Monday 3 February 2014

A Whitby Panorama

A Whitby Panorama
Back from a good weekend in Whitby staying at the excellent Dillons. Their Yorkshire breakfast and general cooking are brilliant and Matthew and Craig are such wonderful hosts. I'm well fed, but slept a lot and am now back the the grind so to speak. I've tried to put some photos on Picasa which is now Google+ though the annoying Google (like Microsoft and Apple) just try and force you to do what they want. These are my pictures and I want control of the. Hopefully you can see them here.

While I know that Google are proving this service "free" I  may not want to associate it with everything that is associated with me.

I saw a lot of interesting things, ate at the Magpie Cafe, The Moon and Sixpence and The White Horse and Griffin, all excellent and walked up the 199 steps to Whitby Abbey , which is a fairly gentle incline.

I do love Whitby, it's somewhere that I could probably live, but I still love Newcastle , but who knows what may happen in the future. There some amazing houses there and the views are great, also it's the home of La Rosa although maybe it's best appreciated and kept as a treat, too much of a good thing may make you bored with it.

I would heartily recommend Whitby to anyone though.

Thursday 30 January 2014

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

Wednesday 29 January 2014

A Question of Balance




I think this will be short. I've finished my first book of the year, started on the second , both by Stuart Maconie incidentally and started making inroads into the TV backlog on BBC iPlayer on my phone. How do I do this?

Basically book on way to work, means I feel I've done something worthwhile and learnt
ed something and made an effort, then coming home I watch stuff on the TV (well my Samsung Note 2). Having said that I do need to fit the TED talks in there somehow as there are a few that I really want to check out, but I will find time somewhere. There are 24 hours in a day after all.

Only one song give the title of the post. From the Moody Blues album A Question of Balance.

Tuesday 28 January 2014

Australian Surprise




It'sa couple of days after Australia Day , and I wasn't going to post, but my youngest daughter's partner sent me this video of a totally amazing Australian artist Xavier Rudd. I've never heard of him and was amazed and shared the video on Facebook , which lots of people then shared, obviously as impressed as I was.

I'm not very good with wind instruments and still can't get much out of my didgeridoo  , but I am still stunned by this. His web site is here.

SO just a short post, but that's the thing about the blog, is it should stay here for as long as I want it, so I can always come back and find it , and my friends can also come and enjoy it too.

I think some purchases may be in order

Music Is A Roundabout



I haven't bought a CD this year, not because of any particular reason but I've not had the opportunity. This weekend I'm in Whitby and there are two record shops there so the chances are I may pick up something there.

I was checking the new releases and it's amazing the longevity of some bands and musical collectives. In the fifties and sixties artists would have some singles with an aim to becoming an "entertainer" such as Bruce Forsyth or Des O'Connor, they've both made a few albums as well.

I noticed a new Penguin Cafe album, the band now fronted by Arthur Jeffes , eon of Simon who sadly died and bands didn't , as the Who suggested, "die before they got old".

Som bands stay there , new bands join and old ones drop off, but the composure of the musical roundabout is forever changing. People often look to their youth and stick with that, and if it makes you happy then that's fine. I go with the premise that 95% is rubbish ,, but the 5% is still a hefty chuck of decent music to get your teeth into.

I thought The Longpigs "On and On" was appropriate for this post. Oh and I checked that link and there is an excellent looking compilation available.

Have a fantastic day everybody.

Sunday 26 January 2014

If Less Is More, Think How Much More More Will Be




A quote from the series Frasier made my Doctor Crane. Last year was my highest number of postings since I started blogging. The first year (2007) I did six posts , last year it was 244, roughly two every three days, swollen by three months where I set myself a task of doing at least one post a day. My most prolific month was May 2012 where I posted 37 times.

Last January I posted 14 times and this is my 16th post so far this year. So really the more I post , the more I get to say and get to record. It's also therapeutic, although I try not to post about things that annoy or upset me, just things that inspire me and make me feel good, so I often include TED talks and songs that I really love.

I just went to TED and saw the talk above and , as usual , I've downloaded it because it just interests me. Enjoy the rest of the weekend


Saturday 25 January 2014

TVOD and Australia Day



This week I've used my traveling time to just read, no catch up TV , no TED talks , just reading. I don't know if that's calmed me down or not , but the benefit is that you can read and listen to music simultaneously. That's two things you engage with at the same time.

You can't watch TV and listen to music at the same time without losing track of one thing or the other.

This doesn't meant that TV or TED  is bad, it just means you have to watch and listen , whereas a book the whole of the experience comes through your eyes leaving your ears to engage in aural stimulations.

Itn other news I've been reminded it's Australia Day tomorrow which is a great reason to celebrate and that in turn reminded me it my dad's birthday in two days time. So that's an excuse to reproduce my Australia Day playlist from a couple of years back which you may or may not enjoy , but there is certainly a lot of great music come out of Australia. I still remember ordering The Saints "I'm Stranded" on the EMI Import print sometime around 1976, and it still sounds brilliant today.

Australia Day 2012 by Mike Singleton on Grooveshark 
 
Oh and the wonderful Tom Ravenscroft did an Australia Day special which you can listen to here.  I've downloaded to my phone to listen to this week.