Just some pics....

Tunes I Like Right Now...New!

I've cleared out all the old tracks from the "Tunes I Like Right Now" player and posted some new ones.

They are.....

Films - Gary Numan (you can never get enough of the Numanoid!)

An Ending (ascent) - Brian Eno

A Duck Is One Mean Machine - Cassetteboy

I Lived On The Moon - Kwoon

In For The Kill - La Roux (the 80's are back!)

The Front Fell Off!!

Blimey.... I laughed and laughed. Monty Python would have been proud of this sketch.

That Mitchell and Webb Look: Homeopathic A&E

Mitchell & Webb have really hit the ground running this season. This sketch sums up everything that winds me up about "Alternative Medicine". It's called "Alternative" because there's no, repeat NO evidence that it works. And yet it's huge business especially in the UK and U.S.A.

This sums up why I hate football....

Funny cos it's true!

When the rock & roll nightmare comes, the devil's gonna make me eat my drums!

They came, they saw, they went to 11. Spinal Tap played their 1 date World Tour at Wembley Arena on Tuesday night and my ears are still ringing!

I was impressed they didn't do any schtick, they just played an awesome gig and relied on the fact that the songs were strong enough (and funny enough) to stand on their own. So apart from dwarfs dancing around an inflatable Stonehenge the "jokes" were kept to a minimum, with just little bits of banter between songs.

I soon realised that these guys can really play! They sounded very assured and tight, making a noise that Metallica would envy. Chris.... sorry, Nigel Tufnel's guitar solo (though overlong) was masterful. Dave St Hubbins voice has lost none of it's power over the years and Derek Smalls proffered lukewarm support on base.

A wonderful night was had by all.

But there's more. During the first few songs official looking women with clipboards were roaming the arena. It transpired that they were looking for women to go up on stage and dance with the band during the song "Big Bottom". They picked my wife!!! Luckily people took along camera phones so the moment has been recorded for posterity. Or posterior.

If you know her, she makes her first appearance around the 1:47 mark.



Stonehenge!!



And just for the hell of it, the video for The Magesty Of Rock!



Tap were supported by The Folksmen. Brilliant!

Downloads

The divshare downloads will be up and running again on the 8th of July. You all hit the download limit for the month!

The Baloney Detection Kit

Hmmmm I want one. I wonder where they sell them?

Galactic Center

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

How small do you feel now?

Christopher Hitchens

Love him or hate him, Mr Hitchens is always fun to watch. I don't always agree with him (his views on Iraq for instance) but you can't say that he pulls his punches. He's ruthlessly honest about his opinions and happy to stand up for them. Enjoy.

Earthrise.

JAXA and NHK videos from the high-definition television camera aboard the Kaguya Lunar orbiter.



Stunning.

Eyes . . .

Nativity. . .

I took this picture years ago. It's a nativity scene outside a department store in Madrid.
WTF? Flipper was present at the birth of Jesus?


How come SpongeBob SquarePants didn't get an invite?

Gold, Frankincense & Tuna.

Once

It was a slow morning at work so I decided to bung my copy of "Once" into my laptop and leave it playing in the background.

I ended up watching it all the way through. I love this film.

I saw it for the first time last year. My sister-in-law had given it to me as a present and, I have to say, at the time I was a little disappointed (don't tell her that!). However, she's got excellent taste and I'd heard some great reviews, but I'd also heard the negative ones so approached it with caution.

It's a Marmite film. You will either love it or hate it.

It's, and I shudder to use the word, sweet. Really, really sweet. Not in a vomit inducing way, but a warm, fuzzy, sad, funny, uplifting kind of way. A really touching tale of two ships that pass in the night. It got labeled as a musical on it's release, it's not. The music is integral but it's not a musical in the "Chicago" sense.

The plot focuses on a busker with dreams of making it as a successful musician, he's also dealing with the breakup of a long term relationship. He meets a young Czech immigrant and together they realise that they share a love of music and are both in similar emotional situations. The actors wrote and performed the songs in the film and are so talented it makes me ill.

Give it a chance. Go on.

Schrödinger's cat.

The Window Hope Has Opened . . . .

then gets hit with the brick that rationalism threw and lands on the pavement that reality provided.

Daniel Dennett Lecture "A Darwinian Perspective on Religions: Past, Present and Future"

Dan Dennett is a towering figure in the world of philosophy, this is a video of a lecture that I was lucky enough to attend a few months ago.

Richard Dawkins says in the introduction that he's the kind of philosopher that scientists like. That's because he's spent his entire career keeping pace with what the scientific community are doing.

It was a fantastic evening.

I highly recommend his book:

Voice Over . . .

Last night I was up quite late finishing a Voice Over I've been doing for a video game. At least with all the advances in home studios I don't always have to travel up to London to do this sort of thing in a professional studio. A decent mixer and microphone and you can do it from home.

However..... This is an example of some of the dialogue.

"The purpose the game is to position the orange ball in the large circle so that it matches the one in the smaller circle.
This can be achieved by using your controls to click on any ball which is surrounded on all sides.
This action will cause the rotation of all the balls around the one that has been clicked to rotate anti-clockwise which will move the orange ball in the direction that is required"

Now... try reading it aloud so that it sounds interesting and makes sense.

It's not as easy as it looks! For some reason the phrase "This action will cause the rotation of all the balls" caused me to corpse repeatedly. In the end I got it done and mailed off the wav files to the client.

However, because it had taken me so long to get the above section right, and because I hated the way it was written, I included 1 extra file in the folder. I present it to you below.

New songs......

I've added 3 new songs to the "Tunes I Like Right Now..." section.

In The Name Of Love by The Thompson Twins

Magic by Mick Smiley

Savin' The Day by Alessi

As you may have guessed these are all from the "Ghostbusters" soundtrack and are therefore brilliant. I'm getting all excited because the Blu Ray is out this month!



Who you gonna call?

Saturday morning ritual....

The one thing I HAVE to do on Saturday mornings is have the radio tuned to BBC 6. Actually, the word radio is inaccurate as it's a digital channel that I get through my Sky box.

Saturday, BBC 6, 9:00am = Adam & Joe.

They've been sounding the horn for geeks like me for quite a while now and have had a small but loyal following since their TV show on C4 years ago.

Radio is a great fit for them. The music is usually great but you listen because you want to know what they thought of the new "Star Trek" movie and the like.

Nerd Nirvana.

Here's a video by one half of the team, Adam Buxton, that he made for the Spoon song "Don't make me a target." This wasn't the official video. But it should have been. Check out his YouTube channel here.

Snuff Box.

A short clip from the very underrated TV show "Snuff Box" that starred Matt Berry and Rich Fulcher.

It was, and is, genius. Shame nobody tuned in.

Don't watch this if bad language offends you. Because you WILL be offended. When I saw this sketch for the first time I didn't stop laughing for twenty minutes.

Long weekend. . .

It's been a long sunny weekend. Saturday was a loss to me as I was working, but today has been a wonderful day spent with my family and a few friends.

Beyond that I've been rejoicing in my new desk! Yes, I AM that sad.

We've spent what seems like years getting our basement done. Actually, that's because it DID take years. Our first builder (note the use of the word "first") didn't do anything for a year, so we gave him the boot.

But in the end we went from this......







To this....









A great little nook where I can put my ever increasing collection of books n' stuff.







Oh.... AND use it as an office.

The books now need alphabetising. I'll get around to it one day. The desk went in last weekend as the one we had before was in danger of collapse. I'm pretty sure that only good will was keeping it together.

On the way home from our friends house today I took some pictures of the river that runs past the bottom of our garden. Hmmmmm.... What a great day.

Tunes I like right now....

I'm adding a new section to the right-hand side of the page called "Tunes I like right now....".
It'll have a few tunes in it for you to listen to.

They won't be there permenantly though. I'm going refresh it every now and then.

First up:

Zero by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Like Emily by All About Eve.

Spirit On The Water by Bob Dylan.

The Willows By Belbury Poly.

And just for the hell of it:

The closing theme from "The Tripods" by Ken Freeman.

The Pool Of Fire. . .

A friend of mine said to me recently "You have a high tolerance for this stuff don't you!".

I was visiting his house and had stumbled upon some god awful Sci Fi show called "The Starlost"on the TV, it had been made sometime in the 1970's. By any reasonable standard it was total crap, however, it starred Kier Dullea and that was enough for me.
He was right though. I seem to be able to sit through the kind of TV that makes most people run for the hills.

So.... to "The Tripods"

It was a show made for the family teatime market in the mid 80's and, to be honest, it's rather shoddy. It's a great example of the BBC trying to film something for £2.50 that a Hollywood director would have trouble bringing to the screen for £80 million. So, 10/10 for effort.

I have a huge soft spot for it though. The acting may be atrocious and the script leaden, but it tries SO hard. The model work is some of the best the BBC ever produced, and the Tripods themselves look really cool. Fact.

It's a show that's developed a healthy cult status over the years. Not just the show but the music also. The soundtrack was written and performed by Ken Freeman and has been available on CD for some time. For many years though only season 1 of the TV show was available on VHS and DVD, but at last it's available as a DVD box set that contains both season's 1 and 2.

"But wasn't The Tripods based on a trilogy?" I hear you ask!

Yes. The third season was never made due to low audience figures, so the 3 of us that were watching it were left hanging.

"But wasn't it crap?"

Yes. But I love it. I have a high tolerance for this stuff remember.

Cosmos Episode 1

Finally found a replacement for the lost "Cosmos" vid. You can find episode 1 in full and my origional post here.

I wonder what will happen?

STEPHEN!!!

What REALLY happened....

I can't help but love this. Partly because i'm a fan of "Family Guy" but mostly because I think that Christian Bale is an overrated cock.

Mwahahaha! At LAST!

The tickets arrived today!!

WooHoo!

I will be there on June 30th at Wembley Arena to witness the triumphant return of England's loudest band "Spinal Tap".

This is part of the 1 date "World Tour".

"If we're going to do a World tour on only one night, at least it's this world"
Nigel Tufnel

"This show will be dedicated to all of our drummers who have passed on, either to their reward or to middle management at Sainbury's."
David St. Hubbins.

"One night is not enough, and it's way too much!"
Derek Smalls

National Theatre Of Brent UPDATE!

As you may know from an earlier post I am a HUGE fan of "The National Theatre Of Brent". It's been through many different forms over the years, the most well known being the combinations of Patrick Barlow & either Jim Broadbent or John Ramm.

Rather annoyingly none of their shows (TV or Radio) have ever been commercially released, so I've spent a long time searching the net for any material.

While on the hunt today I realised that "All The Worlds A Globe" has been repeating on BBC7 along with "Desmond Olivier Dingle's Compleat Life and Works of William Shakespeare". BUM! Missed them both! Thankfully I found most of "Globe" and will replace 7 of the episodes I have posted here because the quality is better. Some nice chap also put up a torrent for "Shakespeare" so I have added that to the NTOB section. The quality isn't great but it's better than nothing.

Also added to the playlist that already has "Mona Lisa", "Messiah" and "Greatest Story" is a new one on me "Joan Of Arc: How She Became A Saint".
It was written by Patrick Barlow and has Jim Broadbent and John Ramm in the cast. Dawn French plays the lead role.

They can all be found on the right hand side of the page under "The National Theatre Of Brent".

My origional NTOB post is here.

As if that wasn't enough it turns out that the NTOB are set to return to the radio this year with a NEW series. It's titled "The National Theatre Of Brent's Iconic Icons".

I managed to get 2 tickets to a recording of an episode... WooHoo!
The episode I will attend is about the iconic icon Bob Dylan.

It never rains but it pours.

If you want to download the files click on the DivShare logo.

Update!!!

Bloody hell! It's been a while. I guess having a new baby can do that. Time is something I don't seem to have much of at the moment, but I'm sure by the time my daughter is 18 I'll have got used to it.

I'm going to update a bit more often (cough!)and try to keep an eye on things more. I've repaired a few dead links so all is up and running again. Yay!

Worst idea ever in the whole history of bad ideas.......

Eoin Colfer to write sixth Hitchhiker's Guide book

by Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/sep/17/douglasadams

Eoin Colfer to write sixth Hitchhiker's Guide book
Comic fantasy children's author describes being given the opportunity to continue Douglas Adams's legendary series as 'like suddenly being offered the superpower of your choice'

Douglas Adams's increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy is to be extended to six titles, after Adams's widow Jane Belson sanctioned a project which will see children's author Eoin Colfer taking up the story.

And Another Thing… by Colfer, whose involvement with the project was personally requested by Belson, will be published next October by Penguin. No information has yet emerged about the plot of the novel but Hitchhiker fans will be hoping for a resurrection of much-loved characters Arthur Dent, Trillian and Ford Prefect, who were all apparently blown to smithereens at the end of the fifth novel, Mostly Harmless.

Adams himself had plans for a sixth Hitchhiker book, saying in an interview: "People have said, quite rightly, that Mostly Harmless is a very bleak book. And it was a bleak book. I would love to finish Hitchhiker on a slightly more upbeat note, so five seems to be a wrong kind of number, six is a better kind of number."

But his death in 2001, aged 49, meant the book was never written, and "legions of Hitchhiker fans were left with their hearts beating a little too quickly for all eternity," said Colfer, author of the bestselling Artemis Fowl series for children.

The proposal from the literary agency which manages Adams's estate was "quite out of the blue", said Penguin marketing and publicity director Joanna Prior. "It was something I guess [Jane Belson] had been mulling over for some time, and we jumped the minute we got the call – we could immediately see what a fantastic project this would be."

Colfer, who has been a fan of Hitchhiker since his schooldays, said being given the opportunity to continue the series was "like suddenly being offered the superpower of your choice". "For years I have been finishing this incredible story in my head and now I have the opportunity to do it in the real world," he added. "It is a gift from the gods. So, thank you Thor and Odin."

The book will "make no claims for Eoin being Douglas", according to Prior. "It's not Eoin Colfer writing as Douglas Adams, as was the case with Sebastian Faulks," she said, pointing to Penguin's successful publication of Faulks's new James Bond novel Devil May Care earlier this year. "It's absolutely about him being himself – Eoin the author, but with the cast of Hitchhiker."

Colfer himself is currently grappling with nerves over the quality of his addition to Adams' oeuvre. "I feel more pressure to perform now than I ever have with my own books, and that is why I am bloody determined that this will be the best thing I have ever written," he said. "For the first time in decades I feel the uncertainty that I last felt in my teenage years. There are people out there that really want to like this book."

Penguin hopes that Belson's choice of Colfer will bring a new generation of readers to Adams's work. "It's always a challenge when we haven't got Douglas any more – how can we introduce his writing to the next generation?" asked Prior. "There's a huge fan base out there, but this is a really exciting way of creating a new legacy."

Belson said the project had her full support. "I am delighted that Eoin Colfer has agreed to continue the Hitchhiker series. I love his books and could not think of a better person to transport Arthur, Zaphod and Marvin to pastures new," she added.

Approximately 16m copies of Hitchhiker books have been sold worldwide, according to Penguin. The "trilogy in five parts", which started with radio series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in 1978 and was completed with The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, The Universe and Everything; So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish; and Mostly Harmless, has been translated into 35 languages.

____________________

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Innovative Communication

Know what this is?



Probably not. I don't blame you though, you would have to have VERY specific taste in music to know that this is the logo for "Innovative Communication". The electronic music label was founded in 1978 by the pioneer Klaus Schulze and Michael Haentjes. It was based in Germany and I only became aware of it in about 87, 88 after a trip to a record shop in a town near my home. The Longplayer was a small independent store at the top of Tunbridge Wells high street. The truly enlightened muso would only ever go to The Longplayer, there WAS an OurPrice in the town center at the time but puhleeeeas!

It was during one of my regular rummaging trips there that I came across an album in the "electronic" section, next to the likes of "Tangerine Dream" and such.

"Hmmmm" I thought. It was a rather stark cover compared to all the other items for sale, but I loved weird electronic stuff and had a shelf full of "Tangerine Dream" and "Jean Michel Jarre" albums at home.

I decided to dive in. I bought it and took it round to a friends house and popped it into the Cd player. I have to say that I was very surprised! I was expecting a more avant garde kind of sound but this was almost pop like. I wasn't sure about it at first but the more I listened to it the more I fell for it's rather weird charm.

I went back to shop a few weeks later and they didn't have any more "IC" releases, but the woman behind the counter told me that you could get them by mail order from a company called "The Magnum Music Group". I got the address and sent off for a catalogue. A few weeks later it arrived and strange and wonderful thing it was too. From what I can recall it seemed to consist ONLY of these strange German electronic music Cd's and re-releases of old blues albums.

I should explain that mail order was a complicated business at the time. Internet shopping? That was sci-fi mate. I didn't have a cheque book so the only way I could send money by post was with postal orders. You go to the post office buy, say, £10 in postal orders and then send THEM through the post with the order. It was all a bit of a faff.

On top of that there was really no way to tell if the album you were going to get was any good. The catalogue would have a photo of the cover and a brief description of the album's contents and a bio of the artist. So I was pretty much fumbling around in the dark. I would save up some money, go get the postal orders and then trawl through the catalogue trying to make up my mind what to get.

As a result, over time, I got some really REALLY awful stuff. However, for every highly suspect album there was a real gem. The gems I have kept to this day. Just as well as the label went belly up and many of the titles are now very rare and going on eBay and amazon for (in some cases) £90 or over.

As I said, some of it was awful, but some of it was also inspired. The stuff I liked, and have kept, tends to be the more ambient, esoteric stuff that hasn't aged as badly as some of the more pop sounding efforts. Even some of the more awful albums managed to have at least 1 or 2 good tracks.



God.... These covers take me back.

Some of the artists have moved on to greater things. But many, I suspect, have vanished into obscurity.

Now and then I go and search the net to see if there are any being sold on eBay and the like, and occasionally I pick one up for a bargain price. And yes.... sometimes they are still awful.

Douglas Adams: Parrots the Universe and Everything

Douglas Adams was the best-selling British author and satirist who created The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In this talk at UCSB recorded shortly before his death, Adams shares accounts of some of the apparently absurd lifestyles of the world's creatures, and gleans from them extraordinary perceptions about the future of humanity.

Richard Dawkins Lecture at UC Berkeley

Divshare Down...

The filehosting site I use is down at the moment. I hope it will be up and running again soon. I'll leave it for a while but if things don't improve I'll search for a new host. So for the moment all the links to Scotney, Brent, Conchords and a few other bits and bobs are broken.

Ho hum.

Oh YES!

You have to be a fully paid up child of the 70's and 80's to appreciate this. While I was watching it I started grinning like an idiot.

I hate it when this happens.....

Oh bother...

Oscar-winning special effects expert Stan Winston, who created the creatures in films including Aliens and Jurassic Park, has died at the age of 62.
Winston, who also made the robots in Terminator, died at home in California surrounded by family on Sunday.

The film veteran had been battling multiple myeloma, a plasma cell cancer, for seven years, a representative of the Stan Winston Studio said.

He had worked with Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Tim Burton.
During his 40-year career, he became a pioneer of merging real-world effects with computer imaging.

California governor and former Terminator star Arnold Schwarzenegger said: "The entertainment industry has lost a genius, and I lost one of my best friends.
Stan's work and four Oscars speak for themselves and will live on forever."

"What will live forever in my heart is the way that Stan loved everyone and treated each of his friends like they were family."

Winston won Oscars for his work on Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Jurassic Park.


He also received Oscar nominations for Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, AI, Predator and Heartbeeps.

Winston had recently worked on director Jon Favreau's box office success Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Favreau said: "He was experienced and helped guide me while never losing his childlike enthusiasm.
"He was the king of integrating practical effects with CGI, never losing his relevance in an ever-changing industry."
The director added that he was proud to have worked with Winston and had been looking forward to future collaborations.
"I knew that he was struggling, but I had no idea that he would be gone so soon. Hollywood has lost a shining star."


Winston's most recent film projects included Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, GI Joe, Shutter Island and the futuristic Avatar, for which he reunited with Aliens director James Cameron.

Cameron paid tribute, saying: "He ran at full throttle, in both work and play, and was a man of kindness, wisdom and great humour.

"He was a kid that never grew up, whose dreams were writ large on the screens of the world. I am proud to have been his friend, and I will miss him very deeply."

Winston grew up in Virginia, where he enjoyed classic horror films, drawing and puppetry.

He graduated from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, in 1968 and tried his hand as an actor before gravitating towards working behind the scenes.

He completed a three-year make-up apprenticeship at Walt Disney Studios in 1972.

Winston is survived by his wife Karen, a son, daughter, brother and four grandchildren.

Nice surprise this morning...

They said it might snow overnight, but I stopped listening to forecasts yonks ago. This time they got it right!

Mike Oldfield: Music Of The Spheres

Ok.... this is tough. I have been a fan of Mike Oldfield ever since I discovered my Dad's vinyl copy of "Tubular Bells" when I was about 8. It's hard to remember just how radical a record it was when it was released. Mike has come to be seen as a bit naff over the years, and today is seen as being about as "middle of the road" as you can get.

However, the first 3 albums "Tubular Bells", "Hergest Ridge" & "Ommadawn" are about as perfect as albums can be. In terms of style the first three albums can be seen as a trilogy and a time when Mike was at his creative peak.

The next few albums "Incantations", "Platinum", "QE2", "Five Miles Out" & "Crises" all have much to recommend them. Mike is obviously trying out new things and this makes them somewhat patchy. When he hits the mark though the results are wonderful as in his cover of the ABBA song "Arrival".

Then come "Discovery", "Islands" & "Earth Moving". Oh dear.... The less said about these the better I think.

Then out of the blue comes "Amarok". This is the marmite of Mike's works, you either love it or hate it. Me? I Think it's fantastic! It's a completely schizophrenic album, but all the better for it. Stylistically it's all over the place, wavering between lilting guitars, heavy drum sections, avant-garde and.... well, you name it.

Now come the average years as I call them, "Heavens Open", "Tubular Bells 2", "The Songs of Distant Earth", "Voyager", "Tubular Bells 3", "Guitars", "The Millennium Bell", "Tr3s Lunas", "Tubular Bells 2003" & "Light & Shade".

Now... there is nothing particularly wrong with these albums. They are all perfectly... pleasant. And that's the problem. As accomplished as they are they all lack that fire of inspiration that Mike had at the start. Of all of them the best are probably "The Songs of Distant Earth" and "Tubular Bells 2". The first is a great ambient album for chilling out too and the second an interesting riff on themes and ideas from the original "Tubular Bells" album. "Tubular Bells 2003" is a complete re-recording of the original album because Mike felt he couldn't live with the mistakes on the first one, and although it makes for interesting listening it lacks the soul of the original.

Now we have "Music Of The Spheres". This is of interest because it's his first orchestral work. I've only listened to it a couple of times and although I like it, it might as well be called "Tubular Bells 4". The themes are different but the structure is identical to "TB". Mike.... It's time to move on. I'd rather you made massively huge mistakes trying to do something different than plough the same field again and again.