Coincindence and Connections

Yesterday I went to have my annual opticians eye text , and , with contact lenses it's still 20/20, despite being advised around 2003 that I would probably need to switch to wearing glasses. My opticians are excellent ( C4 Sightcare in Newcastle), I was mentioning the extremely excellent aftercare service from GPORetro and it turns out my optician is a jazz enthusiast and a frequenter of Reflex in Newcastle , we both agreed that John Coltrane's Giant Steps is tedious in the extreme but I told him that Miles Davis' Bitches Brew was worth revisiting as it sounds amazing , he wasn't two sure but said he will try it again. You don't tend to think of people who look after you in one way or another have lives outside what they do for you , and my optician is a vinyl enthusiast and a jazz musician. It's amazing what talking to people can reveal, and can make over the most mundane of things (like eye tests) go very quickly.

Think Outside

This weekend saw me mow the lawn this year for only the second time , and it's nearly June. The weather is nice and we have the Newcastle Unity Festival next weekend , followed by Preston North End's play off final against Swindon , then a Pop Will Eat Itself gig at the Riverside.

Thing about talking with people is they can put you onto good things it one way or another, like Meg Mac , and amazing singer who I had never heard of and now have to find more of her stuff. Enjoy
the excellent song above , just ordered the EP from Amazon.

 If you isolate yourself from people you never see or hear things like this. There is so much we miss out on , and let's face it we can't experience everything , but nothing beats the feeling of finding something amazing that you were unaware of. Anyway still have lots of chores to do but good music to listen to while I'm doing it and thankful for every friend I have.

I Will Walk

A View From Work

Or will I? I've found the new job is in walking distance assuming the weather is reasonable, it's 2.2 miles and mostly downhill and takes half an hour. I don't if it's going to improve my health because the problem is that it takes time and sometimes when you have the option of a five minute bus ride in suddenly becomes easier to take the bus, but we will see how it pans out.

Also it's funny how much more you can suddenly see from the next floor up , suddenly the Tyne Bridge and the Sage become visible , although the views over the Tyne Valley are still amazing on most days , even when it's a bit grey.


This week I've been listening to a lot of new music and well impressed with Hozier , the brilliantly named Faerground Accidents with some brilliant spiky guitars and The Sherlocks , but I still keep returning to the Fresh Blood album by Matthew E White the song above having a gorgeous coda and chorus , part of my Rough Trade recommendation subscription which has yielded some pretty good albums m though last one resulted in my first duplication with the new Django Django album. I kept the Rough Trade one because of the extra mix album and sent the other back to Amazon.

Sometimes Bad Things Result In Good Things

A very short post, but it struck me that sometimes bad things can ultimately lead to good things. I was made redundant and ended up with a totally ideal jo. Last Sunday Preston didnt play well and lost out on automatic promotion. Today they played Chesterfield and three minutes from the end Jermaine Beckford scored a wonder goal. If we had won automatic promotion , that goal would never have been scored. This means that Preston are going to Wembley and I am going to have a very crowded Bank Holiday Weekend

That's all I'm going to say , but it's something to bear in mind if things don't seem to be going your way at the moment.

MY Little GPO - An Example of Great Customer Service

My Little GPO

No it's not about the Post Office , it's about my vinyl record player , a GPO Attache Case model. It's a small player in an attache case type housing and I bought it a few months ago from JG Windows in Newcastle. The player is great and actually easily accommodates a full 12" vinyl record. It is perfect for what it does.

A Tiny GPO Manual

I hooked it up to my Bush Soundbar and the sound is excellent. But my only bugbear was the enclosed manual, it had been reduced so much that you cant even photograph it and enlarge it to see what all the buttons mean. Try it with the picture to to the right.. This meant that when I tried to record to MP3 it was very much guesswork. And of course I only have to convert stuff once in a blue moon so I forget which button (they are silver and small) is the record button.

So I went to the GPORetro website (who do all sorts of brilliant looking retro gear) and sent an email asking if they had the manual is PDF Format. This was a bout six o' clock on Saturday night. Within half an hour I had the document in my inbox , amazing service , so often you email suppliers and they'll take a week to get back/ I don't expect people to be on call for me 24/7 for things like this but it shows their commitment to excellent customer service.

So now I have a readable manual and would recommend that you visit the site . My niece bought the same turntable for her mum so obviously the appreciation of good things runs in our family. It's first thing Sunday Morning so time to get the papers, and get ready for Preston North End's second playoff game against Chesterfield.

The music is the nearest I could get to Little GPO , Ronnie and the Daytona's Little GTO (also a Beach Boys standard)

There IS Always Good

After the disappointment of the Election result all my friends seemed to be under a cloud , with good reason , and yesterday I finished the day with a bone density scan because I have cirrhosis of the liver. When I was diagnosed with that , even my consultant as well as a lot of my friends expected me to take it badly. This guy is a total top NHS consultant who is one of the most brilliant and nicest and most supportive people I have ever met , I wont name him here but his first name begins with Q and if you know me and the Freeman you may work it out. My reply was that because I'd been on a trial that he had asked me to be on (testing a new drug which I'd volunteered for because if people didn't do things like that I wouldn't be here today)  we had caught this very early and therefore knew about it , and though it's irreversible (at the moment) it means I just have to take extra care. If I hadn't been on the trial , I probably wouldn't have known until something bad happened, so in my opinion it was a good outcome.  Oh and he spotted muscle wastage in my left hand which he reckoned was a trapped nerve (this is when I lost the horizontal use of my left hand and it was decided it may have been a TIA) . He got me a referral and sever nerve damage in my elbows was diagnosed and surgery has restored my hand to be 95% back to normal , though I only needed to use of two fingers to play bass guitar !

Anyway after that lot I came back into town and got off the bus on Northumberland Street and was about to cross the road to pick up some money from Ladbrokes when I saw the Globe Gallery. They had an exhibition on of George Chakravarthi’s ‘Thirteen’ thirteen photographic light boxed pictures of characters from Shakespeare who committed suicide. Here's some information lifted from the Globe Gallery Site:

Thirteen

‘Thirteen’ is a photographic installation by London - based artist George Chakravarthi. Commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, to mark the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth the work portrays thirteen of Shakespeare’s tragic characters, all of whom meet their ends through suicide. Embedded in light boxes, Chakravarthi has created a series of powerful self-portraits, where he assumes the roles of some of Shakespeare’s most celebrated yet doomed characters: Brutus, Cassius, Eros, Goneril, Mark Antony, Othello, Timon of Athens, Lady Macbeth, Portia, Ophelia, Cleopatra, Juliet and Romeo.

 Chakravarthi says of the project:

 ‘The portraits are multilayered and imbued with colour and texture, created to present my vision of each image and character, revealing the beauty, anguish and complexities found across Shakespeare’s tragedies.’

The Gallery are also promoting Suicide Awareness which obviously ties in with the exhibition. The two ladies who I spoke to were extremely helpful , pleasant and easy and interesting to talk to , I thing I was talking for about twenty minutes while we talked of other projects and events.

We still have a lot to look forward to and we have friends who can see us through and support us when we come up against difficult situations , and remember be there to help anyone who needs it.

The music for this is Medicine Head's Pictures in the Sky , though the Afro haired guy don't really contribute that much :)

What Could You Possibly Mean?

My friend Pandora , who hails from the United States of America posted this on Facebook:

'I think it is really  funny when people refer to pants as "trousers".'

... and asked me what phrases brought a smile to my face. This is all about the richness of the English language , the speed and evolution of dialect and word growth and the fact that we all have minds that can interpret almost any word in any way.

For instance the word "wind" can be pronounced "winned" or "wined" and there you have for different words two of which are spelt (or spelled) exactly the same way. This post will probably be full of grammatical, spelling and logic errors so my  apologies far in advance.

Australia is another English speaking country that has it's own take on words and phrases that can be culturally funny implying innuendo or just something completely different. There's some Australian here but most a different words but things like num-num , dunny and jumbuck I think are particularly good.

There's som American / English here but  very often you'll find that that American word usage is closer to the original than British usage . I'm not sure what that says about us. But things like suspenders , braces and chips change their meaning across the ocean.

Pissoir

One thing that always irks me and makes me smile is that in both the USA and Britain is the refusal to use a functional name for a toilet . In Australia they'll use loo or dunny , I think the French have it nailed with pissoire but I remember a teacher being horrified when I said I needed to go to the toilet, and she rebuked me and told me it was a lavatory (ie somewhere where you wash), ok you wash your hands afterwards but it's somewhere
where essentially you have a wee or a poo.


 Even worse is the American euphemism of restroom or bathroom, I went in a restaurant than pointed to the bathrooms and there wasn't a bath to be seen and let's face it you don't go in for a rest do you, and where does John come from?

The thing is there are lots and lots of opportunities for extreme misunderstanding in the rich tapestry that or different cultures provide on the uneven playing field that is the English Language. I included the Judge Dread song because in theory it's perfectly innocent , after all it's just words.

Doing More or Taking Longer To Do It?

Recently , maybe over the last six months or longer , it seems I have less time to do things, or that's how I sometimes perceive it. I'll often look at the clock and think bloody hell I need to do this that and the other. Sometimes it seems that time is running away with me . There's lots I want to do , and I have to drop things because I'm doing other things. Recently a friend was over from Australia for three weeks for his sons wedding , but because of us being in different places when each of us had some free time we missed seeing each other.

I have close friends I haven't seen or spoken to since before Christmas, which is one of the positives about Facebook , because you can be aware of what is happening to others even if you don't see them.

In January I was made redundant, which I thought would mean have a lot of free time. The reality was that because of voluteering (Oxfam) , helping out (Geektalent) plus looking for a job, and doctors appointments , I did not wake up once wondering what  I was going to do that day.

I have two song snippets prepared, but need to knuckle down and make time to get things done there.

Catch up TV is growing by the day , and I don't have Netflix or Amazon Prime and cannot see even contemplating that in the future.

I almost missed the Journey To Justice Exhibition at the Discovery Museum , but forced myself to take time to see it as a good friend was heavily involved.

Then I have been to three gigs this week seeing seven bands and written blog posts on all of them here

So thinking about the situation , I would say I am doing quite a lot , keeping active and that's why sometimes I feel as if I don't have time to do what I want. Yes it is nice to relax at times , but it's even nicer to do something that you want. Really I'm in the position of having a choice of a number of gorgeous sweets at the end of a meal , knowing the reality is that, for today anyway, I can only choose one.

Journey

So the choice of song is Time Captives by Kingdom Come although the song lyrics say Time Captains, if you plan your Time you're fine if not well you know ......

You always have options and the ideal idea is to always have a choice you can take that you want. This comes off for me most of the time so at the moment life is very good.

I think I've said this before , sometimes you just need to step back ,  get a different perspective and then things look so much better.

Have a brilliant day , and there's another Bank Holiday at the end of the month

TV IS KING!

Well it is and it isnt. I'm old enough to remember only two channels, being really annoyed when Kennedy got shot because ITV took all their programs off and just had some woman playing piano and I missed my weekly episode of Bonanza. I saw the transition from black and white to colour, the moon landings and England winning the World Cup..

I remember getting BBC2 and that was a 50% increase in available TV , then we got Channel 4 and Brookside and Channel 5 was a relatively recent terrestrial addition , plus there was the proliferation of satellite , Sky's money managing to make and sterilize football in one fell swoop.

When we had limited channels , audiences could be huge , but people complained like hell about repeats. We now have digital channels that are completely repeats. People complain about the TV License but happily shell out five times as much for subscription TV that STILL is full of advertisements.

The switch to digital came and gave most people loads of effectively free content funded by adverts. Plus these days we can have catch up TV and recording boxes that allow you to skip adverts, enabling you to watch what you want when you want.

It's very seldom these days that you need to get home for a TV program unless it's a televised live event, but we now probably watch more TV than ever before. It#s ubiquitous. We have TV on Mobile devices and there's a TV screen visible wherever you sit at work.

TV IS KING!

And my point is people still say "There's nothing on television" , apart from the off switch you have all the options above. My TIVO box is 90% full and Netflix and Amazon Prime don't even touch my radar. There are times when you channel hopand cant find anything you want but there are so many catch up and record options you should always be able to find something.

And if not, why not read a book or call a friend , that's even better than TV!

Though the Tubes song was appropriate as it gave the  post it's title.

Legendary Times

Not quite yet

Well the last few months have been amazing and the next few weeks are likely to be just as good. Have been catching up with friends, started an excellent new job with some great people in an excellent location, been involved with an amazing start up GeekTalent , done a small amount of volunteer work for Oxfam, taken part in Record Store Day and World Book Night, seen two total music legends, George Clinton and Lee Perry in accessible settings and Preston North End are within a win of returning to the Championship. Joe Garner winning League One Player of the year , and despite having a lengthy layoff still managing to finish as probably the league's top scorer. Here's that goal from last season's playoff defeat , but it is amazing:


So that's what's been happening, this week is more work , and more music with Public Service Broadcasting , Jordan Reyne next month Black Grape as well, with a possibility of fitting in the Fall. I'm just so lucky to be living in Newcastle with all this amazing stuff going on. Oh and there's going to be Summertyne , The Mouth Of Tyne Festival , Corbridge Festival, the Newcastle Unity Festival and The Green Festival, it is looking like an exciting summer.

It kicks off with a half eight hospital visit tomorrow morning which should be just routine stuff. Also lots of garden stuff to do , a new website to design and put live , and to record some songs I've half written (initial ideas recorded to phone now sitting on my PC)  when I finally get my set up running though may just go for recording to system microphone.

So basically it's now time for bed. Enjoy the rest of your weekend , I certainly will. I've include John Cale's Bamboo Floor because it makes me happy , with suitably dark lyrics.

Laziness Creeping In

Well not really. The new job is so close to home that I hop on the bus , off it , then into the office , it takes less than ten minutes. A side effect of this is that I don't actually hit my 10K a day designated in my Samsung S-Health application. The think is, that I keep trying to do extra walking when I can, so it's not like I have packed in trying to hit the target. Since starting the new job have become enamoured of certain Boots Sushi packs ,falling back on Nudo when Boots don't have the stuff. This stuff is really nice and does fill you and is probably good for you , certainly better than the huge sandwich packs , and bread often makes me feel bloated whereas after this I just feel satisfied , which is good.

As I've said before, my free time has increased and I do feel good because of it, which is improved by the current beautiful weather, and the upcoming glut of music festivals and concerts coming my way , the only real problem being so many clashes.

The new job is Newcastle based , and this is the hundredth time I have tagged Newcastle on this blog, and though I'm not a native (originally from Preston which I have mentioned only 15 times though I still love my home town and all my friends and family who live there) , but that's just some throwaway stats that I am wont to throw in to my perusals.

It's been another good day and this week I'm looking forward to enjoying the challenges of the new job , catching up with friends , maybe getting to a gig or two before a hospital appointment next Sunday (8:30 in the morning can you believe) , but I cannot berate the NHS because they are totally brilliant.

So this is just a short post , talking about nothing , and apologise for not putting anything of substance in here, but I'm sure you will find something brilliant to do tonight , so do it and have fun.

I included a Jordan Reyne song because I am going to see her in May and she is one of the most impressive artists I've discovered in the last twelve months.

Everything is Happening and Summer is a Coming In

RSD 2015

Sorry I've not blooged for a while , no real reason apart from laziness , but it has been remarked upon , and I need need to post something given how much is happening this week. So here it is.

This week I started my new job which is basically a 9 to 5 scenario with decent flexibility and good people to work with and it's been very enjoyable so far, managing to track down a rogue tenner in half a million quid to balance a book. The thing is , this new job has given me back about ten hours a week that I wont be on a train and maybe £3K a year I don't have to spend on travel.

This has come at an opportune time because tomorrow , as well as being my great friend Craig and Sheena's birthday it's also National Record Store Day , so I will be in and around Newcastle visiting RPM , Reflex , Beatdown  but may not get to the excellent Pop Recs in Sunderland although I'm sure they won't miss me there. Some great memories of previous days include getting a Facebook message from my great friend Mike asking if I could pick up a copy of the Clash's London Calling about ten to five. It was the most sought after item of that day, so had sold out when the shops opened , although one did turn up in Reflex a couple of weeks later which I snaffled immediately and dropped off.

WBN 2015

This week , also , it's World Book Night on Shakespeare's Birthday (23rd of April). Just 18 books this time but a bit of a trek by public transport to pick them up tomorrow , mine is Roddy Doyle's "Dead Man Talking"  a short , easy to read book , which I shall be distributing around Newcastle on the 23rd.

There are numerous gigs coming up as well including William Control , Public Service Broadcasting , Rhombus and Jordan Reyne, and PSB's excellent go is certainly appropriate for my life at the moment.

As well as that summer is on it's way so the garden will need it's first mow soon and the grass is now growing fairly healthily.

So I'm going to bed now , enjoy your weekend I certainly intend to

St Andrews Connections

I'm writing this post partially with a prod from Paul Campbell who wanted to be on Seven Days In (as opposed to Seven Day Sin). I've actually mentioned him once before and so this is the second time his name has appeared in these pages, but you can find that and this and all future posts here. Paul also has his own blog Scriptuality where you can find out about his adventures in scriptwriting and find out when his name is going to be appearing on screen. Paul and Lesley also chivvied everyone for this get together in St Andrews , so he can get people to do things that is actually good for them, ie and meeting up with old friends and people you haven''t met , forgetting real life for a bit and actually enjoying yourself. I don't expect any events from this weekend to appear in Eastenders and there were lots of people talking , enjoying themselves, with lots of smiles and sunshine.

The South Street Kids ....25 Years On

St Andrews is a University town as well has being awash with Americans as there's some golf game coming up.  One of the odd things about St Andrews , or something I noticed is the number of places we visited for food which required and Marco Polo scale trek from the street to the venue. Forgans and The Vineleaf were two such examples , however they were worth the walk , and Forgans finished the njght with a Ceilidh which is basically a formalised mosh pit which ended up with several people falling over , although alcohol may have had something to do with that.

Tonight Matthew I Will Be Val Doonican

While everyone else stayed in luxury caravans we had to make to with the MacDonald Rusacks Hotel which got me £30 back on TopCashBack  and was very pleasant but did have a an Arnold Palmer montage painting in reception which looked suspiciously like Val Doonican.

But I would definitely stay there again as had great service , nice staff , good breakfast and a good nights sleep

It was a great weekend and great to meet and talk people and it's always good to take yourself out of your normal routine and do something to connect with people who matter to you , because then you feel much better in yourself.

Oh I have to mention the numerous children who came along to this one and although there was a probable ten to fifteen year age spread they were all totally excellent in   behavior and engagement.

So it's now Easter Monday and the music I'm gonna put for this is Big Country's One Great Thing , for obvious reasons and because me and Scott were talking a lot about them amongst other things. No go and get them Easter Eggs.

A Very Good Start To April .... Record Store Day Is This Month

Hot Chilli

I was going to do a post on Whitby when I got back from a good weekend on Monday but due to my extreme laziness. Whitby is brilliant , I love the place and I managed to restock my Howling Goth Chilli Sauce , visit lots of place , but got the slightly bad news the the Folk Devils shop is closing in a fortnight although they are continuing online which is very good. While I was in there they were playing some Ty Segall who I've heard great reports of , but not got round to buying , so I've now rectified that with a few other additions to the playpile.

That Building

Then yesterday and my Metro to Sunderland was redirected to South Shields requiring me to go there and take a bus to Sunderland. This meant going into places that I 'd not been for years and I noticed a Barclays Bank , which was handy as I needed to drop some stuff off so that was handy . I also noticed and incredible looking red brick building on Fawcett Street. At street level there's a CEX and some furniture shop, but above street level it is very impressive.


 When I went yesterday to the bank and to photograph the build I then noticed a new record shop opposite , Pop Recs.

Outside Pop Recs

Inside Pop Recs

I went in and it's very roomy and an excellent layout with a lot of vinyl , and a few CDs , settees a stage area and a jukebox, reminding of the new Rough Trade store in New York, which hosts live music.





It's run by Frankie and The Heartsrings , and I was chatting with the guy behind the counter who was telling about how they set it up when HMV shut down, and the fact that they'd had The Cribs and The Vaccines playing for free recently. The good thing about the place its that it has the space inside to support a live band. He also told me that the Red Building across the street was owned by Nadine Shah's family and that she was a frequent visitor to the shop. Nadine is a local girl and has produced two stunning albums so that was just an amazing coincidence.

Unfortunately I was in a rush so only had a short visit and didn't buy anything this time, but seriously this one shop is a reason to actually go to Sunderland. The people are friendly and you can also get coffee and a lot more there, another positive is that they obviously care about people and music , you'll know why when you visit.

With National Record Shop Day coming around in a couple of weeks (18th April)  this will be the place to be in Sunderland , you really should go.

So really it's been a great start to the month and the sun is shining , I hope your month goes as well as mine is going to do.

A Complaint Or Two

I tend to keep this blog positive and try not to moan about things. Although one thing I have moaned about is that positive things seem to get little or no coverage , whereas gripes, moans and complaints  seem to capture most of the proletariat. Always wondered about that, I would love to get on the bus and overhear something generally nice or positive that had caught someone's fancy. Having said that , most of my friends are positive and usually have good things to say about things, or tell me about good things that have happened or are happening.

Anyway here are my three life complaints:

iPad

1. Shrink wrap on CDs, Biscuits and Weetabix. Why are they almost impossible to get into, sometimes damaging the content as you try harder and harder to remove the packaging , sometimes resorting to blades to do so , potentially cutting the CD or it's cover.
2. Radio and TV Adverts where someone reads the Terms and Conditions but it's speeded up, meaning you can;t really take it in anyway. This is the aural equivalent of the unreadable small print that you have with your mobile phone contract , or Apple or Android apps. I just updated my iPad and there was a 37 page Terms and Conditions document that I was supposed to agree to before I could do those essential updates.
3. People  who refuse to watch films if the have subtitles or are in black and white

Anyway after saying that the Tyneside Bar and Cafe is showing Amelie as a freebie tonight. It's French and it is one of the greatest feel good films ever. It really is a must see. Watching films like this lifts your spirit , and does talking to great friends , laughing , smiling , enjoying yourself. There is so much good in the world take advantage of it. Have a brilliant day. I'm going to include Eddie Izzard's iTunes Terms and conditions routine and the trailer for Amelie for you to enjoy and to make you smile and laugh.

Seven Days In Orton Cumbria

I came up with the name for this blog as a travel blog about places I'd stayed, which maybe is a bit ambitious as I don't travel very far. I detest flying , not for the actual flight , but for the endless queuing and excuses for delays, plus the fact the flight is usually a miniscule part of the journey unless , say, I were going to Australia.

Anyway the place we were it was Orton in Cumbria, just off the M6 but very quiet and very relaxing. It is also about a mile away from the Tebay / Westmorland Farm Services which are the benchmark for Motorway Service Stations. The now have one on the M5 and one on the M74 planned. While the prices are Motorway Service Station levels, the service, location and food on offer is the best you will find on a Motorway (In this case the M6).

The cottage is a converted barn and can be seen here , and has everything you need although the village is still waiting on broadband and the mobile signal is a little erratic. This meant that for the first time I ran out of data on my EE contract , and due to the stipulations and expense of buying extra data I decided I didn't need it. Of and after 2 messages with a URL to buy the extra data , their app then stops letting you see your data information so you couldn't buy any if you wanted! But it wasn't a major hassle , there are lots of places that let you hook into wifi including the aforementioned Westmorland Farm Services and the excellent Kings Head at Ravenstonedale, which sounds like somewhere from Game of Thrones.


We ate at the excellent Black Swan which is well worth a visit if you are ever in the area, this is one of the meals I had , runny scotch eggs, gammon , garlic cheese potatoes, tomatoes and green stuff. There's also images of the giant meringue on my instagram feed if you want to try and fine it.



The countryside is very relaxing and great for just walking and doing not much out of contact from mobile phones and the like, and the great thing about staying in Orton is that it has a post office that sells 99% of stuff that you actually need, then there's the George Hotel which does food and drink and the people are really pleasant in there, and then you have Kennedy's Chocolate factory where you can buy almost anything made of chocolate , including boxes of chocolates made out of chocolate.

I thought a suitable tune was Lindsey Buckingham's Holiday Road from National Lampoon's Vacation , the guy is a total musical genius , and that is the best of the vacation films.

So that's some short thoughts on my week away, now I'm back home and the weather is looking very good.. Have a fantastic Sunday everybody

Grey Days Can Be Good

Today the weather is a bit grey and I have time to myself for a change. So I'm going into Newcastle and maybe visiting the many great places to go such as The Discovery Museum , and maybe take a coffee and cake at The Tyneside Cafe I love being in Newcastle because almost everywhere you want to go is in walking distance. And really on this day I suppose walking is is a bit of a thread going through this post.

Fit Phone

The other thing is that since I got my Samsung Note 4 , I've enjoyed the excellent camera, but there's an app  on it called S-Health which sets you a target of 10,000 steps a day to do. I don't know whether I have OCD but I find myself aiming to hit and surpass the daily target. And because the phone seems to register steps fairly accurately I carry it with me a lot more permanently that when I used to have my previous phone which didn't seem to be as sensitive. I've also tried pedometers which just didn't seem to work, and tried  a gym membership , which if you look at me , you'll realise I got bored with. But this is so easy to integrate with your everyday life.

Anyway I'm going to go into town town and leave you with one of my favourite songs about walking, Fats Domino's "I'm Walking"

After All .... Busy Doing Nothing

What My Dad Says Goes ... Sometimes

Well feeling abit sore after yesterdays hospital visit and they're still not finished with me , although they are very happy with my positive attitude. The thing is today is a rest day but my dad has this attitude "If you're not working , you're doing nothing , and if you're doing nothing you should be working" and I'm feeling that way this morning. I love my dad , but am sensible enough to look after myself and rest when the doctors tell me too. He once broke hi foot , drove to hospital , got it sorted and they told him to get an taxi or ambulance to get home , but he still drove back.





Anyway I have a new Rough Trade subscription  album by Matthew E White called Fresh Blood , and I'd heard the single Rock and Roll is Cold on Radio 6 quite a bit and loved it and the album does live up to that song, well worth a purchase.

Also I watched the film "Good Vibrations" the story of the record label and one of the first songs I heard on it was Blood and Fire by Niney The Observer , which has an awesome chorus which I knew from PJ Harvey's Written On The Forehead from her wonderful Let England Shake album.

It's a beautiful day and as I write this now have the Hozier album playing with some wonderful gospel type call and response choruses. Anyway I am gonna have a busy day resting. You all have a great day.

It's Never Too Late

Yesterday morning I couldn't sleep and posted something on here, but it caught up with me and I was not feeling too good last night. So had a sensible amount of sleep and overall probably have had what could be termed a reasonably relaxing weekend. But it's never too late or too early to write a blog post.

Ready to Rip

I've caught up on stuff , sent off some official stuff , bought some stuff , eaten some stuff , read some stuff and probably forgotten some stuff.

The weather has been cold but I think it is getting warmer.

This week is another busy week with hospital appointments, meetings and more taking up all the free time I have at the moment, but it's good to keep busy.

Have Amp Will Make Noise

I also treated myself to a new Blackstar amplifier from GuitarGuitar , which I shall have a play round with tomorrow. as well as transferring some vinyl to MP3 , in particular Women In Revolt and Gary Wright's Wonderwheel after getting some seven inch adapters from Reflex which were not exactly cheap, but vinyl accessories are necessary to it's enjoyment.

Anyway I found "I Know" on youtube for you to enjoy before I hit the sack.

So goodnight , and hit the ground running for this week , and have a totally brilliant one. That's what I intend to do.

Sometimes It's Too Early

Woke up an 3AM , I haven't a clue why. It's Saturday so I know I can go back to bed if I need to. The wind is howling outside , but it isn't raining., though they say if March Comes In Like A Lion , It Goes Out Like A Lamb , so that may bode well for the end of the month weather wise. The best thing is , is that it is the weekend.

From The Back

This week I have been listening to some great music, and am fascinated by the picture of the simple mirrored arch I took in Sunderland this week , just love the disconcerting affect it has. When I look at it from the front , because of the very blue sky I don't see it at first and really have to look before I do see it. Looking from the back it is obvious but from the front , in the photograph it hides in plain sight.

When I took the picture I could obviously see it, which is why I took the picture, but then when I looked at it on my phone I couldn't actually see the thing immediately. It reminds me a bit of the effect of Anthony Gormley's "Domain Field"  which when you look at a photograph or from a distance you don't immediately see the figures.

From The Front

 Maybe it's my eyes and age but would be interested in your opinion. The Domain Field figures are below from an exhibition in the Baltic a few years back. Anyway I might go and grab a few hours sleep, so you all have a brilliant weekend. For a change there's no music on this one but hope you like the pictures

Domain Field With People

Domain Field Figures

There's Always New Music To Discover and Rediscover - It's A Pleasure

Father and Son

Despite my age I seem to be always find new music to enjoy, reminded of this by a conversation I had this morning, and sometimes those things are new and sometimes they may have been around for longer than you thought.

Music always has the ability to delight and surprise , challenge and lift your spirits.

It's A Pleasure

The case in point is Baxter Dury , son of Ian Dury. You can hear his fathers mannerisms in his voice , but he has been making albums for over ten years. Given his age this isn't a surprise , but I'm quite amazed that he managed to slip under my radar, and I am a husge fan of his fathers music. Anyway after listening to the new album "It's A Pleasure" the whole of his back catalogue is on it's way to my door.

Similarly a couple of weeks I saw Man Made , fronted by Johnny Marr's son Nile. Talent obviously does run in a lot of families





Another record I bought was a best of John Mellencamp , who's done a lot of excellent blue collar rock , although I also have a sneaking liking for R.O.C.K. In The USA , he's one the artists like Chris Rea who broke free of the MOR machine shackles to plough a worthy musical furrow.

Anyway the song I have to leave you is Baxter Dury's live take of It's A Pleasure , hopefully it will persuade you that buying the album is a good idea:

Theres Always Another Way

I thought I was having anger problems, it's happened a few times recently and with just a bit of thought it's dissipated. I thought maybe it's old age or diabetes , and maybe it is , but , as I've said before , anger is such a negative destructive emotion I do always try to deal with it. I was even thinking of starting a Mr Angry blog to vent my spleen , and let's face it it's always the complaints and negative stuff that people seem to go for , how else can you explain X-Factor and Britain's Got Talent?

Anyway the two incidents today were waiting behind someone taking an age at a cash machine , and then a huge queue in Boots where they had  one girl serving . It's the management that exasperates me , absolutely not bothered about the customer experience.

Keep Calm

To quote John Lydon "Anger Is An Energy" but it does have to be properly directed , and I have always managed to do that and never let it control me, though I never ever queue unless I have absolutely no choice. So the obvious song to choose is Public Image's Rise from which that line is taken , and John Lydon also used it to title his latest book.

Anyway It's the beginning of March and I have a most interesting week coming up , and really need to get to bed due to an early morning physiotherapy session tomorrow. SO have a good week and always look for a way to positively channel and anger you have.



Oh by the way I took thirty seconds to walk to another cash machine across the road , and walked out of Boots because I can always call in another time and these actions left me totally stress and anger free.

This Makes Me Smile

In the sixties my uncle remarked that anyone would have to be an idiot to wear a T-Shirt advertising a company name. I can't remember who the company was but it always stuck with me. While I've never had a problem with discreet external labeling like Wrangler, Levis and Lacoste, this are getting quite silly at the moment.

The Label Is King

Everyday I see people plastered with Superdry and Jack Wills in particular. No the quality may be acceptable, but wearing their clothes is only one step up from donning a sandwich board. Really everytime I see these people I don't see a style guru , I see a branded sheep. I wasn't thinking of any song in particular but the Kinks "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion" should be nailed on for this.

I know that on my journey to work tomorrow I will see people advertising Superdry and Jack Wills , and when I next go shopping I will buy something that looks class and doesn't need to scream it's name like Fat Face or John Rocha , or even Next.

Sleep well and have fun tomorrow.

World Book Night 2015 Is Almost Upon Us

Dead Man Talking

I can't believe it's four years since my first World Book Night. Then I had 50 Copies of  Philip Pulman's Northern Lights. This year it is 18 copies of Roddy Doyle's  Dead Man Talking , so one of my tasks is to finish my current book and read this before I give it away so I can appear knowledgeable about it. I always read the book I'm giving away and it's always good to engage with people about it and hopefully either get people to start reading or to restart their reading.

Thinking about this has just reminded me of one of my favourite TED talks about the joy a book can bring , better than any film or play or TV episode because books use and trigger your imagination.



Here is the World Book Night site and a list of this years books. It's on Thursday 23rd of April which is William Shakespeare's birthday and for 2012 and 2013 I wasn't sure why the day (not the date) changed each year. It's also a charity funded campaign so if you want to help click on the button
below and donate a little cash.

WBN 2015

That was the second bit of good news , the first being that I have been offered a position of a Systems Analyst, which will be another excellent challenge as well and keeping me off the street. So anyway it's time for bed as I need to get up tomorrow to do seven and a half hours looking for jobs ..... Oh no I don't !!

SO I suggest you watch the TED talk and buy a copy of the book as it;s a quick read and will only cost you a quid.

Festival Fun - Comparing Photos At A Fall Gig

The last four days have see three days of music and seeing about fifteen bands which is a lot even for me, although this is not so much about the music about various fringe observations , which looking back on have amused me , or made me glad I side stepped them.

On Thursday I went to see the excellent King Charles at The Riverside and all three bands were superb. I briefly spoke to the guitarist with Man Made who was a really nice guy as well as being a talented guitarist and it turned out he is Nile Marr son of Johnny Marr previously of  The Smiths. That night at the end of the Gallery Circus set something started dripping through the ceiling. It turns out the toilets had got blocked , so I'm not sure what was overflowing but we managed to avoid the wet area, and the gig was totally brilliant.

While I'm guilty of posting photos on instagram, facebook and twitter I am amazed how many people see to spend virtually the whole gig on the phone or tablet. While watching The Fall , who are musically challenging , there were four ladies in front of comparing holiday and family snaps on their phones and mobile devices, I don't know if this is the normal modus operandi for Fall audiences these days.

Comparing Photos At A Fall Gig

Yesterday I was in a crush to try and see Public Service Broadcasting, but my sensible head moved me to the sides to ensure I could breathe. I'm sure there have been worse concert crushes, and I don't know what the solution is , but people forcing their way into the crush carrying multiple pints in plastic glasses and various takeaway foods on paper plates did not make the situation any better.

I thought I'd try Tesco's next day wine delivery. They've farmed it out to Yodel , split it into two parcels and keep sending me texts saying it will be delivered today. No time or anything , so they will probably wait round the corner and wait til I have to go out. After all in in a twelve hour delivery window there's only one possible time they could deliver. God I almost sound like a Daily Mail reader don't I!

However today is the day when I find whether I've been chosen as a giver for World Book Night 2015 so my fingers are crossed for that. I've been doing it since 2011 and here's a post on my first one.

Anyway I came out of it all in one piece , having seen some amazing performance, and looking forward to a totally brilliant week.