Life From A Window

Monday morning. Not just any old Monday, but the 1st of the month as well. Blank page. Targets to die for, well to kill me. There was a time when this was the most exciting day, the possibilities, the challenge. The arce with the other guys to be the best this month. But I'm older now and frankly, I don't mind if they win. I want to do well enough...well enough to get paid, to keep my job, to keep the boss off my back.. But winning? I don't care. Someone said to me this morning that you reach a point when the lifestyle choices you make overtake the business/career choices. I've passed that point now. The odd flicker of the old competitve me surfaces from time to time, but now I'm genuinely happy for the rest to do well and for me to finish comfortably mid-table. Must be in the wrong business, but the days of dreaming of a radical change of career went with the last house move and the latest mortgage. Still could be worse, I'm warm, well-fed and don't...

Just a quickie, phnar phnar. Funny how at times everything is an innuendo. Course there was a time when it was all the time, but with the passing of said time it it is only now from time to time. Know what I mean? Life from this window, today, at this moment, is a winding down sales office at nearly knocking off time. What a hodge-podge, mis-match of people and cultures. London's finest melting pot. I got to get me a better view. 10 hours a day of this and no natural light to speak of has got to get to you in the end. Mind you the natural light is so dark today with more flaming rain that it's hardly worth pining for. I should go home.

There's a Tom McCrae song which goes You wake up to the sound of alarms You're driving your fabulous car Listening to the music that reminds you You used to be young This morning, I listened to some sounds I hadn't heard since the eighties and I bought in the late seventies, and it got me thinking. No, it got me feeling... I like new musical experiences. I like finding new sounds and I love owning music that no-one else I know owns or has even heard of. No-one that is except for my big brother, who still after 43 years seems to get there one step ahead of me, at least in most matters. So, I listen to new music, I listen to internet radio to find new artists, I read reviews and buy music on a whim and a good word from John Aizlewood. But this morning listening to the Richard Digance (yes him again) complilation I couldn't help buying from Amazon on Friday (arrived yesterday, what a service, gotta love 'em) I felt something I just don't get from the new stuff,...

Listening to Internet radio while I "work". It's a great thing is Internet radio, and I can't really understand why it isn't massively popular yet here in the UK. We've got AM and FM and DAB, but they don't open up your horizons like the Internet. Got some favourites. Radio IO Acoustic, great for that background gentle vibe and the odd eye-opening new-found classic. Soma FM, Indi Pop Rocks, fantastic for those livelier moments and for discovering new artists you're never likely to find in a UK Virgin of HMV. Whatever did happen to the independents? It's not the same as flicking through racks of vinyl. happy hours spent scouring the cheap bins at Sundown Records in Walsall. Don't suppose it's still there. Discovered Richard Digance there, because he looked a bit "Rocky" on the sleeve of "Treading the Boards". I remember in my pitiful innoicence and ignorance proclaiming him "better than Dylan" and then...