Time for some music

I’m listening to Nancy Sinatra ‘Lightning’s Girl’ at the moment. Would you believe that Dom passed it to me? All the oldies and goodies are there besides ‘These boots are made for Walking’ ‘You only Live Twice and my two favourites ‘Some Velvet Morning’ and ‘Summer Wine’ with Lee Hazelwood. His voice goes right down deep into the pit of my stomach.

The other day I was checking my archives for something and came across a game I played a year or so back:

1. Go to your CD rack/shelf/room.
2. Select the 13th CD from the end of your collection
3. What's the 5th track?
4. List it on your blog, with a story of why you purchased this CD.
5. Link back to me - if you wish.

Nick Drake, a collection of songs I made myself, so it’s Northern Sky. Northern sky goes back to 1970. I thought he was so romantic then and I still do today. I rediscovered his music thanks to the internet. Nick died in November 1974, imagine what music he’d be creating today with a full lifetime’s experience behind him?

With Great Pleasure

One of the very best programmes on BBC Radio Four is With Great Pleasure, each week a celebrity treats the audience to writing and extracts that they are fond of. Today was the turn of Jude Kelly, who I don’t know anything about at all. She presents a treasure chest of varied writing which I really enjoyed and would like to share – especially the poem towards the end, written by her own daughter, Caroline Bird (poem starts 23.08 minutes in) With Great Pleasure

Down the Tube VII End

Before I came here I remember seeing a film on the internet of a man who was trapped in a lift for over 40 hours. I remember watching and round about hour 38 thinking ‘don’t worry you’ve only got a few more hours to go’.

If only someone was observing me now and thinking the same thing...

Dinard – Un coin de la Plage

Lady on the beach,
All on your own,
Stealing sleep.

Where are the children?
Where is your husband?

For a little while;
Dream in the sun...

All too soon they will be back,
And you will be back,
To your duties of mother and wife.

The afternoon’s dream memories-
Put away.

At peace

A few months ago we sold a postcard on eBay from the first World War. We sell lots of cards from that epoch so selling it wasn’t too special. What was special though was the image. It was a row of dead soldiers lined up on the ground after a battle. Their wounds had been covered up and non had facial injuries. I’d rather not see cards like that. Even the ruins of towns, villages and farms can be shocking.

Yesterday I had to put the same card up for sale, another had arrived with a lot of postcards we bought recently. I have to scan the postcards and scale them down to fit eBay’s requirements; I managed to do all of this without looking too much at the image. Then I have to write about the card and examine the corners, look for creases and bends etc. I don’t know why I felt peace from the card – silence and peace. It reminded me of the extract from a poem by Wilfred Owen I'd used to accompany a postcard for armistice:

“Of them who running on that last high place
Breasted the surf of bullets, or went up
On the hot blast and fury of hell’s upsurge,
Or plunged and fell away past this world’s verge,
Some say God caught them even before they fell.”