We live in a world of triumph and tragedy, today Morocco’s Earthquake, and earlier in the year the Turkish/Syrian earthquake, war in Ukraine. These are just the ones we heard about, mini wars are devastating places you haven’t heard of, and they’re not so small if you are a victim. We live so close to Morocco here in Portugal, where the earthquake was felt. In the 1700s an earthquake destroyed Lisbon and whenever I hear the word earthquake I always think about LA. I was in LA when that terrible San Francisco earthquake happened. I remember everyone gathered around the TV screen in the foyer of the Hollywood Roosevelt. For every problem humans conquer, they seem to create a new one, how do we get out of the latest one?

On a lighter note, Coco won the tennis, although I’m sure she wouldn’t see her victory as anything other than incredible commitment, study, practice, mental power, and talent, she is just 19 years old. On other triumphs, for all the hoo-ha about vaccines, weren’t they at one point the saviour of the human race as we found a way to eradicate or at least temper the spread of disease? It wasn’t that long ago that people were dying of tuberculosis, I don’t think anyone was protesting the vaccines that helped fight that disease. I won’t get into an argument about vaccines, so choose another place to fight your cause with willing adversaries if this argument irks you, but no one seemed to suspect their flu shot was a threat to your freedom or might control your mind before 2019. Other Triumphs were the Bonneville, the Trident, the Vitesse, the Herald, the Spitfire and the Stag.

The street was busy today with a lot of people hanging around and with Joaquim and Luís from the café across the road on holiday, the deck outside our front gate was curiously silent – perhaps that’s why I noticed others that I may not have noticed before. The sun shone down after a week of patchy rain, but I’m reminded after talking to Andreas in Sweden today that summer lasts longer here.

England drew with Ukraine in a match that had no Alexander-Arnold, Sterling not even in the squad, but I suppose they know better in football land about form (Sterling, though, seems in great form). Walker scoring his first goal for England after 77 matches might not have been the plan, but Harry Kane’s passing made it happen, isn’t that why Alexander-Arnold should be there? I’m happy Ukraine didn’t lose. On that subject, in World War II there were eight neutral countries, Andorra, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the Vatican – all the major countries here are now tied by treaty to not be neutral anymore.

Arktik Lake got its first review on ‘A Pessimist Is Never Disappointed‘, a little negative towards the ex-band, to say the least, but we can’t write the reviews ourselves, and talk about ourselves, that kinda defeats the point of reviews. It seems in art there is taste, this doesn’t really happen in sport, although style of play may help you decide who to support. In music, taste isn’t generally neutral as it may be in sport. If Aston Villa play Newcastle as a neutral you just want a good game, if you love The Velvet Underground you might find it hard to be neutral about Van Halen unless, like me, you like them both (and other bands beginning with ‘V’, Van der Graaf Generator, Vanilla Fudge, Suzanne Vega – I could go on) but then they’re not in competition with each other. It seems that tribalism has made for certain ancient rivalries, but I was trying to separate the passion for music and the support of your favourite band with the passion for sport and the support of your favourite team and thinking about opinions about teams or music you don’t like. I like lots of sports, lots of teams, lots of music in different styles, but not everyone is like that, they have a team in sport and they have a style in music, and that’s just fine.

Music today has been 87-year-old Shirley Collins’ latest album Archangel Hill (2023) for the truest of folkies.

Music Of The Daze