Cheap Trick - Geek Talent - It's Friday and It's Christmas

..and a good start to the morning, listening to Chris Hawkins on 6Music he played a Cheap Trick song "I Want You For Christmas" (a reword of the excellent "I Want You To Want Me") and that cheered me up no end.

This is the first post on my new PC, and was surprised to find that mainstream shops only stock laptops and tablets these days, I don't need much and picked up an HP for £250 from Argos which just plugged into my set up although I could have an HDMI display now but my own screen may have an HDMI connection but I'll check that out this weekend.

Geek Talent

Back to Cheap Trick , "I Want You For Christmas" appeared on "A Very Special Christmas", acharity album, but I always liked Cheap Trick who went against the normal rockers featuring two pretty boys and two geeks in theory capturing or alienating fans who saw looks as important. Their music was always good too and the first album I bought was their "Live At Budokan" on yellow vinyl.

Just thought of an excellent caption for the Cheap Trick, Geek Talent , a brilliant compny who I worked with a few years back, I think it's perfect.

Have a totally splendiferous Christmas everybody.

A Few Thoughts on Going Vegan

No I'm not going vegan , though I enjoy vegan and I am really happy at the growing number of vegan outlets in Newcastle, though a few people have taken my Facebook posts to mean that I have become vegan. (similarly because I support GAY rights, some people have taken that to mean I am GAY, well only in the fact that GAY is an acronym that means GOOD AS YOU so I am as good as you though my sexuality is standard) but back to the vegan thing.

Vegan food is inventive, although I find the vegetarian / vegan sausage / bacon thing a little odd especially the bacon thing. If you want something that looks and tastes like meat then eat the meat. Sausages are a little different, they are offal enhances by spices and other tasty additives, so replace the offal by vegetables and add a vegan casing and that is fine, though I've yet to taste a vegan sausage I like.

Non vegans often argue that man is a carnivore / hunter so we are built to eat meat. Well look at our teeth and jaws and "claws" , just like a lion or a tiger aren't we , readty to rip our prey apart.

Just from a resource thing veganism is sensible, we take or food at source instead of letting it go into a cow, pig or sheep then get converted for months or years before killing the animal and cooking it.

I am not a big meat fan, though I lkie a bacon sandwich, I am fine with eggs and like most fish. So I am not vegan and am just fussy but if someone offers me vegan food then I (99% of the time) love it.

So what song do I choose this morning?  I just got a mention at 6:45 on the Chris Hawkins show for a made up Half Man Half Biscuit song title. This was the email:

"I had a nut roast at The Cozy Dove in Newcastle yesterday before the match (I support Preston so I didn't go)

Also the best HMHB Tribute band name is "It's Not Half Man, Mum"

My Title is

"I Printed My Sunday Roast (On My 3D Printer) Before The Match""

I was thinking mybe Paul McCartney, Half Man Half Biscuit but there are many vegan bands about and I have just remembered a Robert Wyatt song that would be perfect, if very dark. "Pigs In There" .. and that is one of the reasons for being vegan.

Failures

This was going to be my second post yesterday for #August50, but I didn't get round to it so that's one failure to start off with , although I am writing it now. This morning I was thinking that the milk was lasting a hell of a long time, then I poured it in to the tea (I'm not a milk in first person which still seems very odd to me), the milk was finally past it's sell by date, another failure!! But !!! If I had written this last night I couldn't have written about the sour milk.

When I worked at EE someone said to me they felt under pressure because we were always expected to deal with emergencies (like Summer, Valentine's Day and Christmas, that was a running joke about marketting), but I said that mobile phones were now a 24/7 thing and you always expected to be able to make a call or use your phone. I said imagine you came home and hit the light switch and nothing happened you'd be straight on the phone (assuming it was working!!) to the power company because you expect power and water 24/7. Phones have become a utility, and need to be always available and we make sure that they are.

Yesterday I walked to work and Google Fit recorded 3.5K steps , normally it's 4.5K to 5K (the highest as been 6.6K via Cowgate and Westgate Road), so I was disappointed , and continually during the day it's been down on what I expected. Fenham Library to home was recorded as 100 steps when I know it's 5-600, so that was another failure, but is it the Sony phone hardware , the Android Operating System of the Google Fit App, or even the EE network. For me it's a failure but I will deal with that.

There's a few other things like moving the Song of The Salesman site, trying to set up the Joomla database connection. It makes some suggestions but doesn't tell you what information you have to give it, and the help and talk boards all say the same thing "you must have put the wrong information in". Well guessing doesn't really help in this situation.

All these are failures but they are challenges to be addressed and I will will deal with the ones I can, and I do like a challenge though not as keen attempting the apparently impossible which is a situation I often find myself in.

And in an amazing piece of synchronicity Chris Hawkins on 6Music has just put on "Needle In A Haystack" by The Velvelettes which seems fairly appropriate given the subject. Have a great Tuesday everybody.

Another Bottling With "27" - #ALifeInNumbers #27

Yesterday Chris Hawkins mentioned this sequence on 6Music saying that they had already done it from 1 to 100 and back, but "27" like "26" was chosen due to lack of other options. Most of these songs are from my own collection, and I have to say I am not averse to a bit of Biffy Clyro and "27" is rather good so that's why it gets it's place.

The only 6Music top 100 I can find is here their 100 Greatest hits worryingly topped by Coldplay's "Clocks" which I do admit is one of their finer moments but gets topped by their collaboration with the Buena Vista Social Club on "Rhythms Del Mundo".

The problem with any listing like this is that the further you get from the origin, the more sparse the pickings become. There are still a lot of great songs to come, some which you will be able to predict, some where you will accuse me of bending the rules (my rules incidentally) too far, but I have not and will not put up any song I wouldn't happily listen to.

Anyway have a brilliant Tuesday my friends.

Frozen

Woke up this morning and it's cold. Clear cloudless night meant that the temperatures seem to have plummeted but surprisingly I don't see any ice on the cars outside. The guy on the radio has told be to expect zero temperatures (which I assume is centigrade).

Also the radio has just played "Default" by Django Django  which is a fantastic record and made me realise how much great stuff you hear and then semi forget about. It's one of the things I love have about having a big record collection combined with an eclectic taste and when you add to that things like Radio 6 and the internet options you have no excuse for not listening to good music.

Who's Next?

Original I was going to have Frozen by Madonna, but have now decided to go with "Swamp Thing" by The Grid as  Chris Hawkins just played it on the radio introducing the concept of "air banjo" which must bring a smile to everyone's face. Incidentally The Grid was a concept used by Pete Townshend in his abandoned Lifehouse Project which became Who's Next.

Anyway have a brilliant day , I'm off to work.

Singing Ticket Barriers and Coyotemen

A very quick one this . Chris Hawkins on 6 Music mentioned a singing ticket barrier at Canary Wharf and the fact that Ritch Ames had spliced the barrier with Blur's official video for Song , and very good it is too.

Tonight the Coyotemen play their supposedly final gig at Brewdog in Newcastle, so I will do a review on Spoongig tonight.

I know a short post , but enjoy the video and have a great day