It's September Weekend in Glasgow...

Last night I saw Beethoven's 9th Symphony performed by the BBC SSO at the City Halls in Glasgow. It was amazing.

In another rare live cultural outing I saw the powerful plays "Eve" by Jo Clifford and "Adam" by Frances Poet at the Citizen's Theatre. Yay for the rights of transgenders, asylum-seeking refugees and transgender asylum-seeking refugees - and for skilled playwrights to tell their stories.

Last week I caught "God's Own Country". If James Herriot wrote Brokeback Mountain. Not really. But it was beautiful; skilled, nuanced filmmaking.

This looks interesting from Bob. Speaking of which I caught Paul Greengrass introducing "Forever Young" on Desert Island Discs as a song for parents and their children and...well...let's just say I'm glad I wasn't wearing any mascara.

Talking of songs I am running an evening class in Songwriting at Glasgow University from Sept 28th. For those whop have never written a song, want to write better songs, or want to get different perspectives on songwriting. Info and registration here.

Tinkety-tonk, old fruit, and down with the nazis!

"My Little Stick Of Blackpool Rock..."

Robert Forster was brilliant at Monorail last week promoting the wonderful "Grant And I".

As a birthday treat, for one night only, I visited Blackpool (blame Alan Bennet and The League Of Gentlemen).

They don't write them like that anymore.

The illuminations were on as were the World Fireworks Competition (I caught Poland's entry). I went up the Tower and ate fish and chips. There were ads for Duncan "chase me"  Norvelle,  Paper Lace and Cannon & Ball.

And that were that.

I recently provided the 'music' for an Old Spice ad. Never got to meet Von Miller though...

I saw Detroit and God's Own Country (subtle, effective use of music in the soundtrack) and would recommend both.

Now to give Funland a go...

Ta-ra.

Excessive Rewards

I keep listening to this....

I have decided that Roger Moore was my favourite Bond.

Glad I finally saw "The Beat That My Heart Skipped".

This is a powerful film...

Randy Newman's "Dark Matter" would be a brilliant return to form if he wasn't always on form. Here's a very good podcast interview.

And here is a wee piece that I heard and dug recently; by Maestro Bernstein:

Meanwhile among the higher echelons of musical culture, I liked this tweet about my music for Cash Trapped...

A post shared by Francis Macdonald (@francismacdonald) on Aug 24, 2017 at 5:59am PDT

Apparently Bill Eggleston is releasing an album of music.

I met him once in Memphis. Here I am smiling through my terror...

A post shared by Francis Macdonald (@francismacdonald) on Aug 11, 2014 at 2:06am PDT

And I'll leave it there. As Master Sun says, "Excessive rewards are a sign of desperation."