Thursday 27 September 2007

Music has charms

It's been a day when I've hurried from one thing to another, and I didn't stop working until 10.30 pm, having started at 8 am. I say stop, not finish, and I'm very grateful to the Sage for saying that I've got all weekend to type out a big valuation. It's mostly an update, but unfortunately when I transferred stuff from my old computer to this one, several years ago, some of it got corrupted or some nonsense like that (corrupted? what are they saying I made it do? Watch me in the shower? Look at pictures of naked men? Smoke small cheroots while drinking several tumblers of single malt? Pshaw.) This isn't too awful when it's only three pages to retype, but in a few weeks I've got a massive one to do, and that will have full descriptions of several hundreds of items, including where and when bought and listing damage. And the Sage appears to have promised to keep the cost to a minimum, so it's a good job I'll work for free (I am incapable of working for less than I'm worth, which is an absurdly vast sum, so I don't normally charge anything at all, which makes me bloody popular, I can tell you).

Anyway, music was required. I'm spending the week discreetly turning down the radio in the shop whenever Eileen's back is turned, and she quietly turns it back up at every opportunity. I find it hard to tune music out, so really nasty stuff hurts and even the innocuous stuff grates badly after a while, and Radio Broadland seems to go from one to the other with irritating regularity. I am mercifully alone in the afternoons and I take in my own music then, because Al has conditioned customers not to expect silence,

First, I needed soothing and Hoagy Carmichael did it nicely. I've adored him since the first time, decades ago, I saw To Have and Have Not. Bogie falling for Bacall, she having to hold her head on one side to stop from shaking and Hoagy singing about opium addiction. Don't bother with the book, by the way. Bleak.

Now, I am listening to Okkervil River. They are so damn good.

11 comments:

Dave said...

Could you not scan in the original document? That way you'll have uncorrupted text.

Rog said...

Bogie falling for Bacall? It's put a nasal related image in my mind I'm afraid.
My resistance is low.

The Boy said...

Listen to Dave, he is a wise man. Scan it, then get a piece of software that will OCR (Optical Character Recognition) it.

Pat said...

I am singing 'Oh Buttermilk sky' Can you hear me?

Monozygote said...

Yes, pi, I can hear you!

z, are you sure you don't mean Overkill River?

The Boy said...

Hmm, like Okkervil River. How do you find them?

Anonymous said...

I was about to say exactly what dave did... most good make modern scanners now have OCR software built in (mine's an HP and is now nearly 7 and had it then).

Z said...

Thanks for the suggestion of scanning, but there are too many hand-written alterations and crossings-out to the original text.

Murph, go to your basket. Now. Or you'll get some Hong Kong blues.

Did I ever tell you my father's nickname, as a young man, was Humphery Go-kart?

Pat, I can hear you. And I'm going to be mellow tonight.

Dand, you can join Murph. Bad girl.

Boy, Julie in Athens recommended them. They've got a new album out but I've only heard bits as yet as the launch in England was delayed.

mike said...

Okkervil River! I only have one song by them: "Our Life Is Not A Movie Or A Maybe", from the forthcoming album (out on Monday, they told me in the shop). It's excellent, with a chorus that slightly puts me in mind of The Ugly Duckling.

I had review tickets for their Nottingham gig, but then Manu Chao re-scheduled his gig to the same night, and so I had to make a difficult choice.

Impressed that you're listening to them on import or pre-release. How hip! And so, to mark the end of Commenting On Every Post Month Theme Month, I intend to buy a copy on Monday.

Z said...

Mike, you are the most charming man I know. And the politest too. But you won't be disappointed, I'm sure.

heybartender said...

Oh Z, you have made me very happy. I cannot say enough good things about Okkervil River and am glad that you feel the same. The b.h. and I ordered the new record from their record label, and were able to download it as soon as we paid for it.
They are playing here on Wednesday and the anticipation is nearly killing me. If you ever get a chance to see them- DO.
It's amazing how the right music can make your day, and how the wrong music can really kill one's mood, no? And since I work in a live music club, you can imagine which I get more of...
I never, ever listen to the radio. Except for NPR, which is either talk or classical or jazz in our area.