Cut

Where Has The UK Gone?

Normally I have about 250 views on the site from the UK. Now it's down to around thirty so I think that probably Facebook is removing me from people's feeds. There's times when I can't even find my own posts let alone other people's so I haven't a clue what's going on, but seriously I can't be bothered to find out.

I know things change and we need to adapt to change, but I haven't noticed any improvements in Facebook. I use it to play Scrabble and have the odd interaction with friends.

I'd received an invite in November but couldn't find it on my mobile, and it was difficult on the PC so that is a definite failure.

So really it's probably just some kind of blip and there are worse things to bother about.



November has started well on the walking front and on Wednesday Thousand Yard Stare are on at The Boiler Shop in Newcastle. I've not seen a gig there and I have never seen them despite them being one of my favourite bands, so I really need to make the effort to get over there and I'm sure I will. They're supporting House of Love so that's two great bands in one great place.

So I will leave you with "God's P45" one of my slideshows for one of their songs, which has a totally gorgeous chorus, like so many of their songs. Listening to this has nailed it, I'm going on Wednesday.

Halloween Minimalism - The Sound of John Carpenter

My last post was about being post Halloween  and I was considering using John Carpenter's "Halloween" theme as an accompanying video. John Carpenter is unusual in that he makes films and also does the soundtracks. His compositions are minimalist  but stick in your mind often using repetitive notes an motifs that carve themselves into you psyche.

I'm not sure what his first film was but I remember seeing "Assault on Precinct 13" and being maightily impressed with it's unknown cast simple but frightening set up and one of the most unexpectedly shocking scenes I've seen in a film, and... of course ... the soundtrack. It's still stands up today despite it being a remake and resetting of "Fort Apache".

John Carpenter recently played at the Tyne Theatre in Newcastle and it's not many directors could even think about doing that.

He is responsible for some of my favourite films and all are marked my him, often working with Kurt Russell such as in the remake of "The Thing" and in "Scape for New York" and "Escape From LA".

So it's Friday , enjoy your day and weekend.

The Day After Halloween

Last night was Halloween, I stayed in and watched episodes of Constantine and The Walking Dead, got two tubs of sweets from Tesco (two for seven pounds) and had one knock on the door, a pleasant and well made up family (the parents as zombies the children as witches) who were made up when I told them to take two each.

It seems everyone was out apart from me, though I wasn't aware of anything that was on, and no one would ask me to anything because these days I usually politely decline.

But it's a new month, and I am off to York today (that's twice in a week) so although it's the day after I'll leave you with Sonic Youth's "Halloween" just to include the "Bad Moon Rising" flaming pumpkin headed scarecrow cover although I was thinking  of John Carpenter's superb minimalist "Halloween" theme.

Have a good day

Past Imperfect, Present More Imperfect

All my posts have been getting around 40 to 50 views until five days ago when they have dropped to five or six. I think this is something Facebook has done because that's where, normally most of my visits come from. It feel a little like all of a sudden you are rubbish and no one wants to interact with you . Often in these situations you think "What have I done?" when the reality is that something beyond your contriol has changed, and you can't do anything about it. Well you could spend a lot of time trying to discover what the problem or change is, but to be quite honest I honestly can't be bothered. I amd sure if I keep writing and sharing stuff worth sharing both readers and robots will return and my stats will increase.

On the walking fron I will finish October on about 420K steps that's about 25% up on my target number of steps. Whether I can keep that up in November is a different story, but as long as I hit my target steps that's all that really matters to me.

This morning I listened to  Public Service Broadcasting's  "Inform, Educate, Entertain" and there was one song I hadn't noticed before, the rather excellent "The Now Generation". The thing I love about them is that you actually learn from listening to their music, so as well as being just great to listen to it's educational as well.  Most of their songs are also like films for the ears, although they often have acocompanying videos that are available via the Public Service Broadcasting Channel on Youtube.

All their releases are themed so fall into the "concept album" genre, but are still all essential listing from "The War Room" up to the present day "White Star Liner" EP based on The Titanic.

Anyway I will be listening to a bit more of them this week.

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After walking into work and most of the way back I clocked 14K steps so another 6K today takes me over the 400K mark for October. Yesterday I walked in took some photographs and went for Bob Dylan's "Shelter From A Hard Rain" album. I'm fairly sure this is a bootleg recording originally and I bought it mainly for the duet with Joan Baez" on "Deportees (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)" which I first saw on The Old Grey Whistle Test and I include here.

The album sounds like the band can just about play , but are actually enjoying themselves, from the opener of "A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall" which Dylan originally wrote when he thought the end was coming during the Cuban Missile Crisis and he just listed a load of images and it still stands up today, to the final "Idiot Wind" which is just a brilliant paranoid narrative. At no point do you want to skip to the next song, but I will often repeat play one of the songs, such as "Deportees" of "Mozambique".

Of course the original recordings have better sound (except "Deportees") but they don't capture the feel of the gig. ANother album that I love and constantly revisit.

Anyway I've still not reset my alarm clock, so let myself get up an hour earlier again, but I have a doctor's appointment at seven thirty so need to leave the house at about quarter to seven.

It is Tuesday , so have a good one everyone.

Timeslip

This morning I had a lie in, only half an hour but I thought and just enjoy a bit of extra time in bed. The heating hadn't come on, and I though it did automatic daylight saving changes so thought I'd have to manually change that as well. I'd done all the analog clocks, and the cooker yesterday and all the electronic stuff resets itself, so all was good. I washed and showered, and came in and switched the computer on and noticed my owl wall clock still said quarter to six. I thought the mechanism must be failing, then I checked my phone, quarter to six. Then it hit me, the only clock I hadn't reset was my alarm clock so I'd got up an hour earlier than I thought it was, though that means I feel like I've had an extra half hour in bed and I have an extra half hour to do stuff like this.

I spent the weekend in York and visited The National Railway Museum for the first time, and rathe amazing place. Just go, it's free, and you will spend a lot of time in there seeing these amazing examples of engineering and how we have regressed from luxury to the cattle trucks we have today. I saw this YouTube video of the place which will show it far better than I can describe it.

Coming back on The Cross-Country one, my phone was down to 4% power, but I thought they have charging points, which they do, but they don't work and the staff can't be bothered to see what's wrong. Sad, but when you're paid a pittance to work on substandard kit because the companies don't invest, you are going to think "What's The Point?".

Two records for me are going to happen, another thirty posts I will have posted three hundred this year, I've already done 270 which is a record but three hundred will be nice, and after walking round York (including 25K steps on Saturday) I'm on course to hit 400K steps for the first time in a month, unless the weather turns really bad, but I'm standing on 380K at the moment with three days left.

Amazingly I didn't buy any music in York but my friend Scott bought a best of Dusty Springfield album, with a self deprecating "a bit of easy listening " comment, to which I replied Dusty Springfield is anything but and shows excellent musical taste and suggested he tracked down "Dusty In Memphis".

Anyway it's Monday morning and maybe time to get off to work.

Have a good one.

Sharing

There was a homeless guy in th epassage down the side of the Tyneside Cinema asking for spare change. I said I had none (which was true) but was going to visit my friend Krista at Kota to make a donation to Craig Puranen Wilson's memorial seat at the Tyneside Cinema. She wasn't in so I slipped a note under the door, and you can still donate of Facebook, but Facebook won't accept anything from me and won't say why despite me raising a ticket about it, so my only way of donating to causes is to send money to the person running it.

Anyway on the floor below is 586 Records and I was hoping to find a reggae 12" and saw "Jammin'" by Bob Marley on 12" and it has a live take of "No Woman, No Cry" on the "B" sided and was reasonably priced giving me change from a fiver.  I had a crack on with the owner who was listening to 6Music remarking I wasn't sure whether it was live or a recording as Tom Ravenscroft sounds so much like his dad John Peel.

This meant I had some change for the homeless guy who asked the guy in front of me if he had any spare change and I think he was surprised that I had come back and gave him some money. The thing is you can't always do that, and sometimes beggars can be aggressive or unfeasibly persistent hassling you for more after you have given them something, but most are grateful for any help you can give them, so I try to help when I can

So this is another excuse to listen to "No Woman, No Cry" by Bob Marley, and we all know what he would have done.