Today is the second day of spring and we have had rain and snow , so plenty of water. This has got lots of my friends jealous that I have snow and they don't. We also had blue skies sun, so four seasons in one day scenario. The snow came down , melted then fell again, melted then fell again and so on for the the rest of the day. I'm sitting writing this hearing the wind blowing down the chimney, wondering whether tomorrow will be any different. Let's face it the weather can do what the hell it wants and we can do nothing about bar make a reasonably educated guess.
Then I took the tiny road from Litton to Tideswell , which at the end has a sharp double right turn. Most of the way it's a single track road. Well what I wasn't counting on was a large articulated lorry stuck , unable to move forwards or backwards blocking the road. Not sure what the poor driver was going to do, but I turned round to find an alternative route. I had £2.25 in my pocket and wanted to get to the cash machine in Tideswell. Getting to the bank, I found the cash machine was "resting" , so used the Post Office to get some pennies.
Coming out of the Post Office I saw a sign saying Peak Volumes , a book shops I was unaware of. I went in and the place is crammed with second hand books. I spoke with the guy and asked if I could take some photographs. He was really friendly. The place is a veritable cornucopia of reading material on lots of subjects such as art, fiction , formula 1, music , chicken farming and lots more. This is the second discovery I have made this week (Music In The Green being the first), third if you count the Litton Shop. I love finding new things and this week has been full of that , making new friends finding new places and just having a good time.
I didn't intend to write this but feel I must do a short piece on the local shop at Litton. It's run as a co-operative and stocks most of the things you need as well as providing a social focus in the village. It's also a coffee shop . supports a post office and has some excellent home made cakes which I have sampled. It's run on a volunteer basis with support from the Co-Op and has been running for the last sixteen years , becoming an essential part of Litton village life.
The real plus is the people the manager Carol , Barbara , Tina, Stephanie, Myra, Judy and one of the customers Tony. They have regaled me with stories and opinions and analogies with The Wicker Man, and are amazingly friendly and welcoming. It is gorgeous to come to a lovely village and meet up with such lovely people. And I have an invitation to a Cheese and Wine Evening and Quiz at The Village Hall , a totally lovely place.
If you ever come here or even drive through , you have to check this place out , and check the coffee and lemon varieties of their sponge cakes.
I won't bother with any music for this , but it's just an appreciation of a lovely place with lovely people
Well it's the first day of March , first day of Spring and we have rain , cold , wind , snow , we have weather. This most is just some thoughts that got set off as I read Tracey Thorn's biography Bedsit Disco Queen . She is obviously famous enough to release a record and and her autobiography , but that only came with her hard work , talent , belief in herself and some huge slices of luck in meeting the right people and being in the right place at the right time. Belief in yourself gives you the confidence to do things , be it writing , applying for a job , building something , making music or introducing yourself to a stranger.
If you have belief in yourself you can help others who are less fortunate that you , you can hold their hands , you can give them advice.
People often look at their lives and say if they had done something differently then their lives would be much better. They can never know this. In my life I have have made lots of wrong decisions , but if I had done anything differently I wouldn't be in the position I am in now , and to be quite honest , I am incredibly happy with my situation at the moment. Yes there I things I would like to be better (more money , less work) but I have a wealth of friends and the ability for the most part to do what I want, the only constraints are time and distance and to some extent money.
I have friends who have become very successful and am still close to them , and it just makes be happy that they share their success rather than flaunt it. But I am sure there are lots of times in their lives where things just fell right.
Again reading Thorn's biography there are so many times when something unexpected happened which then resulted in being the stimulus to produce a song or play a gig, which then eventually resulted in the formation of Everything But The Girl (taken from the name of a clothes shop in Hull where Tracey and Ben Watt were at University) so if they hadn't gone to Hull , they maybe wouldn't have got that name and they may not have been as hugely successful as they became.
I decided to include Tracey singing with Massive Attack , a great collaboration and a lesson to us , don't dismiss something if it doesn't conform to the norm.
I think the thing in life is to find happiness in what you have and to share with as many friends as possible, and if you don;t have enough friends , talk to people , you never know who you might find. Don't sit back , go out and have fun , and the good times and good friends will show themselves,
So although luck gives us opportunities , sometimes it's up to us to grab those opportunities and create the situation where those opportunities occur. You don't usually get a job offer if you don't apply for a job (although it has happened to me a few times).
Some days something happens that is just a cherry on the cake moment. My life is good at the moment , not perfect , but in the happiness league I'll be in the top 10% if not even higher. But sometimes things happen that brighten your day even further.
As a kid I remember my friends big sister had a copy of Ralph McTell's Spiral Staircase , and I particularly loved the cover of that album , and also the title track stuck with me.
Today I was wandering round Bakewell looking for a snack , I was feeling peckish. I had visited several bookshops and one of two record shops I had visited previously had become a fudge shop (Folk Devils in Whitby became a cake shop), the other one was shut for lunch I think .
I wandered round a corner and noticed a small shop called Music In The Green with a display of album covers including the aforementioned Spiral Staircase and Deep Purple's Concerto For Group And Orchestra with a poser "What Year?" The thing is it looked like a real record shop.
On walking through the door any doubts were swept away, John Renbourn on the player (Live in Italy which I walked out of the shop with) , a cornucopia of new and classic folk and world vinyl and CDs , with a rock section ate the back,
Steve , the guy behind the counter, was easy to talk with very knowledgeable and dug out a copy of Nice Enough To Eat, an important album from my youth. I could have spent the whole afternoon in there , and if I lived in Bakewell , a shop like this would make it worth coming into town for,
Today the discovery of this treasure has made my day. It's a reason for going back to Bakewell , and should be a reason for you to visit.
Sometimes really unexpected coincidences occur. Yesterday I posted about my need to keep things simple because I am not very intelligent , and used as an analogy Lego which led me to an Iron Maiden video of them performing The Wicker Man.
Yesterday as I parked my car, I was getting watched by a guy in another , thinking I had "taken his parking space" . He started out slightly aggressive , but we chatted and when he realised what lovely person I am , we got on like a house on fire , shook hands and my car stayed where int was.
Today I want in the local shop, I'm staying in Litton in Derbyshire, and if you want to see the cottage it's here Anyway the guy was in having a coffee with friends and we chatted on and he asked how long we were staying:
I said "A week"
He said "Have You seen the film 'The Wicker Man' .... he only went for a week"
Much more guffawing ensued and I told him about the Christopher Lee video I did. And how it got pulled and all that . I bought some biscuits and left
Came back , switched on the TV and "The Man With The Golden Gun" is on TV just at the car bridge jump scene , and of course Christopher Lee played Scaramanga , three nippled golden gun toting assassin.
So this weekend has been Christopher Lee influenced , coincidentally
I think it's an acronym. Keep It Short and Simple. It's the way I've tried to live my life. Trying to keep things as simple as possible , so that I stand a chance of understanding them. A primary school teacher once told me that a genius was a person who could see and explain things in the simplest terms.
I always use this analogy when try trying to argue that even the most complicated thinks can be reduced to a simple construction. The most complex Lego creations are still just a series of little bricks which can be rearranged into any shape you desire, and that's most complex things you can imagine are just a huge combination of simple things.
The computer or smartphone you are using to view this is just a huge collection of zeroes and ones, binary switches, on / off gates that are added together to show you the most amazing things.
Anyway keep things simple and you can keep them in check and make sure the do what you want them to do. It's time for bed for me so I am going to sleep
Also an excuse to have Iron Maiden's The Wicker Man in Lego , five years in the making and it;s just lego. But a good song referencing a truly great film , featuring Christopher Lee in one of his favourite rols
At the weekend I went of a stag do organised by my future son in law Mark , who rates very highly on the scale of good to know human beings. An excellent day in which I made several new friends and had a great time including walking up a flight of steps I had only looked at before , from the Quayside to The Bridge Hotel past the Castle. I walked up with Mark which was fine til I hit the top and realised that my fat frame was not built for things like that , but the pains soon cleared and we had a canny time in The Bridge.
The main point of this post is that part of the day was spent Go Karting at KNE in Sunderland , and it was my first time. Out of 29 people Mark came second and I came last. To my credit I didn't crash or cause a crash, stall or incur the wrath of the track wardens or need their assistance. I found the positioning of the plastic fuel tank between my legs more than a liyttle disconcerting and it took me two laps to realise that I had a brake as well as an accelerator.
When I furst saw the track I was a little dismayed especially when the route was previewed beforehand , also the crash helmet did not sit well with my vague claustrophobia.
Would I do it again , Hell Yeah . I'd recommend it to anyone . When I do it again , I may still come last , but that's not always a bad thing , and someone has to.
At the moment I seem to keep running out of time to do things. This morning I can't remember if I took my insulin , but can't risk overdosing. However things are great in life.
There is lots to look forward to and lots to be positive about and really wish I didn't have to sleep then I would have enough ours to actually do what I want to do. Then problem is the body demands sleep , rest and recuperation , and that is good ,because when rested you are ready to go and deal with the next thing that life throws at you.
Anyway the other thing is that it's Friday , and the weekend is coming up , but the next three weekends are going to be very busy for me.
I am telling you that things are great and that things are busy without actually telling you anything , does that make me a politician?
Anyway I am going to start my weekend by dealing with certain things , enjoying time with certain people and wishing you , all my lovely friends a brilliant weekend. I have been listening to Malcolm McLaren a lot this week so you get "Boys Chorus" from Fans , I love this , the cockney talk over that heavenly chorus:
This month I have done very little writing on here , although this post means I've avereaged one every four days on here , and if you include the two on Spoongig then it's one every two days which is hardly a drought.
It's February , the day before Valentine's day and a 29 day month with means that girls can propose marriage to a guy they fancy , though it's hardly a resounding implementation of sexual equality. If you want to marry someone you can ask them any time , whether it's the 29th of February or any other day of the year they can still say no. And you can still have a great time without marriage . If it's right for you fine , if not they are lots of things that can bond people together , such as love of common interests , and sharing new ones . Sometimes marriage can seem like a lock down meaning you don't have to try anymore , whereas a relationship should be continual trying and working at it.
I switched on the the radio this morning and "I Was Made For Lovin' You" by Kiss was playing on the radio. Is this a good or bad sign? Undoubtedly Kiss's finest moment , no doubt due to the involvement of Giorgio Moroder , but that was kisses dalliance with Disco , and they were perennial bandwagon jumpers , dripping their own blood into the ink of a comic that featured them and the fact they were effectively masked by make up any member could in theory be easily replaced and disposed of. A marketing mans dream.
The thing is they were about selling product and in that they were no different than The Sex Pistols or X-Factor artists , it's ultimately about shifting corporate product. Bands are expected to conform and fit in and the media dictates an awful lot of what people buy. I like to think I am above that , but am I really? Having said that I went to two small gig last week and saw six amazing bands , check out here , it's a while since I have hit a big venue for a band.
Anyway I am OK with Kiss starting my day, and I hope your day starts just as well and continues in a good way. I love you all
This is the first post since last week , since last month on my Dad's Birthday. Since then I've has a weekend in Whitby , had a big win from Betfair thats to these guys (Free Racing Tips) , and today I wandered into town for a change and in Carliol Square was reminded again the Trillians does food.
They advertise Vegan , Vegetarian and Meat so everyone is catered for , but I went for the vegetarian all day breakfast. So it was great having my dinner that was a breakfast in the darkness of Trillian's Rock Crypt in a corner with the food served on a black shiny plate soundtracked by Heavy ish Metal, though not sure what was playing but it's a welcome change to the jazz / elevator music or pretentious piano players you get in so many places. Bar Loco is good though , but I will be frequenting Trillian's for dinner a lot more now.
As I was saying to the lovely barmaid if you don't use it you lose it , and I don't want Trillian's to be lost again. They took our Mayfair and put up a Charver Multiplex.
Tonight I am going to see The Gramps , a Cramps tribute band so maybe we should play a Cramps song
Today is my dad's 81st birthday , I've sent him a card and present and a text and will phone him at a reasonable time. That's a pic of him as a boxer.
Really he can be a curmudgeon , but has always been there for me and always encouraged me to do what I want , I totally love him. He doesn't pressure me but does exasperate me at times. but can't all good parents be like that
Anyway we are nearly at the end of January , and nearly at the end of the week , and looking forward to lots of amazing stuff at the weekend and next week
Next week I have 3 nights out already penned in , so I cannot complain my life is boring, feel free to come with me , the ride is going to be immense and intense. As it's my Dad's birthday I am including two of my favourite boxing songs , "No Mercy" by Nils Lofgren and "Boom Boom Mancini by Warren Zevon.
Really I do. I go on about looking for the positives , and being positive , but I never really know whether you believe me or take what I'm saying seriously , after all I try not to be too serious. The main yhing I am serious about is being happy and I want you to be happy to.
This weekends started for me with the amazing BowieBall at Vamos and has been a wonderful time of relaxing, wandering , wondering , playing Bowie songs , remembering the riffs for Rebel Rebel and Ziggy Stardust, then listening to "Nothing Has Changed" while updating the website Song of The Salesman.
Music is a great thing for lifting you , making you feel good , and though I have been talking Bowie I am going to include Todd Rundgren's "Long Flowing Robe" as a song which I first heard on a Bearsville EP I bought and it still stays with me as a beautiful song love found and lost and found again that makes me happy and brings a smile to my face, but with a tinge of sadness.
So now go and find something or someone that makes you happy and makes you smile . do it and your day will be better and if it is a person , their day will be better too.
If you know me , you will know that I am not serious about the title. I am reading a book about Arvo Part - Out of Silence, and some parts about the various Christian / Biblical concepts irk me to say the least. God was amazing because he said Let There Be Fish or whatever and there were fish. It's hardly rocket science is it and if you could do that then it's hardly hard. The nearest equivalent we have is switching a light on or controlling something with a remote.
I was taught by Jesuits and for the most part they were practical and reasonable . In one Religious Education one guy said to the priest:
"What if you get to heaven's gates and St Peter says: We gave you wine , beer , women , gambling , and all you did was wasted it being celibate , you going down"
The priests reply was "You might be right, we do everything based on faith and belief, but we do drink wine"
I also got to thinking that the Bible is probably the reason for the terrible treatment of woment that is still going on today. All Eve did was effectively try something new. If we don;t do that we don't progress, so maybe Eve was the first scientist. . Yet for that act Eve (woman) takes the blame for everything that goes wrong and has done every since.. No doubt that concept was conjured up by a man , and men have been selecting snippets of the Bible to justify subjugating women ever since.
Anyway no sane God would have the world that we have today , maybe there is a God , maybe there isn't . It may be illogical but I'm hedging my bets.
I also believe that with evolution (which is scientifically proven Creationists) that out soul , being or whatever you call is preserved after the body expires , but that is another personal illogical belief that keeps me hopeful , although i have seen no real evidence for it whatsoever, but I am very positive in my outlook.
Ok what music do I choose for this , Spiegel Im Spiegel by Part I reckon , because his music is excellent, I just think that it's his talent that produces it , not God.
We are in mid January , experiencing the Christmas and New year comedown. However this is only problem if you have nothing to look forward to. I saw an internet meme saying that "Successful People Set Goals" among other things and they are grateful. Last night I watched an episode of The Last Kingdom and Utrid's wife said "God brought you home" , Utrid is not enamoured of the Christian God and said "My sword brought me home".
My goals are to be happy by planning events to share with my friends , and make sure I have things to look forward to with the special people in my life , do a decent job , and be grateful when things go well. It's very seldom that good things just happen to us , but by taking certain positive steps and not sitting at hope you can end up coming into contact with people who actually make your life far more excellent because they introduce you to new things and new people and bring a light into your life.
Anyway it's the middle of the week, and this week I will see people , talk to people who will make
me smile and tell me new things and that will make my life better. Work is scary at the moment because I am dealing with a landslide of paperwork , but it's just a challenge and I will use this to put things in place so that next time I will be able to deal with it. The first time can sometimes be daunting.
But I am already planning things for this year, visiting different parts of the country and just having a brilliant time , and it is going to start today.
I thought I would include a TED talk on smiling , smile more it will make you feel better.
There are lots of bad things in this world , make sure you are one of the good things. and most of all be happy.
As I write this I am being hit by a severe Denial of Service Attack . I would have thought that my ISP , Virgin would protect me from that , but maybe not.
So today is Blue Monday , the Monday before the January payday , when the money has run out and consumers cant buy stuff not even the tat in this week's sale. It's just one of those things the media throws at us , they want us to be miserable , to butter us up for the next scare story.
It's funny how once you start talking music how the ills of the world can be , at least temporarily washed away. Music is wonderful , listening and playing just makes you feel good , get's rid of pent up aggression can make you happy , make you fall in love , make want to hug someone , make you want to kiss someone , make you want to dance.
I am now starting to think of lots of favourite songs that teach us lessons, show us new roads , and lead us to better places.
This Monday may be a shade of blue , but it's a nice shade of blue.
This is a short , middle of the night post. I should really be in bed. I would love to be in bed. This week has been totally brilliant for various reasons. One of them was last Sunday I went into town, part of the quest was to get flowers , in a last ditch effort I got some from Tesco. I walked out and walked into my brilliant friend Mike O' Brien who was going to Reflex to get some music but remembered he needed milk and Tesco was across the road . So we ran into each other.
We talked and said we had to have a catch up , I mentioned the Gramps featuring Lux Inferior on vocals were playing the Cluny on Feb 4th and I had a spare ticket. He forced money on me for the ticket then said we should catch up and suggested Mog On The Tyne , the Cat Cafe , which he is joint proprietor I think.
Loads of my friends are cat lovers and many have expressed a desire to go there , so I will be visiting soon.
But this is how amazing coincidence can be , you take a different turn and a whole lot of unexpected doors can open.
I was chatting to a facebook friend Denise who sells collectable diecast models at various fairs in the south of the country and was amazed to see so many images from my childhood. The Brittain's stuff here on her site brought back loads of memories here at DJB Collectables.
This week has been exhausting and incredible .
I got to see the new Star Wars film , and we lost David Bowie and Alan Rickman, so I will bookend this blog post with Bowie and Rickman , two amazing artists who will live forever in our collective memories. The Bowie song was cowritten and produced by Giorgio Moroder which I didn't know til I wrote this post
Yesterday David Bowie released Blackstar. I am not going to critique the album , but the fact that an artist can still command such awe and respect and continually turn the three chord trick on it's head often outdoing his perceived influences at their own game is still jaw dropping.
When The Next Day came out completely unexpectedly the mainstream media wrote it off , because it was music that they actually had to take notice of . "Where Are We Now" still amazes me , but when it was the lead single it was written of by mainstream media.
And now again Blackstar will have the same effect , it will polarise opinion , but isn't that what Bowie does? The thing is if you have any modicum intelligence you will appreciate his work or build a coherent argument against it.
I was speaking to a guy in Bar Loco who said he's just got into Bowie , but he couldn't get past
Earthling , because it was the best thing he had ever heard. Not your normal starting point in the Bowie canon , but this shows the amazing kaleidoscopic effect of the Bowie enigma , you could start anywhere and work in either direction remembering to be wary before Space Oddity , though everything since has had much merit.
Even the maligned Tin Machine , "Under The God" is still a metal masterpiece , and "Little Drummer Boy" with Bing Crosby , well he's David Bowie , he can do that , and yo will enjoy it.
So go and buy Blackstar . My own favourite is still Station to Station , but put any Bowie album on the the turntable and I will listen until the needle lifts.
Although this blog started out as a travel blog , well that was the idea , which acounts for about 1% of the posts , it's seldom I talk about places that I've been for there own sake , but Bill's Cafe in Old Eldon Square really does deserve talking about. I don't what first attracted me there ,maybe the simplicity of the name and I just fancied a full english breakfast. The implication of the name was a greasy spoon type , but you walk into one of the coolest places you can think of.
The people are welcoming m, there is great art in there , the menus are on vinyl records (I'd rather vinyl was played than used as a menu but what the hell) , the food is excellent , plus they have cake , coffee , and alcohol. You can get a bottle of prosecco with nibbles for about £15.
Yesterday I dropped in for a a baked potato with tuna and a San Pellegrino for dinner, and it's got to the stage where I don't have to look a the menu.
There were a few people in and after I came in , a couple came in with a child. From one of the girls positioning she started breastfeeding her child, I assume this because she had her back to me. While she was feeding the guy cam up and took her order. The whole point of this is that nothing out of the ordinary happened , it was just totally normal, some friends of the couple came in said hi and when the child was finished and sat on a chair she was happy and well behaved.
It was just so nice to be in a place where a woman feeding her child is just an everyday occurrence.
A big up to Bill's Cafe , I love the place and you won't regret going for a coffee , drink or meal.
It's lovely and welcoming and a shining of example of how everywhere should be.
I've included Billy Bragg's Handyman Blues because the song and video make me feel as warm and loved as a visit to Bill's cafe
I didn't make a New Year's Resolution . It didn't slip my mind because every year I just resolve to try and be happier and compassionate for my friends , family and people in need. The New Year is a good place to start , but really my plans involve just doing the best I can in all areas.
Some people see Christmas as a time for being nice before spending the last year acting like an unreality show judge or competitor. I will go into work today and that is going to be a topic of conversation.
There is plenty in this world to go round everyone , and working together will create even more, greed IS NOT good.
So if you haven't made a New Year's Resolution let my vague premise be your guide. Today will be the first day back at work for many people. Be positive , be nice , smile a lot , and take chocolate with you , plenty of chocolate.
I chose this King Charles song , because , well I dare you to listen , and not come away feeling happier. Smiling is good.
This morning I learned something new. I was convinced that Bryan Ferry had covered The Everly Brothers Temptation , an amazing song, but it was The Price of Love another amazing song. But it turns out that Temptation is in fact a cover of a 1933 hit for Bing Crosby, which I actually knew but the Everlys deconstruction makes it almost a different song. See what you think.
Oscar Wilde said "I can resist anything but temptation" and he is one of my heroes , a great writer , with and disgustingly treated by the law of the time , which was much the same as it is today.
Still on the Temptation as a song title we also have Heaven 17's Temptation , but my absolute favourite has got to be New Order's which gives me goosebumps and makes me just want to sink into it and surrender to the Temptation.
It doesn't get much better , so I hope that I have provided you with enough temptation , and I hope you can't resist either.
I hope your New Year is as good as my mine my totally gorgeous friends.
We are on the last day of the year ad it some ways it's like a software update (my phone just had one) , you go through everything , waiting , working , you reboot and nothing has changed.
Well actually things have changed. People I know seem to becoming more insular, anything new is not countenanced well . Part of this is people have families , people trying to survive modern life , people tend to go for the tried and tested paths and often I am the same. I will frequent a restaurant or pub that I know is good and drop places that maybe don't come up to my standards.
This year I have met some wonderful people and made new friends all over the world , been made redundant , had a few new jobs , write songs , hit my 1000 posts , 100K views on this blog , and have lost touch with people which is sad.
Facebook is good for keeping in touch and reconnecting with people , but I do detest the posts that imply people are selfish and don't care about others. I love seeing positivity and happiness and smiles, and in 2016 I want to see more.
This year I have driven through snow , ice , rain , blinding sun almost a metaphor for life , because I've navigated that.
I have been here for people who needed support , I have had some great nights and days with wonderful friends and look forward to lots more in 2016.
Have a wonderful end of year and share a brilliant 2016 with me my friends. I chose the Fingerprintz song to finish this year because it's a theme song of mine
The reason I ask is that my post featuring Viv Albertine here is now my third most read post of the life of this blog. The blog has been going eight years and most posts get about 50 views. In less than a month the Viv Albertine has hit 400 , not a lot in terms of world readership , but a lot for one of my post.
Last Months Readers
In the last two weeks views from Russia and Australia have overtaken the USA as my biggest source of readers (and maybe robots) . The USA has not dropped , but Russia and Australia have increased dramatically and really I can't think of a reason. Australia possibly because it's in the correct language.
Australia is the biggest traffic source from the last month , but Russia has overtaken it in the last week.
And this has coincided with the Viv Albertine piece getting so much attention. There haven't been any comment , people don't comment on my posts for some reason , also the blog has only a couple of followers , so given that visitors must be mostly people who accidentally come across it , ithe figures look quite good.
Seriously this must be one of the most boring , uninteresting pieces I have ever written, I had intended to include some stuff about what has happened to me this year but that can wait for another time.
This year has resulted in slightly less posts than last year but it's still running at a post every two days. So I think I'll put in Al Stewart's "Roads To Moscow" to provide a little interest to this post . The album Past Present and Future is well worth aquiring.
Also I have finished the Viv Albertine book and it is absolutely brilliant , I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone , inspiring , well written , uncompromising , easy to read and thought provoking. Buy it here.
This weekend I drove 300 hundred inhospitable miles to and from Scotland. It that time I saw rain , snow , ice , surface flooding and coming back the combination of bright sunshine and wet roads made it like driving into an arc light . At one point the sun was coming through the trees to the right but due the speed and the distance between the trees it was like a stroboscopic effect. It inspired me to write this:
That's my unstructured "poem" of my experience over the weekend. Two small amendments were suggested by my good friend Joan , and they have been taken on board. Obvious choice for me is Black Sabbath's "Hard Road" , which is probably my favourite Sabbath Song, still gives me goosebumps
I really hope you have a had a great Christmas or Yule break and are ready to run up to the end of the year with gusto.
I hope you have a wonderful day . It's a day for loving ,sharing ,talking ,being kind ,smiling. and spreading goodwill. This is not Christian sentimentality , it's just sensible moral behaviour. We look out for others and they will look out for us,
We do live in a world where money and possessions have become an effectively replacement for moral values for a lot of people, I mean why else would you vote Tory or Republican? As Woody Allen said money is better than poverty of only for financial reasons , but there really is enough to go round. When people work together great things happen. Divide and Conquer is a war strategy and when people start fighting among themselves they become much easier to control. Blame the immigrants , blame the poor , blame the sick is the mantra of the right wing as they plunder the nations resources.
Enough politics , it is a time to enjoy , it is a time to be together, and really it should never stop. This year socialise more , see more friends , talk more , communicate more. We now how the nternet so I can write this, and everyone round the world can read it. You no longer wait for weeks to send a letter to Australia, you can phone your friend in Australia or New Zealand or The USA and it costs very little to do that. You can phone a loved one , a friend, so here is you your New Year's Resolution:
"KEEP IN TOUCH MORE, MUCH MORE"
Now go one have a wonderful day and feel free to ring me if you have my number, enjoy yourself.
It's Christmas Eve and over the past month we've been subjected to some particularly atrocious "festive music" . Last Saturday there were two members of a what I believe are Romanian Busking band on Northumberland Street , a double bass and accordion player , playing a particularly excellent piece which I then realised was "Jingle Bells" , I do hope I see them again , then I can record them. The euphoria was soon dissipated by walking into Marks and Spencers where a Michael Buble-a-like was murdering the very same piece of music.
There are stand outs of course , Wizzard's "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" , Slade's "Merry Christmas Everyone" , Greg Lake and Pete Sinfield's Prokofiev's "Troika" lifting "I Believe In Father Christmas", The Pogues "Fairytale of New York" and Jethro Tull's "Ring Out Solstice Bells" and "Christmas Song" , so you can have great Christmas music , but you can bet you will only here these every now and then.
Anyway this is the time to embrace friends , family , neighbours and socialise and hug and kiss and enjoy the time but be compassionate for those less fortunate than yourself .
And you what , wouldn't it be great if that didn't stop and the main aim in our lives was to be happy and looking out for others and working to build a compassionate society instead of thinking about paying bills and winning the lottery and just looking out for ourselves.
So today , buy a sandwich and a drink for a homeless person if you see one, do some random act of kindness and make sure you hug and kiss as many friends and loved ones who actually want it.
Remember Christmas Spirit should not be what you drink.
Well another work week has commenced and looking forward to lots of good things happening this week. Time seems to be at a premium although it always is whether you have anything planned or not. Christmas is one of those things where , you actually have advance notice that it's going to happen. I do find it quite amazing in the world of business especially and I suppose socially , the number of people who seem shocked that it is actually here and then have to implement emergency measures to deal with the situation.
We shouldn't need Christmas . We shouldn't need reminding that we should be there for friends , family and those less fortunate than us. I knew a guy who was rude throughout the the year but come Christmas Eve expected everyone to be his friend because it was Christmas. It doesn't really work like that for me.
You should be like that throughout the year. You should be there for people , they should be there for year. I'm not an Ebenezer Scrooge type , and am pleased if someone reforms there ways, but compassion and caring needs to be permanent not something based around a commercial date in a calendar.
I love the joy of meeting friends , being with them , hugging them , laughing , holding hands , and why can't we do that everyday. It's good to have a day to celebrate even more but really if we are happy every day , and look forward to being happy we can deal with life's annoyances.
Anyway I hope this week is good for you , I intend to make it good for me. I have seen lots of close friends over the last week , and made plans to see lots more in January , sort of ignoring the fact there are only a finite number of days in the month.
Some friends have had bad times recently but things are improving for them. I said I was there for them and I know that was appreciated , because I know they would be there for me.
Have chosen a tenuous music link , but The Zombie's "Time of the Season" is always good to hear.
Have a fantastic week my totally brilliant friends
It's Friday , and this weekend is the last one before Christmas. So a potential busy weekend , including sorting out presents , cards , a 50th birthday (not mine , that was years ago) , a Christmas party , booking a car and more. Do you realise that Amazon have 8 million Christmas related items? Though I am sure to could buy something better for from a local business
I am consistently amazed by Viv Albertine's book , a totally amazing woman, inspirational ,interesting and well , just buy the book here. It's page after page ,of "Oh My God" , "That Is Amazing" , "I've been There" and wanting to put your arms round her or being over the moon with her or wanting to hold her hand, Amazing stuff , although I've nearly finished it and have John Lydon's autobiography next in line.
Also it is the last Friday before Christmas so to quote Hill Street Blues , be careful out there ... and have a great time
