July 2007 Archives

How excellent is Bill Bailey?

For those of you saying/thinking, "Actually, not very," go and get a brick to hit yourself over the head with, or even better a compass... then watch this clip. It's his love song... a slice of brilliance.

Clearly a genius. Sensible now?

Right, Bill Bailey has announced he's going to enter next year's Eurovision Song Contest. He's a wonderful musician and it might just work. Although I do worry that he'll ruin his reputation but he'll produce something magnificent I'm sure.

The citation below links to the full entry on his blog but:

What the public wants, the public gets. And it seems that the question on the lips of the nation at the moment is: "Will Bill be entering Eurovision?"

Well thanks to the demand created by online groups, Bill has decided to put himself forward for the next contest. And being the man of the people that he is, he's going to let you choose his entry and will be working on some new songs which you will have the opportunity to vote for.

So if you'd like to see Bill step onto the Eurovision stage to the accompaniment of Terry Wogan's wry commentary, and deliver a great UK entry for once, then keep watching the website for your opportunity to vote.

[via BillBailey.co.uk]

Last.fm have been doing some great things recently... in fact they have for a long time. I've been using them since 25th July 2005 after all!

As I've written about before (although I can't find the exact post to link to, so maybe I've imagined it), they log what you listen to in a range of media players and create charts based on that along with recommendations of music you might like and working out who your neighbours are - people with similar musical taste. I have the software installed on my laptop at school for when I'm marking and at home for when I'm doing other things. There is also a piece of software for your iPod, although I can't comment on that because I refuse to own an iPod... It really is very handy and my profile page on the site is here.

But they also provide little plug-ins for sites such as the ones down the right of the main page. I used to only have a quilt of my top albums but I've now replaced that with a streaming radio based on my musical taste that anyone can use (broadband would be a good idea...), something that shows you my recently played tracks and when I listened to them and, finally, a smaller quilt of my top artists.

Also, I've added an extra subscription option based on my RSS feed. This one's provided by Bloglines, again I've been using their RSS notifier personally for a while. But if you want to know when this place is updated - which is rare - it's a handy thing to have on your computer to link all your RSS feeds together in one place.

This is somthing I owned for quite a few years before actually being able to hear it. It's on a mysterious format known as vinyl... and my dad's old turntable had long since bitten the dust.

But then I was bought a USB turntable to help convert vinyl into MP3s and one bored Sunday afternoon, I decided to give it a go.

I own lots of Divine Comedy stuff - Neil is a total and utter legend and anyone who says he isn't needs to have their head seen to. With a hammer.

Where was I... oh yes, I own lots of Divine Comedy stuff, lots on vinyl and this was the first one I chose to bring into the modern era.

There's a few reasons for this. It's his only picture disc, it has songs that you can't find anywhere else and I've yet to meet anyone who's heard them in a good long while.

On my first listen, which was after recording it from the vinyl because the software won't record and play at the same time not even if I ask it nicely and tick the box that says it will, it was like hearing a whole new world for me.

You must understand that there's little Divine Comedy that I haven't heard and to have something come at you for the first time when it was recorded so long ago and when Neil has been through different albums with different styles, is wonderful. There is no other word for it.

I only wish that more people in the world could hear this music.

OK, so it's not the best quality recording in the world, it's a little crackly - and I do understand that some people rant and rave about the 'warmth' of music on vinyl (something I can never relate to because I grew up surrounded by cassettes, CDs and now MP3s, but that's another argument entirely) - but I'm bothered about the crackles, about the sound not being perfect. For me, hearing these tracks for the first time is like discovering a new book from the Bible. To me it's that significant.

And I know that's a really strange analogy for some of you reading... but I am kind of obsessed.

Every so often I write an entry here about how I'll post more often. Or how I'm sorry I haven't been posting more often. And to be honest, my time gets squeezed so much when I'm working that I just don't have chance to write for here or any of my sites.

So... it's the summer holidays. I should get much more time to write here.

I have got lots and lots of things I've found around to internet to post about and I will get round to doing them. But first I have something I want to do.

Within this domain, I have lots of different sites and different things going on and I want to merge them together so it makes things easier for me, and for anyone who's reading to be honest... (I'd love to know who is reading by the way, so please comment, just to let me know...)

Also, I should probably post about my job.

I have, starting in September, a new, permanent (if all goes well) teaching post. It's at a school called Millbridge in Liversedge, quite big and I'll be in a mixed 5/6 class and I'll be responsible for Year 6 Maths with SATs in mind... oh bugger. It's a lovely place, with lots of wonderful staff - both teachers and support - and I fit in well there. I have been working there since Easter on a long term supply deal but they want to carry on putting up with me.

And that's all there is to it really! It's going to eat up more time than ever, but I'll do my best to set aside some time on a weekend to write regularly (how often have I typed those words before...?)