Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Lopped off if caught...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Three EPs 2007
Happy Apple - The Peace Between Our Companies

No telly today as I started off by reworking the long ambient piece I put together late last year "Hey Hollywood Nimrod" by adding some stonking jazz fusion drums in a Billy Cobham stylee...

Early evening we headed to the High Street to Pancho Villa's, one of our favourite Mexican restaurants, for a belated birthday meal for Anne after Monday's damp squib...

We were off to Jim Park's new comedy club at the Holyrood Tavern, "The Electric Mouse Comedy Club" and so were taking the opportunity of dining beforehand on some tasty salsa based delights...

There was a good turn out at the club, including Martin, my erstwhile footie colleague and globe-trotting physics lecturer (just back from three weeks in India no less) and Pete, who we've not seen since the night of Jim's dad's funeral almost a year ago - how time flies...

The first guy on was from Dundee, swore a lot, and used comedy facial expressions. He was quite funny and showed potential (I'll say right now that I have nothing but admiration for anyone who goes into stand-up but you wouldn't catch me doing it)...

Next up was a young man from Paisley (I used to live there when I was wee) - possibly a very early gig in his career and he all but died on stage, only pulling things slightly out of the fire at the end with a sing song involving various percussion instruments handed out amongst the crowd - I played triangle expertly and answered in the affirmative when asked if I was a policeman...

Then it was Jim's turn and his opening gambits had me in stitches - he used a clipboard to read out the questions from an imaginary survey he was doing - you had to be there though - read his blog for more...

A young man from carlisle got a quick slot before the headliner, Paul Sinha, who was superb and worth the entry fee of £4 on his own...

A very, very funny gay hindu part-time GP no less...

Heartily recomended...

After the show, Jim confirmed he was up for reconvening the Capital Models Three with Jamie and I for possible gigs over the next couple of months but rehearsals still need to be arranged and arrangements still need to be worked out etc etc...

On the way back to the car, Anne and I were attacked by a balding, rucksack wearing idiot who had just knocked over around 30 yards of traffic barriers put in place to provide a temporary walkway along side some building works...

After destroying these, he came after us, threatening us with all sorts...

What a nutter...

He seemed to believe we weren't from Edinburgh and so ought to leave the city as quickly as possible - and also offered to remove my testicles with a knife if he caught me...

Of course these beliefs and offers were made in some quite unsavoury language I can tell you...

We made a quick getaway and jumped into the car...

I know I ought to have driven after him, run him down and then reversed over his convulsing, dying body but, somehow, it made more sense to do a U-turn and head for home...

What a nutter...

Back home I did some more quick work on the new music including an initial cover mock up...

I think I have finished three five track EPs for release shortly...

Each will contain:-

Two acoustic songs (so six in all - five new ones, written post "The Acoustic Ersatzreal" last summer and the Myspace mix of "I Still Write You Letters" featuring Mr James Jamieson on 2nd guitar)

A song remix (the three I've been working on over the last week)

A small piece of electronica - my initial experiments on the new set up

And a mix on each of the long ambient piece...

I might use one of these photos on the covers....



Probably not though...

An interesting evening...

Highlight of the Day : Jim's comedy club/Mexican meal

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Almost there, but probably not quite...

Playlist
Stefano Landi – Homo fugit velut umbra
Alice Cooper - Killer
Alice Cooper - School's Out
Happy Apple - Youth Oriented
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Three EPs 2007

Another Cooper day music-wise as I moved on to two of their "big" albums...

As I listened, I suddenly realised how I've always kind of undervalued the "School's Out" album but there's not a dull moment on there...



Apparently the original desk lid used on this cover is in a Hard Rock Cafe somewhere...

More new music today too as the two Happy Apple albums arrived from the States - superb minimal jazz - sax, bass and drums (the latter provided by Dave King of The Bad Plus) - and it reminds me a little of the Lemon Juice Quartet, a jewish band we saw in a little club in Krakow a few years back and whose albums are prize possessions for me...

In the evening, I worked on CBQ music again, a third remix track "He Thinks of You" - and finished this off even more quickly than last night's track...

I'm moving towards three simultaneous EP releases I think...

I worked out provisional track lists....

The new series of CSI started tonight - great to have it back and the initial double bill rounded off the day nicely - though, watching them "live", the five minute ad breaks are a pain in the butt...

Highlight of the Day : Almost there with some new EPs...

Monday, January 29, 2007

Return of the muse...

Playlist
Various - Pitchfork's Best of 2006
Alice Cooper - Pretties For You
Alice Cooper - Easy Action
Alice Cooper - Love It to Death
Roger Waters - Ca Ira

Anne's birthday but, what with all the recent anniversary celebrations and the birthday tea last night, it was a bit of an anti-climax...

I chose some early Alice Cooper albums to listen to as I was out and about. "Pretties For You" was the group's debut in 1969. It was released on Frank Zappa's Straight label and Frank had just bought the painting which he ended up putting on the cover...



I remember buying the 2LP set "Schooldays" in 1973 and thinking the two sets included, "Pretties For You" and "Easy Action" were shit compared with "Love it to Death", "Killer", "School's Out" and "Billion Dollar Babies" but now, with the benefit of years of listening, I've learned to love these two strange albums and wouldn't be without them...

In HMV at lunchtime I found Roger Waters' 2CD opera "Ca Ira" in the racks for just £3 and couldn't resist...

Back home, as Anne was out at aerobics, I listened to the first disc - it's quite good but let's just say it's not Mozart....

On Anne's return we had some lovely lamb's mince with mash and sprouts - tasty - then watched tonight's "Coronation St" double bill before I fired up the studio and worked on a new remix - "The Angels Took His Soul" - finishing it within four hours...

Not much of a birthday for Anne but, when the muse strikes...

Highlight of the Day : Happy birthday to Anne

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Carried away songwise...

Playlist
Keith Jarrett – Always Let Me Go
Susumu Yokota – Lo Compilation
Dave Holland – Extended Play Live at Birdland
Scottish Guitar Quartet – Fait Accomplie
Rikm & Fennesz – Contrasts Donaueshingen 2003

This morning I continued spring cleaning re the albums removed from the jukebox, sorting them into folders for saving to DVD...

A late breakfast and then worked on finalising the remix of my song "No Concrete Idea" which I've been working on intermittently over the last week or so - today it finally gelled and I think I can now move on to the next piece, whatever that may be...

It's bit weird, as the vocals were recorded last year and at a different tempo from this new track - but there's nothing wrong with a little weirdness now and then...

I formulated a little plan to release three CD singles containing the five new songs not included on "The Acoustic Ersatzreal" last summer - and these singles will contain the remixes and electronic tracks I'm working on at present...

Once I was happy with the new recording, I picked up the guitar to play four or five songs I might play live with Jamie soon...

I ended up playing 21 in just over an hour...

Setlist
The End of Everything
No Concrete Idea
He Thinks of You
Starting to Worry
The Angels Took His Soul
Skylines Full of Cranes
A Nice Job In A Small Town
The Crocodile Song
Everything You've Ever Wanted
Half A Lifetime Away
I Rearranged the House
I Still Write You Letters
Snowfall
The Sun Goes Down Too Soon
Ten Twelve Seventeen
Thinking of Me
This is All There is
Twenty Twenty Vision
Very Small
Where Are You
You Taught Me How To Love You

Hardly an error in sight either...

As you might notice, I sang a few and then just got carried away leafing through my songbook alphabetically...

Just as I finished, the doorbell rang and it was an unplanned visit from sister Sheila, her husband Andrew and my mum...

A cup of tea and a chat ensued...

Then to Anne’s mum’s for the family tea - this time with the added bonus of a birthday cake for Anne and her requested favourite, steak pie...

This is actually last year's cake - but it was exactly the same tonight and just as tasty...



Back home, exercised the shoulder, wrote up the diary and listened to some new music, then watched last night's "Harry Hill's TV Burp"....

Great stuff...

Highlight of the Day : Finishing a track at last on the new studio set up

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Chance meetings...

Playlist
Huelgas Ensemble – Lamentations de la Renaissance
Various – Jukebox Picks
Rush – Fly By Night
Scottish Guitar Quartet – Landmarks
Paul Motion Trio – At the Village Vanguard
eRikm & Fennesz – Contrasts Donaueshingen 2003
Schubert – Music for Piano Four Hands

Up at 7 today and spent some considerable time converting eleven recent acquisitions to MP3 – not live or classical albums though - I need a couple more jukeboxes I think for classical stuff and live stuff...

To make room on my current jukebox, I cleared classical, compilations & live albums to the PC hard disk for future saving to DVD...

Checked out my Myspace page and added a few "friends" - I even downloaded one new friend's album - but haven't listened just yet...

At 10:25 I left the house for my podietrist appointment, leaving Anne ill in bed...

By 10:50 I was driving into town to meet up with Dr Prog...

As I walked from the car to the Music Library, I took a few pics before the camera battery died. It was a lovely cold morning...



I was late in arriving but it was fine as Phil (Dr Prog) was even later...

In the meantime I bumped into Eric, former workmate of Mr Alan Brodie, and jazz afficionado...

We swapped tales and recommendations and chatted about music software - he's just bought a laptop and some programmes and is eager to get working - we may do something together at some point and should at least share a few pints in the company of Mr Brodie if nothing else...

I borrowed seven CDs, all jazz, other than one rare disc by electronica fiend, Fennesz...

Phil and I walked back to the Queens Hall and had a light lunch at a little place opposite the venue, called "Wheels", run by some arab guys - very tasty...

The reason Phil took me all the way there was to pick up a CD player he has in for repair - ironically though, by the time we'd set the worlds of music and e-bay to rights, it was 1:10 and we went outside to find the repair shop had closed at 1:00...

So we walked back to the car, taking in a few charity shops on the way - there're loads of them up that way - but found nothing to add to what we'd borrowed from the library...

I gave Phil a lift home, stopping off at Falko Conditorei for two slices of lovely German cake, one apricot and one Schwabian apple - to give Anne a treat on my return...

After coffee and cake, I thought about working on some music but fell asleep on the settee, only to wake to find Queen of the South were winning 4-0 against Partick Thistle with 8 minutes to go....

A nervous 10 minutes later, QoS were victorious, 4-3...

Hearts managed a 0-0 draw away to Rangers...

Then to the PC to continue clearing out the jukebox – 2.5 gigs freed up in all before I added the new acquisitions...

It's Anne's birthday on Monday so, tonight, we went out with her best friend, Lynn and her partner Ross - to McKirdie's steakhouse...

Of course I forgot what kind of steak I like best and ordered a fillet when I meant sirloin - and, as I have mine rare, it was almost raw in the middle...

Haggis started the meal for me and my steak was accompanied by mustard mash and onion rings along with regular sauteed onions and mushrooms - all very tasty (even the raw meat)...

A little caramel cake finished me off...

Pre and post this enjoyable meal, we had a few drinks in Thomson's bar opposite the restaurant, where we bumped into Alan McLaren, our Solicitor from our Record Shop days - he looks like my doppelganger...

He advised he's formed a band and says he'll let me hear some of their stuff and that I'm welcome along to any rehearsals...

Sounds like fun - vocals, guitar, bass, drums and keyboards/decks...

A night bus home (almost missed by Anne and Lynn as they wandered ahead chatting) and tucked up by 1:45...

Another good day...

Highlight of the Day : Anne's birthday meal and new music prospects..

Friday, January 26, 2007

Preparation is everything...

Playlist
Portman – The Little Prince
Haydn – Complete String Quartets (Disc 11)
Mike Oldfield – Ommadawn
Lucy Kaplansky – Every Single Day
Morrissey – You Are the Quarry
Morrissey – Ringleader of the Tormentors

To FOPP today and once again I toy with buying rubbish CDs by Uriah Heep and Barclay James Harvest which I know I'll never listen to...

Instead, I take Morrissey's latest album for a meagre six quid...



In the afternoon, a call from James Jamieson intimates a soon come return to performing though we must of course rehearse beforehand and other commitments can make this difficult - more than likely a joint gig, like the one documented in our live CD from 2005 (details here - scroll down a bit)...

Anne has once again slaved over a hot curry all afternoon and it is excellent - going down nicely with a spot of red wine...

After tonight's "Coronation St" I fire up the studio and, at last, make some progress with the drum files which webmeister Craig added on Wednesday night...

The omens are good re the next album but what form it will take remains a mystery...

I have not been programming based for quite some time...

The evening is rounded off with the magnificent "Law & Order : Criminal Intent" followed by "The Friday Night Project", hosted tonight by Noel Edmonds...

27 years today since "The Sweet Thrill of Industry"...



Happy days...

Highlight of the Day : Anne's curry

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Fruitless, worthless...

Playlist
CPE Bach & WF Bach - Symphonies & Concertos
Alice Cooper - Live at Montreux 2005
Jason Falkner - Necessity
Sarah McLachlan - Afterglow
Pat Metheny Group - The Way Up
Heaven 17 - The Best of Heaven 17

Start the day, as is my wont at present, with some lovely classical stuff - followed by the mighty Alice Cooper in live mode...

Mr Alice Cooper - he ROCKS!

Another frustrating but strangely enjoyable time at the computer trying to find out how everything should work to put new tracks together...

James Jamieson called to ask if I was going along to Out of the Bedroom - but I declined, preferring instead to work...

Nothing produced however...

TV was "Where Have Our Pensions Gone?" - no-one seems to realise that even if you have a fund of £100,000, of which you'll probably take £25,000 as a lump sum, the remaining £75,000 will provide a non-increasing pension of around just £5,250 pa...

And that's with no provision for your partner if you die...

And that's the figure before your pension's taxed!!

Of course these blunt numbers are never stated in these programmes - fair play to them though for highlighting the fact that the one-eyed wank, Mr Gordon Brown has been raping all pension funds to the tune of over £5 BILLION per annum since becoming Chancellor in 1997 - but will take no responsibility for the mess we're in...

OK so the pension scandal was followed by "Question Time" and "This Week", all of which contrasted nicely with last night's fayre - two episodes of "Desperate Housewives" back to back...

Travel and car for the German trip are now booked and we await word from the Vineyard where we are hoping to spend half the holiday, that they can take us on the days we have requested...

Did three days worth of dishes to the sounds of Heaven 17 - singing along to all their hits...



I now have wrinkled fingers...

Highlight of the Day : Any comment which Disco Stu makes on this entry, about me not having a highlight of the day today...

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Into virtuality...

Playlist
Bocherini - Cello Concertos, Cello Sonatas
Purcell - The Essential Purcell
JC Bach - Quintetes & Sextets
Craig Armstrong - As If To Nothing
Neal Morse - ?

Another visit from Webmeister Craig tonight - which no doubt he hopes will be his last re this scenario - to add more studio software to the Crispycat set up...

Once au fait with the set up, he opines that I ought to record a "really big sounding instrumental synth album" - well, you never know...

All goes well and looks good for the future of CBQ music making...

That's as long as I can work out certain basic situations with regard to the myriad software which Anne will probably think is merely clogging up the machine and slowing down her access to her various Hearts websites...

Arrangements are in place for a meet with Dr Prog on Saturday and the summer visit to Germany for a short stay in the Mosel Valley after taking in Documenta 12 is at the advanced planning stages...

A great album today - much recommended - is Craig Armstrong's "As If To Nothing" - get it if you can...



Highlight of the Day : Virtual Studio taking shape...

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Experimenting and documenting...

Playlist
CPE Bach - Concertos and Symphonies
Bill Bruford’s Earthworks Orchestra
Jackie McLean – Destination Out
Thelonius Monk – Straight No Chaser
The Books – Lost and Safe
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Digger Dagger Piece

A bit of a jazzy day today, after some lovely Bach at breakfast - ending with the weirdness of The Books and a new, strange piece by CBQ...

In the evening, I telephoned old friend Jorg Sonnenschein to advise of our intention of visiting him and his family, including my Godson, in the Summer – with a view to partaking of the delights of Documenta 12...



Jorg says Ansem, the child in question, is very proud of the fact that his Godfather is Scottish and he knows where Scotland is – he just doesn’t remember me...

I made a speech in German at his Christening in 2001 and stayed with the family again with my good friend Mr Alan Brodie in 2002 when we all visited Documenta 11 – happy days...

I last saw him in the summer of 2003 when Jorg and his wife, Yvonne and Ansem and his older sister, Xenia visited Anne and I while we were holidaying in the Mosel valley...

Jorg and Yvonne now have a third child, Teja, a second boy – we’ve not met him yet...

Strange names but there you go...

Managed to keep my entries down to 10 minutes each for the last two days so hopefully I can maintain this...

In doing so, I freed up some time to work on some music...

Webmeister Craig is popping by tomorrow to load up some more groovy software to this end too...

Later, a call from Dr Prog provided an invitation to a recital by the American pianist, Frederic Rzewski – which I accepted without hesitation, despite the maestro’s unashamed Marxist tendencies...

The experimental music making bodes well for the future....

Highlight of the Day : A call to the Fatherland

Monday, January 22, 2007

Banging, not impressing...

Playlist
Miles Davis – Circle in the Round
Metheny/Mehldau - Metheny/Mehldau
Mariliyn Mason – The Golden Age of Grotesque
Joni Mitchell – Travelogue
Pat Metheny – Quartet
Bang on a Can – Music For Airports
Bang on a Can – Industry
Kurt Rosenwinkel - Heartcore

I spend too much time writing up this diary so I’m going to try and keep to around 10 minutes an entry if I can...

Today at lunch time I bumped into old cohort, Paul Reynolds, sailor of the parish and one time synthist extraordinaire with the venerable Pure Bears in the days of yore...

He’s home from the sea for a few months and so, hopefully, we’ll get something arranged for a get together at some point...

Back home and this month’s The Wire arrived by post (I’ve subscribed now for six years and still not advertised my weird music in it)...

Whilst leafing through it, I noticed Bang on a Can, the New York avant-garde music group, is playing in Perth on 3 February and, in an attempt to get Anne to consider coming along with me, I played her a couple of tracks..



She opined that it sounded like some people banging on some cans, and declined my kind invitation...

Perhaps one for Dr Prog?

I notice on perusing the website, it’s an all day thing starting at 11 am...

Also received a postcard from the Queens Hall re some two day electronica festival at the end of February – again, probably one for the good doctor...

Did nothing music-wise today, other than listening but watched “Coronation St” x 2 and Scotsport...

I am not addicted to Corrie after all, as I quite easily passed up the opportunity to watch it last night...

So that’s probably a good thing...

Highlight of the Day : Happening across some possible future entertainment...

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Hometown trip...

Playlist
Reid Anderson – Dirty Showtunes
Reid Anderson – Abolish Bad Architecture
Reid Anderson – The Vastness of Space
Miles Davis – Circle in the Round
Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music – 21 Songs
Various – The Milano Jukebox 2006
The Guess Who – The Greatest of the Guess Who
Eels – Eels with Strings : Live at Town Hall
Pat Metheny Group – The Way Up

Up at 6:30 and listening to some great jazz from The Bad Plus’ bassist, Reid Anderson...

Around 10, Made some coffee and poured out some fruit juice whilst Mr Miles Davis jazzed up the kitchen with his “Circle in the Round”...

Today it was off to Glasgow for some shopping and some eating – our ETD was 10:30 but we finally got out of the house around 20 minutes late...

We parked up off Byres Road just before 12 and looked for somewhere to brunch....

Everytime we’re in Byres Road we make a joke about the rhyming sign outside the chippy there – “Jack McPhee Fresh from the Sea” – but, today, we went in to the café part and enjoyed an excellent and good value brunch...



Directly opposite is Thorntons with their own rhyming sub-title “chocolate heaven since 1911”...

I think Jack’s is better...

This place would have been stinking of smoke before the ban – but now it’s fine – the only good thing to come out of devolution....

A quick look around Lost in Music and then to the tube station and into town...



Once again I toyed with the Uriah Heep and Barclay James Harvest CDs in FOPP. I also had Weather Report’s not very good eponymous album (the second eponymous album from 1983 not the early 70’s one – which is good) in my hand along with a compilation of German electronica...

In the end I put everything back apart from Dio’s “Evil or Divine : Live in New York City” which, I imagine, will rock big time...

I added to that the live album by Eels, “Eels with Strings” along with two Pat Metheny Group albums, “Quartet” and “The Way Up”...

Then along to Missing Records, where I spent £2.50 on the best of The Guess Who – I’ve never heard them before and don’t know any of their songs but I understand they were big in the late 60s/early 70’s in Canada and the USA – apparently they were the first Canadian act to have a number one in the USA...

Meanwhile Anne had been buying some lovely new clothes in various stores – we met up just after 3 and, after buying me some new black T shirts, we headed to The Metropolitan for a couple of drinks...



I enjoyed the Kriek cherry beer and Anne enjoyed the Staropramen...



Around 5:30 we headed back to St Enoch for the tube back to Partick, where we intended to dine at Mr India’s Dosa Curry House (where we went back in May when we were in Glasgow for our first Paul Buchanan concert of 2006)...



After a bit of a mix up involving staying on the train one stop too many, coming out of the station and starting to walk the wrong way, turning round and going back to get the train back one stop and finding the last train left at 6:30 – we found the place (Hyndland Rd) just a few minutes’ walk in the right direction...

Our second Indian of the weekend was every bit as good as the first, if not better – well different anyway. I had a dosa to start with (on Friday I started with vegetarian haggis fritters)...

The main courses were superb. The sauce had just the right consistency and texture ...

Tasty!

After the meal, we strolled back along to Byres Rd to the car and drove home to the sound of Roxy Music and Anne’s best of 2006 CD...

Back home, I started listening to the new discs while watching "Match of the Day 2"...

Another good day...

Highlight of the Day : A trip to my hometown

Saturday, January 20, 2007

A precise idea...

Playlist
Robert Fripp – Starlight Evensong (CD-R)
Yes - Close to the Edge
Cloudland Blue Quartet - No Concrete Idea
Stefano Landi – Homo fugit velut umbra

Spent the entire day in front of the computer working on one song for the next CBQ album, breaking only to run through a set of eight of the new songs:-

Blue Eyes Across the Room
Rabbits on the Verge
The Angels Took His Soul
Starting to Worry
The Little Man
He Thinks of You
The End of Everything
No Concrete Idea

In contrat to recent attempts, this run through sounded rather good to my ears and I enjoyed playing the songs...



In the evening watched “Dancing on Ice” or whatever it’s called, the superb "Harry Hill's TV Burp" - best comedy on the telly at present, “Al Murray Pub Landlord” – very funny man and “Match of the Day”...

Hearts beat Falkirk 1-0 and Queens lost by the same margin, away at Dundee – rooted to the bottom of the league still...

Ended the day on e-bay buying two CDs by Happy Apple – a jazz band featuring the drummer from the Bad Plus...

Check their Myspace site for what it sounds like - good to me...

It’s 20 days in to 2007 and I think I'm doing not too badly in my attempts to cut down on CD purchases...

I’ve spent £61 on 15 albums. Of that though, £10 was a FOPP token and £35 was “Xmas money” – so only £16 of “my own money”...

And of course, two of the discs I actually bought last year but they arrived in 2007, so that takes a further £14.30 away..

Leaving a spend, in real terms, of just £1.70 (man, I justify like an alchoholic)....

The two US import Happy Apple discs add around £18 to this total though...

Adrian Belew - Side Three (£8.31)
Models – Collection (£5.99)
Miles Davis - Circle in the Round (£7)
Heaven 17 - The Best of Heaven 17 (£3)
CPE Bach - Concertos & Symphonies (£3)
Schubert - Octet (£3)
JC Bach - Quintets & Sextet (£3)
CPE Bach & WF Bach - Symphonies & Concertos (£3)
Glass - Piano Music (£3)
Glenn Gould - A State of Wonder (£5)
Rahsaan Roland Kirk – An Introduction (£3)
CPE Bach - The Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus (£3)
Joni Mitchell – Travelogue (£5)
Stefano Landi – Homo fugit velut umbra (£3)
Le Poeme Harmonique - Aux Marches du Palais (£3)
Happy Apple - Youth Oriented (£8.97)
Happy Apple - Peace Between Our Companies (£8.97)

In addition to these of course, I’ve been downloading some stuff for free:-

3CDs of downloads from Pitchfork
Top ten downloads of 2006 from Free Jazz Blog-Site Destination Out...
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
The Good The Bad and The Queen
Air
Yo La Tengo

And I burned a disc of previously downloaded Robert Fripp soundscapes and continue to take the free offers from his site, DGM Live...

No wonder I listen to music at every opportunity...

Highlight of the Day : Getting to grips with the new studio set up

Friday, January 19, 2007

Good times...

Playlist
Yes - Contemporary Commerciality Jukebox Playlist
Le Poeme Harmonique - Aux Marches du Palais (Various Composers)



Rather aptly I chose a Yes playlist on the jukebox this morning. Apt because, on looking back at the entry for our 23rd Wedding Anniversary (14 Oct), I see that that’s the very day this playlist was compiled...

Apt, because today is the 27th anniversary of Capital Models gig at the Netherbow Theatre, just up from St Mary St, on the Royal Mile...

You can read a bit about the band here - this website has been up since 2002 and I've still to update the band history beyond 1980 - I am lazy....

Anyway, at the after gig party in my flat in St Mary’s St, Anne and I officially "became an item"...

I shared the flat with fellow band members, James Jamieson and Gus Bolton and a college friend, Dave McKee (Anne & I’s first date had been late 1979 but it seemed nothing would come of it - especially since the aforementioned Dave McKee insisted on playing gooseberry)....

In hindsight, it seems we used to have a party at the flat every week (and sometimes during the week) though I’m sure this can’t really have been the case...

Good times though...

The band’s name was suggested by Jamie and was shared by a shop on the corner of Jeffrey St and the High St at the time. It's long since closed. As has the band...

And so tonight, we went out to celebrate...

We started just after five with a visit to Henderson’s in Hanover St, a haunt of ours over the years and, here, we shared a bottle of Spanish organic white wine...

So of course, by the time we left, I was a wee bit the worse for wear...

We jumped on a bus up to George IV Bridge and walked down Chamber St to the Jazz Bar where Anne partook of a G&T while I enjoyed half a Litre of Tyskie, a particularly tasty and quite potent, Polish lager...

We walked over the road to Blackwells Book Shop (formerly James Thin) for a browse to kill the five minutes or so till our restaurant reservation time of 7:30...

Of course I couldn’t resist two classical CDs (for £3 each) of music which I had never heard before – on the Alpha label – one of 15th Century French Songs and one of popular music of Rome during the early 17th Century...

Earlier in the day, I was to be seen wandering around FOPP with a big pile of CDs in my hand by such luminaries as Uriah Heep (not the classic line-up though, I have all them) Barclay James Harvest, Todd Rundgren etc etc but ended up putting them all back and opting for the 2CD re-recorded retrospective set by Joni Mitchell, “Travelogue” for a fiver...

We may venture to Glasgow on Sunday, so no doubt, there will be a re-think....

We dined at Suruchi, a specialist Indian Restaurant opposite the Festival Theatre. The food was brilliant – especially the huge fiery red chilli served up with the starters – and the service was very friendly indeed – we passed on any sweet but they brought a large bowl of ice cream to the table, having asked us why we were out tonight...

A nice touch...

We left around 9:30 or so and I suggested returning to the Jazz Bar, where young sax player Fraser Campbell was making a return, but we erred on the side of caution, walked in the rain to Princes St and caught a No 26 home to Crispycat Towers....

There must have been something in that Cobra Indian beer I had at the restaurant, because I was soon snoring on the settee while Anne watched tonight’s “Coronation St”...

Ah yes, romance is not dead...

A good day...

Highlight of the Day : A lovely night out

Thursday, January 18, 2007

In the ear of the beholder....

Playlist
The Bad Plus - The Bad Plus (Motel)
The Bad Plus - These Are The Vistas
The Bad Plus - Give
The Bad Plus - Suspicious Activity?
Marin Marais/St Colombe - Best of
Nikolaus Harnoncourt - The Power of Music

I was doing nothing today except sitting at the computer when, all of a sudden I thought to myself, "instead of reading about what everyone else is doing, why don't I do something?" - so I went and played my guitar for an hour...

All fifteen songs from what will be my next album, "Ersatzreal", due "sometime in 2007" - I have to admit that it was pretty discouraging performance-wise but Anne gave me some encouraging remarks when I was whittering on about how crap I am...

Other than that, watched "Judge John Deed", "Question Time" and "This Week" and retired with works conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt ringing in my lugs...

And listened to loads of The Bad Plus throughout the day - which was good...



What a great band - I love their stuff...

Highlight of the Day : Being told I'm not as bad as I think I am

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

The supreme procrastinator...

Playlist
Laurie Anderson - Town Hall Concert, NY, September 2001 (2CD)
95 Various Artists – Best of the Best (Jukebox Playlist)
Bonnie “Prince” Billy – The Greatest Palace Music
Yes – Going For The One
Yes – Union
Cloudland Blue Quartet – One Hour Track 2
Robert Fripp – Time Stands Still

Woke up today completely deaf in my right ear – which was rather annoying...

I’ve now had this cold-like infection for over 10 weeks – I remember it started a couple of days before the shoulder op because I bought some Vicks medication that day but stopped taking it so the op wouldn’t be cancelled...

The deafness lasted most of today...

Anne is also still coughing away...

Roll on summer...

A visit to the physiotherapist today - she is pleased with my progress and has upgraded one exercise whilst adding another new one...

I now have nine albums sitting on the hard drive to burn to CD for posterity:-

Air; Bonnie “Prince” Billy; Joanna Newsom; Keith Jarrett; La Dusseldorf; Marillion; Matching Mole; The Good The Bad and The Queen; Yo La Tengo...

I also have numerous concerts by Rheostatics...

It’s things like these that drive me on – I don’t know what I’d do if one day I got to the stage where I had no jobs waiting to be done – of course, I am the supreme procrastinator...

That fount of all (web-based) knowledge, Wikipedia, says:-

"Procrastination is the deferment or avoidance of an action or task and is often linked to perfectionism.

For the person procrastinating this may result in stress, a sense of guilt, the loss of productivity, the creation of crisis, and the chagrin of others for not fulfilling one's responsibilities or commitments.

While it is normal for individuals to procrastinate to some degree, it becomes a problem when it impedes normal functioning. Chronic procrastination may be a sign of an underlying psychological or physiological disorder."

Hmm...

I realised tonight that I have become a “Coronation St” addict. I used to be able to quite easily miss a few episodes and come back to it without caring, but now I have to see every one...

Other telly? Why the latest episode of “Desperate Housewives” of course...

Also tonight, I created another experimental track on the new studio set up, again around 1:30 time wise, and no doubt destined to be an extra track on a CD single or something at some point...

And I downloaded the latest free track from DGM Live, another soundscape from Robert Fripp – I love that music...

This is the cover of his performance of 30 November 2000, played in the foyer of the World Financial Center, NY - which was of course destroyed 10 months later...



Hey ho...

Highlight of the Day : The moment my ear unblocked (no doubt only to block tomorrow...)

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Little victories...

Playlist
Dio - Master of the Moon
Bonnie "Prince" Billy - The Letting Go
95 Various Artists - The Best of the Best
Cloudland Blue Quartet - One Hour
The Good The Bad & The Queen - The Good The Bad & The Queen
Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Whip Your Ass
Air - Pocket Symphony

My 725th post and, well, well, well - a day of little victories...

I managed to use all the new software to produce a 1:30 instrumental track, the first of the new era...



Queen of the South beat Dundee in the Scottish Cup Replay, 4-2 on penalties after drawing 3-3. They went ahead twice in the last ten minutes of normal time only to pulled back twice...

They made it through extra time to get to the last sixteen, where they face Cowdenbeath. They're from a division below but they've accrued ten more points in their league than Queens have in the First - still, what a chance to reach the last eight!

Also downloaded the new Bonnie "Prince" Billy album I've been thinking of buying. It's very pleasant but I'm glad I didn't shell out £10 or £12 for it...

Also grabbed "The Good The Bad and The Queen", a promo of the upcoming Air album and the latest from Yo La Tengo...

Telly comprised "Judge John Deed", first of a two-parter and, earlier on, "Watchdog"...

That's it for tonight..

Highlight of the Day : Mon the Queens...

Monday, January 15, 2007

Gnasher...

Playlist
UK – The Best of UK
MIles Davis – Circle in the Round
Cloudland Blue Quartet – The Acoustic Ersatzreal
Miles Davis – Water Babies

Feeling a lot better today and, tonight, webmeister Craig popped round to help me out with the software for the new Crispycat Studio set up…

Of course there was much wailing, gnashing of teeth and, frankly, simple incomprehension at some of the things the Crispycat PC started doing…



In the end though we’d moved things forward significantly but a further visit will be required…

After Craig left, Anne and I sat up beyond midnight watching tonight’s double episode of “Coronation St” wherein Charlie died and Tracey was arrested for his murder…

Lock her up and throw away the key, I say…

Highlight of the Day : A vist from the webmeister

Sunday, January 14, 2007

After effects...

Playlist
King Crimson – USA
Various – Top 10 Singles & Albums 2006

Up at 9:00 today, but feeing grim…

On the PC I watched a couple of slide shows of all our photos of our holidays in Cereste and Amsterdam last year…

Then I had to go back to bed…

Woke again at 11:30, still feeling gruesome…

At 1, I took Anne to her mum’s as they were off to see Hearts v Celtic at Tynecastle (Hearts played well but lost 2-1 after being a goal up – same old story)..

I drove to Loanhead to take my mum out for lunch. January 14 has double significance for me – it was my Dad’s birthday and, five years ago, on my Dad’s second last birthday, I had to take Crispy the cat to the vet’s to be put to sleep – a very, very bad day…

Mum and I went to the Laird & Dog in Lasswade – where I used to go for a drink when I was at Lasswade High School…



Happy days…

The food was big and tasty but, unfortunately, I was incapable of eating the full portion of haggis neeps and tatties I’d ordered – I only ate half but it was twice as big as expected so that was ok I suppose…

Then back to Loanhead where we met up with big sister Sheila and the two of us constructed the exercise bike we bought our mum for Xmas…

I gave Sheila a lift home to Penicuik before heading back to town to Anne’s mum’s for the fortnightly family tea (despite the fact that we’d all been out for a meal last night)….

Due to the Hearts game, it was Chinese Takeaway but I didn’t order anything and just picked at a few of the myriad dishes weighing down Anne’s mum’s table …

After “Coronation St” we took Craig home and, back at Crispycat Towers, ended the day with “Match of the Day 2”…

I did a lot of groaning today and vowing never to drink again…

Till the next time…

Highlight of the Day : Going to bed at the end of it

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Hello, hello I'm back again...

Playlist
Various Composers – Music for a Quiet Evening
Allan Holdsworth – Road Games
Paul McCartney & Wings – Red Rose Speedway
Peter Gabriel – Up
The Bad Plus – Hotel
King Crimson – USA

Up at 7:00 and went downstairs with Meg the Black Cat, letting her out the catflap while I watched an entertaining piece of Sci-Fi hokum, “Paycheck”…

Just after 9 I drove over to Patisserie Florentin for croissants – Anne wasn’t up for going out anywhere – and I also bought some pate from the new Herbie’s delicatessen and a loaf of bread from the nearby Italian Bakery…

Then I drove across town to check out the German konditorei, Falko in Bruntsfield but it hadn’t opened yet so I made my way home…

Anne still not awake…

Watched episode 1 of Howard Goodall’s “How Music Works” – on melody – and discovered that the blues does indeed have its roots in classical music – Tudor classical music to be precise…

Finally Anne arose around 11 am and we had breakfast, then watched this week’s “Desperate Housewives”…

I relaxed for an hour or so, listening to Peter Gabriel’s excellent last album, “Up” which is five years old this year – time flies…

Then, for the first time since September, I got my guitar out and tried playing through a few songs – the arm held up well and I managed six songs in all – though I must say, from a performance point of view, it was pretty dire stuff – including the murder of Dido’s “White Flag”…

Setlist
No Concrete Idea
The Little Man
He Thinks of You
The End of Everything
Starting to Worry
White Flag

I wasted the rest of the afternoon watching Sky Sports News’s goals teleprinter then got ready to go out…

Tonight we were dining at Café St Honore with Anne’s family as part of everyone’s Xmas presents, as our secret Santa had been reduced to just £10 to allow everyone to have a slap up feed in January…

I shaved my head – here’s 19 days worth of hair…



We got the bus into town and, during the journey I tried to explain to Anne the plotline of “Paycheck” and the fact that the blues stem from Tudor classical music…

We met at Rick’s bar for a quick pre dinner drink, then to the restaurant for a superb meal…

Mine comprised Oysters, sirloin steak, crème brulee – accompanied by some very tasty white wine with the oysters and equally tasty red wine with the steak. Rounded off the evening with a latte…

Anne’s mum, her sister Jane and Jane’s husband Bobby then went off home leaving me, Anne, brother Keith, his girlfriend Maureen and Keith’s son Craig to wander the streets…

We found ourselves at The World in Thistle Street and, upon entering, realised it was karaoke night…

Of course by this time I was pretty far gone and it didn’t take much encouragement for me to get up and offer Abba’s “Dancing Queen” to the assembled throng. The fact that it was in completely the wrong key for me was neither here nor there. It just meant the verses were sung incredibly low and the choruses incredibly high…

But even that was nothing in comparison to the veritable screeching I performed during the refrain of Girls Aloud’s “Biology”…

In comparison, Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night” was a piece of cake and I rounded off my evening by duetting with Maureen as we took on Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe”…

Meanwhile a very embarrassed Keith gave us Ringo doing “With A Little Help From My Friends” and Craig rocked the joint with Van Morrson’s “Brown Eyed Girl”..

Anne maintained her dignity – though it did take her a good minute or so to recognise her old ten pin bowling partner Susan, who just happened to be in the bar and whom we’d not seen for years….

Anne and Susan were West Lothian Ladies Champions at one time (all Anne’s trophies are in the attic) – and Anne even once scored 8 strikes in a row (of course if you’re not a ten pin bowling fan you’ll have no idea what this means – rest assured though it’s not something which happens every day)…

Home by taxi at 2:30 – steaming…

Oh yes…

Highlight of the Day : Should really have been the meal but it was probably the Karaoke…

Friday, January 12, 2007

Not quite...

Playlist
Rheostatics – Barrymore’s Ottowa 1996 (2CD)
CPE Bach – The Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus
Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Introducing...
Cloudland Blue Quartet - The Acoustic Ersatzreal
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Deeperdown

To FOPP at lunchtime today and I bought an introduction to the music of Rahsaan Roland Kirk, which features highlights of his career with Atlantic from 1965-1976 (to which I am listening as I write – and good, occasionally weird, occasionally good-time stuff it is too). Mr Kirk was of course famous for his music but also for the fact that he was blind and had the ability to play two saxophones at once...



Later in the day I returned to HMV’s classical dept to try and help them out of their recently announced doldrums and bought CPE Bach’s “The Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus” - which was just the job back home in the kitchen as I helped Anne prepare tonight’s chicken curry with boiled rice and chapattis...

Mmm, mmm...

Highlight of the evening was the double bill of “Coronation Street” in which the most evil of evil young ladies, Tracey Barlow, attempted to murder less than nice Mr Charlie Stubbs. Everyone knew this was going to happen tonight but perhaps not that Mr Stubbs would survive the attack with a “weak pulse”..

I’m pretty sure the character will be dead by next Wednesday but am hoping against hope that Tracey finally gets the comeuppance she’s deserved for so long...

Mrs Quartet and I made a bit of a hash of re-enacting the attempted murder scene, and merely succeeding in knocking a glass of rather expensive Argentinean red wine off the arm of the settee (which I must admit was a pretty stupid place to put it) and on to the floor and all over the living room carpet, leaving shards of glass scattered around in a big puddle of tasty vino...

So the final scenes of the programme were watched at full volume in order that they might be heard over the sound of the hoover....

Idiots...

Later on I went on to my myspace site (which, for my sins, I seldom visit) and decided to add three songs to it, to join the demo version of "I Still Write You Letters" which features Mr James Jamieson on 2nd guitar....

I added "Starting to Worry" and "The End of Everything" from "The Acoustic Ersatzreal" and, another unrealeased song, "No Concrete Idea" and made them all downloadable too...

Do feel free to give them a listen...

Finished off the evening with the second in the new series of "Law & Order : Criminal Intent" - whose main character, Goren, would see through Tracey Barlow in seconds, if he'd happened to have been posted to Weatherfield for some reason...

Highlight of the Day : Corrie...

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Non-contributors...

Playlist
Marin Marais – Suites for Viole de Gambe
Mathilde Santing – Mathilde Mathilde (CD 1)
Glenn Gould – JS Bach Goldberg Variations (1981 Version)
Wetton/Downes – Icon
Wetton/Downes – Icon II Rubicon
Sarah Harmer – Sarah Harmer
Vladimir Horowitz – In the Hands of the Master (CD 3)

Tonight I called old chum James Jamieson to wish him a happy new year and ask if he fancied a visit to Out of the Bedroom...

He answered in the affirmative and so I drove round to pick him up just after 8pm...

Before leaving his house, we both had a go on his son, Conrad’s drum kit – we’ve still got it, I can tell you – but what “it” appears not to be, is any sense whatsoever of “rhythm”...

At OOTB we saw many well kennt faces and it was good to chat again with Chris Brown, John from Impossible Songs and the lovely Lindsay Sugden who, tonight, was in charge of writing the review...

Due to our tardy arrival, we had no chance of contributing to the night other than with our hearty applause...

Best act of the night for me was a young singer songwriter I’d not seen before, James Parkinson, who had a fine line in between song banter, including “if you know the words to this next one and want to sing along, I’ll be fucking surprised...”

He was probably not the same James Parkinson after whom Parkinson's disease is named...

We stayed to the bitter end before I gave Jamie a well deserved lift home – three pints of the old Nigerian lager had started to take effect on my musical cohort...

Back home just before midnight and Anne was still up and watching “This Week” and I joined her on the sofa...

And finally, in my lugs tonight, various piano pieces by the likes of Beethoven, Scarlatti, Schumann, Clementi, Chopin, Rachmaninov and Scriaben played by the master, Vladimir Horowitz....



Get down...

Highlight of the Day : Out of the bedroom with James Jamieson

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Blues averse....

Playlist
Robert Fripp – Starlight Evensong (CD-R)
Laurie Anderson – Talk Normal (2CD)
Various – Greatest Hits of 1972
Haydn – Symphony 22 “The Philosopher”
Haydn – Symphony 26 “Lamentatione”
Haydn – Symphony 53 “The Imperial”
John Mayall – Bluesbreakers
Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets

Wasted some time tonight watching Aberdeen v Hibs – dragged myself away at half time to exercise the shoulder whilst listening to some Haydn symphonies...

This morning, Mr Fripp’s soundscapes accompanied my breakfast while Laurie Anderson made a bus journey palatable...

No music as I wandered around Virgin and HMV again today but I finally relented and plugged into the Greatest Hits of 1972 – Elton, Glitter, Stewart etc etc...

I wonder how much longer there’ll be big music stores on our high streets?

Not much longer methinks but I continue to enjoy browsing there more than browsing online...

Looking (but not listening to) Glenn Gould's 4CD set of Bach's "Well Tempered Clavier" reminds me that playing live is a waste of time and effort...

Thanks Mr Gould...

Sid Smith’s round up of the year leads me to John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers....

Now, if you know me well, you will know that I hate the blues...

This album is ok though I suppose. I confess, I only have two blues CDs out of 4,500, this one and one by John Lee Hooker. I do also have “The Best of Ray Charles”, but some say that’s jazz (not me - I think it may be my third blues album)...

I can never listen to the whole of a blues album though, I always have to turn them off due to their total predictability, chord sequence-wise...

I do however acknowledge the debt to the blues owed by much of the music I like...

And so, tonight, my palate is cleansed by Captain Eno’s debut solo album from 1973, “Here Come the Warm Jets”...



Here they come indeed...

Grand...

Highlight of the Day : A little bit of this, a little bit of that...

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Concrete...

Playlist
Diego Ortiz - Recercadas del Trattado de Glosas 1553
Asia – Asia
Asia – Alpha
Forqueray – Pieces de Viole avec Basse Continue, Paris, 1747 (2CD)
Marin Marais – Grand Ballet (2CD)
Paolo Pandolfo – A Solo (Various Composers)
Alice Martineau - Daydreams

I love the Viole da Gamba and, today, I spent some time listening to two of the instrument's most expert exponents, Jordi Savaal and Paolo Pandolfo, playing various pieces written over a period of around 200 years...

Diego Ortiz (c.1510-c.1580) published his collection Trattado de Glosas (which includes extensive discussion of performance practice) in 1553. Little is known of his life aside from that date and the fact that he came from Toledo, near Madrid (I’ve been there)....

Despite this obscurity, his recercadas are some of the finest instrumental music of the 16th century, and his publication was a landmark...

Ortiz' works are highly illuminating from a purely musical point of view, as well as being unusual in that it is often scored for solo viol with harpsichord or organ accompaniment...

Marin Marais was born in Paris on May 31, 1656, and died there on August 15, 1728. In fact, he spent his entire life in Paris, never leaving the city...

He was the central figure in the French school of bass-viol composers and performers that flourished during the late 17th and early 18th centuries....

His contemporaries recognized him as an outstanding performer and a composer of stature whose works for viols and the operatic stage were known beyond the boundaries of France....

Antoine Forqueray (1672-1745) was one of the great viol players of his day, a man said to be the one player capable of challenging the great Marin Marais....

Ill-tempered and unpleasant (he behaved appallingly to both his wife and son), Forqueray published none of his music during his lifetime, asserting that learning from the printed page was lazy musicianship...

Thankfully, his “Pieces de Viole avec Basse Continue” were published two years after his death by his son, Jean-Baptiste...

It's some of the most complex music for Viole da Gamba ever written..

I urge you to check out the music of the Viole da Gamba – it really is some amazing music and so very relaxing...

Of course, in between all of this, I had the pomp and circumstance of 80’s supergroup, Asia - but that's another story...

I've added links to all of these people for your further edification...

As we ate our lovely big salad tonight, we caught the consumer protection programme, “Watchdog” and there was one story in particular which made my blood boil...

People with Cystic Fibrosis, a disease of the lungs, require extensive supplies of oxygen to live – and to leave their homes they need small portable bottles...

These are people with very short life expectancies once this disease is diagnosed – indeed, as one sufferer said, their lungs are like sponges which are slowly being filled with concrete...

And so, in its wisdom, a couple of years ago, "our" Government decided to privatise the supply to sufferers of this vital oxygen....

Since then, the supply has been erratic to say the least and, in fact, one woman died because her supply was delivered 8 hours late...

I feel like screaming at Mr Tony Blair to GET THIS FUCKING WELL SORTED RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!!

Mind you, bad language gets you nowhere...

And of course, the company now receiving our hard earned tax-payers' cash from "our" government to provide this service which the NHS used to handle very well, thank you very much, issued a very apologetic statement but that’s about all we’re ever likely to hear...

A couple of years ago I bought a CD by a songstress by the name of Alice Martineau. She suffered from this disease and struggled to make the album (click on the link for the story). By the time I bought it, she was already dead....

It’s a really rather good pop album with some cracking tracks, so, if you see it, do grab it....



It was the soundtrack to much of our Austrian holiday of 2005...

Also tonight I watched “Nostradamus : The Truth” which passed an hour...

Funny how no-one ever interprets his verses before something happens, only in retrospect...

However, one interviewee did stick his neck out by saying Nostradamus clearly predicted that Charles would be passed over for King and that Harry rather than William would succeed Elizabeth - and that George W Bush would be assassinated – an act which will have devastating consequences....

We shall see...

Highlight of the Day : 16th, 17th and 18th Century Musicking

Monday, January 08, 2007

Slow...

Playlist
Diego Ortiz - Recercadas Del Grattado El Glosas, 1553
Yellow Matter Custard - One Night in NYC (2CD)
Robert Fripp/King Crimson - At The End of Time (DGM Live Downloads)
Robert Fripp - Starlight Evensong (DGM Live Downloads)

A slow day...

Returned to HMV - bought nothing - considered a disc of CPE Bach choral works - bought nothing...

Neal Morse and Mike Portnoy's Yellow Matter Custard's 2CD live set of Beatle covers live in NYC brought a smile to my face as I wandered around...

On telly watched precocious children on "Junior Mastermind" followed by "Coronation St", followed by "University Challenge" (I answered approximately 10 questions) followed by "Coronation St"'s second episode of the night...

Just before retiring upstairs to exercise, I caught the return of Johnny Vegas and Monkey in a new add for PG Tips which referenced their old adds for the defunct set top boxes - brilliant...

Whilst exercising, I listened to a recently burned compilation of King Crimson and Robert Fripp downloads and decided to burn another with more tracks I've taken for free (legitimately I might add) from www.dgmlive.com - this time, purely Robert Fripp soundscapes - eight pieces, just over an hour - heavenly music corporation indeed...



A quick cover mock up, print the disc, put it all in a CD box, then back to the spare room for another round of exercising whilst lisening to Mr Fripp's handiwork...

A slow day...

And happy 60th birthday to David Bowie too...

Highlight of the Day : Good music in my ears

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Abersomething...

Playlist
JC Bach - Quintets & Sextet
CPE Bach & WF Bach - Symphonies & Concertos
Philip Glass - Piano Music
Glenn Gould - Goldberg Variations (1955 Version)
Miles Davis – Circle in the Round (CD2)
Models – Collection
Various Composers – Your 100 Best Tunes (CD1)
Cloudland Blue Quartet – Skylines Full of Cranes/Do As Others Do
Mozart – Clarinet Concerto
Mozart – Flute, Harp & Orchestra Concerto
Rheostatics - Raise a Little Band (Radio Documentary)
Various - Destination Out Top 10 Downloads 2006

Slept late (8:24) then got up and listened to the new CD of JC Bach’s quintets and sextet whilst watching the last 45 minutes or so of last night’s FA Cup “Match of the Day”...

Then upstairs to do some exercises whilst listening to a couple of symphonies by CPE Bach and WF Bach - what a prolific lot the Bachs were...

By the time Anne was up and we were ready to leave the house it was just after 11. We drove to our breakfast favourite, Patisserie Florentin...



We noticed that Herbie’s Delicatessen, the place in Stockbridge from where we sometimes get lovely bread, has opened a sit-in branch a couple of doors up from PF. It wasn’t open today but one for the future perhaps...



On the spur of the moment, I suggested we drive to Fife to the small town of Aberlady. However, Anne pointed out that Aberlady’s actually in East Lothian....

True enough – I was thinking of Aberdour, to where, in 1975, my local church had its Sunday School Trip – buses with streamers out the windows, sports competitions and bags full of goodies (actually probably just a sausage roll and a bun...)

So thirty minutes after finishing our late breakfast, we parked up at Aberdour railway station....



We took a leisurely walk down to the beach and a long the sands and back...

Very relaxing indeed...



We walked back to the car and drove on to the rather less picturesque Burntisland, all the time accompanied by the piano works of Mr Philip Glass...

Finding nowhere to lunch, we ended up at the Tesco Metro in Dalgetty Bay and purchased some lovely soup and a small baguette and headed for home...

Here we found that Dunfermline had knocked the mighty Glasgow Rangers out of the cup and that Hearts are away to the Pars in the next round while, if they can overcome Dundee at home in a replay, QoS will play either Cowdenbeath or Brechin City – both from divisions below, which must give the Queens a fighting chance of getting into the last eight...

Dundee will probably beat them knowing my luck though...

I watched Man U beat Aston Villa whilst listening to Glenn Gould’s 1955 rendition of JSBach’s Goldberg Variations, then did the weekend’s washing up to the sounds of Mr Miles Davis’ “Circle in the Round” ...

Ah you can’t beat this rock’n’roll lifestyle of mine...

We watched the second episode of the 3d series of “Desperate Housewives” then I was reading some stuff on the net whilst enjoying my new Models compilation when Anne gave me the shout that someone was about to win £250k on “Deal or No Deal”...

They did indeed win...

I keep reminding myself I have no chance of winning the lottery as, the odds of two people from the same primary school class each winning £8M are pretty high – and someone from my primary school class has already won £8M....

However, if I did win, I might just buy one of the lovely big houses within walking distance of the beach at Aberdour...



I hatched a plan to buy ten lucky dip tickets a week for the next ten Saturday draws and see how much cash I have at the end. I am willing to wager I will have £0 left out of £100...

In the evening we listened to some well known classics then watched “Coronation St” whilst waiting for an Indian takeaway to arrive (Anne had a hankering – I was ready for beans on toast if needs be)...

We ate the takeaway whilst watching the opening episode of “Ugly Betty” which I feel will become a staple over the next few weeks...

Then as Anne enjoyed her daily dose of “Soapstar Superstar”, it was more exercises for me to the delightful Clarinet Concerto by Mozart...

Rounded off the day by downloading the top ten downoads of 2006 from Free Jazz Bog-Site Destination Out...

Far out, man...

A good Sunday...

Highlight of the Day : A trip to Aberdour

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Blind...

Playlist
Various – Trance Nation Anthems
Ferry Corsten – Aria Montreal 15/4/05 (CD 1)
Schubert - Octet
CPE Bach - Concertos & Symphonies
Heaven 17 - The Best of Heaven 17
Miles Davis - Circle in the Round

Listened to some Trance music this morning – I like Trance music, especially Ferry Corsten..

After a late breakfast we walked to the bus stop to go into town. We needed a new toaster...

We sat at the front upstairs and, a couple of stops further on, it seemed a guy got on who was having a mobile phone conversation...

However, a few minutes later, smelling cigarette smoke, I looked round to see him right up the back of the bus, swigging from a can of Special Brew, smoking a roll up and carrying on a conversation with himself rather loudly...

Rather than confronting him, we just went downstairs. However his behaviour must have become too much for someone else as, a couple of stops further on, the driver stopped the bus and went upstairs and asked him to get off – which, to his credit, he did with very little bother...

He was obviously mentally ill in some way...

In Debenhams on Princes St we found the toaster of our dreams...

Then to Boots where I bought a pair of reading glasses so that I can see the small print on my CDs...

At 12:30 we made our way to a little Thai restaurant in Thistle St, Dusit, for lunch and very enjoyable it was too – we shared a thai red curry with beef and stir fried chicken and vegetables in a plum sauce...

Then we split up as Anne went round her shops and I went round mine...

I finally spent the £10 FOPP token, purchasing Miles Davis' 1979 compilation of previously unreleased tracks, “Circle in the Round” and “The Best of Heaven 17”...



Bearing in mind my stated aim of restricting myself to ten CDs per month, I should’ve left it there...

But no. I had to go to the other FOPP and to Avalanche....

Success – I found nothing...

However, the bus I got from up there was one from which I had to change at Princes St and I alighted opposite HMV and couldn’t resist going in...

I went upstairs to the classical dept and a load of new stock had obviously been added since the last time I was there...

Using some of the money my mum gave me for Xmas I bought the following:-

CPE Bach - Concertos & Symphonies (£3)
Schubert - Octet (£3)
JC Bach - Quintets & Sextet (£3)
CPE Bach & WF Bach - Symphonies & Concertos (£3)
Glass - Piano Music (£3)
Glenn Gould - A State of Wonder - The Complete Goldberg Variations 1955 & 1981 (3CD) (£5)

And so I have now already acquired 10 CDs in January and it’s only the 6th – and that’s not counting the 3CDs of downloads from the ultra hip Pitchfork site...

I realise that my problem is that I just cannot resist what I perceive to be a “bargain”...

All the music I have bought today is, in my eyes (or to my ears), “good” music and well worth £30 in total. The trouble is, I will probably listen to it all the way through just once and then it’ll meld into the library...

But it remains available to me should I wish – for example, the Trance music I was listening to this morning probably hasn’t been out of its box for well over a year...

I started listening to the new discs as soon as I got home - and used my first-ever specs to help me read the sleeve notes...



Old codger...

TV highlights today were the last episode of Series 2 of “Desperate Housewives” followed by the first of Series Three – both on tape...

Finished off the day listening to my new CDs before watching “Sportscene” (with the headphones on as the listening continued) featuring all the goals from today's Scottish Cup games, including Stranraer 0 Hearts 4 and Dundee 1 Queen of the South 1...

Highlight of the Day : Rediscovering Heaven 17

Friday, January 05, 2007

Theft...

Playlist
Ursa Major – Ursa Major
ProjeKct One РJazz Caf̩ Suite
Mathilde Santing – Under Your Charms
Girls Aloud – Chemistry
Various – Pitchfork Collection
La Dusseldorf - La Dusseldorf
Joanna Newsom – The Milk Eyed Mender

New exercises introduced today by my ace physio lady, Kerry. However, I also discover I’ve been doing one of the original ones wrongly – I suppose I should’ve guessed due to the pain factor when doing it “my way” being “not too bad”...

Rest assured the correct way is indeed the producer of much pain...

I walked around HMV with the Bonnie “Prince” Billy CD in my hand for a while, then put it back...

At home, Anne had made another superb curry tonight and this may become a regular event ( I hope so anyway)...

Post curry, and post “Coronation St” I was driven away by the pish that is “Eastenders” and browsed a few illicit MP3 download blogs around the world, deciding to grab a copy of Joanna Newsom’s “The Milk Eyed Mender”...



What an annoying little baby voice she has – however, the effect of this diminishes as the album progresses and you find yourself being drawn into Ms Newsom’s strange world...

Also downloaded a two hour fan-documentary on Rheostatics from the Rheostatics-Live fan-site..

Then telly – and the return of one of my favourite shows, “Law & Order : Criminal Intent”, followed by David Tennant (Dr Who) hosting Justin Lee Collins and Alan Carr’s “Friday Night Project”...

Very entertaining...

Off to bed with various aches and pains...

Highlight of the Day : Anne’s cooking

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Not enough time in the world...

Playlist
Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
OK Go - Oh No
Led Zeppelin - II
Adrian Belew - Side Three
Models - Collection
The Killers - Sam's Town
Various - Pitchfork Compilation (3CD-R)
Robert Fripp/Brian Eno - DGM Downloads

To FOPP today armed with a £10 FOPP token - but failed miserably to find anything which took my fancy - I think I want to buy Bonnie "Prince" Billy's new album as recommended in The Wire's year end list - I may bite the bullet tomorrow...

Back home, the second CD of 2007 was behind the door - a best of entitled "Collection" by Aussie 80's band who no-one in the UK has probably ever heard of - Models...

Anyway, I like it, and I like yesterday's Adrian Belew disc which is playing as I type - he really is a very talented man...



Both discs were purchased in 2006 and merely arrived in 2007 - I am now four days in to the year and haven't bought a CD - I really am going to try and stick to 10 discs a month...

Of course I've downloaded 52 tracks from the Pitchfork site this year and burned them to a 3CD-R set...

Idiot...

I was half thinking of going along to Out of the Bedroom tonight but still not feeling great and my leg was giving me particularly bad and annoying gyp today, leaving me hobbling around like a hobbler...

I was buoyed however by the review of OOTB from just before Xmas as I saw that my good old chum, Mr James Jamieson, played CBQ's "Skylines Full of Cranes" at the special Xmas Covers Night...

Cheers Jamie...

Telly tonight was the "Green Wing" special...

Anne recorded "Holby" whilst listening to a radio programme about Hearts - and so the programmes to be watched are piling up along side the music to be listened to...

Not enough time in the world...

Highlight of the Day : Listening to new music

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Never hip...

Playlist
Various – Pitchfork Collection (3CD-R)
Frost* - Milliontown
Grandaddy – Just Like the Fambly Cat
Adrian Belew – Side Three

Hurrah – out today – and walking around would you believe?

However Anne is now back at work following the holiday period – even though she is nowhere near 100%...

Today I put £36 into my Ridacard, headed into town and promptly lost my card by accidentally flicking it out of my pocket while trying to see how long there was left on a track by Frost* (the asterisk is part of the band’s name)...

Listening to this 2006 Prog Rock opus puts all the Pitchfork stuff into perspective...

I realise I can never be hip...

Whilst the latter is, in places, charming and shiny and new – in general terms the tracks are made by people who really can’t play their instruments all that well and have little understanding of how music works...

Frost* on the other hand know exactly how it works and can play their instruments like billy-oh – making for a much more interesting listen for me...

Having said that, I’ll stick with the hip stuff because there is a place for it...

Unlike Frost*, when listening to Pitchfork, I find myself saying, “maybe I could do something like that”...

Anyway...

I paid £5 for a replacement Ridacard and, having eschewed all tempting offers at the HMV sale, made my way home on a horrible cold and blustery, rainy night...



A new CD (purchased at the end of last year on e-bay) Adrian Belew’s “Side Three” had arrived and I gave it a first quick, cursory listen..

I am afraid to say the rest of the evening was spent entirely in front of the telly:-

Expedition Borneo (it was on while we ate...)
Coronation Street
Holby City (I got sucked in...)
Torchwood (excellent series-concluding two parter – I will be back for the next series)
The Old Grey Whistle Test Story (took me back to the days of my youth)
The Whistle Test Years 1971, 1972, 1973 (recorded most of this for later viewing once the task of taping tonight’s first to episodes of Series Three of “Desperate Housewives” had been completed)..

Christmas is over...

Highlight of the Day : OGWT probably...

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Exercise...

Playlist
Various – 150 Favourite Albums of 2006 Playlist
Helene Grimaud – Reflection (Chopin & Rachmaninov)
Various –Favourite Singles and Albums of 2006 (CD-R)
Dido – Live at Brixton
Sarah McLachlan – Afterglow
Various – Pitchfork’s Top 100 Tacks of 2006

So – determined to go out today – Anne had stated breakfast and an evening meal...

In the event, I was up at 7:40 to do a few things on the PC...

Two hours later still no sign of Anne – she was too ill to do anything this morning so I drove to Patisserie Florentin to get some croissants – they had none – most likely due to the holidays – so I picked up a couple of BLT Baguettes and headed back...

Made breakfast than printed off all the covers for the CDs I’ve been downloading recently and for those which webmeister Craig gave me from his shoebox...

We do manage a short tip out in the afternoon and buy a replacement jersey for me re one recently shrunk in the wash, plus some nice new plain white coffee cups and a new chopping board..

This is enough to knacker Anne though and we return home, where she listens to the footie on the radio (1-0 to Hearts away at Dunfermline; 0-4 QoS to local rivals Gretna – now 4 points adrift at the bottom of the league while Gretna sit top) while I cut and apply the CD covers...

Instead of the intended meal out, we settle for a Chinese from faraway takeaway New Happy Palace – I drive there and back to pick up...

Excellent nosh...

In the meantime, I have discovered Pitchfork’s top 100 tracks of 2006 – and downloaded and burned to a 3CD set, containing 52 of these tracks (every one which was made available – others can be streamed and some offer views of videos)...

It makes for an eclectic selection with some gems and some dross...

I like this completely new music by people who, in the main, I’ve never even heard of...

Telly tonight comprises “This Life + 10” which passed the time but wasn’t really needed – though I suppose it was good to see these characters again – and the sublime “The Thick of It” which introduced a new character – the world-weary shadow minister, sick of all the “hug a hoodie” bollocks of the New Tory party...

Walking today consisted of:-

a) around the house
b) to the car
c) from the car

I had no lunch though....

Highlight of the Day : The Thick of It

Monday, January 01, 2007

Stock take...

Playlist
Alice Cooper – Billion Dollar Babies
King Crimson – Jukebox Best of Playlist
Various – Best of 2006
The Bad Plus – Suspicious Activity
Reid Anderson – Abolish Bad Architecture
Various – The House That Trane Built
Various – 150 Favourite Albums of 2006 Playlist

Reasonable sleep and up at 6am and onto the computer to finish off compiling my best of 2006 for yesterday’s post – then burned a CD with 20 tracks, each of the top ten singles and a track from each of the top ten albums...

We are both still ill and so are going nowhere today...

Watched the New Year’s Day concert from Vienna – as we did last year – then I retired upstairs to exercise my shoulders while listening to the new compilation...

Fell asleep on the floor...

Back downstairs to find Anne watching “Mrs Henderson Presents...” of which I also then partook. A fine little film with good performances from Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins. The true story of the Windmill Theatre before and during WWII which you can read about here...

Reading the diary at the start of 2006 led me back to MoMA New York where I viewed some artworks...

One of the current exhibitions is by Brice Marsden – apparently he paints with twigs – though I suspect he didn’t always, judging by his older works anyway...



Compiled a 2,000 odd track playlist of my best 150 CDs of 2006 per yesterdays list...

Watched the second half of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, their use of Neuschwanstein Castle reminding us of our great Alpine Tour of 2003 – maybe time for something like that again in 2007?

What else for 2007?

Well, I have 15 songs ready to be recorded for my next album but the arm is still not in guitaring mode and I’m waiting for webmeister Craig to return from New York to set up the software to allow the proposed new way of musicking to commence...

I am supposed to be a musician and artist – yet I haven’t painted for years...



Perhaps I ought to paint this year?

I buy far too many CDs – over 300 in 2006 and, on average one CD EVERY DAY for the last EIGHT YEARS – this is plainly too many to allow me to actually get to know the music...

And so I should perhaps resolve to maintain new input to the collection to say around ten a month?

For, while the library of music available to me is expanding at a colossal rate, my time for actual listening is getting ever shorter as I hurtle towards death...

I have also noticed over the last couple of years that I define myself by the number of CDs I own – which is pathetic and I need to move away from that...

My social skills are almost non-existent – I need to get out and about a bit more in 2007 and have more people round to Crispycat Towers too....

I pride myself in not watching much TV but, in reality, it seems I watch it every night. In my defence, I would say that I very, very rarely watch telly for the sake of watching – I will usually have something “better” to do..

Oops, I’m getting a little into “dear diary” (thoughts and feelings) mode here rather than “this is what I did today” (action) mode...

So I can advise that, tonight we bought a couple of pizzas from the only place open in Corstorphine and watched “Coronation St” and “Match of the Day”...

We are DETERMINED to get out of the house tomorrow no matter how we feel...

We have both been ill now since 23 December and 10 days hanging about feeling sorry for ourselves as we cough our guts up and only making pre-arranged family visits is enough to drive anyone insane...

So it’s onwards and upwards into 2007...

Happy New Year!!

Highlight of the Day : Taking stock