soft boiled egg spread over toasted tiger bread (ketchup- model's own).

A new Pulp tune produced by LCD Soundsystem. Toe tapping.

Everything in it's right place

2012 COMPO - the reveal

The 2012 CD

1. Nils Frahm - you
2. Alt-J - intro
3. Lucy Rose - bikes
4. Jack White - love interruption
5. Richard Hawley - leave your body behind you
6. Friends - va fan gor du
7. The Walkmen - heartbreaker
8. The Tallest Man on Earth - 1904
9. Grimes - genesis
10. Jake Bugg - trouble town
11. First Aid Kit - emmylou
12. Blur - under the westway
13. Underworld - calliban's dream
14. Nils Frahm - re

Listening Notes
Tracks 1 and 14; a recent addition to the cd collection, this guy is a composer who broke one of his fingers and while he was recovering he doodled some tunes with the 9 fingers that worked and offered up the results as a free download. Or, if you wanted to, you could pay and pick up a nicely packaged cd (card sleeve, emboss print type thing). Which do you think i went for?

Tracks 2, 3, 6, 7, 8; all Green Man festival bands this year. Alt-J i missed because i was hauling stuff up a hill. Lucy Rose - as previously discussed in these posts. The Tallest Man on Earth- someone who's set i wandered into during the last few songs but thought a lot of.

Track 7 located next to 8; vocals sound a bit like Bob Dylan, so that would be a bit of a link, right?

Track 6 leading into 7; New York connection.

Track 13; it wouldn't be a 2012 cd without an olympics reference, and i played this tune alot. It's not particularly arty or indie but there's a time and a place for 'heartfelt' isn't there?

Track 11; pedal steel americana produced by a member of bright eyes?.....with MY reputation? *ding dong*

Track 5; a song that only took one listen for me to like it and make the mental note to include it as a year end highlight.

Track 12; best gig of the year?

Jamie xx/Gil Scott Heron style grafitti on a slide (detail).

Getting the packages ready

Polaroids of blog photos ready to be randomly allocated to each cd package. Which ones will you get? (no swapsies)

When i say 'no' you say 'survivors'

cd playlist alterations

there are now 5 takers for the cd. the packaging is getting there. the playlist is changing 3 times a day.

choose, i must, how to compile it best.

might be good for a matinee

Brizzle Kicks

'The Beast' (a vauxhall astra) tackles the severn bridge 

A Rocatillos double bill; banofee XX shake with a plate of buttered crumpets (mint choc XX for waitey with a full english chaser) 

Waitey gets whitewashed

fart-arsing around trying to get an arty photo..

This morning there was some beautiful frosty views in our garden and across the road to the field opposite our house. I stood around like a  numpty with my S2 trying to get a good picture of it.

Here are some of the efforts..

But in the end the shot i liked best wasn't one of a 'view' at all. I'll post it up next.

Norman Stanley Fletcher

2012 MIX CD

I have been preparing a best of 2012 mix cd for distribution.

Ltd. ed of um..3 or maybe 4.

Some kind of novelty stamp/cd cover artwork thing to be arranged. Or maybe creative use of sharpie markers.

One going to Leeds.

One going to Bournemouth.

One going to Whitecross.

I added in 'genre' to itunes on the playlist view. How does that summarise my tastes for this year's listening..

Well, 10 tracks. 6 are 'indie rock', 1 is 'electronic', 1 is 'alternative', 1 isn't classified and 1 is (ahem) 'country and folk'.

That about sums me up i suppose. (it's important to keep 10% of yourself that isn't classified right?, and being 10% country and folk is nothing to be ashamed of too).

Anyone else want a copy (that isn't listed above)?

delayed remembrance

I meant to write something about this at the time but I've only just gotten around to putting finger to keyboard.

Have a tune to listen to..



Remembrance day. I was listening to someone talking about the world wars, and the statistics about the people who died and how it changed people's lives. And it made me think, in a way that i don't remember having previously done, about my two grandfathers and the choices they made and the experiences they had.

One was an army nurse (ha, like grandfather like grandson eh) who went over as part of d-day in the medical corps. He was one of the first people into one of the concentration camps at the end of the war, an experience that stayed with him and changed his outlook on life.

The other was over in Burma.

Neither of them professional soldiers. One a painter/decorator the other a travel agent. One spoke all the time about his experiences and his army days. The other never uttered a word about them.

Neither had to join up to fight. Would I have stepped forward? Would you? Would I leave the life I have now to do all that?

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks to them, in a cyberbloggersuperhighway kind of way that will hopefully echo around on some digital vault long after i've shuffled off. Both of them no longer around but..

John Page
Stan Saunders

Cheers gents.

because nothing says happy christmas like a wooden rabbit wearing a santa hat in front of some large satellite dishes

Night to bishop's meadow (have i used that pun before?)

A shot of the floods on the way to the swimming pool last monday

This year's Christmas card from the bosses..

My grandad had this record.

Okay. So there's.....that. then.

I say we nuke it from orbit

Thursday at Green Man 2012.

Adam Buxton is doing his BUG talk; comedy with some amusing youtube music videos and comments. One of the videos he showed was this effort. You may have heard of it. It's become quite popular in the discotheques i believe.

I like my tea like i like my ladies..

H town's autumn pose

West Brom Vs Saints (bonfire night 2012)

About as enjoyable as picking up a spent sparkler by the wrong end.

("gone to the bonfire, you should have gone to the bonfire" [to the tune of guantanamera] was the witty chant from the baggies fans.)

Grow a mo to help a bro

ding dong, i say chaps, what ho.

Our house has been an arena of the unwell..

So i therefore have a backlog of photos to post.

And i will begin posting them.........now.

And here's a review of Argo..

By the Observer film critic, Philip French.

Can I recommend a film?

Argo

Back in the day, N and me used to go to the cinema all the time. Living in Brum with any number of decent cinemas to choose from, we'd quite often decide to go to see a film at the last minute and just pick anything that coincided with when we wanted to go.

Sometimes it was a good film, sometimes it wasn't.

With having kids and living in the cultural wasteland that is H town, the chances of such cinematic spontenaiety is limited.

Last night my folks (who were up visiting) suggested that they didn't mind looking after the bairns if N and I wanted to head out. Where to go? Where to go?

Worcester Vue.

Decided to go at half 6.

Booked it.

Drove up the Worcester road.

Settled into our comfy seats at about 8.20.

And the verdict on this act of spur of the moment film viewing?

A firm thumbs up. Highly recommended. Good acting, interesting story, a sense of tension that builds well. At times a bit cliche but hey, its no big problem. I do not think you will regret seeing this film. Take my advice, it's an evening well spent.

And here's a trailer..

More Taharoto 'faces'

Cape Reinga

The Taharoto 'faces'...No.4

Johnny Mah

Not the Smiths guitarist. (and not his full name)

A fine member of the ICU team.

Family back in Rotorua.

John was very welcoming. He very kindly offered to show us round his family's place back in Roto Vegas. His mum worked in the Maori centre and he gave us a tour and introduced us to his family. Rotorua is known for its natural hot springs, bubbling mud pools etc and also for it's strong maori heritage. The well known maori way of cooking is the hangi. Rocks are heated up on a fire and then buried with wet sacking and parcels of food. The food is then steamed over several hours.

In Rotorua they've modified this tactic. John's whanau are all based around this area with loads of the bubbling pools. They've altered the flow of the water over the years to create communal baths and cooking vents where hangis are done in covered steam pits rather than the usual hot rock method. John went out of his way to prepare one of these meals and we called by to pick it up after we met his mum.

Tidy.

The three T's. Three monkey 'see no evil etc' shennanigans in evidence.

The Taharoto 'faces'....No.3

Bonzerelli.

Provided a very warm welcome when we had just started working at the unit.

Born in Lincoln, grew up in NZ. 

Accent mixed.

Married Jane.

Visited us in Hereford.

Now living somewhere in the north of NZ.

A very friendly and approachable guy.

The Taharoto 'faces'... No.2

Noni.

An original. Great sense of humour.

Kind, caring.. but ruthless with a water pistol.

The Taharoto 'faces'...No.1

Tim G.

One of the three Tims on the ICU.

Owner of a fine moustache.

One of the finest nurses i've worked with at talking down very unsettled clients, got the real gift of the psychiatric gab this chap.

This photo was taken at a bonfire night party at his place out in the sticks near Auckland. Most of the Taharoto crew were there.

I seem to remember that they'd rigged up the bonfire with some petrol and ran a line of petrol leading out from the fire so that it could be lit in a dramatic fashion.

He drove a big Holden Commordore.

He liked to smoke.

He had esoteric musical tastes (Rammstein and Alabama 3).

And if he ever starts telling you a story that begins "ten years ago"then you're in for a treat. Also recommended are his tales from working as a nurse in a prison (the chicken story and the chocolate cheerio story).

He pitched up at Auckland airport to say goodbye when we were getting the plane to move home without us knowing he was going to be there. I cried like a baby (there was something in my eye).

NZ