Wednesday 9th January 2013

On Monday afternoon, Mark Radcliffe said on his radio show on BBC 6music, that the one thing he wished for this year was hearing something new from David Bowie. Oh yes, the Thin White Duke, wonder what he is doing now, we pondered and then moved on to thinking about something else.

I got up Tuesday morning, and over breakfast powered up the laptop only to find the twitterverse going bonkers. January 8th is Bowie’s birthday, and with no warning he has recorded a new song. Which is going to be the new single. And there is a video for the single. Which you can watch now. And the single is taken from the new album. Which is out in March.

I clicked on the link, and there is the video and watched it through. Typical Bowie, cut up lyric, odd video. All about Berlin. I’m looking forward to hearing his song about Grimsby though.

Anyway, the major news outlets were told at seven, and they went crazy; even Radio 4 played the song. They got Robert Peston to talk about it. Because we want to know what he has to say about the record. In fact Today was still banging on about it this morning.

Although it was clearly a major event (in music), it wasn’t earth-shattering, it isn’t going to make us all feel richer or cure cancer. And in truth, rather than being one step ahead of the crowd, it seems a step back; produced by Tony Visconti, it seems to be more a Low era recording than Earthling. However, it is a new Bowie song; he is alive, looking well if older, which applies to just about everyone, even Cher.

Elsewhere, it has been much the same as ever. I did manage to get to work yesterday with the wrong set of key, so not able to get into my desk to work. *Sigh* So, I drove home, got the right bunch and drove back. The second trip into the office was fine, just with lots more traffic.

I am getting back into the fitness thing, two nights already this week on the cross trainer, and I think I feel my back getting better. Although, Scully does not seem to appreciate having her main snooze of the day interrupted by me singing along as I pump lard. I just have to make sure I keep it up now.

The BBC held the first of two specials on starwatching last night, and in the great tradition of such things it was wet and cloudy the whole two hours; looking down, Sir Patrick would have smiled as this affected him on more than one occasion.

The Coalition government is just over halfway through its 5 years, and after declaring that everything was ‘OK’ in a joint press conference, Dave and Nick sounding more like a couple about to go to relate. On Tuesday, a vote was taken in keeping benefit payments down to a 1% rise over the next three years, this meaning those claiming will be suffering a cut in real terms. This comes after tory after tory chastised strivers over skivers, saying that those in work should not have smaller increases than those who are not. Turns out that just 3% of the benefit budget is spent on the unemployed, and fraudulent claims account for just 0.3% of all claims, yet the war on the old, sick, disabled and out of work goes on and on. And sadly the LibDems look on, mute, with just a rebellion by two MPs who voted against. I guess it must look good in the Editorials in the Torygraph or the Hate Mail.