The Last Lecture and Domino Effect

This is likely to be a rambling incoherent post , mainly because it's one of those things where a seemingly singular event cant then set off so many other things. Someone mentions one thing and then that sets off another . I don't know if I'm going to finish and then think "I forgot tto include such and such" , but we shall see how this goes....

I suppose it starts with the purchase of of a couple of seemingly slim James Thurber volumes that , while they were quite enjoyable to read , I was still only on page 50 of the first volume . About a month ago, for my 55th birthday,  my very good Australian friend Carol sent me a copy of Randy Pausch's book "The Last Lecture" , based on his final lecture . Randy Pausch was a young man (mid 40's) who had been hit with a virulent Pancreatic Cancer. A horrible situation for a man with a wife and young family who he would never see grow up. One of my heroes , the comedian Bill Hicks , was taken from us in the same way. In 1986 I got hit with ITP which meant that may bllod wasnt clotting resulting in heavy internal bleeding. At the time I was scared that I' wouldn't see my daughters (3 and 5 at the time) grow up , 3 years earlier my eldest daughter had been on the terminal ward (briefly) at The Children's Hospital at Pendleton Manchester - needless to see we're both here and doing well.

Anyway back to Randy Pausch . He was the inventor of ALICE a software development environment that enables people to easily learn programming . I've never seen it but my friend Carol uses it in her class on a daily basis. He knew his time was limited so he created and filmed his last last lecture and created the book with I got through in two days after giving up on James Thurber . In it he set down thoughts , aspiriations , regrets and advice in a remarkably easy read . He does come up with some expanded bullet points on how to live life with vaguely remind me of Sun Tzu's surprisingly readable and concise "The Art Of War" . Any I recommend you get a copy of the book and check out The Last Lecture website here. The lecture is youtubed below:

Randy Pausch is and example of Richard Dawkins' idea of immortality . Pausch is still with us in so many forms and will be while humankind exists in it's current forms. Dawkins is our premier voice of reason against the right wing Christian idiocy that is Creationsism though I do feel he gets a little evangelical at times about the non existence of (G)od .

One ogf the other things I wanted to put in this is that whenever any dies or is close to it I feel I must appear incredibly callous and cold hearted because usually it doesn't  really sadden me at all , and this is the reason:

As a kid I had bad dreams, I'd be in a field crying my eyes out because my dad was dead . I don't know how it happened but would wake up in tears and my dad was always there , working in the yard or wherever . He is still with us at 798 going strong , driving his Mercedes with his Post Office Post Box maintenance contract. Anyway soon after that my uncle Trevor took an assisted passage to Australia , the other side of the world . Letters came and once a year we had a short , very expensive (£10 a minute I think) phone call , I realised I wouldn't see him again . I knew he was there , but I just had no real contact . And that is what I feel happens when someone dies , we lose contact .. for now. If evolution has taught us anything it's that we grow and save the best bits and I think our "being" continues elsewhere. Aad that's why I seem so callous in the face of death.

This is a bit like opne of those Billy Connolly stories that wanders all over the place except I'm not reallly sure where I started and where I'm coming back to.

We live in wondrous times and if people concetrated more on the good , the world would be a much better place . If you have a problem fix it or deal with it , there is usually help around. Anyway maybe I've gone on about this a bit too long but c'est la vie

Without A Net

An interesting thing happened last week. It was my daughter Juliet's Birthday. I'd spoken with her about presents when we last ate out at The Stand in Newcastle and she told me she had an Amazon Wish List!!

I knew it was her birthday on Friday , however because I had to sort out petrol , a broken cooking bowl and various other things it completely slipped my mind that it was her birthday as well !!

Still no damage done and I phoned her , and sorted a card and present , but I was thinking that I do rely on internet and phone access without really thinking about it. I just assume I can log on and send something , and when you remove yourself from that ballpark , you are back in the world of postcards , royal mail and physical shopping, which while being very relaxing , I'm not sure that I like the internet . phone calendar being my Jiminey Cricket conscience !!

Thoughts On Writing

The reason I started writing this blog was because I hoped I would get an idea for writing a book or screenplay. My basic problem is that I am not motivated and too lazy to take the next step , well that's my opinion.

A blog is a diary and some contain some brilliant writing. It's a great way or remembering things you don't want to forget. There have been many incidents where I go back into the blog to have a chuckle about certain events , the B & Q application form being one that springs to mind.

I am currently reading "The Thurber Carnival" , a collection of  James Thurber short stories and realise that in order to write you have to be disciplined enough to research , or just know lots of things like , say , Stephen Fry.

As well as this you have to have a spark of originality or a muse to create a work that others want to immerse themselves in.

The internet and Amazon's self publishing package mean now that anyone can publish a book if they believe they have the capacity to produce a worthwhile work. The problem being it starts becoming literary karaoke where people believe that they are the next Dan Brown and have the key to untold riches.

I was shocked to hear that the average earnings for a writer was around four thousand pounds per annum. When you think how much the big earners make some writers must be on pennies.

I have incredible respect for my friend Paul Campbell who packed in his job and became a script writer. Similar to another friend Bob Armstrong who did a similar thing to become an artist.

This is another post I'm writing using the iPad's Note application. I reckon that the iPad with the addition of a keyboard is a very useful piece of kit, although when you have no internet connection you can feel a little lost.

Craster 2012

Back in Craster again and the digital TV signal seems to have improved . DAB radio is OK too so I can listen to Radio 6. It's close to civilisation, but has the benefit of being on the seafront resulting in an incredibly relaxing atmosphere.

The lack of mobile phone signal means that I cant post direct to my blog , so I'm using the iPad to write this. Combined with the blu tooth keyboard the iPad is a decent doing tool!

Alnwick, Bamburgh, Lindisfarne  and Alnwick are all with easy driving distance. 

Craster is around 60% holiday residences , which at first seems a bit sad , but probably means that the village can survive because of the extra revenue that this brings in.

Robson's kipper smoking factory and restaurant and The Jolly Fisherman are still going very strong in this superbly located village.

Two days ino the holiday and I am already feeling the benefits of communication cut off. The internet  and mobile phone networks connect us up 24/7 and that is probably not a good thing because you are always looking to do just a little bit more, though ironically I am cut off but I am still blogging!!

Hopefully I will find some free wifi or a mobile wifi signal and can unload my posts.

This John Terry Situation

The really amazing thing about this is that if John Terry had called Anton Ferdinand a "F*cking Stupid C*nt" , nothing would have been said. Almost every match that is played players verbally abuse others and nothing is done , despite the fact referees can red card players for foul and abusive language.

The insertion of the word black makes it racist abuse meaning that action will be taken , giving ammunition to the anti-PC brigade of Daily Mail readers out there.

All abuse is wrong , and swearing should not be tolerated on a football field. The say swearing shows a lack of vocabulary , which wouldn't be surprising in the case of Mr Terry. 

Ashley Cole isnt much better and his withdrawn tweet against the FA shows a complete lack of respect for his betters (which is most people).

Their club Chelsea say they have a zero tolerance policy towards racist abuse towards players. However they seemed to have made an exception in Mr Terry's case.

Also what about the fact that the FA banned Terry (caucasian) for four matches, yet banned Louis Suarez (South American) of Liverpool for nine games?

These two players are excellent footballers but intellectual and moral vermin. While their behaviour is tolerated not much will change and they will keep on being abusive because their pay justifies what they do.

London and My iPad

Interesting , just realised that the iPad doesnt come with an inbuilt Office Suite. So I'm using the Note application to write this post. Hope I can cut and paste this lot once I've typed it.

It's a sad fact that I am getting used to London. Kings Cross is only five stops from Paddington and now I think that's nothing. It's not so long  that going from Kings Cross mainline to Kings Cross underground with luggage in tow was like a trip down the Amazon.

On the plus side stuff like the Science Showoffs night at the Wilmington Arms hosted by the excellent Simon Cross in Farringdon (six stops from Paddington) is educating me an the science of making cheese toasties,  swimming and the theory of the Quantum Car!

It's also amazing that the responsiveness of the iPad can be amazingly temperamental. Sometimes it is instant and sometimes it just ignores everything that you do.

Anyway I will now try to connect to the internet and post this. I  will put in links later unless I forget.

Oh apologies for the font. That came from the iPad application!

You Load Sixteen Tons ...

".. and what do you get ? 

Another Day Older and Deeper in Debt

So Luther Don't Call Me

I Can't Go 

I Owe My Soul To The Company Store"

So sang Tennessee Ernie Ford when I was quite small , in what is a depressingly brilliant song. Today I turned 55 nad remember thinking how old my uncle was when he turned 16.

Basically there's nowt you can do about getting older as long as there's time. But I ready that people who have more birthdays tend to live longer! Also people who enjoy life and do things tend to live longer.

You never know what's round the corner and life still springs surprises on me good , bad and points in between.

You can't do everything you want to , but if you get a chance you should always take it . Always look for the positives and never turn down something good.

Today I feel the same as I did yesterday , and will probably feel the same tomorrow . I do feel different to 40 years ago , but 40 years ago I was a different person. Life does that to you.

But life is good and I'm looking forward to the next 55 years firmly beliveing that they will solve the problem of bodies wearing out  and I expect Keith Richards and Mick Jagger still to be touring !!

Repetition

In the seventies, I remember having three channels and people complaining about the license fee, mainly because of all the repeats on TV. Then we got Channel 4 and Channel 5 and people still complainesd about the lack of choice.

Then came satellite and people who complained about the license fee happily subscribed to Sky and pay TV  and still complained . Now we have Freeview and, ironically, some of the most watched channels are crammed with repeats. Gold , Dave, and Comedy Central all just contain repeats.

We also now have PVRs and people still complain there's nothing on TV , while happily watching re runs of "Only Fools And Horses" or "Two And A Half Men" (on my TV at the moment).

Boxed sets  of the DVDs sell like hot cakes , even "On The Buses" which must be one of the worst programs ever . Did you know Reg Varney was the first person in Britain to use an ATM ? YOu would have though they's have got somebody good to do it.

And then those Carry On Films , how come Sid James , Kenneth Cope and Bernard Bresslaw always got the girls ?

Anyway thats my thoughts on the subject and the Carry On Films did at least have some classics among their number (Screaming , Cleo and Up The Khyber).

Lottery Rage

Just in my local One Stop stop with some potatoes and cheese in my sopping basket and theres one woman serving . The guy in front then get's into a lecture about the best scratch cards to but before parting with another ten quid for a couple of them.

Meanwhile a copuple of charvers complete with pushchairs and squawking offspring stat getting naked because there's only 45 minutes left before the cut off time to put your lottery ticket  on resulting in irate exchanges going over my head , while me and the shop assistant attempt to contain our laughter.

I often here people in there , who "know people" who can guarantee a win on the lottery if you use the right system !!.

Well here's my observations on the lottery , this isnt to encourage or discourage , just the facts as I see them:

• The only guarantee is that once a number has been drawn , it's won't appear again in that draw
• For someone to win two million pounds , four million people have to lose a pound

 
And that's it

Still I am entertained by people claiming to have a cast iron system as they queue to casth their giro

iPad on a Train

This is the first time I've tried to blog on a train with my iPad and blu tooth keyboard. It's a bit weird as theres a slight keyboard delay and the t key was sticking causing unwanted repetition. The keyboard case I got for the iPad is generally excellent and makes the iPad itself far more productive.

Tablets , by their nature , are good for browsing and watching and research but more difficult to actually do productive work on. While still getting used to the idea of not having a mouse but touching the screen for mousey type actions, I must say the iPad is very usable.

Charlie brooker described it as a "content deiver device" and a "twattometer" before deciding he could do without one.

I'm still in the very early stages of learning about it, but I only have an iPad 2 and its fast , responsive and easy to use. I have lots of complaints and narks about it but I have used it more in the month that I have had it that I did the Advent Vega in the 15 months that I had that.

It's an excellent e-reader and there are lots of free books avaiable , then you have Garage Band the app that persuded me to get one.

It's still early days but so far I am very impressed.

Just need Apple to accept the have faults and rectify them instead of pretending everything is perfect.

Seriously I would recommend one of these to anyone.

Do We Still Have Two Ears? Dre Says We Do!

Well at least Dr Dre thinks so , thouagh iPod Dock manufacturersseem to be going for a big ingle speakers . Music doesnt mater you would think.

I rememebr mono listening to singles on a Dansette , the coming of stereo my mums radiogram then my unit with two wired speakers that I could place anywhere. Then we had the short lived quadrophonic phase. The only one I ever saw was an accountant who bought a system and all he had to play was a couple of MFP albums !  Like spending ten grand on a home cinema system and only having The Blair Witch Project to demonstrate it in!!

I think it was Virgin who promoted quadrophonic as music for people with "four ears" . Pink Floyd had a device called the Azimuth Co-Ordinator which was a joystick device for controlling to position of sound within a four speaker system.

We now have 7.1 Home Cinema Systems for film , but music seems to be lucky to get stereo , when 5.1 mixes give the listener incredibly detailed sound . The first King Crimson album "Court of The Crimson King" sound phenomenal , enabling the listener to [ick out individual sounds while still enjoying the immersion of the whole experience.

Anyway while Apple were pushing white tiny in ear headphones , Dr Dre went the other way , with full on logoed headsets allowing the users to display their affiliation , and how much they have spent. Dr Dre has not released an album in ten years but his mentoring of the likes of 50 Cent and his very expensive exclusive Beats headphones are expanding musical and appreciation and his huge bank balance.

I won't be buying a pair but it is one of the music things that I do do approve of, far better than the enormous plague of single speaker iPod docks !

Oh I've just noticed this is my 100th post this year , I was wondering if I would make it . Although this was helped by my "Post A Day In May" thing.

Do I Have It In For Martin Brennan?

The Latest Brennan Box

Martin Brennan is behand a device to replace your CD collection . The advertisments contain pie charts of music types , eulogise the rainbow menus and goes ony about reclaiming your living room space. The advertising seems targetted at music lovers rather than the sort of people who spend Sunday in B&Q who are surely the real target audience.

The device id a CD player with a hard drive , space wide its the same as a hardback book.  I'm just wondering what happens if the CD or hard drive break down? Also , for me , a better option would be a portable hard drive and linked MP3 player. But you dont need anything otrg that Brennan;'s unit. It will record your CDs and let you play them back and store them in the garage or attic and give you loads of room for other stuff!!

Not sure how it copes with new releases , the database wont have "Take The Crown" by Robbie Williams on !! I'm sure this has been built in.

Anyway I don't have it in for him . The advertisements are still coming in , he has celebrity endorsement , and I hope hope he continues to sell his product.

I thinking the unit needs web connectivity , a decent visual interface or GUI and at the point his advertisements will stop annoyig me !!

His web site is here and if it's what you want , then it will be perfect for you!!

Never Ending Festival Year

High Bridge Stalls

Sunny , Deck Chairs and Bossa Nova

Yesterday I visited the second High Bridge Quarter Festval this is year. Very enjoyable and a great way of getting people into town. Face painting for kids , local shops such as RPM giving big discounts (I bought Graham Bonds "Holy Magick" limited edition for under £9!).

Street food from Zizzis , Dabbawal , and lots of others as well as knitted street art !
 
I've actually stared editing this  my iPad and blutooth keyboard, so apologies if  theres mistakes or odd things  about the post. It's a little odd using a keyboard and touch screen rather than a keboard and mouse. Although I've just remembered I bought some spare styli (is that the correct plural of stylus?) for my Samsung Note and am sure they will do for this. It's amazing how off track you can go without meaning to , all part of the inter connectedness of life and the world and things but I'm just going to dig out a stylus and see how that works!

Well just tried the stylus and its a great substitute for sausage fingers.

More Knitted Street Art

Knitted Street Art

But anyway back to the original point of the post. Yesterday I visited the second High Bridge Quarter Festival of the year , sampling street food , mingling with the thousands out , enjoying the sun , not enjoying the limpid bossa nove rhythms of a three piece band who were on but it was a great day and people were enjoying sitting on the NE1 deck
 chairs. Website here.

Fitzee Gets an Abyssinian Curry

Last week I cought the end of Newcastle's "World Cities Week" with a free Dave and Ansell Collins gig at Greys monument . Unfortunately due to eating in Whitby I couldnt sample any of the street foosd on offer. Far too full!! Information here , and here's Dave and Ansell Collins covering Bob Marley's Three Little Birds . A great evening:






Previous to that we'd had the Newcastle Bridges Festival which I missed due to being somewhere else , but again lots of things happening and details here.

We've already had several music festivals such as Summertyne , Mouth of Tyne , Noth Shields Fish Quay Festival, Hoults Yard Festival details of which can be found here , so an amazing year and it's still only September!!



And people wonder why I like living in Newcastle !!

My Own Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Many years ago Douglas Adams wrote about a book. The book had on it's cover the words "Don't Panic"  and was updated by various researchers. Earth's entry read "Harmless" , shortly to be upgraded to "Mostly Harmless" by researcher Ford Prefect!

The book is what ts says containing useful information about where you are , a bit like the Lonely Planet Guides today . Crammed with useful information about everything and I realised that anyone who has a reasonably smart phone has their own Hitch Hikers Guide in their hand!!

H2G2 was the online incarnation of the book but obviously it was still about Earth as barring the odd trip to the moon , man is quite content to stay here . There is still plenty to do. Anyway you can see what by phone looks like now either side of this bit , one locked , one unlocked.



I can do all these things with it:

• Make and take phone calles 
• Send and receive texts
• Be involved in Conferences
• Take Pictures
• Look up information that others have stored
• Watch Videos
• Listen to radio shows and music
• Find out where I am
• Find out where I'm going
• Schedule my time
• Listen to music
• Record videos and music
• I can't teleport .... yet

So we all have our own guide , here in our hands.


How lucky are we?

I Have an iPad ... And I might just use it

I now now have an iPad and you know I will find something to complain about. First up it comes in a cardbourd box that contains the cellophane wrapped box that actually contains the damned thing. So not very green Apple , are we?

Next up everything is very whitely packages , put you have to put the damned plug together !! Its not even because it's a multiple power socket , it's just to make things awkward!!

Then you have to have an email address to use the damned thing and  need to register , this is part of the Apple Control I detest.

There are other gripes as well but ...

Garageband sold the thing to me and there are some good applications . It's fast and easy to use and it's the software that sells it. It is definitely faster and more responsive than my Advent Vega.

The apps are plentiful , some are rubbish and some are amazing . SOme are usefull and some have  a lifespan of five minutes.

I have succumbed to buying an iPad , because its a good tablett and will be a studio in my had . I wont be buying a Mac or an iPhone though . My Samsung Note will do me :)

Boxing Spectacular

On of the things with CDs iand vinyl is having a tangible artefact and sometimes the packaging that goes with it. From the heydey of vinyl Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick" with it's fold out full newspaper and Hawkwind's "Space Ritual" and "In Search of Space"  were major experiences. The Hawkwind ones were reproduce in CD format.

The japanese do some great vinyl / CD reproductions but often the wording is illegible without a magnifying glass!!

We've recently had the Pink Floyd Immersion editions , and the latest major addition is the Blur 21 box. Now these might be worthy endeavours but each one clock in at around a hundred pounds or more , not too easy on the pocket!

Following on from that we have the Peter Gabriel "So" and Sex Pistols "Never Mind The Bollocks" again in wallet destroying editions. The think is once you get them you have to put them somewhere , they are 12" by 12" boxes.

The only one I have at theat size is the Elektra box set , which was reduced from it's normal £150 to £40 , and I have a number of smaller boxes such as the CD version of the Smiths Complete and The Electric Light Orchestra's Classic Albums (11 albums for £20).

These are great if you want them but you can't really get too many of them from a cost and space perspective!!

Homogenisation Hell

A couple of years ago I was reading a book by Bill Bryson in which he noted that every high street in every town or city was beginning to look the same. There was a Boots , a WH Smith , a Woolworths , a BHS , a Next  and a few others . I noted the Glastonbury was missing a couple of these and in a recent visit to Totnes their only concession was I think a WH Smiths or maybe a Superdrug.

Anyway , I was in Newcastle today in various parts of the centre and I seemed to be always in sight of a Starbucks , a Costa , a Pret A Manger , a Boots , a Subway etc . It reminds of the Sylvester Stallone film Demolition Man where the only brand left is Taco Bell . I dont know if they paid for that or just enjoyed the irony of the product positioning , but it does get scary when your choice is being whittled away like that.

Even on Newcastle Railway Station we have Starbucks , Costas and WH Smiths , oh not forgetting Greggs !!

Electrospectacle .. a sort of History of Electronic Music

EMI are currently doing a promotion called "Electrospective" and Mojo Magazine this moth have the fifty (in their opinion) , most important electronic albums. This post is in no way definitive and may contain errors and disagreement , but it's really some observation on a lot of the way I saw much of it happening.

The starting point seems to be the soundtrack for the film "Forbidden Planet" by Louis and Bebe Barron around 1956 . Now there is no doubting the importance of this album , totally electronic resulting in eerie incredible sound textures for the film based on William Shakespeare's Tempest.

However none of this would have happened without Les Paul's electrification of the guitar and invention of the multi track tape recorder.

Joe Meek was my first pop introduction to "non normal" sounds , on records such as "Telstar" by The Tornadoes with int's organ treatment .

Around the same time Dr Who hit the screens and Delia Derbyshire and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop brought us Ron Grainer's incredible Dr Who theme , still amazing fifty years on. Delia was part of White Noise who provided us with the wonderful Electric Storm album.


With psychedelia we heard phasing being introduced on records such as Nirvana's Rainbow Chaser and by the time I was taking an interest in music bands such as Hawkwind and Tangerine Dream were the leading  electronic lights. My first introduction to Kraftwerk was the flute driven "Ruczuk" , which admittedly had a regimented rhythm and phasing , though with teh release of "Autobahn" they were truly an electronic band.

The Theramin came to the fore notably on Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" and the Beach Boys "Good Vibrations" , apparently the result of a failed endeavour to create a burglar alarm in Russia!

Mojo reckoned Queen were denigrating electronic options with the "No Synthesisers"  notices on their first couple of albums. Queen were just making out out clever they were. No Synthesisers but Brian May had plenty of electronic hardware backing him up.

Walter (Now Wendy) Carlos had been releasing albums such as Switched On Bach done entirely on the Moog Synthesiser and came to prominence with his soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange".

The us rockers were hit for six when Giorgio Moroder masterminded Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" . This was disco !! But it was good disco!!

Any I have missed lots out but I hope this makes you want to find out more. I've not mentioned Bowie , Jean Michel Jarre , Depeche Mode , Brian Eno , The Human League or Depeche Mode and I could fill another page or so with artists.


EMI's Electrospective here.

The New Football Season Starts Here .... Well

..actually it started last night with Cardiff City easing past Huddersfield. Most of the media have focussed their attention on the Premier League despite this only being 20 clubs , and Sky especially doing their usually fawning brown nosing over whoever they think has money , so this season it's Manchester City , with Arsenal , Liverpool , Manchester United and the rest rest are therir to make up the numbers.

Last season they were soooo disappointed that Newcastle United did not implode as they had continued to do under Freddie Shepherd , Mike Ashley despite his continual publicity gaffs managing to get it right where it matters earning the grudging respect of most of the Newcastle fans.

After the plummetting fortunes of Preston , for the first time on Monday night Graham Westley got a standing ovation as his totally rebuilt team beat Huddersfield in the Captal One Cup.

So looking forward to another roller coaster season and who knows what may happen. Theres bound to be the odd controversy so we have to have a Half Man Half Biscuit Song to finish. Full lyrics here:

Mariner 9 in Spanish City

Spanish City

I've been wandering by the Tyneside Cinema recently and been struck by the poster for Mariner 9, named after the Mars Space Orbiter , not a feature film but a media installtion by Kelly Richardson (@richardsonkelly on twitter). Yesterday I dropped in looking for the class postcards that they have stopped doing and again Mariner 9 caught my eye , along with the closing date , Sunday 19th August , meaning I had to go today or get over next weekend , and when you limit your options something always turns up to thwart you so ....

...today I made my way to Whitley Bay , specifically Spanish City , which has served in that past as a ballroom and funfair , but then fell into disrepair befiore peing picked up by North Tyneside council to be refurbished. So the first thing I saw was the spruced up frontage and refurbished dancers and when you enter , under the dome , you get an educational timeline of the place from its beginning up to the present day. Here is the Wikipedia entry with links onward.

Mariner 9 - Kelly Richardson

 Anyway what I really went to see was Kelly Richardson's Mariner 9. What can I say without spoiling it? I desribed it as hypnotic , and  it was amazing. Based on what my be happening on Mars in 200 years , itmakes you mind work and to be quite honest I could have stood all day watching , hoping to spot something  I'd missed. The sheer size shows nods to John Martin , probably the greatest artist to originate from the North East. I also though that it was not a plays for kids , but their were two six year olds mesmerised by the piece.

Anyway I hope I've piqued your interest.  I really can recommend going to see it.

If you cant I've just found it here so you can watch , but I recommend seeing it in situ so to speak,
Mariner 9 from Kelly Richardson on Vimeo.

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!