Thursday, June 30, 2016

Done for by the seeding and lack of ability...

Playlist
Yes - Close to the edge
Fripp & Eno - No Pussyfooting
Various - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection Content 2016 (So Far)

Not the best month ever in the history of months...


A good start with Yes and Fripp & Eno classics...

A nice unpictured lunch at Le P'tite Folie - perfect pea and coriander soup, followed by coley...

And a good tree on the way home...


Anne was out at Hearts' first match of their 2016/17 European adventure (2-1 to Infonet of Talinn), and so, an opportunity was taken to catch up on an episode of "Supernatural"...

The penalty shoot out between Poland and Portugal was chanced upon just before Anne's return...

Portugal are in the semi finals having drawn over the regulation 90 minutes of every single game they've played so far...

Of the last eight teams, we'd do well to remember that Poland, Wales and Germany all came from Scotland's qualifying group - did we really have a chance of getting to the finals?

Probably not...

Oh well...

Highlight of the Day : Tasty lunch...

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

A machine is the source of a big noise...

Playlist
Lacrosse - Bandages For The Heart
Various Artists - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2016 Vols 1-52
Beethoven - Beethoven: Diabelli Variations
Yes - Fragile
Barber - Solo Piano Music
Ferguson - Piano Sonata in F minor
Pärt - Piano Music
Boulez - Notations & Piano Sonatas
Platti - Cello Concertos
Derek Bailey - String Theory
Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft - Die Kleinen Und Die Bösen
Krommer - Partitas For Wind Ensemble Op. 57, 71 & 78
Bush - English String Miniatures, Vol. 2
Alice Cooper - Pretties For You
Bartók - Pour Deux Clavecins
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Clementi - Complete Sonatas For Fortepiano Vol 6 : The Late Sonatas
Boxhead Ensemble - Dutch Harbor: Where The Sea Breaks Its Back OST
Milhaud - Salute to France : Rarely Heard Masterpieces
Yes - Drama
Bartók - Pour Deux Clavecins
Stravinsky - Stravinsky: Apollon musagete & Tippett: Concerto for Double String Orchestra
Monteverdi - Monteverdi: Teatro D'amore
Various Composers - Jared Sacks 25 Years Of Recordings
Orff - Kleines Konzert
Tchaikovsky - Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake & Nutcracker Suites
Kurtág - Signs, Games and Messages
Moby - Gatecrasher Anthems Paul Van Dyk
Various Artists - The Best Of Hallyday, Rivers, Mitchell, Anthony & Vartan 
Mike Oldfield - The Songs Of Distant Earth
Liszt - Liszt: Piano Concertos 1 & 2; Totentanz
The Who - A Quick One
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Four Last Things
Pärt - Berliner Messe, Magnificat, Summa
Can - The Lost Tapes 1968-1975
Herman Van Veen - Fallen oder Springen
Chopin - Wilhelm Kempff Plays Chopin, Vol. 1
Schoenberg - Music Of Our Time
Various Artists - 1973 Singles
Udo Lindenberg - Phönix
Maxwell Davies - Maxwell Davies: Naxos Quartets #1 & 2
Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - Safe As Milk
Messiaen - Catalogue D'Oiseaux
The Marvelettes - The Essential Collection
Various Artists - Hotdogs, Hits & Happy Days
Valgeir Sigurðsson - rchitecture Of Loss
Stockhausen - Mantra - Xenia Pestova, Pascal Meyer, Jan Panis
Dizzy Gillespie - Birk's Works
Robert Fripp - Exposure
Eagles - Long Road Out Of Eden
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - Soul Legends
The Yardbirds - Shapes Of Things
Dohnányi - Suite For Orchestra Etc
Bridge - Debut : Schubert Bridge
Szymanowski - Piano Portrait
Mike Oldfield - Music Of The Spheres
Enescu - Adams: Violin Concerto; Corigliano: Chaconne From The Red Violin
Various Artists - Funk Soul Brothers
Various Artists - Trojan Dub Rarities Box Set
Various Artists - Paint It Black (Mojo Presents)
Faust - The Faust Tapes
Takashi Hirayasu & Bob Brozman - Jin Jin/Firefly
Various Artists - Pet Shop Boys : Back To Mine
Bergmann & Van Veen - Minimal Piano Collection Vols X-XX
Circle - Paris Concert
Robert Fripp - Guitar
Jacaszek - Catalogue des Arbres

A day spent at home, accompanied by the lurgi and quite a bit of music, sorting stuff out...

Midway through the afternoon, some big noise...



...and a previously unseen wee beastie doing its rounds...



later on, an unpictured fox covered the same ground...

In the evening, catching up with the reasonably likeable tosh that is "Versailles"...

And uploading this week's podcast - which I forgot to say, I recorded last night...

That's it...

Highlight of the Day : Podcasting...

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Return of the lurgi...

Playlist
Thorvaldsdóttir - Anna Thorvaldsdóttir : Music from Iceland
Various Artists - History of the Single : The 1970s
Lacrosse - Bandages For The Heart
Christine and the Queens - Christine and the Queens
Gianna Nannini - Scandalo

Jon Anderson - Open EP

Another reasonable day...


My own personal Abbey Road - kind of...



To the dentist first thing for poking and prodding etc...

Love it...

Lunch again at an unpictured Princes St Gardens...

Soundtrack included newly introduced by Twitter music from Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdóttir...

Love it...

Meanwhile, brother in law Bobby's mum sent this pic down from Orkney...


Impressive snapping...

"Holby" ended the day as the lurgi licked in...

Highlight of the Day : New music, again...

Monday, June 27, 2016

England are my Hibernian....

Playlist
Various Artists - History of the Single 1959-2016

Back in the old routine...

Accompanied by pop music from throughout my life...


Bird, tree, moon...


Salad in Princes St Gardens...



...under a hot, but not as hot as Hamburg, sun...


In the evening, more catching up...

And Iceland ending England's tournament...

In away, I kind of saw that coming...

Their draw with Slovakia pointed towards it but did lead them to be second in the group and so put them up against the lowest ranking team in the tournament - a team which had already beaten and drawn with teams ranked above England and, in fact, had managed the same results as England in the group stage...

They were well organised, England did not have a plan - and, despite, going England going ahead by a deserved penalty inside 5 mins, Iceland struck back within 34 seconds of the restart and secured their win a few minutes later...

Amazing stuff...

England are my Hibs...

Highlight of the Day : England oot...

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Music of which hardly anyone has ever heard...

Playlist
Shchedrin - 24 Preludes and Fugues; 25 Preludes "Polyphonic Notebook"
Feldman - Atlantis
Till Brönner - Oceana
Deadmau5 - Random Album Title
Udo Lindenberg - Panische Zeiten
Dessau - East German Revolution : A Composer's Portrait
Pink Floyd - Selected Tracks from Shine On
Moeran - String Quartets, String Trio
Delibes - Sylvia; Saint-Saëns: Henry VIII
Various Artists - Annette Humpe: Zeitgeschichte - Das Beste von und für Annette Humpe
Milhaud - Le Carnaval D'Aix, Concertos pour piano
David Reilly - Anthology : Rubinmusik 1977-2016
The Troggs - Hit Single Anthology
Udo Lindenberg - Sister King Kong
Juli Zeh und Slut - Corpus Delicti
It's A Beautiful Day - Marrying Maiden
Udo Lindenberg - Götterhämmerung
The Clintwood Show - Krach & Getoese - Der Hamburger Musikerpreis 2009-2013
Shirley Bassey - The Remix Album: Diamonds Are Forever
Tangerine Dream - 1975-10-20 York
Various Artists - History of the Single 1959-2016

First thing - searched for, came across and downloaded some music by Russian composer Rodion Schshedrin, of whom I enjoyed (and Anne suffered) a work at the violin recital in Hamburg...

Which was nice...

Again nothing much to report other than catch up "work"...

And a visit to my mum...

Some shopping for chorizo and prawns on the way home re a tasty tea...

Lately there have been a few reckonings in the football...

Meanwhile, here are the purchases from Hamburg...

They will all be featured in next week's podcast, out Thursday...

Catch up via the link on the podcasts button above...












I imagine most readers will have no clue as to the nature of these albums, except, perhaps, Monteverdi...

All the more reason for taking a listen...

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : Mum doing fine...

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Whittling away a post-trip Saturday...

Playlist
Various - Annette Humpe: Zeitgeschichte - Das Beste von und für Annette Humpe
Udo Lindenberg - Daumen Im Wind
Udo Lindenberg - Götterhämmerung
Udo Lindenberg - Phönix
Extrabreit - Zurück Aus Der Zukunft
Udo Lindenberg - Live in Leipzig
Juli Zeh und Slut - Corpus Delicti
Various - Krach & Getoese - Der Hamburger Musikerpreis 2009-2013
Monteverdi - Monteverdi: Teatro D'amore

A day mostly spent catching up...

Dealing with all the new pics from the trip, commencing the update of this and ripping and listening to the new purchases...

As regards the referendum result, this was how I felt...


(actually the result of an unprovoked nosebleed on the way to the grocery store for breakfast provisions)...

An entire Saturday just kind of whittled away on nothing really...

Which can some times be the case...

Oh well...

Other than that, I'm sure we also caught up on some TV shows and Anne enjoyed some time in the garden - which she enjoys...

Highlight of the Day : New music...

Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2016 Vol 25


Another particularly eclectic Eclectic Selection from Mr CBQ's Extensive Record Collection, hey, that rhymes...

Featuring...

Haken - Affinity
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Anthology : Rubinmusik 1977-2017 (forthcoming)
Cloudland Blue Quartet & Pedantic Pedestrian - Schneewittchen Schwarzmischung
Respighi - Church Windows
Dave Douglas - Convergence
Guy Davis - Chocolate to the Bone
The Four Tops - Dancing In The Streets - Motown's Greatest Hits
Bernstein - The Essential Bernstein
Chopin - Wilhelm Kempff Plays Chopin, Vol. 1
Boxhead Ensemble - Dutch Harbor: Where The Sea Breaks Its Back OST
Pärt - Piano Music
Gentle Giant - Interview
Janáček - Janacek, Haas, Szymanowski String Quartets
Orff - Kleines Konzert
Krauze - Piano Works
A Troop Of Echoes - The Longest Year On Record
REO Speedwagon - The Hits
Yuri Kane - Gatecrasher Anthems Paul Van Dyk
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
Pink Floyd - Selected Tracks from Shine On

Pop by next week for more...

Friday, June 24, 2016

Completely and utterly unbelievable total fuckwittery...cubed...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Anthology : Rubinmusik 1977-2016
UK - Final World Tour 2015 Setlist
Udo Lindenberg - Ich mach mein Ding - Die Show
Various - Annette Humpe: Zeitgeschichte - Das Beste von und für Annette Humpe

Awoke to an absolute nightmare scenario...

The UK had voted to leave the EU...

Or rather, around a third of the electorate in the UK - you know, the third with no idea of economics, had been hoodwinked by the leave campaign (who were already, this morning, reneging on their "campaign promises" made to our utterly thick compatriots) into voting to leave the EU...

All my fellow Scots who voted "yes" in September 2014 will now get a chance to see how a stupid outcome in a referendum affects a comparatively strong economy, never mind the piece of shit the SNP had in store for us had they won...

Things could not be any more grim...

Reflected in the overcast and rainy morning weather...


Out for breakfast and then a mope around post leaving the apartment for the last time...

Bag stored at the Hauptbahnhof...

Then, to the not yet open and so not actually visited, Diechtorhallen art complexes, down by the river...




...close to der Spiegel...


...and ZDF...



The maritime museum...




..and into the U-Bahn for the short trip to Landungsbruecke...



...for another boat trip, which we'd been promising ourselves to take all week...



Out along the Elbe...


...and the weather picked up but, really, nothing could lighten our mood...















...and back towards the city...











..back on land and then a last look around Sternschanzen...






...and some lunch...





...and a walk passed the TV Tower...




...to the Pflanzen und Blomen park, another long promised treat of the week - our last in fact...













Back to the Hauptbahnhof to pick up our bag and catch the train to the airport...


This time we did not visit Barmbek...


...but we were accompanied by a young man inspecting a gun catalogue - weird...



We arrived at the airport around 3:30 pm...



...a little early for our 6:15 flight but what the heck...


Unfortunately, it turned out our plane had been delayed at various points during the day - then, Hamburg Airport was closed, due to a massive downpour and thunderstorm...



We finally boarded around 9:30 pm...


...but that wasn't the end of it...

Our fellow passengers had to be transported to the plane, which lay as far from the terminal as you could imagine, via three trips by the same bus...

Then a couple of passengers opted not to fly as they'd miss their connections...

Jeez oh...

#BloodyBrexit



So every single case on board had to be identified and linked to a remaining passenger before we finally took off, around 10:35pm, for the ninety minute flight back to a, sadly, much changed United Kingdom...








Back home at midnight, having walked up the hill just before another massive downpour started - the storms were following us...


What an utterly dreadful end to a great trip...

I cannot believe the complete and utter stupidity that has somehow been allowed to happen...

Lowlight of the Day : So called democracy - or, as I like to call it, completely and utterly unbelievable total fuckwittery...cubed......