Saturday 14 November 2020

Imperfect Memory

Two thirds of the way through "Coldheart Canyon" and I do not remember it going like this. Huge chunks of it are like a newish book to men. That's the benefit of my imperfect memory, I forget things which means I can reread books and enjoy them as I did the first time round.

I suppose the same can be said of films and TV series, I generally remember overall part of the narrative and major incidents and occurrences, but they can still surprise me , so I can revisit and enjoy time after time.

I wrote that my hard drive had died, but I couldn't find an ethernet connected disc and thought I would just have to link via the USB connection on my router and access my content via that. My Kindle wouldn't connect but I found that my phone would, which was useful. Today I discovered that the ES File Explorer app on my Amazon Kindle could not only see the drive but also play content from it , so as the only disks I have is a backup disc (1 Tb) and a second backup (500Gb) , I have now ordered an 8 Tb one. I can't connect my DVD player up yet , but that's hardly an issue as if I want to watch something I can put them on a stick and watch them

As I write this I am listing to "No Parlez" by Paul Young , which is a bit of a curates egg , good in parts. Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and Anthony Moore's "No Parlez" are week takes on th ethe originals , but Paul Young has an excellent voice and loved him with the Q-Tips (but not Streetband) , so I found a live take of "Some Kinda Wonderful" which is quite impressive.

It's always good to revisit the good stuff

Wednesday 11 November 2020

2345

This is post 2345 on sevendaysin and I am not sure I would ever reach this number or keep posting for this long. I started here on the 18th of February 2007 and am still doing this now. I chose Echo and The Bunnymen's "Never Stop" because it is a great record and appropriate for the point of this post.

The thing is in life we do things that seem to never end (apart from the obvious Grim Reaper scenario) , such as washing up , cleaning , working , and watching TV and listening to music , plus walking and lots of other thing.

The thing is if you break things up into manageable chunks you can then enjoy the success of each finish point you define.

While working from home I have listened to several CD box sets which I don't think I could have done even walking to work. I have just finished the Electric Light Orchestra box and, apart from "Discovery" , I would rate all of the albums, although the first five are my favourites.

I have Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen boxes and they are being lined up for my next plays. Having a CD player to hand , plus the discs i sa great convenience, but it means I am not listening to much Radio 6 for a change as certain DJs I thing would be more at home on Radio 2 , so I don't feel I am mising anything.

So that's post 2345 , and basically I will never stop with this here blog.

Tuesday 10 November 2020

896504


This is post 2344 , the next will have it's number as the title. We really can't do without numeracy, although politicians are fine without it. The number in the title is the dimensions of the video above. I thought this may be a good starting point for a post , but it's not really, I can't think of anything else to say about it , so I will mention the music that I have been listening to this week.

I started with some Roxette Greatest Hits then PJ Harvey "The Hope Six Demolition Project" , followed by Prince "1999" (which was released in 1982 so more numbers there, and in the PJ Harvey title) , and this was followed by Kate Bush "Director's Cut" which three CDs consisting of "The Red Shoes" , "Sensual World" then reworkings of songs from those albums, it is a very illuminating listen.

My latest is an Electric Light Orchestra box , which  does trace their fall from pioneering musos to prepacked pop purveyors. They are responsible for my second favourite album ever "ElDorado" and Jeff Lynne is a purveyor of some extremely muscular riffs on the earlier albums ("Ma-Ma Belle" and "10538 Overture") , he also revisits The Move's "Do Ya" which is possibly his finest moment , on "A New World Record" which is when they hit paydirt and the fall began.

I'm currently up to "Face The Music" and not sure if I will finish the whole box, but the first five albums are worth the price of admission, maybe on the next post we will find out how far I got.

Monday 9 November 2020

On Pins


To get to this point I had to enter a PIN for my computer and password to get to this site, I also had to enter a PIN for my phone as well (though that's not related to this). When I was at Littlewoods in 1980 we had to use a swipe card and enter a pin. These days it's often just a swipe card, even for payments, so if someone picks up your card they can use it.

I still maintain that the only safe place for a pass key is in your head. People extol the virtues of password keeper systems, but come on , would you give your house keys to a nameless entity, and what if someone cracks the password you use for that.

Then there's fingerprints and retinal scans, a friend of mine emailed work telling he'd sanded off his fingerprints so couldn't get into his iPhone , so what could he do. I think there was a work round but again corporations are always supposedly saying they are increasing security by making things less secure. How often do websites and Google suggest them remembering your password? So if someone walks up to your computer and you are not logged out they then have full access.

Also too complex passwords are no good because people write them down, I see so many people go into notepads to get their password for whatever they are accessing , so I know where THEY keep their passwords.

The other thing is more that four passwords, is a security risk, because people start to write them down.

My passwords are variations on unmemorable phrases like say fishandchips or kilburnandthehighroads , though needless to say mine are nothing like that.

As I mentioned Kilburn and The High Roads (Ian Dury's old band)  , I found this live take of "Vidiot" for you to enjoy, though it was only ever performed live, I have been unable to find a recorded version.

Saturday 7 November 2020

Here Comes The Sun

Waiting for the Election Results in the USA is like watching a very slow sunrise , we have had four years of darkness in the USA (and ten in the UK) but it looks like things will start to take a turn for the better in the next week or so. I keep checking the news feeds and nothing seems to have changed with lots of childish "not fair" whinings from the the "we won you lost , suck it up crowd".

Today's early morning fog has burned off and it is now a very bright day.

This week, thanks to working from home , I have worked my way through the first seven Bruce Springsteen albums , his five disc live 75-85 release and more surprisingly the Blue Oyster Cult Columbia boxed set , which is an excellent listen. I think it is one of th ebiggest boxes I have and certainly the largest one I have listened to end to end.

There are lots of high points but the jewel in the crown is the final album "Imaginos"with a Lovecraftian libretto ,  an (unused) intro (to "Astronomy" by Stephen King  which reads thus:

The Soft Doctrines of Imaginos: A Bedtime Story for the Children of the Damned


From a dream world paralleling our Earth in time and space, The Invisible Ones
have sent an agent who will dream the dream of history. With limitless power,
he becomes the greatest actor of the 19th century. Taking on many disguises,
he places himself at pivotal junctures in history, continually altering its
course and testing our ability to respond to the challenge of evil.

His name is Imaginos.


It's worth following the links if this is tempting to you.

So I'm not going to share any version of The Beatles "Here Comes The Sun" but the "Imaginos" version of "Astronomy" , listen and appreciate. I found a "Wild King" mix which grafts the Stephen King intro the "Imaginos" version. Apparently there was some issue with Albert Bouchard around the release of the album , and he has released "Re-Imaginos"  which is on my to buy list, and songs like this have decided me to track more of his solo work.

Monday 2 November 2020

Into The Devil's Country

Finally , nearly halfway through "Coldheart Canyon" we get to properly find out what "The Devil's Country" is about. It's been a great read getting there , covering lots of stuff I had forgotten about ,but now I am there. I probably won't tell you what happens but I do recommend the book.

This incidentally coincides with my first time in the office (just to clear my locker so they can rearrange floors) since lockdown began. I just emptied my locker and was in and out in less than ten minutes, ironically coming back home to actually start work.

I did walk into work and saw some amazing skies , and the moon was also very clear, the days are getting shorted and it is dark by five pm so my walking my be curtailed although today and yesterday have been fine. The problem is when I work in the office I always go out for a lunchtime walk , but at home I just tend to work through.

Today's listening has been the first official live Bruce Springsteen plus his first two studio albums , which has been another rather good listening day , with some great songs, and this time no repeats.

So music wise we'll go for "Devil's Sidewalk" by Graham Parker , although Neil Young also has a song with the sleep well and the dark nights draw in people.

Sunday 1 November 2020

Hello November


Today I will see my grand daughter , Alexis ,  for the first time so a walk over to my daughter and son in law's will do for my step count on the day after Halloween. Although there are grey clouds scudding across the sky it is a pleasant walk across the central motorway skirting Cow Hill through the Town Moor.

Last night I bought a tub of sweets for Halloween , but due to lockdown, of course , there were no groups of kids out so I have a tub of chocolate to myself that will obviously go down very well. Today is All Saints Day or All Hallows Day or Hallowmas (hence the day before was Hallow's Eve or Halloween) , although this is another Christian theft to replace the Celtic festival of  Samhain. While I know lots of good people who are practicing Christians , the history of Christianity is one of total control of the populace and that permeates society today cherry picking the constantly rewritten Bible to forward their controlling agenda.Jesus would not be pleased and I could see a thieves in the temple scenario ensuing if Jesus returned.

Now who'd have thought that Jello Biafra would cover a song by two ex members of Mungo Jerry. Paul King and Colin Earl left Mungo Jerry to form the King Earl Boogie band and penned and released "Plastic Jesus" which Paul King must have raked in a lot of royalties from the myriad covers, so I've included two versions. The Mojo Nixon / Jello Biafra is available for download but the King Earl Boogie Band original is only available on the Dawn singles collection (at the moment £1.29 on Amazon) . Have a wonderful day everyone.