Only happy when it rains

Carrying on from yesterday's post on The trick is to keep breathing I thought I'd share another favourite track by the somewhat unstoppable Garbage.

I first heard Only happy when it rains on TFI Friday on Channel 4 back in 95, as Garbage became big. I'd heard Queer and disliked it at the time but was bowled over by Stupid Girl and as soon as I saw the live set of Only happy... I rushed out to Ourprice and bought the album. Second best album ever, only beaten by their second album Version 2.0.

Though the song sounds depressing it is has the powerful vocals of Shirley Manson and the heavy bass mixed at the right tempo of guitars to produce one of those classic 90s indie-rock songs that like Stupid girl fades from active memory, buried under the ear worms of modern pop that we're all bombarded with but yet when you hear it it brings a smile to your face as you appreciate good music and a time when artists were artists.

Like The trick is to keep breathing this song has a literary link to Admiral Daala for me. I was a somewhat obsessed kid!

I was reading Darksaber at the time and the image of the Admiral portrayed by Shirley Manson, raining turbo lasers down upon Yavin 4 was not unappealing to the awkward geek holed up in his bedroom surrounded by books. Even now the song brings back memories of reading one of my favourite books and of the burning Super-class Stardestroyer plunging towards the gas giant Yavin with the redheaded Admiral stood on the bridge in disbelief.

Any way, I digress majorly!

Here are the lyrics

I'm only happy when it rains
I'm only happy when it's complicated
And though I know you can't appreciate it
I'm only happy when it rains
You know I love it when the news is bad
Why it feels so good to feel so sad
I'm only happy when it rains

Pour your misery down
Pour your misery down on me
Pour your misery down
Pour your misery down on me

I'm only happy when it rains
I feel good when things are going wrong
I only listen to the sad, sad songs
I'm only happy when it rains

I only smile in the dark
My only comfort is the night gone black
I didn't accidentally tell you that
I'm only happy when it rains
You'll get the message by the time I'm through
When I complain about me and you
I'm only happy when it rains

Pour your misery down...pour your misery down
Pour your misery down on me...pour your misery down
Pour your misery down...pour your misery down
Pour your misery down on me...pour your misery down
Pour your misery down...pour your misery down
Pour your misery down on me...pour your misery down
Pour your misery down...pour
You can keep me company
As long as you don't care

I'm only happy when it rains
You want to hear about my new obsession
I'm riding high upon a deep depression
I'm only happy when it rains...pour some misery down on me
I'm only happy when it rains....pour some misery down on me
I'm only happy when it rains...pour some misery down on me
I'm only happy when it rains...pour some misery down on me
I'm only happy when it rains...pour some misery down on me...pour some misery down on me...pour some misery down on me...pour some misery down on me,

The trick is to keep breathing

I thought I would break the mold of my usual posts on politics and put in some music.

One of my all time favourite songs is by the American band Garbage (I've heard all the jokes) called The Trick is to keep breathing from the album Version 2.0. If you get the chance do listen to the whole album - it is phenomenally good and definitely their high point as a creative band with more punch and bounce than Garbage and rockier and more substance than  Beautiful Garbage.

I fell in love with this song then and have never stopped loving it, maybe it is the tune, Shirley's voice as it draws out the chorus, the lyric The trick is to keep breathing or maybe it was Admiral Daala.

Regular readers, and/or friends will know that Daala is my all time favourite Star Wars character of all time. Any way, coincidentally Version 2.0 came out at the same time as Star Wars: Planet of the Twilight in which Daala was written out of the main narrative and this song was playing as she walked out of the Galaxy far far away, and for me, geekily that was a poignant combination.

Any way - enjoy.

Oh and here are the lyrics....

She's not the kind of girl
Who likes to tell the world
About the way she feels about herself
She takes a little time
In making up her mind
She doesn't want to fight against the tide

[Chorus]
Lately I'm not the only one
I say never trust anyone
Always the one who has to drag her down
Maybe you'll get what you want this time around

Can't bear to face the truth
So sick he cannot move
And when it hurts he takes it out on you

[Chorus]

The trick is to keep breathing
The trick is to keep breathing

She knows the human heart
And how to read the stars
Now everything's about to fall apart

I won't be the one who's going to let you down
Maybe you'll get what you want this time around
(the trick is to keep breathing)
I won't be the one who's going to let you down
(the trick is to keep breathing)
Maybe you'll get what you want this time around
The trick is to keep breathing [Repeat: x7]

The Double edged sword of Library closures.

Admiral Daala, my hero as a kid

In the week that Rochester was named in the top 5 best read Cities and Towns by Amazon based on its sales and me finishing the thousand page tome that was Storm of Swords, I’m going to resurrect a draft I started writing a year ago about Library closures.

It would be fair to say that I am a fan of books... well that's an understatement, I have my own library with an unknown number of titles, some are quite rare, a couple are all in German, some copies memoirs of long dead Feldmarschalls or Politicians and campaign histories for wars forgotten by the average person.

I've also got a large fiction section too, especially when combined with Dostoevsky, Goethe, Schiller, Tolkien, Pratchett, Bonaparte add this to my Wife's almost complete Stephen King collection and vast section of Philosophy and Religious books we have a room dedicated to them.

As a youth I hacked my way through my local library's Doctor Who books and history and as an adult with a four hour journey time to and from work I find myself reading the paper or my Kindle (best present ever!) every day.

In my time I have ridden into battle, stood in the ruins of Stalingrad, travelled through time and space, stood next to Admiral Daala aboard Knighthammer, witnessed great horror, fled from Pennywise the clown, shared the sorrows of young Werther, climbed great mountains and single handedly defeated great Evil. They have been epic journeys. Ones I'd like my daughter to take. Sophie is read to every day at bed time and during the day sometimes. she's been exposed to the Hobbit, Star Wars, Roald Dahl, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Aesop’s Fables, poems, Children’s books, Tunnels under London and even some Goethe in German and English. She loves her books and knows some of her picture books by heart even at the young age of two. We will always encourage reading in her as our families encouraged us.

As my Grandfather used to say; Knowledge is power

Books are one of the most valuable things in the world and a few of mine are listed in my most precious belongings.

Things have changed in the world now a days. There are other methods of storing information making it a lot more accessible. Kindles and Ipads can carry a virtual library on a small digital pad less than half a centimeter thick! Then there is also the internet, something that twenty years ago was not always readily available but is now ubiquitous. Instead of going down the library and looking for a book on a subject which may or not be there, paying to order in a rare biography (the two I wanted were von Ribbentrop's and Schellenberg's) or wandering into a second hand bookstore and on a rare occasions striking Gold - I can now get the information online or order it from an online store anywhere in the country!

The Sitcom How I met your Mother once postulated that the great Bar debate is now over and it is indeed true. How many times, before Internet phones, would you find yourself debating a topic or trying to remember which film you've seen that guy in, what was the batting average of Ian Botham or who would win in a fight between a TIE-wing and an X-wing? These debates could go on all night but now just ask the question and within minutes some smart arse has summoned up Google, IMDB or Wikipedia and answered it.

Time is also a factor in the death of books. If I didn't have my train journey to and from work my reading time would be deeply impacted. My wife has often told me to stop being Anti-social and put the Kindle/book/ newspaper away. If I want escapism and a good story there is my second love - movies. I'm a slow reader (about 20 pages an hour) and to read Lord of the Rings it would take me around 51 hours where as I can watch the films in 12! I'm a fan of 80's and 90's movies when there was plot and intrigue rather than gratuitous sex, violence and effects at the expense of story. Films like Willow, Star Wars (IV, V and VI not I and II), Labyrinth, Jaws, Jurassic park... etc.
Movie making has come a long way since then and before when it was all models and stop motion (which I still enjoy) the imagination was so much more crisp and sharper than anything that could be put onto film. Now, modern CGI can produce even better imagery than the imagination. This coupled with the rise of Computer games and consoles has put books further down the list of activities. The beauty of the Computer game is that I make the decisions where as General Burgoyne made his back in 1777 and Admiral Daala is tied to Kevin J. Anderson's narrative. I've flown countless sorties over four continents in countless aircraft types, fought the Dark lord Sauron with my own sword, ruled kingdoms, constructed great Castles and Empires, brought the King's Justice, killed more German Service men than died in World War Two and saved/destroyed the world. It is hard for books to compete with this.

Kids, indeed people are less involved in books. The Evening Standard ran frightening statistics that showed that child literacy, even adult literacy, was way below what it should be and have run a successful campaign to try and improve reading in schools and trying to combat library closures.
The Imperial War Museum ran a temporary gallery about Books based on wartime such as War horse, Carrie's War, the Machine gunners et. al but it failed to raise any real interest with the public, probably because no one reads anymore!

So why do we need Libraries then?

The purpose of Public Libraries was to bring books and knowledge to the people, especially the people who did not have the disposable income to buy their own. As great repositories of information covering wide ranging subjects anyone who wanted to know anything or wanted to lose themselves in fantasy could do so - all for Free!!!

Now however there are so many things that you can do and people have much more of a disposable income and can go out to theatres, watch documentaries on things, look stuff up online, lose themselves in epic movies or the mindless dross of soap operas... Books are so inexpensive these days too and so readily available, even delivered to your front door! Why go to the library?

In fact I remember seeing interviews with people so adamant that their local Libraries should be protected but then admitted they had never been to it!!!

The old adage comes to play; Use it or lose it.

Why should local authorities or National Government continue to fund a project that is not used? Isn't that the definition of a waste of money? Better NHS funding or a Library that isn't used?

It is easy political points to say you are opposed to the closure of a small library and cutting in their funding and staff. It takes a bigger person to make the hard decision (potential vote losing one too) that the Library must be closed. It is a decision that hurts me, something that is against my very soul and beliefs but one I grudgingly support. Not because I want to see the public robbed of a valuable resource but because the public do not realise what they have and no longer feel they need and let’s be honest we do need to save money...

I will say this though... show all wings of Government they're wrong - use your libraries. Lose yourself in a book or nine. Turn the TV off, pick up a book - draw your sword and plunge into Westeros or Middle-earth or whatever takes your fancy. Just go and use them or you will lose them.