The lights are on but...

Playlist
Nine Horses - Snow Borne Sorrow
Udo Lindenberg - Gegen den Strom (CD-R)
Herman Van Veen - In Appreciation (CD-R)
Peter Gabriel - Live and Unwrapped (DVD)
Chad Wackerman - The View
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Ersatzreal
Lucy Kaplansky - Over the Hills
Rush - Snakes and Arrows
Marillion - Somewhere Else
Various - New Music from the Pitchfork Website

A happy birthday today to my old friend Birgit, who lives on an island with her pet snake Ophelia...

I was expecting a delivery this morning and, when by 11:00 nothing had arrived I checked the online tracking only to find a delivery had been attempted and, apparently, no one was in at Cripsycat Towers....

I was rather upset at this...

I called City Link to explain I was indeed at home and had remained so purely to receive my delivery (for which I'd paid extra to have the goods on a next day basis)...

The lady advised she'd spoken with the driver and he would try and return...

I knew of course this was rubbish and I'd have to drive round to the depot at 6:30 to pick up the undeliverable parcel...

Anyway, I used some free time to tidy up the back room and make some changes to the general storage of my "stuff" on the various shelves etc...

Then I watched the second Gabriel DVD from the set I bought a couple of weeks back and listened to some outlandish jazz from messrs Wackerman and Holdsworth...

I also listened to the last mock up I did of the proposed new CBQ album...

The vocals are rubbish and will need to be re-recorded - I've been taking a break from the project over the last two or three weeks and, no doubt, it'll take some time for me to feel enthused enough to return to it...

The pick up went successfully and I set up the hard drive within minutes - it'll be used initially to back up the existing hard drive and the jukebox but I only have USB 1.1 rather than 2.0 so the transfers will take an age...

I tidied up the computer area and listened to the three new discs which accompanied the hard drive...



The Kaplansky - a lovely performance half originals half covers (Roxy Music, Johnny Cash, Louden Wainwright III, Julie Miller and Ian Tyson) - some really heart-felt songs on there..

The Rush - of course I have had this for a week or so already but only really now will I start getting into it properly - suffice to say it's superb...

The Marillion - a first cursory half listen tells me it's good but not as good as Rush...

All in all three discs which make me wonder why on earth I bother....

I also hoovered the upstairs of the house tonight...

"Ugly Betty" at 9 and "Criminal Intent" at 10 - very entertaining...

Then back to the PC and I ended up downloading another 50 odd tracks from the Pitchfork Forkast pages - 50 odd of the latest cutting edge alternative music tracks and, once again, at 1:30 in the morning, I find myself thinking - "why bother with your rubbish music you deluded fool Mr CBQ"...

Best find on the site by the way was a Seattle band Grand Archives, signed recently by SubPop on the basis of one live gig - but they have a certain pedigree...

I urge investigation...

Highlight of the Day : New stuff...