Roy Stannard's Blog

When you think you know it all, ask the next question

  • It’s January 2011 and the Atlantic rain is driving in on the unlimited causeway of my mind as I sit in one of the quieter moments of another new start, new year. As always at these times, I have the music. Read more

  • The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health: The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is on fire!. Crunchy numbers The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 14,000 times in 2010. If each… Read more

  • Waiting for stars to come into alignment, precursor angels to whisper in our ear and a sense of imminent goodness to happen. Sure, 2010 was a tough year and some aspirations have had to be put on a ventilator for a while – but day by day that infant we call hope will grow imperceptibly… Read more

  • Roy Stannard’s often requested Top Ten albums of 2010 – with the next ten thrown in for good measure. Read more

  • Our brains, like our homes, contain comfortable areas that we don’t like leaving – even when it’s bad for us. Somethimes it takes a fire to propel us towards the Skylight Question.. Read more

  • A poem on life and depth by Roy Stannard Read more

  • Faith in a Big Society

    We negotiate life hoping that the future will bear fruit. Without faith, family planning would be a family gamble. Without faith, we wouldn’t sacrifice for the future – the present would be a cynical, nihlistic pig’s trough of satiated appetites. Nothing to hold onto – or for. The opposite of faith is worthlessness, helplessness and… Read more

  • Songs for a Wedding

    Did Maria Callas expect to end up on a list of the greatest Wedding songs of all time? Probably not. However, here you will find Abba nuzzling next to opera, Callas lip-curling in royal fashion with the human sneer, Billy Idol – along with the Pelvis, Gloria Gaynor, Earth, Wind and Fire and the mighty… Read more

  • Never thought you would hear another track as good as Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’? At last, one has arrived. Lissie’s ‘In Sleep’ from her ‘Catching a Tiger’ album featured a coruscating yet agonisingly beautiful guitar run from Eric Sullivan. Listen and weep. A classic is born. Read more