Working For A Living, Part the nth

Quotation of the day ~ Douglas Adams: I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

I had some visitors a couple of weeks ago, a couple of old friends from my days in Toronto: two sisters, Judith and Gloria.  We had a brilliant lunch at Bentley's (pub) and some brilliant conversation.

One of the things we nattered about was work.

Now, just to explain, both Judith & Gloria are a little older than i am, but not by much.  And most of my friends from when i lived in the big city, are around about my age (and i'm 403 years old according to Mike at Kelsey's [pub] but that's another story!).

We chatted about ourselves and how much we're all working, and it seems that all of my old chums -- who all want to slow down a bit ... are working harder than ever.  There seems to be no choice.

And we're working energetically and with gusto. I / we may not want to work as much as i / we do, but as long as i have to, i'm gonna put my back into it.

Now, here's a craven generalisation, but what i see in the younger folks, is that they don't want to work at all.  And by "younger," i mean, under 40.  Not fair, of course, there are go-getters out there.  But it's what i see where i work.  Very few of the under-40's actually want to do anything.  They all want more money, of course, but they don't actually want to work more hours to earn more money.  So i have to knock myself stupid every week, and they have no idea what it means to earn a living.

Sad, yes, and tragic for sure.

And here's the playlist:

Billy Talent -- Dead Silence
Various Artists -- Electricity
Saga - Saga
Van der Graaf Generator -- Live In Concert At Metropolis Studios, London, disc 1
The All-American Rejects -- The All-American Rejects
Billy Talent -- Dead Silence
Matchbox Twenty -- North
Various Artists -- Live On David Letterman, Vol. 2
The Allman Brothers Band -- A & R Studios, New York, 26/08/71
Chantal Kreviazuk -- In This Life
George Harrison -- Wonderwall Music
Van der Graaf Generator -- Live In Concert At Metropolis Studios, London
Saga -- Images At Twilight
Cream -- Live Cream, Vol. 2
Matchbox Twenty -- North
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Jeff Beck -- The Fire Meets The Fury

Billy Talent

 Quotation of the day: "Down on your knees, you don't look so tall"


A very brief one tonight, folks.

I just bought the brand new Billy Talent CD, "Dead Silence."

The first single from the album, "Viking Death March" -- a song that blows the top of my head off -- is here:



And based on one fairly serious listen, this could well be my new rock CD of the year....

Pubs, Friends, Loss Thereof

Quotation Of The Day: Sting ~ There's a hole in my life / Be a happy man / I try the best I can / Or maybe I'm just looking for too much. There's something missing from my life.

As my regular reader will know, my favourite pub in this god-forsaken town is Kelsey's.  I pop in there after work, oh, i don't know, maybe twice a week.  Sometimes more, sometimes less.  But i really do look upon it as my home away from home.  I don't exactly have a rip-snortin' social life, pathetic computer addict that i am, generally more comfortable in cyberspace than in meatspace,  but i have friends who work at Kelsey's and i invariably enjoy seeing them, and that's why i go there. (LOL, i don't go there to drink, if i only wanted to drink i could do it at home and save heaps o'money....)

A couple of weeks ago, i wrote about how my friend Nicole had left the pub in order to go back to school -- good move for her, of course, but unhappy for me.

Two days ago, i learned that another friend, Josh, had quit, in a state of high dudgeon.  I know why, but i can't really say why. I mean, it's true but i, personally, have no proof and i can't go tossing allegations around; suffice to say that Josh was quite justified in leaving.  He is a man of principle.

And so ... i've lost another friend. Josh and i.... Well, we really didn't have a lot in common -- two totally different character types, but we always had enjoyable natters about this 'n' that.  And what really worries me now, is that Josh's girlfriend Jen (oh, look, here's a picture of them both, a handsome couple for sure) (pic used with permission)

-- who also works at Kelsey's but whom i've known since before she worked there -- is now pretty damned miserable, working there, and may soon be gone....  (I said to her today, don't do anything hasty.)

If she goes, my best friend there will be, er, Natalie.  Who's really nice and extraordinarily cute (in fact, as she's only about 20 years old makes me feel like a dirty old man but, as i've said, i'm a miserable failure as a dirty old man) (hey, my "girlfriend" of 22 years is older than i am!) but anyway, where was i?  I've known Natalie for maybe two months....



She's...

It's...
I'm...





Miserable.

Here's the playlist -- cos i know you're fascinated by all of this obscure shit i listen to ;o)

Various Artists -- The Blues White Album
Man -- Live At The Rainbow 1972
Peter Hammill -- Consequences
City Boy -- Live At My Father's Place
Freddie King -- Taking Care Of Business, disc 5
Rod Stewart -- Blondes Have More Fun
McGuinn, Clark & Hillman -- Long Island
Curved Air -- Airborne
Richard Thompson -- Cambridge Festival 1987
The Albion Band -- The Vice of The People
Bob Marley & The Wailers -- Catch A Fire
Bob Dylan -- Tempest
George Harrison -- Wonderwall Music
Van der Graaf Generator -- Live In Concert At Metropolis Studios, London
Saga -- 10,000 Days
Anne Briggs -- The Time Has Come
Roy Wood -- Music Book, disc 2
Pink Floyd -- Wish You Were Here

Just A Playlist, Really....

Quotation of the day ~ John Ciardi: Early to bed and early to rise probably indicates unskilled labor. 

Nothing to write about today, boys and girls.  Not really.  Apart from the fact that i have to be at work at five o'clock tomorrow.  Not sure if that indicates unskilled labour or just plain stupidity.

Was it Benjamin Franklin who wrote that early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy (koff) wealthy (spare change?) and wise (duh!)?

Here's the playlist:

The Allman Brothers Band -- A & R Studios, New York, 26th August 1971
City Boy -- Go East Young Men
Roy Wood -- Song Book, disc 2
Richard Thompson -- More Guitar
George Harrison -- Wonderwall Music
Seether -- One Cold Night
Jeff Beck -- Truth
Status Quo -- Pictures Of Matchstick Men
Jon Raven, John Kirkpatrick & Sue Harris -- The English Canals
Calum & Rory MacDonald -- The Band From Rockall
Quintessence -- In Blissful Company
Amazing Blondel -- Evensong
Miller Anderson -- From Lizard Rock
Focus -- The Sky Will Fall Over London Tonight
Gentle Giant -- Free Hand
Sparks -- One and A Half Nelson

Lindisfarne

Quotation of the day ~ George Carlin: Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.

I wrote the other day about Lindisfarne, the fabulous holy isle off the coast of Northumbria (from which the great 1970's English folk group Lindisfarne took its name www.lindisfarne.co.uk).

And i started to think about the place.  As i wrote, i spent a small part of my childhood there.  My uncle and auntie ran a pub on the island, lived upstairs from it, and for a while my parents and i, a mere infant, shared the living space.  Had my little sister been born yet? I honestly don't remember.

Here's Lindisfarne on the map:  



 











Although i retain a (very) vague mental image of the pub itself,  i have no memory of the island, so i did the Google Image Search thing, and found some fabulous photographs of the place.  I'd love to go back there some day.

 And here's the group Lindisfarne performing "Meet Me On The Corner"