Granny had a Humanist Funeral says News Quiz

News Quiz cracked me up with this quote; "Roasted and Ground like a Winsiet clad coffee bean at the municipal dump of the dead."

St Alfege

Its good to be off work for even just one day. It is cold, but the sun is beating down. I wandered around Lewisham and ended up in Greenwich. The dwellings of the locals strikingly change from mundane late Victorian terraces into Georgian villas. Their shape and characteristic of classical depth seems more pleasing. Mind you I am not a great lover of Paladian architecture as it turns every building into a Greek temple. Would the Greeks in their ancient periods have dreamt that by their hard labours building so many columned structures to their gods that three millennia later the Brits would be aping their architectural styles not to keep the gods happy but to express the wealth and power of a new secular age? Of course the church aped the styles of this retro building tendency. Hence the style of St Alphage, a neo Greek temple, but thankfully not a Parthenon, it has the feeling of a more harmonious mixture of English style with a few Greek bits thrown on to give it a fashionable twist. I went inside and is often the case I fell upon a free concert. Kyoko Murai an exquisite Japanese soprano was accompanied by Taro Takeuchi a lutenist and baroque guitar player. They were performing music from the 17th century and how beautifully they performed. Purcell, who was born 350 years ago, seemed to sit perfectly within the accoustic of this lovely church. She sang excerpts from The Indian Queen, the History of Dioclesian and parts from the evening music. Her voice is pure and without vibrato which sits so perfectly for this type of music. I was moved by her rendition of I attempt from Love's sickness, which hit the correct balance between contemplative control and emotional integrity. Taro accompanied her with a Theorba which is long necked guitar like instrument, its accompaniment gave a true feeling of authenticity many lesser recitals would have used a piano. Taro played with such a wonderful intuitive accompanying weight. Some accompanists would over shadow their partner but he held the singer up with a delicacy and depth their interactions were well attuned producing a wonderful experience in music. I was so sad when they eventually finished as I could have sat in the church all afternoon experiencing their music making. Taro also performed using a baroque guitar; it is smaller than a modern guitar and has a sweeter tone. He played two pieces Matteis's air for guitar and Corbetta's Ciaconne. Taro has done a few recordings so I know what I will be spending all my ill gotten gains on. When I witness music performed so well it fills me with the eagerness to be a better performer their passion, veracity and humour inspires me. Hail bright Cecilia...

Morphing into what?

It was lovely and sunny today but the autumn has brought a chilling breeze. Brrrrr, I wandered around Lewisham and sauntered into the Pound Shop. It has a magnetic pull and as far as any attempt I make not to go into these sub pound places their pull is stronger than my desire to stay away. Like the Innovation catalogue that falls out of the Sunday paper they are brimmed full of things that I do not want but since they are so cheap I think well it wont hurt if I have it. I end up spending £20 on twenty things I hide in the kitchen cupboard that go in the category, could be useful in the future, but they never are. Time comes when I decide to do a bit of spring cleaning. Suddenly I eventually come across the accumulation of these Pound shop purchases and like Tony Robinson in Time Team I spend far too much time wondering over these bits of sub pound detritus. Its like a Squirrel and its nuts. Talking about nuts while I was browsing the multitude of bits and pieces, a family were acting out lets shout at each other at the top of our voices. Suddenly the mother of this vocal tribe started screaming at what appeared to be her eldest son and began franticly hitting him. She stormed out of the shop. The Pound shop spell had been broken. I looked at the boy and he had gone from naughty mirth to a lost boy crying. Luckily his siblings surrounded him swearing blue murder about their mother. For once I did not buy anything. I was amazed at how many people were wandering around today and were all around the places I wanted to be. This became an annoyance.. I think the older I get I dislike crowds or rather being in crowds. I wonder why? Is it because they walk so slowly or is it because I am morphing into an old git?

Sadness at the end

In time,
No one will remember our work
Our life will pass like the traces of a cloud
And be scattered like
Mist that is chased by the
Rays of the sun
For our time is the passing of a shadow
And our lives will run like
Sparks through the stubble. I place a delphinium, Blue, upon your grave

Derek Jarman 1993 Blue

The fourth Plinth

My dear friend Neil invited me to Trafalgar Square where we observed the participants of the 4th plinth. The fourth plinth is 150 odd years old and like an invitation to an artist has never had anything permanent upon it. It may be a singular world of exploration where an empty space is given a form of expression in some way it echoes the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern, but the plinth seems to fail more often than not. We noticed that those taking part seemed not to take full advantage of what is given. They seem to make the wonderful space given much smaller than it is, its as if they are scared and are psychologically confined. They used it like a cliff edge a point of vantage ignoring the people sitting around. I dreamed last night, for some odd and short moment, that the plinth had a bridge crossing it. May be that's the point of the 4th plinth or any plinth that its not meant for a loud self indulgent theatrical performance. I shy away from a soldier on a horse bestriding the plinth it seems so lame and week addition to this monument.

I watched ages ago Andy Warhol films of people moving very slowly. The films at first seemed boring and and self indulgent but once you get into the rhythm of the art it became like animated sculpture. If I had the opportunity of filling that space I would have a large piece of sculpture that slowly changed in a polymorphic fashion. May be a dancing sculpture of Samuel Becket.

Samuel Beckett and God

What did God do before the Creation? Play with the Void? Is Creation the reason for God? Without the creation is God pointless? Why did the monotheistic God create man to destroy man? It is a relentless creation more to do with eternal misery with the ON creation switch never off. Is humanity's existence just the dreadful joke and game of a remote and bored God who could do his own thing without ever having to have any connection with his creation but instead dives in occasionally as a hunter in sport and slaughters millions and then dives out again. The rainbow is a marker for Gods murderous habits. Creativity through music, art, literature and not having children seems to be the best way to put a spanner in the mechanism of God's relentless generations of mankind. God wants idiots to reproduce millions of people for zillions of years until some day the off switch is found but the off switch has not been created yet by a God who has grown bored with his own creation. Does God long for the void and to wipe out the useless boring creation that means now nothing except how tediously familiar it is? That's the Beckett question.

Harold and Maud and Cat Stevens

This film is a dark comedy but blooms at the end. I love the songs from the film

Soundtrack - Lyrics

An official soundtrack containing all of the Cat Stevens songs used in the movie Harold & Maude has never been released. However you can compile your own soundtrack from three Cat Stevens albums -- Tea for the Tillerman, Mona Bone Jakon and either the Box Set or the Remember Cat Stevens Import CD.

Two songs, "Don't Be Shy" and "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out" were written specifically for the movie and were not released in any form until 1984 on Footsteps in the Dark/Greatest Hits Volume Two (which is now out of print). Both songs were later included on the Cat Stevens box set released in 2001 as well as the Remember Cat Stevens Import.

The list below is in the order that the songs appear in the film.
Harold and Maude Songs by Cat Stevens

- Don't Be Shy
- On The Road To Find Out
- I Wish, I Wish
- Miles from Nowhere
- Tea for the Tillerman
- I Think I See the Light
- Where Do the Children Play?
- If You Want to Sing Out
- Trouble

LYRICS by Cat Stevens

Dont be shy

Don't be shy just let your feelings roll on by
Don't wear fear or nobody will know you're there
Just lift your head, and let your feelings out instead
And don't be shy, just let your feeling roll on by
On by

You know love is better than a song
Love is where all of us belong
So don't be shy just let your feelings roll on by
Don't wear fear or nobody will know you're there
You're there

Don't be shy just let your feelings roll on by
Don't wear fear or nobody will know you're there
Just lift your head, and let your feelings out instead
And don't be shy, just let your feeling roll on by
On by, on by, etc.



On the Road To Find Out

Well I left my happy home to see what I could find out
I left my folk and friends with the aim to clear my mind out
Well I hit the rowdy road and many kinds I met there
Many stories told me of the way to get there

So on and on I go, the seconds tick the time out
There's so much left to know, and I'm on the road to findout

Well in the end I'll know, but on the way I wonder
Through descending snow, and through the frost and thunder

I listen to the wind come howl, telling me I have to hurry
I listen to the robin's song saying not to worry

So on and on I go, the seconds tick the time out
There's so much left to know, and I'm on the road to findout

Then I found myself alone, hopin' someone would miss me
Thinking about my home, and the last woman to kiss me, kiss me

But sometimes you have to moan when nothing seems to suit ya
But nevertheless you know you're locked towards the future

So on and on you go, the seconds tick the time out
There's so much left to know, and I'm on the road to findout

Then I found my head one day when I wasn't even trying
And here I have to say, 'cause there is no use in lying, lying

Yes the answer lies within, so why not take a look now?
Kick out the devil's sin, pick up, pick up a good book now



I wish, I wish

I wish I knew, I wish I knew
what makes me, me, and what makes you, you.
It's just another point of view, ooo.
A state of mind I'm going through, yes.
So what I see is never true, ahhh.

I wish I could tell, I wish I could tell
what makes a heaven what makes a hell.
And do I get to ring my bell, ooo.
Or land up in some dusty cell, no.
While others reach the big hotel, yeah.

I wish I had, I wish I had
the secret of good, and the secret of bad.
Why does this question drive me mad? ahhh.
'Cause I was taught when but a lad, yes,
That bad was good and good was bad, ahhh.

I wish I knew the mystery of
that thing called hate, and that thing called love.
What makes the in-between so rough? ahhh.
Why is it always push and shove? ahhh
I guess I just don't know enough, yes.




Miles from nowhere

Miles from nowhere
I guess I'll take my time
Oh yeah, to reach there

Look up at the mountain
I have to climb
Oh yeah, to reach there.

Lord my body has been a good friend
But I won't need it when I reach the end

Miles from nowhere
Guess I'll take my time
Oh yeah, to reach there

I creep through the valleys
And I grope through the woods
'cause I know when I find it my honey
It's gonna make me feel good

I love everything
So don't it make you feel sad
'cause I'll drink to you, my baby
I'll think to that, I'll think to that.

Miles from nowhere
Not a soul in sight
Oh yeah, but it's alright

I have my freedom
I can make my own rules
Oh yeah, the ones that I choose

Lord my body has been a good friend
But I won't need it when I reach the end

Miles from nowhere
I Guess I'll take my time
Oh yeah, to reach there.



Tea for Tillerman

Bring tea for the Tillerman
Steak for the sun
Wine for the women who made the rain come
Seagulls sing your hearts away
'Cause while the sinners sin, the children play

Oh Lord how they play and play
For that happy day, for that happy day




I think I see the Light

I used to trust nobody, trusting even less their words,
until I found somebody, there was no one I preferred,
my heart was made of stone, my eyes saw only misty grey,
Until you came into my life girl, I saw everyone that way.
Until I found the one I needed at my side,
I think I would have been a sad man all my life.

I think I see the light coming to me,
coming through me giving me a second sight.
So shine, shine, shine,
shine, shine, shine,
shine, shine, shine.

I used to walk alone, every step seemed the same.
This world was not my home, so there was nothing much to gain.
Look up and see the clouds, look down and see the cold floor.
Until you came into my life girl, I saw nothing, nothing more.
Until I found the one I needed at my side,
I think I would have been a sad man all my life.

I think I see the light coming to me,
coming through me giving me a second sight.
So shine, shine, shine,
shine, shine, shine,
shine, shine, shine.




Where do the children play

Well I think it's fine, building jumbo planes.
Or taking a ride on a cosmic train.
Switch on summer from a slot machine.
Get what you want to if you want, 'cause you can get anything.

I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?

Well you roll on roads over fresh green grass.
For your lorryloads pumping petrol gas.
And you make them long, and you make them tough.
But they just go on and on, and it seems you can't get off.

Oh, I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?

When you crack the sky, scrapers fill the air.
Will you keep on building higher
'til there's no more room up there?
Will you make us laugh, will you make us cry?
Will you tell us when to live, will you tell us when to die?

I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?




I f you want to sing out, sing out

Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
'Cause there's a million things to be
You know that there are

And if you want to live high, live high
And if you want to live low, live low
'Cause there's a million ways to go
You know that there are

Chorus:
You can do what you want
The opportunity's on
And if you can find a new way
You can do it today
You can make it all true
And you can make it undo
you see ah ah ah
its easy ah ah ah
You only need to know

Well if you want to say yes, say yes
And if you want to say no, say no
'Cause there's a million ways to go
You know that there are

And if you want to be me, be me
And if you want to be you, be you
'Cause there's a million things to do
You know that there are

Chorus

Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
'Cause there's a million things to be
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are





Trouble

Trouble
Oh trouble set me free
I have seen your face
And it's too much too much for me

Trouble
Oh trouble can't you see
You're eating my heart away
And there's nothing much left of me

I've drunk your wine
You have made your world mine
So won't you be fair
So won't you be fair

I don't want no more of you
So won't you be kind to me
Just let me go where
I'll have to go there

Trouble
Oh trouble move away
I have seen your face
and it's too much for me today

Trouble
Oh trouble can't you see
You have made me a wreck
Now won't you leave me in my misery

I've seen your eyes
and I can see death's disguise
Hangin' on me
Hangin' on me

I'm beat, I'm torn
Shattered and tossed and worn
Too shocking to see
Too shocking to see

Trouble
Oh trouble move from me
I have paid my debt
Now won't you leave me in my misery

Trouble
Oh trouble please be kind
I don't want no fight
And I haven't got a lot of time

I am grateful to the Harold and Maude Webb site for this