The fingers of fate are long and bony. They reach into the mind to turn up thoughts that you never imagined could be there. And so it was the other day when I revisited a post that appeared in my Hubzilla feed a few months ago. The post was headed "Eleuthera", Stockholm - Monty Alexander,…Read more Eleuthera
Track
Avalanche
It doesn't take much to trigger an avalanche. Sometimes a fresh fall of snow or the warmth of the rising sun on a mountain slope is enough. In this case, though, it was just a brief entry on a social media feed - barely more than a link to this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASjn1Z83g9c Aimee Mann…Read more Avalanche
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
When the Crotchety Kid picked up a bass guitar at the beginning of the seventies, he was completely ignorant of harmonic structure. As a first step to composing bass lines, he bought and read a book in the Teach Yourself series. Those books had distinctive yellow and blue covers, which served as a stamp of…Read more Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
Nothing Left to Say
I'm a firm believer in the adage, "If you have nothing to say, say nothing". And, when I started this blog post, I had nothing to say about Imagine Dragons. So it came as a bit of a shock to discover that they were phenomenally successful in the 2010s, especially in the U.S. They had…Read more Nothing Left to Say
Breathing Istanbul
This track-of-the-week is just under five minutes of cool jazz, courtesy of my Hubzilla friend, Manuel. How he finds these tunes I can not imagine, but his taste is impeccable. https://youtu.be/u0eBHd_VK00 Breathing Istanbul is from Marco Vezzoso's 2021 album, Travel, whose eight tracks take us from the famous Turkish city with its spectacular mosque, through…Read more Breathing Istanbul
Those Were the Days
I well remember the sixties. It was a time of unbounded optimism. Well, except for the Cuban missile crisis and the assassination of JFK, it was. Bright young things were putting a fresh coat of paint on everything - fashion, art, music and even politics. The kids were wearing flowers in their hair, and the…Read more Those Were the Days
Party’s Over
It's time for a change of style. So far this year, we've had humour, jazz, blues, folk and indie themes - today it's pop and soul. Visually, Rag'n'Bone Man cuts a striking figure. He stands 1.96 m (6' 4") tall and weighs 125 kg (275 lbs, or nearly 20 stone). And his big frame carries…Read more Party’s Over
Light a Fire
There's an examination subject in the Scottish Education system with the title "Modern Studies". It aims to develop students' knowledge and understanding of contemporary political and social issues in local, Scottish, United Kingdom and international contexts. When I was in the middle school (ages 13-15), those of us in the Science stream had two periods…Read more Light a Fire
Carol of the Bells
East of the North Atlantic Ocean and on the western edge of Europe lies the United Kingdom. At the geographical heart of the UK, slightly to the southwest of the centre point, there is the urban conurbation of Birmingham and, in the balancing position a little to the northeast, is a triangle of lesser known…Read more Carol of the Bells
Stranger in Paradise
A post on Hubzilla this week had me searching the wetware memory banks for a song from the sixties. The tune was familiar, but the title escaped me for a while. In the end it came to me in the shower - it was called Stranger in Paradise, and it was sung by one of…Read more Stranger in Paradise
Crotchety Man 