Happy Christmas - thanks for reading
It is Christmas Eve and as you read this I am at work. You might be too - or perhaps you have finished for the year, or more impressively perhaps you never started.
I've looked over the last two years of the life of this blog and seen that I have posted something on Christmas Eve - so I figure why break the tradition?
We've had some great debates this year - and I feel like the last two months of this blog, particularly, have been engaging for readers. I'm not patting myself on the back here - I mean this as a reader of the blog too - remember I read all your comments and reply when I figure I have something (more) to say.
I'll be finishing my job-job today - for a break. But I'll continue to work in some capacity...I am having a holiday but I have some projects on the go. And - weekends and stat-days aside - I will continue to post some topics for you to read and react to. I'm aware numbers will be down so I will post a range of things - some serious, some not so much - and I'll hopefully save the really good stuff (if there is any?) for mid-January onwards...
Who knows, I may have to resort to telling you about the time I was convinced I could play the drum groove to 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover as on the record...I will certainly have an interview or two for you to read (like the one I did last week with Warren Ellis; he of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Grinderman and of course The Dirty Three).
There will be one or two interviews for me to do over the break (really looking forward to a chat next week with Dean Wareham) and I will be writing up my interview with John Paul Jones for a Dominion Post feature that will run mid-January.
I'll have a few CD reviews to write for North and South and the newspaper - and if you are wanting to check out some other material I've been involved with you can listen to Grant Smithies and me on Boxing Day as part of Radio NZ National's Music 101 show (see here for background).
The Dominion Post will also be running a feature I wrote for their summer magazine documenting the 10 Best Gigs of 2009 - we might then turn that into a blog-topic. Could be a goer, don't you think?
So I'll be keeping busy - I'll have a stack of books that I will aim to read through including Paul Shaffer's memoir and the novel The Secret History (been on my reading list for years; I'm told by a reliable source that it is a great holiday read). And I will probably take about twice as many books away with me as I will need - then buy at least two more books while away. (This always happens.)
I am looking forward to watching the Blu-Ray version of Jeff Beck's Ronnie Scott's gigs. I have been instructed to take Singstar home with me - so yes this will probably get another run-through (no filming this time). And I will probably do something stupid like listen to all of Paul McCartney's solo albums in a row - just so I can blog about it...
But this is all music stuff. And though that's the point of Blog on the Tracks and often might seem like the point of my life - it is just a wee part of me.
I'll also be having a holiday from work and catching up with loved ones.
So all of that other stuff above is probably what you already knew about it - or could have guessed. Here is some stuff you may not have known (and of course you might not have wanted to):
I will be celebrating my fourth year married to Katy - she is my best friend, my harshest critic and the love of my life. She is also the best writer in our house (but then you probably did know that part - her own blogging is somewhat sporadic but do click here to see what she gets up to from time to time in the blogosphere).
My brother will be joining the land of the married people - and he is a very lucky man.
On Christmas Day I will get to hang out with my nephew/Godson Liam. As well as most of the rest of the family.
On Boxing Day I will drink a crate of beer.
I will get to see some of my best mates - friends that anyone would be lucky to have.
And I will - for a day or two - do next to nothing at all.
But there will be blogs; there will always be blogs. And I hope some of you stick with me over the break...
I have enjoyed your input this year - and in some cases, for some of you, the other years too.
Merry Christmas to you and yours...
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Was all going well... I almost even had a tear in my eye... until I got to the "crate of beer".
A crate of beer has all the soul nutrition of manufactured pop - one star Sweetman. No wonder no microbrewery can survive in "The Bay" (even if one of them was genius).
Anyway, it's been fun - have a great (and safe) Christmas. Still looking forward to that BOTT party... email me in the new year. In the meantime, do yourself a favour and take a few six-packs of Tuatara for Boxing Day.
To all the readers... a few of you have put me onto something new this year, or reminded me of something old... The rest have entertained me. Thank you. Have a good one.
Slainte mhath Stu... as "Stu"
@ Stu as "Stu" - apologies, I know that must have turned your stomach in much the same way as a certain version of Toxic did but it's called "Crate Day" not "Micro-Brewery Day".
The Party is going to happen - more on that in the new year.
Thanks Simon, hope you have a fantastic holiday season. Been great reading your blog this year, as always. Take care
Cheers for the link Simon, the musical advent calendar I have been sending to friends had been getting a few requests for that and I didn't feel like using the original, and even better it's Billy Bragg!
Have a good Christmas / New Year, Simon and everybody else here. Thanks Simon for breaking the age old rule "never bag NZ music because it is good no matter how bad it is".
Top year Simon. Seasons Greetings and enjoy that crate.
Have a good Xmas etc. I still enjoy reading, especially the regulars, and like the fact that people still bite when you criticise. I find it amusing. I don't bite when you criticise Muse (whose album i loved!), so I laugh when FFD fans get so upset. Have fun everyone, and i really look forward to the John Paul Jones interview. I think his importance to Led Zeppelin is often underated, and Them Crooked Vultures wouldnt be the same without him.
P.S. Muse rock you pr#$k!
Always knew you were a sentimental sod - that'll learn the people who say yer nothin' but a musical scrooge.
May e-coli not visit your home, may your hangovers be minimal, may screaming children scream on key [not on John Key, though]. Happy Christmas.
Merry Xmas Simon, really enjoyed your blog and all the responses this year, it's tuned me into a lot of new music, so thanks everyone.
I must say I was never disillusioned enough to think I could play 50 ways. It makes me feel pretty inadequate. Back when I was in school I walked into the music room one day and this fifteen year old boy was playing that funky march like he was Steve Gadd's nephew, bastard.
Have a good Xmas and New Year all.
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Yeah cheers Simon! Enjoyed reading your blogs but enjoyed reading people's reactions the most, specially when you wrote something that upset them (which seemed to be quite often ...!)
I'm still hanging on to slim hope that 2010 will bring out a new NZ rock band ... a band that breaks the mould. I don't think we really need more dub/roots or DnB bands so a hard, original rock band will be nice to see.