"Can I Get Up? - "Just A Minute"

Stuff I've been enjoying.

*clears throat*

First off, I would recommend this documentary to everyone and anyone:

...moving and funny and sad. I know a lot of people rate "Grey Gardens" but personally I am not a fan. To me it feels exploitative of mental health; an ageist sneer. "Tosca's Kiss" is the antithesis.

I watched the BBC TV production of "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" for the fist time in light years..

...a great futuristic trip down memory lane. I remember recording it every week on on VHS only to forget to tape the sixth and last episode. D'oh! Re-watching it also led me to this (Simon Jones will forever be Arthur Dent).

This doc about Play For Today was another nostalgic watch. Wasn't Dennis Potter great?

"Us" quietly tore my heart out. Actor Tom Hollander's Life In The Day piece for The Sunday Times is almost as amusing:

The Trump Show (two episodes thus far) is a watchable recap of the frog-boiling inanity to which we have been normalised. I do wish he'd tried to take the presidential office oath with his hand placed on The Art Of The Deal instead of The Bible....

Also: 

Season 7 of Brooklyn Nine Nine...Season 2 of Schitt's Creek...all 3 x Hotel Transylvania films (helps if you have kids). No spoilers, but I was reminded of how much I like this:

Also, I keep listening to different versions of this...

Oh and I just spotted that "Hayman's Way" is on STV player featuring my music. Hooray.

Arrivederci x

And The Men That Were Boys When I Was A Boy Shall Sit And Drink With Me

I previously blogged about playing in Brazil and crossing paths with Pedro Montenegro. Pedro asked me to cover a song from Paul Bryan's album "Listen Of" for his show on Soho Radio. Well... here t'is:

I've also previously blogged about Laura Cantrell too, of course. I loved her on-line gig for Fallen Angels Glasgow Americana festival. 

A post shared by Francis Macdonald (@francismacdonald) on Oct 3, 2020 at 12:17pm PDT

Hearing Laura sing Diamonds & Rust (written by Joan Baez about Bob Dylan) was a highlight.

I like this poem "Failing And Flying" by Jack Gilbert.

I'm watching and enjoying "Us". Maybe *I* should blinkin' well write my own comedy drama.

I liked Limmy's Other Stuff.

Ah, now *adjusts glasses*... Norman Blake will be tweeting about "Songs From Northern Britain" for Tim's Twitter Listening Party on Sunday 1st November at 10pm. Since you didn't ask: this is the only Fanclub album on which I have an actual co-write. I wasn't in the band at the time, of course. Me and Norm came up with the music for "Planets" while he had an acoustic guitar and I was sat at either a Wurlitzer or a Clavinova in his gran's house in Bellshill. I'm claiming the Cmaj-B7 chord progression at the start of the chorus. Normski wrote the words later on. This was supposed to be a song for a single on my label Shoeshine, under the name Frank Blake but Normanzo wanted to keep it for SFNB. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

I devoured this:

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A post shared by Francis Macdonald (@francismacdonald) on Sep 27, 2020 at 2:37am PDT

What a band they were.

Now I am reading and enjoying this:

"...singing together dances joyfully ahead of polite introductions and tentative conversations, and scatters primrose petals on the paths of dalliance."

You can order it here.

I watched Onward with the kids. Two thumbs up. Also re-watched "Monsters University",  "Inside Out" and "101 Dalmatians" (1961).

I wonder if this makes anyone else nostalgic?:

See ya,

Wouldn't wanna be ya. x