I went to Weston Park Museum today for the first time in a long while. It's a museum near Sheffield town centre and the place was recently redeveloped for £17.3 million, updating things. I remember going as a child with my family and most of the history-based exhibits being boring, but there was a giant stuffed polar bear and a sculpture of two sumo wrestlers which I quite liked. In the museum shop there would be pictures of the main exhibits for sale; they were blank and you could colour them in at home. I always used to buy the sumo wrestler picture.
My trip today was fun, although seeing so many stuffed animals was a bit weird. I was disappointed not to find the sumos anywhere in the museum too, and either they now have a different polar bear to before or it just seemed a lot, lot bigger when I was a child - when we found the polar bear today I was actually taller than it.
I can't see where the £17.3 million went, but it's not bad for a free day out.
The Simpsons Movie comes out in two days time. Although I don't watch The Simpsons anywhere near as much as I used to I'm still looking forward to seeing this. I remember hearing about a Simpsons movie for the first time years and years ago, and this feels like quite an important event for Generation Y. I do think they should stop making the TV series now though, before everyone just gets sick of it. Take a look at the website for the movie, where you can create yourself, Simpsons style. Pretty cool.
I recently cracked my 16" Paiste Power Crash cymbal (just before recording with my band, which was a pain). I was fairly annoyed, as I've had the cymbal for under two years. Though reading up on the cause of cymbal cracks has led me to loosen the tightness of the felt washers on my stand, as well as swiping at the cymbal rather than hitting it more directly when I'm playing.
At first I just planned to consign the crash to my spare cymbal pile and buy a new one, but I discovered there are quite a few ways to salvage a damaged cymbal. I tried drilling a hole above the small crack to prevent it from advancing, but I didn't really have a strong enough drill, so that didn't work.
Luckily though I have a friend who said his dad would be able to sort out the cymbal at his workplace. I asked him to cut out the crack totally, which he did. This method makes sure that the crack is gone completely, but it can also alter the sound quite a bit. I've found that the cymbal is now quite dull and has lost a lot of its cut, but I do actually like the sound, as my cymbal was a bit too bright and shimmering for my liking anyway. It's slightly more awkward to play now, as my stick will sometimes catch the cut, but I'm pleased I haven't had to fork out for a new cymbal just yet.
Here are a couple of pictures of the cut. The black lines are just marks indicating where to cut.
There was a time a few years ago when ska music would be just about all I would listen to. I was in a ska band too, although we never got anywhere. Things have changed now, but I still listen to it fairly often. There's such a happy, fun feeling present in most third wave ska, and the melding of horns and punk or rock just makes for a weird, highly enjoyable combination. I'd still really like to join another ska band at some point.
A few months ago I remember searching the internet for a ska compilation, and, to my surprise, there weren't that many about. In the end I found one on Ebay called This Aren't Two Tone: A Ska-Punk Compilation. It came from the US and has a massive 35 tracks, mainly from bands I hadn't heard of. Although the sound and song quality isn't all that consistent it's pretty fun, with some great tracks such as Don't Worry by The Hippos, or Rok by MU330.
More recently, I was pleased to hear Asian Man Records announce a ska compilation - Ska Is Dead, named after the recurring ska tour (which I missed when it came to the UK). I received it in the post the other day and it's a great compilation with a healthy 23 tracks from the biggest (not just third wave) bands in ska at the moment. Also, as usual with Asian Man, the price is extremely low for such great music - I got it for £5 from Amazon. So far I really like Don't Stop Everything (Dancehall Version) by Go Jimmy Go and Raise Your Glass by The Planet Smashers.
Incidentally, it's now been just over a year since I started writing this blog. Seems like longer.
So I recently bought a new PC. I've wanted to put together my own system for a while, so with the help of a friend I ordered all the parts and we put it together.
Here's a brief list of specs: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ processor, 1.5GB RAM, Asus T3-M2NC51PV AM2 case and motherboard, Asus EAX300SE-X TD 128MB DVI-D/VGA PCI-E graphics card and a Western Digital 160GB hard drive.
Although I'm having a few problems I'm pleased with how it's all turned out. I've installed both Windows Vista and Ubuntu. I've never really used Linux before, but it seems fairly intuitive so far.
Also, I started my new job yesterday at a hotel in Sheffield city centre. I'm involved in the catering side of things, so I'm serving food, setting tables etc. It feels good to finally have a job, although the work won't be all that regular. I gather I'll only be required when big functions take place.
Despite my indie-bashing in a previous post, I do, in fact, like the Arctic Monkeys. Seeing their success and listening to their music somehow instils in me a proudness of my Sheffield heritage. So I recently ordered both of their albums.
I know just about all the songs from their first, as when I was in sixth form someone had a copy of their demo, which they played quite regularly in the common room for a while. I remember we'd be listening to this demo then switch to the radio to hear the DJ talking about the band, and we all felt some kind of pride about the fact that they came from our city.
I really like their first album and I don't want to just say what's been said a thousand times before, but the lyrics are great, very colloquial - you feel like you know what he's on about. The music's great too, some nice chord progressions and fast-paced drums. Also, it's well recorded; nice and simple and not over-produced.
I haven't listened to their newer album quite as much yet, but it's nice to see the band not dilute their sound too much, although there doesn't seem to be as much variation between songs as before (I do like the Hawaiian-style slide guitar sound on Only Ones Who Know though).
There's no point me recommending either of the two albums, as I doubt you'll have escaped them.
Just got my results from the end of year exams. I passed with a fairly OK mark, which I'm pleased about.
I recently bought the game Jump Ultimate Stars for the DS. It's the sequel to the game Jump Super Stars, a fighting game, very much like Super Smash Bros., but with manga characters from the Weekly Shonen Jump manga magazine. Apparently both games were meant to be really good, possibly the best on the system, and I thought buying a Japanese import game might be a challenge for my language skills (and it certainly is), so I bought a copy through Play Asia. It was pretty cheap for a brand new game.
I can understand the gist of most of the text, but it takes a while to read, so pictorial representations on the screen and in the manual are helpful. But I get the impression that the game would still be very complex for me, even if it was in English, so I don't fully know what's going on. The combat isn't amazing, but then I thought that when I first started playing Super Smash Bros. I guess I'll just have to give it more time.
Last night I watched the last program in the BBC's Seven Ages of Rock series. I didn't see all seven episodes, but I really enjoyed those that I did. I was pleased that the BBC made a series about something I was quite interested in, and I was also pleased to see that they handled it well.
The seven ages according to the BBC are Blues-based Rock, 1963-1970; Art Rock, 1966-1980; Punk, 1973-1980; Heavy Metal, 1970-1991; Stadium Rock, 1965-1993; Alternative Rock, 1980-1994; and Indie, 1980-2007. Each program would generally take two or three important figures or bands from certain movements and tell the story of that age through these people. Whilst it's hard to categorise and specify when talking about music in this way, I think the methods used made the programs easy to digest; mentioning everyone involved wouldn't have been such a good watch. Plus, I believe each episode was directed by someone different, someone interested in that scene, which was a good idea.
Last night's episode was on indie, which I'm not a massive fan of, so I originally wasn't going to tune in. But I've enjoyed learning about the history of rock and how we got from where we were to where we are now, so I watched for that reason. The program featured mainly Suede, Blur and Oasis, with a lot of interview footage with Noel Gallagher, who has a much more inflated ego than I previously thought. The program was quite balanced though, acknowledging the inherent contradiction in the success of indie and the inaccuracy of the term these days; not simply singing the praises of the bands involved.
I think one of the main reasons why I'm not into indie (British indie at least) is because I'm used to it. I've grown up with it constantly on the TV and radio and in magazines, and like a lot of things that I'm used to, I'm bored of it. Musical tastes are a very subjective thing, but it baffles me that this style of music which I find so dull is so popular with so many people my age. I couldn't help mentally dropping my jaw when some NME guy being interviewed said he believed that we are currently experiencing the best period of British music ever.
I might respect indie a bit more if it was actually independent, but that's not the case at all any more. Originally indie music stood for something, but it was swallowed up by popular culture, and you can't really retain any integrity once that's happened.
Music and it's relation to different things is something I think about quite a lot. For example, do we choose a certain lifestyle because of the music we listen to, or do we listen to certain music because of our lifestyle? Is it a coincidence that I get along best with people who listen to similar music to me? Why do I view a person differently once I've learned about what music they're into? I heard about a survey which found that 100% of us claim to be music lovers, and that isn't hard to believe, so these kind of questions are issues that involve everyone.
To finish this post, here's a short video of the dude from Black Flag from the Seven Ages of Rock site.
