I really enjoyed reading Rickie Lee Jones‘ autobiography, Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of a Troubadour. It’s as idiosyncratic, off-centre, expressive and polished as her best musical work. It swings wildly in style from ancedotal – almost casual – reporting of some pretty terrible events for a young teenager to verbatim conversations at some of her …
I made a Lebanese dinner for four. Clockwise from top left and inwards (click photo to enlarge): Shawarma Chicken: tenderloins marinated in yoghurt, vinegar, lemon juice, salt, cumin then baked at 200C for 10 min, turn, then at 180C for about 30 min. Shawarma lamb: strips marinated in olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, coriander, cumin, …
Time for another book report, this time on Loud, by Tana Douglas. Acknowledged as the world’s first female roadie, Douglas scored a chapter to herself in Stuart Coupe’s excellent 2018 book Roadies, which told just enough of her story to leave me and I’m sure a lot of others wanting to know more. And here …
Finished Behind Dark Eyes by Jeff Apter last night – LATE last night coz I couldn’t stop reading. This is a cracking good read for a number of reasons. Jon English was a fascinating bloke. A Sydney westie who carved a career in rock & pop, theatre and TV out of a powerful voice and …
I’m finding snippets of last week’s Daniel Champagne gig in Wollongong last week bubbling back up at me. Such an interesting musician, who’s crafted a fascinating relationship with his acoustic guitar. Not just using it as a percussive instrument (which he does brilliantly) but also as a stage prop, almost another character on stage with …
It was a good reading year for me (meaning I found time to read). Here’s the 36 books I did read (in the order I read them) and the reason I didn’t finish the 37th. Me: Elton John The Song Remains the Same: Andrew Ford & Anni Heino The Wichita Lineman: Dylan Jones The David …
Current reading: Tune In by Mark Lewisohn, which is the first volume of his trilogy The Beatles: All These Years. Clocking in at a lazy 946 pages (to be fair, that includes 102 pages of notes, credits and index), this covers The Beatles from birth (actually quite a lot of family history) to December 1962. …
From the birthday haul: Nick of Time is a memoir by Nick Hampton about his time at recording houses EMI and CBS, in Australia and overseas. I thought it might be a bit dry, but it really rocks along. Like Jeff Apter’s recent George Young bio Friday on My Mind and Stuart Coupe’s Paul Kelly …
From the time I started messing about on the web, books have formed a core part of my ongoing professional development in web technology. True, I am a book fanatic anyway (my total home library exceeds 4,000 physical volumes) but web design and development seemed particularly suited to propping open a book next to the …
I’ve become aware that I am sighing a lot more than I used to. I’m not completely sure, because until now I’ve never really measured how much or how often I sigh. But I have the impression I’m sighing a lot and that can only be because I am, right? I mean, you’d only notice …