Acquisitions achieved and required...

Playlist

Kansas - Somewhere to Elsewhere

Pink Floyd - Relics

Alice Cooper - Epic Alice Cooper

David Fathead Newman - Fathead Comes On

The Red Mitchell/Harold Land Quintet - Hear Ye!

Bach, W F - Three Fantasias, Three Fugues, Three Sonatas

Paul Buchanan - BBC Bowie Prom

Kansas - Leftover The Airwaves

Ligeti - György Ligeti Works

Herbie Mann - Stone Flute

London Chamber Orchestra - LCO 02 : Vaughan Williams; Elgar

London Chamber Orchestra - LCO 04 : Britten

London Chamber Orchestra - LCO 06 : Mozart

Telemann - Viola Concerto, Recorder Suite In A Minor, Tafelmusik

Chabrier - Piano Works, Vol. 2

Bliss - A Colour Symphony, Adam Zero

Franck - Music For Piano

Tveitt - Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 5

Curtis Mayfield - Superfly (2CD Special Edition)

Capital Models - Live 29 November 2014

Cloudland Blue Quartet - The Dakota Starman EP

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Bitter Sweet Covers

David Bowie - The Singles Collection

James Jamieson - Precious (Revised)

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - The Big Beat

Alan White - Ramshackled

Ligeti - The Ligeti Project

Haydn - String Quartets Opus 76

Haydn - String Quartets Opus 74

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Fly Across the World (Demos May 2016)

And another month passes...

The view from the office this morning...

Lovely first thing...

Compiling this week's podcast - eschewing the random number generator in favour of recent acquisitions...

Also listening to some Bowie covers of our own making through the years...

Meanwhile, there appears to be a wasps' next under Crispycat Towers...

The solution is to let it run its course, apparently...

Some looking at monies in and monies out and trying to identify a goodly input last September, caused me to consult the blog - to no avail - but the pics from around that time caused me to once again bring the turntable through to Crispycat HQ and give it a wee spin...

Some Hadyn...

More of the same (on CD) in the car as we headed to "exciting" shops on a couple of quests...

...the most boring way to spend a Sunday afternoon...

However, both completed...

To my mum's, where fence provisions have arrived and are in preparation...

On good form today was the auld yin, although she appears to require a new fridge freezer...

That will be sorted shortly...

For Anne's mum, a new TV seems to be on the agenda...

It's all go...

A temporary solution is Kitty's old pink M&S TV/DVD thing from the attic...

Jane, Bobby and the kids are in FLA right now and sending me pics of sunshine and beaches, so I e-mailed a few back to Bob of the gathered throng...

...and of the tasty fayre...

Chicken Parmagiano...

...tasty potato based things...

...home-made gooseberry tart...

A snail was guarding the gate as we exited...

Home, to put in place new acquisitions...

The view from the office this evening...

...as "Fake or Fortune" was enjoyed - spoiler - fake this week...

Then, an old thing on the Tivo, Rick Stein's long weekend in Berlin, brought back happy memories...

Closed the day by reminding myself of work carried out in May and already forgotten about...

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : Sorting stuff...

Re-awakening the canon...

Playlist

Glass - Low Symphony

Glass - "Heroes" Symphony (No 4)

Various - BBC Bowie Prom

David Bowie - Bowie Prom Setlist

Kansas - Leftover the Airwaves (Live 1976)

Ligeti - György Ligeti Works

Ligeti - The Ligeti Project

Kansas - Two For the Show

Kansas - Monolith

Kansas - Epic Kansas

Up at seven and started the day with Glass after ending it with him at 1 this morning...

Reviews of Bowie Prom were better than expected...

What did I miss?

Picked up four tracks from the BBC for a cheeky wee EP - Almond's "Starman" is actually nowhere near as bad as it seemed last night...

Anyway, compiled and listened to the originals of the 20 track setlist...

Reminded me of just how good Bowie was - there'd been a kind of block since his death...

The final few tracks soundtracked breakfast with Anne...

Then some more sorting out in the back room...

Classical Composers A-Z now fully on the shelving units, Classical by performer and classical compilations now on the back wall.  All box sets sorted out too...

The postie brought these recent orders...

A rockin' 2CD live set of mid 70's US prog from Kansas...

...and a 9CD box of Ligeti, containing over 10 hours of his work - for under £13...

  

Listening to those before taking Anne to the bus for a day out for her - for me, it was off to the Post Office to fulfil and order...

Back home, monitoring today's League Cup games - Queens scraped a 1-0 win against Stenhousemuir to secure an unseeded place in the last 16...

Ligeti and Kansas continued to be enjoyed...

Sang through a few songs, realising my voice is probably shot...

We'll see...

A couple of episodes of "Supernatural" then picked Anne up and we enjoyed the penultimate "Musketeers"...

To bed with more Kansas on the cans...

Highlight of the Day: Re-awakening Bowie...

Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2016 Vol 30

A selection of tracks via a random number generator being applied to Mr CBQ's collection.

Featured LPs

Peter Gabriel - Hit

Paul McCartney & Wings - Wingspan

Various - Blue Note : Spring Sampler 2000

Mozart - Piano Concertos

Robert Fripp - Exposure

Electric Light Orchestra - Balance of Power

Metheny/Mehldau - Metheny Mehldau

Rautavaara - Piano Works

Bartók - Violin Concertos #1 & 2

Alice Cooper - Trash

Alice Cooper - The Alice Cooper Show

Trio - Die größten Erfolge

Various - Milano Jukebox 1998

Ke$ha - Warrior

Beethoven - String Trios

Cowboy Junkies - Pale Sun Crescent Moon

Dexter Gordon - A Swingin' Affair

Nick Drake - Fruit Tree

Grieg - Complete Chamber Music

Genesis - Live at the Rainbow 1973

Milhaud - Milhaud, Hindemith, Bartok

Various Composers - Classic CD (1997)

Peter Gabriel - New Blood

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Splinterheart

Yello - 1980-1985: The New Mix In One Go

Hope you enjoy and pop back again next week for more eclecticism...

Brave but deeply flawed...

Playlist

Various - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selections 2016

Red Mitchell/Harold Land Quintet - Hear Ye!

Dave Newman - Fathead Comes On

W F Bach - Three Sonatas, Three Fugues, Three Sonatas

Tallis - Spem in Alium

Pink Floyd - A Collection of Great Dance Songs

Tveitt - Piano Concerto No 4; Variations on a Folk Song

Various - BBC Bowie Prom

Glass -  Low Symphony

Glass - "Heroes" Symphony (No 4)

This morning, on the way down the hill...

...an old guy running off into the future...

A good day...

At lunchtime, the festival is coming once again...

A walk to Fopp and two jazz discs acquired for just 300 English New Pence each...

Back home, this had arrived - wonderful piano music by JS Bach's eldest son...

Late on, hoped to enjoy the BBC's much vaunted Bowie Prom...

It was fairly terrible other then the opening salvo of "Warzawa"/"Station to Station"/"The Man Who Sold the World", Paul Buchanan's "Ashes to Ashes" and "I Can't Give Everything Away" and Palmer/Calvi's "Blackstar"...

And the coda of Calvi's "Lady Grinning Soul" was ok...

"Sorrow" had a Velvet's tinge to it courtesy of John Cale - but, not a Bowie song...

Amanda Palmer on ""Heroes"" with a string quartet - what could go wrong?

"This is not America" included Elf somebody running on to the sage to recite an ill-advised rap in the middle of an otherwise decent rendition by The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon...

Marc Almond was roundly (and, probably, rightly) vilified on the Twitter for murdering "Life on Mars?" (Cale did the same to "Space Oddity" and "Valentine's Day" re his dreadful "arrangements") - certainly Almond's timing and pitch were well off - he made a slightly better fist of "Starman" but, really, no...

The French countertenor's deconstruction of "Always Crashing in the Same Car" was "interesting"...

The Stargaze Ensemble seemed somehow under-rehearsed - they announced this gig in April though, so how come?

Their take on "Fame" was ok but Laura Mvula not so - although she, in turn, was ok on "Girl Loves Me"...

The instrumental "Rebel Rebel" was also not ok, due to not actually being "Rebel Rebel"...

"After All" was turned into a Live Aid like dirge and, for some unknown reason, Palmer deemed it necessary to bring a baby onto the stage...

The third instrumental of the evening, the final piece, "Let's Dance", at last sparked the audience into action right at the, ahem, death but too little too late...

All in all though, I think Bowie would have enjoyed the "braveness" of it....

Me? Not so much...

To bed with Phillip Glass's "Low" and "Heroes" symphonies on the cans...

Those would have been acceptable...

Highlight of Day : Paul Buchanan singing live...

Not distracted by fellow watchers...

Playlist

Various - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2016 Vol 30

Various - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2016 Vol 20

Various - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2016 Vol 21

Cloudland Pedestrian - Schneewittchen Schwarzmischung

Various Composers - Musica Fenneca

Rautavaara - Meet the Composer

Moody Blues - In Search of the Lost Chord

Moody Blues - On the Threshold of a Dream

A visit this morning from Tiger (who, of course, bears no resemblance whatsoever to a tiger), brother of Fang the Black Cat, no doubt hopeful of catching a bird off guard at the feeding station...

No luck today...

A good tree on the way down the hill...

Soundtracked today by the 30th Eclectic Selection of the year, uploaded to Mixcloud this morning...

Then, also enjoyed listening back to episode 20...

Good wild daisies on the way home...

A tasty tea of prawn and chorizo pasta whilst enjoying a re-run of "Big Bang"...

This has been uploaded to Youtube - by Pedantic Pedestrian, who has remixed and collaborated with a goodly number of the tracks of the last CBQ album, "Four Last Things"...

A release of the project, "Schneewittchen Schwarzmischung" must surely be in the offing...

Out this evening to the Odeon...

At first, an empty screening hall but, little by little people entered carrying huge amounts of juice, popcorn, hotdogs etc etc...

Anne's decision to bring chocolate raisins calmed my anxiety of having to watch a film in the company of others...

Off we go...

It was so loud as to drown out any extraneous noises and the film was good...

It was "Star Trek Beyond"...

Two hours twenty minutes of fun and hokum...

Much enjoyed...

A great idea from the Exec Producer...

Everyone left their debris behind...

Home to a taped episode of "New Girl" and bed around midnight...

A good evening...

Highlight of the Day : Star Trek...

Forgotten gratuitous banana eating by a wee chum...

Playlist

 Cloudland Blue Quartet - DDHR40

Montrose - Jump On It

Bliss - A Colour Symphony, Adam Zero

Tchaikovsky - The Sleeping Beauty

John Barry - Beat For Beatniks & Beat Girls

Ritual - The Hemulic Voluntary Band

Neil Diamond - Home Before Dark

Hindemith - Viola & Cello Concertos

London Chamber Orchestra - LCO 04 : Britten

Blondie - Greatest Hits

Royal Shakespeare Theatre Orchestra - A Shakespeare Celebration

Beethoven - Diabelli Variations

Telemann - Viola Concerto, Recorder Suite In A Minor, Tafelmusik

Feldmann - Triadic Memories

London Chamber Orchestra - LCO 7 : Vivaldi

Various - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2016 Vol 30

This happened yesterday but I forgot...

A squirrel, eating a banana, at the feeding station...

It had been raining overnight but was a beautiful morning...

The moon was still up but far off...

...and the beast was about its business...

On the way home, it looked like we were under attack...

This was waiting...

1p plus postage, so I can't really complain that a couple of the tracks won't play and won't rip...

It completes the set of 10...

With Anne at Zumba with Lynn, the podcast was recorded and prepared for uploading...

Pizza and "Holby" were enjoyed later on...

That's it...

Highlight of the Day : Podcasting...

Reflections, duplication and recordings...

Playlist

Various Composers - Les incontournables du baroque

Various Composers - Deutsche Grammophon : Original Masters : The Singles

Various - Funk Fever

John Barry - Beat For Beatniks & Beat Girls

Webern - Complete Works

Various - Island Presents Reggae Discomixes

Art Taylor - A.T.'s Delight

Platti - Cello Concertos

Grauzone - 1980-1982

Fashiøn - The Height Of Fashiøn

Berkeley, L - Berkeley, L: String Quartet No. 2 / Berkeley, M.: Abstract Mirror / Magnetic Field

Matthew Friedberger - Winter Women / Holy Ghost Language School

Kurtág - Signs, Games and Messages

Alice Cooper - Pretties For You

Various - Invictus Club Classics II - Come Together

Gentle Giant - Interview (Remaster)

Jason Moran - Modernistic

Can - The Lost Tapes 1968-1975

Tangerine Dream - Quantum Key

Jean-Michel Jarre - Essential Recollection

Various - Funk Soul Brothers

Schapira-Marinescu - Piano Portrait

Various - Annette Humpe: Zeitgeschichte - Das Beste von und für Annette Humpe

Moeran - String Quartets, String Trio

Berwald - Piano Quintets Nos. 1 & 2

Dizzy Gillespie - Birk's Works

Brian Eno - The Ship

City and Colour - Little Hell

Cloudland Blue Quartet & Pedantic Pedestrian - Schneewittchen Schwarzmischung

A Troop Of Echoes - The Longest Year On Record

Hummel - Piano Concertos No 2 Op. 85 & No 3 89

Milhaud - Salute to France : Rarely Heard Masterpieces

Cluster & Eno - After The Heat

Feldman - Orchestral Works and Chamber Music

Curtis Mayfield - Superfly

Curtis Mayfield - Superfly (2CD Special Edition)

CYNE - Wasteland Vol. 1: Killmore

Jorn - Heavy Rock Radio

Levin Minnemann Rudess - From The Law Offices Of

Franck - Music For Piano

Bryan Ferry - The Platinum Collection

Asia - Alpha

Breakfast and mugs of Bremen were reflected in the window...

At lunchtime, a trawl around the shops at Dalry - this at the Sally Army for a quid (£66 on Amazon)...

I have it already but what's the difference...

  

A second CD with 11 extra tracks all told...

Aparently, Twitter avieses, Asia's second LP, Alpha, was released this day in 1983...

Sure enough, here it is in my diary for that year, nestiling alongside Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, Howard Devoto, Robin Scott of M fame and The Dead Kennedys...

Took me a week or so to buy it and, three years later it became my 33rd CD purchase...

31st actually as I'd counted "The Wall" and "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" as two CDs each...

Idiot...

Another excellent chilli from the Exec Producer for tea...

On telly, two episodes of "Two Broke Girls" and two episodes of new thing "Wasted" which was very good, in a childish sort of way - which I like...

An old "Yes Minister" and slightly earlier to bed...

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