An Old Friend (Caol Ila - Connoisseurs Choice 1996)

In the review of Taichi Yamada's book "Strangers" I mentioned an old friend. So it is only fair to introduce you.

Caol Ila is a malt from Scottish Isle of Islay, & Caol Ila (Cull-eela) is gaelic for the sound of Islay. Those familiar with whiskys from this magic island will already have thoughts of peat smoke, of briny oily aromas, of that intense & pungent medicinal character from this whisky. It has all this but cutting through is a honeyed sweetness that is almost too much yet just as you think those thoughts incomes a smokiness that dries out the sweetness almost completely leaving just a slight taste on the tip of the tongue, whilst the rest of your mouth is left with a wondrous lingering peaty smoke.

Strangers by Taichi Yamada

When you meet someone for the first time, there's a formality to it, like a polite introduction.This is usually followed by a period of time where you size each other up. Am I going to like this individual, what have we in common, is there enough interest for me to put in the effort? Whether conscious of this or not, we are checking each other out ,but every now & then someone comes along that cuts right through that. Beyond the slight introduction, which you're already laughing at, because you've known each other "for like ever", the bond is instant & concrete, I believe this is the same with books/authors. Some you've been introduced to & the bond's good, a slight formality, but in a short period of time  your friends. Others, no matter the effort, no matter who introduces you - you will never bond.Then there's the one. You pick the book up, turn the page & it's like coming home, you knows this person, you understand "you get them".

Right now I am sat here with an old friend - Caol Ila (single malt whisky), contemplating what to write about a new friend. Strangers by Taichi Yamada. Within a page I was in. Within 5 pages I was accessing the on line library to order any other books of his. A synopsis of the story is middle aged man is divorced & sets up home in his office. One night feeling nostalgic he visits his old district of Asukusa and there meets a likeable old man who looks just like his long dead father. So begins his ordeal.

David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas) said "highly recommended, a cerebral haunting ghost story" & Bret Easton Ellis describes this as "an eerie ghost story written with hypnotic clarity, intelligent & haunting with passages of acute psychological insight into the relationship between children & parents".

Strangers is a stunning book. It has moments of sheer beauty with an insidious, underlying fear. This book deals with subjects such as memory, loss & the need for human touch.

What I talk about,when I talk about running

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami





I'll be honest,I needed a Murakami fix.So all though not a distance runner, I gave it a go.Absolutely loved it, full of humour, self deprecating wisdom & just insight into Murakami as a human being, as well as a writer.

Made me want to run a marathon for about 30 seconds, or the length of time it took  me pour a glass of Malt                                                                                                                             

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New Blur track

http://www.blur.co.uk/

Blur have released a new track for free download on their website.This single Fool's day was originally released as a ltd edition vinyl for record store day which is a day to promote independent music stores but, they didn't want illegal inferior  copies floating around so they've released it free.

This is the 1'st new material by the original line up since Battery in your leg, Which was the last track featuring Graham Coxon.This track was played for the first time on the Shaun Keaveny show on 6Music                                                                                                                                                                                

Ardbeg 17 year old

Around the late 1700's Ardbeg existed as an illicit  distillery at Ardbeg farm on the isle of islay,by about 1815 it was licenced to John Macdougall.It sits on the islands southern coast & the whisky writer Alfred Bernard (1880's)  wrote that" its isolation tends to heighten the romantic sense of its position".
By the 1980's due to the financial climate in the whisky industry it found itself mothballed its future uncertain.Luckily for us Ardbeg was rescued by the owners of Glenmorangie,after a considerable
struggle now finds the distillery in a position where its status is continuing to grow among the fans
of islay whiskies & the whisky lover in general.In fact Ardbeg now has quite a few versions (expressions)
of its malt, of which  the 17 y'r old is my favourite.
Whisky writer  M.Jackson said" that its colour waS Shimmering green-gold,
that on the palate it was peppery,but also sweet & that it left the taste of lemon skins
& fresh ground white pepper to linger on the tongue" & Dave Broom described it as
"gingerbread & tar,tangerines,fragrant peatsmoke,silky & smooth.So all that I will
add, is pour yourself a generous glass,,pick up that book that you've wanting to
bury yourself in,then lock the door.You don't need anything else.

Collected Love Poems by Brian Patten

Collected Love Poems by Brian Patten





This is a book full of beautiful images, of wide eyed wonder with the sheer beauty,terror of the collections subject matter.

Fantastic creatures climb off the page to converse with the reader on items as mundane or as mythical as the readers credulity,or to curl up & slowly bleed to death whilst you shout your denials.

Into my mirror has walked

A woman who will not talk

Of love or of its subsidiaries,

But who stands there,

Pleased by her own silence.

The weather has worn into her

All seasons known to me,

In one breast she holds

Evidence of forests,

In the other, of seas.

I will ask her nothing yet

Would ask so much

If she gave some sign-

Her shape is common enough,

Enough shape to love.

But what keeps me here

Is what glows beyond her.

I think at times

A boy's body

Would be as easy

To read light into,

I think at times

My own might do. 

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POMES

Pomes All Sizes by Jack Kerouac

love this little book

                                                                                                                                     

 poem

Old hornet me

would woo thee

fair, soft Sara

of the flowers;

But bee's not kind

That seeks to find,

peers too deep

shares no sleep;

And anyway'

who woos bees

What is there not to love in just this small example,this book is

part of my life.It makes me smile,makes me feel,it just makes me ?

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Michael Jacksons Malt Whisky companion 6th ed

Being this is my first ever public book review & having just got  the Malt Whisky companion I thought serendipity (or words to that effect). This is the first edition since Michael Jackson died in 2008 & has been updated by Gavin D. Smith,Dominic Roskrow & William C. Meyers.

All pledged with the intention of carrying on the great mans legacy.
If you want a book on Malts that will tell you whats lousy look
elsewhere, thats not what this is about, if you want a book to guide you
point you in the direction of a whisky to try, whether its scottish, japanese,
american or from some far flung place you'd never associate with the
dram this is your book.All the hard works been done for you if its in the book its good.
Michael believed in the addage that if its bad just don't mention it,
so when you look at the scoring system he barely marked below 60 which
is an ok malt, 80's a fantastic malt & in the 90's we are talking divine
inspiration. This book fullfills its brief admirably, it guides, you doesn't
choose for you if you want more indepth information go elsewhere, but
if you want a book to point you in the right direction this is it . It does exactly what it says on the cover.

R.i.p. Malcolm Mclaren

1976 the sex pistols wake up a sleeping grande old dame called england nodding her head gently to some ode to bach,greig,handel played on a 12 string electric guitar  whilst everything around the vicinity slowly developes a slightly gray overcoat ,a tinge of verdigris.The question of whether this wake up call was the totally malcolm's direction whether punk or the pistols was purely his idea ,is i think a mute point regardless of who instigated the band without his genius for publicity,his ability to  set the hounds of the moral righteous howling, no one would have heard of the band outside a small clique in the capital.The fact that he went on to introduce us to hiphop via his own recordings (double dutch) & then to incorporate opera ( fans) into this, just showed the scale of his interests & imagination.So regardless of what you thought of his role in punk or whether his was an original idea or one he just dressed in a different fashion that made a old lady shake herself awake & pour herself into those ripped leather trousers to strut & shake her ass, in the end it doesn't matter he was a character , a role model, a new aspiration showing us we could try it another way that we didn't need to follow the rest as long as the idea was there we could chase it & for that he deserves a mighty cheer a great hurrah to send him off .So cheers malcolm & ta.

parrish

Save 6Music( /dab internet station)

How many people have heard of 6Music, ok who likes music & by music i don't mean the generic stuff played on commercial stations or on the main bbc station. Music of a scope that could cover  the1920's thru to whats current & what you may hear in a year or two being  played by the more commercial platforms.Music that could be frank sinatra ,bessie smith, the radiophonic workshop ,the clash, bob dylan,animal collective that would run a documentary about some obscure dance genre & then  do a series on neil young or bob marley.Sounds good, then you'd better hurry because this wonderous station is being discussed nay touted for closure. Now if like myself you would like to express your dislike/disgust for this idea there is a group called  38 degrees(http://www.38degrees.org.uk/) that are organising everyone whose interested in this cause & are making it easy to state your views.So if you've heard 6music & liked what you heard, do your best, if you've not heard give them a try(www.bbc.co.uk/6music) whilst you still can & then state  the only possible view SAVE 6MUSIC

Consensus of neurons

There have been certain books that have stayed with me through my life,remaining a more constant companion than many of the people i've been in relationships with.Books that follow or walk with you that you may not read often,  but have to be somewhere close by.An example would be Crow by Ted Hughes, I may not read it for months maybe a year, but a certain frame of mind a consensus of neurons will cause Crow, to insinuate into my mind just like that thought that pops up about an old friend & then that nagging suggestion that you must make contact regardless of how distant time has made you. Every one who reads must have a book or more that fits this criteria,

What it says on the tin

Hopefully when i find my way round,this will be a place to discuss the books we like,music that soundtracks our lives & that glass of fine malt that rounds of a fine evening.

So to start this with my list of the moment its subject to change as part of life's discovery process &

my mood.

Books of the moment are or have been a journey through the works of Haruki Murakami( at the moment what I talk about when I talk about running)&The making of Scotch Whisky by John R.Hume & Michael S. Thomas.

Music I am listening to Is Tom Waits & Scott Walker.

Ardbeg 17yr old is my favourite Whisky all tho I am willing to have my mind changed by trying any others I find or am advised upon.

thanks for now.

Parrish