Senses working overtime #456

1 Back to the brick factory this week

2 Listening: Deep Purple's Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming

Of late, I've been chewing through the Deep Purple discography for my music blog Goo Goo G'Joob and this album from 1996 stood out.

3 Reading: Haruki Murakami - Killing Commendatore

Yes, still. It's a big book and time is tight to quote Booker T, but, I am really enjoying it! I'm nearly halfway - page 254.

Here's a bit:

“In the silence of the woods it felt like I could hear the passage of time, of life passing by. One person leaves, another appears. A thought flits away and another takes its place. One image bids farewell and another one appears on the scene. As the days piled up, I wore out, too, and was remade. Nothing stayed still. And time was lost. Behind me, time became dead grains of sand, which one after another gave way and vanished. I just sat there in front of the hole, listening to the sound of time dying.” 

4 Watching: The Good Doctor

Yes, still. We have just finished season 2. The writing and performances are still top notch. Favourite character - Aaron Glassman.

5 Listening: Tears For Fears

While visiting Vinyl Countdown in New Plymouth recently, I picked up a copy of their B-sides and rarities compilation album Saturnine Martial & Lunatic. There are some great tracks on the double album and I've become mildly obsessed with Pharoahs (I have it on the B side of a 12" single but rediscovering it is great) and Johnny Panic and the Bible of Silence.

Overtime: James Clear

"When I go into a situation, I try to keep a mindset of baseline optimism.

• When starting the day: It's going to be a good day.
• When meeting someone new: I'm going to like them.
• When trying something challenging: It's going to work out.

Problems will inevitably arise and I'll deal with them as the situation demands, but my preference is to assume I'm on a winning path until proven otherwise."

Senses working overtime #455

1 Family time in New Plymouth trumped everything this week

 

2 Popstar

Poppy Mae - the undoubted star of the show.

3 

Jade, Adam and Poppy

4  

Fanfa and Drew

5  

Mema and Asher feed George and other llamas

Overtime: 

Chris and Asher brave the Te Henui

The search for dinosaur eggs

Senses working overtime #454

 1 Feeling hot this week

Photo by David Law on Unsplash

2 Listening: Cooled down by Jean-Luc Ponty's Mystical Adventures

3 Reading: Murakami and Smollett

“Some men are wise and some are otherwise.” (Tobias Smollett)

I continued with both of these during the week. Each has me hooked!

4 Watching: The Good Doctor - Season 2.

We continued to be hooked by the characters and storylines of The Good Doctor this week.

5 Listening: Michael Oher on what The Blind Side didn't show

Overtime: 

"The wedding is an event, love is a practice.

The graduation is an event, education is a practice.

The race is an event, fitness is a practice.

The heart, mind, and body are endless pursuits."

James Clear

Senses working overtime #453

1 Feeling this week as I sort through some records:

2 Reading: Killing Commendatore (Haruki Murakami)

3 Listening: Thelonious Monk - Straight, No Chaser

4 Watching: The Good Doctor

5 Reading: The best sleeping position

I struggle with getting a good night's sleep at the best of times, but the recent heatwave had me considering this article.

Overtime: Choir! Choir! Choir! - Nothing Compares 2 U

Senses working overtime #452

1 Feeling this first week of January 2024:

Photo by Grant McIver on Unsplash

2 Reading: Elton John's Me

3 Re-reading: Roderick Random (Tobias Smollett)

As with Elton's book, I picked up a copy a year or so ago and they've been in the to-be-read pile ever since. Time to correct that.

I read the Smollett book when at University (so, over 40 years ago), and decided on a whim to buy a copy from The Little Red Bookstore. Now re-reading it with different eyes (I guess different brain too, but maybe not).

4 Listening: Thelonious Monk - Plays Duke Ellington

I'm enjoying a bit of a Monk-a-thon at present. If it's only one song you have time for, try Caravan.

5 Reading: About the sixties San Francisco band - The Charlatans

Overtime:  

Senses working overtime #451

1 Feeling this (Christmas) week

2 Reading: Ben Sanders - The Devils You Know

Holidays are not complete without a Ben Sandars novel.

3 Reading: Billy Connolly - Rambling Man

4 Listening: Crosby Stills & Nash - Guinnevere (live in Santa Cruz 1989)

5 Watched: Leave The World Behind

We enjoyed this one - unusual, thought provoking with excellent acting and a well disguised ending.

Overtime: Predictions

Wilbur Wright, who worked with his brother to create the first successful airplane, on predicting the future:

"I confess that, in 1901, I said to my brother Orville that men would not fly for 50 years. Two years later, we were making flights. This demonstration of my inability as a prophet gave me such a shock that I have ever since refrained from all prediction."

Source: Speech at Aero-Club de France (1908)​​

Senses working overtime #450

1 Feeling this week

Photo by Jorge Vasconez on Unsplash

2 Listening: David Crosby - Too Young To Die (from Thousand Roads)

3 Reading: Writer C. Raymond Beran on friendship

"What is a friend? I will tell you.

It is a person with whom you dare to be yourself. Your soul can be naked with him. He seems to ask of you to put on nothing, only to be what you are. He does not want you to be better, or worse. When you are with him, you feel as a prisoner feels who has been declared innocent. You do not have to be on your guard. You can say what you think, so long as it is genuinely you. He understands those contradictions in your nature that lead others to misjudge you.

With him you breathe freely. You can avow your little vanities and envies and hates and vicious sparks, your meannesses and absurdities and, in opening them up to him, they are lost, dissolved on the white ocean of his loyalty. He understands. You do not have to be careful. You can abuse him, neglect him, tolerate him. Best of all, you can keep still with him. It makes no matter. He likes you. He is like fire that purges to the bone. He understands. He understands. You can weep with him, sin with him, laugh with him, pray with him. Through it all—and underneath—he sees, knows and loves you.

A friend? What is a friend? Just one, I repeat, with whom you dare to be yourself."

4 Reading: This is the way

Some practical life lessons from Taoism

5 Reading: Times 1000 - Seth Godin

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

Overtime: Watching: Christmas movies