What Am I Talking About?

It's the middle of the working week and the clouds are dispersing giving way to blue skies and sunshine. Everybody seems to be checking apps on their phones, tablets and computers to see what the weather will be like , I still stick with looking out of the window and if I think it's gonna rain I take my umbrella and if it's going to be wet and windy I take my hat (it's water and windproof).

The weather is a complex thing and while it can be influenced by governments with the right resources, nothing can be guaranteed.

A worrying development is the replacement of grass with plastic at Cowgate near me . In the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter, but in Earth's ecosystem plants take in CO2 and exhale O2, it's part of the balance of nature. The thing is if all the grass is replaced by plastic it will have a detrimental effect on the environment. It looks nice and new when it's laid but it soon gathers rubbish and I reckon it's going to soon get very tatty and it WILL affect our environment.

Astroturfing Paradise

Also we see trees being removed . An oak tree may take 50 gallons of water a day. I look at the plants and bushes and trees round my garden. The garden seldom gets too wet to walk on and those plants , bushes and trees are doing very well thank you . Take them away and I have a swimming pool. We are getting more and more floods and a big part of it is tree decimation. Trees can have negative effects , their roots can destroy buildings, roads and footpaths, but they need to be conserved and managed not destroyed.





Anyway I am not a scientist, but these are just some thoughts on stuff I have seen.

Anyway , I am going to leave for work soon and I supposed the line from Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow
Taxi" is coming to pass:

"They Paved Paradise, and Put Up A Parking Lot"

Though Cowgate is hardly Paradise, it does have the best fish and chip shop in Newcastle DG Gorman's Fenham Fish Bar.

Anyway with that thought I will get off and you have a brilliant day.

Oh and Craig Charles just mentioned my Earworm  on his 6Music Show , just before the 7:30 news. It was Earl Mankey's Mau Mau.

Like No Other #LikeNoOther #1 Ashes To Ashes - David Bowie

A while ago I said I was going to post about songs that basically, to me , were like nothing I'd heard before. I was trying to think of a tag or description and the phrase #LikeNoOther seems appropriate. You may disagree with me, or you may agree. A lot of these songs have become part of the mainstream, often because they were that good, despite challenging the expected musical borders.

The first may seem incredibly obvious, but at the time I thought what the hell , well actually it was a bit stronger than that. David Bowie showing his Lindsay Kemp influence dressed as a clown, cutting between his padded cell and a desolate beach with self referential nods to previous songs, the video is as important as the song, the two being inseparable in my mind.

Scary Monsters

The song structure does have verses and choruses but still sound alien while retaining pop sensibilities making it accessible to the music buying public. Again this was Bowie showing what could be done cutting and pasting the music back together and producing a timeless masterpiece, giving us Ashes To Ashes.

While this is not my favourite Bowie song, for me it is probably his most important song in his musical canon, I still love it and still love the video, and love the album from which it came.




Can you think of any song prior to Ashes To Ashes that has a similar form or feel?


I don't know whether I have made you think or bored you with this, but there will be more to follow after this, but a Bowie song is always a great starting point.

The first of many songs #LikeNoOther

5:15

The worst thing about waking up 45 minutes before your alarm goes off is that you know that by the time you get back to sleep the alarm is going to go off. The other option is to get up, but if you're tired you really want to enjoy your bed and warmth of being wrapped in your duvet. But it's Tuesday morning and you have to get up to get to work.

If you wake up earlier it's worth going back to sleep, but not at 5:15. It does give you a bit of extra day to play with and if I'm tired tonight I can always go to bed a bit earlier.

I'm looking out of the window and it's been raining, which means the lawn doesn't need watering, in fact it is looking very green.

Self Portrait

We have the August Bank Holiday coming up and maybe I'll track down some music event to attend, even though I've missed every one so far this year. Lee Perry is playing Think Tank this Sunday and with Monday off that is a definite possibility.

I saw him at the Riverside and that was just an amazing experience, so that's an excuse to do it again.







Really this post is just a slight moan about waking up too early , but is an excuses to play The Who's 5.15 from their seminal Quadrophenia album and I am currently reading Pete Townshend's autobiography "Who I Am" so again I suppose that's me going off on tangents and finding connections between disparate things which links in to my admiration for lateral thinking.

Anyway it's Tuesday morning, so have a brilliant day everyone.

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.