Andy's Blog

[Andy]

Congratulations to you two, too!

[Lubiloo (Lorna)]

This Saturday will be the first time me and Gareth started ‘going out’ together. 50 years ago too!

Incredible that both you two Andy and Wendy and us two as well!

50 years… half a century!!

Congratulations x

Congratulations!

[Will S]

Congratulations to all four of you!

[Amethyst (Jenny)]

Thank you all…. We should have a toast at Cropredy, the four of us!

[Andy]

We spent a lovely weekend in Llandudno, visited the Great Orme, saw the Kashmiri goats and stopped off at NT Bodnant Gardens on the way home.

[Amethyst (Jenny)]

Beautiful goat!

[Andy]

My latest blog is just some ramblings, really. Enjoy.

[Lubiloo (Lorna)]

Great blog…just reminded me how my mum was driven scatty by her Mother in law, who (when she once had to stay with us for a long period in the 1970s) would come along when mum was boiling dishcloths and pop a hanky in the pan, saying ‘well the boiling water will kill the germs’.

Obviously, mum did not agree and threw a lot of dishcloths out as a result…No-one wants nose stuff in their dishcloths, be it sterile or otherwise!

I could say a lot about tourists and weather…but this is your blog so I’ll not go there  

[Shane (Skirky)]

Good lord! Who is that stripling?  
Tourists, eh? Last time were in TTL trying to negotiate around hordes of rubberneckers in Covent Garden and Soho we were constantly reminded of (and barely restrained from shouting) Fran Leibowitz's entreaty regarding New York. "PRETEND IT'S A CITY!"  

[Tasha]

My latest blog is just some ramblings, really. Enjoy.

Wow Andy is that you? You look great! Important question..... Can you still give those bear hugs!!!?

[Andy]

Can you still give those bear hugs!!!?

Definitely!

[Tasha]

Can you still give those bear hugs!!!?

Definitely!

 

[Andy]

Today's Blog is a brief musing upon Live Aid, 1985.

[Andy]

Today's Blog is some random memories and me rambling on about the far distant days of my youth.

[Shane (Skirky)]

Did you also have one of those rotary pots which hooked up to the tap on the sink, looked like it was lined with sandpaper and allegedly peeled your potatoes for you?

[Andy]

Did you also have one of those rotary pots which hooked up to the tap on the sink, looked like it was lined with sandpaper and allegedly peeled your potatoes for you?

Er, no.

Brilliant blog, lots of memories…I am about a decade behind you, but for various reasons my family took longer in uptake of tech, so I remember lots of the things you mentioned.

We didn’t have a telly til I went to high school ( when they were erroneously told we would need it for homework) and then it was only black and white. I had my first little colour portable TV when I saved up towards the end of my college days ( late 80s).

 They thought no telly would encourage us to read more…it did, but to this day I love telly so much…I think the early absence of that medium made it all the more exciting!

I devoured books in my childhood, getting up to 12 out from the local library at a time. Lots of telly, lots of books... then came... GIRLS!

[Lubiloo (Lorna)]

Did you also have one of those rotary pots which hooked up to the tap on the sink, looked like it was lined with sandpaper and allegedly peeled your potatoes for you?

Er, no.

Brilliant blog, lots of memories…I am about a decade behind you, but for various reasons my family took longer in uptake of tech, so I remember lots of the things you mentioned.

We didn’t have a telly til I went to high school ( when they were erroneously told we would need it for homework) and then it was only black and white. I had my first little colour portable TV when I saved up towards the end of my college days ( late 80s).

 They thought no telly would encourage us to read more…it did, but to this day I love telly so much…I think the early absence of that medium made it all the more exciting!

I devoured books in my childhood, getting up to 12 out from the local library at a time. Lots of telly, lots of books... then came... GIRLS!

Oh, the teenage angst!

[Andy]

Today's blog is, hopefully, the start of a series.

Entitled Tracks Of My Years - I'm Not In Love, 10CC, this blog reflects how it became "our tune" for Wendy and me.

[Jim]

Did you also have one of those rotary pots which hooked up to the tap on the sink, looked like it was lined with sandpaper and allegedly peeled your potatoes for you?

My auntie Mary had one of them, I thought technology had gone too far even in those days of yore😱

[Andy]

I'm traipsing through the Tracks Of My Years on my blog at the moment.

I won't post pointers here every time I do but keep an eye on https://www.facebook.com/AndyLeslieBlog and you may find some tracks you {don't} know and/or {dis-} like.

Here's one post for a sampler for you.

20251124 - Tracks Of My Years 022 - Koyaanisqatsi - Philip Glass

Koyaanisqatsi is a quite incredible documentary film, with music composed by Philip Glass, cinematography by Ron Fricke, directed and produced by Godfrey Reggio.

Described as an "essay in images and sound on the state of American civilization", the film comprises a montage of stock footage, slow motion, and time-lapse visuals of natural and urban environments across the United States. The title comes from the Hopi word koyaanisqatsi, meaning "life out of balance". It is the first film in the Qatsi trilogy, which was followed by Powaqqatsi (1988) and Naqoyqatsi (2002). The trilogy depicts different aspects of the relationship between humans, nature and technology. All three films are amazing, as is the accompanying music.

Koyaanisqatsi is structured into 13 passages, which are demarcated by dramatic musical shifts in the score. It opens with pictographs from the Great Gallery of Horseshoe Canyon, followed by a close-up of a rocket launch, while a deep bass voice chants the film's title. The images dissolve into a sequence featuring landscapes of geological formations and dunes in the deserts of the American Southwest. Time-lapse imagery shows shadows quickly moving across landscapes, and bats flying out of a cave. Clouds move in time-lapse footage, which is followed by a waterfall, then ocean waves in slow-motion. This segues into footage of resources: reservoirs, cultivated flowers, surface mining, electrical power infrastructure, evaporation ponds, oil drilling, blast furnaces, and concludes with a nuclear weapons test forming a mushroom cloud over the desert.

The following sequence begins with people sun bathing on a beach next to a power plant, followed by people touring a power plant. The next images show clouds reflected on the façade of a glass skyscraper, Boeing 747 aircraft taxiing at an airport, cars driving on urban freeways, military vehicles and aircraft, and air-to-ground weaponry being deployed. The film continues with modern skyscrapers in New York City, followed by areas of urban decay. Dilapidated buildings and other abandoned infrastructure undergo demolition and form large dust clouds. The sequence concludes with a coda featuring time-lapse footage of clouds and sunlight reflected in façades of glass skyscrapers in time-lapse, followed by people walking through busy city streets in slow-motion.

The next sequence begins with an introduction that shows time-lapse footage of sunsets reflected in the façades of skyscrapers, wide shots of cities at night with vehicle lights moving fast along streets and freeways, and the moon disappearing behind a building. The rhythm of the music increases while time-lapse footage in cities show vehicles driving, crowds of people walking, shopping centres, factories, food processing plants, and channel surfing. As the sequence comes to a close, the music and visuals are at their fastest, until the sequence ends and the music goes silent.

Close-up shots of microchips are interspersed with satellite photography of city grids. The penultimate sequence features various individuals of all social classes, some of whom look directly into the camera, accompanied by Hopi prophecies sung in the soundtrack.

The final sequence features a rocket being launched and exploding shortly after take-off; the camera follows its debris as it falls back towards Earth in slow motion. Many have mistaken this for footage of the Challenger disaster; however, the film predates that by 4 years.

I urge you to find the full-scale high definition video and view it. It may well blow your mind, as it did, mine.

H/T Wikipedia for some content in this post.

Koyaanisqatsi