"Nothing but the rain"
When I stayed with my parents recently I was browsing through the cupboard and found this mug. It’s lovely that they have kept some of this stuff from all those years ago.
If you’re not sure to what this refers then please go here.
Just so you know, this is the 600th communication from this website. I think I’ve probably spent too much time on it!
There are three bridges here over the river Medway. See if you can spot them.
They are:
In 2001 I first got internet access and a home PC. I think it was 2001, it was either then or 2002! It was dial-up access with a bandwidth of around 56Kb/s I first got broadband and wireless in about 2004 or so. Since then I would agree with the “new” hierarchy of needs with Wi-Fi at the base. I feel definitely lost when I don’t have internet access, especially when my phone has no data signal too.
This is a diagram of my home network. Just because I wanted to, you know? This is an hour of my life I won’t get back, but was worth it. Click for a PDF.
I left a little earlier today to get the to cinema and compared to yesterday I got there during the adverts, but this was, apparently a popular film, and I had to sit right at the front. Actually, I didn’t have to sit there, there were spaces towards the back but the whole front row was free and it was easier to sit there than to hunt a spare seat surrounded by people I wouldn’t mind being surrounded by.
An interesting thing about sitting this close is that I could see the pixels in the projection and this was a little disconcerting. I could only see them if I looked for them otherwise I let the film take me over. Curious to see the workings of digital projection this close compared to proper film.
American Hustle is an American crime film in the vain of Goodfellas. I enjoyed it a lot. The acting was brilliant. All the way through I was trying to work out who the lead actor was and when the credits rolled I was surprised as I hadn’t recognised him. To be honest I’m pretty bad a recognising film type people and that is subject of a future post. I didn’t recognise Jennifer Lawrence until about 3/4 of the way through the film. It was her eyes that gave her away!
I have noticed that this has received good reviews from the critics and that is very good. The film is well made, acted and shot. It is all in all: good. Is it a classic? No, because there are other films that have done this with better or equivalent results. I guess it’s Goodfellas for the 2010s generation.
My one problem is that I need to like the characters in a film to truly like it. I’m not sure I really liked these people. Although I really wanted to know the end of the story I didn’t care one way or another for the people [apart from the son]. They weren’t the most likeable people. The other character I actually liked was Stoddard Thorsen, the middle manager in the FBI. His story about ice-fishing was brilliant, a lovely little plot device.
The film opened with the words:
Some Of This Actually Happened
Well, that’s nice dear. It’d be more interesting to know which bits were real and which bits weren’t. Thanks, Wikipedia, for giving us the details.
Yes, this is a good film, but it left me feeling slightly empty.
Here’s a video of me (taken by an iPhone 5S) in slow motion scoring a strike. It was completed in one take!
This is my first communication about a music festival in 2014 that I am going to attend. In 2013 I went to the Download festival at Donington Circuit, see here for more information.
So, the basic story:
There’s a pretty good “gig” app on the iPhone called Songkick. It scanned my music library and then lets me know when bands I like are going to tour the UK (and other places) and generally keeps me informed, avoiding the need for me to regularly scan magazines or the web for information.
The phone beeped one day and Aesthetic Perfection had announced they were playing in February. I immediately got in touch with my gig-buddy and he said that he thought he was busy on the London date. After checking it turns out it is his wedding anniversary and so we agreed to pass that particular concert. I had thought about going by myself, when he asked if AP were playing anywhere else in the year. Looking through the app it turns out that they are playing something called Alt-Fest [this was a web link but the site is dead]..
A bit more digging and the line-up looked very interesting and the tickets were very reasonably priced. Andy said he thought he was in Italy during that time. After checking his diary and plans it turns out that Andy is indeed in Italy. I held off buying tickets for a while, thinking it would be unfair to go without him, and he thought about changing his flights.
One Friday morning I caved in and bought a couple of tickets and booked a hotel in Kettering. I’m not going to camp at a festival however lovely all the people there are. I like the idea of electricity and a warm shower and proper toilet.
So, next year I am going to Alt-Fest, which as far as I can gather is a crowd funded festival, they campaigned on Kickstarter and have gone from there. The only problem with that is it will become mainstream after just one season and will have to cope with all the commercial interests of all festival promoters. I hope they do well. There are going to be 50,000 people there and the acts look awesome.
Bands I’m looking forward to seeing:
It is going to be good fun.
I bought this on my Boston phase. I bought up all their stuff as I really liked “Foreplay – Long Time” from Rock Band on the Playstation. Any Boston album is very well written and just what you want. I’m pretty sure this is stuff someone not into rock would cope with playing in the background. More driving music. See Boston review.
I bought this on the back of Slayer’s earlier music from the 80s and although I play this now and then there isn’t a track on it that I can remember. It all rather mushes into one song by the end. Sorry.
For Slayer brilliance you need to get Decade of Aggression. Simple.
I think I’ve listened to this a couple of times. I’ve been getting into electronic music since I saw Combichrist with Rammstein a few years ago. I don’t think I could tell you anything about any particular song on this album. However, given it is Daft Punk I assume it to be quite a good album. Not one I regularly play but am happy to have in my collection.
Firstly let me announce that I think AC/DC are one of the best bands ever [40 million copies of Back In Black sold]. I love the raw rock sound and the cheeky lyrics. I remember being 17 years old and discovering that there were thirteen AC/DC albums and just being excited at the thought of owning them all. I probably had three albums at that time, Blow Up Your Video being my first.
This album, from 1976, has an excellent ensemble of songs by the gritty Aussie [although there is an argument to say they were British] band. Not a single bad song. Some excellent songs.
Big Balls is hilarious although Wikipedia claims it has controversial lyrics but it depends whether you have a dirty mind or not. I’m pretty sure this song is about a costume party [NOT].
Rocker takes the power riff and makes you bounce.
Squealer has a brilliant bass riff and is an altogether brilliant song, for some reason I love it.
Ride On makes me cry.
10/10 for this one.