Wednesday, 5 June 2019

Spilling Wine with Lauren Laverne


Today while driving Lauren Laverne played "Spill The Wine" by Eric Burdon and War on 6Music. This is the third song this week that has been the main song in my blog posts.

I first heard this song from 1970, when I got hold of the compilation "All Good Clean Fun" and the music is recognisable as the War of "Low Rider" fame topped with Eric Burdon's perfectly matched vocals. I recently reacquired the vinyl record, although it also appeared on the vastly expanded 3CD set which is now fairly expenses but a great snapshot or the Liberty / UA (United Artists) label imprints from the late sixties and early seventies.

Lauren has been including a lot of great sixties and seventies music recently, mixing with excellent contemporary sounds on her show. One of my slight problems with 6Music is the semi stagnation of shows,  and the number of ex muso's DJing , but the result is an incredible mix of new music to discover with reminders of stuff that you have forgotten or missed along with some great fun and audience interaction. And really that is a good thing.

I wasn't intending to write many posts this week or this month but this is the eighth so far and  I only need to average ten a month to hit 2K posts on this blog since I started it.

Anyway check out Lauren and any other 6Music show , and you may discover something new or something you had forgotten.

Living Without Clocks


This is post number 1939 , 1939 was year in which my mum was born (four years after my dad who was born in the same year as Elvis Presley) . My mum was vivacious, full of life and very supportive and fun. She had me reading before I went to primary school and her and my dad always just told me to do my best, and that was good enough. There was no criticism when I just got 5 'O' Levels and 2 'A' Levels. We lost her in 1989 to a stroke and heart attack, but she is still with me  for her attitude and support thirty years on. She never saw the internet although was proud that I had inveigled my way into IT without the normal required qualifications.

So on to the main point of this post. We are always tied to clocks and time to catch buses, trains and planes , get to work and lots of other things. On this holiday clocks are not to the fore,although there are clocks around the cottage, there is nowhere I need to be for a certain time, apart from to be out of the cottage and get the car back to Enterprise for 11 O'Clock on Saturday.

I think of Catweazle who was confused as to why we lived our life ruled by timepieces. The reason is it gives us a framework to work as a big team, but it is great to dispense with that every now and then. It does relax you when you don't have to do anything or be anywhere for any particular reason.

i-toc
I was going to look for a piece from 1939 but Lauren Laverne has just put on "May You Never" by John Martyn on her 6Music show and that just seems so perfect for the moment.

Of the thing about whether it's the lack of drugs or just tiredness when I just don't want to getup in a
morning,this morning I stretch , got up , shaved , washed and showered, checked my watch, thought it said eight o' clock but it was only seven o' clock (that's my i-toc , that gives me a rough idea of the time) so it's not the lack of drugs, it's just that I'm tired, because this morning I am not tired, and was wide awake before I took my drugs.


It looks lovely outside , so another nice day awaits.

Tuesday, 4 June 2019

The Insidiousness of Social Media In The Middle of Nowhere


Well essentially I am badmouthing Facebook on this one as I thought there's no harm in installing EA Games' Scrabble via the Google Play Store on to my phone so I can still play Scrabble. I then asked for my Facebook id which is my email address, so I put that in. Next thing I get an email saying "Welcome Back To Facebook, Your account has been reactivated as you signed into Scrabble".

Oh Really?

Well Facebook or Messenger  is not on my phone, and I have a feeling it will never return now. I may access it again via computer at the start of July, but I am not really missing it much and certainly no one is missing me. That might sound a bit pouty, but I have over 400 Facebook friends, it would take a while for me to notice anyone disappearing and if someone disappears and you don't know any of their contacts then that's it , they are gone and despite the insidious ubiquity of Facebook, most people don't actually use it.

I've just checked but not logged in and there are 39 updates against my Facebook login, I would deactivate it again but have a feeling that as soon as I use Scrabble it would reactivate.

So the holiday cottage "Honeysuckle Cottage" in Oswaldkirk really is in the middle of nowhere. There are no places to socialise or meet or shop within walking distance. Add to that most roads round here don't have footpaths, and also there is nothing really worth seeing apart from the views of the hills and the moors, and there in lies the reason for staying here, it's a perfect place to relax. It has wifi and a TV with a million Freeview channels so it's hardly cut off . The cottage is booked through cottages.com via Top Cashback to get 5% back

While I've always liked Joan Jett I have never taken to her version of "I Love Rock'n'Roll" but on 6Music today I heard "Bad Reputation" which is rather good, so I will share it with you and Facebook , has a bad reputation as far as I am concerned.

Missing ... Not Missing


This morning I switched on 6Music and an excellent take on Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" was playing. I was surprised because it was on Lauren Laverne's show and she is usually techno heavy, so I assumed it must be a modern song, but no, it was by Them and I had recognised the voice of Van Morrison.

So what am I really missing from Facebook? Playing Scrabble, seeing what friends are up to photowise (but I do catch a lot on Instagram) and posts from God (but again I catch a lot on Instagram)., also there's a few pages / groups that I share and update but a thirty day rest won't harm them.

I have a feeling the Feedburner effect is tailing of a little but I am still getting 1,300 hits a day so I thing that June should see me hit  40K in June which is fairly startling as I haven't really done anything different.

Today is meant to be grey and showery although it did start off very sunny, and , as yet, there's been no rain so fingers crossed.

So I will leave yo with the piece that I first heard this morning, "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" by Them. Have a good Tuesday everybody.

Monday, 3 June 2019

Fatigue and Observation


I had a dream last night but it's virtually disappeared from my memory as dreams tend to do. I've just noticed that this laptop keyboard has direct accented letters like á and é which are activated by pressing the letter with the alt gr key.

Anyway I was wondering if when I wake up in a morning and feel I want to go back to sleep, is it because I haven't taken my drugs, or because I am just tired. I know sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of the night and be wide awake. I once heard a story about a man who was unable to drive until his wife had given him is drugs. That just sounds wrong to me.If you have not got control of yourself then you should not get behind the wheel of a car. As a diabetic I have to check blood sugar levels every two hours while driving but that is in my control. If I ever was into a situation where my condition affected my control then I would not drive again.

The other thing is that when I got into the sower this morning, the door wouldn't close. I thought the rollers are screwed which the doors run on, but couldn't see anything blocking them. I pondered what it could be then looked up and saw the shower room mat hanging over the top, which of course was stopping the door from opening.

It's post number 1936 and from 1936 we have the excellent "Let's Face The Music and Dance" by Nat King Cole with a video featuring Fred Astaire, Rita Hayworth , Ginger Rogers and E. Powell dancing to Billy May's arrangement.

Enjoy on this gorgeous Monday morning.

Sunday, 2 June 2019

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.

Saturday, 1 June 2019

A Facebook Holiday


I'm on a thirty day Facebook ban. I checked their Community Guidelines and have not transgressed any for my last two bans, but Facebook can interpret the guides any way they want, they can always say it's sexual whether it is or it isn't. It's their club so it's their rules.They don't even tell you what the problem is, it reminds of the Monty Python sketch where the guy gets a coffee table nailed to his head for transgressing the "unwritten rule", almost Kafkaesque.

My main problem is that you are stopped from any kind of response to anything including via Messenger so people think you are ignoring them. So I think that the best option is account deactivation then reactivation after the ban is finished. To be quite honest I don't think anyone will notice I have gone so that may influence whether I go back to Facebook.

I am very happy that Liverpool won the Champions League Final though the match was hardly a classic. So this is post 1934 so what song can I share with you from that year. Well "Honeysuckle Rose" by the excellent Fats Waller fits the bill, and I think it's an excellent song too.

Another Facebook Ban


Well it's the first day of June and I start with a thirty day Facebook and Messenger ban for sharing my friend Sophia's Tattoo Page picture of a sternum tattoo (see here) with another friend who had posted one that she had had done. Facebook bans are pathetic and inconsistent but there is zero I can do about it apart from stop sharing and stop posting because they can deem anything not acceptable, and person A can post something and person B can be banned for sharing it. There needs to be consistency, but my thought on the ban which I set down here still stand.

I often use Messenger to communicate but the ban holds on that too , so people who message can't be replied to.

Anyway less of that, it's the first of June, a gorgeous day, we have the Champions League final between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool in Madrid which hopefully will turn out as good as the second half of the Europa League Final between Arsenal and Chelsea.

This is post 1933 so keeping the lear connection I'll share "Lazybones" by Hoagy Carmichael from that year, as this has been covered many times, and it's just a song I remember from a cover in the seventies which I think was by Jonathan King. After he was disgraced like Gary Glitter I was in liverpool and the Caver Club has a brick wall with the names of all the acts that have appeared ther, but there are two highlighted bricks that say Jonathan King and Gary Glitter have been removed. They should have just removed them and said nothing.

The blog passed the 200K mark last night so still getting lots of visits , which is not bad considering I have only four subscribers. I do wish some of my 400 Facebook friends would subscribe so that when I am banned or finally leave they can still see what I am up to.

Anyway have a great day.

Friday, 31 May 2019

To Buy or Not To Buy


... that is the question, I was thinking about getting a Google Pixel 3A and then I thought "What will it give me that I don't already have?". The onboard memory is double that of my Pixel , but that is really a minor thing. It may have better battery life, a faster processor and better cameras, but the reality is that it will not tangibly improve my life. I still miss the Samsung Note Stylus, but I am not paying a grand to be able to use a dedicated stylus every now and then.

Whether it's age or just being sensible I think for the foreseeable future I will just keep my current phone on my SIM Only plan.

It's like the roll out of 5G, seriously what do I need that for. I can see it's uses in a large scale or industrial environment, but for personal users the benefits, again, don't really affect you or me.

I've just finished Stephen Fry's "Mythos" and absolutely loved it and am following that up with Neil Gaiman's "Norse Mythology" which I am sure I will enjoy , being a fan of almost all mythologies, and I got into them at School not through Stan Lee's comics (that is not a dig at Stan Lee, just me showing my age).

The blog is set to hit 200K page views tonight, which is an unexpected surprise due to Feedburner helping me to hit 20K views this month. I really didn't see that one coming. Also I was only intending to do about 15 posts this month to hit 2K posts since the blog started, but I have manged to post 32 times this month.

A Sudden Surge on Seven Days In
Given that the post numbers are now corresponding with the years of our current timestream, I thought for the next ninety posts I could use a piece of music from the corresponding year. This is post 1932 so we'll go with the Cole Porter song "Night and Day" from "The Gay Divorcee" performed by Fred Astaire. I bet you weren't expection that. Although the first time I heard this song it was John Peel playing Tuxedomoon's take on it.


Thursday, 30 May 2019

Focus On The Good


Working from home yesterday which meant I could listen to whatever music I wanted , although I did end up listening to 6Music for much of the afternoon. The issue with the Garden Waste payment was dealt with when I phoned Newcastle Council to tell them their site was down. They came back with the evergreen excuse "Oh You Know, Computers". I didn't bother pointing out that that you shouldn't make something public when it doesn't actually work, I then paid over the phone and that did work (hopefully).

Focus On The Good
Anyway I saw a post from my Facebook friend Raul Kohli (The Newcastle Brown Male, brilliant comedian) which was a short piece by Scroobius Pip eulogising appreciating the good  rather than going on about the bad. Too many times people just whine and moan about things, but while you have to deal with the bad, it should not become the main point of your life, although I see lots of people who are not happy unless they are miserable ad have something to complain about. I suppose the phrase "A Pessimist is Never Disappointed" does hold true.

This means I finally worked out a title for this post, and it's really to give priority to the good things in like like friends and family, socialising , music, theatre, film and good tv, and good food.




If you do focus on the good things in life it makes it easier to deal with the less savoury aspects of it. I've said it before that I always look for positives in disappointing situations. You miss your bus, it means you can walk to the next stop and get a little fitter. Though I know people who then say "What if it's raining?" or "What if it means you'll miss your train?" , to the first I would say stay under the bus shelter or run to a bus shelter, to the second I would say you should have caught an earlier bus.

You can always find fault with any situation, look to find the positives of you situation and build on them. I've included  "A Letter From God To Man" by Scroobius Pip which gives a little food for thought.

Stay Happy.

Wednesday, 29 May 2019

Thwarted


I'm giving the Laptop update attempt a rest, the guy is comping to fix the roof link later and the weather is good. I also decided to pay for the Garden Waste Collection for this year found the site and it told me to follow a new link if I was renewing. The new site is a beta site that doesn't work, so I thought I'd try the normal way. It told be I can't because I have paid before (last year).

It does amaze me the sheer volume of online idiocy who's normal excuse is YOU (the customer) must be doing something wrong. I don't know if  I've just become immune to it or what , but I just feel it's another example of the idiocy and buffoonery profligate in our world today. This is the page and the new link is at the bottom, but it resides here. It may work when you try this or they may change it on the live page to a live address.

I also woke up very early and couldn't get back to sleep and now feel tired, but I am showered and dressed and ready to get off to work, so no real option to go back to sleep, also I have a piece of work to do using my three screens at work before I work from home this afternoon.

So really what better song to share than "Gardening At Night" by REM, which I first heard when I bought the album "Epobymous",  who I've never featured in a post before which surprises me, Enjoy your day.

Tuesday, 28 May 2019

A Laptop Stole My Week


I am still trying to update the laptop to Windows 10. This is basically because the software I want to run on it won't run on Windows 8. It seems that every time I get past one brick wall there is another one waiting.

Added to that the leak in the roof is still there, I tried getting into the rook but my biggest ladder is not long enough so, I've ordered a longer ladder although hopefully the roofer will turn up and sort it out this afternoon.

The skies are very grey and it is frustrating not being able to get into the roofspace , but the new ladder should help with that. Water is very insidious, yes we need it to drink and clean but it can find it's way through the most unexpected paths.

The laptop had some software updates which I applied and apparently there are 619 issues for it to fix, if I pay £27 for software to do him. I feel this is, to say the least, underhand Toshiba.

So I am still in this limbo , though I am sure I will I will eventually get my way with it. As I say if Cars and Washing Machines were like computers no one would drive or wash anything. I don't know where the "Limbo" thought came from but it gives me a chance to share "Sitting In Limbo" by Jimmy Cliff.

Monday, 27 May 2019

A Laptop Stole My Day


I bought my dad a laptop for his 80th birthday. He virtually never used it, so I bought him a tablet and he gave me the laptop back. He likes the tablet, it's easy to use though he's still getting to grips with the concept of wifi, but he likes using ing to watch youtube videos and research things via Google. So far so good.

I was going to sell the laptop but the battery was dead, which means I can't really sell it. A new battery will cost £20 - £40 and I could maybe get £50-£60 for the laptop. Then I thought I only use laptops plugged in , so I could make use of it, then I thought get my guitar interface and keyboard and this could be the studio. It's a 64 bit operating system, and was thinking it looked slightly strange. Ut was because it's Windows 8.1 . So I thought simple, just upgrade the Windows 10 then it's the same as my desktop and other laptop. No problem.

That was about twelve hours ago and I am still trying to upgrade to Windows 10 and it keeps getting into a loop searching for updates. There is nothing worse than something looping when you cannot break the loop. This is similar to the incident in March with an unexpectedly lengthy update that I documented here.

I am still attempting to do this upgrade, and each try takes a long time. I have nearly written a few songs while this has been going on, but as the laptop is going to be my recorder they have flown off into the ether. I was playing along with songs on the radio including "Isis" by Bob Dylan, then sat and played the guitar solo from Thin Lizzy's "Emerald" and still I came nowhere near having a recorder.

So we have just passed midnight and slipped into the Bank Holiday Monday and the upgrade is going along with no sense of urgency whatsoever and I am hoping for success but feel that I will hit another brick wall. It is now of the "Checking For Updates" sequence and this is where it keeps failing although I have taken precautions to try and circumvent this situation. Things should just work. I always say that if Washing Machines and Cookers were like computers we would never cook or wash anything.

And it looks like it has stuck once more.

So what do I leave you with, well Thin Lizzy's "Emerald", the penultimate song from the album "Jailbreak", is one of their finest moments so we will go with that.



Saturday, 25 May 2019

Still The Same and Ghostbusters is Great


I wasn't going to write a post today, intended to give it a rest as I am absolutely shattered, and want to go to bed, but also want to be sure that I will go to sleep. This afternoon I finished watching series two of "Black Books" which is consistently anarchically funny and tonight watched the reboot of "Ghostbusters". I was surprised and the remarkably low score it gets on IMDB but that is the power of white men scared of women with the ability to cast a digital vote. I mean women can't do what men can do can they? The answer is a resounding YES THEY CAN. There is no place for misogyny full stop.

I suppose the complaints about the final series of Game of Thrones is similar but is probably more triggered by the fact that Game of Thrones has now ended, so pedants can pick over plot holes rather than enjoying the amount of brilliant moments throughout the final series. You had two amazing battles , with buildups and then the fallout from those battle, and an anything but expected ending. At least it didn't go on for an hour like "The Return of the King".

The original "Ghostbusters"  is great , the reboot is brilliant and funny and I love it. The complainants are the same numpties , gammons and male "supremacists" who went mad over Jodie Whittaker becoming Doctor Who. We would probably get a similar reaction for a non white Doctor Who , but let's face it, Whoopi Goldberg and Samuel L. Jackson would be fine to fill those boots. Anyway, I'll say it again, "Ghostbusters" is great.

This post was just to note that I am still getting  over 1.2K hits per day, and there are still five recent posts in my top ten all time posts. The only problem sort of being is that posts over the last month are still getting hits, the last one that is not get hits is the one about the Facebook Ban here.

So because I have always loved the theme to the original "Ghostbusters" I will go with that, because the Ray Parker Jnr song is still cool and fun.

Friday, 24 May 2019

I Played A DVD


I am definitely becoming lazier and lazier. Also while I have a large CD and digital music collection, there are big chunks of it I have never heard and probably never will. It's similar with DVD. This week I have actually taken the DVD from it's place on the shelf, switched on the DVD player and switched the channel on the TV and actually watched  the films. The two I watched were "The Golden Compass" which was excellent but has been on the shelf unplayed for ten years, and "Fight Club" (adapted from Chuck Palahniuk's novel) which has been there for even longer. Both these films are excellent, and I should have watched them years ago, but apathy and laziness has meant that despite knowing how good these are ("The Golden Compass" was the film of the first book in Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series which is coming on TV from HBO and BBC).

I don't know if this is just a digital malaise, because my vinyl collection is always played when I purchase anything and I often share things on my Instagram Channel , but when you buy digitally it is so easy to put it on one side for later, and after a week or so it's forgotten about. If anthing gets put in a box or a drawer then thats usually it. I still listen to music digitally from my network and on my phone, but still eschew streaming services such as Spotify or Amazon as to use them without wifi means that your data gets consumed fairly quickly, so I load albums from my network to my Google Pixel which I may upgrade to a Pixel 3A in the future.

So one of the good things of being in the digital world is that I can share suitable music with you as I post entries on this blog, but I do think digital storage has turned us into magpies , buying things that we don't actually use or properlay appreciate. With that I will share "Digital" buy Joy Division with you with an excellent video taken from the equally excellent film "Control".

Thursday, 23 May 2019

Snackwallahlicious


Over a month ago I wanted something quick for lunch and decided to go for a KFC because it's quick and cheap, then I remembered that there was an Indian Streetfood place in The Grainger Market that I had seen flyers for and walked past and thought I would maybe give it a try.

My first meal was a Mixed Platter  which I can't really describe but for three pounds it was full of textures and flavours that were a definite reason to go back, and it was extremely good value for money.

The following time I tried their daily curry whicgh for four pounds gives you a nutitious and tasty dish of rice , dahl , curry and roti. The food is also vegan which is another plus, although I am not vegan myself.

My problem, or rather not a problem but since that date this has been my lunch three days a wek. I look at other options and think maybe I will spread my custome around but there are these points that always come up when I am looking for something to eat.

  • It's quick
  • There is a great choice
  • It changes on a daily basis
  • It's great value for money
  • It's good for you
  • It's vegan
  • The people are really helpful and friendly
  • They pay their staff a decent wage
  • Everything they use is recyclable so very environmentally friendly
  • It tastes great

And that is why Snack Wallah is getting so much of my cuntom. I do go to other places but this ticks so many boxes it is ridiculous.  If you visit the link you can see the gorgeousfood they serve on a daily basis.

You can also eat your food there or take away. I am a great fan of not eating at work so that is another plus for me.

It is situated in the Grainger Market so it's in the centre of Newcastle and very easily accessible.

I don't think this will be my last post about them and there are a lot of posts on my Instagram feed such as today's meal here.

I may be there tomorrow as well but maybe I will resist, but probably not.

Also I tried to think of a relevant song and settled o the really not very relevant "Hungry Like The Wolf" by Duran Duran.

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.

Wednesday, 22 May 2019

Expectations


Last month I expected to get 30-50 hits per day on the blog with maybe 20-30 for each post. At the end of April Feedburner seems to have somehow picked up the blog and now I am expecting more that a thousand hits a day. That's a twenty to thirty fold increase but I am now expecting that. I personally have done nothing knowingly to casue this, and I don't know if it's a temporary or a permanent thing , so I am just appreciating the attention while I am getting it.

I had never heard of Feedburner and in theory if I start getting too many hits I may have to look at self hosting rather than using the blogger.com platform (which I believe is part of the Google Empire.

Recent post visits are in the multi hundreds so hopefully one of them will depose the "Buying Lion Pooh At Dobbies" post from 2009 which has been at the top of  my posts for years although in reality the top one is "Devon - Record Shop Heaven" from 2010 which is far more relevant to my main blogging areas.

So what should I share with you today. Given we're talking about numbers, maybe I should share my most visited Youtube slideshow which features Christopher Lee's take on the Paul Anka song "My Way" probably more familiarly heard by Frank Sinatra and Sid Viocious.


Tuesday, 21 May 2019

Forget It ... Lets Burn Kings Landing


Tonight I have watched a lot of TV but then thought it's time for bed, then suddenly remembered I had a delivery from Tesco as they were offering 25% off wine and it meant I could order sparkling water as well, so it means I won't have to cart it back from a local supermarket in my rucksack. That isn't really a problem and it does stop you buying to much , a maximum of four bottles instead of the fifty that came tonight.

It seems that Feedburner is keeping up the hits on the blog, at the moment 1,200 so far today, when I was lucky to get maybe 1,500 a month. I'm not complaining about it, maybe someone might leave a comment if these aren't actual robots.

Lot's of people have been complaining about the end of "Game of Thrones" but I thought it was fine, if a little rushed and now we have "Lord of The Rings" and "His Dark Materials" to look forward to.

It is stunning the amount of television that we have at our disposal, and these days we don't even have to record it it to watch when we want as we can stream it. I actually watched a DVD of "The Golden Compass" tonight and very good it was. Lee Scoresby was inspired by William Scoresby who's house I pass every time I stay in Whitby.

Someone soundtracked the burning of Kings Landing with Metallica's "For Whom The Bell Tolls" but it is rather pedestrian metal and didn't do it for me, I was sure I could find a better soundtrack. I didn't have to do anything, someone had shoehorned "Hells Bells" by Ac/DC onto it and that's what I will leave you with, best seen on a big screen and turned up load.