Into "will it or won't it rain like mad weather" and a sky full of billowy clouds I went out and about around the Durham City Words with the family. Miles was driving us and as we came into the village of Shincliffe on the outskirts of Durham City vapour was steaming off the road from a recently passed shower no doubt on its way upwards to meet up with some microscopic particles of dust, be very attracted to them and then a lot more water vapour groups around it and before you know it.......poof ....... you have a cumulus humilis cloud all white and wispy shaped like boxy cotton wool in the sky.

Walking along the banks of the River Wear the smells were like freshly cut grass, aniseed and manure rolled up into one. Gorgeous. The hot and humid weather sprinkled with a lot of rain has brought on a lot of growth with the plants and it was wonderful. Not too warm today because of the strong westerly wind.

Biscuit break took longer than usual because Fiona had to buy a pair of black tights for the upcoming Klara Whiley's Birthday Party do at Butterknowle tonight.  I said to the lads "First thing, your mum will take 20 min just finding them in Tesco's and then it will be another 20 min deciding!". Well it did take 20 min which was quite a laugh. This is one of the reasons I always go with Fiona to do these things if I am there!

Well, we got back travelling through some great views of huge cumulus clouds, congestus actually, I have been reading my cloud book very thoroughly, and it looked like a total rainstorm was coming down but it didn't. Fiona and I had a nice crash out and listen to Joni Mitchell "Blue" and I was amazed at the beautiful introspection of the lyrics as well as the very atypical and spacey melodies that she writes. Wonderful!

I must mention this. This morning I went out early to just leg it around a part of Darlington for some exercise and as I was going up Faverdale Hill this Beagle dog took a dislike to me and came bounding over barking away obviously more bark than bite and as I turned away from it minding my own business it came a bit too close so I leapt around and chased it back to its owner with its tail between its legs. It could run, but I was catching it! A harmless bit of fun but I'm sure next time I see this hound it will be a lot quieter. The owner reckoned it was upset by my rucksack and the umbrella sticking out of the top of it! Personally I just thought it was a dog that had not been trained very well!

A satirical Facebook response to the anti nuke film  "When the Wind Blows".

" Don't you just miss not having a nuclear war. We could have solved all of our energy problems in one nice big glow. Birds would end up on your kitchen table already cooked because they had flown through a hot plutonium cloud. Think of the savings on the electric bill! Lamb ready prepared laying on the hillsides and thoroughly cooked so much, that by time you had eaten it you would probably be dead yourself. And the popping and hissing of the sparkling irradiated water as your mouth blistered, something that Mr Coca-Cola has never quite got yet!

Oh, I miss the Cold War and really wish we had had a Hot War a fair and just war where all the civilians and soldiers on both sides would equally die. Now the threat of nuclear annihilation has gone away life is just too complicated! I much prefer MAD then rather than now : Moaning About Democracy."

 A response to a Facebook post about the effect of language and social action.

"Well, as human beings language mediates everything: the law after all is written. In the beginning was the word no doubt about it because it was the only way we could know there was a beginning or end and a time when we did not have words! However, language  is always secondary to that which was wrong/new in the first place but becomes the means to retrench the e.g. racism or get rid of it or find the words to understand the discovery for example in physics or astronomy. In fact in evolutionary terms actions came before language and this is still the case. Something is seen and then it is explained. But there is a chicken and egg side to this so in a sense it will never be completely known whether actions first language second, language first action second."

" I think what people see and want to see removed/encouraged affects social systems they then start to discuss for or against. . Political correctness as it started off in the US was merely the politicisation of that which should not have been said in the first place because it was derogatory and impolite insofar as any person who was referred to in a way they did not want to be referred to had their wishes overrode. In other words an injustice was being done. In my view political correctness was really a manifestation of frustration and powerlessness over some racist and sexist evils that the US is plagued with."

"Political correctness never really remedied those it just appeared to outwardly but in people's hearts white and black racists still thought "nigger " or "honky" and sexists used their derogatory vocabulary but could not outwardly use it. That's why science and politics can help to remedy these problems but only spirituality and religion can completely remove them because the thoughts are removed. That said I think that for forever there will be some degree of tension between men and women because of the lack of definition of their absolute roles so men and women will always have something to talk about. As we both know!"

"In other words in my doggie brain just talking about something does not affect social systems unless actions embodied in institutions and laws and behaviour follow from it. "

 Posted in response to a Facebook post "Religion was invented when the first conman met the first fool"((Mark Twain) .

"I have said to many youngies and oldies over the years I believe there is no such thing as "free will" inside or outside of religion . Never has been and never will be . Mark Twain believed the same

  "there being no such thing as free will in the composition of any human being that ever lived."(Mark Twain)

In any set of ideas religious or secular it is always worth identifying the constraints which are always there that can lead a person to that which delivers what they want to achieve. Two systems of beliefs, religions and liberalism , the religious and secular, do deliver good stuff for humans to the point that in terms of the results they produce can almost be considered the same thing!

Mark Twain believed in choice by the way."

Gosh, I remember women's groups in the mid-1980s all hairy legs (very nice), baggy dresses, dungarees and seriously strong attitudes towards all sorts of things but particularly men. I only went out with one woman over that period who was a mild women's groups   sort of person and found her very easy to get on with because she knew exactly what she wanted to do or not. 

But in York in the 1980s they were a pretty wild bunch! I used to tread carefully around any of them. And so I should of! This may sound strange but it is an attitude and way of thinking that I have kept to this day and I am positively convinced is one of the main reasons I am still married after nearly 24 years. Some could call it mutual respect between me and my wife, but I really believe that we live in a feminine style age where what women are strong in is what will further the interests of the whole human race and reason and intuition are a better way of doing things than forcefulness and passion , something guys are strong in which is only useful for some things.

This age for me is the Bahai age and for anybody who is religious all religions are going in that direction: a feminine style age of reason and intuition but embodied in institutions to democratically coordinate and manage the affairs for everybody on the planet.

 I wrote this in response to some points raised by one of my Facebook friends Toby Philpott about drugs.

"Eventually no one will want to get high on drugs because all highs are not good for  the health. It is interesting that alcohol consumption is being scientifically probed like smoking tobacco was and in around 20 years most people won't touch the stuff. Drugs will die a death soon after that.

Alcohol consumption is the number one problem around the highs issue on the planet today. I have had interesting discussions with all sorts of people over the years about this . The main beef seems to be, from a particular guy I used to know was, he  could manage drinking so why shouldn't he do it? Good point . Well , there are a very large minority of drinkers who can't and they cause mayhem to themselves and others. Of course now more is known about the deletrious effects of alcohol on health he may not feel the same way now !

Interesting feminist point here : the rise of female emancipation and the temperance movement in 19th century America go together . Even today some of the worst  effects of alcohol are felt by women. All this is quite important because eventually people will give up any sort of high not  just because it may not be good for them but they know for a certainty  that what they are doing as an individual done by others can go on to destroy other peoples lives who do not drink at all!

A world civilization with that level of social consciousness is the one I want to live in. We in the West are going to have to lower our consumption levels eventually because it will be unfair to the rest of the planets peoples if we don't . Same principle and practice as the alcohol and drugs issue."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-18522634

Around 25 years ago I understood the special place of mathematics in kids education and then got our lads into it . A simple proposition : the more maths  you study the higher income you end up with . This is true now as it was then. A ton of US studies show that and class is not a factor at all .

 As I have said to many youngies over the years:  " Its not the maths itself that makes you more intelligent but the way maths is studied which in my view is more like music or even skateboarding practice, the big exception being the problems are more complex and get you thinking very clearly ". The intelligence boost comes through working over the complexity repeatedly until the problem is solved.
 

Well, with Fiona  I had my first view of the first episode of "Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: A Musical Journey " and it was really informative as well as a powerful insight into the start of the blues. I am not sure about the idea that the Blues is the big contribution of black Americans to music because I think it is music that reacted to their oppressive situation and as their situation got better the blues became less relevant to them.

 Jazz on the other hand was not a reaction to the racialism it was a genuine and unique form of music which I personally think had far more influence on the blues rather than the other way round. Of course, improvisation per se was not unique because Bach and Handel did it as well as many other musicians and it has probably been going on as long as man has been making music. But it was never developed as far as it was with jazz.

 Jazz also went on to influence rock and pop music far more than the blues even though a lot of rock and pop is based on the blues although the rhythmic and harmonic content  is more derived from jazz. I don't know if I can be bothered to look this up so-called "academically" because I have a sneaking feeling they might not know what they're talking either! Still, Mr Scorsese's film this evening has certainly got me thinking and the music was great!

So being a glutton for punishment I decided to watch a film after this because I was after some more high culture but my low-down wife who seems hellbent on going even lower wanted to play Bust a Move on the Nintendo DS. I married up and Fiona married down. I have continued to rise up and she has continued to descend. I spent the last two hours having my mind expanded and emotions pulled apart by the film "The Colour Purple" and I must admit it did have me in tears at the end and in some parts as well. I know it is fiction but it struck me that many of the scenarios were indeed true to life. A truly amazing film and I just might read the book although fiction rarely grabs me because I find trying to understand the real world a lot more amazing.

With that sombre feeling that I've just been through an emotional wrangling machine I think I will checkup a few things on the Internet and get myself to bed. Anyway, my current bedtime reading is my new Clouds book and the great thing about Miles driving the car is I can look at the great clouds and use my Clouds book to check them out as we go along. Every cloud has a silver lining!

 A cracking day. Got up early as I always do and did a load of reading of my new book about Clouds as well as reading my American history book for the period 1945 to 1974. Had a good think about what I was doing musically, a lot on my own but not much with people and decided to keep going at it. A fruitful morning of reading, thinking and I had a great discussion with Fiona about what we are doing in life. We are doing quite a lot but we want to do a lot more. Excellent !

Miles was laid up with a cold so Clifford, Fiona and myself had a walk around Durham in the pouring rain which was really good particularly along the riverbank of the River Wear where the smells from the well soaked banks were absolutely tantalising and invited further study. Except it was pouring down with rain and if I got my loupe or binoculars out they would have got soaked. So, we just soldiered on. Biscuit break was in Durham Cathedral sat next to 2 fine West African ladies who kept smiling at us maybe that was because I was smiling at them!

It was quite amazing in Durham City because the Olympic Torch is coming through tonight so the authorities have closed off some of the roads and it was unbelievably and delightfully quiet. I sometimes wish it was like that all the time. On the ride back home we had much talking about the clouds and I did a neat little explanation about how lenticular clouds formed. I really wish I could teach this earth science stuff sometimes because I do enjoy it.

 Had a nice crash out with Fiona listening to Old Ideas by Leonard Cohen, again, I leave it by our bed because I love it so much and listen to it a lot. Turned into a fine old man raver did that guy no doubt about that he just keeps the songs coming. The meatballs are cooking, the tomato sauce is ready and the fresh pasta is just about to go into the boiling hot water. Two episodes of Star Trek are coming up and joy of joys my 11.5 hours of blues documentary came today so Fiona and I are going to listen to the first instalment this evening and my Blues education can begin. A good day.

First impessions of dance/rave/trance musicI don't no what music at; http://freakin.podomatic.com/entry/2011-12-30T09_19_33-08_00 "Wow, got it tonking away at the moment . The repetiton reminds me of a lot of the African music I've listened to but like that stuff there are subtle little changes going on and a couple of passages sounded straight out of Weather Report. Most excellent : obviously a lot of thinking has gone into it in my view always the basis to knocking something interesting up. Do you dance to this stuff? I love the almost machine element to it because I love the sounds of machines but this is obviously music. Reminds me of the soundtrack for Koyanisqatsi by Phillip Glass. Simon Hoban laid that film and music on me in the '80s and I laid it on my lads because they have watched it about a dozen times over the years! A version of this music would go well with Koyanisqatsi. We are getting another extension put on the side of the house so Fiona and I can have our bedroom downstairs and listen to music there . This is one of the first things we will play . Wow : saved my marriage! I'm gonna play along to this stuff with my harmonica. Ooooooo some straight jazz riffs coming out now . Bring it on mate ! Gosh keeping the same music but changing effects behind it is good. Now back to the Weather Report bits. Nice! Anyway I'll just stop commenting and just listen to the rest . Thanks Syb!"

Now I have carved out a doggy kennel blues practice spot in my garage I am doing much moaning and wailing with my harmonica which as some of the aficionados of the blues will know can sound like a train coming. Well, I happen to live about 400 m from a railway track and when I was huffing and puffing, sucking and blowing, my way through a load of notes which did indeed sound like a train coming I put my harmonica down for a rest and low and behold there was a sound of a train coming but this time I wasn't playing my harmonica. I just thought "Man, the damm thing plays itself sometimes"