Last night I think I shook off the 'flu' , I've lost 9lb but think that this may be muscle wastage rather than losing fat. That may be not too good but means that I am still weak but it has put me in a good position weight wise.
This morning on Classic FM a version of the Christmas Carol came on that sounded like the choir was on speed, and though that "Ah, that's another UK hit single that wasn't in English. The ones I can think of are as follows:
I am sure there are at least two more , which I will add if I remember them, there are others with snippets of non English in them but I am just thinking of the ones with no English lyrics at all. I will leave you with the Steeleye Span take as I am feeling a little queasy, but at least I have done a Christmas Day post. Enjoy your Christmas my friends.
Today in bed I felt there was someone there with me, I don't know who, but I know someone was looking out for me.
Later I saw a dark sheet hanging over me with hands and a head full of teeth, looking fairly frightening, but I have confidence in my own abilities to fight off flimsy night demons and that is doubled because I know so many people want me back to 100% for both personal and professional reasons, all of them good. The demon stayed where it was and finally melted away but was fairly impressive.
During this influenza some of the side effects have been night blindness, dizziness almost to the point of collapse and a lot of this possibly caused by anaemia, which is not being helped by me not wanting to eat. Today I decided on a fried egg sandwich for breakfast but that just didn't happen, and a trip to the chemist for a folic acid prescription didn't really do me any good either, apart from getting more tablets that I need, thanks to my wonderful doctor at Thornfield Medical Group. I love our NHS.
My mind is tired but by body is awake, I had the heated up remains of a Mirch Aloo Begun from the amazing Rajnagar and managed to eat that without too much of a problem. I am now drinking Hot Chocolate as I write this in the hope I can kick start my body to properly repair itself. I am a bit like my dad in assuming my own indestructibility although I think I look after myself a bit more carefully.
After the dream I think an appropriate sequence would be "Night on Bare Mountain" by Mussorgsky from Disney's "Fantasia" one of my mum's favourite films and a wonderful introduction to classical music for young people, if only they had shown that in music lessons at school I'm sure a lot more of us would have taken notice. The piece also found it's way on to the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack as "Night on Disco Mountain".
I was remarking that most of the Christmas songs that get repeated plays on the radio are from the seventies, when it seemed everyone was releasing a Christmas song. Most were decent efforts though I though Kate Bush's and Queen's were not up to their usual standards.
Since then memorable Christmas records have been few and far between, although this may be just due to like of radio play, yest we had "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, "Do They Know It's Christmas" by Band Aid and "Christmas Wrapping" by The Waitresses, but you seldom get to hear "Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas" by The Eels or "Alan Parsons in A Winter Wonderland" by Grandaddy.
My own favourite though is "Christmas Song" by The Raveonettes (from 2011, yes I know nearly ten years old) , who if you don't know them are a sort of cross between Roxette and Jesus and Mary Chain, absolutely perfection. This is my all time favourite Christmas song...... so far.
I've titled this thinking that it sounds like the name for a Brian Eno piece, as I am still reading the David Sheppard autobiography "On Some Faraway Beach" and I am going to add some Brian Eno CDs to my Discogs sale list, not because I don't like them , just because I have digital or vinyl copies and the CDs are probably never going to be played again, so it's time for someone else to enjoy or discover them. They're not up yet because I need to find the CDs first.
One of the results of having the roof leak is that often when I hear a regular noise I assume it's dripping water, that is a leak from somewhere. This happens quite often and the usual culprit is a ticking watch or a clock. Now I know this is something I am able to cope with but there people out there who this would drive to distraction, you almost start looking for things to be leaks.
Since I had the roof fixed properly by Responsive Roofing the situation has been perfect, but the worry is still in the back of your mind though it will disappear eventually I know. I spoken with lots of people who have come across leaks that they just can't track down, often influenced by wind, wind speed and direction. Water can be insidious, discovering ways through that builders did not even think possible, and remember water can wear away pretty robust stuff, look at The Grand Canyon and so many gorges carved by water.
So to go with this I'm going the share "By This River" and tranquil piece by Brian Eno from his "Before and After Science" album.
I'm still hit by 'flu' although the benefit so far is a two kilogram weight loss. Yesterday it was 3:30 pm when I woke which meant I obviously needed the rest and sleep. I searched influenza for treatments and it is very infectious, so this close to Christmas I won't me going into work today, and the reason I'm writing this is that I hit the sack at 8pm and woke up coughing so thought sitting up would give a bit of respite and also make me ready to go back to sleep.
I've been having some mad dreams, one that I had a collection of apps on my phone that would tell me when I could go to the toilet , although they all used different criteria. I think that was just due to the back pain I was feeling , and while I am sure there are apps out there for things like that , it's not something I would have or use, and certainly haven't got , though when I woke I did check, and there is nothing there , the only health based apps I have on the phone are Google Fit and EMIS (for booking doctor's appointments and reordering prescriptions).
Then I had this weird dream that I went out late at night and (remember I live in Fenham, Newcastle) and for some reason was at a Metro station in West Jesmond and there was a bus with a huge bed instead of seats, I then took a bus which went down avery narrow street which reminded me of the main street in Totnes (in Devon) and ended up at the seafront in Seaburn (Sunderland) which meant I would have to walk back. This is what happens in dreams although I am sure it will give any psycho analysts a lot to play with.
As I said this was keeping me awake so now I have it down I can go back to bed for rest and recuperation. Possibly an appropriate piece to accompany this is Marilyn Manson's take on the Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams are Made of This".
This morning I felt like I wanted a Full English Breakfast, but there is no way I could actually eat one, my stomach couldn't accommodate it. I felt like this a few times before and I know this is a side effect of the 'flu' but I have though what a great invention it would be to experience the pleasure of eating, the tastes and textures without actually consuming. I know we have to eat to keep going but enjoying the pure pleasure of taste is wonderful as long as you are eating something that you like.
I thought I would just mention this as I am now suffering from a streaming cold and still feeling a bit battered although better than yesterday.
This is going to be a very short post because there is not much you can say about a Full English Breakfast , it is what is, and I used to be able to make room for one any time, now it's not so often. I still love the smells , tastes and textures although I am unable to enjoy it as often as I used to do.
I say this is a very short post, but I still think it will pass 250 words which I always set as a general target, and in the past I have done some very short posts, more like notes rather than blog posts.
The song I have got to go with is "Don't Quote Me On That" by Madness for opening line:
"Eggs, Bacon, Beans and a Fried Slice"
I love that song (originally the "B" side of "Night Boat To Cairo"), I love that band.
It's 5:30 am on 21/12 , I've had 9 hours rest if not sleep, and have had back pains and was semi dreaming that I had a email and spreadsheet strapped to my back and that was causing the pain. I know that makes no sense whatsoever and kept thinking of I could close it the pain world go away. The pain has gone and so has the email / spreadsheet. I was trying to think why that was in my mind but there is no reason for it.
I am still very hot (the heating isn't on) but think I am improving, though I think today will be another day in bed just resting and recovering.
I do have Christmas cards to send and thanks to Amazon have got all my Christmas presents.
One good thing about this illness is that it helps with weight loss, which in my situation is a good thing.
Given I am stil not 100% (not even 50%) we will go with The Pogues "Sick Bed of Cuchulainn" , the opening song from "Rum, Sodomy and The Lash" ,which is rather more energetic than I feel at the moment.
'flu' is one of the few words with a double contraction, from the full influenza. Last night I came home feeling like I had been stamped on bu cloven hoofed animals and spent an hour just shaking and finally retiring to my bed. Today I intended to go to work and bring home my laptop, but I wasn't even up to that, so spent today in bed in two hour sleep blocks, also only my sight was affected , when it was really dark I could see nothing, and that is scarier that the physical pain.
I know this is not real 'flu' because I can get out of bed and do things , I got hit by this ten years ago and could not leave my bed.
This is why I have been relatively quiet, and I hope I feel better soon, because it doesn't feel good at the moment. An appropriate song I suppose is "Still Ill" by The Smiths, and I found a live take from The Tube in 1984.
I know this post is short but I need to get back to bed, I've only done 212 steps today and have obviously fallen behind with my blog posting but hopefully will feel more up to it soon.
Yesterday I used some recording software to create a blog post. The name Opa Loka came to mind, I know it is a song by Hawkwind and could refer to the city in Florida , which I didn't know existed.
I had to edit it and it's still messy so I need a lot of practice to start using it in earnest.
==========================================================
Right I'm just going to actually try this as a blog post.
I'm walking.
I just walked across the frozen Leazes Park and I want to see if this actually captures the text, so that I can actually use it for a blog post.
I'm actually walking while I've just put out a stream of consciousness and ,so to speak, a lot of writers use software to actually scripts or whatever, and then you've got to go through and edit.
I've actually done one of these once before, but obviously I've not done this much, but this one I'm trying to actually hit 366 posts this year and I need to do maybe another 16 .
I'm just walking back now. It's very very cold so I'm not too sure what music I'll use to soundtrack this but obviously I'm going to get this text, get it back, format it, and it'll make no sense whatsoever so it's going to be a "Stranger Things" for you and just another test for me but it would be great if I could actually talk and make sense as it means that you can actually say things and nobody's stopping you you can put it out and you can say what you want.
Really I use mine as a diary to remember things or just record things that I either have missed or I want to remember and want to be able to go back to, and I'm not too sure how the police siren is going to affect this because that's what was happening as I'm recording but I'm going to actually stop this now as my hands are absolutely freezing at St. James's Park.
Need to get across the road to Citygate and hopefully get in the warm have some porridge and maybe a cup of coffee and thinking maybe some Hot Chocolate. I know that Tesco actually sell that so I will divert via Tesco's get some hot chocolate and maybe we'll have a soundtrack by the band Hot Chocolate you actually did some very very good records so this is the end of this ok
Yesterday I recording what was going to be my next blog post, but due to a headache and other stuff last night I went to bed early and will try and use that later today.
This morning I have a hospital appointment for my Cirrhosis trial which has been going on for many years and thanks to this making me aware of my situation it means that my body is still fully functioning if not perfect. You can find all the posts on this if you click on the words or the associated tags.
Tomorrow I have a 7:40 doctors appointment which I do roughly each month as it allows me to officially check my weight and blood pressure, and if anyone is going to help you with your weight loss it's a good doctor and practice and mine is Thornfield Medical Group. who I have been with for twenty years and they have always been brilliant. Despite the nefarious attacks of our current government , they and our whole NHS have always been brilliant.
So I now need to get out of the house, the footpaths are frosty, it is cold, and when I finish at the Freeman Hospital, I need to go to work and sort out data for another idiot HMRC made up requirement going back over ten years running on a network is really not fit for purpose.
So again reading "On Some Faraway Beach" I saw "Love Goes To Building On Fire" and that is this mornings share.
Although I've rightly described David Sheppard's Brian Eno biography "On Some Faraway Beach" as like wading through treacle (I'm just over half way through, the book is also extremely readable. Almost every page throws up something I either didn't know or hadn't noticed.
The band Ultravox were originally called Ultravox! , a homage to the German band Neu! (originators of motorik, and heavy influencers of lots of bands) , the exclamation mark was dropped at some point , possibly when John Foxx left and Midge Ure joined. That was one thing I was unaware of.
During the Brian Eno and Steve Lillywhite produced first album Brian Eno was invited to work with Bowie (who had recently been producing Iggy Pop) on his next album at the Château d’Hérouville where Elton John recorded "Honky Chateau" and the single "Honky Cat" was obviously a nod to this.
The thing is this album was "Low" , the first of the "Berlin Trilogy" and while Bowie , Eno and Iggy were between Berlin and the Château d’Hérouville I was unaware and always assumed that the album was fully formed in Berlin.
We will go with the finest song from the Ultravox! debut , "My Sex", it is disturbingly good , with John Foxx's monotone machine voice over a fragmented lush backing.
I find it odd how manufactures add different flavours to drinks. Whisky (or whiskey) seems always unadulterated but you can mix it with whatever your preferred dilution is. But Gin seems to have many variations like Whisky but when you start adding fruit flavours isn't that a bit odd? But then wine while usually grape based I think can have other fermentations.
Beer and Lager seem again unadulterated , but Stout sometimes has chocolate, and what is this with flavoured Ciders ? Ciders are Apple flavoured , Perry is Pear but when I see every other fruit flavouring cider I do find that odd. They seem to be the new Alcopops.
Then with the soft drink, Cola should taste of cola, not Vanilla, Ginger , Mango , Strawberry or whatever. I drink Coke because I like the taste of Coke. They don't need added flavour. But what do I know.
I mean Fanta is Orange, but now there are so many flavours that I lose count.
So we go with "Drink It Up" by Negativland from the "Dis-Pepsi" album, you can listen to it all here because it's almost impossible to track down in any form.
An early start the morning and there was a lady with a big dog outside the house before 5 am, you do wonder about what others are doing up so early. I know lots of people have dogs and have to be out early to walk there dogs and play with them throwing sticks and balls.
It's funny how when you have to get up early for work you are always tired, but if you are up early on a non work day it's easy to get up before you normally do because you know you can always relax later during the day.
I have been listening to a lot of music over the weekend and was very impressed with the quality of a copy of Al Stewart's "Past Present and Future" but was at first disappointed with "All The World's A Stage" but the solution was to turn the record player up louder and then it sounded good. I remember having the same problem when I got "On Your Feet or On Your Knees" by The blue Oyster Cult. It was heavy metal and it sounded small and tinny, not what I wanted or was expecting. Then I had a lightbulb moment , "TURN IT UP LOUD" , and then it sounded great. My parents were not too impressed, so I switched to headphones and only had it on loud when they were out.
So we will go with "Hot Rails To Hell" from that album, best played loud, great guitar soloing and possibly the best recorded version of this song that the band did.
I wear contact lenses and quite often when putting them it, I drop them or cant find them in their container or hit other problems. Sometimes I think I have dropped one in the solution filled receptacle and come the following morning see that I messed and it's dried out next to the sink. Usually a dip into the solution revives them. Sometimes I find them on the floor, but if you drop them they can go anywhere, down the plughole, stick to your clothes or the side of the cabinet. Today I lost the contact lense for my right eye, I could find it anywhere, and eventually gave up then I got mt left eye lens and noticed the end of my finger was very shiny, the right lens had stuck to it so well that I couldn't see it at first.
Any non contact lens wearer, if you wear glasses or have good eyesight you never hit this problem, but as a contact lense wearer it's one of the many inconvenienced you experience , however these are worth the hassle as the benefits of wearing them against glasses are huge not least of which is they don't steam up when you come from the cold outside into a warm house (ship shops are terrible for that).
Anyway at the beginning of the month, to hit 366 posts for the year I calculated I needed to post 13 posts every 11 days. Actually it's 13 posts every ten days which is roughly four every three days and and today is the fifteenth and this is the twentieth post this month so I am just on track so can actually do it.
Continuing on with "On Some Faraway Beach" it put forward the premise that if a record label had a following, that following would investigate and maybe buy anything that that label produced, this had been true of Atlantic, and was true in the seventies of Island and Brian Eno's Obscure imprint. The only records I have on this are Gavin Bryars "Sinking of the Titanic" and "Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet", which was based on a homeless man's singing but features Tom Waits as well.
I also have Brian Eno's "Discreet Music" which features deconstructions of Pachelbel's "Canon" which I will share with you for this post, it's strangely relaxing and relaxingly strange, familiar but alien.
I am 45% of the way through "On Some Faraway Beach" and we have reached Brian Eno's third solo album, although for some reason I thought it was going to be "Before and After Science" but it actually is "Another Green World", one of the two Brian Eno albums I own on vinyl although he is generally more digital artist, defining this as vertical music rather than the more standard horizontal format (beginning, next , next end).
It is full of great songs and instrumentals but I always loved "St Elmo's Fire" (not the John Parr AOR one which is not too bad) for it's lyrics especially the:
"..and we saw St Elmo's Fire
Splitting Ions In The Ether"
And a stunning incendiary guitar solo from Bob Fripp follows that line, which many people regard as his finest recorded guitar solo. It does take some beating, have a listen as that is the song that I am sharing. Incidentally St Elmo's Fire is a weather phenomenon often seen by sailors as a positive omen.
This is definitely a very short post but is an excuse to share this wonderful song with you soundtracking a Felix The Cat cartoon.
I don't need any more vinyl, bet deciding on coffee at Meli Cafe near Haymarket, I had to drop into Stay Free Records. I had no intention of buying anything, but Tony is a really canny guy who knows his stuff and we chatted about general stuff , the price of music and what have for what seemed like a very short time but I thought it was later than it was but it wasn't.
Anyway I looked At what was around and there was a Queen flexi disk which I thought my friend Jim may want, the a copy of Al Stewart's "Past Present and Future" for £4 . If there is one Al Stewart album I would have bought on vinyl it would be this. I had also been considering buying "All The World's A Stage" by Rush, and he had a copy of that for £8 . So it was a total foregone conclusion, two vinyl albums on three discs (or is it disks?) both of which were stuff I wanted.
I've also ordered 12" vinyl copies of Television's "Marquee Moon" and "Prove It" from Discogs and think I will ask my daughters to get the album for my Christmas present as I have been considering that.
I need to trim my vinyl collection and Tony has told me to bring some stuff in, so I may do that over the next week of two, but I have plenty to play at the moment so will enjoy my new additions tomorrow morning. So what to share, we had Television the last post, so I thing I will go for Al Stewart's "Nostradamus", one of the reasons I love this is that it is relatively easy to play (or seemed so when I was a teenager, and I reckon I could give it a good stab now if I could remember all the lyrics), I've shared a recent live take but every recorded version is worth listening to.
One of the reasons I am finding David Sheppard's "On Some Faraway Beach" slow going rather than hard going is as well as the small typeface and word cramming, I really do have to read every word because skimming immediately loses the sense of what you are reading. In the same way that the human eye / brain combination constructs your vision from limited input I often read books in the similar fashion, but this is definitely not an option with this one. It is engrossing and is continually throwing things up that I did't know about Brian Eno and therefore provides more music to share with you.
Essentially it is reminding me of things music that I love although I need to further investigate "The End" the album by Nico, but I was unaware how impressed Brian Eno was with Television, who's "Marquee Moon" is one of my many favourite albums , combining rock and free jazz stylings with Richard Lloyd's and Tom Verlaine's twin guitars intertwining into an amazing sonic tapestry. The thing is , if free jazz were this wonderful I would listen to a lot more of it.
The Label feature on this blog is still very slow, so I'm not sure what is happening there.
So I am going to share "Venus De Milo" from the album "Marquee Moon" by Television. I found a live version from 2016 and also a demo version from the seventies here.
That's how much sleep I had last night, you probably know why. I just hope I don't fall asleep at work today. Sleep is essential for recuperation, but I have a lot to do so it may be a day of lots of coffee. This will be a short post on a sort of appropriate day, Friday 13th , for what happened last night but we need to be positive, find ways forward and connect with people who matter to us and look out for people who need us and be there when we are needed.
Still on with David Sheppard's "On Some Faraway Beach" and we have reached Eno's involvement in Phil Manzanera's excellent debut solo album "Diamond Head" and the excellent "Miss Shapiro". This si a reason why one should continually read because sometimes you learn new things and sometimes you are reminded of things that you have either forgotten or that have just been pushed from the forefront of your mind.
The older you get, the more you experience, and therefore the more you learn, but your mind has to organise things and if you don't immediately need it, then it get's stored for future reference. Whether it then gets used or recalled is another matter but it is there and David Sheppard's book has reminded me this Friday and it means I can share it with you.
The Labels feature on Blogger keeps locking up, but there is an option to search by word so I will be a little careful with it. Maybe the blog is getting too big, over two thousand posts, imagine that was chapters in a book although chapters do last more than my average of 25o words.. People have suggested I turn this into a book, but that seems a bit pointless as you can just read it here, and also the point of writing this is to spark an idea for a book, although maybe then the writing of the blog is more important in my mind than writing the book. We shall see if it ever comes to fruition.
Whatever happens today have a good one and enjoy "Miss Shapiro" with me,
This is the title of a song from Brian Eno's "Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy" which I am currently up to in David Sheppard's "On Some Faraway Beach" . Apparently Eno had a dream of people singing :
"We are the 801
We are the central shaft"
That was the name chosen for the superstar pick up band on his live album, which features a stunning take on Lennon and McCartney's "Tomorrow Never Knows". The 801 thing is documented in this post and you can listen to the song there too, I was going to include "The True Wheel" here but I will choose another song from what is and absolutely essential album.
This week my walking has not been up to par, I'm still ahead of where I need to be but haven't hit 11K steps since last Friday so I need to up my game on that.
Also I've been trying to write this post for two days, being beset by feeling absolutely drained and the blogging software continually locking up, which the label processing seems to cause.
Yesterday I caught a little of the Sky Sports Manchester City coverage by Shaun Goater. He is extremely well spoken with the same slightly unusual enunciation that a work colleague of mine has. I chatted with her today and asked her where she came from, because her and Shaun's accents were identical. She told me she had gone to the same school as him and they were both from Bermuda.
I'm going to include "The Great Pretender" the closing song from side one of the original vinyl album, which runs into an insectoid closed groove meaning that unless stoped the song never actually ends, as far as I know you can't to that with MP3 or CD.
"She was so impressed that she just surrendered"
An album you must own on vinyl for that reason alone.
