Tuesday, May 31, 2011

HP is for kids...

Playlist
Dream Theater - Black Clouds and Silver Linings
John Foxx - Metamatic
John Foxx - The Garden
Gould - American Ballads/Foster Gallery/American Suite

So that's May gone now too...



The foundations of the new houses are down...



They are very expensive but will be very close together...

Uptown, two John Foxx albums, once owned on vinyl, were bought in HMV...

This nearby seagull entertained...





On the way home, I was befriended by this old dog...



I tried to find its home - eventually an even older couple was encountered on the pavement with a shout of "there you are Brier" and the dog was happily back with her family...

I was relieved - the ten minutes or so spent wandering around trying to find where it had come from was accompanied by thoughts of what I might do if I failed in my task...

These trees entertained...



At Crispycat, the second last parcel (for now) from e-bay contained Morton Gould works - mainly arrangements of famous American tunes - apparently arranging was his forte...

Calls to sister Pam and to mother Mum...

The next Capital Models session is kind of underway, in that we are all trying to get a date on which we can all attend...

Seems a lot harder than in 1980 when we lived to practise and play...

Tasty chicken from the Exec Producer, who then worked on tasty chicken based soup for the upcoming days...

"CSI" entertained...

As did Stewart Lee on Youtube - inspired by trying to get tix for his upcoming Fringe show...

This is my favourite ever clip, with which I agree absolutely and completely i.e. 100%...

If it offends, there is something very, very wrong with your literary judgement...



Highlight of the Day : Helping an old blind dog find its home...

Monday, May 30, 2011

No man is an island, except the Isle of Man...

Playlist
Fripp & Eno - No Pussyfooting
Fehlfarben - Glucksmaschinen
Various – Top 60 on Shuffleplay
Roger Waters - Desert Island Discs

Meg the Black Cat to the vet this morning for more medication and a check up – pronounced well but blood tests to follow...



This afternoon, old hero (actually, he’s only 28) Stephen Dobbie, ex Queen of the South, after having helped Blackpool into the English Premier League last year but not having gone with them since he was on loan from Swansea City, was at Wembley again today...

This time he was playing for Swansea in their 4-2 win over Reading...



Now I’ve always had a soft spot for Reading as, when I was a lad playing in the under 11’s, 12’s and 13’s at Eskdale Boys Club, they supported us with coaching – presumably in the hope that they might stumble across some talent...

They didn’t as far as I’m aware...

However, since Mr D went to Swansea following Queens glorious cup run of 2008, I’ve had a bigger soft spot for the Swans...

Dobbie scored a quite excellent goal to put Swansea three up before half time, having already created their second (their other two goals were penalties)...

Reading came back to 3-2 early in the second half but it wasn’t to be...

And so, a player whom I’ve seen many a time down at Palmerston Park will, next season, be playing in the EPL...

Well done the Dobmeister...

Elsewhere, strange skies...





...and almost being run over by the Exec Producer on her way to Keep Fit class...







Tivo’d the second in the trio of Adam Curtis films while watching a live “Corrie” – on every night this week whilst a few issues are “resolved”...

Listened to Roger Waters on “Desert Island Discs”...

Watched the above Tivo of "All watched over by machines of loving grace" part 2...

After having bebunked the idea of a self righting/self balancing financial system last week, this week Mr Curtis debunked the notion of a self righting/self balancing ecological system...

The problem being that the original ecologists pre-conceived their idea/theory that nature balances itself and then reduced the available data down to a point so low that it eventually fitted in with their theory...

Any study which used extensive data showed that there is no eco-system and that nature does not in fact rebalance itself when something goes wrong - e.g. after a forest fire, yes the trees grow back but not in the same way they existed prior to the fire...

So, over the first two weeks, he's tried to show that, while it was hoped that the advent of massive computer power would allow much more freedom from government control, what has happened is that power has been transferred to companies and certain individuals, while the vast majority of the populace are probably worse off than they were before...

For example, banks have been bailed out by governments and taxpayers have picked up the tab - it happened in SE Asia in the nionties and in the USA and Europe in 2008/09...

That’s it methinks...

Highlights of the Swansea game and then bed...

Highlight of the Day : Dobbie’s goal against Reading...

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Self made...

Playlist
Curtis Mayfield – The Ultimate Curtis Mayfield
Various Composers - Cello Music for Oliver
Various Composers - Musik in Sanssouci
Various Composers - Wien 1900 The Death of Tonality

Up late (7:30 am) and bringing this up to date whilst enjoying the funky sounds of the recently received Curtis Mayfield collection...

Disc one outshines disc two – in fact I had to turn it off halfway through the second disc it was so bad...

The first disc was superb though...

A call from sister Pam – still doing very well and getting back into the swing of things...

In the afternoon, we watched our second French film of the weekend, “Hidden” starring Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche – which, while it certainly seems to have split Amazon reviewers down the middle, we enjoyed – probably all the more so for the disappointment of yesterday’s “Gabrielle”...

Some mucking about with potential rhythm tracks for the next CBQ LP - and even tried writing a new chord sequence - but it turned out to be exactly the same as a song from my LP from 2003...

Ordered a new CBQ T Shirt with the Splinterheart cover thereupon...



From now on, my intention is only to wear self designed T Shirts...

To Anne’s mum’s for tea – tasty French lamb casserole followed by home made strawberry tart...

Kitty was as mischievous as usual...



...while Olly (it’s with a “y” now apparently) seemed reasonably pleased with his CD though it’s still up in the air as to whether he’ll ever actually listen to it...



I kept a copy for myself as it is a rather good wee collection...

Anne’s mum was impressed with my CBQ T-Shirt and my artwork mug and so, with this in my mind I took some pictures of her own paintings...



Back home and a new programme, “Bailey and Scott” (or something like that) entertained, followed by Annie watching Tivo’d “Corrie” while I delved into 18th Century flute music and the death of tonality...

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : A good French film on a Sunday afternoon...

Saturday, May 28, 2011

All watched over by machines of loving grace...

Playlist
OK Go - Of the Blue Colour of the Sky
Various - Top 60 "Recent" Albums on Shuffleplay
Various - Last 10 Months on Shuffleplay
Various Composers - Cello Music for Oliver

Up at 5 this morning and brought a pile of recently acquired discs up to the computer room to get my various lists up to date...

Of course Meg the Black Cat likes to get in on the act...

Unfortunately, today she got a little too close to the action, jumping onto the computer table and stretching herself out to such an extent that she knocked the pile of around 30 CDs off the table...

I caught what I could but a goodly number of them tumbled onto my brand new Bach Complete Works Box Set, creating rather annoying holes and dents in the box...

Cats can be a pain in the butt sometimes - but I wouldn't be without them...

With all up to date and my top 60 loaded in to the new machine, I watched an excellent documentary on the BBC I-Player...

I'd noted some of the usual less than complimentary critiques of the much misunderstood views of Russian/American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand in a few articles this week, advising they'd been featured in a new series on BBC2...

So, I sought out said film, "Love and Power", part one of the series "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace" - and really enjoyed it...

You can find it here - buried away on the "Factual" page...

Or, it's been posted to Youtube...



...and there's a reasonable synopsis of the episode on Wikipedia...

It wasn't particularly about Ayn Rand - just showed the part her thinking played as regards the individuals who drove the development of the internet, computer systems and financial systems of the USA...

It also showed how deviation from her logical thinking by acolyte Alan Greenspan (believing his critics instead of sticking to his own beliefs) led him to erroneously introduce the conditions which allowed the financial crisis of the late 90's re South East Asia to happen...

Which, in turn, led to the conditions which allowed the financial collapse of 2007/08/09/10/11 (ongoing really), including Gordon Brown's idiot, hubristic "we have defeated Boom and Bust" mantra...

Greenspan was briefly (10 months) married to an artist, Joan Mitchell, who introduced him to Rand (thus changing the entitre history of the world - weird eh?)...

I'm pretty sure the Joan Mitchell in question is not the same as the reasonably famous and rather well thought of Abstract Impressionist painter Joan Mitchell...



But, even if it's not, then, thanks to this happy coincidence of names, I've now discovered another artist whose work very much appeals...



Post this, the now familiar trip to the nearby Grocery Store for two of their lovely croissants...

With Anne off to town re eye tests etc, I rehearsed the current live set, although there's nothing in the diary performance wise...

Stopped half way through due to boredom...

Took a picture of the CDs currently on the shelf in the living room...



All of these acquired since the start of April or thereabouts...

On Anne's return, we watched a DVD she'd bought a while back, Isabelle Huppert in "Gabrielle", a French film based on the story "The Return" by Joseph Conrad...

Not the best really - pretty dark and depressing and represented another 90 minutes we'll never get back...

Spent the next few hours digging through a pile of classical CDs to compile the promised disc of cello music for nephew Oliver, to which he will most likely never listen...



But I am hoping to inspire a spark of artistic insight in the lad, even though, like his uncle at age 10, football is more important to him than music or art...

He is very much into sport and the surrounding statistical irrelevance to which all the inherent nonsensical toil and trouble involved, boils down in the end...

When I was 10, and definitely into football in a big way, my dad had striven for a number of years to instill even just a glimmer of music appreciation in me, using classical pieces such as Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture...

Of course, my love of music didn't really ignite until the summer of 1972 when I decided to find out why the girl singing the most exciting song* I'd ever heard, sounded like a man...

Finished in time for this week's "Dr Who" - not bad but it was 45 minutes waiting for the twist at the end - which does, though, set things up nicely for next week's "mid season finale" as they are calling it...

Ordered and collected a tasty Indian meal which was enjoyed as I, rather hypocritically given my comments above, watched the Champions League Final in which Manchester United were made to look like East Stirling by Barcelona...

A Tivo'd and very clever routine from Stewart Lee followed before I finished off Ollie's cello disc and headed for bed...

Highlight of the Day : All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

*"School's Out" by Alice Cooper

Friday, May 27, 2011

A new machine...

Playlist
Various - Natural Progression Vol 4
Various - Natural Progression Vol 5
Marc Almond - Stardom Road
Various Composers - Vienna 1900 The death of Tonality?
Various - Current Top 60 "Recent" Albums

Sunny...





Like many of the weeks recorded here, this week, I have acquired far too many CDs - including a 170 CD (and 2DVD) box of J S Bach's complete works...

And, today was no differnt...

At lunchtime, a visit to Fopp resulted in OK Go's last album (the later, double CD version) entering the collection for the requisite £3...

Then, post drinks with chums Kris-with-a-K, Bernardo and The Lodger, I arrived home, reasonably not the worse for wear, to find a pile of "stuff" waiting for me...

Four packages containing discs - early 20th Century Viennese stuff, some tasty Baroque'n'Roll, a 2CD best of by Curtis Mayfield and a 3CD box of the best of cellist Jacqueline du Pre...

I didn't get round to listening to three of those four as the fifth package awaiting my return was a 4GB Sony Walkman earned by spending on my Sony Credit Card (and to be followed soon, hopefully, by a Miles Davis live set)...



So time was spent setting this wee beastie up...

It can hold around 60-70 albums so I compiled and loaded my Top 60 "Recent" Albums, based on my listings over at my "Top Ten Albums of the Month" blog...

And, since I know everyone loves a list, here they are in alpha order...

65DaysOfStatic - We Were Exploding Anyway
Alice Peacock - Love Remains
Anathema – We’re Here Because We’re Here
Asia - Omega
Bidiniband - The Land is Wild
Bigelf - Cheat the Gallows
Bob Dylan- Together Through Life
Brandon Flowers - Flamingo
Brian Eno - Small Craft on a Milk Sea
Broken Records - Let Me Come Home
Bryan Ferry - Olympia
Dar Williams - Many Great Companions (2CD)
Dar Williams - Promised Land
David Sylvian - Manafon
David Sylvian - Sleepwalkers
Dream Theater - Black Clouds and Silver Linings (3CD)
Editors - In This Light and on This Evening
Eels - Tomorrow Morning
Fehlfarben - Glucksmaschinen
Glen Hansard/Marketa Irglova - Once OST
Grand Theft Bus - Made Upwards
Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels
Guilt Machine - On This Perfect Day
Heaven and Hell - The Devil You Know
IQ - Frequency
James - The Night Before
Jason Lytle - Yours Truly, The Commuter
John Grant - Queen of Denmark (2CD)
Justin Currie - The Great War
LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
Marc Almond - Stardom Road
Marc Almond - Variete
Midlake - The Courage of Others
Muse - The Resistance
My Chemical Romance - Danger Days
OK Go - Of the Blue Colour Of the Sky (2CD)
OMD - History of Modern
Peter Gabriel - Scratch My Back (2CD)
Porcupine Tree - The Incident
Sarah McLachlan - The Laws of Illusion
Steve Harley - Stranger Comes to Town
Steven Wilson - Insurgentes
Steven Wilson - Nsrgnts Rmxs
Sumner McKane - In the Blood
Sumner McKane - Something Very New England About This View (EP)
Sumner McKane - Two If By Sea
Sumner McKane – What a Great Place to Be
Sumner McKane Group - Night Blooming Cereus
The Bad Plus - Never Stop
The Besnard Lakes - Are the Roaring Night
The Divine Comedy - Absent Friends
The Flower Kings - The Sum of No Evil (2CD)
The National - High Violet
The Pineapple Thief - Someone Here is Missing
The Uglysuit - The Uglysuit
Transatlantic - The Whirlwind (2CD)
Uriah Heep - Into the Wild
Wetton Downes - Icon III
William Fitzsimmons - Goodnight
William Orbit - Pieces in a Modern Style Vol. 2 (2CD)

Other than that, "Have I Got News For You" and "Law & Order" entertained...

To bed far too late but with good music on the new machine...

Highlight of the Day : A new machine...

Thursday, May 26, 2011

On the edge of the shadow...

Playlist
Various – Natural Progression Vol 2
Various – Natural Progression Vol 3
Slade – Slade Alive
Slade – Slayed
Slade – Old New Borrowed and Blue
Marc Almond – Stardom Road
Various – The Sound of the Seventies
Eric Clapton/Michael Kamen – Edge of Darkness
The Heavenly Music Corporation - Variations
Laura Nyro - Stoned Soul Picnic

The next three of a goodly number of purchases from e-bay arrived today – all bought from The Tesco Outlet...

Just as well I’ve been de-boxing all my home burned CDs, as all three required new boxes due to very sticky stickers having been stuck on the cases to advise I could not return them to my local Tesco Store...

Mentioned in my feedback they might want to rethink the sticky stickers...

The music though, is good – a disc by Marc Almond, a collection of 70’s hits, some of which, unbelievably, I did not already have – and a best of Igor Stravinsky which, at the time of writing, remains unplayed...



£1 to £1.50 each...

Excellent Sea Bass Fillet on a Bed of Cherry Tomatoes and Chorizo this evening from the fair hands of the Exec Producer...

Then, best programme on the telly continued tonight, “The Shadow Line”...

Post this creepy, taught, tense, thrilling viewing, no sooner had I mentioned to Anne that its feel put me in mind of the mid 80’s BBC classic “Edge of Darkness” than I was on the net, downloading the Kamen/Clapton soundtrack...

The 3” CD Single is going for silly money on e-bay – I have a cassette in the attic bought at the time...

Not only that but I ended up purchasing the series on a 2DVD set for just three of your English pounds (and free postage)...

Ah, the modern world eh?

Also enjoyed the two tracks (“The Edge” and “Darkness” geddit?) from my 1986 recording, “Variations”, which feature samples of said soundtrack, played on a Casio SK1 sampler...

25 years on...

I bet the series will turn out to be rubbish when/if I watch it again...

Off now to watch "Question Time" and "This Week"...

Highlight of the Day : The Shadow Line...

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Listing idiot...

Playlist
Various – Natural Progression Vol 1
Steven Lindsay - Kite
Slade – Slade Alive
Slade – Slayed
Slade – Old New Borrowed and Blue
Status Quo – Gold
The Beatles – Sgt Pepper
The Beatles – White Album
Gary Numan – Premier Hits
Chicago – Chicago Transit Authority
10cc – The Best Of

A visit to HMV resulted in three Slade albums entering the collection for less than £10...

I think I used to have "Slade Alive" on vinyl but have never owned either of the others...

For Slade, probably a greatest hits collection would suffice really - and I already have one...

Idiot...

Back home, Meg the Black cat was out and about...

Can you spot her?



...the diggers had continued to prep what was once grass and trees for ugly new houses...



...and the first of a goodly number of e-bay purchases had arrived – the moody “Kite” by Steven Lindsay – nice...

Absolutely nothing on the TV tonight so, post a tasty pasta from Annie, it was upstairs to work on two of the things from the project list – decase-ing self burned CDs and plastic sleeving them thereafter...

Slade soundtracked and Meg helped, kind of - well, she sort of just lay about, not actually doing anything other than providing her presence really...



So, no thanks to the Black Beastie, I am now down to just three piles...



I listened to Volume One of my 20 disc prog rock collection from earlier this year today and this inspired me, using this site, to compile a list of what I call “prog type singles kind of” from the self same period covered by said prog box i.e. "Sgt Pepper" in 1967 to "The Wall" in 1979...

The list runs to 255 singles, from “Strawberry Fields Forever” in February 1967 to “Another Brick in the Wall pt 2” in December 1979, all of them having made at least No 40 on the official UK charts...

What I’ll do with it, goodness knows – probably nothing...

This is how I waste my time...

As mentioned above, idiot...

However, I have noted that from 1967 to 1979 seems an awful lot longer a period of time than from 1999 to 2011...

Time flies eh?

Highlight of the Day : Making a list...

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Not killed and eaten...

Playlist
J S Bach – Various Works
Miles Davis – Workin’
Miles Davis – Steamin’
Miles Davis – Relaxin’
Miles Davis – Cookin’
Pink Floyd – The Final Cut

Awoken just after five by Anne – advising Meg the Black Cat was making a funny noise and may well have the mouse in the bedroom...

I was up and over to the corner asap...

Meg was nosing around the bag containing Anne’s suntan oil etc for her upcoming holiday with Lynn...

I lifted the bag expecting the mouse to be behind it but there was no sign...

However, on looking in the bag, I saw the wee beastie’s tail – it was obviously keeping as still as possible...

I took the bag down to the front door, getting Anne to bring her keys...

And so it was that around 5:13 am on a Tuesday morning, a stark bollock naked Mr CBQ was to be seen emptying a bag of holiday cosmetics items and one probably very relieved wee mouse, gently on to the front path of Crispycat Towers...

The creature jumped out the bag and, with a hop and a leap, was off into the neighbour’s garden and away, its adventure with Meg the Black Cat and the two big pink tin openers over at last...

Meg looked for but could not find her wee chum...





The rest of the day was not quite as exciting...

The streets and parks showed the result of yesterday’s storm...





The weather was good one minute, pouring with rain the next, then good again...











In the evening, Anne’s first Red Thai Chicken Curry post the purchase of the new pan was a success...

“CSI” entertained, as did J S Bach, Miles Davis and the Floyd...

Spent some time on e-bay buying CDs I don’t need with funds from the Crispycat account re recently ordered CBQ CDs...

Hey, that’s what I do...

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : A mouse set free rather than killed and eaten...

Monday, May 23, 2011

The box and the beast...

Playlist
TV21 – Snakes and Ladders
Various – Last 12 Months on Shuffleplay
J S Bach – Various Works
J S Bach – Brandenberg Concertos
J S Bach – Cello Suites

At lunchtime today I noted a drastic drop in prices at HMV to almost Fopp-like proportions...

Many, many CDs now at the buy because they’re just so cheap price of just three of your English pounds...

I noted a box of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach reduced from £191 to £40...

So, on the way home, I battled through the storm which hit Edinburgh today...



...back to HMV and purchased said box with some of my “birthday money” which has been languishing in the bank since May the fourth....

With all trains in Central Scotland cancelled due to the wind, the buses were full to the brim and the traffic was more congested than a congested thing from the planet Congestion...

I made my way to Waverley Station with the intention of boarding an Airport bus at the terminus...

The weird weather produced these two views around two minutes apart...





To avoid the congestion, I took a 41, richtung Cramond, and enjoyed all the Bach pieces currently residing on the jukebox from various CDs purchased over the last 12 months or so while the bus took me “round the houses”...

Count Brodski alighted half way through my journey – appearing as if by magic from the upper deck...

Communication with the Exec Producer led to a welcome lift from around a couple of miles from home and we were soon back in the warmth of Crispycat Towers and the company of Meg the Black Cat...



I unwrapped the new box and settled in to give it a listen, starting with the first two discs, the Brandenberg Concertos...



...comparing the new box with my Complete Mozart set...



Towards the end of disc one, a shout went up from the ground floor...

“There’s a mouse in the house!!!”

Now, it’s a number of years since Meg the Black Cat has brought any wee beasties into her home, which she kindly lets us share...

Last time, catching the mouse and depositing back into its natural habitat (or the end of our front path as it’s more commonly known) seemed a simple task, involving a discarded Pringles Tube...

This new beastie was a little more energetic and led your correspondent a merry dance indeed around the living room...

Here it is behind the carefully moved TV...





It was cute but very wily...

From there it ran under the fire and, while being able to be seen from in front of the hearth with the use of a torch, was rather reluctant to come out and enter into the Pringles Tube...

So we had to just leave it and hope for the best...

Dinner enjoyed, phonecalls with Sister Pam, mother Mum and sister Sheila, a Tivo’d “Glee” and off to bed, hoping not to find a cheeky cat and disembowelled mouse tomorrow morning...

Highlight of the Day : New box, cute beast...

Sunday, May 22, 2011

The boots and the pan...

Playlist
Various – The Perfumed Garden
Cloudland Blue Quartet – The Melville Set
Erasure – Total Pop
Laura Nyro – Stoned Soul Picnic
Penderecki – Violin Concertos
Preisner – Requiem for my Friend
Puccini – Heroines
Rautavaara – Selected Works
Reich – Electric Counterpoint
Reitz – Heimat 3

Up at 5:30 and to my tasks...

Managed to bring the Crispycat Website up to date...

Tasty Pecan and Maple Pastries from the Grocery Store, with lashings of coffee and orange juice comprised breakfast...

Then, a drive to Livingston to the massive shopping centre there – Anne had her eye on a large flat cooking pan, as featured in many a cookery show, watched and learned from here at Crispycat Towers...

And so I got a new pair of boots...

And said pan was duly located in the Professional Cook Shop and duly partaken of by an excited Exec Producer...

In the afternoon, a drive through the sun to sunny (but, also, windy) Gorebridge to visit nephew Andy and lovely fiancé Tori, one year exactly to the day since Andy was round at Crispycat Towers playing twenty seconds of guitar which became the CBQ song “The Foundling” on “Splinterheart”...



Download "The Foundling"

Back home through the sunny but windy conditions...











...for an evening of figure work, ripping classical CDs which have been sitting next to the PC for a couple of months and watching the exciting ending to the English Football season on the last ever “Match of the Day” (for a few weeks anyway)...

Highlight of the Day : Annie getting her new cookery implement...