Curved Air: Air Conditioning

It has everything....rock...opera...folk...classical...pop
Took their name from Terry Riley's 'Rainbow in Curved Air' and features Daryl Way's soaring violin playing become one of a small handful of groups with a violin as lead instrument, (East of Eden, Flock and one of my favs, Its A beautiful Day being the others) and the out of this world voice of Sonja Kristina.
Released in 1970, I had the pleasure of seeing them twice, once at The Lyceum Ballroom on the Strand and (I think) The Pavillion Hemel Hempstead.
Very ahead of their times with their mixing of genres and some recent groups...Florence and the Machine and Bat for Lashes picking up in a 2008/9 fashion, the sound Curved Air had pioneered nearly forty years earlier.

The Good Ship Mandy

Just could not resist

Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick lived in England during most of the last 40 years of his career. Kubrick was noted for the scrupulous care with which he chose his subjects, his slow method of working, the variety of genres he worked in. He worked far beyond the confines of the Hollywood system, maintaining almost complete artistic control and making movies according to the whims and time constraints of no one but himself.
Notable Films:
The Shinning
2001 A Space Odessy
Clockwork Orange
Barry Lyndon
Full Metal Jacket
Dr Strangelove
Lollita

Grumpy Old Men. (3) (Women) (and Packing)

They cannot pack.
They cannot load a Dishwasher.
They cannot load fridge.

I'm sure everything has to be 30% bigger just to accommodate their inability to do these very simple exercises..........except mobile phones which should be 30% bigger so we can get our fingers onto the keys

Both Ears and the Tail

A recording by Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick released in 2008 that was taken from tapes discovered by their sound engineer who had plugged a tape direct into the PA's feed in the Folkus Folk Club in Nottingham in 1966. The guy was looking through old tapes in the 'attic' and bingo he found the tapes he had recorded some thirty years earlier.
And it is such a good recording, very clear, the odd scrape of chair from the audience, with first rate playing. If you have folk hankerings, then this will be a worthy addition to your collection. Its good but in my Live recordings hall of fame its a shame but ......
6.8/10

Cloudbusting: Over La Residencia, Deia

Rupert Graves and others made this place famous with artists, then the wealthy came and bought up the little cottages and villas in this rather idyllic location. La Residencia is now a place for the rich and famous to chillax and for muggles like us to have a very nice but quite expensive afternoon tea and scones on the terrace, and with weather like this, you can at least feel like a millionaire.
These Altocumulus formed quite quickly over a matter of ten minutes above the backdrop of the Serra de Tramuntana, and then as if by magic, just disappeared.

Cloudbusting, Or Germans gassing themselves

A great phallic shaped cumulonimbus developing on the horizon which ten or so minutes later just disappeared leaving a small puffy trail where it's head would have been,
This was taken looking north in the resort of Alcudia which has a great long beach running south and then east behind me. It is largely frequented by Germans. The twin towers are from the gas/oil terminal and on this day with the wind coming from its direction, the air had a very distict smell of Methane.
So Germans like to gas themselves too :-)

Spanish Steps...real ones

They say there are 365 of them, one for every day of the year. Would have said a few 'Hail Marys' on the way up to the little chapel at the top, but then I am an atheist.

Cloudbusting, Mallorca Style

This was a prelude to yet another thunderstorm, although we did manage to get up and down Puig de Maria without getting wet.

Stanley Jordan

My dad's called Stanley, are rare name these day, so a little reminder of other Stanley's

(July 31, 1959) is an American jazz guitarist, best known for his development of the touch technique for playing guitar. He was born in Chicago and received a BA in digital music composition from Princetown Uni in 1981.

The Summer of '74

Looking back on that Knebworth gig, it also reminded me that prior to about 4 weeks before my record collection consisted of 95% Uk based bands, and then I cant think apart from maybe Tonto's Expanding Head Band, what American ones there were. I had come home from college and started work at a local sawmill trying to earn some money to pay off the overdraft. I lasted there only a week to move onto a more lucrative labouring job closer to home. But during that week I made friends with a Pete Campbell, whose dad ran the mill. He was very Scottish and maybe a year older and had been at Sterling Uni. Their house in the depths of Ashridge was down a private drive and I can never forget the Campbell tartan carpets that were everywhere. Anyway he had a different taste in rock music and although friendly with Supertramp I seem to recall, followed American bands. SoI was introduced to Steely Dan, Eagles and Little Feat as well as others, and as I had a car, off to Knebworth we went.
So I have to thank him for the way my tastes developed from there.
Summer holidays finished and I went back to Oxford, meeting up with him for new year in Edinburgh and new years day in a snow swept Aviemore. An epic drive back when we were the last cars to be allowed to go over the Drumochter Pass, and this in an automatic Hillman Hunter. After that we totally lost touch. Good times though.
Car: Morris Minor (without starter motor) I did not get laid.

The Koln Concert

Could this be a contender to the greatest live recording?
Recorded by Jarrett in 1975 at The Cologne Opera House it is a tour de force of solo improvised jazz piano playing. Recorded in four parts, but it is Jarrett's habit of singing 'in tongues' along with his playing just puts it off for me. Never the less, very impressive, and when the mood is right, great music to float around the house.
8.5/10

Typography

Here is one for you typologists out there. Take a look at the T in The (British Library) and you will notice that the left hand bar at the top is shorter than the right hand side. Mistake, bodge up or just plain willful design?
Me? I think its a cock up, look at the gap between the left hand top serif of the T and the edge of the stone and compare it with serifs to the right hand side H and Y with the edge of the stone..... Its smaller

It's Too Late to Stop Now

Well. I said it yesterday, is this recording by Van Morrison the best live lp ever? Maybe in my collection although I may put up another for consideration.
Rolling Stone had reservations about the mix on this but it is a 1973 recording, and although I can understand where they are coming from, they are being a bit churlish. However its not the mixing that really makes this record, its Van's singing, which for a male runs probably the full gamut of emotions from a 'rock' singer that you are likely to hear.
So highlights? Its the contents of the what was disc 2, 'Saint Dominic's Preview' 'Listen to the Lion', 'Caravan' and 'Cyprus Avenue'.
8/10
The year after this recording, a guy at college who was a huge fan and cajolled us to watch the stereo broadcast that the BBC put out of the Rainbow concert. Sound coming out in stereo from the radio and vision from BBC2. I has bitten but only slightly but later during the summer holidays I went and saw Van the man at the one day Knebworth Festival.
Was this the greatest one day line up ever in the UK? Full sets from everybody, not 20 minute cameos.
In order of appearance.

Tim Buckley
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra
Van Morrison
Doobie Brothers
Allman Brothers

Not everybody is still around from that line up, Alex H' has gone so has Tim B' along with his son, Jeff. Allman's lost 2, Duane and Berry Oakley.

I am somewhere near the back of this lot, although I do recall wandering down to the front when Tim Buckley was playing. This photo is taken from his set.

Live Rust

Just listened to Neil Young and Crazy Horse's 1978 recording 'Live Rust'. Having read a number of recommendations putting this as the best live recorded record, I was intrigued enough to to add it to my collection.
Well, somewhat disappointed, its not bad and probably shows up the age of its recording being not particularly clear or sharp. Yes its grunge, and yes the sound does merge into one noise, harmonies are good and typical Neil Young. outstanding tracks: 'After the Goldrush' and of course 'Like a Hurricane' and is that a neo King Crimson Melotrone playing in the background...sounds like it to me.
Not the greatest live rock recording for that still belongs to Van Morrison's 'Its Too Late to Stop Now' that came out four years earlier. Still a worthy addition to my collection
7.5/10

Joan Smith: Unsociable truth behind social networks

This article appeared in today's Independent on Sunday. Its about Twitter, Facebook, blogging and everything that goes along with it. Even Theo Paphitis of Dragons Den gets quoted following a recent outburst about the time wasted by employees surfing instead of keeping their noses to the grindstone.
It ends, He's right: for some individuals, the internet is a psychological crutch and social networking sites a popularity contest. But drivel is drivel, no matter how often you post it.
Bollocks, just because Joan Smith, the articles author, can say what she thinks in a national newspaper, does not mean that we who do not have that level of access , can't do likewise.

From an earlier July post, 'We are all writers now' here is a more balanced view, the concluding paragraph ends the article saying:-
Yes, we need to darken the line between what is verifiable and what is hearsay. The financial downturn and its disastrous impact on print publishing has led some to think we can do without trained reporters and editors--professionals who know how to check facts and strip the gloss off hasty pronouncements. We need this work, perhaps now more than ever. But not at the expense of silencing the new voices--an exciting new crop of self-possessed scribes--ringing all over our screens. There may be too much, but that does not mean it is unworthy.

Picnicing

That time again, and yes, we are back on the disposable bbq trays. What a great invention, must rank alongside cats-eyes :-)
Did not have to resort to self extinguishing this time as these Morrisons ones were not as packed with charcoal as the Sainsburys unit only a few weeks earlier. But that did not matter, Burgers, sausages, marinated chicken breasts and some cheesey thing equally marinated, all cooked as they should be on a bbq.... a bit carbonised.... but tasty for it.
Happy Birthday Lynne...four score years and two!

Mesrine Pt2

Well we missed pt1 so it was straight in for the concluding two hours. A big advantage when you have never seen Vincent Cassel before (well not that I can remember) so he does become Jacques Mesrine. Great performance and a decent movie.
I read on dear old Wiki that he worked in an Architects office for a year in the early 60's, but lost the job within a year. This was when Brutalist Architecture was at its height, so maybe this French practice didn't like this particular vision of it.
7.5/10