Weekend off / Recording

After my songs gig last Thursday i was a bit tired. It had been a long run of gigs from St Patricks week onwards.
So at the weekend I took a rest from computer and music as I had no gigs.

Saturday
Took very rare - for me - walk in the country with G who is still getting her strength back after her hip op. We went to canal near Wistow - just a 3 mile walk and had lunch at the Wistow Garden Centre. Sat night we went to Neil Segrott's bash gig to celebrate 1 year of him getting a new kidney watching his country rock band Kansas City Faggotts (KCF) with Dan Britton & Co have a reunon gig at the Donkey. Lots of old chums there. Talking over noise soon shreds my voice these days so we didnlt stay for 2nd half.

Sunday
Mostly just chilled as was coming down with a cold.

Monday
Did some recording for Celtic harper chum France Ellul who asked me to add some flutes to a piece for his next album - quite  nice little job to get back in the studio with. Cold is not so bad.

Tuesday
Went back to adding more layers to new Govannen album

Wednesday
Neil Rabjohn came into the studio again to record cajon drum and vocals on the new Govannen album - result! Neil has finished. Next need to get Dan in to add bodhran and vocals, and still have more layers to add myself. Getting there...

media

1. DVD
Watched Bollywood film Anjaana Anjaani - had really mixed reviews but I had a hunch about it. Loved it. First half black comedy as couple keep meeting after suicide attempts and make a pact to kill themselves on New Years Day after fulfilling some wishes. 2nd half was road movie across the USA and romance. Great background score, some great songs and cinematography. Couldn't see why it got such bad reviews from some folks.

2. Book
Finished James P Hogan's Giants quintilogy with Mission To Minerva. It's been a great sereis of books - old school sci-fi with British scientist as hero, believable charaters and quite good leaps from book to book ideaswise.
Started latest Bruce Sterling - The Caryatids - not read him in ages - nice to get back to him and his busy brain. Like a letter from the future. Started H Beam Piper's Cosmic Computer on ebook on my pod and Ray Bradbury's Quicker Than The Eye as my short storybook.

3. CDs
Got some as reward for hard work in March.
1. Joanie Sommers - Tangerine - hard to find Japanese version of Sings Bossa Nova (which goes for $140 on Amazon and is dead rare) My copy came from China at $30 - the cheapest I;d seen it. Nice bossa recorded after she came out of retirement with good band. Didn't realise they were the same album - good news - I wont have to hunt to cheap version of SBN anymore - bad news - it means there's one less Joanie album than I thought there was. Cover art on Tangerine is naff tho so like a true nerdy fanboy I printed out the SBNova cover :-)

2. Marcin Wasilewski - January - slowly tracking down albums by this great new jazz pianist find for me. ECM - he's lyrical without being sugary and modern without being clever clever.

3. Marylin Mazur - Celestial Circle - nice classic ECM label styled jazz including old fave pianist John Taylow plus vocals & bass & Mazur's percussion. Songs and short improvs - very 70s/80s era ECM and very nice. Mazur's work is clways classy. Cool that i saw her last year with Mikkelborg

4. Lakshmi Shankar - Amrut Ras - been listening to LS lately and realised I only had 3 of her albums so got one more when I went to Indian quarter lately. This is a nice one of bajans. I was so lucky to see her play years ago and even got her autograph.

5. Jannat 2 - a soundtrack to a Bollywood film not out yet but it was playing in the Indian shop and was good and was only £4.50 so got it - came with a free CD with more film hits, many good.

6. Entrance - Journey To... - Ive been searching for this album for 20 years and it turns up on iTunes/Amazonmp3/Spotify!!!   - It was Palle Mikkelborg's band in the 70s80s and this one is their best with funky jazz, a nice Terry riley trinute and a stunning choral piece. Another Entrance album also has turned up for download only - might get it later. A lot to take in just now...

naughty to get so many so close to eachother but I must remember I dont drink or smoke so what the hell...