tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79044572024-03-07T18:16:39.609+00:00Ambrose OnlineThere is to be no mention of kite marks hereAmbrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.comBlogger204125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-69145072502110154732008-09-29T12:08:00.006+00:002009-05-11T15:30:46.416+00:00Portsmouth this last weekendMy word, how remiss of me. It's taken until September for me to post again. Oh well, I can only apologise for me tardiness.<br /><br />TBQH - to be quite honest (I'm trying to popularise this as an internet abbreviation!), one of the reasons for my long absence from blogging has been due to my previous employer's obsessions with secrecy. Let's put it this way, there are people I've formerly worked with who didn't dare to even post *where* they worked, and there were rumblings as to whether the NDAs we'd signed actually allowed us to belong to Apple-related groups on Facebook. All of this while being treated as quasi-retail employees. People were fired for lesser things than discussing their jobs on the internet, I can tell you!<br /><br />Well, although I'm sad to no longer be employed directly by one of my life-long-loves, I am delighted to be still doing many of the same things (and many more) in my new role as SysAdmin for the <a href="http://www.lkl.ac.uk">London Knowledge Lab</a>. It's a very different environment, where I'm predominantly here to support academics coming on and off a corporate network, but I'm learning a lot, and people are friendly and respectful here, and it is quite relaxed. I'm also managed by a really good guy from whom I'm sure I'll learn a lot. This is a breath of fresh air. <br /><br />Having worked for just over a year in each of my last two jobs, I'm very much intending to stay here for the long haul.<br /><br />The title and original reason that I wanted to write this post was following a fantastic DIY all-dayer put on by L Morgan and the other guys who do Southsea DIY shows at the Fawcett Inn in Southsea, Portsmouth. At this one, we played with Beat the Red Light, Gramercy Riffs, OK Pilot and a host of other really awesome bands. But what really moved me to write was just how much there was a sense of that independent DIY punk spirit which is so often talked about but too-rarely seen. Many different bands playing many styles of music but each with a common thread of musical and ethical non-conformity. One of the best days I've had in an age, and I very much look forward to the next one.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-23027208890720830302008-01-20T03:13:00.001+00:002008-02-18T21:51:48.871+00:00... and eightOoh, first post of the year.<br /><br />Life's been carrying on in a fairly stable way since I last wrote. We haven't yet exchanged contracts for our house, but that should happen in the next month, all being well. <br /><br />If there's one thing I would say, it's that I'm pretty warn out. In its own way this is a really good thing. I get to work hard five days a week doing something that I enjoy, and I'm usually also able to see the fruits of my labour. I get job satisfaction from what I do at work, and therefore I don't mind feeling exhausted at the end of the week. If there's a particular downside, it's I seem to spend such an inordinate amount of time dealing with computers that I'm sometimes reluctant to use them much at home. However, I am finding the cataloguing features of both Delicious Library (for books, DVDs, games) and Yep (for my pdfs of various receipts, software serial numbers etc) valuable, in that they make my life a little more organised.<br /><br />Organisation: that brings me back to some realisations I've reached over the last couple of months. I happened to be visiting Winchester on a day off in later November, and spotted someone who I used to work with - she was about to get onto the train I've disembarked from. Now, this woman worked in the admin office for the Hampshire CC building I used to work in, and was always a pleasant, positive force in the workplace. Nonetheless. when I saw her at the station, I had no desire to go over and say 'hello', and it was this that led me to realise just how much I'd hated working there. Here was a very helpful and genuine person whom I'd spoken to on many an occasion, but by association I couldn't bear to say hello. This failing was all mine, but it did help me to put my year of local authority work into some perspective. It wasn't the right environment for me, and the nature of the organisational structure meant that it was hard to do anything well, and more importantly I wasn't in a position to make any meaningful decisions at all. I've come to realise over time that not earning as much as you'd like is one thing, but not being able to gain any sense of satisfaction through what you do, or having the necessary support and tools to perform your job is quite another proposition. I'm lucky to have escaped that now.<br /><br />----<br />Part 2<br /><br />Well, I return to writing this post, having been off work ill for a couple of weeks after injuring my head while at work. It's been an interesting period - never before have I had a head injury and never before have I seriously worried about the repercussions of an injury. Broken arms are one thing, but broken heads are quite another. You know, my brain is really quite important to me! I went to see a really good neurologist last week. He was really from the old school and I was reassured by his thoroughness and interest in the symptoms I've been experiencing. I'm going for an MRI this week too.<br /><br />The whole house-buying process has dragged on. We're not there yet, but should be in situ at some point during March, God-willing. Ooh, and another Psyche Out / Action and Action tour late March. Two big things to look forward to.<br /><br />Will post again soon.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-46261386478953059432007-11-20T09:28:00.000+00:002007-12-01T09:42:50.066+00:00November 07 updateAgain, lots of things have happened since I last put blogging fingers to keys! Naomi and I are close to buying a house in Basingstoke (aka Amazingstoke, Basingjoke, Basinggrad), which is exciting - and we should be able to buy a nice house for our money there. <br /><br />On top of that, I'm still loving my job even though it's busy and the late shifts wear me out. Incidentally, I'm posting this from N's iPhone.<br /><br />[.... this post ended up being short, but I had lots of other things I'd intended to write, so thought I'd add them on now, while I have a bit more time to write]<br /><br />edit - - so, by now we have actually had an offer accepted on this lovely place<br /><br /><img src="http://www.blue-estates.co.uk/basingstoke/web/BEBASHK20H4629.jpg" /><br /><br />The location is beautiful, and it's going to be a stretch affording it, but y'know, it's going to be great.<br /><br />On top of that, there were 2 other things that I thought to myself that I must blog sometime.<br /><br />1) that I had a conversation with Naomi where we were trying to think of who Jesus would consort with in the modern age (the equivalent of tax collectors, prostitutes etc). I suggested people who put wheelclamps on cars and those people who try to force you to take the free newspapers at rush hour in London.<br /><br />2) It was raining so hard last night that it _rang_ our doorbell! Twice!Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-83957893907360043402007-09-30T11:30:00.000+00:002007-10-03T14:07:43.795+00:00Hella updateSo much to write about. I got an admonishment from my good friend Richard Dixon, now in California, for failing to update my blog in months, though in my defence I've been sans ADSL at home since June, and I rarely find time to use the internet at work nowadays. <br /><br />Enough excuses. Well, it's been a great few months. The big day was splendid, and really exceeded my expectations in every way. I've yet to update the ambroseandnaomi.co.uk site with pictures, audio recordings etc, but promise to do so as soon as we have broadband at home again. Yes, I know, another promise! Until then, there are lots of wedding pictures of Facebook, if you use that.<br /><br />In other news, I'm really enjoying my new-ish job. There are lots of good people here, and the work interests me. Exactly what I've been looking for for a while. Things have become a bit complex for Naomi in terms of her department, but I'm sure they'll settle down in due course.<br /><br />Lots of exciting things over the next few months, including starting to look for a house to buy. Promise I'll post again soon.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-39384937863741520532007-06-08T08:29:00.000+00:002007-06-08T08:51:06.746+00:00New Split 7 Inch<img width="600" height="600" src="http://homepage.mac.com/ambrose.neville/lesimages/nineteen03pic.JPG" alt="Collides with 7 inch"/><br /><br />This is the first occasion on which I've felt inclined to post a picture in this blog for ages - actually, since I got locked out of my flickr account when Yahoo bought flickr and I had to create a Yahoo account to use it, which I promptly forgot!<br /><br />Anyway, with a little fanfare, here's our new split with The Psyche Out Musikland Big Band. I'm really very pleased with how the record turned out, after a few hiccups and delays caused by the Czech pressing people the record itself came out really well, and Dave did a sterling job on the artwork. The Psyche Out song is absolutely brilliant - certainly the catchiest thing they've recorded yet with some impressively technical guitar playing.<br /><br />The pressing is on heavyweight, and I mean, heavyweight vinyl. Each record is hand-numbered and has a slip inside so you can claim 320kpbs LAME-encoded mp3s of the same tracks. We're all about bridging that digital/analogue divide. <br /><br />The idea is that this will be the first of a split 7 inch series, so we designed the packaging in such a way as to be extensible to additional releases by changing the colour scheme and the image on the front. There are a few bands who we've encountered in the last year who we'd love to put out on the label in our first non-Actions release, and let's face it, it'll be a lot easier to boast about how good something is once it's not (partly) our own music. Exciting plans ahead.<br /><br />If you're interested in purchasing one of the 300 copies made, we're selling them for a mere for £3, so drop me an email to (firstname)dot(surname)@mac.com and we'll sort out paypal.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-38390919006570086472007-05-21T10:57:00.000+00:002007-05-21T11:20:50.310+00:00Did itGood news to report. I've landed a job with a certain computer company of which I'm a lifelong devotee, and will be starting in 4 weeks. This also works out well, as it'll allow me to tie up various loose ends in my current job. I'm really looking forward to the new job, though! <br /><br />What does complicate matters slightly is that the work will be in London, so Naomi and I are going to have to look into moving somewhere closer to London, so I can get in for those all-important early shifts. We're thinking of Guildford or Woking, as they offer the right commuting options in both the directions. We also have a decision to make as to whether we move my stuff/Naomi's stuff before or after the wedding in July! Still, these are trivial problems in the bigger picture.<br /><br />Wedding arrangements are occupying an increasing amount of my time now, though Naomi has done a lot of the hard work already. That reminds me that I need to finish that wedding web site.<br /><br />The main thing to report is that life's pretty good, and things are falling into place. We're also looking towards the next tour with Action and Action in the autumn. Get in.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-73065047776007188822007-04-30T13:49:00.000+00:002007-04-30T14:00:41.377+00:00Tick ... tickWell, it's been a month since I last blogged. Slack.<br /><br />Job-wise things are still up in the air. It's been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, actually. I need to find the right thing, and I need to find it soon! <br /><br />The tour was wonderful fun, and I think it'll be easier to organise the next one, now that I have the experience of having done it once. We're already talking to a couple of other bands in preparation. Psyche Out were tremendous on the tour, and constantly raised the bar on themselves. They're undoubtedly one of my favourite bands, and it was an absolute joy to hear them over the course of the 8 days. I think we were pretty good too. I think touring with a band you're friends with helps you to become resilient and pull off a decent performance wherever you are, and whatever the odds. That's what I had hoped for, and I think it worked out well. I'm not sure which was the best of the gigs overall, but I enjoyed the last night a lot, playing in the cramped basement of Law's house in Portsmouth. The noise abatement people wrote to him last week.<br /><br />I've watched a few good films recently, too. Apart from missing Inland Empire when it was on in Southampton, Chris VS lent me his DVD of Pan's Labyrinthe, which I thought was solid, and I've also watched both of the Exorcist prequels (one of which was far more coherent and well-realised than the other).<br /><br />There's lots going on for me at the moment in terms of the wedding, obviously. We ordered the designed our invitations last week, and ordered them today, and I'm also working on a simple iWeb site to answer any detailed questions people will have.<br /><br />More news soon.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-25771402649262324172007-03-30T09:53:00.000+00:002007-03-30T10:24:47.994+00:00The realist pessimist / optimist debateIt's been a strange few weeks. I've had some job interviews (one of which I came tantilisingly close to getting), but I don't yet have anything on the table. Nevertheless, I'm trying to stay upbeat, and I have a few other ideas which I haven't fully explored yet. For obvious reasons there's not much point in going into detail on this topic.<br /><br />I've also been keeping other plans in the air as part of this juggling act. The first ever Action and Action tour is going to happen with our friends The Psyche Out Musikland Big Band, from 9th - 16th April inclusive. This is now only 10 days or so away, so I'm quite excited that it's (mostly) come together as planned, through a lot of hard work and persistence. So far the tour goes:<br /><br />Monday 9th April - SOUTHAMPTON, King Alfred's Pub<br />Tuesday 10th April - LEEDS, Joseph's Well<br />Wednesday 11th April - SLOUGH, Eco Bar<br />Thursday 12th April - LEWISHAM, The Fox and Firkin<br />Friday 13th April - ?<br />Saturday 14th April - HIGH WYCOMBE, The Roundabout<br />Sunday 15th April - ?<br />Monday 16th April - PORTSMOUTH, 10 Grove Road South<br /><br />I'm hoping we'll get to play to some new people who may like the music we make. I'm equally happy to be able to hang out with my friends in both bands for what will amount to a short holiday, and I think it'll also help to establish a work ethic and resilience for our band in a live setting. The last gig we played was a let-down, so I'm determined that we become a leaner, more dependable machine.<br /><br />Almost as exciting is that we have a new 7" record that's planned to come out to coincide with the tour, as a split release with Psyche Out. You can hear both of the songs at our respective Myspace pages, <a href="http://www.myspace.com/actionandaction">Action and Action here</a>, and <a href="http://www.myspace.com/thepsycheoutmusiklandbigband">Psyche Out here</a>. There have been a few headaches in the last few days as the test press came back from the Czech republic (where all of this stuff is done nowadays, presumably due to UK wage rates) with a problem on our side. Dave has been bothering them multiple times about it, so now we just have to pray that the final pressing happens quickly enough that we have it ready to sell on the tour itself. More stress.<br /><br />Before any of that happens, I'm going back home to Cardiff (which I also did this week for the annual Cathedral Choir Easter concert at St David's Hall). I'll spend the latter part of Holy Week with my family, as I do every year, which will be a welcome break.<br /><br />And then there are wedding arrangements to be made, as the big day looms closer. I'm supposed to be booking our hotel in Malcesine (Lake Garda, Italy) today, which will be an expensive phone call. Then I'm meeting Naomi after work to book the suit hire from Moss Bros.<br /><br />The title of this post relates to the discussions I often have with people who are close to me about whether my views amount to realism or to pessimism. Whatever happens, the next month should be pretty eventful.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-54172346301571014372007-03-21T00:13:00.000+00:002007-03-21T00:19:41.605+00:00Is this the worst band of all timeThere's a great Chris Morris radio clip from many years ago when he talked about how Sade was the epitome of the 'production' artist - i.e. no substance, no performance, all-studio. <br /><br />Today, I came across <a href="http://www.myspace.com/elliotminor">this travesty</a> which not only somehow encapsulates everything that's wrong with corporate rock (and I know I'm taking on a pretty easy target there), but everything that's so truly vacuous about young people of the age that spent their teens living vicariously through Myspace.<br /><br />From the way their vocals are CONSTANTLY autotuned, to the preposterous Duran Duran-style hairdos, this band actually makes me feel a bit ill.<br /><br />As I remarked to Jack and Mike M at the Make Believe gig last week, the kids are not alright.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-6604496638975429272007-02-23T14:12:00.000+00:002007-02-23T14:44:15.717+00:00Sickening crunchI was just coming back from lunch at the little cafe in Winchester where Naomi and I often eat lunch (today, it was just me, as N was at a meeting) a few minutes ago, when an ambulance came hurtling up the hill of St George's Street with lights and sirens going. The problem is that St George's St is part of the one-way system, and when the ambulance reached the point next to Barclay's Bank, the cars were backed-up from the next set of traffic lights in two lanes.<br /><br />So the ambulance driver decided that she could pass a Passat in front of her even though there was nowhere for the Passat to go, and there's a central reservation between lanes. She started blowing the ambulance horn, the Passat inched forward even though there wasn't really much further to go, and then she tried to go around it. Remember to picture the central reservation and the backed-up traffic. The ambulance impacted with the side of the Passat with the most hideous sound of tortured metal and plastic. Then the ambulance driver had to pull over so that she could share insurance details with the now-furious family in the car.<br /><br />I'm left wondering about the fate of the injured person on the way to hospital - there was only one paramedic in the front of the ambulance, driving, so somebody must have been in the back with the patient.<br /><br />Spare a thought.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-1170675892939631222007-02-05T11:28:00.000+00:002007-02-05T11:44:55.540+00:00Ack Ack AckFinally, there was a good gig in Winchester at <a href="http://www.myspace.com/therailway">the Railway</a> this weekend. Alan came to mine for the weekend and we went to watch Ack Ack Ack (you can listen to them<a href="http://www.runningriotrecords.co.uk/download/ack%20ack%20ack%20-%20alley%20juice.mp3">here</a>). We didn't know a great deal about them before going, except that Ash, the drummer from Charlottefield, is in the band, and they were therefore likely to be very good. They reminded me a bit of a jazzier Kill Yourself, with a combination of quite danceable grooves, dischordant guitar played using a slide (none of those sounds on the mp3 are keyboards, contrary to what I'd expected), and fuzzy vocals through a gas mask microphone. I'd highly recommend you check out their <a href="http://www.runningriotrecords.co.uk/index2.php">12"</a> if any of this sounds appealing.<br /><br />In order to get to the point of the evening where we'd hear Ack Ack Ack, we'd already experienced the highly entertaining electronica of <a href="http://www.myspace.com/gaydeathprobe">Gay Death Probe</a>, and a truly awful hippy-ish shoegazer band <a href="http://www.myspace.com/theonlylimes">The Limes</a>. Still, it was worth it. When we got home, it was straight onto a steady diet of Newkie and Wii Sports. <br /><br />I wrote Sunday off for any productivity, but am going to have to do those job applications I've been putting off tonight.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-1169655453906398942007-01-24T15:54:00.000+00:002007-01-24T16:17:33.923+00:00Il NeigeWe had some snow this morning. I'd stayed over at the Clark household last night, and so experienced the picturesque sight of the fields surrounding Alresford covered in snow, as Naomi drove us to work. <br /><br />The day became slightly less pleasant when I pulled my back mid-morning. I was only walking up the stairs after a meeting at a normal pace, but something suddenly twinged. It hasn't even gone away despite two Solpadeine Max (that were handily in my coat pocket), and the pain is now moving simultaneously up and down my spine. I guess this means I won't be going to tango class tomorrow night. Yes, you read that correctly. Naomi and I went to this for the first time last Thursday and it was quite good fun. It takes place in a room over <a href="http://www.alamy.com/stock_photography/5/1/Jeremy+Hoare/AJ5KTE.html">Savannah</a> (or 'Savannah's', as people tend to call it, much as they refer to 'Tesco's'). I think you could say I enjoyed it despite myself, and Naomi certainly had a good time too.<br /><br />I spent the weekend with the other Actions in Oxford, recording a new song for our split 7" and tour with Psyche Out. I think it sounds pretty good, and it's certainly an interesting piece of music for us to do compared with what we've written over the last few months. It's in a much straighter punk/emo style than the more dancing, whimsical stuff we've been writing recently, and should be fun to play live. Reminds me a bit of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Brown_Bike">Small Brown Bike</a> actually, though we have got quite a gently sing-songy part to it too.<br /><br />Will write more again soon.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-1167739767138666802007-01-02T12:02:00.000+00:002007-01-02T12:09:27.140+00:002007: The FutureYou are now in the future.<br /><br />Have been meaning to say sorry - my last post reads as more downbeat than it was meant to be. I'm pretty positive about life at the moment. I had a helluva cold over the Christmas period (when I spoke to DunCANE on the phone between Christmas and the New Year, he pointed out that this happens to me every year!), but still had a good time at home. I miss Cardiff when I'm away, truth be told. <br /><br />I also picked up a bargainous 320 gig external USB2 hard drive from Staples which I ended up paying only £55 for, which pleased me greatly. That'll allow me to free up my existing 160 gig LaCie drive to be used to edit the video we shot while on tour in Mexico, which will be an enjoyable little project. Not sure which computer we'll do this on.<br /><br />Oh yes - The Thick of It (Special) is on TV tonight (BBC4). Do not miss it.<br /><br />I don't believe in 'New Year's Resolutions' as such, but I promise to blog more regularly this year. It's going to be a pretty special year, all in all.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-1166784130628980092006-12-22T09:53:00.000+00:002007-01-02T11:59:39.946+00:00Last day of work this yearSo here it is etc etc. I'm heading home to Cardiff tomorrow morning, on a 6 a.m. train so that I can travel by £9 ticket (it was either that or pay £50!). I'm really looking forward to spending a few days with my family, as it's been several months since I was last at home. I have firm plans to get a good number of hours in on the new Wii with my brothers (Dom has an HDTV, as well), and to watch as much quality comedy as possible. I'm also nearing that time when I'll need to start job hunting quite heavily again, so will have to make a few applications while I'm at home.<br /><br />The last few weeks have been interesting. I'm now properly settled in to my new flat, and for once I've nearly put everything away tidily. Naomi's pretty pleased that I have a decent kitchen of my own, which means that she can cook the way she'd like to when she comes over to see me. When I'm on my own, I generally tend not to do anything too complex - pizza's on the menu once or twice a week, let's put it that way. I have my record player and my old Aiwa hi-fi* hooked up on top of a chest of drawers, much like I did throughout my time as a student, funnily enough, and so I listen to my records quite often while cooking or while sitting at my breakfast bar. In the last couple of days I've been enjoying <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:1kzsa9cgu23s">Music for Egon Schiele</a> by Rachel's. It was a Science of Yabra LP before that.<br /><br />*this hi-fi occupies an almost-talismanic position in my life. I may get rid of it at some point, but I've now owned it for over 10 years. It was something I looked at longingly before buying it, being the most powerful all-in-one hi-fi you could buy at that time (400 wpc RMS). The way I found to buy it was to purchase it on interest-free credit under my mum's name, and then go in an make payments every few weeks with the money that I was earning by waiting tables at Harry Ramsden's in Cardiff Bay. I hated that waiting job that much that the purchase of this hi-fi came to signify more than the item itself. It's what I have to show for doing that job, and therefore I suppose quite valuable as a life lesson, as well as being a piece of kit that I've enjoyed owning and has served me well. Read into that what you will.<br /><br />Back to the present - I haven't forgotten about the acrimonious transition out of my old flat, but I'm not really in a frame of mind to write about that right now. Since then (the last three weeks or so) I've been playing the fantastic Nintendo Wii - new games as well as downloading a few of the classic Virtual Console titles I've never before experienced, like Mario64 (N64) and Donkey Kong Country (SNES). This little white box has certainly lived up to the hype so far. I just hope they have a string of strong new releases over the next few months.<br /><br />Last weekend was eventful. After playing a set of Cursive covers for Punk Rock Stars in Their Eyes in High Wycombe, I slept over on the sofa at Luigi's house. I was woken up at 5:30 a.m. by Adam who was on one of the other sofas in their lounge, who'd slit his wrists, and had to make my first ever 999 call. The ambulance took so long to arrive that if he'd cut an artery he certainly would have been dead by their arrival. I'm hoping that I get to see him tonight to have a chat about things - he's had a hell of a time over the last few months so needs friends to reign him in, even if it's not in his nature. I hope he doesn't mind me writing this up, but it's been a fairly significant event in my December.<br /><br />Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-1165353013144343422006-12-05T21:00:00.000+00:002006-12-05T21:10:13.146+00:00HeadbangingThe last few days have been pretty tough - I moved flat on Saturday (which took us from 10:30am until 10:30pm), then went to church, then work, then Naomi's house, all on Sunday, then work until lunchtime followed by checkout of my old flat then off to London last night to help out at the CCF Southwark Snowball. The culmination of all of this was that I had 4hrs sleep last night, then had to appear at work at 7:30 this morning for perhaps the most important day of my job at the council so far.<br /><br />I know that I cram too much into my life, but I always justify it by the fact that I'm still in my twenties, and before long I'll have a whole set of different responsibilities. Living fast (sic) while I'm still young ranks quite high among my priorities, actually.<br /><br />Anyway, the move (and the aftermath) were the most stressful part. I will go into this is some detail once things are properly resolved. For now, it suffices to say that all has not been well in the state of Denmark, and my prejudices have been reinforced. Naomi was a saint throughout the move and helped me a great deal, but other players in the process were less helpful than they might have been (oh boy is this an understatement - as I say, more later).<br /><br />Apart from the dislocation of moving in the last few days, everything's going okay. I've been working pretty hard in general recently, but will have to get a move on with finding something else really quite soon. <br /><br />For tonight, I'm not thinking about that. I'm going to play some Gamecube instead. This Friday, I'm getting a Nintendo Wii as my birthday/Christmas present from Naomi. Get in.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-1163382265927240082006-11-13T01:36:00.000+00:002006-11-13T01:44:25.936+00:00Grit your teethSitting in a train stuck outside Basingjoke opposite a dimwit listening to high-BPM moronic dance music which leaks from his headphones like a swarm of hi-hat-obsessed insects is not a recipe for good mental health late on a Sunday evening.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-1163086842404895652006-11-09T15:33:00.000+00:002006-12-05T21:13:21.216+00:00Vinyl acquistions<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { }.flickr-frame { float: left; text-align: center; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503162285@N01/293058626/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/100/293058626_de19095492_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="Make Believe LP" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503162285@N01/293058626/">Make Believe LP</a>,<br /> originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/49503162285@N01/">ambroseneville</a>. </span></div>The observant among you may have noticed that, as well as changing the template of my blog, I've also added a LastFM 'recently played' graphic under my links list (bottom right). Well, obviously this only reflects my mp3/AAC listening on the computer (and misses out the iPod, though I may work on a hack for that), but I just thought I'd blog a list of some of the awesome records I've acquired recently or are about to drop through my door in the next few days.<br /><br />'Of Course' by Make Believe (12"). This arrived today. Can't wait to hear more of this mentaloid intelligent indie rock.<br />'Orchestrated and Conducted by' Clikitat Ikatowi (12"). This also arrived today. If it's anything like their other music it'll be chaotic hardcore. I'm also eager to get my ears around it.<br /><br /><br /><br />UPDATE - I'm delighted to say that I also picked up these vinyl gems during November (some of which I already had on CD)<br /><br />The Wow / Querelle - Split 12"<br />This Aint Vegas - The Black Lung Captain 12"<br />This Aint Vegas - The Night Don Benito Saved My Life 12"<br />Itch - Well, Well, Well, Three Holes In The Ground 12" (had these last 3 on CD, but wanted vinyl versions as well)<br />Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies / Redjetson - split 12"<br />Bullet Union - s/t 7"<br />Candy Sniper - s/t 7"<br />Chillerton - s/t 7"<br />Kill Yourself - Euro tour 7"<br />The Oedipus / Reynolds - Split 7"<br />Foals - Try This on Your Piano 7"<br />Tired Irie - Like Gentle Men 7"<br /><br clear="all" />Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-1162999012223646862006-11-08T15:01:00.000+00:002006-11-09T15:57:29.423+00:00Comedy, welcome home! pt IINaomi has recently revealed to me that she doesn't find my conversational obsession with British TV comedy to be all that interesting. Undeterred by this ingratitude, I thought I'd share with you some thoughts about some of my favourite comedies over the last few years. In some cases they're shows that I have grown to love by virtue of having watched them along with my two brothers - and I can certainly think of a few other friends who I've discussed this with who have also got <em>into</em> a given comedy by laughing at them with their siblings. I'm sure that as I write this someone is doing a postgraduate degree in the application of functional anthropology to televised comedy in the British family. Probably at a world reknowned establishment such as <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/694451.stm">Staffordshire University</a>.<br /><br />Anyway, here's my run-down (in no particular order) of the comedies I've really enjoyed over the last few years. If you aren't familiar with them, maybe I can suggest that you head over to UK Nova, where you'd be able to download those that don't exist as commercial DVDs.<br /><br />1. The creations of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Morris_%28satirist%29">Chris Morris</a> - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jam_%28TV_series%29">Jam</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Barley">Nathan Barley</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass_Eye">Brass Eye</a>. These are essential. I prefer Brass Eye to his other Newsnight-style series, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_Today">The Day Today</a>. Jam felt like it was pushing a lot of boundaries of taste when it aired, so is certainly for the more open-minded, and if you're really loving his style of comedy, you should also seek out the DVD of his '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Wrongs_8245_-_8249_and_117">My Wrongs 8245-8249 and 117</a>' short film, which is quite good.<br /><br />2. Where would we be without <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Coogan">Steve Coogan</a>? Alan Partridge was pure gold (particularly series one of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Alan_Partridge">I'm Alan Partridge</a>). Possibly my number one comedy series ever. Other less-well-known things you really should seek out if you like AP would include <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruise_of_the_Gods">Cruise of the Gods</a>, a really funny film he did for the BBC with Rob Brydon and David Walliams before either of them had really hit the limelight. You can get this on BBC DVD and I'd recommend that you do so. In addition, the Steve Coogan Live DVD (called '<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0192631/">The Man Who Thinks He's It</a>') was way ahead of its time and has some fantastic content of other Coogan creations such as Paul Calf.<br /><br />3. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armando_Ianucci">Armando Ianucci</a>. Massively influential on most of the comedy in the list here, and as you know, I'm a huge fan of Time Trumpet, his most recent series. Watching Time Trumpet made me seek out <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thick_of_It">The Thick of It</a> - filmed in a similar way (ad-libbed then edited)to I'm Alan Partridge this is like a wonderful modern-day take on Yes Minister, where you watch the main character stumble from one political faux pas to another, through no fault of his own. The presence of a horrible spin doctor creates some fantastic moments in this. Apparently the BBC had fronted up funding for a further 10 episodes, but unfortunately Chris Langham has been the focus of recent court cases which means that there's going to be a significant change of tack if the series is to carry on. See <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_thick_of_it">The Thick Of It</a> on Wikipedia for more info. It would be a great shame if there wasn't more of this series. If you like TTOI and TT you may also wish to check out the Armando Ianucci show. You can probably still get these on UK Nova.<br /><br />4. Lee and Herring - in quite separate comedy category were this duo who put out series such as Fist of Fun and This Morning With Richard Not Judy. Fantastic in a puerile and sarcastic way (a bit like the Mary Whitehouse Experience), I've been reliving my late teens by watching the complete Fist of Fun in the last few days. You can get an ISO of the complete Fist of Fun from UK Nova at the moment.<br /><br />5. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_lewis-smith">Victor Lewis-Smith</a> - The one comedy I haven't seen for years that I'm dying to watch is TV Offal by VL-S. It's a very underrated show from the late 90s which centred around his obsessions with different aspects of TV, and it had some amazing moments (such as Assassination of the Week, The Gay Daleks, prank phone calls to Michael Winner, and clips of really bad regional television from past archives). I would really like to see this gem of a show again. Not on UK Nova though, sadly.<br /><br />Anyway, that's my comedy round-up for now. I expect there'll be other things to follow, but I do hope that this will encourage you to investigate some of these shows that you haven't heard of. Oh, and if you have a video iPod or a reasonably modern computer, I've encoded quite a number of them for mp4, so do let me know if you'd like me to send you a DVD of the ones I have in that form.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-1162900766561110382006-11-07T11:34:00.000+00:002006-11-07T11:59:29.430+00:00What a wasterLast night I met up with Martin - who used to also be a Hermitage resident - at the Railway. We watched a bunch of acoustic acts of varying quality, including that Carl feller who used to be in the Libertines, and Mr Newkie Brown Ale came for a visit. I'm now really quite hung over.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-1161955578103365072006-10-27T13:23:00.000+00:002006-10-27T13:44:23.890+00:00What I've been saying about WinchesterSo, I move here and Winchester becomes the <a href="http://www.channel4.com/4homes/ontv/best&worst/2006/winchester.html">best place to live in the UK</a>.<br /><br />Thanks, Channel 4, that's reduced the chances of us ever being able to buy a property here!<br /><br />They forgot to say on the programme (very boring, although that Sofie was reasonably easy on the eye) was that Southampton is better for punk rock. Maybe that wasn't on their criteria...Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-1161941858679071152006-10-27T08:54:00.000+00:002006-10-27T09:59:48.393+00:00USB product placementLast night I received an email invitation to my friend Ben Finn's Christmas Party. Ben, as you may know, recently sold his musical notation software company, Sibelius, to Avid, and is now looking forward to a life of leisure!<br /><br />One of Ben's other guests, Simon, sent out a 'reply to all' saying that he's also celebrating, having just launched his new invention, <a href="http://www.usbcell.com/">USB Cell</a>. Despite the slightly cheeky viral promotion going on here (which I'm now participating in, of course), I have to say that this is a very convenient product, and I'm certainly going to order a pair out of curiosity. It's the kind of thing I can imagine my parents finding useful for their TV remotes as well.<br /><br />One thing that was also in his email was a link comparing the interest in his product with other well-established battery brands, at <a href="http://www.alexaholic.com/">Alexaholic.com</a>, which is a really useful site that produces graphs of one site's traffic against another (or several others), so I just thought I'd flag this up here for any webmasters who might find it worthwhile.<br /><br />The USB battery idea reminds me of one aspect of my 1998-1999 stint in PC World. Intel had launched USB as a connection specification in November 1997, but it really wasn't catching on by the point at which I started working at PC World in mid-1998. There were hardly any products being retailed that used the interface, the few that were available had patchy support from Windows 98, and customers weren't aware of any advantages the peripheral standard offered them. The only product that we actually had to offer customers was a Hewlett-Packard USB scanner, which cost about twice as much for the USB version as for its parallel-port equivalent. Not a rosy picture for USB, then. <br /><br />This all changed when Apple introduced its USB-only iMac. PC World had at this point stopped stocking Macs altogether, in the latter days of Gil Amelio's leadership of the company. When Jobs came back and introduced the iMac, a fast (relatively) affordable Mac specifically for home use, suddenly all of the local retailers were all over it like a rash. Tesco were shifting them by the bucketload, and PC World was missing out on the sales the iMac was drawing. Eventually someone at head office decided we were to start selling them as well. The release of the iMac pushed Epson into releasing a decent mid-range USB printer (the SC740), which we started to get shipped to us, as well as various popular solutions to the lack of a floppy drive in the iMac (such as the Imation Superdisk 120 and an Iomega USB Zip drive). Initially these products were still a fair bir more expensive than their parallel, and even SCSI, counterparts; which was fairly ridiculous. Still, once on the shelves they moved quickly, and turned USB into a more popular standard that people became familiar with, both for Macs and PCs. Soon all of the PCs we sold started to ship with internal USB ports, not just the capability of supporting it on their motherboards. Fast forward 8 years or so, and USB is everywhere. For it to move from being a theoretically advantageous standard with little foothold in the market, to being available to power and connect things as diverse as <a href="http://www.thomann.de/gb/jl_cooper_cs32_minidesk_usb.htm?partner_id=59917">sound desks</a> and <a href="http://www.directusbstore.co.uk/cnb/shop/directusbstore?productID=485&op=catalogue-product_info-null&prodCategoryID=28">missile launchers</a> (thanks, Frank) is really quite a noteworthy transformation. I actually have more of a leaning toward Firewire peripherals for many of the things people try to do with USB, but it's still proven to be an incredibly useful addition to modern life, and I'm always intrigued to see where it appears next.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-1161683857488209562006-10-24T09:57:00.000+00:002006-10-24T14:30:24.736+00:00Man and his formatsI sometimes it funny to think of the format arguments we create for ourselves in this (largely-) digital age, in the sense of there being an A versus B argument between one platform and another, and the semi-ethical, semi-philosophical positions that we take up as a result of an affinity with a particular technology.<br /><br />The first obvious example of this is the modern desktop computer. Most people know of my very deep, almost obsessive interest in all things Apple-related. I guess you could say I'm a zealot for the Mac, but this started out from a time when the Mac was simply vastly superior to the competing technologies vying for space on our desks. The obvious point of comparison is to Windows, which took a very long time to catch up with some of the basic DTP functionality (What You See Is What You Get, anyone?) that the Mac has offered from day 1, and Windows still leaves a lot to be desired on so many levels that I don't have the patience to go into it now. I'm getting frustrated - do you see - because, from my own reasonably extensive experience, I know that there is a better alternative than what most people use, because most people, for largely historical reasons, have chosen an alternative technology. Actually, the reasons for the Mac's qualitative superiority were also largely historical, and quite beautifully accidental. If you read 'iCon', the Steve Jobs biography, you'll find out all sorts of wierd little details, like the fact that the onscreen fonts were made to correspond to their printed equivalents at the insistence of Jobs, as he'd earlier worked at a typesetting company. Had this obsessive character not been behind the Macintosh (and luckily for us Mac users, still is), the end result would probably have been quite different for users of all desktop computers today. Now there's a legacy.<br /><br />But back to my point - the first computer I owned was a Commodore Amiga 500. It was a good machine for gaming, but the sense of it being a real computer where you would store files and generally get things done was held back by the market price the machine was being pitched at. Without a hard disk, the Amiga was never going to catch on in any sort of serious office environment (apart from on Neighbours, where, strangely, Paul Robinson seemed to run his office with one for many years after Commodore had effectively folded). Twenty or so years later, you could say that Microsoft has won the war on the desktop. Nevertheless, to the day I die, I will still be a Mac user. Do you see what I'm saying about this almost irrational attachment to a device once you realise that <strong>despite the market</strong> it offers something that you would not be able to enjoy form a competing product. <br /><br />Now, you may be wondering where I'm going with this. You may think I'm going to talk about Betamax. Well, only briefly - I actually had to buy a Beta player for my uncle a year or two ago so that he could play back some Beta tapes of a television broadcast featuring the cathedral choir (that I sang in, and my Dad conducts) from teh early eighties. I'm pleased to say that those tapes were still perfectly intact, and thanks to eBay we were able to find a perfectly servicable player to play them back. It may have cost a fair bit - you're going to see this happen more in the future, as formats move faster and recorded (visual, audio, textual) outputs look in danger of being left behind by the march of technology - but it was well worth buying and worked perfectly well, despite the absence of SCART and so on.<br /><br />Where I'm actually going with this is to CDs, DVDs and their successors and predecessors. After purchasing a few cassette singles in my earliest years, the main audio format of my lifetime has been the CD. Children of the Walkman generation like me rarely bought records, but the CD offered us a compelling new format, full of sound and convenience improvements. It's interesting that they didn't complete the really high-res format they had set out to achieve (settling instead on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Book_(audio_CD_standard)">Red Book</a> because they were rushing to complete a superior product that would suck the bottom out of home-taping and the differential between 16-bit digital sound and the 24-bit holy grail probably wasn't economically expedient. We've seen some higher quality formats appear since then, like SACD, but they haven't made much of a dent outside of the classical market.<br /><br />What's most fascinating to me is where we've now arrived in terms of music formats. As well as the CD, the most popular retail music format, most of us also have sizeable collections of mp3s/AACs. The advantage of portability has been enough to persuade most people to give up the highest resolution digital format (CD) in favour of a good approximation of CD. And of course the mp3 has liberated music distribution from physical media altogether, if you ignore the fact that you will probably need to clone your data to a new hard disk every five years or so to secure its integrity. I buy albums from iTunes when it's the best option - for example, in the past year I've bought iTunes albums by Faraquet, Cursive, The Appleseed Cast, Les Savy Fav, and even Nine Inch Nails. Sometimes there are albums that are out of print or relatively hard to find (like '3/5' by Les Savy Fav) which you can still get on iTunes, and that's incredibly valuable. Being as we have no independent record shop in Winchester, it's also handy being able to get albums like the Faraquet one, and to get them without having to wait to receive them through the mail. There's not a hugely discernable loss in quality from the CD version with well-encoded AACs like these (even if the bitrate could probably do with being a bit higher) <strong> of these kinds of bands</strong>, but I wouldn't go buying a lot of classical music this way (because of the frequency variation, which is where mp3/AAC makes some of its space savings), nor would I buy something of the musical/production complexity of an album by The Mars Volta, which I think you'd need to listen to on vinyl or CD to properly appreciate. In fact, I'm hoping to buy 'Amputechture' on vinyl, once I can find it at an affordable price.<br /><br />So, now I come to the point of this post (in a way). Records are having a bit of a renaissance in my life, since I put on a This Aint Vegas single that I have had lying around for a couple of years but not been able to play due to not having a record player. Listening to this vinyl single, taken from an album that I also have on CD, made me remember just <em>how different</em> vinyl sounds to the digital formats. Beyond the obvious <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_sound_vs._digital_sound">technical differences</a> between an analogue and a digital carrier format, there're are a whole lot of subjective differences, and even putting my relatively inexpensive new <a href="http://www.needledoctor.com/Pro-Ject-Turntables-Debut-III-Basic-Black?category=-110">Pro-Ject Debut III</a> through my old modest all-in-one hi-fi, I've found myself falling in love with home listening all over again. There's particularly something about how a drum kit sits in the mix of a typical rock band recording that just sounds much more convincing and faithful to how things really sound when you hear them live. And all of this is just looking at vinyl as a playback medium - there's a whole separate, interesting argument as to the preservation of analogue recording methods for archival and sonic reasons (see <a href="http://www.mtsu.edu/~nadam/downloads/Stevealbiniweb.html">Steve Albini lecture</a>).<br /><br />I think I'll leave it there for now, but I hope this post makes you reconsider any skepticism or prejudice you may hold for either old or new formats for enjoying entertainment. Truth be told, there's a some kind of advantageous property in most of them (apart from using Windows over the Macintosh - I still scratch my head in bafflement over that one). <br /><br />If you're interested in reading any more about the vinyl side of things, I highly recommend you head over to read <a href="http://www.furious.com/perfect/vinylanachronist.html">The Vinyl Anachronist</a>. What that site lacks in graphical flair, it more than makes up for with good, opinionated content.<br /><br />Edit - I also found <a href="http://www.ilikejam.dsl.pipex.com/audiophile.htm">this</a> rather amusing site with listing frivolous and over-expensive products for the audiophile market today. Well worth a look.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-1160470947526845452006-10-10T08:52:00.000+00:002006-10-23T16:29:47.403+00:00One door closes, another door ... oh.This post should really be all about the interesting stuff we did in Mexico, but that'll have to wait until my next spate of blogging. I was informed by my landlady this morning that I'll have to move out of my room, as she says she can make the money she charges me in a month (£550, specifically) from bed and breakfast customers in a weekend. So I now have two months of notice. I could <em>really</em> do without this, as I'll be looking for a new job shortly after Christmas, and will then be stuck in a new minimum term rental contract wherever I move to, which might not necessarily be conveniently located for that new job. <br /><br />Why do things always have to be in a state of flux? I really don't like all this change.<br /><br />EDIT -- here's the website advertising the house as guest house accommodation, if you're interested:<br />http://www.winchesterhermitage.co.uk/Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-1158337458872628282006-09-15T15:48:00.000+00:002006-09-15T16:26:52.066+00:00A Whip In One Hand And Gold In The OtherWell, feels like it's been a while since I've written anything here. Sorry 'bout that.<br /><br />Since my last finger-to-blog, I've been interviewed for a job which I didn't get, and have also found out that I'm likely to have a few more months in this one, since the lady whose job I'm doing is going to take some more maternity leave. This has allowed me to breathe a sigh of relief, and also to pay the rent! I was getting particularly worried seeing as I'm off to Mexico next week, and didn't want to arrive back and then have a couple of weeks' work, then 'unemployment beard strikes again'.<br /><br />Anyway, applying for this job as a communications officer, which I wanted quite a lot, has made me realise that I want to pursue something that gives me a measure of creativity. I want the opportunity to develop my writing, and even statutory sector publications would give me a level of editorial and copywriting experience. I'm also thinking of looking for design training of some sort, as I've dabbled in this side of things for too long without any formal instruction. So I'm probably going to enrol in something soonish to get a better understanding of how to use the Adobe CS apps successfully, and to learn the ropes of good design. I figure that'll give me a good all-round basis for some sort of career that will actually draw on my eye for catching mistakes as well as giving me a creative influence. So, I'm finally arriving at some idea of what I might actually like to do with my (working) life, which is certainly a good, if overdue, development.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7904457.post-1156428869394697482006-08-24T14:08:00.000+00:002006-08-24T14:47:32.576+00:00Happy HollowThis week saw the release of the first new Cursive album in a few years. As many of you will know, they're one of my favourite bands of all time (top 3, along with Mineral and At the Drive-In, I'd say). I also went to watch them this Monday as well, on the release date. It was a good show overall, they played quite a few old classics as well as stuff off the new album, and encored with The Martyr. During the encore set, I waited for a that lull of silence that you sometimes get, then shouted at the top of my lungs "Tides Rush In". They didn't play it, but it embarrassed the rest of Action and Action who were with me, and caused Cursive to give one another wry smiles. Find me a band that likes to play its own early songs if you can. I don't know any.<br /><br />Back to the new album. I like it, musically - it has quite a lot of the jauntiness of the Ugly Organ about it. However, I'm not confortable with some of the approaches that Tim Kasher takes, lyrically. There has long been an element of his writing that's used religious imagery in a fairly agnostic way, sometimes quite cleverly. What's changed with this album is that he's taken a turn to be so anti-religious and specifically anti-clerical that I find it a bit wearing to listen to. It's almost too much of an easy target. Young people who listen to bands like this already have a pretty negative view of religion, so cranking up your critique of Christianity really isn't all that constructive (and though there are exceptions within this album, it's largely against Christianity because noone likes to take on a religion like Islam where its adherents might actually have something to say or do to you for attacking their beliefs). It's not even really because I'm a Catholic that it bothers me, but there's something so overwhelmingly negative about the portrayal of priests (among the rest of the cast of ever more sordid characters) that feels draining. Isn't it about time rock bands found someone else to attack? <br /><br />Notwithstanding that there are lots of men and women throughout history, and out there right now, who have dedicated themselves selflessly to the <i>religious</i> life - which has led to a huge amount of humanitarian work, incidentally - doesn't it feel as if we played out these arguments long ago during the so-called-Enlightenment? The anti-Creationist rhetoric gets boring, and literalist, and starts to detract from the music. Maybe this is how Nebraskans see their religion, but it's not an accurate reflection of modern Christianity as experienced by most of us. <br /><br />I hope I can get past this lyrical straightjacket, because I don't want it to ruin my future enjoyment of one of my favourite bands.Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03546466889294043708noreply@blogger.com1