PAYTV - #AnimalAugust #12

I've been binge watching TV again , this time "The Rook" on Virgin . When I first started watching it was on Virgin's UHD channel , but when I hit episode three it said I had to upgrade to continue. Needless to say I didn't though apparently it's STARZ production , though "Ash vs The Evil Dead" was included in the package.

Amazon Prime is similar , you pay for the Prime package , and you see some programs advertised and when you select you have to take out another subscription to another provider. It's like charity and lottery adverts, there are more and more spring up and if it keeps on like this we may have to go back to buying DVDs.

I also get annoyed that pay channels carry advertisements on th elive feeds, I don't mind advertisements on say All 4 as I see that as my price of admission, same with all commercial channels.

I am grateful for the plethora and cornucopia and good television programs available, this is from someone who grew up with a choice of two TV channels. Also when you watch recorded items you can fast forward through adverts , and when you watch Sky or Amazon Prime Streams you have no adverts so to speak (possibly some short ones) .

To be quite honest I do watch very little live TV which means , apart from All 4 and other commercial streamers I am not usually troubled by adverts so generally things are good , although you do get some very good adverts.

So what should we go for #AnimalAugust ? Well "Toad" by Cream is playing , essentially a Ginger Baker drum solo bookended by a solid simple heavy riff , the live version has a bit more guitar work in it , but Ginger Baker's drumming is the star here.

Timefolder - #AnimalAugust #10

I've had an idea for a short story or even a book called "Timefolder" , obviously I can't say any more as the concept is fairly nebulous and cloudy and I do need some time to flesh it out. Whether this will happen or it will just be forgotten about , I don't know , and given my  previous track record it will probably just be left.

We are well into August and today's weather is as grey as ever. I have been trying to set up a subdomain to no effect (ie using the proper channels nothing actually works).

This is a very short insubstantial post and had a few things I wanted to say but like many times before everything has trained from my mind, leaving me with very little to share with you.

The thing is I think my posts average about 250 words and even though I feel there is absolutely nothing in this post this has hit that word count so it's not like my early posts which were about a sentence long, but also I suppose there is a lot of word fluff in this that is waffle to expand the post.

I have finished "The End of The F**king World" this week , which I found rather good if challenging and you do laugh but sometimes feel you shouldn't because of what has happened. You can watch for free on All 4 . I keep getting adverts to subscribe and go advert free , but I am fine if adverts are the price I pay to watch the series.

I actually pay Virgin to watch Sky and Sky carry adverts even though I am paying to watch them anyway.


For #AnimalAugust I've gone for a Christmas record from Alan White and Chris Squire when they were with Yes , "Run With The Fox" , possibly a bit trte but I've always liked it . I'm surprised it doesn't seem to be available for digital download but is on the Yesyears boxed set which is available art a reasonable price through Amazon.

Sleep Now

A lot of this is coming from Matt Haig's book "Notes on a Nervous Planet" and it is so good that I am about to order "How To Stop Time" which I think was inspired from a page in "Reasons To Stay Alive" which is another of his excellent books. I have read others, my introduction to him was "Humans" which I gave away on  World Book Night before it degenerated into commercialisation. The thing is I'm not sure if I have read and bought "How To Stop Time" because it is a paperback book and my real books are not stored digitally although Amazon will tell me if I've bought it before, then I just have to find it.

Anyway one section I have come to is a short section on sleep and the fact that generally we don't get enough. We need seven to nine hours per night and lack of sleep does cause problems. The odd night or two is fine especially if you are interacting withe real people of real things. The problem is that people use what should be sleep time to bings watch TV, be on their electronic device, with phones replacing alarm clocks and therefore living on people's bedsides. This si not a good idea.

The CEO of Netflix said that their biggest enemy was sleep and it was a huge area to increase consumption of their product. I have not yet taken out a subscription to Netflix, because by TIVO Box is filling up from my Virgin subscription, I also have access to Amazon Prime, and NowTV which I can stop and start when I want it. I worked out that it will take six hours to illegally download a TV series or film yet for £8 you get a month of Netflix or NowTV, a far better use of my time to pay that rather than steal, though we have been conditioned to think we shouldn't have to pay for digital content.

When we sleep we cannot be consumers so the whole commercial world hates us because we are not buying, but to buy we need money, but we are always having credit pushed at use rather than being paid enough to actually buy without going into debt.

Another point that Matt Haig makes is to turn off notifications on your phone to give yourself control, and that is something I have always done as I can't deal with things popping up all the time.

So it's gotta be "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" by the sadly missed Warren Zevon as the music to accompany today's post.

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It was freezing this morning but the frost now seems to be fading. For the first time in ages I've had porridge for breakfast and thaks to the new set of pans I picked up forom Morrisons it's just a quick wipe clean.

I've found that listening to instrumental music can be quite good and have been listening to Jean-Michel Jarre's "Aero" which was an experiment in surround sound, and it does sound good on headphones. This is the blurb from the album description on Amazon:

"Aero is Jean Michel Jarre's first experiment in surround sound as well as being the most respectable "best of" album in 13 years. The album features reworked versions of his golden oldies and three new pieces. The result of the new orchestration is a modern-sounding remix album, rather than a definitive greatest hits.

The album was designed and recorded in multi channel surround-sound and is therefore presented on both a CD and DVD in the same package (including Dolby Digital and DTS tracks allowing playback on a standard DVD video player in 5.1 surround sound). Sound quality is top notch as you'd expect although sometimes the transitional pieces between tracks overdo the surround effects for the sake of demonstrating the technology.

The music itself, as a collection of greatest hits tracks, is a surprising choice, presumably designed for the best 5.1 surround sound. There's no "Revolutions", "Chronologie 4", "Ethnicolor", "Calypso", "Oxygene 8" or "Hey Gagarin", for instance. We are treated to fresh, excellent reworkings of classics: "Oxygene 2", "Equinoxe 3" and "Last Rendez-vous". Aging tracks such as "Oxygene 4", "Chronologie 6", and "Rendez-vous 4" have all been brought up to date. The three new tracks recall Robert Miles and Orbital. They're good but there's a feeling they were left over from previous projects. There are too many synth presets sounding too clinical and lacklustre compared to the high standard of sounds used in Jarre's other studio albums. Moreover, there are finer unreleased tracks that could have been included.

Also included on the DVD is a visual track. A close-up of the actress Anne Parillaud's (Nikita) eyes while she listens to the music for the full 73 minutes in one take is typical of Jarre's subtle, minimalist and "non-MTV" visual style. Aero will appeal to those wanting to test their home cinema equipment and those seeking some of the greatest hits of France's electronica wizard. --Colin Neal"

The last few days I've cut down on the walking but still hit over 10K a day so I'm still on track to hit my target for February. Today I will be going for a couple of walks before dealing with Virgin who've given me an upgrade for a reduction in costs, but have been a little economical with the truth. It's a situation where you have to go with it because you are actually better off with it even though it comes with certain inconveniences like not being able to keep your recordings, but if I haven't watched them in six months then maybe I am not losing out.

I've included "Oxygène II"from Aero which sounds excellent on a decent sound system, and it's just playing on my soundbar now, and I hope I haven't disturbed my neighbours Ray and Michelle with the noise.

Have a brilliant Saturday my friends.

 

Saturday Morning

Just been out for a short ten minute walk to get the papers and it's like a summer's day without the warmth. Nice to walk out but you do need a cout, I think that the T Shirt weather may be over for this year.

My Smart Meter is telling me thatit's already cost me a pound to power the house so far today, which I suppose is a good thing to be aware of. Our house is fairly energy efficient but the biggest cost is gas, we are above average for gas usage but way below average for electricity usage so I assume that makes us averag doesn't it?

Anyway hopefully today I can hit 11.5K steps (this is a bit repetitive I know) and hopefully I can see something interesting and report it to you this afternoon, or tonight.

I've started watching Strike which is actually great fun, and enjoyed episode one of Valkyrien which is available on All 4 but has disappeared from Virgin. My sony blue ray player has a web browser ... but no keyboard option, how good is that. The remote only allows the option of tabbing. That's been well thought out, like so many systems these days, I 'm beginning to think when you get something that really works well it's just a lucky accident.

So before I jog off to do my stuff I will leave you with "Sunshine" by Nazareth for no other reason than it's a very sunny day. Have a good one everybody.

Virgin On The Ridiculous.

Two years ago I did a post a day in May, this May I've posted virtually nothing.  Things are still happening but today my time has just been eaten up with work and a getting a new TV device and router installed by Virgin, followed by a quick trip into town, which became not so quick , and it was raining , but c'est la vie.

We are all resistant to change, though I like to think I'm open to it, whether it's a new job , new bus route , new phone or whatever, but with the installation of the TIVO I was thinking I'm going to have to learn how to use it, and like a typical man haven't bothered with the manual, the writings to small anyway. I looked at the online and discovered it has an Ethernet cable which means I can connect it to my network but I'm not sure what that will let me do.

Anyway this gets me into the thing where once you take the plunge to do something new, there's usually no going back and sometimes it's only taking that first step that gets to into another world of possiblilities.

That sounds grandiose , but it isnt . I got a TIVO box because it will save me £15 a month on my TV outgoings, as well as increasing my storage capacity by 200% as well as yet undreamt of extras.

Anyway it's good if you can do new things, and I'm lucky enough to have the opportunity, so I've done a post about something not too interesting but , I thought I'd let you know. Have a great night everyone.

Included the Noah and The Whale song cos I've always loved it and it has lovely sentiments.

Fast Connection

This weekend is one of those where you realise you actually have no time to yourself , and it starts here so at 6:30 switched on the PC and ..... no internet connection. Went through all diagnostics to no avail , so resorted to the Virgin helpline , finally got through the torturous IVR to a technical person , at which point the thing magically connected. Wonderful. So an appropriate June's Tune , "Rings Around The World" by the totally fabulous Super Furry Animals:

How Times Have (Not) Changed

In 1974 Robert Wyatt was at a party , possibly worse for wear , fell out of a window and broke his back and never walked again. Not good for a drummer . He didn't let it stop him and released this version of The Monkees' I'm A Believer on Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin label.

It was promoted by an appearance on Top Of The Pops , but some BBC manager decided that a guy in a wheelchair was too disturbing for the public and he wasn't allowed on again unless he sat on a normal chair. Nice treatment of people who have to use a wheelchair then.

Anyway the record is brilliant and it may get you into Robert Wyatt. The follow up to this was Chris Andrews' "Yesterday Man" , and hopefully everybody has heard his wonderful rendition of Elvis Costellos Shipbuilding.

Rant over and hopefully the BBC are different now (but probably not).

Slide Comes Before A Fall

..and my how I fell , wandering into the bathroom barefoot and 18 stone of me hit the Amtico floor with a fair jolt . Somehow the floor and Kitchen ceiling were undamaged , while I survived with a sore back and bruising. Think that the Tom Petty song title is fairly appropriate for the situation.

After that have had fun with passwords and mobile phone and broadband technology with Orange and Virgin , eventually succeeding despite the best endeavours of the website "designers" to make their site unusable. I've worked with a few programmers and one of them cauled Paul who I worked for at the National Bus Company gave me these three rules for a program , though they can be applied to anything you do:

1. It must work and do what it is supposed to do
2. It must be legible and easily understood and documented
3. It must be efficient

It seems very few designers / programmers take those maxims into account these days. Many of the people on the end of the phone are fine but they do have to work with systems that make their job very difficult , although you get some places that actually blame the incompetence of the user , with "You must have done something wrong" or "Try later" , as though some magic is going to suddenly make things work. If it doesnt work now , it wont work tomorrow unless it gets fixed. I'm thinking Tesco , Barclays and Nationwide for this particular bad attitude.

Anyway it's the end of the Bank Holiday , work starts again tomorrow , and it's almost time for bed .

There's Always Something On TV

I'm sort of worried about my TV viewing habits , well not really , but I am a creature of convenience. Despite having a few hundred DVDs I very seldom actually but one into my player to watch. Also , despite how cheap they are re , I very seldom buy any these days because 1) I've no room to put them and 2) most of the time I might not actually get round to watching the damned thing.

The problem is they have so much competition now from the likes of Youtube , On Demand TV such as iPlayer , 4OD  , and my Virgin hard drive and catch up TV box,  pay rental sites such as Blinkbox and Netflix. So unless it's a specialist music DVD I very rarely buy the things these days.

I want everything at the touch of my remote control , becoming the not so mythical "homo sedens" , not wishing to move from his chair , while wanting permanent tailored entertainment. You can even pause live TV while you answer the door or go to the toilet.

It still amauses me to hear people say there's nothing on TV when between BBC4 and Film4 I have intelligent viewing on tap , that's before dipping into the other 160 channels I have. Sky viewers have similar options. Watch what you want , when you want , where you want.

How good is that?

The Quality of Advertising

I got to thinking the other day about some decent adverts for products . This is one of the few posts where my main web site and blog coincide.

Most adverts are forgettable to the consumer , so are so downright atrocious that no mater how hard you try and forget them they com flooding back , such as the Shake 'n' Vac and Odor Eaters adverts . Horrible things they are . Halifax Building Society produce adverts that make you want to at the very least turn to another channel , well the English ones do . Althougg interestingly I cam e across these excellent adverts for Halifax Ireland. The first a quite inspired dance off:

Then there's the truly inspired bank fight:

Why can't we have that here?

Then you have the inspired Virgin ad for comfortable roomy travel on their flights:

Though some companies have a history of great and memorable adverts such as Guinness , their White Horses adverts regualary still tops polls, and their "Pure Genius" motif still hits themark:

And Orange have some amazing adverts in their back catalgue , as well as the excellent "The Future's Bright , The Future Is Orange" motif. Theyir was the excellent series of adverts featuring elliot & Mr Dresden managing to comically scene steal from stars such as Elton John , Sean Astin and even Steven Seagal !!

Orange also managed to capture the zeitgeist with adverts such as the excellent New York Blackout one:

So these are a few of my favourite adverts in the same place , all soundtracked by excellent contemporary music , meticulously put together , and with an excellent sense of humour in places, and I remember what all the ads wer advertising!!

Get your Orange phone here!!

The Times Rich List

What is it with lists and the obsession with peoples money. Most rich people have had the money given to them on a plate in one way or another , politicians, wide boy bankers , some royals and eastern bloc bankers spring to mind. There are a few multi millionaires I do respect though , who have got their riches by hard work and a big slice of luck . Luck does play a huge part in success, but hard work , planning , acumen have to be in there.

So the people I do have time for are Richard Branson and Chris Blackwell who started importing specialist records and kicked onwards and upward with their Virgin and Island imprints. Alan Sugar who made his fortune with Amstrad and is now a media personality , though I don't think the Apprentice represent the real Mr Sugar. The there's Felix Dennis , publisher and poet and finally George Soros who knows markets inside out and makes his money exploiting flaws in the system.