Head Space Daily Words...

People Power succeeded today, as the decision to cut services at Lewisham A+E was overturned in the High Court. When government cuts are going to put lives and an entire community at risk, it is cost cutting gone mad, particularly when the local hospital is successfully run and the alternative is a failing service over an hour away on public transport. Mass demonstrations were organised, major support within the community galvanised and even Millwall FC switched a game from Saturday to Friday evening, to allow more people to attend a demonstration. I am generally fairly cynical about protests and the hope of every day folk getting their voices heard, particularly to the extent of having an impact. The success of the Lewisham A+E demonstrations and today's announcement has restored my faith in what people can achieve together within a community. As Public Enemy said - Fight The Power (see Head Space Daily Tune) - congratulations to the people of Lewisham...

Head Space Daily Image...

This photo was taken on January 26th and perfectly illustrates why Lewisham A+E needed to be saved. The old boy in this picture would have had to travel for over an hour from this bus stop, on a route that isn't direct, to obtain basic health care. It made no sense...

Head Space Daily Tune...

Public Enemy - Fight The Power

When people power has won the day and saved Lewisham A+E, there is only one track for it. Tell it boys...

Head Space Daily Words...

When I worked around Waterloo East, there would sometimes be a guy selling peacock feathers. Last Friday, he was trying to tickle our fancy outside Shepherd's Bush tube station (see Head Space Daily Image.) If you think about it, it must be a tough job being a peacock feather seller, as you are providing for an extremely niche market. On the way down to the local Co-Op for a loaf of bread, one may be struck by realisations such as - must buy some ketchup; or, perhaps I should get in some milk but how many of us are seriously hit by the thunderbolt that we need to buy some peacock feathers? If that thought has ever occurred to you, let me know and I will arrange for you to be sectioned. The guy always has a bundle of feathers. Either he never sells any, or there is some serious underground, battery peacock farming going on in London, where birds are bred for their ornate plumage. On second thoughts, twenty four peacock feathers for ten pounds seems like a real bargain. Count me in and don't forget the Bertolli and the bog roll...

Head Space Daily Image...

The peacock feather seller outside Shepherds Bush tube station last Friday...

Head Space Daily Tune...

The Sugarcubes - Hit

I was never big into The Sugarcubes but this has a real groove to it, with Icelandic rap...

Head Space Daily Words...

Yesterday was all about basking in nostalgia at the Anniversary Games and enjoying some top class athletics in the Olympic stadium. Having been informed all week by the weather forecast to expect torrential downpours throughout the day, we found ourselves basking in glorious sunshine, with raincoats packed into bags and a lack of sun cream. Fortunately, our seats enabled us to remain in the shade all day and avoid sunburn and heatstroke. Phew. The athletics was excellent but when Mo Farah's race took place, that was when we were given a slight taste of what it would have been like to be in the crowd on that Super Saturday night, during the London Olympics last year. The crowd really came alive and whilst we went nuts for Mo, Katarina Johnson-Thompson won the long jump - a la Greg Rutherford a year ago - with her final leap. The adulation for Mr Farah was immense, then to top it all off, Usain Bolt - charismatic, world superstar that he is - ran the anchor leg for the Jamaican team in the 4x100 metres relay. To see athletes like Mo, Bolt, Christine Ohorogu, Jess Ennis and upcoming talent like KJT in the flesh, was a real pleasure. Then we came home to watch a re run of Danny Boyle's Olympic opening ceremony on BBC1. A great way to remember a great time...

Head Space Daily Image...

The iconic floodlights of the Olympic Stadium look down over the events of yesterday's anniversary games...

Head Space Daily Tune...

Linda Williams - Elevate Our Minds

A classic rare groove that Huey Morgan reminded me of on his 6Music show this afternoon. Turn it up..

Head Space Daily Words...

The smell of basil is rather splendid, don't you think? Do you have a favourite smell? And on the subject of plant life, check out today's Daily Image and Tune...

Head Space Daily Image...

I took this picture of a passion flower in our back garden recently. They come from nowhere, out of an innocuous fence climbing plant. They hang around for a few days then boosh...they are gone, just like passion itself...

Head Space Daily Tune...

Dr.Octagon - Blue Flowers

This is some piece of eerie, unnerving hip hop from Dr.Octagon/Kool Keith. A weird and wonderful tune that I picked up in the mid 90s and still sounds great today. Having just listened to it, the track has left me feeling quite spooked...

Head Space Daily Words...

Today is my eldest son's final day at Junior school. Those early school years are a real coming of age journey of growing up. It only seems like yesterday that we struggled to get him through the school gates in the morning, as he begrudgingly went to school each day; yet now he is a happy, confident young man, taking everything in his stride, growing in confidence with each passing day and is someone to be truly proud of. His greatest quality is that he understands people and has great empathy towards the other kids, fully respecting who they are, where they're from and their individual circumstances. He cares about people, which is a fine trait to possess. Last night was the year six leaving show - a performance of Midsummer Night's Dream - and very good it was too - funny, emotional, uplifting - all those things you want from an end of year, school leavers performance. Proceedings were rounded off with a version of Manic Street Preachers Your Love Alone Is Not Enough (see Head Space Daily Tune) which sounded better than the original and called for an encore. This evening is a 'graduation' party, as the kids will get a send off from the school. Tears will be shed...

Head Space Daily Image...

Moving on. Growing up. New adventures. This is a wall mural at my son's school, where he has spent the last four years. Today is his final day...

Head Space Daily Tune...

Manic Street Preachers and Nina Persson - Your Love Alone Is Not Enough

The kids in my eldest son's school year performed this song last night at the end of their performance of A Misdsummer Night's Dream. The arrangement was changed with a girl singing all the lyrics and the entire year group echoing the call and response moments of the song. It worked really nicely, totally changing the dynamic of the song, bringing out the emotion of the words. Someone could do a decent cover version...

Head Space Daily Words...

As the freelance world of broadcast promos, content, creativity and production continues to elude me - I am available for promos, writing, brandspots, shoots and sale tapes, across all genres; contact me for further details - I have decided to get fit through running. Today was my third run and although I have completed each one, gasping for air, with a face the colour combination of tomato and beetroot, there has been noticeable improvement already. To put it simply, I am running for fifteen minutes around the block. The key factors I am learning, are pace and gradient. On my first run, I went like the clappers, obviously excited to be wearing a pair of ill fitting shorts and bouncy new running trainers. I set out like Mo Farah and was half way around in lightning pace, before I hit a slight incline, which continues for much of the rest of the route home. I say slight, because you don't think about it when you are walking but running is a different matter. My first run, having not paced it out, saw me having to walk the final stretch, panting like Scooby. For my second run, the sky was overcast - perfect for seam bowling - and it was a touch cooler. Gasping, I arrived back, barely able to breathe after fifteen minutes but I didn't have to stop and walk the streets home like some (un)athletic delinquent, in the full gaze of buggy pushing mothers. Today was my third run and it was all fine until the slight up hill section where I became aware that I was trying to run faster and push myself harder. The only reason I can think of for doing this, is that on school cross country runs, whenever we had to run up hills, there would be a sergeant major type PE teacher yelling at us to keep moving and screaming at us to not stop. Fear would drive us up that hill. Some reverse psychology is in order and slowing it down a touch next time has to be the way forward. I am nearly forty and no longer have to worry about a hairy arsed teacher putting me through my paces. By slowing my pace down a touch, I may be less prone to scaring the neighbours as I come home gasping for air, as if I have been putting myself through some kind of oxygen deprived torture. You never know, in a few weeks, I may be up to twenty minutes. Onwards and upwards...

Head Space Daily Image...

These shoes are putting a spring in my step as I pound the streets of Brockley...

Head Space Daily Tune...

Quakers - Fitta Happier


Staying with the running and fitness theme - in title only - I bring you Fitta Happier a superb hip hop track, featuring Guilty Simpson, from the wonderful Quakers album which was released last year. Check that brass section...

Head Space Daily Film...

Today, I proudly present the first Head Space Daily Film.

On February 3rd, I posted in Head Space Daily about our cannibalistic goldfish Bubbles; on March 27th, Head Space Daily featured an image of the make shift film set in our dining room, where I was shooting our fishy friend on my i-phone for a short film. Well, at long last and voiced by my eldest son, I give you Wednesday's Child, the first in a series of shorts about childhood reminiscence:

A painful childhood memory teaches us to value the good times, starring Bubbles the fish.

Enjoy.

Wednesday's Child...

Head Space Daily Words...

Come on!! Arms in the air!! It's my oldest and closest friend's 40th birthday today. Having known each other since the age of twelve, we have shared a great many of those coming of age life moments - particularly through music, clubs (see Daily Tune,) good times and finding or rather stumbling our way to where we are today - and who knows where it will lead next. He gave me that precious TDK 90 when I was 15 years old, with The Stone Roses on one side and Happy Mondays Bummed on the other. I remember sharing times in Marbella when we were students. He DJayed at a club night that I put on with some friends when I was a student in Sheffield, which is where my wife and me got it together. Although we don't see that much of one another, there is the occasional gig - Primal Scream, Roy Ayers and Marlena Shaw being the most recent and our kids are of a similar age. Tonight is a get together for his friends and family, a time to catch up with old faces and have a good evening. On the down side, he supports Man City but we can't all be perfect...

Head Space Daily Image...

The queen salutes the gathered throng at a party I went to in Hoxton Square this week...

Head Space Daily Tune...

Outrage - Tall And Handsome

My mate whose 40th birthday it is today, and my good self had some extremely messy times back in the day to this wonderfully euphoric, uttlerly ridiculous and camp piece of arms in the air House music. What were we on? Come on...

Head Space Daily Words...

It’s hotting up out there, the kids are not far off breaking up, summertime is in the air and long may it last…

Head Space Daily Image...

There is something that attracts me to planes flying through the blue, jetting off to somewhere exotic. It kind of sums up the hope that summertime brings...

Head Space Daily Tune...

DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - Summertime

This evening I give you an all time summer classic...

Head Space Daily Words...

My youngest son has been watching the film Cool Runnings - about the Jamaican bobsleigh team - continuously for the past week or so, alongside the movie version of Matilda.  He keeps walking around the house singing in his best Jamaican accent, "Jamaica, we have a bobsleigh team." Speaking of cool runnings, I went for my first run today and it was baking hot but good to get the first one under my belt. My new shorts are way too small and force me to shorten my running stride but the trainers are good and bouncing. I went off far too quickly and was huffing and puffing by the end of my fifteen minutes, so my pace needs to be worked on.  I need to gently ease myself in and gradually build it up. The major positive effect of exercise is that it gives you a feel good energy burst, so the house is getting a seeing to this afternoon - in other words, I will be cleaning and doing housework; most probably whilst listening to the Thundercat album, Deptford Goth, which I haven't given a proper hearing to yet and I can see Kurt Vile popping into the mix as well. My youngest son had his end of term curriculum assembly this morning, which was quite a surreal piece about kings and queens. They are racing towards the school summer holiday now. Time flies...

Head Space Daily Image...

I like this picture I took on the train home on Friday of a girl looking happy. I like people to look happy...

Head Space Daily Tune...

Major Lazer - Get Free

Nice tune from Diplo's Major Lazer project...

Head Space Daily Words...

There is nothing like a sporting triumph to create a buzz of positivity, both individually and as a nation. Personally, I am no rugby man, so the British Lions didn't register. The main sport played at the school I went to was rugby and memories of the rugby players drinking pints of one another's piss and plucking each other's pubes out with their teeth, has always left me with a serious dislike of the sport. Tennis on the other hand, I feel, is much more a part of mine and the nation's psyche and Andy Murray's fantastic victory has left me feeling invigorated. The world is my oyster and anything is possible. Perhaps I could become a butcher, or pursue a career in millinery. I digress, but surely Sports Personality Of The Year, barring any misdemeanours between now and then, is in the bag. So, congratulations to the British Lions (although I thought Brian O'Driscoll was a member of Boyzone) and to Andy Murray - now bring on the Ashes...

Head Space Daily Image...

Earlier this year, the Head Space Daily Image was of an empty Haribo packet. This evening I bring you another empty Haribo packet. They are everywhere...

Head Space Daily Tune...

We're A Winner - The Impressions

In recognition of Andy Murray winning at Wimbledon, I give you Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions...

Head Space Daily Words...

Last night was part one of a dear friend's 40th birthday celebrations. It was a blast from the past, with the upstairs of a pub in Chelsea taken over for club night shenanigans. I had to make my get away to catch the last train home but I guarantee things will have got messy, there will be stories to be told, and a bunch of forty something ravers will have had a wicked time, as they rolled out onto the street at 3am. I doubt I have the stamina to go the distance these days but may put myself to the test sometime. You never know...

Head Space Daily Image...

This picture was taken on the roof terrace of the Chelsea pub where my mate had a 40th bash.  I cannot read the bottom of the sentence but strongly disagree with the first three words...

Head Space Daily Tune...

Shaun Escoffery - Days Like This

The perfect track for a day like today...

Head Space Daily Words...

Right. If I'm not working, I'm going to get fit. Cut price running shoes and a pair of shorts have been acquired. Running is the way forward - my hairy pins shall be gracing the local neighbourhood. A few years back, a young guy I used to work with just about crippled me with our lunchtime runs. Admittedly, running for 45 minutes, without sufficient stretching before or after and trying to keep up with a whipper snapper ten years my junior, was asking for trouble. After half a dozen of our runs, my body said WTF and gave up the ghost - my back was ruined - agony, to be rectified over time by regular Pilates. I now have a core of steel and a running plan. Endless runs through the Brockley area lie in wait, witnessing historic local events, like a modern day, South London Forest Gump...(see Daily Tune.)

Head Space Daily Image...

This dude has been standing at the end of a neighbouring street everyday this week. He is there when I take my kids to school and still there when I pick them up. He appears to be counting buses. Strewth...

Head Space Daily Tune...

Frank Ocean - Forest Gump

In honour of my impending running career, there was only one tune for it...

Head Space Daily Words...

Every generation is separated from the generation following and the one that has gone before, by some sort of change or progress in society. For me, this is computer games. I have never been into Nintendos, Playstations, or those hand held, double screen things that people used to have. I did enjoy Mini Munchman when I was a kid but that is about as far as it went. When I was in my late teens, I remember going around to a friend's aunt's house, where his two young cousins - a couple of girls aged around 8 and 10 at the time, were playing Sonic The Hedgehog.  I can recall thinking, even at that point, and this is well before the advent of mobile phones and the internet, that it was a real shame that these girls weren't outside having fun with their mates. Sitting in your bedroom pushing buttons, becoming frustrated when you lost, seemed a bit futile and reclusive. Of course, nowadays, that is all kids want to do - getting my boys off the PS3 can be an effort - but it goes beyond kids. I was recently speaking to a friend who was openly enthusiastic that he did very little with his life other than play FIFA on PS3. As I say, I've never been bitten by the bug, but I can't help but think it is a real shame. There is so much going on out there. Last year I was researching a company, who had produced some gaming Apps for mobile phones and I downloaded one of their games, to which I became hooked within a matter of days. I found myself becoming obsessed with beating my highest score and was wasting hours of valuable time doing something that is ultimately pointless. Relaxing, winding down and letting yourself go is good but mindless obsession is not how I want to do it. I think that the reason I am not into computer games, PS3s and so on, is because when I was in my late teens, early twenties, they weren't the done thing, because they didn't really exist in the mass commercial sense they do now. It was all about the music and going to bars and clubs for me. My social life hinged on socialising. If I had gone to Sheffield poly, or Sheffield Hallam University as it became known, a few years later than I did, there is a good chance that it would have become part of my day to day. No one that I knew at Sheffield Hallam owned a computer console and to be honest I am extremely glad of that fact. Today, consoles and computer games are a fact of life, my kids can even play games remotely against their mates, which blows me away. They love playing FIFA and I'm glad but when there is the opportunity to get outside, particularly when the weather is good, I will always encourage them to do so. They may become console obsessives, but glued to the sofa they will never be. I'll make sure of it...

Head Space Daily Image...

Being a jobless freelancer has its perks, like watching the inflatable hippo be put in its place outside Carpet Right in Lewisham… 

Head Space Daily Tune...

Chic - Chic Cheer

With all the adulation for the Chic set at Glastonbury, I thought I would post my favourite Chic track - Chic Cheer from the C'est Chic album, released in 1978. Good music lasts...