The Road Of Excess...
February 26, 2008
 Leads To The Parish Of Coulsdon... With apologies to Blake.
In the midst of the birthday season and something has taken its revenge on me already! After the two day drinkfest that was Trev's party and the Carling Cup final [the less said about that the better I think] I set aside a day for recovery.
That started pretty well, emerging relatively unscathed if a bit tired. As the day wore on I felt worse, eventually succumbing to a nasty stomach bug and temperature. So here I am, daring myself to eat something and getting to know my new Viewty better. Need to recover in time for Kev's and Karol's birthdays later in the week. Underworld at the Roundhouse and Kew Grill respectively.
Above: Henry Moore At Kew
Back to that Viewty. Lovely to look at, annoying scrolling function makes browsing the web more awkward than it should be... and I'm not sure about the zoom. The scrollbar means you need to drag the page with finger or the pointy thing and very often results in you following a link rather than scrolling the page. The zoom isn't ideally placed, being around the actual lens although I think I'm managing it OK.
The touch screen takes some getting used to really and I do wonder if it will last the entire contract. But the screen is huge compared to most other phones I've seen. Just need to get a memory card for it now to try the camera and video in earnest.
The Google apps are a nice touch as I actually use those. It would have been nice to see the Notebooks and Calendar added though. Initially the battery drained really quickly but seems to be lasting a reasonable amount of time now. There are after all a lot of playthings here that will all be a drain.
Prior to the messy weekend it was all far more cultural. Taking in the excellent, if rather crowded, From Russia exhibit at the Royal Academy and the Henry Moore sculptures at Kew.
I've also been busying myself, trying to find every product I've mentioned on this blog on Amazon to add to my astore. I've done the books and I'm almost through the bands/albums. I'm then going to add any films or gadgets. It'll be up here as soon as I've finished but that link will take you to what's there so far.
Must mention these two links while I'm here. Garfield Minus Garfield and these parody guitar videos.
And talking of Coulsdon, as I was at the top, I'm just listening to a promo of Benga's excellent Diary Of An Afro Warrior [March 10 release date]. Benga being from Coulsdon like! An hour long dubstep journey this is one of those albums that has to be played end to end, like Marvin Gaye's What's Going On and SkinnyMan's Council Estate Of Mind.
Categories: Music, Art, London, Food & Drink, Film, Technology,
See my flickr set: Henry Moore At Kew
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A Musical Interlude
February 13, 2008
I've spent the evening waiting for Tiscali to come round with a new box. They phoned me a couple of days ago and asked me when I would like them to come round... between 7.00 - 9.00pm I said. Fine, they said.
About 8.00am this morning a Tiscali drone calls to say he's on his way, a bit late, but on his way nonetheless. 12 hours early. I inform him of the mistake and go about my day... Rushing back for the proper appointment at 7.00pm. And I wait and wait and wait. It seems that they too are staffed by similar twats to British Gas. How difficult can this stuff be!?!?
Anyhow... Amusing myself whilst waiting I decide to create a Playlist in iTunes for Unplayed tracks. Only to discover that I have 9.7Gb [that 5.6 days worth]. A total of 1311 tracks. A majority of them I have heard before because I have owned them in other formats for years but it does make you think how much stuff lurking on your PC you actually need doesn't it?
I have been catching up with new stuff today though. The Vampire Weekend, Pete & The Pirates, Feist, Hot Chip, Cat Power and Autechre albums all got a full airing today. This prompted me to create a Playlist for 2008, to save a bit of time come the end of the year. I already have 7 albums that have been released this year. That could add up to a lot by Christmas at this rate!
At the same time I managed to track down all but one of the videos that have disappeared from the extinct Grouper site and uploaded them to YouTube.
Categories: Music
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London To Brighton
February 12, 2008
 We visited Kerry & Rob in their new[ish] Brighton residence over the weekend, taking advantage of the freaky warm weather and 2ManyDJ's set at Digital. Take a peek at this 2ManyDJ's video at YouTube. It's only a minute long but of a spectacular set opener!
Bit of a one trick pony, 2ManyDJ's, but it's a good trick when done well... It's mostly built up layers of effects which, on quite a few occasions, they ballsed up royally! Not easy to disguise through a Funktion One sound system set to ear-splitting 11! Still, enjoyed about 50% of their set and the sound and lighting in the club can't be faulted.
Above: Southwark Cathedral
Big, big crowd but the queue's for bar and cloakroom would suggest health and safety aren't an issue to the management though. Nor the age of most of their clientèle. I'd say 25% were under 18. Still, good on them, if the ID gets you in, it was worth the money huh? The three policemen wandering about obviously weren't there to police that either. Unless it was just three guys that all happened to turn up in the same fancy dress!?! I assume they were looking for drug use [derrr!]. Nobody attempted to search us on the way in so they might have had some luck there I suppose. If I could have put my coat in a cloakroom and not had someone permanently treading on my toes it would have been an even better experience.
It seems Grouper, where I used to put previous videos posted here have vanished, taking my previous videos with them. So I'll be using YouTube, like all the rest of you now.
Despite being a little weary after the weekend we headed out to see the Switched On London pieces around Bankside last night. Got to try my Sony on the GorillaPod in the dark and I've posted a few vids of HMS Belfast and the Breathing Trees as well. For some reason converting the video formats to remove the crap audio and upload to YouTube has stretched the HMS Belfast vids ridiculously - To quadruple the size in one instance! Lord knows how but it sure looks crap. I'll have another go when I have a bit more time on my hands.
Currently listening to the excellent Little Death album by Pete & The Pirates.
Categories: Music, Art, London, Photography
See my flickr set: Switched On London
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Consumer Monkey
February 05, 2008
 I've just started the proof of Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody that Penguin kindly sent me. Hopefully there will be a continuation of some themes that cropped up in Distraction, which didn't quite go to all the places that I thought it would. It did, however, leave me with an even longer list of books I want to read!
I just finished Gum Thief as well, which was better than J-Pod. A far smaller ensemble of characters and I liked the novel about novelists within a novel concept as well. I'll be interested to see the TV adaptation of JPod though. It might just work, if it actually screens in the UK.
Trying to find a bit of time to listen to a new pile of tunes as well. Disc Two of Radiohead's In Rainbows, the new Chromatics, latest Hot Chip and Feist albums, Cat Power's Jukebox and Quaristice by Autechre. Not to mention Adele... And Jonny Greenwood's There Will Be Blood OST.
So what am I doing now? Listening to Portishead by Portishead. Doh! Got to wait until April for their new offering.
Categories: Music, Books
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Brrr... itish Gas?!?
February 04, 2008
Bloody British Gas! We've been without gas for nearly a week now because we had a leak that the first numb nut couldn't find - So two days later they send him back with a mate because they reckon all of the pipework between the meter and the boiler need replacing. Unfortunately they turn up sans pipe!
"They don't do pipes, you need a pipe bloke. Earliest we can get you one is a week mate. That'll be £417.00 or you could try a Corgi approved bloke, here's a mates number, ex-British Gas".
Hmmm! I don't think so. So after phoning around we finally get a couple that can come round within a couple of days. One of which changes his mind at the last minute and the other can only come when we're out. So we re-arrange for Sunday morning, between 11.00 - 12.00. Except, we went out on Saturday night to continue celebrating Lucy's 40th. Tilted Disco at Jamm with the legendary Colin Dale, among others. And an excellent night of techno was had by all... So much so we barely get home before the guy is due to arrive and can't bear to face him and fall into bed instead. We get him re-arranged for Monday night but he doesn't show and his mobile is off. back to huddling round the fan heater and boiling kettles for a bit then.
I've just watched Radiohead's Scotch Mist film on YouTube, originally webcast on NYE.
Talking of film, I might have a go at entering the Ballardian Festival Of Home Movies. I'm sure I can come up with a minute's worth of dystopian modernity round here.
Categories: Music, London, Film
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