Carving Nostalgia

Earlier I heard a song on the radio that gave me goose bumps, yep, 6 Music again, I love that station.  The song, Sonic Youth's version of the Carpenters 1971 song, Superstar which I have heard before, probably on the film Juno, but talk about powerful! Wanting to hear it again with some volume, I scoured my CD's, but it doesn't appear on any of the Sonic Youth albums that I own.  In fact it was recorded for a tribute album released in 1994, entitled If I Were a Carpenter. My gosh, it is a thing of beauty. I just watched the video, and it pretty much brought a tear to my eye. Enjoy.

A few weeks ago I heard a piece of music on the radio that stopped me in my tracks. This happens every now and then, and when it does I get such a shiver of excitement from hearing something that is so pleasing to the ear that it is tangible.  Often when this occurs is is not merely a reaction to the arrangement of the music alone, the experience is so much more than that. Sometimes it can be a song that I associate with a memory or experience from the past, sometimes it is a person, and on occasion it is a place.  But I do love it when music has this effect on me. The song that I heard that Saturday, played on the Huey Morgan radio show (Katie Pucrick was sitting in) was Heart is a Drum by Beck.  Now, I am quite the fan of Beck, but as I haven't bought any of his albums since Guero, I have to say that this song and the album that it is taken from, Morning Phase passed me by.  (Although this has now been rectified with the purchase of the said album). But what a song it is.  It h

On the weekend I set foot in one of the best surf shops that I have experienced in an awful long time, in this country at least. The shop is Trans Surf , in Mawgan Porth, which is just up the coast from Newquay in Cornwall.  I happened to be in the area for the weekend and while exploring I came across the shop.  Being in the market for a new suit, boots etc for winter I thought I would look inside.  Not that I actually need much persuasion, when it comes to surf shops my resistance is pretty much non existent, so I would have ventured in anyway. But I am so glad that I did. It became immediately apparent that Trans Surf is one of a rare breed. To begin with, as soon as I set foot inside the door it struck me as being a 100% real, genuine, authentic surf shop, one with sand on the floor and everything! It is within sight of the beach and the Atlantic beyond and above all else it had a friendly vibe.  The lady working gave me such a smiley, friendly welcome, something that I ha

One of my most favourite things in the world is to be on the pier at Porthleven while the waves pass underneath, I've been doing it for years. The experience differs from season to season, but I find it incredibly enjoyable throughout the year, by day or at night.  There are provisos though, ideally the swell should be clean with the wind off shore. Also the waves don't want to be too big, this is a fairly important consideration as I don't want to be swept in, that wouldn't be so much fun. But when the conditions are good, I can't think of a better way to enjoy the beauty of the Atlantic, without actually being in it. The best vantage point is right above the place where the waves break, the impact zone. They pass just beneath your feet before unloading with all of their power as they reach the shallow water, quickly travelling those last few metres of their long journey.  The waves first appear as swell approaching the end of the pier. These then become steepe