I was out walking tonight , it was -2°C (this morning was -7°C) and thought this is just perfect. The snow crunched underfoot and there is no slush or skating rink footpath sections just beautiful white snow, and I am loving it while it's like this. There is no wind, rain or driving snow like last week and it is just perfect to walk in.
This week has been listening to lots of #MusicWhileYouWork and today I found a very unusual CD called Hindi Horrorcore by Andy Votel who does a lot of remixing and you can see examples below, it's just not an expected genre of anything , but I have the CD in my collection and it is definitely listenable, so I've included it here using the paste video option so we'll see how it goes.
It's close to midnight so I best sign off now. The temperature now is -8°C
Heaven Knows ......I'm miserable now. Well not really , yesterday started with more snow , and though it's cold it looks nice , relaxing and almost Christmassy in our current lockdown situation, however this has transmogrified into could continuous rain that is extremely uninspiring and hence the feeling of misery.
I saw a meme yesterday that described a collection of Goths as "A Misery of Goths" which I have now decided to use as a title for this first post of a mostly miserable so far February. I couldn't find a really suitable picture but the one on the right sums up my feelings on my walks so far this month.
I hope that things will improve soon , but probably not before the weekend.
I do like that picture and you can click through to see more of their pictures, so ironic that something that is miserable results in a positive find.
I got a text this morning for a Diabetic catch up which these days is by phone and them trusting me to tell the truth, which I do. If I have problems I also get onto my doctor or the hospital , but generally I look after myself and follow guidelines, the only thing that bothers me is that generally I seem to need more sleep, that is I can't do things during the night even once a week, and often think it's great if I'm in bed at nine o' clock
Today or tomorrow I will be seeing my granddaughter Alexis and her mum , my daughter Kirsty , weather permitting , so that is a big plus.
I have also started following an author on Facebook called Lynn Miclea and she shares some very funny memes and will have to get some of her books , she's on Amazon here
I am now a permanent home worker and this gives me time to listen to a lot of music, currently listening to "The Next Day" by David Bowie and am also listening to the pile of CDs I have put up for sale on Discogs. As I've said before I often buy the CDs to support the artist or because I feel that I should have their music rather than any need for it. It's the same with films on DVDs which I am often too lazy to put in the DVD player , and when you do you get all the anti piracy videos which are pointless because you have PAID for it.
So before venturing out I will share the song that sort of originally inspired this post "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" by The Smiths which really should be a Goth anthem shouldn't it? Although The Smiths are hardly your archetypal Goth band.
The weather has curtailed my walking. It is cold . It has snowed and turned to slush and them frozen , then rained and then frozen again , although the sun is now out and seems to be melting snow and ice. The temperature is up to 6ºC so nowhere near the -5ºC of the other day.
When walking , it's like you are on a think sheet of ice that crumples underfoot so you are not skidding all over the place , although very often the cleared areas get a film of very slippy black ice.
A lot of the snow is gone but we shall see what tonight brings.
Musicwise I took delivery of a couple of 12" singles of "America:What Time Is Love?" by The KLF although I've seen a picture disc version but £40 is too much for me to pay. I shared a few plays on my Instagram Channel here. The record player I was cajoled into buying by Marek from RPM has been one of my most impressively joyous purchases that I have made (you see it a lot on my Instagram feed)
I will share with you with the excellent "Walking On Thin Ice" by Yoko Ono (with John Lennon on guitar) as it fits with the current weather
It was dreich and depressing , then we had snow which was cold but pretty, and now the snow has gone and it's dreich and depressing the day before going back to work.
Still is always good to try and find something positive and I have been listening to some great music and seen a surprisingly good film "Cold Skin" which sort of reminded me of William Hope Hodgson's "The Night Land" which I have not read for some years , replacing the pyramid with a lighthouse in the Antarctic.
Also have been trying to think of music that is in the same universe as The Moody Blues , and on album that came to mind was "Trespass" by Genesis. While "The Knife" is definitely too aggressive for The Moody Blues but all the preceding songs could almost be a darker Moody Blues.
So I will share "Dusk" with you from "Trespass" , appropriate for this time of year, and still a great song.
Well it is in my life. The final series of Game of Thrones comes with the Night King bringing Winter and turning the world to Ice. I'm currently revisiting Michael Moorcock's "The Prince With The Silver Hand" in which a "resurrected" Corum battles the Ice and Winter brought by the Fhoi Myore in a freezing Celtic world, and today started off extremely cold before a minor snow storm brought snow to Newcastle. It's still white and there is Ice on the paths.
I don't think I'll be walking to work tomorrow unless there is a major thaw.
This morning in the cold I was listening to Primal Scream's "Dirty Hits" and they are a truly awesome band taking on any style and making it theirs , from Rock and Roll to Gospel to Krautrock to Metal. While "Autobahn 66" has an obvious nod to Kraftwerk's "Autobahn" it's closer in type to Neu!'s Motorik beat, and that is the one I'll share with you tho their catalogue is a veritable cornucopia of brilliance. I particularly love "Kowalski" with it's reference to the film "Vanishing Point", one of my favourites, and I know how they stop him.
Although the snow is slightly melting it almost feels like Christmas. Then you realise that you have work on Monday, all the shops are open, and there are no presents to open and no Christmas Trees in peoples' windows.
The sky is still grey and featureless. Footpaths are still walkable and today I manage 8.5K steps so I'm only 17K steps down for March which , in theory, I could make up in a day.
The snow is meant to be gone my Monday but it's not showing any signs of retreating at the moment, well maybe it's getting a little warmer and there is a little melting , but this is not the "Killer Winter Weather" forecast by the Daily Express a couple of days back, though I just look at their front page for a laugh these days as ist's either Armageddon weather or some Jeremy Corbyn fake news.
Of course this gives me another excuse to share The Raveonettes "Christmas Song" with you which as you know by now is my favourite Christmas Song ever. Dobbies even used it for a Christmas advert of theirs which is where I first heard it.
Anyway enjoy your SAturday night and we will see what tomorrow brings.
Well we had no snow in 'Nam last night but it's still cold and the snow that fell is still here but possible slowly melting. Roads are fairly clear but I am amazed that certain places have closed their doors for "safety reasons". My friend Julie is dealing with a metre of snow, now that's what you call snowfall as is the dort of thing that stops you getting out. However think about farmers, they don't have a choice they have to deal with the snowfall or risk losing stock and income.
Yesterday was the first day of March and I only managed 4K steps, which is not the least I've done since I started my rolling million steps every three months in May last year, that was 2.8K on a particularly rainy day in Yorkshire. The problem is by Monday I could be 30K steps down by Monday even if I hit 4K a day. But I do know that I can do a decent amaout of steps a day and I can recover that in a week, so I am not too disturbed.
Anyway today is another work from home day. For me that is far more inconvenient that working in the office but that's what happens when you get snow.
The skies are still grey and featurless and I have a feeling it will be cold outside. Anyway I've done my first Wordpress post on Song of The Salesman here and hope that I can now start adding to that in the blog format, we shall see.
So I will now attempt a walk round the block and will leave you with"Fun Lovin' Criminal" by The Fun Lovin' Criminals for no other reason that Nemone just played it on 6Music and of course band feature Huey Morgan who among other things has a Saturday morning show on 6Music. I had a horrible sight when I searched for Huey on the BBC site and at the end was a picture of the awful Piers Morgan... ughh
The sky is grey and featureless and the snow is swirling and getting a little deeper. It's cold but not so bad that you can't move out there. Buses and cars are are fairly frequest on the roads. Buses are finishing early but you have to think that the drivers have to get home after they finish.
I am really sick of hearing "The Beast From The East", it's a bit more snow that we are used to that's all.
Anyway I have been listening to Pink Floyd's "Obscured By Clouds" the soundtrack to Barbet Schroeder's "La Vallée" .
They had previously soundtracked another of his films "More" ,the Main Theme countaining some amazingly atmospheric stero panning which sounds wonderful on headphones.
"Obscured By Clouds" opens with heavy synthesiser bombs before treating us to some excellent songs "Wots.. Uh The Deal" and "Free Four" are two favourites of mine, but "Stay", "Childhood's End" and "The Gold It's In The" make the grade as well.
It's the last day of February and we have had snow. More than usual but hardly enough to bring Newcastle to a halt, though the roads seemed not too filled with motor vehicles. I managed to catch buses and still found time to instagram from Leazes Park as you can see here.
The snow is quite deep , but it is still easy to walk on the footpaths.
One of the strange effects is that the light reflecting on the snow makes it look very light outdoors when all it is is streetlights an dthe moonlight reflecting back up. Snow can be beautiful and amazing at times.
Tomorrow we start into March and I can see that I won't get that much walking done til next week, while in parts the snow is fine to walk on the cold does get to you.
One album I was going to write about and now finally have a chance is Steve Hillage's first solo album "Fish Rising" , whic consists of the dreamy delay guitar heavy "Solar Music Suite" which opens the album before we are hot by the water bubble "Fish" and the ambient guitar of "Meditation of The Snake". Side two hits use with the heavier riff driven "Salmon Song" before more echo delay psychedelia in "Aftaglid". A gorgeously uplifting album and the CD includes "Pentagrammaspin" which I think was a free single given away at gigs and a power trio backing track of "Aftaglid" to satisfy the psychedelic guitar lover in you. Ive just realised that there are three great guitarists (at least) named Steve H , namely Hillage , Hackett and Howe.
AnywayI'll leave you with a live take on "The Salmon Song" from 1977, enjoy.
Yesterday we woke up to a decent snowfall, two or three inches deep in parts as I walked into work. We had sun and the snow started to melt. By the time I walked down Barrack Road the footpath was like slush driven slide. Because it was still so cold the melted snow started turning to ice.
I don't know if it's age or my lardy weight but despite a decent pair of boots I could not negotiate even slight iced slopes, each time having to find an alternative clear path which involved extra walking. This wasn't me being safe rather than sorry, it was me being forced to take a (slightly) different route to get to where I want. The final one being the path from Rosie's bar near the start of the Town Wall to the front door of Citygate. I could,t go on the path and the grass was reduced to a slippery muck, luckily the footpath round was level and partially ice free. Having thought about it no one else was walking on that slope either.
It's like the feeling you get on the bus when you are starting and the bust (apparently) slams on or goes violently round a corner , and I have difficulty keeping upright. Again is this old age or is it just that buses (I still think it should be spelt - or is it spelled - busses, the joys of the english language, I'm English and can hardly spell.
This morning looking out of the window ther is still a decent white snow blanket, though this will now be infused with ice so the walk to work may not be so comfortable. I will tell you tonight how it went.
February will mean increasing my daily steps by 10% to 12,250 steps a day but so far this month I am averaging more than that (12,650 a day at the end of yesterday).
.. and it's cold. Back from Litton, and back to work . This is the part of the year where I thought my walking would take a hit, you can wrap up but sometimes the biting cold and wetness can get to you and you just want to get on a bus or get in and keep warm.
I don't know if it;s an age thing or my natural laziness, but I seem to find it increasingly difficult to do things that need preparation. This can be getting the laptop and mouse out the bag to do a blog post when I'm on holiday. Another is playing a DVD, you have to get up , find the DVD , take it out of the case, switch on the DVD player , tune the TV to the DVD channel, and play the DVD. It's far too easy to take the alternateive route and click a few buttons on the remote and play something on the TIVO, or on demand. Although strangely I still like playing things on vinyl, and that is very incovenient and labour intensive.
Cooking is similar, I am alwasy tempted to chuck a frozen pizza in the oven, though last night it was mashed normal / sweet potato and bean burger which meant cooking but it was worth it. I still don't do ready meals, although part of that is that ready meals often take as long to cook as it would to prepare from scratch.
I like to be able to walk into a situation and start doing what I want to do, I don't like the preparation , so maybe I'm not lazy , just selective.
I am still hitting my rolling monthly million steps despite the weather, though part of the motivation for that is the fact it helps with keeping my blood sugar under control.
While on holiday I picked up a Best of Ethiopiques album , and I remember listening to some of this music and actually being frightened by it, it was so other worldly atmospheric, but disturbing. I corresponded with Nadine Shah about it, so will include "Yegelle Tezetta" byMulatu Astatke which is a great piece but I find there is a strage menace behind it. Have a great Tuesday everybody.
Or maybe I should have done because the weather is unpredictable. I was walking home past St James' Park and suddenlt was hit by a torrential downpour soaking my pants, shoes and socks. The wind was threatening to destroy my umbrella so I sheltered in a covered gateway before chancing the downpour when the wind dropped. I got to a bus stop and eventually the rain subsided. As there was no but I walked a bit further and then the sun appeared. It had gone from torrential downpour to bright hot sunshine in little more than ten minutes.
I was still walking and listening to music. Today's album has been "English Settlement" a double album by XTC full of their angular folk rock and a lot of fine musicianship, The lead single I think was "Senses Working Overtime" and "No Thugs In Our House" is unfortunately very relevant now with the right wing racism being sanctioned by UK and US leaders. Some of my vavourites are the melodic guitar motifs of "Yacht Dance" and the title track Other stand outs are "Ball and Chain" and "It's Nearly Africa" before finishing up with "Snowman" which I will leave you with. One is a live version , the other soundtracking my first snowman at Chateau Dred
The weather is forecasting rain and 60 mph winds tomorrow, hopefully we won't get any snow ... yet.
I've just finished reading "I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic" his autobiography co written with another guy, and have now started Bruce Springsteen's"Born To Run". The style of writing in a universe apart, Ibrahimovic is not the best at expressing himself, whereas Springsteen, as we know from his song is a master with words. However, they both share an incredible love of cars (Zlatan - Ferrari, Bruce - Cadillac) , and more importantly they both keep you interested and wanting to hear what happens next.
Thinking about it I know I will read and finish Bruce's book , book Zlatan's is 330 pages of quite small print, which, once I got into it kept my attention until the end, so the biggest success, in my eyes is "I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic". I would recommend both books even if you don't like football or music.
I'd have both of them in my house or go for a drink with them.
Anyway I've woken up to snow, and today is my last day of work before my liver biopsy , and given that there are so many Bruce Springsteen songs to choose from, there are many I could call my favourite, but Cadillac Ranch from "The River" (the title track of which was written about his sister and her husband) is the one I am going to go for.
Wrap up, keep warm, and it's Friday , so have a wonderful day my friends.
Today is the second day of spring and we have had rain and snow , so plenty of water. This has got lots of my friends jealous that I have snow and they don't. We also had blue skies sun, so four seasons in one day scenario. The snow came down , melted then fell again, melted then fell again and so on for the the rest of the day. I'm sitting writing this hearing the wind blowing down the chimney, wondering whether tomorrow will be any different. Let's face it the weather can do what the hell it wants and we can do nothing about bar make a reasonably educated guess.
Then I took the tiny road from Litton to Tideswell , which at the end has a sharp double right turn. Most of the way it's a single track road. Well what I wasn't counting on was a large articulated lorry stuck , unable to move forwards or backwards blocking the road. Not sure what the poor driver was going to do, but I turned round to find an alternative route. I had £2.25 in my pocket and wanted to get to the cash machine in Tideswell. Getting to the bank, I found the cash machine was "resting" , so used the Post Office to get some pennies.
Coming out of the Post Office I saw a sign saying Peak Volumes , a book shops I was unaware of. I went in and the place is crammed with second hand books. I spoke with the guy and asked if I could take some photographs. He was really friendly. The place is a veritable cornucopia of reading material on lots of subjects such as art, fiction , formula 1, music , chicken farming and lots more. This is the second discovery I have made this week (Music In The Green being the first), third if you count the Litton Shop. I love finding new things and this week has been full of that , making new friends finding new places and just having a good time.
Today was meant to be relaxing , but while a little grey , I ventured towards town to get a haircut and a couple of things. Then the snow came down and stuck. It made everything look wintry for Yule tide. I took shelter in the excellent Kazbat's Den a delightful Gothic shelter and shop you could easily lose yourself in, chatting about music and weather with Karen and Lucy. I had visited the shop the odd time in the past but with the sad destruction of the Kard Bar , Karen had set up a fund to help with the funeral of the owner here and is raising money with a hoodie raffle here so if you want to contribute please do. It is a wonderful place to drop into and you never know what you might find.
The snow is still coming down and it is dark and winter has it's foot in here. So it's time to keep warm and light a fire ,keep warm with someone and look out for others. Was thinking of some seasonal related music , but I was talking to Karen and Lucy about The Men That Will Not Be Blamed for Nothing and Jordan Reyne , so I have included spoongig links to them if you click on the names, although if you click on this Jordan Reyne link you will get all the posts about her on this blog.
OK, it's Sunday Morning, cold, there's a forecast of snow, and it's back to work next week. However this week has been great , lots of great things happening and there lot's good things going to happen this week.
Last week I had a relaxing holiday, the weather was good, if cold, but no snow and little ice, and Ampleforth is just a lovely place to stay.
After getting back there was the football , with Blyth Spartans beating Hartlepool away, Newcastle United disposing of Chelsea in an incredibly exciting and entertaining match and Preston North End progressing to the third round of the FA Cup.
I then got the news that my eldest daughter Juliet has got a promotion after several interviews, so lots of good things coming up.
There's birthday celebrations this week for good friends, another friend has finally got a phone after two weeks of rank incompetence from her phone company, and on Tuesday I'm getting a new boiler fitted, and , if all goes to plan this will be a four day week, with a visit to somewhere called John Snow House in Durham on Friday.
At the moment things look cold outside but there's no sign of snow yet. I need to nip out to get papers soon , take lots of drugs and make breakfast before enjoying a relaxing Sunday. Al
though it's just starting to rain now, and the wind is getting up.
I hope your day goes brilliantly, and what better song than the Small Faces "Lazy Sunday" to remember Ian McLagan who we lost this week, but who's life was full of fun and happiness and that's the way to be. A smile on your face produces as many endorphins as eating a bar of chocolate without the calories!
...but winter is here, and so am I. While I love snow, it's only when I can get get into the warm and admire it's beauty from a position of comfort. I now have to leave to go to work , so need to wrap up and brave the elements. So thought the Dean Martin performance was an ideal soundtrack, because according to the Mail and Express two weeks back we are due six inches of snow (naughty joke for Game of Thrones fans). But if they keep saying it one day they will be right.
We are closer to Christmas, and although it's Monday there are lots of things to look forward to. Have a brilliant day everyone.
So much for the snow , blizzard , sub zero temperatures forecast in the Mail and Express,. In Fenham it was cold but we got but a dusting of sleet . On the plus side Newcastle's Senegalese strike force returned with a brace of goals , and on Friday The Stand served us well as a town centre watering hole , with one of the best outdoor smoking areas in town.
Well it's December and we've had the worst snow since I moved here. However could be worse , Scotland have it really bad. Though God knows what will happen when the thaw sets in!!. Worcester's Victorian Christmas Fair didnt seem to suffer too much , though it was very cold.
Still we shall see what the rest of the week brings!!
Another fun year with lot's done and more not done. Preparing to wind down for the last day of work , get some Fizz for the Party, and have a good time. Amazingly the bin men came this morning so they must have been putting in double shifts this week , good on them. Anyway here's a short vid of some of the snow, soundtracked by some of my white noise guitar: