It is the first Friday of a new month – wassup? What have you been enjoying listening to / reading / watching – and are there any other burning issues you would like to share with us?
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
Gatz says
Hearing Last year’s Owl John album has been on repeat play, and I just caught up with The Pierces’ latest too. Enjoying the collection of cosmic grooves which came with the most recent edition of Mojo.
ReadingI found the new Nick Hornby novel, Funny Girl, in a charity shop. I hadn’t even known there was a new Nick Hornby. A decent view of early TV comedy, but I found Barbara, the funny girl herself, a bit of a cut-out, lacking much humanity. I’ve just borrowed Neil Gaiman’s latest collection of short stories from the library but the couple I’ve read so far are pretty thin stuff.
SeeingOnly gig this was Kate Rusby. Hugely enjoyable, though I wouldn’t necessarily have wished the gig to be any longer. Last weekend we watched the last of series 3 of The Killing, and now need to work out how to fill the Sara Lund shaped hole in our viewing.
Native says
Reading –
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. I’d kind of fallen out of love with fiction, but this book has restored my faith.
Listen –
Blur. The Magic Whip. Seen some fairly damning reviews of this, so I wasn’t expecting much, but I’m really enjoying this. Sounds like old-Blur, in a good way.
Aphex Twin – MARCHROMT30a. I presume these songs are off-cuts from last year’s album, but this three track ep is fabulous.
Watching –
Totally behind the times, but just watched the first season of Homeland on Netflix. Really enjoyed it and can’t wait to get started on season two.
Chrisf says
Heard:
Still giving a lot of playtime to the latest Steven Wilson “Hand Cannot Erase” album. Simply fantastic. Have teh new Blur (Magic Whip) and Alabama Shakes (Sound & Colour) albums on rotation in the car at the moment. Enjoying both of them, especially the Alabama Shakes which is a step up from their debut. Other than that its been a for bit of back catalogue stuff – the recent high resolution issues from Tom Petty sound really good and have been very wallet damaging (but worth it). Also enjoyed the latest Blank & Jones So80s collection of 80s 12″ tracks – not all I would necessarily choose, but enjoyable never the less.
Seen:
Off the see the Avengers tonight. Not been much to the cinema recently. TV wise its only really been Inside No.9, Gotham (which I have really enjoyed) and the new season of Game Of Thrones.
Read:
Finally got around to reading Mark Ellen’s opus on the iPad. Not much else I’m afraid – bits of pieces of Shakespeare for grown ups as the eldest son has just started studying that.
timtunes says
Heard: Enjoying Courtney Barnett (I was worried the sing-song vocals would grate but there is a lot of tune, lyric and guitar to compensate) and Laura Marling. Death Cab For Cutie – Kinsugi is great – strong songs but won’t convert anyone. Like what I have heard of Alabama Shakes.
Kendrick Lamar – a few good tunes but quite a lot of righteous anger without a good groove to support it. I’m probably a heathen but I much more enjoyed Lupe Fiasco’s – Tetsuo & Youth – that has grooves and humour and less po-faced anger.
Steven Wilson is nice – not sure I can say too much more at the moment than nice.
Best new album though is easily Godspeed You! Black Emperor – melodic, noisy, epic & rousing.
Read: 44 Scotland Street on holiday in Edinburgh. My wife loves it but its just a bit too twee.
Seen: Public Service Broadcasting were great as noted elsewhere here. Last night I blasted off into Kraut Space with Moon Duo
Watched: Avengers Age Of Ultron – to the max! If I was 10 it would have blown my mind – fortunately my 10 year-old is still very much in place
Malc says
Read – Viv Albertine’s “Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys.” Fascinating stuff – had to make a point of not looking her up on Wikipedia before I’d finished it, to avoid any spoilers.
Seen – “Boyhood”; enjoyed it but found it more impressive than lovable. “Gone Girl” I liked a lot, though it could have ended earlier. And “Before I go to Sleep” was fine until the flat ending.
Heard – I got Gene Clark’s “No Other” at Christmas and it’s still my first choice for listening, particularly on a flight. Recent acquisitions are M83’s “Hurry Up We’re Dreaming” which is fine, plus from the last London mingle “Astral Weeks” and James Blake’s eponymous debut, both meh.
el hombre malo says
Heard
Lots of things from my iTunes backlog, which is not down to 11 days! I’ve enjoyed Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo, and with the brief promise of good weather I really enjoyed listening again to Linden – that classic Scottish strain of bittersweet pop.
Read
Alex Gray – Never Somewhere Else. A crime thriller set in Glasgow – nice use of locations, and entertaining to see Eddie (the barman in the Press Bar) get a mention.
Seen
Banshee – Season 1 and part of Season 2. Gangsters and bad cops. Violent, and a bit daft, but deftly executed enjoyed.
Game Of Thrones. Love those dragons.
timtunes says
Had to give up watching Banshee on the train home – bit too strong for the others with a view of my ipad………….
Dodger Lane says
Listened: Thanks to this site, month has been lightened by Public Service Broadcasting; The War Room and Race for Space. At the moment I think I prefer The War Room. At the risk of failing an audition as a musically literate Afterword member I have to confess that I have never probably listened to Sandy Denny up to now. I remedied the situation this past month. Her voice really is something special and literally spine tingling. Infact I almost resented the interference of the musical accompaniment.
Read: Natural Born Heroes by Christopher Macdougall is a wonderful read, though let down by a cover which suggests it’s just about fitness & health. It is about that, but also the campaign in Crete in the last war, the special ops services, Patrick Leigh Fermor and the kidnapping of General Kreige. I haven’t done the book justice, but is absolutely fascinating and well written. Also came across Holiday by Stanley Middleton, an odd but compelling novel about marriage, & family. The writing seemed quite dated but still enjoyable.
Watched: W1A; love it.
AOB: Ravilious at Dulwich Gallery. I always quite liked his stuff but I didn’t enjoy the show as much as I thought, just think it’s all too samey.
Jed Clampett says
It took a long time, but I finally made it through all 920 odd pages of Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. I recommend persevering, it is worth it.
Baron Harkonnen says
Got to agree with you about `Shantaram` Jed, it`s a great read.
Kid Dynamite says
The sequel finally being published this autumn. Shantaram is a very readable book, although my enjoyment was notched down a bit after however many hundred pages it was when I twigged that the author seemed to really believe he was the greatest thing going.
Baron Harkonnen says
I did get that feeling myself but a still a great yarn.
Michael says
I’m going to beg to differ. I really hated Shantaram – and thought it was awful self-aggrandising nonsense, one of the few books that I wanted to throw across the room
Jed Clampett says
Just out of interest, did you finish it? If not, how far did you get before deciding it was not for you?
Michael says
I didn’t finish it Jed – can’t remember how many pages I read – although I did give it a good go. I found the tone incredibly grating and and the main character was horribly self-obsessed. The Better Half read all of it and regretted doing so.
Wheldrake says
LISTENING:
Having a Crowded House period at the moment. Caught up with their last album, Intriguer, and I have to say it’s very good indeed. Neil Finn is one of the great songwriters and this album is a proper “band” album. Great songs and tunes.
By contrast I’m also showing some love for the Foo Fighters. Yin and Yang as they say.
READING:
The Peregrine by JA Baker. A quite wonderful book about one man’s obsession with this particular bird of prey. Condensing ten years worth of sightings into one “winter”, his prose is almost poetry. Vivid descriptions of the English countryside mixed with a real sense of the power of nature. The book is actually an omnibus of all his works (two books and an article for the RSPB) plus his edited diaries. It really is a must for anyone interested in the countryside, nature and/or birds of prey.
WATCHING:
So many things to watch. Finally got round to the US version House of Cards and it is every bit as good as they said. Spacey is superb.
Game of Thrones 5th season got off to a slow start for me (too many story strands in episode one) but hopefully things will pick up.
Working my way through Person of Interest on Netflix, since I missed a few episodes when it was on C5.
duco01 says
Re: “The Peregrine”. Yes, a simply incredible book.
I can also recommend Lawrence English’s ambient/noise album “The Peregrine”, which he composed in tribute to J.A. Baker’s great work.
Sewer Robot says
Seen: I binge watched Daredevil on Netflix. Liked it a lot. I thought Vincent D’Onofrio was literally immense as Wilson Fisk. Literally? Yeah – like The Hulk the Kingpin is a comic book character of cartoon proportions. While The Hulk has – perhaps understandably in his case – switched from the imposing but plausible physical presence of Lou Ferrigno to a CGI behemoth, Daredevil required someone who could physically fill the Kingpin’s suit, not to comic book dimensions, but enough to be genuinely intimidating.
Sometimes it’s nice to admire the actual brush strokes of a painting: in the Inside No 9 episode, Nana’s Party, following the set up of the ambulance bloke running in to the house, the moment when Nana plunged the knife into the cake had me jumping out of my seat..
Heard: knocked up a review of the 21st century for listening to in the motor. What jumped out of the speakers this week was James Kirk’s You Can Make It If You Boogie Lp. If you have a fondness for the early 80s janglesome Scottish pop of Roddy, Lloyd and The Juice and haven’t heard this you should consider giving it a spin (it’s on Spotify).
Simonl says
Seen: Got loaded up on Netflix this past couple of months, so I’ve been watching these things –
Daredevil. Quite possibly the best Marvel adaption I’ve seen. Captures the classic Frank Miller run on the comic back in the 80s to a T. Made me feel about 13 watching it. Incredibly atmospheric, great performances and the choreography in the fight scenes….wow. At risk of sounding incredibly shallow, the 13 year old me liked this almost as much as Scarlett’s Black Widow.
House Of Cards. Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright – along with a great supporting cast – are incredible. So good that sometimes you don’t notice the plots are a bit cliched. But crikey those two lead performances are just amazing. Completely opposite in style, Spacey chewing the scenery and Wright so icy cool. Love it.
The Good Wife. A lot less dark and heavy than the two Netflix originals, and so much more obviously cut to accommodate ad breaks. I’d almost forgot normal tv style. And Kalinda….
And on normal tv – Raised By Wolves. Really funny stuff, and Rebekah Staton’s character, makes me want to smoke cigarettes again…
(I do actually watch the tv programmes, not just the women in them. Honestly. No, really. I do)
Heard:
Allison Moorer’s Down To Believing. Absolutely incredible album. Rootsy country rock yes, so musically nothing original. But it zings with passion and fury and energy. Best vocal performances of Moorer’s career by far and away. Lyrically it fails a little, like most of Moorer’s work, one or two great lyrics almost padded out by less great things. But when this album hits it, like Mama Let The Wolf In about her son’s autism, it floors you. Fave track is Wish I, a chugging sparkling rocker, obviously about her split with Steve Earle. The sweetness of the tune lets the lyric creep up on you. ‘Wish I was your whisky baby’ in the context of Steve Earle and his life….whoah, just heartbreaking.
SixDog says
Seen: watched the Avengers: Age of Ultron fillum at the cinema with the nipper. Ridiculous but enjoyable. Watched the preview of Wayward Pines on Fox (the much trumpeted “Twin Peaks” replacement) – Enjoyable but someone clearly drew *ahem* “inspiration” from the Silent Hill video games there….
Reading: aside from the new Mojo – just finished Ben Aaronovitch’s “Whispers Underground” – think Harry Potter crossed with the Thorne detective stories. Thorough refreshing – daft and enjoyable. Just starting “Italian Ways” – vignettes around the Italian way of life based around the country’s relationship with its rail industry. Witty and informative so far.
Listening: Few listens to the new Blur have lead me to the conclusion that it’s not much more than songs Damon had leftover from “Everyday Robots” plus Lonesome Street and Ong Ong, so have gone back to Gil Scott Heron’s Greatest Hits for some magic Jazz Flute and the Prodigy’s “The Day Is My Enemy” which simply kicks everyone’s arse and then hauls them back up for a punch in the face. Terrific record.
Sewer Robot says
Yikes! Listened to that Prodigy album. They appear to have completed their transformation into the the tech AC/DC. (That’s not a compliment in this house)…
SixDog says
That’s actually a very fair comment SR. Howler has the formula and doesn’t deviate too much.
This ones still a big step up from Invaders Must Die though. The guest vocalists really do make a hell of a difference. Keith Flint shouting can get tedious.
bungliemutt says
Listening –
Calexico can do no wrong for me, so their new album Edge Of The Sun was a top notch listen this month, and I quite like the new one by Great Lake Swimmers, A Forest Of Arms. It’s no great departure from their earlier take on Canadian folk rock, but is an engaging experience that takes a few spins to get into it. Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter haven’t had anything out for a while now, but I finally caught up with Marble Son, their most recent offering from back in 2011. It has more of a psychedelic feel than their previous more ethereal sound, but I quite liked it. Anyone know what they are up to these days?
I think Fleet Foxes featured in our recent Crap Bands thread, so I dusted off both their albums, which I haven’t heard for a while. As one of those who thought they were the best thing since Mother’s Pride, I must admit to wondering now what all the fuss was about. ‘Pleasant vocal noodlings’ might be a bit harsh, but their absence of new material for the last 4 years has lost them any momentum they may once have had, and leaves the uneasy impression that they never had many ideas to start with. Ho hum.
Thanks to some recommendations on this esteemed site I’ve been exploring a bit further into the realms of early music, and discovered a set of CDs featuring recordings of the superlative work of John Taverner – the Tudor composer, not to be compared with the 20th Century imposter. Hyperion have released a number of CDs of Taverner’s work featuring The Sixteen, a sublime choral group. They truly are an absolute delight. Highly recommended if you are interested in that kind of music.
Watching –
I like a bit of French, as it were, and have been dabbling with Louis Malle this month. Devilishly hard to get hold of any of his films on DVD at the moment, ebay came up trumps with some secondhand copies of Le Souffle Au Coeur and Lacombe Lucien. I also watched the ultra-cool Lift To The Scaffold for the first time, featuring a magnificently ice cold Jeanne Moreau. Best of all was the semi autobiographical Au Revoir Les Enfants, one of my all-time favourite films, set in Nazi occupied France.
By contrast, I recently got hold of telly historian Michael Wood’s In Search Of The Dark Ages. Finally released on DVD it’s one of those holy grails of telly, last seen on gloomy winter afternoons when I was a callow youth at university in the early 80s and should have been doing something more worthwhile, like getting drunk or chasing women. He really does bring history alive in a way that few telly experts have done since. Great nostalgia.
Reading –
I’ve just started A.N. Wilson’s biography of Queen Victoria. I’m not keen on royal biographies – to be honest I’ve never read one – but being Wilson this is far from a hagiography, and while providing extensive detail about Victoria’s own life it also puts her firmly into the context of the political machinations of her age.
Blue Boy says
Great post @bungliemutt – John Taverner, Louis Malle and Calexico all more than worth anyone’s time. Only disagreement – I’d rate Tavener too….
pencilsqueezer says
HEARD.
Aptly from the deluge of music that poured down upon my fevered brow during the not as merry as May month of March The Weather Station’s first outing comes first to mind. All Of It Was Mine will be joined this month by their second outing Loyalty. I for one cannot wait.
As has been noted by others Sufjan Steven’s latest Carrie and Lowell is a bit terrific. I can confirm that it is.
Ba Power from Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba is the mutts. Scintillating music. Really seriously groovy. If you have the slightest interest in African music listen to it right now…go on, go on, go on.
My bouncing off the walls, backflippin’ cutting a rug disc of the moment is The Wanderings Of The Avener. A solid four on the floor dancetastic choon extravaganza. Thanks and a tip of the hat to @springer-bell for that one. It’s aces.
Paintalongchoons for most of last month were supplied by The Primevals, Nils Frahm and Ryley Walker. All very different one from the other. Most enjoyable companions all.
READ.
I began the month reading A Stained White Radiance by James Lee Burke and I’ve ended it half way through Dissolution by C.J. Sansom. In between I read The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane which I enjoyed greatly. Anybody who understands the joy of climbing trees is going to be my kind of human. Apart from those I read John Connolly’s latest outing for Charlie Parker A Song Of Shadows. I loved it of course.
SEEN.
The Good Wife. The first three series. When it’s on it’s game it is top entertainment. When it’s not it’s still an unchallenging way to unwind at the end of the day. It has raised a few questions. How many leather jackets does Kalinda own and why does she always stand like that? Why have well healed Chicago lawyers hung the world’s worst paintings all over their offices? I hope for answers before we reach the end. Series four and five to go.
To complement The Good Wife Donna decided to watch Anatomy of a Murder, Witness for the Prosecution and Twelve Angry Men again. All utterly, utterly splendid of course.
We have also found time to spin a few discs of classic Looney Tunes from a really good boxset I found in our local charity shop. Twenty four discs of animated mayhem. Wonderful.
Along with that little lot we have watched the first two series of Hannibal again, well written, well acted and inventively gory.
On the film front apart from those already mentioned we re-watched The Sea Inside. Red Sorgum and a trio of westerns The Tin Star, Man of the West and The Ox-Bow Incident.
A.O.B.
Painting and drawing as usual. Made this. It proved to be a right bugger to photograph. This was the best of a sorry bunch.
pencilsqueezer says
Bloody hell…
pencilsqueezer says
I give up. Its kinda blue and red and green and violet. Who cares anyway.
Tiggerlion says
I do.
ivylander says
Me too.
el hombre malo says
me three
badger_king says
Reads…
“Vespasian VI: Rome’s Lost Son” – another great installation of a fantastic series by Robert Fabbri. Lots of violence, sex, swearing and imperial politics.
Listens…
Blur – The Magic Whip (see Nights In)
Earl Sweatshirt – I Don’t Like S***, I Don’t Go Outside (ambient hip hop – new genre?)
Red Pill – Look What this World Did To Us (proper old sounding soulful hip hop from the Deep South)
Olafur Arnalds – Broadchurch OST (marvellous classical and glitchy electronics from consistently brilliant Icelandic composer)
Watches…
Bear Grylls – Born Survivor Series 5 (finally catching up…)
The Island with Bear Grylls series 2 (fascinating and disturbing version of Lord of the Flies 2015)
Ross Noble – Nonsensory Overload (properly mental, and pant-wettingly hilarious)
Seven Psychopaths (every film containing Tom Waits is instantly genius – when he holds a rabbit throughout – even more so…)
walker1 says
Heard – It’s been mainly Test Match Special and Tom Russell this month. The Rose of Roscrae, his latest album, is a real grower and I’ve also been enjoying previous albums Borderlines, Blood and Candle Smoke and Aztec Jazz. And I’m delighted to see Alistair Cook scoring runs again – but why they haven’t given Adam Lyth a couple of Tests instead of Jonathan Trott is beyond me (and I like Jonathan Trott.)
Read – I’m currently ploughing through Robert MacFarlane’s latest – “Landmarks” – about words and nature writing. Nowhere near as enjoyable as The Wild Places, which Pencilsqueezer mentions above and which I loved, or The Old Ways. If you’ve never read any of his books, make it The Wild Places. Interestingly, one of his chapters is about J A Baker’s The Peregrine – mentioned by Wheldrake, and I’d mentally crossed it off my “to read” list on the back of this – but Wheldrake’s making me wonder about restoring it.
Seen – nothing special. I did enjoy Poldark for traditional Sunday evening viewing. Lovely scenery, Aidan Turner’s flowing locks kept my wife interested; Demelza’s did the same for me and the ploy had enough triumph and disaster to keep you interested. I’ve somehow avoided knowing that there was a remake of “Far From The Madding Crowd” in the offing and may take myself to the local picture house over the next few days to take that in.
AOB – a welcome week off work now follows. Plenty of walking planned; there’s no better time of the year.
ganglesprocket says
HEARD
Very little “new” but a lot of stuff. Been trying to reconnect with music in the past few months as speech radio had pretty much taken completely over. In the process of doing so I’ve gone almost entirely folky. However Andy Irvine at Walthamstow Folk Club was a serious highlight and so Planxty have featured heavy again.
SEEN
The news. The election. The fucking election. Nepal. Half attempted to watch Men In Black 3 the other night but failed to make it to the end. Seriously, the news, Have I Got News For You, a lot of Radio 4 and World Service. I need to find the fun.
READ
Again, I need to find the fun. I got a cheap short subscription to The Spectator, which I promptly cancelled after the main story of the first issue I was sent was Michael Gove grumbling about how Christians in the UK are hard done by.
I am halfway through In Plain Sight; The Life And Lies Of Jimmy Saville by Dan Davis which is as good as The Executioners Song, In Cold Blood, Somebody’s Husband Somebody’s Son and any other respectable book of true crime ever written. I thought only the late Gordon Burn could possibly do justice to this story, I am happy to be proven wrong. It’s up for the Orwell Prize and it deserves to win. Although again, it’s not much “fun.”
I also read The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan which is, in my opinion, the best debut novel to come from out of Scotland since Under The Skin by Michel Faber. It’s not quite a masterpiece but it’s brilliant, moving, funny, heartbreaking and a real calling card for a potentially huge talent. Watch her folks, I reckon she’s going to be huge.
AOB
Work troubles, toddler sleep troubles and many other troubles have pre-occupied me. Please recommend fun stuff. I’ll be checking later.
el hombre malo says
fun stuff – I can always rely on xkcd for some illumination http://xkcd.com/1515/
this piece of ska always provides a lift https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQeY-xSWsLM
and you can always rely on texts from dog http://textfromdog.tumblr.com/
(toddlers not sleeping is Hard Work. our elder daughter was 2 before she started sleeping through the night. keep on keepin’ on!)
SteveT says
Has April gone already – bloody hell that went quick.
Heard: After raving about Goran Kajfes last month I got his Reason Why volume 2. Like it very much but not yet sure whether it eclipses vol 1 – possibly not. As Walker1 says up above the Tom Russell album The Rose of Roscrae really is a thing of beauty. Some new Jackie Leven. New Jackie Leven you ask? Well no. The only album of his that I didn’t have was Elegy for Jackie Leven for some reason. Rectified that sand it is rather lovely. One artist I still miss very much.
The mojo cd this month is excellent and I concur with Pencilsqueezer about Bassekou Kouyate – the album rocks like a bastard. I saw them a couple of years ago and they were very impressive but this one is a step up and a perfect merging of African and Western influences.
Seen: Calexico last night who were very good indeed. Whilst in New York I visited Blue Note and saw Donald Harrison whose guest stars were Fred Westley and a brilliant young Trumpeter Christian Scott who really impressed me. I bought a compilation of his which is excellent, surprised we are not hearing more of him. Not much that I remember on the tv front except Master Chef and Coronation Street.
READ: Currently reading Ginger Bakers autobiography Hellraiser which I am enjoying despite it being clear he is not that nice a person.
SteveT says
Teaches me I should edit before submitting – I do of course mean Elegy for Johnny Cash. But you knew that.
ruff-diamond says
HEARD: On the “new music” front, Steven Wilson’s Hand Cannot Erase is, as many of you already know, a remarkable album. Other than that, it’s been pretty much a diet of ‘old’ round my way. My vinyl fetish grows apace – recent purchases include Rush’s dystopian masterpiece “2112” (a recent re-release as part of their ’12 Months of Rush’ campaign), The Moody Blues’ “This Is The Moody Blues” (a fine two record distillation of the band’s ‘core 7’ albums), Traffic’s “John Barleycorn Must Die”, The Who’s “Happy Jack” (the US release of ‘A Quick One…’) and “Live At Leeds” (complete with inserts!), and Ike and Tina Turner’s “Working Together”. I’m currently waiting for delivery of the first two Big Star albums and The Dame’s Aladdin Sane.
SEEN: Normally at this time of year I would be all set for the Stanley Cup playoffs, but this year my San Jose Sharks decided to turn into an exploding clown car of a team, resulting in them missing the Big Show for the first time in 10 years. Consequently this has reduced the number of fucks I have to give about the competition this year to almost zero. So instead I’ve been watching “Wolf Hall” on PBS – compelling drama, with Mark Rylance excellent as Cromwell. Also seen were “The Battle Of The Five Armies” (loved it, but I am a confirmed Tolkien obsessive, so…) and “Wild”, the story of a woman who seeks recovery from grief over the loss of her mother and her own substance abuse by hiking over 1000 miles along the Pacific Crest Trail, from the Mexican border up to Oregon (Reese Witherspoon gives a remarkable performance as the central character).
READ: Currently working my way through the Sandman series of comics – sorry, Graphic Novels – via the Perfect Viewer app on my Kindle.
Also via the Kindle I read Mark Ellen’s “Rock Stars Stole My Lives” and Danny Baker’s “Going Off Alarming”. The former I found most entertaining, the latter only so in parts. First, too much Twizzle, second, financial irresponsibility as a badge of honour? Not suo sure about that…
I just finished the latest Bernie Gunther novel from Phillip Kerr, “The Lady From Zagreb” – as usual, an absorbing read. Alongside Sam Vimes, Bernie is my favourite fictional copper.
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Dardanelles campaign, more popularly known as Gallipoli, I am about to pick up Alan Morehead’s classic account of the campaign. It’s a sobering thought to realise that we are now as far removed from those days as the participants were from Napoleon, Wellington and Waterloo.
Locust says
Heard:
I’ve been working even more than usual lately, and the album that I’ve turned to the most for relaxing and getting rid of stress is one by the trio of Anders Jormin on double bass, Lena Willemark on vocals and fiddles, and Karin Nakagawa on the Japanese 25 string koto, called “Trees of Light”, or “Lyöstraini” in the northern Swedish dialect used on most of these tracks.
Swedish and Japanese folk musicality meets a sprinkle of modern jazz in these songs, with poetic lyrics. Beautiful and contemplative, one I keep coming back to.
The next favourite of April is the new album by Jonathan Johansson; “Lebensraum”, an outstanding improvement on his earlier efforts. Slick infectious dance pop with hidden depths in the both personal and political lyrics once you manage to decipher his thick southern Swedish dialect…it’s quite impenetrable at times. But really good songs that keep playing on a loop in my head most days.
Third Swedish treat of the month is Anders F Rönnblom’s “The Cosmopolitan Cupcake Conspiracy”, part two of a political trilogy of CDs called “Landet Folket Jaget” – “The Country The People The Self”, the third one on its way soon. As a long time fan of Rönnblom’s surreal humouristic verbosity I am of course loving it, this one’s even better than the first installment and rumours say the third one is the best one…lovely!
He took a long brake from recording new material, I guess it payed off.
I’m slowly but surely falling in love with Matthew E White’s second outing; “Fresh Blood”, listening to it is like wrapping a comforting blanket around you on a cold day; and it’s better than his debut, IMO.
And I’m also getting more and more into the mostly instrumental trippy folk of Nathan Bowles on “Nansemond”, fan of the banjo as I am. Both ancient and modern sounding, very beautiful.
Disco diva as I also am, Cerrone compilation “The Best of Cerrone productions” is pure gold and glitter over two discs of slick anthems and production magic, impossible to sit still to.
The African space disco of Ata Kak on “Obaa Sima” is both groovy and hilarious, maybe not a future classic but great fun for right now.
Tobias Jesso Jr’s debut album “Goon” has been described as channeling 70s Californian singer-songwriters, but I would file him closer to slightly naffer 70s music, like Billy Joel or Elton John, only less competent. Some good tracks, but mostly underwhelming so far (but I confess I haven’t given it much time, since I had so much good stuff to listen to, so it might just need more time…but it feels like I’ve enjoyed it less and less with every listen, so I’m not hopeful).
I’m disappointed with Laura Marling’s latest, “Short Movie”. I find it dull, it lacks tunes, and speaking of channeling 70s Californians…too much Joni for my taste. I’ve realized that I only love every second album of Laura’s; and because I really loved the last one, it’s perfectly normal that I’m not enjoying this one!
I’m a bit torn when it comes to Sufjan Stevens’ new one as well…! Yes, it has some incredible heartbreakingly beautiful songs on it, and it’s very moving, but as a whole it becomes a bit (dare I say it?) dull and very depressing for my taste. Also, I liked the direction he was going with “The Age of Adz” and would have liked to see him venture into new musical territories rather than going back to old familiar sounds.
But I don’t expect anyone else to agree with me!
I’m trying to listen to Courtney Barnett’s new album, but I haven’t been able to form an opinion yet…for some reason I find it hard to concentrate on it, my mind starts thinking about other things and all of a sudden the album stops and I’ve no idea what I’ve heard!
(I haven’t actually bought any new albums this last month, I bought so many albums in March that half of them were left unheard for this month, making my list of albums to buy even longer for May…and I still have two more albums left from this batch! Again; not had much time for anything but working, so that didn’t help)
Read:
Not as many books as I usually read in a month, but one of them was (still is, have a little less than a third of it left) James Joyce’s “Ulysses”, and it’s a bit of a brick, so it’s taken a while!
But apart from its size it’s not the difficult read I had been led to believe all of these years when I avoided it. In fact, it’s absolutely wonderful; poetic and precise and absolutely gripping in spite of its lack of outer drama. And funny, too!
Apart from that, my quest to find and read all the books by P C Jersild has continued with the very funny surreal satire of “Drömpojken” (approx. “The Dream Boy”) telling a story that is quite impossible to sum up, but it has made waiting for the metro a desirable treat.
Then my sister found one of his earliest novels and put it through my mail slot on World Book Day, and as it’s set in the actual metro that’ll be my new commute treat.
Apart from those, only a couple of re-reads of the fast food variety of literature, mostly just avoiding doing better things.
Seen:
The Swedish folklore forest drama I told you about earlier (“Jordskott”) finished satisfactory, and the longer the series went on, the better it became. Interesting, if not without faults.
Can’t really remember what I’ve seen, apart from the rather bizarre documentary “Foodies” and another one about the story of Swedish guitar makers Levin (RIP).
Oh, and the pilot of a TV series from my youth, on YouTube, proving that you should never go back – of course it’s much better in your memory!
AOB:
Instead of CDs, this month I bought carpets. Three, very beautiful and very cheap in a sale. One of them the twin brother of one I bought a couple of years ago, to my great joy.
I also bought my festival ticket for August. Let’s just hope I get a holiday that weekend as well…we’ve been having trouble getting people wanting to work this summer, and it didn’t help that one regular co-worker was sacked this month over some dishonest business.
Ah well, that’s life in a cash handling business…some people just can’t deal with it. Unfortunately it’s a bit expensive to find out which ones can’t!
JustB says
Heard:
It’s been a lovely couple on months getting to know my new record player. As extensively documented on the old site, I don’t buy any of the audiophilia bollocks, so the purchase was entirely motivated by a nostalgia for the ritual of putting an album on. It’s not even my nostalgia, really – I had a few 7″ singles and LPs as a kid, but the vast majority of my formative listening was on cassette, then CD when I got my first CD player at 16. But there’s something indisputably lovely about coming home at the end of a long day, making a drink and putting a record on.
To which end, I’ve mostly been buying old favourites: Hatful of Hollow, The Queen Is Dead, High Violet, Reckoning, but also the new Laura Marling album, Short Movie, which is the best thing she’s done since I Speak Because I Can.
Read:
As mentioned on the audiobook thread, I’ve been reading JK Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith. She knows what she’s doing, does that woman: Galbraith has only the most occasional stylistic touch that reminds you of who it really is (the phrase “a touch of asperity” is used for both Hermione and Robin Ellacott) – but mostly it couldn’t be more different, and not just because of the subject matter, which is by turns horrible and very funny. Cormoran Strike is an immensely likeable lead character, and Robin, his assistant-becoming-nearly-partner, is a lovely foil for him. Rowling has a great way of backing off from their points of view and going to wide shots as the solution to the crime comes closer, and by the end of The Silkworm, I was properly desperate to know whodunnit. Really enjoyable stuff.
Seen:
I can’t believe I’m admitting this, but I’m watching The West Wing AGAIN. It’s total comfort food by this point – I suppose this might be my eighth time through. I still love it. I’m doing Breaking Bad again too.
And Game Of Thrones, naturally, remains in a league of its own.
RubyBlue says
Heard
Still trying to listen to a backlog of stuff but as ever I always prioritise whatever I fancy on the day, which is probably how it should be. Listening to lots of Spotify playlists (thank you) and this is opening a lot of interesting avenues.
Of note: Earl Sweatshirt (as mentioned by someone above); Calexico, Phil France: ‘The Swimmer’, Chilly Gonzalez, The National, and as usual, Sufjan. To listen to this month: Blur, for nostalgic interest more than anything else.
Saw:
‘Mad Men’: only three to go. It’s as subtle as ever but something isn’t grabbing me this season; I’m sure that will change. Peggy is again the most intriguing character (no spoilers). ‘House of Cards’ was great fun, and I’m going to try and finish ‘The Honourable Woman’ this weekend. ‘The Wire’ remains unwatched. 🙂
Read:
I got my reading mojo back! I don’t know why or how, but it’s been great. One-phrase reviews, as there’s so many:
• Karl Ove Knausgaard: ‘Dancing in the Dark’- journey of teenagery self-discovery .
• Marion Keyes: ‘The Woman Who Sole My Life’- disappointing and predictable.
• Laline Paull: ‘The Bees’- I heart bees.
• Mark Ellen: ‘Rock Stars Stole My Life’- Afterwordtastic.
• Elena Ferrante: ‘The Days of Abandonment’- Grueling and harrowing ‘how could you do this to me, you bastard’ psychodrama.
• Kim Gordon: ‘Girl in a Band’- Simultaneously more and less interesting than I thought it would be (KG cool and detached; KG-TM split, the usual mid-life crisis tale).
• Alan Watts: ‘The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are’- Buddhist tract, I don’t understand it.
• Dan Ariely: ‘Predictably Irrational’- We mostly do the same things, for the same reasons, we are all bonkers.
The academic year limps to an end. I am gearing up for a summer of no money but the most precious of things, time. I am reading a lot of cognitive psychology and neuroscience in preparation for a research project later in the year and so I need to learn some hard science, particularly on autobiographical memory, and learn how to do statistics again. Humanities grad learns science, to much derision.
Colin H says
I’ll keep it short…
READING: Currently enjoying ‘The Hog’s Back Mystery’ by Freeman Wills Crofts – one of a fabulous series of ‘Golden Age Of British Crime Writing’ reprints of lost gems by the British Library. I have about 20 FWC novels, all in 1940s/50s Penguin paperbacks and the like (some of these being themselves reprints of his 20s/30s work) so it’s splendid to see one of his novels – and a rare one which I didn’t otherwise have – being republished. There’s some more FWC to come in the Brit Library series too.
WATCHING: Snooker, of an evening.
LISTENING: I’m working on an absorbing reissue project around British folk/blues/jazz producer Peter Eden just at the mo, specifically around his Brit jazz adventures, which means discovering lots of fabulous music from a period/scene which I still think is the last great neglected corner of British pop (in broad terms) – progressive British jazz circa 1968-72.
It was a period where lots of unlikely people got signed for an album or two to major labels as well as smaller ones taking a punt. Much of it was large-scale music too, blending rock and jazz – Mike Westbrook Concert Band, Michael Gibbs big band etc. Add in Colosseum, If, Nucleus et all and you get the picture. This Mike Westbrook/Norma Winstone track below, ‘Original Peter’, was even released as single in 1970 and promoted on prime-time BBC2 in a multi-media event with circus acts and suchlike. It’s currently listed as a £400 rarity, so the exposure obviously didn’t work… But an exciting time when it clearly looked as if British jazz might just be sellable.
Other than that I’m looking forward to seeing Sarah McQuaid live in Dublin on Monday (at a multi media event) and in a nice outdoor pursuits place near Omagh next Sunday. I’m also looking forward to seeing Brooks Williams playing with The Mighty Mojos (a Belfast original blues act) on Wednesday night, including a swiftly rehearsed collaboration.
Beezer says
SEEN: House Of Cards Season 3. Underwood is Preseident now. A Placeholder President, which isn’t sitting well with him. Cue errors of judgment and the ire of FLOTUS. Kapow.
READ: A lot of W Somerset Maugham. Of Human Bondage and The Moon And Sixpence. OHB is a tome, nevertheless as soon as Mildred tips up midway through it becomes agonising and gripping. Tight prose, straight to the meat of the emotions. And ‘Asterix in Britain’. Very droll piece of work. Us Britons are shown as phlegmatic drinkers of hot water at 4pm. Given that tea wouldn’t appear for another couple of millennia. Amusant, mon braves.
HEARD: Mark Knopfler’s new one, ‘Tracker’. Another set of folk and blues tunes and the ubiquitous guita
Beezer says
What!? Hit submit by mistake! Tw*t!
Anyway. It.s good.
niallb says
I’m with Beezer on the Knopfler album. Quietly, without any fuss, he has become one of our great songwriters. Anyway….
Seen :
Josh Rouse at my beloved Stables near MK. Stunning gig by one my all time faves.
Heard :
A Fool To Care by Boz Scaggs. It’s a belter.
Read :
Maximum Darkness by Deke Leonard. I’ve loved all of Deke’s books about life on the road and this is another cracker. Darker than the others, simply because his time as a travelling musician is coming to an end, and because I knew what was over the horizon, at the end. When Micky Jones dies, on the last page, I was on a 3 hour train journey. I closed the book and stared, hard, out of the window for a full five minutes, tears streaming down my cheeks and the epic Greasy Truckers version of Spunk Rock in my headphones, Micky and Deke swapping thrilling solos like gunslingers.
niallb says
Permit me, Pencil. Was it this beauty?
http://i1077.photobucket.com/albums/w479/niallbrannigan/0592aa9ad991a8d13d550819343fa6c5_zpscvkmxm6m.jpg
pencilsqueezer says
Bless you Niall. That is indeed the very one.
You have just attained hero status. X
SteveT says
I like that very much indeed.
Agree on Knopfler with you and Beezer. Never understand why he is maligned in some quarters – yes I can accept not to everyones taste but he is a craftsman and takes care to put out something he considers to be worthwhile every release rather than just cobbling something together for the sake of it.
ip33 says
WATCHED
Mainly re-watching Game of Thrones so get ready for the new series, even better the second (or third) time around. And the other highlight of the month has been Inside No 9, The Twelve Days of Christine was just devastating and brilliant.
HEARD
Loads of good stuff this month. Stuart Maconie’s Freakier Zone of a couple of weeks back on British Comics and Actors made me investigate the works of David Hemmings, David McCallum and Mick Robertson all good especially the Hemmings. Also enjoying the new Bill Fay, Chris and Cosey, The Soft Moon, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Tracey Thorn. As for old, the Hawkwind box and the Van Der Graaf at the BBC have been fantastic.
READ
Not much book reading this month, been too busy binding them! But have enjoyed Cowboys and Indies: The Epic History of the Record Industry by Gareth Murphy
Mike_H says
Not really been enthused by anything new (ish) for ages and then just last week discovered Toy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvUOsaOgtdU
Yeah. I know. 3 years old but new to me.
Apart from that it’s been mostly the Headphone Commute podcasts I’ve foolishly neglected to listen to previously and old jazz, man. Specifically a cheapo 6-CD Horace Silver set, a 4-CD 9 album Max Roach set and a 4-CD 8 album Ahmad Jamal set.
Live music has been sparse. I do need to get out more. Completely missed The Rutles early set at Koko (warming up for the Bonzo Dog anniversary thing as Nights-Outed by DFB on these very pages) after a work day from hell. I don’t like Koko anyway, and missing The Rutles and the day’s general crapness had me in a rather black mood. The second section of the Bonzo bash cheered me up somewhat. First section with Bob Kerr etc. was a bit meh in my opinion.
Not a lot of telly and no movies watched. Belatedly discovered “Uncle”, which I enjoyed a lot and more of “Bluestone 42” which has a personal resonance. Rather peculiar ending, though.
Re-read a couple of Christopher Brookmyres. Namely “Be My Enemy” and “All Fun And Games Until Somebody Loses An Eye” and I read Deke Leonard’s “Maximum Darkness”. All good.
Currently I’m in the middle of a Klaus Schulze binge, musically.
Michael says
I’m going to beg to differ. I really hated Shantaram – and thought it was awful self-aggrandising nonsense, one of the few books that I wanted to throw across the room.
Michael says
Grrr. Posted in the wrong place and can’t edit. Must remember that iPad doesn’t work well on here.
Fin59 says
@michael
Could t agree more about Shantaram. Episodic without being involving, all surface depth with little insight and a glutinous prose style. A sort of Da Vinci Code of the travel hyphen self-discovery genres.
Beezer says
In my earlier fat fingered frenzy I omitted my AOB, which was that the thread originator and I missed each other by an hour so at Brussels airport early last month.
And, yes, the Knopfler album is worthy of attention. There is a slight return to the early light stringed Straits sound but it’s the lyrics that continue to impress. ‘My Heart Has Never Changed’ made your correspondent’s throat go all lumpy and that.
Rigid Digit says
A somewhat barren month:
Heard – nothing new, not been Spotifying, YouTubing, or Thisismyjamming much at all. Most, if not all, of the stuff entering my lugholes has been the “tried & trusted”.
(On order: Blur, Paul Weller, Cathal Smyth & Steven Wilson)
Seen – similar to the above
Read – same again
I admit I have been totally lacking any form of artistic inspiration these past 30 days (or so), reason for this is the flashing lights on my car dashboard, and the total bemusement of the garage as to what is actually wrong – whichever way I look at it, it is looking very expensive.
In other news, just got back from Belgium and France – the people of Bruges must rely heavily on Amazon as there was no record shop to be found, whereas I found 5 in Brussels.
bang em in bingham says
Been rewatching Dalziel and Pascoe with the brilliant Warren Clarke. Listening to a ton of Joni marvelling what a great overlooked album Turbulent Indigo is which took me to Pat Metheny a guitarist I had completely ignored. Played a lot of Sarah Vaughan which took me to Ethel Ennis and Abby lincoln both amazing jazz singers I hadnt heard before. Read Peter Robinson’s “Children of The Revolution” and John Connolly’s first novel thanks to a post on here about the Dublin based novelist.
bungliemutt says
Turbulent Indigo is indeed the mutt’s, while its predecessor Night Ride Home is also pretty much the badger’s.
bang em in bingham says
Must check that thanks. also missed Chalk Marks In The Rain………………….any opinions on Shine?
bungliemutt says
I’d avoid Chalk Mark, but Shine is okay-ish.
badger_king says
I heard that…
Kid Dynamite says
Heard
obviously the New Model Army triple live CD has been on heavy rotation. I’m surprised no one else has mentioned it yet. Vessels’ Dilate is The Chemical Brothers for Mogwai fans, and I’m pretty sure it’ll be in the running for one of my albums of the year come December. Also discovered Agalloch’s The Mantle, which on one hand is a bit floaty forest back metal, but on the other probably accessible to the more adventurous prog fans here – definite echoes of Opeth.
Read
loads as usual. I like @rubyblue‘s one phrase review idea, so I’m going to nick it.
Christopher Fowler’s Bryant & May: The Burning Man – bittersweet ending (?) to one of my favourite crime series of recent years
Ursula LeGuin’s The Word For World Is Forest – decent SFnal Vietnam allegory let down a bit by a terrible bad guy
Douglas Adams – the first four Hitchhikers’ books. Still great, for the first three at least. The fourth was better than I remembered, but still only a three star effort. At the time I really didn’t like the fifth. I might go back to it after these, but I probably won’t
Patrick Leigh Fermor – A Time Of Gifts. A reread after I picked up all three in hardback for about twenty quid total. It’s marvellous, but I expect you already knew that – it was the old sire that turned me on to him in the first place.
Silvia Garcia Moreno’s Signal To Noise – music and magic in 1980s Mexico City. I keep meaning to do a proper review of it, but in the meantime it is highly recommended.
Robert Jackson Bennett – City Of Stairs. The best fantasy novel I’ve read in years. A world away from dull medieval European analogues, this has echoes of China Mieville and Lovecraft. Really really good
Watched
The first three episodes of the new Game Of Thrones. Disappointing, to be honest. Maybe because I came to it from the books and I don’t think that any of the changes they’ve made so far are improvements, and some are actively stupid. On the other hand I’ve started to quite enjoy Fortitude after a slow start (three episodes left, so no spoilers please. I hope that they do follow through on the hints of supernatural menace though.
Lucy – total preposterous nonsense, but I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way
Museum Hours – a contemplative film about a museum in Vienna that feels more like a documentary. It co-stars Mary Margaret O’Hara, was produced by Patti Smith, and director Jem Cohen has lots of Fugazi connections, so that should tick a lot of Afterword boxes. Definitely worth watching.
Kid Dynamite says
It was of course the old site that turned me on to PLF. As far as I know, my dad’s never read him.
duco01 says
Yes, me too.
One mention of Fermor on a book-related thread on the old site led me to read all three books of the European walk. Top stuff!
timtunes says
“Vessels’ Dilate is The Chemical Brothers for Mogwai fans”
Couldn’t have put it better
Mike Hull says
Heard:
Laura Marling – Short Movie. Her most mature work to date. She must have been lonely and sad when she wrote those songs, though.
Calexico – Edge of the Sun (plus bonus tracks). Took a while for some of it to grow on me, but I rate it as one of their best album and it has been regularly played in this household.
Ryley Walker – thanks to @pencilsqueezer I have been turned on to this guy’s amazing sound. His voice is like a young John Martyn’s and the sound is like every late 60s Les Cousins folky rolled into one…yet he’s American.
The Barr Brothers – discovered at about 8pm on the last day of the month whilst supporting Calexico (so a very later entry to the list!). Check them out – they are f**king amazing! – see the clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz5m5m4Yw1I
Eels – Live at the Royal Albert Hall which captures their superb live show from 2014. My only criticism is it could do with one less ‘bummer rock’ song and one more from Daisies of the Galaxy to reach sheer perfection.
Rediscovered Van the Man – eg Poetic Champions Compose, St Dominic’s Preview, His Band and Streetchoir, Veedon Fleece, Inarticulate Speech of the Heart, etc
Saw:
Too much of the election. I’ve done a postal vote. Nothing any of them can say will change my vote!
Martin Stephenson and Jim Hornsby at the Fishpond, Matlock Bath. We were right at the front and as a result, I think I caught Martin’s man flu, which has made getting through the last week something of a challenge.
Calexico (supported by the Barr Brothers) at the Albert Hall in Manchester. A strange venue which is a large former Methodist church and still somewhat dilapidated. Both acts were truly amazing and left me wanting to see them again immediately. Heather and I met up with @stevet and @el-toro beforehand for a meal and drinks. Smashing blokes, both of them and we must do it again.
Read:
Not a lot really – it’s been a busy and fraught month at work with muggins here working too hard as ever.
Diddley Farquar says
Seen:
Blue Jasmine. Shows Woody Allen can still come up with the goods with his late works and has consistently created great roles for women. Unlike many a great director he produces sparkling dialogue, fully rounded characters and gets the narrative going from the start without let up in a nice, tight 90 minutes. Makes a change from so many art films that present inactivity as profundity.
Also saw the Pulp film which is as much about the audience as the band. Full of warmth and wit, with a wonderful cover of Help The Aged by a group of pensioners.
Tried W1A the BBC comedy about the BBC. Couldn’t be doing with it. So pleased with itself.
Heard: Withdrawing into the CDs of my own collection.
Read: Currently 80% of the way through the new Kazuo Ishiguro. It’s a journey with hazards, not a new idea. Quite gripping. It’s good. Not sure I would have been bothered if I’d lived without it. So much that is fictional makes me feel I’ve been here before, why do I need to go here again. Non-fiction generally seems a better use of my time, more likely to surprise and inspire me, thinking of that Viv Albertine book for one. Truth stranger than fiction – you couldn’t make it up etc.
JustB says
@kid-dynamite – I’m coming to GoT from the books too, but I think the changes are probably right (although that doesn’t stop me being surprised when they happen). I see the series as reining in GRRM’s tendency to excess: the books simply don’t need such a sprawling cast. Case in point: Jeyne Poole and the Ramsey wedding. Substituting in Sansa makes good dramatic sense – I simply didn’t care about Jeyne in the books because I didn’t know her. She was just somebody for Ramsey to be appalling to (again).
I feel the same about the Dorne storyline. It makes much more sense to put Jaime and Bron in that story instead of Arys Oakheart (who he?). They’re cutting out the fat, and as much as I love the books, they’re not short of fat.
Carolina says
Heard
Well I’ve been partially deaf a lot of month due to horrible lurgy but have still semi-heard a lot of wonderful stuff. I fell in love with Patty Griffin, never having heard her before, so been hearing a lot from her, Impossible Dream, 1000 Kisses and Children Running Through. Sufjan has been on play constantly with his brilliant new album. Also Josh Rouse, the Staves and the lovely new Lilac Time album. Olivia Chaney’s debut folk album is fantastic. She has a gorgeous voice and uses it to great effect making the songs sound quite unusual. My favourite is Imperfections. Other albums I’ve been appreciating included the Rose of Roscrae by Tom Russell and Primrose Green by Ryley Walker.
Saw
Sadly the run of Foyles War episodes I hadn’t already seen has come to an end so am going to have to make a big effort to look out for things to watch. Greatly enjoyed Collectorholics. The ep with the CD collector who had bought 6 flats solely to house his collection, spent £500,000 on the CDs, and was currently employing 4 staff just to sort and catalogue it was jaw dropping. W1A has started again – hurray! I watch it solely for Hugh Bonneville’s comic timing and the actress who plays Anna, Head of Output. I find the character Siobhan a bit boring and repetitive. The BBC4 documentary on Band Break ups was very good especially a waspishly funny Andy Summers from the Police. Also been watching Back to the Kitchen, a history/cookery programme with a family cooking through a decade a week, starting from the 1950’s, wearing the fashions and living the lifestyle. The actual Robshaw family were bright, funny, good natured and not annoying at all and it brought back a lot of memories, culinary and otherwise.
SteveT says
Thumbs up from me for the new Lilac Time album too. Stephen Duffy is a great talent often overlooked when we talk about British songwriters.
Kid Dynamite says
@disappointmentbob yes and no. I agree that no one could accuse Martin of underwriting, and I’m fine with things like the supporting cast around Dany in Meeren being condensed into one character, or the Dorne trip you mention. It’s the ways the story could still turn out in the books that are being closed down that bothers me most. Jaqen’s in Oldtown plotting something? Nope, he’s back in Braavos because there’s only one Faceless Man in this series. No Lady Stoneheart, no Young Griff so no invasion of Westeros, no Sarella….these are all things I want to know more about when (if) The Winds Of Winter is published (and btw, wouldn’t it be awesome if they pulled a Beyonce with TWOW, and it just suddenly appeared in bookshops overnight?).
I guess we have to treat the show now as an alternate to the books instead of an adaptation, which is fine. I just like the books better.
JustB says
I don’t know that we’ve got *no* Young Griff, have we? Perhaps just not yet.
The Lady Stoneheart thing is so vague in the books that I don’t know that that road is closed to the showrunners. Maybe they’ll get to it later. In some ways, they’re going fast and in others, slow. The Wall seems to be running out of road quite fast, for example.
And anyway, Jaqen? Who says it’s him in the House? My money says we see him in Oldtown too as Sam arrives, I’m not writing that off.
thecheshirecat says
Heard : There’s stacks of new stuff piled across my desk – 2015 seems to be a bumper year – such that it’s been physically impossible to get beyond a couple of plays of new Bjork, Sufjan Stevens, Gaz Coombes, Ryley Walker. Inevitably, the one CD that has got attention is the new Lau – The Bell That Never Rang. What to say? Arc Light is one of my favourite albums by anyone, while Race the Loser reveals probably my favourite track ever. So how do they follow that? In fairness, they can’t. They’ve just brought out an adventurous, imaginative collection that anyone else would give their collective eye teeth for. This one won’t be my recommendation of how to discover them, but nonetheless it stands tall in a body of work that is remarkable by any standards. I just listened to their first album the other night and that proved how they were world class right from the off.
Seen: The end of the Ravel and Rachmaninov season at The Bridgewater Hall. After a 35 year wait I got to see performed Le Tombeau de Couperin, one of my favourite solo piano works. This was programmed with a new commission Le Tombeau de Rachmaninov, which followed the structure of Ravel’s masterpiece, with 6 movements, interpreting the memory of one composer in the style of another, yet written by pianists and composers very much with us. From a piece I know intimately to a world premiere, it was a wild intoxicating ride. I’m hoping it generates enough interest for it to be committed to CD.
The final night’s programme was heavyweight; three piano concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. The opening movement of Ravel’s Concerto in G Major screams for the audience to applaud riotously against all concert-going convention, but that could wait until Peter Donohoe signed off the Paganini with delicacy and delight.
Being able to get to concerts like this on a regular basis is a privilege borne of being in a good job and living near a cultured city in a Western industrialised nation. I never forget my good fortune and am forever grateful.
Wayfarer says
@thecheshirecat I’m waiting on the Lau album – I’ve dowloaded a copy and it sounds great, but I want the cd to play on the hifi and in the car.
I’ve been really busy so I’ve managed just one album over the last two or three weeks – Olivia Chaney’s The Longest River. It more than lives up to the hype and the long wait for it to appear; in fact, it will probably be one of my albums of the year.
Fin59 says
Early April in NYC. Can’t claim to have been the biggest fan of Sufjan Stevens previously or actually too familiar with his work. If anything, my idea of him was something on the twee side of the new folkie crowd.
And then I saw him at the Beacon Theatre, possibly my favourite venue in the whole wide world, and it was one of the most captivating and moving concerts I can recall.
Drawing on his recent work Carrie And Lowell, and complemented by home movies and private pictures, it’s as clear eyed but quietly devastating an evocation of grief as you will hear.
Also, saw trumpet virtuoso Tom Harrell at the Village Vanguard. Again, not overly familiar with his work previously and while I enjoyed the technique and intensity, I found it oddly unengaging. Perhaps, falling into the perennial Jazz trap of elevating expertise at the expense of an emotional connection.
Also, not helped by the gig being at the Vanguard which I’ve never warmed to as a venue, with its high prices, painfully self aware crowd and supercilious staff.
Film wise I caught up with Birdman which I found captivating, the viscerally entertaining Whiplash, the profoundly silly but enjoyable Avengers: Age Of Ultron and the somewhat plodding While We Were Young.
Work wise I’ve been involved in a couple of start-ups and incubator projects that my company is backing and as a result have had my head buried in a good deal of business strategy reading. I can recommend Zero To One by Peter Thiel and Nudge by Richard Thaler.
For pleasure, as ever I’ve gone gone back to eternal favourites Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Ford Madox Ford and the poetry of Yeats, Seamus Heaney and the old reprobate Ezra Pound.
On the small screen, I’m enjoying the coda of Mad Men, was underwhelmed by Fortitude and warming to the understated precision of 30 Degrees In February.
Phil Pirrip says
Late to the party as ever.
Seen:
As listed elsewhere, live music with Renaissance, Public Service Broadcasting and Smoke Fairies. All good nights out in their own way.
On TV: The second series of Inside No. 9 has been superb; Ballot Monkeys has had its moments but has yet to hit the hights of Drop the Dead Donkey; W1A has I think has improved, but I’m not sure whether it has legs; I’m persisting with Thunderbirds are Go – it’s a good attempt to update something close to my heart, but I really wish they would slow it down a bit. After sitting unplayed on the digi-recorder for a few weeks I was able to catch up with Reginald D Hunter’s Songs of the South – well worth three hours of anyone’s time. The big elephant in the room though was the minimal references to Elvis and Sun Studios. Finally, and don’t ask me why, but I waded through the treacle that was Indian Summers with Julie Walters Scouse/Brum/Cockney/RP mash-up of an accent.
Heard:
Thanks to Mr P Squeezer, our artist in residence, the rock n roll of JD McPherson’s Let The Good Times Roll was brought to my notice and what a blast it is. This has the makings be the sound of my summer. Others listened to included Ryley Walker, Steven Wilson and PSB’s Race for Space which I’d previously been a little underwhelmed before seeing tracks played live.
Read:
I thouroughly enjoyed Helen MacDonald’s H is for Hawk. Beautifully written and a window on the grieving process and getting inside the head of a Goshawk (neither are easy). In search of something a little lighter the local charity shop furnished Ben Hatch’s Are We Nearly There Yet. The story of a family’s five month tour of the UK and … the death of a parent. Great. Either side of those I ticked off Rebus books 3 and 4.
AOB:
There is no AOB or nothing worth shouting about at least. Zzzzzzzz