Senses working overtime #580

1 Tough week of medical dramas...

Photo from Unsplash

...with Keegan having his (successful) back operation, Fanfa her root canal, and the Minister of Defense his on-going hospitalisation in New Plymouth, and now Waikato.

2 Watching: FIFA World Cup 2026

 

Four games a day of top football action! Welcome to heaven.

3 Reading: Ringo - A Fab Life by Tom Doyle

I struggled to eek out some quality reading time this week but this excellent biography continued to hold my interest. Luckily, Ringo's alcohol/drugs fueled years were dispensed with reasonably adroitly.

4 Celebrated: Macca's 84th birthday...

...on June 18 with Now and Then (the video is great too but have tissues ready) and my favourite track on The Boys of Dungeon Lane - Home to Us. 

5 Listening: Billy Thorpe - Solo

Overtime: Thornton Wilder

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

Basically, the motto of this blog!

Senses working overtime #579

1 FIFA World Cup 2026

And we're off in sparkling fashion, thanks to Shakira's amazing performance.

2 Watched - Long Promised Road 

I know I mentioned this one a few weeks ago, but I was interrupted and finished watching it while Jacky was in New Plymouth.

It's quite an emotional experience watching a frail and often anxious Brian Wilson being driven around some of his old haunts. There's always a price to pay.

3 Reading: Ringo - A Fab Life by Tom Doyle

Really getting into this version of Ringo's story set out in 70 bite size themed chapters - gear!!

4 Watching: Lays' FIFA World Cup 2026 bandwagon advert 

YEEHAR!!!

5 Watching: Rip the script!

Awesome football celebration from Nike. I love football!

Overtime: World cup players motto from Basil King

Be bold - and mighty forces will come to your aid.

Senses working overtime #578

1 Reading: The Little Book of Arsenal

Some great quotes in the book, like Martin Keown's, 'Second in the league might be good enough somewhere else, but not at Arsenal'.

2 Listening: Stan Getz - Captain Marvel

This 1972 album by Stan Getz was an excellent acquisition from The Little Red Bookshop this week.

3 Missing Grace

Sadly, this week we said goodbye to Grace. 

Compared to humans, our pets (cats, dogs and horses), have a much shorter lifespan. Grace has been a much-loved part of our family since Red Phoenix Farm around 13 years ago, so it was an especially hard week. Be assured, as a kindhearted and lovely looking girl, she'll be catnip to all those boy horses in horse heaven.

4 Reading: Ringo: A Fab Life - Tom Doyle  

5 Viewing: Sleeping Dogs

I'm showing this to my Year 10 class as part of a unit on the dystopian genre. The film is very prescient, and it holds up remarkably well for a film made in 1977 (trailer is here). 

Overtime: Don Howe (Arsenal manager in 1971 - the league and FA Cup double year)

Above all we were blessed with a backbone of men with character who demanded excellence from others.

Senses working overtime #548

1 Cruisey work week

Photo by Jairph on Unsplash

2 Watched: Hunted season 7 (I think) TV on Demand

3 Listened to: Ringo Starr albums

Up to Starr in the Goo Goo G'Joob countdown. Try this live album - Live at Soundstage - on for size.

4 Still reading: Our Mutual Friend and Never (Rick Astley)

5 Listening: WTWMC - Tragically unhip

Overtime: Paulo Coelho

"You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it."

Senses working overtime #125

1 Women who draw
Freakin' awesome site that Austin Kleon's newsletter clued me into. Here's one (Cait Brennan) I clicked randomly:

2 Look up!
As a mini project, 88 of the women who draw looked up and drew what they saw. The results are stunning!

3 Nine eleven
This is sobering




4 Han Solo

Harrison Ford appears to be the most boring man alive in interviews and so freakishly awesomely cool as Han Solo. Appears. 

5 What's his name?

Dear old Mr Starkey doesn't get into the mainstream news much any more. But he did just now, with his revolutionary view on Brexit (smiley face, two thumbs...oops, wrong bloke, er, peace signs up).

Overtime
For me, cover versions have to add something to both parties to be meaningful. Think Hendrix doing Dylan, Joe Cocker doing The Beatles, and The Beatles doing The Isley Brothers.

I've been catching up on MySky recorded stuff and Norah Jones doing Young on Later With Jools Holland blew my socks off.

Unfortunately, that particular version (with Jools on some nifty organ) is not available on YouTube (annoying) but here's the cover she's put out:

Senses working overtime #32

1 Ringo Starr

The Beatles (White Album) #0000001

The great man is selling off a load of tat, I mean antiques and memorabilia. Some thoughts - where the hell did he store all this stuff? I bet there's more! Why did he keep it? Did he like all this stuff? How much stuff do you need? And so on...

Here's the news story but if you're like me and nosey - scan through the whole catalogue. It's an eye opener!

Wouldn't mind that first copy of The Beatles - expected to go for around $60,000!

2 Star Wars

These fan posters are pretty doggone awesome.

3 That did NOT just happen!
Watch this. It is freakish.



This kid solved a Rubik's Cube puzzle in under 5 seconds. Yep. Five. SECONDS.

4 Christmas 1991
I dug out this old photo to celebrate Jade's birthday today - she's four weeks old in the photo.

Funny looking back - I have a really strong sense of that time - new baby, living in Nelson NZ and how things looked, smelled etc. Senses were most definitely working overtime!

5 Overtime
Michael Jackson's Black Or White was number one 24 years ago...

Senses working overtime #24

1 Weight loss - 4 secrets to share
This is a brilliant piece of writing! The surprise quotient is set at 100%

2 Richie
Speaking of brilliant - All Black captain Richie McCaw. Watch this and do a digital fist pump with THE MAN!



3 San Andreas
This is a laughably terrible film (Dwayne Johnson, a.k.a. The Rock is beyond criticism but the money was spent on great special effects and not a cast that could act or a script that had any depth whatsoever) BUT the poster for it is fantastic!!

4 The Eels

Not the rugby league team, no, the brilliant band responsible for this:

5 The Beatles
Mojo have a new Beatles cover out! Wahoo!!! To celebrate - here's a great photo!

Which reminds me...

Overtime: Ringo!

Need to get this (as soon as the dust settles on some large vinyl purchases recently): Richie's own photographs. I loved his Postcards From the Boys collection and can't wait to get my hands on this -

Okay - all for this week. Enjoy.