Pen Pals

I seldom write to anyone anymore. I mean really write with a pen on paper. The closest I get is addressing CDs that I sell on Discogs.  I used to send postcards to people of places I visited, but now it's Instagram videos, which in a way are more personal and effectively instant but in some ways I miss putting pen to paper.

The thing is a letter or a postcard is closer to you that digital communication , but digital communication can give an immediate closeness that paper can't. Telephone is great especially with the advent of the mobile , and then video calling  can  enable you to share even more. My eldest daughter sent my dad a video message on his eigtieth birthday because she was working and couldn't make the party. While a birthday card is nice the video message really amazed my dad.

We have so many ways to communicate, but it is nice to write every now and then, and I don;t know if that is just me being selfish. There are lots of people who generally shun technology so pen and paper is the general default mode of long distance communication. We have had the telephone for over a hundred years so that has always been relatively immediate.

So maybe the song we go for is "The Word / OM" by The Moody Blues the closing songs from "In Search of The Lost Chord" probably my favourite of their albums. Yes it's pretentious taking in sixties hippie culture references but I like it and so I will share it with your.

I've also noticed there's a Children In Need Covers album which is on the strip below , which you can buy or just chip in at the web site.

True Romance

Today has been a quietish day meeting with my dad for lunch and hearing a lot of good music. Some of this reminded me of my favourite film of all time, which I still love watching the Quentin Tarantino scripted Tony Scott directed "True Romance" which in my opinion has everything, cracking soundtrack, amazing cast including Dennis Hopper as a good guy and amazing face off with Christopher Walken's Sicilian gang boss, Gary Oldman as an albino negro drug lord and a Mexican stand off to end it with and all this interwoven with the Christian Slater / Patricia Arquette love story, oh and Val Kilmer as the ghost of Elvis.

I cannot believe that I haven't mentioned much of this film in the blog, but maybe once or twice.

The theme that Hans Zimmer, "You're So Cool", borrowed from Carl Orff's "Gassenhauer" (used in "Badlands") constructed as a children's piece to be played using very basic instruments. It is one of my favourite pieces of music and off course that is what you will get with this post.

There was a lot more good stuff that I heard today but that will be fuel for my next few posts.

The blog has just passed 350K visits so 400K by the end of the year is a distinct possibility, and half a million by the end of March could possibly happen.

It is late and I do have to get back to Newcastle tomorrow, but enjoy the start / end mash from"True Romance" , it still gives me goosebumps.

Packing In Lollipops

Today has been a busy but relaxing day. My first goal was to photograph the Ribblehead Viaduct . The problem was that I had a thirty minute window to take the photo's shortened by the fact the outward train was ten minutes late then I misread the return time which knocked another ten minutes off my free time. If I didn't catch the return train then I'd have a two hour wait for the next one, and the distance to the Viaduct was downhill and probably would take twenty minutes so my compromise was to take photographs from the car park of the Station Hotel and from the platform of the Station which you can see here on my Instagram feed.

Secondly, on my return to Settle, I walked to The Hoffman Kiln which is a remarkably eerie experience to walk through. I haven't a clue what lime burning entails but it seems a huge physical enterprise for the production of lime. You can see my walk through it here. There's more information than I can tell you here.

Vinyl From SCAD

When I came back to Settle I visited the S.C.A.D. charity shop, and ended up buying three vinyl LPs. I don't need any new vinyl but there was a Weather Report eponymous album that I've never seen before, some Debussy (Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune is one of the most beautifully creepy pieces ever), Vaughn-Williams and Delius.

One of the things is this blog does enable me to share music with friends all over the world, and I love when I do mange to share something new with them to increase their experience.

Sometimes it's something you like, sometimes it leaves you cold but it can be like food, I am not a fan of most Thai food and am picky about sushi and it is the same with music.

So what should we go with? Well I have seen a lot of fifties vinyl, including The Chordettes "Lollipop" which is always good to share with friends.

Enjoy

Fireworks

I got up this morning for a quick walk round and get fresh air , and saw a fading rainbow over Giggleswick (you can see it here) which was wonderful but like many atmospheric events you have to photograph them now or else they are gone.

I then noticed the date and it's the fifth of November , Guy Fawkes Night

"Remember, Remember

The Fifth of November

Gunpowder, Treason and Plot"

We could do with Guy Fawkes today methinks ....

But that made me think of the song "Fireworks" by Blue Oyster Cult from their "Spectres" album which a lot of people put down for being too polished, but it is full of great songs and is worth having in your collection, I have all their albums and that is one of the stand outs.

Today will be a trip to Skipton to visit The Huntress of Skipton Castle Woods as I always do when I came here.

I know this is a short post but I need to be getting on my way to catch the train to Skipton.

Restarting The Wire

I've just restarted watching "The Wire" picking it up at the start of series 3, and it is a stunning series. My friend Nick had to turn on subtitles to understand the streetspeak though I have managed the first two series without subtitles.

Along with "Breaking Bad" and "The Sopranos" this occupies the pinnacle of episodic TV, essential watching for anyone who likes entertainment that stimulates and stretches your mind.

All these programs also feature impeccable featured music and an unusual feature of "The Wire" is that each series features a different take on Tom Waits' "Way Down In The Hole" as the theme song. The list is below and they are all here.:

• Season 1: The Blind Boys of Alabama 
• Season 2: Tom Waits 
• Season 3: The Neville Brothers  
• Season 4: DoMaJe 
• Season 5: Steve Earle

So we go with The Neville Brothers take as that's the series that I am watching now.

Late Again

For the first time since I can remember I woke and got up at nine am today. I am almost always up around six like clockwork and I know I am on holiday but that came as a bit of a surprise to me. I thought the older you got the less sleep you needed but that doesn't seem be the situation with me.

It is good to get enough sleep, and you need your sleep, it is not a good idea to do without. Sleep repairs the body and promotes good stuff happening in there. If you don't get enough sleep then it does affect you, although I expect it is different for everybody , but it is nice to be in bed and be able to enjoy the feeling.  The TED talk from Matt Walker below is extremely informative on this.

So a perfect song for this post is "Late Again" the song that introduced me to Stealers Wheel ( Joe Egan , Gerry Rafferty and band , the saxophone is glorious, I wonder if it was the same guy who played on "Baker Street" ) who I saw performing this on The Old Grey Whistle Test as a teenager.

Most people know Stealers Wheel because "Stuck In The Middle With You" was used for THAT scene in Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs", one of Tarantino's inspired musical selection that wonderfully litter all his films.

So I know it's Monday afternoon, and the fact I am not at work means I can write this and communicate with the whole world. That's one of the pluses of writing your own blog , there is no one to tell you not to do that, although maybe sometimes you do need that.

So watch the TED talk and enjoy the excellent Stealers Wheel song on this Monday.

Comedy (and a Smile) is Good For You

This is post #300 this year. Here is Post #300 from last year, which is basically a list  of reasons that I have come to love being in Settle.

I've known a lot of people who are only happy when they are miserable, and are always looking for something to complain about. The glass is always too full or not full enough ensuring there is always something to complain about.

You should always smile at people, more often than not they will smile back and then at least two people are happier than before you smiled. Smiling release endorphins and takes much less effort than frowning, so a smile will just make things better.

Share a joke, or in our digital world share a funny video, YouTube is full of things that will make you laugh, but sharing it with friends just makes it better. Smiling is good for you , search Smiling Benefits on google and you find articles like this

Now I wasn't intending to write anything tonight ,  but things happen and you just want to share and smile. Seven Days In  has had over 340K visits since I started it twelve years back and last month there were 43K visits that's about one a minute over the last month.

I wanted to use this to share one of my favourite songs , "Comedy" by Liverpool band Shack , which I play often and it always raises my spirits. So go out there and SMILE .

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