A Lark Ascending

Thanks, Mark. I'm really looking forward to this. The version of 'The Dolphin' on that disc is gorgeous. I wish Louis would tour a bit more over here. I'm planning another trip to Ireland next summer. Maybe I'll strike lucky in Dublin this time!

Those Villa discs are still quite hard to come by. I ordered two in September. The new one - 'Core Business' - came through immediately. But 'String Time' was not in stock and I'm still waiting. Hopefully a nice Xmas present!

I seem to recall all classical music sounded morbid to me before it clicked! VW2 goes from foggy London (with chimes of Big Ben) through the bustle of a London morning, a quiet wander round some of the calmer bits and back to something quite triumphant before sinking into the fog again. I could see how the slow movement might seem a bit gloomy to an unsympathetic ear. Another good gloomer is Holst's evocation of Hardy's 'Egdon Heath', complete with phantom morris dancers! The last movement of Mahler 6 is another good wrist-slasher. And how about the whole of Janacek's 'From the House of the Dead'? Or Richard Strauss' 'Elektra' or 'Salome.'

Compared with VW6 already mentioned it's positively celebratory. It has a bit of the old London fog about it at start and finish but I hardly hear it as dark. Brooding, perhaps, in places. VW4, by contast, is pretty bleak. Very much music written with the threat of WWII in the backround. Walton's First Symphony falls into that same area. Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem too. Frank Bridge's 'Oration' for cello and orchestra, in memory of the fallen of WWI, is another superb bleak piece. I suppose the Britten 'War Requiem' falls there too, though it does attempt some light at the end. Malcolm Arnold's symphonies have a quite different take on bleak - he suffers from terrible depression and has tried to take his own life (there's a family history of this). His music can be incredibly bright and tuneful; but he often deliberately subverts his best melodies with discordant interjections. His last symphony is a real downer!

It's been available at CD Baby for some time (though it goes out of stock regularly): http://cdbaby.com/found?allsearch=Jan+Joha...chsubmit=Search

It did. Try Apple Venus from just a few years back. It's as good as any of the others to my ears. Makes a pleasant appetite refresher between the jazz courses!

"Mummer" is a gorgeous album, but very, very English. Has virtually no connection to the punky XTC. As a listener with a strong affection for English folk it connected with me immediately (though it's far from a folk record). I can see why it might be mystifying to listeners expecting the more jittery earlier XTC; I prefer the widescreen, multilayered, richly melodic XTC of English Settlement, Mummer, Skylarking, Oranges and Lemons and Apple Venus.

I was just jealous, Rupe, having thought the €35 I paid was a bargain!

How strange. Accessed from here in the UK, Amazon.co.uk has it listed at £25.99 which is over $50. Whatever the cost (well, within reason!), it's a stunner.

Absolutely brilliant! Jazz CD of the year, as far as I'm concerned. I was lucky enough to see Atomic earlier this year with Ken Vandermark guesting on a few tunes. This CD grabs all the excitement of that gig. They have this ability to be on the edge and sometimes over the edge, yet lyrical and accessible. If you enjoyed 'Feet Music', 'Boom Boom' or the School Days discs jump at this without hesitation. My favourite band of the present. It's a limited edition. I can recommend CDon.com in Sweden as a good source. I ordered on a Sunday and had it by Wednesday after waiting for four months from a UK dealer with no action.

I recall seeing them too. Very, very different from how he plays now. Dunmall also played in Danny Thompson's folk-inflected band, Whatever, around that time. http://www.grunthos.demon.co.uk/whatever_next.htm

I got a high on 'virtuous non-believer' (Limbo) and 'heretic' (Level 6).

A great evening's TV with more to come tonight. The BBC are using it as an excuse to show lots of other Dylan stuff including 'Don't Look Back'. I was amazed at how articulate and linear Dylan was. This is the man who built a legend out of bamboozling interviewers with sphinx-like replies and deliberate false trails. The 'No Direction Home' CD is enthralling too.

I expect Andy's senses will be working overtime.

Back in my youth I got all my understanding of the USA from a programme called 'Wagon Train'. They got around in these: They also had this nifty thing called the Pony Express which was much more romantic than FedEx. Now surely it would be much easier to revive these than it was to invent them in the first place? Which would create an environmentally friendly way of going to see your in-laws, getting your Mosaics delvered etc. What is more wagons like the above are much more spacious than S.U.V.s. With a few solar panels you could have a sound system, DVDs for the kids etc. What is more, the family with an S.U.V. and four kids could have eight kids because there's so much more room. Which would mean there'd be no need for condoms. Which would please the Christian Right. Tomorrow I will solve the Middle East crisis.

From the XTC website: I don't know if Atomic Kitten mean anything in the US - they are a high-gloss pop band with very attractive members. I expect we'll be waiting a while for another XTC album! Andy is probably quite distracted.

On 8th June 2005 the average price for petrol in the UK was US$5.44 per US gallon. God knows what it is today. I have to fill my car (Peugeot 206 diesel) up about every 450 miles. It costs me around £35-40. Thats $60-$68. I know the difference is basically tax; but we do look a bit mystified when we watch the USA going into a tiz about the cost of fuel.

If you're talking LPs, you can send them to this address... ← Sorry. 'Twas a CD.

57 (That RCA box boosts the score somewhat). Easily the biggest pre-1945 showing in my collection (though Mozart can't be far behind!) .

Who keeps the tally? I'd be hard pushed to do that as well as tearing round a classroom actually doing the teaching! It clearly varies from school to school but in my school (working class but not inner city) you rarely get swearing inside a lesson. In the corridors, outside in the recreation areas, a different matter. I'd like to see how you keep a tally there!

You know what I'd jump to buy. 'I'll Fly Away' A wonderful series with Sam Waterson set in the South during the Civil Rights years. It was tucked away at some godforsaken hour on UK TV - I stumbled upon it and was gripped. I'd love to use some of the scenes in my teaching of Civil Rights. (and while we're at it 'Eyes on the Prize', the documentary, would be nice too. When I saw it in the 80s I knew little about the history of that time).

I can only wish well for any of you living in that area or with relatives there. It looks terrifying. I can't even imagine living somewhere where that sort of disaster is always threatening. We get a few inches of snow here and it's an emergency situation. I am intrigued by the way this is being covered in the UK, however. Top of the bill on the BBC News 24 channel. I don't recall the floods in India a few weeks back getting that coverage. I suppose the news people feel that we identify more with the USA than India.

I'll be blowed if I'm going to wish him a Happy Birthday. I've been sending him cards for nearly 50 years and never once has he said thank you.

I'm really disappointed that no-one has pitched in with a grumpy: 'Why do you need so many Miles recordings? You can't possibly listen to them all!'

I suspect you might get thrown out of the Organ Players Guild for referring to Messiaen as a page turner! He probably has a ruler to hand (or being a devout Catholic, one of those whips with knots in it), ready to whack her across the knuckles for every wrong note.