I got up this morning and needed lights on everywhere. The days are getting shorter. The Mail and Express blame it n foreigners . Seriously, we're still in summer, the weather has been great , it's Friday which means the weekend is here, so all is good.
This is my 1100th post on here, that's quite a lot , and does provide me with a great online diary of stuff worth remembering.
Recently I started another blog just for me to let off steam here as I do like to keep this one positive,and there are still lots of great things to be positive about. The UK are doing well in the Olympics and the EU actually tops the Olympic table , or it would do if we were part of it.
Anyway, as I said it is Friday, the weekend is nearly here , the weather is great (although skies at the moment are grey) so everything is in place for maximum enjoyment.
I know this isn't a particularly memorable post but 1100 is not a particularly memorable number really.
Over the past couple of days I've noticed a lot of smiles and a lot of glum faces. The people are all in similar situations. I don't know what their situations are but I find even (and maybe especially ) when things are not good a smile makes YOU feel better and it becomes contagious. Generally if you smile and someone , they will smile back at you and you will both end up feeling better.
I know I've written about this lots in the past and I may be repeating myself and you may read this and thing "Oh No he's going on about smiling and being happy AGAIN!". I make no apologies.
I know there are people who are only happy when they are miserable (often centred on Manchester .... only joking) , but it makes me feel much better when people are happy, so maybe I'm being more than a little selfish,
Just a thought one of my favourite albums of the moment is Manchester's Improving Daily by Edward II , and it really is one of the most beautifully produced albums I've seen in my life. It retails at the same price as any other CD but when I got it delivered the package was secured by sealing wax and you can see what it looks like on one of my Instagram Posts here. It really is a beautiful package so I will use a song from it "A Humorous and Interesting Dialogue" that was used in support of the NHS.
But the weekend is almost over , so if you are with someone smile , and if you are going to work tomorrow , smile, and your day will be much much better.
Every smile you give , you will get back in spades. Enjoy my friends.
Last night Preston North End hosted Hartlepool United in the latest incarnation of the League Cup, first round at Deepdale. I use an app called Fotmob and discovered that since 2010 Hartlepool had not scored a goal against Preston and had lost every match by the odd goal apart from one 5-0 defeat. Jeff Stelling is the world number one Hartlepool supporter.
Last night they defended heroically until the 94th minute when Eoin Doyle scored for us as extra time, and a draw loomed. That mus hurt, it would hurt me definitely.
It is good to see partisan , knowledgeable sports presenters , and lets face it I don't like all the 'B' clubs near Preston (Bolton , Burnley , Blackpool, Blackburn) and everyone hates Leeds and Millwall, but it adds to the interest of the program.
So cheer Jeff up and buy his book. I 've included my favourite football song because this is a vaguely football related post so you can enjoy England's Irie by Black Grape.
When I write blog posts I often get sidetracked and end up writing about things that weren't there when I started writing. This is just to see if I can write something reasonably focused.
People have described be as a Corbynista , because I am generally left wing. It's more about caring that people get the best and are not mistreated and stay under the heel of privileged classes. I will expand this in my new blog And Annoyingly but I started out as a Tory voter (my dad still is) , and recently watched an excellent TED talk by a right wing conservative here which rightly points out that in the modern world we need to work together , watch it here it's excellent.
I'm also reading PJ O'Rourke's "Don't Vote, It Only Encourages The Bastards" which again has a lot of useful and pertinent points in there . His one paragraph evaluation of Donald Trump is brilliant which is basically "if he didn't have paroled Enron accountants he'd be worth less than your cat"
The title of the post is just something that came to me and basically I suppose with what I've been going on about is surreally appropriate.
Anyway there is only one song that this post can have, and that's the Bonzo Dog Band's "No Matter Who You Vote For, The Government Always Gets In".
Last week I didn't post much for various reasons (see here) and then got to thinking what is a normal rate of posting things. Almost everybody on Facebook posts something everyday , often several times a day , and often it's just reposting something they have seen and liked. So I post more on Facebook than I do on here.
Usually Facebook is about being in the moment , it's what's happening at the time, and then things get lost and forgotten. People often use it to let off steam or moan about things, and too be quite honest a lot those sort of things I just ignore, though if someone is having I bad time I will contact them and see if can help.
Anyway , in my first year of blogging I posted 6 items , that's an average of 1 post every 2 months (60 days) , here is my first post which I hadn't a clue why I was doing this. The next post was about Krautrock but I had just lifted from a music section on my Song of The Salesman site but then decided not to go further with but I thought the piece had some merit.
I then wrote nothing until I went on holiday to Dublin and decided this would be a travel blog , hence the name. But that didn't take.
Anyway the following year I posted 46 times , almost once a week , and really that should be what I am aiming for and since that time (2008) I have written fairly consistently, about absolutely anything. In 2013 I posted 244 times that's two posts every three days , which is a lot of writing. This year I have posted 66 times and expect to maybe do 100 posts by the end of the year.
Last year I posted my thousandth post (here) which was in the middle in the middle of my Oddysey58 project which was a song for every year of my life which I do intend to somehow turn into an ebook, combining it with another book project I have started but not finished.
My posts tend to get 50-50 views though the biggest one has had over 900 views but is a rubbish post (here) though my most read post ever is on my Spoongig blog about the reopening of The Old Fox in Felling with over 1,100 views.
I chose "In The Meantime" by Spacehog because they had a song called "Millions" but I couldn't find it but I love In The Meantime with it's motif lifeted from The Penguin Cafe Orchestra's Telephone and A Rubber Band.
Anyway this morning started out very grey , but it's now sun shining but very windy, so it's the start to another week and if the weather is anything to go by , it's going to be a good one.
This is just about an email that amused me but because of a minor dose of "political correctness" (ie you can't ask the person who raised the question to clarify what they mean, you must ask someone at your level or lower). This email had gone through about six iterations (it was probably 3 or 4 but 6 sounds better) before it finally came to me.
It was a request for information on how to do something in the email title , nothing major , a simple question , but terminated by a strange sounding TLA , which I think was the cause of the problem.
It went like:
"How do you do XXXXXX EOM"
It was the EOM that was the killer. It was an email and the only thing that meant anything to me was End of Month, so I emailed the originator who told me with a smiley it meant "End of Message" , which meant the the person's question became crystal clear.
That was a bit of computer code being used as a TLA to end a sentence when a full stop or question mark would suffice. No harm was done and it made us all chuckle , but if someone like me hadn't entered the email trail trail , how long would it have gone on for ... or maybe that's why I was included as I often get things sorted. So it was a case of using something in the wrong place at the wrong time which to me is an obvious cue for Dr John's"Right Place, Wrong Time"
An Addendum to my argument is that apparently EOM can be added to the title of an email to signify that it doesn't need to be opened, so it was being used correctly , but no one on the email trail knew what it meant apart from the originator and now me.
It is another beautiful day so enjoy the wonderful weather and have a great Sunday.
,br>
I was just checking my blog and this post a bout the potential closure of Newcastle City Hall here, had been getting a lot of attention. I don't know who from but it's the third most read this week. I also missed the Dictators on Wednesday and Chase Park Festival today (here is my review from last year) , I have been amazingly remiss in my gig planning.
These days pessimists will start talking about Alzheimers , but the reality is that we all forget things, we remember things for no reason and some stuff becomes buried deep , so deep we don't know it's there.
One of the reasons I keep this blog , is the same as keeping a diary , except this is online and anyone can see it, and because of that people look at things that I had forgotten about and causes me to remember and revisit. Sometimes I remember that I had recorded something and then search the blog to find it. It really is a useful tool.
My memory has always been strange . When I did Law and English Literature I could remember all about cases but not the names of cases , and I knew what happened in plays but could never remember any quotations. I usually don't know how to do things but I do know where to look to find out how to do things.
So anyway I thought I would just share that with you and you could always do a random search of this blog , you never know what you might find.....even I don't know exactly what I will find ... and I'm the one who wrote the damned thing.
I've chosen a re-edit of Robert Wyatt'sMemories spliced with the finale to The Blue Angel , and that has led me to a whole new treasure trove of discovery
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Oh and below is Robert Wyatt's take on Peter Gabriel's Biko , and I just love it, one of the most powerful songs I've ever heard and although it sound slight at first , it works it's waky into your psyche . I love Robert Wyatt... and this one of the discoveries that I mentioned.
Well I am very hot and sweaty, I bet you really wanted to know that. This morning I have cut down a leafy bust to fit in te brown bin (I actually cut it last week) , mowed the lawn , put up a shelf that fell off a wall months ago, well I think I have, those rawlplugs weren't working so I hope the no more nails strips will hold, they say up to3Kg each strip but we all know the phrase "up to" includes the number zero. I got that from the Llap Goch Advertisement in Monty Python'sBig Red Bok. Click on the image to read the text a lot more easily.
I've also been and bought a rucksack for of shopping and walked about 3 miles, so I have had a fairly productive morning.
I still didn't want to get up though, but the fact I have doe all this and am writing this blog post is a good sign.
The weather is excellent and there have been a lot of greeting and smiles when I was out, the sun and good weather can bring out the best in people.
The football season has started although for some it will feel as if it never ended, teams complain of too many games and once there is space they organise a tour on the other side of the world or some new made up cup competition. Newcastle lost their opening Championship encounter with Fulham leaving the bottom of the division much to the delight of Sunderland fans. I'm obviously more concerned with how Preston fare against Jaap Staam's Reading.
...is not a way to describe me at the moment. The last couple of weeks I have been feeling lethargic and apathetic. I want to stay in bed late and go to bed early and sleep lots , maybe my body and mind just need rest. I've missed gigs , quizzes , events which people have put effort into and I have not been able to put in the effort.
The fact that I am writing this means I am feeling better and more like my old self and have plans for things like mowing the lawn at the weekend and getting out to see people.
One good thing about this is that it has enabled me to catch up on lots of TV such as Gotham, Wayward Pines , Outcast and up to the end of series one of Penny Dreadful. The thing is TV does take you away from other things , but lots of my friends binge watch and still manage to have a normal social life.
I could blame this on diabetes and maybe that does have an effect , but I wont let it rule my life. This week I've also been doing my own cooking apart from a takeaway last night , plus done a lot of chores round the house , so maybe it's just that that I have been doing other things , but I have definitely been going to bed early and wanting more than my usual lie in in the morning.
When I woke this morning I had the remnants of a dream , I was working somewhere with a protected computer (the protective device had a green flashing light) which hand been taken over by some malicious entity. I suggested the switch off / switch on solution which worked and enabled to get what we needed including a cryptic email from someone called Huffington , then I woke up. This is allowed to make no sense at all as it was a dream.
The other plus is that it's Friday and we have the weekend to do lots of fun stuff ... and lie in. I thought the older you got the less sleep you needed. Anyway I feel fine now and I am pleased that I've managed to write something.
The Dictators "Sleeping With The TV On" is appropriate and still gets better every time I hear it and they are playing Think Tank tonight..... I really should go.
I love seeing people smile , I love seeing people happy and I love smiling and being happy. Seeing a smile is infectious , I always smile back and sometimes I smile at people and they smile back at me. Yes the context has to be right (I watch Gotham and have seen some very worrying smiles) , but a smile does make you feel better.
I know society is not good at the moment and I am hopeful we can progress , I detest spitefulness greed and idiocy which seems to be the modus operandi for the government , but my friends and their friends are positive and pleasant people. I love going into work and the only pressure is to get the job done well and that means that there are plenty of opportunities to smile at work as there are lots of wonderful people that I work with.
It does help that the weather is generally summery at the moment , I woke up early and , the sun is streaming through the window although I am still very tired so will be going back to bed after this.
There have been a lot of free concerts in South Shields and tomorrow UB40 play Bents Park in South Shields , I tried to get to The Proclaimers and Lindisfarne the other week but I was a bit late and the gates were shut, and there were still huge queues outside , and I was amazed at the number of people complaining that the gates had been shut . It was very popular and public safety is paramount. Oh and my friend Steffen Peddie is playing The Customs House tonight ... now he WILL make you smile (and laugh loads).
Anyway I chose UB40's Sing Your Own Song as it always makes me feel good , and I hope it does the same for you.
Anyway , the weekend is just starting , so smile lots and enjoy other peoples' smiles. It's a simple concept and I know some people are only happy when they are miserable (Usually Mancs and soap opera characters... try Coronation Street and Eastenders, although I have met some brilliant Mancunians in my time such as John Cooper Clarke and others)
One of those phrases that just came to mind for no apparent reason . Clone can be a noun or a verb in this context and Gravity can be a noun or an adjective. Again this could be used as a band name , like Beach Canaries that I used earlier on in the month.
I am thinking of posting a series of songs on here that for me just don't fit into what we expect. Captain Beefheart made me realise that technical ability was subservient to actual ideas. An idea put into practice is far better that the musical ability to play all the notes perfectly , though maybe I am saying that because I can't really play any instrument. The sort of artists that spring to mind are David Bowie , Beefheart , Zappa, PJ Harvey and Siouxsie & the Banshees and that's just a start.
We're coming to the end of July and next week we hit August , the days are getting shorter and soon people will be complaining that we haven't had a summer despite the current heatwave.
Yesterday I too a photograph in the stairway at work and a friend of mine remarked it reminded him of Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes which is a possibility of a cover for the band I am practicing with although they will be leaning towards the Postmodern Jukebox version so I've included both for you delectation. And that is another coincidence.
So it's a lovely day so enjoy it , it's turning out to be a great week
I am quite surprised that I don't seem to have ever mentioned Joy Division in this blog. I have written about New Order and The Hacienda and I am sure a few other related bands, but for some reason Joy Division came to mind this morning , and particularly the song Atmosphere , then thanks to youtube I found this promotional video which amazingly I've never seen before.
I love it's rickety pretentious mystery and and the black and white graininess. I don't know if the black and white hooded plus and minus figures are stock footage or commissioned for this video but it certainly is a mind stimulating four minutes with and obviously excellent soundtrack.
I first heard the song on John Peel and that's where I heard a lot of artists for the first time. Looking for image from the vide (I know I could have snipped it , the scary black and white Teletubbies image came up so thought it would be fun to include that.
Anyway , the sun is shining, it's the start of a new week , so everyone have a brilliant time today
I must admit I haven't been too happy with the events of the last couple of weeks , and I really want this blog to be positive , so I have set up another called And Annoyingly for me to post anything that annoys me and I feel I have to rant about.
So this weekend I have managed to relax , sort the garden out , though I have not managed to get out to Summertyne and was sad to miss my friend Teresa who was playing on Friday afternoon when I was at work , but that's the thing we have to do things like work to be able to do the things we want.
This week I have also been enjoying Gotham and the recent reboot of Dredd and think I am ready for another week.
It's raining outside but still humid , but apparently we are due a torrential downpour tonight. I have been amazed at the number of people I have seen watering their gardens , but I'm no expert.. I havent watered the garden for two years .. that's how good I think the weather has been and the grass is still green and looks good. I do tend
to look out the window to find out out what the weather is like, though
it's amazing how many people eschew this method and turn to their smart phone to get the information
Anyway enjoy the rest of your weekend, I certainly will. I really should get dressed , the music is Pearl Jam covering The Beatles' Rain ... one of my favourite Beatles songs
My final thoughts on the referendum results , supporting it with a couple of videos from The Daily Show's John Oliver.
I always go with the majority , because it's the right thing to do, that's the way democracy works. However the Referendum is not a legally binding thing , we don't have to leave the European Union, and the Government have stated that it will be at least twelve months before they invoke Article 50 , but want to start dismantling Human Rights as soon as possible, see here. But I have several points that still trouble me:
Lies, Lies , Lies
The Money That was going to be saved to give the NHS , according to Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage they never said that , it isn't going to happen
If we are withdrawing from the EU , a single entity , why have we appointed Boris Johnson to build new relations with European Countries (28 of them) for trade? I thought that's why we were getting out
All of a sudden we can't close our borders to other countries if we want to trade with them , so the immigration situation is not going to change
Cameron wanted to remain so he resigned , and Farage and Boris Johnson disappeared to
A lot of people voted leave because they believed the lies of the Leave Campaign , or just wanted to protest against the Government, but if the reason people voted was based on numerous lies , then is their vote valid? People have said they should have realised that what the Leave campaign was saying was lies , but if this were subject to "Sale of Goods" rules the Referendum would be declared null and void
Also the "Take Back Control" slogan , we already have all the control we need who are we taking back what from?
The thing is a lot of people had valid reasons to want to leave, but thousands have been conned. A lot of Leave voters couldn't tell you why they wanted to leave , they just did, some where shocked with the result came in. I certainly was , though I did vote stay.
In the USA they reckon the country will not be so stupid as to vote in that allegedly racist , misogynist serial liar Donald Trump , but the UK voted in the tory party for two terms and have capped it with a vote to leave a flawed but beneficial economic and mutually enhancing bloc, the potention of the electorate to shoot itself in the face in the name of democracy never fails to amazy me.
Watch the John Oliver videos , although it may be too late as we have another Witch in Westminster now.
This morning I got off the bus and thought I'd get a couple of bottles to see me through the morning given the lack of air conditioning in our building. I then realised I'd left my wallet at home so wandered into the office remembering that my bank and Samsung Note 4 phone could supposedly do contactless payment. And that is what I thought this post would be about.
So went to local supermarket , though I will try with one item , then thought no it'll work so had about a tenners worth of stuff which I scanned then thought tap and pay. Well tap tap tap and nothing happened , I'd followed the instructions switched on NFC and all that but nothing. So the helpful girl in Tesco's said she'd put the stuff back.
Then I noticed an option on the phone app so pressed it and it said I had thirty seconds to do the transaction. I though great, this should be no problem , so re scanned my shopping basket , pressed the button, tap to pay ...... no way ... so handed back another bag of stuff.
Sort of gave up , but thought maybe it's their machines. So I went to Gregg's. Same result , so I was destined to go hungry , but here's where it gets interesting. I use Gregg's quite regularly but didn't know the server, but the guy said "Just take it" , I said know , but he said it would be OK , but I didn't want him having to explain why he was £2 down on his till , but thanked him anyway.
Then as I was walking out a guy came after me and said "Here's £2 for the sandwich" , I said I hadn't had one, was slightly confused, but this guy was offering to buy me a sandwich , he said he'd been in the same position. I said no again , but thanked him for his kindness.
It's funny how we are often reluctant to take genuine help from others , but my failing phone brought me in to contact with some wonderful unselfish kindness today. I am glad I forgot my wallet because as a result I know there are more kind people near me that I thought there were.
Anyway it's really hot , so there's only one song , from Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate , "It's Too Darned Hot" , though I've gone for the Ella Fitzgerald version.
Around fifteen years back I started my Song of The Salesman website and then I realised that I could ad advertising and sell related music from it. At it's height it was bringing in £500 a month , not it maybe hits £30 , but I keep it going as a hobby with monthly updates. Yesterday I removed two more online music links , namely GEMM who have gone to the wall and Play / Rakuten who have become fairly rubbish. This leaves Amazon and iTunes left as the only online iusic sellers that I can link to.
Emusic used to have a great model but that became shot to hell so I had to drop them , but the problem is that for the sellers that disappear there are no replacement models that will pay me for linking .
Ebay dropped me because I didn't make THEM enough money .
There are online services such as Spotify , but their model wouldn't mesh with mine, others come and go.
Below is a list of the affiliates who have come and gone, a lot still exist in one form or another:
Napster
GEMM
Some Russian Site
HMV
Virgin
Zavvi
Emusic
7Digital
WE7
Woolworths
Tesco
Asda
Ebay
There are probably a lot more but I just find it sad that I feel as though for music , online there is much less mainstream choice. There is still a lot of online presences worth looking into such as Noisetrade who make a lot of albums available free to promote music, Bandcamp , Soundcloud and many others. Music is certainly not dead , it's thriving , but it's the grass roots music makers who give us the choice , not the mainstream.
I suppose it's like the Supermarket model , their ultimate aim is to close down all the competition. Luckily I live in Newcastle and have The Grainger Market and lots of great local food shops like Medina.
Also if you look at online , many people will not venture beyond Facebook and Amazon when the sum of all human knowledge is at their disposal. TV is the same , with have a plethora o f media available but some people don't get beyond Eastenders , X-Factor and Britain's Got Talent.
The thing is there is so much out there if you just open your eyes, but as the bible quote says "There are none so blind as those that will not see"
Anyway , it's gorgeous out there , go out and find something worthwhile to enjoy , me , I'm going to see The Reet Hot Chilli Peppers tonight.
I'm just reading The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson and there's quite a lot of disturbing stuff in there, and some worrying things about the nature of psychopaths and sociopaths . Apparently f you start noticing traits in yourself that may you suspect you may be a psychopath then you probably aren't one , but if you don't thing you could be a psychopath then the chances are that you are one. It also reckons the reason for the inequality and unfairness in society is that psychopaths are actually in a lot of high up places of power , and they get there because of their nature.
This is something we should be very worried about. We tend to give certain people a lot of leewaybecause it's "just the way they are" but I have seen some disgusting bullying behaviour in the workplace of the years that has been condoned and allowed by company management for the flimsiest of reasons, management often turning on people less likely to cause a fuss to carry the the can for the bully's behaviour.
We see it in politics today and as long as we allow it , it will continue to happen.
I suggest you grab a copy of the book , and then try and find something positive to focus on , because it's the weekend and you should really be enjoying yourself, I certainly will be.
There's only one song that will do for this post and it's Elvis Costello's take on the country and western classic "Psycho" written by Leon Payne after he saw Hitchcock's film "Psycho".
It's nice to actually get up on time and have time to make a cup of tea without having to rush out the door to get to work. This is what I intended to do yesterday , but the alarm was running an hour late. I'm listening to Radio 6 and about to run out the door after finishing my tea.
Tonight Wales play Portugal , a big match for both teams , but Wales do have the most expensive player in the world in Gareth Bale , and he can deliver , ad he has a team round him that can do it's job so don't be surprised to see Wales in the Final though all the money will go on Portugal.
Anyway enjoy your Wednesday , it's half way through the week and the sun is shining and "Everything Counts" by Depeche Mode is on the radio , but I will choose The Referees Alphabet by Half Man Half Biscuit as today's music.
This was originally going to be called "Time" but about half an hour the phrase "Beach Canaries" came in to my head, it's probably the name of a band and if it isn't it should be.
Anyway what this was basically about was that recently I seem to keep not having enough time to do the things I want to do. I do get them done but often times seems to run away. Maybe it's a sign of getting older. When you are six and you get six weeks summer holiday that's a week for every year of your life , it's like nearly forever, now six weeks comes and goes just like that. Actual time still last the same length ... I think.
There's a science fiction story called "The Eighty Minute Hour" by Brian Aldiss in which the concept is that the controllers slow down the clocks when you are at work and speed them up when you are not. Would you know? And how often have you looked at the clock at work and almost believed that it's stopped or going backwards.
Some morning when I go to work I am sure I leave at 7:30 but still get through the door at 8 for what should be a fifteen minute door to door excursion. Late buses , traffic jams , and forgetfulness also contribute.
The biggest benefit from leaving my previous job was the 60 hours a month traveling time I got back, and because of that I now commit myself to doing a lot more, seeing people , watching films , going to gigs , I've actually joined a band . So really I am filling up my time. I never sit and think , where is the time going and don't have an answer. I know where it's going , and I am enjoying it.
I love any excuse to talk and meet friends , and share fun times , and that makes life very enjoyable.
I will get a handle o this , and was going to write this this morning but ......
Last week my alarm clock woke me with piercing electronic screeching. I shut the thing down and it had reset itself to factory settings. I reset it all and the following day it did the same so , it was binned. I've spent a week with no alarm , until this morning. I got the new alarm, set and it went off at quarter to six this morning. I showered and went to get dressed and noticed the clocks and watched were reading 7:15 . Had I really spent 90 minutes getting washed and showered? NO , I had set the clock and hour slow , so getting out to work was a bit of a rush.
Anyway that;'s just some thoughts about time and maybe a good song to have would be Buena Vista Social Club and Coldplay's Clocks from Rhythms Del Mundo.
After the shock of the EU Referendum we're still here, we just have to put in more effort to make things right. Throughout my life I've been called thick and stupid by people who don't have the ability to comprehend what I say. Michael Gove stated that people were sick of experts and the some of the electorate agreed with him, there are a lot of Red Top Readers out there. Professor Brian Cox says this is a way back to the Stone Age , check his article here. Who'd have thought I would be taking my lead from D:Ream's keyboard player.! Things Can Get Better.
A few people who voted leave stated their reasons for voting leave were "Too Many Immigrants" , "Too Many (Unspecified) Laws" and the Leave Campaigners immediately denied responsibility for the claims or promises that they made. It's like buying a 2.8 litre Mercedes and then finding out there are bike pedals under the bonnet and the seats are plastic and the music system is am 8 Track.. Caveat Emptor.
But we are still here and there is a lot to be hopeful about. Look to your friends and the people about you. The people you can hug , the people you can share fun with. This post may be a a bit me-centric and Newcastle-Centric but I believe that we can come out of this smiling. A lot of things are wrong but I know so many positive people who work together to make things better , that I do believe that we will overcome the culture of selfishness that has been endemic since the Thatcher / Reagan era. Since then I have seen a lot of good , a lot of people helping others , a lot of great charity work, though I am looking forward to a time when we don't need charity. I don't know how that will happen, but I am sure it will.
So start now , be there for those that need you and want you , smile at people , find something that makes YOU happy and share that with others. I am feeling positive and a positive attitude makes good things happen . Smile , Be Happy , and Share .
Have a Wonderful week. I am sorry that this post is a meandering mess but really , Things WILL get better. I've chosen The Rumour's Emotional Traffic as he song ... well you know why.
Well we are out of the EU. An old guy yesterday said it was a beautiful day because we were out of the EU and he was free , free as a bird. Some people said they didn't realise their Leave Vote would actually count... that's how voting works!
I probably feel even worse that when the Tories got their majority, but like all advertising campaigns the Leavers hit more voters than the Stayers. While the margin was narrow for such important decision , that was basically the criteria and we have to abide with it. Somebody said Democracy was where you always go with the majority decision until it's not the result you want.
Lots of people are asking for a second referendum but what they are really asking for is for the result to go their , like Dumbledore in Harry Potter awarding Harry's team extra points so they beat Slytherin. It ain't going to happen and it shouldn't happen
I just hope the country realises what it has done done and turfs this Government out at the first opportunity.
I know this is not my normal sort of post , but I hope we can steer ourselves away from the cliff that we are heading towards with the country drifting further to the right.
Father's Day is one of those made up things to con you out of money in the form of cards meals and presents... but ... we can always turn these things to OUR advantage , which effectively me and my wonderful daughters did.
We did lunch in Bar Loco on Friday which was a first for them and is now a definite favourite with them as well. If it hadn't been for Fathers Day we may not have met up this soon but it provided the impetus and we met and talked and had a great time. Lots of smiles and hugs and I got a copy of the excellent new Dexy's album that is playing as I write this. So all in all a great day.
My Dad with Me at Morecambe Long Long Ago
The weekend has been relaxing with lots of catch up TV.
Today I have phone my dad three times but not got in touch , although he'll get his card and presents
eventually.
These days are maybe commercially and cynically motivated , but we always have the option to make them out own and make something good out of them.
Also this week this post on Spoongig here got some major hits which made me happy.
I hope you had a great day today whichever side of the fence that you were on, I hope you are rested for the coming week , which will no doubt be excellent, well it will be for for me
Smiling makes you feel better . You may feel you have nothing to smile about , but do it and something good has happened. You smiled. And That's good , so you can smile again. A smile causes the release of the same endorphins as a bar of chocolate, without the calories.
At work there are three people who ALWAYS have a smile on their faces , they raise my spirits and I'm sure they raise others spirits. I also know that these people have not had the easiest of times but they have found happiness and spread it around , making others happy.
If you smile people tend to smile back and then you raise each others spirits and they day gets better. Whatever you are doing gets easier, you get inspired , you work better and you just do better.
There are those who don't return smiles and you cannot force people
to be happy, but the more people who do smile , well they can spread it to the ones who don't think they can smile.
Yes it's Monday , and yes I feel tired despite nine hours sleep and a lie in til mid day yesterday , but for some reason the visits to this blog have doubled , so that makes me feel good that people actually want to read what I have to write. I try to be upbeat and despite so much negativity in the media they is a lot to be positive about.
This week is going to be relatively relaxing so hopefully I can see off my cold and get back to normal. I've woken up to mist and fog but I reckon that will burn off and we will have a very sunny
day.
I've just finished John Lydon's autobiography , Anger Is An Energy, 500 pages of not exactly easy going but some great insights to the man and his bands and the music industry and the media. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a challenging read, his opinions on certain people will probably surprise you.
Anyway this is just a quicky and we can have one of my favourite PIL songs Fishing which is just awesome though it doesn't get a mention in the book.
Didn't get out to AKQ Stottin' last night but I know Trillians would have been packed and it meant that I could watch some good films and get a reasonably early night. Today looks incredibly dreary , grey , wet and not exactly the ideal summers day.
I also didn't realise that England and Wales were in the same UEFA 2016 group , and Wales are top and Russia got a last minute equaliser although the bits of the match I saw looked fairly good, but whether Russia are meant to be the group fall guys I don't know , because Wales are looking good.
Anyway today is going to be a relaxing day , I will be practicing songs , listening to music , perusing the papers , getting irked by the Red Tops whicjh will tells us how immigrants will cost Europe £20 Billion (while the UK allows Corporate Tax Evasion / Avoidance of £200 Billion) , but knowing that they are rags written by idiots for morons.
Anyway today is going to be another positive day, enjoying the abundant greenery , maybe taking awalk with a hat or an umbrella , because walking is good for you and does make you feel better and does not cost you anything but time and energy and you can find lots of unexpected things if you go in a random direction. And that thought has given me a song for this piece , George Harrison's"Any Road".
There are so many reasons to be happy , find them and have a great Sunday my wonderful friends.
I really like to maintain a positive attitude and generally post positive things in here, but I do notice that the things that most of the public like are things they can complain about , things that they can moan about. I always used to think that the closer you got to Manchester , the more miserable people got .. after all that's where Coronation Street is set and let's face it it's not the happiest of places , though that can be said of most TV soaps , it's just that Coronation Street has been around for as long as me.
But really there are lots of great things going on. Newcastle has been holding the Jesterval where my friends Gavin Webster and John Scott performed and they always make me laugh , though John's gig was 10:30 to 11:30 on a Tuesday night, as I left the tent in front of the Baltic Mill I saw that last Quayside Bus disappearing meaning a walk to the Taxi Rank outside the Akenside. I realised I needed some cash and as I went to the ATM I was accosted by somebody who ran up to me and said "I've Had A Really Bad Time , Give Me Some Money Now!!" Really ? I took my money from the cash machine and suggested he made his may elsewhere and I wouldn't be threatened into financing whatever he wanted.
Tonight Trillians celebrates a year since it's reopening with the mighty AKQ Stottin' on the stage , and unbelievably I have never seen them so tonight that will be rectified. This is the thing about Newcastle , there are so many things to do , places to go , in such a small city. I just love the place. Also Trillians has become a regular lunchtime eatery for me with an all day breakfast or Bangers and Thrash watching whatever film they are playing with music leaning toward the rockier side, though their take on Black Sabbath is hilarious.
Today the weather is grey and rainy , but I mowed the lawn and it's not too cold, well really it is quite summery. So I am going to include videos of the three acts I have mentioned and this is hardly scratching the surface,
Although I managed to miss my friend Nick's daughter Alisha's debut at The Three Tuns, I love her voice , check her out here
SO everybody have a brilliant weekend , there are lots of great things to enjoy , go enjoy yourself .
I try to keep things positive on this blog but am a little sad to be thinking about the passing of two greats , Dave Swarbrick , fiddle player with Fairport Convention amongst many others as well as being an artist in his own right , and Muhammad Ali , peerless boxer and human rights activist.
I was introduced to Muhammad Ali from an early age , as he was the nearest thing to a hero for my my dad , a boxer himself who had to give up because he cut so easily. I knew him as Cassius Clay and then went the tmedia trauma of him converting to Islam and changing his name. We had Henry Cooper but Muhammad Ali was the man, my dad was dismissive of Cooper and eulogised Ali.
I was never into boxing because I was far too not liking the pain , also I remember seeing a book about Ali called GOAT , which was on Amazon with a retail price tag of £2,000 . You can now buy it here for a more reasonable , but still expensive £99.99 , but I wondered about the title, GOAT is an acronym .... Greatest of All Time.
There are so many stories surfacing , especially about his links with Tyneside , how he got married at a mosque in South Shields , raised money for a local boxing club , and basically just go on the net and you will see loads of information about the great man.
Another great loss was Dave Swarbrick who I saw at the Tyneside Irish Centre in 2014 , performing on a stage I have (dis)graced myself , my memories are here and he was incredibly funny and talented , I think I also saw him with either Imagined Village or The Albion Band at The Sage.
I first heard him on John Peel accompanying Martin Carthy on "Prince Heathen" , but remember the speed of his playing on "Fiddlestix" on Fairport Live which I still can't hear in my head , I have got to listen to the recording to hear is brilliance.
I do feel that 2016 is a year of incredible artistic departures but their legacy will endure, like Muhammad Ali's fights and words and deeds , we will always remember them, like Swarbrick's music. I'm going to include Johnny Wakelin's "In Zaire" about the Rumble In The Jungle with George Foreman and Swarbrick's live rendition of Fiddlestix.
In the seventies when my major musical influences were being formed , my attention was often caught by bands with a penchant for presentation, but most of my grammar school peers were into progressive rock, while the music teachers bored us with classical , and my out of school friends were Teddy Boys and Greasers with a taste for rock and roll and hard country.
Early need to see bands were Hawkwind and Pink Floyd , I caught Hawkwind but never got to see Pink Floyd, both had light shows and multi media aspects to their shows and Hawkwind had the attraction of Stacia an Amazonian Proportioned dancer.
Then I heard about a band called Kiss , masks , flame throwing guitar, fireworks , so I checked out their albums and .... was not impressed. They sound weak , turned out to be bandwagon jumpers and just plain annoying.
But then came Earth, Wind and Fire. They had mysticism , magic in their stage shows , huge sets , amazing musicianship .... but they were disco. This was totally at odds and messed with my brain, how could a band that looked and seemed so interesting be a disco band? Seriously.
Well forty years on I bought The Eternal Dance and I will give them a real listen, I have loved some of their stuff but my musical bigotry has stopped me from buying theor stuff.
That changed today so of course I have to include some live footage of the band from Japan in 1988 for you to enjoy. The stage set is very impressive .We didn't have this in the seventies , but we do now.
