Big Eyed Beans from Venus – the Magic Band

This is a live track from the Magic Band back in 2014 in London.

It was wonderful to see the Magic Band performing. Captain Beefheart was my favourite Band and after Don Vliet (Captain Beefheart) retired and then went and died on me I was thinking I would never hear that brilliant music again (apart from on the wonderful albums of course) but I was wrong. The Magic Band, under the direction of John French (Drumbo) were superb.

Here’s the original Magic Band from around 1980 with the inimitable Captain on vocals.

See what you think.

Here’s a few photos I took of the Magic Band.

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Featured Track – North Mississippi Allstars – Shimmy

I like my music raw and stirring. I discovered this band a few years back featuring the dynamic Cody Brothers. They produce a brand of blues boogie that is straight out of the North Mississippi Hill County Blues of RL Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. They are excellent musicians and great to see live.

Here’s a few photos I took with them and Ian Siegal at Burton Agnes Festival.

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See what you think.

Pete Smith – Cartoons of Genius – Solutions shared problems solved.

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This was a quick sketch of a much more intricate cartoon. I’ll try and dig out all those full drawings later today.

The idea of this is very simple. We all have this questions, worries and fears locked up in our heads. They bedevil us. We also have solutions to conundrums except the solutions we have don’t solve our own problems. They might solve somebody else’s though. Only by coming together and helping each other can we make a better world and help each other come to terms with the things that worry them.

Operation Yew-tree – celebrity sex offences – Justice.

As the Cliff Richard fiasco continues it seems a good time to put this back out. Jimmy Saville now has a lot more victims to his name – except this time they are now victims of a sexual predator but victim celebrities wrongfully accused of sexual crimes. Peoples’ lives are being wrecked. They should have complete anonymity at least! And the CFPS should not proceed unless there are substantial grounds. Hanging a person’s name out there in order to see if anyone else comes forward is a grotesque infringement of their rights. Innocent people are being broken. The pendulum has swung much too far with every name added to this list. It is unjust.

Pete Smith – Cartoons of Genius – The god of Time

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There is never enough time in the world to sit and appreciate what a beautiful world we live in and what an amazing universe we are part of.

The clock is our god. We worship it and it rules our lives.

Opher Goodwin Author – Featured book – Sorting the Future – A Sci-fi milestone.

Featured Book – Sorting the Future – the Blurb

IMG_6536Sorting the future

This tells the story of how Opher Goodwin was selected by aliens to save the world.
The visitors from afar had scoured the universe in search of life and intelligence. They found it on a planet called Earth, where, unfortunately, the dominant life form was trying it’s best to wipe itself – and everything else – out.
The aliens set about selecting a saviour and installing him as Global President. They chose the unlikely hero Opher Goodwin.
Opher and his friends from the pub had all of the immense problems of the world on their shoulders plus the vicious opposition of the existing establishment. Against such odds – could they possibly succeed? What was it that made Opher the chosen one?

If you would like to purchase one of my books you can do so on Amazon.

In the UK this is my Author’s page:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1464165818&sr=1-2-ent

If you are interested in purchasing Sorting the Future you can buy it here:

In the UK –

Kindle Edition
£0.00
Subscribers read for £0.00 £2.05 to buy

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sorting-Future-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1533082669?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc

In the USA –

This is my Authors page:

http://www.amazon.com/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1464166033&sr=1-2-ent

If you are interested in purchasing Sorting the Future –

Kindle
$2.99
Read with Our Free App

https://www.amazon.com/Sorting-Future-Opher-Goodwin-ebook/dp/B01F666MYA?ie=UTF8&qid=1464166116&ref_=la_B00MSHUX6Y_1_29&refinements=p_82%3AB00MSHUX6Y&s=books&sr=1-29

Thank you for supporting Opher Goodwin.

Opher Goodwin Author – Featured book – Danny’s Story

Featured Book – Danny’s Story – The Blurb

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This is Danny’s story and how he stumbled upon a place to live and friendships that saved his life. This is the story of a house that became a home. It is the story of an assortment of desperate people who were all lost and some became found. It is a real story of how people who are worthless and have no respect for themselves came to form a community. It is a story that tells us that there is a reason for everything; that chance works in strange ways and that often salvation appears out of the strangest circumstance. This is the story of Danny Champion.

This book took fifty years in the making.

NOW AVAILABLE!!   Only £2.06 to buy!

My new novel – Danny’s Story – is now available in the Amazon stores on Kindle!

Kindle Edition
£0.00
Subscribers read for £0.00 £2.06 to buy                         

The link in the UK:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dannys-Story-Opher-Goodwin-ebook/dp/B01G98Q4LK/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1464463711&sr=1-2&keywords=opher+Danny%27s

The link in the USA:

Kindle
$2.99
Read with Our Free App                                                                           

https://www.amazon.com/Dannys-Story-Opher-Goodwin-ebook/dp/B01G98Q4LK?ie=UTF8&keywords=opher%20goodwin&qid=1464464540&ref_=sr_1_3&s=books&sr=1-3

For the princely sum of just  –

Paperback
£6.86
1 New from £6.86                                  You could own the new Opher Goodwin classic.

Here’s the links:

In the UK –

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dannys-Story-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1533487219/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1464464961&sr=1-1&keywords=Opher+Danny%27s

In the USA –

Paperback
$9.98
4 New from $9.08                                       

http://www.amazon.com/Dannys-Story-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1533487219/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1464464540&sr=1-1&keywords=opher+goodwin

Pete Smith – Genius Cartoons – The world is wondrous when we allow it to be.

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Pete and I both had this feeling that children see the world in all its splendour but as we grow up that gets knocked out of us; they get told how to view things, what to appreciate and what is good and what is bad.

Bad education makes a chore out of looking at things that should be wondrous.

We should encourage people to be able to look at something beautiful and see its beauty magnified in our minds. That is education – understanding and celebrating the wonders of the universe.

Thank you to all those buying my books and the kind words!

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Thank yo so much for buying my books. And thank you for all the kind words coming this way. I’m glad you are enjoying them and finding them so thought-provoking.

I am a bit of a unique voice.

But please take the trouble to put your reviews in at Amazon. That’s where it counts. Unless I get reviews nobody buys the books. It’s a catch 22.

If you do want to read a review, give a review or purchase a book – try here: –

In the UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=opher+goodwin

In the USA – https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=opher+goodwin

Seemingly nobody reviews books in the USA (apart from one dork who reviewed In Search of Captain Beefheart but hated Rock Music!) so be the first and make my day!

Pete Smith – Genius cartoons – bursting the childhood bubble

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The things we do to our children. The lies we tell. We furnish them with dragons, tooth fairies and Santa Claus. We foist religion on them.

Then we ridicule them for believing things or enjoy ripping their world to bits. We take away the tooth fairy, Santa Claus and dragons and ridicule them for daydreaming.

A shame we didn’t take away the religion too!

Perhaps we should let that childhood imagination blossom?

Pete summed it up in his cartoons from 1971.