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Blogger Takeover LXVII

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whoosh! It’s that time again, the first Friday of a new month.

So, please gather round this virtual firepit, help yourself to a refreshment, and tell us – what have you been listening to, watching, and reading this past month ?

And how’s the world treating you ?

2

Comments

  1. August was a strange month and as has become the normality for me every August difficult towards the end. My painting hit a bit of a wall halfway through the month but with diligence and application I climbed over it and finally made something that was acceptable to me. Thank you to all those here who have shown me kindness and lent me their support. It’s very welcome and very much appreciated.

    Seen.
    Not much tbh. I tried watching the Re-fest live but encountered a problem syncing the sound to the picture. The latency was ridiculous so I gave up on it. I have watched it since though on YouTube and it was most entertaining. Highly recommended for those with an interest in contemporary British Jazz or simply those who enjoy great music. Apart from that I’ve been watching Mortimer & Whitehouse which requires no comment from me. Mostly when not watching paint dry I’ve been reading…

    Read.
    Once Upon A River – Diane Setterfield.
    The Erstwhile – Brian Catling.
    The Tenants Of Moonbloom – Edward Lewis Wallant.
    Kindred – Octavia E Butler.
    The List – Mick Herron.
    Reflections In A Golden Eye – Carson McCullers.
    Teaching A Stone To Talk – Annie Dillard.
    Our Souls At Night – Kent Haruf.
    And I’ve been listening…

    Heard.
    The recordings I’ve returned to the most this month.
    Fly Away Little Bird – Jimmy Giuffre.
    Crystal Silence – Chick Corea, Gary Burton.
    Submers and Intervalo – Loscil.
    Superbigmouth – Chris Lightfoot.
    Chapters – Kneebody.
    Fascinoma – Jon Hassell.
    An Angel Fell and Shaman! – Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids.
    5 – Sault.
    Source – Nubya Garcia.
    Axiom – Christian Scott.
    Inner Song – Kelly Lee Owens.
    Valentine – Bill Frisell.
    Apart from the above I’ve been listening to London Grammar, Fiona Apple, Christine And The Queens, Doves, Leonard Cohen and on and on and on…

    A.O.B.
    Nothing of note. Life has become a matter of solitary confinement so little out of the ordinary occurs. I honestly cannot remember the last time I held a conversation with anybody.
    Now for September.

  2. Listening: Al Stewart, Nils Lofgren, Beach Boys. U.S. radio from the 40s, 50s.
    Watching: Alfred Hitchcock Hour T.V. series on YouTube.
    Reading: LOTR (again), first chapters of many thrillers I forget to pick up again.
    Doing: writing blog, book.
    AOB: realising that the void left by things I have to give up as I get older gets filled in subtle and beautiful ways.

  3. Reading: Mostly other people’s scripts. The lockdown months prompted a lot of people to release the creative genius they always knew they had inside them, and send me the result to review. At the moment I have a screenplay for a murder mystery set against the backdrop of a Gay Mens’ Choir, a play about a family’s dark history set in West Country woodland, and a novel about something something I’m not sure yet set on a Greek island.

    Watching: Finally got round to Chernobyl, a year after visiting it and Pripyat. It’s really very good. Also Mrs America, worth if for the fantastic theme tune. I’ve started re-watching old favourite films with the subtitles on – The Social Network and Reservoir Dogs both throw up some little gems this way. Who knew Mr Blonde is Vincent Vega’s brother?

    Listening: Still catching up on West Wing Weekly podcasts, but this month’s been mostly about TMS.
    I’m finding less and less time for music, especially new stuff. I tried that War on Drugs album everyone was raving about a few years ago. It was okay.

    AOB: I should have spent the last week of August in Edinburgh chatting up producers clamouring for the rights to my play, which would have ended its summer run at the festival. Didn’t happen of course. I’m not bitter

  4. Listening. ‘Almost finished building.’ A mix tape given to me on cassette of outtakes from more songs of buildings and food. Reading. Bowie interviews.
    Watching. Billions latest season. I love Wags. Probably why I’m here.😉

  5. I returned to work in early August so I haven’t watched/read/listened to as much as I have / did earlier in the lockdown.

    One small thing, I recently signed up for Britbox so the lovely Carol & I have been watching quite a few old British TV series.

    FWIIW & INPO,

    The complete Prime suspect (I missed a lot of the early series when I was at sea with the Royal Navy).

    Brideshead revisited (watching almost 40 years after it was first broadcast I was very surprised to find that I thought it was brilliant).

    Scott & Bailey – thought it was excellent & possibly finished too soon.

    Currently I am about half way through the first series of this life & am enjoying it almost as much as the first time I saw it.

    Films – I have only watched one film in the past few months & that was watching The Irishman for the second time a couple of weeks ago – again, thoroughly enjoyed it.

    Not bought any new music for ages, but I am making sure I get my money’s worth from Spotify. (As an aside, I would be really grateful for any recommendations – I tend to like rhythmic thud thud music (perhaps that is a bit of a contradiction in terms, but subtlety & finesse are wasted on my tin ears).

    Books – I really like the Glasgow noir of Malcom Mackay, but I am currently about 40 odd pages into The Dry by Jane Harper – really good so far.

    Not much (if any!) new here, but that’s how it is from my little corner of the Wirral.

  6. I’m not sure how to start this, so I’ll just bash it down.
    Margaret, my other half, passed away at the beginning of August in our local hospice. She had pancreatic cancer – although she had been defying the poor statistics for such a long time that neither of us were very well prepared when she had to be admitted. I haven’t been watching anything or reading very much – but the girls and I did some music listening together while we considered what to play at the funeral. Ended up with a mix of Faure, R.E.M. and CCR. Since the funeral I’ve been listening to a lot of music which we had in common, or which reminds me of specific details of our life together – sometimes it’s upsetting, but mostly it’s comforting. I’ll mention Junior Wells here – he became aware of what was going on and PM’d me a few times with advice (after his own bereavement) and I suspect also to make sure I was upright and functioning – top man.

  7. Very sorry to read of your loss.

    Difficult to write something that is not trite and trivial. But it was great to hear that Junior managed to provide some support. Good on him.

    I’ve just finished Pullman’s La Belle Sauvage. I feared I would be disappointed. But he once again showed what a magnificent storyteller he is.

    Disappearing into his universe for an hour or two was a great joy.

  8. READING
    Quite a lot, as always, starting with A Song For A New Day by Sarah Pinskner. So this novel, published at the end of last year, is about a future in which there’s no live music, partly because of a pandemic? Ooof. I like a good dystopia anyway, but the focus on and evident love for music here along with the anti-corporate message spoke straight to my old punk rock heart. It’s an engaging and highly readable novel. Maybe it’s a little naively idealistic, but hey, so is rock n roll. If you ever believed that three chords and the truth can change the world, then this is for you. Also read the new Joe Abercrombie, The Trouble With Peace, which was extremely entertaining and neatly sidestepped the usual issues associated with middle volumes of trilogies. Vikram Seth’s From Heaven Lake is a travelogue through Sinkiang and Tibet, which was enjoyable, but as it was published in the early 80s I’d imagine those areas have changed hugely in the meantime. Similarly, it turns out time has not been kind to Ringworld by Larry Niven. An SF classic in its day, it’s painfully dated now. As is Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. Somehow I didn’t read it when I was thirteen, so picked up a slipcase edition of all three in a charity shop. Didn’t enjoy it at all, it’s literally hundreds of pages of old white men telling each other how clever they are (any resemblance to popular music orientated websites is entirely coincidental, I’m sure). I’m finishing the month strongly though with a reread of Robertson Davies. I have Fifth Business and The Manticore under my belt, with one book left to close out the Deptford Trilogy. Absolutely peerless stuff.

    WATCHING
    Honestly, hardly anything. The only film I remember watching all month was the new The Invisible Man, which was fun but unexceptional.

    LISTENING
    I’m as surprised as you are, but Levellers put out my favourite album of the month. It’s their best for twenty years and more, and as fiery and energetic as they’ve been for a long time. Nubya Garcia’s “Source” was the best new jazz album of the month, top notch new British jazz with a nice side order of dub. The best old jazz was an Art Blakey archive release called “Just Coolin’”. For some reason, I revisited Grandaddy’s “Sophtware Slump” and found myself playing it a lot through the month, lovely melancholy cosmic Americana.

    In other news, we managed a brief family holiday in Wales, near Hay and the Brecon Beacons, where I bought several books, visited a location from a famous horror film, and found a severely decomposed sheep.

      • Trust me, I am no stranger to disappointing Levellers records and this isn’t one. I mean, it’s not perfect by a long shot (a 36 minute record really shouldn’t sag in the middle for a start), but definitely their best effort for some time. If Beautiful Days hadn’t been cancelled I would actually have been looking forward to the new stuff live instead of planning a trip to the bar when it was on!

        • A quick spotty and I’m on the bus: opener Food Roof Family is anthemic up there with One Way of Life on first few listens, kicking off into the Hope St type edginess of the next one. And love the horns.
          Thanks for the heads up.

    • In a nice bit of synchronicity, I just finished re reading Robertson Davies’ ‘ Deptford Trilogy’ myself last week. Earlier in lockdown I reread ‘The Cornish Trilogy’ as well. Incredibly stimulating & satisfying experience. I can’t think of a writer I’ve read who‘s produced anything equivalent.
      So sharp & erudite, I can digest his snobberies & somewhat reactionary disposition on some issues with no problem. A truly brilliant writer.

  9. Couldn’t get on with the Jessy Lanza album. It’s clever but the tunes aren’t there for me.

    At first I thought the Frazey Ford album was the same song eleven times. A few plays later, it isn’t. A great summer soundtrack. I don’t mind her non-existent diction, she can leave her teeth out if she wants (hurr)

    How fookin mega is that Pere Ubu live album, eh…? Anybody? @tiggerlion ?

    The Fall – a 2 hour playlist with a jumble of live tracks and obscurities from 1980 to 2002. Hugely enjoyable and probably still more coherent than most official Fall compos.

    Talking Heads on BBC – Raquel from Corrie ogling her teenage son’s big knob. Apart from that the massive datedness got in the way for me, AB’s knowledge of the world seems to be frozen at the point where he left Leeds for Oxford in the 1950s. Some great performances though but.

    Speaking of The Fall, I read Camus’s The Plague (in English, because I is a pleb) Very rel’ to the current posish of course, but the funniest thing in it is the would-be novelist. (“Gentlemen, hats off!”) Failed writers are always funny.

    On a completely different subject, I started to write a book.

  10. Read:
    Madness – Before We Was We (easy read, very interesting, stormed through it in 3 days)
    And in the End: The Last Days of the Beatles (if you went to the Lewinsohn shows, here’s a similar tale told from another perspective. Well researched and informative)
    Kenney Jones – Let The Good Times Roll (did what all good bios are supposed to do and got me listening to Small Faces and Faces again. Honest story, but got a bit wearing at the end (too much Polo and Prince Charles). Glad they’ve got some control over their legacy back though.

    Seen:
    I may be the last person in Britain to have never seen Line Of Duty – now fixed, binged the lot through August. Now starting on Luther.
    Recent recommendation: Fast Show Just A Load Of Blooming Catachphrases on UK Gold was a good watch, and a reminder of how funny that show is/was

    Heard:
    For the first month in a long long time, now no music has arrived chez Digit.
    Sports Team and Fontaines DC still receiving heavy rotation, as is Yachts box set.
    I thought I knew the album, but really enjoyed Exile On Main Street after about 5 years of non-listening.
    And (see above) Small Faces and Faces (if I had to recommend one album, it would be Ogdens Nut Gone Flake, with A Nod Is As Good As A Wink a close second)

  11. FS – I feel for you, I really do. I lost my beloved wife Karen 20 years ago in April, and not a day passes without my thinking of her.

    FWIIW, I don’t think bereavement is something you ever get over, I just got used to it.

    Speaking just for myself I found that when it happened it came as such a shock that I genuinely believed that I would not be able to get through it, & in the beginning I went from minute to minute & I contemplated ending it on many occasions, but somehow I managed to get through the first few days, then weeks & somehow I am still here.

    Please accept my heartfelt condolences at this terrible time for you.

    Take care my friend.

    Les ( JTB).

  12. Read: binging the free downloads from the library, so currently the Inspector Huss books. They’re written in a very matter of fact translation, which I don’t know is a reflection of the translators skills or is the author’s own. Still very enjoyable.

    Watched: Babylon 5 and rugby.

    We’ve been so busy packing for our Big Move that culture has taken a back seat.

  13. I’d just add my sincere condolences and best wishes to you and yours, fitterstoke. I can’t begin to imagine the depths of heartbreak associated with losing a wife or husband.

  14. I’m sorry to hear your news, fitterstoke.
    Makes my minor and inconsequential monthly meanderings seem ever more minor and inconsequential.

    But … a sense of normality has returned.

    Cinema – reopened.
    Saw “The County,” an Icelandic story, with a strong female lead, about big business trading as a “co-operative,” which used to have the welfare of its people at heart, yet now ties farmers into only selling to and buying from them … erm … quite topical.
    And, “The Great Buster,” a documentary on the truly fabulous Buster Keaton … highly recommended.

    Football – reopened.
    Went on Wednesday and won the 50/50 draw (£42). Thing is, the prize is usually about £15 … and this was a RESERVE game! People have been told they’re better off outside and with no Man. Utd., no Chelsea, no Arsenal etc. to get in the way, if local clubs can survive this phase, there could be a resurgence of interest reminiscent of the immediate post-war seasons.

    TV – waded through two episodes (I couldn’t do all six) of a documentary on Rolling Stone magazine. Hmmm, rather than this being a beginning, it was the end. Hunter S. Thompson looked a barrel of laughs. I’d have steered a long way from him. I’d even have listened to the Carpenters. Looking at footage of the U.S. circa 1972, I had sympathy for Richard Nixon for the first time in my life. How on earth do you govern that?

    Listen
    Modern Lovers. Was Jonathan Richman the only sane person circa 1972? I’m going to buy the 33 1/3 book on the album. Again, for me, a full stop, not a beginning, and it’ll be interesting to read about Boston in the late 60s.
    Tim Buckley. Inspired, like the Modern Lovers, by a recent Uncut article … “Blue Afternoon,” and “Starsailor” especially. “Starsailor,” with at least three Zappa guys on board, sounds like a Mothers’ album.
    As does … “Smile” by The Beach Boys … no, really … constantly linked to Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s, I hear none of those albums in it … instead it’s a cross between “Absolutely Free” (a mosaic of sound with little to tell one song from another) and the incidental music you hear on Hanna-Barbera cartoons like “Top Cat,” “The Flintstones,” and “Secret Squirrel!”
    It’s 48 minutes, 24 seconds of pure genius and I’m tempted to make a 48 minute, 24 second hole in each and every day to listen to it.

      • I was given the first Buckley album as a teenager and it set me on a n enjoyable voyage of discovery collecting all his albums. I think Goodbye and Hello is my favourite, although the Dream Letter live album is fantastic, as you say.

  15. @deramdaze I am hoping EFL will open to supporters sometime soon – I miss my saturday afternoons even though Birmingham were pretty dire last season.
    Anyway this was my last month:

    HEARD: The ladies held sway this month -Mary Chapin Carpenter came back with The Dirt and the Stars her best album in years. Also Kathleen Edwards took a break from making coffee to bring us Total Freedom – both great albums.
    Bright Eyes came back strong with their new album despite the naff opening track the rest is brilliant – Conor Oberst really is a great songwriter.
    Cherry Red released a 3cd set West Meets east – Indian music and its influence on the West. I cant see all of the connections but it is a fine set.There is a really great track Calcutta Blues by Dave Brubeck that i was totally unfamiliar with but which has stuck with me.
    Martin Stephenson and the Daintees have reworked Salutation Road for its 30th anniversary minus the brass of the original version. The new version of We are Storm is to my ears the definitive version.
    The Waterboys Good luck Seeker has two excellent tracks in The Soul Singer and My Wanderings in the Weary Lane. The others require more listens but this is Mike Scoots third album in quick succession so he aint nothing if prolific. Ideally I would like to see him release a live album as this line up is by far his best live band.
    Also been re listening to Tangerine Dream Phaedra and Jimi Hendrix Cry of Love.
    Oh and thanks to whoever it was on here who recommended Fantastic Negrito.

    READ: Stuart Maconie’s Long road from Jarrow – comparing the 1936 Jarrow March with a similar trip he made in 2016. I like that even takes an even handed approach to the views of those he speaks with as Britain in 2016 comes to terms with Brexit. It is clear where his views lie but he doesn’t denounce a contrary view (unless of course it is completely stupid). Well written observations.

    SEEN: My slightly puerile interest in heaving bosoms drew me in to Harlots but it had heart and a good storyline.
    Also was taken by the TV adaptation of A Suitable Boy.
    Tried Money Heist but to be honest thought it was complete nonsense so gave me reason to ignore future recommendations from one of my work colleagues.

    AOB: Just had a great holiday in Venice. Changed at last minute because of potential for quarantine on return from Greece. Its alright for Boris to promote Staycations but the lure of a spotless Lido beach with pretty much guaranteed weather over a shit/litter strewn Bournemouth beach crowded with lager louts was not really much of a competition.

  16. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of myself and my girls, I’d like to thank you all for the kind thoughts expressed above – they are much appreciated at the moment.

    Love to all
    Alan (aka fitterstoke)

  17. HEARD

    My niece Martha Marlow doing a set of her own songs accompanied by her guitar, her Dad on double bass and a string quartet. Just sublime.

    READ

    “A Very Stable Genius” by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonig – blow by blow account of Trump’s behaviour in the White House up to the impeachment. Impeccably sourced and well written. Totally scary and depressing.

    “Bloodline” by Mark Billingham – one of the Tom Thorne series, classic British police procedural, particularly grim serial killer but Thorne is a believable character and Billingham captures nuances of the male attitude and psyche very poignantly.

  18. Startled to realise that I was released from quarantine back into the community over a month ago now. I suppose I must have done a lot of reading and viewing, yet it’s all a bit of a blur. Things I can remember:
    Read: Eley Williams is my main discovery. She’s published a book of short stories, Attrib., and a novel, The Liars’ Dictionary, and she’s fascinated and excited me more than any writer has for years. She loves words; so do most writers of course, but she’s obsessed by their meaning, and the surprising tricks they can play on us. This might sound like an academic exercise, but it’s anything but – her characters are richly drawn and full of life, and reading her is an engrossing and moving experience. I was struck by this, from the Guardian review of Attrib.: “Fiddling with words, as if playing with them were all that mattered, her characters draw time to a standstill – then they stop, suddenly, blinking and thrilled. It’s beautiful, the way they get lost.”
    Now reading Don DeLillo’s gruesomely gripping Falling Man – a very different experience.

    Watched: not a lot, we keep starting stuff but don’t seem to have the concentration. Enjoyed R.I.P.D (Amazon Prime) – dumb but fun. Jeff Bridges is in it, always a good sign. Now rewatching Borgen – I was suckered by Netflix into thinking there was a new series, but happy to go over old ground anyway. I’ve realised that Siste Babette Knudsen is even sexier when she speaks English. Boris Johnson should give it a go.

    Heard: usual hodgepodge. As so often I’m listening to more classical than anything else, especially obscure English stuff on Spotify, Yorke Bowen, Rutland Boughton, Eugene Goossens. Crazy names, crazy guys. I did have a particularly raucous Stevie Ray Vaughan session the other day though, while I was plugging away on my new exercise bike. That guy could play, sure, but the amped-up recordings put some real zip into my pedalling.

  19. Deepest sympathy to you, Alan on losing your wife and so suddenly. Thoughts are with you and your family.

    I haven’t heard much new because there doesn’t seem to have been a lot released but Nashville Tears by Rumer has been one of the highlights. She sings the songs of Hugh Prestwood who is well known in Nashville, but very underrated and unappreciated elsewhere it seems. I hadn’t heard of him before. But Rumer has done a terrific job with his work, both singing it, and bringing it to light. My favourite song is this beautiful ballad “Here You Are” with Rumer’s vocals at their finest, which is saying something,

    Another record I have liked is Kate Rusby’s cover album Hand Me Down. I particularly love her version of James Taylor’s Carolina on My Mind. Am being a bit solipstistic here. That song probably inspired my AW persona. (That is a new word I have learned recently, Solipsistic means having a world view that involves thinking that you are the only one who exists. Great to have a chance to use it!)

    AOB
    Good news that recent scan shows new treatment having “favourable effect” on liver. It’s not having a favourable effect on me but that is to be expected. Let’s hope it works for as long as possible, next scan in October. I have been going through my ipods and making lists of special tracks to me. This has taken ages because the first lot was scribbled v messily and I have had to rewrite it all properly. I have the aim of compiling some Spotify playlists and I may be asking for some advice soon as I am undecided how to proceed. I know how to do it technically, it is more a case of the process of choosing how to make them.

  20. @Carolina a good post as always and great news re the scan results. Carolina on my mind is my favourite cover from the album. The first track I heard and which encouraged me to buy the album was Manic Monday which strangely I find a little irritating now. As much as I like the album there isn’t anything as good as her version of Our Town.

  21. I love Rumer’s voice, Carolina, but I find it hard to find much of her output, songs wise, that I care for. ‘PF Sloan’ is the high point for me. The one you posted from the new album sounds good… but not great in the way that ‘PF Sloan’ was. But I’ve no doubt it’s a grower. 🙂 Glad to hear the health omens are better.

  22. I’m taking a much needed break from the assembly of IKEA furniture to join in. I enjoy the process, but my ageing body is less keen – after crouching/kneeling/sitting on the floor for the shortest of whiles I’m as stiff as a board and can barely stand up…I should probably take up yoga!

    I spent most of August on holiday and since returning to work I’ve had piles of flatpacks delivered to replace the old crap I spent some of that time throwing out. At the moment my home is in utter chaos, boxes everywhere , some containing new furniture and some containing all of the stuff that used to be housed in my former bookshelves and cabinets. I’m not trying to rush things, because I’m afraid to injure my back…and I don’t have to let anyone else into my home until Christmas!

    Read:
    Because my last haul was dominated by books by Tim Powers, the month started like the last one ended, with a few more from him. First I read and loved Medusa’s Web, which was almost as good as Last Call (which sparked this temporary obsession). Set in Hollywood, well paced and with a fun lore: the use and abuse of “spiders”, images that brings you into a sort of hypnotic state where you travel back in time and occupy another person’s body for a short while. Two siblings returned to their childhood home has to put together the physical clues found in the house with the clues they find under the influence of the spiders to find out what their (mostly) dead aunt’s wicked plans are and stop them. Lots of fun, the only objection is that it comes with a sort of built in spoiler – but I didn’t mind that (and some may not notice).

    Then I read another of his novels, The Drawing of the Dark, which I didn’t like much. The beginning is great, but as soon as the main character gets to Vienna it’s all downhill from there. Very little happens, and what does happen is mostly annoying. I really hated who he turned out to be the reincarnation of – a character I’ve never enjoyed in any novel. A big theme of the book annoyed me as well, well: most things annoyed me during the last half of this novel! Including the end, or lack of satisfying end for Brian Duffy. Nope, probably my least favourite Powers novel so far.

    I’ve also pretty much finished reading Down and Out in Purgatory which is a collection of his short stories, another one I wasn’t keen on. He’s not very good in the short format IMO. Most of these are either fairly lame and pointless, and/or have some very Catholic message between the lines that turned me off.
    I have a couple more novels by Powers from my last haul, but I’m giving him a rest for a month or so before I pick those up.

    I also read A Place in the Country by Laura Shaine Cunningham, a birthday gift. I loved her childhood autobiography Sleeping Arrangements, this is also autobiographical but on the specific topic of her relationship with nature and countryside, and her life-long quest for a home in rural surroundings. Some repetitions of stories from her previous memoir but mostly tales from her adult life. It’s a lighter read than S A, funny at times, moving at times. I enjoyed it.

    Another book that I’m still reading, about two thirds in, is Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo. Told in first person by twelve women of colour in Britain, telling their life stories that are woven together, this is brilliantly written in distinctly different voices. Funny, heart-breaking, and always interesting. If you’re a stickler for traditional punctuation in novels, it’s not for you, but for everyone else it’s a big recommendation.

    And that’s all I’ve had time for, between working and putting furniture together…
    A bit of YouTube, and yes, I’ve listened to a few new albums, but so little and so distractedly that I really don’t have much to say about them. The latest by Courtney Marie Andrews: Old Flowers is good, but it’s a sad break-up album so it took me a while to appreciate it, and not being in the mood for that kind of emotions I’ve been putting on old records by Edwin Starr etc rather than giving that one another go right now.
    I’m not very keen on the latest by Laura Marling either, continuing my tradition of loving only every other album of hers! The new one from The Jayhawks is only OK for me, and some of the lyrics are so lame that they spoil the music. OOAA.
    So mostly old music for me this month, and in the background while my electric screwdriver is buzzing like a busy bee and the smell of new wood permeates my flat.

    • I would echo Lemonhope and Blue Boy. The AW is a friendly place to hang out away from the problems, challenges, heartaches and frustrations of the rest of life – may each and everyone draw a little strength and succour from the fellowship in sharing cultural pleasures to keep on keeping on.

  24. Egad, another month gone. It’s feeling all a bit like it was at the beginning of March, waiting for the fan to be splattered and to spray the country with yet more effluvium, this time tainted with a greater knowledge of the effects of the virus. Yes, more cheer from the trenches, as the numbers climb inexorably and interest and attention has been lost by most.
    Yet still the cardboard and paper parcels plop through my door; the ratio of new (amazon) to old (discogs) seems to have moved near fully towards the latter. Recent acquisitions including the 3 collections of the Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions project, music put together from old tapes found by a bandmate of the deceased Gun Club frontman, with a call up on his old chums to put the music to life. So the likes of Nick Cave, Mark Lanegan, Debbie Harry. A bit hit and miss at times, but good for fans. I was able to get the newbies from Bettye LaVette and Molly Tuttle, both covers projects and both worth a listen. The venerable Bettye tackles the songbook of feisty black women of America, so Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and the like, with a top notch band giving a smoky blues jazzjive to the material. Molly, a new wunderkind of bluegrass guitar, steers clear of country, tackling varied fare: the National, Cat Stevens and Rancid. Much more satisfying than Kate Rusby’s recent (largely) disappointment. More scottish music: Breabach, Alasdair White and a terrific Fred Morrison from 2003: Outlands, a bagpipe and bluegrass fusion effort, a genre that strangely failed to spark after that ignition. Monmouth’s Twelve by Fishclaw was my sole Bandcamp First Friday purchase this time around. Insufficient listening to give/get a full impression but sorta if Portishead were folkies might be a lazy summation. One maybe for @kid-dynamite.
    Seen: telly. Nowt of great merit.
    Read: struggling to commit to the pile by my bed.

  25. Listening: The new Michael Rother album, Dreaming – his first in fifteen years – is far better than I expected, and led me to check out his new box set, Solo II, which compiles his recorded output from the early 80s to the present day. Sometimes he sounds like a missing link between The Shadows and psychedelia, and the critics seem to love him, but a sense of ambivalence remains.

    Negative Capability, Marianne Faithfull’s album from 2018, somehow caught my attention last week. Its stately, world-weary melancholy seems perfect for these wretched times. Otherwise, it’s been Steve Hackett’s wonderful Wolflight from 2015, Anthony Phillips reissues of The Living Room Concert and Slowdance, and the 2020 reissue of The Beloved’s Happiness.

    Watching: ITV4’s coverage of the Tour de France has been a real boost to morale. Great team of presenters and commentators in Gary Imlach, Ned Boulting, David Millar, Chris Boardman, Peter Kenneaugh, Matt Rendell and Daniel Friebe. Tuning in every day feels like hooking up with old friends, all against a nostalgic backdrop of the beautiful French landscape. I just hope Covid-19 doesn’t bring the whole spectacle to a grinding halt.

    While the Tour takes up most of my daytime viewing, evenings have turned into movie nights. Each night, one member of the family gets to choose a movie that we all have to watch together. It was a move designed to get the kids off their gaming and computers, and promote family harmony. So far, we’ve had Aguirre, Wrath of God, and Valley Girl. Tonight is Withnail and I, and there’s a rumour going around that Megaldon will be tomorrow’s offering.

    Reading: I’ve been carrying the same small pile of books around with me for some time now. It includes Derek Pringle’s autobiography, Joel Selvin’s book on Altamont, and Tim Krabbé’s cycling novel The Rider. Alas, I find myself drawn to the Guardian live news feed each morning, and a recurring spiral of dread and hopelessness.

    AOB: I installed a 400m electric fence around part of my property after years of vandalism from the local wild boar. The final straw came when they destroyed a retaining wall I’d built about ten metres from the kitchen door. I worked hard to get the fence posts in before the worst of the summer heat, and my efforts seem to have paid off. There were some electric screams early on, but the boar seem to have got the message, and the area around the house is now a pig free zone. When not fending off pigs I’ve been working on a novel that is moving at glacial pace.

      • Jabali is eaten quite a lot in Spain – it’s drier than pork. I’m not a huge fan. Round our way, there are not many pure wild boar left. They’ve all interbred with domestic pigs, and this hotchpotch of hybrids is a bold and fearless bunch. We have a plum tree right outside the bedroom window and they would be there every night, chomping through the fruit and stones, completely oblivious to me screaming at them from the window above. Not any more though. Charlie don’t surf.

  26. Read – very little, mainly magazines and divorce papers

    Listened – this is what I have spent much of the past month doing, to distract myself from the drawn out divorce. I’m well into my new jazz phase, although, after a mate gave me a long list of recommendations, I’ve taken the first steps into getting to know more about the blues (ironic timing!). So I’ve been working my way through a load of boxed sets I bought when I realised the wife had not gone to the friend’s house for the weekend, but in fact had gone a couple of hundred miles in the opposite direction for a mucky weekend with her boyfriend of 25 years ago (mid-life crisis alert – they don’t have much in common any more apparently, shame!). Anyway, I bought a load of cheap jazz boxed sets, so I’m still working through the works of Cannonball Adderley, Thelonious Monk, Coleman Hawkins, Ornette Coleman, Chet Baker, Ella Fitzgerald, Donald Byrd, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Bill Evans, Lester Young and Nat King Cole. Plenty to keep me going and take my mind off things. I’ve since added a B.B. King one. And I have loads more lined up for when I next have some disposable income, although that could be some time.

    As for new albums, I am enjoying Boom Bap Mentality by Moar and Passion of the Poets by Third Root more each time I listen to them. They’re challenging Forever Is A Pretty Long Time by Elaquent as my favourite rap album of 2020. I’ve also belatedly got into Steven Wilson, and have been tracking down all his stuff under his different guises, and there are a lot of different guises. I prefer the Porcupine Tree albums, but the Blackfield albums I’ve listened to have also been very good.

    Watching – Been binge watching loads of series. Recently rewatched all 5 series of The Wire, the new series of Lucifer, the first 5 series of French spy thriller Le Bureau des Légendes (which is excellent) and the first series of Swedish cop drama Before We Die. I went to the pictures last week to watch Tenet, which I’m not sure I understood. And I watched Peninsula, the disappointing sequel to Train To Busan, and an excellent documentary about the great Everton team of the 80s, called Everton – Howard’s Way. Such a shame that team never had a crack at the European Cup, cos I reckon they’d have had a good chance of winning it.

    AOB – after what seems like an age since she was caught on the phone making plans to meet her boyfriend of 25+ years ago and told me she wanted to separate, the wife moved out on Thursday. I wish she’d done it sooner, cos it’s like a switch has gone off in my head and I’m no longer anywhere near as sad about splitting up and breaking up the family. I’m now glad to be shut of the lying cheat! Just need to get on with sorting out the divorce and the financial settlement and then I can get on with finding a house. It’s all very complicated, but my main concern is to provide a settled home for the kids. We had a lot of trouble with my daughter last year, that ended up with the school, the police and social services (I self-referred) involved, £1k+ damage to the house, drink and drugs entering her world, a sordid, but thankfully unconsummated, relationship with a 17 year old predator, that ended up with court orders, and my daughter barely attending school since January. The lockdown was good for her though (apart from when she caught her mum on the phone with her ex/fancy man) and she seems to have matured. You wouldn’t believe it was the same kid. Anyway, she started her new school today and, although she’s knackered, she’s positive about it and I have every faith in her that she’ll do her best. At the outset of the separation I pleaded with my wife to at least put things on hold for a couple of months until our daughter is settled in her new school, but no, she decided to move out 4 days before her first day. Thankfully it didn’t derail her, but a very thoughtless (which has become her default setting) move from the wife that could have been disastrous. So I’m now a single parent on benefits, so I’ll await the Daily Mail splash blaming me for the downfall of society. Some of those blues songs seem to nail my situation perfectly though…

        • Thanks folks. Sadly things took a major turn for the worst today. I was a bit premature in my confidence about my daughter settling into her new school. It’s a good half hours drive from here and I don’t drive, so it means my daughter travelling in the car with her mum. The first day went fine, but coming home yesterday they were at each other’s throat and it took my best Henry Kissinger moves to get my daughter to go back to her mum’s last night with a view to going in today. But I was woken this morning by my daughter, who was being verbally abusive to her mum and shortly after they arrived at the house.

          My (soon to be ex) wife was in hysterics, saying she can’t cope because she doesn’t want to have another breakdown like last year, my daughter was just being horrible. She had called her mum every name under the sun in the car, including a word beginning with C, whilst my 10 year old was also in the car witnessing all of it. She is adamant that she’s not going back to school, which means we’ve paid around £3k and talked the school into letting her move back a year to give her the chance of leaving the school with some qualifications for 2 days of schooling. The school were pretty clear that there would be no refunds in cases like this. And now I have no idea where we go.

          She seems to have fallen in with another bad crowd and has been threatening this that and the other all day. She says her mum’s actions these past few weeks are a major contributing factor to her couldn’t care less attitude, but I know the ex won’t accept any of the blame, because admitting she was wrong is not one of her key characteristics. My daughter’s okay with me now, as there’s just us two here tonight. I’m going to leave things be tomorrow, to give her enough time to calm down and then have a chat with her on Friday to see what we can do. My ex, however, has already dived in and cut her phone off, which has just put an extra barrier between them. It’s a mess. I’m beginning to wonder whether someone has put a spell on me. The wife picked the worst possible time to do everything she did, but the timing of her moving out was so avoidable. I’m completely at a loss as to how we solve this. We’re being backed into a corner where home schooling is going to be the only option, and that is far from ideal. Ah well, at least I have my health…ahem!

          • Jesus Paul, I don’t know what to say, except to send the most positive vibes (as we all do, I’m sure). Except: any chance your daughter could go to school by bus? All sorts of disaster potential there, of course, but you never know, it might make her feel better about herself.

            • There’s actually a school bus that we’ve paid for for the term, but we agreed that she’d get driven in for the first few days till she settles in. The bus is 6 miles away, so she’d need to get a bus from here first (at 6:30!), but her mum had said she’d run her into town to get the school bus for a few days. I offered to get the bus into town with her, whilst obviously hanging back from the bus stop for the school bus, as it wouldn’t be cool for your dad to be waiting with you! But she’s adamant that she’s never returning to any sort of school. The thing is, she’s been nagging us for a while to change schools, but then she wouldn’t go to either of the other two state schools that she could easily get to, although a state school wouldn’t have let her move back a year, so she’d never have caught up with the schoolwork she missed by refusing to go. So the only option was to pay for the private school. So we did what she asked for, but it seems it’s still not good enough.

  27. HEARD

    I’ve gone a bit bonkers these month, the joys of some Royal Mail overtime. In a Fast Show Stylee this month I’ve been enjoying Musik Music Musique (The Dawn of Synth Pop) one of the those good value Cherry Red 3 CD boxes, Songs For The Fountain Coffee Room another fantastic compilation from Saint Etienne, Howl-John Foxx and The Maths, Foxx gets better and better, Shaggs’ Own Thing-The Shaggs, definitely an acquired taste but I love it’s naive charm, The Delta Sweete-Bobbie Gentry a classic album newly and beautifully polished up, Pyramid-Jaga Jazzist well worth the 5 year wait, Tomita is a 13 minute classic, Wrong Way Up-Eno/Cale not heard this for a while but this new version is excellent, Songs For The General Public-The Lemon Twigs these needs a bit more time to work it’s magic on me but The One is probably the song of the year and a must listen for Todd R fans. More Compilations, a couple more of those Cherry Red boxes West Meets East a good overview of Asian influence of Western music, mainly Jazz and Classical, and Peephole In My Brain, a great collection of Pop, Prog, Prog Pop and some oddities from 1971. Also a couple of single disc Comps, Girls Go Power Pop! which is pretty self explanatory and another in the long impeccable line of compilations from Bob Stanley, 76 In The Shade. A nice ‘n’ smooth collection of tracks from the long hot Summer of 1976. And last but not least the new one from The Belbury Poly-The Gone Away which is of the normal high quality.

    READ and WATCHED

    Not much this time around. Only read a history of Court No 1 of the Old Bailey which is fantastic in it’s detail and watched a 12 part history of the Movies which had all the right people in (Spielberg, Scorese, Hanks) but skipped along a bit too fast for our liking. It did give us a lot of future viewing ideas though.

    • @ip33 I just got the Eno/Cale Wrong way up set and I love it. Wasn’t aware of it before this reissue – which is a little odd as I have much of Cale’s output and some of Eno. Sonically I would place this next to Helen of Troy Cale. Very good.

  28. Watched:
    We finished all of Line of Duty. I have a crappy 9-year-old non-smart “burner” phone, and so does every corrupt police officer and villian. I’m beginning to have doubts about myself.

    Read:
    Graham Sharpe – Vinyl Countdown. A few of us would recognise ourselves in this.
    Home Recording Studio: Build It Like a Pro. See ‘other news’.

    Heard:
    I like big records on big speakers at big volume. I have struggled to listen properly during lockdown due to people working/sleeping in adjacent rooms of the house. So this is a smaller list than it would have been in February.
    The Modern Lovers – I bought the 180g vinyl on holiday a year ago but, prompted by talk on here, listened to it. My favourite Richman.
    PJ Harvey – Rid Of Me on vinyl. Dry was the last vinyl album I bought new before the CD wilderness years.
    The Beloved – Happiness. Pressed on double vinyl for better sound but the mastering is brickwalled – call the Hoffman Police – so just louder. I love this record, though.
    The Charlatans – Between 10th and 11th. Their set at Reading 1992 was fantastic. Now a double LP with bonus live album (not the Reading set, unfortunately).
    Small Faces – Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake. Kenney’s book was a birthday pressie, which set me off.
    Cocteau Twins – Four Calendar Cafe. I like this as much as their 4AD peak.
    Pretenders – Hate For Sale. A wonderful – cliché alert – return to form and only 30 mins long.
    Pretenders – Live at the Paradise Theatre, Boston. RSD release. Wonderful. If anyone from RSD is reading this, the Talking Heads equivalent next year, please.
    Terry Hall – Home. RSD vinyl. So much like the Lightning Seeds, Terry even sings like Ian Broudie. Side 2 tails off a bit, though.
    Sophie Hunger – Halluzinationen. A new one, at last. Think: if Jane Weaver were Swiss.

    In other news:
    Offspring The Elder had another MRI scan (all clear) and, by a process of elimination, has been diagnosed with FND. So her fits were stress-related, in other words. Now off to learn coping strategies.
    Covid has cleared the calendars in the local building trade and my wall-constructor of choice has been in touch, so has his friendly architect and we’re finally moving towards turning my garage into a sound-proofed music room. I’ve been nose-deep in books, calculating optimum modal sizes, and sketching, the architect is turning my scribbles into plans. It could all be over by Christmas!
    A post-holiday garage clearout and eBay session has netted severel hundred quid for old junk (Windows XP PC motherboard, no-longer UK legal radio mic system, various vintage hi-fi tat). Turns out now is a good time to buy high-end hi-fi, so I spent my winnings (and then some) on some more Naim black boxes.
    My thoughts go out to AWers going through the mill. Keep the faith, and keep ‘talking’ on here.

    • Interested to hear your comments re: The Beloved’s Happiness. I have the original LP, but picked up the 2CD rerelease after a nostalgic headrush and reading a review hailing ‘great sound’. But I am disappoint. Louder but not better. I think I prefer the original LP. The second CD doesn’t add much either. There is lavish praise in the sleeve notes for their producer/engineer friend (whose name escapes me), so kudos for that.

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