Sunday 29 November 2009

Top 10 albums of the decade

The Hazards of Love - the Decemberists

Hail to the Thief - Radiohead


Time The Revelator - Gillian Welch

The Mirror Conspiracy - Thievery Corporation

Community Music - Asian Dub Foundation

Hymns for the Exiled - Anais Mitchell

Black Holes and Revelations - Muse

Re-Foc - Rodrigo and Gabriela

The Great Destroyer - Low

Neon Bible - Arcade Fire

Sunday 22 November 2009

Swine flu recovery requires copious amounts of music

Not running through swine recovery - did lose 3/4 of a stone so not all bad.
Actually I was too busy going to brilliant gigs - after the wonders of Yes, I did The Decemberists, who did the entire Hazards of Love album - my album of the year.
Then saw Duke and the King at the rather squalid Scala, who started with a fantastic version of their song, if you ever get famous, followed the next night by my favourite Mexican heavy metal acoustic duo, Rodrigo and Gabriela - would really recommend their recent 11:11 album .
Finished this gig fest off with an evening with the Unthanks - the Observer 50 albums of the year had them in at 48 and the only folk album - the Bairns - the Observer best album was the Streets, Original Pirate Material so probably not much of a guide to what we should have listened to over the past 10 years.
Will have a go at my top 10 for the last decade next week.

Sunday 15 November 2009

Yes meet Hendrix

Swine flu has hit - so no running at the moment.
Went to see Yes at Hammersmith - now got Rick Wakeman's son Oliver on keyboards and the lead singer is the singer from a montreal-based Yes tribute band - is this how old bands will carry on in the future ?
All fantastic prog stuff - Roundabout and Long Distance Runaround were the highlights.
Would recommend a great interview with Chris Squire on when he first met Hendrix at the Marquee in London - http://www.chrissquire.net/video.html

More running next week ...

Sunday 8 November 2009

Winter beckons

As the days draw in and winter beckons we start to look for ways of making running easier.

Sunday 1 November 2009

East is East

Long run this weekend - almost 2 hours. Started in Spitalfields and headed north to Haggerston to the rather wonderful Regents Canal - this time we went east via shoreditch and mile end.

Could barely contain my excitement as Mark showed me round the Mile End climbing wall -



Outside was the owner's car , there is clearly money in walls with knobs on ...



I liked this subtle choice of number plate.

Then found a disused railway line over the Mile End Road - new technology in my camera meant that I was able to capture this image - to the human eye it would be just a blur.



Made our way back through Stepney Green with fantastic old houses and cobbled streets.



Found this old bakery near to Whitechapel Road - Daren bread appears to have been a patent bread for the 1880's onwards - made of wheat, wheat-germ and rye - which claimed nutritional advantages and was aimed at the diet-conscious, middle-class consumers of the time. Other new brands included Traigon ( wheat , maize and rice) and Kermode (wheat and maize), but the eventual winner was Hovis (reinforced wheat-germ).

No stunning sculpture on our run this week, so we would recommend you catch up with a fantastic Irish sculptor, Redmond Herrity - picture below is a work in progess that Mark saw on a recent visit to Donegal - also see http://www.redmondherrity.com/index.html



Finally, video and song of the week is Phoenix with 1901.