Dream Fragments

I often wake and want o find what happens in what I'm dreaming , good or bad. I'm surprised that bits of a dream I woke from a couple of days back have stayed with me. They make little sense although I think where they came from from . Robocop characters working with and attacking a group I was with (probably influenced by the second series of "Altered Carbon" that I finished last week on Netflix , a computer terminal flashing up that I needed to take annual leave (we are getting work reminders about this and I have taken nothing but Bank Holidays this Financial Year, so that is nearly four months without a chosen day's leave) , and I wanted to know if we got out of the "situation" , but I woke fully , so the dream was lost. This does happen to me, and probably everyone quite frequently.

Because I am ahead of the curve on my walking I only have to do 4K steps a day to hit may target for July , which therefore makes me a little lazy, though it means I have more than hit my target this month. I did think that lockdown was going to stop me from doing my million steps every three months but as yet it hasn't. I am lucky that I live in an area with plenty of places to walk.

This week I am continuing with working through my CD box sets and today it's The Velvet Undergound "Peel Slowly And See" , the first CD being demos put together by Lou Reed , John Cale and Sterling Morrison , "Waiting For The Man" being almost Country and Western Swing style and "Venus In Furs" a medieval acoustic work out, these are interesting but not easy listening. At the wekend I was listening to their debut album on vinyl and noticed for the first time that the band's name doesn't appear on the front cover, but Andy Warhol's does.

So we'll go with a take on "All Tomorrows Parties" , I think the drum sound is awesome on this, as I write I'll listening to the first album with the extra takes , but is a definitie experience.

A Cautionary Covid-19 Tale (That Has Nothing To Do With Covid-19)

Today I have been remarkably tired , although I've been out a bit and done more than my normal 11K step target. This morning I fixed a picture that had been disconnected from it's frame (a little sellotape fixed that) , and posted a CD off to the USA, so it's not as though I have been doing a lot or a little, but on the way back from town had an idea for a short story, which may not be to everyone's taste but every story needs an idea, and this is just a straight draft , no editing , just coming out of my mind.

So a 300 word black humoured short story (probably influenced by Roald Dahl)  for you

All my posts these days have an accompanying video, I think "Free" by VAST is sort of suitable.

A Cautionary Covid-19 Tale

The takeaway had a sign in the window (which was fully covered in advertisements and the takeaway menu) , "only one customer in the shop at any one time, wait til the ENTER sign lights". The ENTER sign was lit so he opened the door went in and checked the menu on the wall.

After perusing the menu he placed his order and pulled out his card.

"Cash Only , we don't take cards, there is a cash machine next door"

He checked his wallet and had enough to pay for his meal, so handed over the notes and took the change.

"Thanks it'll be about twenty minutes, are you OK waiting"

"Yeah , no problem"

There were a few magazines on a small table in the seating area, mostly supermarket periodicals advertising food and meals to make, but he decided to see what was happening on his phone, the internet and news sites held a little more interest than the magazines.

He heard a noise but didn't take any notice, the BBC site had an article on Liverpool's lifting of the Premiership , and that now had all his attention.

The person who had served him had disappeared in the back, presumably getting his order together.

There were some more noises, like something scurrying on the floor and behind the seating .

"Maybe it's the heating"

His phone had his attention.

Then there was a bite on his ankle,  it felt like a bite , he grabbed his ankle (he had come into the shop wearing a T-shirt , tracksuit bottoms and slippers , nothing else...

There was blood on his hands .

"What the .... "

He didn't finish the sentence .........

The server came back behind the counter, with the owner and looked at what was left of their customer.

"Are they all back in the box?"

"Yes"

"Well that looks look like enough mince to keep us going for the next fortnight......."

The End ..... Or 

A Box of Pearls and Earth, Wind and Fire

Yesterday I put my contact lens in and one popped out onto the floor. I spent an age to no avail looking for it. I then looked at something and realised that the vision in the eye where I thought I'd lost the lens was fine, the lens obviously hadn't dropped out although I thought it had.

Today is very grey and quiet and I feel I am getting hit with SAD but that will pass , though it does make me worry for people who feel like this all the time. I am glad that the first link that came up was an NHS one rather than Wikipedia.

Anyway to the point of the post, since my return to listening CDs I have been working my way through various box set and yesterday I finished Janis Joplin's (with Big Brother & The Holding Company) set "Box of Pearls" which is 5CDs but are quite short , from 20 minutes for the five song rarities to sixty minutes for the "Kozmic Blues" album. All high quality blues and soul with some extras. Some of the brass arrangements are really good , and Janis' voice , is well , you know what it is. we will use "Piece of My Heart" as the song for this post , but there could have been so many more.

The next box was "The Eternal Dance" by Earth, Wind and Fire , which is , like the "Box of Pearls" , a beautiful Sony Legacy box set , and while Earth, Wind and Fire are great musicians and very impressive on stage, most of the music is bland faceless soul in my book , with the odd decent song , but the live cuts get an amazing response. It may be a while before I hit this three disc set again, but for fans it should be a must have.

Today I dug out "Irish Ways" by Ron Kavana , and this is the first time I have listened to this , and it is an eductional history of Ireland with dialogue , song , poetry and music, almost a five hour documentary to listen to while I work. I would highly recommend it to anyone if you have the time to take it all in. I discovered a hell of a lot I didn't know about Ireland.

I still have many boxes to go through so expect more similar posts while I am working from home.

Apple Venus

Although I am doing a minor cull of my CD collection on my Discogs Store over the last week , while working from home , I have started playing CDs again. Part of the reason is that 6Music during the day is ranging from bland to techno with not much in between. Playing CDs means that I can choose what I want to play.

The main criteria in that the CD is to hand.

This morning I kicked off with "On The Beach" by Neil Young , then 40 minutes later I picked up "The Apple Box" by XTC . This is a box and booklet with the albums "Apple Venus" and "Wasp Star" with accompanying demos albums "Homespun" and "Homegrown" . I wasn't sure that four CDs was a listening option , but I listened all the way through , the albums then the demos , and basically that was an excellent day's listening.

I will share "Stupidly Happy" from "Wasp Star" with you , like many XTC songs , it is highly infectious and uplifting.

Having easily listened through this , I am now eying my other boxes for my music while I work this week such as Public Image's "Metal Box" , "Box of Pearls" by Janis Joplin and "Anthologia" by John Cooper Clarke , this week will be a personal treasure rediscovery.

Walk A Mile In My Shoes

This morning I mowed my lawn, it's a small lawn. I checked how many steps I'd done and it was over a mile. That surprised me quite a lot that I could walk so far in such a small area. I know people have smaller gardens but sometimes a mile is not very far and other times it seems a long, long way. I am not a very active person but don't mind walking a few steps each day (actually about 11K which is around five miles). It is amazing how some people are aghast at that while I have friends who often cycle ten or fifteen miles a day , 50 to 100 miles a day at weekends plus serious gym time. So no I am anything but a fitness fanatic.

Today I have decided to retire the  www.spoongig,co.uk URL but the blog well remain possibly in a subdomain of this one. I don't get to that many gigs these days and was just using one email so it's not really worth keeping. I am going with the subdomain which I hope will start working soon on www.spoongig.sevendaysin.co.uk 

The weather is rather good for a Sunday so that means I should be able to his my steps target.

I'm two thirds of the way through "Everville" and I would have remembered reading this excellent books , so it's only taken me ten years but I'm on it now , and soon will be deciding what to read next. Though a lot of reminds me of certain parts of "Preacher".

I've completed "Vikings" and "Lucifer" so far , but enjoying "The Umbrella Academy" though there seem to be a lot of ideas lifted for other iconic films and series such as "Preacher" and "Pulp Fiction" and enjoying the mind bending complexity of "Altered Carbon".

Music wise I've gone for "Walk A Mile In My Shoes" by Big Daddy Wilson , although there are numerous more well known renditions available.

Never Been To Everville

I'm halfway through Clive Barker's "Everville" and now know I've never read it. It is still a big surprise that this has happened , the book has been in my possession for over ten years and I never thought I hadn't read it. I am glad I finally picked it up , but then you start wondering if there are any more like that, though I look at the books and usually something comes to me.

Yesterday I had my annual diabetic review and booked the time off work , prepared to leave the house , picked up the reminder letter and halfway down  were the words "THIS HAS BEEN REARRANGED AS A TELEPHONE APPOINTMENT" , and I was looking forward to the walk to the hospital. So I could continue working but had to appear as out of office as I didn't know when I would get the call, but it did come and all was well, with a face to face call being arranged around December.

This week I haven't once hit my 11K steps target and am not sure if that's affecting me, I'm still up on the month and certainly had much worse weeks but did 6K steps this morning , so I should be able to hit my target today  , but will see what I feel like after work.

The music I have gone with is "Checkin' It Out" (because of my letter, it's always good to check things) by Van Morrison from the excellent "Wavelength" album, Van Morrison is responsible for some amazing albums "Astral Weeks" and "Moondance" being a pair of his finest.

"Astral Weeks" has been described as one of the finest rock albums ever , unusual in that all the instrumentation is acoustic, and "Moondance" is reckoned to be even better. They are both on my permanent playlist.

Back To Everville

Yesterday I noticed a red light on my mouse that I hadn't noticed before. It's wireless so I assumed it was just something I hadn't noticed before. This morning it was dead, needed new batteries. The light comes on when the batteries are about to expire. I'm not sure what happens when the keyboard battery expires, but if an unexpected light starts flashing, I will have a clue.

Last night in The Fenham Fish Bar they have gone back to walk ins but you have to give your name when you order, though was surprised to find they know my surname , but the guy after me was called Steve Martin , so we got chatting about the comedian's banjo and ukulele talents.

I'm over a third of the way through "Everville" and I am now sure that I have never read the book. This is odd as it is by one of my favourite authors, Clive Barker,  and a follow up to another great book "The Great and Secret Show" so why did I buy it but never read it. Although parts of it are in familiar territory and characters are familiar , having just read the first book , and Harry D'Amour does reappear in "The Scarlet Gospels" , so rather than a rereading this is a first time read by one of my favourite authors , so I am certainly pleased about that.

I always like discovering new things and this is like discovering a long lost album by one of your favourite artists or an unknown (to you)  film by a favourite director.

Today looks gorgeous outside so have a planned trip to the Grainger Market before watching football this afternoon then maybe continuing on with the last three episodes of "Vikings".

Music wise I have been listening to CDs mostly this week, though I have misplaced my copy of "En-Tact" by The Shamen but I am going with "Alive" by Steve Mason. When I heard this I thought the voice and sound was familiar , and Steve Mason was also the voice of The Beta Band another of my favourites. The Steve Mason album is "Meet The Humans" which reminded me of Humans , the first Matt Haig book I read because I gave it out for a World Book Night. I had it for sale on my Discogs store but it has now been pulled , definitely too good to sell.

So enjoy your Saturday and I hope you discover something new and brilliant too.