verschlimmbesserung
I've ordered a MEMORY UPGRADE for my ageing laptop. The old girl has just passed her TWELFTH birthday (she's the same age as m!©r0$øfT Windoze EIGHT!) and is beginning to struggle with the newer Linux OS's updates. I'm hoping that a doubling-up of Random Access Memory will make things run a little smoother. I've watched the instructional video, and switching the memory card on my particular model of Lenovo looks to be an absolute doddle (famous last words!). A brand new 'DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz 204-PIN SoDIMM' should be arriving while I'm out doing my monthly 'Saturday Job' at the hozzy...
Another week, another MARKUS REUTER project on That Bandcamp They Have Now... He's got yet another power trio called TONNEN VON HALL, with Asaf Sirkis and Alexander Paul Dowerk. And what a ruddy delightful NOISE they do make! And I do mean NOISE! Imagine turning Stick Men up wa-aayyy past the mythical eleven and then slashing the speakers - It's FILTH'O'BOP played by people who know what they are doing! File under "Hectic kCrimsonesque Metallic Math-Rock", if such a folder or drawer exists. This'll do me VERY nicely, at least until the eagerly awaited third release from one of his OTHER power trios TRUCE, in the coming days (It's due this Friday!)
MADS PEDERSEN is probably out of contention in the MAGLIA ROSA rankings now - the General Classifications table has been shook up on a daily basis. But he's so comfortable in the 'CICLAMINA' jersey that he's had his bike painted to match! He just have to participate in a few more INTERMEDIATE SPRINTS to make sure he stays in it. Meanwhile, GIULIO CICCONE suddenly finds himself a GC contender again, and DAAN HOOLE won the Time Trial!
It was indeed a 'doddle' swapping over the MEMORY CHIPS in the laptop. It took me about five minutes at most, when I got home from my hospital visit. I haven't yet noticed any MAJOR difference to the speed that things run at, but I think some of the more RAM-hungry 'creative' apps (SOUND & VISION!) are a little more STABLE, and that's what really counts for me. (I hope I haven't left myself open to the effects of the phenomenon known as "IMPROVING THINGS WORSE" or "verschlimmbesserung"!)
However, I'm finding my 'old faithful' AUDACITY a bit troublesome since the upgrades. The most up-to-date 'native' version from the official Linux repositories is prone to crashing/freezing, even with the extra memory, so I've uninstalled it altogether. Running an old Windoze version via WINE has proved to be the most stable option so far, although audio playback can sometimes be a bit glitchy. I'm going to try to run a more recent Linux version as an 'APPIMAGE' and see how I get on with that. Can't live with it, CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT IT!
On Thursday I spent a couple of hours bussing to Southampton and back. I donated a bunch of 'purged' CDs to the Oxfam shop and then bought some more (an upgrade for Al Stewart's "YEAR OF THE CAT", BAJOFONDO TANGO CLUB and three KING TUBBY dub compilations). I also impulse-bought an ill-advised hat and a "VERY BRITISH PROBLEMS" paperback from another chazza. I failed to buy anything at all from HMV as usual.
#OnThisDay #TenYearsAgo...An Evening With The Eclectic Prog-Folk Medievalists GRYPHON at Southampton's top nightery, The Talking Heads, on Wednesday 20th May 2015...
What an odd venue; it's a sort of barn-sized hall through the back of a pub. It would be hard to describe its size without comparison with other venues you might not have been to, like the old Marquee Club in Wardour Street... So over the years I've seen this band in folk clubs, proper concert halls, stadia, cathedrals and now a pub!
THE OPENING NUMBER is that old old opening number called "OPENING NUMBER", the medley of dance tunes put together by Dortmund's very own Tylman Susato in the fifteen-hundreds... "THE ASTROLOGER" is up next with both David Oberlé and Brian Gulland in fine folky voice... The bookend medley; the first album's "KEMP'S JIG" and "ESTAMPIE" have now been concatenated into one... a spookily lovely expanded version of "THE UNQUIET GRAVE"... then Mr Taylor's solo showpiece "CROSSING THE STILES"... a fantastic "JUNIPER SUITE", now made possible by the expanded line-up... the first 'half' finishes with "DUBBEL DUTCH", a cracker!
Interval nattering with other seasoned veterans - I reckon everyone in this room is some kind of musician, all of them 'talking shop'...
SECOND 'HALF'... several epic longer numbers, including the main feature, "MIDNIGHT MUSHRUMPS"... That fine Gryphon rarity ("a track that should have been on the fourth album..."), "ASHES"... then a lovely surprise for those of us who long to hear "Red Queen To Gryphon Three" in its entirety... well, not quite, but they did play "LAMENT" all the way through, followed by the "RED QUEEN MEDLEY" as showcased at the 2009 reunion... The set concludes with a "new song" (if you can call a medley of 16th century dances by various European court composers "new"). It currently has the working title of "EU DANCES"...
They don't bother to leave the stage before the encore, because there's nowhere to go, so they go straight into the completely bonkers "LA CAMBRIOLEUR EST DANS LE MOUCHOIR"... this segues into what can best be described as A SORT OF 'HOT CLUB' JAZZ MEDLEY with fiddle and clarinet to the fore and a spectacular bit of one-note trombone playing by Mr Gulland. Much fun can be had counting the number of different instruments that Richard Harvey and Graham Preskett play in the course of one 'song' (I was sat just in front of their side of the stage, so I could see all the frantic swapping going on)...
A fine evening's entertainment, although maybe it lacked the sense of occasion that the 'one-off' reunion had. Despite the odd technical hitch involving broken bassoon reeds, or the bass guitar maybe not QUITE matching the intonation of the harmonium at times, they have never SOUNDED better (PA systems was crap back in them olden days, guv!)
Postscript: This was the last time I saw them with the maestro RICHARD HARVEY at the 'boards. They were never the same (or quite as good) again. No matter how many additional members they've recruited, they can never match his distinctive compositional talents. (Co)incidentally, May has historically been THE month for me to see Gryphon live. The first time was in May 1974 when they supported Steeleye Span. Then the following May 1975, I saw them supporting Yes...
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