confused of calcutta

Okay, time to move slightly further afield than is usual, even for me.
Recommendation 4: (film)
Electra Glide in Blue. Great movie, great soundtrack, great style. Every now and then, a movie comes along, and the critics say “that one’s going straight to video”. Well, when I saw this film, my immediate reaction was ‘this one’s [...]

[Read more →]

One of the things I’ve been trying to do with Old Man’s River is to stay away from the big hits, try and introduce people to stuff they wouldn’t have come across easily.
So, today:
Recommendation 3: (Album)
On The Road to Freedom. Alvin Lee and Mylon Lefevre and some very interesting sessions men.
When I was in [...]

[Read more →]

While researching aspects of the lives of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr, I was reminded of the works of Richard B Gregg. While I had come across Gregg while reading Economics, I hadn’t appreciated quite how influential he’d been on King, or for that matter just how dedicated he’d been in seeking to [...]

[Read more →]

I’m still trying to settle into a rhythm of doing as little as possible, something I’m not quite used to. I’m getting better at it, though.
One of the things I’ve decided to do is “desk research” into a murky area. That dark and gloomy space where copyright meets “content” and chains the strangest bedfellows together.
I [...]

[Read more →]

What do you do when you’re told to take it very easy, when you’re told to make “slow” a polysyllabic word? If you’re me, and you also have a deep-seated protestant work ethic in you, you struggle. Big time.
Well, that’s what I did for a little while last month, struggling to get past the denial [...]

[Read more →]

No, not the album by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. I’m a tad too old for that.
Instead, it’s about this. A 1949 album, “an audible anthology of modern poetry read by its creators”, edited by someone called Lloyd Frankenberg. And the album is a Long Playing Microgroove Record, the first I’ve bought in twenty years.
Amazing stuff. [...]

[Read more →]

….Like shells upon the shore
You can hear the ocean roar
In the Dangling Conversation
And the superficial lives
The borders of our lives……Simon and Garfunkel, The Dangling Conversation
 
Doesn’t that describe everything a blog shouldn’t be?
The words “You can hear the ocean roar” came zooming into my head when I read Malc’s Steve Wozniak telephone story. An absolute hoot.

[Read more →]

In no particular order, but maybe it lets you get inside my head just that little bit more.

Today I Killed A Man I Didn’t Know…. White Plains
(I’m) On the Road to Freedom…. Alvin Lee and Mylon Lefevre
Thoughts about Roxanne….John Mayall
Angry Eyes….Loggins and Messina
Maybe…. Dave Mason
Twas a Sunny Day….Paul Simon
The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys….Traffic
May You [...]

[Read more →]