RT his own self

[calimac]

Last weekend I spent in virtual Oxford attending a Tolkien conference. This week I went virtually to a studio in a business park in outer London for a live solo concert by the legendary singer-songwriter-guitarist Richard Thompson. One paid in advance and got a link by e-mail, and the video and audio were of excellent close-up quality.

This was one of a series of online concerts that Thompson is giving, and this one's theme was his early years in the late 1960s in the band Fairport Convention. That's an old favorite of mine, so that's why I picked this concert. His selections included about half each of the Fairport albums Liege and Lief and Full House, mostly songs he didn't originally sing himself, but since Sandy Denny and Dave Swarbrick are no longer with us, he'll have to do it.

RT particularly thrilled me by adding, from his first solo album, "The Poor Ditching Boy," which is the title I'd submitted at his all-requests show that I attended a few years ago, and which he didn't happen to pull out of the bucket. Well, I got it this time. I am happy.

Further happiness came at dinnertime with my first attempt to take cooking instructions from YouTube. B. had sent me a link to a video aimed at "young Indian individuals" new to cooking on "How to Cook Every Indian Dish Ever." Though I am none of those things (neither young, Indian, nor living as an individual), I was intrigued. I copied down these instructions, bought the couple of ingredients I didn't already have, and tried it out tonight. By carefully omitting the chile parts of the recipe, I wound up with a tomato curry that was highly flavorful without being hot-spicy, which is B.'s problem with much Indian food, which she otherwise loves. The instructions say you can cook anything in the sauce that you want. I went with cubed fresh chicken and chopped zucchini (courgettes), which cooks fast. Good meal.

Comments

[bibliofile]

Ooh, Richard Thompson. So good.

I love the way that some things can improve so many lives. Yay for tasty Indian food at home.

[wordweaverlynn]

He's outstanding in concert. I took pokershaman to the Richard Thompson all-acoustic, all request concert at Freight and Salvage. My request was "Pharaoh," and it was the very first song he pulled out of the hat. Unfortunately, he's actually forgotten the song. Imagine a life in which you write so many great songs you can forget "Pharaoh."

[calimac]

I went to another one of those RT all-request concerts (he did four of them on consecutive nights). At this one, if he'd gone entirely on what he pulled out of the bucket, it would have been the all-"1952 Vincent Black Lightning" show. "Pharaoh" didn't turn up that night, pity; but he did a great rendition of "Sam Jones".