JasonBlog

Sicko

Sicko is the name of a documentary by the controversial American filmmaker Michael Moore. If you haven't seen any of his stuff, his style is to take on the big bad corporations or government representatives on behalf of the underdog. His documentaries are usually thought provoking and filled with passion and humour - and they're usually pretty one sided too - even if he is in my opinion on the 'right' side.

Sicko is about the American healthcare system, and on paper this really doesn't sound like it's going to be all that fascinating. I rented it mainly because I've seen his other films (Fahrenheit 911, Bowling for Columbine, Roger and Me etc.) and wanted to see this to 'complete the set'. But I was very moved and fascinated by this film. As a British person, it'sw difficult for me to imagine what it must be like to have grown up in a developed country that doesn't have a National Health Service. I have no dread of illness - other than of what health related disadvantages that illness bay bring. I certainly don't have to make decisions about my health based on how much I can afford. And I an truly grateful. This is a must-see film for anyone interested in human compassion, and I sincerely hope that it promotes debate in the US about starting along the path towards free healthcare.

It seems that most western countries have all come to the same decision. We care enough about our citizens to help them get the care they need, whether or not they can pay for it. For some reason - and it's partly political and partly to do with profits that can and are being made by huge American Corporations - America has chosen to have a 'for profit' health service, where the most needy can be - and certainly are - neglected.

I'd be interested to know what the US reaction was to this film. Sandy - have you seen it? Is it as black and white as all that - and what has your experience been? I would be so scared to get sick in America - even if I had health insurance. I can't be too grateful for the privilege of living in a country where it' all free...

Bee facts - take The Honey Quiz!

We all love honey - don't we. It's the single most popular food for teenagers and the very old alike - there are over 12 annual festivals dedicated to it - Shakespeare probably wrote about it - it has medicinal powers of healing and is a natural antibiotic - it is so sweet that if you put in in tea or pies or stuff, or even salad, it will make them sweeter - it is the most ancient food ever discovered - during the 1969 lunar landing mission the astronaughts (Louis Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Roozbeh Mahmid) lived entirely on honey due to it's taste and convenience (jars) - and who amongst us could forget the film Honey I Shrunk the Kids, which also was connected in some way with honey?

But do any of us really know where honey comes from? Jars - certainly - but BEFORE the jar was filled by a man or lady, where was the honey? Ask anyone, and you'll just get an incredulous blank stare at best - I know that from bitter experience. But here's the point - HONEY is from BEES. Imagine that! Bees! Those annoying fat wasps that can't even fly in a straight line. I know - sounds rediculous doesn't it - but it's ABSOLUTELY TRUE.

So here is today's Honey Quiz Question:

Out of which part of it's body does a bee make honey come out of?

a) thannet
b) a slit on it's back
c) near one of it's elbows
d) back of hand
e) la la
f ) special tube it uses for ONLY honey (yeah - I bet!)
g) bees cry honey

If you're taking part in the quiz - please don't be tempted to do actual research and find out facts or truth - just pointlessly guess. I'm not even sure if the correct answer is included in the exhaustive anatomical list above - so feel free to offer your own fascinating theories. Have fun! (Next week's Milk Quiz will go ahead as planned - YOU SIMPLY WON'T BELIEVE WHAT I'VE FOUND OUT AND YOU WILL NEVER DRINK MILK AGAIN - GUARANTEED).

Heartwarming and amusing funny clever dog news story

Is this the world's cleverest dog. I think I'd be insulting ALL of our intelligences if I offered to answer that, but have a look anyway, and try to imaging what it must be like to live in THIS family. Who needs TV? Certainly not them. Whenever they want to keep up with news events, or perhaps see who has won the oscar for best lady actor in a foreign film not in the English language - they just get their dog to interpret it in dance or balance something topical on it's little fluffy hands.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/7267871.stm

Rock That Uke

On Saturday I went to
Newcastle and had a
Look around.

I walked the streets
And looked in some shops
And had a coffee then went
To the Star and Shadow Cinema.

Whilst there I watched some
Interesting short films about
Ukuleles. And an interesting
Documentary about Ukuleles.
And met some interesting people who
Were probably activists and vegetarians
And who made me feel very ordinary and square.

I watched some bands that played Ukulele music
And photographed one of them.
The singer was Ira Lightman who is
A bit like Bob Dylan with a Banjolele.

On the way home my Beetle's engine
Burst into flames, and I was eventually towed
Back to Newbiggin by a friend.

Typical.

London to Newcastle

Well that all seemed to go according to plan. The meeting resulted in an invitation to create a web site for a realistic budget, and I'm looking forward to that. More news later when I'll reveal the name of the client company.
The rest of the afternoon has been spent exploring London's West End. I visited the National Portrait Gallery where there was a really interesting exhibition of Vanity Fair portraits.
right now I'm having a quick Lamb Balti at the Kings Cross Tandoori whilst I wait for my train. Missing home though - I'm not a natural Lone Traveller. Back ooop noooorrth very soon....

Newcastle to London

I've got a meeting in London today with a client who wants me to work on their web site. So for the last three hours I've been sitting on a train watching a film (Short Cuts) and drinking coffee. So my legs are a bit numb.
I've just changed over to the Tube to take me to Greenford where my client is. Whilst waiting for the tube to arrive at Oxford Circus I noticed a very cute baby rat down on the lines. I don't think it had The Plague, but if The Black Death breaks out again soon I told you first here.
I had to remember that I'm in a large impersonal city when I saw the baby rat, because my first instinct was to nudge the lady next to me and say "Aaaaahhhh - look a cute baby rat". Whilst this kind of behaviour may be acceptable in Newbiggin by the Sea, it may be viewed as bizarre and worrying here.
This train takes about 45 minutes so I'll have just enough time to get a numb bum again before I get there.
Just passed through Notting Hill Gate. Next station Holland Park. I've been there - I think Madonna lives near here. There's a good playground - which was all we got to see last time we wew here as we were with our kids and The Houstons. We've seen many many playgrounds in our time.
Well I feel okay about this meeting today. Last night I was a bit nervous, but today is mainly about finding out about the company and what they want from a web site. They have one at the moment but it's years out of date and really needs some major redesign. So today I just need to learn all about what they'd like so that we can start putting together a plan. I do like that phase of a project. Everything's possible, and I have a lovely shiny perfect image of what the finished thing might look like. If only it could stay in my head and people could just access it from there. One day....

325 - almost alive!

I had another visit to the Krozka Sharpe Guitar Research Laboratory last week, and saw that the neck of my Rickenbacker 325 had been cut to shape. Here we see it (not as it will ultimately be, I think it'll attach to the back) but it's definitely looking like a 325. How exciting!!!! Dave said that it'll be painted within the next week or two, and then it's a case of sticking lots of shiny bits and pieces onto it. Stay tuned...

Photography developing

One of the things I decided a couple of years ago was to concentrate on making more of my photography as part of my business. With the rise of digital photography, and many people having great equipment of a quality that was once only available to fairly 'pro' photographers, it's more competitive now than it ever has been to make money out of photography. Particularly when I really really don't ever want to do wedding photography (apart from the occasional favour to a friend or relative - too stressful to be responsible for the official images of someone's unrepeatable special day).

Over the last year, I've been really pleased to be offered a slowly increasing amount of photography work, and my portfolio is building. I'd like to spend more time organising my shots (there are tens of thousands - but only a few hundred that I'd be able to really use - and some of them are for a specific job and have little life outside that job).

So a couple of weeks ago, in an effort to start getting my images to work for me I submitted a couple to an online image library, and they were accepted. My photograph of a tree outside Roseden Farm Shop, and a Highland Cow were chosen to be included in the Lucky Oliver photo collection - a collection I use a lot for my web site design work. I'm really pleased about that - especially since they said that the cow shot demonstrated perfect use of black and white technique. Wow - smug or what?

I'm looking forward to being able to spend a bit of time every now and then, just taking photographs intended for this purpose. I'm making a note of 'gaps' in the image library and one day I'll submit shots that few other people have done - nothing too bizarre - stuff that could be used in web sites and brochures and that people might be interested in. Have any suggestions for shots - I'd be delighted and intrigued by your suggestions.

just keep spinning

I can't believe how quickly the weeks are flying past. Life is a blur at the moment. My Facebook profile has recently said that I've been riding the rollercoaster of life. Well that's what it feels like. Going round and round faster and faster, ups and downs - some of it predictable, some of it not.

I have to admit to being a bit emotionally numb at the moment. Loads of stuff happening that I need to sort out in my head, and it's difficult to just be my usual flippant shallow self in the meantime. But there's a sense of progression at least, and each day is a step forward to a degree.

I had the most awful dream last night that I've ever had. Recently I've been having a new kind of anqiety nightmare, involving the loss of my children. A couple of weeks ago I dreamed that I was at a court hearing that was presiding over the execution of my son, and I felt powerless to stop the process. Last night I dreamed that my youngest daughter Rebecca had died, and that I had also been sacked from my job for something I hadn't done, and again felt grief and lack of power and the sense of being carried along by a strong river towards an uncertain but bleak outcome. In the same dream - and this is what I love about the world of the unconscious - I also had to choose a puppy as a pet, for some reason, and I chose a Beagle that was cute but incontinent. I have no idea what Freud would make of me at the moment. He might refer me to someone else who had more time.

This weekend is a chance to rest a bit after a very busy week of web work. I'm in London on Thursday, havign a meeting with an exciting new client who is actually quite well known. It'll probably be the most high profile work I've ever done, and I like the challenge, but there'll be stress too, so I'm facing it with mixed feelings. I also met up today with an outstanding guitarist called Paul Rose who wants to work with me on a DVD project. That should be good - looking forward to it.

Whilst in the Paul Rose meeting, I also had a chance to see the latest progress on my guitar that's being built by Krozka-Sharpe Guitars. The neck has been cut to shape, and next week the body will be painted, and the whole thing will really come together. I think I'm more excited about this guitar than about anything else at the moment. I've always wanted a Rickenbacker 325, and to have one made to my specifications is a dream come true - and not the sort of dream I usually have either. I was even asked how slim I wanted the neck to be today, and they're going to make it as close to my Taylor neck as possible - so I can't wait.

Tomorrow noght Soul Doubt plays a gig in Stocksfield. I hope I feel okay for it. I sense a cold coming on.

So a mixture of stuff, as ever. I'm looking forward to the way my life will be in a few months time, when some stuff has been worked through and life should be a bit more back to normal. Until then, I'll try and cling onto the rollercoaster and just try not to be sick.

Car trouble and ukefest 08

Our Renault Espace is a lovely car in most ways. The one problem we have with it at the moment is that it doesn't work. It's now in the garage for the third time since December 17th, and we won't be getting it back until next week. Fortunately, the lovely Andy has come to our rescue. He's recently bought a new car, and is kindly not getting rid of his old one just yet so that we can use it. Thandy.

The Beetle seems to be a bit more reliable at the moment though. Phew!

On a totally different note, I was excited beyond words this afternoon, reading North East listings magazine The Crack, that there is a Ukulele Festival on 23rd February in Newcastle! http://www.ukelearmeltdown.co.uk/festival/festival.htm And what's more, one of the performers is someone I'm working with at present on a photography project - Ira Lightman, Conceptual Poet. How wonderful. The festival promised workshops and bands, and documentary films. Sweet...