...ONE DAY I'M GOING TO SOAR

....." It's no secret that when reaches his or her forties , maybe fifties , almost certainly his or her sixties and seventies , the world as it presents itself in advertisements , talk , technology , dress , movies , music , money and perhaps most of all manners , the way in which people walk down the street , the way in which they say hello or goodbuy or don't bother to do either ,bemoes an affront to one's entire existance. One may reach a point where one's " life begins to go into the past " -that , or your whole fucking frame of reference "..........
                             Greil Marcus , ' Listening To Van Morrison '

.......Well , I suppose as you get older , modern / contemporary music starts to make less and less sense - ot at least become less interesting. True , the ones who have been there for you all along are still producing music that is relevant - Springsteen's and Ry Cooder's last albums put it to the bankers and the financiers big time , Ry Cooder's new one posts cutting edge citicism of the current state of American politics and the spectre of the extremist right wing ,, Neil Young continues to go his own way .......and Dylan - well you either love him or hate him , but at least he is dealing in some ways with the experience of ageing.....
Other than that the current state of the music scene leaves me cold - nothing new , nothing to interest these ears...........................
....And then something / someone somes along and blows all that out of the water......the new Dexy's album seems to come from somewhere else altogether - another time , another place . Totally barking , totally brilliant - honest , painful , hilarious . Album of the year................Wonderful , timeless ............somone just trying to make sense of it all - life , love , warts and all....................

.........and whilst we are still soaring , a quick shout out for ' Requiem For The Timeless ' , Johnnys Rogan's latest - and greatest - biography of the Byrds ......the notes and discography alone is over 300 pages , and this is just Volume One ...........a fitting epic for my favorite band of all time....................

...LONG RIDE HOME.......

.....Sometime back in 2009 , Sky announced to the cycling world that they were intending to enter a British Team in the Tour de France in 2010 , with a view to winning the race within 5 years , Given the relative lack of interest in road racing within the UK and a somewhat lack of success in the race over the past 100 years or so this was generally met with a degree of amusement and scepticism on the continent , amongst those in the know........No chance.....especially after their first effort in 2010 resulted in the team leader arriving in 23rd position.............

In the end it didn't happen in 5 years at all - it only needed 3 - and they did it in style.

Sunday , July 22nd , Paris . The last day of the Tour is generally a gentle ride into Paris for the winner elect , safely surrounded by his team in the middle of the peleton. Not this time - instead the crowds were treated to the site of Bradley Wiggins in the Yellow Jersey putting in a hard stint at the front of the race and acting as lead-out man through the Place De La Concorde for Cav to rock up and win his fourth stage in a row in Paris and the 23rd of his career...............three weeks of effort finally over - at least for a week or so , until Wiggins put it all together again for the Gold in the Olympics time trial . Way to go.....................and maybe the UK will start to take cycling seriously now and recognise the talent here , at least until Murray wins Wimbledon or something............

.....which in the end was all of  about ten days or so...................oh well.