Everything is not really getting faster, it just seems that way...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Twenty Four Paintings
Various - iPod Shuffleplay
Carter - Piano Concerto
Converse - The Mystic Trumpeter
Creston - Symphonies #1- 3
Burleigh - Music For Violin & Piano
Bauer - Orchestral & Chamber Works
Cadman - Piano Trio, Violin Sonata, Piano Quintet
Carpenter - Adventures In A Perambulator, Symphonies #1 & 2
Sallinen - Complete Works For String Orchestra

Month two of 2013 gone already...

Time is perceived more quickly, the older you get...

So I need to get up early to get stuff done - granted pointless stuff which has no bearing on anything of any import really...

Mainly transferring acquisitions to the iPod...

Meanwhile an over a hundred year old (in cat years) cat was on one of her old favourite perches...

Out into a bright cold morning...

..and noted the disintegrating CD on the downhill route remains in place...

Today, a trip to Unknown Pleasures in an attempt to reduce a credit note I have with them...

A quick chat with old chum Eric, from whom I must have bought hundreds of LPs and CDs over the years - at Hot Wax, record fairs and now, here...

Funnily enough, he advised he had recently found this Cloudland Blue entry from nearly nine years ago while surfing the internet - which mentions him and old partner in crime, Bert Muirhead...

A successful reduction in credit was achieved and eight Naxos CDs entered the collection...

...of course, back home I discovered the Carter disc is already present on the shelves...

This evening some ripping and listening to the new discs and some old stuff and more transference to the pod of I...

"Big Bang Theory" repeats enjoyed, as was Anne's latest home made curry - a very tasty indeed chicken balti...

The spices from Borough Market are a master stroke...

No doubt supplies will be boosted when I return in April...

At 9, a rather disappointing return of "Jonathan Creek"...

Fell asleep during Graham Norton whilst shuffleplaying...

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : Anne's chicken balti...

The sweet thrill of industriousness and pie...

Playlist
Various - iPod Shuffleplay
Various - Mod Fave Raves Vol 1
Various - Blue 60s
Herbie Hancock - Sextant
Herbie Hancock - Thrust

At lunch time a trip to Record Shak in a bid to decrease a credit note I have with them...

On the basis of a recent glowing review by Sid Smith, I partook of Herbie Hancock's "Thrust"  - and indeed it was found to be a funky cracker...

Home a little earlier than yesterday...

...and an evening of rehearsing with nephew Andy...

The goal was to teach him the half a dozen or so Capital Models originals the band will play at the end of April...

Tonight, we played along with the original recordings from 1980 plus tapes of our reunion in February 2011, almost three years to the day...

It went very well indeed and bodes well...

An uplift compared to last week's session with Jamie...

Next week we will back to a trio, with drummer Keith still attending in spirit only at this stage...

A late dinner comprised a superb shepherd's pie from Annie...

Ended the day with some TV, "Question Time" and "This Week", leading to a post midnight to bed scenario...

Highlight of the Day : Teaching...

Working backwards...

Playlist
Miles Davis - At Plugged Nickel Chicago Vol 1
Various - August 2013 on Shuffleplay
Schwartz - Music for Orchestra
Pink Floyd - A Foot in the Door
Ravel - Piano Works
Chicago - Chicago VII
Kiss - Klassiks
Various - Wow! That Was the 70's
Queens - End Times
Scriabin - Preludes Vol 1
Sumner McKane - Select Visual History
Various - Jan-Aug 2013 on Shuffleplay

First thing, wiped the new iPod and started to load in acquisitions, working backwards from where I left off with the iPod Touch - managed to get August 2013 in place before setting off for the day...

At lunchtime, a walk...

...noting the continuing testing of the tram...

In the evening, these on the way home...

This tree on Crispycat hill...

..always makes me think of the Baobab in "The Little Prince"...

Anne out at Zumba with Lynn - the fill the iPod project continued...

Managed to get back to the first album of 2013 by 9pm...

Some stats...

From January to August 2013 (now on the iPod Classic)...
Classical - 3,621 songs, 11.7 days, 16.42 GBs
Jazz - 603 songs, 2.2 days, 3.02 GBs
Rock & Pop - 2,682 songs, 6.8 days, 10.33 GBs

From September 2013 to now. (iPod Touch)...
Classical - 877 songs, 3.00 days, 4.16 GBs
Jazz - 372 songs, 1.6 days, 2.23 GBs
Rock & Pop - 1,593 songs, 5.3 days, 7.53 GBs

So, in 14 months, I have bought enough music to last for 30.6 days - so 1/14th of my time on the planet could be spent listening just once to everything I buy - i.e. not counting downloads...

But it's not because (a) much of it goes unlistened too as I am busy with other stuff and (b) of course I listen to lots of stuff I've bought before the current outlays...

"Line of Duty" is my favourite programme on telly right now and we enjoyed the third episode tonight...

Gripping stuff...

Then, the fifth of six of the new series of "Outnumbered" which does seem to still work even though the kids are all grown up...

Tomorrow night, nephew Andy will be round and we will start learning the Capital Models songs for the April gig - Jamie and Keith will be there in spirit (digitally)...

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : Organising music...

Twenty five not thirty...

Playlist
Various - Sept 13-Feb 14 on Shuffleplay
Capital Models - Music Box 25/2/11
Various Composers - The Complete Classical Collection Vol 2

Nothing to report today really...

But that's never stopped me before...

The view from the garage roof this morning...

Lovely blue skies near Haymarket...

...while the cathedral enjoyed the almost Spring sunshine...

On the way home, a blurry new Haymarket Station...

Tasty pasta for tea, then an hour and a half or so sorting the running order for the playlist re Jane and Bobby's 25th Wedding Anniversary party - not their 30th as noted the other day - I am getting five years ahead of myself...

I must have been coming up for 30 when they got married...

Later, "Death in Paradise" and the return of "Pram Face" entertained...

As did Aberdeen's result against Celtic and Man Utd's in Greece - I am a fan of the underdog...

As I said, nothing to report...

Highlight of the Day : The return of "Pram Face"...

Slow down...

Playlist
Peter Gabriel - Up
Soft Machine - Bundles
Television - Little Johnny Jewel
Bartok - Rhapsodies Nos 1 & 2/Piano Quintet
Shostakovich - String Quartets
Passport - Cross Collateral
Alice Cooper - Various Albums
Abwarts - Amok Koma
Feldman - Music for Cello
Various Composers - Edition Zeitgenossische Musik Vol 4
Yes - Talk
Sleepmakeswaves - In Today Already Walks Tomorrow
Miles Davis - Isle of Wight
Dream Theater - Dream Theater
Vangelis - Odyssey
Weber - Piano Music Vol 2
Klaus Schulze - La Vie Electronique Vol 3
Various  - iPod Shuffleplay

Raining today - no pictures taken outside...

At home, wiped the 16GB iPod Touch and added back most recent acquisitions - ripped CDs only though no downloads...

This took me back to the beginning of September and the discs purchased during our trip to Munich...

My purchasing has definitely slowed in the last couple of months...

January 2013    57

February 2013    39

January 2014     29

February 2014 (so far)     11

So, at 40 v 96, less than half the number at the same point a year ago...

We'll see...

Tasty salmon based tea - cabbage being a master stroke...

And the return of "Silk" was very good too...

Ended the day with the last six months on shuffleplay...

Highlight of the Day : Return of "Silk"...

Coincidence is often seen as fate...

Playlist
Various - Weekly Playlist No 8
Capital Models - Covers Sets
Wishbone Ash - Pilgrimage
Peter Gabriel - Revisited
Golden Earring- To the Hilt
The Temptations - Cloud Nine
The Temptations - Puzzle People
The Temptations - At Their Very Best
Golden Earring - The Devil Made Me Do It
Eno/Cale - Wrong Way Up
Nazareth - Loud'n'Proud
Ohio Players - Greatest Hits
Herbie Hancock - Sextant
Various - iPod Shuffleplay

Working this morning on prepping the Capital Models setlists for 26 April...

Then, past the lovely flowers...

...and out for breakfast, deciding on the spur of the moment to visit Cafe Citron, instead of Patisserie Florentin...

An excellent bacon roll, I must advise...

The weather was extremely windy and, as we chatted and enjoyed breakfast, an almighty bang was heard from outside...

A large metal bin had been blown off the pavement, toppling into an empty parking space...

...empty only because your correspondent, having first parked in it, had decided to move slightly closer to the cafe due to the windy conditions...

And so the Cloudland Blue Mobile was a good three spaces away from the incident...

And so it seemed fate had taken a hand in matters - though, in reality, it was just a coincidence...

Not content with that, as we drove off, a jogger ran from between parked vehicles into the path of our car - just as well I had my wits about me...

Over to Jane and Bobby's and we visited the hotel with Bobby which is to be the venue for their 30th anniversary party next Saturday...

We were there to suss out the music situation...

The hotel only has Spotify - you cannot use a dock or a USB stick or a disco - so you must have a Spotify account and create your playlist prior to coming along and log-in on the night - otherwise your music will just have to be random stuff chosen by the hotel...

Back home, and I now have a 30 day free trial on Spotify in Jane's name, which will be cancelled when it's up - and have created an 80-odd song playlist for the night, said songs having been chosen by Bobby, Jane and niece Kitty...

Order to be decided...

Then, more work done on sorting out the CD storage in the back room...

...and moving albums around between hard drives, before heading to Anne's mum's to sort a malfunctioning TV and Freeview Box in her kitchen (switching the box off and on again, basically) and on to Loanhead, to visit my mum - with sister Sheila also in attendance...

The wind has taken down the fence between mum's and her neighbours - some removal of broken panels ensued and initial work on securing a new fence undertaken...

Home and excellent home made soup for tea..

Then, two hours spent playing through the proposed set lists for April - which went quite well...

I should have thought about playing along to existing recordings when Jamie was round recently - it means Keith and, occasionally, Andy are there in spirit...

Finished off the weekend with "The Musketeers" and some listening to recent acquisitions...

All over, yet again...

Highlight of the Day : Not having the car accidentally smashed / Helping old people...

Why did the doctor not cross the road....

Playlist

Various - iPod Shuffleplay

Gluck - Orfeo et Euridice

Wishbone Ash - Classic Ash

Capital Models - Covers & Originals

Up early and working on compiling the weekly podcast...

Into town around ten - was intending to walk but, frankly, it was just too cold...

Took the bus to Princes St from the bottom of the hill and down through M&S's food hall...

..and out the other side to Fopp, where a cheeky wee 2nd hand copy of Wishbone Ash's "Pilgrimage" was picked up for £2...

Of course, I already have a download...

Ah but this has an extra track...

Justified (and ancient)...

Back on to the streets and a walk up to the library...

...over Princes St (awaiting the tram)...

...and up the gallery steps...

...with good views...

...arriving right on time at 11:15...

Dr Prog was late as usual...

He is committed to music streaming so good to see him borrowing a few CDs and reverting to 20th Century music listening...

I wasn't going to take anything but was enticed on my way out by a two albums on one CD of The Temptations 1969 LPs "Cloud Nine" and "Puzzle People"...

Funky...

Dr Prog is a nightmare re crossing the road if anything is coming...

A tasty wrap each for lunch at the Mediterranean Gate, followed by coffees at Babylon Cafe and some small pieces of coconut sponge, baked this very morning by the owner's son for charity...

A walk back towards Princes St and I left Dr Prog on Cockburn St as he decided to watch the Italy v Scotland Rugby International in one of the bars there...

Home for me on the bus...

A beast was spotted in the garden...

The afternoon was spent recording and uploading this week's podcast (see below), while Anne was watching Hearts go down 2-0 to unbeaten league leaders Celtic.  Meanwhile Queens were playing in Falkirk, robbed apparently by an injury time penalty to lose 1-0...

Down to fifth...

In the early evening, worked on collating prospective sets for the Capital Models gig, while Anne cooked a superb lamb karahi curry...

Yum...

The rest of the night was taken up with two episodes of "Silent Witness" followed by two of "Salamander"...

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : Anne's culinary skills once again...

Weekly Playlist No 8

Welcome to the Cloudland Blue Weekly Playlist No 8

A selection of tracks which impressed Mr CBQ in week 8 of 2014... 

Expect to hear stuff you've never heard before, along with ultra-familiar stuff, far out jazz, tuneless contemporary classical music, long tracks, short tracks - anything and everything really...

This week, Mr CBQ also took on a speaking part...

Cloudland Blue Weekly Playlist 2014 No 8 by Cloudland Blue Quartet on Mixcloud

Fripp and Eno - Paris Olympia 28 May 1975 (3) - Test Loop II

Elliot Goldenthal - Heat OST - Condensers

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Kranky Kompilation - The Dead Flag Blues

Torero Band - Lennon And McCartney Tijuana Style - Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da

The Killers - Day and Age - A Dustland Fairytale

Jewel - Goodbye Alice In Wonderland - Satellite

Autorotation - Everything Is Everything - Green Army Choir

Philippe Petit and Friends - Reciprocess +/VS - Simon Fisher Turner

The Secret Machines - Now Here Is Nowhere - The Leaves Are Gone

Dar Williams - Out There Live - February

Hawkwind - Parallel Universe - Wind Of Change

Uriah Heep - Celebration - Stealin'

Laura Pausini - Inedito - Nessuno Sa

Neal Morse - Cover To Cover - Maybe I'm Amazed

Isa and The Filthy Tongues - Dark Passenger - Jim's Killer

Ravi Shankar - Incredible Ravi Shankar/Raga Charukauns - Alap, Jod and Jhala (edit)

Basquiat Strings - Basquiat Strings With Seb Rochford - Double-Dares

Kim Edgar - The Ornate Lie - A Poppy Blossoms

Capital Models - Anthology - Breaking Silence

10cc - The Very Best Of 10cc - I'm Mandy Fly Me

H (Steve Hogarth) - Ice Cream Genius - Better Dreams

The Olympic Symphonium - More in Sorrow Than in Anger - Side by Side

Argent - Argent - Dance In The Smoke

The Monkees - Jane and Bobby's Anniversary Album - I'm A Believer
Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water - The Only Living Boy In New York

Everything's a pound...

Playlist
Various - iPod Shuffleplay
Argent - Argent
Various - Jane & Bobby's Anniversary Album

A better morning...

...and, it was Friday...

The city was, as ever, under surveillance...

In the afternoon, to celebrate the brief return to Edinburgh of old chum (or rather, young chum) Kris-with-a-K, currently residing in Singapore, a tasty Indian was undertaken with Kris, Spike, Wheelie, Gaz, Baz, Julio, Luke, Lodger, Bernardo and Raymondo - very enjoyable indeed...

The venue was the Kama Sutra in Lothian Rd, which used to be Spike's restaurant, Club India...

The bus home was soundtracked by Argent's debut from 1969...

Home just after five, in a not too worse for wear state, all things considered and to the ongoing  re-arranging of the back room...

The plastic sleeved burns now more accessible and the height now reduced...

Still some final tweaking methinks - and this whole section needs more wine bottle boxes and discontinued Ikea units as featured on the other wall.....

No dinner of course due to mid afternoon Indian intake...

Instead, finalising the curation of around 75 tracks chosen by Jane and Bobby for their party...

Having spent some considerable time on this, locating each song and ensuring its presence on the hard drive for MP3 playlist creation, a mail from Bob advised the venue relies on Spotify for its music provision...

So we will most likely have to create playlists on that destroyer of the music industry and utilise it on the night...

C'est la guerre...

Later on, "Inspector George Gently" entertained, with a story set in a holiday camp, like the Argent album, set in 1969...

Also much enjoyed was "Pound Shop Wars" - the behind the scenes details of these shops and the amount of money to be made from some extremely hard work at infinitesimal margins, is an eye opener indeed...

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : Tasty Indian with chums...

Lamppost not lampost...

Playlist
Capital Models - Anthology
Various - iPod Shuffleplay

A listen first thing to the original versions of the Capital Models songs to revive my sagging confidence after last night...

As you may have noted, since the coming to Crispycat of the new iPod, it's been mostly shuffleplay, so little indication here of what might be on this week's Weekly Podcast (no 8) at the weekend...

By close today, over 400 tracks had come and gone so far this week and, with most being from various different albums (a good couple of thousand are on the machine just now), there is a huge choice of stuff to feature...

However, since this is the only picture of the day, it's safe to say it will feature on the illustration...

A good lamppost, all told...

Hmmm, lamppost has two p's...

In the evening, the start of a project to pull together chosen music from Jane and Bobby for their upcoming 30th anniversary party...

That, and some very tasty Bolognese based pasta from the Exec Producer and the very enjoyable "Line of Duty" continued from the Tivo box...

A not much happened but reasonably good day nonetheless...

Highlight of the Day : Anne's tasty pasta...

The disappointment of it all...

Playlist

Various - iPod Shuffleplay

Isa And The Filthy Tongues - Dark Passenger

Ravi Shankar - Incredible Ravi Shankar Raga Charukauns

Basquiat Strings - Basquiat Strings With Seb Rochford

Kim Edgar - The Ornate Lie

A grey day...

Another walk down to Stockbridge...

This time, my credit note was utilised fully and discs by Goodbye Mr Mackenzie remnants Isa and the Filthy Tongues, Peter Gabriel and Ravi Shankar were secured while, in a nearby charity shop, Basquiat Strings and Kim Edgar joined the fray for a mere squid each...

Back home, no time to listen initially as I set things up for tonight's rehearsal with Jamie...

..and some hastily prepared drum loops - Keith and Andy once again being indisposed...

...here, Jamie is pictured during a well-earned break...

We ran through around a dozen songs from the original 1979/80 repertoire of Capital Models, recording it all for posterity - later realising I'd set the recording levels too high...

Just as well really because it wasn't our best ever night of music - half a dozen songs or so are possibly presentable and, of course, they will all sound better with Keith and Andy on board...

A quick listen to some of the new acquisitions on Jamie's exit...

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : Rehearsing, despite the disappointment of it all...

15 nanoseconds of fame...

Playlist
Various - iPod Shuffleplay

In the inbox this morning, an e-mail from a US TV company which makes a talk show type thing, hosted by moustachioed and almost completely unknown in the UK comedian, Steve Harvey....

"For an episode of the Steve Harvey show taping Tuesday, February 18, 2014 we are interested in using your black cat photo from your September 29, 2011 blog post. This image was recently used in a Buzzfeed posting regarding items that look like Steve Harvey's mustache...

We would like to use the image in our "Ask Steve" when an in-studio guest asks Steve if he's seen the Buzzfeed article and if he knows why people are obsessed with his mustache.

Thank you very much with this request, please let me know if this usage is permissible.  I look forward to hearing from you."

Fame at last for Meg the Black Cat?

Kind of...

At lunchtime, a look at some guitars re the upcoming Capital Models gig - at which I may be playing guitar...

Back home, tasty soup was the order of the evening...

As is now the usual Tuesday night scenario, "Death in Paradise" and Vic & Bob's "House of Fools" entertained...

Highlight of the Day : Meg on TV...