New Year's Eve Is Here

We are on the last day of the year ad it some ways it's like a software update (my phone just had one) , you go through everything , waiting , working , you reboot and nothing has changed.

Well actually things have changed. People I know seem to becoming more insular, anything new is not countenanced well . Part of this is people have families , people trying to survive modern life , people tend to go for the tried and tested paths and often I am the same. I will frequent a restaurant or pub that I know is good and drop places that maybe don't come up to my standards.

This year I have met some wonderful people and made new friends all over the world , been made redundant , had a few new jobs , write songs , hit my 1000 posts , 100K views on this blog , and have lost touch with people which is sad.

Facebook is good for keeping in touch and reconnecting with people , but I do detest the posts that imply people are selfish and don't care about others. I love seeing positivity and happiness and smiles, and in 2016 I want to see more.

Here It Comes

This year I have driven through snow , ice , rain , blinding sun almost a metaphor for life , because I've navigated that.

I have been here for people who needed support , I have had some great nights and days with wonderful friends and look forward to lots more in 2016.

Have a wonderful end of year and share a brilliant 2016 with me my friends. I chose the Fingerprintz song to finish this year because it's a theme song of mine

"I can see you want to dance too"

Is Viv Albertine Big In Russia amd Australia?

The reason I ask is that my post featuring Viv Albertine here is now my third most read post of the life of this blog. The blog has been going eight years and most posts get about 50 views. In less than a month the Viv Albertine has hit 400 , not a lot in terms of world readership , but a lot for one of my post.

Last Months Readers

In the last two weeks views from Russia and Australia have overtaken the USA as my biggest source of readers (and maybe robots) . The USA has not dropped , but Russia and Australia have increased dramatically and really I can't think of a reason. Australia possibly because it's in the correct language.

Australia is the biggest traffic source from the last month , but Russia has overtaken it in the last week.

And this has coincided with the Viv Albertine piece getting so much attention. There haven't been any comment , people don't comment on my posts for some reason , also the blog has only a couple of followers , so given that visitors must be mostly people who accidentally come across it , ithe figures look quite good.

Seriously this must be one of the most boring , uninteresting pieces I have ever written, I had intended to include some stuff about what has happened to me this year but that can wait for another time.

This year has resulted in slightly less posts than last year but it's still running at a post every two days. So I think I'll put in Al Stewart's "Roads To Moscow" to provide a little interest to this post . The album Past Present and Future is well worth aquiring.

Also I have finished the Viv Albertine book and it is absolutely brilliant , I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone , inspiring , well written , uncompromising , easy to read and thought provoking. Buy it here.

On The Road

This weekend I drove 300 hundred inhospitable miles to and from Scotland. It that time I saw rain , snow , ice , surface flooding and coming back the combination of bright sunshine and wet roads made it like driving into an arc light . At one point the sun was coming through the trees to the right but due the speed and the distance between the trees it was like a stroboscopic effect. It inspired me to write this:

Hard Road

Hard Road

Speeding into the arc light

I should be aware of the road

 It's like a mirror

Can't see the markings

Can't see the other cars 

Three Lanes Bad

Two Lanes Worse

The sun is strobing

Through the trees

I still can't see

I've survived

Ice

Snow

Rain

Flood

I am still going

But

This isn't driving

It's just surviving

That's my unstructured "poem" of my experience over the weekend. Two small amendments were suggested by my good friend Joan , and they have been taken on board. Obvious choice for me is Black Sabbath's "Hard Road" , which is probably my favourite Sabbath Song, still gives me goosebumps

I really hope you have a had a great Christmas or Yule break and are ready to run up to the end of the year with gusto.

 

Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Chritmas

I hope you have a wonderful day . It's a day for loving ,sharing ,talking ,being kind ,smiling. and spreading goodwill. This is not Christian sentimentality , it's just sensible moral behaviour. We look out for others and they will look out for us,

We do live in a world where money and possessions have become an effectively replacement for moral values for a lot of people, I mean why else would you vote Tory or Republican?  As Woody Allen said money is better than poverty of only for financial reasons , but  there really is enough to go round. When people work together great things happen. Divide and Conquer is a war strategy and when people start fighting among themselves they become much easier to control. Blame the immigrants , blame the poor , blame the sick is the mantra of the right wing as they plunder the nations resources.

Have a Cool Yule

Enough politics , it is a time to enjoy , it is a time to be together, and really it should never stop. This year socialise more , see more friends , talk more , communicate more. We now how the nternet so I can write this, and everyone round the world can read it. You no longer wait for weeks to send a letter to Australia, you can phone your friend in Australia or New Zealand or The USA and it costs very little to do that. You can phone a loved one , a friend, so here is you your New Year's Resolution:

"KEEP IN TOUCH MORE, MUCH MORE"

Now go one have a wonderful day and feel free to ring me if you have my number, enjoy yourself.



I've included two versions of one of my favourite Christmas Songs , it by the Eels - Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas  - Baby Jesus , Born To Rock!!

It Was Christmas Eve, Babe

It's Christmas Eve and over the past month we've been subjected to some particularly atrocious "festive music" . Last Saturday there were two members of a what I believe are Romanian Busking band on Northumberland Street , a double bass and accordion player , playing a particularly excellent piece which I then realised was "Jingle Bells" , I do hope I see them again , then I can record them. The euphoria was soon dissipated by walking into Marks and Spencers where a Michael Buble-a-like was murdering the very same piece of music.

There are stand outs of course , Wizzard's "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" , Slade's "Merry Christmas Everyone" , Greg Lake and Pete Sinfield's Prokofiev's "Troika" lifting "I Believe In Father Christmas", The Pogues "Fairytale of New York"  and Jethro Tull's "Ring Out Solstice Bells" and "Christmas Song" , so you can have great Christmas music , but you can bet you will only here these every now and then.

Celebrate

Anyway this is the time to embrace friends , family , neighbours and socialise and hug and kiss and enjoy the time but be compassionate for those less fortunate than yourself .

And you what , wouldn't it be great if that didn't stop and the main aim in our lives was to be happy and looking out for others and working to build a compassionate society instead of thinking about paying bills and winning the lottery and just looking out for ourselves.




So today , buy a sandwich and a drink for a homeless person if you see one, do some random act of kindness and make sure you hug and kiss as many friends and loved ones who actually want it.

Remember Christmas Spirit should not be what you drink.

Have a brilliant one my friends

Morning Morning 7am - Joy Division To The World

Well another work week has commenced and looking forward to lots of good things happening this week. Time seems to be at a premium although it always is whether you have anything planned or not. Christmas is one of those things where , you actually have advance notice that it's going to happen. I do find it quite amazing in the world of business especially and I suppose socially , the number of people who seem shocked that it is actually here and then have to implement emergency measures to deal with the situation.

Joy Division To The World

My biggest "worry" is remembering to record film's like Brave and specials like the new Sherlock and the Wallace and Gromit Christmas special.

One of the reasons for doing this post is to reshare the excellent Joy Division Christmas Tree and Holly Golightly's "Christmas Tree's On Fire.

So just calm down and you will have a great time , I certainly will

Have a great day , and week , and enjoy yourself.

It's The Time Of The Season ......

We shouldn't need Christmas . We shouldn't need reminding that we should be there for friends , family and those less fortunate than us. I knew a guy who was rude throughout the the year but come Christmas Eve expected everyone to be his friend because it was Christmas. It doesn't really work like that for me.

You should be like that throughout the year. You should be there for people , they should be there for year. I'm not an Ebenezer Scrooge type , and am pleased if someone reforms there ways, but compassion and caring needs to be permanent not something based around a commercial date in a calendar.

Time of the Season

I love the joy of meeting friends , being with them , hugging them , laughing , holding hands , and why can't we do that everyday. It's good to have a day to celebrate even more but really if we are happy every day , and look forward to being happy we can deal with life's annoyances.

Anyway I hope this week is good for you , I intend to make it good for me. I have seen lots of close friends over the last week , and made plans to see lots more in January , sort of ignoring the fact there are only a finite number of days in the month.





Some friends have had bad times recently but things are improving for them. I said I was there for them and I know that was appreciated , because I know they would be there for me.

Have chosen a tenuous music link , but The Zombie's "Time of the Season" is always good to hear.

Have a fantastic week my totally brilliant friends