Good Day

Well, I forgot to add the usual morning post but then I have an excuse. I did an overnight binge watch of a series. To be exact, the first season (again) of Torchwood on the BBC iPlayer. I forgot quite a few of the episodes or might have missed them. It was refreshing to revisit this series though.

Weather today - so far - is bright and sunny - and after having a refreshing shower - I will be walking down to the local shop soon. I am going through a soup discovery trying new blends of soup with crusty bread, and yesterday a very tasty wild boar pie. Which reminds me that the week that ends today has been British Pie Week.

In fact, talking of food, I have just listened to the Radio 4 Food Programme on the history of the Cornish Pasty. I actually fancy one now.

Wire Winners 1994

Listening to some Elvis. Costello that is .. hee hee. I have his album Brutal Youth in my collection alongside King Of America. Haven't played the CD for a very long while and hence gave it a respun. So here are a few highlights from that year 1994.

Elvis Costello - Clown Strike

"Clown Strike" is so delicately crafted a song that it threatens to fall at any moment into a succession of whispered lines. The delicate, coaxing of the vocal inflexions, over the merest skeleton of a Stax groove, take it somewhere else entirely." (from the review in Wire.)


A Tribe Called Quest - Steve Biko (Stir It Up)

Dominic Muldowney - Oboe Concerto

Composer — Dominic Muldowney
Solo oboe — Roy Carter
Orchestra — London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor — Michael Tilson Thomas
Venue — Henry Wood Hall, London
a Wire Winner in July 1994.



"The Oboe Concerto unfolds with precise logic and a sinewy, voluptuous lyricism. Roy Carter fully exploits the severe beauty of the oboe part, which Muldowney has furnished with several lambent melodies. The grace of these lines is all the more impressive for the reserved nature of the interplay with the orchestra (the LSO under Michael Tilson Thomas) which, though it hardly strives against the soloist, never quite joins him in a celebration of the oboe's songs either. The elegance of the writing has a restrained sensuousness which almost hides the rather sombre undertones of the piece."

Roger Smalley - Pulses Part 1

Conductor: Richard Bernas
Ensemble: BBC Symphony Orchestra
Composer: Roger Smalley

Enjoy.