Sunday, July 31, 2016

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...

Saturday, July 30, 2016

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...

Friday, July 29, 2016

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...

Thursday, July 28, 2016

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...




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...

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

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...

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

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...