It is the first Friday of the month, for real. So – please gather round and share what you have been enjoying in the last month. And is there anything else we should know ?
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Heard : Lots of Jimmy Reed, and related to that lots of music from VeeJay compilations. Also the wonderful piano of Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru – https://emahoytsegemariamgebru.bandcamp.com/album/emahoy-tsege-mariam-gebru
In the last few days, lots of Tom Verlaine. One of my favourite guitarists.
Read : I have signed up for Audible, and I enjoyed Marian McPartland’s autobiography – packed with jazz insights and interesting thoughts.
I did thoroughly enjoy Mike Edison’s book Sympathy for the Drummer : Why Charlie Watts Matters. This is a lively, excited love letter to the great Charlie Watts. This often made me want to put the book down for a minute while I looked up the song he was raving about – whether a rare Stones track, or a Chess gem with his hero Fred Below on drums, or a lazy Jimmy Reed late night shuffle.
I did not enjoy Philip Norman’s book on Hendrix – Wild Thing. I always know a music book has hit the spot when it makes me want to reach for the LPs or CDs and listen to them again – much as I love Hendrix, this book did not achieve that.
I’ve been cooking a fair bit, and leaning heavily on Meera Sodha’s books – Made In India and Fresh India. Both very good, easy to follow, and the meals have turned out pretty delicious!
Seen : It was good to see the Hairy Bikers back on TV, and I’ve been enjoying the NFL – hard luck for the 49ers, with no QBs left and a honking missed incompletion by the Eagles. The quality of officiating in the last couple of months has not been stellar.
AOB : The Primevals are back on the road in February – Friday 10th at The Engine Room, North Shields and Saturday 11th at West Hampstead Arts Club, London.
I don’t normally post on here, because my reading is sloth-like, I never go to the cinema or concerts and I rarely watch tv. Oh and I’m not up with the latest. album releases. The podcasts and music I stream probably aren’t that interesting for others, so culturally I don’t have enough to contribute. But this month is slightly different. Since coming back from Egypt in December I have been listening to literally hundreds of Arabic tracks of many different genres – an absolutely delightful journey of discovery.
Before I start a thread on the subject, I’m trying to get my ducks in a row (there are a lot of ducks). So if anyone has any knowledge in this area, can you let me know? Any guidance would be lovely before I make a complete fool of myself, which is a given, of course.
The glue that held the old place together, and that holds this place together, is people saying “I really like this and I thought some others might, too”.
I’m looking forward to your regatta of ducks!
Re Arabian music, I read a review for Acid Arab, casbahtronica, if you will, and dove in. Rather good, necessitating a pluck of their back catalogue.
Yeah, they are definitely on my list. Though from Paris, I believe, they plunder nicely from Arabic (I think Arabian refers to the peninsula rather than the language) musical traditions.
I’ve picked up a few Arabic things recently as heard on the Andy Kershaw podcasts. It’s 25 years since my last trip to Egypt (cut short by troublesome guts – if I knew then, etc.)
Dhafer Youssef recently released Street Of Minarets and guess what it’s just as splendid as most everything he has previously unleashed. Quite apart from anything else his voice is extraordinary.
Yes. I’ve listened to that and enjoyed it. He really is an extraordinary talent.
He’s mustered a stellar roster of musicians for this outing. Herbie Hancock and Dave Holland to name but two.
Thanks for the tip, PS – Arabic music really is a tremendously broad canvas and I suspect that I have only made the most cursory of sketched across it so far.
It’s a deep old rabbit hole indeed.
Check out anything on the Habibi Funk label.
Good tip, thanks. I will add it to the list of 400 acts I am currently working my way through.
I have one of the Acid Arab albums and concur they are very good.
Al-Qasar are one of those modern genre-busting pan-global setups. Their album, Who Are We?, was in my best of 2022. Here’s Hobek Thawrat:
Thanks – all involved new to me, though the rock aspect is quite prevalent across several Arabic-speaking countries and bands.
Consider also one of my faves, Mano Negra. Although sung mainly in French and Spanish, several of theirs were more Arabic. Here’s Sidi H’Bibi:
It’s on Puta’s Fever, one of two Mano Negra albums I bought a few years ago – wanting to explore Manu Chao’s earlier work, as I love his albums (the ubiquity of Bongo Bong notwithstanding). Also I remember reading of them at the same time as Les Negresses Vertes, back when they were both active, so that added to my curiosity.
Neither album really grabbed me – didn’t have the shine and vivacity of Manu Chao – but maybe I will give them a relisten. This sounds a bit like the Pogues.
This version shows they must have been a riot live (again, like The Pogues)
Yep, that one is more acoustic than much of Mano Nerga. LNV were even more Pogues-y, Famille nombreuse is probably the place to start.
I love them both. I never managed to see Manu Negra live, and only saw LNV at a festival.
After spending almost the whole of December in the UK, its been nice to return to normality here in Singapore and a relatively quiet pace of life (although we had Chinese New Year which was as busy / hectic as always).
Heard:
January is never a great month for discovering new music, although as mentioned in a post a couple of weeks ago, I discovered CVC and their debut album “Get Real” (from a review on The Times) which has been on constant rotation. Higjy recommended. Other new stuff has been the new EP from Mono that came out on Christmas Day (I’m a huge fan, so its great), the Richard Hawley Live in Halifax album / BluRay and the Bill Laurance / Michael League (Snarky Puppy) album. All good and all had multiple plays.
Been revisiting a few old albums – Supertramp “Crime of The Century” (which is still one of the best sounding albums ever), Yo-Yo Ma’s Morricone album (from which “Ecstasy of Gold” is one of my all time favourite pieces of music) which then led me to the “Morricone influenced” album “Rome” by Dangermouse / Danielle Luppi (featuring Norah Jones / Jack White)
Seen:
The main live TV event has been Happy Valley which has been superb. My wife had not seen seasons 1 & 2 and after watching the first episode of season 3, she wanted to catch up so we have binge watched. Looking forward to this weekends finale…..
Aside from that. with a bit of extra free time, I have caught up on “His Dark Materials S3” and from a couple of years ago “Fargo season 4” (nowhere near as good as previous ones and I found myself drifting a little, but still good TV)
Read:
Started on the Mick Herron Slow Horses series after watching on Apple TV.
AOB:
I have a group of about 6 friends where we regularly meet up for dinner and good wine / whisky. We did a pre Chinese New Year gathering and I brought along a bottle of Bruichladdich Black Art 10.1 which I had finally managed to obtain (I have been trying to buy the Black Art for the past 3 years). A 29 year old whisky and it was superb. We finished the bottle !
I wish I had drinking friends like yours. Actually, I couldn’t afford to be in your gang! I love my whisky, but £395 a bottle….jeez!
This bottle was very much the exception rather than the norm. Bruiccladdich has always been one of my favourite whisky’s and as I said, I’ve been wanting to try the Black Art for years. I finally managed to get a bottle and I could; have saved it, drank occasionally over the next year by myself or so or shared with a bunch of like minded friends over a fantastic evening…….. what’s the point of having something really good if you can share the experience ?
Don’t get me wrong….I am a bit jealous. I would love to have friends who would like to try and maybe compare different wines and whiskies. Still, couldn’t afford to be in your group.
6 of us (my partner’s friends)were away for the new year. I took a Black Label and a Bowmore 12yo, bitters and a couple of oranges with the intention of making ‘old fashioned’ cocktails for them. I ended up just making one for me. The rest were happy with cooking lager. One of the girls sat next to me and I asked what she had in her glass “vodka, the expensive stuff” she said. It was filled to the brim with Coca-Cola.
I hope I don’t come across all snooty…..I drink cooking lager too sometimes. Still can’t ever imagine me paying £395. I do know someone who paid £1000 for a bottle and he has no intention of drinking it. Strange. I don’t know what he bought, and now I need to find out.
Cooking lager?
Are you familiar with the term ‘cooking sherry’. Same idea.
Tennent’s or McEwan’s maybe.
Takes me back – first pub we used to sneak into at age 16, I used to drink Tennent’s lager. On reflection, it might have been the only brand we’d heard of…
The first time I walked into a pub when I was 16 I asked for ‘A pint of beer please!’ ‘What sort of beer?’ ‘Err…’ Still got served though.
Is there anyone not watching Happy Valley? And if not, why not. It’s superlative stuff and I’m all agog as the final episode slowly gets closer. Love the bit part characters as much as the mains. Between the interminably long weeks between episodes, we have been watching Godless, a western series. A few years old, I believe, but cracking stuff.
Loads of instrumental music coming my way of late: fiddle, box, harmonica and the like, often hardcore single instrument fare, with little in the way of backing and certainly no singing: Archie Churchill-Moss, Will Pound, Dan Walsh, Graham Mackenzie and Duncan Chisholm, people like that. I feel I am slipping ever further from the mainstream but lovely stuff.
Good to see all the festivals putting out their line-ups, as I try to plan my summer. The possibility of a free Glasto ticket has put a spring in my step; be interesting to see how it has been the 30 years since I last visited. Otherwise it is looking like Black Deer, Beautiful Days and possibly one of the more niche toddler dayfests.
Only thought I have with Happy Valley is how are they going to wrap it up within an hour on Sunday. There’s a few threads there to pull together – I’m going to guess there will be some resolution, but a lot left hanging and another series due soon (hopefully autumn)
They’re giving it 70 minutes for the final episode, so those 10 extra minutes will really help!
Everyone involved has said this is the final series, apparently (and sadly)
I’m not…didn’t watch the earlier seasons, so didn’t watch this one.
No good reason – it just bypassed me.
I’m one of many who watched the first after being drawn into the hype for the third then binged the lot and eagerly await each episode. It’s well worth your time.
That’s what we did too. Sarah Lancashire is extraordinarily good. The writing is also of a very high standard- razor sharp dialogue.
We watched S1 E1 (again) over the crimbo break. We have some catching up to do. No spoilers, please.
I’m keeping my powder dry until this series ends then I’ll binge it good and proper.
Not watched it either, though I shall be driving through it tomorrow. I’ve only seen part of the last two episodes as my wife watches it. I’ll look up and say ooh that’s Marsden or the precinct in Huddersfield.
We in Belfast have similar fun watching ‘Line of Duty’ (filmed in NI, fictionally located somewhere in Midlands England) – there was one hilarious chase sequence a couple of series back where they’re running down Great Victoria Street, turn a corner and… oh, they’re now on Tate’s Avenue, a mile away! 😀
Mrs M has that experience watching Vera, where the police have the supernatural ability to travel fifteen to twenty miles across ‘Thumbland in a split second. “That’s Newbiggin, they were in Craster just now!” She doesn’t quite say yaboogaman but it’s not far off.
I watched the first episode, but found it harsh and depressing – everything is broken and everyone is a wrong un.
I used to live in Bradford and work in Halifax. I loved the Calder Valley and particularly Hebden Bridge as a break from the 4 seasons of rain and vertical streets cobbled with glass that was Bradford. The emergence from the first tunnel after leaving the Interchange was like entering Narnia, and not through the wardrobe into the snow, neither. I’m not sure I want that memory completely wiped in the mud.
Tell me more about the Archie Churchill-Moss. (I’ve got a Moore Moss on as I type.) When you first alerted me, I rushed to Bandcamp to find it a tad ambitiously priced. He’s a talented fellow, no doubt, but it would have to be extraordinarily good to risk at the asking price.
It depends how immersed you can get in melodeon. I asked him for a review copy, which he kindly furnished me with, so I can’t comment on the price. But it stretches the limits of where you can go with the instrument, allowing for the fact he has a modified one to his own spec. Most of it is on YouTube, if you have such a thing.
https://atthebarrier.com/2023/01/16/archie-churchill-moss-phrase-album-review/amp/
Forgive the overflow of italics in one of the paras, my editors fault!
Of course, should we meet in a field this summer, I could have a car copy conveniently available…… (Toying, currently, with Cambridge over Shrews or any other of the purely folkie fests.)
Much chatter round these parts as the CFF heads have dropped the “Club” tent (with rotating local FCs having a turn each) and are replacing it with a “new acts” stage.
Local FCs are, to put it mildly, not happy.
Confess that tent never appealed much anyway, to be fair: too parochial and like a time machine to being in an upstairs room full of the floor singers from hell, aka The Lewes Arms in 1975.
I’ve seen a few pearls in there (Ezio & Booga, the-low-country, my tall chum as the Waterboys were headlining the main stage) and a lot of swine.
I imagine the floor singer aspect is why the timetabling has been taken away from the FCs.
2017 was my last Cambridge. I used to rather like the club tent, but I rarely went for the local folk club floorspots. That said, sticking a bar in there compounded the notorious Cambridge talking-through-gigs problem. If anything, my problem with Cambridge was that there weren’t really any proper singing sessions – the club tent was neither one thing nor the other.
Warwick’s line up is being revealed day-by-day this week.
Oo, forgot I had a wee binge buy at HMV Leeds, snarfing up some of the poll winners I missed from last year. So far Beth Orton’s Weather Alive gets an OK, but Dubstar 2 is terrific, very old school synth music, redolent most of early Pet Shop Boys. Very nice.
I also ordered the Kevin ‘Blackie’ Farrell album, Cold Country Blues (2016). He is a grizzled old country singer, famous most for writing Sonora’s Death Row (Robert Earl Keen, amongst others) and Mama Hated Diesels (Commander Cody). His band for this, his only album, includes Gurf Morlix and the King of Dieselbilly himself, Bill Kirchen. I ordered it direct from Farrell’s website for $25 (including postage), it arriving a fortnight later, signed, and with apologies for the delay from his wife and manager:”there was a lot of snow between here and the postbox”. The other options were silly money second hand on all the usual platforms, so no brainer. Terrific stuff, old school outlaw country rock, with a whole lotta twang
I read Major Labels by Kelefeh Sanneh.
Like most music books I read, it annoyed and entertained me in equal measure. I’m not confident enough to recommend it – I think the average AWer would explode with rage at some of his assertions. For a start he mounts a spirited defence of genres, which we’re all supposed to hate because they’re so “limiting” apparently, and popular taste which we’re supposed to …. distrust at best. By his own admission it’s parochially American – his coverage of UK music is perfunctory and often ill-informed and you can feel him itching to get back to his comfort zone of the Billboard top 10.
There are some laughs, not always where he intends them to be though – we’re expected to take seriously the idea of a punk subculture at, er, Harvard University – which by some distance has to be the snootiest place on Earth. Never mind the big books mate, there’s a sitcom in that.
No alcohol, extreme pain (see thread elsewhere), layoffs at work (I lost my closest colleague), so an inauspicious start to 2023.
Did manage 4 visits to the cinema. The full recliners at my local multiplex are easy on my hip
Aftersun – I think this could be a masterpiece, still thinking about it a few weeks later. Solitary vacations with an 11 yr old daughter? I’ve been there, but of course there is much much more, quietly and devastatingly revealed
My name is Otto – very sentimental Tom Hanks vehicle, but did what it said on the tin and, yes readers, I cried
The Fabelmans – not quite what I expected. I think this could be brilliant too, interesting examination of finding your way in life while things are falling apart around you
Living – another winner, very original way of making a film. Nighy is superb but the ensemble cast helps and I was never quite sure where it was going. Must check out the original Japanese version
December/January is often a great time for films with more serious ones than the usual superhero crap being released for “Oscar consideration” but a great start to my film going year, beginning to feel like a golden age.
[Edit] 5 trips! Also Empire of Light, Olivia Colman is scintillating but the film never makes up its mind what it wants to be. Still worth a watch
Probably not the place, but how are you doing painwise, @dai?
Thanks for asking, not much change, some days better than others. Went to see a chiropractor this week and he gave me a going over. He also offers acupuncture which may be tried in a week or 2.
Wonder if I would recover faster in warmer weather. Right now we have a wind chill of -37C! Also getting around on snow and ice not a huge amount of fun in my current condition
Mrs M has started having acupuncture recently. So far, so fuck all. But that’s medicine (generally) for you. Good luck bruh.
Cheers
Same from me @dai, I hope the acupuncture works for you.
Cheers @Baron-Harkonnen
A man called Otto was very enjoyable although fairly slight. However the scene where the doctor tells him he has a big heart and his neighbours reaction was absolutely hilarious.
Re Acupincture – tried it a few years back and did absolutely nothing for me. Hope you have a better outcome.
Yes @SteveT thanks
I did my usual version of Dry January and bought no new music last month
(apart from a pre-order delivered on 27 Jan)
Heard:
Nothing new (until 27th of the month).
The OLD:
Thin Lizzy did get a lot of playing (off the back of the Live and Dangerous stream I was sent and reviewed).
Foo Fighters also vied for CD space
Probably more U2 than I’ve heard in the last 10 years (caused by see below)
The NEW:
Wingmen (Baz Warner, Paul Gray, Leigh Haggerty & Marty Love) album arrived – good thing it is too, and if you’re a fan of any of the bands they’re in, then you’ll like this.
Seen:
Another Happy Valley viewer waiting for the final conclusion
ITVx is now available (free with adverts) on my Virgin Box, so I’ve been catching up on Broadchurch, and will be diving in to Stonehouse next
Channel 5 documentary on Stock Aitken & Waterman was interesting – their rise and fall in a relatively short time
Read:
Bono – Surrender. Hard going, but he’s honest in his writing
AOB:
Got the news this week that I am going to be a Grandad again – I still refuse to buy Werthers Originals and wear beige though
Doing both would be ill-advised – if one dropped on your cardigan you’d never find it.
Really enjoyed the SAW docs. I went to the studio once, (my brother was doing some writing there,) although none of the trio were present. The amount of discs on the wall was overwhelming. Martin said they were really nice and that Matt & Mike were incredibly switched on, musically.
Don’t care much for the music, but their personality came across.
Pete Waterman occupies that middle ground of coming across like a bit of a prat, and someone you’d like to go for a pint with. His autobiography was a good read.
I rarely contribute nowadays but as there is a faint whiff of Spring in the air of northern Cymru today and I am in a rare don’t feel much like painting mood why not.
Heard.
Easily my most played of that January was and still is Prize from the marvellous Rozi Plain. A few guest contributions from the likes of Alabaster DePlume and Denalogue alongside her core combo and unsurprisingly the equally marvellous Kate Stables make this a very early contender for one of my favourites of 2023. Also been lending a frequent ear to Gardening by Siv Jakobsen again a release from last month and another fine album. Apart from those two beauties it was my usual mix of jazz, folk and ambient noodlings that took up the bulk of my listening time. Honourable mentions to Anna Butterss, Aoife Nessa Frances, Rich Ruth, Ben Haskins Quartet and Mette Henriette are definitely in order.
Read.
The bulk of reading time last month was devoted to a rereading of David Copperfield. Needless to say I loved it probably more than when I first read it over fifty years ago.
I also got around to reading The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje at long last and found the time to read Last Night In Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel, The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood and a couple of Maigrets.
Seen.
Not much tbh. I watched Candy on Disney + and Only Connect every Monday but nothing else.
A.O.B.
It was my sixty seventh birthday on Wednesday and my eldest niece and her rather splendid other half took me out for dinner. Apart from the fact that I very rarely get out and about any more what made the evening truly special for me was the attendance of my great nephew who I had not seen for almost ten years and his beautiful girlfriend Xin who is a fellow artist. Xin has settled here from her home in northern China. They make a lovely young couple. It was a grand evening enlivened even more so when I discovered that Xin has been blessed with a truly splendid singing voice. Positively operatic in quality.
Nice one Squeeze. As Mr Hockney says, spring cannot be cancelled.
Hockers isn’t to be argued with but Fran Landesman & Tommy Wolf urge caution as Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most.
April is the cruellest month. You’re lying at the bottom of a hill minding your own business and some wee urchin rolls an egg over your head.
Belated birthda wishes, Mr Squeezer.
That Rozi Plain is in my TBH pile. Memphis Industries is turning out to be having quite a purple patch.
It’s an artifact of beguiling and subtle loveliness imho.
You sound pleasantly on the up Peter, may you continue to do so, Richie
Thanks Richie. My emotions and mental state are as ever a mite fragile which is why I tend to keep myself to myself for the most part nowadays. Not fair to inflict myself on others doncha know. I find myself somewhat unpredictable company.
Enjoyed a couple of Mette Henriette’s albums, The very recent “Drifting” and her self-titled 2015 one. Also the aforementioned Dhafer Youssef “Street Of Minarets” and a couple of solo piano albums. Kenny Barron’s “The Source” and Iiro Rantala’s “Potsdam”.
I’ve been listening to a fair few solo piano and piano trio albums lately. The recent album of the late Esbjörn Svensson’s solo leftover pieces, “Home.S” is interesting but a little underwhelming, IMO.
Looking forward to seeing the Fergus McCreadie Trio at Bush Hall (in Shepherd’s Bush) on the 22nd.
On & On from Josè James is an excellent collection of Erykah Badu cuts I have no hesitation in recommending Mike if you fancy that also Wayfarers by Eyolf Dale and others is well worth a listen as is the latest from Little North called Wide Open. If you want something more folk leaning I’d recommend Kaleidoscope by Rachael Dadd along with Complete Mountain Almanac from Rebekka Karijord and assorted Dressners and Furling by the ever reliable Meg Baird.
Forgot to have a shout out for Furling. Wonderful evocation of 1969 folk-rock!
Happy birthday, pencil! Sounds as though you had a good one.
Diolch Tigg. It was lovely. I got to stroll around with the very attractive Xin on my arm which made a sad old man temporarily happier.
Happy Birthday Squeezer.
Ta Beez.
Pen-blwydd hapus!
HB, fella, that day!!
Thanks G.
Diolch yn fawr iawn Dai.
Still in time to send my best birthday wishes.
Thanks butt.
Belated birthday greetings Pencil! That sounds a really special one.
Oh, and David Copperfield – God, it’s fantastic isn’t it?
Thanks Blue. It held me captivated.
@pencilsqueezer I agree with you regarding Rozi Plain – fantastic album. She was the bass guitarist on the recent Anais Mitchell tour and made her mark there too.
It is indeed. I got hooked on her music a few years ago when she released Inside Over Here.
Feliz Cumpleanos, amigo!
Diolch me old butty. ✌️
Heard: like many have been diving into Television (still prefering MM to Adventure), and the five free Sault albums (which are diverse but great). Also the excellent new John Cale album (Mercy). Going to see him in Liverpool on Monday. As an individual track I am loving the last Steely Dan track, which is Rodriguez for a Night by David Crosby. The new EBTG single is great, and bodes well for the album in April (probably my birthday present). Oh and Tom Lehrer.
Read: Been listening Slow Horses audiobooks (and finding out they took a lot of dialogue straight to tv). Been reading Gideon the Ninth which is not my thing at all, and finishing off the Brubaker hard boiled graphic novels (which are great) – Reckless, Lawless, Criminal etc.
Seen: some quite great TV. Inhaled Slow Horses over a weekend, then started the book. HAppy Valley we started from the beginning again and dont regret it at all (helped by it being just down the road). And the Last of Us Episode 3 is just astonishingly good.
Meanwhile I am boycotting Match of the Day until my team remembers how to play. Probably next season.
re Last of Us ep 3, wow! I was a bit fed up with all the hype and had a sneer at the ready, but it was just breathtaking..
Yup.
Glad I knew little about it before (and have never played the game).
Hi Paul (& others) can you give me some guidance on Sault. I’m intrigued by them but have never heard them. Thanks in advance.
@Baron-Harkonnen not sure Sault would be your cup of tea but could be wrong. Would suggest try before you buy.
Have two of his albums but they are both very different .
Yes, quiet a variety of styles, including within each album. They’re all on Bandcamp if you don’t do Spotify. IMO Untitled (Rise) is less “loose” than some of the others and comes early chronologically, making it my suggestion as a good place to begin..
Seen
I’ve spent several dark January nights curled up on the sofa in front of the television, and the shows which come to mind are:
Everything Everywhere All at Once is basically the story of an immigrant family trying to make their way in the US, but expanded into a dizzying time-shifting SF spectacular. I loved it, though my other half thought it was only OK. I asked a work colleague who is from Hong Kong what she thought of it (the family in the film speak Cantonese with subtitles for much of it). She was of the same opinion as my partner, but her boyfriend also thought it was terrific.
Happy Valley is brilliant of course, and is racing towards its finale on Sunday. It’s the performances which stand out, from Sarah Lancashire’s exasperated and imperilled police officer to Mark Stanley’s Rob, [PLOT SPOLIER WARNING] a man with such PE teacher energy that you want him to go down for the murder of his wife, even though we all saw Faisal with the rolling pin in his hand.
Alan Partridge: Stratagem. When these dates were announced, I vaguely considered going to one of the O2 shows at which this was filmed. I glad I didn’t. It’s a laugh free zone spun out from the conceit that Partridge is present a life-coaching class, and the spectacle isn’t enough to fill the cavernous O2.
Sarah McQuaid was the only gig I saw this month, and as I’ve written in Nights Out I enthusiastically recommend seeing her if she appears near you, which given her touring schedule is a distinct possibility.
Read
Hotel Milano is the first Tim Parks’ novel for several year (he also writes nonfiction). A retired magazine writer travels to Milan for the funeral of his editor, and due to the developing Covid pandemic finds himself stranded there, physically isolated in a foreign land just as he has been estranged from the people in his past life. Parks is excellent on the perceptions of a character who is caught up in epic world and personal events but has chosen to distance himself from what is going on around him.
The Driver’s Seat is Muriel Spark’s novella from 1970 and one which is often mentioned by her admirers, another book which takes much of its atmosphere by setting its protagonist in a foreign land. Inge travels from an unnamed northern country to an unnamed southern one. She has travelled there in her gaudy clothes to be murdered, no matter what other characters might want. It’s a slim book which you could read in an hour or two but which will stay with you for far longer.
Witchfinders by Malcolm Gaskill is far closer to my home patch, being a history of the Essex witch hunts under the command of Matthew Hopkins in the mid-1600s. I’ve just started this, but it’s a scholarly but accessible work and I’m enjoying knowing all the places where the history took place.
AOB
We had a short break in Prague, which was as lovely as ever. Bars and restaurants were quiet but the main tourist areas were always pretty busy, which makes me wonder if spots like this even have an off-season any more. And it’s just as well we took the break when we did as a couple of weeks later The Light finally succumbed to Covid after 3 years working frontline in a major NHS hospital. As is to be expected, she reports that the experience lacks charm, and though she’s finally over the worst after 10 days she’s still testing positive and tires after even a short walk. This leaves me as about the only person I know who has never had this wretched disease.
Heard – listening to a lot of Big Thief. I seemed to have missed the boat and only just started listening to them but have now bought tickets for their upcoming tour too. Like @Chrisf I’ve been listening to Crime of The Century by Supertramp lately. It still seems to hold its own after all these years. I was away in India briefly and listened to ‘The Dark Is Rising’ a BBC podcast recommended by @ArthurCowslip. I thought the soundscape was really good at one point I had to take the earpiece out as I couldn’t tell whether the bird sound was in the phones or in the canopy surrounding me! I may have to listen again as I didn’t really enjoy the storyline as much as the sounds themselves. It’s strange when a song comes to you from nowhere(unless it’s on an advert’ and it’s been fed in subconsciously) I returned from my trip to find ‘Both Sides Now’ by Joni Mitchell had suddenly become an earworm. I’ve listened to it a lot over the last week mostly the live recording from 2000.
Read – next to nothing. It’s the first time I’ve gone on holiday and not read at least one book. Stuck with podcasts.
Seen – My Name is Otto – Enjoyable but I was fortunate enough to see the Swedish version ‘A Man Called Ove’ a couple of years ago which I enjoyed more. Eric Ravilious – Drawn to War a great documentary about an artist I hadn’t known until the film turned up at my local Picturehouse.
I’m going to have to watch Happy Valley as I don’t wish to be the odd one out on this site.
AOB I was in Goa, it was the first time back since covid. Great to see old friends again. Heard a few sad stories of how it was during the early days of the pandemic. I was laying on my sunbed on the beach and on a couple of days there were Russians on the next beds. I really wanted to ask what they thought of Putins war but decided that they may have been there to forget or indeed get away from it so decided not to. I wish I could spend more time in India and travel further afield,if only….
Heard
There have been some great albums released this month, January is usually a bit thin on that front but 2023 has been a good one. Albums by Complete Mountain Almanac (a band containing the Dessners from The National), Dave Rowntree (tubthumper from Blur) & CVC have all been on constant repeat.
I am also very very taken with the new track from LYR which I’m listening to about 15 time a day at present. As a proud Lancastrian I should be sneering at this love letter to Leeds, but it’s making me want to move there! Simon Armitage at his best & I’m hoping to see them in October
Read
I found Animal House by James Brown an interesting read, I did not know about his fanzine & or many details about his time at NME beyond what has been mentioned in other books. It is OTT but enjoyable.
Earlier this month I saw everyone losing their shit on Twitter about a book they had not read Spare by Prince Harry. As such I thought I would give it a go & form my own opinion. I’m fairly ambivalent towards the royals although admit to being staunchly anti them as I was younger. I find him pretty likeable though, he is clearly & understandable damaged by what happened in 1997. A lot to take with a pinch of salt, but is seems that by spending time outside of the bubble he has seen it all in a different light & rightly or wrongly vocalized those opinions.
A very tough read this month was Show Me The Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen by Peter App. The amount of warnings that were sounded over this risk & that were ignored is a national disgrace. The failings that happened (predominantly so under Camerons austerity drive) shoudl mean these things do not happen again. However, the gleeful way this mob are looking to ‘cut red tape’ sadly means there will be many more.
Seen
Happy Valley has been great & this Sunday is eagerly awaited in our house. We also did the 3 series of Young Offenders this month which I enjoyed. It’s also rekindled my love of After All by Frank & The Walters.
A trip to the cinema to watch I Wanna Dance With Somebody left me a little underwhelmed. It felt like reading her Wikipedia entry
AOB
I’ve always loved the odd track by Metric & saw them on the 31st as my first gig of 2023. I hoped that by seeing them live it could ‘unlock’ them for me a bit as I really really love some songs but have never properly got into them. It turns out that they are just not for me, it was very slick & they put a lot into it, but christ is was boring!
After All is a wonderful song. I’m eighteen again when that comes on.
It starts off great and just gets better, it really is staggeringly good
Are LYR touring? Nothing on the website and would love to see them again after they stole the show as the first act at Blue Dot.
(And I’m reasonably sure that it wasnt Simon Armitage who gave me Covid at the Undertones at Holmfirth. Reasonably).
It turns out the date I was looking at in Marsden was for 2022…..
Im desperate to see them live and your ringing endorsement has made me even more eager, as long as Mr Armitage wears a mask!
Well he might not be the best-looking fella in the world, but fair’s fair…
HEARD: the new Fairport Convention album ‘Full House For Sale’, being a Covid-delayed 50th anniversary live recording (mixed from multis) of their classic 1970 album ‘Full House’, is fantastic. Four of the five members from that line-up are joined by Chris Leslie (from the current FC) ably filling the roles – voice, fiddle, mandolin – once occupied by the late Dave Swarbrick. Phone clips online of the performance from which it derives don’t do it justice. ‘Poor Will & the Jolly Hangman’ – bafflingly omitted from the 1970 album – is back, adding heft, as is a bonus track of a set of reels the 1970 line-up performed at that time. Alas, no ‘Now Be Thankful’ (the non-album 45 by the 1970 FC) – but the playing throughout is sublime. Dave Pegg’s bass solo in ‘Sloth’ is compelling – impossibly slow yet so inventive and odd that one hangs on every note bend. I believe it’s only available from the FC website. Support your local folk-rock legends!
Other recent acquisitions include the terrific new Rendell-Carr Quintet 2CD 1965 live album ‘Warm Up’ from the excellent Jazz In Britain not-for-profit label/archive. Simon Spillett’s booklet essay adds the usual extra value. I also bought a Rendell-Carr BBC sessions Vol.2 CD (on Rhythm & Blues Records – a reliable if eyebrow-raising label who fly their ‘out of copyright’ flag rather bravely; at some point, someone will bring a test case… but as a consumer, I love their vintage British jazz comps and archive trawls).
I like very few Americana artists but the far from prolific Buddy Mondlock is one exception. I was happy to support his recent Kickstarter campaign for a new album, ‘Filament’. Advance download files of the finished work arrived today. It ‘sounds’ great – beautifully produced and arranged. I look forward to living with the songs for several more plays to see what rises as fave numbers.
READ: A shout out for ‘RnR’ or ‘Rock n Reel’ or whatever the magazine calls itself at the moment. I bought a couple of copies from its website recently – it can’t be bought from any shops in NI, as far as I know – on the basis of being interested enough in one or two features. The current issue has a splendid feature on Martin Carthy (see below…), a piece on my pal Alison O’Donnell (ex Mellow Candle, who has a stirring new solo album in Irish trad ‘storytelling’ style just out), plus two pieces by regular contributor and good pal Trevor Hodgett (on progster Dave Greenslade and veteran US blues singer Angela Strehli). Trevor is a master of the 3,000-word single-interview feature – I always appreciate his magazine pieces, and he regards it as a hobby that he puts a lot of craft into – a kind of ‘Who will I interview next? Who might have a good story?’ ethos rather than just seeking out his personal heroes. Music magazines are rare beasts and while I’m slightly queasy about RnR insofar as it doesn’t pay writers (AFAIK), I’m glad it has a place still in the music ecosystem. By and large, it’s writers are very good – and if they are people happy to write for nothing but contribute to the body of published knowledge and passion about music, fair enough.
Richard Osman doesn’t need the likes of me reviewing his books but I’ve read all three of his Thursday Murder Club books to date (recently finished the new ‘The Bullet That Missed’) and I must say, he’s very good at what he does. The plotting is especially good in the new one.
Currently reading ‘The End of Andrew Harrison’, a new reprinting of one of the rarest Freeman Wills Crofts books (FWC being a Northern Irish crime writer, ‘master of the humdrum mystery’, active from the 1920s to the 50s) – one of the half dozen or so of his books that I could never afford on eBay, and those being the ones that never seemed be reprinted. Hats off to HarperCollins for doing so. Published in 1938, I’m 75% through it and can’t grasp why it is so rare – FWC’s abilities apparently deserted him in his final book or two in the 50s, but this one is among his best, in my view. His thing, so admired by contemporaries like Agatha Christie, was his skill with apparently unbreakable alibis – and this book certainly ticks that box. I’m getting close to the reveal and I can’t imagine whodunnit…
SEEN: Happy Valley, like everyone else! Amazing stuff. Also Mystery Road: Origin on BBC4 – the ‘origin story’ of the gruff Aboriginal detective of the parent story. Not bad. Also Father Brown and The Madame Blanc Mysteries – like Hope Street, the similarly implausible NI cosy crime equivalent, these are comforting escapes in appallingly troubled times.
A busy week last week – Mark Lewisohn’s Evolver:62 show (well, a trimmed down version of it) at the Black Box, Belfast, followed by a splendid onstage podcast ML interview with Steve & Jase from around here (in both senses – Ireland / AW). Three days later, down to Dublin for a late afternoon Martin Carthy show in Dublin’s Tradfest at an interesting old Romanesque church. It was billed as Martin & Eliza but Eliza was unwell. Though 82, and with a voice weaker than of yore and guitar playing less forceful than it once was, Martin can still hold a crowd – his mind is as sharp as ever and one can still get lost in his songs, though one has to ‘go to’ him more than before. He played longer than his allotted 75 minutes – and long may he do so! The next day, Sunday, a Sarah McQuaid afternoon show at another be-columned ornate old church (a deconsecrated one turned into an arts centre this time) at Portaferry. Portaferry is at the end of a peninsula – I don’t think I’ve ever been there before. A longer drive than I’d expected. Sarah was great but I was rather burned out (heavy work demands on top of the shows/travelling etc.). Tomorrow night, Martin Hayes at the Grand Opera House, Belfast – an old friend I haven’t seen for a long time. I was struck by something that BOTH Mark Lewisohn and Martin Carthy said during their shows: ‘I love this job!’ I’m sure there’s a moral in there.
AOB: Still grafting away on sourcing/compiling audio for the ‘Martin Carthy at the BBC (1966-2022)’ 20CD set I might have mentioned last month. It will be a momentous document aside from being a musical joy – thoroughly well-deserved. From the sublime to the hobby… I’m also near to signing off on the audio for my Legends of Tomorrow anthology ‘The Weather at World’s End: 1997-2022’. A bit of round the houses stuff in getting two remixes of very early tracks over the line, but ultimately the extra time has been worth it – my long-time collaborator / producer / keyboard whiz Cormac O’Kane insisted I re-record a guitar part for one of the two a couple of days ago. Still dealing with heavy work demands, I had no real energy / headspace for it, but went into his studio and delivered what he seemed to want. I went home, he added new piano/keys and delivered a totally fresh mix of something I’ve been familiar with for 25 years – a whole new angle on it, a new lease of life. Listening to some of the tracks in order last night on earphones – having got near the end of the heavy workload – I felt excited about it again. 🙂 Hopefully, it will appear in early April. I’ve no idea if it’s a folly or a celebration, but it features no fewer than 50 musicians / friends – and, for me, it celebrates that. Marry Waterson has created a fantastic semi-animated video for one track (not yet out there) and a ‘live’ promo of another will be made. An adventure, anyway.
Full House For Sale now ordered. Thanks for the tip, Colin – I didn’t know that it existed!
My copy arrived on Wednesday and happily after many trials and tribulations I managed to make it to Cropredy to listen and see it live.
Sounds excellent.
It really is good, what I have heard so far, mine being in the post. The original was so in the shadow of Liege & Leif that I remember thinking it a lesser album, especially without Sandy and Tyger. ( Thru the channel of the History of double album, of course; I’m not that old. Quite.) But it is better, you know. When Thompson played Poor Will at Cropredys 50th, he messed it up, and it was murky at the 30th, so I hope he nailed it this time around, or got some post- production in. Did he, @hubert-rawlinson ? It’s my favourite FP song and my favourite RT solo.
It sounds good to me on the FHFS album, Retromeister! I’ve always preferred FH to L&L.
Another vote for Full House – I do enjoy L&L but FH certainly the better album. First heard Poor Will on the (guitar, vocal) album – could never work out why a gem like that would have been left off FH.
Sorry at @retropath2 I didn’t get a notification that you’d mentioned me.
Yes it’s excellent.
HEARD: 2 with a Northern Ireland connection. I’ve really enjoyed The Book of Absolution by Anthony Toner, as recommended by Colin H. The other is The Unfolding by Hannah Peel & ParaOrchestra. I’d never heard of this and was intrigued by how many times it turned up in the Afterword Best Album of 2022 Poll. It will need a lot of listens to fully discover it but I’m loving it so far. I also bought the recent Bonny Light Horseman album but am nowhere near as taken with it as I was with their eponymous debut.
GIGS: 2 corkers in the space of a week, both at Bury Met. I’d been looking forward to seeing the ridiculously talented Sierra Hull, initially scheduled for Dec 2021. She cancelled at very short notice as her European dates were going down thanks to Omicron and the whole trip had to be scrapped. It was rescheduled for Dec 2022 but only a few weeks later rescheduled again to end of Jan 2023. But about 6 weeks before that date she announced that instead of it being a solo tour she was going to bring her husband Justin Moses. I’ve never seen him in the flesh but am aware he is a very skilled multi-instrumentalist. It also meant that Sierra redesigned the setlist from her solo stuff to the repertoire she and Justin tour with in the US. Anyway, I’ll cut to the chase – they were absolutely brilliant, both excelling on mandolin and guitar playing and singing bluegrass standards and their own compositions. They played a couple where they both played identical looking mandolins, which sounded the same and unless you watched closely you couldn’t tell who was playing read and who was chopping the chords, as they constantly swapped. Here’s an example:
And a week later I saw The Unthanks deliver a wonderful show at Bury Met. An 11 piece band played several off the new album Sorrows Away but also plenty of other favourites like The King of Rome, Bird Gerl, Lucky Gilchrist, Mount The Air, Patience Kershaw. The sound was excellent and the whole gig was a delight.
I’ve seen the first two series of Happy Valley, and liked them a lot.
Naturally, the third series is not being shown on Swedish TV (yet).
So … NO SPOILERS, please, Afterworders. I’ve got so somehow shield myself from all plot-related information about Happy Valley for the next couple of months. It won’t be easy…
Saw some TV, a very rare event.
Stipulation – must be short, not too many episodes, no ten “seasons” to wade through – and so watched “The Bear”, about a Chicago restaurant, yep, liked that a lot (reminded me of the equally nuts Steve Martin series that was on recently), and “Grace”, set in Brighton, police stuff, not too bad but preferred “The Bear”. I’m not that interested in the police force. In fact, I’m not remotely interested in the police force.
Cinema:
Enys Men – Cornish – people either love it or hate it. If you reckon Captain Beefheart you’ll be in the former camp, if you reckon Tom Jones you’ll be in the latter.
Alcarras – A wonderful Spanish film about big business destroying the world (I have seen so many films on this theme in the last five years! – The Olive Tree, Aquarius, Honeyland), made with a largely non-professional cast. You’d never know, I only found out afterwards.
Till – Why this isn’t in the reckoning for Oscars etc. I don’t know. Like many stories of this period I first came to knowledge of them via Bob Dylan (Hattie Carroll, Davey Moore, Medgar Evers). There is a chilling bit where a well groomed man introduces himself to Till’s mother… “My name is Evers, Medgar Evers”.
Casablanca – My local cinema is repeating a lot of older films at the moment. Brilliant.
Reading/listening:
Uncut put a black man on the cover again! Wow. The last time they did that (Miles Davis) it was a great issue – much better than the tired and tested ones (see what I did there?).
This time it was Curtis Mayfield… and so January has been “We’re A Winner”, “This Is My Country” and “The Young Mods’ Forgotten Story” on repeat, and “In The Groove” by Marvin Gaye.
Quite agree about Uncut but Curtis challenges your assertion that sixties is best. His first four solo albums, including the magnificent Superfly (see Features) were all released in the seventies, one of the very best run of albums by anyone. Not to mention his later seventies work. Sixties Curtis is great. Seventies Curtis is even better.
I don’t agree. Those three’ll do me. 1968, 1968 and 1969 and the benchmark for everything is “Summer of Soul”… 1969.
I think Stevie Wonder trumped Curtis in the 70’s but both artist’s runs were quite magnificent.
Nah Nah Nah
D wants to live in a dark room – Inside Number 1969, if you will – while on the other side of the door Curtis, Stevie, Marvin, Sly Stone, The Staple Singers, Bobby Womack etc are having a helluva party making the best music of their careers..
I’ve nothing new to add this month, having been too cold to do anything, but I am enjoying this video on YouTube a lot. Francis Ford is an excellent commentator and I’m finding it very revealing about one of my favourite films. Did you know, for example, that the opening sequence was very much a due to chance, in a similarish way to how the Elton/Bernie partnership came about?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN9tnejBZjI
“too cold to do anything”…. What’s your excuse the rest of the time?
Too busy watching films, reading books, listening to music.
In what way is that not doing anything? Sounds exhausting.
I’ve ssen AN a few times, and cannot understand how it is regarded so highly. Starts OK, nice chopper set piece, after that, pretentious wank sums it up, for me.
Seen
Like so many here, Happy Valley right up to the end last night. Two observations: (1) This show causes me to experience the “Mandela Effect”, where, every time it comes back I expect it to be on ITV. Maybe it’s because Sarah Lancashire is a Corrie legend? (I wouldn’t mind, but I should be immune as I stayed up all night to watch Nelson released as it was the same night Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson.); (2) As a special treat to salute the occasion I allowed myself to have a Twirl (other confectioneries are available) while I watched. When it was finished I had NO RECOLLECTION of eating the Twirl.
Following recommendations on here I watched series one of Severance, which I thought was 10/10 brilliance – granted, right up my street – which made me feel my fellow Afterworders didn’t go far enough with their praise. It reminded me that any time I see John Turturro in anything, I think he really should be in everything..
Heard
There’s nothing like the dark days of the Chris-NY period to remind us that, best case scenario, this existence is utterly futile nonsense that will be over soon but not soon enough and, worst case scenario, we are the victims of some perverse torture purely for the twisted amusement of some malevolent force.
This is why it’s so great that every new year brings new pop music. Thus far nothing has done more than blow my bloody doors off. Getting most play is the new Teleman single and Lightning And Thunder: Previously Unreleased Recordings And Dubplates by Augustus Pablo and Rockers All Stars. I’ve said it before, but nowhere is the expression “the gift that keeps on giving” more apt than in relation to Jamaican music.
I’m apprehensive about the new Caroline Rose and U.S. Girls based on what I’ve heard so far. Fingers crossed!
Read
Post-Christmas haul, I had a couple of football biographies to chew on. Nedum Onuoha’s Kicking Back was a bit sensible, my favourite fact being that, having decided to finish his career in Vancouver, the very last match he played was the first to feature an orange ball.
By way of contrast, Irish footballer Roddy Collins’ book The Rodfather was tremendously entertaining, being full of all sorts of suspiciously too-good-to-be-true tales taking in high speed exits from scary areas of Northern Ireland, high stakes bare knuckle boxing tournaments between traveller clans, Roberto Duran (Roddy is the brother of WBO World Boxing Champion Steve) and all the money pinching desperation of life in football’s basement.
The ..ahem.. Rodfather obviously leapt to my attention from his very first appearance in a programme what with his name being an amalgam of Roddy Frame and Edwyn Collins. The book features a few characters my Dad would have known well and it whizzes by because Paul Howard, the geezer who actually did the graft is a skilled writer.
I can’t remember the last time I did one, so here’s a compilation issue.
The garage soundproofing was so effective that all the sound bounced around inside with the acoustic qualities of a cave, so I bought some acoustic panels in the Black Friday Studiospares sale and put them up on the walls over the Xmas break. Mrs F hates the sight of them (I have “ruined it”) but they work well and it sounds fab. It is still a tip, but I’ve since been opening boxes full of CDs I acquired over the past few years and putting them into plastic sleeves before filing them. I can’t remember buying half of them, so I conclude I have too many.
Early December saw me doing live sound again for the first time in almost three years. Nice venue, lovely acoustics, audience at a safe distance. Having avoided catching Covid this long, I’m still not keen on sweaty gigs in the back room of the pub, though.
The Xmas break was otherwise good, none of the intra-Offspring bickering we expected. The Younger drove me and The Elder up to Lincoln on L-plates after the New Year. “Driving on the A1 is boring.” Yep.
Read:
Fingers Crossed by Miki Berenyi. Like many music books, it sent me back to the first couple of Lush records (I went off them when they attempted to hitch up to the Britpop bandwagon). Unlike many music books, her life outside (especially before) her fame was a lot more interesting. Most of the Lush years was spent bickering with the other songwriter in the band.
Saw:
Mrs F and I finally finished This Is Us on Prime (interrupted by Offspring the Elder watching BakeOff while back home). Moral of the story: everybody is more complex than it looks from the outside. There’s an awful lot of it.
Heard:
A headlong dive into the Blondie box. Magnificent – even the cardboard transit box is a work of art.
Other:
October’s routine bloods indicated borderline anaemia, which would explain the, well, feeling a bit shit. After multiple extended blood tests, with less than a week to go before the Iron infusion procedure at the local private hospital, I finally gave up attempting to persuade Bupa to pay for it. Three days before, they changed their minds. Hurrah! I was £730 better off again, so all the box-set pre-orders went back on. The following morning I had the gas boiler serviced. “Your heat exchanger is leaking, mate. It’ll be 400 quid, plus 200 fitting, plus vat. So that’s £720.” I’m still 10 quid up…
I’m £10 up on the deal!
£10 up?
Yes, it’s 95… Even if I give her 10, I’m still 10 up! Polly, for the first time in my life, I’m ahead! I’m winning!
Ha! My first thought too.
Well, I “only” paid £720 for one, rather than £1450 for both. So now I have £730 to spend on records. {Ed: is there an accountant in the house?}
Economics is over on that other thread, Fents.
Unusually late, and not really in the mood, but just a few words on January’s ups and downs.
The month started great: got a lot done – writing, home improvement, social life – and felt inspired and not too stressed. Then things got messy and stressful at work…never helpful when you try to have a good balance in your life! And around the same time I had to put most things aside to focus on making a gift for one of my sisters’ 70th birthday.
I make textile art where I use mixed techniques (embroidery, crochet, appliqué, collage, beadwork etc) to “paint a picture” with those materials, with a theme especially chosen for the recipient.
It started well, but now I’ve gotten into a creative slump where I’m not inspired anymore, but in a hurry to get it finished in time for her birthday…was planning to make it all come together this weekend but wasted all of Saturday on reorganizing my bookshelves. Hope to feel inspired tomorrow, because after that I only have two more non-working days to get it done before the party. 🙁
Worst of all – I’ve barely read anything yet this year! A couple of re-reads (stalling tactics really), then The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells (frankly, I prefer the old b/w film) on my e-reader. Still NOT enjoying the reading experience a whole lot on that device…it’s practical in some ways, but useless in others, and it’s making me read less than I would usually do.
I’m in the middle of two books that I started in January: George Orwell’s Diaries (to dip in and out of on my lunch) and Gulliver’s Travels on the e-reader (rather dull IMO).
There are books I’d love to read instead, but I’m trying to have a very low-buy year, because…electricity bills, food prices, mortgage loan interest rates! Trying to act responsibly, which is dull, but if I can’t pay, nobody else is going to do it for me.
I did order a (very) few albums, but most of them got delayed (which seems to be the norm post covid). The one that got here in January was the Andrew Bird album I never knew about until the 2022 poll told me it existed. Being a massive fan since forever, I’m sad to say I didn’t like it! It was like listening to a compilation of the worst tracks from every AB album ever. Bummer.
Started to watch a documentary series on Swedish TV called “When the jazz legends came to Sweden”, six parts but I only lasted three. I had guessed that it would be about the music they created, with lots of live footage from the jazz clubs of that time, but it’s very little of that. I’m not saying that it isn’t interesting to find out about why they left the US to live in Sweden/Scandinavia, and how the racism they escaped got redirected to their Swedish children instead, among other subjects, but it wasn’t what I had anticipated. I may return to the rest of the series if I find the time and feel in a less vulnerable mood.
At the moment I’m feeling a bit paralyzed by stress and frustration, and just not in the mood for anything. I’d love to go to sleep for a week or so, just to reset the machinery!
Sorry for this grumpy post…but; January.
O Locust. I do hope you feel better soon. Have you tried meditation?
Nah, I don’t need meditation, I need fireworks, or spinach, or champagne – something to wake me up! 🙂
But thanks, I’m sure it will pass soon enough. It will have to – I’ve got too many things to do!
Also thinking of you, Locust… Here’s hoping your planets of inspiration and motivation align soon.
Thank you Colin. I’m making some plans for how to get over the hump!
Trying to take charge rather than just drifting along and waiting for a change to come from something or somewhere that I can’t direct.
Thinking of you, Locust. I can relate – going to sleep for a week and “resetting” sounds ideal to me. Perhaps you could be woken up after the week and presented with fireworks, champagne and – er- spinach?
Spinach soup is not half bad, especially if you put half a boiled egg in the bowl.
My mum always used to do that when I was growing up, and we all enjoyed it!
Don’t have any spinach at home, but plan to cook a nice Minestrone tomorrow to fill my freezer with healthy lunchboxes. Of course, being diabetic, I always put lentils in all of my soups to keep my glucose levels where they need to be (but a boiled egg would work too). I’m avoiding the champagne however! Which is a lot easier than avoiding things like bread…or chocolate, TBH.
Hmmm … spenatsoppa med ägg … a genuine Swedish classic!
Struggling with the idea that spending all day reorganising bookshelves is a waste of time… Seems absolutely stop-everything vital to me 😉
Yes, in a soul-calming joyful way it is, of course.
In an “I don’t have the time to do ANYTHING but the absolutely necessary and most of all finish this birthday gift” kind of way; it’s absolute madness. 😀
The good news is that I’ve run out of the IKEA “Variera” shelves now, so I can’t carry on doing it. The bad news is that it doesn’t stop me from standing in front of my Wall of Billys, admiring the new look, carefully switching places between a few books here and there, contemplating if there’s a better way to do it, etc.
However, I did manage to get quite a few components of the artwork done today, trusting the eternal truth that inspiration comes as you get on with things. And it did, and I think I’m going to get it finished in time!
sending love and positive vibes to you
In time all things must pass Lo even Gulliver’s Travels.
I sympathise. I’m going through a bursting into tears at the drop of a hat period at the moment but it will pass. Have a hug or two. X
Right back at you, Peter. It’s a blue month, and I recognise that feeling of fragility.
I’m feeling stuck in a moment while the rest of time is rushing past me towards the prize.
Trying to just force myself to keep moving, but at the speed of a sloth wearing heavy boots.
Some days are better, and I’m melancholic rather than depressed, wishing that I didn’t have to waste so much energy at work and could keep some for myself!
Here’s to better days, for you and me both (and all of the Afterword).
sending you HUGE HUGS, amigo