Clearing music playlist

I took part in my employer's Clearing process today, acting as the front line for telephone calls from 7:46am in the morning. I had some interesting calls; some not particularly pleasant ones; and some that were just nice.

Throughout the day I made a note of all the songs and song lyrics I thought of, and here they are though not in order (except for the very first lyric):

• You stole the sun form my heart
• I want to be a superhero's sidekick
• High-five, more dead than alive
• Everyday
• I'm so tied, I'm feeling so upset
• It really doesn't matter what clothes I wear
• True happiness lies beyond your fries and happy burger
• Stop me if you think you've heard this one before
• Whatever you want to do, do now or pay later
• To speak to you is a beautiful thing, beautiful thing
• I've been making plan for the future, I feel so unnecessary
• But only for a short time
• What's her name? Virginia plane
• Don't you people ever go to bed
• Hunting tigers out in Indiah
• I've got the skills to pay the bills
• So you go there and you stay there and go home alone
• He knew not what band he mixed
• Call any vegetable, call it by name
• She asked him, why can we not be together, why is it we must part?
• Kicker, kicker conspiracy
• I feel like I am the hunchback of Notre Dame
• This is the end, my friend the end
• As he walks from the grave no one was saved
• I am he who is X, Y, Zee, I carry no card my life is cheap
• I've got a bike you can ride it if you like
• Listen to me, listen, listen
• Wake the town, every one is sleeping, shout, shout it loud
• Bang, bang, knock on the door, another big bang and I'm down on the floor
• I will call my mother and tell her, mother, I am never coming home because I appear to have left a small part of my brain in a field in Hampshire
• My brother knows Karl Marx, he met him eating mushrooms in the peoples park
• Dedicated, dedicated, dedicated
• Fag, cut-throat, you dirty switch, you're on again, all night
• We have the technology to create a new kind of bogey
• I open my curtains at 7am just so you think I'm out with the rest of the men

Yes, but what is the murderer's demographic?

Recently I've been trying to write a brief outline of my reading habits. There's a shop in Bath that offers a book recommendation service based on this and a chat in store, it will be interesting to see what they recommend for me.

While I tried to be as concise and clear as possible one thing I was very, very definite about: I like reading books in sequence. I find it very hard picking up book number two in the series, or that the book in my hand that seems really good is actually is the sequel to something the author wrote five years previously. 

It is rare for me to read something out of sequence, even when the book is a freebie (I have a review copy of Peter F Hamilton's Judas Unchained, I bought and read Pandora's Star before looking in it). The only exception seems to be when the book in question is out of print or impossible to find, like Georges Simenon's Maigret series. There's some 75 novels for Maigret alone*, even when they appear in shops it won't necessary be in sequence (I know, why can't secondhand bookshops plan to stock only the books one is looking for, right?), or the title is the revised title. Gladly, Penguin is republishing the books in (a kind of) sequence, so today I bought third in the series from Waterstones in Leeds.

I didn't check this time, there's a corner of the shop that I've never been a fan of. 'Cosy crime' as a genre-definition is truly horrible. The only true cosy crime is the orange and purple number sometimes found in certain tea shops and charity shops. 'Cosy' crime is supposed to bring together Marple and Poirot and Hamish Macbeth and Maigret, yet when one actually reads them the crimes aren't 'cosy', the motives and the reasons are plain human nature, and human nature is messy. 

My relationship with crime fiction has slowly changed, moving from the sensationalism to the exploration and speculation on human nature. My relationship with Doctor Who has changed to, from the scary, behind-the-sofa Urbankans, to a more enjoyable, not-so-scary-but-still-a-little-bit speculation on human nature (again, I wonder where all this speculation is coming from?).

Ten Little Aliens, Stephen Cole, The Late Monsieur Gallet, Georges Simenon,
Waterstone's Leeds

* There's some 400 Simenon books. Maigret is possible his most famous work (it has been translated across the world, there's even a rather nice sounding Japanese series from the 1970s, Michael Gambon played Jules Maigret in ITV's 1990s version). More information here.

Not that Slightly Foxed, but a slightly foxed

I took my time, I circled around, read the contemporaries, made myself aware of some of the stories via radio and TV, eventually I got a MR James book.

The trip out of Scotland was fun. The rain was heavy and I managed to mishear a direction that resulted in a drive through in Edinburgh and Leith, but arriving in Berwick meant a trip to our regular chip shop (Canon, Castlegate). There's lots of books to be found in Berwick, with a couple of secondhand bookshops and charity shops. Berrydin Books is always worth a look, and I came away with an Ursula le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven. I'd never read much beyond the four Earthsea novels (there are four, I know most people know it as a trilogy but there's a fourth and it's the best in the series) [I haven't just stuck my tongue out in defiance, honest], so this will be a welcome addition to the growing 'to read' pile by my bed.

A trip through various charity shops and a market stall named Slightly Foxed but not the Slightly Foxed of London. Mysteriously I can't remember where, it might have been the heart-stopping British Heart Foundation, the blood-red Red Cross shop, or the plain and not very chilling Shelter, but I found a collection of MR James stories. I knew about James for a while, he's been mentioned by a couple of authors I like, and I've seen some Christmas TV adaptations, so this volume will be another good addition to the pile by the bed.

The rain held off. The old bridge looked fantastic against the new one. The ghostly closed shop frontages where slightly scary (in a broken-down, world economy way).

The Lathe of Heaven, Ursula le Guin, Collected Stories, MR James
Berrydin Books, Castlegate, Berwick
Canon Fish and Chips, Castlegate, Berwick

Almost a disaster

After much walking-past-the-front-of-the-shop-to-see-if-the-owners-were-in I spotted one of them. I knew what I wanted to ask, I'd seen the book four days earlier and really wanted to add it to my collection, and yet when I was last in the shop my wife and I were the only people around. No one to pay money to, no one to say what a lovely bookshop we were in.

The book was The High Girders, John Prebble's account of the Tey River Disaster of 1879. I had heard of the disaster though didn't know much. The book's wide claim of the decline of British engineering will be interesting to see if Prebble can demonstrate his argument. Though I think the desire to buy the book is down to two things.

I was in Dundee earlier in the week.

And, I was thwarted in my efforts to purchase the book earlier this week.

The High Girders: The Tey River Disaster 1879, John Prebble
Callander secondhand bookshop

Europa!

I have only been to Stirling once, to visit the castle during the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1986. I don't recall it much, a vague impression of a long and cobbled road leading up towards the castle lined with antique shops with porcelain in their windows.

Almost thirty years later and only part of my recollection is incorrect. Stirling is a good wandering town, once you find your sense of direction. There's an art gallery underneath the castle mount that has a good history of the area (and there is a lot of history bound up in that part of Scotland).

Sadly though it was a bit of a whistle stop visit. Lunch, a couple of bookshops and record stores, then on to the next destination.

While we were in Stirling I also bought The Man With The Golden Arm (Stirling Books) and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Oxfam).

Leggy Mambo, Cud, Wake of the Flood/From The Mars Hotel, Grateful Dead, Big Bang!, We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Going to Use It, Southside, Texas
Europa Records, Stirling

The most friendliest of librarians [not in the Fahrenheit 451 sense]

There is a place in Scotland where I was able to do something I never, ever thought I would do. I touched while reading a first edition version of Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queen. It was a kind of of a good feeling. It is also an odd feeling, the book is worth a lot of money (certainly more than I am accustomed to when handling books), and yet the Faerie Queen was practically thrust into my hands to read.

Where was I? This was an unusual sensation for me, very unusual. Aside from the Queen I was told I could read through parts of an English language bible that predates the King James Bible. I passed up on this for the Discovery of Witchcraft. The first few wild sentences of that book, published in the 17th century, more than made up for it.

Anyway, where was I? The Library at Innerpeffray, which was set up during the Enlightenment to lend books to the public. At the time, the most welcoming of staff informed us, literacy was at close to 75 percent of the Scottish population, with England at less than 50 percent (I am a little sketchy on this, so don't quote me in a dissertation or other academic journal). The Library is situated near a bend in a river, not far from the St Andrew's Golf Course, and was lending first editions to the public from 1680 to the mid-1960s.

I suggest you visit and see for yourself.

Also, on the travels today I bought the Brightonomicon (PDSA in Callander) and Renegade by Mark E Smith (British Heart Foundation Scotland). Renegade is the second book I own relating to the Fall, though this is about Mark E Smith himself (speaking for himself) rather than a collection of stories based on the stories in Fall songs. I was put on to Renegade by a former colleague who put me on to the best ever remix of a James song (Sabres of Paradise's Jam J, forty minutes of absolute dub heaven), so this book will be good.

The type of recordshop I'd be a customer of...

A trip to a new city, a visit to the wild unknown beyond normal travelling distance from the fair city of Leeds. What could make it better than the sheer lovely sense of exploration? Why yes, unexpectedly finding a record shop that turns out to be rather good, rather, rather good.

We're in Scotland, for a holiday that took in the Commonwealth Games, the Hill House in Helensburgh, and Dundee. This is my first visit, and aside from an odd experience of contraflow in roadworks, it was enjoyable. There's lots to see though to be honest one of the best bits was turning in towards the car park to spot a sign for a record shop, Grouchos Records. It will be a good visit.

The shop is big, with lots of vinyl to flick through. I did a lot of flicking though thought I couldn't find what I was looking for, Tangerine Dream. So I asked, only to be shown a clearly marked section for the band. Oh well, customers can be idiots.

I liked Grouchos, there is a nice sense of care for music and the scene in the shop. There's lots of rarities and lots of decently priced normal records.

Also in Dundee: amongst the charity shops and other amusements of Dundee (you really must go to the Discovery Centre, go now, go early, go often), I purchased Doctor Who: The Silent Stars Go By from a Red Cross shop.

Dare, The Human League, Disco, Pet Shop Boys, Rubycon, Stratosfear, Tangerine Dream, Sunshine On Leith, The Proclaimers, Greatest Hits, Steely Dan, Professional Widow, Tori Amos, 20 Golden Greats, Diama Ross, Greatest Hits, The Rolling Stones
Groucho Record Store, Dundee