A truly dreadful trip home on the MV Hrossey, 14 and a half hours of misery, not really because of feeling sick in the dreadful conditions, but just the discomfort and inability to sleep.
Susan reminded me that I once wrote: "The difference between the ferry and the 'plane is this: On the 'plane, you're afraid of dying. On the boat, you wish you were dead." Well, it wasn't quite that bad, but I'm still feeling a tad discombobulated. Especially with income tax returns and VAT to deal with.
Friday's Ivor Cutler tribute gig at The Lemon Tree in Aberdeen went pretty well, I think. The Fence Collective contingent (King Creosote, Pictish Trail, Jo Foster, MC Quake, Dougie Paul)were good-humouredly ragged, but effective. Loved the way they all cheerfully admitted to having heard only one Cutler album, Velvet Donkey. Watch out for Jo Foster in future- any woman who performs wearing wellington boots and allegedly ate three portions of lasagne pre-gig should be taken seriously. Michael Marra was great, as you'd expect, as was The Artist Formerly Known as Sid Ozalid. Although I have to admit that I have, for the time being, had my fill of Cutlerisms. I'm in the mood for something a bit less concise (cue enormously loud blast of The Hold Steady doing The Swish from their first album).
Monday, January 15, 2007
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Sad news
Terribly saddened to hear late last night about the death of Harry Horse (Richard Horne) and his wife Mandy. All day I'd been wondering about the identity of the couple found dead in Shetland. Devastating to find it's people you know and admire so much.
It's all over the papers, as I suspected it might be. David Ross's careful and sympathetic piece in the Herald is the best source of information. Surprised and horrified by the approach of The Scotsman - The Record's straightforward approach is a lot more responsible and less sensationalist. One of those days I'm glad not to be a journalist.
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/78478.html
Heartfelt sympathy and prayers for those left behind.
It's all over the papers, as I suspected it might be. David Ross's careful and sympathetic piece in the Herald is the best source of information. Surprised and horrified by the approach of The Scotsman - The Record's straightforward approach is a lot more responsible and less sensationalist. One of those days I'm glad not to be a journalist.
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/78478.html
Heartfelt sympathy and prayers for those left behind.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Slow computers and more Maverick mobility
BBC Scotland is in the middle of installing something called VCS Dira, which is basically a piece of software for taking in, editing and playing out everything from news to music.
I hope I'm not letting any digital cats out of pixellated bags here, but the only effect on my work at the BBC has been (1) I can't play my own CDs on the show, as VCS uses digital files rather than CD tracks, and I haven't been trained on how to operate it; (2) Computers in Aberdeen and especially Shetland, where the system is being pioneered, are now running painfully slowly, to the extent that it's far more efficient for me to work from the Radiocroft, using my own computer and a 64k ISDN computer connection.
(3) VCS, from my broadcast-face experience, is a clunky, inflexible system that chops off record fades, messes up intros and won't let you change running orders at the last minute.
Apart from that, it's wonderful. Of course.
I'm only mentioning this as I'm in Aberdeen and the desktop PCs are running at half speed. Left Glasgow at 7.30 am, the Maverick behaving in an exemplary fashion and the exhaust not too noisy. Delays at Cumbernauld and expecially at the Broxden roundabout outside Perth, but despite the Tay bridge being shut due to high winds, Dundee was OK. Stopped at the Kingsway Tesco for a stupidly high-fry breakfast, then a thrash up the road to Aberdeen, where the Maverick was finally switched off in the bowels of the Travelodge's underground car park, part of the secret underwharf of Union Street, the UK's first elevated city-centre roadway. Maybe I'll leave the Burgundy Beast there for ever.
I hope I'm not letting any digital cats out of pixellated bags here, but the only effect on my work at the BBC has been (1) I can't play my own CDs on the show, as VCS uses digital files rather than CD tracks, and I haven't been trained on how to operate it; (2) Computers in Aberdeen and especially Shetland, where the system is being pioneered, are now running painfully slowly, to the extent that it's far more efficient for me to work from the Radiocroft, using my own computer and a 64k ISDN computer connection.
(3) VCS, from my broadcast-face experience, is a clunky, inflexible system that chops off record fades, messes up intros and won't let you change running orders at the last minute.
Apart from that, it's wonderful. Of course.
I'm only mentioning this as I'm in Aberdeen and the desktop PCs are running at half speed. Left Glasgow at 7.30 am, the Maverick behaving in an exemplary fashion and the exhaust not too noisy. Delays at Cumbernauld and expecially at the Broxden roundabout outside Perth, but despite the Tay bridge being shut due to high winds, Dundee was OK. Stopped at the Kingsway Tesco for a stupidly high-fry breakfast, then a thrash up the road to Aberdeen, where the Maverick was finally switched off in the bowels of the Travelodge's underground car park, part of the secret underwharf of Union Street, the UK's first elevated city-centre roadway. Maybe I'll leave the Burgundy Beast there for ever.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Glasgow in much dreichness
Grey and wet, as per usual. Managed to get here in the dubious Ford Maverick, no trouble so far except for what sounds like a small hole in the middle silencer. I am so sick of bad cars. That is the last time I buy anything vehicular on eBay.
I'm 51 years old and it seems I've spent all my driving life listening out for strange drivetrain noises in dodgy second-hand cars with bad resprays...or just waiting for them to break. The wee Citroen C2 GT I leased has, on the other hand, been very good, and opting for a full-maintenance-and-tyres contract has proved cost effective. The peerie pocket rocket uses tyres like paper hankies.
Magnus is safely re-installed in his flat. Bizarrely, as we drove into Mingarry Street on our way to Beanscene for lunch, I came close to running over our friends Ian Begg and Ruth Fiskin, well away from their more everyday patch of Plockton. Said hello and cheerio, with a promise to meet up in Shetland. The same day, I met singer-songwriter Yvonne Lyon and her husband in IKEA. Small country, large shop!
Swithered about having the Maverick exhaust repaired/replaced, but have decided to hot foot it for Aberdeen tomorrow and decide there, depending on how noisy it is. There are various people back in Shetland who want to buy the beast (seven seats, diesel, towbar, new tyres) and I'm not in the mood for spending money on it.
....and speaking of not spending money...£25 a skull plus booking fee for restricted view seats of Ricky Gervais tonight at the Royal Concert Hall? I don't think so!
I'm 51 years old and it seems I've spent all my driving life listening out for strange drivetrain noises in dodgy second-hand cars with bad resprays...or just waiting for them to break. The wee Citroen C2 GT I leased has, on the other hand, been very good, and opting for a full-maintenance-and-tyres contract has proved cost effective. The peerie pocket rocket uses tyres like paper hankies.
Magnus is safely re-installed in his flat. Bizarrely, as we drove into Mingarry Street on our way to Beanscene for lunch, I came close to running over our friends Ian Begg and Ruth Fiskin, well away from their more everyday patch of Plockton. Said hello and cheerio, with a promise to meet up in Shetland. The same day, I met singer-songwriter Yvonne Lyon and her husband in IKEA. Small country, large shop!
Swithered about having the Maverick exhaust repaired/replaced, but have decided to hot foot it for Aberdeen tomorrow and decide there, depending on how noisy it is. There are various people back in Shetland who want to buy the beast (seven seats, diesel, towbar, new tyres) and I'm not in the mood for spending money on it.
....and speaking of not spending money...£25 a skull plus booking fee for restricted view seats of Ricky Gervais tonight at the Royal Concert Hall? I don't think so!
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Here we are, then...
...and a good 2007 to you and yours.
I'm looking forward to an alcohol-free period of detoxification, exercise and less indulgence in chocolate and rich foodstuffs. But then, ain't we all?
I should say that despite the - suprising - reappearance at Hogmanay of last year's Broons documentary, I am NO LONGER writing the Broons and Oor Wullie scripts for the Sunday Post. No bad feeling, no falling out, I just became totally and utterly fed up with it. It was an honour to do it, especially as the first non-DC Thomson employee to be let loose on Glebe Street, but Wullie and That Family tend to take over your life...
Don't know if it'll come up again, but worth zapping with Sky Plus if you have it, is John Maclaverty's Hogmanay edition of The Cinema Show on BBC4. I only watched it because I'm in it, but it is an absolutely hilarious and absorbing look at the horrors that have passed for Hogmanay TV on the BBC. Including the infamous Gleneagles debacle of 1984/85 (Chic Murray: 'It's chaos! Chaos!)and the (in some ways worse) Edinburgh Castle show which featured a gospel choir doing Flower of Scotland. Watch it and cringe with the shame so interestingly absent from those interviewed who were and indeed still are responsible for what brings in the New Year on telly.
Caught some of this year's weather-battered stuff, and felt sorry for a clearly very tired and emotional Paolo Nutini. Still Game special was very funny, but surely the central conceit was historically inaccurate: Greg, Ford et al dress like 80-year-olds for their Still Game characters; in 1975 they'd never have looked the way they were so meticulously portrayed. It's people now in their 50s who, alas, dressed like that. Those, dare I say it, nearer Greg and Ford's real ages...
I'm looking forward to an alcohol-free period of detoxification, exercise and less indulgence in chocolate and rich foodstuffs. But then, ain't we all?
I should say that despite the - suprising - reappearance at Hogmanay of last year's Broons documentary, I am NO LONGER writing the Broons and Oor Wullie scripts for the Sunday Post. No bad feeling, no falling out, I just became totally and utterly fed up with it. It was an honour to do it, especially as the first non-DC Thomson employee to be let loose on Glebe Street, but Wullie and That Family tend to take over your life...
Don't know if it'll come up again, but worth zapping with Sky Plus if you have it, is John Maclaverty's Hogmanay edition of The Cinema Show on BBC4. I only watched it because I'm in it, but it is an absolutely hilarious and absorbing look at the horrors that have passed for Hogmanay TV on the BBC. Including the infamous Gleneagles debacle of 1984/85 (Chic Murray: 'It's chaos! Chaos!)and the (in some ways worse) Edinburgh Castle show which featured a gospel choir doing Flower of Scotland. Watch it and cringe with the shame so interestingly absent from those interviewed who were and indeed still are responsible for what brings in the New Year on telly.
Caught some of this year's weather-battered stuff, and felt sorry for a clearly very tired and emotional Paolo Nutini. Still Game special was very funny, but surely the central conceit was historically inaccurate: Greg, Ford et al dress like 80-year-olds for their Still Game characters; in 1975 they'd never have looked the way they were so meticulously portrayed. It's people now in their 50s who, alas, dressed like that. Those, dare I say it, nearer Greg and Ford's real ages...
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