Tuesday Night Music Club by Sheryl Crow

Another laid back chill out album, perfect for kicking back in a bar, enjoying the buzz and having some fun before the sun goes down over Santa Monica Boulevard. According to wiki, this grew out of a casual musical collaboration between friends that Sheryl Crow wrangled into a breezy and confident debut album but lead to her relationship with Kevin Gilbert, co writer and boyfriend at the time, being strained.

As well as the best known track “All I Wanna Do” which was inspired by a poem by Wyn Cooper, the highlight for me was the jazzy “We Do What We Can”.

I Swear

 Few people knew about Tourette's syndrome before the BBC documentary "John's Not Mad" was broadcast in 1989, and even now it is sometimes treated as something of a joke with the idea of swearing inappropriately being treated a funny rather than a crippling disability. John Davidson developed a severe form of the condition in his early teens and it blighted his life, with tics, involuntary muscle spasms, obsessive behaviour and swearing. He had little sympathy from teachers at school, and his parents evidently struggled to cope too, and it was only the friendship of  a schoolfriend's mother who happened to be a mental health nurse that started to give him strategies for coping.

This biopic film opens with Davidson about to receive an MBE from the Queen at Holyrood Palace before going back to show his life as a cheeky and confident 11 year about to start high school with the prospect of being scouted by a football team. His first tics are shocking and distressing - swearing and spitting food at both parents and teachers, and earning him a cruel taste of the leather strap from an unsympathetic head master. 

The story jumps forward to his life as a young man, where his involuntary muscle spasms land him in trouble for starting a fight in a nightclub but two people turn his life around - his friend Dottie who treats him with sympathy and Tommy, who offers him a job as an assistant caretaker at a community centre and acts as a character witness for him in court.

The film is sensitively done, with the portrayal of Tourette's as being a frightening and isolating condition but one that can be managed with understanding and coping strategies. There are moments of laughter, but it is the laughter of recognition at all of those moments where we have felt like shouting the most inappropriate thing possible. 

Meadow, Hibernate

Trip to Meadowhall 

Needs must but now feel like I 

Want to hibernate

Hot Shots II by The Beta Band

No relation to the comedy film, apparently. This album opens with a very recognisable sample of the 1970 song Daydream by the Gunter Kallman Choir which fits very nicely into the laid back shoegazy trip hop electronica vibe of this album.

The first listen through sort of washed over me but I hit play again and started to appreciate this as an excellent listen for a sunny Sunday morning with a cool breeze blowing through the house. It won’t set the world on fire (climate change is already doing that, amirite?) but I think this will be going into regular rotation on the playlist.

What's Going On and The Leopard in My House by Mark Steel

I picked up two autobiographical books by Mark Steel as I've always enjoyed his standup and various radio shows. 

What's Going On details his experiences of being on the hard left of politics from the Thatcherite 80's to the inevitable disappointment of Tony Blair in number 10. He was a member of the Socialist Workers Party who were regulars at any demo but spent most of their time arguing with each other and splintering into smaller factions over footling points of ideology. He has much to say about the difficulty of organising a popular mass socialist movement when just a handful of people actually turn up to meetings. 

His gradual falling out of love with the SWP is paralleled with the slow breakdown of his long term relationship with his partner. Both of these threads end with him moving out and making a fresh start, hopefully with an air of optimism.

The second book is less jokey, but more personal and deals with his experience of being diagnosed with cancer after discovering a lump in his throat. He learns to cope with the nasty side effects of the treatment with a mix of stoicism and humour, with his views about the invaluable care provided by the NHS as well as some of its many problems which as he puts it might not be immediately solved by throwing money at them but it would go a long way to helping. 

There is also the joy of tentatively starting a new relationship as he is at his lowest ebb which is good to read after the previous book.

Rain, Frosty

LV-426
Just a bug hunt in the rain
Stay frosty marines

Cold, Draft

A long sweaty week
Now cool off with a cold draft
Of nicely chilled beer