it is a new month! the sun is shining (at the moment). please share – what have you been listening to / reading / watching / and otherwise enjoying ?
(Photo – if attached – is Chris Bailey playing my guitar, which I failed to load to last month’s update)
https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/364/18329164210_5888a3007d_z.jpg
Listening –
– WTF (with Obama, incredible)
– Nerdist, as usual
– Viv Stanshall’s Radio Flashes (pulled from iPlayer a long time ago and only now started listening).
Reading –
– Kim Gordon, Girl In A Band (what a lady, quite a life),
– Neal Stephenson, Seven Eves (amazing first 2/3rds, slightly disappointing conclusion)
Watching
– Silicon Valley (sometimes a bloody painful reminder of some aspects of my life/career in the 90s. Like The Office but with people I knew)
2 thoughts on the Obama WTF
– Is it me or does he sound like The Rock – particularly when trying to be ‘down’ with MM
– Once past the novelty of a comedian interviewing PUSA in a garage for a podcast it becomes a bit dry?
Southwell Folk Festival. Bit low key, not enough opportunities to sing, shame they’ve had to stick it out on the racecourse when one of the attractions used to be it’s close link to the town and, particularly, the pubs. Nonetheless, the reason for going proved justified. Audience members were crying to a rare Chris Wood and Andy Cutting set, who manage to turn a main stage gig into an intimate recital. It’s always a delight to see musicians whose sensibilities are so enmeshed.
Holiday in Ireland, so caught a few sessions over there, finishing up with a chance landing on a Lunasa gig in Sligo. Reading The Wild Places by Macfarlane was appropriate given the terrain I was covering, but unfortunately not good for my mood. Just as the book’s logic unfolds, it marries closer to my own feelings as it recognises the wild in the local and small scale. The West Coast of Ireland is glorious, but I’m really a lowland, domestic, built environment kind of person and the wildness of both book and travel didn’t suit where I wanted to be. Glad I started Macfarlane’s canon with The Old Ways.
Bakewell Day of Dance. Well this was a surprise. Why does a small Derbyshire market town end up with this remarkable event? Dozens of dance workshops and displays scattered around the sunny town, peppered with curious Peak District day trippers. Demonstrated some French dancing in the street and opened the lungs out with the Breton equivalent of Ten Green Bottles to some surprised bystanders. Elsewhere, there were dances from Angola, Armenia, South Africa, Appalachia. This can only be for the good.
Someone then came up to me and said ‘Did you get up and dance to the Rheingans Sisters at Southwell? ’cause that’s their dad who’s just been dancing to your singing and he recognised you from the footage. What footage?
Oh, that footage.
Nice moves Sir!
Listening: Milk Carton Kids’ new album, Monterey (going to see them at the Old Museum in Brisbane on Friday). Beautiful harmony singing, beautiful playing.
Apart from that I’ve had the iPod on shuffle for quite a while – my vague ambition to play every single one of the 25,000 tracks on shuffle was stymied when the battery went flat and it started again from 1, chiz chiz. So I’ve been listening to whatever, but there seems to have been a lot of jump blues from the 40s and 50s, which is fine by me.
Reading: Like Harold, Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves. I’m completely awestruck, even though I have various issues with it. It’s the War and Peace of the End of the World. It’s taken me the best part of a month to read it, so nothing else.
Watching: A double fix of Danish drama, hooray…Rita on Netflix, absorbing drama about a teacher who is brilliant with kids but can’t be trusted to behave herself with adults. And The Legacy on SBS, about a dysfunctional collection of siblings whose life is thrown into complete disarray when their boho artist mother dies and leaves everything to another sibling they didn’t even know they had. Also on Netflix, The Black List, starring James Spader as Raymond Reddington, an international crook and fixer who turns himself into the FBI so that he can help them catch a bunch of worse criminals they don’t even know about yet. Belief needs to be suspended, but it’s a lot of fun, and Spader is brilliant, once you get used to the fact that he’s bald.
Only thing in the cinema was Salt of the Earth, Wim Wenders’s doco about Sebastiao Delgado, the photographer. Extraordinary man, extraordinary film, hard to watch sometimes (he’s photographed some of the worst horror shows of recent decades), but uplifting too.
Listening: Bit late to the party, but Public Service Broadcasting’s excellent “Race for Space”. Go might well be my favourite single this year.
Reading: Not a voracious reader me, but I am picking my way through Danny Baker’s “Going off Alarming”. Extremely funny, possibly more than the first instalment of his biography, the anecdotes used give you an insight into his character rather than just being chucked away to fill a couple of pages.
Watching: No Offence which got better and better as the series continued. It was a bit far fetched in parts, but the likeable characters (how often do you see a drama where someone misses out on promotion but still remains close to their rival?) and varied subplots kept it crackling away.
Started on Humans – not sure yet, although Katherine Parkinson is excellent as the sceptical Mum. Need to catch up a little more to form a proper opinion.
Episodes gets funnier and cleverer every episode too – the poolside barbeque being a particular awkward highlight (and I usually run a mile from anything where comedy is that cringey).
Finally, I may have mentioned it elsewhere, but if you haven’t seen Hey Duggee on CBeebies yet, you’re missing a treat.
This is I think my first time on the BT and I’ve been here a while…
I watched Still Alice on the plane the other day, honest and compassionate look at early Alzheimer’s, if you’ve experienced dementia with anyone you know it rings true in a real and heartbreaking way
I’ve started reading the latest Donna Leon “By Its Cover” about books in a library being defaced. I only started it because I took it on the plane with me to NZ for my mother and the video screen wasn’t working. I really like Donna but I’m so not a reader so who knows when I’ll finish it.
(BTW I watched Still Alice on the return journey from NZ”
I haven’t listened to a whole new album for years. But I bought the remastered Sticky Fingers and I’m playing some tracks on my radio show tomorrow.
That’s all, not a lot is it?
Oh and last night I watched the first Ep of a two part series called Blood and Thunder about Albert Music in Australia. Ted Albert is the guy who discovered The Easybeats and nurtured Harry Vanda and George Young. Next week’s Ep is the Thunder part and is about, obviously, ACDC. Angus Young is great, talks about being a kid in Australia while his older brother was a pop star, fans coming to the house, etc etc.
I watched Still Alice at the cinema. Tears, and not a few of them, were shed. I will not watch that movie again, as good as it was.
Thanks for that tip, hadn’t noticed blood and thunder was out there and really enjoyed it on iView. Bit hokey in places, but I haven’t really seen Angus interviewed like that before so lots to recommend it. Shame so many are falling off the twig…
Listening & Watching –
Glastonberry for the first time in years. Really surprised myself by enjoying Florence. Thought Jamie T was the best gig I’ve seen for a long, long time. Liked La Roux so downloaded the album which unfortunately is pish. Fell asleep during The Who…. (Oh, FKA Twigs was the most pretentious load of crap I have suffered in many a year).
Apart from that been trying to work my way through stuff on the iPod I didn’t even remember was there – dear God what a lot of bollox I have…gave up and have been playing my way through the Chris Whitley portfolio. After the first two albums it’s all a very mixed bag but some absolute gems scattered around in there.
Apart from Glast viewing has been confined to working our way through Justified. I’ m in love with Raylan Givens and I don’t care who knows.
Reading (by the pool) old Christopher Brookmyre stuff – most excellent!
Watching: Isak Kierkegaard’s bleak 18-part TV series, The Dead Herring. Set in post-war Snievelnøstil, Otto Blomquist stars as Knut Persssson, alcoholic ‘tec with family issues. And cancer.
Reading: first volume of Hampton Blithely’s exquisitely nuanced biography of Derek “Dimples” Parsleigh-Househusband. 1,922pp.
Listening: Harriet Wimbley’s heartrending adaptations of Sylvia Plath’s unpublished fridge magnets.
I’ve only seen the US remake of The Dead Herring, which was renamed the Deadering. It’s updated to post-Gulf and Shatner’s take on Clint Pearson doesn’t really convince. Also they thought the cancer would put audiences off, so they gave him a cute but depressed kitten instead.
Dead Herring was a great series, although the junkie bigamist Mayor was annoying. Do you remember the publicity stunt for it?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/02/dead-herring-norway-beach-nordreisa
Only the original Norwegian shows are currently available as a torrent, so I’m having to wrestle with the hard-coded Swahili subs as well! But it’s a totally immersive experience, fully deserving of the Silver Mole Of Snøttgøbbler award. Oyvind Palmwengler’s iconic performance as Brno is truly iconic!
This idea was slightly tweaked by BBC Scotland for their seminal series, “Yer no half looking a wee bit peely wally, by the way’. An astronaut (Andy Stewart) crash lands on a strange, forbidding planet. Making his way through an arid moonscape composed of broken, bottle, empty cans and assorted detritus, he is captured by a violent tribe of morbidly obese, pallid semi-humans, dressed entirely in blue. who speak in a guttural, slurred, impenetrable language and worship a God named ‘Billy’. This tribe are engaged in endless warfare with another tribe, dressed entirely in green. In a devastating final scene (Spoiler Alert!), following his escape, Andy is skelped on the nut by a broken bottle of Buckfast and realises, to his mounting horror and despair, that he has landed in present-day Glasgow.
‘A bleak, Ibsenic tragedy’ -Sunday Post
Crivvens!
The Sunday Post has gone a bit upmarket from what I remember. Was that review by Francis Gay?
Naw, it’s Hen Broon.
Do you mind, I am Francis Gay. Well, was once, for two weeks when the ‘real Rev FG was on holiday. In Las Vegas with his GLW. And that’s true.
14 days hard, eh?
Sure was. A nice cup of tea from my Good Lady Wife Mrs Gay soon sorted me out though.
Makes ye think!
Listened
Having been impressed by Weller at Glastonbury (on telly), especially Above The Clouds, I’ve been revisiting his first solo album. The Strange Museum is a particular fave.
To sleep to I’ve switched to Moola Mantra by Deva Primal. I came across her by chance on youtube. Investigating further I found she’s mostly very glossy New-Age, pseudo-spritual bollocks in an Enya stylee, but worse. However I do like the album Moola Mantra. All tablas and sitars and Hindu mantras and that kinda shite. But very soothing and highly recommended to anyone who, like me, sleeps to music.
As for at-the-beach music, nothing better right now than Bunkhouse Theme and Main Title Theme from Dylan’s Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid. For some reason they remind me of the film Big Wednesday.
Watched
James Brown biopic, Get On Up. Good stuff, nice job all round, file alongside Jersey Boys, All Is By My Side, Ray etc.
Mad Max Fury Road. I thought Hardy was disappointing. In the second film Mel Gibson was portrayed Max well as a nice guy who’s lost everything. Hardy plays him more as just a nice guy. There was too little character-based stuff and too much cartoon car chase. Charlize Theron was easily the best actor/character in it.
Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive. A vampire film without violence. Sort of a gothic The Hunger. I’d give it 3 stars.
Kurt Cobain Montage of Heck. The sort of documentary I hate, with loads of stock reel of the time and animation of Cobain’s notes. Said absolutely nothing of any interest to me (I’m neither a Nirvana fan nor hater).
Episodes. Matt Le Blanc shines in every scene he’s in and has some hilarious lines and storylines.
Read
Trying to read The Goldfinch. I’m sure I’ll get into it, but right now it’s boring the arse off me.
I saw a review that described Humans as Ex Machina the tv show. To my mind Ex Machina is a fair-to-middling episode of Black Mirror, while the William Hurt strand of Humans had the potential to be one of the better BM episodes. I really enjoy Silicon Valley too, but I did miss the character of Peter Gregory in Series 2.
Pixar are very much back baby with Inside Out.
As mentioned by so many others I thought Suede’s turn at Glastonbury was great. Gig chemistry is a funny thing – if you’d told me in advance they’d start with my two least favourite songs from their first album and have She’s In Fashion as one of their encores I’d approach with trepidation, but it all worked. My other Glastonbury thought was the way, thanks to the nature of collaborations, it’s possible for Get Lucky to be the highlight of Daft Punk’s, Nile Rodgers’ AND Pharrell’s sets.
My reading has slowed right down as I’m finding the last few chapters of Max Tegmark’ s Our Mathematical Universe as thick as treacle.
The best thing I’ve read this month is this piece from the Cracked website explaining why the new Star Trek films are a crock:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-star-trek-was-rebooted-wrong/
SEEN: Joel Rafael and Jarrod Dickenson. Rafael is a proper Californian folkie, friend and sideman to the stars since the ’70’s, and deeply in debt to his hero, Woody Guthrie. It’s a strange thing indeed to find his smoky voice and songs about dustbowls, lynchings, and ‘gettin’ took down by the man’ in a half-empty basement under Brighton station. Strange but rather wonderful. Dickinson’s a Texas boy who lives in Brooklyn when he’s not in London or Belfast. He shares the same pickin’ and whisperin’ style as his support act, and this was a warm-up for his Glastonbury set a few days later.
Oh, and I saw Nick Cave at the station. He was buying pizza.
Also seen: Jimi: All Is By My Side which is now on Netflix. You’re always going to have a problem doing a Hendrix biopic – which is that no one plays like him, although Waddy Watchel does his best here, and Andre (3000) Benjamin puts his fingers in what may well be the right places. Without permission to use any of his songs, the film is probably saved from being a straight biography, as it’s forced to concentrate on the way up, and finished just before Monterey. Benjamin has the look and the stoned groover vibe off pat, and there’s a number of other impersonations – Noel, Mitch, Clapton, Chas Chandler, Andrew Loog Oldham, Keith Richard – where the actors’ quite impressive efforts are rather ruined by subtitles telling you who they’re supposed to be. Deliberately odd cuts and jumps aside, it’s a good recreation of late sixties London and a fair, if episodic, telling of Hendrix’s rise. It leaves out the fall, and that’s good.
Listening:
RT’s new work, which is good and very RT
Reading:
Just finished Kolymsky Heights by Lionel Davidson. It’s very good; dry, and an economic writing style that doesn’t short change you. Not as good as the hype, but excellent nonetheless.
Biggles. My father duplicate ordered some books for the kid, so I ended up with some Biggles and Knight Crusader by Ronald Welch. They are stormingly good reads, and a bit more mature than I remember. Biggles drinks! People die!
Also finished Waterloo by Bernard Cornwell of Sharpe, Uhtred and Winter King fame. And you know what? It was excellent. A quibble about some of his verb tense switching, but it delivered the tension, the confusion and the nitty gritty of the battle, and in a very accessible way. If you don’t know a lot about the battle and you want to, I think this is the one I would recommend as an entry point. He could have a future in non fiction as well.
Watching:
Eh. Not much that thrills me. Although I have to keep myself up to speed with M*A*S*H as the kid has decided he loves it.
Seen: Finished watching House Of Cards finally. It had become a chore towards the end of the latest series. Great first couple of series, but that last one, with the odd acting of the writer for hire, and complete underuse of the supporting characters left it all a bit…wet. Started on Homeland, which I’m really enjoying, Claire Danes is brilliant in it. Damien Lewis talks out of the side of his mouth too often for comfort, which seems like a small thing, but makes him look like he’s acting. No Offence was brilliant, although the ending seemed rushed. Fantastic acting, great writing, and a bunch of female characters who seemed real, not stereotype.
Read: Still on a book drought, just cannot get through a book to more than a third of the way through. Reading lots and lots of childrens books with my kids, and just read through a big pile of Star Wars comics with my eldest. He’s 6 and Star Wars mad. Which is nice for his dad who was Star Wars mad growing up. Less so for his mother who has only seen the films once with me one drunken evening.
Heard: Lots and lots of reggae and ska. The originals and then the Two Tone people. Going through a Mod/Rudeboy thing on one hand, and a country thing on the other. Both obsessions with many years taken up in my life. Not much new heard, the Eccentronic Research Council newie is fun. The new Kacey Musgraves album is lushly gorgeous, but missing the spikier edges of the last album. Like it a lot though, her voice has improved dramatically. Also been listening to the new Miguel album. Really good, nice amount of weird in the sound, but at the heart of it some really strong melodies, almost 80s radio music. Can’t quite work out if I believe his ‘loverman’ stuff, nor the tough guy stuff therein. Prince I believed, but mostly because he always did things with a slight raised eyebrow and a sense of humour. But I’ll forgive Miguel a lot, as an earlier single Adorn is one of my top songs from this decade. And he can sing. Blimey.
Seen: A lot of TV series have come to an end, some satisfactorily (No Offence, Jonathan Strange) others out with a whimper (The Game). My number on TV hit right now is the women’s world cup – I’ll be up til 2am this morning cheering on England (I refuse to call them ‘The Lionesses’, you marketing schlubs). Out and about, I’ve seen Fleetwood Mac in a giant barn (good), Pugwash in a tiny club (amazing) and the Replacements in a smaller barn (off the scale).
Read: Lemony Snickert’s ‘Who Could That Be at This Hour?’ I know it’s a children’s book, but I’m not a big reader. Dipping into the exhaustive ‘Remembered for a While’, the Nick Drake coffee table book – thanks to my wife, who works at the publisher, I got it for a tenner.
Heard: Since the sad death of Chris Squire, I’ve been listening to the more concise, bass-heavy bits of Yes, especially ‘Yours is No Disgrace’, which is still awesome. A proper summer jam is the sugary but sparkling ‘Shebang!’ by (the female) Kelly Jones, cowritten with the ace Mike Viola, and ‘Dear 23’ by the Posies. And I have also come late to the Public Service Broadcasting party.
Heard:
Listening: I’ve had the first two Steely Dan albums on rotation for the last week, and I’ve been revelling in their dense obscurity and everlasting musical delight, synaesthetic mental pictures forming, then morphing via watery merges into something altogether different as the next line but one suggests yet another possible interpretation, endlessly intriguing.
Seen: we’ve seen out the last couple of weeks of my recent contract by working our way through the boxed set of The IT Crowd, taking two or sometimes three episodes of Linehanic madness, and shuffling off to bed with inane grins. There’s something about his writing – and the brilliant performances that bring it to life – that nevers palls. We’ve three episodes of series 4 left, and then it’s on to the Black Books set…
Read: I’m taking a break from Patrick Leigh Fermour’s european tour, and instead I’ve sidetracked into his war memoirs, and have just started Abducting A General – events filmed as Ill Met By Moonlight. I can report that his writing is, as ever, scintillating, and he throws up references that send you careering off to Google to constantly get the gen, and wonder at his erudition and how well read he was. Sparkling stuff.
I’ve been revelling in their dense obscurity and everlasting musical delight, synaesthetic mental pictures forming, then morphing via watery merges into something altogether different as the next line but one suggests yet another possible interpretation, endlessly intriguing.
Damn dude, that’s how I feel about Fulham Fallout!
Have a look at Natural Born Heroes by Christopher McDougall, it’s partly about Leigh Fermor’s kidnapping of the general but also about some of the other cranky intellectual heroes who washed up in Crete during the war. It’s a really fascinating read.
Seen: Person of Interest on Netflix. The stories are a bit meh but the sub plot is getting more interesting. I’ll probably see it through to the end. Enjoying The Interceptor on BBC1. I’m easily pleased with crime drama. Series end of The Good Wife was good although I’m wondering how much longer it can be kept going before all the main characters have formed law firms together and then left again. SPOILER ALERT. It would have been more interesting if Bishop had got to Kalinda.
Heard: Dawes, based on recommendations here. Needs further appraisal but quite good. Leisure Society, Public Service Broadcasting and Counting Crows plus a few charity shop discs which I need to catch up on.
Read: Nothing really. I keep looking at A Wild Sheep Chase by Murakami but haven’t got around to opening it yet.
AOB: Saw Madness at Hove cricket ground. As you’d expect, mainly a romp through the greatest hits but a couple each from Norton Folgate and Oui Oui, Si Si….. really tight live although production was a little on the cheap. Good evening out for the family (9.15 curfew. Actually nice to get home at a sensible time).
Watched The Waterboys Glastonbury set on iPlayer. This has made the GLW keen to go next year despite previously declining a Waterboys ticket because “it’s too diddly diddly.” Some days I wonder who I married.
Heard: Whatever CD the kids pick in the car….so we had a groove to Chemical Brothers on Saturday and the soothing sounds of Nina Simone. Other than that its podcasts on my commute to work (Football Ramble, Desert Island Discs, Danny Baker)
Read: I find very little time to read…I am enjoying Christopher Brookmyre’s new book, but not making great progress due to lack of time/effort.
Seen: For Father’s Day, we (me, my wife and 2 rugrats) went to see Inside Out, the new Pixar movie. It was very, very good…funny and touching. We all loved it.
I am finally getting into Game of Thrones, just finished Season 1. It took me a while to figure out all the families and the relationship between them all. Really enjoying it.
Also watching True Detective, Season 1. The acting, script and location are all perfect in a very seedy way. Looking forward to watching more.
AOB: Its a long weekend here (4th July – US Independence Day), so hoping to be able to relax. Then its a week in New England with the family. Its been a very busy year work-wise and need time to de-stress.
I’m listening to the same old shite I always have.
You don’t care.
@moose-the-mooche just because we don’t care doesn’t mean we don’t understand..
And just because we don’t understand doesn’t mean we don’t care. Because we don’t.
It’s cold down here.
And dark.
I think there are spiders.
From Mars?
or clones of the Bad News drummer?
“Why don’t we call it Excalibur Veal?”
Heard Not much new. I had a good spree in a local charity shop a week or two ago, and the pick of that bunch was In the Heart of the Moon by Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté. Gorgeous summery vibe. I picked up Richard Thompson’s new one yesterday, but too soon to say.
Read Mick Houghton’s Biography of Sandy Denny was very good, but gave the frustrating impression that she was a walk on part in other people’s lives rather than her own person. She seems to dip in and out of the narrative and no-one seems to have known her well ‘away from the office’.
Once in a while I’ll read a Stephen King book because people I know who’s taste I trust rate him as a novelist. I remain unconvinced after reading Christine on my holidays. It’s probably the best King I’ve read, and very well put together, but I couldn’t get along with the narrator of the first section who keeps making very mature comments on others’ sex lives (including his parents) despite being 17.
Nearing the end of Stephen Fry’s latest biography, which isn’t so much a biography as a long section on cocaine, a few stories about the Groucho Club and a diary extract. It’s an odd confection, told in a giddy tome which doesn’t really communicate why he’s getting so worked up.
SeenThea Gilmore was absolutely superb at Cadogan Hall, and David Sedaris was good enough at Ipswich to make me think it was £35 well spent to go and here a man read out loud. Fairport at Colchester were reliable if a little unexciting.
On TV Humans started well but tailed off badly in the second episoide. We finished series 4 of Buffy (Walsh is dead! Hurray! Riley isn’t! Boo!) and started True Detective, which at present strikes me a very stylish but a little lacking in heart.
On holiday in Florence we enjoyed Antony Gormley’s exhibition Human at Forte Belvedere. Even if we did get the idea long before seeing all 100+ statues you can’t argue with a setting like that.
On Monday we went to see Carmen at the ENO. It was a first night at the opera for me, and a first visit to the Coliseum. I enjoyed the building more than the show, which was let down a Carmen who I could not believe in, and who’s metallic mezzo soprano I found charmless. Michaela and Don Jose were much better. Wonderful venue, though.
While we were down that way we stopped in Trafalgar Square to see Hans Haacke’s Gift Horse on the fourth plinth. I was lucky enough to be there just as a cloud formation echoing the form of the horse passed, and it may have been the moment I enjoyed most in what, reading the above, seems to have been a busy month.
http://i474.photobucket.com/albums/rr107/Gatz_photos/Birthday%20038.jpg
I raely watch TV and am saving the Patti Smith book Kids for my hols so its been very much pleasures of an aural nature for me of late.
Having just moved house and got a rather lovely hifi I trawled through the best of 2014 lists and the best of the year so far in another thread here and bought about 50 CD’s.
I’m late to the Decemberists party but I love the live album We All Raise Our Voices, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing them in September. The Matthew E White album Fresh Blood is rightly lauded elsewhere on this site. The first Django Django album is great driving music but the jury is out on St Vincent and Royal Blood.
Biggest disappointment is probably The Horrors new one after such a great album in Skying.
HEARD!
Very little “new” but Ace Records has a brilliant Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham collection called Sweet Inspirations which has been getting a lot of play before I see those two in the Union Chapel in Islington on the 14th. A Woman Left Lonely by Charlie Pride in particular is brilliant.
Also on heavy rotation is “Wee Tam and the Big Huge” by The Incredible String Band. “Air” is such a good tune. And yes I really do appreciate how annoying they are. I only get to play it out loud if Mrs G is in bed
Last night I had Music For Eighteen Musicians by Steve Reich on. Haven’t played it in ages.
SEEN!
Almost NOTHING apart from the news. Greece is on a lot.
READ!
Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk is a brilliant mixture of memoir, history, travel writing, description and sheer poetry. It’s actually a beautiful book and anyone partial to a bit of Jan Morris, Norman Lewis et al should give it a go.
The Death Of Ivan Illych by Leo Tolstoy because on a warm balmy evening a story about the deathbed spiritual awakening of a bourgeoise lawyer/judge who just won’t die quickly enough for his family is an obvious tonic.
AOB
I saw very little Glastonbury this year. Lionel Richie was about the best that I saw. I thought he did a great job, total pro etc. Florence looked awfully happy but not my cup of tea.
Listened: Nothing new, apart from the Dylan and Cash/Nashville Cats compilation which is full of old, but no less good for all that. Am digitising everything now, about 10 years behind the times, and familiarising myself with old stuff like Dr Feelgood’s Down by the Jetty and had to listen to Yes’s Going for the One which has never lost its power and beauty for me over the years. The real highlight though was Frank Crumit singing AbduL Abulbul Amir. We never had a lot of music at home growing up, but always remember this and Little Brown Jug.
Read: Several highlights; The Valley by Richard Benson, about the author’s mining family in South Yorkshire up to the present day. I thought his first book – The Farm – was excellent and this is too. He doesn’t gloss over his family’s faults, he is clearly proud of the way they dealt with their struggles and it’s very illuminating on the miner’s strike and how people were affected. Common Ground by Rob Cowen, the author uses a patch of edgeland near his home in North Yorkshire to write about our relationship with nature. It’s thought provoking and really well very written.
Watched: Bugger all on telly. But had to remind myself how good the original Far from the Madding Crowd still is. It is; Julie Christie, Alan Bates and Terence Stamp were perfect and I just cannot imagine how the new version can possibly come close. Brilliantly, I found Paper Moon on a trawl through Fopp. It’s been reissued in a shiny new print and still as wonderful as I remembered it…”I WANT MY MONEY”.
AOB…Why on earth in this little mini heat wave do people sit in the tube sweltering and keep the windows closed, open the damn things, it’s better than nothing.
Bloody marvellous – Paper Moon becomes available when I no longer have a DVD player. I remember that film with great fondness and for the 2 years I was member of Love Film it was always top of my want list but never came. Will have to find a way of streaming it from somewhere.
It”s been reissued in one of those dual format editions with dvd and blu-Ray, so if you have the latter, you’re in luck.
Heard:
The Decemberists – What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World
Gaz Coombes – Matador
Vaccines – English Graffiti
Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
Nothing there to dislike
Just got a copy of Truancy – The Best Of Pete Townshend. All good stuff, but you just feel many of the songs are missing one thing – Roger Daltrey’s voice (sorry Pete …)
Seen:
Bits of Glastonbury – highlights for me being Motorhead and The Who. Most of the rest of the stuff I caught left me generally unimpressed
Read:
Mojo (Fleetwood Mac issue had me searching out old Mac, and “mostly” enjoying it)
AOB:
Still smiling about being the owner of a copy of Dexys Midnight Runners: Don’t Stand Me Down. 30 years I’ve waited to own the physical product (not some ropey CD-R copy with no artwork).
Superb album, but my life hasn’t changed (yet!)
Heard
Kamasi Washington – The Epic. Jings. This is really very impressive. Hard to think of many people who could put out a 3-disc box set for their debut and carry it off but he does. There is an awful lot of jazz here but much of it is very good indeed.
The Best of Don McCaslin’s Warmth. Best-ofs are generally reviled in these parts, however I believe that this is the only Warmth material currently available. Seldom has a band lived up so well to their name. This is cheery, laid-back west coast jazz and eminently likeable.
Richard Thompson – Still. This just in. Growing on me. Top tip: go for the deluxe version with the Variations EP, as this is head and shoulders above the album proper.
Read
A Book of Dreams – Peter Reich. Just back in print. I’ve wanted to read this for years and it did not disappoint. Reich revisits his extraordinary childhood at different ages. It has, as the name suggests, a dream-like quality. I was delighted to find that Organon still exists – you can even stay there. The cloud-bursters have been deactivated though.
Saw
Fleetwood Mac, as reviewed elsewhere. They were ace!
Also Chuck Prophet, who lived up to his considerable advance billing.
Watched
Absolutely loved Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
I am possibly the last person here to watch Breaking Bad which, irritatingly, is as good as popular opinion would suggest. Now on to series 3. It’s a shade dark.
I’m also way behind the curve on Breaking Bad, watched the first two episodes of series 4 last night.
Yes, same here, as regards Breaking Bad.
Mrs duco01 and I watched all six series from beginning to end in a 2½-month period earlier this year.
Was it life-changingly brilliant? Of course it was!
Lets hear it for the girls. This month I have new releases by Dar Williams, Kacey Musgraves and Emmylou (with Rodney Crowell). The first track on Kacey’s album and I feared the worst – saccharine strings, my first thought was bloody hell, what has she done. Thankfully that track is not representative of the rest of the album. the songs are very good although not quite as spiky as on her debut. The Dar Williams album Emerald is tremendous – really good thoughtful songs and then comes along a big friendly song FM Radio which would have had huge chart potential even a few years ago. Emmylou and Rodney is more of where they left off on last album – some reviewers dismiss it as ‘not as good’. I disagree with them entirely. Outside of these I wolfed up the complete Doors collection for £12.99 from Sainsbury of all places – six discs with a lot of stuff I was not at all familiar with.
Also a Jimmy LaFave collection that is startling. On the vinyl front I picked up a couple of elpees enjoyed back in my youth – Lindisfarne’s Fog on the Tyne and Pentangle’s Pentangling replete with 94p sticker which is what I paid for it all those years ago.
READ; Only magazines this month, saving up a wad of books for my holiday in Greece which can’t come soon enough even though we may have to take a suitcase to carry our Euros.
SEEN: On Screen – Nicholas Cage in Joe. I hav e had an aversion to any of his screen performances in recent years but this one was actually quite good being a modern take on Of Mice and Men. Also the Stuart Murdoch film God help the Girl which was as quirky as Belle and Sebastian themselves but in a good way it has to be said.
Live I saw Danny and the Champions of the World in a sweaty pub in Nottingham for £11 and The Who at Hyde Park for a tad over £75.00. Danny was at least 10 times better value for money and one of my most enjoyed gigs this year. The Who were pretty naff as reported elsewhere. Still love their records though.
JUNE:
Heard:
Villagers – “Darling Arithmetic”. If you loved “Becoming a Jackal” his third album is almost as good as the debut, after the IMO disappointing second effort. Wonderful melodies and touching lyrics.
Tallest Man on Earth – “Dark Bird is Home”. Beautiful acoustic songs in the folk/americana genre, weaving melancholy and euphoria into a soft blanket of comfort to snuggle underneath on a summer’s evening…my only slight problem with it is that his singing is so blurred that it’s difficult to understand what he’s singing. I amused myself by writing down what it sounded like he was singing and it was complete nonsense. Then I compared it to the printed lyrics…different words, still complete nonsense! Thankfully I can ignore lyrics when I want to, and just enjoy the lovely tunes.
Conny Nimmersjö – “Tänk nyss var här så trevligt” (approx. “Just moments ago we were having such a nice time”). Nimmersjö is the guitarist from Swedish cult band Bob Hund and his solo album is a work of absolute genius! To music that sounds like…umm, bands like Television comes to mind, and echoes of Bob Hund as well of course, he’s written some of the best and funniest lyrics ever written in the Swedish language. I’m completely in love with this album, singing along while punching the air enthusiastically!
Hot Chip – “Why Make Sense?” Electronica with a dash of indie pop sensibility creates a very modern version of disco, and as usual it’s very lovely. I got the added bonus EP version of the album, well worth the extra cost.
Ava Luna – “Infinite House”. I bought this for one reason only; Coati Mundi’s son is in the band…this is how big a fan of Kid Creole and the Coconuts I am, I’m loyal to the next generation as well! 🙂 It was definitely worth a punt, but probably more “one to watch”… The first half of it is rather good, and it’s a grower. Musically it’s an odd blend of styles, and I can definitely hear a Zappa influence (an odd blend of styles in itself…), it’s very New York, rather arty/pretentious, but in its best moments the mix is pretty appealing. Not quite ready, but interesting.
Giant Sand – “Heartbreak Pass”. Howe Gelb is always good, if sometimes uneven, and this album is full of lovely understated songs, especially lovely in the songs where he has a female duet partner. I always feel that if you know someone who wants to like Lou Reed but finds it difficult, they should try Howe Gelb instead…
The Dodos – “Individ”. I can never explain why I like The Dodos…not even to myself! But I do, and I keep buying their albums, even after occasional duds. This one is not a dud, I’d say it’s one of their stronger albums, if you like me enjoys their brand of drum-driven indie rock.
Terakaft – “Alone”. I’m a big champion of the desert blues, but I found this effort a bit unexciting…more standard than stand-out. I have much bigger hopes for the new Tal National album that I’m about to buy!
Blur – The Magic Whip. I remain slightly unconvinced so far. Damon Albarn is a lot more interesting on his own, IMO. However it’s not without some good tunes, and it has actually grown on me a lot since the first listen (when I was quite apalled), so I may end up loving it by the end of the year! Some music just takes a while to find its place in your head.
Kendrick Lamar – “To Pimp a Butterfly”. Full of great tracks, but also littered with annoying bits, so a slightly frustrating listen in its album form. Also, I can’t help thinking that this would have been so much better if Lamar didn’t have such an annoying voice…but that’s probably just me. But; when it’s good, it’s great.
Julian Cope – “Trip Advizer: The Very Best of Julian Cope 1999-2014”. Well, any fans of Julian should get this, especially if you’ve lost touch in later years. He’s still good, but probably better in this cherry-picking form these days.
Read:
I’ve never read any of Haruki Murakami’s novels, because I’ve been getting such mixed messages from people who have read them, but this month a collection of short stories turned up, so I thought it would be a good entry-point (or one-stop shop, if it turned out I didn’t like his writing). “Män utan kvinnor” is the name in Swedish (“Men Without Women” – don’t know if it’s called that in English) and it was absolutely wonderful!
So, I know we have Murakami readers here on the AW – which of his novels would you recommend me to read first? And which to avoid?
More short stories, also sensational, when I found “Close Range. Wyoming Stories” by Annie Proulx in the charity shop. Highly recommended.
“Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotte” by My Hellsing is an expanded and rewritten dissertation (in Swedish) on the subject of the sister-in-law to the Swedish king Gustaf III, and her involvement behind the scenes in the political intrigues surrounding the court and the nobility who was turning against him after he took a lot of their power away.
She wrote countless letters, a secret diary and political journal, so there’s no shortage of interesting material for this book. However, because it’s leaning too much on the dissertation it fails to bring in other voices to give a fuller view of the events, and it also ended quite abruptly just after the murder of the king. Interesting, but left me wanting more.
I’ve been reading two P C Jersild books in parallel this month, because of their similar contents. One was a chazza find, his “Medicinska memoarer” (“Medical Memoirs”) and a newly published book called “Den stökiga psykiatrin” (“The Messy Psychiatry”). Having maintained a medical career all of his life while publishing a multitude of books, mostly novels, the first book is an autobiographical look at his medical career and experiences, and the novels that took ideas or images from those experiences. The second book is a look at the field of psychiatry, recapping his own work in that field plus interviewing researchers in different areas of psychiatry, discussing the past and the future of psychiatric health care. Both are very interesting on a fascinating subject.
Every day I read an entry in the book “365 dagar” (“365 Days”), which is a collection of diary entries of famous and anonymous persons from history, one for each day, skipping wildly back and forth through history. I can’t say it’s a great read but it’s become my lunch ritual.
I read a fantasy novel by Lene Kaaberböl, who’s written a few really good ones for children of all ages, but this one – “Skuggporten” (“The Shadow Portal” appr.) – was a bit odd, I sort of got the feeling that she tired of her subject towards the end and just rushed through it to get to the end.
Another fantasy read from the charity shop was another Crestomanci novel by Diana Wynne Jones; “Witch Week”. Not a favourite, but OK for a couple of hour’s entertainment.
Finally, my charity shop visit came up with two similar books by two men who spent big parts of their lives in Hollywood during its golden age. Both books are autobiographical, but follow-ups to their actual autobiographies, both are full of anecdotes, some of the people in those anecdotes are mentioned in both books, both are funny writers. One was Oscar Levant’s “The Memoirs of an Amnesiac” and the other was David Niven’s “Bring on the Empty Horses”.
Levant’s book has a very funny first chapter describing his extreme neurotic behaviour and OCD rituals. As a former child with OCD his descriptions made my whole body tic with nervous energy and memories of my own obsessive rituals and repetitions…while making me laugh out loud at his verbal brilliance. Unfortunately the rest of the book was a haphazard collection of anecdotes told hurriedly and lacking some of that wit.
Seen:
Nothing much. It’s summer, I hardly watch any TV in the summertime. I saw a Swedish documentary about Swedish electronic music from its very avant garde beginnings to the hit producers and stadium DJs of today, but it was too short to really cover the subject in any real depth. Why not a series? Lack of ambition and not enough respect for the subject, I suspect…
AOB:
I had two weeks off from work, and it was heaven after the horrible spring we’ve had in the store – losing personnel and having to work twice as hard for months…I really needed the rest!
(This holiday explains why I’ve had time to read a little more than usual! 😉 )
Some lovely parties, wasting lots of money on lovely useless things, taking long walks and talks all over Stockholm in the sunny weather and sleeping peacfully when the rain was tapping on my windows, having time to spend with family and friends, receiving some great news for the future…it’s been lovely!
(Well done if you got all the way through to the end!)
I read every word which I don’t normally do with posts on this thread so you’re doing something right.
Murakami? I’ve read them all and never been disappointed. They’re very readable yet somehow unfathomable as well. I started with The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. Seems as good a place as any.
I read The Wind Up Bird Chronicle too, bought on a whim. I have a quiet day today, maybe I’ll start A Wild Sheep Chase.
Kafka on the Shore was my entry point, but Wind Up Bird Chronicle would be good too.
Best wishes for the future, Locust!
Love Murakami. My own favourite is Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World, but that may be because it was the first I read. There isn’t a short story collection of the same name as yours in English, so I’m not what side of his work it covered, but if you’re not already aware, he flits between straight ahead realistic novels, and ones with odder, not exactly magic, things happening. Hard Boiled Wonderland is definitely in the second category, but his best known and best selling book, Norwegian Wood, is very much a mundane (not in the negative sense) novel. There’s good stuff on both sides.
Thanks for all the recommendations, guys.
So I basically should read all of them! 🙂 Good, I’ll stock up the next time I go to my trusty book store.
They have a “Buy four, pay for three” offer on paperbacks, usually I can never find more than three at a time that I want, but this time I’ll just clean out the Murakami shelf!
Only just (in July, so I must not pass opinion yet!) had first listen to the new Villagers and Blur, so I’m interested in your comments. Trip Advizer is in the post. I have always been a big Cope fan, but there has been a shift from quality to quantity over the years, so this looks like the way ahead. I’m just about to start wading through The Megalithic European.
I haven’t listened to any music for three weeks. I’ve needed some quiet time. For Father’s Day, I got The Doors box. For my birthday, I got six new albums and EWF Colombia Masters. I haven’t listened to any of it. The last album I listened to is the deluxe Sticky Fingers.
I watched No Offence, Penny Dreadful, Banshee and True Detective. Their proposterous plots and extreme violence soothed me.
Haven’t read anything (as usual) and been to no gigs. I’m seeing Madness tonight, though.
Blimey Tigs, are you alright?
I had a few rough weeks. I’m feeling better now. I’ll be back to my usual self soon. Thanks for asking @kid-dynamite.
Chin up, tigs. Hope you’re OK.
Oh, sorry Tigs, hope you’re doing OK.
Thank you, Bingo and Ruby. Actually, your posts, Bingo, have helped. You seem to have hit quite a groove laced with passion and fun. And, Ruby, your thread on cheering up music was great.
Just popped in to say glad you’re feeling better, tig. Come over here and I’ll give you six of the best (that’s four kisses, a gert big hug and a pat on the back) 🙂
That sounds lovely! But I do enjoy the odd *thwack* now and then.
Have one from me, old son!
Merely a manly buffet, none of your leather nonsense….
Heard:
Jacques Brel/Florent Pagny/Pascal Obispo (various): Went to Brussels for a weekend and found a second-hand shop where I was able to splurge on lost, ahem, ‘classics’
Alabama Shakes : Great great sound – fab on vinyl – does it fall away a bit towards the end?
Built To Spill – Untethered Moon: Good lord! A great guitar album, may dig further into their catalogue
Hot Chip- Why Make Sense: Good first single, the rest a bit arch and I’m getting tired of Alexis Taylors vocals
Jaga Jazzist – Starfire: Very strong, recommended
Jamie XX – In Colour: Not as good as the reviews but i need to revisit after really enjoying his Glastonbury set
Muse – Drones: Love Muse! It sounds like Muse! So that’s good (although the lyrics are silly)
Snoop Dogg – Bush: Guilty pleasure maybe but California Roll is my single of the year so far – irresistible
Sun Kil Moon – Universal Themes: Yes its Mark K and his mad stream of conciousness over guitar, not as good as Benji but still funny
Todd Rundgren & Lindstrom : Much better than expected but need to listen more
Watched:
Bloodline (Netflix) – Very good family drama set in Florida, recommended
Bosch (Amazon) – Great LA crime series, you can’t beat LA Police talk
Parks & Recreation – Watching with family (think daughter has developed a Chis Pratt crush) – very funny, recommended
Glastonbury – From my POV a bit dull this year? But still enjoyed Caribou, Alabama Shakes, Jamie XX, Death Cab
Jurassic World – Fantastic, everyone who has ever been 10 needs to see it
Saw:
Fleetwood Mac – Amazing as everyone has said – also enjoying Mick Fleetwood’s autobiog
Godspeed You Black Emperor – 2 hours, 6 pieces, no lights, loud, grim B&W back projections – just what I wanted
Listening:
It’s been a decade or more since James Taylor last released a studio album – a decent run of form that included “Hourglass” and “October Road”. No surprise that his new set “Before this world” sounds like it was recorded at the same sessions. There’s the usual immaculate warm studio sound and stellar musicians and backing singers – Arnold McCuller, David Lasley, Kate Markowitz – but possibly not the high standard of song writing craft of old. Still, sounds great on a warm summers’ night – lovely version of “Wild mountain thyme” too.
Can’t quite make up my mind about Kurt Elling’s new one. It’s a sort of travelogue – songs picked up from around the world and recorded in various locations and languages and sometimes slightly odd accents. So you get a version of “Loch Tay Boat Song” snuggled up to Bjork’s “Who is it” – with a German folk song (in German…) and a regrettable version of “La Vie En Rose.” It’s a puzzler – but possibly a grower and what you have to admire about him, aside from his voice, is his restlessness to try new things.
Since his death last year, Charlie Haden’s widow Ruth has dug into the vaults to put out a couple of wondrous duo albums – the first with guitarist Jim Hall and now with the superb pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba. Recorded a decade ago, “Tokyo Adagio” is sublime late night stuff – some standards but also quiet contemplative re-workings of songs from their great “East of the Sun” album from a while back. Recommended to anyone who enjoys his duo work with Hank Jones, Kenny Barron and others.
Ploughing through a box of tatty sevens at a car boot happened upon a neat little run of minty original James Brown singles on King – “Funky drummer”, “Get up, Get into it, Get involved” (surely the best intro to any record ever…) and Myra Barnes truly ace “Super good”. At one time I had a almost 100 JB-related singles – shipped them out when the kids came along. Feel a new “collection” coming on.
Reading:
A couple of re-reads: John Steinbeck’s “Travels with Charley” and Cormac McCarthy’s “Suttree” – his epic tale of nothing much happening on a river somewhere in the southern states – an ideal read during this balmy weather.
Watching:
It’s been a while since I went to a classical music concert. You forget how wonderful it all sounds – the strings, the French horns, the man who “plays” the cymbal. In Cologne with work and for the weekend, we went to the superb concert hall to hear the Cologne Symphony Orchestra do a bit of Beethoven and a local composer whose name escapes me. It was magical and made me realise that perhaps I ought to go to this sort of thing more often.
Elsewhere in Cologne – great city by the way – saw a major retrospective of German artist Sigmar Polke. A bit of a renaissance man, he moved freely across pop art, a bit of abstract expressionism and photography – all very nicely staged in the vast Museum Ludwig which even on a Sunday was quiet and relaxed unlike London galleries which I’ve given up on recently – too crowded, too many hipsters pontificating and too frickin’ expensive.
Listening/Watching – Glasto on the iplayer. FFS surprisingly enjoyable, Belle and Sebastian I can see why they are a cult but not on their best form, The Fall remarkably good despite the bloke shouting over the top, the Libertines were what you expect, Sharon von Etton very good, Kanye oh dear.
Otherwise my Bingley listening list – 5 Idlewild albums, 4 good 1 poor
Watched: Person of Interest series 3. Love it to death, but yes the sub-plot is the thing not the procedural of the day. And it has Amy Acker in it which is always a good thing.
Read: Saga, which continues to be my favourite newish comic, and is quite astonishingly impossible to turn into a tv programme or film
Sharpe’s Waterloo by Bernard Cornwall, because of the anniversary – it is exactly what you expect of a Sharpe novel. No better, no worse.
The New Yorker – which makes me wish I was a New York intellectual, as opposed to a Yorkshire slob.
Heard – can’t stop listening to Public Service Broadcasting and FFS, only new stuff so far this year – otherwise solid PJ Harvey, Yes and Civil Wars.
Saw – New Jurrassic Park film – excellent, saw it in 2d, might make you shout out a bit in 3d – highly recomended. Fleetwood Mac – suprisingly good, Reg against the machine – old geezer from the IOW with a stratocaster – bloody fantastic, does a great version of the laughing Gnome and one of his own about Santa being dead – kids not too keen on this. Dom Jolly in a pub.
A Curious Life – the film documentary about the Levellers – great film, moving and funny – still a top band and hardly heard in this site
Read – This changes everything by Niomi Klein ( No Logo) – No fan of her political views but she has written a really important book on climate change, think it has made me think again
I really enjoyed A Curious Life (been a Levellers fan since I saw them supporting NMA in 1990). It did make me glad Jeremy had found his place in the band though, because he isn’t really cut out for a nine to five life, is he?
Listening: just got First Aid Kit’s “Stay Gold” – so far very good although I’m not sure it’s up to “The Lion’s Roar”. Currently on rotation in the car is a bootleg of a Luke Haines gig from last year where he played both “New York in the 70s” and “Baader Meinhof” in their entirety.
Reading: about halfway through Tracey Thorn’s “Bedsit Disco Queen”. I’m no particular fan of EBTG but it’s a very engaging book. This just after ploughing through “Dreadnought” in a couple of months – it’s great but exhaustive.
Watching: Picked up the 1st series of “the Book Group” and “Green Wing” and enjoying both of them. The Minions movie was fun, if nothing like as good as Despicable Me 2; looks like I’ll be seeing it again since only child#2 has seen it and child#1 won’t wait much longer.
Heard
Very little new music this month but plenty of old. Particularly Nina Simone who I hadn’t really listened to much before but who I have realised is extraordinary not least on a song like Four Women – check it out if you don’t know it; its chilling. Some favourites from the last year or two still getting regular spins include Frazey Ford, Low and Laura Marling.
Seen
A couple of great films, Girlhood following a group of Black girls in Paris as they come of age – or was that last month; possibly. Very good in any event. As was London Road which was originally a National Theatre production, dealing with the appalling murders of five prostitutes in Ipswich in 2006. It’s a very stagey concept with verbatim accounts turned into musical numbers which sounds bad enough for a theatre show never mind a film. But actually it translates really well and is a fantastically powerful film.
Saw a bit of Glastonbury but not particularly impressed although I thought Weller did well. And of course the England women’s team who have been brilliant
Read
Really not much. Coming to the end of Colm Toibin’s Nora Webster which took me an age to get into but I am now really enjoying – moving and beautifully written account of a widow trying to get on with her life after her hsuband’s death.
I know this all doesn’t sound like the most cheery or summery of cultural activities this month, but that’s just how I roll…
Listening:
May I be the first to offer a slight note of dissension on Kamasi Washington? Only slight, because some of it is very good indeed, but to my ears there are one or two too many slightly syrupy ballads. A bit of pruning wouldn’t have gone amiss, but then you would lose the whole threehourness of it, and end up with an album that would have to be called “A Slightly Above Average Length Jazz Record” instead of “The Epic”, and it wouldn’t be the same. That said, when it’s good it’s excellent, and I’m looking forward to seeing him in November. I’ve also been enjoying the latest album by the Mad Professor, “Dubbing With Anansi”. Modern dub that is solid without being earth shattering. Some fun effects and unusual instrumentation (one track is full of dubbed up steel drums) make it worth a listen if this is your thing. It’s only just July, but I can confidently predict that “Settler” by Vattnet Viskar will be the metal album of the year, full of euphoric soaring riffs and pummelling percussion. It’s a lot heavier than your normal AW fare but I know there’s at least a few people here who dig Deafheaven, and it’s in that kind of ballpark. The rest of you can just look at the beautiful cover:
http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t407/maggieloveshopey/Vattnet-Viskar-Settler-608x608_zpsdrc5eqqm.jpg
Watching:
We’ve been working through an anime series called Kids On The Slope, which is great fun, about a group of kids playing jazz in early 60s Japan. I’ll probably do a Nights In when we finish (four episodes to go!). Finished Parks & Recreation series 4, which was excellent of course. Will move on to 5 when Kids… is done. And after I’ve watched all the episodes of Jonathan Strange on my box. And the second series of True Detective. And Stonemouth. Too much television.
Reading:
I’m working through Seveneves slowly – I’ve got the hardback version and it’s not exactly a commute friendly book. Good so far, though. On the train, I enjoyed Karen Joy Fowler’s We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves a lot, although my advice would be not to read the reviews excerpted in the front, because they skirt very close to spoiler territory. I’m sorry to say Clive Barker’s The Scarlet Gospels was a big disappointment. I’m brewing up a review for the Books section, but it won’t be positive. Colin Greenland’s Take Back Plenty on the other hand was a very enjoyable piece of space opera that I missed when it was first published in the early 90s. It’s now available in the SF Masterworks line, and while “Masterwork” might be overcooking it a bit, it’s still a good read that fans of Iain M Banks’ Culture novels might well enjoy.
I’m not 100% sold on the ballady bits, however they do offer a bit of a breather between the more intense stretches.
My small objection is that The Epic never really breaks new ground. It sounds wonderful, uplifting and assuring but there are few actual surprises.
LISTENING: Heavy Electricity by No Spill Blood is absolutely rifftastic and has been getting heavy rotation. I’ve also gone back to Exit Planet Dust, which has greatly improved with age and boasts a first half that gets the heart rate up and hands in the air. Finally, Patti Smith’s Horses. I would recommend this album. It will be a relief to Afterword regulars to discover that some decent music was made prior to 1980. Eye opening.
WATCHING: Not much time for TV lately. Saw a bit of the Good Wife, which was – uh – good, the first episode of season 3 of Newsroom, which made me wonder why we’re still bothering, and rescreened Riding Giants for some friends who I’d somehow not previously forced to watch it. The greatest documentary ever made.
READING: You’ll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again, by Julia Phillips. I’d somehow never read this previously, but it’s been fantastic stuff. Basically, imagine Caitlin Moran if Caitlin Moran had had a genuinely interesting life, and could actually write, rather than just capitalise. Phillips could really turn a phrase.
OTHER: I had a couple of moments this week which I’ll remember for a very long time. I was surfing in a small bay up in Northumberland. Beautiful afternoon, perfect 5-6 foot waves and plenty of them. I’d been in the water for about half an hour when the sky suddenly turned black, there was a flash of lightning on the horizon and then an enormous rumble of thunder overhead. I looked around me: the beach was nearly empty; all the kite surfers were (wisely) packing up in a hurry, the dog walkers were scrambling for their cars, and on the other side of the bay I could make out maybe half a dozen other surfers, a couple of whom were peeling for shore, but the rest of whom seemed to be staying out. I figured that with waves this good I would sit tight and see what happened.
I catch a few more, I’m having a great time, and it begins to rain really really heavily. Not normal rain: chubby rain. Big fat drops that you can see puckering the surface between waves. The lightning continues to strike. It’s hitting the water inside the bay now. I’m laughing as I bob up and down on my board, surveying the scene.
Then, suddenly, four lightning strikes hit the bay simultaneously, and I have a moment of extreme clarity: I’m floating up and down in the freezing cold North Sea, being pelted by rain, completely on my own and with the worst lightning storm i’ve seen in a very long time moving directly towards me. I look over at the remaining surfers and I can see they’re now on the same wavelength.
I catch an easy wave in to shore, pick up up my board and sprint for the car park alongside a couple of others. It’s not easy: the sand is now sodden with all the rain, and it’s impossible to see where you’re going. As I run, I can see lightning hitting the shoreline up ahead. I feel like Wile E Coyote, right before he gets fried.
After what seems like an age, I reach the car, throw my board on the pavement beside it, rip open the door and dive inside. I sit there in the front seat, still in my wetsuit, soaked to the bone and listen as the storm passes overhead. At one point I decide to turn the radio on. The Beach Boys. Go figure.
After about 20 minutes, the lightning seems to have stopped. It’s still raining, but nowhere near as hard, and a blue sky is rolling in. I grab my board and head back to the beach. As luck would have it, I’m the first to do so, and I arrive to find the bay completely deserted. Not a soul on the sand or in the water. The sun is low in the sky, the light is glistening on the surf and the air has that great clarity which can only really be achieved when a big storm has done its thing.
For fifteen, maybe twenty, minutes, I surfed completely alone, without a soul in sight, in one of the most beautiful and serene locations I can ever recall laying eyes on. The sense of peace, inner and outer, was just immense. Best thing i’ve done in ages. Thanks to anyone who made it this far: felt like I needed to write this one down.
I planned to reply to say “Yeah! No Spill Blood!” because it is indeed a cracking album, but now I just want to say I love that surfing story.
Fantastic account Bingo – I completely get how that must have felt.
Agree about You’ll Never Eat Lunch. Waspish and wonderful. Equally entertaining are the similarly themed duo by William Goldman, Which Lie Did I Tell and Adventures In The Screen Trade. And, the acid memoir, The Kid Stays In The Picture by Robert Evans.
Great story. You captured that well.
It’s has been an exceptional month.
Live
Chuck Prophet
Danny & The Champions of the World
Jace Everett
New CDs
Melody Gardot (I haven’t immersed myself in an album this much for a long, long time. Friday midnight, bottle of red, lights off. Heaven).
Danny & The Champions of the World
Kacey Musgraves (I can’t wait to see her in November. Missed her last year as she clashed with Hall & Oates. I was torn).
Other listens
Country night inspired by Kacey (Kacey, Brandy Clark, Angaleena Pressley & KD Lang’s Shadowland)
Stones Saturday inspired by Sticky Fingers reviews. God they were good.
Shawn Mullins. I have his “hit” album from years ago, heard it recently & have bought 3 others 2nd hand.
Boz Scaggs. Bought the eponymous re-issue in Fopp.
Read
The Farm – Tom Rob Smith (page turner)
How to Build a Girl – Caitlin Moran (a hoot)
Kolymsky Heights (a bit of a chore, to be honest)
Seen
Jurassic World (a fun piece of nonsense)
Seven Psychopaths (pleasantly surprised. I loved it).
The Good Wife
Nashville
No Offense
AOB
I also managed to fit in 5 days in Krakow.
2 weeks in shabby turkish resort (as in for turks) Akbuk, 2nd trip.Love it’s scuttiness and foreignness, getting up to see Efes (Ephesus) which was fabulous, but not quite as fabulous as the tiny graeco-roman ruined towns dotted about the countryside, without the pizazz and entry fees, all just slowly falling apart in the middle of farmers fields. Sick of Efes beer tho’, dying for a decent ale on my return.
Not much new music but have downloaded a stack and bought more odd compilations. On a soul-jazz Nu Yorica kick as I write.
Read the new Caitlin Moran, enjoying it but it’s hardly literature, is it?
Watched most of series 1 6 Feet Under: lawks, is that good or what!! Stonemouth, tucked a way on the i-player for my return disappointed, bar the locations.
Stonemouth looked beautiful, and when I realised half way through the second episode that there were only two episodes, I was not disappointed. Felt a bit too much Iain Banks by the numbers. Perhaps I am just too familiar with his stuff, though oddly this is one of 4 books of his I have not read.
Read the book; IMHO his best, or, at least, my favourite.
Never seen Breaking Bad. At all. Or Game of Thrones either come to that
Damn this reply function!!! Can’t get the hang of it on a tablet
READ
I’m still busy with the DC graphic novels – Batman “The Long Honeymoon” was last. Wonder Woman coming up next.
Had a lot of time lately due to that Ramadan business, so I dipped into a couple of my Folio editions. Read the two “Alice In Wonderlsand” books for the first time proper. Still weird and fascinating. Also: Steinbeck’s “Travels With Charlie” – now that is a damn fine book (extended review soon on my blog). There were passages where I got up and read them aloud to the poor person in the next room.
WATCHED
Lots of – mostly free – events here in Berlin lately where I watched (among others) bands playing New Orleans funk, Tony Allen and his band, and best of all: Les Ambassadeurs with Salif Keita and the wonderful Amadou (playing rhythm on a gold-plated guitar!!). Next up: Chucho Valdez & Irakere.
LISTENED
The new Orb album, as well as the two “History Of The Future” compilations.
Office favorite no doubt is “Harare Hit Parade” (courtesy of this parish).
“The Michigan Box” – 10 CD box of rare garage punk and oddball rockabilly from Michigan.
Weird jazz from Alice Coltrane (“Turiya Sings”) and Rolf & Joachim Kühn (“Re-Union In Berlin”).
(Not to mention lots of Jerry Lee Lewis – I’m involved in an 18-CD collection of his SUN recordings)
And still …I’m regularly listening to the two “drummers albums” (as we call them): Dylan Howe’s album of Bowie’s Berlin instrumentals, done in a jazz style, and Gavin Harrison, doing the same with a couple of Porcupine Tree songs.
Listening: Mostly on a jazz tip lately, quite a bit of it ECM label flavoured. Sublime modal stuff from Tomasz Stanko – ‘The Soul Of Things’ and ‘Wislawa’. Also ‘Nice Guys’ by the Art Ensemble of Chicago & This Is Our Music by the Ornette Coleman Quartet. A fair amount of widdly skronk that Mrs Jim doesn’t dig, it’s fair to say.
Saw: Cloud Atlas on the tablet. Enjoyed the book but was aware of the sniffy reaction to Hanks, Berry et al. Really enjoyed it & thought it a credit to David Mitchell’s novel.
Ex Michina- Terrific & smart 3 hander. Recommended.
Game of Thrones Season 5 – slow start, but sufficient gory atrocities & set piece rucks to anticipate the next instalments.
The Saboteuers on More 4 – Danish/ UK production of the Telemark heroes’ mission to thwart the Narrzi quest for The Bomb. Good all round, even Anna Friel who usually gets right on my wick.
Read: The Son by Philip Meyer – very satisfying multi generation family saga set in Texas. Land theft, racism, oil business & Comanche kidnapping, it’s got the lot. Highly recommended.
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. A properly sprawling SF epic, which sagged in places a little for me, but was worth persisting with for overall. Great ideas at times but felt NS wasn’t really sure how to tie it all up neatly ( he has form on this score, The Diamond Age being an example IIRC. Least satisfying of his ‘big’ books for me at least. He’s still a way more insightful ideas merchant than most, so I guess I’m judging by his own high standards.
Currently enjoying The Valley by John Renehan. An army detective procedural, think Restrepo/ Heart Of Darkness gumshoe stuff & you’re o the right track.
AOB: Petr Czech departed for L’Arse. Harrumph. Terrific player & person & a coup for our closest rivals, who are now that much closer thanks to this IMO. Good luck to him, just not too much.
I thought Cloud Atlas was a really brave stab at a novel that was hugely difficult to film. I liked it, and want to watch it again someday.
READ
Halfway through Jim Lovell’s book, Apollo 13. Great stuff. I want to get it signed when I meet him, later this year!
SEEN
Not much, actually. John Oliver’s show has had me royally entertained, especially his FIFA rants.
HEARD
The new Linden album, Rest and Be Thankful, is an absolute joy. The release was timed perfectly to herald the start of Summer. The songs burst with sunshine and make me smile with pleasure. Joyous music is a rare thing.
Watched:
Saw a couple of the summer blockbusters at my local World of Cine. Jurassic
World is a stupidly entertaining piece of hokum. The dinosaurs are great,
the lead actors are likeable and the mayhem is – mayhem-tastic. You can tie
yourself into knots worrying away plot holes and the inconsistent behaviour
of characters. Better just to accept that this is like a ride at a theme
park and go with it.
We took our daughter to see Minions (we hadn’t taken her to see the
dinosaurs – too intense for a 5 year, I think). It’s good fun – set mainly
in London during 1968. So the soundtrack is Stones, Doors, Kinks etc. The
Beatles put in a cameo (well their feet do, anyway) and most of the English
characters drink tea.
I caught a documentary about Prince on BBC4 and learnt a couple of things –
the tiny wee man wrote Manic Monday for The Bangles and he was overwhelmed
by shyness during his first tv interview (an uncomfortable clip – one of
the few times you’re likely to see Prince look anything other than arch or
hyper-confident). In the rush to cover his career inside 60 minutes, the
programme skated over that run of sensational albums that he created during
the mid to late 80s. But what really got me thinking was that ‘Diamonds
and Pearls’ was released in 1991. I bought it soon after release but
haven’t bought another of his records since. That’s nearly 25 years. How
time flies.
At the fag-end of May, we went to the theatre and watched American Buffalo
(Damien Lewis in flares with some extravagant facial furniture, John
Goodman being wonderful.).It was well acted, the set was inventive, the
play itself is interesting (riffing on friendship and loyalty, and how far
those concepts stretch when you’re desperate). Yet I can’t say that I found
it an entirely satisfying experience. I think it is because I struggled to
suspend disbelief – something I’m usually ok with during a play.
Speaking of plays – I listened to a play called Lampedusa published on the
Guardian book podcast. It was written by the playwright Anders Lustgarten.
Before we go on, I must profess an interest here; I dropped out in my
mid-thirties and went to university to study English literature (plus some
philosophy and creative writing for giggles). Anders taught creative
writing during my first year. I’ve been keeping my eye out for him ever
since – he won a Pinter prize a while back and seems to be building up a
head of steam. Anyway – Lampedusa is his take on migrants / immigration –
swapping between two monologues set in Italy and England. It’s angry and
polemical but…there are small moments of grace that both puncture and
amplify the anger.
Listening to
I received Paul Weller’s latest album for my Birthday. Saw him in concert
at Cambridge earlier this year. It was a rollicking set and the new
material came over really well so looking forward to getting properly stuck
into this album. I’ve tickets for the Jam exhibition (About the new idea)
which is being held in Somerset House – and in anticipation I have been
listening to the accompanying greatest hits double CD. Good grief the Jam
were a good band – tight, efficient with tracks filled to bursting with
hooks.
And for the last few weeks, Weezer’s Dope Nose has been rattling around the
old cranium. The opening few moments sound to me like a summery yelp of
joy.
Reading:
In terms of the old written word, I greatly enjoyed rereading Mr
Wodehouse’s estimable Right Ho, Jeeves. It is, as I am sure you know, a splendid tome.
I am currently reading John Irving’s Last night in Twisted River. It’s the
first Irving I’ve picked up in years – there was a time in the late 80s
when I devoured his books. It took a while to get into this one and I
suspect that only residual love of this author’s work persuaded me to
continue – but I am now enjoying being swept along by the wild ride of
Danny and his Dad Dominic; featuring as it does love, death, bears, deadly
accidents, the north east corner of America, university, sons, fathers,
absent parents, religion, sex, writers and writing – the usual John Irving stuff, then.
Whatever happened to poetry that rhymes? I can’t be doing with this newfangled stuff…
I too read Last Night In Twisted River this year after a long Irving sabbatical, & I really enjoyed it. All those Irving themes are there ( not sure if LNITR has any wrestling in it) but was none the worse for that.
Can’t put my finger on what he does so well, really but I like my reflective state of mind when I’m ‘in’ one of his novels.
An Irving a year is probably no bad thing, as they all have their merits, even the ‘minor’ ones.
Heard:
Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers reissue, as discussed at length elesewhere on the site. Someone described it as their best ‘all killer no filler’ album, and I think they’re right (@tiggerlion and his objections to Dead Flowers notwithstanding)
Jethro Tull – War Child and Minstrel In The Gallery (Steven Wilson remixes): simply remarkable. Wilson’s mixes reveal new depths to familiar songs, making you think you’re hearting them again for the first time. War Child in particular reveals itself to be their most under-rated album.
Paul Weller – Saturn’s Pattern: Stunningly good, and continuing his recent run of strong albums.
After reading Richie Unterberger’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” I went back to Who’s Next and Quadrophenia, the latter showing itself to be Pete’s most complex and under-rated work with The Who (as well as being Moonie’s last hurrah).
After a recommendation from @rob-c I picked up a copy of The Waterboys’ “An Appointment With Mr Yeats” – an absolute delight from start to finish.
Next month’s listening is already mapped out, with the following on their way to me:
6 Steely Dan albums (everything bar Aja, which I already have on CD)
5 Tull albums (the Original Album Series box) and Bursting Out
Santana’s Borboletta
Talk Talk’s Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock
Rolling Stones Live From The Marquee Club
Dexy’s Midnight Runners Don’t Stand Me Down rsd release
The Yes Album
Read:
As mentioned above, Richie Unterberger’s biography of The Who from 1971 to 1973 was a fascinating read, chronicling the band’s story between the end of Tommy and Quadrophenia. 40 plus years on and Lifehouse still makes no sense…
Volumes 1-7 of Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Stories series. Reading these books one after the other make you spot Cornwell’s tropes after a while (weaselly monks and priests, milksop Christians, manly pagans), but it’s a minor quibble and it only takes a short while to find yourself thoroughly immersed in Dark Ages Britain.
While reading Christopher Stevens’ biography of Kenneth WIlliams ‘Born Brilliant’, I found myself dipping into The Kenneth WIlliams Diaries after a long absence – a fascinating companion piece to the biography.
The KW diaries are an incredible read, now that we’re well over the shock of finding out what a horrible miserable bastard he was through innumerable doccos and that silly Michael Sheen film. I think they’re the most humandiaries I’ve ever read, with all of the absurd contradictions that you would get from absolutely anybody if they were absolutely honest. Here are some of the highlights I remember:
– He’s ferociously and publicly anti-apartheid in the 80s, yet makes disgusting racist comments about his African neighbours. Later, when he has to interact with them, he’s scrupulously helpful and polite – because he’s an old-school Englishman and would never be impolite to someone he didn’t know.
– He uses “gay” unambiguously to mean homosexual in the 1940s – twenty -odd years before most people did. He’s ironically less likely to write about this kind of thing after it becomes legal. Nobody who reads this book will see the word “traditional” in the same way again.
– Watching Lennon on Parkinson in 1971, he is deeply unimpressed. He has no idea who Lennon is and fails to find anything interesting in what he says, or indeed any reason why he should even be on television. Here was someone who had been in the absolute heart of the British showbusiness establishment in the 1960s, and the Beatles had apparently completely passed him by. Rather a challenge to the idea of the unavoidable ubiquity of pop culture in Swinging London.
– His enthusiasms are bracingly unpredictable. He really, really rates Clint Eastwood, particularly as a director (quite right too) Also, bizarrely, the early novels of Melvyn Bragg (before he became the coiffured TV celebrity).
– Fronting some dreadful variety tat like International Cabaret in the early 1970s, he is so embarrassed about being paid so well for such rubbish that he becomes probably the only person in the history of British broadcasting to negotiate his salary down.
It’s a great read – probably not in one sitting, though, Have a vada.
I enjoyed Born Brilliant, they really don’t make celebrities like Kenneth Williams anymore. It’s exasperating to read about him falling out (and usually back in again) with everyone, including old friends like Gordon Jackson and Stanley Baxter.
At the same time, there’s a lot to admire. My favourite story occurs near the end of his life, when he and a friend are out for a drive in the country. His friend is puzzled to see Williams single out one particular house and spend a good bit of time staring in through all the windows. It turns out that the person living there had written Williams a nasty letter condemning him for his sexuality and -unlike most who did this – signed with his name and address. when he got home, Williams wrote him a vicious letter about him being a horrible, small-minded man living in a mean little house, which he then proceeded to describe in detail.
HEARD
Starfire – Jaga Jazzist. A bit more Prog than before which makes them even better, brilliant stuff
Saved by the Bell – Robin Gibb. A compilation from the ‘weird one’ from the Bee Gees. Comprising the a proper RG album (Robin’s Reign) the follow-up which was never released (Sing Slowly Sisters) and a disc of rarities. This brilliant Pop ranging from the straight hits to stark sparse songs which are hauntingly fantastic.
Too Slow To Disco Vol 2 – Various Artists. More rich and smooth sounds from the late 70s, early 80s. Perhaps not as good as Volume 1 but still worth the price of admission just for the Mike Nesmith track.
Corn – Arthur Russell. Just in at the end of the month but I had to mention this because it is just stunning. Some of the tracks have been released before but never these versions which sound as fresh as ever. Described as Nick Drake in Dub which gives you a rough idea of what to expect.
READ
A bit more this month then recently!
All the Michael Palin Diaries. Which have been extremely entertaining and as usual with this sort of thing the massive amount of doubt that people in showbiz have.
The Timewaster Letters – Robin Cooper. Absolutely hilarious, the drawing of the creature in his pond is the funniest thing ever.
75 Years of DC/75 Years of Marvel. Two stunning books which are a massive amount of money but are worth every penny. A review to follow when I finally get through them
SEEN
Game of Thrones. A slower build this time but the last three episodes are up there with anything ever.
Ripper Street. Not in the A list but really good and has taken some unexpected turns.
It Follows. A low-key horror with a Halloween feel. Pretty scary (for us anyway!)
AOB
Had my 50th on the 29th, I’m not one for parties so just spent it with my wife having a day out, which was just the perfect way to do it. Mentally I think I’m okay, it’s just another birthday isn’t it?
Big fan of Arthur Russell and wasn’t aware of this release so I am afraid you have caused me to part with some cash in an expensive month. I will refer my bank manager to you if he starts moaning.
Just tell him it’s Arthur Russell FFS! Any Bank Manager worth his salt would let you off any additional charges!
Heard
Stay Gold, by First Aid Kit. Bargain price and was worth it alone for the sublime track Cedar Road. I am currently in the middle of 2006 in my Word mag reading and bought ones from their review section – particular hits have been Birds In My Neighbourhood by The Innocence Mission, and .Are You A Dreamer? by Denison Witmer, an artist of Sufjan Steven’s label, which led me on to the equally great but more orchestrated Denison Witmer 2013. I keep coming back to his songs which are beautiful, serene and soothing.
Been enjoying Pageant Material by Kacey Musgraves. It is smoother and slicker than her first like others have said, but the lyrics can still be very sharp, as on the title track:
“And it ain’t that I don’t care about world peace
But I don’t see how I can fix it in a swimsuit on a stage”
Also been getting a lot of listens is the lovely and ethereal Don’t Weigh Down the Lights by Meg Baird and Hypoxia the Kathryn Williams album inspired by Syliva Plath’s Bell Jar. I also can’t get enough of her song Sequins from her last album.
Seen,
Managed to go a whole month without any detective/murder mystery drama which is something of a record. Been concentrating on documentaries instead.
The Auction House – my guilty pleasure, watching uber-rich socialites bid for luxury tat in Chelsea that they fill their multimillion pound properties with. They mostly carry small dogs around but in the last episode one was actually hoiking around a cat!
Je T’aime – excellent history of French chanson presented by Petula Clarke. I never knew Jacques Brel was Belgian. He doesn’t usually appear in lists of The 6 Famous Belgians.
The Tribe – fascinating look at small Ethiopian village where goats are the currency, and prospective brides have to stay walled up in a hut for 5 months before the ceremony, but the people seem just like you and I with all their character traits and personalities.
Dementiaville – alternating depressing and life-affirming.
Weekend Warriors – about 5 different men who entered an endurance race for varying reasons but turned out to be a much more moving and engrossing programme than I expected.
Kevin McCloud’s Escape to the Wild. Only seen the first one so far but was very escapist to be transported to a South Sea Island and Kevin brings all his Grand Design-presenting talents to it,
The Greatest Generation – great social history
White Oleander – the only film and fiction I’ve seen this month, raised up from the ordinary by an extremely charismatic and powerful performance by Michelle Pfeiffer. Oh it did involve a murder so I’ve not broken my record after all!. Wasn’t a mystery who did it though (Michelle).
I’ve been quite drawn to the new Kacey Musgraves. I’ll definitely be buying it now.
The first album was ace. I came for the legs, stayed for the tunes.
What?
Bet you didn’t know Johnny Halliday was Belgian also.
After a few minutes of hasty googling, I found he was born in France – I think his father was Belgian but as Johnny was illegitimate he didn’t automatically get dual nationality. The trail goes cold around 2006/2007 after he decided he wanted to be officially Belgian. I can’t yet find proof of him achieving it. Maybe the whole of France was too dejected at the prospect of losing him for him to continue his Belgianification efforts!
Miles Kington wrote a piece about him in 2008:
“At least, I always used to assume from his name (the Smet one, not Hallyday) that he was Belgian. But it seems I may well be wrong. I have unearthed an odd news story about him which came out a year ago and which said that he was fed up with paying the crippling wealth tax which Francois Mitterand slammed on the rich, and which has driven more than 100,000 French people to live abroad to escape it. Hallyday himself said he very much wanted to become Swiss or Belgian in order to avoid it.
He would have preferred to be Belgian, because his original father (perhaps the man who signed him away so often) was Belgian. But Hallyday’s birth was illegitimate, and there is some law in Belgium which debars illegitimate people from claiming automatic Belgian nationality, and so he has to stay French, unless some other country will have him.”
It seems appropriate to post Michael Marra’s tribute to the great man. Perhaps he should have applied to be a Dundonian?
I worked in Antwerp for a few years in the late ’80s and, while many were eager to inform me he was Belgian, a considerable number were rather embarrassed to admit he was one of their own. Much more proud of Brel and Magritte. Great country – outstanding food and drink and highly educated and cultured population.
@ianess, Arno Hintjens is someone Belgium might be/should be proud of as well.
Then, Jean Philippe Smet (Johnny H***) is a product of that after-war french show-business when few artists were allowed on tv or radio.
A bit like that swedish singer Jerry Williams (no, not Swamp Dog).
Been listening to all the early Peter Frampton albums up to and including I’m in You and enjoying them again immensely. Also been delving into all the Dylan oeuvre after not getting it at all for over 40 years,this along with regular bouts of Van the man have filled my ears nicely. New stuff has been covered by Blur ( not as good as Damon solo) Ryan Adams at Carnegie Hall the full box set, which could have done with some electric loudness and the new Neil Young which has it’s usual good, bad and indifferent songs .
Podcast wise I have been catching up with NPR’s All Songs Considered and Robert Elm’ s BBC London Radio show interview, which has some great guests on it.
Watching the new series of True Detective after seeing the final episodes of Mad Men that I loved from the start. Really did not enjoy Glasto at all ….seriously, if Lionel Richie is the “best” headliner there it’s a pretty poor show. Not had much time for tv since getting a new Border Collie pup ….walks to the local country pub have come I to play much more !
Been reading “Among Thieves” by John Clarkson , set in New York it’s a gang crime thriller that has a good plot and is a decent page turner. Also just starting Dylan Chronicles to coincide with the newfound love of all things Bob.
AOB ….Been running 5K three times a week and not losing much weigh but feeling a lot fitter.
Doesn’t seem to be any more time for other things, never been busier than now at home or work it seems, wish it would slow down sometimes.