| Waxidermy Auctions for Haiti |
[Jan. 15th, 2010|03:01 pm] |
Most of you who know me will know that collecting records is dear to my heart and well, the good folks at Waxidermy (home of "weird records that suck") are running a series of charity auctions of rare and collectible records to raise money for various charities. If you've ever fancied dusting of that turntable and getting your hands on some black vinyl goodness, now is the time -
Waxidermy Auctions for Haiti.
Please spread the latter link around where interested parties will see it. Thanks. |
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| Blogging problem |
[Oct. 1st, 2009|11:16 am] |
Hi there
Having a bit of a problem with Blogger at work at the moment. We have set up blogs for the students for their A2 coursework - blogs linked to a Googlemail account. Someone - presumably a student - has changed the password and we can't access them. Any ideas as to how we can hack this to reset the password? The automatic "send email to password" thing doesn't work 'cos it sends the password to the Googlemail account, which we can't access as we dont' share the same password.
Any bright ideas? |
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| A Cabinet of Cut-price Curiosities |
[Apr. 19th, 2009|12:25 pm] |
As you probably all know, I've been sublimating my anxiety and concerns about life by buying records for the last six months or so. Well, I am about to start taking things seriously again, but in the meantime, I thought I'd share with you (some of) the fruits of what I've been up to. What I enjoy the most about buying records isn't annoying bidding wars on ebay - rather it's the spirit of wandering around the city, digging in a box of crust and taking a punt or a chance on something unknown and seeing what you discover, hopefully finding something fascinating or groovy in these random encounters. I haven’t found any mad psych raers but that’s not really the point – what have consistently found is records I’ve enjoyed, that pique my curiousity or fascinate me in some way.
Some of the fruits of my exertions are in the chart below. This chart was originally for the VG+ board but I'm chucking it out here for you guys as well. All these records have in common is that I’ve found them all (bar one) digging out and about in the last few months or so, and that I knew nothing about them when I picked them up. A couple are from “proper” shops but most are from charities. Oh, and they were all cheap as chips – most expensive by a long shot was £10. It’s a bit random and all over the place, but… erm.. so am I.
I( Cut for obsession/madness ) |
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| COUNTRY WALK POSTPONED |
[Mar. 29th, 2009|12:08 am] |
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It seems like too many people can't make it, so I'm putting it off. I've tried to phone/text everyone, hope you all see this. I hope to run it in a week or twos time. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 23rd, 2009|07:39 pm] |
Hi all
So, this is the detail for the proposed country walk, to take place this Sunday (hope I haven't left it to late for people).
As this is the first time I've organised this, I've picked an easy walk - 3 out of 10! (Also, we may have a pregnant lady along) - and one easily reachable from central London - it's on the tube!It's in the second volume of the Time Out Book of Country Walks near London. It's walk no. 4, Chesham to Great Missenden. I propose to do the abbreviated version of this which is 5.9 miles long.
I suggest meeting at Baker Street at 10am - this Sunday, 29th March. I don't really know Baker Street Station so I'd suggest the platform of the Westbound Branch of the Metropolitan Line unless anyone knows a more convenient meeting spot.
The walk takes us from Chesham Station up through some lovely sounding countryside and woodland. There is a proposed lunch stop at The Pheasant Inn (which provides "inventive, though not cheap, food" - I don't know whether that is a threat or a promise! I'd be keen to try that but if there's a consensus we could bring some kind of picnicy snacks, bread, cheese, fruit etc.
I'll provide photocopies of the map and instructions for all of you, so we can all take a turn orienteering! Obviously, if it's going to piss it down, we'll give it a miss but hopefully the weather will hold.
So - let me know if you are in and what you fancy doing re. food. Going to email people this as well, in case I miss anyone.
Dan |
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| Country Walk |
[Mar. 17th, 2009|08:31 am] |
I am totally failing at technology. I don't have half of your emails and Facebbok messages is failing to open on my works computer. All the more reason for a pastoral existence! Or at least, a pastoral afternoon.
I propose the 29th March as I can't do the Sunday the 5th and I'd like to get this done. Takers? Yet to finalise the location but there are several nice ones that are within 30 mins of London Bridge. Will post full details later. |
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| Country Walk Discussion |
[Mar. 15th, 2009|10:26 pm] |
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Guys, I'm going to switch the walk to my works email as it strikes me as an easier way to organise. If I don't have an email for you, please send me one through Facebook or LJ, or I'll text you. Ta. |
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| A Very (Nice Walk) in the Country |
[Mar. 10th, 2009|08:51 pm] |
Spring is upon us, the flowers are blooming, the trees are doing whatever it is that they do...or maybe not quite yet, but they certainly will be in a few weeks - which is when I propose we go out for a bit of a walk.
The plan (if we have sufficient interest) - get a train out of London, a route/distance not too pricey and do a short walk from one of the many guidebooks now available. I have the Time Out one for instance, and the walks very in length from 3 to 12 miles or so. Perhaps stop off at a pub for lunch, and go for drinks/dinner/Radox baths as suits when we return to London.
If you fancy it, please indicate your interest here. Try and say any dates which are totally impossible for you as well. I'd be thinking 2/3 weeks time. |
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| LDN: Calling all geeks |
[Mar. 4th, 2009|03:59 pm] |
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Does anyone want to go and see Watchmen over the weekend? Saturday, Sunday - might be a push to get Friday night tickets. State a preference for day if so, and I'll book them. |
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| The baleful influence of Paxman |
[Feb. 27th, 2009|02:17 pm] |
I've been watching and listening to lots of news broadcasts lately, and it seems whilst it's arguable that the news is dumbing down (Radio 4 et al still seem to have be pretty solid to me, not sure how TV News matches), it's unarguably that the journalists are *ruder*. They can't seem to finish a bloody interview without trying to interrupt their subject midsentence with the patented Paxman "aggressive questioning". "AHA! But that was your fault, WASN'T IT??!!"
I was just watching the afternoon news and some idiot journo was trying to lay into Gordon Brown, mid sentence. While I'm not one to stand up for deference (certainly not with Gord),it's annoying because it doesn't actually increase the audience comprehension of whichever story is under debate. One gets sucked into this malestorm of the journalist trying to rudely show up whoever it is. Who do these people thing they are, Gordon Ramsey?
FFS. |
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| " a joyous refrain..." |
[Feb. 23rd, 2009|06:31 pm] |
I watched Singing in the Rain last night. What a glorious film. I wasn't expecting to be quite so enjoyable. Really liked the satirising of Hollywood fakery, loadsa interesting material (from a Film History point of view) about the transition to talkies, and the dancing! Om my days, as my kids are wont to say... I'll be trying some of those movies at Duckie. Also, the use of colour, and the feel this gave the film was absolutely incredible in the song and dance sequences especially the Broadway Melody sequence at the end. The tendency to burst into song everytime someone opened a door or dropped a hankie used to irritate me in musicals, but it doesn't anymore ... perhaps I am getting romantic and soppy in my old age.
If you haven't seen it - and need a bit of feelgood cheering up - do so immediately.
Part of the reason I watched it was as I was teaching Clockwork Orange today and I wanted to show the Gene Kelly sequence in contrast to Alex/Malcolm McDowell's brutality. It's a very effective contrast!
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| Currently... |
[Feb. 21st, 2009|08:52 pm] |
Currently reading: The internet, too much. When I can bring myself to switch it off, James Hillman’s “Re-visioning Psychology”. I might take Zenith’s tip about Goodreads, as I want to start reading a lot more. I will finish “Against the Day” this year.
Currently listening: Right now, Elvis “King Creole” soundtrack, brought from Fopp sale today, alongside The Maytals. Loch Ness Monster reggae comp, Step Forward punk singles boxset and Joe Meek EP. The Elvis is surprisingly good. Rocking the iPod, various toytown pop downloaded from Marmalade Skies. I’ve also been playing “Metamorphoses: Electrnic Interpretations of Modern & Classical Works” a lot – it’s a Russian LP on Melodaya and features a track by Eduard Artimeve, the guy who did the Stalker soundtrack. It’s also that weirdest of commodities, a good record I brought from a charity shop.
Currently watching: Myself, in the mirror. Not much TV really. I saw “Being There”, Peter Sellers as an idiot savant Jesus, last night. God knows what will be next. City of Men DVD has lurked next to the TV for a month or so but I’ve still not watched it all. The news a lot, fascinated by our economic implosion.
Current thrills: Records, generally. Getting inspired by various esoteric interests again. “The ladeez”… and getting fit again. Rocking my new coat – it rules. Winning ebay auctions and throwing all my new records and work papers all over the floor till it looks like a pigsty in ‘ere.
Current wearing: Muji shirt, whie T-shirt, new jeans, holy socks. Shirt and jeans unfortunately makes me think of that picture of Nick in The Guardian.
Current hobbies: Records, to the extent that its getting boring. Exercise (again). Meditation, Hsing I and Ba Gua.
Current plan: Stay awake till I go to sleep. Then martial arts and work.
Current product desires. Surprisingly, records. A book that hasn’t yet been written, fusing Reich, bodywork, tantra and loads of other stuff together in a coherent, non-mystical fashion.
Currently in love with: No one, but so what? |
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| Half term - what to do? |
[Feb. 16th, 2009|02:42 pm] |
Hello land of Livejournal
I am off work this week. What are some enjoyable, reasonably inexpensive activities I could indulge in? I *may* go to Brighton, I will probably do some exercise, other than that not to sure - any ideas? |
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| Former Barbeloids |
[Jan. 6th, 2009|07:15 pm] |
Please go here and sigh this:
www.barbelith.com/topic/28731
It's a petition to Tom to have the board turned into an archive. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 19th, 2008|04:18 pm] |
It was really great to see everyone last night, almost too many people to talk to - to wheel out a Xmas cliche, let's do it again soon.
As "promised" (quotes = like anyone cares)
Here's a list of all the records I've brought this month:
( Cut for lunacy )
The sad thing is, I may well have forgotten some of them....
Hope to see you all in the not-too-distant anyway.
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| The state of my head, Novembe 2008 |
[Nov. 23rd, 2008|11:46 am] |
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Hello internets, I haven’t been on LJ for ages, in part due to it being blocked at work, in part due to not being arsed and generally being too busy, largely with work. It’s nowt unblocked so I am watching you all again. Occupied the last few months with meeting lots of new people, training a lot and being overwhelmed at work. This is passing so I thought I’d do one of these slightly narcisstic posts. currently reading: Richard Wilhelm’s essay “Constancy & Change”, Dave Lee’s new book “Bright from the Well” (the Northern trad through a very modern, filter with diversion into science, poetry, fiction, breathwork and sorcery. (Mordant you *need* to read this), “Fire in the Soul” by , autobiography of Joe Harriot, famous Jazz saxophonist and
currently watching: Halfway through Three Burials (I have to watch this for work – how good is my job!), and deep into Death Note (great insane detective anime courtesy of Seth)
currently listening to: Lots and lots of vinyl records – best buys of the last week being Annette Peacock – “I’m the One” and the Daughters of Albion’s self-titled LP. Specifically, right now, this Asher G roots session I dug this out after seeing him win at a soundclash last night – I hope the promised MP3 of this materialises
current thrills: Winning records on ebay. Having a job I like. Resurgent interest in tantra and the I Ching. Organising a tape swap via Dissensus (please feel free to join up and join in).
current hobbies: See above. Martial arts as well.
currently wearing: The usual - the usual being more than halfway through it’s passage to it’s passage to the old – I really need to buy some new clothes.
current plan: Stop buying so many records on ebay and do something slightly different with my time (see resurgent interests above). Go see "Gomorrah". Get more proficient at my job. Save for some traveling.
currently into these products: Hsing and Ba Gua classes. My record collection.
current product desires: A copy of “Bass Odyssey” by Monk Montgomery, which I lost on ebay last night.
currently in love with: Life
currently wondering: Will Ritchie bring back the records I asked for from the Utrecht record fair?
current angst: Losing aforementioned copy of “Bass Odyssey” The above is perhaps a bit vinyl- centric, but the initial flurry of passionate revived interest is perhaps passing or at least slipping back into it's rightful place, I think I got so into because a) I'm a huge nerd but b) because it's value-neutral rather than the heavy "self-development orientated stuff I often take an interest in.
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| MA - Social Networking |
[Aug. 21st, 2008|04:14 pm] |
Hi all
It's been a while.....
Back from the Green Man festival, which was generally wonderful and readying myself for work. Media Studies is changing hugely as a discipline because of the Web 2.0 stuff and I'm wondering about trying to get "ahead of the curve" by doing an MA (not till the next educational year obviously). Does anyone know of any MAs which focus on Social Networking/Web 2.0 - not from a programming perspective (can you even do programming related MAs?) but from a cultural/theoretical angle, ideally with a focus on education?
Failing that, can you think of any interesting academics with interesting things to say about these areas, as these might be good people for me to chase up. |
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| Bacchus 8/8/8 - A starter |
[Aug. 9th, 2008|04:16 am] |
Last night, as part of of the birthday celebrations for young ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) choctaw_ridge, the lovely gane5h us all to Bacchus. I will be posting up pictures of all the lovely grub, but this is a kind of test post until I get the interface between Flickr and LJ sorted out.
In the meantime for your delectation, Amuse Bouche number 2 - Tuna, tomato, and consomme. This photo really doesn't do justice to how good it tasted.
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| Where I've been... on the interwebs at least... |
[Jul. 21st, 2008|09:23 pm] |
I've been renewing my teenage dream of having a decent, sizable record collection again, largely 'cos of actually having the money to do so. It might seem a retrograde step in this era of iPods and so forth, but Vinyl is Back apparently. I quite like the idea of teensy teenage emo kids coveting 7"s again, how cool is that? More generally, I'm glad that our species desire for *objects* to handle, have and to hold means that not everything gets dematerialised and beamed up into the cyber-ether. Thank God for keeping it real (literally).
( More about records )
In other news, down to Seth's till Friday, and my phone charger has busted so I might be hard to reach. Send mail or PM. |
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