America

January 30, 2017Books, MindfulnessAll the Pretty Horses, Cities of the Plain, Ethan Frome, Jazz, O Pioneers!, Tracksricky

I’ve mentioned it before, but in a scholarship interview to go to the United States to study I was asked to related how I would sum up my idea of Scotland for a curious New Yorker. Social justice and hardcore techno, I said.

Good luck with that. — No, not yer maw; I want to study THE LAW!

I didn’t get that one, funnily enough. But after I honed my interview technique. I did end up going to study in the United States. I started on a J1 student visa before moving on to an H1B visa for foreign workers in specialty occupations which require highly specialized knowledge. [See picture above.]

[Want more of this? Check out the Apoplexy Tiny Letter.]
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I feel you

January 23, 2017Death, Pop Music, Strokebrainwaves, eric sinclair, malcolm middletonricky

Well, I did promise that I’d chat about strokes this week. This is nominally a stroke blog, after all.

Not a heart attack blog, Dave.

David Gahan of Depeche Mode knows what it’s like to die, more or less. And to some degree, so does former teacher Eric Sinclair.

[Sign up for the Apoplexy Newsletter – it’s like experiencing death!] Continue reading I feel you →

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Pop!

January 18, 2017Current Affairs, Economics, EU Referendum, Healthcare, Politics, Stroke, US ElectionsBrexit, Donald Trump, Europe, Inauguration Day, Obamacarericky

It’s Trump -2 days until The Elephant’s Nelly (throwback: 1, 2) is anointed leader of that shining city on a hill.

I’m sure this has always been the case, but “Inauguration Day” is an anagram for “A Gaudy Urination.”

— Ben Greenman (@bengreenman) January 15, 2017

How do you feel? Exultant? Depressed?

Normal?

[apoplectic.me’s been a little stroke-lite recently. Not today, though. And there’s a stroke special coming next week…]

Continue reading Pop! →

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A Cunning Plan

January 9, 2017Death, Pop Music, Reviews, UncategorizedDavid Bowie, James Van der Beek, No Plan, The Last Five Yearsricky

I did have a plan for today’s blog. Honest. It was super-clever. So clever, I’m going to retain it for next week’s post.

A cunning plan, you say? — Mmmf mmmf mmf mmf-mmf mmmf!

But in the meantime, I’ve been asked to do a review of David Bowie’s posthumous download-only No Plan EP that dropped yesterday. So I’ve been working on that today.

[Feeling short-changed by today’s post? There’s more at the Apoplexy Tiny Letter.] Continue reading A Cunning Plan →

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New Year’s Day

January 2, 2017Current Affairs, MindfulnessAndy Murray, David Bowie, Ken Dodd, Lynne Faulds-Wood, Phil Scraton, The Queenricky

Happy New Year!

Hogmanay in Scotland is a time for traditions. First-footing, coal, whisky, Auld Lang Syne, steak pie (apparently), black bun, and all the rest. When I lived in America, New Year’s Eve was the hardest time of year to be away from the country of my birth.

Dude, you've got twelve months! Write a joke! — You mean I don’t have to watch Only An Excuse?! I’m moving, too!

But there’s another tradition that covers all of Scotland, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland that I didn’t miss so much – the New Year’s Honours List.

[Check out the Apoplexy Tiny Letter for more of this sort of thing.
If this is the sort of thing you’re into.] Continue reading New Year’s Day →

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Last Christmas

December 28, 2016Death, Pop MusicGeorge Michael, Heaven 17, LGBTQI, Orgreave, Wham!ricky

Every so often, something happens in the world and you can suddenly see the teenage girl inside the fortysomething professional pol.

So after a lovely family Xmas day, this 80s teen is off to bed feeling a bit sad, but listening to this masterpiece pic.twitter.com/tg2OujWLyO

— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) December 26, 2016

Or for that matter, the snarky fortysomething stroke bloke.

Last week’s post on chairs was meant to segue seamlessly into a post this week about a musician who – like chairs – features surprisingly little on the blog yet has a chameleon-like ability to adapt to the times. Then George Michael died.

[Check out the Apoplexy Tiny Letter for more Scottish humour formulated along classic lines.] Continue reading Last Christmas →

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Three Chairs!!!

December 21, 2016Art, Design, Economics, Mindfulness, Sci-fichairs, Eames, transport, Trumpricky

I’ve been kind of obsessed with chairs for around a decade-and-a-half.

I can’t remember if it started when I got a copy of 100 Masterpieces from the Vitra Design Museum Collection, or if I got the book because the seeds of my obsession had already started to sprout.

In fact, I’m surprised this hasn’t cropped up on the blog before.

Natürlichsollteessein — Hold on, shouldn’t that be one word?

[For things that don’t show up on the blog, check out the apoplexy newsletter.] Continue reading Three Chairs!!! →

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Our Christmas Gift to You

December 12, 2016Birds Fate, Composed Music, Nerd Bait, Pop MusicAlanis Morissette, The Fall, Wet Wet Wetricky

Well, nobody found the Birds Fate Ruins Xmas EP during the past week. Which is hardly surprising, given the story of its creation and deletion. Besides, Prof Paul, Mouthsounds Steph and I have made a point of scouring car boot and stoop sales, second-hand record stores, and record fairs for Birds Fate material for more years than I think any of us care to remember.

It's Broken Mirror or nothing, man. — “Get outta my store, losers!”

But you know how it is with your favourite bands – you don’t listen to them for ages, and then you put ’em on and remember why you loved them in the first place. So it was that the Prof went back to his Birds Fate archive after reading last weeks post.

[More whimsy, more material, more secrets at the Apoplexy Tiny Letter.]

Continue reading Our Christmas Gift to You →

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Birds Fate Ruins Xmas

December 6, 2016Birds Fate, Composed Music, Nerd Bait, Pop MusicCliff Richard, Joan Jett, Sonic Youth, William Hungricky

I’ve just opened the doors on my advent calendars for the sixth of December. “Tobacco” beard oil, a jasmine green tea light ale, and a piece of chocolate bearing the countenance of an appropriately sceptical elf, since you ask.

I swear, I’m not making this up!

He sees when you don't upcycle — You better shop local/Hipster Santa’s coming to town

[For more festive good cheer, sign up for the Apoplectic newsletter.]

Continue reading Birds Fate Ruins Xmas →

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Thanksgiving

November 28, 2016Art, Asthma, Books, Edinburgh, Holidays, MindfulnessOpen University, Reading Communities, Scottish PEN, Talbot Rice Gallery, Thanksgiving, Tony Oursler, Walter Scottricky

On Tuesday, I was invited to an event run by The Open University’s Reading Communities team in association with The Scottish Book Trust’s Book Week Scotland and the Being Human festival of the Humanities. It was called Edinburgh: A City of Readers. As well as my story Valhalla, I was asked to read an extract from an 1830 letter written by the actress, writer, and abolitionist campaigner Fanny Kemble in which she talks of breakfasting with Walter Scott and a small party of other Scottish luminaries of the time.

Apparently, she found it

strange that so varied and noble an intellect should be expressed in the features of a shrewd, kindly, but not otherwise striking countenance.

Walt gets all Teenage Fanclub — Ain’t that enough?!

[For more Walter Scott/Teenage Fanclub mash-ups, head over to the Apoplexy newsletter] Continue reading Thanksgiving →

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Apoplectic Me

the scribblings of a bloke who had a stroke…

America

I feel you

Pop!

A Cunning Plan

New Year’s Day

Last Christmas

Three Chairs!!!

Our Christmas Gift to You

Birds Fate Ruins Xmas

Thanksgiving