Showing posts with label Uriah Heep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Uriah Heep. Show all posts

Tuesday, 12 May 2020

Stream Girls


I'm not sure why , maybe because I'm a sexist , male chauvinist misogynist , but I find some of the phrasing and vocabulary of Lauren Laverne and Mary Ann Hobbs a bit grating and pretentious with "down with the kids" descriptions of certain musical pieces , however I'm OK with Craig Charles and Shaun Keaveny coming out with similar things.

It doesn't stop me listening to their music though , and they are far better that the dross available on commercial radio and  other BBC stations and today Mary Ann Hobbs had a guy on discussing the state of streaming. Now as you know I will not have anything to do with Spotify because it's an unworkable model and today I found out something more about the model that makes it even worse.

When you (or the person who's giving it your free) pays Spotify or whoever their monthly fee this is what happens. They take their cut and then the money goes into a big pot. It is the paid out to artists based on the the number of streamed songs they have. So what that means ids that you may have a a predilection for Egyptian and Iranian folk and listen exclusively to that music. Which is good for you but not the artist. Why? Because the money you may is split based on all streamings so if Ed Sheeran gets a million times the streams your artists get , then he will get that chunk of your subscription and the artists you listen to get next to nothing. So basically Spotify is even worse than I thought.

So a big , big thank you to Mary Ann Hobbs (and possibly Lauren Laverne) for illuminating me on this. They are extremely good and I can put up with the bits that niggle me. Here's my last post on the situation and to go with this I will share "Stealin'" by Uriah Heep , in my opinion a great record  with a vague connection to the situation.

Monday, 16 March 2020

We Dream of Magic


I know it's because I am reading "Weaveworld" by Clive Barker and just in the aftermath of another confrontation between good and evil,  Cuckoos and Seerkind . It got me thinking, but  magic is often defined by ritual and repetitive performances, and everyone has some kind of repetitive ritual that they do every day.

So did magic evolve from people doing repetitive things or vice versa. Also sometimes something unusual would happen before or at the same time as tings and become associated with the ritual. So you get lucky socks , they "two for joy" with magpies and many more.

Many people claim they are very logical and dismiss magic, but will still do things in a repetitive way that others could interpret as a magical ritual, such as being at a bus stop at a certain time and a bus appears. We know it's not magic, but take a person who was unaware of how our transport infrastructure works and how would they interpret it.

Often magic is just something that cannot be explained .. yet. That's not to say that certain rituals cannot put us into a state of mind which creates a positivity that helps us do things. People solve problems and it's best to have your mind in a good place to do that.

Also remember that most of the time new things fail, but the only way to succeed is to do things and instigate things, things don't just happen (good or bad).

I will go into work today and many people will tell me they wish it was Friday, I tell them they shouldn't wish their life away , find something to be positive about and enjoy now. I have plans for what is happening today including a doctor's visit and an email deployment and planning for a network test so I have plenty going on today.

So given the vague magic theme in this post I'll go with "The Wizard" by Uriah Heep (on Top of the Pops they did a kettle solo, and kettles are good for making tea and coffee which is always a good thing).

Friday, 14 April 2017

On Mortality


A departed friend of mine once said we now die because something wears out, once we get that sorted we become immortal, that was decades ago. I've just started reading "The Age of Bowie" by Tony Morley after finishing "Tom Waits on Tom Waits". When I first opened the Tome Waits book , the writing was so tiny that I had difficulty reading it. I actually found a solution which was ....

.....to remove my glasses and hold the book a bit closer, then everything became crystal clear. When I opened the Bowie book the print was bigger so is easily readable using glasses or contact lenses, the books have similar numbers of pages but the Bowie book is larger format.

That got me thinking that without contact lenses and glasses my life would be far more difficult. I wouldn't be able to drive, watch TV properly or spot things from a distance. We now take these things for granted but visual aids have only really proliferated properly since the late nineteenth century.

When I was a child, people died because they died, there was the odd time there was a reason but , mostly they jsut died, the equivalent of "natural causes". Now there is always a reason. The thing is, we are still all mortal, but now have a lot more support in prolonging and enjoying life, although unfortunately the younger generations have a shorter life expectancy that older generations mainly due to junk food and sedentary lifestyles.

Today's media promotes that you child is under threat from any number of predators, when in fact that has always been the case. I taught my children to look out for themselves because I would not always be there to protect them , and also they needed their own independence. In all the time we once lost Juliet for three hours (pre mobile phone days) . it turned out she was with friends in a house across the road. We just emphasised to let us know if she was going to do that again. Another time Kirsty phone me at midnight:

"Dad can you come and get me"
"Where are you?"
"I don't know"

It turned out she had fallen asleep on the last Metro and missed her stop. Luckily she was at Manors station, not the best place to be but it was within walking distance for me (no car) and two nice guys had stayed with her til I came for her.

The thing is if you look after yourself , and keep in touch with friends and family , life can be very positive. You should always do things that you want to do , and don't procrastinate. Anyway I could go on and on, but I kept putting off writing this because I thought it would be too depressing, and I prefer positive things.

Despite all the bad things the media piles on us, we are living in great times. We have so many opportunities to enjoy life, experience things, and do things , alone and together and if you do all those things you will live long and prosper (to nick a line for Star Trek's Mr Spock I think , but am willing to be corrected).

I think in this post to have seen a little of how my mind wanders. I was going to include many more examples but I think I've have generally got some points across, and am now returning to the book that sparked this off "The Age Of Bowie" and Tony Morley keeps mentioning "Supermen" by Bowie from "The Man Who Sold The World" , although I first heard it when I bought the Glastonbury soundtrack from Palace Records and Coffee Shop next to the old Public Hall in Preston (where I saw my first live gig Uriah Heep on the "Demons and Wizards" tour) and spent many an afternoon there when I should have been in lessons. Wildflower on Westgate Road has very similar atmosphere but these students just go corporate brands. I wanted to "educate" one I heard walking through Newcastle yesterdat who proclaimed loudly:

"Newcastle has so much choice.... Jamie's Italian, TFI Fridays, Frankie and Bennies, Costa, Starbucks ...."

What an idiot. I desisted though.

Anyway my mind wandered again and I will leave you with "Supermen" by Bowie , because that is want we can all be (I am using it as a generic term).

Enjoy Good Friday Easter Bunnies.

Sunday, 6 July 2014

777




This is my 777th post. I'm not sure where I expected to get to when I started, but obviously 1000 is in my sights. I actually started seven years ago, in 2007 and I did six posts i that year so the seventh actually occurred in 2008. The first post is here and the second was a piece I wrote on Krautrock which I pillaged so to blog would look a little more substantial.

777 7 7
Anyway the number seven seems to be cropping up quite a lot in this post , but Im not going to count words or letters.It's probably a number that some ancient Chinese Astrological Horoscopic Wisdom will tell me will define my life , or something. Oh and tomorrow is the 7th Day of the seventh month and if you ad the digits up that make up this year 2 + 0 + 1 + 4 , guess what ..... they make SEVEN.

It's quite fun the connections and coincidences you can find with relatively little effort.

Well no doubt some people will be in seventh heaven.

So there are lots of songs that have Seven in the titles and I was going to go for  "Seven By Seven" by Hawkwind , but then thought I'd plump for "Seven Stars" by Uriah Heep , the first band I ever saw live. Sleep well my friends and have a brilliant week.