I have to admit choking up somewhat when i heard this story on the TV this morning, not something a Johnny Cash fan wants to wake up to hear :(
"It was a sanctuary and a fortress for him," neighbour Country sartist Marty Stuart said. "There was a lot of writing that took place there. The Folsom Prison prison record came from there, the San Quentin record, The Holy Land, the Man in Black book came from there."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6
And, freakily, Last.fm decides, as I'm writing this, to play Johnny Cash's brilliant cover of Hurt, which of course featured the house quite heavily in the video (which i'd link to, except Youtube seems to have gone down)
- Mood:
sad - What I'm listening to:Johnny Cash, Hurt
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tippex79!) so I thought I'd try and give a brief summary. Without doubt the definite highlight gig of the year was The Dresden Dolls at the Camden Roundhouse (full review here). It's a hell of a standard for anyone to pass, but who knows, maybe 2007 will find another band willing to spend the time assembling a support show that does actually support their music.
In terms of the gig i was most looking forward to in the year, that would certainly be David Gilmour (with Richard Wright) at the Royal Albert Hall. It didn't disappoint either, and it was a great gig (though sadly I didn't go on the night that David Bowie performed Arnold Layne (see journal entry with video) but did get Mica Paris doing Great Gig in the Sky. For full review and tracklisting see my review. Seeing half of Pink Floyd is probably the best i can hope for now (though I'm seeing Roger Waters in 07 (anyone know if Nick Mason is touring with him?))
Clearly the most seen artist was the wonderful Duke Special, 5 times I think. He's gone from nowhere to 8th on my most listened to artists in the space of less than a year, and he is wonderful live. Each time i think he had a slightly different support set-up, and each time he didn't disappoint with setlisting or arrangements. It is a definite skill to be able to adapt your songs and still make them work, and it's certainly something that needs other artists could learn from.
One of those is certainly James Morrison, who i saw three times this year, and I can say with a fair degree of certainty I won't be seeing him again. The first time i saw him was supporting the wonderful Martha Wainwright (review here). The second gig was a very cozy set with just him and his keyboard player again (review here) which was another excellent gig. However, the third gig really wasn't up to much. As i feared after listening to the horribly over-produced album, the addition of a backing band sucked the life out of the songs and made him sound rather dull.
Other highly enjoyable gigs this year included:
Martha Wainwright with all her helpers on stage Chris Stills, Ed Harcourt, Thea Gilmore and the fab Kate & Anna McGarrigle.
The fantastic OK Go who hopefully will break through in 2007 (they've been Grammy nominated for their great treadmills video) so fingers crossed for them!
Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins supported by Johnathan Rice
Sir Willard White performing the life-story of Paul Robeson. What a voice that man has (well, both of them), a truly mesmerising performance.
The Divine Comedy (see my full review).
BJ Cole whilst supporting Duke Special, hopefully i'll be able to get hold of some of his stuff in 07.
Ben Kweller, a perfectly good gig, even if the band did make me feel old.
Venue of the year is probably The Camden Roundhouse, though I did muchly like Bush Hall too.
There, I think that's everything! Not a bad year at all, and 2007 is shaping up nicely too!
Sign this petition to get the copyright law updated!
Now, I've been to a few gigs in my time, especially over the last few years, but I can truly say this was one of the oddest. Some of the oddness I can understand, some I still can't get my head around!
( Full review behind the cut )Without doubt the best gig I've ever been to. And I can see the Dresden Dolls shooting up my favourite artist list!
- What I'm listening to:The Dresden Dolls - Slide
tippex79 and I went to Divine Comedy supported by Duke Special at the awesome Roundhouse in Camden. First, just a little about the venue. The Roundhouse in Camden is something of a legendary venue, and it's great to see it back in use after many years of decay. As a Pink Floyd fan it was great to get into a venue where they created a lot of their history.
To be honest, we're both really gone to see Duke Special, I think that's the first time I've gone to a gig to see a support artist rather than the main event.
It was a good gig, not perhaps the best I've seen him do, and, of course, being the support, the crowd were talking quite a lot, which was a shame. Duke voice was excellent, but i felt sometimes the sound levels weren't quite right, but nothing major. It was a very long set, longest support set I've ever seen. The Duke was ably supported by, amongst other, Chip Bailey, and, for one track by Foy Vance with his wonderful voice.
Overall then, a good set, and he certainly got a good reception and I think won over some new fans, which is great!
Then the main event, The Divine Comedy. In advance of this gig, i did try to dig out the one album of his I had, Casanova, but sadly couldn't find it, so went to the gig very under-prepared!
It was an excellent gig, Neil Hannon was in exceptionally good fettle, and had the crowd in the palm of his hand; cavorting about, using monitors as props, smoking, and of course, singing wonderful songs! We also got a lovely cover of Prince's Raspberry Beret
I've always felt encores are ideal time for covers, and was duly rewarded with another, this time The Doors' Touch Me, very faithfully done and got people singing along.
Overall, the night was fantastic, great gig, great to see Duke Special raising his profile (coupled with a slot on Later with Jools Holland
- What I'm listening to:The Dresden Dolls - Coin-Operated Boy
Amnesty highlight the case of Kianoosh Sanjari who was arrested in Iran for reporting on clashes between security ofrces and fighters supporting a cleric. And Chinese journalist Shi Tao used his Yahoo! account to email a US-basedwebsite about an internal government directive instructing journalistshow to handle media coverage of the anniversary of the Tiananmen Squarecrackdown. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for "illegallyproviding state secrets to foreign entities." Yahoo! provided information to the government that was used in his prosecution.
Stand up for freedom of speech!
- What I'm listening to:Jeff Buckley - Dream Brother
tippex79 pointed me in the direction of Emusic.Essentially, you pay a monthly subscription and can legally (not like allofmp3!) download from 2million plus DRM free tracks. When you stop your subscription, the music stays unlocked and stays yours.
Just how downloading music should be!
- What I'm listening to:Richard Thompson - Blackleg Miner
Latest sign of the apocalypse: ad-spewing hand dryers
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
[via Engadget]
- What I'm listening to:Richard Thompson - Outside Of The Inside
It is, quite simply brilliant. The story is strong and is a very interesting suggestion of why the wicked witch went bad and it really draws you in and makes care for the characters. The songs are excellent, the set superb. Best of all though are the performances. Idina Menzel is excellent reprising her broadway as Elphaba and she is excellently supported by Helen Dallimore as Glinda. Miriam Margolyes and Nigel Planer (as the wizard) are both very good as the more senior characters.
If you get a chance to see this I strongly recommend it!
- What I'm listening to:Johnny Cash - Thirteen
Cory Doctorow: A Crafster community member made a pair of Converse shoes and sewed them onto a set of Converse soles whose uppers had worn away. After sewing on the Chuck Taylor All-Star ankle patches, the outcome was a dementedly fabulous pair of frankentennies.
(Thanks, Aija!)
I knit a pair of converse shoes. I'd had this idea for aaages, but just recently conned someone into giving me an old pair. I cut off all the fabric, save for about a 1/4 inch along all the edges, and knit pieces to sew in place. They didn't take a very long time to make- the hardest part was sewing everything together. Ugh! I think the effort was worth it, and they're actually really strong. I played a game of baseball in them the other day, and they've held up just fine!
[via Boing Boing]
- What I'm listening to:Fats Domino - Domino Twist
geoffrodriguez who was interested and reminded me to post about it. Briefly, a company called Steorn have claimed to have created a machine that can 'make' energy. Now, i stop studying physics fairly early, and thus a long time ago, but one of the few laws i remember was the Principle of the Conservation of Energy; that energy can never be destroyed or lost or created, only changed. In order for their claim to be true, they must be getting out more energy than they are putting in, which according to the laws of physics, is impossible. Suffice to say there's been huge controversy, and they are attempting to assemble a panel of 12 sceptical scientists to prove it to. I have no idea whether it's real or not. If it's not, it's either a genuine mistake, or a very complicated, elaborate scam (presumably into buying stock in the company when it floats or investing money etc.).
If it's real, of course, then it will, and this is no exageration, change the world forever. Free energy, no need to dig up oil or coal, no need to build nuclear powerstations, no harmful emissions destroying the environment etc etc and so on.
Read the story, look at their website. Make your own mind up. Guardian Unlimited story
- Mood:
curious - What I'm listening to:The Mamas & The Papas - It's Getting Better'
- Mood:
amused
- Mood:
artistic - What I'm listening to:Dixie Chicks - The Long Way Around
So many things to be proud of from my home county, but surely nothing better than the fact that Dorset donkeys make the best team! Over-excited? Me?
Bruno wins top beach donkey prize
A six-strong herd of donkeys in Weymouth are named as Britain's Best Group of Beach Donkeys.
- Mood: amused
Ian Dale has blogged about an interesting new initiative by Greenwich Tory councillors to hold surgeries exclusively for gay and lesbian residents.
It seems very confused to me. It says that they <i>will be holding surgeries relating to LGBT issues</i>, but it also says that <i>Any resident of the borough wanting to discuss issues relating to council activities, including housing, civil partnerships, and council tax can come along to the surgeries without an appointment during the allotted time. </i> which is pretty well what would happen at any surgery anway, so what is really so special about this?
There are numerous issues that some LGBT residents might worry about in outing themselves to people in power, or indeed to anyone else.
It seems like it has been done to try and show that they are inclusive, but by inviting everyone else in anyway, it just shows that it's just a bit of spin
Vote Blue Go Pink -Would You Like to Come up And See My Surgery Sometime?
[via Iain Dale's Diary]
- What I'm listening to:Richard Thompson - Persuasion
BoingBoing reader Jeremiah Britt says,
Knowing how much you guys love the random, beautiful and bizarre ephemera of yesteryear, I scanned in the illustrations from the Big Little Book "The Man From U.N.C.L.E. - The Calcutta Affair". The poses are awkward, some of the panel art ridiculous and the captions surreal. It's especially amusing without the context of the text. Enjoy.Link.
[via Boing Boing]
- Mood: amused
- What I'm listening to:BBC Radio Five Live - Kermode: The Wicker Man, 01 Sep 06
- Mood:
impressed - What I'm listening to: Elliott Smith - Can't Make a Sound
fi_hermanYou have 37% Iowa in you!
Hey, not bad. You enjoy a little bit of the rural life. Next time you're in the midwest check Iowa out. It's not so bad.
Do you have Iowa in you?
- Mood:
accomplished
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