I bought these two kits at Duxford, over 20 years ago. They’ve been built for a long time too. I ought to dust them off a bit, I guess?
They’re painted and decal’d in a basic way.
The original decals had mostly dried up and cracked. I did manage to use the orig’ star/bar ones. But all the numbers/letters just disintegrated. Leaving me to either leave off the numbers altogether, or kind of bodge them (E16)
The most fun part was..
The most fun I had on these was detailing the cockpit interiors. They were super basic as supplied. All I did, tbh, was add straps to the seats, and paint the interiors. The hardest part of these two builds was masking the framework of the cockpit canopies.
I’m not 100% (or even 50%) sure of this. But I think the one with the red edged star/bar things might be USNM, as in US Navy Marines, the other being either plain Army or Air Force?
Penfold, from Dangermouse!Dear ol’ Popeye.
The above two ‘shrinks dink’ thinks we’re my first ever foray into a little crafty fun, that Sofi and Ali shared with us once or twice, when we were visiting (and poss looking after?) them.
They’re not brilliantly executed. Being my first attempts. And I also learned that the simpler the overall shape – both mine are prob’ a bit too complex – and the ‘blockier’, the more success you’ll have shrinking them flat.
Both of mine have warped a bit when heating/shrinking. And Popeye’s even cracked a little. But he always was more than a little cracked.
I’m wondering can I flog these things, as part of my effort to de-clutter? Or do I just throw them away? That last seems a tad sad…
I had to cancel my dentist appointment this morning, and reschedule it. ‘Cause I’m too broke to pay the quite small/nominal fee an NHS patient is still required to pay.
So I’m back home, doing a few odd-jobs around the house, before going to work, and then out for a birthday curry at The Maharajah, with Dan and Amy Ellis. Dan’s 52 today. How are we going to pay for that? … aargh!
This little bit snapped off, years ago.
So, the first little job is a fix: glue this little bit back on to this chair. I used Titebond (3A?), an American woodworking glue that I really like. I held it in position for ten solid minutes, wiping off excess glue as I waited. Hand-holding this seemed easier than trying to rig up a clamp for such an irregular and small piece.
Holding it in place as the glue starts to set.
I thought about drilling holes and having a reinforcing rod inside the broken joint. But that’s way too much of a faff for me the way I am at present. Which is perpetually utterly exhausted. The discerning eye may note that even with this fix, a wee bobble is still missing, atop this broken ‘finial’ (or whatever it is?).
Ta-dah! Let’s hope it holds?The more complete one, on t’other side.And a clean cleared surface.
Clearing messy areas is a constant ongoing process in our home. And probably in most. But in ours it’s a more commonplace and arduous task as there’s ‘too many pigs for the tits’, to misappropriate an Abe’ Lincoln saying.
Too much stuff, and not enough storage. So it becomes a perpetual juggling act. Very tiring! But in those brief moments of clean orderliness it’s very nice. I’m having a wee tea break now. But battle will soon be re-joined, in the neighbouring bedside/modelmaking zone.
This lot needs clearing. Well, most of it.Gaaah!!!Not quite there yet, but a lot better.
Well, I think that’s me done for today, in this corner. I still have plenty to do elsewhere around the bedroom. Never mind in all the other parts of the home.
I’ve got a few Vince Guaraldi Peanuts recordings. The best, so far, is A Charlie Brown Christmas. I also have It’s The Great Pumpkin. The latter has some good moments, but isn’t as good a listen as the Xmas album.
A terrific album.Interesting, but not as compelling.
As I think I discuss elsewhere on ye ol’ blog, this Pumpkin release is more ‘bitty’; lots of little repetitive snippets…
Maybe these’ll be similar? But these two Lost Cues discs still look promising. Shame they aren’t available as a single set/disc.
I love the eclectic range of KG&TLW’s music. And, appropriately enough, their cover art is similarly broad ranging. Most if not all of it is the work of one Jason Galea. And I love his work.
Me want’um groovy green T-shirt!Old Locomotive, The Murlocs, 2017
Galea does stuff for other folk, not just King Gizzard. Altho’ a lot (most?) of it does appear to be within the Gizz-verse.
Love the primitive model-making vibe here.
From slick, to simple, from psychedelic to stark, Galea’s work is very wide-ranging. And yet it all partakes of something with a core character, just as the music the Gizz-ers (and affiliates) makes also does.
Is this Jason?*
Find a whole heap of Galea’s album cover work on his website, here.
* I’m assuming it is. But the place where I found it doesn’t say…
I thought I’d revisit it, having recently bought 50th Anniversary posters, and also re-listened to it, in the car, for the first time in quite a while.
I did a series of long reviews of all my favourite Tom Waits albums, and posted them on Amazon, years ago. It was stuff like that – and the ‘helpful’ vote reactions of other Amazon shoppers – that lead to them inviting me to participate in the Vine program.
Rather annoyingly they then deleted ALL my reviews – (over a thousand!*) and booted me off Vine, later on. With no proper explanation! And I’m not sure I had any backup copies.
* With over a million helpful votes!
So this might be the time and place to kind of recapitulate that stuff, to some degree?
Only this time I’ll feel free to be even more digressive/discursive. For example, looking into some of the production team and sidemen who helped make this sublime work of musical art.
John Seiter, Drums & Backing Vocals.
Spanky-era Seiter.
Drummer John Seiter not only plays his primary instrument superbly, and with pitch perfect sensitivity to the material, on Closing Time. He also adds excellent – and highly unusual, in that they’re almost unique in the Waits canon – backing vocals, on (?) and (?).
Seiter’s claim to fame isn’t his Waits connection, but his roles as drummer for Spanky & Our Gang (196?-6?), and, more briefly, The Turtles. His brother Jimmi Seiter was also a drummer and percussionist, with a long and successful association with The Byrds, in the ‘70s…
Bill Plummer, double-bass
Bill and his bull fiddle.
As Jerry Yester recalled, Tom was insistent on having an upright bassist. Drummer John Seiter brought in Bill Plummer. Bill had a very varied career: he once played (in an unrecorded jam, I believe) with Miles, is on The Stones’ Exile On Main Street, and also played sitar, studying the latter with Ravi Shankar, no less!
Bull in sitar mode.Bill’s ‘69 sitar album, on jazz label, Impulse!
Jerry Yester had been a fixture on the ‘60s coffee-house folk scene, a member of The Modern Folk Quartet, and replaced Zal Yanofsky in sixties folk-pop sensations, The Lovin’ Spoonful.
His recollections of working on this album with Tom are priceless, as they include having the very young as yet unsigned artist visit his home, to play through his material and discuss the potential upcoming album.
If I recall correctly he talked about how his wife, who’d usually ignore such goings on – her husband obviously doing stuff like this all the time – felt compelled, in this instance, to discover the source of the beautiful sounds wafting through their home.
Yester also recalls how, at the end of the session for the album-closing (and titular) instrumental, Closing Time, there was a prolonged silence. ‘Nobody wanted the moment to end’, he enthuses, citing this as ‘the most magical’ musical session he’d ever been part of.
Despite this, Yester and Tom were pulling in differing directions. Yester’s background and expertise lead him to move things in a folksier direction, whereas Tom’s whole boho-beatnik jazzer schtick was already beginning to take shape.
Photographer Ed Caraeff took the photos that one sees front and back. The front cover photo is a real beauty. Totally capturing the beatnik bar/nightfly vibe. The back cover one is from a series shot – possibly just after a Troubadour performance (according to some sources) – in what looks like a photography studio setting.
A snippet from the contact-sheet that yielded the back cover image of Waits.
Cal Schenkel, album cover design
Cal.
Cal Schenkel’s most famous association is with Frank Zappa. Waits and Zappa were both on Herb Cohen’s Bizarre/Straight label. And in his early years Waits would sometimes open shows for Zappa, et al. Talk about trial by fire!
Cal’s work with Zappa……rather different from the Closing Time cover.
Well, thanks to words of praise for Gord’, from my Canadian relatives, I finally got around to actually checking him out, a bit. This here ‘breakthrough’ album, from 1970, is where I’ve started.
He’s clearly a very talented singer, guitarist and songwriter. But he doesn’t immediately hit my aesthetic bullseye. My initial fears that he’d prove to be bland MOR have been mostly assuaged. But not expunged 100%.
That says, this is a fine collection of folksy country-tinged American – or Canadian, rather (mind, he’d relocated to L.A!) – ballad singer style music. Mostly acoustic. Only two tracks have drums; Poor Little Allison, and Baby, It’s Alright. Interestingly these might also be the two most dates sounded tracks, sounding very ‘60s.
The original wordless LP cover.
The pop/MOR vibe, notable in the two just mentioned numbers (Baby, It’s Alright reminds me a bit of John Sebastian*), is also manifest throughout, partly in Lightfoot’s vocal style, which is a richly smooth baritone/tenor, and notably in the string arrangements. Which are copious, though fortunately not overly syrupy.
I like it right from the get go; track one Minstrel of the Dawn immediately clicking with me. And next up is a Kris Kristofferson number, Me And Bobby McGee. Very ol’ timey and countrified. And terrific. Likewise, track three, Approaching Lavender is great, as well.
So, a very strong start. But the first number to really connect with me is track four, the melancholy slow waltz of Saturday Clothes. A lovely song. A keynote throughout the entire vibe is a gentle melancholy; totally up my boulevard!
Tracks seven and eight – Sit Down Young Stranger, the original title of the album, and If You Could Read My Mind, which became both his biggest hit to date, and the new name for the album – are clearly the two ‘flagship’ numbers.
Cobwebs And Dust, track five, and album closer The Pony Man, track eleven, are both almost nursery-rhyme like, both musically, and even lyrically. Of the two I find The Pony Man the more affecting.
In back of the ol’ LP.
Lyrically speaking, Sit Down Young Stranger reached me more than many of the others: ‘I had a million daydreams, to keep me satisfied. And will you gather daydreams or will you gather wealth? How can you find your fortune when you cannot find yourself?’ Beautiful!
The album ends strongly. Your Love’s Return, track ten, a strong contender for being one of my favourites, along with Saturday Clothes, Sit Down, Read My Mind, and the enchanting closer, The Pony Man.
On second listening I’m inclined to raise this from four to four and a half stars… very good! I expect I’ll be checking out more of his stuff, now that in know I like him more than I anticipated.
* Interestingly enough, John Sebastian is on the album, adding his harmonica to The Pony Man.
As someone who wants to make my own drums, and is indeed already in the process of doing so (in various ways), this was an utterly fascinating watch.
Obviously Tama, a terrific Japanese drum maker, have the whole kit caboodle, tools and machine wise. But one can still learn an awful lot from watching this, which one might still apply or otherwise benefit from, even at mine own ‘umble ‘cottage industry level.
Years ago I bought two TEAC Hi-Fi separates. I think they were both pretty pricey n’all. Although I forget now exactly what I paid. One component was an amplifier. Which I still have. The other was a DVD-player. But it was a DVD-player that – I was told/sold – would play back audio CDs very well.
But, alas, the DVD player never worked. And I took it back under warranty to have it fixed. They say on it for over a year. And when I eventually said ‘it’s the working omachine back now, or a full refund; I’ve paid for a device I’ve not had for aeons…’ etc, they fobbed me off, as I saw it, with this unit.
Wanting this prompted this whole shebang.
I’m only just learning – maybe 15-20 years later? – that whilst it doesn’t look remotely like the replacement of like for like that I wanted, it might actually be an ok machine. And here’s why…
So gloovy… you get a poster n’ everything!
In seeking out various 50th Anniversary reissues of numerous ol’ musical favourites, I’ve learned that Sony Japan are reissuing lots of early Santana, including such wonders as Caravanserai and his Sri Chimnoy themed Mahavishnu collab’ Love Devotion & Surrender, in super-deluxe SACD versions.
I’ve never listened to this… I didn’t know I could.
I had a better than religious epiphany to The Life Divine, off this album, in my late teens. So this record has a very special place in my heart! But I was lamenting the fact that – out of around 1,000+ albums I own on CD, only one or two are SACD (eg Steely Dan’s Everything Must Go) – meaning I thought I’d have to fork out for an SACD player for the sake of a paltry two or three discs in my entire collection. Obviously not worth it!
But in researching ‘affordable SACD players’, I learned that I’ve already got a machine that’ll play SACD, and indeed have had one for donkeys years. I just didn’t know it! The people at Cambridge Hi-Fi, where I bought the two TEAC units originally, prob’ sold it to me with this as part of their patter. But I either didn’t hear; didn’t comprehend; and/or did, I forgot!
Just ordered this, for £9.99
So, having discovered I have an SACD playing DVD-player, I’ve finally ordered a new remote for it. The old one ceased working several years ago. This might also mean I can finally watch Police Squad without g’damn English subtitles!?
This looks very intriguing. I’m listening to it now, via a stream on the Mr Bongo website. I love the name, and the cover design. And so far the music is rather lovely as well.
I haven’t delved into it much yet. But a quick look at the info on the aforementioned website (find that here) suggests it’s an ‘after the events/facts’ reconstruction, from Ahbez’s written scores, brought to life by a Swedish group, Ìxtahuele.
Eden Ahbez is famed for being a proto-hippy, and the composer of the jazz standard Nature Boy, as covered by everyone from Nat ‘King’ Cole to George Benson.
The vinyl is a bit steep (£35!). And vinyl’s not really my preferred format any more. I’ll see if it’s available on CD…
Listening to music in my car today. Itself an unusual thing these days. As I mostly prefer silence. After some Gal Costa, I went back to my recently acquired Mr Bongo Arthur Verocai reissue.
It’s not so much the fancy vinyl I’m after…
I’ve know that I liked the album for some time. And since I got it on CD, fairly recently, that’s turned from like to love. Today it all just went to 11 and beyond. I completely adore this recording. And listening to it today? It was an epiphany.
… as it is these other goodies!
I was in such a blissed out emotional overload, that I had to pull over and just stop and listen for a spell. Isn’t it odd how sometimes music suddenly just hits the mainline? Connecting with the cortex, and electrifying everything.
Verocai at work in the studio.
Everything about this recording is just, frankly, more or less perfect. In that amazing musical Goldilocks Zone. Neither too little nor too much, just the right amount…
And I love the chords, the melodies, the harmonies. The timbre of the various instruments. The horn and string arrangements. The qualities of the vocals. And the magic of the instrumentals.
Arthur directs the strings.
There are so many things in the mix: it’s unmistakably Brazilian, yet it’s full of jazz, blues, pop, rock, funk and soul. Even fusion! And there are numerous moments where I’m left thinking things like: but that’s a Purdie shuffle vibe; or that’s the rambunctious 6/8 feel of The Life Divine… But this is Brazil, in ‘72!? It’s before those other things…
An alternate shot akin to the album cover.
The music here is both heir to its forebears, very much of its time, and yet also ahead of the curve. It’s an incredibly rich and heady blend. It’s kind of astonishing to think that it sank without trace, more or less, at the time.
Set the controls for the heart of the soul.
But it’s heartening to see that in time it’s come to be appreciated for the masterpiece that it is. And that other folk find it as enchanting as I do really makes me very deeply happy. Maybe there’s some hope for humanity after all?
What!? There’s also a green vinyl version!?
It’s kind of freaky, and bizarre, how so much aligns for me, around and within this release. It’s not just the music; it’s the time, the place, the spirit of it all. It’s how he looks. How the record looks. And even more so how it sounds. And then that Mr Bongo’s re-release aesthetics should also chime so perfectly!? How? Why? Maybe zeitgeist, I suppose?
