Erm, What Now?
During the year I’ve been so desperately thrashing about, trying not to get behind with this blog, that I’ve never really had a worry about what to write about next, apart from choosing between the dozen or so things fluttering about in my head at the time.
I’ve never seriously suffered from writer’s block, and I’m not suffering from it now exactly, but I don’t actually have anything to write about today. Habits form quickly, and I have not blogged for almost two weeks over the Christmas period and am squarely out of the habit of writing. I suppose that during the year I was always thinking about posts, even if not writing them, and for the last few days I’ve not been thinking about posts at all. So here I sit at the computer to write one and there just isn’t one there.
Which, in a way, is refreshing. That’s what a holiday is for, and I have a bulging inbox of new things, some of which are presumably going to be at least half decent – including an email from someone in Pakistan which I am looking forward to – so there’ll be no shortage of new stuff coming up I shouldn’t think.
Also, there are new releases by The Magnetic Fields, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, The Mountain Goats, Cat Power and Honeytrap to look forward to over the first few months of 2008, so things are looking good. Honeytrap in particular is one I’m looking forward to. There’s also a new Destroyer record and an apparently folkier album by Goldfrapp on the horizon as well, which should be interesting. I love Alison Goldfrapp’s voice, but there’s only so much disco I am really up for, so this new project sounds interesting.
So we set sail for 2008 on the Good Ship Toad and all, it would appear, looks rather rosy. Here are some old American folk songs, which is an area I think I might just explore a little more in the year ahead, along with some contemporary versions of the same songs.
Carlton Rees – 99½ Won’t Do
The Detroit Cobras – 99½ Won’t Do
Doc Watson – John Henry
Bruce Springsteen – John Henry
Burl Ives – Wayfaring Stranger
Blanche – Wayfaring Stranger
The return of the prodigal! Welcome back.
Happy New Year me old lover.
Hope you & yours were suitably calm’d & still’d by your time away.
Guess what… I got a bleedin’ USP Record Player for a present! Utter surprise & not at all requested. Cocking thrilled I was/am – marvelous invention, aye. Thing is, after arranging all my vinyl in the order I want to rip them ( this the right phrase for this action? fuck knows…) I realise what a pathetic little cache I have (gone are the mid-20′s vinyl junkiedom, carting thousands of the bastards from rented hole to hovel every 6 months) so will be arranging a weekend sojourn to the vinyl emporia of Caerdydd in order to assail my newly acquired craving/money pissing down drain activity all for a warm, fuzzy, self-satisfied feeling.
)
Oh, & I also adopted a cat from a rescue centre on New Year’s Eve. He’s a miniature cat (in that, apparently, he was bred to never grow larger than a 16mth old kitten – weird fuckers out there, to be sure), all black & longhair fuzzy & delicate & vicious & the size of my shoe. He has been christened Newt — his racing name is Newton P. Bundlefluff.
Christmas clearly got me in the ol’ soppy slot this year.
Tra’ f’now.
DC
p.s. I know you’ve probably not had any inkling to & you’ve only just got back to work, but did you catch the Xmas Show? Musically I think it was a fucking corker – well done the requesters
Hello chaps. Good to be back. Just time to get my feet under the table and commence some serious music listening as soon as I get back to work.
No DC, sorry mate, I haven’t had the chance to listen to any of your festive stuff. This is for a large number of reasons, not least a desire to try and spend as much of the Christmas period offline as possible. I’ll start on them tomorrow when I get back to work.
Miniature cats? Has the world gone mad? It’s not one of those bonsai thingies is it?
So many people have used the word Bonsai – no, it’s not. It’s a regular type of cat bred to remain small. Cute little bugger he is, too, but what the fuck possess people to want to own a ‘kitten’ all their lives that they get all Doctor Who on their ass & science up the answer?
Sick, sad, sorry people, DC. The same people who have pink toilet paper in their bathroom.