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The dangerous innovators

One of the things which can leave a man alone is mixed signals.  This post is from my earlier, more anarchic days and thus people of the same politics as me today are going to hate this.

The sort of music associated with the uber-bourgeois centre-right politics I embrace today ranges from classical to jazz to Kenny Rogers to ZZ Top to Dr. Hook to Celtic Women and I like them too.  Van Morrison.

Wilder, more working class right of centre readers, particularly the beefy males,  might even like Rammstein and metal or else the type of thing heard at Ronnie Scott’s.  Again, it can be good in places.  I loved Ian Dury and the Stranglers, not so much The Clash.

I’m thinking the one type of music no N.O. reader, with the possible exception of Lord Somber, could abide is the arty-farty, creative, expressive rock which is  precisely what’s in this post.…

Old New Year and Vienna Concert

happy-new-year

Today is Orthodox New Year on the Julian calendar or in Russia – Old New Year.

It’s possibly the least celebrated of the major holidays [and even that word is used advisedly] over there and yet it is perfectly placed, halfway through the opening month of our current New Year, to hold a celebration on.

I’ve blogged for years on January 7th being perfect for Old Christmas and if possible, January 13th being even better. Actually, I always thought it was the 13th but Google says it’s the 14th this year.

Today is the 13th in our calendar so let’s do it today.

The New Year by the Julian calendar is still informally observed, and the tradition of celebrating the coming of the New Year twice is widely enjoyed … Usually not as festive as the New New Year, for many this is a nostalgic family holiday ending the New Year holiday cycle (which includes Eastern Orthodox Christmas on January 7) with traditional large meals, singing and celebratory drinking.

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Always the bridesmaid?

Was going to run some carols and thought nah, there’s such a thing as overkill.

Nice to see the cheesy dancing in the Ike and Tina number- wonder who arranged that. The Spector touch though couldn’t be duplicated and she was the real thing with that voice. By the way, unless these old eyes deceive me, that’s PP Arnold as one of the dancers:

PP Arnold again?…

Schlock and the faux hegemony

Waking up and skipping through the media this morning, has there ever been such a wall-to-wall feast of schlock?  From the Spectator to the Mail, via the Independent and Times, it’s dire.  Any chance of anything actually uplifting dashed to pieces.

Which then throws the blog author back on his own resources and onto the engine room of the blog, in NO’s case – Chuckles, haiku, JD, Wiggia, Rossa and Rossa’s mother, Amfortas, with occasional pieces from blogfriends and through these, one can stay in touch with Taki, Hitchens P, Pournelle and so on.

One drops into Guido but that is its own schlock in another way, Twitter has some interesting things at times – but not often.  Rossa occasionally reports on The Slog and Rossa’s mother on Bolt. Sackers and Dearieme sometimes come through as well – one on Richard North going up tomorrow.

Everywhere we look, we’re surrounded by schlock and if one’s not careful, there can creep in a certain amount of fascinated horror about it all.…

War songs

Seems to me that the Left has all the best songs dealing with events of war. Racking my brain trying to think of a song about a historical event from the Right which is not country, not militaristic [bagpipes and drums etc.] or which is connected with war itself. Lily Marlene, White Cliffs of Dover are not really about war.

In reverse chronological order:

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Happy birthday to me – again!

There are milestones which mark the passing of the years and we are supposed to celebrate them and pause to reflect on the past and wonder about what may lie ahead.

I don’t remember my 21st birthday, but there again does anyone? :)

They say that life begins at 40 but mine started long before that and didn’t end there either. Fifty came and went with barely a flicker of recognition on my part. When I turned 60 I noticed it because I qualified for my bus pass. Best birthday present I’ve ever received.

Now another milestone has arrived and I have reached the ‘finishing line’ – my allotted span of three score years and ten is now complete. It did not come as a shock because over the past year there has been a slow awakening to the idea that I have more years behind me than in front of me.…