Home — Draft Test
Music & Performance
Travel & Photography
Observation & Drollery
David McAughtry
ses site web (et toasts)
Est. 2001
London / France / Cape Town
Not updated regularly
About this place
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
Lucinda, the Chickadee, Margaret, and Lake Charles
An old flame’s attachment to a place he was never actually born in.
I always wanted to waltz in Berlin — with the Gandinis
A juggling troupe, a Schubert quintet, and a tent in Berlin.
A business idea whose time may yet come.
On insomnia, snoring, and escalating countermeasures.
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)
On the precise social mechanics of saying hello.
Possibly the most irritating thing about British Airways
It is not what you think. Filed under music for reasons that become clear.
Thomas Trotter thrillingly manipulates Albert Hall’s massive organ
The title is not an accident. Neither is the performance.
An 81-year-old LSO violinist drives a minicab. A banana features.
Then look here
Click the column headings for more
Observation & Drollery
Struth — what about them Hungarians then
The incredible role of the Bar Mitzvah Box Brownie in modern photography.
On corporate enthusiasm, trophy shelf technology, and the specific underwear requirements of a 7-hour Wagner performance.
A resemblance that, once noticed, cannot be unnoticed.
River Phoenix’s siblings. Their names. That’s the piece.
Music & Performance
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.
London lunchtime chamber music venues
A practical guide that has held up surprisingly well.
Possibly the most irritating thing about British Airways
It is not what you think. Filed under music for reasons that become clear.
Wheezes & Concert Logistics
The problem of the hard seat. A proposed solution.
The problem of the interval drink. A proposed solution.
The problem of the person in front. A proposed solution.
Field testing. Partial success.
Concertpant
Unwritten but not unconceived. The underwear requirements for a 7-hour Wagner performance are specific and have not previously been addressed in print.
The ruined villas of Kep-sur-Mer
The Cambodian coast, the French colonial period, and what remains.
Faith restored in French cuisine
It can be done.
Plus ça change, plus c’est vraiment différent
France, and the specific ways in which it has and has not changed.
Old Orleans — lightly frisked and chilled to the bone
New Orleans in January. The right time to go.
On the plane back from KL, a few moments to reflect.
A wheeze so obvious it has never been implemented correctly.
Madrid street portraits. A neighbourhood that sits still long enough to be photographed.
The traditional fishing huts of the Gironde estuary. Worth the drive.
Lisbon before anyone else has arrived.
Self-explanatory, and better than it sounds.
Street photography in Cape Town.
Outdated but possibly interesting
The Porsche 911 goes in for a routine check. It does not come back for some time.
Written in 2013, in the first flush of Snowden.
Hitler and I learn of the impending demise of Google Reader
The Hitler-reacts format. Fully dated, mildly amusing.
Before Snowden, before Prism.
Virage Corner
The best resource on the internet for maintaining and repairing the 1989 Aston Martin Virage V8 Coupe — written from direct experience by someone who still owns one of the ~363 ever made.
Virage CornerHarry & Joyce
Two pieces that matter more than the rest.
mcaughtry.photo
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.
mcaughtry.photo