Today, The Missus attended court to deal with the matter of Hubble V Lock. Last year, The Missus had a car accident in which she caused £10 of damage to her own car (a broken number plate) but the 76 year old victim wanted £5000 in compensation. The insurers wasn’t having any of it and so it was up to a magistrate to decide the compensation claim. She got £1550 to cover her minor injuries and the £650 damage to her car. (We now call The Missus’ car “The Hubble Crusher” because of the damage it causes to little old ladies in 5mph impacts).
After walking Alex the Wonderdog, the doorbell rang and a very scruffy looking oik flashed his police ID badge at me. It seems that our next-door neighbour, an elderly lady called Gwen, had been robbed at about 1.30pm. Had I seen anything? No, I hadn’t. Now, Alex might have his faults but he barks whenever he sees anyone going down the neighbour’s path – he does this while sitting regally on the sofa. He had barked at 1.30pm but by the time I had gone to the window to see, I only saw the meals-on-wheels people going in. Apparently, it all happened near enough on top of each other.
The plain clothes policeman asked if I had seen anything suspicious recently. I told him that on Monday afternoon (13th Feb 2006), an Irish fellow came to the door trying to sell me some furniture. He was a shifty looking bugger and I made a point of really giving him a good look. He was late forties, grey hair, wearing a blue sleeveless body warmer and possible blue jeans. He was stocky and about 5’6″ to 5’8″. He went to Gwen’s after knocking at ours. The people that had robbed Gwen’s had been working in a pair – one distracted while the other robbed. It happens a lot around here, mainly because there is a big elderly contingent. We’ve warned her, but they never listen. Because no-one had knocked here and no-one else was targetted, it seems that these bastards knew who they were looking for. Give them 5 minutes with me and a clawhammer and I promise that they’ll never do it again…
Anyway, you are probably wondering why I am writing all this. It’s purely for a memory aid, just in case I need to ID this scumbag in future.
Now something to lighten the tone. Alex has a new trick. Whenever I am sitting cross-legged on the floor (I do this a lot because despite my near-35 years of age, I can still cross my legs and do the lotus position), he now plonks himself on my lap. This next picture gives you an idea of scale too. Either he is really big or I am really tiny…YOU DECIDE!
Latest Entries »
Last night, I got dewey-eyed and very nostalgic watching a retrospective show on BBC4 about the children’s TV show, Jackanory. For those of you not in the know, the premise is simple: a leading actor of the day sits in front of a camera and tells a story, which is serialised over 5 daily episodes. It’s a simple idea, but I remember it being very powerful and engaging as a young child. Watching the clips last night, I was surprised by just how good my memory was. It also reminded me that I’ve watched far too much TV during my life. But it was a simple pleasure and there’s something about the oral tradition of story telling that I really enjoy. With Dead Rock Star, the unpublished novel that I wrote last year, I spent most of the writing process telling the story verbally to The Missus while walking the dog. It’s a shame that the likes of Jackanory are consigned to the trash bin because its uncool or unhip. If it doesn’t move at a million miles an hour your days are numbered, my friend. But watching the documentary ran parallel with something I am working on at the moment and seeing how engaging storytelling is, it gave me new impetus to continue.
For Valentine’s, The Missus was happy with her obligatory flowers/chocolates/teddy bear combination and I received a much-appreciated bottle of aftershave. Remember, a little dab of aftershave can cover a multitute of sins.
Meanwhile, loads more crap on eBay…the links over on the right somewhere…
The digital domain impinges on our life from every angle; from digital photography to downloadable music, the need for data storage on the move is something that even the average technophobe appreciates. The new 4Gb Micro Hard Drive is one such solution and is a USB 2.0 device aimed purely for storage. It’s backwardly compatible with USB 1.1 so there shouldn’t be any problems connecting this to PCs and Macs, though if you are using a operating system that’s older than Windows XP, you will need to install some drivers (included or downloadable from the Imation website).
The unit itself is very solid and takes the shape of a padlock, the plastic loop unhooks and doubles as the USB connector. THe body of the drive is made of brush aluminium and there’s something quite satisfying just fiddling with this in your hand. When connected to a PC, it appears as a detachable hard drive and you can just drag and drop your files straight to it. If you are transporting sensitive data, free encryption software is available from the Imation site to protect your files.
Using it is is a synch, but I was alarmed to notice that after a few minutes of use, the outer casing became quite warm to the touch. This is the only technical fly in the ointment as the hard drive does exactly what it aims to do with aplomb. My reservations about it stems from the fact that you can buy solid state memory cards of a similar capacity more cheaply and they don’t have any moveable parts that might fail. It also takes up more space than your average memory card and could be considered as bulky. I can’t see this being a popular product, but instead being adopted by geeks and aesthetes who wants something mysterious to clip onto their bags as a talking point. I think in terms of portability and reliability, you’d be better off spending your money on solid state memory instead.
The Imation 4Gb Hard Drive has been designed to resemble a padlock
The rubberised loop unfurls to reveal a USB connector
This is the tiny hard drive that lurks beneath the brushed aluminium casing
Here’s an alternative view of that tiny drive
For more information, visit: http://www.imation.com/products/micro_hard_drive/index.html
Talking of Lanterna, I just heard an advert for the film “Proof” starring Gwyneth Paltrow on the radio and the background music was a track by Lanterna. Small world, innit?
While we are on the subject of movie trailers, the movie “Greyfriars Bobby” opens today. It is based on the classic story of a little dog who refuses to leave his masters grave. However, in this retelling of the story they’ve changed the protagonist from a Skye Terrier to that of a more aesthetically pleasing West Highland White – or Westie. I happen to own the laziest Westie in the world: Alex the Wonderdog, and I am including this trailer to remind myself just how lively and energetic this breed should be.
I’m not saying that Alex the Wonderdog is disloyal or anything, but the only way I’d be able to get him to stay at my graveside is if I was buried with a large ham or two dozen sausages. 😉
I love Henry Frayne. There, I said it. I know it can sometimes be difficult for men to express their emotions, but Mr Frayne (and to some extent Leo Abrahams) occupies a place in my heart labelled “Underrated Guitarists that I empathise with”. I first encountered Frayne and his band Lanterna, which is really just him and a drummer friend, while perusing the eMusic website about five years ago. The first album I heard “Elm Street” instantly captivated me and I realised I had found something special and ever since that time I have followed the Lanterna sound.
This new album isn’t scheduled for release until March but I ordered mine direct from Badman Recordings and got it early. What annoys me abotu Frayne is how can this guy continue to produce consisitently good albums in such a short period of time. It’s bugging me! But seriously, prolific must be Frayne’s middle name. This new album serves up more of the same, and that’s not a bad thing, if like me you enjoy epic, cinematic, instrumental guitar music.
Lanterna’s sound is that of a the simple soul. Optimistic, panoramic, sunny, the road leading to the horizon: that’s the best way to express what I hear and feel when I listen to a Lanterna album. Of course, this music isn’t for everyone because some would consider it “fey” or too simplistic to rate him as a guitarist because he doesn’t play a million notes a minute. What he does play is considered and from the heart. There’s driving delayed rhythm guitars that don’t sound a million miles away from U2, gentle acoustics thrumming with Frayne humming, one track almost sounds like the extended solo Brian May from Queen used to play during “Brighton Rock”, steady drumming from long-time collaborator Eric Gebow and 10 tracks that will transport you off to the heartlands of America. The album is expansive, panoramic and begging to be used in a movie soundtrack.
If you want a record to banish the winter blues, then look no further as I guarantee this will remind of the summer sun and blue skies that await us. And if you aren’t familiar with the music of Lanterna, this ten track album represents probably the best introduction. Buy it now (and don’t forget to buy a copy of Leo Abrahams’ “Honeytrap” album too). Alternatively, get a free trial on eMusic and download some of their albums from there.
Or you can download two sample tracks direct from the Badman Recordings website by click the links below:
“B Minor” from the album Elm Street
“Brightness” from the album Highways
Seeing as my previous attempt at a podcast had been a success of some kind (over 300 downloads), I thought I’d better crack on and pull out my finger to do another one. Yesterday, I completed the recording. This time around I am talking about recording a song called “Pearly King” and I explain how the whole song was recorded and constructed.
Direct download: HERE
Alternatively, you can head over to iTunes and subscribe to my podcast by clicking here. (iTunes must be installed for this link to work)
Or you can add my podcast feed to your iPodder software:
https://www.darrenlock.com/podcast.rss
Hope you enjoy it!
The top search strings that lead wary surfers to this site were:
1 malcolm xerxes
2 ashbory bass
3 alesis multimix16 firewire
4 monkey dust
5 alesis firewire review
6 alesis firewire mixer review
7 ashbory
8 alesis multimix16
9 erotic ironing
10 highbury house receivership
11 highbury receivership
12 lemonjelly
13 twitchy eye
14 www.arced.game.com
15 49 up mp4
16 alesis multimix16 firewire review
17 alesis multimix16 review
18 alesis review firewire recording
19 wankers uk
20 darren lock
As you can see Malcolm Xerxes again has dominated the chart with the Ashbory Bass coming second. It’s good to see that people have been coming here for news about Highbury House publishing and looking for reviews of the Alesis Multimix16 Firewire. My own name could only scrape in at the bottom of the list, but at least the scourge of Nookie Bear has ended. Hurrah!
This month’s Google Mind FuckTM is:
Chantelle Houghton getting naked with George Galloway while looking at an offensive Islamic cartoon and fisting Michael Barrymore who is injecting his baby gravy into Pete Burns’ grossly inflated lips
As you can see, this month’s Google Mind FuckTM has a strong Celebrity Big Brother theme as this is still high on everyone’s search list. Don’t forget to tune in for next month’s string of offensive words guaranteed to get traffic to yoru website. 🙂