This Is This

Here’s a great pop song, and it ticks a lot of my happy boxes. Mandolin, saxophones, bittersweet lyrics. Sad shire horses in the sodium light.

I often wonder what would have happened if my family had stayed in Liverpool. I guess I like thinking about the connections we don’t know.

I’m a complex and flawed individual, and like songs that are sad but sound happy. Many Rivers To Cross by Jimmy Cliff is one, same with Northern Sky by Nick Drake.

I make no bones about liking Sting. He has written some great solo songs for his solo catalogue. Fortress Around Your Heart, I Hung My Head, Fields Of Gold.

He has also worked with some great musicians, including Larry Adler, who I once had the pleasure of meeting. This one has Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, who is an incredible pop drummer. Get something soft and fluffy under your jaw and check him out on Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation album - he does more things with cymbals than most people do with their lives.

I can’t listen to this song without at least miming the words “I looked out across” at the beginning. And the bass in the chorus is lovely. I like how all the choruses are different lengths. It’s just a great song.

Everyone? Y’all ready? Watch me, now… On me… Key change!

Teachers told us the Romans built this place.
They built a wall and a temple and an edge of the empire garrison town.
They lived and they died, they prayed to their gods but the stone gods did not make a sound.
And their empire crumbled ’til all that was left were the stones the workmen found.

Listen – All This Time

Have your say on tomorrow’s post.

1. Pug update/pugdate!

2. Video post!

3. You Ask For It - Accidents At Home!

4. Spiders!

The choice…

is yours.

So here I am talking to you online, but as a blogger I’m aware its weird sharing a personality online and egocasting it the way I do.

I guess I DO have a broadcasting persona, but in real life I’m not that much of a talker. I joke around and I talk about things, but I don’t really carry a conversation as much as it carries me.

I have been dabbling in therapy recently - mainly it was because I’ve never been sure whether my depression was just a general disposition or environmental and therefore something I could address.

It’s mild - I have never missed a day of work or stayed in bed all day and I sympathise with people who have it that bad. It must suck like I can’t imagine, but given a family history of mental illness it’s something that’s worth looking at - a lack of happiness for no good reason over a period of weeks should ring alarm bells.

I would hate to get to fifty five and then do something about it and regret not having done something twenty years earlier while the kids were at home.

My psychotherapist was stunned by the fact that I could talk about things in my life that had happened in without crying. Well, sorry toots, but I just met you.

Her theory was that I had never allowed myself an outlet for my feelings and I was out of touch with my emotions, but I think it was more that I was out of touch with her, because I’d only met her once. That gave her cause to say I was in denial, and I was never going to win that one. So that was the end of therapy - it lasted about a month.

Was it the right decision? Ask me in twenty years.

(That was the cool ending to the post. The real answer is I’m not sure and we left on very good terms. It was enlightening, but life’s good now. I might go back, if it becomes a train wreck - sorry, locomotive malfunction - when therapy could be the mental five-a-day I need. You are what you eat, but you’re also what eats you.)

Ola, punkass bitches. This goes back to here, while I cook up some regular posts for the future. In the meantime, though:
mike Says:
Six and two: sixty-two.

What kind of gardening do you like?
I like vegetable gardening.

How much time do you spend in the garden?
About half an hour a week actually gardening, but I like being outdoors. I have a table, loungers and everything.

Do you think gardening is good for your health?
It’s therapeutic. It’s about results but also the work and the patience, which is a good lesson for life.

What are the names of some famous gardens in your city?
Hyde Park, Kew Gardens, Green Park.

What are some vegetables which you grow in your garden?
Tomatoes, rhubarb, peppers aubergine, onions, lettuce. More fruit these days that vegetables.

Do you think trees need pruning every year?
Some. Pear trees and magnolias do.

What are the names of some famous gardens in your country?
Heligan

What are names of common flowers in your country?
Bluebells, daffodils, roses, daisies.

Does your house have a garden?
Yes.

Is there a flower store near your house?
Yes, lots.

What are some things that need to be done in the garden in the spring?
You need to plant out your borders and rake out the moss.

What are the some names of gardening tools?
Ho, shovel, trowel, etc.

Would you prefer to have a flower garden or a vegetable garden? Why?
A vegetable garden. I like the principle of it.

As a final point, it seems that Tesco are striking a blow for the fewer/less debate.

For years stores have been saying less when they mean fewer, which is kind of like saying much when you mean many. One is to do with a quantity and the other is to do with a definitive amount. It’s really not that hard, and finally trying to get it right.

I read in the paper yesterday morning that Marks & Spencer is selling fewer sandwiches these days so the company who prepares them is making forty-three of its employees redundant. Now, you can do what you want, but next time you buy a M&S sandwich, bear in mind hthat the person who made it could be one of the ones losing their job in six weeks.

Picture the pride they might have in their job, preparing your lunch as they prepare to face the dole queue with the qualifications of a sandwich packer in a failing economy.

I think I’ll have the pasta salad.

Related Post
It. Is. Not. Tescos.

I am also listening to fewer podcasts, but I still have the good ones.

The best one, as I have said many times before, is Keith And The Girl, which I have been a fan of for about three years. They have just announced that they are coming to London to do a live show, which I’m really excited about, and I’m helping to scout out venues for it.

Listen to the podcast, go to the live show. There are only expecting about 150 people there, but they are hilarious and brilliant.

Details will be posted here nearer the time.

(Three small posts today because I want each of them to come up as separate entries if people search for them)

Having some time off recently exposed a few home truths. One is that I need to look after myself better. I have said this before. Every fucking time I go away and come back I say this, but this time I mean it.

I could read more, I could go to bed earlier, I could exercise more and I could eat better, but I never seem to make the jump to really doing it.

Until now.

On Sunday, I went to the gym. Yeah. I rowed 1.5k (the machine said), ran for 20 minutes flat (covering two and a half miles), did some weights and machines. I was surprised I could run that much, but I think walking the dog in the morning and moving a lot between buildings at work has kept me fitter than I thought.

Going to bed earlier is hard, but I’m up at 6:30 every day, so I just need to do it. I am also reading more and have culled my time online. That last one has been hard, but I can’t read everything and there are just going to have to be things I don’t get to know.

I’m still in touch. I still check my email first thing and last thing, and I’m still writing this, but I need to be tougher on myself, so I have become a Me Nazi.

Weird stuff happening, because on Friday, the Something I’d Probably Do post should have gone live, but I noticed at the weekend I published it as Private, which means that only I could see it. And if I just wanted to read my stuff without anyone else, then I’d go back to filling notepads like I did for years.

I know bloggers say they don’t if people read their stuff or not, but it’s better when they do. It’s broadcasting, and that requires an audience. Yes, I’d probably be writing this if you weren’t reading, but you are so it’s a better experience.

Here’s a thing I love. It’s called Hammond Song by The Roches, and it just gets me. I has a great line, which is “We’ll always love you/but that’s not the point”.

It’s something people hear from people who think they have your best interests at heart.

They sing the same note, then go to harmony, they sing the same measures and then overlap, they stick to the structure, then split from it before you notice. I love this song.

I am not a teenage girl (sorry), and these lyrics have no particular meaning for me, so why should it connect so strongly for me?

That’s the thing about great writing – it connects us and joins our common sensitivities. Writing gives us the distance to allow us to get closer, without an approach. Don’t always listen to the advice of others, and do your own thing if it’s right. You certainly won’t get them here, but there are no easy answers.

All I can offer is a few simple truths, and here’s one today from Jack Kerouac, who wrote: “The straight line will take you only to death.”

Hall and Oates were huge when I was a kid, and still banging out some fine tunes when I was a kid in their hometown of Philadelphia. In the days before the travesties of Maneater and Private Eyes, it was undeniable that Darryl Hall was the greatest white soul singer since Michael McDonald.

Those days are a distant memory now, but thanks to the power of radio, today we have some fine songs - like this one, busting in and out in less than three minutes, blending soul, disco, R ‘n B and pop with horns, strings and everything.

Nina Simone covered this in 1978, and if it’s good enough for her, then it’s good enough here.

And don’t you know, don’t you know
that it’s wrong to take what is given you.
So far gone, on your own.
You can get along if you try to be strong
but you’ll never be strong.

Listen: Rich Girl