin Bieber vs Guns 'n' Roses (Sex Pistols and Monkees)

Singer?

My friend Kaz has just taken offence that Justin Bieber has Dreadlocks . I am amazed the amount of offence this guy causes . I can't sauy I have listened to his stuff, I saw him on Graham Norton and found him annoying , a bit like Little Jimmy Osmond singing "Long Haired Lover From Liverpool", but Bieber is an easy target , he sells records (or downloads) by the truckload and can probably have any girl he wants .... which a sort of definition for a rock star.



Then you get Guns 'n' Roses reforming and people going on about how important they are. To me they made one half decent album , I'm ok with em apart from their anagramatic singer , and their main legacy seems to be that they turned up very late for gigs and showed inordinate disdain for their fans.

I am old enough to be a great grandad , and remember parents getting offended at the music I listened to and the clothes I wore. I now get offended when I see kids  wearing Sex Pistols , Nirvana and Ramones T-Shirts because they think they are clothing brands. I don't know if attitudes have changed, I certainly am not your average parent  when it comes to music. One thing to remember is the Sex Pistols were as manufactured as Bieber, like the Monkees and in fact The Sex Pistols covered a Monkees song almost in acknowledgement , so I have included that here.

But I have come to this conclusion, Justin Bieber continues to cause offence and annoy people sell records and get the girls, Guns 'n' Roses reform and their best numbers are cover versions , so it seems to be Bieber embodies the spirit of rock and roll a lot more than most of your classic rock bands.

I still haven't listened to anything by him

Have a great Tuesday everybody

Betcha By Golly Wow - #38 - 1994 - Stiltskin - Inside

Mind Twister

This is just an update on my betting which I started tracking on the 24th of March when I paid £100 for a tips subscription. Details of that are here. Most days I get around my money back , often I win nothing. Anyway the last two days I have cleared nearly £500 from Betfair for £40 outlay. This put my initial pot of £500 up to £1200 since I started and it's all thanks to Free Racing Tips and may be a little Lady Luck.  I am judicious with the information I'm given and don't bother with wild outsiders but the six horses I went with over the last two days all won. You can try them out here , I pay £9 a month with more than pays it's way. It won't replace my day job but it does my life a little better.




They are really nice people to deal with and don't cost you a fortune. Here's a couple of images taken from my Betfair account , It's only £400 in credit because I got a new card and also I sometimes bet in a shop.

Anyway we hit 1994 and year 38 of The Odyssey and it was getting a bit Ravey , so I've gone for Inside by Stiltskin , a song we splayed in the early days with Spoon. A great riff and little reminiscent of Nirvana's - Smells Like Teen Spirit .

Have a brilliant evening my friends.

Ghost of Christmas Past

The other night ran into Hazel Plater and Carl Taylor authors of a book reminiscing about the Riverside one of Newcastle's iconic music venues, second only to the magnificent Mayfair . Progress doesnt always mean better and we now have to make do with the  (Insert current brand name) Academy , although we do have the Cluney and The Sage is a good upmarket venue , but not a rock venue as such.

The City Hall is still there , as is The Tyne Theatre , and the aircraft hagar that is the (Insert current brand name) Academy.

I would happily bulldoze the Gate if it would bring back the Mayfair  , but now we have a multi screen cinema , various chain restaurants , and sticking out like a sore thumb the excellent Spice Cube Indian restaurant. The old Odeon lies derelict and listed so nothing can be done with that magnificent building.

Anyway we don't have these places anymore and it was interesting the read the comments from various friends in there . I remember seeing Rocket From The Crypt , supported by the Coyotemen on my birthday, and remember seeing loads of bands such as Faith No More , Stiff Little Fingers etc at The Mayfair  , the Academy seems to do its best to crush the life out of gigs , The Mayfair was just the most perfect  venue ever for concerts.

We humans have a penchant for progress and nostalgia and while both can be good , sometimes they can also be destructive!!