The Simpletones - I Like Drugs

Posted because I can't get the tune out of my head unless I pass it on like the monkey's paw. Enjoy. Then pass it on when your head buzzes like a Levenshulme fuse box.

Holiday Hymn.

Bullfinch , originally uploaded by Sergey Yeliseev.

I've just spent the weekend at a Center Parcs holiday resort near Penrith. I'll be honest, I wasn't looking forward to it. In the main, those who know me raised an eyebrow in concern when I revealed where I was going to be spending my birthday. It seemed doomed from the start. I pushed my expectations down as far as I could, stopping only when the frozen ground arrested my progress. In the end, it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but beyond enjoying the pleasure of The Kids, it was a fairly joyless excursion.

I knew I wasn't really going to enjoy the subtropical super-duper heated swimming pool environment. It really is Not My Thing. For the record, though, I did go in after being thoroughly pestered into it by The Eldest, who seemed to think that I would be won over by the fact that the place had at least three hot tubs. That was on Sunday. On Saturday The Family went in without me, leaving me with a free two hours, binoculars and a bike to use as I saw fit.

I used the time frivolously, first of all I cycled round and round the complex, looking to see where there might be some opportunity to use the binoculars, but the more I cycled the more I found myself in an Ikea flat-pack council estate parachuted into the middle of a forest. It took me back to 1976 when my family moved from Salford to Grantham so my Dad could work for Oerlikon-Bührle (they went under the name British Manufacturing and Research Company - BMARC or the more vernacular Marco's, but the Swiss wore the trousers), which meant we were gifted a new-build council house surrounded by fields as far as the A1 and beyond. Beyond being more and more fields as far as Harlaxton Manor. And beyond.

Bruised by nostalgia, I followed the signs to The Bird Hide, which was along a short path adjacent to the main car park. It was the only part of the park which hadn't been adequately sanded, and I suspect it was because nobody was using The Bird Hide (on the three occasions I visited I saw nobody else). To be fair, it must have been a recent addition - the smell of fresh wood permeated the air. The Hide itself wasn't hiding any great secret, it was more a box from which to view very well-stocked feeders. A free bar intended to persuade the hungry and the lazy to put on a show for the mildly curious. The feeders were buzzing with coal tits, feuding and fighting amongst themselves, along with the usual parade of species you see at these outside barbecue events - The Tits, The Finches, The Robins, The Blackbirds, The Pigeons and The Pheasants. A Center Parcs for birds.

Thanks to Sergey Yeliseev for this lovely picture of a Bullfinch in Moscow; taken earlier today at roughly the same time of day I admired his Center Parcs equivalent, perched beyond the gaze of the bird hide.

Into The White.

Cybersnow., originally uploaded by mithering.

I've been finding it hard to allocate mental time to this blog recently. First off because it's been Christmas and all that and my time is better spent playing table football and Wii bowling with The Kids. Secondly, because it's been snowing and all that (where have you been?) and my time is better spent making Cyber Snowmen and snow angels with The Kids. And also because it's been snowing and all that, so the week of leave I had to take between Old Job and New Job, the week in which I had so much activity lined up, was destroyed when I had to look after The Kids instead of Indulging Myselfish. Dee Stroyed like a 77 punker.

In the meantime, nothing has happened. A lot. I've 'come out' as myself both on here and on twitter. And I've started my new/old job which means travelling to Dewsbury nearly every day for a month to be trained to do what I already know how to do. (I know it's for The New Kids really, and they seem to be a smart bunch). It was when I was over there today, looking through the folds of one of those blinds that hangs down in strips rather than across - a kind of arsey version of a venetian blind - into a cobbled courtyard, streaked with murky, dirty snow, that I saw a grey wagtail.

It was the first time I've seen one away from water and reminded me that I needed to get cracking on this thing again, and that I need to get some closure on the Boddies to Dolefield / Peel Park to Dolefield adventure I closed on Christmas Eve so that when The Hive does eventually open I can begin again.

Up Against The Wall XVI: I Wuv You!

I wuv you!, originally uploaded by mithering.

Obscene, angry and pointless graffiti has been a bit thin on the ground recently, so here are some sweet, fluffy, bunny-hugging scrawlings in the snow outside the Lowry Hotel in Salford. Just because it's Christmas and all that. Back to the rude stuff soon.  Merry Christmas.

Ice Ice Baby.

Redwing, originally uploaded by purplerabbits.

I've been on twitter since February 9th this year.  It took me two days to realise its potential for list-making/diarising.  On the 11th of February I listed the birds I saw on my walk into work between the car park in Salford University (where my wife works, and I get [or got - more later] a lift to on appropriate days) and work.  It became a regular habit, and later I added my other route, the one I take when a lift is impractical or impossible, the 96 bus into town. The two routes eventually settled down as Peel Park to Dolefield and Boddies to Dolefield.  Last week I did my last Peel Park to Dolefield.

Today, snow-willing, I probably did my last Boddies to Dolefield.  It was, appropriately, and weirdly, the day I saw more species than I had on any other day when taking that route.  The highlight was seeing twenty or thirty redwings in a tree opposite the berry-laden bushes which skirt the cheap carpark seated where Boddington's brewery used to be.  It even outweighed seeing a gorgeous drake goldeneye on The Irwell.

Thanks to purplerabbits on flickr for this fantastic image of a redwing guzzling berries in Edinburgh.

I'll edit this into coherence over Christmas. Posting drunk after spending hours wrapping presents is not a good thing.

Nine to Five. Overtime.

Mistle Thrush, originally uploaded by NEdwards1.

Following on from the theme of the post from November 24th, the shifting pattern of bird dominance has seen the mistle thrush lurch into the limelight recently. There are a particularly beautiful and prominent pair who hang about in and around the hidden little park between Chapel Street and East Ordsall Lane in Salford. The recent bright sunshine brought them both out into the trees, onto the balcony of the flats opposite and, one morning, onto a street lamp high above the Chapel Street morning rush hour traffic.

Thanks to NEdwards1 for the photo.

Disco Inferno.

Is this possibly the first ever 18-rated video game based upon a poem?

We were in The Arndale yesterday (fifth level of Hell; inner-city shopping centres on any Saturday in December) and EA Games had a promo stall set up, from which The Eldest picked up a brochure.

Had a quick look through it last night and all the usual things were there - football games, tennis games, boxing games, Sci Fi games, war games - and this, "based on part one of Dante Alighieri's classic poem 'The Divine Comedy', Dante's Inferno is a 3rd person action adventure game that takes Dante on an epic journey through Hell as he seeks to rescue the soul of his beloved Beatrice."

In a way it makes sense - death, destruction and levels. Measureable, achieveable levels of activity. It's almost a no-brainer. "Just like the poem, players will descend through the nine circles of Hell: Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treachery."

The perfect Christmas gift for the poetry fan in your life.

Camera Obscura - Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken (Alt)

I'd had this idea, that I've been mulling for a while, that I would post something about 'Indie' Answer Songs. This came about because I've been listening to a lot of Camera Obscura lately - mainly since My Maudlin Career was released. Before then, they'd been almost unknown to me, lost in the endless sea of music I never get the chance to really sit down and listen to. However, 'French Navy' acted as the catalyst and on hearing the LP, 'Swans' became a big favourite. Since then I've moved backwards and hit upon Let's Get Out Of This Country which opens with the track above, which gave me the idea to write about Answer Songs. Or, to widen it out a bit, songs about or referencing other songs, but not cover versions.

I thought that the average 'Indie' (I know it's a devalued word, but I take it to mean bands or acts who should be on labels which record and release music without direct influence from the majors, whether they are or not. If you know what I mean?) mindset would lead to loads of them. You know, that impossible to ignore urge to quote, parody, pastiche and copy songs you love. A hidden code of reference and sub-reference. A great example is Edwyn Collins dropping the 'guitar solo' from Buzzcocks' 'Boredom' into 'Rip It Up' and letting us all know that his favourite song is entitled ‘Boredom’. (That 'Rip It Up' then went on to become Orange Juice's only real hit single foregrounds that reference, but it's one we all know).

However, when push came to shove I hit a massive brick wall in trying to think of more than a tiny handful. The two above and 'I Can't Get Bouncing Babies By The Teardrop Explodes' by The Freshies, in fact. So, instead, I’ll not write about them.