Friday 7 January 2011

HMV - Will They Still Be Here Next Christmas?


HMV and Next have reported major disappointing results because of the snow. One thing I cant understand is that they sell CDs for as little as £2.90 delivered . How do they make a profit on that? Yes it's great for the customer but you cannot have most of your sales being loss leaders.

It 1975 my Job Seekers allowance was £3.25 . I bought "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd in its black shrink wrapped package for £3.25 . If we take job seekers allowance as a measure that would me that your average new CD should be around £60 !! So when a new album is £10 you shouldnt even think about not buying it.

Anyway Rhino do a series of Original Classic Albums for around £12 delivered that you can get from HMV here or from Amazon on the carousel above . If your not careful you'll only be able to buy the latest X Factor output from your local supermarket , be warned!!

Wednesday 5 January 2011

Obituaries Already

Amazing bad start to the year for losing somme very talented people. First we lost the brilliant actor Pete Postlethwaite, then Gerry Rafferty and Mick Karn , bassist with Japan.

All three will be sadly missed:

Here's Rafferty with Stealers Wheel:



Mick Karn with Japan:



and Pete Postlethwaite:


Tuesday 4 January 2011

Another Day - And Back To Work



Well first day back at work and my first surprise was the guy at the ticket machine trying to get his booking number from his 17" laptop. There may have been a good reason for this , but I reckon it was really because the guy was just a stupid arse.

Went to get my ticket , only to find a 10% increase in the fare and no plus bus option , meaning I would have to find some change before I got on the bus at the Darlington end.!! Things not exactly improving.

Finally my train journey was made very annoying by the Norman Collier announcement system and a monkey in the carraige.

Surely things can only get better!!

Sunday 2 January 2011

Here Come The Ads ... and Creme Eggs!!

Well Christmas and New Year have come and gone , and television is now drenched with advertisements for holidays as furniture such as the CSL one below:



If you want to get hold of the music check out my "Song of the Salesman" site here.

On the plus side the shops are now stocking Cadbury's wonderful Creme Eggs , which you can also get online from the Cadbury's site here. Here's a video the whet your appetite !! Mmmmmm



Saturday 1 January 2011

Happy New Year

Well posting has been sporadic , greatly due to facebook , and for the last couple of weeks due to some kind of 'flu. This meant I actually slept through New Year Celebrations , missed all the Christmas Parties , saw no one and was generally miserable , but on the sort of plus side ended up losing weight.

Anyway this morning is grey , rainy , miserable and I can't believe shops are open today!! Still pursuit of the greenbacks is all to some people.

One of the things that brightened my day is the "Rolling Stones Monopoly"!! They also have their own "Trivial Pursuit" as well!!. Just waiting for a "Cradle of Filth" edition now.....

Tuesday 7 December 2010

Snow


Well it's December and we've had the worst snow since I moved here. However could be worse , Scotland have it really bad. Though God knows what will happen when the thaw sets in!!. Worcester's Victorian Christmas Fair didnt seem to suffer too much , though it was very cold.

Still we shall see what the rest of the week brings!!

Sunday 7 November 2010

Sony Capitulation


This post really came about because Mojo carries advertisements for the Brennan Jukebox system , which enables you to have "all your CDs that you never play" in a single box that can be held in one hand , so really it's a sophisticates MP3 hard disc player m, excelpt with graphic or video capability. The Brennan website is here and I thinks it's a worthy but flawed system falling between the stools of convenience and minimalism. The photography and the site are certainly both enticing.


I decided to track the box down , but all Amazon gave me were Sony MP3 (I assume) jukeboxes . The thing that then struck is that most Sony Music Players these days have an iPod dock . iPod is Apple not Sony and it's proprietary (ie not standard). In fact the iPod dock is becoming ubiquitous , with televisions , CD players , cars all having a slot for the damn things. So have Sony given in and have Apple won? It sure looks that way!!