Merry Christmas

One of more peculiar sights in South Queensferry is that there is a private residence in the High Street flanked by two of the rarest things you'll see in any Scottish town these days; two public conveniences. The Gents and the Ladies are bookends to this house's front door. I don't I've ever seen that anywhere else, albeit it's not a topic I've ever researched. I guess everyone around here takes this feature as quite a normal thing because it's been this way for a while. The bright Christmas sign above is I think a part of the town's seasonal decoration, it adds a surreal dimension to the scene.

Rude Index

 A quite satisfying photo poster for a photo exhibition in 1977.

Nothing to do with the pic above: I probably have to be careful quite how I put this but I was thinking about a certain snacking experience I recently had; munching salted peanuts. I've never liked inserting my fingers into packs of crisps or nuts or whatever. I don't like the moist salty substances and crumbs that end up covering my fingers. It only gets worse the further into the bag I reach. When it comes to peanuts, they're actually quite difficult to pick up with human fingers, we've not evolved very far in that direction. Nobody eats one peanut at a time either so I'm using my hand as a kind of shovel to get a decent amount of them into my mouth. Not a great look to achieve in public. Perhaps a tool is required.

I googled "peanut spoon" and realized that any spoon associated with peanuts is meant for peanut butter only so there's nothing specific. Eating peanuts with a spoon would likely be considered odd I suppose. There is a view on peanut etiquette that suggests you never eat more than two peanuts at a time, it's in the "Rude Index". They don't recommend using spoons either but you should place the empty shells into a dish. A normal dish I presume. I imagine there are a lot more peculiar things in the Rude Index but I'm not going to be going there. I don't want to know how rude or offensive my manners might be. I just want a better way of consuming peanuts. Then there's popcorn ...

No.3 and No.4

 

Every guitarist has a No1. and presumably a No2. instrument. Their most usable and playable guitars and obviously many more beyond that, certainly for live work. My first two* are the light maple topped Les Paul "120" and a red Washburn 335 semi. The guitars in the picture however are currently vying for positions 3 and 4 in a relatively small field. Three being the Sunburst Partscaster and four being the highly modified Les Paul DIY effort. 

These are both pretty comfortable and playable but naturally they have issues, common problems with Frankenstein guitars. Mostly the problems are about set-up and intonation, things that by degrees I'm slowly solving. The Les Paul, now that I've played it again after about a year's hibernation, certainly needs new machine heads - that could be a pricey improvement. There's no point in skimping and pussyfooting around. Then there's the bigger question, do I really need number three and four at all?

*Not counting acoustics here either.

Goblin Golden Hour

The golden hour arrives at South Queensferry whenever the great and powerful goblins who rule the universe turn on their spectral filtering system so all us poor wee humans can be momentarily distracted and puzzled by these suddenly visible heavenly events. It's a treat for the bored pensioners too. Usually it's the northern lights they turn on because that gets everyone's attention and all the snappers come out and swamp Instagram with their greeny weirdy photos from somewhere up by Dundee or down by Berwick upon Tweed. We don't have a northern lights experience here as we're continually bathed in light pollution and astral sewage. Edinburgh Council have also banned them as they might distract cyclists. So as some compensation for our pleasurable misfortunes the space goblins give us the odd daytime golden hour just to keep us happy. (Photo taken from a Canberra.) 

A Predictable Outcome

 

Yes it's that wholly unsatisfactory time of year when we can all enjoy participating in the hectic queue for tickets to some major festival event or other. It's a bit like buying a lottery ticket and then quietly watching the balls jiggle round for at least an hour and then being slightly surprised that after all the waiting and apparent activity you didn't even get a single number in the draw. So you take a deep breath of the pale Scottish version of oxygen and mumble to yourself philosophically, "well there's always next year". Indeed there will most likely be a next year but where exactly will that next year find us? 

I'm also glad I'm not at all a privileged and entitled person right now, how shattering must it be do get randomly declined after a public free for all?

Everybody

Everybody these days does the same shit really. We're all carbon copies. If you're lucky enough to have Netflix (?) then you binge on The Crown. You can't avoid the reviews and criticism or whatever else is bouncing about. So you sit on the couch, wine/coffee/beer/tea at the ready and absorb this version of the shared experience that being a "subject" is. Whatever your opinions or views on the royals might be, if you're a certain age it all rings true as part the fabric or backdrop to years of your life. The common national memory clinks and snaps into action as fierce as some animal instinct. I think for us all on this scabby island that's really what it's about; the collateral damage done by the relentless pushing of the royal narrative and enforced flag shagging and standing to attention for people that you're actually better than. 

There's little in the way of revelation or novelty in the story line, you've heard it all before, you've just not seen it this way with all the big money production values air brushing across your own feeble memory and recollections. Now it's this version of the truth that prevails until another comes along in 20 years time. Life didn't quite seem this way when you were living through it with all it's painful and often bleak reality buffeting you. The old BBC footage, grainy tabloid photos, interviews and snippets all of which were unavoidable at the time even for the most desperate of republicans have been overwritten and buried by the bright spectacle this provides. God no ... but yes. There's still another six episodes to go. 

Typical Guardian Readers

I'm firmly in their woolly pullovered demographic but that was never my intention: Grown up family, three cats, retired, to the left of centre, quizzical and critical, watch Netflix now and then, concerned about the future, a bit hypocritical, try to eat right but don't, weary of politics and human idiocy, bored with any arty or theatrical stuff. I still check the news most days because I've a need to feel I'm keeping up. The Guardian on-line being more entertaining than most media sources but I don't agree with a few of the editorials, some featured material or the positioning of news. 

Too much weekend whinging, grandiosity and contradiction and that just switches me right off. Can't be bothered with guest pieces that are either vague muddles of inarticulate grumbles or mindless, ignorant privileged rants. Also Scotland barely gets a mention unless it's food, holidays or some not too well informed piece about nationalism; but still I come back, maybe it's for the cocktail of world photos right at the end. Bungle the sleepy cat finds it all pretty dull but still a good place to nap.

Two Restarts

Two restarts and a cold, cold heart: Living with an aging laptop is, I presume a bit like living with an aging relative of some sort. The grumpy soul who you feed with soup, small talk and AC/DC on the headphones while trying to ignore the numerous slip-ups they make. So as my laptop is too old for an upgrade to the lofty heights of  Windows 11 we struggle along together through the maze of regular Windows updates, administered like the bedside drip of drugs or fluids plumbed into the limp arm of some terminally ill patient. There is a real buzz of satisfaction when it's done and knowing that Windows is smooth to use for a while.

Without these regular clinical boosts and the ever lengthening restarts that accompany them it would all be over in seconds as the Windows 10 mechanism and it's aging processors slowly slip away into a numb coma of flickering chips and failing connections. Then total shutdown and onwards into the pile in that special place where old laptops are stacked awaiting ... a fate nobody quite knows anything about. They are simply there like the old phones, chargers and connectors that we have no more use for but can't quite face the treacherous act of disposing of them.

But it's not dead yet. I see it as being a bit like a classic car, overtaken and made obsolete by bland looking EVs, bristling with screens and apps, fancy door handles, distinctly iffy build quality and a pitiful range. All the faithful laptop needs is that odd jump start to get going again to get back to wagging a finger at you and crunching a few of your files. It's not as if I'm asking much of it either, it's hardly pulling a caravan, nope, just a few documents to tweak, editing photos and routine browsing mainly. It's in a permanent and sedate retirement place really but for those bullies at Microsoft shoving down our throats the fairly obvious news that it can never be compatible with Windows 11, oh no, never and that's their final word. We're living the twilight life of the cancelled.

I recall Apple doing the same over their operating systems in my Mac Book days. Just keep churning out the devices and make sure everybody has to keep up, all appliances are cash cows. Obviously they're right in as much as the systems move on but it just riles the gristle filled, stubborn part of me that admires 40 year old fridges, real books, cassette decks and the odd German built sports car from the last century. Whatever happened to those ridiculous ideas of sustainability and continuous improvement that might consider the end user as possibly being important?

When We Got Older

An old friend is featured in a film: When we got older we headed off in different directions. It turns out that this is a common experience, in other words it often happens and happens often. We move even if we stand still but that's all in the past now and the maps are lost. Everybody thinks, "I've never done good things, I never did bad things, I never did anything", or so it seems at times. We leave a trail and a legacy, all of us; but this is about the graphic scores, the artwork, delirious museums, Dundee, countless reflections and a whole lot more. An actual documentary. See/stream/download the film* here. 

 

Cats have no real ear for music. They often seem indifferent and a bit different. You try to tell them to listen up but do they even care?

This is happening in real time as opposed to some other kind of time. The quickness of the hand deceives the eye. There will be a full explanation.

Everything is open to interpretation. Everything can be spontaneous and can be improvised. I'm doing some of that right now.

Behold: The Graphic Score.

*These screen shots are all deliberately badly done by me, mainly for effect.

Octopus Curiosity

I know it's hardly important these days but we did have a bit of discussion about track order when we were putting together the album "collection". Track order in these days of streaming might seem a naive idea and unnecessary and that may well be correct, however it is satisfying to put your songs into some kind of order, like books on a shelf or the final edit of a long article. 

The song "curiosity" created an interesting problem for us. It's more of a kids song than anything else so where do you place it in the track order? It shouldn't jar with the others but needs to stand up for itself and still fit into the overall flow of the album. Of course that's easier said than done. In the end we went for an Abbey Road solution; we thought of Octopus's Garden and where that sat and the impact it had. Small fry like us can look up and learn from the legends even if nobody else really cares. So it's there, second from last (as per the first side of AR), works for me too.

This is the second Curiosity video. The first was a 16 Bit styled Rotor effort, just to get something done really. This newer version is an odd mix of AI cats, cafes, noodles and jumpy animation. Working on a zero budget with limited skills and resources gets us here, all scuppered of course by the constraints of the YouTube algorithm. If you don't have 1000 subscribers you can't be taken seriously and get listed ... how do you get 1000 subscribers? Make better content?

The Persistence of Paper

Polyptych. 

The shallow depth of a single sheet of blank paper. 

Photo real montage. 

Wordlessly saying nothing.  

An original piece that is instantly forgettable. 

As exciting as standing on one leg. 

How profound is the single bead of sweat upon the brow of an artist staring up into the midday sun? 

Paper can be made from trees or grass but looks like neither in the end unless you draw or print such an image onto the blank page. 

A rough scribble may be enough to convey the idea. 

Our minds are designed to recognize suggested shapes in all manner of things. 

The medium is irrelevant. 

Is a question a question without a question mark. 

One sunny day in Memphis 3500 years ago the Egyptians invented paper. 

I could be wrong.

Wrap ideas in it very tightly before you write down your thoughts.

What are your thoughts anyway?

Dr Who: Return From the Bin

 

Doctor Who is already lost in a world of AI and heritage based confusion, with over exposure and over blown attempts to remain relevant, as some might quite reasonably say. I know I don't watch it anymore, but I do like the breaking news story of BBC employees who, rather than throw away original 1960s Dr Who filmed episodes, took it upon themselves to save the precious classic TV series by taking them home and simply hoarding them rather than dump them in the bin as ordered. You have to wonder what the fuck was going on at the BBC in the 1960s, too mean to pay for storage space?

The hoarders must have known that a day of reckoning would come and lived in fear of it, as if criminals who'd committed a massive but unreported robbery. Now older and afraid of the establishment's retribution and presumed white hot wrath they are conflicted and as frozen in inaction as the films they possess. 

Dear unemployed script writers everywhere, here's your new drama series (or at least a decent 60 minute playlet) to batter out of your greasy Mac-books. The punchline is that many, not all, of these almost mythical but rescued and now theoretically available episodes are pretty much artistic shit and completely unwatchable for any modern audience (but there may be a big market in the care home industry).

Um

Growing old in and around social media: One thing I notice is the slow degradation in the comments and postings of those "peripheral" friends we all have. Folks you met a couple of times along the way maybe (if at all) or through some second hand contact and they just stayed in the margins of that unreal slice of life. As they grow older and you observe but don't interact with their comments and output, there's often an gradual element of craziness that emerges. 

These, once seemingly reasonable people just start, often slowly, to kick around ideas and opinions that you didn't quite see coming. Little hints, slurs, awkward wording maybe, or just plain inappropriate nonsense begin to appear. Growing old with a daily blank sheet of paper to fill, plenty of time and no editorial oversight (just like this page I suppose). Welcome to an unhinged world. What could possibly go wrong?

Perhaps someone will spend £10,000 on a Marshall CD juke box?

Touched by the Hand of EVH

 

"Stage played" by Eddie himself.

I took a second look at the auction site selling Clapton's Fool modified Gibson SG, it's everywhere in Insta and FB. There's a lot of other stuff, equipment, keyboards, clothes and costumes, back stage passes etc. I guess as this generation passes on, more and more of this rock and roll debris will wash up from the  bottom of the deep sea that covers most of the drowned wreckage. Some people will make a lot of money, mainly the auction houses. A few roadies and hangers on might too if they gathered up things wisely at the time and also those family members that didn't quite stay onboard the gravy train but held onto some evidence.

This Van Halen "stage played" Kramer is expected to go for $60k or so. Not my thing but it'll eventually hang on some Hard Rock Cafe or investment manager's wall I guess, awaiting the next auction and further projected profit. Hard to imagine what future music stars might auction; the phone it was all recorded on, a sticker covered Mac-book, used VIP vapes, the WhatsApp message tree where the lyrics were written or the passwords for the AI platform that composed the tune?

Desktop Daily Photos

The process of slowly delving into my recent screenshots and finding that not only are they pretty random but also pretty meaningless and inconsequential in their comings and goings. Like sparrows landing on a chimney pot. Proof that I don't really know what I'm doing at any given time as I fiddle on the web. 

The shot above commemorates a mild eBay related spat I had with Yodel, or was it the Chinese Mafia? I'm unsure who was the real power player or solution in the problem. Some badly worded Chinese emails didn't help clarify the delivery, particularly as the item was supposed to be coming from London or thereabouts. It eventually arrived about a week late after suffering some jumpy teleportation problems back and forth at the "local depot". I gave them a 😕 review.

A "Fife Jammer" Kirkcaldy based daily photo and is pretty much self explanatory. This represents a typical day on the roads anywhere.

A famous guitar is up for sale this month. It's a little out of my price bracket. The paint job is in my opinion quite rough but interesting and it does have an incredible history and arguably represents some of Clapton's best playing days. The infamous "woman tone" sound is forever associated with it. Now if it was his Sunburst "Blind Faith" Telecaster with the Strat neck ... I still couldn't afford it.

As an experiment I joined Vimeo and so far nothing has really happened. Then again I'm not one for excessive self promotion and maybe not a good fit for the platform. A drop in a vast bucket I suppose. These zero scoring videos are of course part of a selection you can also find on YouTube here.

Peony Painting

Something to lull you into a peaceful state of careless wonder - a painting of some Peony flowers about to open up and bloom. Things, it seems can only get better. There can be tranquility and reflection and sometimes it's good (as the poem goes) to simply stop and stare.

Miners Undermine the UK

 

As Albert Einstein once famously said "fuck this shit". First it was the miners who undermined the UK and conveniently and at some personal cost brought coal up from the ground as they did it. Well Thatcher put paid to that idea with her economic miracles, now other "miracles" are planned most likely using AI. You can't undermine the UK, if you do you'll be labeled as an extremist. So that's the end of truth I suppose. The thing is, and I hate to point out the obvious, but the UK has been undermining itself for years and this undermining has noticeably accelerated during the Tories stupidly negative 13 years of power. 

Hailed far and wide as a failed state, a political joke or just plain cruel, twisted and corrupt across the world the UK is simply a global embarrassment. In parallel with the Tories self destructive policies I have to admit that in my thoughts, but not generally in my actions, I too have undermined the UK and I quite enjoyed doing it. It's what happens when you feel voiceless and helpless and the (at times dim) national beacon of moral responsibility is finally stubbed out by those who claim to know better.

All I need do is reflect on any of the following:  The legal system, the taxation and financial system, the education system, the class system, health, welfare, environment, industry, immigration, media and defence that have all been destroyed or changed beyond reasonable recognition in my own short lifetime. Even before that it was none too fine either as the UK writhed in the death throes of a delusional colonial power fix, overdosing on it's own vanity and bloody mindedness. The thing is - They Brought It All On Themselves (The Greedy Bastards). So who is an extremist these days?  Probably every right thinking individual, just give me a few minutes and I'll compose a short but meaningful list.

As a person who tends to over extrapolate in all directions from a single point I wondered if doing something like criticizing Morecambe and Wise, World Cup 66, Yorkshire Puddings, Christmas or even the Beatles might now count as undermining the UK in some way. I'm already braced for the impact. Those over inflated British institutions that were the bedrock of British life and sense of self, they're too revered and beloved to tolerate a subtle stabbing from the likes of me. 

Yeah (yeah), rock stars with knighthoods don't really do it for me either. Anyway the "new" Beatles tune is OK but that's about all. I doubt it would've seen the light of day but for AI's influence and Peter Jackson's understandable fanboy enthusiasm. John Lennon is rendered to look pretty strange in the video, like some hairy Scouse Norman Wisdom on speed (as below). I've heard the song twice and I may well hum it in the shower one day. What's next after this? My arrest I'd imagine.

Smelly Cats

The cats are recovering from a weekend of mystery illness that looks a lot like random bouts of vomiting and runny and smelly poo episodes. Yes, three cats all with upset tummies, all slightly out of sync are a bit of a challenge even for experienced owners, by that I mean us. It's not so much a question of knowing what to do or not to do, it's more about vigilance and cleaning up at odd times of the day and night, that and a consistent approach to feeding, hygiene and general welfare. 

They've all eaten normally this morning and taken on liquids, played around a bit and now and thankfully seem to have hit a rest and recovery point which we hope carries on to some peaceful resolution. They still can look decent in photos provided they actually stay put and don't go stir crazy, these restful looking shots were taken just as nap time was coming to a close ... and yes we're not always sure what we're feeding them. 

Don't Rate My Rig

 

Sunday ... Sunday: Pedal boards eh? Yeah don't bother with your ratings, it's a curious mixture and I'm not a cultural parrot either, more a sports car socialist. 50% decent 50% not so. That's a fair way to go, mixing the expendable with the tolerable and the chorus and modulation is on the amp(s) anyway. I doubt that this is fashionable either but that appeals to me obviously. The utility of decking, sticky Velcro and a few pins and clips. Every couple of weeks I just might take it apart. Other times in lives quietly in a blue holdall that holds it's own. 

South Queensferry Daily Lamp Post

I had to sneak around in the bushes to catch this lamp post unaware. To be honest it wasn't that difficult. The street lights around here are particularly slow witted, a bit like the Ents in LOTR. They've forgotten their purpose in life, their heritage and their abilities and are prone to sleeping on the job. They do still light up after dark, mostly. Some just emit a strange pale glow though. Perhaps the clocks going back at the weekend posed them a problem.