Watercolour skies in the Shire this morning

view over Salisbury with pale blue pink sky

Currently reading: Blue was the colour by andy hamilton 📚

book cover

Currently reading: Blue was the colour by andy hamilton 📚

This won’t be a popular view amongst football fans, but the Third Round of the FA Cup does make me think more kindly of VAR ⚽

Are the Gooners cos-playing Real Madrid because they’ve won the Champions League so many times 😆 ⚽

Wise words can come from various sources

from the BBC...""Multi-tasking turns you into a halfwit," the Daily Star Sunday declares. Citing the usual Star "boffins", it says the brain cannot cope with juggling lots of different activities at once - good news for the men of Britain who haven't quite mastered the skill."

Really enjoyed ‘Better Man’. Worth seeing at the cinema, if you get the chance, if only for the Rock DJ bit

youtu.be/KVeH5T4wx…

The final, rather grown-up, joy of Christmas is when the binmen take all the rubbish away

I’m very fortunate to be #ChelseaFc….but I wish it wasn’t so ruddy difficult to get tickets

Stamford Bridge ticketing thing

I wasn’t planning on doing a lot of politics on here….but I think Jess Phillips is a good person

Jess Phillips in her office

There was a very ‘Radio 4’ exchange on the radio just now

  • what was the last gig that you went to?

  • it was one of the Gallagher brothers…but I can’t remember which one

The Christmas Radio Times is now defunct…..goodbye old friend

A festive magazine cover features clay characters in a Christmas setting promoting holiday TV specials.

Random painting I like - The Gardener by Simon Saint-Jean.

A woman poses with an elaborate floral arrangement on her head, surrounded by a lush landscape and gentle wildlife.

From File:La Jardiniere, 1837.jpg / Musée des Beaux-Arts

Podcast episodes that I've enjoyed recently - Armando, Cillian, Barbie, 'the Stalin of the Steppes', Troy, Princess Di, John Wilkes Booth, UFO's, etc

I’ve done a #sketchnote to use to talk through an introduction to VS Code.

I’m not sure if it will work….but we’ll see

A detailed handwritten note compares Visual Studio Code, Windows Terminal, and laptop setup features, with illustrations and notations.

Me vs. Rolling Stone magazine

My thoughts on the top 20 songs from Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. These thoughts clearly say more about me and my taste in music than they do about the songs themselves…but I thought it was fun

20th. Robyn: “Dancing on My Own” ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I’m a sucker for a sad banger

19th. John Lennon: “Imagine” ⭐⭐⭐ I like the simplicity, but, contrariwise, I’m a bit bored with it

18th. Prince and the Revolution: “Purple Rain” ⭐⭐⭐ The only act in Rolling Stone’s top 20 that I’ve seen live, but there are a dozen Prince songs I like better

17th. Queen: “Bohemian Rhapsody” Dreadful drivel.

16th. Beyoncé feat. Jay-Z: “Crazy in Love” ⭐⭐ Resistance is futile

15th. The Beatles: “I Want to Hold Your Hand” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The best at their best

14th. The Kinks: “Waterloo Sunset” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The other best at their best…although to be honest his voice often doesn’t work for me, for some reason

13th. The Rolling Stones: “Gimme Shelter” ⭐ Every 10 years they came up with a song that I’ve loved. Gimme Shelter isn’t one of them.

12th. Stevie Wonder: “Superstition” ⭐⭐⭐ I’d like to like Stevie Wonder more than I do, but as with Ray Davies, I don’t quite get on with his singing voice

11th. The Beach Boys: “God Only Knows” ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A work of genius, but it came on the radio when someone close to me was seriously ill. I’ve not been able to listen to it since

10th. Outkast: “Hey Ya!" ⭐ I can sort of see why people like this…but I don’t. Maybe it’s too tricky for my simple taste.

9th. Fleetwood Mac: “Dreams” ⭐ Pleasant enough

8th. Missy Elliott: “Get Ur Freak On” ⭐⭐ I prefer Work It

7th. The Beatles: “Strawberry Fields Forever” ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Cleverer than I Want To Hold Your Hand, but not quite as good

6th. Marvin Gaye: “What’s Going On” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ All the stars aligned, magically

5th. Nirvana: “Smells Like Teen Spirit” ⭐ A bit heavy for me….and a pale imitation of punk rock

4th. Bob Dylan: “Like a Rolling Stone” ⭐⭐ I am not a big Dylan fan, but I like the Greatest Hits

3rd. Sam Cooke: “A Change Is Gonna Come” ⭐⭐ I am a big Sam Cooke fan…but this isn’t my favourite. I think this polls well with critics because they are endorsing the message as much as the song

2nd. Public Enemy: “Fight the Power” ⭐⭐⭐ Loses one star for slagging off Elvis,

1st. Aretha Franklin: “Respect” ⭐⭐ It goes without saying, this is a great song, but it’s not as good as I Say a Little Prayer.

Further to the above….if I’d done a list of 500 All Time Best Songs there would be folk, and reggae, and Elvis, Eddie, Buddy, Chuck, and Smokey in the top 20. I think.

I think the psephology of it is, in at least some cases, that some of my favourite artists had a lot of songs to choose from, whereas, say, Queen has one obvious choice, Aretha has two, Nirvana has one, and the Kinks have one.

Back to work thoughts. As they almost said in The Go-Between “2024 is a foreign country. They did things differently there”

I’ve been out a’pinting

There was a marvellous covers band…it’s extraordinary how potent pop music can be

May your God or Goddess go with you in the New Year

My formerly-footballing friend Fred Fieber has done the illustrations for CAMRA’s new leaflet of Salisbury pubs

Fred’s website is Fred Fieber - Pub drawings

The bit of CAMRA’s website relating to Salisbury is Pubs and Clubs around Salisbury

A pamphlet features a list of pubs with names, addresses, phone numbers, and illustrations of each establishment.