The writing continues apace, though late into the night. And on the back of something I cut from it earlier, here's five guilty pleasures.
Pineapple and coconut
It's a drink, it comes in cartons and I'd never heard of it until the Dr's brother mixed it with some vodka. “Tropical!” declares the carton of the one I had today. And it is. But also no doubt full of sugar and ick.
Gardener's Question Time
Sunday afternoons on Radio 4 and just about the most genial, cheery and good-humoured half hour in all broadcast history. It's like a less noisy, brash and trendy version of QI. I don't even have a garden or any green-fingered ambition.
The Coen brothers' Ladykillers
I love the original and have concerns about the very principle of remaking old good stuff. And they've junked all the eerie subtlety for out-and-out screwball mayhem. And its got Tom Hanks in it in place of Alex Guinness, a Wayans and jokes about irritable bowels. It really shouldn't be allowed. But I laughed like a weasel enjoying a cardiac arrest.
Easy listening
The Dr accused me of this yesterday as she mucked about with iTunes. I denied it manfully until she ran through quite a lot of the noise I've loaded. Cat Stevens, Burt Bacharach, Nina Simone... I pointed to Lemon Jelly and Flaming Lips, and argued my chill-out thing also embraces the old skool. But not very convincingly.
Not shaving
Even when I've been freelancing more than six years, this is still the best evidence that I'm getting away with something fiendish in scribbling at home. See also not getting up in the morning and “meetings” with peers and producers which go on into the evening and involve a lot of beer.
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9 comments:
Nina Simone counts as a timeless classic, surely, rather than easy listening ?
You're on considerably shakier ground with Burt Bacharach though...
The Gardener's thing sounds worth a listen.
Is this one of those genre questions, Stuart, where anything good can't be part of a genre?
And Le, make sure you're drinking a proper cup of tea* while you listen in.
* i.e. with biscuits.
Sion: "Is this one of those genre questions, Stuart, where anything good can't be part of a genre?"
Hee hee - spoken like a true Dr Who fan ('is Nina Simone canon'?). No, I just missed out a word - I meant to type 'timeless classic soul'.
And BB is brilliant, obviously, *and* the very epitome of easy listening.
Not that there's anyhing wrong with easy listening, of course - I have any number of Lounge cds from a few years back which I listen to now and again.
Isn't Nina Simone a required addition to any music collection of someone with two brain cells together and an appreciation of something other than Britney Spears? Right up there with Mingus, The Beatles, Al Green, Sondheim and Stevie Wonder.
Are we talking Dionne Warwick era Burt Bacharach or Elvis Costello?
"Easy Listening" is just a childish pejorative for anything the yoof don't "get". Diss James Last and Barry Manilow by all means, but try telling me Sinatra was rubbish and I'll laugh you into an early grave.
How can you not have "heard of" pineapple and coconut? Hint - add white rum, some pineapple liqeur (if you can) and a dash of lime juice; Piña Colada, one of the modern wonders of the world.
I don't mix my own drinks! Good heavens, why else would I keep a butler?
Yes, of course. Custard cremes or bourbon cremes? Or just NICE biscuits?
By the way, you can call me Leslie if you want!
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