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Blogger Takeover CXIV

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First Friday of a new month, you all know the drill – HUT! HUT!!

(Bilko reference because I remembered describing my organisation of work travel across Southern England so that I could go to see Wilko Johnson at a Word event at the Lexington as “Bilko-ing my way to see Wilko)

What have you been listening to, watching, reading, or otherwise indulging in this past month ?

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Comments

  1. I spent 23 nights of August sleeping in the back of the Landrover at variously Sidmouth, Shrewsbury and Kinnersley in Herefordshire. That’s way too much to relate using a phone keypad, as I am now back in Herefordshire at Bromyard with @Retro. I may apply for a loyalty card with Tuffins in Craven Arms.

    • Without my esteemed colleague’s commitment, this is the 4th Bloggers Takeover in a row that I have read under canvas. (Probably some sort of nylon/pvc hybrid, in truth) And while yesterday was balmy and warm, summer 2024 has returned to its senses, and is now delivering some Welsh border mizzle down on us.
      More purist than even last months Sidmouth, so far Oysterband have been the only Judas provokers, with that there electric, the bill otherwise wall to wall fiddles, boxes, citterns and enthusiastically lusty voices, regaling us with songs about mistaking partners for geese, swans, etc; good everyday experience.

  2. I had a cataract operation two days. It’s the weirdest experience I’ve ever had. Like being submerged in the sea as psychedelic search lights probe the distant surface. I was last on the list as I was the fittest and least likely to cause a problem delaying home time. I was youngest by a good ten years.

    Today, I see distance perfectly with my right eye and badly with my left. Reading is the other way round; left good, right bad. I can almost feel my brain recalibrating.

    During the wait, I read The Sound Of Being Human by Jude Rogers. What a fabulous writer!

  3. I have been listening to Frankie Boyle’s podcast – “Here Comes The Guillotine”. Not suitable for younger listeners, obviously. Partly political, partly daft, and generally informative and thought-provoking.

    Music listening has been mostly some jazz LPs that had been languishing on the racks : Eric Dolphy – Iron Man, Kemasi Washington – Fearless Movement, Sonny Rollins – Freedom Suite. And an Ace compilation, 28 Little Bangers from Richard Hawley’s Jukebox, which covers some twangy instrumentals, the Troggs, some surf – an energising listen.

    I read John Densmore’s account of the trial where he was against the other two surviving Doors touring as “The Doors”. He comes across well, as does Stuart Copeland, who drummed for the first reunion gigs with Ian Astbury singing. Copeland wrote to the other guys to ask , at some length “Is this right?”.

    I have not watched anything of note on the screen, but I did trek through to Edinburgh to see Handsome Dick Manitoba (formerly of The Dictators) play in a wee pub. He was great, although the stories were a bit wandered. He is 70, bad hip, knee brace, still kicking out the jams.

    I am excited at the return of Inktober – I really enjoy making and sharing my primitive scritchings over the month. There is always good feedback, and it is lovely to have found a new field of artistic endeavour.

  4. READ
    Matthew Perry’s autobiography. I enjoyed Friends a lot, though wasn’t what you’d call a fan – there are still probably lots of episodes I haven’t seen – but it was funny. I liked the Chandler character and Perry was perfect for the role, but I never saw anything he did outside of Friends. I wouldn’t particularly have thought of buying this but got given it and enjoyed reading it over just a couple of afternoons. I say “enjoyed” but it’s actually a pretty sad and depressing tale of anxiety and addiction. I can say “enjoyed” though, cos Perry has a very affable way of recounting his woes. I can’t say I like him exactly. His story is too much of a catalogue of self-pity and repeatedly getting sober then falling off the wagon.

    There’s a famous discussion on YouTube between him and Peter Hitchens in which Hitchens argues that addiction doesn’t really exist, it’s really just weakness, a lack of willpower, a lack of self control. When it comes to physical dependancy, I’ll take the experts’ view over Hitchens’. But as far as psychological addiction is concerned, Perry’s tale rather supports Hitchens’ case. Time after time he goes through the “hell” of detox in rehab, only to start drinking or taking pills at the first seemingly fairly minor hiccup that occurs in his extremely privileged life. As he himself says, “I can stay sober as long as nothing actually happens“. It made me think of how my visitors from abroad deal differently with mosquito bites: some people can ignore them until they go away, other people scratch at them, even until they bleed, knowing full well they’re making them ten times worse. That surely must be a question of self control, of willpower, rather than a disease? Perry very much blames what he sees as a total lack of control over his own recurring, obsessive thinking of alcohol or drugs on the “disease” of alcoholism/addiction. His book didn’t convince me that’s true.
    (Incidentally, he mentions the interview with Hitchens in the book. I mostly consider Hitchens too pompous to bother with, but I didn’t like the way Perry, in print, used the anecdote to insult him by comparing him unfavourably to his dead brother. A cheap and unpleasantly disrespectful dig.)

    WATCHED
    Problemista. A fine film, I enjoyed very much. Tilda Swinton’s best role to date. Or was that last month I saw it (and, no doubt, wrote most eloquently about it here)? Can’t remember. Am evidently far too busy and important to keep track. Good film though.

  5. I’ve not been here for some time so I haven’t added my dubious nonsense to this blog resource for around four months but seeing as I’m around and about at this present moment…

    Heard.
    The Necks. A lot. I’ve discovered that a Necks a day keeps ennui away. So there’s been that along with a bit of Loma in the form of their latest How Will I Live Without A Body and Elephant9’s Mythical River. I’ve played the Beth Gibbons a number of times but it’s failing to connect with me. It’s all so terribly ernest it’s keeping me at arms length.
    The usual plethora of jazz both new and old. A lot of Charles Lloyd and Ray Charles but that’s just normal behavior from me.

    Read.
    I spent most of August picking my way through The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein and to lower my blood pressure after that giving myself over to what has now become my favourite book on jazz. Jazzlife the text from Joachim-Ernst Brendt accompanying the wonderful photography of William Claxton. It’s a two man jazz odyssey around the USA at the beginning of the 1960s. It’s fabulous. If you love jazz beg, borrow or steal a copy. For my sins I read The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis. I guess it takes so very many pages to contain an ego as immense as Mr Ellis. A man of hidden shallows.
    A few other novels including what has now become an obligatory Maigret.

    Seen.
    I seem to have forgotten most of what I watched except probably due to disappointment the third outing of The Bear. Meandering and formless or maybe that was the point.

    A.O.B.
    Being to all intents and purposes housebound with increasingly debilitating arthritis not very much of note to report. In truth bugger all. Some new bits and pieces of audio kit have enlivened my existence but little else of note. A difficult weekend is in prospect due to a very unwelcome anniversary on Sunday.

      • It depends upon a practicality due to there being very little of their catalogue available on streaming services. At present time only Unfold and their last release Travel are on Tidal and I expect that will be the case everywhere else. I’d suggest taking a look at YouTube as there are a few live streams available and probably some access to other recorded material. I started with Sex (didn’t we all for the most part) but I usually recommend The Hanging Gardens as a good primer nowadays. The Necks are really unclassifiable. Jazz but not as we know it Jim. The joy of The Necks for me is the uniformity of their output that upon examination is in truth anything but uniform so it really is a case of just jumping in as you are unlikely to find anything on a cursory listen that seems to differ from one release to another. The joy of The Necks is in the slow evolving shifts contained in a single piece of music and across their entire catalogue. It’s music that is tailored to deep listening. Enjoy!

    • Regarding “The Bear” – we just finished the third series. We were also left somewhere between bewilderment and disappointment. Great “moments” – filled in some back stories (perhaps the point). It, for sure. is NOT a comedy – as Hulu insist on calling it. Funny, weird moments between heartbreaking depiction of desperation, depression and anger – is not a comedy.
      Oh – and cooking porn.

  6. Making a tentative return from a barren cultural landscape that has been my recent months …

    Heard:
    Libertines – All Quiet On The Western Esplanade
    A good album, maybe not at the level of their first two, but I enjoyed it more than Anthems For Doomed Youth.
    Still can’t hold with this “Pete Doherty is a poet” thing – a good lyricist, yes. But a poet … I’m not convinced

    Hamish Hawk – A Firmer Hand
    3 Hamish Hawk albums in as many years, and all great in their own ways. This one has more Scott Walker-intoning than before, and I think with some of his best lyrics

    Frank Turner – Undefeated
    If you like Frank Turner, you’ll like this album (wouldn’t recommend it as a starting point for a newcomer though). Maybe not his best, but a welcome addition to the catalogue.

    Seen:
    Channel 5 have thrown some money at their TV Drama.
    This month – Coma (featuring Jason Watkins). Well written, well acted, but like a lot of serial dramas, it all wrapped up a bit too quickly.
    Not sure I’ve seen Jason Watkins in anything duff

    Sherwood is back on BBC, and I think as good as the first series (without the distraction of needing to stay true(ish) to the Miners Strike backdrop)

    Secrets Of The London Underground – NERD ALERT. Beer, Hula Hoops, Tim Dunn and Siddy Holloway talking about Underground trains and stations => a top Friday evening chez Digit

    Read:
    Umm … I’ll get back to you on that (when I decide which of the “started but not finished yet” books I finally re-start and finish.

    • I watched Coma after reading your recommendation RD. I thought it was superb. Absolutely gripping. I don’t think it wrapped up too quickly. Just the right length. It reminded me of Fargo, the film, the way the everyman protagonist kept getting deeper and deeper in shit trying to keep his lie going. A very British Fargo.

      • He’s done a couple of indie releases before those three. Aznavour (2018) and From Zero to One (2018), which I have because it was bought for me by an Edinburgh resident friend who happened to visit Assai records when he was doing an in-store album launch. I think he worked there at the time, too.

  7. HEARD
    Trying to bring myself at least a bit up to date by listening to this years albums. The standouts are Iechyd Da by Bill Ryder Jones, Big Swimmer by King Hannah, Affection by Bullion and Call A Doctor by Girl and Girl. The Ryder Jones album is probably my favourite, just beautiful.
    SEEN
    Having been pointed in the direction of a dodgy site by my son I’ve binged a lot. I’m part way into Succession which seems to be worth persevering with. Best of the films were Killers of the Flower Moon and Nowhere Special (with John Norton from Happy Valley).
    DONE
    Saw my son who lives abroad so it was the first time for a year. He is off to Exeter to study TV Film and Drama and we had a lovely time. He has grown into a beautiful young man.

  9. HEARD

    Chloe Kim – Music For Six Double Bassists

    Chloe Kim is a Korean-born drummer, resident in Australia, who composed all the music on this remarkable album. 6 double bassists together is a wonderfully grunty sound, I love it. She crowdfunded the recording (I’m happy to say I made a small contribution)
    Bandcamp
    https://peoplesound.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-six-double-bassists
    Spotify

    Tim Rollinson – Chiromancy

    Tim Rollinson is a Sydney guitarist who made his name with the 80s acid jazz group DIG (Directions In Groove). These days he a working musician (I’ve played with him many times) who regularly releases albums of his own music. This one, his latest, is a trio album with mainly his own compositions, beautifully played and recorded, just the thing for that early evening glass of wine with a cryptic crossword. (The title “chiromancy” is an obscure synonym for palmistry).
    Bandcamp
    https://timrollinson.bandcamp.com/album/chiromancy

    Abdullah Ibrahim – Dream Time

    And speaking of that time of the day, here’s yet another slow stately album from Abdullah Ibrahim. He’s still going (he’ll be 90 in a month’s time)

    It’s not on Bandcamp yet but this one is, a live/studio album which came out earlier this year
    https://abdullahibrahim.bandcamp.com/album/3

  10. Watched
    Falling sick with a skin infection left me with my leg up for most of the second half of August. Time enough to watch films old and new to me
    Bridge of Spies – efficient US patriotic Tom Hanks vehicle, effortlessly stolen by Mark Rylance
    Point Break – seen before, this time it came across as a series of set pieces that don’t really hang together, intended to show off the bodies of the main actors
    Man on The Moon – much better than I expected it to be, as I mentioned in the Jim Carrey post
    All The President’s Men – never seen this ‘classic’ before. It was a bit tedious, to be honest. The old journos yacking away in the editorial suite was good, but there was a lot of Redford and Hoffnann just typing, and the ending – hardly readable telex messages moving across the screen, seemed like a lazy letdown.
    The Last Bus – Timothy Spall as a crotchety old codger travelling to Land End and battling racism, sexism, violence, theft and stupidity along the way towards a social media fanfare felt rather bleak, to be honest. I like a good UK road movie and this wasn’t it. Not fit to kick the lawnmower tyres of the Straight Story.
    Scottish Mussel – appalling wish fulfilment shite. A McDonald’s burger of a movie – it looks like food, but it’s got no taste apart from additives that leave you feeling queasy.
    Blade Runner 2049 – entertaining, well made fluff.
    Children of Men – I did like Michael Caine’s character, and the dystopia was well depicted. Reminded me of the Road, without the cannibalism.
    Absolutely Fabulous, the movie – very silly, of course, and I missed most of the cameos, because I’m just not demure and mindful enough, darling. It was kind hearted and fun.
    HyperNormalisation – a super long series of Curtis jump cuts around modern politics and culture. Reminds me of the James Burke Connections series, a bit too clever and convoluted for its own message.
    My Summer of Love – quite sweet falling in and out of love school holiday story.
    Twelve Monkeys – a film that made a lot more sense than when I first saw it, many years ago. Has the Terry Gilliam thumbprint all over it, as I recognised a lot of the same tropes as in Brazil, which is largely a complement, as I love that film.
    Other than that, I dipped into other BBC offerings – watched all 3 series of Outlaws, (I’d seen series 1 & 2 before), and it was entertaining escapism, with a lot of Dick Barton ‘with one leap he was free’ style escapes from certain disasters. Interesting to compare to ‘Misfits’, also starting from an offenders community service scheme going wrong.

    Read
    All this month I’ve been reading and taking notes from ‘The Body Keeps The Score’, a rather brilliant and incisive exploration of the roots and consequences of trauma on the human mind/brain/body interface, and the need to recognise that trauma unaddressed will emerge in many unpleasant and destructive ways. A very humane and sympathetic book, the first part, which explains the brain and its connections to the body is revelatory to me. I’m still reading and hoping for further learning about how to help ourselves and others manage trauma.

    On an entirely different level, Girl on a Train was a throwaway potboiler, that promised to be like Gone Girl, and felt like Scooby Doo. Though I did appreciate the first person narratives from three leading female characters, who each had echoes of the traumas described in the other book I read.

    Listened
    Nothing much of consequence, apart from Laurie Anderson’s Amelia. Though I was introduced to the music of Levi Lenzi, a Brazilian DJ, which had echoes of Screanadelica-style remixes – something to explore
    https://goptun.bandcamp.com/album/maritaca?t=2

    My leg is on the mend and I’m on the move again, so probably won’t see anywhere near as many movies as in the last weeks. Them’s the breaks, as it were.

    • Oh crikey, yes, I once made the mistake of watching Scottish Mussel. The backstory is far more entertaining than the film. The story was written by the father of the lead actress (the twice-married and twice-divorced “anti-woke” ex-wife of Elon Musk). This, from her wikipedia page, rather neatly sums up the massive vanity project:

      Between 2009 and 2015, Riley developed an idea and story by her father into a screenplay, then ultimately directed (after being unable to hire another director to helm the project) and starred in the resulting feature film

      Glad to hear you’re on the mend.

      • Thanks, fs. It was quite a surprise to learn about the back story after watching the film cold, which already came over as a bit too fantasy and pleased with itself. Whatever would make her hitch up with the enormously egotistical and narcissistic Musk, I wonder? Opposites attract?

      • That is praise indeed, coming from you, Tig, and adds to the good words said about it by an old uni friend who is responsible for establishing the Open Dialogue programme in the UK.

        Julian Tudor Hart, I’ve never heard of, but he seemed to have been a wise old cove.

          • And possibly one of the last proper ones, tho I have a soft spot for the late David Widgery too, who somehow also found time to help form Rock Against Racism. His book about being an East End GP was one I used to buy for trainee GPs after they left my tutelage.

  11. Sport
    What a state Test Cricket is in, after five blink-and-you’ll-miss-them, largely uncompetitive, matches this summer. Following the debate about ticket prices on Day 4 of the Lords’ Test (£95!), guess what revealed itself from an official M.C.C. source? Day 4 ticket sales were sluggish due to… wait for it… ‘Bazball’. People simply presumed there wouldn’t be much cricket to see, so were reticent to purchase in advance. That’s right, ‘The Saviours of Test Cricket’ (copyright Ben Stokes, 2023) were given as a principal reason for poor ticket sales. Bleedin’ obvious that was going to happen, of course, but why did no one pick up on it in the commentary box?
    As well as the current Test, there are three County Championship rounds still to play, meaning loads of BBC Five Live Extra commentaries in September. Always say it, I’ll say it again, thank God for the BBC.
    Twenty-two matches into the football season (23rd today) but, strangely, because of cup commitments, 1st XI fixtures have dried up for some clubs. October is the busiest month, with my local team (average attendance, 200) down to play seven games. Good to see the Premier League has, after only three matches, reclaimed its ‘most predictable league in the whole pyramid’ tag! I do hope Everton finally go down, and don’t do another entirely (yes…) predictable 16th.

    Music
    Rather than acting as a depressant, the complete shite-fest that is Oasis, on every single imaginable level, including the scandalous ticket fiasco (what on earth did anyone expect?), has actually been laugh-out-loud hilarious, and served as a tonic for going off and checking out all those underplayed late-60s Soul LPs made by talented and beautiful people. Note: This part of the music industry is not making me part with ‘think of a number, double it, add £300′ sums, though I suspect the option to hear LPs in their entirety via Alexa is unlikely to still be an option in a few years’ time. So lump on now.
    Current favourites? The four Arthur Conley albums (67-69) and, housed in a bizarre Pop-Art sleeve, Archie Bell & The Drells’ “I Can’t Stop Dancing” from 68. As discussed on another thread, such a release is the very embodiment of an LP with ‘filler’ – they’re now effortlessly my faves! – lead single, followed by a cover of Dock of the Bay, followed by a second 45 that sounds just like the first one, two B-sides, and, for no apparent reason, three Curtis Mayfield covers. I’m also really fond of albums that weren’t originally released in the U.K. (other examples: “There’s Gonna Be A Showdown”, “The Meters”, “Look Ka Py-Py”), allowing me to imagine a really hip kid in London c. 69, who may be up on his “This Was” or “Scott 3”, but has also secured an import copy (I presume that was an option) of “I Can’t Stop Dancing”. Clocks in at 28 minutes. More than enough.

    Radio
    Ever heard of “The Public Ear”? Me neither, until three weeks ago. Turns out it was a BBC Radio Arts programme which ran fortnightly from October 63 to March 64. Well, it’s been rediscovered! Unfortunately, all we are likely to hear from it for the time being is the paltry half-hour documentary on BBC Four Extra which barely touched the sides, and was less than convincing. As a Guardian review stated ‘Why don’t they just repeat the whole series?’ It appears that its 13-episode run was full of items about Beatlemania and interviews with the group. Spoiler alert: They are much, much sharper and much, much funnier than Oasis. Who knew?

    Cinema
    Quiet month, and I fear I’ve missed out on a few good releases.
    “Sky Peals” – A curious, dark tale about a young man grieving for his father (I think). Not bad, but boy does this country c. 2024 look grim.
    “Hundreds of Beavers” – One of the maddest films I’ve ever seen. At my local cinema people are going up to each other and talking in whispered tones… “Have you seen ‘it’ yet?” Very Keystone Cops, Laurel & Hardy-esque. Highly recommended.

  12. My knee (see last month’s BT) kept me out of work until the last week of August, when I returned although not fully healed (but I couldn’t comfortably afford being on sick leave any longer). Returning has been going…OK at first, but this second week it got worse again, with quite a lot of pain. If it hasn’t become much better in a couple of weeks time my physio will remit me back to the orthopedics for possible keyhole surgery – hopefully not needed!

    My vacation time got completely ruined, and all of my plans were put on hold.
    Add too many phone calls to make and digital forms to fill out (with very little reward to show for it in the end) to make a saint lose their composure, not to mention having my sick pay miscalculated in a bad way (as if the regular deductions aren’t bad enough…)
    But it could always be worse, and at least I caught their mistake. Onwards and upwards!

    Read:

    The four final books by PC Jersild for my 2024 reading project – I thought, but then realised that I had put one more book by him on another shelf, by mistake! So that’s the final one I’m reading now.
    I will miss this project a lot, and it has pushed him even higher on my list of favourite authors than he already was. The books I reread were almost all much better than I remembered them to be (and I already knew I loved them before this) and reading for the first time a small stack of books that I had saved for a rainy day, I found many new favourites.
    It was also remarkable to see – reading them in chronological order – that he began pretty much fully formed, then kept getting better and better, with very few duds (and even those had interesting parts and were never slogs) and with some absolute masterpieces written very late in his production. Incredible; 38 books – mostly novels but also a few non fiction ones – written over eight decades, and hardly any that I wouldn’t read again!
    Also, he’s still alive, and although he’s slowed down considerably in later years it’s quite possible that we could get more books from him.
    Anyway, I know that you’ll all be happy to see my “obscure Swedish author project” go away 😉 but I will miss it, despite having lots of highly anticipated books ready and waiting for me.

    I also read the absolute gem of a short novel by Rachel Ingalls called Mrs Caliban. This is a brilliant tale of a depressed housewife falling in love with a fish man (sort of Creature of the Black Lagoon-ish) who escapes from a research facility. It’s pretty much perfect from start to finish, and very funny and very sad, and you can read it in an hour or two, so please do! You won’t regret it.

    Other than those I read a couple of second hand childrens books, and then I read another incredible essay collection by the Swedish National Treasure that is Kerstin Ekman, called Gubbas Hage. Her essay style nature books are all some of the best ever written; of course nothing can beat her book on forests, called Herrarna i skogen (approx. “The Masters of the Forest”), but this one comes fairly close.

    The book I started in August but haven’t gotten very far into yet is Washington Black by Esi Edugyan – it started well and I was enjoying it, but then I realised about that misfiled Jersild book, so I interrupted my reading to get through that one first! But from what I’d read, I’m looking forward to continuing.

    Seen:

    A hyped award-winning Swedish film, Paradiset brinner (“Paradise is Burning”), which I didn’t love. Parts of it was fine, but I found myself getting annoyed at the unrealistic details of the film – the “artsy” bits, you could say, and it left me with too many unanswered questions.

    On YouTube I stumbled upon a channel where someone called Peter Beard (he seems to be an illustrator himself) creates videos on illustrators from around the world, both the famous and the obscure, showing their wonderful artwork with added voiceover info about their lives and careers. This channel is quite the rabbit hole and I was bingeing it during my injury and keep visiting the channel for a handful of episodes now and then. Recommended for the art lovers of the Afterword.

    Heard:

    Only two new albums arrived this month (thanks to some delays), and both were a bit disappointing. Jake Xerxes Fussell – When I’m Called isn’t as good as his previous, IMO – or I’m just not at all in the mood for it. I find it a bit dull TBH.

    I was also looking forward to the latest album by Nathan Bowles Trio: Are Possible, and again it left me disappointed. I haven’t listened to either of these albums enough times to be able to say what’s lacking IMO, but I’m not really eager to listen again to find out…
    Maybe I’m just in a slump…or maybe these albums aren’t as good as their previous efforts.
    Still, high hopes for the bunch I ordered for September!

    AOB:

    My knee injury rekindled my love of puzzling, unfortunately, so now I’m feeding a jigsaw puzzle habit of 1000 pieces per week. 🙁 😀

      • Well @Locust! I was very sorry to read the latest chapter in your Summer from Hell.

        The appalling summer you have had would have driven me to drink or drugs. It’s driven you to…jigsaws!! 1000 pieces a week. Yikes! That is one serious habit.

        I just stumbled across this article which describes the many benefits from doing jigsaws.

        https://eu.ellwoodcityledger.com/story/opinion/columns/2021/03/03/louise-carroll-jigsaw-puzzles-can-addictive/6875380002/

        Here are a few of the points she makes:

        “Doing puzzles is a complete workout for the brain since it exercises both the right and left sides.

        Another benefit of working jigsaw puzzles is that it improves our short-term memory..

        The web says that when we do jigsaw puzzles it helps improve our visual-spatial reasoning.

        According to a recent study published in the Archives of Neurology, people who do jigsaw and crossword puzzles have longer life spans with fewer chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease, memory loss or dementia.”

        That Peter Beard YT channel is quite remarkable. A treasure trove! Talk about a labour of love.

        https://www.youtube.com/@petebeard

        So far I’ve just taken a quick glance at the one on Charles Folkard and I am already a big fan of Mr Beard.

        I think that you should start a special AW thread about the Beard channel so that all the denizens of this site go and take a look! Please do!!

        I know nothing about Jersild. Shame on me! He seems to be an interesting chap.

        Here he is with Malou (who is doing a Blofeld impersonation!)

        • Sorry, @Kaisfatdad but I don’t have the energy to start any threads! I also dislike starting threads because I always feel like a bad host hiding from the guests at my own party, since I can’t engage in conversation in real time – all of my comments happens past midnight when everyone else is sleeping!
          I think your link and YT video will suffice.

          I find Malou difficult to tolerate…the way she speaks to people rubs me the wrong way.
          My sister went to school with her and says she was an awful bully, so the Blofeld pose suits her!

          • Ooops sorry! @Locust. I completely understand. I was being a bit of a bully to even suggest it.

            I’ll definitely be spending more time with Pete Beard.

            This writer hits the nail on the head:

            “The combination of his authoritative basso British accent and well-written narrative is both inspiring and addictive.”

            https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/the-daily-heller-celebrating-illustrators-history/

            I love your comment about Malou being a bit of a bully at school.
            I’m sure they’ll be looking for a Blofeld for future Bond films. Perhaps she should audition?

            I’ll be posting Mr Beard on my FB page. He is a dedicated, maverick enthusiast who goes his own way regardless of what anyone thinks.
            I’ve got a lot of time for people like that!

            • Of course; you are people like that! 🙂

              There are a few Swedes in his videos, two have their own dedicated video essays (Tenggren and Nerman), but there’s at least one more in the “Unsung Heroes” series of videos – I haven’t made my way through all of them so there may be more.
              Of course, as a Swede, I think it was a mistake to only give Bauer a shared spotlight rather than a whole video…but one shouldn’t be greedy – it’s certainly refreshing to see a Brit enthuse about non-Brits at all! 😉

              • You could always drop him a line and say that. Or indeed I could do that!

                I’m sure he’d appreciate fan mail. I agree it is great that he has such a broad range.
                An illustrator I’ve become very keen about is the late, great Frenchman, Moebius. Movie director, Luc Besson is a great fan.

                • Well @Locust, dropping a line to Pete Beard was not so easy as I thought. It was difficult to find any contact info.

                  Thanks to LinkedIn, I now know he is from Bolton, is 73 years old and was previously a Senior Lecturer at Bolton University. And he plays the music for his YT clips with his band

                  It was fun finding all that out.

                  It is no surprise to learn he was a lecturer. His little films are so wonderfully put together and so interesting,

                  I think he wants people to be inspired to go out and find out more for themselves.

                  So I did exactly that and went off to find out more about the Polish Jewish illustratör, Arthur Szyk.

                  His anti-Nazi cartoons pulled no punches.

                  A very intersting chap!

                  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Szyk

                  • I would assume that the easiest way to “drop a line” to someone on YouTube is to put it in the comments!
                    But I’m sure I’ll enjoy any video he chooses to put together, and if it’s about someone I hadn’t heard of before, so much the better.

  14. Heard.
    Nothing much new, but two 30th (actually 31st) anniversaries – a superb 2LP edition of Mother Earth’s The People Tree on Acid Jazz; and a lovely LP (cut by Georage Marino at Sterling Sound, pressed at Record Industry) of Dream Harder by the Waterboys.

    Seen.
    Freddy Flintoff’s Field of Dreams. I dunno, but I reckon the ex-car-driving, current social worker, Mr Flintoff could have a crack at this cricketing lark.

    Read.
    Nige Tassell’s Searching for Dexys Midnight Runners, in which he tracked down (nearly) all of the current and ex-members of Dexys. Most joined young, most got burned out, most struggled financially, all found Kevin Rowland to be a tyrant, all happy to have done it, only a handful would do it again. Got a bit repetivive, tbh.
    The Paperback Sleuth – Ashram Assassin by Andrew Cartmel. The second in his spinoff series from the Vinyl Detective novels. An ideal holiday read if you don’t think too hard.

    AOB.
    Offspring the Elder finished university (with a 2:1) and got a job 15 mins from us, so moved back home and can’t yet drive, so Dad’s Taxi has come back out of retirement. Offspring the Younger finished his A-levels (the less said about that the better) and walked into a full-time job where he’d been doing three evenings a week for the past couple of years. So we’ve gone from two working adults supporting two students, to four working adults sharing a house.

    We hired a camper van for a week late July / early August and did the NC500 route round Scotland’s coastal road, then stayed in a flat in Ballater for a week. Lovely as Ballater is, most of Mrs F’s rellies have departed since our last visit in 2019. And although the mileage can be completed, a week really isn’t long enough to appreciate the NC500. I wish we’d hired the van for two weeks and popped into Ballater for the weekend on our way back.

    We enjoyed it so much that we’re off to the Motorhome & Caravan show at the NEC next month.

  15. Listening –
    Some kind soul has uploaded to YouTube just about all the series from the last 20 years of Just a Minute. They have provided me with hours and hours of listening to the finest panel game on the planet over the last few months. I used to listen to JAM as a child in the 70s, but never cared much for the original players of the game – Kenneth Williams, Clement Freud, Peter Jones and Derek Nimmo. Williams was frequently unpleasantly snide, Nimmo was an intellectual show-off and Freud was just plain boring. For me the show’s glory years were between 2005 to 2020 when the likes of Paul Merton, Graham Norton, Gyles Brandreth, Julian Clary, Stephen Fry, Sue Perkins, Liza Tarbuck, Pam Ayres and Tony Hawks were amongst the regulars. Nicholas Parsons reigned supreme throughout it all, delightfully old-fashioned and pompous. Since his death and Sue Perkins’ elevation to the chair, the show has lost its way a little. The familiarity of the regulars has been dissipated by the BBC’s drive to bring in new talent. Nothing wrong with that as long as the participants are funny, but frequently they are not, and the banter between them, so central to how the show works at its best, is often non-existent. For anyone who loves the programme at its finest, catch up with it all online while you can. It’s a frequently overlooked gem of British comedy.

    • Oh! That’s very good news.

      I get what you mean about the old guard, but I do think they were inhabiting characters more than anything.

      My wife loves JAM. We bought a few on cassette tape featuring the originals to listen to on car journeys together when we were courting, The funniest we can remember was the episode with Elaine Stritch as the visiting guest star. She was bewildered by the whole affair but managed to be terrifically funny.

  16. More time to expand now, but first an update seems appropriate given the genuine support offered on this site.

    It is now over 7 weeks since ‘the incident’, as they are known in railwayspeak. Occupational health, my counsellor and I all agree that I have pulled through remarkably well. I have never had flashbacks or intrusive thoughts. The support that I knew I had has done its job well. I am certainly not fit for work yet – need for sleep and short term memory loss not being good looks for train drivers – but I am progressing at a suitable pace and apparently I have gone past the point where some people experience a delayed shock. That’s all good.
    At Sidmouth I slept as well as can be expected in a festival environment, but I wasn’t prepared for the return to sleep loss and hyper-vigilance once I returned to the real world for a week. It is like being constantly jet-lagged.
    Maybe as a result, I felt a little more detached at Shrewsbury, and by the end of the month I craved extra sleep every day. I really would have liked some downtime of curling up on my own with a book and some songs to learn, but the festival schedule waits for no man.

    Any road up ….

    Sidmouth’s 70th birthday party was marked by renewed and reconfirmed collaborations, it seems. Aly Bain & Phil Cunningham; Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas; John Kirkpatrick & Sue Harris; and the crowning glory of both a dance and a gig from Chris Wood & Andy Cutting. Performances from these last two are like hen’s teeth, yet every time Chris Wood puts a fiddle to his neck, he is happily grinning. I only wonder why he doesn’t do it more often. Suffice to say, both were a delight. A momentous final dance from Tickled Pink kicked the week off. Blowzabella’s audience dissolved spectacularly into a continental market square, with dancers spinning and weaving through the more static members of the crowd. Karine Polwart, solo, enchanted. Melrose Quartet remain my favourite band for called dances. Along with all the singing that is the main reason I will always go to Sidmouth, that all adds up to one helluva good week, and I lost none of it.

    So it was a shame that I felt less engaged with good ol’ Shrewsbury – don’t worry SFF, it was me, not you. Yet when I add it up, there was so much that I loved. I spent two thirds of my time in the dance tent, which is no wonder; Sandra Surtees must guarantee some serious cash to her Director of Dance, Rose Butler-Hall. Spiers & Boden; Delarre, Delarre & Rose; Tom Moore & Archie Churchill Moss; Banter; Steamchicken. These are all top drawer on the scene these days. My favoured European styles got a good outing too, with new-to-me Cri du Canard giving us a great Saturday night. On stage, I have never known Le Vent du Nord to be anything other than brilliant and consummate. Kathryn Tickell sometimes gets overcomplicated these days; I just crave the glorious tunes; but the Northumbrian pipes will always lift me.
    And inevitably there was singing in the bar – my manor. The Last Hurrah, as it is known, after the festival has had its last gig on the last night, was a gem.

    This is Hardcore. No, this isn’t an unexpected Britpop appearance. Kinnersley Castle in Herefordshire is where I go from being the cock of the walk on the dancefloor, to the apprentice. This is where the dedicated europhiles go to dance and dance well. I always learn a lot. I think I can say with reasonable confidence that the Great Hall was the only place in the country where a whole room was dancing an eleven-time waltz that night.
    Musicians have come from Sweden, Gascony, Quebec and Greece. Kinnersley bals are always special. Home grown talent too came with the holy trinity of melodeon, bagpipes and hurdy gurdy from The Wendigo.

    And hey @Locust, after a few workshops, I think at last I’ve cracked the polska!

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