Jimster

• Bicycles

  Jimster

  January 4
  Dukodelic!!!
  
  Just about warm enough to get out weekend mornings. I did, in olden times, commute in coldest months but got fed up getting throat and sinus infections.  Just not worth it.  
  
  I do get to ride out to the old monastery ruins as they do those obscene flapjacks and mocha to make the juice worth the squeeze.  I don't have an ebike because they are still ridiculously expensive here and ridiculously desirable to thieves with mobile angle grinders.
  
  I got some new brakes for the Bontrager Privateer that need fitting and probably need to recommission my moving parts collection bike for #2 son who is now 14(!) and much taller.  
  
  
  

  

• Soul Strut 25. This is the End.

  Jimster

  January 3
  THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE.  I could see this coming and fully understand the move.  Life, and social media ploughs on and on.
  
  I'll miss it because it was one of the few places we could talk shit globally and generally agree.  Made a lot of friends here and it's gotten me through a lot of tough times.
  
  Pleasure to meet you, if you're in town again, holler.
  
  

  

• 2023 R.I.P. Thread

  Jimster

  December 2023

  mini said:

  R.I.P. Amp Fiddler

  Met him maybe 2 or 3 times, says on Wiki he was 65?  I don't know if that's correct but whatever he was on, he looked younger than me and certainly not 65.
  
  

  
  

  

• Claus Ogerman

  Jimster

  December 2023
  My introduction to Brasilian culture was in the late 80s when I was at Uni in Manchester.  On my course was a woman from Brasil, first time meeting anyone from there for me.  Her dad was/had been the mayor of Salvador in Bahia.  She was five or six years older than me and married to a Frenchman.  She had been in Europe for a few years and they had an apartment in Didsbury and were good friends to me, just a poor boy (from a poor family).  She told me what it was really like for her and that she loved living normally in Manchester with no servants etc.  Obviously Brasil has many different vibes and local ways so there is no typical experience.
  
  She had stuff from Milton Nascimento, Pepeu Gomes, Gilberto Gil, Elis Regina... Her husband was into super-obscure UK indie bands that he'd discovered in France, that I'd never heard of - Eyeless in Gaza, and Duritti Column.  Pre-internet, so parallel worlds.  He was fantastic with languages and had gotten well in with Alan Erasmus and Vini Reilly.  I got to stay with them in their place in Normandy and fixed up his old Alfa Romeo with him.  They had to go back to warmer climes (Cannes IIRC) because she got Lupus.
  
  We've lost touch since then but yeah, as Jobim himself said, it seems... "Brasil is not for beginners."
  
  
  

  

• Claus Ogerman

  Jimster

  December 2023

  ppadilha said:

  Jimster said:

  A great album and this is the deepest tune, a tour of the Amazon no?  With Ron Carter bonus.
  
  Jobim was always fond of journeys and checking the sights and sounds.  Otherwise it seems random AF.   Brazilian culture accepts lyrics from a way broader church than the West.
  
  That's the depth of this music.
  

  
  There's definitely an openness to Brazilian lyrics that you don't see as much in English. Things can be much more abstract and poetic, but even old school samba can get philosophical in ways that something like a jazz standard doesn't even attempt.

  That's what I meant by it being more accepting and deeper than English-language.
  
  I mean, there are always outliers like Zappa, Prog, Metal that will entertain fantasy with a straight face, But mainstream?  I can't think of a recent mainstream English-language artist that gets money put behind their work if it has anything woo-woo about it.  Kate Bush maybe the last of them?
  
  But I gotta be honest...