June 2002
Friday 28
testing
Just seeing if I can still upload…
Looks like I can. Good ole BBEdit! Haven't been able to do so lately, due to more strange firewall shenanigans. Go figure.
wedding
Thanks to everyone who came to our wedding blessing last weekend. We had a wonderful weekend up in Norfolk and it was great to see you all there. Dancing on the grass in bare feet as Akufen [natch] blasted across the garden was big fun! And now after all that excitement I think I might start getting back to doing some web design stuff, starting with this site. Complete redesign happening in July, woo! [Although there is a lot to be said about taking the occassional month off from the ninternet, I think.]
akufen and again and again
Just go buy the Akufen album, mmmkay? And if you have already bought it, buy it again, and give it to a friend. Shout it from the rooftops: “Akufen! Akufen! Akufen!”
DJ Me
Now that I have Ableton Live installed on my powerbook, it is only a matter of time before I will be rockink der haus. My goal is to “drive you away from being unentertained”*. You betcha. All I need now is a cool DJ name. Um, DJ Policy Wonk?
* this is an actual quote from a piece of a promotional literature we (in my previous job) were given for a certain German hi-tech company [okay, it was Siemens] who were describing the aim of their new mobile phones. Made us laugh at the time. Maybe you had to be there…
Dick
Really quite excited to see that the new Spielberg Film Minority Report has been so well reviewed. As a longtime Philip K. Dick fan (or "Dickhead") it is good to see some classy adaptations of his stories coming along to join Blade Runner. Now if only someone would make a movie of The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, that would be something!
bad apple
Dean spazzes out [understandably] and twats his powerbook. Been there, done that. It will be three months before he gets it back, reckon. And then the hard drive will die. Ain't technology great?
Wednesday 05
nice to be alive
Lots of news to catch up on. Starting with: last night we had an electrical fire in the basement of our building (our flat is on the top floor). Luckily the alarm is stunningly loud and we all got up and evacuated, after first assuming it was the usual toast burning scenario.
The electrician informs us we are lucky to be alive, which is scary. A not very nice end to a great weekend in which we went to Ireland where…
the craic was mighty
Pier and I went to the middle of Ireland to see our good friend Tim get married to the lovely Liz. It was a fantastic wedding, a great party and a massive piss-up. We thrashed our rental Micra to within an inch of its life, and then some. All in all, we were jolly irresponsible young men, and had a fabulous time. The Irish are great. I’d like to apologise for telling the 'potatoes!' joke at the dinner, though. I was very, very drunk. All weekend we listened to My Way by…
Akufen
Which is possibly the best electronic music album I have heard in the last several years. Akufen is Montreal resident Marc Leclair, who has almost singlehandedly revitalised house music by blending it with minimal german-style techno and inventing the idea of 'microsampling' - scanning the with his short wave radio, recording samples and cutting them up into tiny pieces, only to reassemble them into a massively funky whole. For example, a cymbal sound might be a fraction of a phoneme, one song has a rhythm track which appears to be constructed from a field recording of a pinball table, and kick drums are made from doors slamming. I will be writing a proper review, which will hopefully do it more justice, for Neumu soon.
Meanwhile, you can get My Way from the splendid Boomkat records, if you live in the UK, and read an interview with M. Leclair at the Ableton website. He is the bomb, really.
Oh and there is a good review at the BBC experimental music website.
Plastic Logic
A very interesting new startup in Cambridge, Plastic Logic might just revolutionise semiconductor technology by inkjet printing plastic circuits. Cool.
Newest Mania
This month I are mostly obsessing about mountain biking (and bikes) having been for a couple of rides at the surprisingly gnarly and excellent Black Route in Thetford Forest, Norfolk. So of course I have been buying all the bike mags, my favourite of which is the US-based Dirt Rag, as it has a more sociological, idealistic granola slant than the rest which I can resonate with being a cryptohippy. And from our own isle, the excellent singletrackworld, whose lively forum members offer all sorts of expert advice, suggestions, and silliness. Bike technology is moving along apace, full-suspension and disc brakes are commonplace, and the freeride movement (started by mad west-coast Canadians riding across, or more commonly down, extremely tricky terrain) has injected a much needed burst of energy, innovation and jaw-dropping lunacy into the sport. I feel compelled to join in by making my very own biking website. More of which later. I realise I may have gone on about this last month, my excuse it that I am very tired and very obsessed.
Oh, which bike do I want? Why, this week it is the Santa Cruz Heckler. A white one. Gaaaaahhh…
So, new month, new obsession. At least it will make a change from banging on about cannabis, eh?