Transistor Radio

Wiki

 

Noting a transistor radio on here I was immediately transported back in time to listening to Radio Luxemburg on a Sunday night while bathing before the week ahead.  Listening also to one of these, usually someone else's, at the football trying to discover the results of other games that day.  What an invention, cheap, reliable, mostly, and enables the user to wander the streets annoying the public with loud music they hated.

My brother thought he was clever and bought a kit to make one for himself, I think the bits lay about for years.  Relatively cheap, they fitted into the pocket, offered a earphone to prevent others listening in, and abounded in time.

Radio's, with better quality, soon followed.  Everybody had one, all kids had one, on their beds usually, while searching out new radio stations, often situated on the seas nearby.  Eventually the BBC was modernised and Radio One came into being, playing better music than before.  I doubt it is better music now.  

The only downside was the ability of some to pay their battery powered music at high volume outside.

There were heard in parks, on beaches, and being thrown through windows by less than happy temporary neighbours.  Being trendy is not always popular.

I wonder how many of these things still lie about folks houses?

Broken People

Digital Spy

The 'British' intellect is a simple one.  The press understand this and follow, or is it lead, that intellect to a degree of profit for themselves.  For days we have been offered sensational warnings regarding 'Storm Dennis' which was about to blow us away and destroy the nation.  It didn't.  The warnings were in every paper, TV and radio also blasting out threats of suffering in 90 mph winds and heavy rainstorms.  In the end they were not much worse than what we usually receive. 
However as this was vitally important information nothing but the most urgent news could shift it from top spot, especially as it was being used to hide tales regarding our inept Prime Minister and his dog Dominic Cummings.
The heart of the nation is revealed (as the headlines would say) to be centred not on obtaining the 'Russian Report,' not on worrying about the Budget, not on questioning serious dodgy dealings in No 10 but instead on the death of an unknown women at 40 years of age.
Apparently this woman took part in a programme I would have thought unworthy of broadcast, but there you go.  As I did not watch 'Love Island' I cannot comment on the content, well I can as I know just enough to make me switch off, and I can say it is something that the death of such a woman is considered fit to splash over all front pages.  What sort of a society watches 'Love Island?'
There are court cases involved which concerned this woman, there was pressure from the media, there was her unstable mind, all these things contribute to her death.
The court case I did not concern myself with, apparently she bashed a boyfriend and the media lived on this for a while.  The media make use of her story and she and others complain she was used.  Hmmm.  These people seek attention and when it comes they cannot cope with it.  Those who participate in such programmes will be hassled without mercy by the tabloids who are clearly out of control.  
Nothing will be done.
Much may be made of her unstable mental condition, however I suggest anyone who wishes to be famous' in such a way, or indeed by being a 'Pop or Film Star' is clearly unstable.  The world is filled with broken people seeking attention.  Possibly  they just require proper 'Love' and 'Care.'  
It is very sad that a pretty woman should be killing herself at 40, or indeed at any time.  It is disgraceful that the media will live on this for days.  It is inevitable that the pother broken people out there will 'read all about it' and see no wrong in their desire to peer into another's broke life. 
The storm appears to have abated, many flooded in the usual places, less articles about them now.  I wonder what the media will distract our attention with next week in between using another young broken woman, and hopefully they say, breaking others for a story?

I was very impressed this morning as I walked to church.  Just before 8 am the rain came down in torrents, it was like looking at a gray mist. I began to plan remaining indoors.  However I was doing the reading this morning, Genesis Chapter 1 and a bit of 2.  This is quite long and the Rev thought it funny!  So I had to be there for that at least.  No offers of transport arrived, I waited for one of my women to offer, none did.  All those Valentine's cards wasted again.  However by the time I left it was dry.  I almost got to the door before any rain developed though I had the pleasure of walking home in heavy rain later.  My big jacket is still wet.  

On the corner near the church was an enormous puddle reaching out into the road, blocked drains must be doing this everywhere.  A BMW rounding the corner almost drove into it until he saw me walking by and moved out to avoid drowning me, thank you sir, but he almost hit a small car coming the other way.  I wonder how many people would have driven through the puddle?  I wonder how many accidents we do not hear about are caused by such? 
I look forward to the end of the great storm, or at least the great headlines regarding the storm.  Daily winter weather is upon us.

The Benefits of the Wireless

Now OK, I realise most folks call it a 'radio' today but I always find the word 'wireless' appearing in my head and so I might as well use it.  When young we did indeed have a 'wirelss,' a great big box with an aerial that looked like a bent birds cage which hung outside the window do obtain a good reception.  I wonder if this was obtained second hand or possibly through my aunt who worked in 'Jenners' Edinburgh's principal shop, the one where all the rich women spent much time drinking tea with their pinkie sticking out and discussing the merits of other women's lives.  My mother did not have the cash for that pleasure and merely gossipped with the neighbours.  
Anyway I recall, possibly before I began school, a large 'Radiogram' appearing in the corner.  This vast cupboard had a lid which when lifted exposed the large dial for the wireless on one side and a record layer (ten '45's at one go!) on the other.  This my elder brother and sisters much enjoyed though I also took happily to their choice of 'Rock & Roll.'  
On the large dial, over a foot in length and several inches wide, there was a list of foreign places from far away.  I cannot mind now but I suppose both Long, Short and Medium wave were available on their however if we listened to the radio we most probably only had three stations at that time, the BBC 'Home Service, the BBC 'Light' programme and Radio Luxembourg which in those days played music young people wished to listen to, the BBC remained rather stuffy until the pirate radio ships gave them a shove in the 60's.  I spent many a Sunday afternoon with my head up against the speaker listening to the 'Billy Cotton Band Show,' 'The Goons' with their 'pictures in the mind' and other comedy shows that abounded in the afternoons.  During the week the 'Tony Hancock Show' brought in an audience of 25 million!  This of course before TV was common and then did similar when transferred to the telly later on.  Those days have long gone and even the dreadful 'soaps' only get 13 million by adding the two showing of the programmes together.

The Internet has been a blessing regarding listening to the wireless as the BBC iplayer allows me to catch programmes I usually miss and indeed many of those programmes once hear while munching mums salad rolls on Summer Sunday afternoons.   Now we possess the updated (though the names do need updating once again) Radio's 1,2,3,4, plus 5Live, the rather juvenile station, plus the World Service once the best of them all now dumbed down and as PC as the rest of the BBC and Radio 4 Extra, a station that plays old programmes, mostly sad to say dramas, stories and pap.  However via the iplayer I can catch some wonderful programmes and today I have been working my way through the Radio 3 excellent 'Essay' series.  In particular I have been enjoying some of the 'Free Thinking' programmes, I listened to the 15 minute ones where one person spouted their opinion on a topic (many wide and varied) and dis so in an intelligent and thoughtful manner.  I did not always agree, some were spectacularly wrong, but I had to listen and wanted to hear more.  There are so many talk shows on Radio 4 that are decidedly middle calls and usually aimed at women with problems that when you hear grown up women talk on Radio 3 you wonder if it is not time for a change in the programming layout somewhere.  Maybe the Radio 3 audience is more open to reason?

I must confess that I have had a fill of thinking talk for a while and may well retire to the West Wing and place my dull ear to the speaker again and listen out for something that either takes me out from this box or makes me laugh, I don't as yet now which.  Either way it will be better for me that glueing my face to the box in the corner where 50 channels, when they work, offer me little of value.  Once again there I must reach for the TV iplayer and seek something worthy.  

Easter Monday

Being the Easter Monday holiday almost everything was shut.  Thankfully Tesco still opened to feed those who almost starved over the past few days.  I had to go there as I found a sink was blocked and while I managed to clear it last night found my bank holiday beginning with pouring smelly stuff down the plughole.  It seems to work but it does annoy when that happens, especially late in the day.  
For the rest of the day I sat at this laptop trying to finish updating the WW2 memorial that collapsed. The problem is that while I have basic info on all the men I have not got the links to hand for further information so I have to trawl through the sites to find that again.  That takes time and working at the speed to which I have become accustomed it took lots of time.  It is getting there but slowly and what slows me down is finding interesting bits of info which I must read and then forget what I was looking for in the first place.  Bah!      

On the other hand as there was nothing on the TV and I found less on the radio I suppose this kept  me out of mischief.  The question is why are TV programmes on holiday periods so poor?  Do they save up the rubbish to fill space or is it the programmes they have are all poor and they show them hour after hour?  For instance 'Who do you think you are,' the series where famous people I have never heard of seek their ancestors, has been running for four days now.  While the idea of this programme is good the outworking is poor.  The whole point is less about finding the empty headed starlets great granny it is about finding a story about great granny in a workhouse so they can add sentimental music and force tears from said starlet.  That is not seeking ancestors that is a reflection of the small minded TV we have dumped on us by the Islington set today.  Certainly finding granddad in a lunatic asylum might produce a reaction but why force tears about someone born a hundred years before you were born?  My granddad's first wife ended in such a place but ought I to be weeping?   He might have done, the children might but really this is just a reflection of the loss of the 'stiff upper lip.'  Whatever it is it is not history.

Possibly I misjudge the attitudes.  I am constantly finding poignant information when researching people.  For instance this lass here, a member of the ATS who died far from home in Coventry during the war.  Her little band were supporting heavy anti-aircraft guns, either firing the things or working searchlights alongside possibly, either way from action or disease she died aged 19 only.  That is  tear jerking especially if there were no more children in the family.  I can find no other information on this lassie, who knows the situation, but can we weep for people we never met?

While I sat in here in the gloom with only the starlings banging away at the feeders for company I know you lot were still stuffing chocolate eggs down your throat.  I am not jealous, just as I am not the one running to the dentist asking why there are no teeth left.  
No I enjoyed the gruel which was all I could afford, the bit of stale bread left in the wooden box, and washed this down with stale water to avoid using electricity and spending cash.  No don't feel sorry for me, you enjoy being overweight....

The Web!

Surely that is what they mean by 'the web...?'
Quite how the spiders connect via an ISP I know not.  However as several have made their home on the telegraph pole it appears there must be some method available.  Note also we refer to a 'telegraph pole' yet the 'telegraph' as such no longer exists.  What do we call these things now I wonder?

During the last week I have made use of the web, mostly to listen to the 'wireless,' although that today must be called the 'radio.'  There again as many listen to the 'radio' via their mobile phone can we call it 'radio' any more?   I am getting confused now.  When I use the laptop to listen to the radio, via a wireless connection, am I using a 'radio' or a 'wireless?'  I am beginning to blow a valve, bring back the old certainties I say!

The radio I listen to mostly is BBC Radio 4, Radio 4 Extra or Factual, BBC World Service, or even Murdoch's TalkSport (who's link doesn't work for me!). World Service News until recently has been the best in the world. The cutbacks have reduced this somewhat, especially early in the morning when 'Daybreak,' an African 5Live style offering appears instead of the proper news programmes that once held sway.  Still some news programmes run during the day and have proper journalists most of the time.  The usual liberal BBC policy drives the choice of subjects and narrows the spread of news somewhat I find.  I have tried other nations radio stations, in English as my Finnish, Russian and Serbo-Croat is somewhat lacking, but not as much as my command of English of course, some offer a good news service but usually at limited and awkward times.  In days of old I often spent hours listening to the Eastern European stations under Communist control.  The slanted viewpoints, boasting of successful agriculture, factory output (how many tractors we made today) and diplomatic successes, came over as interesting in comparison to the views expressed by western media.  I suspect their radio stations are better these days, at least the newsreaders will not have rumbling stomachs like the Romanians and Bulgarians used to suffer!  Some US local news stations, the type named after leftover 'Scrabble' letters, offer five minutes of screeching adverts followed by one minute of extremely fast 'news,' then it returns to the ads.  I heard several like this, mostly in New York and the like, and wondered what the point was?  If you cannot make out the words because the speech is so fast and the majority of the hour is adverts i have to ask why bother?  Better US stations always begin by asking you for money, something you cannot do in the UK.  It would never work!   

Radio 4 is filled as you know with Middle aged, Middle class females telling us their many problems, which reflects greatly on the women who arrive on here, they always appear so normal so why does the Beeb look for this particular hung up type I ask?  However in amongst this we can find a great many decent programmes, especially if we use the 'Programmes A-Z bit.  I often do this and the documentaries on radio have as you know better pictures than those on the telly.  History is very well covered alongside a wide variety of topics, I particularly like those many short 15 minute programmes that have appeared in recent years.   This week I discovered the story of a female Chinese Emperor, some things about Henry VIII and a tale regarding H.V. Morton the travel writer.  Some are available for a week only, others hang around for a year! Radio 4 Extra and the Factual stations also offer past titles, 'Extra' dealing in Comedy where I find 'Hancock' and 'The Goons,' regularly offered.  All such making a change from the drivel that fills the majority of daytime TV and Radio. So many radio channels offer nothing but music, and usually at a time when I wish to hear something spoken.  It is most irritating that these people do not appear to cater for me specifically which is disappointing, although the web now makes a better choice available through searching.

When lying in bed I usually listen to the wireless.  Radio 4 may offer the 'Shipping Forecast,' which can lull one to sleep after the midnight news or wake you gently just after five in the morning.  Many non sailors are keen to see how 'Forties,' or 'Cromarty,' will do today.  "Easterly 5,  Moderate, Rain, Poor," are just the words required to delight or terrify those who go down to the sea in ships.  Usually we struggle to comprehend what they mean but the chaps in small craft, fishing boats and the light still listen in spite of all their modern equipment so it clearly serves a purpose still.  Alvar Lidell was a famous BBC announcer who spoke the Kings English properly as you should, he I think it was, would end the shipping forecast with "Good fishing gentlemen," or some such phrase, as in those days vast numbers of trawlers worked the seas. Such niceties are less common today, as indeed are the fishing boats. Often I switch this off and turn to 'TalkSport.'  As the laptop cannot offer this it means the radio, or is that a wireless I wonder?  This station offers 'Sport,' usually football with occasional other things thrown in at quiet times.  Owned by that nice Rupert Murdoch I find that whenever I switch it on the adverts are running. The adverts, always loud and bolshie and often with an English working class voice' to sell it to the people, take up so much space because it means the presenters don't have more time to fill I suspect.  After the ads come the ads for the stations programmes themselves in the usual Murdoch loud and empty boastful manner.  The major topic is always the top four football sides, the rest not counting to hacks, and the main story of the day, whether real or imaginary, will be discussed in urgent fashion for hours, long after those involved have forgotten it.  'White van man' is a regular contributor, calling from his mobile phone on an unintelligible line at three in the morning to make his point concerning a player or club.  His knowledge is lacking, he clearly knows nothing, and yet he makes more sense than the presenters, possibly because the line keeps going down!

Cultural folks like you and me will turn to the BBC iPlayer and search BBC 3's site where music abundant is found as well as sensible (?) programmes on the Arts.  My favourite is 'The Essay,' where fifteen minute programmes discuss various subjects.  The Anglo Saxons offered many worthy fifteen minutes which I enjoyed thoroughly, most are still available and well worth a listen.  Since this quality station has so few listeners, it has a certain (deserved) snob approach to classical music and life in general, many despise it, however again a little digging brings success.  One day I hope to hear my clever musical niece playing in an orchestra here.   She is playing a part in Messiaen - Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum, making a noise on Tubular bells I believe.  At least I hope that is the same thing that she is involved with, they all sound the same to me I sometimes get confused by the foreign names.  

I would bore you with more but instead I am off to bed to listen to a variety of foreign stations in an attempt to find something I like.  


.

Listening to the Football Tonight.

Morning Radio News Programmes

It has long been known that TV 'News' programmes in the early morning are rarely 'News' led.   Any passing film/pop/soap star can fill in the time, along with bulimic girlies and women with a grudge.  A major conflict/disaster may well get a few minutes notice now and again but the majority of the viewers would rather 'pap' was to the fore.  For some getting the kids out the door, preparing for work, and keeping toddlers occupied while the others are taken care off means attention for important subjects is somewhat limited.  Therefore items that do not require much concentration are what appears to be popular.  The TV on offer early mornings in the UK is full of 'pap' and some say popular.

Therefore news has to be found via the wireless!  Until recently this was happily achieved in this region via the medium wave where the BBC World Service was available.  The news was off a high standard, reports from trouble spots ignored by national media, top quality journalists, and well run programmes offered.  Sadly the austerity offered by this useless coalition has led to cuts in the BBC.  Naturally while back offices full of those efficient in office politics keep their jobs, and high salaries, the front line service e.g. programmes, suffer.  Recently the medium wave service closed down leaving only those online able to catch the World Service.  Then the powers that be shrunk the service so much that a radical, and shockingly poor, new early morning offering appeared.  This BBC World Service programme was based on their African coverage, the excuse being that 70% of listeners are African!  Oh yeah?   The new programme goes under the name 'Daybreak,' is based in Johannesburg, South Africa, has an irritating, yet constant, silly drumbeat repeated endlessly, childlike presenters and only comes alive when the 'actual' World Service journalists appear.  It has become almost impossible to listen to this programme.  No doubt in Africa these folks are popular, I am not African and expect a London based BBC to broadcast with occasional African coverage as part of this, not the other way around.  It sounds what it look like, cheap programming!  This is more an African 5Live than proper journalism!

BBC 5Live of course broadcasts throughout the UK, a trendy female led station.  Intended at fiorst for football coverage women whined as they do about 'men,' and the day is filled with second rate girlies in jobs they should not have.  A feeble offering aimed at teens and 20's, and is poor at most times when football is not mentioned.  It is time this was changed into a BBC 'Talksport.'

I need not waste time on BBC Scotland's puerile Glasgow based offering, and find the only radio news left is found on Radio 4.  The 'Today' programme is seen as leading in the news category  except when the Conservatives object to it being 'left leaning,' a phrase often used when one of their people is caught out.  Yet this contains the token woman Sarah Montague, given a job simply for being female, an ageing John Humphreys, a man excellent at calling senior parliamentarians to account but all to often just happy to find fault where there is none.  James Naughtie (pronounced Naughtie) is famed for mispronouncing James Hunt's name, discussing literature and opera, and offering three forty five minute programmes on the bible yet managing to avoid any reference to God while doing so, very BBC!  The other two are just a waste of time and space.  What ought to be a serious journalistic offering becomes all to often a tabloid paper.  Small mindedness when no story is available, adverts for later programmes and an amazing amount of trivia concerning new books or films.  

Each morning I wish to be informed and find less serious news available each day.  Yet while the Israel problem has been well reported almost nothing has been mentioned until now concerning the Congo.  Some five million people have died in the long lasting conflict there, yet it is almost unheard off, why?  A wee girl banned from school for breaking rules about hair or trousers get more attention!  Football results, while important, will always mean more coverage than that given to a few thousand deaths.  Who mentions 'Darfur' today?  Do you recall the deaths there?

I do not want bad news constantly, just serious reporting, journalism if you like, and the main channels appear to offer this less than blogs and specialist news agencies do today.  The web is taking over the news.

Daily Mail

Kweku Adoboli, working in the City of London as a dealer in the money markets, managed to lose his company around £1.4 billion.  It is claimed at one point his losses were around £7.5 billion, but he managed to reclaim this.  Had he not done so the Swiss Bank which employed him, UBS, may well have gone bust.  He was found guilty of fraud and jailed for seven years.

The thought crossed my mind that robbing a bank gets longer sentences than murder these days.  Stick a knife in someone and walk the streets in six months.  Batter someone unconscious and get a banning order but rob lots of money and go down for a long time!  A bank that robs the public, or fails to return the 'bail out' cash will lead to knighthoods for those at the top, alongside million pound payouts.  Hmmm something wrong somewhere.  Just saying....

.

Propaganda

Seattle Times

We believe what we read!

We live in a modern world with a ‘free press,’ and a host of communication systems.  We have several television stations offering news, sometimes 24 hours a day, many news radio stations, and newspapers in hand or online.  We can surf the net for independent thought regarding every happening of the day, foreign newspapers and media, bloggers, books, photographs, videos and live streams of events far and near.  All these allow us to reach independent opinions on the world’s events, but we still fall for ‘propaganda!’

We accept without deep thought anything put in front of us.  The majority in the UK watch the BBC for news, or scan a tabloid paper.  While the BBC and other TV and radio news agencies may have quality journalists among them this does not remove the inherent bias, and the news placed in front of us must be the choice of each editor, and editors follow the party line as much as the next man.  The Leveson whitewash inquiry has shown, as if we did not know, how one man's opinion is found throughout his newpapers.  An important world story, say regarding the present Syrian situation, might be considered an important world event but may pushed further down the agenda because a member of the royal family has fallen down stairs or a famous actor has died!  Millions, mostly women, would rather hear of ‘Kate’ wearing a new dress than a thousand Arabs having their throat cut.  News from a ‘far away country of which we know nothing’ is less important than Lady Gaga being banned from Malaya!  This is something the tabloids have always known.  The fake front page of any downmarket tabloid reads, “LADY GAGA STRIPS OFF,” and “FOOTBALLER CHARGED, ” while lower down in small letters, “World War III breaks out, see page 5.”  A remarkable example of this occurred in the small town of Bishops Stortford some years ago.  At a time when Glenn Hoddle was famously known to be manager of the England football team he was mentioned in the local paper as “Glen Hoddle, who used to own a sports shop in the High Street…..”  Local news is always more important than anything else.

The point is that while much presented is factual the choice of what we are shown is indeed limited to that which suits the media.  This gives us an overall impression of how they wish us to see the world, and this is not always to our advantage.  The ‘spirit of the age’ is both reflected and encouraged by the media.  Propaganda comes from news, drama, comedy on TV and radio as well as from news programme.  While they claim this media reflects society it also drives that society.  The 'Eastenders' show has gone worldwide teaching the generations watching that shouting abuse, immorality, hurting people and never smiling is normal.  While it may be the case in some areas it has never been the world in which I dwell.  And the 'East End' today is mostly full of Bangladesh types, and this is never shown, I wonder why?  The opinions of the media form propaganda and we let them without question offer it to us. 


During the Great War the papers were the only news media and the sole means of informing the nation of the progress of the war.  The press barons worked ceaselessly, to their own advantage, to support the nation by offering the propaganda that began with the war cabinet.  Writers tirelessly informed the nation to enlist and serve, and question those who don’t.  Many writers spent a great deal of their time writing in the American press in a desperate struggle to gain support, the French and Germans doing likewise.  It was one of these men, H.G.Wells, who came up with the phrase ‘The war to end wars.’  A notable but nonsensical phrase which has stuck in our minds to our detriment ever since. Much quoted it represents nothing about how the war was viewed at the time, but propaganda at its best keeps the phrase alive.  Lies and half truths stay with us, probably because we wish them to stay as we wish them to be true; even though we are well aware they are absurd.  Famously Lord Beaverbrook produced the ‘John Bull’ magazine.  This was well named as it was full of ‘Bull,’ while intended to inspire the men in their cause and stir the nation to work for victory it was detested by the men as it bore no relation to the war they knew.  On a trip to the ‘front,’ the press baron himself was photographed looking over a trench.  The noble Lord claimed to have “Been at the front line,” and “Looked over the top.”  Beaverbrook was in fact far back in what represented the third line of a quiet area, and even then was afraid to put his head over the top when encouraged to do so by the photographer, although this was regarded as quite safe at the time.  He passed an officer and corporal as he took up his position and alas did not hear the corporal ask “Shall I bayonet him now sir?”  Nor did he hear the reply, “No, that’s my job.”  Propaganda does not work among those who see reality.

During world war two the BBC resisted Churchill’s attempts to turn it into a propaganda machine.  Lord Reith had served in the trenches and was keen to ensure a fair and balanced news service.  While it served the war effort in many ways it refused, and still refuses, to be a government mouthpiece.  This brings many attacks from the government of the day, especially when the faults are paraded and policy questioned.  The BBC ended the war with much respect worldwide for the honesty it offered.  Many Germans soldiers have reported listening to the BBC reports in an effort to understand how things stood.  The had learned early not to believe their own radio.   The dictator must always control the TV and radio, and in the world today struggles to dominate the internet.  


However the ‘spirit of the age’ permeates the BBC.  The programmes are full of today’s opinions and these are often following fashion rather than a cross section of public opinion.  Several themes are seen to be offered at all times.  A ‘liberal’ view of the world is taken for granted; this is not surprising as media people tend to be liberal, as is the entertainment industry.   Programmes therefore push forward their liberal agenda. For instance, ’Great Lives,’ once an interesting programme on ‘great lives,’ now appears to be concerned only with homosexuals and lesbians, either as a ‘great’ or someone choosing to offer such an individual as ‘great.’  Maybe ‘Gay Lives’ would be a better name for this show, a preferable name to the well known gayboy presenter, and one time Tory Member of Parliament, Matthew Parris.

A more blatant attempt at propaganda has failed, yet still continues in Scotland.  The Glasgow football media during the last year have gone out of their way to indicate a man called Craig Whyte is responsible for all the problems at Rangers football club.  They have deliberately ignored Sir David Murray, the man responsible for the mess, while doing this.  To their shame all Scotland knows the situation yet the press persist in lying barefaced about it.  This as we know is because there are more Rangers folk buying the nonsense than anyone else.  Propaganda or sheer greed, you decide!  The media today is desperate to survive, newspapers are dying everywhere as the internet and TV/Radio speed the news direct into our homes.  What matters now is what sells and meaningless celebrities such as Gaga and Beckham sell more papers than a North Korean bomb falling on Seoul.  In my humble view dropping a North Korean bomb on Beckham or Gaga would cause me to rush out of the house to buy every paper that wrote about it, if only!   There is some suggestion at the moment that doctors may strike over the attacks on their pensions, I recall the ancillary workers striking in 1979 and the media propaganda of the day.  The press became full of wild headlines about people dying and patient suffering because of this strike.  A while later the junior doctors also struck, the media was then filled with many reassurances regarding the safety of patients!  Maybe patients were safer under the porters and cleaners?

We accept at face value what is written all too often.  Fear, disinterest, self concern, all leave us with a lack of appreciation of what is happening to the world around.  In 1914 Europe followed the imperialist, nationalistic spirit that arose during the late nineteenth century and that collapsed with the Great War.   We still follow what we are told by the world around us without thinking deeply about what they say.  Who informs us about the world?  What is their personal agenda, or that of their employer?  What are they NOT telling us about?  What is deliberately hidden by the reporter or the authorities.  How free and independent can an individual journalist actually be?  The political developments in Europe are beyond us, so we ignore them, the moral changes about us are ‘none of our business,’ and 'each to his own,' so we carry on regardless,  we are surely sleepwalking into the future accepting so much of what we are told, as if those who speak to us are trustworthy!  How many of us can perceive the world as she really is?  Do we care?        


.

Another Dreich Day

Free Foto

How lovely!  The farmers will be pleased!  No muttering that there is insufficient rainfall so far this year as it has teemed down all day!  The holes in my shoes decided me to stay in and fill out yet another application form, in black ink, and be depressed afterwards knowing that two first class stamps have been wasted on the attempt.  This attempt dulled the mind, ideal time to make a huge pot of mince I thought, mince being reminiscent of the inside of my head after lying, in black ink, for so long.  I decided to wash the black ink of my hand before I did this however, fountain pens enable me to write a tad clearer but not sufficiently for them to read and understand anything written there I suspect.  Using a keyboard for so long has enabled my once tidy writing to become a scrawl.  Sometimes I have to pop into the chemist to interpret what I have written!  This weather is mild in comparison to some winters, and much better than up north in (almost) Independent Scotland.  I read an interview with the great Alan Gilzean, once Dundee then Spurs and  Scotland's centre forward.  He came from Couper Angus near Dundee and returned there to receive the adulation of the fans and was happy to go back home to Weston Super Mare in the English south west. The weather was too windy and cold for the 73 years old when he was there, and I can understand this.  I was made to live somewhere warm, I think I will look up 'Jobs for Idiots' in the Arabian Gulf.  I can suffer 100 degrees quite easily!  In the early 70's my brother was stationed out that way. he returned to Edinburgh one January day when snow lay on the ground and the temperature was about 6 below freezing.  He was not happy having left 105 in the shade behind!    

This afternoon, in between wondering where my life went wrong, I came across this Jazz Radio outfit. There are several stations, if that is the word, and I have been indulging in the Paris Cafe for a while.  Jazz was to me just several men playing different tunes at the same time once, but not now!  I have learned that they are all playing the same tune, it's just a bit mixed up that's all!  Try it you music lovers Jazz Radio

.

Trash!

Trash! I'm sick of trash! Everywhere I look the world is full of it! I sit through thirty minutes of the pretence that is Prime Ministers Question TIme, watching the stooges play out their game with no thought for the public. What matters to them is point scoring and discussing with their aids how to improve the image, while doing little about the subjects involved. It's all a game for the cameras and worthless for the nation. Power is to be grabbed, as it always has been, but at the present time it is being fought over by people empty of a belief system other than 'ME!' I turn over to the other side and find an antiques programme, one of many that fill the screen daily. While 'Bargain Hunt' may well be one of the few worth watching it sits amongst the dumbed down morning telly that fills the screen. Turning to ITV I find worse! 'Loose Women!'  Good grief! This programme has for several years now featured ageing women all dressed up and with nowhere to go, and no wonder! Talk is all about themselves, men, themselves and, well, men!  The limited world knowledge is at variance with the number of years these crones have spent in it. Trash indeed yet it appears five days a week! Then we have the cooks. Every channel requires its cookery show, all with a 'celebrity' who nobody knows. Add the desperate need for 'competition' into every programme and we have the 9 year old level satisfied.Just why there is such a need to find out who will be first I do not know, but it is everywhere these days. Trash!  There is around forty channels available to some in this country and almost 95% of what is on offer is trash!  I can understand having such programmes as part of a daily offering but  they are the predominate type.

I turn to the 'Independent' newspaper for news. I find 'Fergie' the 'Duchess of York' living on her title on yet another American TV programme telling us how hard her life is. Apart from the fact she is a chancer on the make, apart from the fact that Oprah is worse, apart from the vast amount of cash she gets for appearing I have to ask why this occurrence is in the press? A so called 'serious' newspaper needs such stories? Surely this belongs in the 'Express' or the 'Mail?'  News is not selling, possibly because of radio and TV's 24 hour a day coverage, however it leaves much space for deep thought which is not found in TV and rarely in radio these days. Thought ought to be found in such papers yet the 'celebrity' is what is selling instead. Trash! The 'entertainment' business is full of trash. Whatever film, whatever special effects are used, in the end it is a man in a white hat beating a man in a black hat, with sex added. TV is full of soaps and dramas that are just soaps. The media is empty and bereft for the most part  and I am heartily sick of it all!

Getting old is no fun when you see what is good drowned out by trash!

.

Radio Voices

.

Listening to the radio you can tell much about the person speaking. You can recognise their class, if they possess any, their age is often easy to guess and it is possible to even tell their colour and nationality to some extent from their voice. However the picture of the person that comes to mind is never that which exists. When I was a lad, in the days of the BBC Home Service, the early morning news programme 'Today' was led by one Jack De Manio, a man famous in his day, usually for giving out the wrong time and various other gaffes! This highly popular presenter led this programme single handed from 1958 until 1970 when he was joined by a fellow presenter, soon after he left as the situation did not suit him and presented 'Jack de Manio Precisely on Radio 4 in the afternoons.  Although I heard his voice on many occasions as I stuffed toast in my big mouth preparing for the long trek to school and another day of ghastly misery I had an image of this man in my head. One day, much to my shock, I came across a picture of him and discovered he was nothing at all like the image my mind had offered me! Now, a short time since those days, I can no longer remember what my original image happened to be but it was nothing like the man himself. It is strange how we can identify so much about a speaker on the wireless but no matter how much information we gather we cannot tell what they actually look like, they never fit our image of them. Many benefit from this of course, and there are numerous folks who have the face fit for radio walking the streets today.

I popped into the library to get warm some education this afternoon and was seated near a heater browsing a book concerning photojournalism. However not far away there was a line of PC's, all occupied, and one twenty something male was willing to share his music at an annoying level. Had this actually been music it might have been tolerable, however the refrain 'Please stand up,' repeated constantly at various levels was, in my humble view (and humble is the word I am assured), unsuitable for a library. Moving along past the medical problems, masses of books lying to people about how easy it is to repair a car, or create your own business, I was enlightened by two schoolgirls gossiping about boyfriends in the library to study but doing so quite loudly, and I began to wonder why they no longer have signs saying 'SILENCE SOME FOLKS ARE READING YOU IGNORANT LOUTS!' like we used to do? Noise appears to be OK in such places now and this has been made worse by two things, one is the daft idea of closing 'reference libraries' where proper study was possible, and the other the modern design of new buildings which allow all noise to circulate. Our building has a children's library with no doors thus allowing the screaming brats to entertain everybody no matter how far way they are. Considering many events for the kiddies are held there and those deeply studying advanced maths, literary composition or pictures of nudes nature in photographic books find themselves repeating 'Mrs Tiddlywinks went to market' instead of something more useful. Libraries, like most of society, has no consideration for others these days. The purpose of the library, to educate and enlighten, appears these days to be to provide a service for those who wish to read the papers for free, dodge school or keep warm gossip away from schoolfriends. Sorry, but I wish the old days were back. 

.

Army Cuts

I must say the cuts in the British Army do go quite deep. While we are dragged into Afghanistan to fight Americas wars for them I suggest they ought to be paying for the equipment used there. Look closely and see just what 'our boys' are being forced to 'make do' with against a force armed with rocket propelled grenades and Kalashnikovs! It's a disgrace!



I came across Radio Set the other day. It plays Gregorian Chant 24 hours a day, daily.
Gregorian Chant is, and I quote their blurb :-

"Plainsong with melodic contours which are closely tied to the spoken rhythms and inflections of the text. Introduced in the liturgy by pope Gregory I (540-604), this strictly calm and soothing music spread throughout Europe having today hundreds of melodies known."

Calming, enjoyable, emotive and well worth a listen, if those around you will hold their wheesht!
Click this link RADIO SET and enjoy!

(One point, it is VERY slow to load, and there are long Radio 3 type pauses in between tracks.)



Have I posted this before? Taken from south of the Thames some years ago, heading out east through what once were bustling dockyards full of poorly paid dockers nicking everything they could get their hands on! My first job at the whisky bond in Leith brought me in contact with lorry drivers who often took our whisky to these docks for expert. Men used to the rough side of the docks yet few of them enjoyed a trip here. Glasgow, and worse Liverpool were bad, but they disliked London docks greatly. Today however the ex dockers speak of it as if this place was somewhat romantic! Indeed the pay and conditions were poor, but the people were no saints!

This pic was taken in a refurbished area and the sculpted cat caught my eye. This is art I thought, but this will win few prizes! Mind you, some lout has probably broken it and chucked it in the water by now!

I'm Bored!

I'm bored! It's Friday night and I am bored!

The sun is shining,
The sky is blue,
And I, poor soul
Have nothing to do!

Not only that but there is no money to do anything. There is no car, so I cannot go anywhere, there are no friends (bet that surprises you?) to call, no one to annoy visit, and the family are too far away and too busy boring each other anyway! So I am left alone, and bored.

I have no energy, mental or physical today so I cannot be bothered thinking of anything bright, clever, worthwhile or grumbling. Even playing 'Techtris' means little, while reading anything more than simple sentences wears me out. Even watching 'Top Gear' makes me boak as the cars go too fast, although that is normal to be honest. Every time I turn this programme on, and it is always on with 'Dave TV,' there are screeching tyres and clouds of tyre smoke. Why? If you have seen one grossly overpriced car racing along at 150 m.p.h. you have seen them all, yet each week they wax lyrical about something costing £200,000 and expect to get plaudits for it! Not from me pal! Maybe it's because I am no longer 20 years old, or maybe it's because I don't have a small willie (I'm excused shorts girls!) or maybe I have seen too many men trundling past my window in cars they obtained for the image not the usefulness, and here I omit the one who bought a MacLaren willie extender and then smashed it, and himself, into a tree not far from here. That was £200,000 wasted in my view. Of course the programme has some good bits, and occasionally actually informs and entertains at the same time, although while 'entertaining,' driving a car across the English Channel only informed us of the stupidity of attempting this act in the busiest sea lane in the world! But I digress, I was mentioning my boredom which comes from having no friends, no money, no life, and worse, no football to watch!

It never ceases to amaze me that when there is a (proper) football match to watch I need not be bored! It may be boring (Like watching Hibernian) or it may keep me on the edge of the seat, but at least if it is on I am part of the real world and something of importance is happening around me! I even watched Halifax play some unknown side in the 'Blue Square Premiership' once' and felt alive. Where is Halifax exactly? Television you see, while often offensive, insulting to the intelligence (like 'As Seen on TV' for instance! or 'Mutton Dressed as Lamb' 'Loose Women,') and full of mediocrity can in fact be a window on the world. What would folk trapped indoors all day do without a telly? Especially if they can obtain 'Freeview' or satellite TV.' This really can be a window on the world, although tonight it appears closed as nothing but the brain dead can be happy with the offerings being shown! But where is television heading these days. Video recorders were a great boon, especially when they recorded both the start and finish of the programmes, and DVD's and the new fangled digital stuff (I don't know either) make for new 'opportunities' as the TV folk say. The original idea of one channel (the BBC) was revolutionised with the introduction of ITV in 1957. The world changed at that moment, although we had no telly and all I was concerned about was my cardboard fort and the soldiers fighting over it! With TV available on PCs and in hand held 'iPod' like things, with a billion channels available I wonder where TV will take us? Especially as the Football, the news, and little else will have an IQ of more than 10!

Even the wireless is boring tonight. At the moment Radio 4, the middle class intellectual (they say) channel airs 'Any Questions?' One of these programmes where four people are asked to lie in their teeth if they are MP's, push themselves or their daft ideas on everyone else (If they are not) or as tonight four nobodies which means no-one cares any which way. Radio 1 meanwhile is being ignored by normal people, Radio 2 has 'Friday Night is Music Night,' a programme that was first aired I think when the Luftwaffe were passing overhead. Listening tonight I can assure you they would be welcomed back with open arms if they make an appearance any time soon! Radio 3 (the real intellectual station (I listen)) covers the 'BBC Proms!' They are now in the middle of the interlude so a stimulating talk regarding the Influence of Fascism on Italian music during Mussolini's time is pontificating in a dry fashion. Radio 5Live (can it air when dead?) has some hope as it covers the first match of the English Championship season, and Radio Scotland is playing music, again! When in Edinburgh I was amazed at the number of stations playing music! There appeared to be little attempt at all, except during the News broadcasts and that was very insular, especially if you were from Glasgow! There is a need for sensible talk and that seemed to me to be unobtainable there! It was so bad I had to listen to my sister at one point!

What was I saying? Oh yes, bored! Well I am and if my knees did not ache after my cycle ride today, why is the wind always against you when you head for home I ask, I would wander the streets looking for dropped coins. It is true, the wind is always against the cyclist! Before I leave I look to the sky and if the winds are from the west I head in that direction, however, when I head back the wind is from the east, blowing strongly and full of Siberian promise! Does this happen to others, or are the weather girls still upset at the letters I write them I wonder?

Oh I'm bored with this, as most of you are as you stopped reading long ago. I'm off to put my head in the gas oven!

I've got nothing to say.

Now the nasty folk among you will probably be muttering praises at this moment in time, and one or two will be feeling a slight shock at this news. But I have indeed nothing to say.

I have looked at the world around me, considered the weather, the news, the furniture, the records and all things that ought to be bursting into my mind, and I have found nothing worth posting. I could once again mention my aching knees, caused by the long walk to the far away Tesco's. Quite how I imagine this will aid my fitness regime when I come back aching, worn out and end up with stiff knees for days, I do not know but there it is. The walk in the sun, with the passing clouds lowering the temperature needlessly, was indeed enjoyable. The pathway past the old oak trees especially jolly when the birds are gathered in the branches singing away. I stood and attempted to find one such which had a particularly lovely song today, but when I stood still he shut up, and once I moved on he began again, spoilsport. The bird at the checkout didn't give the impression she ever sang sweetly that's for sure.

However you don't want to know about my knees and would rather read something of importance, something interesting, and something humorous. Looks therefore like you are dwelling in a world of fantasy folks. I suppose I could discuss my habit of taping radio programmes and playing them back to myself when I attempt to enter slumberland. This is a habit I started many years ago and remains with me today. So many radio progs are broadcast at the wrong time. The idea, especially on Radio 4, appears to be that folk can stop work whenever they wish and listen in. This is not so! It may be for the middle aged, middle class females who have never worked in their lives, yet spend all day on the radio telling us about their hardship (and earning vast sums of cash while doing so) but it is not like that for normal folk, like me! Anyway, I am going through a few that have been used but I have not heard, usually because I fell asleep and missed the lot! I am amazed at some of the subjects covered by the radio. Politics, Army spies in the days of the Cold War, humour made out of quotes, humour from silly games, the Black Death alone gave me five fifteen minute programmes that was very enjoyable, although I would not like to pass it on as it were. I have a few still to listen too but who knows what I have taped there, especially as my memory is so bad I forget what I have just written sometimes,especially as my memory is so bad I forget what I have just written sometimes.

So having nothing to say I will wander off and consider cleaning that cupboard under the sink. I usually make a point of cleaning this every five or six years and judging by the pong that time may soon be up. This will help my knees readjust, the smell to ease, the neighbours to stop complaining, and will stop me looking up jobs on the web as I will not have time before I eat some foul tasting evening meal. I cannot guarantee this will be foul tasting but going on previous experience I think it's a sure bet.

I remember now that I was going to comment on my time in 'The Goblet.' You see I had this dream I was back there, sitting in my usual seat opposite the bar, with Gordon Brown and his mates in the seat immediately to the left of the door. Naturally we did not realise that Gordon Brown was Gordon Brown in those days, when there he was just one of 'those student types.' However there he certainly attended and when the pubs closed at ten, as they did then, he would wander back to his shared flat at type away till all hours working himself into a future. His mates just worked themselves onto the floor. At the appropriate time I will drop him a note and let him know I still have the photographs. If that is not worth a lifetimes tax refund I don't know what is! Drop me a line Gordon pal. However I will not mention this as the dream started well and appeared to be going fabulously especially when Lady Muck and her daughter wandered in. There immediately was a lightening of the atmosphere, a brightening in every ones eye and a lifting all round of spirits, although that was quite common in that place, being a pub and all. Just then a fat ageing bloke wandered in also, he looked the type we need in such places as he wore a stained Heart of Midlothian polo shirt, a Hearts scarf round his neck, and carried a bundle of books which he offered for sale at an 'advantageous price,' or so he said. Looking at the bright young things he cried 'Drinks all round' and the two molls immediately rushed to his side, along with all the contents of the hostelry. Pints were pulled, whiskies were poured and the glamour girls beamed happily. 'That will be £478 please,' muttered the barmaid, 'Who's paying?' 'Adullamite is,' muttered Mike from the middle of a pint glass.
I then woke up in a very cold sweat.

Therefore I am not going to mention this dream as it has made me weak at my aching knees........

It's Driving me to Drink!

Every time I switch a radio or TV on I find adverts!
Now I have turned the thing on for the football and they go off for 'a break.' ITV spend more time on 'Breaks' than they do football. In the few minutes the programme has run nothing sensible has been said, and what was was uttered at pace because a 'break' was coming up!

I put 'Talksport' on this morning, a Rupert Murdoch station which gives us all the intellect a fan of Jeremy Kyle requires, and was confronted by adverts. Adverts which assume you are male, white, drink too much, waste money on the horses and are a 'white van driver!' I tuned into the World Service of the BBC because it gives good news coverage, and it was some boring science talk. I returned to 'Talksport' and it was still adverts, so I went to Radio 5. Here they were, once again, droning on about the house price situation. Off to Radio 4 - House prices, on to Radio 3 and it was opera! I went back to 'Talksport' and found they had another break!

Liverpool and Chelsea have just walked out onto the pitch. ITV have gone off for adverts! I think I need 'textspeak' for what I want to say now.......

And I don't have a bottle of 'Black Bottle.' Just Tesco's 17p fizzy water.
Rejoice rejoice.....

Radio

I have discovered one of the joys of the Internet, the 'Listen Again' feature of BBC Radio. Not only do we find old comedies, like 'Hancock' and the 'Goons' on 'Radio 7,' but the same feature on 'Radio 4' is very useful also. The programmes only last for a week or so usually, but I have spent an inordinate amount of time listening today for enjoyable stuff. Much better than having to ensure you set the timer on the recorder, oh yes, I believe in cassettes myself, but programmes I would not listen out for I can pick and choose. Great stuff I say. Late at night when sitting here pretending I can spell I listen into say, 'Late Junction' on 'Radio 3.' Their strange collection of sounds fit well at night or when a relaxing background is needed - well usually! They do have some, er, 'eclectic' noises also.

Web Radio is a great idea. I find I listen into CHRI from Ottawa quite often, and that is a good station I must say. It is interesting to hear the news from another country's point of view. There is a world out there worth shoving our nose into. Of course it helps if they speak an understandable language, like English or Scots, and it is even more helpful if the link works. Some fail, and some are difficult to find on their web pages.

In days of yore I used to spend a lot of time listening to short wave radio from Eastern Europe. Once communism fell I also fell, out of the habit of tuning in. Most of the stations underwent a tremendous change of course, as did the news they reported. I always thought The East German radio from Berlin was worth a listen, as was the couple from Bulgaria (or was it Romania?) who attempted a routine similar to that seen on countless mediocre TV and Radio stations in the west. One would read one line, always scripted, and in a staccato, manner the other would respond. It was all so badly done, and they tried their best, mind you, if they were in Romania they would have to try their best, or else! their stations may still broadcast in English, but I wonder if they have improved their technique?
One day I will seek if they are available online in English.

Sunday, A Day For Seeking God

At least that was the idea. It seemed good at the time! So when I woke this morning, for the second time, I noticed there was a mist outside. Not much point in having one inside I suppose, anyway, I decided that fitness was important and climbed on the rusting bike with my rusting body and headed for the old railway line. The intention was that I would stop at places, contemplate God as I looked at the country around, take a photo or two of misty scenes,and plod home to continue the seeking. naturally the place was busy. Not 'High Street' busy, but plenty of folks walking their dogs, jogging or just wandering up to the village for whatever purpose. Not much chance of a meditation here. The one time I stopped, as I puffed up the incline the steam trains of the past never noticed, it took seconds for folk to appear in the distance. Hey ho.

So it was back home in due course, and meditate in the bath. Well, doze was more like it as the exercise had failed to stimulate the mental capacities that once resided in the cranium. It took only a short while to decide that protein was required. Salmon and assorted fruits and veg saw to that, and it helped. The theory that a good breakfast is required to survive the day is clearly correct. if there is time of course....

However, by tuning into Premier Radio, http://www.premier.org.uk/Index.cfm?bhcp=1
and listening to the noon worship time life changed. While I was struggling to read the book, and finding my head filled with despair at my unbelief and lack of God there the presenter read a psalm that meant a lot to me. Don't ask which one as I forget, but the words spoke of Gods care and I was lifted suddenly out of the pit! As the bland inconsequential praise so loved of Premier continued, I found myself crying out to God as I had once before in the distant past! Emotion or Spirit? I do not know or care, but this has carried me through the day.

I wandered out later and accidentally came across Sunday football in the park. As the rain slanted sown and the adolescent players struggled with the hill and weather, I found myself just enjoying the rain and the game. I took this as from God and stood happily in the rain for a good while before deciding prayer was what I was supposed to be doing. Back home I read while listening to Premier. Tiring of the blandness of the music I searched out other Internet radio stations and found one in Ottawa playing worship music with a bit more bite. CHRI FM is worth a listen. http://www.chri.ca/chri2/viewpage.php?pageid=67
It done me a lot of good today. I found one or two others that had good thumping music, but this made reading while listening easier.


I find myself tonight wondering where I am after today. Am I nearer God? Have I given myself through the cross? Am I letting him in? I am loner, I always want to be in control and have always resisted letting go, am I nearer that, and have I done enough? Lord please say.
Whatever, today has had many positives. I am glad for it.