toy computer

I'll be heading to Calgary in a few days before starting a general wander around the Western half of Canada. Space will be somewhat at a premium and I've decided that as this is a fun trip, I'll jettison the PC. My MacBook Pro is a 17 in system and I've decided on this occasion to leave it behind. So what computer to carry for minor tasks that is also back-pack friendly?

There was nothing for it but to pay a visit to Toys R Us.

They currently stock a teensy thing called the Eee PC which costs around the same as two tanks of fuel for my car and runs a choice of Linux or Windows XP. I think my local store was trying to sell them off before the next model arrives.

Its got 1024x600 screen res, Wifi b/g, a 1.3Mp video camera, VGA out, 100Mb ethernet and a flash disk. There's a slot on the side to add a further flash disk. I found one and clicked it in and it worked straight away. Then I plugged in a 160GB USB powered hard drive which also worked straight away.

Its about the same size as a small hardback or large paperback book, has a moderate battery life and is surprisingly fast for a 1.2MHz 1Gb memory machine. Its available in Black, White and -er- Pink. The white does it for me. I really want it for word processing, email, backup of photos and maybe a bit of browser/blogging. It will be interesting to see how it fares.

Its no secret that I'm something of a Mac enthusiast, and I think there's a lesson here somewhere on packaging for small portable form factors. I have this set up (out of the box) to run Windows XP + MS Works and the Sun StarOffice - not exactly radical programs, but they get the job done. I've left Microsoft Moviemaker on it too, but I'm not holding my breath.

My mad comparison is with the Macbook Air. The Air is much bigger, sleeker, generally classier but would cost at least 6-7 times as much. I would be saddened if I dropped one. I realize I could use the Macbook to edit HD video as well, but then I'd want to use a big Macbook in any case. So at the 'horse for courses' level this tiny, plasticky looking machine will have to be my new best computer friend for a while.

spa

Scheduling chill-out time seems a little perverse, so this weekend's jaunt to the spa, with co-ordinated timetables could have been a mistake.

Suffice to say that everyone returned suitably mellow and the main talk was of recovering from the relaxations of the candles, multiple saunas and aboriginal massage.

A good sign as we prepare ourselves for next week's hectic activities and the countdown before some time in Canada.

The Heron Sessions Pt 1

A couple of glasses of Courage and a few minutes stagger back from the 'Billet then we'd plugged in the amps and gee-tars.

Unfortunately, the first time we somehow blew the fuses and had to resort to some fixin' up before we could get started.

Then a combination of three chord blooz and some twiddly lead and we had ourselves a jam session. No drums, but enough electronics in boxes to support a NASA program. If the bourbon ain't too strong we may even get a track or two out of it. About time for some new publishing on Bubble and Squeek Records.

Alabama 3

I could have written about how I went to bed at five pm yesterday and slept until seven am. Instead I'll write about the Alabama 3.

There's not three and they're not from Alabama, but they ripped a great unplugged set in the Avalon on Saturday. They describe themselves as a pop, punk rock, blues and country techno situationist crypto-Marxist-Leninist electro band.

I describe them as having great Mojo, so that if they do come from Brixton, it sure feels like the world, or another world with American hats.

Degenerate corrupters of morals they may be but there's politics and thought in the acid stomp of their chemical country songs. Its just a party, with really good musicians and really good songs in subversive genre.

They rocked the house down - and that was just the acoustic set.

let the caged bird sing

the hand of the inevitable

4th July? - Here's the ancient video of The Nice performing Sondheim's 'America'.

scape

I admit that my blogging has been rather tacit throughout this week.

I've been travelling and burning midnight oil on work matters and that hasn't left me much spare brainwidth. When I'm in a hotel and have to coax the connections to work in the first place and then get a blast of work emails and a few 'urgent' things to do, it somehow consumes the available time.

I have deliberately never set up my work PC for blogging so it always takes longer to add a post if I also want to include a picture.

So I finished the work at 23:57 and had to decide whether to write a post or surrender for the evening. I suspect I've got festival-lag which is like jet-lag but brought on by spending too much time awake in fields. So I surrendered to the night, leaving the sodium wonders of another man made cityscape outside my tent room.

OTA : Wordless Wednesday

camping at Glastonbury

viewing distance

Monday evening a few of us converged on a Thai restaurant somewhere in Richmond and several people commented about my rather sunny disposition. I explained the adventures of the weekend and was asked whether we'd been able to see anything. I explained the 'holistic experience' argument that it was about more than simply the music, but then later when I started to check a few of the pictures, I realised that it hadn't been that difficult to get to the front of the stages.

I'll admit that Amy Winehouse was a dot in the distance when around 100,000 people turned up to see her perform on the Pyramid but with a little thought it was quite possible to get good views and some snapshots of other acts. Of course, it was also fun to just sit on a hill and listen from a distance.

Getting a good view was mainly a question of positioning, or timing,

There was only really one performer where we made a special effort to be in position and fortunately the preceding act were also great entertainers.

field report

Surreal moments on Monday morning as I sat in traffic on my way to a business meeting, looking at sleepy heads in cars in my rearview with Glastonbury stickers. I guess I'd headed back a few hours earlier than fellow road-users and reverted from field life to business mode. We'd left before the final acts, and spent around an hour hiking from the Tipi field back to the car parked in the far eastern fields.

There's plenty written about Glastonbury and the music, but I think the main experience for me transcends the physical into the happy emotional state from an enjoyable weekend.

I draw a mental line across the middle of Glastonbury, around where the old railway embankment runs. To the north are the big rock venues of the Pyramid and Other stage where stadium bands play and the BBC sets up most of its cameras.

South of the line are the gentler areas with different music and varied and alternative lifestyles. Its much easier to see the stages and musicians in this area and the feeling is far more relaxed than the areas where 70,000 people gather to watch a single band.

Glastonbury is large. A 160,000 person village that assembles and disappears within a week. There's an almost immediate logic to the roads, the zones, the areas of different music and the cultures which all build to a great experience. Of course, good weather helps and I'm more concerned that I might have caught too much sun rather than mud or rain from this years generally pleasant outlook.

And even now, some two days on, I still have a slightly smug and happy feeling from the experience.

elemental child

An hour after dawn, around the recently installed sacred stones where the non-sleepy assembled around smoky fires.

I loitered here before heading to the Green Field where a collective of musicians rotated through songs and instruments weaving folk tunes to the early morning.

There's a magic in an ephemeral town, assembled for just four days. As we left finally left on Sunday, we looked behind at the grass where our tent had been pitched. Nothing remained.

Love the farm, leave no trace.

Glastopost

The Children of the solstice end
Gathered in the dampened grass
We played Our songs and felt the Glasto sky
Resting on our hands
It was God's land
It was ragged and naive
It was Heaven

Touch, We touched the very soul
Of holding each and every life
We claimed the very source of joy ran through
It didn't, but it seemed that way
I kissed a lot of people that day

Oh, to capture just one drop of all the ecstasy that swept that afternoon
To paint that love
upon a white balloon
And fly it from
the topest top of all the tops
That man has pushed beyond his brain
Satori must be something
just the same

We scanned the skies with rainbow eyes and saw machines of every shape and size
We talked with tall Venusians passing through
And Peter tried to climb aboard but the Captain shook his head
And away they soared
Climbing through
the ivory vibrant cloud
Someone passed some bliss among the crowd
And We walked back to the road, unchained

"The Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We're Gonna Have a Party
The Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We're Gonna Have a Party
The Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We're Gonna Have a Party
The Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We're Gonna Have a Party
The Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We're Gonna Have a Party."

memory of a free festival - bowie

automatic post - I'm in the mud here

Technorati Tags: rashbre, glastonbury, preparations, music, live, worthy, farm, pilton, sun, machine, bowie

Glastonbury weather update

Automatic post with automatically updating picture of the Pyramid
I shall try to post a few glastopix from my cameraphone direct to flickr.

They would be here if the technology works.