not my part of town

Yesterday's venue involved some complex logistics known only to me.

I'd had enough lemsib to ward off the worst of my colb and we'd assembled into a moderately noisy group before heading through traffic to a predetermined restaurant.

I'd managed to park rather close to the venue, but there was apparently some problem with the quality of the yellow lines, so I had to move after I'd dropped my car-full in an adjacent dark Gotham-style alley.

I drove to the end of the dark walled road expecting to find a way out but instead there were locked gates. A long reverse between bollards and crazily parked cars and I was back onto a main street and sucked into a vortex of local road systems which somehow took me vast distances from the restaurant.

I eventually found what I thought was the restaurant road again, but was actually another similar looking stretch in another part of town. I parked the car and started the interesting and lengthy walk back to where everyone was sipping their drinks.

The trick was to sidle in nonchalantly as if everything was as I'd planned it. As I reached for my coca cola, they still asked the inevitable "Where have you been?"

zattoo

Keeping yesterday's television theme running, zattoo provides UK freesat and a few euro channels direct to the Mac (or PC). Quite good quality and free at the moment.

Streams live television (after a few ads for gambling etc).

Worth a play.

betamaxmas retro telly

Warning.

This is addictive.

US Television from 1988 on an analogue signal, complete with snow and bad reception.

All the favorites in color (of sorts- NTSC - Never Twice the Same Color).

There's a TV remote and a guide to the channels, as well as a good sprinkling of 1988 advertising.

Click thru at your peril.

Or enjoy.

hallelujah midi karaoke backing track

Since X Factor, I've been getting hits over the last few days for "Hallelujah midi". I don't have such a thing.

or didn't.

Here's a pub casio karaoke style midi hack of the tune for anyone who wants to mess around with it in Garageband or similar and the above screenshot shows my suggested revised instrument settings.

Budding guitarists would want to mute the sunburst telecaster which I have currently set to stun. I've also added some glittery pads to the end part for further amusement.

Here's my Garage Band rendering of the tune. Jeff Buckley's version need not fear.
hallelujah backing track

beware of tricky pigeons

Vicious pigeons intercept Matthew Robins' flyboy in a dream.
Not the twisted Barbican episode, but it needs to be shared.

blue and white lights

Switched on modest outdoor lights this afternoon. Low energy LED still give the impression of an impromptu helicopter landing zone. I hope Santa will find it okay. We've already had two reconnaissance runs with different sleighs around this area.

The tree looks a little like a hostage at the moment, still in its nylon netting.

I know better than to attempt to trim it my way.

dirty party playlists

At this time of the year, there's some need for music compilations for the festive season. Its a lot easier now with playlists, party mode and genius lookups, but there's still a need to seed some tracks to start things.

So when Dirty Classics Vol 2 turned up on Saturday, I thought this would help things along nicely. You'll gather that rashbre central doesn't really do Slade and Wizard, except in a family music quiz interlude, so this little French compilation makes a useful starter mix.

The parisienne track re-editors of Pilooski and friends use unusual sources and seem to go for a clear bassline and a lot of gaps in the sound stage whist delivering easy floor filling. Its very party listenable and sometimes a track or two from this genre gets referenced here or more likely over at Christina Nott's.

This comp album appears to be fully legal with barcodes and everything and uses dusty vinyl to make some interesting and clicky dance funk. Hear JJ Cale's cajun swamp music go disco. Ride my High.

my sweetheart the drunk

Interesting to observe the twittering during X Factor this evening. Many regular sources seemed to become a collective commentary on who should be kicked out and bizarrely which cover of the Leonard Cohen song should be the winning entry.

It reminded me of Jeff Buckley's versions of 'Hallelujah' which are the ones I prefer.

The Simon Cowell based X factor is more about shipping 'units' than anything to do with creativity in music, hence the Christmas release dates of the backing track based family popular singles and 'safe present' CD compilations. In fairness, Alexandra, the winner seemed a pleasant enough person; it will be interesting to see how she handles the pop machine.

Meanwhile, I've been happily listening to Jeff Buckley recordings since the TV-programme finished. Or Jeff Buckley's video here (6 million views + 12,000 comments)

creatures of the night

Our arrangements to meet in Chalk Farm Road, by the tube exit, were imploding as the evening commenced. Andrea and Cliff were running late, John was mopping up the afternoon's excesses as part of an office party and we were the wrong side of town.

So a handful of us met and made our way into the Roundhouse for the evening's gig. Quite a few well known people spotted around the bars and corridors. Remarkably we found Andrea and Cliff in the same bar that we'd selected and a Becks Vier later made our way to seats, with Mel arranging to meet John at the front of the stage in the standing area.

Great gig and then time to move on.

As we were leaving we spotted Lily Allen, Agyness Deyn, Henry Holland and a string of others snaking their way to a different exit for some sort of after show event. We'd already decided to grab a bit to eat; My last meal had been late morning at Ned's Noodles in Westminster and Cliff and Andrea had shared a mid afternoon sandwich and three Jaffa cakes.

Amazingly, John had located Mel and they'd been centre front for the show, and now, despite copious libations, were advising on Camden restaurants at 10:30 in the evening. We'd already thought this might be dicey, what with Christmas celebrations and all, so instead we decided to head back into Soho to the Jazz Cafe on Dean Street. Good plan because there are also plenty of other places nearby, although we managed to get a nice big table without any trauma.

Two or three hours of banter and it was time to head off, into the bustle of the central area, which was in full swing. By this time the public transport had disintegrated and taxis with yellow signs were a vanquished species. So we took a stroll across the centre and back to base by around two o'clock, watching the night unfolding all around us.

twisted

It says something of my companions that they didn't think it was twisted enough (I wasn't expecting Masque of the Red Death).

We were at the Barbican for a pre-Christmas touch of songs and merry mayhem. A diverse gang of musos and actors performing yuletide fayre, with Jarvis Cocker, Patrick Wolf, the festively attired Smoke Fairies and many others. The evening had been arranged by David Coulter and a fair few of the band had overlap with Black Rider - the Tom Waits extravaganza.

Our little group had hurriedly consumed too much cider by the time it started and there was some inopportune giggling during the opening moments. I'd expected this to be a something of a 'one-off' convergence of musicians and so I was expecting a few hesitations between numbers as the band had to re-plug or check the running order. A kind of village hall performance within the Barbican. So I guess I was generally entertained throughout, although during the pitstop the discussion was about the level of twistedness.

So with my expectation already set to 'reasonable' for this, when the second half featured Matthew Robins' shadow puppetry from flyboy and the planet of the ghost snowmen, I was there.

Unfortunately, also in the second half, Jarvis Cocker was rather a disappointment with a half hearted 'God Rest Ye' and a song about slush. Did I detect some sheepish embarrassment on his face for not preparing properly? And Patrick Wolf had plenty of cheers but sang without really involving the top notch band in his performance. There were plenty of Wolf-styled followers in the audience, with bohemian styling being rather prominent. I assume these two appearances were to bump the names in the performer listings rather than really showcase anything.

Overall, I'd class the show as a mixed level of performance, with strong Bonfire Madigan performing slinky cello accompanied raconteur wonders.

Also delightfully edgy cabaret performance by Mary Margaret O'Hara, who seemed to be operating at several speeds during her set -"that just fell off the bone" she commented after leading the band through a slow song where she was revving on stage like a ferrari before cutting loose with the whole band on an uptempo song.

Sandy Dillon zizzed onto stage in a silver jacket and shades and worked a Christmas song with the Smoke Fairies in accompaniment. Then a small keyboard accompanied song and again the band picked up the pace to follow the leader. The Smoke Fairies also hooked up their own guitars for a while and sang to their own tunes. Foy Vance ended the main show with a couple of numbers with reasonable takes on Christmas shopping and the music of the retailers.

My account has little in common with the actual running order and I've left out a few performances. Whether or not it was all good, and whether or not it was fully twisted, I felt suitably entertained by the time 'Fairy Tale of New York' closed the show and we all headed for the drunk tank.

mash

Usual December acceleration is occurring. From the month being a distant concept I've now realised we are half way through it towards Christmas and it just gets more hectic.

Others muse about reading novels, composing songs and taking extended vacation, whilst I'd settle for a quick read of - er - Metro at the moment.

I've probably spent about half the month away from home and that continues until this weekend, although I should get back some time on Saturday.

This mashed potato is very comforting.

clanger

A small celebration of a TV legend today, with the passing away of Oliver Postgate, a childrens' television show developer with a canon of work developed in a particularly British way. Early watercolour cardboard cutout stop animation developed in a cow shed and later three dimensional sets for knitted puppets filmed outdoors under whatever lighting conditions prevailed.

I'll include The Clangers as a favourite, complete with the Soup Dragon, the one Cloud with a mind of its own and the home knitted idealism of the whole series.

I suspect many would hear Oliver Postgate's voice, whether in Clangers, Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine or Bagpuss and be reassured of a quirky and interesting tale where nothing really harmful would happen.

Away from small films, he was also a political activist, railing against nuclear weapons, urging thought about the environment and debating this year on the economic woes.

But I'll stick with his inspiration as a storyteller who could create many strange yet positive worlds for children of all ages.

Update : I see Bobkat has a similar thought also with a great video extract about the iron chicken