Acquisition
Week from Monday 21st April 2025 - Back-to-back visits to the ho's spittle, including plenty of footslogging... On Saturday, I spent half of my BIRTHDAY getting my routine armful of PAMIDRONATE, then on Tuesday, I finally had my (scheduled six months ago) visit to meet the RENAL DEPARTMENT, located in the distant top-left-hand corner of the hospital labyrinth. By the way, "Check-up With The Kidney People" sounds like a great title for a piece of music! Also: "SOMETHING SOMETHING SOMETHING, SURELY THEY'RE TAKING THE PISS?", as I had to provide some URINE samples, on top of all the well-documented multiple bleedings of a previous week's visit. Anyway, some sort of STABILITY has been achieved and the overall verdict is pretty much "As Well As Can Be Expected".
So I thought I might TAKE IT EASY for the rest of the week. But the earlier daylight prevents me from having any 'LIE-INS'. I find that I wake up well before six o'clock, whether I want to or not, and no attempts to go back to sleep are forthcoming. My brain is screaming "YOU'RE AWAKE NOW! START BLOODY DOING STUFF!" (Which is why there's absolutely NO EXCUSE for my leaving it till sometime on Wednesday before adding just this couple of paragraphs to the diary!)
I got an email and text from the GIFFGAFF concern, informing me that the 3G network is being switched off in this area come August. So that means that my somewhat ANCIENT mobile phone will no longer be able to send and receive DATA. I can still use it to make calls, but I really only have a mobile so that OTHER people can contact ME, rarely the other way 'round! However, I must admit I AM long overdue for an upgrade. So I've bitten the bullet and ordered a brand new (reasonably priced) MOTOROLA MOTO E15, direct from the GIFFGAFF people...
Now then... How can I 'celebrate' the passing of my birthday, now all that's out of the way? I know! I'm going to do something that I haven't done in five years or more, not since before the Big Lockdown. There's a RECORD FAIR in Southampton this weekend!
Week from Monday 28th April 2025 - It's a SIGN OF THE TIMES, I guess... but the RECORD FAIR was a bit of a DISAPPOINTMENT for a person who DOESN'T think that collectable twelve-inch slabs of black plastic are the optimum way of delivering audio. The room was almost entirely filled with racks and boxes of that VINYL stuff, with only ONE trader selling any CDs at all. I did come away with a couple of items for my trouble though:- ZAPPA's three-seedy "MEAT LIGHT" ("The 'Uncle Meat' Project/Object Audio Documentary") and a JAH WOBBLE oldie-but-goody, both at bargain prices.
"LET OXFAM HAVE IT"... I don't have enough hours in the day, or space in the room, to indulge in the business of 'ACQUIRING IN QUANTITY' when it comes to music. I don't look on with envy when I see other soshul-meejer-goers post pictures of their vast libraries, much of which - go on! admit it! - can't POSSIBLY get listened to all that much.
My own tastes do change and I don't believe in clinging on to anything that is no longer CAPABLE of bringing me pleasure. And while I am guilty of 'COMPLETISM' when it comes to certain artists, there are some bands that just don't DESERVE 100% coverage. So that's why I occasionally have one of my famous "PURGES".
These have previously seen me culling some 'ITEMS OF QUESTIONABLE ARTISTIC MERIT' in the EMERSON LAKE & PALMER and later PINK FLOYD catalogues. There are only two or three great ELP albums that can be listened to all the way through. The rest contain so many lapses of BAD TASTE that it's not funny any more! Meanwhile, Pink Floyd reached their creative peak with "Meddle" and "Live at Pompeii". I've also enjoyed all their later 'big hits' along the way, but nowadays I'm done with it. I'll take the early, keen-to-experiment Floyd that played open-ended freeform versions of "Interstellar Overdrive" and/or "Saucerful of Secrets", over any Floyd that churns out tired repeats of "Money" or (uurrrgh!) "Another Brick In The Sodding Wall", while folks cheer on the lightshow from half a mile away.
Now I'm hitting the CLASSICAL folder for items which, although enjoyed in the past, I can no longer stand to hear nowadays, such as LEONARD BERNSTEIN's own music (he should have stuck to conducting!) and a handful of self-indulgent tinklybonk 'AVANT-GARDE' pieces (some of them of a decidedly "BUT I COULD HAVE DONE THAT!?" nature). In fact, when it comes to 'classical' music, I rarely feel the compulsion to OWN anything I hear. That's what RADIO 3 is for. That's my 'streaming service' nowadays...
Now to get my new PHONE up and running...
So I thought I might TAKE IT EASY for the rest of the week. But the earlier daylight prevents me from having any 'LIE-INS'. I find that I wake up well before six o'clock, whether I want to or not, and no attempts to go back to sleep are forthcoming. My brain is screaming "YOU'RE AWAKE NOW! START BLOODY DOING STUFF!" (Which is why there's absolutely NO EXCUSE for my leaving it till sometime on Wednesday before adding just this couple of paragraphs to the diary!)
I got an email and text from the GIFFGAFF concern, informing me that the 3G network is being switched off in this area come August. So that means that my somewhat ANCIENT mobile phone will no longer be able to send and receive DATA. I can still use it to make calls, but I really only have a mobile so that OTHER people can contact ME, rarely the other way 'round! However, I must admit I AM long overdue for an upgrade. So I've bitten the bullet and ordered a brand new (reasonably priced) MOTOROLA MOTO E15, direct from the GIFFGAFF people...
Now then... How can I 'celebrate' the passing of my birthday, now all that's out of the way? I know! I'm going to do something that I haven't done in five years or more, not since before the Big Lockdown. There's a RECORD FAIR in Southampton this weekend!
Week from Monday 28th April 2025 - It's a SIGN OF THE TIMES, I guess... but the RECORD FAIR was a bit of a DISAPPOINTMENT for a person who DOESN'T think that collectable twelve-inch slabs of black plastic are the optimum way of delivering audio. The room was almost entirely filled with racks and boxes of that VINYL stuff, with only ONE trader selling any CDs at all. I did come away with a couple of items for my trouble though:- ZAPPA's three-seedy "MEAT LIGHT" ("The 'Uncle Meat' Project/Object Audio Documentary") and a JAH WOBBLE oldie-but-goody, both at bargain prices.
"LET OXFAM HAVE IT"... I don't have enough hours in the day, or space in the room, to indulge in the business of 'ACQUIRING IN QUANTITY' when it comes to music. I don't look on with envy when I see other soshul-meejer-goers post pictures of their vast libraries, much of which - go on! admit it! - can't POSSIBLY get listened to all that much.
My own tastes do change and I don't believe in clinging on to anything that is no longer CAPABLE of bringing me pleasure. And while I am guilty of 'COMPLETISM' when it comes to certain artists, there are some bands that just don't DESERVE 100% coverage. So that's why I occasionally have one of my famous "PURGES".
These have previously seen me culling some 'ITEMS OF QUESTIONABLE ARTISTIC MERIT' in the EMERSON LAKE & PALMER and later PINK FLOYD catalogues. There are only two or three great ELP albums that can be listened to all the way through. The rest contain so many lapses of BAD TASTE that it's not funny any more! Meanwhile, Pink Floyd reached their creative peak with "Meddle" and "Live at Pompeii". I've also enjoyed all their later 'big hits' along the way, but nowadays I'm done with it. I'll take the early, keen-to-experiment Floyd that played open-ended freeform versions of "Interstellar Overdrive" and/or "Saucerful of Secrets", over any Floyd that churns out tired repeats of "Money" or (uurrrgh!) "Another Brick In The Sodding Wall", while folks cheer on the lightshow from half a mile away.
Now I'm hitting the CLASSICAL folder for items which, although enjoyed in the past, I can no longer stand to hear nowadays, such as LEONARD BERNSTEIN's own music (he should have stuck to conducting!) and a handful of self-indulgent tinklybonk 'AVANT-GARDE' pieces (some of them of a decidedly "BUT I COULD HAVE DONE THAT!?" nature). In fact, when it comes to 'classical' music, I rarely feel the compulsion to OWN anything I hear. That's what RADIO 3 is for. That's my 'streaming service' nowadays...
Now to get my new PHONE up and running...
#OnThisDay IN HISTORY... On Saturday 30th April 1994, ABSOLUTE ZERO (the pub-based, 'EAVY ROCK cover-versions arm of the Mervyn Purviss empire) somehow got the support slot at The Wedgewood Rooms, opening for MAN, the legendary West Coast jam-band from Wales. An historic occasion, still memorialized by the fading flyer stuck to the side of my bookshelf. But although I'm rather keen on the Manband myself, if truth be told, I don't remember an awful lot about the evening. What with packing up the AZ gear while the Welsh wizards were already doing their thing, and the fact that Merv and the boys were keen to get back for 'last orders', I probably didn't get to hear much of their unique brand of psychedelic boogie noodling at all, something I regret to this day... It was also around this time of the year (28th April 1979) that I heard the crusty spacepunks HEAR & NOW play at Sussex University. Judging by the 'one star' rating I gave them, I didn't like them that much at the time and didn't stay the distance (something else on which I might have changed my opinion since!?!)
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