Shave

I started the day with a beard, I've ended it without. Somewhere inbetween this happened. .

A man who's never without a beard is our musical link today. Wow ! I remember vaguely hearing about Devendra Banhart and thinking I should really investigate further when a promo CD of his Rejoicing In The Hands album arrived on my desk one morning a few years back (back in the days when I worked in the offices of a well-known music retailer, it seems an age ago...) Played the album at home that evening and was pretty blown away by it. So impressed that I travelled down to London just for the night to see him at the Shepherd's Bush Empire the next time he was in the UK. To tell the truth, he was a little disapppointing, his band overwhelmed him and the whole thing descended into a bit of a hippy-funk jam session. Far better were the support band, Cocorosie, who dazzled with their idiosyncratic brand of quirky lo-fi electronica-folk played in part on an assortment of instruments like this, yup, that, the same thing my 2 yr old played with at home. Next time I saw Cocorosie was in Glasgow where they were supported by the little-known but highly regarded Antony & The Johnsons, but that's a story for another day...

To end - was very touched this morning by seeing my youngest daughter in her first nursery nativity/Christmas show. She was an angel and did brilliantly, as they all did, but the Christmas Robin stole the show by zoning out completely at one point and remaining firmly rooted to her perch when she was meant to be doing anything else but.