Lazy December

I've not done many posts this month and will probably not do many more. It might be because it's dark and cold, and I know at some point I've got to go out to work. For some reason I don't want to walk so this may be the first month that I don't hit my 340K target, although we are barely half way through the month.

Last night I wanted to go and see Bessie and The Zinc Buckets at Trillians, but wimped out because I was tired, and it was dark and cold and thought I'd probably end up catching a cold, and this morning I actually have one.

THe thing is concentrating on the negatives just drags you down further and I just found that Penetration are playing the Black Bull on the 23rd (Christmas Eve Eve) so that is something to look forward to and enjoy, and I will definitely get myself out for that,

Last night I stayed in the warm and listened to Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick" and watch "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back" with Tom Cruise which seems to be a perfect Liam Neeson vehicle.

And that reminds me of the amazing intro toe "Fargo" in Series two featuring Tull's "Locomotive Breath" , very dark, but wonderfully staged.

Enjoy your Thursday.

Positive Fun Times

Some Bridges

I really like to maintain a positive attitude and generally post positive things in here, but I do notice that the things that most of the public like are things they can complain about , things that they can moan about. I always used to think that the closer you got to Manchester , the more miserable people got .. after all that's where Coronation Street is set and let's face it it's not the happiest of places , though that can be said of most TV soaps , it's just that Coronation Street has been around for as long as me.

But really there are lots of great things going on. Newcastle has been holding the Jesterval where my friends Gavin Webster and John Scott performed and they always make me laugh , though John's gig was 10:30 to 11:30 on a Tuesday night, as I left the tent in front of the Baltic Mill I saw that last Quayside Bus disappearing meaning  a walk to the Taxi Rank outside the Akenside. I realised I needed some cash and as I went to the ATM I was accosted by somebody who ran up to me and said "I've Had A Really Bad Time , Give Me Some Money Now!!"  Really ? I took my money from the cash machine and suggested he made his may elsewhere and  I wouldn't be threatened into financing whatever he wanted.


Tonight Trillians celebrates a year since it's reopening with the mighty AKQ Stottin' on the stage , and unbelievably I have never seen them so tonight that will be rectified. This is the thing about Newcastle , there are so many things to do , places to go , in such a small city. I just love the place. Also Trillians has become a regular lunchtime eatery for me with an all day breakfast or Bangers and Thrash watching whatever film they are playing with music leaning toward the rockier side, though their take on Black Sabbath is hilarious.



Today the weather is grey and rainy , but I mowed the lawn and it's not too cold, well really it is quite summery. So I am going to include videos of the three acts I have mentioned and this is hardly scratching the surface,

Although I managed to miss my friend Nick's daughter Alisha's debut at The Three Tuns, I love her voice , check her out here

SO everybody have a brilliant weekend , there are lots of great things to enjoy , go enjoy yourself .

Bangers And Thrash And Coincidences

Work at the moment is quite intense , just a lot going on , so yesterday took time out and fancied a cooked meal . I wandered through town and decided to go to Trillians as I love the atmosphere , music is good there may be a decent film playing and the staff are brilliant , and they now do excellent food. I chatted with Barbara and saw the Bangers and Thrash , well how could I not , so ordered that with a cup of coffee.

I sat in the area at the bottom of the stairs and noticed there was a bag on one of the other tables, and I know sometime people don't like other people withing a million miles of them , especially when it;s me.Anyway the girl came back and was reading checking her phone so seemed cool with me being there. Anyway my coffee came , then I got a phone call. "Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath was playing (which incidentally is one of the dishes that Trillian's serve featuring Black Pudding .. My mums favourite) . So in the phone I was probably talking a bit louder than I should , because of the music and the fact that Trillians is underground and you can lose your signal at any time . The thing is talking louder doesnt help and we all do it and are often too lazy to go outside or somewhere private, well I was yesterday.

After I finished I apologised for being too loud and she smiled and said was fine , the she asked me if I was having lunch and did I want to share a table, as she was waiting for her lunch too. I said yes and we got talking ,  she told me her name was Jane and she was waiting for a Megabus to  London and thought she'd drop in here and she knew they now did food. She told me where she was from and I asked if she knew another friend of mine who lived in the same place and it turned out we had her in common.

THAT CAKE

We chatted and ate , told her about my daughters wedding , showed her THAT CAKE (if you click on this you get the instagram video), and like everyone she was amazed by it. It turns out we have a lot of common interests so I told about events coming up, and also told her this whole thing reminded me of a recent excellent TED Talk I watched about AirBnB which goes on about the modern "Stranger Danger " attitude that the media and society engenders in us , when in fact most strangers could be friends we haven't met yet. I know that sounds crass, but I've included the talk below

Yesterday I walked into Trillians and saw a stranger and when I left I had a new friend. Yeah modern technology is good for immediately connecting with people.




Have a brilliant Saturday everyone , I am going to .

Breakfast At Trillians ... With A Dash Of Cramps

This is the first post since last week , since last month on my Dad's Birthday. Since then I've has a weekend in Whitby , had a big win from Betfair thats to these guys (Free Racing Tips) , and today I wandered into town for a change and in Carliol Square was reminded again the Trillians does food.

They advertise Vegan , Vegetarian and Meat so everyone is catered for , but I went for the vegetarian all day breakfast. So it was great having my dinner that was a breakfast in the darkness of Trillian's Rock Crypt in a corner with the food served on a black shiny plate soundtracked by Heavy ish Metal, though not sure what was playing but it's a welcome change to the jazz / elevator music or pretentious piano players you get in so many places. Bar Loco is good though , but I will be frequenting Trillian's for dinner a lot more now.

Trillians Menu

As I was saying to the lovely barmaid if you don't use it you lose it , and I don't want Trillian's to be lost again. They took our Mayfair and put up a Charver Multiplex.

Tonight I am going to see The Gramps , a Cramps tribute band so maybe we should play a Cramps song

New Year's Eve Is Here

We are on the last day of the year ad it some ways it's like a software update (my phone just had one) , you go through everything , waiting , working , you reboot and nothing has changed.

Well actually things have changed. People I know seem to becoming more insular, anything new is not countenanced well . Part of this is people have families , people trying to survive modern life , people tend to go for the tried and tested paths and often I am the same. I will frequent a restaurant or pub that I know is good and drop places that maybe don't come up to my standards.

This year I have met some wonderful people and made new friends all over the world , been made redundant , had a few new jobs , write songs , hit my 1000 posts , 100K views on this blog , and have lost touch with people which is sad.

Facebook is good for keeping in touch and reconnecting with people , but I do detest the posts that imply people are selfish and don't care about others. I love seeing positivity and happiness and smiles, and in 2016 I want to see more.

Here It Comes

This year I have driven through snow , ice , rain , blinding sun almost a metaphor for life , because I've navigated that.

I have been here for people who needed support , I have had some great nights and days with wonderful friends and look forward to lots more in 2016.

Have a wonderful end of year and share a brilliant 2016 with me my friends. I chose the Fingerprintz song to finish this year because it's a theme song of mine

"I can see you want to dance too"

It Makes Me Happy

What does ? Everything . Well lots of things , maybe I should just list things.

I know my recent posts have been about being happy , hugs and feeling good rather than slagging off Apple and mobile phone companies or being slightly down about  Preston losing , but seriously, I am grateful for being able to make this list. Part of the reason I can do so is that I do always look for good things regardless of what happens, and a small thing , today I got told I was out of my probation period and they liked me at work and last night Youtube relented and allowed my Ezra Furman slideshow for "One Day I Will Sin No More" . I will record my own version of this and put it up on my Youtube Channel soon.

So what makes me happy:

The Vampire Rabbit Spots Its Prey

• The love and support I get from my close friends and family , here and all over the world
• The fact there is always someone there for me , and I am there for them
• The appreciation that people give me when I share time and experience with them
• I love my hometown of Preston , I don't get there enough , but Newcastle is now my home and I love the place and it's people and the friends I have made here make me fall in love  with everything every day
• I can't get down for too long because there is always something good about to happen
• I love the positive things I can show people
• I love berating people about not visiting The Lit & Phil , it is a beautiful amazing place
• I love the fact that so many people don't know about the Vampire Rabbit and the look on their faces when I take them is brilliant
• I love the fact my friend Barbara has resurrected Trillans and my friends Maz and Shev have made The Black Bull into the North East's Go To Punk venue and Dave and Julie Campbell have turned The Schooner into a brilliant Western Swing venue and brilliant pub
• I love my friends
• I love the culture , the museums , the coast
• I love well I might never stop

Anyway that is just some of the stuff, have a brilliant day everyone , I really do love you all

That Time Of Month (Out Come The Freaks)

Well the end of one and the start of another. I managed to get a good night's sleep and didn't do five blog posts yesterday. While that helped towards my millennium goal I ended up being shattered during my day at work, I'll had a generally good day with the odd not good thing but that's life and as always I concentrate on the positives and ignore the negatives unless I have to deal with them. Too many times people concentrate on the bad things that might happen and usually don't, although I'm just dealing with my hire car bump but I was prepared for it. Being prepared for something doesn't mean you expect it to happen , it just means you can deal with it if it does.

Though there's been lots of good news today , some great time spent with friends in Bar Loco (their food is amazing) and Trillians , a friend is moving tomorrow with the help of another friend and I am going to have a catch up with my great friends at Geek Talent next week, I was privileged to be able to contribute a little at the start up of this excellent venture.

Rhythms Gonna Get Ya

The weekend is here but it may just be gardening and relaxing after last weekend's festival (and there is another on next weekend). However I am always so easily tempted , and Newcastle is full of luscious temptation , so I don't know what I'm going to end up doing. For some reason the phrase Geek has turned up quite a lot today which gives me an excuse to include the wonderful (Return To The Valley Of) Out Come The Freaks by Was(Not Was).



Sleep well my lovely friends

A Little More Positivity Please

... especially from me. My last post was a little whingy , but hopefully it provided a little food for thought. Sometimes things can not seem good , but when you take the time to look at them sometimes they are nowhere near as bad as you thought. I got my payslip and thought it was a bit down , but was due to starting a new job , some jiggery pokery with tax and this month was my first proper months pay , which made me feel much better.

Classic Hmmm

This is just going to be a short post , nowhere near the last one and really I'm generally feeling good , it;s Saturday night , I've watched and enjoyed Game of Thrones and listen to the classical reworking of Quadrophenia featuring Alfie Boe in the lead. Generally listening to it part of me is saying "No No, its like one of them 'Classic Rock'  albums where they gave rock music the Mantovani / James Last  treatment" , but the other part reckons Alfie Boe makes a good fist of it with excellent support from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra , Pete Townshend , Billy Idol and Phil Daniels taking Keith Moon's parts.


And my overall opinion is a thumbs up. So something I was apprehensive about has turned out to be a good experience , though still not up to the original., obviously. My does of current day music was provided by The Wytches.

But anyway , today has been full of good TV , good music , good food and good fun.

Of and last night was in Trillians and bought a round of four drinks for a tenner. Atmosphere was great , Barbara and Dave are doing a great job and it's definitely an object lesson in being positive.

Sleep well my friends.

From Newcastle To Cairo

This week has been odd. I've been feeling weirdly sort of down . I have absolutely no reason to be. Also I've been sort of getting a little annoyed about things that might happen. This is not me so I sat down and thought it through and decided maybe I'd being invaded by the spiteful spirit of a red top reader. Doing that seems to have done the trip , I am feeling more like my normal self and hopefully this will just continue.

I mean I'm now working in a great job , close to home. This week I've had meals with friends , family, and loved ones, seen some great films , read some good stuff , heard some great music , a lot of it new, so as you can see , i have nothing to complain about.

I see friends doing great things , helping others and making life good for others , and I suppose I see all this and then get exasperated by the attitudes of a society that worships possessions and money. So that is probably the thing that I was letting get the better of me, and I wont to that.

I have great friends all around the world , all of whom make my life so good , who continually turn me on to new things or make me remember old good stuff like the Lime Spiders , Trillians has reopened with a bang , and things are just cool.

Over Cairo

And today I was listening to some of the great music than I have had the privilege of allowing to Django Django's  "Skies Over Cairo"  come into my house and was amazed by the fact I'd missed it , as I do love the band.

I suppose it's in the same universe as "Night Boat To Cairo" by Madness and could probably have been slipped onto a Black Grape album as well.

Well I am going to bed with that spinning round my head , looking forward to tomorrow, next week , next month  , and enjoying life.

Sleep well my friends

The Weekend Starts Here

I've still not voiced a blog entry even though I have the technology and the Samsung Galaxy Note will allow me to do it. Tonight the Rawmones , a Ramones tribute band anchored by the hardest working man in the world Adas Pepper , play Trillians in Newcastle . Will be toddling along there after a few (non alcoholic) drinks at The Stand.

This is just obviously a diary entry , but Mark Radcliffe is playing the wonderful record "Fanfare" by Eric Matthews. The vido is brilliant and the MP3 is it the jukebok at the top of this entry: