Thirty six apart...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - New Pieces
Kat McKenzie - Shine a Light
Fripp & Eno - Paris Olympia 28 May 1975 (Disc 3: Loops)
Rex the Dog - The Rex the Dog Show
Vijay Iyer Trio - Live for Destination Out

No work today just listening...

This is so outrageous an idea that doubt is creeping in...

I listened to one piece at lunchtime as I walked along to Fopp and back (no purchases)...

It lasted for 56 minutes and I could hardly hear any discernible change in the piece throughout its duration...

Have I reverted to "The Drone Effect" from September 1977 in September 2013?

In the garden, the Splinterheart Flowers are still blooming...

The sky is not so blue though...

In the evening, no work...

A great baked potato and salad based tea...

"Some Girls" returned and entertained...

Fripp & Eno was good and buoyed re doubts arising...

Some reading on reactions to the new King Crimson line up...

September away...

Ended the day with some jazz as recommended by The Bad Plus' Ethan Iverson from over on the Destination Out site...

Greta place to visit...

Highlight of the Day : Baked potato...

Computers suck your life away...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - New Pieces
Laura Pausini - Singles

Up around 6 again and to the desk for more early morning creation - two shorter tracks today, clocking in at "just" 24 and 30 minutes...

Out with Anne for breakfast at The Bakehouse over on Broughton St...



...then, into John Lewis for some furniture shopping...

We've had the two dark red Chesterfields in our living room for 25 years so we're thinking it might finally be time for a change...

We're scaling down a little - which might stop us from lounging around in the evenings and sitting up straight a little more...

Home, a deal done, and prep for nephew Andy popping by this afternoon for our first work on Capital Models' covers sets for then end of the year...

Of course this was going to be my first attempt at using the new laptop to record anything externally - all my recent work has been internal work...

When I set it up, I was dismayed - it sounded dreadful, kept cutting out and what did make it onto the hard drive sounded like it had been recorded in a tunnel...

So nothing was recorded but we decanted to the back room and Andy played along to a CD, using his midi-keyboard and "reason" programme, accompanying me, Jamie and Keith from last December...

A successful start...

After packing up, we did much mucking about on the laptop, resulting in a cure being found - the notes said something along the lines of "if it keeps cutting out and sounds like it was recorded in a tunnel..."

A couple of boxes unchecked and it was sorted...

In all, probably around two and a half hours all told to get to that simple solution though...

Computers suck your life away...

Round to Anne's mum's for tea - and another "Dr Who" night arranged for this Saturday with nephew Olly...

Post some excellent steak pie and assorted veg, followed by a chocolatey cake thing with ice cream and strawberries at a crowded tea table - attendees Mary, Anne, me, Keith, Maureen and Abby, Jane, Bobby, Olly and Kitty (and Rafa the dog), nephew Craig and girlfriend Arianne - it was back home for more work...

A film created of some of my recent abstract work soundtracked by the shortest track created thus far...

Some footy highlights and off to bed...

A productive weekend over...

Highlight of the Day : Andy's keyboard playing...

Possibly too quiet, possibly too low...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - New Pieces
Stroppa - Traiettoria Spirali
Rihm - Symphonie Nahe Fern
Feldman - Atlantis
Musgrave - Chamber Works for Oboe

Up early and two new tracks worked on - I have so much stuff it's getting a little out of hand - but still plenty of work to be done to hone...

These are the basics - how much of it will end up being released is open to question...

One problem is the tracks are quite quiet but the frequencies are often so low, they would play havoc with people's speakers...

Anyway, out for a meet at 11...

Parked...

..and walking through the University buildings...

Today was open day - mobbed with young hopefuls and their parents...

Don't remember my parents doing anything really, other than saying "good luck, study hard and don't spend too much time in record shops" when I cam here in '77...

Onward...

..to the music library to meet up with Dr Prog and borrow more music I don't need...

A good discovery though in the music of Marco Stroppa - piano and electronics plus some of his work featuring the Ardittis... 

Some Morton Feldman and Wolfgang Rihm too - plus, new to me, Scot Thea Musgrave...

Lunch at the Mosque Kitchen - some stories exchanged then home...

Anne watched Hearts draw 0-0 with Dundee Utd, in the flesh, while I monitored Queens going down at home to the not so mighty Dumbarton...

In the evening, "Agents of Shield" from last night plus "Atlantis" both entertained and will, no doubt, become staples...

Ended the day with more work...

Highlight of the Day : New discoveries...

The rosenquist event...

Playlist
Frank Zappa - Waka Jawaka
Golden Earring  - Moontan
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Proposed 2014 Album : Early Work
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Bandcamp Sampler

The beast speeds home, eyes shut, occupying a place set aside for those less fortunate than the beast but who were not present on the vehicle...

...listening to the latest 65 minute piece for the next CBQ album, created this very morning...

Meanwhile, the Exec Producer opines "that's not music, it's not a tune, it's just noise"...

Which is kind of the point...

She may eventually wish that her credit be removed from the proposed 2014 output...

Upstairs, the newly arrived headphone amp was integrated into the set up...

...while the no longer used due to incessant malfunctioning Freecom DVD writer was removed from the set up...

Such is the way with technology these days...

Highlight of the Day : Another new piece...

The way a plane crosses the sky...

Playlist
Genesis - The Platinum Collection
Adrian Belew - Side One
Jakszyk, Fripp & Collins - The Scarcity of Miracles
Morrow's Memory - Moving Forward
King Crimson - Live 2008

The planes had been out this morning...

...and autumn continues to make its presence known...

New views of the cathedral...

...and of its environs...

...and an old view in a different light...

Nephew Andy should've been round tonight to start the Capital Models prep while Anne was out with Lynn but he's been in Sorrento for a couple of days and couldn't get here on time...

Postponed till Sunday afternoon...

A lift home for the ladies then off to bed...

Highlight of the Day : New views...

Those tarts certainly are full of jam...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Proposed 2014 Album
Grand Funk - Shinin' On
Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets
Jellyfish - Bellybutton
Genesis - The Platinum Collection

A listen today to some of the early work on the next CBQ album, due next year...

This evening, it was off to Tynecastle for one of the most romantic sounding football fixtures which might occur anywhere in the world...

Heart of Midlothian versus Queen of the South....

Funnily enough, the two teams met in the same competition, the Scottish League Cup, at Palmerston exactly 65 years ago today (Hearts won 3-2)

I wasn't allowed to wear my hat...

...as I was sitting in the Hearts end with brother in law Bobby, nephew Ollie's ticket having been upgraded to adult...

I did my best to behave...

It was a great game which, really, Queens deserved to win in normal time....

Hearts scored first, thanks to a mix up in the Queens defence letting young McHattie through on goal...

But Queens pressed back and, just six minutes later, McGuffie headed what looked to be a sure fire goal, only to have it scooped out by ex-Queens goalie McDonald...

But McGuffie was the first to follow up and smacked it home from six yards through a crowd of players, silencing the home crowd...

They had their hearts in their mouths again ten minutes from half time when Queens' Derek Lyle was as surprised as everyone else to find the ball deflected to him just eight yards out...

With plenty of space and with just McDonald to beat - he blootered his shot over the bar...

1-1 at half time...

A few minutes into the second half Hearts were awarded a rather soft penalty, when their forward seemed to have pushed the ball too far in front of him and fell under the challenge of two Queens defenders, neither of whom were booked for their challenges...

Hammill slotted it home...

2-1...

11 minutes later, Queens were back level with a well worked goal...

After a swift breakaway move from Queens which outpaced the retreating Hearts, Lyle partly atoned for his earlier miss by sending over a low pinpoint cross for Paton to lash in from close range...

Now Hearts were on the back foot and the game looked like Queens' for the taking...

Indeed, with just three minutes left, McShane should've finished Hearts off but, instead, produced another close range miss that would return to haunt the Doonhamers...

Full time 2-2... 

In extra time, Hearts scored after just three minutes in a well worked move from a corner, with skipper Wilson guiding Hammill's pass into the net... 

3-2...

Then the time wasting at every opportunity by Hearts kicked in - very disappointing...

But Queens refused to give up and continued to press for a third equaliser...

Justice prevailed with just four minutes remaining when the ball fell to their captain, Higgins, in the box...

He smashed the ball into the net without a second thought - if only Lyle could have done that earlier...

3-3...

And so, penalties...

Hearts took first and scored...

Queens equalised...

Then, Hammill stepped up and, despite his having already scored from the spot in normal time, this time the Queens keeper touched his drive over the bar...

Another golden opportunity...

But disaster as Queens' second man's shot came back off that self same bar into his own arms...

Almost inevitably, Hearts scored again, 2-1...

Then McDonald, who knows many of the Queens players from his time there, pulled off a fine save, diving low to his left...

And Hearts once again found the net, 3-1...

There were few celebrations as Queens next kick sent McDonald the wrong way...

3-2 with one kick left each - Hearts had to miss this one...

But it wasn't to be Queens' night...

3-3 with Hearts edging it scoring four out of five penalties while Queens scored two from four...

Although I'd texted Anne during the first half saying I fully expected a very lucky Hearts win, facing that reality was a sore one...

Queens thanked their travelling support - fully three times as large as those I've seen here on a Saturday from the likes of St Mirren, Motherwell or Dundee Utd...

At the end of the day, although I was "as sick as a parrot", "it's only a game"...

It was good though to overhear many Hearts fans on the way out agreeing with my thoughts that Queens were the better side...

The match stats say it all really...

...apart from the result...

Oh well, not to worry, that's football...

Highlight of the day : Queens v Hearts...

The signs of autumn and the return of the king...

Playlist
Dream Theater - Dream Theater
Allan Holdsworth - IOU
Latitudes - Individuation
Justin Rutledge - Man Descending
K D Lang - Hymns of the 49th Parallel

It's getting on a bit in the year now...

This morning, my attention was once again drawn to the sky...

Geese flying off for the winter...

In the evening, mostly TV plus some late night listening whilst researching new furniture...

Elsewhere, the return of King Crimson was announced...

Robert Fripp advises the line up will play in the Autumn of 2014 and feature three drummers...

The line up is advised as Mel Collins, Robert Fripp, Gavin Harrison, Jakko Jakszyk, Tony Levin, Pat Mastellotto and Bill Rieflin...

The first five of these appeared on the Crimson Projekct release last year "The Scarcity of Miracles"...

Mastellotto has played with Fripp since 1992 and the outset of the Sylvian/Fripp band while Fripp has recorded a number of albums with ex-REM drummer Rieflin, who is also a member of Humans with Fripp's wife Toyah Willcox...

Sadly, it seems there is no place for Adrian Belew...

Highlight of the Day : Return of the Crim...

Attempting to cross out the moon...

Playlist
The Physics House Band - Horizons/Rapture
65daysofstatic - Wild Light
Sleepmakeswaves - ...And So We Destroyed Everything...
Sleepmakeswaves - In Today Already Walks Tomorrow
Slow Electric - Slow Electric
Remember Remember - The Quickening
Various - Denovali Swingfest Essen Sampler

This morning, a plane attempted to cross out the moon...

...kind of...

This evening spent some time enjoying the music of the three bands enjoyed last night...

Plus some like minded stuff...

I probably watched a little TV too but can't really recall...

Exciting huh?

Highlight of the Day : New music...

It may be just a tad too loud...

Playlist
Kraftwerk - The Mix
Dream Theater - Dream Theater
65daysofstatic - Wild Light
The Physics House Band - Horizons/Rapture

Up nice and early...



Breakfast at home - bread from yesterday...

Into the loft, with a view to bringing down some books - though I don't know why as I have nowhere to put them and will most likely not read them...

Looking through all sorts of stuff - including twenty or so year old correspondence from people who bought my tapes from the Reptile Records shops...

I noted one correspondent lived in Gleimstrasse, Berlin which seemed to somehow ring a bell...

I checked the blog and found that Gleimstrasse was where we stayed on our visit to Germany's capital last year...

How spooky is that...

Some tidying too, with one black bag of stuff to go to the dump...

Managed to put the initial version of the next CBQ album (2014?) onto the iPod - five tracks of very very slow music totalling a massive 4.5 hours....



But much more than that is planned and these are very early days...

A text from Jamie re Capital Models - we are to repeat last year's excellent covers gig at The Kilted Pig on Saturday 28 December...

Yaroo...

Better get practising as we haven't played since February - and nephew Andy is joining on keyboards...

Plus, Kat McKenzie's album's now out and she wants to play a gig in Edinburgh in late October I think - so drummer Keith and I will be involved in that too...

Anne and Meg were relaxing downstairs waiting on me burning some Dream Theater and 65daysofstatic for the car...







When asked which of these Anne would like to soundtrack the drive to my mum's, she advised either as one was probably as bad as the other...

Hmmm...

To mum's via a curtains and home furnishing emporium...



...built on a spot where I played as a boy...



Mum was once again in good spirits and was less severe than she looks here...

Home and more mucking about before heading into town to meet up with Prog Rock Willie...

A tasty meal at Vittoria's on George IV Bridge before walking round to Victoria St's Liquid Rooms for a gig featuring The Physics House Band - seen here during their in front of the early attendees soundcheck...

They were amazing - brilliant musicianship from three young guys from Bristol...

So good in fact that I had to break my vow and buy their EP for a fiver...

Meeting them post gig, they advised influences included King Crimson and the Mahavishnu Orchestra...

There is hope...

Next up, Sydney's Sleepmakeswaves, onto whom Willie's son in Oz had turned us via the wonders of Dropbox...

They too rocked most excellently...

Last up with a short 60 minute set due to unforeseen venue curfew was the mighty 65daysofstatic...

This was my third live experience in their company but the first actual gig - the previous two being (a) their soundtracking of a modern ballet/play at the Fringe a few years ago and (b) their last year live soundtrack to "Silent Running" in Glasgow...

Superb set - playing music I'd heard for the first time while driving to and from my mum's this afternoon...

Great night...

Home via bus around 11 or so re the curfew...

A quick rip to the iPod of the Physics House Band and off to bed with that in my slightly more deaf than usual ears...

Man that was a loud gig...

Highlight of the Day : Math rock....

Not a bookworm really...

Playlist
Thomas Koner - Teimo
Thomas Koner - Permafrost
Billy Cobham - Stratus
Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies
Alice Cooper - DaDa
Alice Cooper - Killer
2raumwohnung - Lasso
Bang on a Can - In "C" (Terry Riley)
The Bad Plus - Suspicious Activity
Weather Report - Forecast Tomorrow
Roger Waters - Amused to Death
Grand Funk - Live in the USA 1974
UK - Best of UK
Kessel Manne Brown - The Poll Winners : Exploring the Scene!

Updating the blog - moving along two weeks behind reality re the entries for the holiday...

Out for breakfast to Patisserie Florentin...

Down to Stockbridge and maintaining my stance re not buying any more CDs this month..

Instead...

I bought a couple of books...

Will I read them?

Idiot...

Anne acquired some tasty bread and pate too...

Then a drive to a clothing emporium and some new shirts bought... 

Home, fully intending to sit in the back room listening to some string quartets reading some Gunter Grass (of whom, ironically given today's purchase, a good couple of novels were traded in to Barter Books when we were there earlier this year)...

inevitably though, the internet sucked me in - watching Roger waters' interview on the BBC re his time with Pink Floyd and the reinvention of "The Wall" for the 21st Century...

Pate and bread for lunch as the internet went silly buggers - at least in our house...

Eventually solved - though, as usual, I have no idea what I did to solve it...

More mucking about on iTunes...

Surfing on Youtube re a recommendation from the Prog Rock Stuff blog - moving on to view some Kiss in Zurich - what a show, what a band but, when you strip it all down, pretty mediocre...

Now, the mighty Grand Funk live in'74 was a different kettle of fish - they rocked like Kiss would love to rock...

I imagine most views on Youtube are not of the entire video, people's attention spans being what they are these days re the constant pull of "new stuff" at all times but I watched almost, almost the whole of the Grand Funk show...
In footie Queens pulled off a good away win at Morton and leapfrogged four teams - while Hearts were winning 1-0 in Dingwall with a minute to go, only to lose 2-1...

On Wednesday, they meet in Edinburgh in the League Cup...

In the evening, the weekly Indian takeaway, and I moved back to veggie...

A good documentary on Angela Merkel pointed out the inadequacies of the British political system when compared to that of Germany...

"Mock the Week" was good, while a new sitcom vehicle for Jason Byrne was not...

Two episodes of "Scot & Bailey" were good too...

And that was about it...

Highlight of the Day : New clothes...