Intellectual stimulation and frustration

I was reminded once again why I am studying for an MBA degree: the studies 'top off' my need for intellectual stimulation. Whilst my day job provides a certain amount of stimulation, there are times when it doesn't and when people's actions cause a great deal of frustration. Yesterday was one of those days.

I was examining with someone the bill of materials (BOM) for a specific part, the left hand something of a table, which led us to examine the BOM for the right hand part. These two parts should have identical BOMs, as the materials required are the same, but they should have different technical drawings as the finished products obviously are not identical: they are enantiomorphs.

Unfortunately, the BOMs were not identical; the BOM for the right hand part was empty and of course the BOM for the left hand part contained twice the quantities needed for the part. The clever dick who defined the BOM reckoned that the left hand part would never be required without the right hand part and so he could save himself ten seconds by defining one BOM for both parts.

WRONG!!!

Apparently (and this is not my area of speciality), it is possible to order one part without the other. If only the left hand part were ordered, then twice the required amount of raw materials would be withdrawn. If only the right hand part were ordered, then no raw materials would be withdrawn. But even without this, it is more logical and more correct to define a BOM for each part.

This sort of thing makes me want to punch walls. I'm not sure who the specific person was who defined this double BOM, but it doesn't matter too much; all members of the group which defines these BOMs suffer from chronic misunderstanding of what an ERP system is along with a genetic rigidness of thought. Curiously (or not), all four members of the group have Russian ethnicity.

Yesterday evening's lecture in Human Resources Management  was about recruitment and selection, and so ties in very nicely with the work that I do with the occupational psychologist. On the other hand, the conclusions of the HRM course are in opposition to those held by the psychologist, which causes me frequently to adopt a doublespeak position. There are only about fifteen students present at the lecture, which allows 'the audience' to interrupt the lecturer frequently with insights and asides. So, along with the source material, we heard about Dan Ariely and an article (whose title escapes me) about how people select recruits on the basis of only characteristic - such as whether one's degree is from a university (good) or from a college (bad) - without regard to any other characteristic of the applicants.

The camino pilgrimage

Isn't it typical? I don't write anything for three weeks and then write two blogs in a day.

The final part of David Lodge's wonderful book 'Therapy' takes place mainly in Spain, when the book's protagonist Laurence "Tubby" Passmore starts looking for his first girlfriend who is taking part in the 'Camino' pilgrimage. I'd never heard of this pilgrimage before, but as Lodge is a Catholic who knows what he is writing about, I had no reason to doubt that there is such a pilgrimage (and now I've found its website).

I was reading today an interview with Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estevez about their new film, "The way", which tells the story of a fortysomething man (played by Emilio, in a cameo role) who dies while walking the Camino – The Way of St James, the ancient pilgrimage route across Europe to the saint's grave at Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. His father (played by Martin) travels to Europe to collect the body and ends up completing the walk on his son's behalf.

I'm much more interested in the interview because of the pilgrimage as opposed to a more prurient interest in another son of Martin Sheen. I look forward to seeing the film, as it will complement the book - Passmore too is on a spiritual pilgrimage although may not always be too aware of this fact.

I haven't disappeared off the face of the Earth

I haven't blogged lately because there hasn't been anything that interesting to write about. True, I've done some sterling work at the day job, but that barely interests people who work there, let alone people who don't work there. I've read maybe six new books but I don't have much to say about them.

The new cd by Van der Graaf Generator was released two weeks ago and I've been listening to it almost every day. As is common with all VdGG records, it's not possible to listen to it too frequently at first as it is rather spikey and one has to be in the correct mood. I like this disc much more than its predecessor, "Trisector", and possibly more than the first reunion disc, 'Present'. I still miss David Jackson and his wind instruments for the extra colour that they bring to the songs. The opening song, "Your time starts now" is a definite keeper; it sounds like mid-period solo Hammill although with the organ flushes that are the trademark of Hugh Banton.

The book list includes two by Norwegian author Jo Nesbo, who unfortunately is claimed to be 'the next Steig Larsson'. Considering my opinion of Larsson's books, I'm not too sure that this is an accolade which I would want, but presumably it does boost sales. Like Larsson, Nesbo writes long books, which makes their assimilation somewhat difficult.

The Norwegian names don't help much in this respect either. Nesbo's protagonist, Inspector Harry Hole (why are police procedurals always about inspectors?) is not as inward looking as Rebus or Banks which is a shame as he seems to be cut from similar cloth.  As opposed to Ian Rankin's Rebus novels or Peter Robinson's Banks novels, Nesbo's novels have only one strand to them, albeit a very long strand. From the two which I have read ("Nemesis" and "Snowman"), it seems that Nesbo leads us purposely towards a false solution mid-way through the book.

The first book was ordered via the Book Depository whereas I picked up the second in an Israeli bookshop. The first route is definitely cheaper even though the Israeli book was priced remarkably low. 

Other books which I have read recently are "We had it so good", a contemporary novel about people slightly old than me, "Cider with roadies", a very amusing memoir by a writer for a music newspaper (now a radio presenter) slightly younger than me, (Stuart Maconie) and "The Fermata", which could be described as science fiction pornography, although there is too much pornography and not enough science fiction. The road to this book was via Robert Silverberg's "Dying Inside"; here too there is a protagonist who has an s-f gift (he can stop time by clicking his fingers) and uses it for less than moral purposes (mainly undressing women when they are 'stopped'). It's an interesting idea and probably someone could have done a better job than this.

I've just come back from a doctor's appointment; it seems that one BCC which was removed two years ago has reappeared, meaning another minor operation but more intensive than the previous. The doctor was prepared to do it then and there but it would mean not driving after the operation which would in turn leaving my motorbike in the shopping centre where the clinic is situated and the doctor feared that someone would steal it. So I have a repeat appointment for next week.

Post mortem on the Marketing exam

Once again the examiners of Heriot Watt astound me by asking questions to which I know the answers. There are subjects which I don't study so well but somehow they always manage to avoid them! To give an example: whilst looking at previous exam papers, I saw that there had been a question based on module 19. Module 19? Whaddayou mean, module 19? There is a module 19 in the book, but our lecturer, in his infinite wisdom, had considered it not worth learning as the chances of a question on this subject (module 19 is apparently about 'measuring and delivering marketing performance' - hmm, sounds interesting) were minimal. I hope that he did cover the subject the semester in which the question was asked. As there are only three questions in the exam, drawing a blank on a question is fatal.

The first question was, as expected, an exercise in strategies. This is something which we have been practicing in class for some time, so no one should have been unprepared for this. The only catch could be in which product lifestage cycle (plc) the product is - new market entries, growth markets or mature/declining markets; each variant has its own strategies. The question which we were given was about a new product: orange juice with added omega 3 oil; as far as I was concerned, this means that the plc is 'new market entry', with the appropriate strategies. Apart from the actual product, this question had been asked in an earlier exam paper, which we had solved as a class exam. In other words, I was totally prepared for this and I imagine that I did well. 

The above is not to say that the question/answer was easy; the answer took five pages of writing and just under an hour to complete. There are several stages which had to be remembered, and as it happened, I forgot one section - I caught this when going through my answers at the end. Fortunately I had plenty of time in which to add the missing section. There was also another small part in which the answer called for a 2X2 matrix, labelling each quadrant in the matrix (this is called the BCG model); I couldn't get the axes correct for the model at first.

The second question was about the decision making process of consumers. Our lecturer had told us that in order to answer the questions properly, one should first identify about which model the question is asking, then list the model and link it appropriately to the question. The question was in regard to anti-aging cream, and in my opinion, the decision making class for this product would be brand loyalty - high involvement for a low cost product. So I listed all the different classes for the model then declared at the end what my opinion was. The second half of the question was "how the decision making process would affect the company's strategy"; as I had chosen brand loyalty in a mature market, it seems to be that the appropriate strategy would be niche marketing. Our lecturer had also told us that if we chose a strategy or plc which was not what the examiners had in mind, we wouldn't lose many marks as long as we clearly stated our reasons and followed the subject through to the end. 

Whilst comparing notes with other students after the exam, this is the question which had the most different answers as it seemed that almost everyone understood the question in a different and individual manner. There are no exact nor even approximately exact answers in marketing, so no one will be penalised for giving slightly unexpected answers, as long as nothing in the answer contradicts information given in the question.

The third question invited us to discuss how marketing surveys can help the automobile industry by not introducing new products which will fail. As far as I could see, the question required three different models - the introduction of new products, how to plan a market survey and the different methods of actually performing the survey. So I listed the new products model, noting where marketing surveys would help, and then I listed the other models, noting where there were issues pertinent to the question.

I get the feeling that I did quite well on this exam, much better than I had expected. Let us hope that the examiner feels the same way.

I had got to the hotel conference room (where the exam is held) about an hour and a half too early; I hadn't wanted to leave home an hour later and arrive in a rush. This time allowed me to go over several of the models once more, including the model regarding the introduction of new products. There were several of us revising at the same time, asking each other questions. One man asked what seemed to be very simple questions and on hearing my answers predicted that I would do very well in the exam. "From your mouth to God's ears", I replied. This same man left the exam room after an hour and a quarter (the exam lasts three hours) - I had barely finished the first question. I don't know what this means - did he give only partial answers to each question because he didn't know the material (as per his pre-exam questions)? Did he only answer one question? Does he write at the speed of light? Was he only jesting with his pre-exam questions?

We will know in a month or so when the results are published.

If you believe ...

During the course of last minute revision for the Marketing exam tomorrow, I remembered the following story. I present here an almost word for word email which I wrote in April 2004.

... You won't understand the basketball part, which is to do with the EuroLeague championship. Whoever won the match would go up to the semi-finals, so of course it was an important game. Although Maccabi played very well in the first quarter, they played badly in the remaining three quarters, and with only about 20 seconds to go, they were losing by six points. Missed free throws meant that Maccabi were losing by three points with two seconds to go. A long throw to one of the players who turned and scored a three pointer meant that Maccabi tied the game. After that, because the Lithuanian star had fouled out, Maccabi had it much easier in extra time and won by eight points.

Thursday was an interesting day. Nominally, I was on holiday - the factory was closed - but I wanted to use the time to sort out some problems, and also to write a program for use at work. In the post were two books which I had ordered from Amazon - one is a users' guide to a software music program (Reason), and the other is by managerial guru Robin Sharma, who will be speaking in Israel in one month's time (which is the reason I had ordered the book). This tome is entitled "The monk who sold his Ferrari", which apparently has been quite a hit in certain circles.

This book tells the (exceedingly thin) story about a top lawyer who has a heart attack and so decides to quit being a lawyer. He travels to India where he searches for spiritual enlightenment, finds a recluse group of gurus and undertakes a spiritual change. He returns to spread the word, via the narrator of the book, also a lawyer (actually the top lawyer's assistant). It's a very thin novel in the literary sense of the word, in fact annoyingly so, but at least this is a slightly different tone from the usual self-help type of book. I've actually got bogged down about half way through; I'm sure that there's more wisdom to impart, but the book is getting exceedingly turgid, and the thin veneer of fiction is getting more annoying the more I read.

In the evening was the unbelievable basketball match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Zhalghiris Kovna. As a game, Kovna deserved to win because they played better, but somehow Maccabi managed to pull the fat out of the fire in the last incredible sixteen seconds (that is, before extra time). I wouldn't normally refer to such event here except for one reason: after the game, a few of the Maccabi players and management were interviewed, and in one of these, Derrick Sharp, he who scored the vital three pointer which tied the game, said the incredible phrase: "If you believe, you can achieve". I don't know whether this is a well known phrase on the level of "no pain, no gain", but to my ears, sensitised by the unbelievable change of fortune in the game and also reading about the monk who had sold his Ferrari, it was like hearing words from Heaven.

Suddenly a tune popped into my head, perfectly suited to those words, so I ran to the computer and quickly keyed them in so that I wouldn't forget. I was too excited to go to bed for a while (because of the game), and although I was watching the interviews, my mind kept on returning to that magical phrase, "If you believe, you can achieve". Eventually I did go to bed, but once there, my imagination kept on coming up with couplets - "when you awake, there's a choice you must make", etc. At first, I kept on getting out of bed, walking to the computer and noting down the lines, but after a while I got tired of this, and so every time a new couplet came into my head, I would note it down in a notebook kept by my bedside (writing in the dark, I should note).

I've written about this at length because the serendipity of the lyrics' creation is important. Unfortunately too many of days are routine, and it's not often enough that I get transported into that mental state which allows the (almost) painless creation of a song lyric. I don't know whether the basketball game would have been enough to stimulate me, although I suspect that I would have jotted down Sharp's phrase for future use, because of its rhyme, compactness and general utility. But it took the juxtaposition of the game's high and the Sharma book to produce the direct connection.
I also sent the letter to Robin Sharma, and here is his reply:

Thanks so much for sharing this with me. Fascinating. Robin

Why do I bring all this up now? Because if I believe in my ability to answer questions in tomorrow's exam, then I will achieve. Confidence is the key.

Coincidences

I wrote the other day regarding my upcoming exam, "It's all a matter of confidence"; it only occurred to me this morning that I had stumbled upon a coincidence.

The final lecture in the marketing course was held on Monday evening, and as usual, I selected a few cds to play in the car whilst travelling to and fro. This time I picked "As close as this" by Peter Hammill, a very solo record from the late 80s, in which he promised that the music was played by "one pass of the hands".

One of the tracks, probably the most outstanding in terms of performance, is called "Confidence"!

Behind the smile of confidence

somewhere you'll find the wanted man

blank-faced and wary of conversation with himself.

Around the ring of confidence

they're dancing to a different tune;

the others seem so confident, why don't you take a leaf

from the storm we're passing through?

In confidence we sail across the seven seas

to hide behind the veil - in confidence the key!

'I'm in good form, I'm feeling fine,'

responsibly how well you do -

there's nothing I can say about

the usual cocktail of public faith and private taboo.

In confidence the trick is there for all to see -

In confidence the key!

Unfortunately, I don't have "the smile of confidence" this time around.

Pre-exam nerves

I'm writing this on a train going north from Tel Aviv to Haifa bay, so excuse me if there are subtle spelling mistakes and lapses in concentration.

I don't think that I can afford the time at the minute to go north as I will be sitting my exam in Marketing on Monday and I don't feel too prepared. Even worse: I have to go to another meeting in Haifa on Sunday, a day which I wanted to take off.

It's all a matter of confidence: before most of my MBA exams, I was feeling confident about knowing the material, and this confidence informed both how I felt in the week leading up to the exams and how well I did. I didn't feel at all confident prior to the exam in Organisational Behaviour and my mark reflected this. They say that there is more material to be remembered (and regurgitated) in Marketing than in OB, although the lecturer (who will also mark the papers) says that one doesn't have to aim for the same accuracy.

Most of the revision has centred around "question 1" which is about marketing strategies. We have a consistent framework for the answer which has to be rattled off; some of it is boilerplate and some is dependent on the case study presented in the question. A great deal depends on what is called the plc - which stage the product is in the 'product life cycle'. If it is a new product being introduced, then there are certain strategies; if the product's market is growing then there are other strategies (ten!), and if the market is mature then there are another few strategies, although to be honest, most of these are the same strategies as for the growing market. So there are 16-20 strategies to be remembered, each with its description. Short term memory is supposed to hold 5-9 items, meaning that these strategies have to be well remembered.

But there are also two more questions which have to be answered in the exam, and these have their own models with six or so stages. One has to remember about six different models (that's 36 items) although only two of those will be needed.

My body is in revolt: last night my blood pressure was comparatively very high, and a night's sleep didn't cause it to drop by very much. My dreams were rather intense and violent, not the normal kind of nightly fare.

I just have to concentrate, breathe deeply and learn the material.

Randy Newman won his second oscar after twenty nominations for one of the songs in 'Toy Story 3'.

Michael Palin

A few months ago, I discovered that the satellite tv channel, BBC Entertainment, was showing various series of Michael Palin's peregrinations around the globe. The first series which I saw (but not all episodes) was about New Europe. This was very interesting to me, as not only did it include places which have always interested me, it also included places where I have actually been (Prague and Karlovy Vary).

Following this series, we were treated to Himalaya, six episodes which finished on Friday. I told my octagenarian father about these, as he spent a year of the Second World War in India. Although I have little interest in visiting these places, the series was fascinating.

Keeping the ball rolling, next week starts the ten part series entitled Full Circle, as Palin and his group travel around the rim of the Pacific Ocean.

A few weeks ago I discovered Palin's website; his commentaries don't completely match what is shown on television, which can sometimes be disconcerting. One does have the impression that day leads to day and that the trips were continuous, even though they might be shown out of continuity (I'm thinking of the two days spent in Karlovy Vary). But it transpires that even that is not true, as evidenced by a letter on Palin's site about the Himalaya series.

Here he is writing about how long the series took to produce, from start to finish. The trip itself was just over 100 days long but the series took 17 months. Palin writes:

Last week someone on the south coast asked me how much time it will have taken me to make the book and film of the Himalaya journey. I thought about it and, though it seemed almost unbelievable, replied with a certain quiet modesty, "About eighteen months from start to finish".

His reply knocked me back a bit. "That long!" he said.

I don't want to moan on and become all precious about how hard we work, but I think there is still a feeling that we're having too good a time for it to be hard work. Well, it's true, most of the time we are having a good time, but we have to make sure on each day of the filming that someone is shooting and someone is recording and someone is telling the audience-to-be why we are having a good time and what the good time looks like.

And that's where the lines of fun and work blur a little, and sometimes after a week of continuous days trekking, camping out, and filming at the same time we become almost numb to the beauty of the world and would swap another fabulous mountain view for a smelly old pub any day.

Let's tot up the figures. First there's the preparation. You can't just turn up at the Khyber Pass and start work. It's on the North-West Frontier, which like many other places we visited on our journey, is a potentially dangerous and unstable area, where terrorists live. So a great deal of chatting up, flannelling and soothing of egos has to go on before we can even leave home. Some of this work was done from our office in London, (thank you the wonderful Natalia, Mirabel and later Sue, team) but most of it had to be done on the ground. Step forward directors Roger Mills and John Paul Davidson and location managers Vanessa Courtney and Claire Houdret. They set the ball rolling, scouting the world, talking to potential contributors, checking out possible stories and wheedling permissions from reluctant governments while I was still at home looking at maps and deciding which kind of toilet paper to take.

So that's about 3 of the 18 months gone before we've left home. The actual shooting took up 6 more months. This involved some 2,000 miles travelling and 7 separate flights out to Asia and back. India, Nepal, Tibet and Yunnan in China was one continuous shoot, as was Pakistan and Assam-Bhutan-Bangladesh, but three short individual trips had to be made in addition. One to a 12,000 foot high polo match in Pakistan, one to a week-long horse fair in the centre of the Tibetan Plateau and one to an amazing annual festival in Bhutan. By my reckoning that's 14 doses of jet lag. In between the jet lags I was writing hard to keep up with deadlines for the book, so months off became months on. Add two.

One flew over the cuckoo's nest

One flew east, one flew west

One flew over the cuckoo's nest

Above appears the epigram to Ken Kesey's novel from 1962. I first became aware of this book at the end of 1971, when I read Tom Wolfe's "Electric Kool-aid acid test". My Picador edition of the book was published in 1973, and indeed I remember reading it once on Hampstead Heath one Sunday afternoon in the early part of that year whilst waiting for my then girlfriend to arrive (I have no recollection why I was in London that Sunday afternoon).

The novel might have stayed esoteric had it not been adapted as a film starring Jack Nicholson a few years later. I remember seeing the film three times, which in those days was a privilege afforded to few films. One time I even sneaked a cassette recorder into the Golders Green cinema in order to record the opening music. The film also made a great impression on the Israeli public: 'Cuckoos nest' was written on the wall of more than one building on my first kibbutz. I also bought the book in its Hebrew translation but never managed to get more than a few pages into the text.

Why suddenly all these recollections? Because tomorrow night, our cable tv provider will be showing the film, probably for the first time in thirty years. Every February, in the weeks leading up to the Oscar ceremonies, the provider always screens both classic and new films, and this is a prime opportunity for me to record films that I have always wanted.

I'll probably have more to write about the film after seeing it, but in the mean time, I will quote a little Tom Wolfe: From the point of view of craft, Chief Broom was his [Kesey's] great inspiration. If he had told the story through McMurphy's eyes, he would have had to end up with the big bruiser delivering a lot of homilies about his down-home theory of mental therapy. Instead, he told the story through the Indian. This way he could present a schizophrenic state the way the schizophrenic himself, Chief Broom, feels it and at the same time report the McMurphy method more subtlely.

Of course, the film couldn't tell the story through Chief Broom's eyes: most of the action is focused on McMurphy. As a result, the viewer misses out on Broom's schizophrenic fogs. I remember that the audience in the cinema cheered when Broom spoke his first words, after having played deaf and dumb throughout the story. I wonder how many guessed that the Indian was only pretending about being deaf and dumb.

Even more Blodwyn Pig

All this writing about the Pig made me dream of them during the night: I woke up at about 1:30am with the riff from "Worry" running through my head. I also found myself playing the riff to "Drive me" (for the first time in my life) not so long ago when I was playing my guitar.

Some additional comments to yesterday's post:

I read about Mick Abrahams' autobiography from his website (natch). The interface on the site is not the most intuitive, which is why I missed the fact that the book could be bought from there for 12GBP (list price) plus postage and packing, which would probably be another 6GBP. Mick signs every copy with whatever dedication one requests. I paid about 11:50GBP, so I have to ask myself whether I would want his signature for an extra 7GBP. Had I known in advance, then I might well have ordered directly from there, but I'm not beating myself about it in retrospect. As I say, the interface is not so good, which is why I can't give a link direct to the book.

Some more observations about "Getting to this" (GTT), mainly personal. Of course, I used to listen to the vinyl record on a record player which had an auto-changer mechanism, allowing one to stack records on top of each other and play them in sequence. I imagine that this was mainly designed for singles, but I used to put albums on the auto-changer ... until I had an accident and ruined the end of "San Francisco Sketches" with a scratch which caused the track to jump. After having ruined several lps this way ("The sea captain" and the eponymous "North Star grassman" by Sandy Denny, along with "Lord and Master" by Heron were other tracks which use to skip), I eventually ceased using the auto-changer. More modern turntables didn't have this 'feature'.

"Worry", especially in the chorus, sounds very much like "Benefit" period Jethro Tull. This and GTT came out at around the same time, so forty years later, I'm not sure who was copying who. There is a definite Jethro Tull joke concealed on GTT, which I learnt about from Mick's book: 'Nainos' (as in "Variations on Nainos") is not a Greek island, but rather Ian (Ander)son spelt backwards. I imagine that the lyrics contain a message to Abrahams' former colleague, but I can't really make them out. And yes, Abrahams did sing the final verse through a bucket of water.

Around 1971-2, my mother had a small catering business in Bristol. Once she catered for some random child's birthday party and somehow I was roped in to provide 'entertainment' for the children (aged maybe eight at the most). Even in those days I was serious about my music and didn't know any party songs. I do recall that I played "Toys", which might have been suitable for a grown man to play and sing, but not for eight year olds.

Island Records had a praise-worthy tradition of releasing samplers: elsewhere, I have written about the first two, "You can all join in" and "Nice enough to eat". Their third sampler was a double album entitled "Bumpers" which came out in 1971 and included a track from GTT, namely "Send your son to die". I suppose that this track could be considered a rarity as the mix is different to that on GTT; I don't really have a way of verifying this now (I suppose that I could dig out my vinyl copy of "Bumpers" from under the bed, connect the turntable which is lying unused on a shelf nearby and play the song), but as I recall, the vocals sounded different from GTT, more unfocused.

I imagine that herein ends the Pig ... but one never knows.....

More Blodwyn Pig

I wrote recently about renewing my acquaintance with the group Blodwyn Pig. As a result, I listened twice to their second album, "Getting to this", last night. As I probably wrote last time, when the record was released (in April 1970), I preferred this to its predecessor, but now I definitely prefer the debut record, "Ahead rings out".

There are a couple of standout tracks: "See my way" (this was originally on  "Getting to this" but rereleased on "Ahead rings out", which makes me wonder when it was recorded), "San Franciso Sketches", "The squirreling must go on" and "Send your son to die". Along with these are a couple of not-bad tracks ("Drive my car", "Variations on Nainos", "Worry") and a few others which are either out of place ("Toys") or filler ("Telephone bomb blues", "To Rassman"). My cd copy also has "Summer day" and "Walk on water" attached at the end.

The sound is fuller than on the debut album, which is not necessarily a good thing. For some reason, Jack Lancaster seems to be missing in action: he is nowhere to be heard on the out of place/filler tracks, and barely puts in an appearance on 'Worry' (his contribution is a fine solo). It should be noted that he is definitely present on the other tracks, and "San Francisco Sketches" is his showcase.

I discovered somehow that Mick Abrahams had written an autobiography ("What is a Wommet"), so I immediately ordered this. Due to the wonderful people at the Book Depository, the book arrived yesterday and I've just finished reading it. To be honest, the book was underwhelming; it was more about the fun times that Mick Abrahams has had being a musician and less about the music itself. There is a little information about Jethro Tull and Blodwyn Pig, but not very much, and the gems are mainly eclipsed by tales of drunkeness and the Territorial Army. The chapters are very short and it seems that every chapter finishes with a few lines on a new page, so the book gives the impression of being fuller than it really is.

There are some interesting words about "Getting to this": The songs on this album had a different energy and feel  and, of course, we now had the additional luxury of 16 tracks to record with. We took full advantage of the new technology and used it to layer guitars and saxes to get a generally thicker sound."

The book also relieved me of a life-long illusion: as Abrahams shares his name with my mother's maiden name, I had naturally assumed that he was Jewish. Far from it; he was adopted, brought up a Christian, was an alter boy, and underwent a religious revival in his 30s. He claims that Abrahams is a common surname in East Anglia. 

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone except the die-hard completists of Jethro Tull and/or Blodwyn Pig; whilst there are plenty of anecdotes, solid information which might inform the man's music is thin on the ground.

Idea for startup

My wife and I were invited to a bat mitzva party the other night; in retrospect, this was more like a wedding party than a bat mitzva in terms of how people were seated and served food. As one of the parents is Moroccan - and so there were many Moroccan guests - it is not surprising that most of the food served was spicy, or as we say in Hebrew, charif. My stomach (and my lips) are very sensitive to spicy food which is why almost all of the food which I eat is bland.

As I was contemplating a bowl of tomato based spread in front of me, an idea for a startup popped into my head: develop testing strips (like those which test the amount of glucose in urine) which can tell how hot/spicy (piquance) a given food is. This would be very useful for people like me, although it would probably mean that there was nothing at this party which I could eat. The redder the colour of the strip, the hotter the food! Apparently, there is something called the Scoville scale which measures the piquance of a chili pepper.

This idea is probably technically feasible: presumably one has to find an indicator for capsaicin, or for capsaicinoids in general, although these may not be the only active ingredients which are causing the piquance. The wiki link to the Scoville scale says that high performance liquid chromatography is necessary to measure the capsaicinoid content; this would have to be miniaturised into a form suitable for a paper strip.

I mentioned this idea to the man sitting to my left but he wasn't too enthusiastic about it (although he did say that such a litmus paper would probably dissolve when dipped into that tomato paste). Anyway, I offer this idea to the public domain. Please get in touch with me if you have developed such an instant test - but don't expect me to invest in the company.

A moment's hesitation

There was a blogging gap of a week not so long ago; during that time I was involved in the final stages of a new song, "A moment's hesitation", which is now available for playing at Soundclick.

The chord sequence and tune came when I was playing around on my keyboard at the beginning of December; being unable to think of any words, I continued playing with the music and commenced building an arrangement in Reason. Every now and then, opening lines would appear in my mind, but they weren't very good and didn't really lead anywhere. I was confident that I would be able to write the lyrics when a suitable title or theme appeared, but I was having trouble in finding that title or theme.

It wasn't until I watched the bad film "Did you hear about the Morgans" that the synapses began to fire. The film was about a separated couple and the unconventional way in which they came back together. If one would ask me, there is no way that I would want to be reunited with the character played by Sarah Jessica Parker, but I wouldn't mind being the Hugh Grant character, who managed to get in several witty lines. It was these lines which sparked my imagination. I'm fairly sure that the lines which I wrote in my pocket notepad weren't spoken by anyone in the film (and if they were, they would have come from Parker, not Grant), but even if they did, one is allowed to quote a line, especially after changing it slightly.

One evening I wrote most of the lyrics to the song; the next morning I realised that the verses were in the wrong order (what was written as the first verse should come after the second verse). I also added a third verse, which took its inspiration from the final paragraph of Robert Silverberg's novel, "Dying Inside" (highly recommended reading). This is a novel about a person who can read people's minds; it's not so much about what he finds there but rather about the fact that his mind reading skills are diminishing rapidly and soon he will be a normal person who has wasted most of his life. The prose is exquisite and the final paragraph is touching. It seemed appropriate to close the song with a few lines inspired by that paragraph, about a man who has had and has lost.

Once the lyrics were completed, I started singing them against the sketched arrangement. It quickly became clear that one line of lyrics had to be changed slightly in order to be singable, and that the final line would have to be changed. Going over the lyrics in my mind without listening to the music gave hints for a few important changes in the arrangement.

With the new musical ideas aboard, I spent many hours on Thursday and Friday getting the notes exactly as they should be. This might be seen as a very frustrating process because every time that I thought that I had finished the arrangement, another idea would pop up. I see it as a most exciting time - so engrossing that I missed the time at which I was supposed to start cooking dinner on Friday afternoon (only by half an hour). Eventually I reached a stage where I could find nothing more to change and 'fixed the image'.

On Saturday morning I spent several hours singing the song and trying to mix the vocals with the music. As often happens, the results of the first vocal session have to be abandoned later, whereas the results of the second vocal session (Saturday evening) are usually quicker, easier and better. I had a completely mixed song on Saturday night which I played to myself frequently that evening and Sunday, almost getting to the mental place where I was unable to listen to the song any more. Then I played the song a few times to my wife, getting the seal of approval. From there, the path to Soundclick was very short.

I still may have second thoughts regarding the arrangement and opt for something with more space in it. Such second arrangements normally start about a year after having recorded the song; it may be something that I hear or a new technique which makes me want to try out the song in a different manner. Of course, sometimes I hear mistakes which I didn't catch previously and a new arrangement allows me to correct those mistakes - and possibly creating new mistakes at the same time.

Project management exam - results

I received this afternoon an email from Heriot Watt University informing me that the results of the exams held in December are now available. In a flash, I fired up Firefox and clicked on the shortcut which would take me to the exam results page. The result for Project Management was ... 78! This is my second highest score (not unexpectedly, the top score was in accounting) and is higher than I had expected. 

A new wrinkle is that there is a breakdown of marks per question. The first question, organisational behaviour chart, awarded me only 14 marks out of 25; as I had a feeling that I had misunderstood one part of the question, this doesn't come as too much of a surprise. The second question, CPM, awarded me 22 out of 25, and the third question, EVA, gave me 24 out of 25. That leaves 18 out of 25 for the last question, which was an essay about risk (explain the difference between risk and uncertainty); this mark is certainly higher than I expected.

Pleased? Over the moon!

May I remind my readers that this is a British mark; 65-80 is considered an A (very good) and 80+ is X (excellent). Converting these marks into Israeli figures would mean that the 78 is probably around 92. Now of course, I'm disappointed that I didn't get a few more marks in the OBS question, which would have raised my mark into the X band. This reminds me of a story my parents used to tell of a wonder child whose school report showed that he had a mark of 99 out of 100; his teacher's comment was "could do better".

Lest one think that all is wonderful in MBA land, today I completed another exercise in my marketing course. Although the skeleton of the exercise is the same as the other exercises which I have done, the product in this exercise is completely different to the previous exercises and needs different answers. I scanned my handwritten, five page, answer and sent the resulting pdf file to the lecturer. Within about fifteen minutes, I got a reply back, listing four or five issues which need correcting. Of course, one learns more from one's mistakes than from other sources.

Adding corrections to a hand written script probably means that I will have to write the whole thing out again. It's a chore but there are advantages to doing so.

Marketing

My current course in the MBA degree is marketing - we started eight weeks ago and I see that I haven't mentioned it once here. Originally I thought that marketing would be the course most foreign to my knowledge and to my orientation, but I have to admit that I have found the lectures both interesting and familiar at times. 

We are now approaching the twilight zone in which there are no more lectures in marketing, but another course starts prior to the marketing exam. I wrote about this last year, when organisational behaviour overlapped with economics. Actually this time, it's slightly different as we still have three more marketing lectures during February (the exam is in the first week of March) at the same time as there will be lectures in human resources.

We have finished almost all of the set material and are now beginning to prepare ourselves for the exam. As opposed to the exams in other subjects, the marketing exam is extremely unstructured: one has to write three essays of which only the first has a definite structure. So of course, we have been practicing this structure, trying to commit it to memory. The university's website gives past exams, complete with examiner's solution and good student's solution, and in all of the cases that I have checked, none of the answers to the first question have been in the strict format which has been drilled into us. 

This brings up the age old question: are we being taught the subject or are we being taught to pass an exam?

In order to practice, we divided ourselves into groups where each group has done two exercises. I was an enthusiastic participant in the meeting when we did the first exercise but decided to take a back seat for the second exercise and let the others do the work. Big mistake. When I saw the resulting document, I was fairly sure that several sections had been left out and so I decided to do the exercise on my own. This took about an hour - which is the upper limit of time in the exam, although as one gets better, the time is supposed to shorten - and required five pages of handwritten A4 paper. On Friday, the lecturer looked at several groups' answers and made comments; mine was the last to be looked at. After the lecturer looked through the pages, he asked who wrote it. I admitted to this, expecting to hear a list of necessary improvements; instead he said that the work was excellent and exactly what was needed. People in the class (from the other side of the class!) wanted to see my paper. All I have to do now is remember how to write the answers in the exam (the paper was written whilst referring to notes). 

Handwriting the answers is supposed to encourage muscle memory - it also prevents the lazy student from copy/pasting answers from other sources. No marks are given for these exercises - they exist solely for the purpose of helping the student revise.

We now have a week and a half without lectures, in which time we are supposed to go over the material a few times and complete another exercise. I'll try to do the exercise this time without referring so much to my notes.

Sumptuous Sunday 5

I thought that I would be adventurous this weekend and cook dishes which I have not cooked before.

For Friday night, I decided to cook 'butterflied chicken with orange'. I bought a fresh, whole chicken from the butcher on Thursday and asked the girl on the counter to chop the chicken in half. This process is called 'butterflying' the chicken as it makes the two halves look like a butterfly (so I am told). The idea behind this is that all parts of the chicken are cooked equally well, whereas when one roasts a whole chicken, the breasts get exposed to different temperatures than the legs. I marinaded the chicken halves in a mixture of jam, freshly pressed orange juice and olive oil overnight. On Friday afternoon, I placed the chicken halves in the cooking pan and poured the marinade over the halves. I chopped a peeled onion in half and placed the two halves flat face upwards. The chicken was cooked for an hour and a half at 170 degrees C; I turned the halves over after about an hour. 

None of us were particularly impressed by this dish. The onions caramelised nicely and even had tasted slightly of orange, but the marinade barely flavoured the chicken. My wife said that the meat did have a slight orange taste, but I couldn't detect it (not that this surprises me - my taste buds are not the strongest in the world). We agreed not to repeat this recipe.

While I was at the butcher's, I bought a packet of frozen salmon steaks, generously sized. I had bought similar slices in the past from the supermarket, but those were smaller and full of bones, so I never bought them again. I defrosted the salmon and placed three portions in the slow cooker on Saturday morning; the pieces were so large that they covered the entire base. I made a sauce of water, lemon juice, butter (!), salt and diced onions and poured this on the salmon; I cooked for three hours on low. The results were sublime! The salmon was cooked just right - not too hard and not too soft - and barely had any bones. Fortunately the packet held six steaks (I thought that there were only four) so there are enough pieces left over for a repeat performance.

The exclamation mark by the butter is because we very rarely ever have butter in the house. Kosher cooking means that butter cannot be used with any meat dishes, which almost completely rules out its use. But it's OK to cook fish with butter.

Sumptuous Sunday 4

My daughter has been nagging me for some time to make chicken meat balls, so I did so on Friday. Here's the (approximate) recipe -

• 500g minced chicken
• 1 egg
• half a small cauliflower
• 100g bread crumbs
• one tablespoon mayonnaise
• one medium onion, diced
• one medium carrot, diced

First, I diced the cauliflower into very small pieces then added a little water and cooked it in the microwave for 15 minutes. When the cauliflower had cooled somewhat, I added the mayonnaise and tried to mash it as much as possible. Then I added the rest of the ingredients and mixed them by hand. Out of the resulting mix, I formed balls and put them on a greased baking tray. I cooked the balls for 40 minutes at 170 degrees C.

I got the thumbs up from my daughter, a rare occurrence. Normally she finds something to criticise. 

If I were not cooking for my daughter, then I would have left out the carrot and added spices and celery leaves.

Along with the chicken balls, I served chicken breast. I cut up about 500g breast into small pieces and marinaded it with diced celery stalk, soy sauce and olive oil. About twenty minutes before we ate, I cut an onion into strips and fried them in the wok; when the onion strips started to brown, I added the chicken mixture and cooked that for another ten minutes. I don't like the soy sauce too much but the others don't complain.

Yesterday I cooked 'beer can chicken'. The result was not dissimilar to regular roast chicken, which requires virtually no preparation at all. It's difficult to see from the picture, but the chicken is 'standing up' by virtue of having a beer can stuffed into its cavity. The idea is that the inside of the chicken is bathed with steamy beer, keeping the chicken meat moist. I was not convinced, and so this is one recipe which I won't be trying again.

My guitars

Over the last 25 years I must have owned at least ten computers, whereas over 41 years I have owned only seven guitars. This probably says more about the rapid technical advances in the computer world than anything about guitars.

The first guitar which I owned was a typical Spanish nylon strung acoustic guitar which I bought second or third hand from a small shop on Christmas Steps, Bristol in 1970. I have a very dim memory of my mother bringing home an f-hole archtop guitar at around the same time, but there must have been something very wrong with it - probably the neck was warped and the action extremely high. After a while, someone gave me a battered steel string acoustic, so I bartered the nylon acoustic for a noname electric guitar. Suffice it to say, my first three guitars were dogs.

After leaving school and prior to going to Israel for a gap year, someone suggested that I buy a proper guitar. I was working as a temp in my father's office and earning a little money, so I could afford something. One evening I was strolling around the rather non-descript residential/small shop district where my parents lived when I chanced upon a guitar shop. I may not have been aware of this at the time, but now it seems a peculiar location for such a shop. Maybe the rents were cheap. Anyway, I saw hanging on a wall the most beautiful acoustic guitar that I had ever seen and vowed to buy it. I paid a deposit, but the shop wouldn't let me have the guitar until I paid the full price - somewhere around 25 GBP, if I remember correctly. This was in 1973, when pounds were pounds and before we had heard of the word 'inflation'.

I enjoyed that guitar over the years but had to retire it about ten years ago. It was nearly unplayable as the bridge had started to pull away from the body. I showed the guitar to a luthier but he said it was too late to correct the problem. The guitar is now hanging on the wall behind me as I write these lines. The fretboard is dull, the back and sides still look wonderful and the body is somewhere in-between, in terms of appearance.

In the spring of 1976, when my little rock group got underway, I bought a Gibson SG copy from a shop on the Kilburn High Road. I played this guitar for many years, whenever an electric was needed, but slowly my usage decreased. After all, I am an acoustic guitar player. There was also a problem with the bridge which was causing intonation problems; I had this corrected, but never really used the guitar after that. The guitar is lying under my bed, untouched for several years.

When I had to retire my venerable acoustic, I thought it time to buy a professional guitar which would last me until I would be unable to play, and so bought an Ovation Applause guitar. 

This is everything that I could want from a guitar and I am very happy with it. Its amplified sound is clear and the electronics are simple, which is a boon whenever I play in public (no more having to poke a microphone at the sound hole). The only real problem with the guitar is its back, which juts out asymmetrically, making the guitar difficult to hold when sitting down (and presumably when standing up). The late Trevor Lucas (Sandy Denny's husband, and one-time Fairporter) used to play an Ovation, and I have seen pictures of him playing the guitar with the neck pointing down to the ground. Mind you, he was very tall.

That's six guitars so far; what about the seventh? I'm glad you asked. As of two days ago, I am the proud owner of a Washburn HB30-TS semi-acoustic guitar (the TS stands for Tobacco Sunrise). For unknown reasons, it has always been one of my dreams to own a semi-acoustic, and my wife has been egging me to fulfill that dream (I never had a middle aged crisis). Unfortunately, the shop from which I bought the guitar had a minimal selection of semi-acoustics so to paraphrase Hamlet, "to buy or not to buy, that is the question."

The other semi-acoustic which they had was a semi-acoustic Telecaster copy (I can't find a picture at the moment, but something like the Asat classic custom semi-hollow); this guitar was lighter, had a narrow neck, had none of the aesthetic appeal of the Washburn and was twice as expensive!

I was slightly disappointed with the guitar's unplugged sound; I had naively assumed that a semi-acoustic would sound like an acoustic when not plugged in and like an electric when plugged in. Not true. So I had to buy an amplifier; I had prepared for this eventually and noticed that the shop sold various small Roland amplifiers. In the shop, I tried some of these Roland cubes as well as a small Marshall. I innocently asked about reverb, only to be told that the Marshall didn't have this effect, but the Roland did. Not only reverb but also chorus/flange/phase and delay; the amplifier can even run on batteries! I can see myself busking in the local train station with the semi-acoustic (or maybe the Ovation) plugged into this little amplifier (little in size, big in sound) which is running on batteries.

When I got home and started playing around with the amp, I discovered that there have been rapid improvements in solid state amplifiers similar to the technological advances of computers. There is one selector knob on the amp which allows one to choose one of seven amplifier types:

1. acoustic - "a dynamic acoustic guitar sound using a standard electric guitar"
2. JC clean - "a model of Roland's famous JC-120 Jazz Chorus amplifier"
3. Black Panel - "modeled on the class Fender Twin Reverb amplifier"
4. Brit Combo - "modeled on the VOX AC-40TB, the rock amplifier that created the Liverpool sound of the '60s"
5. Classic stack - "modeled on the sound and response of a Marshall JMP1987"
6. r-fier stack - "modeled on the MESA/Boogie Rectifier"
7. Mic - "select this position when [a] microphone is connected.

There are huge differences in output between each of the various settings, but presumably the average player uses one setting on an almost permanent basic. I imagine that my permanent setting will be the Black Panel.

The amplifier even comes with a button which when pressed produces an A (440Hz) tone for tuning purposes; no more playing sharp or flat. Maybe this is common amongst modern amplifiers, but the Marshall didn't have it, nor did my original 25Watt (50W with an extension speaker) guitar amp which I bought in 1976. On the downside, the speaker is only 5" in diameter, as opposed to a more powerful 12" (no heavy bass sounds for this amp). Of course, the amp isn't meant for a gigging bassist in a rock group.

I imagine that my full enthusiasm for the amp as opposed to the luke-warm response to the guitar comes through. No doubt the guitar will grow on me as an instrument and not just a pretty piece of wood.

The guitar came with a soft case with very poor zippers - I broke one immediately when trying to open it. Fortunately, there are two length-wise zippers, so I can open and close with the other zipper (until I break that). One pocket on the bag held a cord so that I could plug the guitar into the amplifier; the zipper on this pocket doesn't work at all. Unfortunately I can't store the guitar in the hard case belonging to the SG copy - the Washburn's body is much wider than the SG (I think that it's even wider than the Ovation). The website of the shop from which I bought the guitar lists a suitable hard case for 625 NIS; I'll wait until I finish paying off the guitar before buying such a case.

The guitar was listed at just over 1,600NIS and the amplifier at around 700NIS, making a total cost of 2,300NIS (I think that I got a rounding small discount),  including 16% VAT; this works out at just under 400GBP (with the VAT).  Maybe a lot of money to satisfy a whim, but a good investment. The site which I linked to above gives a list price of $900 for the guitar, meaning that the price I paid was about 50% less! 

Copper socks 3

I have just been informed that one can now buy copper socks in Israel. This site is selling the socks for 60 shekels a pair which makes them somewhat cheaper than buying them from abroad (I originally wrote that a pair was costing about $10 + postage from America, which almost doubled the price).

Mirror mirror on the wall

I look in the mirror And what do I see? A strange looking person That cannot be me. For I am much younger And not nearly so fat As that face in the mirror I am looking at. Oh, where are the mirrors That I used to know Like the ones which were Made thirty years ago? Now all things have changed And I`m sure you`ll agree Mirrors are not as good As they used to be. So never be concerned, If wrinkles appear For one thing I`ve learned Which is very clear, Should your complexion Be less than perfection, It is really the mirror That needs correction!!   Edmund Burke, 1729 - 1797, Irish Philosopher.

Ahead rings out

I'm listening at the moment to the remastered and extended version of Blodwyn Pig's debut album, 'Ahead rings out'; I bought the original vinyl record in April 1970 and the first cd pressing via Ebay several years ago (that version was a direct update of the original British record).

I first became aware of BP in late 1969, although I don't remember now how. I do recall that I saw them twice (or maybe three times) on late night BBC2 television shows and was impressed; these shows were probably the catalyst to seeing them live in mid-December 1969, when I was only 13 years and four months old.

I had the peculiar notion that records became cheaper several months after their release; it took several months for the penny to drop that this notion was false.

I was never one for the blues, and although BP's music is based somewhere on the blues, they played a strong updated modern blues, shot through with jazz and rock influences. I'm fairly sure that my thirteen year old ears didn't - and couldn't - appreciate the record then as much then as I do now. Taking it track by track -

• It's only love - a straight-forward rocker, based on the 12 bar format. Mick Abrahams (guitar, vocal) wrote that he sang this like Elvis. One of the less liked tracks - but definitely strong. Features a double sax solo, showing that Jack Lancaster was doing the double sax thing before David Jackson of Van der Graaf Generator.
• Dear Jill - BP unplugged. This is an acoustic blues, but the chord sequence is far from traditional. Beautiful soprano sax from Jack Lancaster. I used to play this song in the early 70s, but 'dropped it from my repertoire' as it sounded very repetitive without the sax.
• Sing me a song that I know so well - this track was included on the famous 'Nice enough to eat' sampler LP. Even now, I find this track amazing: it's very choppy, being made out of several sections, but each of those sections seems to have been created sui genesis. It's still an exciting listen.
• The modern alchemist - this instrumental was definitely played at the 12/69 concert. A fine piece of music, having its roots in jazz.
• Up and coming - this song is the one most closely connected to the blues. I didn't like it then and I don't like it now.
• Leave it with me - another instrumental, jazzy and somewhat similar to Jethro Tull of the same time. Of course, Abrahams left JT to found BP. This is ok, but not one of my favourite tracks. If I remember correctly, it features a rare bass solo by Andy Pyle.
• The change song - this was my strong favourite of the time (also played in concert), featuring acoustic guitar (Abrahams) and violin (Lancaster). To my middle aged ears,  the introduction - in a mock cockney accent (well, I hope that it's mock!) - is totally embarrassing. The song itself is good, but not as wonderful as I used to think.
• See my way - this song was not released on the original 'Ahead rings out' in Britain, although it was to be found on the American version. In Britain, we had to wait another year before it appeared on BP's second album, 'Getting to this'. This song was played at the 12/69 concert and I'd also seen it played on television. This has to be the ultimate BP track! The opening two verses can be classed as strong rock, but they're chordal as opposed to riffing. After the second verse, suddenly there's a peculiar instrumental section, followed from the guitar solo from outer space. This ends by climbing the scale in intervals of four semitones (basically a diminished chord, but not played as such), which transforms into a section for two saxophones playing what I've always thought as ancient Egyptian music. A quick snare hit, and back into the main tune. Abrahams writes that they spent a few days recording this,  especially the bit which sounds like Ravel's "Bolero". I'm sure that they worked hard on this, but there's nothing that sounds like the Bolero at all - I assume he means the 'Egyptian' part.
• Ain't ya coming home, babe - a 6/8 rant leads into a 4/4 instrumental section. I haven't mentioned it before, but most of the instrumental parts tend to be 'free' - they're not played over chord sequences, but are more akin to the modal jazz of Miles Davis. Full marks to Andy Pyle for keeping the accompaniment interesting.
• Sweet Caroline - this wasn't on the original album but was released as a single - the b side of 'Dear Jill'. I haven't heard this in years, for which there is a good reason: this is fairly undistinguished music.
• Walk on water - Also a single release. Whilst this is based on a strong riff, it's also got some interesting instrumental parts. This song is comparable to 'Sing me a song' in its changing parts, although less good. That said, it was a very strong single in the wrong market, and I honestly would have preferred this to a few of the songs issued on the album.
• Summer day - this is a classic throwaway b-side, with a slightly convoluted riff and changes based on the 12 bar blues. As opposed to the free instrumental sections on other songs, here the guitar solo is set against the standard chord sequence. I can live my life without hearing this again. 
• Same old story - this was released as a single in March 1971 (I bought it in April); BP appeared on 'Top of the Pops' to promote it, when TOTP was briefly letting its hair down. An effervescent rocker in 5/4 time, this was another chunk of classic Pig. The single was released on the green Chrysalis label, as opposed to the pink Island of the other singles. If I were really sad, I would bring the vinyl singles with me to work, scan them and display them here. I wonder how much they are worth.
• Slow down - this was released on the b-side of 'Same old story'. It was the only cover version that BP released, and as such doesn't do much for me. Elvis Abrahams returns as lead singer. This music is probably much more the private heritage of the band which is why is doesn't talk to me, coming from a different musical background (for me, music started with The Beatles).
• Meanie Mornay - this is the only otherwise unreleased track on the album, and as such, completely new to me. I can't write anything about it because I can barely hear it (there's too much background noise). Presumably there are strong reasons why it was unreleased at the time, considering that 'Summer day' was released.
• Backwash - this was a forty second interval of instrumental sandwiched between 'Change song' and 'Aint ya coming home'. I remember that Kenny Everett (weird and wild disk jockey) once ran a competition trying to find the shortest song ever released on record. I tried to phone the show and tell about this 'song' but could never get through. Just as well, as the forty seconds here pale against the twenty something seconds of Heron's "Sally Gooding".

Blodwyn Pig were my first musical love, but they broke up before leaving a lasting legacy. Shame.

Sumptuous Sunday 3

I wasn't feeling too well last week - extreme lack of energy - so there isn't really much to write about. In order to keep the fingers moving, I'll give the weekend menu -

• Friday night: meat balls (beef) cooked in oven, chicken breast/onion/potatoes cooked in wok

• Saturday lunch: chicken drumsticks with prunes, rice and root beer, cooked in slow cooker

• Saturday evening for rest of week: chicken breast and mixed fresh vegetables (onion, yellow pepper, red pepper, pumpkin, celery, cabbage, carrots, courgettes) cooked in wok

My wife also made clear vegetable soup and lentil soup on Friday afternoon, so the kitchen got a good workout. Now the fridge is full, and all we have to do is eat the food.

Suite: Judy Blue Eyes

I wrote several years ago about the eponymous 'Crosby, Stills and Nash' record, commenting "The production on this is strange to my way of thinking: whilst the guitars (especially in "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes") have careful spacial placing, the vocals (with one notable exception) are mixed together, dead in the middle, thus making it difficult to separate each singer's contribution."

Now I know why the production was as it was (well, that's not strictly true - I know how come the vocals are mixed together, but I don't know the real reason for doing so).

The answer can be found here:

“After Stephen had recorded his acoustic guitar part, he, David and Graham were ready to sing, and for that I was ready. We had done all kinds of jingles in the little room at Heider’s, from the Anita Kerr singers to Jan and Dean, and so I just took the Neuman U67, opened it all the way around [ie. put it into omni mode], gave them three sets of headphones and went, ‘Sing!’ Singing into the one mic, they moved around a bit. They didn’t need any music; they were rehearsed, they knew the lyrics, and while harmonising with each other they were also in the process of amazing each other.

 

What I’d also learned to do by then was save what I thought was the good stuff, and with 16 tracks that was easy to do. So, through the course of that whole album I never played them what they had done; I only played them what they were doing. They were out there for a couple of hours, and when they finally came in to listen, I had three tracks of ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’ just about completely recorded. I thought, ‘What the heck, I’ll play it all for them,’ so I turned up the guitar, spread out the three tracks and pushed ‘Play’, and they had no idea what was coming. They had three passes of the three of them and it was brilliant. They were so tight and so rehearsed "  (engineer Bill Halverson).

The most amazing thing about the track is that Stephen Stills "blew through seven-and-a-half minutes with all the time changes, all the pauses, all the everything in just one take, no edits, no nothing."