When I got tickets for the Aberdeen Jazz Orchestra’s Christmas show I didn’t realise at the time it would be the last ever Jazz at the Blue Lamp.

The benefit of digital photos is that I have these up already compared to the film I took to 2023 that realistically is never going to get developed. The downside is most of them are shit really. Such is the progression of technology.

I like this one and maybe this one and this other one too. The rest of them are “ok”.

Glastonbury itself was fantastic. More words on that soon.

Delayed with posting this (as ever), but as a “not going to Glastonbury” consolation prize I got to see LCD Soundsystem at Glasgow Barrowlands.

I can’t say I’m an LCD Soundsystem mega-fan, but little M loves them and had got two tickets. Her friend didn’t want to or couldn’t go so it was a toss up between me or A going with her. I was the lucky one.

The six hour roundtrip journey by coach was brutal, but I also got to see Shit Robot (DJ set though… shame) supporting.

My ears took days to recover. It was fab.

On a semi-related note:

• The rest of the LCD Soundsystem photos are on Flickr
• I am going to try to get back into Flickr. Apart from Linode it’s the last “web service” I pay for. I did think seriously about culling down to the 1000 photos free limit, but since Flickr has also (rightly or wrongly) been my backup that means losing a lot of family photos. I think I just need to admit to myself I can’t get rid of it and am going to have to keep paying for it. And if I’m paying for it I might as well use it. I can’t see me ever affording to shoot film again, but this Pixel takes great photos.
• I didn’t even syndicate this out.
• It also makes sense to use Flickr to “backup” photos from my phone as well rather than pay for additional Google storage. I’m not using the auto-uploader though.
• In fact, the one downside to the Pixel is all the opportunities to “pick a better” shot - I already have more photos than I can triage and I don’t take many.
• I think my Flickr workflow will be uploading all the photos from an “event”, putting them all in an album and moving the duds to a rejects version of that album. Because I can somewhat manage that on my phone - it’s easier than relying on tags, etc.
• I finally put together a Glastonbury 2023 album!
• It’s taking me two months to pay my daughter back for the ticket. Strictly I should be doing it over three months to afford it out of my allowance, but I’ve borrowed a bit so I can pay her back sooner. I really need to sort family finances out more in my favour next year: It’s a very long, unfunny, joke.

We had the opportunity for a random week night out recently and A said something like “What shall we do?” and seeing as how we’d watched La La Land again fairly recently I suggested we go to Jazz At The Blue Lamp. She said yes, having visions of Seb’s / Chicken on a Stick whereas JATBL is not like that at all (it is exactly like a non-movie version of a jazz club though).

Anyway, evening got off to a rocky start, but ended up being a really good night. I’m not a big jazz fan, but the drummer from Emily Francis Trio was amazing and I would definitely go see these lot again.

Not film! :-(, Aberdeen, Feb 2023.

From Aberdeen’s Spectra Festival. This was my favourite. It’s huge and makes you smile.

Not film! :-(, Aberdeen, Feb 2022.

From Aberdeen’s Spectra Festival.

Not film! :-(, Aberdeen, Feb 2022.

From Aberdeen’s Spectra Festival. A soggy Hypercube.

Not film! :-(, Aberdeen, Feb 2022.

From Aberdeen’s Spectra Festival.

Not film! :-(, Aberdeen, Feb 2022.

From Aberdeen’s Spectra Festival. I did actually have film, but have got so used to not having any it just never occured to me to take my actual camera. Oh well, would have taken me months to get developed anyway.

Not film! :-(, Aberdeen, Feb 2022.