Too much monkey business

[Quagmire]

Might as well start a journal since I do hope to be publishing material in the future, and the music is quite appropriate as it was probably my first major influence away from anything mainstream. I spent perhaps a year or so every Friday or Saturday (can't remember which) down at the Marquee watching this bunch.

All comments, advice, criticism welcomed.

Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Erick Clapton all in the same garage.

 

[Mock Turtle]

What can I say. One awaits comments and then three turn up. Just like buses.

 

[Mock Turtle]

Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Erick Clapton all in the same garage.

Only saw Clapton with the group, and left London while he was still in the band. Perhaps I saw the best of them, playing electric blues, but Beck apparently was a better guitarist. Saw Page live with Led Zeppelin though (early 70s). Too loud, man!

 

[Mock Turtle]

A sense of proportion

I try to be even-handed with regards our (UK) history but still, there are some who view things differently - from a purely The British are Best perspective it seems - this from February 2018:

We should always feel proud of our country from Churchill to Rorke’s Drift ... don’t listen to those who say we should feel ashamed - Tony Parsons

Well, concerning Rorke's Drift, we were trying to annex the Zulu’s land and to control them! Are you the supreme archetype for the school bully?

If you grew up in this country in the Sixties then you imbibed the Michael Caine movie Zulu with your mother’s milk, and no doubt believed that Rorke’s Drift was a battle of unimaginable courage.

Not here, matey, I had a more balanced view, as the film actually portrayed, if you bothered to look and listen properly, as when Caine’s character says he was ashamed, no doubt because of the senseless slaughter, which was inevitable given the modern weapons we had versus the spears they mostly had. Courage was displayed on both sides but the fact remains that the British invaded the Zulu's land, and where it was more political wrangling going on than anything else. Can’t recognise good from evil? The fact is that all those at Rorke’s Drift would probably have been slaughtered, as those at Isandlwana were, if they had not stayed to fight. And, since they were soldiers, as in every war, they didn’t get to vote on what to do but got told what to do by those in authority over them. Which is why we should never see anything other than senseless carnage in wars, since that is what it is usually. No one votes to go to war - we are told to fight by those idiots in authority over us who have cocked it up yet again.

But in the Britain of 2018, we are meant to be ashamed of this chapter in our nation’s history (and all the other chapters too, of course).

You really think we should be proud of our invading other nations in order to gain their resources? You have a funny old view of morality! You'd hardly condone it in another nation, but since it was we British that is just fine. Just bonkers, and pathetic, but I suppose we should expect this from a Sun writer - home to the dimwit loyalist brigade.

I feel nothing but pride in my country and its past.

Vying for Tosser of the Century are we? We did as much harm with regards our history as many other nations did also, and that can often be seen in how they still regard us!

 

[Mock Turtle]

I don't remember that!

Many people seem to have vague recollections of events within their lives but are unable to formulate any clear memories for these. For myself, most of my memories seem to be as like looking down from an aeroplane, a layer of clouds below, with many mountain peaks emerging through the clouds, and these memories (the peaks) are quite clear with little ambiguity concerning them. That is, either I remember an event or I don’t, and rarely do I misremember, although I do realise that I may be mistaken some of the time. The evidence does appear to be that we continuously refine and alter our memories over time such that few can be described as being exactly reflective of any particular event. For me, most of the solid memories have always been there, but, along with many others no doubt, I certainly have witnessed different versions - with at least two experiences, one involving another person when we were climbing in the Alps. I think my version is correct on that occasion (on a section near the summit we were roped - he thinks not), since I have good reasons to believe so - I can distinctly remember a thought I had at the time (my actions to take if he slipped, which would have been pointless had we not been roped). My memory was definitely wrong on the other occasion however, but that was just misremembering the name of an actor in a film - I had replaced the face of one with that of the other in my memory however, which is important to note. The rest of my life, the low-lying hills and plains shrouded in cloud, is less clear, but since much of it was quite mundane, that is to be expected. I wouldn’t place much money whilst betting on the below the clouds events, but I would when betting on any peaks having a solid existence. I think I have certainty over some memories because they were physical events and often being quite traumatic too.

Being bitten by a dog about age six, fracturing my knee at age eight, a head injury at about this age, and being lost at the seaside aged about two to three would probably be seen as being quite traumatic, as would many other events still quite vivid in my memory. The larger part of my life when younger, not being that bad, is not so distinct, and one might see why this might be - no real reason to remember such things.

Apart from the different versions of the Alps memory mentioned above, another memory seemingly quite different came from one of our sailing holidays. This happened on the first one, and like two others, had very little to mark it out as exceptional - apart from it being very enjoyable. The two more memorable ones involved bad weather, and breakages in the case of one. Perhaps our memories differ - my friend seeing more danger than there actually was - might come from his lack of experience, and the rather tipsy nature of small yachts (this one was only 23 feet). But we were never in any danger, unlike on the other two occasions, where concern was evident in all of us, and rightfully so given the conditions. In the one disputed, we never had any wind greater than force six, whilst it was force eight or greater in the other two. No wonder we often have different memories of events when they might have different meanings for us.

[GALLERY=media, 8654]24D63D6200000578-0-image-a-26_1421671382280 by Mock Turtle posted Aug 31, 2018 at 11:54 AM[/GALLERY]

 

[Mock Turtle]

Earliest memories?

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-09-memory.html ... What is your first memory – and did it ever really happen?

Mine was around age two to three (as mentioned elsewhere too), and I know it happened as it has always been with me. Nothing from before that age though. I was lost at the seaside, and can remember being carried by a policeman (in uniform) so I obviously knew what one was. I was put in some kind of children's home and knelt on a chair looking out of the window hoping to see my mother whilst I balled my eyes out. Other children were playing on the floor with something .. I wasn't interested. I thought that I had been abandoned but apparently I just got lost on the beach, like many kids. I have several photographs of me probably before age two or three but I can't remember any events associated with these images, including meeting my (wicked) grandmother - who left her husband, leaving many of her children behind to be abused by him (including my mother). The fact that I can't remember events associated with the photographs says to me that I probably have no (firm) memories before age two at all - and not even fuzzy ones either. The clothes I was wearing in any image mean nothing to me.

The above is one reason why I have some issues with recovered memories, although I will grant that we are all different and some will repress those memories that are too painful, only for them to reappear later in life and perhaps during therapy. But I have never searched for any repressed memories either. I have enough painful ones that I definitely know happened.

 

[Mock Turtle]

General Apathy and Colonel Lethargy have seemingly crept up on me (and aided by some injuries) such that I might not be so active for a while.