End of another year...

Playlist

Rammstein - Zeit

Loscil - The Sails, Pt 2

Porcupine Tree - CLOSURE / CONTINUATION

Lucy Kaplansky - Last Days of Summer

Klaus Schulze - Deus Arrakis

Pyrolator - Niemandsland

Long Distance Calling - Eraser

Matthew Florianz - mist schimmen

The Bad Plus - The Bad Plus

Brian Eno - Foreverandevernomore

Taylor Swift - Midnights

Elder - Innate Passage

Keaton Henson - Keaton's Party Playlist

Fehlfarben - ?0??

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Twentytwentyone

Markus Reuter - TRUCE 2

Ethan Iverson - Every Note Is True

Tangerine Dream - Raum

loscil - The Sails, Pt 1

Marillion - An Hour Before It's Dark

Michael Rother & Vittoria Maccabruni - As Long As The Light

Final day of 2022 - another not really that great year...

Or so it seemed but, when I looked through the pics, it was pretty good really...

January...

February...

March...

April...

May...

June...

July...

August...

September...

October...

November...

December...

And, counting today, all of these podcasts were done...

And these CBQ LPs were released...

And so, on we go...

Up...

...and listening to what will be in the podcast today (I should have recorded it yesterday but all the work on the new LP and the end of year celebratory visit from Lynn and Ross meant no time to)...

For the final podcast of 2022, content was to comprise the 52nd of my LPs available on Bandcamp this time last year, plus my 20 LPs of 2022...

The new LP, "Twentytwentytwo", last of the year, was also released of course...

Following discussions last night between Anne and Lynn, flights to Berlin in June for the two old schoolchums were booked and, later this morning, accommodation at the Russian Hotel Anne and I enjoyed in 2018 was also booked...

Good times!

I wonder what I'll do while they're away?

Very sad news this morning though...

Rory Custard had not been seen by Gayle and Kevin for over 48 hours...

This morning the poor wee man was found dead in their garden...

He has been part of the scene around Crispycat Towers since 2008 - here he is then, pictured through Meg the Black Cat's Cat Flap when he came to visit for the first time, 3 July 2008...

What a lovely wee cat he was - a timid soul who only ever walked around our street and sat on the garage and hut roofs overlooking the territory...

And, of course, when Gayle and Kevin were away, we would look after him...

A sad end to the year...

More "Emily in Paris" at lunchtime...

Finally got the podcast out around 6 or so, then ordered and collected a tasty Indian - although mine was not what I ordered!

...but was, nonetheless, very good indeed...

The evening was spent eschewing terrestrial TV in favour of Daniel Craig et al in "Knives Out" - which was good enough for us to add the next in the series to our list of things to watch...

Post that though, we struggled a bit to stay up till midnight but just made it...

Jools Holland looked worse than ever and the BBC Scotland offering was dire - apart from the fireworks...

It was ever thus...

And so another year ends and we move on into 2023...

It may well not be as good as 2022, or it may be better...

But we are here - and that's the main thing

Happy New Year!

Lowlight of the Day : The passing of Rory Custard...

The eve of New Year's Eve...

Playlist

Creek - Twentytwentytwo

Cloudland Blue Quartet - The Neu! Variations

David Bowie - Lodger

Yes - 90125

Emerson Lake & Palmer - Trilogy

Isaac Hayes - Black Moses

Isaac Hayes - Branded

Up just after seven...

I had left it very late to upload the tracks for tomorrow's final release of the year by CBQ, "Twentytwentytwo"...

Tracks were uploaded and I spent the entire day researching and writing the notes and credits for each of the 28 tracks (I added one from next year's "The Neu! Variations" at the last minute)...

Meanwhile, Anne prepped a trifle for tonight....

And, I forgot of course (as it's 3 January as I write this), we popped to the shops to shop for us and for my mum and for me to choose lagers for a "lager tour of the world" - a thing not now undertaken for many a year...

And so, Thailand, Germany, The Czech Republic, Belgium, Spain and Japan will be sampled...

...although, these days, hardly any of them were actually brewed in those countries of course, thanks to globalisation...

Our guests arrived and the tour, for me and Ross, commenced, while Anne and Lynn enjoyed Orange Gin, Prosecco and wine...

New Year's Eve had come a day early...

An expertly prepped Keralan Chicken Curry with rice and chapatis was presented by Annie, followed by her trifle and, then, these wee beauties, made by Lynn's sister Sheila and, then, a cheese board...

Whisky and Baileys joined the fray later on as we caroused into the night...

Post midnight, off they went on foot for the journey home (picking up their car tomorrow)...

An excellent way to end the almost end of the year!

Highlight of the Day : A visit form Lynn and Ross...

The sun is, indeed, big...

Playlist

Various Artists - Top 20 LPs for 1959-2022

Billy Woods - Aethiopes

Torino Guitar Quartet - Codex

Wojciech Rusin - Syphon

Jeff Parker ETA IVtet - Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy

Silvia Tarozzi & Deborah Walker - Canti di guerra, di lavoro e d‘amore

Sarah Davachi - Two Sisters

Bennie Maupin, Adam Rudolph - Symphonic Tone Poem for Brother Yusef

Sigh - Shiki

Kali Malone - Living Torch

Tomáš Niesner - Bečvou

Bitchin Bajas - Bajascillators

The Tubes - Remote Control (Expanded Edition)

Horse Lords - Comradely Objects

Sun Ra Arkestra - Living Sky

Lucrecia Dalt - ¡Ay!

Elvis Presley - From Elvis In Memphis

Supertramp - Retrospectacle: The Supertramp Anthology

Various Artists - A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Head

Various Artists - Punk F**k Art Let's Danse

Compay Segundo - Gracias Compay

Chris Rea - Dancing Down The Stony Road

Wijdeveld - Lieder & Chamber Music

Meat Loaf - Piece of the Action: The Best Of Meat Loaf

The Pleeth Cello Octet - Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras #1 & 5

Laks - Laks: Chamber Works

Julian Bream - FRET WORKS Vol. II: Dowland and Villa-Lobos

Various Artists - Deep Down & Discofied

Abramian - Abramian: 24 Preludes for Piano

Beethoven - Beethoven: Music For Wind Instruments

Dino Ciani - The Genius of Dino Ciani

The Bad Plus - The Bad Plus

Orquestra Raizes Ibericas - Geographia Da Musica IV

Serge Chaloff - Boston Blow-Up

Patrick Moraz - Future Memories I and II

Various Artists - Soul Deep: The Story Of Black Popular Music

Zoot Sims Quartet - Zoot

Brian Eno - Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy

Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

The Moody Blues - Octave

Family 5 - Das Blaue vom Himmel

Queensrÿche - Empire

Jellyfish - Bellybutton

Pet Shop Boys - Behaviour

The Bad Plus - Suspicious Activity?

Neal Morse - ?

John Wetton & Geoff Downes - Icon

LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem [2CD]

Dar Williams - My Better Self

Bidiniband - The Motherland

Craig Armstrong - It's Nearly Tomorrow

Gabi Delgado - 1

Transatlantic - Kaleidoscope

Yes - Heaven & Earth

Pink Floyd - The Endless River

Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence [Japanese Edition]

Taylor Swift - 1989

Up late again...

Made notes again...

Xmas cards before I took them all off to put my additional since Xmas CDs on the shelf...

Xmas cards after I took them all off to put my additional since Xmas CDs on the shelf and then put them back...

Having done so, there was then some filing to be done in the back room...

I analysed the list of LPs voted for by the contributors to The Wire Magazine as their LPs of the year and ended up downloading 13...

I had only 3 of their Top 30 already in the collection...

Gave the new arrivals a cursory listen...

Then, breakfast...

Did some listening to my own annual Top 20s...

Fang visited...

Shortly after this calm scene, he slashed Anne's hand as she tried to pile clothes close to his then perch...

Consequently, he was chased from the premises...

On Twitter someone posted this pic of the Earth in perspective to the Sun...

The sun is, indeed, big...

Time for lunch, which was accompanied by 2 episodes of the 10 in the new series of "Emily in Paris"

Anne took her mum to the hairdresser while I pottered around at home - then they popped back here for a coffee and biscuit...

Mary noted the pic we have on our window ledge of her, Andrew and sone Keith...

I took a pic of the pic and made it look a little better...

It was developed in December 1960...

 ...so Keith would have been 1 year old in the photograph...

Later, I added all the pics of my Top 20s to the "Recommended Listening" page of the website...

This evening included today's Xmas "University Challenge" and a "Black List" and more mucking about with music by me...

That was it I think...

Highlight of the Day : New music form The Wire...

Onesie arrival...

Playlist

Various Artists - Top 20 LPs for 1959-2022

The Tubes - Suffer For Sound (The Black Album)

Fee Waybill - Fee Waybill Rides Again

Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft - Nur Noch Einer

Weather Report - I Sing The Body Electric

Lou Reed - Transformer (RM)

Neu! - Neu!

David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars

Hawkwind - Doremi Fasol Latido

Right, that's enough, it's already Tuesday 3 January 2023 as I try to write this...

I was up late...

But I am able to refer to the notes I made...

So, working again on my "Top 20's" for 1959 - 2022...

Then, breakfast, then Anne out, to see her mum I think, then more Top 20 work...

An accidental pic was taken at some point but will it one day be an LP cover?

While Anne was out, my ordered a couple of days ago onesie arrived...

On Anne's return, she joined me in a onesie fest while we lunched...

...and enjoyed the first part of the Ghost of Canterville - which reminds me, 6 days later, we've forgotten to watch part two!

Finally my Top 20s were completed...

As you can see (or perhaps not) from my notes above, several of the entries on the old phone/MP3 player proved problematic and had to be sorted out once again...

I did some analysis...

88 artists with 5 or more LPs in the 1,280...

Of which, the top were/are...

25

Alice Cooper

24

David Bowie

23

Brian Eno

22

Yes

19

Francoise Hardy

16

Rheostatics, Rush, Sparks

15

King Crimson, The Church

14

Miles Davis, The Bad Plus, Yello

13

Tangerine Dream

12

Lou Reed, Marillion, Spock's Beard, The Tubes

11

Jackie McLean, Loscil, Pink Floyd, Uriah Heep

10

Laura Pausini, Laurie Anderson, Michael Rother, Neal Morse, Pet Shop Boys, The Beatles, The Cure

9

2Raumwohnung, Allan Holdsworth, Bob Dylan, Dar Williams, Fehlfarben, Genesis, Gentle Gant, Hawkwind, Mathilde Santing, Max Richter, New Order, Ornette Coleman, Taylor Swift

8

Art Blakey, Bryan Ferry, David Sylvan, Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft, Jean-Michel Jarre, John Grant, Madredeus, Peter Gabriel, Roxy Music, Steve Harley, Suzanne Vega

So, those total 613 LPS and 613/1280 = 47.9% of albums

And they are by 53 artists and 53/88 = 60.2% of artists with more than 4

Back to my notes...

Baked potatoes for tea...

The, "Black List", "University Challenge" and "Vienna Blood" closed off the day...

Just as well I made the notes...

Which, of course since today, has fallen by he wayside

Onwards...

Highlight of the Day : Onesie arrival...

Lack of understanding of subjectivity can be a complete pain...

Playlist

Various Artists - Top 20 LPs for 1959-2022

Steffi - The Red Hunter

Grace Jones - Hurricane

Alice Cooper - Love It To Death

Gentle Giant - Interview (Remaster)

The Tubes - Remote Control

Yello - Motion Picture

Kansas - Somewhere To Elsewhere

New Order - Get Ready

Justin Currie - What Is Love For

Udo Lindenberg - Stark Wie Zwei

Taylor Swift - Midnights

Started taking notes today to remind me of things when it comes to keeping this up to date, as is the case today, a couple of days later...

I used to only ever do that when we were away on a trip...

Up at seven and, instead of writing this, I turned again to sorting out the Top 20s for each year from 1959 to 2022 - which, when done will be loaded onto Anne's old Samsung Galaxy, to which I've added a 128GB SD card, turning it into a nice sized MP3 player (which also has access to the internet if there's wi-fi around and can be blue-toothed to speakers and the car)...

Breakfast, including a nice raspberry preserve Xmas present...

Also was drawn to AI art sites and typed in what I wanted...

...and came out like this...

Accompanied Anne towards her mum's and jumped out, nipping onto a tram at Haymarket...

...alighting at HMV in Princes St (no purchases) and walking along to Fopp (no purchases)...

Over into the Prince's Mall and Avalanche, Kevin Arbuckle still plodding away...

Found one CD of note (with a DVD included) for fiver..

Polish ambient artist, Jacaszek...

Of course, it turns out I'd already downloaded this a couple of years back...

Oh well - nice to have the thing (as I always say when this happens)...

Through Waverley Station to the Fruitmarket Gallery, where this exhibition of work by Hayley Tompkins did not do anything for me...

The gallery was a welcome refuge from the rain though...

Up to the Royal Mile and a quick wander round a craft market there at the Tron Kirk...

...before walking up to Newington, perusing various charity shops but finding zero...

At the Queens Hall, things which may be of interest next year which we will probably not attend, were noted...

A No 30 down to Princes St, where prep for the Pet Shop Boys on Hogmanay is underway - me and Edward Spark will see them in Aberdeen in the summer...

The castle, as I awaited the 26...

...which took me...

...to the terminus...

...followed by a walk down the hill home...

The Xmas special of "Death in Paradise" enjoyed with lunch...

Then, listening to Jacaszek and updating this for the last two days and changing the pics on the entry for our one day trip to Amsterdam back in January 2011, to actual pictures...

Next, I need to do that for our 2008 Canada trip...

The Grace Jones CD from the 23rd also finally listened to - very good indeed...

Time for tea...

...and then, posting my choices for Top 5 of 2022, post my 20 yesterday...

 ...and my 10 this morning...

And here they are...

The lack of Marillion and Porcupine Tree in my 10 and 5 caused some consternation amongst various Twitterti - once again, I laboured to explain the concept of subjectivity when "judging" music and art of any kind...

First of two "University Challenge" matches tonight - a poor score from us...

Then, a "Black List"...

Then, back to the Top 20s...

Then, the second "University Challenge" and a far better score, well over 200...

And ended the day as it began, with yet more work on the Top 20's, which is proving more problematic than I'd hoped, re the transfer onto the player and tracks missing etc etc...

This is how I waste my time...

Highlight of the Day : Out and about...