Nine Feet Underground

[Thursday 22nd November 2018] Certainly got the timing wrong here! Story of my life 😃 Actually this is quite deliberate though the thinking is probably a little obscure. I am so far behind I can't be bothered to explain further. Oh. except...I love Kim Gordon's voice, I know she's not a great singer in the traditional sense, but there is something... [Title is from Book IV page 627 of 'Finnegans Wake' by James Joyce]

[Monday 19th to Wednesday 21st November 2018] As suggested by the date range, spare time has been in short supply this week. Primarily this has been due to work, sadly. Anyway, the first half of the week started with a hint of possibility, so I guess the choice of song reflects that. More than that I cannot say. Yeah, I know it's an Al Green cover and yeah, I also know that David Byrne is no Al Green. But...I still love this version. First off I love the opening drum line and the bit where Tina Weymouth's bass kicks in - the pair of these underpin the whole song and give it an uplifting bounce.  Second, David Byrne's phrasing just works and builds to a great crescendo- words and music in the final minute. Soul indeed. [Blog title is a line from 'Sometimes I Forget Completely' by Rumi]

[Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th November 2018] Boards of Canada described this tune as  “ like your brain is starting to malfunction in the middle of the tune ”. I like that idea. I don't know if things are afoot. I can't ever tell. The brain always latches on to the merest hint of possibility and invents a whole story based on a ripple in the fabric, or should that be a tear in the curtain, of the desire/reality continuum. [Title is a quote from Episode 6 ('Hades') of 'Ulysses' by James Joyce]

[Normal service will be resumed...at some point] Friday's blog can only be about the gig - Caravan supported by Curved Air - even though there is so much more to write about. ULU is an interesting venue:  the main hall and a small balcony area above, with maybe 50 or 60 seats.  We went for the balcony for the view but also because I hadn't figured on dancing, leastwise not in the way other bands and musical genres might do. More than anything it reminded me of my student days going to gigs at Leeds University's legendary venue. Curved Air played first and did a surprisingly long set, given they were support.  I have to confess that I'm only really familiar with their hit single 'Back Street Luv' though I've probably heard other stuff of theirs but I guess it went in one ear and out the other without making any impression. Single aside, there were only a few things I knew about Curved Air before this night: Sonja Kristina - as a pubescent teenag

[Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th November 2018] It was inevitable that something from this album would appear here, I guess. 2018 seems to have been a bumper (heavy on the irony) year for albums which, by what can only be pure chance, seem to hold a mirror up to aspects of my life or the way I have been feeling for months.  Obvious choices that spring to mind are Low's 'Double Negative', Marianne Faithfull's 'Negative Capability' from which this comes and 'The Blue Hour' by Suede.   There are upbeat songs and albums from this year that I have loved and still love too, but ultimately you have to accept you cannot hold back the tide. Had I tried, I would have been a latter day Canute, or at the very least, something  phonetically similar. [Title of this post is a line from the play 'Exiles' by James Joyce]

[Tuesday 13th November 2018] One way or another this is the way it feels... [Blog title is a line from the poem 'Kaleidoscope' by Douglas Dunn]

[Monday 12th November 2018] Given the day, this song is the only possible choice. There are no words. [Blog title is a line from 'A Birthday' by Christina Rosetti]

[Sunday 11th November 2018] The day before...it is so hard to see reality fade in and out and memory become separated from personal experience. The fear in the eyes when facts are no longer certain and to ask is to dread the answer, not knowing things and risking exposure of how tenuous the grip on a life story has become. Oh, for the certainty..."Let's get out of this hopeless town"...if only it were possible [Blog title is a quote from the poem 'Second Opinion' by Douglas Dunn]

[Friday 9th and Saturday 10th November 2018] Friday, Saturday - every day - no matter how much it is willed, one positive cannot overcome one negative or at best indifferent.  No notice is taken... [Blog title is a quote from Book I Chapter 1 page 4 of 'Finnegans Wake' by James Joyce]

[Tuesday 6th to Thursday 8th November 2018] Time has flown past this week...the end of 8 weeks of mindfulness classes, work, work, work, the usual trials and tribulations and my inability, in spite of the effort expended, to effect change in the ways I need to. [Blog title is a quote from 'The Good Morrow' by John Donne]

[Monday 5th November 2018] Between me, myself and I [Title is a quote from 'I Am' by John Clare]

[Sunday 4th November 2018] Of all the wild places I love, there is one that remains out of reach for reasons I cannot fathom. The darkness that surrounds that loss threatens to engulf and consume, extinguishing all hope. [Blog quote is from Book IV page 627 of 'Finnegans Wake' by James Joyce]

[Saturday 3rd November 2018] Tough day following on from an equally challenging Friday. Sparsely littering the darkness have been little sparkling gems of joy and, perhaps, the merest hint of  sprouting possibility. The new Suede album, 'The Blue Hour', from which this track comes, is proving to be some kind of reflection of life currently. Even if it wasn't, it is one of the most coherent albums I've heard in a long time. It's an album that begs to be listened to in one sitting and, so far, is a strong contender for my album of 2018, and there have been some good ones, but unless my memory deceives me - maybe with the exception of The Internet's album 'Hive Mind' - not much else comes close. [The title quote is from Book I Episode 2 page 301 of  'Finnegans Wake' by James Joyce ]

[Friday 2nd November 2018] Despite best efforts to resist the encroaching darkness it still find its way in through the cracks and spaces that cannot be filled.  [Post title is a quote from page 55 of 'Endgame' by Samuel Beckett]

[Thursday 1st November 2018]   It is amazing how the brain can turn the slightest positive event into a complete life-changing story, when in fact it just was one small isolated positive thing.  It leaks over from Wednesday into Thursday and then gradually the one event returns to being that:Outer Acid becomes Inner Acid.  [ Title is a quote from chapter 2 (aka 'Nestor') of 'Ulysses' by James Joyce ]

[Wednesday 31st October 2018 A glimmer of hope? [Title is a quote from Book I Chapter 3 line 57 of  'Finnegans Wake' by James Joyce ]

[Tuesday 30th October 2018] [ For one more week, Tuesday is Mindfulness course day, as well as being the first day of work for me till the end of the year, at least.  I heard this song on the radio on this day and loved the energy and noise of it from the outset. This was also the first new thing I've heard in a week or two that really resonated with me. So, this seems to be the antithesis of meditation and is thus the perfect song for the day. [Title is a quote from chapter 9 (aka 'Scylla and Charybdis') of 'Ulysses' by James Joyce]