I have posted twice in what is a yearly post about my musical statistics thanks to the scrobbling site Last.fm. My profile is here, and the two previous posts are here and here. I will write a full run down of my statistics in July or August, but right now I am on just over 60000 tracks played since 2006, and I remembered this milestone and found a cool tool that pools my scrobbles and finds the 1000th's milestones.
So, here's a list of the tracks that made my major milestones since 2006.
1. At the Drive-in - Arcarsenal - 12th August 2006
10000. The Walkmen - Flamingos (for Colbert) - 25th September 2008
20000. The Decemberists - We Both Go Down Together - 27th April 2009
30000. Memory Tapes - Pink Stones - 17th January 2010
40000. The Walkmen Juveniles - 5th September 2010
50000. The Phantom Band - O - 30th June 2011
60000. Los Campesinos! - Heart Swells/100-1 - 25th April 2012.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Friday, April 27, 2012
Skyliner
A friend of mine (and a great companion to have a few beers with in Manchester) Hayley has had her critically acclaimed blog for a while - I've had it linked to on here for a long time over there on my blog roll - what, you've never looked at them? Well you should, there's some very good blogs on there, most much better than this one that you're reading. Skyliner's great, and is one of a few blogs that have academic actual worth, unlike my own blog right here, which is a mild vanity project and soapbox of a deluded engineer that wishes he'd listened to his english teachers more and more with each passing day.
For example, her blog is Archived by the British Library for goodness sake. That's impressive by all acounts.
Anyway, Hayley's using the Crowdfunding platform to raise funds to allow her to do tours of the areas of Manchester that interest her, and you should help her out! If you fund you'll be getting a free place on a tour, at the very least, and at the best you've helped someone who is doing something that they want to do as a career.
Click here to see her funding request. http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/investment/the-lost-city-memories-784
Friday, April 13, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Celebrations (of an Atheist)
I normally don't celebrate Easter. I celebrate Christmas, but not in the religious sense. Easter has, in my childhood home, always been about the Chocolate. I know people will complain about missing the "true meaning of Easter", but to be honest I never have had the true form of Easter in my life as I was never brought up religious. The only time I ever was touched by religion was in the primary school which forced attendance at church and the singing of hymns during school assemblies.
As a child I didn't think anything of it – it was just the way the school was set up. The hymns were about stuff that I didn't understand and thought ridiculous at a young age – mostly the entirely lame songs put me off completely. The stories I was told were ridiculous and even then I didn't believe them. But as an adult I am kind of repulsed by the idea that I was fored to go and do these things by my education. I find it radical that children in Scotland were made to do this by the state operated school system. I understand being taught about religion, but there was no link of what we did at assemblies to what we were being taught during classes. Indeed, there was an "us and them" attitude to the whole thing, with many Hindu, Seihk, Jehovah's Witness and other religious children being allowed to sit out the Christian parts of the school assemblies.
Interestingly, it was only recently I was made aware of how odd the whole thing was, and also how strange it was that I'd not even noticed it before. I had been a strong atheist for most of my recent adult life, and yet I'd not fully understood that I'd been involved in a strange type of attempted indoctrination that only was broken by my parents – who are 50/50 in the Great Scottish Divide. My father – raised catholic, and my mother – raised protestant. Their reluctance to send to a church on either side eventually allowed me to make my own mind up. I wonder if I had been sent to Sunday school in one of the sides of that, would I have came out the other side the same way? Or, like a friend of mine who raised catholic to the hilt, might I have came out even more disenchanted?
Easter and Christmas, however, despite being Christian holidays technically, are also as secular as you can get. Many religious people will claim that this is hypocritical, and also not allowed. Why should I be able to celebrate Christmas and ignore the message that it is built upon? Well, to that i'd say that Christmas is more than religion, and has been for decades. Indeed, I've never went to church outside of weddings and school enforced events. So yes, maybe the "true" meaning of Christmas and Easter are not applied to my celebration, but I see that as no reason to not at least partake in my version of it. Christmas is the time when in the UK the country shuts down, and it's one of the few times that it's accepted that people will be off – it's family and friends time, and i am grateful for that.
I don't believe in Christmas' or Easter's "meaning", or religious meaning – does that disallow me to celebrate it in my own way? I actually don't celebrate Easter at all, not understanding people's reactions (Connie's included) to working over the "long weekend". I actually can barely name all of the days – Good Friday, Classy Saturday, Egg Sunday... but I will enjoy some cut price easter eggs if i find them, as I like chocolate (especially the Mars chocolate). However, Christmas is the most important time of the year as it permits me to go home to Glasgow, go home to Canada, and see the family that otherwise I might not see.
It also highlighted a large gap in Connie and I's cultural exchange - she had the traditional Easter celebrations, whereas I didn't, and it upset me that I had no plans made. No I know, though.
Do many religious people find it annoying that I celebrate "your" holidays? I can imagine yes, and I guess they are allowed to be a bit annoyed by it.
As a child I didn't think anything of it – it was just the way the school was set up. The hymns were about stuff that I didn't understand and thought ridiculous at a young age – mostly the entirely lame songs put me off completely. The stories I was told were ridiculous and even then I didn't believe them. But as an adult I am kind of repulsed by the idea that I was fored to go and do these things by my education. I find it radical that children in Scotland were made to do this by the state operated school system. I understand being taught about religion, but there was no link of what we did at assemblies to what we were being taught during classes. Indeed, there was an "us and them" attitude to the whole thing, with many Hindu, Seihk, Jehovah's Witness and other religious children being allowed to sit out the Christian parts of the school assemblies.
Interestingly, it was only recently I was made aware of how odd the whole thing was, and also how strange it was that I'd not even noticed it before. I had been a strong atheist for most of my recent adult life, and yet I'd not fully understood that I'd been involved in a strange type of attempted indoctrination that only was broken by my parents – who are 50/50 in the Great Scottish Divide. My father – raised catholic, and my mother – raised protestant. Their reluctance to send to a church on either side eventually allowed me to make my own mind up. I wonder if I had been sent to Sunday school in one of the sides of that, would I have came out the other side the same way? Or, like a friend of mine who raised catholic to the hilt, might I have came out even more disenchanted?
Easter and Christmas, however, despite being Christian holidays technically, are also as secular as you can get. Many religious people will claim that this is hypocritical, and also not allowed. Why should I be able to celebrate Christmas and ignore the message that it is built upon? Well, to that i'd say that Christmas is more than religion, and has been for decades. Indeed, I've never went to church outside of weddings and school enforced events. So yes, maybe the "true" meaning of Christmas and Easter are not applied to my celebration, but I see that as no reason to not at least partake in my version of it. Christmas is the time when in the UK the country shuts down, and it's one of the few times that it's accepted that people will be off – it's family and friends time, and i am grateful for that.
I don't believe in Christmas' or Easter's "meaning", or religious meaning – does that disallow me to celebrate it in my own way? I actually don't celebrate Easter at all, not understanding people's reactions (Connie's included) to working over the "long weekend". I actually can barely name all of the days – Good Friday, Classy Saturday, Egg Sunday... but I will enjoy some cut price easter eggs if i find them, as I like chocolate (especially the Mars chocolate). However, Christmas is the most important time of the year as it permits me to go home to Glasgow, go home to Canada, and see the family that otherwise I might not see.
It also highlighted a large gap in Connie and I's cultural exchange - she had the traditional Easter celebrations, whereas I didn't, and it upset me that I had no plans made. No I know, though.
Do many religious people find it annoying that I celebrate "your" holidays? I can imagine yes, and I guess they are allowed to be a bit annoyed by it.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
A Camera Graveyard
I happened upon a charity shop this past weekend. It appeared to have the remnants of a Camera shop from 20 years ago. It was a remarkable front window, and one that sorely tempted me to just buy a whole bunch.
Also there seems to be several expired films in there... I took some photos, with a passer by quizzically looking at me with the rather ironic scene of me taking photos of these old cameras with my new fangled iPhone.
Here are some photos of the cameras. Give me a Tweet if you want to get some of them. I might be able to arrange that.
Also there seems to be several expired films in there... I took some photos, with a passer by quizzically looking at me with the rather ironic scene of me taking photos of these old cameras with my new fangled iPhone.
Here are some photos of the cameras. Give me a Tweet if you want to get some of them. I might be able to arrange that.
Friday, April 06, 2012
Circles
I used to rent a lot of cars, and now Connie and I own one. Back in July of 2011 during the warmest ever heatwave in Toronto history, we went to Canada for a wedding for her cousin. I spent the days in the garden having water fights with Kaleb who tired me out and spent the evenings drinking beer and discussing the intricacies of Rolf Harris, over far too many beers with a brother in law Skyping in on an iPad set atop a baby high chair. It was a lovely holiday and one that ranks as the best short breaks I have ever had.
On the drive back from the wedding the next day (after stopping at Tim Horton's) Connie put the first Wild Beasts album onto the hire car - Limbo, Panto. It was an attempt to get Abe, her brother, to listen to it. One day I'll write about Abe's screeplays - he's a pretty accomplished script writer.
We left the CD in the hire car. It was a mistake that wasn't noticed until we were unpacking back in Aberdeen a few weeks later.
Only last week we picked up our new car - an object that will feature several times in the coming weeks, because of the new freedom we will have. Interestingly, on a whim, I clicked the CD player button on the car on our first drive after 5 minutes, and suddenly The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony is coming out of the speakers. We had just picked up a CD in our new car.
It's not an exact trade, but something that made us laugh and I'll probably never forget.
Limbo, Panto > Urban Hymns.
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
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