Daylight Music is a wonderful concept: lunchtime concerts concentrated into a two-hour time slot in churches. It started in the Union Chapel in Islington, where I played and where I met Robert Rotifer and Ian Button, actually. They were part of the late Judy Dyble's band, who were playing that day.It's now moved to Leytonstone, not far from the tube station. Going yesterday was a no-brainer because not only was Clémentine March playing, but Terry Edwards was playing between the main acts.They…
Market Street Jazz I Market Street Jazz II Market Street Jazz III Market Street Jazz IV What a treat to listen to a really good live jazz band.
The first Friday in July saw a group of pub enthusiasts gather on the Notts/Derby border for a trek around half-a-dozen venues in the village of Sawley.This is home to over 6,600 folks, a marina, a golf club, and an impressive nine pubs plus a couple of clubs.And it comes with hazards from up above...Braving the birds, we made the one-mile walk down Tamworth Road into Old Sawley and the (unofficial) starting point for the day.The Harrington Arms (392 Tamworth Road, Sawley, NG10 3AU)Originally…
The second Lone Wolf gamebook, Fire on the Water, is quite heavy on setting up the series' lore, and features an expansive plot where Lone Wolf must travel halfway across the Lastlands to retrieve the fabled Sommerswerd. Perhaps because of this, there are a few moments where it seems to struggle to fit everything into 350 sections.During one sequence, you travel by coach to Port Bax, with five other passengers -- Ganon and Dorier, two brothers who are knights in the Order of the White Mountain;…
Our third visit to Rock Werchter, after 2022 and 2023. This time the two outstanding acts were Kneepcap and the headliners Twenty One Pilots. It's always well organised and great fun. This time I spent most of it listening from a distance, whilst the kids went to the front. Keanu Reeves was also performing with his band Dogstar. Dogstar Kneecap Twenty One Pilots
There's a pattern to 1987's indie chart I've appreciated experiencing slowly, and in depth, as I've written this blog. It starts with business as usual and lots of abrasive indie guitar bands topping the listings, then slowly morphs as sample culture and hip-hop and House music take hold - firstly in subtle ways, such as through the various Grebo crossover artists, then eventually with "Pump Up The Volume" acting as the final bucketload of water which broke the dam. The list of new number ones…
After the gloomy wet days, today sprung like an unexpected flashbulb of perfectness. It was cold, but it was warm…if you know what I mean. Here is a spray of photos I took whilst walking amongst the Christmas in July markets.
I’m pretty confident that the majority of my fellow bloggers and readers – at least those few who even bother to read my posts – probably shake their heads at my music tastes and that’s okay, as each of us likes what we like at the end of the day. That said, my new #1 song this week is “Homewrecker” by sombr (born Shane Michael Boose), who turns 21 today. Over the past year he’s become one of my favorite artists, and “Homewrecker” is his fourth song to top my chart, following “back to friends”…
After careful analysis, I have determined that today's slide scans DO qualify as Snoozles™. But just barely! This first one is from August, 1962; we see a salty sea dog up in the rigging of the Columbia. He's whistling the Old Spice jingle, as was traditional in the 18th century. Based on this fellow's expression, he's spied a sea cow, but he's been at sea for so long that he thinks it's a beautiful mermaid. Next, it's July 1963, and we have this partially-obstructed view of the Submarine…
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Quick bits When seen from a moving train, planes seem to be simply hovering in place. Weird. Pro tip: You can just ask the Amazon AI to get a free trial. I’m on my third Amazon Prime trial already. I set up Tailscale, and now I can access Actual from my phone. Neat! I’m wondering whether I can get a dedicated device to run my server on — perhaps my ancient Raspberry Pi is worth looking into. I’ve been tempted to set up a proper homelab, but that’d be overkill. But fun overkill, you know? I’d be…
This auspicious 250th Independence Day, I find myself thinking of what Om wrote in iAMerican when he became a US citizen in 2013. On a globe, America is a landmass, a country. In an immigrant’s heart it is a belief that future is almost always better. It may not be perfect and it is certainly not equal, but it still is one of a kind — the only place where an absolute stranger with a funny name and a funny accent with no friends or contacts can show up, work hard and actually get to do what he…
Source It may well be the worst plague the region has ever seen, with scientists recording up to 8,000 mice in each hectare (2.5 acres) of land. That’s 10 times the number needed to officially declare a mouse plague. Wow, Australia is hammered by invasives over and over.
Those of you who stop by regularly may remember a previous dalliance with North American N a year or so ago ended in disappointment when I just couldn't get on with the Microtrains couplers and hands free operation I was used to in HO and British N...Couplings seem to be so pivotal to happy operation in any scale - before I got too far into this latest N scale adventure I decided it would be useful to buy some samples, test them and then compare their reliability vs appearance.Before we go any…
Too hot to hit the rivers, but a couple of quick trips to the commerical - the first with my Dad, the second with my mate Wayne. Loads of carp - shooting fish in a barrel! Nice to have constant action - but probably time to try and bag another big perch, and possibly a few barbel... Roger netting a carp from the margins. One of 63 carp over the two trips. Always time to look under the rocks.
July! Say what? Already? We are officially into the second half of 2026. Elijah has been enjoying going to his sailing camp. We have been running all over the place with different events. Arabella had a youth night meet-up at one of the church campuses, and during the day, we spent time running back and forth from the sailing camp. Our Fourth of July was very quiet (by our standards). I love going downtown to watch the fireworks over the Hawthorn Bridge, but this year, I guess the tradition…
If you were designing a counter for the service of beer would you put a row of posts between the person serving and the customer? Would you also put large display cards on each of those posts, and a charity collection tin to one side, and till on the other? Multiple times in recent weeks we’ve watched bar staff awkwardly pass pints between handpulls, or around one side, only to spill some on the way and have to spider claw the glass back for a refill. Once you notice it, you see it happening…
Got up just after nine. Nell went for Jane on the bus. Got back with her at 10.30 so had a nice day with her. Batchfords came in the morning.
AI (or rather LLM’s) use is becoming more & more common and one of the issues with it (amongst many) is that when you ask it to summarize/process/or whatever something you have to upload that content to servers that are outside your control, then to make things worse a lot of these services use the data uploaded to further train their models. It is not illegal because they have put it in the user agreement that you allow them to use the data in anyway they want. Once the model is trained on…
I spent much of June on holiday, my longest break in years, visiting Jake and Scarlett in Wales. The plan was to spend some time helping to renovate an old school into an arts centre. Doing physical tasks day after day took its toll, but I enjoyed the change of work. It was a very good break. The new arts centre (work-in-progress) June also included my 50th birthday, celebrated while I was in Wales. It is strange to reach an age that once seemed so remote. The main change is that I’m aware of…
In this blog post, we will explore a new poster from my collection - describing RCA Victor's Sound Service for Schools in 1939. We will look into the history of RCA Victor, its merger with the Victor Talking Machine Company, and the impact that Great Depression had on the company. And see how their sound service was used to teach students about music and sound.
So, am I fully recovered? No. I still have visible scars where the two incisions were made I still have visible marks where the chest tube was inserted Both of the above will continue to heal, but there is a chance some of the scarring will be permanent and I will invent bear/shark-wrestling stories to explain them as needed The surgery area still has a bit of numbness and definitely still feels like a place where surgery happened, though it’s in no way painful or anything like that. I think…
Earlier this year, after mapping Wenzel's bakeries in North London, I wrote "I really should draw some Coughlans maps one day." Alas I'm too late, they ceased trading on Tuesday. Coughlans were a family bakery chain based mostly in south London and Surrey. The founder was Jack Coughlan who opened a single shop in Thornton Heath way back in 1937, so they haven't quite reached their 90th anniversary. Here's the store in Wallington with its comfortingly brown frontage, but alas no queues for bread…
This June was characterized by a complete lack of intentional writing in my journal. I have nothing but fragments. June was distracted, out of my head, thinking about the easy things and avoiding thinking about the difficult ones. I have been moving through the world without much thought and remembering absolutely nothing. Months like this seem to happen maybe once a year, blurring a whole bunch of days together into something that feels less remarkable than it really is. I'm never sure what…
Mt Takatsuma (高妻山, takatsuma-yama) is one of Japan's Hundred Famous Mountains located in Nagano’s Myoko-Togakushi Renzan National Park. This National Park is home to four hyakumeizans (Mt Amakazari, Mt Hiuchi and Mt Myoko) and this was my last of the four to complete the set. Considering it's at least a 3.5 hour drive from Tokyo to the trailhead, it may have been more efficient to climb Mt Takatsuma together with another mountain on one of my previous trips to the area - but I couldn't get a…
Here we are, another Sunday, another Meals of the Week post. The one where I share with you all the main meals I have cooked and enjoyed over the past 7 days. If I eat out for one or two of them, I also always share a homemade alternative. I really like doing these meals of the week posts. It helps to keep me accountable and helps me to see what I am eating, if I may need to make improvements in my diet, and keeping track also helps to keep me fresh. Being able to share these things with you…
Sunday Q&A To keep this manageable (and on-point, given what weekend this is), we've decided that we are going to answer a dozen questions, all about U.S. history. Click here for full story
⚠️ **SPOILER WARNING:** FULL SPOILERS In "Project Hail Mary" (2026), a lone astronaut awakens to an uncertain mission, fighting for humanity's survival amid the vastness of space and the unknown. **My Rating:** ⭐⭐⭐½ (3.5/5 stars) ---... ⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: FULL SPOILERS In "Project Hail Mary" (2026), a lone astronaut awakens to an uncertain mission, fighting for humanity's survival amid the vastness of space and the unknown. My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐½ (3.5/5 stars) Okay, first thing: overall, it wasn't a…
Sans Tech IndiaPost Remember the mail I sent to Parul ? Yes the one I sent two weeks ago, trusting IndiaPost to deliver it in "3-5 days". Still shows 3-5 days btw It finally reached her. In 2 weeks. Safe to say, I am not going to recommend IndiaPost for urgent couriers. House of the Dragon Season 3 House of the Dragon's Season 3 is has been airing for 2 weeks now, and I was lazily delaying watching it because I had forgotten the plot intricacies; not my fault if they take 3 years to release a…
We live in a world of sound. Sound is everywhere. It is prolific. And much of that sound, I will confess, is not the kind of communal sound that a recent guest on my radio show, Professor Alex Fisher, spoke about. He talked at length about the sound of bells heard once upon a time, organizing sonic information and space in public places, and sometimes, even, through civic authority. Another guest, family physician Dr. DeMarco, spoke about the birdsong he hears on his long bike rides around the…
