Digitised Ralph McTell’s You Well Meaning Brought Me Here album. It was a bit of a job as the record didn’t play well at first. I had to give some tracks a second go. But in the end, with a bit of fancy editing, I got a good recording. This is the US version, which includes what I think was the second version of what would become his big hit, Streets of London. The UK version has a different song to replace it. There’s some great tracks on this, especially Old Brown Dog and the last one, called The Ferryman. Old Brown Dog’s one of those happy/sad songs. It’s sad because the dog dies, but it’s happy because he dies on his own terms doing what he loves. I think that’s the way I want to go, too: chasing proverbial rabbits. The Ferryman is epic and portentious, and the string arrangement, by Robert Kirby (who did strings for Nick Drake) is magnificent.
I also cleaned up the Leaves album coz one track was faulty. This meant re-recording that one song, called You Better Move On, then burning it onto another cd. It’s not the first time I’ve had to do this. Takes a bit of
patience, but I get there in the end. It’s really not a bad album for what it is. Has a nice Dylan/Byrdsy vibe, and their signature song, Too Many People, is tough on the straight life: ‘Don’t wanna wear a suit and tie when I’d rather sit and die’.
Finished cleaning up and burning to cd the Ralph McTell album. In the course of researching the release date of the album for the digital update I discovered Ralph’s online site at ralphmctell.co.uk and had a read of his reviews of some of his own albums. It’s enlightening reading. He wasn’t happy with the record company wanting him to do another version of Streets of London, but it’s lucky they persisted. The third version, recorded a couple of years later for the Streets album, was the hit. It also seems he wrote an autobiography, which I must track down. Ralph is one of my favourite singer-songwriters. I saw him play at the Corner Hotel a few years back. He was great. Had some nice anecdotes about his songs. And when we all sang along to Streets he said, however much he’s sick of the song, our engagement with it is why he keeps playing it.
Had a nice chat with Catherine on the arvo shift at work in the library. We talked about music. She mentioned Ben Pratt, an artist whose work reminds her of Simon and Garfunkel, and how her daughter really likes it. She’s getting into old music while at the same time her uncle’s teaching her about Tom Waits. There are also two other daughters. One loves Kpop, especially Stray Kidz. She’s clearly a kindred spirit to me. The other likes Taylor Swift. Catherine asked them to make her their top ten playlists so she could listen to them. This I think is great parenting.
Transferred all my Australian Pop of the Sixties albums, plus Downunder Nuggets and a couple of other Oz sixties ‘garage’ albums I have to my phone. The idea is to make a series of playlists to listen to that reflect the content of the Music Goes Round My Head book I’m reading. I’m looking to take a deep dive into this stuff and actually listen to the music I’ve been reading about. I started with a playlist on the chick singers, including Bev Harrell, Judy Stone, Lynne Randell, Dinah Lee, Marcie Jones, Toni McCann, Little Pattie, Maria Dallas and Yvonne Barrett.
Had a listen to the playlist I made of girl singers from Australian Pop of the Sixties albums. Some good tunes there, though some are a bit suss. So far I’m especially impressed with Marcie Jones and her group The Cookies. Some nice soul sounds with some great horns. Cookin’! This is especially satisfying as I actually have Marcie’s autobiography (a signed copy), Runs In the Blood, which I’ve yet to read. Actually my sister Glenys has read it, and the autograph (I bought it second hand) is made out to a Glenys – so some nice synchronicity there. Marcie was married to Australian singer Normie Rowe for a while there too.
I’ve finished the chapter in The Music Goes Round My Head that covers 1967. The Australian bands and artists are starting to catch up to what’s going on around the world. The market’s still dominated by male solo artists like Normie Rowe and the newcomer John Farnham, but bands like Masters’ Apprentices, The Bee Gees (especially) and The Twilights are starting to make inroads. Even as The Seekers and The Easybeats are having their last hurrah.
Bought The Boy and the Heron at JB. This was for me the best film of last year. I’ve been waiting quite a while for it to get a release here, so it was an easy poichase. Can’t wait to see it again.
My Twitter feed is full of pictures of Twice Mina’s new blonde hair. Have to admit I’m surprised. She had mentioned not that long ago that she wasn’t intending to ever go back to the blonde look, that she felt her natural black hair suited her best. I agree, so can’t say I’m loving this new look. She’s been blonde before, but that was back in 2020. I guess I’ll just have to cope and get used to it – until she turns back to brunette.
Twice’s new album Strategy came out today. Life is good! Had a listen to it a few times to get the feel. Sounds amazing. This was also supplemented by numerous viewings of the official music video of the song Strategy, which features a pretty impressive appearance by US rapper Megan Thee Stallion. The song is quietly burrowing its super catchy way into my brain. I also watched the fan chant video that the members always put out. They mentioned it’s easier than usual. Oh, also saw a vocal distribution video for the song. Megan and Jihyo (typical) got the most lines, with poor Dahyun getting the least. But her part is one of the catchiest parts in the song, so there’s that. Gee I hope this busts the girls world-wide the way Rose’s new song Apt with Bruno Mars has done. They’ve worked so hard for this. Come on!
Allkpop had an article on Spotify’s Top Kpop artists and songs for the year. The top ten was full of BTS and bloody Blackpink. My girls Twice got twelfth place on the best artists list, that’s all. I added some of the top songs to my 2024 Spotify playlist. One of them was a song called Seven by Jungkook of BTS. I had a listen to it and couldn’t believe my ears. He sings the line ‘Night after night, I’ll be fucking you right’ seven times! This song is actually from last year, so I’m a bit behind the times on this, but bloody hell! I had the thought that maybe, as a Korean, Jungkook simply doesn’t realize the power of the f word in English, and that it kind of overpowers this song. But he didn’t write it. It’s actually credited to five writers and they’re all either European or at least familiar with English. This is the ‘explicit’ version, and there’s a radio friendly version that replaces ‘fucking’ with ‘loving’. This seems to be the version for the music video. I have to say I prefer this version. Not that I’m a prude, the explicit version just sounds strange and crude to me. We’ve experienced this before with Kpop girl band (G) Idle and their song Tomboy, which includes the lines ‘I’m fuckin’ tomboy’. Maybe the songs are simply aimed at a Korean audience who aren’t clued in to the seriousness of the cuss word. All I know is, I never want to see Twice, or some of my other favourite Kpop girly bands, using this word in their music. Having said all that, the Jungkook song’s a good song; it’s just very jarring for me when that word comes up in it.
Watched some Youtubes. It was mainly Twice content and both featured Twice Jeongyeon. The first was Nayeon’s TrickKODE show where she talks with a guest the identity of whom (because their voice is disguised and they’re behind a partition) she doesn’t know. Her job is to guess the guest’s identity before the big reveal. This time Jeongyeon was the guest. She guessed her identity pretty quickly, which is not surprising. Jeongy kept giving the game away by doing things like showing photos of Nayeon that only she could have taken. But it was fun for us Onces seeing them interact this way. File under ‘things only a Once would find interesting’.
The other show was Jeongyeon’s own Inspector series, the last for the year. It featured her sister, Gong Seung-Yeon, who is an actress. I wasn’t really familiar with this sister, but man, she’s attractive. Reminds me of Joy from Red Velvet (no small compliment). It was very relaxed, with lots of good-natured sisterly sniping. But I have to say, having now seen quite a few Korean apartment home interiors thanks to this show, they are so pokey and drab. I want to see houses with back yards.
The other thing I watched was another final episode, this time the last ep of Media Watch for the year. It was Paul Barry’s last ever, so he did a kind of recap of his time with the show, including an overview of how the media landscape has changed since his first episode back in 2000. He but the boot into Sky News, as he should, and overall left on a high. Thanks Paul, job well done.
Watched another ep of Picard. This third ep, called Eighteen Seconds, was pretty good. The eighteen seconds refers to an incident Riker tells Jean Luc about when his son was born and there were complications, and the eighteen seconds it took for him to get to the medical ward where he was. The son was okay, but we learn later that at some point he died. And Picard gets his own eighteen second moment when he thinks his (newly discovered) son is in danger. It’s so great that, so many years after the end of The Next Generation (in my opinion the best of the Treks) we’re back here for more.
Watched another ep of Picard. This was the fourth one, titled No Win Scenario. Picard and the crew were trapped inside a nebula’s gravity well and the focus of the ep was in trying to get out of it. They eventually pulled the old we’ll sail out of here on the energy wave of the nebula’s birth creature’s contraction waves scenario, as featured in other TNG eps. It really was a bit of a ship in a bottle episode. This time it didn’t feature the Worf/Rafaella storyline, just focused on Picard and the crew of the Titan in the nebula. I didn’t mind it because I’m not a big fan of the Worf/Rafaella storyline. So much of it just doesn’t add up for me. As for the ‘A’ story, I kept wondering why Bev Crusher looks different as an older woman here to what she did in the TNG final All Good Things. I know a lot of it’s down to prosthetics, but I actually like the way she looked, the way she aged, in that finale than here. I suspect there’s been some ‘work’ done.
Also borrowed the film Asteroid City, by Wes Anderson, which has an amazing cast, including Scajo. Took it home and watched it. A very interesting film. I like its retro fifties vibe, especially the desert town it’s set in. It’s a roadrunner and coyote cartoon of a film (there’s an actual roadrunner bird in the film!). There’s also a wonderfully ludicrous detail about this town which features a highway off-ramp that leads nowhere. Seems the highway never came through (though a railroad makes a popup appearance half-way through the film). The framing device of the film within a play seemed a bit unnecessary to me, but it had some good moments. It’s basically a study in grief. MC Augie Steenbeck has recently lost his wife and has trouble breaking the news to this four children. Will he and his children manage to cope and move on? That’s basically the gist, though there’s so much more that comes under the umbrella of wacky fun, including an alien visitation. This is a film I know I need to watch again to get the nuances (and to see Scarlett again, who plays the movie star that she is!), so I burned a copy of the dvd I borrowed. I rarely do this these days, but I made an exception for this little gem. Gave it four out five stars on Letterboxd.
During my library’s Christmas end of year party some of my colleagues mentioned something called The Word of the Year. This is apparently a thing, a list various dictionaries put out each year, and it’s the sort of thing that I love and I can’t believe I haven’t heard of it before. This year Oxford made it Brain Rot. Macquarie went with Enshittification. The basic definition of this fabulous word is ‘the gradual deterioration of a service or product brought about by a reduction in the quality of service provided, especially of an online platform, and as a consequence of profit-seeking’. I actually think a better word for this kind of thing is Shitfuckery, as promoted by thejuicemedia’s Honest Government Ads. The word I would go with for this year would be Snowflake. As in, someone, usually a Millennial, who is socially anxious, probably home-schooled and who can’t cope with modern society. Bloody snowflakes.
Did some Christmas shopping. In JB I got a Bob Dylan themed turntable mat for my mate Lui, who’s a big fan. I’m not completely sure he has a record player, but I know he has a few records. Also got a Beatles t-shirt for Josh to add to his growing band t-shirt collection. Then at a book store I bought Oishisou, the Ultimate Anime Dessert Cookbook by Hadley Sui for Lui’s daughter Isabel. She’s going to Japan soon. Have to say, the book’s so good I’d like a copy. I’m already planning on scanning and photocopying some of the recipes – especially the Taiyaki recipe. I also have to get a taiyaki mould – maybe at a Daiso store, if they have them. I’m thinking I’ll get two – one for me, one for Isabel. I’m seeing them next weekend, so it would be a great idea to make some for them when I visit. Love my taiyaki! Also got a scented candle for Lui’s partner Lisa. I used to always get people gift cards, but lately I’ve been thinking it’s better to add the personal touch with an actual gift. It may not be the right one, but it’s at least an attempt to get them something based on what you know about the person.
