Who Will Be First?

Six years ago I walked into my present place of work (at the time Orange)  and picked up a company newspaper .The front page of the article stated that that they had a target of 30% market penetration with mobile phone ownership. The actual market penetratation at the time was something like 130% !! These figures may be coloured by the mists of time and so don't take them as gospel because they are based on my sieve like memory. However when you see suits on a train with a laptop , tablet and 3 phones trying to commandeer a table you can see the 130% market penetration in action.

Anyway, since that time companies have grown and evolved , and the things we have in our hands that we use to talk to each other bear no resemblance at all to Alexander Graham Bell's invention. In the late 80's a mobile phone required a briefcase sized battery pack and looked like you average military walkie talkie. Then battery technology came on leaps and bounds allowing creation of one piece phones that would actually fit in your hand. Sitting in the background at the the time you had the internet thing and you had the WAP protocol whence enabled very basic web access from the cutting edge phones. I always thought it looked rubbish but that's the only way progress is made. At the time it was groundbreaking , you could be in the middle of nowhere (assuming a signal) and find out the lasted horse racing results or football scores. A bit like Teletext and Ceefax on your phone.

Phones then got expanded keyboards , bigger screens , and eventually touch screen technology was integrated into the model. All the time capabilities are being enhances and phones can do more. I remember one of my Nokias had "Snake" on it , my Samsung Note 2 allows me to watch films , play "Broken Sword" , perform Office functions , connect to email , have a fully functioned web browser, and install new software if it takes my fancy. Of course this is all dependant on have a signal, but if my superfast 4G EE signal isnt available , I can connect to WiFi in Starbucks , Wetherspoons or wherever. So really it's not a phone is it?

It's a hand held computer, 20 years ago I was working on mainframes with less processing power that the device I have in my hand. It's three months since EE brought us into the 4G age in the UK , and the combined performance of device and signal means you can watch cath up TV whenever and wherever you want. My Samsung Note 2 is probably more powerful that the Star Trek communicators and tricorders. Combine with GPS if we had transporter beams we would be on a par with Star Trek. Even ten years ago you could not imagine being where we are now with these devices. EE is not , and never has been a phone company , it is about communications and connections , making the world more accessible and bringing people closer together.

Which brings me to the point of this post , we are not using mobile phones anymore , they are communication devices and hand held computers. However phone is a one syllable recognisable label. Mobil Phone is three but still recognisable. I am just wondering how long it will before someone instigates a new all encompassing name for these devices. If Steve Jobs were alive I would have said Apple , finally ditching the iPhone series with:

   "The iCom - It's not your phone , It's Your Life"

Twitter No More , Instagram No More ...

Not quite "Letter From America" by The Proclaimers , but it sounds sort of snappy. Today I deleted my Twitter and Instagram accounts. The real reason was that really I didnt get anything from them , and you do that many tweets or Instagram Pictures that they just get lost in the billions of posts on both planforms . Twitter is supposed to be 140 character limit yet allows pictures , and now 6 second video clips!! Instagram , while it has some interesting filters , results in a lot of dross between the good pictures , though I suppose you could say that of all digital photographs.

The other thing I think both these platforms stop you from posting anything interesting anywhere , you post almost without thinking. I know there's a lot of famous people on there , but if Stephen Fry says something really worth hearing it will find it's way out of Twitter.

I'll probably keep my Facebook account , as it has got me in touch with people who I'd lost touch with , and can enable me to do what I did on Twitter and Instagram.. So you won't see anymore hashtags from me , I don't know if my old tweets stay or will be removed , I'm not bothered either way. And if I hadn't deleted the accounts I wouldn't be writing this post.

Lot's of people like Twitter and find it useful , though some people just seem intent on following as many people as they can. Just decided they are not for me any more

Apple Are Annoying Me, Amazon get Worse, and Is Mike Ashley Newcastle's Best Ever Owner?

Apple have done some good stuff . They have made some stylish devices and via iTunes my main website enables me to have a steady income in a few clicks , or it would do if Apple / iTunes didnt keep changing the catalog numbers of items . Any reasonable company makes sure it's supplier can find products via a static reference, , but iTunes can recatalog an item in less than two wees , so my itunes link goesto iTunes and iTunes tells the customer that the item is no longer available. It actually is but iTunes have screwed the link and me and themselves out of a sale.

Not only tht the new version of itunes is attrocious , trying to load too much irrelevant information and take over your computer by filling the screen. Not good.

Amazon have now decided they will only pay commission on sales to brand new customers . So if I send an existing Amazon customer to buy something , I don't get commision. I could remove all my Amazon links but that would be a horrendous amout of work, and they can change the rules as they like because I , on my own , mean nothing to them. £50-£100 a month has dropped to £20 if I'm lucky. Amazon are the only company that do this. Having said that , at least their catalog numbers remain simple and constant and only disappear when the item does.

Le Toon Shirt

..and Mike Ashley , has had his foot in his mouth so many times , but has Newcastle United on a secure financial footing , and has Pardew (or Pardieu as he's now known)  and Carr and co building an amazingly entertaining team. They're still in Europe , which is more than can be said for Manchester City , and if you start to list list the players you enjoy wantching the list goes on. Krul , Guitierrez , Taylor , Ben Arfa , Santon , Anita , Cisse , Cabaye , Sissoko  and on and on. Remember the fans were sniffy when Demba Ba turned up but werent happy to see the back of him. Was great today to see the fans in their berets , taches with strings of onions. Ashley certainly creates the environment for the fans to feel good . Beating Chelsea 3-2 helps as well.

Casualty Blues

I'm writing this in the Casualty Department in Newcastle's Royal Victoria Hospital. I'm using a document producing office suite on my iPad , and like anything new still a bit unsure of how to use it. Text is coming out at a reasonable speed using my blu tooth keyboard and the spell checker is good but unobtrusive.

Anyway last time I was here there seemed a lot less people, but this time I've just turned up because of a possible bone fracture in my left foot. After this I have to go up a ladder to fix a gutter and that has to happen. The two situations however are mutually incompatible. I always criticise people for not following doctor's orders but I have a feeling that today I will be one of those. I've noticed the announcement system is not very in your face so I am slightly worried I may miss my appointment.

I've just had a thought I hope this office suite can do a full cut and paste or I will be more than a bit miffed.

There's no mobile signal in here so I cant even look for outside entertainment though there are plenty of people franticly messing with their phones in the forlorn hope of finding a signal. You shouldn't use your phone in a hospital for similar reasons why you shouldn't use one on an airplane. It could interfere with sensitive equipment. As I say almost everyone here is messing with at least one phone.

It is quiet and I will soon save this and go back to reading Stuart Maconie's Hope and Glory, which is proving more laborious that expected as I zipped through his previous books Cider With Roadies and Pies and Prejudice , but it may be just my current state of mind (exhaustion). I've just read Shaun Ryder's Twisting My Melon and that was a fairly easy if unexpectedly hefty read.

Anyway when I realised I would have another two hours to wait decided to make an appointment with my GP and get myself sorted that way.

A Little Success

Funny how a little success in the face of adversity can make your day so much better. Yesterday the shower hose broke, which I replaced and now it's better than ever, Today the washing machine decided not to drain and usually thi is a laborious draining process , except today I left it running as I drained it and it suddenly picked up and drained itself . Fixed , I think , but itcertainly was a good way to finish the day. The washing machine is over ten years old now so is on very borrowed time , but if I have bounght anothe six months I'll be happy with it.

After the snow we have the wind , no doubt people will be complainingabout that . Look for the good things in life , like the wonderful Shins album "Port of Morrow" that I bought at the weekend from RPM.

Was gonna use Iggy's original , but thought I'd post this Ravens as Crows one instead , another small success :)

What A Shower

Today has not been good but maybe has been a learning experience.  This morning my shower pipe snapped so shower was taken a la redneck hosepipe style.  So tonight's task will be shower head and pipe replacement which should be a simpke task but who knows ...

Then the bus decided it wasn't turning up. Been like that for the past two weeks either late or none existent , but it dies make me walk through town although got annoyed to find my shortcut through the Eldon barred because it was before nine am .

Anyway it made me use my blogger on the phone so that is a slight plus point. It's still raining but the snow has gone so I will sign off here

The Joy Of Socks

Really just wanted to post that title, but this weekend I didnt take enough pairs of socks away to Whitby because I hadn't done the washing recently , and my sock drwaer was full of odd socks. How come you either have loads or none?

It seems to be the same with lots of things, if you don't need money , you find it in pockets , that extra wallet pocket you didnt know you had , a cheque comes through the door from someone you've done some work for and forgotten about.

Same with food , toilet roll , pubs and virtually everything. Busses often come in twos and threes . There's probably a good reason and explanation for this , although the socks was just that I hadn't done my washing , so it's my own fault , but now I have more socks than ever.

Anyway the nearest video I can think of to do with socks is the Lady Marmalade sequence from Baz Lurhmann's Moulin Rouge , where there are quite a lot of stockings , which is the female equivalent of socks!!

Save The City Hall ... Remember The Mayfair

    As George Osborne announces a 33 billon bonanza for the south with the new rail links between London and "the north"  (Leeds and Manchester) , with a generous compensation package for those affected along the routes (I bet George's mates got the not nod months ago and have been buying properties up along the way , like the profiteering that occured in the East End for the Olympics) , but enough of my aleged speculation and to the point in question...

..due to the Council Tax capping and the like Newcastle City Council have decided to cut Art Funding by 100% , spend millions on refurmishing the civic centre and now are going to demolish the City Hall. I'll be honest , I'm not a husge fan of the City Hall , the seats are small and uncomfortable , but I've seen some great gigs there (most recently The Musical Box touring Genesis' Lamb Lies Down on Braodway). I think my girls first gig was there , possibly Anyt and Dec or PJ and Duncan as they were then. So it's strikes me as bloody mindedness what the council intends. If something goes nothing can bring it back . Look at The Mayfair , the greatest venue I've ever known and replaced by the slowling decaying Charver Shelter known as the Gate , while the old Odeon is left to rot.....

...anyway you can sign a petition here , and a group of musicians called the "North East All Stars" have released a single called "Save The The City Hall" . Artists included in this ensemble are the band Prelude , Paul Thompson (Roxy Music ) , Ray Jackson (Lindisfarne)  and lots of others. The song sounds like late period Lindisfarne and I think will sound great live . Pick of the bunch though is Billy Bragg and Eliza Carthy's cover of Lindisfarne's "All Fall Down" , always one of my favourites , and two other songs on the single "Marshall Rileys Army" by Alan Fish and "Mandolin Moon" by Steve Daggettmake an excellent package that may help save Newcastle's City Hall

You can get the single on Amazon here

Or iTunes here . You need iTunes on your device to buy and download it.

Hope this will help and you will get some good music for you contribution , and don't let the City Hall go the way of the Mayfair , we have enough Tesco Extras and shopping malls

Whitby Discovery Weekend

Prime Beef in The Record Shop With No Name

Just back from Whitby , whisch is a place I love , and this weekend turned to be better than normal despite the Magpie Cafe being closed for refurbishment. The weekend started on a hairy not negotiating drifting snow on the A171 in a car with low profile tyres . I am an adequate driver but not happy about being in a white out in a large vehicle with minimal traction. Still I spent five miles feeling safe behind a tractor cum snow plough which turned off , then eventually descended into Whitby ....





...arriving a Dillons. We were made to feel extremely welcome and stayed in the Troon room (check the link , it's all there). Our hosts Craig and Matt were brilliant being warm , helpful and excellent cooks (the breakfasts are ace , and I'm still full from this mornings breakfast that I had eight hours ago). The room was warm and comfortable and the situation in very easy walking distace of the centre of Whitby. Previously we have stayed at La Rosa , but both carry our highest recommendation and will be visiting again when we return next year.

 

The Formby Clock is situ at home, weekends CDs

I did my annual visit to Folk Devils where I purchased the latest Yo La Tengo album and a George Formy Clock , which is an innovative use of vinyl. The Vinyl District lists Folk Devils as in Scarborough despite having The Whitby address !!

The Record Shop With No Name

Kiss in The Record Shop With No Name

Close to Folk Devils is The Shambles Market and in there is the excellently stocked Record Shop With No Name . That's not the name of the shop, they just havent thought of a name for it despite being open for twelve months. They are well stocked with CDs and vinyl and great to see that Whitby has two record shops worth visiting.





On a sad note we found that Justin of the excellent Justin's Chocolatiers had passed away before Christmas , but his presence is still prevalent in the mood of the shop , and it it definitely worth a visit if you go to Whitby.

 
Another first was a visit to Green's for some excellent fish and chips , recommended by Matt and Craig , but despite the snow filled start the weekend turned out to be excellent , barring the sad loss of Justin a tribute to him is here.

Surfin' Safari

   

I'm writing this on the iPad from Dillons in Whitby , a truly excellent place to stay. I was just thinking how web browsers are supposed to act in the same way but  that only seems to be in the HTML commands that they accept . Often Java , Javascript , Flash , Shockwave etc act differently indifferent browsers when you shouldn't have to consider things like that.

Also why is javascript called javascript when its nothing to do with java? Though it often makes people think if you know javascript then you must know java. It should be called browserscript! Though thats just a bit sensible.

Anyway thought I'd just share that with you as I'm using iPad Notes to write this as I cant get a connection and will post when I get connected.

My First Kindle Disappointment with TV Cream and Roobarb and Custard

.. and in fact my first e-book disappointment. E-readers are great for having dip-in non linear books such as reference books , encyclopedias , Fortean Times series etc. I've not spent a great amount of money on e-books , but 99p for "TV Cream Toys: Presents You Pestered Your Parents for" , and excellent reference cum picture book off those things you had to have as a kid seemed ideal. I have the hardback edition and it is and excellent book The website is a brilliant and well worth a visit.

The e-book , well I am gery disappointed. I have it on my Samsung Note and all the items have a tiny unresizeable ratings graphic and only one or two have pictures , which are also tiny and not resizeable on my phone. So even at a pound the ebook is not worth the investment , if they add some decebt sized pictures then I may change my mind but at the moment it's a no!

So I added the titles from Roobarb and Custard which is very TV Cream....

The Weekend's Getting Better

I was thinking that this weekend wasnt going to be any good. I came to the conclusion on a snowy Darlington station yesterday with a one our wait for the next train , knowing that the was work to be done and needing my annualy eye test with my opticians. Well we have proper Christmassy snow , the work was resolved remarkably smoothly and C4 Sightcare did my eye test  and everything is hunky dory in that department.

It's funny how when you are feeling a little down , it's easy to find other things to moan and complain about , but instead I picked up a couple of CDs by Bentley Rhythm Ace and Apollo Four Forty from Thats Entertainment  and then had an excellent meal at Dabbawal.

Tonight I watched an installment of Arrow , which I enjoy as there's some good one liners and the bad guys always get their come uppance although some people refer to it , a trice unfairly I think , as a "Primark Batman".

There's Always Good Music About ... My Top 10 of 2012

Sometimes you just need to look, I was going to do a top ten from last year and then tried to figure out how I would do do it , and decided to settle on a Grooveshark Playlist. Hopefully the stuff will stay there. My favourite song of last year was Spitfire by Public Service Broadcasting who are also my favourite new band of last year. Basically mixing Public Service Broadcast texts with original rocky grooves they make an amazing cut and paste rock experience taht I first heard with Spirit's Future Games , which was taken further by Big Audio Dynamite especially on their first album.

This weekend has been physically very painful but I have actually done a bit of writing so at least the right hand is still working though the trapped never or muscle damage is still painful but improving . Maybe a visit toi the docs later in the week.

Other bands that have impressed me last year , by either hearing them in a shop , on Radio 6 or at festivals such as the Hoults Yard Cult Festival have been, in now particular order:

• The Sound of Guns
• Santigold
• Toy
• Grimes
• Metz
• Victory Mansions
• King Charles
• Zombie Zombie

As well as that established artists have continued with decent material . The Rolling Stones "Doom and Gloom" being a prime example, The Tom Jones "Spirit In The Room" album was a revelation , although "Praise and Blame" was an excellent record as well . Bowie reappeard with an excellent new single which I didn't like for about 20 seconds. Most peoples music habits are formed between the ages of 14-18 , and maybe that's why musical taste is like it is , but I've yet to meet in everyday life someone with musical tastes as eclectic as mine,  though people often just see me as weird , anyway here's the playlist , enjoy.

The Music Collection

My Music Collection

This is really a follow on from the vinyl question I posed yesterday about the nature of music collections. Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby are playing The Central Bar on 8th March and I thought I'd track down my copy of their album , which I purchased when I was a subscriber to Emusic.I looked at the screen and thought thats how loads of people see their music collections . You will download stuff and maybe never listen to it because it goes onto your portable device and only gets played if the shuffle algorithm includes it.

This set in with the advent of CD which allowed you to skip , program and shuffle discs. Then you got the multi disc sets and eventually you could burn your own with just the tracks you thought you liked.

With vinyl you tended to listen to at least oneside of an album as track skipping meant lifting the needle and moving on to the track you wanted . You could also stack singles and create your own vinyl playlist, but the vinyl always got played all the way through.

You get broadband and 4G operators telling ius we can download a track in seconds . That may be but music is meant to be listened to not downloaded! Many people will have huge digital collections that they have bnever listened to. Below is an Amazon playlist consisting of cheap compilation albums each containing at least 100 tracks each. You can download these in next to no time but 100 tracks is around six hours listening time , that's a quarter of a day.

It seems that music to a lot of people is just something they collect making you wonder why they bother downloading. You see the bluetooth speakers which effectively recreate the transistor radio scenario of the sixties.



The benefit of a vinyl or cassette based set up is that you will listen to the music rather than just store it on a hard disc or a phone. a friend of mine Mike O' Brien asked what will kids today say when you ask them what was your first record? They will probably just gawp.

My first records were Jig-A-Jig by East of Eden on the Deram, label (single) and The Best Of T.Rex on the Fly lable for my album. Enjoy the playlist , and enjoy some real music.

Micro De Socialisation

Instagram Post of My Train Arriving in Darlington Station

I may have posted something like this before , so it's a bit like a discussion last night when my friend Bob said his favourite comedy series ever was "Yes, Prime Misister" but it's only problem was that sometimes the same joke was repeated word for word. I pointed out that it was in the days before video recording and the only reason he noticed was because he was watching a series back to back. Today we're just as likely to wastch a series from a digital recording as live on TV when originally airs. I have the full series 5 of True Blood on my hard disc and currently working my way through Arrested Development and The Wire.

Anyway back to the point of this post , my third in eight hours! I've not slept dur to major discomfort in my right arm , currently being eased by a hot water bottle . Not looking forward to having to go to casualty , though I think I have a local walk in centre , so I may track that down. So that's the reason I am awake at this god foresaken hour , although on a work day I would just  be getting up. But ..

The reason I was really writing here was the thought that came into my head about how society , me included is maybe becoming de socialized by Twitter and Instagram . Both of these are short format blanket communication devices that can communicate with each other and other social media such as twitter. They are both about what's happening i the moment so not neccessarily meant to be kept , but can also be viewd as a sort of diary. I have seen one friends drams of home life and house moving unfold on there . And sometimes the limitations of Instagram can produce amazing pictures but mostly it's throwaway stuff. And like the sfformention "Yes Minister" there is a lot of repetition , I often think "Have I already posted this?" and then decided it doesnt matter. The almost out Facebook Facebook with the disposability of their feeds,

The worry for me is that it means that I don't blog as much , and some people actually use them as main modes of communication. I follow about 25 people , many more and I feel I will disappear in an avalanche of trivia. Also some people will expect me to know something because it appeared on Twitter. I still tend to watch the BBC News for important stuff. With that I will post this and go and have a lie down . The hot water bottle is having an efficacious effect , much like Lily The Pink's Medicinal Compound!! Did you know Mike McGear of The Scaffold was Paul McCartney's brother?

Why Vinyl?

Was just off to bed and this question sprang to mind. Why Vinyl . Audiophiles talk about the warmth missing from digital representations and the personalisation that scratches and worn grooves bring but therein lies my argument. Vinyl is one of the most self destuctive of all media. Once the needle hits the groobve both vinyl an ddiamond / sapphire begin to destroy each other. Dust gathers on the record , heat warps the discs (remember dynaflex? The bane of my Bowie and Lou Reed collections).

Jimmy Page worked out that the optimum length for a vinyl long player was 18 minutes . Gram hold of an original pressing of Led Zeppelin I or II and check that there's no shiny spare vinyl in the label run off.

Vinnyl did enable some interesting tricks. Brian Eno's Great Pretender on Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy ran into a closed groove that effectively never ended. You don't get that on the CD version. Monty Python had a three sided album because one side consisted of two separate spirals so you never knew what track you would get when you put it on.

Then on Todd Rundgren's Inititiation , the running time of that album clocked around 69 minutes with an instruction to only play with a brand new needle. I bought mine on cassette!

However we have seen a major vinyl revival , recently The Beatles and The Who's Studio Output have been boxed at £300 and £150 respectively , very impressive they are too . Nice to see the covers in their proper size , but it's still vinyl and very expensive. Black Sabbath have also had a box out

I am happy with CD and digital , for convenience sake , but I am also glad that vinyl is here to stay as well - though I wont be part of the buying public for vinyl , well maybe the odd seven incher .....

Funny How

Funny how it's easier to moan , complain and find fault than be positive. I'm suffering from a very painful right arm , trapped nerve or pulled muscle or something and then I find my iPad is almost full!! 16 Gb taken up by games , copies of the Times and iBooks. Garageband takes up a fair chunk as well , but I still like the damned think , especially as I think I have finally got my Alesis IO Dock work. The sound of crunching metal guitars in Garagemand was music to my ears so now I can start using the iPad for the reason that I bought the damned thing , the create sounds!!

It's also a good ereader as well though I have installed The Kindle app on the iPad and on my Samsung Note 2 phone so I could purchase  "Life of Pi" and "1227 QI Facts To Blow Your Socks Off" for 20p each , a bargain even if they are e-books.

But there I go again finding positives in almost all life around me, which I suppose is the optimist in me . They say a pessimist is never disappointed , and have known loats of people who are only happy when they are miserable but I am definitely not in that group. I always believ that you can find good in all situations and take positives even if it is just to learn a lesson from something.

I watched "The Road" recently , and yes it's depressing and you can see all the bad things coming , but it has a remarkably upbeat ending and I would recommend it to anyone , and last night I watch a remarkbly enjoyable Iranian Football film called "Offside" which again I would definitely recommend.

So Funny How this post turned out , I started off feeling a bit under teh weather and now I feel musch better. Shoulder still hurts , but c'est la vie !!

The First Post

...of 2013 and hoping it will be as enjoyable a year as 2012. Seen some great gigs , including several nights at The Stand in Newcastle , as well as Lord Rochester's inaugural gig at The Schooner in Gateshead , that rarity , a Half Man Half Biscuit gig in Newcastle.

I finally got an iPad and have generally been impressed with it , though the app that sold it me was Garageband. I've also got a 4G Samsung Note 2 courtesy of EE and am impressed with that as well having watched the excellent Cockneys vs Zombies on it as well as a few episodes of Hebburn and getting my first taste of In-Betweeners via 4OD. Incidentally Hebburn features Steffen Peddie as Big Keith , and I met him at The Stand where he had the crowd in stitches laughing , he halso has a Monday night residency so is well worth checking out.

Was also impressed with Sky's "Young Doctors Notebook"  featuring John Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe . Black comedy of the highest order featuring sex and drugs and blood and tabs , if you missed it get hold of a copy one way or another. Harry Potter it is not.

As I say hope 2013 has as much to offer as 2012

The Last Post

..of 2012. This Christmas has been the worst weather I can remeber , it's not even interesting , just the SAD inducing rain and grey skies. Having said that met up with some great people and had some good nights as well as having a quiet Christmas eating excellent food , doing catch up TV and recuperating for the stresses of everyday life.

Radio 6 has been on constantly while I've been working and I inted to see in the next year with friends as well.

It's quarter to four and lights are coming on. Elvis Costello's "Good Year For The Roses" is playing on the radio. I remember thinking how much I should hate it because it was country music , but as I dug into the album and periphery I discovered many jewels not least a couple of versions of "Stranger In The House" and the excellent "Psycho". It's great when life throws you unexpected pleasures , just brightens things a little and I am going to dig out my expanded copy of "Almost Blue" ... Happy New Year

Bill Shankly

  'The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they don't know the game.' 

 Just reading the papers this morning and this thought came into my head reading about the problems that Brendan Rodgers is facing at Liverpool. We have had a brilliant book and film about Brian Clough in "The Damned United" , Clough portrayed excellently my Michael Sheen. One of the reasons for this , apart from Clough's track record in football , isthe things he said , his attitude , giving a veritable goldmine for journalists and scriptwriters alike.

Alex Ferguson , Pep Guardiola , Franz Beckenbauer wer all better and eventually more successful managers , but that's alls they were. Jose Mourinho is possibly the only modern manager who is on a par with Clough as a perfect media darling.

Which goes back to my original reason for writing this , why no film about Shankly? His quotes are legend and he took Liverpool from being a nothing club to a dominant force , a legacy the club still seem to be living off.  If  you want some quotes check here.

I think it would makegreat viewing for any fan of football , and barring the afformentioned Damend United what other films have there been about football that have actually been worth watching. I can't think of any. Shankly would be a worthy addition.

There Goes Christmas

Another Christmas has gone , and back to work tomorrow. Glad I don't work in retail or journalism or else I wouldnt have stopped.

Desipite all of us expecting to have time off at Christmas spare a thought for those who can't have a day off , especially the emergency services , utility workers , television providers and the like. On Christmas Morning we expected the power to be on and water to be running and if , god forbid , there is an accident we expect there to be someone at the end of the 999 call.

On Christmas Eve I rushed into to town and thought the shops were open . They weren't. It was staff staying late getting ready for the Boxing Day sales. How mouldy is that?

The Retail world is become more pernicious toward society leeching away our quiet time in the form of 24 hour supermarkets and Sunday Opening. People used to go to Church , now it's the local B and Q or Garden Center.  While I like to be able to get what I want when I want , I dont want to ruin someone elses life just to wait on my convenience.

Anyway hope everyone's Christmas has been brilliant and the New Year will be even better. Christmas has provided me with a few blog posts this year so I can't be too curmudgeonly about it.

A Very Merry Christmas to Starbucks and Manchester United

For all those corporations that governments allow to get away with paying little or no tax , while demonising the low-paid and unemployed by cutting benefits and increasing taxes to make up the shortfall.

We cannot criticise these corporations because the decision makers would be crucified if their shareholders found out they had paid taxes when the law allows them not to. Blame governments and lawmakers for this, doubly so when they then blame the people who don't have the financial clout  to actually fight back.

As well as Starbucks , don't forget Manchester United and City who run at a "loss" on paper and therefore don't pay any taxes . I don't hear them being pilloried like Starbucks , when it's about time they were. How can the most profitable football club in the world get away with paying no tax.

And how come Cameron and Osborne can never do anything when it's people like this taking the taxman to the cleaners rather than some immigrant or benefit cheat? Well will soundtrack it with A's Starbucks.

Christmas Day

It's been a weird and wonderful day, totally relaxed , recovering from various health rigours and have an excellent Christmas tea with chicken , brussels sprouts and all the trimmings prepared by Fiona. The watching , interspersed with each other Sherlock Holmes: Game Of Shadows and my favourite Shakespeare play The Tempest featuring Helen Mirren as a gender swapping Prospera and Russell Brand as a quite excellent Trinculo , you wouldnt expect Brand and Shakespeare to cross , but they do rather well.

Family phonecalls and getting rest from work has made it a most excellent Christmas day.


Looking forward to a comedy night at the Stand with the excellent John Scott and Gavin Webster , followed by Lord Rochester at The Schooner on Saturday. This could be a most excellent week ....

4G No Ubiquity ... Yet

Just a short post on EE 4G. It is excellent to be able to stream TV on applications such as iPlayer , but you do need to have a constant signal. Cable provides and uninterupted flow , and did anaolgue TV and now Freeview through the airwaves.

BBCs iPlayer on the iPad allows you to downlaod episodes to watch when you are not connected , but the Android version I have on my Samsung Note 2 doesnt sem to have that option. This means that when you leave the 4G area in Newcastle on the way south your program stops , not a great customer experience caused by the face that you cant download when in the 4G signal range.

When 4G is ubiquitous streaming will be find , but even free media apps should provide the option of downloading when in a good signal area.

The World Ends Today

Thought the art of John Martin, soundtracked by Aphrodites Chid performing The Four Horsemen from their 666 album ,was an appropriate watching for this post.

Someone once said there's two things certain in life , death and taxation. There's also the obsession with the end of the world . The Mayan one is interesting in that it looks a significant date 21/12/12 asssuming you use the correct format and notation, but the Mayan's were on ourt calendar and sometime in the middle ages we lost a big chunk of time to correct the calendar.

Any way there will be billions of blog posts about this , some like this not expecting it to happen , others telling you to prepare by building a boat or hitching a lift on an alien spaceship. And if it doesnt happen there will be some kind of excuse offered about a slight miscalculation. The irony of course that if it does happen , the ones who got it right cant say "I Told You So!".

Anyway here's mty apocalypse playlist , I'm sure lots of peole have done this , hope you can enjoy it.

For some people the end of the world is always nigh , for people in Newcastle it's at the end of the Metro line ... Sunderland !!

4G or Not 4G?

Well I eventually went for it. Basically 4G provides with faster downloads and uploads and will cause you to use a lot more data than you did under 3G. When you are in a 4G area you soon become used to fast response times which under 3G could take an age especially media rich web pages.


Youtube under 3G was always good , so I dont notice musch difference under 4G , but BBC iPlayer was virtually unusable on 3G , but on 4G becomes a very good media delivery channel.

I was going to do a series of posts of my experience with 4G  and this is the first . EE have given (well sold) me a a LTE enabled Samsung Note 2 , and it's an impressive device. I used my original Note to watch Cockneys vs Zombies , I see the new device with 4G being used to watch a lot more.

Today I am going down to London so I will see how it fares , when I get down there I am going to tether it with my iPad to see if that's a viable opyion. I have a monthly data allowance of 10 Gb , I have a feeling i this brave new data world that may not be enough.

To paraphrase Robert Shaw in Spielberg's Jaws :

    "We're gonna need a bigger data allowance"

Bully For You

This is one of those posts where a couple of randome things that you talk about with people sort of come together in an Edward De Bono lateral thinking kind of way , or like the Kevin Bacon , EE $G , interconnected digital world kind of way. Anyway basically I'm not sure where I should start so I'll just jump in and see where I land.

This year Malik Bendjelloul brought out a film Searching For Sugar Man about the Mexican artist Rodriguez  who brought a couple of albums out in the 70s and was very with in the southern hemisphere. The film has brought Rodriguez deserved worldwide recognition albeit 40 years late , but he can still tour , sing and deliver the goods and is now reaping the benefits. POssibly a similar situation was Nick Drake who unfortunately commited suicide , but his music is now finally recognised for how good it is / was.

    Anyway I then read that another artist from the 70s , Graham Parker , was also enjoying a resurgence with his excellent band The Rumour with a major part as himself in the film This Is 40 produced by fan Judd Apatow. There's a Rolling Stone article here.It's not quite the same but will mean that Graham Parhker and The Rumour get deserved worldwide exposure. Always loved Graham Parker and this leads to another discussion I was having with a friend about bullying in the workplace.


It isn't nice or clever and it is horrible when you are subjected to . I have experienced it , fortunately that's fifteen / twenty years  years behind me now , but thinks were'net going well for Graham Parker when he was at Mercury Records and he responded by actually releasing the excellent "Mercury Poisoning" which while not being the most subtle of analogies certainly hit the spot , I think Mercury dispensed with Parker soon afterwards. He kept making great records and Mercury lost a talent that could have raked in a fortune for them. So this has turned out to be a bit of a ramble but it is and excuse to listen to the excellent "Mercury Poisoning":

Potatoes Eggs and HMV

The Potato and Egg Shop

It's over ten years since I moved into my current address and at the time I noticed a shop called "The Potato and Egg" shop. I always wanted to visit it just to see what was in there and about a month back when I picked up a hire car I stopped to have a look.

The shop does what it says on the front . It sells potatoes and eggs . Nothing else . Potatoes generally come in 25 Kg bags ranging in price from £9 - £15  , providing excellent quality products and more that reasonabl prices. The lady who runs it tells me she's been doing this for over thirty years.



This may seem a surreal post and hardly related to what I normally write about but we really need to support outr local shops otherise it will just be a Tesco Extra or Sainsburys Local , probably leaching money from the economy by tax avoidance.

Lots of quality Potatoes

The proprietor is an extremely helpful lady and I so prefer this sort of shop to the massive supermarkets.

And it got me thinking , that this shop is successful in providing two basic food staples and has been since the last century . I feel slightly guilty that I havent visited before now and must admit that carting a four stone bag of potatoes home on the bus was not exactly easy , but it does mean I don't have to buty potatoes for two or three months.

And Theres More

If you live in the West End of Newcastle I would recommend that you check this shop out if you use potatoes or eggs in your cooking . It's open 9 til about 4 all days bar Sunday and longer during the week.



Compare this with HMV , a music shop , who  now dedicate most of their floor space to iPod docks. The one I visited in Harrogate recently had relegated CDs to a far corner, this is a company who have lost their way. The Potato and Egg Shop hasnt !.

One Bad Apple

Most people know that I always try and find the positives in situations , as to many people try and focus on the negatives because its easier to focus on one negative than 99 positive things. The reason I'm talking about this is because after having a rolling mobile 3G broadband contract with 3 for a few years I finally don't need it anymore.

I had been stung by the costs of train , BT Hotspots and Hotel WIFI so dropped into a Carphone Warehouse shop who found me a rolling 30 day contract with 3 which would give me 5Gb for £15 a month plus £5 for the dongle. The guy sheepishly , and with a laugh said he had to ask me if I wanted to take out insurance for the dongle . With a laugh I declined but thats the sort of service that makes you go back and trust a shop. This was Carphone Warehouse in Worcester.

Things went fine , and when I bought my first tablet (an Advent Vega) I needed to get a Mifi device so I could use it away from the house. The mifi device was going to be £40 but I was told on a 3 shop that I had to cancel my current contract and take out a new one to get the Mifi device, and I had to phone up to cancel. This seemed a bit convoluted but I did so and got an asian guy on the other end , who asked why I was cancelling , was the service not up to scratch etc. I explained the situation and he said he could just continiue my contract and get me a new device for nothing which sounded good. He then said I'd be on a two year contract which I didnt want , so he said he would have to charge £40 for the device , which I was expecting anyway. \he then said he would increase my data allowance to 15Gb for no extra charge , which was nice. SO a case of excellent customer service.

Also in that time the signal from 3 has been reliable and generally excellent.

Anyway now I dont need it so gave my 30 days notice and the first guy seemed fine with my reasons and passed me to retentions......

This guy would not let it go he offered me a free iPad (I hav one , dont want anoter) , laptop (I have one dont want another ) a reduction in my tariff to £6 a month (I dont need it) , , he would not listen to me at all and eventually the connection dropped. He never called back. They sent a customer satisfaction survey in which I invited the to call me about my experience. I have heard nothing.

I can thoroughly recommend 3s Mobile 3G Broadband service but am not too happy with their retentions process . If you are losig 5-0 with 5 minutes to go , the game is over

Brennan Again and Again

Brennan JB7

I was flicking through Mojo magazine and saw two adverts for CD ripping players. One is Martin Brennan's retro box, the JB7 , which is now advertising that it can replace your iPod in the house and the other a very classy looking NAIM Unitilite which rips CDs , stores them has a DAB radio, and streams MP3s and internet radio from you web connected router and costs five times as much as the Brennan.

NAIM Unitilite

The problem with the Brennan is that it's an adequate all in one unit, but be honest an iPod or iPad looks classer and can wirelessly connect to a disc server so has effectively unlimited storage space and costs less than the Brennan and can do so much more. The NAIM is an expesive but classy item that does all you want.

Brennan are now advertising Richer Sounds as their sole high street  outlet. Remember Richer Sounds made their name selling last years model very cheaply , not the place you would expect to be looking for cuttting edge technology. By the way most of my sound system is from Richer Sounds and I would reccommend them to anyone , they have an excellent business model and a service second to none.

As I say I have no gripe against Martin Brennan , but his box would have been state of the art twenty years back, but not now.

Bakewell - Desert to Dessert

The Haul

I really didn't expect to be writing this post today. I was just expecting to go into Bakewell and have a mooch around before returning back to Cromford, The Vinyl District told me that the nearest record shops were in Sheffield , Derby and  Nottingham. However I knew there was a musical instrument shop there, so thought I might drop in and see what I could see.

Bakewell Music

Talked with the guy in the Bakewell Music Shop and bought a couple of CDs buy what I thought were local bands. Silent Time are a local band , but Hank Sundown and The Roaring Cascades despite having a song about Wolverhampton are, in fact, Scandinavian.

Reminds of an artist in the seventies called Hank C Burnette who loved rock and roll, but didnt know about bass guitars so with a muktitack tape recorder and a detuned normal guitar produced an album called Spinnin' Rock Boogie , the lead track was issued by Charly records and became a hit single several years later. As John Peel said he was probaly called Sven! Anyway Hanks Sundown's  facebook page is here. So 3 CDs and a good crack with the owner definitely worth a visit if you are in the vicinity.

Flamingo Lane Music Sign

Next I wandered in a local indoor market area and found Flamingo Lane Music. Similar experience to Bakewell Music and picked up a couple of reggae CDs and a live Deep Purple DVD. Very impressed and this makes Bakewell not a bad place to pick up some music. It was topped off by picking up a hefty tome about the Clash and a couple of punk and post punk volumes from a local book shop, So that's listening and reading catered for for a few weeks.



These are in addition to Bakewell's food shops , pubs , ice cream parlours. An unexpectedly fruitful day and looking forward to coming back in the future,

Ironic

Although Alanis Morrisette got it completely wrong, I'm here in Cromford reading a book about reggae called Bass Culture by Lloyd Bradley and I'm unable to actually go to a record shop and browse for reggae because there are no record shops within 20 miles of here.I know this thatnks to an excellent app called The Vinyl District

Scarthin Books Amazing Shop Sign

Well you could say Scarthin Books has a selection , but it's Naxos Classical and there is a clue in the name of the shop that tells you that it specialises in books. Bakewell has a musical instrument shop that has a few CDs and there's a few charity shops which have second hand CD sections.

The thing is economics and the fact that people's habits mean that record shops have to try harder , and the good ones are still very good.And there's always online if you dont have physical access.

I used to go to record fairs but todays digital age means that I can track down most things on line , and at my age I actually have virtually everything I want musically , but still look forward to new bands and new albums.

I stll love going into RPM or Reflex in Newcastle and hearing something new that I immediately buy. That's how all record shops should be. That's Entertainment I find more relevant than HMV.  HMV don't seem to know what they are selling , giving most of their floor space over to iPod docks.

Anyway this post has wandered a bit but I'm going to read more of Bass Culture and enjoy the rest of my holiday!!

Decaf Americano with Soya Milk

Now I might be a bit po faced aout this but I heard this in the work Costa Coffee area and to me it's a bit like buying Kaliber lager. The reason you buy standard lagers is for the alcolic effect , the reason you buy coffee (especially an Americano which is BLACK and STRONG and NOT CONTAMINATED BY MILK)  is for a caffeine injection.

I understand soya milk , you may be vegan or have a dairy or lactose intolerance. There are lots of coffees you drink for the taste and there ar usually caffeine free versions of said coffees . Thry Whittards or Pumphreys and you will find them.

The same with lager, wine and beer , there are lots that actually do tasete good and are alcohol free.

The thing is if you ask for an Americano , it should be black and strong and you dont add milk.

Dreaming of an Orange Christmas?

This year once again Orange are tempting me with their excellent Christmas box promotion. If your spend £49.99 plus a £10 airtime tope up , not only do you get a decent phone you get a pair of WeSC Headphones worth £100 free. These look like the ones you get. Also here's a thought you can use them to listen to music on your phone , if , like me, you are not a fan of in ear headphones.

Last year I was tempted and resisted , and this year will probably resist again , especially as I'm taking delivery of an LTE Samsung Note II so I can use 4G when I'm in London or Newcastle.

But it really is an excellent promotion , tempting you to buy even if you dont need the product, and if you do need a new phone or headphones or both well you're well in. So as well as having a white Christmas you could have an Orange Christmas as well!

50 Years Of Cassette

This Sunday 6Music have a celebration of 50 years of the cassette tape. Check it out here

Casette gave us both convenience and the ability to mess about with songs and sounds. I was a fan of Joe Meek and various experimental artists and spent hours recording to tape , splicing and and making a lot of not very impressive noises , but I enjoyed and learned a lot about the fragility and versatility of the medium.

It's small size meant for the first time you could take your own music with you . Previously the transistor radio was the only portable option.

Cassette was Vinyl's portable , personally recordable counterpart. It's main problem is that , like vinyl, it's a fragile decaying medium. Tape heads got dirty , tapes became unravelled , tangled , twisted . You don't get that with your MP3 player or iPod. However Sony's game changer , the Walkman was a godsend . It meant you could listen to music anywhere , and annoy people anywhere and some Walkmans had radios as well , best of both worlds.

It was briefly superceded by mini disc , another Sony innovation I think , which was eventually overtaken by hard disk players and finally solid state. If 4G becomes ubiquitous we may see the solid state players replaced by stream players , but for that you need a continuous reliable signal, and that is unlikely to happen because there are always places where you are unable to get a signal.

RPM in Newcastle has a stock of vintage music centres , along with cassettes and vinyl to play on them , which is excellent if you have the room and inclination for that.

It's unlikely that I will ever own another cassette player but cassettes certainly provided me with lots of fun , inspiration and convenience in their heyday and ironically the stadard tape length of 90 minutes was almost the same time capacity as a CD.