A Greek Apocalypse - The Four Horsemen - #ALifeInNumbers #4

The Number of The Beast

I thought I would do this before bed, but I had this in mind for number four. The slideshow is one I put together featuring the work of the North East's greatest artist John Martin. His works are often huge featuring apocalyptic images and I thought a perfect soundtrack would be the relentless "Four Horsemen" from the album "666" by Aphrodite's Child a Greek band which featured Vangelis and Demis Roussos.






The song has a relatively peaceful , but threatening intro before launching into five minutes of relentless attack. Some of their music was almost embarrassingly trite (check out "Break") , but "Four Horseman" cuts the mustard all the way. It's one of those songs that you would buy an album for. The rest of the album has some good bits , some awful bits but really should be in your collection.

I know this is a sort of early installment but I do have another 55 songs to actually choose and write about, and I know it's going to get harder with every step forward. At the moment I am just let my brain and memory throw out the suggestions and I will let you know when I have to start looking.

I will of course be looking and noting potential future songs as I go along, so hopefully I wont hit a proverbial brick wall, but you never know. Then I will probably find a way to bulldoze straight through it.

Anyway that is number four and now it's time for bed for me.

Goodnight my brilliant friends.

Three Choices For Three - #ALifeInNumbers #3

I thought I had this nailed. I was going to go for "3 Is A Magic Number" by Bob Dorough, then thought maybe that's a bit obvious so thought I'd pitch for "Three Cool Cats" by The Coasters, a totally great song , but then thought what about "Harry Lime Theme" the theme from The Third Man by Anton Karas which is something you have heard and know totally but maybe wouldn't have expected me to come out with it.

It's unusual that it's played on the zither, and instrument I don't think I've ever seen let alone tried to play. This is one song I've not used before although Orson Welles who starred in The Third Man directed by Carol Reed has appeared before.So that's todays choice.

This morning I drove back from Whitby, dropped off the car before dropping into work. I also got some more lovely birthday presents and tonight intend to relax and have an easy night.

I don't think every number is going to present me with these choices, what will I do for 37 or 43 for instance. I will find a way , sometimes it's just a was of looking at things and applying a little lateral thinking.

Anyway that's enough words for me, if i average 250 words a post (which I often do) then that's going to be close on fifteen thousand words on this trail of songs. I don't know if that's overkill , but of course it will be interspersed with the joys and mundanities of everyday life and well as observations on other things that catch my interest and may interest you too.

Anyway enjoy your Monday evening, I am going to try and relax

Two To Know - #ALifeInNumbers #2

Right off I've taken a bit of a liberty with this one but the number TWO is important in the song. I am lyning in bed drinking Buck's Fizz courtesy of the lovey people at La Rosa as I write this. This is unusual because I don't normally drink alcohol but it's still my birthday weekend and and I'm in La Rosa.

Anyway the song I've chosen is Pink Floyd's "Arnold Layne" which contains the line:

"Two To Know"

Two To Know

Syd Barrett's lyric was picked up by the Oxford Book of Fine verse as a particularly fine example of alliteration or some grammatical construct. Amazingly I'd already written about this three years back and it came up in a Google Search here , which shows the benefits of blogging , that I am now referencing my own research on things. I will also use the same video of course as this is number two in a series of fifty nine songs which I will select by hook or by crook.








Anyway that is that, also I have come up with a way of predicting horse racing results using freely available tools and here are four horse for today so you can see if it's working or not.

Yesterday I predicted five out of seven and the other two placed. So if you fancy a flutter here they are:

Todays Tips

Have a brillaint Sunday everyone, I intend to.

One Fine Day - #ALifeInNumbers

Alice

Last year on my birthday I did a series of posts selecting a record from every year from my birth up to the present day under the tag of Odyssey58, this year I going to choose one record containing the numbers starting at 1 to 59. I don't know if that is possible . I have chosen number one, Puccini's One Fine Day from Madame Butterfly, and already know 54,55,56 and 59 but it is going to be a challenge, which is something that I like. I expect it to get difficult after about 23, so your suggestions may help.

Yesterday I was totally shattered and was in bed before 7:30 before waking up and looking across at Whitby Abbey from Lewis (after Lewis Carrol) in La Rosa. 





Yesterday I was going to write about  how quickly September had gone but was far too tired and couldn't be bothered to set up the lap top, anyway today will be spent wandering round Whitby and being happy, I hope your day is going to be similar,

#LikeNoOther #5 Dispepsi - Negativland

This is a slight deviation from the formula but also the first time that an album taught me a lot about market manipulation and controlling the minds of the masses who buy products. The album was, I think legally challenged by Pepsi and possibly Coca Cola and there is a Wikipedia entry here which mentions the legal shenanigans.

It contains lots of samples including many famous people , digs at artists selling themselves to corporations and includes some clever and witty songs , woven together into a coherent blast at market manipulation.

Drink It Up

It's one the albums that I still listen to end to end, and suggest that you do the same. It came back into mind after watching a TED talk that said that 90% of the media production was now owned by six companies who an make us think about whatever they want.

That is very frightening and Dispepsi predicted what they are doing now over 25 years ago. The album is very difficult to lay your hands on though Amazon have a few very expensive copies here.

Listen to the Youtube link here, if you want a copy, contact me, I will direct you. Below is the TED talk by Christopher Bell that reminded me of this amazing , educational and subversive record, with its demonstration  that Disney are anti anti-powerful female heroes. Listen then watch my friends.

Connected Disconnection - Talking To Strangers

A thought just came to me, well it's come to me many times , and to others. I'm one of the people who uses public transport rather than having my own car. However when you are on public transport everyone is just scanning their phones, even when they are with friends. Sometimes this is a good thing, it ,means you can get information about what's happening in the world, you can even phone a friend, but you will often see friends together ignoring each other because of their phones.

The mobile phone is effectively a personal computer and connects us to each other and to news streams, but sometimes they do stop us from engaging with our friends and definitely from engaging with strangers. You wouldn't interrupt someone you didn't know if they were engaged with their device.

Come Talk To Me

I've used the excellent "Come Talk To Me" by Peter Gabriel from "Secret World" before, but we should all  engage and talk to each other much more, it makes life so much more fulfilling and enjoyable.


I do like meeting new people, even if it's just for the duration of a bus or train journey, sometimes you make great connections that lasts beyond the initial meeting , sometimes it just makes the journey fly by , usually both. This TED talk here demonstrates the joys to be found from taking that step:




Anyway have a wonderful day and enjoy this

Autumn Equinox and Here Comes The Rain

Thursday or Friday was the Autumn Equinox, this means the nights will be longer than the days. Yesterday looked as though it was going to rain, but didn't but it was very grey. Last night there was a huge downpour although it's fine now. The good thing about rain at night is that your don't have to water your garden (which I mowed yesterday).

The less good thing is that grey skies tend to make grey moods in me, sunshine does lift my spirits. I have LED lights in my house which apparently cat more natural light, but I prefer normal daylight.

Gorilla

The thing is that I am lucky in that I live in a wonderful place, with lots of wonderful friends , with lots of opportunity to do things should I so choose. Yesterday I spent most of the day in the house, reading , watching catch up TV, listening to music, playing guitar and messing about with Garageband and taking delivery of a vinyl version of Status Quo's Piledriver which I had purchased for it's Vertigo Swirl label (see here) I love the 3D optical illusion you get watching it , which is why I bought it. I wrote a blog post about it here



Today's music will be Garageland by The Clash for the simple reason that mentioning Garageband reminded me of it.
 
Anyway I think today is a good day for doing something to lift your spirits and make yourself feel happy. It may be having a bar of chocolate , a glass of wine or enjoying time with people you like and giving big hugs. Stay positive