Showing posts with label TASCAM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TASCAM. Show all posts

Wednesday 19 July 2017

The iPad is Gone

It's grey and rainy and I am have hust been watching Ripper Street and Taboo, lots of grim , 19th Century violence and machinations.

Yesterday morning I had a dream , I think I was in Edinburgh, in some Polish shop but I had to go back to get a codec for a video but the only way out was via a hardboard catflap blocked by a China man on a trolley but I had to go out via side door into somewhere I had never been before , lots of high dark streets, then the alarm went off. I know this makes no sense but it was a dream and I can still remember some of it, so that's why I've written it down here. Some psychiatrist will probable get some insight into my psyche from that, or maybe not .. who knows.

Anyway for the last year I have probably used my iPad to charge up and update IOS and that's about it. I'd originally got it to play with Garageband and basically I just doodled with Garageband. I find my TASCAM portastudio and Audacity far easier to produce music with so I ditched the iPad and bought a Kindle Fire 8. All I've done with it so far is charge it up, but I  hope I will get more use out of it than I did the iPad. I just tried to install the Google Play Store but that wasn't successful and Alexa has talked to me.

I only have sixty thousand steeps to no to hit my million steps in three months in the Million Step Challenge, and after that I pledge to do 340K each month. It's a good way of keeping fit without the boring drudgery (as I see it) of gym membership,

Anyway I thought I would tell you about my dream and how I am no longer infected by Apple but we shall see how the Kindle performs. So a suitable record would be on of the Osmonds goodies, where they try to take on the Jackson 5 leaving you with "One Bad Apple".

Sleep well my friends.



Sunday 19 March 2017

In The Neighbo(u)rhood

Yesterday I started reading my next book, Tom Waits on Tom Waits , I opened it up and thought , whoa , I really can't do this. The writing on the introduction seemed tiny. It's a biggish book , 450 or so pages , and my eyes are not that great at reading small print, but I have managed similar books before, the most recent being "I Am Zlatan" which was hard going, only 300 pages but did manage to keep my interest and teach me a few facts , and I do like Zlatan Ibrahimovic.  The book I've just finished is "Spanking Watson" by Kinky Friedman which I bought because I like the guy, and the book was easy to read , 200 pages of readable print and a reasonable enjoyable and diverting read , manage a few minor offensive but funny scenarios and you just have to check out Kinky Friedman's song titles to see if you would be offended by him , but there is a cat in the book and Nelson Mandela loved him.

Anyway after a day I've read the intro and twenty pages of the Tom Waits book, and that is good going for me. I did once read a Dean Koontz book "Dark Rivers of the Heart" in one four hour sitting (it's 750 pages) but that was an exception, but it's amazing how the writing becomes easier to read when the book really engages you, It is going to keep me engaged for a couple of weeks, but I am a huge Tom Waits afficionado ever since I heard the song "In The Neighbourhood" from "Swordfishtrombones" which made me go out and buy the album immediately (they didn't have downloads in them days). When I looked for a video to include with this, I remembered Peter Gabriel had also covered this wonderful song , so I've included that video as well for you to enjoy, though it doesn't seem to be available, I thought it would be on "Scratch My Back"

Anyway I was out for a walk round MY NEIGHBOURHOOD this morning as part of the penultimate day of the Step Challenge and walking down Two Ball Lonnen saw a cat in a tree being tormented my two magpies. You don't see that every day but I thought it was an amusing scenario.

Last night after having my TASCAM studio for a few weeks I managed to record something onto it. It was late at night and just the equivalent of Thomas Edison's "Mary Had A Little Lamb" , but digital recording is a bit more convoluted that pressing play and record on a cassette recorder which is how I used to record stuff. Anyway I think the tiny steps are paying off and hopefully this year I can produce something on my terms.

Anyway it's a beautiful day, I may take a trip up Cow Hill and take some photographs, in order to meet today 14k step challenge... then again who knows