Luke James's Blog
RSS
May.19.2013
Except for the peerless blue of the sky the world is black and white. The sun blasts all color from the streets ricocheting it up off the blinding white of the walls to be swallowed by the greedy sky.
A small, silver-haired old man carrying a chair moves up the street. He has his arm around his...
Continue Reading »
May.03.2013
Evan Harrar studied with reclusive Flamenco guitar master Diego Del Gastor in the early 1970s in Morón de la Frontera, a Spanish town in Seville province, Andalusia. I studied some of the basic's of Diego’s style of playing with Evan.
He told me many stories about his 3 years in Spain. Some of them...
Continue Reading »
Apr.15.2013
I've started a new exercise regime. My phone app tracks calorie intake and exercise but I still have to pedal. For my 60th birthday my wife gave me a bicycle, custom built to fit my 6' 9" frame. My very first bicycle. Finally.
Bicycles are important to me because growing up in a Birmingham, UK slum...
Continue Reading »
Jan.31.2013
When I started playing guitar I seemed to be surrounded by other guitar players who thought the faster you played, the better guitar player you were. Alvin Lee from the 60’s band Ten Years After has a lot to answer for in this respect.
http://youtu.be/RToHfOqQo0g
The shred merchants who...
Continue Reading »
Jan.02.2013
You’re standing at the foot of a Protools interface cliff - there are fader switches rising and falling like elevators in one of those hotels where they put the cages on the outside of the wall. You can hear your track playing but the faders are moving by themselves. Who the hell is mixing this...
Continue Reading »
Dec.27.2012
We had a power outage last week and I brewed tea over a small wood fire in the backyard and then wrote a stiff letter to Pacific Gas and Electric by candlelight with a fountain pen complaining that if they were intent on destroying my children’s future home with their coal powered plants and...
Continue Reading »
1 comment
Dec.16.2012
I heard tell the five elements of a synopsis are: a (1) hero who finds himself stuck in a (2) situation from which he wants to free himself by achieving a (3) goal. However, there is a (4) villain who wants to stop him from this, and if he's successful, will cause the hero...
Continue Reading »
Oct.02.2012
I used to write a lot about my checkered past in the music business, interesting mainly to me, like most bores. I always loved football (soccer) as a boy and so rediscovering my love of the game at age 60 has revealed itself as a far healthier way to relate the past to something I'm passionate...
Continue Reading »
Sep.27.2012
Having gone to considerable lengths to get myself out of rags and into the Castle, the last thing I wanted to do, for any reason, was put the stinking things on again. As jester Shankshave’s apprentice I had three clean jerkins, two new tunics, a pair of Hunnish leggings, and even soft leather...
Continue Reading »
Jul.22.2012
Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Journalism, Department of English, East Tennessee State University (1997) Excerpted from my first published piece.
He spent one afternoon, at the age of fourteen, glued to the 1966 World Cup semi-final game between England and Portugal, Charlton .v. Eusebio, the Lion...
Continue Reading »
Jun.28.2012
For the three years I lived in San Francisco’s notorious Tenderloin district, my local bar was The Edinburgh Castle pub, a “Scottish” pub owned by a Korean family and managed by Glaswegian writer, Alan Black. The night I learned that Manchester United legend George Best had celebrated his 21st...
Continue Reading »
Jun.21.2012
I’m currently wearing a tree costume from Mel Gibson’s Macbeth, this is my disguise as edge my way towards the gates of the East Works of The Factory of The Soccer Gods. This is where the gods assemble the great players of the beautiful game, the superstars, the prodigies, and enigmas, as well as...
Continue Reading »
Jun.19.2012
I say "career" because obviously I'm not actually being paid (yet) But a new examination of something I've loved since I was a boy - the game of soccer - has me discovering just how deeply this game is woven into cultures across the world. The game has had, and continues to have via global...
Continue Reading »
Jun.11.2012
Got an assignment with San Francisco Chronicle as guest blogger to cover England's national soccer team in the Euro 2012 competition. Very excited about a new opportunity to write about something I love! Preview of first game is at The Beautiful Blog (link below) - tried to make it a...
Continue Reading »
Jun.08.2012
Here's a taste of my new novel Mud Hut Man.
There was an old man lived in a hut under the south wall. His name was Hester and he was really old, perhaps as old as sixty. It was rumored that he’d once lived inside the Castle walls. It was probably a load of old bollocks but I decided to go and...
Continue Reading »
About Luke
Luke James has been telling stories since he broke his first window.
A first generation punk rock survivor, he was born and raised in the projects of Birmingham, England.
He has wanted to live in the USA since he saw The Lone Ranger when he was five-years-old...
Connections
Causes Luke James Supports
Amnesty International
NRDC
Doctors Without Borders