Grand Mess
Week from Monday 10th August 2026 - Now that my CYCLE-VIEWING is over for a couple of weeks (a disappointing conclusion to both the Tours I'd been following this week), I've been giving some attention to some BBC PROMS. When I reach that time of day when I can concentrate on some music, I'm less inclined to put on a CD these days, and more likely to strap on the headphones and activate the BBC SOUNDS I-Player doobry for a random selection from the prommy playlist. I'm ignoring any chronology and just picking out anything that looks interesting on paper (well, on screen anyway!). I've learnt from years of disappointment to stay clear of anything performed by the BBC's own orchestras, although I have (of course) listened to the BBCSO doing MAHLER's Sixth, which wasn't too bad! (I came for the KURTÀG and stayed for the MAHLER!)
Of particular interest lately have been some of the "PROMS ACROSS THE UK" concerts that are not even at the Albert Hall! For example, there was a transcendent performance of STEVE REICH's "Music For Eighteen Musicians", played in Bristol over the weekend, and MORTON FELDMAN's prolonged piece of 'nothing much happens' "CRIPPLED SYMMETRY", given an airing up in Gateshead.
I've also enjoyed an astonishing (and astonishingly good) performance of MAHLER's FIRST RACKET, played from memory by the Aurora Orchestra, and a very nice Spanish-themed evening (Ravel, de Falla, Bizet, Rodrigo, Tárrega etc). There's also been some fine works by THOMAS ADÈS dotted about the schedule. Today, I'm taking in last night's 'show', ESA-PEKKA SALONEN conducting a programme of STRAVINSKY, BERG and BARTÓK. All in all, this has proved to be a much better way to immerse oneself in all the GOOD stuff, filtering out all the POPulist crap that the Proms Season seems bundled with these days.
Something's gone a bit whacko with the Android version of the BLUESKY app... Whenever you have to update or change anything to your Bloosky presence, the chances are that you click on a button to open a pop-up DIALOG(ue) WINDOW. You fiddle about with some settings, then save the results. Fine. Except that the ones on MY screen aren't all there! The windows are cut short, as if the width of the frame has been set at too low a value for its contents. Any buttons on the right-hand side of the screen are thus hidden off the edge of the frame. For example, the 'PROFILE EDITOR' dialog is missing its 'SAVE' button. You can't add anyone to your curated LISTS any more, because - you guessed it! - you can't see the column of 'CONFIRM' buttons. The 'DELETE THIS POST' dialog DOES work, but it's a dead giveaway when you see that the long narrow button on that pop-up is somewhat truncated and off-centre. I have to resort to using the DESKTOP version for updating my AVATAR (via a browser on another device), as the Android version can't allow me to save it...
On Wednesday teatime, it's everyone outside to watch the SOLAR ECLIPSE... I failed to capture it on camera with any of my available devices. All I got was blur and lens flare. Electronic sensors can't look directly into the sun any better than human eyes can. But I managed to squint through my piece of smoked trout - sorry! GLASS, and see it clearly enough.
Week from Monday 17th August 2026 - After my routine visit to the General Obstacle, I hopped down to HMV in Commercial Road to finally avail myself of a physical copy of ED O'BRIEN's psychedelic "Blue Morpho" album. I've been streaming to it constantly on That Bandcamp They Have Now (ever since Mr CBQ drew my attention to its existence), but I thought it was about time I laid out some shekels. Then I enjoyed a bus journey or two and some hot'n'sticky walkabouts. When I got home, the 'new' BRAND X live album "Theory Of Nothing" was waiting for me on the doormat, having travelled all the way from the MoonJune concern in Spain.
Back to some more PROMS... This lunchtime I enjoyed the Los Angeles Philharmonic doing a piece called "REVOLUCIÓN DIAMANTINA" by the Mexican composer GABRIELA ORTIZ. It sounded to these jaded ears like a curious cross between John Adams and Mike Oldfield! Then I'm giving HECTOR BERLIOZ's requiem "GRANDE MESSE DES MORTS" a go, a massive work which predates Mahler's "Symphony Of A Thousand" by several decades and which was surely an inspiration for the latter. (I once expressed the opinion that Berlioz invented the 'CONCEPT ALBUM', such is his way of painting a picture or depicting a narrative with pure music. He was definitely ahead of his time, anyway...)
Back to my AV-LINUX project... I'm booting up the lappy from my 'live' installation USB stick and I'm trying out some tweaks to the settings, while following the 'instructions' via the USERS' MANUAL saved on my tablet... The ol' MULTIPLE-SCREENS-AT-ONCE thingy! Mind you, some of the 'instructions' seem to be for a different version altogether, but I'm getting the gist! There is stuff in the manual that just ISN'T THERE (yet?), presumably not until you actually install it for real. Needless to say, there were a few moments of panic when I thought I'd screwed things up irreparably, but I think I'm gradually formulating an operating system that I'm comfortable with. I don't want to remove anything, but I do want to see what I can add, in the event that I decide to install AV LINUX on a new laptop. At this stage it's purely EXPERIMENTAL, as any modifications I make to the 'live' setup aren't permanent. They revert back to the default configuration once you reboot.
Here comes the weekend and here comes LA VUELTA!
Of particular interest lately have been some of the "PROMS ACROSS THE UK" concerts that are not even at the Albert Hall! For example, there was a transcendent performance of STEVE REICH's "Music For Eighteen Musicians", played in Bristol over the weekend, and MORTON FELDMAN's prolonged piece of 'nothing much happens' "CRIPPLED SYMMETRY", given an airing up in Gateshead.
I've also enjoyed an astonishing (and astonishingly good) performance of MAHLER's FIRST RACKET, played from memory by the Aurora Orchestra, and a very nice Spanish-themed evening (Ravel, de Falla, Bizet, Rodrigo, Tárrega etc). There's also been some fine works by THOMAS ADÈS dotted about the schedule. Today, I'm taking in last night's 'show', ESA-PEKKA SALONEN conducting a programme of STRAVINSKY, BERG and BARTÓK. All in all, this has proved to be a much better way to immerse oneself in all the GOOD stuff, filtering out all the POPulist crap that the Proms Season seems bundled with these days.
Something's gone a bit whacko with the Android version of the BLUESKY app... Whenever you have to update or change anything to your Bloosky presence, the chances are that you click on a button to open a pop-up DIALOG(ue) WINDOW. You fiddle about with some settings, then save the results. Fine. Except that the ones on MY screen aren't all there! The windows are cut short, as if the width of the frame has been set at too low a value for its contents. Any buttons on the right-hand side of the screen are thus hidden off the edge of the frame. For example, the 'PROFILE EDITOR' dialog is missing its 'SAVE' button. You can't add anyone to your curated LISTS any more, because - you guessed it! - you can't see the column of 'CONFIRM' buttons. The 'DELETE THIS POST' dialog DOES work, but it's a dead giveaway when you see that the long narrow button on that pop-up is somewhat truncated and off-centre. I have to resort to using the DESKTOP version for updating my AVATAR (via a browser on another device), as the Android version can't allow me to save it...
On Wednesday teatime, it's everyone outside to watch the SOLAR ECLIPSE... I failed to capture it on camera with any of my available devices. All I got was blur and lens flare. Electronic sensors can't look directly into the sun any better than human eyes can. But I managed to squint through my piece of smoked trout - sorry! GLASS, and see it clearly enough.
Week from Monday 17th August 2026 - After my routine visit to the General Obstacle, I hopped down to HMV in Commercial Road to finally avail myself of a physical copy of ED O'BRIEN's psychedelic "Blue Morpho" album. I've been streaming to it constantly on That Bandcamp They Have Now (ever since Mr CBQ drew my attention to its existence), but I thought it was about time I laid out some shekels. Then I enjoyed a bus journey or two and some hot'n'sticky walkabouts. When I got home, the 'new' BRAND X live album "Theory Of Nothing" was waiting for me on the doormat, having travelled all the way from the MoonJune concern in Spain.
Back to some more PROMS... This lunchtime I enjoyed the Los Angeles Philharmonic doing a piece called "REVOLUCIÓN DIAMANTINA" by the Mexican composer GABRIELA ORTIZ. It sounded to these jaded ears like a curious cross between John Adams and Mike Oldfield! Then I'm giving HECTOR BERLIOZ's requiem "GRANDE MESSE DES MORTS" a go, a massive work which predates Mahler's "Symphony Of A Thousand" by several decades and which was surely an inspiration for the latter. (I once expressed the opinion that Berlioz invented the 'CONCEPT ALBUM', such is his way of painting a picture or depicting a narrative with pure music. He was definitely ahead of his time, anyway...)
Back to my AV-LINUX project... I'm booting up the lappy from my 'live' installation USB stick and I'm trying out some tweaks to the settings, while following the 'instructions' via the USERS' MANUAL saved on my tablet... The ol' MULTIPLE-SCREENS-AT-ONCE thingy! Mind you, some of the 'instructions' seem to be for a different version altogether, but I'm getting the gist! There is stuff in the manual that just ISN'T THERE (yet?), presumably not until you actually install it for real. Needless to say, there were a few moments of panic when I thought I'd screwed things up irreparably, but I think I'm gradually formulating an operating system that I'm comfortable with. I don't want to remove anything, but I do want to see what I can add, in the event that I decide to install AV LINUX on a new laptop. At this stage it's purely EXPERIMENTAL, as any modifications I make to the 'live' setup aren't permanent. They revert back to the default configuration once you reboot.
Here comes the weekend and here comes LA VUELTA!
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