Shorter posts, links, or thoughts. No schedule, not heavily considered.
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Hola desde Madrid
I left the house at 13:30. Train to Edinburgh, tram to airport, flight to Madrid, metro to city centre hotel. Arrived at my hotel room at 00:43. My plans are to breakfast early and wander around for the next four mornings. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoons/evenings are taken up with watching fast cars go fast,…
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Fugitive Motel by Elbow
What artist or band changed your music taste forever? Pick your favorite song of theirs. From heavier rock and dance music as my ‘chosen’ genres, I stumbled into this band after catching them performing at Glastonbury in 2004 (on TV, it was a couple of years before I made it to that festival where I…
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Beat Dis by Bomb the Bass
What was your favorite song in high school? Why did it resonate? The radio crackles to life. It is full of heavily produced sounds. Bon Jovi, Madonna, Wham!, Phil Collins —artists I would spend my life with— dominated. Pet Shop Boys were ploughing a different path, New Order were living their Blue Monday ‘88 renaissance…
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It’s MY iPAD, let me delete stuff!
Dear Apple, I can remove apps from my iPad, except the Photos app (there may be others but my issue is with the Photos app). I don’t sync my iCloud Photos to my iPad. I don’t use it for that, it’s purely as a consumption device. I watch movies and TV shows on it. I…
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Off He Goes by Pearl Jam
Pick a song from an artist or band that’s had the biggest impact on your life. Queen were my first love. Finding their albums in my parents record collection was like finding a rare jewel. Mostly because they spanned the time of my awakening to pop/rock music so I had a contemporary view of them…
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Go (Live from Glastonbury) by The Chemical Brothers
What is a song that instantly energizes you? Thumping bass, catchy melody, quintessential dance music always gives me energy. It’s why club nights were such a highlight of my youth. These days, energising tracks are for things like exercising which brings a similar endorphin high to those club nights —without the come down— and there…
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Recently Read
A weekly recap of the articles and posts I’ve read that I think are worth your time. Pentax ME – Down the Road — Some lovely photos, but the camera itself is one my Dad had (I’m 98% sure). I can FEEL it, I can HEAR it. Ohhh aren’t memories odd things. Apple CEO Tim…
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I Like to Move It (Radio Mix) by Reel 2 Real
Did you sing along to anything today? Describe the moment. My son, 4, has discovered the movie Madagascar. Which is fine because the endless repeats of Bluey (which I dearly love) are starting to grate a little. My memories of this song take me back to my early 20s, the local nightclub, the “everyone back…
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What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong
What song do you wish you had written? Happy Birthday? Bohemian Rhapsody? Lyrics is where my brain focuses, which takes me to Cohen, Garvey, McCartney, Swift, Bush… But meaning matters and this song is such a gentle exploration of how beautiful life is if we pause and look around, literally stop and smell the flowers.…
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Pixel Area
I got an intriguing email last night, some of you may have received one too. It was from Oleh Providnyk who said he’d added my site to his new blog map Pixel Area. OK, but what is Pixel Area? Pixel Area is a 100×100 coordinate grid with room for 10,000 websites. Each pixel belongs to…
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Pump Up the Volume (7″) by M/A/R/R/S
Share a song that changed your perspective on music. First question I have to ask myself is, what is my perspective on music, and has it ever changed? I grew up with music, music playing in the kitchen, the radio or cassettes in the car, the LPs in the living room, the piano, my Dad’s…
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Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67 by Richard Stamp, John Gielgud & Academy of London
Think back to your childhood: What is your earliest music memory? Share that song and your story! Atarah’s Band is my earliest wholly music focussed memory. A flautist who took an orchestra on tour with a show aimed at kids. I can’t remember much more than a flamed hair woman, and being invited up to…
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Portmanteau
/pôrt-măn′tō, pôrt″măn-tō′/ nounA word formed by merging the sounds and meanings of two different words, as _chortle,_from chuckle and snort. I love a good portmanteau —brunch is my favourite (spork a close second). Some are clever —Portmanteau is a portmanteau! Some we forget started out as individual words —Pokémon, sitcom, velcro. Some don’t really work…
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Reach by S Club
What song makes you feel like anything is possible? Apparently they play this at my son’s school. He’s in his 3rd week, loving it, and even got an award already (the cynic in me is rolling his eyes as so did 20 other kids for various things, the father in me is proud). My son…
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Small changes
One thing I’ve learned in finishing my 100 days challenge was the power of small changes. On the whole I didn’t do all that much different. Sure I pushed myself to exercise more but most times that was just a walk in the evening —brisker than a stroll— with my favourite music playing. I’ve always…
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Moving by Supergrass
What’s your favorite song about moving forward? What’s Next? The refrain commonly heard in The West Wing has always sat well with me, always seemed like a good way to focus on what’s ahead. Of course that’s not always the best thing, ignoring your past means you don’t learn from mistakes, don’t find ways to…
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Early Morning Breeze by Dolly Parton
The Dolly Parton song that means the most to you. When I was 16 I joined the local Hospital Radio team (Hospital Radio Lennox). We broadcast every evening, and at the weekends. It was an eye opener in terms of exposure to the hospital environment —I will not hear a bad word about nurses from…
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Recently Read
A weekly recap of the articles and posts I’ve read that I think are worth your time. Re-fueling while cycling made all the difference — After-hours engineering — A good lesson if you are getting into cycling as a hobby-ist. However I do have questions. What’s so bad about gels etc? And why does someone…
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100 days
Today marks Day 100. Overall I’m happy with how it went. I moved enough everyday to mark is as “complete”, and I’ve lost about 7.5kg (plateau’d a bit as I’ve mentioned). The benefits are the adjustment of routine, building better habits, being more conscious of why I think I feel hungry (usually boredom or procrastination)…
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Such Great Heights by The Postal Service
What song makes you feel like you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be? I am, right now, sitting on the sofa. My best friend, the person who sees me, who gets me, is on the chair. Our son is playing on the floor. When I’m away from them, as I was on Thursday night, I…