The weather was absolutely amazing today. Blue skies, sunshine and warmth. The plants are budding, the insects are buzzing and I had to shed my winter coat when I took Alex the Wonderdog for a walk. Luckily, he went to the dog groomers last Friday and now looks like a shawn sheep. š
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One of the treats I was allowed as a youngster was to stay up late and watch the comedian Dave Allen whenever I stayed with my grandparents. They didn’t mind his bad language and I love the way he pointed out life’s hypocrises and made fun of EVERYONE. I think some of that attitude must have rubbed off. So I was sad to hear that Mr Allen had passed away.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4340115.stm
I hope the BBC and ITV do him justice and put on a tribute show of some kind. Wherever you are Dave, may your god go with you. š
You see, I’ve got this new mobile phone and it has a little camera in it. This means that I can document every moment of my life in a series of blurry, low-resolution images. Take last night, for example. I cooked Cottage Pie:
It was very tasty and this was the result:
Gee – ain’t this a lotta fun?
Today, I present a new strand to the website. Yes, folks – I present “Loaf of the Day”. Thanks to the breadmaker we received as a Xmas present, I will be occasionally posting pictures of loaves that I have baked.
Today’s “Loaf of the Day” is a granary loaf:
In the post: My replacement laptop battery all the way from Deutschland. Viva la eBay!
In the post: Alien Vs Predator DVD – OK, not the best movie in the world, but I am a sucker for an Alien/Predator film and a sci-fi action film to boot. I saw this originally last year in LA at the cinema in the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel. The Missus was busy off schmoozing, doing her press thing and I had an hour or so to kill. It was too hot to go for a walk (remember, pale Englishmen and 90+ degree mid-day heat is a bad combination) so I took to shelter in the cinema and watch this film. There was me and three other people. Schweet. Anyway, The Missus didn’t catch the movie so I bought it so we could watch it together.
Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (Criterion Edition) – I enjoyed this film the first time I saw it and after the recent suicide of Hunter S Thompson, I thought I should get reacquainted with it. I’m a big Terry Gilliam fan and so I am looking forward to watching this again.
Meanwhile, yesterday I blew nearly Ā£100 to buy a replacement battery for my laptop. Not happy…not happy at all about that. š
Today my internet connection was automatically upgraded to a 2Mb ADSL line. The funny thing that there’s no discernible difference between 1Mb and 2Mb. Funny that…
CD REVIEW
Van der Graaf Generator ā Present
This is the first proper studio album from the progressive rock band thatās respected by all manner of fans from John Lydon of the Sex Pistols to Mark E Smith of The Fall since 1977. The band have pushed out the boat by giving the fans a veritable feast of music, spanning two CDs and 1 hour 42 minutes. The album āPresentā is like a football match and is a game of two halves: the first is the CD of studio material and the second is a disc of improvised instrumental music.
The first disc opens up with the song āEvery Bloody Emperorā in which Hammill rants and raves against all those meely-mouthed politicians out there. The scary thing is that it sounds like the VDGG boys are back in the seventies and nothing has changed. The song has a nice enough lyric and the music backs it up, but thereās not enough of the Hammill fire that we are so used to and the song deserves. Whereās the vitriol, Pete? This goes into a really good instrumental by David Jackson called āBoleas Panicā and it is a cool, sax lead, slinky slice of VDGG that echoes back to the Godbluff album.
The second proper song in the collection is āNutter Alertā and here we see Hammill revisiting old themes that he presented with āEnergy Vampiresā. Itās about those people who turn up, those people who are a few sandwiches sort of a picnic. It has all those manic vocal twitches that we expect from pH and gives you fair warning about all those nutters out there. āAbandon Shipā starts with some spiky guitar chords (guitar and VDGG, surely not?) and it thereās a lot interplay between the six string and the sax again, with lots of call and response going on. Itās a bit loose and I am not particularly impressed with this track. It feels a little half-baked to me.
āIn Babelsbergā again starts with a heavily distorted guitar and it sees VDGG returning to that ugly music we all love and hate. Itās pretty standard stuff but again just needs that edge to push it further. I am hoping that the band tears this one up live, because it āfeelsā more like a live track to me.
āOn the Beachā starts with some studio chatter between the band members before going seeing Hammill and keyboard delivering a lilting and sad refrain. Then Jackson comes in with his saxophone again and the song shuffles along before being enveloped in a sea of sound effect waves lapping against the shore. Itās a nice ending to the first CD.
The second CD, which begins with the waves that ended the first disc, is a completely different kettle of fish. Here the band is in improvisational mode. I am not personally a fan of the improvisational VDGG. Like the Long Hello album and the Time Vaults album, the stuff here varies in content. Some of it is pleasant, some of it is a waste of time ā the band noodling around, trying to find ideas. This is a shame because the first CD is quite strong and I feel that it is let-down by the second set.
Overall, I really like the first CD of āPresentā with āEvery Bloody Emperorā, āNutter Alertā and āOn the Beachā being the stand out tracks. My only criticism is it seems to be a Hammill/Jackson album and Hugh Banton doesnāt really find his feet in this collection. Guy Evans is Guy Evans and he can drum his way out of anything so no complaints there. The second CD is a bit iffy. Iāll be honest and say that I donāt like it. I could probably have it on in the background when I was working, but I wouldnāt want to listen to it out of choice. It is worth buying? Of course it bloody is ā only so you know the material for the up-and-coming comeback show on 6 May. Iāll be there ā I have some good tickets already in my greasy mitts. š