March On .. And Support Artists

I don't buy much music these days, my collection is huge and I am selling a lot of CDs I bought on Discogs. I've written previously that I have bought albums because I think I should have them . The good thing about this is that the artist get's supported from the initial sale , although subsequent resales don't actually benefit the artist although often money I get from Discogs sales does by music. This week, although I don't need it I have ordered an album by Deodato and singles by The KLF and Roger Williams on vinyl. 

The albums I have for sale I have in a stack next to my desk and I actually listen to them to see if they are worth keeping. I think one or two have made me think "Why the hell did I buy that?" but most ate worth listening to. I am currently listening to a five disc budget reggae compilation called "The A To Zion" and it is rather good but it's still for sale.

Other's like "Meet The Humans" by Steve Mason (ex of the Beta Band) were so good that I pulled it from the store. I have the attitude that if you put something in a box or drawer that that's it , it's not going to be played, but yesterday I was listening to a Randy Newman box and after the five excellent discs of his Americana I remember I had a couple in the "N" box , and next to those two was an NWA compilation , so three discs for that box actually got played yesterday.

The main reason I am writing this is that I got a missive from Jordan Reyne on Bandcamp about her new album Chapter Zero  . Jordan does not put her music on leech like streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music that make a fortune for their owners but pay the artist a pittance. I cannot see how the model can properly work, but for almost all artists it doesn't so if you share a Spotify playlist with me you go down in my estimation.

Ever since I saw her opening for The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing at Think Tank? (see here) six years ago she has remained the most impressively original artist I have ever seen or heard. She is also a very approachable person , and her set that day was so stunning that I bought three CDs on the spot. So a new album is always an essential purchase , and buying from Bandcamp ensures that artist gets fair recompense for their work.

I am looking forward to hearing the new album and you gat a digital copy of all her work here for about thirty quid. Not only is she a musician she puts together videos for her songs on her YouTube channel here. You will be impressed.

Though it's the opener from here last album "Bardo" , "Then They Came For You" shows her video creation skills off, and is a song for our times.

Windows Media Player?

Yesterday I tried using the recommended Windows 10 Media player Groove which would not recognise the music library. For years I've been using iTunes , but that is just slow , cumbersome bloatware,  and Amazon Music is not much better.

I then went to Windows Media Player and accidentally pressed a small icon which changed the view and very shortly had logged all my network music in it's library (iTunes took about two days to do this) , the only slight problem being that it defaults to the 32 bit version , but I have put the 64 bit version on the quick access bar.

So today I have listed to a Joy Division boxed set, a best of Julian Cope and a best of Warren Zevon. While the sound quality is a bit imperfect , it's great to listen to my own music collection rather than my normal 6Music diet, not that there's anything wrong with 6Music.

The thing is I am very happy with my musical options around my computer.I'm now listening to "God Save Us" by The Oz Elastic band which was released on Apple Records (and featured John Lennon) to raise money for the Oz Magazine Obscenity case.


So we'll go with "Mr Bad Example" one of my many favorite Warren Zevon songs, I think it's a polka , the lyrics are just perfect. Just a thought he looks very like Heisenberg (Walter White) from "Breaking Bad" which would be very appropriate ......

Mix

Today people often try and share Spotify playlist with me. I don't contenance Spotify, it's not my inner Ron Swanson but the fact that it's not a business model that rewards almost all the artists who are on it's available catalogue. I suppose the other thing is that as a teenager if I wanted to share music with friends it required recording records in real time, at first recording via microphone and later when I got a job a music centre which recorded directly from the radio.

I didn't realise that the compact cassette first appeared around 1965 (comprehensive Wiki history here) , I thought it was a Sony invention because of the Walkman which allowed music on the move.

To create a cassette you had to record in real time, the playlist was just the initial plan, even when MiniDisk and CD superseded cassette it was still real time although CD recording speeded up significantly but there is still the production and labelling of the CD to do.

In October 2016 when I was 59 I  started the #ALifeInNumbers  which ran into November that year and I've referenced often since I did it. I haven't burnt a CD for ages and am not sure if I can use iTunes to create playlists (I'm sure you can but it's such bloatware that it is more about trying to make me buy things that actually play music), I may try that soon and then I need to print the CD label (as I still have a printer that can do that!).

I have just remembered that I can use Youtube to create playlists such as this two song ska one here , I used to do mixes on Grooveshark but their model wasn't sustainable, but I am going to investigate Youtube further.

I was going to list some significant records for me to pad out this post but here are a few, and maybe I will create a playlist at some point:

• Abba - The Visitors & Happy - The Carpenters , two of my mums favourites that I still love
• Lights Out - Jerry Byrne & Sea Cruise - Frankie Ford , two that remind me of my missed friend Chris who we lost to lung cancer
• Negativeland - Neu! , I was shocked when my dad asked me if I had this record asthis was way out of his comfort zone
• All Along The Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix , if I only could have one record this would be it, Hendrix playing , Dylan's words
• Hound Dog - Elvis Presley - apparently the first record I ever liked (aged 3)
• Jig A Jig - East of Eden - The first single I ever bought
• Come On - Chuck Berry - one of the first songs I played and sang live and I would be condent of doing it now
• Egyptian Reggae - Jonathan Richman - The first instrumental cover I played live

I could go on and on but I'll stop and share "Happy" by The Carpenters (incidentally the title of my favourite Rolling Stones song , and they - the Stones - covered Chuck Berry's - Come On).

Enjoy this very rainy Thursday.

Guess What?

It's either a certain TV program or continue wit "The God Delusion" or write a blog post, so I've chosen the latter.

Yesterday I posted a couple of short videos of the vinyl copy of "This is The Moody Blues" which reminded me of the excellent "Bluejays" album by Justin Hayward and John Lodge. A fellow fan sent pictures of their copy of the album, and I remember the single "Blue Guitar" was ok but not brilliant but I loved "I Dreamed Last Night" and love the coda from "When You Wake Up" which I will include and am playing as I write this.

I used to use MusicMatch but couldn't get it to run under Windows 10 , so have drifted between iTunes and VLC and VLC seems to have just died so I've got the the "Bluejays" album playing using Windows Media Player. That has reminded me just how many versions of Windows I have been through since I started this blog, but probably best not to think too much about that because I am sure there will be another one along at some point.

Though every upgrade seems to make the computer a bit slower, but maybe that's just psychosomatic, so anyway I shall listen to the rest of the album, though the thing about digital is that it is extremely convenient, you don't even have to look for the disc, of that means it's a lot easier to skip , skim and completely miss stuff on albums.

The thing is a lot of kids these days can't even listen to more that 20 seconds of a song before they get bored, I don't suppose they will ever enjoy classical or progressive music, but each to their own. Years ago a friend to me to watch X-Factor for the best new music. Grudgingly I did and someone was covering "Nights In White Satin" (a five minute song written by Justin Hayward for The Moody Blues' "Days of Future Past" album) and it finished on two minutes.

I remarked on this that the song was not original and it was curtailed and was told they did that with all the songs. I never bothered again.

Enjoy your Sunday evening.

Streams

On twitter I keep seeing a poll for what is the best streaming app, Spotify , Amazon or Apple Music (or whatever it's called this week). There are lots of other similar more genre specific apps like Pandora, and people often want to share their Spotify playlists with me.

I don't do Spotify or any other music streaming service. Someone makes a lot of money from streaming and, unless you're Ed Sheeran or Adele, it's not  the artist. Daft Punk's "Random Access Memory" was the biggest selling album of that year and they made about £13K from streaming which might have paid for a lunch break.

People often like the "if you like that you'll like this" option, but that is so open to abuse, and let's face it payola has been around since records were first sold.

Most people listen on mobile devices and the unseen cost for that is streaming uses data, so if you are not on free or unlimited wifi you network provider can start coining it.

Also if you expect your streaming service why not listen to a radio station and trusted DJs and shows. The last I heard artists got paid £50 if their song is played on the radio. I don't know if it's the same now or the same on all stations but it's a damned sight better than streaming rates.

Also given that often today's youth can't listen to more than 20 seconds of a song how do you remunerate for part streams? Many years ago Peter Gabriel was involved with a company call "WE" who's plan was to set of a system where you paid a nominal small fee to listen to a song. I objected to this as if I like music I want to buy a single or album and play it in perpetuity.

Youtube seems to be OK, it's generally free with on ads, and I don't hear artists complaining about it so they must be getting adequate recompense or you would see music being continually pulled. However video uses a lot more data than music does so this can be another money spinner for mobile phone companies.

I done several posts related to this (click on the first Spotify link to see) but this is my own history of recorded music and this talks on how music should be rewarded.

Last week I heard Sam Fender for the first time, yesterday I ordered his debut album and this is about how I heard it on the radio.

If streaming is your bag that's fine but I will stay with radio, visiting record shops , gigs and enjoying music I buy.

Did Digital Nearly Kill Music ... And is Vinyl Bringing It Back To Life?

Three years back I wrote a history of music media in a post here, and at the weekend I nipped into Vinyl Guru and got talking with the lady in there about how when you buy vinyl you feel you have actually got something. You have sleeves, booklets and picture discs. I'm sure I did a post that said CDs were the McDonaldisation of music, all of a sudden you could skip songs , program the order , and the CD jewel cases are not something that look good, though they are very functional.

MP3 became even more dismissive of musical content, and a lot of the iPod generation can't even listen to a full song. When you wanted to record a tape for someone it had to be done in real time, even from CD, but now it's all Spotify and Deezer playlists which, lets face it can be done in thirty seconds, although a well done one can take time to put together.

These days I see a lot more people browsing the vinyl sections of shops and Newcastle now has a lot of shops where you can buy vinyl and this post has a list of them. One thing is there don't seem to be that many impressive covers such as Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick" newspaper cover, or Hawkwind's "In Search Of Space", although "Space Ritual" is a available in it's full six square foot fold out. I was in Reflex and noticed  "Faust Tapes" was £25, when I bought the original release it was 49p !

Vinyl provides more than just music, and the shops often provide coffee and food while you browse. People still complain about the cost of music, but remember if albums had kept pace with inflation you would be paying £80 for an album.

When I was in Vinyl Guru I spotted a 12" copy of Biko by Peter Gabriel, which I mainly wanted for the "B" side "Shosholoza" which I don't think is officially available digitally, but I found this lovely rendition of it for you to enjoy.

I Think I'll ......

How many times do you decide to do a trivial task and it turns into a hell of a lot more than you expected. Today was bin day so I thought I'd just empty the bin in the bedroom last night, this then turned into every bin in the house before dragging out the bin to the the street for the binmen's convenience.

Then there was a couple of days washing up to deal with and one small fabric wash turned into three biggish loads which have to be hung to dy after they've finished, but to make room had to take a load of towels off the drying racks to make room.

Then dug dug out my only two unripped Cracker albums, "Kerosene Hat" and "Redux - Greatest Hits" and I use iTunes to rip CDs. Remember in the early days of Java, when every time you wanted to use a Java enabled app you had to download and install the latest 2 Mb installation and this was pre broadband, it was bloody painful. Well that's what iTunes (and probably all other Apple updates) is like today, 250 Mb to give you the same as you had before with probably more advertising.

The I start ripping "Kerosene Hat" and find it has a hundred tracks on it, most of which are blank spacers, decided it would be quickest to rip and then delete.

So taking a lot longer to do things I expected to do yesterday and today.

ALso my lurgi (I'm off to the docs tomorrow) is causing me to fall behind on my walking targets, so September maybe the first month where I fail tohit the 340K target. It's not bothering me too much as I think it's maybe taking energy that should be going towards recuperation, but we shall see.

So I'll leave you with another Cracker song "Low".

Enjoy your Wednesday

Straws

It's 9:30 on this Sunday night and iTunes is still importing my music collection. It started at around ten am this morning. I don't know how far through it because I can't query it without stopping he import. Also as it imports it starts randomly playing songs from album playlists, it never plays a complete song and the songs it plays are random and unless I stop the import not of the buttoms work. Typical Apple rubbish programming. I'm just hoping iTunes will work when it has imported all the songs.

Anyway today we went for a nice brunch at the Tyneside Bar and Cafe and were treated to "Close Encounters of The Third Kind" (now a thirty year old Steven Spielberg classic) . While at the bar we got talking about the plastic straws that were in my mang smoothie and I asked about if it would be more eco friendly to use paper straws. They said they were often not actively providing staraws but leaving them in a cup on the bar so those who wanted them could take them. One guy also pointed out that paper straws are often laminated like paper coffee cups therefore probably can't be recycled. Here's one campaign to make a difference, though there are a few. If you go to a pub or restaurant state you don't want a straw BEFORE they serve you , not after they've brought the drink with a straw in it.

So what should I leave you with at the end of this weekend, I suppose "Think For A Minute" by The Housemartins really instructs us how to approach the problems of addressing small changes to look after our environment.

One One Two Zero One Eight

Happy new year and an obvious song to welcome in the New Year would be U2's "New Year's Day", but that is a bit obvious, and I'm currently working therough "Songs of Experience" their latest album which I was completely unaware of until my friend John Scott mentioned he was listening to it. It's a follow up to "Songs of Innocence" , the one they deposited free into everyone's iTunes accounts that people then couldn't easily get rid off which turned a lot of people into your typical red top readers being offended by something that , at worst , was just an annoyance.

The new album is very listenable all though there it's nothing that hits you like a hammer and the first ten songs have very low key production although toward the end you begin to hear U2 signatures such as the duplo guitar and Bono starting to actually stretch his vocal chords. My favourite song so far is "Lights of Home" which sound more like an old blues song with a wonderful guitar sound and ruff.

Today I've seen a rainbow, and been out to the Co Op and it's another month to start my steps but I don't think I will hit my 11K today.

So it's a  start to a New Year and I have just found another reason to hate iTunes , tryied to play the beautiful "To Ohio" by The Low Anthem then I had to log in to play it, then it told me my computer wasn't authorised, so I had to autorise it (two logins to play one song), I do hate Apple, they may look good but their systems are full of holes and stupidity.

Anyway I found a live version of "To Ohio" and that I think is a great start to 2018. Start having a good New Year now.

A Slapp Happy and Henry Cow Challenge - #ALifeInNumbers #21

Love The Cover

There were a few options for number 22 notably "22" by Taylor Swift and "22" by the brilliant Lily Allen as well as 22 Dreams by Paul Weller , but I have stuck with "22 Proverbs" by John Greaves and Peter Blegvad , members of Slapp Happy and Henry Cow respectively , who produced so excellent challenging music in the seventies. I remember laughing at the cover of "Legend" and buying "Concerts" for the amazing line drawn cover.










I had read that Henry Cow had produced some of the most complex music committed to record but it certainly wasn't what I was expecting, although they were on Virgin Records this was not Mike Oldfield territory, you can see Henry Cow's influence in the music of The Fall. Slapp Happy were more influenced by 30's Berlin and the two bands collaborated on "Desperate Straights" and "In Praise of Learning". It was not a surprise that Greaves and Blegvad collaborated on "Kew Rhone" and drafted in Dagmar Krause on vocals for "22 Proverbs" and we have a live rendition here.

I don't think you will be up dancing for this and it may be a way of getting rid of unwanted guests, but I love this sort of stuff. It demands your attention, and let's face it, anyone who thinks music comes from iTunes or Spotify will last about five seconds.

Have a great Saturday my friends.

A Little Online History

Around fifteen years back I started my Song of The Salesman website and then I realised that I could ad advertising and sell related music from it. At it's height it was bringing in £500 a month , not it maybe hits £30 , but I keep it going as a hobby with monthly updates. Yesterday I removed two more online music links , namely GEMM who have gone to the wall and Play / Rakuten who have become fairly rubbish. This leaves Amazon and iTunes left as the only online iusic sellers that I can link to.

Emusic used to have a great model but that became shot to hell so I had to drop them , but the problem is that for the sellers that disappear there are no replacement models that will pay me for linking .

Ebay dropped me because I didn't make THEM enough money .

There are online services such as Spotify , but their model wouldn't mesh with mine, others come and go.

Below is a list of the affiliates who have come and gone, a lot still exist in one form or another:

• Napster
• GEMM
• Some Russian Site
• HMV
• Virgin
• Zavvi
• Emusic
• 7Digital
• WE7
• Woolworths
• Tesco
• Asda
• Ebay

There are probably a lot more but I just find it sad that I feel as though for music , online there is much less mainstream choice. There is still a lot of online presences worth looking into such as Noisetrade  who make a lot of albums available free to promote music, Bandcamp  , Soundcloud and many others. Music is certainly not dead , it's thriving , but  it's the grass roots music makers who give us the choice , not the mainstream.

Grainger Market

I suppose it's like the Supermarket model , their ultimate aim is to close down all the competition. Luckily I live in Newcastle and have The Grainger Market and lots of great local food shops like Medina.

Also if you look at online , many people will not venture beyond Facebook and Amazon when the sum of all human knowledge is at their disposal. TV is the same , with have a plethora o f media available but some people don't get beyond Eastenders , X-Factor and Britain's Got Talent.

The thing is there is so much out there if you just open your eyes, but as the bible quote says "There are none so blind as those that will not see"

Anyway , it's gorgeous out there , go out and find something worthwhile to enjoy , me , I'm going to see The Reet Hot Chilli Peppers tonight.

The Nothing Revolutions ... Getting Lost in Morals and Politics

Even as I put my finger to keyboard I'm still unsure about writing this. I am not going to back any of this conjecture up because you now have at your disposal the sum of knowledge that is the world wide web and internet, and by writing this I am implying that my ideas have some worth, and maybe carry some weight. They do for me, but you can take it or leave it , on what you think. I'm going to get a bit political , and a bit moral about this and am going to include a controversial talk by possibly the only plutocrat I admire Nick Hanauer.

There have been a number of revolutions that have advanced society usually in a tangible way, two examples of this are the industrial revolution and more recently the communication and computer revolutions. These have all provided tangible benefits for mankind , enable the production of quality goods , creating economies of scale and eventually benefiting a great many of the world's population, bringing down the prices of goods through mass production , increasing profits for companies , providing employment, growing markets and dragging a great deal of the western world on an upwardly mobile path.

Horrible side effects of these development caused World Wars , and the greed of an unchecked banking systems caused the Wall Street Crash , which required the planning instigated by Roosevelt in the thirties to get the world back on course , part of which included very tight controls on the banking sector again. This was again hit by War , but then in the fifties and sixties the world grew like hell , though war and conflict was still with us. The rise in living standards meant people could even buy houses , subject to strict lending criteria , but money was always backed by the property people were buying. If you wanted luxury items then generally you saved or at least put down a hefty deposit. This enabled growth backed by stability. One of the problems in Britain was the unions becoming too powerful , there always needs to be a balance, but then the power swung the other way with the toies coming to power and on the back of that a deregulation of banking and credit which allowed lending with virtually no checks or controls.

This fueled and inordinate amount of spending , coupled with mortgages being lent to people who couldn't afford to repay them. This was the first Nothing Revolution , all it created was debt , which provided huge earnings for the financial sector as people hocked their life for the latest things whether they could afford them or not. By Inflating the debt the financial sector creamed of the money from high interest repayments from people who could not afford to keep up. This model worked when wages were increase , but the cracks began to show when wages started to stagnate. People still needed the latest car or iPhone or a new house, because that's what the financial sector told them they needed , and the financial sector needed them to believe it. Fall out from this is that more and more employment is in "service" (call centres and the like) and less and less tangible goods are being produced in the west , shrinking the spending power of markets, to the point where people are running to keep still, and lots of them drop. Money gravitates towards the rich and the poor get poorer. The lack of union power means that people don't have the clout to take on Corporations which are buying governments off to serve there own ends.

The only solution to this is for a Roosevelt type figure to bring Corporation and the Financial Sector to heel increase taxes , implement a real living wage and work towards a full , highly paid employment. People who are on benefits should have enough money to effect the economy in a positive way but should also be helped into work , not beaten with sticks and vilified.

Appy Now?

The next Nothing Revolution is digital media. I see walls of cards to but stuff off Google Play , Amazon and iTunes , and when you buy the items you don't have anything you can touch. It's a collection of zeroes and ones on a card . You can't show it to anyone , it's in the ether , it's nothing. Yes it's convenient , but it doesn't make people appreciate the media, be it film or song or books, often people with download and forget, because it feels like they got nothing.

OK sorry for the lack of laughs and music , but though I would just let rip about this. Hope it made you think.

What A Shower .. and The New U2 Album

Last week I took the last plaster off my left elbow, with a little trepidation after the last time it was open to the air, but it's brilliant to have a shower and just wash your arm instead of trying to avoid getting it wet.

Also I've listed to the new U2 album "Songs Of Innocence" and it's fine, if a bit U2 by numbers, but this is a band still going after 35 years with it's original line up and they have produced an album that is good to listen to. As yet nothing jumps out like say "Vertigo" or "Desire", and still thing that "Zoo Station" is very hard to beat as an opener.

The whole thing is a marketing stunt by Apple and U2, but it's generally a win/ win situation they get the publicity and the consumer get's an album by a major band. Simon Donald (Him off the Viz) is not pleased though and reckons this wouldn't have happened on Steve Jobs watch. Under Jobs he reckons yo had the illusion of your iTunes library being yours and private, and the U2 album appearing there is like a thief has broken into your house and left you a present , but he has still violated your privacy by coming into your house uninvited and with no announcement.

U2 Live

Anyway playing the new album reminded me of how great "Under A Blood Red Sky" is. It's very short and remember it was a "budget" album when it came out, and songs like "Gloria" , "Electric Co" and "40" still often play over in my head.

It's the start of a new week, I'm gonna have a great one , you have one too.

Thunderstruck By Bagpipes... another installment Fighting With My Left Hand

Its's been a SAD day, that's SAD as in Seasonal Affected Disorder, as you know I seldom let life get me down, but today's weather has been mostly grey skies and not exactly warm, just one of those days where things don't really inspire you to get up and go.

This week I have two hospital visits, the first of which I'm not looking forward to because it will cause discomfort (and related to the cirrhosis diagnosis a couple of weeks back) , the second will be fine because it's the end of an observational period on my liver that has included two biopsies, but the consultant and nurses I've had looking out for me have been brilliant. I love the NHS.



The same consultant, because he is so good , spotted that I may have nerve damage in my left arm that resulted in the op and that seems to have majorly improved my control and strength in my left arm. I'd set my sights on learning to play AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" until I checked out the tab and found that's it's all played on the second ('B') string m so after ten minutes I'd made a decent stab at that on acoustic guitar (with a lot of buzzes and clicks) , so I need something a little more challenging, though I still think the Red Hot Chilli Pipers version on bagpipes is well impressive.

Uneasy Listening

Then I found a friend who with her husband has gone through traumatic times recently, but her little girl has started school , he husband's band (Omnihility)have released a new album and she is going for a dream job so lot's of positivity there which is brilliant.

I've done lots of walking about today, so have got some exercise, and actually had an enjoyable day.

U2 and iTunes gave us their new album whether you wanted it or not and it's playing at the moment and is fine, if just another U2 album, but really it's just a marketing exercise.

I've got another three weeks before a holiday in Ampleforth and have some gigs coming up , including GOAT, which I am really looking forward to.

Anyway enjoy what's left of the weekend , I certainly will

800

800 Up

This is my 800th post. It's taken a few years to get here and will probably be next year when I hit 1000. Again I didn't know what this blog would turn out like , or whether I would keep on writing , but it's a sort of diary and helps me remember things. The original idea was a travel related blog hence the name "Seven Days In" although it could have been read (and has been by many) as "Seven Day Sin" which could imply much more fun depending of the nature of the sin.

S.O.P.H.I.E.

I do believe that life should be fun, and people who look for faults in everyday life must lead a very sad existence. I tend to expect the best from people and situations , and never get mad at anyone or anything , just exasperated, although I have no time at all for bullies which is why I am mightily impressed with coming into contact with Bad Pollyanna who support the extremely worth Sophie Lancaster Foundation. I didn't know what I was going to write about in this blog , apart from the fact that it was number 800 (I also have a theme for number 801). If you download the song Invincible Girl by Bad Pollyanna you will help support the foundation and that is a brilliant thing to do to combat bullying and promote acceptance. It's also available here on itunes.

Anyway it's Sunday afternoon and still a nice day.

By the way thanks to all my friends concerned about the cirrhosis of my liver. If I hadn't been on a trial I wouldn't have known about it , and if I didn't know about it I couldn't take the required action (which is essential 6 months ultrasound scans and the odd other camera based intrusion) but I am totally fine with it. If there is something wrong it's good to know because then you can actually do something about it, problems occur when you don't know. I have a lot to look forward to and I am going to enjoy it including seeing my daughters this week, trying out a couple of new bars and cafes , and seeing two of my heroes Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick gracing a stage I've dis(graced) myself several times at the Tyneside Irish Centre.

So go on, Enjoy Yourself , I certainly will!

First Monday In December

And I'm going to get the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl out of the the way for today's seasonal song. Just because things are popular doesn't make them bad. You can also get the video on iTunes here.

Today is the first Monday in December, the weather is still mild and no doubt corporations will be trying to get us to spend lots more money over the coming weeks to buy stuff we don't need.

I will not be spending money I don't need to, I will be enjoying myself with friends. I have a choice of six gigs I can go and see this week. I may not see any, but I do have that choice and the half price black friday television never even came on my radar. You should only buy things when you need them or they have something that can positively enhance your life.

So have a brilliant day, a brilliant week , It's time for work. Oh I haven't mentioned the "C" word!!

Picture Books

Hell everyone, I'm amazed that the number of views on this blog is about to hit 40,000. Most post get 50-100 views these days, so someone obviously reads it. Thank you to everyone that does.

A couple of weeks ago I discovered the art of Rebecca Cother and said that I'd put together a slideshow which you can watch above. I had a short musical motif going through my mind so played it in Garageband and used it as the soundtrack. It's very sparse and was thinking of Arvo Part's Spiegel Im Spiegel. I'm going to upload it to the various digital providers via Tunecore and will update the post at some future point.


So I hope you all enjoy the post , the slideshow and the music. Have a great Sunday everybody.

Fighting With My Left Hand:It's Alright Ma ... It's Only Severe Nerve Damage

...which may sound negative , but on fact it's actually very positive. The human body has a remarkable ability to just mend itself, in fact your body is continually repairing itself and you don't actually realise it. I learned that from my first brush with ITP when Juliet and Kirsty were around 4 and 2 and I was really frightened that I wouldn't see the grow up. When I was shaving and cut myself , the bleeding didn't stop , so I had to let a beard grow! Don't think the girls remember , but they were amused by it , that was around 1986.

Well I recorded me messing about on the bass, and I am trying to play some proper chords on the acoustic guitar. Electric is not an option to youtube unless I think of an instrumental to do. The thinkg is I still can't get Garageband to export a composition to iTunes, but I can record video as you can see above. The song is an extremely simple Neil Young composition "Love Is A Rose". Now this isn't about showing off or anything , it's just that a couple of months ago I couldn't hold a plate or turn a key with my left hand, now , with difficulty I can master a basic "G" chord. I've just used G,A and D and missed out the fancy bits , but I my hand is very slowly getting better.

So all in all things are improving , and the future is looking bright 

Unlimited? Really?

un·lim·it·ed  

/ˌənˈlimitid/

Adjective Not limited or restricted in terms of number, quantity, or extent. (of a company) Not limited.

Synonyms boundless - unbounded - limitless - infinite

One of my biggest annoyance is the number of phone and broadband companies who offer (in usually BIG type) UNLIMITED* services , the in small type somewhere on the page or brochure often in type that is unreadable to me (I am old and decrepit)  a *subject to fair usage policy which may imply that that they will limit or stop your plan if you exceed that amount.

The problem is that texts and voice time minutes are now almost not bothering about and can be made truly unlimited , but if your text or minutes limits are say 5000 why not say that?   Companies should not be redefining language - that is a euphemism for lying.

I am not going to mention any companies by name , though everyone knows who I work for , and am pleased that at least they are showing plans with defined data amounts that are in your face when you buy it. I admire honesty.

One thing I've recently learned is that 15 minutes browsing on Facetime will use 20MB of data , that's a short time on one app , I could to three or four times that amount on my way to and from work . You can see how that mounts up. People often just see their plans in terms of minutes and texts, not realising that they are actually using data.

Lots of friends including people going abroad (where data can cost £8 a Mb ! 15 minutes of Facetime £160 !! - Downloading a film you'll pay for the rest of your life :) ). Fiona just uses Facetime and The Guardian yet is racking up 1.5 GB a month - in certain countries that would cost  £12000 if my maths is correct.

So next time you see someone offering UNLIMITED* subject to fair usage policy , check it out or ask the person in the shop what it means and get them to put their signature on it.

I think Eddie Izzard's rant on iTune's Terms and Conditions is very pertinent here.

Don't Give Me Space(s)

There is one thing , well there are a lot of things , that so called data suppliers and system designers seem unable to grasp. The one I'm on about is the processing of leading and trailing spaces in data strings. While this may be required for data formatting in say a Word document or on a web page , it should never be treated as an integral part of the data. At this point to have to remember that computers are essentially dumb and just do what they are told ...... perfectly  ..... too perfectly at times.

So at work I find that on certain systems , searches and comparisons are unable to take into consideration spurious leading and trailing spaces , when the simple application of the trim function (preferably on data entry , but also in the actual search / comparison)  would save a lot of messing about. To me FIVE = FIVE  . Doesn't it? Oh no the second on has an extra trailing space! The n there's also case sensitivity which should be i the control of the user but often isn't.

Anyway the thing that got me going on this was the changing of my iTunes id. Fairly simple I though, until verification of the new email. Then I kept getting password doesn't match error. Tried the old . the new and my nick name. Nothing worked. Then thought , no , it can't be , there was a space at the front of the email field but because of kerning it was hardly noticeable. Removed it , and it worked. Why couldn't Apple trim the input ? Or are leading and trailing spaces allowable in a name?

Thought this gave me an excuse to post Space Is Deep by Hawkwind , featuring one of my favourite saxophone solos of all time, starting with some brilliant drone guitar about 3:20 , though listening to this it sounds more like a synthesiser , but who cares it is brilliant.