#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.

Lime Lizard

You really need to push yourself... For a while I've known I can produce songs in my sleep, in a coma... whatever... It's the practicalities of getting these things to the wider world is the problem, our problem. So I've spent the afternoon, trying to check out the Computer Music and Sound on Sound Soundcloud accounts. It just aint worked. It will sort it's self out eventually, but this afternoon, I had a plan and it just has not worked. Well bits of it have, blog a week thats the idea.... So where and why, lets move to the past. The Transformers sent a letter to RAW Records because we didn't realise you needed to send some music. Shoot! Sent some tapes to record labels but didn't realise at the time they needed to sound like U2. The Bollnas Wolverines are sending the noise into the eather with a bit of innocence, which by now the cynical members should know better of. I'm pleased I can still believe in my own innocence, It's the power of Rock and Roll.. The power of stupidity. Whatever...
Lime Lizard, embrace your past. Shoot! had an interview in the long forotten but rather wonderful fanzine. My remaining copy has been nibbled my mice. Metaphor. Analogy. Syllogism. You choose...

Keep on keeping on....

Spent quite a lot of time recently with Stewart Lee and Richard Herring, not physically, although I have met both of them and they both very pleasant.* With their work, both their new books, “How I escaped my certain fate” and “How not to grow up”. AIOTM and Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, and old episodes of Fist of Fun. I'm even more convinced now they are working one of the most complex double acts of all time. I know they haven't actually worked together for over ten years. But each ones current work – although sometimes seemingly at polar opposites of the comedy spectrum, is informed and affected by the work of the other. And... We seem to be in a bit of a period of looking back, there is a new facebook page for our old band Shoot!, being looked after by drum and guitar god Gary Smith. I'm a big fan of looking back, not to sit there weeping, but to check out the good ideas and the mistakes. In most cases so I can do them all again. And again. “I'm like a shark me, need to keep moving forwards” only seems to be muttered by scary looking blokes with lots of cheap gold jewelry in even worse looking pubs. You know it will end in tears, and blood.
Bollnas Wolverines have a facebook page as well now. I had another listen to #2 this morning and it is rather good, we must get round to finishing it. Or I might suggest to Neil G we just put it out into the aether as it is and call it “Unfinished”. “Unfinished”, “Abandoned”. I knew I'd get it all to tie together...
* That's a bit disingenuous, considering Lee and Herring's styles of humor these days – I've met them both; one dissected me with his scalpel like wit, and the other bummed me with a chair leg.

Justify

Naming the Blogs in alphabetical order seemed a good and intellectually rigorous idea a while ago but I really am having my doubts. It's a new year and I feel a bit keen, so have got the Bollnas Wolverines a nice new Soundcloud account, but deep down knowing, we aint got anything new till me and Neil get together sometime in March/April. It's down to the grindingly dull stuff of promotion. Sentric Music looks interesting I must admit, but I really must read the small print.

This week I have been mostly listening to Richard Herring's AIOTM podcasts.Similar to many years ago, in another life, I spent a week listening to the Macc Lads, my world view started to change. Possibly not for the best. The Herring effect has been much more easy to cope with. I tend to fall asleep listening to comedy tapes – well since Orange gave me a phone with a memory about 16 times bigger than my first PC – I fall asleep listening listening to comedy

mp3s. Richard Herring's twisted world view has lead to some very odd dreams. Well outside my comfort zone. And I will spend the rest of this month well outside my comfort zone as I do FOH sound for a musical theatre show. I did this to stop the nagging voices in my head – these were for once external and not internal. So if you like 70's Disco songs to sound like the Jesus and Mary Chain come along.