Let Know Man Steal Your Thyme

Latest vinyl only lp to turn up digitised at our house is the first Pentangle album.

Prior to reliving my glorious past, I caught my wife listening to Merzbow @ 8 a.m. Fearing for her health as someone used to a diet of Tammy, Dolly & Demis I quickly hit fast forward.

Was this a sudden turnaround for her, no : I had merely left it on when I left the room.

Back to that first Pentangle lp, it still sounds as fresh & vibrant today. Its no wonder that the current batch of American free folk or freak folk, spearheaded by Devendra Banhart, Cul De Sac & Sunburned Hand of the Man have adopted much of the acoustic acid folk of the 60s/ early 70s as their mentors.

Good & Evil


Sometimes its so hard to tell the difference these days between what is good & what is evil.

I know an unjust war is bad. I know that building a wall across Palestine is bad.



I know that the pulling down of the Berlin Wall was a good thing.



Now the evil men are thinking about building a wall across Iraq, because their foreign policy beggars belief!

I know that having your own country & running your own country is a good thing.

4 Ways of Saying 5


I recently watched the pilot episode of the 'Lone Gunman' & its all true. Here was the actual plot of the 9/11 attack!

A whole step by step guide to the headlines of that day.







I am not really a conspiracy freak, but it shocked me when I watched it unfold. Not sure of the exact date that Chris Carter made this X-files offshoot, but it was well before 9/11!






I also watched 'Pan's Labyrinth' & I now know who took all that bad acid @ Woodstock!

Talking of dvds, this writer is getting very excited at the upcoming release on dvd of 'El Topo' & 'Holy Mountain'. These were made by the man who took all the good acid @ Woodstock.

6 Ways to Avoid the Evil Eye

I was listening to Ed Yazijian’s ‘6 Ways to Avoid the Evil Eye’ (sound advice these days!), but by the time I got to track 5, it was too late!

I went to pick up a Chicken Biriani from Fred’s last night & started chatting in Arabic to the Kurds & the Palestinian lad, who has just started there. The Palestinian wants to attend university in Glasgow to study art. He has been given an instruction from the English home office to go home as his visa is just about to expire.

Of course he has no homeland & his family are exiled in Jordan, so he has to go back there & re-apply for another visa. He went to his MP & his local councillor, foolishly thinking that, if Scotland had its own government, then surely they would have the power to sort things for him. He was naïve in thinking this as they told him, in effect; they have no power as this really rests with Tony Blair & the English Ministers. So he has no alternative.

This Palestinian is constantly exposed to this ‘Scottish Labour’ campaign, which is a total misnomer & it is there to dupe the voting public. This is very much an English Labour party especially when it comes to immigration & double plus plus when it comes to 1) Palestinians & 2) Moslems

"Six Ways To Avoid The Evil Eye"
by Ed Yazijian

Limited Edition Lp by One Tree (2007)
Released on Limited Edition CDR originally on Feed and Seed Records (2006)



"Wanted to make the world aware of a new release of vinyl called Six Ways To Avoid The Evil Eye. This album is a reissue of a super limited CDR from last year.


These are mysterious recordings that seem to be immersed in an innerspace composed entirely of serious reverb jello, all instrumental-style with loads of tabla and slide guitar and international/continental/other worldly instruments & sounds.


The artist is Dr. E'weerd Yijji (aka Ed Yazijian) who should be known for his work with serious folks like Dredd Foole and Pete Prescott (Mission of Burma, Volcano Suns) and many others(not to mention occasional live performances with the mighty Sun City Girls).


This is his first solo release."

Ed is a teacher of Asian Studies in South Carolina
http://www.furman.edu/depts/asianstudies/yazijian.html




The limited edition Lp is available Here,


http://www.forcedexposure.com/artists/six.ways.to.avoid.the.evil.eye.html
&
http://www.flippedoutrecords.com/sixwatoaveve.html

Terry Riley in Glasgow

Gregor asked if I was going along to see Terry Riley as did my younger son. I honestly don’t know, I have been busy lately stuffing leaflets through your door trying to convince you that we should be free.

I have been talking to people who say the strangest things like: we don’t want independence? Or we need to combine with England, in case anyone attacks us. I mean who was the last country to attack us (if we exclude the German airades that destroyed Clydebank, before the present English Labour Government & local English Labour Council tried to finish the job): yes: you are correct it was England!

Who would attack Scotland? All our enemies throughout the world, are there because of the axis of terrorism stretching from Washington via Downing Street to Garshake Road.

I suppose given Riley’s advanced age, he is now concerned about tracing his Irish roots & this is the reason for his concerts in Ireland, according to this month’s ‘Wire’. As soon as you go searching for your Irish roots, It’s time to put your house in order. So I will make a special effort to go.

I am sad today because I cannot remember so many deaths in such a short time. I am fortunate still to have one of my parents alive. I should ensure that I see her more. God bless Nancy & Alec.

The Road to Damascus

Is life getting weirder or what?

One minute you are on a coach to Blackpool, the next instant you are sitting an assessment for a minibus test, next I am teaching a pc passport class & then I am inside my pc trying to re-connect a component that had drifted loose & all the time I had merely a dodgy mouse.

During this latter mad week my younger son got the keys to the house next door. Does this mean I will gain some living space? Does this mean he will cease asking me for ‘change for the bus’ most days?

I could have bought another house in this street with all these bus fares over the years. He did state he bought me a couple of cd singles that I had suggested. One was a Beady Belle sampler containing 5 tracks, many of which I have on the albums.

The other one was very disappointing as I had recently seen Paul Napier as support to Jackie Leven @ King Tuts, but the cd single I just got was uninspiring.

The Happy Highlanders are used to a crazy hectic schedule & they paid el rapido visit during all this chaos. They had to push on as they were going up to the hospital, then to see Allan Taylor in concert & then straight home to Glenmore. I am fond of Allan Taylor & I remember a track called ‘Sometimes’ that may have been on an album of the same name. (Mental note, I will have to check this!)

Somewhere during this period my sister-in-law, who incidentally

lives just across the road, had fallen in the street while coming over to our house. She is ok, but we are concerned as this is not an isolated case.

I am concerned about how sentimental I am becoming. This a.m. as I was forking out yet another batch of change to my homeowner son, I flashed back to a land far away when his mother was taking him aboard a plane & he wanted to stay with me. It broke my heart then to leave him & the pain still aches occasionally. It did this morning.

Divine Right’s Trip

Oh right where was I? Now I remember a dreaded first visit to Blackpool. I can now wear the t-shirt ‘I survived Blackpool Pleasure Beach’. Reminds me of the gung ho t-shirts available in Saudi Arabia after Gulf War One.

‘Don’t knock it till you try it’. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience although I was living vicariously through the wonder & shock & awe of the young children in the party.

Speaking of which, my ego got yet another dent as we boarded a Beaver creek’ canoe with our designated young person & his dad, when the official advised strap in well son & your dad & you too, granda!

Does old age happen to Deadheads, too?

On reflection, the reason I enjoyed the trip so much, was not so much for the event, but totally to do with the people that came with me.

This echoes what my Sierra Leone, table tennis opponent at Bell College used to say, when I asked him if he had been out & about to e.g. Loch Lomond. He stated why would he go there? I told him it was one of the most beautiful places on God’s earth. He replied that he didn’t know anyone there, he had no friends there, and therefore why would he go? People were what counted, not places. I do believe he has a very valid point.

Travelling Without Moving


‘Isnt it Funny how time slips away’.

Sporting a Turkish away top (thanks liam), I was pondering my first trip to ‘weegie’ heaven.

This is not strictly true. I did arrive in Blackpool train station by accident rather than design, after I boarded the wrong connection from Preston, when I was coming home for a break during my 3 years in Manchester.

I remember when I was younger, I used to enjoy the journey more than the arrival at my destination. Now that I am older the opposite is true.

Last year, I was invited to Blackpool with the International students, after the event. This time I have had advanced warning. It is only for a day (I hope!) & I trust I will not find it ‘too tacky’.

It seems a bit odd, when we live in the most scenic country in the world & yet we are going down to England’s Las Vegas.

Moving Without Travelling



‘Catch a falling star; put it in your pocket save it for a rainy day’.

Sometimes the searching for something elusive can be more pleasurable than obtaining the result. Not always. Life can often create disappointments.

This week has resulted in the acquisition of materials from 2 exceptional bands. This has been a gnawing irritant on the back burner since the late 60s.

After a search of some 37 years, I was certainly not let down by Mandrake Memorial, who have been criticised by others as being 2nd division psychedelia. This is a nonsense, possibly put out because of their incredibly, high level of musicianship. In my humble opinion this band are way up there at the top of the Premier, period.

The other band is Jan Dukes de Grey. I have been looking for this since I saw the covers on the Deram/Dawn label? Recently I discovered they were on the NWW list. I just got a cd named ‘Sorcerer’, but as this is 67 minutes long & the average lp of that period was around the 40 minute mark, I suspect this may be a compilation. I will check a discography to find out.

It hasn’t grabbed me yet maybe it will take a little longer. I remember this came out around the same time (& perhaps on the same label) as Comus. Now they stand the test of time exceptionally well.

Down But Not Out, Yet

If we cannot beat the world champions, who can we beat? Andora? Let’s hope we don’t slip up against the Faroes. We have done so before!

On the night of that disastrous result, I was getting a Lithuanian haircut, she cut it fast as she knew I was anxious to catch the match. Strangely enough, Lithuania is also in our European championship group.

A proud nation that always expects that it can punch above it’s weight.

I was fortunate enough to hear alex neill, snp give a speech on Friday night that would raise those hairs on the back of your neck. There is & will be a huge backlash from the Unionist establishment including the Orange Order (In Scotland!) warning Scots about voting for Independence. Even Ian Rankine, a writer whose work I admire, claimed that Scotland is not ready for Independence!

Just look at how these other small countries have developed since they gained their freedom: Estonia, Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia, etc….the list is endless.