Steve & Lobelia - house concert

http://www.livingroomsessions.com/
This is the sort of concert I wanted to host at our place. The sticking point was how to finance it. Somehow we would have to raise enough to pay the musicians and cover their travel expenses, but don't really want to charge friends to come to our house.

Enjoy the show. There's a bit of chat that you may want to skip past

The Big Picture - Boston.com

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/
This site consistently has great current affairs pics from around the world. They are currently showing the best of this year.

Beware, some pictures are disturbing.

Lego Network

http://mln.lego.com/en-gb/Network/default.aspx
The kids are having lots of fun with this. It's a sort of social network, but very safe. You have to collect and build items to rise through the ranks.

Doctor Who at the Barbican

People behind the show and a few monsters

PC World - The 10 Most Overrated Products

http://www.pcworld.com/article/151402-5/the_10_most_overrated_products.html
"Overrated: Facebook; Underrated: Multiply"

Pretty much what I think, even though I still prefer open systems. I intend to write a follow-up to my last blog post.

Stotfold Steam Fair

Gorgeous weather for a cycle ride over to Stotfold to see the old engines and other sights. Lots of fun subjects for photographers. Some of these were taken by the kids.

If there is any demand I will upload some treats for any 'Ex-tractor fans' (sorry, family joke)

I've joined a band

I know, mid-life crisis and all that, but I enjoy making music and have finally found an outlet.

Details on the blog.

I'll let you know when there's a gig, but that may not be for a while.

Cool furniture

I found this picture in a blog post. More details here. It's a bit expensive at $7000!

Pond after some tidying

Everything around the pond had got a bit tall, so I cut it back. Pulled some plants out of the pond itself as they were taking over. I didn't get any on film, but there are lots of frogs in there.

New gig experience

I'm having fun watching a gig by bass virtuoso Steve Lawson, his wonderful singer wife Lobelia and some other people. It's at a pub in London, but being streamed live on Ustream. It may be available for watching later.

What makes it more fun is that there is a chat feature there so you can discuss the gig with other viewers. Unfortunately there are not many of us on there and maybe even fewer at the gig. People are missing out on some great music.

I'm seeing Steve and Lobelia play on Tuesday at Bar Darbuka, not far from Kings Cross. Saw them there recently (see review). Nice, intimate venue.

Okay, back to the stream for the next set.

Update: The recorded gig is here

The other cool musical/internet thing this week was when someone at work lent me a CD. I listened and the list of tracks was uploaded to last.fm as usual. I have an RSS feed from there of gigs that I might like and within an hour that artist appeared there. This is how I think things should be. Amazon recommends based on what you buy, but I listen to a lot of music without having to by it. last.fm recommends without too much commercial interference. Oh, and I passed 20,000 tracks this week. Took me over 4 years.

Kung Fu Panda

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Animation

Good fun family film. Fat panda becomes martial arts hero, the usual stuff. The animation is great and the voice talents do a good job.

Meet the neighbours | Groups Near You

http://www.groupsnearyou.com/
This is something I have wanted to see for ages, a way to search for local on-line groups. It can be used for any sort of organisation. They need you to add any that should be there.

Benjamin Zander on music and passion | Video on TED.com

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html
Inspirational talk on music and more

Firefox web browser | Faster, more secure, & customizable

http://www.getfirefox.com/
I've been using Firefox as my browser on Windows and Linux for a few years and it's great. The new version released yesterday has some neat tricks. You can enhance it with all sorts of add-ons.

I only ever use Internet Explorer when I really have to. Usually on work-related sites that need it. For general use I've seen too many problems with naughty software getting installed when you happen to browse a dodgy site.

The Carbon Account

http://www.thecarbonaccount.com/
A site that can log your CO2 generation based on your car, house and flights. It should show where you can make changes. If you join up let me know.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Rating:	★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Action & Adventure

Has it really been about 20 years since the last one? It must be as I was still living in Germany when I saw it. So Harrison Ford is getting on a bit, but he still has some fight in him (actually a lot of fight).

Does the plot really matter? It's another case of bad guys trying to get hold of some ancient artifact to rule the world.

There's plenty of action, much of it not generated by computers, but they still get used for some big set pieces. We get some old-fashioned car chases.

Inidiana has a couple of fights with one baddie that do go on a bit. These seemed a little much considering how many kids would be watching. How he can walk away after that much beating I don't know.

Overall it's pretty enjoyable, but lacks the spark of the earlier films. Sean Connery was much missed this time.

Any opinions out there?

Music at Darbucka

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

I had a great evening at a small gig in London this week. Stadium gigs are all very well, but you have no chance of decent food and a chance to actually talk to the band.

Full report on the blog

Picture courtesy of my new friend Wulf.

New gadget

I just bought a new toy to do some music recording on. More details on the blog. I hope to be uploading some recordings here in the near future. Stay tuned.

Essential TV

It's not for kids, but the US animation Family Guy is excellent. There's something to offend everyone, but you will still laugh. This week BBC3 showed their extended spoof on Star Wars, but I missed the beginning. Luckily I just found out about the BBC programme database that tells you when each episode will be on again as shown here. It is repeated tonight! I could have found this in my Radio Times, but there are just too many channels to check each day.

I only watch a few programmes each week. Tonight it's Heroes. It's silly, lightweight stuff, but entertaining enough. Last night I watched Later that I had recorded on my PC. I have some very powerful media centre software called MythTV. To make best use of it I really need to leave the PC on all the time, but it tends to get switched off unless I know it will be recording.

Wii Jedi!

This looks like a must-have for Wii-owning Star Wars fans

Force Unleashed

Not that I have the time to play the games I already have.

RSS Day

Apparently it is RSS Day today. If you don't know it stands for Really Simple Syndication (or other things according to other sources), but it means that you can keep up to date with lots of web sites without having to visit them every day.

Just about every blog or news site publishes an RSS feed, including mine. If you use Firefox then you will see an Orange icon in the address bar when it detects a feed. You need software to read the feeds for you. There are various options there, but I've mainly used on-line readers so that I can access them from multiple computers. My current favourite is Google Reader.

Every morning I log into Google and see all the updates that have come in. This way I can track news from dozens of sites. It can get overwhelming if you subscribe to too many, but I cut back once in a while.

Give it a try and drop me a line if you have questions.

Garden of Cosmic Speculation

I heard a segment on Radio 3 today about a piece of music based on the above garden. Some of the music sounded a bit like Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.

Looked up the garden. Then realised it is by the same designer as the piece by the Modern Art Gallery in Edinburgh.

There's a book about it too. It's like something from Alice in Wonderland.

The garden is near Dumfries, but is only open for one day. I think it was on 5th May. Worth a look if you can get there.

Saving the planet

I've just been clearing out some old paperwork and it got me thinking. Do we really need all this paper? Some companies send out massive amounts.

I recently got a small discount on my Virgin phone bill by not getting the itemised bill each month. I can access it on-line.

You can get your TV licence by email by changing your details at TV Licencing

We just had a new Yellow Pages, but we hardly ever use it. Can you opt out of getting it?

Here are 50 ways to help the planet

We all have to do our bit.

Twittering

I have a new on-line toy. I joined Facebook a while back, but it doesn't particularly excite. I haven't found much use for it. There are groups for work and Arlesey, but nothing much happens in them. There is now a group for Mum's ballet school, but not many have joined yet.

My new toy is Twitter. It is sort of like the Facebook status messages, but much more flexible. You can make your messages available to the whole world or restrict them to friends. You can post messages from your phone or via instant messaging. Some call it micro-blogging, which is how I use it. If I have a thought about something I can quickly post it there. If I have more to say then I can write it on on my blog when I have time.

It's interesting to know what friends and family are up to, especially if I don't seem them so often. Not that I will give up on things like the telephone for a good chat.

You can also follow various internet celebrities on there or use it to get news from various web sites.

I know I tend to get excited over every new technology, but these things are free to use and I feel I get some benefit from them. At least you have me to road-test them for you.

WinterDrum 08

Jamming

This was a great all-day drumming course with evening concert. I did two sessions on djembe and dundun

Cool stairs

Here's a nice way to store your books on the stairs. Maybe we should have built something like that, although it doesn't handle tall books.

If looks are more important than actually finding stuff, then you can organise your books by colour.

We need to rationalise our book collection. The upstairs fiction bookcase is full and the study shelves need tidying up. We could probably get rid of more books that we will never read again, but we like to keep certain ones.

I planned to get some more CD/DVD shelves for the study from Ikea, but they stopped doing them in the 'oak' finish for some reason. Argos do some that should match, but it's hard to find anywhere with stock.

Sweeny Todd

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Drama

I'm a big fan of Tim Burton and this features his two main actors, who are not known as singers. They do a pretty good job, as do the rest of the cast. It's beautifully filmed in proper 'old London' grime. There is rather a lot of blood all over the place, but I wouldn't class it as a nasty horror film as seems to be popular these days. This is a musical about murder. Great fun for grown-ups.

Can you read this?

Apparently some people find it easier than others. I found ti fairly easy.

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too.

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

iPlayer

No, this is nothing to do with Apple. iPlayer is the BBC's TV on demand service. Around Xmas they announced that there would be a web streaming version as well as the Windows-only software. I have to say that it works great on my Linux PC, including full-screen mode, but you have to watch out for your screensaver cutting in.

Last night I watched my first full programme on iPlayer. This was How Pop Songs Work, an interesting exploration into what makes a good pop song. I happen to like programmes about how music works, but managed to miss this one when it went out. You have 5 days before it expires. I know some people get this sort of service from their cable TV, but for those of us who choose not to subscribe it's a useful extra way to catch the few good shows that you may miss.

Also on the music front, I'm reading Oliver Sacks' Musicphilia about the mind and music. It is largely about when the brain goes wrong, but also about why some people may be better at music than others.

Wii

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Computers & Electronics
Product Type:	Video Game Systems
Manufacturer:	Nintendo

By a bit of luck I managed to get one of these rare beasts in time for Xmas. I've not kept up with the progress in consoles lately, but this is an amazing but of kit. The graphics may not be as realistic as I've seen on Sony and Microsoft units, but the gameplay is spot on. The fact that you have to wave the controllers about making it a more physical experience.

So far we only have the Sports and Play discs. I'm wondering what to get next. Happy Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean (not in the same game unfortunately) appeal for the kids. I know that there are more 'adult' games (i.e. violent), but I'm not sure I would find time to play them. So what is good and where are good places to buy?

I also need to get our house wireless enabled so that we can link up with others.

I'm off to check on my Wii fitness level.