A Lark Ascending

The back garden at 7.15 am The back garden at 8.30 am Think it might just be stopping. Still a white sky but their are tints of blue behind. Could look spectacular later!

Yes, looks like some filters have been used. A bit Stephen King!

Most unlikely. Sent home early yesterday and it looks like all the schools are closed in Notts today. Very rare - I can only recall about ten days off for snow in 33 years! We might not be engaging directly with kids but like a lot of other professions I suspect, we'll be working from home. Remote computer access is a wonderful thing! It's amazing outside - I don't recall snow this deep before. I recall big falls in the past that hit the North, South West or the one that caused a huge jam on the M11 a few years back but we rarely get hit with more than a light dusting. These last two years have been exceptional. Feel very sorry for those who have to go out in this. Oh dear. The lights have started to flicker! I recall a frealk storm c.1990 when the power went down all over Notts and they had to call in the Irish electricity engineers for back-up. And it's still snowing.

Snowed all day here. Had to go to work but got sent home at midday. Still snowing now. Hoping for the magic 6.00 call tomorrow morning. It's as heavy as I can recall it in recent years. Some lovely photos like this: here

Half-way through this. Beautifully written story of a young woman reporter captured by the Vietcong. Superb passages about everything from riding in a military helicopter under fire, being out in the jungle, experiencing South Vietnamese police brutality and just everyday life in a war zone. Very impressed.

I spent some time there about 20 years back and went inside the house. As you say, highly evocative. Yes, I really enjoyed that. Like you, 'Owls' really got to me. Never heard it before. The one that really undid me was 'Sospiri' - I'd heard it before but never really clocked into it. God knows why as it's 5 minutes of utter heartbreak. The programme gave some idea why! There's actually less 'pomp & pagentry' in Elgar than you'd imagine - it just get played more often. He was actually a master of the dreamy tributary! Symphony No. 1, scherzo! I really enjoyed that Elgar programme as well. The kind of thing that BBC 2 used to do back in 'the good old days'. Have you read 'Electric Eden : Britain's Visionary Music' by Rob Young? It starts in the late 19th century with William Morris, Elgar etc and works through Vaughan Williams to the history of folk music, psychedelia etc. Very wide ranging and a bit wordy in parts but a fascinating read. I have - read most of it in Cornwall this summer, as it happens! I associate it with mackerel salad and beer! Enjoyed the unusual unusual leaps he made between the classical and folk world. Nice to see people like Moeran and Warlock get such space. I just found the ending unconvincing - his examples of who he saw as carrying the spirit up to date seemed random and missed almost completely the amazing English folk revival of the last 10-15 years. And how could he leave out XTC? As I recall he wasn't too keen on Elgar.

Yes, I really enjoyed that. Like you, 'Owls' really got to me. Never heard it before. The one that really undid me was 'Sospiri' - I'd heard it before but never really clocked into it. God knows why as it's 5 minutes of utter heartbreak. The programme gave some idea why! There's actually less 'pomp & pagentry' in Elgar than you'd imagine - it just get played more often. He was actually a master of the dreamy tributary! Symphony No. 1, scherzo!

I had the same problem a few weeks back when I was looking for versions of Ellington songs.

"Moeran's Last Symphony" Just noticed this BBC radio play broadcast last week. Around for 5 days on the replayer. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w236w

Far from a Xmas CD. But it ends with an utterly exquisite version of 'In the Bleak Midwinter', my favourite Xmas tune. There's also that Charlie Parker 'White Christmas' from the Royal Roost in '48. No doubt out in many different forms.

The Anita Wardell vocalise version on the wonderful 'Noted' is marvallous.

Nah! The real Wallender lies on the printed page and in our brains. Haven't seen the Swedish series but have read consistently good things. Didn't care for the Branagh series based on a couple of episodes. The usual British thing these days of trying to polish off a 400 page novel in 90 minutes. The perpetual worry that we might switch channels if they don't keep things moving.

Looks like the sleeve of one of those 70s Decca reissue LPs of 50s Sibelius recordings that I cut my teeth on. No new snowfall, but the light fall on Fri/Sat night is still there. Crystalline, blue skies, frozen ponds. Hoping I'm not heading for another frog massacre like last year!

The new pricing structure on e-music UK is a bit bizarre. I picked up a couple of Dave Liebman recordings (new issues) for less than £3 each. But they also seem to price by number of tracks. There's an ECM I was looking at with 28 tracks that costs £11. You can get it on i-Tunes for £8. Not sure they've thought this through properly! Still, plenty at a decent price to keep me onboard.

Ellington-a-thon 12 Blem 1972 [Duke Ellington] Blousons Noir 1963 [Duke Ellington] C-Jam Blues “C” Blues - Jam Session - Jump Blues - Duke’s Place - Circle Blues 1941 [Duke Ellington] I’m Hip Too 1967 [Duke Ellington] Just Scratchin’ The Surface New Trends In Music 1956 [Duke Ellington] Just Squeeze Me ( . . . But Please Don’t Tease Me) Subtle Slough 1946 [Duke Ellington/Lee Gaines] Misty Mornin’ 1928 [Duke Ellington/Arthur Whetsel] My Friend 1948 [Duke Ellington] Poco Mucho 1973 [Duke Ellington] Feetbone 1956 [Duke Ellington]

Hey Bill, Did you notice that because of the opera JRR is going to be 15 minutes longer!!!!! Has the BBC computer thrown a fit?

Bev, can't read that cover. What's the title, artist? Thanks. Jovino Santos Neto - Veja O Som (See The Sound)

Dusty Groove finally got a few copies in so I have one on the way to me. Report back please, Lon, when you get it. Seems yet to have to have made it this far.

Only listened to the first disc so far but this is very nice: A series of duets with people like: Joao Donato, Monica Salmaso, Teco Cardoso, Joyce Moreno, Paula Morelenbaum, Paquito D'Rivera, Bill Frisell, Mike Marshall, David Sanchez, Mike Marshall, Anat Cohen, Joe Locke and Airto Moreira. And others. One disc recorded in USA, one in Brazil.

Plus one in the nuclear fallout shelter we should all have dug in our back gardens.

The UK site has just changed from working by downloads to album pricing. They are honouring their existing members packages. I had a £39 200 download package. They are charging me the same £39 but crediting me £84 a month! I think I got a good deal. As yet the UK service doesn't have the major labels on board in the States but they are promising some major additions in the near future. I just wish they'd find a way to separate out the bargin basement releases from the newer releases/orthodox reissues. A sort of 'bin' equivalent where you can root around for a 20 greatest Louis Armstrong album among the many on offer! At the moment negotiating the new additions can be tiresome.

Very sad to hear that. And awed by your ability to stress the positive with your memories.

The river flow. Also: All 6 episodes on a hired DVD - my favourite recent UK series. And episode 2 of: The relationship between the two cops is developing nicely, both viewing the other as over-private.

Coming into jazz via the English version of jazz rock (Soft Machine, Matching Mole, Hatfield and the North etc) the sounds of electric instruments were pretty standard to my listening. If anything, I had to adjust to the sound of the acoustic piano trio which initially sounded quite 'square'. I've only the Scorpio record to go on but the sound of the e-p in particular just takes me back to the early, pre-polysynth era. Now if he'd also used a mellotron....