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Good Morning
Jul. 26th, 2020 09:00 am
Jul. 26th, 2020
Juicing The Joint
Jul. 26th, 2020 10:40 amTunes to jazz up and juice the morning -
Wild Bill Davis - Hit The Road Jack
Billy Larkin & The Delegates - Pigmy
Steve And Eydie - Rio De Janeiro
Lonnie Smith - Minor Chant
Ella Fitzgerald - Mas Que Nada
ENJOY!!!
Wild Bill Davis - Hit The Road Jack
Billy Larkin & The Delegates - Pigmy
Steve And Eydie - Rio De Janeiro
Lonnie Smith - Minor Chant
Ella Fitzgerald - Mas Que Nada
ENJOY!!!
Pastoralism
Jul. 26th, 2020 11:14 amMore morning music with a romanticised English pastoralism.
Arnold Bax - Tintagel
Tintagel is a vivid tonal impression of the castle-crowned cliff of Tintagel in Cornwall. Here the legends of King Arthur and the scenic grandeur of the Atlantic Ocean fired Bax's imagination into producing some of the most vivid sea music ever written.
Bax himself wrote that the music brought, "...thoughts of many passionate and tragic incidents in the tales of King Arthur and King Mark... and that the piece ends as it began, with a picture of the castle still proudly fronting the sea and wind of centuries"
This is a full-throated performance by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conducted by David Lloyd-Jones. Celtic music, played by a Celtic ensemble. Stirring!
Frederick Delius - Brigg Fair, An English Rhapsody
Frederick Delius was introduced to the folk song "Brigg Fair" by his friend and fellow composer, Percy Grainger, an enthusiastic collector of traditional songs. Delius was so taken with the melody, and with Grainger's setting of it for solo voice and chorus, that he decided to write an extended orchestral rhapsody based on the song. The piece was first performed in 1907.
The pictures which accompany the music are all by British landscape painters working in the19th and early 20th centuries: Henry Parker (1858-1930), Myles Birket Foster (1825-1899), George Vicat Cole (1833-1893), Benjamin Williams Leader (1831-1923), Edward Wilkins Waite (1854-1924), Louise Rayner (1832-1924) and Albert Goodwin (1835-1932).
Enjoy
Arnold Bax - Tintagel
Tintagel is a vivid tonal impression of the castle-crowned cliff of Tintagel in Cornwall. Here the legends of King Arthur and the scenic grandeur of the Atlantic Ocean fired Bax's imagination into producing some of the most vivid sea music ever written.
Bax himself wrote that the music brought, "...thoughts of many passionate and tragic incidents in the tales of King Arthur and King Mark... and that the piece ends as it began, with a picture of the castle still proudly fronting the sea and wind of centuries"
This is a full-throated performance by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conducted by David Lloyd-Jones. Celtic music, played by a Celtic ensemble. Stirring!
Frederick Delius - Brigg Fair, An English Rhapsody
Frederick Delius was introduced to the folk song "Brigg Fair" by his friend and fellow composer, Percy Grainger, an enthusiastic collector of traditional songs. Delius was so taken with the melody, and with Grainger's setting of it for solo voice and chorus, that he decided to write an extended orchestral rhapsody based on the song. The piece was first performed in 1907.
The pictures which accompany the music are all by British landscape painters working in the19th and early 20th centuries: Henry Parker (1858-1930), Myles Birket Foster (1825-1899), George Vicat Cole (1833-1893), Benjamin Williams Leader (1831-1923), Edward Wilkins Waite (1854-1924), Louise Rayner (1832-1924) and Albert Goodwin (1835-1932).
Enjoy
Joseph Darracott "England's Constable: The life and letters of John Constable" (Folio Society)
This is rather a slim volume for the Folio Society but like all the other books they have published, it is beautifully designed with a slipcase.
This current hardback is an interesting and illuminating account of John Constable's life as an artist, although difficult to follow some of the who's who in places. I was surprised to learn that the highest price he achieved for one of his paintings was 300 pounds which I guess the equivalent is now around 70,000 pounds by today's values! And this at a time when landscapes were not all that popular and many (now well known) artists were struggling to sell their works.
The book includes a nice selection of colour images of his paintings.
This is rather a slim volume for the Folio Society but like all the other books they have published, it is beautifully designed with a slipcase.
This current hardback is an interesting and illuminating account of John Constable's life as an artist, although difficult to follow some of the who's who in places. I was surprised to learn that the highest price he achieved for one of his paintings was 300 pounds which I guess the equivalent is now around 70,000 pounds by today's values! And this at a time when landscapes were not all that popular and many (now well known) artists were struggling to sell their works.
The book includes a nice selection of colour images of his paintings.
Poems Of The Week
Jul. 26th, 2020 05:15 pmA couple of poems for today -
The Good Morrow
by Jack Underwood
I’m not sure I remember what we did
before we LOVED. Were we gherkins bobbing
in our harmless jars, with vinegar and seeds?
Or were we stuffed in a tube of sleep for years?
Probably; but that kind of life is carbohydrate.
If I enjoyed anything then it was feeling FULL.
The rover is making dust-ladder tracks on Mars.
The Victorian sewers have been overhauled, widened.
And here we both are, up-and-dressed.
But it’s intimidating isn’t it
when cack-handed LOVE is at his console,
nuking all life beyond this tenuous room.
I’m going to rely heavily on you, out there.
Time For Us Girls
by Pam Ayers
I'm normally a social girl
I love to meet my mates
But lately with the virus here
We can't go out the gates.
You see, we are the 'oldies' now
We need to stay inside
If they haven't seen us for a while
They'll think we've upped and died.
They'll never know the things we did
Before we got this old
There wasn't any Facebook
So not everything was told.
We may seem sweet old ladies
Who would never be uncouth
But we grew up in the 60s -
If you only knew the truth!
There was sex and drugs and rock 'n roll
The pill and miniskirts
We smoked, we drank, we partied
And were quite outrageous flirts.
Then we settled down, got married
And turned into someone's mum,
Somebody's wife, then nana,
Who on earth did we become?
We didn't mind the change of pace
Because our lives were full
But to bury us before we're dead
Is like a red rag to a bull!
So here you find me stuck inside
For 4 weeks, maybe more
I finally found myself again
Then I had to close the door!
It didn't really bother me
I'd while away the hour
I'd bake for all the family
But I've got no flaming flour!
Now Netflix is just wonderful
I like a gutsy thriller
I'm swooning over Idris
Or some random sexy killer.
At least I've got a stash of booze
For when I'm being idle
There's wine and whiskey, even gin
If I'm feeling suicidal!
So let's all drink to lock-down
To recovery and health
And hope this awful virus
Doesn't decimate our wealth.
We'll all get through the crisis
And be back to join our mates
Just hoping I'm not far too wide
To fit through the flaming gates!
The Good Morrow
by Jack Underwood
I’m not sure I remember what we did
before we LOVED. Were we gherkins bobbing
in our harmless jars, with vinegar and seeds?
Or were we stuffed in a tube of sleep for years?
Probably; but that kind of life is carbohydrate.
If I enjoyed anything then it was feeling FULL.
The rover is making dust-ladder tracks on Mars.
The Victorian sewers have been overhauled, widened.
And here we both are, up-and-dressed.
But it’s intimidating isn’t it
when cack-handed LOVE is at his console,
nuking all life beyond this tenuous room.
I’m going to rely heavily on you, out there.
Time For Us Girls
by Pam Ayers
I'm normally a social girl
I love to meet my mates
But lately with the virus here
We can't go out the gates.
You see, we are the 'oldies' now
We need to stay inside
If they haven't seen us for a while
They'll think we've upped and died.
They'll never know the things we did
Before we got this old
There wasn't any Facebook
So not everything was told.
We may seem sweet old ladies
Who would never be uncouth
But we grew up in the 60s -
If you only knew the truth!
There was sex and drugs and rock 'n roll
The pill and miniskirts
We smoked, we drank, we partied
And were quite outrageous flirts.
Then we settled down, got married
And turned into someone's mum,
Somebody's wife, then nana,
Who on earth did we become?
We didn't mind the change of pace
Because our lives were full
But to bury us before we're dead
Is like a red rag to a bull!
So here you find me stuck inside
For 4 weeks, maybe more
I finally found myself again
Then I had to close the door!
It didn't really bother me
I'd while away the hour
I'd bake for all the family
But I've got no flaming flour!
Now Netflix is just wonderful
I like a gutsy thriller
I'm swooning over Idris
Or some random sexy killer.
At least I've got a stash of booze
For when I'm being idle
There's wine and whiskey, even gin
If I'm feeling suicidal!
So let's all drink to lock-down
To recovery and health
And hope this awful virus
Doesn't decimate our wealth.
We'll all get through the crisis
And be back to join our mates
Just hoping I'm not far too wide
To fit through the flaming gates!
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Book 58 - Luke Harding "Collusion"
Jul. 26th, 2020 05:56 pmLuke Harding "Collusion: How Russia Helped Trump Win the White House" (Guardian Faber Publishing)
First, the author, Luke Harding, is a highly respected reporter for The Guardian, and he is an expert on matters involving Russia. He is also the author of a book on the radiation poisoning of Russian exile Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 in London.
Luke Harding's book is an in-depth look at the Trump family, their dealings with Russia before and during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and the extent to which the Russian government and major financial institutions like Deutsche Bank are involved in worldwide financial corruption and money laundering. Harding does an excellent job of taking the disjointed, murky, and often financially complex pieces of information about what happened and shaping a coherent narrative from them. Coherent, and damning, and likely just the tip of the iceberg. It's even more amazing to me just how viciously the American electorate cut off its own nose in order to spite its face when they elected this monster.
Collusion is about a rapidly changing current event and the book may well be dated after a couple of years since its publication. Nevertheless, it can be seen as an intelligence briefing providing a comprehensive narrative of what we know so far. It's fairly complicated given all the players involved, and deserving of a book-length treatment because it's difficult to see the big picture by following news stories only. As such I think it's essential reading for anyone who wants to know about the biggest intelligence operation success story in history.
It's off the charts in terms of how massive the operation was, and how successful. Russia has been working towards this day since the 1970s. Although it involved the Internet and hacking, at the core they used old school intelligence techniques known to work. And work it did, probably beyond expectations. This book and allegations of Russian involvement are not partisan paranoia, it is very real and still ongoing.
One day some historians will write a cogent analysis of this sad and sordid period of American politics. Till then I recommend this wholeheartedly.
First, the author, Luke Harding, is a highly respected reporter for The Guardian, and he is an expert on matters involving Russia. He is also the author of a book on the radiation poisoning of Russian exile Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 in London.
Luke Harding's book is an in-depth look at the Trump family, their dealings with Russia before and during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and the extent to which the Russian government and major financial institutions like Deutsche Bank are involved in worldwide financial corruption and money laundering. Harding does an excellent job of taking the disjointed, murky, and often financially complex pieces of information about what happened and shaping a coherent narrative from them. Coherent, and damning, and likely just the tip of the iceberg. It's even more amazing to me just how viciously the American electorate cut off its own nose in order to spite its face when they elected this monster.
Collusion is about a rapidly changing current event and the book may well be dated after a couple of years since its publication. Nevertheless, it can be seen as an intelligence briefing providing a comprehensive narrative of what we know so far. It's fairly complicated given all the players involved, and deserving of a book-length treatment because it's difficult to see the big picture by following news stories only. As such I think it's essential reading for anyone who wants to know about the biggest intelligence operation success story in history.
It's off the charts in terms of how massive the operation was, and how successful. Russia has been working towards this day since the 1970s. Although it involved the Internet and hacking, at the core they used old school intelligence techniques known to work. And work it did, probably beyond expectations. This book and allegations of Russian involvement are not partisan paranoia, it is very real and still ongoing.
One day some historians will write a cogent analysis of this sad and sordid period of American politics. Till then I recommend this wholeheartedly.
Just Wondering
Jul. 26th, 2020 08:33 pmHave you ever Googled yourself?
Have you every owned a cuckoo clock?
Have you ever played Twister?
Have you every owned a cuckoo clock?
Have you ever played Twister?
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