You could say Bob is back on everything – including a roll!

Yep, at 78 bob is still rolling out a new catalogue of hits.

After the shock release three weeks ago of Murder Most Foul, the enigmatic rock hero of two centuries has just dropped I Contain Multitudes on a world in lock-down.

And it is another ruminative beautiful gravely clock-ticking mixture of hip memories, a trip through Americana and a sad love song.

He rumbles … Today, tomorrow and yesterday too

The floors are dying

Like all things do

And he refers to a quaint element of his live performances and his obsession with painting … I fuss with my hair

And I fight blood feuds

I contain multitudes

https://leighgbankspreservationsociety.blog/603-2/

He also recognises David Bowie and Edgar Allan Poe … Got a tell-tale heart

like Mr Poe

Got skeletons in the wall

of people you know

Here is the full lyric as far as we know:

I CONTAIN MULTITUDES

Today, tomorrow, and yesterday, too
The flowers are dyin’ like all things do
Follow me close, I’m going to Balian Bali
I’ll lose my mind if you don’t come with me
I fuss with my hair, and I fight blood feuds
I contain multitudes

Got a tell-tale heart, like Mr. Poe
Got skeletons in the walls of people you know
I’ll drink to the truth and the things we said
I’ll drink to the man that shares your bed
I paint landscapes, and I paint nudes
I contain multitudes

Red Cadillac and a black moustache
Rings on my fingers that sparkle and flash
Tell me, what’s next? What shall we do?
Half my soul, baby, belongs to you
I relic and I frolic with all the young dudes
I contain multitudes

I’m just like Anne Frank, like Indiana Jones
And them British bad boys, The Rolling Stones
I go right to the edge, I go right to the end
I go right where all things lost are made good again
I sing the songs of experience like William Blake
I have no apologies to make
Everything’s flowing all at the same time
I live on the boulevard of crime
I drive fast cars, and I eat fast foods
I contain multitudes
Pink petal-pushers, red blue jeans
All the pretty maids, and all the old queens
All the old queens from all my past lives
I carry four pistols and two large knives
I’m a man of contradictions, I’m a man of many moods
I contain multitudes

You greedy old wolf, I’ll show you my heart
But not all of it, only the hateful part
I’ll sell you down the river, I’ll put a price on your head
What more can I tell you? I sleep with life and death in the same bed
Get lost, madame, get up off my knee
Keep your mouth away from me
I’ll keep the path open, the path in my mind
I’ll see to it that there’s no love left behind
I’ll play Beethoven’s sonatas, and Chopin’s preludes
I contain multitudes

TAGS: Bob, Dylan, Poe, Rolling Stones, Black, Mick, new, single,

When Peter Alexander, from NBC, asked President Trump about the psychological toll of the covid-19 crisis, Trump shot him down with: “I say that you’re a terrible reporter, that’s what I say. I think it’s a very nasty question, and I think it’s a very bad signal that you’re putting out to the American people.”

In fact, as far as I’m concerned, it was a nasty response from the world’s most terrible President.

Everyone knows isolation is causing anxiety to go spiralling like a scream across a world which has been forced to slam the breaks on.

This car crash is eerily apocalyptic—and, except for Trump apparently – very scary.

World data last year showed that more than twenty per cent of households are single-person occupancy.

And psychologists say that most people miss the ‘given’ to see others, talk with them, hug them, or spend time with friends. Life just seems shallower now. Empty even.

Science shows that anxiety and isolation take a physical toll on the brain. They increase vulnerability to disease among people who might otherwise not get sick.

In 2015, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a neuroscientist and psychologist at Brigham Young University, found that social isolation led to an increased death rate of twenty-nine per cent.

Well, President Trump I think Peter Alexander, asked you a good question and it gave you an opportunity to come across as a human being, not an arrogant unfeeling fool. But of course you didn’t take it.

How do you sleep at night?

Drinking too is a problem caused by isolation … personally, I’ve always drunk a lot of alcohol and, according to my doctors, far too much for my well-being.

I like to joke I have had a 40 year hangover but I have to admit that it’s actually very very close to the truth.

But I like drinking and I’m just used to it. After all I was brought up in the roughest part of Machester with a pub on every corner and a drunk in every gutter, my father was a rough tough builder and so were all his mates.

And I went into one of the hardest drinking professions of them all … the isolated world of the writer.

Along the way I have been lucky enough to be employed, amongst other things, as a music journalist and, apart from free concert tickets etc, one of the bonuses is that people send me their music. And so do big record companies.

Well, a few years ago a record company – I think it was EMI – sent me a remastering of John Lennon’s frantic Isolation.

Yesterday, another day high above the town of Poprad in Slovakia, in our loft apartment, looking down on empty streets, closed shops and cafes and a rusting railway line, I was searching through my old collection of ‘freebies’.

And there is was … Isolation. A howl of emotion.

President Trump this one is for you.

“Isolation”

People say we got it made.
Don’t they know we’re so afraid?
Isolation.

We’re afraid to be alone,
everybody got to have a home.
Isolation.

Just a boy and a little girl,
trying to change the whole wide world.
Isolation.

The world is just a little town,
everybody trying to put us down.
Isolation.

I don’t expect you to understand,
after you’ve caused so much pain.
But then again, you’re not to blame.
You’re just a human, a victim of the insane.

We’re afraid of everyone,
Afraid of the sun.
Isolation

The sun will never disappear,
but the world may not have many years.
Isolation.

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth …

Andrew John Teague, founder of D.A.D.s (Dads Against Double Standards) and NAAP, has thanked us for supporting the world-wide battle to make parental alienation a crime.

He says: “A big massive thank you to Leigh and Andrea for their continuing support – they have written so many stories about parental alienation. They have been unbelievable in what they have done for us, our children, parents and families.”

Leigh G Banks, who runs the preservation society, a news and views service set up to help people facing a crisis in their lives, said: “We really are here to help keep parental alienation in the public eye… and as a fellow victim of PA it was a natural progression for the site to become involved in the fight.

One man’s story: https://leighgbankspreservationsociety.blog/heartbreak-dad-tells-of-letters-his-alienated-daughter-refused-to-read/

“Parental alienation is one of the most disgusting things an angry parent can do. They deliberately turn a child against the other parent and often make them hate …

“The lies that are told are shameful, the coercion, the abuse deliberately employed to hurt the other parent is shameful. It is as bad as domestic abuse except in cases of PA, it is the heart and soul of another human being the aggressor is battering. And as you can read in our pages, this ‘crime’ leads to people killing themselves.

“Suicide rates are frighteningly high. But it’s not only angry parents causing this problem, social workers, CAFCASS and family courts allow themselves to become weapons of the alienators.

“And yet the courts keep telling us how well they are doing, how compassionate they are, how understanding.

“But they ignore the fact that the real victim in parental alienation is the child… yes the child of the alienator is their real victim. These parents are destroying their own child’s security, future and happiness.

“We at the preservation society will continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Andrew and the tens of thousands of people across the world who stand up to fight the shame of parental alienation.”

Go here and scroll down to find more stories about PA – plenty of other stuff too – over the weeks we will be publishing more and more about alienated parents and grandparents AND OUR CHILDREN …

https://leighgbankspreservationsociety.blog/

#Parentalalienation #children #mums #dads #grandparents #family #aliens #world #unite #don’tbeavictim

The British Council has been attacked for what is describes as its ‘appalling lack of support’ as earnings for English language examiners’ crash to almost zero.

Hundred of the council’s markers have been brought to their financial knees after student numbers collapsed due to COVID-19.

The tests are used for visas to enter the UK, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, to study, to work or emigrate.

Now the GMB union has told the British Council to implement the Chancellor’s job retention scheme to get money to examiners.

This followed a warning from bosses at the council telling examiners there was hardly any work at all ….

Charles Harrity, GMB senior organiser, said: “The council has shown an appalling lack of support for their examiners. The situation has now reached crisis point for many examiners as over the last month they saw their earnings fall off.  

“There are now hundreds of British Council workers facing an uncertain future with no income and no way to pay the bills. The council needs to begin utilising the Chancellor’s Job Retention Scheme immediately to ensure that the wages lost by their workers are recovered.  

“With the current crisis set to continue, they need to begin consultations with GMB on how to begin furloughing staff to mitigate any further hardship.” 

One examiner told the preservation society: “For me, during the first week of April, my take home pay was in the tens of pounds. On a normal week, that could be around £1000 for some people. The work had just dried up.

• 

“We are paid per script. £1.84 for each one, and it should have increased to £1.88 at the beginning of the tax year, but it hasn’t.

“We heard the amount of marking would be small. Many of us were ready to start marking in the morning – but nothing.

“We’re on contracts – but through an agency. The contracts last for two years, but they always state they do not have to offer us work.”

The British Council specialises in international cultural and education. It works in more 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language; encouraging cultural, scientific, technological and educational co-operation with the United Kingdom.

One examiner told us: “It is incredibly hard and very unnecessarily stressful work. We are constantly monitored.”

And the test can be tough on applicants too … it costs them about £170-£200 to take the test in the UK terms. But some candidates take the test more than 15 times

The British Council is governed by a Royal Charter. It is also a public corporation and an executive nondepartmental public body (NDPB), sponsored by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Its headquarters are near Trafalgar Square

It’s chief executive, Sir Ciarán Devane, said: “We are all affected in some way by this pandemic.

“And this pandemic is challenging the British Council’s sustainability. Our operations are underpinned by the surplus from our revenue-generating activities. Pausing this work through so many countries places an extraordinary financial strain on us. We are working to reduce that stress and expect to make clear decisions in the weeks ahead.

“We recognise these tough decisions will affect teachers, pupils, university lecturers, international students, business people, artists, creatives and entrepreneurs. The impact is significant for all of us.”
A few years ago the British Council was fined £500,000 for breaking government pay rules over salaries for its new chief executive and chief finance officer.

The council said that because of an administrative oversight, it failed to seek approval from the Treasury to pay Sir Ciarán Devane more than the prime minister’s £142,500. Sir Ciarán was on a salary of £185,000 and received pension benefits worth £17,000 in 2014-15.

Asked why the chief executive is paid 30 per cent more than the prime minister, the council said the salary was comparable with other chief executive jobs in international organisations.

The council is believed to have an annual budget of £792m, including income of £490m from fees for English language teaching and assessment. It received £162m from the government.

In one of his regular letter to his fans, Nick Cave has written that he finds Dylan’s 17 minutes epic Murder Most Foul to be ‘extremely moving’.

He writes, ‘Murder Most Foul is a perplexing but beautiful song and, like many people, I have been extremely moved by it.

At the heart of this seventeen-minute epic is a terrible event, the assassination of JFK — a dark vortex that threatens to pull everything into it, just as it did in the USA back in 1963.

Whirling around the incident Dylan weaves a litany of loved things — music mostly — that reach into the darkness, in deliverance. As the song unfolds he throws down lifeline after lifeline, insistent and mantra-like, and we are lifted, at least momentarily, free of the event.

Dylan’s relentless cascade of song references points to our potential as human beings to create beautiful things, even in the face of our own capacity for malevolence. ‘Murder Most Foul’ reminds us that all is not lost, as the song itself becomes a lifeline thrown into our current predicament.

The instrumentation is formless and fluid and very beautiful. Lyrically it has all the perverse daring and playfulness of many of Dylan’s great songs, but beyond that there is something within his voice that feels extraordinarily comforting, especially at this moment.

It is as though it has travelled a great distance, through stretches of time, full of an earned integrity and stature that soothes in the way of a lullaby, a chant, or a prayer.

As for whether this is the last time we will hear a new Bob Dylan song. I certainly hope not.

But perhaps there is some wisdom in treating all songs, or for that matter, all experiences, with a certain care and reverence, as if encountering these things for the last time.

I say this not just in the light of the novel coronavirus, rather that it is an eloquent way to lead one’s life and to appreciate the here and now, by savouring it as if it were for the last time.

To have a drink with a friend as if it were the last time, to eat with your family as it were the last time, to read to your child as if it were the last time, or indeed, to sit in the kitchen listening to a new Bob Dylan song as if it were the last time.

It permeates all that we do with greater meaning, placing us within the present, our uncertain future, temporarily arrested.’

Spain chose a public holiday in many of its regions to allow millions of people out of lockdown and return to work in a move which gave hope to many afraid of catching coronavirus or facing financial ruin.

But are these two suffering countries just tilting at their metaphorical health windmillls?

Many say simply that they are making a mistake as Russia, for instance, reports thousands of new infections, a record daily rise that brings the total number of infections to almost 20,000.

It also comes as a professor at the University of Hong Kong has warned that if countries try to go back to work too early, they risk a second major wave of infections.

“I think having timelines is going to be very challenging. No country is going to want to open up too early, and then be the first major country to have a big second wave,” Ben Cowling told CNBC.

Two journalists in lockdown share their thoughts https://leighgbankspreservationsociety.blog/strains-boats-and-planes-rodney-and-leigh-talk-about-the-on-going-virus-crisis/

This is because, even if they overcome their first wave, they will be susceptible to infections imported from other countries which are still into their first round of infections, or even going through a second wave, which could be starting now in China, Cowling said.

The U.K. looks set to extend its lockdown measures into early or perhaps even late May, just as other European coronavirus hotspots start to lift some restrictions on businesses.

But Italy is coming out of its worst days, with experts saying that they have followed a “trustworthy” trends in the past few weeks.

Businesses are beginning to reopen there too although the country’s lockdown will remain, at least in principle, until May 3 and beyond.

The ‘public holiday’ return to work in Spain is for non-essential workers such as factory and construction personnel and police were handing out millions of masks at Spanish metro stations, although the wider coronavirus lockdown remains in force. 

Those returning include metalworkers, builders, cleaners, factory and shipyard workers and people involved in sanitation and security. 

But Spain and Italy aren’t the only European countries taking tentative steps towards normality – Austria is allowing some small shops and you can soon drive through the country if you promise not to stop. Hardware and garden stores to open while Denmark is opening schools.

Some measures have already been relaxed in the Czech Republic, where essential travel out of the country is allowed now and hardware stores and bicycle shops are re-opening.

Despite the tentative good news the UK government is still being criticized for a shortage of personal protective equipment on the front lines and an inadequate level of nationwide testing.

However,  Prime Minister Boris Johnson, just released from hospital, praised the National Health Service for “saving” his life.  

As the country’s death toll passed 10,000, one of the government’s scientific advisers, Jeremy Farrar, told the BBC that the UK was likely to be “one of the worst, if not the worst-affected country in Europe.”

President Donald Trump, however, is jumping on the positive bandwagon and has pledged to resuscitate the US economy next month. But big-city mayors, state governors and even some of the administration’s own experts are urging caution, wary that a premature loosening of restrictions could spark a second wave of the virus.

Tags: Coronavirus, Spain, Italy, Czech, Slovakia, UK, work, lockdown, lifted, fears

Less than two weeks after Ukraine’s Chernivtsi region was placed on a full coronavirus lockdown forest fires in the nearby Chernobyl exclusion zones may have led to an increase in radiation levels.

The fires have caused fears in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, 60 miles south of the restricted areas.

However, Ukrainian officials have asked for calm and firefighters are said to have managed to put out two forest blazes which began apparently after someone started a grass fire.

More than 100 firefighters backed by planes and helicopters have been sent to fight the remaining blazes.

A video with a Geiger counter showing radiation at 16 times above normal has been released on social media and an official statement says fire had spread to about 100 hectares of forest.

An official had said on Saturday that increased radiation in some areas had led to “difficulties” in fighting the fire.

The country’s emergency ministry put out a warning for Kyiv about poor air quality but said it was related to meteorological conditions, and not to the fire.

A few days earlier, on April 3, with five quarantine checkpoints set up near police stations at the in Chernivtsi region officials said this: “The checkpoints will start working at noon on April 3. From that moment, any passenger vehicle will be blocked.”

The double blow has chilled Ukraines who were directly in line for the Chernobyl nuclear fall-out which terrified Ukraine, Belarus and West Russia, with some areas contaminated indefinitely.

The World Nuclear Association said: “Most of the released material was deposited close by as dust and debris, but the lighter material was carried by wind over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and to some extent over Scandinavia and Europe.”

Police have arrested a suspect, a 27-year-old man from the area who reportedly told police he had set grass and rubbish on fire in three places “for fun”.

Chernobyl polluted a large area of Europe when its fourth reactor exploded in April 1986, with the region immediately around the power plant the worst affected. People are not allowed to live within 30km of the power station.

The three other reactors at Chernobyl continued to generate electricity until the power station finally closed in 2000. A giant protective dome was put in place over the fourth reactor in 2016.

The world has been brought to its knees by a brainless. spiky ball of genetic material coated in fat and chemicals . It is only 80 billionths of a metre in diameter.

Yep, this is the invisible assassin the human race has come to fear…

But don’t forget Coronaviruses have been causing problems for us for decades – strains are known to cause common colds and two types have caused outbreaks of deadly illnesses: severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers).

Now the world has almost stopped, planes are grounded, city streets are abandoned and we have watched more than 100,000 people die … yes, this is the stuff that dystopian films are made of.

But this isn’t a film, this is real life. And death.

Here journalist and broadcaster Leigh G Banks – locked down in Slovakia – and AirTV International boss Rodney Hearth – stranded in Portugal – take a gritty and sometimes witty look at fake news and lies.

And THE TRUTH of what is going on in our world of sickness.

Sorry about the quality of the film, but internet availability is depleted in mountains of Slovakia where Leigh is trapped.

Andrew John Teague, founder of D.A.D.s (Dads Against Double Standards) and NAAP, has thanked us for supporting the world-wide battle to make parental alienation a crime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-DhlrMqKNk

In a recent Facebook video circulated to thousands, he says: “A big massive thank you to Leigh and Andrea for their continuing support – they have written so many stories about parental alienation. They have been unbelievable in what they have done for us, our children, parents and families.”

Leigh G Banks, who runs the preservation society, a news and views service set up to help people facing a crisis in their lives, said: “We really are here to help keep parental alienation in the public eye… and as a fellow victim of PA it was a natural progression for the site to become involved in the fight.

One man’s story: https://leighgbankspreservationsociety.blog/heartbreak-dad-tells-of-letters-his-alienated-daughter-refused-to-read/

“Parental alienation is one of the most disgusting things an angry parent can do. They deliberately turn a child against the other parent and often make them hate …

“The lies that are told are shameful, the coercion, the abuse deliberately employed to hurt the other parent is shameful. It is as bad as domestic abuse except in cases of PA, it is the heart and soul of another human being the aggressor is battering. And as you can read in our pages, this ‘crime’ leads to people killing themselves.

“Suicide rates are frighteningly high. But it’s not only angry parents causing this problem, social workers, CAFCASS and family courts allow themselves to become weapons of the alienators.

“And yet the courts keep telling us how well they are doing, how compassionate they are, how understanding.

“But they ignore the fact that the real victim in parental alienation is the child… yes the child of the alienator is their real victim. These parents are destroying their own child’s security, future and happiness.

“We at the preservation society will continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Andrew and the tens of thousands of people across the world who stand up to fight the shame of parental alienation.”

Go here and scroll down to find more stories about PA – plenty of other stuff too – over the weeks we will be publishing more and more about alienated parents and grandparents AND OUR CHILDREN …

https://leighgbankspreservationsociety.blog/

Parental alienation, children, mums, dads, grandparents, family, aliens, world, unite ,don’t be a victim

Dylan sings “you can always come back, but you can’t comeback all the way…”

Well he has comeback all the way – right to the top of the Billboard charts with Murder Most Foul.

The 17 minute single has hit the world like a postcard from Dystopia.

Listen to Murder Most Foul and watch Bob Mori’s amazing visual interpretation here – https://leighgbankspreservationsociety.blog/603-2/

Yes, Dylan has sold tens of millions of albums, written more than 500 songs which have been recorded by in excess of 2,000 artists – he’s even won  Nobel Prize for Literature. Yet chart-topping success as far as singles go has eluded him.

He has been left behind by song and dance men and women like Michael Jackson whose biggest solo hit on the Billboard chart was his 1982 hit, ‘Billie Jean’.

And  Madonna currently holds the record for the most number-one songs in the 43-year history of the chart.

Dylan’s first album was released in March 1962 to mixed reviews. His singing confounded many critics. By comparison, Dylan’s second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, in May 1963, sounded a clarion call to youth.

When The Beatles crashed into America in 1964 with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” at No. 1, Dylan was still a folk singer who hadn’t had a mainstream hit. That changed the following year, with “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” with a backing band.

Shortly afterward (June ’65), The Byrds’ cover of Dylan’s Mr. Tambourine Man hit No. 1 in America. At that point Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone nearly topped the charts but the Beatles’ Help! kept him at No. 2.

Positively 4th Street went to No. 7 and Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 almost topped the charts.

This time, the only thing standing between Dylan’s Rainy Day Women and No. 1 was The Mamas and The Papas’ Monday, Monday. But Dylan had the second No. 2 of his career, Lay Lady Lay in 1969, peaking at No. 7 in September.

But that’s not to say he has never been at number one, he has – with his albums!

He released multiple albums that topped the Billboard 200 chart. His first success came in 1974 with Planet Waves, then the classic Blood on the Tracks,. In 1976, Dylan made it three years in a row at No. 1 with Desire.

Though he continued releasing successful albums in the following decades Dylan didn’t have another No. 1 until 2006’s Modern Times. Three years later, he did again with Together Through Life.

So, why did Murder Most Foul take him to the top when songs including Like a Rolling Stone, Lay Lady Lay and Subterranean Homesick Blues couldn’t?

Well, first it hit the world like a grand tome of history mapping how America metamorphosed into political darkness, beginning with organized violence — then it chops through the jungles of Vietnam, screws the exploitation of inner cities, the contamination of skies and rivers, eulogises Gerry and the Pacemakers and Wolfman Jack amongst so many others, and hangs the whole 17 minutes of mournful creativity on JFK’s bloody journey to hospital and ultimately oblivion.

And Murder Most Foul according to Dylan,  takes the stance that JFK’s dispatch was an execution by the still invisible men.

But more than anything, it is simply a timely trip into dystopia as the world begins falling to its knees from a simple, dead and brainless bug.

Listen to Murder Most Foul and watch Bob Mori’s amazing visual interpretation here –

https://leighgbankspreservationsociety.blog/603-2/

TAGS: Dylan, JFK, dystopia, murder, foul, Billboard, Kennedy, charts, No 1