What ever happened to plate-spinning acts?

It's been a fairly quiet weekend, for which I am quite grateful. Not sure if 'burning the candle at both ends' is the appropriate phrase, but I've had quite a few late nights in the last couple of weeks - a mixture of rehearsals, evenings in the pub that have gone on just a bit longer than they should have etc. So I took the opportunity Saturday and Sunday to recharge and do nothing more than have a wander around and a trip to the gym etc, and make use of my extra hour to sleep in a bit.

From here on in, weekends are starting to hot up with more rehearsals - this year I am doing a good number of gigs at the Albert Hall with London Concert Chorus, plus Voxcetera's Christmas concert on 13th (only one gig but lots of music to learn, plus at least one Xmas gig with Balham Ukulele Society - which will be songs I know, but do not know on the Uke. So there is a lot of practising to do as well. This may come across as a moan - it really isn't - I love doing this sort of stuff (otherwise why would I...) but put it on top of the usual social whirl and it all gets quite busy.

Other than that, work continues on apace. We've had a number of people out over the last month - a mixture of conferences and holidays and the colds and 'flu that are always around at this time of year. I'm hoping that now everyone is back I will be able to move things forward rather than just feel like one of those circus plate-spinning acts. (What happened to them - as a kid you couldn't go a fortnight without seeing one on TV - presumably they are all working in call centres or stacking shelves?)

And it's my birthday next week - which really isn't a big deal - I've reached the age where even the ones ending in a '5' aren't a big deal (this one doesn't) - it's pretty much only the decades you want to commemorate. But it's an excuse for a bit of a celebration if I want one, and to buy a nice book or similar (I need *no* excuse for the latter of course).

Anyway, that's a quick 'no news' that his filed my lunch break. Will write a little more later in the week.

Five Years

When I was 24 a friend of mine was killed in the street.

I can never know exactly what happened, but my friend was (in my considerable past experience) entirely non-violent and someone hit him outside a fast-food restaurant one night. His head hit the ground and basically that was that. 

With really only evidence from the puncher, who portrayed the incident as a ‘fight’, there was never going to be a murder charge here, and the judge eventually handed down a five-year sentence for manslaughter. Of course, it is only post-conviction that you find out that the guy has only come out of prison two weeks before and has ‘previous’ as long as your arm.

I felt five years was light, and looked into it a little – and actually it was at least consistent with sentences given out in similar cases at that time. Meaning that if it was too short, all such sentences were too short. But still, five years (and out in half that) seemed a small price for a life.

You know where I am going here don’t you?

One punch. A fall. Five years.

A gun. Several shots through a locked door (you do wonder why she felt the need to lock it don’t you?). Five years.

OK – different legal systems and twenty years apart (so not a like-for-like) and it does seem South Africa has a more-relaxed attitude to death than we do here. But it seems a very small price to pay for ending someone’s life in the way Oscar Pistorius did.

Don’t know about you, but I feel no sense of justice today.

I have two other thoughts here.

Firstly – guns never help. Without a gun there can be a lot of shouting, but a gun and an angry man escalates things rapidly.

Secondly – televising trials turns them into a circus, and that is no way to do justice.

A reminder

Nothing posted here for a little while but I have been busy elsewhere - remember my music reviews page which is here and which has got reviews of the James Taylor gig from a couple of weeks ago, and a couple of more recent things too.

Sweet baby James

Having separated off my music blogs I am going to cross-post for a while to help those who want to find it.

So here is my review of last weeks James Taylor gig at the Royal Albert Hall.

http://rossonmusic.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/sweet-baby-james.html

Enjoy.

And then there were three

Greetings. Following some feedback from my loyal reader I've decided to split the blog in three. I will leave the previous posts here, but will copy key ones across at some point, so everything historical will still be here.

Why, you ask? Nothing sinister. I just find that I have a desire to write on three very different fronts. Some of you will want to read on each of these, but some won’t, and it might be easier if I compartmentalise them a little bit.

One is to carry on with what has been going on in my life. That will be here – though I will link to the others from here too.

I have also tended to do a bit of writing around gigs and other outings which I have tended to review. The first of those will be up shortly, particularly as I went to three gigs last week and owe you a report on each.

The third and most separate is the more political musings that I feel compelled to write. In the aftermath of Clacton, and with only seven months to the general election this is an area where I suspect more involvement coming up. Watch this space for those.

In terms of the general stuff, life is pretty good – just very busy. That explains the week’s delay since the last blog post. When I went through the ‘big changes’ in my life earlier this year I deliberately took on lots of stuff – mainly musical – to make sure I did not have too many lonely and empty evenings. It’s now got to the point where I have plenty to do, and am comfortable enough that the odd quiet evening is either fully occupied with domestic chores, or is a welcome chance to read a book or have a long and relaxing bath.

This is great news – not that I was worried about being on my own, but it is nice to know that I am coping with it just fine.

So – anyway. My music-only blog is here and the new posts will be up soon. Enjoy

...when you're the driver of a train

I'm not really sure where the last week has gone. I was convinced it was only a few days since my last blog post, and it was all the way back on Wednesday.

What makes this even more difficult to fathom is that I've not been out every minute since then. Yes, a gig and a party pretty much booked up Saturday. Nice to catch up with a very good friend who is off to work in New York for a year, and I think I managed to conceal my huge levels of jealousy quite well.

But Sunday wasn't too full – I easily had time to write something. In part I think I am clearly getting more used to living on my own – the early need to fill every minute and keep really busy has gone. Don’t get me wrong, I still like to be busy and have never coped well with sitting indoors and vegetating, but four months ago a free night would have had me in a panic – now it’s a welcome chance for a rest and a long bath with a good book.

That’s another issue – I bought lots of books for the summer on the grounds I was bound to have time to read them, and I'm pretty much through them all. Most had the unifying feature that they were under a quid on Kindle, but actually there were only a couple that I discarded as not worth reading on the way. And I have consciously tried to stop hoarding books – I used to own hundreds which I never re-read, but couldn't bring myself to get rid of. They have pretty much all gone now and someone else can get some pleasure from them. So I need to replenish stocks in the coming days. Recommendations welcome.

I've a few days to make my mind up as my Kindle has also decided to pack up this week. It works, but only on Wireless rather than 3G, and has the battery life of an IPhone 3. Amazon are being very good and sending a new one – but it makes me realise how much I use the thing – “don’t know what you've got till it’s gone” etc.

Anyway, feel better for putting something up here – even if it is just a quick update written while eating my sandwich. I will write in more detail later in the week with a review of James Taylor at the Albert Hall.

The heat is on

The signs went up in my building yesterday to say that the communal heating system would be switched on at 8pm today, it being October 1^st. I don’t think this involves any kind of ceremony, by which perhaps resident Arthur Smith cuts a ribbon or pushes a big fake button. But it's an indication that winter is coming*.

Although it hasn't felt like that over the last couple of days. Coming back from a rehearsal late last night across London it was still warm as it approached midnight.

Coming up for me on Saturday is Voxcetera's autumn concert – please drop in if you happen to be in Muswell Hill at lunchtime – it’s a free one and has a wide variety of music so there is as they say something for everyone. And then next week I am going to see the legendary James Taylor at the Albert Hall. I have never seen him live, but am expecting the smooth rich voice and a tour through his high-quality back catalogue. If it turns out he is debuting his new thrash jazz album (a la Spinal Tap’s change of direction) I will be most disappointed!

And to complete the musical tour, I have my first rehearsal for Christmas things the week after. On the 12^th of October. I know this feels really early, but at least we have the excuse that we do need to rehearse stuff. It’s not like the shops merrily stacking up the baubles and Christmas chocolate for the next three months. Rest assured, I won’t be loading up my IPod Christmas playlists for a good couple of months.

I need to start thinking about Christmas I guess. It’s a time of the year that I love – concerts, presents, a decent rest and general peace and goodwill etc. Going to be a little different though this year given my change in domestic circumstances, and so I need to figure out what’s the best way of doing things. The kids are now firmly latched into the teen/young adult Christmas concept of excess and materialism, so magical present unwrapping hasn't been a thing for a while, but it’s these set piece things that are bound to feel a little odd.

And that’s pretty much the diary for the next week or so. I was planning to write something about the UK political party conferences, but even the headlines have been such a turn-off that I have completely failed to engage with them this year. And that goes for all of them. Nobody is really saying anything different. Rises in the minimum wage so that within five years people will be a little less close to starving, changes to complex pension regimes that I have no desire of trying to understand, and whatever it was the Lib Dems offered (was it to do with poodles or did I dream that?). It’s not exciting stuff is it? 

I love the fact that the Scots seem to have got real political excitement and engagement out of their referendum – but wonder that it will take for us to feel the same. 

*yes, this is a sneaky meta-data reference to try and get Game of Thrones traffic to my blog – sorry.