Christopher's Online Journal

Yesterday I received a personal delivery from Mark Merifield, of Off the Beaten Tracks fame. He brought me songs and instrumentals by Adrianne Lenker, which I found on the OTBT website in a way that I wouldn't have found anywhere else. Top marks Mark. I also began my dream journal, where I captured a couple of dreams which would otherwise have been lost. Both times, at the instant of waking, I thought oh no, no dreams to record. But fortunately, within a couple of seconds, the details, of what at first seem like pretty insignificant occurrences, came to me. Only time will tell, but as these are the first entry they will always hold a special place, perhaps also because Richard, who I was best man for nearly fifty years ago, made an appearance. I had, the previous evening, entered what I thought to be a few notes about my day just gone, along with an intention for my dream. I have to say that I don't yet see any correlation between the before and after experiences. One of the d...

  I have been a fan of Apple ever since Steve Job's introduced me to the Luggable Macintosh in the 1980'S. Yet, for all that I have loved the iPod, the iPad, the iPhone, the iMac and all the variants of MacBooks, it is another Apple creation which gifts me joy day after day. Playlists on iTunes has been my go to place to be surprised by songs picked out from our 19,000+ record collection. Yesterday's high-spot tune was Second Lover by Noah and the Whale, generated from my The Mountains Goats song You or Your Memory . We came by Noah and the Whale via Johnny Flynn who we saw at a Summer Sunday event in Leicester in 2008 or 2010. He gave us a sampler disk, which took us to him big time. The festival line ups, we were later to learn, were part organised by our own record store here in Louth, that being Mark Merrifield's Off the Beaten Tracks. Mark says that my  music purchases are among the most eclectic of any of his customers. Eclectic being the w...