Never Any Good

I have been to see Martin Simpson, whom I last saw four years ago. On that occasion he had a couple of accompanists - Andy Cutting on squeeze box if I remember rightly - although my blog post of the time is remarkably uninformative as to what he sang. Simpson, who is above all a brilliant guitarist (as an aside, he performed a couple of songs on the banjo and his versatility almost - almost - made me warm to that instrument), mostly performs interpretations of other people's songs with just a couple of his originals. Highlights for me were 'The Stranger Song', in tribute to Leonard Cohen, and what was apparently one of the English ballad forerunners to St James Infirmary Blues (much loved by your bloggist of course) segueing into Dylan's 'Blind Willie McTell', itself heavily influenced by the blues standard.

“But power and greed and corruptible seed

 Seem to be all that there is.”

As well as a poignant, politically charged and finger-pointing song about Aberfan and, more unexpectedly, 'Heartbreak Hotel' he covered Jackson C. Frank's classic 'Blues Run the Game'. Simpson is good value for patter between songs, mostly both educational and, where appropriate, amusing. I had previously been aware that Frank had been somewhat unlucky in life; what I hadn't appreciated was that the money which he used to record his sole, unsuccessful album came from compensation that he had received for being badly injured when the orphanage in which he spent his childhood had burned down. That is perhaps beyond bad luck as we would normally understand it.

 
Never Any Good is Simpson's biggest 'hit'. His father - the song's subject - was born in 1899 and was fifty four when Simpson was born. Simpson himself is sixty three and has an eleven year old daughter. My own daughters - ten years or so older than his - could never convince their teachers that they had a grandmother who had been evacuated as a child during the second world war (their classmate's parents typically being a couple of decades younger than me), but even I have trouble with the thought that there is in this country at the moment a primary school child whose grandfather was born during the reign of Queen Victoria and fought in the Great War.

Pot61pouri

"I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world." - Socrates 

Needless to say, I fully concur with him. Nathanial Hawthorne once wrote that "Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn-out soil. My children have had other birthplaces, and, so far as their fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their roots into unaccustomed earth." Nothing demonstrates that lack of flourishing more than the stunted moral compass of Theresa May and her Little Englander acolytes.

My health continues to improve, although I still get tired very easily. Nevertheless I have managed to get out to a number of things, albeit far fewer than those that I had tickets for and didn't get to. I saw the National Theatre's broadcast of 'The Threepenny Opera', which was excellent. At the risk of repeating myself, these broadcasts really are a great resource for those of us who live in the provinces. I have also seen a touring production of 'A Tale of Two Cities', entertaining enough, but Sidney Carton's actions never get any more plausible. I find the alternative put forward by Keith Laidler in 'The Carton Chronicles' to be much more convincing. Last, but not least, I have been to see Peggy Seeger. Despite being in her eighties she is still in fine voice and is a more than effective multi-instrumentalist. She was strongest on the more personal songs, those written for her by her late brothers or by Ewan MacColl. And the young chap accompanying her did what I thought was impossible; he played a banjo - a fretless banjo in this case - in a way that I actually enjoyed.

And, for the record, I voted for Jeremy Corbyn again.

Pot39pouri

So, still no wargaming, although a largish and mixed order has gone off to Warbases. The games it's aimed at are:

• trying Basic Impetus using the Celts and Romans that I have for the Pony Wars variant we played a few months ago.
• extending C&C Napoleonics to deploy more units on a wider battlefield
• differentiating between battle commanders and unit leaders in the Wars of the Roses

Speaking of the Romans in Britain, Peter has drawn my attention to a meld of Pony Wars and Sharpe Practice that appeared in the Lardies' last Christmas special which looks to be an interesting source of ideas. My big problem is that I didn't redraft the rules immediately after the last runs through and have frankly forgotten what we decided.

Boardgaming resumed (by the way I still intend to dedicate a whole post to the whys and wherefores, but the world of boardgaming in Leeds has been riven by a schism every bit as deep as that of wargamers in Ilkley) with the usual wide range of games:

• Kobayakawa: another excellent minimalist Japanese game. In fact it's so minimalist that once you know the rules - themselves, er, minimalist - one could play with a normal pack of cards (or even better 6 Nimmt!) and not need to buy it at all.
• Abluxxen: I like it, but still can't work out a strategy to follow.
• Mysterium: Cosa? Dove? Chi? Still don't like it.
• The Three Musketeers: I was the cardinal and was given the runabout by the musketeers. I'd like to play it more often.
• Hanabi: Much discussion of conventions - I think I'm against - and a solid 20.
• Fidelitas: A new one on me which I'd like to play again now I understand it. I didn't win because I couldn't count to nine.

And briefly, music has included the Jon Palmer Acoustic Band and Blueflint. They were both excellent although sadly the two - count 'em - banjos in the latter did nothing to alter my aversion to the instrument.

He got a real pretty mouth ain't he?

I have been too busy behaving badly to give this blog the attention it deserves. ["Tell me," asks the Rhetorical Pedant, missing the point as usual "does that mean you only write it when you're bored?"; to which the only reply necessary is a snort of haughty derision] However, I find myself on a Sunday evening with time weighing heavily on my hands and nothing better to do and so here's a catch-up post.

Nimrat Kaur

James has still been in wargaming limbo - although he is in regions even more remote this weekend having gone off to Scotland to mingle with the great and good of wargaming - and so Peter and I had a few games of X-Wing. I was rather taken with it, being by and large a fan of simple mechanics. I have never seen any of the Star Wars films so can't really comment on the theme and my lack of engagement with popular culture caused me some problems with interpreting what was written on the cards. It was a very pleasant evening, although I do think that the Target Lock action is a bit over-powerful. Normal service should be resumed next week with a look at the fourth expansion of C&C Napoleonics, the Prussians.

Green Bartley

Culturally, I belatedly caught up with 'The Lunchbox' which, while finding a tad close to home, I really enjoyed. And then it was on to see Gren Bartley and his band. Fortunately the heated argument I had with Mr Bartley during the interval, and which continued after the gig finished, didn't in any way diminish my enjoyment of the performance. The subject under contention was the attractiveness - or otherwise - of the music of the banjo. For the record, I side with Mark Twain who of course defined a gentleman as someone who knew how to play the banjo, but didn't. Don't let any of that put you off, the banjo only features on one song and the band - who showcase more palatable instruments such as cello, guitar, violin, piano and percussion as well as terrific vocal harmonies - are excellent.