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Beyond The Hallowed Sky

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Author:Ken Macleod

Every since his debut The Star Fraction Ken Macleod has made it his mission to write the future of Scotland into his work, and so it is here in what is one of the first overtly post-Brexit works of sci-fi. In 2070 the world is split between the Union ( Europe including Scotland), the Alliance (England, the US, India) and the Co-ord (Russia and China). Macleod sets three plots in motion: in Scotland a mathematician proves that faster than light travel is possible; on colonised exoplanet Apis the authorities struggle with a first contact scenario; and on Venus a scientific outpost is infiltrated by a spy determined to keep a lid on new discoveries on the surface.All these events are happening at the same time – and the cleverness of this novel’s construction is the working out of the contradictions between the three. If an FTL drive is being now developed in Scotland, how can a colonised planet have been already reached using it? If aliens are already talking to humanity on Apis, then what is the point of trying to cover up evidence of their existence on Venus?

His strengths of well-drawn characters – from a Clyde » Continue Reading.

That Adele eh? Making you listen to tracks in the right order. Whatever next?

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So Adele’s outed as a secret Afterworder, raging on the great unwashed on Spotify shuffling her album, possibly even putting the best tracks on a playlist called ‘sad bangers’. This I think is the most Afterwordy article yet and the BTL comments are split between ‘chill out, I’ll do what I want’ to Screamadelica/OK Computer/Hounds of Love MUST be listened as sequenced.

My favourite comment is about being able to skip the tracks you don’t like. How on earth can we appreciate the gems (Love Spreads for example) without suffering through well quite a bit of the album.

Skippers or sequence fascists? Playlist ripper?

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/nov/22/adele-is-right-an-unshuffled-album-is-the-proper-way-to-listen

Dune

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Year: 2021 Director: Dennis Villeneuve

I am surprised that no-one has yet reviewed Dune, so here we go. We saw it at the IMAX in Birmingham and would certainly recommend that you see it on the biggest screen possible. It’s an utterly immersive visual and sound experience. It will be no surprise, and has been much noted, that Villeneuve can craft a visual world like no-one else currently in film. Whatever you thought of the plot of Bladerunner 2049, it looked amazing from start to finish, as did Arrival in turn before it. There’s very little actual outer space , and the visuals of the movies are dominated by the vast open sand and rock scapes of Arrakis, appearing even dryer by contrast with the lush Northern European grasslands of the Atriedes homeworld, and the murky storm and rain of the Harkonnens. Moving through these three worlds are armies, medieval in feel, transported by enormous spaceships whose weight is so oppressive they appear to be sculpted from stone rather than metal. By contrast the ornithopthers hop, buzz and flit around the world.

In terms of plot Dune is so well known that there’s perhaps not much to add here. I » Continue Reading.

Kindle monthly deals for October

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Here we are, with a whole fortnight before the roster changes. As ever 99p the bar.

Novels Offshore – penelope Fitzgerald The Lamplighters – Emma Stonex. This got great reviews, one of my 3 purchases this month. Another lighthouse mystery.

Scifi Hold Up the Sky by Cixin Liu – short stories by the Three Body Problem author, thoroughly recommended having read that. Semiosis – Sue Burke. Not an easy read especially at the start, but this ‘lost colony’ novel is a great spin on how humans and plants might co-evolve. Prince Charles a big fan I hear. Winter’s Orbit – Evarina Maxwell. Big stir as self-published, taken up by proper publishers. LGBTQ+ scifi is having a moment. The Kraken Wakes – John Wyndham. I reread this recently, not up there with Triffids and Midwich Cuckoos but very entertaining. The Memory Police – Yogo Ogawa. The Ocean at the End of the Lane – Neil Gaiman

Non-fiction I’ll Never write my memoirs – Grace Jones Life and Times – Benjamin Zephaniah Postcards from the edge – Carrie Fisher The Guns of August – Barbera Tuchman. Classic history of the outbreak of WW1.

Thrillers/Detective The Long Goodbye – Raymond Chandler The Black » Continue Reading.

The Virus Diaries – Hartnoll and Young

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What does it sound like?:

The first pandemic concept album is here. Wait! It’s not like that at all. Half of Orbital and marmite poet/writer etc Murray Lachlan-Young (yes he!) have combined for an unclassifiable and very enjoyable album exploring lockdown life.

If I tell you that sample song titles are Baking and Jogging, Garden Centre (Push The Trolley) and Home Hairdresser then you can be rest assured that this is not a searing indictment in protest song form of Matt Hancock, but a quirky and humourous look at things that life revolved around in 2020 that we’d never thought of before COVID. He’s excellent on the ‘inner voice’ we all perhaps spent way too much time with, driving us from sourdough to meditation to cope with lockdown.

Behind Young’s words (spoken and semi-sung) Hartnoll fashions a low-key set of electronic beats that bring to mind Yello as much as Orbital. Almost as if he wanted to keep the music light too. It all feels quite rushed in a good way, to get something out while it’s fresh rather than spend months sculpting the perfect sound.

I’m not sure who needs to buy this, but it’s flown fabulously low » Continue Reading.

Your Kindle bargains for September – leaves on the line

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I’m blaming the site speed but actually it’s just work, kids going off to uni, nice weather and all that. But here with a whole 3 days to go are your kindle bargains for September! 99p bar as usual, up until 30 September.

Novels The Flood – Maggie Gee At Freddie’s – penelope Fitzgerald the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. A stonecold classic by Michael Chabon. If you’ve not read you are in for a treat. Papillon – Henri Charriere Freedom – Jonathan Frantzen. Possibly the most lauded writer in the US, of Big Important White Male Books, but given that another great novel.

THRILLERS/DETECTIVE Get Carter – Ted Lewis The Siberian Dilemma – Martin Cruz Smith, yes a Renko. Adam Dalgleish – PD James, many many of her detective series are on at shock 1.19

NON-FICTION Just for One Day: Louise Wener. the Road to Wigan Pier – Orwell A year at the Circus – Jon Sopel. Enjoyed his US election coverage, this is the book. Lonely boy – Steve Jones (of ver Pistols) Rommel, Gunner Who – Spike Milligan. Actually uncategorisable but will leave it here.

CLASSICS Code of the Woosters – PG Wodehouse. AKA the one » Continue Reading.

Harlem Shuffle – Colson Whitehead

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What does it sound like?:

Apparently after Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead had wanted to write in a less gruelling genre and planned a crime thriller, paying homage to greats like Walter Moseley and Chester Himes. However black people kept getting shot, and so he wrote Nickel Boys instead. Now we finally have Harlem Shuffle, providing an even greater contrast to the two novels than precede it. This is Whitehead in cruise mode, showing us how well he can play with and subvert our expectations of the crime novel, while providing the genre thrills we expect along the way.

Ray Carney is a furniture dealer in late fifties Harlem who as well as running a straightforward business handles radios and settees of questionable origin, while also providing connections between thieves and fences for some side hustle income. Around Ray are his feckless cousin Freddie, often the source of dubious merchandise, and a collection of businessmen, hustlers and crooks.

Ray’s hard-earned lifestyle is challenged by the three heists that make up the plot: in the first a hotel strongbox theft goes wrong; in the second Ray takes revenge on a Harlem grandee who fails to deliver an entree into legitimate » Continue Reading.

Your Kindle bargains for August – one week to snap them up

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Not so much commentary. Classics all in recognised publisher editions, as ever a purely partial selection for 99p. Apart from the Murakami which is so good it’s worth a whole 1.99, possibly more if you are a runner.

CLASSICS The Great Gatsby The Decameron Classics from the 1001 Nights Germinal – Zola The World of Blandings – Wodehouse

NON-FICTION What I Talk About when I talk abour running – Murakami. Don Delillo is apparently a runner too (fits) and I’d love his slim volume on 10k’s but this is delight for us runners. The Dreamer – Cliff Richard. I dream of helicopters over my house…oh hang on. A Dream about Lightning Bugs – Ben Folds Catch Me If You Can – Frank Abagnale – inspro for the film This your Brain on Music – Daniel Levitin – great medical/psychological investigation into how music works on us.

NOVELS About A Boy – N Hornby Anathem – Neal Stephenson Brooklyn – Colm Toibin Post Office – Bukowski Amy and Isabelle – Elizabeth Strout

SF Martian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury

THRILLERS The One from the Other – Philip Kerr

Your family Venn diagram (whatever family)

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Your Family Venn Diagram (any kind of family)

So…what gets to play on the kitchen bluetooth speaker. What gets turned off the second your other half walks in the front room? What can you only listen to on headphones lest the jokes descend (‘Kate Bush milk bath’) in my case. We’ve been mulling this over as a family for a week and here are the preliminary results:

Our cast:

Me Son Daughter MrsM

Son: basically its jazz and only jazz. Big band, swing and above all Buddy Rich. Son and me: Bebop. Son, me and Mrs M: Blue Note fifties and sixties, LTJ Bukem and classic melodic jungle (no vocals).

Daughter and only Daughter: Megadeth, Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, Rammstein. Daughter and Mrs M: early Floyd, Ozrics, Gong, Clapton, Purple, Crimson, Sabbath – aka hippy proggy stuff, very early Bowie Daughter and me: The Jam, Husker Du Daughter, Mrs M and Me: Aphex Twin, Glass, Reich, Riley, Oasis, Beatles, Stones, Who, Doors, Dylan. Son will just about tolerate some Glass or Reich but would never choose to put it on.

Mrs M and only her: Vocal jazz (Ella Fitzgerald, Holliday,Piaf etc) Mrs M and me: acid house, Britpop, Smiths, New Order, » Continue Reading.

Kindle monthly deals for July

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I’m going to make these posts briefer for a couple of reasons: the world is opening up, at least for the moment, so reading perhaps is falling back into a more natural place, and there is a lot of repetition in the offers. So more emphasis on new offers, just listings for the offers on repeat.

Novels A Dance to the Music of Time vol 1 – the first three volumes of Antony Powell’s 12-volume masterpiece. Vol 1 (school) and 2 are atypical, but by 3 Powell has hit his stride.

Skagboys – Irvine Welsh. Not a massive Welsh fan, but sure there are many on here.

Talented Mr Ripley – Patricia Highsmith. First of the Ripley cycle, and so influential on the ‘charming psychopath’ gentre.

Cryptonomicon – Neal Stephenson. I remember this as epic but worth it, the first of his many doorstep novels.

Non-Fiction And In The End….by Ken McNab The end of the Beatles. An extra 30p.

Back on at 99p London a countercultural history by Barry Miles Empire Falls by Richard Russo Franchise affair by Josephine Tey A Dark Adapted Eye by Barbera Vine Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey

Kindle monthly deals for June

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Terribly late but here are your Kindle bargains for June. In my defence I’ve been to the Test Match at Edgbaston and an actual gig. Usual rules: 99p only, 1.99 in exceptional cases. Strong month for classics and scifi, less so for novels and thrillers. And Keef! On sale until the end of the month, so another ten days.

CLASSICS Tolstoy – Anna Karenina (Penguin) Wodehouse – Carry On Jeeves JG Farrell – Siege of Krishnapur Olivia Manning – The ‘Balkan’ Trilogy

NOVELS Jonathan Coe – What A Carve Up Nick Hornby – High Fidelity

SCIFI Temi Oh – Do You Dream of Terra Two? Peter F Hamilton – The Reality Dysfunction Neal Stephenson – Snow Crash

NON-FICTION Keith Richards – Life Richard Coles – Fathomless Riches. The Commundars star and reverend autobiog.

THRILLERS Philip Kerr – Greeks Bearing Gifts

Put the solo first? You talked me into it.

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One of the many wonderful things about Cortez the Killer by Neil Young and Crazy Horse is that they just start with over 3 minutes of guitar solo. It’s also there in reduced form for the coda. If it’s this good then why not. So other songs (must have vocals) in which they decide to go with the solo first (if it’s flugelhorn or harp even better) and make the vocalist sit on their stool for a bit.

wired’s not at all patronising guide to the fine art of vinyl collecting

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Without necessarily putting down this well-intended piece for millenials who are getting into collecting those vinlys, oh go on… here are some top tips for record collecting from Wired:

It’s better to start off with a small collection of albums you play over and over again than to have a large collection of vinyl you listen to once a year

Are you mad? Once a year is practically heavy rotation round here. Of course those Bob Dylan bootleg series volumes 1 – 256 are all ESSENTIAL.

Posting your vinyl on TikTok can be the start of online friendships with other collectors, DJs, and music lovers.

No it won’t. Anything more than a youtube upload with an image of the label is just showing off and no-one likes that.

So I feel duty bound to ask the Massive to extend and enchance this article with your Top Tips for those new to vinyl…

https://www.wired.com/story/new-to-vinyl-records-shopping-what-you-need-to-know/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

Where do you go to find the new albums released this week?

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Serious question. Three years ago I would have said ‘Guardian review Fridays plus the Spotify New Releases’ section. Now….the Guardian is down to 2/3 albums a week, and the major Spotify redesign seems to have made it virtually impossible to find an objective list (ie not ‘for you’) list of new releases. I am sure there are excellent folk/jazz/classical genre sites, but I am after an overview of them all from Taylor Swift and Doves to Go Kart Mozart and Sons of kemet. And that album by an artist I’ve never heard before that has five stars that someone says I must listen to.

So where do you go for listing, rating and slating? Weekly ideally, but monthly also possible.

At last….the CDswap you’ve been looking for all your life is here

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Yes this is the official kick-off and invitation post. This time @vulpes-vulpes has taken the role of ass-kicker in chief to me and @kid-dynamite to get our act together and another CDswap on the road. We have some interested parties and now we have a theme – which as it’s spring, as the pubs are properly open and hey even going to the cinema might be possible again, is NEW. The new, a new… even anew if you want to go Shakepearean. New Orleans, Neu!, new stuff it’s all good. We humbly invite you to join us for this round, in which by compiling twelve tracks on the chosen theme and posting them to two or three compadres, you will receive in return two or three CDs of anonymised musical goodness to rate or slate, while your groupees pass judgement on your efforts.

A full list of those we think want to take part this time round is included in the comments, but as this is the sign-up and kick-off post you are more than welcome to add yourself to the list. If the first paragraph leaves you baffled, full guidance » Continue Reading.

Your Amazon May kindle bargains

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Your Kindle 99p bargains for May, as ever a little late. A great line-up of SF and some good thrillers, less strong in the other genres I follow but solid. As ever, grab them before the end of the month.

CLASSICS Olivia Manning – the Levant Trilogy. The successor to the Balkan trilogy, I’ve never quite gelled with her but 3 novels for 99p is good value.

NOVELS Michael Punke – The Revenant. Source for the film. Tim Winton – The Shepherd’s Hut. Cloud Street is the Great Australian Novel – another by Winton.

SF Iain Reid – Foe Very well reviewed, not read yet. Chris Beckett – Mother of Eden. Not read it either, another well-respected British writer, but this is the middle of a trilogy. Neal Stephenson – Anathem. If you are a later period Stephenson fan, this is another 900 page blockbuster. If not then I guess these doorsteps are never going to change your mind. Ted Chaing – Stories of Your Life. Quite superb, Chaing may be the Mozart of the modern sci-fi short story. Includes the novella that became the film Arrival.

Two absolute classics to finish…. Christopher Priest – Inverted World Philip K Dick » Continue Reading.

Your working day…in music

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Over the past twelve months I, like lots of you, have been able to make music a much more important part of my working day. Inbetween Zoom calls the stereo is on in my front room/office and I’ve evolved a listening pattern that helps me focus while also keeping me musically interested. Absolutely no ‘Working Acoustic Mellow Piano Focus’ playlists from Spotify.

The first thing on is always classical. After working through Tom Service’s 50 Symphonies list, and after complete Mahler and Sibelius symphony cycles it’s now a lot of Bach Sonatas and Partitas.

Then it’s jazz – Count Basie, EST, Ellington, Shorter – instrumental and nothing too way out there (or ‘Squonk’ as we say in our house)

After that I’m ready for something a bit more ‘focus’ – so longform electronica such as Underworld, Thievery Corporation is often the last thing before lunch.

In the afternoon I’m ready for vocals so it might be a bit of Specials, Surfjan Stevens or Stars (am on the ‘S’ artists at the moment).

Then as energy and focus wane I’m prepared to trade slight distraction for energy, Thin Lizzy, Sonic Youth, Weller or some Crazy Horse can help me eke out » Continue Reading.

Not On Spotify

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The recent threads on Vinyl and CD versus streaming threw up a number of considerations, but several object-heads talked about the fact that they owned the music and that no-one could take it away from them was really important. Five years ago the discussion would have been dominated by the artists who weren’t on Spotify. Since then the last big hold-outs: Floyd, AC/DC, Swift, Zeppelin, Beatles have all taken the green dot shilling. But the question’s still valid, and was raised. Today, when I played Lloyd Coxson’s King of Dub Rock and realised that only volume one was on Spotify. A quick check on my itunes (yes, still digital but I do own the files at least) revealed that yes vol 2 was Not On Spotify. So here we go, your nominations for the Not On Spotify awards.

I’ll kick off with some obvious categories. The Spotify licensing and royalties model clearly doesn’t work at all for compilations. Ace Records – whose excellent Stax Funk series I am currently enjoying – are barely represented. Dave Godin’s Deep Soul Treasures only exists as the somewhat melancholic user playlists.

Even worse than compilations (where at least you can reconstruct the album) » Continue Reading.

Kindle monthly deals for April

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It’s a very strong month for sci-fi, and some good stuff in thrillers and Non-Fiction. Not much in the classics and contemporary fiction veins, but I think overall a good month for Kindle bargains and most people could spend a fiver fruitfully. As ever, there are other bargains for prices as extortionate as £2.99 but I try and stick to the 99p limit.

Detective and Thrillers Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey – classic detective story about the true fate of Richard III

The Nine Taylors – Dorothy L Sayers First of the Lord Peter Wimsy series – Golden Age Detective fiction

Prussian Blue – Philip Kerr Much-loved Bernie Gunther no 2. For those new to these Bernie is in the Berlin police in twenties – forties Berlin and so the novels explore police procedurals during the Nazi era.

Non Fiction The Age of Football: The Global Game in the Twenty-first Century by David Goldblatt Mammoth investigation into the last 20 years of the game. As a City fan I am not expecting us to come out of it well.

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien Vietnam war classic.

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safar Froer I like this writer » Continue Reading.

Blogger Takeunder

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@el-hombre-malo gathers us round the the virtual fire monthly to compare notes on our cultural consumptiion, and naturally we tend to the positive. So here’s a space to tend to the negative: what have you given up on, Did Not Finish, removed from your Netflix watchlist, baled out of, and so on. To get you started I have decided life is too short this month for:

Midnight Sky DOA scifi clunker from Clooney. After 30 minutes the entire rest of the film is crushingly obvious. A combination of lazy plotting that appears to rip off Wall-E, Clooney’s Old Man and the Ice act, and a perky mute girl who appears to rassle grandpa out of his grumpiness while they face a series of barriers to save… oh it’s just lazy, dull and obvious. Do the producers expect us to believe that a mother who is part of the final exodus of all humanity from earth would leave her 8-year old behind because she believed the ‘I think she went ahead on the ship in front of us’ line. Baled after 30 minutes.

Another Life Scifi royalty Katee Sackhoff is onboard a ship chasing the origin of » Continue Reading.

Skyward Inn

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Author:Alicia Whiteley

There are so many original elements to this novel it’s hard to know where to start. The sci-fi trope it starts with is the ‘friendly invasion’. Earth discovers intelligent life on Qita, and its inhabitants in turn surrender completely to the human invasion of their world. However, Whiteley sets the vast majority of her novel in Devon and the title invites comparison to the Du Maurier West Country classic. After a tour of duty to Qita Jem, owner of the Skyward Inn, runs her establishment with her son Fosse, and Qitan Islay who provides the pub with its ‘brew’ – a Qitan drink with seriously hallucinogenic properties. Their part of the West country is in the Protectorate – a society that eschews high technology and contact with the rest of humanity. Outsiders – a second Qitan, and a family seeking to move into a vacant property, set in motion a chain of events that shakes the Protectorate and forces Fosse to flee.

Whiteley takes her time to create the Protectorate society and her principal characters, and the first half of the novel proceeds at a leisurely pace. Jem in particular is an exceptionally well-drawn character, both rooted in » Continue Reading.

Your Kindle bargains for March

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So it’s nearly mid-March and I can only plead work and family stuff distracting me from the vital task of your Kindle 99p bargains. Hey, who knows this may well be old hat in a few months time as we rush from gig to theatre show to pub and back again with nary a thought of picking up the Kindle until we sink exhausted to our beds. But until then….

LITERATURE Faces In The Water – Janet Frame. The author’s descent through psychiatric institutions

Don Quixote – very long and in a dependable Penguin Classics edition.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes – again in a dependable edition.

NOVELS

Offshore – Penelope Fitzgerald. Booker-prize winning chronicle of a houseboat community in London.

A Spell of Winter – Helen Dunmore

Postcards from the Edge – Carrie Fisher

Between the Assassinations – Aravind Adiga, author of The White Tiger

THRILLERS

Lupin by Maurice Le Blanc – a big Netflix hit, the ‘gentleman thief’ and French answer to Sherlock Holmes.

Robichaux by James Lee Burke – Burke’s style is not for me, but his bayou-heavy thrillers have lots of fans around here I know.

NONFICTION

Backstage Passes – Life on the wildside with David » Continue Reading.

Transcendent Kingdom

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Author:Yaa Gyasi

Yaa Gyasi’s first novel, Homegoing, made a huge stir five years ago. It followed two descending lines of a Ghananian woman over several centuries – crossing from colonial Africa to America and from slavery to the present day. Me, I felt it dominated by structure and theme, and just as we had felt familiar with one group of characters their chapter ended and we moved on another generation. I wondered what she’d do next. This, her second novel, is immensely more satisfying. It has a tight focus on Gifty – a Ghanian-American neuroscientist researcher, her mother and her brother Nana. Through two timelines we follow Gifty’s relationship with her deeply depressed mother in present day Stanford, and with her mother and brother twenty years previously in Alabama. Their father, Chin-Chin Man, initially accompanies them to America but returns to Ghana. Gifty is a completely realised character both as a 28-year old scientist and carer for her mother, and as a girl helpless to prevent tragedy enveloping her family. It is a novel that explores religious belief, opioid addiction. and above all how we try and fix the things that have happened to us that we are helpless to » Continue Reading.

PSA Jab Update: 55’s now included

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got my text this morning – not 56 until October – and booked both appointments online for the Cricket Ground down the road, so hoping to combine the 2nd jab on 1 June with a sleepy county match. Just like Kate Bush tickets the first time I tried to book I got ‘one of your scheduled appointment times is now not available’ and had to go back 3 steps, but hey go go NHS.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan recommendations plese

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Ms Moles has spent lockdown partly doing deep dives on artists – listening to one artists albums on repeat until she is confident she knows their work well. Having done Radiohead the logical next step is of course….Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. But where (via Spotify) to start? Suggestions for essential albums, compilations or playlists please. She tells me ‘maybe ten hours worth’ is what we’re aiming for.