Remake / Remodel

In his book "Last Shop Standing" Graham Jones (see here) remarks on how Greatest Hits packages and compilations are stagnating the music industry. Apparently Roxy Music have had seven such items , and over the past week there's another Bruce Springsteen's Greatest Hits, another compilation to celebrate Blur's reformation called Midlife and another Black Sabbath Greatest Hits Compilation.




Add this to the rush of "Platinum Collections", "Dad Rock" compilations for Fathers Day , and similar ones on Mothers Day, Christmas and the like and you can see just how bloated and lazy the corporate music industry has become concentrating solely on moving product rather than nurturing music . The two items should be compatible , though the fact that the industry is run by accountants shows in spades.








I put together a short video featuring recycled music , soundtracked by Roxy Music's Remake/Remodel from their eponymous debut, available for download here.

However in some ways greatest hits are not all bad, they may be a good introduction to a band , and it's good to see bands still touring even if they do rest on their laurels so to speak. Fleetwood Mac (with the genius of Lindsey Buckingham) and Fairport Convention are two that spring to mind. But the best news on this front for was that Arthur Jeffes, the son of the late great Simon Jeffes has put together a band to play the music of the truly wonderful Penguin Cafe Orchestra and will be touring with them , including old and new compositions. Now that IS worth looking forward to. Information here.

What's The Meaning Of Free?

After Carphone Warehouse's re-imagining (see Orange Goldspots ad below) of the word "unlimited" in relation to mobile downloads (250 Mb a month se article here) we now have Sky offering free broadband, calls and Sky+ Box as the main thrust of their advertising campaign. In the small porint it does mention that you have to pay a minimum of about £16 a month to get these "free" services.

A similar thrust is 3s "never pay for another phone call" advert , the condition being that you make Skype to Skype phone calls using VOIP and incur the related internet access data charges . Yes, you dont pay for the calls , but you DO pay for being able to make them!!

The Orange Goldspot that uses THAT word:

The Train Can Be Fun

Train journeys can be annoying , borring and infuriating. There's lots of things can go wrong , unexplained delays , drunken idiots , jobsworth officials who just seem intent on obstructing you in any way you can.

However the experience can often be enhanced just by talking to the person you sit next to. Sometimes it can be amazing the number of things you find in common. Speaking to a young lady who alighted at Durham for a 62 mile journey to her job in York, we found that we both like the Sage, Richard Thompson , Half Man Half Biscuit and our conversion finished as she recognised my alarm tone of ELP's Hoedown which was meant to be my alarm call to wake me up at Darlington, which thanks to her I didn't need.

Hopefully there will be more journeys like that and less where they guy at the barrier at Darlington spends an age inspecting my ticket making me miss my train.

Here's the video for "Dickie Davies Eyes" one of my favourites, and it features Forton Services , I remember it when it was modern. When this hit number one in the Indie chart the band split for the first time!!

'

I Didn't Imagine The Jazz Playing Monks in Bright Orange

In a conversation in the Market Lane last night I was accused of being off my head when I said I had seen a troupe of monks dressed in bright orange playing jazz in the street in Tynemouth. I spoke to a couple of them in the queu for the beer tent in the Priory (Tynemouth Priory that is) where they told me they were called Excelsior (or some derivation thereof) , maybe had a relationship with the Dutch Excelsior Brewery or Football team. Anyway cant find anything about the jazz band on the net , though I'm sure I did at the time. Situation is the only proof I have is a bit of video I took when I saw them at the 2006 Mouth Of Tyne Festival , the sound was attrocious so I've replaced it with Morse Code Melody by The Alberts available on the album "By Jingo It's British Rubbish" here

The video proof is above

(S)crappage

Scrappage ... Is it even a real word? This must rate as the most idiot waste of tax payers money ever. Supposedly to help the (British?) Car Industry. You get a couple of grand off a new car if you scrap that one one you've kept on the road for the last fifteen years or whatever? Apparently 35,000 people have taken this up , so that's cost us £70m in payouts to car companies for discounts that you could have got with a bit of negotiation anyway!! Then there's the cost of trashing the old car. Recycling?? , will probably end up as landfill.

And the killer punchline .... you can trade in against a new Skoda, Fiat, Ford , Renault , Peugeot etc because we dont really have a British car industry any more !!

I'm keeping my 16 year old Renault Clio until it drops , then it can go for scrap . That's a far greener and more cost effective option.

Lucifer Sam....

Earlier in the the year we had a problem with cats using the garden as a toilet , so decided to try the "Silent Roar" Lion Poo solution (see here) One cat in particular was a total git , any way I have some film of said offender now avoiding our garden in this bit of video accompanied by Pink Floyd's "Lucifer Sam" which you can get here.

Jan's Jansz

Just wandering past Oddbin's today and ran into my good friend Jan, just as I was about to purchase a couple of bottle's of the appropriately named Jansz for a party!! Co-incidence or what!!

Jan's on the right in the left hand photo and the gorgeous wine is described thus on the Oddbin's site:

"The bouquet shows lifted aromas of honeysuckle and citrus fruits from the Tasmanian Chardonnay, with nougat and roasted nuts derived from the lees ageing, while the Pinot Noir contributes delicate strawberry. The palate is well balanced with delicate fruit flavours, creaminess and fresh acid, leading to a dry, light finish." ... much like the lady herself.....

Last Record Shop Standing?

I'm currently half way through reading the excellent "Last Shop Standing" by Graham Jones (web site here)which for some reason isnt on Amazon , so hopefully you can get it from Ebay , though you can definitely get it from Folk Devils in Whitby, because that's where I bought it.

I mention this , because of a worrying development in Currys on the high street. The Hi-Fi section is shrinking alarmingly and I can see a day when you they wont be selling CD players , only iPod docks. I dont have and will never have, an iPod. Maybe the independent record shops should start stocking low end CD systems or pair up with audio shops.

Luckily Comet still stock a reasonable range but they're out ouf town.

This is on the day I purchased my most expensive ever CD (from Amazon he said shame facedly) , the very rare John Kongos , 18 track Repetoire version!!!

No One Loves You When You're Down ... Especially A Mackem

Well Newcastle's season finished with a whimper , hardly able to muster a shot on target against an Aston Villa side who've lost their way since Christmas , but still managed to qualify for Europe. Newcastle suitably shot themselves in the foot via a horrendous deflection off the apparently aptly named Damien Duff.

We watched the match is Tynemouth and most fans were totally resigned to the capitulation they saw in front of them.

A couple of weeks ago a Newcastle fan said that he was annoyed that Preston had pipped Cardiff to the final play off place as he had been looking forward to an away match down there !! Be careful what you wish for now he has Cardiff and Swansea to look forward to.

As we went for the train we saw this Tyneside In Bloom display which sort of sums up Newcastle's season!!

The Railway Hotel In Haydon Bridge ...

After a day at Vindolanda , we settled on the Rat at Anick for a post culture pubg , however due to one thing and another we ended up deciding of the the General Havelock at Haydon Bridge. Haydon Bridge has recently become the beneficiary (or otherwise) of an A69 by pass, so we drove in from the north and parked in picnic area by the River Tyne.

On approching the Havelock we found it had been booked for a private party , it seems we're destinhed never to darken it's door , last weeks visit curtailed by torrential rain. Requiring sustenance and beer we turned to the Railway Hotel more info can be found on their website here.

The lady outside was extremely welcoming , and though they basically served excellent pub food, she also said that she could put together a pulse stew concoction for a vegan member of our party , who was already set on chips and beans. The service , food and beer selection was five star along with excellent music ranging from Little Feat to 50's rock and roll. This palce is well worth stopping by if you come withing 20 miles of Haydon Bridge!!!

Left is the poem celebrating their breakfast!!

The New Star Trek Movie and Respect For Referees

The two have nothing to do with each other , but after Phil Dowd's brilliant Homer impersonation for Bimingham against Preston, the Norwegian FIFA stooge in the Chelsea vs Barcelona decider , Howard Webb's ridiculous decision to disallow a perfectly good goal for Newcastle against Fulham , how the hell can you have any respect for the sort of people who get things so wrong and are allowed to get away with it?? Are they planning to become MPs??

This video is fairly appropriate:


From the album Cammel Laird Social Club




Webb's screw up could send Newcastle down , though spare a thought for West Brom fans who've lived with that feeling for most of their time in the Premiership , documented brilliantly in Adrian Chiles' excellent book "We Don't Know What We're Doing"!! Incidentally there's a couple of pubs in Darlington , one's The Albion , next one is The Hope. Humm , it wasnt to be"!!

Anyway this Star Trek review may calm you down:


Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

Odd Items In Pubs (Robin Hood's Bay Again)

Many years ago the late and brilliant Douglas Adams and John Lloyd co authored a book called "The Deeper Meaning Of Liff:A Dictionary of Things There Aren't Any Words for Yet-But There Ought to Be" , an updating of their earlier "The Meaning Of Liff" , which takes place names and assigns them to items that there aren't any words for.

While have tea in the rather Excellent Dolphin in Robin Hood's Bay , I saw the item below on the wall opposite me. I completely forgot to ask the landlord what it was , but it is definitely an appliance that would have a place in the afformentioned volumes!!

On The Way To The Longest Day

Sat on the train between Newcastle and Darlington this morning, thinking it's a bit dark , considering we're getting towards summer. After several sunny days , it looks like rain is here for the weekend , still saves having to water the garden.

We must have passed the Spring Equinox this year , and now looking forward to a summer of music festivals , though the awful Evolution Festival in Newcastle doesnt count as it's just about controling the crowd while extracting the maximum amount of cash from them , a bit like Glastonbury has become , just corporate extortion to watch the media's flavour of the moment!!

Then again you could always buy a Dukla Prague Away Kit!!!

A Little More "La Rosa"

A few people have asked where "La Rosa" is. It's on the north side of the river in Whitby on the cliff top , in the same block as the Royal Hotel (where apparently the condition of tenure is that you have taken a Shearing's Bus Tour!) . Anyway If you look from the south side of Whitby , La Rosa is the Yellow Building in the block:


And here's the front with the Lewis Carrol plaque, from here you can see the whalebone arch and look across the river to the ruins of the Abbey. Tres Gothic!!





And another of the sea view suites!!

And A Day In Whitby..

Most of Saturday was spent in Whitby. After the shock on the non roads of Robin Hood's Bay , Whitby was fine. Parked on the West Cliff car park and walked down to the town centre past the carved Whale and the Whalebone Arch.

Whitby is built on slopes towards the, what I assume is, the river Esk , so requires a lot of step negotiation and reasonable fitness , but is well worth it , with it's Gothic ruined abbey , Dracula associations , and Jet (jewellery) and other esoteric shops.

Like Robin Hood's Bay , Whitby is a marvel of ingenuity in the way the houses, shops and pubs are shoe horned together.

Breakfast was at the White Horse and Griffin , lunch at The Magpie Cafe , both absolute five star for food and service.

We visited a few pubs, one of which "The Jolly Sailor" has one of the dodgiest signs I've seen. It's here:

Then there's lots of Chocolate shops such as Justins where the staff were extrememly relaxed despite some customers getting extremely irateover the fact they were having to wait for service. How can you be in a rush when buying chocolate on a Saturday from a shop in Whitby?


We finished with a visit to La Rosa , a superb and fun Victorian Hotel where we'll be going at the end of June. All the rooms are themed and uncluttered by such modernities as televisions and telephones, with features such as wooden baths, black bedding in the "Stoker" suite and steers skulls decorating the bedhead in the Saloon suite!.

A Few Days In Robin Hood's Bay

Just back from a a short break in Robin Hood's Bay. This place is a triumph of inventiveness, and not a place to drive for the faint hearted. There's virtually nowhere to park , nowhere to turn round , some of the "streets" can be spanned with the outstretched arms.

I made the mistake of driving down to drop off our case and ended up with option of driving into the North Sea or manoeuvering the car on the slipway to get back to somewhere safe.

Our cottage was excellent and like almost all buildings in this village is over three storeys reached by a ladder like stairways. This is not a place for anyone who needs a walking aid or wheelchair, that's not plotically incorrect it's just the nature of the village.

Well worth a visit , but park your car on the Bank Top Car Park and walk the rest of the way. You'll be glad you you did given the potential for gridlock in the village itself.

Amazingly there's a plethora of shops , including Muir Head stores which do cash back. There's three excellent pubs , The Bay , The Dolphin and The Laurels , the best food being at the Dolphin , and the atmosphere in The Laurels and the best views in The Bay . Also theres an excellent fish and chip shop of a street near the slipway which is worth visiting.

The cottage we stayed in is Beare Cottage , details of which are here.

This Panic Nation

Now its Swine 'flu' , and the government are going to issue leaflets about how to deal with this pandemic that's going to kill us all. Remember Bird 'flu' ? Didn't think so.

Google Streetview , well that's a burglars and paedophile's gold mine according to your Daily Mail and Talk Radio pundits.

Then there's the credit crunch and the collapse of the economy. Where's the money gone?? Well as it was credit it probably wasnt there in the first place, but most people are in a similar position to what they were in pre credit crunch.

If it's not disease or Google it's terrorists like Al Qaeda , and next week it'll be something else.

Society is a fragile thing built on trust . Usually those who abuse that trust are caught and punished in an appropriate manner.

It's all there to frighten us so the government can pass god knows what laws in "our best interest". The NHS , Police and Army do a good job of looking after us , it's what they're paid for , and despite the odd screw up it generally works.

The government seem to want us to live in a society where we're frightened of our own neighbour like great tracts of the USA. Canada and Switzerland and many other contries have a higher per capita gun ownership than the USA , but they dont hove the same carnage because people trust each other. This Michael Moore cartoon from "Bowling For Columbine" puts it in a nutshell:

Exploding CDs and Championship Unpredictability

This morning I was ripping so CDs and noticed that of them CD2 of "The Tzar, His Library And The Winter Palace" by Al Stewart (home page here)had a couple of cracks at the centre. Thought I best rip this , the drive started up , revved up to 500 rpm , or whatever it is for CDs , then BANG!!! , the thing exploded in the CD drive , leaving me a drive full of fragments!!! Amazingly , I took the thing apart , hoovered it out , emptied out the sparkly bits , put in back , and the thing is now working fine. Though I need to contact Mr Stewart about a replacement CD as it was purchased at one of his gigs and isnt commercially available!!

On the penultimate day of the Championship , due to Preston's atrocious away form , a home defeat by the relegation threatened 'Poo' , our season was finished unless , Cardiff lost at home to mid table Ipswich (with new manager Roy Keane) , , Burnley didnt beat relegation candidates Southampton , and we beat the team with the best defence in the league, a squad full of ex premiership players , on their own turf , that's Birmigham City!!. What I didnt realise was that in Phil Dowd we were against a big club homer referee as well . In the first half he denied us three excellent penaly claims , Jaidi stamping on Mellors leg , Quedrue's deliberate handball in his penalty area. Trevor Francis reckoned they were lucky to have 11 men on the pitch at half time. Well they had 12 !! The second half got worse , Sean St Ledger missed a great chance , the Birmingham scored an excellent goal through Fahey . On 60 sixty minutes Bowyer started a fight with Lee Williamson . Williamson tried to get away but ended up face to face with Bowyer and Dowd red carded both of them , I'm just surprised he sent Bowyer off.

Then with both sides down to 10 men Paul McKenna scored a wonder goal , just as a I was resigned to our season being over . After 88 minutes Ross Wallace took a free kick and scored a goal the equal of McKenna's , I was rubbing my eyes , thinking has in gone in , it had!!!! Wallace pulled off his shirt and Dowd took great delight in red carding Wallace to reduce Preston to 9 men for the four minutes of added time.

All credit to Trevor Francis on Sky, he was extemely objective in his match assessment.

So now I have to go though a nailbiting last day . Am I bothered ?

Not a bit

I'd Like To Live On The Chatsworth Estate

I noticed on Facebook that my niece had joined the group "I'd Like To Live On The Chatsworth Estate". Having visited Chatsworth twice , including my most recent holiday , I thought "That's nice , I didn't know she was that much into culture" and assumed she'd spent a day visiting the stately home and gardens , maybe having a champagne tea and seeing stuff like this:











In fact what the group is about is that they're fans of Frank Gallagher and his lovely family stars of the excellent Shameless. Amazing that I've watch the whole lot and not realised that they lived on the Chatsworth Estate! It's nice to think that youth can teach us a thing or two!!

One thing in common , both Estates know how to throw a party!!

A Garden Post and a Pair of Magpies

Nice weather for the Easter Bank Holiday , and we've managed to get the umbrella up , which seemed to contain an unwelcome infestation of flies, though hopefully our resident spiders and frogs will have devoured them by now!!

Also managed to get a photo of two magpies in our garden ruined by the fact that in was taken through the kitchen window , the flash went off and scred them away, still this is the result.

And here's a short video of the garden featuring "Always With Me, Always With You" by Joe Satriani which is available here:

The Odd Postbox..

My dad's job / hobby is the maintenance and installation / de installation of postboxes between Carlisle and Buxton . I saw this odd one on our recent Tideswell holiday which was one that he put in.









Previously I've come across few oddities such as this one in Worcester.








And then there's this similar one in Buxton which is probably another of my dad's.






And finally a Chinese style one in Stowell Street , Chinatown , Newcastle!!

Around Tideswell

Just a little more on the Peak District holiday , and more recommendations . Tideswell is a great village with some great buildings such as the afformentioned Natwest Bank,
with it's Griffin at the Front door:

Then there's the corner chippy , which highly recommended , opposite the bank ,and is another striking Tideswell building:

Just near to Tideswell , is the village Litton featuring the excellent Red Lion pub , which apart from being excellent features some incredible caving photographs on the wall , the work of Robbie Shone who's gallery can be seen here:

Tideswell - Cathedral Of The Peak!!

Just back from a week in Tideswell in Derbyshire , the Peak District. Took a great cottage (Rose Cottage) for a week details of which are here.

Tideswell is incredibly friendly as well as having a bank with working cash machine, two chip shops , three pubs (which serve food) , at least three churches including St John The Baptist the afformentioned Cathedral of the Peak, a Post Office, and Art Gallery and a few cafes.

First Mow Of The Year

Today , well yesterday , was the first mow of the year and lawn doesnt look too bad.

We also repotted a Bay Tree that we got for Christmas , which looks very nice on the decking.


And the Silent Roar / Sonic Gun combination (see here)seems to be keeping the garden cat poo free.

Spinal Tap Live Down My Street!!

Walking back from the hospital the other day and I spotted this front garden decoration:

I wonder if Spinal Tap live there? Further round the corner there's some shops , and with the so called credit crunch another one has gone west (the sign reads Winterschla, but it took me ages to recall what the shop was, a "Mr Q" discout drink shop. Previously it had been the just as badly named "The Local" and prior that I think it was a "Threshers". Glad to see that the ridiculously specialist "Tent Awning Clinic" can outlast a cheap booze emporium!!!

Waiting For Pudot .. and there's more

Tried another Gourmet Society restaurant , Starters and Puds , next to the Theatre Royal in Newcastle and they've come up with a novel concept to get you back fairly quickly. Have your starter , go and see your play , then come pack for your pudding!!! Our next theatre appointment is "Waiting For Godot" featuring Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen , so we'll see what happens!!!

On another note a friend pointed out Camp Karma in Yorkshire , which led to discover the extremely interesting looking "La Rosa" hotel in Whitby , which is definitely on my list!!

Buying Lion Pooh From Dobbies and Laser Guided Sonic Cat Guns From Wilkinsons!!!

Just been out for the first Garden Centre excursion of the year and spent a fortune on stuff.

We have a problem with cats in out garden , but apparently the best repellent is stuff called "Silent Roar" which is basically fertiliser coated in Lion Pooh . The premise is that if the cat thinks there's a bigger , harder specimen about then it'll leave your garden undisturbed.


Well I've scattered the stuff about so we'll see what happens!!!

Within three hours the cat had abandoned the borders where lion pooh was , and decided to use the lawn in the middle as it's toilet!!! Are these animals stupid? If you think there's a big cat about you don't move another six feet to do your business. Will do the lawn as well and see what happens then.

Go Cat

Today I put some cat rellent on the lawn and got a "Mega Sonic Cat Scatter Gun" from Wilkinsons. Today two cats have been in the garden
and were there about ten seconds . Things may be working!!!

Easy To Make A Mistake Jet

Yesterday I was flying to Bristol with Easyjet. Not much can go wrong. As I buckled up my belt I thought I'd mis heard the destination "Belfast" metioned over the intercom. I queried this with the guy in front:

"Is this flight for Belfast mate?"

"I bloody hope so" came the reply.

I'd had my ticket clearly marked with Bristol checked by several members of staff but still managed to get on the wrong flight. Luckily the Bristol flight was delayed so I didn't miss out on the day's entertainment.

The lesson to be learned if you buy a very cheap ticket you could get a very expensive flight to a destination that starts with the same letter (New York instead of Newcastle anybody?).

To quote John Scott , "Primark with wings".

General Fiasco - The Best Pop Band From Northern Ireland Since Ash or even The Undertones?

Three gigs in seven daysis a lot for me in recent times , but this was another stunning one , so I've been well rewarded for staying out late!! I first saw General Fiasco sandwiched between The Plan For Tonight and Fighting With Wire at the Cluney , but this was my first view of them as headliners.

Support was The Farrels and the excellent 3 Foot Ninja who finished their set with a storming version of "Firestarter" , well worth seeing.

But back to General Fiasco, the thing that amazed me was that every song was instantly listenable. A visit to their myspace page confirmed that and last nights gig emphasised it in spades with a blistering ne opener as well as "old" favourites such as "Ever So Shy" and "Something Sometime" , the new single, which you can get from itunes here . They've recently signed with B-Unique so we should be getting an album by June or July, but as yet we're still waiting, but "Rebel Get By" (on itunes here) and "Something Sometime" are available.

The new single "Something Sometime":



Official Video for "Rebel Get By":


...

The Grand Piano Never Stood A Chance!!!

Just back from a great weekend in London , the highlight of which was a visit to the legendary 100 Club to see a guy called Ben Waters , apparently well liked by Jools Holland. The guy is simply phenomenal , with a backing band of bass , drums and saxophone(s) the guty played incredible piano destroying , boogie woogie that I've not been aware of since the Killer himself. Aknowledging debts to the likes of Amos Milburn , Waters is simply a must see if you ever get the chance. Below is him doing various types of keyboard annihalation:



And here's the hilarious East German version of Johnny B Goode!!!



And Broken Piano Blues!!!


And the fabulous "Melting Pot"



Ben Waters on Myspace here

Ben Waters Website here

Fairport Convention and....Phil Cool??

Just got back from a superb gig and a half at the Journal Tyne Theatre in Newcastle. Fairport Convention supported by Phil Cool ... or so I thought. In fact the support act was Phil Cool and Ken Nicol. Ken Nicol is an absolutely stunning guitarist doing mainly acoustic stuff , but providing some stunning electric lead in lieu of Richard Thompson for the all troupe encompassing finale of "Meet On The Ledge". Phil Cool is no less a revelation , while still being funny as hell, he can song , play acoustic rhythm and write the odd excellent song.

Fairport themselves were excellent , the current incarnation comprising Simon Nicol , Dave Pegg , Chris Lesley , Ric Sanders and Gerry Conway. The played lots of stuff I hadnt previously heard , but also did a storming version of "Matty Groves" , three songs from "Babbacombe Lee" as well as "Who Knows Where The Time Goes" and the afformentioned "Meet On The Ledge", there's some youtube footage below:



Will pad this out with links and pictures but this is it for now.
Interestingly this is the first time I've bought albums on a USB Stick / Keyring , the Nicol & Cool and Ken Nicol - Initial Variations albums. Save's a bit of space in the CD racks!!

The official Fairport site is here.

Phil Cool's site is here.

Ken Nicol's site is here.

Winamp Remote On ASUS Running Linux

A new toy , and when I eventually got it sorted , it works fine. A simple set up , and I assume that Apple / iTunes have something similar but this'll do me. I have Winamp running on my main PC , but you need to download Winamp Remote and have this running on your home PC.

Then you set up an account account and in the web settings on your ASUS Eee, selecting Realplayer (which I generally detest as a product) as the preferred streaming method , this seems to use the browsers (Firefox) inbuilt player. So now I can have my music anywhere as long as my PC is running!!

If you want to try it here's 25 Free MP3s from Emusic:

Modern Life Is Stylish (But Rubbish)

Well we've just had the deepest snow this year , here and the back garden is still white but the residue on the local footpaths is just slippier ice.

Earlier this year we had a new bathroom suite fitted,

see here. It looks very nice and is very nice but has one potentially disastrous design flaw which came to haunt me yesterday when laeving the running tap during shaving to answer a phone call. The bath and sing have no emergency overflow!!! The weight of the water had pushed the integral plug down and I returned to the bathroom just as the water hit the top of the sink. Luckily I caught it just in time, but could be worse could be like this!! Now imagine walking into that bathroom!!

Idiosyncracies Dublin and Newcastle

Well the snows virtually gone, the main PC has packed up, but walking for the bus this morning the bus driver let us on outside the front door. Admittedly there was a bit of a jam , but better than some of the miseries you get.

A few things I noticed in Dublin:

In these days of super duper mobiles , Dublin is as up to date as anywhere , but it seems everyone just has the default ringtone on their phone which is far more annoying that the MP3 customisation that we get over here.

Also in the posh (well five quid for a hot chocolate , knockin' Travolta's five dollar shake for six) Butler's Chocolate Cafe , you have to collect your drinks from the counter . I was flabbergasted. At five quid a drink I expect MORE than waitress service!!!

Alternatively in the decent pubs such as the Ha'Penny Bridge, The Druids Cair , The Queens and Finnegans they server the drinks at your table no matter how busy they are.

White Out...

Worst winter for Eighteen years so they say. London brought to a halt. Lot's of snow here, and this is what it looked like here, soundtracked by the Yardbirds "White Summer" a version of which can be found here by Led Zeppelin , same guitarist different band. The video is bookended by pigeons hiding in a tree from a predatory, but cold, cat.

The Met Office is the best source for weather forecasts and can be found here.

Dublin Images 2009 ... With Guinness

Now back from Dublin , and thought the simplest way to show the pictures was to just do a brace short videos. The first is stuff around Dublin , soundtracked by the Dubliners "Seven Drunken Nights" which you can download here:

The second is from the Guinness Storehouse which is well worth a visit despite being in a fairly dodgy part of the city, the soundtrack of this is "Guaglione" by Perez Prado that you can download here. To Celebrate the 250th Anniversary of Guinness in 2009 there is a CD of iconic music used in their adverts , available here. This is a direct link to the Virtual Tour

That's it for today!!

In Dublin....

And they're charging 12.5 Euros for a days wi-fi access and the bus drivers seem intent on telling which busses you can't catch rather than what you can catch.

On the plus side the Druid's Chair in Killiney is fully redecorated and still providing totally excellent service and Guinness. Also The Queen's Head in Dalkey is still doing their excellent Bacon and Cabbage which tastes far better than it sounds!

The ASUS is a bit small for my fingers so I'll expand these entries with pictures and video at a later date.

Highlights of the week included the visit to the Guiness Storehouse finishing up with a pint in the Gravity Bar.

Also theres an updating of "Playboy of The Western World" by Roddy Doyle and Bisi Adigun , which was playing to packed houses at the Abbey Theatre , see here, and is absolutely superb. Hopefuly it'll tour the rest of the world at some point.

Richard Thompson's 1000 Years of Popular Music At The Sage

Absolutely top drawer stuff (as usual from Mr T) . The 1000 Years of Popular music first run is available as this gorgeous 2 CD / 1 DVD set here well worth fifteen quid from your bank account.

The first half of the set was mostly new (but old) stuff if you know what I mean , but the post 1900 stuff featured a lot of familiar stuff.

This is the only youtube stuff I can find so hopefully it will stay available. If you can see him do so! The first is a trailer:




The man himself:



And one of my favourites:

Anyone Can Do The Web ...

..but not everything is worth looking at. The web or net or whatever you want to call it , is a great leveller , in that absolutely anyone can create a website , which means theres an awful lot of dross out there, full of "Under Construction " signs , or just unfinished and left to rot or just plain bad. The main thing about a web site is that it must do what it's supposed to do , no more no less. Amazon is a great example of something that doesnt look great , but allows you to do what you need (ie buy stuff ) , very efficiently. Play follows it very closely in this.

Then you get entertainment sites such as JibJab which allows the sending of e-cards and is one of the few sites of this ilk that is worth visiting. You can see various examples of Jib Jabbery throughout this blog , such as here.

There's also the personal websites that are the equivalent of cards in the shop window , but can be made to look like a page out of Vogue such as Mark Johnson's Photography Gallery , with an example picture below, which is a small catalogue of the sort of photographic work he undertakes. This includes commercial photography and travel photography as well as bespoke photographic commissions:



Another is Bob Artstrong's Paintings Gallery which displays some of Bob's work (he's an excellent Lincolnshire based artist) and has news about exhibitions and the like . One of his paintings is displayed below:



And finally this last one is for Woodlands Nurseries in Louth , an excellent plant nursery in Lincolnshire,which is an online news and plant catalogue, with many pictures of the beautiful plants available to the public:


And then there's the more mundane but neccessary world of Gas Boiler Servicing and the like . And my mate Harry Willis has his own site to advertise his services, such as installation , radiatore sytem flushing as well as annual bioler serviceing in the Newcastle area here.

Walkin' The Dog : Animals We Have Seen

Just thought I'd post a bit of video and photos , including a cat in our garden , the dogs and lambs of Upton Snodsbury while we were staying in The Old Wool Loft (see here) as well as a couple of Geese. All soundtracked by Spirit's version of Rufus Thomas' "Walkin' The Dog" , a version of which you can download here:

Good New YearTechnology

First post of the New Year , and a video soundtracked appropriately by the Red Guitars' Good Technology demonstrating the NASA Ground Control that serves as the karaoke machine and beer storage in Marks house!!