Cloudbreaking

I think I've run out of date homophones so that's that for this month on that subject. If I tried hard enough I am sure I could have found one for TEN ,  depending on regional pronunciation Tin, Tan , Tun and Ton may have dones. Ton , Tin and Tonne are definite homophones for each other but  Ten is stretching .

Outside it's grey and a fine misty rain is coming down, though I do want to go for a walk. I'm keeping on with the #maywriteabit abd looking out thinking I can see clear sky but there is a huge gray cloud overhead but it is dissipating..

Eventually it turned out to be a nice day but I din't do much walking , so I am back down on my monthly step target , which doesn't bother me too much, although it's possibly a motivational worry.

I watched my first thing on Netflix , the first episode of season four of "Lucifer" so I really am Ok forever with TV to watch , having just completed "Code 404" in two days (6 x 25 minute episodes , so hardly a trial) . "Lucifer" opened with Tom Ellis playing "Creep" by Radiohead on piano , so more of the same but nice ending to the episode with Graham McTavish as a sinister priest.

Realisation

Nothing deep, but due to my rate of posting from March this year , if I post twenty two times a month for the rest of the year then I will have another record year. I'm not expecting to do that though given this is my second post today you may not believe it.

The thing is the more you post , the more you feel like posting. I just wish I could get myself into gear with writing , and writing songs and recording them. I have all the tools so no excuse not to do it, just the extreme lack of discipline.

Today I found a couple more covers of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by The Cure and "Ceremony" by Radiohead. I was completely unaware of these though the song has been covered by almost everyone but it still belongs to Ian Curtis.

These songs don't seem to have been officially released but they are on Youtube so you can listen fairly easily.

So enjoy them , I am off to my pit.

Truly Original

Can anything be truly original.?

This question is usually asked about art forms and will have been debated and answered by people far more qualified and intelligent than I. If you ask the question on Google you get this list but I am just going to put down a few of my thoughts on this.

The question came into my head last night and I started wondering about it.

Science (I know that's a huge umbrella) is probably the main area where someone can be truly original in methods for discovering existing things and creating new ones, but it still works within an existing framework.

Religion is usually based on some kind of moral code with an off world figurehead and an on world leader group. AGain based on a defined framework.

Then we come to art. Thom Yorke once said Radiohead were going to dispense with melody, but I still hear tunes in their work. Surrealism takes us away from the norm but it still anchors itself in familiarity. If it didn't you could not connect with a desired audience.

That is usually the point of everything, is to share and connect in some way, whether to benefit, control or make money.

Sometimes simple board games require true originality (I'm thinking Edward De Bono's "L" game), but again they start with the defined framework of a board.

All art is a rearrangement of existing letters of the alphabet and grouping them into words, and in music you have a set number of notes augmented by sounds from nature and electronic devices , and as soon as it becomes liked it becomes familiar and becomes part of the framework.

This is just a few thoughts with no real conclusion and is not very original but I just wanted to put this down.

For some reason Roxy Music's second album "For Your Pleasure" has come to mind and while I was thinking firstly "Editions of You" with Brian Eno's synthesiser sol , I then ping ponged between the sinister title song and "The Bogus Man" and I will go for the latter with the 2011 tour visuals.

Summer Solstice Discoveries, Rembetika and Surf Music

Today is the Summer Solstice and looking out the window it's raining and we have heavy thunder. I haven't seen any lightning yet, but that's just a matter of time, although the weather is saying it's going to be a hot and sunny day (in the south).

The radio and Facebook are full of the corpfest that is Glastonbury. I think that the Eavis family have done a great job and deserve their success, but so so many people go to Glastonbury because it's Glastonbury and the music seems irrelevant. They then start complaining if this year's Robbie Williams isn't headlining. It's almost like X-Factor, you know what to expect, and sometimes it may not be to your taste. This Friday Radiohead play the Pyramid Stage, a relic from the very first Glastonbury (in concept), and the BBC are broadcasting lots of acts. I've never been to Glastonbury and doubt I will ever go, but these days there are so many alternatives that I don't feel I am missing out.

Just seen my first lightning  followed by crashing thunder.

The main reason I am writing this post is because I was reading Electric Eden this morning and discovered something about "Misirlou". I'd always assumed it was a Greek folk song picked up by Dick Dale and "surfed up". Most peoples first contact to this piece was on the opening to Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction", Tarantino has a way of unearthing great records for his films, think of "Little Green Bag" by the George Baker Selection, Tarantino's inclusion in "Reservoir Dogs" moved it from Sunday afternoon Radio 2 to cool.


But the western gestation of "Misirlou" predates Dick Dale by some years. A guy called Steve Benbow was stationed in Egypt and taught himself guitar to fill his boring days. One of his favourite tunes was a Greek Rembetika song called "Misirlou" (which apparently means "Egyptian Girl". Rembetika is a particularly harsh Greek folk music form so was suited to Benbow's steel stringed acoustic.  I think Benbow recorded it and it was also recorded by Davy Graham as "Miserlou"(sic).

I couldn't find Benbow's recording but found a celebration concert by Peter Oliver.

Whether Dick Dale picked it up as a Greek folk piece or from Benbow's or Graham's recordings I don't know, but if you've read this you now know about it.

SP if you are going out north of Watford take your umbrella and waterproof gear or you may get quite wet. I'm not sure if I will hit my 11K steps today but I did make 15.5K yesterday and am 30K ahead of target.

Have a great day everyone.

Burn The Witch

Looking art the weather outside this morning , bright sunshine and dark clouds , which could symbolise hope and fear , good and bad , but luckily taking an umbrella with me should be enough contingency to protect should the elements turn unfavourable.

It amazes me that we are in the year 2016 and still anything that doesn't fit the desired model is deemed to be undesirable. Sometimes things have to fit the the model , utilities need to function , transport needs to run ,  etc . I do get that , but sometimes , when we're outside daily life the best things are the things that don't fit what you expect.

The media and governments expect us to  watch soaps , consume what they tell us , and behave as they want us to , in order to maintain their own positions of power.  The media tell us that one political side is trying to take us back fifty years (when is was the norm to aspire to buy your own house and anything you want) and the er wants us back in Victorian times , with a slave underclass and a ruling class unanswerable to no one but their own greed.

Burn The Witch

So basically these days if you don't conform to the norm often you are treated like a medieval witch and are a target for the ire of the media led masses.  So I am happy to include the video for the Radiohead song "Burn The Witch" with it's Camberwick Green / Wicker Man hybrid .... though watch it to the very end. I have ordered the new album.








Anyway it is Friday , it's nearly weekend,  and things are looking good.

Have a brilliant day.