Volume 64
5 Jul 2005
4 Jul 2005
Well, Newcastleton was fun, though I cut my finger whilst packing and by Saturday afternoon I couldn't play which was a problem, but since Saturday night was a bit of a tune void later on this wasn't a problem. Successfully manged to miss all of Live 8 apart from faint sounds on a radio when we were in eating in a restaurant.
30 Jun 2005
The Gaijin passed me the musical baton that has been going around for a bit, so here's my answers :
1. Total volume of music files on my computer:
Somewhere around 45 Gb, split over several discs and shares.
2. Last CD I bought:
Bajofondo Tangoclub - tango and electronica. I also got the Ludovic Beier Quartet's New Montmarte.
3. Song Playing Right Now:
At this very moment, I am listening to a podcast by DJ Carlitos that was mentioned on Boing Boing. It's OK but doesn't leap out and grab me.
4. Five Songs (or Albums) I listen to a lot or that move me;
- Bessie Smith "Give me a pig's foot and a bottle of beer". It's hard to pick just one Bessie Smith song as they are almost all great, but I'll plump for this one. >
- Miles Davis "So What" - it's one of those perfect pieces of music.
- John Martyn "Solid Air" - if I was absolutely forced to pick a favourite album this would be it (though I am not keen on "I'd rather be the devil")
- "Willin'" : there are lots of versions, Little Feat's original is of course excellent, but it's a hard song to do badly.
- "Some of Shelley's Blues" : again lots of versions. Michael Nesmith's original is probably not the best though : Linda Rondstadt, Commander Cody, Tony Furtado all do good versions
And I haven't got room for Crossroads by Cream, Pali Gap by Hendrix, Riders on the Storm by the Doors, or Phil Cunningham playing the Moving Cloud, or any Randy Miller, Ali Bain, Willie Hunter, Billy Pigg.... *sigh*
A random pick from comment URLs of people to which to pass the baton:
29 Jun 2005
Can anyone see any point to Live 8 other than to the boost the album sales of some aging rock "stars" - there are only two bands playing that I would cross the room to see. Luckily I will be at Newcastleton folk festival making my own music, though I doubt I'll be able to avoid it.
28 Jun 2005
Google earth is fun, though it just has the same amout of hi-res detail as google maps. Which is not enough.
27 Jun 2005
Got a new car on Saturday - Citroen C5 Estate. Gorgeous to drive and very comfortable, but enormous : not sure it will go in the garage when we get the towbar fitted.....
25 Jun 2005
I forwarded some messages to ebay this morning ask them to cofirm whther they were real or not and I got these stupid replies saying that they were spam! I wonder if they had even looked at the contents which purported to be from Customer Services encouraging me to pay someone via Western Union. I am not impressed by their so-called "service"
Watching Glastonbury on the BBC. The Killers were excellent as were Royksopp (sp?) who I hadn't really heard before and who I am much taken with (my daughter just came in and asked me to turn the sound down....) Didn't go for Babyshambles, Bloc Party or the Doves much and I was rather unimpressed by the White Stripes - the only word I can come up with is "amateurish" but that's probably unfair. I suspect if you didn't Fat Boy Slim was a bit dull. KT Tunstall's BBC studio version of Black horse was rather good.
24 Jun 2005
Zen Pockets - I hate carrying stuff and have never found a good solution for the stuff that I do carry. For years I used a shoulder bag, but that really does twist your body. Currently I use a rucksack to carry my laptop about but I don't really like it. When it is really cold in the winter I have a fantastic coat with lots of well placed pockets, but it is the only coat/jacket that I own that has that well designed. In summer it is even worse - almost no pockets at all.
Backyard Paradises. Talking of backyard paradises, the brake on my neighbour;s car slipped off and it ran down the hill into my own design "vertical blind" fence. Luckily it wasn't severely damaged as it was fairly hard to make : it is designed so that you can sit in the backyard and rotate the panels to end on so that you can see down into the garden which is across the back lane. One of my better ideas.
Hmmm, I think someone is trying to scam me on ebay.....
Severe weather photos for Australia (I was going to put Oz, but then you might have thought it was only tornadoes)
23 Jun 2005
Open Media 100 List - why do people feel the need to make lists of supposedly important or influential people? For a start they always have the same people on them. The really influential people are of course me and my Illuminati buddies and we never appear on any lists.....
22 Jun 2005
21 Jun 2005
I just had a row with my bank who would not speak to my wife when we were trying to take out a loan via our joint account. I said "I don't do money - she's my representative". They of course gave me some spurious crap about the data protection act. Why the hell is it called a joint account if there has to be one principal account holder? Ridiculous.
20 Jun 2005
World Jump Day - of course if everyone jumps at the same time they might cancel each other out so I hope they have factored this in.....
18 Jun 2005
Kaleidoscopio - Brazilian drum and bass. Alternating with Bajafondo Tangoclub in the car. The album is a must have : it just sounds like summer the minute it starts playing.
17 Jun 2005
Just been to Joe Scurfield's funeral which took place in a park near where he lived. Lots of tunes and songs (someone did Teenage Kicks, accompanying himself on the fiddle) - simple, cardboard coffin, bunches of flowers from friends, and everyone was there. So no links today, this entry is just for Joe.
16 Jun 2005
15 Jun 2005
Bad Girls Hotel - this is definitely NSFW, being essentially pr0n, but some of the images are quite remarkable. Not for the easily offended, or possibly even the not so easily offended
14 Jun 2005
Go to the BBC Radio 4 site, and go to listen again and listen to "Howay the Laughs" - a history of Tyneside comedy. I'd love to know if any of you crosspondians have *any* idea of what these guys are saying at all. (Ole, you don't count) If you do understand there are some great jokes and routines, if you don't it may just perplex...... (And no, I can't be bothered digging out the link at the moment as I have just come back from a good meal with nice red wine)
13 Jun 2005
busy busy busy
12 Jun 2005
11 Jun 2005
10 Jun 2005
Just heard that Joe Scurfield of the Old Rope String Band, who I have known for many years was killed by a hit and run driver on Wednesday night. A terrible loss of a fine musician and wonderful person.
Igor and Sarah are moaning that I didn't thank them for bringing the whole dark/light issue to my attention. So thank you, but less moaning in the future.
Was at the Sage, Gateshead last night and there was a whole gamelan stashed under a staircase. Quite bizarre really.
I just realised that in the summer, light heats up so it less dense and so floats above the darkness which is why the nights are shorter. Simple really.
8 Jun 2005
My wife pointed out to me the other day that the trees that have been planted round the Newcastle ground are the palest, whitest maple alternating with the darkest copper beech/birch/maple. The closest you can get to black and white stripes in trees in fact.
Petty and Booka - more ukulele goodness, some of which is pretty weird - Kaw-Liga for instance starts out like a David Grisman piece and then turns novelty. (BTW, Chris, good ukuleles are not that cheap, though certainly cheaper than, say, an original Gibson Mastertone or a Lloyd Loar F5)
7 Jun 2005
6 Jun 2005
"The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity" Glenn Gould
5 Jun 2005
4 Jun 2005
3 Jun 2005
2 Jun 2005
Damn disc problems again on the homestead machine. Corrupt partition table too. Using a program called GetdataBack which works rather well.
Levis 501 ad - pity they fiddled around with the design of 501s and made them not fit anymore.
1 Jun 2005
Fine swing dancing, though it does seem a little lacking in sexiness and passion : if you see original film of Lindy Hoppers, there is just that little bit more oomph to it somehow.
Hasidic Reggae - a long time ago I linked to a video of this guy, but here is is his website. I am told the CD is rather good.
31 May 2005
USA food memories - meaningless to everyone else of course, because that sort of food was pre-globalisation of the food market.
30 May 2005
Spent all day today on taking the wall down. Totally shattered. Never want to see an electric breaker again!
Yiddish Book Center - I just finished the book 
about the creation of this organisation, and I can recommend it as an interesting read.