1744 - The old guard of the new wave

Can I write this sonnet while listening to
Old hits from late seventies radio
Of a new wave variety, so you
Should maybe think Annie Nightingale, though
Also Janice Long, Kid Jensen, but no,
Not really John Peel. Think the Boomtown Rats
Think Ian Dury, the Motors, Devo
Think Squeeze, Joe Jackson, Adam and the Ants
Hong Kong Garden's on this CD though - that's
Good, and Do Anything You Wanna Do
Rock Lobster's playing now. Life In Tokyo
Is coming up. Germ-Free Adolescents
(R.I.P. Poly). But now, Video
Killed The Radio Star fades out of view

1743 - What the Baxter saw (and heard)

Round-up of films seen, DVDs, CDs
Bought or borrowed, and lying on my desk
A DVD watched lately - 'My Name Is
Joe'. Still got two from Coen Brothers box
Set to see. 'Batman Begins'... that quite rocks
As does 'Kill Bill 2'. Yesterday, saw 'War
Of the Worlds' and 'Edward Scissorhands'. Chops
Hair, then gets the chop himself. Listened for
The last few days to library CDs. Poor
Warren Zevon (now dead), Toots, 10cc's
Hits, Zombies and Argent. Steve Winwood knocks
Good stuff out still, with 'Nine Lives.' When I saw
Some music on Amazon I was pleased
With compilations, buying five, no less!

The first of the five compilation CDs has just arrived, and that alone is three CDs of 'new wave'!! Better get started with the listening, then!

1742 - Day of restlessness

Sunday, the day of rest, nearly, not quite
Got up, watched a political show, then
Wrote a new song which is called 'Hypnotised'
Then crossed the road to Sainsbury's in the rain
Like yesterday, resisted temptation
And only bought good things, saving money
Played library CD (Warren Zevon)
While curating recent photography
Okay, only mobile phone pix, Sony
Ericsson make though, not any old shite
Sent pix to Josie, now my virtual pen
Is typing this sonnet. Lunch hurriedly
Then I'll watch TV until nine tonight
When I'll rehearse my songs till after ten

1741 - Bashing Bashar

Syria's Bashar is just like Gaddafi
Another mad unelected tyrant
Except the difference between them is he
(Bashar) inherited his dominant
Position, while Libya's leader had planned
And carried out a military coup
In '69. Now Misrata's the front
Line in Libya, while Syrians protest to
The watching world. Cowardly governments who
Fire on unarmed people, the West can't be
Seen to support them, or it simply won't
Be winner of the war of hearts. And who
Deserves to win anyway? The greedy
Top dogs of the western business world pant

1740 - Old Fritz was here

In 1740 Frederick the Great
A man who was innately artistic
Became the ruler of the Prussian state
And schooled by his harsh father, used the stick
On Austria and Silesia, a quick
Grab of land, but after that, seeking quiet
Retired to Sanssouci in Potsdam, thick
With art and learning, where Old Fritz would write
Music and letters to Voltaire, decide
How to rule a just kingdom, or debate
The vexing question in enlightened ink
The Hohenzollerns went on to unite
Germany one day, their Brandenburg Gate
A once battered but now restored relic

1739 - A not so close shave

I never seem to find the time to shave
And as I try to work my neck's itching
An itchy neck is not the thing to have
When concentrating and not distracting
When focusing, not mentally drifting
When keeping to the point, not off the rails
When getting things done, not doing nothing
When steering a ship and avoiding whales
An itchy neck can increase your travails
An itchy neck's to lose rather than save
An itchy neck, or itchy anything
Makes most other slight irritations pale
Nevertheless, for now I must be brave
And try to concentrate on my working

1738 - Part of the union

A day of showers. Pearl's blue umbrella
Helped keep me dry once more, out at lunchtime
For a union meeting where each speaker
Spoke against the Con-Dem government's trying
To push back social gains that have been signed
Up to over sixty years. NHS,
State pensions, safe employment. Now we find
These all under threat, workers start to flex
Muscles, like before Thatcher's handbag vexed
The socially inclined. Enough of her -
But her U.S. model's not in decline
Or so it seems across the globe. The next
War could be on the domestic front, a
Mirror of the recent Arab springtime