[TT]

"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...

"TT" wrote in message
. au...

"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...

"TT" wrote in message
. au...

"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...



I had a very late night
last night, talking music until the early hours with
an
old colleague I have not seen for a very long time .


Ah yes, an excellent way to spend an evening,
especially if some fine
reds and few ports are consumed. Then the reminiscing
becomes
embellishing ;-)


I have a bottle or two of Merlot 84, which I keep for
such
occasions.

Great. Open one to let it breathe a little and I'll be
straight over.

Welcome, TT, any time:-)

I *DO* really want to hear your toob gear but alas, Europe
is on the back burner for another year or two :-(


If
only it was that easy? I am very partial to Merlot.
Except once when I
passed through LAX and I asked for a Merlo(t) and the bar
staff corrected
me in a broad 'Ameriken' accent and said "No, it is a
Mer-Lot."

Ah that's Mer-Lot as in Job-Lot :-)

Yep.

with ice and lemon, and one of those plastic imitation
ice-cubes
that lights up when in liquid?

You forgot the plastic straw with the fancy twist in it and
one of those little umbrellas ;-)

I once had a girlfriend who was partial to a single malt
now
and again. She sometimes politely refused it when the
barman
put ice in the glass without asking her first. She got
blacklisted
from a very posh club in Chelsea, when the waiter asked,
"shall I add some water?" She took a sip and replied,
"I think you might have done that already!"

Lucky you. I'm not allowed to remember my girlfriends ;-)

The chap is a musicologist and teacher (guitar)
We discussed amongst other things the importance of key
signatures not only to the players (no one wants their
part
to be in seven sharps, C# major:-) but aso in the way
the
tune "sounds" Flat keys, Eb, Bb are often preferred for
jazz.

These are exactly the fine philsophical points of music
which
blossom after a glass or two of Merlot.

Mmmmmmm............... perhaps I would be better off
discussing "micing"
with your cat :-))


LOL. I have recently taken up the tenor saxophone. My
wife,
who knows I am a great Ellington fan, bought me a small
carved
figurine of a cat playing a sax. She gave it to me, and
said "It's
Cat Anderson" So be it! It was such a lovely gesture
that
I did not have the heart to tell her that Cat Anderson was
a
trumpet player:-)

I don't have a musical bone in my body :-( My closest claim
to being able to play anything was the four chords in "Smoke
on the Water" with an electric guitar ;-)

Cheers TT

[MiNe 109]

In article ,
keithr wrote:

TT wrote:
"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...
"TT" wrote in message
. au...
"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...

I had a very late night
last night, talking music until the early hours with an
old colleague I have not seen for a very long time .

Ah yes, an excellent way to spend an evening, especially if some fine
reds and few ports are consumed. Then the reminiscing becomes
embellishing ;-)

I have a bottle or two of Merlot 84, which I keep for such
occasions.

Great. Open one to let it breathe a little and I'll be straight over. If
only it was that easy? I am very partial to Merlot. Except once when I
passed through LAX and I asked for a Merlo(t) and the bar staff corrected
me
in a broad 'Ameriken' accent and said "No, it is a Mer-Lot." And then
proceeded to get it out of the refrigerator!!!!!!! It was a sweet French
wine more like raspberry cordial. So the wife drank it.

That explains a lot, the only time that I tried Mer-Lot was while I was
living in the US. I immediately put it on my list of experiences not to
repeat.

Someone else meets a bone-head airport bartender and you write off a
varietal?

Stephen

[TT]

"keithr" wrote in message
...
TT wrote:
"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...
"TT" wrote in message
. au...
"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...

I had a very late night
last night, talking music until the early hours with
an
old colleague I have not seen for a very long time .

Ah yes, an excellent way to spend an evening,
especially if some fine reds and few ports are
consumed. Then the reminiscing becomes embellishing
;-)

I have a bottle or two of Merlot 84, which I keep for
such
occasions.

Great. Open one to let it breathe a little and I'll be
straight over. If only it was that easy? I am very
partial to Merlot. Except once when I passed through LAX
and I asked for a Merlo(t) and the bar staff corrected me
in a broad 'Ameriken' accent and said "No, it is a
Mer-Lot." And then proceeded to get it out of the
refrigerator!!!!!!! It was a sweet French wine more like
raspberry cordial. So the wife drank it.

That explains a lot, the only time that I tried Mer-Lot
was while I was living in the US. I immediately put it on
my list of experiences not to repeat.

Keith

There are a lot of fine Oz Merlots, as with many other
types, and I do suggest you try again. This time at room
temperature and after it has breathed a bit.

Cheers TT

[KeithR]

MiNe 109 wrote:
In article ,
keithr wrote:

TT wrote:
"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...
"TT" wrote in message
. au...
"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...
I had a very late night
last night, talking music until the early hours with an
old colleague I have not seen for a very long time .

Ah yes, an excellent way to spend an evening, especially if some fine
reds and few ports are consumed. Then the reminiscing becomes
embellishing ;-)

I have a bottle or two of Merlot 84, which I keep for such
occasions.
Great. Open one to let it breathe a little and I'll be straight over. If
only it was that easy? I am very partial to Merlot. Except once when I
passed through LAX and I asked for a Merlo(t) and the bar staff corrected
me
in a broad 'Ameriken' accent and said "No, it is a Mer-Lot." And then
proceeded to get it out of the refrigerator!!!!!!! It was a sweet French
wine more like raspberry cordial. So the wife drank it.

That explains a lot, the only time that I tried Mer-Lot was while I was
living in the US. I immediately put it on my list of experiences not to
repeat.

Someone else meets a bone-head airport bartender and you write off a
varietal?

Stephen

Nope, in an otherwise very nice restaurant sharing a bottle with some
American friends who seemed to think it quite acceptable. Having not
tried it elsewhere, I assumed that that was just the way it was meant to
be. Whilst living in the States, I also tried White Zinfandel once, that
was enough, I have a sweet tooth, but that was just too much.

Keith

[[email protected]]

On 17 Mar, 22:39, keithr wrote:
MiNe 109 wrote:
In article ,
*keithr wrote:

TT wrote:
"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...
"TT" wrote in message
news:PLmdnX6Kq_l10CLUnZ2dnUVZ8gSWnZ2d@westnet. com.au...
"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...
I had a very late night
last night, talking music until the early hours with an
old colleague I have not seen for a very long time .

Ah yes, an excellent way to spend an evening, especially if some fine
reds and few ports are consumed. *Then the reminiscing becomes
embellishing ;-)

I have a bottle or two of Merlot 84, which I keep for such
occasions.
Great. *Open one to let it breathe a little and I'll be straight over. *If
only it was that easy? *I am very partial to Merlot. *Except once when I
passed through LAX and I asked for a Merlo(t) and the bar staff corrected
me
in a broad 'Ameriken' accent and said "No, it is a Mer-Lot." *And then
proceeded to get it out of the refrigerator!!!!!!! *It was a sweet French
wine more like raspberry cordial. *So the wife drank it.

That explains a lot, the only time that I tried Mer-Lot was while I was
living in the US. I immediately put it on my list of experiences not to
repeat.

Someone else meets a bone-head airport bartender and you write off a
varietal?

Stephen

Nope, in an otherwise very nice restaurant sharing a bottle with some
American friends who seemed to think it quite acceptable. Having not
tried it elsewhere, I assumed that that was just the way it was meant to
be. Whilst living in the States, I also tried White Zinfandel once, that
was enough, I have a sweet tooth, but that was just too much.

Keith-

it seems you haven't tried a quality california merlot.
you seem to be fixated on $7.99 specials and girly wine

[Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!]

On Mar 17, 3:32*pm, "Iain Churches" wrote:
"Mark Harriss" wrote in message

TT wrote:
especially if some fine reds and few ports are consumed. *Then the
reminiscing becomes embellishing ;-)

*Heh, why else is it called "A Rosy Glow"?

Or a "Blue glow" from a tube amp playing
Duke Ellington:-)

Tube amps playing Ellington have an "indigo glow".

[roughplanet[_2_]]

"Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!" wrote in message
...

On Mar 17, 3:32 pm, "Iain Churches" wrote:

"Mark Harriss" wrote in message

TT wrote:

especially if some fine reds and few ports are consumed. Then the
reminiscing becomes embellishing ;-)

Heh, why else is it called "A Rosy Glow"?
Or a "Blue glow" from a tube amp playing
Duke Ellington:-)

Tube amps playing Ellington have an "indigo glow".

Or create an 'indigo mood' :-).

[roughplanet[_2_]]

"keithr" wrote in message
...

MiNe 109 wrote:

In article ,

TT wrote:

"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...

I had a very late night last night, talking music until the early
hours with an
old colleague I have not seen for a very long time .

Ah yes, an excellent way to spend an evening, especially if some fine
reds and few ports are consumed. Then the reminiscing becomes
embellishing ;-)

I have a bottle or two of Merlot 84, which I keep for such
occasions.

Great. Open one to let it breathe a little and I'll be straight over.
If only it was that easy? I am very partial to Merlot. Except once
when I passed through LAX and I asked for a Merlo(t) and the bar staff
corrected me in a broad 'Ameriken' accent and said "No, it is a
Mer-Lot." And then proceeded to get it out of the refrigerator!!!!!!!
It was a sweet French wine more like raspberry cordial. So the wife
drank it.

That explains a lot, the only time that I tried Mer-Lot was while I was
living in the US. I immediately put it on my list of experiences not to
repeat.

Someone else meets a bone-head airport bartender and you write off a
varietal?

Nope, in an otherwise very nice restaurant sharing a bottle with some
American friends who seemed to think it quite acceptable. Having not tried
it elsewhere, I assumed that that was just the way it was meant to be.
Whilst living in the States, I also tried White Zinfandel once, that was
enough, I have a sweet tooth, but that was just too much.

NZ wineries do a very nice DRY Zinfandel. Interesting :-).

ruff

[roughplanet[_2_]]

"keithr" wrote in message
...

roughplanet wrote:

"atec 77" "atec 7 7 wrote in message
...

TT wrote:

"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
. ..

Never mind folks as Msoft will not be shipping a news reader with
Windows 7, nobody will know Usenet exists anyway after that.

Do believe after the fiasco of Vista that anyone will actually go to
the next M$ operating system?

Well it is free if you know where to look

That is, until one late night when you've misplaced your glasses you
allow Micro$oft's Genuine Advantage so-called 'update' download onto your
machine & then up comes a message that says that the software isn't
genuine & the screen changes to black!

Great stuff. But a $225.00 purchase of a genuine Micro$soft WinXP will
alleviate the problem, and after all, everyone should own at least one
genuine copy.

He's talking about a free beta which self-destructs in August. I've been
trying it, it's not too bad, a lot better than Vista, but I'll stick with
my XP pro for now. Linux is OK but Photoshop doesn't run too well under it
and The Gimp is a pretty poor substitute. Its also kind of difficult to
develop C# apps under Linux.

Then use Python instead. It's a bloody sight easier to use & the outcomes,
in my experience, are pretty much the same, if a tad slower. Besides, you
can hang it on C++ code with a linker & voila! You have your app ready made
:-).

ruff

[roughplanet[_2_]]

"keithr" wrote in message
...

Brian Gaff wrote:

Never mind folks as Msoft will not be shipping a news reader with Windows
7, nobody will know Usenet exists anyway after that.

Anybody too lazy to download Thunderbird (for free) deserves everything
that they get.

Hear hear, as well as Firefox. M$ deserve everything that happens to them.

ruff

[George M. Middius[_4_]]

Time for some wine snobbery.

you seem to be fixated on $7.99 specials and girly wine

Indeed. In Transylvania, real men drink slivovitz.

[Jenn[_2_]]

In article
,
"Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!" wrote:

On Mar 17, 3:32*pm, "Iain Churches" wrote:
"Mark Harriss" wrote in message

TT wrote:
especially if some fine reds and few ports are consumed. *Then the
reminiscing becomes embellishing ;-)

*Heh, why else is it called "A Rosy Glow"?

Or a "Blue glow" from a tube amp playing
Duke Ellington:-)

Tube amps playing Ellington have an "indigo glow".

lol

[George M. Middius[_4_]]

roughplanet said:

NZ wineries do a very nice DRY Zinfandel. Interesting :-).

In the States, where almost all Zin comes from California, they run the
gamut from cheap plonk to Serious Banquet Wine. I bought my first bottle in
the '70s at university. I think it cost $8, and it was worth it. Can't
remember how I got the tip. Might have been Inglenook label.

[George M. Middius[_4_]]

keithr said:

Anybody too lazy to download Thunderbird (for free) deserves everything
that they get.

I agree that using a proper news client is a no-brainer, but some brainless
twits have downloaded TB. You can tell they're thick in the head because
they don't know how to make it work properly.

[Jenn[_2_]]

In article ,
George M. Middius wrote:

roughplanet said:

NZ wineries do a very nice DRY Zinfandel. Interesting :-).

In the States, where almost all Zin comes from California, they run the
gamut from cheap plonk to Serious Banquet Wine. I bought my first bottle in
the '70s at university. I think it cost $8, and it was worth it. Can't
remember how I got the tip. Might have been Inglenook label.

I live in CA in the area where the "wine movie" Sideways was filmed.
I've never really liked wine, but I tried some Zin because of the buzz
around here about the movie, and because I sometimes play at wineries.
I've grown to rather like it.

[TT]

"roughplanet" wrote in message
u...
"Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!"
wrote in message
...

On Mar 17, 3:32 pm, "Iain Churches"
wrote:

"Mark Harriss" wrote in message

TT wrote:

especially if some fine reds and few ports are
consumed. Then the
reminiscing becomes embellishing ;-)

Heh, why else is it called "A Rosy Glow"?
Or a "Blue glow" from a tube amp playing
Duke Ellington:-)

Tube amps playing Ellington have an "indigo glow".

Or create an 'indigo mood' :-).
What about the smoky haze and the loud popping noises when
they get driven a bit hard? :-))

Cheers TT

[Iain Churches[_2_]]

wrote in message
...
The chap is a musicologist and teacher (guitar)
We discussed amongst other things the importance of key
signatures not only to the players (no one wants their part
to be in seven sharps, C# major:-) but aso in the way the
tune "sounds" Flat keys, Eb, Bb are often preferred for
jazz.

The way you work with that is to have transposing instruments so
music is read in one key and played in another. Transposing pianos
were actually somewhat common in the very late nineteenth and early
twentieth century, though it is popularly supposed Irving Berlin had
the only one.

It's also of note that Chuck Berry dimed himself out by revealing
that his classic signature tunes were his lyrics, but the music of
pianist Johnnie Johnson...as Keith Richards even (as ever) in a THC
haze correctly surmmised, Eb. Bb, were piano keys,"..Johnnie's keys".
After the two had a falling out the only new song Berry had of note
was the novelty song, "My Ding-A-Ling". That was forty years ago.

[Iain Churches[_2_]]

"roughplanet" wrote in message

Iain, I have just purchased a new jazz guitar as my arthritis makes
playing classical guitar, with its wide neck & fingering too difficult
these days.

That's what makes music such a great hobby. It is also very very
therapeutic. What kind of music do you play, Ruff? I can manage
only one chord on the guitar E minor. Ya can't get too far with that:-)

I also managed to get a nice Laney tube amp to accompany it, and, would
you believe, it has the same tubes as my TT SET amp, vis 12AX7's for
drivers & EL84's for finals. What a coup!

Brilliant. What make is the guitar:-)

From the recording point of view, Guild and Martin sound very good,
but my favourite acoustic has to be the Olson, as played by James
Taylor.

The guitar was a sample from a well respected Chinese manufacturer
(Electa) who, because it was their first offering, really put a great deal
of effort into it. I am amazed at how well the Chinese can build ANYTHING
if they REALLY want to.

Yes of course they can! Their marketing strategy is to get cheap
goods on sale, at an irresistable price, to get them noticed, and then
by pushing up the quality, secure sales in the higher brackets.

The neck & fingerboard are as good
as those on my old Gibson 355. I really don't know how they do it, either
for the price or even at all!

Careful scrutiny:-) Chinese tube amps used to be copies of 1950s
and 1960s American and British designs. Due to the poor (money saving)
transformers and components generally, the level of performace and
reliability in particular was not too good. Oddly enough, their chassis
(which cost a lot to fabricate elsewhere, are good, that is, of course
if you like the Chinese cosmeticstyle.

Bringing budget priced tube amps onto the market was something
of a double-edged sword. The cheap amp gave people who might
not have otherwise bought a CJ or similar, the opportunity to get
the "glowing musical experience" The down-side is that these cheapo
amps were prone to failure often within weeks. This gave people
the idea that tube amps are inherently unreliable:-(

This axe sounds wonderful; exactly like the guitars Jim Hall plays & I
bought a few books on scales; Eb, Bb, etc. together with some scores, and
as you suggested, hope that there's not too many of those bloody sharps in
any of the tunes:-).

Chords, keys and scales a fascinating and essential part of music.
The chap with whom I shared the Merlot the other evening has a PhD
and teaches music theory. I approach it from the other end - the
practical side:-)

E maj and A maj seem to be the favourite keys for guitarists. I used to
play in a quartet with a guitarist who could play in any key - he used
a capo:-)


Cheers
Iain

[Iain Churches[_2_]]

"Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!" wrote in message
...
On Mar 17, 3:32 pm, "Iain Churches" wrote:
"Mark Harriss" wrote in message

TT wrote:
especially if some fine reds and few ports are consumed. Then the
reminiscing becomes embellishing ;-)

Heh, why else is it called "A Rosy Glow"?

Or a "Blue glow" from a tube amp playing
Duke Ellington:-)

Tube amps playing Ellington have an "indigo glow".

Or a "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue"

It's one of the greatest Ellington compositions
of all time.

The performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in
1956, with the 27 chorus "interlude" by tenor
saxophonist Paul Gonzalves, put the Ellington
band back on the map when times were hard.

Iain

[Iain Churches[_2_]]

wrote in message
...

The chap is a musicologist and teacher (guitar)
We discussed amongst other things the importance of key
signatures not only to the players (no one wants their part
to be in seven sharps, C# major:-) but aso in the way the
tune "sounds" Flat keys, Eb, Bb are often preferred for
jazz.

The way you work with that is to have transposing instruments so
music is read in one key and played in another.

Yes. I am familiar with transposition. I have a diploma in music:-)
But the crux of the conversation was that certain types of
music sound better in certain keys. For example bright
piano etudes (Chopin etc) sound good in sharp keys, E maj
and B major.

The composer/arranger not only has to pick a key which
suits the composition but will be a "fluent" key for the instruments
that he intends to use. Listen to Jean Sibelius, in particular
the way he writes for French horns!

But as mentioned earlier most guitarists prefer E + A major.
That puts the tenor saxophone in F# major a key with six
sharps!

My colleague mentioned also that computer music software
often does strage things. In trying to retain the "integrity" of the
concert pitch key, it transposes while intelligently taking note of
the accidentals used in the part. So that if a part written in D
major concert has many flattened accidentals it may be transribed
into a flat key Cb for alto saxophone (wth seven flats) In practical
terms no such key exists!


Transposing pianos
were actually somewhat common in the very late nineteenth and early
twentieth century, though it is popularly supposed Irving Berlin had
the only one.

Certainly not the ony one. British composer Lionel Bart who wrote
pop songs such as "Livin' Doll" for Cliff Richard, and the theme music
for James Bond "From Russia with Love" plus the musicals "Oliver"
and "Blitz") had such a piano. It was said that he could play in only
one key, and used the shifting action of the piano to modulate to
a new key. I saw this piano a few times when it was brought to
Decca for Lionel Bart to put down demos.

It's also of note that Chuck Berry dimed himself out by revealing
that his classic signature tunes were his lyrics, but the music of
pianist Johnnie Johnson...as Keith Richards even (as ever) in a THC
haze correctly surmmised, Eb. Bb, were piano keys,"..Johnnie's keys".

Interesting. I once read a retrospective article by bass-player Eddie
Calhoun, who played with pianist Erroll Garner for a many years.
Garner could not read. All keys were the same to him, and he could
play equally well in any of them. Calhoun told that there were about
25 songs in the concert repertoire, which they played every night.
However, Erroll Garner never played them in the same order, or
even in the same key! Calhoun said that he used to have to listen
very intently and join in a split secodnd after the first note, having
established the key. Sometimes, Garner would play an intro, and
the modulate into a new key at the start of the verse where the
rhythm section were supposed to come in.

Ain't music fun:-))

Iain

[Iain Churches[_2_]]

"TT" wrote in message
...

"roughplanet" wrote in message
u...
"Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!" wrote in
message
...

On Mar 17, 3:32 pm, "Iain Churches" wrote:

"Mark Harriss" wrote in message

TT wrote:

especially if some fine reds and few ports are consumed. Then the
reminiscing becomes embellishing ;-)



Morning TT.

This group has been pretty quiet for a while.
The mention of a good Merlot seems to have
made us all spring into life:-))


Heh, why else is it called "A Rosy Glow"?
Or a "Blue glow" from a tube amp playing
Duke Ellington:-)

Tube amps playing Ellington have an "indigo glow".

Or create an 'indigo mood' :-).
What about the smoky haze and the loud popping noises when they get driven
a bit hard? :-))


Then you get out your Queen lyrics, and sing from
their brilliant song Bohemian Rhapsody -
"Thuderbolts and Lightning. Very very frightening"!

But that is not as common as one might think. In
forty years of tinkering with and abusing thermionic
bottles,. I have only witnessed pyrotechnics once,
and that was a Chinese KT88

An old friend of mine, Peter Lewis, a tube amp
guru in the UK used to joke that tube amps only
hum because the don't know the words.

With each each amp he built, he used to include
the lyric from Jethro Tull, "Slow Marching Band"

---- So, take a hand and take a bow.
You played for me; that's all for now, and never
mind the words just hum along and keep on going. ----


Iain

[Iain Churches[_2_]]

"roughplanet" wrote in message
...
"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...

"Mark Harriss" wrote in message
. au...

TT wrote:

especially if some fine reds and few ports are consumed. Then the
reminiscing becomes embellishing ;-)

Heh, why else is it called "A Rosy Glow"?

Or a "Blue glow" from a tube amp playing Duke Ellington:-)

Now you're talking. I spent a marvellous evening last night playing a few
albums of Charlie Parker (I am a VERY big fan - more than 50 LP's & the
same number of CD's).

Hi Ruff.

Nice to see you posting here agan. Where have you been?

Yes, even after 54 years, Bird is still the main man. An incredibly
agile and fluid player with a fantastic technique and sense of melody.

There are some wonderful quotes attributed to him:

"You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice,
practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand,
forget all that and just wail."

My favourite Bird title is "Koko"
(which funnily eough means "whole" or "complete" in Finnish.)

If you don't have it already there is a fascinating album called
"Supersax plays Bird" which dates from, 1972. I have it on
both vinyl and CD. The latter is impeccably mastered.
Supersax was a band formed by Med Flory who transcribed
note for note some of Bird's solo, and arranged them for a whole
saxophone section - five players in a big band.
It's a brilliant CD - highly recommended.

Johnny Hodges was another fine alto player, as was the lesser-
known Marshal Royal from the Count Basie Orchestra. His book
"Jazz Survivor" makes interesting reading.

One of my favourite alto players was Earl Bostic the pioneer R+B
saxophonist.. He had a very distinctive "growl" tone . His version
of Flamingo was a huge hit in the early fifties. He seems to have
influenced many players including John Coltrane.

I don't know whether you have it in Oz, but in this part of the
world Bostik is a name of a glue. A pal of mine in the UK who
does transcriptions and remastering, was compiling an Earl Bostic
album, and gave it the working title "Stuck on Bostic" I don't
know if it was released under that name.

It was truly awsome to hear the recordings from his heyday back in the
late 40's & early 50's, especially one rather noisy recorded album called
'Charkie Parker Live at St. Nicks'. But it didn't alter the quality of his
playing, which was simply amazing - effortless blowing & improvisation of
the highest order. I was in Seventh Heaven. He truly was 'The Master' and
even guys like John Coltrane, Stan Getz, Sony Rollins & Sonny Stitt were
just wannabe's when compared to Bird.

No you've got me started. I have a good selection of Parker material. I
shall dig some out later today, and have a listen:-)

As the song says...."Oh what a night', but alas, no port or red wine .
Those days are over for me, but I did manage a smmall tipple of JW's Blue
Label on ice. Ahhhhhhhh....smooth as a baby's bottom :-).


Excellent, even without the ice:-) Are you partial to Irish whiskeys?
Jamesons and Bushmills seem to both be highly regarded.

Iain

[KeithR]

roughplanet wrote:
"keithr" wrote in message
...

roughplanet wrote:

"atec 77" "atec 7 7 wrote in message
...

TT wrote:

"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
. ..

Never mind folks as Msoft will not be shipping a news reader with
Windows 7, nobody will know Usenet exists anyway after that.

Do believe after the fiasco of Vista that anyone will actually go to
the next M$ operating system?

Well it is free if you know where to look

That is, until one late night when you've misplaced your glasses you
allow Micro$oft's Genuine Advantage so-called 'update' download onto your
machine & then up comes a message that says that the software isn't
genuine & the screen changes to black!

Great stuff. But a $225.00 purchase of a genuine Micro$soft WinXP will
alleviate the problem, and after all, everyone should own at least one
genuine copy.

He's talking about a free beta which self-destructs in August. I've been
trying it, it's not too bad, a lot better than Vista, but I'll stick with
my XP pro for now. Linux is OK but Photoshop doesn't run too well under it
and The Gimp is a pretty poor substitute. Its also kind of difficult to
develop C# apps under Linux.

Then use Python instead. It's a bloody sight easier to use & the outcomes,
in my experience, are pretty much the same, if a tad slower. Besides, you
can hang it on C++ code with a linker & voila! You have your app ready made
:-).

Never tried Python, I make my living with C#, Delphi, a little Perl, and
a weird scripting language that probably not more than 20 people in the
world use (or want to use). They all require Windows.

I especially dislike C++ and Java, but I suspect that I will have to use
the latter at some point. I've been writing in Delphi on and off for the
last 14 years, but it is dying and C# is similar enough to seem familiar
(they were both architected by the same man)

I have used Linux on and off over the years, especially SUSE but never
for serious work.

Keith

[Mark Harriss]

keithr wrote:

Never tried Python, I make my living with C#, Delphi, a little Perl, and
a weird scripting language that probably not more than 20 people in the
world use (or want to use). They all require Windows.

Python is a really good interpreted programming language:
With careful design I've written image processing software with a GUI
that was developed and tested on a Linux box, used on a Mac running OSX
and could run on a windows PC. It ran on all three without modification.

The commercial version of python is a lot faster than the free version
which is no slouch either. Printing is still a bit of a pain though.


I especially dislike C++ and Java, but I suspect that I will have to use
the latter at some point. I've been writing in Delphi on and off for the
last 14 years, but it is dying and C# is similar enough to seem familiar
(they were both architected by the same man)


Python being a loosely typed language, you could consider it the
exact opposite of Java which I despise as being the most uptight anal
language I've ever been forced to use. It was written by control freaks
for control freaks. I find C and C++ far easier to use than Java.

[TT]

"Iain Churches" wrote in message
news

"TT" wrote in message
...

"roughplanet" wrote in message
u...
"Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!" wrote in
message
...

On Mar 17, 3:32 pm, "Iain Churches" wrote:

"Mark Harriss" wrote in message

TT wrote:

especially if some fine reds and few ports are consumed. Then the
reminiscing becomes embellishing ;-)



Morning TT.

This group has been pretty quiet for a while.
The mention of a good Merlot seems to have
made us all spring into life:-))


The perfect evening is some fine music, some fine wine and some excellent
company. Then, as the evening unfolds, the wine gets gulped, the music gets
louder and rockier and the stories inevitably start to sound more like epic
sagas :-)


Heh, why else is it called "A Rosy Glow"?
Or a "Blue glow" from a tube amp playing
Duke Ellington:-)

Tube amps playing Ellington have an "indigo glow".

Or create an 'indigo mood' :-).
What about the smoky haze and the loud popping noises when they get
driven
a bit hard? :-))


Then you get out your Queen lyrics, and sing from
their brilliant song Bohemian Rhapsody -
"Thuderbolts and Lightning. Very very frightening"!

A more appropriate Queen song "Flash! Aaahhaa! Flash!
Arrrggghhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Perhaps ACDC - High Voltage ;-)


But that is not as common as one might think. In
forty years of tinkering with and abusing thermionic
bottles,. I have only witnessed pyrotechnics once,
and that was a Chinese KT88

That inspires confidence.

An old friend of mine, Peter Lewis, a tube amp
guru in the UK used to joke that tube amps only
hum because the don't know the words.

:-))

With each each amp he built, he used to include
the lyric from Jethro Tull, "Slow Marching Band"

---- So, take a hand and take a bow.
You played for me; that's all for now, and never
mind the words just hum along and keep on going. ----


Cheers TT

[MiNe 109]

In article ,
keithr wrote:

MiNe 109 wrote:
In article ,
keithr wrote:

TT wrote:
"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...
"TT" wrote in message
. au...
"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...
I had a very late night
last night, talking music until the early hours with an
old colleague I have not seen for a very long time .

Ah yes, an excellent way to spend an evening, especially if some fine
reds and few ports are consumed. Then the reminiscing becomes
embellishing ;-)

I have a bottle or two of Merlot 84, which I keep for such
occasions.
Great. Open one to let it breathe a little and I'll be straight over.
If
only it was that easy? I am very partial to Merlot. Except once when I
passed through LAX and I asked for a Merlo(t) and the bar staff corrected
me
in a broad 'Ameriken' accent and said "No, it is a Mer-Lot." And then
proceeded to get it out of the refrigerator!!!!!!! It was a sweet French
wine more like raspberry cordial. So the wife drank it.

That explains a lot, the only time that I tried Mer-Lot was while I was
living in the US. I immediately put it on my list of experiences not to
repeat.

Someone else meets a bone-head airport bartender and you write off a
varietal?

Stephen

Nope, in an otherwise very nice restaurant sharing a bottle with some
American friends who seemed to think it quite acceptable. Having not
tried it elsewhere, I assumed that that was just the way it was meant to
be.

Admittedly, most examples won't be that good, but that's true of many
things in life.

Merlot is a major component of Bordeaux reds.

Whilst living in the States, I also tried White Zinfandel once, that
was enough, I have a sweet tooth, but that was just too much.

This, on the other hand, I can whole-heartedly support.

Stephen

[MiNe 109]

In article ,
"roughplanet" wrote:

"keithr" wrote in message
...

Nope, in an otherwise very nice restaurant sharing a bottle with some
American friends who seemed to think it quite acceptable. Having not tried
it elsewhere, I assumed that that was just the way it was meant to be.
Whilst living in the States, I also tried White Zinfandel once, that was
enough, I have a sweet tooth, but that was just too much.

NZ wineries do a very nice DRY Zinfandel. Interesting :-).

White Zin was a Californian response to the massive demand for white
wine in the eighties. It's more of a rose.

I didn't know anyone grew zinfandel overseas.

Stephen

[MiNe 109]

In article
,
Jenn wrote:

In article ,
George M. Middius wrote:

roughplanet said:

NZ wineries do a very nice DRY Zinfandel. Interesting :-).

In the States, where almost all Zin comes from California, they run the
gamut from cheap plonk to Serious Banquet Wine. I bought my first bottle in
the '70s at university. I think it cost $8, and it was worth it. Can't
remember how I got the tip. Might have been Inglenook label.

I live in CA in the area where the "wine movie" Sideways was filmed.
I've never really liked wine, but I tried some Zin because of the buzz
around here about the movie, and because I sometimes play at wineries.
I've grown to rather like it.

That movie impacted Merlot sales negatively due to the lead character's
disdain for it. Ideally, "(i)t's Cabernet without the punishment,"
doesn't require aging and is relatively inexpensive for the quality
compared to pinots and cabs.

The Inglenook winery building is now home to Francis Coppola. The
Inglenook name is still out there with no connection to its former
owners or vineyards.

Stephen

[MiNe 109]

In article ,
"Iain Churches" wrote:

wrote in message
...
The chap is a musicologist and teacher (guitar)
We discussed amongst other things the importance of key
signatures not only to the players (no one wants their part
to be in seven sharps, C# major:-) but aso in the way the
tune "sounds" Flat keys, Eb, Bb are often preferred for
jazz.

The way you work with that is to have transposing instruments so
music is read in one key and played in another. Transposing pianos
were actually somewhat common in the very late nineteenth and early
twentieth century, though it is popularly supposed Irving Berlin had
the only one.

It's also of note that Chuck Berry dimed himself out by revealing
that his classic signature tunes were his lyrics, but the music of
pianist Johnnie Johnson...as Keith Richards even (as ever) in a THC
haze correctly surmmised, Eb. Bb, were piano keys,"..Johnnie's keys".
After the two had a falling out the only new song Berry had of note
was the novelty song, "My Ding-A-Ling". That was forty years ago.

Just heard that song as a warm-up for an improv comedy performance. A
sad end to his musical career, but Berry had farther to fall in his
personal life.

Stephen

[Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!]

On Mar 18, 8:25*am, MiNe 109 wrote:

The Inglenook winery building is now home to Francis Coppola. The
Inglenook name is still out there with no connection to its former
owners or vineyards.

Grapes from Rutherford?

Inglenook must have been good indeed.

[MiNe 109]

In article
,
"Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!" wrote:

On Mar 18, 8:25*am, MiNe 109 wrote:

The Inglenook winery building is now home to Francis Coppola. The
Inglenook name is still out there with no connection to its former
owners or vineyards.

Grapes from Rutherford?

Inglenook must have been good indeed.

Back in the day, yes.

Stephen

[Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!]

On Mar 18, 5:12*am, "Iain Churches" wrote:

If you don't have it already there is a fascinating album called
"Supersax plays Bird" which dates from, 1972. I have it on
both vinyl and CD. *The latter is impeccably mastered.
Supersax was a band formed by Med Flory who transcribed
note for note some of Bird's solo, and arranged them for a whole
saxophone section - five players in a big band.
It's a brilliant CD - highly recommended

I have that on Mobile Fidelity LP. It is a good one.

[roughplanet[_2_]]

"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...

"roughplanet" wrote in message
...

"Mark Harriss" wrote in message
. au...

TT wrote:

especially if some fine reds and few ports are consumed. Then the
reminiscing becomes embellishing ;-)

Heh, why else is it called "A Rosy Glow"?

Or a "Blue glow" from a tube amp playing Duke Ellington:-)

Now you're talking. I spent a marvellous evening last night playing a few
albums of Charlie Parker (I am a VERY big fan - more than 50 LP's & the
same number of CD's).

Hi Ruff.

Nice to see you posting here agan. Where have you been?

I gave this group a rest when the RAO circus was in town .

Yes, even after 54 years, Bird is still the main man. An incredibly
agile and fluid player with a fantastic technique and sense of melody.
There are some wonderful quotes attributed to him:

"You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice,
practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand,
forget all that and just wail."

My favourite Bird title is "Koko" (which funnily eough means "whole" or
"complete" in Finnish.)

If you don't have it already there is a fascinating album called
"Supersax plays Bird" which dates from, 1972. I have it on
both vinyl and CD. The latter is impeccably mastered.
Supersax was a band formed by Med Flory who transcribed
note for note some of Bird's solo, and arranged them for a whole
saxophone section - five players in a big band.
It's a brilliant CD - highly recommended.

I have the LP but regretfully, don't like large groups or orchestras,
which is probably why I never warmed to Basie. Just don't dig the
often rigid arrangements which prevent many soloists from letting loose.

Johnny Hodges was another fine alto player, as was the lesser-
known Marshal Royal from the Count Basie Orchestra. His book
"Jazz Survivor" makes interesting reading.

Yes, Johhny Hodges was a fine musician, but again, spent a good deal
of his time playing in orchestras. I only have a couple of his LP's where
he was playing in a quartet.

One of my favourite alto players was Earl Bostic the pioneer R+B
saxophonist.. He had a very distinctive "growl" tone . His version
of Flamingo was a huge hit in the early fifties. He seems to have
influenced many players including John Coltrane.

I confess my (partial) ignorance of Earl Bostic, again because most of his
music was in octets or nonets. I do have two of his early LP's; 'All his
Hits' & 'Earl Bostic & his Orchestra' neither of which I like much as IMO,
he seems to be an R&B/Jazz crossover with a strident & at times, overdone
beat.

I don't know whether you have it in Oz, but in this part of the
world Bostik is a name of a glue. A pal of mine in the UK who
does transcriptions and remastering, was compiling an Earl Bostic
album, and gave it the working title "Stuck on Bostic" I don't
know if it was released under that name.

It was truly awsome to hear the recordings from his heyday back in the
late 40's & early 50's, especially one rather noisy recorded album called
'Charkie Parker Live at St. Nicks'. But it didn't alter the quality of
his
playing, which was simply amazing - effortless blowing & improvisation of
the highest order. I was in Seventh Heaven. He truly was 'The Master' and
even guys like John Coltrane, Stan Getz, Sony Rollins & Sonny Stitt were
just wannabe's when compared to Bird.

Now you've got me started. I have a good selection of Parker material. I
shall dig some out later today, and have a listen:-)

As the song says...."Oh what a night', but alas, no port or red wine .
Those days are over for me, but I did manage a small tipple of JW's Blue
Label on ice. Ahhhhhhhh....smooth as a baby's bottom :-).

Excellent, even without the ice:-) Are you partial to Irish whiskeys?
Jamesons and Bushmills seem to both be highly regarded.

Yes Iain, I LOVE Irish whiskey. I have several bottles of Jamieson's 12 Year
Old, a bottle of Jamieson's Triple Distilled, a bottle of Black Bush & a
bottle of Bushmills 10 year old (now 20) Single Malt in my cocktail cabinet.
And only one of them (the 12 year old Jamiesons) has ever been opened :-(.

ruff

[roughplanet[_2_]]

"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...

The chap is a musicologist and teacher (guitar)
We discussed amongst other things the importance of key
signatures not only to the players (no one wants their part
to be in seven sharps, C# major:-) but aso in the way the
tune "sounds" Flat keys, Eb, Bb are often preferred for
jazz.

The way you work with that is to have transposing instruments so
music is read in one key and played in another. Transposing pianos
were actually somewhat common in the very late nineteenth and early
twentieth century, though it is popularly supposed Irving Berlin had
the only one.

It's also of note that Chuck Berry dimed himself out by revealing
that his classic signature tunes were his lyrics, but the music of
pianist Johnnie Johnson...as Keith Richards even (as ever) in a THC
haze correctly surmmised, Eb. Bb, were piano keys,"..Johnnie's keys".
After the two had a falling out the only new song Berry had of note
was the novelty song, "My Ding-A-Ling". That was forty years ago.

My proudest moment as a musician was one night at the Melbourne Town Hall
when I was called up as a replacemet for one of the booked artists who had
arrived drunk.

I had been working on a number of transpositions of classical or
semi-classical pieces from piano/orchestra to, believe it or not, 5-string
banjo. I had just about mastered several, but didn't feel confident enough
to perform them in public.

But when I got on stage, they were all that came into my head, so I
performed 'Jesu, Joy of Mans' Desiring' on the 5-string followed by 'Foggy
Mountain Breakdown'. Sure brought the house down :-).

ruff

[roughplanet[_2_]]

"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...

"roughplanet" wrote in message

Iain, I have just purchased a new jazz guitar as my arthritis makes
playing classical guitar, with its wide neck & fingering too difficult
these days.

That's what makes music such a great hobby. It is also very very
therapeutic. What kind of music do you play, Ruff? I can manage
only one chord on the guitar E minor. Ya can't get too far with that:-)

I used to play trad jazz (4 string banjo), modern jazz (7 string
semi-acoustic) clasical (Concert Classical nylon 6 string) blues (6 & 12
string steel stringed guitars) bluegrass (5-string banjo & lap steel) & folk
(5-string banjo & 6 & 12 string guitars). But not all at the same time :-).

I also managed to get a nice Laney tube amp to accompany it, and, would
you believe, it has the same tubes as my TT SET amp, vis 12AX7's for
drivers & EL84's for finals. What a coup!

Brilliant. What make is the guitar:-)

An Electa. They have been around for many years but have really lifted their
game of late.

From the recording point of view, Guild and Martin sound very good,
but my favourite acoustic has to be the Olson, as played by James
Taylor.

I used to have both a Martin DB6 & DB12. I was doing a gig in the ACT one
evening when a young guy came up to me and offered them both to me for £500.
It turned out his father was the US Ambassador & the family was returning to
the US the following week.
Did I buy them? Does the Pope **** in the woods?

Yes of course they can! Their marketing strategy is to get cheap
goods on sale, at an irresistable price, to get them noticed, and then
by pushing up the quality, secure sales in the higher brackets.

The neck & fingerboard are as good as those on my old Gibson 355. I
really don't know how they do it, either for the price or even at all!

Careful scrutiny:-) Chinese tube amps used to be copies of 1950s
and 1960s American and British designs. Due to the poor (money saving)
transformers and components generally, the level of performace and
reliability in particular was not too good. Oddly enough, their chassis
(which cost a lot to fabricate elsewhere, are good, that is, of course
if you like the Chinese cosmeticstyle.

Bringing budget priced tube amps onto the market was something
of a double-edged sword. The cheap amp gave people who might
not have otherwise bought a CJ or similar, the opportunity to get
the "glowing musical experience" The down-side is that these cheapo
amps were prone to failure often within weeks. This gave people
the idea that tube amps are inherently unreliable:-(

This axe sounds wonderful; exactly like the guitars Jim Hall plays & I
bought a few books on scales; Eb, Bb, etc. together with some scores, and
as you suggested, hope that there's not too many of those bloody sharps
in
any of the tunes:-).

Chords, keys and scales a fascinating and essential part of music.
The chap with whom I shared the Merlot the other evening has a PhD
and teaches music theory. I approach it from the other end - the
practical side:-)

E maj and A maj seem to be the favourite keys for guitarists. I used to
play in a quartet with a guitarist who could play in any key - he used
a capo:-)

So did I for the first few years. It sure beats the hell out of finger
strain.

ruff

[roughplanet[_2_]]

"Mark Harriss" wrote in message
. au...

keithr wrote:

Never tried Python, I make my living with C#, Delphi, a little Perl, and
a weird scripting language that probably not more than 20 people in the
world use (or want to use). They all require Windows.

Python is a really good interpreted programming language:
With careful design I've written image processing software with a GUI
that was developed and tested on a Linux box, used on a Mac running OSX
and could run on a windows PC. It ran on all three without modification.

The commercial version of python is a lot faster than the free version
which is no slouch either. Printing is still a bit of a pain though.

Yes it is Mark, but as you say, the printing commands still need work even
after 12 years of development.

I especially dislike C++ and Java, but I suspect that I will have to use
the latter at some point. I've been writing in Delphi on and off for the
last 14 years, but it is dying and C# is similar enough to seem familiar
(they were both architected by the same man)

Python being a loosely typed language, you could consider it the
exact opposite of Java which I despise as being the most uptight anal
language I've ever been forced to use. It was written by control freaks
for control freaks. I find C and C++ far easier to use than Java.

Hear bloody hear. Python is a dream language with little or no constructs to
observe.
Java was written by an anally retentive control freak for anally retentive
control freaks, and although I prefer the freedom of scripting languages,
like Python or Perl, I would rather code in C++ than Java anyday!

ruff

[Jenn[_2_]]

In article ,
"roughplanet" wrote:

From the recording point of view, Guild and Martin sound very good,
but my favourite acoustic has to be the Olson, as played by James
Taylor.

James Olson makes fantastic instruments; among the very best that I've
heard. Of course, you pay dearly for that tone, starting at $12,500.

We truly are experiencing a "second golden age" of the guitar builder's
art. See Mike Baranik (which I play, along with the fantastic Martin
OMC-28m Laurence Juber), the late Lance McCollum, Kevin Ryan, James
Goodall, et al.

[Iain Churches[_2_]]

"roughplanet" wrote in message
u...
"Iain Churches" wrote in message



Ruff wrote:
I used to play trad jazz (4 string banjo), modern jazz (7 string
semi-acoustic) clasical (Concert Classical nylon 6 string) blues (6 & 12
string steel stringed guitars) bluegrass (5-string banjo & lap steel) &
folk (5-string banjo & 6 & 12 string guitars). But not all at the same
time :-)

Pretty versatile. One of my favourite instruments is the flat back
mandoline. One saw them quite often on pop sessions at one time.


I also managed to get a nice Laney tube amp to accompany it, and, would
you believe, it has the same tubes as my TT SET amp, vis 12AX7's for
drivers & EL84's for finals. What a coup!

Brilliant. What make is the guitar:-)

An Electa. They have been around for many years but have really lifted
their game of late.

That seems to be the game plan for many makers of musical
instruments. They get in at entry level, and then start to push
up the quality to provide interemediate and professional grade
instruments. The Devil is in the detail:-)

I used to have both a Martin DB6 & DB12. I was doing a gig in the ACT one
evening when a young guy came up to me and offered them both to me for
£500. It turned out his father was the US Ambassador & the family was
returning to the US the following week.
Did I buy them? Does the Pope **** in the woods?

Sans doubt!

There have been some pretty informative posts about guitars and tuning
on RAO (not everything there is cross posted flame!)

E maj and A maj seem to be the favourite keys for guitarists. I used to
play in a quartet with a guitarist who could play in any key - he used
a capo:-)

So did I for the first few years. It sure beats the hell out of finger
strain.

But then we get back to the basic argument that certain pieces only
work in certain keys.

Cheers
Iain

[Iain Churches[_2_]]

"Jenn" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"roughplanet" wrote:

From the recording point of view, Guild and Martin sound very good,
but my favourite acoustic has to be the Olson, as played by James
Taylor.

James Olson makes fantastic instruments; among the very best that I've
heard. Of course, you pay dearly for that tone, starting at $12,500.

Yes of course. It's the same with recording equipment. There
are many microphones that are Neumann look-alikes, but that is
where the similarity ends!

We truly are experiencing a "second golden age" of the guitar builder's
art. See Mike Baranik (which I play, along with the fantastic Martin
OMC-28m Laurence Juber), the late Lance McCollum, Kevin Ryan, James
Goodall, et al.

Good news. Despite the attractions of DVD and plug-
and-play entertainment it is encouraging to see so many
youngsters carrying musical instrument cases.

Iain

[Iain Churches[_2_]]

"roughplanet" wrote in message
u...
"Iain Churches" wrote in message

I gave this group a rest when the RAO circus was in town .


OK. I wondered if you had been ill.

I have the LP but regretfully, don't like large groups or orchestras,
which is probably why I never warmed to Basie. Just don't dig the
often rigid arrangements which prevent many soloists from letting loose.

IMO both Basie and Ellington left plenty of space for the soloists.
I am fascinated by tone colour, the way the sections of the orchestra
are integrated to produce a certain sound or mood, and in big band
music, saxophone harmony, particularly five part has always interested
me enormously.

I can appreciate that, as a guitarist you might be put off by "too
many notes" A chord across a saxophone section can easily
fill three octaves. In fact they sound better that way, because the
saxophone has so many strong harmonics that chords in close
harmony can sound muddled.


Yes, Johhny Hodges was a fine musician, but again, spent a good deal
of his time playing in orchestras. I only have a couple of his LP's where
he was playing in a quartet.

Yes, he spent a long time with Ellington, who wrote some fine
compositions to showcase Hodges' unique sound and style.
You probably know of Harry Carney, an alto and bartitone
player who was with Ellington from 1929 until he died. He
said "Once you have played in this band, there is nowhere
else to go"-)


I confess my (partial) ignorance of Earl Bostic, again because most of his
music was in octets or nonets. I do have two of his early LP's; 'All his
Hits' & 'Earl Bostic & his Orchestra' neither of which I like much.

Yes.I have both those. He makes a fascinating sound. On most
of the recordings a tape delay sent to reverb is used on the saxophone.
I noticed on a couple of tracks that it was forgotten until half way
through the tune.

as IMO,
he seems to be an R&B/Jazz crossover with a strident & at times, overdone
beat.

Yes he ceetainly was a crossover, and quite a pioneer at that time.
You can hear the roots of rock'n'roll saxophone in there.

Are you partial to Irish whiskeys?
Jamesons and Bushmills seem to both be highly regarded.

Yes Iain, I LOVE Irish whiskey. I have several bottles of Jamieson's 12
Year Old, a bottle of Jamieson's Triple Distilled, a bottle of Black Bush
& a bottle of Bushmills 10 year old (now 20) Single Malt in my cocktail
cabinet. And only one of them (the 12 year old Jamiesons) has ever been
opened :-(.

Splendid.
Enjoy

Iain