Ours is fab. Snowball fights and snowman will be the order of the day, followed by mugs of hot Vimto. Tomorrow's work trip to Romford could be off too. **sniffles slightly**

I know we've done this before, but a while ago...

I have promised myself a new turntable so tell me, what is hot and what is not? Project? Rega? Cartridges? Etc etc. I have an old Dual in my music room but I want a nice one for the lounge. Arcam amp Mission speakers if that's relevant. Budget 300 quid ish?

Ta!

Bit late to the party here, but discovered Mrs T is a dragon, Twang Jr is a monkey and I am a dog, apparently. Seems about right then. You?

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/social_customs/zodiac/

They played this on FIP while I was cooking the tea. A perfect comedown soundtrack for the end of the weekend. Enjoy!

The news that Paul Weller has named his child Bowie prompts me to reflect that there are some jolly rum names around. You expect this sort of thing from rock stars before the unfortunate child renames themselves Joe or something. But now Twang Jr knows a Merlin, a Sentient, a Spike, a Talvin and a Buster. That's with 10 seconds thought. There are probably more. These are given names, not nicknames. When I was a bin my friends were called Dave, Steve, Phil et al. Clearly progress is being made from the boring....so what are the latest modern names you've heard?

PS my bid for Twang Jr to be called Lowell failed within nanoseconds. He has a perfectly nice and ordinary name.

Credit Bobby Owinski's excellent blog

http://bobbyowsinski.blogspot.com/search?q=Jude

Just came across this which had me hooting, and remembering jazz cig fuelled hilarious student days with the Viv Stanshall masterpiece

Snip.....Tendril-fragrant honeysuckle sucked and honey-babed, close to the ancient limestone walls of Rawlinson; and Florrie, awake, bayonetted her turkey head from its privy orifice. It was a lovely morning: gorgeous beyond imagining were brassy hoars of winter-depression-fierce daffodils, blaring yellow-white reveille, and croci, gingering the lawns in tessellate Performing-Right-Society. No need for wellies, Florrie, shawl about her sparrow shoulders, took the interminable beige thing she was knitting into the garden....snip

Full script here

http://www.paul-taylor.info/rawlinson.html

Gretchen Peters is touring in the next few months. She is wonderful. See below. (Mrs.T's favourite song, by the by)

This week's "Great Lives" is Lonnie Donegan. They make a good case for him being the first punk. Sort of. But worth a lis. On iPlayer.

My right ear seems to be packing up! It started in the autumn around the time I hurt my back, but I can't isolate any specific moment...but I just did a test and I can just about hear the 5k sample on this test...

http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2010/10/hearing-loss-test/

Above 10k I can't hear it with either ear! No idea why. Pretty shocking though! How do yours do?

I, amongst others here, adore Gretchen Peters. She is giving a 15 track retrospective away free! Christmas has come early for lovers of fine songs, beautifully sung. Mine is downloading right now. Her message:

*********************************************************

Hello friends -

Just a brief note to wish you the happiest of holidays and let you know I've put together a sampler of 15 songs for download - and NoiseTrade is making the whole thing available FREE!

FREE 15 song career retrospective
Tracks included are:
Sunday Morning (Up And Down My Street)
Circus Girl
Guadalupe
The Secret Of Life
The Way You Move Me
The Aviator's Song
If Heaven
Prairie In The Sky
This Town
Picasso And Me
Imogene
Love And Texaco
To Say Goodbye
In The Bleak Midwinter
Northern Lights

You can download the collection at NoiseTrade's website. Even if you already have all the songs in this compilation, I'd appreciate it if you'd share the link with friends whom you think might be interested. Or just forward them this email. We are hoping to introduce new people to the old stuff, in the hopes that they'll like the new stuff too - so please share as much as you'd like.

http://noisetrade.com/gretchenpeters

I wish you a peaceful and joyous holiday, and I hope to see you out there on the road in 2012.

x

Gretchen

Vulpes Vulpes, Lucky Tyler and I are going to see Cressida at Camden Underworld on Friday, and are meeting at the Lyttelton Arms from 5 ish for a pre gig shandy. Anyone in the area who'd like an end of week/start weekend pint would be very welcome.

http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/42/42006/Lyttelton_Arms/Camden

Hope to see some familiar and new faces there. You could do worse than come to the gig!

Listening to this splendid Robbie Fulks song made me wonder about songs where the artist takes unerring aim on their foot and blasts away. Any other career suicide notes? (DREADFUL VIDEO ALERT)

There was some complaining about people being wilfully obscure in the Best of 2011 thread. I don't think this was the case, but even if it was, so what? If we can't find odd/new stuff here, where can we?

So I give you oddball french electronics/nu jazz/soul band Booster...too obscure to have much of a YouTube presence, this is from MySpace (remember that?)

sex friend by booster

And in a different world, the wonderful Tinderbox with "Broken Trees"

Stack up your obscurities here!

Credit to DFB for prompting this thread on Twitter.

Just listening to "Scran", acquired at the recent London Mingle, reminds me how much I love Jake Thackray, especially on a cold Sunday in front of the fire. This is from "Jake's Progress" which he recorded with a superbly understated jazz trio. Love those lyrics, their slightly subversive nature hidden by Jake's droll delivery. Enjoy!