I went to see the film Arrival the other day. I thought it was a very good sci fi film, working at a very personal level, although its subject is huge, possibly the biggest possible ( Read more... )

I'm just back from one of the most remarkable musical experiences of my life: Martyn Bennett's GRIT re-envisioned for a huge genre breaking orchestra by Greg Lawson.

It included jazz, folk and classical musicians. The string section alone composed about forty violins, cellos and basses. There was a nine piece make voice choir, six or seven folk ( Read more... )

Last weekend, heading east, I found myself driving along one of my favourite roads. The A697 goes across country from outside Edinburgh down to Morpeth. For a long while, I regular drove south along this road, cutting the corner the A1 follows. Most of the traffic taking the east coast route from Edinburgh follows the A1, so the A697 is quieter, ( Read more... )

I've been playing Mike Westbrook's Uncommon Orchestra - A Bigger Show. They were playing in London last night, a rare occasion, and I was sorely tempted to go. It was only being sensible that stopped me.

It is a great album, a double CD. It matches Ellington and Mingus with a British sensibility, fairs and circuses.

But whilst I love the record, and ( Read more... )

I have just been at the hustings for the Holyrood elections next month. What with the constituency (Edinburgh N & Leith) and the list (Lothian), there were nine candidates (ten on the ballot, but Solidarity didn't show up), frankly too many to stay interested in the question. Several of the candidates were the same as at the Westminster election ( Read more... )

In February I went to the Scottish LibDems' spring (and, more importantly, pre-Holyrood election) conference. There are always many debates; usually there is little contentious - the motions tends to be no-brainers, with little dissent - but there three or four this time which I found challenging, and I ended up voting against my natural position. ( Read more... )

This may not mean much to most of you, if any, but it's something I wanted to post, but not on FB.

Some of you may be aware that I occasionally write reviews of jazz CDs for the LondonJazz blog. (The platform it uses is rubbish and it doesn't search on author, so I can't directly link to my posts. WordPress works so much better ( Read more... )

It was the semi-annual "Scottish Defence League" (more commonly known as the Sunderland Defence League up here, since they have to be bussed in) protest in Edinburgh yesterday, which means it was also the semi-annual Edinburgh Against Racist SDL march, too ( Read more... )

A couple of weeks ago I learned that a friend from my teenage years had died. Pancreatic cancer. I don't think I had seen her for over 35 years (I may have seen her at the occasional wedding or celebration since, though I can't remember doing so), but she was a very good friend of one of my oldest friends, and I know several people who knew her ( Read more... )

This lunchtime's time-sink ( Read more... )