mintybloggydiarythingy 2.0

This morning I watched the stunning LAURENCE OLIVIER fillum version of "RICHARD III", which I hadn't seen since I was at school when the Shakespeare play of that ilk was required reading for ENGLISH O'LEVEL. There's a new LIVE release from P ercy, A lex, K enny and T im just arrived in my in-tray, albeit slightly later than I was expecting, but just in time to qualify for the PICK'O'THE YEAR listings. I must confess, I haven't really given it the attention it deserves yet, since all of my listening time of late has been taken up with ancient GRIDLING! But on first listening, it sounds the biz! I'm sure that over the 'holidays' I will strap on the ol' AKG's and REALLY get into it, man! At this time of the year, I don't listen to RADIO 3 quite as much as usual, as so much of its daytime programming gets cloyingly Christmas-oriented. But I've been playing CATCH-UP with some of the 'good bits' that I've missed, suc...

...I am getting EXTREMELY frustrated, trying to rescue a couple of GRIDLING BAND tracks (that no longer exist anywhere else) from a forty-two year old CASSETTE. Despite repeated attempts to transplant the tape into a new shell, and numerous rewind/fast-forward runthroughs, the tape always seems to jam to a standstill approximately five minutes from the end, cutting off the very track that I'm trying to DIGITISE. Audacity at the ready, while I play the WHOLE side through until (fingers crossed!) I get to the point I need... So I have just enough time to pop around the corner and drop off my PRESCRIPTION at the chemist... Around 1983 to 1984, JOHNSON'S GRIDLING BAND conceived of an ambitious musical project that would have been the follow-up to the mildly successful cassette album "THE WINKY ELVES ARE COMING!". A number of individual tracks were recorded (or half-finished) over an eighteen month period, but the whole thing proved to be FAR too ambitious for the recor...

Week from Monday 1st December 2025 - The gubnint's endeavours to protect CHILDREN against dodgy internet content are all well and good, but they also are having a knock-on effect of being inconvenient to us SIXTY-SEVEN YEAR OLDS! Some of the pages that I've regularly been following and reading for years, suddenly require an extra level of registration before I can get past the "ADULT-ONLY CONTENT" restrictions. This includes the daily blog of my favourite gonzo American political commentator. I've also had to 'prove' that I'm an adult every time I change my BLUESKY password. And don't get me started on those daft bots that autohide any depictions of RENAISSANCE ART, lest anyone should catch a glimpse of the painted boobies! GREEKS & INDONESIANS... I finally got around to giving the new album by the Javanese pianist DWIKI DHARAWAN the attention it deserves. I'd acquired "ANAGNORISIS" (whatever that means!?) from the Bandcamp conc...

Week from Monday 17th November 2025 - ARTIFICIAL INDIFFERENCE... My recent Blooskypost (Bloot? Bleet? Skeet?) in which I raised the topic of (and expressed amusement at) G***le's move to upscale YouTube clips using an A.I. algorithm, garnered no 'ENGAGEMENT' whatsoever. I can only assume that the very mention of A.I. is a deterrent to some. I wouldn't be at all surprised if some folks have WORDMUTED any phrase connected with artificial you-know-what, so they don't even SEE the posts at all! We're finally seeing some "WINTER". Down here on the Solent Riviera, that generally just means a sprinkling of frost on a cold crisp sunny morning. Why! I've even closed the window now! With no urgent need to go anywhere, I've been staying under the covers for longer and catching up with some "WAKING THE DEAD" two-parters. I promised to treat myself to the HENRY COW box set. I ordered it a while back from Chris Cutler's ReR Megacorp concern...

Week from Monday 27th October 2025 - Having once again become the proud owner of a decent tape deck, I've taken the opportunity to revisit the GRIDLING cassette archives, to see if there's anything there worth preserving! Today, I've dug out a couple of tapes (from 1996) of mostly my own electronic noodling. There's actually some rather tasty stuff - quite 'krautrock' in nature - but (typically!) a lot of it outstays its welcome! I did have a tendency to GO ON A BIT, didn't I? But I've digitised it onto the hard drive in it's entirety, with the aim of doing some judicious editing (using the trusty AUDACITY) and maybe reassembling it into something INTERESTING. I don't know if anyone ELSE will ever want to hear it, but still... Once I've done it, it goes without saying that I probably won't listen to it myself for a while! I often wait months (even years!) before I listen to my own stuff "TO SEE IF I STILL LIKE IT". I find I c...

Week from Monday 13th October 2025 - Monday Doing Sunday Stuff... Tuesday Doing Monday Stuff... Having lost a day to VAX FEVER, everything is running late this week. One bit of good news and one less thing to worry about... Due my pressing medical schedule, I've now been excused that JURY SERVICE that was causing me additional anxiety. I still keep getting bulk emails reminding me that my civic duty is imminent, but I now have it in writing that I don't need to go! On Friday, I went to the ELF CENTRE to get some fairly comprehensive BLOOD TESTS done, ahead of my chat with the KIDNEY PEOPLE next week. I arrived nicely and promptly, as is my wont, but there was a cock-up with the booking! So I had to make myself scarce for ninety minutes until I could be seen. But this time I didn't need to do the "PATIENT WAITING" bit. I went for a wander around several CHARITY SHOPS instead... Week from Monday 20th October 2025 - Nothing new to report from my conversation with...