Grimalkin

Today is grey so that's why the post title came to mind . I thought Grimalkin was a witch's cat it in "Macbeth" (it was a familiar of the three witches) , but it's also an archaic generic name for a cat. While I like photographing cats I treat them like dogs and children , ok as long as they go back to their owners. I tag my pictures with #CatsInNam and was surprised to find an Instagram Influencer Profile here.  I tried searching for #CatInNam on Google but every site that maybe had something then redirected , so you will have to search for yourself on Instagram or Twitter or my tag @mikeydred96 .

My intention today was to listen to "Citizen" by Steely Dan , a great compilation but missing two of my favourite Steely Dan songs "Dallas" and "Sail The Waterway" which the band thought were so bad that they never appeared digitally, but they appear as vinyl rips on Youtube and I recently rebought the 12" vinyl copy from Discogs. So that's why I am sharing "Dallas" with you.

However I picked up on "Babylon's Burning" a rough and ready guide to punk from 1973-1978 and the four CDs while consisting mainly of demos and live takes was very listenable to my ears. I had been thinking of selling the box but it definitely earned it's place in my collection with lots aof great bands on there, and by four thirty with systems not behaving at work I thought it was a good time to wind down.

Steely Dan will be tomorrow, and my box also contains a burned copy of  "Can't Buy A Thrill" augmented by the aforementioned favourites , so I have a lot to listen to tomorrow as well.

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.

Follow

Just a short post about an odd thing. I didn't really use twitter until Google ditched Google+ and I looked for new ways to share my blog post as Facebook also seemingly stopped feeds. I'm not sure how many I followed or how many follower I had (this blog after twelve years has FIVE followers) so I am not the most popular person on the planet, but I am sure I had about seventy followers and followed a similar number of people.

Every few days I get a new follower but the number of followers I have seems to remain at a constant 77 (just checked it's now 78) which is a lot more than this blog (despite it's now daily 1-1.5K visits (and yes I know a lot will be robots and apparently French people (Merci, Merci pour les visites)  so overall that is a success and it's only since sharing the blog on Twitter that these visit spikes took off. Below are two images showing the spikes and the fact that France is the source of a lot of visits.

Big In France

Big In 2019

So since twitter , Feedburner picked me up and that I think is the main reason for the reason hike in hits. I would like to hit 300K by the end of the year and at the current rate that could happen by mid October , but that is assuming I sill get over 1K hits a day.

So I though I would just post this listening to the Giorgio Moroder album "Deja Vu" , and while it's OK it's not as adventurous as I expected although "74 is the New 24" is quite good and the first song that would fit with the "From Here To Eternity" album which is one of my favourites. That was followed by an excellent take on Suzanne Vega's "Toms Diner" with Britney Spears, which shows it's always good to listen to a whole album. Not as good, in my opinion, as "From Here To Eternity" but more than listenable with some good points.

I've also realised that Giorgio Moroder's moustache is almost as iconic as Frank Zappa's (see below)

So "74 is the New 24" would be a good one to share with you and the video is cool too.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Twitteringmore

Facebook is definitely finished on my phone but I feel I am getting too much political stuff on Twitter, well that has replaced the stuff I used to see and share on Facebook. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but it's nice not to let Facebook really track me as such, so no check ins or film sharing as such. I use twitter to share my blog posts as not many people read them on Facebook and Twitter gets me more (robot) attention. Twitter does however open my eyes to a lot of political stuff that I then try and check from other sources, and I do enjoy Mike Harding's posts which are often funny but always with a serious point, and Matt Haig's posts which are always helpful.

I do share the odd positive or funny picture but I am just waiting for my three month ban, as Facebook doesn't play by it's own rules.

I don't know if this will be a short or long post, but I got a couple of classical vinyl albums today (Bizet's "Carmen highlights" and Elgar's "Enigma Variations") from a charity shop and hopefully that will satisfy my vinylisation for a while. IT is good to just put and album on with no remote option and let it play, and that applies to classical and contemporary albums.

I also need to mention this is post 1984 and 1984 was the year my youngest daughter Kirsty was born and she has turned out to be talented, well adjusted , sensible with a reasonable taste in music, books and media , taking after her elder sister Juliet in many respects while being chalk and cheese in some areas. However as sisters and daughters they are as perfect as you could expect.

While I love "Carmen" I also love "Carmen (L'Oiseau Rebelle)" Malcolm McLaren's "Fans" , his take on the theme from Bizet's opera, which is a much harder edged piece but extremely listenable and that's what we shall go with.

Scrabble and Facebook

I wasn't going to post tonight , but what the hell, I thought I'd then just dispose of a couple of things that were on my mind.

There are now only two people who play Scrabble with me on Facebook. If you read this and want to play me feel free to leave your details in a comment. Scrabble is one of the main reasons that I go on Facebook but everyone I've played with (bar two) have dropped off. Maybe they're bored or don't like playing with me any more.

Facebook Jail

I'm still on the ban, and while I may reinstall Facebook Messenger on my phone , Facebook won't be going on. Also give that I am on some kind of black list I have a feeling that next time it will be a three month ban. A facebook friend said it could be the image to the right which causes people who access your posts to report it as contavening Facebook's rules. That is a possibility, but I am making the assumption that anything I share could get me banned.

So basically with Scrabble coming to a halt and my inability to share anything on Facebook it isn't looking that attractive to actually use it as I did.

Since the ban the views to my blog have increased 25 fold so I don't think sharing on Facebook will improve it all that much.


I am probably using Twitter and Instagram more and installed Scrabble on my phone which the reactivated my Facebook account much to my annoyance. The problem is Scrabble has been a total pain recently by continually failing to load so that may be why my friends have dropped off.

So I suppose a suitable song for thinking they are out to get me is obviously "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath so I will share that with you on this Sunday night.

Low Flying Cloud

Today has not really been raining but it's wet. It's like it's just very low cloud. I don't know if it will finally blow over but today has been a perfect example of dreek. The sky is grey the windows are wet and it's cold.

It's almost a month since the blog visits went from fifty a day to fifty an hour, starting with sharing on Twitter then being picked up buy Feedburner and since the 17th of May daily visits have not dropped below 1,100 and today is already up to 1,200 and I think it's based on the New York date line so there's still about five hours to go.

I do need to give it a day's rest but I keep thinking another post will fuel the visits, but I do need to try and have a day without posting, I've already posted sixteen times this month that is four posts every the three days.

The rain / mist is running down the window pane as I write this and to quote the cheesiest of lines it is a cold, dark, rainy night, not dark and stormy , just dreek.

I was surprised to be followed on Instagram by Louise Distras (her web page is here) who I saw, and was impressed with and chatted with at The Cluny where she was supporting The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing. She is an excellent artist and a really nice girl to chat with. My review of the gig is here. and that reminded me of the new video that Jordan Reyne has released for "They Came For You" from "Bardo" which is appropriate for this troubling times.

So it is time for bed, but it is worth checking out all these albums when you get the chance.

Where's Wally?

You know that joke about the difference between stupid and being dead, everyone else knows except you in both cases.

The Facebook ban is sort of like that in reverse, I know that I'm banned and therefore can't communicate in any way via Facebook, but none of my Facebook friends do, except the ones who I communicate with via phone, email , Instagram or Twitter, and it is a sort of weird situation. Because my online presence ids there, people ca send me messages, post things on my timeline , tag me or whatever and barring disabling / deleting the account there is nothing I can do.

I can't even use Facebook Messenger.

While I have not transgressed any Facebook rules for three out of the four bans which are here and you can see what I'm banned for in these posts here and here and see what you think.

Basically anything that I personally post can result in a ban, and I cannot challenge it full stop, snd no explanation for the  supposed transgression will be given.

So this is a warning to anyone out there, do not allow Facebook to be your only mode of communication or your Facebook friends will think you don't love them any more. Essentially for everything in life you always need a Plan "B" and luckily I do have communication channels open with friends, it's just that often people don't check their alternatives.

As this is post 1945 I'm going to share "Caledonia" by Louis Jordan and His Tympani Five, which is rather celebratory which is good as WWII came to a  close in that year.

More Time

Not having Facebook active seems to be giving me more time. I could use this to do other things but I;m probably reading more, watching more TV, walking more but not improving my creative output (yet) unless you count this.

I spent some time in Helmsley today and because Scott's was not open to sit in we tried  La Trattoria , a new Italian based restaurant next to the Town Hall, and it is definitely an excellent new find.

I also had a brief walk round the Castle and posted some Instagram photos here.

I know I'm on holiday, but I can post this, I have watched an X-Men film , and am watching an episode of Marvel:Agents of Shield waiting for this weeks Gotham, while reading Neil Gaiman's excellent"Norse Mythology"".

This is day one with no Facebook and while I am talking about it,I am doing other things. I suppose I slightly miss sharing things and having things shared with me but I have Instagram and Twitter if I want to interact.

As yet no one (I told about five people) has asked me where I've gone so I am not being missed (yet).

So you can see the analogy between Social Media and Drug Addiction .

I thought "Free" by VAST is semi appropriate so giving the year a miss for this post but I will use it as I work up to 2019, we shall see, although 1935 was the year that my dad was born.

Lost In France

French Favourite

As I have mentioned Feedburner has been a huge boost to th esite visits. As far as I can gather it is a result of me sharing my posts via Twitter. I am no expert or avid follower of Social Media but that it my current view on the situation.

Another thing that I have noticed is that of my top ten all time posts on this blog, five now come from this month , or since I started sharing on Twitter.  So sharing on Twitter, which I don't really use that much, is beneficial to audience reach. And I only started doing this because Google ditched Google+ !

One of the real oddities is a huge number of visitors from France. Now I am not French , I don't post in French or feature much French related stuff aparat maybe bands like one of my favourites Gong,  or the darker Magma (who have some great logo / images) and are with listening to if you can take their relentless sound.


As I have said I do not know if this is just a blip , a short spike, or permanent, though obviously I am hoping it is permanent and I am happy to keep sharing on Twitter if this is the result.


I am currntly enjoying the lovely weather as we head towards the Bank Holiday Weekend and think I will share with you Gong's "I Never Glid Before" the finale from "Angel's Egg" the middle of the "Rafio Gnome Invisible" trilogy , one of my favourite ever riffs despite it being quite complex while retaining an excellent self depracating playfulness. Gong are extremely accomplished musicians with a wonderful way out sense of humour.

Feedburner and Interrupted Dreams

It looks like the huge increase in visits is due to being picked up by something called Feedburner which is some kind to data feed. I'm not sure if this is permanent, although I wont complain if it is. I'm not sure if this is as a result of me sharing the blog posts on Twitter or including a link with my most visited Youtube slideshow. , 26K views and featuring Christopher Lee, so it could have been any one of those. Twitter has resulted in a few retweets and also I tried MeWe after Google dropped their social sharing although I do not think that has resulted in any visits. I use it to post on then stipe the post to post in Twitter on my phone.

This morning I woke at 5:30 and thought I had quarter of an hour to enjoy, but fell back into an unspecified dream and the was rudely awoken by the alarm going off seemingly about thirty seconds later. That's is the problem with falling asleep when you are about to get up. It always amazes me that often at night sleep refuses to come, but when you have to get up, especially for work, sleep is so, so welcoming.

I'm over halfway through Stephen Fry's "Mythos" and thoroughly enjoying it and am now thinking about which book will come next.

So what should I share with you tonight, Huw Stephens featured Caught By The River and from that Jeff Barrett's Labe's first single release was "Under Dubwood" by The Dubwood Allstars featuring the tones of Richard Burton and the music of King Tubby (think it was used for Ali Baba by John Holt)

Just One Victory

I don't tweet very often (my twitter name is @mikeydred96) though I've just looked and apparently it also reports all the Youtube Videos I like, but I decided to tweet today with this:

"Booking with #RyanAir is like betting with #Ladbrokes . You give them your money and 99% you never get anything back"

 This may be my last September 2017 post, and I have been listening to a lot of good music , which I will post about but yesterday walking to work I decided to revisit Todd Rundgren's "A Wizard, A True Star" (not as though his confidence wasn't as high as a kite when he titled that) . This album really needs pairing with the follow up "Todd" which I listened to and wrote about here.

This is another box of  of delights ranging from blue eyed soul to heavy metal with a Judy Garland cover from "The Wizard of Oz" thrown, into the mix. The cover gives an indication of what to expect, there is a lot for you ears to delight in . Originating on vinyl it is very much two sides of Todd Rundgren.

A Studio Magician

Side one is bookended by the gorgeous elctrified rock of  "International Feel" before directy running into a solo piano take on "Never Never Land", running through about twelve pieces from the throwaway "Dogfight Giggle" to the metal of  "When The Shit Hits The Fan" hetting a number of genres with , of course , no track breaks.

Side two is more blue eyed soul and not quite as manic as side one, but the gorgeous soul medley, shows his wonderful arrangement and musicianship a backing vocals anlthough his lead vocals not quite up to everything else but still worth the price of admission alone. Although more sedate this side still has a metal punch in "Is It My Name" before the big hopeful  finale of "Just One Victory" to play out with.

It's Friday so I will leave you with "Just One Victory" and I would suggest that if you don't have a copy of this album, get hold of it now , with a copy of "Todd". You will not regret it.

Have a brilliant day everybody.

You Want To Be My Friend?

I'm reasonably visible on social media and have a few followers on Twitter and Instagram , but sometimes get friend requests on Facebook from people who I have no apparent connection with, usually these have virtually no content of often are young ladies wearing beach apparel. Needless to say the delete button is employed.

 gratuitous fondling and handling at the #TynesideBarCafe

I got one from a Spanish Lady this week , and deleted , mainly because of no connections, but I saw she had followed me and in particular liked an instagram photo I had posted while in the Tyneside Bar and Cinema watching one of their afternoon silents , Der Golem but I thought it was Faust . I'd done a retouching of the photograph and thought it looked pretty cool. Ruth obviously thought the same . We are friends on Twitter but not yet Facebook friends.




So I know this is just a short post , and I haven't posted for a week, and yesterday was Beltane , so it's not as though I haven't had things that I could write about, but really it's just to try and not miss things because you become numb to the normality of events.

SO if you want to be my friend make sure I have a reason to be yours 

Have a good day

My Phone Is A Vampire - #36 - 1992 - Shamen - Boss Drum

My Phone is a Time Vampire

I looked at the clock when I took my Samsung Note 4 out of my pocket, waited while it did it's stuff , updating again , downloading , waiting finally pressed the first app and 3 minutes had elapsed.

I do like my phone , watch iPlayer programs and TED talks and read the odd book , plus check news , though I am thinking of ditching Twitter as I virtually never use it. But it's in the long list of apps on the phone that I never use.

Anyway be wary of how much time your phone actually takes.
Luckily I was boiling the kettle and making tea  while that was happening but I was thinking how many people just wait for their phone and lose that time completely ? 


Though I still use Facebook and Instagram is probably my most used social media app.

Anyway we're up to year 36 in the Odyssey and this was the year that KLF's Amerika - What Time is Love hit the charts , though I used it two posts ago , so I missed stuff from the Shamen's En-Tact , one of the greatest albums ever but have taken Boss Drum by the Shamen for this year's choice.

Enjoy the rest your Monday , this afternoon I go for some unspecified minor surgery .......

Festival Fun - Comparing Photos At A Fall Gig

The last four days have see three days of music and seeing about fifteen bands which is a lot even for me, although this is not so much about the music about various fringe observations , which looking back on have amused me , or made me glad I side stepped them.

On Thursday I went to see the excellent King Charles at The Riverside and all three bands were superb. I briefly spoke to the guitarist with Man Made who was a really nice guy as well as being a talented guitarist and it turned out he is Nile Marr son of Johnny Marr previously of  The Smiths. That night at the end of the Gallery Circus set something started dripping through the ceiling. It turns out the toilets had got blocked , so I'm not sure what was overflowing but we managed to avoid the wet area, and the gig was totally brilliant.

While I'm guilty of posting photos on instagram, facebook and twitter I am amazed how many people see to spend virtually the whole gig on the phone or tablet. While watching The Fall , who are musically challenging , there were four ladies in front of comparing holiday and family snaps on their phones and mobile devices, I don't know if this is the normal modus operandi for Fall audiences these days.

Comparing Photos At A Fall Gig

Yesterday I was in a crush to try and see Public Service Broadcasting, but my sensible head moved me to the sides to ensure I could breathe. I'm sure there have been worse concert crushes, and I don't know what the solution is , but people forcing their way into the crush carrying multiple pints in plastic glasses and various takeaway foods on paper plates did not make the situation any better.

I thought I'd try Tesco's next day wine delivery. They've farmed it out to Yodel , split it into two parcels and keep sending me texts saying it will be delivered today. No time or anything , so they will probably wait round the corner and wait til I have to go out. After all in in a twelve hour delivery window there's only one possible time they could deliver. God I almost sound like a Daily Mail reader don't I!

However today is the day when I find whether I've been chosen as a giver for World Book Night 2015 so my fingers are crossed for that. I've been doing it since 2011 and here's a post on my first one.

Anyway I came out of it all in one piece , having seen some amazing performance, and looking forward to a totally brilliant week.

An Apple A Day

Just noticed that Apple is my second most tagged item after Newcastle. While I love Newcastle , Apple I can take or leave, and in fact some folk think I detest Apple. I actually don't , but anyone who tries to get complete control of me in any way whatsoever, I tend to give short shrift to. So that includes , Google , Microsoft,  Sky, BT , Virgin, Politicians and almost everyone who wants me to follow their line.

Then I started thinking am I just whingeing on this blog? If you look at Twitter and Facebook the things that get picked up on are where people are complaining or laughing at others' misfortune, and that is no way to be, but is the may of the world unfortunately.

Social Media can be good or bad , I hate things like Fail Army , but it can mean that you can quickly encourage people and offer them support and spread good news, which is the way I always try t do something. I always try to make my posts positive and have something good connected with it.

So I'm going to have the Onion's Apple Device review on here, which is a fun ridiculous dig at Apple.

It's the weekend and a grey day but there are lots of ways to have fun, if you can read this you're connected , and if you're connected , connect with others positively. It will make you feel better and them feel better.

If something annoys you try and deal with it , instead of moaning, bring sunshine into people's lives and they will usually return it, and you will feel good.

Right that's enough ne age do goodery for today, I 'm going to take some serious drugs and continue having a brilliant weekend. YOU enjoy yourself , lookk in the mirror , smile and say "I am wonderfully happy" then keep the feeling up throughout the weekend.

Have a brilliant day everybody.

My Seven Day Weekend

Last June I did 35 posts , more than 1 a day. This June that's unlikely, but I will still be posting, and hopefully will have a few this week. Yesterday I ate at Scotts of Helmsley , just the standard fish and chips. I thought the portion looked a bit skimpy but didn't by the time I had finished, full and with great service and I would recommend them to anyone who is in the area for any reason. Helmsley is slightly odd in that I've been visiting for years and in all that time it has never had a chemist, which odd for such a big village.

Anyway I could tell you what I'm going to be up to but that would spoil it for when I actually post what I've done and where I've been (which does sound a bit ominous but it's not honestly).

Well this is the first post of this month and the weather is really nice , I've posted pictures on Instagram , Twitter and Facebook so you can look there.

So everyone enjoy the rest of your weekend I have a seven day one this week so that's why I have the New York Dolls on this post!

I'll Be Damned If I Just Can't Be Happy Today

Not me , but a heck of a lot of people. Last night I got a good sleep, and had a relaxing day , barring the chopping of logs for the wood burning fire. So many people are going round looking for people to blame for anything they can think off. I remember last year a couple of old guys nearly coming to blows in a betting over over who was to blame for the snowed off race meeting , the government or the council.

Similarly  you have the tabloids whipping the public up into a panic of weather , immigration, benefits , heath, whatever.

If you want to get retweeted on Twitter you have to tweet something bad or derogatory or a complaint, probably why I only have a massive 24 followers on my account mikeydred96.

The thing is there are loads of brilliant positive things in the world. If something goes wrong deal with it with help from your friends, it's what they are there for. So many seem to want to play the blame game , I prefer to fix things.

I look for things that put a smile on my face , and they are majorly abundant, although the major ones is people talking to to me and sharing good times. I just wish more people would do things like that. I am proud to have great encouraging friends all over the world who look out for me and always have good news for me and make my day happier.

So my message for today is , you sunshine people out there who keep making my day , please keep making mine and other peoples day, and those out there who play the blame game, try not to , look for something positive , buy someone a present , phone someone. So today I'm going to  post two videos, one The Damned singing the track that inspired the titls and the wonderful Simon's Cat. I am NOT a cat person but these cartoon are brilliant. Enjoy the rest of your weekend my friends.

Quietly

A POster From My Phone

Well this is the third post in a row I've done without a music video. No particular reason , though I am very tired as I type this. I've also been fairly quiet on twitter and and instagram has slowed down , probably because there's that that many interesting things I've thought worth posting about.

It's funny how if you want your post to be viral it has to be a complaint or an attack on something. The public are seldom interested in good news.The media always likes to find something to complain about, making it up if it can't find anything truthful. Some people are only happy when they are miserable and surely that should have been the title of a Smiths song.

Anyway, enough of misery, I'm just going to keep positive thoughts in my head and enjoy my weekend. You can be happy when you have time to yourself and you are in touch with people who make you happy. I always love a smile , although I'm not too good at doing one myself, but I do like to be happy and keep happy and make others happy.

I've included a picture and poem I penned on my phone, so no pen was actually involved , unless you include the stylus from my Samsung Note 2. So anyway have a great weekend, mine is just about to start ..... with me going to bed to sleep .

Stay cool

The Fear Of God

I always thought it was odd that the devil was the bad guy and god was the good good guy but sometimes he was painted as loving and caring and other times as the classic "dies irae" , angry , vengeful, and fearful . so we had to toe the line , go to church on Sundays and basically be scared of him (oh and yes he was a white man). The sequence in Monty Python's Holy Grail gave be a decent slant on this (where he complains about how depressing psalms are).


The thing is if a being is omnipresent and omnipotent then that being will not be concerned with human emotions and motivations , in fact if you can do anything , then pretty soon you would get very bored , well I would. Part of the the joy of living is the uncertainty if things and striving to achieve goals and not knowing what's going to happen next. Yes there are certain things in place and the sun tends to rise and the seasons are reasonably predictable (though still waiting for The Daily Mail & Express's ice ages and tsunamis), so you have reasonably solid foundations to build on when you want to do something.

If there is a god , and I'm hedging my bets by being agnostic, I believe that the god would want us to tho live our lives to the best of our ability, and be kind to every living thing. The insecurity of life is demonstrated in the TED talk below which I found difficult to take in just because of the concepts including the Higgs-Boson particle , and in a tangential move away the seasonal song is "I Smell Winter" by the Housemartins, which I don't think has appeared on any Christmas compilations.

Also the fact I'm doing a seasonal song a day and tagging it with Christmas , means that Christmas is now one of my most common tags on here , soon to outstrip Apple and iPhones! It's quite funny that some of my most used tags are about things that I don't particularly care about , a bit like on Twitter , where if you want your tweet to go viral usually it's a complaint , which surely is not what our god would want if that god were on Twitter.

Oh and I do follow God on Facebook here , he is very good and I can live with this God's existence. Have a brilliant weekend everybody.

I'm In Love With Rebecca Cother......

Well her wonderful paintings and images......

There's a lot of things that I didn't intend to do this wonderful day. Yesterday I visited the Divine Bodies exhibition at The Laing , took some photos which ended up on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Todays CDs

I went to Reflex and ending up buying 9 CDs of 50s and 60s soul and rock. I have a lot of the tracks but the collections looked so good I just had to have them, listening to one of them now. And rather good it is too.

The weather is still fantastic, and I've just remembered I need to design a card for my friends 50th birthday fairly promptly as it's his birthday on Wednesday.

Alan is scared of flying

Anyway  back to the lady in the title of the post. She's an artist as well and started following me on Twitter . I had a quick look at her website on my phone and was instantly enchanted by her wonderful images and paintings. Really they are beautiful and you can just fall in love with them , I challenge you not to. Some are funny, all are inventive and just beautifully presented.

Owl-Vis

I've took this couple of examples from her website which you can visit here, or her facebook page which is here. I just love all these paintings and in our twitter exchanges turned her on to the brilliant Kelly Richardson, who is responsible for som amazing installation art pieces.

I saw her amazing Mariner 9 at Whitley Bay's Spanish City. Anyway I promised Rebecca she'd be the subject of my next post and this is it. Go visit her site , and be as enchanted as I was with her paintings. Have a brilliant day all!!