What a week! First week in my new job: I think the words to sum up what I think so far is that it's dauntingly wonderful. A good end to the week was meeting the M-OA trustees at their meeting and having a champagne lunch together! How very civilised! I love my job so much already it hurts.

Badminton was good as usual. Still flail about like a fool.

Last night after having arrived too late for the gig I was due to go to (see www.wupadupa.com), I ended up dancing all night in the FF Club. It's been a long time since I've enjoyed going to a club. Having beer spilt on you, your feet trodden on by stilletto heels, people knocking into you and shouting in your ear to say mundane things... perfect! I didn't care - I was too busy dancing like a real nerd (I dance like a nerd) with flailing arms and disjointed movements. I will never be a flamenco dancer. : )


BTW - after having pledged to take care of my CD purchasing habits this year due to financial constraint, and having spent January holding myself back in serene monk-like fashion (that's a lie - I had been torturing myself by walking into record shops and putting things back in pain), I was given a hefty Amazon voucher from my last place of work (!). Amazing how easy it is to spend a wodge of cash on the internet without blinking. And Amazon know it - every time I clicked to buy something, another CD would pop up as a kind of 'suggestion', and I would fall for that, too. Damn psychic computers. Anyhow, I eagerly await my stack of CDs: Flook, 'Flatfish', Vassillis Tsabrolopoulous' 'Akroasis', Ralph Towner's 'Anthem', Natalie Merchant, 'Motherland' and Faultline's 'Your love means everything'. Not to mention the second hand copy of 'Britain by Mass-Observation'... Oh, the danger.


Music this week:
Brian Eno, Music for Films III (perfect for hemming trousers to)
Oh, Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack
Flook, Rubai (still obsessed by this album...)

Films:
Nowhere in Africa (Nirgendwo in Afrika) (2001), dir. Caroline Link (German film set in WWII about a Jewish family who move from Germany to Kenya: bloody brilliant)


Tuesday 3rd February: Esbjörn Svensson Trio, Brighton Dome

EST play like a Kandinsky painting: large swathes of colour, successions of rainbows and smattering rain. Exciting to watch, and a marvel to hear. They play with passion, intensity, playfulness and sensitivity, each of them are a rare breed of musician. Esbjorn himself is reminiscent of Keith Jarrett in his playing with his nasal whinings and bent over body, feeding off the keys. I can't decide whether he has traces of Jarrett's arrogance or whether it was part of the Swedish send of humour to introduce yourself in order to get a round of applause: "And on this Yamaha, Esbjörn Svensson!". Not that one particularly cares; as with Jarrett, all is forgiven because the man makes you cry when he plays. Esbjorn makes the piano an instrument of delight by reaching inside it and banging on the strings, adjusting parts of the keyboard, using an electronic box, making strange sound effects. Wonderous. And bass player Dan Berglund playing like a rock guitarist with his bow and mucking about with his box, inteacting with the colourful tonal playing of drummer Magnus Öström, all is mesmerising. EST together create a colourful mix of rock, jazz, R&B, classical music without you realising it. Simply marvellous.