I am a seventy One year old bloke who still thinks that the world is a bit like being a bit part actor on Midsomer Murders. Realising its nearly at the end of the programme and he hasn’t been murdered yet and may be in the next episode. I'm a semi retired Freelance Event, Film and Radio Producer who returned to Higher Education to study and complete a BA (Hons) in graphic design.
Ex Inspiral Carpets Frontman Tom Hingley at the Oldham Literary FestivalA couple of years ago about this time I had been rubbing shoulders with a few famous folk at the Oldham Literary Festival. I had been interviewing guest authors for the festivals social media sites which should help promote next years event.
The first person to give me an interview was Paul Lake whose book “I’m Not Really Here” is a sensational read, an often harrowing account of a talented footballer who at the hight of his career was injured and unable to pursue his passion, playing football.
The person I interviewed rather than being a self assured athlete was an articulate and incredibly modest man who has discovered the hard way that fame and fortune sometimes comes to an end just as unexpectedly as it arrives, and the road to were he is now is an inspirational story of how to pull yourself up from the depths of despair.
Together with his wife Joanne they have told the story beautifully and rather than being another football autobiography it is essentially a story of the aftermath of essentially being put out to grass at the age of twenty seven.
The other interview was with Tom Hingley the ex lead singer with the Inspiral Carpets. His book “Carpet Burns” is a great read. I was surprised to hear that he came from Oxford and only arrived in Manchester when he studied at MMU. But his time with the Inspirals has been documented in several books on the Madchester music scene, but his gives us an insight into what its like to be a part of a band, with all the highs and tensions that brings.
What these two people had in common is that they both have been in a position to be revered almost like gods in there respective fields and both have dealt with the resultant tensions since in ways that I was surprised by.
If you ask either of these people what do they treasure most in life, they both gave me the same answer. It wasn’t the money, the fame or the fantastic great times they had experienced but something far more simple. It was the families and close friends who had been with them through thick and thin.
Perhaps a lesson to be learned the next time you decide to work an extra couple of hours at the office instead of spending time with the people who should matter the most to you.
Image courtesy of http://www.shutterstock.comI normally don’t write fiction but if I did it would probably look like this.
The Red Umberella
The Monday morning commute is always a challenge. Standing on the platform waiting for the train whilst your head still feels like it is still on the pillow is the worst feeling in the world.
This morning it is even more of a challenge, its raining, not real rain but the fine drizzle that wets you through to the core which gives everything the appearance of an old black and white photograph.
Out of the corner of my eye I spot a beautiful young woman with flame red hair and a vivid red umbrella , which stands out like a beacon against the drab backdrop.
She is busy balancing her umbrella and fumbling in her bag looking for her ticket as the Liverpool train pulls into the station.
As the carriages pass by I look through the windows envious of the passengers sat reading books and papers in a nice warm carriage. The train stops, the doors open and the young woman and many of the people on the platform get on.
The last of the doors slams shut, the whistle blows and it sets off leaving us stood like statues waiting for our train to Manchester.
I look around and spot a crisp white envelope folded neatly in two were the young lady had been standing. I walk over and stoop down to pick it up. I unfold it and on the envelope is a single word written in very elegant hand writing. Miranda.
The envelope had been opened and contained a crisp white folded single piece of matching note paper. Maybe there would be a clue as to who she was and how I could return it. I take it out carefully and unfolded it. It contained a very simple but chilling message.
My Daughter left this on our coffee table. Very worrying.If you have been following my blog for a while you will notice several references to my imaginary Bucket List. It’s my list of things to do before I either enter a care home or shuffle off this mortal coil and go to meet whatever maker awaits.
We started this list a couple of years ago when we thought I had suffered a heart attack. Thankfully it wasn’t and before you ask it wasn’t indigestion either. Apparently I had ruptured the cartilage that joins my rib cage to my sternum. Inoperable but it sort of repaired itself and things are back to almost normal.
The one thing I lost during the six weeks of investigations was the feeling I once had, that I was invincible and that death only happened to other people and that has been a good thing.
It is almost like being given a second chance at life, to do the things that would be very difficult to do if your health gave way in such an life changing manner. So myself and Ann sat down and had a discussion about what we would like to do before the inevitable happened.
I wasn’t a big list but it meant we had to change our rather conservative outlook and stop ourselves judging activities solely by affordability and see how we could perhaps do something that wouldn’t break the bank. So here are the ones we have already crossed off our list.
Our bucket list successes
Work a little less and play a little more.
I quite haven’t managed that one yet but Ann says I enjoy what I do so much, I haven’t done a days work in my life. I agree but the hours can be long and it can get very stressful. But the weekends are now family time.
Make sure I spend more time with the Kids and Grandkids.
The past couple of years have been great, they stay at least one day a week and bring life back into our house, a reminder of what it was like when the kids were home. I am sure they only come to use the technology and for me to help them with homework but its great and they keep us feeling young when they are here and exhausted when they have left.
Buy a two seater sports car to use on road trips at weekend.
My kids call it my belated mid life crisis, but I just tell them I bought it so me and Ann can spend time together without any hangers on being able to join us at short notice.
Enter a Classic Car Rally
We did this last year and are about to do it again this year. We have driven on race circuits and test tracks that are not open to the pubic, we have also met some great people and made some good friends, most in similar positions to us.
See Michael Bubble Live
This was Ann’s. So who am I to judge. I saw him with several thousand women of a certain age when he visited Manchester last year. It pains me to say this but he was very good and every bit as talented as he is good looking (according to Ann who still glazes over at the mere mention of his name).
Have a Romantic Holiday.
Santorini in Greece is possibly the most beautiful place I have ever visited. We spent a week in a fantastic hotel and did nothing but relax and eat and drink. It exceeded our expectations by a million percent. We went sailing on a yacht visited other islands and again met people from all over the planet and found out that basically we are all the same with similar stories to tell and photos of kids and grandkids to be shown.
Watch Queen with Adam Lambert Live
This was my concert of choice, we had chance to see them when Freddie Mercury was in the band but we had just moved house and thought we could catch them next time, we all know how that ended. So for my birthday Ann got tickets to see them this time around. It was the best concert I have ever been to. It was stellar.
I suppose if I view the effect my health scare has had on our lives, we have not lost anything, in fact we have learned a valuable lesson. Treat every day like your last and don’t waste a second, time is to valuable a commodity to waste so if you get up in the morning and its all still working you are quids in already.
So what else are we planning, you will have to wait for the next instalment of my Bucket List Successes, coming soon to a blog near you.
Music is magical, it enables you to remember what you were doing when you listened to it instantly. It also reminds you of how you felt when you listened to it. So here are my top three songs this week.
Comes the Sun – The Beatles
Here in the Pennines here in the UK we have 6 months of winter and the village almost hibernates until spring. Its only around this time of year that when the clocks go forward and we get lighter evenings we get to see the neighbours a little more and people stop for a chat. I definitely know summer has arrived when we have the first sunny morning and I have the car windows down and this song comes on the radio as I drive over the moors to work. It sets me up for the day.
God Only Knows – The Beach Boys
I first heard this track on my transistor radio as a teenager. I was on a train travelling to Cornwall to meet my Mother, Father and Brother who had gone on holiday. I couldn’t leave at the same time due to work commitments. I had obviously heard the Beach Boys but the harmonies on the track along with the light coming through the carriage windows made it seem almost hypnotic.
I can still remember the compartment I was sat in, the man in a suit reading his Financial Times, the mother in her flowered dress keeping her little boy occupied by reading him Swallows and Amazons and the musty smell of the velvet upholstery that made your legs sting after sitting on it for an hour or two.
Little Green – Joni Mitchell
Off her 1971 album Blue it’s a track I never get tired of listening to. Every song on this album is a track about lost love wrapped up in the crystal clear voice of mitchell. The words and melodies are magical. Every now and again I put this album on late at night when everyone has gone to bed and listen to it with a drink in my hand. Instantly I am transported back to 1971 thinking about all the people who are no longer with us and count my blessings that I still have my health and the support of a loving family.
Although these songs are magical they may change next week when I hear something I haven’t heard for ages and that reminds me of something else, but that’s life I guess.
Perron Lighthouse AngelseyI have a thing about lighthouses, I don’t know why but I am drawn to them whenever I am at the coast. I took this photograph of Penron Lighthouse whilst on Anglesey in Wales a couple of years ago whilst on a short break.
It was a glorious summers day and after the hustle and bustle of everyday life the couple of hours we spent there were heavenly.
All you could hear was the lapping of the waves on the shore and a distant bell tolling somewhere out to sea. Every so often the scene would change with the passing of yachts gracefully gliding silently by.
We sat on a grassy bank just above the rocky shoreline and ate our lunch whilst soaking up the sun. It was so hot you could almost hear the hissing of the grass. Now to someone with my hairline that can be quite a scary proposition but I have discovered that wearing a straw hat does have its uses. For those who may be interested I think it was the fresh Salmon and Cucumber sandwiches that I remember the most.
I often think of that visit when I am busy in a dark studio rammed hard against a deadline whilst trying to remain calm trying to get the best from the crew to deliver on time and on budget.
My wife calls this my “Be a Swan behaviour” (calm on the surface whilst paddling furiously out of sight) and apparently I am quite good at it.
So the secret of my laid back directing style can be attributed to an afternoon visit to Llangoed on the Isle of Anglesey in the UK eating Salmon and Cucumber sandwiches..
Each week I choose a song from a movie which may be popular or not. The only criteria is that its a great song and it fits the scene in the film perfectly. Let me know if you agree.
Shooting the Breeze – Dustin Hoffman
This track featured in the film Last Chance Harvey which was Directed by Hoffman. Not only did Hoffman Direct and star in the film he actually wrote this track a few years earlier. Somehow the track didn’t seem to work without the two actors in the scene. So this weeks Track of the week should really be titled Scene of the week.
The film follows the exploits of a workaholic musician Harvey Shine (Hoffman) who writes jingles for commercials. He is in London for the weekend for his daughter’s wedding. His work in New York preoccupies him and he knows his boss is pushing him aside for younger talent. He meets Kate Walker whilst having lunch at the airport which leads to a brilliant double act that breezes through the rest of the film.
Long divorced and his wife remarried, her new husband is closer to his daughter than he is. The scene were he hijacks the Father of the Bride speech is epic. I watched it through my fingers but it was extremely well done and a very convincing performance by the entire cast.
I did not expect this film to be anything special but the memorable performances from the main actors makes this film a gem.
Dustin Hoffman who plays understated roles to perfection, again finds a vehicle to show his genius and wonderful acting talent.
Emma Thompson also can do no wrong. Every film she does she plays her character to fullest whether it be a house wife, nanny, or crazy teacher she can do it all. This role for her seemed like it was a fun one and her performance had a lot of heart.
So this is a first for Track of the week because both actors have featured here before in different performances.
Each week I choose a song from a movie which may be popular or not. The only criteria is that its a great song and it fits the scene in the film perfectly. Let me know if you agree.
Midnight Cowboy – John Barry
John Barry supervised the music and composed the score for the film and won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Theme, although he, as well as a few other significant contributors did not receive an on-screen credit.
Fred Neil’s song “Everybody’s Talkin'” won a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, for Harry Nilsson.
Schlesinger the director chose the song “Everybody’s Talkin'” as the films theme, and the song underscores the first act.
However the movie’s main theme, “Midnight Cowboy”, featured harmonica by Toots Thielemans, is the timeless track that is as haunting today as it was in 1969 even though it is said that Barry himself did not like it.
The film is a very bleak insight into the dark underbelly of New York in the seventies.
Naive Texan Joe Buck (Jon Voight) arrives in New York for the first time. Seeing himself as a real ‘hustler’, he finds that he is the one getting ‘hustled’ until he teams up with a down-and-out but resilient outcast named Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman).
In their efforts to try and survive in an hostile world rebuffing them at every turn, this unlikely pair progress from partners in shady business to comrades. Each seeming to find true friendship.
The final scene in this film is a on the bus to Miami and has breathtaking performances from both Hoffman and Voight with the music making it even more memorable.
The film won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Both Hoffman and Voight were nominated for Best Actor awards and Sylvia Miles was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, in what is one of the shortest performances nominated (clocking at about five minutes of screen time). In addition, the film won six BAFTA Awards.
Now with every award comes a certain responsibility and that means that there is no such think as a free lunch, so in acepting this award it means I have to answer ten simple questions (the easy bit) and nominate 10 blog for people to look at.
So lets start with the easy bit.
What’s the story behind your blog name? I thought that using my name would let people know that I post from the heart and not my head.
Who is the one person who you think reads most of your posts? I know who its not, My Wife Ann, she thinks Im keeping an online diary. Its probably my Grand daughter Saskia, she likes to correct my grammar. (She is twelve and is young enough to still think she knows everything).
Last meal on your last day? Roast Beef and Yorkshire Puddings with all the trimmings.
Dog or cat? Dog!
Where do you fall in the birth order in your family? (Oldest, youngest, middle child, etc.) Oldest. My younger brother who is 10 years younger keeps reminding me at every birthday celebration?
Have you ever deleted a post after it has already appeared on your blog? Optional: Why? No but I have edited one or two.
I post mainly via my iMac. I can’t be doing with all the fiddling around with my iPad.
What is the strangest place you have been in the last year? A seafood restaurant in Rhodes, Greece. It had Squid and Octopus nailed to the walls drying in the mid day sun. Strange but the food was to die for.
What is the last really kind thing someone did for you? My wife bought tickets to the Queen and Adam Lambert Concert in January for my birthday.
What will you do next after you finish answering these questions? Up the jolly dancers to bed, a busy day on location tomorrow.
Whew! That was hard! The next requirement is that I share the rules of the award. They are:
Rules:
Each nominee must have under 200 followers
Thank and link to the nominating blog
Answer their 10 questions and propose 10 new ones for your nominees
Nominate 10 blogs and tell them that they’ve been nominated
Write a post containing the questions
Include these rules in the post
Next, I nominate ten new blogs for the award, and list the ten questions they must answer.
Each week I choose a song from a movie which may be popular or not. The only criteria is that its a great song and it fits the scene in the film perfectly. Let me know if you agree. Streets of Philadelphia – Bruce Springsteen
Streets of Philadelphia is a song that was written and performed by Bruce Springsteen for the film Philadelphia in 1993, an early mainstream film dealing with HIV/AIDS.Released in 1994, the song was a hit in many countries, particularly Canada, France, Germany, Ireland and Norway, where it topped the singles charts.
The song was a critical triumph and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Songand four Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year, Best Rock Song, Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo, and Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television. In 2004 it finished at 68 on AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.
Philadelphia the film, was one of the first mainstream Hollywood films to acknowledge HIV/AIDS, homosexuality, and homophobia. It was written by Ron Nyswaner, directed by Jonathan Demme and stars Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington.
The film is the story of Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks), a gay lawyer infected with AIDS, who is fired from his law firm in fear that they might contract AIDS from him. After Andrew is fired, in a last attempt for peace, he sues his former law firm with the help of a homophobic lawyer, Joe Miller (Denzel Washington). During the court battle, Miller sees that Beckett is no different than anyone else on the gritty streets of the city of brotherly love, sheds his homophobia and helps Beckett with his case before AIDS overcomes him.
Tom Hanks won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Andrew Beckett in the film, while the song “Streets of Philadelphia” by Bruce Springsteen won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Ron Nyswaner was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
The end scene in the hospital when his family are gathered around his bed to say goodbye is heartbreaking. A performance that leaves you counting your blessings and shows that even in the bleakest of moments of human existence there are moments of huge humanity.
A film to watch that makes you at times watch through your fingers and shout at the screen at some of the bigotary that is doled out to this poor individual. Hanks best performance in his long career.
Church of St Michael, Witley Court in Worcestershire, England
In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Symmetry.”
Im sorry if this is a little unsymmetrical but the facade intrigued me. The church is in the grounds of Witley Court a derelict stately home which was destroyed by fire in 1937.
In 1735 the 2nd Lord Foley constructed the church an undertaking begun by his father. The church was given a remarkable baroque interior in 1747 when he commissioned James Gibbs to incorporate paintings and furnishings acquired at the auction of the contents of Cannons House. This was the magnificent Middlesex home of the Duke of Chandoys from where the artwork was shipped by canal to Great Witley.
The grounds and parklands on the estate are beautiful and there is a serenity and a sense of peace which makes a welcome change in our 24 / 7 lifestyles.
I took this last summer with my Iphone so I apologise if its not unto the usual standard of photographs in this challenge, but I thought I would share it anyway.
John D Eccles 