mintybloggydiarythingy 2.0

Week from Monday 20th May 2024 - FERGUS McCREADIE's new album "Stream" may well be another contender for my "Pick O' The Year". Yes, I know we're not even half-way through the twelvemonth yet, but I actually buy so few 'new' releases these days, that it's surely going to figure on the (short) list somewhere, as have his previous couple of discs. To these ears, there is no more satisfying format in all of music than the 'JAZZ TRIO' combination of piano, bass and drums. Musical perfection. My 'comfort zone'. The sound quality on "Stream" is as clear as a bell ("it's a freaky trip on 'phones"), with equal attention being paid to the double-bass of DAVID BOWDEN and the percussion of STEPHEN HENDERSON. Of course, the piano playing is astonishing as usual, but it's the ever-inventive interplay between the three that rewards close attention. I heard someone compare young Fergus to KEITH JARRETT, an...

Week from Monday 13th May 2024 - DISCOVERING 'NEW' MUSIC (an occasional series)... I had long ignored the music of WILLIAM WALTON, having dismissed him as just another one of those pompous English twentieth-century composers - all royal occasions, chocolate-boxy village scenes and war films, a bit too flagwavy for my tastes. But in the last twenty-four hours, I've heard a couple of his pieces which might have swayed me that there's a little more going on, namely his FIRST SYMPHONY and the VIOLA CONCERTO. They sure sounded like sparkling performances to me (but then again, as a first-timer, I've nothing to compare 'em to)... Colourful and quirky compositions which sounded to these untrained ears as being of equal parts Ravel and Schoenberg. Tellingly, both pieces might be considered 'early works', so perhaps he only got REALLY "pompous" later on!?! I'm currently EARWORMING the complete works of THE HOLLIES. It's my own fault. In an eff...

Week from Monday 29th April 2024 Week from Monday 6th May 2024 - M'Aidez! It's that time of the year (already!) when the BANG COLLAR DAZE come thick and fast. Not that it affects my own scheduling! Long weekends, shorter weeks, makes no diff! I am required to live from day-to-day (and particularly NIGHTS), coping with shifts in routine only by WRITING STUFF DOWN, making lists, ticking boxes, calculating averages. It's what I do now. Occasionally, I might pour out any thoughts into 'This Here BloggyDiaryDoodah' as they occur to me, even if it is at three-thirty in the morning! Painful nights, comfortable daze... I managed to hobble down the road to cast my vote in the LOCAL ELECTIONS. But the results showed that no form of #StopTheTories 'tactical voting' will ever work in Fareham. Even the specialist websites can't offer a definitive solution. I can't see any way of shifting the SelfServatives out of THIS borough. I'm not saying that the to...