More Pics From Rochester

I was quite tired when i arrived back from Rochester, well a bit drunk too, due to the excellent strong ale that i had. I woke up at midnight and wide awake still. I had plans to go to Brighton on Saturday but as the visit is scheduled for Wednesday , unable to do it earlier, i shall wait till then.

Meanwhile, photos from Rochester.



There is a kind of Pip-ness in one of these characters outside the fruit shop.


( More pics here )

Fahrenheit 451

I found this on You Tube, a short montage from the film based on the Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451 -

It is interesting to note that with the age of PC and technology, this movie is more chillingly becoming reality. On the bright side, with modern USB's and Hard Disks, we can easily preserve libraries of knowledge and wisdom in our pockets. Book burning has become more like a political statement than the actual weapons of mass control it used to be.

BtVS Funny Moments

A selection of funny moments from BtVS. Yay, love the series and her of course -

Enjoy.

Candy Dulfer

I love jazz as you know folks, and when it is funky even better. Plus, when you have a hot tottie on the saxophone, just makes it oh so sweet. So here is Candy Dulfer doing a live version of the Average White Band's Pick Up The Pieces with The Tower Of Power. Funky groove thang!

Enjoy.

Saturday Bush Music

Time to confess. I just love the music of Kate Bush and nothing will pursuade me from that. Hence from her Red Shoes album a track called "And So Is Love"

From her last album  the title track 50 Words For Snow and features stephen Fry
.

Hip To Be A Geek!

Well, after the sunny warmish days during the week , today is decidedly much colder. I was going to do some visits but then decided I needed a break and hence popped over to Faversham for some relaxation.

First port of call was Past Sentence, where I sold some books, and then to the local Witherspoon pub for a beer. However, unlike the branch in Rochester, they don't seem to have any of the festival ales on tap.


Last night I got round to watching Hellboy 2 : The Golden Army. An excellent follow up to the first movie in my humble opinion.

Then I watched an Horizon science programme from the BBC on the search for the primordial gravitational waves from the initial moment of the big bang. These are very difficult to detect , and there was a false alarm back in 2014 when scientists stationed at the South Pole thought they had discovered the signature of such gravitational waves. Unfortunately , hopes were dashed when other scientists checked their results and suggested that dust particles in space were more likely to be the cause of the blip. F these primordial waves are discovered then it would collaborate Alan Guth's theory of inflation during the first few trillionths of a second of the creation of space and time.

What it does not answer is the perplexing problem of an event wothout a cause. This brings us back to supersymmetry branes, and multiple universes. All mind boggling stuff.

Talking of mind boggling stiff, I found a book in the Fleurs Bokshop that is right up my nerdy street. The book is by Dr. Graham Tattersall and is called “Geekspeak, How Life + Mathematics = Happiness”. I love the back cover blurb - “It's Hip To Be Square!”.




Which reminds me , there are still three films I want to see, The Theory of Evwrything,  The Imitation Game and the latest one, X + Y. Here is a trailer -

X+Y follows Nathan, an awkward, idiosyncratic teenager, grappling with the sudden death of the one person who understood him; his father. As he struggles to connect with those around him, he is introduced to an anarchic and unconventional maths teacher who takes Nathan under his wing.

Blue Eyed Soul

Some lovely blue eyed soul music for ya - starting with the finest Scottish soul band i know.

Average white Band - A Love Of Your Own

Next, Bobby Caldwell - What You Won't Do For Love

"What You Won't Do For Love" was a popular single written by Alfons Kettner along with singer Bobby Caldwell which he recorded for his debut album of the same name, released in 1978 on the Clouds label of TK Records. After gaining a reputation in Miami clubs as a talented musician, TK Records president Henry Stone signed Caldwell to an exclusive contract with TK Records in 1978. Heading to the studio, Caldwell recorded his first album, which was given a redo after Stone felt the album was good but didn't have a hit single. Caldwell returned to the studio and came up with the final product, which included "What You Won't Do For Love". Caldwell wanted the song to be the sixth track on the album since he figured the song's second track, "My Flame", which featured him playing guitar, would be the hit. However, TK Records felt confident that "What You Won't Do For Love" would be the breakout hit. When it was released to R&B radio, TK Records did its best to shield Caldwell's identity, hoping not to alienate its predominantly black audience. However, when Caldwell began making performances live on stage, it only increased demand. The song would become Caldwell's most successful single and also his signature song, reaching number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 and number six on the Hot Selling Soul Singles chart. Since its release, the song has been often frequently covered by R&B, pop and jazz artists alike and has also been an often-sampled song in hip-hop and house circles.

Enjoy

Far From Average

Their self-effacing name to the contrary, Average White Band was anything but -- one of the few white groups to cross the color line and achieve success and credibility playing funk, with their tight, fiery sound also belying their Scottish heritage, evoking American R&B hotbeds like Detroit, Memphis, and Philadelphia instead. Singer/bassist Alan Gorrie, guitarists Hamish Stuart and Onnie McIntyre, tenor saxophonist Malcolm Duncan, keyboardist/saxophonist Roger Ball, and drummer Robbie McIntosh comprised the original Average White Band lineup. Veterans of numerous Scottish soul and jazz groups, they made their debut in 1973 as the opening act at Eric Clapton's Rainbow Theatre comeback gig, soon issuing their debut LP, Show Your Hand, to little notice. After adopting the abbreviated moniker AWB, a year later the band issued their self-titled sophomore effort, topping the American pop charts with the Arif Mardin-produced instrumental "Pick Up the Pieces." The record's mammoth success was nevertheless tempered by the September 23, 1974 death of McIntosh, who died at a Hollywood party after overdosing on heroin.

So here is  a funky number called Cut The Cake

Their version of the Isley brothers Work Yo Do

Ywah , dig those Dundee Horns. Here is another gem by AWB - I'm The One.

Och aye, Scot-funk. Enjoy!

Book 13 - Andy Watson "Buffy The Vampire Slayer : Uninvited Guests"

Andy Watson "Buffy The Vampire Slayer : Uninvited Guests" (Titan Books)





Three stories set in the Buffyverse, around Season Two of the series , are all standalone. First is White Christmas where Buffy takes a job to get a dress for a dance and finds herself getting a frosty visitor. Happy New Year has some stress between Buffy and Willow where they have to deal with the issues around a big black dog and the fact that Buffy had to beat up Oz because he escaped while in wolf form.

The last story is New Kid on the Block where a new girl isn't all she seems. Felt like a real story of the series and a lot of fun. The graphics are cool but i shall reserve judgement on the graphic side until i receive my first Buffy Season 8 graphic novel from Amazon.