Random new users and stuff

My journal continues to attract Russian language readers. The latest (hello, fiorelli) seems to be based in Oxford, but writes in Russian. I assume it’s Russian – I am no expert, it doesn’t look like Greek, but it could be Klingon or even the Black Tongue of Mordor (which I believe responds well to penicillin).

Hello, then, fiorelli, please do not be offended that I do not add you back, but Russian (or Klingon) is all Double Dutch to me and as I’ve said elsewhere, even if I don’t comment on a journal, I like to feel that I can, should I feel so moved.

London continues to be unbearably hot and humid. Last night I finally managed to doze off only after some difficulty and because I had both a cool shower and then lay on the bed with a handy damp cloth to absorb the heat. It is getting beyond a joke; even the fan only circulates warm air around the place. This morning the High Road was already baking at 8.45. The weather forecast has this all set to continue until midweek when we should get thunder storms and then temperatures should drop off for a few days.

I do hope so; sleep would be nice – more precisely, a period of continued and uninterrupted sleep would be nice. I am fed up with feeling dog tired all the time.

Ah well, I guess I’d better get on and do something – there are things that need to be done whether I feel like doing them or not.

Does anyone have a set of infallible lottery numbers I can use next weekend? I feel like being wealthy but not like working for it.

Random new users and stuff

My journal continues to attract Russian language readers. The latest (hello, fiorelli) seems to be based in Oxford, but writes in Russian. I assume it’s Russian – I am no expert, it doesn’t look like Greek, but it could be Klingon or even the Black Tongue of Mordor (which I believe responds well to penicillin).

Hello, then, fiorelli, please do not be offended that I do not add you back, but Russian (or Klingon) is all Double Dutch to me and as I’ve said elsewhere, even if I don’t comment on a journal, I like to feel that I can, should I feel so moved.

London continues to be unbearably hot and humid. Last night I finally managed to doze off only after some difficulty and because I had both a cool shower and then lay on the bed with a handy damp cloth to absorb the heat. It is getting beyond a joke; even the fan only circulates warm air around the place. This morning the High Road was already baking at 8.45. The weather forecast has this all set to continue until midweek when we should get thunder storms and then temperatures should drop off for a few days.

I do hope so; sleep would be nice – more precisely, a period of continued and uninterrupted sleep would be nice. I am fed up with feeling dog tired all the time.

Ah well, I guess I’d better get on and do something – there are things that need to be done whether I feel like doing them or not.

Does anyone have a set of infallible lottery numbers I can use next weekend? I feel like being wealthy but not like working for it.

Not a music meme

Sometime last week, littleonions tagged me for a music meme. I don’t do memes as a rule, though I did have a go at the LJ Dungeon game. Anyway, largely because I am a contrary swine, I am not going to do the meme Ms Onions tagged me for, but I am going to ramble about something similar.

Over the weekend, I dug out and listened to a couple of albums that I rather enjoy but which for one reason or another, I haven’t listened to for ages. This started me thinking about songs, which I always enjoy listening to, but which never pop into my head when I am compiling one of my occasional "favourites of the day" lists, or which haven’t popped up on random play on my network Walkman for as long as I can remember. In no particular order, then:

"Maybe I’m Amazed" – Paul McCartney. From his first solo album, "McCartney" released in 1970. This is the Beatles song that never was, and though recorded solo (Macca played every instrument on the track), it was clearly run past Lennon at some point in its gestation as it shows every sign of the quality control that has often been lacking from McCartney’s solo work.

"And You Need Me" – Sandy Denny and the Strawbs. From the album, "All Our Own Work" (1973) by Sandy Denny and the Strawbs, and itself an edited re-release of an earlier, eponymous LP. In some ways a superior demo version of a track which was to be re-recorded a number of times, notably by Fairport Convention, there is a rawness and clarity about this version sung by a 19 year old Denny that I like, and which never quite comes across in later recordings.

"Year of the Cat" – Al Stewart. From the album of the same name. One of those albums and one of those tracks I have owned on vinyl, cassette tape and CD. A prog pop masterpiece.

"Mr Bojangles" – Sammy Davis Jr. From any number of live compilations. This had passed me by until a couple or three years ago, being a sort of lounge-country-folk-jazz melange. rumfuddle has a copy on a CD he put together for listening to on the road, and we have given this full lung and vocal chord a number of times whilst we got lost driving in Norfolk at the end of a November.

"Stranger on the Shore" – Acker Bilk. The first British recording to reach the number one spot on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1961. Smooth clarinet piece written for his daughter, I am lead to understand. Always reminds me of Sunday lunchtimes when I was a little kid.

"Wheels On Fire" – Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity. You probably know it best as the theme to Absolutely Fabulous, which is an odd fate for a classic soft jazz treatment of a Bob Dylan song. Not really much to say about the track itself other than I love it, and recommend this version from 1968, not any of those mangled for the TV show at Jennifer Saunders’ instigation.

I seem to have run out of steam on this.

Time to do something else.

Not a music meme

Sometime last week, littleonions tagged me for a music meme. I don’t do memes as a rule, though I did have a go at the LJ Dungeon game. Anyway, largely because I am a contrary swine, I am not going to do the meme Ms Onions tagged me for, but I am going to ramble about something similar.

Over the weekend, I dug out and listened to a couple of albums that I rather enjoy but which for one reason or another, I haven’t listened to for ages. This started me thinking about songs, which I always enjoy listening to, but which never pop into my head when I am compiling one of my occasional "favourites of the day" lists, or which haven’t popped up on random play on my network Walkman for as long as I can remember. In no particular order, then:

"Maybe I’m Amazed" – Paul McCartney. From his first solo album, "McCartney" released in 1970. This is the Beatles song that never was, and though recorded solo (Macca played every instrument on the track), it was clearly run past Lennon at some point in its gestation as it shows every sign of the quality control that has often been lacking from McCartney’s solo work.

"And You Need Me" – Sandy Denny and the Strawbs. From the album, "All Our Own Work" (1973) by Sandy Denny and the Strawbs, and itself an edited re-release of an earlier, eponymous LP. In some ways a superior demo version of a track which was to be re-recorded a number of times, notably by Fairport Convention, there is a rawness and clarity about this version sung by a 19 year old Denny that I like, and which never quite comes across in later recordings.

"Year of the Cat" – Al Stewart. From the album of the same name. One of those albums and one of those tracks I have owned on vinyl, cassette tape and CD. A prog pop masterpiece.

"Mr Bojangles" – Sammy Davis Jr. From any number of live compilations. This had passed me by until a couple or three years ago, being a sort of lounge-country-folk-jazz melange. rumfuddle has a copy on a CD he put together for listening to on the road, and we have given this full lung and vocal chord a number of times whilst we got lost driving in Norfolk at the end of a November.

"Stranger on the Shore" – Acker Bilk. The first British recording to reach the number one spot on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1961. Smooth clarinet piece written for his daughter, I am lead to understand. Always reminds me of Sunday lunchtimes when I was a little kid.

"Wheels On Fire" – Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity. You probably know it best as the theme to Absolutely Fabulous, which is an odd fate for a classic soft jazz treatment of a Bob Dylan song. Not really much to say about the track itself other than I love it, and recommend this version from 1968, not any of those mangled for the TV show at Jennifer Saunders’ instigation.

I seem to have run out of steam on this.

Time to do something else.