Israel is at war with Iran

To quote Joan Didion in her essay, "On keeping a notebook" - Remember what it was to be me: that is always the point. So I'm not going into the whys and wheres of this latest event but instead I'm going to remember what is was to be me.

We were woken at 3 am on Friday morning, 13 June: at first, we thought that it was a Houthi missile, but no, it was the home guard telling us that a state of emergency had been declared after Israeli aircraft had attacked various sites in Iran (over 2000 km away!). Friday morning was passed almost in a state of shock; essential services were open but the swimming pool was not. If by the evening we had thought that life had returned to normal, then we were wrong. At about 7:30 pm there was a Houthi missile then twice during the night there were Iranian missiles. Saturday was like Friday and Sunday like Saturday.

At the moment, life is like a hybrid of the early Covid days and the days following October 7: everywhere is quiet, people are mainly at home and only essential services are open (e.g. the supermarkets are open but the train station and post office are not). Of course, I'm fortunate that I live on a kibbutz, not particularly close to any conurbation (I wouldn't define Bet Shemesh as such) and so the possibility of a missile coming anywhere near us is extremely low.

My wife and I have a great advantage over many others on the kibbutz: our bedroom is our security room, so air raid alarms at 11:30 pm or 4 am don't cause us any bother as we are already in the security room. Even the dog recognises the alarms now: during the afternoon of the harvest festival (but before it began), the dog and I were walking outside when the alarms went off. She tugged me all the way home. Now when we have an alarm, she knows to come into the bedroom with us, something that we don't normally allow. One evening, neighbours came to share the room so I had to take the dog to another room (otherwise she would have barked constantly); she was miffed that she wasn't in the security room.

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This day in history:

Blog #	Date	Title	Tags
485	16/06/2012	Mostar (Dubrovnik log 2)	Holiday, Dubrovnik
598	16/06/2013	Edinburgh log (2): Round and about	Holiday, Edinburgh, Bagpipes
599	16/06/2013	Edinburgh log (3): Aberdeen	Holiday, Edinburgh, Bagpipes
720	16/06/2014	The mist covered mountain (Sorrento log 5)	Holiday, Sorrento, Italy
866	16/06/2015	More guitar	MIDI, Reason
956	16/06/2016	Today's reading matter (2)	DBA
1398	16/06/2021	15 June 2021	ERP, Covid-19
1628	16/06/2023	BGS cricket second XI, 1973	Personal, Bristol Grammar School

Brian Wilson RIP

What can I say about the man who in a few songs epitomised the sunny side of the sixties, more than the Beatles, or at least, complementing them? The Guardian summed up twelve of his best songs; I would agree with all but three, but that's only because I don't know those three, later, songs.

The history is here.

My first extant memory of Brian Wilson/Beach Boys was at Habonim winter camp at the end of 1966, when I heard "God only knows", although to coin a phrase, God only knows how I heard it: presumably someone had a transistor radio.

Cut to the summer of 1967: my family was gifted a greatest hits collection of the BB. I imagine that most of my favourites came from this record. Some time when I lived in London, I heard a few more interesting songs - "Darling" and "Breakaway" (that transmuted into "Takeaway", about our habit of eating food from various restaurants, but as one knows, takeaway is ... without any extra VAT to pay).

In around 1970-1, I bought a book called "Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom" by Nik Cohn that introduced me to a great deal of what I would call 'earlier' music about which I didn't know. There was a chapter about the Beach Boys that taught me their history until then. Of course, they continued in various configurations for at least another ten years, but they didn't succeed in creating any lasting music; certainly they didn't impinge on my life.

Much much later I became interested in the harmonic structure of "God only knows" - there are several excellent YouTube videos about this song but I first read some internet article. From there, I listened to "Pet Sounds", some of which I liked very much and some not so much. [Late news: David Bennett has just uploaded his take on this song; it's worth watching for those who are interested in such things.]

I can't say that BW has had a direct influence on my life, and like most musicians, his most fecund period was when he was in his twenties, before he became one of the first famous acid casualties. So his passing is something that I note, but do not grieve about.

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This day in history:

Blog #	Date	Title	Tags
594	12/06/2013	London log (2): The Eye and shopping	Holiday, London
955	12/06/2016	Just another proud grandparent	Personal, Grandfather
1148	12/06/2018	Italy 2018 - Parco Valentino	Holiday, Torino, Italy
1777	12/06/2024	Fads may come and fads may go but the kibbutz harvest festival stays the same	Jewish holidays, Kibbutz
1778	12/06/2024	Another sleepless night (new song)	Song writing