Jewels for the thirsty

Saturday, October 13, 2018

Senses working overtime #181

1 The Princess bride

Another day, another royal wedding. Jacky thought this dress was 'stunning' so this article is for her.

2 Poetry corner

Numeric Values

The Prime Mover
The Second Sex
The Third Wheel
The Four Seasons (see also Horseman)
The Fifth Dimension
The Sixth Sense
The Seven Hills (see also Dwarves)
The Eighth Wonder (see also Octomom)
The Nine Muses
The Tenth Inning
The Eleventh Hour
The Twelve Tribes

Elaine Equi (2015)

3 BBC 2 idents

4 Weird

The image, a street in Macau with the Grand Lisboa Casino looming in the background, is thought provoking (photograph by Paul Tsui, National Geographic), but the Twitter thread is also a wonderful dialogue.

5 More great poetry
In which Raymond Carver brilliantly sums up the joy of rain (and relaxing about life's mistakes):

Rain

Woke up this morning with
a terrific urge to lie in bed all day
and read. Fought against it for a minute.

Then looked out the window at the rain.
And gave over. Put myself entirely
in the keep of this rainy morning.

Would I live my life over again?
Make the same unforgiveable mistakes?
Yes, given half a chance. Yes.

Raymond Carver

Overtime
A story abour LeBron James and the most innovative school in America. Interesting reading. What have you got to lose?

Sunday, October 7, 2018

Senses working overtime #180

1 Senses on the move part 1
I had to travel to Warwickshire this week to attend a course for work.

Along the way I called into a service area, just outside Warwick, for the day's Guardian, which I read in the bar that night.

Shock moment was reading about Marty Balin's death. I hadn't realised he'd had a heart attack a few years ago and had lost the ability to sing as a consequence. That's a tragedy!

He's a genuine connection to my sixties/seventies/eighties self. And that's always sad - when a connection is severed.

2 Senses on the move part 2

Another purchase was a CD from WH Smith to while away the time in the car - one of those multi-pack compilations of usual suspects rock songs for a rawkus solo singalong (imagine Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire)

3 Senses on the move part 3

A mocha and an armond and raspberry slice from Costa Coffee hit the spot.

4 Geoff Emerick

Another good man done gone. Here's his Guardian obituary, along with this great photo.

5 and Overtime Marty Balin
Songs of the week went to Count On Me and Miracles

Sunday, September 30, 2018

Senses working overtime #179

1 Max confusion

Another difficult week for interweb activities as my senses this week were largely engaged in work related subjects.

Then I bought an HP printer and spent a large amount of time on Saturday (my JFTT day) trying to get it to connect and do basic things. Grrr.

Why are these things so complicated now?

So this week's addition is late. Sorry 'bout that, chief.

In fact this week I HAVE felt a lot like Maxwell Smart - some clumsy bumbling daft moments.

Ar well. You get that on the big jobs.

On to the jewels...

2 King Arthur - Legend of the Sword

Guy Ritchie's style is instantly recognisable. As I watched his Good Fellas take on the Arthurian legend I wondered about how Margo would have reacted. I think she'd have loved it!

3 Underground

One of the week's highlights was getting the train into Londonium a few times and riding the Underground.

I. Love. The. Underground!!

For some reason waiting for a District or Circle line train at Monument gets me very emotional. Weird.

4 Emirates

Met up with Randy and Patrick at Emirates last week to watch my team take on and beat Everton. From a Director's box no less.

Glorious sounds!! We're north bank, we're north bank, we're north bank Highbury!

5 Ponti's Italian Kitchen

We had dinner here on Friday night with old friends from Nu Zild - Steph and Duncan. I've been there loads of times but by Friday night my brain was fried and I forget A) where it was and B) its name. Eventually the fog cleared and we got there!

It's a cool place with lovely food.

Overtime Frank Zappa - Roxy By Proxy
This was on high rotate in the Purdmobile this week.

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Senses working overtime #178

1 Diving boards

Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash

Seth Godin! Nails it! Take that leap! I did!

2 Poetry corner

One Day

One day after another—
Perfect.
They all fit.

Robert Creeley

3 John Cage's 10 rules for teachers and students

James Whatley is back into his newsletter (does anyone do one better?? Love to see that!). So this list came from a link shared by James. Welcome back dude. Much missed!

4 Thanks Mo

Ha ha - since 1970 there have been endless stories like this one - Let It Be (may, possibly, but who knows) set for re-release in 2020 (or not).

Why it takes nearly 5 decades to release a film to an adoring Beatles public is beyond me.

I have a DVD bought online (sourced from Canadian TV if memory serves) and it would be GEAR to see it in pristine condition or heaven forbid - in a new expanded format. Come on Paul. Let it happen!!

5 David Crosby on tour in the UK

Great notices in The Guardian this week. I love his last few albums - and this is a great catch up from Rolling Stone.

Overtime - The aforesaid Macca's new one has one great song - Confidante

Saturday, September 15, 2018

Senses working overtime #177

1 Starting to get into the swing of new routines now...
S0 eeking out some time to check the interweb links this week. And that's OK, OK?

Ever wondered where OK comes from?

2 Poetry corner returns and so does Margaret Atwood

Habitation

Marriage is not
a house or even a tent

it is before that, and colder:

the edge of the forest, the edge
of the desert
the unpainted stairs
at the back where we squat
outside, eating popcorn

the edge of the receding glacier

where painfully and with wonder
at having survived even
this far

we are learning to make fire

Margaret Atwood (1970)

3 The return of Seth Godin

Dumber angrier louder

When someone tries to engage you with a pitch that’s simple, visceral and more direct than you’re used to, it may be that their vitriol is hiding the fact that they’re afraid.

We race to the bottom, or we climb forward.

Stereotypes, shortcuts and shallow invective are effective in the short run, but they’re not useful, important or the best we can do.

4 Jim Carrey returns to TV

Samantha works on his new show, Kidding, a bit. It sounds like a great vehicle for young Jim.

5 I hate Spurs, so I love this...

Overtime: Van the man!
A compendium of stellar pieces from Thom Hickey on the great man.

Sunday, September 9, 2018

Senses working overtime #176

1 House viewings

Two bed flat lower right

All about school starting this week, so no time for kicking back chillaxing with the interweb. Instead, in my avaiable spare time, I've been viewing potential houses to buy with Jacky.

We had an offer turned down on a place and so we're still at it. This one is the current front runner. Second viewing next week...

2 Pop Life

My nephew (pretty sure that's right - the son of my cousin) is a talented guy and I'm still enjoying immensely his musical journey through a gig a week for a year while battling depression and trying to locate where he fits in the world.

You can enjoy it too - get it from here!

3 The Choice

Edith Eger's extraordinary life is the fuel for this extraordinary autobiography. I've been reading it in tandem with Pop Life.

4 Shooter

This Netflix show has been our TV binge treat for the week. It's not that great but the abrupt violence keeps us entertained somehow.

5 Shearwater
Our Monday Night Album Club (MNAC) selection from last week was again on heavy rotation during this week.

Overtime: The Four Tops - Seven Lonely Nights
I sold their Night Lights Harmony album in a mad moment many years ago and found a mint copy up the road during the week from a funny little second hand book shop in Caterham On The Hill. It's only open Thursday, Friday and Saturday! One of those.