The Secret Commonwealth

Although I've not really spoken much about "The Secret Commonwealth" by Philip Pullman, it's a 700 page tome and I am about three quarters the way through it, I am thoroughly enjoying it. It's the fifth is the His Dark Materials / Book of Dust sequence and possibly a little less magical and more political.

The events in the book are reflecting the current political situation in the UK and USA while still staying in the alternate reality of people and their daemons. This is at the same time as the BBC / HBO are showing a dramatisation of "His Dark Materials" and that follows the, in my opinion,  excellent "Golden Compass".

The irony is, and I am sure Philip Pullman did this deliberately, "The Secret Commonwealth" in the book refers to the world of magical creatures. The whole series, books and dramatisations is worth investigating, and I am loving all of it.

When I see a seven hundred page book I think will I ever get through this? When you are coming to the end you don't usually think that's the finish line, you just don't want it to finish. There is always the option to go back and two of my favourite book clock in at over a thousand pages, they are "Imajica" by Clive Barker (my favourite book ever) and "Lord of the Rings" by JRR Tolkien. Incidentally when my daughter was 8 she told her teacher she had read "Lord of the Rings". He was a little sceptical about this so quizzed her on it. He then realised that she had read it and had star pupil status.

So what music do we have this grey Saturday morning? We could go with Bo Hansson's  1970 album which you can hear here , but it's a bit elevator musicish. I'm going to going with this Peter Jackson "Lord of the Rings" sequence soundtracked by Clint Mansell's theme to Darren Aronofsky's "Requiem For A Dream" which is well work watching on a big screen played loud.

Documentation

My intention this morning was to walk into work, but I awoke to a deluge, it's dark and cold, so I think it may be a bus journey. Lots of thoughts going through my mind, a bit difficult to put into works because while not bad or downers they are not particularly positive and are the sort of thing that can put you on a downward path if other bad things happen.

It's another day, and another opportunity and I need to start on some documentation at work, effectively redoing documentation I have already written in a new template. Don't you find that often they template takes 75% of the documentation? The good thing about this is it's a single page, which will obviously expand when it's fleshed out.

I'm a great fan of a combination of white space and laconic text in documentation, because then, in my opinion, it's more likely that people will actually read it. Just like instructions for an IKEA flatpack , you think , sod it I'll just do it.

So as the black sky turns to grey the rain seems to have stopped, so why don't we go for "Have You Ever Seen The Rain" surely a rhetorical question by the brilliant Creedence Clearwater Revival.

This excellent video is part of the 50th Anniversary Vinyl Release (on the stripe below) , and I just love the lyrics to the song that opens with:

"Someone told me long ago 

 There's a calm before the storm

 I know it's been comin' for some time

 When it's over so they say

 It'll rain a sunny day

 I know shinin' down like water 

I want to know 

Have you ever seen the rain? 

I want to know 

Have you ever seen the rain 

Comin' down on a sunny day?"

Enjoy your Thursday my friends.

Time Runs

This morning's post was the 13th post this month on the 13th day of this month and I have done many posts about the number thirteen that you can read here so I won't mention that again (this month).

This morning I got up at the normal time but decided to do some washing and had to package a CD and send it off to Germany from my Discogs store. Given that I laso washed and showered got dressed but all of a sudden two hours had gone and I still had to post the CD.

I got out of the house and noticed the bus I needed to catch leaving the stop down from me, however there was so much traffic that I gently strolled to the next bus stop and caught it there.

There are times where no matter how much you plan things run away from you and you have to deal with it, but other times you take opportunities and things fall into place and at the end of the day things fit.

While it's good to be proactive, it's good to be able to be reactive when the situation calls for it.

So I know a short and almost pointless post, but it provides an excuse to include "Time Is Running Out" by Muse, and Muse is always good.

Stille Nacht

Last night, oddly and exceptionally, when I decided in was time for sleep , I thought I don't want anything playing, I just want silence. Normally I have something playing, maybe Brian Eno or some space rock /  Krautrock such as Hawkwind or Tangerine Dream and let myself get lost in the sounds and drift off into the realms of Morpheus.

I know a lot of people who have difficulty sleeping and going to sleep is a bit like riding a bike, if you think about it, you can't do it.

This morning I posted off a CD to Germany and had difficulty writing the letter "ß" as it sort of comes out as a "B" when I write it, but hopefully it will get there.

The "Silent Night" aspect of this post reminded me of two takes on the Christmas Carol by Franz Xaver Gruber one by Can and the other by Sinead O' Connor (from "The Ghosts of Oxford Street" by Malcolm Mclaren, a great album / documentary if you can track it down. My friend Alison just found that it's on All4 here , so watch , learn and enjoy.

I've inclluded both for your enjoyment.

Take The Skinheads Bowling

Yesterday, for the first time in a long time, I walked to and from work. Both walks were in the dark as it's autumn and the days are still getting shorter as we are still on the way to the Winter Solstice and the shortest day. I did about 18.5K steps which at 2.5K steps per mile is about 7.5 miles. I don't think I will do that today as I need to be at work a bit longer today but I will definitely be walking in , and my step cout is ahead of schedule for the month.

I got to listen to the excellent "Dirty Computer" by Janelle Monáe, my favourite album of the last two years, repeating a couple of songs as I played it then finishing off with Marcel King's "Reach For Love" , one of my favourite singles and Shaun Ryder's favourite Factory single. That's the great thing about walking, these days (and really since the dawn of the compact cassette) we have the ability to listen to music on the move. Although cassettes are having a revival, the problem has always been their fragility, but they did combine that with convenience. A friend of mine had a cassette player that allowed you to program the playing order, but the fact that it had to fast forward and rewind between songs sort of negated the convenience, but an impressive piece of technology none the less.

The blog is now eight posts away from the annual record (last year I hit 316) so that will be easily surpassed this year and that will probably be it for posting records.

One of the points of this blog is to share music with friends and I was thinking of something by Janelle Monáe or Marcel King, but Chris Hawkins on 6Music has just put on "Take The Skinheads Bowling" by Camper Van Beethoven who once retired to a cabin and recorded Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" (my favourite Fleetwood Mac album and even got album of the week from NME despite being a double album by "dinosaur rockers" in the middle of the UK punk explosion, and the CVB one is good as well). So we will go with "Take The Skinheads Bowling".

Just as I was writing this , my tablet box somehow fell out of my pocket. It is round. I looked down it was nowhere to be seen. I guessed right and it had rolled under the chest of drawers. C'est la vie.

Mustang Ford

I remember as a teenager wanting the album "My people were fair and had sky in their hair .... But now they're content to wear stars on their brows" just for the cover. The song "Mustang Ford" seems to be a bit of an oddity here but the subject would have been more suited to the electric T. Rex than the acoustic Tyrannosaurus Rex.
I never got the album although my first purchase was a budget FlyBack compilation "The Best of T. Rex" on the Fly label with the four square design. This album is now in my collection on CD and get's the odd play, but the cover is still, in my opinion the thing that drags you into it, it has a lot to look at and extra things keep jumping out at you, Pink Floyd's "A Saucerful of Secrets" has a similar effect on me.

This post came about because I saw a friend in their Ford Mustang and this is part of the raison d'etre of this blog to record events big and small that actually matter to me. The number of times I go back through this to dig up some extra information.

I'm also updating by friend Bob Armstrong's website and he does some amazing landscape paintings which you can see here. So enjoy Tyrannosaurus Rex and Bob Armstrong's amazing paintings on this cold bright Sunday.

98.3

Coming back from holiday I weighed myself. No I am terrible at dieting and eating the right foods and taking exercise (although by stating this means that I am aware of this) so I expected to have increased weight. I was surprised to see that I weighed in at 98.3 Kg (that's 15 stone 7 lb imperial) which is the lowest I've been for over thirty years, I just wish that this could continue with as little effort as I've given it in the last week.

I know lowering my weight is better for me but I am very easily tempted and of the opinion that life is to be enjoyed as much as possible which sometimes means going outside the recommendations. Having said that a nurse once told me that I should not eat fruit and should only eat celery and turnips. Hardly inspiring, I ignored her.

I do like eating things that taste nice and think that when you do eat it is for the taste not the actual consumption. This morning I have had a couple of small cold satsumas which were very pleasant , and the fibre is good for bodily functions but the most captivating part is the taste on your tongue and in your mouth.

So this is just a short post to mark another slight drop in my weight. I know a lot of people join organisations such as Weight Watchers and Slimming World but really just go and see your GP they will weigh you and advise you and if you are in the UK that is "free" (paid for by your National Insurance and taxes).

For today's song we'll go with Tom Waits' "Eggs and Sausage"  which I do enjoy every now and then.

Pen Pals

I seldom write to anyone anymore. I mean really write with a pen on paper. The closest I get is addressing CDs that I sell on Discogs.  I used to send postcards to people of places I visited, but now it's Instagram videos, which in a way are more personal and effectively instant but in some ways I miss putting pen to paper.

The thing is a letter or a postcard is closer to you that digital communication , but digital communication can give an immediate closeness that paper can't. Telephone is great especially with the advent of the mobile , and then video calling  can  enable you to share even more. My eldest daughter sent my dad a video message on his eigtieth birthday because she was working and couldn't make the party. While a birthday card is nice the video message really amazed my dad.

We have so many ways to communicate, but it is nice to write every now and then, and I don;t know if that is just me being selfish. There are lots of people who generally shun technology so pen and paper is the general default mode of long distance communication. We have had the telephone for over a hundred years so that has always been relatively immediate.

So maybe the song we go for is "The Word / OM" by The Moody Blues the closing songs from "In Search of The Lost Chord" probably my favourite of their albums. Yes it's pretentious taking in sixties hippie culture references but I like it and so I will share it with your.

I've also noticed there's a Children In Need Covers album which is on the strip below , which you can buy or just chip in at the web site.

True Romance

Today has been a quietish day meeting with my dad for lunch and hearing a lot of good music. Some of this reminded me of my favourite film of all time, which I still love watching the Quentin Tarantino scripted Tony Scott directed "True Romance" which in my opinion has everything, cracking soundtrack, amazing cast including Dennis Hopper as a good guy and amazing face off with Christopher Walken's Sicilian gang boss, Gary Oldman as an albino negro drug lord and a Mexican stand off to end it with and all this interwoven with the Christian Slater / Patricia Arquette love story, oh and Val Kilmer as the ghost of Elvis.

I cannot believe that I haven't mentioned much of this film in the blog, but maybe once or twice.

The theme that Hans Zimmer, "You're So Cool", borrowed from Carl Orff's "Gassenhauer" (used in "Badlands") constructed as a children's piece to be played using very basic instruments. It is one of my favourite pieces of music and off course that is what you will get with this post.

There was a lot more good stuff that I heard today but that will be fuel for my next few posts.

The blog has just passed 350K visits so 400K by the end of the year is a distinct possibility, and half a million by the end of March could possibly happen.

It is late and I do have to get back to Newcastle tomorrow, but enjoy the start / end mash from"True Romance" , it still gives me goosebumps.

Packing In Lollipops

Today has been a busy but relaxing day. My first goal was to photograph the Ribblehead Viaduct . The problem was that I had a thirty minute window to take the photo's shortened by the fact the outward train was ten minutes late then I misread the return time which knocked another ten minutes off my free time. If I didn't catch the return train then I'd have a two hour wait for the next one, and the distance to the Viaduct was downhill and probably would take twenty minutes so my compromise was to take photographs from the car park of the Station Hotel and from the platform of the Station which you can see here on my Instagram feed.

Secondly, on my return to Settle, I walked to The Hoffman Kiln which is a remarkably eerie experience to walk through. I haven't a clue what lime burning entails but it seems a huge physical enterprise for the production of lime. You can see my walk through it here. There's more information than I can tell you here.

Vinyl From SCAD

When I came back to Settle I visited the S.C.A.D. charity shop, and ended up buying three vinyl LPs. I don't need any new vinyl but there was a Weather Report eponymous album that I've never seen before, some Debussy (Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune is one of the most beautifully creepy pieces ever), Vaughn-Williams and Delius.

One of the things is this blog does enable me to share music with friends all over the world, and I love when I do mange to share something new with them to increase their experience.

Sometimes it's something you like, sometimes it leaves you cold but it can be like food, I am not a fan of most Thai food and am picky about sushi and it is the same with music.

So what should we go with? Well I have seen a lot of fifties vinyl, including The Chordettes "Lollipop" which is always good to share with friends.

Enjoy

Fireworks

I got up this morning for a quick walk round and get fresh air , and saw a fading rainbow over Giggleswick (you can see it here) which was wonderful but like many atmospheric events you have to photograph them now or else they are gone.

I then noticed the date and it's the fifth of November , Guy Fawkes Night

"Remember, Remember

The Fifth of November

Gunpowder, Treason and Plot"

We could do with Guy Fawkes today methinks ....

But that made me think of the song "Fireworks" by Blue Oyster Cult from their "Spectres" album which a lot of people put down for being too polished, but it is full of great songs and is worth having in your collection, I have all their albums and that is one of the stand outs.

Today will be a trip to Skipton to visit The Huntress of Skipton Castle Woods as I always do when I came here.

I know this is a short post but I need to be getting on my way to catch the train to Skipton.

Restarting The Wire

I've just restarted watching "The Wire" picking it up at the start of series 3, and it is a stunning series. My friend Nick had to turn on subtitles to understand the streetspeak though I have managed the first two series without subtitles.

Along with "Breaking Bad" and "The Sopranos" this occupies the pinnacle of episodic TV, essential watching for anyone who likes entertainment that stimulates and stretches your mind.

All these programs also feature impeccable featured music and an unusual feature of "The Wire" is that each series features a different take on Tom Waits' "Way Down In The Hole" as the theme song. The list is below and they are all here.:

• Season 1: The Blind Boys of Alabama 
• Season 2: Tom Waits 
• Season 3: The Neville Brothers  
• Season 4: DoMaJe 
• Season 5: Steve Earle

So we go with The Neville Brothers take as that's the series that I am watching now.

Late Again

For the first time since I can remember I woke and got up at nine am today. I am almost always up around six like clockwork and I know I am on holiday but that came as a bit of a surprise to me. I thought the older you got the less sleep you needed but that doesn't seem be the situation with me.

It is good to get enough sleep, and you need your sleep, it is not a good idea to do without. Sleep repairs the body and promotes good stuff happening in there. If you don't get enough sleep then it does affect you, although I expect it is different for everybody , but it is nice to be in bed and be able to enjoy the feeling.  The TED talk from Matt Walker below is extremely informative on this.

So a perfect song for this post is "Late Again" the song that introduced me to Stealers Wheel ( Joe Egan , Gerry Rafferty and band , the saxophone is glorious, I wonder if it was the same guy who played on "Baker Street" ) who I saw performing this on The Old Grey Whistle Test as a teenager.

Most people know Stealers Wheel because "Stuck In The Middle With You" was used for THAT scene in Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs", one of Tarantino's inspired musical selection that wonderfully litter all his films.

So I know it's Monday afternoon, and the fact I am not at work means I can write this and communicate with the whole world. That's one of the pluses of writing your own blog , there is no one to tell you not to do that, although maybe sometimes you do need that.

So watch the TED talk and enjoy the excellent Stealers Wheel song on this Monday.

Comedy (and a Smile) is Good For You

This is post #300 this year. Here is Post #300 from last year, which is basically a list  of reasons that I have come to love being in Settle.

I've known a lot of people who are only happy when they are miserable, and are always looking for something to complain about. The glass is always too full or not full enough ensuring there is always something to complain about.

You should always smile at people, more often than not they will smile back and then at least two people are happier than before you smiled. Smiling release endorphins and takes much less effort than frowning, so a smile will just make things better.

Share a joke, or in our digital world share a funny video, YouTube is full of things that will make you laugh, but sharing it with friends just makes it better. Smiling is good for you , search Smiling Benefits on google and you find articles like this

Now I wasn't intending to write anything tonight ,  but things happen and you just want to share and smile. Seven Days In  has had over 340K visits since I started it twelve years back and last month there were 43K visits that's about one a minute over the last month.

I wanted to use this to share one of my favourite songs , "Comedy" by Liverpool band Shack , which I play often and it always raises my spirits. So go out there and SMILE .

>

Always

I got to Settle on Friday and thought I would start up the laptop (which I am writing or should that be typing ) this on and  the web browser wasn't saying it was insecure. Basically I hadn't used it for six months and battery needed charging but there was an avalanche of Windows 10 and ASUS Laptop updates that required installing , and as usual I said yes...... Ten hours later I think it finished , well it didn't because last night it required another restart and update.... and to quote Eddie Izzard ... Nothing has changed (Apparently).

This always happens and really I should start this up when I'm at home, but I don't, so it's my fault , at least partially,

Yesterday I walked to Scalebar Force (also signed as Scaleber Foss) and it was only a mile and a quarter but hadn't factored in the one in five (20%) gradient, and was amazed that on the way back down that there were two guys of my age or older biking up the gradient , that showed amazing determination and stamina. There are some photos and video on my Instagram feed here.

It's Sunday Morning and I have plans to visit The Hoffman Kiln again, and it's always great to share things with people. It's not good to always keep yourself to yourself , although solitude is good and necessary at times to recharge your batteries and do what YOU want. Remember the most important person in your life is YOU , if you are not there and 100% you cannot be there for those who matter to you.

And a record has been playing through my head for some reason, ans I think I first heard it on John Peel and I want to share it with you because it;s a great record and you are important to me. I'm almost shocked that I've never shared this before, there's over 2K posts on this blog, but it's the excellent "Him or Me" by Paul Revere and the Raiders. Enjoy.

All Saints

Today is All Saints Day according to the Catholic Church Calendar. Maybe it's marl that pagan Samhain is sort of over but it means little to me and more pertinently for me it is Friday.

I do find it amusing that people look forward to Friday, you should look forward to every day, it's another day to enjoy life and you should not wish that away. Yes you should hope and wish for good things but make sure you also do and experience good things however tiny.

It might be a call to a friend or even just a text, knowing it will put a smile on their face.

Nowadays people often work over all days of the week , so the weekend is not a break , also if you keep wishing for a day to come it will do , but you might lose the days wishing for that day to come.

Friday night  for me is relaxing but I do find books to read, films and TV to watch , music to play , friends to talk with, and lets face it we are now (or can be) more closely connected these days.

It's Friday morning , it's light , I have work to do , and people to see , so what record is more perfectly pertinent that "Friday I'm In Love" my The Cure.

Go on be happy.

Samhain - #Oktoberfest #37 - Gong Flying Teapot

Today is Samhain the Gaelic festival (wiki here) that takes us into the "darker half" of the year. Traditionally, it is celebrated from 31 October to 1 November, as the Celtic day began and ended at sunset. It's also the time for a number of much lesser and more commercialised evens such as Halloween , and I always think how these lot would would run and scream if a real vampire ,zombie , with real blood and dismemberment turned up. I'll probably get a tub of sweets to keep the children away.

So the drink list for #Oktoberfest as this will probably be the last one in the sequence (unless I do one later tonight). Scotch , Bourbon come under Whiskey so that's why I may seem to have missed things.

• Whiskey - 7
• Beer -4
• Wine - 4
• Tequila - 1
• Gin - 1
• Champagne - 1
• Brandy - 1
• Coffee - 3
• Milk - 2
• Tea - 2
• Cocktails - 2
• Fruit Juice - 2
• Water - 1
• General Alcohol - 8
• General Juice - 2
• Soda - 3

There's thirty nine there but some sontion mention more than one drink so it's about right.

So this #Oktoberfest ends (or it may not) with "Flying Teapot" by Gong and about four minutes in there is the the refrain:

"Have a cuppa tea

  Have another one

 Have a Cuppa Tea"

And that's a good way to start the day.

Chart Plan - #Oktoberfest #36 - Janelle Monáe - I Got The Juice

I think tonight I will put together a chart of all the drinks mentioned in my #Oktoberfest sequence. Normally when I do things like this I plan them to ensure I know what's coming next and ensure I don't repeat myself.

Early last year I heard what has been my favourite and most played album over the last two years , "Dirty Computer" by Janelle Monáe , and I often listen to it when walking to work. I thought about buying it on vinyl (which I could do) but it is naturally digital and here is my original post about it. This features the Dirty Computer Emotion Picture and fifty minute science fiction story / music video based on the album well worth watching on your big screen.

So #Oktoberfest continues with "I Got The Juice" by Janelle Monáe and again I am stretching the nature of drink, but you can drink any form of juice , even from Janelle Monáe so it does fit into my definition for #Oktoberfest and I am way over the 31 I expected for October (on 36 now) and will probably do two more.

Janelle Monáe also appeared in the Channel 4 Electric Dreams episode "Autofac" based on a short story by Philip K Dick.


The last couple of days the number of visits have increased from 1200 to 1800 a day , an increase of 50%.  October has had over 40K visits which is the highest ever (39K last month) so I don't know if 400K visits before the end of 2019 is a possibility as it stands at 334K now.

Difficult - #Oktoberfest #35 - Orange Juice - Rip It Up

This morning I had to replenish my diabetes and blood pressure tablets from my stash, but every cardboard pack seemed absolutely super sealed, requiring the total destruction of the pack to get into it. It's almost as bad as digestive or Weetabix biscuits , you should be able to unwrap them but often have to resort to a knife to break into them. Often you will have a box is in shrink wrapped cellophane that is difficult to remove , then the box itself is designed for you not to get into it followed by the stuff you actually want which is in another from of close wrapped plastic packaging.

I got what I needed and incidentally Gemma Cairney is playing the excellent "Pills" by St Vincent on 6Music so there's a bit of synchronicity for you.

But we are still on #Oktoberfest  (I must make a chart of which drinks have been featured)  so for a change the band name gets it in and we will go for "Rip It Up" by Orange Juice to continue the sequence which is now well over the edge of October hitting #35 which I seriously didn't expect. There's still two days left to go and I can think of two more drink related songs.

I think because of the synchronicity and the subject I am going to include the St Vincent song as well as the Orange Juice one, so you get a double treat.

Plan - #Oktoberfest #34 - Little Ole Wine Drinker Me - Dean Martin

Life is much easier if you have a plan and everything falls into place. It is seldom that that happens especially for me, although today I decided what I wanted to eat at lunchtime and waled into the Strawberry and, for a change there were lots of free tables, then I had some leftovers that were perfect for tea , meaning I came home took drugs and then my tea was ready and I ate that. There was no preparation and I didn't have to go out and buy anything, everything just fell into place perfectly.

Because all this worked it means that I can watch TV tonight and am totally relaxed, not that cooking is a problem, but it is nice that everything just slots into place.

So my intention was to do a post a day for #Oktoberfest but this is #34  in October so I've gone off the end a bit, but the latest is Dean Martin's "Little Ole Wine Drinker Me" , and while Dean Martin is hardly your average rocker fare , he came up with some absolutely class performances and this is one of them. A good song is a good song and you have to admire that.

Milk - #Oktoberfest #33 - Milk and Alcohol - Dr Feelgood

Over the weekend I was speaking to someone about living in the wilds with no neighbours for miles and said that's great in some ways but a major problem if you need something for either convenience or something more serious. Last week I saw an ambulance drive away from my neighbours fairly rapidly. They are great friends but I only have email contact. When there was no sign of their car or lights in the house after two days I was worried so emailed , but got a reply fairly quickly saying it wasn't them and they'd seen as well.

The first thing about living in suburbia, if you are lucky like me you get some great neighbours who you look out for and they look out for you.

The other thing was last night I had some cereal and used the last of the milk. I knew I was running low and had been out a few times and not replenished it but it was nine o' clock at night. Now I have three local shops open from six am to 11 pm (I would not have a problem if they had shorter hours) but it meant I had the option of getting milk when I got up or nipping out immediately. I chose the latter.

They are a couple of reasons why I prefer to live in this type of suburbia, I also don't need a car either which is another plus.

For #Oktoberfest we have "Milk and Alcohol" by Dr Feelgood in their post Wilko Johnson phase but still good. Wilko Johnson is is my guitar hero and an absolutely heroic cancer survivor still playing live today. He lost his wife to cancer, then was hit by pancreatic cancer and given three months to live but decided to not have chemotherapy and perform until he died. Six months later he was still with us and apologised it an interview saying that people probably felt cheated that he was still here (jokingly). Then a surgeon offered some groundbreaking surgery (see here) and Wilko is still with use and you can still see him performing and he's still making records. Oh he was also in "Game of Thrones" (Ser Ilyn Payne) as an executioner and the cast were devasted on his initial diagnosis and elated on his cure.