Senses working overtime #530

1 First week of the study break:

Photo by Matias North on Unsplash

2 Reading: Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell

The novel centres on a fictional 1960s British psychedelic rock band called Utopia Avenue. Quite apposite given my recent run down of Pink Floyd's late sixties albums on Goo Goo G'Joob. 

David Mitchell even has a scene in the book where characters watch a 1967 Pink Floyd gig. Fun.

3 Listening: Pink Floyd's Ummagumma 

Specifically, the live sides.  

4 Reading: Truman - David McCullough

5 Watched - Alone: Frozen

Overtime: 

Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day 

Thorton Wilder

Senses working overtime #529

1 Last week of term feeling:

2 Reading: Student scripts  

End of term practice tests for my three senior classes and Common Assessment Tests for my two junior classes are keeping me busy this week - more on this to come in Baggy Trousers.

3 Listening: Record package from Vinyl Countdown

('new' albums by Yes, Frank Zappa, Jimmy Buffett and Tears For Fears)

4 Viewing: Stats on three of my blogs this week

Goo Goo G'Joob

Baggy Trousers

Wozza's Place

I had a peek into some of my blog's statistics looking at who read three of them this week (Goo Goo G'Joob, Baggy Trousers, Wozza's Place). 

Overwhelmingly and interestingly, they are viewed mostly by people in Brazil, Vietnam and then the United States. Extraordinary!

Singapore remains the champ in terms of the all time stat for a few of the blogs. 

Greetings to everyone in my global readership!

5 Listening: Pink Floyd - The Division Bell

Overtime: Life - Jesuit priest Anthony de Mello  

"Think of yourself in a concert hall listening to the strains of the sweetest music when you suddenly remember that you forgot to lock your car. You are anxious about the car, you cannot walk out of the hall and you cannot enjoy the music. There you have a perfect image of life as it is lived by most human beings."

Courtesy James Clear

Senses working overtime #528

1 Winter solstice this week

Photo by Nico Drath on Unsplash

2 Watched: Star Wars: The Acolyte 

I loved this Star Wars offshoot on Disney +. It pulls together many seminal themes from Star Wars. Looking forward to Season 2.

3 Reading: Anne Tyler's breathing lessons

4 Watching: Alone - Season 10

We saw a promo for season 12 and then realised we hadn't yet seen season 10 or 11 (TV One on demand). The show gets great when it's a few weeks down and there are only 5 people left.

5 Listening: Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn

I've reached the Pink Floyd collection in my preparations for Goo Goo G'Joob posts. What a remarkable album Piper at the Gates of Dawn is. It still sounds like it was beamed down from a distant planet (which I guess Syd was orbiting at the time).

Only time for one track? Try their first song on their first album - Astronomy Domine.

Overtime: 

“The mind is everything in survival. If you don’t have the will to survive, no skill in the world will save you.”

A contestant on Alone.

Senses working overtime #413

1 Listening: Susan Cowsill

Loving both of her solo albums and Nanny's Song in particular.

2 Reading: Martin Chuzzlewit

3 Listening: Prince - Sign O' The Times

4 Watching: The Recruit (on Netflix)

5 Reading: Excellent article on Dark Side Of The Moon.

Overtime: 

A quote I’m pondering: “I don’t know what’s worse: to not know what you are and be happy, or to become what you’ve always wanted to be, and feel alone.” ― Daniel Keyes

Senses working overtime #16

1 The Fabs
My mate Greg Semmens (rhymes with lemons) alerted me to this - What goes on. It's amazing in its awesomeness and attention to bizarre detail. Some of it is a little suss but you have to admire the sheer anal retentiveness of the site.

2 Celebrating the mixtape
I'm NOT a fan of cassettes at all BUT I did love making mixtapes back in the day for friends and family. I still own one made by my English cousin at the end of the seventies which includes some great cutting edge punk singles that she was into then.

Anyway - here's a quick read on why mixtapes are a fantastic (lost) art form. 

3 Brian Wilson
I love Brian, The Beach Boys music, and John Cusack, a lot, but I have no intention of actually watching the recent movie about him. I suspect it's like all the other music bios ever made - naff!

This poster, however, is truly fab!

4 5 and (extreme) Overtime SOUNDS

Generally speaking my ears have had a wake up call this week as I unpacked boxes of records and boxes of CDs in our new house. Here's a three shot of my listening pleasure as I did so: