Sep 11, 2006 at 07:40 o\clock
Peace and Tolerance revisited
by: arkangel Keywords: 11, bob, dylan, peter, ackroyd, london, love, and, theft, birthday
Mood: reflective
Listening to: bob dylan
-----Original Message-----
From: ArkAngel
Sent: 11 September 2006 07:35
To: 'breakfast@bbc.co.uk'
Subject: Memories of 9/11
I was celebrating birth on that day of death. It was my 38th birthday.
My friends at work had taken me out for lunch. We returned to our office to be confronted with the difficult to comprehend scenes of burning buildings and colliding planes. When the first tower collapsed a terrible reality started to kick in.
I remember particularly the presents I was given that innocent lunchtime before we returned to those tv pictures. Peter Ackroyd's book 'London' about a city I love. And Bob Dylan's album that had just come out that day 'Love and Theft' which represnted the opposite of death and terrorism - music, man's art and creativity.
ArkAngel
London
[at this point I moved to here (for personal) and Simple Pleasures part 4 (for professional)]
Showing posts with label archive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label archive. Show all posts
Monday, January 04, 2010
Feb 2006
Feb 5, 2006
Peace and Tolerance
Going to have a little paddle in the darker side of our world today as a way of addressing the simple pleasures of Peace, Tolerance and Freedom.
This whole row over the cartoons of Muhammad published the other day in Denmark - here's exploring a few points...
Objecting Muslims cite the ban on the graven image in their religion. The cartoonists weren't Muslims so that doesn't really apply. As it happens both Judaism and Christianity have similar restrictions on the graven image enshrined in the (from memory) second Commandment but these religions over the years have somehow been able to distinguish between an idol and Picasso's Guernica.
You only need go to Leighton House in London to see how Muslims have an admirable history of flouting this ban to the benefit of Art. The beautiful Islamic tiles collected by Frederic, Lord Leighton include images of birds - however, you can trace in the glaze cuts across the birds' throats which apparently get one round the graven image restriction. Jewish artists have taken a similar approach, for example, at Bet Alpha synagogue where mosaic images of the animals and figures of the signs of the zodiac adorn the floor - but that's okay apparently because we walk on them.
Now how about the offence caused by the images. A cartoonist dared to make an association between Muhammad and bombs - can't think where he got that from? I guess this is about thinness of skin. Islam seems to have a very thin skin. It's terribly easily offended. Perhaps a sign of lack of confidence. Most other religions seem to be able to take it on the chin, a bit of satire or even, heaven forfend, criticism.
Why on earth aren't the Christians up in arms about this portrayal of God?
Or thinking more in terms of prophets, why aren't they kicking up a stink about this portrayal of Jesus
or this one
[image missing]
or even this one?
And why aren't those serene Buddhists going bonkers over this cartoon of Buddha?
Meanwhile the Jews seem to be taking it on the chin day after day as Palestinian, Arabic and Muslim newspapers publish anti-semitic cartoons worthy of Der Sturmer and the Nazis.
So in an ideal world we'd all spend a bit more time thinking about what God, Muhammad, Jesus and Buddha actually care about. Do they care if mere mortals draw funny (or not so funny) pictures of them? Do they want us to threaten (or carry out) "beheading" and "massacring" as suggested by the placards we've seen on the streets of my beloved London this week? Or do they want us to love one another and treat others as we'd want to be treated ourselves? Perhaps it's time to stop looking ridiculous waving our swords and scimitars in the air and start behaving like loving human beings...
Peace and Tolerance
Going to have a little paddle in the darker side of our world today as a way of addressing the simple pleasures of Peace, Tolerance and Freedom.
This whole row over the cartoons of Muhammad published the other day in Denmark - here's exploring a few points...
Objecting Muslims cite the ban on the graven image in their religion. The cartoonists weren't Muslims so that doesn't really apply. As it happens both Judaism and Christianity have similar restrictions on the graven image enshrined in the (from memory) second Commandment but these religions over the years have somehow been able to distinguish between an idol and Picasso's Guernica.
You only need go to Leighton House in London to see how Muslims have an admirable history of flouting this ban to the benefit of Art. The beautiful Islamic tiles collected by Frederic, Lord Leighton include images of birds - however, you can trace in the glaze cuts across the birds' throats which apparently get one round the graven image restriction. Jewish artists have taken a similar approach, for example, at Bet Alpha synagogue where mosaic images of the animals and figures of the signs of the zodiac adorn the floor - but that's okay apparently because we walk on them.
Now how about the offence caused by the images. A cartoonist dared to make an association between Muhammad and bombs - can't think where he got that from? I guess this is about thinness of skin. Islam seems to have a very thin skin. It's terribly easily offended. Perhaps a sign of lack of confidence. Most other religions seem to be able to take it on the chin, a bit of satire or even, heaven forfend, criticism.
Why on earth aren't the Christians up in arms about this portrayal of God?
Or thinking more in terms of prophets, why aren't they kicking up a stink about this portrayal of Jesus
or this one
[image missing]
or even this one?
And why aren't those serene Buddhists going bonkers over this cartoon of Buddha?
Meanwhile the Jews seem to be taking it on the chin day after day as Palestinian, Arabic and Muslim newspapers publish anti-semitic cartoons worthy of Der Sturmer and the Nazis.
So in an ideal world we'd all spend a bit more time thinking about what God, Muhammad, Jesus and Buddha actually care about. Do they care if mere mortals draw funny (or not so funny) pictures of them? Do they want us to threaten (or carry out) "beheading" and "massacring" as suggested by the placards we've seen on the streets of my beloved London this week? Or do they want us to love one another and treat others as we'd want to be treated ourselves? Perhaps it's time to stop looking ridiculous waving our swords and scimitars in the air and start behaving like loving human beings...
Dec 2005
Dec 11, 2005
Has anyone seen my old friend John?
Been storing this one up since Thursday (8 Dec) - it was 25 years ago that day that we lost John Lennon. I was in Tijuana where I saw his picture beside headlines I couldn't fully translate but I knew he was gone.
So I kicked off Thursday with Oh Yoko which this picture reminds me of - thank God he found Love.
In the middle of a cloud
In the middle of a cloud I call your name
Oh Yoko, oh Yoko, my love will turn you on
How wonderful to be able to write a song like that for your lover - so simple (which is after all the theme of this blog).
Love is reaching, reaching love
Next up was Across the Universe which is one of the very best of The Beatles' songs - one I believe John was particularly proud of (caught a bit of an archive interview on Radio 4 the other day by a Rolling Stone journo in the 70s.)
And as I headed off to work what better than A Day in the Life from the magical Sgt Pepper...
On the tube listened to his greatest solo hits and the two aspects of his songs which really stood out were the searing honesty (e.g. Mother) and the brilliant simplicity, such as Love quoted above and below.
Love is you
You and me
Love is knowing
We can be
...which links directly in spirit to my website Be Do Be
So with shades of Sinatra, echoes of Lennon, I'll just have to skip Miles and content myself with Marvin to round things off - John L is far more deserving than John F of these beautifully sung words:
Has anybody here
Seen my old friend John?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lot of people,
but it seems the good die young,
I just looked around
And he was gone...
Has anyone seen my old friend John?
Been storing this one up since Thursday (8 Dec) - it was 25 years ago that day that we lost John Lennon. I was in Tijuana where I saw his picture beside headlines I couldn't fully translate but I knew he was gone.
So I kicked off Thursday with Oh Yoko which this picture reminds me of - thank God he found Love.
In the middle of a cloud
In the middle of a cloud I call your name
Oh Yoko, oh Yoko, my love will turn you on
How wonderful to be able to write a song like that for your lover - so simple (which is after all the theme of this blog).
Love is reaching, reaching love
Next up was Across the Universe which is one of the very best of The Beatles' songs - one I believe John was particularly proud of (caught a bit of an archive interview on Radio 4 the other day by a Rolling Stone journo in the 70s.)
And as I headed off to work what better than A Day in the Life from the magical Sgt Pepper...
On the tube listened to his greatest solo hits and the two aspects of his songs which really stood out were the searing honesty (e.g. Mother) and the brilliant simplicity, such as Love quoted above and below.
Love is you
You and me
Love is knowing
We can be
...which links directly in spirit to my website Be Do Be
So with shades of Sinatra, echoes of Lennon, I'll just have to skip Miles and content myself with Marvin to round things off - John L is far more deserving than John F of these beautifully sung words:
Has anybody here
Seen my old friend John?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lot of people,
but it seems the good die young,
I just looked around
And he was gone...
Oct 2005
Oct 1, 2005
Chain, chain, chain
This evening i feel like linking up a chain of simple pleasures starting from a few minutes ago. It's been a while since I've been here so where better to start than...
Hallo. Hallo. Hallo. Hallo. Hallo. Hallo. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Public Image Limited's eponymous first single. It was on the radio just before. How fabulous to break the mould with the Sex Pistols and then break it again as soon as you leave.
Dub reggae - The echoey Hallo of PIL reminds me of the transcendental ethereal vibe of Dub.
45s - Seven perfect inches of black vinyl. Dub makes me think of buying records in Jamaica. Wrong and missing labels. Relying on the recommendations of the record shop keeper.
Rooms with unglazed windows/fresh air flowing in i.e. with a hole in a wall - the lounge in Noel Coward's house east of Ocho Rios - a widescreen window open to the elements looking out along the coast
True friends - I was in Ochi for my friend Nigel's wedding - he sent a text the day of the London bombings this summer which reminded me how true a friend he is
I think I'll wrap up tonight on London, the city of my birth, the greatest on Earth (in my eyes) - earlier today I walked along a beautiful brookside walk within the bounds of London - from the corner of Dollis Brook in the dappled shade of a horse chestnut tree where the enfants terribles launched polished conkers into the stream - i so love the sound of running water - it turns into the River Brent which eventually flows into the Thames, a wonderful chain of water which links into a wonderful chain of seas which binds us all together.
Comments for this entry:
1. drifting wrote at Oct 2, 2005 at 06:59 o\clock:
What a lovely idea - your chain of simple pleasures.
London is my favourite city - love it. Was last there the day before the bombing.
Chain, chain, chain
This evening i feel like linking up a chain of simple pleasures starting from a few minutes ago. It's been a while since I've been here so where better to start than...
Hallo. Hallo. Hallo. Hallo. Hallo. Hallo. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Public Image Limited's eponymous first single. It was on the radio just before. How fabulous to break the mould with the Sex Pistols and then break it again as soon as you leave.
Dub reggae - The echoey Hallo of PIL reminds me of the transcendental ethereal vibe of Dub.
45s - Seven perfect inches of black vinyl. Dub makes me think of buying records in Jamaica. Wrong and missing labels. Relying on the recommendations of the record shop keeper.
Rooms with unglazed windows/fresh air flowing in i.e. with a hole in a wall - the lounge in Noel Coward's house east of Ocho Rios - a widescreen window open to the elements looking out along the coast
True friends - I was in Ochi for my friend Nigel's wedding - he sent a text the day of the London bombings this summer which reminded me how true a friend he is
I think I'll wrap up tonight on London, the city of my birth, the greatest on Earth (in my eyes) - earlier today I walked along a beautiful brookside walk within the bounds of London - from the corner of Dollis Brook in the dappled shade of a horse chestnut tree where the enfants terribles launched polished conkers into the stream - i so love the sound of running water - it turns into the River Brent which eventually flows into the Thames, a wonderful chain of water which links into a wonderful chain of seas which binds us all together.
Comments for this entry:
1. drifting wrote at Oct 2, 2005 at 06:59 o\clock:
What a lovely idea - your chain of simple pleasures.
London is my favourite city - love it. Was last there the day before the bombing.
May 2005
May 14, 2005
Bucking the trend on Friday the 13th
So as Friday the 13th draws to a close what Simple Pleasures have helped offset it today?
Comic books - this morning I was reading a newish one I bought in Dublin on Monday entitled 'Shining Knight' from DC Comics. I've really got back into these (as Noah observed in the car taking him to skool this morning) thanks to coming across Vertigo Comics recently in a shop at Camden Market. And I came across Vertigo thanks to comic book writer Alan Moore and his fabulous The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Then there's the delight of story-telling which I've been engaging with thanks to a new website I've been working on called 'Every Object Tells a Story' www.everyobject.net to which I contributed a couple of stories today about seaweed in Lough Swilly in County Donegal and ancient stones (a dolmen) in the Mountains of Morne in Northern Ireland.
As I was reading to the children this evening I spotted our cat (Tommy Boy) sitting on next door's shed staring out at the neighbouring allotments, his wild orange fur radiating against the greenery - a fabulous sight.
March 2005
Mar 12, 2005
Things Noah and Dylan like
This is Noah and Dylan's first entry in Simple Pleasures. It's Saturday morning, Tom and Jerry has just finished, the Enfants Terribles were lying together on the couch under the blue blanket, but now it's time to get active and seize this day...
Noah likes drawing, Charlie Chaplin, seeing his cousins Finlay and Jake, Lego and taking photos.
Dylan likes playgrounds, eating Indian food, his Daddy and his friends and going round to play.
They've gone next door to play now so i'll take the opportunity to springboard off their pleasures.
Cartoons: The Hair Bear Bunch (Ooh ooh Mr Beazley and my kinda afro), Bugs Bunny; meeting Chuck Jones in Cambridge and asking him why Bugs dresses up in women's clothing so often; Hong Kong Phooey (Is it Henry the mild mannered janitor? Could be.)...
Lying down, relaxing: in the back garden of Lellow House in the summer, just listening; on our bed on Saturday afternoons; on grassy banks where it's quiet, perhaps the sound of a river flowing past.
Drawing: getting lost in my drawing, Egon Schiele, good quality pencils, black oil pastel, Aubrey Beardsley, the fine black line of the Rotring pen, Henry Moore's chalk sculptural drawings, emptying the wooden shavings from the pencil sharpener.
Charlie Chaplin: Dylan is named after Charlie (Dylan Charlie Wilf). My favourite film is Modern Times. His humanity; his defiance of Adolf; his dedication to creativity, day after day in the cutting room; his balletic movement; the dancing rolls in The Gold Rush; the monkey on the tightrope in The Circus; City Lights... and I think I'll call it a day there. A leisurely breakfast (weekends and holidays only) beckons. Next time I think I'll pick up at the City Lights bookshop in San Francisco...
Mar 12, 2005
The Food of Love and Happiness
You can't reflect on the sources of Happiness too long before you get to Music. I'll always remember a quotation I heard at school by Walter Pater (whoever he was, a pal of Oscar Wilde if I remember right - and while we're on the subject of Oscar it's a good time to chuck The Importance of Being Earnest and The Ballad of Reading Gaol into the Simple Pleasures pot, and while on the subject of those let's toss in woodcuts, as my copy of Reading Gaol is illustrated with woodcuts by Frans Masereel, and the films of Albert Lewin including The Picture of Dorian Gray and Pandora and the Flying Dutchman which brings us neatly to James Mason's voice and Ava Gardner's beauty ...and the beauty of Women and the voice of her ex-hubby Frank Sinarta and ...well we're back to music - but look how infectious this Pleasure thing is, and now back to Walter, reigning in this sentence in a way John Milton would be proud of - oh yes, Sing heavenly muse, let's not forget Paradise Lost, in particular that red Cambridge edition we had at school in Mr Fitch's class, which had a major impact on me because it first made me aware of the narrowness and artificiality of school subjects and the connections between things [very internety really]) ah yes dear old Walter who said: "All Art aspires to the condition of music" which I read as meaning that every other art form would love to achieve the directness of Music's impact on the heart, I mean look at this jumble of words... It could all be said in a phrase of music from say Miles Davis' transcendent Flamenco Sketches.
Mar 4, 2005
Pure White Pleasure
Light flurries of snow.
Snow flakes floating into your face.
Coming in from the cold.
Home.
Going out into the cold bright day.
The sign above our front door going out: "Dun Na nGall Donegal 1" - I mile. Or (less than) 1 day away.
Donegal.
Fanad Head. Port Salon beach. The sea arch just north of there.
That day I watched the sea weed swirling around my feet (by the arch), browns and greens and eddies of water in a PERFECT MOMENT. Noah and Dylan were playing by the water's edge with Una nearby.
Things Noah and Dylan like
This is Noah and Dylan's first entry in Simple Pleasures. It's Saturday morning, Tom and Jerry has just finished, the Enfants Terribles were lying together on the couch under the blue blanket, but now it's time to get active and seize this day...
Noah likes drawing, Charlie Chaplin, seeing his cousins Finlay and Jake, Lego and taking photos.
Dylan likes playgrounds, eating Indian food, his Daddy and his friends and going round to play.
They've gone next door to play now so i'll take the opportunity to springboard off their pleasures.
Cartoons: The Hair Bear Bunch (Ooh ooh Mr Beazley and my kinda afro), Bugs Bunny; meeting Chuck Jones in Cambridge and asking him why Bugs dresses up in women's clothing so often; Hong Kong Phooey (Is it Henry the mild mannered janitor? Could be.)...
Lying down, relaxing: in the back garden of Lellow House in the summer, just listening; on our bed on Saturday afternoons; on grassy banks where it's quiet, perhaps the sound of a river flowing past.
Drawing: getting lost in my drawing, Egon Schiele, good quality pencils, black oil pastel, Aubrey Beardsley, the fine black line of the Rotring pen, Henry Moore's chalk sculptural drawings, emptying the wooden shavings from the pencil sharpener.
Charlie Chaplin: Dylan is named after Charlie (Dylan Charlie Wilf). My favourite film is Modern Times. His humanity; his defiance of Adolf; his dedication to creativity, day after day in the cutting room; his balletic movement; the dancing rolls in The Gold Rush; the monkey on the tightrope in The Circus; City Lights... and I think I'll call it a day there. A leisurely breakfast (weekends and holidays only) beckons. Next time I think I'll pick up at the City Lights bookshop in San Francisco...
Mar 12, 2005
The Food of Love and Happiness
You can't reflect on the sources of Happiness too long before you get to Music. I'll always remember a quotation I heard at school by Walter Pater (whoever he was, a pal of Oscar Wilde if I remember right - and while we're on the subject of Oscar it's a good time to chuck The Importance of Being Earnest and The Ballad of Reading Gaol into the Simple Pleasures pot, and while on the subject of those let's toss in woodcuts, as my copy of Reading Gaol is illustrated with woodcuts by Frans Masereel, and the films of Albert Lewin including The Picture of Dorian Gray and Pandora and the Flying Dutchman which brings us neatly to James Mason's voice and Ava Gardner's beauty ...and the beauty of Women and the voice of her ex-hubby Frank Sinarta and ...well we're back to music - but look how infectious this Pleasure thing is, and now back to Walter, reigning in this sentence in a way John Milton would be proud of - oh yes, Sing heavenly muse, let's not forget Paradise Lost, in particular that red Cambridge edition we had at school in Mr Fitch's class, which had a major impact on me because it first made me aware of the narrowness and artificiality of school subjects and the connections between things [very internety really]) ah yes dear old Walter who said: "All Art aspires to the condition of music" which I read as meaning that every other art form would love to achieve the directness of Music's impact on the heart, I mean look at this jumble of words... It could all be said in a phrase of music from say Miles Davis' transcendent Flamenco Sketches.
Mar 4, 2005
Pure White Pleasure
Light flurries of snow.
Snow flakes floating into your face.
Coming in from the cold.
Home.
Going out into the cold bright day.
The sign above our front door going out: "Dun Na nGall Donegal 1" - I mile. Or (less than) 1 day away.
Donegal.
Fanad Head. Port Salon beach. The sea arch just north of there.
That day I watched the sea weed swirling around my feet (by the arch), browns and greens and eddies of water in a PERFECT MOMENT. Noah and Dylan were playing by the water's edge with Una nearby.
Simple Pleasures - the archive
I'm just moving the original posts on Simple Pleasures (the forerunner of this blog) from the dodgy old German software where it currently resides to a cut&pasted archive here (so links may not work)...
The Simple Pleasures of Life
Feb 14, 2005
This blog is inspired by a sermon I heard a couple of years ago which quoted a 'will' left by a father for his children which was not his 'money will' but his 'wisdom will' (I can't remember the exact terminology that was used but you get the idea) - it was his attempt to pass on some of the more useful things he'd learnt in his lifetime about what really matters and about the way people are. I've come to the conclusion over my forty-one years so far on the planet that Happiness is to be found primarily in the Simple Pleasures of life so I've decided to put some of those pleasures here for Noah and Dylan to read when they're a bit older and anyone else who cares to. And one day soon Noah and Dylan can start adding their own...
The smell of cut grass
Feb 14, 2005
Always loved it. Very English I suppose. The cricket pitch (and I'm not even particularly interested in cricket) - and that's another one: the sound of ball on bat, a summer rhythm, all the time in the world. The circular lawn in my ma's house. Dozing in the sun. Mowing the lawn in my own home, a bit of physical work to make the stretching out on the blanket with a good book and a cool drink all the more pleasurable. Meanwhile, back in Asterix in Britain a Briton with a red handle-bar moustache waters his perfect lawn, flicks a blade and pronounces it "a decent bit of turf" (or at least it will be in another hundred years) - and then the hurtling chariot drives across it, carrying Asterix, Obelix and Asterix's cousin Anticlimax. Then there's Cambridge and college lawns, the shaded grass around Girton's chapel-like library, Granchester, Rupert Brooke, bees and honey, tea in an orchard. Which brings me to another SP: cycling one night, after midnight, out to Granchester by the silver light of the moon, almost day-bright. A journey I'll never forget, simply me, my trusty red bike, the night air and the silver...
Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
Feb 24, 2005
I first tasted it in a coffee shop north of Leicester Square and west of Chinatown. Thought it was in a league of its own, unlike anything I'd ever tasted. To be honest, I've never been able to reproduce the impact. Bought a sack-cloth bag of it in Jamaica on my one and only trip there so far. But it didn't match up. Bought another tin of it last Christmas at the atmospheric Martyn's coffee shop in Muswell Hill, North London (home of The Kinks - let's chuck Waterloo Sunset in the pot, both as a song and an experience, while we're on the subject) - Martyn's with its aroma of roasting coffee beans, its wooden floorboards, fancy goods, unchanged Edwardian interior - but again it didn't live up to that first experience. So I go on searching for the next magical cup. Meanwhile... back in Jamaica, simple pleasures included buying 45s from the record shop where the shopkeeper played you what was hot on discs with no or wrong labels; the view from Noel Coward's living room window, a window with no glass, widescreen; an outdoor dance on the night of my friend Nigel's wedding, featuring the roots reggae of Sizzla; the first humming bird I'd ever seen, outside Nigel's folks' place in Ocho Rios; Wray & Nephew's white rum, pretty much the only spirit I like and haven't written off through a binge that ended in tears (which reminds me I love that line in The Life Aquatic where Bill Murray's Steve Zissou invites anyone who cares to do so to join him "on an overnight drunk"); and swimming in the sea with baby Noah, about 9 months old.
Reasons to be Cheerful
Feb 24, 2005
The other root of this idea (beside the sermon mentioned in the first entry) was Ian Dury's wonderful song Reasons to be Cheerful, part 3, a long list of simple pleasures from which the one that stands out in my memory is yellow socks.
Summer, Buddy Holly, the working folly
Good golly Miss Molly and boats
Hammersmith Palais, the Bolshoi Ballet
Jump back in the alley and nanny goats
18-wheeler Scammels, Domenecker camels
All other mammals plus equal votes
Seeing Piccadilly, Fanny Smith and Willy
Being rather silly, and porridge oats
A bit of grin and bear it, a bit of come and share it
You're welcome, we can spare it - yellow socks
Too short to be haughty, too nutty to be naughty
Going on 40 - no electric shocks
The juice of the carrot, [for me it's the juice of an apple] the smile of the parrot
A little drop of claret [I'll take a dessert wine] - anything that rocks
Elvis and Scotty, days when I ain't spotty,
Sitting on the potty - curing smallpox
Health service glasses [preferably John Lennon-style little round glasses] Gigolos and brasses
round or skinny bottoms [here, here]
Take your mum to paris
lighting up the chalice
wee willy harris
Bantu Stephen Biko, listening to Rico [on The Specials very special Ghost Town]
Harpo, Groucho, Chico [especially the cabin scene in Night at the Opera]
Cheddar cheese and pickle [served up by my mum in front of the radiogram listening to my Winnie the Pooh record in2A Selvage Lane, my childhood home], the Vincent motorsickle
Slap and tickle
Woody Allen [title sequence of Bananas had me under the chair before the film even started, just the interaction of the animation and music, punctuated with bullet holes], Dali [an inspiration since childhood, the finest of painting, from Christ's shoulders to a pomegranate], Dimitri and Pasquale
balabalabala and Volare [certainly Deano and of course Frank, who as a child I thought was half of a double act, Franks & Artra]
Something nice to study, phoning up a buddy
Being in my nuddy
Saying hokey-dokey, singalonga Smokey
Coming out of chokey
John Coltrane's soprano [above all on A Love Supreme and Miles' Kind of Blue, both of which I want played at my funeral], Adi Celentano Bonar Colleano
Reasons to be Cheerful, part 3...
The Simple Pleasures of Life
Feb 14, 2005
This blog is inspired by a sermon I heard a couple of years ago which quoted a 'will' left by a father for his children which was not his 'money will' but his 'wisdom will' (I can't remember the exact terminology that was used but you get the idea) - it was his attempt to pass on some of the more useful things he'd learnt in his lifetime about what really matters and about the way people are. I've come to the conclusion over my forty-one years so far on the planet that Happiness is to be found primarily in the Simple Pleasures of life so I've decided to put some of those pleasures here for Noah and Dylan to read when they're a bit older and anyone else who cares to. And one day soon Noah and Dylan can start adding their own...
The smell of cut grass
Feb 14, 2005
Always loved it. Very English I suppose. The cricket pitch (and I'm not even particularly interested in cricket) - and that's another one: the sound of ball on bat, a summer rhythm, all the time in the world. The circular lawn in my ma's house. Dozing in the sun. Mowing the lawn in my own home, a bit of physical work to make the stretching out on the blanket with a good book and a cool drink all the more pleasurable. Meanwhile, back in Asterix in Britain a Briton with a red handle-bar moustache waters his perfect lawn, flicks a blade and pronounces it "a decent bit of turf" (or at least it will be in another hundred years) - and then the hurtling chariot drives across it, carrying Asterix, Obelix and Asterix's cousin Anticlimax. Then there's Cambridge and college lawns, the shaded grass around Girton's chapel-like library, Granchester, Rupert Brooke, bees and honey, tea in an orchard. Which brings me to another SP: cycling one night, after midnight, out to Granchester by the silver light of the moon, almost day-bright. A journey I'll never forget, simply me, my trusty red bike, the night air and the silver...
Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
Feb 24, 2005
I first tasted it in a coffee shop north of Leicester Square and west of Chinatown. Thought it was in a league of its own, unlike anything I'd ever tasted. To be honest, I've never been able to reproduce the impact. Bought a sack-cloth bag of it in Jamaica on my one and only trip there so far. But it didn't match up. Bought another tin of it last Christmas at the atmospheric Martyn's coffee shop in Muswell Hill, North London (home of The Kinks - let's chuck Waterloo Sunset in the pot, both as a song and an experience, while we're on the subject) - Martyn's with its aroma of roasting coffee beans, its wooden floorboards, fancy goods, unchanged Edwardian interior - but again it didn't live up to that first experience. So I go on searching for the next magical cup. Meanwhile... back in Jamaica, simple pleasures included buying 45s from the record shop where the shopkeeper played you what was hot on discs with no or wrong labels; the view from Noel Coward's living room window, a window with no glass, widescreen; an outdoor dance on the night of my friend Nigel's wedding, featuring the roots reggae of Sizzla; the first humming bird I'd ever seen, outside Nigel's folks' place in Ocho Rios; Wray & Nephew's white rum, pretty much the only spirit I like and haven't written off through a binge that ended in tears (which reminds me I love that line in The Life Aquatic where Bill Murray's Steve Zissou invites anyone who cares to do so to join him "on an overnight drunk"); and swimming in the sea with baby Noah, about 9 months old.
Reasons to be Cheerful
Feb 24, 2005
The other root of this idea (beside the sermon mentioned in the first entry) was Ian Dury's wonderful song Reasons to be Cheerful, part 3, a long list of simple pleasures from which the one that stands out in my memory is yellow socks.
Summer, Buddy Holly, the working folly
Good golly Miss Molly and boats
Hammersmith Palais, the Bolshoi Ballet
Jump back in the alley and nanny goats
18-wheeler Scammels, Domenecker camels
All other mammals plus equal votes
Seeing Piccadilly, Fanny Smith and Willy
Being rather silly, and porridge oats
A bit of grin and bear it, a bit of come and share it
You're welcome, we can spare it - yellow socks
Too short to be haughty, too nutty to be naughty
Going on 40 - no electric shocks
The juice of the carrot, [for me it's the juice of an apple] the smile of the parrot
A little drop of claret [I'll take a dessert wine] - anything that rocks
Elvis and Scotty, days when I ain't spotty,
Sitting on the potty - curing smallpox
Health service glasses [preferably John Lennon-style little round glasses] Gigolos and brasses
round or skinny bottoms [here, here]
Take your mum to paris
lighting up the chalice
wee willy harris
Bantu Stephen Biko, listening to Rico [on The Specials very special Ghost Town]
Harpo, Groucho, Chico [especially the cabin scene in Night at the Opera]
Cheddar cheese and pickle [served up by my mum in front of the radiogram listening to my Winnie the Pooh record in2A Selvage Lane, my childhood home], the Vincent motorsickle
Slap and tickle
Woody Allen [title sequence of Bananas had me under the chair before the film even started, just the interaction of the animation and music, punctuated with bullet holes], Dali [an inspiration since childhood, the finest of painting, from Christ's shoulders to a pomegranate], Dimitri and Pasquale
balabalabala and Volare [certainly Deano and of course Frank, who as a child I thought was half of a double act, Franks & Artra]
Something nice to study, phoning up a buddy
Being in my nuddy
Saying hokey-dokey, singalonga Smokey
Coming out of chokey
John Coltrane's soprano [above all on A Love Supreme and Miles' Kind of Blue, both of which I want played at my funeral], Adi Celentano Bonar Colleano
Reasons to be Cheerful, part 3...
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