Finally the gales seem to have subsided and a damage survey is possible. Considering that, on Friday night, it sounded as if the wind was trying to either tear the roof off or remove the walls, it is cheering to discover that only the fences and wooden play house need repairs and these are mainly of the nailing bits back together kind. I like to be reminded of the power of the weather, but since some vital roof tiles blew off at our old house, I feel less secure than I did when the rain drives and the wind makes the trees creak beyond my tightly shut windows.
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My goodness work has been terrible this week. Running on a skeleton crew and then some of those skeletons being off sick and on holiday meant that those remaining were under more pressure than is comfortable by a long way, still I was very cheered on friday night by some gorgeous chips from the fish and chip shop and a fabulous firework display choreographed by Mr bethnoir and enjoyed in the company of some good friends. I was tired, but conscious that enjoying the moment is very important and the green, pink, bright white and gold firework was particularly noteworthy.
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I've just read that the vocalist with Elusive, Jan Kenneth Barkved died on the 27th October. I know no details, but I liked the band. Very sad. May he rest in peace.

Well, I can never predict the British public. A fifth of them apparently have very dubious voting intentions and some of them keep phoning up Strictly Come Dancing and saving boring Craig from the dance off. I know one is much more worrying than the other, but Jade Johnson having to dance to save her place? It's an outrage, I tell you. Ian's trousers alone should have won the day.( Read more... )

if Guenevere, Lancelot and Arthur could have come to some arrangement between them, they could have saved everyone a lot of trouble. Surely Lancey could have fathered a son and that would have been more fun all around? Look here's a photo of Lancelot kissing Arthur's sword (oo-er)... ( Read more... )

Further to my last post, my garden at night


Howard and Edgar with tea lights


makes the dark evenings worth it.

I bought a new pumpkin, isn't he cool? He's called Edgar. Here he is with Howard, my old one, I think they're listening to a joke in the first photo and laughing at it in the second, what do you think?






They'll look even better in the dark with candles inside them, but I couldn't wait to take a photo. I can't remember where Howard came from, but Edgar was in Aldi for a very reasonable £7.99. Much more fun than most of the plastic tat that's around, although I do like plastic bats and I'm tempted by the window stickers in Sainsbury's.

In other fascinating news, I finally got around to refilling the bird feeders, have a stack of ironing and housework to do and saw a cat nearly roll off next door's roof when she stretched, whilst I put the washing out this morning. She was fine, but there was much clattering of claws as she fought to regain her balance. Silly thing.

I read Stephenie Meyer's 'Breaking Dawn' gosh it was awful. It went off at an Anne Rice tangent, but an unpleasant Mayfair Witches one, not a cool vampire one, I was truly surprised, but far from delighted.

I don't want to give away the plot, but I am very uncomfortable with some of the ideas in this novel, particularly the betrothal of babies to grown men and the negativity surrounding child bearing, however I am glad to have read the conclusion to the series because it means I don't have to read any more. They're making it into a film, I won't be going to see that.

In better vampire news saw some series one Buffy on Sci Fi channel, it was so sweet and Angel was so thin and pretty. I wish Dollhouse had some of Josh Wheedon's humour, I really liked it when he was funny. Must vacuum now...pity me.

I saw an interview with Nick Cave on youtube in which he said that there were only three things to write songs about, love, death and God. I pondered this for a while, it is empirically true for him, but as a general statement, I don't think I agree. There are bands who have a whole career without writing about some or all of them, it made me wonder if I had to tie myself to topics, what I write about.
I think love, death and dreams.
How about you? Or if you don't write, three broad themes you always want to read about?

Last night, in my dreams, I spent time with a much missed friend I went to school with. I haven't seen him since we accidentally met in the British Museum in about 1990, last contact was a brief internet communication some years ago where he shared news of his recently born son, but I stumbled across a photo of him as a toddler in a book I was reading this week, so I assume that is why he appeared. In my dream he had been in prison, had lost his wife and children and had generally lived a life of suffering. I hope none of it is true, apart from the skill at playing the piano, which he didn't have before but might have developed. I wish I could find out, but not everyone is on Facebook, sadly.

I haven't really spent all week watching TV, but I did channel surf last night and found the American version of 'Strictly Come Dancing' on Watch (Dancing with the Stars). I quite enjoyed contrasting it with the UK original. The emphasis was much more on show dance style theatrics than more traditional routines, Len was predictably not impressed and gave one couple a 4. He seemed to have merged his usual judging style with Craig's, being more critical and abrasive than I expected. The male professional dancers were much more camp and made up. Interesting. I'm looking forward to tonight's Strictly, I think I may be a bit too keen on it this year, but I love watching them dance.


I've discovered that a surprising number of my friends have birthdays at the end of September/beginning of October. Firstly, I must write them all on the calendar, but secondly I don't know even know what star sign that makes them, can anyone enlighten me?

Here's a picture of some cats as I believe it is obligatory :-)

http://www.atpfestival.com/Events/TenYearsOfATP.php

Damnation! I have just seen that Devendra will be in the UK in December. There are, at a stretch 3 bands I'd want to see amongst this line up, apparently chalets are running out, it's really close to where I live, but it's expensive, but it's Devendra , in the flesh *whine*



Doesn't he look like someone else in that photo? Time to try out a poll, perhaps...
Poll #1461425 Devendra Leitch?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

Who does Devendra Bahart most resemble in this photo?

Who does Devendra Bahart most resemble in this photo?

If this wasn't by Nick Cave would I have read it?
NO
Would I recommend it to anyone who didn't already like Nick Cave?
NO
I've had Nick Cave in my life for a long time, his eternally dark themes of violence, bracingly expressed sexual fantasy, madness and desperation are familiar to me. I know him to be an intelligent and erudite man who explores these subjects through art rather than, (I trust), going out and abusing animals, women and children, and one who balances these negatives with warmth, humour and humanity, I find his work very rewarding. Usually.

However, this book goes too far. I found the frequently pornographic imagery unappealing, the characters unsympathetic and the style much less dense and original than his previous novel. I suspect that he enjoyed writing it, it was compelling, but I didn't enjoy reading it.

Occasionally a glimmer of humanity managed to shine through and I saw the writer I admire, but mostly I didn't find the inner workings of the main character's mind something I wanted to share and the sympathy I almost felt for him was lost as the book progressed.

I'm disappointed. I wanted to like it, but I don't. The apology to Kylie at the end is funny though and it has a nice pink ribbon book mark.




Here's a photo of the dirty old man, I still like him though which may be more charitable than Avril Lavigne feels towards him (read it if you want to know why).

I *think* I may have been a bit brutal with the hedge trimmer, but I now have more room to turn the car around and when the green recycling bin has been emptied I will be able to attack, sorry, carefully trim, the fir trees in the back garden. I have discovered why no one else wears velvet elbow length gloves to cut their borders, they do not stop hawthorn or bramble spikes from entering the flesh, but they may have deflected a few scratches, stopped some encounters with small many legged wildlife and I have no excuse to wear them usually, so I'm happy.

In the spirit of preparing for the winter, I finally got around to taking my grandmother's music books to the Amnesty Bookshop http://www.booksforamnestybristol.org.uk/index2.html, which is a wonderful place. The trouble is, after giving them my two huge and heavy bags of sheet music, I ended up buying 4 new books for myself (it was buy one get one half price), then I bought another book in the charity shop next door and some other bits and bobs, so overall I probably almost replaced the amount of stuff I donated. I ordered the new Nick Cave book and two rock music biographies by Anthony Reynolds from Amazon over the weekend too. I'm usually very restrained in my purchases due to a lack of bookcases, but the lure of the science fiction section was too much for me.

Look...


I picked the remaining apples from the tree, which was quite satisfying and tomorrow I'm going to plant some bulbs. I hope I've settled some subconscious worries by revisiting the road where I lived and worked for five years and seeing that I didn't leave lots of things behind and by disposing of my dead grandmother's belongings as I was asked to. I could do with a good night's sleep tonight. I intend to listen to some weird folk before bed, just discovered Iron and Wine's first album and Devendra Banhart, Six Organs of Admittance and Vetiver sound appropriately mellow for the time of year. I am unashamed of being a fan of bearded men* with acoustic guitars and the Genius feature of iTunes 9 is good at putting songs that work well together in this genre. Anyone else played with it?



*beards not always necessary, as Devendra demonstrates here

Deep Water by Opened Paradise, one of those rare songs that entranced me from the moment I heard it and hasn't lost its appeal.

I've only just found out that Solemn Novena released a new single at the beginning of August, which is available on iTunes. As I really liked their first ep, 'As Darkness Falls' which was a triumphant revival of trad goth featuring authentic guitars, charming female vocals, very gothic male vocals and well composed songs, I thought I'd buy it and share my opinion of it with you. Aren't you lucky? ( Read more... )

Back home means back to the garden which is good mostly, but the wildlife has got a bit out of hand in my absence. The nasturtiums and sprouts were barely visible under the cabbage white caterpillars when I went out this morning, the spaces were filled with green caterpillars, for a bit of variety.

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I've been rambling in an easterly direction over the past few days, here are some of the things I've seen.
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Louis de Pointe du Lac from Anne Rice, or Spike from Buffy.
I'm a sucker for the mentally anguished undead :-)

So many wonderful things about France, but I think Rimbaud followed by crepes :-)

I'm happy that people have been enjoying the Yeovilton Air Day, but I am not so pleased that the Red Arrows seem to have been practicing over our house this weekend. As a child I remember being scared of the aircraft practicing low flying exercises over our cottage in North Cornwall, but I had forgotten just how loud they are. One just went past the back door as I was taking off my shoes and I found myself on the ground with my arms over my head before I could think. I am not designed for this age of loud noises.

Speaking of historical times, has anyone else watched the children's TV programme, 'Horrible Histories'? It provides amusing sketches, songs and facts from different periods of history. My favourite is the 'stupid death' sketch, where a skull faced character with a long blonde wig who looks like he should be in a Scandinavian metal band, laughs at historical figures who have died in amusing way. However, any sketch where Mathew Baynton dresses up is good for me. I know it's for kids, but it is funny.



Nouvelle Vague's new album is out, apparently blue grass covers of New Wave songs, not sure if that will work as well as the bosa nova ones. I also read that Alesha is definitely taking over from Arlene as a judge for Strictly this year, I wonder how she has become an expert on dance all of a sudden and hope this article is exaggerating...
http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2009/07/12/strictly-come-dancing-stars-furious-about-new-judge-alesha-dixon-115875-21513018/

It's been a quiet internet weekend due to our modem dying on Thursday night. Over the weekend I've read three books mainly because I haven't been able to waste time on the computer, that gives me something to think about. Now the engineer is due (tomorrow morning), the modem has decided to resurrect itself, is it a temporary zombie state or is it better? How can I tell? Will wait and see, I suppose.
( a rather lengthy catch up )

Had a bad night. Woke up too much, too many dreams. Now I'm not in them, though, I think they're worth recording...
( below cut, in case you don't agree )
I wonder if I slept badly because of the new tea I bought yesterday. Are assam or ceylon teas known for being very high in caffeine? I drank more tea than I usually do and I can't think of any other reason why I woke up every hour, unless it was a change in the weather. Curious.

Has anyone else been invaded by baby spiders? All over the washing line, house and in the car there are tiny spiders and it's starting to get irritating. I'm going to have to kill them if it carries on. Literate spiders, beware, you have been warned!