Altered States - "Turn on, tune in, drop out"

The effects of an over-indulgence of Bacardi and coke in my youth shaped my almost tee-total lifestyle.  I should have known better.  Being a licensee’s daughter, I’d seen enough of the downside of having too much to drink in other people.  The strange feelings I had in my head, referred to as ‘being merry’ was no enjoyment.  It was a scary, altered state of mind that made me feel horrible.  The experience taught me to be wary of alcohol and anything else likely to mess with my thought process.

When I was a young teenager, just getting into the Moody Blues, progressive rock, Rolling Stones and later Beatles stuff, it was cool to know who Timothy Leary was.  I thought he was a named character in a Moody Blues song. When I found out that he really existed, I understood him to be a psychedelic guru who opened people’s minds to another level, to see things in a different way and hear music beyond the sounds coming through the speakers from the vinyl. I didn’t know how he did it. I was happily naïve.

LSD – lysergic acid diethylamide – a hallucinogenic drug which Timothy Leary, actually a clinical psychologist, considered to be useful in psychiatry therapy. It was a known recreational drug in those heady, hippy times of the ‘60s and some of the songs from the musicians of the day sound like they were enhanced by something and the lyrics made no sense, well, not to me, but I loved them anyway and still do, in my un-altered state.

 

 

 

Nice to be Here

 

Nice to be here, hope you agree
Lying in the sun
Lovely weather, must climb a tree
The show has just begun

 

All the leaves start swaying to the breeze that's playing
On a thousand violins
And the bees are humming to a frog sat strumming
On a guitar with only one string

 

I can see them, they can't see me
I feel out of sight
I can see them, they can't see me
Much to my delight

 

And it seems worth noting water rats were boating
As a lark began to sing
The sounds kept coming, with Jack Rabbit loudly drumming
On the side of a biscuit tin

 

I can see them, they can't see me
I feel out of sight
I can see them, they can't see me
Much to my delight

 

Silver minnows were devising water ballet so surprising
A mouse played a daffodil
A mole came up blinking underneath an owl who's thinking
How he came to be sat on a hill

 

I can see them they can't see me
I feel out of sight
I can see them, they can't see me
Much to my delight

 

I know you won't believe me, but I'm certain that I did see
A mouse playing daffodil
All the band was really jumping, with Jack Rabbit in there thumping
I found that I couldn't sit still

 

I just had to make it with them 'cause they played my kind of rhythm

 

Ray Thomas  (1941 – 2018)

 

 

Thanks for reading, Pam xx

 

 

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From Russia - With Love

The ‘Beast from the East’ sent us a hint of snow to wake up to, here on the Fylde Coast.  A more substantial ‘white out’ further inland caused the closure of schools and brought transport to a full stop. Such extremes rarely reach us, but even so, I keep a well-stocked larder of tinned and packet food in case we can’t get out. I am the first to agree that this is hilarious, considering that there are two shops a very short walk away and we usually have our weekly groceries delivered. In my defence, I have explained to the mirthful ones that it isn’t only the weather I’m prepared for, but illness and disability as well, even though we live in a neighbourhood and not miles from anywhere in the far reaches of East Siberia.

I think I’d like to visit Siberia. I don’t know where it figures on the tourism market but it looks interesting.  First we’ll tackle Scotland next week. Hopefully it will be warmer than the -50 Celsius that Siberia has been experiencing.

When I was a child I picked up on things called ‘The Cold War’, ‘The Iron Curtain’ and ‘Eastern Bloc’. It was nothing to concern me, I was far too young to understand, but I was old enough to sense solemnity and worry myself about it to the point of nightmares which baffled my mother. It came from news bulletins, rather than adult conversations and affected me so much that I avoided having the news on as much as possible when my children were young.

Years ago, a work colleague was going on holiday to Moscow. She liked unusual places and always went on her own. It is fair comment that she wasn’t popular at work and those of us that had to put up with her hoped she might not be allowed back into the UK, the naivety of our youth. We didn’t get our wish, of course. She sent a postcard saying simply, ‘From Russia, with love’.

As a football fan, I hope that this summer brings something else home from Russia, the World Cup.

One of my favourite poems:

I Loved You (Ya Vas Lyubil)
I loved you; even now I may confess,
Some embers of my love their fire retain;
But do not let it cause you more distress,
I do not want to sadden you again.
Hopeless and tongue-tied, yet I loved you dearly
With pangs the jealous and the timid know,
So tenderly I loved you, so sincerely,
I pray God grant another love you so.

 

Alexander Pushkin, 1799-1837

 

 

Thanks for reading, Pam x 

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Face looking a bit old? Easy, just airbrush it!

In an idle moment last night, I was leafing through a well-known beauty products brochure and marvelling at the manipulative language employed in its sales pitch, particularly about skin care products.. How do they get away with it? Promises of ‘a more youthful looking you’, ‘youthful looking lips’ and an assurance of ‘a radiant youthful glow’ vied with even more extravagant claims that a skin cream set are ‘anti-ageing heroes’. Another offered an assurance of ‘minimising the visible signs of ageing’. How these marketing merchants love the binary of youth and ageing – and there’s no doubt which is preferable and which is to be  avoided at all costs – and, of course,  the empty promises cost a lot to the hapless consumer. Often too, the pitch is dressed up in pseudo-scientific language, in an attempt to confer respectability on their preposterous claims. 

Then I noticed that one product offered an ‘airbrushed effect’ and another ‘airbrushed looking skin’. Hang on, isn’t airbrushing the ultimate in image manipulation, one that everyone knows presents a distorted, dishonest and unrealistic view of the subject? So now we’re expected to photoshop our faces before we go out in the morning, lest anyone catches us AGEING! And the airbrushed unreality is peddled as attainable – if you’ll just buy our products.   A new low in cynicism on the part of these purveyors of the impossible dream to halt and even reverse the ageing process.

The great shame of these ruthless pushers of illusion and inevitable disappointment is that they are ensnaring younger and younger women into believing themselves inadequate, as they chase impossible rainbows and fail to stem the progress of time. The greatest shame is that there is no shame in the ‘beauty’ industry.

I’ll finish, not with a poem, but a song lyric written by Jarvis Cocker, about ageing – a reminder that we’re all heading that way.  

   

Help the Aged

Help the aged,
one time they were just like you,
drinking,

smoking cigs

and sniffing glue.

Help the aged,
don't just put them in a home,
can't have much fun when they're all on their own.
Give a hand, if you can,
try and help them to unwind.
Give them hope and give them comfort
'cos they're running out of time.

In the meantime we try -
try to forget that nothing lasts forever.
No big deal so give us all a feel.
Funny how it all falls away.
When did you first realise it's time you took an older lover baby?
Teach you stuff although he's looking rough.
Funny how it all falls away.

Help the aged
'cos one day you'll be older too.
You might need someone who can pull you through
and if you look very hard behind those lines upon their face
you may see where you are headed
and it's such a lonely place.

In the meantime we try -
try to forget that nothing lasts forever.
No big deal, so give us all a feel.
Funny how it all falls away.
When did you first realise it's time you took an older lover baby?
Teach you stuff, although he's looking rough.
Funny how it all falls away.

You can dye your hair but it's the one thing you can't change:
can't run away from yourself.

In the meantime we try.
Try to forget that nothing lasts forever.
No big deal, so give us all a feel.
Funny how it all falls away.
When did you first realise it's time you took an older lover baby?
Teach you stuff although he's looking rough.
Funny how it all falls away.
Funny how it all falls away.
So help the aged…….

By Jarvis Cocker

Thank you for reading,

Sheilagh

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