Kindle In The Bag of A Rabbit With Wires

That's the end of the first week at work in the new year and Preston North End have been edged out of the FA Cup by the not very mighty Arsenal,. It was similar to the Newcastle match , we should have buried them in the first half but we don't have a reliable striker. Newcastle had Mitrovic , Arsenal had Giroud, but Preston made their opponents look second best on the pitch (unlike the disaster at St James' Park). It's Saturday night and I haven't posted since Monday so thought I had best get something down.

My phone's Bluetooth still causes settings to stop, so I'm forced to use wired headphones. However the ones I have although foldable , and sound OK , are still really too big for my pocket. I really do need to look for something a little smaller, so I will do that after I post this.

I visited RPM and bought Charlemagne: The Omens of Death , a heavy metal album by Christopher Lee on Vinyl. I then visited my friend Krista in KOTA and The Long Play Cafe in The Grainger Market and told them about Christopher Lee's Heavy Metal forays , and example of which is here.

I was surprised that they were unaware of this facet of the great man's art. I've included "The Magic Of The Wizard's Dream" by Rhapsody featuring the great man on vocals.

Good night my friends.

What Goes On? ... Back To Work

Today is the first day back at work after the Christmas break and my mind is very confused. You are suddenly cast from a world in which you call the shots  back into the world where the employer and money men call the shots. I wanted to lie in bed, I wasn't sure what day it was , or what time it was or what needed to be done. There's still a sinkful of washing up , but that can wait until I get home.

I think really what I need to do is to get myself out more when out of work, but it is so convenient to watch my recorded films at home where it's nice and warm , and I can go to bed when I want, only to hit the rude awakening of another day at work.

It's not that I hate work, I just hate that it stops me from doing what I want. If I could socialise and do things during the day the rest at night, I would totally love that, but just at the moment work provides me with the ability to do what I want at weekends and at night.

I think lots of people will feel the same, but I am going to be positive about this. It is wet outside and it's a new day, a new month and a new year, with new things to do, new opportunities to take and new avenues to explore.

Anyway what should we play to kickstart the new work year? "What Goes On" by The Velvet Underground , that's what we'll play , five minutes of total brilliance that anyone can play, and when we ask "What Goes On?" , we go on , the greater things.

Have a great day my friends.

Remember Then ...

... one your biggest problems at New Year was remembering to date your cheques with the new year. It's amazing how in such a short period of time technological advances have made cheques virtually redundant. Barclays did something recently were you could photograph the cheque and send that electronically, but that was just a more complex way of doing normal electronic transactions, while making it more open to fraud. I'm not sure it caught on.

Anyway just one of the ways that life has improved, we have simpler ways of spending money but less of it to spend.

I'm just writing this here because it came to mind, and well , I am just about to crawl into bed. We've got a full day of football tomorrow so hope you have got some fun to be had too.

It's also an excuse to play "Remember Then" by Sha Na Na . I can't believe that I have never included them before, they appeared at Woodstock (I have "At The Hop" on the soundtrack album) and in the film Grease, and I had a couple of their albums in my teens which I didn't replace on CD, although I do have an huge rock and roll section in my collection

Anyway it's time for bed and we don't go back to work til Tuesday

Kick Off 2017 With Hope In Your Heart

Right, this is just a short post, looking forward to 2017 delivering some great things for us all. There were a lot of good things happened in 2016 , but also a lot of dreadful things. We need to try and make sure the dreadful things don't happen this year and try and make good things happen. My dad always said about gardens (I know this a majorly tangential reference) , if you plant enough flowers then the weeds won't get a chance to grow, and we should use that analogy with the good that we do in 2017. If you do lots of good then the bad will start to fade.

That is very simplistic but too many people make themselves miserable by concentrating on bad events and bad things. That is not to demonize the people who are genuinely fighting awful situations, but some people will go overboard based on any Daily Mail or Sun headline. Those sorts really need to adjust their outlook but they won't be reading this. It's pity to mention such loathsome rags in a forward looking post, but they are the biggest selling "newspapers" in the UK , which doesn't say much for the general public.

The song I will choose to kick off is "Good Morning Britain" by Aztec Camera and Mick Jones , 27 years old but perfect for today. And I have to include "The News" by Carbon/Silicon (Mick Jones again) , one of the most positive songs you will ever here. Play these as you read the post and you will probably want to have them in your collection.

Happy New Year everyone ... Go Out and Make Your 2017 Great!!!

The Last Post .. For 2016 ... Happy New Year ... Tomorrow Never Knows

I'm having a quiet day, and looking in to having a lie in tomorrow and not having to go to work on Monday. The weather is very windy and I have been out and shopped for essentials , but am now ensconced on a warm couch with a choice of TV programs at my disposal.

While 2016 has emphasised the fragility of existence , and the continual promotion of bullies and idiots as heroes by the media was not ideal. There is also the continual worship of money as the ultimate end in life, money is just a way of supporting life and is only any use when it is actually moved about.

Anyway I am looking forward to a more positive 2017 despite the monstrous obstacles that we have to deal with. I have met so many positive people in 2016 and retained positive people from my past. I am proud of the achievements of my family, always forward looking.

So this is my Happy New Year to all my friends and people who read my blog. Keep looking forward, keep being positive , don't accept the bad, look out for others and your friends will look out for you.

I am glad for social media because it keeps me in touch with friends who I might have lost touch with. There is a lot wrong with social media but I can deal with the bad bits.

Anyway maybe a perfect song for the new year is the wonderful "Tomorrow Never Knows" and I am going to include The Beatles original from their finest album "Revolver" and the magnificent 801 live version.

Happy New Year my friends ...... Tomorrow Never Knows

Life's A Long Song.... With Tattoos

Tonight I had the chance to do some catch up TV, but I didn't catch up on any TV at all. I've been meaning for ages to test the soundbar out with a 5.1 album and decided to do that. The first album was Jethro Tull's "Thick as as Brick" and I was impressed, and realised I would be doing a lot more listening to albums like this (I  hope my neighbours understand). I followed this with "Aqualung" which I got for Christmas and also contains "Life's A Long Song" which is absolutely beautiful. I remember buying the original five track single which I think Jethro Tull charged 48p for because the price of singles was seen as exorbitant for what may be as little as four minutes of music Ithis was way pre punk). Any the final couplet in that song seems so appropriate for what's been happening recently:

"Life's A Long Song,

But The Tune

Ends Too Soon

For Us All"

That has been sadly true.

On a brighter note there seem to be a lot of Tattoo Parlours springing up.  There are some great names too. I love tattoos but I will never have one, because I couldn't decide which one to have. Two Tattoo Parlours I have friends in are Arthur T Sharpes (Newcastle) and Dirk Parker Tattoos (Shrewsbury) . It's far better having another Tattoo Parlour than another Mobile Phone Shop or Betting Shop or Greggs / Subway / Costa / Starbucks .

Anyway that's my lot, I'm going to bed now, if you want to come remember to switch the light off... I have an early start.

Two Thousand and Sixteen Dot Dot Dot

We're coming up to the end on 2016 and a lot of people are going to say good riddance due to the number of celebrities that have departed this plane. I always say I am the worst person to be around in the case of death , because I remember the good stuff, and because of evolution I do not believe that the mind ends there. I don't how it continues but it's a thing that gives me hope, and if I'm wrong then it hardly matters when I go. Very often the grief is for their own loss and everyone deals with that in a different way. I'd seen Rick Parfitt live a few times but that's as close as it got for me, I have a few Wham and George Michael albums and I STILL have them. These guys have carved their own immortality in our world and we are still as close as we ever were. This might seem a bit narky but it's not meant to me. Twice in my life I have been within a few days of possibly leaving this world, the first time really scared me because I thought I wouldn't see my daughters grow up (they were 2 and 4 at the time)  but thanks to the brilliance of the NHS I'm still here and will be for a long, long time. Anyway enough of this dark stuff.

It looks like I am now doing one post every two days, the last three years have been around 183 posts per years. There have been busy and not so busy months on the blog but it does average out.

So what song should we play today, really I think it should be something uplifting that always makes me feel better and Elbow's "One Day Like This" fills that spot perfectly.

Have a wonderful Thursday my friends