mintybloggydiarythingy 2.0

Week from Monday 18th September 2023 - Sticking with the "GOOD ORCHESTRA/BAD ORCHESTRA" theme... There was a corking rendition of MAHLER's THIRD RACKET on the wireless last night. The Lucerne Festival Orchestra was conducted by Paavo Jarvi, a billing which didn't look too enticing on paper, but it turned out to be beautifully played and well recorded. I always judge performances of the Third by how clear and present the "O MENSCH!" and "BIM! BAM!" movements sound coming out of the speakers, and these were delightful. I've lost count of how many versions I've heard spoilt by a sub-standard jobbing contralto or an over-zealous kiddychoir. Incidentally, considering how joyful it SOUNDS at times, the symphony is in 'D minor', Tufnell's so-called "SADDEST OF ALL KEYS"... ALSO... a biggly big-up for the SIMON BOLIVAR SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, who wowed the Edinburgh Festival a while back, with a con...

Week from Monday 11th September 2023 - I was all prepared to ease back into TRAVELLING this Wednesday, but something 'clicked' and I'm now finding it even harder to breathe when moving about. I contacted the NHS's '111 ONLINE' thingy, and the invisible doctor advised me to take a codeine-based painkiller, as well as arranging for a CHEST X-RAY at some point... I also find myself having to sleep on my back for the first time ever. My customary foetal position is not at all comfortable (understatement!) I've been perusing the various medical journal websites, to learn of the latest thinking about LONG COVID and the NEW VARIANT STRAINS (If you want to know the FACTS, then read what the medical practitioners have to say, not some government spokesbot!) Naturally, I skipped over all the REALLY deep, alphanumerically heavy scientific data, but I gleaned enough to discover that a lot of that all-important HAND-GEL usage and routine cleaning of tabletops that wa...

I started keeping an online diary (after many years of doing it on paper) in 2003, twenty years ago this week. In the early days, I used an archaic little M****soft program(me) called FRONT PAGE EXPRESS to compose my thoughts, and uploaded them to the free dial-up account I was using at the time. Later, when broadband came along, and I'd learned a bit of HTML along the way(!), things got a tad more fancy. For many years, my website was hosted by an American company called COFFEECUP, who offered a free 'guest' service, including free versions of both their HTML editor and FTP programs. But last year, they stopped supporting those, and expected users to purchase the full-price versions. None of their own software will work on anything except WINDOZE. So I found myself locked out of being able to access my own files. I went OFFLINE: I saved a version of the full archive site on my own harddrive, but it's no longer visible to the public (I'm not sure if anyone ever lo...

Week from Monday 28th August 2023 - There was a magnificent performance of MAHLER's NINTH at the Proms last night, surely a season's HIGHLIGHT of some sort, as the rest of it has been so run-of-the-mill this year! Not suprisingly though, as it was another of SIR SIMON RATTLE's 'FAREWELL' gigs, this being the 'LAST' time he conducts the London Symphony Orchestra as its Principal Conductor. Which I thought he'd ALREADY done at the Barbican earlier in the year!?! Or was that his last one as Musical Director? And what about the European tour they're starting the very next day after the Albert bash? Then he'll be back to drill them again, but as a guest 'emeritus' conductor. And that's on top of his new job in Bavaria. So no changes at all really, apart from the number of zeros on his contract? As he often does with Mahler, Si waved on the entire thing without a score in front of him. It's probably one of ol' Gustav's most...

What's on the Jukebox? - A playlist of top stuff that's currently setting the toes a-tappin', the fingers a-snappin' and the ears a-wormin' and generally shakin' my grooved thang to thrillin' effect. (Click on the wee lozenges to link to related YouTube clips, if you're curious.) An Chang Project "Monkey Harmonising Songs" ◊ Various Artists "Plus From Us" ◊ Yes "Relayer" ◊ Gustav Mahler "Symphony No.9" ◊ Tom Waits "Frank's Wild Years" (a.o.) ◊

Week from Monday 21st August 2023 - The COVIDian Bugs done got me! Sore throat, coughing, shortness of breath, fatigue, joint pain... you can see where I'm going with this. I don't think I'll be doing any travelling THIS week... I haven't taken a test, 'cos it's already fairly obvious what it is, without paying out (coughing up?) for something that is a fairly hit'n'miss procedure anyway (plus I'd have to go out in public in order to get one!). Those home-testing kits have an equal chance of giving you FALSE POSITIVES or FALSE NEGATIVES, especially with any new strains and variants that are about, for which they were never designed to detect. I know of a married couple who both recently went down with EXACTLY the same symptoms. Both took the test at the same time. HE was "negative", SHE was "positive". Go figure. Anyway, I think I shall be STAYING IN even more than usual, if that's at all possible! I might dedicate the tim...

Week from Monday 14th August 2023 - The UCI CYCLING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS up that Scotland have now drawn to a close, with Sunday's brutal but exciting ELITE WOMEN'S ROAD RACE being a fitting finale. Real pro-cycling FANATICS (i.e. folks who are willing and able to watch everything on Eurosport and the like) won't have time to suffer any withdrawal symptoms though. This week, there are at least five different stage races going on somewhere in the world, all at the same time! Of course, I'll be content to follow the 'stories' on Twitter. In particular, the DANISH contingent seem to be having a right old time cycling in their own 'TOUR' on home soil. There's yet another 'new' version of the KCrim's "LARKS' TONGUES IN ASPIC" album coming out. This is where I must draw the line. I mean, it's a bit special and all, but how many times do they want us to keep buying the SAME music in different formats? As far as I'm co...