unpopular

The First Song of Spring

I need justice in my life. Here it comes.

The First Song of Spring - The Lilac Time (from 'No Sad Songs' LP. Tapete Records)
Warm Circuitry - Loch Ness Mouse (digital single. iTunes)
The Memory Museum - Lightning In A Twilight Hour (from 'Fragments of a Former Moon' LP. Bandcamp)
The Eleven Year Glitch - Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat (from 'The Most Important Place in the World' LP)
The Call Centre - Component#4 (from 'Into Memory' LP. Bandcamp)
Flowers For The Blind - Death And The Maiden (from 'Death And The Maiden' LP. Bandcamp. YouTube)
Love Repeats - the Fairlight Myth (from WIAIWYA 7" single. Bandcamp)
I Wanna Be Your Ex - White Town (digital single. YouTube)
You and I Alone - Daphne And Celeste (7" single. YouTube)
The Light Of the Sun - Ralegh Long (from 'Hoverance' LP. Bandcamp)
Intravenous - The Catenary Wires (digital single. On Bandcamp)
Private Number - Dick Diver (from 'Melbourne, Florida' LP. Bandcamp)
Maybe You Need to Come Back - Sneaky Feelings (available on 'Send You' LP. YouTube)
One Too Many Things - Surf City (from 'Jekyll Island' LP)
Die Another Day - Jack Hayter  (from 'A Girl And A Gun' series. Bandcamp)
Never Kissed A Blonde - Kane Strang (from 'Blue Cheese' LP. Bandcamp)
Enabler - Evans The Death (from 'Expect Delays' LP. YouTube)
The Legend of Chavo Guerrero - The Mountain Goats (from 'Beat The Champ' LP. YouTube)
Albany - Spinning Coin (from debut cassette . Soundcloud)
Maybe Tomorrow - Gavin Osborn (from 'Share Your Toys' LP. Bandcamp)
A Lover Sings - Voice Of The Rain (from Voice Of The Rain archives)
Shut It Down - Khartomb (CD single)

educating marmalade

Tiny Moments #30 - "racing"

In my efforts to shift some weight I have started to use My Fitness Pal to track my calorie intake and exercise. The fact that it syncs directly with Strava is terrific. What I like most though is the description of the activities. My morning rides to school are rated as “very fast”, whilst my ride home tonight is classified as “racing”. I’m not sure exactly what I’m racing against though. Perhaps it is simply the passage of time and the inevitability of age. In which case, like everyone else, I am losing. 

 

Tiny Moments #29 - badger

At the junction to Up Exe I spot the corpse of a badger lying on it’s back in the road, another victim of seasonal road crossing disasters. From a distance it looks for all the world like it is warming its tummy in the sun. It’s a melancholic moment. I set my eyes straight ahead and ride on into the wind.

 

Tiny Moments #28 - use all the road

As I ride down Green Lane I can see, several hundred metres ahead of me, four young women walking towards me. They take up the entire width of the lane. As I get nearer I can see that although they are talking to each other they are also looking directly ahead. The lane is arrow straight. I am not a small man, and I am wearing a lurid pink jersey. Surely they cannot fail to see me approaching? Surely at least two of them will move aside to let a fellow road user past? And yet, it is only until I am almost on top of them, shouting ‘hellooo’ and gesticulating wildly that they appear to consider taking any kind of avoiding action. Perhaps they have never had a cyclist collide with them at 31kmh. In which case, I can assure them that whilst it would cause me pain and injury, it would cause them a great deal more.

 

Tiny Moments #27 - double decker bus

Each morning two double decker buses pass me on the valley road. Each of them carries the ‘NIS’ sign, and as such both are empty. I struggle to understand why, if the buses are driving along their normal route each morning, they do not just stop for any passengers that might fancy a bus ride. Wouldn’t the possibility of a couple of quid in fares be better than the certainty of none at all? Pondering this question, the soundtrack in my head is of course the Count V.

 

 

Tiny Moments #26 - pootle #1

On an after work pootle with Carrie to Thorverton and back we pass through the string of houses that these days appear to make up Latchmoor Green. The grassy bank in front of the bungalows is dotted with Spring flowers in an early display of colour. It cheers me enormously.

 

Tiny Moments #25 - temperature’s rising

Heading home down the valley the temperature measurement on my Garmin slowly creeps up. 20. 20.5. 21. It peaks out at 21.5 degrees Celsius. In the middle of April. I luxuriate in it whilst I can.

 

Tiny Moments #24 - wipers

Again this morning there is heavy fog blanketing the valley. Riding through it leaves a myriad of tiny water droplets on the leading edges of my merino arm and knee warmers. Hands, foolishly without gloves, are chilled to the bone. The lenses of my glasses continually mist up and I flick my fingers across them like windscreen wipers. Above Jenny’s Portion the sun just about breaks through and illuminates the just blooming fields of rape seed on the hillside. If climbing the hill hadn’t done so already, it would quite take my breath away.

 

Tiny Moments #23 - no slipstream

A tractor towing a trailer containing another tractor. Now there’s something spectacularly Devon. It comes past just as we pass through Ashley and I fight the temptation to attempt any kind of sprint to sneak into the slipstream. My legs already hurt and I know that the effort would strain my back more than I care to, so I watch it trundle away from me. The memory of once having had the legs to follow hurts more than anything else though.

 

Tiny Moments #22 - run rabbit, run

Over the years whilst riding my bicycle I have pursued and occasionally been pursued by numerous forms of wildlife. There have been pheasants running epileptic-ally to the side and in front. Deer have burst through hedgerows and narrowly avoided me, with one young buck proceeding to run ahead of me for several metres down Green Lane before escaping back into the fields beyond. Suicidal squirrels have darted between my wheels, escaping death by inches. A buzzard has glided barely helmet-high over me, pondering a hearty lunch but clearly thinking better of it in the end. This morning it is a little rabbit, scampering along the verge as I ride up into Bickleigh, it’s white bob-tail shining through the mist. I’m glad there is no buzzard in attendance this time.