Staying at – Lord Galloway Lodge 35, Conifer Lodges by Solid Luxury, Newton Stewart
We decided on a UK staycation in Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland to Celebrate my partner Simon’s Dad having a very special Birthday and turning 60! So we booked up a Lodge by Solid Luxury at their Conifer Lodges location just outside of Newton Stewart for a week away.
Location of Conifer Lodges, Newton Stewart
We…
William McLachlan - Scottish clockmaker - what ChatGPT taught me
Confronted with the prospect of finding little else about William McLachlan I was curious about how ChatGPT might help.
Read on and you will find the results quite interesting.
Scottish tall case clock assembled and sold by William McLachlan of Newton Stewart in or around 1848
First of all, what is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a sophisticated computer program that is designed to understand natural…
Famous The King of Pop Michael Jackson, “Dangerous” 1991. The metal fine wall art framed poster and canvas print in different sizes.
“Dangerous” track listing: Dangerous track listing, Jam, Why You Wanna Trip on Me, In the Closet, She Drives Me Wild, Remember the Time, Can't Let Her Get Away, Heal the World, Black or White, Who Is It, Give In to Me, Will You Be There, Keep the Faith, Gone Too Soon, Dangerous
Scottish tall case clock - who was Wm. McLachlan of Newton Stewart?
Since winning this tall-case clock at auction in the spring of 2020 I have been intrigued about its origin. The information provided at the time was that it was made in Scotland or England in or around the mid-1800s but it could not have been made after 1852 as I will explain later.
Its features suggest the mid-1800s although there is nothing on the clock that tells me anything about the exact…
I finally got through Liam Newton’s outstanding biography 10cc: The Worst Band In The World and I came to an epiphany last night. The book only validates the degree in which I admire this band. So, I wanted to tell a little story of how I got into this godforsaken band and why I’m so attached to them:
The beginning of July 2022 marked the beginning of what I like to call “the 10cc curse.” This curse would perpetuate for an entire month and it involved repeated plays of 10cc’s I’m Not In Love music video. Eric caught my eye from the very beginning but I didn’t think anything of it. The video would continue to play randomly everytime I picked a random 70s playlist on youtube and each time I tried to skip it, the video would find a way to play itself again. Insufferable. This strange event would continue until the end of July (and what I have officially deemed the week I fell for 10cc). So I went “alright that’s it. i wanna know more about this 10cc and you pretty fella with the silky smooth vocals.”
I read little by little about them each day and slowly but surely, I began to develop strong emotions for them, especially for Eric. It took me back to the day I fell in love with The Beatles just 10 or so years prior. I still admire The Beatles of course, but I’m glad I discovered 10cc. The feelings I have for 10cc are eerily parallel to how I’ve felt about The Beatles. It’s refreshing to say the least. After The Beatles, I never thought I’d fall for a another band in this degree and for a while, my world only revolved around The Beatles so it was difficult for me to fall for any other band. No distractions, you see.
I know I’ve only know about them for a short time, but it feels like I’ve known and loved them for an eternity. I think there was a reason why it took this long for me to discover them—this reason remains a mystery to me but I’m still grateful to have taken the leap of faith and becoming a highly devoted fan.
Liam Newton’s book tells a story of four wonderful and highly talented men. It not only tells a story of a band, but it also tells a story of a family and last night I came to an epiphany that that’s what 10cc is to me, a family. I feel at home everytime I listen them. A warm feeling that’s so intense I can hardly describe it.
But I have said this before and I will say it again, they were far from perfect. Yes they were immensely talented and self-sufficient as a group—this is what led to their success but also, and unfortunately, their demise. Liam rightfully quotes Jonathan King and Harvey Lisberg—10cc’s record producer and manager, two key players in the group’s success. The two express how the boys could’ve been a lot bigger, and even be put in the same ranks as Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, however, they were dignified “snobs” and had this black and white mentally where if they did anything wrong, then they immediately thought of themselves as failures and were not receptive to any constructive criticism. Huge mistake on their end.
Despite all of this, I love them. Deeply, immensely, unconditionally. In my eyes, they are THE greatest in band in the entire world. Yes I’m throwing The Beatles under the bus with this one, but this is the current state of affairs. Their imperfections, their arrogance, their stubbornness, the way that they were dignified Mancunian snobs—I love that about them just as I love all the good that I see in them. And what I see in them, i see four men with good hearts and bright minds. They were four simple men with a simple vision in life: have the best fucking time in the world making the wackiest sounds.
Three Yids and a Yok. Hotlegs. 10cc. I OCC. Those silly Jewish Mancunians. Oh how I love them dearly.
I really love the Leonard Cohen cover of Democracy that you have in Midnight Mass. Can you tell me more about the musicians singing it and your inspiration for that song to be in the show?
I heard a cover of the song by the Lumineers, and I would listen to it frequently while I was working on Bly Manor. I loved it thematically for Midnight Mass. Our version is performed on screen by Andy Grush, who is one of "The Newton Brothers" - he and his partner Taylor Stewart have composed the scores to everything I've made since Oculus.
Andy flew out to Vancouver to work as an actor and musician on Midnight Mass. I needed someone to play the organ at the church, and since the Newtons were composing our score anyway, it felt silly to have anybody else perform it on set. So for the first time in his life, Andy became an actor. He appears throughout the show, playing the organ at Saint Patrick's and headlining the band at the Crock Pot Luck. He also performed the covers of "Bartender" and "If You Could Read My Mind" for the show.