Bucking The System- More Of Scott Evans

Can i ever buck the system? It's not easy, but i'd love to.
Another lovely little film by Scott's son Red Evans. Seems like a great family.

A Very Pleasant Sunday

Went to see The Delines play at the Green Door Store in Brighton last night. Firstly, it was nice to go to a Sunday night gig, it was a beautiful sunny evening drive to get there, listening to that fantastic Mark Kozelek album, Benji, on the way. It reminded us both of our road trips before the kids. We both agreed Benji would be perfect for desert driving! Being as it was Sunday the roads were quiet and parking was easy and just a couple of mins from the venue.

The Delines are Willy Vlautin's (Richmond Fontaine) new band, one where he isn't the main singer. He's left that to the brilliant Amy Boone (The Damnations). All the band are great and with Sean Oldham on drum duty, you can't go wrong. Their album Colfax is already sounding like a classic. Here's a good review of the album and a review of one of their London gigs. Willy writes amazing songs. There was also such a lovely vibe on stage between the band, you could really tell this was a new project and they were all loving it. Even at the last gig of their tour here, no weariness on show!

The album has only just been released in the US and now they're off to tour it there. You guys are in for a treat. Go find where they are playing near you and get a ticket. These recent shows are now popping up on youtube, so go have a listen to some of their live shows.

As a bonus they even did a cover of a Dolorean track (why don't more people know about Dolorean?), What one bottle can do. Who covers Dolorean?? .... Well, these guys do and it fits perfectly.

Quick nod to the fantastic bass player, Freddie Trujillo and also great keyboard and trumpet by Cory Gray (I think I need to get a bit more trumpet action!) 

The new tracks they played gave a hint at an equally great follow up album, expect more trumpet and flavour!

Great gig, lovely evening and nice to hang out in Brighton for a bit. I rounded off the day with an excellent chicken shawarma!... and the voice of kozalek all the way home. Perfect.

Secret Agent Gadget Battle

The Third book in the Nick & Tesla series, which came out last month. I forgot to post anything about it. These are my favourite pieces from it and i've enjoyed thinking in just the two colours.

The books include actual science projects you can make
and that the kids use in their adventures

A Handmade Home with Scott Evans

DAD

Happy Fathers Day Dad! (and all you other Dads out there, keep up the good work!)

I can still remember quite clearly sitting for this, late 70's, Flatford Mill (setting for John Constable's Hay Wain)

The Fatigue Of The Long Distance Runner

This is what i feel every day... and i don't run! (At least it's what i imagine it would feel like, only i don't get any of those health benefits, just the fatigue).

Damn these mysterious, invisible conditions which descend on so many of us. Could be a million things, could be anything, guesswork, stick a pin in and take a stab at it. How do you pin it down? where do you start? GP's are as much use as the internet, "take it easy, relax, take a warm bath, drink warm milk at bedtime" is this the 21st century? Mask it with pharmaceuticals? throw them in the mix, spit them out into the system, pollute the water, drug the landscape. Who has time to chase ghosts? try acupuncture, reflexology, kinesiology, a myriad of different things? something might work, all of them might not. Should you try anyhow? pursuing ghosts, magical solutions. Or am i just lazy? is it all in my head? there's a lot in there, why not? Try and ignore it? plough on, try and run it off, keep on running... I am the long distance runner.

Drape me in a foil blanket and hang a medal around my neck.

Joyless Cooking... That Can't Be Good.

On the food theme, i read an interesting article over on one of my favourite blogs Root Simple last week, do click the link and have a read. It was discussing narrowing down the range of food we cook to make shopping, store cupboards and home grown crops more harmonious. This way ingredients would work together better and leftovers can easily become something new. It also talks about planning meals for the week, but with some degree of flexibility within that structure.

I really need to take some of this on board. I can't even begin to tell you how bored i am with the whole notion of family cooking these days. I dread figuring out "what's for dinner?" I used to love cooking, but once the kids were added to the mix, the joy soon got sucked away. From hating the double meal shift when they were babies and dreaming of when we all could just eat the one meal. well, they're 6 and 7 now and i still dream of that! I have the added benefit of Jakki having lost her sense of smell/taste since having the kids/moving into the house (we can't tell which was the factor?!). Anyway, i try the one meal fits all, but all i get is the kids complaining as i cook and worse once it hits the table, along with Jakki telling me "well, it looks nice", but can't actually taste anything (bless her). So, what's the point? Add to this the daily standing in the kitchen wondering what to make and then heading to the shops and standing in the aisle still wondering what to make. Seriously i lose the will to live some days!! : ) ...i think i'm kidding.

I'm going to try fixing meals to days. I think Jakki thinks it will be boring to just keep having the same meals on rotation, but i think it's just good sense. We'd waste far less food, i wouldn't need store cupboards covering so many possibilities (Indian, Thai, Italian, Greek Mexican etc) and i'd save myself the painful kitchen 360's i constantly turn as my brain wanders aimlessly over what will cause me the least grief. Who would guess food could have got so complicated? I can't actually remember the last thing i cooked that i actually really, really wanted to eat.
I'd love any comments/ideas too. I can't buy a comment these days... well, apart from a very small few (thanks you few!)