Category Archives: Pop Music

London

June 27, 2016Art, Design, Economics, EU Referendum, Politics, Pop Music, Reviews, Travel#EUref, London, MoMA, Switch House, Tate Modern, The Hivericky

A day after the result of the #EUref came in, Mrs Stroke Bloke and I hopped on a train to London. Like the narrator of this wee ditty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy8d1bQYvmM

“Smoke lingers ’round your fingers / Train, heave on to Euston…”

(Smiths sceptics might find the above performance surprisingly muscular)

It was, y’see, an opportunity to check out an exclave of the soon-to-be nation of #Scotlond. By this time, Scotland’s First Minister had already reached out to the Mayor of London to discuss how their remain-voting areas could ameliorate the impact of Brexit. Continue reading London →

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May Day

May 2, 2016Art, Composed Music, Design, Edinburgh, Mindfulness, Pop Music, Science, StrokeBeltane, Charles Jencks, Derrick May, Haymarket Riots, International Workers Day, Theatre Damfino, Tom Stoppardricky

It’s the Early May Bank Holiday in Scotland today. Ian Wiki confirms that May Day is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival.

The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian times, with the Floralia, festival of Flora.

This is worth watching — Flora: the Roman goddess of partially hydrogenated sunflower oil-based spread

In explaining the origins of May Day, Ian comes up with all sort of specifics, but kind of slides over the idea that – as Longsufferingreaderoftheblogpaul wrote in a comment to a particularly off-the-wall post – time is social. Harvests. Day and night. Diurnal clocks. Biorhythms and cycles. All that mushy wetware bio stuff I never learned but is real.

Cornwall in England definitely gets into that side of things:

[On May Day,] Padstow holds its annual Hobby Horse day of festivities, believed to be one of the oldest fertility rites in the UK.

Continue reading May Day →

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Sign o’ the Times

April 25, 2016Birds Fate, Death, Mindfulness, Nerd Bait, Pop MusicBilly Paul, Birds Fate, David Bowie, Prince, The Smiths, Thunderclap Newmanricky

Sutekh the Destroyer‘s been at it again this week. Victoria Wood died on April 20. And then of course, Prince died on April 21.

Not the worst misstep in his cover art history, by a long way — Dude. You’ve got your dates waaaay off.

If you want to skip straight to the peaches and cream,
there’s a cover of Prince’s When Doves Cry
by early-nineties indie stumblebums Bird’s Fate
at the bottom of the page…. Continue reading Sign o’ the Times →

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Panama

April 12, 2016Edinburgh, Fiction, Politics, Pop Music, Scottish IndependenceAnnie Mechin, Daniel Defoe, Edinburgh Spy Week, Reggie Watts, Stella Rimingtonricky

Well, if there’s one thing that this week’s news has encouraged me to do, it’s go off and listen to some good music. With a hat-tip to Longsufferingreaderoftheblogpaul for sharing it aaaaages ago, here’s Reggie Watts’ cover of Van Halen’s Panama:

https://youtu.be/xetZZLmmEw8?t=1m30s

Where the original is – I’m told – about a race car, Reggie’s version is about the country. What do you think about, when you think about Panama?

[For more absurdity, whimsy, and brain droppings, check out the Apoplexy Tiny Letter.] Continue reading Panama →

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The Gospel of the Unicerosaur

April 5, 2016Composed Music, Edinburgh, Fiction, Nerd Bait, Pop MusicEdinburgh International Science Festival, Illicit Ink, Nerd Bait, Unicerosaurusricky

As (kind of) trailed by yesterday’s post, apoplectic.me is simulcasting with nerdbaitband.com this week, where Longsufferingreaderoftheblogpaul writes…

Hi, Friends of NerdBait!

Our new piece, The Gospel of the Unicerosaur, is our most exciting and ambitious work to date. We are really excited to share it with you.

So, let’s just cut to the chase… Continue reading The Gospel of the Unicerosaur →

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Embargo!

April 4, 2016Art, Composed Music, Nerd Bait, Pop Music, Sciencericky

Today’s post goes up tomorrow. But here’s a teaser:

Yep, right about now the next Nerd Bait – creators of The Treacherous Brain and The Wee Mermannie – happening is happening. Or about to happen.

We all look forward to sharing it with you – stay tuned.

APOPLECTIC.ME – TOMORROW: YESTERDAY’S NEWS, TODAY!

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Highlander

March 28, 2016Composed Music, Fiction, Movies, Nerd Bait, Poetry, Pop Music, Reviews, TravelDavid Bowie, Highlander, Queen, Sean Connery, Strontianricky

Mrs Stroke Bloke and I spent this past weekend in the Highlands. More precisely, we were visiting family in Strontian, on the banks of Loch Sunart. One of my cousins asked if I would be writing about our trip in the blog this week. And since she took me to see David Bowie’s Sound and Vision tour stop in Ingliston in 1990, I could hardly say “No.”

It's looking a bit past its best, Dave. — “Scotland, stay with us. I mean, do you know how much this coat cost?!”

But first, please note that on Monday, 4 April, I’ll be presenting Nerd Bait’s latest (and maddest) concept EP, The Gospel of Unicerosaurus, as part of Illicit Ink’s show at the Edinburgh International Science Festival!!!

Continue reading Highlander →

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The Hofstadter-Moebius Loop

March 7, 2016Art, Composed Music, Nerd Bait, Pop Music, Sci-fi, Science, StrokeApollo 21, Edinburgh International Science Festival, Illicit Ink, Unicerosaurusricky

The last two posts on the #EUreferendum weren’t really what I wanted to write about. But the things that are really exciting me right now needed to be put off a bit because they don’t happen for another month or so. And I didn’t really want to bang on about them for a full two months.

Like, shit or get off the pot, man — “Dude, you’ve been at this for two months…”

Finally, though, I can get some release. With respect to one of these events, at least.

[More banging on in the Apoplexy Tiny Letter, here.] Continue reading The Hofstadter-Moebius Loop →

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The State of Origins, Pt. 3

February 2, 2016Birds Fate, Dr. Who, Nerd Bait, Politics, Pop MusicAnthems, Hamilton, Lil Wayne, Magna Carta, Paul Sinha, Planet of the Spiders, Swimming Songricky

Before last week’s jaunt to Germany, I’d been zooming out from the origin and reinvention stories of stroke survivors. Instead, I was focusing on the origin stories, anthems, and mottoes of countries: (1, 2)

Latin is a language/As dead as dead can be/First it killed the Romans/Now it's killing me — Looks like quis te impune lacessit, mate. If you know what I mean?!! AMIRITE?!?!

[Get apoplectic.me’s more whimsical and personal cousin here.] Continue reading The State of Origins, Pt. 3 →

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Intermission

January 25, 2016Art, Mindfulness, Nerd Bait, Pop Music, Rehab, TravelDüsseldorf, Kling Klang Studio, Kraftwerk, Kunstpalast, Rheinturm, stroke recoveryricky

Stroke Bloke and The Fabulous Beth spent Thursday and Friday nights
in Düsseldorf, Germany…

Particularly in Rushmore. — Ja, denn ich liebe die Schwarzweißfotos!

…and our little break means a pause in considering how countries relate a vision of themselves through anthems (1, 2). ‘Cos that’s a big subject, as illustrated by The Prof’s awesome comment to last week’s post.

As we dashed headlong through Düsseldorf, I was instead reminded of #strokier posts. And, indeed, a tweet tweeted from my bed at The Hospital for Joint Diseases during my in-house rehabilitation:

Goal for end of the year. Jogging in Prospect Park.

— Ricky Brown (@ricky_ballboy) November 15, 2012

Continue reading Intermission →

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Apoplectic Me

the scribblings of a bloke who had a stroke…

Category Archives: Pop Music

London

May Day

Sign o’ the Times

Panama

The Gospel of the Unicerosaur

Embargo!

Highlander

The Hofstadter-Moebius Loop

The State of Origins, Pt. 3

Intermission