The Bloomers

Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and that the new year brings everything you want.

About The Christmas Number One

So, Rage Against The Machine's song Killing In The Name Of beat the X-Factor's Joe McElderry who has released his version of the Miley Cyrus cover Climb. And beat it by 50,000 copies, selling half a million copies and raising money for the charity Shelter.

I'm mildly conflicted.

The Chart. Who Cares?

So the Christmas number one. That's to do with the chart, right? The problem is that most people who care about music don't care about the chart. For a start you have to buy a song. Buy. I haven't bought a CD or a song for ages. I listen to all my music on Spotify or on radio. And with internet radio you can listen whenever you want, and wherever you want. (And yes, I sometimes listen to country radio in the US.) If I want to find new music I can let radio recommend me new stuff (6Music is my current favourite), or use online charts such as WeAreHunted. I particularly like the WeAreHunted spotify playlist. Maybe I'm atypical? I don't use an iPod, I don't listen to much music on the move except for in the car. Don't know, but even if the chart somehow accounts for everything everyone is listening to there's still going to be a chunk of people who are listening to cool stuff and just don't care.

X-Factor got beaten

Ho ho ho. Funniest was Cowell and Cole's moans of outrage, that it wasn't fair, that it was mean. Everyone is just playing by the rules Simon.

It's Rage Against The Machine!

It's easy to forget now the impact that their debut album had. It was 1992 I think. Rock was emerging from Hair Metal. There were some pretty bad rock/rap crossovers. Then this. Shouting, rapping, anger, venom, political statements and crazy brilliant guitar from Tom Morello. I spent ages listening to Morello's guitar playing wondering how on earth he made some of those sounds. I'm still not sure. But a bona fida Guitar Hero as Christmas number one? Cool.

My short story Reboot has been published

My short story Reboot has been published by the webzine Short-Story.me.

Here’s how it starts:

A quantum worm uncoiled itself out of the machine being restored, suddenly collapsing into a specific state and wreaking havoc within the operating system. Alarms sounded and the graphs scrolling across Tom's screen spiked wildly. His laptop was plugged into a large black box of qubits, the liquid hydrogen coolant vented slowly in quietly dissipating clouds. Inside, beneath the desperately stylish matt black metallic exterior, beneath the ultra-cooled chamber, inside the electron traps, sat a countless number of electrons, reduced to acting as quantum bits. The qubit box was plugged into the local network, copying its state carefully in a safe, isolated, two-phase restore of the destroyed machines.

Go and read it and tell me what you think.

Yet another Big Dumb Object. All roads lead to http://www.bigdumbobject.co.uk

Bricks And Mortar? Who Cares?

Electric Guitar

Today I went to a music shop, Dawsons to be precise. They're a chain and sell all sorts of musical instruments. I knew exactly what I wanted and had done research for prices online. I made a spreadsheet. I took a printout of the spreadsheet into the shop with me.

Hello, I said, I'd like this guitar and this amp, and this is how much I can get it for online. Can you match it?

The guy serving me was young and very nice, he had to ask the manager. The manager, rather dismissively, said he wouldn't match the two lowest prices because those shops weren't "bricks and mortar", they were web based shops. However he would match one of the shops that was "bricks and mortar", knocking £29 off the guitar. I could get it £5 cheaper online but thought I'd let it pass.

Next: gig bag and guitar lead. The gig bag was £15 more expensive than online. I asked them to match it, the manager said no.

So all in all I could get the package £20 cheaper online. Sorry, I said. I'll get it online. The guy serving me was helpless and said sorry, then goodbye.

I left and bought it online at GAK. After all £20 is four packs of strings.

How strange that a shop would say no to me spending a few hundred quid for the sake of twenty quid. Of course I don't know their margins, perhaps they would be making a loss selling it to me for that price? It seems unlikely though. Either way, why would I buy it there and not online? 

Frank Turner. LIVE!

I've been listening to Frank Turner's music ever since I first heard Long Live The Queen on Radio 1. Because I loved that song so much I bought Love Ire & Song which has some truly wonderful songs on it. Frank's latest album is Poetry of the Deed which was less instant than the previous album, but still great.

(I'm providing Spotify links because I use Spotify. If you haven't got it, get it, if you can't, sorry.)

If I had to describe his music ermm... kind of folky? Not quite rock? Protest songs and life affirmation? Punk Folk? I don't know.

I'm happy to say that all his songs were magnificent live. He's an awesome performer, full of passion. The crowd sang along and felt happy. And all in all the gig was really great.

There you go, in-depth gig review journalism. How can you describe a good gig? I dunno. He played all his best songs, everyone sang along and it was like one of those great gigs which you want to relive again.

Also, the drummer from Unbelievable Truth, Nigel Powell is in his band. Which is nice, because I loved their stuff too.

The support bands were Beans On Toast and Fake Problems. Beans On Toast was quite funny and had a couple of good songs, well actually one song with different words, and some rubbish songs too. Fake Problems were okay, the singer was a bit too shouty and they were very young, but possibly some funky tunes in there.

Go and see Frank Turner. He is good.

 

I've been told to blog again

So here I am blogging.

I stopped blogging here for a few reasons. Well actually excuses.

1. I want to talk about what I've just done and use the photos I've just taken and the photos are still on my camera and not on Flickr.
2. It's easier to just Tweet.
3. I wasn't sure anyone would miss it if I stopped.

Well 1 is a rubbish excuse, and I just need to empty my camera more.

2 is still true but apparently does not provide enough detail for my readers.

Which brings me onto 3. I actually have at least 3 readers!

Okay, I'll start blogging here again. (Although probably just for Friends and Family.)

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has a fantastic and wonderful New Year.

I must do more blogging here.

Bumper batch of cool Threadless T-Shirts

Eddie Izzard Live!

Eddie Izzard, live at the Lyric theatre in London.

It's a nice theatre, in the West End. We had balcony tickets and were a bit worried that we would be too far away, but the theatre isn't massive so it was fine, we could still see his face and expressions.

He was awesomely funny. I laughed so much it hurt. I can't even begin to explain any of the funny stuff, but I'm still chuckling at stuff I remember. 

Not only is he funny, he is also cool. Very cool.

If you can get to see him, GO! RUN! NOW! Or maybe buy the DVD when it comes out.