🌊 SURF 'N TURF 🏝️
-THE BORACAY ISLAND LIFE-
THE DOOMSDAY DJ:
TUNES FOR THE POST APOCALYPSE
On this day in 1972, the Cat Stevens single “Morning Has Broken” debuted on the UK Singles Chart at #36 (January 1)
“Morning Has Broken" is a Christian hymn first published in 1931, with words by English author Eleanor Farjeon, set to a traditional Scottish Gaelic tune, "Bunessan".
Cat explained how the song came about on The Chris Isaak Hour:
“I accidentally fell upon the song when I was going through a slightly dry period and I needed another song or two for Teaser And The Firecat.
I came across this hymn book, found this one song, and thought, this is good.
I put the chords to it and then it started becoming associated with me."
The Cat Stevens' recording, with piano arranged and performed by session musician Rick Wakeman (who would go on to considerable fame with Yes), became his most successful single in the US, later tied by his rendition of "Another Saturday Night”.
It rose to #3 in New Zealand, #4 in Australia, Canada and Norway, #5 in the Netherlands and South Africa, #6 in the US and Ireland, and #9 in the UK.
In 2000, Rick Wakeman gave an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live in which he said he had agreed to perform on the Cat Stevens track for £10 and was "shattered" that he was omitted from the credits, adding that he never received the money either.
On his return to performance as Yusuf Islam, Stevens paid Wakeman and apologized for the original non-payment, which he said arose from confusion and misunderstanding by the record label.
Wakeman gave the money to one of the schools Cat Stevens founded.
On a documentary aired on British television, Wakeman said he believed that Stevens's version of "Morning Has Broken" was a very beautiful piece of music that had brought people closer to religious truth, for which he was happy to have contributed.
In March 2020, the pair performed the song at the Music for the Marsden charity concert at the O2 Arena in London…
#catstevens, #morninghasbroken, #70smusic, #rickwakeman, #dailyrockhistory, #thisdayinmusic, #onthisday
"Pure signal,no noise"
Credits Goes to the respective
Author ✍️/ Photographer📸
🐇 🕳️
On this day in 1972, the Cat Stevens single “Morning Has Broken” debuted on the UK Singles Chart at #36 (January 1)
“Morning Has Broken" is a Christian hymn first published in 1931, with words by English author Eleanor Farjeon, set to a traditional Scottish Gaelic tune, "Bunessan".
Cat explained how the song came about on The Chris Isaak Hour:
“I accidentally fell upon the song when I was going through a slightly dry period and I needed another song or two for Teaser And The Firecat.
I came across this hymn book, found this one song, and thought, this is good.
I put the chords to it and then it started becoming associated with me."
The Cat Stevens' recording, with piano arranged and performed by session musician Rick Wakeman (who would go on to considerable fame with Yes), became his most successful single in the US, later tied by his rendition of "Another Saturday Night”.
It rose to #3 in New Zealand, #4 in Australia, Canada and Norway, #5 in the Netherlands and South Africa, #6 in the US and Ireland, and #9 in the UK.
In 2000, Rick Wakeman gave an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live in which he said he had agreed to perform on the Cat Stevens track for £10 and was "shattered" that he was omitted from the credits, adding that he never received the money either.
On his return to performance as Yusuf Islam, Stevens paid Wakeman and apologized for the original non-payment, which he said arose from confusion and misunderstanding by the record label.
Wakeman gave the money to one of the schools Cat Stevens founded.
On a documentary aired on British television, Wakeman said he believed that Stevens's version of "Morning Has Broken" was a very beautiful piece of music that had brought people closer to religious truth, for which he was happy to have contributed.
In March 2020, the pair performed the song at the Music for the Marsden charity concert at the O2 Arena in London…
#catstevens, #morninghasbroken, #70smusic, #rickwakeman, #dailyrockhistory, #thisdayinmusic, #onthisday
"Pure signal,no noise"
Credits Goes to the respective
Author ✍️/ Photographer📸
🐇 🕳️
On this day in 2013, the Ultravox single “Vienna” topped a poll by BBC Radio 2 and the Official Charts Company to find the greatest track to miss out on the #1 spot on the UK Singles Chart (January 1)
“Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl was voted into second place.
Other songs to feature included The Beatles’ “Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever”, The Who's “My Generation” and Don McLean's “American Pie”.
“We are extremely pleased and very humbled to have been given this honorary #1, especially knowing the outstanding records which were also in the running - 'Strawberry Fields Forever', 'Hound Dog' and 'Wonderwall' to name just a few," said Midge Ure.
The song that kept it off the #1 spot in the UK was "Shaddap You Face" by Joe Dolce!
In 2017, Ure was allegedly offered the chance to meet Dolce, but declined, saying: "I've had 40 years of people talking about Joe 'Bloody' Dolce and I don't want to spend what I've got left talking about when I met him."
The pioneering synth-driven new wave hit from the LP of the same name remains Ultravox's signature song, and their most commercially successful release.
According to Midge Ure's autobiography, the title came about by a mishearing of the Fleetwood Mac song "Rhiannon"!
The lyrics were allegedly written quite quickly by Ure, and Billy Currie (keyboards) recalled to Mojo how a key lyric in the song came about:
“We were all being very arty, discussing the composer Max Reger, and Midge walked up and said in his Glaswegian accent, 'This means nothing to me,' and turned away.”
Producer Conny Plank suggested: “Well, sing that then.”
So he did!
According to the Ultravox Discography, drummer Warren Cann said:
“The song came together very quickly.
I had a drum machine/synth pad (CR-78 & 'Synare' pads) pattern in mind that I'd wanted to do something with and played that... to paraphrase myself, I said something like, "What about this, then?" and began the 'Vienna' rhythm.
We started playing something to it and then had the thought of using a chorus idea that we had laying around which we'd previously worked on but had no verse for.
It all clicked in a few hours and we ironed out the rough spots the next day.
Except for finessing the middle 'solo' section of the song once we were in the studio, that was basically it…
A hit a day keeps the dole away!
We knew it was the musical high point of the album and made it the title track.
It was the song that best represented what we were trying to do.
We were determined that it would be our third single and fought with Chrysalis over it; naturally, they thought it was far too long at six minutes, too weird for a Top 30 chart hit, and too depressing and too slow.
Other than that, they liked it!”
It worked…
The single went all the way to #1 in Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands, #2 in the UK for four weeks, #7 in Sweden, #8 in South Africa and Austria, #11 in Australia, and #14 in Germany.
#vienna, #ultravox, #midgeure, #80smusic, #newwave, #newwavemusic, #dailyrockhistory, #thismeansnothingtome
"Pure signal,no noise"
Credits Goes to the respective
Author ✍️/ Photographer📸
🐇 🕳️
January 1st is for recovery.
Around the world, the day after New Year’s Eve is marked by warm soups, fermented flavors, and salty dishes traditionally eaten to help the body bounce back.
"Pure signal, no noise"
Credits Goes to the respective
Author ✍️/ Photographer📸
🐇 🕳️
"Pure signal, no noise"
Credits Goes to the respective
Author ✍️/ Photographer📸
🐇 🕳️
🤿 "Something wicked this way comes"
Pura Vida 🏝️
"It's a good day to dive". 🤿
Back in the early days .....
BORACAY ISLAND, month of April 1989.
"Pure signal, no noise"
Credits Goes to the respective
Author ✍️/ Photographer📸
🐇 🕳️
On this day in 1968, the Foundations single “Build Me Up Buttercup” peaked on the UK Singles Chart at #2 (December 31)
The song was written by Mike D'Abo (the lead singer of Manfred Mann) and Tony Macaulay, and was the first Foundations hit on which Barbados-born Colin Young sang lead vocals.
Songfacts reports that David Essex, who was unknown at the time but went on to success with "Rock On," was offered this song, but he turned it down as he didn't like the title.
The catchy song went all the way to #1 in Australia and Canada, #2 in the UK, #3 in the US, South Africa and Ireland, and #4 in New Zealand.
#buildmeupbuttercup, #thefoundations, #60smusic, #dailyrockhistory, #thisdayinmusic, #onthisday
"Pure signal,no noise"
Credits Goes to the respective
Author ✍️/ Photographer📸
🐇 🕳️
This month in 1977, the Bill Withers single “Lovely Day” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #67 (December 10)
The song written by Withers and Skip Scarborough appears on Withers's 1977 album “Menagerie”.
Skip Scarborough was a songwriter and producer who worked with Earth, Wind & Fire, Patti Labelle, LTD, and many other R&B stars before his death in 2003.
He was also the inspiration for the lyrics Withers came up with.
In a Songfacts interview with Bill Withers, he explained: "Skip was a very nice, gentle man.
The way Skip was, every day was just a lovely day. He was an optimist.”
It’s a unique song, in that his “daaaaaaaaaay” towards the end, at 18 seconds long, is one of the longest sustained note ever recorded on an American pop song.
It went all the way to #1 in France, #7 in the UK, #11 in Belgium, #18 in Austria, #23 in Canada, #24 in the Netherlands, and #30 in the US.
The song was listed at #402 on Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Best Songs of All Time" in 2021.
#billwithers, #lovelyday, #havealovelyday, #70smusic, #dailyrockhistory, #thisdayinmusic, #onthisday
"Pure signal,no noise"
Credits Goes to the respective
Author ✍️/ Photographer📸
🐇 🕳️
🏰Almourol Castle
See more: 
This week in 1989, the Guns N’ Roses LP “Appetite for Destruction” re-entered the UK Albums Chart at #73 (December 30)
This record was the ultimate slow-burner.
In the week of August 29, 1987, “Appetite for Destruction” debuted at #182 on the Billboard 200, but several months after its release had only sold 200,000 copies, and Geffen was "walking away" from the record.
Radio stations weren’t much interested, and nor was MTV.
It was not until the following year that “Appetite for Destruction” became a commercial success, after the band had extensively toured and promoted the album, and in a last ditch effort after several months of lobbying the network, Geffen general manager Al Coury convinced MTV to play the video of “Welcome to the Jungle” just once a night for three nights.
With the radio and video airplay, as well as the band's touring, “Appetite for Destruction” finally took off.
It eventually managed to top the US Billboard 200 Album Chart on August 6, 1988, after a year of having been released.
It spent four non-consecutive weeks at #1 and a total of 147 weeks on the chart.
Slash recalled the slow start:
“It was totally uncommercial. It took a year for it to even get on the charts.
No one wanted to know about it."
It eventually became one of the best-selling albums of all time, and is also the best-selling debut album of all time in the US.
Elsewhere it peaked at #1 in New Zealand, #2 in Canada and Germany, #3 in Spain, Austria, and the Netherlands, #5 in the UK, Italy, Switzerland, and Belgium, #7 in Australia and Ireland, #9 in Norway, #12 in Sweden, and #25 in France.
In 2006, the album was placed #2 on Guitar World magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Albums of All Time.
In 2020 Rolling Stone ranked it #62 on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
#appetitefordestruction, #gunsnroses, #slash, #axlrose, #sweetchildomine, #80smusic, #80srock, #hardrock, #classicalbum, #numberone, #number1, #dailyrockhistory, #thisdayinrock, #rockhistory, #thisdayinmusic, #onthisday
"Pure signal,no noise"
Credits Goes to the respective
Author ✍️/ Photographer📸
🐇 🕳️
'Don't leave anything for later.
Later, the coffee gets cold.
Later, you lose interest.
Later, the day turns into night.
Later, people grow up.
Later, people grow old.
Later, life goes by.
Later, you regret not doing something...
When you had the chance.
Life is a fleeting dance, a delicate balance of moments that unfold before us, never to return in quite the same way again.
Regret is a bitter pill to swallow, a weight that bears down upon the soul with the burden of missed chances and unspoken words.
So, let us not leave anything for later. Let us seize the moments as they come, with hearts open and arms outstretched to embrace the possibilities that lie before us. For in the end, it is not the things we did that we regret, but the things we left undone, the words left unspoken, the dreams left unfulfilled.'
~Toshikazu Kawaguchi,
Before the Coffee Gets Cold
"Pure signal, no noise"
Credits Goes to the respective
Author ✍️/ Photographer📸
🐇 🕳️
😴 SLEEP ISN’T OPTIONAL.
IT’S FOUNDATIONAL.
You can eat clean.
You can exercise daily.
But if your sleep is broken, your health will eventually follow.
Sleep isn’t “rest.”
It’s active biological repair—and nothing replaces it.
🧠 WHY SLEEP IS NON-NEGOTIABLE
While you sleep, your brain flips into maintenance mode: • Clears toxic waste linked to neurodegeneration
• Repairs neurons and resets emotional regulation
• Rebalances hormones that control hunger, stress, and immunity
Chronic sleep loss is strongly linked to: ⚠️ Heart disease
⚠️ Obesity & insulin resistance
⚠️ High blood pressure
⚠️ Depression & anxiety
⚠️ Cognitive decline
You can’t biohack your way around this.
🔥 WHAT’S ACTUALLY KILLING YOUR SLEEP
📱 Blue light at night
Screens suppress melatonin and confuse your circadian rhythm into thinking it’s daytime.
🍷 Alcohol
It sedates you—but fragments deep sleep and causes 2–4 a.m. wake-ups.
☕ Caffeine
Lingers 6–8 hours (or longer). Even afternoon tea can sabotage nighttime sleep.
🍕 Late & heavy meals
Sugar spikes, acid reflux, and insulin crashes = restless nights.
⏰ Finish eating 2–3 hours before bed.
😰 A wired nervous system
Stress keeps cortisol high when it should be falling.
🛠️ HOW TO FIX POOR SLEEP (REALISTIC, EFFECTIVE SHIFTS)
🥗 DIET & NUTRITION
• Very high-carb, low-nutrient diets may deplete vitamin B1 (thiamine)—important for calming the nervous system
• Fermented foods (kefir, yogurt, probiotics) may support serotonin → melatonin pathways
• Avoid sugar and ultra-processed food at night
💊 SUPPLEMENTS (WHEN APPROPRIATE)
• Magnesium glycinate ~1 hour before bed → muscle relaxation + calmer mind
• Adequate sodium & potassium support healthy cortisol rhythms (especially if you sweat, fast, or train hard)
⚠️ Supplements support sleep—they don’t replace habits
🌙 ENVIRONMENT & ROUTINE
• Cool room: 15–19°C (60–68°F)
• Total darkness: blackout curtains or eye mask
• Morning sunlight within 30–60 minutes of waking
• Nose breathing + light stretching before bed
• No doom-scrolling in bed
• Bed = sleep + intimacy only (train your brain)
🧩 THE BIG TRUTH
Sleep isn’t something you fit in.
It’s something you protect.
Fix sleep—and energy, mood, focus, metabolism, and resilience follow.
Ignore it—and no supplement, diet, or workout will save you.
Guard your sleep like your life depends on it—because it does. 🛌
"Pure signal, no noise"
Credits Goes to the respective
Author ✍️/ Photographer📸
🐇 🕳️
"The Picture of Dorian Gray" unfolds not as a simple tale of horror, but as a glittering and deeply unsettling philosophical experiment. In the lavish studios and drawing rooms of Victorian London, we meet Dorian Gray, a young man of extraordinary beauty. Under the hypnotic influence of the cynical hedonist Lord Henry Wotton, who preaches that beauty and the pursuit of new sensations are the only things worth living for, Dorian makes a reckless, whispered wish. Gazing upon his own magnificent portrait, painted by the devoted artist Basil Hallward, he yearns for the painting to age and bear the marks of life instead of him, so that he might remain forever young and unblemished.
To his awe and terror, the wish is granted. Thus begins the central, brilliant conceit of the novel: a life of monstrous duality. Dorian embarks on a decades-long descent into a world of indulgence, cruelty, and secret vice. He destroys the innocent actress Sibyl Vane with casual indifference and delves ever deeper into depravity, all while his physical form remains as perfect and youthful as the day the portrait was made. The consequences of his actions—every sin, every cruelty, every passing year—manifest not on his face, but on the canvas hidden away in his attic. The portrait becomes a grotesque, horrifying ledger of his soul, a mirror reflecting the true ugliness he has escaped in the physical world.
Oscar Wilde's prose is a weapon of exquisite wit and devastating irony. The novel crackles with Lord Henry's decadent epigrams, which champion art over morality and beauty over virtue. Yet the plot itself serves as a fierce, tragic rebuttal to this very philosophy. Dorian becomes a hollow man, a beautiful shell cursed to watch the real him—the accumulating record of his moral decay—fester in the dark. The painting is more than a supernatural device; it is the physical manifestation of conscience, of consequence, of inescapable truth.
The story builds with a slow, dreadful tension to its famously violent and just conclusion. It is a Gothic masterpiece about the catastrophic cost of divorcing action from consequence, and a profound exploration of the conflict between our public selves and our private sins. In the end, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is a timeless, chilling reminder that we cannot outsource our corruption. The portrait of our true nature, however well we hide it, always demands to be seen.
"Pure signal, no noise"
Credits Goes to the respective
Author ✍️/ Photographer📸
🐇 🕳️
💜 
Exactly fifty-two years ago, on this day in 1973, AC/DC played their first official gig (December 31)
Malcolm Young recruited drummer Colin Burgess from the Masters Apprentices, and bass player and saxophonist Larry Van Kriedt to play with him and little brother Angus in the new band AC/DC, and singer Dave Evans responded to an ad in The Sydney Morning Herald.
Their first ever official gig was a New Year’s Eve show at Chequers nightclub, 79 Goulburn Street
Sydney, NSW.
Faceoffrockshow.com reports that AC/DC played two sets that New Year’s Eve night, with songs including: “School Days” (Chuck Berry cover), “Honky Tonk Women” (Rolling Stones cover), “Get Back” (Beatles cover), “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” (Rolling Stones cover), “No Particular Place To Go” (Chuck Berry cover), “Baby Please Don’t Go” (Big Joe Williams cover) (from High Voltage, 1975), and “All Right Now” (Free cover)
“Can I Sit Next To You Girl” b/w “Rockin’ In The Parlour” from that night went on to become AC/DC’s first single, released only in Australia on 22 July 1974 on the Albert Productions label.
This single is the only commercial recording featuring Dave Evans…
Some of the songs played that night later appeared as AC/DC singles, and were earlier versions of the songs before they had the Bon Scott touch…
The rest, of course, is rock history, with AC/DC going on to become a worldwide rock phenomenon, and their 1980 LP “Back in Black” (featuring the band’s third lead singer Brian Johnson), becoming the second best-selling album of all time.
The photo below is not the band that played that first ever gig, but is the earliest photo I can find of the band…
#acdc, #angusyoung, #malcolmyoung, #australianmusic, #ozrock, #aussierock, #pubrock, #daveevans, #rockhistory, #australianrock, #thisdayinrock, #dailyrockhistory, #thisdayinmusic, #onthisday
"Pure signal,no noise"
Credits Goes to the respective
Author ✍️/ Photographer📸
🐇 🕳️
$87,668
market price of bitcoin in USD.
1,141
value of 1 USD measured in satoshis.
Happy New Year 2026 💜 Nostriches
"Pure signal, no noise"
Credits Goes to the respective
Author ✍️/ Photographer📸
🐇 🕳️
Several motivational concepts focused on self-improvement, discipline, and authenticity..
Discipline and Routine: Waking up early and working out can solve many problems by establishing a healthy, disciplined routine. A "recipe for a good life" includes simple habits like going to bed early, eating real foods, reading, and avoiding gossip.
Embracing Authenticity: It is perfectly acceptable to live a life that others find confusing. The focus should be on personal fulfillment, not external validation.
The Value of Struggle: The core message of "Do Hard Things" is that voluntary struggle prepares individuals for the involuntary difficulties that inevitably arise in life. Embracing the "suck"—such as hard workouts, bland meals, or difficult conversations—is the cost of entry for achieving desired outcomes.
Action Over Planning: The future is not planned directly; instead, current actions are planned, and those actions create the future. Consistent, focused effort today determines tomorrow's reality.
The Power of Time and Effort: A person's entire life can change in one year through focused daily effort, asking the right questions, and living differently. Sustained action over time leads to significant transformation.
True Friendship: Many friends are only present during convenient or fun times. True friends are those who offer support when there is nothing to gain in return.
"Pure signal, no noise"
Credits Goes to the respective
Author ✍️/ Photographer📸
🐇 🕳️
Beautifully captured by @tecontefa - LIBRERÍA MIGUEL MIRANDA - Situated in Madrid’s Literary Quarter, Librería Miguel Miranda is an antiquarian bookshop founded in 1949. Its elegant interior, highlighted by a striking spiral staircase and antique furnishings, reflects its historic charm, while its collection of rare and antiquarian books is primarily in Spanish, with select titles in English, French, and German, making it a must-visit when exploring Madrid.
📍@C. de Lope de Vega, 19, Centro, 28014 Madrid, Spain
Opening hours:
- Monday to Thursday: 11AM - 3PM, 5PM - 8PM
- Friday: 12PM - 3PM, 5PM - 8PM
- Saturday & Sunday: Closed
Photo Credit: @tecontefa
"Pure signal, no noise"
Credits Goes to the respective
Author ✍️/ Photographer📸
🐇 🕳️
Stalin's five-day workweek, called the nepryvka (continuous workweek), was a 1929 Soviet experiment to maximize industrial production by eliminating the traditional Sunday rest day, keeping factories running constantly by staggering workers' rest days across five-day cycles (four days on, one day off) for different groups.
Key Features of the Calendar
The traditional seven-day week was replaced by a continuous five-day cycle consisting of four days of work followed by one day of rest.
Workers were divided into five groups, each assigned a specific color (Yellow, Orange/Pink, Red, Purple, and Green).
Only 20% of the workforce was off on any given day. This ensured that factories, machines, and offices never stopped running—not even on Sundays.
The traditional concept of "Saturday" and "Sunday" was effectively eliminated for urban workers to prevent the weekly slump in productivity.
Objectives
To meet the aggressive targets of Stalin’s First Five-Year Plan, he wanted machines to operate 24/7 without idle time.
By making the "day of rest" different for everyone and removing Sunday, the state aimed to make religious worship (which requires communal gathering) nearly impossible.
Staggered schedules meant families and friends rarely had the same day off, which weakened traditional family bonds and social organizations that could foster dissent.
The experiment was widely unpopular and eventually failed for several reasons:
Workers complained that they could never spend time with spouses or children who were assigned different color groups.
Because machines never stopped, there was no time for preventative maintenance, leading to frequent breakdowns.
With rotating shifts, "everyone’s machine" became "no one’s machine," leading to poor care of equipment.
By 1931, Stalin transitioned the country to a six-day week (the shestidnevka) with a common rest day, and the Soviet Union finally returned to the standard seven-day week in June 1940.
Pictures: Soviet calendar for 1930 showing Gregorian months, traditional seven-day week, five national holidays, plus colored five-day work week.
(Continious work week caleder, Smart museum of art.)
"Pure signal, no noise"
Credits Goes to the respective
Author ✍️/ Photographer📸
🐇 🕳️