The sheeting is off the front door! The final layer of varnish has been applied! ETBF(M) did a magnificent job of bringing the glory of the wood back, and this house is going to sell in 30 seconds, and if I sound a bit upbeat and glory-filled it’s because I’m listening to the first movement of Walton’s 1st, because the Telegraph had a story about him today. He deserves more attention and apparently a new recording will help! And it will be heeded by maybe . . . a couple dozen thousand people?

But what a work it is. I was sitting outside by the fire listening to it whilewaiting for wife to return from tennis, thinking, for not the first time, that as steeped as I am in classical music, how much of it is woven into my DNA to the point where I’m at the gym and think oh sure why not, let’s work out to Mahler’s Third today - I haven’t listened to it in years, but that four-note horn tattoo that runs through the first third of the first movement drives the same cold spark up my spine and I remember it -

I still have no idea how the mind of man can create these things, but I know for sure it is the finest expression of what it means to be human.

Anyway, the Walton is just vigorous British agitation, and I was glad I found the CD in the box I was going to send to the thrift store. As I mentioned last week, there was another Hated Box that sat in the garage in the back for, oh, years, and hence was a problem because I never did anything about it. I decided to move all the CDs to coffee cans. Box 2, the final box went out today, and found more than old CDs.

But that’s for Monday. Oodds and Ends:

     
 

Imagine killing a guy named Lucas and finding out there's a very specific term for it

Or, alternately, imagine having a roommate named Lucas you absolutely hated, and coming across this in in the store.
     

 

The other day at the gas station I noticed that they were so dang proud of their new affiliation:

 

     
 

I guess that's all you have to say. The word itself conjures so many exciting gustatory possibilities you'll brake hard and swerve in.

CNN says "Flavortown is a mythical place, a state of mind, where fun and food meet in perfect harmony." A gas station, in other words. And there's more! "It's like one of those things in The Matrix: You can only get down with Flavortown if you believe in Flavortown.”

Yes, that's a comparison I would freely make and believe it was an endorsement
     

 

Saw this at Target.

 

     
 

An app-controlled fragrance emitter.

You can create scent scehdules.
     

 

App-enabled scent schedules.

Curious what the Creek and Woods looked like today? Sure. The last season here unwinds with its usual beauty. Every day the same as the day before and every day a little bit less.

 
 

 

 

  
     
     

 

 

 

 

I was coming home on a bus with John Cleese and I think Terry Jones, and the bus was heading to my house, to the surprise of some people who didn’t know I knew the Pythons. But I had just been talking about Michael Palin and Great-Uncle Harry, and noted to the guys as well that the reason the boulevard was had irregular lengths of grass was because Eric Idle and Terry Jones had been giving the gardener nonsensical directions. When we got to the house I was surprised to see that the grass had all been removed.

AI Prompt: A bus full of Monty Python members going past a yard whose grass has all been removed

Imogen model:

 

Google NanoBanana:

 

 

The sign is a nice touch, don't you think?

 

I'm sure this hinges on some obscure Brazilian law of which we have no idea.

 

 

That's based of him. Solution here.

 

The majority of this year's crops of bottom-dwellers and bubbling-unders have been disco / soul, with the occasional rocker or boring ballad.

Never heard of these guys. Well, maybe I did, but I don't remember. It's not unfamilair, though - there was a lot of this low-grade prog going in 75. I'm pretty sure the label issued a single version that didn't start with the ambient audio. If you're wondering why there was ambient audio, apparently this was a concept album, and the theme compared the circus to real life. What a brilliant idea

 

 

Wikipedia:

Down to Earth(1974), was another concept album (this time with a circus theme); it also sold well, breaking into the Top 40 album charts and including their only song to chart on the Billboard singles charts, "Astral Man".

They're still at it, although it's the usual case of a kaleidoscopic array of changing band members.

That'll do. Thanks for your patronage, and patience.