Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Adios 2019...

Playlist
The Bad Plus - It's Hard
65daysofstatic - replicr, 2019
Loscil - Equivalents
Cloudland Blue Quartet - 2019-12-01
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
Various Artists - A History of the Single - The 2010s
Taylor Swift - Taylor Swift (Deluxe Edition)
Taylor Swift - Fearless (Japanese Edition)
Long Distance Calling - Boundless
The Bad Plus - Never Stop II
Soft Machine - Hidden Details
Bryan Ferry - Olympia
Alice Cooper - Paranormal
Various Artists - The Legacy of Disco
Various Artists - 100 Hits: Boogie Nights
Max Richter - Voyager: Essential Max Richter

Up super early, lurgi related unable to sleepness being the culprit...


With time on my hands, I now put together a playlist of my "Top 50 Singles of the Decade"...

Then, I decided to create a Taylor Swift  complete singles playlist, which involved downloading 7 I didn't already have - of the total of 50 to date ...

At lunchtime, my final purchases of the year...

At the Bernardo's Pop Up shop, these for £2 each (still unplayed as I type this four days later)...



Then to Fopp, ostensibly to spend my Secret Santa token...

I spent considerably more...

A 2CD best of by Max Richter, £17...


This year's Bad Plus, £8...


A collection of rare disco, £9...


...and a book about Hearts for Anne - a fact a day...

In the afternoon, TV watched and ripping carried out...

At which point, I discovered  I'd already bought the Disco set back in March...

Idiot!

Listening comprised five more albums of the decade, coincidentally including the Bad Plus above...

This evening, around 6, the New year celebrations started...

Soundtracked by the disco collection then some of my singles of the decade then Boogie Nights...

Xmas beers were quaffed...




...and Lynn and Ross were round to assist and to enjoy Anne's been cooking all day steak as opposed to mince chilli with all the sides...



Yumtastic!

Lemon tart also enjoyed, followed by unpictured cheese and biscuits but no coffees...


Prosecco, wine and gin the staples, as we headed to the end of 2019...






We drank, nibbled and chatted into the early hours...


...as the debris of the evening piled up in the kitchen...


At 2, your correspondent having fallen asleep (what with having been up since 4:30 and all), an end to proceedings was called just after two...

Lynn and Ross set off home on a reasonably mild night, while I hit the sack, with Max Richter briefly in my ears, before drifting back into the land of nod...


Adios 2019...

Highlight of the Day : Celebrating with chums...

Monday, December 30, 2019

Listening to my albums of the decade...

Playlist
Brian Eno - Drums Between The Bells
Alice Cooper - Welcome 2 My Nightmare
Yes - Heaven & Earth
The Physics House Band - Horizons - Rapture
65DaysOfStatic - We Were Exploding Anyway
The Bad Plus - The Rite of Spring
Bidiniband - In The Rock Hall
Brian Eno - Reflection
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress
The Bad Plus - It's Hard

Up early today and to compiling my "top fifty albums of the 2010s"...

Started listening to them...

Today, I got through the first ten - with each, the thought was "this should be higher"...

No doubt the list will be up soon but here's a pic - year order...

Down the hill, noting glimpses of Xmas...







Into town...

At lunchtime, some purchases, as we approach the end of the year...

Writing this on 3 January 2020.  I've still not listened to this one but I know it'll be good (for 50p)...


Chamber jazz from a cello led trio - nice (For £1.50)...


And a NY fusion band who aren't too fusiony but still good (for £1.50)...


Home in the dark...

Accidental picture, which, with some treatment, turned out ok...


This is what it was meant to be...


Starlightnight...

I missed the terminus and went on to the actual terminus, meaning a slightly longer walk to Crispycat Towers but one which took me past Xmas...


The beast was about its business on Crispycat Hill...


The view from the office this evening...


Another good score on "University Challenge"  and some other stuff no doubt watched too...

Plus rehearsing for 17 January...

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : Listening to my albums of the decade...

Sunday, December 29, 2019

Compromise agreements can be good...

Playlist
Various Artists - Milano Jukeboxes 1998-2019
Various Artists - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2019
Uriah Heep - Into The Wild
Lana Del Rey - Born To Die
Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn of Events
Morrissey - Low In High School
Kamasi Washington - The Epic
The Mars Volta - Noctourniquet
Ke$ha - Animal
Alice Cooper - Paranormal
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Best of CBQ 1997-2019 (Live Set BTs)
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Twentytwenty Live Set BTs
Rheostatics - Here Come The Wolves
Capital Models - 2020 Proposed Live Set
The Stooges - Fun House
Vivaldi - Concerti per Oboe, Archi e Cembalo
Various Composers - Twelve Organs of Edinburgh
Ludovico Einaudi - Echoes - The Einaudi Collection
Bach, C P E - Sinfonien
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Live Set Run Through 2019-12-29

A Sunday morning of eggs...



Fried for me, although without anything else but eggs in the pan so, basically, dropped in and heated up...


...while Anne expertly poached...


Took her along to her mum's for them to go and see Hearts actually win a point in a 1-1 draw against Aberdeen...

Meanwhile I was out at my mum's...



A lift up the hillfor Anne and her mum who was stopping by for tea...


..including steak pies I'd bought yesterday morning...


Yum...


Post giving Mary a lift home, it might well have been tonight that we finished off "The Sinner"...

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, after I'd put together a combined set of new and old CBQ stuff and run through that and it sounding good, the band seemed all to agree my covers plan - still with some element of trepidation - and so that looks like the plan now...

A set mixed together from rehearsal tapes and sent out...

So that's a reasonable end to the weekend...

Highlight of the Day :  Moving forward re the gig...

Saturday, December 28, 2019

Offering a compromise can be a thing...

Playlist
Various Artists - Milano Jukebox 2005
Various Artists - Milano Jukebox 2009
Various Artists - Milano Jukebox 2018
Various Artists - Milano Jukebox 1998
Various Artists - Milano Jukebox 2001
Various Artists - Milano Jukebox 2010
Various Artists - Milano Jukebox 2014
Various Artists - Milano Jukebox 2011
The Isley Brothers - Summer Breeze: The Best Of The Isley Brothers
Fehlfarben - Die Platte Des Himmlischen Friedens
Udo Lindenberg - MTV Unplugged 2 Live vom Atlantik
Van Veen - Piano Music Volume 2
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Twentytwenty Live Set BTs
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Best of CBQ 1997-2019 (Live Set BTs)
Various Artists - The Big Payback
The Hollies - Butterfly
Foo Fighters - In Your Honor
At The Drive-In - Relationship Of Command
The Jam - The Very Best Of The Jam
Chopin - The Complete Etudes
Prefab Sprout - A Life Of Surprises: The Best Of Prefab Sprout
Sandie Shaw - All The Hits : The Ultimate Collection
Bread - The Sound Of Bread: Their 20 Finest Songs
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
N.W.A - The Best Of N.W.A.: The Strength Of Street Knowledge
Us3 - Hand On The Torch
Capital Models - 2019-08-18
Capital Models - 2018-03-04
Capital Models - 2018-12-16
Lothar & The Hand People - This Is It, Machines
Pink Floyd - More
Keef Hartley Band - Halfbreed
The Who - Tommy
Eddie Harris - Silver Cycles
Pink Floyd - Ummagumma
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Keep On Moving
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II
Family - Family Entertainment
Procol Harum - A Salty Dog
John McLaughlin - Extrapolation
Richie Havens - Richard P. Havens, 1983
Blood, Sweat & Tears - Blood, Sweat & Tears
Privilège - Privilège
Chicago - Chicago Transit Authority
Golden Earring - On the Double
Scott Walker - Scott 4
Frank Zappa - Uncle Meat
Free - Free
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I
Turina - Complete Music for Violin & Piano
Various Artists - The Jazz Collection
Mahavishnu Orchestra - The Complete Original Mahavishnu Orchestra Columbia Albums Collection
Gentle Giant - Memories of Old Days - A Collection of Curios, Bootlegs, Live Tracks, Rehearsals and Demos 1975-1980
George Russell - Ezz-thetics
Jeroen Van Veen - Minimal Piano Collection Vols XXI-XXVIII
Beethoven - Overtures, Vol. 1
Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker
Various Artists - Country Gold
Various Artists - Christmas Motown
Various Artists - Baby Boomers Greatest Hits of 60s & 70s
Koko Taylor - What It Takes: The Chess Years
Various Artists - Milano Jukebox 2019
Various Artists - The Best Funk Album In The World...Ever!
Sommerfeldt - Fra Norsk Landskap
Jerry Lee Lewis - The Essential Jerry Lee Lewis - The Legendary Sun Recordings
Dimitri from Paris - A Night At The Playboy Mansion
Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes

Up early and uploading the final podcast of the year, fuelled by coffee...


Only pic of the day...

Out early too to find that the effects of the festive period so far have been slightly but understandably negative..

Anne was unwell in a migraine kind of way...

By the afternoon though, she was back to normal...

I rehearsed solo sets again and then made a compromise offer to the band to play a set of covers - the ones CBQ might play...

Tumbleweeds...

In the afternoon, Queens beat Ayr Utd 2-1 away from home with a last minute save off the line which caused a bit of a stramash thereafter apparently - win ugly, as they say...

Listening for much of the day was Xmas presents and other recently acquired but until now not listened to music...

In the evening "The Sinner" concluded via the Tivo (I think, or that might have been earlier - losing track) and new Norwegian detective show "Wisting" entertained...

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : Compromising...

Friday, December 27, 2019

Finally pulling the plug...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Twentynineteen Live V6 (2019-12-22)
Jeroen Van Veen - Minimal Piano Collection Vols XXI-XXVIII
King Crimson - The Elements - 2019 Tour Box
Gentle Giant - Memories of Old Days - A Collection of Curios, Bootlegs, Live Tracks, Rehearsals and Demos 1975-1980
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Twentytwenty Live Set BTs
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Best of CBQ 1997-2019 (Live Set BTs)
Various Artists - Milano Jukeboxes 1998-2019

Back out into the dark on a cold Friday morning...





Soundtracked initially by rehearsal recordings..

Then Xmas presents...

The view from the office at lunchtime...


To the BHF but no purchases - I need to check these books against my mum's list - first Jardines seen for a good while...


Anne was out today so solo cooking, involving Quorn mince and pasta...


It's 2 January 2020 as I write this and, once again, it's amazing how quickly you forget what's happened...

However, by checking Twitter and Whatsapp and txts I can kind of pull things back together...

I finally pulled the plug on the prospect of the band playing the CBQ set on the 17th - a combination of time of the year, uncorrelated diaries, illness and Keith not even knowing what we were supposed to be doing despite it being almost a month since I sent him the tracks and songsheets finally came to a head...

So, later on, more rehearsing of solo stuff, both "across the years" and the 2020 LP...

A lift for Anne up the hill late on...

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : Rehearsing...