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.

Books and Sounds

I've just finished "The Sunshine Cruise Company" by John Niven and although the plot has a lot of holes and is totally unrealistic, the concept is brilliant and it's an excellent and fun romp of taking on several systems and I'd recommend it to everybody.

Next up I'm going into more scientific territory with "The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets" by the alliterately named Simon Singh. I'll see how that goes, but I've heard lots of good things about him and he has a large back catalogue for me to delve into.

I'm certainly not going to run out of books to read as I have a huge pile next to my bed.

It looks like the big thaw is happening so the only thing that will stop me walking into work is if it's too slushy to use the paths, I certainly need to do a lot of walking this week, and I would like to be back up to speed by the end of Friday, but we shall see.

It my limited walking I listened to "Shelter From A Hard Rain" a live album from Bob Dylan from a 1976 broadcast. It sounds bootleg quality but ut is a great live album, I love Dylan's live recordings when they're a bit ragged and this is, in my opinion, perfect because it isn't perfect. I love every song on it. I'm not sure if this is from the same gig but it has the same feel, enjoy.

Melt

The snow is melting, it's a bit warmer, but slushy under foot and the fog is closing in. If it freezes tonight it will be treacherous tomorrow.

I've still not hit 11K on any day this month and am now 20K steps down after four days which is not as bad as it could have been, but means I am going to have to make an effort to ensure I don't fall short in March.

Today I saw "I, Tonya" a film about Tonya Harding and a great example of how sociaty comes down on people who don't conform to stereotypes, and how people are used as scapegoats even though they are only guilty by tenuous association. A great film with a cracking soundtrack and some amazing ice skating set pieces and a lot of swearing.

So I think I will have an early night as tomorrow may involve clawing back some of the steps I've missed if the weather is amenable to walking.

Below is the trailer for "I, Tonya" and it has to be a song from the soundtrack so I will choose "Can't You See" by The Marshall Tucker Band which was onced used in an advert for Double Cream, but doesn't appear on the "I, Tonya" soundtrack CD. Don't you just hate it when that happens?

Sleep well and keep warm.

Almost Like Christmas

Although the snow is slightly melting it almost feels like Christmas. Then you realise that you have work on Monday, all the shops are open, and there are no presents to open and no Christmas Trees in peoples' windows.

The sky is still grey and featureless. Footpaths are still walkable and today I manage 8.5K steps so I'm only 17K steps down for March which , in theory, I could make up in a day.

The snow is meant to be gone my Monday but it's not showing any signs of retreating at the moment, well maybe it's getting a little warmer and there is a little melting , but this is not the "Killer Winter Weather" forecast by the Daily Express a couple of days back, though I just look at their front page for a laugh these days as ist's either Armageddon weather or some Jeremy Corbyn fake news.

Of course this gives me another excuse to share The Raveonettes "Christmas Song" with you which as you know by now is my favourite Christmas Song ever. Dobbies even used it for a Christmas advert of theirs which is where I first heard it.

Anyway enjoy your SAturday night and we will see what tomorrow brings.

Snow No Show

Well we had no snow in 'Nam last night but it's still cold and the snow that fell is still here but possible slowly melting. Roads are fairly clear but I am amazed that certain places have closed their doors for "safety reasons". My friend Julie is dealing with a metre of snow, now that's what you call snowfall as is the dort of thing that stops you getting out. However think about farmers, they don't have a choice they have to deal with the snowfall or risk losing stock and income.

Yesterday was the first day of March and I only managed 4K steps, which is not the least I've done since I started my rolling million steps every three months in May last year, that was 2.8K on a particularly rainy day in Yorkshire. The problem is by Monday I could be 30K steps down by Monday even if I hit 4K a day. But I do know that I can do a decent amaout of steps a day and I can recover that in a week, so I am not too disturbed.

Anyway today is another work from home day. For me that is far more inconvenient that working in the office but that's what happens when you get snow.

The skies are still grey and featurless and I have a feeling it will be cold outside. Anyway I've done my first Wordpress post on Song of The Salesman here and hope that I can now start adding to that in the blog format, we shall see.

So I will now attempt a walk round the block and will leave you with"Fun Lovin' Criminal" by The Fun Lovin' Criminals for no other reason that Nemone just played it on 6Music and of course  band feature Huey Morgan who among other things has a Saturday morning show on 6Music. I had a horrible sight when I searched for Huey on the BBC site and at the end was a picture of the awful Piers Morgan... ughh

Have a brilliant Friday everybody.

March Swirling In

The sky is grey and featureless and the snow is swirling and getting a little deeper. It's cold but not so bad that you can't move out there. Buses and cars are are fairly frequest on the roads. Buses are finishing early but you have to think that the drivers have to get home after they finish.

I am really sick of hearing "The Beast From The East", it's a bit more snow that we are used to that's all.

Anyway I have been listening to Pink Floyd's "Obscured By Clouds" the soundtrack to Barbet Schroeder's "La Vallée" .

They had previously soundtracked another of his films "More" ,the Main Theme countaining some amazingly atmospheric stero panning which sounds wonderful on headphones.

"Obscured By Clouds" opens with heavy synthesiser bombs before treating us to some excellent songs "Wots.. Uh The Deal" and "Free Four" are two favourites of mine, but "Stay", "Childhood's End" and "The Gold It's In The" make the grade as well.