Lion Hug Video With Music By The Peace And Freedom Band

An uplifting vid of a lion hugging and kissing his saviour in an animal sanctuary in Cali, Colombia. Music extract - 'When Butterflies Cry' by The Peace & Freedom Band (written by me).

Lady Samantha

Lady Samantha is one of my favourite creatives. She can be wacky one minute, then throw you with something out of the blue like this, re her recollections of the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

http://brainystorms.blogspot.com/2011/09/more-shameless-plugging.html

The blog of Lady Samantha covers lots of things, because she knows lots of things. If she's not careful her brain will explode because she has so much stuff in there. Happened to a Russian chess player once. The knowledge had nowhere else to go!

http://brainystorms.blogspot.com/

Murdered By The State Introduction

My intro to my Kindle eBook of various poems - Murdered By the State.

The State doesn't care about individuals. The State cares about the State. People around the world have woken up to this realization late in 2010 and early in 2011.

From cradle to grave we are never truly free. We are forced to go to school, we are often forced to work in dreary jobs - sometimes for decades. But we have been the authors of our own misfortune by not fighting back. Many people's spirits have been broken by the State as a consequence.

The systems around the world are broken. Just maybe Dylan's hope for change will finally come to pass. The State has killed too many - both literally and emotionally.

- Paul Rance, February 17th, 2011.



Murdered By the State (Amazon.com)

The A-Bomb Dome, Hiroshima - Photograph By Peter Rance (1930-2001)

More of my Dad's photos here.

Christina Rossetti's Poem Remember; For All Our Departed Loved Ones

Remember me when I am gone away,

Gone far away into the silent land;

When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day

You tell me of our future that you planned:

Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve;

For if the darkness and corruption leave

A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far you should forget and smile

Than that you should remember and be sad.
 

Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

The Peace & Freedom Band Nature Video

A video of a 1988 song by The Peace & Freedom Band. Music by Andy Xport (who produced it), with lyrics by me - originally from a poem of mine from around 1980. The song featured on The Peace & Freedom Band album, Life, released in '88.

Adele Becomes A Vegetarian

British singer/songwriter Adele has announced that she has turned vegetarian. Speaking on BBC Radio 1, the Londoner said that she felt a pang of guilt looking into her pet bulldog's eyes when she ate meat, as it reminded her of what other animals went through to feed humans.

More here:
http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/09/singer-adele-goes-veg-because-her-dog

Hartlepool Nature And Animal Photographer Andrew Bruce

Hartlepool photographer Andrew Bruce has recently been photographing a variety of animal subjects, including his sister's baby rabbits.

As a long-time vegetarian and lover of all animals, Andrew's feel for his subjects comes through in his enchanting photos.

See his gallery here:

http://www.x53web.co.cc/~andy/

Lack Of Sleep And The Creative Flow

I've not been sleeping too well lately, mainly due to my cat Sparkle waking me up early in the morning. I can't say that not getting my eight hours a day in has harmed my creative output, but does insomnia itself aid the creative process?

Sparkle: "To hell with your creative genius, I want to get even fatter!"

Freddie Mercury Would Have Been 65 Today

Queen's Freddie Mercury, arguably rock's greatest showman, would have been 65 today. It shouldn't be forgotten that he composed the odd blinding tune, too, most notably Bohemian Rhapsody... And he played a mean piano.

Live Aid was Freddie's finest moment. A day when humans around the planet pulled together - for once. Here's Bohemian Rhapsody and Radio Ga Ga for starters.

Queen at Live Aid, July 1985

Queen discography on booksmusicfilmstv.com
http://www.booksmusicfilmstv.com/Amazon/queencds.htm

American Poet, Writer And Artist Susan Elliott

Susan Elliott was my first friend on Associated Content if I recall correctly. She's a gifted poet and artist, and her writing and art advice articles are probably the best articles of their type I've read on AC.

Susan's blog
http://susanspoeticblogosphere.blogspot.com/

Lack Of Page Views For Writers On Writing Sites - Glitches Or Something More?...

I've recently started putting up writing articles on my website, booksmusicfilmstv.com. It's been interesting to compare the amount of hits I get, as opposed to the amount of hits I get on various writing sites.

I post links of my writing articles on Twitter, and the comparisons between the results from various sites pose some questions.

Curiously, similar writing articles on my website get twice as many hits as similar articles on some other writing sites. Despite Google's Panda causing mayhem recently, some of the writing sites I write for still get many more visitors to their websites than mine, so why the differences?

Glitches are the most obvious cause, especially for webpages laden with ads. But I hope that's all it is... For the record, the sites that get comparable hits to booksmusicfilmstv.com are Helium and HubPages.

George Gently Tiny Review

George Gently was good again tonight on BBC1. I never guess who the murderer is. Nice to hear Cream's We're Going Wrong, but a strange choice of music, as the murderer/ess (not saying which, for those who haven't seen it) was led away.

Martin Shaw is never less than excellent in anything he appears in, and strange to see Neil Morrissey as an embittered, lecherous, boozed up middle aged  radio/TV personality.

George Gently on booksmusicfilmstv.com:

http://www.booksmusicfilmstv.com/Drama/GeorgeGently.htm

Luton Town Manager Gary Brabin Perfects The Shaven-Headed Look

Shaved my head recently. I intimidate myself, let alone anybody else. Luton Town manager Gary Brabin perfects the shaven-headed look. My cut is not quite so fine, so his razors must be more lethal. I nearly did a van Gogh on my ear, so a bit nervous about giving the noggin too fine a cut. Though maybe the Brabster's hair just fell out?...

Looking at this menacing picture of Gary, after Luton's lack of ruthlessness at both ends of the park, maybe he should come out to play.

http://www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk/Sport/Luton-Town-FC/Brabin-says-bloopers-are-creating-video-nasties-03092011.htm

Video: Spalding Guitarist, Dave 'The Furry Man', Sings

Recorded the voice of this legendary Spalding character singing 'Lemon Tree' on August 3rd. I tried to stop him halfway through, but he wasn't having any. Only had a fuzzy photo to work with, so had some fun with the video effects in Windows Movie Maker. Dave doesn't believe in chords and notes. He says he has his own style, and it's amazing he's still with us. He was living in a Moulton Chapel bus shelter, suffering with cancer - in the middle of winter.

Google's Panda Is Killing Writing Sites - And Writers

Now I love pandas, who doesn't, but Google's quadruped I find hard to love.

As a writer for Demand Studios, Wikio Experts, and a former Music Contributor at Associated Content, I've recognized that, financially, those sites have been hit hard by Google's Panda and its mysterious algorithm.

As a consequence, a lot of writers are now enduring financial hardship, and many will become unemployed. Sites like Helium are trying radical new things to keep going, but it's beginning to seem obvious that writers are going to have to start helping themselves.

This means getting a personal website or blog, and getting material out through Amazon's Kindle. Good luck everyone, and welcome to this harsh new reality.