The weekend is finished and it's time for work, or will be in a few hours. It's been an odd one for me, not really done much but I have rested, watched catch up TV and read quite a lot and written a few blog posts.
I had a rearrangement of my music and discovered a couple of effective duplicate CDs , Best Ofs The Faces and ELP , plus Janis Joplin's Pearl and Big Brother and The Holding Company's Cheap Thrills , all class albums but you only need one copy and the purchases of some excellent box sets have made them redundant.
I think I got the Joplin stuff from Music Zone in The Metro Centre , a now defunct music emporium, but we are lucky to have a decent number of music shops in Newcastle.
Anyway I will be dropping by a charity shop this week unless any of my friends want to improve their music collection and it's given me a chance to include The FacesThat's All You Need , one of my favourite slide driven songs ever.
Siouxsie And The Banshees were never your average sounding Rock, Goth or Punk band and their canon is littered with some amazing out there sounds. The only standard instrument used in Peek-A-Boo barring Siouxsie's voice is the dragging bass and that is not played like any that I have heard before or since, then the almost military drum beat and accordion / melodian driven complex riff sonding like something gestated from Bertolt Brecht's Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper).
Another you can't dance to, well not any normal dance, but there are no guitars or pop sensibilities here, in an almost nightmare sequence that implies horrors lurking at the edge of our sensibilities although you feel safe because you know Siouxsie of old. It is similar to Sparks' This Town in the "can't dance" stakes although this does explore a much stranger furrow.
The video is wonderful and this still sounds as fresh today as when it was first unleashed upon an unsuspecting world.
Enjoy the video and if it's not in your collection , why not?
I called this 15 because my last post was 1111 . 1111 in binary is 15 . Some people are obsessed with numbers and lets face it life is very much affected my numbers in one way or another. Almost everything we do to fit into society is affected in one way or another by numbers.
I'm not a fan of money but it allows me to live as I need to, and science needs numbers too. We always need to measure one thing or another.
The computer you are reading this on (yes it may be a phone) , whan it gets down to basic still talks in binary. Without the concept of numbers we probably wouldn't be able to communicate like we can today.
Numbers provide a framework to allow us to actually enjoy life. If we smile at, hug , laugh with , socialise with someone we love or like , outside of that numbers are lurking somewhere. You may need to catch a bus , need your bus fare , money again. Numbers each the mundane things in life allowing us to concentrate on the good.
The post probably sounds pretentious but it's just meandering and thoughts about numbers giving me an excuse to call this post 15 even though it's post number 1,112 , one thousand one hundred and twelve.
Numbers are in music , numbers are used to let us see how time is measured, and lots of other things.
Yesterday I put a bet on at ridiculous odds of 66/1 which gave me nearly £30 back for a 70p bet. See numbers and money again. I doubt that will ever happen again but it was a nice surprise from Ladbrokes would have been really happy because the 1/5 favourite bombed.
Well this is post number 1,111 that's one thousand one hundred and eleven in words. Sometimes I've missed significantly numbered posts and this is only significant because it's a load of ones. It's come on a Friday and just in time for the weekend and this is one of those posts (like most of them) where I'm going to waffle on about nothing significant.
Most of the posts probably come in about two hundred words although when in Craster I did sit down and write two thousand words to see if I could ever be a writer. I suppose it showed that although I did it when I sat down to it, I can't be bothered to do it on a permanent basis, and part of that I suppose is that I just have a select audience , not a mass audience. Most posts tend to get about 50 views, with the odd ones that have hit over a thousand and many that have no views.
My Nick Cave / Dr Seuss take on Red Right Hand (none of which is my work , I just put them together) is now closing on ten thousand views. Red Right Hand was the first non commissioned piece used in the X-Files and as such is a favourite of both my daughters , who while having different musical tastes both love Nick Cave.
Anyway it's now time to pack up and get off to work.
This post clocks in at 250 words so it's about average, I can't remember how many words essays had to be at secondary school but I think I would be struggling to hit the required number of words for an assignment, but this is just like a diary so some days will be a lot, and some days there'll be a little.
It's got me thinking , how few words could I get away with, if I were Yoko Ono I could have a blank post and give it a title, and that's not a bad thing. For something to be art you just have to say that it's art.
With that thought I am going to be out the door now. Have a brilliant Friday everybody.
No it's not about Jeremey Corbyn , although with the state of voting in the leadership contest Owen Smith and Angela Eagles and the PLP will be preparing their next leadership challenge , probably just stopping anyone from them voting.
Anyway for the first time in months I forgot to submit my power readings (due the face of some extremely enjoyable company). I'm in my third year with Ovo and signed up with them after their CEO accused the "Big 6" of being liars about theire wholesale costs. I was coming to the end of a 5 year fixed deal with E-ON and they told me that to continue for another 12 months I would have to hike my monthly payments by 20%. I contacted OVO and they gave me a two year fixed price deal for a 4% increase on what I'd been paying E-ON. I know I don't get Tesco Clubcard points any more but I get get payed 3% on my credit balance which sounds good but probably works out about a pound a month.
At the end of my deal Scottish Power contacted me (I said they could ring me in the evening, they rang at 1pm the following day, maybe the sun sets earlier in Scotland, and said they could give me a deal for £70 a month, then have rung me several times since causing me to put them on auto reject).
I went online and Ovo recommended I reduced my payment by more than 50% (£60 a month) so I decided to reduce to £100 a month. They are also good and helpful on the phone.
Anyway that's where my power is coming from in the foreseeable future.
September is here, The Smiths are playing on Radio 6 and I'm drinking a cup of tea ready to go to work. I hope you all have a brilliant day and it is nearly weekend. The obvious song is John Lennon and The Plastic Ono Band's Power To The People.
Another day gone and lots to look forward. to. We are having some amazing weather at the moment, and there are lots of amazing events coming up in the area such as Monty Python's Holy Grail being shown at St Nicholas' Cathedral , we've had Lee Perry, Primal Scream and the Tall Ships at Blyth
Without thinking I picked up my guitar and played Rebel, Rebel and People Get Ready. Given that I've not played the former for years and latter for months I was quite surprised how naturally it came, that must be what a real musician feels like. Soon after that I saw an ad on Amazon for the soundtrack to Nicholas Roeg's film "The Man Who Fell To Earth" featuring David Bowie which was never released at the time. The thing is it features Stomu Yamash'ta fairly heavily and I've just been listening to Floating Music.
So in what I have just written about there are lots of cross references and tangential connections. Anyway that soundtrack will soon be joining my collection I think.
So I know this is a short post but have a brilliant day , enjoy yourself and just have a totally great time.
I was going to write a post on And Annoyingly but decided to write something positive about enjoyable stuff. I am sick of people defending Donald Trump and attacking Jeremy Corbyn, Corbyn has his faults but is still the best option for a Labour leader. That's all I am going to say.
Maybe I shouldn't go on Facebook, but I do I have interactions with some wonderful friends on there, and then I feel better, and put on some music such as Stomu Yamash'ta's Floating Music. I remember buying it on Island's mid priced label for £1.49 when it came out around 1972, I had seen Man From The East on TV so I bought it and loved it. Just an example of me liking something that no one else in my social circles had even come close to , and when they heard hit they weren't exactly supportive, but that's their loss. It's always good to try new things but I've
never been taken by smooth lounge jazz , but this was a complete
different universe. You can hear a bit of it here and here.
While this may not be the most exciting way to spend the last day of the bank holiday, it makes me feel good and therefore it is good. It is very easy to get sidetracked by negatives but have just booked La Rosa for my birthday as well , and it's my favourite hotel in my favourite holiday place, Whitby. On the phone they know who I am even though it's a year since I stayed there.
I also phoned and spoke with my dad, and over the weekend gave my eldest daughter something towards a Big Daisy Kiss Star Wars hand bag that she wants for her birthday. At least this year I won't forget that. That's inspired me to put up Meco's Disco take on Star Wars and that WILL bring a smile to your face.
Anyway as the sun sets on the Bank Holiday , smile , enjoy yourself and set yourself up for a brilliant week. I have done, so you do the same.
