Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Something was not what it might have been but was still very good...

Playlist
Scott Fields Feartet - Haydn
Various - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2017 Vol 44

October away...


Last night, the EP decided she'd quite like some decent headphones to use at the gym...

Of course this led me to have to order enough stuff to get free postage...

I searched for suitably priced but interesting CDs and found Scott Fields' 2CD set "Haydn" - I had no idea what it would be like - but was intrigued by the line up of improvised jazz guitar with a string quartet, playing music based (presumably) on that of Joseph Haydn...

The purchase afforded an MP3 download whist arrival is awaited...

Today it soundtracked the day...

It is very good indeed...

More reasonable pics on the way home - you have to watch for the traffic as you walk down Crispycat Hill from the bus terminus...












At home, some TV watched late on (Holby City of course) and, earlier, a start made to this week's podcast while Anne enjoyed the final of Bake Off...

That'll do...

Highlight of the Day : Haydn that was not Haydn...

Monday, October 30, 2017

Stream of not very consciousness...

Playlist
Illenium - Awake
Calvin Harris - Motion
Various - Stax-O'-Soul: A Sampler Of Stax Trax
Beyond The Black - Lost In Forever
Iglooghost - Neo Wax Bloom
Frank Zappa - Sheik Yerbouti
Black Sabbath - Born Again
This Patch Of Sky - These Small Spaces
Lorde - Melodrama
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Rubinmusik 1977-2017 (Remixed Remastered)
Katy Perry - Witness
Roger Waters - Wait for Her [Single]
Frank Zappa - Make A Jazz Noise Here
Various - War Ina Babylon : An Island Reggae Anthology
Leprous - Malina
Beck - Colors
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
Various Composers - Electronic Panorama
Puma - Half Nelson Courtship
The Impressions - This Is My Country
Lorde - Pure Heroine (Extended)
Siegmeister - Piano Music, Vol. 1
Udo Lindenberg - Stärker als die Zeit LIVE
Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft - Fünfzehn neue DAF Lieder
Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft - Das Beste Von DAF

While Tiger, once again, took full advantage of our hospitality...


...today I mainly wore a new shirt, listened to around 30 pieces of music, took some not very good photos on the way home...













...downloaded far too much new music for me to ever listen to in any meaningful way, enjoyed some home-made lentil soup with hot buttered toast whilst watching "Strictly - It Takes Two", beat the losing team on "University Challenge" in conjunction with the Exec Producer, enjoyed the last ever, tear-jerking "George Gently", ordered some new pink (but good-sounding) headphones for the Exec Producer and black ones for me as spares, ready for the inevitable "my headphones have gone tits up" shout, along with something else to take us above the "now you don't have to pay any postage" point...

...and ended the day with the music of Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft...

It's all good...

Highlight of the Day : George Gently...

Sunday, October 29, 2017

The new...

Playlist
Various - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selections 2017
Bushman's Revenge - Jazz, Fritt Etter Hukommelsen
Steve Roach - Structures of Silence
Jon Collin - Discography
Zazou Bikaye - Noir et Blanc
Ezekiel Honig - A Passage of Concrete
Bushman's Revenge - A Little Bit of Big Bonanza
Icehouse - The Berlin Tapes
Various Composers - Chamber Music from Baroque to Contemporary

An extra hour to get up as early as usual and get stuff done...

Brought this up to date whilst enjoying Bushman's Revenge...

Twitter surfing led to some down loading and then enjoying, for the most part, the results thereof...

I was attracted to Jon Collin initially and then realised it's just plinky plonky guitar sounds, badly recorded but nicely packaged...

Over twenty of his titles subsequently removed from my iTunes...

However the Roach, Zazou Biyake and Ezekiel Honig were all good finds...

To the gym with Anne for an hour...

Home for breakfast...

Downloading continued as did Anthology uploading...

Out again, catching a rare glimpse of Tiger in his natural habitat rather than trying to beg treats from us or sleep on our sofas...


Clothes shopping...



Home for lunch and another "Red Dwarf", getting up to date re that...

Tiger sneaked in and was to be found sleeping on our bed and had to be ejected as we were off over to my mum's...

I was determined to make no comments re the heat situation...

She had buggered up her TV again which meant having to redo the protective cover on the remote to stop her from hitting the wrong buttons...

Home after a longer than usual time spent chatting - mostly trying to understand how her mind works - especially re her completely ununderstandable aversion to getting a taxi anywhere while she's not allowed to drive...

Home and the upload of the anthology finally complete - all 82 tracks...

Lyrics, notes and artwork to be added now...

In the evening, just telly really - "Strictly - The Results" (Rimmer out), "Blue Planet II" (great photography, overpowering music, fairly simplistic commentary but still good) and the final three episodes of this year's "Cold Feet" (somehow everything sort of worked itself out - much of it improbably) all entertained...

That was it...

Highlight of the Day : New shirts...

Saturday, October 28, 2017

To the park with a Park...

Playlist
2raumwohnung - Nacht und Tag
Mahavishnu Orchestra - Inner Worlds
Mahavishnu Orchestra - Mahavishnu
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Rubinmusik 1977-2017
Caravan - Caravan
Journey - Arrival
Ewelina Flinta - Przeznaczenie

A busy day initially...

Up early and to the Gym at 7 for an early set of exercises...

Back home and uploading the podcast and continuing to upload the 40 year anthology...

Just after 10, out to the library with only enough time to drive into town, walk to the library, hand back discs borrowed three weeks ago, walk back to the car and drive home, before we had to leave again for the football, with its 12:30 kick off re being shown on TV...

Anne dropped me at the Zoo and I took a bus to Roseburn to meet Jim...

To the ground and tickets picked up, guests of the club...

There may have been an omen somehow when the teams lined up at the start...

No 74 looked like he might not be up to the task in hand...


Anne, her mum, Bob and Olly and their friends were somewhere amongst the crowd at the side of the pitch...


...while Jim and I enjoyed this view from behind the goals, directly opposite the Orc hordes...


...who were silenced by a top notch free kick from Lafferty around the half hour mark...


...but back in full sectarian song (something about being up to their knees in the blood of slain Catholics and improper relations with the Pope) just before half time, as Kenny Miller's shot took a cruel deflection off a defender and spun over the outstretched arms of the Hearts keeper...

Into the second half and another goal from Miller plus a lay off from him to Windass meant a final score of 3-1 to the five year old team, relying on an almost 40 year old striker following recent dreadful performances when he had been out of favour with the now sacked manager...

Oh well, just as well it's only a game...

Good chat with Jim during it though, including my goal inducing camera phone and his yellow card app...

Post match, I met up with the family; and Anne, her mum and I made our way back to Balgreen and enjoyed a coffee and very large Yorkshire sourced biscuit while the traffic back to Mordor died down...


By the time we got home, Queens were already 2-0 up at home to Falkirk, so all was not lost footballing wise...

3-0 with five minutes to go, then Falkirk staged a revival and made it back to 3-2 with 90 minutes on the clock...

They pressed for an equaliser, which only allowed Queens to score a fourth right at the death via a breakaway...

Good result for the Doonhamers...

In the evening, a tasty Indian and "Strictly" and a couple of episodes of "Red Dwarf" entertained...

More uploading before bed...

Highlight of the Day : Footie with Jim...

Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2017 Vol 43


After a couple of weeks of purely new stuff that's arrived at Crispycat Towers, this week we revert to Eclectic Selection type and feature 3 tracks roughly defined as stemming from each of the genres rock, pop, classical, jazz, reggae, funk, soul, ambient and leftfield; along with the ubiquitous example of music by Mr CBQ and a couple of classic jingles from Stu Cobley...

Recordings sourced in this week's podcast were:-


Beck - Colors
Behind the Shadow Drops - Harmonic
Beyonce - Beyonce (Platinum Edition)
Bill Orcutt - Bill Orcutt
Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun
Drake - More Life
EMA - Exile in the Outer Ring
Gidon Kremer & Kremerata Baltica - Happy Birthday
Hatfield & The North - Hatfield And The North
Haydn - String Quartets Opus 76 Nos 4 & 6
Iglooghost - Neo Wax Bloom
Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.
Mastodon - Cold Dark Place
National Health - Of Queues And Cures
Nine Inch Nails - Add Violence
Norah Jones - Day Breaks
Poppy - Poppy.Computer
SÓLSTAFIR - Berdreyminn
Sombre Reptiles - Rubinmusik 1977-2017 (Remixed Remastered)
Tangerine Dream - Quantum Gate
This Patch Of Sky - These Small Spaces
Ulver - The Assassination of Julius Caesar
Various - War Ina Babylon : An Island Reggae Anthology
Various - Trojan Reggae Rarities Box Set
Various - Blue Funk
Various - Stax-O'-Soul: A Sampler Of Stax Trax
Various Composers - Electronic Panorama

Thanks for taking the time to listen...

Friday, October 27, 2017

There is such a thing as too much spaghetti...

Playlist
Various Artists - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2017 Vols 1-52
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Rubinmusik 1977-2017 (Remixed Remastered)
John Coltrane - Dakar

Following yesterday's light in the early evening, here the light in the early morning, complete with something going somewhere...





...and clouds...


The day was soundtracked by this week's podcast and the anthology - the ubiquitous test listens...

On the way home, the moon was out...


..and the light was, once again, good...


Anne had lunched, in a long and leisurely stylee, with Lynn and Lady Penelope, the latter providing news of journeys with the long lost Count Brodski to view identical Kraftwerk performances in various locations..

Accordingly, tea-wise, I was determined to concoct and, therefore, not to be reduced once again to taking sustenance from a tin of beans...


Cooking took place to the sounds of Mr Coltrane...


...and I subsequently enjoyed a successful (and not too much for once) spaghetti, in the company of a visiting Tiger the Cat...


...while Anne enjoyed Yorkshire based cheese and oatcakes, which sufficed, following the long and leisurely lunch...

Some telly was watched into the night...

A message from chum Jim Park, asking if I might wish to accompany him to tomorrow's match at Murrayfield, where Hearts are to meet the five year old Glasgow club...

As ever , for Hearts home matches, the Exec Producer is already going - along with her mum, Bobby and Oliver...

Invitation accepted...

Tiger escorted from the premises...

Also, Rory Custard at the end of the road attended too by surrogate mother the Exec Producer...

And so the end of an action-packed week, led into an action packed weekend...

Highlight of the Day : A reasonable spaghetti...

Thursday, October 26, 2017

The light in the early evening can be a highlight...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Rubinmusik 1977-2017 (Remixed Remastered)
Black Sabbath - Cross Purposes
Brian Eno - Seven Sessions on a Milk Sea

Listening again to the currently being uploaded anthology....

This is how I have wasted my life...

Some scenes from the walk down the hill this evening...





Anne was out at Ballet Rambert with chum Teresa - no invite for your correspondent, sadly...

Oh well...

I enjoyed some Baked Beans from a not well stocked cupboard and recorded this week's podcast...

Anne reported a good evening on her return...

Meanwhile, I had also filled in some Black Sabbath shaped gaps in the collection, again sourcing items from Jorg's hard drive...

There was little actual listening to of the stuff however...

And so it goes...

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : The light in the early evening...

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Enjoying the free...

Playlist
Frank Zappa - Trance-Fusion
Frank Zappa - Thing-Fish
Frank Zappa - Sheik Yerbouti
Behind the Shadow Drops - Harmonic
Frank Zappa - Civilization Phaze III
Daniel Cavanagh - Monochrome
Taylor Swift - Red (Deluxe Edition)

The Zappa listening continued this morning with the previously eschewed "Thing Fish"...

"Sheik Yerbouti" is better...

"Trance Fusion" benefits from there being no vocals...

Mr Zappa's "comedy" can sometimes be a bit much but his guitar playing and musicking are, generally, excellent...

Not mentioned since Sunday but the gradual uploading of the 82 tracks in the 40 year anthology continues, not exactly "apace" but reasonably quickly, considering each upload takes around 1.5 to 2 times the length of the actual track...


In the evening some drinks and nibbles with some people based in Liverpool in a very picturesque setting overlooking a floodlit Princes St and Castle (no pics) were enjoyed...

Home reasonably early and not the worse for wear, too much anyway...

Some things on the telly were enjoyed...

That was it...

Highlight of the Day : Drinks and nibbles...

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Almost double...

Playlist
Stein Urheim - Stein Urheim
Inward Oceans - Weather the Storm
Beyond The Black - Lost In Forever
Christina Pluhar: L'Arpeggiata - Mediterraneo
Madredeus - Capricho Sentimental
Macklemore - Gemini
Various - Trojan Reggae Rarities Box Set
Humcrush - Rest At Worlds End
The Beatles - The Beatles (1973)
Return To Forever - Returns
Julian Bream - The Ultimate Guitar Collection
Brian Eno - Music For Airplay
Frank Zappa - Chunga's Revenge
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Rubinmusik 1977-2017 (Remixed Remastered)
Various - The Best Prog Rock Album In The World...Ever!
Frank Zappa - Baby Snakes
Frank Zappa - Deutschlandhalle Berlin
Frank Zappa - The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life 
Frank Zappa - Hammersmith Odeon 1978

When I was writing up the entries from our Yorkshire trip, I mentioned "an item purchased for the table" re a wee place close to the home of the Brontes...

This is said item...


Very fine it is too...

This evening, post a Twitter chat re the merits of Frank Zappa's "Chunga's Revenge", gaps in the Zappa collection were filled in the iTunes via Jorg Sonnenschein's gifted hard drive from a year ago this week...

Over 30 "new" albums joined the already extant 38 in the main body of the Kirk, as they say...

Mr Zappa's work was sampled over the course of the evening and found to be entertaining...

The day, being a Tuesday, of course was rounded off with "Holby City"...

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : Zappa discoveries...