2010 — 3 June: Thursday
Oops. I see I've been somewhat absorbed by that fascinating and very well-presented "virtual" Haydn. Suddenly, it seems to be 01:04 and I feel the need for some sleep. Bother.
G'night.
Liar's poker, indeed
I discarded the Michael Lewis tales of arrogant greed and stupidity/cupidity from 1989 quite some while ago. Now I see that, in his new book, he has changed his mind. It would be funny were it not tragic. The idea of (for example) a one-eyed man with Asperger's helping bring down the financial house of cards is a wry one. Still, the good ol' taxpayer is always there to pick up the bill.
It's sunny, warm, and 10:26 already. Things to do...
I always used to joke that...
... I'd married the factory owner's daughter. Well, blow me, one of his business cards fell out of my father-in-law's copy of a biography of Henry Ford as I was packing stuff away:
On my first trip with Christa to Meisenheim in September 1974, the factory was (alas) by then already derelict though "Gebr. Becker"1 remained faintly visible on the brickwork of one of the smoke stacks until it was finally demolished a few years later. It's only just occurred to me that my father's younger brother Tom (father of my favourite cousin Leigh) was also in the furniture "biz" though at the retail end rather than design and manufacturing. I guess we all need something to sit on!
Here's Leigh on 5th August 1995 during a weekend trip to her holiday cottage near Lake Bala — visible, like our third white Honda, in the background:
The handsome young fella beside her was (though he was blissfully unaware of the fact at the time) just about to become IBM's Java internal webmaster. A gig I kept, more or less, until I retired at the end of 2006. Ho hum. Time (13:11) for a spot of lunch before I chuck out a few more remnants, or stuff another carton or two. I've just binned a cubic foot of old car insurance (and similar) paperwork that rascally squirrel had kept since approx. the year dot.
Audiophilia all over again dept.
A couple more venerable favourites from my youth plus some brand new stuff, first heard on steam radio within the last week or so. Some people think — and I quote — I'm an "idiot" for listening to the radio [or was it for being totally unmoved by sport on TV in any form?] :-)
Thanks, Mr Postie. Along the top row here...
...we have the 1969 King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King (a wonderful 40th anniversary job of remastering, last year), then the "real" Walter/Wendy Carlos soundtrack2 album to Kubrick's film A Clockwork Orange, and the latest from the Gotan project. (No, I don't recognise the font!)
On row 2 we have the latest from Massive Attack, plus an album from a long-established German outfit that I'd never heard of until a track was played on BBC Radio 2 last week. Add to that the 645 minutes of Alan Ball's True Blood season #2, which should help tide me over until the release of Twilight saga: Eclipse next month. Not to mention soothe any jangled nerves shattered by plumbing upheavals.
And, in case you're reading this, Ian, I also picked up both series of "Sensitive Skin" for the proverbial song. If I knew where I'd put them, I could even scan the cover artwork. <Sigh>
Hah, thought so! That is Guy Garvey on the Massive Attack album. There are now 126 cartons in the warehouse, the evening meal is being digested, it's still rather warm, and I have a visitor due in a few minutes. It's 18:44 so I'd better change my shirt... [Pause] And he's gone, having cunningly forgotten to pick up the two items that were nominally a reason for the visit. Oh well, it's 21:17 and cooling down quite nicely. I think I shall put on both the kettle and some pixels for a change. (I don't find Andrew Collins much of a replacement for Gideon Coe, but you can't have everything, can you?) [Pause] Taking a brief break after episode #1 of the vampiric nonsense, I think young Mr Collins has just redeemed himself by playing a delicious fragment from the Bladerunner soundtrack ("Blush response") by Vangelis. It's 23:11 and I suspect I can squeeze in both a fresh cuppa and another episode before I call it a night.