OCCUPIED COUNTRY

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Rainy Days and Mondays Always Get Me Down

Rainy Day Dream Away Still Raining Still Dreaming by WakaJawaka

The track above isn't by WakaJawaka actually - that's just my Zappaesque user name on Soundcloud. It's James Marshall Hendrix for those interested.

Driving to work the other Monday morning as the familiar Mancunian rain spattered and beaded my windscreen, I longed to be back in my bed. The tardy heater had still not sputtered it's desultory and frankly tepid whisper of comfort and my arthritic frame was extracting groans and grunts everytime I was forced into moving my arms or legs. The working day lay before me like a childhood month.

I pulled onto the Mancunian Way as the surly and recalcitrant dawn glimmered behind the Beetham Tower like a.....like a...well, like a surly and recalcritrant teenager to be honest and I was subsumed in a back to work slough of despond.

'Does it get any worse than this?' I muttered as David Cameron's oleaginous twaddle oozed from the Sony in the dashboard. I vaguely stabbed a forefinger against the 'source' button and switched to whatever CD was still lurking there since the last time I played music in my car. I'm glad I did. It was home made affair - from the days before iTunes and the like. Furthermore, it was a track that, in it's entirity, probably only exists on the master tape and my hard disk/CD.

Checking out the date stamp on the file later I realised that I created it in 2004. It's the track above if you're interested. If I were you I'd be playing it now, not reading this.

It's Jimi Hendrix 1968. From Electric Ladyland. It's two tracks from different sides of that album that were obviously one longer track chopped in half. I loved both of them as a fourteen year old and still do. 'Rainy Day Dream Away' and 'Still Raining Still Dreaming'.

One day back in 2004, I came home from work and was messing about with some sound editing software I had acquired when one of the tracks came on my cd player. I got the idea then and there to try and put back together what James Marshall had rent asunder.

I don't know about you, but until the remastered version approved by Hendrix's estate, MY version is definitive.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

I Predict a Riot

"So now we know. By September dozens of youth centres, libraries and swimming baths will close. The number of elderly people who qualify for subsidised care in their homes, or free transport, will be slashed. Instead, they will be given the number for a taxi.

"Bin collections will be halved. Many deprived families will have to find their own housing. A council-run advice service will be scrapped. Streets will not be cleaned between midnight and 6am. We will have to pay to park in Manchester on Sunday for the first time. Thousands of jobs will be lost.

"By September, then, the cuts will mean Manchester is a very different place. It is a pattern that will be repeated in other councils across the region in the days to come"

Manchester Evening News 8th Feb 2011

So, there we go. The high-faluting Dispatch box pronouncments are finally being translated into gritty reality. The swingeing, front-loaded cut backs that for so long have been abstract, some-time-in-the-future concepts have ceased shape-shifting and become flesh.

It's easy isn't it when you're looking at a spreadsheet? A library here, a leisure centre there. A few old folk aren't going to miss their transport to the day centre - y'know the day centre where they get to meet up with other human beings as opposed to sitting in their living rooms all day and evening staring at a TV. And the driver - a familiar face they can trust? Well, he'll be OK, you're sure he'll find something else when the private sector kicks in and creates the tsunami of jobs you predicted. In the meantime a driver with a public license is just the sort of volunteer the 'Big Society' needs and anyway it can't cost that much in a taxi can it? Especially not 'up North' where everything's so much cheaper. Not that it matters anyway, the day centre'll be shut within a couple of months.

2,000 jobs.

It's a good job you can blame it all on the previous administration isn't it? Otherwise you would just look like idealogically driven shiny faced arseholes wouldn't you? What you need to do now is keep up the bombardment of catchphrases and snappy one-liners designed to make everything appear an abolutely no-turning-back necessity. Now. All at once. And just to keep everyone on their toes how about a complete reorganisation of the NHS on the side? The grim reality is that, as you have pointed out, the Health Service needs the shake up that only a back door privatisation can - and will - provide. It will emerge fitter and leaner and ready for the challenges ahead. Ok so there'll be less staff but hey that would be the last Governments fault wouldn't it?

But don't stop there, we've not had any good old fashioned Gerrymandering since Shirley Porter back in the day. You can dress it up as 'much needed boundary reform': it'll go down a storm in the Home Counties. They'll be able to look forward to a Tory governement for the rest of time especially if you insist on chaining it to the referendum on AV just to muddy the waters.

As someone once said: "I warn you not to be ordinary. I warn you not to be young. I warn you not to fall ill. I warn you not to get old." And that was in anticipation of Thatcher's '83 landslide and the cuts she promised. Cuts that were nothing like as deep and quick as Baronet Osbourne's.

And no Plan B either.

Still, at least we're all in it together.

Saturday, February 05, 2011

What a Difference a Year Makes

Well, if there's anyone still out there: howya doooin? 12 months to the day since my last post and such a lot has happened. Some great, some good, some not so good and some just downright crap. The World still turns, the best of us get on with it and the fuckwits still indulge in gold standard fuckwittery. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

I have. of late, felt the need to offload - ejaculate if you will - the joy and frustrations in my life once more. I have, as some of you will be aware, been perusing the blogosphere during my year long absence and it really is like catching up with old friends. Hearing of their ups and downs and highs and lows brings a smile to the lips and occasionally a tear to the eye. All Human life is there to dip into and savour.

So, I'm back. With a new layout as well. The pic up above is the Mancunian skyline from a hill about 5 minutes walk from my front door. If you look close you can see the stanchions of the City of Manchester stadium, Beetham Tower (aka Manchester Hilton) and the CIS Tower at the heart of the new co-operation Quarter.

So, what's changed since I was last here? Well the biggest change has been the arrival of Littlest who is very, very dear to Dearest and me. We have him overnight every Saturday and it truly is a joy. Watching him evolve from the little alien he originally was into the proper little boy he is now has brought a wonderful sense of hope back into my life. Suddenly I see the future toddling around with his inquisitive little fingers and his inquisitive mind invading our living space. Children are wonderful. Grandchildren are magical. He carries my father's name as well which gives me a sense of continuity. Such a shame they never met.

My Mother has moved into sheltered accommodation just round the corner from us. It's a two minute walk from my front door and it has certainly improved all our lives. In my Mother's case it was just in time really as she had started becoming very forgetful and eccentric and we knew she couldn't live entirely alone any more. She now has a new flat in a residential block with a hairdressers, restaurant and lounge area where they have daily resident's get togethers with bingo, singalongs and other things that old folk seem to enjoy.

Care attendants call twice a day to make sure she's dressed and eating. They dish out her medication and sit and chat for 15 minutes or so. All in all it's worked out very well. She has finally been diagnosed with Alzheimer's so keeping her daily routine as simple as possible is helping. She has an equally afflicted friend called Ellen who she spends most of the day with, each of them repeating the same stories to each other as though being heard for the first time.

I have taken them both out to a local hostelry on occasions. An old fashioned Mancunian pub with an organist and a free and easy attitude to people getting up and bashing out an old-fashioned song or two. My Mother gets up and sings - pitch perfect - from a repertoire of ten or so numbers that she remembers ALL the words to with no problem. It's a strange thing the brain. I should have looked after mine a bit better. I must admit though, at the end of the evening I am absolutely drained. The nervous tension involved in making sure they don't drink too much, set off for the loo in plenty of time to avoid accidents, getting them home safely and generally listening to the same stories - in stereo - for three hours or so does tend to wear you down somewhat.

It comes to us all.

Work wise I have survived the first Public Sector Coalition cull - just the second and third to come through unscathed. It seems all my life I have toiled under the threat of redundancy. I have though seen some hard working, decent people put in positions of horrible uncertainty about their futures. The human face of 'balancing the budget' that the shiny faced arseholes in Government think is required. It makes blood boil. I swear if I hear the phrase "we're all in this together" again I won't be responsible for my actions.

It's a good job the 'Big Society' (© Shiny Faced Arseholes) will step in to look after us all isn't it? Just wait until April when it REALLY starts to bite. Surely the Lib Dems can't keep propping this shower of shit up much longer? Have they no self esteem?

In recently acquired gadget news I am know a Kindle owner. I'm very impressed with the whole reading experience with this cracking piece of kit essentially because you forget about the device you are reading from. It doesn't get in the way if you see what I mean and the e-ink technology is superb. No headaches from staring at flickering screens. On top of that the battery lasts for a month on one charge. Excellent.. Can't wait for the colour version.

Where the Kindle does come into it's own though is holiday time. With the surcharges that airlines are racking up on luggage weight it was becoming difficult for Dearest and I to take enough reading material to keep us both occupied for a fortnight's leisure without tipping the scales. We went to New York last autumn (loved it!) and I borrowed Eldest's. It was that experience of it that convinced me to buy one. Apart from a nice collection of books I also had a few newspapers delivered to it each morning so I could flip through them as Dearest made herself look fabulous. When you add in a (not very good really) web browser and a built in dictionary as well as a text to speech facility it really is the Dog's proverbials.

Musically I'm having lot of trouble with my right shoulder which is making it difficult to play guitar for longer than 15 minutes or so. It's looking like intense physiotherapy or, failing that, surgery. I never had a problem with it until I became a postman.

To keep me ticking over I've got myself a digital piano which I have installed in my eyrie. It has many other voices and functions but I use it primarily as a piano. It has a lovely grand piano sound with a great touch-sensitive keyboard. It's starting to come back to me. I passed grade 5 piano when I was 11 and have hardly touched a piano or read sheet music since so it's been quite a learning curve. It does requires a completely different musical approach than a string instrument. I don't know it just seems to be a broader sonic palette. I feel there are more harmonic choices to be made. I'm lovin' it and so does Littlest - he sits on my knee and bashes away on it with rapturous abandon. Start 'em young I say.

I won't be resurrecting the sight reading though. Life's too short.

I've also added a new digital studio to my toys. A Zoom R16 16 Track Recorder and Interface Controller. Acutely aware of the fact that the Beatles never recorded on more than 16 tracks and that Frank Zappa only needed 16 tracks to produce as seminal a piece of work as Hot Rats, I am caught in a weird place where excitement at the possibilities smacks headfirst into the ever present fear of inadequacy. I sometimes look at what is at my disposal and think to myself 'could do better'. It's like a damning school report back in the day. I have the equipment. I have the ideas. I have the ability. It's just getting it all together that's the problem.

Some pics.....eeeee it's just like old times isn't it?


Sicily

Dearest surveys Capri

It's a Hard Life


It's a very hard life.

Colours

Littlest is getting fed up of the camera

Autumn

Bay City

Up 34th Street to the Hudson

Looking Downtown from the Empire State

Downtown

The Empire State Building from the Top of the Rock

From the Staten Island Ferry

Starling Fest

Littlest learns to crawl

Littlest gets ready for Halloween

Littlest celebrates his 1st birthday

Blackpool

The hard life just keeps getting harder

And harder

7th Avenue Waiting to Cross

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Hocus Pocus....

Well hello. Long time no see and all that. The excitement over the arrival of Littlest combined with a particularly nasty chest infection have kept me from this blog this past month. I'll take this opportunity to say I hope you had a great Christmas and all the best for the New Year.

Apart from the remnants of the aforementioned illness, I had a fabulous Christmas. Ten family members round the table with the newest family member slumbering in his own special chair. The ice and snow outside added to the Xmas atmos as ale was quaffed, wine sipped and food digested. We wearliy stumbled to bed in the early hours and slept like the righteous.

Boxing day and up to clear the previous day's detrius. Took my Mam back to her flat, had lunch and then off to the local to watch the richest club in the world present it's new manager who, in turn, presented us with a clean sheet and a victory against a robust Stoke City. A further two league wins since has seen us edge into the 'top four'. Heady days indeed.

New Year's Eve saw us at the local Italian for a meal and, later, a disco and fireworks. The restaurant overlooks a lake and we all gathered on the upstairs terrace to watch other displays across the Mancunian skyline. When these had finished ours began. When the display was over we were astonished to see the sky absolutely full of Chinese lanterns serenely floating in the crisp and clear night sky.

Soon after the New Year came.....the SNOW!!!! Tons of the stuff. I had to book a couple of 'snow days' as it was impossible to drive and the public transport was predictably unable to cope. Cars were abandoned in the road near where we live blocking access.

And still it fell.

I took a walk round the neighborhood, camera in hand, with Eldest and his mate before taking Dearest for a pub lunch whilst Eldest, Mrs Eldest and a gang of kids in their cul-de-sac built a snowman so big he was featured on the BBC regional news and the Manchester Evening News.

And still it fell.

We liberated some old plastic sledges from the shed and went sledging on a nearby hill. That brought back some memories I can tell you. A great couple of hours before heading back to the snugness of home.

The day after I did some shopping for my Mam and generally chilled at home. By Thursday the roads were ok to drive on with care although the side streets were a bit hairy - especially with erratically parked cars on either side. As I write this a week later the snow is still covering the pavements and quite a lot of the less well-used roads and it's just started snowing again.

One of the consequencies of all this white stuff is that Mrs Youngest can't get out and about with Littlest - prams and buggies are not designed for snow and she's not allowed to drive for another couple of weeks. In order to give them a break Dearest and I had Littlest overnight on Saturday. They went for a meal and were in bed fast asleep by 10:30pm. Heh heh! Two more erstwhile 24 hour party people embrace the shock of parenting and understand the presciousness of sleep.

We lay Littlest down on his changing mat and removed his nappy so he could kick his legs about - he loved it. After a while I went and got my acoustic and strummed a rich G chord. His eyes went wide and his limbs stiffened before he started pumping his legs and arms. He loves music that's for sure. I'll buy him a ukelele as soon as he can hold one.

Well, it's been a week since I wrote that last sentence and the snow has finally gone although the forecast is for more mid-week. Mind you the same body forecast a mild winter and a barbecue summer not so long ago, so why should we trust them to get this right? If it does come I'll guarantee that the country will grind to a halt again - especially now we have almost run out of grit.

It was back to normal at the World's richest football club also as we succoumbed to an energetic and skillfull Everton. Robinho came on as a substitute for the injured again Santa Cruz and was himself substituted. The sulky beggar did his usual trick of marching straight down the tunnel. It'll be interesting to see how Mancini deals with him over the coming weeks. Personnally I'd stick him in the reserves.

And another week has passed since the last paragraph. I really must post this as otherwise it will languish on my hard disk and be forgotten.

I though City looked unconvincing against United in the first leg of the League Cup Semi Final on Tuesday night. Notwithstanding the result we played far too deep and if we recreate that on Wednesday at Old Trafford we'll not be going to Wembley. The teams that have done the best there have been those that get stuck into them, those that attack. We can't afford to sit back and try and soak up their pressure - that way lies defeat.

We did manage to avoid a potential banana skin at Scunthorpe yesterday and we did it with quite a few Acadaemy products in the team. A fact that somehow passes by commentators who just peddle the 'World's Richest Club' soubriquet time and time again. These are the same commentators who excuse Arsenal's loss at Stoke with the argument that Wenger played kids because of the injury list he is dealing with at present.

The 'World's Richest Club' sported Cunningham, Boyata, Ireland, Ibrahim and Onuaha - all products of our academy - not a mention on the TV, just a constant reference to the 'Richest Club in the World' over and over again.

It's now Friday 29th January and five days since the last paragraph. City's Wembley dreams are over for now. A great game at Old Trafford ended in defeat over the two legs 4-3. I was disappointed but encouraged. The times they are a-changin'.

Since the last paragraph I have actually been to the cinema for the first time in 29 years. Avatar in 3d. What a spectacle! Absolutely superb three dimensional effacts with, sadly, two dimensional characterisation and one dimensional dialogue. I'd recommend it though, the 3D effects are stunning. I could never get the 3D effect with the old style red and green glasses on account of my defective eyesight and I must admit that as I trolled along with Mr and Mrs Eldest to the local mega movie house, I did think I may be wasting my time. But times have changed and instead of a pair of white cardborad, red and green lensed bits of crap, we received prpoer plastic 'men in black' jobbies. It rocked. It's amazing. Go and see it in 3D.....even better go and see it in 3D at an IMAX!

And since the last paragraph a gutsy and up for it Hull City have just taught Roberto Mancicni what his teams can expect on cold February afternoons in the north of England. Well done Hull you deserved it.

I'm finding it difficult lately to acquire the inspiration to post anything on here. Ideas flit through my brain but rarely make it to the screen. Is it time to shut the blinds and say 'the rest is silence'? Maybe. Maybe not, we'll see. In the meantime I may just use it as a photoblog until inspiration returns (if it does). Listen to Mumford and Sons....

I'll still be reading yours and commenting every now and then though. Here's some snaps

Littlest and Dearest

Beer in the local.

Mr Potter Takes a Tumble

Tea for Two on my Patio Before it Really Started Snowing

View Towards Central Manchester

The Giant Snowman! He Lives!!

The View from my Desk

Snow in the Playground

Post

Snow Tree

That's my Car

I 'Heart' Snow

Brake Lights in the Snow

Saturday, December 12, 2009

......Operating, Generating New life, New life......

Can I just say...I'M A GRANDAD!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome to the world Littlest!

Proud!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Trans.....

I got a call out of the blue the other week. Well, not out of the blue as such, more out of Stalybridge. It was my old band partner who, for the purposes of this blog, we shall dub 'Riff'. He was down my neck of the woods to do a live interview and play a few of his songs on a local radio station and suggested meeting up after it to catch up on the five years or so since we'd last made music together.

Geography and apathy were the reasons we drifted apart. There was no animosity. That's not to say there was a lack of 'musical differences' towards the end, but it was still amicable.

The last band we were in was a five piece predominately blues combo with acoustic leanings. We had a female vocalist, a bass player, harmonica, guitars, mandolin and a good mix of harmony vocals. Later a drummer appeared but by then the boredom had set in. Apart from anything else I was living miles away from the rest of them so every practice session ended up a very late night for me. On top of that the practicing was only being actually practiced by a dedicated few: other members made the same mistakes week after week. It was infuriating even though they usually got their act together for actual gigs. Worrying about bum notes from other members of the band while fretting about your own makes for a volatile mix though - guaranteed to churn the stomach.

On top of this I was curator of the most of the equipment which meant that I had to arrive at the venue and start putting the gear up and then pulling it down at the end. I was fed up with the whole enterprise and wanted to twiddle around in my little home studio.

And that's just what I did - much more enjoyable. Anyway I digress.

I listened in as Riff was probed by a local presenter and sang three of his self-penned numbers. Later, over a couple of drinks we reminisced about old times and told each other who'd died/had a stroke/divorced/gone to prison. It were grand!

Riff's in the process of recording his new CD and wants me play mandolin on four tracks. He's sent me the basic demos - just him and his acoustic so now it's down to me to come up with some arrangements. Three of them are fairly simple but one of them is run-laden master class in guitar playing that cries out for the mandolin to follow. I could get away with vamping chords in the background but my musical soul tells me that I would be doing the song a disservice.

There's some intense mandolin practice on the horizon that's for sure.

Riff is also a member of a loose coalition of musicians who call themselves the Acoustic Collective. It's an ad hoc, no strings coming together to play and sing for the hell of it. They do occasional gigs and festivals and he's asked me to pop along one night to check it out...........tempted. Very tempted.

For the first time in my ~~Personal Communications Device~~ mobile phone toting history I have finally acquired a brand new one. From scratch as it were. No more accepting hand me downs from my kids as technological advances lure them on to the next new thing, I've bitten the bullet. To be fair this wasn't just a whim - the phone I had (a very nice but battered HTC with pull-out keyboard , wi-fi and unlimited Internet) was great untill it started playing up: freezing, turning itself off and phoning people in the middle of the night!!! The decision was made.

I decided I was staying with O2 as I also had a dirt cheap fast broadband deal with them. So it was an 8Gb iPhone 3G.

I love it.

Apart from anything else it's a sublimely designed thing of beauty - as most Apple products are. It doubles as an iPod. I have downloaded an app to make it a DAB radio. I've downloaded an app to remind me of all the mandolin chord shapes I've forgotten. I access my email on it. Surf the net, watch YouTube videos, message, use it as a torch, play the piano, record and playback stuff....you can even phone people up on it if you wish.

In fact the only thing on it that lets it down is the camera. A measly 2 megapixel jobby that performs reasonably well during the day but is woefully lacking in low light. It looks like it has a variable ISO thingy to attempt to compensate for slower shutter speeds, but all this seems to do is add a lot of (visual) noise to the images. When I get my replacement in two years time I expect the camera to be at least as good as the one I had on my Sony Ericsson last year. Still....mustn't grumble....... Did I tell you I love it?

One of the apps you can get for the iPhone is Spotify, but at £9.99 a month I'll give it a miss. Even so it's odd that Apple have allowed this undermining of its own iTunes with a piece of software that allows you to listen to stuff in its entireity as well as now offering the option to purchase tracks. I guess Steve Jobs knows what he's doing so who am I to question.

But speaking of Spotify, once again I am indebted to this swell little Swedish service as it has allowed me preview another album before nipping along to iTunes to get it. Pugwash's amalgamation of past glories into a new album entitled 'Giddy' is a gem to match (if not surpass) The Duckworth-Lewis Method's homage to the Gentlemens' game earlier in the summer. Superbly crafted pop songs crisply played and produced and sung with a true pop voice by Thomas Walsh - driving force behind both bands.

I have started creating playlists for my own listening pleasure. I am half way through creating lists from my musically formative years - '65, '66, '67, '68, '69, '70, '71 and '72. A rummage around on Google soon throws up lists of stuff from the years mentioned that you can then find on Spotify and add to the lists. It's a nostalgia-fest that constantly reveals forgotten gems.

A great example of this was redsicovering 'Birth' by the Peddlers from 1969. I had completely erased this from my memory banks. I'm conviced I've never heard it since on radio or TV. It had just gone. But in 1969 I loved it, it was so out-of-odds with everything else that was happening musically. Three jazzers with the classic jazz line up of piano, bass and drums and the pianist singing in a strange half-strangled manner, took this into the top ten before promptly disappearing. And there it was on Spotify, waiting for me to find it again after all these years.

Pics as we wait..........