Taberna de Nino, Calle Tanausu, Puerto del Carmen, Lanzarote

The food at this taverna was very tasty, copious and well presented, though the kitchen was a bit slow. These facts my be related.  They also charged for the bread though offered gratis a vodka and caramel digestif.

Endeavour Sailing School, Puerto Calero, Lanzarote

I did a week's 'Competent Crew' course at the Endeavour sailing school in Lanzarote, in June 2016, not having previously stepped on a yacht. Whether I am now remotely competent I rather doubt, though I did finally manage to tie those rather tricky knots to secure the boat to the pier at the end! The staff, instructors and other students were very pleasant and patient.

Download 2016: Rivers

Let it stop!

Following a mysteriously flat battery we arrived and were equally mysteriously directed without any queue to a prime and dry parking spot at the near side of the west car park and set up in time to watch a customarily commanding performance from Rammstein. The evening was notable for strange circus acts including 'sword swallower' and 'Mongolian Boy' and heavy disco to 3am in a general mud.

Next day the mud had churned itself into a fine, thick ooze.

Rivers

I was able to confirm that the traditional noodle stall had more and better noodles than the chain-like 'Noodle Hut'. One of the music stages had been replaced by some wrestling arena and, unless I misunderstood, some wrestler was later offered a 'most metal' award on the main stage. Just as there is only one true Dr Who, there are only two true wrestlers, and this gent was neither Big nor Giant. But the people to their own.

Inside

I cannot remember much about the music on Saturday though can confirm Trooper is better than Hobgoblin. Except for the Black Sabbath set, which recovered from a horribly out of tune guitar playing the initial tritone to a set of old material, with myself a half dozen heads from the front -- though eagle eyed observers spotted that there was at least a double of the lead vocal overdubbed. Sunday was wondrous, well, muddy, indeed there were rivers of the stuff. I enjoyed Amon Amarth, Electric Wizard, Gojira, and Iron Maiden showcased their new album, though not the really long song about the airship. It then stopped raining, though the adventures continued as the M1 was, in another mystery, closed. 

Desertfest 2016: The Sunday Sessions

Blood donor.

I did attend the Sunday of Desertfest. Camden, 2016. Highlight for me was Blood Ceremony, after which I legged it down the street to see Electric Wizard from the back of a very crowded Koko. I also quite liked what I saw of Trouble, who have unaccountably been off my radar for their 40 year existence. Godflesh, the closing two-
piece with sequenced drums, I found puzzling.

Necrowhatever

NecroDeathMort similarly, a fuzz of old style synths accompanying a bass. Witchsorrow started it off nicely.

Hesperia Lanzarote hotel

Cliff path just outside the hotel

We stayed at the Hesperia Lanzarote hotel in Puerto Calero in June 2016, on 'bed and breakfast'. It is a large, very pleasant complex on a vaguely Japanese theme with several swimming pools by a small rock beach with unfailingly polite and efficient staff.  Indeed, so nice that once I was lying by the pool, in a grizzled phase, and a manager asked if I was a client of the hotel. There is also a fine spa (with an attractive €60 package for the stay), and small gym, but with few 'animations'; however several cats. It is ten minutes walk from a dozen restaurants and some shops near the marina, but otherwise not very close to anything. A bus runs from above the marina about every hour to Puerto del Carmen, a bigger resort. Lanzarote itself is quite bleak, being mainly volcanic rock, and a day tour will see to it.

Cape Horn to Starboard - John Kretschmer (1986)

A charming, entirely unaffected story of a young man learning to sail and eventually rounding Cape Horn. Almost in passing, he mentions that two much better funded sailing vessels planning to do so at the same time, sank. I do not think anyone reading this could believe that Mr  Kretschmer was, at least by the time he got to the Cape, other than a very skilled yachtsman, but still his modesty and calm is inspiring. Though now I think I will stick to the Canal.

Doom over London 2016: the Saturday Sessions

Rumble

Sludge

I arrived at the Saturday Doom over London 2016 Session, on 26 March, to see the end of the King Goat (and admire the hood), followed by Eye of Solitude, who rumbled vocals with a magnificently slow, nosebleed- inducing bass rising to a fine double-time finale ('double-time' being relative and still splendidly slow). Though their second song was much the same. Torpor were quite interesting, a 3-piece with a more experimental sludge. Sea Bastard again mainly amazed by the tattoos on their guitarist, which however represented beasts of the sky, rather than the deep. Sea Buzzard, perhaps?


For Slabdragger, I thought I detected a riff from exposed guitars towards the end, but it was not confirmed; likewise Ataraxie entertained a dissonant three-guitar counterpoint at one point, which also failed to launch. I preferred Officium Triste, presenting a much fuller and more structured soundscape. Bossk brought an aimless though not exactly unpleasant instrumental, similar to the largely wordless Esoteric, who came dangerously close to drum and bass at some points. I found Hooded Menace heavy in a simple way, and largely uneventful. Moonspell closed with a theatrical presentation, at the poppy end of doom, a bit like Lacuna Coil but without such clear tunes or the Italian lady; although some think the Coil not that good either.

King Dude: 13 February, London

A kingdom for him
somewhere?

The venue was an upstairs room in the Lexington, a rather large pub near Islington which sells an IPA for £5.75 a pint. Where better to be insulted by a gin-swilling American 'King Dude' strumming, from time to time -- in the course of a shambolic performance -- of his love for the Dark One? In fact, I could not hear any of the lyrics, except when it came to "Lucifer's light", a song which was really rather good.

He was preceded by a guitar gentleman by the name of "Naevus", desponding like a Cohen without the poetry. But I, Melachi, liked best the first band, a three-piece "The Howling Truth" with a bass beating throughout like a heart over mixed with free-ish guitar solos.

In the Danakil depression

Convoy

I, Melachi ibn Amillar, being of unsound mind and body, did visit the Danakil depression, in Ethiopia on the Eritreian border, on a 4-day trip with ETT, booked (for $500, after some discussion) from Ephraim at the Africa Hotel in Axum, including "free" minibus transfer from there to Mekele. I wouldn't go on this trip again if you paid me $500, because the climb to the top of the volcano in the dark was really rather tiring and only fit for the young, or experienced trekkers, not helped by Alfar guides saying "let's go" whenever I tried to have a rest on the way down. The facilities everywhere were very basic, including two (surprisingly pleasant) nights under the stars. However the driver (Sirak) and guide (Solomon) and the cook were all very good. This was just as well as I confess I booked this trip mainly to get away with some other tourists from assorted beggars, chancers, children and dogs who were making the country rather tiresome, and so was surprised to find myself alone in the 'zero' landcruiser with these fellows, from time to time augmented by 2 guards with AK47s. Indeed security was plentiful, with half a dozen soldiers on top of the mountain, and another camp
being at a military base. The landscapes -- the volcano itself, the desert, camel salt caravans and sulphur fields -- were wondrous strange.

Cook (in green)

Strange