A Threesome

After the disappointment of "Budokan" I went back to a couple of the source albums , "Desire" and "Blood on the Tracks". "Desire" was denigrated for the not completely professional violin playing of Scarlet Rivera who had been part of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Review.

To me her playing enhances the recordings but like Dylan's voice maybe it grated a little too much on some people. The album opens with the eight and a half minute "Hurricane" the story of Rubin Carter and how he was stitched up by the police for being black. Nothing really changes does it? The song was released uncut as a single , one side stereo the other mono so Bob made sure that if you bought it you listened, and if it was on a jukebox you listened. The forman is similar to "All Along The Watchtower" but more relentless.

This is followed by six minutes of "Isis" with a H Rider Haggard-esque tale of body snatching from ice bound pyramids before we return to more familiar territory with songs like "Mozambique" and "One More Cup of Coffee". Bob as one more narrative ace to play in "Joey", and eleven minute tale of the life and death of a Mafia boss.

All in all an excellent album.

"Blood on The Tracks" was his response to the break up of his marriage and has some wonderful love songs such as "Tangled up in Blue", "If You See Her Say Hello" and "Shelter From The Storm". "Idiot Wind" is a vitriolic tale about a successful chancer and it contains possible my favourite Dyln song, "Lily Rosemary and The Jack of Hearts" a wonderful narrative of gambling and betrayal in the old West.

Between these I sandwiched Public Service Broadcasting's "Live At Brixton" and it's amazing that they have enough material for a live double album for thir first few releases including "The War Room" , "Everest" and "The Race For Space" as well as their first album. I love the way that J. Willgoose, Esq even has his crowd banter programmed into hi keyboard set up. They are one of the best live band syou will see anywhere today.

So if you have never heard these albums I suggest you check them out but please don't use Spotify as it rips off most artists.

Sleep well My friends

Fermat's Last Theorem, Pills, RIP NME on International Women's Day

It is International Women's Day and I am shocked how18th Century most of our politicians and people in power are, continually denying what women want , true equality. But it's similar with race and lots of other artificial human divisions. Misogyny is still rife and is prevalent in men and women. While I would employ a skinny small woman as a hod carrier, I wouldn't employ a skinny small man to do the smae job, but there are lot's of women who would make a far better hod carrier than I. But follow the link and remember treat everyone with the respect they deserve and do not discriminate.

Reading the Simon Singh book I finally found out what Fermat's Last Theorem is and the problems it has caused. In lots of nots he said he had found irrefutable proof that there are no natural numbers (1, 2, 3,…) x, y, and z such that xⁿ + yⁿ = zⁿ, in which n is a natural number greater than 2. This was finally proved in 1995 by Andrew Wiles with help from his friend Richard Taylor . See article here.

Homer Debunks Fermat's Last Theorem

The Simpsons supposedly debunked the theorem and you can too, but only because of the
inaccuracies of ten digit pocket calculators.

I'm only forty pages into "The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets" but it is providing me with both entertainment and knowledge. Aren't books just wonderful.

 



Tomorrow the final edition of The New Musical Express will hit the shelves. They went to a free publication but it is the end of a music journalism era but given that most news is gleaned from the internet these days it's probably no surprise. It will probably continue online which you can visit here.

I've been listening to the excellent "Masseduction" by St Vincent and had been hearing "Pills" on the radio and it sounds like a mash up of a Disney Musical soundtrack with a latter day Depeche Mode backing band, and it is brilliant.

It's frosty this morning so wrap up and have a great Thursday, and spare a thought for Spurs fans this morning.

It's National π Week

As you can see I've reached for "π" in the Simon Singh book . Did you know there's a law in waiting in Indiana that defines "π" as 3.2 (Three Point Two see here) to make life simpler. I'm just waiting for the Republicans to draft this into law. The stupidity of many people in power never fails to flabbergast me, and they have such conviction that they are right with absolutely no evidence to back them up.

It's also National Pie Week in the UK. The thing is we've already had a Pie Day this year and at this rate we're always meant to be celebrating something and this week it's Pies. I remeber as a lad going to the back door of The Saddle Inn in  Lea and getting Meat and Potato Pie with peas and gravy, and it was lush and may explain why I am so porky these days.

Today I hit 18K in my steps so I think I might hit my target for March.

So really there's only one song that I can play and that's The Sutherland Brothers gorgeous song "The Pie". It is perfection introduced by a lovely acoustic guitar riff, and they wrote and performed the original of Rod Stewart's "Sailing", and I do prefer their version.

Kwyjibo

From the title you may have guessed I'm reading something to do with The Simpsons , it's with "The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets" byd Simon Singh. as mentioned in my last post.

"Kwyjibo" is a word played by Bart in a game of Scrabble. When challenged by Homer , Bart retaliates by defining it as "A fat , bald North American Ape with no chin".

The book is excellent so far, but for me suffers from two faults, the print is too small and too faint making it difficult to read unless under a very bright lights, but that's just a sign of age. If I had it on a Kindle then I could enlarge the font and make the screen brighter but I do like real books.

I managed over 12K steps yesterday so managed to hit my daily steps, but not made much inroads into my step deficit and it is raining today, but I should  be able to walk in today as it is not too windy so I will need an umbrella.

I thought I would continue listening to live Bob Dylan and decided to go with "Budokan" and I am not impressed. The songs are smoothed down almost sounding like some Saturday night family entertainment version by some second rate TV host. The production is damned near perfect, but maybe the rearrangement of "Shelter From The Storm" actually works. The Byrds introduced me to Bob Dylan with "Mr Tambourine Man" and they and Manfred Mann polished up Dylan songs turning them often into things of beauty, but there's a difference in polishing something up and smoothing it out of existence which is what happens on "Budokan".

I found a TV performance by the Byrds of "Mr Tambourine Man" with an introduction by David McCallum (secret agent Illya Kuryakin in the television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. ) referring to "Turn,Turn,Turn".

Anyway it's time to get my umbrella and get off to work.

Books and Sounds

I've just finished "The Sunshine Cruise Company" by John Niven and although the plot has a lot of holes and is totally unrealistic, the concept is brilliant and it's an excellent and fun romp of taking on several systems and I'd recommend it to everybody.

Next up I'm going into more scientific territory with "The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets" by the alliterately named Simon Singh. I'll see how that goes, but I've heard lots of good things about him and he has a large back catalogue for me to delve into.

I'm certainly not going to run out of books to read as I have a huge pile next to my bed.

It looks like the big thaw is happening so the only thing that will stop me walking into work is if it's too slushy to use the paths, I certainly need to do a lot of walking this week, and I would like to be back up to speed by the end of Friday, but we shall see.

It my limited walking I listened to "Shelter From A Hard Rain" a live album from Bob Dylan from a 1976 broadcast. It sounds bootleg quality but ut is a great live album, I love Dylan's live recordings when they're a bit ragged and this is, in my opinion, perfect because it isn't perfect. I love every song on it. I'm not sure if this is from the same gig but it has the same feel, enjoy.

Melt

The snow is melting, it's a bit warmer, but slushy under foot and the fog is closing in. If it freezes tonight it will be treacherous tomorrow.

I've still not hit 11K on any day this month and am now 20K steps down after four days which is not as bad as it could have been, but means I am going to have to make an effort to ensure I don't fall short in March.

Today I saw "I, Tonya" a film about Tonya Harding and a great example of how sociaty comes down on people who don't conform to stereotypes, and how people are used as scapegoats even though they are only guilty by tenuous association. A great film with a cracking soundtrack and some amazing ice skating set pieces and a lot of swearing.

So I think I will have an early night as tomorrow may involve clawing back some of the steps I've missed if the weather is amenable to walking.

Below is the trailer for "I, Tonya" and it has to be a song from the soundtrack so I will choose "Can't You See" by The Marshall Tucker Band which was onced used in an advert for Double Cream, but doesn't appear on the "I, Tonya" soundtrack CD. Don't you just hate it when that happens?

Sleep well and keep warm.

Almost Like Christmas

Although the snow is slightly melting it almost feels like Christmas. Then you realise that you have work on Monday, all the shops are open, and there are no presents to open and no Christmas Trees in peoples' windows.

The sky is still grey and featureless. Footpaths are still walkable and today I manage 8.5K steps so I'm only 17K steps down for March which , in theory, I could make up in a day.

The snow is meant to be gone my Monday but it's not showing any signs of retreating at the moment, well maybe it's getting a little warmer and there is a little melting , but this is not the "Killer Winter Weather" forecast by the Daily Express a couple of days back, though I just look at their front page for a laugh these days as ist's either Armageddon weather or some Jeremy Corbyn fake news.

Of course this gives me another excuse to share The Raveonettes "Christmas Song" with you which as you know by now is my favourite Christmas Song ever. Dobbies even used it for a Christmas advert of theirs which is where I first heard it.

Anyway enjoy your SAturday night and we will see what tomorrow brings.