CSI

When it first started on UK television (on Channel 5, in 2000), I loved the American television programme CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (Las Vegas, not the other spin offs).

There were some issues with it – the computing was wrong and unreasonable, it was plainly dramatised a lot as CSI would not really be that involved in cases, there was an awful lot of exposition (ie telling the audience basic things that actual CSI would already know) and I always hated when they performed some test and looked all smug and smiley because it worked and made progress on the case (surely it was just their day-to-day work) – but many of the stories were interesting, there were big plot twists, plenty of style and it worked.

Best of all were the unresolved cases where you were just left hanging.

I think they reached a peak around series 5 or 6. Because I liked it so much, I bought the DVD collections. When the programme went downhill, me being me, I kept buying. Having watched the first few series then left the rest for years, coming back to them recently after a long time was like coming to something new. Certainly, series 5 and 6 gave me much joy, and I think the very early series were generally the best. Of course, every series has excellent shows and duff shows, but these were the best.

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Potato Land

The first band I ever saw in concert was the American group Spirit, in Walthamstow sometime in 1973.

As a five piece band, Spirit had had some success, producing a number of albums including The Twelve Dreams of Dr Sardonicus. But when I saw them they were three piece, guitarist Randy Califonia, drummer Ed Cassidy and basist Larry “Fuzzy” Knight.

There is some controversy about whether California did or did not write the theme to Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin), but they were certainly responsible for one of the great lost cult albums of all time, The Adventures of Kaptain Kopter & Commander Cassidy in Potato Land.

Bits of it were played at the concert, and pieces were released in basic form over the years. And there were the inevitable bootlegs. It was a “Spirit” project, but really California’s work, a strange collection of songs interspersed with talking and a tenuous story. Much along the lines of Nilsson’s The Point, but weirder.

Now, finally, after nearly 50 years, the original music has been released: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Potatoland-Remastered-Expanded-SPIRIT/dp/B07T4RYNVT/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=spirit&qid=1568492399&s=music&sr=1-4

There are two versions on the box set, the original and complete plus a 1981 version, very different. There are also two live concerts, which are a bit rough and ordinary.

But Potato Land is great, and hugely enjoyable. Go for i!!