mintybloggydiarythingy 2.0

Week from Monday 7th July 2025 - Another week for clearing up a few overdue 'MUSIC PROJECTS', mostly stuff to go on the "Miles-Related" MP3 disc... I've also initiated a new 'THON on my soshul meejer. I'm attempting to play EVERY CD or TAPE in (what I have of) the REAL WORLD RECORDS catalogue, in chronological order. And with a lot of 'fake news' circulating about there being a "NEW KING CRIMSON STUDIO ALBUM", I dug out the mix CD that I did a while back, of all the 'new' material from the Seven Headed Beast's live albums. I should really get around to printing a cover for it! But first I have to GO OUT... I've combined my routine Tuesday Poundlanding with a trip up to the hozzy for a routine blood test. I don't think this involved any more footslogging than usual, but I'm somehow left with VERY sore feet this morning. This might be because my BLOOD PRESSURE seems to have dipped a bit lately. We'll see what t...

Week from Monday 23rd June 2025 - No 'OFFICIAL BUSINESS' on the cards this week, so I can tackle a handful of 'MUSIC PROJECTS'. DGMLIVE.com have now released all of the shows from the KING CRIMSON 2015 tour as downloads, so I have availed myself of the BRIGHTON DOME concert that we attended (almost TEN years ago!?). But rather than do a 'double CD set' of the whole thing, I'm assembling one of my famous 'SINGLE DISC HIGHLIGHTS' 'listening' seedies, while also archiving the unedited show in its entirety as an MP3 disc. I'm also getting around to giving some MILES DAVIS live recordings the attention they deserve. They'd been sitting on the harddrive for who-knows-how-long? Audio quality is not of the essence, so I'll probably assemble those onto a MP3 disc. Then I have a good quality 'naughty' recording from the time when JOHN McLAUGHLIN and his 4th Dimension Band toured the Americas with JIMMY HERRING's Invisible Whi...

Week from Monday 16th June 2025 - For once, I have no actual NEED to go anywhere this week; no pressing MEDICAL or vitally important FINANCIAL visits. Which is nice. But the WEATHER is rather spiffing at the moment, so it would be a shame to waste it. A DAZE-OUT to a 'different' shopping centre is called for. I hopped on a train to EASTLEIGH. Not the most picturesque of settings, I'll grant you. But I do recall that there are a goodly number of CHARITY SHOPS on its streets, so the browsing's often good. It is also the home to one of the best "FURNITURE & ELECTRICALS" branches, so plenty to ponder over. RESULT!!! I now have a 'new' CASSETTE DECK, a PIONEER CT-S609R, to replace my dead Yamaha. It's packed with interesting features that I'm probably never going to use, but most importantly, it SOUNDS splendid through my amp. I have a couple of quality cassettes that I usually favour for 'testing' tape machines, namely RICHARD THOMPS...

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 ...

Week from Monday 26th May 2025 - Going into the third week of the GIRO D'ITALIA, it's still pretty unpredictable (GOOD!). The GC has been changing on a daily basis. PRIMOŽ ROGLIČ has lost far too much time to be a contender now (STOP PRESS: He's abandoned!). Our own GIULIO CICCONE was involved in a bigly crash over the weekend, so sadly he had to retire. With over a hundred points lead over his nearest rival, MADS PEDERSEN already has the CICLOMINA JERSEY competition pretty much sewn up anyway (hasn't he?). But with little else to ride for, the LiDL-TREK lads are free to just aim for individual STAGES. CARLOS VERONA went successfully 'solo' on Sunday. With SIX stage wins in total (so far), the squad must surely qualify for some sort of BEST TEAM EFFORT award if there is one...? Generally though, by the final (anticlimactic) week of ANY Grand Tour, I've stopped caring about who's winning it and I just enjoy the spectacle. (In this case, I'm doubly en...

Week from Monday 19th May 2025 - The BBC was celebrating a "WELLBEING WEEK", whatever that's supposed to be. As is my habit, I tuned in at seven o'clock for the "RADIO 3 MIXTAPE". It's usually a nice place to 'wind down' for half-an-hour, but I was bombarded by something from a bloody awful STEPHEN SONDHEIM musical, immediately followed by a BAGPIPES version of "Auld Lang Syne". I dived for the off-switch, for the sake of my own 'WELLBEING'! Besides, whenever the Beeb pretends to get all new-agey-touchy-feely, who are they trying to convince?!? 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$ø f T 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 m...

Week from Monday 5th May 2025 - I dug out a bunch of CDs which, although they "HAVE THEIR MOMENTS", don't get played much at all these days, and rarely all the way through:- Turn-of-the-seventies stuff like ANDWELLA'S DREAM, COLOSSEUM and LOCOMOTIVE... So before I add them to the "LET OXFAM HAVE IT!" pile, I'm compiling an all-encompassing mix CD of 'THE GOOD BITS', with the working title "SONGS FROM THE GREAT PURGE". Only one necessary outing this week... The GP PRACTICE invited me (via a TEXT, as is their wont) to take an "ANNUAL" BLOOD TEST, even though I've explained that I already do a couple of tests every month as it is! Anyway, I conceded to give them another armful. I think it's mainly to ascertain ones CHOLESTEROL levels, but that should also save me another visit to the hospital before my next PAMIDRONATE fix. On Friday, just for the heck of it, I went for a bus ride to Portsmouth. I spent an hour or two ...