Complementary Opposition

I am often denigrated for not fitting in the boxes that people expect. I don't watch soaps (unless you count the episodes of Doctors that my friend Paul Campbell writes , and he is not your average soap writer) , and the programs I do watch often go completely over the head of a lot of people.

I am a great fan of lateral thinking and love the concepts of Edward De Bono. I was introduced to him during my induction training at Littlewoods nearly 40 years ago. This means often my ideas are dismissed by people because they seem to be not the normal way to achieve a goal.

At school everyone was into Led Zeppelin, Yes, Hawkind, Deep Purple, Grand Funk Railroad and ELP. I deliberately refused to listen to Led Zeppelin because they were everywhere. I loved The Bonzo Dog Band, Bowie, Pink Floyd,Hawkwind , T Rex and The Sweet. I remember being at a school disco and the DJ had a sense of humour because he segued Jean Genie  into Blockbuster. It took the heads on the dancefloor two minutes to realise before they stormed off in disgust. I loved both records , and so did the DJ and if you have any doubts about the Sweet's credentials take a listen to Sweet F.A.


The things is I am open to all ideas and like a very wide range of music. I still know people who won't listen to anything outside of 1972-1976 time period, and there is no point in trying to argue a case for listening to new music.

A while ago I posted a YouTube video of an Enya / Prodigy mash up and a few Prodigy fans were horrified. I could understand Enya fans being horrified but surely not Prodigy fans. This was the Evil Prodigy corrupting the Radio 2 Celtic Acceptability of Enya. I bought Orinoco Flow when it came out and love a lot of the Prodigy stuff and it's funny how people decided I am not a proper whatever because I actually listen and can enjoy most genres.

Complementary Opposition

Again I think the mash up above says a lot about me , I enjoy stuff with an edge , I enjoy stuff that
doesn't necessarily challenge , I enjoy going off into the unknown but I also enjoy knowing where I am going and what I am going to get.

Life is good and if I wasn't like I was I wouldn't have done many of the things I have enjoyed doing, and I am looking forward to many many more.

Anyway this is more rambling on my part, enjoy the rest of your Sunday my wonderful friends.

Psychiatrists, Avalanches and Frank Sinatra

I really want to go to bed. But I feel I should have written something today, so I have decided to write something now. I may not even get to a hundred words, but then again I might. I remember seeing if I could write two thousand words without having a game plan and I did that.

The human mind , when used correctly is capable of great things. Yes, some people are better than others but we are all capable of doing something that WE think is remarkable because it makes us feel good.

I have learned not to seek others approval or commendations because I know it's unlikely I will get it, and in a country like ours you are only setting yourself up to be shot down/

Luckily the friends I've managed to make do not fall into that group , they see positives and live positively , as well as caring for others , far more than I do.

This is post 1101 and I am just wondering if I will notice post 1,111 as it goes by. I marked post 1,000 and 1,100 so the chances are I will not miss it, because like everyone I do sometimes notice things , as do you. Having said that there have been times when I have nearly missed a bus because I have been looking at something on my phone , or maybe missed my stop because Ive been watching something , reading or sleeping.

Wildflower

Anyway I have managed to write something , it's about nothing in particular and the great thing about writing a blog is no one will tell you to shut up. You can say what you want , which is an enormous freedom. Well the thing is I said I would be lucky to write 100 words but I have hit 400 , so I am great at spouting rubbish , though I suppose everyone has it in themselves to write.









Anyway I have gone on a bit, the weekend is half over, we have Sunday to enjoy and I am going the pick Frank Sinatra by The Avalanches because I love the song and love the video and love the album Wildflower too. I think you should check it out too. This also made me think of Frontier Psychiatrist another favourite of mine so I thought I would include that as well.

Well I am going to hit my bed, I am having a weekend of rest and recuperation and will be totally charged up for next week. Enjoy your Sunday my friends.

Shine A Light

I got up this morning and needed lights on everywhere. The days are getting shorter. The Mail and Express blame it n foreigners . Seriously, we're still in summer, the weather has been great , it's Friday which means the weekend is here, so all is good.

This is my 1100th post on here, that's quite a lot , and does provide me with a great online diary of stuff worth remembering.

Think Differently

Recently I started another blog just for me to let off steam here as I do like to keep this one positive,and there are still lots of great things to be positive about. The UK are doing well in the Olympics and the EU actually tops the Olympic table , or it would do if we were part of it.

The obvious song for this post is Shine A Light , not the Take That version, or even The Rolling Stones.

I decided to go for the Gallagher and Lyle song of that name.

Anyway, as I said it is Friday, the weekend is nearly here , the weather is great (although skies at the moment are grey) so everything is in place for maximum enjoyment.

I know this isn't a particularly memorable post but 1100 is not a particularly memorable number really.

Go on enjoy yourself, you know it makes sense.

Just Smile ... You Know It Makes Sense

Over the past couple of days I've noticed a lot of smiles and a lot of glum faces. The people are all in similar situations. I don't know what their situations are but I find even (and maybe especially ) when things are not good a smile makes YOU feel better and it becomes contagious. Generally if you smile and someone , they will smile back at you and you will both end up feeling better.

I know I've written about this lots in the past and I may be repeating myself and you may read this and thing "Oh No he's going on about smiling and being happy AGAIN!". I make no apologies.

I know there are people who are only happy when they are miserable (often centred on Manchester .... only joking) , but it makes me feel much better when people are happy, so maybe I'm being more than a little selfish,

Beautiful

Just a thought one of my favourite albums of the moment is Manchester's Improving Daily by Edward II  , and it really is one of the most beautifully produced albums I've seen in my life. It retails at the same price as any other CD but when I got it delivered the package was secured by sealing wax and you can see what it looks like on one of my Instagram Posts here. It really is a beautiful package so I will use a song from it "A Humorous and Interesting Dialogue" that was used in support of the NHS.

But the weekend is almost over , so if you are with someone smile , and if you are going to work tomorrow , smile, and your day will be much much better.

Every smile you give , you will get back in spades. Enjoy my friends.

Why Jeff Stelling Might Not Like Preston North End

Last night Preston North End hosted Hartlepool United in the latest incarnation of the League Cup, first round at Deepdale. I use an app called Fotmob and discovered that since 2010 Hartlepool had not scored a goal against Preston and had lost every match by the odd goal apart from one 5-0 defeat. Jeff Stelling is the world number one Hartlepool supporter.

Poor Jeff

Last night they defended heroically until the 94th minute when Eoin Doyle scored for us as extra time, and a draw loomed. That mus hurt, it would hurt me definitely.

It is good to see partisan , knowledgeable sports presenters , and lets face it I don't like all the 'B' clubs near Preston (Bolton , Burnley , Blackpool, Blackburn) and everyone hates Leeds and Millwall, but it adds to the interest of the program.








So cheer Jeff up and buy his book. I 've included my favourite football song because this is a vaguely football related post so you can enjoy England's Irie by Black Grape.

Have a wonderful day everybody.

Carnival Dumpster - An Experiment

When I write blog posts I often get sidetracked and end up writing about things that weren't there when I started writing. This is just to see if I can write something reasonably focused.

People have described be as a Corbynista , because I am generally left wing. It's more about caring that people get the best and are not mistreated and stay under the heel of privileged classes. I will expand this in my new blog And Annoyingly but I started out as a Tory voter (my dad still is) , and recently watched an excellent TED talk by a right wing conservative here which rightly points out that in the modern world we need to work together , watch it here it's excellent.

No Do Vote - Please

I'm also reading PJ O'Rourke's "Don't Vote, It Only Encourages The Bastards" which again has a lot of useful and pertinent points in there . His one paragraph evaluation of Donald Trump is brilliant which is basically "if he didn't have paroled Enron accountants he'd be worth less than your cat"


The title of the post is just something that came to me and basically I suppose with what I've been going on about is surreally appropriate.

Anyway there is only one song that this post can have, and that's the Bonzo Dog Band's "No Matter Who You Vote For, The Government Always Gets In".

Have a totally wonderful day everybody.

Numbers Time Krautrock and The Old Fox

Last week I didn't post much for various reasons (see here) and then got to thinking what is a normal rate of posting things. Almost everybody on Facebook posts something everyday , often several times a day , and often it's just reposting something they have seen and liked. So I post more on Facebook than I do on here.

Usually Facebook is about being in the moment , it's what's happening at the time, and then things get lost and forgotten. People often use it to let off steam or moan about things, and too be quite honest a lot  those sort of things I just ignore, though if someone is having I bad time I will contact them and see if can help.

Anyway , in my first year of blogging I posted 6 items , that's an average of 1 post every 2 months (60 days) , here is my first post which I hadn't a clue why I was doing this. The next post was about Krautrock but I had just lifted from a music section on my Song of The Salesman site but then decided not to go further with but I thought the piece had some merit.

I then wrote nothing until I went on holiday to Dublin and decided this would be a travel blog , hence the name. But that didn't take.

Anyway the following year I posted 46 times , almost once a week , and really that should be what I am aiming for and since that time (2008) I have written fairly consistently, about absolutely anything. In 2013 I posted 244 times that's two posts every three days , which is a lot of writing. This year I have posted 66 times and expect to maybe do 100 posts by the end of the year.

Last year I posted my thousandth post (here) which was in the middle in the middle of my Oddysey58 project which was a song for every year of my life which I do intend to somehow turn into an ebook, combining it with another book project I have started but not finished.

Shev and Friend at The Old Fox

My posts tend to get 50-50 views though the biggest one has had over 900 views but is a rubbish post (here) though my most read post ever is on my Spoongig blog about the reopening of The Old Fox in Felling with over 1,100 views.

I chose "In The Meantime" by Spacehog because they had a song called "Millions" but I couldn't find it but I love In The Meantime with it's motif lifeted from The Penguin Cafe Orchestra's Telephone and A Rubber Band. 


Anyway this morning started out very grey , but it's now sun shining but very windy, so it's the start to another week and if the weather is anything to go by , it's going to be a good one.

Enjoy my wonderful friends