Icarus flying home # 38

Cool cat in a hat

The waiting game is something we do in my house when Abbi is playing tennis abroad. After each match she will text through the score and just hanging around, wondering how she is doing is murder, especially the long matches. I try to get on with stuff and keep occupied but am constantly waiting on the phone to buzz - as it has done in the middle of lectures; meetings; cooking and even when I am in the shower. But how else would we have it? As this song says, days are never long enough because all too soon your kids are up and grown and have flown... Yesterday I played a full football match in the same team as Dan. I didn't do much, to be honest but I made myself available, linked up the play and sprayed a few balls around. Some things you never forget but while the head can do it the legs don't go at the same pace anymore and when it hurts it hurts more. Still, I had some fun, am stiff this morning but that's ok - I am stiff most mornings but hey we won 2-0 and Dan set up both goals. But as I type this now Abbi is playing tennis in Istanbul and she has been on court a very long time - so not only is it a long match but she is so far away and not every match can be won so if she loses its a long way off for picking up the pieces. This song is a little rough in the recording but I have tickets to see them both in Brighton - me and Dan, with my next door neighbour Alasdair, how cool is that... but wait, 3 hours on court and the text has arrived, I quote, 'I am the marathon queen! 4 in the 3rd!' (which for non-tennis players means it was a set each and she won the 3rd set 6-4) - firstly phew, then yay! Istanbul is a long way off, it's 30c and slightly overcast - humid and sticky - but she feels just fine and that's just fine by me.

Icarus flying home # 37

Mandolin kitchen

I never intended to post two in such a short  space of time but needs must because I just received a copy of Buddy Guy's new cd with some amazing tracks which are all about growing old (dis)gracefully. And I thought, whooooo what a gooood idea that is. This year I am 57 years young and I am listening to Buddy singing 74 years young with relish. Yay to Buddy, whose club I visited 3 times while in Chicago. Though I did see the man himself in London, Dingwalls (I think) playing with Little Walter (harmonica) and Clapton, Page and Beck showed up - well there is a story to that but you can get too many good stories all at once so I will let that one run. This week I am re-stringing all my instruments so I can record some stuff I have been writing over the past months since I started this blog. But as if we need reminding, BG reminds us that nostalgia is death - keep moving forward, keep on moving, keep on moving, keep on moving... there is blues in the banjo and mandolin and all those other things... in the kitchen.



Icarus flying home # 36

Rested

Hoo - I forgot to take my new hat on holiday so this is the holiday snap that didn't happen. I read a goodly number of books on holiday but some disappointments there amidst a couple of treats. What was most disappointing was reading the ones that were reviewed so well when they are not. I have now come to the conclusion that there is a wee cartel of critics/writers/publishers because how could anyone/everyone get them so wrong. So here is my list of they say I say:

Ian McEwan, Solar, Sunday Times, "Savagely funny..." Me - "dull, dull, and unbelievably unfunny..."

Alan Hollinghurst, The Stranger's Child, The Guardian, "will undoubtedly be one of the best novels this year.." Me, "Then god help us..."

Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question, Observer, "Full of wit, warmth, intelligence..." Me, "A mirror image of a self-referring bore..."

Moshim Hamid, Moth Smoke, LA Times, "Stunning..." Me, "Dull teenage angst..."

Rose Tremain,  Trespass, Observer, 'Taut... full of suspense..." Me, "Very well written but predictable ending with little suspense..."

William Boyd, Any Human Heart, Mail on Sunday, "Astounding. One of Boyd's greatest...." Me, "I liked this, thoughtful and well crafted without being great."

Tea Obreht, The Tiger's Wife, Independent, "Beautifully executed..." Me, "How dare she... a first novelist has no right to be this good - humpph, I like..."

Am not just becoming cynical just because I didn't like most of them. It was a shame cos I bought them and thought I would wallow in them, the McEwan, Hollinghurst and Jacobson were just so unbelievably smug and dull, especially the Hollinghurst. I just thought, who cares, I can't see any of this mattering to anyone, it was so sub Brideshead and dull. I need to find new novels or writer's fast! Gillian Welch is my fave new singer and I love these Tiny Desk Concerts - there's loads of them. The song is the new novel, watch this space, I have spent the summer writing a few myself. But oh, I have just blogged again, does this mean I am back from the brink?