Thursday 12 March 2020

Didn't Feel Lonely Til I Thought Of You


Yesterday I got home before six pm but had to put the lights on . The house was in darkness as the the lights come on around seven. Admittedly it was cloudy and rainy and the rain was coming down hard, but even so it was still a surprise to me. This morning I have to get off to the Post Office for another Discogs sale , it is strange as CD sales seem to go in spurts the stop and then come on again.

Morning Moon
This morning the sky looks blue and almost cloudless and the moon looked very clear in the sky so I leapt out and took a picture.

Unfortunately when I use the 50x Optical Zoom I can't keep the damned thing steady so a halfway decent picture is a plus. The one to the right is one that came out OK.

It's a thing with eyes and cameras, the camera can never capture the detail that the eye sees, although sometime it manages to capture things that the eye can't possibly see. A very odd conundrum that I don't have any intention of working out at the moment.

Yesterday I was listening to a Best of Kevin Ayers compilation , one of his bands (The Whole World) featured Mike Oldfield on guitar and was struck how, like with most artists, the early stuff is the most interesting and adventurous, although I did move onto my favourite album of his "The confessions of Doctor Dream" which I never tire of , featuring the excellent (no departed) Ollie Halsall on guitar, who's advice of  practicing with heavy gauge strings and play with light gauge I took , and in a very hot venue my guitar kept going out of tune, and I had to retune as I played. Afterward I was complimented on my on the the fly tuning / playing.

So in memory of Mr Halsall and Kevin Ayers both now gone , one of my favourites "Didn't Feel Lonely Til I Thought Of You", I found a live take for you to enjoy, with some excellent guitar duelling.

Wednesday 11 March 2020

To Be Positive


Walking into the back room where my computer, keyboard and stringed instruments lived I thought I'd left the light on , I hadn't, it was sunlight reflecting off the houses at the back into the room filling it with light. Sometimes benefits and good things come from unexpected sources.

Although it's still cold the fact that it's not too windy and there's little rain means that walking into work is far easier and I am less and less tempted to take the bus, although this morning have to take a bus to Haymarket to post off another CD that I sold on on Discogs. The other day I found that the minimum Paypal withdrawal is now six pounds, which is a surprise , but is fine by me. My latest sale was only a fiver.😊.

I recently found that pressing the Windows Key and ";" simultaneously  gives you a list of emojis that you past easily , that added to Windows Key and "L" to lock your computer (which my youngest daughter told me about) and a couple of useful things to know.

I am happy with my new reconditioned Google Pixel 2XL which allows me to take reasonable pictures and video as well as being fairly quick , also being a Google device it keeps up with Android system updates and has unlimited cloud photo storage so although it can't take an SD card you are never short on space.

So what should I share this morning, one of my favourite Top of the Pops memories when Can hit the top 30 with "I Want More" , and I want more positivity and good stuff to come to everyone and everywhere.

Saturday 7 March 2020

Water Music


When showering this morning I thought I could hear music maybe in the pipes , maybe in the water. It's like when you think you can hear something in another house, or a passing car or someone with headphones on. You cannot quite grasp what it is and when you switch the shower off it stops, so it's obviously in the water. This happens quite often with me, and I suppose it's brought to the fore because of the Clive Barker books I'm reading which always have that world just out of your sight or ken, be it music , lights or images.

Because this was music probably caused by water I thought of Handel's "Water Music" which is a rather essential classical piece which I enjoy , although last night I was watching  a wedding on "Brassic" (which is an excellent Joseph Gilgun creation with a cracking soundtrack)  and the music was Pachelbel's "Canon" which has been used as a basis for so many songs (the Farm's "All Together Now" for instance) but one of my most striking moments was when I saw Blair Dunlop (Ashley Hutching's son) tap it on his guitar (the Trace Bundy arrangement) at an Albion Band concert many years back.

I couldn't find a Blair Dunlop but I did find Trace Bundy's TED performance, the sort of guitarist who makes you feel you may as well give up. Amazing stuff, and brilliant arrangement of a beautiful tune.

Friday 6 March 2020

Halfway Down The Stairs


I'm halfway through "Weaveworld" and it's still got me grabbed, maybe because it touches on so many places that are familiar to me while maintaining and definite other worldliness. The thing is, when you revisit a past favourite , there is always that slight feeling that it may not live up to what you thought it would be, although being a Clive Barker tome I feel on fairly certain ground, and it is proving remarkably excellent on this particular revisit.

Of course I am also re reading "Imajica" on the Kindle Fire so it's a double helping for me , which may actually slow down progress, but who cares when it's so enjoyable.

Similarly the purchase of "Confusion" and "Blue Monday"  12" singles whilst in Edinburgh made me wonder whether my favourite New Order song "Temptation" was available in this form , and it is, so that was ordered and arrived today. My second favourite New Order song is "Love Vigilantes" but do I really need that on a 12" single.... we shall see.

So half way through "Weaveworld" made me think of "Halfway Down The Stairs" by Robin the Frog (nephew of Kermit the Frog in The Muppet Show). My mind drifting off in unorthodox tangents again.

Thursday 5 March 2020

No Dilemma


In a previous post (here) I referred to Michael Moorcock's "Breakfast In the Ruins"  which finished each chapter with an impossible dilemma directed at the reader. I had a dream about a similar thing before I properly woke this morning and here it is:


It's late at night and you are at a bus stop. Your bus is due , you think , but you have a sense of foreboding, you don't feel safe. You can see the next bus stop, about five minutes walk away, there are two dim street light along the way. There is someone at the next bus stop. They may make you feel safer.

So do you:


  • Stay and wait for the bus? Something bad may happen
  • Walk to the next stop? The bus may pass you by and the person at the next stop may not be someone who will help you , they may even be the cause of your foreboding!

So just a small dilemma for you to consider this morning.

Last night my local Post Office closed an hour early with zero announcement so I have to go to the one at Haymarket which is just always open and very reliable to detach another CD purchased from me on Discogs.

Clive Barker's "Weaveworld has just visited Newcastle , a hotel in Rudyard Street , there is a Rudyerd Street in North Shields but maybe he just chose a random name rather than an actual place.

A fairly appropriate song is the excellent "Which Way Should I Jump?" by the brilliant Milltown Brothers who also did the them to the wonderful "All Quiet On The Preston Front" ("Here I Stand" see here although this site says it's "Out on Blue Six")

Tuesday 3 March 2020

Pointless


I like Pointless, it's a quiz show that actually demands some intelligence and you do learn things from it. Richard Osman's "House of Games" is similar except in includes "personalities" (most of who'm I don't know) and is extremely good natured because although there are prizes it's done for the fun of it. Rge "celebrity" Pointless game is also done for charity and, again, is very educational and enjoyable, co-hosted by Richard Osman and Alexander Armstrong  (President of the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society and responsible for some extremely funny comedy sketches as part of the Armstrong and Miller duo with Ben Miller). So that's a hundred words which have nothing to do with what I was going to post about, apart from...

... I awoke from one of the most pointless dreams I've ever had, essentially I was doing something, either laying a floor or lawn on some waste ground under The Tyne Bridge which had a channel running from top left to bottom right towards the Ouseburn. There was a big mirror and records may have been involved and it might have been a carpet. Then I decided that the channel needed to run bottom left to top right so had to take everything up and redo it. It was on the Quayside side (North and Left is West and Right is East and I've just realised on the Gateshead side this would , at one point been a vague possibility. But my work life often means I have to undo things adn also reading Clive Barker's "Weaveworld" could have something to do with it and the carpet and been unwoven and now is being rewoven. But as you can see ultimately pointless.

So I am going to share Armstrong and Miller's streetwise Spitfire pilots with you as it's extremely funny. Although this unrelated pointless site is quite amusing.

Monday 2 March 2020

Not Bored


I don't do blog posts when I'm away on short breaks although I haven't posted in nearly a week, which is quite a long blogging break for me, but Edinburgh was great but cold.

Edinburgh whilst being the joint capital of Scotland seems a remarkably unplanned city , which just adds to it's interest, and is small enough to easily explore on foot as well as having some amazing buildings and constructions. It's also full of small alleys, high level walks, stone steps and you can usually see some landmark so you can always find your way back if you ever get lost.

I got back yesterday evening and watched two episodes of 30 Rock, two of Veep and the final Frankie Boyle Scotland travelogue and then thought I don't have time to blog and realised how the quantity of choice on television can actually steal your time. The thing is I don't even have Netflix and despite it having lots of series I want to watch , my ivo disk is 90% full and I have Amazon Prime, BBC iPlayer and the commercial channels hubs to watch so much television that I really don't have the time.

People often tell me they binge watch series, but more than two episodes of anything is too much for me, and then I have two Clive Barker books on the go and music to listen to too.

So as I close off this first March post to go to work , the sun is shining outside, and tomorrow I am going to visit Kirsty and Mark to see and hear Mark's latest record player upgrade and Edinburgh did provide me with four more pieces of vinyl , two New Order 12" singles , "Fans" by Malcolm McLaren and "Gris,Gris" by Dr John so I'll go with "Confusion" by New Order which has one of the cleverest covers I have ever seen, although I have seen similar examples before, but even the guy selling it in Vinyl Villains wasn't too sure what it was, and the remix I'm sharing (cos it uses the cover) was used in the film "Blade".