CucosBlog

Here are 25 interesting questions published by Glenn Branca in the New York Times in early 2007. I’ve included my responses which are hopefully not too flippant.

Glenn’s intro: “I got the idea for this piece from mathematician David Hilbert’s well-known list of 23 “Paris Problems” (1900) that he hoped to see solved in the new century. Of course there is not the slightest connection between Hilbert’s list of problems and this list of questions. Not to mention the fact that many of these questions contain the answer simply in the asking.”

Going to gigs is knackering. By the time I had met Antony outside the Scala in King’s Cross, I was already painfully tired. Why?

I went to quite a lot of trouble to attend this gig and witness with mine own eyes the greatness of Ariel Pink, probably the most exciting music phenomenon of this period. The fact that Cluster and Howlin Rain were on the bill too made it unmissable.

I regard myself as an excellent joint roller and this afternoon, while wrapping a present for my god daughter’s 1st birthday, I realised that the same finger dexterity gives me an advantage when it comes to wrapping gifts.

Here are most of the CDs I listened to while in the US. Yes that’s right I made a note of them as I went along. I thought I may as well. There’s a few that I’ve forgotten so you can blame the mota for that.

Another Neil Young gig… Expectations were kind of low after the last Greendale tour, when he seemed to have transformed into an overly quaint Garrison Keillor storyteller dude. But as you know, I only review gigs I like…

On the back of the ATP weekend, I wasn’t particularly excited to be going to yet another gig the very next day. But tickets get booked in that moment of desire/excitement/curiosity, and having already shelled out at £16 a pop I had to make the effort. It turned out to be an inspiring and moving experience.

Birthdays are the perfect opportunity for a wander down memory lane. What a great expression. There are roads and lanes aren’t there - well trodden superhighways, massive distances connected by lightning modes of travel - and then quiet little paths that take some effort even to be found.