COLOUR SUPPLEMENT: Northern Lights, by JD

Here is a 'multi media' presentation of the Northern Lights; a video, a painting and a song!

Unfortunately the National Gallery of Canada will not allow me to copy the painting and I can't find it elsewhere. There are others but they do not have the same effect.

Aurora Borealis - The Northern Lights

Here is one of Tom Thomson's paintings of the aurora; one of several he did. It is in the National Gallery of Canada, Thomson being Canadian. This from Wiki:

"Thomas John Thomson (August 5, 1877 – July 8, 1917) was a Canadian artist active in the early 20th century. During his short career, he produced roughly 400 oil sketches on small wood panels and approximately 50 larger works on canvas. His works consist almost entirely of landscapes, depicting trees, skies, lakes, and rivers. He used broad brush strokes and a liberal application of paint to capture the beauty and colour of the Ontario landscape. Thomson's accidental death by drowning at 39 shortly before the founding of the Group of Seven is seen as a tragedy for Canadian art."

https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artwork/northern-lights

And another by the same artist:

theglobeandmail.com/arts/article-the-globes-annual-christmas-painting-northern-lights-by-tom-thomson/

The aurora is an effect of the sun's activity, waves of electro-magnetic radiation emitted by solar storms. The intensity of the 'storm' affects the brightness of the aurora.

But what happens if the solar storm is so intense that the pulse of radiation affects electrical supply on earth as happened in 1859? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859

The Carrington Event affected the new telegraph system of communication but, that apart, life carried on much as before. But what will happen when the next one comes? And it will come, there is no doubt that it will happen. Well, some communities will be unaffected-

https://ncolloff.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/when-english-fall.html

Renaissance - Northern Lights

FRIDAY MUSIC: Golden Oldies, by JD

The theme song to the TV programme "Whatever happened to the likely lads" included the line "..is the only thing to look forward to, the past?" In the world of popular music the answer is a most emphatic yes!

So here are a few more from the past and they were all the seeds from which the 1960s 'beat boom' grew.

Bring It On Home To Me - Sam Cooke

Sam Cooke - What A Wonderful World (Official Lyric Video)

Del Shannon - Runaway (HQ STUDIO/1961)

Chuck Berry - Roll Over Beethoven (Belgium TV, 1965) - HD

Maybe Baby - Buddy Holly

Fats Domino and His Orchestra jambalaya

Spanish Harlem - Ben E King

Ben E King - Stand By Me - Prince's Trust All Stars Band - Live - 1987

FRIDAY MUSIC: The Alehouse Boys, by JD

The exotic musical sound-world of 17th-century London is brought vividly to life by one of the world's most dynamic and virtuosic performing groups - Bjarte Eike and Barokksolistene - plus a cameo appearance by celebrated soprano Mary Bevan.

Beauty, improvisation, melancholy, bawdiness - Purcell, Playford and their European contemporaries bang heads with ballads, ditties, elegies, sea-shanties and folk song. Along with a variety of classical stringed instruments, their own arrangements delight us in a joyful mix of vocals, percussion, harmonium, guitar, charango and storytelling.

Filmed on location in one of London's oldest taverns, The George Inn, Southwark.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001lcvt

Founded and led by Norwegian violinist Bjarte Eike in 2005, Barokksolistene is now recognised as one of the world’s most dynamic and exciting groups working in the field of historically informed performance, fusing virtuoso musicianship with flawless ensemble playing. Constantly striving to reach out to new audiences, their passion to engage with folk and experimental music, improvisation, visual arts, dance and story-telling has led them to create unique concert experiences which play to sold-out audiences worldwide.

https://www.rayfieldallied.com/artists/barokksolistene

The Alehouse Boys — Bjarte Eike and Barokksolistene — Play Henry Purcell

Alehouse session with Barokksolistene and Bjarte Eike

Neil Gow's Lament with Barokksolistene and Bjarte Eike

Haul Away Joe - the alehouse boys (from the BaS alehouse sessions)

Paul's Steeple with Barokksolistene, Bjarte Eike and Milos Valent

The Alehouse Sessions Corona_Digital_version!

FRIDAY MUSIC: Golden Oldies - the 1950s, by JD

There are, on our televisions, a number of channels dedicated to playing 'golden oldies' music from the 60s, the 70s and the 80s. But there is no channel dedicated to 50s music for some reason. It cannot be because the music was bad, perhaps it is because of the lack of video/film showing the artists performing their songs.

So as a small contribution to keeping the music alive, a selection of goldne oldies from more than 60+ years ago. I think it would be fair to say that musically the fifties ended in October 1962 with the release of the first record by the Beatles and their inspiration came from the music of that era. Without the 50s popular music of today would be very different.

CULLER SUPPLEMENT: Cullercoats, by JD

Cullercoats is a small fishing village on the North East coast of England located between Tynemouth and Whitley Bay. Those two larger towns are or were popular holiday destinations which declined slowly and in Tynemouth's case elegantly after the advent of cheap holiday flights to the warmer beaches of Europe. But Cullercoats remained a thriving fishing village until recently (I suspect the 'Common Market' may have had something to do with that decline.)

Cullercoats has a small sandy bay enclosed by two small piers and as such is ideal for families. The village has been popular with generations of visitors with its secluded bay the highlight. The beach has a Seaside Award and is ideal for bathing. More information here- https://www.visitnorthtyneside.com/activities/activity/cullercoats-bay/

I cannot remember when I did this sketch of the bay but it has been sitting in one of my pads for ages. It shows the two piers with the spire of St George's Chirch to the right. Beyond that is Tynemouth Pier and the ruins of Tynemouth Priory.

Compressing the view is of course a bit of artistic licence because this below is what it looks like in a photo taken more recently -

In the later part of the nineteenth century Cullercoats developed a reputation as a popular artists' colony with the everyday lives of the fishing folk often used as subjects. The famous American artist Winslow Homer spent 18 months living and working in Cullercoats. Two interpretation panels on the seafront (overlooking the bay and further to the North, just after the Watch House) explain the fascinating art history of Cullercoats. Here is a short history of Winslow Homer in Cullercoats including a selection of the paintings he did while living there.

https://eclecticlight.co/2016/02/25/winslow-homer-in-cullercoats-1-purpose-and-place/

~ ~ ~ ~

Homer is a much better painter than I am but I do my best and, using my sketch as a guide, I subsequently painted that same view in acrylic on 8" x 8" canvas. My 'best' was obviously good enough because it is now hanging on a wall somewhere in Madrid.

On a headland to the north of the bay stands the Watch House and here you can see five ladies pretending to be Fishwives. I can remember the real Fishwives many years ago who would sit outside their cottages selling the day's catch which their husbands had brought home from their day out at sea. They would sell mainly crabs and shrimps (prawns?) as well as mussels and whelks and other small shellfish. The cottages are long gone, the Council demolishing them in order to 'improve' the road layout; they straightened it in other words.

Here is a brief history - with nice photos and illustrations - of Cullercoats Watch House from the local newspaper - https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/history/gallery/story-cullercoats-watch-house-north-25393864

This final photo shows the sad end of one of the fishing cobbles, now being used to display flowers. The roof of the Watch House can be seen on the right of the picture with the church spire behind and the view to Tynemouth in the background.

JUDY DINNING Cullercoats Fish Lass

FRIDAY MUSIC: Mose Allison, by JD

Mose Alison (1927 - 2016)

Difficult to 'pigeonhole' this man; Wiki decribes him as a jazz and blues pianist, singer, and songwriter but he was a major influence on some of the biggest names in the pop music of the sixties such as Van Morrison, Georgie Fame, John Mayall, Pete Townshend and many more. In fact, to my ears, Georgie Fame has copied Allison's style of singing.

• http://moseallison.com/?page_id=70
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mose_Allison

Don't Get Around Much Anymore

Certified Senior Citizen

Mose Allison - Parchman Farm 1963

Mose Allison - I Don't Worry About A Thing

Mose Allison - Your Mind is on Vacation

Was

Bonus videos:

Interviews with Allison as well as Van Morrison, Georgie Fame etc:

Those evil, greedy doctors!

The BMA says the pay of a junior doctor has fallen by 26 per cent in real terms since 2008/09 because pay rises have been below inflation. It is calling for 'full pay restoration', which would amount to a 35 per cent pay rise and be worth up to £20,000 extra for some medics.

- Daily Mail

Never mind the 'some medics' - a ploy to get us envious and angry; the maths is correct. 

If your real-terms pay drops by 26 points from 100 to 74, you need (1.35*74) to get back to 100 where you started, i.e. a 35% increase. 

This is not a pay rise but, as the doctors' association says, a restoration - and I haven't seen a claim for the money lost in the intervening years.

It's what happens when a government loses control of inflation. 

In a way it's a rerun of the 1970s, when Arab oil producers retaliated against the West for supporting Israel in Middle Eastern conflict, by inflating the price of oil. This made everything pricier in our energy-dependent economy and triggered a wave of industrial action as groups of workers tried to recoup their real-terms earnings losses.

Yes, there were some Marxists in unions trying to destabilise the system so that - the great Marxian dream - a better world would magically arise from the ruins; but there was a lot more going on that was not doctrinaire-political.

I remember two words cropping up again and again in these disputes: 

'parity' - a claim to get the same pay as another group doing the same work somewhere else; and 

'differential' - a claim for higher pay by more skilled workers who found that despite their more valuable expertise, their earnings were getting closer to that of less skilled workers as the latter won their pay bargaining cases.

The 'oil shock' started in 1973, the Conservative government fell in 1974 and the incoming Labour Government had to deal with industrial disputes for the next five years.

It was a very long time before I found out that Alan Bleasdale's BBC drama series 'Boys from the Blackstuff', described as

'TV's most complete dramatic response to the Thatcher era and as a lament to the end of a male, working class British culture'

may have been screened in 1982, but was based on Bleasdale's 'The Black Stuff' Play For Today, scripted in 1978 during the Prime Ministership of Labour's James Callaghan.

In rugby there is a move called a 'hospital pass' where you throw the ball to a colleague who is then obliterated by the fast-oncoming opposition. Similarly, some political parties may be tempted to lose a General Election so that the 'other lot' has to clean up the mess and take the blame for all the hard things they are forced to do.

This could be where we are now. 'Demirep' speculates that both Labour in the UK and the Democrats in the US are trying not to win the next election because they can see what is coming: