30 Dec 2004
Tsumani relief - The DEC website is down right now, but MSF's Indian Ocean Floods Appeal is able to accept online donations. Here is a brief overview of what they have done so far.
This will probably be my last post here, as I've decided to stop blogging. As you will see from the post count on the right, I don't post much these days, so I'm sure you won't miss me. I will instead become a free range blogger, posting at random throughout the internet, rather than being couped up in this place, kind of like in that film with that bloke. If you want cool stuff to look at when I'm gone, check out this post. I leave you with the greatest web site ever created, the classic, the one and only zombo.com.
19 Dec 2004
I was lucky enough to have tickets this Saturday for the opening night of the Royal Opera's brilliant new production of Das Rheingold, with Bryn Terfel's eagerly anticipated debut on the heavyweight role of Wotan. Judging by his performance, he is destined to become known as one of the greatest Wotans of all time. No doubt most of the press reviews will be hung up on things like the non-traditional staging and the naked Rheinmaidens, which is the shame, because I actually think it is hard to find fault with anything here. The acting, the singing, the sets, the costumes, the lighting and the overall sound were all outstanding and it was by far the best staging I've seen, and surely one of the most succesful "non-traditional" staging there has ever been.
If you want to see for yourself, there is a behind the scenes documentary focusing on the conductor on BBC1 this Wednesday, and Radio 3 will broadcast a performance in January. The BBC will be showing it on TV at an as yet unspecified date.
14 Dec 2004
13 Dec 2004
6 Dec 2004
4 Dec 2004
29 Nov 2004
25 Nov 2004
- Some researcher from the Des & Mel show has asked colleague and fellow blogger Tony Ruscoe if they can use his Waxwork quiz on the show.
- Here's a challenge for Tim - Deep Fried Turkey.
24 Nov 2004
- Well done to PreModded.co.uk. I ordered a modded XBox off them on Monday evening, and it arrived at work Wednesday morning. Hurrah!
23 Nov 2004
- Oooh, this looks good, an app for importing radio streams off of the internets straight into iTunes. My laptop is a bit bolloxed at the moment, but I'll deffo be giving this a go when it's fixed.
21 Nov 2004
I've never seen the BBC Crime Drama
Silent Witness before, but I may take a passing interest in it after seeing them filming at the end of my street this cold grey wind and rain swept afternoon. Apparently they've filmed a car crash on South Street in Walkley too and are filming on Division Street Monday/Tuesday. We've had and are forecast to have - rain, snow, windy conditions, still conditions, completely cloudy skies and completely clear blue skies, sub zero temperatures and unusually mild temperatures, so I bet their continuity people are having a hard time!
19 Nov 2004
My iTunes experience I mentioned below got me thinking, are there any other weirdly priced album where buying the individual tracks at 79p a pop is cheaper than the paying for the whole album in one go. Obviously this means starting by looking at albums with just one track on. I can actually only think of one that fits the bill off the top of my head - Tain by The Decemberists - 1 track of prog folk rock in a similar vain to Suppers Ready by Genesis. I great album which I already own, but I looked for it anyway. iTunes doesn't stock it, though they do have their 5 songs EP at a reasonable price.
So, onto albums with just a couple of tracks; the most likely candidates are going to be Post Rock artists such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor. No Godspeed, in fact very little in the way of Post Rock whatsoever, which is not really surprising as the genre is mainly catered for by independent Canadian labels which aren't exactly iTunes standard fare. I did spot that they have the brilliant 5 track album "The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place" by "Explosions in the Sky". Interesting one this, you can buy 4 of the tracks for 79p, but to get all 5 you have to buy the album for £7.99.
/mode Jeremy Clarkson ON
So, the Fiat Coupe. Some think the Chris Bangle/Pininfarina styling is ugly. Others balk at the high running costs. But if you actually own one, the chances are you think it's the best car....
in the world. [Cue shots of wheel spinning around a test track]. When you are behind the wheel, you don't so much feel like you are driving the car, you actually feel like you're restraining it. The car has no respect for you, to be honest it thinks you're a bit of a pussy. It's kind of like a petulant teenager that thinks it knows best and that you're just holding it back. The car is Anakin Skywalker and you are Obi Wan, trying to prevent it from straying to the darkside. And stray it does, for if you don't keep an eye on what it's up to, before you know it you will be doing the kind of speeds that will get you banned from driving in practically every country......
in the world. [Cue more screeching of tires and shots of the car sliding round corners].
/mode Jeremy Clarkson OFF
OK, I'll stop the Clarkson impression now, and just say that I'm very happy with my new car. It's great fun to drive. Was a bit upset to get home and find two inches of snow though. Not ideal weather conditions for testing it out, as was demonstrated by the car in front of me that hit a patch of snow and did a full 360 spin.
16 Nov 2004
- I just bought my first album off of iTunes (Undertow by Sidsel Endresen). Now, I didn't look at the price before buying, but whilst it was downloading I saw that I had just paid £7.99. Fine, no bargain but not daylight robery either. Then I realised that I could have bought the 8 tracks individually for 79p each. What the cocking fuck is that all about?
- Apple are opening their London store on Saturday, and have 300 "Lucky Bags" to sell. Each bag costs £250 and contains good that are worth at least £705, including possibly an 20 Gig iPod or iPod Mini.
14 Nov 2004
I saw The Incredibles today. Predictably, it is really good fun, though with the bar being set so high by Pixar with their previous feature length films, it is certainly the least satisfying of their output. I guess this is because it covers so much ground that we've seen before in other films, from Spy Kids to Austin Powers. You get the feeling that this film could have been made by anybody, and doesn't have that distinctive Pixar imagination.
I've spent nearly a week now with my iPod, and it was a great investment. Really usable, and with decent headphones (I recommend Sony MDR-EX71SL) sounds great. It's not all plain sailing, I had a few USB related problems, and most annoying of all was discovering that it is unable to move from track to track without leaving a gap. There are so many albums, be they rock, pop, classical, jazz that have tracks that lead into one another and the fact that Apple basically couldn't be arsed to program in this ability is just plain dumb. Even Microsoft's Media Player can do this. If anyone knows how to achieve this, please let me know.
So now, I am trying to discover if there are any worthy Podcasts out there. Of course, if the BBC decided to be truly visionary, they would offer an RSS feed containing links to MP3s of all recent shows for which they own the copyright. As it stands though, MP3s of BBC shows are sporadic, limited to such offerings as Melvin Bragg's monstrously dull
In Our Time. I've considered writing some software that automatically downloads the BBC's "Listen Again" Real Audio files, and converts them to MP3. As it happens I'm not the only one, as I notice this morning that
Ben Hammersley is working on something similar so I may give that a wirl.
- I've finally got my TV torrents downloading automatically as soon as they're released. Here's how.
12 Nov 2004
11 Nov 2004
Jimmy just came in, pleased as punch.
"I've got you something!" he cried. I was watching the Ten O'Clock News and really wasn't expecting to see a half dead mouse twitching on the rug. "Hold on, he's not dead yet..." yelled Jimmy as he picked the mouse up in his jaws and threw it across the room. "That ought to do it...oh wait, the bugger's still twitching..." and with that he grabbed it in with his claws and lobbed it back across the room. I thanked him for the offering and suggested he left the room whilst I dealt with it. He had other ideas and once again grabbed the lifeless rodent, this time dragging it it under the coffee table. I wasn't really sure how the thing was still in one piece and started to wonder if the next Google search I'd be doing was for tips on cleaning mouse guts out of carpet.
"How are you going to cook it?" he asked, as I finally wrestled it from him. "I've heard it goes well with an aggressive Zinfandel"
"That's fine Jimmy" I said, "but I'm a vegetarian."
9 Nov 2004