Raves Archive 2003
More Music!
Having been a bit late with my last set of Hundred Best Tunes
(see "Music Is The Best" on 13/06/03 below for an explanation), I've been a
bit more than punctual this time.
Check out the list here.
As with last time, there are links to pages connected with the artists,
and some new music clips for you listening pleasure. Enjoy!
Oh Boy!
I became a great-uncle again this morning, with the arrival of
Ethan Alexander, first-born of my niece Andrea and her fiancé
Aiden. He weighed in at a tidy 6lb 13oz.
I haven't seen him yet, of course. I'll wait till he looks a bit
less like Winston Churchill...
(I'm really going to have to find a better graphic than this.
Sorry, mate...)
Get With The Program(s)
As a service to my loyal reader, here's a list of software (nearly all
freeware) that I've been using for some time. Check it out - there's
some cracking (sorry!) stuff there.
A Folking Good Time!
Just come back from the first Singers' Night of the new season.
Although the turnout was a bit disappointing (in terms of numbers in
attendance and particularly the number of performers), we all had what
the great Blaster Bates would call "a rollicking good evening".
Thanks to everyone for the atmosphere.
What? - The Folk's Going On!
For nearly ten years now, your humble Judge has occasionally
provided entertainment at the Wrexham Folk & Acoustic Music Club.
I've just received the line-up for the first half of the new
season. You can see it for yourself here.
The guest nights are likely to be quite heavily subscribed (it's
quite a small club: small, but intimate and cosy), so it might be a
good idea to phone Goff or Ian in advance to find out if tickets are
still available.
If you're in the area, there's nothing, but nothing
stopping you from coming along to the Singers' Nights, where the best
in local talent (and me) can be heard in a friendly environment.
The first Singers' Night is less than two weeks away, so I'd better
get practising now. See you there....
Something Extra!
I've added some sound clips to the June 2003 My Hundred Best Tunes page. The
purpose of this is twofold: firstly to prove to myself that I can do
something complicated like that; and secondly to (I hope) lead you on
to some music you might not have come across before. That's why the
clips are only about one minute or so in length - well, that and the
RIAA, BPI and other 'pigopolists' who seem to be lashing out at anyone
nowadays, and the more defenceless financially the better. Bastards.
And Another One!
Congratulations, too, to another friend and colleague, Nia Owens,
and her husband Jimmy, on the arrival of James Oliver last Tuesday. Now
their daughter Annie will have someone to boss about!
Welcome!
Big congratulations to my friends and colleagues Sharon &
Stuart on the birth of their first child Catrin Hâf on Saturday.
She weighed in at over 9lbs, a fact which makes me, a mere man, wince!
(Apologies for lousy clipart - what do you expect at short notice?)
Music Is Still The Best!
I've finally got around to my latest six-monthly list of My Hundred
Best Tunes (see "Music Is The Best" on 13/06/03 below). I usually do this in early June, but I've been
delayed by the need to try to bring my feral hedgerow to heel, plus
redesigning my websites to bring ease to the furrowed brows of the
browser snobs.
I sorted out my 'definites' list, the ones which always feature,
and my 'probables' too. I was then left with just one space to
be filled. So I was faced with the task of having to choose just one
track out of about forty-odd from the 'possibles' list. Trying to
narrow it down was an absolute sod! Did I choose Frank Zappa's "Peaches
En Regalia" (a regular down the years)? Or did I fight for the
rights of Kate Bush's "Cloudbusting" to stay in once more? Or
would Echo & The Bunnymen's "The Back Of Love" be worthy of
sneaking in under the wire? Quite a few regulars have been squeezed out
this time around because of material I didn't have before.
Well, as it happens, none of these did squeak through, but I'm not
telling you which one filled the 100th position. I randomise the tracks
anyway so as to give the potential for interesting contrasts.
You can peruse the list here.
Mustn't Grumble...
I've been getting some complaints.
Yes, I have tried the ointment, but it won't work on this.
Those who have visited here have made such comments as "Too
many rants and not enough raves."
I suppose it's fair comment. I find it far easier to write a long,
impassioned tirade against something deeply annoying or offensive (not
that there'll be any shortage of those in the future, mind)
than to start going on about things I like.
I've always been somewhat put off by other people's enthusiasms.
This has accounted for why, amongst other things, I didn't get into the
writings of Terry Pratchett (Whom Gods Preserve) until about 1992,
after having to undergo three or four years of the sincere ravings of
my old chum Alex about the Discworld©. For similar reasons, I was
in my early thirties before I read a single word of Tolkein.
Besides which, if you start getting into what you like and why,
it's all too easy to fall into one of two abysseseseses (I knew how to
spell it, I just didn't know how to stop): the first is that you become
at least as passionate about them as you do about your bêtes
noirs. This tends to set people's teeth on edge (see above). The
second danger is that you fall in to a style of writing which is either
utterly opaque (it's far more difficult to explain why you like
something) or so cloying and 'hello trees, hello sky' that you risk
rotting the teeth you are trying hard not to set on edge.
Well, anyway, just to keep my regular customers satisfied, here are
a few of my favourite things...
(Oh, bugger! Now I've got that song in my head. Quick!
Where are my Hecate Enthroned CDs?)
OK. Some you might have guessed from the Links & Kinks page. The works of
Terry Pratchett, the finest writer of humour ever in the field of SF;
the music of Kraftwerk and the songs of Half Man Half Biscuit and of
Harry Chapin (the only man whose songs can regularly reduce me to
tears).
But there are other things, too, things which are rather more
intangible (or just plain weird). I was born and brought up in a house
which had a fabulous view across the Cheshire Plain. Right through my
childhood and teenage years (when the impressions we get of the world
are the most influential and lasting), I would look out of my bedroom
window day or night, summer or winter and just drink in that sight.
Nearly twenty years ago, we had to move out to the house I live in now,
about a hundred yards away. It's a nice place, but there's no view
worth speaking of - just the backs and fronts of other people's houses.
So I take whatever chance I get to walk to the end of our road, where
that view may once again lie before me, and just revel in it: and be
astonished at the thought that some people are daft enough to pay
substantial sums of money they don't really have to spare to travel
halfway around the world to see something that's nowhere near as good.
Right! What else? Well, this is just about my favourite time of
year, because everything is green, the sort of green which is
new and lively, and hasn't had the opportunity yet to become slightly
dingy and grubby and worn as it always does to my eyes once July sets
in. This is always thrown into sharp relief for me by the ruddy great
big oak tree in my front garden. There it stands as I type this, in
full leaf, tall and strong; a real reassurance that life and the world
go on. Of course, it means that the garden has got be kept in order,
the hedge cut, and my annual war with the
bush-which-has-no-name-known-to-me-except-'Bastard-thing-won't-stop-growing!'.
But it gets me out of the house at weekends.
I'll stop at this point, because there's a danger of my falling
into the two pits I mentioned earlier. But I hope this little rave will
redress the balance of the site's contents a bit. Don't worry, though -
normal whinging will resume shortly!
"Music Is The Best"
Such was the motto of the late, great Frank Zappa. I wouldn't
argue.
Every six months or so, largely because I haven't got a life, I
rummage through my record collection (not as big as John Peel's, but
then he's a professional) and pick out my hundred faves of the
moment. Lack of time means that I haven't done one for this summer yet,
but I will.
While you're waiting, would you like to see my choices for last
December? You would? Oh, goody!!. Please click on this to view the list.
