CD Case as Circuit Board Noisemaker

As discovered by Booyaa:

tres tres coolifique! - Alternative Music Distribution: Moldover’s CD Case as Circuit Board Noisemaker http://bit.ly/UHN1j

Fun, Funny, Geeky and Innovative... http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/08/19/alternative-music-distribution-moldovers-cd-case-as-circuit-board-noisemaker/

Recent Online Music Distribution Musings #2 - Frisell

One of my favourite musicians has a  new cd/album out.



[caption id="" align="alignright" width="133" caption="Disfarmer"][/caption]

Bill Frisell has a very well received CD named "Disfarmer" - see info & reviews via http://www.billfrisell.com/news/main.html#disfarmer

"Disfarmer was an outsider artist who became famous for his Depression-era photographs of families, farmers, and individuals around his hometown of Heber Springs, AK"

I've listened to samples (npr.org had the whole thing up to sample a week or two ago - not there anymore) but have yet to buy it... Interestingly the mp3s cost very nearly the same as the CD... and i have this whole shelf of Frisell CDs... and I kind of want the physical thing...

After a long period of buying CDs and ripping them to an electronic format - these days I tend to buy albums as high(ish) quality mp3 (or (FLAC) as/when available  and rarely miss the "packaging/physical object".

I tend to buy from play.com as they offer (generally) competitively priced, higher-quality mp3s, always sold without (stupid, stupid!) DRM, don't require I use any "special download tool/program" (you get a .zip file and can download straight from the browser and more than once if necessary) and were one of the first in the UK to adopt this model. The catalogue is now very good with much/most things available.

I absolutely avoid  iTunes (and similar) as they are relatively expensive, restrictive and require me to use their own software to access their store. Software which I can't run on my preferred Linux systems (as they don't suport it).

Fortunately some of my favourite artists really  "get it" and have taken control of their own output. They have their own websites and stores (often using a partner site/service) and  make good quality audio files avaialble at a fair price (sometimes with choices on quality & extras) and often with accompanying electronic artwork and information/notes (e.g. Byrne/Eno, Sylvian).

They sell direct to me and can keep all of the revenue themselves (passing on an agreed percentage to any 3rd party who helped them - e.g. an online store provider).

Consequently they own the relationship with me and they have the opportunity to offer me other things/merchandise (Tshirts, special extras, concert tickets) and keep me informed about their activities.

What about you?

- do you still buy CDs?

- do you pay the Apple tax for iTunes? (if so what give the value here, the convenience)

- do you have music that you are now locked out of as is encumbered by DRM?

- do you download free/pirated/shared music

- has spotify become your library?

Recent Online Music Distribution Musings #3 - Sylvian

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="330" caption="Manafon"][/caption]

David Sylvian is about to release (mid September) a new album called Manafon (lot of info here) which follow up on a previous wonderful experimental album Blemish - utilising a recordings from free jazz/improvising musicians to create a soundscape for improvised songs.  Sounds wonderful and the samples I've heard make me a sad old over-excited  fan! There's also an accompanying documentary (Amplified Gesture) about the musicians involved and the recording process - to be premiered at the ICA (gasp!).

Lots more info at:

http://manafon.com/ (official site - samples, interview and more)

http://www.davidsylvian.net/the-news.html (fan site)

Recent Online Music Distribution Musings #1

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Hamada"][/caption]

I was playing some old Nils Petter Molvaer (lastfm, wikipedia, fan-site, official) this morning (can it really be 12 years since Khmer came out?!?!?) and wondered what he had been up to recently.

Turns out he released a new album/cd in April this year - Hamada (review at AllAboutJazz) - though it has had hardly any coverage/press. Based on the review, love for his previous music and a feeling that I ought to buy a copy and support the artist (he's gone "own label")  I checked out Amazon.co.uk and Play.com - neither of which stock it (CD or download).

Oh! how odd.

So I double checked his own site (and the horrible/unusable MySpace page - I won't link to it) and he neither offers CDs or downloads for sale directly - nor links to suggested stores/merchants. Digging further I could probably get an (expensive) CD import - or possibly sign up to a German online store and download mp3s (means creating a new account, possible restrictions on my right to buy via a UK IP address).

Interestingly... this fan site forum page gave links to a fileshare site where (it appears) the whole album is available for free.

What would you do?

Family Picnic 2009

A few pictures from our recent family picnic in Surrey.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="180" caption="Family Picnic 2009"][/caption]

Radiohead: Harry Patch In memory of

Did you catch this on BBCR4 Today this morning...? I thought it was very moving... lyrics inspiredby Harry Patch's own words from an interview in 2005.

You can hear the original interview and the full song at the Today Page here and you can pay a pound to download an mp3 from Radiohead's store site (Proceeds to the Royal British Legion) and Thom Yorke blogged about it here.

BBC - Today - Radiohead: Harry Patch In memory of.

August Update

The recent combination of hot sun and steady rain has had everything growing like mad - especially the weeds :-(
We have a roll of weed mat fabric for the footpaths and need to get that down asap - Steve is doing the hard work clearing the surfaces, should make some progress this week.
We are eating our produce quite often now - potatoes (Anyas are The Best), salad, rasps, red onions, multi-coloured carrots. Not much of anything, but still lovely.
The parsnips are about there, Id like to leave some for Xmas if they will keep okay in the ground.
The shallots which went in very late (gift from a neighbour) are doing fine, will leave them as long as possible before pulling.
The salad onions and chard are up, not ready yet but might try the chard leaves next week in a salad.
Another neighbour donated a few spare leeks yesterday, they are already in a gap in the onion bed.
Cucumber plants have their first teensy cucumbers on, about 1" long. They only get to 5-6" anyway, but still a long way to go. Some of the leaves dont look good - they have gone lacey and holey in the middle - not from being eaten, maybe sun scorch damage ?
The asparagus is going great guns. No sign of anything dying back yet, fat spears still coming up on the Backlim and Anjlim, the purple one is still tiny and skinny but a little better than earlier in the year. Quite excited about prospects for next year when we can pick just one spear per crown.
Rhubarb is troubling me a bit. A few of the newer leaves have gone a dark red/brown and are quite crunchy. Also poss caused by sun on wet leaves but not sure what to do - probably pull the damaged stems off. The volunteer rhubarb is thriving and the first one that seemed to be failing (too close to the hedge ?) has recovered a bit. I will move them both in the autumn.
Oh, we have had a blueberry ! Just the one that the birds left us :-) A couple more berries on the way - the plant needs to go back into a pot, it doesnt like being in the ground. I think I might put a red goosegog ('Pax') in the gap.
Runner beans are flowering well, no sign of any pods yet.
Squashes (Butternut, table Queen) are both stopped at about 6". Not sure why, maybe putting down roots before they take off ? If nothing happens soon they may be too late...
Flower beds are pretty raggedy looking. The Hollyhocks are just flowering but have quite bad rust on their lower halves. Need to pick the lupin pods to dry and plant the seeds - not sure how that works, will have to read up. Otherwise, grass is encroaching and needs riping out/edging and lots of dead-heading to do.
The large pepper in a pot still has lots of fruit, but they are going from green to brown without the red in between ! Not sure what is going wrong, but not a success.
Last thing for now - looking forward to making curry with home grown coriander leaves ! Lots of it coming up now, just a tiny bit longer to wait....

Charlie's Card for his teacher (photos)

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="168" caption="Example Match Attax Card"][/caption]

In these modern and enlightened times of kids and their teachers being.. erm.. friends - it is a new tradition for the kids  to give their teachers a card (and sometimes a present!) at the end of the school year.

Charlie and his friends have gone crazy on the Match Attax footy trading cards (whither Panini stickers... sigh) - and recently have taken to making/drawing their own for their favourite players and themselves.

So I helped him design and make some cards for his lovely teacher (Miss Taylor) and TA (Mrs Illingworth).

Petrols in Newcastle (Fri 10th July)

I had a fantastic afternoon and evening with the Petrols in Newcaste yesterday.

It was really great to catch up with Ciaran and Ray - and to meet the other band members too. I was fortunate enough to watch the sound check and have pre-gig- dinner with soem of the guys and their tour manager/sound-man Dino (good Persian food).

The band played the O2 Academy Newcastle - though the smaller upstairs room not the larger main stage.

O2 A

I’m going to see the That Petrol Emotion tonight in Newcastle. I shall be a proper hanger-on and get along to the soundcheck and hang-out with the band :-).

Village Gala Day (Sunday)

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="358" caption="Gala Day Poster"][/caption]

It's our village's annual Gala Day tomorrow. It's an important fund raiser for our village Sports Association which controls the playing fields and pavilion - providing sports facilities to local kids and adults - primarily football, cricket and bowls. After some problems and disappointing Galas in recent years this year's event should be back to full strength (info here)

Ali & I are helping by running a mini-soccer tournament for local U8 & U10 teams in the morning.

I've also been involved in some of the organisation - there's some very talented and comitted people working together to get this done - and I've been helping with some promotion.

We made a formal press release and were helped by Richmondhsire Council distributing it to local media - it's delivered us articles in local/regional press (see here - although they did manage to print the wrong day!) and promotion on local radio - with one station recording an interview with the Sports Club chairman (BobT) for broadcast on Sunday morning.

Here's hoping for decent weather tomorrow.

Off to see the Petrols this evening...

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="490" caption="Petrols in Nottingham - July 09 - Credit: HughieD from TPE forums."][/caption]

I'm going to see the That Petrol Emotion tonight in Newcastle. I shall be a proper hanger-on and get along to the soundcheck and hang-out with the band :-).

Whilst the tour hasn't had any/much press coverage - the response on the band's website forum has been enthusiastic and the general feeling is that they sound better than ever. I think is what comes from getting older and becoming better musicians - a bit like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

TPE Forum

Forum post with recent pictures

I'll post a review later.

Harvest !

First of the potatoes this week - Charlottes. Charlie had some for dinner yesterday and declared them delicious, we will probably have them today. Mixed sizes from larger than expected to positively teensy, enough for a couple of family meals. Others are about ready too, foliage is dying off on first tub of each type so Anya and Juliette to try in next week or so. Should harvest a sack a week for next couple of months now :-)
*Make note for next year to grow lots more !
Still almost no strawbs making it into the house - Charlie is stripping them bare each day which is great to see. No rasps yet, still small and green but on their way.
Radishes appeared almost overnight, lettuces close behind, but a while before any for picking.
Cucumbers both doing well, as are the peas and beans, none lost, but none close to flowering yet.
Rhubarb doing well - no flowers, so just leave it to die off.
Asparagus still putting up new spears, all of which look healthier than the first skinny ones did.
Butternut has germinated about 2-3" tall, no true leaves yet. No sign of the Table Queen or the coriander.
Plum tree did the June Drop thing, still a good few tiny fruits there. Apple has 2 fruits, propped up one of the branches which was getting a bit heavy as the apple is right at the end.

Sowings this week: white lisbon salad onions, chard bright lights, more carrots (red, purple and rainbow - no boring orange !).

Jobs to do:
lime brassica beds ready to sow cabbages and swedes. Maybe brocolli and cauliflower too ?
weeding between beds
clear the empty bed where the volunteer potatoes have appeared, for summer/autumn planting.

Good Luck to the Petrols!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="490" caption="TPE"][/caption]

My good friends Ciaran and Ray embark tonight on their first major tour for 15 years with That Petrol Emotion. They play the Birmingham Academy 2 tonight and then on for a total of 10 gigs (see list of gigs here). I will see them in Newcastle a week on Friday... can't wait!

Busy Day

Sunday 28th - my reminder of whats done, whats planted and where.

1. Cucumber greenfingers x 2 moved into growbag with growpots and a mini pergola to climb up.
2. More parsnips seedlings moved from cold frame into the parsnip bed. Will put some more to germinate indoors, last set probably.
3. Topped up the paris market carrots row - there were a few gaps - only ones with poor germination.
4. Put coriander in 2 corners of the onion bed where the onions didnt take. Might be too dry - soil is very free draining there.
5. Winter squash - put butternut at one end of the onion bed, Table Queen at the other, both under bottle cloches and both x 2 per station, thin to 1 later if they both germinate. Hopefully, onion swill be out before squash becomes too big for them to share.
6. Salad bed. This had been dug up by some animal visitor, so back to square 1: sowed lambs lettuce, radishes, 3 types of lettuce to heart in the middle of the bed and 1 row of salad bowl for CCA. Still space for 1 or 2 more row of CCAs. Put a net over it !
7. On the maypole there are now 5 x runner beans, 1 x purple french beans. Sowed 2 more purple french under bottle cloches this time after 2 were dug up. 3 x waxy yellow dwarf beans in the gaps, one germinated indoors, other 2 direct.
8. Kids square - replaced some paris market carrots - theirs were patchy germination too. Added a few more dwarf/bush peas.
9. Weeded everything.
10. Summer rasps not all looking happy, some have died off after the leaves started to brown from the outside edge, drying out and leaving a dead stick. Adjacent canes thriving, no sign of aphids/beetles and no idea yet of cause.
11. Our postcode area is in a full Smith Period now, so need to watch potatoes for blight. At least early blight gives some warning and you can still get a crop.
12. Stevie dug a path the whole way along, beside the rasps. This needs to be levelled a bit more then covered with weed fabric and a mulch, poss large gravel, need to check prices at local quarry.

About a dozen baby frogs and toads were out in the garden today - they came out after the heavy rain and were extremely cute.

We Can Haz Strawberries !

Our first few strawbs are fat and red and certainly look delicious. Sadly, I will never get to taste them as they are in the 'kids corner'. This is the raised bed donated to a few of Charlies friends who have helped in the garden. They have a 1m square bed with strawberries, multi-coloured carrots and a couple of dwarf peas, just for themselves. They chose the seeds, sowed them and come and weed/water it a bit, I keep an eye on it for them.
So, they need to visit after school asap and pick these strawbs before the slugs do.

Our main strawberry bed is a little way behind but will get there soon and a few rasps are just starting to take shape now too for late summer.

Today should be sowing salad leaves and more carrots but there are thick black clouds and I can feel the pressure dropping - rain is gonna come. Soon.

No Surprises (na na na na...)

The pea/bean things are runner beans ! I was confused yesterday as when I sorted through my boxes of seed packets none of them prompted a reminder. Until today - as soon as I saw the runner beans packet (not put back into the box) I remembered sowing them. Good, now we know..
Sowed some more today - dwarf french beans (waxy yellow ones) and climbing french, purple/green. Both sets in a propagator for a few days to germinate then out they will go in their little loo roll towers.

Some of the latest parsnips have now germinated, a bit scrawny to go out yet, need another week or maybe two indoors but not covered or they will be too leggy. I will also put them in the cold frame for a week before planting out fully.

Both greenfinger cucumbers are on 2 leaves each, they will go into a grow bag I think, next to the spuds, after a spell in the cold frame to harden off.

the weather forecast is for some unpleasant combination of heavy rain, thunder, hail, flash floods in the next 48 hours. Fingers crossed it doesnt destroy anything - except the rabbit warren, I am hoping that floods and forces them further away from our carrots !

Garden Surprises

I have done a daft thing (what, just the one, dear ?) I planted some seeds in paper pots in the propagator and now I cant remember quite what they are ! A type of pea or bean certainly - but they could be any of half a dozen varieties, colours, tall or bush type. I have put them outside with a 'maypole' to grow up, so we shall have to wait and see what surprises us in a few weeks time.

Something, an animal, has been making mischief this week. The newly sown salad seeds, carefully marked with little wooden pegs have been scratched about and the marker pegs were found about 4 feet away from the bed. It must be pidgeons or a cat, cant think of anything else that would/could do this but not do anything else. There were a couple of shallots pulled up, one of them is over the fence and in the field... Please not the rabbits - dont let them find us !

Today, Stevie dug and I weeded, put out the pea/bean things, put straw under the strawbs, weeded again, made a frame to net the salad.

Tomorrow (Sun) will be put the nets/mesh over strawbs, salad and carrots, direct sow yellow beans at the maypole, redo the salad leaves, tidy the flower borders, water everything.

Weather permitting (wind speed) we will also spray nasty stuff on the jungle of weeds in preparation for putting down grass seed to get it under control for the summer. Might put our tent up there for some family friends to visit if its a bit easier and safer to walk on than it is now !

CVJFC Presentation Night

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="500" caption="SMSC 2009"][/caption]

We had our footy club annual presentation night yesterday evening. All our U8's Saturday morning Soccer Club go medals and took part in a penalty competition.

CVJFC Website News Item

Photos on Flickr

Psychopathic Personalities...

I listened to this morning's Desert Island Discs with the loathsome Piers Morgan. He comes across as a bright and determined person - clearly his career and successes reflect this. His access to rich and powerful people has enabled him to collect (and polish?)  a number of interesting and genuinely amusing anecdotes (e.g. his interview on the beach with a barefooted Rupert Murdoch prior to being made editor of the News of the World at 28 years old) - his choice of songs was quite interesting and varied - as a PR exercise he did very well.

However - listening to him attempt to justify his role and participation in the stupidest and nastiest parts of the media and his double standards on "privacy" (his is important - other people's isn't) -  put me in mind of this from the much missed Kurt Vonnegut back in 2003 - read it all...:

"I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d’etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka “Christians,” and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or “PPs.”

To say somebody is a PP is to make a perfectly respectable medical diagnosis, like saying he or she has appendicitis or athlete’s foot. The classic medical text on PPs is The Mask of Sanity by Dr. Hervey Cleckley. Read it! PPs are presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw loose!

And what syndrome better describes so many executives at Enron and WorldCom and on and on, who have enriched themselves while ruining their employees and investors and country, and who still feel as pure as the driven snow, no matter what anybody may say to or about them? And so many of these heartless PPs now hold big jobs in our federal government, as though they were leaders instead of sick.

What has allowed so many PPs to rise so high in corporations, and now in government, is that they are so decisive. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they cannot care what happens next. Simply can’t. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody’s telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! Fuck habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my ass!"

via Kurt Vonnegut vs. the &#@ -- In These Times.

Most of us are in no position to make real diagnoses of PP in an individual, especially somebody we only know of via the media. Yet so many of the most successful leaders in government and business appear (to me) to conform to the stereotype.

I think the PP lens is an effective tool for comprehension of incomprehensible times .

The question remains - why do we let these people assume power over us?

Doubley Toothless Charlie!

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="180" caption="Double Toothless Charlie"][/caption]

The Tooth Fairy is being kept busy by Charlie... as his second top-front tooth came out this evening at the FA skills football session in a freak "running/drink-bottle" incident.