Saturday, May 22, 2021

Out and about, cup final, Eurovision...

Playlist
Various Artists - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2021
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Silversongs 1996-2021 (Remakes)
Mozart - Amadeus (Montblanc Special Edition)
Camerata Romana - Famous Trumpet Concertos
Falco - Falco 3 25th Anniversary Edition
Bartók - Out of Doors, Two Picture, String Quartet 5
Alberto Iglesias - Hable Con Ella OST
Grieg - String Quartets #1 & 2
Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels (CD)
Afenginn - Lux (CD)
Rabih Abou-Khalil - Blue Camel

Well, it's time to try to keep this up to date by writing it up on the morning of the day after the day in question - except it's now, of course, the evening of the day after the day in question...

Not too bad though, considering I am around 3 weeks behind with the posts immediately preceding this one...

Anyway, up at 6 on a Saturday morning but no podcast recording as, miraculously, I got the whole thing recorded yesterday...


...which was extremely lucky, as I was taken reasonably ill last night, which I believe may have been a side effect of my second AZ Covid jab, received on Thursday lunchtime...

But, yes, up at 6 despite having felt dreadful on turning in (reasonably early) last night...

Some guitar based scenes to fill out the usual first thing in the morning "here's the time I got up" Tweet (which is often my only original Tweet of the day)...




Breakfast at home with Anne, having sorted out some recently downloaded new music (just for a change)...


Out around 10:15, past the duck at the back door...


...and dropping Anne at her mum's, before driving to the Saturday place and, finally, out "onto the street" at 10:35...


First stop was the British Heart Foundation shop at Newington...

Some items taken for a fiver in total...

A special edition of the soundtrack of the film "Amadeus", made for a pen company which sells pens for hundreds to thousands of pounds...

What a strange market that is when you can get a box of a hundred Bics for a few quid...


Have this Falco album already but not this 25th anniversary edition, which has a few extended versions and remixes which made the £2 price tag worthwhile (and it was still sealed)...


Took this soundtrack on spec - it turned out to be very good...


...and this for a quid, as there's a concerto by FX Richter included...


On to the Oxfam shop and these two for another three quid...

There are a couple of Bartok pieces on this I don't think I have (I've not checked yet)...

Plus you can surely never have too many renditions of Mr B's quartets...


...and then the Chilingirians' takes on Grieg's quartets - again, I have other versions but this was good too for two quid...


Then, a walk further out of town to the cancer shop where I picked up a few bargains last week but nothing found...


A walk towards the Grassmarket took me past one of our old record shops - both are now coffee shops - part of the wholesale devaluation of music which has taken place on a massive scale since we closed our business back in 1998...


Through the University...



...and stopped off at the Greyfriars Shelter shop, where these two were partaken of - I have them both digitally, the first also burned to a CD-R but, as always, nicer to have the real thing, when it's a good one...

Our solicitor Alan McLaren introduced me to Great Lake Swimmers around the time this was released, over 10 years ago...


...while I chanced upon Danish outfit Afenginn's latest last February, in Manchester, while there for nephew Craig's stag weekend (I downloaded their back catalogue on discovering how good they were on my return home - this is one of those LPs)...


On down to the Grassmarket...


...and this interesting item taken from George's record stall there - most expensive item of the day at just £3...

The presence of Kenny Wheeler and Steve Swallow sucked me in...


Here, the views...

One way...


...and the other - stall on the right...


The beast was then heading back to the car...


...stopping off at Lidl on the way, for bread, salami, cheese and coleslaw for lunch back home, twenty minutes from here......


Today's pile...


...which I postponed ripping and, instead, sampled downstairs on the portable CD player as we watched Hibernian lose the Scottish Cup Final by one goal to nil to St Johnstone...

This outcome had the Exec Producer running round the living room with glee - although there had been no glee when, late on, the Hibs goalie made a superb double save from a penalty to keep them in the game...

To be honest though Annie's arch rivals never looked like scoring...

This evening, post some post football ripping and a tasty collected by me Indian takeaway, a visit from Fang, just in time to have some Dreamies and fall asleep to the Eurovision Song Contest...



Here, the scene as the night drew in and the competition progressed...


Fang joined me in the scoring area...



My favourite was Bulgaria's song, a ballad by one "Victoria" - although I gave the rockers, Måneskin, from Italy, the same 19 out of 20 points...


Fang was out for the count by midnight when the final scores were tallied...


The UK scored zero points from not only the 38 professional juries but also the other 38 countries' public votes...

It was definitely not the best song but neither, surely was it the worst (come on down Germany, Russia, Portugal, Albania etc etc)...

I placed it around 15th...


As the band took to the stage for their victory rendition, Anne tried to lure Fang out into the cold...





Rock'n'roll will never die (announced the band, just prior to launching into their top notch rocking song)...


A fine sentiment with which to end the day...

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : Eurovision...

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