Is there a pillar of society tat is still standing on firm foundations now? We've had the banking crisis, we've had the MPs expenses scandal and we've had Rupert Murdoch single-handedly destroy the moral authority of the media. Naturally enough, the world moves forward, but when we see the framework of our society being shredded, it becomes time to ask is it time for root and branch reform of the way we live. Who would be brave enough? The sort of things that are tearing us apart these days would once upon a time have been enough to spark riots, even revolution. But these days we are comfortable on our sofas watching our HD Freeview TV. I'm as bad as the rest, but really we do need to change the country we live in before there's one more scandal.
Yesterday I got in to Dante's Sat Nav Inferno. Following the directions it gave me, I got within a few hundred yards of my destination before it told me to do a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me. Loyally I did so, before it told me to take the road I had just been on. A few hundred yards from my destination it told me to make a u-turn and return to the roundabout behind me.
Some might suggest that this is how the Murdoch family is feeling today. Or perhaps David Cameron.
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
Play it again Sam
Do please take a moment to encourage this newbie here.
In amongst the furore, the financial crisis has been knocked off the front pages. Interesting given that really and truly Murdoch's escapades are a sideshow. Or a freak show. So you may have missed that the bastard credit agencies have degraded Ireland to junk status, and they've now set their sights on Italy. Spain is a forgone conclusion it seems...destined for a bailout. The market is in suicide mode, but not without a fair bit of death and destruction elsewhere too. It really is time that the global authorities...governments and international financial institutions act decisively to put the brakes on the markets and bring them into line to create stability and avoid a scenario which would make the Lehman Brothers failure a teddy bear's picnic.
It's fascinating when the old meets the new.
Earlier this year I hooked up my hi fi system again - it had been in storage whilst the flat was being refurbished.
I hadn't really thought about the history of it all.
On the right hand side is my first CD player...I was a late comer and this one lets me play five in one go...well one after another really...hours of pure unadultered music pleasure. I suspect I got it in the mid-90s. Above it is a cassette deck - I had this when I was at boarding school! I'm sure it would still work if I had any tapes left. When I left the school, the headmasetr's wife said they would miss my music blasting across the quad. I think she was being nice. Above that is a new acquisition. It's not new. It was a gift to The Cat's Mother's ex. He left it behind, and it sat gathering dust in the corner, so it's good to get it spinning again. On the turntable is David Bowie's greatest hits...a K-Tel record. If you know K-Tel you are older than you admit.
On the left hand side and starting at the bottom is another cassette deck - a Nakamichi....and at the time, the finest you could buy. Above it is a tuner which I'm sure once picked up Radio 1 in the days of Tony Blackburn. And finally, on top, is a valve amplifier. A modern amplifier. It's beautiful in a bleak sort of way and was bought with some of the proceeds when I sold a flat to buy this one. Valves are not the most stable of things, and I've been known to rush across the room from where I've been seated comfortably to pull the plug on it before it explodes as one of the valves turns white hot.
The Boy is fascinated, particularly with the records (of course, vinyl to him). He couldn't wait to put one on...and then asked how you selected the next track....it was a skill to lower he needle into he shiny groove. He's spent ages on line now just seeing what of his favourite groups he can get on vinyl!
We spent the evening playing albums of groups that were mostly half-forgotten...crackle, crackle, crunch before a track we barely recognised played out. Absolutely brilliant!
In amongst the furore, the financial crisis has been knocked off the front pages. Interesting given that really and truly Murdoch's escapades are a sideshow. Or a freak show. So you may have missed that the bastard credit agencies have degraded Ireland to junk status, and they've now set their sights on Italy. Spain is a forgone conclusion it seems...destined for a bailout. The market is in suicide mode, but not without a fair bit of death and destruction elsewhere too. It really is time that the global authorities...governments and international financial institutions act decisively to put the brakes on the markets and bring them into line to create stability and avoid a scenario which would make the Lehman Brothers failure a teddy bear's picnic.
It's fascinating when the old meets the new.
Earlier this year I hooked up my hi fi system again - it had been in storage whilst the flat was being refurbished.
I hadn't really thought about the history of it all.
On the right hand side is my first CD player...I was a late comer and this one lets me play five in one go...well one after another really...hours of pure unadultered music pleasure. I suspect I got it in the mid-90s. Above it is a cassette deck - I had this when I was at boarding school! I'm sure it would still work if I had any tapes left. When I left the school, the headmasetr's wife said they would miss my music blasting across the quad. I think she was being nice. Above that is a new acquisition. It's not new. It was a gift to The Cat's Mother's ex. He left it behind, and it sat gathering dust in the corner, so it's good to get it spinning again. On the turntable is David Bowie's greatest hits...a K-Tel record. If you know K-Tel you are older than you admit.
On the left hand side and starting at the bottom is another cassette deck - a Nakamichi....and at the time, the finest you could buy. Above it is a tuner which I'm sure once picked up Radio 1 in the days of Tony Blackburn. And finally, on top, is a valve amplifier. A modern amplifier. It's beautiful in a bleak sort of way and was bought with some of the proceeds when I sold a flat to buy this one. Valves are not the most stable of things, and I've been known to rush across the room from where I've been seated comfortably to pull the plug on it before it explodes as one of the valves turns white hot.
The Boy is fascinated, particularly with the records (of course, vinyl to him). He couldn't wait to put one on...and then asked how you selected the next track....it was a skill to lower he needle into he shiny groove. He's spent ages on line now just seeing what of his favourite groups he can get on vinyl!
We spent the evening playing albums of groups that were mostly half-forgotten...crackle, crackle, crunch before a track we barely recognised played out. Absolutely brilliant!
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Not very MI5
I rather like my nom de plume. It says a lot in few words, and the initials are the same as my own. For the last couple of years I've led a life of subterfuge protecting my own identity whilst dropping hints for the unwary. I have been practically schizophrenic with my real identity and my on line life. But all is undone by my own greed.
For reasons which I little understand now, I have managed to create four blogs. Three are Blogger, and two of them I ignore. And one is wordpress which I started as a work blog. At the same time I have three twitter accounts...of which I ignore one and juggle the other two...one is related to this blog, and one is for work. I couldn't tell you how many e-mails I have. I am indeed confused about my identity. I've tried to keep my work stuff separate from my personal life as I don't want colleagues and business partners to share my personal life, and some of my personal views might not be the same as theirs. But in among all these different identities, it's become impossible to juggle carefully enough, and I find myself leaving comments in my real name because the computer has kept me logged in with my wordpress identity and I've tweeted the odd tweet in my blog name when I should have been working. Sigh. I don't think I'll be replacing James Bond any time soon.
At the weekend we were in Brighton seeing the very excellent Dylan Moran. The fact that I fell asleep was nothing to do with his talents, and more to do with my scoffing far too much at the restaurant before hand. Sorry. Last week we went to see David Tenant (yes Auntie Gwen I saw him in the flesh) in the much lauded Much Ado about Nothing. The fact that I fell asleep was nothing to do with David Tenant's performance, and more to do with us being in the 'Grand Circle' which was so high that I could almost touch the moon. As I suffer from a touch of vertigo these days, I thought I would solve the problem by closing my eyes. Which sent me to the land of nod. Oh dear. Two great performances and I missed them both.
For reasons which I little understand now, I have managed to create four blogs. Three are Blogger, and two of them I ignore. And one is wordpress which I started as a work blog. At the same time I have three twitter accounts...of which I ignore one and juggle the other two...one is related to this blog, and one is for work. I couldn't tell you how many e-mails I have. I am indeed confused about my identity. I've tried to keep my work stuff separate from my personal life as I don't want colleagues and business partners to share my personal life, and some of my personal views might not be the same as theirs. But in among all these different identities, it's become impossible to juggle carefully enough, and I find myself leaving comments in my real name because the computer has kept me logged in with my wordpress identity and I've tweeted the odd tweet in my blog name when I should have been working. Sigh. I don't think I'll be replacing James Bond any time soon.
At the weekend we were in Brighton seeing the very excellent Dylan Moran. The fact that I fell asleep was nothing to do with his talents, and more to do with my scoffing far too much at the restaurant before hand. Sorry. Last week we went to see David Tenant (yes Auntie Gwen I saw him in the flesh) in the much lauded Much Ado about Nothing. The fact that I fell asleep was nothing to do with David Tenant's performance, and more to do with us being in the 'Grand Circle' which was so high that I could almost touch the moon. As I suffer from a touch of vertigo these days, I thought I would solve the problem by closing my eyes. Which sent me to the land of nod. Oh dear. Two great performances and I missed them both.
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