If you’re more into the environmental side of things, my friend Damian is reporting from the conference for Prospect (and has been writing for the BBC in the run-up to it). All worth checking out, and a great overview of some of the issues under discussion and (on Prospect) a feel for the show.

Sorry for lack of posts of late. There’s been no new soup, work’s been manic, as has the Christmas routine which has seen us away most weekends. Expect blogging between Christmas and New Year, as I attempt DIY and to resume my fitness regimen.

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In the hour or so before we left the office, as is our habit on a Friday afternoon, we kicked off a collaborative playlist on Spotify to get people in the mood. Given my impending marriage, you might expect some cheesey / romantic tunes, and indeed, there were one or two of those. However, it seems that there are some cynics in the house (and even more on Twitter as @qwghlm, @krsjn, @flashboy and @jat45 started kicking in their own contributions). Think Charlie Brooker’s moodkill playlist and you’ll have a sense of what’s on there.

If you want to see how the final playlist shaped up, point Spotify here. Be warned; there are some fairly horrible songs in there :-).

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I persuaded Matt to come with me, and despite the fact he’s not a fan, the Offspring’s 20 years of performing and recording (!!) resulted in enough tunes for him to recognise and nod along to. Having lost some weight I was able to do the jump-up-and-down-headbanging-thing (bouncing? that’s not very rock) without injuring my knee, which was pretty satisfying when they played Self-Esteem.

Huge fun.

Amusing to see Dexter play a song on piano too (vid not mine, but courtesy of YouTube). In a separate note, Noodles (whose chat is pretty awful) was one of the most precise guitarists I’ve seen for a while.

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I’m going through that phase I get of obsession with things I quite like, and am listening to the album more or less on repeat and annoying everyone I know through repeated reference to the lyrics, video, etc. It’s almost as if I believe that things get funnier through endless repetition (they totally do)…

If anyone has any suggestions on music that will get these songs out of my head, or an explanation of (or cure for) my love of musical comedy, let me know.

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Love, A

**

I’m helping promote a mini secret festival in Bath this year called EyeFest, over the weekend of July 18th/19th. They have a great line up of bands, DJs and film for the Saturday. Included in the price is tea and cakes in the afternoon, Hog roast in the evening, and a fry up breakfast the morning after (also veggie options), and all for £30.

EyeFest is not advertising publicly, so it’s all word of mouth between friends to make sure we have a really nice crowd. There’s lots more info / videos / pictures at www.myspace.com/eyefest

If I have sold it to you (yeay!) then here is the link to buy tickets –

The festival is run by some friends of mine to raise money, which this year goes to three watery based charities (more details on the myspace page), hence this year’s theme “Nautical but Nice”.

For those who are super keen, EyeFest are also running an offer whereby you can buy 5 tickets for the price of 4 discounted tickets.

Feel free to spread the word around close friends / friendly who you think might be keen to come (and you would like to be there – I trust your judgments), you can direct them to the MySpace page, or send then the links above.

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I’m now the proud and happy owner of a Roksan Kandy L3 Integrated Amp and some beautiful Rosenut B&W CM1 speakers. As someone who’s always enjoyed good music through hi-fi (thanks to a good induction as a child with my Dad, who used to take me around Singapore listening to speakers that cost tens of thousands of pounds, none of which we were ever going to buy, but y’know, it’s good to have a benchmark), it’s wonderful to have the system in place.

The only thing missing from my hi-def living room now is a Blu-Ray player… Hmm…

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Has anyone seen the movie? Any good? Arvind thought so…

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Urusen, friends of mine, inexplicably unsigned, don’t have a lot of associated listeners. Neither do the guys who did Once, a wonderful soundtrack my brother introduced me too. The Rushes, a band who’ve covered Waterloo Sunset (it’s beautiful, really wonderful) for French Film‘s closing credits, don’t have enough similar bands either. Powderfinger, who Tony introduced me to, do a great acoustic version of Sunsets. Most of their music is much rockier (which I like too, but doesn’t fit my bank holiday Monday mood).

So I have to resort to the old fashioned way. I have to talk to people about music, find gigs etc. Which is fine, and fun.

…but I wouldn’t mind if someone developed a social music app that didn’t just analyse the metadata of the song, but the tone, character, mood etc. of the song itself. A kind of intelligent version of the Moodlogic application I used oh-so-long ago would be nice.

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It’s awesome. I’ve become determined to be a little less middle aged and do more fun stuff like this mid-week and so the emails recommending gigs all around London from bands I already like? Fantastic. It probably wants integration with Last.fm so it can draw on historical listening patterns rather than just what you’ve got in your database (I have a lot of crap music I really ought to delete/archive)…

That said, I haven’t got around to booking anything yet. Maybe I’ll start with the next Urusen gig in a couple of weeks…

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God bless the Interwebs.

Actually impressed that the 5min.com people looked me up after I linked to Videojug in the last but one post. Good technorati monitoring and trackback tracking, guys, and actually taking the time to read my blog, find my Twitter and add me? Nice.

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I need to practise more (also emphasised by having had a go on Pob’s Rickenbacker and Jazzmaster). Videojug’s guitar section beckons…

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It’s been a really busy few weeks – work has been manic, the flat hunt has been, well, manic, and pretty much everything relating to my personal life has been, erm, manic. I’ve not been through a period of this intense busy-ness for a long time, but am someone finding outlets for it all and feeling surprisingly calm about it all.

Tonight, the outlet has been listening to random music, quite loud. Right now it’s Faith no more’s ‘I’m easy.’ Earlier, for no apparent reason, it was ‘Orion’, as performed both by Metallica and Rodrigo y Gabriela. Before that, for even less reason, it was Iron Maiden’s ‘Fear of the Dark.’ Before that, it was some random French music.

Sitting here, letting the music wash over me, I feel a semblance of calm.

Eels’ ‘Novocaine for the Soul’ just came on. I think there’s a danger of slipping from calm to comatose. I hit ‘b’ and Winamp obliges. Powderfinger’s ‘Since you’ve been gone’. Result. A recommendation from Tony.

It’s been a very odd evening. I haven’t sat around and let myself get completely taken by music since I was at school (when I used to do it all the time). It feels good.

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But it was wonderful for other reasons too. The music, the atmosphere – the crowds, both a boon and a curse – and the general ethic of the whole thing. Anti-social behaviour was derided as ‘not very Glastonbury,’ everyone was discussing things in terms of previous festivals, the solstice at the Stone Circle was quite special and the group of friends we were with were fantastic. I’ve already bought Damo and Matt B some Somerset Cider for their help in relocating us when our campsite flooded on the Saturday…!

Things I didn’t like: the LONG walk from carpark to campsite with heavy pack (I’m out of shape :-(), the mud, the toilets (I know they’re better than they were, but the long drops are only less gross than the portaloos, they’re still worse than everything else), the crowds, the lack of many places to sit down and rest between bands.

Bands I saw (this the important bit for me)… Mr Hudson & the Library, Mik Artistik, The Guillemots, The Fratellis, Lily Allen, Helen Boulding, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Mika, Rufus Wainwright, The Pipettes, Super Furrys (from a distance), Maximo Park (from a distance)… and probably a couple more. I persuaded Amanda to leave early on the Sunday as I wasn’t too well, so was sad to miss the Chiefs on Sunday evening, but still managed to have a wonderful time.

Photos on Flickr if you need proof ;-).

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Am of average skill,

I am competent, but can’t read music, have only really played rhythm but can jam in E minor to twelve bar blues, and have never “gigged” before. Actually, technically I’ve had one gig. I’m not sure *anyone* but me and maybe one or two of the musicians involved remembers that one.

more enthusiasm, and varied taste.

It’s not difficult to have more enthusiasm than I have talent. I have limited talent. And varied taste != soul, techno, goth or dance music. Flattered that people would think that my taste and skill on guitar would extend to that range, though.

could commit to one weekly practice.

I could commit to one weekly practise. Maybe two, if everyone was at the same level of mediocrity and enthusiasm as me.

I really really want a band but feel that I need to be transparent or I’ll just confuse people. I hope that clears things up. Get in touch if you want to jam.

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