My favourite songs in 1991
I have a vivid memory of proudly showing off my record collection to a house-guest. I was twelve and she must have been in her forties. “Oh how sweet” she said, “In a few years you’ll be so embarrassed of these records”.
I was upset by that remark, and resolved to never be embarrassed by my record collection. I thought that due to having a “good taste” in music, I could never be embarrassed. This morning I came across an old mixtape I made around that time, and whether it’s my resolve or my taste, I’m not embarrassed of it*, so here it so to share.
It doesn’t look as gross as this in physical reality.
I turned it into a Spotify playlist so you can listen to it here.
*Making a mixtape which features the same artist about 20 times is a bit embarrassing.
Tracklist:
Pixies – Here Comes Your Man
The Charlatans – The Only One I Know
Happy Mondays – Step On
Jesus Jones – Real Real Real
James – How Was It For You?
The Wonder Stuff – Circle Square
Inspiral Carpets – So Far
Happy Mondays – Performance
Northside – Shall We Take A Trip
The Soup Dragons – I’m Free
Happy Mondays – Kinky Afro
The Farm – Stepping Stone (12″ Original Mix)
Happy Mondays – Hallelujah
Blab Happy – Down
Primal Scream – Sonic Sister Love
Ride – Taste
Happy Mondays – Dennis And Lois
Inspiral Carpets – Besides Me
Happy Mondays – Clap Your Hands
The Charlatans – Over Rising
Happy Mondays – Lazyitis – The One Armed Boxer Remix – Remastered version
The Wonder Stuff – The Size Of A Cow
The Stone Roses – One Love
Inspiral Carpets – She Comes In the Fall
Summer Lightning by P.G. Wodehouse
I took the novel Summer Lightning away on holiday with me this year, and was about 80 pages in when it suddenly occurred to me that I’ve read this book before. I struggled to imagine how I could get this far into a book without having realised, but nevertheless Ronnie Fish, the entrepreneurial nephew of Lord Emsworth proceeded to steal his uncle’s prize pig, Empress of Blandings, and hastened to secrete her in a woodland cottage.
Of course, it turned out that I hadn’t read this before. A quick search of Wikipedia revealed that the Empress had in fact been kidnapped on numerous occasions in a number of P.G. Wodehouse’s stories. So I eagerly continued on.
The balmy summer at Blandings Castle was very suitable for my summer holiday. Laid out in the lawns of Blandings Castle sipping wine, strolling through the rose gardens and striding through the woods, singing merrily whilst being pounded by evening rain were all experiences I shared with the characters, experiences which are very reminiscent of a good old British summer.
There are delightful love stories involving the double-act of Ronnie Fish and his pal Hugo Carmody. Ronnie and Hugo become entwined in a romantic mix-up which causes them to become betrothed to those they do not love, namely the lovely Sue Brown, a chorus girl, and wholesome Millicent Threepwood, whose squeezed position among her aunts has led her to develop an assertive demeanor. The unrequited love meets accidental engagement is a theme so ubiquitous in P.G. Wodehouse novels that it happens more times than pig-kidnappings, but is just as welcome. To further trouble the otherwise tranquil Market Blandings, Hugo, having recently become Lord Emsworth’s (amateur) secretary, meets the stern disapproval of erstwhile secretary Rupert Baxter, who is invited back to Blandings Castle by the meddling Lady Constance.
Woven among these plots is a tale involving Percy Pilbream, an unpleasant private investigator, hired not only to track down the kidnapped Empress of Blandings but also surreptitiously destroy the memoirs of Galahad Threepwood before they can be published. I was so pleased to see Galahad enter into the plot. He’s a warm and entertaining character who is as keen to embroil himself in the controversies and conspiracies of Blandings as he is the drunken wildness of bachelorhood, although now in his later years he embarks on reminiscences rather than the real thing, much to our delight.
As with all P.G. Wodehouse books I’ve read so far, I would highly recommend it. I bought it for next to nothing from Amazon and suggest you do the same before the summer is out.
HONEY
I’m so happy with this.
But what about the aliens?
On Saturday night I was dragged away from the #dolectures party whilst mid-dance. @rhodri captured me articulating my disappointment. CONTAINS SWEARS.
At first it may seem like the rant of a drunken man, but on closer inspection you will find a discussion on the computational theory of the mind, the evolution of dancing and Alien intelligent design.
Transcript:
And then, I don’t know where it was like (swears) we’ve been designed by aliens yeah? And they’ve just tapped into my BIOS and they’re like reconfiguring my (swears) my RAM, like they’ve put me onto 64-bit, when previously I was on 32-bit. Like that. But, but, for the reason of, it’s not like there’s like, you know, maths. I’m like “Yeah, I’m good at maths” and then there’s 64-bit maths. NO! It’s like, I was like dancing! And then they’re like “WOAH”. Like, you’ve got your brain, and there’s like, yeah there’s like eating dinner and going to the shops and having a job, and then, then we’ve doubled the cqapacity, and the other half is for dancing. (inaudible)
And I thought this was brilliant, this is my calling and then I got the “oh, we have to go home now” and then we’re not even home! I’m not even in bed! I’m in a (swears) pub! I mean, to be honest though I probably would have preferred to be in the pub. But you know, but like, what about the aliens?
Mixtape #7 – March 2012
You wait 6 months for a mix and then two show up in one week.
This one’s better than the previous. It’s alright. Sorry about the glitching 36 minutes in. Technological mind vomit.
Tracklist:
Twin Sister – Bad Street
Tim & Jean – I Can Show You (Jump Jump Dance Dance Remix)
Marius – Yester
Savoir Adore – Loveliest Creature (Lightwaves Remix)
Rubblebucket – Silly Fathers (RAC Remix)
Mitzi – India
Body Language – Falling Out
SHINDU – Happy House
AUSTRA – Spellwork (MNDR Nighttime Remix)
Tycho – Hours
Mayer Hawthorne – A Long Time (Chromeo Remix)
Cassian – Getting High (Original Mix)
Whitest Boy Alive – Golden Cage (Fred Falke Remix)
Madeon – Pop Culture (Live Mashup)
Mitzi – All I Heard (Radio edit)
Purity Ring – Ungirthed
Wild Belle – Keep You
Mixtape #6 – Jan 2012
The first mixtape for a while, a bit shit this one. The songs are good, but you know, it’s the way you play ‘em. I’m very rusty, haven’t touched the decks for some time. More to come soon.
Bearcraft Mixtape #6 – Jan 2012
Tracklist:
Austra – Darken Her Horse
Class Actress – Keep You
Yeasayer – Madder Red (Hermanos Inglesos RMX)
Hooray for Earth – No Love
Neon Indian – Heart: Release
Theophilus London – Why Even Try? (RAC Mix)
Cassian – Nobody (Original Mix)
The Weeknd – Glass Table Girls (The Circle Edit)
Pompeya – 90 (Korablove Remix)
MGMT – Siberian Breaks (Ed Banger All Stars Remix)
Mitzi – Morning Light
Neon Indian – Polish Girl
Is Tropical – Lies
SCALE
Jess and I were chatting and learning about Sirius the other day, the brightest star in the sky that’s recently been beaming in through the heavily-light-polluted London skies into our West-facing living room recently.
One of the things that we failed to get a grip on is the scale of distances and sizes. Sirius is the brightest star because of it’s luminosity but also because it’s pretty close, relatively speaking. But it’s still incredibly far away. So far away that we can’t see with the naked eye that it’s actually two stars. And those stars are so far away from each other that if you parked buses end to end in between them you would a 5.796917489e+11 of them. I don’t know what that number means. Or why on Earth you’d want to line up a load of buses like that. Or how many cyclists would be injured in the process.
See what I mean? Trying to grasp scale is a jolly difficult job.
And that’s why this site is so excellent. I spent fifteen minutes on it and felt my awareness and knowledge of the universe expanding exponentially. How wonderful to live in an age in which resources like this exist. Spend some time navigating through it and click on the objects for descriptions. I learnt to much, so quickly, and had a lot of fun too.
I’ve just been sent this video that gives a good comparison of scale between planets and stars. Check out the size of Betelgeuse, another star Jess and I were discussing which has also been shining through our window. When it blows up, as it will very soon (again relatively speaking) or may have already done, the explosion will be quite something, and at the very least we’d have a couple of weeks of consistent “sunlight”, even at night.
The Yacht
Right. The yacht.
So David Willett had been lobbying for it to be gifted to the royals.
But teh royals Charles and Anne have also been lobbying for the yacht to be gifted to themselves. WTF? Now that’s lobbying, eh?
And DAVE CAMMO CAMERON has been warned of bad PR and said that it’s ok, they’ll be asking for private donations to fund it.
BUT THAT’S STILL SHIT. They’re spending the time and resources of public office to do that. That is being paid for by the taxpayer.
Not that I mind this “taxpayer” person paying for things.
But if you’re going to ask the stinking rich to fund something, how about we start with a hospital? What about some massive fucking library?
A library fit for Alexandria. Or a project to get kids out of gangs? Or to rehabilitate prisoners?
NO, LET’S BUILD SOME RICH FAMILY A MASSIVE FUCKING BOAT.
And Foyles are donating half a million for a library TO BE SAILED AROUND THE WORLD BY RICH sillies.
Surely if the goverment are encouraging companies to donate libraries, there are plenty of places they should be built before we get to the middle of the ocean?
The Best YouTube video of 2011
I’m currently eschewing computer gaming and role playing, things which would be my favourite hobbies if I wasn’t so obsessed with making music.
In MMORPGS, which combing role playing and computer gaming, most players spend their time solving mysteries, battling, chatting and adventuring. But the freedom of the game allows you to just act stupidly if you wish to, much to the bemusement of the serious players.
This video reminded me of why I would love both activities so much. As Mr. Mochi demonstrates, there’s plenty of room for weirdos like me.
Sam Coupé: A Letter to Martin.
Back when I was a teeny tiny pontipine I made music using an obscure computer, the Sam Coupé, and sent it to another young fellow called Martin who ran a games company called Metropolis Software.
Here’s one of the disks I sent him, featuring some of my early music. Some of it is bad, some of it shows potential. But the pictures are just superb. The music I made on the Sam Coupé improved over time, but this was the first disk I came across. I’ll try to find some more accomplished work.
To load the disk you need Sim Coupé, the Sam Coupe emulator.
I’ve just realised that “B: Quite a good one” became a Scintillate song, Send me back to Bognor. I had completely forgotten all about it, about until I heard it again this evening.
