The Piano Is In The Pyrenees

I am half way through the book "A Piano In The Pyrenees" by Tony Hawks, and while it is extremely entertaining , the piano got there after a hundred pages without too much trauma, apart from a Luton Van meeting it's demise. The thing is it's a bit like writing a 500 page book on the titanic and a hundred pages in it's on the bottom of the Atlantic. I suppose the film did start a bit like that.

Anyway this is just one of Tony Hawks books (all worth a read and great fun) and some fun stories about an English man relocating to a house in the Pyrenees , the scrapes he gets into and the characters he meets.

The weekend is here and I am not sure what is going to happen. 

I am working through "The Killing" on BBC iPlayer and , if this is really the right word , enjoying it. In the past I have worked so many people who will not watch a program with subtitles, they really don't know what they are missing do they?

As I mentioned "Titanic" I've included "The Unsinkable Ship" from "White Star Liner" by Public Service Broadcasting.

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #4 - 7 and 8 and The Record Store Day 2019 Aftermath

This is just a short post to record numbers 7 and 8 in the #TenAlbumsInTenDays sequence adn they are:

• Tempest by Bob Dylan
• Have One on Me by Joanna Newsome

Both these albums contain a lot of long songs and the Joanna Newsome one is a three CD set. I first heard Joanna Newsome on the soundtrack to the excellent New York Blackout Orange advert ("THis Side if The Blue" from "Milk Eyed Mender") which you can watch here this was when the company that became EE had consistently excellent adverts , unlike the populist Kevin Bacon rubbish the continually push these days. Joanna Newsome's instrument of choice is the harp, and I think she is the only  harpist I listen to apart from Alan Stivell.

The Bob Dylan album is was his best with the thirteen minute title track about the sinking of the Titanic, but it is full of seven and eight minute stories that keep you riveted throughout the album.

For Record Store Day 2019 I picked up a Carter USM 12" single "Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere" and Brian Eno's "Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy" on vinyl as well as an amazing tea towel from Powder Butterfly , check out the website to see some amazing stuff.

So now it's time for bed as it's Monday tomorrow.

Past Imperfect, Present More Imperfect

All my posts have been getting around 40 to 50 views until five days ago when they have dropped to five or six. I think this is something Facebook has done because that's where, normally most of my visits come from. It feel a little like all of a sudden you are rubbish and no one wants to interact with you . Often in these situations you think "What have I done?" when the reality is that something beyond your contriol has changed, and you can't do anything about it. Well you could spend a lot of time trying to discover what the problem or change is, but to be quite honest I honestly can't be bothered. I amd sure if I keep writing and sharing stuff worth sharing both readers and robots will return and my stats will increase.

On the walking fron I will finish October on about 420K steps that's about 25% up on my target number of steps. Whether I can keep that up in November is a different story, but as long as I hit my target steps that's all that really matters to me.

This morning I listened to  Public Service Broadcasting's  "Inform, Educate, Entertain" and there was one song I hadn't noticed before, the rather excellent "The Now Generation". The thing I love about them is that you actually learn from listening to their music, so as well as being just great to listen to it's educational as well.  Most of their songs are also like films for the ears, although they often have acocompanying videos that are available via the Public Service Broadcasting Channel on Youtube.

All their releases are themed so fall into the "concept album" genre, but are still all essential listing from "The War Room" up to the present day "White Star Liner" EP based on The Titanic.

Anyway I will be listening to a bit more of them this week.