The Vinyl Dragon

Hello World

2011-10-27T11:13:00.003+01:00

It's been forever since my last post and that may or may not be a good thing :-) For anyone that knows me or us, the past months have not been great health wise and I had got into the 'can't be bothered' frame of mind.

That I could accept all the time I was feeling so low. But I am getting better, very painfully slowly it's true and with many depressing setbacks but I *am* feeling better and I can no longer accept that thinking. It sticks around for too long it becomes permanent and that I can't be doing with.

So I shall be restarting. I plan to say nothing directly about my condition, I mean what is there that's more boring then other people's illnesses? Indeed I have no idea if I have anything to say that's of the slightest interest to anyone at all, but that isn't, or shouldn't be the reason for a blog anyway should it? I also don't know how often or regularly I shall be writing, but my *intention* is to give it a go.

I'm not going to say 'watch this space' and the road to hell is paved with good intentions (or frozen double glazing salesmen if Terry Pratchett is to be believed) but who knows there may be something for someone..

Open letter to Norton Internet Security.

2011-02-26T11:10:00.002Z

Dear Norton

I've been using your products for many years, indeed since they were called Norton Tools and came on diskettes. This (happy?) relationship is now at an end.

At the end of last year my copy of Internet Security on my desktop just switched off. No warning or explanation of any sort (the subscription still had 3 months to run). It would not switch back on, my computer was left open vulnerable and unprotected. I am very glad I noticed something was amiss almost at once. It might have been very different.

I contacted your much vaunted 'help desk' for, well help. To this day I have never received the courtesy of a reply. Thinking about it, I have *never* received a reply from your company on any inquiry of any sort.

Needless to say rather then leave my computer unprotected I deleted your software and installed that of a rival which I have to say is in every single way very much superior. I wish I had done it long ago.

I still use Internet Security on my laptop. In my stupidity I subscribed for two years. I shall carry on using it until it runs out, you have already cheated me of 3 months subscription, why should you cheat me of any more?

Just to let you know though I hate your software even more then I did before. The latest ploy is constant nag screens about performance in that in your estimation my Opera browser uses too much system resource. Presumably Opera is preventing Norton from grabbing it all like it normally does.

It is my computer, I shall run what I damn well like and it's none of your business.

I seriously would like to wish you well in future endeavors, but I'd be lying. I hope you get bought by some large foreign investment company, asset stripped and run into the ground.

Love & kisses

Graham

New Adventures in HiFi

2011-02-21T10:43:00.003Z

I did write an entry the other day, as you can imagine, it was brilliant, incisive and of world shattering importance. Then I managed to delete it. I have no idea how.

So today I thought I'd talk about something totally different.

Pictured above (thats not my one, it's a stock photo I grabbed off the net) is one of my all time favorite amplifiers.

Most people would pick something costing mega bucks by one of the worlds prestige manufacturers but my choice has to go to the humble Leak Delta 30. This is the visually updated version (the insides are all but identical) to the earlier Leak Stereo 30+. It was given a face lift when the Rank organization bought Leak and Harold Leak the founder retired. They didn't do the company any good in the long run (along with Wharfedale the speaker manufacturer which they also acquired) but this at least was a good move.

Why this little amp? God knows it's no powerhouse (12-15 watts a channel) the sockets, particularly the speaker connectors are a pain and of course it's old. But it's built like a tank, the modular card system it's built upon make it surprisingly easy to work on and plug in a modern source like a CD player or an iPod (via a small dock and obviously using stuff recorded in lossless) and it just sounds *right*. Never fatiguing, always warm and inviting, you can listen all day. I tired many years ago of the 'my HiFi is so good nothing I have is good enough to listen to on it'

I am currently using it plugged into a pair of equally vintage B&W DM2a's (another favorite) While it is nowhere near powerful enough, the DM's are inefficient and like lots of power, but as long as you are not planning any parties (and I'm not) it's a magical combination.

The story is that Harold Leak, who by all accounts was not the easiest of men, accidentally purloined the design which was left on a desk while visiting the premises of a rival manufacturer. I'd love this to be true and if so I could even make a guess as to which one. Who knows the truth after all this time, whatever the case he produced something special.

I'd like to try it's bigger brother, the Delta 70, basically exactly the same amp, just uprated a bit and managing a good 35+ watts.

Of course there's plenty out there that can do better in so many areas, but to find a combination so lush in such an unassuming little package is more then anyone could hope for.

Obviously offer me a Radford STA15, a Quad22/33/405/606, a Lecson or any amount of others and I'm going to take your hand off, but you'll never get one of those for the same outlay..

I love 70's HiFi particularly British HiFi. The designs and concepts are unique. It's also built out of slabs and casts of aluminium and steel casing and veneers are real. It owes much more to industrial design then it's Japanese and American counterparts and to my eyes is all the better for it. The components used are proper full sized ones and look and behave like they are supposed to. And you can *fix* them. Try doing that with the latest Chinese made techno wonder..

2011-02-14T20:16:00.002Z

My Chemical Romance at the Wembley Arena. Photograph (c) Julie Bench

The My Chemical Romance World Contamination Tour rolls on and London Wembley was another triumph. I know, my friend Julie was there with her family, I should have been too. I've seen the setlist, I've seen the photographs it looks a stunning night. There is a thought there were more cameras then strictly necessary so maybe this time the Video will be in London rather then Mexico? I can but hope.

Tonight at a musical opposite I should have been at The London O2 seeing the reunion tour of Roxy Music. I really wanted to go, I have loved Roxy since a young teenager. The last time they were all together like tonight I couldn't go either, my mum wouldn't let me as I was too young. Unless Mr Ferry and the guys have such a ball they decide to do it all again and soon, I don't suppose I'll get the chance again. Sometimes life is a b*tch.

By the way if you're into slick utterly professional music handled perfectly and thats just going to give you a good time try Bryan Ferry's new album Olympia. It won't have you bouncing around the room or screaming the lyrics, it's not going to change the world or set it on fire, but even the rockiest of us need to relax sometimes. Gorgeous.

Been a while

2011-02-12T10:41:00.002Z

Well hello my friends, it's been a while and I guess we have a lot to catch up on. To tell the truth I had kind of decided not to bother any more with this blog, I mean who on earth wants another one? Plus it takes time and even energy at least in the brain department.

But Things change, mostly for me has been a major dip in health since just before my birthday last year. After iffing and ah-ing the docs seem to think I have Chron's disease. It's not confirmed yet as I have a consultant who seems to rarely be around but it seems the most likely from what I know of the condition (I have a brother in law who suffers with it plus what I have read here on the net). When I mentioned this to one of my my GP's (I seem somehow to have three and be shared between them depending on who is in on any given day) I got the reply 'well thats what we thought right at the beginning' No one had thought of telling me of course. It would have saved a lot of dark imaginings.

So at the moment I'm not much better then an invalid and that gets more boring then I can express. I had no idea, I've always been doing something and suddenly not being able to is frustrating the hell out of me. Especially when every time you start to feel a little better you get knocked back down again. You almost seem to be in a war against yourself.

So maybe to restart the blog which thanks to my trusty Lenovo Netbook I can do from more or less anywhere, even bed. How much I shall write about this I don't know, I'm sure it will come up, it can hardly not, but whether it goes further then that I have yet to decide. Lets face it other peoples woes can get deadly boring.

Anyway there's lots we can talk about, there's music for a start. Tonight I should be at the My Chemical Romance's gig at Wembley Arena in London. I so wanted to see the full Danger Days show :-((

At least Muse finished the Resistance tour and I was at Wembley Stadium with them so I have I figure a good three years before I need to get suicidal if I can't go.

I have discovered (much to the delight I am sure of Amazon) many new and several old bands to fall in love with. There is my ongoing love of 70's HiFi, actually most things 70's now I think of it.. There's the house and the garden, which I have spent the last weeks thinking deeply about and planning, looking forward to the time when I can actually do it and if all that runs out I'm sure we can find something to talk about.

So here I am (again)

Todays Haul

2010-08-28T09:22:00.004+01:00

Actually a slight cheat as it arrived yesterday, but I now have in my hands William Gibson's new novel Zero History.

I bought Neuromancer on Brighton Railway Station in 1984. I opened it read the first line 'The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel'. That started a love affair thats continued to this day. While his books have gradually moved away from Science fiction to be set in the increasingly complex world we live in the poetry and beauty of his style holds me as tightly as ever.

And by coincidence I finished the new Neal Asher yesterday :-)

My other haul, in this case a bargain, was the second hand gorgeous boxed limited edition set of My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade.

The album which I love deeply is the same, in this case it's the box itself that is so exceptional. Including a book about the album and it's concepts by the band the whole style is Victorian/Steampunk/Faulkner. it reminds me of those deep south funeral 'pictures' made of plaited twisted hair and dried flowers

Actually even the fact that it's second hand is fitting :-)

My Chemical romance have become one of my latest obsessions. There may be more mentions...

update

2010-08-27T08:59:00.004+01:00

I have had a countdown clock on my desktop for the last 10 months. From a count of over 300 days we are now down (at the time of writing)to 14 days 10 hours 53 minutes.

MUSE at Wembley. Announced at the O2 10 months ago we are now nearly there.

While these days I have a new album by My Chemical Romance to look forward to. Flamingo (and subsequent tour) by Brandon Flowers and even Roxy Music next January at the O2 (the last time they toured as a band my mother wouldn't let me go) Muse are my first love.

After much panicking my tickets finally arrived yesterday. And now it's real.

There will be more..

Scrappy

2010-04-26T09:27:00.003+01:00

This is very scrappy, I may get better if I can get back into the swing of it.

It's been so long since I posted an entry Google had forgotten who I was. Just as well I remembered my password right..

Talking of Passwords, I recently read the Cuckoo's egg by Cliff Stoll. An account of chasing the first real hackers through a mid '80's landscape of DEC Vax's and Unix. Things have certainly changed since those days of 'proper' computing, and certainly some of the conclusions drawn at the end of the book are actually laughable in hindsight but it did hammer home the need for passwords to be non dictionary words..

I do now have a desire for tie dye tee shirts, and maybe it's just as well I don't have enough hair to grow (well with any hope of attractiveness anyway)

Last night I fully tested out my refurbished B&W DM2 speakers Built in 1972, they really don't make them like that any more. Huge by todays standards, while the technology of manufacturing speakers has improved, it almost seems to be in inverse proportion to their ability to play music.

I started off with some Portishead on vinyl, went on to Bowie and could actually have sat there all night playing album after album. Oh yes and nothing beats the 12" album for sheer musical ability either..

LCD Soundsystem are 'attacked' in this video for 'drunk girls' buy guys in panda type costumes. I am sure they are some sort of art terrorist group. Or something. anyway I wouldn't fancy them let loose on me..

BBC 6Music

2010-02-28T10:58:00.002Z

It's been called the BBC's secret station, due probably to being launched in 2002 onto the unknown and unused DAB digital radio network.

I suspect a few more people now know of it's existence since the Times 'leaked' a BBC report that it was due to be closed along with Asian network and a lot of it's online presence.

The howls of protest have been staggering, and none have been more surprised then the stations presenters themselves. Shaun Keavney on Friday morning was quite choked up, and this was a mere couple of hours after the leakage... since then we on the twitter #save6music and #savebbc6music groups have *really* got going.

We have support from Rock stars like David Bowie on down, the NUJ is on our side along with hosts of comedians celebrities and the like. We now even have a number of MP's.The only real silence has been from those you would have thought would be the most vocal, presenters from the other stations, most notably Radio 1. Jealous perhaps.

I have written to the Mark Thompson himself, to the BBC and to the board of governors along with several MP's and ministers, the BBC complaints department, signed petitions and constantly tweeted and Facebook'd on the subject.

And why would I bother, what is the magic of BBC 6music? I mean it's only a bleedin' radio station...

Probably 10 years ago I'd stopped listening to music. Strange but true. For years I didn't even have anything to play it on. There was a half hearted 'cinema' thing in the living room and that was it. I listened to Radio 4 and everything else was at most relegated to the loft. The albums went down the dump... (I know)

I'm not even sure why it happened now. I just thought that nobody was making music for me and that I'd better face it, ageing and time for talk only radio.

in my 40's and not dead yet. Way past radio1 and it's non stop banalities and diet of stock aitken and Waterman (now simon cowell) and/or rap/dance and *never* ready for the suburban wasteland that is radio2. My time was over.

Now I'm not saying that it was 6music that changed this bleak outlook, but suddenly something changed. All I know is that they have fed into my renewed passion for music. I have NEVER bought so much, NEVER listened to so much. I have been to concerts, I have 4 *count then4!* full on Hi Fi systems with facilities for every format. I have an iPod that I could not live without.

6music is the Radio 3 for the Rock & Pop generation (a fact I see is being picked up by more and more people) it is clever, passionate, they care about music and what they play. And most importantly they play music for me and people like me, music that is not covered by and other radio station anywhere.

It is thanks to 6music I discovered MUSE.

This cultural vandalism must not happen, and by god if I have anything to do with it, it won't.

eventually

2010-02-23T19:31:00.005Z

Everything seems to take way more time then you'd have thought, but at last the ceiling is more or less finished.

I did change to solvent free adhesive and found I had been led astray by my online builder buddies (who would have thought it?) Solvent free far from being the inferior sibling is in fact way better at the job then the hallucination inducing stuff. Maybe builders just like being off their heads. (that explains much)

There is now a vastly reduced visibility hatch to the loft room/loft which is now much bigger, way heavier and looks as impressive as a Sylvia Anderson bank vault door due to the massive slabs of polystyrene insulation glued to the back side.

Now it'll be a trip to Ikea. My stylish 1960's style drum light may look very scandi-stylish but gives a light so dull in that position I just want to kill myself. A common occurrence I find with these horrible compact fluorescent bulbs.

Halogens. That's the only option :-)I used to love proper downlighters, R63 and PAR38 spot bulbs, and what ever happened to parabolic reflectors and track lighting?.. #sigh#

I'm after a pair of speakers on eBay but people keep bidding on them. Even though it's very small bids it's very depressing. I'm not going to say what they are as I'm getting paranoid.

If I get them I'll tell you all about it.

And If I don't I'll still tell you all about it.

But I better had. GRRR!

Stoned

2010-02-16T08:32:00.002Z

Not as exciting as it sounds.

I'm putting a new ceiling up on the top hall. What that means is gluing pine panelling over the artex that's already there.

Very retro I know, but I am very retro.

The worst thing is the 'no more nails' used to do it with. It's hideously full of solvent, you can almost see the air vibrate as you use it. And very quickly you find your mood changing, and you start getting very clumsy and dizzy. I didn't even think products like that were legal any more.

Incidentally should you ever do this yourself, the trick is not only to stick it to the surface with a 'grab adhesive' (I'd recommend using some other product, preferably water based) but also to glue each plank to the previous using wood glue in the groove. I've seen some horrible shrunken panelling. It never happens to mine.

Of course you could do it the old way with battens and the like and that would avoid possibly falling off the working platform & down the stairs because you are so stoned.

What I want

2010-02-15T10:38:00.003Z

What I want is a limitless tab at Amazon.

I've just had the last fruit of my Christmas Amazon voucher and from now on it's strictly actual money.

This year I've done really well with n'er a wrong move, but I love the feeling that the latest click on 'add to basket' isn't costing actual cash.

What did I get I hear you cry.. well the Arcade Fire, The Big Pink and initial forays into Depeche Mode you already know about

My latest Haul has been more Depeche Mode (wow have I got into them, I hadn't realised what I was missing), The Killers live at the Albert all. I've not heard/seen it yet, but I'm assured it is, well, Killer.

Also the new Massive Attack, Heligoland. I like it. Mezzanine is definitely one of my all time favourite albums and the new Sade, Soldier of Love. People say all her stuff sounds the same. I prefer consistent. Late nights and red wine. Just never play her during daylight hours or you'll feel kind of hung over.

My book haul has been less extensive, none of my favourite authors seems to have anything new right now but I did get This is Not a Game from Walter Jon Williams. It's a kind of game/real life crossover novel like Charles Stross did in Halting State and I loved that. I'd love to find more authors I like so I can feed my habit more reliably.

Especially since Alistair Reynolds has dropped off the list, publishing what I strongly suspect is old garbage he found at the bottom of his reject drawer in the hopes of refilling his credit crunched bank account. Doesn't work Alistair, sorry. I'm not getting caught again.

Next is a 'tv tie in' (GASP) The memoir Beautiful People by Simon Doonan. It was made into a stunning charming and very funny series by the BBC.. And finally The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll. A real life spy/hacker chase thriller through early computer networks by someone who was actually there and really did it. Recommended by this guy on Twitter...

Living Room

2010-02-12T09:18:00.001Z

In that anything is every finished, here's the living room..

Dee

2010-02-01T09:57:00.003Z

I have just heard the news about Dee.

She was a lovely very special Lady and one who I would have really loved to meet in real life.

The world is a darker sadder place today.

Farewell.

wet look

2010-01-29T12:31:00.002Z

Luckily the floor only *looks* wet..

Ballrooms of Mars

2010-01-28T18:15:00.003Z

The living room floor has just had it's third coat of Ronseal (does exactly what it says on the tin) Diamond hard floor varnish.

Remember in the 70's there was this thing for 'wet look' gloss, only it never really was as as soon as it dried it was bog standard ordinary gloss? Well looks like Ronseal have finally cracked it, if you want your floor to look like there is a thin film of water over it then this is the product :-)

Actually it's gorgeous, it keeps making me think of 'ballrooms of mars' but no one will ever get whats in my head (like the new Marks and Spencer food hall floors make me think of Virginia Plain)

On reading the label, a good idea every now and then, I can't put the rug down for 8 days (hadn't noticed *that*) One day I'll say this damn room is finished and it's not even like I've done anything revolutionary or complicated..

I had been planning on going on about the iPad, but I lost the will to live so I'll make the prediction now and leave it at that. The big thing with it isn't the iPad at all, but what's inside, the A4 processor. A bit like Cyberdyne Industries Apple is going to take over the world I hope it'll be with a better outcome....

Actually I'd like a Mac to replace my scrapheap, but John thinks they are the work of the devil himself.

My Horoscope

2010-01-25T09:18:00.004Z

My Horscope for yesterday said that if I planned well and finished a project then I would have a real sense of achievement and satisfaction (I am paraphrasing of course).

I was trying to work out if there was any situation when you finally finished a project where you would *not* feel a sense of satisfaction and achievement?

Anyway keeping this very much in mind (NOT) I did crack on with the shelves for the living room *and* finally finished them.

Recycling bits of Ikea Besta units had seemed like such a good idea when I thought of it, but if I had realised just how involved and time consuming it was all going to be then I would have just taken the whole lot down the dump and started afresh. My guilt would have dissipated and been forgotten over time... :-)

I'll take some pics as soon as they have something on them and so look more interesting, but they are basically dead thick white shelves with pine edging on adjustable brackets. NOT so complicated, and now they are done I can't imagine what took quite so much effort.

The first one to be finished I thought it looked a bit like an 80's kitchen unit, but I think maybe they do look 70's Scandinavian after all... I'd have liked teak edging, but these days it seems a solid gold/platinum mix would be easier to get hold of and a fair bit cheaper.. (would have looked tacky though, so I rejected that idea)

Now I have to decide what to do with all the rest of the Besta parts..

What's next? well I am going to have to empty the floor area again and refinish the floor - again.

I don't know if you have 'No Nonsense' products where you are, (in the UK sold by Screwfix) but if you do under no circumstances use their acrylic floor varnish. It feels tacky and sticky underfoot (it was applied before Christmas) and scuffs and marks like you would not believe. I'd used their previous product many times but this is just rubbish of the first order.

Actually considering the effort I put in and with such a disappointing (to put it mildly) result I very much doubt I would ever again trust a 'no nonsense' product in any situation.

I complained but of course have heard nothing. Surprised? No.

Rock Gods

2010-01-24T08:56:00.005Z

It's been a few days, the outage last week (thanks Virgin Media) messed up my routine, and once my routine is messed it tends to stay that way. What is it with computers, hate them when they 'work' (well I do mine, but only as it hates me more) but it's like losing an arm when they are not around. OK maybe a slight exaggeration, but not by much.

Was watching a programme on BBC4 the other night about Brian Eno. I hadn't realised it was on so missed the beginning. Tony Visconti very much first, But Brian Eno certainly provided a good part of the soundtrack to my youth.

The vampy one (read my attention magnet) at the electronics with Roxy Music, with Ultravox! (note the exclamation mark, the proper original line up with John Foxx and Chris Cross), with David Bowie, with Iggy Pop, Talking Heads, David Byrne, Coldplay, Grace Jones. If I was into them chances are he had had something to do with them, and that doesn't even begin to cover his influence..

(Please note I left U2 off that list, there has to be a blind spot, and they are his #hehe#, never could stand them)

There was this older guy sitting at a keyboard, smart, balding grey hair shaved to a stubble, a manager, exec maybe when I realised with a thrill of horror that *was* Eno. What the hell happened? OK I know what happened but my heroes are *not* allowed to get old, to turn into someones dad, or worse someone who could easily be an exec a major bank..

I guess once upon a time Rock Gods didn't get old, you either lived fast and died young or you quietly retired and stayed that way. Grace Slick of Jeferson Airplane said "all rock-and-rollers over the age of 50 look stupid and should retire."

My god I can see that today it's a whole different ball game and while it may once have been fun, perhaps these days you DO need to be a suited exec not to be trodden into the dust. Suits or not I'm so glad they haven't gone.

If it wasn't for people like Visconti and Eno, still out there, still doing magic we would be left with the likes of cowell inspired corporate pap like the karaoke bag lady or that pair of morons with the sticking up hair.

OK this post is a mess, I'm trying to juggle way too many threads, but I WILL come back to it, count on it when I have sorted out just what in hell I am trying to say :-)

It's Monday

2010-01-18T09:10:00.002Z

Last night as I was going to sleep I was thinking of something absolutely life changing, indeed if not world changing I was going to tell you about. Something of such significance and of wild ultra interest to everyone you'd have been shaken to your very core.

UNfortunately whatever it was, I've completely forgotten it. Don't you just hate that? :-)

OK so nothing to say right now, this vid is of the closing of MUSE's headlining set in Auckland. I really wonder if they miss their gorgeous slick round stage and light towers.. Actually I dread those CO2 jets, you know it's all over then...

There are rumours of them playing Glastonbury again this year. I hope not, as I won't be going even if they do. I don't like festivals, I'm way too old and I like proper toilets and don't like tents! If I wouldn't do it for David Bowie in 2000 I'm sure as hell not doing it now :-)

Some days

2010-01-17T08:47:00.002Z

Some days, They don't go so well..

Spent the morning preparing the shelves for the living room, they are made of recycled IKEA Besta units, but with any luck won't look it by the time I am through. (the units themselves had seemed like a good idea - they weren't)

So later had to start drilling numerous holes in the wall at which point my Makita drill, which is 13 months old strips it's gearbox and is now just so much plastic *and Nickel Cadmium* junk.

I found to my surprise what REALLY p*'d me off was not the fact I'd have to buy another after only 13 months (though god knows that's bad enough) but it was the idea of the materials and energy that had gone into making the thing were now totally wasted. I have no idea when I started turning into some sort of born again greenie but it does seem to have happened.

It seems the gearboxes on the things are *plastic*. Any 5 year old would tell you that's fine for Fisher Price but on a butch power tool that is NOT going to last and so must have been planned that way.

It really is time thinking like this was stopped. I figure if the EU wanted to do something really useful it would require that items which use dangerous materials last for a minimum of 5 years. That would be a good start. And I know it would cost more, fine, in the end it would end up costing a lot less.

I've ordered a DeWalt. The gearboxes are all metal, they don't cost *that* much more, they are beloved of builders the country over and are *yellow* :-)

The Makita batteries I shall advertise for free to anyone that would find them of use - well you didn't think I'd buy another of theirs did you?!

Neon Bible by Arcade Fire arrived. Bigger, showier more bombastic then Funeral, it's very much them. Wildly outrageously defiantly beautiful, You feel you've finally been told the truth and it'll change your life.

There is very little that makes me feel like that, some Killers and of course all of MUSE, that's about it. I am glad I've finally been let into the secret..

If you watch the video above be warned, you'll thrill to the music but the footage is cut from *that* scene from Sergei Eisensteins Battleship Potemkin..

Monica's Closet

2010-01-16T08:08:00.006Z

Todays MUSE video isn't from the Big Day Out in Auckland, seems very few were actually filming, but instead having too good a time and what there is are frankly terrible quality.

But this is the official video for The Resistance single. And as I said on youtube, it's a European gig *perfectly* summed up in 5 minutes.

The picture though IS from Auckland. MUSE are having fun, they really like doing these stripped down outdoor gigs and they seemed to knock the Kiwi's for six. Heavy, tight and with an incredible show, they should try a full on Euro set then :-)

Today I thought I'd bite the bullet and show you my room. Now everyone thinks what a nice tidy person I am though if they get to see that they might change their minds. This is my 'Monica's Closet' and no matter what I do or how often I do it it always ends up looking like this. But I guess everyone needs a space to show their other side LOL.

Dominated by my retro hi fi, this is the one I use most of all, not the smart (not quite as retro - but definitely more up market) one in the living room.

What I most want now is a Revox A77 reel to reel recorder, I'd never use it but I have always wanted one and it would increase my pile of junk most impressively :-)

Though the bag of what looks like rubbish between the speakers are actually the tiles for the upper hall - they have to be kept warm & dry so maybe it's not *that* bad.

No, I was right first time - it's a tip.

What are the chances

2010-01-14T08:06:00.004Z

How many times have you bought an album by an unfamiliar artist only to find the only track worth listening to is the one heard on the radio? Then you wish you had just bought the track from iTunes and saved the cash. Hindsight and all that.

So what's the chances of buying three albums (my latest Amazon haul) and every single one is an absolute killer? It almost never happens.

First, Funeral by Arcade Fire. Released in 2005 I have no idea how this one slipped below my radar, I'm actually embarrassed to admit that it did but I guess better 'late adopter' then never.

Kind of like the secret that everyone knows but no one told you, I have no idea how to classify them, sort of indie alternative folk rock I suppose. Whatever it is, it's a work of stunning accomplishment, searing and utterly triumphantly beautiful. You can't pick anything out of it, or pigeon-hole it, Funeral shows just what can be done, it's exquisite.

While I know it's a different beast I immediately ordered Neon Bible their follow up (and only) other album.

The second was Sounds of the Universe by Depeche Mode. Of course they have been around utterly forever, one of the backgrounds to my late teens/twenties. To be honest they always left me rather cold, never having acquired the taste for (what seemed to me) their rather sterile electro synth-pop... Anyway I was a fan of the original - Gary Numan.

But having got into Editors, and they seem to be determined to turn into Depeche Mode anyway it's time to retry the born again originals.

Still stunningly slick but warmer, more human, and, well, older, this is a brilliant album. Try Wrong (with a terrific video) or Fragile Tension and you might find like me that after 30 years they finally get through.

The third, was a real scary gamble (OK I know no one is going to die if I buy an album I don't like, but I hate wasting music budget) Anyway this was A brief History of Love from The Big Pink.

They had won NME (or somebodies) best newcomer award and were supporting MUSE here in the UK.

And were (sorry guys) utterly hideous.

Just a dreadful noise, every song sounding the same and with staging ideas limited to a stage filled with CO2 and 'lit' by banks of white strobes, by the second song even I was feeling nauseous. Night one I went to the loo then decided the rest of their set was much better spent out on the concourse drinking beer, night two I didn't even bother to go in till they had finished, preferring a veggie burger, more beer and chatting to a couple of friendly MUSE girls.

But like many things they kind of stuck in your head, and surely someone must have seen some worth if they were supporting MUSE?

You listen to Brief history of love and suddenly all makes sense. It's good, VERY good. Way more melodic and 'hook-y' then such bands usually are they have this way of taking noise, feedback and distortion, feeding it all through a Phil Spektor wall of sound and twisting and binding it all together into this smooth rope flowing through their music.

And of course without it all going onto a backing track you can't do it live, you just end up with noise, feedback* and distortion (and there is NO excuse for the strobes!)

Try the video above, I hope you get what I mean.

Oh and today's MUSE Resistance tour video? They are having the day off playing cricket on the beach with Lilly Allen in New Zealand (these showbiz types!) But they are at Big Day out on the 15th.

*And I *like* feedback, Diamond Dogs is in my top 5 :-)

Friends

2010-01-13T09:08:00.003Z

Yesterday, in spite of all the dire warnings it held off showing *just* long enough for me to get to Swansea, see my oldest friend, totally OD on caffeine in Starbucks *and* get back home. It was incredibly cold but something was smiling on me. Frozen I can deal with, but snowed in in Starbucks may not be as good as it sounds at ..

What to say about meeting your oldest best friend for the first time in years? We're both older, though possibly no wiser and I still have a little difficulty in reconciling this 'grown up' sitting opposite me with the guy I've known since 11.

But he IS the same guy I've always known I'm glad to say, a hug, another hug and another for luck and we were away like we had never lost touch.

I'd like to say just as if we'd seen each other yesterday and from ease and understanding it was, but there was WAY too much to catch up on. Probably much to the annoyance and certainly fascination of the other customers on surrounding tables.. EEK!

We talked for two solid hours and since then I have been thinking of all the stuff we never got around to, all that I didn't ask or tell. However he's back again in a couple of weeks and in the meantime there's Facebook, but it's really not the same..

But maybe now I can see a point to these 'social networking' sites.

I'm on twitter now too (yeah I know, but if you've given in too I'm MUSEmunkey, say hello)

I've been keeping up with the Japanese leg of the Resistance tour as it happens and have just found that for the encore at Budokan Dom (drummer) was wearing a costume of Gachapin (I thought it was a baby Godzilla, but what do I know?) that everyone has been talking about. Turns out given to him by my friend Snow and her friend on a 'meet and greet'. Now you have to admit that is pretty cool..

Though it does *slightly* detract from the solemnity of the overture of the Exogenesis symphony... :-)

another of those days

2010-01-11T22:56:00.003Z

Today I've made a whole pile of new friends in Nagoya, Osaka and Tokyo. realised what happens when MUSE obsessives main forum server dies (not a lot aside from ridicule by peers and alienation - I may have made that up) and talked to my oldest friend on the phone.

And if they are wrong about the snow and blizzards expected overnight (and no one would faint with surprise over that) We'll meet tomorrow for coffee and catch up on the last decade.

All the things I should have done remain undone.

Hmmm...

2010-01-10T08:38:00.004Z

Yesterday, I was going to do all sorts of stuff, mostly in the garage. But it was freezing cold. So I didn't. Which was just as well. As I spent most of the day on the net trying to find out how the MUSE gig in Osaka was going.

Supposed to start at 18:00 local time, MUSE actually came on at 19:00. (those Japanese guys really like their gigs early, and I thought we had it bad here with our 23:00 curfew!) They don't have any support band, frankly I wish they'd ditch the support here too, well Lady Gaga (allegedly) excepted..

Now as I've said this was Japan, home of the most switched on technologically advanced gizmo obsessed people on the planet. If it it doesn't have a lithium ion battery and WiFi they are not interested.

Or so we have always been told.

My friends I think we have yet again been fed a line. To what end I am not sure, except maybe to make us gobble as much technojunk as possible in order to try and 'keep up'.

Before the gig I found one picture of roadies (sorry technical/physical support crew) and a couple of tweets saying MUSE were on their way)

Then that was it. Myself and the other MUSE obsessives on the forum were, just like watching big brother in the early hours, sitting there waiting *in case* something, anything should happen. 50 minutes in, not a word. An hour, 90 mins, nothing.

There is always someone giving constant tweet updates from their iPhone/Nokia/Samsung and uploading grainy pictures as they happen. But this is *Japan* I was expecting perfect live action video streamed direct to youtube in real time at the *very* least!

Nope.

Please don't think I am criticizing the people in any way, I sure as hell wouldn't be messing about with gizmo's while MUSE were on, I want to give them my whole and full attention, but there are always people who will (judge by all the little LED screens you can constantly see in any audience) and the techno expectations were therefore dialled up to the max.

But I am criticizing whatever agencies have been responsible for feeding us this load of tosh over the years. That is the one thing about 't'interweb, sooner or later your sins do find you out :-)

My new friend Ichu has since given a very full and detailed account, but even today there are no more then 5 videos on youtube and frankly not of the best technical quality. Quite like the output of cameras we have been persuaded to throw away years ago..

I was really surprised that again it is the stripped down basic staging, again I was expecting it to be dialled *up*. And the Japanese seem to prefer MUSE's mellow quiet songs.

Looks like someone at least knows the reality, Hmmmm

Old friends

2010-01-09T09:15:00.002Z

I know this is a few days old bit figure you were fed up with MUSE, but what the hell it's my blog :-)

This is at Seoul on the 6th, an ultra stripped down set, with no towers or lifts, circular stage or truckloads of awesome Showgun lights. Not even Matt's beloved custom Kawai 'grand' piano. But like at Teignmouth, and almost uniquely these days they don't need it, they can do it anyway.

This is Butterflies and Hurricanes, a lot of the fans really have their knickers in a twist as this is the first time it has aired on this tour.

Next, Jo Hall Osaka, *tonight* or if I am right about midday GMT. Time zones are a b****

Facebook, who says it doesn't work? Well I always thought it was rather pointless but, wrong! Yesterday out of the blue I had a friend request. I had to mentally add a few years, but it was my oldest and best friend, we have known each other since we were kids but as things happen lost touch a few years ago.

He's living in London right now but still has his house in Swansea. We're going to meet up next week for coffee. I can't wait.

Disaster in the kitchen!!

2010-01-07T18:41:00.004Z

Probably the double exclamation marks are over egging the pudding, for that matter so is the word disaster, (it's not like International Rescue was needed) but definitely a case of be careful what you wish for..

This morning I thought next I'll wash the kitchen floor but first I want to give the oven a going over.

It's one of those glass front jobbies by Electrolux ( well actually made in a giga manufactory somewhere in eastern Europe with the word Electrolux transferred onto it when it was about to leave, indeed it could have had any of a dozen names on it and no one would be any the wiser)

The point is it has doors made of two sheets of glass with a space between, but constructed in such a way that any crap can get and run between the panes, you can see it, but you can't get to it.

Now this thing had given us trouble before, it's kept cool with a fan on the top, which costs a fortune to replace and the bearings of which wear before you have time to turn around and then makes the most *horrible* noise you can imagine.

Why they couldn't just have bunged even a modicum of insulation in it thus doing away with the need for the fan *and* reducing it's power consumption is quite beyond me - guess that's why I'm not a designer being paid the big bucks. Assuming this stuff these days actually *has* designers..

back off my tangent..

I open the door, start fiddling with it. Then I *swear* there was nothing intervening, one microsecond there was a door, the next the kitchen floor was literally covered with the tiny exploded remains and with a brown handle sitting forlornly in the middle of it.

And I am convinced there was no intervening time period between the two states.

And when I say exploded I mean it, there was glass in the hall, and under the fridge 15 feet away, and in Johns study, and Dolly's breakfast. All lying there tinkling sadly to itself.

A quick search and it seems this sort of thing happens all the time. And they want 140 quid for a new sheet of glass. Ha! I should coco!

So now it's that quandary, what the hell do you do? I had planned on renewing the kitchen next year (2011) and having a sensible well made gas cooker (yes they even still exist) but we can't do without an oven until then...

scrabbling about.

2010-01-06T09:00:00.005Z

Pushing to the very limit the fact that I am obviously being smiled upon just at the moment I did the scariest thing, the thing that I have been leading up to bit by bit on my latest iPod round.

Deleting my whole MUSE catalogue and re ripping it in lossless.

Just to save you the stress that I went through it did work, and perfectly. And of course I still had the discs and the backup files etc etc but to delete anything by MUSE is going against God and nature.. I actually had to close my eyes before clicking on delete..

And to prove Christmas really is over this is the guys on an airport conveyor on their way to Korea for the next leg of the Resistance tour. Work, work..

More MUSE news in that they have just won best album cover for the Resistance, well DUH! It's gorgeous..

And pushing your MUSE tolerance to the max, do watch this clip intended to persuade kids to take science and maths, Boy did I take a wrong turning. These guys have to have the best job in the world & I'd happily cut short Christmas..

Oh and in other news we are being very British and ground to a halt and snowed in with at least.. an inch.. of snow.

Some things don't change.

Pattern Recognition

2010-01-05T09:14:00.003Z

Tempting fate and just *asking* for trouble but...

Yesterday I installed a simple Ethernet network. Went smooth as smooth and a piece of p*** to do. So my computer no longer uses wireless, got rid of that Dlink dongle thing (I thought they were supposed to make good stuff) and now I have a 30MB connection. A bit of a relief after 16K..

I also installed a socket in the living room next to the TV. So far it's doing nothing but the way non-dad technology is going it's bound to be needed sooner or later.

Then with trepidation in my heart I plugged my iPod into my computer. No warnings, no tales of corruption, without hesitation it synced the stuff that the day before it had repeatedly refused.

The ultimate test I deleted all my Killers albums, re - ripped them in Apple Lossless and reloaded them. Done, perfectly, without demur.

And this morning I hear that Lady Gaga will be supporting MUSE at Wembley in September.

Is it me or is there a *definite* pattern emerging here?

Where's a supermodel?

2010-01-04T08:50:00.001Z

I realise I should have said something about the video yesterday, apparently Lady Gaga is getting kidnapped by supermodels (they are *such* scamps these supermodels these days..) and sold to the Russian Mafia.. (happens all the time). Not completely sure about the isolation pods & vinyl outfits at the start or the bed bursting into flames at the end (I guess due to sub standard Russian wiring practises) but it was *stylish* and the last scene made me laugh.

I did actually buy Lady G's album Fame Monster in the summer but found that even I could not stand unrelenting disco for long, or indeed a single playing.

I gave it to the guys in the kitchen where they turned it up and left it on repeat to see if they could make young Jason's head explode...

In the meantime, in spite of endless reloading, restarting etc my wireless connection on my computer keeps working at around 16KB (you try doing *anything* at that).

Since the advent of the Sugden amplifier in combination with a pair of B&W monitor speakers I have realised how dreadful 'standard' compression on iTunes is but I can't seem to delete albums and rerecord them in Apple lossless without it baulking at around track 4.

And iTunes seems at random to claim my iPod is corrupted and needs to be reset... and then it freezes.

Oh and Brown Cameron et all have gone into dreary overdrive, well there is an election in, like six months..

There's never a supermodel about when you need one.

Reasons for cheer

2010-01-03T10:52:00.000Z

Guy on the radio trying to think what was good about January..

Well soon it'll be February then it'll be Christmas again, then it'll be 2058 and we'll all be dead..

It's always good to look on the bright side :-)

In the meantime here we may all drown in rubbish. They didn't collect yesterday (thought they were being a bit optimistic) So in the meantime you don't dare bring the bins in, because the second you do they will come..

And while my big wheelie bin still has room in it because I'm a (fairly) good little eco-drone others are hidden behind big piles of extra rubbish bags..

It does make you wonder how countries like Canada or Sweden manage when they have more then two millimetres of snow - even on January the 1st night.

Oh another good thing about January - The Christmas tree gets taken down and put away. I know that sounds a bit harsh (me? surely not?) but I always think it's lovely to have it, it's even nicer when it's gone. It's amazing how clean and spacious everywhere suddenly looks

Thought you might like my new guilty pleasure.. (though not that guilty If I'm being strictly honest)

Reasons to be cheerful

2010-01-03T10:31:00.000Z

Guy on the radio trying to think what was good about January..

Well soon it'll be February then it'll be Christmas again, then it'll be 2058 and we'll all be dead..

It's always good to look on the bright side :-)

And while my big wheelie bin still has room in it because I'm a (fairly) good little eco-drone others are hidden behind big piles of extra rubbish bags..

It does make you wonder how countries like Canada or Sweden manage when they have more then two millimetres of snow - even on January the 1st night.

New Decade

2010-01-01T19:51:00.000Z

New Decade, New Doctor.

Yup this evening David Tennant metamorphoses into - well I don't know someone with floppy hair who looks like he should be still be doing his homework and in bed by 10.

At first I was horrified (sounds like something by Gloria Gaynor) but as the doctor has descended into permanent shouting, running about and pulling faces new and young might for once = good or anyway better.

To tell the truth I haven't actually watched Dr Who in a while I got so bored not just with the faces, but the fact that no one *ever* stays dead, or locked in a timewarp, or a parallel universe or mindwiped or whatever it may be.

I believe it's also bye bye Russell T Davies.

I'll get lynched :-)

New decade and this is all I have to say. Ho Hum...

Decade? what decade?

2009-12-31T18:13:00.000Z

Well we have done it, in spite of everything we've got to the end of anther decade. I'll leave all that it will be remembered for to all the D list celebs who will be filling a plasma screen near you for the next month..

I'm not even going to try and sum up a decade. Of course there are wars slimy greedy lying politicians and rat f**k bankers but like death and taxes they are always with us and that's just depressing. Anyway my memory 'ain't that good..

Nope, for me, the noughties (at least we'll be leaving that nauseating sugaryness behind) decade of the revelation of the iPod, bars (working in), David Bowie's fall from my affection and MUSE!

Yes I can work MUSE into any conversation at any time, they are my obsession and I am enjoying it (to paraphrase Dr Frank'n'Furter)

All the nasty things I have said about iPod's in the past I am truly sorry. Since getting mine I have *never* listened to so much music, having you're entire music collection with you at any time is nothing short of a revelation. I've never bought so many CD's. I've never listened to so much, never enjoyed so much. *SO* they are not the ultimate in fidelity. I'm no longer bothered.

I've done more jobs in more industries then you can shake a stick at. This was the decade I found that I could work in bars, could run them and finally something I could feel I was good at.

David, if you should ever read this just do *something* (and that doesn't include just re-releasing old tatt and calling it something new)

MUSE. This has been their decade. Yes they have won more awards then you can count (see here for the latest) they have never released a bad or even vaguely indifferent song, but most of all they have given me the most sublime evenings of my life all culminating in this year. This year I have lost it, I have screamed I have cried, I have danced shouted and stamped, I have been for a short while 30 years younger.

THAT has been this decade. Happy New Year all.

Not what Dad had.

2009-12-30T18:23:00.000Z

Well I was going to mention the arrival of the TV, but I think that's covered :-)

I will mention though the Phillips DVD player I bought about 18 months ago simply because we wanted to play discs from any region.

I'd found that for instance, Peter Mayle's a year in Provence, despite the fact it was panned by the critics in the UK (what do they know) we loved it and wanted a copy. However in region 2 there was only this rancid cut down edited together version basically just bunged across from the unsatisfactory VHS release. *BUT* you could get the full untouched unedited version in region 1 (which really doesn't seem fair been as we paid for it in the first place!)

A long winded explanation of how we came to have the Phillips payer, which with a little clever jiggery pokery and pressing of buttons in combinations you would never normally hit could be set to region 0 (in other words play any disc from anywhere)

So not only could it play year in Provence but all sorts of weird TV bargain priced series I discovered while poking about in the dark nether reaches of Amazon..

This model had 'upscaling' which although I had no real idea what it was, was that years DVD 'must have'. Of course our TV didn't accept the phantom 'upscaling' so it just worked in bogstandardscaling.

Fast forward to today, I just happened to pop a copy of MUSE's Absolution tour DVD into the machine, just to have a quick test you understand...

*WOW!* Obviously upscaling(C) was working with resolution+(R) and Autoview(R) and all being processed through it's Metabrain(R) and it might be gibberish, but as has been pointed out, WHAT gibberish, it looked nothing short of incredible. A real genuine leap forward.

In years to come it'll be left in the dust of course, but right now I'll just enjoy it.

Maybe there might be something to this 'it's not what dad had' technology after all....

The Last Christmas Present

2009-12-29T18:27:00.000Z

'What a bit of tatt' I hear you cry!

Yeah OK frankly right now it does look dead ropey and helped even less by someone sticking a thin coat of matt black paint (applied with a brush!) over the lovely (though impractical) chocolate Nextel paint on the rest of the chassis. Just count yourself lucky you can't see the full ghastliness. This is no way to treat an icon!

The photograph on eBay certainly didn't show it in it's glory (! how many times has that been said I wonder?) Still I'm not complaining it was dirt cheap, I am enjoying Roxy Music's second album 'for your pleasure' through it right now. And it will look *killer* when I have restored it to it's full 1976 semi industrial built like a brick glory..

I mean anyone could go into a shop and buy the latest piece of plastic technocr**p, where's the fun in that?

Uh?

2009-12-27T09:43:00.000Z

Somewhere along the line I have taken my eye off the technology ball. One upon a time I actually understood consumer technology (more or less) but then again once upon a time technology had some chance of being around for a fair old while. It wasn't a case of you turn your back and it's all changed, I mean what you used wasn't that different from what your dad had..

What of course has brought all this on is the infamous TV. The chunky monster we have has to go, though would I think that if there was no such thing as 3" deep TV's? I have a horrible feeling the answer is no.

Still they do exist and the one we have is ruining the lines of the Tapley unit it's sitting on a bit like someone has parked a silver grey Ford Transit on your living room cabinetry :-) Once all you did was looked at what size of screen you wanted, did you like the colour of the case and if feeling very sophisticated and new fangled did it have a SCART socket or two?

Now there are more numbers, letters standards and stickers then you can shake a stick at. I spent most of last night on Wickipedia trying to work out what the hell difference there was between 720 (p or i) and 1080 in it's various standards and guises. (there were a bunch of lower numbers too, but I ignored them figuring they were probably older) and dark hints of even higher (?) standards to come in the future. Then there is the mysteries of HDMI SCART (which these days feels almost cosy and comforting) component video and even USB for some reason as well as hints at other computer connectors and even unidentified 'slots' which seem to have no name or purpose other then mysterious 'future use'. It's nice to think the makers think there IS a future...

And don't even start on digital disc player standards..

In the end it's a Toshiba, it's a name I know, it's quite small and pretty and is about the right price. Everyone says it's good for the cash. I'm ignoring the 1080P, 4XHDMI, Metabrain (?) Active vision II, resolution+ and all the rest of the gibberish..

Fast

2009-12-26T08:57:00.000Z

Every year I think the same, THAT was over fast!

At least here Christmas carries on for a while yet, I can never understand these people out buying sofa's (and really horrible one's at that if the adverts are anything to go by) at '9 o clock boxing day'.. I've always wondered if people actually do that, but have never really felt inclined to go and look..

And while it did rain here (it always does, other places get snow) it did at least wait until the evening. I always think how nice it would be to spend Christmas somewhere where it *looked* like a card, all glittery and snow covered, say Austria in a Skiing chalet, or the Black Forest in Germany, or New England in a traditional frame house.. But the just the thought of that travelling and it always seems to be utter mayhem at this time of year makes one think that maybe Welsh rain isn't so bad.

So Presents :-) : Nice big Amazon book voucher, always wish they lasted longer... some decent earphones for my iPod, The Roxy Music back catalogue on CD, (naturally I have it on vinyl, but that's not a lot of use for the said iPod)and the boxed set of THUNDERBIRDS. I always loved it, been nagging for it for long enough, and if you're interested it's where I learned all I needed to know about interior design (not really a joke, if only Sylvia Anderson would do an interior design book I could die happy)

Oh and my Mum doesn't know it but she's bought me a Sugden A48mk2 amplifier on ebay..

Now we have more food then you can shake a stick at and I feel like I never want to eat again..

A slippy slidey Christmas eve.

2009-12-24T09:11:00.000Z

HeHeHe (or HoHoHo) it's CHRISTMAS!

My tree, thrown up at the last minute, even when I take more time I always seem to have a black hole on it somewhere (should that be a Supermassive black hole?) I guess it adds character.

I always wonder how they manage to get them to look so good on TV..

I'm afraid that except the neighbours (who I can deliver by hand) I never quite got around to sending any cards, so if I should have sent you one, Sorry and count this as it :-)

And the living room is mostly done - at least it's warm and comfortable. I shall tell you all about that again, but in the meantime, don't use No Nonsense floor varnish...

Merry Christmas Eve :-)

That was easy

2009-11-20T22:06:00.000Z

Early this evening, noticed a message from My MUSE buddy Gabriel, suddenly he was going to a second night at Wembley.

Straight over to See tickets and sure enough while I was out a second date had been announced.

PANIC!

But I needn't have, filled in the form, got the ticket, got the confirmation. Just how easy was that?

Gabriel is stressing about hotels.. this isn't until next September, there are thousands in London, there is time...

Children in what?

2009-11-20T08:44:00.000Z

Dolly is very p*d off with me today. I've ripped up the living room carpet. No matter that while fine for a hotel in the living room it was utterly hideous (and smelly) It was carpet, and she liked it.

It's now in pieces in the garage, along with the curtains ready to be taken down the dump - Triumph!

I shall just have to put up with filthy looks and annoyed howls waking me in the night until it's all finished. Then she will like it, she always does. She's got taste that cat. It's just she can never accept this stuff takes *time*.

I just saw MUSE on the children in need thing they recorded last Thursday at the Royal Albert Hall before the proper gig at the O2.

Actually I watched the set on youtube, I cannot stand all those 'celebrities' showing off and being stupid (well even stupider I should say)I've never done more then flick past one of those BBC fiasco's and don't intend to start now.

I think Matt Chris & Dom might agree with me. I've never seen three men look more uncomfortable. I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of whoever in their company booked them to do it.

Ghastly sad cheesy 1970's staging,reminiscent of Saturday night at the London Palladium from 1976 and a sorry excuse for a concert.

Great for Shirley Bassey in some fantastic frock (or Robbie Williams)But MUSE? I think the BBC truly has no idea, and the audience didn't even seem to know who they were... waiting for Paul McCartney.

Horrible.

I had wondered at their sheer energy later on that evening (I had feared that they would be exhausted doing two gigs in one night) Now all is clear..

The Relief

2009-11-18T10:17:00.000Z

Last Friday I was feeling that it was all over, I knew I was at MUSE's last UK gig. Having a veggie burger and beer while the ghastly support act were on (the big Pink, I had learned the hard way to miss their set the day before) chatting to two nice girls about it all they informed me that two stadium shows had just been announced for 2010.

The relief! I joked that I now had something to live for again, of course I was overstating - a bit. And later this was confirmed by Dom's 'see you next year' as they were leaving the stage.

Then comes *the fear* what happens if you don't get tickets, and you don't know, and you have to wait, and there will be a fan pre sale, but what if you don't get you're unique fan code, what if something goes wrong, the computer dies, what it what if what if.

On line this morning ready with the said code and username for MUSE.mu, I realised I had read the clock wrong and I was an hour early. This could only happen to me. *Another* hour

09:00 exactly, I am in a queue, I have heard that before.. I click away, click back, Ye Gods, I'm in! You have two minutes to fill out the form. Done done done. accepted! Did I fill in the form right? It can *still* go wrong, were my card details right?.. Then the confirmation mail. I look at the clock. 09:03. It seems like hours, but it's done! I am off to Wembley next September 11th.

The Relief.

But there is no way they will stick at just the two shows, This will all happen again.

Two nights at the O2

2009-11-16T07:23:00.000Z

I am sorry about the layout of this post, I think I have come across some heavy blogger limitations...
Outside the London O2, formally the Millennium dome, slightly freaked out by it the first night it is a great venue.
A wide angle giving some idea of the space. This was Friday night. I didn't even take my camera Thursday..
WE ARE THE UNIVERSE/OBSERVE

Dodgy sound from being right in front of the stage & bass bins.. but my God what a view..
UPRISING

This might actually give some shadow of what it was like...
This is Exogenisis, the first Encore. I'm amazed how well this picture came out considering I was crying at the time...
Thank God for running with sweat, no one could tell...

Chris, the 'lone man' at the intro of Knights of Cydonia

I really wish I had taken my laptop with me to London. Then in the early hours of the mornings when I was not able to sleep *at all* I would have had something to do rather then watch bad TV. I might also have had some idea what to tell you of a transcendent experience (yes I do know what it means) Just what these two nights at the O2 have meant to me.

But since I have had so many confusing thoughts on it, and had such a comedown afterwards (It's all fun and games but they never tell you about the withdrawal) That I genuinely have no idea where to start.

I am never going to get across the sheer power impact and simple raw *talent* of these three men. Three nice guys from Devon have somehow turned into one of the greatest rock bands in the world (I only say 'one of' so that you don't think I am overstating)

Believe me when you see 20.000+ people moving as one, punching the air and screaming then you know you are in the presence of something wonderful. MUSE don't have fans, they have believers and this is where world domination begins.

I can deal with that.

I BELIEVE

Been so quiet

2009-11-09T10:23:00.000Z

Well I've been so quiet for the past few weeks, you may know I've been building things... OK I am nowhere near finished yet, but like Dr Frank'n'furter in the Rocky Horror Show, I do so love it when a plan comes together...

But this week I've sparked into life (maybe like the creation) as it's MUSE week. Thursday I am off to London to see them at the O2. Thursdays ticket is one of the second chance ones and as far as i can gather it I will be so high that I will be in danger of being sucked into the aircon... or maybe trepanned by passing planes, but what the hell I shall be THERE.

Fridays ticket looks sensible and a good one (should be it cost a fortune) but again what the hell

Also this time I have sorted accommodation, more or less picked with a pin, have you any idea how many hotels there are in London?! And I would have got a train ticket, but frankly the website got me so confused I gave up.

This might give you some idea....

Oz TV

2009-10-13T10:03:00.001+01:00

There are several things I never really understood (well OK there are countless things, but this is a couple of them)

First this desire for massive plasma and tft televisions. For the life of me I could not see why anyone would want some 60" monster dominating their living space.

The other and perhaps more mystifying is the rise of unreality talentless TV, the likes of X factor, Strictly come dancing and all those endless looky likeys.

Now I think I have finally got it. After my surprise going away do at St Audries, My girls Heather and Rachel together with Paul retired to his place for a cup of tea and 'wind down'. The girls wanted to see the X factor semi (or some such) finals recorded earlier.

Paul and I actually had great fun bitching about the various contestants and ripping them to shreds, but actually there was something more then that. Everything was so brightly coloured, the locations were exotic and sunny, the settings were so carefully staged and frankly sumptuous and I have to say the whole thing was alluring and seeing it on this massive high definition screen just emphasized the lushness.

OK The late teenage girls with two colour nails screaming at each other I can well do without, and I hope never again as long as I live to witness anything as vomit inducing as grown men throwing themselves to their knees in front of a 'throned' Simon Cowell.

But I got it, this is OZ TV, this is where reality Kansas is dreary and black and white but the land of Oz is in dazzling vibrant colour. This is a window into another world (OK as fake as the land of Oz, maybe more so) but nonetheless a glimpse of a world totally unlike the continuing car crash we all seem to be living through.

I don't think it's good, or even good for us, but I do at least get it now and maybe the next TV will be a 35 or 40"...

I'm Baaack!

2009-10-07T09:11:00.000+01:00

It's strange being home again, strange but good (obviously) it's all the same but very slightly different, a bit like a dream, but it's amazing just how quickly you fall back into the routines as if you have never been away.

Oh but the garden... don't get me started, that will have to be tackled and soon, well when it stops raining. Makes me realise there is nothing like proper Welsh rain, it's wetter then anywhere else..

I'm almost unpacked, now I know you would think that's no big deal, but that usually involves a couple of suitcases which you dump in the dirty laundry hamper and voila! you're done.

But I of course had to have what looked like an (admittedly small) house's worth complete with a full 70's hi fi system ( on which more sometime no doubt) and more cushions then you can shake a stick at. I have a problem..

I have also had to do some cupboard spring cleaning, and rearranging of the loft... like I said I have a problem :-)

I am sure I have learned a lot this summer, though now I think of it nothing much comes to mind other then again emphasizing the value of friends, just how dreadful many 'holiday makers' can be and of course a deep abiding love for Muse, who have got me through most of it. Like most men I have limited processing power so all the time I am obsessing over them I'm not over something else. I hope they'd be happy with that.

Now the laundry basket is about to split it's seams...

coming soon

2009-09-26T17:09:00.000+01:00

The last week has begun, shame it has to be trannies..

However then normal service will return, I might even mention MUSE...

The Resistance

2009-09-14T20:11:00.000+01:00

Never let it be said Muse are afraid to tackle the big BIG subjects. But just where exactly do you go after a revelatory experience with Absolution and Supermassive black holes?

Back to Earth. Origin of Symmetry was Muse embarking on their space rock odyssey, The Resistance is them returning home, mature, concentrated and intent on doing some serious damage.

No more angst and insular self-obsession, grown up, no longer playing games, they have landed back HARD and they don’t like what they see.

The manifesto is laid out good and strong for all to understand in Uprising (also opening in a sleepy Devon town called Teignmouth, I may have mentioned it...) Dr Who and disco,the agenda is set – rise up and take the power back...

Next, Resistance, a gentle synth intro, ominous kettle drums, simple piano hook and disco beat, but its soon obvious the answer (love is our Resistance) isn't going to be enough, the Thought Police are on to us.

Punchy stabs of synth and plucked strings usher in ‘Undisclosed Desires’, 'Map of the Problematique’ gone romantic. “I want to exorcise demons from the past/ I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart”. A sexy declaration of devotion and building a future together backed by slapped bass from Chris.

United States of Eurasia, gentle piano ballad and symphonic backdrop erupting to Arabian piano and layered chanting nodding in Queen's direction. We are called on to unite our land masses to equal the might of America, tongue is firmly in cheek (or is it?) this is the onslaught of MUSE manifesto. On my first ever listen, THIS was the track that most stuck in my head.

This dissolves into Matt's gorgeous rendition of Chopin's Nocturne in E flat major, but this is sinister, underneath there is half heard tanks planes and children culminating in a full jet flyby and what sounds disturbingly like the bass rumble of a nuclear explosion. Something is very wrong.

Straight into ‘Guiding Light’ - an Ultravox style heartbeat rhythm overlaid with clean guitar and triumphant vocals will certainly be a ‘lighter (or these days, mobile phone) waving’ gig moment. A slow and gentle lament, its clear stakes are about to be raised. We’re about to start a riot. Lines will be crossed, lives may be lost – but this is revolution.

‘Unnatural Selection’ is the Molotov cocktail, a pounding guitar riff and unrelenting bass, "pushing us beyond peaceful protest, I want to speak in a language you'll understand" . A middle eight section with plodding bass and a filthy dirty blues solo gives brief respite to ponder the destruction and recoup your energy before a return to full on Muse riff and the cry "I want the truth". UTTERLY orgasmic.

There's no relaxing though ‘Mk Ultra'. relentless fast synthesiser cuts and thumping bass warn us that “they’re breaking through”. retribution for rebellion. It’s fast paced, frantic and exciting, interspersed with heavy riffs “we’re falling…losing control” The Resistance is failing, the fight is fixed...

The 'wake' is 'I belong to you you', surprisingly jaunty, yearning yet upbeat and maybe just more then a bit inebriated, this is Matt at the piano, a basement dive, cigarette smoke fills the air, the structure changes dramatically and he gets all Edith Piaf and breaks into Mon Coer s'ouvre a ta voix from Samson and Delilah before returning to the I belong to you refrain.

The party is over, it's time to accept defeat.

Lush gorgeous spiralling strings and the Exogenesis symphony has begun.

Part one, overture, sparse falsetto lyrics and we are in trouble, "who are we / where are we / when are we?, heavily distorted guitar and vibrato strings, we are doomed

Part 2 ‘Cross Pollination’. An intense piano solo, starkly the realisation hits, it is time to abandon this condemned planet. There is no hope - except....

We must “wade through the toxic clouds / breach the atmosphere / the edge of all our fears / spread our code to the stars, its time to rescue us all/we know you can never return/tell us your final wish / we’ll tell it to the world"says Matt. We may be doomed but maybe part of us can live on

Part 3 ‘Redemption’ builds from a simple, repetitive melody reminiscent of ‘Blackout’ into the yearning euphoric refrain of “let’s start over again/this time we'll get it right/it's time to forgive ourselves”.....a gentle piano drifts to silence...

Assuming you have not already heard it, DO NOT listen to this album while washing the dog, or waiting for a bus, or cooking dinner, sit down and give it your FULL attention, it's exhausting, utterly moving and if you don't have tears in your eyes and a strange unexplained catch in your throat when it's over then you're not the person I think you are.

This is a concept on the grandest scale, an album of sheer genius and utter beauty. Not since Ziggy has there been anything like this, forget downloads and shuffle modes, this album has to be heard beginning to end in order and in it's entirety.

It'll never work live..... OH.. I was forgetting Teignmouth.... My God these three guys are clever... Imagine what it will be like with floating cubes, plasma backdrops and lasers... Roll on November..

MUSE
DREAM AND FATE

I BELIEVE

Download, the first

2009-09-11T15:43:00.000+01:00

Today, well early hours of this morning I did my first 'download'. Something I have avoided for all I was worth, I guess I have now joined the 21st century and it was horribly beguilingly easy.

You may have guessed, the downfall was MUSE. While Uprising was released on Monday and I bought a conventional CD, Uprising live from Teignmouth was released as a download in the early hours, recorded one week ago today and I was there, and I play it over my iPod and I am there again, yes it is that good. I may not be having my organs rearranged by the bass line but I still want to cry, and punch the air, to scream along with the lyrics.

And I've upgraded iTunes so I can download albums, The Resistance out on Monday will be one of the first so released, and my ultra deluxe box set (CD, multiple DVD, 180g vinyl and memory stick version) will be going home, and I wont for a couple more weeks yet.

Its the start of a slippery slope..

You can get the download from Teignmouth on www.muse.mu and you can maybe really see what I am going on about here. Somewhere in that seething crowd is me, losing it....

I like Mondays.

2009-09-08T07:54:00.000+01:00

Mondays are my day off.

So it'll usually follow the pattern of going out (via Trish the taxi and a bus from Wiliton) to Taunton where I'll have a bucket of coffee in Starbucks, a look around HMV and Primark (I do NOT need any more cheap shirts!) a quick nip into Sainsbury's for something nice for dinner then home.

After a nap I'll do my cleaning (not that that takes long, I'm not here much) change the bed then settle in front of the TV with an Alfred Hitchcock DVD, a bottle of Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc and then something Italian to eat. An early night then I'm as ready as I'll ever be for the next week.

My Mother is staying at the park right now (she always 'sandwiches' the season), so Nadine took us into Taunton and while I did my bits they went shopping for earrings and a mooch around marks and spencer. Nadine is going on na cruise next month and like I said to her they would tend to frown on St Audries Bay polo shirts..

Oh and yes, Muse's single The Uprising was released. I didn't even know HMV sold singles any more, and to be honest there weren't many left.. I've heard it many times online, on the radio you may even have gathered I heard it live (!) but this is the first instalment of The Resistance - out next Monday. EEK! :-)

A Seaside Rendezvous (3)

2009-09-06T02:13:00.000+01:00

John said you could see the back of my head, but you can't, I was further forward and dead centre but this is a brilliant capture of Uprising, and believe me it doesn't capture one nth of what it was actually like to be there.

How could it?

A Seaside Rendezvous (2)

2009-09-05T15:44:00.000+01:00

I didn't take many pictures, while you are messing about with cameras, you're not *there* and I needed to take as much of my day in as I could.

I found much to my delight, I'm nowhere near as singular as I had thought (!) I'd say fully half the ten ish thousand strong audience was about my age. (if you read this stewedrat, say hi)

Teignmouth is an utterly delightful sleepy little town, it's own little backwater world, the people are unfailingly friendly and polite being geared entirely towards the summer visitors.

A little more of the MUSE jigsaw falls into place.

But as I well know, no matter what you think of where you grew up, sooner or later you need to go home and if you can make EVERYONE know about it, so much the better :-)

I spent about 3 hours sitting on the stone edge of one of the seafront flower beds waiting for the 6pm 'doors' opening. For some reason for at least 2 of those I was joined by members of the Teignmouth & Shulden rotary club who had come down to soak up the atmosphere.

I didn't catch any of their names, but they were utterly charming people, we discussed this and that and they were genuinely interested in hearing about MUSE. One of the ladies was particularly excited to find that their plumber (he did all the work on our new house!) was the uncle of Lead man Matt Bellamy.

They were going to come down later with some sherry and sandwiches and sit on the front and listen to the concert on the other side of the hoardings. ('do you know, I really wish we had bought tickets now!') I REALLY hope they enjoyed.

The one thing I did glean is that the licence for the concerts was given on understanding that the sound level would not be above 84 decibels. I have wondered if either the council has no idea what a decibel is or whether it was to be measured from some point on the edge of town - or maybe the next town - or the next county - at the bottom of a well - with earmuffs on. 84 db is not very loud. This was at such a level seismic sensors all over the South west must have been redlining. You could actually *see* the bass lines on the video screens as the cameramen were physically shaken by them. You had to breathe between drumbeats as your internal organs were rearranged.

It was wonderful.

And at the houses and apartments across the road from the Den (a seafront strip of charming park) every window and balcony was filled with the (mostly elderly) residents watching every moment.

Inside every old person is a young one wondering what the **** happened, and for just a few hours we were all 30 years younger..

I will see them again at the O2 this November, and I can't wait, but this was a truly special utterly magical evening and I do hope that now maybe Teignmouth has cracked its shell they will have the nerve to fully break out. I know my friends at the Rotary club want to...

Muse are there again tonight, have a brilliant night guys, I truly wish I could be with you again but I have had one night of magic and maybe, just sometimes one night is enough. And I have Chris Williams' engagement party to host.....

A Seaside Rendezvous (1)

2009-09-05T11:44:00.000+01:00

Muse
Dream and fate
The world's largest best entertainment institution

They exploded onto the stage with Uprising, their single taken from their new album The Resistance out on the 14th.

They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They will not control us
We will be VICTORIOUS

You dance, you scream, you have tears in your eyes, you punch the air in victory, you *believe*

*THIS* is MUSE.

They don't put a foot wrong, this isn't the massive stadium gigs, its one of the small stages recycled from Glastonbury tricked out with a victorianesqe proscenium arch and tatty end of the pier velvet drapes.

There is no giant plasma screen backdrops, no laser equipped satellite dishes scanning the skies, this is no push the button and run, this is rock at its loudest, most visceral, most primal, at it's very very best. They make comments to us and each other between the songs, They are having fun, they are home.

And we heard songs from the new album, I'm not sure how many appreciated it at the time, this was stuff that had never been heard before, by the tour in November we will all be word perfect, but this was NEW and we were the FIRST.

I haven't finished on my day by a long chalk, but now I need a sleep.

I believe....

here goes..

2009-09-04T07:22:00.000+01:00

Its as windy as all hell, but at least it seems to have stopped hammering down with rain.

I didn't sleep that well, I must be mad..

My friend Rachel who works in Exeters premier hotel says the place is full of journalists and Muse's 'people' but still offered to get me a room by pulling strings, there's not one to be had anywhere.

Teignmouth is a small sleepy seaside town.

I wonder if it has the *slightest* idea what's about to hit it...

They don't make 'em like that

2009-09-03T16:53:00.000+01:00

The recent mobile phone saga.

I like the Motorola V3. (I'm not sure which version, there were a few and I couldn't track the differences anyway) It's been around for an age, it does all I want, it's pretty big, but thin. As far as I can gather it a lot of other people do too, I believe Motorola keeps trying to shut it down but people keep buying it. There's a raging market in grey imports.

And while I'm no regular watcher (how could I be) it even turned up on a recent Ugly Betty in the hands of a new hunky bloke, now thats fashion..

My first died ignominiously in the early rainy hours of one morning a few weeks ago, I'd always loved that phone, (well as much as anyone can love a mobile phone, i.e not screaming at it in frustration *too* often) and it had been dropped a number of times before, but this was just one of those unfortunate accidents, it's hinge just caught a big lump of concrete and suddenly it had a removable screen.

I replaced it with a new one from eBay, one of those mentioned grey imports, it looked the same but didn't really feel it, for something already that thin it seemed even thinner, even flimsy. I managed to crack the external screen within days, it didn't seem very sensitive and the vaunted laser cut keyboard was reduced to mere foil. The black finish was chipping and marking very fast and the end came for it when it developed an 'unless you press your fingers into a certain place on the back the phone cut off' fault.

Back to eBay and this time I've got a refurbished one, (ie replaced the OS to get rid of the original provider 'locking') my theory being it would be one of the older tougher ones, and yes, it is that and it's even a proper 'made in China' Motorola, not an 'improved' made in Singapore one.

This one works perfectly, even if it does look anaemic (it's silver, not the black I was used to). Chinese Motorola's, they don't make 'em like that no more...

the last piece in the jigsaw

2009-09-02T16:49:00.000+01:00

Trish the Taxi isn't usually available around 9am as she has a standing order taking a lady into Taunton.

Only for Friday she is, the final jigsaw piece.

Now I can get a taxi to Wiliton, a bus to Taunton, if Tim doesn't come through with a suitable jacket I have time to nip into Debenhams and get one.

My ticket on the train to Teignmouth is actually booked (with a reserved seat!) I know where the 'Den' is, I have my ticket, my tee shirt, my iPod. I even know how to get home after, a train to Exeter, another to Taunton and Adrian, Trish's long suffering husband is picking me up at the station at 2.45 am.

I don't ever remember things taking planning like this before, once I just would have gone and to hell with the consequences.

Life for a 50 yo Muse fan :-) I saw a statement on one of the newsgroups, stating there was no such thing.

Think again, we just plan a bit more....

All things DO pass

2009-08-31T13:36:00.000+01:00

'We've seen it all, Bonfires of trust, Flash floods of pain.....'

Actually a line from the Killers but its nearing the end of the season and thats what it feels like (well I may be exaggerating a trifle, but never let it be said I say things just for effect :-)

This is the last 'family week' and as today is the bank holiday it all winds down to almost nothing for the rest of this week.

There are some lovely people, of course there are, there must be, unfortunately they are more then offset (you know who you are, The Baileys, The Fishers, The Palmers to name but 3).

The one thing that you do learn is when Saturday rolls around and you think 'oh god no not THEM' is that another saturday will come and you'll be left, maybe a little battered bruised and with a slightly more tarnished soul but still there. That in itself is a sort of victory. All things do pass..... even scroates....

There's a couple of blue rinse weeks which are nice, Organ week (well really more synth these days, so please no comments) and trannie week reprise, this is where I came in..

Again emphasizing the fact that I am not one for overstatement or any form of hyperbole, Friday I am off to Teignmouth to see the first of the 'home coming' gigs by *undoubtedly* the greatest most talented rock band in the world if not the universe, MUSE.

Watch this space.

just a brief thought

2009-07-24T22:19:00.000+01:00

Is one a rude obnoxious person so one takes up the accordion or does one become one through some form of osmosis from playing the accordion?

A thought to ponder, but they go tomorrow :-)

Starting again

2009-07-19T09:21:00.000+01:00

The trouble with losing your hard drive is, while you may get your computer back, it looks like it, behaves like it and probably has the same marks on it, it's had a brain transplant, has a different personality and with something like the Lenovo where it's not blank but comes preloaded with all the junk that they think a 'busy executive' needs (assuming that *is* the target market) . So all those things you had done to make it bearable (like disabling those damned annoying balloon tips and deleting a good 50% of the exec specials) have gone and you literally have to start again.

At which point desperation sets in... :-)

Anyway I got through day 1 of accordion week. Actually (and I don't want to speak too soon here) but I'm wondering if it's the recession, or just that they are getting old but we are definitely not as busy this year.

To be honest I was really worried that I did not have enough staff, especially as not one of my regular experienced staff was available this weekend (holidays in Spain and festivals mostly) but in fact we managed it with ease. I borrowed young Matt from the dining room and he seems to have an even more extreme attitude to the week then I do. We get on well :-)

Right now it's time to scour the kitchen for toast, and maybe a boiled egg..

And so it begins

2009-07-18T09:17:00.000+01:00

Coming in this morning, there is a gathering outside the dining room waiting for the doors to open to breakfast and you can tell by the straggly beards and baggy shorts (some of them on men too) that the accordionists have arrived for another fun filled week of frolicks and, well accordions.

JP the chef and I have decided, yes we actually prefer the trannies, They are just into 70's and 80's disco, and yes while they can be as rude as the squeeze boxers, at least with the trannies you can be even ruder back. And the one thing they never do is wear baggy shorts..

And I am in trouble with Nadine the dining room manager as Louis who works for me told an extra six people they could just walk in for breakfast. Nadine likes thing written down..

This evening I have had a wine reception for them dropped on me, I've just been on the phone to my supplier hoping they can deliver something suitably cheap and nasty to give them :-)

So here goes.... Though next week family weeks begin, I wonder if I will be wishing for the accordions back....

Nope.

Back again!

2009-07-17T09:45:00.000+01:00

Been a while I know since I last posted, first it was settling in and getting the bars and staff as I want them (yeah right!) then just as all was getting on an even keel the hard drive on my teeny tiny Lenovo decided to die on me. Even with a new computer like this one it causes so much disruption.

I'm hoping I'll be able to have WiFi in my caravan soon as this will make everything easier but at the moment I'm using this general junk room behand the main kitchens as I have found I get a pretty good signal here, but it all needs planning..

I'm sure I'll be going on a lot about it here for the next weeks, basically as thats all there is, but just as a taster, from tomorrow for a week, we have horror of horrors, for me the worst week of the season, Accordian week.

Theres a joke, man goes to heaven, St Peter says 'welcome to heaven, here's your harp'
another man goes to hell, the devil says 'welcome to hell, here's your accordian'

On that note...

the journey back

2009-06-15T18:27:00.000+01:00

Just got back from another St Audries weekend, this time for the wedding of Karen and Dan.The plans kept spiralling ever upward so I went down last Thursday and I'm glad I did, it was full on (as weddings always are) but everyone seemed very happy and it had a great atmosphere.

Karen worked for me for a season and for Matt before me and her grandmother Barb was the legendary head of housekeeping among other things for 45 years. We so wanted her day to be a wonderful one.

I'm hoping I'll be able to get my hands on a video made of the reception, then you'll be able to see for yourselves, so until I do...

Anyway today I was in the hands of Arriva trains and Virgin trains and Great western and I don't quite know who all. I love travelling by train in spite of all the aforementioned can do to make me change my mind (while emptying my bank account).

I was of course stuck for ages at Bristol Parkway station as there were signalling faults and broken down trains and probably rains of frogs too.

It used to be quite a nice station with a wooden cafe/ticket hall, very domestic and cosy and friendly of the sort we (used to be) so good at. But sometime in the reign of terror (Tony Blair) it had to be 'modernized', because we were such a go getting thrusting modern country and cosiness has no place here!

I'm sure on the plans it was all very futuristic and slick, but after the health and safety experts (enough to strike dread into any ones soul) and the accountants and all the rest had had their way it's now hard to imagine a bleaker more soulless place with its all weather rubber flooring and perforated steel seating which are only not in torture chambers because they are cheap and shoddy and the whole place looking tatty and run down and badly in need of repair after only a few years use.

Whoever thinks thin steel sheet corrugated and painted to look like stainless steel is a good idea is fooling themselves - badly.

But absolute worst of all, the endless announcements preceded by damn three note chimes (undoubtedly chosen by some absolute b***ard to cause maximum irritation) '*I* (pause) am very sorry (pause) for (pause) the delay on (pause) the thirteen (pause) oh seven (pause) train to (pause) Swansea (pause).. on and on, you get the idea...

How can *you* be so sorry? you're a damn collection of badly sequenced digital files and they can't even be bothered to make sure it's the same anouncertron's voice used through the whole thing - ARGH! I tell you it's no wonder people flip and cut loose with an Uzi..

Maybe I'm just tired, 18 hour days tend to do that.. no I'm right it's tat...

May you live in interesting times

2009-06-07T20:26:00.000+01:00

It has been an interesting week, in fact I hardly know where to begin. I have bought one of those tiny new netbooks, not the pretend ones running some weird species of Linux but a proper full fledged (very small) Lenovo running full proper windows XP (and been as I am one of the Vista haters, that suits me just fine).

Second, and much bigger, I've got a full on iPod, a 120gb classic in black (though it looks more charcoal to me, others I see are 'proper' black) OK all the horrible things I have said about them all these years are (possibly!) incorrect and the fact I now have 3/4 of my CD's on this tiny machine and still have 100gb free is quite incredible. My vinyl is of course utterly sacrosanct..

And of course the reason for this sea change and bout of retail therapy? I am back at St Audries Bay as the bar manager and this was the minimum needed to get me through the summer..

For those of you that do not know it have a look at http://www.staudriesbay.co.uk/
I have known the place since I was a kid, in fact the first holiday there with my mum and dad was in 1966 when it was a full on British Holiday camp. I think I fell in love with it then and unfortunately things have never changed.

And one day I found myself running the bars and as maybe you know last year I left (when John and I moved from Bridgwater back to Wales) and in all honesty I thought that was the end of it. In fact friends asked me and I swore that was the finish.

My downfall was trannie week (I am sure that's been said before) The new guy was nice enough, but in all honesty he was making a mess of MY bar and I was surprised to find I couldn't stand it.

I know I can't explain how deep this goes, and by no means am I the only person that has discovered it, St Audries has a visceral attraction that seems impossible to break, but when I was asked to come back, I found I could not refuse.

I really hope John and I can have fun with this, I have a really nice caravan (one we spent a winter in a few years ago) I love my home in Wales, but I love this place too...

I SO should have done this

2009-05-31T16:16:00.000+01:00

Been a busy few days, and will fill you all in.. when I think of it :-) Probably the most important though, trusting to the Gods and taking my life into my hands I reformatted my C drive (named my 'H' drive I've never been able to work out why, or indeed change it, and reinstalled XP.

OK maybe not quite as scary as it could have been as I keep all my files on a second drive, but when you're reformatting are you REALLY sure you're doing the right one?!

Anyway I was, and when I wasn't swapping doors on the new fridge/freezer (more again no doubt) I was doing the tedious job of rebuilding the system.

I tell you though I wish I had done this ages ago, I have no idea how much garbage must have accumulated on my system but now it simply flies. Perhaps trying out new stuff really isn't the way to go, and while I *thought* I was keeping it clean, it obviously really wasn't..

It's a years old Frankenstein of a system, made up of all sorts of old bits and frankly so tatty it really should be in a skip, but Moores law seems to have broken down of late and it's 2.8ghz Pentium 2gb of ram should still be plenty and I have an aversion to handing out cash to the likes of Dell...

Now it feels like a new computer, and I must remember this feeling next time I want to kick it..

Just heard

2009-05-26T09:59:00.000+01:00

Just heard, on NME online MUSE will be releasing their new album 'The Resistance' in September.

Apparently they have been working on it for the past year near lake Como in Italy, it has a full orchestra and Matt Bellamy describes it as 'symphonic'.

Probably (no definitely) the most exciting band in the world, I am nearly dead with anticipation. Now all I want is tour dates :-)

Some bits

2009-05-26T09:09:00.000+01:00

I found this video on youtube, the product is from a company amusingly called brick sheet house. Shame we don't seem to have anything like this here, the effect was certainly nice and I love the brick/coffee coloured walls. The one question is though are all 'designer makeover' programs the world over the same?

I've finally had it with Vodafone. The contract finally finished Saturday, BUT relenting slightly as I still want a phone for occasional use, I thought would take their offer and swap it to pay as you go. I REALLY wish I hadn't bothered.

Basically they have just cut it off and no amount of e mails seems to be able to make them understand what the problem is. What is it with these call centre cyborgs in they they answer the question they first think of rather then reading the damn mail to find out what the problem is?

I'm going to try Orange. At least with them I'm a new customer so it's quite possible I might get some straightforward service without stressing myself out and fantasizing about Uzi's. Apparently I could port my number across from Vodafone, I really think I'll give that one a miss.

Having run out of cool stuff to watch on DVD have started again on Buffy, series 1 episode 1. I would try Battlestar Galactica, but those terrible '80's cut and re cut movies/mini series starring Lorne Green have really put me off it.

I've just finished Daemon by Daniel Suarez for the SECOND time. This is a cyber technothriller par excellence and with the added twist that at the end you still don't really know where it is going. I am mightily relieved to find that there is another on the way called Freedom(tm) I had thought that maybe Mr S was doing an Italian Job on us and was going to leave the reader hanging..

I guess it says something in that this is only the third book I have ever re-read straight away. The other two were The Lord Of The Rings when I was about 13 and Neuromancer by William Gibson so you get some idea. In fact on the Sunday before the trannies arrived at St Audries when I really should have been doing stuff, or at least walking on the beach I was lying on my bed unable to put it down.

While there were a couple of sequences that were a touch of a stretch I wondered if they were included merely to make the believable, indeed inevitable seem slightly less imminent.

Vodafone and your ilk... be very afraid :-)

Hysteria

2009-05-22T21:35:00.000+01:00

Right I'm bored with crooked politicians and nothing on TV, here is Muse, probably the best live ban in the world, at Glastonbury in 2004. My dear friend Rachel McKinley was there leaning against an ice cream van's engine for warmth while she watched them.. (unfortunately she's on the editing room floor, but I know, and now so do you :-)

There's a million things..

2009-05-22T08:34:00.000+01:00

I should be doing, you know when you just don't know where to start?

Anyway I've been plodding through painting. On the walls I had put up a finish blown vinyl, a hessian pattern, basically to disguise whoever did the plastering wasn't *quite* the best (I figure two guys did it as some rooms are great, some a little 'wavy') and of course it looks suitably retro.

I hadn't quite planned though on the fact it's a pain in the neck to paint (a brush full does about 4 sq inches) and it uses a LOT of paint. In the end I have given in and used a roller, something I never do (actually it's a little 4" foam one for doing behind radiators). Hate to say it, but it's doing a perfect job...

Think I am going to have to get out in the garden next, assuming it stops raining as it's turned into a jungle out the back. Machete time..

I've also been looking at fake bricks... How exciting I hear you say from here :-) I want white stick on bricks, they'll look good when I've finished I promise, for an exciting project in the living room (OK a big fake fireplace) after days of searching I found flexibrick, exactly what I want. I got on to the American dealer, I had a reply within the hour giving me the contact details of the Dutch manufacturer. So I enquire of them and --- nothing. So much for Euro efficiency.

Sorry I've not got much to say, I would comment on our political situation but after all these years of cynical comments I find that actually I've not been cynical *enough* 'shoot 'em all let God sort it out' is about all that's left.

There IS an upside

2009-05-18T10:52:00.000+01:00

Well maybe not much of one, and some wouldn't see it as such, but there is an upside to lying cheating thieving scumbag bankers and their Enron modeled financial systems and supported by (ditto) politicians who are only interested in fiddling their expenses... etc... etc..

Now that we're almost at the point where *we* have to pay the *banks* interest for allowing them to make free with our money all of those nicely retired rockstars who have released their final 'best of' compilations and retired to Mustique, Aspen or even the Cotswolds are suddenly finding things more then a bit tight and are having to get back in the recording studio or at least out on the road. (Ferrari's don't buy themselves dahlink) Even those who can't are releasing new super whizzy versions of those said best of albums (just look!)

All of this nonsense of course leads me to Marilyn Manson's new album out later this month* (Oh no not him again I hear you say, well I promise this is absolutely positively that last time I shall talk about him**).

In spite of the New York Dolls type history between him and Twiggy Ramirez the whole band is back together and from what I have heard of it fully on form. This is no cheap quick in-it-for-the-cash any old rubbish release and he is no happier about the way things are then any of the rest of us (watch the new video for Arma********************geddon on marilynmanson.com, normal warnings very much apply) for confirmation.

Its been several years after HIS best of compilation 'lest we forget' and I honestly thought I'd heard the last of him (and a lot of the world heaved a sigh of relief) Needless to say my copy is on order right now from Amazon.co.uk

It's also rumoured that David Bowie is in Berlin making a new album (see? bright side!) and assuming it's true and assuming it's produced by Tony Visconti (all of Mr B's best work is with T.V) Then I might even Begin to forgive some of those bankers***

*Blame Gary, it was him that had the tainted love video that made me start digging.
**This is very unlikely to be true
***This is VERY DEFINITELY not true

Eurowhat?

2009-05-17T09:03:00.000+01:00

Last night was the cultural highlight of the year, the night when Europe comes together in a night of ... well tat and high camp actually...

The Eurovision song contest.. you can tell how much I love it in that the last time I saw it I was in hospital having my appendix out, I think I was about 13 and Bucks Fizz won with the 'notorious' ripping off of the girls skirts sequence (I defy you to watch it without laughing, or going ahhhh... they were so clean :-)

So last night on Moscow (since when is Moscow in Europe? I think things must have changed since I saw it last) was a night of sheer ultracamp and *this* was actually the best thing on. (I had to watch TV, I was cooking spaghetti bolagnese and drinking wine, you cant do that without TV)

Now it shows what I know, I actually liked Sweden and Germany best as upholding the long tradition of sheer over the topness and they came joint 4th from last. The German entry was just Camp with a capital 'C' (who would ever have thought it?) and The Swedish entry was this fantastic terrifying white blonde Norse Beauty with heavy duty opera overtones and a backup of 5 dancing Rosa Klebb's, truly fine :-)

Britain came 5th and frankly we woz done, or someone was... we should have come joint last with Moscow themselves (ensuring they wouldn't have to fork out for hosting it next year as well).

All the other entry's were, up, fun, glitzy, had dancers (some quite startlingly athletic) movement and excitement. Us? we had some dirge with a girl called Jade who apparently won one of those talentless 'reality' TV shows.

Piano was played and it was written by *sir* andrew lloyd webber. If you don't know him he's a man who has heard that politics is showbiz for ugly people and decided to buck the trend.

He usually churns out commercial pap, which could even have worked (given some performer who didn't think that wailing at full volume was singing)but changing the habit of a lifetime went for full on dreary. I dont care what the annoying Graham Norton says, it was embarrassing. It comes to something when you're beaten hollow by Turkey, Iceland and Azerbaijan!

I think last or some other year the media was all in a frenzy when we came last, we *might* not have deserved it then (I don't know) but we sure did last night.

baddies and villians

2009-05-16T19:06:00.000+01:00

Oh No! Stargate Atlantis has nearly finished! Actually it doesn't really bother me, I wasn't keen on it when it was shown on TV and I'm still not now. Indeed I stopped watching after the first few episodes in both cases.

To tell the truth, I'm not wild about mud hut based stories, I like glittering cities and echoing computer halls, give me a giant reactor and an unstable naquadriah drive and I'm happy. Mud straw and small children running among the goat like animals and I just loose interest.

The Marilyn Manson look alike baddies turned out to be a real flop too (I think I may have been initially biased in their favour, because they had obviously been swapping makeup hair and clothes tips with the said Mr M)

And who can honestly be scared of an arch baddie called Michael? (admittedly our baddies are called Gordon Tony and George but I guess that rather makes my point) SG1's arch nancy goa'uld Apophis was OK-ish to his demise and the much more butch (ish) and excitingly bad Ba'al was great.

BUT it looks like the third Stargate movie is *finally* going to be made (according to (rdanderson.com) and also the Atlantis one.. and SG-U will be here soon!

And dear friends you'll realise this is all very tongue in cheek and played for laughs, as in my book ANY science fiction is better then no science fiction, even the stuff they dig up on movies for men.

Tainted Love

2009-05-14T17:39:00.000+01:00

Hearing Gary's posting of Tainted Love I have to come fully out of the closet, and say I think the Marilyn Manson version is better (gasp) This is in spite of the fact I met Marc Almond in the post office in Great Portland St.

Written by Gloria Jones (Mrs Marc Bolan) I know this is one of the biggest selling songs of all time.. it's got resonance aplenty, just look at all the videos on youtube using it, it's even appeared on Dr Who... now that's fame :-)

Oh and Mr Manson, I know you guys all hate him, I love him, in all honesty he's probably what Ziggy Stardust wanted to be if Bowie could have got away with it (and in the dope show video he looks just like a guy I used to go to school with)

B****y cheek!

2009-05-14T13:28:00.000+01:00

This morning I packed my large suitcase up with my ill gotten gains from trannie week last week and went to pay it into the bank.

Oh says the young lady behind the counter, 'I see your account is up for review'

'Review' says me, 'what does that mean?' (gulp, have the found out about my grey imports of illegal jam or possibly my back street chicken flavoured ice cream business?)

'Oh purely for your convenience' (phew!) 'its just to see if we can give you any help or financial advice, shall I make you an appointment?'

'Oh that's... hang on, you want to give ME financial advice?, excuse me but I'm not the one that's just lost 500 billion trillion pounds. I don't think banks are in any position to advise anyone on anything quite frankly. I may not have that much but at least I haven't brought the entire world economy to it's knees...'

'Well maybe we can help, like house insurance' (they don't fluster easily these bank girls - they are given special anti sarcasm training)

'I don't pay it'

'Oh, well car insurance then'

'I can't drive' 'You just want to sell me stuff. Thanks but no thanks'

Actually there is one hope from all this, I've been with the same bank for an age, you always wonder what they know about you, what they can infer from what you spend and where, what they can pick up... well nothing at all it seems to me. If they had they wouldn't have bothered asking..

Version 2.0

2009-05-13T18:55:00.000+01:00

So this time the breadmaker gods smiled upon me and - this is what it's *supposed* to look like. Shame to eat it really, I'm going to but it's still a shame :-)

Frog in a breadmaker

2009-05-13T09:02:00.000+01:00

Thought I'd dig out the old Panasonic breadmaker again, least now with a reasonable amount of work surface in the kitchen it sits there in the corner and doesn't look too shoddy.

The French bread was our favourite, so with a heart full of hope I put it on last night and woke this morning to nice smells from the kitchen.

Don't you just hate that moment when lifting the lid on something, anything all your expectation and anticipation is dashed? I'm British so I crave disappointment.

Having long since lost the original book, I was using a printed PDF of the original, which, I had completely forgotten has a 'mistranslation' on the weights between metric and imperial (guess which I use?) meaning there is nowhere near enough flour giving you this sad flat pancake glowering sullenly in the bottom of the pan. If you have ever made toad in the hole which has gone horribly wrong and turned into frog in a bog you'll exactly get the picture. (I know there's a gag there but I'm NOT going to do it!)

Now I'm having another go with the revised amounts :-)

So to be random..

There was a ton of stuff I was going to talk about today, but you think I can think of what it was... I should have a list.

Lipstick on the pint glasses

2009-05-12T11:43:00.000+01:00

Right! I'm back! now all can be revealed about how I saved the western world from certain disaster (again) Now it was like this, Gordon (I'm only in it for the laughs) Brown called me and....

Nope that's never going to be believed.. (that Gordon Brown should laugh that is, well except when looking at MP's expenses bills)

I was spending the week at St Audries, for those of you that don't know it click here Where until last year I was working as the bar manager and have actually been going on holiday there since God was a lad (well 1966)

This was the first of the two per year locally (in)famous trannie weeks where men come (often with their wives) to don a frock and behave, well actually like 200 blokes on a weeks piss up :-)

A year or two ago, young Jason in the kitchen fell into the trap 'This lot, they don't half put it away like men...' 'Jason, that ARE men!' 'oh... yeah...' But strangely enough it's all too easy to forget that fact even when the 'lady' in question in a smart navy blue suit with pleated skirt and silk blouse that Margaret Thatcher would have taken a fancy to is standing there, legs apart with a cigar in one hand and a pint of Real Ale in the other..

The week is hard work and then some, they are full on, demanding, exasperating and some of them so annoying you'd happily tip them over the cliff. They eat and drink like it's going out of fashion and above all are fun.

As a manager you have to be efficient, calming, diplomatic, run a tight ship, be concerned, be warm and welcoming and that all goes out the window with the trannies. You can let rip say (well shout over the music)things that you'd never dare utter to anyone else and they'll shout with laughter and love it (and probably buy you a drink). Get away with murder? not half..

This last week went particularly well, for once there was no major problems, no more then amusing bitchiness, no fights or even complaints. We could have done with another ice machine, and I WISH someone would teach men how to apply lipstick properly so it doesn't come off on everything, but you can't have it all..

Three of my four lovely girls also came back to help (the dream team they insist) Heather is pictured above. We worked hard, had a load of fun, one or two glasses of wine and oh I do miss the place, Bar management is the one thing I am good at..

Allo Mate..

2009-04-30T12:54:00.000+01:00

I know you're going to cry, but I'm away now till the 10th (I am doing secret work, saving the known world, or at least serving it drinks) I shall tell you all when I get back..

So in the meantime I leave you to contemplate this ad for weedkiller :-) weeds by Aardman... now that IS cool...

Now I have to iron a pile of white shirts..

Scott says...

2009-04-28T08:30:00.000+01:00

My friend Scott has been making me think a lot about music (well maybe think MORE about it) over the past few days, so it might be the subject for the NEXT few days..

I've never downloaded any music at all, actually I do have two downloads (Those first impressions by the Associates and Knock on wood by Aimee Stewart when I complained to a friend I couldn't find them anywhere should you be interested) But I have no idea really what I should do with them, I mean I could buy an iPod but it seems over the top for two tracks :-) and while I'd like an orange one as they are a bit of cool gizmo that I've always fancied owning I've got absolutely no use for them as 1. all the ones I have heard sound pretty horrible and 2. I REALLY don't like this download culture.

I'm not talking here of the 'illegal' Napster/Pirate Bay scene (while I'm with Trent Reznor on that, I'm not going there)But this whole corporate approved pushing and downloading of 'songs'. It seems to me you hear something, some latest fad, you download it, you maybe listen to it twice, until you're bored, end of story.

But what about the rest of the album? Last night I was doing one of my favourite pastimes, sitting with a glass of wine listening to an album in this case The Killers latest one, Day and Age.

There has been a single or two taken from it, but the Killers are a band where you have to listen to the whole thing (in the case of Day and Age, several times) to truly get what they are saying, to feel what the incredibly talented Mr Flowers wants you to feel. There is imagery, passion, loss, desert dust and gunsmoke but you will NEVER EVER get that from some song download, you'll get a bouncy track chosen probably by some record company exec for maximum sales.

One of my all time favourite albums,(Facades by Sad Cafe) was bought because of the killer single, but on listening the *entire* album it became one of those albums that forever changed my life. Today I would not have had that, there is so much more to music then a 'song' and in this new world order you're never going to get another Dark Side of the Moon, Ziggy would be nothing more then an instantly forgotten file 3528 on your iPod if that, pushed aside to make way for the latest wonder from pop idol or some such.

There is good stuff, worthwhile stuff, things that are genuinely better out there but this ain't it.

Like Scott also said, I am glad I'm a child of the 70's

browser update

2009-04-25T09:27:00.000+01:00

Seems like a lot of people I couldn't stand Explorer 8, it's slow yes, but what I really REALLY got tired of having to remember usernames and passwords for virtually all my sites in spite of reducing the cookie thing to low (which I'm not sure is that great an idea anyway)...

So back to Firefox, and sometime in the last couple of days it's had a pretty big update, I don't know what they did, but right now its as zippy and slick as anyone could wish.

I wonder what Microsoft is up to these days, it seems to me that since Bill 'left' (or whatever) they just seem to have lost interest...

Thanks Gary..

2009-04-24T17:49:00.000+01:00

This is for Gary Rith, thanks to you I've had REO Speedwagon going around in my head all day...

Vodafone

2009-04-24T10:20:00.000+01:00

Has anyone ever tried cancelling a Vodafone contract (or any mobile phone supplier - I'm under no illusions)

I've got bored with paying a contract every month for something I no longer use aside from the odd text message. So after several years (and many resisted blandishments to 'upgrade' my phone and thus lock me in for another year or two) it was time for the party to end.

Vodafone have this cunning policy, first the e mail addresses on their website 'no longer' work, this always puzzles me as been as you get an automated reply you might as well get a proper reply.

Eventually you are directed (if you are VERY persistent) to a webform, which then asks you about a dozen questions and a little box for what you actually want.

Then you get an automated reply telling you you should have a reply within 5 working days (!)

Eventually you get what might as well have been another automated reply saying they will carry out your wishes IF you give them all the information you have already given them on the webform. And are directed back to.. yes the same webform asking the same questions.

So I filled the thing in, again and again, I promise you this happened no less then 7 count them *seven* times. You need the patience of a saint, which anyone will tell you I have not got...

This might give you a clue as to why I was e mailing rather then phoning, like everyone I have had contact with companies like this before and I really don't want to shout at some tele operator in Bangladesh - or Slough (on the whole the Slough operators being a trifle less easy to understand) who is only carrying out 'company policy'

I don't know what Vodafone thinks will happen, that I will eventually get bored, or have a breakdown and decide to keep the damned service rather then deal with these cubicle farm robots.

What did it in the end was demanding the address for complaints and the supervisors name. Suddenly with no further problems I was told my contract would end in 30 (!) days. Now they are trying to tempt me to stay, with yup, whizzy new mobile phones..

Oh and what is this online hell called? Customer care....

Star Trek/NIN

2009-04-23T12:24:00.000+01:00

Warning: Explicit lyrics, ask your parents or authorized adult before viewing this video :-)

Books 'n' stuff

2009-04-23T08:15:00.000+01:00

As everyone now knows yesterday was the UK budget presented by his Imperial master of dreariness (never was a man more badly named) Alistair Darling. It's nice to know that the total trashing of the entire worlds economy was nothing to do with him, or his predecessor our much revered,dashing,bundle of fun Prime Minister Gordon (I'm only in it for the laughs) Brown.

So that's OK then, so .. books

While these days I mainly use Amazon for books and quite a lot of other stuff for that matter, nothing can actually beat leaving a bookshop with a carrier bag weighted down with books, all lovely and new and just waiting to be read. That anticipation of which to read first, them sitting there all pristine waiting for you. It's money in the bank to me :-)

As you may have guessed I like Science Fiction, the proper stuff, harder the better not this fantasy look alike (Terry Pratchett being the only honorable exception). Of recent years it's been British writers, I have no idea why but suddenly we have an exceptional bunch of Authors led by the likes of Charles Stross (except your 'merchant' series, I understand why you did it, but it's not me Charlie). Mostly from North of the Border, to my mind they have eclipsed the previous American generations with ease (and any current ones have probably been hoovered up by TV anyway)

The only trouble with this small and rarefied group is being small they collectively can't keep up with demand (i.e. mine) so I'm always on the lookout for new talent to add to my favorites list.

I left Borders with only 3 (the shelves mostly taken up with 'graphic novels' or comics as they were called when I was a lad, produced presumably for those to 'busy' to read)

The last Richard Morgan, which somehow I had overlooked and two new (to me) authors A British guy, Michael Cobley with the first part of 'a galaxy spanning space opera' Seeds of Earth and Daemon by Daniel Suarez of whom the cover gives no information at all.

Drooling at the thought of a new British written Space Opera I started with Mr Cobley.

What I really would like to know is do the established authors who have their comments on the jackets actually read the books? Come to that in the case of Seeds of Earth, did the publisher? I've always understood that it was very difficult to get published. Patently not in this case, it's so clunky and simply amateur it could have been written by me. Actually if it was written in the 50's they'd have loved it.

I got to about page 30 before I could stand no more, the characterisations alone were unreadable never mind the rest. Novels are supposed to be enjoyable not purgatory. I can only assume that the publishers have noticed this fad for British writers and are suddenly so desperate they really don't read them first.

Luckily Daemon so far is brilliant, not really SF more leading edge technothriller at least I'll be getting a good pacy read (and goes a long way to explaining why computers hate me so much :-) But 30% of my Borders buy a washout - thats not good...

Explorer 8

2009-04-21T08:40:00.000+01:00

Well Firefox crashed on me one too many times, so now I thought I'd give the new zippy updated explorer a try. My computer seems to be littered with obsolete browsers and email programs as I try them and find them wanting.

Is it too much to ask that they just work? I don't want them to change my life, just get me to the junk quietly efficiently and *without crashing*

Explorer 8 was obviously doing some pretty fundamental rewriting as it took forever to install, first impressions, clean, tidy and with a few tricks I have yet to try and am not sure I want.

All I need now is yet another email program...

MIA

2009-04-20T08:10:00.000+01:00

I know there's no excuse, but I have been busy decorating the hallway and cloakroom, and no it's not finished even now, but at least the end is in sight and I am thinking of the next project.

The pine ceilings look terrific, I was doing the edging yesterday and a coat or two of matt varnish will be all that's then needed. So far I'd say the place is looking more ultra fashionable 50's rather then the early 70's which is what I was aiming for, but we'll see..

And I cannot find the right light fitting for the hall. The trouble is compact fluorescent bulbs may be very worthy and *might* be eco friendly but he light they give is so damn *dull*. It looks OK in table lamps mostly, as long as you use a coloured shade but the ceiling, yuk!

I've also been slightly devastated at coming to the end of the mammoth Stargate boxed set which we have to have been watching nightly for the last 9 months (!) Although I hated the last series of baddies (the dreary Ori) The movies though were brilliant, particularly 'Continuum' and I'm thrilled to hear the go ahead has been given to the third (yet to be named) movie and it'll be (yipee!) about Richard Dean Anderson's character Jack O Neil. Sorry, while I loved Farscape, Ben Browder just didn't cut it for me in SG1.

So now we are watching Stargate Atlantis which I never really did see when it was broadcast (and mostly so far looking forward to the 'crossover' that occurs later in the series) I love the Marilyn Manson look alike baddies though :-).

Also looking forward with some trepidation to Stargate Universe which is on its way though it sounds slightly dark and alarming and Robert Carlyle strikes me as a 'risky' lead. We shall see..

Now it's a lovely day and sooner or later I shall have to get to grips with the garden in earnest but right now Sainsbury's calls..

I knew something would wind me up enough

2009-04-18T19:08:00.000+01:00

I knew something would wind me up enough to get back into the blogging swing, and it has.

In case you missed it it's independent record shop day (or some such title). We are all to shed a tear at the closure of so many independent record shops because of the growth of people buying their records in supermarkets, or online, or downloading it.

Well I for one couldn't care less, frankly if the people running these shops hadn't been such arrogant elitist tossers then maybe a few more of them would still be in business.

According to Jarvis Cocker (why do they always trot out Jarvis cocker? To the best of my knowledge he had one hit single, once, admittedly a pretty good one, and has been dining out on it for the past decade. I might take more notice if the said Mr Cocker stood a little closer to the razor and cut, or at least occasionally washed his hair and had more then one suit)ANYWAY according to the said Mr Cocker record shops are the places where we might walk in and hear a piece of music and if we have the courage to ask the assistant that music might just change our lives.

1. In record shops the music is always so loud you cant hear yourself think, never mind remember what you went in there for in the first place.

2. I have never ever heard anything in a record shop that I would even consider walking away with for free never mind actually paying for.

3. Talk to the assistants? They usually have spiky black (or entirely shaved) hair and so many facial piercings it looks like they had an unfortunate (but not unfortunate enough) accident while constructing a nail bomb. And treat you with such utter contempt (assuming they can be bothered to drag themselves away from their 'mates') that you could almost be their parent.

I always leave after buying nothing and with thoughts of conscription (or vivisection) foremost in my mind.

Why should I put myself through that? Amazon don't care if I want Nine Inch Nails, or Abba or even the damn Cheeky girls. I get exactly what I want without sneering or perforated eardrums.

Yup I am getting old and am told often I'm a grumpy old man, but record shops? RIP :-)

When I fell over the peacock

2009-03-24T18:37:00.000Z

I had the worst news EVER today! OK I exaggerate a touch, but I mailed playback video, the publishers of McM&W and got this very nice reply telling me that have no current plans to publish any more then the first series.

Now that's just teasing me and all fans of 70's kitsch... BUT their minds can be changed, so if you feel really nicely about me and my latest obsession do please contact them here and nag! I mean they've got all of Magnum PI and while I really wish I had Mr Sellecks chest hair you can't tell me it's better then McMilan and wife!

Today was supermarket day. Does everyone get really attached to their regular shop? Yesterday we were forced to go to the local Tesco and the experience was not a good one. How come people in other then your chosen shops seem rude and miserable? And you can never find anything...

Coming back we found no less then 4 peacocks wandering around the garden. We'd been visited by two of these exotica a few weeks ago, but this time they seemed to have brought a couple of friends. Judging by the calls of the little b****ers still further up the hill I think there are still plenty more to come.

Aside from winning a fortune on the lottery and buying some huge palatial heap ('darling are the peacocks still on the West lawn?') kind of thing, I never thought I would be woken in the early hours by the over sexed birds getting up to whatever it is they do when it's dark and making such a racket over it.

I hate Mondays

2009-03-23T14:08:00.000Z

Actually I don't, and haven't for a long time, in my last Job Monday was my day off... But this one's not been so great.

The weather has turned grey and chill, I know that's fair enough it's only March, but we'd got used to it being like summer, only nicer as it's not too hot and the kids aren't on school holidays, but it's back to regular weather now, so I guess I should cancel the order for orange and lemon trees..

And I've been waiting in all day for Parcelforce (like UPS only rubbish) to collect a dehumidifier I sold on eBay yesterday. It seems that while I was given a time between 9AM and 2PM (!) they were only given the order at 1.55 PM. I wouldn't mind if I'd known, but you know how it is, you can settle to nothing while waiting in for delivery men. And we need to go shopping, we need wine, oh yes and food too..

And I found the ideal outside lights, but I cant bring myself to actually buy them..

You see that sort of day, if it gets fun I'll report, but I wont hold my breath if you don't..

Jade Goody

2009-03-22T09:23:00.000Z

WHEN I GOOOOOO I'M GOING LIKE ELSIE.......

There are things living under rocks on Mars that have heard that Jade Goody died early this morning. Typical of Jade's sense of publicity, she did it on Mothers day, the showman to the very last.

Star of (but not winner of) Big brother three Jade had nothing at all. She wasn't good looking, she had no talent, she had the most appalling chaotic background and for want of a better word, family life. She was loud, pretty obnoxious at times and had no academic abilities of any sort.

But she had this one chance and she grabbed it with both hands and hung on for for all she was worth.

Her life since has been lived on the pages of the tabloids and cheap checkout magazines and any TV appearance she could get. I don't pretend to know even a fraction of it, I know next to nothing about 'celebrities' But you knew Jade Goody, you couldn't miss her.

And alone of the 'type' I admired her. She lived a life I couldn't even begin to imagine always thinking up some new angle to get herself publicity, she had cunning and 'smarts' she used the celebrity 'culture' for all it was worth and she won, she was the exception that proved the rule.

Jade I really really hope it was all worth it, and yes, I will miss you.

the mystery of the plaid sofa

2009-03-21T17:44:00.000Z

While staining the new gates dark brown (and it's amazing how your mind will wander on a job like that) I was remembering my dad taking me in about 1971 to see the new wonder of the electronics division there at the British Steel Company, a video recorder.

The thing was the size of a fridge and recorded about half an hour of program (just long enough for last nights Top Of The Pops) on 1" tape held on 10" open reels, in black and white.

Of course, hard as it is to remember, we only had a black and white television. They might have broadcast colour but we certainly didn't have it. (I have a feeling Carolyn something or other down the road had a set which they always watched with the colour control turned to the max, but they were loaded, and weird, and he always used to mow the lawn wearing a jacket shirt and tie, and she was an only child.... )

The POINT of all this faffing about is, although I remember it in colour, I must have seen McM&W in black and white, which is why I remember the sofas as cream (I'm sure the second one will turn up eventually) and why the yellow kitchen units were a bit of a shock and that gorgeous brown fridge......

Like I said, painting gates makes your mind wander, and mine certainly likes a holiday. One day it won't come back..

38 years late

2009-03-21T08:16:00.000Z

Well before I launch into another 70's TV show critique, way more important Dolly the cat is very pleased to be able to step outside.

Far from being constrained by the small space available she seems to be quite happy to sit on the doorstep in the sun, or even inside on the doormat with the door open. She keeps nipping in anyway to make sure all is still alright. I'm thinking now of flooring the area with decking planks, and I've been looking up small trees and climbers that will do well in pots (I fancy a fig) but it's for me, she's not bothered.

SO last night I watched the first 'proper' episode of McM&W :-) I'm glad to say that Mr Hudsons hair is way improved (a little less heavy on the nice'n'easy) and the jackets aren't quite so bad. But horror of horrors, my memory has been playing tricks, the sofa isn't cream at all but a sort of Dralon plaid and there is only one of them..

Of course this was the moving into their new house episode, and none of their furniture seems to match what they had before, barring only the bedhead, (she was lucky the fabric was still available for the new matching blinds) so I guess they might change in later series...

I am glad to say that I still like the sunflower painting by the front door and they have that that I *always* desired, a two door chocolate brown fridge/freezer! The rather weird kitchen units would have to go though, but the shutters in the dining area are very nice and I am sure that designer Anne Maurice now has one of the houses across the street..

Oh the story was quite fun too...

70's TV

2009-03-20T07:47:00.000Z

Last night after watching the nightly episode of Stargate, (and how disappointing it got, I remember now why I lost interest in it, Ben Browder is no Richard Dean Anderson, and political stories - yawn)

Anyway time for the pilot episode of McMillan and wife. I don't think I could ever have seen that one, the first I remember is when they move into their new house (I fell in love with the matching sofas either side of the hole in the wall fireplace). I think that and Sylvia Anderson's sets for Thunderbirds is where I got the idea of how decorating *should* be done :-)

Back in those days baddies were baddies (and usually wore hugely eye magnifying glasses, this was before they invented goatees..) and I loved the extended sequence where commissioner McMillan chases the bad guy up and down the hills of San Francisco on a bicycle (I'd love to see any of our commissioners do that) the chase getting slower in the upsides of the hills... SanFrancisco looking surprisingly less glamorous then you would expect today.

Back then Saturday night was McMillan and Wife, Columbo (my mum loved him, still does) and McCloud, later in the decade it was Streets of SanFrancisco, Kojak, Ironside and the kings of them all, Starsky and Hutch. My sister and I always had a special Saturday night watching them all and having treats to eat while Mum & Dad went out for the evening with Auntie Connie and Uncle David.

I know it seems hard today but you wouldn't believe how exotic those shows were to a kid living in Wales and I still have this gut feeling that SanFrancisco exists only as a stage set and isn't a real place at all.

I wasn't convinced by Rock Hudsons hair and some of those jackets were diabolical :-) but I can't wait for the first 'proper' episode.

Thursday already

2009-03-19T08:14:00.000Z

Not been great at blogging the last few days and I've decided that's a *bad* thing, it gets to be like that e mail you keep meaning to reply to and suddenly you realise six months have gone past! Actually I think the trick is the more of it you do the better you get at it, or at least quicker, like most things really :-)

So as to shattering events : the last couple of days here have been lovely, so sunny and warm, and I've been putting up a couple of gates outside the kitchen door in this rather narrow alley so that Dolly the cat can stop whingeing and go out there, but will be safe and not able to wander off. She may be big and scary looking, but actually she is a total wimp with no sense whatsoever.

Actually stick a few pots out there and it'll be a really nice if tiny garden, and something nicer to look out on then next doors garage..

I've also been filling and rubbing down woodwork, I don't mind doing it so much, and once it's been done once, and well, it'll never need doing like that again. But I hate the mess it makes everywhere. As you may have realised, I'm not a big fan of dust..

If any of you have seen 'how clean is your house?' I have this fantasy of Kim and Aggie coming around and telling me the place is great (anyone who knows them will know there is fat chance of that, but I can fantasize..)

Like a rabbit

2009-03-13T18:21:00.000Z

You know that feeling when you seem to have so much to do that you don't know which way to turn, what to do first and so you just don't do anything? Well that's been me this week, like a rabbit in the headlights. I couldn't even rouse a blog entry.

The weather while very wet is getting warmer and the evenings really are lighter, and doing something to the garden is looming, but the house still needs decorating and frankly this dark green patterned carpet in the living room and landing and unrelenting shabby beige walls throughout are making me suicidal and the brighter light just makes it all look worse.

So finally I woke with a decision, the doors are finished (well except the bathroom and that's a whole other story) and the difference is vast, a whole layer of tattiness gone, they look great. I shall make a start on the woodwork, I'm a bit of a psycho for woodwork, it has to be right.

But I have decided rather then lining and cross lining the walls, I shall fill, a bit of sanding and a couple of coats of matt white emulsion. It'll be clean, crisp and I can always do it again it later when I decide whats wanted, and white is a statement after all isn't it? At least its not 'going to sell the house' cream.. :-)

And that carpet WILL go, next room on the list!

So to get over feeling frazzled and having actually decided something (which with me is way more then half the battle) I have just gone completely mad and ordered the first series of Macmillan and Wife from Amazon. I loved that series... back in the '70s....

Sunday

2009-03-09T08:24:00.000Z

When I was little Monday was the day for washing, my mum would get out the washing machine. She was posh like Eunice Price next door, they both had Hoovermatic twin tubs with *spin dryers* rather then a finger crunching mangle. Admittedly both machines seemed to spend more time leaking from perished rubber hoses rather then actual washing but it was modern.

The water would be boiled in the washing tub, together with the soap powder (or even new fangled detergent) and I'll always remember the clothes swirling in that steaming water(very like Go'ulds waiting to be implanted now I think of it) to be hooked out with wooden washing tongs bleached white with use.

The clothes would then be slurped out into the said spin drier which would then propel the machine around the kitchen with such violence it would terrify me. IF you were lucky the water would be spat from the curious shepherds crook shaped pipe into the sink. If you were not the machine would have developed another leak and it would be all over the floor.

The whole house would be steamy and smell of boiling soap powder and wet clothes.

I hated Mondays.

Which is why I always do the washing on a Sunday even though, lets face it chucking washing in the machine dirty and dry and getting it out again clean and dry isn't *quite* the same challenge. .

I seemed to spend the rest of the day putting junk (sorry treasures) on eBay to sell, I've been putting it off for ages so this will be a Sunday job for weeks and months.

That's what this post was going to be about, but I seem to have gone off at a tangent..

Uh-Oh

2009-03-07T09:51:00.000Z

I have started down the slippery slope..

The hall ceiling has a crack in it (in the loft there is actually a boot print on the back of the plasterboard where someone has slipped off the truss and stood on it). The last people seem to have tried to cover it, but the ceilings are artex it's impossible to repair invisibly so it just draws attention to it.

I'd been considering this action for some while, but I know once you have started you can't stop so for months I have resisted.

But there I was yesterday in Wickes (they seem to be doing pretty well out of me of late) had to have a couple of gates and some posts delivered anyway as there are limits to what even I can get in a Fiesta and it was beckoning with it's siren call. Yes, I am talking pine cladding...

Now the 70's die is cast, give it 18 months and the whole place will have pine ceilings as well as cork floors, I can just feel it, and I have a sudden resurgence of interest in macrame....

Time travel makes your head hurt

2009-03-06T19:56:00.000Z

That's about it, just a general observation.

Sitting in Sainsbury's waiting for lunch trying to work out last nights Stargate (last two episodes series 8) Where the team go back to ancient Egypt using a recently found Ancient time travel device (that's Ancient with a capital 'A' not small 'a') and excitingly mess up

Using the 'trouser leg of time' theory we had three Jack O Neils, ditto Sam Carters and Teal'cs but only two Daniel Jacksons (one having been shot by one of the Teal'cs for having a go'uld in his head).

Did we end up with the 'right' ones? I figured in the end we did, even if not quite the ones we started with.

But like I said it made my head hurt.. These writer Johnnys must be very clever, or take a lot of Ibuprofen..

Vacuum

2009-03-06T10:51:00.000Z

Reading about my friend Scott's new shopvacs, I had thought about telling you about mine, now I will!

In a somewhat different league (to put it mildly) I am still pretty pleased. Not that it stops me drooling over the big proper jobs..

For home use I use two very good and expensive German cleaners (Sebo if you're interested) One upright and one Cylinder they are superb and great at what they are designed to do (get the house CLEAN with no fuss). Designed for the the Bavarian Hausfrau, like them they will stand for no messing about..

However I have recently found one thing the cylinder is no good at at all, namely clearing up building rubble and detritus. Oh it makes a manful attempt but within two minutes the scientifically designed multi phase filter paper bag is clogged, the big orange light comes on and it's goodnight Vienna. Expensive and inconvenient (and then no good at what it's meant for)

So I did a quick bit of research (a flash way of saying I looked up a few websites) and came up with the Wickes wet'n'dry. It looks like R2D2's low budget idiot cousin on a VERY bad day and makes the average Air Force jet sound quiet. But it's under £40 and will suck up anything.

Rude and crude it's just a big motor in a plastic bucket with a few badly made tools. When you switch it on it actually kicks around in the direction of the motor rotation and the exhaust from it is so extreme you really can believe it is some sort of secret jet weapon, a *man's* cleaner :-) Nothing is safe from it's voracious appetite and it fits the bill perfectly. I love the thing. .

And now my refined German cleaners can heave a sigh of relief and go back to what they are meant to be doing..

sod'em

2009-03-05T11:05:00.000Z

Like Kate and Jim suggested I have been thinking about it, and every one of you are right, I can't let some half wit win, he doesn't like me? Tough! Sincerely thank you all for your comments, I shall try and thicken the skin. I'm thinking I'm a bit mid life crisis-y anyway and it's time I pulled myself out of it.

This decision was come to last night while two thirds of the way through a bottle of Australian Riesling and while listening to one of my four favorite David Bowie albums (Diamond Dogs) A bit of death madness and genocide always puts me in a good mood :-)

Also yesterday was partly a lovely day (apparently it showed while I was in the garage refinishing yet another door, but I didn't see it so it doesn't count)

Earlier on I had been cleaning out the gutters as water was pouring from them in all the wrong places whenever it rained heavily (this is Wales, it's a miracle when it *doesn't* rain heavily).

I can see that many would not be keen on this, but it's so close to making mud pies I think its fun and really cheered me up. Apart from being up a ladder and the bright red boiler suit (I wanted a convict style orange one but couldn't find one on eBay) I could have been a kid again though I have heard kids don't make mud pies any more...

When I clean down all the outside 'paintwork' (it's all upvc but 'plasticwork' doesn't make any sense) in a few weeks, I shall have to reinstall all the said guttering as someone doesn't seem to have grasped which way it should slope, but in the meantime it's reasonably clean and hopefully the water will no longer cascade from the wrong end.

Hopefully now I can get back into the swing of posting but in the meantime I *must* do some work..

So Long

2009-03-02T15:03:00.000Z

This is my last post, I had thought I was doing a fun blog, just a bit of light hearted chat, but after a rather unpleasant mail to John I see that is not the case.

I may be thin skinned but I get really upset by comments like that by people who don't even know me. My fault, I see it now, but it won't happen again.

And for you nice people, thanks it was nice knowing you.