Cowpoke

-
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, but they refunded my money, saying that it was currently out of print. But I was told it would be "Back in time for Christmas...". On second attempt it has finally arrived, including the bonus "Glastonbury And Elsewhere" disc with the close-up picture of Fred's pedalboard. #OnThisDay #TwentyYearsAgo I was sitting about six feet away from the very same FRED FRITH in full flight...

Monday 21st November 2005 - Tonight's gig, by THE KATIA LABÈQUE BAND WITH FRED FRITH & VIKTORIA MULLOVA, to give them their full title, has been moved from the Corn Exchange, 'round the corner to the smaller Pavilion Theatre. This is because of a lacklustre demand for tickets - It's the Ashcroft Syndrome! - but in the event, this is a better arrangement all round: better sound, better visibility, probably nicer for the musicians as well. The last minute change means that the piano-tuner is still busy at ten to eight and there are "Technical Problems": a MIDI keyboard needs a hasty replacement... None of this matters when the music starts...
Reference Points: Steve Martland Band, Stockhausen, Henry Cow (of course), Henry Cowell, some King Crimson (especially when the violin and guitar combine to provide those hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck moments), Stravinsky-esque time-signatures, elements of certain "world music", moments of Satie-like tranquillity suddenly shattered by out-and-out jazz THRASH! A thrilling, involving musical journey... with an unexpected bonus: a deconstructed Mahavishnu tune as an encore! I thought I'd died and gone to AVANT-GARDE HEAVEN!
The only downside to going to Brighton of an evening is the sheer tedium of the journey back - you don't realise just how many stations there are on that line, until you've stopped at EVERY SINGLE ONE! Why does Worthing need THREE stations?

Week from Monday 24th November 2024 - Back to hopsickle visitations this week: I've got to go and do a midweek BLOOD TEST ahead of my return to "SATURDAY CLUB", now that I am certified dentally fit to do so. However, the PHLEBBO at HAEMO/ONCO was fully booked, so I had to take my chances with the bludgers on LEVEL C (I got seen straight away!).

Meanwhile, I'm resisting the temptation to listen to any of the HENRY COW box, or indeed to open it! To give it a sense of occasion, it will serve as my "Christmas Present" to myself!

Instead, I've been exploring some newly discovered B***LEGS from SOFT MACHINE, CAN and the 21st CENTURY SCHIZOID BAND. The latest releases from FERGUS McCREADIE and DWIKI DHARMAWAN are also sitting on my hard-drive awaiting attention... Then I've watched DAVID BYRNE's stunning AMERICAN ⱯIꓒOꓕꓵ again, having found it on DVD in the HMV sale a while back.

On Saturday, I had to venture out in the horrible early morning weather to enjoy a day of "PATIENT WAITING" up at the General Obstacle. That's me just about 'done' for this year, although I will have to book another BLOOD TEST sometime around 'The Holidays'...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Decent!

-
...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...
Read more

King Crimson 2015

-
On the 5th September 2015 , ten whole years ago now, we had the opportunity to see the newly invigorated KING CRIMSON in its 'seven-headed-beast' configuration for the first time. I thought it might be interesting (for me anyway!) to revisit the bloggydiarythingy for that time, in all its unabridged entirety - the ANTICIPATION, the EXPERIENCE, the AFTERMATH. I'm afraid that, looking back, it does read as a bit 'gushingly fanboy' at times, but these were MY opinions, MY thoughts and MY feelings as they wuz writ. I might not necessarily agree with MYSELF now, especially on the subject of 'all that drumming', but I've recently heard the whole show again via the DGMlive.com concern and it's a fair appraisal when all's said and done... (Listening back to it now, I still stand by my opinion that I preferred "Larks' Tongues II" and "Level Five" when played live by the STICK MEN, rather than by the full-blown KCrim.) Week fr...
Read more

Connections

-
Week from Monday 2nd June 2025 - My INTERNET connection was working appallingly S-L-O-W last week, so I reported it to the TALKTALK concern. They "guarantee" speeds of never less than 10Mbps, but a few days ago it dropped as low as two-and-a-half for a while! It didn't affect my activities TOO much, and it didn't make any difference to the landline phone (Yes! we still have a landline!). But we shouldn't have to put up with it, considering how much we pay them every month! Several text messages were exchanged and I think that they eventually fixed it from their end (I also did the "try-turning-it-off-and-then-on-again" thing with the router). It's now a lot more stable than it had been... but today, a man from OPENREACH came and checked things over anyway. I'd planned on doing a 'BITS'n'BOBS' shopping trip into town, but I stayed in for his visit. Just as well really, 'cos the weather's horrible... I spent a day failing ...
Read more