nigeblog

I’m really sorry we lost Ed Piskor, Graham Thorpe and Steve Albini this year.

I hadn’t been expecting Donald Trump to win and that’s what I told my kids and friends before the election. Once Joe Biden pulled out of the race I just couldn’t see how more people would vote Trump than in 2016 or 2020. Shows what I know… I guess the lesson here is it’s very difficult to know what’s going on in another country, which is one of the reasons I am planning to consume a lot less news in 2025.

I didn’t campaign for Labour in our election, but I was very pleased they won such a big majority. The mood of the country is still essentially pessimistic which leaves us vulnerable to our own populist front, but surely in time things will start to improve.

I’ve gone a whole calendar year without working and another full year without foreign travel. I’m seriously committed to work and travel next year.

I’ve lost weight through 5:2 fasting and am back to my pre-pandemic self. I’m sticking with it through next year because 1. it feels good and 2. I’m fast approaching normal weight for someone my size.

And I achieved an average 10k daily steps for the second year running, or should that be walking. I’m letting go of the step goal for next year, but I do intend to keep active and to do regular long walks with Jan, but 10k daily just takes too much time out of my day.

At this time of year lots of folk produce their top tunes of the year. Well here’s mine, but instead of this year, it’s a top 25 of 1984 when 17 year old me was actually a bit more up to date with current music 😉

Open share for importing in to your own streaming service here: https://www.tunemymusic.com/share/05HyXGISZz

I’ve tried to reflect my taste back in the day, which in fairness is pretty much my taste now. There’s only 23 tracks in the playlist because Marc Riley with the Creepers and Tools You Can Trust don’t appear in any streaming services. Come on Cherry Red, give us the Marc Riley compilation we’re all waiting for… Cure by Choice and Show Your Teeth are the missing tunes.

I’m trying to migrate from Spotify to Tidal for artist royalty reasons, but I think there’s likely to be some opposition from the other users of my family account. This playlist was created in Tidal with the share generated using TuneMyMusic. Any feedback much appreciated.

#ATuneADay

A few recent sad things:

1. this piece by Grace Dent in the Guardian at the weekend. Like her I’m letting go of trying to recreate the Christmas my now deceased parents used to give me
2. this song by Lana Del Ray that my kids love so much. She can really bring the emotion
3. the dream I had where I was working in the Imperial College bookshop, advising a young bald man in a camper van not to drop out in his fourth year

#Moore #Morrison #Morrissey

I liked these stickers someone applied to a comms cabinet in the High Street

I don’t really know Rob Beckett’s comedy work, but I was intrigued by this profile in the Observer, particularly the idea of going to bed each night and asking yourself the question “Did I enjoy today, yes or no?”

And at this point in my life I think I would answer yes pretty much every single day.

Spotted in B and M last Friday, the first marked down mince pies of the season.

All my wisdom comes from football writing 😉

From this article by Jonathan Lieu in today’s Guardian:

There is an old Finnish proverb: onnellisuus on se paikka puuttuvaisuuden ja yltäkylläisyyden välillä, which means “happiness is a place between scarcity and abundance”.

I could hardly believe my ears when this Subhumans track started playing in the Blue Blazer the other day. The rest of the playlist had been Elton, Queen etc.

I was quite into anarcho as a teen and I own this album, but there is just something about the opening line that I don’t like. I’ve no idea if Dick Lucas’ mum really did die of cancer when he was five (he never mentions it in interviews), but I think it would be pretty low to sing that if not true.

See also the line “They say I wouldn’t have to live from bins” in So What by Crass.

#AnarchoPunk #EdinburghPubs #Subhumans