One of my favourite musicians, John Martyn, and in quite a few of these videos, one of the best British double bass players across all genres, Danny Thompson. I tried to limit myself to three videos, and failed.

John - May you never on the Old Grey Whistle Test 1973

John & Danny - Couldn’t love you more, OGWT 1977

John & Danny - Solid Air, Transatlantic Sessions 1998

John - Hurt in your heart, from a 2007 TV programme including a small interview. I saw him at the Roundhouse the same year, touring a live version of his 1973 album Solid Air . He’s been through and put himself through a lot and you could do with subtitles when he speaks, but when he sings and plays, there’s still something there.

And not really a video, more a montage (of one photo), but one of my favourite songs, John (& Danny) playing Head and Heart from the 1971 album Bless the Weather (the first JM album I bought)

Links:

Posted by: chasrle | July 20, 2008

Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

… I hadn’t realised this had such a short lifespan (it ends today), otherwise I would have blogged it earlier - if the everyday story of an aspiring supervillain, struggling with his arch enemy and his love for the girl he meets down the laundromat, all told in musical form, written by Joss Whedon (of Buffy/Firefly fame) and starring Doogie Howser M.D. (and some other people) sounds good to you, get yourself to www.DrHorrible.com before midnight tonight 20 July (although this could be American midnight?).

Edit: If you’re reading this after the 20th, here’s the YouTube trailer, the rest of it may also show up somewhere on the internets:

Posted by: chasrle | July 19, 2008

Cooking: Pâtes à la Bolognaise

Aptonia Pasta Bolognese (96g packed)

Ready, ...

Aptonia Pasta Bolognese (Dry)

... steady, ...

Aptonia Pasta Bolognese (Hydrating)

... cook, ...

Aptonia Pasta Bolognese (Ready to Eat)

... eat, ...

Aptonia Pasta Bolognese (Gone)

... gone.


Read More…

Posted by: chasrle | July 14, 2008

Summer reading II

Dangerous things books, full of ideas. And if you feed them after midnight…

... more books

... more books

More books on the pile over the weekend. The past month or so has seen the arrival of the paperback versions of books, which have been a while in coming - “The Wild Places” by Robert MacFarlane and “Wildwood - a journey through trees” by the late Roger Deakin (who also features in MacFarlane’s book). Deakin’s previous book, “Waterlog: a swimmer’s journey through Britain”, a book about outdoor and wild swimming which he described as taking a “frog’s eye view of Britain”, was one of those books that are so inspiring that they are hard to read - I kept wanting to get up and go for a swim.

Then a thread on OutdoorsMagic prompted me to pick up a copy of “Into the Wild” by John Krakauer, which, if you haven’t read it or seen the recent film, tells the story of Chris McCandless, who walked alone into the Alaskan wilds, his body being found four months later. I don’t have it to hand to check, but I think I must have read some of the story in Laurence Gonzales’s “Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies and Why” (a fascinating study of survival situations and how what you do can sometimes affect the outcome). It’ll be interesting to see if reading the Krakauer book gives the more positive view of McCandless’s actions that people seem to have on OM.

In looking for the other books, I ended up wandering round Stanfords, which I often do if I stray near Covent Garden. And I picked up some more books. Should keep me going for a good while.

Posted by: chasrle | July 11, 2008

Summer reading

Summer reading

Summer reading...

The book stack’s building up, best get some summer reading done…

Posted by: chasrle | July 9, 2008

Wet and windy weekend on the Wye

Down to the Wye this weekend for a bit of camping, a bit of canoeing and a lot of rain. The original plan had been to carry everything in our boat - hence the playing around with the Akto and footprint to get a tent for the two of us that we could fit in a barrel. In the end we all opted to put most of our gear in the shuttle, but kept on with the minimalist Akto approach.

The first night at the campsite at Hay on Wye proved that the Akto pitched fly-only worked in a cosy fashion as a two man tent. Arriving late and pitching near the entrance of the campsite meant that we didn’t need our lanterns or torches - the streetlight near the entrance took care of that… for most of the night.

Saturday morning saw us down to the river for some traditional canoeing faffing about, shuttling, waiting and eventually unloading the canoes from the hire company. The weather forecast wasn’t promising - rain and gusting gale force winds. After a safety briefing and explanation of our get out options, we were on to the river.

The first few miles on the river were sheltered from the wind, and we accustomed ourselves to the boats and the rhythm of paddling. For the two of us, who were used to paddling our own canoes (or kayaks), it took a little while to work out the balance of effort between the paddler at the front and at the back. Eventually, we settled in to it, and enjoyed the rhythm, the flow and swirl of the water and the scenery passing by.

Canoeing on the Wye 05 July 08 (1)

Canoeing on the Wye 05 July 08 (1)

Canoeing on the Wye 05 July 2008 (2)

Canoeing on the Wye 05 July 2008 (2)

As the day got on, the wind picked up - we could see the gusts skidding across the surface towards us. Tighten the chinstrap on the hat, head down, plough on. Then came the rain. Head down, plough on.

We eventually arrived at the campsite at Byecross, cold and wet and hurried to set up camp among the trees, get into dry clothes and get a brew on. Then to the nearby Yew Tree pub in Preston on Wye for four walls and a roof, shelter from the rain, a pint (or two) and a bountiful roast dinner - recommended (make sure you book ahead).

Canoeing on the Wye 05 July 08 (3)

Canoeing on the Wye 05 July 08 (3)

We woke up to a damp Sunday morning. The rain pounding on the fly in the night had released a light spray of condensation on us - next time I try this approach(?) I’ll remember to bring my bivvy bag. Gear was packed up, damp clothes were put on to warm them up and dry them a little. A warm mug of chorridge (=hot chocolate + porridge), some moving around, a hint of sky and things were looking better.

Camp on Wye canoe trip 06 July 08

Camp on Wye canoe trip 06 July 08

At the get-in, the river was noticeably higher than the previous day, chocolate brown in colour and with the occasional clump of foliage drifting by. While the others shuttled, we watched several groups lower their gear down the bank and set off.

Canoeing on the Wye 06 July 08

Canoeing on the Wye 06 July 08

On the river, we settled into the rhythm that we had worked out the day before. I’m afraid that my wildlife recognition skills are not up to much, but even I could recognise the swans (many, many swans and cygnets) and occasional kingfisher that we passed. The weather stayed mixed, but with less wind than the previous day. Sometimes, we got a little advanced warning of the rain as a line of raindrop splashes raced over the river surface towards us.

A little after one, we reached the get-out at Hereford rowing club, just next to the Beer on the Wye festival. Tempting as it was, we got changed and headed off on the journey home.

Links

Saw this mentioned in the paper this morning - looks interesting: Frozen in Time - The Mountain Photography of Vittorio Sella, at the Estorick Collection in Islington, 25 June to 14 September 2008 (link).

From the blurb: “Vittorio Sella was born in 1859 in Biella, about 50 miles north-east of Turin in the foothills of the Italian Alps, not far from the peaks of Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa. His father had written the first Italian language treatise on photography in 1856 and his uncle Quintino Sella, a distinguished statesman and keen Alpinist, founded the Italian Alpine Club in 1863. Having undertaken such feats in the Alps as the first winter ascent of the Matterhorn in 1882 and the first winter traverse of Mont Blanc in 1888, Vittorio set out on the mountaineering and photographic adventures that were to consume him for many years.”

A double-whammy, early photography and mountains… perfect. I’ll just have to try and avoid my usual habit of spotting something like this and remembering it on the last day of the exhibition.

Some more info:

Posted by: chasrle | June 29, 2008

Two tents

A man goes to see his doctor. “Doctor, sometimes I think I’m a wigwam, and sometimes I think I’m a tipi. I don’t know what’s up with me, can you help?”. “Ah”, says the doctor, “I see what’s wrong with you: you’re stuck in a very old joke…”

Down to my brother’s to see my Mum, who was visiting (”Hi Mum!”), and to test pitch a couple of tents in his garden. First up, a newie - a Henry Shires’ Tarptent Contrail. As the name suggests, it falls halfway between a tarp and a tent, being a single skin design with a bathtub floor attached by mesh panels. Using a walking pole as the tent pole means it only weighs around 680g to carry, less than half the weight of my already lightweight Akto. As with most lightweight kit, the trade off is that you need to take more care in setting it up and using it - but then again, that’s half the fun.

The picture above shows it just after I had first put it up (and before I had gone round and properly tensioned the bathtub floor and pegging points). In this set up, there is clear space between the tarp sheet and the ground, allowing for good air flow to help reduce condensation. For bad weather, the tent can be lowered to what one reviewer calls a ’stealth mode’, lowering the tent on the back struts and reducing the walking pole height to give a lower profile, closer to the ground. The Contrail has additional pegging / guying points - two on the sides and one each on the front beak and at the rear. I suspect that even in general use, I’d be tempted to use the front and rear points and have pegs for the sides as back up (approx +50g weight). I’ll have at least one more test pitching - the seams have to be silicone sealed, which I’ll leave to a day with more reliable weather than today.

The Akto got another outing, so that I could take out the inner and try a footprint (I like the Swedish name - skyddsgolv) that I picked up in the sales on Friday. Looks as though it’ll be quite compact for two of us in there - we may try and rig a tarp as an extension / porch for gear storage / cooking.

So, two tents: the Akto for hill and mountain walking, when I need a bombproof shelter, mainly weekend and week-long walks; the Contrail for longer walks, when I may not be camping every night, but want to have the option when needed, and maybe over time (or sooner) I’ll give in to the temptation to test it in wilder locations.

Links:

Posted by: chasrle | June 29, 2008

Musical Interlude #629: Ukulele Orchestra of GB

There’s currently a nice BBC Radio 4 documentary on the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain available on the BBC’s listen again section (link). Available for a limited time only (less than a week left), so hear it while you can.

Alternatively some YouTubery:

Life on Mars

Teenage Kicks

Wuthering Heights

Posted by: chasrle | June 24, 2008

If at first you don’t succeed…

As always the Scots lead the way: following the example of one of their famous wild campers - lightweight too, he used caves to avoid carrying a shelter - the only sensible response to the government’s response to the ePetition for wild camping (link) is to try, try again…

… and sign up to the ePetition for wild camping in Wales (link).

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