Category Archives: Classical Music

The Spectre

I’m starting to think in more detail about what I’m going to do for Death Awareness Week this year.

Man, I have *got* to fix my post-1981 Disney blind spot
Everyone’s at it, you know.

I was originally turned on to Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief‘s work when Mrs Stroke Bloke and I attended a Death Café back in 2013.

[Pass the minutes before death below. And if you’re still waiting,
check out the apoplexy newsletter.
]

Continue reading The Spectre

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Cairnpapple Hill

Tiny Letter readers will know that Mrs Stroke Bloke and I visited Cairnpapple Hill in central Scotland last weekend. It was an enlightening trip, in light of last week’s post on ’80s movies. Like Withnail and Marwood, we came across a bull in a field. And turning to an obvious omission pointed out by Atletico Marcelo in the comments, Cairnpapple was the site of a little henge.

Beneath the haunted moon/For fear that daybreak might come too soon
Where the little children danced, no doubt.

Continue reading Cairnpapple Hill

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Democracy

Sometimes, it feels like the blog is being hounded by an abstract concept.

Gravity: not just a good idea – it’s the law!

The land, maybe. Or mythical creatures. Or The Onion‘s conception of Joe Biden. Right now, though, it’s something else. Maybe you can guess what?

[Get more whimsy and free gin* at the Apoplexy Tiny Letter.]

Continue reading Democracy

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Killer Lines

As followers of the apoplectic.me Tiny Letter will be aware, the University of Edinburgh’s Creative Writers had their second reading night of the year just over a week ago. I co-hosted with my co-host, the handsome and talented Mr Jacques Tsiantar.

For this event, we only had three minutes for each of our individual slots. That’s about 600 words, which isn’t a lot. But fortunately, the first 600 or so words of my stroke-y memoir of extreme survival stop at a real doozie of a line.

‘And the Scotsman says to the Englishman, “My left arm feels funny!”‘

Continue reading Killer Lines

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The Prof Pulls Back the Curtain

Hi, everyone. The Prof is back to pull back the curtain on genius once again. Here he is on the soundtrack for Illicit Ink‘s Apollo 21 at the Edinburgh International Science Festival – but being too modest to mention his star turn as Ground Control….

Hey Friends,
New music news! We have a chunk of somewhat more modern stuff from Nerd Bait!

Continue reading The Prof Pulls Back the Curtain

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The Bonfire

So. I’ve got an admission to make….

This stroke survivor is in a band.

Oi! You’ve spelled “ROMANTIC PASTORAL STROKE” wrong!!

I think Nerd Bait was first described on here as a “Six-Legged Collaborative Creative Collective”, and that is about the size of it. But that appellation was also a reflexively defensive way not to say “band”.

Yes, we’re an odd kind of modern, transatlantic, virtual iteration of a band, but that’s no excuse. The Dave Matthews Band is a pile of shit, and they’ve got “Band” IN THEIR NAME.

[Scroll down for the new Nerd Bait track, The Bonfire — apoplectic.me gives it FIVE STARS!!!] Continue reading The Bonfire

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Something Fishy

I mentioned once that I had let slip to Longsufferinggirlfriendoftheblogbeth that “I didn’t solely come back from [stroke-y] death because I had to see her one more time. I wanted to see her one more time, and tell her that everything was going to be OK.”

And that that was a a lie, solely to the extent I didn’t think I was going to survive.

I read something last week that, had I known it at the time, would have meant I could have delivered the message with a clear conscience. Continue reading Something Fishy

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Battle Prom

Our host, the partner of ein Autobahnkind, throws the Mercedes people-carrier into bends that lead us to Highgate. Looking out the windows, I want to tweet to every Scot who ever said, “I can’t be doing with London,” and fill 140 characters with wide arboretums and bilingual Eurostar stations and urban parklands and Japanese supermarkets and treetop walks.

The Kew Gardens treetop walkway: it looks cool, but, y’know, Ewoks

[Sign up for apoplectic.me alerts and extra personal reflections here.]

Continue reading Battle Prom

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Bonus Post: Orchestral Manoeuvres

Hey, folks! This bonus post comes from nerdbaitband.com. I can’t tell you how proud I am to be associated with this piece of magic….

“So, all six legs of the collective were in the same room last week. And we thought, “Since we’re all together, why not get in a full orchestra to fill out the emotional finalé of The Treacherous Brain?”

The Professor wasn’t sure we could get the kettle drums past the couch, but when we moved the brass onto the deck, the acoustics worked out remarkably well.

Hear for yourselves:

Get your hankies out. I don’t think Ricky’s gonna get through this one….”

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