The Felipe II Blues

It's January!

It didn't work last time but what the heck: Happy New Year.

I sure enjoyed these extracts from Alan Bennett's 2022 diary.

Loving Happy Valley Series 3 so far. Sarah Lancashire is amazing.

I'm also grooving to Marie Antoinette on BBC TWO. It goes from gosh-lush to wobbly hand-held sparse/Wolf Hall-esque production values and back again. And Emilia Schüle is great.

I enjoyed Series 1 of The Boys on Amazon and I'm a late convert to Two Doors Down ("See the woman that got in that taxi? - I just shagged her.")

If you like Chuck Berry and you haven't seen this 1972 BBC concert - you now what to do (available for 20 days on i-player as I type).

Spanish brandy: an amigo has recommended Felipe II - but you can't buy it in Glasgow. Boo.

Cheese of the week = Hebridean Blue.

"Merry Christmas, Don Camillo" includes stories from Giovanni Guareschi's time as a POW:

I am writing music for a thing I can't tell you about. 

Still sketching away in stolen moments...