Tag: music

Gym Bunny

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Not really but you get to a certain stage of life as a woman and your body starts attacking you. Here’s the deal. I need to do a bit more weight bearing exercise. Don’t get me wrong I lug a lot of scuba gear about but I need to focus on one or two areas that will make all the difference. Last week I met a personal trainer who is a third of my age and he chatted to me whilst making me work muscles on a series of machines in the gym. I limped home expecting to be really stiff the following day. I wasn’t.  I did go out after my ‘work out’ and had a gentle walk and an art class. (That’s for another post). Sitting still would not have been a good move. I’m ok. A bit sore in a good way.

Looking around at the people in the gym I’m pleased to report that minus one or two young men who were training to preen most people there during the day are of a certain age and clearly there just to do themselves good. No lycra clad gym bunnies here.

I still think we should take notes from the Finnish. In their gyms there is no piped 80/90s dance tunes and people who want music to train too take their own. No earplugs needed. I think I’m Finnish at heart. Respectful quiet is the norm be it on the train or in a coffee shop. People can hear to talk to each other yet even their conversation is quiet. You can’t overhear unless you really try to. Privacy is a two way street. A woman in a cafe in Helsinki while I was there asked another customer to keep her dog quiet. On being told it was none of her business the woman replied “your dog is making it my business”. Mic drop. The dog was shushed.

I suppose this is a polite request for a quieter world. Don’t get me wrong I love concerts and loud music … When I choose to take part but your average gym is just that not a night club.

Motorway madness

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I’ve seen a lot of the M6 in the last few months. I’m still hospital visiting. Not only that but part if the family have now moved to Wales so that’s been the scene of one or two days lately too. Sunday was possibly the hottest day of the year and I found myself stuck in a traffic jam. A one hour journey  took two hours. There was a air show. I didn’t know and wound up in the queue. Still I had my new best playlist to keep me company.

Does anyone else make playlists for specific  purposes? For years I’ve curated lists for friends themed birthday parties (which reminds me there’s a baby shower soon I wonder if they need one?). I love making what are effectively musical mood boards. Give me an era or a topic or a state of mind I’ll match it to some tunes. I can go full classical to.pop and rock, folk to funk and everything in between. My love of obscure songs from niche genres takes me down many a rabbit hole. There’s a playlist on spotify called crate diggers which hales back to a time when we used to have actual physical objects to play our music from not this ethereal digital mess. We’ve lost so much. Yes, the crackle, hiss and annoying jump of scratched vinyl but also so many B sides and album tracks in a world where the greatest hits are on demand.

I still buy physical cds and vinyl where I can. I still own a cassette player too, not to mention the 78s (ask your gran). I’ve not yet found anything play a wax cylinder though but I’ve seen one in action. Which reminds me I need to add a Madness track to my motorway list… which is where I came in.

Eurovision (or Liverpool knows how to throw a party)

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The big day is on Saturday 13th May 2023. Liverpool us hosting the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of Ukraine on account of Russia having invaded and Kyiv not being safe. The city is buzzing as they say here abouts. Everyone is having a boss time. Liverpool is always a friendly city and this event shows it off to perfection. So many local groups and artistes involved in really putting on a show. There’s the usual big screen and a stage with free live shows. There are special buskers stations for local and Ukranian artists. Everywhere you can see blue and yellow flags and the tee shirts bear the slogan “You’ll never sing alone” styles after the local football anthem (borrowed from the musical Carousel) You’ll never walk alone.

Food. Writers workshops. LGBTQ+ safe spaces. Soap making. Sing alongs. Children’s events. Special exhibits at all the museums. Vloggers for miles. TV crews. Sunshine (OK and showers). Vogue dancing. Parades. A yellow and blue submarine. You really can feel the love. This is not about Liverpool, though. It’s on honour of a country torn apart by war. Those attending are decked out in both their own and Ukrainian flags. Sunflowers and the pink bucket hats we have come to associate with last years winners. It’s exciting.

Whoever wins this contest (and as I write several countries have already been eliminated) and whatever you think of Eurovision (people tend to love it or hate it) I can honestly say that it’s been one helluva party.

It had to be done!

Folking Fantastic

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I’m sure I mentioned that I was  going to be at a festival. Cambridge Folk Festival to be precise. Arrived early having rebooked to avoid the train strike. (I fully support all trade union actions and respectfully remind you that excessive profits are unpaid wages.) We waltzed around the town for a day and took in the sights, though to be honest at £11 per adult per college you’re not going to visit them all!

Wristbands collected. Refillable drinks plastic glass procured. A brief wait for the merch tent to open so we could get a programme spent happily at the cider stall. The key to a good festival is the choice of bands to see. With 4 stages a clash is inevitable but rate your must see/like to see/will see if passing carefully and Bob’s your aunty. Mooch round the market looking at the festival clothes/hats/jewelry and, of course, the instrument stall… because this is a folk festival.

Wristband

Who did we see…? Findlay. Spiers and Boden. Dustbowl Revival (best find of the festival for me). The Young Uns. Suzanne Vega. Seasick Steve (which got a bit ‘blokey’ and dangerous feeling so we left). Admiral Fallow (not their best set something was off). Zoe Bestel. The People Versus. Cruel Folk. The Honest Poet. Dupree. June Road. The Mary Wallopers. Katherine Priddy.

My pick of the festival must see was Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingham. I’d caught a tune or two on the radio the week before. He’s a Grammy Award winning blues guitar player. Yep. Blues at a folk festival, that’s Cambridge. His security detail were not best pleased when he disappeared off stage, still wired in through his radio pickup, and reappeared sometime later in the middle of the audience. Brilliant (and he knows it) check out his albums.

Kingfish

However the ‘remember for ever’ moment will go to the Billy Bragg set. Now Billy and I go way back. I actually gave him his 1st gig in Manchester back in 1983/4. (There is a photo to prove it). Naturally I wanted to catch his set but this clashed with both O’Hooley and Tidow (also acquaintances …  we caught the first few songs of their set) and the 2nd half of the Women’s European football final. He checked his phone just before the set to see that the German team had equalised 1-1. Part way through he spotted someone in the crowd checking the score… into extra time… Billy decided we should all sing Jerusalem to spur them on but just the 1st verse. 2-1 shouts the guy. One song… how long to go? 2 minutes… Billy decided to talk for a while but couldn’t hold off and launched into ‘Shirley‘ … around  verse 3 the cheer went up. He stopped playing and wept. So did just about every woman in the crowd. Strangers hugged each other, a strange sight in this post Covid world. We sang the 2nd verse of Jerusalem!

Billy Bragg

Much of the weekend was spent enjoying amazing music, cider and company. There was much anti Tory sentiment (as is the way with folk music) including a beautiful arrangement of ‘Vote the Bastards Out’ in 4 part harmony by the Spooky Men’s Chorale. Regardless of your political views (who am I kidding) I’d definitely advise you to check out next year’s festival.

Bring me my bow of burning gold….

OP-1 not so teenage engineering

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So for a while I’ve had a little synth known as an OP-1. (If you know you know). I’ve not really for to grips with the thing but with the release of an updated version(for even more and trust me it ain’t cheap) I decided I’d best dust it off and play. The face that my better half is away for a few days and I can cheerfully make a racket has nothing to do with it….honest.

Again YouTube is a marvellous thing and alone to rewind and pause as often as you like. I managed after some fumbling to create what the young folks call a ‘beat’. The theory is simple all I need to do now I’d fine tune the way I understand the controls. It’s a fun little beast and you can rest assured I’m not planning an album any time soon.) Just knowing that I can finally use it.

I’m a secretive creature. Not like hiding things but I prefer to practice and try things without an audience. It’s an introvert thing. In my life I’ve found that strangers can teach me as I’ve nothing to lose. Where I’m invested with a person I’m less inclined to show weakness. Daft eh? Still now you know. If I have one piece of advice for others (hey I’m flawed get over it) it is do your thing fearlessly. I’m learning. That’s some of what this is is about.

Tuning in again

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I noticed an article on my social media feed this morning (yes, I’m a tea in bed scroller) stating that some folks are able to upgrade lovely old ipods. Now I adore my old beast and music uninterrupted and off grid so, obviously, this struck me as an excellent idea. I fired up the web browser in search of a local ‘modder’ and found one who definitely recommended backing up the music library before having a new disc and battery set in place. Hmmmm… This, of course, meant either firing up the ancient mac or finding a way to put the library onto the windows machine. Given that the mac is buried in the kitchen under a pile of hobby projects I found my way to the ‘store’ where I was delighted to find that it is now possible to log in to my apple account from the laptop after downloading the appropriate software. That was over 5 hours ago.

I mean I understand that the disc on the ipod needs to be formatted to windows and that doing so blanks the memory. It now seems that in order to access the said tunes I need to download the lot, album by album, to the laptop. Hence 5 plus hours…. If this doesn’t work I’m going to be a bit cross. … and I’ll have to dig out the old mac.

Actually one of the joys of watching each song as it slips into my library is that I’ve had a joyous (if unproductive) afternoon listening to half forgotten tracks from way longer ago than I care to remember. I do have most of my music in physical form. Call me ancient but I can still play those tracks deleted from the store on tape (yes, I have a cassette player. 80s style and huge), vinyl or even on CD. There’s been a box of 7″ singles (ask your grandparents) sitting in the living room begging to be played for some time now with all their crackle and hiss.

It could be nostalgia. All the get rich gurus tell me that owning stuff is so last century and I’m sure that piles or dusty old albums are cluttering up my karma somehow but I make no apologies for my love of the physical, hold it in your hands, pleasure of setting a disc or cassette into the appropriate player and sitting back to listen to a whole album, not or shuffle or anything. Very meditative … well, depending on your choice of genre but to each their own.

Its up to R now in my downloads. Next trick will be to upload the new CDs through the external disc drive I bought for the laptop. They don’t have them anymore since no one wants them apparently. I mine for retro gaming with actual games not an emulator. Even after the apocalypse given a solar panel and a battery to store the power I will still have my tunes. Failing that the world will have to suffer my harmonica playing.