Ghosts Of Exeter St Davids

During our holiday we took a friend's advice to visit Totnes by train , departing from Exeter St Davids. The station , while pleasant enough , seemed to have no stand out features that we could discern , though we did notice three or four crows that wandered around the platforms as though the owned the place.






According to the the station staff , the crows never leave and never fly and are in fact the souls of departed steam engine drivers . Definitely an interesting anecdote about the place!!

Devon - Record Shop Heaven?

Just back from Devon and a most excellent place it is too. Discovered several things , but the most surprising was the number of thriving record shops there were . Everywhere record shops seem to be dying out (check out Graham Jones' Last Shop Standing) , but in Devon they're on the up in a big way. I'm sure I passed obne in Crediton , a small village outside of Exeter , but unsure of that.

In Exeter I found Martian Records which was shut , but it was Good Friday but here's a google link.

Rooster records was well and truly open , and stuffed with vinyly , CDs and a hell of a lot of interesting stuff. The guy there reckoned business had never been so good . I helped by buying a King Crimson CD/DVD set , the reissue of Horslips' Book of Invasions , a couple of cheapies and "My Baby Loves Pop Music" by local band "A Fine Day For Sailing". Not sure if Rooster have a web site but their address is 98 Fore Street , Exeter and phone number is 01392 272009. A joy to visit. This website here is them I reckon.

Totnes was apparently descended on by hippies in the sixties and they stayed. The only concessions to globalisation are a WH Smiths and a Superdrug , as well as a bank or two and Post Office. The main shopping area of Totnes is a single, traffic unfriendly street , Fore Street I think, , it's really best to go on foot. Anyway this street boasts not one but TWO superb record shops!!



The first , a "Simon Cowell" Free zone was staffed by a young lass who'd told us of her pirate themed twenty first party. Unusually the shop contained virtually no compilations bar the odd Trojan Box Set. Their web site doesnt seem to work , but the shop does! Anyway I left with Matching Mole's BBC Sessions and a 2004 CD/DVD of the New York Dolls at the Royal Festival Hall.

Then there was The Drift run by an affable Irish guy who got involved with a film about the Undertones manager and reckons the reason that most record shops are going bust is because they dont talk to customers . Given my experiences in Devon and Newcastle I reckon he has a point. I left with the ew albums by Joanna Newsome and Lightspeed Champion. Their website is here.

As I write this there are NO independent record shops in York.

April 17th is National Record Shop Day.

There's a list of participating shops on the official National Record Store Day site here

If you have a local independent record shop make your presence felt. Go in and buy something!!

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.

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

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!!

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