http://ardle.blogsome.com The ccasional ramblings 'n' cryptic scrawls of Hiroshima resident Andy Lightfoot Sun, 11 May 2008 07:11:08 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en OK, OK, I admit it. My present penchant for purchasing pricey musical paraphernalia is not because each instrument ’sounds different’ and is thus necessary for the arsenal, so to speak. No, it’s just another manifestation of what doctors of the mind call “middle-aged loser git anal collecting syndrome“. Now ... http://ardle.blogsome.com/2008/05/11/hiroshima-jazz/ OK, instead of a stock photo, this time the real thing - your humble narrator, happily decapitated, wielding his glorious old candy red Fender Jazzmaster….oh yeah! And the worst of it is - a local Hiroshima store has a sexy Fender Jazz bass going for a song…..can I resist????? http://ardle.blogsome.com/2008/05/07/the-master/ Just back from the Big Kansai in what is becoming an annual excusion to avoid the hell that is Hiroshima’s ghastly ‘Flower Festival‘. Amazingly, although I’ve been to Kyoto dozens of times and even lived there for a while, I still found numerous new bits to explore, and the photographic proofs ... http://ardle.blogsome.com/2008/05/06/osaka-jazz/ The Saturday before last I convened with my old pal D.P.O’Hurley in my favourite opium den, and there we reinstituted our old ritual of imbibing overpriced beverages whilst talking bollox and throwing small round pieces of plastic onto a checquered board. I am speaking, of course, of the venerable old ... http://ardle.blogsome.com/2008/04/15/go-a-go-go/ Back from the cold north, and currently in that weird limbo between freedom and the horror of work, in tandem with the onset of spring and its attendant wobbliness. Oh, and I hate Japanese gardeners. They suck. They are stinking crusty old gangs of farting coffin-dodgers who wreck everything they ... http://ardle.blogsome.com/2008/04/03/arboreal-atrocities-and-nice-new-photos/ Ugh - spring reared its ugly head today, which to most people I suppose is actually a beautifully sculpted goddess. Not so for me. Spring means only one thing - the dreaded collywobbles. Goodbye, dreary virus-laden winter, hello panic attacks and neurotic madness! Huzzah! Currently watching: Season 2 of ‘Black Books‘ ... http://ardle.blogsome.com/2008/03/08/muse-sick-sic/ Well, it’s almost as if the Gods (who don’t exist) are bent on thwarting me by throwing technological mantraps (which do exist) across my musical furrow. Let me elucidate…(insert joke form well-known 1970’s British sitcom). Yes, I’m talking about the soon-to-be-released STAVKA album “Heavy Casualties in the Charm Offensive“, which has ... http://ardle.blogsome.com/2008/03/07/bamboozled-by-the-binary/ A couple of days ago I received as part of a sanity-package from Amazon.co.uk Anton Corbijn’s Ian Curtis biopic “Control.” I had to go the DVD route since there was little chance of seeing this black and white tale of grimy Northern English rock suicide on any one of Hiroshima’s ... http://ardle.blogsome.com/2008/02/29/control/ Yes, folks, the glorious news that you’ve all been waiting for - the new STAVKA album is nearly almost virtually just about ready for release! Woot! And when I say “release” I mean it’ll be offered to thegenital pubic at the wondrous STAVKA webstore where a glistening CD-R burn graced ... http://ardle.blogsome.com/2008/02/24/bitter-late-than-never/ And so the spring vacation is upon us, well, upon those of us lazy-arsed tosseurs who eke out a living as itinerant mystical sages in the Land of the Four Clearly-Defined Seasons. Yes, I am currently eschewing all things pedagogical and devoting myself entirely to the noble and nourishing pursuit ... http://ardle.blogsome.com/2008/02/19/88/