Saturday, April 30, 2011

Close...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet – Aftersilence : Retrospective 1996-2011
Glen Hansard/Marketa Iglova – Once OST
The Hollies - Tell It To My Face EP
Alice Cooper – Singles
Chicago – Chicago Transport Authority
Wishbone Ash – Number the Brave
Lone Star – Firing on all Six
Happy Apple – Part of the Solution Problem
The Script - The Script

The end of another month...



Up at 6:30 and working on the instrumental half of the proposed CBQ 1996-2011 compilation...

There are twenty two songs on disc one and, after some judicious editing, there are thirty instrumental pieces on disc two – fifty two tracks in all and I am working towards a release on my 52nd birthday in May, in which month also falls the fifteenth anniversary of the first CBQ recording...

Mid disc compile/sort, I drove Anne to an appointment before returning to the Towers to finalise the disc...

The diggers are getting closer...



Then back to take Anne into town and on to The Saturday Place, where I left the Cloudland Blue Mobile before heading to the music library...























...to meet up with an injured-through-having-taken-a-tumble-from-his-bike-yesterday-and-very-much-feeling-sorry-for-himself Dr Prog...



Post choosing some Coltrane, a box of hippy dippy goodies from 1965-1973 and the “Once” soundtrack album awaited from Amazon, we retired to the Dutch Café for some sustenance and a blether – including the debate as to whether we ought to head to London again in July for this year’s High Voltage festival...

Then, we walked on to meet up with the Exec Producer at the Richmond Café for coffee...





...cake, more chat and a look at Anne’s new tasty jewellery...



New shoes were purchased en route for home – at which point I discovered I’ve been wearing my insoles for my late last year diagnosed flat feet in the opposite from the correct shoes all this time – no wonder I was finding it so hard to feel the benefit....

Idiot...

The afternoon sun was enjoyed...



...your correspondent taking the opportunity to sing and play along to a few of the songs on the new compilation...

I also fired up the “big” camera and took a few close up pics of stuff in the back room...



























The evening comprised the second episode of the new “Dr Who“ series – very good indeed...

Some reading of reviews on the internet...

Celebrating a last gasp win for Queens in Kirkcaldy...

Ordering pizzas, picking them up, finding mine was somewhat lacking in the ordered ingredients department and very kindly being provided with a second, more accurately compiled disc of goodness which was duly scoffed to the sounds of recently downloaded old LPs...

Listening continued with, at last, the Happy Apple disc recently arrived from the USA – equally as tasty as the (2nd) pizza...

Sister Pam will visit tomorrow and stay over – accordingly, bedstuff was sourced from the attic...



New CD Cover initialisation and “Match of the Day” rounded off a fairly busy Saturday...

Highlight of the Day : Out with the Progmeister and the Exec Producer...

"From pure sensation to the intuition of beauty, from pleasure and pain to love and the mystical ecstasy and death — all the things that are fundamental, all the things that, to the human spirit, are most profoundly significant, can only be experienced, not expressed. The rest is always and everywhere silence. After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. When the inexpressible had to be expressed, Shakespeare laid down his pen and called for music. And if the music should also fail? Well, there was always silence to fall back on. For always, always and everywhere, the rest is silence."
Aldous Huxley "The Rest is Silence" from "Music at Night", 1931

Friday, April 29, 2011

A little more realism required...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet – Vendôme (Compilation)
John Coltrane - The Stardust Session

A strange day...

Up just before six and renewed working on the proposed CBQ compilation, abandoned a couple of weeks back...

Decided against the majority of the usual suspects re songs to include and, with seven minutes set aside for “Vendôme”, I had around nine minutes each to play with re the eight CBQ song-based LPs released since 1997...

So, some planning early on...

Meanwhile, Meg the Black Cat was coveting the inside of the one of the wardrobes...



Breakfast around 8:30 to the sounds of Mr Coltrane before Anne headed off for Zumba with Lynn...

Out around 10:30 and walked down the hill...



...to Café Citro to meet up with post Zumba Anne and Lynn for coffee and cake, very tasty home made vanilla slices...

The ladies near the counter were watching the Royal Wedding on a lap top...



Two hours were spent chatting and coffeeing – Lynn advised she met Mr james Jamieson last night and he is planning a further evening of cover versions in the near future....

It would appear the Capital Models reunion has fizzled out...

Mid lady chat, although I took a wee walk along the High Street and popped into a couple of charity shops, picking up a double CD of the world's most popular (as voted for by readers of the Radio Times) classical pieces, of which I no doubt already own multiple versions...

Post this pic...



...Lynn cycled off home, while Anne and I bought some provisions for lunch from the local baker and walked back up the hill...





Home to scan through the Royal Wedding – watched at around 8 x Normal Speed, with no sound, it didn’t seem too bad – I even took a few pics of the TV...



Here’s the “arty” version...



A DVD of the delightful Irish film “Once” was enjoyed...



...although Meg the Black Cat slept through it...



I was so impressed with the music, I immediately sought out and bought the soundtrack for a couple of squid from Amazon...

Much of the evening was spent finalising the work on the “song” half of what has shrunk from a five CD set of utter hubris to “just” two discs...

I say "hubris" but of course this comes from the man who released a ten disc, thirty year anthology four years ago...

Much fairy dust was required re the chosen songs and was indeed applied...

A live episode of “Law & Order” rounded off a productive Friday...

Highlight of the Day : New sounding old stuff...

Thursday, April 28, 2011

The oyster and the hare...

Playlist
Various - Last 11 Months on Shuffleplay

An early evening stroll along to a certain purveyor of music to meet up with the Exec Producer...







Oh dear...

Another five CDs entered the rapidly expanding collection - three featuring Mr John Coltrane along with remasters of the first two Electric Light Orchestra albums...

Back out into the cool sunshine...





...and over the Waverley Bridge...







...for drinks at the Doric...



...before walking up to the Royal Mile to meet with chums Debbie and Sid for a night out at Monteiths...







Very tasty indeed - your correspondent savoured two firsts as he approached 52 years on the planet - oysters and hare...

A caramelised banana concotion rounded off the culinary delights - while two bottles of eminently quaffable red wine were enjoyed by the revellers...



Post a long leisurely dinner, it was out into the April evening for a brisk walk down to Princes Street and a swift bus home...









....to find yet another CD awaiting - a back catalogue gem from Happy Apple...

Nice...

Home so late though (and, it must be said, slightly the worse for wear) that there was no time to savour any of the new purchases, although your loveable, fat, balding, CD obsessed fool did fall asleep on the sofa whilst reading about the ins and outs of Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne's orchestral based concoction...

Highlight of the day : Top notch nosh...