Apologies for the slightly nerdy / niche nature of this, but I fell into watching this interview with Dean Parks, session guitarist who did some notable Steely Dan tracks amongst many other. What a self effacing and nice bloke with encyclopedic knowledge of his instrument and what he used for what. Like many experts he answers question articulately and in detail with a touch of wry humour along the way. Well worth 45 mins of your time if you’re vaguely interested in how great pop music gets made. I felt some here would enjoy it.

Any plans for the weekend? I’m happy to say I do not. Mrs. T is going to the theatre on Saturday so I’m home alone with a good movie, subtitles on and guitar in hand. I’ve been relatively busy lately so a bit of idleness will be welcome. How about yous?

My tip – there’s a nice documentary about the making of “Wildflowers” by Tom Petty on Prime. Very watchable.

Have a good one.

You can’t accuse Joe Jackson of ploughing the same old groove. His new album is old music hall classics! Looks fun from the video, though I imagine many will be mystified!

Any idea?

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Slightly gloomy subject but our neighbours were burgled recently – they had poor locks on the front door and the feckers walked straight in. But it prompts me to look at video doorbells, cameras, lighting etc etc. Another neighbour has gone with the Blink system which seems nicely designed and integrated with cameras, lights etc…but what does the massive think? Other options? Good/bad/indifferent?

In fact we have little worth nicking in this day and age (who steals 8 year old tellys?) and have no cash in the house but it’s the toerags getting in and ransacking the place which is just horrible.

PS – of course, the scrotes will get in if they want to – the whole objective is to make it look like more hassle than moving on to a less well protected house.

PPS – I’m not getting a dog!

Easy one this. Recommended one album for the summer hols – old or new.

Thanks!

I have probably over a thousand photos, vaguely organised, but there are lots of duplicates and short of looking at every one (which wouldn’t work anyway as you can’t remember them all) I can’t get them into more than vague organisation. Anyone know any easy ways of deduplicating and tagging them so they are a bit more manageable?

The adverts seem to be getting more frequent on YouTube, and given the data they must have on my interests I’m mystified why they are so consistently irrelevant but nonetheless they are incredibly irritating. I do use YT a lot and I’m coming round to paying for it – the fact that they create none of the content feels wrong but I guess it’s a good platform. Anyone taken the plunge?

I idly put a playlist together of great guitar instrumentals. As we have to have rules for these things they are:

1. Must be melodic

2. Meaningless shredding is not allowed

3. Only one piece per artist

4. All genres positively encouraged

However I have quickly realised I have major artists missing (no Bert, no John Mc, no RT) and no recent entries – are instrumentals even a thing any more?

Pitch in and I will add (if I like it…)

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5NcIuc5NwObbguM9TWsYlB?si=03353bee202148af

Discussion of films, telly etc makes me wonder how you all stream content to the TV? We have an aging smart TV but a more flexible Amazon Fire Box which is starting to suffer from missing apps (BFI, though you can get it via Prime). If I’m in bed ill or on hols I might download stuff to the tablet. You?

Gone to the great gig in the sky who have gained a terrific singer with amazing presence considering all she ever did really was stand still and sing, with the occasional smile. The carnival is over.

Just listening to Joni’s “Hejira” it strikes me that “Furry sings the blues” would be immeasurably improved by the terrible harmonica playing being dropped out. In the remix, this is gone.

What other bits do you wish weren’t there?

Happy anniversary “Argus”, 50 today. A thrilling mixture of rock, folk and a tinge of prog it was compulsory listening in our 6th form common room. It still still stands up remarkably well, especially when played loud. My crackling vinyl will be spinning with the evening gin and tonic.