The Hanged Man Is Not Dead

I was talking with a good friend saying that I'd ordered a set of Tarot Cards , even though I really knew nothing about The Tarot. The set I'd ordered is an absolutely beautiful set called The Psychobilly Tarot . If you search google images you can see them here. My friend then told me the meaning of The Hanged Man in the Tarot which I had always assumed meant death. It doesn't , well not in the way we think of it.

Psychobilly Hanged Man

I may be displaying my total ignorance here but here's what the actual meaning of the Hanged Man is.

The Hanged Man on the World Tree

In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil – the world tree – is the home of the universe.

The Aesir Gods live in the top, with elves, humans and ice giants populating the tree as you descend, until you reach the roots where the Norns live.

The Norns are the Norse fates – three sisters who control the destiny of all the creatures in all the worlds. 

They carve runes – symbols of magic and knowledge – into the bark of Yggdrasil, so that their power is carried through all the branches, affecting all the people. 

 Now, the Aesir gods are a curious pantheon, in that they know of a prophecy that fortells their death. 

Odin, King of the Gods, traded one of his eyes to acquire the prophecy and ever since had been searching for ways for undo their doom.

From the top of the world tree, Odin looked down and saw the sisters with their runes and felt the power of the symbols.

Perhaps, here, he might find the answer that would save himself and his people.

Down Odin descended. He asked the sisters to teach him the runes, but sadly they shook their heads. The runes could not be given, but must be earned. 

A sacrifice was required. So with strong ropes and cunning knots, the Norns hung Odin from a branch of Yggdrasil, 

 Each symbol had its own power – there were runes for protection and runes to curse, runes to inspire love and runes to acquire wealth. Runes to heal, and runes to wound. 

ll these runes Odin was now the master of, and he hoped that it would be enough to arm him and his kin against Ragnarok: the end of the world. 

 So the hanged man is Odin , who made a sacrifice (his life) to earn the power of the runes. So it's not a sign of death but a sign of change.

Admitedly not my usual tyme of post but I love Norse Mythology , and thing the Psychobilly Tarot looks amazing and it's and excuse to include a Psychobilly track. Now what should we have...

Loving Life with a Glamorous Owl and Medusa

While it's nothing earth shattering there were a lot of nice things going on today. This follows on from yesterday where I heard a friend had an offer on a house accepted , and was so pleased for them, and they were happy. And yesterday was extremely good.

And then today I had tasked myself with getting some new jackets , and after trailing through shops found a pair of linen ones in John Lewis and when I got to pay found they were half price , so it was effectively 2 for 1.

Glamorous Owl Candle

I wandered through the Grainger Market stopping off in Reflex and a chat with my mate Phil who works in there, then down through the Bigg Market towards RPM and noticed a shop that had replaced the beloved Attica , The Glamorous Owl and it is a wonderful and joyous place full of locally produced things  and the people are wonderfully welcoming. You have to visit this place it really is a jewel.




Then on to RPM where Marek told he had something coming in , a collection of local 60s / 70s vinyl coming in , which should be very interesting.

Medusa on a Man

Then in Fitzgeralds was served my a waitress who had the most amazingly stunning Medusa Tattoo , a true work of art , but I was too much of a gentleman to ask her for a photograph of it , but it was very impressive.

Anyway , the Joe Walsh song should suffice for the soundtrack to this post because the title sums up my feelings today even though I am very tired,

Oh and Preston won today which is always puts a smile on my face.

So enjoy the rest of the weekend. I know things are going to get much, much better

Great Expectations

Don't know what brought this into my mind , but as you know my mind does veer off in weird direction , with or without and inspirational muse to direct me. I usually post because someone or something or some event has inspired me.

Anyway was just thinking of a time recently where I was watching a particular exciting TV program that was coming to a climactic scene and ....... there's a loud banging on the door , completely dissipating the moment. It was my new window cleaner (not had one for a while) who has the loudest knock you could think of.

Top Hat

Now if I hadn't got a new window cleaner , the TV progam would have had it's desired effect , but
because I put in motion the new window cleaner thing , that happened , and is likely to happen again as you need to be in for him to catch you.

Sometimes things you do can have completely unexpected but still valid results.

Anyway it's been a brilliant end to an amazing week , and now it's time for the weekend to kick in . Have a wonderful one my fantastic friends.

Good Things From The Fridge

It's summer , it's hot and often you don't feel like eating a great deal, but it is nice to have something that's both cool and good for you. While I love apples and grapefruit that have been in the fridge at least a day, sometime grapefruit can get a little messy with juice going everywhere as you cut into it, but the taste as the pulp hits your tongue is tart and amazing.

Fruit Is Cool Inside You

But also grapes , strawberries and baby plum tomatoes are an absolute treat for the tastebuds slipping down a treat and you just find it difficult to stop. Just one more, just one more and then you stop. And it's amazing that there are readily available everywhere, so it's not as though they are exotic.

Raspberries are another and even bananas , which are also full of goodness and are very pleasant decorated with cream and ice-cream.

So I hope my culinary escapade has kept you amused and given you ideas to try.

It's time for bed now , early start tomorrow

And it's an excise include Prince's Cream as the decoration although I could have had Peach!

Just Three Words

I saw a post on Facebook asking people to describe their day in three words. What shocked me was the amount of negative sets of words . While there is a lot of negativity happens , it's just something to deal with like missing a bus ,  losing your wallet , and there are really big bad things , but when it gets that bad you call on your friends for support , because that's what they are for.

So an example of a couple of things yesterday is someone asked me how things were going , as usual , I said "Absolutely brilliant" , and they said it was such a refreshing change for someone not to be moaning about something , which actually made me feel even better.

A colleague asked for a favour , she was feeling under pressure, as things had conspired to corner her,  and she needed to get some information for a deadline . We sat and worked through and very quickly got what she wanted. I told her to set up a short "informal" training session for next week for her team. That was great and she did her presentation and apparently some senior people were so impressed that they will be joining next week. I just emphasized it would till be informal but we all felt very very good.

Enjoy

Then I checked an email and saw I had missed a mail from my  friends at Geek Talent. A quick change of plan meant I had tea with them at Za Za Bazaar in the Gate and met lots of new people and many old friends had an absolutely wonderful day.

The song I've chosen is just so uplifting , and had to put it in because the way I'm feeling even though I used it in a post about Peru recently, Big Day by Phil Manzanera featuring Brian Eno.




Oh yeah my three words "Loving Every Second"

Celebrate The Good

This post was going to be about negative stuff, but I thought I am always telling people to concentrate on the positives , because it's the easiest thing in the world to find fault , so maybe I am a bit special because I will always look for the good in everything.

I miss a bus , I walk to the next stop and benefit from the walk

I miss a train, I have longer to read a book , listen to music, talk with friends.

Last night I became a Friend of the Tyneside Cinema, because it's the only Cinema I'm aware of north of somewhere South and it's a wonderful place , the people there are lovely and I love going in there.

Vamos!

You also meet lovely people there , last night I ran into Craig and Krista and they introduced me to a young poet and we chatted about diverse thinks such as South and Central America  , film , Vamos and Isabel Sarli. Craig and Kirista went to watch a film and the poet left with a hug.

Then we went for a lovely meal at Prezzo before coming.

Had correspondence with various good friends during the day and there was so much good happening.



And this came on to of an amazing weekend with friends and family enjoying the Chase Park Festival under gorgeous sunny skies.

And when you concentrate on good things it sets you up  to look for more things.

I know negative and bad things do happen , but if you are in a positive frame of mind it will help you. There are times even in my new job, when things seem that they are getting too much , with belief in myself , and so much support and positivity from my friends and colleagues there , as well as the company ethos , makes sure that I succeed.

Anyway I hope you all have a great day, I am going to have one , and what else could I have but Baxter Dury's "Pleasure" my feelgood record of the moment.

I'm No Superman

Yesterday I went to the amazing Chase Park Festival (see my review here) , and the power on my phone ran out , so after the gig had finished I managed to lose everybody but expected to see them at the bus stop. Although everyone is capable of looking after themselves I thought I'd use the public phone box, not a la Clark Kent , but to actually make a phone call.

All Change

Then it struck me , I don't know any phone numbers because I don't need to know any numbers , because the phone does that for me. Luckily I know my home number , but then thought how the hell does this work. I finally realised I could use a 50p and a 10p so picked up the phone ... no sound ... put the money in nothing , so I couldn't even make a phone call.

Having said that A very drunk guy tried after me and came out cursing , and he couldn't get it to work either so maybe it's not me.





I used to think that it would be wrong to close down phone boxes , but technology is making the
things redundant. But they are essential in an emergency ,,, but you need to know your number and how to use the things.

Anyway just a small thing to share and think "Don't Care" by Klark Kent is appropriate.

The Dangers of Letting Me Make Porridge

I am diabetic , you all know that. I treat it very casually , you all know that. I do what I'm supposed to do you all know that, and the fact I am still here is testament to my general life regime. The NHS has been brilliant in their support of me, with some superb support from across the spectrum , especially my brilliant surgery , Thornfield Medical Group, who I would recommend unreservedly to anybody and NUTH Hospitals who I have both worked for and been treated by over the last few years.

You get the odd well meaning pedant , like the nurse who told me I had to live off carrots and celery, and the nurses and doctors who keep banging about me getting out of a car and sitting in the passenger if I have a hypo while driving. As I diabetic I have to check my blood sugar levels at least every two hours when driving , and I always do this before getting behind the wheel. If the blood sugar was low I would not get in that car, and the day I have a hypo while driving is the day I give up driving. But as I bang on about the odd pedant I have to tell you about the nurse who brilliantly analogised the benefits of Omega 3 Oil as a brillo pad for your veins and arteries (everyone and I mean EVERYONE) should take Omega 3, the brilliant consultant who , although trialling me on a liver drug which resulted in identifying my cirrhosis (which means I can take extra care of myself  in that area) , who also noticed muscle wastage in my left hand which I had lost the horizontal use of, eventually kicking of some tests that discovered a weird trap nerve carpal tunnel syndrome combination that has resulted in a 90% restoration of the functionality of my left hand, we original thought it may have been a TIA or a stroke (which I may have had around the turn of the century when I got hit by ITP).

But as usual I've gone sort of off subject before I've started, but it's really that porridge is the best breakfast anyone can have and it's particularly good for diabetics. It is one of the few foods you can buy that does have sugar as one of it's ingredients (most other cereals have loads) , although the sachets and quick porridge brands have loads of added sugar., just go with a box of Quaker Oats and you can't go wrong (though I'm on Aldi's stuff at the moment). Anyway the way I make porridge is half a cup of  dry porridge oats , a cup of skimmed milk , then put in a pan and stir together and but on the hob on the lowest heat and come back when you are ready to eat (at least 30 minutes) , add some fruit for taste , chopped apple , banana, raisins or sultanas , and you have a perfect start to the day. After that you DO NOT feel like snacking at all , it's very slow release, Perfect.

Porridge has many forms

And now the dangers..... I was once working from home , put the porridge on about 7am and the started work. I was so engrossed in my work that I forgot about the porridge until a cooking smell wafted upstairs that I noticed about 11:30 am. Amazingly because of the low heat, adding another cup of skimmed milk and stirring it it resulted in a great breakfast ... at dinnertime.

Then yesterday ,I had porridge for breakfast , but came home to find I had forgotten to switch off the hob , so it had been on all day, but luckily only on the low heat which means you don't see a red glow  when you take the pan off, so that didn't do my energy conservation much good.



Anyway today I'm going to see Ash with I used to soundtrack my YouTube video that I did when I took part in Lighting Hadrian's Wall which I've include with this even though the only connection is me. Have a great day, I'm going to the Chase Park Festival with my girls , and friends and their families (who are all girls!)  so you enjoy yourself , I'm gonna enjoy mine

The World of Steampunk and Mystery

We all love a mystery and to see something that doesn't make sense , well maybe it does, but in a skewed fashion, and was discussing with a good friend about the concept of Steampunk , and minority religions and ancient nature.

Steampunk , like every movement seems homogenized and refined in places with no grasp of the real concepts behind it . Some welding goggles and cogs and it's steampunk isn't it. Well no. Steampunk is an analog alternative future , this is where the cogs come in because they drive this world...

Flying Icarus

.. and when you start cross breeding it with Wicca , Goth ancient nature you open up a whole new fantasy world that can become real for everyone involved. Sometimes I'm not sure what is what byt love the Disney  films such 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and Mysterious Island and The Time Machine which brimmed with genuine steampunk imagery and it's surprising that I think the first book to genuinely buy into this genre was Michael Moorcock's Warlord of The Air. When I read this when it came out the term Steampunk hadn't been coined and when I looked at the imagery I realised how forward and backward looking this book was.

Anyway I love the genre , the associated literature , music , the clothing , and everything about , sort of almost a forward looking nostalgia for things that never were and never can be, although they could if time had turned a different corner.


Anyway this is an excuse to include Steam Powered Giraffe , and it's the weekend , so start to enjoy yourself.

A Story of When Bankers Cared

I don't know what brought this to mind, but I do like to remember good things in my life and share them with others, though I wont name any names apart from my eldest daughter Juliet , and you could find that out by a bit or trawling or trolling or simply asking me.

Anyway this starts with a blatant bit of racism on my part, when we moved to Tarleton I had a chance of registering with an Irish or a Hawaiian doctor. I chose the Irish guy, but found he just prescribed Panadol for everything for everyone. I soon realised it was not good and a neighbour said the Hawaiian guy was great. We went on a list which over the many years I was with him saw him lending me his Mercedes when I ran out of petrol , and him phoning me to take him round to see patients when his car was written off. One of the best doctors I've ever had , totally love the guy.

Anyway during a check up he discovered that our two year daughter had an ovarian cyst , that required surgery. What I didn't realise is that she was on the children's terminal ward in the Royal Manchester Children's hospital. Anyway despite many traumas and with the fantastic doctors and nurses there plus her own fighting spirit Juliet came though and is now a lovely healthy young lady and one of a pair of brilliant daughters , but this isn't what the story is really about.

Banking Good

We lived in Tarleton and Juliet was in hospital 35 miles away in Manchester, and the money I was on I couldn't really afford the cost of petrol, so I spoke to the manager at the Midland Bank (now part of the Honk Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) as was. Basically his response was "Take whatever money you need , and we'll sort it out once your daughter is home and well", I was gobsmacked. I didn't have to ask friends or family for help, the bank helped in a time of need. Juliet's mum's parent took her to look after Juliet during the day so they supported us as well without asking.

The thing is , could you imagine a bank doing that today? Helping someone in need? Highly unlikely.

But I was just inspired to write this because I still have good friends who would help me if I was in need. The song Chestnut Mare by The Byrds is one of Juliet's favourites so I've included that.

Waiting For The Countdown

This post is nothing more than an excuse to play on of my favourite Lyndsey Buckingham songs , "Countdown". While I wanted to hit my thousandth post on this blog this year, I thought the option had gone had gone , but a flurry of posts last weeks means maintaining  a post every other day will actually hit the target.

The other thing is that I'm still enjoying Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History Of Time" . As you know I am not very intelligent , so reading this book is like a night out with your clever mates. My mate Colin , when he goes to see Newcastle United play always has a Judas bet , so that if Newcastke lose he has money in his pocket , and if they win he's also happy.

Nothing To Do With The Post

Stephen Hawking had a bet that if Black Hole's didn't exist his friend would by him four years of Private Eye (if they did exist Hawking's forfeit was a subscription to Penthouse) I think Hawking won though by the very nature of it's existence you can't actualy prove it's there.

And with that little mind twister it's time for bed .

Sunday Service and Ezra Furman

Just over a year ago I found out that among his other talent Christopher Lee was also a heavy metal vocalist . I put together a slideshow for his version of "My Way" which hit 10K view in one day then was pulled for copyright infringement. Youtube refused to enter into discussion , but Charlemagne productions , the owner of the copyright said it was Youtube's implementation of the policy and they were really apologetic. I asked if they could intervene but they said they couldn't with more apologies.

So I put it on here , which is hosted by Youtube and it is still there , it's had about 150 views since then so the blog is obviously not as much of a draw ad Youtube. You can see it here.

Mr Ledbetter

Anyway I did a slideshow for the wonderful Ezra Furman song "One Day I Will Sin No More" described as in the style of Leadbelly . It's so simple I think I could perform it live given an hour to learn it , but unfortunately copyright doesn't allow it to be shown in my country. So I'm going to try the blog option again.

I would love to know what you think about it. The album is definitely worth buying , Ezra Furman is a real talent.

Have a great Sunday everybody.

Lost Songs ... The Inspiration of Little Richard

King Richard

Yesterday I was in Bar Loco and above the  bar was the picture sleeve for Little Richard's "Somebody's Comin'" . He released in a religious phase but it is one of the most uplifting songs I've ever heard and it has never left me , but it wasn't in my collection. If you wanted to be critical you could say it's not rock and roll , or it's a Marvin Gaye or Commodores rip off (listen to Sexual Healing and Nightshift) and you will see what I mean.

Anyway I have listened to this on repeat and it is truly wonderful , maybe possibly my favourite Little Richard song (though I do love Tutti Frutti and The Girl Can't Help It and Lucille).




Basically listening to music does make you feel better. Playing Music makes you feel good. Music is wonderful .

Enjoy your Saturday , the bpast is a rich seam to be mined for inspiration , hope and pleasure.

That Time Of Month (Out Come The Freaks)

Well the end of one and the start of another. I managed to get a good night's sleep and didn't do five blog posts yesterday. While that helped towards my millennium goal I ended up being shattered during my day at work, I'll had a generally good day with the odd not good thing but that's life and as always I concentrate on the positives and ignore the negatives unless I have to deal with them. Too many times people concentrate on the bad things that might happen and usually don't, although I'm just dealing with my hire car bump but I was prepared for it. Being prepared for something doesn't mean you expect it to happen , it just means you can deal with it if it does.

Though there's been lots of good news today , some great time spent with friends in Bar Loco (their food is amazing) and Trillians , a friend is moving tomorrow with the help of another friend and I am going to have a catch up with my great friends at Geek Talent next week, I was privileged to be able to contribute a little at the start up of this excellent venture.

Rhythms Gonna Get Ya

The weekend is here but it may just be gardening and relaxing after last weekend's festival (and there is another on next weekend). However I am always so easily tempted , and Newcastle is full of luscious temptation , so I don't know what I'm going to end up doing. For some reason the phrase Geek has turned up quite a lot today which gives me an excuse to include the wonderful (Return To The Valley Of) Out Come The Freaks by Was(Not Was).



Sleep well my lovely friends

The Body Rebellious - Jehovahkill

NOW my body says IT WANTS SLEEP !! But it is time for work , the time for sleep was last night , not this morning. So it's time to load up on drugs and porridge and coffee which will keep me going and cause me to have a great day.

Yeas it's very short but it's an excuse to play some Julian Cope

Over Kill

Today Will Be Brilliant

OK I've had very little sleep and my eyes hurt a bit but I am going to make sure that today will be absolutely brilliant. I don't know what's going to happen , but there are so many opportunities everyday that we often don't take and I'm just going to grab me some.

The amazing thing about last night is that all I ate were two nectarines , so it was hardly going to give me a sugar  rush that would keep me awake.

Anyway being up at this time means I can let these words fall out of my head through the keyboard on to the printed screen to reside forever on the world wide web in the cloud or whatever.

Stand By Me

If you see me say hello , and smile at every opportunity , it gives you the same rush as eating chocolate. Keep cool , I home the sun shines and we get a summers day , but friends can make the sunshine and that's the sort of thing that is worth getting up for (especially of you can't sleep).

Gone are the days when I could survive of three hours a night sleep , but I am sure tonight I will sleep perfectly. Here we go no

And what better way to start the day than with one of my favourite Clash songs "Train In Vain"

This Ain't Good

Wide awake on a school night , with absolutely nothing on my mind. I've tried to sleep, got up , found something to do , read, gone back to a warm bed, thought about playing guitar , but it's three o clock in the morning , which the neighbours wouldn't appreciate.

Ages since this has happened. I know I need sleep cos it's work tomorrow , but I don't want to be reliant of coffee tomorrow to keep me going. Yes it's a day closer to the weekend but I still appreciate I need to be fresh.

I ran into and exchanged emails with an old friend yesterday so that perked me up , though I am just going through one of those down phases I suppose. Everyone gets them and often use it for a reason to rail at someone or something. I am always looking to channel even negative energy into something positive , so that's why I am writing this.

I obviously need some social contact but , hey it's 3 in the morning and everyone with any sense is in bed , tucked up and asleep.. One positive from this is that it's another post closer to my millennium aim which I hope to hit before the end of the year. I'll roughly have to maintain three posts every five days to hit that target (87 posts in five months so roughly 150 days , you do the mathematical calculations)

Crazy Man Crazy

Anyway , the obvious song for this is the Dictator's "Sleeping With The TV On" except I'm not sleeping and the TV isn't on. As I pointed out recently on Instagram and Facebook , once you see the cover of "Go Girl Crazy" you don't even need to listen to the music to know you will love this band , and if you do listen to their music .... well you are in for a total treat.

Ok ... can I grab a couple of hours shut eye

Falling Down

Today , and the last few days have been sodden by rain and black clouds. I came home to my website not working and my favourite FTP program not working , but it's so old I can't trouble shoot it so have to get used to a new one , then I went out , luckily with an umbrella but got hit with another downpour.

Anyway I'm sorting things out slowly but finding it really hard to be positive about the whole thing. I think part of it is the dark clouds that don't exactly brighten your mood. But I always find positives in things even when all seems like it's disappearing over a cliff. If that's what happens then you deal with it . If stuff goes your probably not meant to have it. Certainly my old FTP program hits that category nad my new one is Windows 10 Compatible so it was probably going to have to be done.

DO IT!

Thing is it's half way through the week , for most people it's on or near payday , and tomorrow will be a bright and lovely day , with lots of great fun things happening . There is so much good to enjoy that most of the time you can ignore and forget about the bad. Which is my intention for this short post. And I will choose one of my mum's favourite Carpenter's songs "Happy" because will make me happy and it's a damned site more uplifting than that Pharrel song.

Goodnight and sleep well my lovely friends.

The Order Of Disorder

Last night I watched an episode on Odyssey on catch up TV. I'm also reading "A Brief History Of Time" by Stephen Hawking and today discovered what a quark is . I knew the name and know it's a vegetarian filler food but I didn't actually know what a quark was. This started me thinking and I recalled an incident from twenty years back after taking a psychometric test....

...after the test the guy told me I had a problem , but it could possibly be corrected. I asked him what the problem was. He told that my problem was that I always wanted to be right! I didn't see this as a problem, and asked him didn't everybody want to be right , as an example didn't he want to be right in his assessment assessment of me? His assessment was correct , but I didn't see it as a problem and still don't see it as a problem. I still want to always be right, but that statement unqualified does not show the full picture. I WANT to be always right BUT I am often WRONG, and when I am wrong I want to be told how I am wrong and to be shown how to get it right. I know that I'm not infallible , I would just like to be .... especially when I put a bet on the horses! At the time I was working with a manager who took me to one side after I's questioned a situation and told me "You might be right ... but I'm in charge" ....   though that was was true I knew he was wrong and I was right but there was nothing I could do about the situation. I was right but not in control.

And this sort of brings me to the next part , is that in general we want to be in control , but not be controlled although we may need and want direction. When I was watching the TV last night I was thinking before the option of recording we were very regimented by TV . You had to be at your set at a particular time or else you missed that program , and god forbid there were clashes , yet people still complained about repeats (yet most digital stations serve nothing but repeats these days), but now I very seldom watch live TV, I let my recorder build up what I think I want to watch and watch it in almost chaotic fashion. Whatever I want whenever I want and with apps like BBC iPlayer and my Samsung Note 4 Phone and my iPad and Laptop wherever I want. So is that disorder or the control I want ?  I think it's latter , I feel I have tools to manage my disorder and allow me to order my situation as I want.

Need Control

I do think it's good to be right , but you have to also be open to new ideas and the fact that you may be wrong. We are at our most vulnerable when we lose control and are reliant the power and ability of others to help us get it right. I always try to be there for others , and part of that is that I want others to be there for me if I need their help.

Given the tone of this post , what else could I choose but Joy Division's She's Lost Control.





Incidentally this is post 911 given my last post was about numbers.

Anyway I didn't think I would finish this , but I still want to be right , I still want to help people , I still want to be there for my friends and family , I sill want to be in control and I still want to have a wonderful time. So everyone have a fantastic day.

The Numbers Game , Pirates and Burgers

I stated that I wanted to hit a thousand blog posts and a hundred thousand hits by New Year's Eve 2015. 

That's not likely to happen although combined views for both my blogs are over 100K now and the combined number of posts is up to 970 , so if I add the two together , then both the targets are achievable.

Jack Sparrow .. Well Burger Me!

At the weekend I attended the rather excellent PKD Festival (see here for my review) and met a pirate at one of the burger vans . One the odd things was that there were lots of variations on meat sandwiches involving Aberdeen Angus Steaks ,Sausages , Chicken, and the like , and then you had salad!  You can't have a salad roll , although that was your only option if you were a vegetarian.

A Classy Tricycle

Anyway apart from the music , there were pirates , big guns a small fairground , bike and cars , something for everyone , and I think they sold a lot of food on the day. Oh and they had a doughnut stand as well , but I'm not a huge fan so I gave it a miss.

Anyway this is just a short post about what I'd like to do and what I enjoyed doing at the weekend, so all of you have a good night and enjoy whatever you are doing tomorrow.

Although essentially this post was meant to be about numbers and I've always loved this Bob Dorough song so I thought I'd put it in.

OK Good night

The Genius of Simple

When I was at primary school my headmistress Mrs Walsh told us that a genius who could see and explain things very simply. She gave the example of a guy who went to a match company and said he could save them a great deal of money for actually stopping doing something.

In those days match boxes were sandpapered on two sides. He posited that people always checked for where they were goig to strike the match , so the boxes only needed one strip of sand
paper instead of two. At a stroke halving the company's sandpaper bill. It does sound obvious, but until he came along no one had thought about.

Genius at Work

I am currently reading Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History Of Time" , and there is no down in my mind that the guy is probably in the genius category. The book is less than two hundred pages, but is packed with content and not a word is wasted , which means it is slow going , but his style of writing comes across with a "Go On, You CAN Get This!"  message.

That's a long probably unconnected intro to what this post is actually about . I may have blogged about this or touched on this before but it is really about musical genius. If someone were to ask for an example , Jimi Hendrix , Brian Wilson , Lennon and McCartney are probably goig to come over in responses and there's no doubt that these  were musical Genii . I would add Joni Mitchell , PJ Harvey , Kate Bush and Sandy Denny to that list as well , but it's annoying that music is seen as a boy thing. Girls are good too.

The problem is that most of the music that these artists produced was complex, and taken to extremes by bands like King Crimson , Emerson Lake & Palmer and Yes. One of the main ironies was that of Yes's initially simplest constructs "And You And I" is a lovely melody set to basically three acoustic chords , but by the time it's finihed it hits ten minutes with lots of additional bombast. I still love it though , and it was released , uncut as a seven inch single.


Ok we're here , real genius is to do something musically so simple that anyone can do it. Songs with three chords or less. The Velvet Underground's first album didn't initially sell many copies but everyone who bought it formed a band. The descening G riff from "I'm Waiting For The Man" can be heard in "White Riot " by the clash, "In The City" by The Jam and "Holidays In The Sun" by The Sex Pistols. The inspired Jonathan Richman , who's "Roadrunner" is only two chords  "D" and "A" which any one can learn on a guitar in minutes. Van Morrison's Gloria and The Who's "I Can't Explain" are more examples of easy to play songs , along with The Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" a staple of any garage band's repertoire , and The Kinks "You Really Got Me" and  "All Day, and All Of The Night" also fall into this area.

Another example of genius is the one note guitar solo. If you can make one note sound good you are a true genius. To this day I am only aware of two examples of this "I'm A Hog For You Baby" by The Coasters and "Tommy Gun" by The Clash. To do that , is inspired genius.

So I've bookended this post with those two songs , sitting an Amazon MP3 selection in the middle for you to sample. Love to hear your thoughts on this , and sorry this one has gone on a bit

Coconuts

Feed The Birds

I have a garden and a stand with various forms of bird seed to give the birds something else to eat. As well as seed I put out fat balls and half coconuts filled with fat and seed. When first half coconut I put out stayed for ages and I thought , maybe it's badly designed, maybe the birds don't like it , or whatever. The one day there was some kind of blitz on the food stand,  Everything went! including the coconut contents.

I'm not sure what caused this, I had seen some crows , although they tend to prefer roadkill, and then the bigger birds are magpies and pigeons as will as the smaller birdlife.

So I put another half coconut out and that has been devoured too. The smaller birds like finches are devouring the fatballs , and am just wondering whetehr they are the ones enjoying it.

Well I'm not going to let it bother me , but will get some more today , and it is an excuse to play Harry Nilsson's Coconut, just one of the weirdest songs that you have to sing along to , and we all know Harry was an "interesting" guy as the video testifies ...

Have a great Sunday everyone.

Sometimes....

I feel the urge to write about something but I've really nothing to write about that is interesting or has caught my imagination.

Last weekend I managed to completely miss the Mouth of Tyne and Corbridge Festivals which I attended last year, that almost shocked me. One of the problems may be that there is just so much going on that it did manage to pass me by.

Next weekend I'm going to see Big Country in Scotland and then just after that Ash play Chase Park in Whickham , not forgetting Summertyne that is going on this weekend.

I've written about all these in previous years mainly on the Spoongig site so will probably update if I get time after those festival.

Oh and tomorrow we have a Pride March in Newcastle. I like diversity and love to acknowledge and be part of it. Sometime people forget what GAY means (acronym for Good As You) , which we should all feel we are.

Also now I'm going off on a language tangent about the word "Homosexual".

"Homo" can mean man as in "Homo Sapiens" , or the same as in say "Homogenous"

I'm doing all the reasoning without referring to anything so my reasoning can probably be blown out of the water.

But "Homosexual" uses the meaning of the same , but I suppose in male / male relationships could be misconstrued as man.

Anyway , although I'm  "straight" all my friends delight me , whatever their orientation , and they are part of a rich and diverse tapestry that I am so lucky to be enmeshed in.

All You Need To Know

So I'm gonna choose Tom Robinson's "Glad To Be Gay" , a great singalong song which me and my mates had great fun with putting on the jukeboxes in severely homophobic pubs in the late seventies. It was fun because we were well able to take care of ourselves . Also reminds of the time me and three mates went to see a Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything"  lecture in Newcastle's Centre For Life . We are not the smallest of frames and we were sat at a table in the what I believe is a gay pub called "Barons" , when a girl came up to us and asked "Are You Gay?" in hushed tones , to which my mate Chris replied "But Of Course We Are!" somewhat louder.

Anyway , It's time for bed and I have managed to ramble on for quite a bit about nothing. Sleep well my friends

We All Make Mistakes .. And Often That's Good

Someone asked me if I knew about the Alberts as they'd seen a great documentary on them. I said yes, I have , and have a couple of their records, and whilst they were influential I thought, they're hardly the sort of band who would merit a documentary, especially now. Although I then pondered and thought well, with today's access to recording and media , anyone who's willing to put the work in can actually make a documentary about anything. In an experiment I did a very short one about Staddle Stones here just to see if I could talk about something maybe people had wondered about. It was unprepared, so I just said what I knew, but there's a good example of the story of of mine and John Peel's second favourite song about Liverpool , Amsterdam's "Does This Train Stop On Merseyside" here. Anyway that's by the by...

It's All Jazz

The band I was talking about was the trad jazz band The Alberts, from the early sixties who were a big influence on The Bonzo Dog Band and other less illustrious musical combos. I'm not sure if they even made any albums , as I can only find odd tracks on compilations.






They were talking about Alberts an Australian music dynasty , responsible for bands such as AC/DC and the Easybeats and many, many more and a new documentary called Blood and Thunder that has been released documenting their history. The trailer of it is below. So it's just an example of how you can be talking about the same thing but actually be talking about something different. While searching for this I found a documentary on The Easybeats here. which is well worth a visit.

And the good thing about mistakes like this is that you can discover even more about stuff that you didn't know about, a great example of a good mistake.

Anyway hope you enjoy the music , and I hope this post isn't marked as abusive and offensive by Facebook like the last one was. Have a great Sunday everybody

Quietly Raising Hell

This week has been back to work , I saw the Grateful Dead's last gig at the cinema with a friend I hadn't  seen in years and sort of signed up to do an introductory presentation at  work , while discovering the problems of support teams who use the Apple model of pretending there is nothing wrong and the problem is with you , like ordering steak and being served bacon and then being told that's what you ordered !

A Puzzle

Still these are the challenges that make life interesting , and it is pointless getting angry , I just see it as a puzzle to be solved , and talking of puzzles I've almost finished the latest Clive Barker book The Scarlet Gospels , and we all know how the Cenobites are summoned ....... I've always been fascinated by the puzzle box since I first saw Hellraiser , but wouldn't dare have one in my house. The book however is up to his normal standards though not a Weaveworld or Imajica. So I've done an Amazon carousel with some of my favourite CB Books below.





Anyway summer is continuing with good weather interspersed with showers, and I'm listening lots of good music. I have been mightily impressed with Ezra Furman , but the slideshow I did for One Day I Will Sin No More is banned in a lot of countries for copyright reasons by Youtube , although I believe my antipodean and American friends enjoy it here. , the guy has talent. It has had almost fifty views so far , so that's not too bad given the audience limitation.

Shakespeare, Breaking Bad and The Grateful Dead

After a week in which I saw a great production of Othello at the RSC in Stratford (despite the baking heat the aircon kept the temperature constant , so no slowly falling asleep as the place turns into a pizza oven fueled by body heat and stale air) .

Heisenberg at the Door

As well as that watched the last 16 episodes of Breaking Bad , which never let up, not even to the last moment. I wonder if Badfinger benefited from an increase in sales of their records due to the final scene. A particularly tragic band , their leader Pete Ham committed suicide in the seventies despite his song "Without You" hitting Number One when recorded by Harry Nilsson , Badfinger's Baby Blue was the appropriate playout song and I've chosen an excellent mix up that summarizes Breaking Bad using that piece. It is very, very good.

So today has been housework, gardening and preparing for a return to work. I also have material for another two blog posts , one on betting and the other on the Alberts of the music world, but that will be something to keep be going next week. Oh also there is a screening of the final Grateful Dead concert. Information here , at the Tyneside Cinema , which I am going to tomorrow, though the setlist only includes one of my favourites , the gorgeous "Standing On The Moon", should I have two videos? Oh why not , they are both brilliant. Enjoy your weekend.

Heatwave

A great week to take a holiday , but don't do sunblock normally so ended up a bit burnt. It's very hot and very nice and very warm in the centre of the UK. It's nice to be able to read , listen to Radio 6 , enjoy the weather and the peace and not have to bother about work.

Today will be a visit to Stratford to see Othello , and visit any record shops I can find , plus any other interesting places I can find, and who knows what that might be. This post is going to be even shorter than the last two and I'm wondering what song to put up.

Dancing In The Street

Decided to plump for Heatwave by Martha and the Vandellas who I intend to see headlining this year's Mouth Of Tyne Festival. I first heard the song covered by The Who who were one of the never ending list of bands who played this year's Glastonbury. Anyway , you all enjoy the weather wherever you are in the world and have a totally brilliant day.

Some Random Tangentiality and Pigeons

Spot The Pigeon

A friend was surprised that I could find a elucidate about stuff related to Peru , and set me a task to find a song about pigeons. Two immediately sprang to mind "Pigeons" by Genesis from their Spot The Pigeon EP and "King of Rome" which I have only heard as a cover by Half Man Half Biscuit, but found this live performance by The Unthanks at the 2012 Folk awards. So here's a thing , leave a comment if you want me to write about some random thing and supply an appropriate piece of music. That could lead down an interesting trail similar to Radcliffe and Maconie's The Chain.

Here's the Wikipedia guff on pigeons:


"Pigeons and doves constitute the bird clade Columbidae, that includes about 310 species. Pigeons are stout-bodied birds with short necks, and short, slender bills with fleshy ceres. They feed on seeds, fruits, and plants" See here for  the RSPB definition.

Also pigeons play a part in the history of the Happy Mondays , but I'll leave you to look that up or you can watch this:



Sorry this is just a short post , although I noticed my last post was the 900th on this blog , so I've probably written enough to fill a book, although it would be quite incoherent but filled with interesting stuff. Anyway I hope you comment and leave your suggestions for the next post.