More Froke Feakery

Like the rain in this wild country, the drone is relentless. Always there in our psyche, it always returns.

‘Death Chants’ are doing it for me at the moment. They are my 7.00 a.m. pick me up. Doing what the Velvet Underground should have been doing with the drone, but in a feral, forest-y, freaky way.

There is a Balinese/Tibetan/Scottish undercurrent that carries you of to strange & wonderful places that recall the ghosts of John Muir, Tom Weir & John Grierson.

Further Finnish Freakiness

I remember when I was young & walking through a dense pine forest with some friends. I have erased much of the experience from my memory, but something happened, it could have been a deer, a human….etc…I don’t know but it spooked us & we started to run out of the woods.

Can you sense the spirit of the forest? Is it in our roots?

I am reminded of the ‘Waking the Dead’ 2 part series, where the young Irish travellers are bare-chested, bare-knuckled fighting, high on mushrooms, with animals masks on their heads in a forest clearing.

Well for the past while & a bit, I have been listening to the soundtrack for the ideas above, whether it has been Uton, the Heavy Eyes of the Sun (actually from Montreal), the Weird Weeds, the Skaters, Anvil Salute (thanks for the comments guys!), Corsican Paintbrush, Big Blood & Death Chants.

Big Blood Live @ Space Gallery

Just acquired the above title & it sounds like the Handsome Family going feral because they never left the forest. The accordion playing brings to mind David Thomas with & without his 2 pale boys or Hawk & a Hacksaw’s Hungarian happening.

I am taken even further back as I recall my favourite album ever: Jerry Yester & Caroline Hester’s ‘Farewell Alderbaran’.

Among the Homies

Some days begin oddly & then get stranger by the hour. Take yesterday for instance. The college library staff visited a local partner public library for a celebration of a joint initiative to encourage reading & literacy: 6 book challenge. Certificates were distributed, speeches were made, prizes won & preparations for next year’s event were planned.

In the afternoon, an Egyptian divorcee popped into the library to ask my advice concerning the procedures required for getting her documents rubber-stamped by the Foreign Office & posted on to Cairo, where they could be legally recognised. This is not straightforward & she is caught in a Catch 22 situation, but I made suggestions that might help her move forward.

After work, my future daughter-in-law took us up to the Scottish Music Centre to catch their Sonik Showcase of Glasgow Hip Hop artists.

Not my favourite form of music, but this Glasgow version done live was outasight. There is a serious amount of talent out there & thanks to projects like this one, this talent is getting developed, people are been given a decent choice to lure them away from the easier more destructive elements for youth.

One of my sons is involved in this project thus I am naturally so proud of this, but I was especially pleased to see the talent from the African continent, who are breathing new life into Glasgow & enriching our culture.

Big up to Kool Keith, always our Special K, Saskathewan & hairy Dave.

Black Aphids Stole My Lunch Money & Ran Away




Fighting a plague of black aphids at the moment. It's a fight to the death: no quarter given.
Also while I am in the garden I am having to jostle for space in my bird bath with magpies, wood pigeons, starlings & crows as I attempt to get some practice in before my white water rafting expedition on the river findhorn this weekend.


I cannot believe it is that time already. Oops there's a space in the bath.

Esbjorn Svensson R.I.P.

E.S.T.s pianist died tragically in a scuba diving accident.

A sad loss for a great jazz band.

We Are All Pan’s People

I know I have mentioned the Ghost Box series here previously, but I have just managed to get my hands on some of the later releases. Don’t ask!

Nostalgia aint what it used to be, but it is fine comfort zonewithin which to loose yourself. A Pontins/Butlins holiday camp for the mind.

It’s not all pleasant. There is that edgy Cold War thread running through the albums.

There is also that quaint childishness that niaivity that would suggest you would survive a nuclear attack by sticking your fingers in your ears & wrapping yourself in clingfilm.

As you listen to the albums all those images flash through your mind; farmers markets, I-Spy books, Emma Peel, Nuclear shelters, an abundance of plastics & other new synthetics…….

I was delighted that one of the latest batch includes a local band: Mount Vernon Arts Lab (I already have some of their cds) with their Séance @ Hobs Lane. Is the latter street not situated at the top of Byres Road, near the Greek Orthodox Church?

I cannot believe my sons laid all this on for Father's Day............thanks boys

Glasgow Carnival

Samba Ya Bamba

What Time is It? Its Crazy O ‘ Clock

Or 10,000 mad mental things to do in that dead period between games in the Euro Championships.

It is a weird time between 7 – 8 pm in the evening. I, for one, have suddenly started to have my evening meal around this time. You need that extra energy for that second game.

Recently there has been dark clouds over this period as I am suddenly told………’Your hammock’s broken’………’Your tire is flat’ or ‘Your car has a broken exhaust & it is lying in the dodgiest part of Glasgow’.

Suspended in Air

My future in-laws must be heavier than they appear. Our hammock collapsed under the combined weight of 2 of the skinny malinkys. It is repairable, thanks to an almost in-law & neighbour.

To be frank, I am glad it happened when the young team were on board, as the male member of the crew suffered some damage to his male member.

Some justice there perhaps?

Until the repair is complete I cannot get up there among the clouds in suspended animation. Back to the deck chairs on the decking, now where is that sunshine.

Larkin Grimm

Cloud drifts over as I stare up from my hammock into a sky chock full of seagulls, whole flocks of them between myself & the clouds.

They swoop, sweep & soar over me almost touching my skin, playing with me & with each other.

I am listening to a Portuguese podcast of freak folk, Ma Fama featuring Larkin Grimm & she is talking about getting right back to nature. I am totally there & I am in complete agreement with her.

She is so talented & from a rich background as her parents brought her up in a forest commune/cult & gave her that deep love of nature.

During her conversation, she mentioned, that the only time we are truly happy is when we are back in direct contact with nature.

The Magnetic Garden

Listening to Alvin Curran’s Songs and Views of the Magnetic Garden on mp3 in my own garden (slightly magnetic) & I got to the best bit, you know where the swallows from Rome cut in near the end, when my own garden birds chirp in alongside.

I know I have been droning on & on about this in previous articles, but what is going on here. Do my own birds here this? Or is it just another remarkable coincidence?

I had captured this piece of music (1972) from David Garland’s superb ‘Spinning on Air’ WNYC radio programme & this has been an excellent source of my current listening pleasure.

Partick King Prawns

On my return from Peebles the other night, I had chosen to make the return journey to Glasgow via the train. The weather had changed to a heavy downpour of rain & I had to change trains at Partick.

I ran into what used to be used as a smokeshelter & it is now a no smoking shelter, but I was shocked to discover the floor of the shelter was covered in 50+ king prawn heads.

As you can imagine this made me stop in my tracks, as my brain tried to cope with this episode. Who would do this, when despite 9/11 & IRA bombthreats, Partick Station still has a reasonable amount of bins.

They must have been fresh as the smell was actually quite enjoyable, reminding me of the deep blue sea amid this torrential rainfall.

To make the evening almost perfect, even although I had such a wait between trains, I was listening to yet another session from David Garland’s old WNYC ‘Spinning on Air’ shows with Vetiver guesting: outstanding.

Psychogeography Vs Hydrogeography

At my advanced age, I suddenly find myself touring Scotland’s hydros. I will have to google these as I am ignorant of their history.

Last year I was at an event in Dunblane Hydro & yester was the first time I visited Peebles & it’s wonderful Hydro Hotel.

What a weird & wonderful group we were yesterday at the Scottish Librarians annual conference. I was reminded of Hunter S. Thompson’s writing.

Save the Snail

Dear Greenpeace this is my new friend. All my French neighbours want to eat him with garlic.

We do not need to let him in the house, although he is gripping my door. He is carrying his own home on his back.

I am worried about my hostas, they seem to love the leaves, so I may try & feed him to the birds. Am I wicked?

The Last Whole Earth Catalog

I am remembering how we used to pour over this design for living the good life, back in the day.

Naturally, I still have a copy, plus an almost complete library of crucial books from the 50s to the 70s. I am sure I am not alone in this regard!

I really should go back & re-read Gurney Norman’s ‘Divine Right’s Trip’ from the LWEC, where it was extracted into the margins (apparently to advertise & market the tools etc………mentioned in the text………I did not know this at the time!).

As far as I know Gurney Norman’s book has never been published in the UK although it is still in print in the USA. He is certainly not a prolific author. The only other title I can find is called ‘Kinfolks’ about the people around in Kentucky, where he is working as a Professor of Literature.

‘The surest test that a man is sane, is if he accepts life whole, as it is’ (Tao)

Norman hints that the reason why people were so unhappy was due to the fact, that they keep moving & never plant any roots. There may be something in that.

The Source

I have so many books to read for Reading Groups it is unusual for me to choose to read anything else. However I was intrigued by a new title by Isis & Electricity Aquarian called ‘The Source: the untold Story of Father Yod, Ya Ho Wa 13 & the Source Family’.

I wanted to read it because at the time of their peak, I was at the other end of the world & I like many, suspected them of being another Manson Family (they actually lived very close to each other at one time!).

Anyway, I enjoyed the book, I always liked the free form freaky jams they produced & I have a large collection of the albums.

I still have an open mind on the movement. They probably did more good, than harm, I would suggest.

In the words of the great Michael Marra, Ya Ho Wa 13 was ‘hairmless’.

Asshole from El Paso

How many librarians attend Kinky Friedman concerts?

I met my friend Stephen from another college library at a matinee performance by the ‘Kinkster’ in Glasgow.

I always kind of liked him, but I was never convinced that he was on the same level of singer songwriters as James Taylor/John Prine/John Martyn, perhaps he was just unfortunate trying to compete with such a rich vein of talent.

It is a great pity that he did not succeed in being the new Governor of Texas in 2006, however the opportunity might arise again.

The set was tremendous & a big thanks to the groom for getting the tickets. I am glad I caught him & his outrageous trio. His guitar player being of Lebanese background would easily fit into the gap left in the Sun City Girls with the death of Charles Gocher?

Warm Dust & Cold Blood

Finally catching up with the above 2 bands, who had remained dormant in an isolated corner of my brain (‘fragile eggshell mind’) since the dark days of yore.

Both of these bands sound so fresh today & they have the funk, so check them out!