Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Quince (well, some)

For my international readers - many of whom appear to know not what is a quince, and have phoned and emailed me to ask "whassaquince, then?" - here's a picture of some quinces.

Ugly, ain't they?

On a histo-musicological note, I rather imagine the band-name Quincy Conserve is a somewhat assinine pun on quince jam, and the man's name Quinc(e)y.

Quincy Conserve were one of the most talented and professional groups to appear on the New Zealand music scene in the late sixties. They were (Drinks-After-Work's hometown) Wellington's first 'supergroup'. Incredibly, none of the members of the band were ever called Quinc(e)y, at least not in public. They were active from 1967 'til they broke up in 1971, possibly due to the pressure of keeping on having to tell people what their stupid name was/meant.

At this moment I am unable to ascertain the correct collective noun for quinces. I'm tempted to suggest that "a quattrain of quince" may suffice for this situation, and many others, when one has four quince to hand.

Please make any other helpful suggestions in the comments box.

Also spare a thought for Karl Kippenberger, bass-player in Shihad, another one of the most professional groups to appear on the New Zealand music scene. Karl's father Peter died on the weekend in a weird fire in Paekakariki.

Sunday, April 24, 2005

Made jam

Quince are a strange, rare fruit; ugly, hard and inedibly tart in the raw state, and available only for a short season of three or so weeks every autumn. They have a uniquely delicious flavour when cooked, however, and hue of their flesh turns from a standard pear-like colour to an attractive ruby-red. What better thing to do, then, on a freezing Sunday morning, than make a kilo or so of them into jam.

Some of the *ahem* fruits of my labour pictured right. The jam is not unusual, nor is the making of it. You use 1 kg quince, 1 kg castor suger, and the juice of two lemons. There is no added pectin; the quince is naturally already quite high in said setting agent and the acid in the lemon juice is all it needs to coax it to do its thing and, well, get the jam to set.

The lemon juice gives the jam a lovely fresh citrus nose, and rather pleasingly, in its delightfully-lingering finish hints of Seville orange marmalade.

It took almost more then I had within me to wait for the smallest jar I filled to set before spooning obscenely hedonistic amounts onto a toasted muffin, laying over curls of a strong cheddar (parmesan would also do charmingly well) and consuming.

Thursday, April 07, 2005

WTF

Just seen on a t-shirt: "I eat more pussy than cervical cancer"

Saturday, April 02, 2005

Listen closely now, here he comes...

On paper it has all the likely-hood of a collaboration between Graham Capill, leader of the Christian Heritage political party in New Zealand and self-appointed "one-man megaphone for Christian indignation" for more than a decade, and an eight year-old girl. That is to say, not very likely at all.

But you don't, as they say, win matches on predictions or paper and so here we have David Sylvian, former pin-up boy satin-tonsilled vocalist and front-man for Japan, and maker since of a number of literate, lush, seriously odd solo records (highligts: Brilliant Trees, Secrets of the Beehive, Dead Bees on a Cake); heavyweight Austrian electronica artist Christian Fennesz; and Derek Bailey, irrascibly iconoclastic guitarist and foremost proponent of free-improvisation for nigh-on 40 years. Making a record together.

David Sylvian and Derek Bailey - the Good Son


It's a mash-up of sorts, it's called Blemish, and as allmusic.com says, it's the "sort of record that makes many long-time followers throw up their arms in aggravation - it's very much a 'final straw' record".

Not this listener.

Accompanied in turns by Bailey, Fennesz, or his own laconic guitar, Sylvian croons and whispers his way through eight tracks. By its very nature it is a barren, broke-down affair and it's utterly beautiful; enveloping in its bristly lilting swagger, like a well-read drunken sailer yet to find his land-legs and rolling all over town bellowing out his stark shanties to any who'll listen.

Blemish was released in 2003; there's also a new album out called The Good Son vs. The Only Daughter which is a collection of remixes of Blemish material.