Tuesday, February 28, 2017

There is no such thing as too many onions...

Playlist
Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel I
Maxwell Davies - Naxos Quartets No 1
Kansas - Two For the Show
Rubbra - String Quartet No 1
Various - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2017 Vol 9 (1st Draft)

Frosty this morning but enjoyable, as no wind or rain...



Good aerial on the way down the hill...


To Princes St Gardens at lunchtime with a Subway containing, just possibly, too many onions...


Nah, no such thing as too many onions...


Home under good skies...


This, the view from the top of Crispycat Hill...



Including interesting moon...


...accompanied by birds and a planet - I suspect Venus - it's usually Venus...




Looking West...


Meanwhile people are strange and often without consideration...

I...


II...


The beast was about its business, photographing but not tidying...



Lovely pasta for tea...

"The Goldbergs" entertained...

"Black ish" did not and was abandoned...

"Catastrophe" returned and also entertained...

This week's podcast was given its first draft...

And month two of 2017 is away....


Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : The sky on the way home/pasta...

Monday, February 27, 2017

Living in anticipation...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Live Set Shortlist 2017
Fripp & Eno - Evening Star
Hawkwind - In Search Of Space
Adès - Living Toys
Adams - Gnarly Buttons
Haubenstock-Ramati - Concerto A Tre
Yes - Drama
Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel I

Soundtracked today by a possible CBQ live set for 2017...

No doubt it will come to nothing...

Some good stuff in there though, though I say so myself...

In the evening, a lack of flammable stuff re "University Challenge" this week, as Edinburgh, with annoying Jesus lookalike and wiggly headed ginger, defeated MONKMAN...

Boo...

"Broadchurch" was suitably gloomy at nine...

Meanwhile, this unassuming entry, stumbled across in one of the books purchased yesterday, led to possibly a little too many contemporary classical music CDs now winging their way to Crispycat Towers...


On the Twitter, a "discussion" re Yes and Anderson Rabin Wakeman, or ARW as they are known...

Dr Prog and I will see both over the upcoming months...

For me, looking at the setlists, it's a win-win...


To bed, with Yes in the cans - but not the Yes that some hardliners believe to be Yes...

Oh well..

Not to worry...

Highlight of the Day : Anticipation of new weird classical stuff...

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Reading, shading, listening and tripping...

Playlist
Dweezil Zappa - Zappa Plays Zappa
Styx - Paradise Theatre
Journey - Departure
Mark Farner - Closer To Home
Ten Years After - A Space In Time
Airto Moreira - Fingers
Keef Hartley Band - Seventy Second Brave
Journey - Captured
Journey - Escape
John Foxx & Louis Gordon - The Pleasures Of Electricity
The Temptations - 1990
Styx - The Serpent Is Rising
Neil Young - Tonight's the Night
The Golden Earrings - Just Earrings
Green Day - Insomniac
Kiss - Dynasty
Jean Michel Jarre - Deserted Palace
Pavlov's Dog - At The Sound Of The Bell
Britten - Song for Athene
Brian Eno - Fractal Zoom
The Bears - Rise And Shine
Kiss - Animalize
Doctors of Madness - Late Night Movies, All Night Brainstorms
Airto - Virgin Land
Soft Machine - Peel Sessions (1969-1971)
Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies
Händel - Glenn Gould - Handel Harpsichord Suites
Heinichen - Dresden Concerti
Fauré - Complete Music for Piano (Kathryn Stott)
Fauré - The Piano Works (Jean Hubeau)
Agate Rollings - Glass
Agate Rollings - Wrinkles of a Lifetime Here (EP)
Agate Rollings - Lost Battle Against Failure
Harrison Hartley/Justin H Brierley - Music from the Neverending Story
Udo Lindenberg - Lindenberg's Rock Revue
Udo Lindenberg - Panische Nachte
Dohl - Friedhelm Dohl Edition, Vol. 2 : Musik fur Klavier
David Rees-Williams Trio - Hidden Colours

Up early again...


Dishes done accompanied by acquisitions from the last month on shuffleplay...

Out for breakfast with the EP and Herr Heinichen...


To Stockbridge and Patisserie Florentin..


Tasty...



Post the Oxfam bookshop, where upcoming celebratory cards were purchased, along with a couple of books (see below), to "Popping Up"...

I'd have liked to have this table but over £300 was a trifle steep...


However, new light-shades were purchased on impulse...



At the Shelter Shop, a 4CD set of Fauré's piano works for £3...

Back home, this on the old removed shades...


We got to work...


Result #1...
  

Result #2...


These the purchases from earlier...


The Fauré...


...turned out to be autographed - although, of course, my name is not Anthony...


Some listening and reading...

In the afternoon, booked a trip to Documenta 14 and, hopefully, Jorg Sonnenschein's in the Autumn, to be preceded by a visit to the Mosel valley - we will stay in a house at the top of these stairs...


The picture, of the sculpture, was taken almost 10 years ago...

Spooky...

Later, out to my mum's on a stormy day...

In fine fettle - a year ago she had just been admitted to hospital with pneumonia...

On to Anne's mum's for family tea...

This the view down the back of her bureau -  a strange sound seemed to come from there the other day - no evidence found and fears instead that a tile may have become dislodged from her roof...


Meanwhile, she has recently completed a new painting...


...which is now on the wall beside these previous works...



A talented lady...

Your correspondent enjoyed this chair...


Back home, realised I already have a 4CD set of Fauré's piano music, recorded five years before that purchased this morning...


Oh well..

Lights out on another weekend...

Highlight of the Day : New light-shades, books and music/holiday booked...

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Not wasted, enjoyed...

Playlist
Various Artists - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2017 Vol 8
UKZ - Radiation
Cloudland Blue Quartet - The Acoustic Ersatzreal
Various - I Love Music, Je T'aime
Cat Stevens - Remember: The Ultimate Collection
King Crimson - The Great Deceiver
King Crimson - The 21st Century Guide to King Crimson, Vol. 1
Lou Reed - Between Thought and Expression
Tangerine Dream - Tangents
Weather Report - Forecast : Tomorrow
The Who - Thirty Years of Maximum R&B
King Crimson - Frame By Frame: The Essential King Crimson
King Crimson - The Road to Red Improvs
Yes - Yesyears
Various Composers - The A to Z of Classical Music
Various Composers - Adagio Collection
J.S. Bach - Complete Works for Organ
Journey - Journey
Angel - Angel
Angel - White Hot
Airto - Natural Feelings
Airto - Seeds On The Ground
Miroslav Vitous - Purple
Styx - Styx
Styx - Equinox
Styx - Kilroy was here
John Wetton - Caught in the Crossfire
Jogn Wetton - King's Road 1972-1980
Kiss - Rock And Roll Over
Ten Years After - Ten Years After
The Beatles - Rubber Soul
Horace Parlan - Up And Down
Soft Machine - John Peel Sessions 1969-1971
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Bitter Sweet Covers
Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies
Doctors of Madness - Late Night Movies, All Night Brainstorms
Styx - The Serpent Is Rising
Airto - Fingers
DweezilZappa - Zappa Plays Zappa
The Golden Earrings - Just Earrings
John Foxx & Louis Gordon - Shifting City
Trees - The Garden Of Jane Delawney
Pet Shop Boys - 2017 Setlist

Up early and uploading the podcast...


Dishes washed to the sound of me and my guitar a little over ten years ago now - some nice songs there...

Then, to ensuring box sets are ripped to the day-to-day music listening source (the computer)...

All "rock & pop" and "jazz" are done but some gaps re classical...

Ripping a 5CD box of adagios led me to read the diary back re our visit to Veleso on Lake Como , Como itself and Milan back in September 2006 (where I bought said box) - and then to check the hundreds of pics not uploaded here...

Which was nice...

Listened to a few pieces from this 20CD Box...


Which was also nice...

I did not, however, venture into this...


Both that and my box of the complete works of Mozart await what will be a marathon ripping exercise at some point before I snuff it...

This week's "Death in Paradise" (last in the series) entertained - as did some Twittering back and forth - including with nephew Olly in Munich for today's game against Hamburg (8-0 ooff!)...

Never sure if I'm kind of wasting a Saturday when all I really do is listen to music but it is enjoyable...

Today, I also, however, sang through a few songs, many of which had not been sung for a few years...

I also monitored the Hearts (lost 2-0 at Partick) and Queens (won 2-1 at home to Raith) games...

All this whilst adding more stuff to the iTunes from Jorg Sonnenchein's gifted-to-me-in-October hard drive...

Loadsa Styx, Saga, Journey and Angel today...

With all those bands, they seemed to start off brilliantly and then become pish as commercial considerations took control of the songwriting process...

But also some John Wetton, Airto, Soft Machine and Miroslav Vitous...

In the evening, a tasty and not too big Indian Takeaway was enjoyed with a cheeky wee bottle of red as we were entertained by the first in the latest series of "Endeavour"...

Late on, an album I've searched for for years was re-constituted via judicious downloading from Youtube and so The Doctors of Madness' debut now nestles in the iTunes - great stuff...

Listening to the closing 15 minute epic, "Mainlines" as I type this up...

Noted also that today is the 44th anniversary of the release of my, when the chips are down, all-time favourite album...

It is of course the mighty "Billion Dollar Babies" by Michael Bruce, Glen Buxton, Alice Cooper, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith (with input too from Bob Ezrin, Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter)...







So I gave that a listen too...

I noted on the Twitter that it knocks those Beatles into a cocked hat...

I do like the Beatles but they were, at best, quite good but, often, utter shit...

Frankly, I cannot comprehend the unwarranted adulation & pedestal placing...

And, of course, when I say I like them, ahem...


Anyway, it's all subjective...

Kind of...

A good day of doing nothing really..

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : Discovery...