Wednesday 29 December 2021

And Then There Were Vampires


I've just finished "Switch Bitch" by Roald Dahl and although only 140 pages it was difficult going. Like going back fifty years, full of racism and misogyny and yes some unexpected twists but not a nice read at all.

Then I picked up one I bought from Pandemonium in Whitby by Fiona MacDonald "Vampires, A Very Peculiar History" and I thought it would be something I would dip in and out of, but it is both a fun and interesting read, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. Lots of anecdotes and explanations and some great archaic fonts used in my copy.

So music has to be Blue Oyster Cults "Nosferatu", though I am sure there are lots more vampire and bloodsucker based songs.

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

  1. The Never Ending Story - My Directory
  2. The Never Ending Music - My Music Directory
  3. The Never Ending Poetry - My Poetry Directory
  4. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
  5. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
  6. The Accidental Book Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book

Wednesday 22 December 2021

LIGHT and Darkness and The Switch Bitch


After finishing "The House on the Borderland" by William Hope Hodgson with I still found an incredible ride through a cosmic horror in an Irish ruin.

I then picked up "LIGHT and Darkness" by friend Ana Radulescu which is an excellent easy to read contemporary fantasy. It was 160 pages and I went through in three days which is fairly fast for me. If you like fantasy with lots of contemporary hooks you should buy it , link at the bottom.

I also started "Switch Bitch" by Roald Dahl , and while it is sort of clever , it is very much of it's time and consists of four stories and I have only just reached the third one. It is only 140 pages long and plays on the final twist to the story , but actually getting there is an awful pain. This is no "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory" but I will finish it and probably never pick it up again though I think I had read it before.

Also this week I published my first book , as a result of checking out how easy it would be to self publish an ebook for my good friend Lesley Leatherdale(who wrote The Owl In The Towel (see below), so we will work to get her new book published when she gets some free time,

All the important links are down below.

I am gonna lead with the Heptones "Book of Rules" because I like it and it is semi appropriate.

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

  1. The Never Ending Story - My Directory
  2. The Never Ending Music - My Music Directory
  3. The Never Ending Poetry - My Poetry Directory
  4. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
  5. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag

Friday 3 December 2021

Unsighted

Today I woke up with a bloodshot sore left eye. If I wear my twenty year old glasses all day get a bad headache , they are fine for a couple of hours, but I was going out to Northallerton for the day. So decided I would have to go with glasses as there was no way a contact lens was going in that left eye.

On the bus going round a corner I heard a noise, as though something had dropped and hit the floor but couldn't see a thing , but noticed the name of a local chip shop as we drove past, looked ahead and thought it looked a bit blurry. I then realised that my glasses had dropped off , and that was the noise I had heard. I looked again and found them under the seat but thought, I wonder if I can get through the dau =y with no glasses or contact lenses.

It turned out I could , and my sore eye feels great , fully recovered. The only slight issues were having to get closer to signs to read them and being more careful crossing the road, but I know what I can do if this happens again. 

We'll go with Eric Clapton's take on Sonny Boy Williamson's "Eyesight To The Blind" from Ken Russell's film of the Who's "Tommy". Clapton didn't want to finish the take so shaved his beard off. Ken Russell's make up crew restored it in no time.

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

  1. The Never Ending Story - My Directory
  2. The Never Ending Music - My Music Directory
  3. The Never Ending Poetry - My Poetry Directory
  4. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
  5. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag



Saturday 13 November 2021

The House On The Borderland


I am now re reading "The House on The Borderland" by William Hope Hodgson , and only thirty pages in to a 170 page book and I think that he must have indulged in some mind altering substances. This is probably what drew me to the book in the first place.

I wrote a short piece on him on Vocal here.

The protagonists have just delved into the found manuscript and  something strange has happened to the author , scaring his dog and sending him far out of the solar system and with a worrying encounter with horrific swinefolk.

The book wont take me long to finish but his whole canon is available on Amazon Kindle for 99p although there are annotated and illustrated versions available for a little extra.

Music i have gone for Beautiful and Brave by the excellent Dead Eyes Opened who don't seem to be available on Amazon but are on Bandcamp where they will get more of your money if you buy here.

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

  1. The Never Ending Story - My Directory
  2. The Never Ending Music - My Music Directory
  3. The Never Ending Poetry - My Poetry Directory
  4. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
  5. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag

Wednesday 10 November 2021

DeepFake - Bellingcat Move Forward


 I have now finished  "We Are Bellingcat" by Elliot Higgins and in the final chapter it brings up the actuality of Deepfake . This is how video can be amended to show and prove that something happened when it didn't. Apparently there is video of Barrack Obama insulting Donald Trump aggressively and vehemently whish he never did. There are shallower versions in which speech can be altered to make it seem as though the subjects were drunk or maybe had some illness.

We are in a world where anything can be altered to suit the narrative of who has the technology, but luckily organisations like Bellingcat are countering this with lots of forward thinking initiatives but it requires commitment and dedication. You can check out their interesting resource page here but if any of this interests you get yourself a copy of the book.

Music is Midnight Oil's latest "Rising Seas" and my next read is "The House On The Borderland" (Once More) by William Hope Hodgson.

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

  1. The Never Ending Story - My Directory
  2. The Never Ending Music - My Music Directory
  3. The Never Ending Poetry - My Poetry Directory
  4. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
  5. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag

 

Sunday 7 November 2021

The Problem With Attention To Detail: Bellingcat


On the final chapter of  "We Are Bellingcat" by Elliot Higgins and it has just been dealing with the pressures on the organisation and individual members in investigating crimes using their open source method. The nature of the work is incredibly intense , and because it involves war crimes, images and videos on social media and a lot more this can result in PTDS for some investigators.

I wont go into the details and would suggest you read the book to see what this incredible team are doing.

The final sentence in the "Mice Catch Cat" is very pertinent , not just to Bellingcat  , but to other organisations and teams that I know are developing.

"While it's true I could do little to stop an attack, our opponents can do nothing to stop what we are becoming"

Bellingcat are a force for good as are the people that I speak of, and I have just found there is a film here

Appropriate music is Midnight Oil's "Beds Are Burning" , Peter Garrett being an active ecological politician as well as still fronting the band.

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:


  1. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle
  2. Keep Me In Your Heart For A While - Warren Zevon
  3. Five Funny Facebook Friends - Stalwarts of The Stand In Newcastle
  4. Become A Vocal Facebook Group Member And Bathe In The Positivity
  5. A True Folk Hero - Nic Jones


Sunday 31 October 2021

Belling on Halloween


 I am really enjoying "We Are Bellingcat" by Elliot Higgins, and just getting amazed by their methods which are essentially a meticulous attention to detail. On instance was tracking down a Russian War criminal though the Russian disinformation and obfuscation by finding a name and mobile phone number on an insurance application.

Thing on this when you fill informs and especially those one offs to find out what kind of potato you are and the like.

I would highly recommend this book to everyone for pointers and how investigative journalism has been turned on it's head.

It is Halloween and published a Halloween playlist here on Vocal if you would like to check it out. When I see all the costumes and creatures out on Halloween I think how would people react if these suddenly became real. Now that would be interesting.

My friend Ana has just had a book published , "Light and Darkness" which you can check out here.

Musicwise as it's Halloween , we are going with "Hellraiser" by Ozzy Osbourne ad Ian Kilmister which I never knew existed but it ghosted in on me, and I really like it.

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

  1. The Never Ending Story - An Index of All My Vocal Writing
  2. A Halloween Film Evening
  3. A Waterfall of Clouds
  4. The Witch's Promise
  5. Waiting For The Green Light - The Genius of Bill Hicks