Princes and angels...

Playlist
Bonnie Prince Billy - The Letting Go
Various - Jukebox on Shuffle Play (over 12,000 Tracks)
21st Century Schizoid Band - live in Japan 2002 (DVD)
Peter Gabriel - Still Growing Up (DVD)
Explosions in the Sky - All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
Cluster - Sowiesoso

Wandered along Rose St today and really shouldn't have needed to go into FOPP seeing as how I must've downloaded over 20 new albums over the weekend...

Anyway, I went in and I ended up buying these two DVDs...





The Schizoid Band is good but the Gabriel is great and made me want to get all my Gabriel CDs out...

On telly, I am trying to wean myself off of "Coronation St" and so gave it a miss tonight. Was, however, entertained by "New Tricks" and "Ruddy Hell It's Harry and Paul" - oh, and the highlights of Hearts thrashing Celtic 3-1 at the Potato Bowl...

And the Explosions in the Sky album is brilliant! Thanks to Count Brodski for the recommendation...

Oh - and I also downloaded the classic Cluster album "Sowiesoso"...

Happy days...

Highlight of the Day : The Angel Gabriel

Of bees and men...

Playlist
Ars Nova – Fear and Anxiety
Mingo Lewis – Flight Never Ending
Nektar – Journey to the Centre of the Eye
Tangerine Dream – Live at Sheffield City Hall 29/10/74
The League of Gentlemen – Better in the Dark (Live 4/5/80)
La Dusseldorf - La Dusseldorf
John McLaughlin – Industrial Zen
Allan Holdsworth – Touching On
Anekdoten – Nucleus
Godspeed You Black Emperor – F#A# Infinity [EP]
Godspeed You Black Emperor – Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada [EP]
Rush – Snakes and Arrows
Rush – 18 (CD-R)
Deep Purple – Anthology
Porcupine Tree – Fear of a Blank Planet
Billy Cobham's Glass Menagerie - Stratus

Up early again and I’m drawn once more to the download sites...

An album I was looking at yesterday and which turns out to be a bit of a jazz fusion masterpiece is Mingo Lewis’s “Flight Never Ending”. Master percussionist Mr Lewis played with Al Di Meola for a while before turning up in one of my all-time favourite bands, The Tubes (which is how I know of him)...



I also found a concert from Tangerine Dream’s halcyon days in 1974, part of which was used in their album “Ricochet”...



As we breakfasted we listened to La Dusseldorf’s debut album while watching some cookery show with the sound down – it seems you can’t switch on the telly these days without a cookery show playing on one channel or another...



After breakfast, I washed up the dishes (and last night's) whilst listening to a CD from Allan Holdsworth, the existence of which I was unaware of until yesterday...



Then I took some time to sort out some CDs which have been lying around for a while in no particular order, having been relegated from the “Latest 100” shelf in the living room to the back bedroom...

Then I burned a couple of discs – Rush and Godspeed You Black Emperor, the latter failing to work on any of my CD players for some reason – poetic justice perhaps...




Apparently, according to Einstein "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man"...


This gem turned up on David Byrne’s blog entry of 24 April – which is weird because John from Impossible Songs mentioned the exact same thing last Saturday as we were dining chez Crispycat...


C’mon the bees!!


Doesn’t look good though - more than a quarter of the honeybees in the U.S. have vanished according to the New York Times while German magazine Der Spiegel reports that beekeepers on the east coast of the United States have lost more than 70 percent of their stock since late last year, while the west coast has seen a decline of up to 60 percent...


Mr Byrne puts forward the theory that it may be a conspiracy involving the producers of Genetically Modified Food...


While I mucked about on the PC, compiling a new 18 track Rush compilation (one song from each of their studio albums from 1974-2007) and read various things, including this about the bees, it occurred to me how hopeless I am and how pathetically worthless my life and everything I do is....

Reading Mr Byrne's blog, I couldn't help thinking that I can't remember the last time I had an original thought...


And I spend almost every free moment I have either listening to other people’s music or creating music which no-one else will ever hear...

Anyway, not to worry - after all, we're all just waiting to die...

While I was, ahem, "busy" doing all this, Hearts, in turn, were busy thrashing Celtic 3-1 at the potato bowl and justice was done at last - I'm tired of Celtic winning ugly and the very, very annoying little gnaff who manages the team...

Unfortunately, the thrashing didn’t seem to ruin the ‘Tic’s celebrations as they collected the SPL Championship Trophy...

We cooked together tonight for the first time in a while – a fairly simple pasta bake with salami – and we grooved in the kitchen to the strains of Deep Purple, fuelled by a nice drop of Chianti...



Two episodes each of “Everybody Hates Chris” and “Joey” were followed by “Coronation Street” before I retired upstairs to do some background on a trip to Ireland soon – Limerick and Cork beckon – and to write this up...



The new albums by Rush (above) and Porcupine Tree (below) entertained me as I surfed, cut, pasted, typed and printed...




In normal Sunday fashion, “Match of the Day 2” finished off the day...

Highlight of the Day : Groovin’ and Cookin’

77 million albums...

Playlist
Dar Williams – The Best of (2CD-R)
Ian Carr’s Nucleus – Roots
Birdsongs of the Mesozoic – Sonic Geology
Brian Eno - Music for 77 Million Paintings
Ars Nova – The Book of the Dead
Marillion – The Jingle Book
Alice Cooper – Very Best of 1971-2005 (CD-R)
Arcade Fire – The Arcade Fire EP
Le Orme - Piccola rapsodia dell'ape
Arctic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare
National Health – Missing Pieces
A Silver Mount Zion – He Has Left Us Alone...
Ars Nova – Fear and Anxiety
Various – Burning for Buddy Vol 1 (Produced by Neal Peart)
Anekdoten – Nucleus
Fennesz/Sakamoto - Cendre
Marilyn Manson – Heart Shaped Glasses
ProjeKct 6 – End Time
Rush – Snakes and Arrows
Godspeed You Black Emperor – F#A#Infinity
Godspeed You Black Emperor – Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada
Lou Reed – Hudson River Wind Meditations

Up at 7:15 and to the PC to continue some downloading...

Got the new Marilyn Manson single last night – this morning I go systematically through my list of “MP3 Blogs”....

There are some legendary prog names like Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, Nektar, Ian Carr's Nucleus, Ars Nova, Le Orme, Fruupp and loads of stuff I’ve never even heard of over at Demusica Alterque...

And, for the best collection of ambient, weird, electronic, kraut rock etc, including Brian Eno’s “Music for 77 Million Paintings”, have a look at Faunigena...



We were going to drive down to Dumfries for the last QoS game of the season but I had a dentist’s appointment at 11:50 which was taken late and at which I had a filling removed and shored up for future work – this conspired to have us forego our trip and return to base for the afternoon...

But not before a wee walk around the Old Town...



In the graveyard of this church is the resting place of the remains of the economist Adam Smith...

As Anne listened to the unfolding of the fight between St Johnstone and Gretna for promotion from the 1st Division to the SPL, I was listening to new music as it arrived on the hard drive (whilst watching the BBC’s videoprinter)...

In the end, with Queens thrashed 3-0 at home to Airdrie, I was kind of glad we’d not gone along. Last year’s last day game ended in a similar defeat from Dundee...

Gretna won promotion with almost the last kick of the game...

In the evening we watched last week’s “Dr Who” followed by this week's – the latest Dalek adventure – just four of the beasties living in New York in 1930 – not the best Dalek story I’ve seen but, at the end, I’m pretty sure the one remaining Dalek must be the one that turned up in the first “new” series a couple of years ago in the episode entitled "Dalek" (which I bought on DVD yesterday for nephew Ollie's Dr Who-fest)...

For the first time in a few weeks, an Indian takeaway provided the evening meal and we rounded the day off with “CSI:New York” and “Law & Order”...

Highlight of the Day : Loads of new music

Codebreakers...

Playlist
Laura Pausini - E Ritorno da Ti
ProjeKct 1 – Jazz Café Suite
David Bowie – Let’s Dance
Grand Funk Railroad – Thirty Years of Funk
Tool – 10,000 Days
The Church – The Blurred Crusade
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Ersatzreal
Schnittke - Requiem
Various – Downloads from Destination Out

I left home today on a mission...

I believed we had the episodes from last year’s “Dr Who” series where the Cybermen and Daleks slugged it out – and, on the strength of this belief, we’d arranged for nephew Ollie to come by Crispycat Towers to watch it...

He’s now a big Dr Who fan, even though he’s only seen three episodes (but never Daleks or Cybermen)....

He is 6....

Anyway, last night we checked the video in question only to find that we didn’t have the second of the two parts – i.e. we had virtually 10 seconds of “Dalek action”...

And so it was that I made my way to HMV and Virgin in search of the relevant DVD...

Suffice to say they didn’t have it but I did manage to get 2 discs from the Christopher Eccleston series which featured Dalek stories....

I also picked up this 10CD set of various Requiems for £13...



Tasty....

Back home, Ollie had been “delivered” by his mum, Jane who, along with niece Kitty, visited for around an hour or so before I arrived back to find Jane and Kitty gone and Anne making Spaghetti Bolognese while Ollie read his much-leafed Dr Who comics....

We had our spaghetti (with ice cream and grapes/banana for pudding) then settled down to watch the two-parter which ends with Eccleston morphing into the current Doctor, David Tennant – great stuff!

Around 8.30, Anne took Ollie back home...

Later, as we watched “Ugly Betty” and “Law & Order : Criminal Intent”, we realised how hellish it must be to have children full-time. They absolutely demand your attention 100% and your own life must surely just go out the window...

No concentrating on telly...

No recording on the computer without interruptions...

No heat of the moment trips to Manchester to see The Blue Nile...

No holidays without the kids...

We realised we are blessed by having been able to break the encoding of all animals to procreate and lose their lives to their young...

Having said all that though, we enjoyed having Ollie round (for a couple of hours) and will do it again soon – after all, there’s more Dr Who to watch...

I ended the evening by downloading the latest tracks from the great Destination Out website – check it out – crazy jazz!!

Highlight of the Day : Dr Who fest with wee Ollie...

Staying up, bowing out...

Playlist
Brahms – Piano Sonatas
CBQ – Ersatzreal
CBQ – Best of 1996-2006

Bummer today as it was announced Queen of the South manager Ian McCall will leave after Saturday’s game against Airdrie Utd, the last of the season...

He reckons with 3 to 5 more really good players, Queens could be competing for promotion. The last two seasons the team has finished 8th, both times after a hard fought struggle to stay in the division...



But there’s no cash to do this, so it’s adios...

We had an ok season belying the 8th place finish in the league – QoS reached the quarter finals of the Scottish Cup for the first time in 30 years, only to be narrowly beaten by Hibernian, they have just seen the end of their longest unbeaten run for 20 years and have only lost 7 of their last 20 games, one of which was the Hibs tie...

As we did last year, we’ll be at the last game of the season – now they’ve secured another year in Division One, I can no longer be a hoodoo...

No musicking again today (other than listening) and, in the evening, we watched a taped “CSI:New York” followed by “Question Time” and “This Week”...

Highlight of the Day : CSI : New York – yes, things have sunk that low...

Orange...

Playlist
Rheostatics - 2nd Last Concert (Discs 2 & 3)
Andrew Hill - Grass Roots
CBQ - Ersatzreal
Rheostatics - Last Concert (Highlights)



To the gym again tonight (after "Coronation St" of course) and I found it a little annoying that the TV in front of my treadmill was showing cookery programmes with lots of lovely food...

Back home, we watched "Grand Designs" and "Desperate Housewives"...

That was about it today, other than Anne buying far too many Satsumas....

I am looking forward to acquiring new albums by:-
Rush
Marillion
Porcupine Tree
Lucy Kaplansky
Arcade Fire
The Bad Plus

Highlight of the Day : Getting some exercise...

Twenty two...

Playlist
Rheostatics - 2nd Last Concert (CD 1)
Andrew Hill - Black Fire
Andrew Hill - Dance With Death
John Gorka - The Company You Keep
Frost - Milliontown

The Rheostatics fest continued today...

At lunchtime, whilst browsing through my regular links, I discovered that the jazz pianist Andrew Hill died on 20 April...



There is a wonderfully appreciative piece on Mr Hill over at The Bad Plus - Do The Math and, as I read this, I listened to some of the man's great recordings for Blue Note from the 1960's...

You can watch a video of his last performance (filmed on 29 March at Trinity Church in New York) here - worth a few minutes of your time surely...

In the evening we drove out to my mum's for a visit and to sort out her new all-in-one remote control...

This took longer than expected and, while we did so, we watched the Man Utd v AC Milan game. It seemed every time a goal was scored though, we had the TV off or on a different channel whilst trying to sort out the remote...

When I went to make coffee for us, while looking in the fridge for the milk and the cupboard for the sugar, it occured to me how lonely it might be to be old and living on your own. My mum must love it when sister Pam comes up to stay with her every so often...

All-in-all though, she seemed in good spirits...

Back home and joy for Anne as her arch-rivals Hibernian FC had been defeated in the Scottish Cup semi final by bottom of the league Dunfermline (Dr Prog's team). It ended 1-0 via a late penalty, which was cheekily "dinked" into the centre of the net as the goalie dived to his right...

Chum Spike advises that Hibs have now played over 330 games in the Scottish Cup since they last won it in 1902...

Hearts fans and their Hibs stats eh?...

Highlight of the Day : A visit to my mum's...

Rheo-tastic...

Playlist
Ursa Major - Ursa Major
Kansas - The Best of Kansas
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Ersatzreal
Rheostatics - Last Ever Concert (CBC 1 Hr Broadcast)
Rheostatics - Second Last Ever Concert (Full 3hr Concert)

Couldn't sleep this morning after waking at 5:15 so listened to guitarist Dick Wagner's late 60's early 70's Detroit band "Ursa Major", one track from which includes themes used later on Alice Cooper's second solo album from 1976, "Alice Cooper Goes to Hell"...

Then, the best of Kansas - a much maligned band whom I quite like...

Lunch today uptown at the Balmoral Hotel - no CDs purchased...

In the evening, as Anne was out keeping fit, I had a look through my regular links and, whilst browsing the Rheostatics, found one to CBC's hour long broadcast of highlights from their last ever concert on 30 March this year - I recorded it to mini-disc for later burning to CD...

If you follow the link above and you don't know Rheostatics, I suggest you start with the song "Claire"...



Then I found a link to a band sanctioned download of a soundboard recording of their second last ever gig - the small club warm up to the arena the following night...

Watched "New Tricks" (enjoyable but rubbish really) and "Ruddy Hell it's Harry and Paul", which is shaping up to be a good replacement for the much missed "Fast Show"...

Then, rather foolishly, I stayed up till beyond 1 am burning the 2nd last Rheos show to a 3CD set - the gig lasted almost 3 hours...

Highlight of the Day : Rheostatics

Uncle David's cheating...

Playlist

CBQ – Ersatzreal

Happy Apple – Youth Oriented

Impossible Songs – Rough Boys

Thad Jones – Detroit New York Junction

Up at 7 and washed all the dishes from last night...

Then on to the PC and tidied up the files for the new album, transferring the latest MP3s to the Jukebox – Meg the Black Cat helped out by directing matters from the shelf above the computer desk...

Out for breakfast around 10 – to a new venue, Café Citron at Blackhall. We drive past this place on our way to Patisserie Florentin and it’s usually full but today we parked up and managed to get a table...

Coffee was excellent as was my bagel with butter and jam – while Anne had the fullest bacon roll I think I’ve ever seen....

The added bonus was of course that the “carbon footprint” left by our journey to and from the café was around half of that which we’d have left had we gone to Patisserie Florentin...

Back home, I updated my MySpace page, posting up four of the latest demo versions of songs from “Ersatzreal” (check ‘em out) and added a few news articles to the Crispycat website...

Then I just sat in the living room with Meg the Black Cat and listened to some Happy Apple – tasty jazz!

Then the new Impossible Songs album, “Roughboys” which contains some new tracks and some remixes of previously available stuff – I must say, it rocks – though I may be biased of course...

Check out the link...

Then round to Jane and Bobby’s for nephew Oliver’s 6th birthday party – Thad Jones featuring on the car stereo...

(I originally only posted a collage - but in 2024 on Ollie's birthday, I added a batch of individual pictures)...

Ollie loved the remote controlled Dalek we gave him (as did niece Kitty) and I almost won Musical Chairs, Statues and Pass the Parcel even though the other contestants were complaining I was cheating which was patently NOT the case...

Back home, “Coronation St” on video, updated the diary for the weekend then “Match of the Day 2”...

Highlight of the Day : Party time...

Nothing is impossible...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet – Ersatzreal
Horace Silver – You Gotta Take a Little Love
Various – The Dr Prog Years
Impossible Songs – Border Crossing

Up at 7, wrote up the diary and brought my CD Purchases Book up to date - 33 new discs so far in April and 108 so far in the first 111 days of 2007...

So much for getting my CD disease under control this year...

Surfed the net including interview footage with Gilbert and George on the Tate Gallery website and footage of Billy Cobham performing with Horace Silver on YouTube which, unlike the CD I bought the other day, does show off the drummer’s prowess..

Out at 9.45 to the podiatrist and a clean bill of toe health was obtained..

Back home – I re-recorded vocals for “The Golden House” and “He Thinks of You”, remixed “The Angels Took His Soul” and wrote a new lyric for the Velvet Underground based backing track from last week and so “Waiting to Die” became the 20th track for this latest project...

I was going to add some electric guitar to various tracks but decided that was a task for the future....

Then I worked on the running order and came up with a provisional tracklist...

Whilst doing this I was watching the videoprinter on bbc.co.uk as the goals came through – Hearts were beaten after scoring first at Ibrox while QoS were thrashed 3-0 at St Johnstone – but as both Airdrie and Ross County drew, QoS are safe and will spend their sixth consecutive season in Division 1 next year...

Hurrah!!

In the evening, John and Ali of Impossible Songs came to dinner – Anne had been busy for most of yesterday and toady in preparation and the evening went swimmingly with everyone enjoying her signature dishes of home made pakora, veggie curry, pilau rice and nan breads...

A bright pudding of fresh raspberries and some of the creamiest ice-cream I’ve ever tasted followed with coffee to round things off...



With MP3s of the 51 track Dr Prog compilation providing the background music, we chatted into the night about probably mostly music but also my CD affliction...

Ali confessed to having a similar problem re book-buying, so it was good to know I’m not alone...

They left tired but happy (I hope) around 12:30 and it was the end of another good day – more work on the album, Queens staying up, and a great entertaining evening..

Highlight of the Day : Queens survive/A visit from our chums

Indoors...

Playlist
Various - Best of the Best (Jukebox Playlist)

Another night in...

Finally put together the covers for Dr Prog's 5 CD set - hope to see him soon to give it to him...

Watched "Coronation St", "Ugly Betty" and "Jonathon Ross" which featured artists Gilbert & George and two songs from Bryan Ferry...

Last night, we were shredding some stuff and Meg the Black Cat decided to make a nest inside the black bag which we were using to collect the strips...



Cats are funny...



Highlight of the Day : Gilbert & George