Song Of The Month

I've been having an eclectic month musically but I stumbled across an old album by 'Tangerine Dream' which brought back fuzzy warm memories of my 20's. This song is pretty synth and quite blissfully trippy!

The official Tangerine Dream website is here.

Sunny September

Well the closing days of September have been lovely indeed, so here's some photos taken locally in Newark and Bottesford down the road. Enjoy!

Essex, Give It A Rest!

What is the British media's obsession with Essex at the moment?

We have programs like 'The only way is Essex', 'Educating Essex' and Essex people featuring in many other shows gracing our Tv screens. When and why has Essex become a big deal? At

At first I thought it's just the media having some fun in the way they depict Essex people and are just inflating stereotypes for entertainment but of late I am not so sure. Recent programs such as 'Come dine with me' and 'Three in a bed' featured people from Essex who just added to the stereotype even more. I can only assume that there is an endless supply of people from Essex who do in fact fit the profile the media is projecting and are in fact materialist egoists that revel in bling, vajazzle and generally being flash. Suddenly Essex is a big deal, it's a great place and it's people are über-cool if seemingly the butt of the nations jokes and laced with superficiality.

The sad thing is, many in Essex (the not so intelligent) have bought into Essex mania and so I guess the normal people in Essex (yes I suspect there are a few!) have to suffer it. Personally my experience of Essex people hasn't been too positive but I won't let that cloud the issue here. The reality is Essex isn't a big deal and in my opinion there's far greater counties of beauty within Britain whose people have countless more charm.

The Ridicule Factor

Ok I confess, I watch the X Factor, not avidly nor do I worry if I miss the programme but I watch it if I'm at home on a Saturday. The show I feel is pretty irreverent about music and has always been irreverent in the way it portrays people. I'm guilty as charged for laughing at the misguided souls trying to impress. Of all the thousands auditioning the ones deemed to have genuine talent progress and so the process goes on. I guess with most it's just a punt at making the showbiz life and there's nothing wrong in that. Others have been told they can sing by friends (who lied) and have wholly bought into it. A minority have unashamed arrogance in their capabilities or lack of them and some to be blunt are just plainly deluded, there's no easy way of saying it.

There's many different tiers of talent on the show from the raw yet to be moulded talent, the entertaining pub/club types that can belt out a half decent tune, the unusual or bizarre and as I have mentioned the above the wishful thinking or deluded types. One last type remain though and that's the vulnerable, the sort the show will shameless showcase for the entertainment of the rabid British tv viewing proletariats. The nation must echo with laughter as we watch couples such as the Sinclairs or individuals like Ceri Rees attempt to sing and fail dismally.

Let's be honest here though, such people however nice clearly aren't as intelligent or astute as the majority, I think there's a line between delusional and perhaps not the sharpest tool in the toolbox to coin a phrase. That is in no way intended as disrespectful, the flat fact here is that some of us are more intelligent and perceptive than others in society and that's how it will probably always be, the intelligent and the not so.

What angers me about the show is that they know this too yet the sensationalist producers will still lead the vulnerable lambs out to the slaughter because it's good for ratings, like jesters of old they entertain the kings of the living room armchair thrones and its all very sad if you ask me. I've got to the point where laughter now eludes me, I just shake my head in pity and question why the producers of the program would (a) readily make fools of people knowing they have no musical ability (b) air something that doesn't have the alleged X factor or is remotely musical and (c) create a cause and lasting effect scenario for unfortunate people.

Now you could argue that regardless of any intelligence, ability or skill you have a right to audition and in essence I concur however I do think there is a small percentage as recently demonstrated that could be clearly regarding as vulnerable in some respects. According to reports the Welsh woman Ceri Rees shown on the last audition show has been in tears ever since and the producers were contacted by a singing teacher who had befriended her and pleaded with them not to show the footage. If Ceri Rees had failed four times to progress in the show why build her up again only to destroy her hopes and dreams all over again? It's even disconcerting for die hard fans of the show. As for the Sinclairs, they seemed a lovely couple who probably now will receive ridicule and humiliation in the high street resulting from their footage. Unless the show vets people better before allowing them a very public demise on stage I suspect one day it may end in tears with something very real happening on a reality show that really isn't very nice at all.

Usually mature adults in this country make allowances for people who perhaps aren't the brightest or who may have mental health issues and morally look out for them in many respects so that they retain their dignity, yet a national family show has no such disposition or concern. The irony is that a contestant before who did have mental health issues was pulled from the show after progressing which can only have been a massive blow to the persons morale. People with low intelligence or indeed mental health suffer enough as it is in society without national media portraying them as buffoons. I'm not saying those people can't be gifted in many ways because they can but the reality often is that they don't see things as we do and that's the simple fact of it, if they were to progress the trappings of fame and publicity would only end up confusing them more and doing real psychological damage.

In closing I think the X factor needs to concentrate more on the potential talent than highlighting no talent at all. Everyone deserves the right to apply but everyone needs to be treated with respect and moral understanding of the implications of being on the show. I don't like what Simon Cowell stands for basically, the X Factor is all about finding potential talent for financial gain, the contestants also gain short term but when they fall out of the brief attention span of the public they are released from (as I understand) a very stringent contract and then who knows what will become of them, remember Steve Brookstein? In March 2010 Mr Brookstein was performing in a pub in Cornwall where punters paid £2.50p to hear him sing, if you bought a pie and a pint that was then waived, his two albums were on sale for £3 each. Despite his 5 minutes of fame he's a very bitter man.

Musically the X Factor has and never will give us anything other than commercial produced pulp pop tunes where the contestants are propelled to fame without any real maturing. There's lots of genuine talent out there in this country, the sensible ones probably opt not to appear on the X Factor because they have a love for 'real' music. We may live in an age in where things move a little faster and singers or bands become popular overnight due to the media unlike the greats who have had to perform long and hard over the years to gain recognition and deserved fame but like a wine or cheese that matures over time - they're always better.

Graphics Card

My old graphics card died recently, not sure why, probably over use! So after some consultation I switched from an Nvidia type to a new Radeon HD 6750 which I was more than a little sceptical about. It's been installed a while now and is running really well, The old Nvidia had served me well during the two years since my pc was custom built but pc stuff always moves at a fast pace. The new graphics card has more options I can tick on games and some of the results are quite stunning, here's a couple of screen shots of my character in Lord of the Rings online with the settings ramped up.

I Never Thought ...

I never thought preparing a new blog site would have so much work attached to it. It's still very much work in progress but I feel I'm getting there. After the recent period of feeling de-motivated I've done quite a bit of typing this weekend. I've finished one article I intend to post on the new blog but with that said it was completed after several re-types. I'm struggling with the intro bit at present and keep typing stuff, leaving it and then coming back to it in a re-appraising kind of way.

I still have to create another mail account for the blog and another twitter account which should be straight forward, it's the actual content I need to do more work on before I go live with it. I really don't want the new blog website to just sit there and not have much going on, so I'm going to have to get in the habit of being more pro-active. Ideally I should be more active with this blog but of late I feel if I have nothing to say or not much is happening so it's best to not to blog for the sake of it. I mean really, who wants to read my mundane day to day stuff? I'm warming more to Twitter of late for daily thoughts etc, Facebook doesn't really work for me these days and Google+ is excellent but slow in getting off the ground, though I'm sure it will.

I'm still going to keep this as my primary blog, the new blog will hopefully go live soon though still needs more work and planning. That leaves my creative writing blog that I haven't used for probably over a year which is a bit sad, though I have done some creative stuff but it's largely unfinished. Lastly I'd like to do a techno/games blog for all those fuzzy warming retro memories I have but that's more of a thought at present and I don't know when or if it will happen.

Lack Of Motivation

I've been melancholy and de-motivated of late. I think the passing of my gran has had bigger effect than I though but it's over now and I'm moving on in my usual matter of fact kind of way. The fact is that people do come and go through life, be it family or friends. I'm just at that age where the balance has tipped and more people have passed away than are here. Death isn't something that scares me purely for the fact I can't do anything about it but I can't help feeling sad that each new loss hurts just that bit more.

I guess I feel somewhat at a crossroads right now, people seem to be coming and going and life and the big wide world stops neither for man nor beast. I just commented to a friend that 'People come and go like the tide ebbs and flows' and moving death to one side for a minute that's how life is, people enter your life for certain portions then move on, or you do of course. Let's not be negative here as there's always friends that are constants throughout. Locally I think the dynamics have changed, especially socially. Some people are settling down, some are moving on to new places and the wheel of life turns over on. Changes never really bother me too much, I'm adaptable, I have a good core of friends and new friends can always be made. I think the problem with me is that I have become complacent and I've been in a comfort bubble of sorts. Now I realise that changes do need to be made and that I need to vary my routine or places I hangout. This weekend just gone I deliberately avoided my local and visited other bars in town, I broke my usual mould so to speak and enjoyed it, new people and faces are always good. I had a very frank chat with the guy I was out drinking with and I think that helped immensely, the power of communication is always a great therapy I find.

Now that I've had this period of feeling de-motivated I need to stride into future months with more purpose, I've yet to begin my new blog platform but on the upside ideas have been gathering and I've made some notes already for it. There's other things I need to do also, some being mundane things like sorting my cd collection out into alphabetical order, clearing out some of my old gaming consoles and finishing some writing projects. I'm sure they'll all get done when the my usual motivation picks up.

Song Of The Month (Early)

Today looking at the internet there's a lot of coverage surrounding Freddie Mercury, this would have been his 65th year. Since childhood I have fond memories of Queen and their iconic frontman, probably the greatest showman of all time in my opinion and truly amazing vocalist - Freddie Mercury. I recall as a family in the 1970s when we'd all sit in Sunday night and listen to the charts on the radio, Queen was always a favourite amongst us all. I grew up with their music and never ever tired of it, unlike most bands Queen always adapted, always innovated and always could hold an audience. As Brian May put it in a one off Google blog today ' Freddie made the last person at the back of the furthest stand in a stadium feel that he was connected'.

I remember the amazing soundtracks they did for Flash and Highlander, the breathtaking performance at Live Aid and a continued release of one great album after another. The irony is you'll never get a band of this quality again. I'll always love Queen and Freddie Mercury's voice with a passion, I grew up listening to them, they are an part of who I am.

Thinking back to the time of his death, I'm sure it was announced in the Sunday papers he had aids, then that Monday I recall waking for work, going down stairs and finding my mum in tears watching the morning news - Freddie Mercury had died. We both shed a tear together, I'm not sure as a family ever got upset over a celebrity before but such was Freddie Mercury's appeal to the normal British public it's no surprise really that his passing affected so many world wide.

So here is my early 'Song Of The Month' dedicated to Freddie Mercury and all the memories.

My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies, Fairy tales of yesterday, will grow but never die,
I can fly, my friends! The show must go on !