Donna Summer 1948 -- 2012

Quotation of the day: George Bernard Shaw ~ Music is the brandy of the damned

I was immensely saddened to hear of Donna Summer's demise last Thursday, at the age of 63. She was the Queen Of Disco.

Now, i was never really a fan of disco music in the 70's.  So much of it was utter crap. But there were some performers who, ostensibly "disco," transcended the genre.  By which i mean they sang fabulous songs which just happened to have "disco" beats appended, and i'm thinking of groups like The Bee Gees and ABBA and singers like Madonna and Rod Stewart and, yes, Donna Summer.

Donna's voice was a superb instrument, and that's all that mattered.

Prometheus

Quotation Of The Day: P.G. Wodehouse ~ A cold hand seemed to clutch at my heart. I felt like a Gadarene swine that had come within a toucher of doing a nose-dive over the precipice.

As my loyal and faithful reader will know, i am a huge fan of the cinema.   I hardly ever actually go to the cinema, though -- my town's only cineplex is far off at the other end of town (an hour's walk) and they cater primarily to a teenage audience anyway.  Moronic movies for morons, basically. (The last time i was at a real theatre was two years ago, when i saw "The Adjustment Bureau."











 (a great film, btw)


So i watch films primarily on DVD and the tragedy is, i have so little time.  (The 21st century tragedy, really.) I haven't watched a film properly (i.e., in one sitting) in probably a couple of weeks, poor me....  The last thing i saw was "Lethal Weapon" and it took me three evenings. 

That preamble over, there are a couple of movies coming out this year that i am really looking forward to.  Part 1 of Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" is due in December, and this, by one of my favourite directors, Ridley Scott, is released next month:

Latest Acquisitions + Playlist

Quotation og der tag: Craig &  Rita (from www.therock.fm) Craig: The dandelions have been very bad this year, they're growing like weeds.  Rita: They are weeds, Craig.

I've bought some darned good CDs in the past month or so, and here are some of them.

 

















And they say music is dead!  These are all really good albums: music is alive and well. It's the music industry that's going tits up.  Sony, for example, lost 5.7 billion dollars last year and their response was to blame everyone but themselves http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/10/sony_results/  (Okay admittedly that wasn't their music division in particular, but it's a sign of the times:  we're crap but it's not our fault!)

Here's the playlist for the past three days:

Richard Thompson -- The Old Kit Bag
Pink Floyd -- Obscured By Clouds
Runrig -- The Big Wheel
Happy Rhodes -- Warpaint
Terje Rypdal, Miroslav Vitous & Jack DeJohnette -- To Be Continued
Bo Diddley -- His Best
Dead Can Dance -- Aion
Seether -- One Cold Night
The Trews -- Hope And Ruin

Rock On!

Ken Stott IS Rebus

Quotation of the day: P.G. Wodehouse ~ Angus McAllister, the head gardener, was a man with a Clydeside accent and a face like a dissipated potato.

As my regular reader will know, i discovered the books of Ian Rankin a couple of years ago -- in particular his novels about Inspector John Rebus of the Lothian And Borders Police -- and have been on an Ian Rankin binge ever since, scooping up every book i can.  I also scooped up the 10 DVDs of the ITV television series. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0867015/

It stars Ken Stott in what the critics called "the role he was born to play."  He's perfect.  Here he is:

and he is exactly what i imagined, from the books, what Rebus would be like.  (In the same way that, for example, Viggo Mortensen is Aragorn and Basil Rathbone is Sherlock Holmes.) The TV episodes are only loosely based on the books, but so what, they're bloody brilliant (even though they leave out, from necessity i s'pose, a lot about the man). 






Time for my dinner now, i'm afraid, so i can't go any further, except to add this week's playlist:

Various Artists -- Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan, Vol. 39
Sandy Denny -- A Boxful Of Treasures, disc 2
Genesis -- Foxtrot
Keef Hartley Band -- Halfbreed
Jane Siberry -- Bound By The Beauty
Robert Fripp -- The League Of Gentlemen
Hothouse Flowers -- Home
Be+Bop Deluxe -- Modern Music
Various Artists -- Blues Story #8: Louisiana Blues
Tyrannosaurus Rex -- A Beard Of Stars
Ian Anderson -- Thick As A Brick 2
Rory Gallagher -- Tattoo
Pink Floyd -- Pulse, disc 2
Saga -- Silent Knight
The Who -- Endless Wire (a dreadful CD from a band well past their best-before date)
Judy Collins -- Bohemian
Players -- "Players"
Various Artists -- Paint It, Blue
The Groundhogs -- With John Lee Hooker & John Mayall
Sky -- Sky

War Horse 2

Quotation of the day ~ P.G. Wodehouse: He was sitting at his desk with the glazed stare of one who has been struck in the thorax by a thunderbolt.

(Love P.G. Wodehouse.)

Speaking of writers, though, i'd never heard of Michael Morpurgo until two weeks ago, and learned that it was he who had written the novel "War Horse" (upon which the stage play & Spielberg film were based). http://www.michaelmorpurgo.com/  He's written many, many books, and here's a picture of the gentleman: 

What a nice looking man.

His books seem to be primarily aimed at a younger audience, but so what, so are J.K. Rowling's (and let's not mention "Alice In Wonderland').  (Message from Cate: I told you not to mention "Alice In Wonderland"!)  And so i hied me down to my favourite local bookshop, Fanfare Books (92 Ontario Street, Stratford) (Hey, Bob, does this mention of your shop entitle me to a discount?  Thought not....) and picked up a paperback copy of "War Horse."

I started reading it this morning and am loving it so far but why do i have the feeling i'm about to have my heart broken again...?








And here's the playlist for the last three days (cos i know you care):

Various Artists -- Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan, Vol. 39
Sandy Denny -- A Boxful Of Treasures, disc 2
Genesis -- Foxtrot
Keef Hartley Band -- Halfbreed
Jane Siberry -- Bound By The Beauty
Robert Fripp -- The League Of Gentlemen
Hothouse Flowers -- Home
Be+Bop Deluxe -- Modern Music
Various Artists -- Blues Story #8: Louisiana Blues

The Unproductive Life -- Exposed!

Quotation of the day: P.G. Wodehouse ~ She has about as much brain as a retarded billiard ball

Yes, a day off, at last, and it's going to be a good 'un.  For one thing it's not freezing cold here at Spriggs Central: it's a relatively tropical 14 degrees C.  So i only have one sweater on, instead of the usual five....

And how, i hear you ask, having i been spending this unwonted leisure time?

Glad you asked!  I had a beer 'n' clamato juice for breakfast, scrubbed Cate's litterbox and then....

Do you recall the film "Source Code"?  A great movie!

In the film, the control centre is called "Beleaguered Castle," and i just learnt that this is also the name of a variant of the card game Patience, or, as it's more commonly known, Solitaire.

So, just out of curiosity, i downloaded the game (from http://www.freewareshareware.net/download/BeleagueredCastleSolitaire.exe) and have played it a few times and it's fun.

And that's been my morning.

Time for lunch!

I'm Not Paranoid, There Really IS A Conspiracy....

Quotation Of The Day: Ian Rankin ~ The freeway system around Los Angeles was like a joke God was playing on the human brain.

And so, after my refreshing and corroborative week off, i have just worked eight days straight.  Those eight days included two 5 a.m. starts and those are brutal, they're like my penance for the sins of a previous life.  And i'm bewildered, or at least bemused, too.  I keep thinking that, in a normal week, i'm supposed to work five-and-a-half shifts.  The half shift never seems to happen, though....  I think i had one in January, one in March....

All recuperative benefits of the week off are now up the spout, and, because i've spent so much time at the beanery i have screwed up two major projects and will now be filing my 2011 tax return a day late, grrr...

Well, i do have one major consolation, and here 'tis:

Nothing much else to write about today....

Here's last week's playlist:

The Dixie Chicks -- Wide Open Spaces
My Chemical Romance -- The Black Parade
Blue Light Rain -- Jazz Is Dead
Jane Siberry -- Meschach Dreams Back
Ofra Haza -- Shirey Teyman
Cilla Fisher & Artie Tresize -- Cilla And Artie
 Milla Jovovich -- The Divine Comedy
 Coldplay -- A Rush Of Blood To The Head
Happy Rhodes -- Ecto
Kirsty MacColl -- Titanic Days
 Seether -- Karma And Effect
The Keef Hartley Band -- Halfbreed
 Ian Anderson -- Thick As A Brick 2
Rob Hyman -- Largo
 Humble Pie -- Performance; Rockin'The Fillmore
Max Webster -- The Best Of Max Webster
 Runrig -- The Cutter And The Clan
 The Albion Dance Band -- The Prospect Before Us
The Beatles -- Rubber Soul
 Big Wreck -- Albatross
  Brand X -- Product