The Very Late Friday Five

1. Do you enjoy receiving books as holiday or birthday gifts?

2. What book are you reading (or, what is the last book you read)?

3. Are you enjoying (or, did you enjoy) that book? Why or why not?

4. About how many books do you read in an average year?

5. What are some of the books on your to-read pile (or list)?

Good Morning

Those Were The Days

Solar Plexus

Ian Carr with Nucleus - Solar Plexus (Full Album) 1971

Tracklist:
01. Elements I & II
02. Changing Times
03. Bedrock Deadlock
04. Spirit Level
05. Torso
06. Snakehips' Dream


Bass Guitar -- Ron Mathewson
Bass, Double Bass -- Jeff Clyne
Drums, Percussion -- John Marshall
Electric Piano, Baritone Saxophone, Oboe -- Karl Jenkins
Engineer -- Roger Wake
Guitar -- Chris Spedding
Percussion -- Chris Karan
Producer -- Pete King
Synthesizer [Vcs3] -- Keith Winter
Tenor Saxophone, Bass Clarinet -- Tony Roberts
Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Flute -- Brian Smith
Trumpet, Flugelhorn -- Harry Beckett
Written-By -- Ian Carr

Clearly tapped the Miles era fusion jazz style but with a very British edge. Moody, funky and downright fantastic jazz. As a note Solar Plexus begins with some cosmic synthesizer intro on a VCS3 that sets the stage for the booster to take you the listener on a very groovy audio journey into the heart of the British Sunrise!

Your Move

Once In A While You Get An Election That's Truly Historic...

I'm an old man- with roots in the student politics of the 1970s- and I liked Corbyn and his socialism with a 1940s twist- but the country as a whole thought differently and I can see there's no longer much point in banging on about Clem Attlee and Jarrow and what Thatcher did to the miners. That drum has had its skin kicked in and been booted down the road- back into the past where it now belongs. Gather up the Trade Union banners and stick them in the folk art museum.

Labour can no longer count on the voters of what the TV people have been calling the "Red Wall"- that band of constituencies that stretched from coast to coast across the industrial north of England. I stayed up late enough to see Blyth Valley go blue. That's when we knew that the exit polls were right and an era in British politics had come to an end.

In the South East Labour held onto Canterbury and its two seats in Brighton. In London it won Putney. The moneyed intelligentsia are still singing the Red Flag.

But the 20th century is over. We are no longer living in the afterglow of the Industrial Revolution. The loyalties forged in the mines and the factories are dead.

Puritanism is dead as well. An absolute rotter has been returned as PM and nobody seems to mind about his infidelities and betrayals and all the abandoned children, legitimate and otherwise. I don't suppose this is altogether a bad thing.

And on an unquestionably positive note more women that ever before will be sitting in the House.

The SNP has swept Scotland, the Nationalists now outnumber the Unionists in Northern Ireland. An independent Scotland, a united Ireland, a United Kingdom consisting of England and Wales- all these seem just a year or two away.

And Brexit? O dear, yes, some form of Brexit will be done. I don't understand the enthusiasm for it or- indeed- the passion of the opposition. It used to be the case that only Tories cared about it- one way or the other- but then the whole fucking country is Tory now.

Book 100 - John Betjeman "Tennis Whites And Cake"

John Betjeman "Tennis Whites And Cake" (John Murray)




I once read that ’If you thought Betjeman was just a poet, then read this and you'll find he's just as entertaining and thought-provoking as a journalist, a diarist and a correspondent. This book is a must-buy for anyone who wants to understand the patron saint of Englishness…’ remarking that it was a “delicious” read.


Particularly entertaining is the musings on Teas, High Teas and even Dainty Teas and why he wished he was a Station Master. Not of British rail of course, but a ‘branch-line’ in the country with rambling roses climbing the station’s wall, two Clydesdales thumping aboard a van, the rattle of milk churns and the ‘crunch of steps on the gravel’. All vaguely remembered even in my generation. Another included piece is almost a hymn, from our Saint, on the old country railroads “The Great Western” with descriptions of it’s great Pullman’s service to Cornwall, it’s sleepy branch lines and cuts and Betjeman’s feeling that it was a privilege for him to have been born so early in the century (1906) that he was to enjoy it all.

It is, of course, on churches, cottages and old building that the Poet laureate waxes most lyrical – if he was a Patron Saint of anything it was the education – by poetry, prose, radio and television - of the British to encourage and support the preservation and renovation of fine old buildings - and of taste.

A wonderful book to dip into.

Sunday Slouching

For lunch today, instead of a pizza, I had a delicious chicken curry, a Balti with Pilau rice. As i did three supermarkets on Saturday I went for a change.



Whilst in Faversham yesterday morning these post boxes have been decorated and rather amused me.





I had a chat with the other Dave at no.14 and he is a nice guy but rambles off subject very often and is sometimes slightly incoherent. He had suffered severe mental depression in the past so that might be a factor. Anyway, a very interesting back story to his life, a musician, a former builder, and a postman. We had a few beers in his flat whilst chatting.

All the reports are now done thankfully.

Pianissimo

A few piano pieces for the night people.

John Adams (b. 1947) - Eros Piano

Conductor: John Adams
Orchestra: Orchestra Of St. Lukes
Piano: Paul Crossley
Composer: John Adams

Toru Takemitsu - Quotation of Dream (1991) for two pianos and orchestra

Paul Crossley · Peter Serkin · London Sinfonietta · Oliver Knussen


Toru Takemitsu - Litany 2. Lento misterioso

Enjoy.

Good Night