Wednesday 17 March 2010

Glastonbury Was Free


Just discovered the original Glastonbury gig featuring Grateful Dead , Marc Bolan , David Bowie and lots of others is available on Emusic  which unfortunately fell from grace but you can download it here. No 4x4s , id bracelets , lottery to allow you to mortgage yourself for the ticket so you can say you've been to "Glasto" then.

The album is interesting because it contains some very long improvised jams which by their nature are not available elsewhere. There have been various versions of the hard copy album over the years but if you can't track it down this download will more than suffice.


Tuesday 16 March 2010

iPod or Handbag?





Just been thinking, an iPod (and virtually any Apple product) is , for a woman the same as a new handbag.

Think about it, woman buys a new handbag, she then has to buy:
  • New shoes to go with the handbag
  • Dress or skirt to go with the shoes
  • Blouse or top to go with frock
  • Coat to go with the outfit
  • Earings and other peripheral jewelery to finish it off
  • But the list can be endless
A friend of mine bought an iPod recently and then had to purchase:
  • A PC to organise the itunes stuff
  • Broadband to connect the internet
  • Another friend upgraded his iPod and found he had to upgrade his dock even though all the connections were the same!!
  • Then there's the radio add ons that cost a fortune - most other players have radios built in!
  • But the list can be endless




Saturday 13 March 2010

Burnt Hands and Gloves


Well I was right about the burnin' (see previous post).

The Illumination of the Wall went off incredibly well with around 1100 volunteers lighting the way from Segedunum in the east to Carlsile in the west. The trail of light was tracked by a helicopter of indeterminate colour and , apparently NASA. I was involved as an illuminator with Cell4 , led by Andy who'd appeared on teh Country File rehearsal preview. I was lucky in the group I got who were all extremely sociable and technically more than competent in getting the beacon going. Neil and Alison did the beacon while Jay , Julie and Billy were the other torch bearers , the dreadlocked Jay giving us an impromptu juggling display with the (unlit) torches!!




I got one of the torches , which burned rather more enthusiastically than originally estimated , with the flames and wax almost catching fire to my gloves resulting in some slight skin singeing. The torch at this point was discarded and doused using half a bottle of coke. A compilation of pictures and video from today can be seen below soundtracked by "Shining Light" by Ash, available for download here.






One phenomenon that we did observe was the formation of frost on the gas bottles as the day got colder and the cylinders emptied. We were told of it but it was still fascinating to see.

Here's my online photo album of the day.

And finally a bit of start to finish video taken from the helicopter:

Illuminating Hadrian's Wall from IHW on Vimeo.

There'll Be Burnin' And Lootin' Tonight





Today's the day Hadrian's Wall get's lit up. The web site is here. I've been assigned to the Elswick area of Newcastle. Ther's a pleasant area in the Fylde called Elswick that is the home of Bond's Ice Cream , the best Ice Cream in the world and they have a web site.

Newcastle's Elswick is a very different kettle of fish and hopefully NASA can distinguish the wall beacons from the car fires you're more likely to encounter in the area. It's not really that bad , but it's not a place you'ld go for a holiday!!




Anyway it's an excuse to include Bob Marley playing the afformentioned piece!!


Friday 12 March 2010

Is It i?






Is it just me? It seems Apple and their cohorts think that by sticking an iPod dock and i- infront of the name you have a cool product. This is from a company that couldn't even come up with an original name (The Beatles Apple Corps was well established when Jobs & co came along) , and nicked their orginal GUI computer interface ideas from Xerox!

Take the iPig and iPanda , both the sort of thing you'd find in a cheap electronics shop and normally wouldnt give a second glance to , but because you can connect your i-thing to it then you'll happily shell out £50 or so to be ripped off, It'll probably last as long as a Christmas Turkey , but and least you can eat the turkey.

And another thing , why is everyone so impressed that the shuffle facilty can chuck up some music they like every now and then. You put the music in there , it just has an algorithm that will do that every so often . It's not alchemy!!

I'm just wondering how long nefore we get the iPhone Shuffle with no screen that rings random numbers , after all that was their philosophy with music , "Life Is Random" - Right On!!

What else could we have?

  • i-wedge Use your iPhone to steady that dodgy restuarant table , or keep the door open!
  • i-tile Use it as a stylish kitchen or bathroom tile
  • i-plectrum Use it as an oversized plectrum to play some serious rock riffs
  • i-hi Insert it in your shoes to give you added height
  • i-pod Case for small green vegetables - oh sorry that's been taken
The list is endless but you saw it here first

Enjoy Alan Bennet





Last night I saw my first Alan Bennett play at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle. While being well aware of his work from the Cambridge Footlights, Secret Policeman's Ball and Talking Heads but this was my first live experieance and very good it was too , living up to it's name.

Freaturing a 13 strong cast including Alison Steadman and David Troughton , the play , set in 1980 leads addressed lot's of social issues that affect our ageing population , with a healthy dose of transvestism, swearing, prostitution , sex and humour thrown in.

I did wonder at the theatre wide guffaws every time David Troughton used the word "Fuck" or one of it's derivatives. It was very funny and great to see it taken in the spirit intended rather than in snooty nosed silence.

Hopefully thsi will follow the success of the History Boys which hit the big screen and is still touring. Well worth seeing.



Still Screen Burning






I'm still reading Charlie Brooker's "Screen Burn" , but hitting the home straight, and it's still causing me to laugh out loud on the train. Yesterday , a rather nice lady was having problems fitting her breakfast on one of the miniscule drop down shelves, resulting in much scrabbling about onthe floor for dropped biscuits and the like.

I was already reading and sniggering at whatever I was saying , and thought this could be taken in the wrong way. I then explained why i was acting like the proverbial loony on the bus (or on this case train) and it turned out she was also a big Charlie Brooker fan , so managed to come out of the situation intact.

The reason "Screen Burn" manages to be consistently funny is that it's a series of vitriolic fortnightly observations on the state of television in this new millenium and effectively documents the rise of "Reality" TV and it's despicable spin offs.

Anyway here's where it started , Charlie Brooker's TV Goes Home Web Site here.