Showing posts with label Philip Pullman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philip Pullman. Show all posts

Thursday, 24 October 2024

The Bones Are Showing

 



"The Bone Season" by Samantha Shannon,  is a brilliant read but a big book, It is a near future dystopia with elements of Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast", Philip Pulman's "His Dark Materials" and "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. While it is easy to read it is not an easy read and cyberpunk elements are reminding me of the work of Willam Gibson.

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 "International Robots" by The Saints

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

Friday, 18 October 2024

The Bone Season Goes On



"The Bone Season" by Samantha Shannon,  is a brilliant read but a big book, It is a near future dystopia with elements of Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast" , Philip Pulman's "His Dark Materials" and "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins.

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 "Chant of the Ever Circling Family" from "Diamond Dogs" by David Bowie

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

Saturday, 8 May 2021

I Read It In Books

I am constantly surprised at the number of people who do not not read books. They give excuses that they are too busy , they can’t concentrate and it’s easier to watch the film or TV series. I was saddened when my mother gave two sets of encyclopaedias to my brother and sister because she decided she didn’t like books. She taught me to read before I hit primary school when I was 4 , so she was well aware of how important reading was, and I am thankful for that. I also did the same for my daughters, much to the chagrin of some of their teachers.


Reading is a very useful habit and tool to have in your armoury to help you through lie. It can help you understand things , tell you how to accomplish things , although I mostly use it to go on adventures and to experience other worlds that are not my own.


As I have said people say they would rather watch a film , but that is the film makers take on that particular story and, especially since CGI became the norm, anything can be rendered on the cinema or TV screen, and that is no bad thing.


For instance “The Lord of The Rings” and “The Hobbit” films last about twelve hours altogether and people complain that Frodo or Aragorn was not how they imagined and places were not the same, but this was Peter Jackson’s take on the story, it was not Tolkien’s , or mine, or yours , it was his. 


Also despite the work that goes into making a film, the resultant film is about two hours long. Jackson managed to compress the six books of “Lord of the Rings” into three two hour films , but managed to spread the single book of “The Hobbit” over the same amount of film, therefore trimming a lot less from the original story. My friend Keith Mole also had a bit part in “The Hobbit” movies.


I suppose what I am working towards is saying that to enjoy a book you do need a decent imagination to be able to go where the words in the book intend to take you. There are, of course reference books and encyclopaedias that you will dip in to find facts  but I am talking about books that you will read start to finish, these are the ones that you need your imagination to be fully immersed in the experience. Maybe some people don’t , or can’t read because their imagination can work with what the book tells us.


We see lots of examples of people unable to watch a program, eat a whole meal, or listen to a song or an album from start to finish, and the thought of a book becomes a brick wall to them. Sometimes I see large books as a challenge, same with long pieces of music and long films, but I immerse myself and often find I do not want the book to end.


My favourite book is “Imajica” by Clive Barker which clocks in at around 1200 pages. I gave my paper copy to a friend and am revisiting it on my Kindle Fire, and I still love it when I drop into it and explore and experience the characters , places and events in there. As I write this I think I may get “Lord of the Rings” on my device and enjoy that in the same way. 


I am also revisiting the Adversary Cycle by F Paul Wilson which is basically six books at around 400 pages each , so the whop lot is twice the length of “Lord of The Rings”, and last rear I revisited some of the “Eternal Champion” books by Michael Moorcock which are usually trilogies or quadrilogies with each book 150-250 pages so a little shorter but still some wonderful adventures, although the only book that Moorcock wrote that resulted in a film was “The Final Program” which was “Eternal Champion” related but based on another Armageddon scenario.


The Philip Pullman series “His Dark Materials” was started as a film “The Golden Compass” but the American Christian right were against it’s anti religious sentiments so no more films were made , but HBO and the BBC came out with a stunning take on it, and although they are a TV series and have created a very believable rendition of the books for me there are many who don’t like it because it’s not their rendition.


So basically before you read a full book , prime your imagination before you take the plunge.


Monday, 22 March 2021

Strange Dream Fragments and Instagram Problems

I dreamt last night and just remember fragments , a deep water harbour (there was a reason for this but it's gone) , an Excel Worksheet with an eight by four table based on the naked male wrestling match between Oliver Reed and Alan Bates in Ken Russel's take on "Women In Love" by DH Lawrence (yeah work that one out)  and wooden buildings akin to the northern towns in "His Dark Materials" by Philip Pullman. Obviously "Steppenwolf" is also somewhere in there as well . That's a lot of references for something that I don't actually remember anything about, but so often that's the thing about dreams, generally they don't make sense, they happen just before you wake up , and soon you forget about them . I sometimes write about them.

The other thing is that Instagram not won't access my camera on my phone. Instagram used to allow a one minute video , then they reduced it to 15 seconds , then video disappeared (unless you use Reels , whatever that is) , and now even taking pictures has gone, and I have to take things with a camera then add them to Instagram. An unexpected benefit is that when I share my #MusicWhileYouWork videos I now create a one minute video which I then share to Instagram. The only problem is that Instagram pics and videos need to be 4:3 and the phones. video is something like 9:16 and Instagram always then takes the bottom of the video, so I use a great piece of software called YouCut which allows me to crop and rotate and trim and lots of other things with the video , not ideal if your power is low, but it extremely impressive.

So music wise "I'm In Love With A German Film Star" by The Passions came to mind on this dreich Monday morning.

Sunday, 31 January 2021

The Reality Cutter

It's that last day of January 2021 , and this will probably be my last post of January 2021. It is sort of strange to think that this will never happen again , not even in clocks and calendars are reset and we start again. It reminds me of seeing cloud formations or impressive skies knowing that if I don't capture them now with a camera then that will be them gone forever.

I've been wanting to write a book for decades and certainly have the tools to do it, and thanks to ebooks self publishing is now extremely easy via Amazon and others but every time I start , I hit a brick wall. This blog contains one short story contained in posts , but as yet this blog is my only publication. Hopefully I will do more. I have also included a few non-poems. These you can see by following the links

The title came to me as an idea for a story or book but not sure what it means or which way it goes , although I have a few ideas. The main concepts that come to mind are Philip Pullman's "The Subtle Knife" or the wielder of said instrument or films like Christopher Nolan's "Inception" or Duncan Jones' "Source Code". Duncan Jones remember came into this world as Zowie Bowie and is responsible for at least two must see films, the aforementioned one and the brilliant "Moon". The concept of the upside-down in "Stranger Things" also has flowed into my thoughts on this.

I thought I would do a google search on "The Reality Cutter" and you can see the results here , so it seems it's a reasonably original concept and maybe worth pursuing , although by posting this "The Reality Cutter" will drop into the Google search universe.

So what music do I share with you to illustrate this concept? The opening titles of "His Dark Materials:The Subtle Knife" I think fit the idea perfectly. If you haven't read the books and watched the film "The Golden Compass" which excellent , but the TV series does it better , you should really visit all these. 

Enjoy your last day of January 2021 (oo that sounds ominous doesn't it)

Monday, 25 November 2019

Start Again


Surprisingly this month is already the highest monthly hit rate for a month since I started and effectively this seemed to be kicked off my the demise of Google+ , because I looked for another way of sharing my posts and tried MeWe that doesn't really seem to have taken off but provides an easy way to copy the link post which I shared on Twitter. That then seemed to kick it off. Under google posts, generally a good visit count would be 100 , average about 50 but when Google+ went I was lucky to get 20. Facebook doesn't really seem to help although a few of my friends visit via that link.

Anyway after sharing on Twitter I was picked up by Feedburner and since then I have had more than a thousand visits a day, still very few comments, so maybe it's all robots, though I would love to see comments from friends. Yesterday I had 2,600 visits , that's more than one a minute which is impressive.

I finished "The Secret Commonwealth" by Philip Pullman and although I am a very slow reader I always have a book on the go, and while my last few books have been fiction, I have a lot of music biographies and commentaries still unread. I briefly considered "Tarantula" by Bob Dylan which I have read several times, and for me is an easy enjoyable read being a stream of consciousness based narrative by Dylan. I decided to take "On Some Faraway Beach" by David Sheppard , the biography of Brian Eno.

When I opened it I immediately baulked, 450 pages of of tiny unrelenting text, books like this really do initially put me off and need to be special to keep me on board. I'm on to chapter two so it is actually a goer and will be my book for the next few weeks.

Today I am also going back to contact lenses so that's another restart for me, and at the moment the lenses feel absolutely fine.

Looking out the window it's still dark grey and featureless, but every day is another day of potential to discover and do new things. The David Sheppard book opens with a quote from the brilliant Edward De Bono who's books and methods taught me a hell of a lot:

"“The need to be right all the time is the biggest bar to new ideas. It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong than to be always right by having no ideas at all. ”"

... and I suppose that just hooked me into the book. Many of the chapters are named after Brian Eno songs and pieces, so we will go with the creepily ominous  "The Great Pretender" from "Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy" a truly wonderful album.

Enjoy your Monday, Make it special.

Sunday, 24 November 2019

The Final Chapter


This morning I slept through , almost ten hours. It does help when you have switched off your alarm, but again it was a surprise and probably good for me.

When I decided to write this I had one chapter to go in "The Secret Commonwealth" but as the final chapter was only ten pages I could not resist finishing it off. This books has a lot of parallels with what is happening in the world today and there is a touching tribute to the Grenfell disaster (caused by our government getting rid of safety standards to improve profitability) but that's by the way. At 700 pages this is a hefty read and is only part of the "His Dark Materials" / "Book of Dust" double trilogy, and like all great books I did not want this one to end, so I now have to wait til my next birthday for the final installment which I am now actually waiting for.

The last two days have been so grey that I don't think I have even seen the sun. Today is mist rather than rain but yesterday was very rainy.

It is a Sunday morning here an the last week in November.

I was vaguely toying with the idea of posting a good Christmas song each day in December but I sort of did this here in 2013 and after going on about Rush in post number 2113 there was this post in that sequence which was virtually on the same subject with the same points, so I do repeat myself but who remembers what they said on a day six years back.

Music wise I'm going with The Cascades "Rhythm of the Rain" due to this inclement weather, but it's a great song and I found a more than decent live take. Obviously the band have aged but they are in fine form and still sound great.

In the sixties bands imagined they had a shelf life on two or three years and often that was true, but for others they found they could go on and on until they are physically removed from this mortal plane. The Rolling Stones , The Who and The Beach Boys are three that come to mind.

Anyway it's time to do Sunday things now.

Saturday, 16 November 2019

The Secret Commonwealth


Although I've not really spoken much about "The Secret Commonwealth" by Philip Pullman, it's a 700 page tome and I am about three quarters the way through it, I am thoroughly enjoying it. It's the fifth is the His Dark Materials / Book of Dust sequence and possibly a little less magical and more political.

The events in the book are reflecting the current political situation in the UK and USA while still staying in the alternate reality of people and their daemons. This is at the same time as the BBC / HBO are showing a dramatisation of "His Dark Materials" and that follows the, in my opinion,  excellent "Golden Compass".

The irony is, and I am sure Philip Pullman did this deliberately, "The Secret Commonwealth" in the book refers to the world of magical creatures. The whole series, books and dramatisations is worth investigating, and I am loving all of it.

When I see a seven hundred page book I think will I ever get through this? When you are coming to the end you don't usually think that's the finish line, you just don't want it to finish. There is always the option to go back and two of my favourite book clock in at over a thousand pages, they are "Imajica" by Clive Barker (my favourite book ever) and "Lord of the Rings" by JRR Tolkien. Incidentally when my daughter was 8 she told her teacher she had read "Lord of the Rings". He was a little sceptical about this so quizzed her on it. He then realised that she had read it and had star pupil status.

So what music do we have this grey Saturday morning? We could go with Bo Hansson's  1970 album which you can hear here , but it's a bit elevator musicish. I'm going to going with this Peter Jackson "Lord of the Rings" sequence soundtracked by Clint Mansell's theme to Darren Aronofsky's "Requiem For A Dream" which is well work watching on a big screen played loud.

Friday, 18 October 2019

Murder - #Oktoberfest #20 - A Pub With No Beer - Slim Dusty


Well I've finished chapter one of "The Secret Commonwealth" and there's already been a murder, and I doubt that will be the end of it. It is a fairly hefty tome but unlike "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" I am looking forward to this as I do with all Philip Pullman's work.

Today I was at Snackwallah and Rachel told me they had been drafted into going to a Bavarian Oktoberfest in Manchester despite being vegan and non drinking and we got chatting about my #Oktoberfest sequence and saying the "Whiskey In The Jar" was absolutely essential to it. I have already featured a version by Irish Elvis impersonator The King but definitely need to shoehorn in The Dubliners and the The Thin Lizzy version which came on the radio when she was discussing a deal with a guy called Gary Moore...... pure synchronicity.

However "A Pub With No Beer" by Slim Dusty and Australian country and western singer came to mind, and it was a record that my mum and dad used to play a lot, and was released around the time I was born. It is one of those records that just pops into your mind with out being particularly groundbreaking. Have a listen you may find it entertaining.

Thursday, 17 October 2019

A Day Not Reading - #Oktoberfest #19 - Starbucks - A


Yesterday I sort of didn't read, I had finished the 400 page "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins which I have passed on to a friend and this morning I have started Philip Pullman's "The Secret Commonwealth" clocking in at close on 700 pages. After "The Illuminatus Trilogy" (800 pages) it seems I have been taking fairly hefty tomes to read.

The odd thing about "The Secret Commonwealth" is that it is the second in "The Book of Dust" Trilogy , the follow up to "His Dark Materials" but "His Dark Materials" is bookended by "La Belle Sauvage" and "The Secret Commonwealth" , this is not a problem , just unexpected.

I'm actually telling a fib because yesterday, as a respite from big books, I dipped into "Ten Years In An Open Necked Shirt", poetry by The Bard of Salford John Cooper Clarke which is always entertaining.

#Oktoberfest continues with a brand name that is generally associated with coffee, but sell anything they can these days, that is Starbucks. The song is "Starbucks" by the band "A" from the album "Hi-Fi Serious" who with a name like that are impossible to search for on Google (a bit like "!!!") . The song is more about the company's dodgy employment practices rather than the product but the product association will do for my #Oktoberfest sequence.

Friday, 24 May 2019

I Played A DVD


I am definitely becoming lazier and lazier. Also while I have a large CD and digital music collection, there are big chunks of it I have never heard and probably never will. It's similar with DVD. This week I have actually taken the DVD from it's place on the shelf, switched on the DVD player and switched the channel on the TV and actually watched  the films. The two I watched were "The Golden Compass" which was excellent but has been on the shelf unplayed for ten years, and "Fight Club" (adapted from Chuck Palahniuk's novel) which has been there for even longer. Both these films are excellent, and I should have watched them years ago, but apathy and laziness has meant that despite knowing how good these are ("The Golden Compass" was the film of the first book in Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series which is coming on TV from HBO and BBC).

I don't know if this is just a digital malaise, because my vinyl collection is always played when I purchase anything and I often share things on my Instagram Channel , but when you buy digitally it is so easy to put it on one side for later, and after a week or so it's forgotten about. If anthing gets put in a box or a drawer then thats usually it. I still listen to music digitally from my network and on my phone, but still eschew streaming services such as Spotify or Amazon as to use them without wifi means that your data gets consumed fairly quickly, so I load albums from my network to my Google Pixel which I may upgrade to a Pixel 3A in the future.

So one of the good things of being in the digital world is that I can share suitable music with you as I post entries on this blog, but I do think digital storage has turned us into magpies , buying things that we don't actually use or properlay appreciate. With that I will share "Digital" buy Joy Division with you with an excellent video taken from the equally excellent film "Control".

Tuesday, 21 May 2019

Forget It ... Lets Burn Kings Landing


Tonight I have watched a lot of TV but then thought it's time for bed, then suddenly remembered I had a delivery from Tesco as they were offering 25% off wine and it meant I could order sparkling water as well, so it means I won't have to cart it back from a local supermarket in my rucksack. That isn't really a problem and it does stop you buying to much , a maximum of four bottles instead of the fifty that came tonight.

It seems that Feedburner is keeping up the hits on the blog, at the moment 1,200 so far today, when I was lucky to get maybe 1,500 a month. I'm not complaining about it, maybe someone might leave a comment if these aren't actual robots.

Lot's of people have been complaining about the end of "Game of Thrones" but I thought it was fine, if a little rushed and now we have "Lord of The Rings" and "His Dark Materials" to look forward to.

It is stunning the amount of television that we have at our disposal, and these days we don't even have to record it it to watch when we want as we can stream it. I actually watched a DVD of "The Golden Compass" tonight and very good it was. Lee Scoresby was inspired by William Scoresby who's house I pass every time I stay in Whitby.

Someone soundtracked the burning of Kings Landing with Metallica's "For Whom The Bell Tolls" but it is rather pedestrian metal and didn't do it for me, I was sure I could find a better soundtrack. I didn't have to do anything, someone had shoehorned "Hells Bells" by Ac/DC onto it and that's what I will leave you with, best seen on a big screen and turned up load.


Tuesday, 15 May 2018

Mary,Mungo and Midges


The weather has been wonderful but one of the annoyances is the clouds of midges that I run into when I am walking, that end up in your eys, nose ears, hair and you feel like you have been infested with nits. I'm enjoying the uplift that the sun gives me but maybe not so much the visitations and close contact of the insect population. You can sometimes avoid them , usually by stepping out into a road but cars are usually a bit more dangerous than a midge.

I stole the title from the children's TV series "Mary,Mungo and Midge"a childrens TV series which I was aware of but never watched , but the title has obviously stuck with me, and exercising my naturally tangential nature now I have mentioned midges for the Midge part of the the title I have to link in the other two characters.

Obviously Mary was a major character in Philip Pullman's "The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ" as she was the mother of the main protagonist and is a very big biblical character.

Saint Mungo (real name was Kentigern) was an apostle of the Scottish Kingdom of Strathclyde in the late 6th century, and the founder and patron saint of the city of Glasgow, and Saint Mungo's is a  charity that helps the homeless and unfortunately we still need them in th etwenty first century due to western society's avarice and worsip of money.

But actually I am am going to leave you with Mungo Jerry, Ray Dorset led seventies rock and roll jugband unfortunately generally onlty remembered for the seventies misogynistic / sexist "In The Summertime" and Ray's sideburns. I loved them because they brought out their records as EPs so you got four or five songs on your vinyl and there was a lot of fine stuff like "Alright,Alright,Alright" and "Baby Jump" but I will leave you with my favourite at the time "You Don't Have To Be In The Army To Fight In The War" . They are a band worth looking into if your band wants something to cover.

Enjoy the good weather and avoid the midges my friends.

"They grab you by the collar and throw you throughthe door,
You Don't Have To Be In The Army To Fight In The War"

Sunday, 13 May 2018

Tarantula


I've just finished "The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ" by Philip Pullman and in the afterword he says he thinks that people should have their own interpretation of a book, though some authors such as William Golding say there should only be one interpretaion of a book.

Personally I think this is true of all art , be it books , paintings, sculpture, installations or whatever. Often people dismiss art because "anyone could do that". For something to have value as art, the artist has to submit is as art and it has to have an effect, and that is any effect whether it is positive or negative. If you are affected by a piece of art then it has served it's purpose.

I've been mentioning inspiration and certain things this week have caused me to write posts and this is another one that has been caused by something.

When I was in Helmsley's Cut Price Bookstore I was looking for someting to buy (although I don't need any books at the moment, but when does that ever stop us buying a book) and I saw a copy of Bob Dylan's "Tarantula" and I resisted it, and left the shop, but then thought no, support local business and go and buy it. So I did.

I may have had "Tarantula" before but can't remember reading it (though that doesn't mean I haven't read it), and last night I opened and read the explanatory first page, which seemed good, this was followed by some publisher blurb about "Chronicles" , and incidentally I caught a bit of "No Direction Home" on Sky Arts which I got as a birthday present and still haven't watched, and it was quite amusing see supposedly Novocastrian folk fans dissing his electification with plummy home county BBC accents. I think that needs watching soon. Some people cannot accept change even if it benefits them, and while we need constants and conformity we also need evolution and progress.

Anyway I hit the first page of "Tarantula" proper and was hit with a block of stream of consciousness text, with no paragraphs and little punctuation and quite a few ampersands. It hit me like a brick wall. I first thought there is NO WAY I can read this. It's only 116 pages but in my mind was 116 brick walls.

I've read shorter novels, JG Ballard's "Running Wild" is only 110 pages but is a brilliant read, Ballard is my favourite author by the way. Paul Gallico's  24 page "The Snow Goose" can be read as you listen to the Camel album that was inspired it, you can finish it in forty odd minutes.

I will not be finishing "Tarantula" that quickly, though once you start reading the are interlude windows to an alternate parallel narrative which may or may not actually have a story. The book has had an immediate effect on me and I am enjoying it, and this is how all art should affect you.

I'll leave you with something from Camel's "Snow Goose" but do check out these books and then create some art yourself.


Tuesday, 23 January 2018

On A Fiction Kick


Just reading "Cold Hands by John Niven, a Christmas presnt from Fiona when I found two John Niven books I hadn't heard of. John Niven to me is essentially darkly comedic with some serious points, but this is marked as a "thriller". I got it because it was John Niven and following on from the first "Book of Dust" by Philip Pullman must mean I am on a fiction kick.

While "Cold Hands" is more Irvine Welsh with it's flashback sections there is no comedy in there. That doesn't mean it's bad, it's anything but, reminding vaguely of the TV Series "Tin Star" based on it's location / relocation premise, but something has just happened which is the literary equivalent of being hit by a truck (that's a good recommendation for a "thriller").

Outside it's black, grim, wet and cold and even the snow has gone. This is the sort of morning when the walf to work doesn't look so inviting, and I have a nine o' clock meeting which, shall we say , may be challenging, but luckily my views on systems are taken seriously so I am in a good place for it.

So what should I play. Yesterday I was listtening to Bob Dylan's "Tempest" his last great album, and found a Sony album sampler on Youtube so thought I would give you a taste before I set off for work. I love the sound of his voice on this album, and the lyrics and songs are brilliant depite lifting the "I'm A Man" riff for "Early Roman Kings" just wonderful.

Have a great day.




Thursday, 11 January 2018

Mad Dreams and Orange Bicycles


After waking up after a series of dreams that wer so mad I wouldn't know where to start describing them, and they are fading now. I think part of this may be the slight surreality of the current phase of "La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman that I am on the run in the the finale of.

I'm actually not too tired either although I went to bed relatively early last night so that was probably a reason for feeling reasonable awake, although honestly I could have still stayed in bed for a few more hours but unfortunately one has to get up for work if one does not want to lick rocks for sustenance.

I don't know if I'm setting off earlier or what, but mornings seem to be darker longer (I know that can't be true) but so far this year I haven't seen a decent sunrise. A lot is the overcast cloud when I'm walking in, but at least the last couple of days there hasn't been much ice and it's a bit warmer than it has been.

I'm also surprised that I have more than maintained my required steps every day this year (usually once a week I let it drop off), but the have been no freezing cod wet and windy days that make walking difficult. Also part of my mind is what I have to in February , effectively increase my steps to 12K a day (almost a 10% increase) , though it's funny if you don't have to do it it's quite easy, but when you have to do it it suddenly becomes more of a chore. This pales into insignificance with my friends efforts of 5 and 10 mile morning runs and 50 mile bike rides.

I've seen the Orange  Mobikes in Newcastle (follow the link for five free rides) and thought that would be a great idea but most of the time I can't think of a reason to use them, if I'm going round town I'll walk and if I'm going further I'll use a bus. I'm sure I will use them one day as they look quite good and you don't have to maintain them. I've seen the odd charver trying to nick one and alarms go off .

So maybe on that I'll leave you with Nazareth's cover of Tomorrow's "My White Bicycle" about when Dutch students stole bikes and painted the white for everyone to use for free (I think , but look it up.

Have a great Thursday everybody.



Sunday, 31 December 2017

Two Thousand and Seventeen Years So Far ... and I Want More


Five years ago I published a pretty good post about getting older here  with one or two useful profundities (if that's a word, well it is now) , and as we come to the end of 2017 we start thinking about what we will do in the new calendar year. Personally it's going to be another year of doing more, rising to challenges , rediscovering my social mojo, actually playing on the virtual orchestra I have stashed in our back room, actually watching TV series , seeing films and reading books.

I have four recent books of fiction to get through two by Philip Pullman and two by John Niven which I'm looking forward to, and well as numerous new challenges at work which will be great fun to take on.

Some days I would like a longer lie in, but today was typical, I woke up at seven and thought I may as well get up wash and shave and shower , then maybe go back to bed, but then I think I may as well get up.

This year I have started walking maintaining a rolling Million Steps every three months and that has reduced my insulin intake by over sixty per cent. I might do even better if I lived off cucumber lettuce and kale but that would be very boring indeed, although cucumber subs are a great alternative to bread subs and therefore better for you , even though they may not seem that appetising. They are best eaten in summer and I used to make them a lot when I worked from home.

I've got to give thanks to everyone who has been there for  me , helped me, made me laugh , encouraged me , played  games with me , eaten with me, and made this a great year for me. I know 2018 will be even better.

So what is a great playout record for 2017. In September we lost Holger Czukay, but in the seventies I remember him and Can lighting up Top of The Pops with the brilliant "I Want More" which is a perfect sentiment to see out the old year and see in the new.

Happy New Year everybody .... Make it Brilliant.

Friday, 29 December 2017

La Belle Sauvage


As you know a lot of my writing and posting is influenced by the books I am reading. Recently all the books have been factual or biography, but I an glad to be reading a hefty slab of fiction that Fiona got me for my birthday (two months back). It's La Belle Sauvage (Book of Dust Vol 1) by Philip Pullman, it seems to be a prequel to the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, and half way through is absolutely brilliant , though I am sure it will never be made into an American financed film, give it's portrayal of religious authority and the Church. I'm currently watching SSGB and can see certain parallels between the two, with group manipulation and spy rings.

The intro from the book flap reads:

"Philip Pullman returns to the world of His Dark Materials with this magnificent first volume of The Book of Dust."

"Eleven-year-old Malcolm Polstead and his dæmon, Asta, live with his parents at the Trout Inn near Oxford. Across the River Thames (which Malcolm navigates often using his beloved canoe, a boat by the name of La Belle Sauvage) is the Godstow Priory where the nuns live. Malcolm learns they have a guest with them; a baby by the name of Lyra Belacqua . . "

So that should give you a taste for it

It's the day after the coldest night of the year so I am not sure if I will walk all the way into work, though I only need to do 2K steps to hit my month's targer which is good.#.

As we have a little snow and it's the fifth day of Christmas I am going to play my favourite Christmas song ever "The Christmas Song" by The Raveonettes. It's Friday the last one of the year , enjoy your weekend , I hope it;s a long one and a great one for you all.

Monday, 23 February 2015

World Book Night 2015 Is Almost Upon Us


Dead Man Talking
I can't believe it's four years since my first World Book Night. Then I had 50 Copies of  Philip Pulman's Northern Lights. This year it is 18 copies of Roddy Doyle's  Dead Man Talking , so one of my tasks is to finish my current book and read this before I give it away so I can appear knowledgeable about it. I always read the book I'm giving away and it's always good to engage with people about it and hopefully either get people to start reading or to restart their reading.

Thinking about this has just reminded me of one of my favourite TED talks about the joy a book can bring , better than any film or play or TV episode because books use and trigger your imagination.



Here is the World Book Night site and a list of this years books. It's on Thursday 23rd of April which is William Shakespeare's birthday and for 2012 and 2013 I wasn't sure why the day (not the date) changed each year. It's also a charity funded campaign so if you want to help click on the button
below and donate a little cash.
WBN 2015
That was the second bit of good news , the first being that I have been offered a position of a Systems Analyst, which will be another excellent challenge as well and keeping me off the street. So anyway it's time for bed as I need to get up tomorrow to do seven and a half hours looking for jobs ..... Oh no I don't !!

SO I suggest you watch the TED talk and buy a copy of the book as it;s a quick read and will only cost you a quid.