NEARLY OVER!! Here in Glasgow, we are tiptoeing out of lockdown, after 270 days of pretty tight restrictions. How are we all doing ? What has been keeping you going ? What have you been enjoying this last month?
Blogger Takeover LXXVI
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I haven’t done one of these things for ages, and literally tonight, I have bought my first gig tickets in yonks.
In October I will be seeing the Anti Nowhere League in a small venue in Great Portland Street in London. No, I have never seen them before, yes I am doing this basically because of one song.
A classic. I believe this was their riposte to Crass’s song of the same name. I inadvertently broke an ANL fan’s nose whilst we both chicken danced at one of their gigs in 1981. Wattie out of The Exploited was in the crowd and found it hilarious, as apparently did the bloodied ANL fan. The three of us later formed the hub of a team that romped through the first season of Only Connect.
Oh dear, nose broken during a chicken dance. Cue rolled eyes in A & E…
Apparently the nurse in A & E said ‘At least you came in yourself and didn’t call 999″
‘Yeah, they’re shit they are.’
…and then, still worse, a Crispy Ambulance would have arrived.
..and the actual treatment took ages because he was seen to by a stuttering medic. Doc doc doc doc doctor Beat.
…and that Spirit in the Sky was neither use nor ornament!
Or, indeed, ointment.
A cream would be better.
Or a strange brew perhaps
Read: Still barely find time to get through daily paper and subscription magazines; books not getting a look in. To be fair, this month’s reading got dominated by papers for union conference.
Heard: Likewise, only one listen through the new Jon Boden, and the new Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi hasn’t even had a look in.
Seen: Chester and Chippenham Folk Festivals teamed up to go online. Total success – the only glitch being that we had to turn everybody’s video off to get enough bandwidth for Martin & Eliza Carthy. Zoom works for me; I really do feel like I’ve been in the company of people. Project onto the interaction of workshops, singarounds and even dances, it felt tantalisingly close to actually being in the Social Clubs and Community Centres which are the beating heart of the weekend. Our little bunch of amateurs achieved something that the bigger festivals don’t capture; it was so much more than a bunch of YouTube videos.
How are we doing? Well, we’re all going on a Summer Holiday. In an hour, I will be boarding the first of five trains which will see me in St Ives for my tea. Then 12 days of steady, head-settling walking round the South West Coast Path. It’s been 20 months in the planning, but it is now going to happen. I suspect I may be quite emotional when I get to St Ives.
…and you’ll be coming on, what is at the moment, a beautiful day.
The Coastal Path is a good idea as a bus driver of many years standing told me that he had never seen St. Ives as busy as it has apparently been this week.
Looking forward to a blowout at The Gurnards Head on Saturday.
Ooh, good to hear it’s still a going concern. I remember fondly our walk from St Ives to there at the start of our walk round Cornwall.
I once got lost on that path. The Coast Path.
Had a lovely meal and an overnighter in December there. My wife was slightly startled to see the top deck of a double decker bus parked outside the window as she got out of her bath.
If you have time, head inland for a walk up to Nine Maidens and Ding Dong Mine. Stunning views from there to both north and south coasts.
My walking mucker and I are compiling an inventory / itinerary of what we describe as ‘Life of Brian windows’ in our lodgings. My favourite was the one overlooking the quay at Appledore.
The best day’s walk I ever had was one around Exmoor. What a great country this is.
Heard
Fat Pop by Paul Weller
I am enjoying this year’s Weller recording. But my he’s looking his age, and that haircut isn’t doing him any favours.
Seen
Agents of Shield
We’re about halfway through season one and after a slow start, it is steadily improving. It’s a bit X-Files mystery of the week, but with just enough references to the Marvel films to keep up a regular stream of sugar rush moments of recognition.
Wind River
I noted echoes of Cormac McCarthy (a capable man as the main protagonist, examination of male violence all set against the background of an indifferent Nature) and Thomas Harris Silence of the Lambs (a young, inexperienced female FBI agent, navigating through this world of violence against women and of hostile men). But this is its own thing, an austere and melancholic crime film set in a snow bound Wyoming.
When Harry met Sally
30 odd years later and this still charms and delights. Perfect cast, beautiful writing, astute direction and New York rarely looks anything other than gorgeous on film.
A Lonely Place to Die
A small group of friends travel to the Scottish wilderness for a weekend of rock climbing. But they stumble across a young girl, buried underground in a wooden box. The free her and are soon being pursued by some very unpleasant people. A bracingly cold-hearted thriller.
Read
Boy Parts by Eliza Clark
A dark, malevolent novel featuring lashings of drugs, booze, fags, fetish photography, and a claustrophobic art world. The story tumbles out of an unreliable narrator whose psyche splinters as she prepares for an exhibition at a London gallery.
The Shepard’s Hut by Tim Winton
Another first-person narrative, this time from a 15-year-old lad fleeing home and finding himself amongst the salt lakes of Western Australia. Brutish, violent and with a real sense of place.
Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen
This is probably my favourite Hiaasen since the early books like Skin Tight and Double Whammy. He always populates his books with grotesques, but here he places Trump and Melania into story that is Riotously funny, gruesome, and simmering with anger. Plus, Skink appears at around the three-quarter mark. What could be better?
Read:
..er.. pass
Heard:
He’s in the leading pack for my favourite albums of the year so far, but as much as I enjoy Actual Life (April 14 – December 17 2020) by Fred again.., I absolutely f**kin’ love this performance. The visuals really enhance the samples and his freaky dancing is joyful. Just a shame about the ads..
Seen:
Everyone loves Groundhog Day.
Since it came out it regularly turns up in lists of favourite time travel movies or favourite romantic comedies. Except it isn’t really time travel – it’s more of a reset loop and it’s quite far out as a rom com, being even more about an overtly dislikable bloke thrusting himself upon a less-than-keen female by means of deception than is usual, even in this genre**.
Nah, it turns out the protagonist who is stuck in a loop is a genre all of its own and a thoroughly deadly (as we say around here) addition to the roll call of same is Palm Springs. This terrific film is aware that you already know the Groundhog Day story so, to save time, it just drops you right in the middle of the familiar scenario and then riffs on it in a most pleasing way. Cristin Milioti gets a whole lot more to do than Andie MacDowell ever did and, to be honest, she is a more engaging presence anyway.
Miscellaneous:
1. I thought I was superheroed out but then Invincible got my attention. It is rather good but the artwork is extremely distracting because the way the illustrators represent shade around the crotch area makes it look as though the characters have all wet themselves
2. What’s going on with David Mitchell’s eyes? Every time I see him now they always look so sore. It’s been going on too long to be a passing thing. Contacts? Dunno, but it’s hurting me to watch..
3. **Us old codgers are wedded to our movies and our books and our albums, but a lot of the good stuff now happens off these tramlines. There are, for instance, many great video essayists on YouTube doing top notch stuff – here’s one, pertinent to Groundhog Day above..
My goodness! That’s the best thing I have heard/seen this year. Fred again…again
David Mitchell’s eyes – in daily close proximity to VCM’s decolletage?
Well, really.
Now that you mention it, the problem only became apparent after he became a married man..
Heard: Athletico Mince. Andy Dawson and national treasure Bob Mortimer’s podcast goes from strength to strength. Good to have Peter Beardsley back, along with Gregory Porter loving Mrs B, and Bob’s Eric Dier is one of the greatest slow-speaking characters ever to slowly speak.
Watched: if it’s got ‘revenge’ in the blurb, then I’ll have watched it. I’m a big fan of Confucius’s maxim ‘If you plan on revenge, better dig two graves’, but I lap up this nonsense, and this month there’s been Ferry, nowt do with Wor Bryan and everything to do with the lead villain in the series Undercover’s back story. Some dubbing on a par with The Flashing Blade, but a hoot and a holler nonetheless. There’s also been Colombiana, also on Netflix, in which young girl sees family killed by drug cartel boss and spends the next twenty years building towards bloody justice. Twaddle, but watchable.
I liked The Pursuit Of Love, if only/mainly for the scenery chewing antics of Andrew Scott as Lord Merlin, and the occasional bizarre use of music, New Order’s Ceremony being the oddest eg.
Motherland was binged, too, and as per the previous series, I loved the various shades of narcissism displayed by each and every character in the supposedly collective but actually utterly atomised world of the schoolgates/schoolyard.
Heard
Well I finally got round to listening to Van Morrison’s album and have heard it a few times now. I think Dai pretty much nailed it in his review. There is some pretty ropey stuff on there, but some of it is surprisingly good and energised. It just should never have been a triple album – the good stuff has to fight to be heard. Will maybe add some comments on the review thread.
My main discovery this month has been Liverpool band Sunstack Jones’ Golden Repair, released last autumn. It’s great psychedelic pop – all guitar riff and soaring solos, shimmering cymbals and ethereal harmonies – firmly in the tradition of everyone from The Beatles to the Coral. And like them, like The Zutons and Gomez, they are perfectly prepared to wear their transatlantic influences openly – The Byrds, CSN, My Morning Jacket, Fleet Foxes – they’re all in there. It’s a great summer time record.
Read
I enjoyed RT’s ‘Beeswing’, although like others I felt frustrated at what he held back – I wasn’t expecting ‘spill the beans’ gossip, but I would have liked even more than he gave us about the touring and concerts, and the writing and recording of those remarkable records. In particular I’d have liked more about the Richard and Linda years. Still an interesting read though.
Seen
Actually went to a gig this week – Manchester based folk duo The Breath at Storyhouse, Chester. To be honest it wasn’t the greatest. They were fine, but unsurprisingly a little rusty on what was their first week’s concerts for over a year. Their music is low key at the best of times and it was difficult for them to really create an atmosphere with an audience, all wearing masks and distributed with social distancing around a 400 seat modern auditorium. And they weren’t helped by a sound engineer who was clearly also rusty – it took him ages to get the balance right, which is quite an achievement when you’ve got just one voice and one acoustic guitar to deal with. But Rioghnach Connolly is a great character as well as a fine singer and they won through in the end. Like them, we were all pleased to be back.
Heard:
Mr Weller’s latest opus – Fat Pop – is his best, and most consistent, for a good few years.
Two recommendations from here in the shape of The Minnows – Californian Poppy and Otherish do not disappoint.
Frances from Otherish sent an email of thanks and bunged a bonus track in for good measure
Matt Berry – The Blue Elephant. 60s/70 Garage Psych feel, with a nod to The Doors thrown in. It’s very good. Berry basically does everything apart from the drumming (including painting the picture on the cover)
Seen
The Fawlty Towers re-runs on BBC1 have been devoured – I know them inside out, but just seeing them again in all it’s manic glory is a real pleasure.
Latest finds on Netflx – White House Farm Murders (story of Jeremy Bamber) and Deadwood Fell (David Tennant being a bit sinister)
Read
Fab Fools: The Beatles, The Rutles and Rock’n’Roll Comedy! (JEM Roberts) – the known story told from the perspective of their sense of humour, with a celebration of The Rutles and Neil Innes tacked on for perspective
(Innes was heavily involved in the research and interviews for the book)
Been a very busy few months. Spent a month packing up the old house, followed by a little over two months unpacking and sorting out all the issues with the new one, and the previous owner left me with a lot to sort out. We’re getting there though. My bedroom is like a library with a bed in it, whilst the living room, no longer having a woman’s touch, looks like a record shop.
Heard
One wall of the living room is taken up by shelving units full of CDs, with me increasing the units from 2 to 3 and a half, meaning I could now fit all my CDs on and had space to expand. As I also had the money in my band account, expand I did. Music Magpie seems to have upped its game considerably, as I bought dozens of CDs off them without a blemish on any of them. So for very little money I’ve completed my collections of Tom Waits, Erykah Badu, Aimee Mann, Cat Power, Fiona Apple, PJ Harvey and St. Vincent, and a few more that I can’t remember, cos I’m lazing in bed and can’t see the shelves. I’ve also greatly increased my paltry Elvis Costello, Captain Beefheart, Nick Cave and reggae collections, as well as buying half a dozen or so Frank Zappa albums. Who knew he was so good? Apostrophe is my favourite I think. You can certainly hear his influence on a lot of artists that follows, not least the aforementioned Nick Cave.
So I have spent the past month or so working my way through all these ‘new’ CDs, plus a couple of proper new ones. St. Vincent’s new one is good, Gary Numan’s is better, and is very similar to the two albums that preceded it, which is a good thing in my book, cos the previous two albums are a couple of my favourites of the past few years. I also fell for Amazon’s “signed” Van Morrison CD. Although the subject matter of many of the songs put me right off it, being a collector of autographs it was a very inexpensive way of picking up an autograph of someone who doesn’t sign that many. The problem was, he didn’t sign this one either. The signatures are either stamped or signed by an autopen. I don’t know how he thought he’d get away with it in this day and age. So far it seems that 8 variations have been unearthed, with loads of copies of each surfaced on the internet. They went to quite some lengths with this deception. And it’s a shame, because the album contains some of the best work he’s done in years (if you ignore the subject matter of some of the songs).
Seen
As I’ve given my teenage daughter the Sky Q mini box for her bedroom and the boy has his Xbox and PS4 set up in his bedroom, I have the living room to myself every evening, unless I’m specifically watching something with the kids. This means I have been able to quickly get through loads of series and films. My recent favourites have been [series] Mare of Easttown, High Fidelity (way better than the film), Godfather of Harlem, Bill Nighy’s Johnny Worricker trilogy, Der Pass, Show Me a Hero, The Flight Attendant and the new series of Bonding, Pennyworth and the fab Motherhood. And a special mention for The Drowning and the English version of Before We Die, which are both badly acted/scripted rubbish. I struggled to get through the first episode of the latter and gave up a short way into episode two.
Film wise, it has been more of a mixed bag. Actually, I’m being too kind there, as most new (to me) films I’ve watched have been disappointing, not least Army of the Dead. I’m a big zombie movie fan and loved Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake, so had been looking forward to this new one, but it was…okay, when I was hoping for awesome. I managed to get to the pictures the other night though, taking my daughter to her first legal 15 film (I snuck her into the disappointing The Nun). Thing is, she’s now almost 16, so had to wait nearly a year. We both enjoyed the 3rd Conjuring film though, even if it was a little bit daft at times.
Read – as usual, loads of magazines and not much more. I’ve been getting into bed knackered every night though, as unpacking 300+ boxes is tiring when you have next to no spinal cord! Now I’ve got the house finished, apart from the bits that contractors need to sort out, there’s no excuse for getting myself into a better sleeping pattern and making more time for reading though, so I just have to find the willpower to go to bed a lot earlier than I do, so I can read at bedtime and now fall asleep every afternoon. I also need to find the willpower to stop eating so unhealthily, get more exercise and stop buying stuff (the lack of money will soon see to that one). I am finding it so difficult on all four of those grounds, but something needs to change or I’m going to run into totally unavoidable problems.
Nice to hear you’re settling in after all the aggro, Paul.
299 boxes of CDs I guess, what was in the other one? Good luck.
It felt like that when it came to empty them. My bedroom resembled the Embankment in the 80s until I got all the bookshelves up. There was over 50 boxes in there. It was all very daunting, a bit like when you see the pile of post waiting on your desk after a 2 week holiday. I just didn’t know where to start. I got there in the end though, but it took the best part of two months to get everything sorted, but I think I know where just about everything is.
Did you see Train To Busan @Paul-Wad ? I quite enjoyed it although I suspect my daughter got more out of it than I did.
Yes, love it. Disappointed with the follow up though. My daughter is a horror fan, but there are only a handful of films pre-90s that she’s prepared to watch and she won’t watch anything with subtitles. That rules out about 3/4 of my horror blu rays. And there are so many great films that I can’t get her to watch. I have just about every Hammer horror film, but she won’t watch any of them. I have no chance with the old Universal films. And then there are films like Train To Busan, One Cut of the Dead, The House at the End of Time and Let the Right One In. No way can I get her to watch them, even though they’re all so good. In the case of Let the Right One In, she loves the remake, Let Me In. I despair at times.
@Paul-Wad glad your move went well and it sounds like your kids are sorted which is great news.
Thanks mate. My daughter finished school last week and starts her apprenticeship as a hairdresser shortly. Unfortunately,, she had a bit of a setback a few weeks ago.
She had to stop her gymnastics 18 months ago, as she kept getting spontaneous dislocations of her shoulders. She had physio for this and we thought it had resolved, but it turns out she had just learned how to control it enough to get herself discharged by the physio as job done. However, a couple of months ago she started dislocating her knee, ankle and wrist.
We got her to a paediatric rheumatologist, which are few and far between in the north, so we had to trail over to Manchester. Here she was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which is something that’s going to be with her for life. There are various types of this condition, the vascular one being horrific and which carries a life expectancy in your 40s. Fortunately, she has the more common hyper-mobile type.
This explains the awful stretch marks she has, as well as her fatigue, which we have always put down to bone idleness (although that plays a part too!). She is going to start sessions with a physio or personal trainer soon, as she needs to try to strengthen her joints to limit the dislocations, as her chosen career involves being on her feet and using her arms/hands most of the day.
I’ve taken it more badly than she has. Living with my own disabilities it’s heartbreaking that she will have to do the same. More worrying are all the problems she could have during pregnancy and childbirth (the condition has lots of other symptoms that are worse than just dislocations), although she insists she is never having children, “in case they turn out like me”! She is more interested in the fact that she is now able to jump the queue at theme parks.
But looking back, it’s pretty clear that this condition played a major part in her going off the rails 18 months ago. From the disappointment at having to give up the only hobby she had ever stuck with, and she was doing well with her gymnastics, to having to put up with the dislocations and associated pain, as well as the fatigue, for which we were getting on her back, thinking it was all just laziness. Thankfully, she has turned her life around to the point that she has been able to take this in her stride, although I am expecting it to hit her at some point.
As this condition is hereditary, it has also made myself and other members of my family wonder if it is behind some of the problems we have had. I have had trouble with my knee and feet for years, feeling like my knee is dislocating, whilst my daughter’s youngest had to give up her gymnastics because of dislocations to her toes and problems with her feet and knees. Although I’m not sure whether it’s something that can affect you in such a limited way. But it puts our household at 2/3 disabled. My son is getting better in goal now he’s attending goalkeeper training weekly. I’m dreading him starting with similar problems, particularly as he is looking to join a team for next season. It seems that we are never able to have a smooth ride through life!
@paul-wad :The wife has EDS, as has her mother, sister and both daughters, tho’ all to various degrees. Has your daughter had a muscle biopsy or is it, so far, a clinical diagnosis? The presence of stretch marks makes it highly unlikely, as that is the one thing folk with EDS don’t get, as the condition is of stretchy collagen that doesn’t “rip” under stretching pressure. Even amongst rheumatologists it is an area of little knowledge and, broadly, there are only two centres in the country, Sheffield and London, with much reliable clinical knowledge and practical application. Not all hyper mobility is EDS, even if many labelled just as hypermobile actually are.
(Feel free to PM me.)
The Manchester clinic does link closely with the Sheffield centre, though.
But, f***ing hell, Paul! I don’t know how you are coping.
Just a clinical diagnosis at present. Although I have read about stretch marks in EDS quite a lot. Here for example.
https://www.hypermobility.org/eds-and-hsd-skin
Unfortunately, as it’s just down the road from us, the Sheffield centre doesn’t see patients with hypermobile EDS. I have been speaking with a friend of a lass I did my nurse training with, as her daughter has EDS and is seen in Sheffield, but she has vascular EDS. The appointment on Friday in Leeds is with a physio that specialised in hEDS. She wanted both me and the ex to be there as we will be discussing the treatment plan, which is quite intensive. Unfortunately, I am going to have to try to join remotely, as the boy got sent home from school today because a girl (who sat next to him yesterday and this morning) has tested positive for COVID.
Her family were part of an asymptotic testing study, otherwise it probably wouldn’t have got picked up. The ex was fetching him down to me, but I had a very teary boy on FaceTime saying he doesn’t want to come home cos he’s scared he might give me COVID, so he’s staying at his mum’s, who he doesn’t care if he passes COVID on to her. So on Friday he’s coming down here to sit in the garden whilst they are at the appointment!
But we should have a plan by the weekend of how we are going to help Aimee strengthen her muscles and her joints to try to minimise any ongoing problems. It’s going to be a slow, gradual process, but something she is going to have to keep on top of throughout her life. Unlike last time, with her shoulders, this time we are going to make sure she does what she’s told by working with a personal trainer. I think she realises the importance now, as she had a trial day in a salon a couple of weeks ago, so is under no illusion as to what her working day will be like.
Vascular EDS is the really nasty one, isn’t it? Reduced life-expectancy as a result.
Be thankful for small mercies, Paul. That’s what we’re trying, anyhow…
Yes, too right. I had a few horrible minutes when I googled EDS after being told in a text message that’s what she had, before calling the ex and being told it wasn’t the vascular type. It’s upsetting enough her having hEDS, but on speaking with my friend’s friend, whose daughter has the vascular type, it certainly put it into perspective. My daughter has taken the diagnosis surprisingly well though. Whether or not it will hit her later I don’t know. If she’s anything like me, and she is in many ways, it’ll just annoy her, more than anything, when she’s unable to do something that she wants/needs to do. Between us it’s a right healthy house.
My daughter’s had a head start with her FND diagnosis about a year ago, so she’s getting used to not being immortal. And being able to tick a “disabled” box on her UCAS form makes getting into university a little bit easier. She hasn’t had a fit for a year as lockdown has imposed limits to stay at home, eat properly and go to bed at a sensible time.
Her EDS is not yet formally diagnosed but the lung bloke seems certain, and certain that he can prevent a repeat tear (in that lung, anyway). I’m waiting to be tested, too. It would explain why I had to give up cricket – I kept dislocating a kneecap.
What with that, my Crohn’s and Mrs F’s arthritis, we’re also a household to keep medics gainfully employed for years to come.
EDS is what is suspected as causing my daughter’s lung tear. I just thought we had, well, “skin” but it turns out we have “hyper-elastic skin”.
Neither of us has hyper-mobile joints but I do have a dodgy knee and we can both put our hands behind our heads – one over and one under – and touch our fingertips between the shoulder blades.
Mrs F had rhumatoid arthritis as a kid and is the least flexible person I know. And my father’s dead, not that I spoke to him for the last 30-odd years of his life.
So it appears the blame lies with me.
This is actually a reply to your message above too, as there isn’t a reply button on that one.
Mate, it’s awful isn’t it. It’s bad enough having to put up with your own medical issues, but when it’s your kids it’s far, far worse. Being a Sick Children’s Nurse I’ve obviously seen loads of kids having convulsions, which is scary enough, but to watch your kid having convulsions must be terrifying. My brother’s eldest started having fits at 10 months old and 13 years later she still has them regularly, amongst a multitude of other medical issues and developmental delays. But FND and EDS? That’s beyond awful.
Well, looking on the upside, at least she (a) looks like her mother and (b) hasn’t inherited being a Ginger from me as well.
Good grief….. sending mojo to you and yours Paul.
May just rushed by, I’ve been super busy and work has been very stressful as well. Two more busy weeks to go until I get a week off from work (saving the rest of my vacation weeks for later in the summer), which I badly need!
Read:
First, just to catch up on the two books I was mid-way through last time around:
The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr is well written and has an interesting premise, but I’m not keen on the execution of all of it. When it’s good, it’s very good, but there are passages of what we in Sweden call “writer’s course prose”, which I’m less keen on. Also – and this may be something that I personally don’t love but doesn’t bother others – the story is being told through so many people’s perspective that I found it difficult to connect to the two central characters of the story. But my main problem was with the “poetic” (IMO pretentious) chapters voiced by ancestors, gods etc, wedged in between the chapters moving the story along. For me, it tries too hard. It’s still a good novel, but it could have been much better. Parts of it is actually brilliant, which is why I found the other bits so frustrating!
I also finished Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan, after a short break. Again, this story is being told by too many people for my taste – a lot of it is brilliant, but a few of the stories could have been cut out completely. The jumping around in time and between flats and their residents isn’t a favourite style of mine; as soon as I feel attached to a person they are replaced with someone else who I dislike, and when they finally return I’ve forgotten everything about them again…it can be done well, but I found the flow of the read a bit jerky with this one. Having said that; she can certainly write beautifully and I loved many of the stories in this. The main story that bookends the novel is a bit slow to begin with but becomes very moving, especially the ending. I think I’d happily read other books by the author, although this one was just OK for me.
Now to the “new” books I read in May. Jess Kidd’s The Hoarder is an entertaining novel about Maud, who works in home care and sees saints all around her. She helps an old man in his strange house, half boarded off and full of secrets, half dirty and full of garbage. Maud senses a mystery surrounding his dead wife and daughter and goes about trying to find out his secrets. It’s funny and a pageturner, although I was a bit disappointed with the unnaturally swift and unsatisfactory solution at the end, which was more like a crime novel than the rest of the book, and turned something original into something more banal. But a fun read up to that point.
Pip Williams‘s novel The Dictionary of Lost Words is the second novel by an author named Williams with the word Dictionary in the title that I’ve read lately, and although I suppose the other one was more quirky and original, I enjoyed this one so much more, and think it’s a better novel in many ways. This is more traditional in style and more realistic, but it’s also more moving, interesting and substantial for my taste. It’s a historical novel, but the main characters are fictional. We follow Esme, growing up with her father working on the Oxford Dictionary, and following in his footsteps. But she also privately collects words that are used by women or about female things, and not deemed important or proper enough to grace the pages of the real dictionary. Through her story we get to experience the suffragette movement, WWI, the progress of the dictionary, class differences, gender differences, the differences of male and female language. History very much comes alive through Esme’s life story and language comes alive through the often funny words, their definitions and quotations, that Esme collects around town. The last quarter of this book is a real tearjerker. Conventional and yet original.
My bus novel this month was Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell, having read a couple of her other novels and hearing good things about this older one. And I liked it a lot, well written, interesting cast of characters who developes and reveal more and more during the story’s progression. In the summer of -76 a man goes out to buy a newspaper and disappears. The grown children of the family comes back to their childhood home to help their mother find out where he’s gone, and the family drama unfolds slowly. They are all slightly annoying, in a very realistic way, and you grow to like them very much. Not her masterpiece, but a very good story.
I also read a long, boring non-fiction book which I was glad to finally get to the end of (not my own choice, had to read it), but the best book I read this month was a very short childrens book with hardly any text in it, based on “Waiting for Godot”! The brilliant Swedish illustrator/author Anna Höglund has written Didi & Gogo väntar på bussen (“Didi & Gogo are waiting for the bus”) and it’s a work of genius. Laugh out loud funny.
I’m now in the beginning of Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli, and I like it a lot, but it’s dense and foreboding and it’s the sort of book that I pick up with some reluctance every time, and then read with mostly pleasure anyway. Thankfully it’s written in quite short entries on different topics or daily journal entries, which makes it easier to read despite the heavy topics and a sense of dread for what will come…
Heard:
Podcasts, mainly, because in May, and even more so now (and for one more week to come) I’ve spent most of my free time illustrating my traditional Birthday Book for my mum’s 90th, and listening to entertaining podcasts is the ideal entertainment while doing that. This weekend I sat indoors despite that summer has finally arrived in Stockholm, shunning the warm and sunny weather for ten to twelve hour days spent painting animals doing strange things. Rats eating butter, frogs on bikes, ticks getting married, and lots of cows posing for artists, to name a few. All paired with the silliest of rhymed verse and daft puns (helmet free)… I’ve still plenty of pages to fill, and six days left to do it in, but despite growing pale as a ghost and losing any muscle tissue I’ve ever had, I’m enjoying the mad race towards the deadline.
“Writer’s course prose” – there’s apparently a subculture over here of very stylistically similar prose fiction produced by graduates of the famous Creative writing course at the University of East Anglia.
Naturally I haven’t read any of it, unless Nick Kent and PG Wodehouse went to the UEA when I wasn’t looking.
In Sweden the term is intimately connected to the folkhögskola att Biskops-Arnö…
Heard: Revelling in the delight of (re)finding Amanda Ann Platt and the Honeycutters. It’s Americana with a swing to it, and she has just a wonderful voice to listen to.
Read: Nothing except text books.
Watched: We’re working our way through Only Connect from Season 1 onwards on Youtube. Never got it in the States, there was one season on SBS Ondemand and that set us off.
Also Zach Snyder’s Justice League. The only thing he got right was The Flash and how superspeed must seem; I really enjoyed that. The rest? Well, if you like the colour grey, then you’ll be fine. He has absolutely no sesne of colour, and he managed to make Amy Adams seem weak and insipid. I don’t how he manages to keep getting big directing gigs. He’s shit.
Heard: slightly embarrassed to admit that my 50 most listened to songs on Spotify were all teenage fanclub. There were a couple of days listening to tindersticks but nothing sufficient to disturb that top 50.
Read: revisiting jeeves and wooster. Still funny after umpteen reads. Did manage a new book, Craig Brown on the Beatles… Loved it. Nice to read something ever so slightly irreverent about them. Also loved how it focused on bit players in the story and how they were affected. Poor Helen Shapiro. Imagine being a has been at 16. And the drummer who wasn’t Ringo or Pete Best. Wow.
Seen: do cricket highlights on YouTube count? And even the odd county cricket stream. No idea who anyone is anymore though.
Heard: not much, but the GCSE and A-level revision is done so I can make some noise again. I kicked off with the half-speed mastered 12″ of Ghost Town, a tune which always gave me the willies and Rico’s extended trombone solo still gives me the shivers. And a recent-ish Jackie DeShannon album which was described as unplugged, but has some nasty 90s-sounding synth strings plastered over it.
Seen: two series of ITV’s Innocent, which was pretty good but, man, 16 minutes of adverts in an hour drives me to distraction. Thank goodness for the BBC.
Read: magazine backlog mountain. Just started on Sinead O’Connor’s autobiog.
AOB: Offspring the Elder needs surgery to repair her pneumothorax {see last month’s Takeover}, following another partial lung collapse last weekend. Spin-off benefit of Covid is elective surgery has been scrapped for 15 months, so there’s not much of a queue. It might be as early as two weeks from now. It doesn’t stop me worrying, though.
I finally – after 6 months – got architect’s drawings for my garage conversion. WFH office and sound-proofed den coming… now waiting for the builder to become free.
Blimey Steve. Wishing you and yours all the best and a swift recovery for your daughter.
Good luck with the the building works, apparently there’s a massive materials shortage.🙁
We had planned on a week away in two weeks. Oh well.
A bit galling to receive from Building Control an email saying “the drawings meet all the building regs, so you can start the works in a week”. Well, in theory I could… I’ve waited 10 years, another won’t hurt.
What Dave said ^
Update: she’s going under the knife on the 21st. Gulp.
Good to get the surgery done though. Fingers crossed for you all.
A strange month. After the last easing of lockdown I went a bit crazy as you will see below. It is not normal to have life taken away from you and with social distancing and face masks I felt perfectly safe going out although to be honest I have felt perfectly safe throughout this. It is probably not the best attitude but it is my coping mechanism and there are always plenty of things to worry about without adding another. Anyway:
HEARD:
Not much new this month. The Sons of Kemet album back to the future is a beautiful racket.
Paul Weller Fat pop is a really good effort by him – he clearly loves making music and when it is this good we all benefit.
Shannon McNally – The Waylon sessions is also delightful. I first came across her when she did an album of Bobby Charles songs which is also excellent. Strangely I have not listened to any of her own material.
I heard the lovely Danny Hathaway song For all we know on the radio and was mindful that I didn’t have any of his work and didn’t really know his stuff (or so I thought). I rectified this with a best of and it was remarkable how much of his stuff I did know but wasn’t aware it was him.
My favourite purchase this month is Studio One Jump-up -early Jamaican Jazz and Ska from the ever reliable Soul Jazz records.
READ: Finished Beeswing – like others have said it was good but could have been so much more.
Just started The Ratline by Philippe Sands the real life tale of an SS Officer before and after the war and his attempted escape from Europe – documented by letters between him and his wife. In the early stages but the author has a very engaging style and I have very high hopes for the book.
SEEN: The day after lockdown restrictions were lifted I went to my local small cinema for a meal indoors no less and to watch Nomadland. Frances McDormand is possibly my favourite actress and she was fabulous in this. I am not surprised by the 3 Oacars the film achieved. Everything abut it was excellent.
Two days later I went to my first gig at the Kitchen Garden Cafe in Birmingham. To see Steve Gibbons -the gig had been twice rearranged. Steve Gibbons is a bit of a Birmingham legend – to locals perhaps as much as Jeff lynne, Roy Wood and Ozzy Osbourne. He is 80 this month and it was very sad to see him possibly in the early stages of dementia or Alzheimers. He was distracted by being unable to find a particular harmonica despite having about 6 on the table next to him. He was rambling between songs, fluffing intros and at one point in the second set he played a song about 10 minutes after he had just played it and completely forgot that he had done so. It was actually quite stressful because at other times in the set he had that famous twinkle in his eye and the years rolled away when he played No spitting on the bus. I doubt he will tour again.
The day after I went to the Jazz Cafe with my brother to see Dele Sosimi and his Afrobeat band – an excellent set and sad that remaining restrictions meant no dancing because the place would otherwise have been rocking. He was one time keyboard player for Fela Kuti and it was like having him in the room. Great to have live music back.
On the TV front Kate Winslet was absolutely phenomenal in Mare of East Town.
Sad about Gibbons. He really is world famous in Brum, and has always been one of the coolest dudes about, almost especially as he has got older, with the mane of backcombed grey hair and the lazy smile as he relishes his own ridiculousness. Plus that idiosyncratic thumb upstroke fashion he strums a guitar. Have seen and enjoyed his playing innumerable times since moving to the midlands forty years ago, from his eponymous band, to solo gigs and, of course, the Dylan project that has helped hime find a later years purple patch. And he has never stopped checking out the competition: when the Ceol Castle was a venue of note in the 80s, he would often wander in, towards the end of a gig, and stand at the bar, watching and smiling. Last time I saw him he was in the audience at Town Hall, December 2019, watching Robert Plant’s Saving Grace, which was fitting, as the first time I saw him was again at Town Hall, in the audience for RT, about 1981, his comments about RT to me in the gents(!?) enough to make me want to check his own band out, having not been a great fan of his Tulane etc, when he was in the charts. About that time he was forever playing at the Breedon Bar, another great lost venue, and I went, a fan ever since.
Heard:
I’ve been on a wonky NY disco, dub-punk binge, so lots of Sleeping Bag Records, Ze Records etc, especially Arthur Russell, Was (Not Was), Grace Jones, Ruts, Vivien Goldman, Basement 5, Maximum Joy etc. I also bought the Shake The Foundations boxset which complements that listening very nicely indeed.
In terms of new stuff, it’s all about the new Gary Numan record, Intruder, which is great, though not quite as great as the last one, and the new Godspeed. The latter has the most annoying format you can imagine. It’s a four-track album that comes on two discs, one of which is 12″, the other is 10″.
Track 1 is side 1 of the 12″
Track 2 is side 1 of the 10″
Track 3 is side 2 of the 12″
Track 4 is side 2 of the 10″
Honestly? How bloody annoying is that. Musically awesome, though. So they are forgiven.
Best of all, though, I came across a group who were new to me, although they go back to the 1980s. They’re Reducer, and they make this really horrible-sounding, lo-fi and *incredibly* scuzzy industrial-dub, like Alien Sex Fiend being severely overhauled by Adrian Sherwood with all the needles into the red. The Rewind Forward site put it like this. “If you have even the vaguest interest in post-punk, industrial, dub, reggae, the cosmos, life, living, eating, breathing, dancing then the universe has brought you to this page and everything in your world is about to be right again.” Having bought the EP they’re talking about there, and then everything else I could, I fully endorse that statement.
Read:
Terrible reading month. As well as CD inlays (mainly to do with the wonky NY disco binge above) I must have started half a dozen books and not got past chapter three. In desperation I’ve gone back to Wilt by Tom Sharpe, although I did really enjoy the Kindle sample of Andrew O’Hagan’s Mayflies, so I might go on to that.
Seen:
Like everyone else, Mare of Easttown, which sent me back to Happy Valley, both seasons. Sarah Lancashire is immense in this. Filmwise, I endured the new Zack Snyder zombie shitfest, Crock of the Dead; Cruella, which was ace, although actually I wanted Emma Thompson to me *more* OTT, and found myself wishing that one of the other women in contention (Kidman, Moore, Jolie) had got the part; Nobody, also pretty great, even though it’s basically John Wick, and The Wrath of Man. The latter is the new Guy Ritchie film and well worth a watch if you please. Should you be tempted, however, DO NOT READ UP ON IT FIRST. Much, nay most, of the film’s pleasure lies in plot reveals that at least one review I read (thankfully, afterwards) gave away in full.
Love Arthur Russell and like you would lump him in with Was (not was) and Grace Jones.
He’s incredible, isn’t he? Can you think of any other artist whose output is either life-affirming, leftfield NY disco or open-your-veins John-Martyn-meets-Nico ambient introspection? With no in between?
No. Neither can I.
Meanwhile, Was (Not Was) are a band who reward closer inspection, which is putting it mildly.
Not much to add but I would like to highly recommend ‘Carry On Glamping’, the Johnny Vegas thing. It’s wonderfully entertaining and actually a rather moving and personal story. I’ve always liked JV but ended up liking him rather more after this.
Watched: the usual shed load of Netflix/ prime good, bad and indifferent films and series. Highlight has to be Time, which is this month really, debuting on Monday this week. Jimmy McGovern written so unlikely to be feel good easy viewing, and, of course, it wasn’t. Terrific, mind, with Sean Bean and Stephen Graham on full on BAFTA mode, amongst a plethora of other cameos of substance. Bleak and daunting as ever, this is essential viewing. Has me wondering if Stephen Graham ever gets to unwind: can’t his agent get him a slapstick cheesy comedy to relax in for a change? 2017 series Startup is worth a go, 2 series of possibly far fetched guff that had me and Mrs Path hooked. Who knew Bitcoin could be so intriguing?
Reading: the book of the film, The Mauritanian, about false imprisonment at Guantanamo, seen recently. It’s called Guantanamo Diary and is proving gripping.
Heard: Gaelictronica chill out band Whyte put out their latest, Maim, a widescreen delight with hints of John Carpenter in some of the moods and motifs. Similarly, in a way, found a copy of Liam O’Manlaoi’s Rian, Irish Gaelic singing, him and a choir, with minimal backing and occasional tribal drums. Another corker is the latest from Asaf Avidan, the Israeli Prince/Bowie hybrid of the odd voice. Called Agnorisis, it is his best yet. Cities of the sun, the sort of acoustic Explosions in the Sky, I raved about last week. Plus oodles of Dylan covers for various Dylan 80th projects I was contributing to. Here’s some Asaf:
Bit late to this one but here goes…
Heard
Not a lot to be honest…dipped in and out of the new James album All The Colours of You, which isn’t bad in places but for me they’ll never match the first couple of late eighties albums. The new Crowded House album, Dreamers Are Waiting is OK, Mrs L being much more of a fan than me. I like a bit of Neil Finn, but I don’t think he’s been at his best for the last decade or so.
Really enjoyed the A Certain Ratio vs Emperor Machine single…a homage of sorts to ACR’s own Do the Du. Even I could dance to this…
Read
Sing Backwards and Weep by Mark Lanagan…I don’t think I’ve ever knowingly heard anything by his grunge era band Screaming Trees, I expect it wouldn’t be my cup of tea anyway, but I liked his albums with Isobel Campbell. This is a bit of a harrowing read in places, as it goes into a lot of detail about sex and drugs and, to some extent, rock and roll, but surprisingly I really enjoyed it. Lanagan’s a really good writer and I’d like to read another volume, maybe about the sober years.
The Accidental Footballer by Pat Nevin was great, but then I expected it to be. He’s pretty good as a pundit, not being afraid to stick to guns but as a player he was great, and the title “the Post Punk Footballer” was a novelty at the time, the first real instance of a player being somewhat more NME friendly. Seems like an all round good guy too.
Seen
Just watched “Time” the Jimmy McGovern three parter with Sean Bean and Stephen Graham. Superb. Much as I like a McGovern story, you do know roughly what you’re going to get, and although this was possibly a little bit far-fetched in places it was still excellent, if hard, viewing.
Motherland…a real grower of a comedy. and there really aren’t many modern ones that I’ve found that watchable. Nails a few schoolgate sterotypes really well and genuinely funny.
AOB
I’ve just brought an e-bike. We own a motorhome, and parking it in towns can be a bit of a pain, so I needed a form of transport that we could take with us and which didn’t make me feel quite so sweaty and as if my chest is about to explode. After some very interesting debate on a thread here last month, and trying one out on a campsite last week which came very highly recommended by it’s owner, I have now brought a Focus Aventura2 6.6. Should arrive in the next couple of days and quite frankly I can’t wait!
They seem to be getting lighter. When I looked they were around 30kg although 23kg is still a fair weight to lift onto a rack. My biggest concern would be theft as thieves seem to be able to get through any material these days.
Yes, I’m now on the lookout for the biggest and most highly recommended lock I can find. Definitely not being complacent on that score. I know nothing is completely thief proof, and hard core e-bike robbers will always find a way, but something to put off the opportunists would be a start. Any recommendations from here would be very well received…
I heard recently that thieves will watch places where people park bikes ie racks in shopping areas so police advice is to park it somewhere away from other bikes. Also, two different types of lock as they will need different tools to get through both. I suspect a lot of thieves are equipped with cordless angle grinders etc and they aren’t interested in an old Halfords bike, they want the high end stuff.
Good advice, and very true, thanks Dave. I’m definitely going for the two lock approach, one of them probably a Kryptonite D lock, and I’ll find another type to go with it. I doubt I’ll ever leave it for long, but at nearly three grand it’s worth finding the best lock I can.
Saw an unlocked VanMoof in Salisbury Market last week, couldn’t believe it. Had a good chat with the affable guy who owned it, but I’d never have left something like that, even if just for a few seconds!
Also: take a photograph of your locked bike when you leave it, showing some location if possible. Good ammunition for insurers should the worst happen. It’s saddening to have to do this shit but here we are.
That’s a great idea MC, many thanks for sharing.
That Mark Lanegan book is extraordinary really. How is he still around?
Beats me. I guess you either have the constitution or you don’t! I certainly wouldn’t. One thing that is apparent from the book is the sheer effort it takes to maintain a drug habit…giving up unfortunately takes even more.
He was certainly dedicated to his cause, scarily so to be honest.
Happenchance finds me in the Golden Age… always a bonus.
Sport:
Doing the 50s/60s papers in the local library at a break-neck pace to avoid another lockdown (where did that 37 billion go?) – after that I can just talk to people about the last 50 years re: football book.
The Test commentaries are fantastic and jaw-droppingly better that Talk Crap – hey, let’s get rid of the BBC… that’s a good idea!
Went to two football matches on two consecutive Saturdays, first live games since Boxing Day – I’ve been a civilian for far, far too long.
Cricket at the local village green today.
Cinema:
Nomadland and (even better) Minari.
Music:
60s – John Martyn’s first two albums, Doors, “Emotions” by the Pretty Things, but I’ll soon be back to only doing Rock ‘n’ Roll, I’m sure.
By the way, where did that Uncut Dylan Special go?
“Boris” f*****g f***face (not sure where his wife with cancer is) is currently less than 10 miles from my front door.
I’ve chained myself to the fridge to stop myself from headbutting him… best Saturday night I’ve had for ages… close to the beer.