cardboard robot ninja pirate monkey

white on black

when making websites that are just a big long bit of copy, will people stop using crap times new roman or whatever other shit font you can find in white on a black background please.

i cant see my bloody monitor now. thanks. good job i can touch type.

great expectations

when taken out of my comfort zone, away from an environment where i know where i fit and what my responsibilities are and put into a place where my future is what i make it, i have a strange reaction.
if there is something that i have never done before, that i need to learn (most of the time something quite complicated) i have a tendancy to expect an awful lot of myself. i think i should be like joe 90 and in the blink of an eye learn everything that i had but a moment ago not known.

its an incredibly stressful thing to feel. the expectations i have for my own learn are extremely high. but what i dont know is whether these expectations and the self doubt that they produce are key to my learning as i learn best when put under a great deal of pressure. when the external pressure is lacking, i turn to my internal stress generators to make it up for me.

i do however wish that i could change this. id like to be able to learn best when on a beach in hawaii with a cold drink and oodles of time to spare...

the new love of my life...

oli hates it cos it wasnt made in 1842, but after going ridiculously fast round the park on it last night, i think i no longer want to walk anywhere. and public transport, well, poo poo to you. although, those spokes do scream steal me...

in rainbows #3

well well well.  i don't know why im shocked.  but my god its good.
i think i always hoped that it would make me smile, tap my foot and generally feel warm inside as much as it has, but there was always the slight wonder whether theyd go all bizarre and do a think piece, or whether theyd come out with a pure country and western ballad album. but they havent.  and i am glad.

on my first listen i replayed the second track "bodysnatchers" 3 times it was that good.  theres a mix of a lot of different types of stuff in here.  i dont want to do the usual "it sounds like this crossed with this" type breakdown, as i think thats beyond the point now. 
track 4 - "nude" has this luxuriously lazy tempo that sucks you in with closed eyes and smokey vocals.  if i could ever choose a soundtrack for my life, i think this would be it.  laden with generous string parts and even major chords, i think it could become very addictive.
whether its something to do with the binaural microphones they were seen to be using, or just really good production, i dont care, i just love that at times the whole sound envelopes you giving the most intimate experience.

radiohead do what they want to do.  they sound like themselves, whether its from the raw pablo honey days of old or the spectacular electronica influenced kid A and for me in rainbows is pure joy.
phil selways drumming is nothing short of brilliant.  tight and precise at times, loose and jazzy and delicate at others.  i always remember marvelling at how good his drum tracks on tracks such as airbag were.  sharp and focused. 
thoms singing always gives me shivers.  but its great to hear on this album.  it could be me reading things in to the sound, but it feels like they had fun doing this album.  theres a relaxed, enjoyable atmosphere to a lot of the songs.  you can hear some of the learnings from things like thoms solo album - eraser in here.  its almost like he enjoyed stretching his legs for a bit.
and well, i could go through the list of everyone in the band and how good their playing is but i think i might start to sicken some.

some may be inclined to say that they are disappointed by it.  that its not 'experimental' enough for them.  that they prefer the more electronic albums.  but to that id say lose the snobbery.  im likely to start fights over this, i know, but theres no lack in the quality of this album.  it doesnt have to tick any criteria boxes to be good for me.  it just works.

all i can say is buy it.  go and buy it.  pay money for it.  they deserve it, because what they have produced is something that all at once can be called classic radiohead, but also forward thinking and fresh.  something that for many, may take the place of kid A in their favourites list.
high accolade i know.  but genuinely, its taken even me by suprise.

now i really cant wait to see them live. 

a collective start...

© 2007

in rainbows #2

not long now!

" THE ALBUM WILL COME AS A 48.4MB ZIP FILE CONTAINING 10 X 160KBPS DRM FREE MP3s."

- like all my dreams come true

apple vs mac

why?

when they're part of a competitive consumer electronics market, alongside other companies such as dell and whatnot, all who would bend over backwards to give you a good deal - why do apple have to make it so hard for you to pledge allegiance to them?

i really do love macs, but i sometimes wish they didnt have to be made by apple...

?

mobile suit 2
Uploaded by irea

do i really sound like that?

see me talk!

from the 'she says' september event on forward thinking and innovation.

http://www.shesays.org.uk/last-event.aspx

along with other lovely people talking about their shiny work and products. nice

in rainbows...

so, the new radiohead album, in rainbows - is nearly here.  being released in 10 days it marks what should, to all intents and purposes be one of their greatest pieces of work yet.  while each of their individual works has been nothing short of beautiful - the diversity of things they have been working on hopefully will happily come together to create something magical.

and to start with theres the typically radiohead like way that theyre promoting the album.  whether or not they know the extent to which people will take it upon themselves to spread the word, they have purely posted a new piece on their main radiohead.com site.  a simple affair with a photo and a few words from johnny greenwood to say "its done, here it is" (before they changed the main site URL to redirect to the album page that is) leading to the page where you can preorder the album.  however, theres the interesting part of that for the digital download, you can pay as much as you like.  5p or £50.  many people will first look at this and think that its stupid.  that theyre not going to get any money from people.  everyone would put 1p in surely?  well, maybe not.  given the option i chose instead to preorder the discbox.  £40 worth of cd and vinyl and artwork and extras.  that includes the price for the download which will be available on the 10th oct.  why didnt i just get the download for almost free?

i dont want to steal music.  i dont want to contribute more to the decline of the 'music industry'.  i AM loathe to pay the price that hmv's and virgin's want to charge for full price albums.  sometimes you can end up paying 18 squid for something that you cant listen to first.  i do really think that they need to keep up with the times.  its not sustainable in the way that it always used to be, but i dont want that change and shift to comprise recording quality or chances that people get to really spend time and attention on crafting their work.  i like hearing the difference between an independant lo-tech recording and then say a full on brian eno beautifully mastered epic soundscape.  they are good for different things.  also, recording an album is very different to just knocking out tunes.  theres no need to keep to this format if everything goes digital.  people will just pick and choose the tracks that they want, so theres no need to have 10 or 12 tracks in a row.  but the best bands use this format to tell a story.  the track order is very carefully constructed.  they have a flow and rhythm to them.  take away that and you take away some of the magic.  well end up with a 4 minute attention span and thats not good.
plus, i like having the tangible feeling of a vinyl sleeve in your hand.  and the security of knowing that incase my computer goes tits up i still have hard copy for me to be able to listen to (because it will happen.  i know it will) that doesnt involve me backing my entire music collection up onto blank white cds and keeping them in stacks everywhere to get forgotten about and/or broken.

but im from that generation.  i like music being real.  i especially like big music stores where you always manage to find something new while youre looking for something specific.  ok, i admit that i dont go to music stores anymore now that fopp has closed down.  but you can still have the same experience on amazon.  i love amazon.  so much new music that ive discovered just by chance.  and then the giddy thrill when you get something in the post.  yes, the post!  i dont think a lot of kids these days know what it feels like to get letters.  email has taken over and taken away some of the joy of friends sending notes on paper, and including in the envelopes other stuff like stickers, balloons, drawings, sweet wrappers, handmade necklaces.  real things.  that have been made or touched by real human hand.  its a beautiful thing.

for radiohead though, i think they really know their audience.  theyre using digital in a way to be able to talk to both sets of their audience.  the ones of us who know them from pablo honey days, and still like to hear the crackle of vinyl, will go for the box set.  we probably have career type jobs and enough disposable income to be able to spend 40 quids without worrying about it, just being happy in the fact that obtaining all the formats was made quick and easy, without days of trawling stores and phoning people to see if anyone still has the limited edition stock in.  well make up the money that the cheapskate kids dont want to pay.  and really everyones happy.  plus, by allowing people to only obtain the album from download to start with, but not making them pay a fortune, they will most likely get a lot more people buying genuine downloads for a few quid, to be able to get it on time, rather than lots of people waiting to rip it off for free because they dont want to pay cd album price or they cant be arsed to go to town to buy it.
but i also think that radiohead know that theyre fans have a certain amount of integrity.  they know that to a lot of people its more than just a new cd.  its another piece of work that will take a special place in their hearts and lives.  and when asked to pay what they think its worth, many would say that its priceless.

i... am excited.