saturday in four pictures. played lots of mario galaxy, went to a wedding, southampton won against chelsea, went to see eels in birmingham with Al. good times all.

the march 'classic'

Gave; 'Rough Trade shops, Bella Union 15' by Various.
Received; 'Ambient 2; The Plateaux of Mirror' by Brian Eno and Harold Budd.

Okay. I've left this a bit late in the month.

Al slipped the March classic my way a few days ago. And to describe my views on it I have to tell you a bit about my first listen to it. My job (as most of the people reading this will know) involves travelling about various bits of Herefordshire. 

This cd was given to me one Saturday morning at the start of a shift. And early on in that shift I needed to accompany Al on a trip out. On the night before there had been a heavy snowfall, and as we set off on our journey along the slushy roads I slid in this disc so that i could take in some of the 'sounds' while we drove. And what a pleasant surprise. As we drove around the snowy landscape, rows and rows of frosty hop frames passed by and the twinkly piano of messrs budd and eno worked a treat. Similar in some ways to the noodling featured on the nils frahm cd that i enjoyed towards the end of last year. Very relaxing, no drama, no explosions. The cd looped round to the start again without me even noticing.

And that memory of how I first heard the cd was a positive one. A chilled out conversation with the big man. Dramatic snowy scenery passing by as we drove. And relaxing glacial sounds on the stereo.

Of the three cds so far this has been the best.

Mark out of ten?

8 but oh so nearly a nine.

Well recommended, Al. I'm enjoying this.

birthday gratitude.

thank you, friends, thank you.

Pianardo Da Vinci.

Fetishising music and music packaging?

That's such a 36yr old's game. 

The new collectable? Ltd. ed. art. 

KNOW THAT.

This is a piece i picked up today by a local italian artist.

'Robin Redbreast' Pencil on card original (2013)

Look at this. It is full of quality. So minimal and yet not a stroke is wasted. This is from the classic 'garden birds' series of 2013. So many levels to this piece. Seething political undertones. 'Redbreast' is the starting point that the artist offers us. And immediately our eye is drawn to the insouciant smirk on the face of our feathery agitator. I think we're ratamorphising Tony Blair here. And the hint of an arm on the right wing? Cheeky, oh so cheeky. This is audacious pencil work. By an artist that has also  recently been responsible for some audacious street pieces ('car cocks no's 1-5'). One to watch.

birthday today

37, if you're asking.

Just read this guy's book..cheers Al...the hazy fog over the bullring...memories of brum..

on the list to see at latitude..

Some good, some meh, some exciting times

All alone in my white boy pain..

This was my 'ear worm' this morning..

fields..just a band, beirut....just a band, villagers...just a band...

some words

'This is the dawning of the age of austerity'

or

'How I learned to stop worrying and embrace hedonistic purchasing'

An interesting conversation with Al yesterday, and I think he too may be writing some words about it over in this direction in the next few days.

Recently N and I have been looking into the possibility of having a bit of building work done. This has led to meetings with suited folk about mortgages and what-have-you. Following on from these discussions I sat down and worked out all our outgoings and tried to gauge whether we could absorb the cost of what we were hoping to do.

I'm not a big fan of money, I don't know why this is. I guess that it is something to do with my parents and their take on things and what I absorbed of that growing up. I generally have the view that I'm lucky to have a job, and that it pays enough to cover the bills. As long as we're not in debt, and that we're fed and warm then I feel that I don't need to look into money matters too much. I think N is similar, she never bothers to open her pay slips and never looks at our statements or online banking. I generally only look online about once or twice a month. We don't have any credit cards, don't use the overdraft so we're lucky, and grateful to be in that kind of situation. But on the other side of the equation; we don't save anything really and when you actually sit down and look at all them outgoings...well it's a bit reckless.

So I took a serious look at the ways i spend cash in 'non-essential' ways- cd's, magazines, coffee, newspapers i never get to sit down to read. I made a decision to cut it out. I had got into the habit of buying cd's that I never really listened to all that much. When I was younger I used to really look forward to music coming out by certain bands. And from the day of release onwards I would obsessively listen to it and read every credit and 'thank you' on the booklet. These days I just flick through and have the music as background listening in the kitchen. Right. From now on I'm going to listen to the music i have more and stop all this music mag-led purchasing.

And for a couple of weeks that was what I did. Days off from work I made a real effort to just sit tight at home and avoid leaking money from my pockets....

....It's pretty miserable. So the conversation we were having yesterday was about the idea that really its irrelevant what you buy. Could be cd's, could be trainers, could be man bags. The money you're spending is the thing. Is it the cost of buying happiness? 

I need a bigger cd tower.

A father adrift in a world of hairnets

Here are some photos from today. I was doing the house husband bit as N was at work. First and most worrying task; putting C's hair into a bun. I mean, HOW DO YOU DO THAT? WHAT? C had her dancing thing that she goes to on a saturday morning. Rules state that hair "needs to be tied back". Husband states "i do not have a scooby".

Here is a photo of my first attempt. And later, more acceptable photos of me and E having a kick about in the park, including impromptu dribbling twig course. We were putting away a few hours while C was at a party.

Beware 4 yr old daughters bearing felt tip pens...

I was eating some bread with my right hand while C asked me to hold out my left. I looked round and...

A current favourite...it must be a frequent player, check out the dog eared sleeve>>

Now if ever there was a 'my cup of tea' cd compo then this must be it. 

One- its a compilation of releases from one of the most dependable record labels (Bella Union) 

Two- it's released in conjunction with rough trade, an excellent shop

Three- Its in a cardboard sleeve, no plastic

Four- it's got liner notes written by the label boss who clearly loves his job and writes great summaries for each of the tracks

Five - I like a good compilation that has new stuff I haven't heard.... as good tune follows good tune it's like one of those summer days at a festival where you ditch the listing guide and just walk around in a 'relaxed and refreshed' mood discovering bands you haven't heard before.

If Prycer don't own it then this will surely feature in the album swap series [it's got a previously unreleased walkmen tune, Al!]

More of the same from Marling, but..if you like it...what's the issue?

Here's one of my efforts at making a japati. A couple of quick turns in the pan and onto the flame. Standard.

Cumin feel the noize..

On saturday I went with some of n's family to learn how to cook a curry. It was a christmas present that n's parents had got for their kids. It was with an indian lady who lived in a farmhouse in the wilds of herefordshire. We cooked [herefordshire] beef korma. Good times. Regardez...

twiddling

6pm, Hereford.

culture, melonfarmers, culture

Now this is a very non trendy tale.

On Saturday night i went to The Courtyard theatre to see The Gondoliers. Which is an operetta (I think this is the correct term) by Gilbert and Sullivan. I've never seen any of their things before, and truth be told I wouldn't have ordinarily gone to see this thing but I had a reason or two. Firstly it was dad's birthday and he likes this kinda thing. Secondly it had a family friend of N's family acting in it so it was a group trip out for everyone to see this person. My parents came up from 'South' for the weekend and came too.

As per my trip to Verona and the opera, this was straying out of my comfort zone. IT WAS AMATEUR THEATRE. Hey, don't hate the players, hate the operetta.

Thoughts.

Actually quite funny, quite entertaining. A tale of mix ups and confusion. Of love and murky pasts. There was a lot of knockabout physical comedy in the style of one man, two guvnors, that I saw a while back. A very high standard for what was an amateur production. I think they had a professional director but all the cast were locals, a GP had one of the main roles. It also had a few things to say about republicanism and monarchies and that kind of shizzle.

I couldn't have gone into it with much more of a closed mind. To be honest I was going because it was dad's birthday and it had someone that N knew acting in it. I was thinking that a successful result would be if I managed to stay awake (i'd been on a night shift the night before so had only had a few hours kip after my shift)...

They won me over.

I'm still not a huge G+S fan. I'll not be buying any cds or going to many more productions. But that night at The Courtyard was really entertaining.

night shift listening