Monday, October 30, 2017

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Goan Curry & The Fish Fingers - ( Not a band )

Today, I pulled out a curry kit that has lain for ages at the back of my food cupboard.

I needed white fish to go with the king prawns that I already had, so I stripped the coatings from some cod fillets and fish fingers.

The breadcrumb on the cod was more like batter.

I weighed the coating and the bare fish.
Coating : 78g
Fish  : 68g

Now, where's that copy of "In Defense Of Food"...( Michael Pollan )... ?








This Goan curry was rather grim. Heat, without the spicy subtleties. And a heavy, artificial taste.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Glasgow School of Art - Restoration of Mackintosh Library

Prototype of section of Mackintosh Library unveiled...

https://archinect.com/news/article/150026998/glasgow-school-of-art-unveils-prototype-of-mackintosh-library-bay-based-on-the-original-1910-design








One of the several places where I lived as a student in the 1970's, was Southpark Avenue, in Kelvinbridge on the West side of Glasgow. A top floor tenement flat, which I shared with 5 other engineers. We had some great games of football in the massive hallway.

It was No. 13.
I found out quite recently that No 78 was the home for many years of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Wednesday, September 06, 2017

Monday, September 04, 2017

Sutton Bank Gliding

I used to fly gliders. I eventually acquired this one, a Pik-20D, and flew competitions in it.



I commented recently, on another blog, about a course that I signed up to in Yorkshire one October. It was a less than great week.

I just thought I'd post it up here. Although everything sounds downbeat, I did laugh as I thought about it. The Youtube clip below is what I, and the other course members, had hoped to be doing.


Interested to be reminded of Sutton Bank and the mist. Long ago, I booked on a course at the gliding club that is atop the Bank. I arrived on the Sunday evening, and rose eagerly on the Monday for a week of of low level flying along the ridge. The clubhouse staff seemed rather subdued. I recalled that a few weeks previously, 2 gliders had collided in mid air, and the pilots, both local, had died. 

So, after breakfast, the 5 of us on the course went outside to prepare. Parachutes, pre-flight glider checks. The sky was very misty, but we reckoned it would burn off as the morning warmed up, and we'd soon be able to fly. 

The mist didn't burn off, and the weather didn't warm up. Each morning, I'd wake in my bunk, gaze through the window, hoping, hoping the sky would be clear. 

It never was. By late morning, as it became obvious that a day was not going to improve, we'd all disperse. The number of hours I spent trudging around cold, damp places like Thirsk. A coffee here, a coffee there... And I could feel a nose running, eye watering, sleeve wiping cold coming on.

And so, Thursday arrived. We all gathered together, and the instructor said... "Well, what do you think, guys, what do you want to do..?". 

I said... "I think I'd like to go home. I feel absolutely terrible.". 
Everybody else also wanted to go home. This Up North place wasn't at all like Sunny Hampshire.

I wasn't joking about feeling terrible, and after driving a few miles down the road, I was almost exhausted. I decided to plod slowly down the A1 in my Porsche. Quite a big change from the usual commute up the M3, into the outer lane, and stay there at about 90mph, like all the other rat-racers.

Anyway, I managed the 25 miles to Wetherby, and landed on the doorstep of my sister's home. The next 4 or 5 days being looked after, hot soup, solicitations etc.. 

Yes, I remember Sutton Bank, in 1987.
And the small matter of..., while I was there, incommunicado, Black Monday of 19th October, the London stock market had crashed.
About £30,000 worth of my investments evaporated in the space of a few hours.
Unlike the mist. 


Sunday, September 03, 2017

Wet Sunday Afternoon

Well, it's rained all day, so far.

The Italian F1 Grand Prix has just finished, time for some lunch and reading....

Sliced roll with mackerel pâté, olives and a Worcester apple.
A mug of tea.

And the Grayson Perry book, The Descent of Man.




Sunday, August 20, 2017

Waiting - Fun Boy Three - The Lost Album

Something of a lost album, 'Waiting' is loved by just about everyone who did hear it. One of my old favourites.


Most of it was played during this 1983 gig at the Regal Theatre, in Hitchin.




Most of the album, that is. Except for 'Farmyard Connection'. [Understandable perhaps, as the gig was being recorded for the BBC].

Anyway, here it is......,  a little story about the agricultural life.



Caroline Lavelle, cello..., 2005.



and some teaching....

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

LSD Meets Bluegrass - Leo Kottke - Eight Miles HIgh

Thought I'd revisit this, written and first recorded by The Byrds. .  

Banned, initially, from broadcast due to perceived drug connotations. The lyrics describe a tour of England by The Byrds, and their observations from the back of their black limousine as the band travelled from town to town. 'Rain grey town..., known for its sound..' is London of the '60's.

The ambiguous title and the 'spaceyness' of the music tell another story. 

Influences drawn from Ravi Shankar. Also from John Coltrane's "India", which inspired the intro. These are somewhat smothered in the original. The repeated jazz phrasing is very clear here, recorded in 1971 by Leo Kottke.

I love the country underlay, quite hypnotic.


Eight miles high
And when you touch down
You'll find that it's
Stranger than known
Signs in the street
That say where you're goin'
Are somewhere
Just being their own
Nowhere is
There warmth to be found
Among those afraid
Of losing their ground
Rain gray town
Known for its sound
In places
Small faces unbound
Round the squares
Huddled in storms
Some laughing
Some just shapeless forms
Sidewalk scenes
And black limousines
Some living
Some standing alone
Written by David Crosby, Gene Clark, Jim Mcguinn 




Saturday, June 24, 2017

Glastonbury

I'm not at Glastonbury. I did though watch the Pretenders performance on TV last night. In a very rockers orientated set, my favourite Pretenders song was a no show.  Released in 1981, during lead singer Chrissie Hynde's relationship with Ray Davies of the Kinks, and written by him many years before. 

   


Here's another by Ray Davies. He wrote it, and gave the song to Dave Berry, who had a hit single with it. The KInks never made a studio recording for release. This is live from a session for the BBC. 



Grenfell




To expand on that, here is the complete list of MP's who voted. ( Scroll down ).


In addition to the former Prime Minister David Cameron, every single member*  of the current Westminster Cabinet voted against forcing landlords to ensure that properties they rent out are fit for human habitation.         *bar Liam Fox, not present (?)

That is...

Theresa May, Damian Green, Philip Hammond, Amber Rudd, Boris Johnson, David Davis, Michael Fallon, Jeremy Hunt, David Mundell, Alun Cairns, James Brokenshire, Pritti Patel, Karen Bradley, David Gauke, Patrick McLoughlun, David Lidington, Justine Greening, Greg Clark, Michael Gove, Chris Grayling,


Local to me in Somerset, this man, Jacob Rees-Mogg.... 





And in Scotland.....





Thursday, June 22, 2017

Learning To Play Piano


Chords and scales on the left. Keyboard on the right. 




I'm not really a two phone person. I run my life very much on a budget, stay away from contract phones, and use a sim-only contract for airtime. I dislike using cheap phones,  so tend to go for 2 or 3 year old high quality devices. 

The phone on the right is a Nokia Lumia 830 which plays the 'My Piano Phone' app very well.The one on the left is a Moto G. 
The Moto is a rather good budget phone. As such , I broke my normal rule of thumb about phones, and bought it s/h to try out as a possible replacement for the Lumia. Unfortunately, as usual, after a while, one realizes why a budget  phone is exactly that. Hiccups, pauses, mediocre audio. And it also reminded me that I don't particularly enjoy using Android phones. They always feel like a clunkily assembled assortment of unconnected apps. Whereas the Lumia, with the Windows Phone system, has a smooth, flowing, integrated feel.

So, the Moto will  go soon. For now, I'm using it for the 'Piano Chords & Scales' app.

Why replace the Lumia ? 
When Microsoft took over the phones division of Nokia, they went down the budget route, and brought out a bunch of cheap phones, and no interesting high quality devices. Android phones already had the budget territory well covered, so sales dropped. Microsoft lost interest, so have app developers, sales dropped further. Now Microsoft are concentrating on making the Windows Phone system into a business-orientated one. 
I need a device with some more flexibility than that.



Sunday, April 30, 2017

The Horse Flies - Hush Little Baby

In the last week, I've been doing some tidying up, spring cleaning, in my flat. Pulled out a load of CD's, Including the single of this song by The Horse Flies, bought about 20 years ago.

A traditional American lullaby. I hadn't heard of this lullaby at the time, and am unsure of the message that it conveys to a baby. But I did like the song, the music,  and the way they did it.

Here is a recent clip of them at a local venue. They're from Ithaca, new York.

Left side guitarist is Richie Stearns. Centre is Judy Hyman, violin. She has toured with, and played on various albums with Natalie Merchant. Married to right side guitarist Jeff Claus. His day job, professor of multicultural education at Ithaca College.




Also dug out one of my film favourites. The film, Paint Your Wagon, was pretty much a failure. Film musicals were out of fashion at the time. The location filming was done in the middle of nowhere, so each day everything, everyone had to be transported in from the nearest town that had hotel accomodation. Lee Marvin spent much of his time drunk, and had to be sobered up. Budget overruns.

But..., the song was a huge hit, ran to No 1 in the UK charts. And stayed there for weeks, as I recall.


Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis is more than a change of form.
Metamorphosis is preparation for a new way of life.

Tuesday, April 04, 2017

Currently Reading.....

This Changes Everything - capitalism vs the climate.
by Naomi Klein.