August 25th, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink
It happened again…
[14:14] <earthman> my guitar teacher added me on facebook
[14:15] <nick> you have a teacher?
[14:15] <earthman> nick: I did when I was 15
[14:15] <nick> I thought you just burst out of a granite cocoon, guitar in hand?
[14:15] <earthman> LOLZ
–c.
PS. The guitar teacher in question is Mick Hutchinson, who is still awesome. He taught me for 18 months when I first started in December 1988, and without him I would not be the player I am now.
August 18th, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink
Remember this…?
Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams
If you like acoustic-y singer-songwriter-y stuff, then odds are you like Jack Johnson. If you don’t, feel free to skip ahead to #49 where there is rawk and stuff. This is still one of the favoured “Sunny afternoon chillout” albums at Murray Mansions, and has been since it came out. It’s my belief (though I haven’t checked it) that Johnson was, like David Gray before him, churning away for ages before one particular major release catapulted him up the charts, at least in this country. Certainly it was this, his third release, that brought him to my attention, and it immediately became part of the soundtrack to Summer 2005 with classics like “Sitting, Waiting, Wishing”, “Better Together” and “Staple It Together”. Always puts a smile on the dial. 
TOP TRACK: #7 “Staple It Together”.
August 4th, 2010 § 1 comment § permalink
From the time when I first heard of it, I loved the idea of the Das Keyboard. In fact, I see now that they have a few different models, but in the day they just did the one, and it matches the “Model S Ultimate” model that they do now, in that all the keys were blank. This seemed like such a cool idea that myself and my programming buddies were reaching for our credit cards, until we saw the price – something in the region of 80 quid for a normal keyboard, which they haven’t bothered to label up. I’m sure it’s a very nice keyboard, and all that, but it really felt like being ripped off for a gimmick. I note now that the price is $129, which Teh Google tells me is £80, so they haven’t gone down any in the last 5 years.
Anyway, today I noticed a really cool thing on The Awesomer – The Blank Wall Clock. A wall clock that has no numbers on it, but a writeable surface and it comes with a dry-wipe pen. Price? $155, or £97.
Fuck that right off, and come back when it’s £40. I might think about buying one then.
–c.