Try Everything - Fireships, Blondie , The Police and Stateside Diner Shakes

It's one of those things. I have lots of albums I've not listened to, Today for te first time I decided to play "Fireships" by Peter Hamill and was stunned by the first song "I Will Find You" , an amazing alien splicing of Blondie's "Presence Dear" and The Police's "Every Breath You Take" . You haven't a clue whether the protagonist is a love struck, caring  admirer or an evil , devious stalker with the latter being the favoured outcome. I've included the song just because it really is a case of you don't know what you're missing.

Stateside Diner Ice Cream Pancake

Then coming back I finally decided to visit the amazing Stateside Diner and treated myself to a luxury mint milkshake absolutely lush. The have a free rock and roll CD based juke box , serve alcohol in the form or wine , spirits and bottled beers and of course lots food. So glad I've finally gone in there and intend to visit a lot more often. Their Facebook page is here so if you are ever near Central Station in Newcastle , check them out.




So as I say , never be afraid to try anything , and even try anything and if you have music make sure you listen to it. Don't download buy and forget you have it , as I have a habit of doing.

Snake Oils

Well actually Hemp Oil and Omega 3. I get my Hemp Oil from Holland & Barrett and my Omega 3 from Boots , and I can recommended that they both seem to work from me. Hemp is a very versatile product and the way Omega 3 works was brilliantly analogised for me by a diabetic nurse which I documented here.  It is , of course , possible that effect is a placebo effect and I just think I feel better, but if something causes that then you tend to perform better and just generally be better.

Last night one of my friends Chris Ball told me a story about someone who was taking loads of vitamin supplements , which "must be working because they make my wee smell funny". Chris is responsible for the excellent but brief "Ape of Wrath" blog.

Also he mentioned that the government were going to push aspirin as  a "Vitamin S" cure all , unless you are advised not to by your doctor, which then becomes a bit of an iffy policy to say the least. I personally think you should generally try and get your vitamins by eating the correct (fresh) foods (fruit and vegetables),  but people will still swear by their little rattling plastic containers.

All The Sevens

After last months daily song , the blogs taken a rest but today is 7th of the 7th ad the name of the blog is 7 Days In ! I'm surprised we've not been bombarded by chain mails quoting ancient Chinese legends that will bring you untold wealth if you pass it on to 7 people. Did they have email in ancient China , I think not.

Today Andy Murray plays Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final with the press and various idiots sharpening their blades to say how he can't cut it when it really batters , and he's a miserable Scot and he has no personality.

My thoughts on Murray . I love because he annoys the fuck out of the media , is totally focused on the job in hand , and delivers !! Though if Scotland becomes independent he'll be just another foreigner who's won Wimbledon. We're still waiting for an English man or woman. Murray is brilliant , and I must I used to hate John McEnroe as a player , again he did the job, but he is absolutely brilliant as a pundit , going to have to get his autobiography , that WILL be worth a read.

Also another gripe is English pronunciation , names like Cholmondely and Waldegrave are pronounce Chumley and Walgrave. The Scots can be as bad Menzies in Mingies ? It's E N Z not I N G !! But the worst is Feng Shui. This is an english representation of the oriental ideagram, there it's say what you see FENG SHOOEE , NOT FUNG SHWAY . It's an E not a U andas for the second word I wont even go there.

Oh and I'm English so its Zed Zed Top not Zee Zee Top and it's Jay Zed not Jay Zee. And on that not I'll finish the video that so upset Jay Zed and Alisha Keys!!:

This Is The End ... Beautiful Friend

Today is Slacktonbury at The Schooner with Strange Bruise and Slack Babbath , so looking forward to that and the sun is shining too.


Well it's the last day of June and the final day of my June's Tunes blog project . The obvious song to finish with would be "The End" by The Doors , a great song , but then Chuck Berry's "30 Days" popped into my head so decided to go with that. I've put together a Grooveshark playlist so you can listen to all the songs in one place if you are that way inclined , but it will clock in at around two hours. Maybe I should have been a DJ! Anyway here's the playlist:

And here's Chuck Berry's 30 Days:

Iberian Penultimate

Sarah's Cake

Well this weekend has had a vaguely Iberian feel. First of all a good friends surprise birthday with lots of champagne , cake , wine and lots of to die for tapas started the weekend off. Then today I wandered into town to see the Vamos takeover of the  High Bridge Quarter. There was some great music , notably Brassy B with the salsa ska skewed crossover and amazing food.

Vamos

 

However despite there being an amazing array of food available there were still people with McDonald's bags down there. The Vamos festival goes on for a month and there are some amazing events , and I am so pleased to have been there today.








The music music chose itself for June's Tunes , Mink DeVille's "Spanish Stroll:

Fast Connection

This weekend is one of those where you realise you actually have no time to yourself , and it starts here so at 6:30 switched on the PC and ..... no internet connection. Went through all diagnostics to no avail , so resorted to the Virgin helpline , finally got through the torturous IVR to a technical person , at which point the thing magically connected. Wonderful. So an appropriate June's Tune , "Rings Around The World" by the totally fabulous Super Furry Animals:

Time Signatures and The Classical Popular Crossover

Well there's a mouthful , and it's sort of as a result of a chat today that for some reason wandered on to time signatures in music , originating from the fact that all formalised dance is done in 8 bars. I said that nearly every pop song is in 4/4 time , notable exceptions being Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit in Waltz time which is 3/4 , Peter Gabriel's Solsbury Hill which is in 9/8 time , Dave Brubeck's Take 5 which is in 5/4 time and Unsquare Dance which in god knows what time.

Anyway that got me on to Malcolm McLaren who had some mad ideas such as his Opera / Hip Hop album Fans and the mad collaboration with Bootsy Collins and Jeff Beck taking on Strauss Waltzes resulting in the impossibly awesome House of The Blue Danube , which should not possibly work but it does:



Oh and here's the whole of the Fans album - pure brilliance: