Playlist -- Again....

Quotation of the day ~ P.G. Wodehouse:  He looked something between a youngish centenarian and a nonagenarian who had seen a good deal of trouble.

Sorry, kids, the brutal work schedule continues and all i can offer is yet another playlist.  Here 'tis:

David Bowie -- The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
Keane -- Strangeland
Pink Floyd -- The Division Bell
Sandy Denny -- The Northstar Grassman And the Raven
Calum & Rory MacDonald -- The Band From Rockall
Florence And The Machine -- Lungs
Seether -- One Cold Night
Fairport Convention -- Gladys' Leap
Elkie Brooks --  Live And Learn
Greg Lake -- From The Underground, Vol. 2
Rory Gallagher -- BBC Sessions
Gentle Giant -- The King Biscuit Flower Presents Gentle Giant
Joe Bonamassa -- Driving Towards The Daylight
Peter Hammill -- Consequences
Sky -- Sky 4
Gentle Giant -- Free Hand
Bruce Springsteen -- Wrecking Ball
Calum & Rory MacDonald -- The Band From Rockall
Keane -- Strangeland
Rush -- Clockwork Angels (twice!)
Jane Siberry -- Meschach Dreams Back
Five For Fighting -- The Battle For Everything

Seven more days of starting work at stupid o'clock and Keith will be back from his holiday in Cape Cod and i'll be back to what we laughingly call "normal" around here.

Playlist

Quotation of the day: J.B. Morton ~ It is said of a certain poet that, though he tortures the English language, he has never yet succeeded in forcing it to reveal his meaning.

Nothing much to write about today, kids -- i'm working some brutally anti-social hours at the moment, or ATM if you insist.

So all i have is my playlist:

Calum & Rory MacDonald -- The Band From Rockall
Florence + The Machine -- MTV Unplugged
Doc Watson -- The Essential Doc Watson
Kronos Quartet & Pat Metheny - Different Trains
King Crimson -- Larks' Tongues In Aspic
Marillion -- Clutching At Straws
Steeleye Span -- Now We Are Six Again, disc 2
Radiohead -- The Bends
The Strokes -- Is This It
Luther Grosvenor -- Floodgates
Calum & Rory MacDonald -- The Band From Rockall
Peter Gabriel -- So
Jethro Tull -- A Passion Play
Bruce Springsteen -- Wrecking Ball
Various Artists -- Pink Box: The Songs Of Pink Floyd
Kate Bush -- Never For Ever
Tyrannosaurus Rex -- Prophets, Seers And Sages, The Angels Of The Ages
Jefferson Airplane -- Crown Of Creation
Island -- Pictures
Joan Osborne -- Bring It On Home
Runrig -- Everything You See
Keane -- Strangeland
Sky -- Sky 1
Keane -- Hopes And Fears
Peter Hammill -- Roaring Forties
Ten Years After -- Undead
Joe Bonamassa -- Driving Towards The Daylight
Lais -- Dorothea
Peter Hammill -- Consequences
Various Artists -- "Pet Sounds" Revisited
Joan Osborne -- Bring It On Home
Great Big Sea -- Fortune's Favour
Camel -- Mirage
Genesis -- And Then There Were Three
Peter Hammill -- Consequences
P.J. Harvey -- Let England Shake

Kimba

Quotation Of The Day ~ William Shakespeare: There's neither honesty, manhood nor good fellowship in thee

When i bought my first PC and came online, this was back in the days of Windows 95, one of the first Internet forums (fora?) i joined was devoted to the Music of ABBA.  (And i'm not going to apologise for my love of ABBA.)  And one of the first people i met on this group and became friends with was a woman from Australia called Roo.

(Even though that particular forum no longer exists, i made some very good friends there.)

Anyway, Roo.  She and i have become quite solid over the years and i've watched her kids grow up and one of her daughters, Kim (a.k.a. Kimba) is the subject of this post.

Kim was recently the victim of a horrific incident of road rage, and here's the news report:

This makes me weep, i can't possibly imagine the effect it had on poor Kim & her family.

My Day Off!

Quotation of the day ~ P.G. Wodehouse: The unpleasant, acrid smell of burnt poetry.

Hello, faithful reader.  I was in a crappy mood last week, my last post, on my last day off.  Work had really ground me down, or, should i say, the troglodytes i have to work with were really causing me some serious distress..

I'm feeling better today, though.  I watched a great film this afternoon, i.e., that one there to the right. It's loooong -- nearly three hours!  But worth every minute.

Also, Mr Postman delivered to me today the CD "The Band From Rockall" by Calum & Rory MacDonald of Runrig and guess what? It sounds like a Runrig album.

Fab stuff.












Here's this week's playlist:

Judy Collins -- Bohemian
Steeleye Span -- They Called Her Babylon
Wishbone Ash -- There's The Rub
Van Halen -- 5150
Ofra Haza -- Shirey Teyman
John Mayer -- Born And Raised
Kate Bush -- Never For Ever
This Mortal Coil -- Filigree And Shadow
Wishbone Ash -- No Smoke Without Fire
Van der Graaf Generator -- World Record
Various Artists -- Reefer Madness
Joe Bonamassa -- Driving Towards The Daylight
Scrapper Blackwell -- The Virtuoso Guitar Of Scrapper Blackwell
Saga - Saga
The Byrds -- We Have Ignition
The Miracles -- Going To A-Go-Go
Keane -- Strangeland
Joe Bonamassa -- Driving Towards The Daylight
Chicago -- The Very Best Of Chicago, disc one
Keane -- Strangeland
Joe Bonamassa -- Driving Towards The Daylight
The Faces -- Five Guys Walked Into A Bar (disc one)
Ian Anderson -- Thick As A Brick 2
Dweezil Zappa -- Automatic
Keane -- Perfect Symmetry
Home -- A Pause For A Hoarse Horse

Oh, And Did I Mention...?

Quotation of the day: Ernest Hemingway ~ The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in shock-proof shit-detector.

1. Poor working conditions (always either too hot or too cold)
2. Stress (i may have mentioned stress)
3. A paycheque that's hardly worth getting out of bed for (i haven't had a raise in five or six years, meanwhile all the bills go up and up)
4. A benefit package that leaves a lot to be desired.  OK, i admit, a lot of restaurants offer no benefits whatever and mine is at least pretty good on dental insurance -- nothing else though!
5. Co-workers whose knuckles are all scraped from walking -- not all of them, obviously, but i have to suffer some real Neanderthals.

Let 'em read this and fire me, i'm too old for this shit.

And just to cheer myself up, here's another pic of my potential fiancee Andreea:

Dream on...

What Blog? Why Blog?

Quotation of the day: C.S. Lewis ~ She's the sort of woman who lives for others - you can tell the others by their hunted expression.

So, why do i do this, anyway, this blog?   Masochism? A desire for immortality via Google?  The egotistical notion that someone might care?

One of my favourite comic strips is "Pearl Before Swine" and here's a recent one:

So maybe it's arrogance?

Or maybe it's just something to do on my rare days off, when i usually get so drunk i can't walk but can still use a keyboard.  Well, yes, a shocking confession, i drink a lot on my day off -- to forget the horrors of my job.  And believe me, it is a nightmare shitshow.

I know i've said many a time that i didn't want to blog about my work -- i've heard too many stories of bloggers and Facebook posters who wrote the truth, were read by their bosses and landed in heaps of trouble and/or were fired.

Do you know what, though?  If they fire me, i don't care -- it would probably be the best thing that could happen.  Because, you see, i don't have the imagination to think of any options for a way out.  Getting fired would force me to find a new job and it would almost certainly better than the one i have now, where i get covered in grease and fat every day and have loadsa stress, a lot of it through the sheer fact that the restaurant i work in is always busy, a lot of it, too from the fact that my kitchen manglers, er, managers, are a couple of arrogant and condescending little tin gods for whom i have nothing but disdain.  I've worked at that bloody restaurant for 22 years and the kitchen manglement has never before been as bad as it is now. (Instance: i get along well with almost everyone who works there, except the kitchen manglers.  It's them, then, and not me.)

Whatever.  So i write this thing as a form of catharsis, to relieve the frustrations.  If they read this and give me the old heave-ho, fine.  It'll be for the best

I'm Engaged! (Or More Likely Not)

Quotation Of The Day ~ P.G. Wodehouse:  Nothing so surely introduces a sour note into a wedding ceremony as the abrupt disappearance of the groom in a cloud of dust.

Astonishing news from someone who has always been lousy at relationships (i.e., me) and in fact a brief preamble would be in order, but first, here's the woman: 

Her name is Andreea Raducan, and she's a well-known gymnast from Romania (so we have a lot in common LOL): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreea_R%C4%83ducan

Anyway, she recently wrote a memoir entitled "Reversul  medaliei" ("The Other Side Of The Medal" -- a translation into English is coming) and there's a promo video about it and oh, look here it is:



Now, what we have here is what might be called a long story.  I have a very dear friend who lives in Romania, called Magda.  She's very much into gymnastics, and she knows Andreea.  The publishers of Andreea's book, in anticipation of the English translation, asked Magda to provide English subtitles to the official promo video.  Which she did, but she also asked me to check her English (as she lacks a little self-confidence -- unjustified, her English is as good as most of the people i work with).

(The above video, btw, is the original Romanian version, sans Magda's and my exquisite sub-titles.  For legal reasons, until the English version of the book is ready, i can't show it to you.)

Anyway, i looked at the video, changed a few minor things, and happened to remark that i thought that Andreea was one of the most beautiful women i had ever seen in my life and could very well fall madly in love....  A remark that Magda passed on to Andreea :o)  And she (Andreea) replied something along the lines of  "You just married me to a Canadian? When are we having babies?" (Let's just disregard here for a second that i'm not Canadian, i just happen to live here....)

Well, i was shocked initially, doesn't she want to kiss me first?  But, looking at the above photo and video, and at the vast number of millihelens you can measure her attractiveness in (Helen Of Troy had the face that launched a thousand ships -- 1 millihelen is a face that could launch one ship), i think i could without much difficulty at all, do my duty to increase the population of Romania.....

Of course, the worst thing about this is that it's all me, fantasizing in febrile fashion.... The exchange between me and Andreea is fact, but beyond that....

I'll be buying the book nonetheless. In English.

Here's the latest playlist:


Keane -- Strangeland
Various Artists -- The World Of The Small Faces And Beyond
Joan Osborne -- Bring It On Home
Saga -- Silent Knight
Keane -- Strangeland
Joe Bonamassa -- You And Me
Ian Anderson -- Thick As A Brick 2
Players -- Players
Blind Faith -- Blind Faith deluxe edition, disc 2
Birth Control -- Backdoor Possibilities
"Barry Lyndon" (original soundtrack album)
Colin James -- Bad Habits
Joan Osborne -- Bring It On Home
Kathryn Tickell -- Kathryn Tickell & Ensemble Mystical
Memphis Minnie -- Crazy Crying Blues
Elvis Costello -- Armed Forces
Florence & The Machine -- MTV Unplugged
Focus -- Hamburger Concerto
Jon & Vangelis -- Page Of Life
The Jimi Hendrix Experience -- Axis: Bold As Love
Marillion -- Marillion.co.uk
George Harrison -- Early Takes Vol. 1
Keane -- Strangeland
Pete Hammill -- X My Heart
Rory Gallagher -- Calling Card
The Byrds -- The Notorious Byrd Brothers
George Harrison -- Early Takes, Vol. 1
Mike Oldfield -- The Songs Of Distant Earth
Tyrannosaurus Rex -- Prophets Seers and Sages, The Angels Of The Ages
Big Country -- The Best Of Big Country
Runrig -- The Highland Connection