I got to the point in my playing of the 147 compilation discs I have accumulated where I found the oldest one - the one that has survived the longest. It's a strange and eclectic mix of music and reflects what I was into back in the mid to late 90s when it was made.
Here's the track listing:
Out There Somewhere - OrbitalLifeforms pt 4 - FSOLMelt - LeftfieldPapua New Guinea - FSOLBeautiful Mind - (the) VerveArcs of Light and Dew - LevitationLove in a Car - House of LoveTemple of Everlasting Light - Kula Shaker29 - Lloyd Cole & the CommotionsVelvet Morning - VerveIn a Room - House of LoveTime and Space - VerveLA Boost - Lotion
I was obviously heavily into indie and electronic instrumentals back then as well. The CD it's packaged on looks really archaic, like those really shit old cassettes before they discover clear plastic. I expect most people will have heard of most of the stuff on this disc, but what about Lotion? A vastly under-rated band from the USA, whose contemporaries stole their sound and made money from it.
Incidentally, back in the days when I used to do loads and loads of mix tapes, I always gave them names and rarely did these titles make any sense (but I knew what they meant...) and the title of this segment is the title of that CD. The self-produced cover art is also a mystery (but I know what it is...).
More Mushroom Madness
I fully expect a very dry autumn and another poor mushroom season. The reason for this is that most of our autumns are dry now and we're getting so many autumn shrooms appearing all over the place that the poor blighters' internal seasonal clocks must be shot to ribbons.
I now have two storage jars full of what I believed were Horse mushrooms, but have since changed my mind; the pounds of agaricus I've been picking for the last couple of weeks are actually Wood mushrooms - same genus and virtually the same mushroom, but they grow in thickets and woods and not at the edges of fields, and they also have a much shaggier membrane (which might sound a bit icky, but is just that veil that protects the gills from the elements until the mushroom has blossomed).
I found Russulas yesterday; which is far more unusual than finding agaricus - because they really do tend to be an autumn shrooms that prefer it very wet and almost mild (oh, the conditions we're currently having). This is reflected by such names as yellow swamp russula and the lesser known evil dank stinking russula (which obviously doesn't exist).
There's puff balls by the truck load, I've seen some Fly Agaric already (the red ones with white spots on them that get reindeer stoned and then Laplanders subsequently drink the reindeer's piss and get a second hand high - really!) and as I mentioned almost a month ago, there has been parasols and they also don't tend to appear until the weather gets really crappy (oh, just like it is at the moment).
That said, we're going to take the dogs for a Sunday mega-walk in a little over two hours, to Harlestone Firs. This is a place where I have found mushrooms in the past, but considering what it is and the different kinds of terrain and soil it has, pickings have generally been poor. However, if you ever need ants, this is the place to go!
TV Dump Addendum
Watch The Innkeepers. It's a cracking little horror film that feels far more like a slacker indie movie and keeps you guessing right up to the last scene. It's the second film in the last couple of months where I have been at risk of injury by the wife, she spent the best part of the last half of the film gripping my arm, burying her head in my back and generally being freaked out by this very excellently understated film.
Ti West, who wrote and directed it, has already been slated for future success and I can understand why. There is definitely something odd about this film; the dialogue is superb; there are very very few moments that fall into the stereotypical horror film model and there's one scene that will have you jumping out of your seat - all in all definitely a post modern horror movie. Apparently, West's House of the Devil is also supposed to be an excellent low budget shocker - might have to check that one out too! Highly recommended.
Bonus
For the last umpteen years (or so it seems), every time I go to Morrisons to fill the car up with fuel, I give over my Morrisons Miles card. There have been many times when I just couldn't work out how it worked - no one asked me to register it; I was just given it and told to hand it in every time I got fuel from them. So, dutifully, this is what I have done.
Today, I got an anonymous £5 voucher.
Can't help thinking it's a bit like the old Green Shield Stamps - remember them? You'd collect 250 books of stamps, take them into the shop and exchanged them for a Tupperware Salad Bowl or a Fish Slice and the real cost for these pound shop items probably reached into hundreds of pounds; but you felt you'd earned it, even if you didn't...
It Wouldn't be a Proper Blog Without a Mention about the Weather
Apparently we might have another little taste of summer this week. The papers and forecasters reckon Thursday might be a very warm day and Tuesday might be a really pleasant day. They seem to think Wednesday and Friday will be a return to more monsoon conditions.
Now, I'm one of those people who only really takes stock of weather forecasts when they are right (and even then I'm not necessarily happy) and considering the dopey weather girl on BBC News this morning claimed that the sun will come out today - Sunday - and it's 1pm and it looks more like thunder storms than a balmy day off, then I shall take what is allegedly going to happen later on in the week with a pinch of salt.
Huzzah
Talking about BBC News; the last few years, either through injury or just good planning, I had become a fan of the BBC News channel between 8.30am and 11am. It was a great antidote to BBC Breakfast and usually this 2½ slot was helmed by Simon McCoy and Carrie Gracie - the dream team of BBC News in my sad and humble opinion. McCoy (albeit obviously a Tory leaning fascist) is one of the funniest news presenters on TV and he's especially relaxed and full of witticisms when he has the strangely attractive Gracie by his side.
But the new job meant that I only ever got to see this particular section of BBC News when I was on holiday and while McCoy is still there, mostly, he's been paired with a line of exceptionally dull co-presenters, who don't seem to get his rather unique and slightly ironic delivery the way Carrie Gracie does. Subsequently it slipped from my radar and I didn't even tune in during the last half term break. But Tuesday, I was off, and was up eating my breakfast a little after 8.30 and there they were - the dream team - reunited on BBC News and god it was good. McCoy had that knowing smile on his face again and Gracie was basically doing her usual job of keeping his slightly anarchic delivery (at times) in check. jokes and bon motts were flowing thick and fast and I can't understand why the BBC doesn't keep these two together more often. Yes, they're probably not BBC Breakfast material, but they are head and shoulder better than any other news anchor team on 24 hour news TV. So there!
Other Stuff
- Melanie's Ruby Tuesday is a really great cover version. In fact, if Melanie was successful today, she'd probably have the press falling over themselves to interview her.
- As reported yesterday, the Sexually-Explicit Family have a huge F-off skip sitting on their front garden. Most of the afternoon was spent with a bunch of burly blokes carrying all manner of stuff from their back garden; all of it went into the back of a van and was driven away. The skip has some concrete in it and what looks like some rubbish, presumably dumped by an opportunist walking passed it. By the looks of the amount of building materials, they are planning on building another house (or two).
- I am amazed that there are so many ignorant and rude drivers on the road today. Seriously, do our driving instructors teach people the right way?
- Christ - that forecast sun has just appeared; I must go and get some benefits from it!
- Loose shovels.
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