Smugglers' Moon

The wind blew across the moor, it could be best described as lazy as for the line of men walking across the moor is seemed to blow straight though them too lazy to go around. Each man had a lantern and as the moon hid behind a cloud each let his lantern shine out for they know the revenue men are elsewhere tonight and hopefully their trade won‘t be interrupted. Far across the valley toward the sea a associate sees the line of lights and signals out into the bay.

A galleon at anchor, sails reefed against the storm, her lookout perched precariously in the crows-nest fighting the feelings of nausea, sees the flash of light. He shouts down to Boson.
Five minutes later the splash of oars can be faintly heard. The captain is happy is now going to get paid, and relieved the contraband is off his ship.

A hour later the oarsman rowed in the harbour and landed the brandy.
In the dark town somewhere nearby a dog barks, the men disappear into the shadows of an old building, they look up and down the winding street but, see nothing, waiting in the silence a little longer, they then go back to the business and loading the cart, covering the loot with hay. They set off north keeping to the secret paths know only to a few of the more villainous professions. Travelling though the dark tree covered lanes and keeping close to the river they travel on, as they are close to river, if they are disturbed they can quickly abandon their cargo into it.
Ever alert to the noises around them, the sound of the wind in the trees blocks out any warning but they keep going. Past a manor house, nearly there now.

The sun starts to rise bright after the storm, they hide the horse and cart in a barn and head into town.
It’s market day, so business can be done, in the hustle and bustle they soon make a deal. Its to a pub for a lunch and the back to the barn to wait till night to recover the goods and close the deal.

Aggghhh I’m becoming addicted to iTunes.

I seem to be buying more and more music lately, and with sites like www.last.fm and myspace it’s become more and more easy to find great bands or artists and more and more difficult not to buy music. This evening I have bought two albums one called ‘Waking the Mystics’ by Sophe Lux, the second ‘Fox Confessor Brings the Flood’ by Neko Case. (Si, she’s not Japanese or a cat). I found Neko Case by Last.fm recommending her and Sophe Lux sent a friend invitation through myspace. The trouble is both are very good and I ended buying both from iTunes. Great music is now only 2 mouse clicks away. You don‘t have to make a trip to town and suffer crowds and idiots it just there.
I have recently brought the following


Fox Confessor Brings the Flood by Neko Case (Country)

Waking the Mystics by Sophe Lux (She seems to have a toned down Tori Amos/Kate Bush/Bjork thing going on )

Remnants of a Deeper Purity by Black Tape for a Blue Girl (Dead can Dance stylings surprisingly they’re not produced by 4AD)

Has a good home by Final Fantasy (Crap name but a great violinist somewhere between Seth Lakeman and Badly Drawn Boy (yes I know Badly Drawn boy is not a violinist but it's same sort of thing) )

Gravity’s Rainbox by Klaxons (Okish Rock I won’t by buying more)

The Worst of Jefferson Airplane by Jefferson Airplane (Old but still good)

The Silver Tree by Lisa Gerrad (Excellent to listen to when writing Mind-Dribblely blogs. The songs get my mind in the right place)

What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong (Obviously a vital addition to all music collections)

I have bought all these in the past month. And there’s always more great music to find.

And as soon as Alpiano gets it together and releases Alphino’s Lens Flare that’ll be added too!
Above my Last.fm recommendation for this week and I'm think of buying a Joanna Newsom album next. Click Click oops T'is Done!!

This Green and Pleasant Land

I walk down street and hear a couple of old people saying that when they were young everything was better, a bygone age sepia tinged and nostalgic.
As I walk on my senses are assaulted by 12 year olds drinking, swearing and smoking. Cars lit up garish, rush by. Radios beat out their music to the world. I worry I’m getting old myself and don’t understand the ‘youth of today’. Then I look back 2 decades to when I was 12 I never drank or swore in public, even the bad kids had some respect for their teachers, now it seems teachers can’t go five minutes without been sworn at.

I wonder why.

I walk on passed the Off Licence where fake ID’s excuses and protestations of innocence are all rejected, they swear and leave empty handed. Where are their parents, why does the manager have to risk his job because of these urchins and their parents lack of control?

I walk on by the police station that closes at 5, thieves knowing the nearest car is 15 miles away, but there probably PCs inside filling in forms in triplicate just because they stopped some yobs wrecking a bus-stop.

I walk on out into the country and see rundown farms next to cottages only used at the weekend, Range-Rover in the drive. I look over at the farm and between the decaying buildings the farmer’s children play, the farmer and his wife look on, they worry about bills and the fact they’ll be the last generation to farm this land. Their children could cannot afford to carry on the tradition and live in this rural idyll as they have for generations past.* I walk back to town, enough of this bleakness, I return home and then onto the pub, with it’s friendly staff and my good friends, whose talk of Sci-fi, goblins and life in general lift my spirits, sometimes deep winding conversations about life or maybe a frivolous subject of whimsy about nothing or flit back between each whatever the subject are always interesting, all this on a Friday night, I forget about the ignorance and idiocy outside and enjoy my pint. Why would I want to swap this for night-clubs deafening music and drunken punch up.

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* I was intending to add in at this point a political aspect to the this piece although I tried to add it in several ways and spent the best part of an hour trying, but I couldn’t get it to feel right, So I’m going to make the point in straight essay form…
It seems to me that a lot the problems occurring today a to do the lack of respect people have with the government. If we have no respect for our leaders, then how can respect be gained for other authority figures. 2 million people marched against the War in Iraq, the government plagiarised a 10 year old graduate thesis on WMD to browbeat it own MPs into agreeing and we are still there now, we shouldn‘t stay as it not our country but we can‘t leave because of the mess made.

The control they want over aspects of public life doesn’t mean thing are getting better. They won’t allow people to use their on judgement gained though years of experience. I know from friends and my own personal experience as well as reading blogs linked above, that the police and healthcare services are in decline, one of which a government minister called the author a liar, I know who I would trust. I going to stop now before I bore you all, but one last point about the depth of which spin and marketing (lying) has sunk. On the London Tube they now have a recorded announcement to inform us passengers that the Service is Good, why do we need an announcement for this, we don’t all announce that were at work today it’s expected, this should be the norm, the norm doesn’t need to be announced.
Anyway that’s all for now.