The Imagine Peace Tower

Yoko Ono relit the Imagine Peace Tower on the Icelandic isle of Viðey on 9th October in memory of John Lennon.  The Tower is lit up every year from October 9, the anniversary of The Beatles singers' birth in 1940, to December 8, the day he was assassinated in New York in 1980.


Yoko was accompanied by their son, Sean and around 850 locals, who joined with them to sing John's song 'Imagine' as the beacon was turned on.  As the tower lit up, it sent a huge beam of light 4,000 metres into the air and projected the words 'Imagine Peace'.


In a statement, Yoko said.


"I hope the Imagine Peace Tower will give light to the strong wishes of World Peace from all corners of the planet and give encouragement, inspiration and a sense of solidarity in a world now filled with fear and confusion.  Let us come together to realise a peaceful world."


Apparently Yoko chose Iceland for the location of the tower as she felt it had a purity that many other countries have long lost. 


Spectacular though it is, nature managed to put on an even grander show than the tower that night with a spectacular display of the Northern Lights!

Photo by Guðmundur Fylkisson

It Wasn't Me

No Words Needed

Apple Day (Nothing to do with Steve Jobs!)

One of the few fruits that thrives in northern England is the apple.  This is the time of the apple harvest and many areas hold their own Apple Days.  Today I went through to Harestanes, a country park just outside Jedburgh, to meet up with my friend Alison and to go to my first Apple Day.  It was difficult to find and in the end I came across it by accident and arrived half an hour late!  Alison was helping out at a Border Organic Gardeners stall and I met her there.

Apples, Apples, Apples!

We went over to a room in what looked like a converted stable block which was full of fresh apples, the gorgeous, aromatic smell hit you as you walked in.  I had never seen so many apples in my life!  Most were English varieties, but there were some from the US, Australia and other countries.  All had information about them on little cards complete with how they tasted.  You could touch and pick up the apples which was nice, somehow you want to be tactile with things like this.  There was one absolutely huge whopper whose taste was noted as "insipid", not exactly inspiring!  They also had information leaflets about how to look after apple trees, I picked one of these up as I planted a Cox's Orange Pippin tree in my garden earlier this year and have no idea how to look after it.

The Insipid Whopper

There was a stall of honey products that had delicious ginger cake made with honey instead of sugar.  We had a wander round the craft rooms, one had fabulous leather handmade handbags - one of the women was actually making one when we were there.  They were beautiful and unique, expensive but not outrageously so.  I had to put my sensible hat on and resisted the temptation to buy.

We went to the cafe for something to eat, and there was an apple theme to much of the menu.  I got into the spirit of it and had tomato, celery and apple soup (delicious) and an apple and cinnamon scone (equally delicious.)

We went on a walk through some nearby woods which was very pleasant, shame I'd left my dogs at home, but I am wary about leaving them in my car nowadays with all that you hear about pedigree dogs being stolen.

Afterwards, seeing the weather wasn't too bad, we sat in the central square, had a cappucino and listened to four musicians playing traditional music.  As I listened I noticed how like Irish music it was, bodhran and all.  There was a lovely atmosphere, busy and the people were chatty and friendly. It's good to see that local people still like and frequent traditional events like Apple Days.  It was a first for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Nice

Bono in South Africa for Desmond Tutu's 80th birthday bash

Bono's Tribute to Steve Jobs

I thought this simple, but eloquent tribute from Bono was a touching eulogy to a man who left this world too soon.

Bono's Tribute to Steve Jobs, a True (RED) Champion

"What made Steve Jobs truly great is that he was only interested in doing truly great things.  He was bored by an easy ride or easy profit.  In a world littered with dull objects, he brought the beauty of clean lines and clear thought. This rhyme of intellect and intuition could be applied to a wide range of subjects from the US education system, to sculpture, to the fight against HIV/AIDS where his support of (RED) literally transformed the lives of two million people in Africa.

He changed music. He changed film. He changed the personal computer and turned telephony on its head while he was at it.  He was tenacious in the extreme, his toughness never more evident than these past few years in his fight for his life as well as his companies.

Steve told me as proud as he was of Apple and Pixar, his real pride was his family.  He was a thoughtful and tender father, and loved nothing more than hanging out in the house with his belle Laurene and the kids.

I already miss him...one of a very small group of anarchic Americans who through technology literally invented the 21st century. We will all miss the hardware software Elvis."
 -Bono

There's a Bat in the House!

Last night I was sitting sipping wine and watching TV when I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye.  My kitchen has a glass pane above the door and the light was on, and there was a bat circling round and round in there!  I'm not sure how it got in, the window wasn't open, the only thing I can think of is that it crawled up the extractor shaft which has partially come away from the wall.

Now what to do?  I am aware that bats carry disease, that can be very harmful to humans and animals, especially rabies, so I didn't want it to get near my dogs (we don't vaccinate against rabies in the UK because it isn't a canine problem here due to strict quarantine laws) or worse still IN one of my dogs!  So I decided to just leave it for the night and hope it would go out the way it came in.

Next morning I left the dogs in the cage in the bedroom where they sleep, shut all the doors and gingerly ventured into the kitchen.  Don't know what I expected, to be dive bombed by a tiny bat or something LOL?  I looked round and there was no sign of it, methinks it must have gone out again, but I left the boys in their cage just in case it appeared out of nowhere again.  Then, as I was making my breakfast, again I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye, the bat was in a small, partially filled watering can on top of the fridge!

Mmmm, what to do once more.  I looked into the can and the poor little bat was floating on the top of the water, delicate, paper thin wings spread out so it didn't sink, it had a furry little head.  I had to rescue it God knows how long it had been in there.  But I didn't want to handle it, as I could get bitten and it would stress the tiny creature out even more.  I got a strong cardboard box I had, made a few air holes in it and put it on the worktop.  Then, knowing the bat would not be able take flight from the can I poured some of the water out, then when there was only a little left in tipped it and the bat into the box.  The bat was in a sorry state and just laid there in a sodden heap, I thought it was dead.  I took the box outside and , as it was raining lightly, (yes the Indian Summer is gone!) I half opened the flaps at the top so that there was shelter for the bat, yet it could easily fly off if it wanted to.

A few hours later I peeked in, the bat was still there, but looking much better all dried out and in a bat position not a heap like it had been.  At dusk I peeped in again, and was pleased to see the little fellow was gone.  I was chuffed that the escapade had a happy ending!

Double dose of U2!

October 9th BBC1

22:25–23:55
Imagine
U2: From The Sky Down
Davis Guggenheim charts the making of U2's 1991 album, Achtung Baby.
23:55–00:55
Glastonbury
2011, U2
Highlights of U2's Friday headlining slot at Worthy Farm.

Woo Hoo Summer's Here!

It's weird to see the trees full of rich autumn colours, leaves on the ground, the nights closing in - and 25C temperatures!  Well weird, it's hotter now than it was in the "real" summer.  I've had to dig out the short sleeved tee shirts, table top fan and summer duvet again!  I'm not complaining though, it's lovely, long may it last.

I was coming home from work the other day, and because of the lovely weather decided to go by the scenic route via narrow country lanes.  I came round a bend in the road and was greeted by hundreds of pheasants everywhere, and I'm not exaggerating! I honked the horn and some ran off but many just stood in the road staring at me (pheasants must be a bit thick).  Being an animal lover I didn't want to run any of them over so I got out of the car, jumped up and down shouting which eventually made them scamper off.  Glad no one was around to see my antics! LOL!

I continued on towards home only to go around the other bend and what was there?  A herd of sheep - the joys of living in a rural county  .  I followed at a snail's pace, there was no way I could pass them, but I didn't really mind as I was watching the two sheep dogs that were herding the sheep.  They were amazing, keeping about a 100 animals on track, soon getting the odd sheep that decided not to follow the herd back in line.  After about 15 minutes the farmer got the two collies to herd the sheep off the road onto a small hill so the line of cars following could pass.  The dogs ran back and fore by the roadside making sure no sheep wandered down, as the cars passed by.  

So, a journey that should have taken me about 20 minutes took 40, but those kind of delays beat being stuck in car traffic any day!

35 Years and Still Going Strong

35 years ago today a few young lads from Dublin met up in Larry Mullen's parents' kitchen to form a band.  Amongst them, the four people who would soon become U2.  Not many bands (are there any others?) can say that they have been together 35 years in an unchanged lineup, real friends who went to school, work and socialise together.  I think the closeness between the band members is one of the things that make them special, it's a precious thing to have friends you've grown up with and who've been there for you through life's ups and downs.

How much longer will they continue as a band?  With REM's break up last week it made me think about that, because there are a lot of parallels between them and U2.  No one knows of course, but the sadness I felt at the disbanding of REM made me realise that I would miss U2 soooo much, even though I have a love/hate  relationship with them at times.  They have been in the background of my life for almost 30 years, their music has given me strength when I needed it, it's also given me much joy and the live shows are simply stunning.  I've met wonderful people who've become best friends, travelled to amazing places and had amazing experiences.  Let's hope they keep going for a while yet.

Below is a great video covering the musical and visual history of U2.  It certainly brought back some memories for me.  Like them or loathe them, it can't be denied that they are one of the most important rock bands around.

From the Sky Down, Gigwise Review

I read this review of the documentary and thought I'd share it on my blog.  I think all U2 fans knew Achtung Baby was a make or break moment for the band and it'll be so interesting to see what happened at that time and how this seminal album was created.  I have a feeling U2 is at a similar point in their career now, though for different reasons. But twenty years on, I honestly doubt they can come up with an album the likes of Achtung Baby.  We'll see.


Why Every Music Fan Should Watch U2's From The Sky Down
Jason Gregory, Gigwise, September 23

There's a fantastic moment in From The Sky Down, the new Davis Guggenheim-directed documentary about the making of U2's 1991 album 'Achtung Baby', when you get to see the Irish band in the process of creating the song 'One'.

It is, in my mind, the single most interesting example of the songwriting process caught on film.

With the benefit of hindsight, it's very easy to take a song like 'One' for granted, even though, as the band's manager Paul McGuinness noted at a Q&A about the movie I attended in London last night, it long ago earned the status of being a "classic". It's one of those songs that's ingrained on the musical memory of every music fan, whether they like U2 or not.

But during footage in the film showing U2 at the Hansa Studios in Berlin at the end of 1990, we see it in its rawest, most unadulterated form, with a different second bridge to the one on the album and before Bono had even formulated the lyrics. Indeed, it's not even called 'One'.

The reasons it's so interesting are two-fold.

Firstly, it's genuinely thrilling and absorbing to be so closely exposed to the craft of songwriting. The process, in all honestly, looks painfully destructive and frustrating. But as a music journalist who has never held an ambition to be in a band (and believe me, that's quite a rare thing), to watch a song like 'One' being crafted as meticulously as an artist working on a painting, it's capitvating; as parts get taken out and then put back in, until the finished song we are all familiar with begins to emerge, as Bono says in the movie, "from the sky down".

Secondly, 'One', it transpires in From The Sky Down, was integral in the creation of 'Achtung Baby'. Still tired from touring 1987's 'The Joshua Tree', which took U2 from arenas to stadiums, and rocked by the critical backlash thrown at their road movie, Rattle And Hum, the Irish band looked like a shadow of their former selves as they arrived in Berlin to start work on the album with BrianEno and Daniel Lanois.

In the film, Guggenheim captures this turmoil – and McGuinness stressed last night that it was actual turmoil – beautifully. We see Bono unable to write lyrics, TheEdge struggling to write his guitar parts through the break-up of his marriage, and Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr wondering whether they're even in the band any more.

And then they make 'One', and it's like a lighter fuel of creativity is sparked within all four members.

I don't want to reveal any more, because you can watch From The Sky Down when it airs on BBC on October 9 as part of the Imagine series. But If you take one thing away from From The Sky Down, it should be this: if it wasn't for 'Achtung Baby', you wouldn't have U2, and whatever you think of the band and their personal ideologies, that would be a tragedy.




Here's the official trailer from the documentary

From the Sky Down on the BBC

I've heard that U2's new documentary From the Sky Down will be featured on BBC One's Imagine series on 9th October.  Must make sure I'm not going out that night!  Hopefully it will not be cut and we'll get the full version, I've been really looking forward to seeing this.

From the Sky Down Press Conference with Bono and Edge

Bono and Edge at the TIFF interview (Photo: David Abel QMI)

Just got round to listening to this interview from 9th September at the Toronto International Film Festival.  Some interesting stuff there, especially at the end, where Bono is talking about "The edge of irrelevance" appearing quite upset and vulnerable. It's clearly something he's really struggling with at the moment. At this point in their career the band is at another of their crossroads, we know it and they know it, and it seems a bit of a scary place for them.  But as Edge mentioned, they do their best work in when their backs are against the wall. Time for reinvention again guys. hope you can do it!  Watch the interview here

Premiere of From the Sky Down in Toronto

Bono and the Edge attended the premiere of the documentary about U2, From the Sky Down, which opened the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8th.  Below is an article about this from the Toronto Sun website.  Looking forward to seeing this film!

Bono and Edge with Davis Guggenheim at the Toronto International Film Festival, 8th September.
Photo: Michael Peake, QMI agency

Bo

TORONTO - Rock icons U2 descended onto the Toronto International Film Festival’s red carpet Thursday for the premiere of new documentary “From the Sky Down,” admitting to nervousness over letting fans into their private world of making music.

The movie, which is the first documentary to open the Toronto film festival in its 36-year history, looks at the creative process of making their 1991 album “Achtung Baby,” tensions back then in the band.

Singer Bono and guitarist The Edge took to the festival’s opening night stage and confessed that even superstars get nervous when entering a new arena — from music to film.

“We are very protective of our privacy, particularly the creative process, not just because we are precious, which we are,” Bono told a laughing audience, before confiding that the fear was in letting audiences see them struggle to make music.

“If you knew what went into the sausage, you wouldn’t eat it,” Bono said.

The Edge added that it was “shocking” to see a lot of the old film footage from 20 years ago and “to realize how close our band came to disintegrating at that particular moment.”

The appearance of Bono and The Edge made the opening night screening one of the hottest tickets in town at the 11-day festival where other rock documentaries about Pearl Jam and Neil Young are getting top billing.

The festival, a widely-watched event often seen as a starting point in the movie industry’s annual Oscar race, features a long list of Hollywood royalty, from Brad Pitt and George Clooney to Keira Knightley and Glenn Close.

U2 MAKES TIFF HISTORY

But the opening belonged to a nonfiction film for the first time in festival’s history, and organizers noted both the event and U2 originated in 1976.

The band soared to rock stardom in the 1980s, and “Achtung Baby” was seen as a daring reinvention following the huge success of 1987’s “Joshua Tree” and 1988’s somewhat less-well received “Rattle and Hum.”

“This film isn’t just about the biggest band in the world,” director Davis Guggenheim told the audience. “It’s really just about four musicians trying to make music.”

“From the Sky Down” opens as U2 is about to play the Glastonbury Festival for the first time this year and is looking to rework older songs. As Bono says: “there comes a time when it is dysfunctional not to look into the past.”

It then looks back at the rise of U2 through early film footage and leads up to the making of “Achtung Baby,” which was influenced by industrial and electronic music and featured the hits “One” and “Mysterious Ways.”

“I had goose pimples witnessing how they did it,” said Guggenheim, whose 2006 global warming film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ won the Academy Award for best feature documentary.

“I don’t think really it’s a film about our band in as much as it’s a film about the creative process. If you’re interested in that, you’re going to be interested in this film I think, but I find it excruciating,” Bono said on the red carpet.

Dapper Rock Stars and the Dog Takes Bono for a Walk

The rock stars scrubbed up well for the GQ Men of the Year Awards in London last night.  U2 won the Band of the Year Award and the photo below (taken from the GQ website) is of them with the award - drummer man AWOL as usual.

There was a funny interview with Bono at the Awards where he talked about walking the dog in Dublin - or vice versa as it seems!  Spend more time in Dublin Bono, it keeps you grounded.  The follwing extract is taken from the http://www.thesun.co.uk (ignore the usual sarky bits )

YOU might imagine a summer holiday for Bono involves sleeping in an oxygen tent at Cannes or counting his collection of hats.

But at the GQ Awards last night the U2 frontman confessed to a far less glamorous activity — walking his new pet dog around Dublin.

I say walking. It was more a case of the chart-topping rock star being dragged around by his pet pooch.

He told me: "I've been in Dublin for the last week or so. I was in France but came home for a while.

"I rang some pals and asked what they thought I should do to keep busy. One said, 'Just walk the dog.' So I took the dog out with my wife. It's a mongrel and a really strong animal.

"It dragged us through the streets and some little kid shouted, 'Is that dog walking you, or are you walking the dog, Bono?'

"I knew I was home. You can't beat it."

The U2 star and bandmates Edge and Adam Clayton were at the GQ bash to receive the Band Of The Year gong at the Royal Opera House in London.

It certainly has been a stellar few years for U2. They earned the most money ever from a rock tour with their epic 360° series of concerts.

Perhaps Bono should stick some of the tour wedge into dog obedience classes.

Gone to Ground......

Dachshunds are known for their burrowing and liking to cover themselves completely.  It comes from what they were originally bred for, badger hunting, (dachs - badger, hund - hound in German) when the plucky and deceptively strong dogs went into the setts after their prey.  Their unique shape, short legs and loose skin helped them tunnel down into the ground.  And now, even when dachshunds are mostly kept as pets, you frequently hear stories about them having to be dug out of holes they've decided to explore whilst on a walk.

I went into my bedroom last night and saw a small lump wriggling up under the bedspread from the bottom to the top of the bed and out popped Pepsi's head!  I had to grab my phone and take a photo as he looked so cute.  Whether he went there for comfort or natural instincts I'm unsure, somehow I think it was the former!

Pepsi - pleeeease can I stay?

Autumn in the Air

Pepsi (what camoflage!) and Max

I've had a good weekend. Yesterday I went brambling again and got loads, but boy you have to suffer for collecting them!  In the first place I had to battle through knee high grass and weeds to get to the bushes resulting in trousers soaked up to the knee.  At the next picking spot I has to wrestle through nettles and thorny branches resulting in scratched hands that stung for the rest of the day!  And finally, the lovely weather quickly changed, with a few thunderclaps and I got rained on, so pretty much all of me, not just my lower legs, was wet by time I got back to my car.  Once home I got busy right away and got ten jars of bramble jam out of my travails so it was worth it.

Pretty, but deadly

There is definitely a touch of autumn around now, there's an occasional nip in the air and the leaves are turning slowly but surely. The fireweed's pink is fading and  it's growing the feathery seed pod tufts ready to drift off to find a place to settle to hibernate for the winter before sprouting again in the spring. There were also lots of fungi and toadstools, some so pretty (but deadly) you almost expected a pixie to be sitting on them!  I always used to hate this time of year because it heralded the winter, which is my least favourite season, but now I appreciate the beauty of it.







Today was cool and I went into town with Pepsi to meet up with a friend and go to the Continental Market.  I parked in Portland Square and walked through the Victorian garden in the middle of the square.  The flower beds there were beautiful.  We may moan at Carlisle City Council at times but they really have fabulous parks and the baskets/troughs around Hardwicke Circus are especially beautiful and always are every year.

At the market I always like to have a proper German charcoal grilled bratwurst, it definitely is the real thing, yum yum!  There were some very interesting stalls but I resisted buying anything as I'm on another "austerity drive."  I lost count of the people that stopped me to ask about/touch Pepsi, "What kind of dog is that?", "Is it a Dandy Dinmont?", "I've got a long haired at home, they are lovely dogs but very stubborn" (so true!!)  "He's very sweet natured,",  "Ooooh doggie doggie",  "He's so gorgeous".......  I must admit he does have a lot of the cute factor and just can't resist a tickle LOL.

Summer Days

Had lovely day today.  Firstly I went out with the boys to High Stand, a small forest just outside of the city.  We had a relaxing walk there, Pepsi seemingly aiming for the middle of the few muddy puddles there were whilst Max, like a male diva, tip-pawing around the edge of them.  We met a few other dog walkers, one spaniel was soaked from head to paw - obviously it had been having fun in one of the ponds!  It was one of those perfect late summer days, 21c (my ideal temperature), the birds singing, the gentle rustling of leaves, nature full and fertile with summer goodness and that kind of lazy stillness that hangs in the air on such days.

After that we went to a couple of places to pick brambles which I will be making jam with. But the brambles were late ripening and I didn't get very many, I'll have to go back in a week or two.  I remember that loads of people went brambling when I was young, if you found a place with an abundance of them you kept quiet about it.  Now I rarely see anyone else picking the fruit.  Shame really, the berries are delicious, very good for you and free.

Back in the city I popped in at a friends house and had a cuppa and chat.  On my way home it started to rain and the temperature fell to 17c, English weather!  It's never boring, that's for sure.  But it had been a good day, sometimes the simplest things are the best aren't they?

London Riots

I stayed up until 4am watching TV this morning, unable to tear myself away from the unbelievable scenes unfolding in London.  Complete anarchy on the streets of our capital city, plus other smaller disturbances in Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol and Nottingham.  Blazing buildings, criminal opportunism, robbing the injured, destroying peoples' livelihoods, endangering life, terrorising communities, seemingly coordinated via social networking.  Total idiots. All negative, inexcusable and depressing.

Photo: lawcol888

Then, this morning I hear about how the London communities have also used social networking to organise riot clean ups.  Ordinary, decent people arriving with brushes, bags and their time to work together to clean their streets and start healing the wounds on their city. Firms are donating equipment for the clean up and people are even using their lunch breaks to help out. Positive, heartening and hopeful.  Two sides of a city in 24 hours.

Photo: Joel Goodman/LNP

Who knows what will happen tonight, fingers crossed the worst is over.  Right is a photo of some residents making tea for the police on a riot shield taken last night in a street in north London that was being protected by the police.  Both photos sum  up the best of Britain really and that's the side that will prevail.