Round the bend

This morning I was passing from the bathroom to the lounge via the music room when a song on the radio caught my attention. It sounded like Nick Drake although I knew that it wasn't as I didn't know the song. The vocal sounded like Nick and the arrangement sounded like 'Riverman', so I 'shazamed' the song and was told that I was listening to 'Round the bend' by Beck.

In the past I tried listening to Beck as I had been given the impression that his songs would fit my taste, but obviously the selection to which I listened didn't push my buttons. In short order, I discovered that the song comes from his 2002 album, 'Sea Change'. Reading the comments on YouTube, I saw that I was far from the first who made the connection between this song and 'Riverman'.

Listening to the other songs on this album, I have yet to find another song that sounds so mysterious. It transpires that there is another song on the album that I recognise, 'Lost cause', but it's not a song that gets me excited.

Another song that has caught my attention lately is "It's not just me, it's everybody" by the artist trading under the name Weyes Blood. This is on my wife's playlist, although she doesn't recall how she found it. This song is reminiscent of Joni Mitchell, primarily in the chromatic mediants. From a music theory point of view, this song is very interesting, and the arrangement builds and builds. The vocal starts low but ends up fairly high. The only thing that I find annoying is the staccato piano; although the chords played vary (I don't know what key the song is in, but if we say it's in D, then the chords start as D, D6, D, D6), their rhythm doesn't and I would have preferred some variation - some syncopation or even not playing for a bit. It's a shame as this slightly ruins my enjoyment of the song.

Again, I listened to other songs of the singer, but didn't find anything else that caught my interest.

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This day in blog history:

Blog #	Date	Title	Tags
178	09/06/2009	Inter-program communication	Programming
253	09/06/2010	Post mortem on my Economics exam	MBA, Economics
592	09/06/2013	Barcelona log (4): In search of Dali	Holiday, Barcelona
861	09/06/2015	LinkedIn	DBA
862	09/06/2015	Vinyl log 13 - 9 June	Vinyl log
954	09/06/2016	An advanced - and possibly useless - technique in Priority	Priority tips
1042	09/06/2017	Rodos log 5: Symi	Holiday, Rodos, Greece
1145	09/06/2018	Italy 2018 - The market, Mole Antonelliana	Holiday, Torino, Italy
1231	09/06/2019	Crazy week	Jewish holidays
1512	09/06/2022	Italy 2022: Ostuni	Holiday, Italy, Bari

Just like 'old times'

Even though I was taking a day off today*, I got up at 5:30 am and took the dog for her early morning walk. By about 6 am, she had done what she had needed to do, and we were about a third of the way through our walk. At this stage, my phone started emitting a sound that I couldn't place at first: I took it out of my pocket and saw that the home guard were dispaying a warning message about an imminent air raid warning. So I immediately turned and we started walking back home at an increased pace, not stopping for any sniffing around. At about a distance of 100 metres from my home, the air raid warning starting sounding - it's quite frightening to hear it when outside. People from the building neighbouring ours were coming down the stairs and heading for the nearest air raid shelter whereas the dog and I were half running home in order to get to our secure room. There are only a few buildings on my side of the kibbutz that have a secure room so we are quite privileged in this respect.

After the all clear signal had been given (via telephone), we were free to exit the room. I had intended to go swimming this morning at 7 am, and I saw no reason not to go. If the pool was closed then all I would have done was complete my early morning walk. By 7 am, I was at the pool and saw the life guard open up; there was only me and another swimmer there. At that hour, the air temperature is much closer to the water temperature, so the cold water didn't bother me. After swimming a few lengths, I thought that I heard an odd sound, so I treaded water for a bit, then carried on. A few minutes later, the air raid sirens sounded again.

So it was out of the pool and into an air raid shelter that was conveniently close to the pool. When I went down into the main room, I was surprised how many people were there; presumably the odd sound that I had heard before was the early warning. A few people made some comments about my attire, but I wasn't paying attention so I didn't realise that they were talking about me. After about 20 minutes, the all clear sounded and we all exited the shelter. By this time, I had lost interest in swimming, but I had to go back to the pool to pick up my headphones, cap and robe; the other person who had been swimming with me was back in the water.

On the way back home (I live on the opposite side of the kibbutz from the pool), three or four people stopped me and asked if the pool was open. I repeated my story. Later on, a message appeared on the electronic notice pool that all pools in our general area would be closed for the rest of the day.

So it's just like 'old times' of the earlier wars with Iran and Yemen from the past year.

* A few weeks ago, I noticed that I had accumulated many days of holiday. As I will soon be retiring, these days would be turned into money and as a result I would be paying a great deal of income tax for this extra payment. I also receive two days holiday a month, so if I did nothing, I would end up with 36 days of holiday. As a result, I've been taking one day of holiday each week.

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This day in blog history:

Blog #	Date	Title	Tags
82	08/06/2007	Rise up like the sun	Fairport Convention, Albion Band, Time signatures
591	08/06/2013	Barcelona log (3): Rain stopped play	Holiday, Barcelona
1041	08/06/2017	Rodos log 4: Lindos and the seven springs	Holiday, Rodos, Greece
1143	08/06/2018	Italy 2018 - The best chocolate in the world	Holiday, Peppermint, Torino, Italy
1144	08/06/2018	Italy 2018 - Getting to know Torino	Holiday, Torino, Italy
1323	08/06/2020	The background behind another song that is used for Israeli folk dancing	Kibbutz
1395	08/06/2021	A new Yoni Rechter songbook	Yoni Rechter
1511	08/06/2022	Italy 2022: Corso Cavour (2)	Holiday, Italy, Bari
1627	08/06/2023	Post doctorate	Nutrition
1948	08/06/2025	Diet, drugs and dopamine	Non-fiction books, Nutrition