Curious Daylight

Sunday, December 6, 2009 ~ 1 comment so far

I’ve spent most of the evening retagging MP3s in my iTunes library in an effort to get them all cleaned up. I tried this with a bit of software before but it did more damage than good so I’m just slowly working my way through by hand and, as it turns out, it’s quite fun for no other reason than it is allowing me to revisit some music I’ve not played for ages.

It’s also kicking off a bit of nostalgia at times as well, as I pick over different eras in my music taste, particularly when I stumbled across an old Kevin McDermott Orchestra album which I played so much the CD started to wear through!

There was a time, in my late teens, when I was heavily into the Scottish music scene, Simple Minds, Love & Money, The Silencers, The Humpff family and Del Amitri, and given that I was ‘growing up’ at that point it’s fair to say that a lot of the lyrical content seemed to resonate deeply with me.

Now I’m not saying that any of the aforementioned bands were particularly adept at song writing but remember, I was a bag of hormones and emotions so even the simplest line of melancholy had me proclaiming it as the best song EVER.

However what took me by surprise, as I flicked through some of the tracks, was how deeply they STILL resonate. One perfect example is on the Kevin McDermott album, Bedazzled, a track called Curious Daylight:

I hope this song makes sense tomorrow,
My words keep falling on the floor,
It’s nearly dawn and soon I’ll follow,
It’s time you helped me to the door.

So now we know that something’s wrong.
We’ve been on this ship too long.

I can’t wait, til we’ve got it made,
I can’t wait, til we turn the tide,
I can’t wait, cos I see everything,
and it sure looks strange in this curious daylight.

Wish we could talk about the weather,
Fall asleep and wake as friends,
but I can’t talk about forever,
and I’m the villain once again.

We’re getting further from the shore,
but I’ve sailed this sea before.

But I can’t wait, til we’ve got it made,
I can’t wait, til we turn the tide,
I can’t wait, cos I see everything,
and it sure looks strange in this curious daylight.

Though I need you more than ever,
Because the cards I have are always wild,
I’m trying to keep this ship together,
so try to understand the thankless child.

I don’t expect to be forgiven,
There’re things that I could never be,
No well intentioned break upon the shores of heaven,
No endless refuge.

I’ve been on this ship so long,
and I’ve never felt this strong,
Now I can’t wait, til we’ve got it made,
I can’t wait, til we turn the tide,
I can’t wait, cos I see everything,
and it sure looks strange in this curious daylight.

Nothing special, for sure, but it still made me stop and sit back and just listen to the music. Not something I do all that often, and it evoked a powerful set of memories, of people and places, laughter and tears.

It also reminds me that memories, good ones, are very important and I should try harder not to leave them to tarnish.

Dear Comment Spammer

Friday, December 4, 2009 ~ 2 comments so far

To the lovely people who have left some comments on my blog recently, and who may be wondering why they haven’t appeared.

It’s because you have a URL that takes me to a completely unrelated product website.

That and it’s obvious that you’ve not fully read the blog post in question.

I realise you are, probably, getting paid for this, and my hope is that having received no referrer links from this website, you’ll realise that there is no point in continuing to leave comments here.

Besides, of the 14 people who read this website, few would really want to click through to the weird mix of product websites you purport to represent.

Please don’t take any of this personally, but please just sod off!

Ohh, and have a very Merry Christmas!

Stop making excuses

Wednesday, December 2, 2009 ~ 5 comments so far

“Sorry I’m late”

“With all due respect to…”

Sometimes it feels like my life is littered with apologies which, whilst they are nice to hear, aren’t being offered as an apology but as a platitude.

Being sorry you are late once or twice is one thing, continually apologising for being late suggests you are both a. insincere and b. lying.

I’d much rather you just admit that whilst you may feel some guilt for being late, you aren’t sorry at all. For some reasons these people think that saying you are sorry in some way excuses the fact you can’t organise your time and don’t really care that it impacts on MY time (which admittedly I’m pretty damn anal about because I happen to think it’s quite important).

If you have no good reason for being late, tell me why, but don’t expect that an apology makes it ok. It doesn’t.

Same goes for those people who insult someone but make sure they don’t seem TOO nasty by leading with “I mean, with all due respect to…”.

Bollocks to that. You obviously don’t respect someone as you’ve just insulted them. You can’t have it both ways.

Perhaps 2010 should be the year of telling the truth. Perhaps.

December

Tuesday, December 1, 2009 ~ 5 comments so far

I’m sure you’ve all noticed by now that it is, without a shadow of doubt, December.

If nothing else, the ceaseless adverts for perfume, chocolate and some really REALLY faked Christmases (c’mon, does ANYONE have a Christmas like the ones on the telly?) should have clued you in.

There is no denying it. It is most definitely Christmas.

Which means two things.

1. The Christmas decorations will go up this weekend, and I’ll spend as much time as I can avoiding doing just that.

2. Blogs all over the land will start their ‘best of’ lists and recaps.

Except this one.

I thought I’d state it right now just in case any of you are waiting with baited breath, because it ain’t gonna happen. Now matter how many times I consider it, and I’ve tried it a couple of times in the past, I just never seem to have the time (or the inclination if I’m honest).

Instead, let us look forward to 2010, the year where a new sun will be borne from the ashes of Jupiter (we shall call it Lucifer) and.. ohh wait, that’s the book.

As ever, life will bring what it will bring, so I probably won’t be doing a lot of “looking forward” either, and it’s much easier to live in the here and now, don’t you think?