It is the first Friday of a new month, and therefore time to gather round and share – what have you been listening to, watching, reading, and is there anything else you would like to share?
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el hombre malo says
(Apologies to those following the numbering – this should be XVIV but I was thinking about how to doff my hat to James Blast, so got it wrongity-wrong)
Read
I really enjoyed two books by Josh Bazell – Beat The Reaper and Wild Thing.
Both are fantastic thrillers, well-plotted, in a way that unwinds as each layer is peeled away. interesting character development, and some splatter-y violence too. Both are filled with entertaining footnotes and interesting additional sources
Heard
I have been slowly thinning the CD collection – I have handed several batches (totalling about 300) in to a couple of local record shops and trading them in for more vinyl.
So I have been catching up with vinyl again – enjoying the ritual, enjoying that I tend to listen more closely as opposed to when I have music on in iTunes and I am also reading the papers online, and looking things up in other browser windows. So Axis Bold As Love has been a huge hit.
Seen
I enjoyed what I saw of the Olympics
AOB
It is sobering to attend the funeral of a peer – in this case, James Blast, Leader-aff of the Glasgow Massive. As I think I have posted before – you always assume you will have time later to catch up with people, but sadly that isn’t always the case. This is, as the man himself would have put it, PISH!
So I’d encourage you to make that 5 minutes to send an email / pick up the phone / whatever if there’s an old pal out there who you are meaning to catch up with.
(Footnote – we are gathering in The Laurieston to raise a glass to Mr Blast(tm) on Friday 30th September from 6 ish – friends from his various online communities and some from The Real World. All welcome)
Iain McKinney says
Read
The Racketeer by John Grisham. I like Grisham. He’s easy, good for a bit of escapism, but this was poor.
Watched
GBBO! No changes in format, Mel and Sue being smutty and annoying, Mary being Mary, Paul being a curmudgeonly old git. Oh, and biscuits. I love it!
Listened
Bowie At The Beeb. My vinyl revival creeps on apace. This is a lovely package, and the sound is great, considering the source. Incredible energy, classic tunes, this is the sound of a driven man, going only one way. Stunning.
Cheers!
Dodger Lane says
Listened to: The last issue of Shindig put me onto Il Complesso di Tada ! They’re Italian with a groovy 60s sound (sorry). I don’t know how to describe them really so have a listen to this which is one of my favourites on the album
Also, a collection of The Bangles, Ladies & Gentlemen The Bangles and The Yardbirds Live at the BBC. The Bangles collection is great, never paid that much attention to them before and I really enjoy the BBC collections for the interview excerpts; the formality, the received pronounciation and then they blast into A Heart full of soul.
Read: Thanks to@mikethep who, I think, recommended this last month, read and loved The Sympathiser by Viet Thanh Nguyen. It’s a stunning read, funny in parts, with good plot twists and a brilliantly drawn main character. Some of the descriptive writing, of the sights & smells of Vietnam is really memorable as is his description of how Vietnamese behave in cinemas. It’s a wonderful novel, cannot recommend this too highly. I am now going to give Helen Dunmore a bit of a duffing, got a third of the way through Exposure and couldn’t take anymore. I just find her a very dull writer and couldn’t care a jot about any of the characters. Also, just finished A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow. I know the film almost too well, but the strength of the book is such that I never had Alan Bates or Thora Hird in my mind’s eye reading it. It describes another world but the precision, subtlety and feeling with which he describes the up and down relationship is wonderful and not in the least bit dated.
Watched: A bit of a 60s British New Wave splurge; A Kind of Loving, Billy Liar and Saturday Night, Sunday Morning. I like to keep up to date. Nothing new.
AOB: It’s that time of the year when everybody seems to talk up Autumn, putting on more clothes than’s necessary and turn the heating on. It’s still very pleasant in London- hope it lasts.
Kaisfatdad says
Really like that Italian track and was interested to see that Elio of Le Storie Tese was involved. It’s a kind of covers project.
You and Gary may find this article interesting. (The rest of us will have to resort to Google translate.)
http://my-way-online.blogspot.se/2016/07/il-complesso-di-tada-lintervista.html
Dodger Lane says
Thanks.
Yup, they also cover Mah Na Mah Na, i.e The Muppets song.
Kaisfatdad says
Just stumbled across this @Dodger_Lane which may interest you.
The ridiculously glamorous Dalida and Alain Delon doing (the original version of?) Paroles Paroles. In matching telephone booths!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICnbevTw4WQ
Very 60s.
SteveT says
Love A kind of loving – must read it again sometime. All of that 60’s kitchen sink drama was really very good.
mikethep says
Glad you enjoyed The Sympathiser, Dodger. Someone gave me another copy for my birthday, and rather than admit I’d already read it I’m reading it again just as an experiment. It stands up really well.
retropath2 says
August is always a weird one and this was no different. With the Squeeze in Turkey for much of the month, lots of good intentions to tidy up and catalogue the music ending, as ever, with a ton of purchases as I re-investigate dusty crannies of my collection. Amongst that I finally gave time to the Radiohead: didn’t like the Bends much, but Moon Shaped Pool is terrific. (I also discovered I actually own OK Computer without ever knowingly listening to it) The recent psychedelic cover disc on Boho/Unshod (q.v. Ant/Dec) sparked getting the Bevis Frond’s Example 22, a gratuitously guitar melody melange of 60s/70s tropes somehow sounding quite in place for now. Also IV by Black Mountain where, inevitably, I remembered why certain tracks get put out as tasters. Half the album is good, the other half not so. I needed respite from guitars by then, so Dylan Howe’s Berlin Bowie tribute got the nod. Anything but instant, I think a few more listens should nail it. Snarky Puppy’s Culcha Vulcha garnished a whole lot of praise last month here, so I revisited my prejudice, pleased to say I was wrong. Wonderful body of work. And then the stuff I picked up at Shrewsbury Folk Festival: the new Edward II (just like the old, but no worse for that), the new Peatbog Faeries (ditto) and Lisa Hannigans which will need some time, I feel. And 2nd hand snaffling up of stuff as varied as On the Beach (N.Y) to a Ric Sanders/Gordon Giltrap duo album, Galaxie 500 to Tarras and Tamalin (Colin!), Zoe Rahman to Lambchop.
Seen: Watched less telly than I expected to, hoovering up the first series of the Wire, a decade or so late. Its good but not that good, having dated as the extended play of box set styles seems to have have matured. That and keeping up with Ray Donovan in real time, once a week, the 4th series having finally bedded into the addictive properties of the earlier 3, mainly down to the wondrous playing of, in particular, Jon Voight and Eddie Marsan. Cambridge Folk Festival on Sky arts was good, as was a documentary abbot REM, reminding me what a fine and distinctive sound they made.
Ate: Shameless plug for Time Out’s 8th best restaurant in London, my boy’s Rok (with a swedish slashed O), now open in Islington as well as in Shoreditch. More meat was murdered for the magnificent feast I had there than in an entire series of Gomorrah!!
Read: Enjoying The Buried Giant enormously, the latest, 2015, from Kazuo Ishiguro, a stunning parable on, I think, dementia, but early days so no spoilers please. Irvine Welsh never lets me down, at least when he writes about Leithian pond life. A Good Ride, the further adventures of Juice Terry is no exception, a brilliantly scurrilous and indefensibly politically incorrect romp, and romp it is. I can’t wait for the latest in the loose series to be paperbacked, as Franco Begbie makes his return.
Live: Shrewsbury, as scribed elsewhere, broke my summer fast from live music, but the autumn has me snapping up tickets willy nilly, with November looking especially fun, what with unlikely bedfellows Bastille, Agnes Obel, Teenage Fanclub and the Alabama 3 all tearing holes in my wallet.
A.O.B. My Bla(a)st memorial T arrives this week, I’m informed. I too will miss his witty erudition and rude diction here.
Oh, and I had my first tattoo and booked a wedding, my third, for next month, my hope springing eternally.
Tiggerlion says
You’re a mad bastard, you are! Tattoo? Third marriage…?
retropath2 says
Don’t worry, Tiggs, I’ve had 2 divorces too…..
Tiggerlion says
That’s what I mean. Do you never learn? Mad, I tell you. Mad.
Rigid Digit says
Maybe he just likes the taste of Wedding cake?
SteveT says
Having met your bride to be Retro I would say you are a lucky man. However like Tiggs I question your sanity. They are all mad as a box of frogs as you well know.
Seriously congratulations.
Tiggerlion says
And congratulations from me too. Are we all invited?
Baron Harkonnen says
And congratulations from me also retro having met your good lady I I also reckon you are a lucky fellow.
As someone who has also been married three times you should ignore those naysayers, I’ve found a good ‘un third time round!
Tiggerlion says
You’re mad you are!
retropath2 says
Thanks, fellas. Tigger, can you come? No. Not unless you convert to morris dancing immediately.
Tiggerlion says
I’ll have you know I Morris Danced at school. We even went on tour to France. The downsides were no girls and dreadful music. 😉
duco01 says
Erm … the o in Rök/Rōk restaurant doesn’t have a slash through it (ø is a Danish or Norwegian letter)
Rök, (the Swedish for smoke) has two dots over the o, and in the small print on the restaurant’s website they do indeed spell it ‘Rök’.
In their logo, they use a funny stylised letter, which is an o with a little line over the top: ō.
This isn’t an actual letter in Swedish.
duco01 says
… And I should’ve added that Rök’s menu looks really interesting.
Would like to go there one day!
retropath2 says
(Embarrassed shrug) That’s because I can’t type any of those and always call it Rok……
Hope you get the chance. heck, even Jay Rayner liked it:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/mar/13/rok-restaurant-review-london-jay-rayner
Colin H says
Is it fait to say that ‘Retro roks… but in a linguistically ambiguous sort of way’?
bungliemutt says
Cripes, is it September already? Here’s what I’ve been up to over the past month.
Listening –
August is such a light month for new releases, so it’s largely been a case of revisiting old favourites. I’ve always had a soft spot for the poor man’s Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, and have been catching up on some of his old stuff. He had an album of pared down acoustic material a year or so ago (Plain Spoken) which illustrates what a good songwriter he still is. Big Daddy, from 1989, remains one of my favourite albums, and although it is largely forgotten, and perhaps never feted as being amongst his best, it’s one I’ve never grown tired of. Also getting spins this month were sometime Ryan Adams sideman Neal Casal, whose Fade Away Diamond Time is worth 45 minutes of anyone’s time, and Ryan Adams himself. He’s been quiet of late, but the eponymous Ryan Adams album from 2014 was one of his best in years.
Watching –
I like the films of director John Cassavetes, and watched Too Late Blues, which starred Bobby Darin. The BD/DVD double release is one of those excellent Eureka Masters Of Cinema series, whose remastering / restoration presents the film in glorious pin sharp black and white. Also enjoyed the ever-reliable Dan Duryea starring alongside Lizabeth Scott in Too Late For Tears, an unfairly neglected noir from 1949 which has also had recent restoration treatment for its BD release, this time from Arrow. It’s a glorious melodrama in which Scott plays a ruthless femme fatale. Elsewhere, I picked up a copy of the 1964 BBC series on The Great War from a well-known interweb auction site. It features lots of classic British luvvie actors of the time narrating and providing voice-overs, chiefly Ralph Richardson, but it’s surprisingly good, and very long – 26 40 minute episodes largely consisting of archive war footage, alongside interviews with veterans who, at the time of filming were chiefly in late middle age (which is particularly poignant, now that the last surviving veterans have died). A tad ponderous it may be, but worth sticking with.
Reading –
Having a bit of a penchant for the Great Victorian Novel (the only bit of my long-forgotten English degree that inspired me with lasting enthusiasm), I read a new biography of Charlotte Bronte by Claire Harman. I always thought of the Brontes as largely unworldly and isolated siblings writing by candlelight in their lonely parsonage, and to an extent this is true, but the years of completely unrequited bodice-ripping longings for a Belgian teacher, Constantin Heger, that Charlotte endured had completely passed me by. Charlotte wrote to him for years after she had left his language school in Brussels, and Heger never once replied. Bastard.
I’ve now started Paul Trynka’s biography of David Bowie, having read somewhere that it is far better than Paul Morley’s recently published book. Seems like a pretty good rock bio so far to me, highlighting Bowie’s supreme mastery of self-pulicising as a means of creating a reputation and mystique before he really had one. It’s good stuff.
bungliemutt says
I was going to add a John Mellencamp track from Big Daddy (Theo & Weird Henry), but the only version I can find on You Tube seems to have someone’s home movie as the video, so here’s a reminder of how good Ryan Adams’s last album was.
atcf says
I’ve just moved house and am still at the “Where is all this stuff going to go?” unpacking stage, so access to culture of any kind has been pretty limited. But:
Listening – have managed to get the new ones from the Avalanches and Ryley Walker. The Avalanches album is an odd one, in that they’ve been away for so long, and yet the new record just sounds like an extension of the first one (this is a good thing) – I heard a track in HMV and instantly knew who it was, which given it’s all samples and no vocals is quite odd when you think about it. Ryley Walker’s album is I think, a progression on the last one. As many reviews have pointed out, it’s more structured, so there’s sharper songwriting and less wig out moments. I like this, the worshippers of fretmanship may be less impressed.
Watching – mainly the Olympics. At the end of a hard day’s lifting / assembling furniture / moving boxes there was something glorious about collapsing on a beanbag with a beer and watching the Brits take on all comers in the velodrome. Yes there’s a good argument to be made about lottery money being frittered away on what is essentially a feel good sideshow, but it’s helluva entertaining for a few days every 4 years.
Reading – just finished Michael Crick’s reissued book on Militant, which is very relevant again in light of the opposition’s kamikaze approach right now. Labour will recover eventually , but a lot of people will have to relearn the lessons of the 1980s before that can begin to happen. We might be talking a decade or more…
AOB – the new gaff has a secure garage, so I’ve bought a bike. Plus clothing, bar ends, gel saddle, cycle computer etc etc. I don’t have enough money for a ‘buy a sports car’ mid-life crisis, so maybe this is my low budget equivalent.
Twang says
SEEN
My work induced week day hotel life continues meaning I have caught up with a few things on Netflix and Amazon…the dramatisation of the Philip K Dick book – “The man in the high castle” on Amazon is good – set in America in the 50s with the US divided into a Japan side and a Nazi side. A few episodes in I am enjoying it. Similarly “Jessica Jones” on Netflix – with Krystin Ritter (aka Jesse’s girlfriend off “Breaking Bad) is good with David Tennant revelling in being a complete bastard bad guy. Been on a Wars of the Roses jag and re-watched “The White Queen” which is good fluff other than they are way wrong on RIII. Enjoyed the Bob Weir doc on Netflix – made me reinvestigate the Dead…still not really happening for me. Took father in law to see the Carole King musical for his 80th. Pretty good actually – the story is somewhat compressed – she didn’t go to LA and immediately have a hit with “Tapestry” – but who cares. Songs are sublime of course, and they factored in Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil so you got a load more Brill Building songs as a side order. What’s not to like?
READ
Two Jack Reachers at opposite ends of the holidays. The Tubby Hayes book reviewed by Colin H here a few weeks ago. Superb portrait of the 50s and 60s gigging scene in the UK and one is left wondering, like the author, why Tubby is largely written out of Brit jazz history given at the time he won awards by the shelf full. Also read “Dominion” by C.J. Sansom – a post WW2 reimagining a UK where Churchill deferred to Lord Halifax who in 1940 who promptly agreed an armistice with the Nazis. Interesting setup but ultimately disappointing – plot full of holes and obviously stupid decisions by the main characters. I have the similar Philip K Dick book on the pile. Finished JG Ballard “Kingdom Come”; living steps from the lovely Trafford Centre all week there was something extra creepy about it. Bough a bunch more of his books to catch up on.
HEARD
Bought the Cambridge Go speaker recommended here by @Pencilsqueezer and @leedsboy. Great bit of kit. Downloaded a few things from Spotty and played on hols – new Ryley Walker, not landed for me yet but old pal @feedback_file assures me it will. Lots of Tubby Hayes following reading the book. Man, he was a shredder before the term was invented. Listening to Sonny Rollins today you see why the Tubster felt on the back foot in the 60s – UK players were trying to play bebop ever faster where the US had moved on. Bought “Liege and Lief” on reissue vinyl as my copy is knackered. Amazing how production values have changed since them (not necessarily for the worse) but it sounds fab. A pal asked whether I can really hear a difference from the CD to which I replied “probably not, it’s an emotional thing”.
Leicester Bangs says
Seen:
On TV, HBO’s ‘The Night Of’, which is superb, but not without its flaws, and the new Mel Gibson film, ‘Blood Father’ (as reviewed on The Afterword).
Heard:
For me it’s been all about Gang Starr and De La Soul this month, especially the former. I’ve even been revisiting Guru’s ‘Jazzmatazz’ work. Lovely.
Read:
‘Slither’ by Edward Lee, a gruesome horror novel from the master of extreme horror; ‘Nod’, by Adrian Barnes, a superb debut sci-fi novel about a world going mad from sleep deprivation; and ‘Final Cut’ by Steven Bach, a non-fiction book about the making of ‘Heaven’s Gate’, a film I have come to late, and found that I love.
davebigpicture says
Seen: Halt and Catch Fire on Amazon. It’s about the PC revolution in the early 80s, coding and start ups. Onto season 3 now and it’s getting better as the characters are properly formed. Also Amazon, Mr Robot season 2. Still not sure about this but good enough to stick with it.
Heard: not much new, still listening to Radio Paradise. I really should put a screen in the warehouse so I can see the playlist when something catches my attention. I did discover the Live From High Fidelity podcast which interviews musicians and invites them to play tracks which are/were important to them. I’ve heard Maria McKee and Susannah Hoffs so far with a few more downloaded. Hoffs was talking about the Rickenbacker sound which was interesting to me as a non guitarist as well as a bit about the early days of The Bangles and their close harmony sound. Mind you, she could read the phone book and I’d still listen.
AOB: holiday in Kefalonia, I just about got through Robertson Davies’ The Deptford Trilogy which I enjoyed. Great weather and fabulous food. Just for once, I wasn’t that bothered about coming home.
Here’s Maria McKee when she was in Lone Justice. This was used in Halt and Catch Fire Season 2
http://youtu.be/SCoKX6c3iME
badartdog says
Watched lots – the two seasons of Blood Ties were enjoyable Florida Noir – noir in the sunshine? Why not. The end of season two feels more like a mid-season break though as so little is concluded.
Spotless – brilliant! Darkly comical, gripping – excellent performances from most of the cast (posh sister in law is a bit irritating) and a bit far fetched at times – car thieves in the forest? But I loved it nonetheless and can’t wait for season two.
Not so sure about Lady Dynamite. Is it brilliant or crap? Some episodes are one, some the other. I can’t take to the main character, Maria Bamford, and I don’t see what others do in Patton Oswald either. However, if you like Arrested Development, give it a go.
(aside – Oswald wrote one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever read – on grief – his wife died about four months ago. Well worth seeking out – I think I saw it on FB, possible Twitter.)
Heard – nothing. That Toilet Brush piece Pencil or Tiogs posted was magnificent, but it towers above the rest of Nils Frahm’s noodling.
I’m quite desperate at the moment and have sold off nearly all my music – so I’m trying to tell myself it’s not important at the moment.
Read – thank heaven for E-galleys. Somehow I have ended up on a contract list and a lovely person from Image comics offers me a handful of pdfs of new graphic novels every week. I enjoyed Chynna Clugston Flore’s Blue Monday -a Californian Anglophile in the 90s digging and daydreaming about Blur, Weller and Adam Ant who she gets to meet. It’s frothy, lightweight girly-crush stuff, with just enough Tank Girl, Wired World edge to keep me interested.
More to my taste was Plutona written by the very original Matt Kindt with art by Emi Lenox and Jordi Bellaire. Kids find a dead Super Hero in the woods. It’s about trust, obsession, hero worship, families. I would think most people who enjoyed Stranger Things would like this.
another tough month.
Tiggerlion says
Keep going, bad. You’ll get there.
Kid Dynamite says
Listening
The De La Soul has been getting a lot of love at Dynamite Towers. I’ve been enjoying the Margo Price album Mid-West Farmer’s Daughter a lot. Proper country, all hard living and heartbreak with a great yearning voice. (Side note – quite a few of the reviews I’ve seen suggest the title is a play on Loretta Lynn’s Coal Miner’s Daughter, which it very well may be, but I can’t be the only one who read it and instantly thought of the Beach Boys, can I?). The Horseback album is still brilliant. Go on, give it a whirl. I’ve also just got Winter, the latest from my beloved New Model Army, which sounds pretty good after one play. No doubt there will be many more. Not actually heard yet, but on the way, is a new LP from Culture Shock. Culture Shock were an energetic bunch of anarchists from Wiltshire who played an invigorating kind of ska punk. Their Onwards & Upwards LP is one of my all time favourites, one of those records where every chord change and lyric is engraved on your heart. The record previous to this new one came out in 1989, twenty-seven years ago, and now a new set of songs is about to land on my doormat. I’m simultaneously very excited and completely dreading it.
Reading
Had two weeks off, and spent a good portion of it off grid with no electricity and barely any phone signal, so burned through a lot of books this month. The highlights included Gavin Young‘s Slow Boats To China, an account of his journey from Greece to China in a variety of ships, boats, dhows, etc. It’s highly enjoyable, with shades of Graham Greene and Somerset Maugham, but it’s also quite sobering to realise that a book with a 1980s copyright can be about a world that has pretty much vanished already. Alastair Reynolds’ Revenger was very different, a dark space opera with a good bit of sensawunda. He’s one of my favourite current SF authors, and this is one of his best books. Crooked by Austin Grossman is a fictionalised autobiography of Richard Nixon. I should say EXTREMELY fictionalised – there is far more eldritch Lovecraftian horror here than in most political biographies. This Nixon is introduced to the fight against ancient cosmic malevolence and the magickal properties of the POTUS’s seal by Eisenhower, and allies with the thousand year old Bavarian sorcerer Henry Kissinger to combat the Soviet weaponisation of occult horrors from another reality. Terrific fun, and more enjoyable than Charles Stross’ similarly themed Laundry novels, but didn’t quite stick the landing. On a music related note, Tim Burgess’ Tim Book Two is an entertaining, undemanding, book about collecting records, a good holiday read.
Seen
Barely anything.
Locust says
Seen:
Lots of all-nighters of the Olympics.
The fantastic big retrospective Yayoi Kusama exhibition (“In Infinity”) at the Museum of Modern Art here in Stockholm. All kinds of wonderful.
I didn’t have time to see as many gigs as I would have wanted to at the free Stockholm Culture Festival but I spent one evening going back and forth between the stages to catch Ethiopian singer Aster Aweke and Kinshasa’s Mbongwana Star (plus, by accident but nice enough, a traditional Indian dance troupe/orchestra). Aweke was quite lovely, but Mbongwana Star didn’t make the best of their fantastic album live, I was rather disappointed. Also not helping: a large amount of annoying fuckwits talking loudly, and pushing their way through the crowd back and forth between the food and drink stalls and in front of the stage. Thanks to all of this, plus my back giving me pains and my sister’s feet getting blisters, we called it a night and missed Alpha Blondy later the same night… 🙁
Read:
I always think that I’m going to read more on my holiday, but in fact I almost have less time for reading than when I’m working. But I managed to finish Stephen King’s End of Watch (so-so), and read his new collection of short stories; The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (very nice and varied in styles).
I also started to read a collection of short stories by Lucia Berlin, another rediscovered author getting belated hype. Good but not outstanding (as the hype will have you believe), but a perfectly fine way to spend a moment now and then.
To have something light to read in between the exciting Olympic events I bought a book called Fox Tossing, Octopus Wrestling, And Other Forgotten Sports by Edward Brooke-Hitching – quite a mouthful, and his name makes me imagine a man clad in tweed from his briefs to his hat. It’s one of those books that leaves absolutely no trace behind once put down, so I can’t really tell you if it was entertaining or not…but I seem to recall a lot of cruelty to animals, not only in the titular exemples, making me frown disapprovingly more often than laugh at the “quaint” sports of olden days (and I’m not even that much of an animal lover, truth be told).
At the moment I’m making my way through a big brick of a book containing the collected columns of Swedish journalist Hanna Hellquist; sort of a Swedish Caitlin Moran (but without the rock journo background). As with all weekly newspaper columns it’s very hit and miss. Brilliant one week, banal the next. But she can be very funny.
Heard:
Lou Rhodes – Theyesandeye is quietly lovely, of the rather Laurel Canyon folky kind. A grower.
Xenia Rubinos‘ album Black Terry Cat is another grower, but patchier – or perhaps more sprawling is a better description. Lots of ingredients in the pot, some funk, a dash of jazz, a sprinkle of latino spices, soul/R’n’B and rock stirred together into an intriguing dish. I find something new and exciting on every listen, but it’s going in almost too many directions at once. Not background music, it demands you to listen properly.
Swedish psych-proggers The Amazing is back with the album Ambulance, and very good it is too, if you enjoy that sort of thing. Very mellow, but as always with some lovely drumming giving it a bit of needed oomph!
Martha High – Singing for the Good Times is full of new songs that sounds like old songs, and that’s neither critique nor praise, just fact. Sweet and funky soul music sung by a veteran still in very fine voice, with quirky arrangements sounding at times like 60s TV theme music. Good times!
Brigid Mae Power’s self-titled album is sparse in its arrangements, but that only makes the tracks stronger and more haunting. Modern folk, strong voice. A bit bleak, but beautiful.
Esperanza Spaulding is, like Xenia Rubinos above, sprawling in many directions on the album Emily’s D+Evolution. But something about it doesn’t grip me, some slickness in the production perhaps. There are good tracks here, but as a whole it doesn’t convince me.
Junius Meyvant’s album Floating Harmonies is much better, soul with a folky vibe and not leaning too heavily on the past. Very lovely.
Sara Watkins – Young In All the Wrong Ways is another album for the folk enthusiasts, but this one’s got a rawer edge to it, with a rockier sound (veering into country territory at times). Lovely voice, some nice tracks. It hasn’t fully gripped me yet, more of a pleasant background noise at the moment – but I haven’t invested enough time in it yet for it to reveal any hidden depths.
More folk from Anna Tivel on the album Heroes Waking Up; this one’s quieter and slower, storytelling songs sung in a nice, slightly smoky voice that reminds me of someone but I just can’t remember who! It’s driving me a bit batty, but I’m able to let go of that question and enjoy the songs, thankfully. This is a bit of a gem, actually. I’d never heard of her, so thank you very much, @Carolina!
I’ve tried and I’ve tried to like Bat For Lashes – The Bride, but no. It rubs me the wrong way.
AOB:
August was holiday month supreme, and I had the best holiday…four weeks that felt like two months, lots of wonderful times with friends and family and on my own. Came back to work fully rested for once.
My dad is recovering steadily from his hospital scare and the small procedure he had done afterwards to take care of the source of the problems.
He’s now healthy enough to be in a bad, complaining mood most of the time! 😀
minibreakfast says
Glad your dad is on the mend, grumpy or otherwise!
duco01 says
Re. Hanna Hellquist
Yes, I really like her columns in DN. Good writer. But I couldn’t do what she does. Sometimes she seems to lay bare the most intimate details of her emtional life and make-up. Sometimes I feel like saying …. make sure you don’t tell us everything. Keep some things just for yourself.
Locust says
I always assume that all writers, even when they go into what seems like intimate detail about their lives, to some degree put on a persona, that is recognisably them but also a fictionalised version of themselves. I certainly hope so.
Or perhaps she’s just one of those people who has no filters whatsoever. The TV series she did a few years ago could be seen as proof of the latter – but that also made her a very good interviewer because IIRC she could ask anyone absolutely anything at any moment, and get to the core of a subject very quickly.
retropath2 says
“all writers, even when they go into what seems like intimate detail about their lives, to some degree put on a persona, that is recognisably them but also a fictionalised version of themselves”
And bloggers too?
Locust says
For some reason the name Rob C springs to mind… 🙂
Rob C says
Hee hee 🙂 Anyone here on this site who knows me away from here, knows that this really is exactly who I am, but with just a wee added dash of japery and poetic licence 🙂 X
Om Shanti Shanka !
nigelthebald says
@Rob-C actually knows far more basilisks than he admits to here.
Om tiddly om-pom…
Rob C says
( shh!!!)
Locust says
That’s reassuring to know.
Om Hari Potter!
Rob C says
Astral Mwah x
*does flourishing bow*
John Walters says
Fopp bargains of the week:
The John Lennon letters book £3
The Hunter Davies Beatles Lyrics book ( Hardback ) £6
Also bought one of my favourite creepy films on Bluray for £6 ……..” The Innocents”. Still bloody scary.
Not cheap, but the vinyl of the new Graham Nash album makes for beautiful listening.
ganglesprocket says
SEEN!
Almost nothing apart from the news. Oh and Bake Off. Selassie eh? He’s about to get more sex than ANYONE!
HEARD!
Please- The Pet Shop Boys
No I have never heard this as an album before, just the singles. But, goodness it’s good. Where is the aspirational pop these days?
A lot of Ninja Tune stuff
Yes I have been pissing about on spotify.
Beethoven Piano Sonatas
I have a collection of all of these which is on a lot. As is Bach’s Goldberg Variations. See AOB for why…
READ!
Currently reading Just Kids by Patti Smith and it’s the best music memoir I’ve read since Marianne Faithful’s. It’s really good, but you knew this…
AOB
Babygeddon 2 is now seven weeks underway. She basically sleeps and is healthy. But this is why the quiet piano music is there, it’s nice background noise for a snoozy baby.
ip33 says
I rate Selassie highly! That joke courtesy of Andrew Collins
The Good Doctor says
Listening
Soft Machine vol 1 and 2, and 3 and the Peel Sessions – and having read Luke Haines piece about them in record collector I feel compelled to track down a copy of Soft 7 which he swears by.
Seen some great gigs, Sonic Boom (formerly Spectrum/Spacemen 3) playing pretty much solo with a bunch of electronics and a 2nd Spacebloke on drone guitar and had a packed out Hebden Bridge Trades Club in absolute raptures – listening again to his debut LP (the one with the rotatey sleeve) which is a lost classic.
Saw Mark Burgess with his Chameleons Vox band playing a brilliant set in York – I don’t tend to clap and sing along at gigs but it’s compulsory for this one.
Kiran Leonard is incredible live – he’s ridiculously young, looks like a young Julian Cope but can roar like John Martyn and plays mad, elaborate proggy epics and he knows how to mak show – bonkers and wonderful. Go and see him and buy ‘Grapefruit’
I really like Factory Floor’s 25/25 album which has had mixed reviews but actually sounds like what I was hoping their debut would be like – relentless and hypnotic and cold. Brrrr.
Anna Meredith’s ‘Varmints’ – is mind bogglingly ridiculous – deeply weird Art Rock/Electronica but with the odd vocal track which is quite poppy. I don’t know what it is but I like it.
Watched – I don’t watch much but the TOTPs from 1982 continue to delight but I really want to un-see the first 10 mins of that bloody awful remake of Are You Being Served – all it did was make you realise how what great comic actors John Inman, Mollie Sugden & co were.
Read – Rev. Richard Coles autobiography – I’m a severely lapsed Anglican from a clergy family so heading in the reverse direction but nevertheless my upbringing means I’m more tolerant of those with faith than many of my peers- so was intrigued to read his story – quite fascinating to read his account of early 80s radical Gay activism and accidentally becoming a pop star (which he never wanted to be) and a harrowing account of the impact of AIDS and his own rather bizarre reaction to it. He gets seriously holy in the last 1/3rd of the book though.
minibreakfast says
Yep, the last few pages of the rev’s book is where I bailed, due to sheer boredom.
Tiggerlion says
Heathen.
Freddy Steady says
@dr-volume
Are the Chameleons Vox touring AGAIN?
Saw them in Manc a couple of Christmasses ago and I’m sure Burgess said that was it.
Did they encore with Second Skin by any chance? Now that is a great singalong croon.
The Good Doctor says
@freddy-steady yep and they’re playing Manchester near to Xmas again which seems to be becoming a tradition. I think he’s retired from doing lengthy tours but still doing one off shows
Freddy Steady says
@dr-volume
Yep, I saw that date, 17th was it?
It’s given me a problem. Myself and like minded mates would like to go but it’s on a date ear marked for an annual get together of ex college mates/ friends, a tradition that has been going on for a good 25 years and is still laughably called “The Clubbers Do”.
It’s gonna cause schisms.
Bargepole says
KC box set, new Ian Hunter, John Cooper Clarke’s collaboration with Hugh Cornwell, next batch of ELP reissues, new Joanne Shaw Taylor, new Kansas album, Zep BBC sessions.
Read – Paolo Hewitt’s Bowie book.
Tiggerlion says
What do you do in your spare time, Barge?
Bargepole says
What’s that?
Without the kind help of others on here, poor old Bargepole really would be inundated!
Colin H says
Is it fair to say, Barge, that you have become the ‘British Library of box sets’ – that the producers of such things are under obligation to deposit a copy with you?
Bargepole says
If only that were the case ! 😉
Junglejim says
Heard: My musical find was the WAG Club 3 CD compilation 1983-1987. Superb & encompassing the varied flavour of the place, Disco & Funk, ‘Acid’ Jazz & the beginnings of hippitty hop. It was a vivid reminder of a great phase of musical discovery for me, notably enjoying non rock music & dancing for the joy of the music, not as any part of any ‘pulling’ ritual. Recommended if only for the full 12 inch versions of ‘Galaxy’ by War & ‘Movin’ by Brass Construction. Most stuff available elsewhere but nice together.
Can’t stop playing the live version of ‘So What’ from the 50th Aniversary edition of Kind of Blue. Absolutley storming & so different from the almost languid (by comparison) classic studio version. Coltrane & Adderley are mesmerising.
In stark contrast I also acquired ‘Redneck Shit’ by Wheeler Walker Jr. – the obscene alter ego of comedian Ben Hoffman. Lyrically appalling throughout it is nonetheless played & produced immaculately. Standout track is ‘ I can’t fuck you off my mind’ – definitely NSFW or school runs.
Harmontown continues to be the greatest podcast ever by a country mile & on the earbuds tip, particularly enjoyed Werner Herzog on Maron’s WTF. Barking & brilliant as ever.
Saw: Hail Ceasar ! A significant disappointment for me. I like the Coens a lot but sometimes they produce immaculately made strings of set pieces that are less than the sum of their parts. In truth, I hardly laughed & really wanted a narrative to emerge to give a toss about. Ho hum.
Quite a bit of streaming TV – Stranger Things was ace, Preacher great fun, but the current standout is American Gothic – hilarious camp whodunnit fun, hardly a piece of furniture goes unchewed. A Thursday night treat.
Read: chunkiest without a doubt was ‘Confessions’ by Jaume Cabre – an epic doorstop weaving a tale across the centuries, obsessions & dark secrets aplenty.
Attempted a Phillip Kerr footy detective novel, but found it unreadable. I really think he should stick to Bernie Gunter.
Read crime best seller ‘ I Let You Go’ by someone or other – very quick but very underwhelming & couldn’t understand why it had won an accolade or two.
Currently really enjoying ‘Europe In Autumn’ by Dave Hutchinson -part of a trilogy billed as SF, but so far more slightly futuristic espionage with acute observations & an amusing turn of phrase. I’m going to enjoy vols 2 & 3 I think.
Kid Dynamite says
Europe In Autumn is brilliant. I’d recommend reading the second one fairly soon after you finish it, as there are connections that might get missed as the details of the first book fade from memory. The third is due in November, and is probably my most anticipated book this side of Christmas.
Junglejim says
Nice to ‘meet’ someone who is also familiar with it, KD.
The guy can really write & I’m particularly taken with the way he’s in no hurry initially to get the story moving, instead treating us to plenty of establishing detail, which becomes relevant in due course. I aim to read part 2 as soon as part 1 is done!
Junglejim says
I meant to include in my ‘Heard’ section the Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History 3- parter ‘King Of Kings’. I binged listened to just shy of 13 hours terrific history geek content. Carlin takes us from the pre 300 Spartans clash era of the Assyrians & the Persians – Xerxes & Darius et al, up to the rise of Alexander, & does a great job of bringing to life some earth shattering events & colourful (to say the least) people.
Magnificent earbud entertainment.
Tiggerlion says
Re full length Galaxy by War: four and a half minutes of funk heaven, spoiled by space noises for the last three and a half minutes, with all the dance floor momentum lost. Shame.
Big_Si says
Read
Currently working my way through “Barry Lyndon” by William Makepeace Thackeray for all the bits that Stanley Kubrick left out or adapted when he put it on the big screen. Next Read will probably be ‘Once A Saint’ by the Actor in my Profile Pic 😉
Heard
Mausoleum by ‘The’ Myrkur. Simply stunning. If you’ve not heard it, I fully recommend it.
And Various Artists that have released material on Anna von Hausswolffs “Pomperipossa Recordings” Label. Anna and her backing band will be appearing as the matinee performance for ‘The’ Swans on their upcoming Tour. She’s not one to be missed 😀
Seen
(On a Stage)
Thee JAMC at Glasgows ABC (the 1st night) last Tuesday night. Never got round to seeing them in the past. I was expecting them to be far louder and noticed a distinct lack of feedback in their ‘snoud’, but they put on a satisfying gig.
(On the “Idiot Box”)
Season 2 of Narcos.
AOB
The aforementioned Funeral for James Blaast, RIP. I’ll also be there on the 30th, complete with a new “Kelly Green” coloured JB style T-Shirt in his honour.
SteveT says
Sorry for delay but been on holiday and typing this on last morning before I pack my case and leave for airport.
Heard: Only new stuff has been Ryley Walker and Thee oh Sees A weird exits which are both fab. Have been filling in my missing James albums with the purchase of Whiplash and Millionaires the latter being particularly enjoyable.
@Carl recommended the Lily Hiatt album Ruby Blue and as usual his recommendation was a good one.
Lastly on a drive home from the Lucinda Williams gig in Sheffield 6Music played a brilliant track from the Chris MacGregor Brotherhood of Breath album which I loved. Bought the album and although rest of it doesn’t match the heights of the track I heard it is still very good.
Read: Tim Burgess Tim book Two about his record buying exploits on behalf of famous friends. It was okay but would have preferred more description about the shops and the buying experience than about his friends. Will be starting the Wilko Johnson autobiography on the flight home.
Seen: Nothing in way of gigs but have couple lined up for September.Like most others was enthralled with the Olympics even though there are dubious politics and questionable ethics surrounding the event. If you can suspend your critical judgements for 3 weeks there is no question that it is a fine a sporting spectacle.
Also caught up with Miles Ahead – though Don Cheadle was a very convincing Miles Davis but was less impressed with the film itself which I thought was patchy. Why do film directors insist on flashbacks? Just do the film in chronological order – your audience are capable of putting together strands from different parts of the story without having to be bashed over the head with a flashback reminding us of something you had shown not more than half hour before. Do you think we all have memory issues?
ip33 says
READ
My new Readly subscription has dominated my reading time this month, lots of photography, music and film mags have filled a lot of my waking hours. Thanks to whoever recommended it on here. If only it had Private Eye, The New Yorker and Sight and Sound it would be perfect.
HEARD
Colours are Fading Fast-Loren Auerbach A lovely 3CD box of the Bert Jansch’s late wife. As beautiful as you would expect, very moving and intimate. For fans of Vashti Bunyan and of course Mr Jansch.
Pubic Intellectual-Momus Another 3CD box set of a singular talent who is not for the fainthearted. Pretty much obsessed with sex, the avant-garde, philosophy and Japan this is the first official compliation from the artist himself. Sometimes acoustic, sometimes as Electro Dance as the Pet Shop Boys, a brilliant introduction to an infuriating and compelling musican.
SEEN
Eye In The Sky. A fairly bog-standard military thriller raised up by the acting talent of Alan Rickman and the fact that it is played out in real time which is always a plus in any film (see High Noon and Nick of Time, the only decent Johnny Depp movie.) And it would be nice to see something in which Aaron Paul is happy for once.
Midnight Special. A Spielbergian Sci-fi drama which is a slow burn but does go in some unexpected directions and with some brilliant performances.
The Day The Earth Caught Fire. One of my favourite British Sci-fi movies in a new scrubbed up shiny 4K edition. Set in the offices and presses of the Daily Express back when it was a newspaper with top performances from the superb Leo McKern, Edward Judd (who never forfilled the promise shown here) and Janet Munro in her first film after escaping from Disney. With a wonderful ambiguous ending, this must be seen.
Stranger Things. Plenty has been written about this but if you are a fan of Spielberg, John Carpenter, Joe Dante and Stephen King this is unmissable. And a second season has been finally greenlit.
AOB
My mum finally moved into a rest home permanently during the month after being there for respite care for a few weeks. Her dementia has definitely got worse in the last few months but psychically she is better than we have seen her for years as she is eating and taking her mediation properly now. The staff at the care home are brilliant and now we know that she is safe and looked after it is a massive weight off our minds.
ip33 says
I mean physically obviously. Even with an edit function! What a pillock.
Marwood says
Seen
School summer holidays so there were trips to the flicks to watch some kids’ movies.
The BFG was good fun. It looked beautiful and had lovely performances, particularly Mark Rylance (looking for all the world like Paul Whitehouse’s Rowley Birkin) as the gentle, melancholy Big Friendly Giant and Ruby Barnhill as Sophie. Spielberg rounded off most of the hard edges of Dahl’s tale but it’s still an appealing film – the scenes set in Buck House had a cinema full of kids screaming and yelling with laughter, which is an admirable achievement.
Finding Dory.
If I were to be critical I would have to say that this doesn’t have quite the narrative clarity as Nemo and the final rescue scene with the van pushed my suspension of disbelief too far. But – those issues aside, this is a lovely film. Dory is pushed front and centre – and whereas in the previous movie her forgetfulness was more like a character tick (she was a bit dozy and ditzy). Here we see it for what it really is, an upsetting, unnerving disability. The scenes with her parents are very thoughtful and do tug at the heartstrings. And this time there is an octopus called Hank who is just marvellous and threatens to steal the film away from Dory, Nemo and chums.
Secret Life of Pets looks gorgeous – a wonderfully rendered version of New York fair shimmered on screen. But, beneath the surface – it is pretty much a copy of Toy Story. And Kevin Hart is as annoying a screen presence as a cartoon rabbit as he is in ‘regular’ movies.
Zootropolis
We saw this at a Saturday matinee and then bought it on DVD – and it has been on hard rotation throughout the summer. It has a smart, noirish story and a witty, clever script. Great voice acting – there is a real chemistry between leads and beautiful animation. It is also willing to tackle issues like embracing difference, ability to change, friendship, exceeding limitations set on you at childhood by others. And it has dancing tigers.
Meanwhile, on TV…Fleabag
Stuck out on BBC3, this has been a real find. Profane, snarky, cruel and also quite sad in its treatment of guilt, loss and depression. It has made me wince and made me laugh. Great performances – Olivia Colman is quite brilliant as the passive aggressive step mother.
The Olympics
I wasn’t really relishing the thought of the Olympics and barely watched the first few days. But at some point in the middle of that first week I tuned in and remained fascinated by it. My word, what drama.
Heard
Having read Bingo’s recommendations for albums of the decade I plunged onto Spotify. Disclosure’s Settled is a thing of wonder. When I fired this up, the missus came into the kitchen to throw some moves and our 6-year-old daughter joined us to declare that this was ‘epic, awesome music.’
A Certain Ratio. I knew about this band, but never really investigated them before. There was an effusive piece in The Guardian so I sort of dived in. I might have been a bit too young to have got into them when they formed and I just wish I had listened to them earlier (although if I had I suspect I would have been very sneery about the Stone Roses).
Read
Restless. A superbly plotted spy thriller from William Boyd that features two wonderful female characters (a spy and her daughter). 2 narratives set during the Second World War and the long hot summer of ‘76 weave around and within each other, culminating in a richly satisfying denouement. This is my fourth Boyd and they never disappoint.
The North Water – a gristly, grisly novel set upon a whaler in the 1850s. It explores some of the big themes; redemption, greed, human weakness, the indifference of the natural world and theology. It also features some eye watering violence – men, boys, bears, seals and of course whales are torn asunder at regular intervals.
Clive says
Reading To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. Crikey it’s hard work. ‘There shall be rain tomorrow. (Mrs Ramsay’s dead). A small butterfly lands softly on a decomposing pigs skull’.
Watching The Swiss Army Man. Original, funny and touching. Well worth seeing.
Listening to Yak. Great garage band and destined for big things.
Eating (drinking?) juice. Did a four day juice diet and felt very good for it.
mikethep says
READ: as said above, reading The Sympathiser for the second time in 3 months. Still brilliant, so dense and thought-provoking that 3/4 pages at a time are enough.
I watched a hooky download of the Man in the High Castle (it was that or pay Rupert) and thought I’d read the book by Philip K Dick. A bit of a disappointment, I have to say – too much talk and not enough action.
In between times I’ve been reading Raymond Chandler short stories, prompted by someone here – was it the missing-in-action Saucecraft? So good, little epics full of wisecracking and violence.
Also reading an op shop find, If It Moves, Shoot It: A Squint at Some Australian Attitudes Towards the Kangaroo, published in 1972. Definitely of its time: lots of stuff about killing the buggers, including ‘modern methods’, ie searchlights and utes, but lots of roo lore too, and amusing old pictures…
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/g401/mikethep/IMG_2341_Snapseed_zpsmui8agjv.jpg
HEARD: the usual Spotify smorgasbord, plus I put my iPod on shuffle while painting the bedroom, and heard lots of old friends. Two standouts: the new Divine Comedy album, Foreverland, which I’ve been playing non-stop. Typically brilliant Hannan mixture of enticing arrangements and amusing lyrics, eg ‘I joined the Foreign Legion to forget/she said I’d find it easier/if I had amnesia’. Also enjoying Joan Shelley, recommended by @the-pizza-kid a while back. Love her voice, and her serene, subtle songs.
SEEN: Embrace of the Serpent, parallel stories of two Amazon explorers from early C20 and 1940s, both seemingly on the level but both ultimately intent on kick-starting the process of raping the Amazon. Shot in moody black and white and told from the point of view of the indigenous people – and indeed the jungle itself. Long and sometimes gruelling, but it’ll stick in the mind for a very long time.
The supply of Scandy Noir seems to have dried up for the moment, in Oz at any rate but no worries: really enjoyed Paris, a French drama revolving around several unrelated groups of characters whose paths are destined to cross within a 24-hour period. Fascinating and gripping. Also been enjoying The Game, 70s le Carre style, very British (the head of MI5 is called Daddy), jam-packed with cliches but hugely enjoyable nevertheless.
duco01 says
Yes, both Joan Shelley albums are quite lovely.
I see that she has a 7″ single out with 2 brand new songs …
http://noquarter.net/2016/09/02/joan-shelley-new-2-song-7-single/
… but there won’t be a new album until next year.
Would love to see her and Nathan Salsburg in concert.
mikethep says
Forgot to mention, an extra pleasure in The Game is that one of the characters is played by Mackenzie Crook’s long-suffering girlfriend in The Detectorists. Pretty handy with a broken bottle she is, too.
minibreakfast says
Diana Rigg’s daughter (in The Detectorists and in real life), Rachael Stirling? Mr B has quite the crush on her, which began many years ago when she was in Tipping The Velvet.
nigelthebald says
*sighs*
Paul Wad says
Read/Reading
I’ve just read The Secret Agent, which isn’t a spy novel, but rather an expose of life as a football agent, in the style of the secret footballer. If anything, my dislike of footballers, football agents and football in general has lowered even further after reading this. I’m now a few chapters into How Music Got Free by Stephen Witt. I’ve also bought a stack of fab glossy magazines all about classic horror films (mainly the Universal and Hammer classics so far). They’re absolutely stunning, so if, like me, you are into classic horror films have a look at classic-monsters.com and you’ll be be in monster heaven!
Heard
Continuing with my hip hop odyssey, I’ve been tenatively dipping my toes in the UK scene, as I have pretty much exhausted the US leg, managing to increase my itunes library by a ridiculous amount over the past 8 or 9 months. Much of the homegrown stuff is not really to my taste, but I have been enjoying albums by Jehst, JME, Lowkey, Blak Twang, Kano and, especially, Skepta, Fliptrix and Plan B. I loved Plan B’s Mama when he first sang it on Jools Holland, so no idea why it’s taken me so long to listen to anything else by him!
That aside, I’m busy collecting every CD by MF DOOM (not easy and an expensive pursuit) and received my signed copy of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s new CD on Saturday. It sounds great on first listen, although didn’t immediately grab me like the last album did. I really can’t see why she isn’t a lot bigger than she is though (no, I’m not referring to her slender frame). She has an amazing back catalogue. I’d love her to do an album with Pet Shop Boys. I can dream!
Watched
I absolutely loved Baz Luhrmann’s hip hop mini-series on Netflix, The Get Down. Best thing I’ve seen for a long time. Also caught up with the first series of The Detectorists, which is also fab. Other than that, I’m going through all the Harry Potter/Pirates of the Caribbean/Lord of the Rings/Hobbit boxed sets with my 6 year old. He’s loving them. Even better than that, he really enjoyed the Laurel and Hardy film I showed him (Busy Bodies), so wants to watch all their box sets with me. Heaven! I’ll try him with a Will Hay film when we’ve finished those…
TRMagicWords says
Seen:
Son of Saul – devastating Holocaust pic from the Hungarian director László Nemes. Really intensely claustrophobic, filmed in such a way that it puts you right beside the main protagonist throughout.
Trumbo – a fine biopic/polemic about the Hollywood blacklist of the McCarthy era, featuring Bryan Cranston in showstopping form.
Also enjoying downloading chunks of Oz, HBO’s groundbreakingly gonzoid prison drama from the 1990s. Buggery, murder, treachery – what’s not to enjoy?
Heard:
Very much digging the new Dinosaur Jnr album, Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not, which continues the band’s purple patch that began with Beyond in 2007.
Also, grooving to a fab Clancy Eccles Trojan comp and The Complete Them.
Read:
Henning Mankell’s post-cancer diagnosis memoir Quicksand. An excellent, thought provoking and moving book.
Tiggerlion says
You have eclectic taste, Magic. I approve of any Trojan compilation.
TRMagicWords says
Cheers. I think they did somewhat saturate the market with them a few years back, but there are some real gems, including the Lee Perry Dub Triptych and Ape-ology sets.
Locust says
I bring out the Oz box set every now and then, it’s magnificently weird and wonderful, and has my favourite dysfunctional romantic couple in fiction ever in Beecher & Keller, the love/hate relationship of nightmares…best illustrated by Beecher’s line in the final episode when (spoiler!) Oz is evacuated after the aryan boys in the mail room get anthraxed by (the late) Keller: “He really did love me!”
TRMagicWords says
It stands up quite well, if a bit too keen sometimes to get down and dirty. There are a few dodgy plot developments that edge it near shark-jumping territory, but a thoroughly enjoyable experience (unlike Oswald Prison itself).
Locust says
I almost see it the other way around: the series is like a Shark Jumping World Cup, the concept, the main characters, the biggest plot lines – all Fonzie all jumping sharks all of the time – and against that absurd background the subtle moments stand out and take your breath away with sudden unexpected sincerity and poetry of true emotion.
And then it’s back to doing backflips on waterskis again!
Happybird says
Watched
Jessica Jones and finally watched stranger things. Really enjoyed Both but … Had weird nightmare -,might have been sleep deprivation . Rather than scary .
Radio
Interesting programme about Sylivia Plath hosted by Kathryn wiliams.
Cinema
Saw suicide squad at the Cinema / I know there’s mixed reviews but I loved it .
Tiggerlion says
Which radio station was that, happy?
timtunes says
Heard
Largely working through LPs purchased on my holiday in the Pacific Northwest – in particular enjoying Catherine Riberio + Alpes (French 70s weird folk), Gunter Shickert – Uberfallig and Der Prophet – Rolf Trostel. You get a different quality of recommended album when you ask in a Portland Oregon record store!.
Excited to listen to new Lydia Loveless and Wilco (just arrived!)
Oh and a word for John Fullbright – his 2014 album ‘Songs’ is what I constantly go searching for in Americana and rarely find.
Also like Chris Robinson Brotherhood new one – good time grooves
Seen
Night Of The Hunter – inteeresting that it has got such a cult following – I liked many elements but didn’t connect with Robert Mitchum’s performance – for me, not enough menace. Like many others finished and enjoyed Bloodline S2 and Billions.
Saw
Guns n’Roses in Seattle with Alice in Chains as support. Awesome – rock heaven on a balmy night. Also Nick Jonas & Demi Lovato, being family favourites – Nick Jonas has real pop class, should get more respect!
Read
The Oregon Trail – A New American Journey by Rinker Buck. In keeping with the holiday a book about a modern-day revisit of the Oregon trail – very much in the Bill Bryson mould, good on the history probably a bit too long on mule detail.
Here is Nick Jonas’ current single, seriously catchy
SteveT says
I was outvoted in our Democratic choosing of holiday destinations this year. We all agreed on the USA but my choice was starting in Washington, driving through Oregon and finishing in San Francisco. Instead we started and ended a mainly California tour in San Fran (slight deviation into Nevada). Was selfishly disappointed as I have an ambition to visit all 50 states and Washington and Oregon would have been numbers 35 and 36. I will get my own way eventually.
The Oregon trail sounds right up my street.
What were the record stores like in Portland/Seattle?
timtunes says
Really recommend the tour – although, of course, California is great too. The Portland stores were great – they have a special handout map for them. Favourites included Jackpot Records – who have their own label http://jackpotrecords.com/ and Musique Plastique who seemed to specialise in electronica and krautrock that noone has heard of. This video sums it up
andrewjb says
Read: Elvis Costello’s memoir, Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink. As RubyBlue wrote in her excellent review it is not a linear account but instead jumps around between childhood memories and different stages in his career. Whilst I was broadly fine with this approach I think that it does mean that the reader has to have some significant previous knowledge of Costello’s back-story.
As others have commented, I felt that the earlier chapters were stronger than the later ones and I got the impression that they may have been a little rushed.
Overall it is very well written as one would expect and it led me to a greater appreciation of his work.
Read: H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald – this is a memoir of how the author dealt with the grief of her father whilst building a relationship with, and training a hawk. Not the kind of thing I’d normally read – I picked it up at the school fair – but well worth a read. Found out afterwards that it that it was on Barack Obama’s list of summer holiday reading…hope he enjoyed it too.
Seen: Return of Only Connect – yippee. My only criticism is that there are too many points attached to the ‘missing vowels’ round and it can totally turn around the result.
niallb says
Because I have been living in some kind of Hinterland, on the edge of reality (sometimes, on the edge of consciousness ) for the past 6 months, I have got so confused about time. When the daily routine of the office environment disappears, it’s amazing how quickly you forget what time of day it is, then what day of the week it is, then, what the date is. I loved it.
The thing I hated most about going back to work, last week (albeit, only part time) was putting on my watch.
Which is a long winded way of saying that I am so out of touch/arse about face – hence my choices this month.
Watched:
Making A Murderer. I watched it in the space of a few days, on Netflix, drugged up (steroids, baby!) I had managed to avoid any details/spoilers, so came to it clean and innocent.
From a technical point of view, I thought it was a staggering achievement. Beautifully shot, evocative, emotional, claustrophobic. The editing alone must have been a monumental task but the quality of it never flagged. If I was just judging it on a technical level, I would say that it was one of the best pieces of television I have ever seen.
From an emotional point of view, I thought it was a gut-wrenching, monumental achievement. Weeks later, I am still thinking about it, still thinking about the characters, the town, the people, the suffocating nature of their environment.
If you have avoided MAM because of the hype, thinking that it can’t be that good, give in. The satisfaction I felt at the end, tempered with the overwhelming frustration of the circumstances, made it one of the most rewarding things I have ever watched.
Heard:
Sweet Billy Pilgrim. A new one on me, introduced to me by an enthusiast on the Big Big Train FB page, (and endorsed by Greg Spawton of BBT) they have been the soundtrack of my August. I have taken it slowly, so only a few songs have really lodged, really seeped in, so far. But I can tell that they are going to become a band that I love.
Other than that, lots of old, really. Paul Brady, Frankie Miller, Sutherland Brothers & Quiver, Man, Mark Knopfler, Bonnie Raitt, George Marinelli, Free….. you get the picture.
Read:
So little, I’m ashamed. In my defence, the concentration needed to read a book has been the hardest thing to find, during this illness. Even my music mag subscriptions are sitting in a pile next to me, untouched for 6 months. The most I have managed has been articles linked on Twitter.
My favourite thing I have read is a line that accompanied a photograph (I’ll find it later.)
It is a picture, taken from the Command Module by Mike Collins, of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module, above the surface of the Moon, with the blue orb of the Earth in the background.
The line that accompanies it is:
Astronaut Michael Collins is the only human, alive or dead, that isn’t in the frame of this picture he took, in 1969.
It had me gazing off into the distance for ages. Wonderful.
niallb says
http://i1077.photobucket.com/albums/w479/niallbrannigan/4bce4779ea3e371c0e60a9c3e675c064_zpsexj8ufpi.jpg
Sewer Robot says
Great that you’re on the mend, Niall. The photograph is magnificent – physically it’s a helluva long way to come back from that spot unscathed, but mentally – well, you’d have to be affected, and surely for the better, by that perspective..
niallb says
Thanks 👍
Tiggerlion says
Keep the faith, niall. You are doing amazingly well and it’s all material for your book.