B is for Bernie - Music Review - The Human Condition

The Human Condition, latest offering from Bernie Manning, is the perfect accompaniment to a sofa and a rainy afternoon. The overall feeling is of looking back over a life well lived. The material is divided into sections according to the subject matter; there is a nostalgia section, yet the general feeling throughout this collection is of nostalgia. There's a love section, but again, when you listen to the album as a whole, it's easy to see it as one long, rambling, affectionate love letter from the artist to his wife.

As the album has been presented in sections, I'll preserve that same organisation in my review, dealing with each in turn.

The Human Condition

The title track opens with a foot-tapping jazz sound to introduce a spoken poem. This, a spoken poem with musical and/or special effects accompaniment, is a favourite technique of Manning's. The poem doesn't give a very optimistic view of the human condition.

Love

This, the largest section in the album, has four tracks, and helps to give the work as a whole that character of a complex work addressed to the artist's wife. It opens with Have You Ever Fallen In Love, in which the soft, friendly voice of Bruce Haymes speaks of the early stages of love in a way that was so evocative that I found myself swept back to the far-off days of my own courtship.

The second track in this section, Eyes Across The Room, seems to be about 'love at first sight,' a thing in which I don't believe, but there's a deep authenticity to Manning's lyrics; even when I disagree with him about a thing, there's no mistaking the sincerity of his words. Of course, at the end of the day it really doesn't matter whether love at first sight is a thing or not; if it was a thing for a particular couple, then it was a thing for them. We don't all need to share the same definitions of everything. I couldn't help thinking Colleen is a lucky woman to have inspired such devotion, spanning a lifetime.

I didn't really understand the next track, Love Without Words. It has a lovely sound, and yet the poetic emphasis of Manning's work is such that I tend to seek more comprehension of the lyrics than I would normally worry about with songs. The view of love presented in each stanza seemed so discouraged and dark, and yet the sound of the refrain is so upbeat and cheerful. Perhaps it is that very dichotomy that the song shows us.

In the final track of the section, Love Is, the whistled theme is quietly compelling as it leads into a modern-day counterpart of the famous verses of St Paul. The feeling of nostalgia is retained in this track, leading seamlessly into the next section.

Nostalgia

The single track in this section, Play For Me, is so compelling that as I listened I found myself swept into a review of my own life. Manning is about the same age as I am, and thoughts of Eric Clapton swept me into a veritable orgy of reminiscence. How radical we were, and how respectable we are now, our teeth and claws blunted by the rolling decades. Today, young people look at me and Bernie and see old people in cardigans, yet we too have been tigers in our time; more fierce, perhaps, than today's pampered young can imagine.

Faith

Another single track, Believe is an upbeat, motivational song, opposing itself to the anomie of the uber-cool. After the nostalgia of the preceding track, this one shows that the nothing has been lost - it's all still there, the passion, the fire, the stern will.

Hope

The sole track in this section, Alienation Blues, deals with That Time in a relationship - the time that comes, sooner or later, in every long relationship, when empathy fails, when the ardour of first love has cooled and the long, slow, wonderful merging has not yet taken hold, a time when many lose faith and the rewards are only for those who can hold on through the long night. Manning is one of those who has been able to keep the faith, and this is apparent in the song; its stance throughout is one of 'us' rather than of 'me', a thing which I found telling and important.

Life

Kindness Lane opens with a sound that's oddly reminiscent of Strawberry Fields. It's a surreal poem, and rather dark, yet its theme is one of hope; a note of kindness will see us through, as a beacon when all seems to be lost, we may cling to kindness and in it, find our salvation.

Didn't It Rain was one of my favourite tracks on this album. It has a lovely jazz sound, and the lyrics, although rather repetitive, are like a love note to the artist's wife, supported by a wonderful blues piano.

Death

Goodbye Leonard Cohen, as the title suggests, is a tribute on the death of that great artist, Leonard Cohen. As such, it reflects Cohen's particular style. I have to say this track didn't quite come off for me. Haymes' gentle tenor isn't, in my opinion, the right kind of voice for this material, and I found myself wishing for the rough, gravelly voice of Jeff Burstall, who seems to be no longer part of the team.

Survival

The first song in this final section, Fight, is a boppy, upbeat song that had my feet tapping. It's a cheerful depiction of the struggle implicit in daily life, to hold onto what one has that is of value.

The final song in the album, Before The World Ends, is a complex offering. It opens with a conventional song, with a poignant sense of 'last chance', of the yearning to be the person one dreams of being, while there is yet a little time. It spoke to me like no other track in this album. There is a dizzying sense of the day that is coming for us all, that is even now waiting in the wings of the day, to make its appearance perhaps sooner than we expect. Halfway through the track, the music gives way to a series of spoken poems: Autumn, Winter, Spring (with its note of emerging hope), Summer, with its views of joy and plenty, but with an ominous note sounding, then Day and Night, and finally, The Journey and The Volcanoes of Mars. Manning does this visual imagery thing so well - the poems almost paint themselves on the retina as one listens. The final words of this last poem sum up what I felt was a driving thought behind the whole album: 'before the world ends, I want to live.'

A is for Animal

I've let this blog languish for far too long, and I'm determined to rehabilitate it. Over time, I've found the most fun thing to do is these alphabet sequences. They satisfy at once my nerdish love of correct ordering and my writerly love of randomness. So without further ado, today's focus is A for Animals.

These are my animals.

The grey cat in the front of the picture is Ferret. Ferret is an elderly cat, and for a couple of years he's been steadily losing a trickle of weight. It's very slow, but steady. The vet charted it on a spreadsheet. Now we've had a full blood workup, and there are no signs of anything wrong at all - all organs are functioning well, there aren't any signs of cancer or infection of any kind, basically he's a healthy cat, but he still is losing weight.

Late last year I embarked on a course of rich feeding and constantly tempting him to consume extra snacks. It's hard going, because Ferret isn't really much of a foodie, but after two months of this I took him back to the vet and the vet said we've halted the weight loss, and he was more or less stable. The recommendation was that I continue what I've been doing for another three months and then we see him again.

Unfortunately, then I became very ill, and the constant snacks fell by the wayside for a while, but we're back on it now. This morning, Ferret has had a small bowl of cream, although he wouldn't drink all of it, and I have cooked two slices of bacon which I'll cut up small to tempt him in the afternoon.

This is Ferret back in 2012. He was quite chubby then.

I'll welcome any comments from my readers, if you have any ideas of different things that might tempt Ferret to eat more.

Now that's Ferret, but he's far from the only animal in my life, or in the world for that matter. Let me introduce you to the late RooRoo.

RooRoo came into my life one dreary Friday night. I had just lost my beautiful dog, and I was grieving. He walked into my house, demanded food, and settled down to stay. He was with me for twelve wonderful years, and I always felt he'd rescued me more than I'd rescued him. When he died, I started RooRoo Day as a living memorial to him. It's an easy movement to be part of; all you have to do is an act of kindness for an animal, on that day. RooRoo Day is 14 May every year. I chose that date because that was the day he first walked into my house. I never knew how old he was, but he was fully adult, and the vet guessed about three, so I always observed 14 May as his birthday, and now it is his memorial day.

There's a Facebook event for it every year, and you can find this year's one HERE, in case you'd like to join it and perhaps share your ideas. You don't have to, of course. There's no sign-up required for RooRoo Day, no fees or costs - all that's needed is the will to celebrate it. There are lots of things you can do that don't cost much, or even anything at all. Please join me in this.

We have a poster that gives the basics of the day; if you feel you'd like to put one or two up, just email me at Tabitha.Ormiston.Smith@gmail.com, and I'll send you the pdf. It's displayed below, but there's also a version that's less heavy on the coloured toner, which I can get for you.

In Black and White

I usually stay clear of political topics in this blog, but today I want to talk about something that's been bugging me for a long, long time. It does have to do with language: specifically, the way in which language informs our speech. I am referring to the use of the terms 'black' and 'white' to categorise human beings.

Why does it matter?

It matters because the language that we use informs our thinking as much as, or more than, the converse. It's no accident that most people don't lay down any meaningful long-term memories until they are two or more. It is the existence of language that allows the formation of detailed memory, and it is memory that allows the formation of rational thought. So yes, the words we use do matter, they matter terribly.

The Facts

Let's look at the relevance of this terminology to the phenomenal world. Is it actually possible for a human being to be black or white in his skin? I say, in his skin, because that is how the terms are used nowadays. I believe the ancient Celts used to say of a person that he was a black man, a white man or a red man in reference to his hair colour, but no one thinks that way today - today it is all about skin.

White people

A living human being cannot be white. Even albinos are pink, as their red blood shows through their skin, which is translucent. So is everyone's - that's why we can blush or turn pale. A person who was actually white must have had all of his blood drained out, and would therefore be dead. Therefore, there is actually no such thing as a 'white person'. So-called 'white people' are generally beige, or cream, or pink, or even light to medium brown, depending on their sun exposure.

Black people

Humans don't come in black, either. You can take the darkest-skinned person in the world, and if you put him next to a black dog, or a black cow, you'll see that he is only very dark brown, the way black coffee is dark brown.

Race

These false skin colours are used to categorise people into races. What does that actually mean, we may ask? There are a number of 'races' who are classified as 'black'. Africans, Polynesians, Melanesians, Australian Aboriginals, and probably some others that I've forgotten. There is only one race classified as 'white' - Europeans. Traditionally, Europeans fell under the Caucasian race label, but at once we see the futility of this system, for Indian peoples are also classified as Caucasian, and they come in all shades of brown.

The notion of race has undergone a number of modifications over the centuries, and you can read a good summary of it HERE. Whether this system of classifying humans is at all useful is very much open to question, absent some political ideology as exemplified by America and Nazi Germany. I'm not qualified in the biological sciences myself, but I do think it's useful when contemplating any speech or writing supporting the notion of race to ask oneself what the speaker has to gain by his beliefs, what political, economic or emotional benefit is supported by the notion.

There was a study done some years ago that I saw reported on the BBC. DNA samples were taken from people all over the world, in every country and culture, and compared for close matching. I can't remember all of the matches they found, but the one that sticks in my mind was between a very cut-glass English woman and a traditional shaman in a village somewhere in Africa (they called him a 'witch doctor', but I think that's just plain rude.) The conclusion reached from this study was that there is actually no such thing as 'race', and the so-called racial characteristics (skin colour, epicanthic folds, curly hair, freckles, nose shape and so on) are nothing more than family resemblances on a large scale. About like dog breeds.

This female Deerhound (Emily) and this male Boston Terrier (Dave) couldn't be more different - they're far, far more different physically than any two humans could ever be. Yet they share a species and could have puppies together.

Recently, Meghan Markle was all over the media for declining to assign herself to a 'race' box. Although I am even now gritting my teeth at having to approve anything done by a member of that awful family, the stand she took was both courageous and sensible. Race as a concept is obsolete, outmoded. and it is actively harmful, enabling as it does all kinds of bigotry. It deserves to go the way of the buttonhook and lead-based paint.

8 meghan markle and why we all should follow her example

Live Reading - Operation Tomcat and others

Something special for you today. If you click on THIS LINK, you can see well-known children's author Rusty Trimble reading aloud from several books, including my own Operation Tomcat, and dealing with technical difficulties mid-read with the panache of a true performer.

It was quite strange hearing my book read aloud. Cool, though. Way cool. I felt like a celebrity. Truly I did.

Rusty's own book, Middle School Madness, caught my eye on Amazon. I've been reading quite a bit of children's fiction since I ventured into that field myself, and this one looks like a great read, with both wit and charm, and cute illustrations sprinkled all through it. Here's the cover:

You can find this and his other work on AMAZON, and you can find Operation Tomcat HERE.

Book Review - The Island In The Sky, by Bernie Manning

I've reviewed a number of CDs from this Melbourne musician, and I've watched him develop over the years, but this latest offering is his biggest departure yet, for this is an audiobook. A children's audiobook. What a godsend for those parents who do not enjoy reading to their young children! You can just pop it in the player and off you go! Ten chapters, each followed by a song about the events of that chapter. I'm way older than the target readership, but I really enjoyed it. 

My Review

This is an utterly awesome debut book. In charming and humorous quest story, three children seek the Island in the Sky. It's a tale well told and I enjoyed it very much.

Of particular note is the didactic element, which is always present in a really good children's book, and perhaps in a really good novel for any age. The real test of a writer is how this element is handled; most new writers tend either to labour the point or to omit it altogether. Manning does not fall into either of these traps, but shows us, delicately and with warmth and humour, how the world could be if we lived better. Further, the beautifully developed Ice Tiger character demonstrates the two sides of the coin of strength, showing the reader how a fearsome individual can be seen in two ways - either as a terrible foe, or as a bastion of security.

I really think the Ice Tiger is one of the best characters I've ever encountered in a children's book. He is up there with Pooh and the Psammead. A beautifully developed character who absolutely makes the story.

I can hardly close without a word about the music. Manning is a musician, and I've reviewed many music CDs from him, so it should come as no surprise to find that in this delightful audiobook, each chapter is set off with a song about it. They're charming songs, and some of them are brilliant. I have caught myself singing 'The Ice Tiger' around the house already.

All around, a real treat for any age.

The Island In The Sky retails for $19.95 including postage, and can be ordered from the author at berniemanning@optusnet.com.au.

Music Review - Songs From the Heart, by Bernie Manning

In recent albums from this artist we have seen a shift in focus each time, and Songs From The Heart is no exception, with this album’s theme concentrating on the more personal aspects of life.

In this album we see the trademark Manning mix of soft, easy vocals, some spoken by Manning to a musical background, and others sung by long-time collaborator Bruce Haymes, whose light, soft voice works well with the gently contemplative tone of Manning’s lyrics.

The subject matter in this new compilation, though, has shifted from the externally focussed themes evident in the two previous albums, Heroes and Woodstock 2019, to the inner life of the self. In light of the five-song Prostate Cancer Blues Suite, one feels that this new direction may have been prompted by the author’s personal journey.

Following the suite, the album moves into a tone of gentle contemplation, with two tender love songs followed by the poignant melancholy of Best Friend and Nostalgia, and finishes as it began, on an upbeat note with the cheerful The Magpie.

Musically, the tracks deliver the same smooth rhythms we’ve come to expect from this artist, with the creative use of background sound that distinguishes his work. Traffic, voices, birdsong, weather effects, all are used as instruments in Manning’s compositions. In this album, the track Pain is of particular note; the harsh sounds that make up the track’s backing convey the idea of pain in a startlingly realistic way, beautifully reinforcing the theme of the lyrics.

A good choice for a long drive.

My Big Fat Blog Tour. Part One - The Gathering of the Host

For years I've wondered about blog tours, but every time I thought about doing one, I came up against a solid wall of my own ignorance. Many and many a time I've asked author friends about them, but I never even understood the answers, I'd try to think about it and it would all slide over the surface of my mind without sinking in.

Today, I decided I'd finally crack it. I've got two books coming up, both related to each other - the second edition of Grammar Without Tears, and its companion volume, Fifty Shades of Grammar. I'll be documenting the process as I go, for your edification and entertainment.

The first thing, I think, is to get my hosts on board. I'm guessing I will need at least 10 to 12 stops on my tour, and really the more the better as the point is to promote my books. As to content, there seem to me to be three main possibilities with a stop on a blog tour. These are the interview, the guest post and the release announcement. With this in mind, I decided to start by getting a list of blogs that would host me with one of these things.

1 October

I posted on Facebook asking people to do this, and within a couple of hours I had four people offering to host me on six blogs. I think I need more than this, but it's early days yet. I set up an Excel spreadsheet - it wouldn't be me if there were no spreadsheet.

The columns in my spreadsheet are: Host (the name of the person), Blog (the name of the blog), Content (at present this holds the host's preference for those who have expressed a preference, but closer to the time I'll be filling in the blanks), and Date.

The plan is that once I've got a list of enough blogs, and a firmer release date, I'll fill in all the blanks so that I have a detailed plan of what is going where when, and this will drive any work I have to do to write guest posts, interviews and so on. My aim is to get the materials to my hosts at least a week before they need it, just as a small courtesy.

It occurs to me that my hosts may also have preferences about dates, so it's possible another column may be required, but I can add to the spreadsheet as things develop.

2 October

I've still only got 7 blogs for the tour, so I post in one of the Facebook Writers Groups - Australian Writers Rock!!!  

4 October

I now have eight blogs on my list, and I think this is enough for my first attempt at a blog tour. With this in place, the first step in my plan is complete. Next, I will be constructing the detailed plan, with dates, content required, and so on.

 The big new edition of GWT, with its companion volume Fifty Shades of Grammar,
 will be the subject of my blog tour. It is available from AMAZON in paperback only; the ebook is the tiny first edition.