Bad Hi-fi Day

I am beginning to wonder if there is some kind of multi media poltergeist in my house. earlier on this year I had terrible problems with my Sony MP3 player that were only rectified by sending it back and getting an ipod. My pc has a problem where the time and date have reverted to 2002 every time I switch it on, the pc shop swore that this was to do with the battery but that was replaced a few months ago and now it has started doing it again. I had digital tv installed 2 weeks ago and we are now on our second digi box as the first had a sound fault. Not only that but NTL has the cheek to say they are taking the original seperate amounts of money out of my bank account for tv/phone/broadband that I was already paying - the whole point of swapping to digital was to bundle them all together and save money - eek! Finally I switched on my new stereo yesterday and now it only has sound through one speaker - grrrr. After lots of investigation the cd player has to go back - unlucky or what.

Maybe the gods are telling me to abandon all this electrical equipment and go back to nature. Maybe it's the planet telling us to stop using so much bloody electricity. Whatever!

Driving Music

We drove to the coast at the weekend and even though it was hot (the car has no air conditioning) it was a great musical journey. Hunchermuncher has this great gadget that enables you to plug your ipod into the car stereo cassette player, which makes any journey instantly miles better in my opinion.

Some music is just great for car journeys. I often make a car trip playlist trying to cater for the tastes of whoever is travelling. This weekends big hit was "Won't get Fooled Again" by the Who. It's just right for a road trip although if you are driving you need a passenger who can do the air guitar and drums for you!

Stereo Sanity

Well it's finally happened, after years of moaning and saying I want one I finally went and bought a new stereo - YIPEE! My life has already vastly improved - my only gripe is that I didn't buy a turntable too, that will be next. Thanks very much to my grandma who left me a little bit of money and too Hunchermuncher who put it all together for me.

I am dead chuffed (as they say somewhere or other) - I used to have a good stereo years ago, but gradually piece by piece it wore out and for some reason I never replaced it. i think when my son was little I didn't listen to music so much. Since then I have had various all in one things that my mum has bought me over the years - passable sound but only passable. Now I have the old fashioned kind, seperate amplifier, cd player (that only plays one cd at a time - hooray!) and lovely speakers and it all looks good too. My last stereo was a silver hideous space age monstrosity!

Not only that but I also invested in a bigger tv table to house all the gadgets we all seem to have these days. When I moved to this house 7 years ago we just had a tv and a vcr - now we have those but we also have a dvd player, a digi box and a playstation. i got sick of the mess of wires all around the tv stand and I can only wonder why I didn't sort it out sooner!

Can't Stop the Playlists

I was amazed to see that several people hadn't heard of any of the artists listed on yesterdays Thursday Thirteen. Some of them like Catatonia are probably better known in the UK, but The Talking Heads! I thought everyone knew them - maybe I really am getting old!

For some obscure reason today I woke up with the song "Can't Stop Movin" by S Club 7 buzzing round my brain. Don't ask me why, I have no idea. I certainly wasn't a fan although my son was when he was about 6, he won tickets to see them in a concert at Hyde Park. The highlights of which for him were
1) seeing Mr Blobby
2) hearing the BBC philarmonic orchestra playing the Star Wars theme while letting off fireworks (not as spectacular as it sounds because it was a summers afternoon!).

I have been going to bed with my ipod this week (how sad is that?) - so here is this weeks playlist (click on the links to hear excerpts:

1) Got ID - Pearl Jam
This is currently my favourite PJ track, sorry the sample is such bad quality!
2) Five Miles Out - Mike Oldfield
Five Miles Out was always my favourite Mike Oldfield album and I had the urge to hear it again this week.
3) The Saxophone Song - Kate Bush
From the excellent album "The Kick Inside".
4) Keep on Running - The Spencer Davis Group
5) Blinded by the Light - Manfred Mann
7) Slight Return - The Bluetones
From the 1996 album Expecting to Fly, this band were very big at the time but have sadly faded into relative obscurity.
8) I Won't Close My Eyes - UB40
from the album UB44.
9) Closer to Your Heart - Clannad
I loved the album Macalla when I was younger and went to see Clannad in concert.
10) Reflections - Diana Ross and the Supremes
11) Caring is Creepy - The Shins
This comes from the great soundtrack of a brilliant film called Garden State.
12) Sunshine Day - Osibisa
A feel good blast from the past.
13) There is an End - The Greenhornes with Holly Golightly
From the soundtrack of the Bill Murray film Broken Flowers.
14) Lebanese Blonde - The Theivery Corporation
15) In the Waiting Line - Zero 7
16) Don't Stop Me Now - Queen
17) Love and Affection - Joan Armatrading
This was played to death at the time but I found myself wanting to hear it again this week.
18) Black - Pearl Jam
From the album ten.
19) Rome wasn't Built in a Day - Morcheeba
20) Highway Star - Deep Purple
from the album Machine Head.

and on that note I am going to finish as the copy of Machine Head that i ordered from ebay this week has just arrived - yummy!

Whatever Happened to...Thirteen Bands/Artists to wonder about 1…. The Bluetones They were the next big thing a few years ago. Everyone had their first album, it's good I listened to it today. Then Poof I never heard of them again. 2....Catatonia The Welsh siren et al.They were huge for a while but then bam, now you see them now you don't! 3....Damien Rice What's that you say, storm in teacup? 4....Lemon Jelly One really good album and some bits and pieces, time for something really good again I think. 5....Joe Jackson He was great, he should definitely make a comeback. 6....The Communards They were good on top of the pops! 7....Texas Another band that were huge but then what. Probably off enjoying their money somewhere. 8....Pulp Now there's a band that should definitely make a com back. The world is a much bleaker place without them. 9....Blur Forget all this Gorillaz rubbish, Blur were the real thing. 10....Terry Hall Good in all of his incarnations. 11....Talking Heads Yes I know David Byrne has done some good stuff without them. But sometimes a band just has the right chemistry. 12....Ultravox Midge Ure should definitely be sharing that musical talent around a bit. 13....Yes About time they resurfaced, noone writes lyrics as nonsensical as Jon Anderson. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Kontan 2. Mysterious Lady 3. Norma 4. Raggedy (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Wordless Wednesday

Thanks everyone for all your guesses, this is actually part of a church wall at Salthouse in Norfolk. It is a flint wall and each individual flint is surrounded by lots of little ones - it's very unusual.

Creatively Blocked

I am a frustrated artist today - I attempted a batch of mono prints and failed miserably. They all ended up in the bin - yes they weren't even good enough to be used for other art projects!

This leads me to one of three conclusions: either I have lost the knack, can't properly remember how to do it or I am creatively blocked for some reason. I suspect it is the latter of the three, especially since I am not happy with anything I am writing at the moment and I am finding it hard to even write my blog!. I had better get unblocked pretty quick as I am supposed to be starting at art school in a few weeks....