sometimes i wonder....

 odd, when you get those moments, you just feel like saying something, and you wait to see what it is

 so what gives?

work life balance going a bit askew again....

spectrum as always getting some time, mostly in a frustrating behind the curtain sorta way.....

took a tumble recently, bruises fading now, but not a good time to happen....

today is Transgender Day of Remembrance....a reminder why

so I'm up early again, off to a conference to do my bit, if they'll let me....

and really all i want to do today is plant some flowers and drink some tea *ho hum*



still you gotta laugh, eh!

yes its fucking political

Replying to a friends status post on FickleBarf earlier, I got a bit 'lyrical' I think I'd call it....it brought to mind how the day to day situation we live in, in the UK seems to have changed quite dramatically recently. He had said how he was feeling like he never thought he would do....apolitical and frustrated....

what I wrote was....

" Politics is too important to be left to those scurrilous, dishonest, lying, amoral self serving parasites who sit in judgment of the rest of us, making laws to legalise hate, criminalise freedom and fill their own pockets with all they can ...get their greedy hands on....politics is about our communities, our friends, families, work mates, how we live, love, laugh and cry together.. don't give up on your true feelings of whats right and wrong in this world [xxx]....such ideas and values are part of what makes us all who we are, stay strong,"

It's rare that I find I can put into words what I actually really feel and mean....and it has prompted this blog.

In my time, I've been political, though not in that party way, but more from a sense of morality, a feeling of whats right and wrong. Suspicious of dogma, I find it hard to find any 'ist' to be...anarchist communist socialist feminist....prefer to be activ-ist in my own small way.....

never comfortable with the 'left and right' of the political 'spectrum' (no, not my other day job!)  being convenient labels that can all to easily be used as a weapon against you, words being as they are, definitions can be binding controlling fastening restricting, especially if it isn't you who sets the type of the printing press, in a figurative sorta way.

these days, it seems that we have a polarity developing in a similar vein to that of the 80's during the time of Thatchers government, though I can see a more desperate frustrating and anquished tone in in the air....

Who can we trust? Where are the glorious rabblerousing defiant charismatic leaders to lead the downtrodden masses to the promised land? The same place they have been for so long....in our dreams, told to us in mythic rewritten historical dramas, replaced by 'the ordinary man (and sometimes now, woman) who defies the odds in a 3D widescreen version, dolby stereophonic sound with CGI accompaniment.

perhaps this time around, we won't follow the rabbit down the hole....look at each other, remember who we love respect work with play with live with die with....we have more in common than we can see or hear, disenfranchised unempowered marginalised or perhaps you feel more fortunate? a job a home toys to play with though some are now finding out how easy they can be lost. Some of us know it already, have been there and may get the 'fear'....'i dont want to go back to that' ...'after all my hard work' ... with the added realisation that we got 'out' the first time round because of the energy of youth with time on our side.

no one is innocent but some are more guilty than others....I think I heard that said somewhere before but it escapes me where...forget the blame game....forget what the news tells you, hey, forget what your newspaper radio television computer is telling you for a moment at least (yes, even this bloggeral) and think...

fear or love....a simple choice someone once said....join with those you love, not those you fear

there are many practical tips idioms ways of living that people may propose as a solution to the ills of us all...I'm not really confident that I know the answer, but I believe that looking for one is a good start

asking the question may not lead to life love liberty for all  but I think ...

what do we have to lose but our fear?

a walk on a sunday afternoon...

...well not a lot to say today, at least nothing I can put into words right now




still...

this afternoon, a walk out and about and a we took a few pictures along the way, watched some birds here and there


a robin or two
some crows having lunch in a field
an owl scooting across the sky as the sun was making its way down
the usual wood pigeons that seem to be everywhere
great tits blackbirds and a few other little ones that we failed to see properly before they flew off



no pictures of any of these though, just watching them through a set of binoculars but we did take some other pictures of around and about...take a look

leafy paths

a window in the hedge

even trees seem to hurt sometimes

looking like tears....just the flow of sap

sadly not resting...

some of the other lifeforms...

waterways

follow the path....

a different view

more lifeforms

....and when we get home, right there on our doorstep....well, under the doorbell actually we find more new life

cute little mother eh?

just a sunday afternoon walk.... 

40 Years In an Open-Necked Shirt

John Cooper Clarke

The Salford Bard



Back in the late 70's/80's JCC seemed to be everywhere.....all those GLC free shows, gigs with all and sundry as support.

I was reminded of John today, as I was browsing records in a market in Hitchin. Digging out heaps of old punk singles such as the Subs, Clash, Zounds amongst many others brought this classic to mind.

The Innocents EP. Produced by Martin Hannet (under the name Martin Zero) who was also involved in so many other classic records. As well as Factory Records acts such as A Certain Ratio and Joy Division, he worked with the Buzzcocks (the outstanding Spiral Scratch EP, for example), Magazine, OMD and a stack of others. More details of this and more can be seen on the Martin Hannett website at http://www.martinhannett.co.uk/disco.htm

The picture above is of the front cover of the single. A rummage through youtube found the tracks from the EP. The lyrics are also here if you feel like joining in!

Enjoy :D

SUSPENDED SENTENCE...

Read the paper - humdrum
Henley Regatta - page one
Eat die - ho hum
Page three - big bum
Giving a lunatic a loaded gun
He walks - others run
Thirty dead - no fun
Foreigners feature as figures of fun
Do something destructive chum
Sit right down - write a letter to the Sun
Say... "Bring back hangin' for everyone"
The took my advice - they brought it back
National costume was all-over-black
There were corpses in the avenues and cul-de-sacs
Piled up neatly in six-man stacks
Hanging from the traffic lights and specially made racks
They'd hang you for incontinence and fiddling your tax
Failure to hang yourself justified the axe
A deedely dee, a deedely dum
Looks like they brought back hangin' for everyone
The novelty's gone - it's hell
This place is a - death cell
The constant clang of the funeral bells
Those who aren't hanging are hanging someone else
The peoples pay - the paper sells
It's plug ugly - sub-animal yells
Death is unsightly - death smells
Swingin' Britain - don't put me on
They're gonna bring back the rope for everyone

Innocents...

I never broke your windows
I never broke your rules
I never took to your tender ventetta
I didn't touch you family jewels
Revenge is a strong emotion
Friction is the mother of pearl
It's a disapproving, disappointing, disappearing world
Now what's this...
I didn't burn your house down
I didn't break your hearts
I never tried to steal your car
I wouldn't know where to start
Don't blame me if your life's a bore
Not gonna look at your curves
Don't point your finger anymore
You're getting on my nerves
Your tepid shallows of a failing brain...
Innocents
...last of the wholly innocents
Innocents
...last of the wholly innocents
Innocents
...last of the holy in a sense
I never broke your windows
I never broke your rules
I never took to your tender ventetta
Didn't touch you family jewels
Revenge is a strong emotion
Friction is the mother of pearl
It's a disapproving, disappointing, disappearing world
Who is if I'm not to blame...

Innocents
...last of the wholly innocents
Innocents
...last of the wholly innocents
Innocents
...last of the holy in a sense

I didn't run to your rescue
I didn't hear you scream
Citizen's arrest
You've got to give Joe Public his cream
Murder is a powerful picture
It's food for the famished mass
But I didn't do your meter's
I'd never do things like that
In the who's who of capital gains....

Innocents
...last of the wholly innocents
Innocents
...last of the wholly innocents
Innocents
...last of the holy in a sense

PSYCLE SLUTS (PARTS 1 & 2)

part one...

this disc concerns those those pouting prima-donnas
found within the swelling j. arthur ranks of the sexational psycle sluts
those nubile nihilists of the north circular
the lean leonine leatherette lovelies of the leeds intersection
luftwaffe angels locked in a pagan paradise
no cash
a passion for trash
the tough madonna whose cro-magnon face and crab nebular curves haunt the highways of the UK, whose harsh credo captures the collective libido like lariats
their lips pushed in a neon-arc of dodgems
delightfully disciplined, dumb but deluxe
deliciously deliciously deranged
twin-wheeled existentialists steeped in the sterile excrements of a doomed democracy, whose post-nietzschean sensibilities reject the bovine gregariousness of a senile oligarchy
whose god is below zero, whose hero is a dead boy
condemned to drift like forgotten sputniks in the fool's orbit bound for a victim's future
in the pleasure dromes and ersatz bodega bars of the free world the mechanics of love grind like organs of iron to a standstill
hands behind your backs
in a noxious gas of cheek to cheek totalitarianism
hail the psycle sluts
go go the gland gringos
for the gonad a-go-go age of compulsory cunnilingusa

part two...

the dirty thirty
the naughty forty
the shifty fifty
the filthy five
zips, clips, whips and chains
wait for you to arrive
hell's angels by the busload
stoned stupid, how they strut
smoked woodbines till they're banjoed
and smirk at the swedish smut
life on the straight and narrow path
drives you off your nut
by day you are psycopath
by night you're a psycle slut
on a bsa with two bald tires
you drove a million miles
you cut your hair with rusty pliers
and you suffer with the pillion piles
you got built in obsolescence
oh you got guts
but you don't reach adolescence
slow down psycle sluts
motor cycle michael
wants to buy a tank
only twenty-nine years old
and he's learning how to wank
yesterday he was in the groove
today he's in a rut
my how the moments move
brut fun psycle sluts
he cacks on your originals
he peepees on his boots
he makes love like a footballer
he dribbles before he shoots
the goings on at the gang-bang ball
made the citizen's tut-tut-tut
but, what do you care, piss all
you tell 'em psycle sluts
now your boyfriend burned his jacket
ticket expired
tyres are knackered
knackers are tired
you can tell your tale to the gutter press
get paid to peddle smut
now you've ridden the road of excess
that leads to the psycle sluts
or you can dine and whine on stuff that's bound to give you boils
hot dogs direct from cruft's
done in diesel oil
or the burger joint around the bend
where the meals thank christ are skimpy
for you that's how the world could end
not with a bang but a wimpy.

John is still alive and well and still performing. Take a gander at his website at:

http://www.johncooperclarke.com/



EP Liner Notes:

John Cooper Clarke and the Curious Yellows

• Eric - Guitar
• Middle - Electric Bass
• Joe Viality - Drums
• John Scott - Guitar and Bass on Psycle Slute
• Zero - Electric Percussion

Produced by Martin Zero for the Criminal Gramaphone Company

Artwork and sleeve design - Kirk Van Gogh Studios

(cat no tosh 103)

rabid records 178 waterloo place, oxford road, manchester 13


find him on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/johncooperclarke

...a touch of pride....

This weekend was London LGBT Pride. I didn't go, though I had planned to. Instead it was a trip to Broxbourne to see the animals at the Paradise Wildlife Park. An early start was made, with me up before 6 am making tea with honey to kick start the day.

A drive up to Broxbourne, navigating by the sat nav map app thing on our phones, so our route a little meandering and here and there, but eventually....

It was hot, with the noise of a gazillion children and their families yelling and shrieking from surprise, excitement or excess of sugar!


Everything from meercat, white lions to big hairy spiders and red pandas......

most of them asleep under shade, or dozing in the mid day sun.

..a couple of tapirs at lunch....



a meercat ...look this way....


...and that...

...a curious one.... "hello!"

...time for a wee nap....

...one of the beautiful white lions there....

this fella was quite happy strutting around, cockle doo a doo-ing all the while....

emu and...

emu chick...

...one of the treats at Paradise is to be able to arrange close up and personal experiences of a lot of the inhabitents there....some kids get first hand feeding with some younger roos....magic!


...it was a lovely day, sunny and hot....and though today was London Pride, I was feeling a different kind of pride.....

The pride I felt was for my partner, Denise. Not just on the day, but since I have first known her and it increases day by day. Denise is one of those rare people who make life just that little bit better for anyone lucky enough to know her. Thinks of others before herself, passionate about justice and one who provides a heck of a lot of support for others.

Denise, you are my rock, my sunshine in the rain, the jam in my doughnut, the light of my life. I bless the day we first met, and through all the hassles of life and love I hope our time together never ends even if the universe itself expires. Thank you for a lovely weekend, and for all the other days we have shared and will share......hugs xxx

white piano anyone?

I recently spent a few days at a Windows 7 training course last week.

Not the best of places to be, stuck in a computer room all day with this summer heat, but I survived!

I won't mention any more on the course, usual Microsoft sales pitch though I'll admit that 7 isn't as bad as Vista was. The course was near Old Street, run by QA training. Nearby was one of Londons little gems, Bunhill Fields burial ground. As well as a few graves of notable folks ....William Blake, Daniel DeFoe etc...it is one of the sites chosen for the "Play Me, I’m Yours: London 2010" project.

21 street pianos have been placed throughout the ‘square mile’ and beyond from 22 June – 10 July 2010 to celebrate the City of London Festival. Located in public gardens, streets and squares the pianos are available for anyone to play.

I spent some lunchtimes there, as well as taking a breather after the tube journey in the mornings. These are some of the pictures I took.



Blake woz ere! ..or near here, somewhere abouts....

...danny boy....

...johnny boy....

one of the local piano enthusiasts entertains the crowds....

...and a few of the gravestones and views of the burial ground....

this tree had a box for local wildlife....

and this picture....blurry, I'm afraid, shows the hive for Bunhill bees....

...and this strange construction called 'InnVertebrate' which is a sort of multi levelled hotel for insects....one of five created for a competition this summer.

more info on the competition and the other entrants at this British Land website

a coloured guide that shows you where to find them all can be seen at this web page

there are many little corners of history hidden away in London, which I find fascinating and enjoy seeking out. As a respite from windows 7 coursework, Bunhill Fields certainly does the job.