Rudi

Cold Night - You Me At Six

Ah Leah - Donnie Iris

Still well overweight. Exercise is essential but difficult. I take dancing lessons at the moment. Have done for about a year now. When I started the instructor asked if I was a musician; which impressed me a lot! Dancing is complicated and an ongoing struggle to remember all these steps. I fail most of the time but I'm still trying. I also took up badminton at the suggestion of my son Ben. Only once a week though. Then it transpired that they break during the summer months. So not enough badminton going on! To make matters worse I am now working a complex shift pattern that means I can only get to half of the remaining sessions. This is also going to affect the dance classes next year. I used to do karate training. I did it for 15 years and loved it. I eventually stopped because I had so much time out with injuries. I knew that age was taking its toll & that I needed to start taking it easier, but I just couldn't do it. I stopped training 16 years ago. I wondered maybe if I could take it easier now? So I phoned up my old Karate instructor yesterday and had a wonderful conversation with him. He's a older than I am and has seen people stop & resume training a lot through the years. My absence is not the longest by far, and his oldest club member is in his 80s. He also told me an incredible story about himself. First of all its important to understand that he is the longest serving indigenous karateka in the whole of the uk; meaning he has been training longer than any other Brit. He started in the 60s, and is now an 8th Dan. For more than 50 years he has presided over many thousands of gradings, from white belts up to senior black belts. Its not always realised that when someone of his seniority advances in Dan grade, that its 'awarded' by his peers. This is simply to maintain the 'gap' between all those others continually rising in the ranks below them. There is nothing wrong with this. Its how things are done. However, when he started his own organisation recently, his peers were no longer there & he was not altogether comfortable with his status of 8th Dan. So he decided to undergo a grading himself to ratify his rank. But who is senior enough to grade him? He decided to seek such people out. After some time he eventually he arranged his grading with a panel of senior karateka headed by a Japanese Sensie in Bulgaria. He had never met any of them before. Always one to consider his students, took a bunch of those with him also, so they could benefit from training with different people. So he arranged the trip. The airport run, the flights, transport to the hotel in Bulgaria etc. They duly arrived the day before his grading was to commence. However, on arriving at the hotel, his name was being called in the lobby. He was approached by an envoy of the Karate Sensies and politely told that he must accompany him to attend his grading. He was given 10 minutes to be ready. He tried to explain that the grading was scheduled for the following day, but the delegate was adamant that he attend 'now'. So my teacher had been up and traveling for 24 hours. He hadn't had a shave, a shower, eaten properly, nor had any rest. Now he was being conveyed to the dojo for his grading. I dont know what he had to do during this session (and its not good etiquette to ask!) but it will have been thorough and extensive. Whatever transpired, he achieved his objective and his 8th Dan was endorsed by the Sensies he had sought out. I was not at all surprised to learn that the sudden 'change of plan' and haste was in fact part of his grading and evaluation. They knew well enough his time of arrival and deliberately surprised him in that way. That's karate for ya! Anyway, I start back karate training tomorrow morning (just as well I'm not grading eh?).

I wish I knew. No idea unfortunately!

Diamond : Beryl

Everything is gonna be alright - Beryl Marsden

Informative. I knew nothing of this!

Round 'Bout Midnight - Anthony Braxton

Money Money - Grateful Dead

Lucky Man - Sean Hayes

Hi Richard, Teek, Yes this was done here before a long time back. At that time the lyrics looked like a patchwork quilt made from silk, sackcloth, polyester and leather. Its certainly worth a go though. Perhaps agreeing to a rhyming pattern or verse length would be useful too.

Handful of Glass - Chris Koza

Hesitation Blues - Rev Gary Davis

Big Eyes Beans From Venus - Capt Beefheart & the Magic Band I had to add this quote from the YouTube comments "When I saw them play the long lunar note in the Tower Theater a fuse must have blown out cause everything on stage went dead-for about 15 minutes. When they got the electric back on and began again, they picked it up precisely at the long lunar note. And the whole place went wild. " Richard Wohl What's the long lunar note? You have to listen to the song.

Hi Teek, twitter = babble, prattle, or otherwise talk ceaselessly and without good cause. The Albums were CDs from Amazon Uk.

On Tuesday, I went to Mazak in Worcester in the West Midlands on a work trip. My friend and colleague Danny drove. In the back were the the office interns; three young ladies (girlies to us) who witter & giggle constantly. We felt lucky to be going in a Merc S series hire car for the 280 mile round trip. The radio was on most of the time. On the return journey a pop-rock tune was being played at one point. Towards the end of the tune, an unusual change occurred. It sounded as if two chords were overlaid. In addition to that, the phrasing was dramatic. It sounded great. The girls had noticed this also, and commented on it immediately (yes they were listening passively despite the chatter). Except to them this was not good. They thought it was horrible. Its good that this piece of music was noticed and commented on at all of course. It kind of 'did its job' IMO. This couple of seconds of remarkable music was the only interesting thing I heard during the entire trip. The girlies are in their early twenties and find acceptable what I regard as bland. I suppose that you have to hear this sort of music for many years before it seems bland to you. I recently bought some albums. All of them old. A Blossom Toes one, four Dr John ones and four Jimmy Giuffre ones. I recall hearing Dr John's 'Gris-Gris' when I was 16. I couldn't handle it. The voice was weird. The music was odd. Now it sounds refreshing and it makes me smile. Even music that I was beginning to appreciate at age 16, I knew would make more sense over time. JS Bach did and Charles Ives did. I know most people dont want to challenge themselves at all musically, but to me its an ongoing process and part of getting older.

I will Take You Home - Ed Sheeran

Mike, I knew about the volume disparity (perhaps from you?). The volume normalization seems like a sensible move. You probably have realised that I will get a Variax soon. I finally got the refund on the Flaxwood. I want to try out the remaining JT models, but will almost certainly get a Standard, based on the one I used at PMT a short while back. Designing a new tone is certainly appealing. I doubt I would try to do as you have and try to recreate an existing sound. I'm not sure what you mean about the volume of your amp. Maybe you dont have the opportunity to use the volume levels to make the simulation complete. Or maybe you literally dont have a powerful enough amp?

Safe in New York City - AC/DC to Hammer & a Spike - God Street Wine

Hammer & a Spike - God St Wine

Moby Grape is low hanging fruit. Better band than the jets though

Yes Tonight Josephine- The Jets

Jammin - Bob Marley

Lyin' Eyes - Eagles