Crumbs In The Butter #1 - Boombox Blues

After a long day in school/ work etc., the train/ bus ride should be an enjoyable one- one where you can finally relax some and clear your head whilst looking at the lack of scenery. And it is- until the Ugg wearing/ Mohawk sporting/ scruffy school kid (take your pick) strides on and sits down. You watch with baited breath as they reach into their pockets (please God let them be checking the time, their make-up, anything but that!) and then you see it. Like an Ace being pulled out the hand of your opponent as you gloat about your impending victory, the rectangular devil reflects your despairing reflection in its inviting chrome body paint. As you hope the thing has suddenly died or forgot how to work the first beat ripples through the carriage. Game over. This dreaded object is, of course, the iPod.

Before I continue, I'd like to say something- I have an iPod. Ironic. But before you dismiss this rant, let me continue. iPods are wonderful, brilliant, revolutionary inventions and I cherish mine like a child. However... there are two types of iPod owners- the respectable type, which I like to class myself as; and the annoying, loud mouthed and seemingly deaf type- which public transport is crawling with. Many a time I have slipped my iPod on and listened to great artists such as Bryan Adams, Queen, Foreigner, Whitesnake, The Beatles and The Eagles- with my headphones on and the volume respectable, i.e. enough for myself to enjoy a decent sound yet not loud enough for anyone else to hear it. It's a personal thing music and I like to keep it that way.

So why, may I ask you, my Ugg wearing/ Mohawk sporting/ scruffy school kid friend can I hear yours when you're sitting at the front of the bus? Why have earphones when all they do is make the songs sound like a muffled boombox because the volume is so high? If you're going to play that shit that loud, take the earphones out- at least then your utterly depressing tunes will be in clarity and I may stay sane for that fraction of a second longer. If it were The Beatles or Michael Jackson or another acclaimed artist cutting through my soul then I may loosen up, but it never is. It's always some rapper with a name like Professor Bizzle or the latest suped-up club anthem sung by Alvin and the Chipmunks or worse still Slipknot. Not only does it annoy me, and probably everyone else, it's disrespectful. All I ask is keep your tunes to yourself before I go grey please.

Rant over.

A Glossier Landscape

Over the last few years, Liverpool has slowly transformed from an old, tired looking and once great city to a sophisticated, sleek, lean and modern hot spot for business, tourism and living. This makes me happy, delighted even, that my city is once again taking its rightful place the worlds elite cities.

However, more recently, the even more familiar landscape of my borough (or local area) has, quite radically, begun to change. Again, I'm pleased that progress is happening and these days I guess I should be happy that any money at all is being invested in my area. However, I can't help but feel genuine sadness when I pass the places that once stood and gave me the memories I grew up with.

My school, which gave me some of the best years of my life and which we fought endlessly to keep open, has been wiped off the face of the land and replaced by a glossy, angular multi-million pound state of the art leisure centre. Our 'rival' school, which many of my friends went to, has also been demolished and replaced by another ultra modern learning centre. I passed my old house a few weeks back only to find it gone, new houses being built in its place. The landscape seems to be getting ever more angular, ever more shiny, ever more eco-friendly and ever more advanced. That's fine in the whole grand scheme of things, but I can't help but feel down knowing I can never re-visit the places I grew up with.

Twinkle Twinkle...

It was around 10p.m. last night when I seen them. Before that I couldn't tell you the last time. It was a cool, breezy night and I initially started my late night journey in the usual fashion- head down, hands in pockets and coat zipped up, trying to shield out the cutting wind that seems to enter through every gap or hole present. However, tonight wasn't as cold as most nights. Therefore, I relaxed a little, allowed my shoulders to slump and finally diverted my glare from the cracked, mundane pavement flags and into the distance. As I explored the landscape, something caught my eye. A slight twinkle in the upper reaches of my vision. I looked up and seen a beautiful array of stars. Some were brighter than others, some were bigger and some 'twinkled' more frequently than those that sat idle.

City living (as well as the poor weather) rarely allows us these unique, intimate moments and I've always found staring into the wide universe an exhilarating experience. Forget your troubles for a minute and realize what you're looking at and realize that we are so insignificant in the grand scheme of things that any minor troubles we may be experiencing soon seem rather pathetic. Man will always strive to create the most beautiful things in history; The Mona Lisa, The Kiss, The Weeping Woman- none of these compare to Nature's work.

Thatcher Mk.2

After a surprisingly normal bus ride home, I turned the TV on and skipped through a few channels. BBC, ITV and Channel 4 all had their usual news bulletins running and all had the same headline- NHS cuts. 55,000 jobs are to be axed as part of Government cuts. Having recently spent a lot of time in various hospitals visiting my grandad, this whole situation makes me sick. Every singly person I met in any of those hospitals were absolutely amazing and did a brilliant job. And now we have top class doctors and nurses who have spent years working hard and studying to get where they are today simply being axed with no plan B mentioned.

I can't help but see Thatcher's face that little more clearly each time that pompous, arrogant and deluded 'leader' of our country gets his face on tele. First it was Uni cuts, then all sorts of allowance cuts, then school cuts (a brand new state of the art school in my area almost closed after just a few months of operation and having spent millions building it) and now it's the jobs. What in the hell is this country going to be like in 10 years if these two deluded halfwits manage to stay in power? Terrifying thought.

That's not all, the next clip showed our David strolling around Libya like he was the saviour himself. I despair for this country while these has beens (William Hague anyone?) 'run' our society. He can't even run his own country and he's globetrotting around the middle east trying to solve theirs. So much for better schools, education and the NHS being 'ringfenced'. I honestly can't fathom the reason as to why anyone would be tempted to vote for these people. Why? Maybe it's me, if you did vote please enlighten me. Conservatives are just that- they conserve what they have and play it safe; it's happening already with all the cuts. Instead of investing money they're saving it.

This city (Liverpool) is and probably always be pro Labour so maybe I'm biased, but no one from this city will ever forget the misery David  Margaret Thatcher unleashed on our city (and everywhere else) which affected everyone. Mention her name here and you'll see by the reaction the legacy she left. Unfortunately, it seems more and more likely that 'call me Dave' is carrying on where she left off.

Crumbs In The Butter #0 - An Intro

This will be my second feature, though won't have a set fixture throughout the week. Basically, if something's really irritated me I'll spill my feelings here. Readers of Day Dreams and a Pencil will have probably already experienced this as  I often have a good rant over there. Scallies, society and politics usually get me going, as if they deliberately do things just to turn my hair that bit greyer each week. Only the most infuriating things will appear under this heading so you can expect to see them four words often! Hopefully you will agree or disagree with my stance and, as always, I welcome your comments!

Issue 1 will arrive shortly, and I have a bus ride tomorrow- if the first issue isn't out by then it almost certainly will be once I get home (my followers know how much I hate buses!)

Trending Tuesday - Christchurch

Twitter can be a great tool that allows us to stay in touch with the biggest matters happening right now anywhere in the world. Its 'Trends' list allows us to quickly look up the most controversial and discussed about topics happening right now in under a minute. Therefore, I've decided to base my first full feature to it. 

Every Tuesday I will take one topic that is trending that day and give my views and opinions on it- I encourage you to give yours too, whether you agree or disagree!

This week there's the usual Justin Bieber tripe- I wonder what celebrity he's smugly grinning next to today?- honestly, I just don't care. But before this turns into a personal vendetta against Bieber- which could easily happen- lets focus on the more serious topic of the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand. After a devastating earthquake reading 6.3 on the richter scale hit the beautiful surroundings of Christchurch, news started emerging that 65 people were killed- though more are missing and thought to be buried under tonnes of rubble. Upon doing my research, I learnt that on September 4th 2010, an even greater earthquake hit, only this time on the outskirts of the larger cities and therefore causing less fatalities and injuries. 

It seems the weather and mother nature has gone very strange over the last year, I can't remember a wetter, colder or windier year than last. Whatever the cause, it seems as though each month a disaster comes our way resulting in mass death or injury. Floods, blizzards and earthquakes have been common occurances over the past 12 months yet the cause is unknown- global warming? Not sure, I'll write an article dedicated to this soon. 

I can only send my best wishes and hope to those affected by this disaster and although 65 people lost their lives it could have been a lot worse. Let's hope them missing are recovered safe and sound, though fatalities are expected of course, and hopefully the weather will start to pipe down- as well as the cathedral being fully restored (as pictured).

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog. Chances are, a link from my other blog -DayDreamsAndaPencil- has brought you here. The creation of this blog by no means signals that the end of Day Dreams, I will still be updating it as regularly as before, as art is my first love so it just means I have to produce extra content for this blog. But I love a challenge and I see this blog as the perfect way to satisfy my other addiction- writing. I love writing about anything, and that's what I plan to do.

The contents of this blog will range from my views on a current hot topic, a review of a film I went to see or maybe it will just act as a good place to express something/anything that may be on my mind at the time- rather like an online diary. Simply put, this has a more personal touch to it than my art blog and I look forward to sharing other interests and topics with you. Don't be alarmed if for the first few weeks certain elements of the site change as I can't resist tinkering with things and am, annoyingly, a bit of a perfectionist. Hope you enjoy reading and thanks for all the support I get on Day Dreams And a Pencil!