2008 May » Stuff and Things

Aural ponderings

May 212008

Our big move from Brighton to London started this past weekend. The first load of stuff was taken up in my infinitely small car and unloaded at Jordan’s parents house where we will be staying for a while until we get on to our feet.

Jordan had to stay in London to settle in our cat so I am at home trying to decide what to take in phase two. I have packed away the last few hundred DVDs and a few of the lighter books. I have filled a few bags with clothes that I rarely wear and I’ve take apart a bookshelf and the two units that I keep my stereo in.

I was then left with the decision to pack away my stereo and rely on my iMac’s internal speakers or keep it set up and deal with it later. Firstly I tested out the iMac’s speakers. I think I have used them possibly once or twice in the entire life on the computer. They are surprisingly good. Of course they are not up to the standard of even a fairly cheap all in one system but I imagine the average person could happily use the internal speakers for movies and even music.

I then decided to place my stereo’s speakers on the desk, as they would be in our new room, and give them a good listen. Now my house mate, Richey, has just managed to get back his vinyl collection and record deck from his ex-girlfriend so we were having the obligatory conversation about how much better vinyl sounds than CD and (obviously) MP3. This got me thinking about my stereo and, in particular how CDs sound on it, as I rarely use my CD player. I just run my computer into my amplifier (with a £30 cable no less) and listen to my iTunes library.

So for this test I decided to use a few CDs – the first being The Cure’s 2004 self titled album. The verdict was fairly obvious. Even through my pretty mid range stereo, the difference in quality was huge. I think the shape of my room and the rather sorry state of my speaker stands weren’t doing me any favours as the new placement of the speakers on the desk has really helped with the wobbly bass sound I was getting.

Anyway, I think I have decided to keep the stereo set up and I will deal with it when I have to pack away the iMac.

Clearly I’m not just a nerd for computers…

The Cure – The Only One

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May 182008

Apologies for the lack of updates recently. I’m moving house in two weeks and going on holiday in three so I have been completely rushed off my feet. I am therefore a few days late with my opinions on the new Cure single.

First off, I must say that I was a little annoyed that I preordered the single a week before it’s tuesday release date and it didn’t reach me until thursday. That’s two days that I had to resist spending £1.5o on iTunes or going the morally dubious route of bittorrent. I resisted in the end as I wanted my first listen to be the CD through my pretty decent stereo.

I have now had the opportunity to give the single and it’s B-side, NY Trip, a few listens and have formed a few initial opinions. Firstly, The Only One is definitely closer to The Cure’s later efforts such as High from the Wish album. It’s an uplifting love song with (surprisingly due to the recent line up change) a dreamy, Cure-esque keyboard track underlying the chorus. Robert Smith wails over a more rocky guitar sound and the tempo keeps up throughout the entire track. It’s a song that grows on you, although it never really started out bad.

Of course, this is all coming from a deeply devoted Cure fan who dislikes very few songs in their back catalogue, so I wouldn’t take too much notice of this little review.

This week I have also been listening Nine Inch Nail’s new album that they released free of change. It seems to be following their recent trend of moving into more guitar driven music which I’m a little disappointed about. The earlier albums that consisted mainly of programmed loops sounded a great deal more original than the more generic rock/metal albums released over the last few years. Oh well, at least it was free.

Guns Don’t Kill People…

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May 082008

… the police do apparently. Only joking! Although I often made my views on the shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes very clear to anyone that would hear them, it seems that the recent police shooting of Mark Saunders was fairly justified. However, the Guardian have run a piece about how he was shot ‘a number of times’ as the police disabled him. The family are also quoted as saying ‘he didn’t endanger anyone at all to my knowledge’.

Sorry, but the man had a shotgun which he was using to shoot at his neighbours houses.

From the reporting so far, it seems that the police officers has just cause to shoot the man. I agree that when dealing with these situations, the officer should always aim to disable the target – preferably not killing him, but if the target sustains fatal wounds then it really can’t be avoided.

I know this post sounds really a little right-wing, and for that I apologise, I really do, but people really shouldn’t be walking around with shotguns. I know he had a license for it, but why are we even still issuing licenses for firearms?

And who needs a shotgun in Chelsea?

Searching Flickr

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May 042008

Power Station

Alex DeLarge

I have had a Flickr account for a while now but I have never just sat and really looked through other people’s pictures.

I’ve really been missing out.

There are some really amazing photographers out there. I found a few pictures of the Hong Kong skyline and some of the amazing looking people in Harajuku, Tokyo. However, it was this HDR image of Battersea Power Station that really excited me. It is my favourite building in London because it looks like something pulled straight out of Nineteen Eighty Four (in fact, if I remember correctly, it was the Ministry of Love in the 1984 film). I also have a bit of a thing for HDR – it makes things look so surreal and dream like. It also has a tendency to make skies look very ominous. I liked it so much that it is currently my desktop wallpaper.

Although all this has just made me want a DSLR. Anyone got a spare £500?

My new home

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May 032008

Oh dear. Today I found out that the city I will be living in from August will be run by a cartoon character.

We British officially now have no right to make fun of Americans electing celebrities as politicians. At least Arney was in Terminator 2, which was much more of a success than our friend Boris could ever hope for from his TV appearances (which mainly consisted of him being humiliated by Paul Merton and Ian Hislop on Have I Got News For You).

From watching interviews with Boris supporters from around the city, I get the feeling that people have incredibly short memories. This is a man who vehemently opposed gay marriage, attacked Liverpool so soon after the beheading of Ken Bigley and is essentially a racist – not really a great choice for the face of London. Just look at the controversies section on his Wikipedia page!

But oh well, in the words of Charlie Brooker ‘ROFL!! LOOK AT HIS FUNNY HAIR!!!! LOL HE IS A LEGERND!!!!11111′

Ahem…