As someone with manic depression, I can certify that the one and only "cure" is a good dose of Bono medication. Who the hell needs Zoloft when you have something like "Walk On"?
Get your guitar and start playing like there is no tomorrow......
You're packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been A place that has to be believed to be seen You could have flown away A singing bird in an open cage Who will only fly, only fly for freedom
To lighten the mood (after having to give my Skype rules), I want to play a German song which was made a few years back by comedian Elmar Brandt called "The Tax Song". It prompted the then-German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to totally freak out and call Brandt a "parasite". I personally think the song is just great.
Today's song was one I originally heard when I watched Kevin Spacey's stunning performance of Bobby Darin in "Beyond the Sea". "Simple Song of Freedom" was one of the last songs Darin wrote before his premature death and is very politically motivated. Darin campaigned for Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy and after their assassinations came "Simple Song of Freedom" which is obviously aimed against supporters and instigators of the Vietnam war and against the military establishment in the US.
The song is still extremely relevant for today as we have Bush and the neo-cons making war in the Middle East and the media being manipulated by big business. It seems that 30 years on, Darin's message of "most of what you read is made of lies" is still very much with us and that politicians haven't really learnt any lessons since Vietnam.
Here's my ideal scene. Home alone, in front of the computer with an internet connection, cup of tea by my side and some good music playing in the background while I write and surf.
Here is one of my most favourite songs ever. If there was ever a song that always gets me on my feet with my guitar in my hands, this is it. Tony Hadley is God!
There are times when I hear a song and I become so captivated by it that I have to listen to it hundreds of times before I get tired of it. It will go round and round my head in a continuous loop but I won't care.
At the moment, that song is Summer Wine by Ville Valo and Natalia Avelon.
Below is a copy from YouTube for your entertainment!
Moving away for a moment from computer-related issues, I wanted to share a couple of classic Scottish songs with you, courtesy of YouTube users with a good taste in music (!). The first one is Dougie McLean's "Caledonia" and the second is The Corries' "Flower of Scotland" (watch out for the matching yellow shirts and tasteful black leather vests!) :
It's not often that I am made completely speechless but this is one time when my mouth was hitting the floor. By the end, I was almost crying along with the rest of them! This guy is an absolutely amazing and talented singer. If he doesn't win the competition, then there is really no justice in the world. Here's the link - pass it around!
This will probably shortly get taken down by YouTube so watch it while you can! Marge Simpson Googles herself and discovers Homer doing some naked sunbathing on Google Earth!
Everyone seems to be obsessed with talking about how Iran and North Korea are top of the Totalitarian Regime Charts at the moment but everyone always manages to overlook China.
Maybe it's because we rely on China to make our cheap goods that we seem willing to overlook the disgracefully shabby way they treat their citizens.
This Techdirt story is a prime example. It seems that the internet is the Chinese Government's worst nightmare. All those uncensored opinions, all those free spirits running wild, getting into contact with the decadent and corrupt West....well, no sooner have they decided that all Chinese-based websites should be registered with the government, they have now decreed from their lofty positions that every user-created home movie should be pre-approved by the authorities before being posted to a video-hosting website such as YouTube.
How the hell are they going to enforce this? At the rate that content gets posted to YouTube, China would need to outsource its checking of videos to an army of ants! And if some spotty geeky Chinese kid decides to post a karaoke version of "Stand by your man" on YouTube, will that really spell the end of the communist regime in China? If so, we'd better start shipping Tammy Wynette CD's to Tehran and Pyongyang.
