I’ve recently been listening to a large backlog of a podcast from the Beeb called “Tom Robinson Introducing” or “Fresh on the Net” depending on what they feel like. Highly recommended as every week you get an hour or so of tunes from generally unsigned artists. It can be a little 2 guitars and an indie sensibility sometimes but there’s an occasional gem.
The last couple I’ve listened to had a pair of gems though.
First is Lail Arad with Winter.
(MySpace (remember that?) has the recorded version as well as a couple of other tracks.)
Next is Gypsy Hill with Balaka.
Just for extra fun the band wot supported the Fall at the gig we saw in Manchester also have a couple of live vids on Youtube. This one’s title gets mentioned quite a lot in conversation, usually with the same intonation as the singer.
I bought a lovely tent last year which worked rather well but managed to find itself a trio of minor niggles with a bit of use. The main issue was the breakage of a pole. The shop couldn’t get a replacement pole so offered a full refund if I could present proof of purchase. I managed this and got me a full refund. Nice.
So looking for a better family tent now. We zoomed off down to Go Outdoors to have a look.
We’re now torn between 2 of their tents. Any opinions or alternatives?
Number 1: “The Sahara“. Positives: huge, separate bedrooms, basic dome so stable. Negatives: heavy, longish pitch time.
Number 2: “The Athena“. Huge and v large “living” area for bad weather days, quick pitch time. But not sure re tunnel tents and high winds.
The last hurrah of my 40th birthday happened this week. My folks had bought me a day driving outrageous cars and we went to do this on Tuesday.
The deal was that we (me and my dad) got to drive 2 cars each round a smallish circuit. I’d never thought of doing this before but it was quite exciting.
The cars I picked were a Caterham 7 and a Ferrari (no idea what model, sorry car nerds). He picked a Bentley (very stately pace) and a Ferrari too.
The Caterham was fun, noisy, bouncy and I struggled to get it up to high speeds as it felt like I was zooming along faster than I’d ever driven before but on checking the speedo I was only doing 80.
I did manage to get the Ferrari up to 100 though (would have been more but the circuit really didn’t allow it).
Unfortunately the majority of the event was sitting around waiting for the 2nd car to be ready.
I’ve been following the whole death of the News of the World thing with a little bit of interest. I’m not going to witter about why Murdoch is a hideous and malign influence on anything that is good or decent. Nor am I going to witter about why the death of that paper doesn’t mean the death of gutter journalism. Plenty of folk have done that to death.
However the aspect that surprised me was the massive support that Rupert is giving to his chief exec. There’s loads of shots of them off out to eat together; him saying that she’s his greatest priority at the moment etc.. But why can this be?
I can only think of 3 reasons. I think number 3 is most likely:
She has embarrassing photos or information of him and his family.
They have a “fruity” relationship where she manages to give him more than he’s had elsewhere.
They are both David Icke’s shape shifting alien lizard people who are in charge of everything that happens anywhere in the world.
I woke up at 3 this morning giggling inanely. It’s not often this happens. I’d been having a dream and it seems to have been set on the Top Gear set.
Clarkson was doing his thing and then started talking about a new product – as if to make fun of it. Rather like they do every Christmas with the poor collection of merchandise stuff the car companies put out for consumption.
Anyway he was holding what looked like an old steel flask. Like a Thermos but older and more battered. This was the new product. This flask’s decor was simply some letters that looked like they’d been done with sticky back plastic.
And the product’s name was “WASPUS”.
And I woke up uncontrollably giggling.
How very bizarre.
[edit] Omguh! It’s a place in Papua New Guinea. I have to go there. NOW! (I feel like Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters)
After last year’s shockingly awful debacle of a finale the makers of Britain’s Next Top Model have decided to go for it this year. In a spectacular race to the bottom the first episode (and apparently the next two as well) are total rip-offs of the X-Factor early shows. So we have auditions, deluded folk, tears and power ballads as well as the usual “people to watch”. Twas pretty awful.
One of the many reasons I loathe the X Factor style shows is precisely because of the way they get mileage out of “dream crushing as entertainment”. It may well be that some girls at the audition weren’t going to ever be models but that doesn’t mean it’s particularly pleasant to have their moment in the sun shown to all and sundry as a “hah look at her, Isn’t she deluded?” moment. Cruel and unusual if you ask me. I know that stuff happened on previous serieses but the prospective participants weren’t then paraded on telly like some sort of un-self-aware idiot.
Then there was the numbering of the participants. They all had to wear a number when they paraded in front of the judges. Struck me as a bit identity parade. Perhaps next year they’ll simply tattoo a barcode on them.
And the judges are the same. Grace and Julien are deeply irritating. Charlie is bland and inoffensive, Elle is elegant and intelligent although did have to wear horrendous looking shoes with dangerous looking heels. Grace is doing the Cowell role. I don’t know who the other judges are on XFactor though so I can’t compare the others.
Let’s hope they haven’t decided to go down the “phone in your choice” route for each episode “proper”. That would definitely leave me switching off for good. And so far no word of an awful “live finale” – fingers crossed.