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Asked to sub for a colleague in the Art Department this morning I sneaked an opportunity to draw for twenty minutes (while intermittently checking no one was slitting their wrists with Stanley knives or sniffing tubes of glue). 

It must be a good six or seven years since I last took up a piece of charcoal in earnest. Silly really. 

Have I got news for you

            two beards

            chewing the fact

            that

            manner

            “get a woman on it – “

            flat share

            “got 80 quid

            off a mate of a mate – “

            bar maid (Pole)

            thumbs her phone

            doorbell dings

            the dumb waiter

(Fitzroy Tavern, Saturday 1pm)

“Should the street be considered as one of the fine arts?”

(Fernand Léger, 1928)

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Found collage 

(Chausée de Boondael)

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Having just watched Spinal Tap for the umpteenth time - but the first with the younger Wafflette - I’m left wondering whether Christopher Guest (Nigel Tufnel) is, in fact, related to Barbara Guest?

I met Stuart Calton some years ago in Liege during a Zappa conference. He very kindly gave me a copy of his Pence Eleven CD - How The Nimrods Stopped Me From Sinning. (It’s brilliant by the way.)

I chanced upon it again this afternoon while rearranging stuff upstairs & intend giving it another spin. Wondering what he was up to these days I found his ‘official’ site as T H F Drenching  at:

https://thfdrenching.bandcamp.com/

I absolutely love this stuff. The Zappa I cherish most (Lumpy Gravy, Uncle Meat) lives on in these recordings.

For those with ears (& other hairy organs) to hear.

He spent his days sipping weak tea in his kitchen as he wrote his journals and mused on ballerinas

Practice the precept : find without seeking (Robert Bresson)

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Wishing anyone who still drops by a Happy New Year ... 

... I'll skip the usual (empty) promises to post more consistently. 

Here is a Top Ten list of ear food - the kind of music I have been enjoying during the past year:

• Pacal Dusapin (String Quartets & Item in particular)
• John Lurie/ Lounge Lizards (anything I could get my hands on)
• Philip Glass (the Olafsson Piano Etudes recording)
• Frank Zappa (Crux of the Biscuit plus early vinyl reissues)
• Beatrice Rana (that Bach Goldberg recording) 
• Mahler (starting to listen again with fresh ears - Symphony No.2 conducted by Solti is sheer joy)
• Ron Miles (I Am A Man) 
• Hans Abrahamsen (String Quartets) 
• Thomas Demenga (his new recording of the Bach Cello Suites)
• Haydn (the op. 76 String Quartets - thanks to a lucky find of Hans Keller's book in a Camberley charity shop)

Then ... Monday evening ...

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Dweezil Zappa at the Bozar

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A really impressive performance - two hours straight through closing with a superb version of Inca Roads. Then a twenty minute encore rounding off with I Am The Walrus. Dweezil said they'd be out the front after a breather to talk & sign T-shirts. 

My respect for the man had soared & if anyone is securing the legacy of FZ it is his eldest son - court proceedings notwithstanding. 

This coming to you via the spiffy new platform allowing me to type & upload pictures.

To bring you up to date ... two weekends ago in Le Crotoy ...

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long distance messages 

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what happens when you trust auto translate machines

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zen & the art of beach combing

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