From the Basement

For the second time I was mesmerised by the performance of 3 maverick combos on this programme.

Fleet Foxes, Radiohead & Andrew Bird all blew my brains out & knocked my socks off.

6 Degrees of Musical Separation

Recently I have been realising that there is not a great leap forward from say, Brian Wilson to the High Llamas or Animal Collective or Fleet Foxes or from the Beatles to any of the previous newbies.

Sufjan Stevens & in fact most of the new stuff I listen to now, has its origins firmly in the 60s.

This is my Tee shirt

New Camera, New Attitude

Why is everyone moving about, when common sense & this dodgy weather tells you to do otherwise.

I am curling up & writing this in a warm room with Ghost' s 'Snuffbox' ringing in my ears & that is after I had blew my mind on The Flower Traveling Band' s From pussies to Death & the best psychedelic band to come out of South America: El Congreso.

However what really knocked me sideways was: Father Pat Berkery - Prayers for Noonday Church'. This is truly freaky & funky.

Why did I not hear this at the time(or maybe I did & I was drifting downstream.................)

Annus Miserablis

It is not often when I get to the end of a year & I think, Thank God that one is over, but this year has been trying to say the least.

Garden accidents, broke down vehicles, awkward mamas & always funerals of friends, family & neighbours & a life threatening illness & an terrible football team.

On the positive side: still alive, still working, 2 grand boys & a wife that puts up with a lot & lots of great new music.

Talk To Her

Gradually catching up on my V+ box of classic films with Pedro Almodovar' s 'Talk to Her'. It is unusual for him to have a male hero in his movies.

Aki Kaurismäki' s 'lights in the Dusk' has also brought good cheer & intelligence to our seasonal viewing.

Mymyr

What makes winter bearable in the West of Scotland apart from the gorgeous rainbows & the beautiful sunrises & sunsets could be hearing Mymyr's 'Amber Sea' for the first time.

It is a work of such jaw-dropping, beauty that you are sure to see angels.

Music to Aid Concentration While Driving on Icy Roads

• John Wall - Fear of Gravity

• R.Angus - Ethnoloopography

• Richard Scott & Rex Casswell - Magnificence of Stereo

• Basil Kirchin - Quantum

Oops............

Hotch Potch Lodge

Between the Nepalese student invasion & them making my days towards the end of term so busy & the Himalayan Exhibition @ Hillhead Library in Byres Road & my new Nepalese (authentic) hat & the snow, I am back in the Hotch Potch Lodge in Katmandu & its Jan 1974 & I have raging Hep B & have to get home to decent hospials before I die.

I bribed my way aboard full? trains & made it.

Nowadays I would be more likely to go from here to India to get to hospital as ours are in such a bad state.

Wild Strawberries

Finally got around to re- watching 'Wild Strawberries', Bergman's masterpiece of surrealism.

I do not enjoy all his films, but this with it's beatnik characters & the hero, who reminds me so much of my old da, gets me right here, in my heart.

In the Land of the Living, the Undead are Kings

Perhaps, if time allows, we will begin learning how to recognise the hidden $igns & $ymbols in order to travel in & out of this world safely with the need of a safety net or a box of matches.

Favourite Album Title of the Year So Far

Tony Wakeford - Not All of Me Will Die

Freakout on the A811

Listening to Scandinavian psychedelia on yet another library conference in Stirling.

Parson Sound make the ideal soundtrack to this wonderful drive past the snowcapped mountain tops.

Passing the coo above does make you think that this world is very, very odd, dont you think?

Coping with Winter

With a fresh, George Clooney hairdo, I scramble into another year. My ears thankfully my ears are always open to new things. I am still constantly surprised & impressed.

Brian Harnetty, whose 'American Winter' is a favourite album of this writer is now working with Bonnie Prince Billy on 'Silent City'. I do look forward to hearing this.

Stone Breath's 'Songs of the Moonlight & the Rain', Twin Sister Moon's 'Hollow Mountain' & Trembling Bells - 'Carbeth' have me twitching in a corner.

I am also grooving to Novemthree' s 'Of my Mother's Weary Wanderings', although sadly this title conjures up the meanderings of my own ma.

Also on constant repeat at the moment I have Robert Haigh's 'Written on Water. The music sounds just like the title & it is a perfect soundtrack to what is occurring out the window: the wind & the rain & more rain & more wind & the rapidly disappearing light.

Late November

Watching old, black & white, Bollywood movies, while sporting Kurdish trousers & reading Iranian, Jewish novels by Dalia Sofer on a steady diet of hommos, olives & pistachios............in..multicultural Scotland.

For Derek

This is what we is listening to in the Ghetto

Uton/Matthew Valentine/6 Organs of Admittance/fursaxa/grouper/plankton wat/second family band/natural stone buildings/starving weirdos/harappin night recordings/chora/part wild horses mane on both sides/master musicians of bukkake/iditarod/hunter gracchus/hunting rituals/Kiss the anus of a black cat

Bollywood & Birayani

Saturday night & a lamb birayani from my Kurdish/Palestinian pals & an old, Bollywood Black & white movie 'Andaz'. What more could you want? World peace?

Favourite Album Titles at the Moment

Virgil Moorefield - Temperature in hell is over 3,000 degrees

Eli Radish - I didn't Raise my Boy to be a Soldier

The latter seems so apt for these times of 'Military Madness' (G. Nash)

So Far Out & Way Ahead: Surfing the Cosmos

The new edition of 'The Wire' finally caught up with my listening tastes over the past 6 months.

I have been rambling on here & on Twitter about the superb Singing Knives label from Sheffield.

It was great to see the article by David Keenan on Chora, Hunter Gracchus, Harappian Night Recordings, Part Wild Horses Mane.

Fast Sounds for Slow Listeners

Japanese modern horror films are taking me to strange places. It all started with 'The Ring' & 'One Missed Call' & other movies by Takeshisha Miike are so totally off the wall, you are open jawed at the end.

Do not watch the Western remakes, they are so inferior.

Rainbow, Rain & Paradise

The Only Lake in Scotland

I do not visit this beautiful loch often enough. Yesterday with the protracted days of bright sunshine seemed the ideal opportunity to return.

It always looked so busy in those old photos of the winter curling on the frozen water. Yesterday was so clear & Ben Lomond shone brightly & sharp reflections of trees & hills decorated the water.

Skulking Around at the Back, as Usual

Tir Na Nog, the Angels, Golem, Treebeard & the Heebeejeebies

I finally got around to stopping @ Tir Na Nog on the way between Drymen & the crossroads forking to Stirling or Aberfoyle.

You know the shops have soup, angels & lots of outstanding art, many objects are made from natural substances.

They even had a manual heebeejeebie, but I now have the manual as well as the electric variety.

If you been at the Findhorn Centre then you will be at home here.

From Woodstock to Milngavie (Again)

Artists from Woodstock turning up on frozen evenings @ Fraser Centre in Milngavie is becoming a regular occurrance.

This is the 2nd time I have seen Robin Williamson there & it is such an intimate evening.

My childhood friend Peter was enlightened & he was there too. My wife was singing along & I guess I may have been doing likewise.

40 years since he played Woodstock & he keeps getting better.

Is Not Nature Wonderful?