Remind me not to drive the car to work. A journey of two and a half miles that takes me just over ten minutes to cycle, took three quarters of an hour this evening!!
Why do people do it?
And I felt so tense when I got in it really wasn't worth the effort.
I so hate carrying 'stuff'.

Similar experience in the car yesterday afternoon coming back from the Cruise Terminal. It took me an hour and a half to put up the six displays in the Departure Lounge. An image broken into six sections, all clipped and clamped together. Geese in flight. With a similar message suggesting that no other cruise company goes further to give you a wonderful holiday experience.
That's it.
Something that has no value whatsoever to the people viewing it. I can't see how the presence of that image enhanced anyone's holiday experience.
All it does is promote a brand, subconsciously planting the image in people's consciousness so that the cruise company can make more money.
Totally pointless.
And yet the cruise company paid us a four figure sum for the presence there.

I need to get over this.

A PCC meeting accompanied by blackbird song has gone someway towards adjusting my perspective.

8000 words on the Pages now ( so much better than any microsoft sh*te) and we're stepping up the pace a bit, moving into 1972

Iggy and the New York Dolls have arrived in the UK, and its still raining.
Has been since about ten, making for a difficult and tense day with tempers getting rather frayed towards the evening.
Resolved by a superb family film that Boy watched with us for the first time.
the recent re-make of Charlie and the Chocolate factory is absolutely superb, and Johnny Depp's interpretation of the sinister, crazy and unbalanced Willy Wonka is a work of genius.
of the few films I've ever watched,this is becoming one of my favourites. I think Gene Wilder's version is similarly clever and has some wonderful touches (particularly good is the scene in the tunnel on the boat when there is no earthly way of knowing where we are going, and no way of slowing...) but Depp steals it with his attitude to the children and his passion for the quite remarkable oompah loompahs.

Sixty pounds worth of new plants (heathers, pansies etc) for the courtyard garden stand battered in the front garden, the wind still as persistent now as it was at lunchtime.

I'm hoping to have more success tomorrow at the QEII Cruise terminal than I did this morning when security turned me away because the whole place was close and there were no 'mobile units' around to open up for me. Fred Olsen's 'Boudicca' arrives at six am, and we have an exhibition to set up in the departure lounge before she leaves. First ship of the new season and with D away at a wedding and P in Spain for the weekend it falls to me to set up.
Very nervous about it, which was not helped by this afternoon's shenanigans...

Why, why, why, why, why...

Ringleader of the Tormentors is Morrissey being more Morrissey than Morrissey has ever ever before. Perversely tender, pitiful, arrogant, witty, nostalgic and obstinately shocking.

Its a difficult one to sum up, but I'm struggling to see exactly why so much praise has been thrown at this rather anxious and wilfully harrowing collection of in-your-face autobiographical despair. Paul Morley, among others, (and a much respected critic) has described this as 'pure magic' on which the almighty one has 'never sung better'. But Visconti's production is uncomfortable. What's with the bells? And the glockenspiel?
Morrissey's voice wavers cleverly and passionately on the slower songs but as a crooner he'll 'never be anybody's hero'. Such poignancy is touching. Gauky and suddenly naive in his velvet frock coat, clutching this curate's egg. In front of a mirror, of course.

But didn't I write somewhere that I have a peculiar attraction for music I don't understand..?

The orchestra, trumpets, strings and heavy basslines just seem to merge into a droning mire of indecipherable noise in too many places and the vocal is lifted too high above this cacophony in accordance with the singer's notorious arrogance. It might be considered by some to be appropriate that he is alienated from the rest of the band like this, but it makes for a disjointed awkwardness.
If this is a celebration of new found oneness and a producer that at last Morrissey feels brings out the best in his work Visconti is me.. then as the best he is going to ever do, I am again "truly, truly, truly…Disappointed".

It has perhaps taken me twenty years to realise what my wife has been telling me for twenty years. He will ever be a miserable sod, fault-finding, opinionated and self-obsessed. Melodramatic and deliberately obtuse, but one feels listening to this that he is revellin gin himself and that is, at last, beginning to sound stale and lacking in sincerity.

Still, he does what he does and can't be criticised for that.
I'd expected more, and that's my fault. Morrissey would be the first to point that out.
'In the future when all's well' is the best track, and its a damn fine tune. 'Dear God please help me' is cringe-makingly bad.

I can't find the inspiration to look for the sensuous beauty that supposedly lurks in the too many slow songs on this album.

So Morrissey has come out as 'sexual' after all, and is no longer strictly cerebral. The prefix is immaterial.
I shrug. So what?
He's spent too long up his own backside for me to care about his sudden interest in anyone else's...
The sentiments in 'the Father Who Must be killed' is frankly boring, and yes life is a pigsty. It's the same old SOS
This song is a good example of when the excellent tune and musicianship should be treated with more respect and Morrissey's dogged trunculence reined in a bit.
There is
No such thing as normal

I had to play this three times before I heard it all. 20 minutes at a time is enough, and not many albums wear me down like that.
I just want to see the boy happy, and they say its happening now
But maybe, you still haven't earned it yet baby...

The album closes with a string-driven ode to self entitled "At last I am Born".
It's too late for that now. Does anyone actually care?

Well, bugger me sideways with a pointy stick!!
I noticed on the weekend that my hit-rate has gone through the roof this last couple of weeks, and now all of a sudden this rambling, reflective musing is up there among the featured blogs.
So many visitors.
And clearly they are not all spam bots.

The criteria for selection to the Features Blogs is top secret, but it factors in comments, views, recent posts, links, etc - pretty much all the things you would expect. And then a pinch of blog salt, and a sprig of blog parsely...

I like to think there's a dash of absinthe in there too. Just hiding behind that small pebble.

Thank you.
Whoever you are.

Its' nice to get somewhere that you never set out on the path to.
After all, we don't want to end up, do we..?

I've bought three albums this week. Paid for. Good idea now and again.
Second time this year. They must come in sets of three...

First up, as I believe is the phrase used in these dumbed-down lowest common denominator days is the latest from Jori Hulkkonen.
Errare Mach*nale Est features several guest vocalists (inc. Nick Triani) and includes of course the rather lovely single with JF that has been carelessly overlooked by far too many people.
the full version of "Never Been Here Before" is one of the albums highlights - generally this kind of dance music doesn't do it for me. There's a strong flavour of 80s electro-pop about some of the tunes which sound in places a bit Ladytron, a bit new Order, a bit Felix da Housecat etc. All good influences, but probably only Triani's song "The Descent of Man" and the title track are otherwise particularly good.
It is great to see JF working with this material though, and getting heard on dancefloors all across Scandinavia and northern Europe. I think Jori is big enough to have quite a following in the clubs etc, and that he should rate JF so highly shows the influence of the great man across a wide variety of genres.

Recently for instance I have read of a cancelled show in Belgium in 2002, at Eurofest. This is Europe's leading goth/darkwave 'happening', which has always rated JF very highly and led to the release of Mr No as a single a few years ago. He cancelled because the promoters used that nasty 'U' word again on their posters. Idiots.
Found another interview tucked away in a dusty corner of the web on the weekend, recorded in advance of the Fibbers gig in York in 2006. What makes this one particularly interesting is his reference to the very earliest days and the experience of seeing van Morrison live with Them (in 65?) and John Lee Hooker at the Twisted Wheel in Manchester in 1964. Also Spencer Davis group and others later, in 1966.
Led me to discover a bit more about this celebrated venue, the birth of Northern Soul and read extensively about the influence of the legend that was Roger Eagle (of Staxx Club fame). This is the same Eagle who went on to set up Eric's in Liverpool (OMD, Yazoo etc...)
I am always fascinate to trace the development of musical 'movements' which usually begin in just one or two clubs.
Neal Kay at the Soundhouse in London releasing NWOBHM onto the world in the form of Saxon, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard. Malcolm McLaren's shop on the Kings Road and the birth of Punk. Rusty Egan and Steve Strange at the Blitz Club in London etc...

No real surprise that JF was a regular at the Twisted Wheel in the mid 60s then, which would have been one of the places where his taste for 'underground' (pre-emergent) music will have its roots.

The other to albums come from Manchester (where of course the Hacienda Club produced the baggy scene of the early 1990s) under the name of Morrissey.
He's one of two artists who both inspires and disappoints me in equal measure. The other is Björk.
I have faithfully bought every release (well, most) both both acts, and every time I look forward to hearing a new album because the last one was 'OK' . And every time I am frustrated by how good I think it could have been but somehow isn't quite.
Happens every time (with the possible exceptions of 'Medúlla' and 'Vauxhall and I') so I am already thinking that 'Ringleader of the Tormenters' will have the same effect, despite all the reviews to the contrary.
To all intents and purposes, 'Ringleader' is the album Morrissey always threatened to make, and Tony Visconti's production finally brings his songs to full life.
So we shall see.
To partner this experience, and myhow the boy has grown, I chose the 1997 re-mastered edition of his first album 'Viva hate' which is both clever and naive, vague and direct and I haven't heard it for years. there is a vinyl copy tucked away somewhere.
I remember that at the time, only six months or so after the release of the superb 'Strangeways Here We Come', this was a big disappointment and the rest of the Smiths were painfully missing. But there are some quite brilliant songs among the vitriolic outpouring of bitterness and resentment - not least the two singles "Every day is Like Sunday" and "Suedehead".

More than anything I love the titles of his songs ("I Have Forgiven Jesus" etc) and as a wordsmith he's up there with Ian Dury, Nick Cave, Scott Walker. Quite brilliant songwriter. The man we love to hate.

These new titles aside, I am also listening to Steve Jansen's "Slope" which I can't seem to like, and the delicious Barbara.

Two and a half hour meeting of the Standing Committee here tonight sorting out finances to present to the PCC. While I have difficulty with our new treasurer on a personal level, it is proving useful to disagree and talk over stuff, and there is no doubt that his diligence is exactly what we need right now so I welcome that as a significant move forward.

The old caretaker cut the rest of the grass this afternoon, and found human excrement in the Memorial garden.
Some people are just moronic.
Good to know that we have £140 sitting in a fund to do some work on this area of the grounds too. Tx will be excited about that when I tell her in the morning.

And by the end of tomorrow we should see the second (almost complete) version of our new website in the office.

D got engaged over the weekend.

The Easter Parade at school today was a shadow of its former colourful self. No prizes this year, or last year either, and subsequently people are not inclined to bother. I do get quite annoyed about this ruthless quashing of competitive events so that everyone has an equal chance.
No actually, some kids are better than others, and it really doesn't do that much harm to find out you're crap at something.

It was over before it even began...

Apart from the zoo, life at the church has (quite correctly) been the main feature of life here over Easter.

Really glad I managed to arrange the afternoon off on Thursday because the weather stayed fine and dry, giving me no excuse not to cut the grass.
Took me the best part of three hours to do the front half, but this did involve a major stick-clearing exercise first (including some small branches as thick as my arm - how do they fall so often??) and several conversations with passing locals.
Thats probably the bit I enjoy best about all this 'high-profile, community action' gardening and maintenance at the church. A real feeling of being part of something and doing my bit for its cause, quite apart from the religious and spiritual side of the role. Its great just to wander over to the bus stop and say hi to Mrs X when she gets back with her shopping, or wave at all the kids passing on their way home from school.
And of course all these people get the message that there is not only something 'going on' at the old building (I make a point of leaving the door open...) but also that I'm part of it and,well, I'm not weird!!

Left to pick up A from her after school club, just as the flowergirls arrived to start decorating the inside for Sunday's service.

The service at 11 on Good friday was in the hall as usual, a suitably solemn, prayerful and reflective hour that was well attended.
Nearly 60 adults. very moving. We stayed on for the hunger lunch afterwards (home made soup and bread) and that hour was mostly spent catching up with the oldest ember of our congregation, 93 year old Thelma. She is an absolutely impossible woman, the bane of most of our lives, but we can't help loving her and missing her presence since she went into residential care before Christmas.
I happened to be on my way back to the hall from the office just a few minutes before the service when a cabbie hailed me from the doorway.
"Scuse me, my friend. Can you just given me a hand helping this old dear out of the car?"
"of course."
And then I was well and truly Thelma'd!. She's no light weight either, and her fur coat smelled awful, but I couldn't help smiling with her at the terrible stories of life in a nursing home and how all the nurses seem determined to give her a hard time. really...?
It was though genuinely moving to be in her company again, and talking about the flowers and the garden and the children. There is a photo somewhere now of her holding the congregation's newest member, four week old DS.
Incredibly, the last eight children born in our church have all been girls. And all in the last four years. In fact, I think, my son is the youngest boy, and he's seven in August!

We decided not to stay for the three hour vigil and prayer labyrinth in the afternoon, but I can't now remember what happened instead.
It probably involved some shopping.

Easter Sunday was glorious, despite the erratic weather. The Old Church looked amazing, bathed in sunshine, full of flowers, banners and balloons. And people. Well over a hundred.
So pleased to have been rota'd for ministering the challis on this special occasion - always a humbling and valuable service. And then, by contrast, to serve tea, coffee and fruit cake to the same people in the hall afterwards...

It occurred to me over the weekend that the there is a common element of service to the three major threads that form my life now, and I need to start paying more attention to how these work together.

Not to be served, but to serve YMCA, Emmaeus, blah-di-blah....

It applies as well to being a churchwarden as it does to being a parent.
Our role then is to provide for our children, to encourage them, nurture them. Give them the support, wisdom and resources they need to live a fulfilling life as adults. And to learn from them as they grow. They are in our handed into our care for such a short time, we must do with that time what we can to help them on their path.

It applies as well to being a parent as it does to being a manager in a small but growing company.
I believe that is true and fundamental, though it is one principle I hold that is not advocated in the two main text books I am following on my learning path in the office.
I believe that (a major part of) my role as a manager is to nurture and encourage my staff, giving them an environment and the opportunities in which to develop their career and achieve personal objectives. I have to do what I can for them in order that they can work to the best of their ability for the good of that we have created.

Is that a naive way of looking at it? Am I being contrived?
Could be a lonely path to choose. I really want to make it work like this though. To give is to receive.

And so I lift my eyes up to the mountain
Where does my help come from ?

The images have come in for the September Blues and Gospel concert.
Mr Treasurer has sent two emails asking about 150 questions which we will be addressing at a 'special' standing committee meeting this week in advance of the PCC.
I doubt I have a clue why we haven't done that, or where that piece of paper is.
Audit trail? We just don't work like that. Welcome to our world

Its been six years since we went to Marwell, so Saturday's spontaneous day out was a real treat. It's actually just really nce to be able to do it 'just like that'. A quick half day job last week with some flyers for the Bargate Markets paid £300 cash - my half of which D kindly dropped round on Friday night.
Meant that we were able not only to get in comfortably (although its actually not as expensive as I have been led to believe) but we could afford to eat there without the faff of packing up, and the kids had a bit each for the gift shop at the end.
Could have done without Boy accidentally smashing and African figurine which cost us another £15, but no matter. Poor kid was mortified when it fell of the shelf, and so upset that it was impossible to be annoyed with him.

Favourite among the little ones were the penguins, especially the way they play 'follow your hand' when you wave big circles around the viewing window. Baggins loved them, and then the Golden Lion Tamarinds in the Encounter Village. She was less than enamoured though with the free-flying Kookaburras, who prefer to sit on fence posts about head high and stare threateningly into the eyes of passing toddlers. Quite dangerous I should think - they have the kind of beak that could easily take her eye out!

We spent the most time in the Africa Zone, with the amazing giraffes. A real speciality of Marwell, and they are just so… well, BIG! Incredibly graceful animals with a presence that you can feel as you stand watching them. Absolutely beautiful.

Same has to be said of the oh-so-cute and world famous Amur Leopard cub

who decided to play outside for twenty minutes or so in the sunshine between storms at exactly the moment we turned up at the cage.
Fantastic.
She's only been coming out now for about three weeks, and is, of course, just about the cutest thing you ever saw/
So lucky to see this - a real privilege.

Very tiring day, escpecially with the bizarre weather. Most of the time it was bitterly freezing and the wind was eye-watering, and there were more than the occasionally flurry of snow and sleet.
And yet in between, for half an hour three or four times during the day, it was quite warm and the whole park was bathed in spring sunshine.
Weird.

What else? I loved the kookaburras, and Flo loved the tropical zone with snakes, spiders, scorpions etc.
Lemurs are always good fun, and very approachable.

Boy insisted we went round the whole park at the end on the Land Train (cold as cold...), and we enjoyed excellent views of Ostriches, Oryx and Rhinos. I think the animals we keen to come out whenever the sun broke through as well - although without exception there were no monkeys outside in any of the enclosures.

Needs a new site map - I can work on that.

Well well.
Re-writing tonight. A piece called 'Drift In Drift Out' which starts at roughly the point he would have left school and started to 'do art'.

Part of my research to look up a few of the synchronicities led me to rediscover online my first blog entry. I'd almost forgotten how long ago it was and was amazed to find that it still exists.

Tuesday 4th November 2003.
That's quite some time ago, that is

Looks like I wrote there until April 2005, which would have been the time that T* invite me to join her forum and become the first blogger in that community.
I moved here in October 2005.

Scary thought

I have just written another 1500 words.
Then I randomly chose not to SAVE the CHANGES to the file.

I am an idiot sometimes.

At the same time, I tried to edit the entry below before emailing a version of it to some friends. I did this while browsing the file, without opening it properly.
In so doing I deleted the whole thing.

Neither work will be re-written this evening. One has lost the will.

I have never been able to understand the hall/church divide within my 'church' and, in all honesty, I am more confused now than ever.
Why why why can we not just be ONE body (ie, a church) that has halls for hire? Instead we have confusion over which money come sin for what, how to divide up time between the two; insurance policies aaaaagh.

My initial thoughts are that we should indeed try to pay a greater percentage of our parish share to the Diocese, BUT that we should also look into abatements/re-calculations and try to get a smaller bill.
That way, any increase in payment we can make will be a higher percentage of a smaller total.

Since 2005, we have only paid 60% of the money we are allocated

I would suggest though that we don't necessarily make any compromises yet that are not being asked of us.
In my (limited) experience, the Diocese moves slowly on these matters and while it will benefit us to make up some of our short fall, I don't believe we should over commit until the red bills come in. I genuinely don't think that people 'gave in grace' just so that we could catch up with our parish share

I also agree that the 'reduced' rates aren't doing us any favours. But I should say (and I think this is known as it is a point I have made before) that I have never felt that we value our halls highly enough and don't charge enough for their hire.
My own opinion is that if the HELP project considers itself to be independent of the church (which I understand it is?) then the HELP project needs to look at how it is financed and what the realistic costs would be if it operated from other premises.
But I can see that it would benefit the church to give money BACK to the Project (or any other charities operating within our premises), instead of not receiving it in the first place.
I do feel that such an arrangement would also be more realistic for both parties.

Finally for now it is my opinion that the story told by our accounts in recent years has been rather negative in a kind of tail-wagging-the-dog kind of way, and I want to look at this.

My own attitude is one of confidence, faith and a clear vision of a bright future. In much the same way that we celebrate the people we have and the human resources available to us as a church, so I believe we should celebrate our financial resources (as it is given to us by the grace of God) and be seen to actively spend our money in ways that are seen to be of long-term and strategic benefit to the church. This will make the people who give feel that we are using their money to good effect, and this in turn will encourage them to give more than reminding them about how much money we still don't have.
It's a kind of speculate to accumulate thing, and we, being a christian church, need to show faith in that.

It should work in the same way as 'doing work' around the church, or giving useful items for different purposes, or praying with people.
The more we can see each other doing this or that, signs of commitment, then the snowball effect will ripple out and others will catch it.

Because financial givers DON'T see to what level others around them give, it becomes even more important that we (the 'management') show this in some tangible way. Especially if regular giving is up by as much as we suggest. A return on investment will be expected.
By this I mean taking care and being seen to allocate some, regular money to 'fabric' and 'stuff' instead of apparently letting the money just 'disappear'. People are very encouraged by 'things' like new speakers, new candlesticks, new shelves, new children's resources, new printers, concerts etc (which all help with our hiring potential) They feel motivated when their suggestions are met with responsible action and are therefore more likely to give again. Investment and spending is infectious - carefully managed it can be like fresh water and sunshine.

Ours is a very personal church, structured (and I use the term loosely...) in a way that allows the quirks of its members to be welcomed, celebrated and used to great effect according to God's will and ways. We are very rich in that respect and openly 'spend' that currency because of our belief that the well is constantly being refilled.

Money is just another resource of the same kind.

First visit to Fareham on Friday. Coffee shop meeting with those involved in the cycle maps for Portsmouth, Havant and Fareham. The representative from Fareham didn't turn up, such is their lack of commitment to the project. Little wonder that the co-ordinator has announced she's leaving at the end of the month.
We could have two of the three finished by then, but the third won't have started and I suspect will not.
Fifteen minute walk down West Street from the station. This is Anytown UK. Hurrah for the modernisation of the centre still in progress, but that is just making the blandness clean. A dull and uninspiring meeting - and the TIC offered little to endear me to the place, suggesting instead days out I might consider to places in Wales, devon and the north of England.

Enjoyed the train ride though as I always do. Little Egret in Chessel Bay.

An hour in the office before the accountant turned up and at last took away all the paperwork in a boxfile to take over the monthly reports and general book-keeping.
Only the sales and Purchase ledgers left to me me now. An enormous relief that while take some time to kick in.

Swimming and gym. Sally Two emerges from the crowd. A smiling face and a reserved seat among the crowded tables. Particles gathering.

Then it was Replicas. Met with Kim at the SUSU and surprised to find her alone. Except for the red gloves. Mirfee was characteristically late.
Six is a dangerous number of beers for me. Passed without incident. Rather uncomfortable meeting the City Centre Manager (a major client) in the pub after the show, as he turned up just five minutes after the bell. Had I seen him behind me at the time I'd have bought him a beer.
Turned with the pints and there he was.
We talked music and maps. He's leaving too, at the end of the month.
People are.

Replicas, for all its landmark qualities, is weak on side two, and the least innovative of Numan's first four albums. Pleasure Principle has the edge. This week at least. Maybe he knows, and that would explain why the tracks were cleverly mixed up.
Waking home at one, to the soundtrack of distant piano, rain and my footsteps.

Saturday Portsmouth with the family by train. A Good Call. Same journey as Friday, but continuing through to the harbour and walking down into Gunwharf Quays. This area is a stunning example of modernisation and regeneration that really works. Portsmouth is now a cosmopolitan, international city. Southampton is falling behind so far that its almost laughable that the council thinks it can compete. No - you need to believe in something and commit to a vision.
Shopped, rode on the funfair and walked the promenade. Laughter and smiles between the showers. Boats are a great backdrop to family fun days.
Kids loved the train too, but it was a long trip back once they had stepped over the tired line.

So drifted through a quiet Sunday. More rain. So the grass over at Church isn't going to get cut for the Easter Services unless I can take Maundy Thursday off work. Nor the hedge trimmed, unless I can get the caretaker to show me the knack of starting the big scary machine...
Indoor work then, for a couple of hours. New shelving for the pots and pans in the kitchen.
Looks good, but breeze blocks are HARD and my arms ache.
Counted the collection lying in the office.

That will upset the treasurer. But no more so than the return of the administrator on Monday...

Showdown.

Slope Steve Jansen.
First play. Its almost too varied and doesn't seem to quite know what to be...

And I copied ten albums onto a disc for my nephew tonight.
Just to see what happens.
Nick Cave/Tom Waits/Deerhoof/Metamatics/Ian Dury/Television/JohnF*xx/Harold Budd/TG2/Wedding Present

Gary N*man - Repl*cas.
Southampton University, March 14th

Hot. First time I've actually seen people fainting in front of me.
And you there on the drums - too, too loud. Are there supposed to be that many red lights above the green bars, Mister mixing-desk-man?
Worries me when the set list is printed out in Times New Roman, complete with typos...

Q -How many 'n*manoids' does it take to play an album that was originally recorded with three?
A - SEVEN
Three keyboard players. A bassist. A drummer. Two guitarists. And
a bloke to sing.

My fourth experience of N*man live, and as much as I love the music, I really don't mind being at the back and not being able to see much. His antics on stage make me cringe, and looking at the crowd is a great opportunity to spend the time Dancing with Myself. I'd always advocate another mosh pit at the back, us Foxx-fans are too reserved...
Took me until an extended version of 'We Have A Techn*cal' to get into this, which comes about quarter of an hour into the set. Seems that while everyone and their dog these days is doing 'whole album' tours, N*man is at least prepared to update the tracks and play them in a different order. Good idea, really, given that putting 'Are Friends Electric' anywhere other than at the end would have been suicidal.
Agree absolutely that the best track of the night is the passionate, pumped up version of 'We Are So Frag*le' which has to be the greatest B-side EVER recorded in the history of everything ever.

There's a guy behind Ade Fenton. What's he doing?
Playing keyboards.
As well?

Interesting 'encore'. I will never accept that 'Cars' fits into this set (although I thought it was closer to the original than any other live version I've heard - and no cow bells). Lacks imagination and suggests a lack of confidence in the other material. (Ever the insecure - hence the cheesy mike-stand waving)
But to follow with 'Every Day I D*e' was genius, and this version of this classic song is absolutely superb.
I unstick pages and read
So why trash it with RIP??

Do I get this tub-thumping juxtaposition of songs and interpretations? Yes - it works.

Brilliant, brilliant gig.
Beats standing behind a keyboard with the master tracks blasting out of a computer anyway.

Its a Repl*ca after all, not the real thing.

or even actually gave a flying f*ck about...

This one is a bit different from the rest. Four things about me that you may or
may not have known in no particular order.

Four jobs I have had in my life (other than current job):
1. Cartographer
2. Perfume packer
3. Artworker
4. Checkout Operator at Sainsbury's

Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. Lord of the Rings
2. The African Queen
3. The Railway Children
4. Meet Me In St Louis

Four other places I have lived:
1. Oxford
2. Northampton
3. Ashford, Staines
4. Bicester

Four TV Shows that I watch: RIGHT NOW:
1. I can't name four TV shows...???
2.
3.
4.

Four places I have been:
1. Vancouver
2. Co. Kerry
3. Shetland
4. The Scilly Isles

People who e-mail me (regularly):
1. the manager of an 'eighties' music icon
2. my business partner
3. my daughter (s)
4. my vicar

Four of my favourite foods (I added the 'u' here. F*ck the Americans...)
1. Toast
2. Satsumas
3. Curry - especially Thai
4. My wife's roasties

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. In a pub,with a beer and a band on
2. the North Norfolk Coast
3. Farmoor reservoir
4. With my girls

Four friends I think will respond:
pass

Four things I am looking forward to this year
1. An extension on the house
2. A second year as churchwarden. It is the making of me and wherein lies my soul.
3. Clearing my debts and taking a significant pay rise
4. Tomorrow

What - evvvv-aah...

One of those 'manic mondays'.
Took the day off today intending to 'work from home' during the afternoon.
I did, actually, manage to get something done, but already I forget its significance.

Dropped LC off at the playgroup (we missed the storms!!) and then spent too long in the church office catching up on all the trials and tribulations of the administrator (acting) and secretary (retired). Seems we have a new covenant secretary willing to start soon, and I have rounded up a few people to sort the grounds out. I'll end up cutting the grass and trimming the hedges myself...
Supervised, as far as these things are possible, the installation of a new baby changing facility in the disabled toilet and the re-hanging of one of the ladies cubicle doors. Impulsively purchased some steel shelving for the kitchen to replace on of the cupboards that is in danger of collapse, and give us the opportunity to get he saucepans and pots out of the airing cupboard.
I do wish the 'airing cupboard' wasn't in the kitchen.

Worked in the rain for an hour fitting the training wires and ties for the grapevine (unsupervised on a nice slippery ladder), but it got too unpleasant before I finished and this is another job that I might have to get done over the weekend.

Coffee and cake in the office, listening to more tales of concern about the new treasurer. While his appointment is a blessing to us and I have no doubt that his diligence and pointed questions are EXACTLY what we need, the man it seems is set on a course of destruction, criticism and abrasive, abusive inconsideration. Became the main topic of conversation at the wardens meeting this evening. More cake.
It seems everyone who comes into contact with him is annoyed and upset one way or another. Vicar and I discussed the value of 'telling the truth in love', but we haven't yet devised a strategy for dealing with his rather brusque and bullish tone.

A different kind of challenge set before us. He is from D's personality type. Not for no reason then has he come to my door

This meeting tonight coincided with two other commitments, so it was a bit of a juggling act between us.
Every third week I do the 'brownie run' which involves picking up three other 9-yr olds from various corners of the parish at six and then returning them at seven thirty. Every second week F attends youth cell over at the church at seven. And every fourth Monday there is a church meet of some kind or other.
This week they all fell in line, like some kind of eclipse.

Parents evening this week. Reports do p*ss me off, as they rarely mean anything. X 'has achieved higher than the national average' and 'demonstrates an ability to...'. Cut and paste bollocks. Who actually asks for reports?
Ticks a box I suppose - as if teachers don't have enough of that.

Edgar Froese Ages.
Uninspiring. Pretentious.

Seems like a blog title in itself.
The last track on the fantastically superb and quite brilliant new Nick Cave album.
I remember in, erm, September 2001 when I Elliott and I were having a Later... moment with Jools Holland and the Jack Daniels. Nick Cave was in the studio and played 'God Is In the House' and it was one of those rare moments that stopped me in my tracks and, almost literally, took my breathe away.

Tonight, I have played the album through twice and the last track is one of those Never Moments that I wrote a lyric about once.
Absolutely brilliant.

Its refreshing to hear an artist whose been around so long getting consistently better

rain has scuppered most of our plans for the day.
These revolved mainly around a session this morning over at the church replacing the broken seating in the courtyard garden with a pew from the old building, fixing up the supports and ties for the grapevine and the children potting our pansies, primroses etc to add to the display of crocus and daffodils they put together which look gorgeous.
But it has been relentlessly pouring down since we got up, which always makes for a challenging day when they all get a bit stir crazy.
A has gone over to a school friend's for a sleepover, and Tx has taken to her sick bed - just to add to the general malaise. She came over dizzy at lunchtime and more or less fainted at the garden centre complaining of a blinding headache which she has just told me is still there. She's been asleep since about four, waking for an hour or so when the kids were noisy at bedtime round half seven, but is now sleeping soundly again.
Not quite sure what is going on there.

While F was doing her homework up here this afternoon, LC, Boy and me set about doing three jigsaws on the dining room table, with some help (or otherwise) from Baggins.
Now what is it about jigsaw puzzles. I love them, and have an aptitude for them that I have inherited from my mother (and her mother). F spends hours in her room doing quite complex 1000 piece affairs (she got a couple for Christmas) and I get drawn into them with her of an evening.
Now it seems that LC who is just four has picked up the same bug, but Boy (at six and a half) is entirely useless. there must be some gene or way of the brain that makes some people able to jigsaw and others not.
Tx finds no pleasure in them and declares herself to be 'useless' and similarly A has never shown the slightest interest.
And yet, as a general rule in almost every other circumstance, it is A and E who are most alike and like me?
Interesting one.

Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

It is unusual to see an album title that includes any kind of punctuation.

Blogging has become rather sporadic this last few weeks. I suppose you just have to go with how the mood takes you.
I've worked late a lot catching up with work that I seem spectacularly unable to do in the office (too busy managing to do anything productive) but things are starting to get finished.
And I've managed to get somewhere through the CDs on my desk too, which is always a good thing.

Played only once so far the new Nick Cave album, but its quite obviously as good as everyone says and up to my expectations. He seems to have really matured as an artist and been on a spectacular run of form recently. Recently? Has he released a bad album in the last ten years?
The Boatman's Call set a new benchmark and remains one of my favourites, but No More Shall We Part is also superb. The Lyre of Orpheus and Abbatoir Blues were my 'best albums of the year' in 2004, and last year I gave that honour to Grinderman (apart from JF's "Sideways"...). Perhaps then only Nocturama is the dark horse - I need to get these out and play them again. Turns out I have ELEVEN of his albums, which puts him third in the collection. Rather surprises me...

What also surprises me is the continuous attention the Goldfrapp keep getting here.I have hardly stopped playing Seventh Treedespite the 'pile it high, sell it cheap' packaging and that it only plays for 40 minutes. I think this is a good thing because it will become boring. Soon, I'm sure.
Its bland, uninspired and sounds like so many other people that its quite a confusing bag. Most reviews say similar things, and Pitchfork's definiton as 'sonic dishwater' describes my own reaction quite well. Its kind of soupy, wishy-washy and Alison sounds fatigued and incoherent, despite the clever arrangements. Its a massive change in style form Supernature and does echo traces of Felt Mountain - and the Cocteau Twins, and Simon and Garfunkel, and Kate Nash, and Kate Bush, and Bjork, and Madonna.
Problem with that, credible references though they might be, it ends up not sounding like Goldfrapp and appears to be the result of change for the sake of change, and at the expense of creativity and progression.
I so want to like this album that I haven't given up on it yet...

In the meantime, I'm spending the early hours accompanied by Jori and John's new single. Four mixes of the one song that last longer than the whole Goldfrapp album, and good electro-dance music for the early hours. I love to see JF getting involved with new projects, and both his singles with Jori have been quite different and equally credible. For some reason though, annd this disappoints me, very few other fans seem to have got the point of this experiment and very few have actually bothered with the download.

Back tonight I hope, with bus maps, Barbabra and another session with the caveman...

It's been a long time since I bought THREE albums in one day. Three?? Almost unheard of. Bought? Almost unheard of.
But it's been a significant day for releases, so went to HMV at lunchtime in search of two.
Dig Lazarus Dig is the new offering from Nick cave,and has been well-received so far as I can see from odd reviews here and there. Haven't played it yet, but look forward to it immensely. Cave has been on a great run of form and his last four or five albums are all superb.
Don't be fooled (as I was) by the 'limited edition' release though, with the 48 page booklet. Impressive package as usual from Mute, but the booklet is only the lyrics and doesn't add much to the product.
I chose NOT to go the extra £5 for the luxury of the CD-DVD Deluxe edition of Goldfrapp's Seventh Tree because I am not convinced that I'm going to like the album. The packaging is very disappointing, and looks cheap and mass produced, which puts me on the wrong foot to start. This band are drinking at the Last Chance Saloon and have a lot to prove...

Best buy of all though was a surprise. browsing in the European racking, I turned up the new live album by Barbara recorded at l'Atelier in Brussels, 1954. I know absolutely nothing about it and didn't even know it existed. Beautifully presented, with photos and extensive biographical sleevenotes. In French
SHould be an absolute treat. Unfortuantely now I am too tired to even bother listening to any of them.

AND AND AND

The John Foxx single "Never Been Here Before" is available now for download

NOT ONLY, BUT ALSO

I need to also add to the heap of discs on my desk an incredible gift - EIGHT solo albums by Edgar Froese (Tangerine Dream) - which arrived courtesy of postie man on Saturday morning.
At least I haven't got much else to listen too!!!

The discovery and application of faith brings understanding, meaning and ultimately happiness.
I have sensed a rising tide of confidence this week, which I put down to prayer, and the opening of my eyes to all the good things I have to be thankful for.

Specifically this week:-

A cashflow/budget and time plan for the company which starts in April with a significant payrise for me and D and includes the facility for a five figure dividend payment spread across the next twelve months

Blackbird song

Winning a Bronze City Champion award and significant reviews in the local press about our achievements and potential

Walking to the local shops and meeting at least three people I know outside their homes or on the way, stopping for a chat and really being part of the community here.

Forming a ten-year plan in my head that leads up to a time when I plan to step back from work significantly, and looking forward to some of the things I would like to do next

Moving into a period of stability at home with the family, lead by the gradual realisation that there will be no more children. Baggins second birthday in August will be the first for ten years at which Trx will not be pregnant

Our combined credit card debts falling to a level which means all could be paid off by the summer

A new treasurer at the church relieving a lot of the pressure of my first year as churchwarden, and being invited to stand for a second

Seeing in print a programme of the events we are organising to celebrate our 140th anniversary this summer

Applying narrative text that begins to make sense to a biography I’m writing, and still being inspired by the discovery of unfamiliar music

So much more. There's a lot to be said for having a plan, and seeing the good-ness of things.
Believing and achieving. Making things happen

And then there was this.

Helps to explain things when words fail