Chilling Out

Had a nice lie-in this morning. Finished my reports and did a bit of vacuuming, and now relaxing. A busy week is ahead of me and hence i am making the most of just chilling out today.

I have visits in Faversham, Whitstable, Canterbury, Gillingham, Rochester, Strood, Crowborough, Tunbridge Wells and Hove. The Hove one will be either this Tuesday or if the company will allow be forwarded to the week i go to Sussex, as i have another visit that week as well.

Whilst it was good doing Bluewater i find these huge shopping malls soulless places. No character to them at all.

Our next lunch club will be on the 21st, just six days after my birthday.

Super Sunday Soulful Ballads

Today a whole bunch of SOUL music dripping with SOUL!!

Jennifer Hudson - Stand Up

Garnett Mimms And The Enchanters - Cry Baby

This great soul record from the summer of '63, "Cry Baby" written by Bert Berns (aka Bert Russell ) and Jerry Ragovoy (aka Norman Meade) was recorded by Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters on the United Artists label and reached #1 on the Billboard R&B chart and #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1963, selling over one million copies. The group consisted of Garnet Mimms, Sam Bell, Zola Pearnell, and Charles Boyer.

Another soul drenched ballad -
Dorothy Moore - Misty Blue

And finally, this superb classic from the Stax vaults -
Shirley Brown - Woman To Woman

Peace be with you friends.

Yesterday's Finds

From my charity shop visits i found these two CD's



.. and these books -

Book 28 - Tomas Transtromer "The Deleted World"

Tomas Transtromer "The Deleted World" (Enitharmon Press)





A lovely little glimpse of Tranströmer's oeuvre. I pretty much always approve of en face editions, and it's really interesting to see how Robertson shifts the grammar and line breaks (Swedish seems to have a lot of cognates with English, which I totally did not know and am overjoyed to discover). The introductory essay starts well and then collapses into an overblown paean of the worst type of criticism. The poems themselves are gorgeous, full of arresting images and deceptively simple diction.

Here are a couple of my favourites -

From March 1979 (p37)

Sick of those who come with words words but no language,
I make my way to the snow-covered island.

Wilderness has no words. The unwritten pages
stretch out in all directions.

I come across this line of deer-slots in the snow: a language,
language without words.

Black Postcards (p39)

I
The calendar is full but the future is blank.
The wires hum the folk-tune of some forgotten land.
Snow-fall on the lead-still sea. Shadows
scrabble on the pier.

II
In the middle of life, death comes
to take your measurements. The visit
is forgotten and life goes on. But the suit
is being sewn on the sly.

Not heard of him before but worth checking out more of his poems.

Phases

Aha, the latest TPN review of BtVs Season 2 "Phases", and yes, not a great episode, and i am very much in tune with the reviewer.

Photo Project - People Watching

Continuing my project of people studies, here are some recent ones i have taken.

( Photos here )

Fixed?

Could the result of the election on Thursday be rigged. Independent inquiry into how the pollsters got it so wrong.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/05/09/general-election-polls-independent-inquiry-conservative-win_n_7246962.html?1431160579&utm_hp_ref=uk

Heroes Trailer

A short trailer for the return of Heroes :Reborn , but without Claire or Sylar in it , will it be any better? Apparently HRG (Horn Rimmed Glass) will be in as well as Hiro , so he better dust off hos sword again.

Book 29 - Bill Wasik "And Then There's This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture"

Bill Wasik "And Then There's This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture" (Penguin)




Remember flash mobs? Bill Wasik invented the flash mob, and in this book he details the rise of online memes and viral culture.

This was an enjoyable read with a few decent statements on modern culture. They were awash in a tide of personal reflection but they were, at least, interesting personal reflections from the creator of the flash mob. The insights in the corporate appropriation of modern collaborative and viral culture wee particularly interesting.