A thursday posting

Shock horror - a post today!!!  I know!!!  It's been a while since I've been able to find the time in the week to be able to put together a blog, but I thought that it could be interesting to see how it goes.

How is everyone?  I feel like a hermit out here in the sticks, learning songs, writing a little, but stuck with the creative streak that I can do very little with.  Guitar has been out a good few times recently, although most times it's been to do with the other blog series that I am working on.  More on all of that later, if I remember to talk bout it as I am making this up as I go along.

Saturday then I worked at that site where there is no electricity, but where I can go to the next door site to get a drink, warm, and all of that stuff.  The bloody vehicle they had me sit in though broke down while I was there.  I went to look around the site, and when I came back I unlocked the vehicle, put the key in the ignition to start it so that I could use the radio, light and heater, and it just wouldn't do anything.  Then, idiot that I can sometimes be, I thought that I could possibly push start it - a land rover!!!

Of course this was in vain, as it was I'm guessing much like "pushing an elephant up the stairs" (wonder who works out that pop culture reference).  When it did move, I could quite obviously see a pool of oil big enough to potentially sink the Bismarck!   Another problem with my predicament now though, was that I had a land rover in the middle of the road which had to be moved before vehicles showed up to go to the other factories on the same industrial estate.

After much sweat and toil, I got the vehicle back outside the gates of the site I was on, and then went to the neighbouring site for a well earned cup of tea.  While there, I called the office to report the vehicle problem.  After not too much of a wait, someone showed up and we towed it back to the office, whereupon I got into my own car and returned to do the last hour or so.  I actually parked my car at the neighbouring site, while I walked over to the site I was on and had a look around.  When I returned for another cuppa, the guard on that site said, "I'll swap with you for your next shift because you can't sit in that little thing all night."  Winner, I accepted the shift swap over.  Funny really, because he looked nothing like Noel Edmonds, Keith Chegwin, John Craven, or Maggie Philbin.  Good swap though.

So, I was on that site on Sunday, and then from the Monday I had no idea what I was doing.  I was given a rota on the previous thursday to that but told, "don't take any notice because that will be completely different to what you will end up doing."  Great, just what I need, a week where I can do absolutely nothing because I never knew when I would be working.  As it turned out, I was contacted on Wednesday with my shift pattern.

So at this moment then I am on a new site in a place where I have never even heard of before, let alone know my way back.  I followed someone to get here, and then was very quickly shown around, and that is it really.  I am a little worried about the journey home in the morning, but at least tomorrow I'll be on a site that I am used to, before Saturday night when I am somewhere that I have once again never been to, but it is said to be a regular site for me.  We will see won't we!

During the time off, I have been trying to help Louise with housework.  Basically that's code for probably getting in the way really.  I would have liked to have gone out but, quite honestly, I was never sure when I would have been contacted to go into work!

On Tuesday I started work on the Paul McCartney song Maybe I'm Amazed from his début album for my other blog series on the albums of the post-Beatles album careers of the members therein.  That is becoming a bit of a weight at the moment to carry, but in another way it's very interesting because it's almost like I'm going back to my roots in a way.  The first music I remember is that which my mum and dad listened to, and they were both fans of The Beatles, and of their careers afterwards.  There was other music that influenced me throughout the years though, but that is where my memory of music starts from.

Anyway, that means that I am now almost finished on the songs Momma Miss America, Teddy Boy, Singalong Junk (basically I need to add some more instruments to Junk itself, and take the vocals out), and Maybe I'm Amazed.  All that would be left after they are finished would be the last song on the album, Kreen Akrore, which I have no idea what I am going to do with.

Today I have been helping more with the tidying up.  I still wish that we could make more room to get around, because the living room at least would be nice to have some space in, and the kitchen as well I might add.  I never realised how much stuff we both had I suppose.  That's another lesson to learn next time - get a bigger place!

Anyway, about these here blogs then.  When I got to work this evening I thought it would be a good idea to do some editing on how they are viewed because, I quite like how a few other blogs I read are set out, with a blog per page, rather than so many per page.  This way it's easier I suppose.  I just need to work out how to organise it so there are separate pages for my other blog where I can have different entries that have more information, a contents page, and the like.  I'm still learning, but am most definitely used to blogging now for sure.

Anyway, I hope that everyone is okay.  Please take care, and I hope to catch up again soon.

September 29 2011 (40 years, 10 months, and 3 days old)

Another Saturday catch-up blog

Here we are then with yet another of my general blogs.  As some people may know, I worked at Lauren's again last weekend for the day shifts on Saturday and Sunday.  After that it was a case of the next three days off, and then back from Thursday for night shifts on the row.

First of those days on the site where I am sat in a car because there is no base there to sit in.  Electricity and water are not available, but I can go to a site across the way where the company I work for have a guard available.  The second night (Friday) is at Lauren's, and then finally the last two nights are back to sitting in a car listening to podcasts and doing some reading.

The last few days have been irritating to say the least since the digital recorder at home isn't keeping the digital channels, so isn't recording shows.  I'm especially pissed off because I love Gadget Show and will have to miss it because of being on nights.  There is also a series on about the history of the cinema, which I have already put the first three parts of the 15 part series onto disc for future viewing.  That is on Saturday night on More 4 and I have obviously wasted my frigging time there!!!  I don't know, I think modern technology actually isn't as good as people make it out to be.

The car had it's MOT on Monday and failed on three points, so those had to be sorted and all of it had to be paid for.  Road Tax to pay now as well, then water rates at the beginning of October, and it's all about money isn't it!  Add to that now that I will probably have to buy a new bloody recorder so I can watch the couple of programmes that I watch, since I am at work or in bed when the programmes I want to watch are on.

I know that people will suggest the old iPlayer and the likes, but this uses a lot of my dongle up, so I have to be selective with what I do online to a point.  Also, since I have started to put that History Of Film onto disc, then I would like to keep doing so because otherwise it's a waste of resources, and would damage the ozone if I just throw away a DVD.

While Louise was out on Tuesday I started on the song Momma Miss America for the music blog that I do, which needs to be looked at as two pieces.  If you don't understand what I am on about, then just read about it when I post the blog about the song in the next few days or so.

I also put a couple of new ideas of my own down that I made up during that time as well, which I was happy with.

I also had the dentist on Tuesday, and collected the car that had now passed it's MOT.  Wednesday was actually a day in, but not helped by the recorder playing up.  I basically spent all day taking everything off the hard drive and onto discs.  Then after clearing the hard drive, I did a full system reset, which seemed to work, until I switch the machine back on and all the channels were gone again.  What a great use of my time that was.  I've since tried to keep it working every day since then!  Setting it up again and again, only for it to lose everything when switched off and then turned back on later.  Why flaming bother?

Thursday I started working on (and almost completed work on) Teddy Boy for the aforementioned music blog I'm doing.  I was pleasantly surprised that I got so much done so quickly.  Then I took Louise for her dental appointment, and to see her dad.

So, that was Thursday, and we all know I was working nights that night.  Friday I got in from work around half six in the morning, got to sleep around seven, got woken up about a quarter to one, and Louise was going out.  That was basically what we saw of each other - the ten minutes before she left.

I then got up, grabbed breakfast, tried to get something up on the recorder, which I couldn't.  I did look through a few bits at home, and was hoping that I could set my stereo up in the living room because, in all honesty, the bits had been set up on top of a unit since very soon after we had moved in, but I had never got the speakers out and set it up.  Today I could see why I hadn't - because the speakers are too flipping big to fit anywhere in the room without someone tripping up over them.

That was about an hour and a half spent doing that, well spent time again hey.  You'll find I do that a lot - waste time on things that I can't do anything about.

The laptop was on anyway because I had done the "Follow Friday" thing on Twitter (where you make suggestions for people to follow on there), so I decided to get to work on recording the second half of Momma Miss America.  First I had to listen to the song and learn it.  Since it was a "jam piece", I stayed close to the original, but again did my own take on it.  It was a jam after all!  In fact, I still have work on that to do...

I did try to get the recorder to work again, but couldn't.  Had to get ready quickly because I had forgotten to get my food ready for work.  So, within a very short fifteen minutes, I got everything ready, and left for work, stopping off on the way to see if Louise was okay where she had gone out to.  I was in a rush, but surprisingly still made it to work for half past four.  Now, I can't go any further than that because, I am actually sat at work now on that shift.

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend.  Please take care and thank you for reading.

24 September 2011 (40 years, 9 months, and 29 days old).

What makes today any different?

Today I'm thinking of something very different, but also something that I am making up as I go along.  I hope that it is of interest to you.

I find it fascinating when I see these posts on Twitter, Facebook, and the like where they will either see "on this day in..." or "happy birthday today to ..." someone or other famous.  It's probably of no interest to some people, but I actually find it interesting that King Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered on November 26 1922, and I was born on November 26 1970.  Like I said, I am just interested in it, it's a sort of "ooh, that's interesting" sort of thing.

Today for instance is the birthday of cyclist Lance Armstrong, actor James Gandolfini (The Soprano's), actress Jada Pinkett Smith (although I can't remember what I've seen her in, was she in a Matrix film?).  Jimmie Rodgers, Frankie Avalon (real name Frances Avellone), and Deedee Ramone (real name Douglas Colvin) were both born on this day as well.  Then there are also Greta Garbo (actress) and Samuel Johnson (author, essayist, etc) who were born on this day as well.

Samuel Johnson has so many quotes, such as "Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable", "Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful", and "Do not accustom yourself to use big words for little matters." (For more of his quotes check here).


Other events on this day include;

1947	USAF (U.S. Air Force) forms

1955	Willie Mays hits record tying 9th home run at Ebbets Field (ties Joe Adcock)

1962	Rwanda, Burundi, Jamaica and Trinidad admitted (105th-108th) to UN

1973	West Germany and East Germany admitted to UN

1977	U.S. Voyager I takes 1st space photograph of Earth and Moon together

1980	Soyuz 38 carries 2 cosmonauts (1 Cuban) to Salyut 6 space station

1997	Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo elected to World Golf Hall of Fame (one for my friend Chris there)

The list is absolutely endless.  Unfortunately, rock icon Jimi Hendrix died on this day in 1970.  Like I said, I don't know if it's of that much interest to people, but I find it interesting that these things happened on a specific day.  I haven't given a full list of everything because, to be honest, if I have made you curious in any way, then you can always take a look yourself.  There are some awful things that have happened on this day as well, such as Hitler attempting to order the deportation of Danish Jews in 1943, although he was unsuccessful in this request.

Showing my, erm, more obvious leanings towards science fiction, the Star Trek series Enterprise had the first episode of Season Two aired in the US on this day in 2002.  I wanted to find films and television stuff about today, but couldn't.

The classic song More Than A Feeling by Boston was released on this day in 1976 (yes, 35 years ago today).  All of the members of KISS released solo albums on this day in 1978.  In fact, this date is very important with reference to KISS, because on this day in 1983 they appeared for the first time as a band without the obligatory make-up.  These facts were from this site.

Beatles history though...  Both the singles She Loves You and Help were spending their third week at number one in the UK (1963 and 1965 respectively).  

Feel free to leave any more events that you find interesting about today's date.

Anyway, thank you for the time reading this.  Please take care and I hope that you are having a lovely weekend.

18 September 2011 (40 years, 9 months, and 23 days old).

Is it a week already?

Hello everyone.  How are you?  I start this blog today with a question, which is quite a straight forward one - is it really a week since last we spoke?  Time flies and all that.

It has been a different week for me this week.  After the Saturday shift, I was again at Lauren's on the Sunday day shift.  Monday and Tuesday saw me working night shifts for the first time in over a year, which went okay but for being incredibly tired after the first night shift (must have been the waking up at 8 in the morning on the Monday after getting to bed about 2 in the morning on the Saturday night?  The first for me though was that the two shifts on the Monday and Tuesday were both sat in a car watching a site.  Travellers had apparently broken into the site and not only stole items from inside the building, but also from the electrical substation on the site as well, hence there being no available electricity in the building or anywhere on the site for that matter.

I had sort of worked from asking people about the site beforehand that it would be along those lines.  I was not happy to say the least, but because of the fact that I could survive on two shifts, I went along with it.  It wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be.  I borrowed one of the company's vehicle's (wasn't using my own car). and sat there listening to podcasts on my iPod all shift, occasionally going to a site across the way for a warm drink, my dinner, and general chat.  I sort of didn't mind so much.  Got it again three times this coming week :(  Oh well, beggars can't be choosers can they!

Anyway, back to what's been happening this past week.  So Monday I worked the night shift on that site, went to bed Tuesday morning when I got home, and then was woken by Louise going out on Tuesday at about quarter to one in the afternoon (a little less than 6 hours sleep I suppose), where upon I spent that afternoon starting on the song Momma Miss America for the music blog.  I laid down bass and a sort of drum pattern by tapping the guitar again as per usual lately.  Other than that I didn't do much of anything really, before work again that night - 12 hour nights again hey.

Wednesday I got in about half past six in the morning from work, went to bed, and then got up at about half past eleven or so.  The rest of that day was spent doing a few things.  I got a few bits from Morrison's down the street (roll on the opening of Asda, so that we're not stuck for choice on where we do our shopping in Newark).  I also paid off a few things while I was out and we watched Fast & Furious 5, which we really enjoyed.  You have to "stick your head in a jar though" while watching it as Louise says.  If you think about it too much, then you'll be saying throughout, "there's no way that would happen," and the like.  The part with the vault being pulled around by the cars towards the end was one such moment and, in all honesty, I still don't understand the reasoning being all of that.  I don't want to say too much in case you haven't seen it, but there's just something about that part of the film where I was wondering why.

Ooh, forgot to mention that we watched Water For Elephants on Sunday night I think it was, and that was an incredibly good film.  I was surprised by how good a film that was.

On Thursday we got up, got ready, and went to Mansfield.  I was going to fetch some documents from the solicitor's that I wanted the originals of, but when I rang them in the morning to let them know, they said that they were actually logging the items that day and that it would be easier to come some other time, but that there was actually something that did need signing anyway, so we still went to Mansfield.  In truth it was just something to do in Mansfield because our main reason for going was to visit my brother, his wife, and their kids.  I was dropping off some cards and gifts for the twins Luke & Connor, who are 18 today :-)  Happy birthday.  They will find that they have money in with their cards, and I also left some a couple of enormous bottles of Smirnoff Ice for Connor, and some bottles of Bulmers Pear Cider for Luke.

In fact, while we were there, I was informed of how nice Smirnoff Ice was,because not being able to drink a lot of the time I don't really bother to drink that much, but I was intrigued.  On the way home then we stopped off somewhere, and I purchased four small bottles of it and, sure enough, we had some when we got in and it was bloody lovely.  I used to drink Vodka mixes anyway.  I hate to say but sometimes I would drink a Vodka and Coke after a night shift sometimes back before I could drive.

We went to Mansfield then and the first place we went to was the Solicitor's, where I read through the document they wanted signing, and then signed it.  I won't go into details on what that is all about, sorry.  Then we went to check out the B&M store there in Mansfield, which was a first for us.  We left with a few things though, obviously.  We didn't actually get that much time there, which is probably a good thing really.  I would have liked to have gone into HMV, because we don't have any stores in Newark that sell CD's to that sort of a degree.  I admit that I buy items online using Amazon, Ebay, and the likes, but I do enjoy going through shelves of CD's checking out what they have.  There is something really great about that, which just isn't the same using a search engine on a shopping website.  I will go in there next time I'm in Mansfield that's for sure.

Perhaps I didn't want to go into HMV because I was expecting the delivery of the first season of Star Trek's original series on DVD with the newly reworked digital effects that have been placed onto the episodes.  I'm sort of intrigued, but hope that they are okay.  I have been wondering if the use of CGI on the original series will jar with everything else in there.  I'll see shortly as I have brought it with me today in the hope that I can get some viewing in.  I'll be bringing the last two episodes of Gadget Show with me tomorrow to work.

Thursday evening was great spending time with my brother's family.  We all had a great laugh, and it made a change to go out.  I was particularly happy, because I miss my family so much being away from them.  I know that Louise feels the same about her family as well.

Friday Louise was out working at the charity shop nearby, and I paid some more bills off, including finally paying off the debt left from the period of unemployment last year with the rent (yay).  I got my hair cut again, because for some reason it looks better shorter as it gets thinner on top.  That is really strange, but surprisingly true.  I wanted to get Momma Miss America finished but, as is the way, I found that the power adaptor for the keyboard wasn't working and, being Newark, it wasn't possible to find a new power adaptor without travelling to Lincoln or somewhere else - bloody typical!  Couldn't go to anywhere other than Newark due to the Smirnoff Ice I drank at home after getting in from the previously mentioned visiting Thursday evening.  Thus, I am stuck with that song.  I don't own an actual piano as such, but rather an electronic keyboard with piano tones on it.  I'll see what I can do.  In fact, I'll check and see what Argos have when I finish this, and hopefully before the flour delivery shows up here at work on this Saturday day shift at Lauren's again.

Anyway, that's what has happened this week, and well, I think that is a long blog again so I will leave it there.  If I think of more, then I'll just type up another blog for tomorrow and surprise everyone.  I hope that you all have a lovely weekend, and I look forward to seeing where I go with the blog next time.

Thank you for reading.  Please take care.

17 September 2011 (40 years, 9 months, and 22 days old).

Saturday chit chat

Now here I am at work again on Saturday, and it's the weather is sort of getting there.  I have a few things on my mind at the moment and, to be completely honest, I'm making up this blog as I go along again.

Tuesday and Wednesday I was working again at the factory site in Newark, and it was pointed out that one of the guard positions would no longer be required according to a change made by the client (Lauren's Patisserie - I don't care about name dropping the place because, well I just don't give a stuff).  Until last night the position has stayed pretty much, but while I was off yesterday I was contacted by work to inform me that the position would be finished from when I came back to work this morning.

Now I have received my shifts for the week ahead and noticed a site that I know nothing about and, after some investigation (asked a fellow guard), I found out that it is a demolition site where I would have to sit in my car all night as there is no actual cabin to be based from.  Since my rota says I have two shifts there, then I will assume that that will be two extra days off on top of the other three days off that I have.  Almost like I am being punished for them losing yet another post (the company apparently lost a multi-manned site somewhere the other week as well).  I'll be contacting them over the weekend to explain that I will not be sitting in my car for 12 hours wasting my fuel for a lousy minimum wage.  Then we'll say what their response is.  If I may be so bold, they can screw themselves if they think they're getting me to do that!  That was a lighter response than I originally thought.

Thursday and Friday were days off but, after being contacted by my solicitor's on Wednesday, an appointment was made for Friday, and Thursday was spent running here, there and everywhere to gather the information to take there.  I met up with Ian, who I had worked with at Chesterfield over a year ago now (crikey, time flies) a little before three on Friday afternoon, and we had a coffee at the Gala cafe off the market place in Mansfield, before making our way for a 3.30 pm appointment (where upon we were seen at about 4pm).  Information was handed over and, a long discussion continued with regard to the case that myself and Ian had against our previous employers.  When we were told how much the solicitor would charge per day for a tribunal court case, we were taking by surprise somewhat.  If I am being honest, I can't completely understand why anyone would be paid that sort of money?  As someone who is working for minimum wage, I find it disgusting when people make such ridiculous amounts of money.  Me and Ian will be discussing this more because I don't want to come out winning, but then having to pay the solicitor more than we actually make.

Me and Louise watched two films on Thursday, which was great.  Actually a little bit of time together (we'll have more of that this week that's for sure).  The first film we watched was the Kate Hudson film Something Borrowed, which I thought was a decent chick flick romantic comedy type of thing.  It also said "To be continued..." at the end as well so, after looking up the book on the internet and finding that it was part of a series, I have come to the conclusion that they must be starting a franchise much like the Bridget Jones stuff.

The second film we watched was The Lincoln Lawyer, which was a fantastic film.  It starred Matthew McConaughey, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  Well worth seeing.  The cast was great, including Ryan Phillipe, William H Macy, and, well you get the picture.  I really liked the idea and, unlike a lot of these sort of films, it always kept your interest because in some ways it was a bit like Star Trek and some other programmes like that, where they have an A story, and other stories as well.  This film had the A story about Ryan Phillipe, but the lawyer (McConaughey) also had other cases that he was working on as well.  The opening credit sequence was almost television like, and the pace carried on throughout.  Well worth a look if you want a decent thriller type film.

We've got another two films to watch (Fast & Furious 5, and Water For Elephants), but we'll not be able to get those watched until Monday when I am on nights at that site previously mentioned.  Who knows, if they still insist on placing me there without any cabin or facilities, then we may have more time on Monday to watch them before they have to be returned that evening at the latest.

As mentioned in passing earlier, I went to Mansfield on Friday.  Because of the fact that a long time was spent in the Solicitor's, there wasn't really the time to look around Mansfield so much.  More's the pity really, because I do miss it in some ways.  I saw the outside of B&M, but didn't enter.  It takes up the space where Tesco was a good few years ago now.  I also saw that there was yet another new place where Co-op and then Westgate had been.  The inside of the Four Seasons had altered slightly as well, and I was saddened to hear that they may be losing HMV there as well, which is a terrible thing in my opinion.  I think that isn't such a good thing for the future of music, film, or media in general.  That means that people will only be able to buy what is actually on chart at the time, and won't be able to find anything else unless they go online.  The only thing is that I remember back when I was younger going into these record stores and they use to make a set of headphones available for me to listen to stuff, and they had people working in these places who would suggest stuff to you.  Now though you can't really do that as such.  The recommendation thing on Amazon is stupid to be honest because, in most cases, what it recommends bares very little relevance to what you are interested in.  This way, there is no forward motion in the music industry, and we will continue to be stuck with everything staying exactly how it is.

I know that people will probably read that and think I'm full of crap, but let me explain in greater detail so that it's understood.  When all of these new styles of music came out, such as punk, they were able to grow from almost a word of mouth thing.  Because back then the record companies could put out records and see how they fared that way.  They would do it by cutting a small amount of copies of something, and then see what happened.  If they sold, then the record companies would get the plants where the records were made to make more copies, and then see how that goes.  That would then bring about a movement in music.

Now though that won't be possible, because yes they may be able to release material, but there is no way of anyone being able to find out about them except by a complete accident of "ooh, I happened upon this great band...", which is very rare.  You could come across a band by accident that had been together for five years or so and got fed up waiting, living on little or no money, and getting sick of each other, and then two years after they split up you discover them and maybe the main songwriter has committed suicide or something, so there is no chance for them anyway.

As things were before though, you could be a frequent customer to a store and a worker could say, "ooh, you like to hear new stuff, check this out".  Then bam, it all starts a good few years sooner, before any of that could have happened.  Let's face it.  Whatever they say is new in today's music isn't any more, and there are no risks taken as such.  The big hoohah over Lady Gaga isn't really something to write home about as such.  She was already a good selling songwriter for the company anyway, writing songs for the likes of Madonna, etc.  She was relatively safe anyway.  Even if she hadn't got anywhere as a solo artist the record company would still have not lost out, because she was more than made them money with the songwriting for other artists.

This blog is turning into something completely different to how I thought it would turn out.

Anyway, onto another subject (this is becoming another epic blog isn't it).  The other day was the 45th anniversary of Star Trek first being shown on television.  Now I don't hide the fact that I am very much a Star Trek fan, and I was so happy to hear that, especially with the fact that it is still going strong.  I personally think that the J.J.Abrams vision for it is brilliant.  I was a little bit hmm and aah about it being "an alternative timeline type of thing, but after seeing the film I thought "damn, this is awesome".

I started watching Star Trek, like many, as a kid.  It was repeated in the late 70's, and I really enjoyed it.  Times were simpler then and, to be honest, the effects and everything were well cool.  You have to remember that television was made cheaply, even back in the 70's.  Just look at the classic series' The Six Million Dollar Man (repeats) and The Incredible Hulk.  Now of course things are completely different, and of course advantage is taken of incredible budgets, greater technology, and the like.  The creator of Star Trek Gene Roddenberry said that if they had the money back then, they would have paid for the make-up work that was on The Next Generation and I am sure that he would have utilised CGI had it been around back then.  But anyway, to me as a kid back then it was amazing.  There is a certain something to it that can't be explained and, in all honesty, I still enjoy getting lost in something because, to me, I like to be able to take 45 minutes or so out of the real world and get totally immersed into a world that makes me forget my life and the world around me for a little while.

So, with that in mind, thank you Star Trek for giving me that feeling and the enjoyment over all of these years in it's various incarnations.  There have been other shows over the years that have grabbed my attention similarly, but that was the original and, controversial here maybe, the best because it was the first.

Thank you for reading, please take care.

10 September 2011 (40 years, 9 months, and 15 days old)

A New World Order bonus song 9 - Rise Up Rise Up

Now we come to the final bonus track on the upcoming reissue of A New World Order.  I've actually cheated with this song, but I will be honest and explain that later.

I was just playing around with the guitar, "coming up" with an easy chord structure basically, while I was watching the news on the television.  There was a piece about Robert Mugabe on at the time, and so with that in mind I switched the TV off and wrote this song very quickly, filing it straight away into my big binder with the rest of the songs that I had been working on.  I've lost a lot of those during my last house move, which is a shame in a way because I had over 200 songs in there.

When I went to Bandwagon Studios (RIP) to put down several songs in one session (14 on this day I think), this song got the usual live treatment of vocal, acoustic guitar and harmonica at the same time.  This got messed up though because my harmonica harness loosened during the recording, and I though that I could just overdub everything at a later date, which I never got around to.

So, recently at home, I have cheated by overdubbing another harmonica part over the existing song.  If you listen carefully, then you can hear the original harmonica in there as well during the harmonica solo after the first verse, which is where the harness loosened itself.

I like the song.  It's political for sure, and still very current.  Like a lot from back then it has a feel to it as well, which is hard to achieve if you spend too long on a song.  It's very much a case of just capturing the song in it's bare state.  Some songs work well with a fuller arrangement filled with so much going on, but some songs work better with less going on.  Think about how the first couple of Bob Dylan albums just wouldn't be the same if they weren't as stark as they are.  Those were basically Bob live completely on his own, maybe with a single overdub somewhere to accentuate, but nothing else.  I wasn't purposely going in with that in my mind, but I suppose that I was very much influenced by that without even realising it.

HERE IS THE SONG!

Thank you for reading, and I hope that you enjoy the reissue when it becomes available.

Monday blogness

Newark market place (not taken by me)

So, it is Monday morning, and it’s actually quite a nice bit of sunshine today.  The wind is up here in the market town of Newark-On-Trent, but still the sun is out, so moaning is not called for so much today.

The Troggs

You find me at work again, but cheekily I have brought my laptop with me again, which I won’t be doing again for the next two shifts.  I foresee bringing one of the biographies that my uncle has loaned me to start reading during those shifts.  These are one about The Troggs and the other about Clifford T Ward.  The latter is an artist I had heard a couple of songs by before my uncle introduced me to him, but now that oversight has been made up for.

Clifford T Ward

I don’t expect to read that quickly because, although the Ozzy Osbourne book was finished relatively quickly, I am not Mr Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation!!!  Much as I would like to be able to read that quickly.  They always have to have someone like that I those things don’t they – Mr Spock (Vulcan) in The Original Series, Seven Of Nine (Borg) (ding dong) from Voyager, Doctor Bashir (Genetically engineered) from Deep Space Nine, and of course T’Pol from Enterprise (well hello).  Sorry, the geek came out in me there.  It’s been a long time since I’ve caught any Star Trek L

Star Trek collage - "I made this!"

As you can probably tell I am making this up as I go along.  There may be a point to this blog or they may not.  I have absolutely no idea what I am talking about.  No change there then hey J

I am relatively happy with how the other blog series is going, but I must repeat that it isn’t something that will be updating very often.  I have enjoyed it so far, but it reminds me of the fact that I wish that my recording equipment at home was better than it is.  I do have a great bit of POD equipment that acts as an interface, but it doesn’t work with Vista, and I can’t afford to download all the programs that I have on my hard drive.  Not having internet at home means that I have Mobile Broadband, which needs topping up, and that costs money.  To get internet at home would cost money as well and, to be completely honest with you, I’d rather put that money aside to move somewhere and then once there sort out the internet and that sort of thing.

Until then though, I will have to do my home recordings in the way that I have or, alternatively, record onto four-track, and then use studio time to make them into digital wav files.  When I found that the interface for the POD was incompatible with Vista, I thought that I could just connect the 4-track to the laptop from the stereo out connections on there and into the microphone socket on the laptop, and then record that.  This however isn’t working either, because that adds the sort of hiss that drives me up the wall.  Grr!!!

Sorry, wasn’t intending to moan about anything.

Anyway, in some ways the very basic recording method that I have been using has sort of given the recordings a very different sound, which I suppose I don’t really mind so much.  It’s sort of thanks to Cory about that as well, because he suggested that if I couldn’t do anything else, then just use the laptop’s own inbuilt microphone.  It’s a shame though considering that I have a very nice Shure microphone, as well as the POD gear, my bass effects, and even the keyboards.

I do however have a plan for something else.  If and when I get to working with a band again, I like the idea of recording rehearsals onto the 4-track, and then if anything happens during rehearsals, then I can use the recording to work on, using the other two or three tracks available.  This may sound ridiculous, but then again maybe not.  It’s been a while since I last played with a band.

Any way, today you catch me with many thoughts in my head, and in need of sifting through them.  No different to the usual me, but today I am more hmm, uncertain as to what to write here.

I will leave you all to your day, wherever in the world you may be, and whatever time of that aforementioned day that it is.  Isn’t that strange?  Somewhere else on this planet it could be an entirely day.  That is weird.

Anyway, thank you for reading.  I hope that there was at least a modicum of sense in there somewhere.  Please take care.

5 September 2011 (40 years, 9 months, and 10 days old)

P.S. A very happy birthday to the great Freddie Mercury.  He would have been 65 today if he were still alive.  Now there’s another subject for a blog – could you actually imagine him as a 65 year old, or John Lennon as a 71 year old?  Now there’s a blog all of it’s own I think.

A New World Order bonus song 8 - Thoughts Of The Nations

Here we have yet another bonus track on the forthcoming reissue of A New World Order.  Trust me, it will materialise.

What can be said about this song then?  Firstly it has a lot of lyrics to it, which in turn makes it seem incredibly long, even though it clocks in at just under four minutes.  I don't actually remember very much about the writing of the song, except that it was very much a stream of conscious thing, with words just being written down as they came to mind.  Essentially it has a throwaway title, because in truth I just thought that the words were very much like a list of things going on, rather than one specific subject, so it became Thoughts Of The Nations.  I chose nations in plural because the subjects spanned the world, rather than just one country.  There's also the fact that it makes more sense and impact if it was universal rather than of just the country or, more to the point, Thoughts Of My Own.

The song was not on the original release essentially because of the fact that it does seem to plod.  There is very little movement in the piece, but adding another section would have made the song longer.  I don't mind the song too much, but even I get a little bored by it after a while and find myself thinking, "a bridge would be nice here and there".

I think I have strung the words together well but, as I said, it would probably benefit from a bridge or a middle eight here and there, just to break from what's going on.  That said, there are a lot of Bob Dylan tunes where he sticks to that one thing throughout the song, and it works in that case.

This is a case however where the basic arrangements that I was using didn't work looking back on it.  This was from the same day that I recorded Slave Song, Ballad Of The Oppressed, Towards The Sun, and all those other tunes.  That said, I do have an idea for the song that I will keep under my hat for now.  What I will say is have a think about the Simon & Garfunkel song Sound Of Silence.  Watch this space.

Thank you for reading, please take care.

HERE IS THE SONG!

Saturday catch up

Good morning world.  Here I am, very early on a Saturday morning on another day shift, and just missing the actual sunrise because of the factory I am at getting in the way of seeing the sun.  A shame really, because it can sometimes be a beautiful thing to behold.

Now I know that I haven't been blogging much lately but, to be honest, I have just been too tired when I get home to actually want to even put the laptop on.  There's also the fact that there is very little to blog about.  I think the last thing I wrote about that wasn't about a song was probably when I was at the brewery site almost a fortnight ago now, which is a while ago I know.  I actually wrote that blog last Saturday, but it was about events from then.

After that I got two days off, then worked at the brewery again on the Thursday, then the gatehouse of a factory from Friday to Monday, and then got three days off.  Yes, I know, three days off hey!  Like I said before, they seem to be very accommodating to the hours that I would prefer.  It may be an enormous drop in hourly rate, but the time off is worth it.

After work last Sunday, we went to Louise's mum and dad's for dinner.  I was so exhausted that I really needed Louise to chat to me on the way home, because I could quite easily have dropped off while driving back from there.  On Wednesday we went to my dad's in Belper, and that was a really lovely change.  A bit of a drive from Newark, but well worth it.  Tuesday I actually recorded the music for the Paul McCartney song Oo You from his first album for the other blog series I am doing on the music of the ex-Beatles.  I'm still wondering about retitling the series something like After The Split or something like that.

Yesterday I was working at the brewery again, although that site has now been bought by factory where I am today, but the brewery people still use the site on lease.  I recorded the vocals for Oo You while I was there.  It's a nice site for being able to do that.  Not that I wasn't doing my job by the way.  I did discover a few lorries left unlocked on the yard (although they call them drays), found the keys, and locked them up.  I still do my job of course.

Anyway, in the time that it has taken for me to write this relatively short blog, the song has risen.  It is quite lovely to look at the sky at the moment, and the business park in the foreground is actually quite nice.  I wish that I had brought my camera with me.  For some reason I can't get the phone's bluetooth to work again.  Bloody technology.  Oh well.  Have a lovely day and weekend everyone.  I'll carry on with my cup of coffee, and watch the people come ad go.

Always looking for something to make me smile, in every moment.

Thank you for reading, please take care.

3 September 2011 (40 years, 9 months, and 8 days old)

A New World Order bonus song 7 - An Outsider Looking In

Here we have another one of my relatively short songs that just seems to have all of the parts in place.  Again it is one of those songs that I had to leave aside in favour of other material for the original release, mainly because there was so much of this politically motivated material already there for the set with songs such as Ballad Of The Oppressed, and the likes.

This song does however have the added bit to it that in essence it is talking about myself - the outsider looking in.  I had the acoustic guitar out playing, and just seemed to start coming up with the lyrics whilst playing this chord structure.  I was lucky back then in that way, because I do see that as luck.  Sometimes writing songs can be a lot more laboured than that.  It is very rare that you can just come up with a song like that.  More often than not you can probably have a good amount of a song, but then you normally have to work the song to get to the finished stage.

Here though it was another case of the song just being there.  I won't lie and say that it was easy though, because I am sure looking back that I was sort of sat there thinking, "well, I need this section and that", or something to that effect.  I did however write it in one session if memory serves me right.  I was also very proud of the song as well.

I think the basic arrangement of the song works, but would possibly be better served by a vocal performance that had more life to it.  Even I could do a better job now of singing it and, in honesty, I would probably alter it slightly.  But, in another way it sort of works because there's a matter of factness to the vocal that makes it the every man saying, "look, I can see these things happening and it pisses me off.  Now what can be done about it?"  That is sort of the point essentially, so in that way it does work.  The music itself adds to that with it's basic feel and chords, and yet the actual sections themselves with the staggered measures adds to the uncertainty of person speaking.

A nice song that would have been too good to have just left alone without letting people at least hear it.

HERE IS THE SONG!

Thank you for reading, please take care.