Jonathan Ross made a great TV Series a few years back called Japanorama. Its a classic BBC Documentary well paced, enjoyable and informative – one of my favourite subjects too. The series highlights a few popular Japanese exports and customs and offers nothing more than Ross’ irreverent commentary and a brief introduction- no silly camera work, no ground breaking mysteries for a team to tantalisingly uncover within a loud introduction (then dragged out for 25mins, talking to you Horizon!) just fine TV. Hope the BBC come out with a box-set someday, I’ll buy it.

Meanwhile, Japanorama is available on YouTube and on Guba.com where you can watch all of series two.

Until today I’d never bought 3 albums by the same artist in one day, but I just have to hear more of Laura Cantrell. This isn’t supposed to be a review- there’s really not a lot to say, here’s the title track from her latest download-only E.P. Trains and Boats and Planes she is my all-new (all new genre for me) favorite contemporary country singer. Don’t you love her voice? For me – its sound of apparent experience that hit home… although an album of mostly covers, I believe every expression from her, every twangy note and its not in an obvious weapy Christina Agulera “oh i’m so sad, so i’ll sing with a mopey voice in this verse, and now i’m happy again in this verse so i sing with a smile” which has confused most popular music (and most contemporary listeners) into believing slow means sad, twangy means uncultured, leonard cohen means suicide.

Of particular note (on the believability of performance chart) ‘Roll Truck Roll’, lyrics from her previous album, a song is written from the perspective of a Trucker’s wife- singing…. to the truck. The truck that she prays will safely bring her man back home, she sings with such an urging but not at all tiresome voice;

Roll, truck, roll
Bring my baby back to me
I’m gettin’ tired of waiting, and I’m much to lonely
Use those 18 wheels and all the speed you can muster
Roll him on home

Those are classic country lyrics to me but it feels so fresh and real from Cantrell. The next track (another re-working of her older work Cantrell’s- ‘Big Wheel’) she sings;

I feel like a big jet plane
I’ve gotta’ get in the sky,
I’ve gotta’ give it up real high,
I’ve gotta fly

Bland stuff, no? NO! Not at all, she expresses all that is dreary and southern dustbowl / one-horse-town-ish about this lyric she deeply understands. You can hear the genuine tiresome widow to the road in ‘Roll Truck Roll’ without pretense. The title track ‘Trains and Boats and Planes’ (written by Burt Bacharach) is really special in my mind and this recording does a particularly good job of capturing the spirit and thread of this ‘concept’ album. Her version has become one of my all-time favorite covered songs, its simple and raw, the mandolin is perfect.

You are from another part of the world,
You had to go back a while and then
You said you soon would return again.
I’m waiting here like I promised to.
I’m waiting here but where are you?

There’s meat too- ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’ which I think would sound great in an gruff Irish drinking shanty type voice is not reduced to weepyness by Cantrell’s light Emmylou Harris-esque’ voice, the lyrics still have power and the instrumental is on a Fairport Convention level that suits me just right. So different to Fairport’s ‘Sailors Life’ but thematically and emotionally on the same level.

Maybe this E.P. is thematically in the right place for me at the moment, but I think I’m going to enjoy the rest of her albums when they arrive. Check out: Laura’s Website, Diesel Only Records Read On »

We only saw one lake in reality… not counting the beauties I spotted from the plane. Lake Como is an hour’s train journey North of Milan, where me and Bill spent a few days earlier this month taking it easy wandering around and pointing at nothing in particular, jumping off the train at Como the first impression is of a gorgeous built-apon, fairly ancient gem of an Italian hillside town. Yet the town is sprawling– from what we saw it does extend a great deal- wraps its cobbled streets and meandering paths around a lake, zig-zagedly up a hillside and across the other side (I’m talking of Brunate and the other villages that share Lake Como). Its colours are Gold and Amber and on a warm Autumn day it was like an Italian Tourist Board dream. Stepping off the train from Milan at 12 noon the bells of all the nearby churche bells began to rang, a grand Duomo poked out from behind a large pillared hall, around another corner an ancient and decrepit church tower, there’s a Funicular railway up into the hills and a ferry service over to the outlying parts of town- Como is a dream. Read On »

Apple Store, Glasgow is very nice and shiny. Staff were helpful and things were mactastic to the ninth level… had a shot of an iPod Touch (yikes, quite a drop in quality from its big brother the iPhone). Like good little consumerists making the pilgrimage we left with little white bags (but no receipts; apple e-mail you a receipt “y’know for the planet” is how the saleslady explained it). Got a Bluetooth Mighty Mouse and Bill grabbed some CDs, continuing on the silly-vain I changed the demo ‘touches to run you tube videos of billy being silly, and there’s billy being silly above also. what a kid.

Anyway nice place. Just wanted to mention it here. See what an image looks like in the site’s new styling really… la-di-dah.