¿Está siendo atendidas?*

*Are you being served? (according to Google Translate, anyway...)

I'm currently jotting down some thoughts (or at least transcribing of some I jotted down earlier) on Julian Assange and the goings-on of the past couple of days. Here's a little filler post, in the style of a letter to Private Eye, though.

Sirs,

You will no doubt have seen that a Mr Assange has been granted political asylum by Ecuador. As he is clearly related to a certain Mr Humphries, formerly of Grace Brothers, are we to expect him to be serving with equal aplomb in Quito's premier department store, Gracia Hermanos?

Yours etc..

Humphries

Assange

Andrew

NOW! That's What I Call A Tune! 45

Back in 2000, when NOW! 45 came out, I was still in my first career in grocery retailing. I was 9st 13lbs, working in Lockerbie, living in Dumfries and was getting desperate to be back in the central belt of Scotland.

Don't get me wrong - Lockerbie is a lovely place but for someone from (in Scottish terms) a reasonably sized town - it was a too small; in a town of c. 5,000 people, everyone knows everyone's business and when you work in the only supermarket in town, that includes you! Still, I have some fond memories of my three years there.

This week's chosen track is Gabrielle with Rise - a track that I had on CD single and which I probably embued with too much meaning at the time: but that's another story and probably not for this blog!

Enjoy!:

Andrew

Balloon Fiesta Mass Ascent

On Friday after work I took myself up to the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta to watch the "Mass Ascent" - when over 100 balloons took to the air over Bristol. (Or, in Friday's case, over North Somerset - the wind direction sent them away from the city!)

Here are some of the pictures I took:

Andrew

NOW! That's What I Call A Tune! 44

This week's entry is the epitome of the type of track that I pick out when I look at old compilation albums - namely the half-remembered track which is - often - not quite as good as you remember. I actually had this on CD single, and do kinda still like it. But it wouldn't make my list for a Desert Island - as regular readers already know!

Andrew

My Desert Island Discs

I recently promised that I would share my eight picks for Desert Island Discs just as Stephen is doing over on his blog. For once, it's a promise I'm keeping. 

I've said this before but I make no apologies for repeating myself (hey, this blog needs to be filled up somehow) in saying that I love Desert Island Discs and the stories it can throw up. For those guests that you know - or think you know - you often get additional info and tit-bits of background that you wouldn't otherwise here. For those guests that are lesser known, the whole interview can be an eye-opener.

Likewise, the musical choices - and reasons for them - can be revealing. Is the person emotional, sentimental, analytical? Have they opted to tell the story of their life and loves or just to take tracks they like? Have they thought about the context of the island - "I'm going to need something to dance to, or to cheer me up" or have they literally picked their favourite eight discs?

So, having opened up in your mind the idea that this post could be somewhat psychologically revealing - make of this what you will:

1. Handel's Sarabande: I've loved this ever since I first heard it - it's beautiful slow cadence and sombre mood just stir something in me; it's tranquil and serene whilst still building to a climax. I used to have it on my list of tracks to be played at my funeral - and it still would be if I thought about it long enough to commit my wishes to paper.

2. Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto: You would have to go a long way to top this, I reckon. A melodic triumph of Russian Romanticism and a piece of music I can truly lose myself in.

3. A recording of H-H-Hancock's Half Hour. The obvious choice would be The Blood Donor but, so as to be so obvious I shall ask for The Poetry Society which is the one I normally cite as my favourite.

4. I would absolutely have to have something by Texas and I think I Want To Go To Heaven would be my choice. It's from their second, less commercial album Mother's Heaven when their sound was more guitar-laden than later albums. Of course, I would take ANY of their tracks, even from their less popular albums!

5. Annie Lennox, Cold. Another Scottish female singer to keep me company with one of the tracks from her first solo album:- Diva. If you don't have a copy, why not?

6. Howard Shore's score for The Lord of the Rings. If I can't have the three individual albums, then the Symphonic Version would be appreciated. I could listen to it and imagine the I was watching the films...

7. Dusty Springfield, Son of a Preacher Man. I'm not sure a comment is required on this choice - Dusty Springfield is, quite simply, one of the best singers to have ever committed their voice to vinyl or any other medium.

8. Pete Murray, Opportunity. This choice is a bit leftfield, but my sister brought the album this is on (See The Sun) back from Oz for me. He's an Australian Singer-Songwriter and the album appears to only be available as import-only - so it makes it a sort of secret pleasure of my own, as few others in the UK have heard of him. This is my favourite track from that album.

My book would have to be, with no question, The Lord of the Rings. I could read it with the film soundtrack on in the background. That, my friends, is called joined up thinking.

My Luxury? Soap - an endless supply of either Cusson's Imperial Leather, Pears or Wright's Coal Tar.

Finally, if (as Kirsty Young would say) the waves to crash to shore and sweep away all the discs, the one I would save would have to be the Rachmaninoff - it could transport me away on waves on emotion and wash over me in waves of melodic joy.

Of course, this is my list as of today... ask me to do it again and some of the above would no doubt change. Anyway, analyse my choices if you wish - and have a stab at it yourself!

Andrew