oooh, I just got a new machine delivered to my office with two 20" screens. Desk clearing and hands and knees time. (And copying stuff around time too of course *sigh*)
These tables were linked on Boing Boing but are so amazing I thought I really ought to post them. Watch the vids
It seems that Band in a Box 2007 will extract chord progressions from audio files. Now that is something we all can use! That sounds like a must have upgrade when it comes out.
Cracking list of people's recommended books - I've read a few of them (and some of them are not that good IMHO) but there's a lot of things that sound really interesting.
Remarkable flying - but think of the real human good that could have been done with the money spent on development.
Trapped on an escalator - I have to say that I am not quite sure what the message is meant to be.
Lullaby of Birdland One of my favourite tunes though - possibly not a great choice of song for a Japanese speaker though. <1Here's Shearing playing it0> - I hadn't realised the tune was the same age as me!
I just got some spam subject "EYE PILLOWS FROM INDIAN MANUFACTURER" which is just a long list of email addresses. Someone's botnet has screwed up.....
Neatorama links to the Balans chair - I sat in one of these many years ago and have always wanted one : the most comfortable thing ever. I didn't realise that they still made them! These are the people who make the Tripp Trapp which is the best child chair ever - our kids each had one, and of course since they are fully adjustable, they could still use them now as adults if they wanted to (currently they don't of course, but they are stored away....)
No, I haven't been celebrating thanksgiving. Just a couple of days in the Lakes. Doing a little walking - my knees are wrecked today, thank heaven for walking poles.
Beast Prophets from Hell - great name for a band, but this is just apocalunacy (via signs of witness)
Tal Farlow - I've been running a TF only playlist at work recently. So fluent. The pianist is no slouch either : I love his percussive style.
Grisman Quintet - this is the band I want to have. Nice mandolin too. I can do the hair and beard, but not the technique sadly.
Free lunch at the new Wagamama in Newcastle today : there isn't a branch near enough to send staff too for training so they did live sessions with free food. Excellent!!!!! And then we spent more than 50 quid in Top Shop and we got 30 seconds to run round a little sweet shop they had set up and fill a bag with sweeties.
Thanks to JM for identifying the Astaire clip as being from Holiday Inn which I think I have only seen once.
Just got Don Stiernberg's By George - lovely stuff. (well if you like that kind of thing of course)
Singin' in the Rain - my all time favourite movie (the same age as me too) I'm nt a huge Gene Kelly fan though all in all.
None of my favourites up though - Top Hat and the one where he is in the amusement arcade and dances round kicking a puzzle box which suddenly bursts open into all kinds of display.
I am sitting looking at a "Third Hand" Drawer Hook. I really ought to start a "What is it" contest based on this item. Good name for a weblog or an album too.
Technology Guardian had lots of quotes from me today - almost made me sound as though I knew what I was talking about!
The famous Stormy Weather sequence by the Nicholas Brothers. The splits in the stair sequence don't look to be jive either. Utterly, utterly incredible.
More Spann - this one is even better. God, it looks so easy when he does it. And it swings so hard. And he is so drunk that he can barely speak - do you really think that they would let someone that drunk perform today? I heard Francis WIlford Smith on the radio (many years ago now) tell a story about when Spann was staying with him and they were eating dinner and Spann asked very quietly if he could get up and go and play the piano, just because he loved to play. Though I suspect he loved to drink even more.
Spann - I saw him once. He was so drunk he could hardly stand and he still played more blues piano than anyone else I've ever heard.
Tonight when, for the first time for ages, there is something I want to watch on television (Adam Adamant!!!!! YAY!!!) the power supply to my PVR blows up. (this is in fact a replacement for the original as well) Grrrr.
Flat Earth Society newsletters in PDF - well worth browsing some wonderful, wonderful deranged ranting (not about the flat earth of course, which is obviously true, but about other things)
Just back from the Herbie Hancock concert. After the last time, I was not hopefully, but it was absolutely superb. He was in top form and it was all funk stuff. They even did Watermelon Man and Cantaloupe Island. The band were fantastic and were clearly having a ball. He even played Roland Synthaxe. (He was playing a Fazioli grand which sounded amazing too)
Let me recommend the new Terry Pratchett Wintersmith - it's the next one in the Tifanny Aching/Wee Free Men series and is of course meant to be a childrens' book. It's great.
I finished insulating and cladding the interior of our Winterhouse today : skirting board on and a strip across the joins in the roof. Painting the walls which were a bit too piney. Putting a much diluted, white, wash on. The floor is a blue wash.
Interesting Stuff - Hoagy Carmichael and Jack Teagarden, all that racism, and the slick hair and funny voices - particularly the guy who introduced it. Wonderful trombone playing.
The road where I live is quite short but has three different names. So there are two other houses with the same number as ours. Yesterday someone knocked at the door and said to my daughter "we've come to take the piano away", being rather attached to the piano she somewhat freaked, but it was for one of the others. Today someone knocked at the door and said "I'm here to clean the central heating", so my son let him in and he cleaned the boiler. The the man said "Didn't the boiler used to be in the kitchen?" "No" says my son. "This is no 10 xxxxx", he says. "No" says my son. "Ahh" says the man.
Has anyone managed to configure the Click Speak Firefox extension to read Japanese? I think I have the SDK language packs installed but I can't work out how to make it recognise the Japanese text.
Fantastic voice - she Beyonces it up too much though : a few bends and a little vibrato is fine but the present fashion is a rather too coloratura for my taste.
I wonder, does anyone read Berry (Dornford Yates), Bulldog Drummond (Sapper) or Topper (I can't remember who wrote them)? How about Tommy Hambledon (Manning Coles)? How many people have even heard of them?
I got spam email that pointed here - it seems to be some sort of Spanish religious group. Quite odd really.
Two Little Savages - I still have a copy of this. Seton Thompson was something to do with the start of the Woodcraft Folk I think. I also still have my copy of Bevis (the story of a boy) by Richard Jeffries. (I found a copy on the net for 600 pounds, but I assume that is an 1882 edition). SOmeone has the gall to be selling an ebook version : this book has to be long out of copyright. RJ wrote some wonderful books - I recommend the Gamekeeper at Home which is a fascinating picture of a life that no longer exists.
If you live in Canada and have a secondhand Vinyl shop near you could you pop in a see if they have copies of any of the following :
Roxxi : I'll Never Stop
Ijana : Losing my direction (animal)
Direct to You : the side of the moon (discomagic)
Euphoria : Listen to the rain
These are all 12" single type thingies. Italian dance music.
I am told that Montreal would be a good place to find them. Let me know if you find them (obviously)
Good grief, I am becoming a grumpy old man - I just fired off an email of complaint to ITV about their news broadcast tonight which had the most incredibly offensive coverage of the recent deaths of children in a Greek holiday resort. Full of misinformation, unsubstantiated suggestions, intrusive journalism, over the top nonsense. It was unbelievable.
Weird - actually I think this whole Halloween thing is getting ridiculous. How has it turned into this celebration of gore? What on earth does "Happy Halloween" mean? It isn't a holiday or indeed a proper festival (it isn't the same as the Day of the Dead). It's just all hallows' eve, nothing more. Halloween is dooking for apples and stuff like that. I blame capitalism.
Help search for interstellar dust - if you find one and call it Olive Mae, then there is $100 for you says JW. I'm confused.
This Jamelia video requires you to confirm that you are 18+. A nun might find it slightly raunchy, though in fact any of the nuns I've ever met would just take it in their stride. Ridiculous.
Now here is a dilemma. The Martin Taylor Quintet are playing Newcastle City Hall. Martin Taylor is simply one of the best jazz guitarists playing at the moment. However, they are backing Tony Christie. I have no desire at all to see or indeed hear Tony Christie. I don't know what to do.
I note that ValleySchwag seems to have gone rather too silent. The front page still advertises subscriptions even though ehy have stopped them and nothing has changed anywhere on the site, apart from people complaining in the comments on the weblog. Oh well.
Miller's rules for scriptural interpretation - a fairly sloppy set of rules, if I may say so.