Monday, November 30, 2015

Continuing to venture forth...

Playlist
Gentle Giant - In a Glass House
Gentle Giant - Civilian
Gentle Giant - Giant For A Day
The Bad Plus/Joshua Redman - The Bad Plus Joshua Redman
Creek - Creek 2015
BADBADNOTGOOD & Ghostface Killah - Sour Soul
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Four Last Things
Schubert - Lieder Volume III : Winterreise
Queen - Queen
Nordic Giants - A Seance of Dark Delusions
Daniel Cavanagh - Memory & Meaning
Max Richter - from Sleep
Sumner McKane - North
Sumner McKane - Stone's Throw
Various - 3/60 Legends of Soul
Grand Funk Railroad - Shinin' On

November gone - and a month since I was discharged from hospital...


First thing, some required work on the new CBQ album, "Four Last Things", comprising splitting the four "movements" into individual tracks...

Took a walk down to Corstorphine this morning to post another order, with "FLT" in the cans...



Walked the length of the main street...


...and back again...


...before taking the bus back to the top of the hill, noting these on the way back down to Crispycat Towers...






The beast etc...


Meanwhile, Anne had been busy again in the kitchen and the new paint job seemed complete...


In the evening, I eschewed my slippers...


...and we drove into town for a show at The Playhouse...



A present from Anne from my birthday back in May - long before there was any inlking of my now (daily improving) condition...

Bill Bailey's latest show, "Limboland"...


As we arrived, I had a bad pain attack lasting 45 minutes or so - it was agony - like horrendous heartburn - a throw back to the first night of this whole saga - I think Anne's Red Thai Chicken Curry is now, like Tuna Fish, off the agenda going forward....

Luckily, the pain subsided just as the show commenced...

Mr B was extremely funny but I couldn't laugh too much because of the pain when I did...

So it goes...

A drive home through the cold night, having been muchly entertained...

Highlight of the Day : Getting out...

Sunday, November 29, 2015

View the queue...

Playlist
Opus 20 - Hidden Streams
Sarah MacDougall - Across the Atlantic
Lutosławski - Concerto For Orchestra
Sor - Guitar Duets, Vol. 1
Loscil - Sketches from New Brighton
Tippett - Ritual Dances
Françoise Hardy - In Vogue
The Tubes - Hamburg 2015-07-26
Pet Shop Boys - Format: 1996-2009
Joe Satriani - Shockwave Supernova
Asia/Boston - Winning Combinations
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress
Riverside - Shrine Of The New Generation Slaves
BADBADNOTGOOD & Ghostface Killah - Sour Soul
Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer 2014
Hollywood Vampires - Hollywood Vampires
Markus Reuter - Mundo Nuevo
Matthew Florianz - Tauern
David Gilmour - Rattle That Lock
James Whyte - Ship
Donna Lewis - Brand New Day
Sparks - FFS
King Crimson - A Scarcity Of Miracles
Various - 3/60 Legends of Soul
The Undisputed Truth - The Best Of The Undisputed Truth

David Bowie - Blackstar

A quiet Sunday...

Gradually integrated jazz acquisitions from February to August...



Took a wee while...

Meanwhile, Anne was executively producing a re-paint of the kitchen...


I finished off the 1970's podcasts with 1978...


...and 1979...


...meaning I now have 21 up, from 1959 to 1979...


We also ventured out into the horrible November weather, briefly, to post off an order - car journeys are still painful...

Despite this, shaved my head and face...


...and off we drove to Leith to brother-in-law Keith's to see their new Sonos set up and enjoy copious amounts of coffee and good chat - it makes all the difference to get out of the house...

Phrase of the day was awarded to Keith for "how do I view the queue?"...

Home around 9:30 and some pottering around before hitting the sack...

Highlight of the Day : A wee trip outside...

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Possible progress...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Four Last Things
Various - The Last 12 Months on Shuffleplay
Uriah Heep - Magician's Birthday
Lou Reed - Take No Prisoners
Lou Reed - Transformer
Various - Walk on the Wild Side : The Jazz Side of Mod
The Undisputed Truth - The Best of The Undisputed Truth
Alice Cooper - School's Out
Various - That Cat Was Clean ; The Mod Side of Jazz
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Asunder Sweet and Other Distress
Tame Impala - Currents
BADBADNOTGOOD & Ghostface Killah - Sour Soul
Various - 3/60 Legends of Soul

Up early after a better night and listening, for the first time in a while, to the new CBQ album, which may be out before the year ends but certainly by the end of 2016...

Spent some time integrating discs which have come from the living room shelf to the back room into the main A-Z...

Anne was going uptown to meet up with chums Lynn and Penny for lunch - to Spoon again...

So, under doc's orders to get out and exercise, I tagged along...


The building where the nearby college and its open, spacious grounds once was, has nearly been completed - after several years... 


Onwards up to the bus stop...


An apprehensive Mr CBQ was Executively Produced into the city...



A visit to HMV then a further bus ride along to Fopp where I met up with Dr Prog...

Some purchases were made (see below), before we walked all the way back along to the West End and enjoyed an excellent chat along with some very tasty sustenance at Pintos...


The beast was once again about its business...


But, by 2, the beast was starting to feel the pain and so it headed home on an airport bus and was surprisingly able to walk up the hill...

Back at Crispycat Towers, I finished off the filing and enjoyed the new acquisitions...

Some cracking stuff on these two...



Indeed, after 43 years, I finally became aware that the final track on Alice Cooper's "School's Out" album, "Grande Finale" is based on Elmer Bernstein's theme tune to the film "Walk on the Wild Side" - Jimmy Smith's interpretation is the title track of the first of the two compilations above...

I had always thought the theme was somehow connected to "West Side Story" due to "Bernstein" appearing in the credits on the Coop album - Leonard Bernstein being co-writer of the musical with Stephen Sondheim...

So there you go - you can indeed learn something new everyday...

Also joining the fray were the latest from Godspeed You! Black Emperor...


...and Tame Impala...


...and, for a fiver, I even took a chance on jazz trio BADBADNOTGOOD's collaboration with rapper Ghostfaced Killah - despite not having liked that much, the promo copy of their single, which I bought in August 2014...


Finally, over three hours on 3CDs of top notch soul for £3 - what's not to like...


On Anne's return, soaked by the lashing rain, coffee and Abernethy biscuits buoyed - then, I forewent "Strictly" to listen to the new stuff but did enjoy one of the best ever episodes of "Dr Who" followed by two more superb instalments of "The Bridge"..

And so, time for bed...

I feel as if I have made some significant progress today...

Let's see what happens tomorrow - five weeks on...

Highlight of the Day : Dr Who, new music and getting out and feeling much improved though still sore...

Friday, November 27, 2015

Calm after the storm...

Playlist
Tangerine Dream - Mala Kunia
Tangerine Dream - Ricochet
W F Bach - Symphony in F Major
W F Bach - Keyboard Sonata in E Flat
Various - History of the Single 1959-2015
Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel - Birmingham
Steve Harley - Discography
Various - Top Ten Albums of 1975
Various - Top Ten Albums of 1976
Various - Top Ten Albums of 1977
Various - Dub
Loscil - Sketches from New Brighton

Snoozing with Tangerine Dream after a bad night sleepwise - the Exec Producer reported much snoring - a rarity for your correspondent these days...

Nightmares and uneasiness were the main elements of the night in my head...

Spirits lifted by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, son of J S Bach - discovered I do not have enough of his music...

Breakfast with the Exec Producer - the preparation of which caused us to curse the invention of the microwave oven...

Brought the "Red Book of CDs I Own" up to date...

Enjoyed a goodly amount of Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel mid-morning, while Anne ventured out in search of a new washing machine...

Despite the rough night, I was feeling much better than yesterday with painkillers now settled for the time being at 50% cocodamol and 50% paracetamol...

Lunch, Anne having returned and reported success...

In the afternoon, with the weather having nixed a planned walkabout, the EP engrossed herself in the tennis, while I returned to the Albums of the Year project (click on "podcasts" above), recording and uploading a further three in the series...

1975...


1976...


1977...


A small Indian takeaway was ordered for tea and much enjoyed - my first since the op and no adverse effects to speak of...

"Josh", "Have I Got News For You" and "Graham Norton" also enjoyed, whilst updating the "Excel Spreadsheet of CDs I Own", before turning in...

Highlight of the Day : Anne at home...

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Seeking audience with King Morpheus...

Playlist
Various - Top Ten Albums of 1972
Various - Top Ten Albums of 1973
Teramaze - Anhedonia
Kenny Dorham - Quiet Kenny
Stan Getz - The Steamer
Cloudland Blue Quartet - The Dakota Starman EP
Cloudland Blue Quartet - The Leonard Cohen EP
The Moody Blues - This is the Moody Blues
Various - Top Ten Albums of 1974

Started the day on good form - Anne was off super early and I got down to recording and uploading some more podcasts...

1972...


1973...


I was expecting my mum and sister around 10:30 so called a halt to proceedings...

Due to various factors, they arrived at 11:45 but brought lunch...

And hearing aids...


Sister Sheila was a little suspicious of my "scones" from yesterday...


I must admit to preferring hers, which she'd baked at 6 this morning...



They left around 2 with me not feeling too great...

I retired to bed rather than going for a walk...

I was awoken around five by a worried Anne who was supposed to not have returned but have gone straight to Edinburgh for tonight's performance by Ballet Rambert...

She had been unable to raise your correspondent...

All seemed ok...

So off she went to the ballet, meeting up with chum Theresa at Spoon (formerly Nicholson's - were JK Rowling wrote "Harry Potter" - as opposed to the claims of The Elephant House on George IV Bridge - always annoys me when I walk past that place and tourists are packing it out and milling about on the street taking pics, not realising they've been duped)...

Anyway, a small pizza and a couple of "Big Bang Theory" reruns and, after a couple of hours, I returned to my podcasting and recorded and uploaded my third of the day, 1974...


Then, awaiting Anne's return while watching Dominic Sandbrook's rather disjointed attempts to prove that today's UK culture is based on Victorian values - which, coincidentally, included footage of JK Rowling writing Harry Potter in Nicholson's cafe...

Anne arrived home at getting on for 11, having enjoyed what seemed to have been three quite excellent pieces from the talented young people at the Rambert...





We watched the end of "Question Time" but I fell asleep again during "This Week"...

Not doing too well today but let's hope it's just a passing phase...

Highlight of the Day : Sleeping...

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

The quest for the scone...

Playlist
Various - History of the Single 1959-2015
Yes - Fragile
Various - Albums of the Year 1970
Various - Albums of the Year 1971
Dizzy Gillespie - Afro
Japan - Tin Drum
Yes Union
John Coltrane - Africa/Brass
Ornette Coleman - Change of the Century
John Coltrane - Coltrane Jazz
Emerson Lake & Palmer - Tarkus

Breakfast in the dining room...


I always feel pretty good first thing and then go downhill mid-morning - weird...

This morning, recorded and uploaded the Albums of the Year podcast for 1970... 



...and that for 1971...


In the afternoon, another walk...




Chum Moira had alerted me to a short film re the simple making of scones - which seemed, well, simple...

Accordingly, the three ingredients were bought, self raising flour, cream and, erm, lemonade...

What could go wrong...


Hmm...


My "dough" was far too wet - despite what the video showed - it may have been better not to add all the lemonade to the mix...

Oh dear...




They looked more like nan breads...


A bit of a disaster but they tasted kind of ok...

On Anne's return, she advised we'd locate a better recipe and try again on Friday - she too has always wanted to be able to make scones...

In the evening, some twittering and listening while Anne Zumba'd... 

Tasty baked potatoes for tea and we enjoyed "Cuffs" and "Holby" before retiring...

A reasonable day - much pain still but that may be because I'm noticing it more as I change the medication...

Highlight of the Day : Baking, kind of...