Month: January 2006

The Kinks, ‘Picture Book’

I woke up at 9.16 this morning for my first day back at work. Good effort. Junior was asleep, having got her mother up for a feed at six, so she couldn’t review any songs. This, therefore, is carried over from a little extravaganza we did on Sunday while practising with the new i-Dog. The i-Dog was enjoying it, even though its little lights mark it down as a hip hop fan at the moment. It appears to think that everything that doesn’t sound like the Sex Pistols is hip hop. Maybe that’s right. Maybe 2006 will bring forth a breaking-down of all barriers separating genres and styles. Yadda yadda.

You have to love ‘Picture Book’, and I bet it sold loads of photo printers. Junior gave it some whoops and handy dance steps. When she looks back at our picture books years from now, I don’t know how many pictures of her mama she’ll see. They nearly all seem to be of the little lady herself, and there’s a ludicrous number of them. She can’t help being so damned photogenic.

The Village Green Preservation Society was another Christmas present. I did pretty well.

The Fatback Band, ‘I Found Lovin’’

Welcome to Junior’s second year. At Christmas we learned that she’s a dab hand at ripping off wrapping paper, and then eating it. The presents inside were barely a distraction. She said goodbye to 2005 at about 7pm on New Year’s Eve, giving her parents the opportunity to tear into the alcohol that was still knocking around the house. We had Hoegaarden, buck’s fizz and of course champagne, and slagged off NYE telly. Jools Holland’s thing was ok, I suppose, if you like KT Tunstall, Goldfrapp and the Kaiser Chiefs. We can take or leave all that around here.

‘I Found Lovin’’ was an inspired present for me from Junior’s mum. A 1983 picture sleeve 7”, in fact. It’s an old favourite, and always the first record played in the pub after we’d come in from the football. Junior’s Uncle Paddy has been waiting for a re-release of it for some time, so he’s going to be all jealous.

Junior hums along to it, from the mat where she’s throwing around the toys, old and new. If I was starkly honest with myself, I’d say she was humming because the first signs of teeth are bothering her, but instead let’s say that she was getting lost in its rare groove and faint fragrance of Kronenbourg in plastic glasses.