Yay! It's The Weekend!

Weekend Links and Updates

We started a very basic rule recently - our son Oscar is not allowed on his computer in the mornings before school. (Strong parenting!) He’s allowed his Chromebook after school and in the weekends - we even said he could wake up and go straight to the computer in the weekend. Hey, his parents do. And also he is writing horror movie recaps and ideas for TV shows and his own poems and stories. So it’s not just all YouTube and silly memes and games.

This week, Tuesday morning, he woke up more excited than usual and said, “yay, I can go on my Chromebook since it’s the weekend!” Katy and I told him, in unison, sorry buddy it’s Tuesday. He looked like he was going to cry. And has complained ever since that this week has seemed L===O===N===G. He’s not wrong there. It has seemed long. And I don’t feel like I’ve done as much writing on account of being in two Fringe Festival shows and having to set up for one of them and at least mentally prepare for the other.

But I want to give you some weekend links and updates - and I’ll find some things to share, and not just from my pen.

First up though - I was on RNZ on Thursday talking new music. And I always include the link to the segment on my Off The Tracks site after - and that’s right there for you in this newsletter in that link up there. This week I plugged the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio album - which I mentioned here in last weekend’s Links and Updates and I also talked about a new Leo Kottke record which I love (it’s duos with Mike Gordon, bassist for Phish, a somewhat unlikely pair but it works). Jesse Mulligan also kindly gave me space to plug this very Substack newsletter. And I noticed a few new signups from among the RNZ faithful - so thank you kindly and welcome new readers.

REVIEWS:

Joel Ross is a jazz vibraphonist - he’s just in his mid-20s and Who Are You? is his second album as a leader. God, it’s fantastic. Virtuoso playing from all involved and I’ve been listening to this album a lot either side of reviewing it. It was released last year and went straight to high rotate because I’d loved his debut, KingMaker and now even after penning those words about the new one I’m still listening to it a heap. I reckon it’s not just for jazz fans, I reckon it’s a great intro if you’re overall skeptical about the genre.

Willie Nelson, nearing 90, singing Frank Sinatra covers. Take my money! (Well, no one pays for music anymore, but the expression still stands. Take My Enthusiasm at the very least!) This is Willie’s second set of Sinatra covers and his second album within a few months. He’s on fire. Still. Always.

I mentioned the Melvins last week and I finally wrote up a review and look, to be honest, it’s maybe only half of a great album and half of it is silly. But I love the Melvins. So I’m on board.

It’s been a mostly bad run of DVD reviews this week - and you can check them over at Off The Tracks, I won’t link (but Bill and Ted 3 was maybe the highlight - and…I HATED IT!). The saving grace in catching up on the DVD-review pile was absoluely The Australian Dream. An astonishing documentary, frankly. A gruesome, compassionate, thoughtful and disgusting portrait of racism in Australia. The lens is Adam Goodes, legendary AFL player. But it turns the camera on the nation. You don’t need to be into sport to take something from this.

I say not many reviews this week but there are actually heaps, including a couple more jazz albums that I love. But I’ll save those for the jazz fans to investigate over at the site. So I’ll close this part off by shouting out about the latest of Neil Young’s Archives selections - a live set from the start of the Ragged Glory tour of 1990. This was previously only available as a bootleg, now it’s official. It’s Neil and Crazy Horse. Loads of feedbacks, old favourites like Cortez and Hurricane and plenty of the great Ragged Glory cuts, even some deep dives into some questionable material like T-Bone from Reactor. I love Neil Young when he’s riding the Crazy Horse. If you do too then you’ll want to hear this album.

READING:

I’m still working through a bunch of Kate Bush-related material. Yes, there’ll be a Substack newsletter about Ms. Bush soon. There’ll also be a radio feature on RNZ in a couple of weeks - so that’s the reason for all that Kate Bush love. Though what’s not to love, right?

James Blunt’s Twitter feed became famous for his witty, hilarious replies and total self-awareness. Even people that hated his music loved his tweets. That Twitter feed is now a book and it’s just as funny the second time through, or perfect if you’re not a Twitter person. I read it and reviewed it just recently.

I’m also reading The Collected Schizophrenias, a set of essays by Esmé Weijun Wang; harrowing and brilliant. I can’t plough through this even though the writing is brilliant. It’s the sort of thing you read an essay or two then pause. Take it in. This is horrorfying but her treatement of it is so humane. Important work.

WATCHING:

I’m pleased to report that Breaking Bad is getting better - AND I’m on the home straight. (Just finished S.4). So one season to go, I’ll look forward to wrapping this up. Gosh, I’m making it sound like work.

This week I have also loved watching some good movies - in and around all the terrible DVDs I reviewed. I rewatched Chinatown ahead of diving into the book I mentioned here in my first newsletter. It was so good to see it again, a near-perfect movie.

I also devoured the mini-series Lonesome Dove. So good. A classic TV mini-series.

Watched some Regular Show episodes with Oscar. My favourite of the “kids” cartoons - and I don’t even know if it’s really supposed to be for kids. Or certainly not only for kids.

And I’m mid-way through the Mia Farrow/Woody Allen doco and resisting any temptation to write any sort of commentary on it. It’s appalling. And the film itself is probably quite manipulative - but that doesn’t mean it’s inaccurate. I’m compelled to watch it - just two weeks (two eps) to go. In weekly installments on Neon. What a grim story. No one wins in any way at all. There is no victory to be had with this documentary. (Did I say resisting the urge to comment? Ooops).

LISTENING:

No new podcasts for me this week - just loving The Adam Buxton Podcast, Marc Maron’s WTF, The KingCast (Stephen King stuff) and Conan O’Brien. All the usuals. Did some big walks, so got a lot of episodes in.

Billy Nomates released a brand new EP and on first listen it’s fantastic. I’m yet to review her self-titled debut but will. She is brilliant. And I’m a huge fan. I reckon everyone should check her out.

Also fell right back into crashing out with Max Richter’s full 8-hour SLEEP album on. I drift in and out to various segments of it. I sometimes start it halfway through so that I can drift off at a different part. It’s just sublime. A lifesaver. A lifechanger. A life-enhancer.

LINKS:

Sweetman Podcast # 247 - Talia Marshall - loved meeting Talia and having this chat. It’s awkward at times, but I think we made a connection. She’s a star in the making. And so it felt like a good time to be talking to her. Her writing is incredible and there’s lot of great mentions of books and authors to check out.

David Farrier’s Webworm - this needs no plug from me, but David Farrier’s Substack newsletter is a ripper. I recently signed up to the fully paid tier having been a free-email sign-up only for a while. Content. Merch. The works. He’s doing great work and his Substack is an inspiration to any of us trying at the platform I’m sure. Certainly I’m watching it with interest.

This amazing article about Shelley Duvall - I’ve shared this already on most of my social channels but if you haven’t yet checked this out this is a sad and amazing story. A great piece of writing about a talented actor that is now very reclusive. Intriguing.

I’ve bombarded you with links and content this week - and if it’s too much you can say so. If it’s not enough you can also say so.

We are two shows through our Ethersonic Fringe Festival performance at Meanwhile Gallery - those two shows were last night. We have two to do tonight. It was great fun and I’m sure tonight will be too.

Many years ago - long before Oscar was born - I woke up one day and said with much enthusiasm to Katy, “yay! It’s the weekend!” And, yep, you guessed correctly, it was a Tuesday.