I was talking to a friend via email just before the weekend and for some reason she mentioned something about Aqua. Yes, the late 90’s euro-dance pop band that did Barbie Girl. I bought their album (shame) cheap (less shame) around the time as I really liked (and still do) Turn Back Time. It was a fun song with a deeper meaning…well maybe I was just reading a whole lot into it. So anyway I left with a deep desire to listen to it again. Of course I could not find my copy. I suspect it’s still somewhere in Dublin. Thinking that I’d struggle to find it on the internet I fired up Soulseek hoping to just find that track so I could kill the desire and move on. No joy, not even a single track. I figured I’d fire it into a torrent engine on a chance.
And yes, there was the entire album, well seeded and even more strange with a lot of leechers. So about 25 minutes later I had it again. I wasn’t able to listen to the whole thing, I had to change it and just pick my tune. It’s funny the internet. It’s funny how it all works. So the question is, I own the album, I actually bought it in a shop, the physical CD and case are somewhere in my belongings. Why couldn’t I have just downloaded it? Was it completely illegal or was it the same as getting someone to find the CD from my boxes back in Dublin and post it over to me? The internet is a complete joy, I will say that.
Well, it’s been a busy day up here. I’m procrastinating really. Some of it I wanted to get down, some of it has just drifted onto the page.
So a little more on HST. Big question, was there a note? Fantasies flowing over the web of his finest work being completed and then, then signed. I guess there will be some word about that as the days go on.
So lots of talking on the R.E.M. boards about pushing and shoving in the pit on Saturday night. What do people expect? It was one of the tamest I’ve seen but still a lot of people upset by the physicality. It’s not my favourite thing in the world so I tend to stay towards the edges. Unless it’s a blinding gig where movement is required (Pixies for example) and yes you get pushed around but lets face it, you are pushing people around too. Standing tickets with thousands of people around you…what do you expect? Glastonbury for Radiohead I was in the pit and that was scary for the first couple of songs but once you just go with it, you’ll be fine. Someone will catch you if you fall, you can usually bet on it.
So it’s snowing again. This time it actually looks like it may even snow for a while and perhaps even stick. That would be good. Although it is fucking cold out, snow makes everything better. Although in the time it took to type this out, clear skies have appeared.
I am delighted to have just read that the Hope Of the States gig I missed last week is being broadcast tonight on Radio 1. Hopefully in full and hopefully I’ll remember to get it going. I don’t remember the last time I listened to the radio. I use to on a regular basis but then music became shit and I need some control over what I have. iTunes shuffle is probably the way forward but I have a whole lotta shit I need to clear out from it too.
Every now and again I check my old email addresses. The ones going back 8 or so years. It’s a good thing to do. Some people just keep emailing them and sometimes it’s allowed contact to start up again. That’s certainly a good thing. One day I’ll give up on them but until the day when I’m busy and have other things I want to get to, I’ll keep checking. I tend to do it using Apple’s mail.app. It has a lovely lovely feature called bounce, which well does just that. It fakes the headers and bounces back the email as undelivered so it’s meant to help stop spam. I’m not sure it does but it makes me feel better than just deleting them. And at this stage that’s all there really is coming into these addresses. It’s also handy in that I don’t have to use the shitty webmail interfaces for them. When I want to quickly go through a couple of thousand messages, scrolling through 50 or 100 is not the way to go.
Spam really is going through the roof for me these days. I have some really good filters here in work but at home…not so much. A whole lot more gets through to them. I’ve spent a lot of time training them up but with no joy. I’m looking forward to the day that Thunderbird, comes with an import feature so that I can just download a listing and take it from there. It’s such a basic feature and something I would have thought that Mozilla would have been on top of but I guess not for a 1 point 0.
So it’s getting closer to that home time and I’m I really doing is sitting here hoping it will snow, really snow. The sky is getting darker and it certainly looks like there is a good chance it might. It’ll be cold on the way home yes, but so what? Once I get home I can get my hat and my gloves (note I’m not sure I have a hat but…) and go out onto Primrose Hill and just enjoy the elements. What else can one do? Of course I bet it’s just going to piss rain on me as soon as I get off the tube.
That reminds me actually. One night last week, sometime around 9 or 10 I guess I was sitting on my computer and I noticed a plane flying overhead. It’s unusual I don’t often see many going this way unless I’m at the top of Primrose Hill. Anyway seconds later there was a massive crash and the ground shook. I was sure for a second that the plane had crashed. It was too loud to be anything else, the ground had shaken for fuck sake. All around, car alarms were going off and dogs were howling. Of course when I got to the window, there was nothing and then seconds later there was a flash and another bang. So, just thunder but really fucking loud thunder.