Too Much Is Never Enough

Woke up to the sad news that Stephen Hawking had passed. Others will better eulogise than me on the brilliance of the man and his mind, though he is effectively immortal in our new digital world and in the books he has authored. I read "A Brief History of Time" and found it varied between illumination and hard going, but something that everyon should at least attempt to read.

I have recently had cravings for a hamburger from MacDonalds or Burger King , you know the trashy ones, but I also know that if I actually got one I couldn't actually eat the damned thing. That's another way my mind works, pushing you to get something that you don't need or actually want.

I suppose this leads on to the title of the post with my music collection, there is always new music appearing and to support this you have to buy the stuff. I always prefer to have something to touch (not a download), but even my vinyl collection needs severely pruning now.

The added irony is that most of my listening is done to MP3 stored on my phone and home network. It's the same with video, DVDs are so cheap but I don't have room for any more and it;s a chore to get the DVD out of the case , turn the player on and play the DVD when you can just press  a couple of buttons and play something from your home network or TV supplier, my inherent laziness taking over.

Over the last two days I have been listening to Jane's Addiction's "Nothings Shocking" and "LIve In NYC" and I realised despite possessing their albums I'd never listened to them. Bought them, ripped them and that was it. I knew odd songs like "Been Caught Stealing" and Perry Farrel's voice is fairly distinct. But I have been impressed by the muscular rhythm section (Dave Navarro on drums) monstrous bass and wild shining gutar. "On The Beach" and "Ocean Size" than open "Nothings Shocking" drag you straight into the album and the quality never drops. The live album is definitely live but a great listen.

So basiclly my music collection will never ever be complete but I am trying to trim it by selling stuff on Discogs but may have to think of a better way of trimming it, but I still have my digital copies (which are backed up as well).

Anyway I need to get off to work so have a great Wednesday everybody

Apathetic

I wanted to write something this morning but could not bring myself to do it. There is nothing wrong but it has been one of those days when I felt I should have been doing things but just couldn't motivate myself to do anything..

I am reading the Simon Singh book and he has a chapter about about a guy called Bill James who is an expert on Baseball statistics and the connection with the Simpsons in that Lisa teaches Bart scientific ways to succeed in Baseball using these statistics. Incidentally I have a friend who is also called Bill James who works with finance so similar area , all numbers.

There are some great quotes, obviosly Mark Twain's

"Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics"

The there's

"The man who drowned crossing a stream with an average depth of six inches"

And

"The average human has one breast and one testicle"

Statistics can be useful but only if the are used with extreme care.

I actually managed 15K steps today, that's about six miles, and I have got round to actually writing this. I have also updated some web sites and watched an interesting documentary on HP Lovecraft called "Fear of The Unknown" but still feel I could have done more.

Anyway using a tenuous Baseball link I'll leave you with Babe Ruth's take on Willam Bell & Judy Clay's "Private Number" which still sounds great today.

A Grey Day Brightened By A Wildflower Visit

We wake up to rain spattered window panes, and walking out you need an umbrella and have to face a cold biting wind, hardly signs of Spring springing. Today I may finally catch up on my steps for March.

I started writing this this morning then had to go out. So basically I have ended up soing another 15K steps so have made up the steps I needed to for this month., so 11K a day for the rest of the month will suffice for me.

The weather has continued to be rainy and drab but has not stopped me walking and I got some shots of a foggy River Tyne here.

I decided to visit Wildflower at Kommunity and this is a lovely evironment to enjoy and have some brilliant vegan food, and was glad to hear at the Night Market last night they sold out of everything (they are that good) . I was chatteing to Asher about music before Jess came in with cake. I had already brunched at The Tyneside so just treated myself to some lovely vegan cake.

Too many times people say "Oh I must visit there sometime" and the still go and pay a fiver for a latte and a cellophane packed sandwich from Starbucks or Costa because "you know what your getting". You're getting homogenised packaged uniformity when you should be seeing what your local community is offering. Starbucks and Costa have their place but they are always seconday to local businesses in my universe.

Newcastle has a plethory of local food and drink providers though the new Eldon food court is a massive own goal in my opinion, I'm just waiting for the chains to start pulling out.

I mean what sort of moron goes to Jamie's Italian when you have Pani's five minutes away.?  There are hundreds of examples where the name chain has the highest profile locations and most people don't bother looking for something with some soul and heart.

Anyway I think we can go with a true Geordie anthem , Lindifarne's "Fog on the Tyne" (and not the aberation with added Gazza), the original.

Sleep well.

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.