Old Communion Cups
Posted in play on Tuesday 25th of January 2011 by Mike | 0 comments
Labels: Iron and Wine, music, cover
Our First Gig
...was on the 11th December. I'm very proud of all of us for pulling it off under tight timescales. Below are some recordings from that night.
Posted in play on Tuesday 4th of January 2011 by Mike | 0 comments
This Year
The end of this year is nearly upon us and I can't help but reflect on the events of the last 12 months, nor can I believe it's gone so quickly... it genuinely seems like the other day that I was writing a post for this site, listing my top ten albums of the 00's. But, I guess it's not that surprising, a lot has happened this year to make the time fly by.
When reminiscing over the last year I looked through the posts on this site to help me remember the key events, but what I found was that I chiefly use this blog as a medium to broadcast utter nonsense. If anyone thought this to be an accurate portrayal of my life they would probably conclude that my biggest achievement of 2010 was growing a moustache... don't get me wrong, it's up there but hopefully there's a little more along side it.
I don't want to go into it too much because no-one really cares but here is my 2010 in a nutshell:
- Having an amazing last 2 terms at uni - academic and otherwise
- Completing my degree
- Saying goodbye to another tier of uni friends (the only genuinely big sad event)
- Getting a job I enjoy
- Plenty of summer antics including; wild swimming, boating, and festival-going
- Being giving the opportunity to do a lot of things that I thought would've been a long way off at work - like giving a lecture at the uni
- Finally playing a gig with Elli, Rache and Steve
I'm immensely looking forward to what 2011 has in store.
Posted in play on Sunday 26th of December 2010 by Mike | 0 comments
Sodom, South Georgia
Here's another one.
Posted in play on Saturday 23rd of October 2010 by Mike | 0 comments
The Penalty
I just got my ukulele back after I left it at Frances' house for a little while so in celebration I thought I'd record a video of me playing The Penalty by Beirut. This is the first of this kind of video I've made. I won a Flip a little while ago and I want to make good use of it so there we go.
Posted in play on Monday 11th of October 2010 by Mike | 1 comment
Labels: The Penalty, Beirut, ukulele, music
Love, Music, Wine and Revolution
Well, not so much 'revolution' as 'mud' and lots of it - in Abergavenny at Green Man Festival last month. And, despite the bad weather, I had a fantastic time. Most of the performances were great and the company even more so. The thing I enjoyed most about the festival was the general atmosphere - I don't recall seeing anyone that I would describe as a moron, which I can't imagine happening at somewhere like Reading festival. And It was very family-oriented which was really cool, although I think that bringing a baby to a muddy field in Wales for 5 days is a little more than I could personally handle.
The best act I saw was Beirut by a long way - in fact they were pretty much the sole reason I wanted to go, everything else was just a bonus. They came on playing Nantes and left playing The Gulag Orkestra with a few goosebump moments in between. Other acts I particularly enjoyed were; The Unthanks, Billy Bragg, and The Flaming Lips.
I also saw Mumford and Sons on the last evening and their performance confirmed a suspicion I've had for a while now... that I am well and truly over them. I think it would be a lie to say that the fact that they've become so big so quickly wasn't anything to do with it, but I think it's more a case of that they were around at that right place at the right time for me last summer - they just seemed to fit. And I've got into a lot more bands with more substance since then. So there we go, that's probably the last time you'll read their name on this blog.
One last point about Green Man that I thought was really cool - they had a cordoned off area known as Einstein's Garden which was full of fun science type stuff like giant models of the molecular structure of festival-related things like sun cream, which massively appealed to the geek in me. Unfortunately we didn't spend loads of time there because there was no cover from the weather.
The organisers behind Green Man seemed to get a lot of things right and I fully expect to be going back next year.
Photo courtesy of Elli Bottrall.
Posted in play on Monday 20th of September 2010 by Mike | 0 comments
The Three Amigos, back together... at last.
Posted in play on Sunday 12th of September 2010 by Mike | 0 comments
Labels: darwin
The Moustachioed Man
It has been a while since I've made a post, this is because I have been busy finishing my degree. It was a bit of an anticlimax actually, as these things often are. After my last exam I expected to experience a certain amount of excitement, but instead I just felt a sense of euphoria, although that's not to be sniffed at. I'd already decided to listen to Iron & Wine's God Made the Automobile on the way home before I went into the exam, I'm not sure why, it just seemed to make sense. I became aware of this feeling of serenity when I saw two things. The first was a reasonably attractive girl holding hands with a guy who was substantially less well gifted, which usually makes me livid, especially with my relationship status in the state that it's currently in. But I thought to myself "I'm sure their love is pure and real. Good luck to them". The second event happened a few seconds later when I passed a smackhead sitting on a grassy verge, behind some bushes, looking like he was about to cough up a lung. And I thought "What a character", jumped in the air, clicked my heels and went on my merry way.
Now the actual purpose of this post is to inform you that over recent weeks I have fashioned myself a moustache. The main reason for this is that I thought Zach Condon looked so cool in his Elephant Gun video with a fake moustache that I would try and grow a real one for myself. Here are some excerpts from the diary of a moustachioed man:
04/05/10
Day one of the new moustache. It seems to have gone down well with my house mates. I'm fairly happy with it, although it has taken a while to get used to my new face.
05/05/10
I popped to the shops today and passed a fellow follower in the way of the hirsute upper lip. I felt like we had a special connection.
06/05/10
Today was the first time that Rache and Elli saw me with the moustache. They described my appearance as "pedo" and "gay" respectively.
07/05/10
The moustache is gone. In an attempt to take the advice of Elli I began some strategical trimming this morning. However, things got slightly out of hand.
23/05/10
It's back. I won't let the girls get me down. My people have been persecuted long enough.
27/05/10
Abi said that I should go for the handle-bar. I'm not entirely convinced she's got my best interests at heart.
03/06/10
Sophie saw the moustache for the first time today. She laughed and then said she liked it.
06/06/10
It seems that I might be the only person who genuinely likes my moustache. And when I think about it, I prefer it that way. So, I'm going to persevere for now. Although it will have to go before my graduation. One day, I aspire to have a moustache as magnificent as the one displayed below.
Posted in play on Friday 25th of June 2010 by Mike | 0 comments
Labels: moustache
Two very different but equally enjoyable photos
I handed in my final year project today, it's been a challenging but enjoyable experience. Consequently I'm pretty knackered, so this will be short and sweet - I've seen two pictures today that are in no way related but I thoroughly enjoyed both of them.
Whilst this Icelandic volcano is obviously causing a lot of grief for a lot people, you have to concede that the above picture is beautiful. It is from http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/, which displays a different image each day from the universe along with an explanation.
Genius.
Posted in play on Monday 19th of April 2010 by Mike | 0 comments
Labels: web highlights, nature, star wars
Rant #1
It will come as no surprise to anyone that Rupert Murdoch has been a bit of a twat this week. And when I say "a bit of a" I mean "a gargantuan", and when I say "this week" I mean "for every single one of his waking moments". He's been threatening it for a while, but now it seems that he really is going to try and make people pay for access to his news websites - starting in June with The Times and The Sunday Times, charging £1 a day. No doubt he has plans for his other sites, including The Sun and The News of The World, to follow suit and if you believe what he said in an interview with sky news then he will also stop Google from indexing them too.
It amazes me that he has ever made any money if he is capable of making such a monumental cock-up of a decision like this. Not only has he failed to grasp the fact that insisting that readers pay for online content is never going to work because there will always be plenty of sites that offer good quality news coverage for free, but he genuinely seems to think that people are going to be up in arms at even the slightest suggestion that their beloved NewsCorp will be taken away from them... When actually I've got a suspicion that no one is going to give one solitary shit.
And this stuff about Google is literally unbelievable; the root of the problem appears to be that Mr. Murdoch obviously believes the content that his newspapers, and associated websites, produce to be invaluable. I guess he thinks he can strike a deal with another search engine such as Bing, and in turn they can offer their service as a superior one to Google because you can find Murdoch's websites with them... I'm just not convinced anyone is going to move away from Google because they can't find headlines such as "George Michael's pal is rent buoy" anywhere else.
Ultimately, I'm quite glad though. If he actually goes through with this stuff then his corporation will undoubtedly suffer for it, and maybe that'll be the last we hear of him. Obviously that won't happen, at least not anytime soon, but I can dream.
Posted in play on Sunday 28th of March 2010 by Mike | 1 comment
Labels: Rupert Murdoch, rant
