Yorkshire, 2015
Music & Performance
Travel & France
Observation & Drollery

David McAughtry

ses site web (et toasts)
Est. 2001
London / France / Cape Town
Not updated regularly

Fifteen years of writing — about jazz pianists and organ recitals, an 81-year-old minicab driver who played violin with the LSO, ruined villas on the Cambodian coast, the correct way to attend a concert without suffering unduly, and whatever else seemed worth the effort.

Start here
Observation & Drollery
I ain’t sleepy

Insomnia, snoring, a gas mask in pyjamas, and a section written entirely in capital letters.

Goebbels’ heirs

On propaganda, truth as just one narrative option, and a very loud Republican on a plane at La Guardia.

The Greeting (and the Fish and Chip Impasse)

A social problem with no satisfactory resolution.

Slow boat to Heathrow

An 81-year-old LSO violinist drives a minicab through Richmond Park with a banana.

Pet care and the rapture

A business opportunity, briefly.

How to gain weight by drinking beaver anal gland juice

The title is the piece, more or less.

Roger Ebert’s cartoon captions

Ebert submitted captions to the New Yorker cartoon contest. Some of them are very good indeed.

Whitey Bulger and Fu Manchu

A resemblance that, once noticed, cannot be unnoticed.

Music & Performance
Lucinda, the Chickadee, Margaret, and Lake Charles

Music criticism, travel writing, and journalism at once. 400 words. The best thing on this site.

I always wanted to waltz in Berlin — with the Gandinis

Juggling, ballroom dancing, and a large revolving structure.

Thomas Trotter thrillingly manipulates Albert Hall’s massive organ

The headline required no embellishment.

Gerald Brooks at the Abbatiale de St Ouen

The legendary Cavaillé-Coll organ in Rouen. Worth the journey.

Jayhawks blow the bl**dy doors off in Kentish Town

They really did.

Travel & France
The ruined villas of Kep-sur-Mer

Cambodia’s ghost coast. 1,067 views and counting.

Faith restored in French cuisine

It was a close-run thing.

Possibly the most irritating thing about British Airways

It is not what you think.

Bali jam

On the plane back from KL, a few moments to reflect. Relevant today in ways it wasn’t when written.

Harry & Joyce
Concertcushion

The problem of the hard seat. A proposed solution.

ConcertBev

The problem of the interval drink. A proposed solution.

Concertgripe

The problem of the person in front. A proposed solution.

Monty Alexander and the trial

Field testing. Partial success.

French wine (in France)

A wheeze so obvious it has never been implemented correctly.

Concertpant

Unwritten but not unconceived. The underwear requirements for a 7-hour Wagner performance are specific and have not previously been addressed in print.

Some other good stuff
Virage Corner

The best resource on the internet for maintaining and repairing the 1989 Aston Martin Virage V8 Coupe. Around 18–20 technical pages covering the engine, electrics, VIC diagnosis, immobiliser wiring, vacuum pipes, brakes, suspension, fuel systems, and more — written from direct experience, over many years, by someone who still owns one of the ~363 ever made.

Virage Corner
mcaughtry.photo

For photographs properly presented, with full notes on where, how and why they were taken, plus a substantial body of technical writing about cameras and technique — a site organised around the image rather than the word.

mcaughtry.photo
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Malasaña portraits

Madrid street portraits. A neighbourhood that sits still long enough to be photographed.

Getting the bread

A small moment, precisely caught.

Low light bridge

What bridges look like when nobody is paying attention.

Pont Alexandre III

Paris at the right time of day.

Gironde carrelet at dusk

The traditional fishing huts of the Gironde estuary. Worth the drive.

Torre de Belém at dawn

Lisbon before anyone else has arrived.

The lonely tuba player

Self-explanatory, and better than it sounds.

Some Malaysia travel snaps

Taken with a small Fuji. Processed with care.

Rusting land yachts at the Wijnlands Motor Museum

Evocative shots showing the passing of time on several different levels.

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