Nine Feet Underground

Back in 2018, I heard a song that instantly captured my heart. I suppose it's a melancholy tune; several of the lyrics struck a chord and are similarly melancholic.  At the time of hearing the tune, I was beginning to emerge from the storm-tossed sea of melancholia I was immersed in. I still love the song, though I am in a much calmer and comforting sea now, thankfully. ( “God! ... Isn't the sea what Algy calls it: a great sweet mother? The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea. Epi oinopa ponton. Ah, Dedalus, the Greeks! I must teach you. You must read them in the original. Thalatta! Thalatta! She is our great sweet mother. Come and look.” ) I've been listening to the song several times recently, and it struck me that it was a bit prophetic by way of both the song title ('Hello') and also its reference to Q in the second line.  I didn't know her at the time, but perhaps this song pointed to a brighter future. [Verse 1] I arrived at two from a thought I had T...

In and out the dusty WordPress instances! (bluebells) I seem to be tangled up in managing and building WordPress instances, most recently the one for Q and I's wedding. It looks as though I'm going to have to migrate that site from WordPress.com to a WordPress.org instance on my virtual host. Virtually incomprehensible! Once you're in IT, you can never leave. For the past few days I've been experiencing severe back pain - so much so that I've had to take stronger painkillers than I normally would.  This is the sort of thing that happens when you get older.  My mum always used to say, "Don't get old". I'm beginning to understand what she meant, though I still believe the balance is still in favour of getting older, I get very bored hearing the same music over and over. That's why I like listening to music randomly.  Trouble is, it always starts from a pre-defined list,  so unless the list is infinite , the level of surprise is limited.  I'd ...

I've been to another reading group today - different people, different book. This group has just started reading the Kate Atkinson novel, 'Behind the Scenes At The Museum'.  Some interesting ideas and writing, though a family saga across the generations does not immediately appeal to me.  With any luck, I'll be able to go next week and perhaps be drawn into it. We also read a poem by Philip Larkin (second one this week!) titled, 'Portrait', which I've screen-shotted (?) below: This was chosen to parallel a darker section near the start of the novel.  There was a lot of discussion today, and a subset of us went for a coffee afterwards.  We chatted about the Geoff Dyer memoir 'Homework' and the Titanic exhibition at the White Star line building (as was) near the docks here. Last night Q and I watched the first two episodes of the new Netflix series, ' How To Get To Heaven From Belfast ', by the woman who wrote 'Derry Girls'.  It's b...

I'm back up North after my latest visit down south.  I went to one of my shared reading groups yesterday, where we read a short story by Amy Tan called 'The Rules of The Game'.  I enjoyed it so much, I've decided I will read 'The Joy Luck Club' by her soon.  Once I'm through a bit more of my backlog.  Good conversations at the reading group and some new faces bringing new perspectives and youth, relatively speaking. My new, one-purpose blog is up and running now. We just recently watched an enjoyable comedy series, 'Small Prophets', which is both funny and warmhearted. If you haven't watched it, do! Small Prophets trailer Down to the serious business of music.  Today I've chosen something relatively recent by B C Camplight from the album 'The Last Rotation Of Earth'. One of my favourite tracks is 'I'm Ugly', a very amusing song lyrically speaking.

I've just returned from a walk in the rain, ironically to see if the route to the pub has flooded. It hasn't. Yet. I went to see Kavus Torabi on the last night of the final leg of his tour in support of his solo album, 'The Banishing'. Had a good chat with him before and after his set, and he talked of his plans for the next two years. The imminent release of another Gong album, followed by a big tour, and then the release of another solo album in October. Good to chat. (I also went full-on fan-boy and got a selfie with him.  As usual, I took a dreadful photo of me, at least) I spent some time listening to music yesterday, and amongst the gems I'd not listened to for a while was a song from the album 'Soon Over Babaluma' by the German band Can. Can are one of my favourite bands across the years. Their musical styles are diverse, often far from what you might call 'rock' music. They have a great sense of humour too. Where they picked up on styles from...

This blog has seen several changes since I started it, in terms of content and name.  It's time for another change, though one which is more in tune (!) with how it began The change is driven by the creation (or impending creation) of a new blog. The new blog will cover a period of uncertainty. It will be private and by invitation only, or it will be if I can get the security to work.  I've already written several posts for it.  I hope to have it working in a week.  The domain is already registered, and the blog software is up and running, but that's it.  It's intended to keep friends and family updated during the uncertain time and will be written by me initially, but then entirely by Q while I can't do anything much. So what's going to happen here? During this period of uncertainty, I have found much solace in music as I always have in difficult times. I'm going to use this blog to document the music that inspires or supports me. I'll probably struggle...

The idea for this post began from a strange feeling I had one morning in the past week. How do I know I am me? What makes me, me? Is 'me' the physical body that is typing this or is 'me' the thing (mind?) thinking these thoughts that is directing my physical body to interact with the keyboard and type? Or maybe I am the combination of the two aspects? It also depends on whether the mind is purely physical (chemical reactions) or something more, something unknown and undefined. Is 'my' existence inevitable or purely random?  Was the egg that, once fertilised, grew to be me, only ever going to be me, if fertilised? I was one egg out of millions, combined with one sperm out of millions.  Are all eggs identical until fertilised by one unique sperm? I have sisters, and so were their eggs predestined to be them and not me. Is the DNA of all eggs from the same mother identical? Can any one egg can become any particular offspring if combined with the right sperm? For id...

There's stuff I want to blog about but I think it's too detailed/personal to be open for public access. Consequently, I'm investigating private blogs which have controlled access, which can be limited to people I/we invite.  Something that meets the need might not exist, but it's worth a look.  Ideally I'd like it to be hosted outside the USA.  It might only be in existence for six months to a year or two, until it's served its purpose. How to make the most of life on a day-to-day basis when you have commitments and demands that need to be taken care of? Jetting off to a Pacific or a Caribbean island is not an option, even assuming the USA hasn't decided to invade it. I need to dedicate some time to thinking this through over the next few days.  A couple of dates need to be finalised, but once that's done we can enact whatever we have planned. A completely left-field musical discovery from last year is Lost Crowns.  They are quite clearly from the Cardia...

Why me? A question we've all probably asked at some point in our lives. The answer, though not the one we'd like, is why not me? Life is random. We should take every day as a gift, but when life is flowing smoothly (whenever that's going to be!), it's hard not to squander your time.  I'll leave that until tomorrow.  We can go there another day. Let's do that next year instead.  We've all said and/or done it. It's hard not to. Trouble is, there might come a day when things deferred are in jeopardy.  Those future days might not be guaranteed, one way or another. I'm still making sense of what this means. I just know it to be true. The song I've chosen is 'Black Cat' by Gentle Giant.   This tune has been stuck in my head for a few weeks now, and was chosen in honour of two black cats who are no longer with us.  The metre of the song reminds me of a cat slinkily walking, in no hurry to get anywhere.