I was in the HMV shop opposite Bond Street tube, shortly after this bloke Butler's works had been recommended to me.  I was flipping idly through the composers section, and found Butler, M between Busoni, F and Buxtehude, D.  I took up American Rounds to browse and I became aware of a uniformed thug smirking at me over the rack. 

"Anything you're looking for?" he purrs.  A rash question for a security officer to ask in the classical section of HMV as if any of you bunch are around he is likely to get a pretty recherché reply.  Lacking the wit to say forcefully "I see you haven't anything by Richard Barrett"
(they hadn't) I murmured that I was OK, replaced the CD nervously and attempted to leave the show room with dignity and the clear sense that I was not a shoplifter.  I am not sure I succeeded.

I hope if Butler, M ever hears of this, he will appreciate that HMV regard his works as prime material for being shoplifted and consequently requiring particularly intensive surveillance.

Morning.  Had to share what's been making me giggle this morning.

Last week I ripped my "Puccini Experience" CD to stick onto my MP3 player, along with the downloadable track names.

It contains, among other things, the aria "Senza Mamma" from that well-known opera, "Sour Angelica"

I have been discussing this with a friend this morning and we have come to the conclusion that Sour Angelica is one of the following:

a series of books for girls
a specialist cake-decorating ingredient
a lesbian punk rock group

I've had a very satisfying lunch break...

Went to pick my boots up from the cobbler.  He's done a lovely job on my boots (heels, toes and soles).  He's a lovely bloke - one of those people who reminds you that it's worthwhile supporting independent local businesses.

Returned to work to find a parcel from Play.com on my desk, containing the Thielemann "Parsifal" recording I ordered after seeing its bargain price mentioned on t'other place.

Unstuck a colleague's mental block and jointly completed the Times crossword.

And had an email through from John Lewis, following an earlier phone call, which should sort out the issue of needing to get my fridge repaired under warranty but having lost the receipt.

There used to be a chap like that in Brandon, near where I worked. An absolute lifesaver in a crisis. Esp. given the price of a good pair of shoes.

I once worked in-between jobs for a friend of a friend who was a cobbler: I never achieved great ability at such things, but he appreciated my people skills. He'd been a member of the Chelsea Shed in his time, and still had a reputation as a hard man. He'd just bought the business outright from a former partner with whom he'd fallen out, and was looking for a new name for it when I started. Although he really liked my suggestion ("Stick the Boot in Cobblers, Ltd") it was eventually decided that it was perhaps just too reminiscent of his previous existence...

It is fun to play percussion instrument. I once played triangle. It was not easy to count and at first the other percussionist had to tell me my entrances. I had such a good time when I got hang of it.
What kind of drum did you play? May be it was crash cimbles?

t-p, I have played crash cymbals, in a piece by Nikolaus A. Huber called Seifenoper.

I'm afraid I turned one of them inside out. 

I did also play the top part of Varèse's Ionisation a year and a bit ago. That was probably my finest percussion moment. Unless it was playing in Mikrophonie I a couple of months ago.

But today I was one of three people sitting around an amadinda (that's a picture of one up there), two of whom were running almost all over it while I merrily belted at the top two bars in a relatively simple rhythm.

Triangle is much too hard for me. It keeps running away.

I've had several fun percussion moments. One of the best was playing the bass drum and cannon parts in the 1812 Overture (no cannon, so just harder thwacks on the bass drum). Not great music, but great fun. And very, very loud indeed.

But my favourite was Balakirev's First Symphony: bass drum again, in the Scherzo.  The part said "ff SOLO" (honest!), so that's how I played it in the rehearsal.  I found out later that in the score it's merely f, with no solo marking.  So the conductor (a friend of mine) stopped and said: "Bass drum: ominous, not apocalyptic."

Also fun was playing timps in Brahms 1, with very hard, leather-headed sticks for the concluding pages (and most of the rest of it too). For those who think Brahms is dull, I can recommend playing this part!