tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30185341333785539492024-02-08T04:17:23.682+00:00A Middle Aged Man BlogsStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.comBlogger436125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-44141797082009828662016-02-05T16:41:00.000+00:002016-02-05T16:41:01.614+00:00They Might Be Giants, Electric Ballroom, Camden, London - February 2016<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A fantastic gig, marred only by a lack of camera battery which meant that after three reasonable shots (these) I was on the much inferior camera phone. </div>
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Fourth time I have seen them, and quite possibly the best. You guys don't know what you're missing. </div>
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-172567822542269912016-01-15T12:15:00.004+00:002016-01-15T15:04:30.408+00:00David Bowie and Faith<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br /><br />"I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end" Ecclesiastes 3:10-11<br /><br /><br />For a long time David Bowie was my favourite artist. I first saw him in 1983 on the Serious Moonlight Tour and then saw him play on another five occasions, the last of these being the (final) Reality Tour in 2004. I have owned all the albums at some point, with the exception of second Tin Machine album, which I’ve never even listened to. I only tell you this so that you know that these aren’t the ramblings of a preacher who knows or cares nothing about his subject. I’ve been thinking about Bowie and faith. It is, unsurprisingly, complicated. <br /><br /><br />Below I’ve attached some referenced quotes to some of his thoughts on religion and faith from interviews he has given over the years. I’ve also pointed out some song lyrics that might offer some insight as to what Bowie believed. It’s clear, that like many, he was certainly a religious seeker. He looked in some weird and wonderful places, much of it contradictory, as he tried to work out what it was all about. <br /><br /><br /><br />His father went to church and was also open minded about other faiths and David went along to church with his dad and then followed a path of exploration of other faiths. He started with Buddhism and studied for a year with the thought that he might become a monk. Later, during heavy drug use, he was very drawn to the occult teachings and magick of Aleister Crowley, the Mysticism of the Nazis and their alleged search for the Holy Grail at Glastonbury Tor, and the Kabbala. He recorded a strong dislike for the church and organised religion but often stated his belief in God. He loved a conspiracy theory and was influenced by the people who influenced Dan Brown. He read widely, and from his reference in the song Sex and the Church, I think that must have included the Bible, because he isn’t referencing a particularly well-known part there. <br /><br /><br />Saviour Machine, from Man Who Sold the World (1970) seemed to kick against trusting someone else to save you – “you can’t stake your lives on a Saviour Machine”. And Loving The Alien (1984) can be interpreted as attack on belief – “Prayers, they hide the saddest view, Believing the strangest thing, loving the alien. On the other hand, Bowie in interviews says it was about loving Muslims and he went on to marry Iman his second wife, who is Muslim. At his death, she tweeted, “The struggle is real but so is God”. <br /><br />Bowie’s use of the Christian faith in his lyrics and his thinking were also a feature of his music though. <br /><br />On The Buddha of Suburbia he wrote the lines in the song, Sex and the Church:<br /><br />Though the idea of compassion<br /> Is said to be<br /> The union of Christ<br /> And his bride, the Christian<br /> It's all very puzzling.<br /><br />Station to Station is an interesting album. Recorded during the height of his drug use, he claimed not to remember making it. His take on the album was that it was a step by step interpretation of the Kabbala, with the title track being about the stations of the cross. On the same album, there seems to come a cry for help in the track – the prayer, perhaps of a desperate man. <br /><br /><br />Just because I believe, don't mean I don't think as well<br /> Don't have to question everything<br /> In heaven or hell<br /> <br /> Lord, I kneel and offer you<br /> My word on a wing<br /> And I'm trying hard to fit among<br /> Your scheme of things<br /> <br /> It's safer than a strange land<br /> But I still care for myself<br /> And I don't stand in my own light<br /> Lord, Lord, my prayer flies<br /> Like a word on a wing<br /> My prayer flies<br /> Like a word on a wing<br /> Does my prayer fit in<br /> With your scheme of things?<br /><br />Such a reading of the lyric is probably not far off, he referred to this time and his descent into drugs being a result of his turning his back on God in an interview with Tony Parsons. <br /><br />The track, Pallas Athena, named after the Greek Goddess, on Black Tie White Noise, the lyric simply repeats (with some subtle variation) “God is on top of it all, that’s all” with the backing response “we are praying”, all over a dance beat. <br /><br />And to last week’s album. Blackstar has been described as his farewell note to his fans, few of whom knew he was dying. <br /><br />The album contains clues that, like during his drug crisis, he was reaching out to God. The track I Can’t Give Everything Away refers to the Prodigal Son and, in the circumstances, I don’t think it’s such a stretch to think the song’s title might be a reference to the conversation that Jesus has with the rich young ruler. <br /><br />And best known, Lazarus, whose stunning video seems to confirm the reference to the man that Jesus raised from the dead. As well as the opening line, <br /><br />“Look up here, I'm in heaven<br /> I've got scars that can't be seen”<br /><br /><br />The song concludes, <br /><br />“This way or no way<br />You know I’ll be free<br />Just like that blue bird<br />Ain’t that just like me.<br /><br />Oh I’ll be free<br />Just like that bluebird<br />Oh I’ll be free<br />Ain’t that just like me<br /><br />Like a lot of us, Bowie was a seeker. I think he recognised that the 'hole within' would not be filled by 'sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll', though he had a really good try! He recognised the need to reach out for God, I think that’s what he did when he knelt at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert and prayed the Lord’s Prayer. There are times when you know you need help and you look around for it.<br /><br />I just hope he found it. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Some references and further reading that you might find useful…<br /><br />TONY PARSONS: Why did you say the Lord’s Prayer at the Freddie Mercury tribute?DAVID BOWIE: I decided to do it about five minutes before I went on stage. <a href="http://www.algonet.se/~bassman/photos/cs.html">Coco [Schwab</a>, Bowie’s long-term personal assistant] and I had a friend called Craig who was dying of AIDS. He was just dropping into a coma that day. And just before I went on stage something just told me to say the Lord’s Prayer. The great irony is that he died two days after the show.<br /><br />….In rock music, especially in the performance arena, there is no room for prayer, but I think that so many of the songs people write are prayers. A lot of my songs seem to be prayers for unity within myself. On a personal level, I have an undying belief in God’s existence. For me it is unquestionable.<br /><br />….Looking at what I have done in my life, in retrospect so much of what I thought was adventurism was searching for my tenuous connection with God. I was always investigating, always looking into why religions worked and what it was people found in them. And I was always fluctuating from one set of beliefs to another until a very low point in the mid-Seventies where I developed a fascination with black magic.<br /><br />….And although I’m sure there was a satanic lead pulling me towards it, it wasn’t a search for evil. It was in the hope that the signs might lead me somewhere. There seemed to be a path inherent in cabbalistic religion. There seemed to be a path that one could follow. And of course it helped greatly that it was all so drug-induced. That really helped to blur the sense of reality of what I was getting involved in.<br /><br />But it wasn’t only the drugs. It was also because of my spiritual state of mind. I had never been so near an abyss of total abandonment. When they say that one felt like a shell, an empty shell, I can really understand that. I felt that any of life’s intrusions would crush that shell very easily. I felt totally, absolutely alone. And I probably was alone because I pretty much had abandoned God.<br /><br />….But what often amuses me is the reaction to a song like “<a href="http://www.algonet.se/~bassman/lyrics/t/lta.html">Loving The Alien</a>” – where so many reviewers said, oh, Bowie out in space again. And the alien in this case was Muslim, which is prophetic because here I am married to one. I was talking about people being aliens to each other.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://welcomebackbowie.wordpress.com/articles/david-bowie-interview-in-arena-springsummer-1993/">https://welcomebackbowie.wordpress.com/articles/david-bowie-interview-in-arena-springsummer-1993/</a><br /><br /><br />“The humanists’ replacement for religion: work really hard and somehow you’ll either save yourself or you’ll be immortal. Of course, that’s a total joke, and our progress is nothing.” David Bowie<br /><br /><br />Quote attributed to him on the Daily Mirror website in the week of his death. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Bowie on Bowie: Interviews and Encounters by Sean Egan, Charles Shaar Murray, Adrian Deevoy, Robert Hilburn, Allan Jones, David Quantick, Paul du Noyer, Steven Wells, Dylan Jones<br /><br />Quotes on Bowie and Faith<br /><br /><br />Since he was 14, however, he had been interested in Buddhism and Tibet, and after the failure of his first LP he dropped out of music completely and devoted his time to the Tibet Society, whose aim was to help the lamas driven out of that country in the Tibetan/Chinese war. He was instrumental in setting up the Scottish monastery in Dumfries in this period. He says, in fact, that he would have liked to have been a Tibetan monk, and would have done if he hadn’t met Lindsay Kemp, who ran a mime company in London: “It was as magical as Buddhism, and I completely sold out and became a city creature. I suppose that’s when my interest in image really blossomed.”<br /><br />Oh You Pretty Thing, Michael Watts, January 22, 1972, Melody Maker <br /><br /><br />I think everybody, at one time or another, gets that kind of feeling: that they aren’t just here for themselves, and more often than not they turn to the Bible and agree that it’s probably Jesus and God and all of that section of religion. There’s a feeling that we are here for another purpose. And in me it’s very strong.<br /><br />Goodbye Ziggy And A Big Hello To Aladdin Sane, Charles Shaar Murray, July 22 and 29, 1972, New Musical Express<br /><br /><br />Even though God does these terrible things to man and sits back and waits for them to ask for forgiveness … despite that, Merrick was prepared to believe in heaven, because of Jesus, not so much because of God.<div>
<br />The Future Isn’t What It Used Be, Angus MacKinnon, September 13, 1980, New Musical Express<br />The reference is to John Merrick, The Elephant Man, who David played on Broadway.<br /><br /></div>
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“Loving The Alien.” It also approaches subjects Bowie has never tackled before: religion and history. “It really doesn’t fit in there very much, does it? That was the most personalised bit of writing on the album for me; not to say that the others were written from a distance, but they’re a lot lighter in tone. That one was me in there dwelling on the idea of the awful shit that we’ve had to put up with because of the Church. That’s how it started out: for some reason I was very angry.” You don’t normally hear people wearing crucifixes making remarks like that. “I know … this”—he fingers the crucifix around his neck—“is strictly symbolic of a terrible nagging superstition that if I didn’t have it on I’d have bad luck. It isn’t even religious to me—I’ve hardly even thought of it as a crucifix, anyway, probably because it’s so little. The most obvious lie or cover-up I can think of is through education … at the time of writing the song I was reading a book called The Jesus Scrolls, and the conclusion of that book is that Jesus died at the age of 70 at Masada and wrote a scroll himself, which is currently in the hands of the Russians, who are holding it over the Catholic Church. Actually I read that a long long time ago, around ’75—it was a real Los Angeles book, but it really stayed with me. The crunching thing about the Church is that it has always had so much power. “It was always more of a power tool than anything else, which was not very apparent to the majority of us. I never thought about it as … as a child it was just going to church and listening to the choir and hearing the prayers, and it was never really made apparent how much weight they carried. My own father was one of the few fathers I knew who had a lot of understanding of other religions. He—this is an abuse of the word—‘tolerated’ Buddhists or Muslims or Hindus or Mohammedans, whatever, and he was a great humanitarian in those terms. I think some of that was passed on to me, and encouraged me to become interested in other religions. There was no enforced religion, though, he didn’t particularly care for the English religion—Henry’s religion. Oh God! “‘Alien’ came about because of the feeling that so much history is wrong—as is being rediscovered all the time—and that we base so much on the wrong knowledge that we’ve gleaned. Now some historian is putting forward the notion the whole idea of Israel is wrong and that it was in fact in Saudi Arabia and not in Palestine. It’s extraordinary considering all the mistranslations in the Bible that our lives are being navigated by this misinformation, and that so many people have died because of it, and all the power factions involved …” Bowie sighs. “I don’t know … just like everything else, it’s just a song of images. I can’t ever see any cohesive view point in my songs.<br /><br />Sermon From The Savoy, Charles Shaar Murray, September 29, 1984, New Musical Express<br /><br /><br />They called it the Prayer, its answer was law —“Saviour Machine” (1970) <br />“Unfortunately, I didn’t really know Freddie [Mercury] that well at all,” Bowie says. “I’d met him about two or three times in all those years. I found him very witty, quite bright and indeed very theatrical. So I don’t know the ins and outs of what he had to live with or what happened to him. I do have a lot of gay friends, and I know the pain of losing friends through AIDS. Unfortunately, I lost one just after the Queen concert [the memorial concert for Freddie Mercury at Wembley Stadium in April 1992]. His name was Craig, a New York playwright, and he’d actually slipped into a coma the day before the show and died two days after it. Which was why I said the Lord’s Prayer that night.” Bowie’s flair for drama notwithstanding, the gesture left many people surprised. “Yeah, they probably were,” he says, “but it wasn’t for them.” Part of the surprise was that Bowie has never been known as a particularly religious sort of person. “I’m not. I’m spiritual,” he says. “I’ve never bought in to any organized religion. But now I have an unshakeable belief in God. I put my life into his hands every single day. I pray every morning. “My friend Craig was not a Christian,” he continues, “but I thought that prayer the most appropriate inasmuch as it’s not … it’s a prayer about our Father, not so much about Christ. For me, it’s a universal prayer. I was as surprised as anyone that I’d said it at that concert. But I was pleased that I’d done it.”<br /><br />Station to Station, David Sinclair, June 10, 1993, Rolling Stone<br /><br /><br /><br />“You can be very thick. I had this morbid obsession with the so-called ‘mysticism’ of the Third Reich. The stories about the SS coming over to England in search of the Holy Grail, that was the aspect of it that really appealed to me in my beleaguered and drugged state. Absurd as it may seem now, it just didn’t occur to me that what I was doing had any relevance. My overriding interest was in Kabbalah and Crowleyism. That whole dark and rather fearsome never-world of the wrong side of the brain.” Do you believe that “magick” has any ability to affect the physical world? “No, I think all those things merely become symbolic crutches for the negative. It was all an adolescent state of mind, even though I wasn’t adolescent. I think drugs really perpetuate that adolescent state. Or can do, anyway, with me they certainly did.”<br /><br />The Artful Codger, Steven Wells, November 25, 1995, New Musical Express<br /><br /><br /><br />“I have a real thrusting, rampant, spiritual need. I can’t become comfortable with any organised religion and I’ve sort of touched on all of them. I’m not looking for a faith, I don’t want to believe anything. I’m looking for knowledge.” But why does it need to be outside of us? Aren’t we fundamentally decent animals? One of the new Darwinists said something about how you could walk up and down the most violent street in New York and see a thousand acts of courtesy, caring and kindness before you saw one negative act. Isn’t he right? “I think there are lots of people who can live their lives on that level and on that platform and I am so envious of them. I can’t do that. I’m perturbed by the idea of morality, of good and bad. I’m much more comfortable with the idea of illusion and reality. I get such moral drift—I’ve seen people killed with f---ing kindness and I’ve seen some negative situations actually turn out in a positive way and I find it all very confusing. “More recently, I’ve been interested in the Gnostics. They aren’t that different from Buddhists, really, in that they thought that God is within yourself, it’s their idea that there’s illusion and reality and the illusion part of it is what we perceive as reality in our conscious state. But, there again, it’s just another codification. I don’t think I could subscribe to saying that I was a Gnostic.” So we’re not going to see you put out an album called “Laughing Gnostic”?<br /><br />The Artful Codger, Steven Wells, November 25, 1995, New Musical Express<br /><br /><br /><br />The occult had made its way to the top of his reading list—the album Station to Station, that he recorded in 1976, was, he now says, a step-by-step interpretation of the Cabbala, “although absolutely no one else realised that at the time, of course”—which led, in turn, to “Grail mythology” and then to an unhealthy interest in the role of black magic in the rise of Nazism. “Being seriously involved in the negative,” as he puts it. This was the period when he was quoted as saying that “Britain could benefit from a fascist leader,” and apparently declaring himself as a prospective candidate. In the end, the clouds of delusion and the clouds of cocaine were all too much. “I blew my nose one day in California,” he once, memorably, recalled, “and half my brains came out.”<br /><br />A Star Comes Back To Earth, Mick Brown, December 14, 1996, Telegraph Magazine<br /><br />As a teenager he was drawn to Buddhism. For a year he studied under a Tibetan lama and says that at one time he contemplated becoming a monk, “until my teacher told me I wasn’t born to be one. But so much of what first appealed to me about Buddhism has stayed with me. The idea of transience, and that there is nothing to hold on to pragmatically; that we do at some point or another have to let go of that which we consider most dear to us, because it’s a very short life. “The lesson that I’ve probably learnt more than anything else is that my fulfillment comes from that kind of spiritual investigation. And that doesn’t mean I want to find a religion to latch on to. It means trying to find the inner-life of the things that interest me—whether it’s how a painting works, or exactly why I enjoy going for a sail on a lake—even though I can’t swim more than 15 strokes.”<br /><br />A Star Comes Back To Earth, Mick Brown, December 14, 1996, Telegraph Magazine<br /><br /><br /><br />Does he feel that the new album is as adventurous and groundbreaking as albums like Low, Heroes and Lodger? “I don’t know if it feels like that,” he ponders. “But it feels really good-hearted and uplifting.” It’s hardly comforting, though. “No? Blimey. I get all happy when I hear it. How do you hear it?” A pounding, shrieking, relentless sort of sound. “Golly.” He thinks. “It’s not difficult music, it really isn’t. If the audiences can just open their minds to it.” What are the songs about? “I guess the common ground with all the songs is this abiding need in me to vacillate between atheism or a kind of gnosticism,” he explains, slowly. “I keep going backwards and forwards between the two things, because they mean a lot in my life. I mean, the church doesn’t enter into my writing, or my thoughts; I have no empathy with any organised religions. What I need is to find a balance, spiritually, with the way I live and my demise. And that period of time—from today until my demise—is the only thing that fascinates me.” You’re already thinking about your death? “I don’t think there’s been a time when I haven’t,” he laughs, blithely. “It was ennobled with a romantic, cavalier attitude when I was much younger, but it was still there. Now it’s measured with rationality. I know that this life is finite and I have to accept that.” What’s stopping you from believing in an afterlife? “I didn’t say I didn’t,” he says quickly. “I believe in a continuation, kind of a dream-state without the dreams. Oh, I don’t know. I’ll come back and tell you.”<br /><br />CHANGESFIFTYBOWIE, David Cavanagh, February 1997, Q<br /><br /><br />The Station To Station track itself is very much concerned with the stations of the cross. All the references within the piece are to do with the Kabbala (a set of mystical instructions supposedly given to Moses on Mount Sinai and often said to have links with ritual magick). It’s the nearest album to a magick treatise that I’ve written. I’ve never read a review that really sussed it. It’s an extremely dark album. Miserable time to live through, I must say.”<br /><br />CHANGESFIFTYBOWIE, David Cavanagh, February 1997, Q<br /><br /><br /></div>
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I think we will feel a lot more content when we are able to accept that life is chaos. I think it was an awful thought 10 or 15 years ago. But I think we are beginning to become more comfortable with the idea that life is chaos and it’s as simple as that: it is chaos. There is no structure. There is no plan. We are not evolving. We have to make the best of what we got. And if we can become happy about that, I think we ought to establish a lifestyle in which we are more content.”<br /><br />Such A Perfect Day, Mikel Jollett, July/August 2003, Filter (US)<br />
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-7644077224840576902014-10-05T22:57:00.000+01:002014-10-05T22:57:35.844+01:00The loneliness of the long distance runner<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCZHdQNk7Zfd30VbTKI4s4uFMCL0vKuN7b6aiMRF4ChVcVJtfYHIt9iojQH8lQfgAY1whKDbaUnOrFWaYMOpbiPckzVSdJ15tbSUxl-r16GOXO5y3jyO9gSxt1csj8YNWlbs4AmkFLBXxG/s1600/Half+marathon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCZHdQNk7Zfd30VbTKI4s4uFMCL0vKuN7b6aiMRF4ChVcVJtfYHIt9iojQH8lQfgAY1whKDbaUnOrFWaYMOpbiPckzVSdJ15tbSUxl-r16GOXO5y3jyO9gSxt1csj8YNWlbs4AmkFLBXxG/s1600/Half+marathon.jpg" height="200" width="195" /></a></div>
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Today I ran my first half-marathon. This evening I am sore but happy. As my Dad rightly pointed out the other day,
I am not a natural athlete. When I did
the induction at the gym 18 months ago I was allowed to <i>walk</i> on the treadmill for 10-15 minutes. But today I ran 13.1 miles.</div>
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Many of you will have done this yourself and those of you
that have will almost certainly have done it faster. Possibly quite a lot faster. Having trained for 12 weeks and not run more
than 3 miles in one go for 25 years, I was very nervous about it, especially
when the entry form said there was a two and a half hour cut off point. I knew from my training runs that it was
going to be touch and go whether I did that.
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Conditions were ideal.
Started cool and cloudy and with no breeze. The race started and ended on grass, with a
lap of the cricket pitch, followed by roads for the rest of the way. Burnham on Sea is very flat and the biggest ‘hills’
are railway bridges, just three in total. </div>
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Midway round the first lap of the cricket pitch I realise
that I am following 173 other runners in a 174 person race. But I know what I can do and more
importantly, what I cannot do. I cannot
try and keep up with the pack if I want to finish. So I am not unsettled by the little girl who
on that first lap says to her Mum, “That man is <i>really</i> slow”. Mum is a
little embarrassed but I laugh. She is
right. </div>
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I am used to running alone so I’m okay with how I run alone
for nearly the whole of the race after the two mile mark. I’m encouraged by an old man in a wheelchair
who sits at the end of his drive at the three mile mark and cheers me on. It gives me a real boost. I’m less happy with how it feels for the
first four miles but have found that is often the case and my times are
okay. For me.</div>
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Around 6 ½ miles in I catch up and run with a woman who is
running her second race of this kind.
She pulls away when I walk while I drink my water at the drinks station
but I pass her at around 7 ½ miles and feel good as I run. I’m there or thereabouts in terms of the time,
though beginning to drift a little. </div>
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I don’t see another runner in front of me for about 4 miles
after that. The last two or three miles
are tough and probably not helped by running on my own. Lin and Ben surprise me by showing when I
have two miles to go and it’s a massive encouragement to see them. It’s just around the time I have started to
talk to myself to spur me on. (Other
people do that too, right?)</div>
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As I get to the last half mile I can see Lin, Ben and my
friend Eerke. He finished 35 minutes ago
but runs alongside me to spur me on over the last bit. The person I saw in the distance a mile ago, an
older man, is suddenly very close. I
hadn’t been trying to catch him, just concentrating on my own race. I am surprised that I can put in a faster
finish than I expect and finish 26 seconds outside the 2 hour 30 minute
mark. Mo Farrah can rest easy. So can I tonight, once I have negotiated the
stairs.</div>
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The great motivation in all this was to raise money for MAF,
an organisation that flies medicines and doctors and patients and pastors and
relief supplies to some of the most isolated parts of the world. My good
friend Mark Stanton was working for this charity before his life was cut short
by MND. I came 171<sup>st</sup> out of
174 finishers. He’d have done the run so
much quicker. </div>
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A huge thank you to the friends who turned out to see me
finish, who fed me afterwards and the many, many people who were so generous in
their sponsorship. In my wildest dreams
I was hoping to be running for £100 per mile but we’ve just about made it to
the £1500 mark, which is brilliant. Thank you <b>so much</b> for your generosity. </div>
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I just hope I can get out of bed tomorrow. </div>
Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-79430674258738467362014-08-18T17:42:00.000+01:002014-08-18T17:42:26.723+01:00Getting there. Slowly<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.siliconcloud.com/Portals/55887/images//PPC%20Duracell%20Bunny-resized-600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.siliconcloud.com/Portals/55887/images//PPC%20Duracell%20Bunny-resized-600.jpg" height="200" width="102" /></a></div>
So much for regular updates. I'm now two weeks further on in my programme to run my first half marathon. Getting there, slowly, is an appropriate description of my progress. Week Four and Five have generally seen me stick to the programme, making little discernible progress speed wise, but - like the Duracell bunny, I'm finding I am able to keep going a little longer each time. <br />
<br />
You can find the details of the <a href="http://www.bupa.co.uk/running/training/training-programmes/beginner-half-marathon/" target="_blank">half marathon training programme.</a> I am following by clicking the link. <br />
<br />
I've just finished week 5, so yesterday I (very nearly) ran my furthest distance ever. The schedule had me down for a seven mile run. I diligently planned my route and all was good for about a mile and a half. It was only then that I discovered that about a mile of the route I had so carefully plotted was along a very rough bridle-path, lots of deep furrows from farm traffic and not worth turning an ankle over. So I walked a far bit of that mile and probably lost some time as a result. But not much, I am very slow anyway.<br />
<br />
I've never run further than 6.25 miles before - the length of 10km races I entered a couple of times. That was twenty years ago and carrying a wee bit less wait too, so I even though I was forced to walk some of it, I was delighted to have done 7 miles yesterday. Sore, but delighted. The fact that I have to do 8 miles this Sunday is something to think about later in the week. <br />
<br />
If you would like to sponsor me, <a href="http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserPage.action?userUrl=SteveAyers&faId=485077&isTeam=false" target="_blank">this is the place to do it.</a>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-18089491013457446462014-08-05T08:15:00.000+01:002014-08-05T08:15:00.106+01:00Snap! (almost)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/images/localworld/ugc-images/276272/Article/images/22069590/6585935-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/images/localworld/ugc-images/276272/Article/images/22069590/6585935-large.jpg" height="215" width="320" /></a></div>
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This caused me to do a quick double take this evening and then, on reflection, to be encouraged. One is a shot from yesterday's Western Morning News Sport section. The other is one of mine from Saturday's game. It would appear I'm getting something right. Or getting lucky... </div>
<br />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-1548624871739319632014-08-04T12:02:00.003+01:002014-08-04T12:03:31.904+01:00Running 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.adrianjwalker.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/bigstock-Silhouette-Of-An-Exhausted-Spo-56076581.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.adrianjwalker.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/bigstock-Silhouette-Of-An-Exhausted-Spo-56076581.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
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I want to record my progress - or lack of it - in training for my first ever Half Marathon. I've promised a few updates to the good people that have offered to sponsor me for it but, don't worry, it won't be a step by step account. I'll spare you all the detail. </div>
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I joined a gym nearly 15 months ago and at the induction, the young girl gave me some exercises to get me started. It included 10-15 minutes of walking on a treadmill. It hurt my pride a little but I have since progressed to a bit of running. <br />
<br />
This will probably be my first and only Half Marathon. Because I've discovered that a bit of running isn't enough. According to the running plan I am following, I need to do a lot more than a bit. I am three weeks into a twelve week programme and according to my times, I'm getting slower. But I am middle aged and I'm running further each week. I am determined to finish, for reasons that I'll go into later. <br />
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Week 4, here we come...<br />
<br />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-62776440310902841162014-01-09T09:00:00.000+00:002014-01-09T09:00:02.240+00:00A bit of culture<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Some of which was a bit wasted on us, to be honest. As I think I recorded elsewhere, I preferred the photography at the Orange County Fair to that on display at the Getty Center but what do I know. Nothing really floated by boat more than the sensational architecture of the place itself. Scorching hot and the white stone of the buildings really stood out against the blue sky. I spent more time looking at the buildings than the treasures they contained. Hmm, there's a sermon illustration in there somewhere....</div>
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-4202556660423316922014-01-08T10:00:00.000+00:002014-01-08T10:00:02.480+00:00Venice Beach - Out Come the Freaks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
On our first Sunday, we paid a visit to our friends' church, leaving uplifted. The service was excellent and the preaching (by a guy who was a fire fighter by day) was fantastic. On hearing of our plan to go to Venice Beach that afternoon, we encountered some raised eyebrows and someone, choosing their words very carefully, said that it should be very eclectic ... I think that was the description. Intrigued, we went anyway.</div>
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The place was very busy and we eventually found a $25 parking space. It was overcast but you could see that the beach must have been amazing in the sunshine. It was further inland that things were less pleasant. Naive fools that we were, we were looking for a Starbucks, maybe a tea and some muffins. It's eclectic, alright. But it's not that kind of place.</div>
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I saw a drug deal being done within the first couple of minutes of walking the shop fronts along the sea front, and there was a parade of characters on display. My friend the snake handler (below) was preaching on the street in his leopard skin thong. As Moe says in the Simpsons, when Homer tries to get him to convert, "I was born a snake handler and I'll die a snake handler". Some other guy (below) was standing around begging for cash for hash, and people were trying to press their CDs on you too. The famous Muscle Beach was a bit tatty as well, though I wouldn't have said so to the two guys that were working out there. </div>
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In truth it wasn't a great vibe, the only time that we felt unsafe in our trip to America and so we made for the cars and went back to the safety of the suburbs for that cup of tea. Still, it was an interesting experience. </div>
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<br />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-49133030385037485672014-01-06T15:45:00.000+00:002014-01-06T15:45:44.726+00:00High Tide - 6th January 2014<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
A couple of days ago, when we had a flood warning at high tide, there were a lot of photographers out to record events, even though it was happening at day break. Today high tide was 10.15 a.m. but most people were back at work and so I pretty much had it to myself. I was at work too but I'm based about 50 metres from the pier, so could pop out with my camera. I'm a lucky man. </div>
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I think the waves were a bit more challenging this time but the wall passed the test and kept the sea at bay. Good fun!</div>
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<br />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-73102298755729636122014-01-04T23:00:00.000+00:002014-01-04T23:00:02.945+00:00Sealions <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Before leaving San Diego, we took a trip on this wee beastie. It does roads as well as sea and was a great way to see San Diego from a different angle. The sea lions were easy to spot, they just sailed us out to the point where they unload the fish that people catch and there they all are - well fed and (in the main) sleeping it off. A further treat was the sight of dolphins, albeit some distance off in the naval pens. Both seals and dolphins are used by the military serving out of San Diego. <br />
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-57656307270920845022014-01-04T16:00:00.000+00:002014-01-04T16:00:03.212+00:00A trip to the zoo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The world famous San Diego Zoo was a cracking day out. Another hot day and the queues to get in were long, as was the queue for the first bus inside the venue. We abandoned it and walked, a long day but a great one. Once inside the main part of the zoo there were very few queues, other than to see the pandas. Well worth the visit.</div>
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-81079363380465682062014-01-03T22:00:00.000+00:002014-01-03T22:00:00.688+00:00San Diego<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We loved San Diego. We had great fun exploring Little Italy, eating the best breakfast ever of pancakes and having to queue to even get a seat, a good hotel overlooking the Star of India (a clipper, rather than a curry house), and plenty to see. Big navy town, eighth biggest city in the US, second best climate in the world, and a lot of people on the streets. I guess if you are going to be homeless, you may as well be in a climate that suits the outdoor life. </div>
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<br />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-45884885516859704912014-01-03T14:27:00.001+00:002014-01-03T15:55:53.156+00:00Whipping up a storm!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The forecast was of possible floods this morning but come high tide it was stormy but the sea defences held. I'm told that the wind direction helped, it could have been much worse, as it undoubtedly has been for some. There are similar forecasts in place over the weekend but so far, so good. </div>
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By way of contrast, this the same place around seven hours later....<br />
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These are all straight out of camera and demonstrate - among other things - my inability to hold a camera straight.</div>
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-60854954754080910702014-01-03T09:00:00.000+00:002014-01-03T09:00:07.342+00:00Shopping in LA<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Not high on my list of interests, but interesting all the same. The Grove in LA was an incredibly manicured shopping centre - no grafitti, no litter, in fact I saw security surround a drinks spillage on one of the pavements so that no-one slipped on it before it was mopped up. </div>
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Two early contenders for "Only in America", the Jesus sticking plasters in one of the small shops, and the shop where you can take your doll to have it's hair styled. Shame I left mine at home.</div>
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It was here that we went to the Cheesecake Factory, which until just before we assumed was a fictitious place invented for the Big Bang Theory. Starting my policy here of eating things that I have never eaten before, I discovered that chicken and biscuits is delicious. </div>
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<br />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-25988912818119083882014-01-02T20:04:00.001+00:002014-01-02T20:04:45.738+00:00San Juan Capistrano<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Another place we would never have thought to go, if it wasn't for the recommendation from friends, was San Juan Capistrano. It's an old Catholic mission station that is one of a number that stretched along California from when the Spanish came to catalogue and convert the land of Mexico - as it was then. Now it is open to the public and an informative guide gave us the history of the place. Lovely grounds, interesting chapel, and slightly odd gift shop. I think there was talk of it being the oldest building still in use in California. Yes, just checked, and if Wikipedia is to be believed, it was built in 1782. By Californian standards, that's as old as it gets. </div>
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A baking hot day, we called in on the way to San Diego, having a great lunch before we carried on to our destination. </div>
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<br />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-73248780060415477222013-12-30T10:14:00.000+00:002013-12-30T10:14:25.787+00:00Orange County Fair<br />
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Because we were on holiday visiting friends we ended up doing a lot of things that we wouldn't have even known about otherwise. The Orange County Fair was a good example of this. It was vast, and seemed to centre on eating and fairground rides - not necessarily the greatest combination but it seemed popular. It was here I tried a corn dog; okay but not great. Won't be rushing to repeat that one. </div>
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Elsewhere there was the agricultural fair, which it was presumably what it started as, bands (had we stayed we could have seen the 'English' Beat play) and plenty of exhibitions and competitions. I spent time in the photography section and absolutely loved the pictures in the competition there. Most of what I saw was in the youngsters and youth categories and it was miles better than the photography that I saw later at the Getty Centre. </div>
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An interesting slice of Americana, great fun, and a baking hot day. Terrific fun and we'd have missed it if it were not for our chums. </div>
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<br />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-37871855290945484792013-12-29T15:30:00.000+00:002013-12-30T10:14:59.404+00:00Baseball at the Angel Stadium<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Time for finally getting some summer holiday pictures together. One of the highlights of my holiday was watching my first game of baseball. Not entirely sure of everything that was going on but absolutely loved it. Thought I might be going to see LA Dodgers but the local knowledge was for LA Angels and so we rocked up there instead. The whole family enjoyed it and with some of the games we saw on TV as well, we were hooked. Was pleased to see '42', a film about racism and baseball, on the plane home and with the headlines that a British politician made about 'Bongo Bongo Land', it should be a must see film for one and all. </div>
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Further joy was had on returning to find Major League Baseball on BT Sport. Despite (or because of) the Ashes series, and seeing a lot of Exeter City this year, this was my favourite sports event of the year. </div>
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Further thoughts here: <a href="http://amiddleagedmanblogs.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/its-like-ashes-with-hot-dogs.html?showComment=1388267551010#c7132236656284597125" target="_blank">Like the Ashes with hot dogs</a>. This is, after all, supposed to be about the pictures. </div>
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<br />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-21496603436960216622013-12-28T21:25:00.000+00:002013-12-28T21:25:36.828+00:00Alex James on Celebrity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Christmas is a great time to sit and read and let the world go by a bit. We had a great Christmas, services were well attended and (I'm told) well received as well. Now a bit of time to eat, drink, sleep, and read. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Interesting read, "Bit of a Blur", the Alex James autobiography. (He was the bass player in Blur) He estimates that he spent a million pounds on champagne and cocaine, slept with dozens of fans and models, and stayed in decadent luxury around the world. Yet, at the 'height' of it all, he says, </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">"This was the top of the hill. What else could life hold? It's funny, but when I look back I think that period of my life was the bottom of a pit, rather than Mount Fantasticus. I was a morally bankrupt, drunk fatso with a stupid grin and a girlfriend with a murdered heart." (Quote sanitized a bit). </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">It's on page 225, if you want to verify it. </span>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-43330803961743098382013-11-27T16:00:00.000+00:002013-11-27T16:00:19.631+00:00A Car That Sped<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This was my entry for this month's camera club competition, on the theme, 'Night'. I really like it but it seems I am one of a small minority, coming 19th out of 21. Never mind, next time!Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-59934016961975318312013-11-23T18:04:00.002+00:002013-11-23T18:04:58.851+00:00They Might Be Giants, Shepherds Bush, November 19th 2013Off to the big city to see Brooklyn's finest this week. A long way to go to see them but, to be fair, they came a lot further, following an extensive US tour. <br />
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Shepherds Bush was, disappointingly, not sold out - though this might in part be due to them playing places other than London in the UK this time round. Their alleged obscurity meant that I couldn't even give my ticket away and so, ever intrepid, I ventured on alone. It was a really fun night, as you'd expect from TMBG. <br />
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On the day before I tried to borrow my daughter's slim line camera (knowing I wouldn't be welcome with a DSLR, only to find that it was playing up. On the train up I discovered that my camera phone had packed in as well. My attempts to remain upbeat were squashed a bit by being able to stand four people back from the front barriers - a blessing to have such a good spot but frustrating that I could have got some great shots from there. <br />
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When, after the opener You're On Fire, the band invited the photographers in the pit up on stage for some crowd shots, I was - I confess - a little envious. Big kudos to Helen Parish, one of the lucky four, for uploading her's onto the interweb. All the pictures you see here are her's. <br />
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There is a real party atmosphere at TMBG gigs. The sock puppets (yes, really) and daft songs are part of it, as is the feeling (knowledge) that you are in on a good secret as to how darned good this band is. Quirky and clever yes, but also the pruveyors of extremely fine songs in a variety of styles. There's something for everyone and if you don't like this one, there will be another along in two to three minutes. </div>
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Plenty of banter with the audience including the self-deprecating line, "We ruin you for other bands". <br />
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I think that this is the setlist, though I am slightly hazy on the order of a couple of them. How many bands play their biggest hit third song in?<br />
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1 You're On Fire</div>
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2 Damn Good Times</div>
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3 Birdhouse In Your Soul</div>
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4 The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)</div>
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5 Don't Let's Start</div>
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6 Tesla</div>
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7 Icky</div>
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8 Battle For The Planet Of The Apes</div>
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9 Black Ops</div>
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10 Nanobots</div>
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11 Fingertips</div>
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12 Can't Keep Johnny Down</div>
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13 Boss Of Me / Circular Karate Chop</div>
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14 32 Footsteps</div>
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15 Memo To Human Resources</div>
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16 Dead</div>
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17 Call You Mom</div>
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18 Istanbul (Not Constantinople)</div>
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19 Ana Ng</div>
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20 New York City</div>
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21 Rhythm Section Want Ad</div>
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<i>Encore</i></div>
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22 He's Loco</div>
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23 When Will You Die?</div>
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24 The Mesopotamians</div>
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<i>Encore 2</i></div>
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25 Number Three</div>
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26 Doctor Worm</div>
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As always with your favourite band there were some things in there you'd like to have seen more than others but a fine set all the same. One of my personal highlights was "When Will You Die?" (which is very funny as well as being a great song) followed by The Mesopotamians in the first encore.</div>
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Here is the first of those, accompanied by an interesting film....</div>
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<br />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-82553041385223194742013-11-08T17:29:00.000+00:002013-11-08T17:29:11.205+00:00Burnham CarnivalEvery year I am in the happy position of the one of the countries biggest and best illuminated carnivals parading down the end of my road. If like me, carnival growing up was a few lorries in the daylight banish all thoughts. This is loud and flashy - pretty much how we do things a round here. <br />
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It's difficult to photograph, all the carts are lit differently, but great fun to try. These are some of my better efforts from this week.<br />
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<br />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-61549482606663902232013-11-05T23:22:00.003+00:002013-11-08T17:09:03.637+00:00What it's all about<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sunday was the best - a baptism service for two people in the congregation. We had a packed church and a great service. Quite apart from the boost that baptism gives to the people going under the water, the church gets a lift from it. Because this is what it's all about for Christians (Baptists in particular?). Seeing grown ups deciding that they want to take the plunge - as it were. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You see, we don't christen or baptise babies or children, though we are happy to give thanks for them and pray for them. We figure that it's something that kids need to make their own minds up about, and in due course, when they are old enough, we baptise them. We use a lot of water too. Maybe it says something of the extravagance of grace. </span><br />
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Came across a great passage from a children's book just last week about baptism and how wrong people can get it. This is from the point of view of a child:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlKcJGUyEeK9aCpfL0sYJi0fu-EK2im03kyg20voOBj5G26P-V6na8oNe83gMeQJzto7VzLsaj27Cjidn38Bb-YdV_tTLUAXvtKS-Uoqck_J1XDI5csE7O6icy4i-aifPA4o71UuSqjsy0/s1600/Abi+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlKcJGUyEeK9aCpfL0sYJi0fu-EK2im03kyg20voOBj5G26P-V6na8oNe83gMeQJzto7VzLsaj27Cjidn38Bb-YdV_tTLUAXvtKS-Uoqck_J1XDI5csE7O6icy4i-aifPA4o71UuSqjsy0/s400/Abi+1.jpg" width="266" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I'd heard about Baptists from Jacob Henry's mother. According to her, Baptists were a strange lot. they put you in water to see how holy you were. Then they ducked you under the water three times. Didn't matter a whit you could swim or no. If you didn't come up, you got dead and your mortal soul went to Hell. But if you did come up, it was even worse. You had to be a Baptist." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Robert Newton Peck, "A Day No Pigs Would Die"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's true we're a strange lot. But surviving baptism doesn't make you a Baptist. It's a public declaration that you have become a follower of Jesus - other denominations are available. Though, obviously, they aren't so good... </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A great day. For all the things that we are involved in as a church - this is what it's all about.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5F3VJVq-oSICmwfxTuUhbUu4fFHbFE2eBM0grQ3PIVu0mrvHOcsk8IMyLG-EDhrzILdXsjgbZ8AQ8hOPgkwyxlnJcTqktrEz3iwiNMQ2cXrsx37XpqaSfULWNnZVh3kHmPjluux6-qgCk/s1600/Abi+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5F3VJVq-oSICmwfxTuUhbUu4fFHbFE2eBM0grQ3PIVu0mrvHOcsk8IMyLG-EDhrzILdXsjgbZ8AQ8hOPgkwyxlnJcTqktrEz3iwiNMQ2cXrsx37XpqaSfULWNnZVh3kHmPjluux6-qgCk/s400/Abi+2.jpg" width="266" /></span></a></div>
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-20125340369748867082013-11-04T17:10:00.000+00:002013-11-04T17:10:02.102+00:00Portsmouth 3 Exeter City 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDDcI7I1HzCxmhDsnLk4a_uCzQ2lQ4kqFEdw8BL2eVfR-6cGYolnaJ9GFXD269B3W9IcPidoLxSbC6R4nzWEaX-TdlbmP_bo7L8v5UlOC58_OKPUYQUKAelZwRr8CclPn7xEegAbzzoax3/s1600/IMG_3269.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDDcI7I1HzCxmhDsnLk4a_uCzQ2lQ4kqFEdw8BL2eVfR-6cGYolnaJ9GFXD269B3W9IcPidoLxSbC6R4nzWEaX-TdlbmP_bo7L8v5UlOC58_OKPUYQUKAelZwRr8CclPn7xEegAbzzoax3/s320/IMG_3269.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>The famous frontage - the only mock Tudor fronted football ground?</i></div>
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Great opportunity to photograph in a great stadium on Saturday. Portsmouth have had a few bad seasons of late and their fair share of troubles, underlined by the hoardings proclaiming their 2008 FA Cup Final win just five years ago. Their support has held up well though, over 16,000 fans showed up for this one.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGcjNTuQNvZp6a7gGjS-dvJXazSmAX8qJfEN9h5ae6QYyvZvbVGn7tZvKntP9ln5zCHlEDHx56t3m__BOQTcc8uFEGnGY2nqwDzcD6FmwcILpvcwivsMXz6nD7itfRpfEz10_Xg1pfXacd/s1600/IMG_3490.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGcjNTuQNvZp6a7gGjS-dvJXazSmAX8qJfEN9h5ae6QYyvZvbVGn7tZvKntP9ln5zCHlEDHx56t3m__BOQTcc8uFEGnGY2nqwDzcD6FmwcILpvcwivsMXz6nD7itfRpfEz10_Xg1pfXacd/s320/IMG_3490.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Pompey fans - apparently not too keen on Southampton</i></div>
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Horribly windy day and Portsmouth took a three goal lead before City redoubled their efforts and clawed a couple back. At the end there were six minutes added time but it wasn't quite enough, great game though. Even so, possible highlight for being surreal was the speech from the pitch that we were treated to about Charles Dickens at half-time. That was a first! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzL4vS5miTCEZEodsq-LsCj-zyhCtw6SU3Grfqws0xKPpp_MWdT0iXofVR4fAwcXgMl7r2DoTJqPW24uQIW_PRM7U-X04YehmQkrpBcklPumQ-mz_JQwazDGxuuZk4UdNi8Sl02XCzA07S/s1600/IMG_3497.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzL4vS5miTCEZEodsq-LsCj-zyhCtw6SU3Grfqws0xKPpp_MWdT0iXofVR4fAwcXgMl7r2DoTJqPW24uQIW_PRM7U-X04YehmQkrpBcklPumQ-mz_JQwazDGxuuZk4UdNi8Sl02XCzA07S/s320/IMG_3497.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>From the away end the photography is from a pit that you stand in - different</i></div>
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-13850556784572119192013-11-01T19:07:00.000+00:002013-11-01T19:07:40.332+00:00It's like the Ashes with hot dogs...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQhtMEZSCXTVhbUtih-xGYD25y-8HL-w9E9fPCQH89D6s9eASkMGVnQ4PMBjUKMbR3ntZNIcUAwOtKZ3BIRguq1FSZxNBWgOMHAmx4g_9nnlW9ChaHNBipa3cIK1BXTjjg6KTBMcbVnntH/s1600/Angels+Stadium+Panorama_edited-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQhtMEZSCXTVhbUtih-xGYD25y-8HL-w9E9fPCQH89D6s9eASkMGVnQ4PMBjUKMbR3ntZNIcUAwOtKZ3BIRguq1FSZxNBWgOMHAmx4g_9nnlW9ChaHNBipa3cIK1BXTjjg6KTBMcbVnntH/s400/Angels+Stadium+Panorama_edited-3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>The Angels Stadium - one of my favourite pictures from holiday</i></div>
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The Red Sox did it. Or rather, David Ortiz did. A convincing 4-2 win over St Louis and I confess that I watched pretty much all of it. Great stuff.<br />
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We're talking baseball, in case you're wondering. I don't fully understand how it works but having seen a game in the summer, I was immediately hooked. A friend took us to see the LA Angels. We chose Mike Trout as our favourite player before we saw him play because how can you not root for a guy with a name like that? Turns out he's their star player but we didn't know that - honest. "We" beat the Toronto Blue Jays. A brilliant evening that the whole family enjoyed. Normally that would be the end of it but on returning home I found that, due to a BT broadband line, I was able to watch baseball here too. Hence being able to watch the World Series. Had we made the trip to watch the Dodgers instead we'd have had a longer season as they were contenders at one point. But you know how it is, support your local team. <br />
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I see that there is a South West League over here. It comprises four teams, Bristol, Plymouth, Exeter and (oddly) Torbay. If I was ten (or twenty) years younger... As it is maybe I'll take a camera along sometime. Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3018534133378553949.post-25356778871640913162013-10-23T17:04:00.000+01:002013-10-23T17:05:01.599+01:00A lot of rain<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAQyYur2l44ioq1tNI4R8Uoci5GbLSaa4W2DVbhxo_95hkoBorVzgP2jiLja0wn5sNJw8r2rvKL8BYqNznq29TOR9ZuiPfiaO_rclSQ2ftcFFjUBwtEhi0QiY1q4XHy2LCuKZ-cEZCQmbj/s1600/A+lot+of+rain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAQyYur2l44ioq1tNI4R8Uoci5GbLSaa4W2DVbhxo_95hkoBorVzgP2jiLja0wn5sNJw8r2rvKL8BYqNznq29TOR9ZuiPfiaO_rclSQ2ftcFFjUBwtEhi0QiY1q4XHy2LCuKZ-cEZCQmbj/s400/A+lot+of+rain.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
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Anyone still out there? The blog has been sadly neglected for three months. Okay, nearly four. Will catch up and post some short, regular things to catch up a bit. <br />
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Had a great time at the rather marvellous Kassam Stadium in Oxford last night. Having got my Football League media accreditation for the season I made the most of it by sitting in the rain and photographing a goalless draw. Yes, that's rain rather than a grainy effect on the camera. Both teams played reasonable football without ever threatening much in the way of a goal but a good evening none the less. <br />
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<br />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16232220653384743682noreply@blogger.com0