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Waiting Room Volume 1

Posted by on in MusicLeave a comment
An album from Blancmange for the quarantine from Coronavirus

A new album from one of my favourite bands, “Blancmanage”. Waiting Room (Volume 1).

Apparently this is a collection of songs that didn’t fit anywhere else. I can understand how that happens. It makes sense to me. I bought it, mainly to support Blancmange in these strange and troubled times. I didn’t expect much, but, on the whole, these are pretty good tracks.

They certainly have a feel of not really fitting together, and, if this makes any sense at all, that sort of binds them together. In a ‘not really binding together’ way. Which I will admit makes no sense either.

I’ll listen to them again soon(-ish), and I may even write something more about this collection of songs. Who knows.

More about Blancmange

Blancmange: Nil by Mouth IV and V

I have been listening to Blancmange since the 1980s. In recent years, I have found their (his) music much more introspective at times, and especially this series of instrumental albums ‘Nil By Mouth’. In this latest iteration, albums four and five arrive as a double album, and both live up to the previous quality. I…

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I am annoyed that Blocks Smartwatch will never see the light of day

Posted by on in Stuff, Tech, Wearable Computing2 Comments

I know that you can’t guarantee that a Kickstarter project will come about. But when a project raises $1.5m+ and ends up with less than £20k in the bank you have to ask about why and how that happened. This is the case with the Blocks Smartwatch. It did really well on kickstarter and now is in receivership. I’m annoyed about this.

No one is going to get what they ordered. No one is going to get their money back. How do you turn all that cash into a complete failure? I just don’t know.

It makes me, and I’m guessing the other 500 odd backers, a lot more cautious about putting down money for Kickstarter campaigns that may never see the light of day. I’ve still got a couple that are now years behind schedule and fairly doubtful about. These days I find myself resisting most interesting ideas on Kickstarter simply because of being burnt once already.

I would have liked to have seen this device come to life. I think the idea of modular things, but perhaps it was just never to be.

Bermondsey Beer Mile

Posted by on in BeerLeave a comment

I did this back in July of 2019 with a friend. It was a good laugh. That is to say, what I remember of it was a good laugh. I started at noon and managed to get a train home about 12 hours later, so it was a pretty big commitment.

As far as I recall (and that isn’t too far), it was around 15-18 bars or tap rooms. Each with its own brews and guest beers too. Also all of it was craft ale, which I’m not always fond of, but there were a few real stand out beers from that day. One of which was Hiver, a honey beer that I’ve now had several times and just doesn’t disappoint in my opinion.

I would do it again I think. Especially in the summer, when the weather is good and so is the company. Either way, I would thoroughly recommend this, or at least some parts of it. If you’re interested then just look up the Bermondsey Beer Mile in Google Maps. You’ll find everything you need.

Pebble Time Resurrected

Posted by on in Wearable ComputingLeave a comment
  • Problems with Pebble
    Problems with Pebble
  • Latest Pebble Face
    Latest Pebble Face
  • Handy Pebble Information
    Handy Pebble Information
  • Pebble Time Watch Faces - Elegant and fairly usable
    Pebble Time Watch Faces – Elegant and fairly usable
  • Pebble Time Watch Faces - Good for daily use
    Pebble Time Watch Faces – Good for daily use
  • Pebble Time Watch Faces - Binary watch face
    Pebble Time Watch Faces – Binary watch face
My Pebble Time over the years …

For some time I’ve thought that my Pebble Time smartwatch was done for. But just a week or so ago I managed to resurrect it. Partly just as an experiment to see if it might be useful or not. Partly as something to do at the moment.

So far it seems to be working ok. My next step is to see if I can connect it to Rebble as the original Pebble servers are long gone. More on that in the next few days I’d guess.

More posts about the Pebble Smartwatch

So the Pebble will last a bit longer then

Pebble’s latest iOS app (and I guess Android as well), removes the Pebble watch reliance on Pebble’s servers and means that the device can last a lot longer than the end of 2017, or at least that’s how it seems. I’m still hopeful that someone else will bring out a real alternative firmware for Pebble…

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My field recording podcast

Posted by on in Sounds1 Comment

Whilst you’re here, I thought I’d let you know about my field recordings podcast. You can find this on Apple’s podcast platform, Breaker, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Stitcher, and also Spotify.

You can also find an RSS feed of recordings at this URL.

Each episode is a recording of something I’ve found interesting or unique. I hope that you enjoy it something you find there.

Quarantine week 1

Posted by on in Stuff, ThinkingLeave a comment

Like so many people in this country and across the planet, I am isolating myself. Luckily with family, so I’m not totally alone, but nevertheless it is a strange and seemingly sudden change to how we live.

One thing that impresses me is how we have all adapted so very quickly to this new reality. How companies have changed how they work, how authorities have changed how we do things, and how regular citizens have, for the most part, agreed to change how they live their lives.

No one has a clear idea of how long this will take, or how the world will look once it is over. We take things one day at a time now, there’s no other way.

But, on the upside, it is a chance to catch up with loads of things that our busy lives precluded us from doing. Listening, reading, experimenting and making. Personally I’m finding that there’s time for a doing a range of things that I’ve been meaning to get to for ages now.

Perhaps I’ll post about some of the things I’m finding time to do.

Whatever you’re up to, whatever you’re finding to fill your time, I hope you’re well and safe.

A very small Tangerine Dream exhibition

Posted by on in Creative Process, Exhibitions, MusicLeave a comment
A few pictures from the Tangerine Dream exhibition at the Barbican Library

I was glad to get along to this. I can’t say that I’m a huge fan. In fact, it was really only 2018 when a friend asked me if I wanted to come along and see them live. I went. I was really impressed. It was an amazing night.

Since then I’ve listened to bits and pieces, including, very recently, the entire “In Search of Hades” box set. Which was quite a big thing to listen to. So I thought it would be worth checking this out.

To say that this was a small exhibition would be something of an understatement. It was to be honest, tiny. It is tucked away in the Barbican library music section. Now there’s nothing wrong with that, but I do think that a band of this stature really deserves better. Perhaps something thoughtfully curated. Something that provides a deeper understanding to the music, the ideas behind it, the process itself?

Personally I’d like that. This, at the Barbican, was fine as a taster, but essentially it wasn’t enough. I understand why it was small, but I do think that someone like the Barbican could have done more to make this something to celebrate and show what an enormous contribution this band has made to electronic music specifically, but also to music making and musicians in general.

Revisiting Survivors

Posted by on in Audiobooks, Books and Audiobooks, TVLeave a comment

Survivors is a relatively little known TV show from the 1970s. It was about a virus that killed off almost the entire population of the planet. The people who were left were the ‘Survivors’. This is of course the subject of quite a lot of TV shows and films these days, but back then I think it was quite ground breaking.

It only got 3 seasons on TV, but, a few years ago, Big Finish, a company that makes some of my favourite audiobooks brought it back, with the three lead actors as well. Big Finish produced 9 seasons of it, each with 4 hour long episodes. It was brilliant. In fact, so much so that I’m revisiting the whole thing this year. Starting with the TV series. Which, in my opinion, stands the test of time, and is actually better than a lot of TV these days.

Survivors from the 1970s took a slow approach to storytelling. Or maybe that was the norm back then? Either way, it took its time in each episode. It had a natural feel too that somehow made it more believable.

I’ve enjoyed watching this again, and remembering the characters, the story and the where it took us.

Now that I’ve finished watching it I’m going to move on to listening to all of the audio stories that Big Finish Productions created. There are 9 box sets of these, so that will probably take me a while to get through I should think. When I do, I think I might post a summary of my thoughts on the whole thing.

Troy at the British Museum

Posted by on in ExhibitionsLeave a comment
  • A lovely exhibition about Troy at the British Museum
  • The last part of the exhibition about Troy at the British Museum

This was a good exhibition on the whole. Not entirely successful in my opinion, but overall quite good. I especially liked the 2nd half of the exhibition. Which was more about the impact of Troy on art and culture. That was the most interesting part from my perspective. I found that quite fascinating.