“The heart of a father is the masterpiece of nature.” – Antoine François Prévost
Hello all
Normally my man cave is a women free zone unless, under invite, it’s my little sanctuary where I can get away from the two women in my life, but today I will forgive this little invasion, look what I found in the Man Cave this morning. From my little angel for father’s day. Along with some lovely treats, 2.5l Jug of New Forest Traditional Farmhouse Cider, blocks of Winchester Mature Cheddar, Galic & Nettle Chedder and a jar of New Forest Snake Catcher Chutney, what else does a man need.
I also treated myself this week, I have had the Marantz MKII CD52, since 1992, it has served me well, I lost the remote a long time ago. I have been looking into a replacement for a while, and I narrowed it down to two models, Cambridge Audio CXC or Audiolab 6000CDT, both are £380 new. These are CD transporters and not CD players and need to be connected to an external DAC. So the last month or so I have been looking for a 2nd hand one, and finally bagged a 12-month-old Audiolab 6000CDT for £250. Some of you may be thinking I am mad, and that CD is dead but isn’t that what they said about vinyl and with me still being a physical media type of guy, I still buy CD. I have one come in this week, and expecting another today.
I set it up and plugged it into my Lindemann USB-DAC 24/192, wow, let me tell you people CD is very much alive in the woman free, old man cave.
How the tables have turned, years ago my dad, rest his soul, used to shout up the stairs, “turn that crap down”, nowadays my 21-year daughter phases a bit different, ” Dad turn that music down”.
Oh well, Happy father day to you all, and lets not forget those mother’s who double up as both.
My music listening has been affected by Euro 2020 and I have taken control of the TV in the front room for a month. I started the week listening to the 2004 debut album by Donavon Frankenreiter, which went done well in the heat we were having over here, and as it was hot decided to listen to some reggae, and I wrote a new label called Reggae Archive Records in Reggae Vibe 5.
Friday night I also popped into Sounds of the Suburbs record store and picked up a nice copy of John Holt – 1000 Volts Of Holt.
Before the big game I decided to calm down to Sade – Diamond Life on vinyl, well after a disappointing result and much shouting at the TV, to my wife’s amusement, and emotionally drained, England struggle again Scotland, the light went off in the man cave and decided to drink my sorrows away with a bottle of red from Lisbon, Portugal and listen to Adele – 21 on vinyl.
My copy of The Specials – Ghost Town 12″ Limited Edition, Half-Speed Remastered done at Abbey Road Studios, turned up. I have got to give a big heads up to Lee at Revealrecords.co.uk, the record turn up well packaged at a good price, but they also throw in some goodies, a nice little coaster, a handwritten note thanking me for my order, and recommending to me reggae bands Black Uhuru, and Culture, it turns out Two sevens clash by Culture is Lee’s favourite album of all time, nice.
One other goodie they gave me was a CD called Have You Heard? (Reveal Records) a 2021 compilation album of songs from Reveal Records artists, not heard it yet, but have added them to my Bandcamp wishlist, and I will use this company again.
Have already mention Reggae Archive Records, the album Corrupted Society by Eclipse turned up, and have given it one spin in the new Audiolab 6000CDT, first impression is that they have done a great job, with what they have had to work with, I also enjoyed reading the liner notes.
My wife and I got our 2nd Covid jab Saturday morning, was hoping I didn’t suffer the side effect that sends you back in time, I don’t think I could watch that England V Scotland game again, but all fine here. Also had to drop my Irish mother law off at the hairdresser’s, so the in-car music was Amy Winehouse – Back To Black, mother and daughter both liked this and I could play it at a certain level but because they had to talk had to turn it down again, but once both these talk too much women left the car, you know the rules, the volume went up.
Saturday evening had a little bit of time on my hands and I went all the way back to where it began for me, with one of the first albums I brought, The Beat – I Just Can’t Stop It on Vinyl, this still sounds great.
As Euro 2020 is still being played in 2021. Being half Spanish has its advantages in the past when it came to these sort of competitions, what with me being born 9 months after England last won a major competition, ( I will let you lot work that one out, but it’s quite a funny story how my English dad met my Spanish mum in Notting Hill Gate), so I may have been conceived, but England have not won a major tournament in my lifetime, but Spain is the only national team with three consecutive major titles, becoming the first European team to win a FIFA World Cup outside of Europe in 2010, as well as the only team to win back-to-back European Championships in 2008 and 2012.
But things are not going to plan, yer England won their first game, a good win against Croatia, but they should have beaten Scotland and were poor, and to be honest Scotland were the better team.
As for Spain, they are not the team they were, but how the hell can a team with 86% possession, not win a game, watching them is hard work as well, pass, pass, pass and another pass, oh my.
My spaghetti eating brother in law Fred is the lucky one, born in England, Spanish mum, Italian dad, he has 3 teams, and the Italians look good, scoring goals for fun.
Well, that’s it for this week, going to look into my family tree am sure we have a bit Dutch in there somewhere, got a Ukrainian uncle, but they are not going to win it, and Argentina cousins but they are not in Europe.
My English dad would call us all bloody foreigners, and he would say it was like having dinner with the United Nations.
Always thinking of you dad, happy fathers day, rest in peace.
Stay safe all, and have a good week.
Oh, I also listened to the below, on my way to work.
I have always been putting together these playlists, I normally make up a playlist from a variety of different music genres and see if they fit together. So lately I have restricted myself to the albums I have posted about and have decided to share them with you, as we did in the old days with tapes
The only way I can think of sharing playlists these days is with something like Spotify, so above is some of what I have been listening to this week.
