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Today we had probably the most delicious and certainly the most expensive lunch of our lives at the two Michelin star restaurant at Bernard Magrez's La Grand Maison. Before we ordered anything, five or six plates containing at least seven amuse bouches arrived, along with suggested order of consumption. I got distracted and forgot to photograph them. We went for the six course lunch with wine pairings. Dessert was actually five different desserts each followed by two more treats to amuse our bouches. Extraordinary food paired with incredible wines. I also forgot to photograph the rump of veal. Dommage.

Gah, they should’ve used olde English: “Whosoever pulleth out the knife is the true born king of all of Texas.”

Got out of jail. 6 months of bullshit over with.

Test Tone @ Home live right now: http://mixlr.com/illuminator/chat

I really think a Saxonia is my next watch. God, it looks amazing even in potato quality photos, Dave

Let's talk about some fricken expensive records, shall we? Dan Lacksman is a Belgian fella who did a fair amount of noodling with his Moog modular in the 70s. He produced at least one timeless classic: A guy I met on slsk in the early 00s turned me on to Electronic System. Same guy who sang the praises of FLACs to me (this was at a time when I thought 320k mp3s were overly large.) Oww, my ass! $400, pls. This is in spite of the above track (which is really the only reason to own the album) being released on this compilation a couple years ago. (Yes, I have both a needle drop of the '74 vinyl and the 2017 CD in FLAC.) Regular listeners to Test Tone will note that I have long held the belief that one does not want to enter into a bidding price pissing contest with serious ambient collectors. Strictly speaking, Electronic System is (electronic) lounge, but the overlap in the venn diagram of the listening base is pretty large. Add to that the Moog modular synth provenance, scarcity of the records and hoo baby, thats some expensive wax. Footnote, there's an earlier pressing with some truly terrible artwork ("let's put a bikini babe on there, we'll sell a million!") but as the bard would say, herein lies the rub: the '73 version of Skylab is shorty, faster and more Moogy. This I do not have and really do want to hear. I have something of a fetish for 70s Moog noodling.

Did some shopping at the unfortunately named “Hard-Off” store and stumbled across a bit of a treasure trove about 45 minutes outside of Tokyo.

Well that was a totally awesome concert - The Eagles in Birmingham (the UK one). Two and a half hours with no break - basically their iconic Greatest Hits and Hotel California albums (which I bought back in the day and still have) and a whole load of other, quite advanced sonically, stuff from later albums. The line up was the only remaining and performing member Don Henley (71) and slightly later members Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmidt, both also 71. Singing Glenn Frey's vocals was his son Deacon Frey (26), who was superb, and much to Carole's delight - Vince Gill. And the guys had lost none of their vocal ability and high notes despite their advancing years. It was the nearest thing to a hifi concert I've been to - the sound quality was excellent. One hell of an evening. This was the set list: Take It Easy One of These Nights Take It to the Limit Tequila Sunrise Witchy Woman In the City (Joe Walsh song) I Can't Tell You Why New Kid in Town Peaceful Easy Feeling Love Will Keep Us Alive Lyin' Eyes Don't Let Our Love Start Slippin' Away (Vince Gill cover) Those Shoes Already Gone Walk Away (James Gang cover) Life's Been Good (Joe Walsh song) The Boys of Summer (Don Henley song) Heartache Tonight Funk #49 (James Gang cover) Life in the Fast Lane Hotel California Rocky Mountain Way (Joe Walsh song) Desperado Best of My Love