It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

School of Seven Bells

Came across this band via Radcliffe and Maconie's live session on Radio 2. Checked out their album 'Disconnected From Desire'. Imagine The Cocteau Twins meet Kraftwerk via New Order. I LOVE this song. And the vids not too shabby either.
Just when you think the world of music's about to come crashing down around your ears with X Factor shit and Take That reforming, something like this comes along to restore your faith.

Enjoy.

The Death of Summer

I thought this poor old Sunflower deserved it's 15 seconds of fame.

This was the scene which greeted me when I woke this morning.

When the BBC weather announced a 'dumping' of snow overnight.....

They weren't kidding.

As I type....it's still snowing....

Could it be a day off work tomorrow?.......

The Snow Man

One must have a mind of winter 

To regard the frost and the boughs 

Of the pine-trees crusted with snow; 

And have been cold a long time 

To behold the junipers shagged with ice, 

The spruces rough in the distant glitter 

Of the January sun; and not to think 

Of any misery in the sound of the wind, 

In the sound of a few leaves, 

Which is the sound of the land 

Full of the same wind 

That is blowing in the same bare place 

For the listener, who listens in the snow, 

And, nothing himself, beholds 

Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is. 

Wallace Stevens 1879-1955

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Nothingness

The Manics return to greatness aided and abetted by the wonderful Ian McCullough. How feckin good is this?

The sky is falling in on you
Crushed any happiness you knew
The tree gave more to you than love
It's still there but baby you're gone

Remember you, stretched out in the sun
All alone forever, conclusions foregone
Will you find some kind of nothingness?
Still and lonely like an old school photograph

Laid yourself out under the stars
Some peace at last so don't be sad
A fitting end to your end
But baby, death's our only friend

Remember you, stretched out in the sun
All alone forever, confusions foregone
Will you find some kind of nothingness?
Still and lonely like an old school photograph

Your future glories all empty of thoughts
There's beauty doing nothing at all
It's what you wanted, it's what you got
Your final search for truth has stopped

There's beauty doing nothing at all
Never, never stop
Never, never, never stop
Never stop
Never stop
Never stop
Never

Remember you, stretched out in the sun
All alone forever, conclusions forgone
Will you find some kind of nothingness?
Still and lonely like an old school photograph 

Luskentyre

I think I'm losing the will to blog.

But every now and then I come across pics like these and feel the need to share them.

Luskentyre on Harris is a very special place.

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Harris

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Creep

The Man With No Brain

David Cameron proudly shows reporters his brain. It was apparently discovered at the bottom of a Chilean mine.

My Team

How can this possibly happen again?

Dundee FC in crisis: club may be wound up by Christmas

The ghost of Christmas yet to come now haunts Dundee after administrator Bryan Jackson warned the Dark Blues are in real danger of going out of business.

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/Sport/Football/article/6357/dundee-fc-in-crisis-club-may-be-wound-up-by-christmas.htm

Merry Christmas eh? I'm gutted.

Tosser

Good ol' George......First bit of 'positive'  news from the IMF and he hits the headlines. 'Crap' news would have been deflected by his Lib Dem Coalition dogsbodies. What a total tosser you are George.
And the IMF are no better, slimily coming to the aid of their capitalist brothers. Where were they when their banker mates were bringing this country to its knees? Dicks.

The Late Great Billy McKenzie

The Road To Paradise

These pictures evoke such strong emotions in me that I'd struggle to put them into words.

So I'm not going to try.

Suffice to say that I took these pictures almost a year ago on my first visit to Harris. It was to turn out to be the last happy, carefree time that Irene, Fiona and I spent together.

I don't often post personal stuff...... probably just as well.

Slowly In The West

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Douglas Dunn

Tay Bridge by Douglas Dunn

A sky that tastes of rain that’s still to fall

And then of rain that falls and tastes of sky…

The colour of the country’s moist and subtle

In dusk’s expected rumour. Amplify

All you can see this evening and the broad

Water enlarges, Dundee slips by an age

Into its land before the lights come on.

Pale, mystic lamps lean on the river-road

Bleaching the city’s lunar after-image,

And there’s the moon, and there’s the setting sun.

The rail bridge melts in a dramatic haze.

Slow visibility – a long train floats

Through a stopped shower’s narrow waterways

Above rose-coloured river, dappled motes

In the eye and the narrow piers half-real

Until a cloud somewhere far in the west

Mixes its inks and draws iron and stone

In epic outlines, black and literal.

Now it is simple, weathered, plain, immodest

In waterlight and late hill-hidden sun

High water adds freshwater-filtered salt

To the aquatic mirrors, a thin spice

That sharpens light on Middle Bank, a lilt

In the reflected moon’s analysis.

Mud’s sieved and rained from pewter into gold

Conjectural infinity’s outdone

By engineering, light and hydrous fact,

A waterfront that rises fold by fold

Into the stars beyond the last of stone,

A city’s elements, local, exact.

Douglas Dunn 1942 -

Poetry Of The Highest Order

One of two poems created by the fictional poet John Lillison, 'England's greatest one-armed poet'.

Pointy Birds
O pointy birds,
O pointy pointy.
Anoint my head,
Anointy-nointy.

The other poem is the equally stunning In Dillan's Grove.

In Dillan's Grove my love did die,
and now in ground shall ever lie.
None could ever replace her visage,
until your face brought thoughts of kissage.

Scottish Skies

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Colin Blunstone

No idea why this song popped into my head this rainy Saturday morning. But I'm glad it did.

I love Colin Blunstone's wistful voice. It's unique.

Every Cloud....

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Monifieth Beach

Taken this morning at Monifieth. Above is looking from the beach across the park to the village.

I spent a large chunk of my childhood pottering about on those sands. I learned many things there......

How to swim, how to fish, how to play golf, how to scavenge, how to start a fire, how not to drink cider........ the list goes on.

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