May's Even

Well another day where I can't think of a homophone for SEVEN although I sort of fitted it into the post title. The only word I could think of are variations on the names Sven and Steven. So anyway this is continuing with the #maywriteabit

I'm enjoying the Christopher Brookmyre "Not The End of the World" but there are a hell of a lot o plot areas in there, and I was thinking about how long it takes to actually plan out a book be it face or fiction.

I remember an episode of Hamish Macbeth which I think was penned by Danny Bole where a hood was disposed of and his accomplices buried him in some remote spot and then a mobile phone started ringing. They all looked at each other and realised it was coming from the ground where they had buried colleague. The consensus was "Well I'm Not Getting It" . I think the whole episode was planned around that single idea. OK so how can this happen? I think the episode was "The Lochdubh Assassin" although he wrote twelve episodes.

I have thought of a similar scenario to maybe open a book, but as I've told you about the Hamish Macbeth episode it's pointless me including my scenario and i'll probably forget about it. I still haven't started to write a book, because I still haven't thought of what I might think of a killer idea.

So we are on the final working day of this week, and the weather is absolutely gorgeous again.

This weekend I need to mow my lawn and probably do some decent walking.

So morning music. Just because it came up in my feed and looks mad , we'll go with "Supernature" by Cerrone and "Spacer" by Sheila & B Devotion (who I always thought was Sheila B Devotion) segue / mashup , some late seventies electro disco.

May Seeks

I am still trying to keep the May homophone/homonym thing going as well as keeping in with the #maywriteabit project and have just noticed that the editor has gone back to the old ne which is better for me writing as it's more responsive. Maybe yesterday was a test run.

On an unrelated thing I've noticed that after I switch on my Google Pixel 2XL , it doesn't actually start until I unlock it for the first time. I suppose that may be true of most phones as most people leave them on 24/7, but I have started completely switching mine off at night.

On the homophone (words that sound like each other but are spelt differently and mean different things so for SIX (It's May 6th) I could have had:

1. Sikhs
2. Seeks
3. Sicks

.. and probably a few more, five was more difficult and by next week the homophone thing will probably be finished, but it is a good enough reason to write for me. I've written about homonyms before so maybe I am just repeating myself, and I will check that out later.

This is just a very short post on the Wednesday morning and I intend to go for a short walk. As I write this "Never(Lagos Never Gonna Be The Same)" by Tony Allen (who we lost recently and High Masekela  is being played by Chris Hawkins on 6Music , and it's a tribute to the late Fela Kuti, three great artists and Tony Allen drummed with The Good,The Bad and The Queen the supergroup which also included Damon Albarn, and Flea from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

So that is the song I will leave you with before I set out

May Flies

Well five days into May and I've run out of similar words to numbers and the blog editor has changed significantly, it looks fairly awful as it doesn't reflect what you are going to post , but there is a preview option. We shall see how this progresses, but it is very similar to the Medium editor which I used for a post on there yesterday. The new editor is very slow to load although seems to use the full screen, which means you seem to write more slowly. At this point in the editor I am just coming to the end on the second line of this post.

While this is in some ways simple in other ways it's disconcerting, part of the reason is that there was no warning that this was happening. Adding labels brings it to a halt , which is not good. It does amaze me that companies introduce things like this without testing, but then again it's free so I can't really complain. I have a hell of a lot of labels and they've changed it so you have search and select via a checkbox. I'm not impressed. 

I wanted to tag #maywriteabit which I have done, but I wanted to tag Bright Eyes as I am sharing the excellent "Persona Non Grata" but that maybe too slow, it's like going back twenty five years in the ability to write on the computer, makes you almost want to go back to pen and paper. I'll take that back you still have to check the box but the tags seem to be working Ok now.

So what else has been happening, I've hit series four of "Vikings" 1-3 had ten episodes apiece , 4-6 have twenty episodes apiece and there's a new one scheduled for Netflix. I keep getting "Update Failed" signs but not sure what that means either , maybe it hasn't saved. The preview looks OK though.

I'm just into May but don't think I'm going to hit my step target, though this coming weekend may change my opinion on that.

So here it goes , first post with new editor .

May The Force ...

.. be with you , those memes will be all over social media today and that's a good thing as it will bring smiles to some people and good natured groans to others. This is my fourth (I always wonder whether it's forth or fourth but it is fourth) day of joining in with #maywriteabit and I didn't think I would even get this far with it, but I have,

I'm thinking that my blog looks very untidy so may change the layout  this week, but my inherent laziness means I probably won't . I had tried Wordpress but that seemed very inflexible for me , but lots of people use it so I am in a tiny minority with that which my usual position.

On Friday morning I forgot to change my Contact Lenses (they are monthly ones) , on Saturday I forgot to put out my daily tablets (but did take my Insulin) , and the latter was because I got distracted by something else though just ended up sorting them an hour later.

On Saturday , thanks to this computer I didn't get to bed until two o'clock Sunday morning thanks to doing my first Sunday blog post and sending birthday greetings to four people on Facebook.

I listened to some records on Sunday Morning, Bob Marley and The Strawbs (who's name is apparently a contraction of The Strawberry Hill Boys) "Grave New World" (you can see my Instagram post here and the vinyl original has one of the most impressive covers you will ever see) and will choose one of my favourite Marley cuts (and there are a lot of those) "Small Axe" which is not one that's often played (or I don't hear it on the radio) so I will share it with you.

May Tree (May Free Too)

This is my second #maywriteabit post today although I think that's not quite in the spirit of the thing , but here it is. It has a convoluted title and if you read the previous posts yo may understand what I mean , though probably not. Today is a Sunday and for some reason I've been on a bit of a downer , though I haven't a clue why, but it's just been one of those days and I suppose the weather is a major contributor plus the general isolationism of the lockdown, leading to the situations where a lot of little things we used to look forward to we now don't have, however.....

.. when the sun comes out you get an immediately get a lift , or I do.

I'm reading the Christopher Brookmyre book "Not The End of the World" and that is becoming more enjoyable by the page, I like the quip when one of the protagonists Steff heard about the CFC (Christian Family Channel - your average Televangelist thing) he says  "Oh we've got a religious CFC and an RFC  as well (he's referring to Celtic Football Club and Rangers Football Club as he's from Motherwell ... somewhere south of Scandinavia.

..then, maintaining the "Scandinavian" connection, there was Ragnar Lothbrok's Christian Funeral in Notre Dame, Paris in Vikings , I was well impressed with his coffin too. So thanks to the internet and digital connections I do have things to look forward to , it's just sometimes you actually lose sight of things.

It also improves the mood when you hit some kinf of goal like my daily step total which has had a reasonable start.

I've also started watching "20,000 Days On earth" the Nick Cave film which, even though I've had the DVD for years, it took a showing on Film4 for me to record it and watch the damned thing, and very good it is too.

My technological incompetence still can't understand how data is transferred over airwaves, it's a bit like teleportation, is what appears at the receiving end a clone of what was sent? I suppose it is , so if I teleported would it really be me on the arrival pad or just an exact clone and how would anybody know.

Another thing is I use BubbleUPnp on my Kindle Fire to play music, it seems update itself at ceratin points and does not always reflect what it on the network, and as I listen to this the first Neu! album is playing, I think they are the band that initiated "motorik" which is an unchanging almost mechanical beat

And then I started writing this, so all in all , it's actually not a bad day at all.

So I will share with you "Negativland" by Neu! which my dad asked me about in the seventies , he said istarted with drills and then had a great beat. See what you think.

May Free

Many rears ago I saw a Two Ronnies sketch where a restaurant menu consisted of groups on fingle letters and characters , no words, to represent the food. The only one I can remember is MNX (Ham and Eggs) . I'm sort of joining in with the #maywriteabit project and was wondering if I can continue through having blog titles related to the sound of the date but  not actually stating the date. I think I will run out fairly quickly and also , this year , I was going to reign back my blog posting, but this is maintaining a one a day post for May 2020.

This year I've already posted more than I did in any year before 2011, which may be a good or bad thing.

I am posting at half past midnight so I am into Sunday and really should be asleep in bed. I've told people I'm going to bed but am still on here now.

Today I walked into town via Cow Hill and Exhibition Park and coming out of Exhibition Park there was a man walking his dog as I passed him on the other side of the path he shouted at me "Keep Away from me, the Police are rounding up people like you", I think he was implying I wasn't observing Social Distancing unaware irony that his fist waving was bringing him closer to me , but I was walking a lot faster than he was.

The other day I was walking and heard someone whistling and assumed the were calling their dog , a few seconds later I was nearly hit by a cyclist , why he didn't have a bell , or shout for me to get off the footpath (after footpaths are apparently for cyclists these days)  I haven't a clue. Whistling doesn't say to me "Get Out Of My Way , There's A Bike Coming" , it says "Get The Sheep In The Pen".

So what tune do we go with? Another that's been in my brain on repeat thanks to 6Music is "I'm Not Your Dog" by Baxter Dury, like his father but with some extra Je Ne Sais Quois  (hope that's spelt right.

May Too

My friend Rachel is taking part in the #maywriteabit project and is going to write for half an hour each day (unedited) for the month of May so I am looking forward to catching her post and see what she has to say and think in this lockdown situation. Her first post is here.  and his hosted on Medium and I'll add her to my favourite blog list on the right had side of this blog.

Writing can be therapeutic and blogging is good because you don't get shouted down, you may get ignored, but you do end up with a diary, which as long as the internet and your blog host is still going you will have access to it (I take regular backups of mine and often feel I am the only person who reads it ad after fourteen years I have six followers and fourteen comments, making me Mister popular although I get reactions posted on Facebook and Twitter as well but would prefer to have them on here.

It the past I have posted every day in May and was consideing #APostADayInMay bit the #maywriteabit is obviously going to be more widespread and not as committed to being a post a day. It's been suggested by Rob Bryher according to a Google search but I may be wrong on that , but I will tag all my posts in May with this.

So another song that has been giving me aural pleasure is "Overlord" by Dirty Projectors , a band who' s name I know but that's about it. but this song has been prevalent on 6Music and it's a great record. They remind me a lot of the band First Aid Kit , so I'll have to check them out further.

I'd not intended to blog a lot this month but that's four posts in the last three days so I'll need to keep an eye on my keyboard.

Enjoy your Saturday my friends.

May I?

It's May the first and I was looking to a Bank Holiday on Monday but the Government have moved it so supposedly celebrate VE Day , if they wanted that they should have given an extra day, but it's really to take it away from the political Left as May Day in the nineteenth Century it was chosen as International Workers Day although prior to that is was a Festival of Spring Bank Holiday, and like many pagan festivals has been apprehended by modernity.

Essential I wanted to share one of my favourite artists songs "May I?" also known as "Puis Je?"  by Kevin Ayers  and obviously "May I?" and May 1st look similar to each other.

The weather looks nice and I may take a short walk possibly to the Roman Temple just off the West Road behind the job centre as I haven't been there for an age and need a change of walking direction, although I may find it's a little too far but I will definitely visit over the weekend.

One of the problems with this lockdown is that lots of current things we take for granted are now not happening and we don't know if they ever will , no new TV , no sport, although thanks to digital media we have so much that we can watch if we look for it.

I've recommenced "Vikings" and didn't know that Paris was originally built on an island in the Seine (where Notre Dame stands) and didn't know that the the Vikings did attack Paris. My lack of historical knowledge means I don't know the outcome but my historical knowledge implies it wasn't successful.

That Other Song

As I get older I seem to enjoy sleeping more , and I want to be in bed now. I thought as you aged you needed less sleep, maybe that's for people who aren't working any more. I'm always impressed by people who play advanced games (I have a few on my Wii and Quake II is about my limit for FPS) and binge watch TV series (although tonight I did two episodes of "Vikings"), I don't see me staying up all night to complete series three and then zap through the rest. I have managed, at a leisurely pace four series of "Black Sails" , three of "Lucifer" all of "Parks and Recreation" and "30 Rock" and working through "Devs" as well, but Morpheus beckons.

I've been searching for the Lockdown episode of "Parks and Recreation" which is being broadcast tonight but I'm not sure where to get it (It's on NBC which in the UK I don't have access to and I can supposedly get it through HULU and Amazon Prime , but that's a task for tomorrow.

I got another subscriber on my Youtube channel (88 now) but I think why subscribe to me, I'm hardly prolific ofn there.

So because I want to share another song tomorrow, the song that was ousted by "Ooh La La" by Run The Jewels was "House Music All Night Long" a suitable anthem for these days. I know this is an extremely short post but it is time for bed , but enjoy this. The song is "House Music All Night Long" by JARV IS (Jarvis Cocker) and it is remarkably uncatchily catchy . Made me think of a school friends (Jon Ashurst - "Trash") opinion on Steely Dan "The word's greatest most boring band".

April Shower

Yesterday got a phone call from my practice (Thornfield Medical Group) telling one of the drugs I am taking should stop if I get Coronavirus. Shows the excellent service I get from them and why I have been with them for twenty years. I am going to keep on taking it but know if I get hit with the Coronavirus to stop the tablet (Forxiga) .

I didn't think I would hit my monthly walking target and normally I have a few free days at the end of the month , but I need to walk 6K steps today to hit the target , so that's a target hit although May may be a different kettle of fish as it is getting a bit samey and that is something that I don't particularly like when I go on a walk.

The last few days have been decidedly dreich so April is ending with showers.

I'm into the Christopher Brookmyre book "Not The End Of The World" (an appropriate title for our current situation) put was put off because after the large print of "A Shadow on the Wall" by Jonathan Aycliffe this is small and densely printed and I don't like the font so it looked challenging , but there was an interesting prologue and there is a lot happening in it. For some reason his style reminds me of John Niven , well in the same universe as hom.

I've just finished series three of "Lucifer" on Amazon Prime , although the final two episodes (which were after the series finale) were entertaining but a little disjointed, so now it's either Netflix but I have rejoined "Vikings" and have four series of that to work though.

There are two records that have could my ear while working at home, I share the second tomorrow but today the almost wrong doom laden  piano motif driven rap of "Ooh La La" by Run The Jewels, an absolutely excellent record.

When Did This Happen?

A couple of my last posts have alerted me to music because it was used in a TV series particularly "Come On Up To The House" by Tom Waits in "Orange is the New Black" and "Congregation" by Low in "Devs" . These are two recent examples but there are so many more and it seems to be that TV programs are one of the main ways of spreading music to the general public.

These days music means nothing to many people and even if they do listen it's a Spotify playlist where they skip to the next song after twenty seconds because they don't really listen. Mobile phone companies promote the speed of their network telling us you can download an album in seconds ... but it still takes forty minutes or so to listen to it.

There seems to be less music in adverts , or maybe it's me not watching live TV and therefore skipping advert sso missing the music, and when you get back to the sixties you heard music on the radio , Top of The Pops  or from friends or discos. I think there was a Cadbury's Fruit and Nut advert in the late sixties early seventies that used "Return of Django" by The Upsetters with Terry Gilliam inspired animation but I can't find the advert.

So that's where we're at and I thought I'd share before bed, and we will listen to "The Return of Django"

A Library ...

I've just finished "A Shadow On The Wall" by Jonathan Aycliffe which I wrote about in my last post here and like many of his books, you are just coming down from the relief of everything being resolved ... and then in the last line of the book you realise it might not be.

So I went looking for another book to read and decided on a Daniel Easterman and then noticed "Not The End of The World" by Christopher Brookmyre , which looks interesting and one that I had got from Barter Books in the old Railway Station in Alnwick. The book looks good and I can't remember reading it, again this is possibly my magpie mentality kicking in , buy or acquire and then forget about it.

A sad incident was when my mum gave two sets of impressive Encyclopedias which our family had had for years , to my younger (disowned by me) brother , saying she didn't want any books in the house because she didn't like them. My girls would have loved and used those books, but  sometimes things don't happen as you would want them to. I used them for schoolwork and research although now we generally have the internet which is brilliant if used properly.

I was then thinking , that because of my imperfect memory, I probably don't have to buy another book ever, there are some which I had forgotten about and many that I  remember which I want to revisit, I'm thinking "The Adversary" series by F Paul Wilson , six books starting with "The Keep" and finishing with "Nightworld" , plus various William Hope Hodgson , and these are all books I have.

Although there are bookcases round the house , effectively this is a small personal library, and the do look good but book are there to be read or referred to , but I often see people's books and big libraries and think "Have these books been read, or are they just there for show?" , and I know not all of mine have been read and I have slightly shifted my perspective to discover what I already know that I have.

I think everywhere should have physical books although I now put the bigger tomes on my Kindle as it's easier to read them that way , essentially five hundred pages or less , physical book , over that Kindle. There is a complete HP Lovecraft collection on Kindle for 75p here although for some reason individual books are more expensive.

Going off on a tangent I'm going to share a live take of the beautiful "Book of Love" by Stephen Merritt , but here's the Magnetic Fields take and a Peter Gabriel take from "Scratch My Back" which is stunning.

A Shadow on the Wall .....

I reread books I like, mainly because my memory is fairly rubbish,but many years ago I picked up a book, I think from a library clearance, a large print version of "A Shadow on the Wall" by Jonathan Aycliffe (one of the pen names of Denis MacEoin, and other is Daniel Easterman) , and he is probably my favourite authors in the Goth / Supernatural genre. The think is I am reading this and it has become obvious I have never read the book, even though it's been in my possession for probably ten years.

I've just looked on Amazon and there a few more of his books that I was unaware of, so my reading is probably sorted for the rest of the year.

I still think "The Matrix" is the most frightening book of this genre I have ever read , and along with "The Vanishment" and "Naomi's Room" are brilliant reads, "The Lost" is a slightly comic take on the genre but still well worth a read.

As Daniel Easterman the novels are more political / religion based but still absorbing and worth your time.

Back to "A Shadow on the Wall" , I am past page 200 (there are 264 pages) and I still haven't a clue what is going to to happen, and the main protagonist doesn't know what he is going to do either as people disappear , fall ill, and die as he tries to keep his new family safe. It is up there with is best.

A small aside is that Denis MacEoin apparently visits the Oxfam shop in Jesmond where I briefly helped after I left EE while I was at Geek Talent and before my present employment.

This week I have been listening to my fave Goth band Dead Eyes Opened and delighted they are back from the grave with a new song "To The Devil" which is available as a free download from their Bandcamp area and the video is above. Hope to get to see them again soon.

New Old Things

I was going to write that I was slightly sad or disappointed in something that happened, but then thought , no it's just the opposite , you have found another great thing that you were unaware of. I was watching "Orange Is The New Black" "40 Oz. of Furlough" (I think) , the episode where Piper goes to her grandma's funeral and her brother hijacks  the occasion for his wedding , and song was playing which I thought sounded beautiful but also the voice was Tom Waits.

There's a great line in the song (probably a lot more than this)

"Come Down Off The Cross, We Can Use The Wood"

While I have the album "Mule Variations" the song had not stuck with me, but it is a really wonderful song with some great lyrics.

And the point is , though "Orange Is The New Black" is not exactly essential viewing for me, it throws up some brilliant moments and is absorbing and every so often there;s an absolute gem like this.

The same is true for anything that is slightly out of your normal, try it , you may not like it but you may discover (or rediscover) something totally brilliant like this. Listen to the Tom Waits song and watch the "Orange is The New Black" scene, you may discover something new too.

Conference Pears

I've generally avoided Conference Pears because their skin looked ropey and the pears generally seem hard, and I'm not a fan of teeth breaking hard fruit but I got a mixed fruit and veg box as part of a delivery from the Grainger Market Delivery Service and the huge box contained, among other things Conference Pears.. So I tried them , and , surprising they are excellent and have made a new convert.

Juicy , sweet and firm , and so good that I got more today from a local shop. Very true you can't judge a book (or a record) by it's cover although a good cover can be tempting and in the case fruit looks can be deceiving , although once you have tasted it , you are happy to go back.

I just though I'd mention this, because the Grainger Market Delivery service is supporting local businesses and providing excellent produce, it's worth visiting if you are in the Newcastle area.

So it's late on a school night, what should we go with , I was thinking something relevant and the the song from Alex Garland's "Devs" came to mind which I thought was "Conference" but is actually "Congregation" by Low. Another case of me getting things completely wrong, but the series is good and so is the song and so is the stuff from Grainger Market , so all i sgood in the end.

Killing Time

I play "Words With Friends" since EA Games destroyed Scrabble on Facebook. The main killer for these is the adverts but it does sometime come in handy when you are not reading or working or waiting for a process to finish, but a game came up and was described as a "time killer". I can't remember what the game was , but there were a load of numbers on the screen.

It seems that one game is promoting other games to take up your time. I know people who are addicted to certain games and can understand how that happens. They draw you in and then start asking for money to get you a bit further on. I suppose it's an exercise in market creation but I'll play when I can for free.

I really don't want to kill time but I do enjo games that exercise your mind.

I never wish it was Friday.

Every day I find something to be positive about, something to aim for , something to make you feel good.

Today I have done my lowest daily step total this month, but due an active couple of days I am still ahead of the pace.

I've not written a blog post since Friday and I suppose part of that is essentially being tied to the house, although we still can talk to others via many communication channels , although today I feel I have been extremely quiet.

Working at home today I listened to "Concerts" by Henry Cow and "Casablanca Moon / Desperate Straights" by Slapp Happy both are excellent and saw me through the day , with the Henry Cow being a little more challenging. The Slapp Happy album is more song based (how pretentious does that sound) although very Brechtian in it's delivery and execution.

So obviously it's got to be something from the Slapp Happy album that I will share with you,  I found a live take of  "The Drum" which is fragilely beautifully wonderful. The album is well worth investigating.

Music While You Work ... at the touch of a button

One of the things about working from home is that I was listening to 6Music a lot , and my inherent laziness means that unless a CD is with reaching distance I don't play it , but I have an app on my Kindle Fire called BubbleUPnP that wirelessly links to my digital collection (which Alexa can't / won't do , in fact it won't even play the music I have bought from Amazon , every time I ask it says I have to use Spotify which I won't on principle) so I've linked my Kindle Fire up to some Altec-Lansing speakers and now can play music at several touches of buttons and screens (I love how so many things are sold "at the touch of a button"). Here's an example on my Instagram channel.

I've discovered that my digital collection is missing several of my Captain Beefheart album so I need to excavate them from the box that they are in to add them , specifically "Clear Spot" and "The Spotlight Kid". "Trout Mask Replica" and "Unconditionally Guaranteed" are on there but there are a lot that need ripping from the CDs I have.

I am torn between sharing "Grow Fins" from "The Spotlight Kid" (with it's four / five note riff and incendiary harp sound) and "Orange Claw Hammer" from "Trout Mask Replica" (which was an unaccompanied sea shanty style , but I have one with musical backing, which I will share at some point but I found one with Frank Zappa on guitar) so I can't decide so will go with both , this Friday morning.

Turn The Page

I am tired and wasn't going to write anything , but think I should write something, so may as well do it now and then maybe have  along walk tomorrow morning before work.

I finished "Behold The Man" by Michael Moorcock and it is short , but , in my opinion well done, stopping at a good point to make you wonder and think about the Bible and the nature of history and truth.

I'm am doing another revisit "A Shadow On The Wall" by Jonathan Aycliffe , a local writer who apparently frequently visits the Oxfam shop where I spent some time when I left EE and joined up briefly with Geek Talent before my present post.

Thanks to the lockdown I seem to be watching more TV but not getting as much walking done as  I would like, though I have discovered another excellent Post Office to despatch my Discogs sales. I seriously don't think I will hit 340K this month, though I am slightly ahead of my target at the moment , but the problem with walking is that it takes time, maybe I should attempt to run, but feel I am too fat and unfit to take up running, but walking is surely a decent second.

So really a piece of music to see me to bed, and what should that be, for some reason te song "Valerie" by The Zutons  came to mind , a great song ruined by Mark Ronson's Stars on 45 arrangement of it for Amy Winehouse, so you can hear the original and the best. I can't listen to the AMy Winehouse version , she was far better with her own stuff , and sadly lost talent.