Solid ball of rock

Went to see Saxon last night at the ABC.  Support was from the Quireboys, another band I love, and Redline, who I'd never heard before, but were pretty good, and I'd probably go and see again.

The Quireboys were up to their usual highly entertaining standard, and played a blinder of a set.

Spike and the Quireboys rocking the ABC

Then it was time for the main event.  From the off, it was a blinding set.  Biff announced that he hoped no-one was tired, as he fancied playing for two hours.  And that's exactly what they did.  At the end, he pointed at his watch as if to say "See, told you!".  

It was an absolute stormer of a set.  There was a fair few songs from the new album, which I've not heard yet, but they sounded great, and stood up really well next to the old favourites.

meh

In a bit of a downer at the moment.  Not depressed, just basically can't be arsed.
I think work is to blame.  There's samplers that I need to make for a project, and they need to be ready for May/June.  Now I've ordered in the parts I need, but there's stuff that we can't buy from approved suppliers, and that has to be bought using the project credit card, which I don't hold.
This has been dragging on since Christmas.  I need one part to build a prototype, and I've just been told, if it doesn't work, then we'll have to think about some other way of sampling.

Fine.

Except.  I'm on holiday for two weeks in May.  This was booked before I was asked to make the samplers. They know I'm going away.  So, basically, if they don't get their fingers out, they aren't going to get their samplers.

End of.

Why is this making me meh?  Well, I really enjoy working on this, and it's just frustrating that it's other people holding things up.

I'd scream, but I can't muster the energy.

1984, are we currently living it?

Just a quick thought on the current situation regarding the policing of the upcoming (it's NOT a state) funeral for Thatcher.

In the run up to the funeral, there will apparently be dawn raids on the homes of known protesters, to make sure they don't disrupt the funeral.  Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?  Actions like this are verging on thoughtcrime.  Is it getting to the stage where having a point of view that differs from the ruling elite's is bordering on a criminal offence?

Thatcher - Dividing the country even in death

Yesterday former UK Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher died in her bed in a room at the Ritz hotel in London, where she had been living for some time.  She was 87.

During her 11 years in power, she managed to divide the country, with her supporters proclaiming her as the countries savour, while the rest compared her to Satan himself.

You can see the different reactions across the country from the regional headlines, here.

Personally I think her policies were evil.  The underclass that exists today is a direct result of her policies.  The fact that you have to bow down to corporations for your services is a result of her privatisation of everything.  Her mantra was greed is good, society doesn't exist, and you have to look after number 1.

Personally I won't be shedding any tears now that she's gone.  Various city's had impromptu street parties celebrating her demise.  I can understand why they did.

But now the point of this post.  On Facebook and Twitter, when the news broke, there was the same sort of posts that spring up when a celebrity dies.  However tasteless you think that sort of humour is, initially the posts were pretty tame.  Then people started defending her, saying she was a poor lonely 87 year old woman and deserved some respect.

The fall out was horrific.  People who were friends in real life as well as online, were getting torn into each other.
Today I had a look back over my FB feed.  It's like a war zone.  Twitter wasn't much better.
I've seen three people comment that their friends list is shorter today than it was yesterday, as they de-friend people who's posts they found objectionable.

Even in death she's causing division.

The Great Glasgow Transport rip-off

At the moment because of the weather, I'm not cycling to work, and get a train in the mornings.  For the privilege of going 2 stops, twice a day, 5 days a week, I pay £51.50 a month.  Now I can use it at weekends, except, well, there's no trains on my line on a Sunday.

The bus alternative is £52.  Admittedly that covers the whole Glasgow network, which appears to be split into only 2 zones, Glasgow City and Whole Network.  So, for £0.50 more, I get to travel on the whole network, and am not restricted to the days I travel.
The only problem is, despite the city centre having been open for business on a Sunday for about 20 years, we still have the antiquated "Sunday Service".  Now, this was fine when there was no shops open on a Sunday, but apparently shops do more business on a Sunday now than a Saturday, so having a reduced service on a Sunday makes no sense whatsoever.

The last option is the Zonecard.  Now this is provided by SPT and allows travel on buses, trains, underground, and ferry.  Excellent and as you would expect, having more options makes it more expensive.  A lot more.  3 zones (which is what I would need to get to work) is £85.10 for 4 weeks.

There's also the strange situation where the Zonecard has Glasgow split into a hell of a lot of zones, and not just the two that First bus has for the city.  This is sort of fair enough, when you consider that it covers a far wider area than the bus only card, but they use a completely different model.  From my house to the city centre with the Zonecard, is 3 zones.  With the bus card it's 2.

Now, another weird one is this.  Both the trains and the buses are run by First.  I have a 4 week train ticket. The other day my train was cancelled (and so was the next one).  Since there's only 2 an hour, I wasn't prepared to wait an hour to see if the one after that again was running.  First didn't lay on a replacement bus service (something they do when there is heavy snow and the trains can't run), so I jumped on a bus.  Now, even though I've already paid First to get from the town to the house by train, which they can't provide, I have to PAY AGAIN to use the bus to get home.  The bus driver doesn't recognise that my train isn't running and I should be able to travel by bus.  EVEN THOUGH when they recently electrified the line and there were no trains running, we COULD use the train tickets on the buses. It's not rocket science, it's the same company running the trains and the buses.  A ticket to travel should be just that, and the means of travel (bus or train) irrelevant.

I can't be the only one to think this.  Can I?

New guitar class

The guy I've been getting guitar lessons from, told me last week to go to an earlier class, as the people who're in the one I've been going to, have been missing weeks, and I'm the only one who's been to all of them.  The result is that I'm a bit ahead of them, and he thinks I'm being held back.
SO, on Saturday, I did just that.  The group I'm now going to are ahead of me in experience, so I was basically bottom of the class, and came away with what seemed like a huge info-dump to deal with for next week.

The guy taking the class says that IS the right group for me to be learning with, as although I've got some catching up to do, it's taking me out of my comfort zone and pushing me.

Karen thinks it's hilarious, as apparently I'm now practicing with a look of intense concentration on my face, and definitely look like I'm having a hard time of it.  Apparently what I'm struggling with sounds ok to her, but I need to practice practice practice.  Fortunately I enjoy it (or I wouldn't be doing it) so it's not a struggle to pick up the guitar and have a practice, it's more of a struggle to put it down.  Long may that continue.

Comics reading of late.

I hadn't bought any monthly comics for quite a few years, picking up graphic novels instead, but when DC rebooted their titles, I started getting Action Comics: Superman, Detective Comics: Batman, and Swamp Thing.  18 months later it's time for a re-evaluation I think.

Initially, Batman was awesome.  Simply Awesome.  18 months later?  It's still holding my attention, and the stories are still great.  No need to change, it's doing exactly what it should.
Superman however, while having some genuinely interesting twists, is starting to remind me why in my comics buying heyday in the 90's, I steered clear of the costumed crews.  It's getting all a bit silly and childish, and, well, all a bit meh.  While not naff enough to instantly cancel, it's on the subs bench and it's days could be numbered.
Now it's onto Swamp Thing.  Now I discovered old Swampy, back when Alan Moore was doing his thing, and what a wonderful thing it was.  I discovered the character John Constantine, who later got his own title Hellblazer, which I loved.  This time round, despite starting off well, went all cheesey superhero-esque lately,  which is not what I'm looking for.  Swamp Thing is definately getting the heave-ho.  Fortunately the last issue I picked up finished off a story arc, so it's probably a good time to stop.  It's replacement is likely to be Constantine, a new title featuring - you guessed it - John Constantine.  Now as long as the costume crew stay out this title, that's all to the good.  The first issue was pretty good if a bit lightweight.  Not as meaty as the Hellblazer era Constantine, but good enough to engage the interest and make dumping Swamp Thing a viable option.

Winter is coming.

Yeah, so a Game of Thrones quote to herald the fact that on what is the supposed to be the start of spring (the equinox was on Wednesday), we have snow in Glasgow.  Make that horizontal snow, as it's also a bit windy.

Don't get me wrong, I love the snow.  Might just have to think carefully about what we're going to do at the weekend though.

Hendrix was WHAT?!

A guy in work has said that "Hendrix was shit".

He followed it up with "All he did was play guitar."

Wow.  Now, personally, when someone says "Oh you should listen to "So and so", he's an incredible musician", I can differentiate between me not liking the music they play, and the fact that they are superb musicians.  Not liking their music, doesn't make them shit.

A couple of examples.

Frank Zappa.  I just don't get him.  Never have, probably never will.  It's the jazz thing.  I don't do jazz.  Does that diminish the man's talent, just because I don't like what he does?  Hell no.  I happen to think he was probably a bit of a genius.  I just don't enjoy his music.

Steve Vai. Probably one of  THE greatest guitarists alive.  Do I like his music?  No.  (OK there's the odd tune - The Class is Listening, for one, but overall, I wouldn't give him the time of day).
Can I appreciate the playing on a technical level?  Hell yes.

Now this love/hate thing fluctuates over time.  There was a day when I couldn't stand Tom Waits.  Now I really like him.  Admittedly I have to be in the mood to listen to him, but when I am, he's brilliant.

So, to sum it up.  Just because you don't like Hendrix, DOES NOT MEAN HE WAS SHIT.  OK?

Dan Reed - Glasgow, March 2013

Wilko Johnson Farewell Tour pics

Hectic weekend

People who know can tell you I love music, especially seeing bands live.  Problem is, the older I get, although I still love going to gigs, I just get knackered, so I'm totally shattered after this past weekend.
It went something like this.

Saturday - karate class, rush home, shower, change, grab a bite to eat, grab guitar and head into town for guitar lesson.  THEN, rush down to the Merchant City to a friends house, to leave the guitar with him, as both of us head back into town to go and see Wilko Johnson on his farewell tour - Wilko is dying of pancreatic cancer, has months to live, and is refusing treatment which will only extend his life by 2 to 3 months, so that he can do what really is, a farewell tour.
And what a gig.  It was fantastic, but also very emotional.  Here's a guy who dying, but you'd never know it to look at him charging round the stage.

Sunday - bit of a lie in, then down to Silverburn for some shopping (hey, we need to eat), before heading back into town to see Dan Reed.  Again, another sterling performance.

Then home to collapse and try and get some sleep.

I've got some photos from both gigs, that I'll put up in seperate posts.

Guitar lessons update

So that's me had four lessons so far, and I've got further in those four weeks, than I have in the last (almost) year, of footering about on my own.

In the four weeks I've learned the pentatonic scale, some finger exercises, some strum pattern exercises, and at the last lesson, we went over one song to strum (Candy by Paulo Nutini), and three to pick, Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes, Everbody Hurts by R.E.M. and Sunshine of your Love by Cream.
I've mainly been practising the Paulo Nutini song - because it's a weird strum pattern (well to me it is) - and Sunshine, not because it's a favourite song - I'm not a great Cream fan - but because it's the one giving me the most trouble, and that's annoying me.

So anyway, progress is being made despite my frustrations with Cream, so I'm pretty much a happy camper.

Ermmm Ok....

I appear to have joined the Wallace Society.
First thing I did was buy the book For Freedom: The Last Days of William Wallace. Sat down to read a chapter, and when I put it down I was halfway through it.  Great read.

The thing that makes this whole episode remarkable is that I was never one for history when I was at school.  This is possibly down to the fact that despite being Scottish and living in Scotland, all the history lessons were based on English history - battle of Hastings, The Great Plague, Fire of London etc.

So, here's to reading some non-fiction for a change.

Joe Satriani must be shitting himself by now.

Because I've had three (count em, three) guitar lessons.

Seriously though, nice (ok awesome) as it would be to be a fraction as good as Joe (guitar God in my eyes), I'll be happy just to be able to play some pub rock type stuff.  Anything more than that is an absolute bonus.

I'm liking the group lessons, which is weird, as I thought I'd hate them.  Let's face it, who want's to show how crap they are at something in front of a group of total strangers?  But it's not like that at all.  Everyone is in the same boat, and it's a pretty laid back atmosphere.  No-one is stressing yet.

The last of this group of lessons is this Saturday, so it's time to man up and book another block.  Not exactly a chore though, as I'm really enjoying it.

Still messing up my head

So we're onto week four of the philosophy course, and it's still enjoyable.  If week one was a bit brain melting, then weeks two and three picked up the sludge from week one and whisked it in a blender.
Saying that, I got 100% for the week two assessment, and 60 for week two.  You get to take them a maximum of three times, and your score is the highest from the three attempts.  Pass mark is 50%.  Well, 60% was fine for me, as the week three stuff was seriously out there.  Makes me wonder what the hell week four has is store!

I've also had my second guitar lesson, and that is loads of fun.  It's a group lesson, and the first week there were only four of us, but this week there was seven, including a teenager who can play a bit, and was being a typical "look at me" teenager.  When the teacher was talking, he was doing what he obviously thought was cool wee flashy riffs, but he got pulled up by one of the others who said he couldn't hear the teacher, and then the teacher commented on the fact that his technique wasn't as good as he obviously thought it was, and that he should stop trying to be flash by playing fast, and concentrate on playing properly.
He doesn't seem to be a bad kid, just a typical teenager trying to show off a bit.

Other than that, not a lot happening that's worthy of comment here.

What is philosophy?

If I ever find out, I'll let you know.

I've just started an online introduction to philosophy, from Edinburgh University.  Real life had got in the way, and as a result, I ended up watching the whole of the first week's video lectures in one sitting.  Not ideal by any stretch of the imagination, and by the time I finished, I felt like I was tripping!

So, two videos have been posted for week two - I don't know if that's all there's going to be - so I'll make a start tonight, and try to keep up.  I've also been having a nosey on the forums, but as yet, there's nothing that I feel compelled to comment on, so I'll have to wait and see.

Other than that, I recovered from week one's video-thon by playing my first game of Zombie Dice.  Loads of fun, and got me grounded again.

Life, the Universe and Rock n Roll

Things are looking up.  Work-wise it's getting more varied, and more interesting.
The other day I was doing some electronics for the first time in about 20 years.  OK it was a very basic digital circuit, but do you know, I really enjoyed it.

Yesterday I started working through a tutorial for a bit of software that simulates instruments, that you can then connect to circuits/devices, and either get inputs from the devices or output to the devices, as it acts as an instrument simulation.  Today I've spent most of the day installing it on my desktop, so I don't have to be in the lab to work through the tutorials. (Yes, it took a couple of hours to instal!!)

Apparently there's also going to be the chance to do some C++ programming, so I'll get to learn that.  This is pretty cool.  I did some programming during my degree (TurboPascal, BASIC and C) and really enjoyed it, so this should be pretty good.  Challenging, but good.

In non-work news, I've booked a block of 4 beginners guitar lessons.  This will apparently lead on to a block of 10, once they get organised better.  It starts a week on Saturday (9th).  The only problem with that is that there's an all day karate course on that day, so it means I'll only be able to attend in the morning.  I was kind of hoping there was a chance to get graded, but I guess that won't happen if I'm only there for half the day.  Swings and roundabouts.

The job I couldn't do.

There was a discussion on Facebook earlier today about the 56 year old British woman who was sentenced to death in Bali for drug smuggling. (If you're unaware of the story, it's here)

The original poster was against the death penalty, and took issue with the Balinese authorities saying that her activities were harmful to Bali as a tourist destination.  He thought their use of the death penalty would stop people going.
My response was that I've been to countries that have the death penalty, and would go to others.  As a tourist it doesn't affect me.  I'm not a drug smuggler.
Then the pr0-capital punishment lobby put their side, saying that it cut crime (erm...there's never been ANY data to prove that it is a deterent), and that she deserved it.  Well, that's their opinion and their entitled to it.
Personally I'm against it, as one innocent who gets executed is one too many.  All the apologies and posthumous acquittals in the world won't bring back the innocent people wrongly executed. But I digress.
The question I asked - which as I write this still hasn't been answered by the pro lobby - was this.  Would YOU be prepared to be the executioner.  If there was a vote on capital punishment in the UK tomorrow, and it passed, would you be prepared to carry out the sentences?  If not, then you would effectively be asking someone to do something that you yourself were not prepared to do.  And that, in my opinion, is wrong.

I would not be prepared to do it.  I could not vote in favour for that reason, and the previously stated reason that one innocent wrongly convicted is one too many, and the fact that the taking of a life even if legally sanctioned, is just plain wrong.  It's still murder. (in my opinion.  Yours may differ, and you're entitled to your opinion, and I don't judge)

Bit of a downer of a post, but it's the topic of the day on FB, so here it is.

HMV saved?

So, it looks like HMV will survive in some form.  Hilco have taken it over, paying less that the £175m debt that the company owed.

At least this means there will still be (some) record shops on (some) high streets.  Now if only they would concentrate on music and stop trying to be a combination of a record shop and electrical shop.  If I want cd's and dvds I'll go to HMV, if I want headphones and mp3 players, I'll go to a hi-fi shop, and if I want tablets, I'll go to a computer shop.  Seriously, stick to what you're good at, music.  Leave the computing (tablets) and audio equipment to the shops that specialise in those.  You're supposed to be a record store, not a department store.  Act like it.