I've blown my 'Buy no music this year' promise already

Last night I watched 'Footloose' on Film4. I didn't want to. I had 'Gangster No1' on Bluray sitting by the player but my better half pulled such a face when I told her about the film, I knew me and 'Gangster' would have to wait for another night to be alone.

So, the better half scanned through the channels and 'Footloose' was starting on Film4. I started watching without the help of my iPhone or MacBook and slowly got sucked into it. Kevin Bacon dancing and a thin Chris Penn dancing badly. ( I didn't realise it was Chris Penn when I was a kid.) Anyway, after the really cheesy 'dancing in the warehouse' bit I realised that the tall blond bird was Lori Singer. She was the cello player in 'The Kids from Fame' who couldn't sing for toffee.

The music in Footloose was pretty good but not as good as the music from 'Fame' and then the 'Kids from Fame'. Apart from 'Footloose' and 'Let's Hear it for the Boys' none of the other music from the film evoked any 'musical memories' for me. Both songs reminded me of being in middle school aged about 13 or 14, long corridors and being in the school play 'The Pirates of Penzance'. I also remembered that I preferred Fame at the time and had both the Fame and Kids from Fame soundtracks on tape when I was at school. I know I haven't thrown them away because I don't throw away music but I haven't seen them since I've been an adult. They are probably in a box at my parents house along with my Amstrad computer and lightsabre...

I logged on to Amazon and ordered both CDs for less than a tenner!!! I posted last week about not adding to my overladen CD shelves this year. What can I do? I'm weak and it's too late to change. I am genuinely excited about hearing these 2 great albums again. I only ever heard them on tape so I reckon I'm in for a proper treat. I'll post a blog about it when they arrive.

On last thing. My dad dug out some old VHS home movies the other day and we found a clip of my bedroom, my brother and my first CD player. I had only 2 CD in the entire world then and they were 'Jean Michael Jarre -  Rendevous' and 'Now 7'.

My brother and I had hysterically unbroken voices...

I'll link all the music mentioned in this post, I'm listening to 'Blissed Out' The Beloved whilst writing this.

My Dad Singing Chinese Opera

We went to Newham Chinese Community Centre last week for their Chinese Celebration. My 4 year old daughter asked me to switch her camera onto Video and she ended up filming this. I also feature in it very briefly. (purple jumper/iphone/camcorder)

Enjoy!!!

I've been listening to the Razorlight Album this morning.

Foursquare Application actually helped us out today

I've been using the foursquare app on the iPhone now for a couple of weeks and have managed to gain a couple of badges. I was never too sure what the wider use of the app would be for me but I decided to give it a go anyhow.

I remember I felt the same about Twitter when I first joined over a year ago but I'm glad I stuck with it because I have found some amazing people also using the service. I'm sure you all know who you are.

In short foursquare is a gps based app where you can 'check in' to locations and earn points. You can see who else has checked in and also see 'tips' that have been left. So far I have been quite local and been to Nero's coffee shops and checked into a few locations where I've had business meetings. I've been earning points and points





make badges in this game.

Today I was looking at the longest queue in the world outside the Natural History Museum in London and was wondering what to do. The only other time I have ever seen a queue that long was in the early 80's at the Epcot Centre, Florida waiting to get on the Planet Earth ride. The one that looks like a golf ball.

Wondering what to do I decided I may as well 'check in' at the Natural History Museum on the Foursquare app and see what and who was about. I quickly read all the tips linked to the location and found a really interesting one that said to 'use the 2nd entrance on Exhibition Road if the queues on Cromwell Road were too long.'

So instead of leaving and heading up to Harrods or the V and A we walked to the side entrance and did indeed get in very quickly. Top marks to Foursquare and the user tips.







One of the door staff told me as we had our bags checked that the main queue was over 3 hours long!!!

I'm listening to cartoon birds singing on a kids programme called Third and Bird as I write this. This is the only music I have heard all day.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Last.fm and Blip.fm and CDs and Vinyl Records

Seeing as I'm blogging in the main about the 2nd most important thing in my life I thought I commit my thoughts about Last.fm and Blip.fm to this blog.

As regular readers of this blog will know I have always been and will always be obsessed with music. From my first ever 7 inch single. (Fat Bottomed Girls/Bicycle Race - Queen, given to me by my Uncle Benny to mixing dance MP3s purchased using a Paypal account from Beatport.com on my Macbook using djay. Nearly 30 years or so of musical consumption and counting.

How I access music and the formats have changed so much over the last 30 years. Records and tapes for the first few years, CDs from the mid 80's until now and mp3s and other downloads in the past 5 years.

What I'm really excited about are free streaming sites and services like Last and Blip. I've only been on blip for the last 3 or 4 days and have found the amount of familiar and unfamiliar music on it absolutely astounding. My dj user name is jayman888, have a look at my music feed. I've even connected the Macbook to my proper hifi in my living room and the quality is pretty good.

I'm still in the early stages of using both services but so far I can see that I'd probably use blip.fm when I'm able to interact with the site constantly and I'd use last.fm when I'm working and just need a good mix of background music.

So, I've decided NOT to purchase any formats of music in 2010 and just use these sites for all my music consumption. I already have 1000's of CDs, records, tapes and mp3 taking up various amounts of space in my home, car, office, iphone and ipods. I've spent the last 30 years buying music in one form or another. This year I have decided to stop adding to the clutter...

I still listen to CD's everyday and still dig out vinyl to play on my pro-ject record deck. The quality and depth of the sound cannot be beaten. However, I'm going to have a year off adding to the shelves of CDs in my living room. My back catalogue is ample. A bit like my 'unread' paperbacks pile, but that's another story entirely...

Currently listening to Glenn Hughes – Death Of Me on blip.fm


Thanks to procphil for introducing me to blip.fm

Alexander McQueen Dies

The British fashion designer Alexander McQueen has been found dead at his London home at the age of 40.

His death comes just days before the start of London fashion week and a month before he was to unveil his new collection at Paris fashion week.

His family asked for privacy to come to terms with the death of McQueen, also known as Lee.

His company, Alexander McQueen, issued a statement saying: "On behalf of Lee McQueen's family, Alexander McQueen today announces the tragic news that Lee McQueen, the founder and designer of the Alexander McQueen brand, has been found dead at his home. At this stage it is inappropriate to comment on this tragic news beyond saying that we are devastated and are sharing a sense of shock and grief with Lee's family.

"Lee's family has asked for privacy in order to come to terms with this terrible news and we hope the media will respect this."

Born in London in 1969 as the youngest of six children, McQueen left school at the age of 16 and was immediately offered an apprenticeship at the traditional Saville Row tailors Anderson and Shephard and then at neighbouring Gieves and Hawkes.

McQueen was a four-time winner of the British designer of the year award as well as the international designer of the year award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. He was awarded the CBE in 2003.

The Guardian 2010

I'm listening to Sasha Global Underground San Francisco 009 whilst writing this...

I

I'm still about and training for the marathon.

Evening All

It's been a while since I last posted to my blog. I'm still about but have been a little lazy since Christmas. I do want to keep this blog alive so will post every now and then.

Been training hard for the Virgin London Marathon. I've been running 13 miles easily and looking forward to an 18 miler in the next couple of days. The weather has been conspiring against me. It started to snow again today. Great!

I've been listening to a M.A.N.D.Y CD a lot lately. Also been caning the new Robbie Williams album loads. Both links will be at the bottom of this post. I can't get a link for the M.A.N.D.Y cd but it's called '12 Great Remixes from 11 Great Artists'

I've also just finished reading the Sebastian Faulks James Bond Novel- 'Devil May Care' . It didn't change my life, it was okay not great and I certainly put it down a lot and sometimes didn't turn the pages.