Friday, April 26, 2024

FRIDAY MUSIC: Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, by JD

 Molly Rose Tuttle is an American vocalist, songwriter, banjo player, guitarist, recording artist, and teacher in the bluegrass tradition. She is noted for her flatpicking, clawhammer, and crosspicking guitar prowess.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Tuttle

You may notice Molly's shaven head in one of these videos. This is not a 'fashion statement' because she has Alopecia Areata. Here she tells her story of living with the condition -
https://www.mollytuttlemusic.com/alopeciaareata

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway - Nashville Mess Around (Official Video)


Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway - El Dorado (Live)


Molly Tuttle - Where Did All the Wild Things Go? (Live)



Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway - Crooked Tree (Live at the Station Inn)


Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway - San Joaquin (Live)

Friday, April 19, 2024

FRIDAY MUSIC: The Oldtime String Band, by JD

The Oldtime String band was originally formed as a musical backdrop to a documentary about the cow-painter, Ruud Spil https://ruudspil.com/

Both the musicians and the audience enjoyed it so much that the band is now on a stampede.

The Oldtime Stringband not only plays Bluegrass and Old-Time music but is also inspired by American folk music from the 1940's and modern music with an Old-Time feel.

The Oldtime Stringband is:

Shelly O'Day : Vocals, guitar, autoharp, Cajun-triangle
Ton Knol : Guitar, mandolin, vocals
Ruud Spil : Banjo, vocals
Nico Druijf : Upright bass, vocals, singing saw
Lidewij de Vries : Fiddle, vocals


The Oldtime Stringband - Going Across the Mountain (Frank Proffitt)


The Oldtime Stringband - Run Mountain (J.E. Mainer)


The Oldtime Stringband - Our Town (Iris Dement)


The Oldtime Stringband - Cotton Mill Girl (Lester Smallwood)


The Oldtime Stringband - Angeline the Baker

Friday, April 12, 2024

FRIDAY MUSIC: The Beatles, orchestral versions, by JD

There have been lots and lots of cover versions of Beatles records, some good, some not so good. As far as I know there have been close to 2000 covers of Yesterday (according to Wiki) so the total number of covers of the Fab Four's back catalogue is anyone's guess. They were extremely popular in case you had forgotten and their music music has been adapted for orchestras around the world, inspired by The Beatles themselves who often used an orchestral backing to their songs. So here are just a few of those orchestral cover versions.

[LIVE] Beatles - YESTERDAYCello + Orchestra Version

Here, There And Everywhere - Orquestra Ouro Preto

Beatles - Eleanor Rigby e Strawberry fields forever

Here Comes the Sun - The Beatles | Joshua Bell and From the Top

The Beatles - Now And Then | Epic Orchestra

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Disneyland's Magic Stingdom

 


A friend recently returned from a family trip to Disneyland in Florida was enthusing to me about the rides and shows.

One thing he noticed was that the little boats taking them from A to B were in unusually swift-flowing water. It turned out to be an anti-mosquito provision, preventing them laying eggs as they do in pools and sluggish streams. So despite the tropical climate and nearby swampland there is little chance of visitors being plagued by insects.

The architecture is also designed to stop puddles forming (Reader’s Digest says more here.) Disney plans systematically and meticulously.

Could we put them in charge of our railways and the NHS?

Tuesday, April 09, 2024

Fake freedom: gambling

At the newsagent’s an elderly gentleman was checking his wins on a handful of Lottery tickets. I congratulated him but he replied that over the years he had lost a total of £30,000.

He could afford it at his steady rate but there are others much less fortunate. My in-laws recently used a plumber who had retrained to escape from working in a bookmaker’s because he couldn’t stand seeing men come in crying for their wages back, and hearing of customers’ suicides.

The gaming industry excuses itself by pretending that the gambler is exercising his free will and it wouldn’t dream of interfering with his liberty. Instead it offers friendly reminders (‘when the fun stops, stop’) and a helpline (GambleAware, founded 2002), so that absolves the organisers of any responsibility, doesn’t it? But in fact if we were completely rational and self-controlled there would be no need for such advice nor any restrictions on the gaming industry’s activities.

Instead the former chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on betting and gaming has recently resigned his seat over an undercover journalistic sting by The Times in which he offered to take money for privately influencing Parliamentary colleagues and asking questions in the House.

A lot of temptation is down to availability. Betting shops became legal in 1961 and at one point there were 15,000 of them. The National Lottery started in 1994 and now there are some 30,350 terminals selling draw tickets; and in 2014-2020 their sales of instant-result scratchcards averaged over one billion items, annually. Online gaming - accessible not just via computers but on the smartphones that virtually everyone carries around - now accounts for nearly 30% of all non-Lottery income. Overall, the industry’s revenues exceed £15 billion p.a.

If this country truly valued your freedom it would not be policing your speech, to the extent that since 1 April in Scotland saying the wrong thing even in the confines of your home could potentially get you up to seven years in jail.

The only freedoms you may have are those that make money for powerful interests.

Saturday, April 06, 2024

WEEKENDER: From The Bottom Up, by Wiggia

The local press gives a fair indication as to what the movers and shakers are doing or not in your own area.

As an example of what we can do without there are three articles in the Eastern Daily Press that are classics in that what is portrayed is several groups of ersatz political wannabees that have not a clue about what they are doing or are supposed to be doing.

I have moved more times than I care to mention in the region, starting in Essex and ending now in Norfolk and in all these areas and sub divisions have seen the local councils, town and upwards in action or as in most cases inaction. In most cases the ill-informed, the naive, the pompous, the ladder climbers and the corrupt form a toxic mix of inactivity that can only be replicated in the House of Commons where it is the same but magnified. Never has there been so many layers of wasters, and I do mean wasters, who have a say in our everyday lives or wish to impose their often ridiculous rulings on the general population.

I have mentioned before the saga of the link road for the so called northern relief road round the top of Norwich, an area bereft of decent road communications. This project would if planned properly have brought relief to not only motorists but to the edge villages that suffer as rat runs.

Just a brief re run: firstly, the road should never have been built without the final connection to the A47 in the west. Secondly by not completing the road then the costs for the three mile link have soared beyond belief, and thirdly the Norfolk Council questionnaire asking for opinions on three route proposals ignored the result! And chose a further out link that will inevitably be ignored by many and the rat runs will remain.

Because of the delay all and sundry who have no interest in the road other than stopping the link-up on eco grounds have found a colony of bats that they hope will stop any further progress, and now Natural England, a government sponsored quango has put its oar in on the subject: an unelected official has used the bat card as an attempt to stop the road being built; bats before people, tee shirts available here!

All of the region’s Conservative MPs have backed the road link and named an official who is unelected for the problem, as the majority of the MPs are standing down, including ‘seven jobs’ Brandon Lewis

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/23937202.mp-brandon-lewis-grabbing-cash-now-ahead-election-loss/

Typical of the type of person in the political classes, he was joined in the announcement on the road link by Richard Bacon also standing down as my MP after being totally invisible for what seems like years.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-60205714

Meanwhile in Wymondham the town council have had a mental health moment after one councillor had a turn after another made a 45 second resignation speech - yes really, suggestions for this man? And the useless councillors as described by the resignation speech on a postcard please.

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/24228691.wymondham-council-introduces-red-cards-meetings/

And at Breckland Council the troughing continues………

Magically this council has funds to pay nonentities double that others do; still, the rise in council tax will solve any monetary problems for them.

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/24226348.breckland-councillors-receive-allowance-increase/

Today I saw an election card come through the door for the post of Crime Commissioner. I have no clue (nor does anyone else) who is standing for the lucrative post; probably another double-barrell-named individual as were the last two who made a bigger dent in local finances than any equivalent dent in crime figures or management of them.

The general election will of course be different. The two uniparties are busy slagging each other off while telling the electorate that voting for Reform or anyone else is detrimental to the country. If it wasn’t so serious I would laugh.

Friday, April 05, 2024

FRIDAY MUSIC: Elle and the Pocket Belles, by JD



Described by Glastonbury Festival programmer Chris Tofu as "The most saleable Electro Swing act I've ever seen", the group are reminiscent of a cross between classic 60s soul and 50s girl groups given a joyful and wry modern twist. As such they fit perfectly alongside other artists on the Freshly Squeezed record label.

ELLE & THE POCKET BELLES are:

Elle, Michaela, Chloé, Cat and Joanna

https://continentaldrifts.co.uk/artist/elle-the-pocket-belles/

https://electroswingthing.com/elle-and-the-pocket-belles/

Elle & The Pocket Belles - See You Later (Official MV)

Old Fashioned // Lyric Video // Elle & The Pocket Belles

Elle & The Pocket Belles - Never Wanna Say Goodbye (Official MV)

Swingin' Together // Elle & The Pocket Belles

Get Down Tonight // Elle & The Pocket Belles

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“Freshly Squeezed is a Brighton-based Independent Record Label of quality and innovation behind sounds like the electro swing phenomena. Roster of quirky, idiosyncratic music that you'd be unlikely to hear anywhere else. We believe it is our uncompromising quest for only the very best music that has enabled us to evolve from a small DIY label making videos on a shoestring (sometimes less) to becoming, since 2005, one of the survivors in our industry. On this channel you will see videos that we spent a little more time and money on. You will also see videos we made when we simply didn't have any budget at all. We hope you'll enjoy them all and that ultimately the quality of the music is what comes through.”