January was a roller coaster of a month. After an energetic start to the year, which we celebrated as a family with a breakfast at the John Milne after Rach’s Night shift, both me and Evie were off with obnoxious colds for a week.
Sorted out what I’m doing with D101 this year while the day job remained bizarrely broken, do to a Future of IT programme that sees senior management lay off a third of our department in the name outsourcing ( something that the rest of the world seems
to have given up on).The next working day after the last day of those taking “voluntary severance”, the Head of IT announces his resignation!
Rachel hit 40 … Opps sorry 28 😉 Amongst the Birthday celebrations we had a lovely family meal out at Manchester’s top Chinese Restaurant, Yan Sing and a rather strange trip to the Trafford Centre (which was still too busy after Christmas).
So I’m a big fan of the band Helmet, and I was checking out what their original drummer John Stainer was up to these days….and as a result I discovered his current band Battles. Mind blown, albums ordered 🙂
Talking about being more present in the moment, was something that I’ve had a feeling for – oh like 25+ years. But its been a nagging feeling that has been so overwhelming I’ve stumbled badly to put it into words, even into context within my life. The best I could do was turn that feeling into a life long commitment to the practices of Taoism.
Recently I did a short online course about Taoist Manifestation techniques, to help me really get on with life in a calm and relaxed way, and a basically it came down to “Be happy that you are here”. Amoungst all the mind blowing “you are what you think” techniques, its central message was “Look you are here, be more present, be in good shape and it will all come to anyway”. For a moment I got it fully, then the cynical voices came back and it slipped away again.
Then Bill Murray in full on wise elder emerges from the void that is You Tube (OK I’ve been searching for more Bill Murray quotes after coming across this wonderful meme image ), with this…
2016 started off in a really epic way, no it really did. Things literally flew through the air into place and everything was nicely lining up to be Awesome and Full of Win. Then like a mirror image of the end of last year, when Rach and Henry were full of cold/Flu for a week, me and Evie (who is the healthiest of all of us) had a grotty cold which stopped us in our tracks. Its been a weird and frustrating week, there’s so much I wanted to get done, but I think the best advice I’ve read during this time is “Take a step back, slow down, and see it all coming” 🙂
Kinda summing it all up, especially in the light of the recent deaths of David Bowie, Alan Rickman (both this week) and Lemmy, is this short animation by the creators of Southpark, using a fragment of a talk by Alan Watts.
All this makes me want to live more intensely, be more present in the moment, but at a slower more graceful pace. Especially when I’m full of cold at the start of the year 🙂
2015 musically was a year of branching out as I gradually grow from the metal of my younger years. There’s been alot of noodling about with Jazz, dabbling in chill out music and experimental electronic music.
A big discovery for me this year has been Phish a lovely intelligent melodic psychedelic band, who are huge in America filling out arenas, but strangely absent from European touring schedules (the lead singer apparently has a drugs conviction that prevents touring over here). My entry point was via the awesome Fuego which is their last album, after a hiatus and reformation. Then I consumed Billy Breathes which has the fantastically uplifting anthem Free. My final trip to Phishland was the appropriately titled Joy, a heartfelt epic of a long player.
Also rediscovered Ozric Tentacles via their latest album Technicians of the Sacred, which is their latest after reforming, and has all the joyous swirling dancey uplifting instrumentals that I remember them for from the early 90s, where I discovered them from my pals in Leeds University’s Psychedelic and Trash Society.
Clutch put out Psychic Warfare, which is a lovely blend of their ‘pure rock fury’ sound which has developed over the last couple of albums and the weirder sci-fi influenced lyrics of their early albums, bliss.
Faith No More came back strong with Sol Invitus, which is a wonderful continuation and evolution of their musical mission, not a plundering and invalidation of their musical backcatalog like some reformations are.
I was initially very excited about Killing Joke’s new LP Pylon. It hits all the buttons that a good Killing Joke release should. Perhaps that’s the problem, that after thirty odd years of them pushing my buttons I no longer need the cathartic release they used to provide. Going to see them live back in October certainly felt like I concluded business I started with them in the 90s. I dunno maybe after a break I’ll come back to them with fire and passion. Perhaps they will find a new and exciting direction.
Bandcamp has been a big find this year and I’ve taken the time to explore it. I really like the model of free streaming and then them nudging you buy (usually at a pay what you want price). Its become my main place to find new music. A lot of nice electronica, like the abrasive Igorrr and the relaxing Gnomes of Kush (check out their latest LP Honey) have come this way, as well as new geetar music – such as the swaggering garage punk of Gentlemen and Assassins and the math metal of Innerty (both groups have unfortunately seemed to have faded in real life, but their albums are still available in the virtual record store that is Bandcamp). Slovenian one man band Neurotech has combined the best of both worlds, with uplifting lyrics, sweeping symphonic metal and ethereal synths. Best of all it has the OST to River of Heaven by my mate Keef Baker in his Slipdrive guise
You can check all this out via my Bandcamp home page, which neatly catalogs both what I’ve bought (my Collection) and what’s on my Wishlish (stuff I’ll probably get when I feel less tight).
So they say Lemmy Killminster of Hawkwind/Motorhead fame is dead this week at 70 years of age?
Bollocks say I.
He’s not dead. Not to my 10 year old self bumping into 80s Motorhead fans at the local youth club, thinking “I’m going to be that confident and so self assured when I grow up, and wear denim and have a bullet belt”. Not to my 15-20 year self who worshiped the Holy Trinity of Overkill/Bomber/Ace of Spades. Not to my 30 old self who got picked up by his music every time I was beaten down into the dull routine of ‘grown up life’. Not to my 40+ self who knows the stars that shine the brightest are eternal 🙂
Nah he’s flying along in a big etheric Silver Machine through the higher frequencies, a new Sonic God to help the faithful kick out the jams and hammer the boring and dull 🙂
Why is Boxing Day called that? Is it after some obscure tradition where we donned boxing gloves and had at our neighbours (under the Queensberry Rules of course)?
Well I’m renaming it Slackmas, after the fact that I have to do feck all today, except work out which leftovers to fed the family, load the dishwasher (and to be fair that could become a new tradition of “Dad doesn’t load the dishwasher today, who can I trick into doing it?”), drink more booze, and decide which Action Movie to watch to give me the illusion of physical exercise.
Brother George arrives fresh from his Arctic expedition 🙂
Let the gaming commence, Mousetrap! 🙂
The Star Wars team cautiously make their way across the lounge, lookin for the Death Star plans I got as a present, while Henry plays his new Skylanders game.
In my mid-twenties I took time to stop and take stock of what Christmas really meant to me.
Well it certainly wasn’t the Christian Christmas, since I’m not a member of that religion and the whole celebrating Jesus’s birth sort of falls down for me upon releasing that the whole thing was early Christians adopting pagan traditions (this happened all over the shop – Easter is another good one).
And its sure as shit not the bastardised Commercial Christmas with its Coca Cola Santa and its mantra of “Buy at Christmas or the Economy is fucked!“. I mean I like presents as much as the next guy but I hate the whole stress fest that goes around it. Oh and for your conspiracy theory lovers (and skeptics) out there, if you ever want to think about how easy it is to manipulate someone’s reality think about the ritual we go through with small children at Christmas time (thankfully its all fun and magic for them, and they soon see through it as they get older).
No for me its a time to have a break and celebrate that despite all the trials of the year gone by, me and my loved ones (which includes the whole of Reality seen and unseen) are still here (even the ones that have walked through the Doors of Perception) and that Reality is having a short pause for thought, allowing us mortals to stock up on summertime levels of energy through being “Excellent to Each Other and Party On Dudes!” (aka entering a state of pure love) , having a right good old knees up , before the whole Wheel of Time starts turning for another cycle 🙂
So without much more pontification here’s my favourite ‘Christmas’ Song 😀
