Saturday 30 April 2011

Warm fruit salad, Arthur Lowe & Waylon Jennings

I remember having some barbecued cinnamon pineapple in a restaurant in Sao Paulo donkeys ago and it was delia-licious. Lately I've been chopping up fruit (pineapple, mango, strawberries, grapes, kiwi fruit, banana, whatever (make it your own; I'm easy-osy ), sprinkling with cinnamon and squirting a smidgeon of lemon juice and sticking it in the oven. A bit of vanilla ice cream on the side doesn't hurt. There. Flowers and cards to the usual address.

Something else I like apart from warm fruit salad? Erm...I like the fact that someone had the bright idea to ask the late Arthur Lowe to narrate the Mr Men.... and that someone else got the late great Waylon Jennings to sing the theme tune to The Dukes Of Hazzard:




If this was an on-line diary I'd tell you about my yoga class this week.

*beat*

Bye.

Thursday 28 April 2011

Toulouse-Barcelona

"Blow your own trumpet or someone else will use it as a spittoon" (origin unknown)

I shot and edited this video yesterday. It's for a track "Toulouse-Barcelona" from my instrumental album "Maculate Conceptions", recorded while on tour in Europe with Teenage Fanclub last year:



Here come two other videos.

"Aarhus":




"Aarhus 2":




Hear more music or, golly, buy the album at my website... 

Wednesday 27 April 2011

Cinema Paradiso

Here's something else I like:




Many moons ago I ambled along to the glorious GFT in Glasgow thinking I was going to see "The Cook, The Thief His Wife And Her Lover" (which I have still never seen). I got my dates wrong and instead stumbled upon this gem. I don't care if people criticize it for being sentimental. Not saying I don't agree - just that I don't care. Where would we be if every film was bereft of sentiment? Here's another imponderable; where would "Cinema Paradiso" be if Ennio Morricone had not provided the soundtrack?

Tuesday 26 April 2011

Ta-dah

Hello. I've got a hunch this blog thing might take off so I've decided to be an early-adapting tastemaker. I think this blog will mainly be about stuff I like.


Number 1 - LAURA CANTRELL

I like Laura Cantrell. I like her new album "Kitty Wells Dresses" - out now and available at www.lauracantrell.com / amazon / i-tunes / HMV / etc.


I also like this wee Laura Cantrell promo film, shot on the soon-to-be-defunct Flip camera and edited on i-movies:


I released Laura's debut album "Not The Tremblin' Kind" on Shoeshine over 11 (!) years ago. Crazy. I remember being SO EXCITED that I was going to be working with this amazing talent. Queen Of The Coast..The Whiskey Makes You Sweeter....Genius! Great singer, songwriter and person. And now here we are again. Laura tours the UK next month:


MAY
1
ManchesterClub Academy


0161 832 1111

2
Bristol, St Bonaventure's


0870 4444 4000

4
Sheffield Memorial Hall


0114 2789 789

5
Nottingham, The Glee Club


0871 472 0400.

6
Edinburgh, Pleasance Theatre


0131 220 3234

7
Gateshead, Old Town Hall


0191 4336965

8
London, Union Chapel


0131 220 3234


Number 2 - BRAZIL


I like Brazil. I get to go there next month for two shows with Teenage Fanclub. Rio and Sao Paulo. Yay. I played some solo shows in Brazil a few years ago (I know; WTF? etc) and later returned with TFC for a tour. Great people/music/food and these:



Here's a track from Jorge Ben to celebrate (Remind you of any Rod Stewart songs?):



Number 3 - ...

Och that's enough for now.