DAYS OUT: Crepuscule?

This evening.

Some nice views whilst out working this evening…

Ummm… !?

I tried one pano pic. Kind of failed. But still looks nice.

Reflections.
Flooded fields, Welney.

I do wish I had a much much much better camera. My old iPhone just doesn’t cut it!

Eh!?

Occasionally even an accidental/crap photo has a certain charm…

MUSiC: Guitar

OMFG!!! I just picked up, tuned, and played a guitar. For the first time in… ??? It’s got to be a few years now!?

Ironically it was in furtherance of a rather depressive poetic lyric that came to me this morning. Indeed, that has been rattling around my noggin for aeons:

I’d rather be asleep than awake…

Lookit all that dust!

Anyway, much to my surprise, and relief, I actually enjoyed the experience. And, against my own dour expectations of failure, I came up with both a melody (and/or various variations thereon) and some supporting chords.

One dissonant note: my arthritic first finger of my left hand is not helping! But despite even that, I think I have the nugget of an idea worth pursuing here.

So I shall.

For now that means practicing the chord sequence until I can get it down cleanly at least four times in a row. I’ll then (re)record it, and stash it here, as a reference.

I’ve also recorded very ropey initial vocal and melodic chordal sketches on my iPhone. For further reference.

MUSiC: Song For You, Carpenters, 1972

An absolute classic. The Carpenters best album, in my opinion.*

*Subject to change, based on experience!

I actually find it quite hard to listen to the whole album in one go. Why? Because, like some Joni Mitchell, I find it emotionally devastating. Okay, it’s very very different from Joni Mitchell, in so many ways. But it does have emotional power.

The more I listen to Carpenters, the more I feel complex feelings about the core duo of Richard and Karen.

Karen, Wes Jacobs, and Richard.

They got a boost winning a talent show, as callow youths, in trio form, with Wes Jacobs on bass (and, or so I’ve read, tuba!). And it’s clear that, from the get go, Richard – the elder of the siblings – was the driver, ambition and musical arrangements wise. But Karen obviously became a focal point, ultimately to her own great detriment.

Pure unalloyed joy.

What’s so great about this album is that it perfectly balances Richard’s geeky goofiness with Karen’s terrific voice, and it finds them presenting one of their best and most consistent sets of compositions.

Ok, ‘Intermission’ is almost a redundant throwaway bauble, and Piano Picker another reminder of Dick’s doofus persona. But truth be told, this awkwardness silly, clever, earnest stuff, is all part of the siblings’ DNA.

But the single most compelling ingredient, and they both have it in spades, despite any/all of the razzle-dazzle showbiz chutzpah, is good ol’ fashioned melancholy. And this album drips melancholy, like a wounded rubber tree.

FiLM: The Last Man on Earth, 1964

There are some aspects of this film I love. Some of the settings, for example. And also some of the ideas. And then there are some that are less good: there’s some fairly wooden acting, and some dubbing that doesn’t help.

One of many great locations.
Creating some powerful images.

But given the recent Covid pandemic, the idea of an airborne disease that destroys humanity, almost completely, is perhaps more scary than hitherto?

The zombie/vampire aspect of it? Hmmm…

It’s interesting that the zoonomic pathway to human disease, for Covid, was prob’ via bats (and poss pangolins?). But one can read the zombie/vampire thing another way; as a view on modern humanity as inherently failed and flawed.

A fab’ image!

It’s also interesting in that it suggests a form of human evolution that supersedes ‘us’, i.e. humanity as we are now.

But somehow the film hangs in limbo, between these interesting ideas (and the powerful spooky images) and something much more trashy and cornball. It’s an odd ‘un, alright!

Harrowing.
Hardcore.
Classic zombie home invasion…
… and Vincent Price style horror!

MUSiC: Thin Lizzy, The Tube, 1983

Wow! This takes me back. Back to my forlorn childhood. Thin Lizzy were my first ‘serious’ band, so to speak. Prior to that I’d liked Status Quo, and not really had much in the way of clearly defined tastes in music.

The interview segment of The Tube video is a bit sad, really. Mainly ‘cause Lynott comes off as a bit of dick. He was probably high, alas.

But the music? That’s where his fuller self comes through. And, sandwiched between the heavier rockin’ Boys Are Back and Cold Sweat? ‘The Sun Goes Down’. The sensitive balladeer in Lynott was always in there.

Thanks, Heidi.

A girl I knew, from school, Heidi, loaned me the above, on cassette. I used to listen to it on a little cassette player, which I’d place under my pillow! I also started listening to The Friday Rock Show, with Tommy Vance; another under the pillow late night pleasure!

Ah, the memories…

Above is the Dixie Dregs ‘Take It Off The Top’, which was the theme for The Friday Rock Show.

And here they are doing it live at Montreux:

The Friday Rock Show also used this Van der Graaf number:

And here they are, doing it live, on Belgian TV, in ‘72:

Ah, the innocence of youth. Tucked in under the warm duvet of ‘family life’. That particular ‘family unit’ didn’t survive, alas. And, like innocence and simple happiness, it’s all just misty memories, fading in the rear view mirror of life.

Tommy Vance.

MUSiC & ART: Grover Washington Murals

I was listening the Grover twofer I recently acquired. By God, it’s good!

It’s nice to know that Grover is loved and remembered, as testified to by these two murals:

Philadelphia.
Buffalo.

Grover, and the incredible musicians he played with, transported me to Heaven this afternoon. As did The Carpenters’ Song For You.

HEALTH & WELLBEING

My dratted cold is still hanging about, like an unwelcome guest…

It seems to have shifted from predominantly throat based (coughing, upper respiratory tract irritation, etc), to largely nasal. Whereas prior to now, I was surprised at how little mucus I was producing, now it’s at those unpleasantly prodigious levels of output I associate with a cold.

I also struggle with mental health issues. And I sometimes wonder, chicken and egg style, which came first? Is there a causal relationship of any kind ‘twixt the two?

I’ve been getting particularly bad January colds now for the last five years, at least. Always the same: tickly, wheezy throaty biz, and then associated issues: headaches, beck pain, sore throat (all exacerbated by so much coughing); then nasal stuff, added to the coughing.

And these things can, esp’ if not managed well, cause sleep issues. I have to try and sleep with my torso more or less upright, to deal with the constant cough.

I do worry that this annual pattern is now repeated every year, without fail. And in the exact same ways. I’m even worried it might do me in.

And then there’s trying to earn a crust, whilst unwell. I really ought to just rest, and recover. But economic circumstances simply rule that out. I have to earn. So I have to get up, go out, and work. Even if that keeps the cold going longer. Which I very much suspect it does.

And this all feeds into depression. The despairing feeling that things are more likely to get worse, as time passes, than better.

So a cold, or at least the kind of colds I’m getting, rapidly lead me to very self-destructive thought patterns. Based on the old ‘cessation of suffering’ gambit.

CLOTHES: Simon Reeves’ Green Shirt

Teresa’s been watching Simon Reeves in South America.

Salar de Uyuni (Bolivian salt flats).

I fell in love with both these stunning salt flats, the Salar de Uyuni, and Simon’s fabulous green shirt.

Simon meets Chola Boca.

Simon meets some great and inspiring people on his travels. I tried to find the names of the two folk pictured with him, above and below, but was unable to do so.

In Brazi, with (?).
Very nice!

Alas, nice things, such as this shirt, often turn out to be rather expensive. This turns out to be the case in this instance.

Oh dear!

What a bummer! I really cannae afford such expenditure. I guess I need to rethink my economic position…