T-Bone Thoughts

I have joined Second Life, or SL to use the trendy abreviation, to no ones greater surprise than my own. I had heard of it, naturally, but always thought it unworthy of serious consideration.

However, call it serendipity, but after listening to a friend relate of his adventures in GOR( a fantasy sim in SL)over a few beers one night, I was intrigued.

I had assumed that SL was a contemporary virtual world, and could not have been less interested. Descriptions of GOR, though, found me one day being shown around by the aformentioned 'Gorean', and my first steps were taken shortly thereafter.

Already, I have wandered around the many, often dangerous, GOR sims. Some people there take it VERY seriously, but in the main, the characters I have met have been lovely and kind.

GOR SL, though, is viewed by some other SL-ers as worthy only of derision and ridicule. This is because, I think, the GOR books deal with heavy female slave and BDSM scenarios. However, they need to realise that a)the books and the GOR sim are fantasy, pure and simple, and b) the female GOR Sl-ers choose to be a 'Kajira' or slave-girl character, and finally c) there are many other things to do in GOR but capture slave girls (most of the Kajira seem to me to have their so called 'Masters' wrapped around their little finger. Perhaps, like real life?! )

At this moment, I am on a quest in the Sardar Mountains of GOR. See my avatar picture in My Photos.

Honour and Steel!!!

Just before Xmas, I was looking at things to sell. More importantly, however, I was looking at whether I could let them go. After all, a lot of these things have been with me since my youth; they are precious to me on a number of levels.

Firstly, they remind me of my youth. As young people will find out, time is NOT a constant. It flies by faster, every year. It seems like only yesterday I was 18, and looking forward to all that life had to offer. Thirty years on and here I am, writng this, listening to some superb, free relaxing user-defined nature sounds on www.soundsleeping.com.

I was going to use ebay. But. They got greedy. Very greedy. If you look at ebay now, it is virtually all becoming 'Buy It Now' stuff. They have squeezed the small seller (who nearly always had the more interesting stuff to sell)with charges and the demand to use PayPal whether you like it or not. Fuck 'em, - and please excuse my language, I do try to use expletives as, arguably, they should be used.

So, I used www.preloved.com, instead, to sell my first item to go. This was a beautiful, fishing rod. Made by the world famous Hardy brothers of Alnwick, one of the oldest fishing maufacturers in the world and still in business in this digital age. A 12 and a half foot Palakona split-cane salmon fly rod. A lucky person in Canada bought it, and - to his credit - acknowledges this fact. It broke my heart to sell it, but due to many reasons, I no longer fish the river banks of Northumberland in the autumnal flood rains when the big salmon swim upstream. Far better this rod go to someone who will appreciate it's beauty and function.

I have also put up two electric guitars on preloved. These have both been with me from new. I still remember the excitment and sheer occasion of trying these guitars out and signing the credit forms. They are two fine examples of Americas finest guitar manufacturers, namely Fender and Gibson. Both are over 26 years old. Jeez. Thats older than a lot of young 'uns writing far better blogs than I can on this community! Yoysa.

These guitars have served me well, but they will live on long after I am dead. It is time they moved on to a different, younger set of hands who will take them and create sounds and dreams from them, all being well with the universe.

Finally, I have to let go my hopes to know better a woman I grew to love. I came so very, very close. They say, that it is better to have loved and lost...than to not have loved at all. And perhaps it is. If one has a soul, though, and a heart that beats, then that is cold comfort for the pain that has to be borne. A romanic I was, seemingly born, and one I shall die. The world is not a romantic place. But why let the world win? We need more love, not less.

Peace to all in this year ahead.... to good times and bad times... and our ability to enjoy the former to the most, and to shrug off the latter and live the best we can.

Turn on the news and, boy, are those journalists just lapping all this doom and gloom up. One can see the excitment in their puppy eyes as they tell us all how bad things are. Frankly, they are part of the problem. Panic and paranoia and the media; a dream team.

Interesting thing is this. All the government financial advisors, top economists, bank CEO's, city slickers, hedge fund managers. NONE of these overpaid clowns saw this coming! Just think about that for a moment and digest it. They have been revealed for the worthless waste of spaces they all are. This could be a very good thing. People now realise that the wages these cretins earn is ridiculous when they are so inept. Politicians, too, may well cut the pay and bonuses of these buffoons in the years to come. Let's hope so.

I drove to a gig in Durham from newcastle only to find the pubs doors locked. I waited, with all my gear outside, until it was clear this was not merely a case of them opening late.

I called the booking agent. I explained my predicament, and just then a passing student explained the place had gone down the tubes. The agent was as surprised as myself; though not as disappointed....or out of pocket. He said to give him 5 mins, and he'd try and contact the landlord/manager. He'd only been there the week before, and had been given no indication the place was gonna go tits-up

I had only been down to the pub 4 weeks ago, to get the lay-out and to leave some posters, as requested.

The agent phoned back. He couldn't contact the manager. He apologised and said it was out of his control, etc, etc, he'd try and find out what happened in the next day or two, and get back to me.

As luck would have it, I had managed to get parked outside this notoriously bad for parking pub, feeling pretty chuffed, only to feel well pissed off minutes later. I put all the stuff back in the car, waited another ten minutes, then drove all the way back over the Tyne to home.

Paul, ex-Shamrox manager/landlord. I'm looking for you. I'll find you, too. I look forward to hearing your explanation for your lack of manners and sufficient notice.

Summer gigs. Time to get moving and get booked and ready to roll. Tough call these days. Everyone and his dog is a musician. Just look at the crap on Jools Holland, and you'll see what I mean. I cannot believe for the life of me that he selects every act on there. Some of them are just SO bad, that it beggars belief that a class musician like ole Jools would like most of them. Too hard to believe. The fact he's paid to do so, notwithstanding. Watched Martha Wainright the other day. Utter s**t. Her gay bro has got talent. She hasn't. But how many Tristrams at the BBC are man enough to tell her to go learn play the guitar? None.

I'm not old, but I'm not young, either. My heart bleeds for the youth of today. Is there a single, original music act they can call their own? Nope. All pale imitations of things past. Which is bad. Very bad, actually. Which is why we have people like Simon Cowell, or whatever his name is. Britains got talent? Jesus. No, it hasn't. That's the problem. The 50's, 60's, 70's, and - just - the 80's belonged to youth driven popular music. Not anymore. All youth music is decided by middle aged to old men at record companies worldwide. A very depressing fact. Where IS the counter-culture of today!? Has political correctness killed it all off? Possibly.

So, I hear you ask, am I any good, as I'm making such a noise, here? Hell, yes. I can actually play my guitar. Very, very well, as anyone attending my gig at Shamrox on July 10th will be able to appreciate. But when we're gone - and I'm the tail end of the 70's, true musos - who will take our place? the Amy Mcdonalds? Lily Allens? Duffys? Arctic Monkeys? (Christ, punks of the 70's could play their guitars better than those square roots of zeroes! They make Oasis look like Led Zeppelin.) Nope.

The music business has never been in worse shape. It relies on the youth of the day to provide a dynamic quality. We've been very, very let down. The consequence is, the business is all piss poor boy bands and girl bands, pale imitation bands of yesteryear, and, ahem, R'n'B stars. R'n'B stands for rythmn and blues, not Beyonce et al.

Surely to God, some kids have got to come along with a new dynamic, a new take, a new direction? I believe what is needed, desperately, is a 'revolution' similar to punk in '76-'78, which shook the whole music business upside down. Until then, we have Simon Cowell et al telling kids what to do. Somehow, I very much doubt Simon is gonna give us the new Elvis or Johnny Rotten.

Kids, it's up to you..............