Alive and Kicking

My first thought when I heard about the explosions in London was: I hope nothing has happened to my good friends the Bereza family. A few minutes ago, I got an e-mail from Andy confirming that everything was OK. Phew! Along with 99,99 % of the rest of the world, I shake my head at the insane acts of violence that have hit London today. My heart goes out to the victims of this vicious attack.

On a happier note, I spent the afternoon with my oldest friend Peter today. We haven't seen each other for... I don't know, more than half a year. There are various reasons for this, but we made up for it by having lunch and a good chat after me selling him my old car, Drafi. Drafi is a Mazda 323 inherited from my Grandfather. My sister and me were the custodians of this elderly gentleman (he's from 1987), but since both of us are driving newer cars nowadays, poor old Drafi has been resting in a parking lot. I offered Drafi to Peter for a very reasonable price indeed, and he certainly knew a bargain when he saw it (and drove it). It's good to know that Drafi will have a good home in the future.

After a few minutes at work sending e-mails, we headed off for our lunch mentioned above. Discussions on music, Peter's stupid co-workers, music, heating, music and... eh... music followed. We must have bored the people at the café. When we came it was crowded, when we left there were only two other people there. We headed home to Peter's flat, watched a Kim Mitchell DVD and remembered the 80's when we were both buying second hand copies of Mitchell's work with the excellent Max Webster. Kim Mitchell was clearly the leader of this slightly bizarre and funny Canadian hard prog rock band. As Frank Zappa famously said: "Does Humor Belong in Music?". Listen to Max Webster and you will find out that the answer is the affirmative.

As I am writing this, I am watching The Last Waltz. Frequently regarded as one of the best rock movies ever, but I am not so sure. I prefer The Band's first two albums. If you ask me, it all went downhill after those two fine examples of Americana. Isn't it ironic that it took a Canadian band to do it properly? And the other performers were either better before or after The Last Waltz was shot. Not bad, not bad at all. But not that good. Personal highlights include Joni Mitchell's performing "Coyote" and Van Morrison actually coming as close as ever to being a bit of an extrovert.

I have never been a fan of Simple Minds. They recorded "Alive and Kicking" on their Once Upon a Time album in 1985. The best things about the band at this point were probably their drummer Mel Gaynor and, even better, the great bass player John Giblin. Check out the man's work with Brand X!

NP: The Last Waltz (but you knew that already)