Volume 85
2 Dec 2008
I wonder if I should start another weblog where all I do is post links to versions of minor swing. People seem to do things like that. I would read it, but there wouldn't be much point in that though.
Hmmmm - the music sounds like generic "medieval" film background music to me, rather than actual medieval music.
Birelli L. swings minorly (but with lots of Charlie Parker in there too) I like the comment that says "so that's where half the world's talent went"
1 Dec 2008
Forget spotify : vile, unskippable adverts....
30 Nov 2008
29 Nov 2008
This looks like a repository of J-Walk caption competition pictures. (Some great images here)
28 Nov 2008
Food Art - this has probably been linked to death elsewhere but I hadn't noticed it in my travels.
Trying out Spotify - I have to confess to being rather impressed so far. It passed the Bob Wills test with flying colours, and the Hampton Hawes test and, unlike many other music systems, I actually found something I wanted to listen to that I didn't know existed!
Minority report style interface - lovely demo, but look how hard it is use. It's so like being a mime that I am surprised you don't have to wear a stripey shirt. Most people simply don't have that level of balletic control over their movements.
27 Nov 2008
26 Nov 2008
25 Nov 2008
Listening to some David Sedaris - very funny.
John W in the comments asks why people rave about Hang drums and not about Steel drums. Well, first off, what I was liking was the sound not the technique - I am pretty certain that if I had one I could play exactly like the videos in about 10 minutes. (And better than a lot of the playing in the videos on youtube, some of which is just embarassing). Second, well, I'll be honest, I hate steel drums. I always have. I loathe the sound they make and I am not a huge fan of the kinds of music people play on them. There is little worse than hearing a local school steel band playing a medley of Beatles' tunes.
24 Nov 2008
22 Nov 2008
21 Nov 2008
20 Nov 2008
Went to see "Easy Virtue" last night - I enjoyed it : good ensemble playing and great sets in addition the whole Noel Cowardness of it.
Hmm, google reader is not working for me today.
Hmm, google reader is not working for me today.
19 Nov 2008
18 Nov 2008
J-Walk doing counting made me wonder how many posts I've made, so I looked in the database and this one will be 16994 of the ones that are logged in there but volumes 0-33 are not in the DB and the early ones are not hard to tot up. Hmmm, clock up another 1603 from vols 10-33. And approximately 650 from the earliest ones. So, 19247.
17 Nov 2008
Liking the new Stephane Wrembel Trio with David Grisman album. You can get it on e-music too.
There's a very "end of the world" sky at the moment. Misty and ominous.
I really must get one of those wifi detector T-shirts
Ahh, Emerson and Newton doing Headin' West - a great song well played. I love those up tempo but yet slightly mournful bluegrass songs. The album's called "A foot in the past, a foot in the future" which is a wonderful name.
16 Nov 2008
Watched Napoleon Dynamite tonight - what a strange film.
I just watched the new world record domino video. Possibly one of the dullest things ever.
15 Nov 2008
14 Nov 2008
13 Nov 2008
RIP Mitch Mitchell
11 Nov 2008
10 Nov 2008
Why did nobody tell me that the dcabin joke comes from Gravity's Rainbow??
7 Nov 2008
*** power off all weekend so no catless till monday ******
6 Nov 2008
Great headline on the Sun today : "As Obama gets huge election. The earth moves"
5 Nov 2008
A whole load of Apps have vanished from my iTouch and I have no idea how to get them back. *sigh*
4 Nov 2008
I wonder where I can get Futurama series 5 on DVD - seems never to have appeared over here and looks quite hard to find.
What's the integral of dcabin/cabin? Answer in the comments.
3 Nov 2008
I just got spam asking me if I sold rim straightening machines.
2 Nov 2008
1 Nov 2008
Edward Carpenter - I had never heard of him till I read a review of a biography of him this morning. He was an amazing man.
31 Oct 2008
RIP Studs Terkel
30 Oct 2008
29 Oct 2008
28 Oct 2008
27 Oct 2008
26 Oct 2008
Clock change day always gives me jet lag.
Earl - some great unseen photos of a huge array of bands of all kinds here. Well worth a browse.
25 Oct 2008
Tenor Guitar : I met a man in a music shop today who was telling me stories about tenor guitars he had owned. (He also had 23 trombones, and a larger number of other brass instruments including a bass saxophone "in a cupboard")
David Grisman Quintet Dawg 90 : very nice indeed. Swings like a very swingy thing.
Listening to the Best of the Hot Club of Cowtown : a nice selection.
24 Oct 2008
23 Oct 2008
Dear god, I'm using Google Chrome this morning and am just horrified by the vile adverts everywhere. Adblock does a great job, and back to FF I go.....
This should rightly be on photoshop disasters, except it's probably a cut and paste disaster
22 Oct 2008
21 Oct 2008
20 Oct 2008
Music Lists - so much to disagree with that you may never leave. Several my all time favourite albums are on the "Forgotten" list
I just came across the LA Under Cover weblog, however I read the URL as Launder Cover and thought it was about cleaning....
17 Oct 2008
16 Oct 2008
I wonder if these are the same civil war cards we got in the UK? I have some in a box in the attic. Along with a complete set of Man from UNCLE cards!! (and some swops)
15 Oct 2008
I am subscribed to 5 feeds in Google Reader where I am the only subscriber.
Did any UFOs appear over the Alabama that used to be in the Southern Hempisphere? Thought not.
On the sick today - no voice to speak of
14 Oct 2008
Ugh, flu-ishness. No voice
13 Oct 2008
Recently several people with comcast addresses have emailed me : comcast is refusing to accept my replies for some bogus security reason, so that's why I you haven't heard back....
11 Oct 2008
10 Oct 2008
Firefox is refusing to uninstall extensions. How annoying.
To Blaydon Jazz last night to see Vasalis Xenopoulos with the Paul Eddis Trio. Very good night. He's a great technician and a bit of a crowd pleaser - loves to play quotes. Ruth Lambert got up and did a couple of songs with the band too.
9 Oct 2008
Ken Perlman gave a concert today in the University. Played a nice Ome banjo. It was good.
8 Oct 2008
7 Oct 2008
6 Oct 2008
5 Oct 2008
A bit silent last couple days - been shipping child 2 off to university (cambridge) this weekend.....
2 Oct 2008
I just got the strangest spam : "Hello, Lindsay!
I think that your site is fantastic, and I'm using it for a mineral brochure that I have to do for school. I found EVERYTHING that I needed, except for the chemical formula for Zircon. Please post the chemical formula, complete with what the elements are, not just initials, and then your site would be even better! I love using sites written by real people, so please, keep writing about science topics, because you sound really smart, and by the looks of your site, I think you are! Please e-mail me back before tomorrow, because it's due tomorrow!"
1 Oct 2008
The InterTubes seem to be clogged in places tonight - some sites are just crawling.
30 Sep 2008
"Advancing the scholarship of liberty in the tradition of the Austrian School" What on earth does that mean? Hitler was an Austrian of course.
29 Sep 2008
28 Sep 2008
25 Sep 2008
24 Sep 2008
23 Sep 2008
22 Sep 2008
21 Sep 2008
20 Sep 2008
I just discovered that MS don't make the trackball explorer anymore. Bummer - mine is getting a bit clunky and it's the best trackball I've used.
19 Sep 2008
18 Sep 2008
15 Sep 2008
intermitency will be in force. Transferring offspring to far flung places of education
14 Sep 2008
Wonderful (might be NSFW audio)
13 Sep 2008
12 Sep 2008
11 Sep 2008
10 Sep 2008
9 Sep 2008
6 Sep 2008
What horrible weather. The power went off this morning and I can't recall the last time that happened, if it has happened at all whilst we've lived in this house.
4 Sep 2008
2 Sep 2008
I'm liking Google Chrome
1 Sep 2008
31 Aug 2008
29 Aug 2008
28 Aug 2008
27 Aug 2008
So why did nobody tell me the date index buttons down the lefthand side didn't work?
26 Aug 2008
RIP Don Helms
24 Aug 2008
22 Aug 2008
Went to Blaydon Jazz CLub last night to see Zoe Gilby - abolutely superb. If you get the chance to see her take it - she will go far I believe. The band were fabulous too - some of the best local jazz players (David Carnegie (d), Mark williams (g), Paul Edis (p), Noel Dennis (t & f), Andy Champion (b)) : go and see any of them too.
21 Aug 2008
20 Aug 2008
I like the banjo playing on this. (Of course I like everything else as well : nothing like a good old bit of "medium swing")
We haven't had any Minor Swing for a while.... one of my favourite mandolin players too - Paul Glasse.
17 Aug 2008
16 Aug 2008
15 Aug 2008
14 Aug 2008
13 Aug 2008
Joe Pass fest : All the things..., Donna Lee (ridiculously fast, with NHOP), Oleo (same NHOP session I think)
I am getting increasingly annoyed by all the references on the web to the man who is "digitizing vinyl" (I linked to him the other week). I'd be very surprised indeed if there was the slightest hint of vinyl in most of the records he's done so far!
I am getting increasingly annoyed by all the references on the web to the man who is "digitizing vinyl" (I linked to him the other week). I'd be very surprised indeed if there was the slightest hint of vinyl in most of the records he's done so far!
12 Aug 2008
I'm feeling all shaken today - pranged the car a bit this morning. Not really sure what happened either. Ugh.
11 Aug 2008
23 Jul 2008
Well, I see the Platonic Solid of Peace (or if you are in flatland, the Quadrilateral of Quietude) is being wheeled over. So.........
22 Jul 2008
21 Jul 2008
20 Jul 2008
What is the opposite of riot?
19 Jul 2008
18 Jul 2008
17 Jul 2008
15 Jul 2008
I just got spam that began "Hello not the man familiar to me".....
14 Jul 2008
13 Jul 2008
11 Jul 2008
iPod Touch update checker is still saying 1.1.4 most of the time with occasional bursts of 2.0 and then silence.
10 Jul 2008
I can't find a flickr duplicate detector anywhere. I may have to write one *sigh*
Someone came up to me at Newcastleton and gave me this. Nearly 30 years ago in the Bridge hotel in Newcastle. I look to be in pain. In fact it looks like I am singing which is highly unlikely since I don't. Jane Ball playing the accordion and David Ball in the corner, I think. The others I can't place at all.
9 Jul 2008
8 Jul 2008
Hmmm, google seems to be inaccessible.
7 Jul 2008
6 Jul 2008
Newcastleton festival this week end just gone. Not so great weather but a stonking session on Saturday. I might even put up some audio.
4 Jul 2008
Give vaccines - buggy : I was asked what Mound was most like and one of the options was Mound so I chose it and it was wrong, but generally fairly easy. I am at level 10, don't know it there is a higher one.
3 Jul 2008
Hah : at Tom the Dancing Bug it says : "Search engines love the strip because this paragraph contains the words mp3, iphone, webkinz, videos, american idol, ashton kutcher, grand theft auto."
RIP Lyall Watson
2 Jul 2008
Twitter is well screwed this morning. Not even the Fail Whale
1 Jul 2008
30 Jun 2008
29 Jun 2008
28 Jun 2008
27 Jun 2008
I'm trying google reader. Not sure yet. Should I worry that when the recommended sites I might like doesn't include my own?
ah, Chet Baker. Good stuff.
25 Jun 2008
24 Jun 2008
I think I must be becoming humour impaired - loads of people are describing this as hilarious and I didn't even smile. Not once. I can't see anything to recommend it.
Focus from 1973 - either the track is out of sync or it is very badly dubbed. We all looked like that in 1973 too. (well, not the women obviously), though I think we had a bit more hair.
23 Jun 2008
RIP George Carlin
22 Jun 2008
21 Jun 2008
20 Jun 2008
Is it just me or is anyone else slightly underwhelmed that they found ice on Mars?