Jonny Trunk’s newsletter, always amusing.
“Hello, I hope you are well. I am back from a mammoth tour of England. Nine counties. In fact I lost county. Also, 50p Friday can now begin again, and today we have a musical treat by Edmundo Ros – his cover versions of the classics from The Sound Of Music. This was before the film was made so there are cues you may not be aware of. It’s a charming and quite excellent album, with a killer version of “My Favourite Things”. It’s slightly exotic, slightly classical, very jazzy and most entertaining. It’s the first Friday of the month, which means it’s Spitalfield Record Fayre day (punches air with fist). Which also means I can go and buy a load of vinyl that I don’t really need and add it to the pile of other vinyl I bought last time that I don’t really need. Thanks for listening, Jonny” Eds Note: If you like this sort of thing, you’ll like this thing.

Folk Art, Let’s Dance!
At Tate Britain, the Folk Art exhibition. Not sure about the curation – it was a confused affair, with far too many paintings that were just outsider or naive, rather than folk – but it had two fantastic objects made from mutton bones by Napoleonic prisoners of war. A beautifully-wrought cockerel (that was used on some posters for the show) and this violin.

Blue Ruin
Great murder/revenge tale, almost tragically ordinary and low-key, helped by an eerie soundscape – songs heard through car stereos or barroom walls alternating with a series of low tones and throbs, courtesy of Brooke and Will Blair. Partly funded through Kickstarter, where director Jeremy Saulnier’s pitch was, “It’s like plucking a character from a Hal Ashby film and tossing them into No Country for Old Men. Or if Wendy and Lucy got caught in the crossfire of Taxi Driver.” There’s also a lovely recurring use of Little Willie John singing “No Regrets” by the great Otis Blackwell, its rough edges and slight hysteria perfectly mirroring the events in the film. Look out for a terrific performance by Devin Ratray as an old high school buddy of the protagonist, Dwight (played by an equally good Macon Blair).

A low point in Graphic Design
Iggy Azalea’s album comes complete with the interesting blond-on-blonde treatment of lyrics and credits. And the most godawful choice of fonts – Broadway & Brush Script & some featureless sub-Helvetica – that I’m pretty sure are not being used ironically…

Can you be more than ubiquitous?
Last refuge of the restless artistic soul – the perfume.

Extra! Claves to the fore!
Oh, and Jonny was right, “My Favourite Things” is fantastic. In fact the whole album (no song over 2:49, it’s done and dusted in 29 minutes) is joyful. I mean, who can resist “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” as a light samba featuring a harp as lead instrument? On second thoughts, don’t answer that.