in the shop

A piece of shopping theory that didn't work was being in Birmingham on Friday. I'd expected Saturday to be really busy and that Friday would be easier for wandering around a mall. Wrong. The place was rammed with people from mid-day until I surrendered around 16:30.

I know its the end of the half term holidays, but there seemed to be an awful lot of busy business folk also around the shops. Outside Birmingham's Apple Store in the Bullring, there was also a roped off area with people queueing to buy the new version of Apple's OS/X - the so called Panther. I'd already bought it online and it was delivered on Friday morning, so the artificial 'store opening' at 18:00 was somewhat beaten by white vans delivering copies from internet purchases.

The 'family pack' version is for 5 machines and so far I've installed it on my iMac and a Mac Pro. Sure enough, it just works. It took about 45 minutes to load, gave a big green tick, rebooted the Mac and has been reliably working ever since. I doubt if I'll need to reboot for another month or two now.

I won't go on about the improvements, which are slick to an already smooth user interface and once more I find a Mac upgrade seems to make the machines run more smoothly. This is a different sensation from my disappointing Vista upgrade a few months ago, which refused to recognise my Matrox video accelerator, some of my special sound drivers, one of the printers and required about 5 reboots as well as plenty of megabytes of downloads.

I suppose the simplicity of the mac update gives me more time to spend on other tasks... Like shopping.

scared yet?

A few days yet to halloween, but its close enough to gather a few preparatory items. The empty bucket with "I'm out, please take one" is quite a good idea.

For some harmless fun, here' s Ben and jerry's comprehensive site of mild scariness. The slightly bonkers extreme pumpkins continues its art forms, this year with the addition of candy traps.

Addtionally, a walk around the flickr Graves, Tombstones and Cemeteries web site may add some atmosphere, or you could simply play a couple of tunes to get in the mood. I'll go with Frankenstein's place and a bit of Science Fiction.

over at the Frankenstein's place

science fiction

subvert

I happened to watch a small segment of the X Factor TV show on Saturday evening. That's the 'talent show' vaguely connected with pop music and featuring Simon Cowell amongst others. They have telephone voting every week and clearly are not affected by the Eckohs from all of the recent scandals about mis-cast votes and similar.

Anyway, the show seems to be set to finish in time to get a single released in the period leading up to Christmas. A nice little earner, some might say. I quite like the idea to offer another track as a competitor, and to see whether everyman can really affect the rather commercially 'stitched up' charting process. So what better than 'XMASCHARTATTACK'? There's just about enough time to create and hype a non main artist record into the number one spot and (shhh!) here's the site to help do it.

Its all a good idea in theory, but I suppose the machine that makes pop singles will plough on regardless, so a ringer would only be a net increase in total volume during the lead up period.

Its a fun idea though. Vote early and vote often, as they say.

tags technorati : rashbre xmaschartattack christmas xmas pop music singles wonga bung

Rufus Wainwright

Part of the reason for visiting Birmingham was to see Rufus Wainwright at the Symphony Hall on Thursday evening. It was only a few minutes walk from the City Inn which is a modern urban type hotel in the remodelled part of Birmingham near to the canals.

The tickets said 19:00 start, which usually means 19:30 or 20:00, so it was surprising to have to wait outside at ten past seven because the support act were already playing!

More than compensated by discovering the pleasing seats were in Row A just to the right of the centre stage. A lone spare seat next to me on one side eventually yielded a Rufus Wainwright fan who had been to 15 of the performances on the current tour as well as seeing him at the Albert Hall and the Carnegie in New York.

"Hmm", I commented, "I thought his performance at Glastonbury was pretty good", knowing my knowledge was limited to the last CD (which we'd somehow lost, instead of having it for 'revision' on the motorway journey to Birmingham).

Anyway as luck would have it, when Rufus appeared with his flamboyant looking band, they immediately started with one of the numbers I knew, from the latest album, and then moved into the very sweeping song about a broken America, called "going to a town". Rufus (who I believe is Canadian?) has a sort of stars and stripes on the back of the stage in black and white with broaches for the stars.

As the first track started I remembered the feeling from hearing his Glastonbury tracks. Here was a musician who I'd somehow bypassed but who commands strong, clever lyrics, a unique and tuneful voice, and a soundscape that sucks one into the performance. So, maybe not as strongly as the person to my left, I was hooked for the performance, which changed from full band rocking pieces, through jazzy and semi orchestral sounding numbers to quiet pieces played with piano or guitar.

In between there was some banter with the audience and clearly there were other songs very well known to people who applauded as various songs started. People did stay seated though, which is somehow unusual compared with quite a lot of concerts, where there's a certain amount of dancing in the aisle. Perhaps its because it was a Symphony Hall, or maybe because of the fairly strict ushers who were also on camera watch. I worked out that pictures from where I was located were a no-no (I need another variety of the StarCam for concerts). Some people managed to take a few though and so I've taken the liberty to post one of Ella's above. In amongst the strong songs, we had a fan join Rufus on stage to worthily accompany one of the tracks. Rufus and the band were out to please and packed the available time with numbers. Changeovers of guitars and instruments were fast and slick, this is a touring band who know what they are about.

The first half finished with a rocker and, yes, there was still a second half to look forward to.

So what to top the first half? It turned out the show in two halves really had at least three main sections. More well-played album tracks (with Rufus wearing Lederhosen(?)) and then a diversion into folk music. The microphones were off, the horn section played the sympathetic accompaniment and Rufus sang a traditional Irish song. Pin drop material.

Then more album tracks which demonstrated further his word crafting as well as the versatility of his band.

Then to the end and a play-out by the band leaving the stage one by one. An unusual way to finish.

And sure enough, after a pause longer than Prince at the O2 arena, the band and Rufus in a bathrobe reappeared for further songs. And part way through this section he sat front centre, applied some makeup, removed the dressing gown and became Judy Garland! Oh, and the band somehow appear wearing dude-ish suits and started a dance routine.

Okay. improbable and I suspect that number was mimed, but immense fun as an interlude in the set. Afterwards the band soon picked up the pace again with proper instruments for the closing part of what had been a long set.

And my overall impression; here's a singer songwriter of great talent, with a strong and adaptive band. Together they put on a great show, capturing the entire audience from start to end. Rufus released the stars tonight.

tags technorati : rashbre rufus wainwright gig birmingham symphony hall brum

day off

...supposedly, although I've only just stopped being online.

In a work sense.

This blogging doesn't count because its play.

But now I'm hitting the road. I may have to take with me the package that just arrived from Australia ;->

never happens

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Thanks, Dave.

cut hands

I cut my hands on the razor wire as I scrambled across the river on the rusty pipe leading to the other bank. It wasn't a long crossing, but there were now a couple of angry looking dogs where I'd been moments earlier, so there was only one direction available.

As I slithered on loose stones and found higher ground, I could see two people walking along the tow path opposite. At first it looked as if they were exercising the dogs, but within seconds I could see the flash of some high-tech equipment.

Then the earth behind me rattled and smoked as I heard the delayed mechanical chatter of a weapon. They'd spotted me and broken cover. I was too quick for them and found the Suzuki bike where I'd expected. I flipped on the crash helmet, gunned the engine and bumped out of the rough ground before they had a chance to follow.

I expect my hands will be in a worse state than this derelict storyline, by the time I've attempted this year's National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which starts in a few days.

Oh well.

tags technorati : rashbre NaNoWriMo novel writing

the planes are in the air again

Before the Iraq war, I used to watch Arabic televison from hotels when I spent time in various middle eastern countries. There would often be news broadcasts about aircraft taking out pieces of defence infrastructure along the Iraq borders. I sometimes wondered how news management worked that meant this received coverage in some countries but was almost unreported in others.

Same today with the Tupolevs flying close to British airspace and being intercepted by the Royal Air Force. There have been reports of similar incursions into Norwegian airspace from around July but suddenly we are getting British news crews interviewing the Russian pilots who have been flying their deceptively museum piece looking bombers potentially loaded with high octane armaments.

Of course, we've also had the news today of Americans flying their own somewhat armed nuclear planes across the United States, so there seems to still be plenty of ways to acccidentally blow one another up.

here's one we prepared earlier - zoom in to take a look at the fighters and bombers
I count twelve USAF bases in the UK at present : Alconbury, Barford St John, Blenheim Crescent, Croughton, Fairford, Feltwell, Lakenheath, Menwith Hill, Mildenhall, Molesworth, Upwood and Welford. SInce the 1990s, these bases have been changed from cold war storage bunkers for cruise missiles and B52 runways into refuelling depots and extensive listening posts, but there is almost a suggestion that the recent wing waggling could start some tacit re-escalation.

For the purposes of novel writing or film making, the nuclear warplane backdrop creates an interesting context. For real life living, there have to be better ways to restart a flagging and edgily recessive global economy.

tags technorati : rashbre tupolev cold war nuclear bombers

flammable

Instead of going to the cigarette factory last night, I visited a greasy garage-diner. It was all small time America, with writhing passions and two-bit dreams, until the arrival of another new person in town.

Then we saw duplicity in the heat and desire of the alleys around the car body shop, with greed, lust, betrayal and revenge.

This was Matthew Bourne's 'The Car Man' (he of the ballet scenes at the end of Billy Elliott). The music was Bizet, the moves and story line had been adapted to suit the revised setting and excellent staging for a spell-binding two hours.

From the opening scene with the the frustrated wife of the garage owner smoking a cigarette under a sign that says 'Man Wanted', through the point where the backpacking drifter shows up, we can see there's the setup for some mayhem. The plot moves fast driven by Bizet's music.

There's a whole lot of complications in the love triangle, better explained by seeing who emerges with whom from a car at one point in the action. Let's just say that a poor unsuspecting person gets compromised and then takes the rap for the bloody demise of the garage owner.

There's powerful and graphic choreography with mixes of intense physical dance as well as a fair share of humour both in the dance and in the way the accompanying score is used. By the second half, the whole pot is brought nicely to the boil. From 'le beat route' club where scenes of spending and drunkenness show the nearest to remorse following the first half's murder, we are then transported to the prison of the framed convict.

In slightly more than a single bound, the hapless prisoner, perhaps smarting from some of the treatment he received in the prison, now decides to return to the town to put matters right. But even that has its twists, and the town called Harmony has its own way of dealing with things, too.

A great evening; the show is touring and it was the last night in its current venue.

great excerpt here

ring mod psychosis

Being in the McDonald's on Monday got me thinking about extensions to the StarCam concept. I have another project now, to extend the model to video. I'm planning to use a 'to go' carryout/takeaway bag from a common high street chain.

I suppose it will have to be McDonald's for authenticity. I'm not sure how this fits with eco friendly healthy eating, but sometimes one has to pay a price to be a leading edge inventor.

I shall try not to get a psychosis about it, although now I've discovered that I can hook my X-station up to Mainstage on the Mac and dial up all manner of nightmarish sounds, then some people may start to wonder.

seventeen seconds too long

zero...

...time to blog at present

Kate Walsh at Union Chapel

An enjoyable evening at Union Chapel, which started by bumping into Mel and John at the McD's in Islington. They were in pole position in the window on the special funky chairs.

I'd got a business call before we started the main evening, so I was on the phone as we entered Union Chapel just after seven pm and the call lasted another 20 minutes or so, with me mainly on mute.

We managed to get some excellent seats (pews) very near to the front, and left some coats whilst we wandered around to the side to grab a Red Stripe before the support act came on. Then back at eight to see (I'm not sure who) who played acoustic guitar, harmonica and sang some of his own songs really well. By this time the Chapel was pretty well full.

A short pause and then Kate Walsh took to the stage, with three accompanying musicians comprising a cellist, violinist and an acoustic slide accompanist. Kate played mainly from her 'Tim's House' album, interspersed with a couple of new songs - one in the encore.

Kate sang and played well, recovering from a couple of odd moments when all of the lights failed and then later when she started to play in the wrong key as a consequence of trying a new capo.

I particularly like the solo guitar and song numbers, which provide an enchanting simplicity, although the accompanied songs were also highly polished and enjoyable - and the small set of musicians were hardly over-complicating the arrangements. An entertaiing evening, particuarly being able to see someone as good as Kate Walsh, in what was a spectacular, yet still intimate venue.

My original discovery of this gig was when I was looking at another series during November, and I've got the pin number to call for advanced ticket,s so we'll see whether I make it back there again, quite soon.

Post concert, it was a taxi ride across town; the Victoria Line is still shutting at ten o clock in the evening.

Go on...play the video, which is also a commercial for the album!