Enlightening Beam of Axonda


The sun came out at last & I was all set up for a weekend on the old hammock.

It broke & I saw Stars in my Eyes & blood on the saddle. Luckily there was someone with sense around & I ended up getting 5 stiches in my head to keep my brains in.

Thinking about that mystical number 5. I had 4 games of 5 a side last week : a world record......without injury! I lie on the hammock for 5 minutes & kaboom! my whole life changes.


Incidently for the past while & on that dreadful day, I had been listening to Bobby Brown's toatally mad, 'Enlightening Beam of Axonda' when I had that zen moment.

Save the Bandwidth, Man


Big thanks to the Scottish Music Centre Crew for pointing out the the photo in the heading above was larger than the largest thing you could ever imagine.

Underground is the Place to Be

Devil's Pulpit

Jacob's Ladder

Glen Finnich

Craighat

Journey to the Centre of Your Mind


There follows a few snaps of a 2 day 2 stage journey into the unknown. A strange, secretive lost world that I could not believe was on my own doorstep.

See what you think:

As you can see from the photos above, I was well-prepared for the expedition!

More 'Off the Wall' album titles


Konntient - If I Could Buy a Map of Hope, Volume 2


It does move your brain slightly i.e. from here





to




there!

The Weird & Wonderful World of the Japanese Torch Singers

My wife could not take to Misara Hibari at all & that is quite understandable. Like all great things you have to give it time to seep under your skin.

I, on the other hand, could not get enough of that dreamy, 'Twin peaks', Quentin Tarantino, sound.

The Dormouse Said...........


Using my FM3 Buddha Machine to get myself grounded & centred, I then set off to discover the secrets of the #9 cult.

All I had to go on was a hand-drawn Roman map & the Saragossa Manuscript.

I knew that there was something strange about the people I daily engage with. It is always obvious that we are not meeting for the first time, we have known each other before from another time, another place.

Even if these people are from Hungary, Africa or the Middle East there is somewhere a tight connection to my heart & soul...............(to be continued........)

Night Song of the Last Tram


By rights I should read Robert Douglas's biographies as we have some common ground, e.g. being a bus conductor on the #61 bus on Maryhill Road back in the day before my trip to India overland & because we both worked in prison.

I have not read them but I went to hear/see him in Balloch Library as part of the West Dunbartonshire Book Festival & I and the huge crowd were mesmerised.


Hopefully, if I could find respite from the 2 stressful reading groups I am involved in, I could get around to reading his trilogy, before he produces his fiction.

His work surely strikes many chords with his audince & the fact that he turned to writing at such a late stage in his life gives hope to everyone.

The Price of Admission is Your Mind

At last I finally finished ‘The Book Thief’. What a great read. It just makes you warm all over. A colleague asked me if I cried when I was reading it. No but I think I was smiling a lot.

Glasgow Americana

There is just something so perfect about heading up to the opening night of the Glasgow Americana Festival with my next door neighbour to see Rachel Harrington & then coming home, checking out the solar lights & then saying goodnight & going in to our respective homes.

From the Threshold Houseboys to Riceboy Sleeps

I am grooving to the ambient sounds of the Sigur Ros side project & dreaming of a wireless doorbell that plays Buddha Machine loops.

Favourite Album Titles As The Championship hopes Fade.

Ballboy – The Sash My Father Wore

Trembling Bells - Carbeth

Old School Photos

It suddenly hit me this a.m. why I always see my own class or my brothers/sisters class, when I look at old school photos.

This occurs even if the photos are ancient & it is not just school photos, it could be football teams or employees.

It is because I am looking at pictures of the parents or relatives of my classmates.

Mountaineer Skyness of Majestic Planes

Saturday morning rise @ 6.30 a.m. on the eve of an Old Firm decider. Listening to Roy Harper ‘Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith’ & John Martyn ‘Live @ BBC’ close to tears. Why?

Old age, times past or a combination of the 2?

Maybe I was still thinking about the BBC4 documentary last night on Peter Green & how important the real (early) Fleetwood Mac was in my life at one time.

Perhaps those tears were for the sudden step back into winter we are currently experiencing or in order to echo the rain on the window?

In case you are wondering (no not likely!) the title above comes from more modern groovy music from The Skaters.

From David Thomas Broughton Via the Edgar Broughton Band To David Clayton Thomas is a Lifetime

How did we get here from there?

Great lost voices of the last 2 centuries include the lead singer of Blood, Sweat & Tears first heard on the cheap, affordable, vinyl samplers: ‘Rock Machine: I Love You’ & ‘Rock Machine: Turns You On’.

I recently heard his album ‘Bloodlines’, packed with New Orleans jazzfunk, & this got me thinking of Terry Allen’s excellent album of the same title.

Perhaps I should get out more?

Al Zeheimer


What to answer when memory fails:


'It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards' l carroll

I Tweet, Therefore I Am



The observant readers will notice the new 'Twitter' section running down the right hand side of the page.

Now this gives me 6 Levels of Synchronicity or is that 9. If 6 was 9 Voodoo Chile (slight return)

6 Degrees of Separation


Perhaps it is a sixties thing, I dont know, but I do know that I dont care if it's uncool to watch BBC 2.

Last night I was shocked & awed by the documentary on the 6 Degrees of Separation, synchronicity, Network science & the Kevin Bacon game.

What this tells us about human nature, God & how the world works will have great benefits in the future concerning the study of viruses & other tings.......I am sure.

Unfortunately, I wont be here to witness it, but you will!

Zonal or Man Marking?


I heard some heated comments in the library & you know you have to get involved. They were discussing a subject dear to my heart: why Celtic are stuck on using this zonal marking at the back like Liverpool.


Let's face it recent results have shown: it does not work!

Off the Beaten Path

Mucking about with my rather extensive collection of works on the Australian Extreme label

You know the one that includes such artists as Fetisch park, Pablo’s Eye, Muslimgauze, Merzbow……..etc.. I realised that there were numerous references to the work of The Beats.

As I am still operating within the shadow of the Beats, I can dig that.

Examples would be: ‘First Thought, best thought’ (Ginsberg) & ‘Sampling Virus’ (Burroughs).

Kip of the Serenes

Over the years I seem to have drifted straight into the set of a David Lynch ‘Twin Peaks’ world where everything is out of sync & strangely strange, but oddly normal.

Perhapschance it is an age thing.

At work, I keep meeting people that I know from my past. Maybe an example would illustrate this phenomenon: William, an ex-crane driver from Ravenscraig, who grabbed the opportunity of re-education after redundancy & worked with me in the jail, now works with me again & we do lunch together twice a week.

Looking at old photos last weekend, I realised that 2 of the guys in the Riyadh pictures, were also my companions earlier in a very remote part of the Kingdom. The chances of this occurring are nigh impossible.