Archive for December, 2005
December 31, 2005
I have bought so many CDs this year, but mainly I have been catching up with old stuff. These are ten of my favourite CDs released this year:
- The Woods - Sleater-Kinney
- No Direction Home: The Soundtrack - Bob Dylan
- Lost And Safe - The Books
- The Sunset Tree - The Mountain Goats
- Superwolf - Bonnie “Prince” Billy & Matt Sweeney
- LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
- I Am A Bird Now - Antony & The Johnsons
- Open Season - British Sea Power
- Picaresque - The Decemberists
- Illinois - Sufjan Stevens
So there you go. I hope there is more good stuff next year. Let’s all have a good 2006!
December 30, 2005
Samorost2
December 22, 2005
Woohoo - listening to Bob Dylan. I am in the processing of converting all my Bob Dylan CDs to mp3, for easy access and cataloguing. I have ripped 450 so far - approximately half of my collection. I like listening to Bob Dylan!
I have been to 24 Bob concerts so far, including the 5 London shows last month. Friends and family ask me why I needed to go to 5 Bob Dylan shows in a row. He is a great performer and he tweaks his songs and setlists depending on mood, audience, venue, etc. At the 5 recent shows, he played a total of 87 songs, 57 of them unique. He played 15 songs I had not heard live before:
Blue Monday
I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
Million Dollar Bash
God Knows
New Morning
Queen Jane Approximately
She Belongs to Me
Shelter from the Storm
Just Like A Woman
Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You
John Brown
Mississippi
Waitin’ For You
London Calling
Rumble
Here are some statistics for the concerts I have attended to date:
Total Number of Concerts: 24
Total Number of Songs: 436
Total Number of Unique Songs: 117
Average Number of Songs per Concert: 18.2
You want a list of the songs I have heard live? Listed below:
Read the rest of this entry »
December 20, 2005
The string of numbers (100, 91, 84, 81, 72, 69, 58, 44, 37, 38, 42, 21, 28, 12, 7) in the title of this blog comes from the Tindersticks song 4.48 Psychosis, which takes its name from the Sarah Kane play 4.48 Psychosis. The truly wonderful Isabelle Huppert is currently starring in 4.48 Psychose (as it is now called) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
4.48 a.m. is apparently the time when you are most lucid and thus most prone to suicide.
I have seen the Tindersticks in concert a few times over the years. I saw two contrasting shows in 2001.
1. Subterranea, London - only a couple of hundred people at this one. This was part of Rough Trade’s 25th anniversary celebrations. The band appeared slightly nervous - one song was restarted, another abandoned. The atmosphere was great, the audience listening to each note, each word in quiet reverence. Apart from one loud-mouthed person behind me: “I liked that one… what are they called again? The timber sticks? Weird name.”
2. Royal Albert Hall, London - a few thousand at this one. The band was exquisitely supported by a 17 piece string ensemble, brass section and backing singers (would have had trouble fitting onto the stage at the Subterranea). The band had clearly rehearsed in the hall and got the right level of amplification for band members, providing one of the best sounding concerts I have attended. I can compare this to concerts at the Royal Albert Hall by Morrissey and Elton John (on separate occasions), who appeared to have turned up, plugged in and played, without thinking about how to work the unique acoustics of the hall.
The support act was the excellent David Kitt, who has since become a favourite of mine.
December 11, 2005
Welcome to Rough Trade
Top 100 of 2005
December 8, 2005
Busey World - Gary Busey, Jake Busey, pictures, biography, filmography, quotes
We are gathered here to pay homage to the cultural icon that is Gary Busey
December 8, 2005
Yes, but what do you actually do? I mean, now you have your own flat and all that space, what do you actually do?
I look out of the window, or at the wall, depending on the seat I am in (I’ve asked for an easy chair for Christmas). Out of the window I see walls. So I suppose I look at walls. That is what I do.
What do you see?
I’ll tell you what I don’t see: I don’t see walls. I look at them, as I said, but I don’t see them. I see rivers ebbing and flowing and descending into whirlpools; I see never-ending mountain ranges; I see corvids circling and I hear them singing. And more, much more besides.
This is what you see. I ask again: what do you do?
I write. I write at my computer.
I compose letters to newspapers and politicians and global organisations. I enquire about public funds being spent on defence (tanks, guns and training for soldiers). I never save my letters, I never print them and I never send them.
I write historical poetry. I write first person narratives of apprentice stonemasons working on the construction sites of Beaumaris and other Welsh castles. I write romantic exchanges between the kings and queens of Europe. I never keep my poems, and I never share them.
I write fiction. Hour after hour I sit at my desk and write about wealth and poverty, love and loss, and other perennial themes. Needless to say I never save, send, print or share my stories.
·
Next entries »
