Showing posts with label MacDonalds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MacDonalds. Show all posts

Wednesday 14 March 2018

Too Much Is Never Enough


Woke up to the sad news that Stephen Hawking had passed. Others will better eulogise than me on the brilliance of the man and his mind, though he is effectively immortal in our new digital world and in the books he has authored. I read "A Brief History of Time" and found it varied between illumination and hard going, but something that everyon should at least attempt to read.

I have recently had cravings for a hamburger from MacDonalds or Burger King , you know the trashy ones, but I also know that if I actually got one I couldn't actually eat the damned thing. That's another way my mind works, pushing you to get something that you don't need or actually want.

I suppose this leads on to the title of the post with my music collection, there is always new music appearing and to support this you have to buy the stuff. I always prefer to have something to touch (not a download), but even my vinyl collection needs severely pruning now.

The added irony is that most of my listening is done to MP3 stored on my phone and home network. It's the same with video, DVDs are so cheap but I don't have room for any more and it;s a chore to get the DVD out of the case , turn the player on and play the DVD when you can just press  a couple of buttons and play something from your home network or TV supplier, my inherent laziness taking over.

Over the last two days I have been listening to Jane's Addiction's "Nothings Shocking" and "LIve In NYC" and I realised despite possessing their albums I'd never listened to them. Bought them, ripped them and that was it. I knew odd songs like "Been Caught Stealing" and Perry Farrel's voice is fairly distinct. But I have been impressed by the muscular rhythm section (Dave Navarro on drums) monstrous bass and wild shining gutar. "On The Beach" and "Ocean Size" than open "Nothings Shocking" drag you straight into the album and the quality never drops. The live album is definitely live but a great listen.

So basiclly my music collection will never ever be complete but I am trying to trim it by selling stuff on Discogs but may have to think of a better way of trimming it, but I still have my digital copies (which are backed up as well).

Anyway I need to get off to work so have a great Wednesday everybody

Sunday 15 July 2012

And Tonight They're Gonna Party Like it's 1936



Well the 2012 Olympics are upon us and in case any one was in any doubt the signs in every city throughout are proclaiming it's "London 2012" . I thought generally that the world was some sort of democracy , didn't Thatcher and Reagan rescue us from the Red Menace. Joe Stalin , State Censorship , Nanny State Control , Nazi scare tactics and the like?

Well look what we have here . The original Olympic Ethic allowed all to compete . Wars stopped for the Olympic Games and competitors were given free and safe passage to and from the games. These days David Cameron's arms dealer cronies would be demanding compensation for ost revenue if that happened.

Peopl have trained for years to realise their their dreams , generally in the true Olympian spirit , but it is becoming swaped with Nazi / Communo stype restrictions on fans and market competitors.

Want an Olympic Ticket , Let's face for most of us this will be the only time in our live we can see one. But we have to run the hurdle of the lottery , and can only paty by Visa !! Surely that's as bad as the banks fixing interest rate . What if I don't have a Visa card , what if I want to pay by cash.

Then Coca Cola , Visa and MacDonalds are grabbing all the advertising space to the exclusion of everyone else. I thought this was a fairly free country.

Another thing the NHS has been committed to providing free treatment to anyone who is related to an Olympic competitor . Who sanctioned that Mr Cameron ? I though the NHS was meant to be hard pressed.

I won't be watching the Olympics or taking any interest in it whatsoever. It's been hijacked by corporates and freeloaders, and that makes me annoyed for the competitors and fans who DO embody the true Olympic spirit.

There's a sigh outside St James' Park Newcastle that proclaims "London 2012" . Anyone watching on TV will think the stadium is in London!! How wrong is that:

This is the only Olmpic Theme you will ever need

Sunday 17 June 2012

DAT's Your Lot

About twenty five years ago greedy  record companies made a fortune turning people from tape and vinyl to CD on the pretext that the sound quality was excellent and CDs were indestructable and you could smear them with jam and they would still play. Well think of the logistics !!  What really sold CD to the masses was the MacDonalds like convenience of being able to program tracks , skip tracks you didnt like and repeat ones you did as well as random play.

These facilities were actually available on tape and vinyl players , but when a friend of mine demonstrated it on hi cassette player they was a lot of rewinding and fast forwarding .

Anyway , I digress , what has brought this post on on is the re issue by Rhino of Fleetwood Mac's excellent retrospective The Chain , which I bought in its original incarnation about twenty years back. I've been playing it today and very good it is too.

No , after the initial , virtual investment free windfall of CD (records already recorded and often not remastered, remasters were another wave of cash) , they began to circulate rumours of CD decay , and your everlasting CDs would in fact crumble to dust withing five years. To combat this you had to switch to DAT , expensive players , and back to tape with it's inherent fragility and at the the time blank DAT's were as expensive as a full price CD!! This time the public didnt fall for it, and where is DAT now ?

Twenty years on my copy of the Chain is in fine fettle , and CDs are still an excellent and portable storge medium and there are some excellent packages out there . I recently purchased a superb Emerson Lake and Palmer box for around £15 .

So CD is still as bouyant as ever , Vinyl has made and amazing recovery ,  Newcastle still has 3 or 4 real record shops plus HMV and That's Entertainment (The outlet for Music Magpie)  , and music is still brilliant.

Have a nice day!!