Getting Older #1

Just a few thoughts on aging and the difficulties some people seenm to have with aging and the ease with which other people take in in their stride:

• You can do nothing about getting older
• If you are losing you hair shave it off don't wear a toupee or have a comb over
• When My uncle left school when he was 15 and got a job I thought he was old
• When my dad turned 50 he refused to let anyone mention his age , he's now 78 and going strong
• When I turned 18 I was scared of hitting 21
• I didnt get asked how old I was in a pub til I was 18 , I'd been drinking since I was 13
• When I hit 21 , I never thought I's make it to 30
• One my cousins turned 65 on his 16th birthday
• Someone once remarked that I was a bit old at the age of 42 for a job I was applying for , friends pointed out I was a guitarist in a band , socialised , was out most Fridays and most importantly could do the job . They took me on
• I myself was interviewing a couple of 50 somethings for a position and thought about their age , one had a negative attitude , the other had a positive attitude - Accentuate The Positive
• A friend pointed out that the problem with humans is they wear out , if we could replace everything before it fails we would live forever , so look after yourself
• Humans are social animals , keep in touch , talk to people , and be happy , it makes life worth living
• There may or may not be a god(s) , but I think the hope is born of a devolution of responsibility and a desire to live forever - personally I don't think evolution will let your soul / essence / being die after the body packs up . This is based on absolutely no evidence whatsoever - just hope / faith but if I live on after I will let you all know but I have no intention of leaving just yet.
• Never put off anything til next week

Anyway I may do more of these but here's a suitable song that all schoolchildren should learn:

Jamaican Fun at 50

The London 2012 Olympics coincided with Jamaica's 50th Anniversary of Independence from Great Britain. There were some stunning performances by Jamaican athletes notably Usain Bolt ,  and a clean sweep in the mens 200 metres from Bolt , Yohan Blake and Warren Weir.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Veronica Campbell-Brown to gold and bronze in the women's 100 metres as well so a pretty impressive showing.

However I was very disappointed when I heard the Jamican National Anthem which seems pale and flacid given the islands rich musical culture of the last fifty years , though its possibly the equivalent of expecting Great Britain to replace the National Anthem with something by Muse or Queen (Knights of Cydonia anyone ?).

I think One Love by Bob Marley would make a great National Anthem though sneakily I think even better would be Carl Malcolm's "Bonanza Ska".

Any congratualations to all Jamaicans and thatnk you for enriching our lives with your athletics and music !! Heres' some alternative National Anthems :

Olympian Thoughts

Barclays Cash Machine

I wasn't really bothered about these Olympics . I've seen financial chancers make fortunes from buying up decaying housing where the Olympic Park now stands , and local businesses threatened by local governmnet jobsworths , when the laws were meant to prevent big businesses from profiting when they havent supported the Olympics.

Although this is ridiculous , opposite is the Barclays Cash Machine boarded up and bin bagged at St James' Park Newcastle. All that does in incovenience customers and show the Olympic Committee to be apparent arses !!

The media has been willing the whole thing to fail and despite my misgivings it has gone off well. But it's a telling fact that so called "private enterprise" , G4S , have had to be bailed out by the military (effectively a nationalised industry). Sometimes private enterprise works well and sometimes it doesnt , governments need to realise this.

I wonder how many people these days realise where the nomenclature of the Olympics comes from . Have they ever heard of Mount Olympus , Zeus and the like? Though I applaud the Olympian spirit and the work many athletes and competitors put in to realise their dreams , very little has piqued my interest however .......

... I had zero interest in the opening ceremony , until I saw it. Danny Boyle has come up with a show to match the Olympic Spirit including Shakespeare , Mr Bean , and the forging of the (Olympian) rings (Is there one to bind them all) . This was something that everyone should see , sports fan or not , though some of the imagery did set me in mind of Peter Jackson's visualisation of Tolkein's exloration of language and folk lore. Theres some highlights on the BBC site here

The full opening ceromony is here

And here's some music that has greaced the games so far ...

The Art of Geoff Marston

Geoff Martson's Blues Suitcase Cards

Geoff Marston does Tom Waits

Every now and then you see something that stops you in your tracks. Sometimes it's something similar to something else , acombination of the familiar presented in an original way.



Today at the Summertyne Festival I was wandering through The Sage foyer to the concert area , when I saw an amazing display of suitcases !! I always imagine this image of Robert Johnson is him sitting on a battered suitcase.

Tom Waits

 
Anyway what Geoff Marston has done is set his paintings on real suitcases!! The look amazing and are an amazing piece of art combinng paint with a suitcase instead of your normal canvas. The problem being then is how do you display it ? You need room to do that but they do look fantastic.

About Geoff Marston

The artwork looks like an excellent blues album cover , and most of the artist are archetypal American musicians such as Hank Williams , Muddy Waters and Tom Waits.

Hank Williams

 Geoff also does mounted prints of his work as well for the more standard art display . There are examples of his art dotted around this post , obviously influenced by his love of music and major involvement with the Jumpin' Hot Club.






Check out his work , you will have seen nothing like it.

And Tonight They're Gonna Party Like it's 1936

Well the 2012 Olympics are upon us and in case any one was in any doubt the signs in every city throughout are proclaiming it's "London 2012" . I thought generally that the world was some sort of democracy , didn't Thatcher and Reagan rescue us from the Red Menace. Joe Stalin , State Censorship , Nanny State Control , Nazi scare tactics and the like?

Well look what we have here . The original Olympic Ethic allowed all to compete . Wars stopped for the Olympic Games and competitors were given free and safe passage to and from the games. These days David Cameron's arms dealer cronies would be demanding compensation for ost revenue if that happened.

Peopl have trained for years to realise their their dreams , generally in the true Olympian spirit , but it is becoming swaped with Nazi / Communo stype restrictions on fans and market competitors.

Want an Olympic Ticket , Let's face for most of us this will be the only time in our live we can see one. But we have to run the hurdle of the lottery , and can only paty by Visa !! Surely that's as bad as the banks fixing interest rate . What if I don't have a Visa card , what if I want to pay by cash.

Then Coca Cola , Visa and MacDonalds are grabbing all the advertising space to the exclusion of everyone else. I thought this was a fairly free country.

Another thing the NHS has been committed to providing free treatment to anyone who is related to an Olympic competitor . Who sanctioned that Mr Cameron ? I though the NHS was meant to be hard pressed.

I won't be watching the Olympics or taking any interest in it whatsoever. It's been hijacked by corporates and freeloaders, and that makes me annoyed for the competitors and fans who DO embody the true Olympic spirit.

There's a sigh outside St James' Park Newcastle that proclaims "London 2012" . Anyone watching on TV will think the stadium is in London!! How wrong is that:

This is the only Olmpic Theme you will ever need

The Quality of Advertising

I got to thinking the other day about some decent adverts for products . This is one of the few posts where my main web site and blog coincide.

Most adverts are forgettable to the consumer , so are so downright atrocious that no mater how hard you try and forget them they com flooding back , such as the Shake 'n' Vac and Odor Eaters adverts . Horrible things they are . Halifax Building Society produce adverts that make you want to at the very least turn to another channel , well the English ones do . Althougg interestingly I cam e across these excellent adverts for Halifax Ireland. The first a quite inspired dance off:

Then there's the truly inspired bank fight:

Why can't we have that here?

Then you have the inspired Virgin ad for comfortable roomy travel on their flights:

Though some companies have a history of great and memorable adverts such as Guinness , their White Horses adverts regualary still tops polls, and their "Pure Genius" motif still hits themark:

And Orange have some amazing adverts in their back catalgue , as well as the excellent "The Future's Bright , The Future Is Orange" motif. Theyir was the excellent series of adverts featuring elliot & Mr Dresden managing to comically scene steal from stars such as Elton John , Sean Astin and even Steven Seagal !!

Orange also managed to capture the zeitgeist with adverts such as the excellent New York Blackout one:

So these are a few of my favourite adverts in the same place , all soundtracked by excellent contemporary music , meticulously put together , and with an excellent sense of humour in places, and I remember what all the ads wer advertising!!

Get your Orange phone here!!

Art For Tantricity's Sake

"Northern City Renaissance: Newcastle, England (Mass MoCA #79-E)" by Stephen Hannock

I just got a letter from the Laing in Newcastle asking me for a donation of £30 to stage their latest exhibibition and was suprised to find that the well known tantric sex practicioner and part time jungle dweller (South America not Sunderland) , Gordon Sumner had commissioned a huge landscape of Newcastle by the artist Steven Hannock , and had been dispayed over the winter .

I wish I had seen this as the painting is well impressive and after seeing the John Martin Exhibition at the Laing , I am always impressed with the sheer audacity of painting of this size. Even just on the computer screen it looks impressive, and it is about time I got to the Laing.

Anyway if you click on the various links they'll take you to the various appropriate sites to gain more information. Below is a video of John Martin pictures:

Well impressed

On a Train

On a train to London. It has been an eneventful  journey. Nothing major happened.
Its sometimes difficult to write about nothing but you just have to let your mind wander and integrate the things you see and hear about you.

Or maybe thinks that happened to you, like last night I weed blood so got myself off to casualty via NHS direct to be diagnosed with a urinary infection. Our NHS is wonderful and the government are trying to destroy it. Funny how Cameron only chooses targets that dont directly benefit him. Also is it a coincidence that Clegg Osborne and Cameron's TLA is COC!

I'm writing this using Blogger on my Samsung Note while I listen to King Charles all very impressive sruff. The Note is an amazing phone remarkably intuitive and functions well on 3G. King Charles are a truly brilliant band. Going to see them at The Cult Festival supporting The Fall in a few weeks.

This is their excellent take on Billy Joel's - We Didn't Start The Fire

The Art of ..... Knowing What You Are On About

A few days ago I posted this on facebook:

"In my e library I have The Art of War by Sun Tzu, Heart of Darkness by Conrad, Origin of the Species by Darwin so why do need to Facebook?"

My friend Josie replied , wittily:

"because the Art of War will take you weeks to read/fully digest and Facebook takes 10 seconds to realise there's nothing interesting happening...."

So I thought I should at least dip into it , and this is what I have found:

• It's a slim voloume , 50 to 60 pages depending on translation or format
• It's not really a book , more a reference manual of bullet points on how to conduct a war
• You can read it in one sitting , but it will take a lifetime to understand
• It is full of points that relate to everyday life
• It makes you think
• It is easy to read
• It's out of copyright so you can download the ebook for free

 So thanks to Josie I have read the book and will be re reading it . It is remarkable and sensible and my version was remarkably easy to read. I suggest you get a copy now!

 

DAT's Your Lot

About twenty five years ago greedy  record companies made a fortune turning people from tape and vinyl to CD on the pretext that the sound quality was excellent and CDs were indestructable and you could smear them with jam and they would still play. Well think of the logistics !!  What really sold CD to the masses was the MacDonalds like convenience of being able to program tracks , skip tracks you didnt like and repeat ones you did as well as random play.

These facilities were actually available on tape and vinyl players , but when a friend of mine demonstrated it on hi cassette player they was a lot of rewinding and fast forwarding .

Anyway , I digress , what has brought this post on on is the re issue by Rhino of Fleetwood Mac's excellent retrospective The Chain , which I bought in its original incarnation about twenty years back. I've been playing it today and very good it is too.

No , after the initial , virtual investment free windfall of CD (records already recorded and often not remastered, remasters were another wave of cash) , they began to circulate rumours of CD decay , and your everlasting CDs would in fact crumble to dust withing five years. To combat this you had to switch to DAT , expensive players , and back to tape with it's inherent fragility and at the the time blank DAT's were as expensive as a full price CD!! This time the public didnt fall for it, and where is DAT now ?

Twenty years on my copy of the Chain is in fine fettle , and CDs are still an excellent and portable storge medium and there are some excellent packages out there . I recently purchased a superb Emerson Lake and Palmer box for around £15 .

So CD is still as bouyant as ever , Vinyl has made and amazing recovery ,  Newcastle still has 3 or 4 real record shops plus HMV and That's Entertainment (The outlet for Music Magpie)  , and music is still brilliant.

Have a nice day!!

I Don't Get Mad ....

But some things do annoy me , like these Chelsea Tractor size buggies that nu parents seem to need to ferry their screeching offspring through the narrow aisles of department stores. In Mars and Spencers yesterday on idiot parent was letting his brat push the device willy nilly through the store , sight into my leg . If you've seen me you know I can play the archetypal immoveable object with aplomb , which I did  in this case. Brat goes sprawling and bawling on the floor , nu parent bloke glares at me , about to launch int to som ecomplaint , before thinking better of it after observing my size and immovability!!

Why the hell cant these idiots use a reasonable sized buggy for round town , but I suppose it's a way of compensating for their own inadequacy , as well as a large car he needs a large baby carriage!!

...and then you get all these people liking Tesco, Asda and the like on Facebook. Don't you realise these faceless corporations don't give a dan about you . You are just a way of making even more money for them . Tesco endorse slave labour , and they will ditch you or their staff if theres another penny in it for them.  They're all the same even when they do the vouchers for schools. Spend three million pounds with them and your school can buy a football. You're just better going down to Sports Direct and buying a few balls for £1.99 each rather than going the Supermarke charity route.

I remeber a discussin with Chris Ball about the nature of Corporations . They're just out for all they can get . If they were at a meal with you they'd just nick all the food from the table , if they see a charity box they'll just pocket it . This is because a corporation is just a self perpetuating entity. The people who work within the entity may be ethical and moral as hell , but eventually the nature of the beast takes over with the aim of perpetrating the existence of the corporation.

Anyway I'll just leave my favourite video coment on this to finish this post:

Some Bands Do .... Some Bands Don't

Thanks to Carol for reminding me I'd not posted for ages. This has been running around in my head for a couple of weeks. It is a post in response to John Scott and possibly Gavin Webster's detestation of Steely Dan. John's original gripe was that reruns of The Old Grey Whistle Test were marred when Souixsie and The Banshees were juxtaposed with the video below, and I fully support him on this however ......



  
Reelin' in the Years is a damned fine song . This video doubly marred by the performing seal / walrus hybrid jumping around on staging during his guitar solo. Not good.

In the seventies a friend of mine, Jon Ashurst,  described Steely Dan as the greatest most boring band in the world ,and listen to them and you can see why that description  fits so well.  The music papers used phrases like "educated rock" etc , which , lets face it rock is meant to blow you away  , if you want sedating listen to the charts.

Then at som point they released the lead track for the film "FM" . "No static at All" they promised and we know that was a lie. AOR (Adult Orientated Rock)  Boz Scaggs , Kenny Logins et al paving the way for poodle rock balladeers of the eighties like REO Speedwagon , the descent into syrup rock of Chicago and other musical disasters and cul-de-sacs.

Steely Dan are probably more detested fro what they caused than what they are.

The thing is Steely Dan have no place next to punk rock , but I have Steely Dan and The Ramones and Sex Pistols in my collection , and dont feel that's a problem . Below is a playlist of half a dozen listenable Steely Dan songs and you should try it , you might enjoy it. Incidentally both "Dallas" and "Sail The Waterway" , "B" sides from their first two singles have been disowned by the band and never officially appeard in digital format , but they are two of my favourite Steely Dan songs! Though my all time favourite is still "Barrytown".





Steely Dan arent for everyone , but they are and excellent band , well worth a listen.

5.1 Vinyl ?

There's a lot of big boxes to celebrate anniversary releases , notably David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and Paul McCartney's Ram.  Now McCartney's release is sort of OK , but if you want the 5.1 mix you have to buty the most expensive box , but you can buy the vinyl separately.

Bowie's box and the Station to Station release require you to fork out for vinyl as well if you just want the 5.1 mix. Pink Floyd have done similar thinks with their immersion sets.

5.1 sound is worth hearing if you have a home cinema set up but you should have to buy the vinyl version as well to hear things in 5.1.

Kink Crimson , Black Sabbath and The Talking Heads have released reasonably priced 5.1 mixes of classic albums without requiring fans to break the bank. So until the 5.1 mixes are available as a reasonably priced option my money will be staying in my pocket. I have the King Crimson , Black Sabbath and Talking Heads albums so I have plenty to listen to.

Obfuscation and Entreprenurs

It amazes me how in IT and web related circles most of the charlatans working in those areas usually cement their indespensability by coming up with new cloudy nebulous descriptions  for what is essentially the same thing.

So subroutines became objects and so on. A few months ago someone sent me an email asking if I had receved a "wire-frame" , I replied no but I had go the blank document they sent me.

I was recently invited to a "deep dive" . I didn't realise we had taken up sub aquatic activities! I think they meant a detailed analysis session!!

The other thing is that the government seem to think the economy could be kick started by using prisoners as cheap labour. Well the entrepreneurs will pay next to nothing while the taxpayer foots the security bill.

everywhere you look people are trying to take you for a ride and not in a good way. Rant over.

Do I Love You - Indeed I Do!

It's well known that this is THE most sought after seven inch single of all time. The following text is by Ian Levine I assume:

"The original version of this song is quite simply the most sought-after Motown and Northern Soul record of all time.The legendary Motown producer, Frank Wilson, made this solo record for Motown which was so rare, and so in demand, that someone paid fifteen thousand English pounds for a copy. He was a big help with the Motorcity project, in 1989 and 1990, and he and his wife Bunny always stay at my house every time they're visiting London. The Motown single "Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)" became so huge that everyone wanted to see Frank perform it. For years he refused, but finally he gave in and did so at Fleetwood in 2000, in front of two and a half thousand people, the one and only time he said he would ever do this. But previously to that, we had visited him at his Los Angeles home, and filmed him at the piano, so people got to see, on The Strange World Of Northern Soul DVD, this legendary song being performed for the first ever time."

Listen to see how good it is. It does amaze me that things like this can slip out of print while dross such as "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" by Dawn or "Save You Kisses" by Brotherhood of Man are omnipresent.

Would Jubilee Vit? - A Campaign To Get Minnie The Moocher To Number One For The Queen's Diamond Jubilee

Well the Queen's Diamond Jubilee weekend is here , I'm fairly neutral about the Royal Family though the Charles is Ok . The Queen has outlasted five Popes and is looking suprisedly fine for her age and I reckon that she willl outlast her mum.


Lot's of people are dissing the Royals while taking advantage of the various bank holidays generated for events such as this. I seriously think the most misguided is the attempt to get the Sex Pistols "God Save The Queen" to Number One for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee . The record is 35 years old , and it's quivalent in 1977 would have been trying to get Louis Jordan  or Cab Calloway to number one , though I think Minnie The Moocher would be a worthy Jubilee Number one.Download it here and Make it the Jubilee Number One!!

If you are going to protest , do something new and different, Rage Against The Machine hitting the christmas number one has a lot to answer for , but the face that Amazon were selling the download for 29p may have helped.

Anyway enjoy the Jubilee Weekend , there's pleanty happening. On Monday there's "Dishonourable Subjects" at The Stand in Newcastle, billed as

"A gala evening of comedy and music to mark the head of state being unelected for 60 years. We’ll be taking the piss out of the Royal establishment. Proceeds to local charities." with Gavin Webster, Anvil Springstien, Tony Jameson, John Scott and special guests. SO I'll be toddling along to that.

Also happening is the Newcastle Green Festival , the fact that it's raining should make the grass even greener!!

Noteworthiness

Well this completes my goal to post to the blog every day in May

Twice today people have commented very positively on the Samsung Note. It has been superceded today by the Galaxy SIII which is slightly smaller.

The first was a charming lady at the Techno Tea Party who was asking questions about email. Then she got her phone out because the ringer was too quiet. The vokume was adjusted when someong rang. I got mine out and she was very impressed and forgot all about hers. Anyway I rang her,  adjusted her volume and showed her how to do it.

She loved the keypad on mine and was very impressed with the Amazon Kindle App and the fact I downloaded Bram Stokers Dracula very quickly. I think she might be upgrading very soon.

My Note compared with with works Galaxy S

Next was the ticket collectir who was wondering about it but was wary of the size. I told him you do get used to it, but he was still botheted about fitting it in his pocket.

The size of the Note has caused more guffaws than a Carry On film,  "Ooh look at the size", "It's rather large", "Will it fit?".

As yet I think its brilliant negating the need for a tablet as well as doing everything a pone should do and more. Here's the promo for it:

A slight addendeum , it makes a great e-reader but the Amazon Kindle App wont import ebooks (the real Kindle does) , so I had to install Aldiko that does allow imports so my phone now has a huge library on it as well

Penultimatum

Well my "A Post A Day In May" is almost complete. It hasnt been difficult but some posts have been concise to say the least And must thank my friend who reminded to post on a couple of occasion when it has completely slipped my mind.

So I have had the disipline to keep doing this . This post will possibly be my earliest one, though I once tried to do this and the accidentally published it before midnight.

What I was hoping with this blog was that it would inspire me to write a book. That inspiration is still lacking , that now with Amazon's free publisher you can publish your own book electronically whether you can write or not ....

In A Hotel

Never really done hotels with work , but new responsibilities mean I may be spending time in London so I need to get used to it.The words to the song "Hotel California" by The Eagles:

"You can check out any time you want,

 but you can never leave" 

must ring so true for some people. Good thing is I have a lot of friends who live down here or are in a similar boat so lots of things to do , like tonight going to see the new Wes Anderson film Moonrise Kingdom.

A shortie

This is just to maintain my post a day but I am shattered. Sleep now and three more posts to reach my goal!

Green Day Down at The Doctors

Well sort of . Another sunny day and I spent a lot of it making bricks for my woodburning stove from old newspapers. It is very physical but worth it and means I put less in the recycling bin because I am going to burn the stuff.

Lots of paper front pages caught my eye but I think it was the Sunday Post who were suggesting that it took 100 phne calls to get an appointment with a GP , and then you would have to wait months for it. If that is the situation change your practice . I have done it a few times and always ended up with excelent service. I've been with mine for around ten years , they are The Thornfield Medical Group based in Byker and Shieldfield and provide excellent service with and online appointment and repeat prescription service that cuts down the phone calls they have to deal with , an all round winner. Their website is here. The booking system is here.

Engelbert the English Eurovision Entry

Gerry Dorsey better known as Engelbert Humperdinck is England's surprise entry for Eurovison this year with "Love Will Set You Free" . I don't know if it's age or what but I personally think the song is fine , if reminiscent of Jim Croce's "Time In A Bottle". It also has shades of a Jacues Brel song sung by Scott Walker , and I think is all these reminders it causes are the reasons why I like it rather than the song itself.

Engelbert himself is a sprightly 75 years old and so a change for the X-Factor rejects we normally get , bringing a bit of quality and a sense of humour to the proceedings. I really wish him well and if the song doesnt get a decent placing , well it just shows what idiots voters can be (hey the put David Cameron in charge here!!).

With a sense of mistiming Roy Hodgsons's maiden England game takes place against Norway , with the tabloid hacks sharpening their paws waiting to pounce , no doubt the Sun will have sum pathetic headline again on Roy's pronunciation of the letter "R". And least you can understand what Roy Hodgson is saying unlike teh bleatings of your average tabloid journalist.

That Looks Familiar

We were talking aboutmusic in the Stand last week and the subject of Fleetwood Mac came up. A couple of us agreed that Lindsey Buckingham was a mad genius and Tusk was their best albim. After Rumours the execs at Warner Brothers were looking forward to bumper bonusses and were horrifed at what the band presented them. This was at the height of punk and I remember NME being stunned by the unexpected brilliance of the album , especially the title track. The fact it was a double album made this an even bigger coup.

Anyway the point I am making about this is that Camper Van Beethoven were stuck in a remote cabin and recorded their own version of Tusk , so there actually two similar looking albums with the same tracks by different bands. I have both.

While Mojo magaize have cover disks of revisited albums , the nearest to Camper Van Beethoven's exercise is te East Star All Stars "Dub Side Of The Moon" Anyway the samples abouve and a coupe of relevant tracks below for you to peruse!

Panic

In 1990 I remember seein a TV program in which some expert reckoned the average family had to spend £2000 a month on insurance premiums to cover them in case something went wrong. At the time my wage was about £1100 a month . I think you can spot the flaw in his argument, Basically he was trying to scare me into a situation where I'd be too frightened to do anything.

Today I saw a sign reminded us that the Digital Switchover is coming as though it wer the ent of the world . "You could lose ALL your TV channels!!" . Well no , actually , you wont , worst case is you will lose the ability to recieve the channels if you dont have a way of receiving digital channels and if you you buy a TV they have a digital receiver built in. But they're still trying to frighten people.

In Michael Moore's film "Bowling For Columbine"  he wonders why there are so many gun related deaths , compared with Switzerland who have mandatory gun ownership , and Canada where guns and ammunition are as freely available as in the USA. This is a very nice little theory cartoon from the film:


These days if you take out a new mobile phone contract you really need to insure against it been stolen of getting broken. The only insurance you really need is to back up your data and phone numbers . Insurance isn't cheap when the list price of a replacement iPhone or iPad us up to £700 !!

In Britain the Daily Mail and Express have a new crisis every week. Bird 'Flu , Pension Crash , The Economy is going to explode , Britain is going to be hit by a Tsunami , turned into a desert or flooded. The list is endless. Oh yeah and there's Al Quaeda , a convenient bogeyman . It was Iraq , now it's Iran , then it'll be China - oh sorry they have money so like the USA can do what the hell they like.

Anyway , my advice is take reasonable precaution , enjoy life . If you want to avoid pregnancy during sex , wear a condom , don't dismember  the guy or woman!!

Twenty Five Minutes To Go ......

My god I nearly missed todays post . Thanks to a message from my friend Carol , I was reminded with twenty five minutes to go. Incidentally that's a song by Johnny Cash which you can listen to below.

Well another trip to Darlington tomorrow and hopefully I can have a day free of the travel hassles that have beset me this week . Now it's time for bed said Zebedee - oh and that reminds of the sketch that made Jasper Carrott a national name!!

It's Late

And I have nothing to post although I was extolling the virtues of Charlie Brooker to my friend Carol today so I will repost Charlie's initial iPad review which was hilarious and stuff about Black Mirror as well.


Oh and the trailer for the excellent Black Mirror

Disco Apocalypse

In less than a week we have lost two giants of seventies disco. First Donna Summer , and now Robin Gibb.

As part of the Bee Gees , Robin Gibb took the world by storm soundtracking the film "Saturday Night Fever" with the aid of a few other artists. But it was the Bee Gees who had the lions share of the song credits on the album with "Stayin' Alive" , "Night Fever" and "Jive Talkin'" among others. Their self reinvention was amazing , give that they were a white pop band who then took the disco dancefloor by storm. I have lots of favourite Bee Gees songs notably the afformentioned "Jive Talkin'" , as well as "Tragedy" and "Alone".

Apparently five Donna Summer singles have reentered the top 200 singles , and its a symptom of digital music that this can happen immediately. Watch out for massive sales of Saturday Night Fever and the Bee Gees Number Ones collections and it's re appearance at the cinema.

However the song that inspired this blog post is by Jackson Brown , see below:

Another Summers Day .....But It'll Either Rain Or Go Dark Before Morning

A Sunny Corner of The Garden

Well although theres a bit of rain , and summer doesnt really start while about June , loads of people have been whining about the fact we've had no summer and thats it for this year and the British weather is appalling . It's weather , it's unpredictable , get over it.

We've ad the Daily Mail and Express predicting froods , and snowdrifts akin to The Day After Tomorrow , and ...... we're still here , no state of emergency. In fact today has been a great day weatherwise as you can see from the photograph of my garden. It's been a great daty for sitting out and talking in the weather.

It seems lots of people arent satisfied until something bad happens and they'll point out that they predicted it . Well as a farmer I knew once said  "It'll either rain or go dark before morning" , and you know what ... he was always right!!

My first voice blog

This is The firsT Time I've acTually use my voice To inpuT The surf blog I will see whaT iT comes ouT like a ham and I'm gonna posT yes iT's very shorT buT ThaT's iT and iT'll be greaT see whaT comes ouT okay

Just Another Day

Well been quite busy actually , so buy that I dont have time to post anything . So this is todays post a day in May. That's 19 days of continuous posting which for me is a record.  Another twelve posts to go then ....

The Weekend Starts Here

I've still not voiced a blog entry even though I have the technology and the Samsung Galaxy Note will allow me to do it. Tonight the Rawmones , a Ramones tribute band anchored by the hardest working man in the world Adas Pepper , play Trillians in Newcastle . Will be toddling along there after a few (non alcoholic) drinks at The Stand.

This is just obviously a diary entry , but Mark Radcliffe is playing the wonderful record "Fanfare" by Eric Matthews. The vido is brilliant and the MP3 is it the jukebok at the top of this entry:

Disco Diva Donna Summer Dies

Almost a newspaper headline. First heard of Donna Summer when her record "Love To Love You Baby" was banned by the BBC . I was into metal and electronics like Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk , so was totally knocked out when I heard "I Feel Love" . It was disco , but it was electronic , driven by Giorgio Moroder's almost Motorik , relentless synthesiser.

Almost everyone loved this record , my dad loved it , my mum loved it  , the most metal of metalheads loved it . Great music , a gorgeous body , Donna Summer went on to make loads of great  records although apart from "Loves Unkind", "I Feel Love" and "State of Independence" I wasnt to enamoured by the rest of her output. I believe the original version of "I Feel Love" stretched out to 17 minutes. How good is that.

Moroder continued ploughing his electronic furrow , notably with "From Here To Eternity" , "Together in Electric Dreams" and "Never Ending Story" . A sad day but we will be hearing "I Feel Love" a lot on the radio.........

Summer Means Fun

After all the rain and cold of the last few days this morning gives us a blue cloudless sky. Was hoping to pist a picture from the train but my reserved window seat us not next to a window. C'est La Vie. Anyway I took a picture of a tree next to my bus stop so you have some idea!

I've just noticed that I can use voice input to this mobile blogger so will try that when I am at home.

Unashamed

I am very tired , this post is only to ensure I keep up with the "Post A Day In May" . I'd almost forgot about it today , suffering from a headache due to lack of sleep , but I am going to bed now and leave you with Sleepwalk by Ultravox .... who mean nothing to me !!

First Post From The Note

The Note on the Left the original Galaxy in the right

On the train going home and hoping to make my first post via the Samsung Galaxy Note. The screen is big and easy to use and it does handwriting recognition via its S Pen!
As yet it feels very positive and I am pleased with the beast. I am going to try the camera out soon an we shall see how that fares and how the battery  lasts

Premier In?

Last day of the Premiership today and Roberto Mancini thinks it'll be good for another team to win the Premiership (ie Manchester City) It's just a pity that the team that breaks the stranglehold will only do so because they had the biggest sugar daddy.

If you look at the top teams (position wise) in the Premiership the only teams being run on a sound financial basis are Newcastle and Arsenal. New Euro Fair Financial Play rules could see the likes of Manchester City , Manchester United , Chelsea , Tottenham and Liverpool excluded from Europe i the near future.

It's amazing that Swansea (Swanselona as they are known in some circles) and Norwich have fearlessly bedded into the Premiership and that has got to be due to Ian Holloway's attacking Blackpool last season . Yes they were relegated , but were a huge breath of fresh air to the Premiership.

Anyway , I'm sure theres going to be lots of twists and turns , controversy , cat fighting and fun. We still dont know who will win , who will be in The Champions League , who will be the last team relegated. We know the probabilities but favourites can always fall.

It's not long since Wigan were dead and buried , yet Dave Whelan and Roberto Martinez didnt panic , and they are still the only Premiership club who have never been relegated from the top flight.

Anyway here's my favourite football song, enjoy this afternoon:




Oh I'd forgotten about this for all the Man City fans!!

Oh and finally a playlist of my favourite football related songs

Questions witn No Answers

Just noticed that my last few blog posts have been mainly questions!! Does this imply that I don't know what I'm doing or that I'm jusy inquisitive , not sure.

Anyway just thing about how different countries have slightly different takes on advertising . For years The Halifax have been giving the UK totally rubbish adverts such as this one:





However Halifax Ireland have brilliant ones like this!



   Why is that? Are the Irish more discerning although having said that the new T-Mobile ads are almost as bad as the Halifax (although products are a lot better!) . What do you think?




More Questions .....

My Third Mobile Blog Post

I've just noticed that you can add pictures to the mobile blog post. I am going to try than on my bus ride from work to Darlington Railway Station. The drive is not too awe inspiring but fine as a trst run for mobile blogging.

Not sure how to arrange pictures but have attached a photo of the approach to Darlington Station.

Managed to catch the 1615 north and should be in Newcastle in half an hour. This is now my longest post by mobile. Still not sure how to include rich content but am sure that will come in time.

My God How Much Rain?

Well I'm glad I worked from home today , it has absolutely poured down. Raining like mad. The Daily Mail & Express will have us preparing for the deluge as that's an easy one. It's weather it does what it wants, if you're lucky to can forecast a couple of days in advance assuming no one throws a spanner in the works.


Roughly it's cold in winter and you might get snow , in springs things generally start to grow , summer is generally hotter and autumn things start to die.  But that doesnt preclude getting all four seasons in one day.

My other thing this week is the Raspberry Pi . The cheap (£25) computer meant to get kids properly interested in programming. Almost every guy I know has one . I'm feeling a little left out. There's and excellent blog on the subject here. A great way of getting kids interested in actually doing something. Don't but FIFA 2012 buy a football , want to be famous for a reason.

I wonder if I should buy one ......

Mobile or PC?

Another short post , while the mobile blogger is fine for this sort of thing , if you need to add rich content you really need to use the PC.

Another sunny day today despite doom and gloom from the radio , and today I try to get to Doxford Park by public transport using bus , metro , taxi and whatever else there might be. This video is sort of appropriate , I could use the the ferry , but don't need a plane to get to Sunderland:

First Post By Mobile

This is going to be very short. Its my first post from a mobile phone.This means I should be able to make my "Post A Day In May" a reality.
Will be even better when I get my Samsung Note!

Where's Summer Gone?

On holiday last week in was mostly cloud and rains and people were telling me that we'd had our summer at the end of March. Well since I've come back barring overnight rain (which is what you want ) it's been very sunny.

It seems a lot of people actually want it to be grim , and bad things to happen. If you keep predicting something will happen (like it's going to rain or there'll be a power failure) then eventually you will be proved right. This doen't make you some kind of prophet , just a misery guts who can't enjoy the moment because there might be something bad round the corner.

The weather is great , and I am going to enjoy it , despite having to go to Sunderland tomorrow!! The Fantastic Baggies had the right idea:

Back To Work .... Back To reality

Well today I start back after a pleasant holiday interlude looking forward to getting my new Samsung Note. Incidentally I installed the Kies software, complete rubbish, doesnt detect my works issue Samsung Galaxy, and just keeps reinstalling drivers. Oh it's also slow and resource consuming.

Anyway will be taking my car back, hopping on a bus, then a train, then a bus and arriving in Darlington with hilday cake for all assuming people are back after the Bank Holiday.

Oh incidentally have you every thought that if you are on a capped data allowance for phones or internet, that advertisements use up a great deal of your data allowance, an example of which is below this paragraph!!

Oh and the song I nicked the title from Soul II Soul's Back To Life: