Let It Rain

The sky is grey and it's raining. I normally like rain but at the moment it's a threat because I have an intermittent roof leak  that I have been waiting three weeks for the roofer to sort out. He's an OK guy but  not as quick to deal with this as I'd like.

I'm reading Matt Haig's book and one of the things we should listen to to relax and unwind is rain and waves, things that you hear but are constant but don't grab your attention but give your mind a relaxing bed to sleep on, it's a good idea. Youtube has some sequence of up to twelve hours of natural sounds (waves, rain etc) that you can put on and fall asleep to, check here.

When  I was starting to write this Chris Hawkins played "Sometimes" by James which brings up rain and waves and water in its lyrics and I will share that with you this morning.

I often go to sleep listening to lots of music, Brian Eno's "Thursday Afternoon" is wonderful because like natural sound there is nothing that grabs your attention. The night before last I listened to Alice Cooper's "Killer" and I got through most of that. Last night I put on three Weather Report albums  ("Heavy Weather", "I Sing The Body Electric" and "Mysterious Traveller")which is excellent jazz instrumental but fell asleep before the first piece had finished. I got up three times to go for a wee (I am old and diabetic and it was one of those nights but that is life) but each time chose a different Weather Report album and went straight back to sleep.

I think I will also include "Birdland" which was going to be my original piece for this, but we can have both.

#AprilSongs #3 - Wednesday Week

I'm under a three day Facebook ban for posting an Instagram shot of the art on the wall at No 28 (here and you can see it on the site link), this is following a ban a couple of months ago when I shared a link from IMDB for the Peter Greenaway film "Drowning By Numbers" (you can see the image I was banned for on the link) , this is because of the pathetic fact that some people can find offense at absolutely anything and while male bodies are OK, females are totally out of bounds and must be fully covered, how ridiculously puritan. So I can't link this post to Facebook til they let me on.

Also Google+ has been withdrawn with no alternative that I can see so I can't actually share this post with any social media platform, so this may be my first post that doesn't get read by anybody, because even if you follow the blog you don't get notified of updates.

I've woken up to snow, which is just what I want when I found that my roof is leaking.

But to the main point of the post the #AprilSongs and today is the excellent "Wednesday Week" by The Undertones, and while I thought they were a more than decent band (and John Peel had "Teenage Kicks" as his all time Number One record) that's all they were to me with the odd song that raised them above the norm and Wednesday Week was one of the songs that did that.

Pans and Pots

I haven't a clue what brought this into my head, but why do I think "Pots and Pans" rather than "Pans and Pots"? The logically alphabetical phrase would be "Pans and Pots" but I always think "Pots and Pans" which may hark back to "Shake, Rattle and Roll" by Bill Haley and His Comets.

I'm surprised that Bill Haley has not appeared on any of my previous posts (he mave have done, but he doesn't have a label until now), he was an unlikely figureheahead in the aerly Rock'n'Roll movevent, being a middle aged, balding, Western Swing artist. I must say I am still impressed every time I hear the guitar solo in "Rock Around The Clock" , a song featured in the film "Blackboard Jungle"  which caused teenagers to rip out cinema seats and riot. It was hardly "God Save The Queen" or "White Riot" was it now?

So here's another prime example of me going off on a tangent, start talking about how a phrase is said and finish up with punk and riots, which is no mean feat in around 200 words.

So the obvious song to include is the Bill Haley song that started this , "Shake, Rattle and Roll". I know it's only Thursday but the weather outside is beautiful if cold.

A Big Freeze

I don't know if it's me getting older or what, but the frosted white cars and rooves and the biting burning cold this morning just made me want to get into the warm again. As a kid I'd be wanting snow and would go out in a T-Shirt and make snow angels. That would definitely not happen today. Is colder or is it just because I am older and more susceptible to the cold. I really don't know.

Another unrelated thing is that we have a new security entry system where I work amd it makes a two beep or three note noise when you go through whatever door or barrier, and those three notes trigger a musical sequence from Jethro Tull's "Passion Play" every time I come in or leave. While I think "Passion Play" is rather good I could do without it playing in my head every time I walk through a security door or barrier. It's an almost Pavlovian reaction to the three notes and it just happens every time.

Last night Newcastle United beat Manchester City 2-1 and my local branch of William Hills were offering 50/1 for that result, but I thought it would just be money down the drain. It turned out that my actual bets were the ones that actually lost . C'est la vie.

The lack of cloud is what's driving the temperature down, though we have had no snow .... yet. So I think maybe I need to share a bit of "Passion Play" with you although "Frozen"by Madonna was a possibility as well as "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" by Bruce Springsteen, but we shall have a bit of "Passion Play" that is not "The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles" which I featured in this post here.

I Can Put A Tennis Raquet Up Against My Face And Prentend That I'm Kendo Nagasaki

It's a line from my favourite song on the Half Man Half Biscuit album "McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt" which was the name of three retired footballers called on to save a Football team in the "Golden Gordon" episode of Michael Palin's "Ripping Yarns". The song is "Everything's AOR" and will of course accompany this post.

It's my dad's 84th birthday and the older someone gets it's more difficult to get birthday presents, especially when his main hobby is working, although he has a penchant for post boxes and boxing. I decided to get him a copy of "There Is No Map In Hell" by Steve Birkinshaw which I bought just for the title and found to be an excellent book seeing what some people can force themselves to do against seemingly impossible conditions.

The weather has been incredibly cold and during January absolutely not conducive to walking although I have managed to keep up my target steps so I am still exceeding my million steps every three months and I will start February in Whitby so I am not sure taht will be a good or a bad thing. Whitby is great for walking but if the weather is not good that may discourage me from actually doing my required steps.

Kendo Nagasaki was a wrestler in the sixties and maybe still is but I remember watching wrestling on a Saturday afternon at my grandmas with Kendo, Mick McManus , Jackie Pallo and others too numerous to mention. It was all staged of course as it still is in the numerous wrestling francises going on today. The link to the Kendo Nagasaki (there are/were many) portrays him as a mystic an dhypnotist as well as a wrestler, so not a one trick pony. The tennis raquet gives a similar effect to the samurai mask worn by Kendo in the ring.

So that's my Monday so far ..... now what's yours?

905

The title is because I saw the time and it's the title of a dystopian Who song from "The Who By Numbers", so obviously that will lead this post. 905 was written and sung by John Entwistle who in my opinion was one of the greatest rock bassists, almost up there with the Motown bassists.

Since Christmas the number of hits per post have gone up slightly although I don't know if I have just been dropped by robots. I find it quite amusing that one of the main refering sites is an esoteric "webcam" site if you know what I mean. I haven't a clue why that should be apart from the same of this blog can be read as Seven Day Sin rather than the Seven Days In which is the initial "mission statement" of the blog which was to record travel, but is now just a diary with an emphasis on music, travel , tech and media.

This year I don't expect to post as much but I do intend to hit 2K posts so that means I need to still do 2 posts every three days.

There is still snow and ice on the ground and it is cold but the sun is shining brightly, and that is always uplifting.

So this is just an inconsequential and short Friday morning post as we speed into the weekend.

Back

Looking outside the cars are frozen up. I don't have a car, so I don't go through the harassment of scraping the ice off the windscreen in a morning, but it does make it cold going for the bus or walking in. This is where my full ear Emopeak headphones come into their own, as well as providing great sound, they keep your ears warm.

Christmas decorations are up and I do have one or two presents to sort out, but Amazon Wish lists are a great convenience.

Last few days I've not really felt like writing anything although I did want to write something to mark the Buzzcocks' Pete Shelley's passing and finally did that last night here.

This morning 6Music reminded me of the excellent "Thank God It's Not Christmas" from "Kimono My House" by Sparks so I'll share that with you before I trip off to work.

Spirit of the Age

I don't know if it's getting older , diabetes sided effects, our current grey weatrher, but at times I seem to be getting a little narkier when things don't turn out as expected (buses being late or not turning up, Post Office trying to deliver items on a work day in the middle of the day and not leaving it with a neighbour then offering a redelivery option to "my local Post Office" but not giving me the option to deliver to my local Post Office but only to a smaller one three quarters of a mile away, then the item not being there because they don't deliver til after two.

I know these are just situations caused by events that usually can't be predicted or catered for, and I just decide to calm down because anger is a wasteful emotion unless positively channelled (thinking Public Image Limited's "Rise", "Anger is an Energy").

As I've mentioned the weather is attrociously dreary, so not exactly inspirational so I wasn't sure I was going to write anything today, I didn't yesterday.

A propos of nothing I noticed a Tupperware contained of sliced cucumber in the work fridge, not the most appetising of snacks or meals.

Anyway "Spirit of the Age" was the opener from Hawkwid's excellent "Quark, Strangeness and Charm" so I will share that with you today. I love the concept, story and black sense of humour in this extended take on the song.

Foggy Notions

Walking into work this morning it is very foggy. On the sixth floor you can't see the river, or across the river. With th efog I immediately thought of "Foggy Notion" by the Velvet Underground and was surprised to find the Super Deluxe sets shown below. One thing the Velvet Underground were not is Super Deluxe. They made music that almost anyone could play but they set a template for a million garage bands with songs of three chords or less that could be quiet or noisy but always worth listening to.

The Super Deluxe reminds of phone and broadband companies pushing their superfast and ultrafast services. If it's fast it's fast. that's all you need to know. Same with film and TV with UltraHD etc etc, it's irrelevant how good the picture is if the story is rubbish.

Someone told me I had to watch "Taken" in HD, I recorded it from Film4 and watched it and .... it was just another Liam Neeson film with Liam Neeson being Liam Neeson. I had another friend who told me when you watched a certain sci fi film in HD you could see the space backdrop was a black curtain! I don't want to see that, I want to enjoy the film.

I have the whole original Adams Family on DVD, the picture transfer is appalling but two minutes ito it you don't notice because the script and acting is razor sharp,

So, it's Friday, have a brilliant day.

Fadely Grayley

Well today is another totally grey day, there's fog on the Tyne and the sky is just a uniform singularity of non colour. There's moisture in the air and thi sis the sort of day where SAD kicks in and there seems to be nothing to inspire you. You don't want t walk, because that's all you are doing, it's unlikely that you will see anything worth taking a picture or video of, and the weather seems to vreate that uniform winter silence.

CHAT Trust Phoenix

I did submit an image of the CHAT Trust Phoenix to MyTownPhotography  just because of the general positive vibes it creats in everyone, although taking a photo today would not have been good, so I'll include an earlier one to your right.

I've also got my House of Love / Thousand Yard Stare ticket so tomorrow night will be the first time that I have been to a gig at the Boiler Shop in Newcastle.

Yesterday I did manage my first #cookamealinaminute video which you can see here. It's for Jack Monroe's Chickpea and Peach Curry which will appear in her next book I believe.

I'm not sure which song to share with you, I was thinking something by Pearls Before Swine but couldn't find the song I wanted so we will go with "Grey Day" by Madness., which suits the weather.

I Smell Winter

There was a red sky last night , and one this morning, so I don't know what that means. It's cold and snow is forecast. I have a feeling that we may be in for some inclement weather. This week it has been dark and windy and not conducive to sitting out on the porch with a drink.

This month my walking has been excellent and I expect to hit the target by Saturday, so almost a week to spare.

I also  have been listening to more Bowie, this time "The Lodger" and again, I am finding it an incredible list, possibly "Yassassin (Turkish for Long Live" is one of my favourites but all the songs are excellent. I just can't believe that one person can be responsible for so much consistenly excellent music, but I am not complaining.

I took th etitle of the post from and excellent Housemartins song which seemed perfect for the time of year, and the video highlights the plight of the homeless and rough sleepers, and it has majorly worsened since this song was released and this video put together.

If you can please support organisations such as Shelter to help get people into accomodation.

I Was Going To Write A Poem Today

Of course I'm not exactly a writer, not even close but several lines came to mind and this is a snippet

Fat bloke on a mobility scooter

Wheezing as he lights a second tab

Moaning and coughing 

As he tries to hail a cab

The "Sorry Not in Services Bus" 

That almost mows you down

These are everyday things

You see when you hit the Town

I'm surprised I remembered that much, but I've written it down now, and these are the dangers of wandering around the Clayton Street / Newgate Street area on a Saturday morning.

I've been quite amazed how hot it was this afternoon almost like Summer had invaded Autumn like when Winter invaded Spring and Summer. As I say to people , Weather is Complicated.

Darkness is falling and the nights are drawing in though I'm not sure what tomorrow might bring, probably more good weather, which is always a good thing.

I'll leave you with "The Aubergine That Ate Rangoon"  from Hawkwind's "Astounding Sounds,Amazing Music" album, a bit of laid back mental music that actually fits with the #SongsYouveNeverHeard sequence.

The title is a steal from "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago" a title that I knew and thought it was a book or play, but is actually another song by Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band and was actually penned by Norman Greenbaum of "Spirit In The Sky" fame. So that's a song that I have never heard and may be sharing it with you tomorrow.

Just had a quick listen on Amazon preview and it's about an Alien Invasion and fairly close to a jug band versionSheb Wooley's "Purple People Eater" so I won't be sharing it with you tomorrow.

Sleep well my friends.

Red Sky

This morning looked out the back and the sky was a definite shade of red and deep pink. Made me think of of the "Red Sky in th emorning, Shepherds Warning" , although the sky outside looks sunny and blue with wisps of fluffy clouds.

Musically Jimi Hendrix's "House Burning Down" - "Look at the Sky Turn a Hell Fire Red" sprang to mind as well as U2's "Under A Blood Red Sky" which was the first U2 album I really liked all the way through paving the way for "The Unforgettable Fire" which was their first studio album to show what they could really do.

The 22nd was my sister Yvonne's birthday but for some reason I didn't make a blog post, which given that I am trying to hit #August50 gives me another one to catch up, but this is my 43rd post this month which equals the number of post I did in October 2015 when I did my #ALifeInNumbers sequence which was a sequence of fifty nine songs for my fifty nine years in which the sequence number appeared in the song.

Hendrix music is very sparse on Youtube but this Randy Hansen tribute is rather impressive.

It's the Friday before the Bank Holiday, have a brilliant day everybody.

And Now Blue Sky

After the rain of yesterday, and the cloudy start to today we are now starting to see blue skies with fluffy white clouds. So that obviously opens the door for The Orb's "Little Fluffy Clouds" which is probably thirty years old now. It is amazing how time has flown but that is th enature of the beast.

I also think about how, when I started this blog I would sometimes post two or three lines maybe fifty words. I do a few more these days.

One of the good things is that technology does improve over time, although it does allow us to waste more time using it.  This blofg for instance, a lot of people will see as a waste of time.

We can now wastch TV and read books on our mobile devices, as well as playing games, though I've yet to find Quake or Doom for Mobile, all the games are far to sophisticated for my capabilities.

Anyway this is just a short post towards my #August50 project target, so enjoy the rest of your day.

Clouds and Total Football

Looking out of the window and there is an amazing cloud formation overhead. Here's my nstagram post.

Well it looks like the site visits have taken another dive, c'estla vie. The last two nights I have gone to bed early and this morning I was wide awake at 2:30.

I had woken from a dream but the dream was very influenced by the book I'm reading Matt Haig's "How To Stop Time" which is certainly a page turner but the main protagonist is possibly the most depressing since Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant. Both characters have a heavy burden but it does become wearing in the way it's presented., although other charaters do provide the hope and lighter sections.

The rain has taken a break so I may be able to walk into work to day and listen to some good music.

Today is the first round of the Carabao Cup and Preston North End are playing Morecambe, and on 6Music Chris Hawkins has just played "Total Football" by Parquet Courts so it has to be that doesn't it.

Have a good day everyone.

Sheets

Probably a good description of the rain I've woken up to thi smorning. Not quite biblical but if it keeps up like this I won't be doing much walking, I didn't do much yesterday either but luckily Friday and Saturday I walked quite a long way. so still ok for August.

It is the 13th, it is Monday, it is raining the sort of day when everything doesn't seem exactly good or inspiring but it has given me something to at least start off this post.

One of the things with these blog posts is that it does allow me to share music that I either like or have eard and found interesting. One of the problems is that I only have a finite capacity to listen, but still manage to fit in quite a lot. I still haven't read and listened to Mike Nesmith's "The Garden" yet even though I had planned to this weekend. That is a record from my yeenage years that I completely missed. I knew about "The Prison" because it was the big box with a book, but at the time it didn't hold any pull for me, but having read and listened to it that has now changed., and I do want to do "The Garden"

This morning on 6Music John Hilcock played "Patience" by Gorgeous Bully which is rather excellent and you can find them here. Too often we always keep going to the past but we should always be open to new things., or life would be very boring, I think you should take a listen you may enjoy it too. Gorgeous Bully have been going for at least four years so it's another band who have past me (and a lot of others by).

It looks to be brightening up now, which is good, but now it's time for a shower. Have a good Monday everybody.

Visits and Numbers

Since I restarted this #August50 the average number of vists, reads or hits per post has probably increased by about 50%. I still don't get that many visitors, no one is going to ask me for an endorsement or product placement, and it may be just robots reacting to the increase in activity on the blog, but it's an interesting phenomenon for me.

The skies are still greay so I suppose summer may be taking a break, but I think that weather is just a very complex process. No doubt people will be telling us that we haven't had a summer again, even though we are in the midst of a drought.

Anyway this is an exuse to share "Goldrush" by Death Cab For Cutie from the album "Thank YOur For Today" which reminds me so much of something else but I can't remember what. I love this video which takes the Bob Dylan "SubteraneanHomesick Blues" lyric sheet format. So I thought I'd include that video as well.


Death Cab For Cutie was a song by The Bonzo Dog Band and I just found some out takes from the Beatles "Magical Mystery Tour" film of them performing it. So I've gone off on lots of tangents and provided you with three videos for you to enjoy.

Hope your Sunday is going well.

Precipitate

It's been raining during the night, which is a good thing. Still too heavy to walk in, but not threat of biblical floods here in Fenham. I'vewoken up fairly demotivated, and not even had a shower but think a shower will wake me up an dmakeme a little less lethargic .

ven if I stopped writing now this still counts towards my #August50, but I don't feel that I am going to make that at this moment in time.

I had some weird dreams including my friend Juli getting a bubble perm and suiting in it a large school hall where I was trying to take a photograph of an amazing sight through the windows of the moon and the eather next to each other shaded in blue, but I couldn't get a decent shot sho went into the field outside to get a less restricted shot and they had disappeared and all there was was a big blue IKEA like cube.

That is roughly all I can remember of it but I am sure it would provide some psychiatrist or analyst a bit to go one, but as Half Man Half Biscuit stated in "San Antonio Foam Party" which appeared on their excellent "Cammell Laird Social Club" album from 2002:

"Your weird dreams

Don’t impress in any way

In dreams

Weird things are mundane and everyday

Strange to me would be

Buying a loaf

And coming straight home"

Such is the nature of dreams. So that's provided a song for this post though there is quite a lot more music that I do want to share with you, maybe I will take a chance to do that later. Now it's shower time, the maybe get a paper, do a crossword, write a song

Enjoy the rainy Sunday my friends.

Electronic Deluge

Yesterday started so warmI couldn't wear any jacket to go to work, resulting in me trying to fit things into not very deep pockets ad hanging thing things round my neck, and finished with an incredible deluge wich you can see a little of here, I always think I'm at the highest part of Newcastle therefore immune to any potential flooding but Lanercost is higher that my house and the West Road runs down to that, so although unlikely to be stuck in a final flood, I'm certainly in it's path.

Last night was another early night as I was absolutely shattered (again). I don't know if it's the weather, or I'm run down, or the left shoulder situation is taking it's toll, or my body is just about to give up the ghost. This Thursday I have a Liver Biopsy so that's a day in hospital courtesy of the NHS, meaning I'm going to miss meeting up with my friend Paul in Whitby / Robin Hood's Bay, and have a couple of days recuperation as the football season starts.

I think August may be difficult for walking as four out of the first five days need to be taken easily and I don't want to risk causing internal bleeding, especially with the ITP that is always lurking.

This morning we have blue skies, the grass on lawns is certainly recovering so at this moment in time things are looking good.

There's just been an Advert on 6Music for Nemone's "Electric Ladyland" supposedly drawing together every type of"electronic" music, I must check this out but expect it will just be disco or rock with synthesisers, citing Kraftwerk as the inventors of electronic music while anyone with any knowledge of music knows that the first fully electronic film soundtrack was "Forbidden Planet" by Louis and Bebe Barron, and electronic music has been produced since a very long time back.

So we'll go with my favourite Kraftwerk piece, "Ruczuk", though from this live version you can see where "Autobahn" came from.

Precipitate

Unexpectedly (for me) it's raining. I was out at dinner time and was wondering whether to buy an umbrella or to plan a route back to work as much undercover as I could find. I plumped for the latter as I didn't see any umbrellas on sale.

The rain seems to have stoped so there may be a chance of mowing the lawn tomorrow, as it does look quite green and lush now.

I've noticed that when I type I often capitalise my second letters, maybe doing it too fast and another thing is splitting the last "e" of a word and starting a word with that "e". It's always the letter "e". Then sometimes I notice an oddly used word, and I am sure it's caused by some rogue autocorrect as I would have no reason to make such ludicrous errors, but go back through my posts and you will find them.

Today I moved on from the Velvet Undergound demos to the actual first album, and love it, although what I assumed was a guitar riff on "Waiting For The Man is actually a piano riff. While the demos are interesting this is the real stuff.

So I will include (once more) "All Tomorrow's Parties" with that awesome drum and Nico's gothic magisterial vocal lines carrying all before it.

It's almost the weekend so enjoy.