escalator over the hill

I had been very critical of a great many of the personal blogs I read.

As an inactive bystander I thought I should have a go as I felt I had much to share and learn. It’s easy to criticise from the sidelines, which I had previously done

It appeared to me many blogs are written for the sole purpose of enabling the writer to have their moment of fame which seems harmless enough. However to me they often appeared when written without theme to be pure Nihilism in other words trivia. It would be correct for you to say my view was arrogant and on reflection I agree I think it was. Though there are those that do indulge in pure me-ism.

The challenge I faced originally was very personal as I saw how one person was using the conduit for self aggrandisement …that’s okay but not when it was at the expense of others, including  me, their children,  siblings and work colleagues etc . I had found myself on the end of blogging that was as I read it clearly intended to denigrate me. They were letting fly with  their inner rage at life.

I let this get a tad in the way of what my main purpose was, however since they were so public in their tweets, blog, and as I’m aware certain conversations I will from time to time counter her nonsense. You see I to have an ego and  believe I am entitled to re discover my sense of worth.

My hope is that [an] escalator over the hill will be that of an “In-former” or perhaps even a “share former” I thought that many blogs were narcissistic and “Me-former”. After blogging for a few weeks I can see that my harsh cynicism perhaps clouded my view of all the fantastic contributions out there in the “great unwashed”  By its very nature I recognise now that I too ran the risk of writing “all about me”.

What I am trying to do in my blog is to tie anything I do write about the world, perhaps a daft recipe or write something that has happened in my life while putting it in to ‘a’ context of a wider event or issue.

I received some criticism about some of my writing.  This was made in particular to my references to some personal experiences I have had recently that  tied into comments I made in a couple of posts .  The critique was fair and balanced.

I want this to blog is to be informative without being heavy.  I intend to be provocative. There is no faint heart here and you notice I do not to write anonymously. So I will not hide within the safety of anonymity

Why [an] escalator over the hill?

Please bear with me as I share with you something taken from American Native Law.

Two people [you and me] are standing opposite sides of a hill It might be tall hill or it could be small it doesn’t matter. We can be of any origin looking skywards to see a cloud; the same cloud.  Though it is the same cloud we see because of where we stand we see it differently. Yet it is the same.

The lesson is we all have our view and we have our truth but because we can see something that is the same it doesn’t follow we will not see it differently.

[an] escalator over the hill is about a journey I have well-traveled and a one that continues on.

The picture of the escalator over the hill is metaphoric It has been created quite deliberately and passes through a dense over growth of an overhanging forest.

The hill can be an obstruction to seeing the other view and it maybe a ride one does not want to take. The density of the forest may stop us from seeing the light of other ideas. It is a tunnel. The escalator is intended to make the passage less challenging swifter and enjoyable

My hope is that [an] escalator over the hill will provide the ticket to quickly see another concept, another point of view and to be open to a richness of experience that may just lie over the other side.

I want [an] escalator over the hill to challenge and provoke thinking and I invite other views.

There is always more learning and unlearning to be done. There is much understanding and tolerance and compassion to be embraced if we are to indeed make the world a better place. I hope I am able to engage and not disengage and make my contribution to that better place.

At first [an] escalator over the hill will be essentially built around and about me and how I see the cloud at this time, in my time

Whether we aspire to alternative political thought or appreciate our music but not those of others, “like our stuff but not theirs” and believe we have all the answers we will find the tentacles of narcissism and self-importance slowly start to strangle all that can make this world a much better place.

I do not want write anything behind a veil of anonymity or anything that vilifies any individual unfairly or knowingly discredits because it is a lie without affording any person the opportunity of reply.

This last point is something that is very important to me and one I have suffered egregiously several times very recently.  Anything I write is open for critique. I challenge you to do so, but it wont be a faint-hearted debate. Be sure you know your ground.

The only caveat I have is that I will not allow any racial or gender vilification.

What I want is:

to share the music from my journey including the earliest times when I have my first recollection of my introduction to music on a 78 disk Davy Crockett which must have been in 1956.”phew” Now that is one  long time ago 🙂

To explore what music I like, what I don’t and why

I want to share contemporary thinking and reading

I want to give some political thought and some social commentary about those ills I see in our society and learn better of those I don’t even know of yet.

I am not an academic. I am just an ordinary working class bloke.  So  what I write will be tied to real life experiences and not hinged around some intellectual mumbo jumbo that no one really understands. I typically have in mind some economists, political leaders, sociologists and criminologists.

I will write [personally] about my stuff that I hope will make you smile from time to time. I will write about the things kept in my “happy box”

Happy Box you may ask?

For some years and inspired by the ABC program Collectors I embarked on a project to locate items from my childhood. Ebay has been fantastic for this I am when I have too much money obsessed 🙂 These are items  that brought me much happiness which includes books, boys annuals, comics, toy cars  a picture of my first and only dog, Bruin and much more. Memories of time spent in the National Childrens Home Harpenden (NCH).

The memorabilia including toys from the 50s and 60s. In this later part of the journey I am mindful of how it was  inspired by Terry Bedford  the recent Director of the BBC series Robin Hood for whom I often baby sat his daughter Katie.

I will write sometimes about my son, my passion for the World game (especially Millwall, Celtic and Scottish Football) Motorcycle racing, old toys I have been collecting, books I read, my CATS and “slow food 4 fast people”.

From time to time I will include Food and cooking which is something I have recently re discovered after almost 5 years of being discouraged from venturing near the stove. My simple approach to cooking was not encouraged in a household focused on appearances and “poshness” in food.

While I am no Jamie Oliver, Maggie Bear or Rick Stein (whom I am told I sound quite like) I have re discovered I am quite good at it; cooking that is :-).

I am inspired to write by my son a,“my” old lads [on Facebook] in the UK from the youth centre Riverside I ran in London over 30 years ago. One David Jeff’s is really driving me forward to write. Many of these boys now well and truly men had a very different taste in music to that of mine and have different political views.  They would be surprised at my diversity of  my music taste today. We shall see.

However at 16 I recall the influence of a boy a couple of years older at Eltham Green who introduced me to Tamla Motown, Marvin Gaye The Temptations and Smokey Robinson. As such he was probably the biggest single influence on my contemporary taste in music.

The time also collided with James Browns first tour of the UK. I was indeed very fortunate to be taken to see JB in Sydney in 2006 by a friend of the time.

Today I am blessed with a great collection Contemporary and of Classical music and for the latter I have to thank my Father, his Father and my dear sister. I have a great passion for motorcycles and this is something given to me again by my Father and brother.

Those who know me well will know of my keen interest in Motor Sport mainly in the 60s and  this I believe stems from my first Motor Racing book received for my 8^th birthday.

“an escalator over the hill” will be a vehicle to develop and maintain news contact with those children some of the “forgotten ones” who were brought up with me in the National Children’s Home Harpenden (NCH).

We are spread across the globe From New York to Australia. We range from lawyers to even one who went on to be the official historian of probably one of the worlds largest 1% Motorcycle clubs.

This experience gave me (gave us all) a sense of comradeship, community and perhaps equipped me with the resilience to handle the challenges of life’s experiences past and present.

Key to my life was  my house Mother Sister Eva Brooker who was a most lovely person and who’s picture (see about me) I have with me always and who sadly I was not able to find before her passing.

Having obtained my home records was an incredible part of my journey of discovery and though I was too late to find Sister Eva I thank David Hill for pointing me in the right direction to finding the first book end of my life.

It struck me Christmas 2010 after having been in a suppressive and culture-less personal environment for the past few years I discovered something new  while watching one of Eric Clapton’s Crossroads DVDs. It was the second disk of which had remained unseen since bought it new in 2007. Here I found a blues artist amongst many of the greats; a person I consider to be a most remarkable talent “Johnny Lang”

On seeing this musician and singer (wow what a voice and guitar) along with John Mayer I was bursting to tell my friends and anyone who cared to listen about [my] find. This singularly was the key driver, the “tipping point” that brought me to blog. After Years away I decided I should start up again in March 2022

In 2010 I learned of the death of my comrade friend and outstanding trombonist Paul Rutherford a Communist who had died a couple of years back. Paul had introduced me to ISKRA and the Mike Westbrook band exponents the Avant-garde in music or “New Jazz”.  The band recorded a 3 record box set of New Jazz. It was called Escalator over the Hill. I still have this set today…and it is what I chose to call me blog

From time to time in the annuls of this journal I will mention others who have inspired and continue to inspire me.  There will people from all walks of life include my Girls and boys  from the South East End, Riverside, Pepys Estate,

The NCH,

my Friends from Kings Cross Sydney including Johnny Lewis and Tony Mundine, my Coffee mates at Toby’s Cafe in Wooloomooloo and some of my great friends in Canberra including Mark, Carolyne and Eva who were a tremendous help in my crisis of  2010.

So this is a medium including Face book and twitter where I hope to share my narrative and simple “ladish” stuff with you.

About the picture again:  the escalator is a metaphor of a life opening with greater ease to new ideas that nestle just over the hill. The trees are representative of shadows cast that may keep our minds from light and in perpetual darkness.

Get on board.  I do hope you will enjoy “an escalator over the hill”

For you to readily recognize a post that might be of interest to you I am going to use a system of logos to represent various topics. Lets see how it works?

	politics
	in search of stupidity
	reading, books and poetry
	music
	food and cooking
	cars and motorcycles
	sport
	more sport – especially cricket
	things from my childhood, illustrated by my dog Bruin
	community and social comment
	my cats
	travel