Interesting , just realised that the iPad doesnt come with an inbuilt Office Suite. So I'm using the Note application to write this post. Hope I can cut and paste this lot once I've typed it.
It's a sad fact that I am getting used to London. Kings Cross is only five stops from Paddington and now I think that's nothing. It's not so long that going from Kings Cross mainline to Kings Cross underground with luggage in tow was like a trip down the Amazon.
On the plus side stuff like the Science Showoffs night at the Wilmington Arms hosted by the excellent Simon Cross in Farringdon (six stops from Paddington) is educating me an the science of making cheese toasties, swimming and the theory of the Quantum Car!
It's also amazing that the responsiveness of the iPad can be amazingly temperamental. Sometimes it is instant and sometimes it just ignores everything that you do.
Anyway I will now try to connect to the internet and post this. I will put in links later unless I forget.
Oh apologies for the font. That came from the iPad application!
So sang Tennessee Ernie Ford when I was quite small , in what is a depressingly brilliant song. Today I turned 55 nad remember thinking how old my uncle was when he turned 16.
Basically there's nowt you can do about getting older as long as there's time. But I ready that people who have more birthdays tend to live longer! Also people who enjoy life and do things tend to live longer.
You never know what's round the corner and life still springs surprises on me good , bad and points in between.
You can't do everything you want to , but if you get a chance you should always take it . Always look for the positives and never turn down something good.
Today I feel the same as I did yesterday , and will probably feel the same tomorrow . I do feel different to 40 years ago , but 40 years ago I was a different person. Life does that to you.
But life is good and I'm looking forward to the next 55 years firmly beliveing that they will solve the problem of bodies wearing out and I expect Keith Richards and Mick Jagger still to be touring !!
In the seventies ,I remember ahving three channels and people complaining about the license fee mainly because of all the repeats on TV. Then we got Channel 4 and Channel 5 and people still complainesd about the lack of choice.
Then came satellite and people who complained about the license fee happily subscribed to Sky and pay TV and still complained . Now we have Freeview and it's ironic that some of the most watched channels are crammed with repeats. Gold , Dave , Comedy Central all just contain repeats.
We also now have PVRs and people still complain there's nothing on TV , while happily watching re runs of "Only Fools And Horses" or "Two And A Half Men" (on my TV at the moment).
Boxed sets of the DVDs sell like hot cakes , even "On The Buses" which must be one of the worst programs ever . Did you know Reg Varney was the first person in Britain to use an ATM ? YOu would have though they's have got somebody good to do it.
And then those Carry On Films , how come Sid James , Kenneth Cope and Bernard Bresslaw always got the girls ?
Anyway thats my thoughts on the subject and the Carry On Films did at least have some classics among their number (Screaming , Cleo and Up The Khyber).
Just in my local One Stop stop with some potatoes and cheese in my sopping basket and theres one woman serving . The guy in front then get's into a lecture about the best scratch cards to but before parting with another ten quid for a couple of them.
Meanwhile a copuple of charvers complete with pushchairs and squawking offspring stat getting naked because there's only 45 minutes left before the cut off time to put your lottery ticket on resulting in irate exchanges going over my head , while me and the shop assistant attempt to contain our laughter.
I often here people in there , who "know people" who can guarantee a win on the lottery if you use the right system !!.
Well here's my observations on the lottery , this isnt to encourage or discourage , just the facts as I see them:
The only guarantee is that once a number has been drawn , it's won't appear again in that draw
For someone to win two million pounds , four million people have to lose a pound
And that's it
Still I am entertained by people claiming to have a cast iron system as they queue to casth their giro
This is the first time I've tried to blog on a train with my iPad and blu tooth keyboard. It's a bit weird as theres a slight keyboard delay and the t key was sticking causing unwanted repetition. The keyboard case I got for the iPad is generally excellent and makes the iPad itself far more productive.
Tablets , by their nature , are good for browsing and watching and research but more difficult to actually do productive work on. While still getting used to the idea of not having a mouse but touching the screen for mousey type actions, I must say the iPad is very usable.
Charlie brooker described it as a "content deiver device" and a "twattometer" before deciding he could do without one.
I'm still in the very early stages of learning about it, but I only have an iPad 2 and its fast , responsive and easy to use. I have lots of complaints and narks about it but I have used it more in the month that I have had it that I did the Advent Vega in the 15 months that I had that.
It's an excellent e-reader and there are lots of free books avaiable , then you have Garage Band the app that persuded me to get one.
It's still early days but so far I am very impressed.
Just need Apple to accept the have faults and rectify them instead of pretending everything is perfect.
Seriously I would recommend one of these to anyone.
Well at least Dr Dre thinks so , thouagh iPod Dock manufacturersseem to be going for a big ingle speakers . Music doesnt mater you would think.
I rememebr mono listening to singles on a Dansette , the coming of stereo my mums radiogram then my unit with two wired speakers that I could place anywhere. Then we had the short lived quadrophonic phase. The only one I ever saw was an accountant who bought a system and all he had to play was a couple of MFP albums ! Like spending ten grand on a home cinema system and only having The Blair Witch Project to demonstrate it in!!
I think it was Virgin who promoted quadrophonic as music for people with "four ears" . Pink Floyd had a device called the Azimuth Co-Ordinator which was a joystick device for controlling to position of sound within a four speaker system.
We now have 7.1 Home Cinema Systems for film , but music seems to be lucky to get stereo , when 5.1 mixes give the listener incredibly detailed sound . The first King Crimson album "Court of The Crimson King" sound phenomenal , enabling the listener to [ick out individual sounds while still enjoying the immersion of the whole experience.
Anyway while Apple were pushing white tiny in ear headphones , Dr Dre went the other way , with full on logoed headsets allowing the users to display their affiliation , and how much they have spent. Dr Dre has not released an album in ten years but his mentoring of the likes of 50 Cent and his very expensive exclusive Beats headphones are expanding musical and appreciation and his huge bank balance.
I won't be buying a pair but it is one of the music things that I do do approve of, far better than the enormous plague of single speaker iPod docks !
Oh I've just noticed this is my 100th post this year , I was wondering if I would make it . Although this was helped by my "Post A Day In May" thing.
Martin Brennan is behand a device to replace your CD collection . The advertisments contain pie charts of music types , eulogise the rainbow menus and goes ony about reclaiming your living room space. The advertising seems targetted at music lovers rather than the sort of people who spend Sunday in B&Q who are surely the real target audience.
The device id a CD player with a hard drive , space wide its the same as a hardback book. I'm just wondering what happens if the CD or hard drive break down? Also , for me , a better option would be a portable hard drive and linked MP3 player. But you dont need anything otrg that Brennan;'s unit. It will record your CDs and let you play them back and store them in the garage or attic and give you loads of room for other stuff!!
Not sure how it copes with new releases , the database wont have "Take The Crown" by Robbie Williams on !! I'm sure this has been built in.
Anyway I don't have it in for him . The advertisements are still coming in , he has celebrity endorsement , and I hope hope he continues to sell his product.
I thinking the unit needs web connectivity , a decent visual interface or GUI and at the point his advertisements will stop annoyig me !!
His web site is here and if it's what you want , then it will be perfect for you!!
Yesterday I visited the second High Bridge Quarter Festval this is year. Very enjoyable and a great way of getting people into town. Face painting for kids , local shops such as RPM giving big discounts (I bought Graham Bonds "Holy Magick" limited edition for under £9!).
Street food from Zizzis , Dabbawal , and lots of others as well as knitted street art !
I've actually stared editing this my iPad and blutooth keyboard, so apologies if theres mistakes or odd things about the post. It's a little odd using a keyboard and touch screen rather than a keboard and mouse. Although I've just remembered I bought some spare styli (is that the correct plural of stylus?) for my Samsung Note and am sure they will do for this. It's amazing how off track you can go without meaning to , all part of the inter connectedness of life and the world and things but I'm just going to dig out a stylus and see how that works!
Well just tried the stylus and its a great substitute for sausage fingers.
More Knitted Street Art
Knitted Street Art
But anyway back to the original point of the post. Yesterday I visited the second High Bridge Quarter Festival of the year , sampling street food , mingling with the thousands out , enjoying the sun , not enjoying the limpid bossa nove rhythms of a three piece band who were on but it was a great day and people were enjoying sitting on the NE1 deck
chairs. Website here.
Fitzee Gets an Abyssinian Curry
Last week I cought the end of Newcastle's "World Cities Week" with a free Dave and Ansell Collins gig at Greys monument . Unfortunately due to eating in Whitby I couldnt sample any of the street foosd on offer. Far too full!! Information here , and here's Dave and Ansell Collins covering Bob Marley's Three Little Birds . A great evening:
Previous to that we'd had the Newcastle Bridges Festival which I missed due to being somewhere else , but again lots of things happening and details here.
We've already had several music festivals such as Summertyne , Mouth of Tyne , Noth Shields Fish Quay Festival, Hoults Yard Festival details of which can be found here , so an amazing year and it's still only September!!
And people wonder why I like living in Newcastle !!
Many years ago Douglas Adams wrote about a book. The book had on it's cover the words "Don't Panic" and was updated by various researchers. Earth's entry read "Harmless" , shortly to be upgraded to "Mostly Harmless" by researcher Ford Prefect!
The book is what ts says containing useful information about where you are , a bit like the Lonely Planet Guides today . Crammed with useful information about everything and I realised that anyone who has a reasonably smart phone has their own Hitch Hikers Guide in their hand!!
H2G2 was the online incarnation of the book but obviously it was still about Earth as barring the odd trip to the moon , man is quite content to stay here . There is still plenty to do. Anyway you can see what by phone looks like now either side of this bit , one locked , one unlocked.
I now now have an iPad and you know I will find something to complain about. First up it comes in a cardbourd box that contains the cellophane wrapped box that actually contains the damned thing. So not very green Apple , are we?
Next up everything is very whitely packages , put you have to put the damned plug together !! Its not even because it's a multiple power socket , it's just to make things awkward!!
Then you have to have an email address to use the damned thing and need to register , this is part of the Apple Control I detest.
There are other gripes as well but ...
Garageband sold the thing to me and there are some good applications . It's fast and easy to use and it's the software that sells it. It is definitely faster and more responsive than my Advent Vega.
The apps are plentiful , some are rubbish and some are amazing . SOme are usefull and some have a lifespan of five minutes.
I have succumbed to buying an iPad , because its a good tablett and will be a studio in my had . I wont be buying a Mac or an iPhone though . My Samsung Note will do me :)
On of the things with CDs iand vinyl is having a tangible artefact and sometimes the packaging that goes with it. From the heydey of vinyl Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick" with it's fold out full newspaper and Hawkwind's "Space Ritual" and "In Search of Space" were major experiences. The Hawkwind ones were reproduce in CD format.
The japanese do some great vinyl / CD reproductions but often the wording is illegible without a magnifying glass!!
We've recently had the Pink Floyd Immersion editions , and the latest major addition is the Blur 21 box. Now these might be worthy endeavours but each one clock in at around a hundred pounds or more , not too easy on the pocket!
Following on from that we have the Peter Gabriel "So" and Sex Pistols "Never Mind The Bollocks" again in wallet destroying editions. The think is once you get them you have to put them somewhere , they are 12" by 12" boxes.
The only one I have at theat size is the Elektra box set , which was reduced from it's normal £150 to £40 , and I have a number of smaller boxes such as the CD version of the Smiths Complete and The Electric Light Orchestra's Classic Albums (11 albums for £20).
These are great if you want them but you can't really get too many of them from a cost and space perspective!!
A couple of years ago I was reading a book by Bill Bryson in which he noted that every high street in every town or city was beginning to look the same. There was a Boots , a WH Smith , a Woolworths , a BHS , a Next and a few others . I noted the Glastonbury was missing a couple of these and in a recent visit to Totnes their only concession was I think a WH Smiths or maybe a Superdrug.
Anyway , I was in Newcastle today in various parts of the centre and I seemed to be always in sight of a Starbucks , a Costa , a Pret A Manger , a Boots , a Subway etc . It reminds of the Sylvester Stallone film Demolition Man where the only brand left is Taco Bell . I dont know if they paid for that or just enjoyed the irony of the product positioning , but it does get scary when your choice is being whittled away like that.
Even on Newcastle Railway Station we have Starbucks , Costas and WH Smiths , oh not forgetting Greggs !!
EMI are currently doing a promotion called "Electrospective" and Mojo Magazine this moth have the fifty (in their opinion) , most important electronic albums. This post is in no way definitive and may contain errors and disagreement , but it's really some observation on a lot of the way I saw much of it happening.
The starting point seems to be the soundtrack for the film "Forbidden Planet" by Louis and Bebe Barron around 1956 . Now there is no doubting the importance of this album , totally electronic resulting in eerie incredible sound textures for the film based on William Shakespeare's Tempest.
However none of this would have happened without Les Paul's electrification of the guitar and invention of the multi track tape recorder.
Joe Meek was my first pop introduction to "non normal" sounds , on records such as "Telstar" by The Tornadoes with int's organ treatment .
Around the same time Dr Who hit the screens and Delia Derbyshire and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop brought us Ron Grainer's incredible Dr Who theme , still amazing fifty years on. Delia was part of White Noise who provided us with the wonderful Electric Storm album.
With psychedelia we heard phasing being introduced on records such as Nirvana's Rainbow Chaser and by the time I was taking an interest in music bands such as Hawkwind and Tangerine Dream were the leading electronic lights. My first introduction to Kraftwerk was the flute driven "Ruczuk" , which admittedly had a regimented rhythm and phasing , though with teh release of "Autobahn" they were truly an electronic band.
The Theramin came to the fore notably on Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" and the Beach Boys "Good Vibrations" , apparently the result of a failed endeavour to create a burglar alarm in Russia!
Mojo reckoned Queen were denigrating electronic options with the "No Synthesisers" notices on their first couple of albums. Queen were just making out out clever they were. No Synthesisers but Brian May had plenty of electronic hardware backing him up.
Walter (Now Wendy) Carlos had been releasing albums such as Switched On Bach done entirely on the Moog Synthesiser and came to prominence with his soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange".
The us rockers were hit for six when Giorgio Moroder masterminded Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" . This was disco !! But it was good disco!!
Any I have missed lots out but I hope this makes you want to find out more. I've not mentioned Bowie , Jean Michel Jarre , Depeche Mode , Brian Eno , The Human League or Depeche Mode and I could fill another page or so with artists.
..actually it started last night with Cardiff City easing past Huddersfield. Most of the media have focussed their attention on the Premier League despite this only being 20 clubs , and Sky especially doing their usually fawning brown nosing over whoever they think has money , so this season it's Manchester City , with Arsenal , Liverpool , Manchester United and the rest rest are therir to make up the numbers.
Last season they were soooo disappointed that Newcastle United did not implode as they had continued to do under Freddie Shepherd , Mike Ashley despite his continual publicity gaffs managing to get it right where it matters earning the grudging respect of most of the Newcastle fans.
After the plummetting fortunes of Preston , for the first time on Monday night Graham Westley got a standing ovation as his totally rebuilt team beat Huddersfield in the Captal One Cup.
So looking forward to another roller coaster season and who knows what may happen. Theres bound to be the odd controversy so we have to have a Half Man Half Biscuit Song to finish. Full lyrics here:
I've been wandering by the Tyneside Cinema recently and been struck by the poster for Mariner 9, named after the Mars Space Orbiter , not a feature film but a media installtion by Kelly Richardson (@richardsonkelly on twitter). Yesterday I dropped in looking for the class postcards that they have stopped doing and again Mariner 9 caught my eye , along with the closing date , Sunday 19th August , meaning I had to go today or get over next weekend , and when you limit your options something always turns up to thwart you so ....
...today I made my way to Whitley Bay , specifically Spanish City , which has served in that past as a ballroom and funfair , but then fell into disrepair befiore peing picked up by North Tyneside council to be refurbished. So the first thing I saw was the spruced up frontage and refurbished dancers and when you enter , under the dome , you get an educational timeline of the place from its beginning up to the present day. Here is the Wikipedia entry with links onward.
Mariner 9 - Kelly Richardson
Anyway what I really went to see was Kelly Richardson's Mariner 9. What can I say without spoiling it? I desribed it as hypnotic , and it was amazing. Based on what my be happening on Mars in 200 years , itmakes you mind work and to be quite honest I could have stood all day watching , hoping to spot something I'd missed. The sheer size shows nods to John Martin , probably the greatest artist to originate from the North East. I also though that it was not a plays for kids , but their were two six year olds mesmerised by the piece.
Anyway I hope I've piqued your interest. I really can recommend going to see it.
If you cant I've just found it here so you can watch , but I recommend seeing it in situ so to speak,
Just a few thoughts on aging and the difficulties some people seenm to have with aging and the ease with which other people take in in their stride:
You can do nothing about getting older
If you are losing you hair shave it off don't wear a toupee or have a comb over
When My uncle left school when he was 15 and got a job I thought he was old
When my dad turned 50 he refused to let anyone mention his age , he's now 78 and going strong
When I turned 18 I was scared of hitting 21
I didnt get asked how old I was in a pub til I was 18 , I'd been drinking since I was 13
When I hit 21 , I never thought I's make it to 30
One my cousins turned 65 on his 16th birthday
Someone once remarked that I was a bit old at the age of 42 for a job I was applying for , friends pointed out I was a guitarist in a band , socialised , was out most Fridays and most importantly could do the job . They took me on
I myself was interviewing a couple of 50 somethings for a position and thought about their age , one had a negative attitude , the other had a positive attitude - Accentuate The Positive
A friend pointed out that the problem with humans is they wear out , if we could replace everything before it fails we would live forever , so look after yourself
Humans are social animals , keep in touch , talk to people , and be happy , it makes life worth living
There may or may not be a god(s) , but I think the hope is born of a devolution of responsibility and a desire to live forever - personally I don't think evolution will let your soul / essence / being die after the body packs up . This is based on absolutely no evidence whatsoever - just hope / faith but if I live on after I will let you all know but I have no intention of leaving just yet.
Never put off anything til next week
Anyway I may do more of these but here's a suitable song that all schoolchildren should learn:
The London 2012 Olympics coincided with Jamaica's 50th Anniversary of Independence from Great Britain. There were some stunning performances by Jamaican athletes notably Usain Bolt , and a clean sweep in the mens 200 metres from Bolt , Yohan Blake and Warren Weir.
However I was very disappointed when I heard the Jamican National Anthem which seems pale and flacid given the islands rich musical culture of the last fifty years , though its possibly the equivalent of expecting Great Britain to replace the National Anthem with something by Muse or Queen (Knights of Cydonia anyone ?).
I think One Love by Bob Marley would make a great National Anthem though sneakily I think even better would be Carl Malcolm's "Bonanza Ska".
Any congratualations to all Jamaicans and thatnk you for enriching our lives with your athletics and music !! Heres' some alternative National Anthems :
I wasn't really bothered about these Olympics . I've seen financial chancers make fortunes from buying up decaying housing where the Olympic Park now stands , and local businesses threatened by local governmnet jobsworths , when the laws were meant to prevent big businesses from profiting when they havent supported the Olympics.
Although this is ridiculous , opposite is the Barclays Cash Machine boarded up and bin bagged at St James' Park Newcastle. All that does in incovenience customers and show the Olympic Committee to be apparent arses !!
The media has been willing the whole thing to fail and despite my misgivings it has gone off well. But it's a telling fact that so called "private enterprise" , G4S , have had to be bailed out by the military (effectively a nationalised industry). Sometimes private enterprise works well and sometimes it doesnt , governments need to realise this.
I wonder how many people these days realise where the nomenclature of the Olympics comes from . Have they ever heard of Mount Olympus , Zeus and the like? Though I applaud the Olympian spirit and the work many athletes and competitors put in to realise their dreams , very little has piqued my interest however .......
... I had zero interest in the opening ceremony , until I saw it. Danny Boyle has come up with a show to match the Olympic Spirit including Shakespeare , Mr Bean , and the forging of the (Olympian) rings (Is there one to bind them all) . This was something that everyone should see , sports fan or not , though some of the imagery did set me in mind of Peter Jackson's visualisation of Tolkein's exloration of language and folk lore. Theres some highlights on the BBC site here
Every now and then you see something that stops you in your tracks. Sometimes it's something similar to something else , acombination of the familiar presented in an original way.
Today at the Summertyne Festival I was wandering through The Sage foyer to the concert area , when I saw an amazing display of suitcases !! I always imagine this image of Robert Johnson is him sitting on a battered suitcase.
Tom Waits
Anyway what Geoff Marston has done is set his paintings on real suitcases!! The look amazing and are an amazing piece of art combinng paint with a suitcase instead of your normal canvas. The problem being then is how do you display it ? You need room to do that but they do look fantastic.
About Geoff Marston
The artwork looks like an excellent blues album cover , and most of the artist are archetypal American musicians such as Hank Williams , Muddy Waters and Tom Waits.
Hank Williams
Geoff also does mounted prints of his work as well for the more standard art display . There are examples of his art dotted around this post , obviously influenced by his love of music and major involvement with the Jumpin' Hot Club.
Check out his work , you will have seen nothing like it.
Well the 2012 Olympics are upon us and in case any one was in any doubt the signs in every city throughout are proclaiming it's "London 2012" . I thought generally that the world was some sort of democracy , didn't Thatcher and Reagan rescue us from the Red Menace. Joe Stalin , State Censorship , Nanny State Control , Nazi scare tactics and the like?
Well look what we have here . The original Olympic Ethic allowed all to compete . Wars stopped for the Olympic Games and competitors were given free and safe passage to and from the games. These days David Cameron's arms dealer cronies would be demanding compensation for ost revenue if that happened.
Peopl have trained for years to realise their their dreams , generally in the true Olympian spirit , but it is becoming swaped with Nazi / Communo stype restrictions on fans and market competitors.
Want an Olympic Ticket , Let's face for most of us this will be the only time in our live we can see one. But we have to run the hurdle of the lottery , and can only paty by Visa !! Surely that's as bad as the banks fixing interest rate . What if I don't have a Visa card , what if I want to pay by cash.
Then Coca Cola , Visa and MacDonalds are grabbing all the advertising space to the exclusion of everyone else. I thought this was a fairly free country.
Another thing the NHS has been committed to providing free treatment to anyone who is related to an Olympic competitor . Who sanctioned that Mr Cameron ? I though the NHS was meant to be hard pressed.
I won't be watching the Olympics or taking any interest in it whatsoever. It's been hijacked by corporates and freeloaders, and that makes me annoyed for the competitors and fans who DO embody the true Olympic spirit.
There's a sigh outside St James' Park Newcastle that proclaims "London 2012" . Anyone watching on TV will think the stadium is in London!! How wrong is that:
I got to thinking the other day about some decent adverts for products . This is one of the few posts where my main web site and blog coincide.
Most adverts are forgettable to the consumer , so are so downright atrocious that no mater how hard you try and forget them they com flooding back , such as the Shake 'n' Vac and Odor Eaters adverts . Horrible things they are . Halifax Building Society produce adverts that make you want to at the very least turn to another channel , well the English ones do . Althougg interestingly I cam e across these excellent adverts for Halifax Ireland. The first a quite inspired dance off:
Then there's the truly inspired bank fight:
Why can't we have that here?
Then you have the inspired Virgin ad for comfortable roomy travel on their flights:
Though some companies have a history of great and memorable adverts such as Guinness , their White Horses adverts regualary still tops polls, and their "Pure Genius" motif still hits themark:
And Orange have some amazing adverts in their back catalgue , as well as the excellent "The Future's Bright , The Future Is Orange" motif. Theyir was the excellent series of adverts featuring elliot & Mr Dresden managing to comically scene steal from stars such as Elton John , Sean Astin and even Steven Seagal !!
Orange also managed to capture the zeitgeist with adverts such as the excellent New York Blackout one:
So these are a few of my favourite adverts in the same place , all soundtracked by excellent contemporary music , meticulously put together , and with an excellent sense of humour in places, and I remember what all the ads wer advertising!!
I just got a letter from the Laing in Newcastle asking me for a donation of £30 to stage their latest exhibibition and was suprised to find that the well known tantric sex practicioner and part time jungle dweller (South America not Sunderland) , Gordon Sumner had commissioned a huge landscape of Newcastle by the artist Steven Hannock , and had been dispayed over the winter .
I wish I had seen this as the painting is well impressive and after seeing the John Martin Exhibition at the Laing , I am always impressed with the sheer audacity of painting of this size. Even just on the computer screen it looks impressive, and it is about time I got to the Laing.
Anyway if you click on the various links they'll take you to the various appropriate sites to gain more information. Below is a video of John Martin pictures:
On a train to London. It has been an eneventful journey. Nothing major happened.
Its sometimes difficult to write about nothing but you just have to let your mind wander and integrate the things you see and hear about you.
Or maybe thinks that happened to you, like last night I weed blood so got myself off to casualty via NHS direct to be diagnosed with a urinary infection. Our NHS is wonderful and the government are trying to destroy it. Funny how Cameron only chooses targets that dont directly benefit him. Also is it a coincidence that Clegg Osborne and Cameron's TLA is COC!
I'm writing this using Blogger on my Samsung Note while I listen to King Charles all very impressive sruff. The Note is an amazing phone remarkably intuitive and functions well on 3G. King Charles are a truly brilliant band. Going to see them at The Cult Festival supporting The Fall in a few weeks.
This is their excellent take on Billy Joel's - We Didn't Start The Fire
"In my e library I have The Art of War by Sun Tzu, Heart of Darkness by Conrad, Origin of the Species by Darwin so why do need to Facebook?"
My friend Josie replied , wittily:
"because the Art of War will
take you weeks to read/fully digest and Facebook takes 10 seconds to
realise there's nothing interesting happening...."
So I thought I should at least dip into it , and this is what I have found:
It's a slim voloume , 50 to 60 pages depending on translation or format
It's not really a book , more a reference manual of bullet points on how to conduct a war
You can read it in one sitting , but it will take a lifetime to understand
It is full of points that relate to everyday life
It makes you think
It is easy to read
It's out of copyright so you can download the ebook for free
So thanks to Josie I have read the book and will be re reading it . It is remarkable and sensible and my version was remarkably easy to read. I suggest you get a copy now!
About twenty five years ago greedy record companies made a fortune turning people from tape and vinyl to CD on the pretext that the sound quality was excellent and CDs were indestructable and you could smear them with jam and they would still play. Well think of the logistics !! What really sold CD to the masses was the MacDonalds like convenience of being able to program tracks , skip tracks you didnt like and repeat ones you did as well as random play.
These facilities were actually available on tape and vinyl players , but when a friend of mine demonstrated it on hi cassette player they was a lot of rewinding and fast forwarding .
Anyway , I digress , what has brought this post on on is the re issue by Rhino of Fleetwood Mac's excellent retrospective The Chain , which I bought in its original incarnation about twenty years back. I've been playing it today and very good it is too.
No , after the initial , virtual investment free windfall of CD (records already recorded and often not remastered, remasters were another wave of cash) , they began to circulate rumours of CD decay , and your everlasting CDs would in fact crumble to dust withing five years. To combat this you had to switch to DAT , expensive players , and back to tape with it's inherent fragility and at the the time blank DAT's were as expensive as a full price CD!! This time the public didnt fall for it, and where is DAT now ?
Twenty years on my copy of the Chain is in fine fettle , and CDs are still an excellent and portable storge medium and there are some excellent packages out there . I recently purchased a superb Emerson Lake and Palmer box for around £15 .
So CD is still as bouyant as ever , Vinyl has made and amazing recovery , Newcastle still has 3 or 4 real record shops plus HMV and That's Entertainment (The outlet for Music Magpie) , and music is still brilliant.
But some things do annoy me , like these Chelsea Tractor size buggies that nu parents seem to need to ferry their screeching offspring through the narrow aisles of department stores. In Mars and Spencers yesterday on idiot parent was letting his brat push the device willy nilly through the store , sight into my leg . If you've seen me you know I can play the archetypal immoveable object with aplomb , which I did in this case. Brat goes sprawling and bawling on the floor , nu parent bloke glares at me , about to launch int to som ecomplaint , before thinking better of it after observing my size and immovability!!
Why the hell cant these idiots use a reasonable sized buggy for round town , but I suppose it's a way of compensating for their own inadequacy , as well as a large car he needs a large baby carriage!!
...and then you get all these people liking Tesco, Asda and the like on Facebook. Don't you realise these faceless corporations don't give a dan about you . You are just a way of making even more money for them . Tesco endorse slave labour , and they will ditch you or their staff if theres another penny in it for them. They're all the same even when they do the vouchers for schools. Spend three million pounds with them and your school can buy a football. You're just better going down to Sports Direct and buying a few balls for £1.99 each rather than going the Supermarke charity route.
I remeber a discussin with Chris Ball about the nature of Corporations . They're just out for all they can get . If they were at a meal with you they'd just nick all the food from the table , if they see a charity box they'll just pocket it . This is because a corporation is just a self perpetuating entity. The people who work within the entity may be ethical and moral as hell , but eventually the nature of the beast takes over with the aim of perpetrating the existence of the corporation.
Anyway I'll just leave my favourite video coment on this to finish this post:
Thanks to Carol for reminding me I'd not posted for ages. This has been running around in my head for a couple of weeks. It is a post in response to John Scott and possibly Gavin Webster's detestation of Steely Dan. John's original gripe was that reruns of The Old Grey Whistle Test were marred when Souixsie and The Banshees were juxtaposed with the video below, and I fully support him on this however ......
Reelin' in the Years is a damned fine song . This video doubly marred by the performing seal / walrus hybrid jumping around on staging during his guitar solo. Not good.
In the seventies a friend of mine, Jon Ashurst, described Steely Dan as the greatest most boring band in the world ,and listen to them and you can see why that description fits so well. The music papers used phrases like "educated rock" etc , which , lets face it rock is meant to blow you away , if you want sedating listen to the charts.
Then at som point they released the lead track for the film "FM" . "No static at All" they promised and we know that was a lie. AOR (Adult Orientated Rock) Boz Scaggs , Kenny Logins et al paving the way for poodle rock balladeers of the eighties like REO Speedwagon , the descent into syrup rock of Chicago and other musical disasters and cul-de-sacs.
Steely Dan are probably more detested fro what they caused than what they are.
The thing is Steely Dan have no place next to punk rock , but I have Steely Dan and The Ramones and Sex Pistols in my collection , and dont feel that's a problem . Below is a playlist of half a dozen listenable Steely Dan songs and you should try it , you might enjoy it. Incidentally both "Dallas" and "Sail The Waterway" , "B" sides from their first two singles have been disowned by the band and never officially appeard in digital format , but they are two of my favourite Steely Dan songs! Though my all time favourite is still "Barrytown".
Steely Dan arent for everyone , but they are and excellent band , well worth a listen.
There's a lot of big boxes to celebrate anniversary releases , notably David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and Paul McCartney's Ram. Now McCartney's release is sort of OK , but if you want the 5.1 mix you have to buty the most expensive box , but you can buy the vinyl separately.
Bowie's box and the Station to Station release require you to fork out for vinyl as well if you just want the 5.1 mix. Pink Floyd have done similar thinks with their immersion sets.
5.1 sound is worth hearing if you have a home cinema set up but you should have to buy the vinyl version as well to hear things in 5.1.
Kink Crimson , Black Sabbath and The Talking Heads have released reasonably priced 5.1 mixes of classic albums without requiring fans to break the bank. So until the 5.1 mixes are available as a reasonably priced option my money will be staying in my pocket. I have the King Crimson , Black Sabbath and Talking Heads albums so I have plenty to listen to.
It amazes me how in IT and web related circles most of the charlatans working in those areas usually cement their indespensability by coming up with new cloudy nebulous descriptions for what is essentially the same thing.
So subroutines became objects and so on. A few months ago someone sent me an email asking if I had receved a "wire-frame" , I replied no but I had go the blank document they sent me.
I was recently invited to a "deep dive" . I didn't realise we had taken up sub aquatic activities! I think they meant a detailed analysis session!!
The other thing is that the government seem to think the economy could be kick started by using prisoners as cheap labour. Well the entrepreneurs will pay next to nothing while the taxpayer foots the security bill.
everywhere you look people are trying to take you for a ride and not in a good way. Rant over.
It's well known that this is THE most sought after seven inch single of all time. The following text is by Ian Levine I assume:
"The original version of this song is quite simply the most sought-after
Motown and Northern Soul record of all time.The legendary Motown
producer, Frank Wilson, made this solo record for Motown which was so
rare, and so in demand, that someone paid fifteen thousand English
pounds for a copy. He was a big help with the Motorcity project, in 1989
and 1990, and he and his wife Bunny always stay at my house every time
they're visiting London. The Motown single "Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)"
became so huge that everyone wanted to see Frank perform it. For years
he refused, but finally he gave in and did so at Fleetwood in 2000, in
front of two and a half thousand people, the one and only time he said
he would ever do this. But previously to that, we had visited him at his
Los Angeles home, and filmed him at the piano, so people got to see, on
The Strange World Of Northern Soul DVD, this legendary song being
performed for the first ever time."
Listen to see how good it is. It does amaze me that things like this can slip out of print while dross such as "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" by Dawn or "Save You Kisses" by Brotherhood of Man are omnipresent.
The reason for this post is the discovery of a song called "Satin and Heartaches" by Darryl Johnson. It was used in an advert for Always Panty Liners , but when I tried to track it down there's no sign on Amazon, iTunes GEMM or anywhere . All I can find is this ReverbNation page with 37 of his songs on here. So is this a rarer more sought after song that the Frank Wilson waxing?
