A Lark Ascending

Now all we need is for the BBC and the Arts Council to notice! I use a textbook on Civil Rights that mentions Bitches Brew and the sleeve designs of 70s Miles albums.

Feeling guilty that I must have killed this thread:

Well, the Worksop Guardian comes through my letterbox. But that's mainly ads. As for my heart - an early 70s copy of the NME, if I'm honest.

If Tracey Emin had done that she'd have been paid for it - 'a radical challenge to the establishment, encapsulating the frisson of 21stC human alienation.'

Should we have a pinned 'Household Repairs' thread? Could incorporate cleaning products too.

I'll cope. I'm full of Vim.

Make sure you check they take steps to put a device on the condensate pipe that kicks in in sub-zero temperatures. I had a new boiler 3 years back - it's brilliant except when the temperature drops below zero. Then the liquid in the condensate pipe freezes and the boiler shuts down as a safety measure. So I have a central heating system that turns off when it gets really cold (6 days over last Xmas)! A few days the winter before. They are coming to put a widget in in February (£300!) which will hopefully solve this. Praying the weather keeps mild till then! Common problem with new boilers - the engineer told me it was the main reason for callout last winter. All explained here: http://www.britishgas.co.uk/condensate-pipe.html

Yes, Bev. How's it going? 5 1/2 weeks before the next one!

Try the cleaning products BillF mentioned from the ads.

Oooooooh...fwiw (although I guess it's the week after half term, rather than the week of the break!) - we're doing this in London a few days before the Milan gig listed here...hopefully some of the Spirits Rejoice era tunes!!! That looks wonderful! Sadly, a bit out of reach for me. Sheffield Crucible is a nice venue!

I've loved all her other books but this one passed me by. Playing with literary theory - books within books so you were never too sure which voice was the overall narration. Trying too hard to be clever. Her third book. In some ways just your standard cop fiction but made more interesting by the strong sense of place on the north Norfolk coast. Another good 'tec series. Set in Marseilles. More in the nasty, brutal gangster family mould. Good yarn. Loving this one. Set on the north Cornish coast. Sets off my cravings!

You need to at least an earl to enjoy that dish.

Rumour has it that this is now Britain's favourite dish: Ask teenagers and they'll say:

Probably only lasted a few gigs but one of the best concerts I ever attended was a version of Spirits' Rejoice made up of Keith Tippett, Evan Parker, Paul Rutherford, Jason Yarde, Louis Moholo and Paul Rogers. If only they had made it to a studio.

And your problem is?

Drama based around the Japanese capture of Nanking in 1937. Read a book about this a few years back and it must have been one of the most harrowing books I've ever read. The film has a Schindler's List approach - shot in black and white, seeing things through the focus on a number of characters. Not easy to watch.

January 1st. Everything in the garden should be dead. But there are various climbers still with leaves; and the buds are already appearing on the trees. At this rate the frogs will be going for it in the pond in a fortnight.

Happy New Year, y'all.

The supposed Davis/Ellington exchange is mentioned here in a Tony Bennett interview. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=wScEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA52&lpg=PA52&dq=Duke+Ellington+Clive+Davis&source=bl&ots=DNhd0s1M3Z&sig=kdfrC7zFoFs59dyW6ztxzptPP_8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=atn-TozsE8vR8QOJwKFi&ved=0CDQQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Duke%20Ellington%20Clive%20Davis&f=false He seems to be citing from a Judy Collins book. Hearsay, it seems.

Good to know she'll be able to listen to her Sex Pistols mp3s without disturbing Philip.

Auld Lang Syne. I'm a rebel.

Southerner!!!! That's the nicest thing anyone has said to me in a long time!

Maybe among hardcore jazz fans... but if you look here it seems many listeners consider it to be his "best" album. Probably because it has quite clearly defined 'tunes' (or attractive chord progressions) that make it easy for a general listener to get a grip on. I still wonder how many of the germs were plucked out of thin air; how far he had them stored up to use. It appeared at just the right time. I suspect many young listeners, like myself at the time (about 20), were wearying of rock and its hard and fast beat; yet the likes of Bill Evans still sounded 'old-fashioned' (a perception at the time, not a judgement on the music) and the likes of Chopin and Rachmaninov too fusty. Jarrett offered something that seemed free-wheeling, unencumbered with a regular beat yet with the melodic interest that most listeners need. I came to his solo music via Facing You and Bremen/Lausanne so Koln was not the surprise that many heard. Listening back I can appreciate the criticisms - if you'd been listening to Paul Bley, Mal Waldron or Andrew Hill than Jarrett would definitely sound over-perfumed. I can still enjoy Jarrett - including Koln - as part of a broad, balanced diet because that was my entry point.

I think you'll find that's the orthodox interpretation. Reading one of Gary Giddin's books a few years back I was amused by how much Jarrett's Romanticism had got under his skin, endlessly needling him.