Emerald City Binge

I never binge watch but this weekend has seen me watch seven and a bit episodes of Emerald City, which looks great and has pulled some great characters out of the hat (Toto is an Alsatian and the Tin Man is a Steam Punked Steve Austin) , the Wizard is possibly the least convincing charater but even he is more than passable. I'm surprised NBC have cancelled it but I assume it'll join  the likes of Firefly. I am looking forward to the final episode but it has been a great ride.

The iPod I found turned out to be completely dead and Apple manage to be complete arses again by asking me to make an appointment, it's a bloody shop not a surgery , so I went to CEX who checked it out and said it had been water damaged and was completely wrecked. I was going to hand it in at the Police Station on Westgate road but that has been closed down and replaced by one that only opens 9-5 Monday to Friday, that's progress isn't it.

Today's #AlbumoftheDay #1 was Vampire Weekend's "Contra" which owes a lot to Paul Simon's "Graceland" and Sounth African Jit. It is a great album but at times you think you are listening to Paul Simon.

I then put on Fairport Convention's "Babbacombe Lee" their concept album about John Lee the double murderer who survived several attempts to hang whne the gallows assembly failed to work.

Two excellent albums and now it's time for bed.

Still Reading, Still Walking, Stll Listening

It's not yet six o'clock on Sunday morning but I have had a decent night's sleep, though I could probably just go back to bed, but I'd probably start thinking about something. Yesteday I found a 16Gb iPod in the street, I'm not ssure if it is working or if it has been stolen or lost. I am going to hand it in at the local police station as I have no way of checking whether it's working and the may be some kid who has lost their entire music collection (mine currently stand at 500Gb so 16Gb is not a huge collection for me and my phone has about twice that much on at the moment).

Anyway I have finally started reading some fiction after months of music biographhies and history, and mathematics, and I am loving "The Weeping Women Hotel" by Alexei Sayle. It seemed a bit awkward at first because Alexei Sayle is a man and the main protagonists are women, but why that should matter is just a result of sixty years of socity's conditioning on me, but I am past that now and looking forward to picking it up each day. I was possibly expeing some Marxist anarchic comedy or something dark in the realms of someone like Tolstoy or Ibsen but it's anything but, it's well written , easily readable , enjoyable with a sense of humour without being comedic and I still haven't a clue what's going on.

My latest #AlbumoftheDay is Todd Rundgren's "Faithful" which at the time drew criticism because sied one consisted of note for not covers of classic rock songs. Admittedly Todd didn't choose easy targets includeing two of the greatest pop sings ever in The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" and The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" and I've just thought "Rain" which was the 'B' Side of "Paperback Writer", and apparently the bass line on the original songle was so heavy that it could make th eneedle jump the groove. Anyway the problem is that side still comes over as a Music For Pleasure "Rock Classics" album, ie an album of cheap covers. It is more than listenable but it comes as a relief when "Black and White" kicks in on side two. I will leave you with the gorgeous "Clichés" from side two of "Faithful".

Enjoy your Sunday and I will also include Preston's dismantling of Birmingham yesterday which pleased me no end.

Saturday Morning

Just been out for a short ten minute walk to get the papers and it's like a summer's day without the warmth. Nice to walk out but you do need a cout, I think that the T Shirt weather may be over for this year.

My Smart Meter is telling me thatit's already cost me a pound to power the house so far today, which I suppose is a good thing to be aware of. Our house is fairly energy efficient but the biggest cost is gas, we are above average for gas usage but way below average for electricity usage so I assume that makes us averag doesn't it?

Anyway hopefully today I can hit 11.5K steps (this is a bit repetitive I know) and hopefully I can see something interesting and report it to you this afternoon, or tonight.

I've started watching Strike which is actually great fun, and enjoyed episode one of Valkyrien which is available on All 4 but has disappeared from Virgin. My sony blue ray player has a web browser ... but no keyboard option, how good is that. The remote only allows the option of tabbing. That's been well thought out, like so many systems these days, I 'm beginning to think when you get something that really works well it's just a lucky accident.

So before I jog off to do my stuff I will leave you with "Sunshine" by Nazareth for no other reason than it's a very sunny day. Have a good one everybody.

The Numbers Game

I've just realised that this is already my second highest posting year ever (2013 was the highest with 244) so given that I am three and a half months away from th eend of the year there is just a possibility that this will be my highest posting years ever. The last two Octobers I have themed a post a day and I may do that again this year as it's my birthday month. Again, going back to the point I made in my last post but one, when you don't think about what you are doing, it makes it a lot easier to succeed.

It's ten of the clock and this is my third post today, and I am looking forward to a good night;s sleep and an extremely relaxed weekend with a little catch up to TV and maybe even not doing a huge amount of walking. It is a long time since I had a real lie in, so long that I have actually forgotten.

I am quite pleased that my Discogs store is going well with another four gone today, I'm not looking to start a business just to trim my collection slightly. This reminded me of  "Rock and Roll Records" by JJ Cale which is so laid back it's almost comatose, but a good record anyway. It is time for my bed now, who's coming?

Just noticed Amazon says:

Includes FREE MP3 version of this album. 

It's not Free, you have to buy the album first to get a copy, and you could rip it yourself anyway without the tags that Amazon include.


Goodnight my friends


See you when daylight hits.

Afternoon Light

Today we have had dark clouds a smattering of rain and I have the light on because it's dark out side. It's not three o' clock yet. I can see a touch of blue sky in the distance, so no doubt in quarter o fan hour it'll be a bright summers day , and right enough it is, so I can switch my light out.

I've succumbed and had a smart meter fitted so my power supplier, OVO, know what I am using every minute of the day.

My DNLA server has been playing up a bit, but it's now finally working. I'm not sure what the problem is as I think Window 10 is deleting applications at random, so the music was just not moving but maybe it was taking it's time to find the actual file even though it had the file name indexed.

I actually wanted Pink Floyd's "Atom Heart Mother", but I've made do with my favourite ABBA song "The Visitors", and wonderful driving piece of dark paranoia, and you can dance to it (if you can dance and feel so inclined, I can't and don't).

So anyway this is just a very very short post about what you manage to do while having a Smart Meter fitted. I was shocked about how much they had to put in a replace to get it working, although the gas meter was obviously a bit complex.

Anyway I now have "Atom Heart Mother" playing on the sound system, so my Kindle Fire and Soundbar set up is now working which is a good thing. I love the sound of Roger Waters' bass on the introduction to the 23 minute incredible piece influenced by Scot Ron Geesin with full brass band and choir, and rather than share the Floyd version with you I'll share a live cover version by some French musicians that is quite amazing, it's at the Théâtre du Chateletand features Ron Geesin on keyboards.Ron did a film soundratck for a film called "The Body" with Roger Waters.

Enjoy this sunny afternoon my friends... the weekend is almost here.

Looping About Ed Sheeran

The Graph of Ed Sheeran

Last night I caught a chunk of The Mercury Music Prize won by Sampha which seemed to me functional but bland. There was a recorded performance of Ed Sheeran performing "The Shape of You" on Jools Hollands' Later, and what struck me was that here is a guy who is clever at what he does, putting songs together from basic recorded loops, but unfortunaelely what came out for me was just like any other radio filler and will probably be an X-Factor staple in years to come.

Ed Sheeran is a really nice guy, though , gave a great message from Miami. Basically I like Ed Sheeran a lot but find his music bland and boring hence the graph on the right.

He was followed by Kate Tempest performing the apocalyptic "Don't Fall In" who, in my opinion, musically blew him away.





The first time I saw a loop being used in a live situation was John Martyn performing "Big Muff" on Rock Goes To College in the seventies. He just had this acoustic guitar and a few effects and a tape loop box which allowed him to build up his rhythm to amazing effect, that stayed with me, well today, you can see that below.

The a couple of years ago I walked into Think Tank? saw a girl wearing horns on stage who started with some wordless vocals to provide her backing for "The Shadow Line". That girl was Jordan Reyne. I was truly blown away and she is still the moriginal artist I have heard over the last couple of years. Maybe it was the combination of walking in to wait for the main band, The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing (who were excellent by the way, thanks for the recommendation Gillian F) , therefore not expecting anything to be blown away by her solo set. I bought three of her CDs so at the top is "The Shadow Line". The official video for it is here, but I wanted to show what she can do live

Have a brilliant Friday everybody.

The Art Of Not Trying

Last month I wanted to hit fifty posts but failed miserably, only managing thirty. This month I haven't tried , but less than half way through the month (tomorrow is half way)  I have already done twenty five posts. It's like riding a bike or playing live, as soon as you start thinking about it you fall off or forget what you are doing because you are thinking about what you think you should be doing instead of actually doing.

So I know this is hardluy a substantial post (though it's a lot more substantial tah twhen I first started writing), my posts would be lucky to hit a hundred words. These days I probably average 25-300 words. So if I stopped writing now this would be the lot of what you would get from me , maybe with a couple of pictures.

I suppose these days I look for some kind of thread to keep my posts going, like the walking and the fact I joined Newcastle CAN today on the recommendation of my doctor, and had good news from my optician that everything seems stable on the optical front.

Anyway, as I said , this is just a very short post so I will leave you with "Donna" by theBard of Salford and The Head Ex Strangler, because the CD is on top of my playpile. Sleep well my friends.

On Writing

The thing is, like anything you do, writing is easier the more often you do it. I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but the numer of hits per post have also actually gone up. The "Coincidentally Opencast" post is still the most read one currently and that is getting a lot of hits despite being more about the Happy Mondays and their John Kongos covers and the fact that John Kongos was the first person to use a recorded sample in the single "He's Gonna Step On You Again" . Follow the OpenCast link for video and download links.

I've now started reading Alexei Sayle's "The Weeping Women Hotel" and after the Jordan Ellenberg book I was struck that the pages will be solid text, no diagrams and graphs breaking it up every few pages, but words have the ability to stimulate the imagination, though for some reason I found it a bit odd about about a man writing about a woman's experiences. I'm only ten pages and it has my attention so I am looking forward to enjoying it.

So it's time for another walk to work, it's a couple of weeks since I bought a weekly bus ticket now (and they are good value for money), but if I don't have a ticket I will walk and I get to listen to lots of music.

I now look at people at bus stops and think, "You could probably walk to where you are going".  It's true we have inbuilt laziness programmed into us. Twice in recent weeks I've seen people panic because they have missed their floor by ONE floor, as they press the button then go up to the 7th floor before (I assume returning to the second or third, when it would take them a minute to WALK DOWN to their floor)

I've been selling a few CDs that I don't really listen to on Discogs. The pile I had would probably bring me in fifteen pounds from CEX or a bit more for one of Newcastle's second hand record shops. Amazon wouldn't let me sell CDs but the four I have sold on Discogs have brought in £50 so it's been a success. My store is here.

Given how I have been critical of people not walking , I found some film of Deep Purple performing "Lazy" in 1972 for you to enjoy.


Anyway I'm going to set off again so enjoy your Thursday.

Crown of Creation

On the walk in I listened to "The Use Of Ashes"  by Pearls Before Swine and it was as good as I remember , slightly off kilter and dark, and the only vague complaint for me is the sixties production.
 The title comes from a line in the opening track "The Jeweller", and I was struck by the dark lyrics of the song "Rocket Man" which made me think of the illogical tenets of controlling religion.

That was half an hour of strange sixties Americana, and I followed it up with Jefferson Airplane's "Crown of Creation". The music is similar to the songs off "The Use Of Ashes" , and I almost expected Tom Rapp's voice to drift in, but I got Grace Slick and (possibly) Paul Kantner.

"Lather" is lyrically pretty awful but still listenable, and "Triad" is still excellent. The title track is excellent and the album is still enjoyable, and it came to me as one of the albums in the Rhino five disc pack, which are five albums in replica card sleeves, which when first released were around a tenner.

I found this abrasive live take from 1968 on The Smothers Brothers Show, still love this, like you would ever see this on mainstream TV these days.

Enjoy your Wednesday night everybody.

Coincidence, Marxism and Roald Dahl

I have finished the Jordan Ellenberg book , and it was worth reading although hard going for the second half. It seems that maths encompasses a lot more than just addition , subtraction, multiplication and division. Although these are the basics and starting points there is a whole world of concepts out there that are beyond my limited intellect, but I do now know about all these things.

I've now picked up Alexei Sayle's "The Weeping Women Hotel", which is the first novel I've picked up in a long time (I've been reading mostly factual stuff), and Alexei Sayle is an intelligent person, a great comedian and a Marxist (see the last but one post). It's funny how you get these unusual and unexpected connections in writing.

The weird thing about this blog is that you go to log in , then you are presented with a screen inviting you to start a new blog, even though you are logging in to update your blog. It's just a slight annoyance, probably caused by the fact I clear out cookies on a regular basis.

Today is wet and grey but brightening up. I am hoping to listen to "The Use Of Ashes" by Pearls Before Swine (see last post if you want to listen) on the walk to work although if it raining I may have to take the bus then I will dig out a TED talk.

It is the 13th today and I have written about the number 13 several times, and everyone has their own opinions , but 13 being unlucky belongs in the realms of astrology and superstition. It is a prime number so does not fit into many boxes, but that's about it. And remeber a Baker's Dozen where you would can an extra loaf or cake just in case one wasn't up to scratch so that is a case of 13 being lucky for the recipient an dgenerating good will for the supplier.

And today is apparently Roald Dahl day, an author who my girls always loved and wrote some wonderfully subversive children;'s books as well as a lot of great adult books too. If you haven't read any, do something abit it NOW.

I think a sensible music choice would be Terrorvision's "Tom Petty Loves Veruca Salt" and you know why that is ......

....have a brilliant Wednesday

I was just mentioning the 13 wasn't unlucky and my internet went down so I couldn't publish this. So I've just taken this draft and published it on a public computer. C'est La Vie.

One Nation Underground

Is the name of the album I listened to walking to work today. It's by a band called Pearls Before Swine and in the same psychedelic universe as Jefferson Airplane. The album I wanted to listen to was "The Use Of Ashes" but unbelievably I don't seem to have it . I have a compilation called "The Wizerd of Is" and that may have all the songs from "The Use Of Ashes".

The albums use some great artwork for their covers such as Hieronymus Bosch's visions of hell and the music is quite unsettling and not overly produced.

I've included the whole album of "The Use Of Ashes" for you to listen to , from 1971 and it clocks in at a little over half an hour. It will be on my playlist for tomorrow, as "One Nation Underground" was today.

You can buy your own copy by following the links, although it may just not be your thing. Pearls Before Swine were a vehicle for Tom Rapp's songs though later albums were under his own name.

Feel free to dip your toe in , you never know , you might just like it.

The Housemartins - The Greatest Marxist Band Ever To Pick Up Guitars

I read that statement twice when I read it in Jordan Ellenberg's "How Not to Be Wrong: The Hidden Maths of Everyday Life", I know the Housemartins were committed left wing and Paul Heaton definitely still is but does that make them Marxist.

Maybe Robert Wyatt could be Marxist, especially listening to his stuff post Soft Machine. His band after that was Matching Mole which is extrapolated from the French for "Soft Machine" , "Machine Molle" apparently. My french is only 'O' Level but Google translates as "Machine Souple" though the reverse translation comes out as correct.

There were a lot of bands that may have been Marxist  that are in my collection , a possible list here:

• Henry Cow
• National Health
• Crass
• Raincoats
• Art Bears
• Slapp Happy

And to some extent Billy Bragg, Woody Guthrie and the list could go on for a long time.

All these bands are well worth a listen whatever your politics, they are probably all on Youtube so go and have a look and listen. This is one of the great things about this digital age, you don't read this and then think I will have to go and research that tomorrow. I remember in the seventies when you read about a band you often had to look in the music mags like Sounds and NME scour the adverts and then order an album on import, hoping it would be as good as the title and blurmb made it sound.

Anyway I've included "Sitting On A Fence" the song that Jordan Ellenberg used to illustrate his point, and if you want to know what the point was you will have to read Ellenberg's book.

Have a good Tuesday.

Going American

I'm just loading up my phone with a lots of sixties and seventies American music. Although to me they are major players , the only ones you may have heard of are The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. Of couse that atter leads off to Paul Kantner and Grace Slick and the wonderful Hot Tuna featuring the amazing guitar of Jorma Kaukonen , who I saw at Knebworth in about '76 when The Rolling Stones headlined , 10CC had a three hour soundcheck, Todd Rundgren's Utopia went over the top with their pyramid and Lynyrd Skynyrd played one of their last gigs before we lost most of them.

I'm also loading up Tom Rapp , Pearls Before Swine and Dave Ackles , all class acts though seriously forgotten these days, but I will be pushing them over the coming weeks as I visit them on my walk to work. I don't think I've name checked so many bands and musicians in a post before, although I probably have.

I leave you with Hot Tuna's excellent cover of Buddy Holly's "It's So Easy" . Enjoy. It's time for bed for me.

Never Saw That Coming

Or maybe I should have done because the weather is unpredictable. I was walking home past St James' Park and suddenlt was hit by a torrential downpour soaking my pants, shoes and socks. The wind was threatening to destroy my umbrella so I sheltered in a covered gateway before chancing the downpour when the wind dropped. I got to a bus stop and eventually the rain subsided. As there was no but I walked a bit further and then the sun appeared. It had gone from torrential downpour to bright hot sunshine in little more than ten minutes.

I was still walking and listening to music. Today's album has been "English Settlement" a double album by XTC full of their angular folk rock and a lot of fine musicianship, The lead single I think was "Senses Working Overtime" and "No Thugs In Our House" is unfortunately very relevant now with the right wing racism being sanctioned by UK and US leaders. Some of my vavourites are the melodic guitar motifs of "Yacht Dance" and the title track Other stand outs are "Ball and Chain" and "It's Nearly Africa" before finishing up with "Snowman" which I will leave you with. One is a live version , the other soundtracking my first snowman at Chateau Dred

The weather is forecasting rain and 60 mph winds tomorrow, hopefully we won't get any snow ... yet.

Have a great evening.

That Was Lucky

An absolute deluge during the night, so glad it held off while The Great North Run was on. There were ceratainlt black couds about during the day. The sky looks a bit clearere this morning so a walk into work is going to happen, but I'll be keeping off the grass, and I won't be mowing the lawn tonight.

It's another Monday and even though it's halfway through September , the mornings are dark and this weather is not exactly the best , but weather is complicated so you take what comes and deal with it insted of moaning about it. Though there are people who are only happy when they are miserable and the weather gives them another reason to complain, and I am sure we have a lot of non sunshine on the way to cries of "We never had a summer" , in reality the last couple of years the weather has actually been excellent.

On my walk in today I will be listening to Primal Scream's "More Light" and I was vauguely thinking of including The Smiths "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" but my mind says have something more upbeat and better, so Primal Scream's "Trippin' On Your Love" would be a good start to Monday , I think.

Have a brilliant Monday everybody.

Early To Bed

"Early To Bed

Early To Rise

Makes A Man 

Healthy, Wealthy and Wise"

That's probably a maxim for the mill owners to get their workers in early. It certainly doesn't apply now. People are expected to work harder and longer for less and the status quo is maintained. It's not like there isn't any money about , there is. At the cash machine I see people withdrawing hundreds as I usually take ten or twenty , or sometimes fifty.

But life isn't really about money it's about having fun and socialising , though money does help you to do that. Anyway I actually am sleepy and intend to have a good night's sleep before walking to work tomorrow listening to Primal Scream and maybe Kate Tempest , "Let Them Eat Chaos" is a wonderful album.

Anyway it's time for sleep and what should we have to go to sleep to? What better than "When You're Falling" by Afro Celt Sound System with Peter Gabriel, sort of perfect. Good Night everybody.

A Day For Primal Scream

Today has mostl y been walking though expending nothing like the energy of the people on The Great North Run. I crossed the bridge where the start took place and posted and Instagram picture here. While I know there are world class athletes taking place I was absolutely amazed to find that the Wheelchair racers covered the 13 mile course in inder 45 minutes , that is close on twenty miles an hour average (that's what I worked out in my head, so apologies if it's wrong).

The albums I have been listening to on todays walk have been:

• Malcom McLaren - Fans:  My favourite Mclaren album where he takes on Madame Butterfly and Carmen (Puccini and Bizet) as well as Verdi. It's only half an hour long but is absolutely gorgeous while anything but po faced as sometimes classical music can seem . This will have you chasing after the originals as well.
• Primal Scream - Chaosmosis: Love the title and more baggy electronica than rock, but still excellent listening. The opener "Trippin' on Your LOve" recals the gospel of "Screamadelica"'s "Movin' on Up".
• Primal Scream - More Light (Deluxe): A rockier Primal Scream from the off of "2013" to the lift of Hawkwind's "Master of The Univers" riff for "Nothing Is Real" on the bonus disc. One to finish on the walk to work tomorrow but another great album

So that's been my Sunday and I'll leave you with the "Boys' Chor us" from "Fans" , but I am sure I will be including some Primal Scream in the future , as I have in the path. Enjoy your Sunday evening everybody.

All Work

No Joy

Makes Mac

A Dull Boy!!

 

I Do Not Want To Do That

Some days you wake up and you really don't want to get out of bed. Having a shave and a wash and cleaning your teethare chores that you'd rather not do, because there are other things that maybe you do want to do, but let's face you have to do these things to make yourself at lease basically presentable to the world...and then you have got to have a shower because the rest of your body needs cleaning and after that it's time for deodorant, hair gel and bloody contact lenses , because you have to be able to see where you are going, and then there's that contact lens that will stick to everything apart from your eye. Eventually you actually get through all this and you are ready for the day and you know it was actually worth it. You could have stayed in bed but now you are up and ready to go.

This sometimes happens during the week, but has to be overcome because you have to go to work to actually fund your lifestyle. Not doing that is not an option. You have about 130 days in the year that you don't have to do that made up of weekends, bank holidays and your alocated holidays. Some people have more, some have less but it's something you have to do.

I have now committed myself to doing 340K steps a month. Today I don;t really feel like doing my steps but I am going to walk into town and back. I don't have to do this , but this walking has reduced my insulin intake by 75%, helped me lose a little weight, made me slightly fitter , and enabled to take some great videos , see things in my locality that I didn't know existed, catch up on some great music that I had either forgotten or bought and never even listened to, until I started the walking . So whether I feel like doing it or not I WILL hit 11.5K steps today. I have a place to aim for and thanks to technology I can document it while listening to great music.

The Jordan Ellenberg book is also not the most rivetting but I have got some great information from it and it's been worth reading and with only another twenty pages to go , the end is in sight.

So on my walk I will choose an album or two to listen to,  sometimes I don't listen to anything , but I tend to walk for about 90 minutes a day which should be time for two albums, and my collection is bigger than five thousand albums so even listening at two a day that would take over seven years to listen to my whole collection.

I 'll treat you to The Records' cover of Tim Rose's "Rock and Roll Love Letter" (also covered by the Bay City Rollers in one of their many lapses into taste) and go and sort out some breakfast. Enjoy your Sunday my friends.

Connections - Would You Push The Button?

Just finished "Escape From LA" and started watching "American Horror Story:Cult" . Both feature an idiot, semi theocratic American President (one has a Trump like character the other has Trump) and at the end of "Escape From LA" Snake Plisken has the opportunity to destroy all electronics (and by logical progression banks and the way society is run) and send the world back five hundred years.

When you see the hysteria and fright and Trump's election victory you feel the world is coming to an end.

Would you press that button? No one would die .. immediately .. but would you want to go back to before computers existed?

To some that would be very tempting. Debts and fortunes would be wiped out. Tracking of personal data would be gone. We would have to start with pencil and paper on everything.

Seriously though I would be tempted I would be too scared of losing all the good things along with the bad things. Think how health and life expectancy has improved. Would you want to lose that , and the conveniance of power at the flick of a switch?

I think not , but if that decision was in the hands of a thoroughly disillusioned person , they just might.

Kate Tempest's "Don't Fall In" is appropriate for these observations. Sorry if I have depressed or upset you but the leaders of the UK and the USA don't exactly inspire me at the moment. Hopefully this will change sooner rather than later.

Somewhat Unusual

Nothing major but I had completed my steps by about two of the clock today without really trying to do any walking, I really wish I could do this every day as part of my routine, so that I didn't really notice I was doing it.

I amd still reading the Jordan Ellenberg book but it is more about poll s and statistics and the only relationship with maths is that numbers are used in both areas .

As I write this I am listening to my favourite Jean Michelle Jarre album "Equinoxe" with an 'e' on the end but he is French in the best possible way. The son of Maurice Jarre the film composer (who is responsible for a hell of a lot of major film scores from "Lawrence of Arabia" to "Ghost") so music runs in the family. I remember seeing the Millenium Concert in Egypt with Giant Penguins and lots of other idiosyncracies (is that the way you spell it, the spell checker seems to be on leave at the moment). I don't know if it's available to buy but I have included the Youtube video , two and a half hours if you have an evening or train journey to spare.

Anyway Todays album of the day was "Ooh La La" by The Faces, while some of the songs are dated by the time "Silicone Grown", "Just A Honky" lyrically dodgy but musically excellent , others stand the test of time very well such as the title track , "Cindy Incidentally" and "Flags and Banners".

So anyway it's time for tea and to finish "Escape From LA" before starting the lastest "American Horror Story". That's my Saturday evening sorted, hope yours is great too.

Habits

We all do things automatically , as a matter of course, like lock the door when we go out , switch off the cooker when we finish cooking , switch off the TV when we've finished watching. I can count on th efingers of one hand (and I am not a mutant) the number of times I have gone back to check I've locked the door, set the alarm or switched the cooker off. I will always go back if I have forgotten keys  / bus pass / money but anything else I trust that I have done it. If you are OCD you don't have that option and I feel every sympathy for everyone with the condition.

Last night I woke up needing to go for a wee (one of the effects of diabetes) , and reached for my glasses , which I couldn't find anywhere. I always put them on my bedside table when I go to bed, but last night they had disappeared . Had some Imp absocnded with them? I went for a wee and looked round everywhere I had been last night before bed, no sign. I got into bed wondering if I had left them on when I when to sleep and they were now somewhere in the bed waiting to be mangled as I rolled over them. I was mystified. I couldn't sleep/ This is OCD except 100% of the time about everything. For me it was "Where the heck are my glasses?". I got up again went to my computer and they were next to my keyboard, I was sure I had looked there before, but at 2am with imperfect eyesight I can understand how I missed them. They went on the bedside table and I got another four hours sleep.

Over the last couple of days while walking my listening has been:

• Primal Scream - Screamadelica (20th Anniversay Edition): Primal just amaze me in the breadth of musical styles they effortlessly cover, they can be The Rolling Stones, they can do country , they can be gospel , they can be baggy. There are not that many bands who can cover so many styles so easily, and it is all on this album.
• Magazine - Maybe It's Right To Be Nervous CD1 : When Howard Devoto left the Buzzcocks he moved away from their pure pop and into a a vicious and suphisticaticated universe as demonstrated by songs such as "Shot By Both Sides" and "Permafrost" on this compilation.
• Al Di Meola - Land of the Midnight Sun: Di Meola is a jazz / rock guitarist , and while I amd not normally a big fan of jass or jazz rock, when I heard this I bought it immediately because it's an amazing mix of melody and skill you seldom hear.

Anyway it is Friday and after the rain yesterday the weekend is upon us. Today looks fairly bright, but today I still have to go to work so I will leave you with Primal Scream's "Loaded" , have a great Friday everybody.

Not Walking

Today was the first time for a long time that theweather has affected my walking. It didn't help that I was feeling really tired this morning despite being in bed by ten last night. It was my friend Lynn's birthday so I walked to hers and dropped off a birthday card before walking across the park to catch the bus. As I'm sitting typing this I have done 6.5K steps so thats;'s above average anyway, although I am still 500 steps short of what my targert will be so I have to do some more walking. This morning in was pouring, now it's like a summer's day so perfect for actually walking , so I should be able to get a few steps in.

The good thing about getting the bus is that I can watch some TED talks (and managed three today) including the one below.

Anyway although I am being relatively lazy , I am sure that I will recoup the steps and listen to lots more albums. I sold another two albums on my Discogs site (it's here if you fancy anything).

I decided to let you have a listed to "Sol Caliente" by Quiet Sun from the album "Mainstream", Phil Manzanera's pre Roxy Music band. I was thinking it was sunny and I always loved the "Sol Caliente" concept, it is not a word you tend to associate with the sun.

Anyway enjoy this gorgeous evening

The Art of Not Getting Up

Strange how when you stop trying to do things you suddenly have the ability to do it.
 I wanted to do fifty posts in August for #August50 but got nowhere near (I think I did about thirty), although to be honest the further behind I got , the more difficult it became to catch up. It's like riding a bike or remembering songs when you are playing live , as soon as you start thinking about it you fall off or forget what you are supposed to be doing. In September we're up to the 4th and this is my eight post already. I know that it will tail off but at this rate I could easily hit fifty for September.

Anyway after yesterday writing about how to get up easily, this morning I feel really tired. It is Monday, I do have to go to the Post Office to pick up a Nirvana box set, I have to go to work , and it's grey outside though not dark, and I was dreaming of being in bed at mid day listening to something on vinyl through a system with a decent thump for the bass subwoofer, then the alarm went off and I didn't want to get up.

I managed (mostly on autopilot) to shower and wash , read some of Jordan Ellenberg's "How Not to Be Wrong: The Hidden Maths of Everyday Life" which is more about statistics and probabilities, and while interesting it's as far from what I consider maths as pilotting and airplane is from riding a bike, and that analogy probably shows how unintelligent I really am. I found a disted read on the Guardian site here if you would like a taste.

Anyway it's ten to seven so time to get myself into gear and maybe a little Nirvana to start the day, withem covering a song from one of my many favourite Bowie albums, "The Man Who Sold The World". Have a great  Monday, I managed to get up , now it's your turn.

So Much For Targets

Well I actually did get a lot done today. I have maintained the step level visiting Newcastle Central STation among other things and am getting the hang of Wordpress , though not as quickly as I'd like. I managed abouth fifteen minutes of "I Frankestein" but it was like everyone was reading from an autocue and while the CGI was excellent the story was so threadbare that I hit the delete button. There is too much good stuff to watch to waste time with things like that.

The new Song of The Salesman site is here but there's another weeks work to do. I want video embedded on the pages just to make things easier for people,

FLK OR KLF?

Anyway I am home now and listening to The FLK (yes that's right) , it is an interesting folk / techno / sample mix, an album so rare it's not even on Amazon so god knows how much it's worth, though it's going from £23 on Discogs whis seems to have replaces GEMM as the global record marketplace.

It's not often that you can't find stuff on Amazon.











Anyway the two albums that I have been listening to today are:

• Airhead - Boing: Second division Britpop (in sales not quality) akin to another of my favourites , The Milltown Brothers, I think they went under the name Jefferson Airhead in the USA, but I this was their only album. "Funny How" was a brilliant single and it sounds as good today as it did then. They were on the excellent Korova label, just look it up and see how good company they were keeping.
• Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City:Almost a modern equivalent of AIrhead although Jit (African) influenced power pop, some amazing songs and a great follow up to their second album.

 Anyway I am now listening to my favourite Kraftwerk song "Ruckzuck" but willshare a Vampire Weekend song for your delectation.

Time for tea now , enjoy your Sunday evening.

#LikeNoOther #9 Frontier Psychiatrist - The Avalanches

I can't remember when I first heard this, but I do remeber wondering what the hell was going on. "Frontier Psychiatrist" from the album "Since I Left You" by The Avalanches takes the listener into a vaguely comedic "Twin Peaks" univers mixing dialogue with samples to produc an amazing piece. I have recognised snippets from it in source songs and it is a real (and pleasant) listening experience.

When the album came out I think there were court cases about the sampling but eventually they gave up and just let The Avalanches have it. All their videos and songs are worth visiting and this is probably the most famous and recognisable.

In 2016 they followed up with "Wildflower" , more similar brilliant cut and paste dance pieces with excellent videos and the lead single was "Frankie Sinatra" which I will also include here, because The Avalanches are truly #LikeNoOther and absolute great fun, and the title of their second album is the same as the name of Wildflower my favourite Art/ Eating space in Tyneside.

Enjoy all of this.

The Art of Getting Up

This morning I really wanted to get up . During the week, I really don't want to get up, maybe because I have to to get up and go to work to effectively fund my life.

It's something that I have to do , but I don't feel it's a decision that I have made, although in reality I have made that decision.

I could choose not to work, but that would mean I probably wouldn't have the finances to actually write this post when I want to , and how I want to and wear I want to .

 It's a trade off, and I choose to do this because I see it as the best option for what I want from life. But I still don't want to get up during the week. I still I have to get up wash, shower, take loads of drugs and injections and then, generally , walk into work.

Today I had a good night's sleep, walk up , had ideas for a couple of blog posts and I actually want to get up. Why? Well there are things I really want to do and am looking forward to doing. The thing is, if you have things to look forward to you will want to get up, even if you have to do things you don't want to do. Here's a list of what I have to look forward to today followed by a W (want to do) , or N (Don't want to do). I know W and N seem odd letters to choose , but I have chosen them for obvious reasons and you now know what I mean. Here's the liset:

• Mow The Lawn (N)
• Two Blog Posts (Including this one) (W)
• Walk 11.5K steps (W)
• Go to the shops for various provision (N) but it will help me walk my steps
• Watch some catch up TV (W)
• Watch some TED Talks (W)
• Listen to another album (W)
• Change the bedding (N)
• Top up The Bird Feeders (W)
• Meet With Friends at The Wildflower Farewell Party (W)
• Phone My Dad (W)
• Take Some Photographs and maybe Instagram them (W)
• Get Song of The Salesman onto Wordpress (W)

So I have a few reasons to want to get up, and really that's what  you have to have to make you want to get up. You need to have reasons. Yes it's nice to lie in bed, but it's a very long time since I was in bed at mid day ... but that could be a reason to get up even though you actually staying in bed.

So the obvious piece for this is "Can't Get Out Of Bed" by The Charlatans, so either stay in bed, get out, do things or relax.

#LikeNoOther #8 Boops(Here To Go) - Sly and Robbie

While this does contain a lot of rhythm and melody it is a veritable soup of sound. Sly and Robbie are part of the Jamaican scene so you are expecting reggae or ska , with  dub treatment for adventure. But it's not of these. Maybe it's gumbo voodoo music, reming me in mood of Dr John's "Walk on Gilded Splinters" from "Gris-Gris".

 "Boops (Here To Go)" was a hit.

When I first heard it I liked it , but it is't anything you can pigeonhole. You can dance to it , it has a defined rhythm and it won't scare people away.

Sly and Robbie often did not stick to the reggae styling and because of that produced som memorable songs, under their own name , despite being producers for countless others.

Listening to this has reminded me of another song which will do for #9.

Sleep well.........

Two Days In

The first Saturday in Semptember and I had a wander aroung and managed to do 13K steps with some aimless wandering but still managing to run into friends and visit Wildflower for probably the last time in it's current location and Jass and Asher told of it's new and secret  location, but I know the area well if not te exact spot. I treated myself to their final pea burger of the day as we discussed the state of the economy and country.

I really need to do something about this blog to grab some more attention , as posts are only just crawling into double figures. I know a lot of people like the shares I put ion face book , but I have a feeling a lot don't click through , they like the share rather than actually read the post. Some people I know click though religiously and I thank you for that, this si the only in which I can socially engage in dialogue with people as I have become a bit of a social pariah for some reason (mainly my own laziness).

For some reason Lee Marvin's "Wanderin' Star" from "Paint Your Wagon" sprang into my mind. The film also features Clint Eastwood singing , so a more ulikely pair of songsters I really can't imagine, but it still hit number one in the charts, so you are going to get that one. It does have one of the longest intros you will hear in a single hitting a quarter of the song.

My album as I wandered was Street Legal by Bob Dylan which features a a pair of lyrical tour-de-forces (or is it tours-de-force?, I don't know, and that has probably my grammar and contruction in this sentence), but the songs that spring to mind are "Changing Of The Guard" and "No Time To Think". Other memorable songs are the single "Baby Stop Cryin'" and the take on the Miss World Theme Tune "Is Your Love In Vain". It is and album that should be in you collection , and I thing I will start an #Albumofthe Day tag to keep a track.

I was thinking I would stay up all night doing stuff but I am actually feeling tired. It is Sunday tomorrow so I have no need to do anything but we shall see. I still want to do my steps but the good news is that after two days I am 3K ahead of target , so that eases the pressure a little.

Anyway time for bed.

Less Is Not More

I think it was a line from "Frasier" when Doctor Crane said "If Less is More, Just Think How Much More More would be!!" , which is about right for most things.

I look at some of my old blog posts and they are barely fifty words, now I think I average maybe 250 , though some may even be bigger than that. This first paragraph has already hit seventy words, and I seemed to remember at school we were expected to deliver an essay in one of two hundred words. Mybe that's just my imagination twisting, maybe it was 500 or a thousand words for essays. That would give  you more space to develop the essay. One or  two hunder is hardly anything so I think maybe I made a mistake.

Anyway tonight I completed Fargo and Submarine, and I clocked up 12.5K steps on my walk after worrying I would be behind on the first day, but I am a thousand steps ahead.

I didn't see any rats today, though it was mostly an urban walk in.

I am quite tired now, and I only listened to a single album today , but it was the wonderful Penguin Eggs by Nic Jones.  It opens with Canadee-I-O possibly the most beautiful acoustic introduction that I can think of, and continues in a wonderfulk folk vein with amazing playing and singing throughout. For some reason I avaoided the song though I had heard much about it, expecting it to be standard folk fare, but it is anything but. Nic was involved in a horrific car accident disintegrating vertually evey bone in his limbs and the some but in the last few years he has reappeared on stage with his son and others.

I'll include the original and the return version of Canadee-I-O so you can marvel and this very special talent.

Oh and this post is about 320 words, so it's above my average.

Time for bed now.

New Month New Challenge

Well not quite but by the time I hit my birthday on the 1st of October when I will be in Whitby, I want to have hit 340K steps and be under 100Kg , both "easily" doable , but as I keep saying I don't do regimented stuff. Today I have reduced my insulin intake by another 10% and we will see if that works.

I had to but the lights on this morning so the days and nights are drawing in.

I have started trimming my CD collection by selling stuff I'm unlikely to play again online. This will include stuff that I've bought and then decided it wasn't as good as I thought , or just to support gigging bands. People shouldn;t have to play for free. My Discogs shop is here. I was going to sell on Amazon but they won't allow you to sell CDs, maybe they just have too many sellers.

Anyway I am going to set off for work now, with an increased daily step target which I may just aim for permanently, because essentially it's the walking that has enabled me to reduce my insulin intake.

So I'm just going to include one of my favourite somngs with "Walkin'" in the title, "Walking To New Orleans" by Fats Domino, and I can't believe I've not ever mentioned Fats Domino in this blog before as he is one of my (admittedly many) favourite artists. I will definitely rectify that this month. For today I found a great live version at Superbowl WX in New Orleans.

It's Friday , go and enjoy yourself.

Shattered .. But Still Listening In

I am shattered and want to go to bed. I've hit 350K steps this month and weighed myself this morning and clocked it at 100.2 Kg. While I'm supposed to be 70 Kg for my height and build , that is never going to happen but was wondering if I could get get under sixteen stone (I remember getting down to sixteen stone three pounds in the early nineties and various peopel telling I would hit a brick wall and wouldn't get any further. Some people really don't like you doing anything good for yourself , mainly so they can continue to denigrate you. Well I hit that brick wall and I am sure that pleased a lot of people.

The consultant at my last Diabetic Review was of the same ilk with "well you are still overweight" and "you shouldn't have reduced your insulin", though the guy who weighed me , took my blood and checked my readings was very positive . Today I saw my GP and she was amazingly positive and complimentary and came out with some more sufggestions to help me. She is a shining example of what makes the NHS brilliant, and going to see her always makes me feel positive. She suggested I get involved with Newcastle CAN which I will sign up for when I've published this.

Oh 100.2 Kg is about 15 stone 12 lb , so that was a pleasant surprise, so I am going in the right direction.

Over that last two days I have walked throuh and skirted Leazes Park and both days I have seen a rat! I don't ofte see them , but it could hav been worse it could have been a Tory or a UKIPPER .

So the albums I have listened to obver the last couple of days have been:

• The Yes Album: Prog Rock with prentetions lyrics but some amazing music and playing . From the opening block riffs of "Yours Is No Disgrace" through live take of "The Clap" to the nine minutes of the three piece "Starship Trooper" finishing up with annother staccatto riff taking us into the finale of "Perpetual Change" . The copy I have contains some out takes but great to revisit one of my favourites from my teens.
• Genesis Live: Five songs which originally came out as a budget album, but still sounds great to day , including their take on Day of the Triffids "Return of the Giant Hogweed" and culminating on side two with the emotional "Musical Box" and the vicious "The Knife"
• Bob Dylan - Sheter From a Hard Rain: A very rickety live album featuring Joan Baez and I really ony bought it because it had "Deportees" on, though the whole album is a treat for me, sounding semi amateurish but brilliant.

 Anyway I will leave you with "Deportees" by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, a song that I am working on my own arrangement of, which I may soundcloud soon. So enjoy this and tomorrow is September where I have to hit 11.5K steps a day because there are only 30 days in the month.

There's a video of some nice rats below.

Sleep well my friends.

Listening To More Albums

While out walking today I listened to a couple of great albums. Actually prior to that I had listened to some vinyl, namely Nadine Shah's "Stealing Cars" a Tenpole Tudor album and Emerson Lake and palmer's take on Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" all worth listening to and you can see them here if you follow my Instagram Channel.

Nadine Shah's "Holiday Destination" features some amazing percussion driven songs recall Tom Waits and Van Der Graaf Generator, tackling todays issues. The title track written as a response to holiday makers complaining that their holiday had been ruined when refugees were washed up on their beach. If our country wasn't supplying weapons to various regimes maybe things like this wouldn't happe. However the album is highly listenable also tackling growing into "aldulthood" and reading the labels on food. Well worth getting a copy.

That was followed by "Listen To The Band" and early Mike Nesmith compilation featuring great country song after great country song and if you haven't heard them before you certainly won't forget them once you have.

Anyway it's time for bed and I will leave you with the title tracks of both those albums.

Not Quite Making It

The #August50 is out the window and the monthly steps is easily doable but it I hadn't spent two hours walking after returning from a very pleasurable weekend in Dalgety Bay I would have had some major extra walking to do this week, then it starts again on Friday. It is good if you can buid up reserves to fall back on, but often the way you can do that varies like hell and it is far better to have reserves than actually playing catch up, because if you are continuously playing catch up eventually it becomes just impossible (like the #August50).

All the people (Scott, Maureen and Fiona)  I spent the weekend are extremely fit and I seriously expeceted a similar weekend to last weekend walking wise. It wasn't, but I enjoyed some great company , saw some great views (the Forth Bridges) went on a non drinking (for me) pub crawl in South Queensferry and played choose a music video on YouTube on a big telly which was great fun and a great way of sharing music.

Anyway I really need to do some walking today so I will leave you with a couple of pictures and a piece of appropriate music "The Crossing" by Big Country.

The Sun on The New Forth Road Bridge

The Forth Rail Bridge

Listening To Albums

I've decided to give random play a rest and actually listen to full albums on my walks. I'm aiming to do 340K steps a month and Pacer still eems to be working. The last couple of days I've only done 8K but I'm still on tarket to hit 340K which will guarantee a million steps every three months on a rolling basis. My friend Carol is hoping to hit TEN MILLION steps this year, that 900K a month and 30K (maybe 15Km) a day. I know people's step lengths differ but that is still some very hard going over a long period of time and dwarfs my Million Step Challenge , which other people seem to think is a lot.

Anyway the albums I have listened to so far are

• Fairport Convention - Nine : Not regarded as a classic but it is one of my favourites, Trevor Lucas' vocals, Jerry Donahue's guitar and Dave Swarbrick's voice and fiddle are wonderful. Songs like "Polly On The Shore" with it's dragging bass, the beautiful "To Althea From Prison" and apocalyptic "Bring 'Em Down" have never lost their power for me.
• Thea Gilmore  - Don't Stop Singing: This is a beautiful labour of love, Thea taking the words of te departed Sandy Denny and weaving a wonderful album. The song "London" made me have to buy it and "Glistening Bay" gives me goosebumps every time. There's a great evaution on the BBC here.
• David Bowie - The Lodger : The one with Bowie's "League of Gentleman" nose on the cover, and like every Bowie album you put is on and then just love every song. "Fantastic Voyage" , "Boys Keep Swinging", "Yassassin"   I could list every song.
• Blue Oyster Cult - Imaginos: This is the album that BOC were destined to make , full almost Lovecraftian libretto and when the remade "Astronomy" kicks in you really are out there with them.

I found a live from Union Chapel take on "London" by Thea Gilmore for you to enjoy, the sound is not perfect, but you can always buy the album if you follow the blue link.

So who knows what I'll be listening to this morning. Time to set off for work, and I think I will walk in. It is a sunny beautiful day and the weekend is almost here. Enjoy yourselves everyone.

Mistakes

This morning I was at the Freeman Hospital sorting out drugs for my cirrhosis of the liver condition, and in the course of the encourt I gave an armful of blood and a urine sample. ALl seemed fine and normal and I went on my way back to work.

I then got a phone call, which was cut off asking if my blood sugars were OK , as I had just given samples I thought it was odd that they were ringing me so quickly which would imply there was a problem. I tring calling the number back and found out it was a practice I had never had anything to do with. They said it was probably the Diabetic Clinic who had changed their number but it had been set up wrong so they can all the phone calls. It turned out it was the Diabetic Clinic enquiring if my blood sugars were OK as I had drastically reduced my insulin intake (much to the apparent chagrin of the stand in consultant). I told them all was good and that seemed to be enough for them.

My mistake was making teh assumption that the phonecall was a direct result of the hospital visit. The thing is , we always assume the most logical (in our own minds) reason for an event, ad obviously a medical phone call would be about my hospital visit this morning.

I was wrong.

On that note it's time for bed and the song has got to be "Wrong" by The Archers of Loaf from the excellently titled "Speed of Cattle" album. Sleep well all.

God Guided My Hand

I'm still reading the Jordan Ellenberg book and I've just finished the chapter that explains how to win at the lottery, which basically means finding a certain time of lottery and having your syndicate write out and enter 300K tickets when the conditions are right, and this can guarantee a profit of maybe £50K , so not for the average punter.

The current chapter talks about the likelihood of the existence of God (He does exist and I follow him on Facebook here and instagram here incidentally) and the mathematician Pascal (and Ellenberg) reckoned that even if there was only a 5% chance that God existed , and the rewards for believing in Him are Infinite Ecstacy , then 5% of Infinity is still Infinity, so it's a great investment either way. OK there's a 95% chance there is no God but the investment is still worthwhile because if there is a God you are well rewarded. However this binary argument is flawed because There may be no (Christian) God, there may be a (Christian) God , but there may be other Gods who will condemn you to eternal damnation so the belief suddenly becomes a very big gamble, now it's happiness or nothing or misery.

It's also like sometimes I will see something like a horse bet, or an album I've never heard of and go for it based on no logic that I can think of and the horse will win (the other week the name "Sea Monkey" was jumping out at me, it wasn't the favourite and was going to bet on the favourite but then changed my mind and made a profit) , or the album will be brilliant and there are people who will say God guided them to this wonderful situation when actually it's nothing more than coincidence and good luck. Usually those things are followed by an increase in belief and confidence until the next one doesn't work out.

Anyway the song that comes to mind is The Saints' "Church of Indifference" , probably my favourite Australian band. Have a good Wednesday everybody.

Sweat, Sweat and Sweat

No blood, no tears but a lot of sweat. Due to one thing and another the lawn has not been mowed. It needed doing on Sunday when I got back but I was too lazy, and then yesterday there was rain. The nights are drawing in , but tonight was very muggy, but I forced myself to do it and ended up very hot and very sweaty and therefore no one would want to be withing a million miles of me tonight. It is strange how you never want to do this things, but you do get a sense of small accomplishment when they are done.

As I've said I doubt I will hit #August50 but this edges me a little closer. I would have to average about four posts a day , which is easily do-able , and I have about four things lined up to write about, and as I only tend to write about 250 words , that would be a thousand words a day , and proper writers do that ten times over.

So tomorrow I have a hospital check up so fasting from eight o'clock tonight I think, then I am not sure if I should take drugs or not, so I will bag them up and sally along to the Freeman, though it means I need to leave the house about seven as I am not sure what time I am supposed to be there. It's a flexible arrangement.

A song for this , well it could have been something by Lawnmower Deth,  but I willl go for the more sedat but no less eerie "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe" by Genesis. You know why.

"When The Sun Beats Down

And I Lie On The Bench

I Can Always Hear Them Talk.

Me?

I'm Just A Lawnmower.

You Can Tell Me By The Way I Walk"

Back

Just back from a great weekend in Epsom and Brighton seeing Lesley, Matt and Nick , and actually getting to see Brighton Pavilion which is an impressive structure and saw a couple of excellent buskers Linos Wengara Magaya & Gary Cove (playing a vague jazz on Mbira and saxophone). You can see a bit of them here on my Instagram Channel.

I walked 15 Km up and down Brighton Beach ( and I'm sure Matt, Lesley , Nick and Fiona walked further) but that's a record using my latest tracking software Pacer (which is still working on my Xperia, which now has a shattered screen due to me dropping it, I did this many times with my Samsong Note 4 , not a scratch, but my Sony , instant screen shatter) . To put the distance into context Matt will run that far if he's eaten something he maybe shouldn't have to burn off the calories :)

Anyway I wasn't really going to write about the weekend, although I have done it now, and have another one in Dalgety Bay next weekend which I am looking forward to , with Scott and Maureen , plus a bit of time in Edinburgh. I do prefer the train to driving.

In Brighton I was wondering if I'd see Nick Cave , but no , there was also a big "Free The Nipple" parade, and great to see people to dress as they want, it wakes me irate when people are ok with others carrying round assault rifles and other weapons, but explode when they see a woman breastfeeding or actually displaying a nipple. It's ok for men to be topless but not women. It's often worsen with the odd asian / middle eastern couple where the man is just wearing shorts and woman is completely covered bar a slit for the eyes. The thing is sometimes nudity empowers people, sometimes modesty empowers people, but it should be their choice and they should not be oppressed and denigrated for that choice. Though I am offended by people who wear face masks in everyday situations, this includes IRA Terrorsist balaclavas, asian pollution facemasks in Newcastle, and niqabs , they all offend me equally.

Anyway less of that and we'll have Nick Cave's "Red Right Hand" before I get off to work. I think the #August50 is dead and buried, to hit it I would need to post thrirty times before the end of Bank Holiday Monday (but you never know).

Still Not Vegan

Since my last post I've had chicken in a wrap and salmon in a John West morrocan mix, so I am nowhere near vegan, but I am definitely off most meat groups. I am fine with bacon but chunky meat, steaks. mince generally turns me off , and I only have chicken cut into small pieces in wraps at Butterfingers in Darn Crook. I still like most fish, so generally nowhere near vegan.

6Music just mentioned that Lovefilm is ceasing on 31st October and posed the question "When was the last time you watched a DVD?"  and the fact that in the future that the next generation will not think of having their own copy of a film or music. I certainly need to do a cull of my CD and DVD collection. The James Bond DVDs went to the Westgate Ark Charity Shop because every James Bond Film is on permanent rotating play on TV.

The days are getting shorter, but it's still very sunny and the radio is forecasting rain, which obviously may or may not happen.

I don't think I will hit 50 posts in August for #August50 but it was a bit ambitious, I would have to do two posts a day and at least two days of that period I won't be posting because I'll be in SCotland and London, but it was an idea.

"There's A Ghost In My House" by R Dean Taylor came on 6Music but I'll leave you with The Fall's take on it. Just noticed in the video Mark E Smith bears a distinct resemblance to Gavin Webster (see below). Enjoy your Wednesday my friends.

A Few Thoughts on Going Vegan

No I'm not going vegan , though I enjoy vegan and I am really happy at the growing number of vegan outlets in Newcastle, though a few people have taken my Facebook posts to mean that I have become vegan. (similarly because I support GAY rights, some people have taken that to mean I am GAY, well only in the fact that GAY is an acronym that means GOOD AS YOU so I am as good as you though my sexuality is standard) but back to the vegan thing.

Vegan food is inventive, although I find the vegetarian / vegan sausage / bacon thing a little odd especially the bacon thing. If you want something that looks and tastes like meat then eat the meat. Sausages are a little different, they are offal enhances by spices and other tasty additives, so replace the offal by vegetables and add a vegan casing and that is fine, though I've yet to taste a vegan sausage I like.

Non vegans often argue that man is a carnivore / hunter so we are built to eat meat. Well look at our teeth and jaws and "claws" , just like a lion or a tiger aren't we , readty to rip our prey apart.

Just from a resource thing veganism is sensible, we take or food at source instead of letting it go into a cow, pig or sheep then get converted for months or years before killing the animal and cooking it.

I am not a big meat fan, though I lkie a bacon sandwich, I am fine with eggs and like most fish. So I am not vegan and am just fussy but if someone offers me vegan food then I (99% of the time) love it.

So what song do I choose this morning?  I just got a mention at 6:45 on the Chris Hawkins show for a made up Half Man Half Biscuit song title. This was the email:

"I had a nut roast at The Cozy Dove in Newcastle yesterday before the match (I support Preston so I didn't go)

Also the best HMHB Tribute band name is "It's Not Half Man, Mum"

My Title is

"I Printed My Sunday Roast (On My 3D Printer) Before The Match""

I was thinking mybe Paul McCartney, Half Man Half Biscuit but there are many vegan bands about and I have just remembered a Robert Wyatt song that would be perfect, if very dark. "Pigs In There" .. and that is one of the reasons for being vegan.

No Regrets and Changing Opinions

My first job was in the 1970s so I suppose mentioning names doesn't really matter too much as it's not defamatory. Of course I was a bit anti mainstream music at the time and I was working at Jame Mercers in Preston as an office clerk. It was a nice place to work and there were some great people there, but the money was not that great but you got a Christmas bonus and taken out for a meal as well.

One of the guys Phil Livesly was always immaculately dressed and maybe could have slipped unnoticed into "Life on Mars" or "Abigail's Party", but he canme in raving to me about he'd heard this brilliant song "No Regrets" by The Walker Brothers , I immediately countered by saying it was commercialised and the Tom Rush original was far superior. This was all good natured, and he's one of the people I do miss from my past.

"No Regrets" by The Walker Brothers came on my player today, and it is a stunning version, so I have changed my opinion on this. Part of this is because of Scott's amazing voice. What I then got to thinking was "I wonder if Phil has heard any of Scott Walker's work since then" and what would his opinion be now.

A contemporary Scott Walker album is not for the faint hearted, and I have a feeling that "Tilt" or "Soused" will not be on Phil's iTunes (I know he'll have an iPhone) . So on this I will include both versions for you to listen to , enjoy both , and if you dare ... go and explore some contemporary Scott Walker.

You Gotta Have Faith

We all have it in one form or another, and one of the problems is that concepts of faith is usually hijacked by religion to get your support without any real promise of a reall benefit to your reself. Your life may be bad but you need to have pain and poverty and then you will get unspecified rewards in heaven, really? I am agnostic and there may be a god but I have not seen any evidence in my lifetime or any real evidence from the past. People cite The Bible as support or evidence, but that book is continually being rewritten and amended. There's a King James' Bible , sixteen hundred years after the events supposedly happened. You think that would be accepted as evidence in court, yet we swear to tell the truth on The Bible!!

The faith I do have is the faith I have in my actions adn what they cause. I work and therefore onece a month I receieve money in my bank account to stave off poverty. That is then used to pay bills and I believe that the people requiring money with receive it.  We put a hell of a lot of faith in eletronics and people and most of th etime it is well founded, although tis week two things happened where my faith was not rewarded.

Firstly Betfair withdrwals are nrmall y in my bank in two days, and this week withdrawals from Wednesday and Thursday have still not landed. A worse example is my insulin prescription that I ordered on Monday. I went to pick it up from the chemist (I'd injected my last on Saturday morning) , and they said they had received nothing. Insuling is fairly important to a diabetic. The first thing they said was " .... and as it's Saturday we can't ring the doctors" ... that was swiftly followed by "but we'll give you an emergency box but could you ring the practice on Monday". The NHS don't usually let you die and I am thankful I don't live in the USA. These two failures maybe say we  have to be aware that sometimes things we have faith in fail us.

You thought I was going to include a George Michael Song, though you will have seen The Who picture when you opened up the post. I always like this song from their "Odds and Sods" compilation.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday