#reverb10 day18

What do I want to try next year? I do not think there is any thing specific, something as concrete as a thing an event, a happening. No bungee jumping, trekking to Nepal, or crowd surfing at a festival
for me. Just not me. What I'm looking forward to keeping is the positive mental feelings I've developed and seeing where they will go. I'm interested in running with these and well, just seeing what happens. Crowd surfing in Nepal you never know....

#reverb10 day17

What have I learned. I must learn to do today the things I can put off till tomorrow......

#reverb10 day16

Friendship. Do you need to do that washing up now. Leave the plates till the morning they wont dissolve. That pile of clothes wont become sentient during the day, don't move them. Constant stress won't make things go away, worry when it's appropriate and only then. If you can change it do so, if not, don't let it eat into you. Relax. A gradual sudden burst.

#reverb10 day15

5 minutes. Stopping the car 30 seconds into the first date, so my lover could catch a stray dog, and knowing at that moment I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. The cross fade in “State of Grace” by the Bollnas Wolverines. My dog Jack's last few moments of life in my arms. The hysterical laughter as the characters Colin and Geoff the “teeny tiny monkey milkmen” developed. The look of joy on Damien and Paul's faces as we came up with the idea of Schrödinger's Hermit. Rediscovering the joys of Tanglefoot beer in front of an open fire.

#reverb10 day14

Appreciation and gratitude. This year I've finally got the hang of others, I've gained a lot this year, and lost some. How do I show this? Accept with a smile - sometimes forced, but most of the time very genuine and from the heart. I was struck this morning while lying in the bath how sterile the room was, not really lived in more just passing though. I'm learning to accept others and their imperfections, their mess, their noise, their love, their touch. Because that is how they are. Without them it is all silence.

#reverb10 day13

Better later than never I suppose. Between though and action sometimes is a lifetime, which I think is TS Elliot. The most positive thing personally I have done this year is to respond "when" to a speculative text from my now girlfriend. In my job life I have been more positive and it will pay off. The band continues to do interesting stuff, if not the best work of my musical career it's pretty damn close. I'm pleased. My feeling of the early part of the year were ones of stasis, atrophy, conclusion. I had a "well that's was it" about my life. How quickly things change. Forward, one must remain interested and interesting; I must continue to charm my lover (I am lucky and I know it - thank you for that line Jean BB); and I must tell more about the existence of the band (we are good and I know it).

Morrissey

Ivory Fishbone has a theory that Morrissey ruined a whole generation of men. Personally I never thought he looked that strong – to weak to call for the butler in the morning methinks. Thanks to Chris Addison for that joke. I digress before I even start. An innocuous facebook post about a Smiths lyric lead to about 20 replies mostly from men of a “certain” age. I think she was most upset because they were her generation of men. I was a big fan of the early Smiths, luckily the rest of my cohorts were not. I was inoculated from Morrissey mania by constant abuse. Psychological torture by your mates for all the right reasons. I might have been a little to old to buy into the whole concept. Also, at the time, a little too southern and much too northern to buy into his kitchen sink drama. The thing about the Smiths for me, is the lack of recognition Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke get. They were a subtle and powerful rhythm section. I suspect with out them not as many people would have heard of the whiny Manc and his mate with the oddly tuned jangly guitar. Let's hear it for those who stand at the back they add more than you will ever ever know.