Here’s one I prepared earlier

I wonder if you’re as old as I am, dear reader, but you must have seen Blue Peter at some point if you live in the UK. I’ve been reading, and hearing, a lot about tv programmes and films from my youth recently. The title is a reference to Blue Peter, fairy liquid bottles and sticky-back plastic.

I made an assortment of junk into useful items following on from that particular prog. Recently, however, I’ve been wondering what, if anything, opens up the creative juices for the next generation of MMORPG kids out there? We had lots of things to get the imagination fired up, as well as BP there was Magpie, Animal Magic, then there was the Morph plasticine characters, is it any wonder we took a lot of halucinogenics back then?

I was also encouraged at school to allow free rein to my imagination, essays in English would start with a title and we could develop that in whatever way we wanted. In art we were encouraged to follow our own technique when drawing, painting or creating plaster creatures from moulds. The animals were recognisable but not from the colours I used. I used a lion mould and then painted him with a purple body, green face and orange tail and mane. He looked spectacular and won me a prize for most original artwork.

Now I’m older I find the mind’s not as fertile as it once was and I wonder when I lost the creative streak. If anyone knows the answer please let me know.

What a day it was

Well it turned out to be an awesome day after all, I had started recording hootenanny just prior to turning over for Fletch yesterday morning and when there wasn’t anything worth watching this afternoon I watched it from the beginning again.

Today I had to go to the local shop, run by a Pakistani family, as I’d run out of sugar they charged me over the odds for it but at least I managed a cup of coffee and cereal. None of the other local shops were open when I went out, the wind was howling round my ears and got inside my pores and bit me to the bone. Today is a funny day, most of the shops are trading Sunday hours, but the shelves have been emptied as though people are stockpiling for a siege.

Only snow, so far, this winter was beginning of December not sure if that means we’re gonna escape for the second year in a row or if we’ll get lots soon. Hope your having a good 1st of January whoever you’re spending it with.

Sorry I missed you

I was going to write this entry yesterday but went shopping instead, what can you do, I mean we all have to eat drink and make merry. Especially at this time of year, although in my case, this time of year makes me think of different ways to end it all. I suffer from manic depression (I think they call it bi-polar disorder now) and seasonally affected disorder (more commonly referred to as SAD). That means if I don’t see a whole lot of sunshine (and who has this year?) it brings me down, not just the blues, I get full on depression which I hide as well as I can until I get home. Probably explains why I go through women like liver salts through a body.

Anyway, I got to thinking what I’ve done with my life thus far, what I would’ve changed and how different things could’ve turned out. If I could’ve done one thing that would’ve kept my attention for more than 5 minutes it would’ve been something to do with music. Either playing it, making it or introducing it to an audience. Throughout my life music has been the only constant feature since I was 3 years old. My teenage cousin was into American rock n roll, Buddy Holly, Paul Anka, Little Richard, and Fats Domino, as well as the British contingent of the time, Marty Wilde, Adam Faith, Billy Fury, Joe Brown and Cliff Richard and the Shadows. I soaked all this up like a sponge so that when I heard music on the radio I put it into only 2 categories: music I liked, and music I didn’t like.

In the mid 70’s I was in London and, along with 4 friends from work, started rehearsing in a garage hoping to perform at one of the numerous pubs which featured live music at that time. The vocalist was another Dave and he also played guitar, I played drums, there was a John on bass, another John on keyboards and the rhythm guitar was played by Jon King (not Jonathan King) but we called him 3. We started rehearsing one Friday with a load of booze and only stopped when the police told us to keep the noise down, I think it was about 1:30 then. Anyway, the vocalist never thought we sounded tight enough to get paid and after 3 years Dave, 3 and I called it a day. My marriage was on the rocks and I decided to go home and lick my wounds with my then girlfriend. The other 2 were getting another group together but with nowhere to stay I decided to sell the drum kit and head North.

I went to college while I took stock of what to do next, one of the classes was drama and one of the assignments was to go off in pairs and create an imaginary radio show. As I was absent the day the assignment was given out (and the class had an odd number of students) I was given permission to do something “by myself”. When the tapes had been graded I was awarded an A+ as the only student to start with a theme tune, have “guests” chatting about music and a competition. I had also filled up 1 entire 30 minutes of tape which no pair had come close to. The tape was played to the entire class and I was asked who I’d had in to do the guest spots, I said it was all just me, a bottle of Jack and an ounce of herb which no-one believed. The teacher held onto my cassette while everyone else was given theirs back. Needless to say I passed that subject at the end of the year but I never did hear back from the lecturer so don’t know what happened to the tape, whether she used it as an example to other classes of what can be achieved I’ll never know.

That’s all for now so I hope you have a Happy and prosperous lucky ’13 I hope to catch you again soon.