alice in wonderland

An evening visit to the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill for a spot of madness. As it said on the curtain before the film, "We're all mad here'.

Curiouser and curiouser, we thought as we clipped on the high tech 3D glasses to watch Alice and her friends in the Tim Burton sequel to the well-known Lewis Carroll stories.

As the opening titles rolled I was already thinking 'ooh I want to see this again' and sure enough after a slightly cumbersome alternative beginning, the White Rabbit pulled us all down the rabbit hole and eventually through the little door.

There was enough plotline similarity to keep a general sense of the original stories, although the chess boards and card games became somewhat blended.

The 3D was surprisingly good after a few minutes in the 'real world' scenes to become adjusted. Not quite the MuppetVision of Disneyworld but a produced in way that was generally additive to the experience.

There were various Tim Burton trademark moments in the script and staging, including a funny little moment where the Mad Hatter (Depp) snipped a very Edward Scissorhandian little dress for Alice.

I enjoyed the experience of the film. There were a few Disney overloads in it like the strange dance that the Hatter performed close to the end of the film and which I think could have been safely edited out. I hear that Burton only finished it a couple of weeks before the premiere and as we sat in a cab after the film, there were a few comments about 'the director's cut' implying there might be some unfinished business in the final edit.

I've always enjoyed the Alice stories and thought this movie played a warm and affectionate update.

casino royalties

I mentioned a few days ago that I'd received my first royalty cheque from the novel 'The Triangle'. I also decided that I'd spend part of it precipitately, in keeping with the original spirit of the 'novel writing in a month' experiment.

So today's the day I gamble part of the cash.

Actually I've already done a small test gamble and am already a little bit ahead, so now I'm hoping I haven't used all of the luck.

In between my experiments in 3D later today, the casino had better watch out.

6music radio comparisons

Before I get onto my gambling, I thought I'd drop an extra little post in today about the ongoing debate about radio station playlists. There's some interesting differences between the commercial channels with their circa 500 track playlists (very limited DJ autnomy) and the broader tastes available on some of the other channels.

Take Capital FM 226 unique tracks over the last 30 days. 12 tracks in common with 6music.
Or the more indie/rock XFM London with its 540 unique tracks over the same period including 226 with 6music.
Maybe a softer cored Heart with its 508 unique tracks and 22 in common with 6music.

And how many unique tracks did 6music play? 3,258. About 6 times as many. Of course you still need to like the music. I think the only one to compete on variety would be Radio 2, but their 2,392 unique tracks have a rather different audience profile.

"Those Charts In Full" as comparemyradio.com might say.

6music and CapitalFM

6music and XFM London

6music compared with Radio 2

eating porridge

I've been somewhat subdued today except when I was 'on stage' in meetings and had to do various tap-dances in time with the PowerPoint.

I've had a sort of headache and a couple of unexpected bouts of sneezes.

Throughout the day I avoided taking any medication.

Then, this evening, after the lengthy traffic jams of my homeward journey, I plinked a small bowl of instant porridge through the microwave as an experimental remedy.

It has worked surprisingly well and I feel a whole lot better.

muggy evening

Too many mugs of tea this evening; I've just counted three including the one I've just finished.

And I'm still thirsty.

I realise I've forgotten to eat anything as well.

Never mind. I'm also tired, so I think the sleep will beat the hunger.

But not the thirst.

springing the light fantastic

Somehow February has escaped without me really noticing.

There's a new light in the morning. I managed to get home in daylight a couple of times too.

There's little snowdrops showing off in the front garden. I can see signs of greenery re-appearing.

The blackbirds are showing new interest in the nearby bushes. Perhaps it was January's distraction with the snow, or maybe I was otherwise engaged, but this year the change into Spring is happening fast.

6Music

I usually like the BBC but am annoyed to see that the director general has decided to shut down 6Music. That's the relatively X-Factor free channel playing broad music that sets it apart from many of the regular commercial channels. rashbre central has certain eclectic music tastes and 6Music is one of them.

I decided to do some digging to see how much this digital channel costs to run, per annum and it seems to be around £6 to £9million, depending on whose version you read. In the scheme of things, that's a small amount for some originality and quality programming. As an example, Radio 5 costs £72m and Radio 4 is around £109m.

I also checked on the BBC Broadcasting House Refurbishment project which was originally planned to run to around £1billion. It has overrun by a currently projected £55million. Thats enough to pay for a few digital channels alone.

I can't help wondering whether the priorities are somehow becoming unbalanced?

Instead of promoting new format digital channels, we see them cost cut to offset bad project management.

I can't help wondering whether the BBC top brass was ever really behind the 6Music idea in any case? New music, independent artists, some not signed to labels, live recordings...whatever next? Maybe that's why it was a DAB and internet only channel instead of one that could also be listened to in the car. It would also make it easier to close if the audience figures were somewhat disappointing.

There's some story about boosting the playlists for Radio 2, but equally there's a discussion already running about keeping the Radio 2 demographic north of age 50 or something. It amounts to just running a time machine of safe old tunes from Radio 1 in the 1970s and 80s as a form of lazy programming.

If even Mark Thompson himself says there is a lot of 'great content' and 'some real talent' on 6Music, then it poses a serious point about where BBC is positioning its values.

On this occasion, a brief line to the BBC complaints department is in order, I notice it can be found at:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/
as well as at 03700 100 222.

There's also the BBC Trust to consider, which is to review the intended decision and which has its own email and member list.

I won't directly add the emails here in the interests of spam avoidance, but michael.lyons, richard.tait, jeremy.peat, mehmuda.mian, david.liddiment, janet.lewis-jones, rotha.johnston, patricia.hodgson, alison.hastings, anthony.fry, diane.coyle, chitra.bharucha as well as trust.enquiries and srconsultation all take an AT bbc.co.uk suffix as the publicly disclosed names of the members of the Trust. They would love to hear from people with views about BBC decisions.

Of course, there is more about all of this at the BBC consultations website for their strategy review

Whilst writing this, I notice that there's now a Facebook group and a new www.love6music.com website which are part of other folks' attempts to register a similar point.

If you are not already a listener, I'm told that iPlayer is the way to get your listening noticed, via http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/playlive/bbc_6music/

Stay tuned.

Five Days

I've just watched the first episode of the week long drama strip called "Five Days". There's some of the coincidences that this type of drama requires to create the storyline, but is does seem to have the potential to be good.

I enjoyed the three-parter "West Riding", which I think played out over three weeks, but with my own schedule I suspect I watched it over three days. Sometimes the compressed format can work well and in a story where you have to look at what is happening in the background of the shots that can be quite interesting.

I'm hoping the remaining parts stay with new action rather than become overly involved with retracing steps and flashback sequences. With something over a few nights it is easier to keep the story progressing because is should still be reasonably fresh in the memory. By contrast the little formulaic programs in four parts over an hour with breaks and then a recap at the start of each subsection drive me nuts.

In Five Days there are already several different story trails being set up beyond the obvious pair and it will be interesting to see how many develop, whether they throw in a few curves and how many of the plot-lines get knitted together.

I'll need to hit record on Sky though because I'm bound to miss at least one episode and then need to catch up.

fixing buzzing guitar frets

It's been a fixin' it kind of day today.

The Sunday Morning rain preceded a visit to Halfords on the trail of a very particular lightbulb. The blue car had become one eyed and I had to suffer the inevitable time penalty associated with its replacement. It's almost a conventional Sunday activity, fiddling around with a car. It already looks clean though, so there's no danger of even more traditionalism.

Then I was sitting next to my work PC ominously switched on, because of some stuff from Friday that I couldn't complete. Basically, there's another computer fault which means a further trip to the repair den in the office on Monday. This will be the third time since I received the 'new improved' device in November.

And I wanted to record another track from my lyric-making, this time with my rather economically priced acoustic guitar, only to remember that the middle frets have become non-playable since around the last time I re-stringed it.

Grrr.

A few minutes with a pair of pliers and a small piece of plastic and I was back in business. Its probably not the way a luthier would repair it, but it worked for me.

I did try that big bolt "truss rod" adjustment first, but I could tell it wasn't going to work, whilst pinging the pegs for the strings and adding a sliver of packing to the bridge has done the trick.

Full pix for anyone else so foolhardy, are here

New York Love Song

Half an hour of further songwriting today, as I tried to make a New York song to round out FAWM.

I listed a few places on a sheet of paper and have linked them together with a bit of a story. Instead of trying to do the whole city in three or four verses, I've decided its better to hang around in one area and ground the lyrics from that point.

Its probably still the transatlantic equivalent of 'Mary Poppins does London Town', but its something to knock into shape later and maybe add some Velvet Underground style guitar licks.

Its on the FAWM Page here.



Worryingly thats number 19 of 14.

Although my last song's New York Chelsea girl reminded me of Nico. So now I'm thinking a techno 20 would be a good way to round it off, perhaps with female vocals and a slightly German accent. So here it is....the bonkers last track

in the presence of royalty

Great excitement today as unexpectedly a first royalty cheque arrived as proceeds from the rashbre novel, 'The Triangle'.

Now I'm considering what to spend it on.

Whilst appreciative of the readers that have helped create this reward for my efforts, I also liked the suggestion I received that I should do something special with the money.

In the same way that writing the novel itself was a gamble, I suspect that'll be my plan for the way I spend some of the proceeds. I may divide it into some different spending streams. One for something worthy, one for something to signify the occasion and one for something reckless.

I'll tell you how I get on with the gambling part.

Thursday Thirteen (V49) FAWM

I know its not 13, eighteen is a trifle excessive, but its difficult to cut them back down. I've somehow managed to keep on with the February Album Writing Month where the official target was 14, but I've kept on going.

I should think there will be a few to salvage from with the set, although I'm not sure that "Motorway Adventures in Wales" is going to make the final cut, with its chorus of:

"alone again in this hotel room
squish the teabag with a spoon"

Oh dear.

A few made it to being accompanied or mixed and I've decided to put some links to those with music here too. Of course they are all hastily assembled demos:

- no more moonbase alpha - that's the where the nearest available instrument was a banjo, and the song is designed to be an artifact from the near future. I'd prefer it to have clicks and scratches actually.
- la dama puliendo el paso, por todo la calle real- the one based upon a number 3 card (la dama) from the Mexican Loteria, with a nod to Dylan. This is a slightly different mix from the version on FAWM but still has my dodgy faux American accent. I chopped out some of the accompaniment and turned up the rhythm guitar.
- i'm your hit man, babe- a punk guitar tune about a bad lifestyle that I wrote and then played without learning any of the words. A one take disaster, which I kinda like.
* prophesy- short haunting Christina track, in an attempt to re-establish some musical credentials.
* remember me- dance track with a bit of synth and guitar. Somewhat over compressed but they are only demos. Couldn't resist some stabbing synthy bits and some outlandish autotuned vocals.
* your body all over mine- lets do some slinky jazz - quite pleased with this one which is also a bit off normal genre and which really does shake the floor with the bass.
* temazepam bunker - a 2:30 orchestral piece about life in a bullied workplace. The sleeve notes for this one are a bit warped.

I keeping with the FAWM convention, I've starred a few that are probably slightly better produced. The ones without stars are demos with my own vocal accompaniment. I don't recommend starting with those. Despite how it may sound, I've rather enjoyed doing this little project.

I also still really want to do a song about New York. Maybe this weekend.