Head Space Daily Words...

Several weeks ago, I wrote a report on my Under 9s football team's first match of the season and spoke of the half time biscuit break, when a packet of custard creams was cracked open (HSD Words 7th January.) The football was then rained off for several weeks and after an outing in the cup on the previous weekend, last Sunday saw us back in League action. For the first half, we played beautifully, putting into practice all that we had been learning in training - defending resolutely, passing down the line, breaking quickly and working as a team. At half time we were 2-0 in the lead. The problem was they felt like they had already won the game. 'Can I go to the toilet' one of them piped up and before I knew it, all of my players had been lost to a communal toilet visit, whilst the opposition manager gave a rousing team talk to his side. My lot came back from their toilet trip, in three separate groups of footballing urchins, with their minds elsewhere and we eventually lost out 6-3. In their defence, we had no substitutes, whilst the other team had three rolling subs. To expect seven, eight or nine year olds to be able to concentrate for the entire fifty minutes, is a big ask, let alone keep the pace up for that time. Next week though, I am reverting back to biscuits. The half time biccy break will become a regular feature - to both keep their attention, as well as giving them renewed energy. The custard creams are on order...

Head Space Daily Image...

Today's view from South Quay in Docklands...

Head Space Daily Tune...

Massive Attack - Daydreaming

The Blue Lines album by Massive Attack has been on my i-pod at every opportunity today. It is magnificent and proudly stands in my personal top three most influential albums of all time and is certainly the one that has dated the least. To be able to play it twenty three years since its release and still get as much pleasure from it, is testament to its greatness. A stone cold classic, totally British and straight out of Bristol...

Head Space Daily Words...

The rain was back. The train was packed. The gloom descended. The train was late. The angry woman, unable to read her kindle. The fluorescent man spooning me. Almost passed out because of the heat. The closed eyes shutting out reality. The rolling heads for a stress free neck. The chewed lips. The furrowed brows. The sharp words. The doom. The gloom. The delayed. The overcrowded. The overheating. The overwhelming. The rush hour...

Head Space Daily Image...

Sitting on the edge of South Quay - my lunchtime seat...

Head Space Daily Tune...

Maximo Park - Graffiti

Maximo Park's album A Certain Trigger, released on Warp Records, was my album of 2005. I liked it's angry but uplifting outlook which was bang in tune with where I was at that time. The art work is terrific for the album and all the singles and although it probably passed under the radar somewhat, I think the album is a bit of a classic. All the tunes are quality. For a debut LP, there are not many who can top it - and they will probably never produce anything so good again. Talk about peaking early...

Head Space Daily Words...

One week in, the work cobwebs have been well and truly blown away and I am, as they say, "on it." This morning's sunshine was a welcome start to Monday morning. It lifts everyone's spirits, people smile, people talk, connections are made. When I get on the DLR at Shadwell, sitting in the front carriage, the 'gherkin' and cluster of buildings in the city are right in front of me. Then, as the train snakes its way around the East End and loops into Docklands, looking North as the train pulls into South Quay station, the same buildings come back into view as you are given the perfect wide vista, sunlight winking at you, reflecting from the glass facades. On my way to work, Nina Simone was grabbing me with her soulful, husky, gospel blues - the track Suzanne particularly catching my attention (Nina Simone - Suzanne (Live));then the New Order album Technique was bringing back memories as my lunchtime listen and AM by Arctic Monkeys has been carrying me home in style. As I look out of the train window at Limehouse, I can see The Shard towering up into the darkness, through a now rain spattered window, seven red lights guiding us in. The Monkeys have now finished their turn. What to play next? Two up on the dial and Archie Bell and The Drells takes over my ears with A Thousand Wonders. More of the same tomorrow please...

Head Space Daily Image...

My view from the front of the DLR at Shadwell this morning, looking out towards the City, (see Daily Words…)

Head Space Daily Tune...

New Order - Run

Technique by New Order is an album that I absolutely love. I was fifteen years old at the time it was released, which is the perfect age for an album to get into your head and stay there. I love the lyrics, the emotion of the album and Peter Hook's melodic bass lines. If I remember rightly, Bernard Sumner had just gone through a heavy break up, which is the basis of the album. It is also slightly ahead of The Stone Roses release, the Manchester scene bursting into life and dance culture becoming the dominant youth movement. As I listened to it today, I was saying to myself at every track, 'this is my favourite' but I've settled on Run as the lyrics pop into my head more often than any other track on the album... 

Head Space Daily Words...

This week I started a short term contract at a company I have worked for previously, based in Crossharbour. It is great to be back in the saddle as it were and it is a good place, with good people. Crossharbour and Docklands is an area that is constantly under construction. There are new flat blocks and office buildings going up all over the place (See Daily Image,) dwarfing the council houses that are across the tracks of the DLR. It reminds me of the old man's house in the movie Up. His place is left standing, with these monster new buildings, reflecting power, money and progress, looking down upon him. The DLR itself, which is the way to travel into Docklands, is a quirky means of transport, gently weaving its elevated path, like something from an East End version of Bladerunner. The weekend holds the wearing of my green and black nylon manager's kit, as I train my Under 9s team on Saturday morning, followed by a match on Sunday. Apart from that, I plan to sleep... 

Head Space Daily Image...

Docklands under construction...

Head Space Daily Tune...

Andrew Ashong - Love The Way…

I heard Andrew Ashong last week on Gilles Peterson's show and this track is coming out on his new EP. It sounded nice this morning in the sunshine...

Head Space Daily Words...

My GLW (Good Lady Wife,) is currently in New York, orchestrating a school trip, taking in plenty of galleries, architecture, a play on Broadway, the sights the sounds - magnificent; which means our traditional Valentine's Day curry went out the window - not literally of course, as that could get messy, and I certainly wouldn't want to be sued for striking a passer by with a chicken korma, that would be wrong. Instead it was fish and chip Friday with my boys, which is a damn fine substitute. I began to think about these words this afternoon, when I sought salvation from the torrent of water pouring forth from the heavens, by taking refuge in our local high street cafe/bar, where the soothing jazz guitar tune playing when I entered, taking me away from the worries of global warming, soon degenerated into bland generic rock - oh well. I have a couple of weeks work lined up from next Monday, so things are looking up. If the weather picks up from Monday, it will obviously be due to my being in employment, in which case, to prevent further freak weather conditions, I will need to be kept in continuous work. Employers take note. Whilst in the cafe, I devised various line ups for my under 9s football team's upcoming matches, to be played at some point when the monsoon season has passed and football has become a summer sport. As I write this, the wind is howling and the rain is lashing down with intense ferocity and in incredible amounts. I've not heard rain like this for quite a while, it's making the windows rattle. The weird thing is, after one of these intensive storm bursts, it goes dead quiet for a minute or two, you think it has passed and then out of nowhere, it suddenly starts up again. There will be some soggy couples out there on Valentine's Night, like pairs of drowned rats, clammy wet hand in clammy wet hand, rain trickling down the backs of their necks as they walk home from that romantic meal in the lovely restaurant, in which they sat with their shoes squelching and drenched jeans sticking to their legs, following that two minute walk in the high street downpour. Anyway, happy Valentine's Day everyone - I love you all...

Head Space Daily Image...

A non Valentine's Day photo that I quite like. I took this last week across from Tate Modern, towards St.Paul's Cathedral(see HSD February 7th...)

Head Space Daily Tune...

Maze feat Frankie Beverly - Joy And Pain

Here is a soulful Valentine's Day tune for you, which also mentions rain. Put this on and have a cuddle...

Head Space Daily Words...

Today I took the ungodly step of switching off my phone. Yes, you heard right – no vibrating groin, or chiming loin for me. How liberating. If you remember the game Operation, you will recall that each time you failed to remove an item from the poor chap’s body, without touching the sides, a buzzer would sound. During the course of an average day, I am buzzing with greater frequency than Operation Man. Reminders, alerts, notifications. Facebook, twitter, e mail. Pick the kids up, put the bins out. There is a buzz, beep, or bell for every eventuality, yet most of it can actually wait. I will get into the flow of doing something; only for my concentration to be broken by my need to check the latest buzz or beep which will nearly always be some irrelevant annoyance or pointless information. Once I had turned my phone off today, I jumped on the 172 bus, travelled to St.Paul’s and walked over Millennium Bridge to spend some time in Tate Modern. Whilst I am waiting for the freelance work to roll in I have to get out and see stuff, or else I could go insane and there is no excuse to get out and about when you have incredible museums like Tate Modern that are completely free and a bus journey away. As I wrote this, I had the perfect view, sitting in one of Tate Modern’s cafes, as shafts of sunlight broke through the clouds and sliced across the dome of St.Paul’s Cathedral. I’m not going to get that sitting at home, worrying about not having any work. It’s far more pleasant to be doing any worrying next to the Thames. I need to be around people, see things, hear conversations, listen to laughter, watch the world go by, as people take selfies, chat, fall over, act serious, goof around and generally be alive. All I needed was a eureka moment, when the meaning of life fell into my lap. That hasn’t happened yet but in the meantime, I am going to stop the buzzing by resetting my phone and losing all those notifications and e mail alerts...

Head Space Daily Image...

St. Paul's today, peeking out from under a pearl white sky... 

Head Space Daily Tune...

Chocolate Fudge - Locomotion

Who remembers this garage classic from 1991? It got played out a lot in Sheffield at the time. A real quality tune on Azuli…

Head Space Daily Words...

We all need a little sunshine in our lives. Just a ray of hope. A touch of brightness.
Light at the end of the tunnel. A mood enhancer. And when it returns, so will the smiles...

Head Space Daily Image...

What can be achieved with a little bit of sunshine. A rainbow on the way to London Bridge the other day...

Head Space Daily Tune...

Broken Bells - Holding On For Life

My youngest son hates this track but I think it's a real grower. There is a lot going on and the Bee Gees-esque chorus sticks in your brain. Broken Bells is the producer Dangermouse's latest collaboration and I received a copy of the album today, so will be having a listen soon…

Head Space Daily Words...

I went to the cinema today to watch Gravity in 3-D and what a great experience it was too – an incredible film - but I had to travel to the Ritzy in Brixton to see it. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Ritzy and everything it stands for, I’ve got a soft spot for Brixton too having lived there for a few years but I am a resident of the London Borough of Lewisham, which has the exact number of ZERO cinemas within its boundaries. A friend shared a link at the weekend entitled Lewisham's Lost Cinemas (click title for link)which reveals that over twenty cinemas have existed at one time or another in Lewisham since the early 1900s. The article features photographs of the sites of these cinemas as they are today and when you hover your cursor over the pictures, seamlessly superimposed images of the original cinema buildings appear. One of the locations is now a car wash, which is a terrible waste. The effect is to make you feel sad for the loss of the buildings, as well as nostalgic for what was once there and what we are missing today. It made me wonder why they were shut down and there are probably a variety of reasons. Could it have been that so many cinemas, all after a piece of the pie, were left feeding off crumbs and not financially viable? Perhaps the time that many of them were closed down reflect the political and economic situations of the era. There was apparently a cinema on London Road in Forest Hill, which doesn’t seem to feature in the article, called the Capitol – picture below – which appears to have been absolutely huge.

When was the last time you went to the cinema with a thousand strong audience? Maybe the sheer size of these cinemas made them unsustainable. Today, there were six other people watching Gravity with me on the Ritzy’s main screen. Admittedly it was an 11.15AM screening but there are over 350 seats in there. This is why cinemas today have to be more than simply places to screen films and must be one of the reasons why many of these fabulous art deco buildings became bingo halls. I imagine as cinemas they would have spent all week sitting empty but throw in the chance to win a few bob and the ‘glamour’ of the bingo hall and hey presto, packed houses and a revenue. The former Capitol Cinema, which I mention above is now a Wetherspoon’s pub. Seeing all those black and white and faded pictures of old movie houses in the article does make you long for a golden age of cinema, which may or may not have existed but to have the equivalent of the Ritzy, in Lewisham, would not only be a great place to watch films but would also lift the area. Cinemas like the Ritzy are centres in the community, for all ages, to be entertained, educated and inspired – a venue to hang out, socialise and communicate. They are genuine focal points, which bring people together and a Ritzy type cinema certainly wouldn’t go amiss in Lewisham. Having watched Gravity, I feel like I have just been on an exhilarating roller-coaster ride but it would have been nice to have experienced it on my own manor...

Head Space Daily Image...

A dimly lit Screen One at the Ritzy Cinema awaits lift off today...

Head Space Daily Tune...

Minnie Ripperton - Reasons

As well as going through my MasterCuts compilations at the moment, I am also delving into my old Strange Games And Funky Things and related albums. This is a corker from Minnie Ripperton…

Head Space Daily Words...

At football training, where I coach my youngest sons Under 9s team, I use the the name of the well known experimental jazz artist Sun Ra's album - Space Is The Place - to encourage the practice of creating and finding space on the pitch, to enable movement and progression of the football towards the opposition goal. "What is the place?" I ask and they answer, "space." Hell yeah. We are working on passing, control and movement - the necessary essentials - and team work, the vital ingredient. Following my eldest son's birthday party this afternoon, with a few mates, ice skating at canary Wharf, he is having a sleep over tonight. They are all downstairs listening to Sam Smith and playing FIFA 14. Oh to be young. Pancakes await them in the morning. Just heard tomorrow's U9s game is off due to waterlogged pitch, which is no surprise as the rain has been almost biblical of late. Instead of training for football we should maybe build an Ark. As they listen to Sam Smith, I have taken refuge in my upstairs space, where I have Classic Jazz Funk Mastercuts Volume 3 going through my headphones - check HSD Tune...

Head Space Daily Image...

A skyward view at Canary Wharf this afternoon...

Head Space Daily Tune...

Donald Byrd - Love Has Come Around

A terrific uplifting slice of vocal jazz-funk from the master that is Donald Byrd...