Day: April 14, 2020

Warship

for Fandango’s One Word Challenge (FOWC), warrior.

Sea of Tranquility

Callantsoog is on the North Sea coast of the North Holland province of the Netherlands. Much of North Holland lies below sea level, so the dunes you see (when you view the webcam) are largely manmade, to keep the sea at bay. My main memory of Callantsoog is having the most amazing fish’n’chips there – we Britishers are used to fish cooked in batter (i.e. stodge), but these fish were fried instead in the most amazing seasoning. Not a bad view while we were eating, either.

Is it any surprise we used to holiday here?

Tick Tock Tuesday (14 April 2020) – Christy Moore

I thought I’d create a new challenge. It is a challenge primarily for me, because I’m new to this platform, and because you don’t really know me yet, nor I you. As my name suggests, I am recovering from a stroke, and I like to push myself in all kinds of little ways… including getting to know the Wonderful World of WordPress. Although this is something I will be doing, I invite you, if this idea takes your fancy, to play along with me and share with me some of your own selections.

My plan is: each Tuesday, until I run dry, I shall post some piece of art with which I have some connection – which has helped to mould me, which makes me tick. Okay, a piece of art is a bit vague – it might be a piece of music, a movie, a book, a painting, or ???? – so my phrasiology is deliberate. It might be anything – I will play this post by ear, so I’m not sure what I’ll think of each week. And, I’ll keep posting on the theme weekly until I run out of ideas.

My rules? Well, I’m not big on rules! My choice will be something with which I feel a connection. That’ll be the important thing, just having some kind of fleeting affection for something probably won’t be enough, unless I’m using my choice as an example of something bigger.

It will be one choice per week – I’m aware that long posts can be quite onerous to read, and I’m in no hurry to complete this so if I have two ideas, I’ll probably hold the second until the next week.

In that same vein, I’ve created this block as a Reusable Block, which I intend repeating for every post on this theme. The block ends with a full-width separator, so if you want to skip ahead each week it doesn’t really matter.

I probably won’t post any lyrics, or any kind of analysis – if you like my choice, the information will be out there for you. But I will try to briefly explain why I feel a connection to my choice, just to try and enhance readers’ understanding of what makes me tick.

I will tag my posts TTT and I will go looking for other posts with that tag. If you’d like to join in, please do the same, or comment, or pingback to this post, and feel free to reproduce my graphic. Lastly, I look forward to reading about what makes you tick.

Last week I introduced a couple of Irish Bands that I love. Possibly you’d heard of The Dubliners. Probably you’d heard about The Pogues. But this week I wanted to introduce another artist I’ve been following since the Eighties. You’d probably class him a folk singer, I’m not sure he ever charted even in the UK, let alone internationally. But there are lots of people with Irish roots in the UK, and lots too in the USA, so maybe you’ve heard of him?

I must admit that normally when I think of pop music, I think of it as a catchy tune with lyrics that can range from good to (most of the time) pretty awful. But with folk songs, the opposite is true – the lyrics are worth a closer listen.

And this guy is no exception. I particularly like listening to Christy Moore at night, just when there are no other distractions around. He’s a specialist live performer, normally just him and his guitar, but he does get into the studio every now and again and has released many albums over the years. This is one of my favourites of his, and also one of his best-known songs, Ordinary Man. On a theme that is all too familiar.