blog shuffle

Google has added blog search. It is quite interesting to use against your own blog as a kind of 'shuffle' setting! Here's my current blog listings as an example.

2-1 The Ashes come home

I joined everyone walking to Trafalgar Square, today at around midday, to celebrate the return of the Ashes to the UK.

Overhead was the pronounced buzz of multiple helicopters; Nelson surveyed the scene from his usual lofty vantage undisturbed by passing policemen.

The song Jerusalem was introduced and sung, complete with giant song words displaye for all to see.

Then the bus containing 'our lads'; the victorious Ashes winning team, made its way into the Square.

And on top, Vaughan and Pietersen restraining Freddie Flintoff who had already consumed a reasonable quantity of alcohol.

Tag: London

I heard you scream from the other side of the mountain

There is so much written about Tori Amos. Flashing between 2005's The Beekeeper and the January 1992 Little Earthquakes shows Tori Amos to have excellent and durable singer/songwriter qualities with emotive, raw and poignant songs spanning the entire period.



Years go by will I still be waiting
For somebody else to understand
Years go by if I'm stripped of my beauty
And the orange clouds raining in my head

Sometimes playing just piano, other times using dance track style drum and bass accompaniment, Tori creates a web to enthrall. In Scarlett's Walk, which toured post September 11 in the USA, as well as visiting us here in Europe, she is able to demonstrate the performance quality of her work

Years go by will I choke on my tears
Till finally there is nothing left
One more casualty
You know we're too
easy
easy
easy



If you have not checked Tori's work, click one of the
references in this entry.

To give another perspective, Amanda Palmer from the Dresden Dolls describes a 2005 Tori concert. Amanda appears a sceptic, but has really already been quite influenced over a long period with views about Tori and her writing.

She writes, "So we went to see her here in Boston the night before last, my band and I, and there I sat. And as I watched her I thought: This performer does not need to care about whether I like her music or not. She has a huge following, people who love her music and stick with her, she's forty, a mother and she's touring."

"Terrible album or not, Amanda, you've got to respect this woman. Coming home, I finished the last few pages of her book and thought about what had struck me, stuck with me. One thing that she expressly said a few times was how sad she thought it was that female musicians and singers felt the need to compete so fiercely with each other, as if there were only room for so many - and it was kill or be killed."

Royal Horseguards, London

Today required a trip to the centre of London, near Horseguards Parade. Sunny weather and a location overlooking the Thames. There was a considerable police presence in the centre today, but I suppose the area I was visiting is close to Whitehall, Parliament and Scotland Yard.

The River Thames view shows Hungerford pedestrian footbridge, leading towards the Shell Centre and Waterloo and the London Eye. As I walked back over the bridge, I heard the sounds of a lone saxophonist playing under the trees on the South Bank.

Tag: London

Ashes on target for return to England

Here's Flintoff after seeing off Katich. England's players left the field at the Oval today at 373 & 34-1 and on the brink of regaining the Ashes for the first time in 18 years. After a series lasting several weeks, a draw in the last match would secure the Ashes for England.

Bad light stopped play today, but onward to victory!

lets dismantle a nano

Theres a Japanese site that has already figured out whats inside the new Apple iPod nano.

The new iPod Nano comes in nice packaging, especially if purchased from an Apple Store.

And the box inside is well made with a quality OOBE (Out of Box Experience)

The unit is pretty, and some force is needed to split the two halves apart.

Take care in prising the motherboard from the front surface

There's a few wires connecting the colour LCD, and a very shiny reflector to aid brilliance.

The memory units are like compact flash, with 1 unit in the 2GB and 2 units in the 4GB nanos.

And the end result shows that theres quite a lot of gubbins in the slim package. The original version of this decomposition is on a japanese website and Google can translate it after a fashion.

Tag: apple, ipod, ipod nano

Here come the choppers - Louden Wainwright III

Loading a few new tunes to the iPod this evening and I came across an old recording of Louden Wainwright III. It sounds as fresh as the day it was cut and is a great album called 'One Man Guy' - which appears to be unlisted, even on his website.

I see there's a new album "Here come the choppers", so I shall need to take a look. The picture above is from June 2005, when he was playing in Appel Farm, NY, with his son, Rufus Wainwright also on stage.

Tag: music, guitar, Louden Wainwright

Sundays a week apart

Last Sunday,for our weekend away, we were so busy having a good time it is surprising there is a blog entry at all. Still on the Isle of Wight...

we left Gotten Manor, travelled to Blackgang Chine.

Here we spent several hours clambering around the landslip and playing around with the amusements.

Then Dimbola Lodge to check out photos, old Isle of Wight festival exhibitions.

Then on to the Rex Bar for a storm weather supper. Then back by the same ship that took us from the mainland and up through the New Forest to home by midnight.

This Sunday, its 14:00 and I'm just easing into the day. Without wishing to offend anyone, I may have to change a lightbulb later.

Time to apply the Brakes

I just pulled out of the fridge a pint of Brakspear bitter - the first "Brakes" I have quaffed for quite a while. The Brakspear brewery was in Henley-upon-Thames, and closed after 200 years, back in late 2002, losing 35 jobs in the process.

The rights to the Henley beer were purchased by another company, and old equipment from Henley moved to new premises in the Wychwood Brewery of Witney, who also brew Hobgoblin and Fiddler's Elbow.

The beer tastes great; it is a proper bitter and has a refreshing bite from the hops. Truly a character.

As a Londoner, there is something special about beers made with Thames water.

Fridgecam

Eek. We have a refrigerator emergency. Although there appears to be content, it is mainly non useful artifacts stealing space. To zoom on the contents, click the picture.

Sainsbury's beckons.

**Stop Press** Fridge partially re-stocked!!

See comments for details!
And do add your own icebox content to the comments!

Tag: fridge

podding

Available since the dawn of digital electronic times, the Pod is a great way to make an electric guitar adopt other voices. You have to use it to understand the different sounds from different amplifiers and speaker cabinets. The Pod 2 is a little red bean providing simulations all of the main amplifier types as well as chorus, flange and other effects. Because it works by twiddling a few controls on the front, it is very easy to operate and doesnt need lots of careful programming to get great sounds. Check out guitargas to witness the systematic examination of all of the effects provided. I connect it to my Fender G-DEC when I have the 'Clean' setting on the G-DEC and use it to create even more effects.

Tag: music, guitar, pod

Which Led Zeppelin song are you?

More guitar playing led me to ramble on to this zeppelin quiz. It shook me, babe, when I read the conclusions, but then its been a long time, and there may have been some communications breakdown.

You Are Fool In The Rain

You are a very bizarre person, to say the least. You don't think the way most other people do. And you probably don't really care.

You defy convention, and probably really like burritos. And you're very content with your life. You're a ray of sunshine. Piercing, bizarre end-of-the-world sunshine, but sunshine nonetheless. While most people do college to be lawyers or accountants or something, you'd be just as happy working at Tippy's Taco Stand in San Dimas, CA.

You probably have a really interesting car. You definitely do not drive a Honda Civic. There's a good chance that you smoke weed. There's a good chance you sell it.

Everybody worth anything likes you a lot.

So which Led Zeppelin song are you, then? I am not sure whether the song remains the same...

Tag: music, guitar, Led Zeppelin, quiz