New music, old songs, old chums...

Playlist

electric orange - psi-hybrid

Tate McRae - uh oh (Single)

Martin Roth - Mono No Aware

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Elements

John Coltrane - Concert In Japan

The Bad Plus - The Bad Plus

Cosmic Ground - isolate

The Smile - A Light for Attracting Attention

Oren Ambarchi - Shebang

Blancmange - Private View

Lambchop - The Bible

SKIM - SKIM

SCHNEIDER KRISTOF - SCHNEIDER KRISTOF

Esther Graf - Red Flags

Various Artists - A State Of Trance 2022

GoGo Penguin - Erased by Sunlight (Single)

Snarky Puppy - Empire Central

Björk - Fossora

Pixies - Doggerel

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Cool It Down

Pulled Apart By Horses - Reality Cheques

Ben Link Collins - Fictionalism

Chad Wackerman - Dreams, Nightmares and Improvisations

Iggy Pop - Post Pop Depression

Horace Parlan - Us Three

Illinois Jacquet - Illinois Jacquet

Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Herb Steward, Serge Chaloff - The Four Brothers...Together Again

Friday!

Up late...

...and to acquiring new music, compiling and recording this week's podcast...

This afternoon, some singing in preparation for Sunday...

Including new quick recordings of this and "Dakota", sent to the boys as guides as this line up of the group has never played them...

Anne was out at Zumba with Lynn - followed by coffee, tea and cakes...

Later, Fang visited...

This evening, out for drinks re the end of the quarter with Kris, Gary, Bernie, James, Sandy, Andrew and Craig...

Then, to Tiger Lily to celebrate chum Janine's 50th (which isn't till mid October but she wanted to merge it with the quarter end celebrations)...

Here with one of my erstwhile longest standing colleagues, Julie...

Good to see everyone again - I don't see them much these days...

Here, Sarah, who was my final support, the birthday girl, and Gillian, mum of Luna the sometimes staying at our house cat....

As ever, Bernardo was recording proceedings, chum Christine in the background...

A pano with some weirdness...

A good time was had by all...

...and drinks, nibbles and cake were enjoyed...

Not the worse for wear tonight, I was home before 10, in time to enjoy an "Elementary" before hitting the sack...

Good times...

Highlight of the Day : A Party...

Acquiring something other than music and books can be good...

Playlist

Alice Cooper - Zipper Catches Skin

Capital Models - 2022-09-10 Roslin Fete

Capital Models - 2018-09-23 DR & JW

Capital Models - 2020-04-12 Over A-Z

Capital Models - 2021-08-11

Capital Models - 2021-08-22

Capital Models - 2021-09-12

SKIM - SKIM

Osmic Ground - Isolate

The Velvet Underground - 1969

Thursday and, once again, I'm five days behind - where is my discipline?

It's probably out in the garden...

...and then off to Lidl for some lovely croissants...

Perhaps...

I looked through my diaries for 1981 and 1982 trying to find the first ever 5-a-sides match, of what is now, 40 years later, MBFives - in which I, as the sole remaining original player, am referred to as Dave GF (Dave the Godfather)...

Turns out, it was Friday 9 July 1982...

(Pic will be added shortly)

Also found that, quite coincidentally, on this very day, 40 years ago, I bought the then latest Alice Cooper LP, "Zipper Catches Skin"...

32 minutes of fun...

I still have it...

...and I played it...

Out with Anne for some mooching around the shops - she had a token from M&S...

After visiting two of their branches, Anne emerged with a gillet and your correspondent had snaffled not one but two new jackets... 

Previously owned coats and jackets were discarded to make way for the new acquisitions - makes a change from CDs and books...

We also bought some nice German bread, cheese and salami for a different branch of Lidl than the croissants one...

A tasty lunch ensued, along with, of course, some "Elementary"...

In the afternoon, working on the setlists for Sunday's proposed rehearsals - much playing back of old stuff...

This evening out as guest of old work chum Sam to a dinner at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society...

Much beer was enjoyed but the whisky, not so much...

Good chat into the late evening and then a bus home - direct route thwarted at the last moment by diversions...

...and so, an Airport bus from Shandwick Place...

...to the zoo, a pick up from Anne and straight to bed, slightly the worse for wear...

A good day nonetheless...

Highlight of the Day : New jackets...

He shoots, he scores...

Playlist

Various - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2016

Skim - Skim

Cosmic Ground - Isolate

Chad Wackerman - Dreams, Nightmares and Improvisations

De Golden Lepel - De Golden Lepel

LAGQ - Los Angeles Guitar Quartet

Carlos Peron - Talks to the Nations

Various - Smokin' Blue

Various - The Treasure Isle Story

Various - Do the Reggae

Cloudland Canyon - Lie In Light

Dark Star - Dark Star

Various - A State Of Trance 2022

Capital Models - 2022-06-04

Capital Models - 2021-08-22

Capital Models - 2022-05-14 Live in Roslin

Capital Models - Live 29 November 2014

Capital Models - 2018-09-23 DR & JW

Capital Models - Live at the Dean

Capital Models - 2022-09-10 Roslin Fete

Capital Models - 2021-06-13

Capital Models - 2021-08-11

Capital Models - 2021-09-12

As is the way these days, started the day listening to an old podcast...

Finally up around 6...

And what did I see out the back window?

Yes, it's what I mistook for Venus a few mornings ago - it is, of course, Jupiter...

By Jove!

This is probably the best one...

Listened to some music, wrote this up for yesterday (discipline!) and then, perused this nice book...

Post breakfast, Anne was off to Zumba - solo, due to Lynn being the worse for wear after a night out last night with her sisters and visiting from Australia old flame Kevin...

I entertained myself by taking pictures of the current content The Shelf - which taKes me back to 18 June - so, on average, just under one CD a day between then and now...

However, 61% are from charity shops of course and only Efterklang was partaken of at anywhere near "full price"...

More perusal - this, a book on the content of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art...

...accompanied by this - purchased in New York in 1999...

On Anne's return, it was still too early for lunch, so further listening...

...Carlos was bought in Bremen in 2015 - a good trip...

Then...

Then, lunch and some "Elementary"...

Meanwhile, the band reconvenes on Sunday and I have asked them all to each choose 10 songs they'd like to play...

In prep for this, I set about putting all the covers I "know" into alpha order in my folder...

A long laborious task, soundtracked by these...

The above is a very tasty LP, purchased in Vancouver in 2008...

This rounded things off...

Then, a run through on the acoustic of my and Paul's choices as I waited for the rest to come in...

Then, as Stu's arrived, creating a playlist of the choices, from the band rehearsal and gig recordings, and listening to that too...

Still nothing from Johnny or Keith...

This evening, 5 a sides resumed...

I was once again on the wining side and, very rarely these days, actually scored a goal - and it was a good one...

And so, despite my advancing years, my legs being shot and my footballing skills being a mere shadow of what they once were, I find myself at the top of the player board with 3 wins out of 4.  Just as well it’s a team game or I’d be bottom…

I was knackered afterwards though...

My reward was a sadly unpictured top tea from the EP of rib eye steak, mushrooms and chips...

"All Creatures Great and Small" and "Elementary" entertained along with "Newsnight" re the absolute clusterfuck the new Tory moron government has made of the economy in just a few days...

Unbelievable...

But Boris cleared out anyone with any competence/intelligence/understanding long ago..

So this is where we are...

Highlight of the Day : Football...

A planet can be an excuse for a tasty tea...

Playlist

Various - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2016

Esther Graf - Red Flags

SCHNEIDER NUSSBAUM - Wolfskull

The Smile - A Light for Attracting Attention

CHRONICLE REVOLUTION ANGELS - SWWS

Various Artists - A State Of Trance 2022

Bob Brookmeyer/Zoot Sims - Whooeeee

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Gewitter

Echoes From Jupiter - Le Grand Tour

State Azure - Memory Drift

Up late - snoozing with myself from 2016 - I am up to volume 15...

Lovely, clear skies...

...and money in my pocket, or, rather, on the shelf...

...and garages in a painting...

To work, adding new downloads from yesterday to the iTunes...

Loadsa stuff involving happened upon drummer, Jörg A. Schneider...

I was especially attracted as he seems to live and work in the small German town of Hückelhoven - in which I stayed for a week or so on a school exchange trip in the summer of 1976...

Also joining the collection this morning were an EP plus various singles by young new to me Austrian songstress, Esther Graf - I found her music while searching in vein for a track I have on an old tape collection.  It's called "Geldautomat" (ATM Machine) - and I always sing it to myself whenever I am withdrawing cash from a wall...

This is one of the strange ways in which I discover new music...

Then, a 2012 LP from drummer Chad Wackerman which, for some reason, I have overlooked for 10 years, despite it containing the last studio recordings of guitar fave, Allan Holdsworth - it is soundtracking me tomorrow morning as I write this...

Then, a 2022 release from group The Smile, which I also somehow missed (but only for a few months this time) - it's Thom York and Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead, with drummer Tom Skinner and produced by Nigel Godrich...

Finally, the lastest Trance compilation from Armand van Buuren...

Diggerdaggertastic...

And so, I was at the work station for most of the morning, while Anne was out shopping with her mum and walking Rafa the dog...

Off to Tynecastle for 1pm for the football...

Played three games and won them all, hitting the post and even scoring a couple of goals, including one very satisfying one involving the nutmegging the opposing goalie, who had been like a veritable wall up until that point...

It turns out,  one of my fellow players is an ex-neighbour of ours, who recognised me a few weeks back but only spoke to me today for the first time...

He advised his home opposite us was his favourite as that was where his kids, now in their mid 30s, grew up...

He moved away in 1999 but still remembered we had a record shop...

Small world...

Here, the feet of a goalscorer and remembered neighbour...

Post tasty soup with my footballing colleagues, I made my way home bearing some caramel custard doughnuts, enjoyed with coffee, "Elementary" and Fang...

While I'd been playing, Anne had finished her boat...

...which she started on 2 August - so, 8 weeks' work...

Including being the cover for my last LP...

This afternoon, I searched for and found, these in the attic...

...as, this evening, we decided to venture out in search of Jupiter...

Drove over to The Steading for a very tasty tea...

...and then out into the cold and dark, in an attempt to see and snap the planet, which is at its closest to the Earth since 1963 and which will not again be this close until 2120...

Here, my pathetic attempts...

It turned out, we could see it all the way home on our drive back and, indeed, from the street round the corner from our house...

...and from the room in which I work - although the clouds obscured it here...

Still, any excuse for a tasty tea...

The rest of the evening was spent watching "Bloodlands", "Elementary" and the highlights of tonight's 0-0 draw in Poland between Ukraine and Scotland...

Scotland have finished top of the group and so are promoted to Section A (while England and Wales are both relegated to Section B)...

This means, in they event they don't qualify from their group, Scotland will qualify for an automatic play off place for UEFA 2024 - and, in the draw for the groups, they will now be placed in pot 2, ostensibly making the group easier for them...

Things are kind of looking up...

But the view of Jupiter is not very good...

Highlight of the Day : Searching for a planet...