Essential No.1

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Now playing: The Jam - Down in the Tube Station at Midnight
via FoxyTunes

Pain No.7

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Now playing: Johnny Nash - Hold Me Tight
via FoxyTunes

Happy No.8

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Now playing: Edwyn Collins - Out of This World
via FoxyTunes

Frustrations No.7

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Now playing: Simon & Garfunkel - Bleecker Street [*][Demo Version]
via FoxyTunes

Inspired No.4

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Now playing: Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - Going To A Go-Go
via FoxyTunes

Truths No.8

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Now playing: Craig McLachlan - Mona
via FoxyTunes

Windows No.2

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Now playing: The Avalanches - Stay Another Season
via FoxyTunes

Penniless No.3

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Now playing: Moby - When It's Cold I'd Like to Die
via FoxyTunes

Kids Stuff No.1

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Now playing: The Upsetters - Return of Django
via FoxyTunes

Surprises No.2

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Now playing: Sugardaddy - Step Up
via FoxyTunes

Regrets No.7

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Now playing: Simon & Garfunkel - Somewhere They Can't Find Me
via FoxyTunes

Spam Poetry

Sometimes there is a kind of beauty in the random words spat out by a spam generator.

The link below is the same kind of thing but I have no idea how it was written or generated. Perhaps it is just a wierd translation of something else.

http://bit.ly/bQ4Q47

Happy No.5

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Now playing: Stuart Townend - How Deep the Father's Love
via FoxyTunes

Dub War - Strike it!

Dub War are a band from Newport, where I grew up, and they are the best at what they do!

They pioneered a fusion of reggae and hardcore rock that may have been imitated but never bettered.

Their first album, Pain, is one of my all time favourite albums. But their second didn't really catch the same energy and they faded from my view.

They are one of the few bands I saw live in the 90's and they were just as good in the flesh as on their recordings, if not better.

The album was ideal for getting the adrenalin pumping, but eventually I got rid of the album in one of my, much regretted, cd purges.

Apparently the lead singer, Benji Webbe, went on to form a band called Skindred and carried on the Dub War tradition.



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Now playing: Crystal Lewis - The Beauty of the Cross
via FoxyTunes

Sensations No.4

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Now playing: Jimmy Radcliffe - Long After Tonight Is All Over
via FoxyTunes

What Peter Did Next

Apparently, Peter Andre has lucked out and is now starring in a movie, From Paris With Love, alongside John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

Quite how Mr Andre managed to push Mr Meyers off the promotional material and not get main billing must be one of the marketing blunders of the year!

All we need now is for Katie Price to do a film with Olivia Newton-John. The mind boggles!

808 State - Pacific State

This track is another of the most influential tracks of my youth.

It began my 12" inch collection (which admittedly never grew very big before CD's took over the world) and showed me music other than the type produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman's 'Hit Factory' (some of which I still like btw!).

It was danceable and also created an atmosphere. I could just close my eyes and lose myself in the music, always the mark of a good track for me. It fired my imagination and was the soundtrack to a lot of my creative endeavours in my teens.

There were a few other tracks of theirs that stood out for me (cubik and one in ten spring to mind) but this had the most impact.



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Now playing: Yusa - La Fabula
via FoxyTunes

Taking Off

I feel it dying all around me
A detachment from who I used to be
I've withstood the battering, taken the bruises
Survived the destruction of who I thought I should be

Now the wind blows gently
Till it finds a hold upon my broken flesh
And lifts away that old skin
To reveal a new person within

I flex my hands and feel the blood rush
An excitement grows at the new possibilities
I want run and run, push myself to the limit
Go further than I was ever able to before

Now the wind is harsh upon my face
I head into the future more capable than ever
Unwilling to bow or break again
As I take off like a rocket, I wonder what is my fuel?

D'Oh! No.1

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Now playing: The Script - Lose Yourself
via FoxyTunes

Wiley & Chew Fu - Take That

Wiley & Chew Fu - Take That on MUZU

I haven't been able to get this track out of my head recently. I love the energy and the attitude in this track. It's like Wiley + Chew Fu has tried to one up Dizzee Rascal + Armand Van Helden's 'Bonkers', which I listed below as one of my favourite tracks of 2009.

And dare I say it but it might actually be better!

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Now playing: Dolly Parton - Jolene
via FoxyTunes

Where do I go?

Everyone needs a safe place
Somewhere to ride out the storms
A refuge from those who are after your blood
A space apart from everything else
One hidden corner where you can catch a breath
Everyone does, but mine has gone.

Hairstyles No.5

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Now playing: Rozalla - Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)
via FoxyTunes

A Winter Break

The cold crept in
And froze our love

The frost took hold
Our blood ran with ice

The snow fell deep
Entrenching our positions

Arctic winds prevailed
Blowing us apart

Now here we stand
Poles apart

Frustrations No.6

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Now playing: Robyn - Show Me Love
via FoxyTunes

More words, but not here

Obviously, my mind has been on other stuff than my fiction writing recently.

Thoughts that don't quite fit here can be found on another new blog of mine.

The Adventures of a Weekend Dad is trying to make something good out of a bad situation.

Another bunch of words

I've just set up another blog to chronicle my attempt to run in the Cardiff Half Marathon in October 2010.

This time I've set it up on Wordpress as I want to try out a different type of blog engine. I guess we'll see how it goes!

Wanting It Somehow Healed

I wish I'd been there for you
In the dark moments that shaped you
When your innocence was lost
And your spirit broken

I wish I could have given you the love you needed
Before you knew you did
And when it would have made the most difference
And saved so much future heartache

If I'd been there in those moments
I wouldn't have stood idly by
I would have waded in to prevent your pain
And change your life for the better

I hope that your future would have changed
And somehow we would still have found each other
Be living the life we should have had
If you had done the same thing for me too



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Now playing: The Chemical Brothers - Hey Boy Hey Girl
via FoxyTunes

Beauty No.4

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Now playing: M&M - Don't Stand In My Way
via FoxyTunes

To or from?

My feet take me to places I know
Retracing the routes taken in happier times
As each footstep takes me forward
Into another memory
Each Footstep also allows me to walk away
And leave those memories behind
They no longer are brought to life
By the love and joy they once held
Now they are drained and gaunt
The soft warmth replaced by a razor-sharp edge
Unable to embrace them any longer
What once used to course through me
Giving me life
Leaves me nothing but an empty shell
What happens then
When my feet have left the familiar behind



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Now playing: Out of Eden - Come & Take My Hand
via FoxyTunes

Inspired No.3

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Now playing: Jimmy Buffett - If The Phone Doesn't Ring It's Me
via FoxyTunes

Why love?

When can you tell if the love has gone?
Is it when the smiles fade to silence too quickly
Or you expect someone to disappoint rather than fulfill?

Is it possible for love to overcome the onslaught
As your feelings are swept away in the stony glare of incredulity
And forgiveness loses its meaning?

Is love true if its focus doesn't acknowledge it?
Does it wither and wilt if not given the attention it desires?
Or is it self-sustaining and eternal?

Does love flow from a spring?
Is it powered by an unending source
And received gratefully?

Is love something that can be demanded?
Will it be forced to do another's bidding?
Is it there to satisfy someone's need?

How can I know if the love comes from me
Or is a reaction to the person that holds my heart in their hands?
Is it validated because I say so or because she does?



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Now playing: The Offspring - Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)
via FoxyTunes

Penniless No.2

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Now playing: Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor
via FoxyTunes

Night Tricks

At night, the still air
Carries sounds that aren't there
From places that cannot be
Too far for the eye to see
They skitter and they scuttle
Dark noises in the gutter
Unnatural in the night
Non-existent in the light


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Now playing: Moby - Come on Baby
via FoxyTunes

Essential No.1

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Now playing: The Avalanches - Summer Crane
via FoxyTunes

50 Cent - Baby By Me

I don't like gangsta rap.

I even like country music more.

50 cent is a typical example of what I don't like about it and this song is too. Maybe I'm just a bit up myself. It couldbe that the hip hop persona is just an act.

If so, it just really gets under my skin and not in a good way!

My favourite exponents are probably Kanye West and Black Eyed Peas who take the attitude but find other topics to populate their tracks other than the violent, misogynistic landscape that seems to populate the majority of Hip Hop and R'n'B at the moment.

I'm kinda on the fence about Eminem but I think his best stuff is behind him.

I find very little to like about 50 Cent's records although by all accounts he's a bit of a charmer in person.

Fiddy can take Diddy and get out of my ciddy!


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Now playing: Northern Uproar - Town
via FoxyTunes

That Place

There's a place I live
And I place I long to be
Home is an empty word
Though it still tugs at me
I need to keep on searching
Looking to the horizon
I will find someone
One I can rely on
Painful though the moment is
It cannot last forever
A light will break soon, through the clouds
And bring a change of weather
Then I will stand, in new arms
And know I'm not alone
On that day, born in love
I will have found my new home


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Now playing: Cast - History
via FoxyTunes

Happy No.7

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Now playing: The Beatles - Long, Long, Long
via FoxyTunes