Two Suns

When I've been looking for music to share the image of this Pink Floyd song is always there in the selection list, so this has come thanks to Youtube prompting. It is a wonderful song, with a great evocative title "Two Suns In The Sunset" referring to a nuclear blast although the song is anything but based on the music but but the words do tear into you.

It's from "The Final Cut" which I think was Roger Waters finale with the band.

I suppose this song has been haunting me and now I have shared it with you, in it's brilliant bittersweetness of the finality of life, but the song will finish and life will continue but we do need that memento mori to keep us grounded in reality.

It is late on Sunday night and I'm in the basement lounge of the Settle holiday cottage having watched a few interesting programs tonight. I am not sure what tomorrow will bring but I will see Mike Harding, and , weather permitting, may go to the top of Castlebergh Crag above Settle to get some views of the place.

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Copy Wrong

I do find copyright application very strange and often just like bullying for the sake of it, like you see from traffic wardens, council officials and post office counter staff. I have just had eight notices from Instagram for copyright infringement from Warner Brothers for an old video, which is now blocked, which I posted to show off a shop (RPM) and it's vintage record players. Now anyone interested in the music would have probably gone out and bought it, so what I was doing was free advertising, but no that has to be stopped.

I posted a Christopher Lee video which YouTube initially took down for the same reason after nearly hitting 10K hits in one day, details are here, but Charlemagne Productions, the copyright owners were absolutely fine with it, since we lost Christopher Lee it seems we can now post, so my latest post has hit 10K.

This is just my opinion but copyright should enforced if people are being detrimental to the originator, or effectively stealing from the originator, say trying to advertise your own product using copyrighted music. If you are trying to share the music with others to get others to support the artist by buying records and going to concerts then that should be OK although it's probably impossible for a machine to determine where the real benefit lies.

Although this is my second time in Settle this is the first post that I've mentioned it in, and it is a lovely place but not the best place to drive in. I may write more about it this week but I am enjoying it. Among other thing it is home to the world's smallest Art Gallery which was opened by Brian May of Queen (my mate Jim Stevenson told me that) and you can see my Instagram take on it here.

Another plus is that Mike Harding lives here and hopefully I'll get to see him on Monday night.

This afternoon Guy Garvey played a song by The Monkees "Me and Magdalena" which I had never heard it before, and it's absolutely wonderful so that is the one that I will share with you.

Latte Liking

Whether it's because I'm old and softm my preference is for cafe latte or milky coffee, and this has now caused me to relearn to use a microwave (well th eone at work). Although work provide coffee and milk for coffee I have now taken to getting a litre of skimmed milk to make a very palatable cup of milky coffee,

I do remember when it was tea or coffee and either black or white, with or without sugar, now the "choice" is ludicrous. When I was at EE at the Costa Bar in the basement in Paddington there was someone in from of me how asked for a double shot espresso decaffeinated skinny soya latte. I did think a pummelling was in order,

So this is the last day of November 2018, and am hopefully going to be chatting with Mike Harding on Monday, but think a good song to share with you would be Rick Danko's "Java Blues" (he was the bassist with The Band, but of course sang and played other instruments).

It's Friday so enjoy your weekend.

A Wordless Weekend and That Christopher Lee Video

I didn't post anything this weekend. No particular reason although I was in Edinburgh on Saturday, and Sunday was a just plain lazy day although I did get out and do a couple of things as well as cooking Aloo Chole for tea, so that means I have something good, vegan and tasty to eat over the next few days. I've loved it ever since I got it from the excellent Rajnagar as a takeaway, and I still get it, but I now also make it myself as it's a great one pot meal so you don't have much washing up.

The Edinburgh trains going and coming were rammed due to Cross-Country treating their customers like cash cows rather than customers but that is the nature of what happens with privatisation, the bottom line is all that matters is lining the pockets of owners and shareholders by whatever means possible,

On a more positive note That Christopher Lee Video is nudging towards 10K views with 200 likes adn a lot of positive comments. I first posted it in 2014 when I found out he was producing Heavy Metal music and on the first day it hit nearly 10K views before Youtube pulled it. Click on th elink to find out more. But I think it may actually surpass my Nick Cave / Dr Seuss "Red Right Hand" video which is standing around 16K although I have updated it and the upgrade has only 2K views so far, but you can see it here.

So although it's only Monday the week is off to a good start, so enjoy your Monday and Christopher Lee's take on Paul Anka / Frank Sinatra's "My Way" which in my opinion ourt muscles the Sid Vicious version by a long chalk,

I See Red

If you read my last post you may think this is a continuation of it but it's not really. The title is stolen from a Split Enz song and yesterday I was reading a QI book on my phone which told me when we blush our stomachs turn redder too, and the acid in your stomach would actually burn you skin if it had direct contact, it seems we have more in common with Alien and Predator than we think.

I love reading, especially things that stimulate my imagination or tell me interesting things that I don't know (and the QI books are excellent for that). I suppose Science fiction and fantasy stimulate my imagination although then again I have read a lot of biographies and straight science books (though often these swamp my minimal intellect). The QI books are ideal for ereaders to drop in and out of although mty youngest daughter does most of her reading on the move on her phone.

We have hit another Friday and it's Black Friday. I used think this was named because of some terrible thing that has happened but apparently when companies go into the black from profits in the financial year. We are only half way through the financial year!! Personally my own Black Friday for the financial year of 2019 will be sometime in 2029 thanks to continues wage suppression, and I am very well paid compared with a lot of people I know (though not well paid for what I do, although the fact that I am so conveniently located, the people I work with are great and the work is interesting are major mitigating factors).

So without further ado we will continue on our merry way. Have a great Friday.

Spirit of the Age

I don't know if it's getting older , diabetes sided effects, our current grey weatrher, but at times I seem to be getting a little narkier when things don't turn out as expected (buses being late or not turning up, Post Office trying to deliver items on a work day in the middle of the day and not leaving it with a neighbour then offering a redelivery option to "my local Post Office" but not giving me the option to deliver to my local Post Office but only to a smaller one three quarters of a mile away, then the item not being there because they don't deliver til after two.

I know these are just situations caused by events that usually can't be predicted or catered for, and I just decide to calm down because anger is a wasteful emotion unless positively channelled (thinking Public Image Limited's "Rise", "Anger is an Energy").

As I've mentioned the weather is attrociously dreary, so not exactly inspirational so I wasn't sure I was going to write anything today, I didn't yesterday.

A propos of nothing I noticed a Tupperware contained of sliced cucumber in the work fridge, not the most appetising of snacks or meals.

Anyway "Spirit of the Age" was the opener from Hawkwid's excellent "Quark, Strangeness and Charm" so I will share that with you today. I love the concept, story and black sense of humour in this extended take on the song.

Mistakes

This morning I was walking along the street and a guy said be "Morning Luv, How Are You?" .... then I realise he was addressing a woman behind me. That does happen to me a lot where I think people are speaking to me or waving at me but it's someone behind me that is the object of their attention.

I spend a lot of my time making mistakes and correcting them. I'll often misread words and think "What the Heck?" before realising that I was mistaken in what I read.

At work I thought I had made a huge mistakes in a data extract I had run, but after speaking to someone in the know had the situation properly explained and it turned out that I had actually got it right but thought that I had made a mistake.

Life is peppered with these sort of things, sometimes they are mistakes sometimes you just think they are mistakes.

So naturally I will share "My Mistake" buy Split Enz who I cought live in the early seventies long before they morphed into Crowded House.