Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Cats, trees and rehearsals...

Playlist
Gary Husband - The Things I See
Teresa Salgueiro - O Misterio
Hidden Orchestra - Archipelago
Yannah Valdevit - Equilibrium
Blue Hawaii - Untogether
Voigt & Voigt - Die zauberhafte Welt der Anderen
Brandt Brauer Frick - Miami
Cole/Roedelius - Selected Studies Vol 1
The Sign of Four - Hammer Anvil StirrupTrixie Whitley - Fourth Corner
Breathless - Green to Blue
Various - 20 Jahre Kompakt
Golijov - Tenebrae
Marshall - Fog Tropes II
Schnittke - Collected Songs Where Every Verse is Filled with Grief
Basinski - The Disintegration Loops, dlp 1.1 (orchestrated by Maxim Moston)

And April away - including two tooth fixes...


I learned this week that my dentist of over 40 years, Mr Fenny, had a heart attack...

Thankfully he is doing well...

I have left a message advising I am doing my best not to break my tooth again...

Meg the Black cat is settling back in...


The trees have not changed in our absence...




..and Rory Custard is s cheeky as ever...


In the evening to Keith's for the third last rehearsal before we go into the studio to record Kat's album a week on Saturday...

Coming together nicely...

Highlight of the Day : Working on music...

Monday, April 29, 2013

Coming to terms with Basinski...

Playlist
Various - Denovali London Swingfest Sampler
Gary Husband - The Things I See
Teresa Salgueiro - O Misterio
Hidden Orchestra - Archipelago
Yannah Valdevit - Equilibrium
Blue Hawaii - Untogether
Voigt & Voigt - Die zauberhafte Welt der Anderen
Brandt Brauer Frick - Miami
Cole/Roedelius - Selected Studies Vol 1
The Sign of Four - Hammer Anvil StirrupTrixie Whitley - Fourth Corner
Breathless - Green to Blue
Various - 20 Jahre Kompakt
Queens - End Times
Benjamin Damage - Heliosphere
Metabowman - Ja : Noe
Schnittke - Chamber Music 1
Franck - String Quartet in D Major
Vivaldi - Piccolo Concertos
Trio Papillon - Gaubert Koetsier Komma Schumann Zehm Delanoff
Ensemble Kontraste - Milhaud, Hindemith, Bartok
Bischoff - Audio Combine
Lund Quartet - Lund Quartet
Johan Verminnen - 60
Greg Haines - Where We Were
Thomas Koner - Nunatak
Thomas Koner - Teimo
Thomas Koner - Permafrost
Various - Aloud Music Sampler Vol 3
Bernica Octet - Perple en Soundpainting/Bric a Brac
Xenakis - Pleiades
Rollin' Bunkers - Invasion!
Agnes Obel - Philharmonia
Francoise Hardy - L'Amour Fou
Nanoohm - Nanoohm
Klink Clock - We Don't Have the Time to Do Love All the Time
Petrels - All Things in Common
Omega Massif - Geisterstadt
Berio - Sequenza I-XIV
Golijov - Tenebrae
Marshall - Fog Tropes II
Schnittke - Collected Songs Where Every Verse is Filled with Grief
Basinski - The Disintegration Loops, dlp 1.1 (orchestrated by Maxim Moston)

A day spent mostly listening to newly acquired music whilst ripping it all for the Jukebox...


I cannot recommend enough that you to partake...

You can't actually download the 40 minute Basinski piece from that site but here is the link for that...

Wonderful...


In the evening, a successful attempt by the Exec Producer to recreate the excellent ham, rocket, strawberry and parmesan salad enjoyed last week in Lille...


Other than that, catching up with "Dr Who" and other faves on the Tivo box...

"Broadchurch" concluded a week a go - we watched it tonight - the killer was someone about whom there had been no clues and every suspect previously suspected was a red herring - and how on earth is it going to come back?

On the upside it was replaced (or half replaced) by the funniest thing I've seen in ages...

"Vicious" starring Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellan as a  bitter and twisted old gay couple living in a flat in what looks like a vampire's lair in  London's West End, with Frances de La Tour as their lady friend...

So un-PC it was almost off the scale...

Brilliant...

But the theme tune ought to have been "Vicious, you hit me with a flower"...

Highlight of the Day : Coming to terms with Basinski - and a great new Monday night comedy...

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Bad swap attempt...

Playlist
Alice Cooper - No More Mr Nice Guy Live
UK - Night After Night Setlist
UK - Live in the USA 2011
Various - London Back Playlist

Packed , checked out and out into another sunny but not too warm morning, leaving Anne sleeping...


A last walkabout...





Back to tidy and pack and check out...


To the station...


..and waiting for our train...


Which left bang on time at 11 am....


 A few hours later we were in Newcastle...




...and on to Berwick - these, with York, the only three stops on the way home...


Trundling up the hill through the rain...


And over to Alan and Penny's to pick up Meg the Black Cat - who had been behaving perfectly at Castle Brodski, as demonstrated by pics mailed to us by Pennster...






Great to see her again...


...who seemed not to want to come home...


...being quite happy asleep on Uncle Alan's leg...


..or behind him on the window ledge...


Penny didn't want Meg to leave either...


...and tried to trick us with a doppelganger...


...but, eventually, Meg walked into her box with no problem and we made our way home...

Good to be back after 10 interesting and enjoyable days away...

Highlight of the day : Meg the Black Cat returns...

Saturday, April 27, 2013

The bureau supply for ageing men...

Playlist
Various - Holiday Acquisitions

Last morning in Lille...


Coffee at the apartment...


...with birds outside...


..who had patently failed to detect this beast inside, which, over the course of the week, had left a few too many very itchy bite marks on Mr CBQ's legs...


We allowed it to live to bite another day (and leg)...

Out for the last time...


..and goodbye to an excellent bolt hole...


Out onto the street for the trundle to the Eurostar...





...with a cheeky wee pain au chocolat each on the way...




Back at the station...


...and a short wait...


...before boarding...




...and snoozing once again until just before London...

On the street just after 10, local time...


...and to our apartment near King's Cross where we would spend tonight...

Despite not being able to check in fully until two, they let us leave our bags and we took the tube to Chelsea and the V&A...


...where a pianist was playing a selection of David Bowie songs in the cafe - a nice touch to end on "Where Are We Now" form his latest album...


We looked through the map and decided on the areas we wanted to visit and went round them all...


Some wonderful sights...








...and astonishing artefacts...


...including a replica of one of the earliest known maps of the world...


On we went...




Good cat picture!




Tintoretto...



Amazing old books, perfectly preserved...




This is a carved model used by artists to get proper perspective when they came to paint the scene...

One of only a very few which survive...







Goodness knows where they got these columns from - I suspect they may have been, let's say, partaken of without perhaps permission having been asked of the locals...






And here. my namesake...





A veritable treasure trove of "stuff"...


Up to the "entertainment" section...

This isn't actually a rhino, it's a stage prop used a century or so ago - it required two men inside it to work it using something similar to a tandem bicycle...


Famous Hamlet skulls...


Early Floyd poster...


A Townsend smashed guitar...


Mr Reed...


An original Jamie Reid for a Pistols poster...


A T-Shirt for a Knebworth Festival attended by Count Brodski and I back in 1978, featuring The Tubes, Frank Zappa and Peter Gabriel...


The Move...


...and rock journalist Charles Shaar Murray...


...who, with colleague Barry Miles, followed up a very interesting and informative talk by the curator of the current "David Bowie is" exhibition, with a chat about Bowie and music in general, in the 60's and 70's...

Very interesting indeed...

We didn't make it into the Bowie exhibition as we couldn't get tickets for today and are leaving tomorrow..




...but we enjoyed a browse in the specially curated Bowie section of the gift shop....






Out and back to check in properly, this the V&A from the street...



Unpacked...


...and then to nearby Marchmont Street for much needed coffee and cake...


Back again to the hotel and prepping for tonight's visit to the Saddler's Wells ballet...


A walk from King's Cross to Islington...


...and a look round The Angel, as featured in the book Anne read on holiday, "A Streetcat Named Bob"...




...before heading to the theatre...


...for two pieces by the Israeli choreographer and composer, Hofesch Schechter, "Uprising" and "The Art of Not Looking Back"...



An excellent unrestricted view for us for this quite breathtaking display of sound and vision - brilliant...


...and followed nicely by dinner at a nearby Thai restaurant...


Tasty...


...rounding off the day and the holiday very nicely indeed...

Tomorrow back to Edinburgh...

Highlight of the day : Bowie stuff, ballet and good food...