Good Morning

My Plans Today.

So today I have a couple of charity shops to do, and a couple of alcoholic drink visits around UCL That is just four and hence so doable. First one will be in Beckenham. Not been there for a while. Then I will visit Rays Jazz Shop as I have around ten CD's to exchange. Then the two drink visits around the university quarters, and another charity shop in East Ham -an area I have not been to before, and then time willing to Flashback Records.

Flashback Records have three stores, one in Crouch Hill, one in Bethnal Green and the original store in the Essex Road.

I might check Clarity Insights to see if there are any Jap food visits in the city.

So far, it is a dry day. Expected at London Bridge around 7:30 AM.

In Beckenham.

Arrived in Beckenham with the charity shop I am aiming at opens in about twenty minutes, hence I am in a Cafe Nero supping a cortado.

Weather is dry but cold, not much above 15 C, and rain is forecast from late afternoon. - hence \i need to complete everything by mid-afternoon. However,\I am already on track,.

Book 70 - Raymond Carver "What We Talk about When We Talk about Love"

Raymond Carver "What We Talk about When We Talk about Love" (Vintage Books)




This is the first book I have read from this author. Raymond Carver's America is bleak. In it, Carver seems to accept the fact that some personality flaws can never be fixed.

In this collection of his short stories, he relies on implication. Much in the way Hemingway likened his stories to icebergs (both are mostly hidden beneath the surface, leaving the viewer to piece together the real size of things based off of what they can see), Carver relies on an economy of language which makes his characters sadder and more pathetic as he asks the reader to imagine these people for themselves. This works because he presents believable characters.

Even in a story like "Tell the Women We're Going" where the action (a seemingly unprompted double homicide) is unbelievable, the stories work because the characters are difficult not to believe. In the writing world, where characters are either too perfect or too intentionally eclectic, Carver creates characters whose flaws are mundane. The flaws are only shared with the reader because there's nothing the characters can do to change themselves and their resignation is what gets you.

Without Carver's keen eye for language, these stories wouldn't be nearly as interesting. In "I could see the smallest things" Carver pays special attention to having the narrator of the story see nothing clearly. Every statement she makes after she leaves the comfort of her house concerns her inability to see what's going on.

As a metaphor, none of the characters in these stories can see what's going on. Either they choose to ignore the world, they're too caught up on themselves, or they see their mistakes but they take no actions to correct them.


Despite the melancholy tone of the book, each story is capable of grabbing your attention and keeping hold of it until the last sentence. This isn't the best book to pick up if you're looking for something to cheer you up, but if you're looking for some easy-to-read, incredible short stories then this is the book for you.

Morning Billie

A piece of music for the morning.


Billie Holiday - Good Morning Heartache

Enjoy

Morrning Finds

Completed the first visit at the charity shop and picked up a River Island cardigan for five pounds.
A few doors away was a local chazzer in which CD'swere fifty pence - so I just had to look and glad I did - got these four for two pounds-

Kate Bush - The Red Shoes (EMI)
Various - Cafe de Paris, 24 Accordion Classics 1930 -41 (MusicClub)
Apollo Four Fort - Electro Glide In Blue (Sony)
Lowell Davison Trio (Calibre)

Now that last one has MilfordGraves on drums and this CD is an Avant-garde jazz classic.- free jazz from 1965 originally on ESP Disks.

And From Rays ....

Well, those ten CD's earned me £28 in exchange at Rays Jazz Shop. So I picked up the special 2 CD reissue of Don Cherry "Mu Parts 1 &2 / Orient" and "You Are Here... I Am There"
by the Keith Tippett Group.




Plus this Wire magazine related book -







Just had to pay £3 for the lot.  A bargain realy!

East Ham and UCL Done

I completed my other charity shop visit in East Ham in which I bought the complete first season of Twin Peaks for four quid. It is years since I have seen it.

One of the bar visits was closed due to the refurbishment of the UCL building it was housed in, but I took a pic of the sign to say that the Phineas Bar was closed. The other one, Huntley Bar in Gower Street was open, and I had a couple of pints of Mad Squirrell Mister Squirrell ale (4.2 % ABV)and at a very reasonable three poind, a pint.

The weather did turn out somewhat wey and a little windy, and I did not fancy going to Flashback Records in the end, and once I did the bars I took a train home. Flashback can be done another time, perhaps in September.

I still have one more Spoons visit at my local, and being Friday, it is fish and chips day, so that is what I shall have when I get into Faversham.

Relax Time

Had a humungous cod and chips at my local Spoons this evening. Now home listening to my purchases and finds.

Working again tomorrow but a much much later start though.

Just Wondering

If you could make a rule for a day and everyone had to follow it, what would it be?

Would you rather be a hobbit or an elf for 24 hours?

If you had to become an inanimate object for a year, what object would you choose to be?