https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/conflict-review-how-wars-are-fought-and-won-e52d7a8d?st=32j0zuquu325162&reflink=article_email_share

Alongside Luke Machin and Dan Nelson, the second Cyan album will be released on Nov 17th 2023.  Video for “Broken Man” out now!

Keyboardist and composer Rob Reed, known for his work with Magenta, Kompendium and Sanctuary solo albums, has once again joined forced with Peter Jones, along with Luke Machin and Dan Nelson for a new Cyan album titled Pictures From The Other Side. The second album from the resurrected project is due out on the 17th of November 2023. The new album contains 6 songs, including the epic 17-minute track ‘Nosferatu’. The CD is accompanied by a DVD with a full 5.1 surround mix of the album and a live acoustic performance of songs from the previous album For King And County.    Watch the video for the album’s opening track “Broken Man” here: https://youtu.be/ndR-KT3i6Kc?si=tefp9XicW_0w3qKg    Pre-order Pictures From The Other Side here: https://tigermothhosting.co.uk/CYANCD2023/

Cyan was originally formed by Robert Reed (Magenta) when in school, back in 1983. After recording some demos at a local studio, the band went their separate ways. Years later, those demos led to the release of ‘For King And Country’ on the Dutch SI music label. It was the first of three Cyan albums released in the 1990s before the project was shelved and Rob went on to form Magenta.20 years later Rob Reed, along with a killer line-up, decided to brush off the cobwebs and successfully release a completely re-worked version of the ‘For King And Country’ album.  Cyan has since performed at the 2023 Night Of The Prog festival in Germany, and at the 2022 Summers End and Fusion festivals in the UK.   Rob Reed: “I remember that the first Cyan album ‘For King And Country’ was written when I was still in school with a band I formed with some school friends. After I left school, we went our separate ways and it was several years later that I was approached by the record company. After the success of the first album, they wanted a follow-up so I wrote new material for what became ‘Pictures From The Other Side.’ It was more song-based, but included a couple of long epics.    Obviously, I was influenced by the classic Prog of Genesis and Yes when writing this originally, but I was also listening to a lot of other bands of the time like It Bites, Simple Minds and Marillion. It’s been great to finally hear this material played by this line-up, it’s a completely different album. Re-written, re-recorded and re-arranged. Hopefully, I’ve brought to the album, everything I’ve learned in my career.   Pete Jones: “It’s a joy to be involved in the ongoing resurrection of the Cyan canon and the vision Rob has for these new interpretations. As a vocalist, there’s so much to work with on the new album, with epics like “Broken Man,” which really let me dig deep into my inner Genesis prog vocals. The title track has some great hooks, as does the rest of the album. Tracks like the dark but beautiful “Solitary Angel,” and the vampire world of “Nosferatu,” really call for some vocal gymnastics where I can stretch myself and really go for it. Then there’s “Follow The Flow,” which is just gorgeous. As with all Rob’s stuff, it’s the feeling and emotions which are key to the whole thing. I hope I’ve managed to do my bit with the vocals. We’ve now got a few gigs under our belt, including the recent fabulous time we all had at Night Of The Prog in Loreley. That was a real highlight of the year for me. The live band is sounding really great, with Luke, Dan, Jiffy and the man himself Rob Reed all at the top of their game. As well as doing the vocals, I play sax and whistles, and rhythm guitar which Rob asked me to do in a moment of madness. Ha-ha. All being well, we’ve got some rather special shows in the pipeline for next year. So I’m looking forward to the album coming out, and taking it to the stage!”

CD tracklisting: 1- Broken Man 2- Pictures From The Other Side 3- Solitary Angel 4- Follow The Flow 5- Tomorrow’s Here Today 6- Nosferatu  DVD consists of: Full album in Dolby Digital and dts 5.1 surround Promo videos The Quiet Room session (live acoustic performance) 1- I Defy The Sun 2- Don’t Turn Away 3- Call Me 4- Man Amongst Men/The Sorceror 5- Snowbound 6- For King And Country Pre-order ‘Pictures From The Other Side’ here: https://tigermothhosting.co.uk/CYANCD2023/

Cyan is:Robert Reed (Magenta / Kompendium / Sanctuary / Chimpan A) Peter Jones (Tiger Moth Tales / Camel / Francis Dunnery’s It Bites) Dan Nelson (Godsticks / Magenta) Luke Machin (Maschine / The Tangent / Karnataka / Francis Dunnery’s It Bites)

Magenta/CYAN/TigerMothTales Website https://www.tigermothshop.co.uk/

A large pro-Palestine rally in Paris today attracted thousands even though the government said the gatherings were banned amid a surge in antisemitic attacks. The protesters vandalized historic French monuments. pic.twitter.com/TvbsuxNZDV

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) October 12, 2023

By David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts

Oct. 12, 2023 1:00 pm ET

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israels-challenge-in-responding-to-a-brutal-surprise-attack-6432d2c0?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1

“The U.S. may now be less interested in Islamist extremists than in China and Russia, but that does not mean the Islamist extremists have lost interest in us. Their lust for blood is undiminished. As soon as they have an opening, they will strike. “

ABSOLUTELY TRUE. THIS IS TRULY THE LONG WAR and the CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS.   
Putin will die, sooner or later, and become a footnote in history.  Russia will recede into the sick man of Europe that it is.
But HAMAS hopes to become MARYTRS for the ages -and who knows they might be.   Like a poisonous weed, it will be difficult to extirpate them entirely.   
 Remember the enemy is within -PALESTINIANS have emigrated all over the world.
All we can hope to do is cull the herd periodically IMHO.
But I would place my money on the Jews -they are smart, brave, rich, and united. They have many many friends and admirers. 
ISRAEL HAS ENDURED AND WILL ENDURE.
 So many Empires oppressed the Jews and they are all in the trash bin of history now.
WHY?   
Because MONEY and POWER are not enough and because WISDOM is superior to terror and GOOD WILL TRIUMPH OVER EVIL.   
HAMAS IS EVIL.
PRAISE THE LORD and pass the ammunition. 
We are going to need plenty of both if we (Western Civilization) are going to survive this century.    If we are wise we will have plenty of both.   
JUSTICE WITH COURAGE as a Jew taught me IS WORTH TEN THOUSAND MEN.
great article.  INFORMATIVE, SOBER and WISE!  

RICHARD K. MUNRO Oct 12 2023

(MATTHEW ARNOLD)

“Others abide our question. Thou art free.

We ask and ask—Thou smilest and art still,

Out-topping knowledge. For the loftiest hill,

Who to the stars uncrowns his majesty,

Planting his steadfast footsteps in the sea,

Making the heaven of heavens his dwelling-place,

Spares but the cloudy border of his base

To the foil’d searching of mortality;

And thou, who didst the stars and sunbeams know,

Self-school’d, self-scann’d, self-honour’d, self-secure,

Didst tread on earth unguess’d at.—Better so!

All pains the immortal spirit must endure,

All weakness which impairs, all griefs which bow,

Find their sole speech in that victorious brow.”

Shakespeare, Matthew Arnold

By Richard K. Munro

TRUE FRIENDS NEVER PART ALL TOGETHER

We try to stay connected with friends. You hear an old friend with whom you have fallen out of close contact is seriously ill. You write to him and give him your phone numbers and email and tell him to call or write any time. You offer up a prayer for him and his family. But the rest is silence. Only God knows the reason.

Of course, it is sad to realize I cannot connect with some good friends except via prayer because they are dead.

No more contact is possible this side of paradise.

Classmates I knew in school are dead.

Some died in their 20’s, in their 30’s , in their 40’s some in their 50’s.

My next-door neighbor -a close acquaintance of 20 years but I considered him a friend. He was a really nice guy. He was only 62 younger than I. We are going to his funeral next week.

Three of my really close friends were killed in car accidents by drunk drivers. Two of them were killed within walking distance of my house. I don’t even like to drive that way anymore because that corner has bad associations.

Yes, who can know? Perhaps that person who doesn’t communicate is depressed or embarrassed or just doesn’t care. SCIRE NEFAS ..it is forbidden to know all. Not all can be known.

It is sad of course to be rejected by people but relationships are a two- way street.

Corresponding is difficult but picking up the phone is easy but it is also intimate. Some people don’t want to open up or give answers. So all you can do is be prepared to accept their phone call IF they call. I know someone I cannot call any longer because it is painful. The last four or five times I called that person just BANG hung up on me. So I will never call again. That was almost ten years ago.

All one can do is do the right and humane thing. Then offer up a prayer for our friend of yesteryear.

Many of the men I knew in school and in the Marines are gone -dead.

In 1976 a Sea Knight Helicopter crashed in Quantico and 23 Marines were killed. I didn’t see the crash but I saw the bird take off. The weather was turning bad so our Company Commander said -people grumbled- we would walk back to camp over 20 miles. We arrived when it was almost dark dirty and hungry. But that’s when we found out that one of the previous birds went down.

When on liberty on the USS Trenton there was a collusion and dozens of Marines were killed. I could have been on either one of those trips.

But when the door is closed, when the mail doesn’t arrive, when the phone doesn’t ring when the email box is empty all one can do is pray.

Some people are friends when it is convenient or useful or when they’re coworkers.

Some people are just ships passing in the night. Some signal and some go quietly by.

If one has a single true friend or a single loved one for any period of time one should be grateful. I think I have been luckier than most though less fortunate perhaps than many others.

But I am not jealous.

I am just grateful for the love and close relationships I have known.

And I am thankful for the great classics -the Bible, Shakespeare, Dante, Horace, Cervantes. In my retirement I have plenty of sun, plenty of quiet, baseball on the radio, plenty of music and plenty of books. I have enough money to be generous to our grandchildren -we are blessed to have them- and visit them from time to time. I don’t have the resources or the stamina to travel all over the world but I am very grateful that from 1961-2005 in particular I had the chance to visit many states and provinces and many countries in South America, the Caribbean ,and Western Europe. Next week I will have a chance to visit -again-Washington DC a city which I have visited dozens of times. I spent a year at the University of Virginia so I have seen most of the principal sights. But mostly I will enjoy seeing friends and remembering friends and loved ones. As Thomas Moore sang in the Meeting of the Waters.

Yet it was not that nature had shed o’er the scene
Her purest of crystal and brightest of green;
‘Twas not her soft magic of streamlet or hill,
Oh! no, — it was something more exquisite still.

‘Twas that friends, the beloved of my bosom, were near,
Who made every dear scene of enchantment more dear,
And who felt how the best charms of nature improve,
When we see them reflected from looks that we love.

Many years ago at the old 1407 Club Club in New York City (now long gone) my father and I met the tenor James McCracken. He had just released an album of Scottish and Irish songs -The Meeting of the Waters. He had finished his dinner and generously offered that we finish our coffee with him. My father, in particular, knew his work very well and had seen him perform at the Metropolitan Opera. But we talked about why he made his Scottish-Irish album and he said he had listened to McCormack, Frank Paterson and Kenneth McKellar his entire life and he loved the traditional and popular songs. He said it was important, he believed to cross over from classical to popular music. It was a nice moment. He loved being with genuine fans of his music We loved spending some time with him. From then on when I hear this song I remember my father and James McCracken. But also Thomas Moore and the sentiment of his poem.

My father had been a fine athlete in Scotland (winning a medal for best goalie in the city of Glasgow for his level youth team). But in America, he working at several jobs -almost full-time year-round – from his 12th birthday. So he had no time for sports. He turned ALL of his money to his mother and she would give him 25 cents for the subway and a Saturday movie

My father played on a legendary and ill-starred Football (soccer) team called the St. Anthony Ants of 1924-1925-1926-1927 when they were the champions every year or close to it.

The Ants first ground was a public park situated beyond the southern end of Hamilton Street (now Nethan Street) in Govan (South Glasgow.. It was a humble grass soccer field. It was unenclosed -cold and wet in the winter and had no pavilion, so the players had to change in the League of the Cross Hall in Hamilton Street.

Father Collins (parish priest of St. Anthony’s)and Bishop Donald Macintosh were both avid supporters of the team and helped the boys get shoes and equipment. Both men had studied at the Scots College (then at Valladolid, Spain and in Rome). Both were avid linguists and could speak Italian and Spanish as well as Gaelic, Scots and English. My father loved both men and they were friends of Uncle Johnny Dorian (his fourth-grade teacher and later headmaster of St. Anthony’s.). My father called him Uncle Johnny but he was really my grandmother’s sister’s son so my father’s cousin.

Father Collins married his parents, baptized my father on March 17, 1915, was at his first communion. Father Collins had a very strong influence on my father and his mother, brother and sister visited the Dorian household often and Father Collins and Bishop Macintosh were frequent visitors. My father, his family, and Johnny Dorian and his daughters and the Bishop would listen to recordings of Caruso and John McCormack, chiefly Italian opera but also English, Irish, and Scottish songs. Father Collins and Bishop Macintosh later became close friends with Father Sidney MacEwan, also of Govan and later a successful recording artist. When McCormack died MacEwan was by his side and sang to him the Highland song ISLAND MOON.

I believe my father’s love of languages and classical music, particularly opera began with those Sunday dinners in the 1920s. The legendary great years of the ill-starred ANTS:

Scottish Junior League Victory Cup Winners 1918/19, 1921/22
Glasgow Junior Cup Winners 1918/19, 1921/22,
Elder Cottage Hospital Charity Cup Winners 1923/24,
Scottish Junior Cup Runners-Up 1918/19, 1924/25

Why such a tragic team?

Because so many of their fathers had been killed in WWI and many of my father’s teammates were later killed themselves in WWII many at Dunkirk with the 51st Highland Division, North Africa, and Normandy.

Some died in Nazi slave labor camps. One of the few times I saw my father weep in public was when we went to the Scottish National War Memorial in Edinburgh in 1967. There was THOMAS CRAIG (Cameronians/Scottish Rifles) 4 Dec 1942 (North Africa) KILLED IN ACTION. His teammate and very best friend.

PATRICK QUIGLEY KILLED 10 October 1943 (HLI -Highland Light Infantry -his teammate and cousin)

Many of his Quigley kin had been killed in the Argylls or HLI in the First World War. There was also his “Uncle Johnny” (or American Johnny) Robertson his father’s best friend who had returned to Scotland in 1938 to retire. He was killed in the Glasgow Blitz -6 May 1941. I still have books that belonged to Robertson that he gave my father in 1938, Shaw, Kipling, and Burns. My father as he saw name upon name began to cry uncontrollably. I was frightened.

But I always remember the Scottish people there were very kind and sat with my father and talked to him and comforted him. My father said, “If I hadn’t come to America in 1927 my name would be in the books next to theirs. It was rifles against tanks and they didn’t have much chance. They were always in the front lines in the thick of the fight.” It left a strong impression on me and when we had teas and Empire biscuits afterward he spoke Johnny Robertson and his friends and kinsmen. Immigration had been good for my father but also had caused him personal suffering, pain ,and loneliness. My father always wanted to be an American but knew he was partially a permanent exile. In 1967 my father pointed out the Boer War memorial that that been bomb damaged on 6 May 1941 in Kelvin Grove Park. When I am Glasgow I always go back to visit that spot if only for a few moments. REMEMBRANCE.

When my father graduated from high school, his grandfather, Jos Munro, his mother, his sister Johnny and his father and his cousin Jimmy Quigley were there. My grandfather gave my father five coins (coins I still have)One is a British Penny (1881) given to my grandfather when he went to sea when he was eight years old. It was all the money he had and his mother said, “Never spend it unless your life depends upon it. Naebody can every say Tommie Munro is penniless. ” He did not see his mother or family for eight years but he held on to the penny virtually his only possession.

Three of the coins were American silver dollars dating from the 1890s and 1920s. These were actual dollars his father and grandfather had earned as a worker in America. The last was very special; it was an English 1918 silver half-crown that my grandmother had sent my grandfather and he kept in his left tunic pocket in his missal. She gave him one for 1914, then another for 1915, then another for 1916, then another for 1917, and the last he had his pocket for Armistice Day 1918. When he returned to Scotland in May 1919 he turned it over to her and it was one of her prized possessions until her untimely death on March 7, 1942. She never saw the Allied victory nor her sons come home from the war. My father gave the missal and the coins to me after my mother died in 2001 and told me the story.

Ne obliviscaris -do not forget.

Mary Munro, the Missal and two of the coins.

SONNET 30

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unus’d to flow,
For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,
And weep afresh love’s long since cancell’d woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish’d sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restor’d and sorrows end.

by RICHARD K. MUNRO

(SEPT 26, 2016)

So today was Vin Scully’s last game ever at Dodger stadium and there was a thrilling extra-inning game won by a clutch homer by Charlie Culberson. I wish my father and Auld Pop could have been here to enjoy it with us!

My cousin Helen Munro (born 1943) was discussing how she lived to keep score at home with Auld Pop and listening to Red Barber and then Vin Scully. She went many times to Ebbett’s Field as did my parents but I went only once (in utero in August 1955 (see my mother’s ticket below!)

My grandfather came to love baseball with his friend “American” Johnny Robertson and they saw many big league games and Texas league games together in the 1920’s and 1930’s. I know also they played shinty while with the Argylls in Greece and on at least one occasion played baseball with Canadians and Americans (while wearing kilts!!!).

Auld Pop, it is said had quite a wallop. So I know he played the game in America probably pre 1910 and certainly in the 1920’s when he was in his early 30’s.

I know his favorite player was Zack Wheat and Wheat played for the Dodgers in the 1910’s and 1920′. Auld Pop’s favorite players were Wheat, Duke Snider (he passed on an autograph) , Jackie Robinson, Johnny Podres and Gil Hodges. He saw the Yankees play many times (he always rooted against them). He saw Bob Feller no-hit the Yankees and Joe Dimaggio in 1946 and some years ago my son and I met Bob Feller in Bakersfield and had a nice talk with him (he signed our books and memorabilia for no charge)

So Auld Pop saw many great moments at Ebbets field and even lived long enough to see them on color TV in 1959 and in April 1962 at Dodger stadium. So my father and Auld Pop saw (and met in person at the ballpark and in Brooklyn many Dodger players many future Hall-of-Famers).

But Auld Pop could only go to so many games; he followed the Dodgers on the radio day to day with Red Barber (up to 1953) and later Vin Scully and by reading the Daily News and Red Smith in the Herald Tribune.

But Vin Scully played a very important part of Auld Pop’s life.

One curiosity that my cousin told me about this past week is that Auld Pop would NEVER go to July 4th games or celebrations. He would stay home by himself and listen to Scully and Barber on the radio. he would retreat to my father’s cellar den which he called his dugout or bunker. It was soundproofed. He would sip on beer and Four Roses whiskey and smoke. He just couldn’t stand to hear fireworks or the noises of firecrackers and cherry bombs. My cousin Helene Munro -Auld Pop called her Buntie- said the noise made him very anxious and sometimes even give him uncontrollable tremors. She remembered seeing him on the edge of his bed, shaking and she would (she was just a girl at the time) say she would stay home with him and she ladled whiskey into him and held his hand until he calmed down or fell asleep. But listening to baseball was calming to him and he taught Helene and my father the basics of the game and how to keep score.

He used to read to me Red Smith articles just as much as comic books or the Bible and he used to show me the intricacies of the box score. One of my favorite books was the classic MY GREATEST DAY BASEBALL.

I was thrilled that Auld Pop had seen so many greats players. Both my father and Auld Pop read the book to me. It was a gift from him for Christmas , 1959. After he died I cherished that book like I cherished his collection of Scottish records.

Life was tough on Auld Pop. He suffered the loss of many friends and loved ones and was lonely at the end of his life -he was the last surviving member of his squad, his company and his Regiment. He suffered the loss of the Dodgers when they left Brooklyn. But he always had baseball in the newspapers and on the radio.

Even on the 4th of July when he huddled alone or with my cousin in “the dugout” or “Jaja’s Bunker.” On those days, listening to Vin Scully, my cousin said Auld Pop would not drink to excess and even laugh and joke and tell stories. My cousin Buntie (little Button) and I were very close to Auld Pop as some of you know. As a little boy, I had no idea how his entire life had been an odyssey of survival and a veritable journey of the cross. Later I learned more. He went to the Western Front in January 1915 and at 2nd Ypres suffered 36 continuous days of vicious combat , ambushes and bombardment. For a few days he was missing in action in No Man’s Land doomed to death or a fate as German POW. But the Leal n’ True men and the Dins -led by American Johnny Robertson came to his rescue. So he survived.

And thanks to them my father, my cousin, my mother my sisters and I could enjoy so many great moments with Auld Pop. And some of the best were at the ballpark, with the newspaper and with Vin Scully and the other announcers on the radio (at later TV but in those days there were few games on TV).

Baseball was a very soothing hobby and pastime for Auld Pop and the sweetest cream was the dulcet voice , good humor and conviviality of Vin Scully whom my grandfather would see sometimes at a distance in Mass on Sundays in Brooklyn.

Vin always went to Mass with his mother and father and I think my Auld Pop told my cousin they would go Saturday night or Sunday morning. My Auld Pop -so my cousin told me- very much appreciated Vin’s salute to veterans on Memorial Day etc. And on the 4th of July when Auld Pop dare not leave the house there was Vin Scully “It’s time for Dodger baseball!

and

“Hi, everybody, and a very pleasant good (afternoon/evening) to you, wherever you may be.”

Next Auld Pop and Johnny Robertson, Vin Scully was the most beloved “legendary” heroes. He was the Bard of Brooklyn, and Irish Minstrel. He was the voice of the Dodgers and the voice of Baseball. Vin Scully was truly the Babe Ruth of sports broadcasting. Thanks for so many great memories as the announcer of so many games and six World Series.

Ne obliviscaris. Do not forget. You meant so much to veterans and disabled people who weak in limb and endurance could not go out as freely as they might have wished. You were their best friend and better than any whiskey or doctor or pill.

I close with some great Scully moments: It’s a mere moment in a man’s life between the All-Star Game and an old timer’s game.

During the 1980 Major League Baseball All-Star Game held at Dodger Stadium

It’s a passing of a great American tradition. It is sad. I really and truly feel that. It will leave a vast window, to use a Washington word, where people will not get Major League Baseball and I think that’s a tragedy.

(At the end of the last NBC Game of the Week, October 9, 1989).

Ah, yes, baseball is an acquired taste and it has to be taught and savored.

***

Scully: A little roller up along first; behind the bag! It gets through Buckner! Here comes Knight and the Mets win it!

Famous call from Game 6 of the 1986 World Series

***

(Roberto) Clemente could field the ball in New York and throw out a guy in Pennsylvania.

I saw Clemente play many times; hyperbole but almost the truth! Of course, he would have to be playing on the border!

***

And to me his most legendary call.

I heard this recording at the Hall of Fame with my father. My cousin (living in LA at the time and keeping score) heard it live.

This is from the radio transcript of 1965. This is Vintage Vin:

” It is 9:46 p.m.

Two and two to Harvey Kuenn, one strike away. Sandy into his windup, here’s the pitch:

Swung on and missed, a perfect game!

(Crowd cheering for 38 seconds)

On the scoreboard in right field it is 9:46 p.m. in the City of the Angels, Los Angeles, California. And a crowd of twenty-nine thousand one-hundred thirty nine just sitting in to see the only pitcher in baseball history to hurl four no-hit, no-run games. He has done it four straight years, and now he caps it: On his fourth no-hitter he made it a perfect game. And Sandy Koufax, whose name will always remind you of strikeouts, did it with a flourish. He struck out the last six consecutive batters. So when he wrote his name in capital letters in the record books, that “K” stands out even more than the O-U-F-A-X.”

Word-for-word transcription of Scully’s call of the ninth inning of Sandy Koufax’s perfect game on September 9, 1965.

***

There is only one word for Vin Scully: INVINCIBLE. Thanks for 67 years of companionship and laughs and much simple happiness and joy. We will miss you, Vin Scully and we will never forget you.

You will remain an American and a Dodger and a Baseball legend.

Ave et vale. Hail and farewell.

Or as they say in the Irish “slan leat gu brath!”