Sunday, September 06, 2009
Tim: Uphill Saturday route, 5th September.
Guess what - 25 miles. How come it took all day?
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3163784
- 10:02 am
Comments:
nick: Maybe because it was a net uphill ride? I remember being tired the first ride this year, which was in the same direction (HE->MD).
I was knackered all day Saturday, and a bit flakey yesterday too. Just about recovered by today.
Tim: Same here.
Had a quick look at the graphs, and I reckon there was about 10 miles of obvious uphill, compared to 8. Roughly. Is that enough to account for it?
nick: David mentioned that he'd seen that the Enid had played a concert in Clapham or somewhere. Looks like that might have been a warmup for The Brook, where they have a concert on Sun 25th Oct
Tim: Arse, I booked a holiday yesterday that gets me back at nearly midnight on the 25th. Why does that always happen?
nick: Just listening to Peter Gabriel (4) for the first time in quite a while - it's pretty good! "Kiss of Life" is a real toe-tapper, to say the least.
nick: Posting here so Steve has the chance to accept to - the Titus Andronicus dates are online but in case the web page doesn't work, the ones
I can make are
Thursday 17th September
Friday 18th September
Saturday 19th September
Monday 21st September
Friday 25th September
Saturday 26th September
all at 7.30, all ~£10
When can you make it, Tim? and Steve, if you're keen on two ours of rape and cannibalism?
nick: double arrgghh - and "hours"
(this keyboard is going through a KVM and it sometimes misses characters when I type fast)
Tim: Nick, in order of decreasing preference:
Monday 21st September
Friday 25th September
Saturday 26th September
Saturday 19th September
Thursday 17th September
Friday 18th September
How does that compare with you?
Tim: Steve, the forecast is looking OK for the weekend, partly cloudy, a small chance of a bit of rain.
What sort of time are we looking to get a ferry? So I can plan our journey into town.
nick: ok any of the top three is fine. Unless Steve is keen and wants to come on a weekend, I'll try for Mon 21. When is Steve in Southampton, is he travelling down during the day, or not coming until this evening?
Steve: I am here and sort of paying attention. I'll pass on the play thanks. I was thinking ferry 9-10ish? to allow 2-3 hours to get over, checked in and to the venue.
Found a forum ref saying that bands start 12 Friday - you have to buy a programme there so an earlier start is fine with me.
Steve: All I have is Friday, I will have got this from their web site or MySpace etc. I'll email the XLS as it stands we can complete it later :)
BTW will I have to travel off-peak leaving London on a cheap ticket?
Tim: No, I looked up trains between 4 and 8pm and they're off-peak and railcardable, £23.25 return. What time are you thinking now?
Got the sheets, cheers, FSOL on in middle of night hurrah.
Steve: 17:39 or 18:09 train - I know the way so will just knock on your door, will text when nearer.
Yes FSOL only on for an hour at 2:20AM!
Steve: This must make riveting reading for Nick so I'll put some news in...
Visited Sheffield uni the other day and Matt is pretty keen, so it's that one or Loughborough.
Das Boot film was great so if I thought you'd watch it Tim I would've brought it down.
Been listening to mainly classical lately but I know it will wane. Ravel piano concertos and Prokoviev symphonies 1 & 5 and Romeo & Juliet. I got the 2-disk full unedited job as its meant to be a classic. So far so good.
Loads of tomatoes in the garden and huge apples but they are not quite ready yet.
Reading The Last Don as we were talking about The Godfather at work the other day and I loved that book.
Watching the Reading footage Radiohead make all of the other bands look like amateurs. A bit like when Pink Floyd came on at Live 8.
Tim: It was a grand weekend out. The great weather helped no end, I could listen to any old rubbish in those circumstances. And did.
Everything from Kraftwerk to Bjorn Again to Michael Nyman went down nicely, and even the obscure stuff we tried on the offchance (such as Mr Hudson) was worth a quick listen.
If it had rained all weekend I'd have a totally different story to tell, I think.
Steve took at least two pictures on his phone...
Was Tim Minchin any good?
nick: Were you singing along with Bjorn Again then? I've seen them a few times at the Anvil. With Ella (he added hurriedly).
Tim Minchin was a bit disappointing tbh. He did a set which includes everything mentioned in this review from a year ago and since a lot of songs were cheered you got the impression that there wasn't much new material here. I realise that a comic on tour will be repeating material night after night, but you feel like it's being extemporised - it's harder to believe that when he's doing it in songs and 10 minute poems which, while impressive, are more like performance pieces than off-the-cuff impro.
And the songs themselves, while clever and funny in parts, were often offensive and had bad language (as did the in-between dialog) which I found unnecessary. I saw Bill Bailey a couple of years ago and something very striking about that was that he was very funny but there was no bad language/tasteless humour at all. So it is possible to get laughs without resorting to swearing and making unpleasant comments. And they didn't really have any memorable tunes.
Apart from that, it was fab! ;-)
And he's coming back to Southamton Guildhall again in October so you may still have a chance to see him
Steve: Yes I need to find that flipping data cable for the phone then we will be sorted. BTW Guardian review is pretty favourable. Soulwax get a mention who I loved as well as Kraftwerk of course who were awesome. I'd go again but the main thing is the music so the line-up would have to be good.
Tim: October? OK, great, you've talked me into it.
Having seen him do a couple of good one-off songs, I'd been avoiding seeing anything of his on TV on the grounds that he's only going to have a certain amount of material, so I'd just be hearing it again at the Guildhall.
That's how I ended up with a show of his recorded and unwatched - so I watched it last week. I thought it was OK, but not on average up to the standard of the first songs I heard. Unnecessary bad language, yes. I'm not too bothered about that, but it's definitely a weakness rather than a strength.
But now, having seen all that, there's probably not much point me going next month.
Steve: I hate the use of bad language but did enjoy Lilly Allen's chorus of F You.... F U Very Much! You'll still be hearing that one... Nick are you getting the Spinal Tap issue with the free Marshall mini-amp that goes up to 11?
BTW checked yest, Kraftwerk remasters 5th of Oct - they annoyingly had 'CDs' in the section that said 'out on this date - speak to our staff' and I kept falling for it, ooh The Mix is out as well, oh damn!!!
Tim: Aargh, that's done it. Going round in an endless loop in my head now: ...music...non-stop...musique...non-stop...
nick: Re: Lily Allen - yes, Ella has that cd so I'm familiar with the song. I suspect I might like it better if it were atypical of her writing - i.e. a more obviously ironic use of bad language for effect, but from what I've heard she's not averse to using the "f" word in loads of her songs. Maybe she's just being ironic all the time, but it just feels a bit of a lazy way to get attention to me.
Steve: Well she called Bush a C which is unacceptable to me, doesn't work if a woman uses that work any way does it??? Nice bum though.
nick: I came across this page which discusses whether the
correct spelling is "benefited" or "benefitted"
It says:
The official requirements are that we ‘double a single consonant letter at the end of any base where the preceding vowel is spelled with a single letter and stressed’.
Good rule! But where do those requirements come from, I wonder? Who is the official body which specifies them? And can you come up with an example which doesn't comply with them?
Tim: Steve, to compare our minor return ferry problem...
a bloke I play 5-a-side with also went to Bestival it turns out, and camped at the site. Set off late morning/noon, but had to queue ages for a bus, and then hours at E. Cowes before there was space in a ferry, got back to Southampton after 6.
Steve: Yikes we had it easy then. The capacity was 40,000 so even 10% of that is a heck of a lot of people. You do feel that the ferry company could do a lot more to help/advise, they get all of those extra fares with no extra effort.
Steve: To reduce duplication, 3 pics HERE
Hmm Tim Blake on keyboards!!!! But this gig only does not have Arthur Brown supporting. Bit awkward for me mid-week so maybe use some holiday. Are you available?
They are meant to be appearing at the Amorphous Androgynous launch party in October. Hmm starts at 11, maybe not then.
Tim: Nick (mainly), I've got no Saturday cycling opportunities for ages: early football match next week, helping someone move house the following week, then 3 weekends going/on/returning from holiday. The first two Sundays might be a possibility, or an afternoon off work - if there are any options your end.
Tim: How are things looking on the Hawkwind front? Neil wants to go, so I'm looking at getting at least 2 tickets. You two are both possiblies, AFAIK. I don't mind risking getting four tickets if you're "probably"; Nick's usually pretty good at getting rid of spare tickets for crap events. But if you're just "possibly" then I'll get a couple now and more later if necessary. Or I can wait a bit.
Steve: I'd say just get tickets for yourselves, it is a faff to be honest being mid-week and all. And it's only Hawkwind.
First batch of KC 40th(!) anniversary editions are coming out and of course this time they put extra tracks on - shame.
Just discovered that I need to get the compilation Everything and Nothing by Sylvian having heard it on Spotify.
Steve: Tim, when you get a min can you make a CD-R copy of Dreamfish pls? My CD is corroding and I've got it on Spotify and remember how good it is. Thanks.
Steve: Forgot, Tim again that Gel-Sol live stuff is pretty good, too much swearing and heavy on the voice samples at times but otherwise... Nick search for Gel-Sol Live and download some free live MP3s.
nick: Gel Sol Live - ok I'll look for a download, thanks. Have you got an MP3 player yet then Steve?
Article in today's paper about Tim Minchin. Must admit I didn't enjoy the show as much as I'd been hoping.
How are you getting on with Das Boot Tim? I didn't enrol on an evening class this year - went to talk to the A-Level English lit person and she was a bit vague about what books they'd be doing, although there is a theme of WW1. If it'd been WW2 then I'd have been more interested I think. Did you enrol on art again Steve?
Steve: Yeo second class tonight with Suzanne, last week charcoal drawing which was a hit and Suz's effort was better than mine.
No MP3 player, just waiting for an eBay replacement for my CD-player - same model oh yes. It's so perfect, Sony only do 2 models now and both look crap.
Tim: Most or all of the gel-sol I've downloaded (live or otherwise) is from his own otherwise defunct website, but to find links start with this google search. There are a couple of newer ones at soundcloud I haven't tried yet, see his myspace or blogspot.
I'm saving Das Boot for me holiday.
nick: Here's a page with the first chapter of a novel by former EastEnders star Martine McCutcheon.
Maybe it is a wind-up?
The Guardian says:
I dare you not to be spellbound by the fleshing out of Mandy's personal philosophy, as evidenced by this discourse on the potential of our capital city.
"If you went for it, truly went for it, you could get the life you wanted here, and that was Mandy's aim - to have it all. And why not? She'd read a greeting on a card once in Paperchase on the King's Road that had truly stuck with her: Reach for the moon, and even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."
Tim: I read as much of it as I could stand.
"She had been with many different men because no one man seemed able to tick all the boxes."
Steve: Is ticking boxes a euphemism?
It is shockingly bad and has to be a wind-up surely? It's choc-full of classics - I'd like to meet the 'lovely Irish doorman', and...
‘May I take your name, madam?’ asked a friendly-faced member of staff.
BTW first of the Barbican concerts is Thurs 8th and I have 1 spare ticket - Beet violin and Sib 5th - should have notified sooner I know.
Steve: BTW the young guy here is reading Protector and he liked No Country For Old Men and The Road!
nick: I can't do Thursday 8th but thanks for the offer. There is another series of talks at church and the first one is next Thursday.
I read "The Road" last week, was pretty good although I couldn't help wondering where the oxygen was coming from - if all the plants are dead. And now I've probably ruined it for Tim.
"Protector" is excellent. Have you read the other "known space" ones? There's one called "World of Ptaavs" which covers the period very early on and makes sense of some of the stuff that happens in the later books - that's a really good one, up there with Protector I think.
I saw "Love's Labour's Lost" today, was pretty good. I might even try seeing it again - only £5 in the yard and I'd be interested to see what it's like in an evening (I think this one runs for a couple more weeks) because it would be dark then and I don't know what they do for lighting.
Steve: Ok over to you for the ticket Tim or I'll offer it around here.
I did have a thought that we 3 should try to write our version of that book chapter. Or maybe a portion of it.
D is away weekend of the 9th Oct if anyone is around. Would be easier if I stay in Luton for Matt.
Tim: Steve, put me on standby. If nobody else wants it then I'll go - and I expect it will be good, it's just the timing's not great.
Steve: Just listening to TD's Madcap's Flaming Duty - not at all what I expected. Sounds really nice with a guy singing poetry with Edgar's sequences etc underneath. Could be cheesy but the guy has a good voice. Closest thing I can think is Soft Cell.
Tim: I've just been watching some youtube clips of Soulwax at Bestival, this one seems to capture the essence of it best: part of the weekend...never dies...
Steve: Great clip Tim, I was quite emotional watching it, a fantastic 3 days. I tried their album and hated it so we really lucked out live. They did stuff from Justice's album Genesis if you can borrow that - some of the best dance tunes I've heard. they also did some Daft Punk I think.
I've been listening to Tangram 2008 which is interesting but at times sounds like they have the album on in the background. Froese does still come out with good stuff though, but in general Spotify is saving me a fortune.
Steve: I think moments of greatness but cheesy-pop singing? I tried Any Minute Now.
Nick what are your plans for the weekend BTW?
Tim: More of the same... this Nafoute geezer was the bloke I stood behind during Kraftwerk at Bestival, while he filmed it.
Steve: Excellent, how come the sound quality is so good?
This week's play list includes: Prokofiev's Vth and Ravel's Piano Concerto (for both hands). Justice, Orblivion.
Tim: IIRC he was wearing things that looked like headphones, presumably were mics. If cameras aren't up to it (no idea) then maybe he recorded sound and video separately?
Steve: I knew it was a geological term but couldn't remember what. Horst and graben came to mind when I read the word.
nick: The phrase appeared in a book I am reading
where a character has gone to China and her first impression of the mountains is
I'd always thought those Chinese silk paintings were of fanciful, mystical landscapes from the imaginations of some artist. But they actually existed - weird, looming, almost top-heavy, planted into flat, river-threader plains. Karst topography - the phrase, appearing unbidden in my head, thrown up from some distance geography lesson, surprised me.
[actually, I wonder if that's a misprint, it says "distance" but I think it should be "distant"]
But it sounded like the sort of thing you boys might remember.
Tim: And 'river-threaded', presumably?
Anyway, no, remembering was never my strong point. Actually, it might have been handy to have realised that sooner!
Steve: Tim, just tell him it's not our area - it's physical geography and not really geology. Too late now.
Peyton Place - really good read BTW. Have been putting my little book of books into a text file and it's over 400. Just think if I'd lost that book!
Nick I see you picked another 'duff' Len Deighton from your web site. You need to try Bomber or Winter :)
nick: oh, glad you liked Peyton Place - that was a book I was surprised to find myself enjoying but it was a good read.
The Len Deighton "Funeral in Berlin" is one that seems to have got good reviews on Amazon, maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind. On your recommendation I've just reserved "Bomber" from the library - only in hardback, and in the county stores apparently, so doesn't sound terrifically popular.
re your book of books - how long has it been going for you to get to 400? I counted 450 mini-reviews I've done, that's since start of 2003.
The good thing is I don't feel I'm running out of books to read - there are still quite a lot on my bookshelf that I'm looking forward to (some I'm deliberately putting off because I want to save them)
Steve: I guess the list is from when I started commuting, say 10 years worth? So your figure is very impressive.
Recently they announced relaxations on borrowing books from other areas so you can be on holiday and get stuff out. Maybe the reservation system will be able to cast wider then?
Tim: From Klaus' site:
BBC documentary about KS
The BBC filmed Klaus in August 2009 in and outside his studio (see our photo section). It will be used in a documentary that will be broadcast on 23 October 2009 on British BBC 4 (TV) at 9 pm. At the moment the film is called "Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany" but the title can be changed
Steve: Yes fantastic thanks, you can forget how good a live orchestra sounds. I probably preferred the Beethoven - one of the cadenzas was out of this world. It sounded like she was playing two things at once and somehow precis-ing what had gone before. I should have got a programme to find out which one it was but maybe I can email them. The Sibelius was great although all of the parts of the orchestra sounded separate - maybe it should sound like that. Some of the audience were caught out by the false endings which was funny (smug so-and-so). Also had a short modern piece which was very impressive - minimalist playing of single notes for ages.
I think I'm going to join the Barbican for £20 a year as it will encourage me to book more stuff - you get advanced warning.
Have a great holiday - must be soon. Sounds like Nick is up for a massive bike ride tomorrow, very brave.
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nick: Maybe because it was a net uphill ride? I remember being tired the first ride this year, which was in the same direction (HE->MD).I was knackered all day Saturday, and a bit flakey yesterday too. Just about recovered by today.
Tim: Same here.Had a quick look at the graphs, and I reckon there was about 10 miles of obvious uphill, compared to 8. Roughly. Is that enough to account for it?
nick: David mentioned that he'd seen that the Enid had played a concert in Clapham or somewhere. Looks like that might have been a warmup for The Brook, where they have a concert on Sun 25th Oct Tim: Arse, I booked a holiday yesterday that gets me back at nearly midnight on the 25th. Why does that always happen? nick: Just listening to Peter Gabriel (4) for the first time in quite a while - it's pretty good! "Kiss of Life" is a real toe-tapper, to say the least. nick: Posting here so Steve has the chance to accept to - the Titus Andronicus dates are online but in case the web page doesn't work, the onesI can make are
Thursday 17th September
Friday 18th September
Saturday 19th September
Monday 21st September
Friday 25th September
Saturday 26th September
all at 7.30, all ~£10
When can you make it, Tim? and Steve, if you're keen on two ours of rape and cannibalism?
nick: double arrgghh - and "hours"(this keyboard is going through a KVM and it sometimes misses characters when I type fast)
Tim: Nick, in order of decreasing preference:Monday 21st September
Friday 25th September
Saturday 26th September
Saturday 19th September
Thursday 17th September
Friday 18th September
How does that compare with you?
Tim: Steve, the forecast is looking OK for the weekend, partly cloudy, a small chance of a bit of rain.What sort of time are we looking to get a ferry? So I can plan our journey into town.
nick: ok any of the top three is fine. Unless Steve is keen and wants to come on a weekend, I'll try for Mon 21. When is Steve in Southampton, is he travelling down during the day, or not coming until this evening? Steve: I am here and sort of paying attention. I'll pass on the play thanks. I was thinking ferry 9-10ish? to allow 2-3 hours to get over, checked in and to the venue.Found a forum ref saying that bands start 12 Friday - you have to buy a programme there so an earlier start is fine with me.
Steve: All I have is Friday, I will have got this from their web site or MySpace etc. I'll email the XLS as it stands we can complete it later :)BTW will I have to travel off-peak leaving London on a cheap ticket?
Tim: No, I looked up trains between 4 and 8pm and they're off-peak and railcardable, £23.25 return. What time are you thinking now?Got the sheets, cheers, FSOL on in middle of night hurrah.
Steve: 17:39 or 18:09 train - I know the way so will just knock on your door, will text when nearer.Yes FSOL only on for an hour at 2:20AM!
Steve: This must make riveting reading for Nick so I'll put some news in...Visited Sheffield uni the other day and Matt is pretty keen, so it's that one or Loughborough.
Das Boot film was great so if I thought you'd watch it Tim I would've brought it down.
Been listening to mainly classical lately but I know it will wane. Ravel piano concertos and Prokoviev symphonies 1 & 5 and Romeo & Juliet. I got the 2-disk full unedited job as its meant to be a classic. So far so good.
Loads of tomatoes in the garden and huge apples but they are not quite ready yet.
Reading The Last Don as we were talking about The Godfather at work the other day and I loved that book.
Watching the Reading footage Radiohead make all of the other bands look like amateurs. A bit like when Pink Floyd came on at Live 8.
Tim: It was a grand weekend out. The great weather helped no end, I could listen to any old rubbish in those circumstances. And did.Everything from Kraftwerk to Bjorn Again to Michael Nyman went down nicely, and even the obscure stuff we tried on the offchance (such as Mr Hudson) was worth a quick listen.
If it had rained all weekend I'd have a totally different story to tell, I think.
Steve took at least two pictures on his phone...
Was Tim Minchin any good?
nick: Were you singing along with Bjorn Again then? I've seen them a few times at the Anvil. With Ella (he added hurriedly).Tim Minchin was a bit disappointing tbh. He did a set which includes everything mentioned in this review from a year ago and since a lot of songs were cheered you got the impression that there wasn't much new material here. I realise that a comic on tour will be repeating material night after night, but you feel like it's being extemporised - it's harder to believe that when he's doing it in songs and 10 minute poems which, while impressive, are more like performance pieces than off-the-cuff impro.
And the songs themselves, while clever and funny in parts, were often offensive and had bad language (as did the in-between dialog) which I found unnecessary. I saw Bill Bailey a couple of years ago and something very striking about that was that he was very funny but there was no bad language/tasteless humour at all. So it is possible to get laughs without resorting to swearing and making unpleasant comments. And they didn't really have any memorable tunes.
Apart from that, it was fab! ;-)
And he's coming back to Southamton Guildhall again in October so you may still have a chance to see him
Steve: Yes I need to find that flipping data cable for the phone then we will be sorted. BTW Guardian review is pretty favourable. Soulwax get a mention who I loved as well as Kraftwerk of course who were awesome. I'd go again but the main thing is the music so the line-up would have to be good. Tim: October? OK, great, you've talked me into it.Having seen him do a couple of good one-off songs, I'd been avoiding seeing anything of his on TV on the grounds that he's only going to have a certain amount of material, so I'd just be hearing it again at the Guildhall.
That's how I ended up with a show of his recorded and unwatched - so I watched it last week. I thought it was OK, but not on average up to the standard of the first songs I heard. Unnecessary bad language, yes. I'm not too bothered about that, but it's definitely a weakness rather than a strength.
But now, having seen all that, there's probably not much point me going next month.
Steve: I hate the use of bad language but did enjoy Lilly Allen's chorus of F You.... F U Very Much! You'll still be hearing that one... Nick are you getting the Spinal Tap issue with the free Marshall mini-amp that goes up to 11?BTW checked yest, Kraftwerk remasters 5th of Oct - they annoyingly had 'CDs' in the section that said 'out on this date - speak to our staff' and I kept falling for it, ooh The Mix is out as well, oh damn!!!
Tim: Aargh, that's done it. Going round in an endless loop in my head now: ...music...non-stop...musique...non-stop... nick: Re: Lily Allen - yes, Ella has that cd so I'm familiar with the song. I suspect I might like it better if it were atypical of her writing - i.e. a more obviously ironic use of bad language for effect, but from what I've heard she's not averse to using the "f" word in loads of her songs. Maybe she's just being ironic all the time, but it just feels a bit of a lazy way to get attention to me. Steve: Well she called Bush a C which is unacceptable to me, doesn't work if a woman uses that work any way does it??? Nice bum though. nick: I came across this page which discusses whether thecorrect spelling is "benefited" or "benefitted"
It says:
The official requirements are that we ‘double a single consonant letter at the end of any base where the preceding vowel is spelled with a single letter and stressed’.
Good rule! But where do those requirements come from, I wonder? Who is the official body which specifies them? And can you come up with an example which doesn't comply with them?
Tim: Steve, to compare our minor return ferry problem...a bloke I play 5-a-side with also went to Bestival it turns out, and camped at the site. Set off late morning/noon, but had to queue ages for a bus, and then hours at E. Cowes before there was space in a ferry, got back to Southampton after 6.
Steve: Yikes we had it easy then. The capacity was 40,000 so even 10% of that is a heck of a lot of people. You do feel that the ferry company could do a lot more to help/advise, they get all of those extra fares with no extra effort. Steve: To reduce duplication, 3 pics HEREHmm Tim Blake on keyboards!!!! But this gig only does not have Arthur Brown supporting. Bit awkward for me mid-week so maybe use some holiday. Are you available?
They are meant to be appearing at the Amorphous Androgynous launch party in October. Hmm starts at 11, maybe not then.
Tim: Nick (mainly), I've got no Saturday cycling opportunities for ages: early football match next week, helping someone move house the following week, then 3 weekends going/on/returning from holiday. The first two Sundays might be a possibility, or an afternoon off work - if there are any options your end. Tim: How are things looking on the Hawkwind front? Neil wants to go, so I'm looking at getting at least 2 tickets. You two are both possiblies, AFAIK. I don't mind risking getting four tickets if you're "probably"; Nick's usually pretty good at getting rid of spare tickets for crap events. But if you're just "possibly" then I'll get a couple now and more later if necessary. Or I can wait a bit. Steve: I'd say just get tickets for yourselves, it is a faff to be honest being mid-week and all. And it's only Hawkwind.First batch of KC 40th(!) anniversary editions are coming out and of course this time they put extra tracks on - shame.
Just discovered that I need to get the compilation Everything and Nothing by Sylvian having heard it on Spotify.
Steve: Tim, when you get a min can you make a CD-R copy of Dreamfish pls? My CD is corroding and I've got it on Spotify and remember how good it is. Thanks. Steve: Forgot, Tim again that Gel-Sol live stuff is pretty good, too much swearing and heavy on the voice samples at times but otherwise... Nick search for Gel-Sol Live and download some free live MP3s. nick: Gel Sol Live - ok I'll look for a download, thanks. Have you got an MP3 player yet then Steve?Article in today's paper about Tim Minchin. Must admit I didn't enjoy the show as much as I'd been hoping.
How are you getting on with Das Boot Tim? I didn't enrol on an evening class this year - went to talk to the A-Level English lit person and she was a bit vague about what books they'd be doing, although there is a theme of WW1. If it'd been WW2 then I'd have been more interested I think. Did you enrol on art again Steve?
Steve: Yeo second class tonight with Suzanne, last week charcoal drawing which was a hit and Suz's effort was better than mine.No MP3 player, just waiting for an eBay replacement for my CD-player - same model oh yes. It's so perfect, Sony only do 2 models now and both look crap.
Tim: Most or all of the gel-sol I've downloaded (live or otherwise) is from his own otherwise defunct website, but to find links start with this google search. There are a couple of newer ones at soundcloud I haven't tried yet, see his myspace or blogspot.I'm saving Das Boot for me holiday.
nick: Here's a page with the first chapter of a novel by former EastEnders star Martine McCutcheon. Maybe it is a wind-up?
The Guardian says:
I dare you not to be spellbound by the fleshing out of Mandy's personal philosophy, as evidenced by this discourse on the potential of our capital city.
"If you went for it, truly went for it, you could get the life you wanted here, and that was Mandy's aim - to have it all. And why not? She'd read a greeting on a card once in Paperchase on the King's Road that had truly stuck with her: Reach for the moon, and even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."
Tim: I read as much of it as I could stand."She had been with many different men because no one man seemed able to tick all the boxes."
Steve: Is ticking boxes a euphemism?It is shockingly bad and has to be a wind-up surely? It's choc-full of classics - I'd like to meet the 'lovely Irish doorman', and...
‘May I take your name, madam?’ asked a friendly-faced member of staff.
BTW first of the Barbican concerts is Thurs 8th and I have 1 spare ticket - Beet violin and Sib 5th - should have notified sooner I know.
Steve: BTW the young guy here is reading Protector and he liked No Country For Old Men and The Road! nick: I can't do Thursday 8th but thanks for the offer. There is another series of talks at church and the first one is next Thursday.I read "The Road" last week, was pretty good although I couldn't help wondering where the oxygen was coming from - if all the plants are dead. And now I've probably ruined it for Tim.
"Protector" is excellent. Have you read the other "known space" ones? There's one called "World of Ptaavs" which covers the period very early on and makes sense of some of the stuff that happens in the later books - that's a really good one, up there with Protector I think.
I saw "Love's Labour's Lost" today, was pretty good. I might even try seeing it again - only £5 in the yard and I'd be interested to see what it's like in an evening (I think this one runs for a couple more weeks) because it would be dark then and I don't know what they do for lighting.
Steve: Ok over to you for the ticket Tim or I'll offer it around here.I did have a thought that we 3 should try to write our version of that book chapter. Or maybe a portion of it.
D is away weekend of the 9th Oct if anyone is around. Would be easier if I stay in Luton for Matt.
Tim: Steve, put me on standby. If nobody else wants it then I'll go - and I expect it will be good, it's just the timing's not great. Steve: Just listening to TD's Madcap's Flaming Duty - not at all what I expected. Sounds really nice with a guy singing poetry with Edgar's sequences etc underneath. Could be cheesy but the guy has a good voice. Closest thing I can think is Soft Cell. Tim: I've just been watching some youtube clips of Soulwax at Bestival, this one seems to capture the essence of it best: part of the weekend...never dies... Steve: Great clip Tim, I was quite emotional watching it, a fantastic 3 days. I tried their album and hated it so we really lucked out live. They did stuff from Justice's album Genesis if you can borrow that - some of the best dance tunes I've heard. they also did some Daft Punk I think.I've been listening to Tangram 2008 which is interesting but at times sounds like they have the album on in the background. Froese does still come out with good stuff though, but in general Spotify is saving me a fortune.
Steve: I think moments of greatness but cheesy-pop singing? I tried Any Minute Now.Nick what are your plans for the weekend BTW?
Tim: More of the same... this Nafoute geezer was the bloke I stood behind during Kraftwerk at Bestival, while he filmed it. Steve: Excellent, how come the sound quality is so good?This week's play list includes: Prokofiev's Vth and Ravel's Piano Concerto (for both hands). Justice, Orblivion.
Tim: IIRC he was wearing things that looked like headphones, presumably were mics. If cameras aren't up to it (no idea) then maybe he recorded sound and video separately? Steve: I knew it was a geological term but couldn't remember what. Horst and graben came to mind when I read the word. nick: The phrase appeared in a book I am readingwhere a character has gone to China and her first impression of the mountains is
I'd always thought those Chinese silk paintings were of fanciful, mystical landscapes from the imaginations of some artist. But they actually existed - weird, looming, almost top-heavy, planted into flat, river-threader plains. Karst topography - the phrase, appearing unbidden in my head, thrown up from some distance geography lesson, surprised me.
[actually, I wonder if that's a misprint, it says "distance" but I think it should be "distant"]
But it sounded like the sort of thing you boys might remember.
Tim: And 'river-threaded', presumably?Anyway, no, remembering was never my strong point. Actually, it might have been handy to have realised that sooner!
Steve: Tim, just tell him it's not our area - it's physical geography and not really geology. Too late now.Peyton Place - really good read BTW. Have been putting my little book of books into a text file and it's over 400. Just think if I'd lost that book!
Nick I see you picked another 'duff' Len Deighton from your web site. You need to try Bomber or Winter :)
nick: oh, glad you liked Peyton Place - that was a book I was surprised to find myself enjoying but it was a good read.The Len Deighton "Funeral in Berlin" is one that seems to have got good reviews on Amazon, maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind. On your recommendation I've just reserved "Bomber" from the library - only in hardback, and in the county stores apparently, so doesn't sound terrifically popular.
re your book of books - how long has it been going for you to get to 400? I counted 450 mini-reviews I've done, that's since start of 2003.
The good thing is I don't feel I'm running out of books to read - there are still quite a lot on my bookshelf that I'm looking forward to (some I'm deliberately putting off because I want to save them)
Steve: I guess the list is from when I started commuting, say 10 years worth? So your figure is very impressive.Recently they announced relaxations on borrowing books from other areas so you can be on holiday and get stuff out. Maybe the reservation system will be able to cast wider then?
Tim: From Klaus' site:BBC documentary about KS
The BBC filmed Klaus in August 2009 in and outside his studio (see our photo section). It will be used in a documentary that will be broadcast on 23 October 2009 on British BBC 4 (TV) at 9 pm. At the moment the film is called "Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany" but the title can be changed
Steve: Yes fantastic thanks, you can forget how good a live orchestra sounds. I probably preferred the Beethoven - one of the cadenzas was out of this world. It sounded like she was playing two things at once and somehow precis-ing what had gone before. I should have got a programme to find out which one it was but maybe I can email them. The Sibelius was great although all of the parts of the orchestra sounded separate - maybe it should sound like that. Some of the audience were caught out by the false endings which was funny (smug so-and-so). Also had a short modern piece which was very impressive - minimalist playing of single notes for ages.I think I'm going to join the Barbican for £20 a year as it will encourage me to book more stuff - you get advanced warning.
Have a great holiday - must be soon. Sounds like Nick is up for a massive bike ride tomorrow, very brave.
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