Darkness

That's what I woke up to, and it wasn't particularly early , the day shortening seems to have come fairly quickly this year. Last night I needed to go out for milk at nine o'clock and it was dark (and wet). Also there seems to be a hell of a lot of snails on my drive this year and I keep accidentally stepping on them. I've nothing against snails and would rather not squash them but if they wander around my normal walking areas then that's going to happen.

Although it was dark when I woke it now looks like a summer's day although I suppose this is really Autumn now, as we're into September and I managed to forget another friend's birthday but got reminded by Facebook.

I keep forgetting names and obviously that concerns me about dementia when I cant remember things, especially names, but I still am able to recall a hell of a lot stuff and often the stuff I couldn't recall always surfaces eventually. I also am always able to recall how to find things although I make great use of Google and reference books as well as working things out for myself.

I use the illustration of music. When I was born you had Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley , Chuck Berry as well as the really commercial rubbish and a few others. The following decade added The Beach Boys, Stooges , Doors , Beatles , Kinks etc but we still had the  artists from previous decades. And every year more is added to what we already have, and that means that things will get forgotten even sometimes when you want to remember it. There will always be a way of finding out what you need to know.

So on this sunny Thursday we shall go with "Baggy Trousers" by Madness (for the line about squashing snails)  and that is another great band who are in my collection and I enjoy listening to.

Ulysses, James Joyce and Japan

I don't know what brought this into my mind apart from the fact that I was having a dream and couldn't remember who wrote "Ulysses" though the names James Joyce, WB Yeats and WG Grace slipped through my mind, so I did know but my mind was telling me I didn't. These days scaremongers so often try to equate forgetfulness with Alzheimers and Dementia.

I remember THAT passage beimg screened on the BBC much to "Angry from Purley"'s disgust, and also seem to remeber my parents having the book , and mee seeking out THAT passage to read over and over. This was the days before video recorders and catch up TV and colour was a luxury. The thing with books is that you can always re read them, if you enjoy them or need to concentrate on the meaning.

I am now thinking I should get myself a copy as someone recently described the book as the greatest in the English language. Maybe on Kindle or Aldiko though , in fact I may have a copy in my ebook library that I acquired a while back.

The Japan part of this post comes from the fact I sold a CD on Discogs yesterday but the guy hadn't paid (shipping is generally added automatically), then I saw that the despatch address was Japan! Internation Stardard shipping is about a fiver and takes five days, International Economy costs four pounds but takes up to 56 days. I charged £4 and sent Standard as you can't be waiting two months for a CD can you. The album was Donovan's "Sunshine Superman" so another Irish connection there.

So I have to go with one of my favourite Donovan songs "Season of The Witch" which is one of the songs on the "Sunshine Superman" album.

Enjoy your Friday everybody.

Little Pockets Of Hope

It sort of brings me down that money is often the most important thing in people's lives often because of the way society has been allowed to evolve. It's still better than barter, although barter does involve actual goods and services.

In recent months I have lost friends, seen friends affected by Alzheimers and Depression, thought deeply about how people must be in such a dark place theythinkabout taking their own lives, to stand and think "I do this and everything ends, that's it", even thought of everyday situations thinking my god, if that happened I could be very hurt or worse.

I think of the five injections and twenty tablets a day I take to keep myself here, added to that contact lenses and lots of other little things and in the end thinking "doing these makes it possible for me to enjoy life, and to feel good."

Yesterday I went to the Mean Eyed Cat where they were selling Coffee and Cake to raise money for the Alzheimer's Society and when I shared my Instagram Post to Facebook it asked if I wanted to add a charity donation button to my post whis resulted in a number of donations from friends. Something actually useful from Social Media possibly instigated by the #Alzheimers Hashtag here . This was organised by friends doing things to help others, and it makes me so proud to have friends like that, they know who they are.

Earlier this week my friend Jon invited me to see Rahul Kohli a brilliant Indian Geordie comic but the bonus on this night was the very funny Turkish Geordie Louise Young, and also Gazza, Paul Gascoigne turned up as well. He had a great sparring session with Rahul, and Gazza has had some very bad things to cope with but it was great to see him on Tuesday.

Then I was in No 28 on Friday and saw someone at the bar, and thought "I'm sure that's Louise Young". I'm a devil for thinking I know people and it not being who I thought it was so often I don't say anything and then they wonder why I supposedly blanked them. Anyway I didn't get a chance to tell Louise how much I enjoyed her set on Tuesday so I went up, expecting it not to be her, but it was, and had a great chat with her and th eguy she was with, so that was another high point this week.

The thing is there are always ways to make things better, and if things are not good for you PLEASE ask for help, and people will help if they can , even if it's just supportive words.

So go out today, give some change to a homelss person, phone a friend, as it's Father's Day phone or talk to your dad, visit a neighbour, do something that  lifts you up , watch or ignore football, listen to some great music, make yourself feel better.

One other thing, the most important person in your life is YOU, because if you are not 100% you cannot be there for those that matter to you.

And this post gives me an excuse to share The Beatles' "Help" which I loved from the first time I heard it.

I Keep Forgetting

,br> I was just checking my blog and this post a bout the potential closure of Newcastle City Hall here, had been getting a lot of attention. I don't know who from but it's the third most read this week. I also missed the Dictators on Wednesday and Chase Park Festival today (here is my review from last year) , I have been amazingly remiss in my gig planning.

These days pessimists will start talking about Alzheimers , but the reality is that we all forget things, we remember things for no reason and some stuff becomes buried deep , so deep we don't know it's there.

One of the reasons I keep this blog , is the same as keeping a diary , except this is online and anyone can see it, and because of that people look at things that I had forgotten about and causes me to remember and revisit. Sometimes I remember that I had recorded something and then search the blog to find it. It really is a useful tool.

My memory has always been strange . When I did Law and English Literature I could remember all about cases but not the names of cases , and I knew what happened in plays but could never remember any quotations. I usually don't know how to do things but I do know where to look to find out how to do things.

So anyway I thought I would just share that with you and you could always do a random search of this blog , you never know what you might find.....even I don't know exactly what I will find ... and I'm the one who wrote the damned thing.

Der Blaue Engel

I've chosen a re-edit of Robert Wyatt's Memories spliced with the finale to The Blue Angel , and that has led me to a whole new treasure trove of discovery

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Oh and below is Robert Wyatt's take on Peter Gabriel's Biko , and I just love it, one of the most powerful songs I've ever heard and although it sound slight at first , it works it's waky into your psyche . I love Robert Wyatt... and this one of the discoveries that I mentioned.