The Turn of a Friendly Card

Some music today? Double Post!

Alan Parsons is a music engineer, which started to work at Abbey Road Studios when he was 18. He's also responsible of the making of "The Dark Side of the Moon", by Pink Floyd.


His band, The Alan Parsons Project, released many albums and had some hits, just like Eye in the Sky, this one, and one of my favourites:

Don't think sorry's easily said
Don't try turning tables instead
You've taken lots of Chances before
But I'm not gonna give anymore
Don't ask me
That's how it goes
Cause part of me knows what you're thinkin'

Don't say words you're gonna regret
Don't let the fire rush to your head
I've heard the accusation before
And I ain't gonna take any more
Believe me
The sun in your Eyes
Made some of the lies worth believing

I am the eye in the sky
Looking at you
I can read your mind
I am the maker of rules
Dealing with fools
I can cheat you blind
And I don't need to see any more
To know that
I can read your mind, I can read your mind

Don't leave false illusions behind
Don't Cry cause I ain't changing my mind
So find another fool like before
Cause I ain't gonna live anymore believing
Some of the lies while all of the Signs are deceiving

I am the eye in the sky
Looking at you
I can read your mind
I am the maker of rules
Dealing with fools
I can cheat you blind
And I don't need to see any more
To know that
I can read your mind, I can read your mind...




But, as this is a double post, I'll choose another Alan Parsons' song, my favourite in fact... For me, one of the best songs ever... Specially the ending, which is simply epic! It's The Turn of a Friendly Card, divided in two parts, and extracted from the namesake album, a thematic album about gambling. And so, this is the song! Be patient and listen to it until the end!

Part I

There are unsmiling faces and bright plastic chains
And a wheel in perpetual motion
And they follow the races and pay out the gains
With no show of an outward emotion

And they think it will make their lives easier
For God knows up till now it's been hard
But the game never ends when your whole world depends
On the turn of a friendly card
No the game never ends when your whole world depends
On the turn of a friendly card

There's a sign in the desert that lies to the west
Where you can't tell the night from the sunrise
And not all the king's horses and all the king's men
Have prevented the fall of the unwise

And they think it will make their lives easier
For God knows up till now it's been hard
But the game never ends when your whole world depends
On the turn of a friendly card
No the game never ends when your whole world depends
On the turn of a friendly card

But a pilgrim must follow in search of a shrine
As he enters inside the cathedral...



Part II

There are unsmiling faces in fetters and chains
On a wheel in perpetual motion
Who belong to all races and answer all names
With no show of an outward emotion

And they think it will make their lives easier
But the doorway before them is barred
And the game never ends when your whole world depends
On the turn of a friendly card
No the game never ends when your whole world depends
On the turn of a friendly card...



For me, simply Amazing!

Cold Snap

Hi! You may not know me, but I'm quite famous indeed! I'm more than 15.000 years old (much older than my Nemesis), but I became famous quite recently, I'd say! It was a slow journey... 50 years to separate from my ancestors, then 3 more years travelling more than 3.000 Km., to be just in the place I was destined to be... And that's a lot, bearing in mind that only 1% of my kind goes that far towards the South. How am I? Well... I'd say I'm quite special! Only 2 or 3 of my kind are produced every year! Some people said I was 30 m. tall and 120 m. wide... But I woulnd't believe people in shock, frankly! And, even though, they didn't see me! Of course, I was staring at them... But I was so invisible... No wonder they didn't...

But I did... And I remember clearly that night... 14th of April, 1912... So peaceful, so dark... So difficult to foresee... Those lights in the distance, like an entire city coming my way... Me, floating unrelenting towards our rendezvous. And then, in a blink, that creepy sound... Iron bending and twisting... almost screaming... water flowing... And suddenly, people screaming, bells, flares... panic! People immersing theirselves in the ocean, to not come up again, distant prayers... I guess I also heard the song "Nearer, my God to thee", but I'm not really sure... But, quite appropriate, isn't it? And then, lights disappeared, and only sound remained... It took some time, but the lightful city finally disappeared in the sea... and only the screams remaind, crying for help... But a lot of people didn't get help and died there, frozen... floating without course... just like me... But I don't feel bad about that... After all... I'm just an iceberg! Maybe this iceberg:

Or this one:


This is just another way of telling that, that 15th of April, 1912, the most famous ship of all times, the Titanic, sank after hitting an iceberg. 1.517 people died that night, only 706 survived... Nowadays, there's only one alive survivor of the Titanic, Millvina Dean, but she was only two months old at the time of the sinking, so I don't think she remembers nothing about it... But it's nice we do remember about it, don't you think?

Year of Wonders

Curious but real is the history of Eyam during the Plague, in 1666.

Eyam's an English village in Derbyshire, England (my beloved England), but it's also known as the "Plague village". Why?

The medieval Plague arrived to Europe from Constantinople through the Mediterranean Sea, and spread quickly accross the continent during the XIV Century. You, Catalans, suffered it specially that year 1348.


There are some curiosities about the Plague, also called Black Death because of the black-purple buboes of the diseased. In the beginning, medieval doctors thought the disease spread through the air (That's why some of them called it "The Great Pestilence", similar to the Spanish name), and so, one of the means they used to fight against it was burning some kind of scented herbs, to "clean" the air. They also used that typical masks you've surely seen in some medieval draws, to keep their noses far from the patients, dead or alive. Nowadays, we know that is caused by a bacterium called Yersinia Pestis, which spread by fleas thanks to other animals like the black rat.

And even if it wasn't a "new" disease, and was quite known before (it's believed that Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius died because of Plague in 180 A.D., in Vindobona -No, not strangled by his son Commodus), this was a horrible epidemic that killed almost the 50% of European population... in 4 years! And more than 75.000.000 in the 14th Century.

...But forgive me again! I start talking about something and then I end up with other subject! We were talking about Eyam!


So, long story short, the Plague reached Eyam in 1665, brought in a flea-infested bundle of cloth delivered to the taylor George Viccars, from London (you can see the entrance of his house in the previous picture)... who was the first to die, within a week. When people started to die, apparently without reason, they all turned -of course- to the priest of the town, looking for some answers. And so, the Reverend William Mompesson decided to take some precautions to slow the spread of the illness... One of them, for example, was to celebrate the church services outdoor, in a place called Cucklett Delf, to allow the assistants to separate themselves, reducing the risk of getting infected.


But, the most famous decission, and the one which made this town so popular was to self-isolate themselves to prevent the spreading of the Plague disease to other towns. And so, for 16 months, nobody entered or left Eyam. Families were forced to bury their own dead, and trades with other towns were made in a non-presential way, leaving money and the goods (food, medicines, etc.) in a place called nowadays "Mompesson's Well", where the water was believed to "clean" the coins from the disease... However, they also used vinegar.


When they finally decided to put an end to the quarantine, already in 1666, there were only 83 alive villagers, out of a population of 350. And so, not a pattern of infection could be established. For instance, Elizabeth Hancock never became ill, but she buried her 6 children and her husband in 8 days. Ah! The unofficial undertaker didn't die, either.

But why "Year of Wonders"? 2 reasons: The first, that's the name of an interesting historical novel about Eyam's case, written by Geraldine Brooks. The other, a poem written by the English poet John Dryden, in 1667... Because he believed that 1666 was really a year of wonders, "Annus Mirabilis"... Really? Plague... The Great Fire of London (with Capital Letters)... Wonders? Dryden chose to interpret the absence of greater disaster as miraculous intervention by God... That's a nice lesson for these times of crisis, don't you think?

However, it was really a "Year of Wonders" to Newton, who saw an apple falling from a tree, got inspired and formulated his theory of gravitation.