Busy, Busy, Busy

Busy day today - a very good friend celebrated her 60th birthday with a great party (from which I have just returned) and, earlier in the day, I attended a seminar on "Podcasting, Rights and Music" hosted by the UK Podcasters Association and the Open Rights Group at The Guardian's Scott Room in Farringdon, London.
It was a really great afternoon listening to experts in the field of Pod/Vodcasting and Music Licencing and talking to fellow podcasters about various aspects of producing podcasts (A quick plug for my two (at present) shows - UK C ardCast and Radio Tilling!)
The seminar was video streamed live using a Nokia N95 (which was interesting to see!)Apparently the edited highlights will be online later - for more on this visit the UKPA blog.
My thanks to UKPA for giving me the opportunity to attend.

If You, dear reader, are a podcaster based in the UK, you REALLY should consider joining UKPA - there are three levels of membership, with the most basic being free.

New Year, New Bike!

I've had my old Peugeot Puma mountain bike for 20 odd years - it's one of the first 'mountain bikes', and is really more of a standard Gents tourer frame but with thicker wheels, and 18 speed deraillier gears.
It's a bit big, a bit heavy and a lott juddery on the pitted road surface I use to go to and from work every day, so when I found I had enough vouchers to go get a new bike on Amazon, the old Peugeot was retired (no pun intended!)
The new bike, a CBR Java with full suspection, 21 speed derailliers, front disc brakes and alloy frame and wheel rims, arrived last Friday (the same day, by the way, that I went to see Spamalot with a friend who had a spare ticket - great show!).
The suspension take a little getting used to - I've tightened up the rear suspension as I was suffering from rather a lot of bounce - but so far, no reason to regret the decision to buy it!
The only downside is that it didn't come with mudguards - which means my back has been spattered with mucky water - but that will be fixed at the weekend.

2008 is the year I use the internet to get expensive stuff for nothing or next to nothing - the next step is to do enough online surveys to get me enough points for the iPod upgrade I want to make, from the 1st Gen Shuffle to the latest Classic (though I'm sorely tempted by the 32Gb Touch that has just been announced...)

Cheap Choo-Choo

It's been a while since I posted here, which would suggest to any casual reader that nothing very much has happened in my life lately. This is true.
In fact, probably the most exciting thing that I did recently was to buy a train set for my brother in the Marks & Spencer sale - what can I say, he likes model trains, and this was reduced from £149 to £9...

What I have been doing is working on podcast episodes, planning a second podcast (about the author E.F.Benson), and completing enough online surveys to enable me to get an iPod Classic this year (and/or a new bicycle!) Before anyone asks, no, I don't do those pyramid-type schemes, where you end up relying on the entire population of the UK signing up to referral offers so you can get the latest gadget - these are legitimate 'answer some questions online for points which you save up for shop vouchers' type surveys.

It's my birthday soon, so if anyone wants to help the 'Paul needs a new Bike, preferably with full suspension and a bit lighter than the current 20 year old model' fund, send Amazon.co.uk gift vouchers! :)
Amazon.co.uk Gift Vouchers

Fan-iddly-tastic!

Saturday afternoon, I went to the cinema to see "The Simpsons Movie" with my nephew - almost as much of a Simpsons fan as I. 30 year age difference between us, but we were both laughing (me with a chesty rumble as I have a cold at the moment) at much the same things for much the same reasons. There were a couple of moments when the question "What does that mean?" could be heard, but he answered me politely...
We stayed until the very end of the credits, which was an adventure for him - it was the first time he had been the last person in a cinema and he was thrilled by the experience - especially when he saw the various bits in the credits (and in the soundtrack) that "We're the only people who have seen" He (and I) have been waiting ages for this film - he saw the trailer at (I think) the Wallace & Gromit film when it came out and has been asking me ever since to tell him when it was coming out. Now, of course, he wants to know when the sequel is due out... And all because of one word said by one of the main characters in a credits sequence!
On the way home, he kept on singing the "SpiderPig" song. No-one else in the family quite understands why he and I love The Simpsons as much as we doo, but then they gave up on me when I first got into Star Trek, and he's following a similar path with Star Wars (you could say he is my young Padawan...)
Now, of course, it's "When is the DVD coming out and can I get it for Christmas?"

Said by both of us at the same time, to the bemused stare of his father/my brother, who came to pick us up from the cinema.

The Sound of His Voice

(DS9 fans will get the paraphrase of an excellent Season 7 episode!)
My speaking voice isn't that hot. I've discovered that there is a slightly sibilant tone, and I sound way more 'Esturary' than I thought. The reason I've suddenly realised this is that I have been recording a podcast covering Non-Sport trading cards (one of my many collecting/hoarding activities!)
I suspect this is something that happens to everyone the first time they hear a recording of their voice - I had the idea that my voice was posher, clear and well enunciated; now I understand why some people have problems understanding what I say!

Samantha Live!

Well, I'm back from the Clue recording and it went about as swimmingly as it could have! There are pictures, but the ones taken in the theatre are decidedly blurry, due to the zoom on my camera not being sufficient, me not being used to the various settings on the thing and the fact that one of the ushers was a little too strict about the 'No photography' thing. Still, I'll post a couple at the end.

Now, if you don't want to know who the guest panellist was until you hear the radio broadcast (in June), look away now.

Stephen Fry.

Stephen Flippin' Marvellous Fry

Sir Stephen of the Fry-ness.

Result! I was hoping for Jeremy Hardy (given we were at the home of the English National Opera, that would have been apt) by Sir Fry-ness was a more than acceptable alternative, given the fact that I'm a huge fan (and even wrote a letter to him, to which he wrote a really nice reply!)

Anyway, to start at the beginning - I got into London at around 11am and proceeded to Mornington Crescent as something of a pilgrimage (I thought it appropriate - after all, I would, hopefully, be watching a game that night and so seing the place for real would be the perfect start to the day)

On the platform, having just got off the Northern Line train.

I went up to street level (by lift - MC is one of the few remaining Tube stations with lift access), went through the ticket gates and saw - rain. Chucking it down, it was. Luckily, I had my brolly, so I dived out, and crossed the road to take the following pictures:

The Station from the pub doorway opposite (umbrella framing device entirely my own!)

A slightly damp me in front of the station - the thinning hair is purely a trick of the light (he wrote hopefully...)

I went back into the station, having first noticed the statue in the pedestrial area in front of the station:Closer inspection reveals it to be of Richard Cobden (link to Wikipedia)

What I forgot to do, of course, was take a picture of the Blue Plaque erected in the memory of Willie Rushton (mainly because it wasn't until searching Wikipedia for the Richard Cobden link above that I realised there WAS a Blue Plaque! Rats! - that means another trip in due course...)

I re-entered the station to continue my journey around town (pausing only to take more pictures of myself:

That's the last of the pictures of me, I promise)

I killed a few hours at the British Museum (which was heaving - unsurprisingly, given it was a Bank Holiday Monday and it was still raining) and Oxford Street (where I found a die-cast Dalek keyring is, of all places, Marks and Spencer - my local branch had a few before Christmas, but I hadn't bought one because I was hoping for reductions in the January sale - of course, no Dalek keyrings were in the sale) I did hope to find the Dalek Egg Cup M&S did for Easter, but no luck.

Eventually, I went off to King's Cross station to meet up with my friend, and (after a most enjoyable Indian meal near Charing Cross Road) we walked over to the London Coluseum. Huge crowd assembled in front of the theatre - a good mix of ages, which slightly surprised me (though it really shouldn't have done) . On a counter in the lobby were SIGNED copies of Humphrey Lyttleton's anecdotal memoirs "It Just Occurred to me - The Thoughts of Chairman Humph" (amazon.co.uk) for sale - so I bought one.

Entering the auditorium, and finding our seats, on stage were the tables covered in a BBC Radio 4 sheet, and (at the back) a piano:

A mirky pic I know, but you can just make out that there are 6 microphones - two each for the teams, one for Humph and one for - yes - Samantha! So, the rumours that Samantha is a completely imaginary entity can be dashed right now - what other proof does one need? :)

Jon Naismith came on stage and did a little 'warm-up', telling a pretty awful joke that made the audience laugh in much the way you'd expect a pretty awful joke to do - he asked for a show of hands to see who in the audience were first timers to a recording and it appeared to me that almost the entire audience were newbies! (that audience, by the way, was in the region of 2400 - according to Naismith, the largest audience (not including the radio listeners) they had yet performed to - I'm proud to be a part of Clue history!)
Next, Naismith introduced the teams; huge cheer after every name, and a seriously huge cheer for Fry. Next came Colin Sell and finally, Humphrey himself. Samantha was slightly delayed, attending to a few personal matters at the back.

The show started. I won't discuss all the rounds, or what songs were performed (though I will say that Stephen Fry got almost a standing ovation for his effort in "One Song To The Tune Of Another") but at one point, Humphrey made a comment about having celebrated his 86th birthday two weeks ago and Colin Sell struck up with the tune to "Happy Birthday", and the audience sang along. If you have never heard "Happy Birthday" sung by nearly 2400 people in a theatrical setting...

One round that didn't seem to do very well was an attempt at a "Life on Mars" spoof, which I suspect will either be dropped completely, or will be severely cut.

An interval followed (mad dash for the bar) then the second half, and the second week's show with the moment everyone had been waiting for - Mornington Crescent! This match involved a new Mornington Crescent computer game joining in - if it gets left in the broadcast edition, regular listeners will recognise the voice of the computer (and that's all I am saying)

A couple of pictures of the cast, though as stated above, they are not particularly good:

(L-R) Stephen Fry, Colin Sell, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Humphrey Lyttleton, Jon Naismith (Samantha had to slip off at this point to attend to an urgent call of nature), Graeme Garden and Barry Cryer.

And finally, a shot of the laser Display Board (I think being held by Samantha; a stagehand was having difficulties with it, and she had to pull it off):

It may be difficult to make out, but the display shows "Kingdom"...

So. I've seen Clue live. Would I do it again if I got the opportunity? Yes! Being in the presence of so many people all determined to heartily enjoy themselves, makes the whole experience 10 times more fun, being able to join in the traditional audience responses without having people in the home/office/bus look at you askance is a great relief! I may even try to get to the tour the cast is doing with Jeremy Hardy ( a sort of "Greatest Hits" - not for broadcast and being performed at a number of theatres in August and September, with the possibility of more dates next year)

This time tomorrow...

...I'll be at the London Coluseum, ejnoying the early stages of an "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue" recording. The time has dragged since I managed to get the tickets, and now the day is finally upon me. What to do before the show? Well, I'm meeting up with a friend and we're probably going for a curry beforehand (if you have the seats behind me, my apologies in advance!) but I'm not meeting him until late afternoon, so I have most of the day to kill. Suddenly, a light bulb appeared above my head (I know it did, I was it reflected in my monitor!) - a pilgrimage to that holiest of Clue holies, Mornington Crescent. I shall be going via Tower Hill, which may well leave me open to accusations of going deliberately into nip, but I don't care.
Yesterday, I planted some Tomatoes.
Tomorrow, I see Clue and visit a nondescript (probably) Tube station.
On Tuesday, I await the Gas Meter Man.
It's an exciting life I lead.

I'm Jolly I HAVE Got A Clue!

Woo-Hoo! I have been a fan of the BBC Radio 4 show "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue" for years, but have never, until now, been able to get tickets to a recording. Until now, that is! Either I haven't been around on the day, or I haven't been able to get through to the ticket office, or something has come up to prevent me from getting to hear the show, which stars Humphrey Littleton, Barry Cryer, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graham Garden and, of course, the delectable (and near legendary)Samantha.
Full report after the recording in May. As long as something doesn't come up in the meantime of course...

How to build up your DVD collection on a budget 2...

Previously in this blog, I wrote about the proliferation of 'free' DVD's given away with the UK National newspapers - well, they are still appearing (though not, perhaps, as frequently as before) - recent films include "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" and the complete ITV adaptation of "Doctor Zhivago" starring Kiera Knightley.
Since that earlier post, there have been a lot more 'partworks'; sets that are built up over a number of weeks by collecting tokens published daily. The Sun/News of the World and The Daily Mule[1] are especially good for this - recently The Currant Bun did a series of "TV Heroes" (mostly the same old reruns of Frost, Prime Suspect and John Thaw episodes) and The Mule was running that stallwart of New Year Partwork magazines, a series of improving your body and mind discs (including Yoga, Pilates etc)
I've avoided those, concentrating on Films (which this year, in addition to the previously mentioned titles, have included "Nuns on The Run" and "Privates on Parade") I'm hoping for another couple of Carry On movies (and, perhaps, the one TV Christmas special the Daily Express hasn't so far released as a freebie!), one or more Hollywood classics, some more 'Art house' from The Independent and other interesting stuff that I wouldn't have bought but which Im more than happy to add to my collection for the cost of a newspaper!
The collection is now in excess of 100 discs - and I have actually watched some of them!

[1] Steve Bell 'If...' reference :)

T'wonderful!

First post of the new year! And its something relatively trivial, but it does show that good customer relations STILL exist!
Before Christmas, I bought a box of Twinings English Breakfast tea bags - partly because I had run out of the usual PG Tips (I had been given a big box the previous Christmas when there was a Wallace and Gromit heat sensitive mug!), partly because there was a special offer on the price in my local supermarket and mostly because it came with rather nice, free, metal tea caddy (and I'm a sucker for 'free' stuff) I like English Breakfast - it's a bit stronger and more tea-ish than the ordinary blended stuff.
Unfortunately, when I got it 'ome, I found that two bags were stuck to the bottom of the box - some of the packaging glue had leaked, and in trying to remove the bags, I tore them, spilling tea everywhere.
Later that evening, just in case they might be interested, I left a message on the Twinings website, suggesting they might want to check their gluing machine. I was emailed the next day, asking for my details and suggesting that I might be sent something back for my inconvenience. I was pleased to get the return email and, thinking I might get a couple of tea bags as replacements, thought no more of it. Last week, I got a hand signed letter from Twinings explaining the problem, apologising for the inconvenience and (again) mentioning that something would be sent to me - this week, the something arrived - two boxes of English Breakfast teabags! Woo Hoo!
I'll be writing a proper letter of thanks to Twinings, but I thought I'd mention it here (not that anyone reads this I suppose!) This is a company that responds to customer feedback and (as a result) encourages brand loyalty. Thanks Twinings!

Return of the Mac

After some 20+ years, I am finally the owner of an Apple Mac.
Years ago, whilst (for some reason I can't remember now) I saw my first Apple computer - I think it was the Lisa - at one of the London Rail terminals (possibly Waterloo, though I don't know what I was doing there) I liked it, but there was no way I was ever going to be able to afford one.
I gradually progressedthrough various home computers (the Sinclair ZX-81, the Spectrum, the Atari 520 STFM) and eventually moved into the WinTel environment, in which I have been resolutely lodged ever since (despite the occasional detour due to the acquisition of some other piece of kit - for example, an old Apple //e that my then employer was throwing away - I gave it a home and played with it for a good while and it's still in the old study and, as far as I know, working!)
Well, recently, I've been building 'new' computers out of discarded PC's donated by friends and family, using additional parts from eBay, and was perfectly happy to continue in this vein when, out of the blue, a friend asked if I'd like an Apple Mac G4? What harm can it do to accept, I thought, and accepted.
I've had it for a little over a month now, and it's fun! I still have to get used to the different way it does things, and my PC's are still the main machines I use for emails and web surfing etc., but I can see the Mac taking over for Skype (there is a beta of Skype Video for Mac out at the moment, and I've added an iSight camera to the collection of computer bits cluttering the spare bedroom that now serves as my study!) and for servicing my iPod, amongst other things.
This leopard isn't changing his spots - at least, not ALL of them...

Fundamentally Sound

Amongst other things, I'm a Pet Shop boys fan; I've ben to several of their concerts, have all the albums (well, not the Further Listening 2 CD sets, I'll admit!) and most, if not all, the singles (including the Fan Club exclusive!)
So, although I had high hopes for the new album, "Fundamental" when it came out a month ago, I was concerned lest it turn out to be another "Release" which, to be brutally honest, left me lukewarm.
I had nothing to fear. "I'm With Stupid" the excellent first single is representative of a return to the sound most PSB fans love them for - electronics, multi-layered backing and touching, ascerbic and typically PSB style lyrics!
Personal stand outs are "Integral", the aforementioned "I'm With Stupid" and "The Sodom and Gomorrah Show" which not only show the band in their best light, they also show the hand of Trevor Horn, who produced the album.
This is not going to be a detailed, track-by-track review - you can get that elsewhere. All I'm going to say is - if you like PSB, you'll love this album; if you don't already like them, this might be the CD you've waited years to hear*.
(the link above goes to amazon.com who, at time of posting, are doing the 2 disc version - complete with guest vocalist Sir Elton John :) - for £8.99)

* apologies for the dismal paraphrase of a PSB single...

That reminds me...

I was chatting in work yesterday about Matchbox toy cars and I suddenly remembered that I hadn't seen my favourite, an Orange Ford Capri with a black movable bonnet, for some time. I more or less assumed it was lost, though I do still have most of my toy cars in an old Jacobs biscuit tin - (and let's not get started on my reminiscences about Granny Grumps sending a tin over from Ireland for Christmas!)
When I got home, I decided to dig out the tin, which was in my study under the Ikea bookshelves, to see what I DID stil have - and after a bit of rummaging I found the Capri! It's battered, with bare metal in places where the paint scraped off during play, but still in a reasonable condition! I don't know what it was, but when I was a child, the Ford Capri was my favourite car of all - yes, I liked the supercars and sports cars but the Capri was the one I liked the most; I was ever so excited when, age 6, I got to ride in one (my first and only trip - to date!)
Anyway, in case anyone reads this and is interested, here it is:

(Picture taken on an Olympus C-700 Ultra Zoom)

That was the WHAT?!?!?!

Oh dear.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
Channel 4 broadcast the last episode of "(Star Trek) Enterprise" yesterday and I have to ask - 'What was the point of THAT?'
Basically, the plot boils down to this: Riker has a problem and used some video recordings of Enterprise to help him make the decision we know he was going to make anyway (because, being trekkers, we all saw that TNG episode already)
They didn't even show Archer's speech at the end! They built up to it, but they didn't give Scott Bakula the chance to exit with a dignified speech?
Pah!
OK, so it was fun to see Troi and Riker in 'Classic TNG' uniforms (though Marina Sirtis seemed to have problems remembering what accent she should be using), but using them as the hook for the plot was disrespectful to the rest of the cast who, regardless of what you might think of the show as a whole (I dropped out in season two to be brutally honest, though what I saw of season four suggested that things were improving into a show I might have watched more regularly) deserved a proper close.

Paramount, it has to be said, lost my respect some time ago as far as their milking of the Trek cash cow was concerned - and on the evidence of this episode, they won't be getting it back any time soon (not that that matter to them!)

G'Kar G'one.

RIP Andreas Katsulas, who died this week aged 59. A sad loss for all Babylon 5 fans (and for fans of Trek too - he appeared in a number of TNG episodes as the Romulan Tomolok)
I saw him once at a B5 convention in London and he was both thoughtful and amusing.


The blurry image on the left is the trading card he signed for a set of TNG trading cards.

Snap!

So I now have a Digital Camera - an Olympus C-700 Untra Zoom.
It's only 2.1 Megapixel, but it has a 10x Optical Zoom and plenty of features so it's perfect for the sort of photography I usually do - snapping!
So, in theory, I could start posting pictures from my day to day stuff - but as they will almost certainly be less interestign than the posts I make now I don't think I'll bother...


...unless something REALLY interesting happens!

How to build up your DVD collection on a budget...

If you live in the UK, the answer is simple - buy the weekend newspapers.
For the last few years, the National press in the UK has been offering (and competing with other papers in the scale of what they are offering) various 'free gifts' ranging from CD's of unsigned music acts and PC Game demos through to double CD sets of 'classic' music by big name stars to full length DVD's of older films.
Some in the media thought that this trend would die down, especially as Rupert Murdoch, the head of News International (which owns The Times, The Sun and The News of The World - all of which have issued more than their fair share of CD's and DVD's in the last few years!)announced that he didn't like the giveaways - an item in The Independent last weekend (which itself gave away two 'Arthouse' film DVD's) noted that the average cost to the newspaper per DVD was 30p - a lot, given the cover price of the papers range from 40p to £1.60, and especially considering that the freebies don't encourage a lot of brand loyalty - many people (including me) just buy the paper that has the freebie they want, and don't bother whn there is no freebie.
However, in just the first three wees of 2006, there have been 7 Movie DVD's, 4 'Classic TV Show' DVD's and a couple of audio CD's (and that is not including the discs where one has to redeem a coupon from a weekday newspaper - there are two offers of this sort running at the moment that I am aware of!) with more to come next weekend (The new, Berliner sized Observer is offering "Dune" on Sunday, and the aforementioned News of The World is apparently going to have "Highlander" on the same day - two cult favourite SF themed movies competing against each other!)
I set up, just for something to do, a webpage 'gallery' of the DVD's I had received - so far, I've only put up the Film DVD's I've found in newspapers, though I plan to add sections for TV Show discs and music CD's. I didn't think I'd be updating it very often - but it looks like it's going to be a weekly revision from now on!
(there is a link to the page in the subject of this entry!)
Au Res.,
Paul

New Year and Springtime...

A Very Happy New Year to anyone who is actually reading this blog (I exclude those twits who spam the comments area!)
Hope everyone had a great Christmas/Hanukah/whatever. I had a quiet time - stayed with family, opened presents etc. Saw "The Producers" at the local cinema, and so more or less finished the year as I started it (I went to the West End stage show version on New Years Day last year!) I can recommend it, though fans of the original classic (mostly) non-musical film will have to put their memories of that to one side - this, although sharing much of the same plot and sets, is a different film and should be watched as such.
I enjoyed it, though it IS a little stagy (can't really be helped in a flim based on a stage show about stage shows!) and there are some first rate performances from the cast. A little tip - if you go to see it, wait until the very end of the credits (which feature two musical numbers not in the film and a very silly 'version' of one of the songs that IS in there!) for a fun little bit.
Au Res.,
Paul

Snap! Snap! Snap!

So, I broke my left arm, falling off my mountain bike.
20 odd years of cycling (on and off) and this is the first time I've broken something. Grrr.
I'm learning lots of things - such as how to cook, wash, and netsurf with one hand.
Meantime, the bike lurks at work, mocking me in it's garish green-ness - I
will get back on it again, once I've had the plaster cast taken off and once I've finally dealt with the irritating itch I've had for the last couple of weeks!

Of course, this pales into insignificance when compared to Katrina and the imminent Rita - good luck to anyone in their respective paths.

She's Back!

I apologises in advance if the following sounds like serious fanboy indulgence, but Kate Bush Is Back!
According to a news item on the BBC website, her new album "Aerial" is out in November - a mere 12 years after her last album "The Red Shoes"
Gives me something to save my pennies for...