Friday evenings

David Axelrod

I've been listening to some Blue Note compilations. In the car it's been MP3 CDs of the 100 Best Of...and in the kitchen, to the Blue Note Trip collection, albums arranged in pairs designated Saturday Night / Sunday Morning; Scrambled / Mashed; and the surprisingly yet to be burned by fundamentalist prudes Gettin' Up / Goin' Down. David Axelrod's just come up on the kitchen and the car players, and, while I know he's 'Axel' not axle, that's still a pretty specific automotive part name he's got there, and that means all the usual brainstorms start. Stevie Sparkplug. Bernie Brakepad. The seductive Flora Automatic Transmission Fluid. Annie Airbags. Exhaustpipe Ernie. Check out his emissions!

Crankshaft Craig. I've got all his albums.

Friday evening...

...thanks to R&S, was like one of those long ago Fridays. Those ones that were the start of the weekend. Relaxed. No worries about work. Lots of jokes and laughing. Good food, the best company, can't ask for more. Speaking of which...

...Roddy Woomble...

...now if I'm repeating myself, it's because AD moaned about the lack of a review, and I'm far enough into gaga-land to not be sure whether I've drafted but not posted about Roddy Woomble.

Just solved the riddle of why I thought I'd covered this: Roddy Woomble was my My Jam for last week, and, unusually, I posted one of those tweets they encourage you to post, all about why.

Anyway, Roddy sings, with bass, guitar, and violin / keyboards / backing vocals, and they do it incredibly well. Brilliantly well.

Two out of three Fridays, that'd be, actually feeling like the working week's over and we're kicking back and easing off. A change from working until late, falling asleep, then working most of the Saturday and Sunday too.

Blue Note...

...just so seldom ever put a foot wrong. Not just the music, the album cover art, the sleeve notes, everything's just-so.

The 100 Best of... is perfect for long drives. Most 'driving music' seems to mean bland rubbish. I wonder how many of those ABBA's greatest hits and Chris Rea compilations are responsible for asleep-at-the-wheel accidents?

TV politician debates

I don't want these people to debate the issues. I know what they think, because they think whatever their parties tell them to. The UKIP bloke thinks the UK is a garden of Eden, and would be perfect if only all those horrible blacks and browns, and us Eastern Europeans would only clear off. The tory mush just wants things to stay the same, because, after all, that's what's left him minted, from a long line of public school minted. So on.

Ask them to explain the offside law, leg before wicket, just how the new scrummaging laws have failed to have the desired effect. Nab their iPods and let's see what they really listen to. That'd be interesting.