Senses working overtime #502

1 'Twas the week before Christmas

2 Reading: Jimmy Barnes - Working Class Man

I bought this after finishing Working Class Boy (inspired by Anne Marie's week on WTWMC - Loved Ones - see below). WCM's not as visceral or as wildly funny as WCB but great on the background to Jimmy's solo career and reuniting with Cold Chisel. 

3 Listening: WTWMC - Loved Ones

Last week was Anne (no hyphen) Marie's turn, next up is my dad - Graham Purdy. Then, after him is the final week with Kev's mum - Barbara Simms. It's a fabulously eclectic playlist that the amigos have conjured up to celebrate their partners and parents. Listen to it best on shuffle mode.

4 Listening: WTWMC - Christmas Crackers

Our seasonal playlist of 21 songs is indeed a manageable Christmas cracker.

5 Reading - When We Was Fab - The Beatles

Jade gave me a copy of this for my birthday - it's full of great memorabilia, photos, and text relating to the Fabs 1964 world tour, but concentrating on their Australasia section.

The forensic nature of the book is amazing - i.e. the letters and captions detailing the people. The Jimmy Nicol incident (replacing Ringo for the first stages of the tour while he was in hospital) is especially detailed and great to read.

Overtime: 

It’s officially “Let’s circle back in 2025” season (according to Morning Brew)

Senses working overtime #501

 1 My favourite jeans

(See what I did there?)

2 Reading: Working Class Boy - Jimmy Barnes

It's been sitting in the pile for a while. I reached for it as we are heading into Aussie rawk territory next for WTWMC - Loved Ones. 

My abiding thought as I read through Jimmy's harrowing childhood was - poor wee mite. 

3 Listening: WTWMC - Loved Ones

Harry Knowles has now been added to the playlist - next up for this week is Anne Marie McCulloch (who loves Jimmy and Cold Chisel). 

4 Sounds and smell: this seascape 

Last night we stayed at Patrick and Randy's gorgeous place in Taranaki. Superb stay with crashing waves, salty breeze and fantastic friends.

5 Listening: Carole King - Tapestry

Gets better with age!

Overtime:  

Roman scholar and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero on the value of making numerous attempts:

"For who is there who, shooting all day, will not sometimes hit the mark?"

Senses working overtime #500

Photo by Tessa Edmiston on Unsplash

This is the 500th edition of Jewels For The Thirsty (the blog's title comes from an XTC song called...Senses Working Overtime - see what I did there?) 

I've selected one item from each of the top 6 most popular weeks of all time (well, since it started with week #1 in April 2015).

1 The most popular week so far has been #178 - 

 John Cage's 10 rules for teachers (#178 from 2018)

2 Christmas is football (# 193 - below is from 2019) 

Always a frenzy of activity over the festive period - notably Liverpool lost their 100% winning record and Man City lost three games! Loads of drama to follow on MOTD.

As to my teams - Rochdale are solid in the lower reaches of League One and the gunners wobbled. But we still beat Spurs 4-2!!

January transfer window is always interesting. We need some defenders please.

3 The Fab Fabs (#263, from 2020)

They heighten my senses every day, let alone every week.

4 Vinyl celebration #213 (below is from 2019)

 
It's been a funny old week. But then I connected up my turntable after a long time in storage. It felt good! This week's edition is late. Wah wah. Cry me a river. Here are five plus vinyl celebrations.

 

5 Waterloo Sunset (#209, below is from 2019)

 

The Kinks masterpiece goes under the Thom Hickey microscope on his great blog - The Immortal Jukebox.

Overtime: Senses working overtime #57 (below is from 2016. This one is a peach. Hard to pick just one item so do yourself a giant favour and go to the link. But if you shove...try):

Cool

I was never a cool kid, never hip, so this piece from a kindred spirit struck a nice chord.

Senses working overtime #499

1 Jade's birthday (28 November 1991)

Jade's out in front again this week with celebrations for her 33rd birthday. Jacky takes a mean photo!

Here's to you DLG!

2 Listening: WTWMC - Loved Ones

We've completed four of our loved one's selections now - 60 songs for Jacky, Joan, Joe, and Wendy. My mum is up next week.

3 Listening: The Voidz - Like All Before You

4 Reading: BBC Essentials - Nine TV shows they recommend for December viewing

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew

5 Reading: Brew - Indie bookstores are thriving!

Overtime: Unplugging from the matrix

I watched The Social Dilemma with my Year 10 classes this week. Key takeaway - delete your notifications! So I have been doing just that this week.

Senses working overtime #498

1 Big week this week as Samantha and Andrew settled on their wedding date - May 2, 2025.

Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash

2 Listening: Wozza's album collection

Been listening to Part 1 (there are four so far). 

3 Reading: How railroads inspired the creation of time zones

4 Listening: Greg Johnson's Liberty

In 1997, Johnson won the APRA Silver Scroll, New Zealand's most prestigious songwriting award, for Liberty from the album Chinese Whispers.

5 RIP Teri Garr  

RIP Phil Lesh from Grateful Dead

Overtime: 

"The easy, conversational tone of good writing comes only on the eighth rewrite."

Paul Graham

Senses working overtime #497

1 The feeling this week:

2 Reading: The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald

Savouring this book - taking it slowly.

3 Listening: Billy Joel - Piano Man

I'm listening to this album on repeat for my collection countdown on Goo Goo G'Joob. I'd forgotten how good this album is. Travellin' Prayer is an excellent opener.

4 Listening: WTWMC - Loved Ones

Joan's week is in the books. Next up is Joe Simms.

5 Viewing: Gladiator II

Looking forward to this one. Promo is here.

Overtime: Emily Dickinson 

Forever is composed of nows.

Senses working overtime #496

1 The feeling this week:

Alyssa Smith on Unsplash

2 Texture of the week: Movember

One week down, Jacky is not a fan, but the beard is growing on me (hahahahahaha). That Movember link again.

3 Listening: WTWMC - Loved Ones

One week completed (the Jacky week). See what you think here.

4 Listening: Jefferson Starship presents Jefferson's Tree of Liberty

A (very) late career highlight - Paul Kantner and David Freiberg etc return to their folk roots for an acoustic outing. Amazingly good! Not on Spotify sadly, but it is on YouTube. 

Only time for one track? Try Royal Canal.

5 R.I.P Quincy Jones

Overtime: James Clear

"When you think you are too old to do something new remember you will never be younger than you are right now."