another sign of spring

A bit of a surprise as I awoke this morning.

I was still in bed when I heard the sound. A low pitched murmur and very close.

I sometimes open one eye at a time when I wake up. Today it was both together and a synchronised placement of both feet on the floor.

A pretty bee had decided to take a look around. Somewhere to settle down and raise the bee-lets. I had to make a quick decision about whether this could all become rather high maintenance. One look from her told me it would.

Instead I've had to let her go. She really did fly out through the bedroom window. I'll expect to see some of her kids hanging around the lavender later.

christina nott returns

I see Christina Nott has been busy since the last rashbre / christina collaboration and the new website in bubbleandsqueek.co.uk has appeared along with a facebook page.

Flattering that 'remember me' is the track on the site. A rashbre / christina collaboration.

tindersticks at the O2 shepherds bush

A short excursion to the massive high-tech car park under Westfield shopping centre today, before heading to Shepherd's Bush Green.

The shopping mall looms large over an area of victorian terraced housing mixed with small shops specialising in unblocking phones and others as KFC look-alikes selling all manner of al-Halal chicken specialities.

Then past the Green which has survived the huge giratory systems of Shepherd's Bush, now made even more complex since the arrival of the mega mall like some District 9 spacecraft.

I was heading for a music concert at the still ornate Empire theatre, now renamed as the O2 Empire Academy but was slightly early for the pre-arranged pizza rendezvous. I stopped for a swift drink at the dimly lit and sofa laden Defector's Weld, before passing a group of very loud cider drinkers on the way to the restaurant on Rockley Road.

Later our group moved back to the Empire, deftly bypassing the queue by waving our O2 phones and arriving in time to see part of the set by the Villagers. A brief stop at the bar to buy a coca-cola and then into the crowd in preparation for the main event.

Our group contained fans of the band, whilst my knowledge was more based upon some recent revision of their most recent album and a small collection of other tracks.

I should explain that my impression of Tinderstick's music is of a somewhat deliberately crafted form of morose and downbeat descriptions of the sorrows of love.

In the right mood this can work very well.

Their latest album added some more upbeat edges to some of their work, but the swelling rhythm guitar and minor chord based ballads were certainly in evidence within the set performed this evening.

This gave me something of a challenge during the evening.

It was obvious that there were many people around me totally enjoying the evening and applauding loudly and recognising every song (bar maybe one or two).

This was more difficult for me and the mix of the lead singer's quite baritone vocals was a little unclear on the sound system.

So I found this more as music with a wash of sound rather than with good lyrics to admire.

It was probably my loss, but the impression therefore became one of listening to the instrumentation which was somewhat levelled out by the style of the singing. It was also difficult to see the band's connection with the audience. When it's live, I prefer it to be acknowledged that we've bothered to turn up, just as I'll always try to signal a thank you to a small musician playing in a bar.

To me, this concert was more 'run on rails' than 'engaged with the audience' and it did make me wonder whether something had happened before they all came on stage. Certainly at the end they clapped to the audience and waved as they left the stage, but during the show, the frontman really only engaged with his own rhythm section.

So this one leaves me confused. I wanted to be impressed but felt slightly disappointed. I spotted the clever time signatures on some of the parts and the mischief in the arpeggiated keyboards. The wave like chord progressions. For sure, there were some stand out tracks.

But I'm still not sure. I think I need to check the records again.

structural deficit

Complicated short distance travel plans today zig-zagging around Whitehall and Parliament Street and then later across into Berkshire.

Being so close to the areas frequented by politicians, there was some gallows humour in conversations about the latest round of political suspensions mixed with speculation about the new buzz phrases in tomorrow's budget.

But earlier, before most of the trains, cars, walks and taxis, a calm few minutes gave me a chance to watch Trafalgar Square waking for another day.

Alas, I cannot watch

Out late for a Chinese meal tonight, with some of the gang. We had one of those big round tables with a huge turntable.

Inevitably some of the plum sauce had a mishap.

Home late to find a little package containing the new Laura Marling album, complete with the DVD.

Which doesn't play. Grrr.

Anyway, I found the recording of "Alas, I Cannot Swim", from the concert we attended at St James Church, when the then blonde haired Laura was 18 years old.

Gun Wharf

Time to celebrate the start of Spring today, as the weather flipped from yesterday's grey rain to today's crisp sunshine.

There may have been a chill edge to the air but it was still fine to head to the waterfront, browse amongst the boats before a few of us enjoyed a late lunch together.

Then back to the creek where we watched the tide turn and a few swans fighting for their territories.

A lazy Sunday before a busy week.

i can hear the grass grow

A groggy Saturday morning as I've been stumbling through newspapers and drinking coffee before we hit the road to visit friends for the weekend. The rain has turned to a 45 degree sleet and everything is looking grey rather than the sort of bright rain of April showers and Spring.

Nonetheless, the grass, snowdrops and daffodils will enjoy it.

From looking outwards, my attention is then drawn back to the kitchen and the small coffee maker which has just recovered from its broken glass.

I can't help noticing that a once minimalist item now sports two A4 pages worth of warning notices in multiple languages about handling it and that it may contain hot liquids.

What? Why? It's a glass coffee maker.

Does anyone read all of this small print etched onto the glass? I think not. It's there because some lawyers have decided its necessary to comply with regulations and liability. A form of industrial graffiti. Set it in CAPITALS and it will be fine.

The last one broke because it was made of glass and we dropped it.

It didn't say anything about that in the small print.

stuff! you need to know

Keeping a bit of a film theme running this week, I'm delighted to report on the success of fellow blogger Daniel who has just been to the premiere of - yes- the Julian Kemp film in which Daniel plays the lead actor's best friend.

Kudos. Cue fanfare!

V - that's Daniel in the movie - V

It's screening this week and there was some proper red carpeting at the ICA a few days ago. And it's a pukka Paramount Pictures movie with quite fancy advertising, based upon philosopher-writer Alain de Botton's book 'Essays in Love'.

Check out the excellent trailer...then go visit Daniel's blog!

...and I also know that elephant.

just add politician

cup of tea

sofa

no crowd surfing

poll poll variance question

Around the City today as well as creating some presentations.

The PowerPoint also needs some numbers so there's been some spreadsheeting worked in for good measure.

Strangely, Excel has forgotten how to add up. The little Sigma control isn't working, so when I'm trying to add up certain rows of numbers, it keeps returning a value of zero.

I've restarted Excel and rebooted the PC but to no avail. As this is a primary function of spreadsheets, its a trifle annoying.

It's as if the spreadsheet has decided to not tell me the answer. Its probably like the various election related opinion polls being published at the moment.

Since the 11th of March I can spot about 6 or 7. The results generally show a Conservative lead, but it varies from a 13 point lead in on on the 11th, to a 5 point lead in one yesterday. Or in a different poll yesterday, an 11 point lead. And sure enough, there's already chatter about whether opinion polls should be published in an election run-up.

Based upon the lack of consistency, its questionable whether these polls have a great deal of meaning. I hope they are also checking that their Excel is adding up properly.

cowboy bebop redux

I could hear a faint Japanese song playing somewhere in the darkened rashbre central, when I realised that I'd somehow left a DVD in the system on the menu loop. It was on a very low volume and sounded quite ghostly.

My guilty secret was out.

I'd been waiting for the (quite old) movie version of Cowboy Bebop to arrive after hunting it down and this had led into a short manga-fest whilst I'd been eating curry at home alone.

Many will be familiar with the early 2000s TV series, but I'd never seen this most enjoyable movie version, with one of those complex plotlines that twists and turns involving terrorist tanker explosions, nanobots and all manner of car, train and space cruiser chase.

I hear they are making a live action movie now along the lines of The Matrix, but Cowboy Bebop (basically about bounty hunters in a spaceship) stands alone as an action manga sci-fi set of stories, with some stunning graphics, plenty of good one-liners and some excellent humour. Here's the original trailer from the movie.

i speak because i can

I've probably listened to the first Laura Marling album 100 times, so its good to hear the new one is finally ready.

A few tracks have popped into circulation early notably the Devil's Spoke and Goodbye England, which was released as a single. The tracks in the online collection above are lovely and I'll probably listen to the new album another 100 times.

There's a link to the Times Online which has a good quality selection from the album to stream until the album is released in a few days time.

Click the picture above to jump to their site to enjoy or below for one of the songs from the first album,"My manic and I".