The Laura Marling Gig (with pictures).

While sitting down watching the television while browsing on the laptop my sister and I happened to go on the website of Laura Marling to check up on the gigs and if there was one nearby. Most people are unlucky when trying to get Laura Marling tickets because she is frustratingly sold out most of the time. But that night we were lucky. Tickets were on sale for a matinee performance at Birmingham Cathedral. After we saw this exciting piece of information on the site this was the conversation that went between my sister and I,
"Can we afford it?"
"Yeah, just about."
"Do you reckon we should go for it then?"
"YES. ABSOLUTELY!"
"Yeah yeah yeah... but do you think we should do it for definite?"
"Yeah, book it."
"So we are going to do it then?"
"Yeeeeeaaaahhhhhhh."

A month or so later which is today 29th October we drove down to Birmingham to the cathedral. As we sat down waiting for her to come on we talked about why Laura Marling was amazing and what songs we wanted her to do,

1. Salinas.
2. Rambling Man.
3. Night Terrors.
4. Goodbye England.
5. Alas I Cannot Swim.


... and she played all these songs. Between songs she admitted that she should be more organised because she had not written a set list... yet she knew exactly the songs we wanted to hear.

When she came on everyone was transfixed. She acted humbly, talking quietly. While she was singing she was in her own world. As my sister put it, she looked like an angel, just her guitar and her voice. The songs felt very real. I could hear a lot of deep breathing in in the crowd, closed mouth smiles, as if everyone was hypnotised.
What I learnt that she is a month younger than me... and she has all that talent... some people have all the luck.

I love live music, especially music of this quality. If no one has ever known about Laura Marling LISTEN to her. Unlike a lot of artists when people listen to Laura Marling they 'really' do listen.

Absolutely fanstastic.
One more musician I can tick off the list. I hope to see her live again as soon as possible.
The experience is something I can look back on a smile about. Salt of the earth.

Oh yeah and on the way back I saw a fire juggler.

Over and Out.
ED.

New Bass for the Boing Boing chacka chacka Ding Ding.

New bass.

The Difference Between Nationalism and Patriotism plus rambling.

In a discussion stuff was said between myself and a friend (in the mode of 'let's talk about the serious sounding stuff'). The subject came up about nationalism and patriotism and this is what the difference might be as we saw it.

•  Nationalism is about love of your country coupled with the belief that all other countries are inferior. The only love you have is for your country and not for any other.
• Patriotism is about the love of your country coupled with the belief that all other countries are of worth and your country is not totally superior to others.

I am a patriot. Britain and England and the UK blah blah blah is my home. I love the culture, the lifestyle, the freedom, the democracy. But so many other countries are just as wonderful and have affected the world to a great extent. In this modern world we can't have an 'us against them' attitude, an our country against all others attitude. The music and literature I read and listen to comes from Britain, America, Germany, Scandinavian countries, even Turkey, Africa and Hungary. I love all of these countries and all of the produce, be it art or food affects us. No country can be really independent. 

I do not hold my country be be higher and superior to any other country but I am dedicated to helping it and I will work for it's upkeep, doing my bit for humanity as a whole, taking care of some land that humanity uses... for humanity, not merely just for Britain. We are no longer tribes of tight units trying to survive anymore. The world is developing and in order for it to develop further we must work together, country between country for the good of our world that continues to grow smaller and smaller.
I think that fair capitalism is fine. If people or countries are richer than another one that is fine and conforms with nature I suppose. But the rich cannot put themselves in a bubble in my opinion or only care about themselves. The rich have a social responsibility to help tackle problems. They can improve the country and the welfare of its people. 

This whole post is just two or so minutes worth of notes for a conversation. Some of the stuff may be obvious (or you may hate everything that is said here which is fine I suppose) somewhat but it's my blog...soooooooo...ya know.

Just a set of ideas that pop into the brain don't cha know.

Over and Out.

ED.

Redwall and My Nostalgia Binge.

I picked up a book called 'Mattimeo', one in a series of books written by Brian Jacques. I began flicking through my old collection of these series of books known as the Redwall series and relived the moments of magic that I had when I read the books as a child.
For those who you who don't know about the books, the Redwall books are stories about anthropomorphic creatures in a medieval type setting. All of the books surround, in some way, an Abbey in a land named Mossflower Woods. These books were brilliant beyond words. The first book written by Brian Jacques was called Redwall...unsurprisingly. It was about a young mouse that lived in Redwall Abbey, that rose as a warrior and defeated a band of sea rats lead by a one eyed villain known as Cluny the Scourge. These were all pretty amazing.
The stories go through generation upon generation of inhabitants in Redwall Abbey and the surrounding area. There is only one small niggle about the books. Why are quite a lot of rats depicted as the 'bad ones'? Surely you can't be instantly bad because you are a certain species? Brian Jacques has never been know to be a Nazi or a secret racist anyway and the kids that read these books won't give a hoot about these details... I didn't anyway when I was young.

So I am starting to read all of the old stories I read during my childhood.

...and I am writing. Here is an extract to the first bit of a story I have been writing.

"He swung himself into the car and slammed the door. He was going to the home where Fathers Incarnation Remnant was... in the city of Leicester."


 It is just a first draft and you can't tell if the story is good or not from the extract (neither do I and I've read the first draft) but I'm going to develop on it and make it a work on peronius chintiquity...can you tell which two words are made up in this blog post.