First a bit of context. I am 55 years old, I was born in 1953 and musically I’m a child of the 60s. My favoured genres are Psychedelic, Soul and (dare I admit it) Country. I am still a big music fan and have 40 odd years of fandom and listening to music to look back on. I like melody, it’s much more important to me than lyrics, and I’m moved by music that touches me emotionally. I was brought up in the industrial North East of England and now live in Nottingham in the English Midlands. I’ve been in full time paid employment for 30 odd years and am married with a 23 year old son.
Michael is 32 years old. He describes himself as a student and Gen X slacker extraordinaire He likes Rock and Country (hurrah), and would appear to favour lyrics over melody. He lives in NW Indiana, USA.
Not a lot in common then except a sneaking respect for the good ole boys of country music. Let’s see what his Shuffleathon CD holds in store.
1) Stop, I’m already dead – Deadboy & the Elephantmen (Dax Riggs) – shouty rock music with unsubtle drumming. Guy’s voice (Deadboy?) sounds a bit flat to me. Not for me.*
2) Fort Hood – Mike Doughty. Samples “Let the Sun Shine in” from the 60s musical “Hair”. Quite melodic, decent lyrics, don’t mind this one at all. Again voice somewhat on the flat side. ***
3) Easy Money – Todd Snider. Quite like it but unmemorable. Flat again although I like the overall tone of the guy’s voice. **
4) Not a crime – Gogol Bordello. Very recognisably Eastern European in origin. I know this band and I like them a lot. Gypsy Punk is a good description, lots of manic fiddle playing. Eugene Hutz the lead singer tends to almost shout over the backing track but it works for me. Best track so far by a country mile.****
5) Good Riddance (Time of your life) – Glen Campbell. Now you’re talking! You will see from previous posts that I saw Glen Campbell at the Royal Festival Hall recently; his is a voice that affects me on an emotional level. Listen to his golden clear voice and he’s bang on the note! Vocalists from tracks 1, 2 and 3 please take note!*****
6) Lonesome Blues – Shooter Jennings. Lovely, great pedal steel guitar, again voice bang on the note. I’ve always been a sucker for decent country music. ****
7) Snuff – Slipknot. Not what I was expecting from the tracklisting! My son was a big fan when he was a teenager (he’s now 23) so I heard a bit of their stuff around the house when he still lived here, as Mike describes them a loud metal band. This could almost be described as a power ballad – good guitar playing and very clear vocals, with a power chorus. ***
8) Heart of Matters – Ben Harper. Familiar territory again, I own some Ben Harper stuff. Seems like he’s trying to do Soul on the track, doesn’t do a bad job either, though he’s no Al Green.***
9) Best Damn Fool – Buddy Guy. He could indeed have been bigger than Hendrix. This is great, the man is a legend. He’s a great guitar player and I love those horns. *****
10) Coma – Buckethead with Azam Ali and Serj Tankian. Start reminds me of “Tubular Bells” by Mike Oldfield. I’m going to damn this with faint praise – quite nice. Music to eat Middle Eastern food by. ***
11) Nowhere to go – Mushroomhead. What’s with all this head business? (See previous artist). No No No. Please just go.*
12) The Outsider – A Perfect Circle. Sorry Mike not my scene. *
13) Doesn’t remind me – Audioslave. Better, but I doubt I’ll be rushing out to buy the album. **
14) Heaven’s a lie – Lacuna Coil. Italian Gothic Metal! Has some style about it, like Milan where the band hails from. As you’ve probably guessed rock is not my favoured musical genre but I headbanged along to this , the female lead singer has a good tuneful voice.***
15) Would ?– Alice in Chains. I like the sound of the harmonies in this. Drumming too prominent IMHO but that’s a rock thang. ***
16) Zzyxx Road – Stone Sour. Another power ballad from a Slipknot side project. The guy has a decent voice. I also like the piano but again spoiled by me by over prominent drumming.***
17) 10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2) – Tool. Mike says that he thinks this is one of the best songs ever written, and he wrote quite a long explanation putting the song in context and also forwarded me the lyrics. I’m really glad he did because otherwise I would have just listened and not “got” it – with the explanation I do get it. I’m not going to go into the full details but I’d just say that as the mother of a (sometimes troubled) young man, this to me is a moving piece of music. ****
Thanks very much Michael, I’ve enjoyed listening to and reviewing your CD even if quite a lot of it left me cold. It made me think about why I like particular types of music and how my brain processes what it hears - I also realised that it almost physically hurts my brain when people sing flat. But I’m not going to become a rock aficionado overnight, that’s for sure.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Friday, November 28, 2008
The Typealyzer
http://www.typealyzer.com/index.php?lang=en
ESFP - The Performers
The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves. The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.
Blimey! When I've done Myers-Briggs tests in the past I've come out as an ISTJ - could hardly be more different. I guess I'm definitely sensing then. It also shows that your writing style can be quite different from your basic personality. Hey ho.
ESFP - The Performers
The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves. The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.
Blimey! When I've done Myers-Briggs tests in the past I've come out as an ISTJ - could hardly be more different. I guess I'm definitely sensing then. It also shows that your writing style can be quite different from your basic personality. Hey ho.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
I've been to a few gigs recently....
I have! I had a fortnight off work and did the "Not the Baby Lemonade Tour" for a start. I had non-cancellable hotel rooms in London and York, so I went anyway. My brother lives in London and my darling son Jim lives in York, so I caught up with them. I then got off the train that was going to take me to Edinburgh at Newcastle and spent a few days with the lovely Lizzy B and her family. Then home again for a few days and Lizzy came down from Newcastle to Nottingham for a couple of nights.
This is what I saw:
Glenn Campbell at the Royal Festival Hall - surprisingly moving, beautiful voice. I've always loved his version of "Wichita Lineman". He seemed to be getting a bit absent minded but he is in his seventies now, his daughter did backing vocals and a couple of duets with him. He had a great band including a cracking steel guitar player.
Mercy & Grand: the Tom Waits Project at the Sage, Gateshead - opera singer from Opera North and an eclectic band of musicians. Very different from stuff I usually see but really memorable.
Feeder at Rock City, Nottingham - a friend had two tickets at short notice so Lizzy and I went along - RC absolutely packed to the gunnels with young folks. A sticky floored physically uncomfortable rock gig - not as bad as it sounds.
Al Green / Gabrielle at NIA, Birmingham - the day that it decided to snow in the West Midlands. Fantastic evening - Gabrielle was an unexpected bonus. Al Green had a brilliant band, 14 people on stage in total including two young male loose-limbed dancers and a horn section to die for. The Rev Al was brilliant, he didn't seem to have lost any of his vocal range and he sure knows how to work a crowd. Not a full venue but a pretty good turn out.
Martha Wainwright at Rock City, Nottingham - another Monday evening, another friend ringing up to see if I wanted to go to a gig at short notice - the answer was a definite yes. Good gig - I haven't the reviewing skills of Mike or Swiss Toni, both of whom were also there, so I've handily provided links to their sites.
Coming up - Leonard Cohen on 22nd November - and Take That in June 2009!! Yes. I spent Friday morning on the internet after tickets came on sale and am off to Sunderland! Yey!!
This is what I saw:
Glenn Campbell at the Royal Festival Hall - surprisingly moving, beautiful voice. I've always loved his version of "Wichita Lineman". He seemed to be getting a bit absent minded but he is in his seventies now, his daughter did backing vocals and a couple of duets with him. He had a great band including a cracking steel guitar player.
Mercy & Grand: the Tom Waits Project at the Sage, Gateshead - opera singer from Opera North and an eclectic band of musicians. Very different from stuff I usually see but really memorable.
Feeder at Rock City, Nottingham - a friend had two tickets at short notice so Lizzy and I went along - RC absolutely packed to the gunnels with young folks. A sticky floored physically uncomfortable rock gig - not as bad as it sounds.
Al Green / Gabrielle at NIA, Birmingham - the day that it decided to snow in the West Midlands. Fantastic evening - Gabrielle was an unexpected bonus. Al Green had a brilliant band, 14 people on stage in total including two young male loose-limbed dancers and a horn section to die for. The Rev Al was brilliant, he didn't seem to have lost any of his vocal range and he sure knows how to work a crowd. Not a full venue but a pretty good turn out.
Martha Wainwright at Rock City, Nottingham - another Monday evening, another friend ringing up to see if I wanted to go to a gig at short notice - the answer was a definite yes. Good gig - I haven't the reviewing skills of Mike or Swiss Toni, both of whom were also there, so I've handily provided links to their sites.
Coming up - Leonard Cohen on 22nd November - and Take That in June 2009!! Yes. I spent Friday morning on the internet after tickets came on sale and am off to Sunderland! Yey!!
Friday, September 26, 2008
The Quarter After
In my head, its 1968. For a couple of hours on Tuesday evening, it felt like the rest of me was there as well.
Mike Randle emailed me from Truetone Guitar shop in Santa Monica a week or so ago(verbatim):
1/4 after at Chameloen
BJM guitarist, Rob, is sat here with me at shop. Check his band put in Nhill if you can Mike
My email back to Mike:
Hi Mike
Sorry don't know what you mean.
My next email back to Mike:
http://www.thecommitteetokeepmusicevil.com/tour.asp
Found it! The Chameleon isn't a venue I'm familiar with, I'll look it up. It must be a new one
So I set off Tuesday evening for the Chameleon in Nottingham. Above Clinton Cards shop in the Old Market Square, next door to the Bell. A little cafe-bar on the first floor with a function room on the second floor. I paid my 6 quid for a ticket - buggar the credit crunch!
Now I'd figured out in the interval between the emails and Tuesday that I'd already met Rob Campanella, lead guitarist of the Quarter After, with Scottish Keith Stoddart and Lizzy in a pub in Newcastle before we went to a Brian Jonestown Massacre gig a couple of years back, that's his other band. So I recognised him. He was in the cafe-bar part on his mobile (cell phone for the benefit of my US readers). I went over and introduced myself as friend of the aforesaid Mike Randle and had a chat with him -nice guy.
Things seemed a tad anarchic and it seemed it was going to be a while before the bands were going to be on - my six quid actually bought me three bands - Dom Keller, a local outfit, Quarter After, from LA, and Asteroid 4, from Philadelphia. After a while I moved upstairs and that was when the time travelling experience really kicked off. The room was pretty small, the walls were covered in these wild surreal paintings, the windows were hung with sheets and it reminded me of student flats from back in the day when I was a young person of the hippy persuasion. Wow - far out!
Dom Keller were first on and they put on a creditable psychedelic performance. I've looked up their MySpace page and they are real 60s fans. I understand they put the gig on as well, great stuff. All this time the various member of the two US bands were hanging around, exotic creatures for a dull Nottingham Tuesday evening. I sat down on a sofa for a while and Victor, the QA bassist came and sat next to me and promptly fell asleep - jet lag I guess. The audience was small (it needed to be, its a small place) but very appreciative.
Then it was time for the Quarter After, following a long period of setting up / tuning up - they needed it, as Rob and his brother Dom play a range of different instruments - this was their first gig after flying over and those planes play havoc with your tuning.
They were outstanding. Two / three guitars (at times the keyboard player was on guitar as well as Dom and Rob), bass and drums. Close harmonies from Dom and Rob - you know that thing about siblings singing together - Everley Brothers etc - the sound was spine tingling. My best comparison would be to the Byrds - jingle-jangle Rickenbacker and sweet harmonies. I loved it, and it moved my head in the way only great music can. I b0ught the album from the merch stand for £7 (a bargain) and it sounds as good as the live performance.
I left before Asteroid 4 as it was pretty late by then., work the next day A quick word with Rob to express my appreciation, then forward 40 years and home. I think I'll be seeing these guys again.
Mike Randle emailed me from Truetone Guitar shop in Santa Monica a week or so ago(verbatim):
1/4 after at Chameloen
BJM guitarist, Rob, is sat here with me at shop. Check his band put in Nhill if you can Mike
My email back to Mike:
Hi Mike
Sorry don't know what you mean.
My next email back to Mike:
http://www.thecommitteetokeepmusicevil.com/tour.asp
Found it! The Chameleon isn't a venue I'm familiar with, I'll look it up. It must be a new one
So I set off Tuesday evening for the Chameleon in Nottingham. Above Clinton Cards shop in the Old Market Square, next door to the Bell. A little cafe-bar on the first floor with a function room on the second floor. I paid my 6 quid for a ticket - buggar the credit crunch!
Now I'd figured out in the interval between the emails and Tuesday that I'd already met Rob Campanella, lead guitarist of the Quarter After, with Scottish Keith Stoddart and Lizzy in a pub in Newcastle before we went to a Brian Jonestown Massacre gig a couple of years back, that's his other band. So I recognised him. He was in the cafe-bar part on his mobile (cell phone for the benefit of my US readers). I went over and introduced myself as friend of the aforesaid Mike Randle and had a chat with him -nice guy.
Things seemed a tad anarchic and it seemed it was going to be a while before the bands were going to be on - my six quid actually bought me three bands - Dom Keller, a local outfit, Quarter After, from LA, and Asteroid 4, from Philadelphia. After a while I moved upstairs and that was when the time travelling experience really kicked off. The room was pretty small, the walls were covered in these wild surreal paintings, the windows were hung with sheets and it reminded me of student flats from back in the day when I was a young person of the hippy persuasion. Wow - far out!
Dom Keller were first on and they put on a creditable psychedelic performance. I've looked up their MySpace page and they are real 60s fans. I understand they put the gig on as well, great stuff. All this time the various member of the two US bands were hanging around, exotic creatures for a dull Nottingham Tuesday evening. I sat down on a sofa for a while and Victor, the QA bassist came and sat next to me and promptly fell asleep - jet lag I guess. The audience was small (it needed to be, its a small place) but very appreciative.
Then it was time for the Quarter After, following a long period of setting up / tuning up - they needed it, as Rob and his brother Dom play a range of different instruments - this was their first gig after flying over and those planes play havoc with your tuning.
They were outstanding. Two / three guitars (at times the keyboard player was on guitar as well as Dom and Rob), bass and drums. Close harmonies from Dom and Rob - you know that thing about siblings singing together - Everley Brothers etc - the sound was spine tingling. My best comparison would be to the Byrds - jingle-jangle Rickenbacker and sweet harmonies. I loved it, and it moved my head in the way only great music can. I b0ught the album from the merch stand for £7 (a bargain) and it sounds as good as the live performance.
I left before Asteroid 4 as it was pretty late by then., work the next day A quick word with Rob to express my appreciation, then forward 40 years and home. I think I'll be seeing these guys again.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Baby Lemonade tour cancelled
Boo hoo! I'm pretty gutted quite frankly, I was really looking forward to the guys being over here in the Autumn. Tickets not selling well presumably, couldn't afford to take the financial risk, which I can quite understand. Strange financial times these, as I know only too well from my day job.
Time to regroup.
Time to regroup.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
The Big Read
Via Lisa Rullsenburg .
The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated. (I see no reason to restrict ‘books I hated’ to school - there are only a couple of books on the list I really disliked, and neither of them was a school text.)
5) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve only read 6 and force books upon them.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 The Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks - started and will never funish
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - will never read, read another of his and hated it!!
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks.
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
73 read in my case - quite a lot I guess, I am a pretty prolific reader. There's nothing unread on the list that I feel a burning need to read - my exposure to the classics is limited but through choice not omission. Couldn't figure out how to strike out so have put comments beside a couple of books that I have no intention of ever reading or finishing in one case. Birdsong - left me completely cold.
The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated. (I see no reason to restrict ‘books I hated’ to school - there are only a couple of books on the list I really disliked, and neither of them was a school text.)
5) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve only read 6 and force books upon them.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 The Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks - started and will never funish
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - will never read, read another of his and hated it!!
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks.
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
73 read in my case - quite a lot I guess, I am a pretty prolific reader. There's nothing unread on the list that I feel a burning need to read - my exposure to the classics is limited but through choice not omission. Couldn't figure out how to strike out so have put comments beside a couple of books that I have no intention of ever reading or finishing in one case. Birdsong - left me completely cold.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
The Big Chill
I've just come back from a brilliant weekend at the Big Chill festival in Herefordshire with Lizzy and Chris (first two pics). It was a very family friendly festival (see third pic with lovely hula girls). The location was brilliant, see 4th and 5th pics. 6th pic is Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords, just because I like him
We saw Leonard Cohen on Sunday evening, he made me cry his music was so beautiful. Also lots of other brilliant acts. It was a great experience all round. Even with camping. We'll do this sort of stuff again.
Friday, June 06, 2008
The clearest sea you ever did see
This is me floating in the sea off Marathia Beach in Zakynthos. A lovely island, beautiful weather and the sea as clear as clear can be. Bliss!
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Meet the family
Back row: Me and My siblings - Sarah, Bethy, Steve, Tina
Front row: Nephew Jake, Mum, Dad, Niece Amy
I think this was on the occasion of my Mum's 80th birthday a couple of years ago.
A nice day.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Baby Lemonade
The guys are back in the UK in October - hurrah!
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=45100164
I'll be picking up as many of the shows as I can, pity they're not doing the Rescue Rooms but never mind.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=45100164
I'll be picking up as many of the shows as I can, pity they're not doing the Rescue Rooms but never mind.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Where have I been??
Its been a while hasn't it?
One of the places I have been is Madeira - favourite of the more mature holiday maker. It was lovely, nice weather, lovely gardens, nice places to walk etc. Here's a pic or two.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Guitar lessons
I had my first guitar lesson this evening. It was good, I'm going to enjoy this. Must make sure I practice as I need to harden up my fingers as much as anything.
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