Guitars and Life

How the other half live

2012-01-30T12:41:00.003Z

Well maybe the other 1% given the current terminology. I was just reading a short story post on Shrinkies blog. Her setting is a million miles away from my reality... however once some years back - about 15 I suppose I was asked to work on a specific project by the big, big boss. It was a very politically exposed position within the company. Anyway after some combative moments there was a period of enforced harmony dictated by the really big big bosses - we were spending millions on some stuff and they wanted it to work after all. In part of that I went to a series of meetings in New York - I was regularly there for a while. As part of the harmony the group I was working with decided to continually show us the best New York could offer and we were taken off to various posh restaurants littered with various celebs - all of whom I didn't know apart from one guy I'd seen who was a USA Americas Cup entrant I believe.

Anyway - we are sat for the meal. I scan the wine list - nothing under $1000 a bottle! Madness. I took my Burton's suit jacket off and put it over my chair. Instantly a waiter arrives and lays a perfectly washed and ironed best linen napkin over my jacket to stop anything from being spilt on it. I thank him and look at the guy next to me on the table, who was a good friend who ended up being my last bosses boss at that company and said "Frankly the napkin appears to be worth more than the suit!"

A funny old weekend

2012-01-30T09:53:00.000Z

It was a funny sort of a weekend. Started same as ever - well a bit differently for the first time in several weeks I accompanied Daughter-of-Furtheron to swimming training, for a bunch of reasons I've not been on a Friday with her for a while now. Saturday started with me running her about to go out with a friend shopping heading to pick up some wallpaper - we are in preparation stage for an assault on the master bedroom of the house over Easter and Mrs F had seen some she liked and I thought we'd best order it and get it acquired instead of leaving it and finding that style having been deleted from the catalogue.

I spent a lot of Saturday in the studio recording All At Once which has been around a while even having had at least one live outing but I'd not got the chance to record it. Mrs F and Son-of-Furtheron between them had bought me a Behringer C1 Condenser Microphone for Christmas - it has been something on my "to be bought" list for ages as many have said they are much better for recording vocals and acoustics than my Shure SM58 and some other Shure mic I have I can't remember the number of now. The thing that had put me off a bit was the need for an extra amp box as the Boss Br600 I have doesn't have phantom power. (Condensers need a power source and many professional mixers etc. provide this but my cheapy little Boss is never going to do that!). Anyway I went to Behringer as they had a neat tiny little amp to power the mic that I knew would be compatible. Overall I was instantly impressed just through the headphones as soon as I'd plugged it all in and hit a couple of chords. Maybe only my ears but the sound instantly had more presence and was much more open - normally esp with acoustic guitar tracks once recorded I spend a while tweaking EQ and Reverb to try and "lift" the sound with more life in it. On this - I did virtually nothing!

I cooked a curry Saturday night - a new recipe for Chicken Korma. It was nice but over night I had a terrible night, up being sick and hardly slept. I can't blame the curry as D-o-F had it and she was fine. In the end I'm thinking it was a sort of migraine given other symptoms. Long term readers will remember the hassle I had with Migraine Associated Vertigo some while back - I think it is now moving to a different type of symptom.

Anyway that meant I wasn't even up before 10am on Sunday (unheard of for me really). But Sunday having decided I needed to just sit and not do much I ended up doing loads! The battle against procrastination maybe working! I had some updates to the local AA website to do and some other related stuff. I got a load done. Still as ever more to do but I was pleased - esp when I checked in Google search this morning and one thing I'd hoped would happen has - SEO in operation folks.

Whilst I was sat on the computer I spent a lot of time with music playing and funnily having decided to move a bit away from Reverbnation actually I had loads of new "fans" over the weekend after loading up the new song. I'm not sure whether this is just people fanning you to fan them back to move themselves up in the ranking but whatever I did find some music I really enjoyed listening to.

Finished the day off watching the concluding part of Birdsong - it was a good adaptation of the Faulks novel which I read and highly rated last year. However if I'd been doing the adaptation I'd have kept in the 1978 piece somehow as one of the best bits of the book was that link forward from WWI to the "present".

A New Song - All At Once

2012-01-28T15:46:00.000Z

New song - recorded using my new Behringer C1 Condenser Microphone which was Mrs F's Christmas present to me. I was really impressed with the quality I've got off it for the guitar and the vocal sounds. I think this'll be the only mic I use at home in the studio from now on!

Gratitude list

2012-01-27T11:32:00.000Z

My "Things I am Grateful for Today" list thing on the right stopped working. I couldn't add anything to it - I wonder if my list of gratitude got too big for Blogger to cope with? Shame as you can't have too much gratitude surely? Anyway after several attempts, browser swaps, deleting things out of it etc. I decided to take the technical blog crowbar to it and deleted and created a new one! Solved!

Okay the one thing any sharp eyed readers will notice is that after yesterdays procrastination update in which I had to admit that the book I'd bought (and by the way I deliberately bought the one that was the shortest pretty much of those recommended to me by various people on the basis that that would make me read it!) was still "sat on the shelf" (well the to be read list on my Kindle) - anyway I started it yesterday! Hooray!

Hmm just thought of something to update my gratitude list and that is that I'm still keeping up the swimming regime - I'm going 2 mornings a week at the moment - so another good thing off my list of stuff to do!

Life continues including an update on the procrastination

2012-01-26T13:22:00.001Z

Last week I posted about my chronic procrastination issue... it has been better this week. I've been trying to make lists and do stuff on them. This morning at work I'd ticked off a reasonable number already when I looked at my watch and thought - "blimey and it isn't even 10am yet". That is good stuff. It was one of the themes of a "round robin" share meeting I was at this week - it is one of my home groups and is normally a speaker meeting but the speaker didn't make it and as it was a small group of all regulars we all shared in turn. Procrastination was a theme - not I hasten to add led by me but others. The post last week also told me that many people suffer this - I am not alone - that is comforting. Also I've bought a book about it - but I've not started reading it yet... I know there is a gag in there but it is the truth!

Exams - life seems a bit dominated by exams in our lives at the moment. My daughter is doing some more GCSEs at the moment and my son is doing his end of semester exams at university. As a parent of course I would love to fix it all for them, take the worry away etc.but I can't ... acceptance of what I can and cannot do. I can encourage them, wish them luck and listen to them afterwards if only to say things like "just put it behind you now, you did your best". My son is reasonably laid back about exams he doesn't overly stress about them, my daughter is not so cool. However they are both bright, able students who work hard - I'm sure they will get worthy results.

I've taken on a new service position in AA and went to a set of workshops held on a regional basis last weekend. It was interesting getting others opinions. I've got some ideas of some things I can do and am building my list - see I'm learning - so that I can get something achieved and to report back and involve others soon. AA is an interesting body - it doesn't function like almost any other organisation, people rotate in and out of service positions regularly to ensure it is spread about and that no one person has too much sway over any aspect of it. Sometimes it seems chaotic, no overall structure and strategy etc. but that is in some ways it's saving grace as well. It really is a different design for life - it teaches me humility, patience, acceptance, tolerance, respect etc. and I meet so many different people I'd never otherwise get to know.

Book Review - The Pirates! by Gideon Defoe

2012-01-23T11:24:00.000Z

So the reason I bought this at all is that this series of books is the basis for the next Aardman animated film due in the cinemas in March this year. In the end I bought The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists and The Pirates! In an Adventure with Whaling in one bumper dual edition for under a fiver! Bargain and a useful purchase with some of the WHSmith voucher I got for Christmas from my mother-in-law.

So The Pirates! are a madcap crew headed The Pirate Captain and none of them have names other than things like The Pirate with the Scarve or The Albino Pirate except Jennifer who joins the crew during the first adventure.

The first adventure finds the crew capturing The Beagle and Charles Darwin when they think they'll capture a load of gold but only find Darwin and his clever monkey and they help him take on his arch nemesis The Bishop of Oxford back in London. The book is a light read with plenty of slapstick gags and loads of pirate puns etc.

The second book sees the crew trying to buy a new ship on credit which places them in considerable debt and The Pirate Captain has a brilliant idea to enter show business which sadly is foiled by his arch enemy Black Bellemy and they end up trying to catch the legendary White Whale to pay off their debts. The style is the same mapcap humour.

Never likely to stretch you much, I read each of these in a matter of a couple of days on the commute they are funny enough. I'm really looking forward to the Aardman treatment of them though ... *side shot of much concerned shaking of heads from my family who think I've never really grown up - they are right of course* :-)

Music Review - Sixx:AM

2012-01-23T11:03:00.000Z

The immediacy of the modern age - could be the sub-title for this post. Early on Saturday morning PlanetRock was playing in the kitchen whilst I was on the computer in the adjacent room. I heard a track and thought - that was good who was that. The playlist on the station web site told me it was Sixx:AM. I went to Spotify and found their first album on there so listened to that. I thought it was really good. In no time I'd found it for only £4.49 on HMVdigital and it was bought, downloaded and onto my MP3 player. I also bought their latest one at the same time.

I had a long drive Sunday to an AA regional assembly so had time to listen to them both a couple of times. So...

The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack is the first album. It is based on a 13 month diary written by Nikki Sixx during Dec 1986 - 1987 when he was fighting his heroin addiction. Lyrically a lot of the material I can directly relate to as a recovering alcoholic. Also the music is really good, very soundtrack like actually in places but more like a rock musical score rather than a film. Released in 2007 this is hardly a new album but as totally new to me thought I'd give a verdict. The book The Heroin Diaries : A Year in the Shattered Life of a Rockstar is available with the original diaries and accompanies the music, although either stand on there own. I might look at getting and reading the book now.

This is Gonna Hurt - is the bands second album released in 2011. This is more a straight ahead rock album in sound and structure, there is no longer the need for narration passages to set context from the diary and the music is like musical like. It is still a very good album and it is reminiscent to me of a harder rock Journey type sound. This also accompanies another book by Mr Sixx again called This Is Gonna Hurt which contains the photographers that inspired the songs.

Interesting for me are two things about these albums. Firstly the linking of the formats - although some might point to overly commercial principles at play here. Also the band itself is a trio of Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue bassist), James Michael (vocalist and multi-instrumentalist - most known as a producer, engineer and songwriter) and DJ Ashba (guitarist - most known as a member of GnR). So... Motley Crue have never appealed to me I'm afraid I just never got their stuff at all. I've seen DJ Ashba live with GnR on the TV and was a bit - "oh he's the one trying to be Slash at the moment" - that is unfair I know, someone has to play the Slash solos. So really two people who if I'd have been told about them forming a side project (and possibly I was!) I wouldn't have sought out the result. By accident almost I hear one track and through the speed of the internet was able to quickly pull in their catalogue and I have to say particularly The Heroin Diaries I think will remain a favourite for a while. It is funny that some side projects I've heard I've thought too self-indulgent or just not for me even if they are artists I really like, others you hear and think - throw in the day job guys this is much better! Transatlantic fall into that category for me as well. Sixx:AM have just entered that chart at a very good position too.

I don't get Twitter

2012-01-20T09:38:00.001Z

Twitter doesn't work for me - I don't mean I have some bizzare cookie issue or the fact I sometimes use SeaMonkey as my browser causes it to have issues - what I mean is I just don't get it.

You seem to have to live your life constantly in Twitterland and have multiple conversations going on left right and centre. I struggle to post anything in 140 characters or less, no doubt some would say that is because I use verbose language and style. Guilty as charged probably however for me the setting of context before saying "this stinks" or "this is great" is important. Just look recently at how many people have got into trouble with "out of context" tweets - the Diane Abbot one recently was an interesting example. Personally Diane in isolation your comment was offensive to me. You say it was taken out of context - but you only have 140 characters, the conversation flow in Twitter is difficult to see and anyway you still implied that White people (huge and offensive generalisation) are all racist - which is to me offensive. It is a minefield I accept but the number of times Twitter says to me - "You'll have to be more clever" - er no, frankly I can't say what I want to say in 140 characters I don't believe that has anything to do with my level of intelligence!

It is useful for some information coming to me - I have feeds from bands and stuff but frankly if they haven't posted in the few hours prior to my twice a week foray to have a look then they miss me. I use RSS feeds into Google or Facebook for much more of that. I do get some useful stuff seeing how my employer presents various aspects of it's work externally and given much of our target audience is the "switched on younger generation" (Hells teeth, that makes me sound like I'm some dodery old fool... that is rhetroical that one btw) it is useful to see that presentation.

I use it to push out the occasional link and to promote my music but I don't think my 120ish follows are the best target necessarily for that... and that brings me to the real crux of Twitter... who are these people? Why are they following me? Some have musical interests, some I know personally, a couple of business associates who use it for work stuff - I don't see any need for me on that - a daily tweet about Service Delivery Management in support Research IT at a major London university (the title is probably more than 140 chars!) and already everyone is half asleep - hey you at the back wake up I'm getting to the posts punchline for what it is worth. Here are the ones that really baffle me though

DumpsterDealTwt - Dumpster Deal Tweets
Great dumpster saving deals with daily tweet updates for all the deals in your area so you dont miss a beat
HullVoucherScrt Hull Voucher Secrets
Hull Voucher Secrets at 50-90% off retail

Hull Voucher Secrets?! As the youngsters say in their txts, tweets and status updates WTF! I don't live anywhere near Hull, nor do any of my followers I don't believe, anyway Hull or voucher savings schemes don't feature in my irregular less than 140 character posts... Remember that they chose to follow me. Why? I just don't get it!

Avoidance and Procrastination

2012-01-19T13:09:00.002Z

(Inspired by another persons honest post on their blog.)

Honestly one of my major problems. I avoid things that I don't want to do, or am not sure of how to do, or will make me feel bad in some way. I avoided recontacting the bus company about the refund we were due after the great bus ticket scandal I blogged about last year. Why? Because I knew it'd bring back the anger and I don't like that feeling. I did email them, with no response and in the end the ever marvellous Mrs F called them, twice, and we finally got a cheque for all of £6.70... but no apology!

I'm bad at it at work at the moment. I'm giving myself all the excuses under the sun... "I'm new to the organisation and don't know who to contact"... well ask someone dummy! But then I'll possibly look daft... etc. Also the reorganisation of the division is not complete and I am not totally fully in post. So I use that as another excuse. But they are excuses I'm just avoiding it and putting it off etc.

Then of course once you've put something off for one day the next day seems easier etc. But then when it gets that you have to do something when you then ask the question you know you need to ask you realise that people have the thought... "Why didn't you ask that x days ago?" Well you don't realise that you perceive it as you are beating yourself up with that in your head and your reality is their reality isn't it?

Now in the old days alcohol was a great cover for this stuff. Firstly it gave me the "Dutch courage" to take on some of the things I was fearful of as with the alcohol in your bloodstream you brain begins to tell you that you are invincible and all these doubts and fears are just nonsense and secondly it is a great way of bludgeoning to death the feelings anyway so that you are numb to them.

So I dithered over hitting the big orangey Publish button highlighted at the top of the page at the moment on this one - why? Because I don't like to admit weakness and also if I come clean on here and say all this it'll mean I ought really to "accept the things I cannot change and have the courage to change what I can" ... which in this case is actually quiet a bit.

Book Review - Conqueror by Conn Iggulden

2012-01-19T09:24:00.000Z

I've loved this series since the start with Wolf of the Plains which began with Gengis Khan, then just known as Temujin, as a young boy being abandoned by his tribe in a power struggle after his fathers death. That book and the two that followed took us through his entire life and the remarkable story of him pulling the Mongolian tribes into a single nation and fighting back against their oppressive neighbours the Chin. After his death however the empire stuttered and the previous book in the series Empire of Silver chronicles the amazing push West into Europe that Ogedei Khan inspired. However his death stopped the marauding hordes and they return to Karakorum the new capital that Ogedei built.

This is the setting for the beginning of Conqueror when all the nation are waiting for a new Khan to be selected. At this point the level of political and family intrigue is amazing in the Mongolian royal line and Conn makes good use of this to weave plenty of inter family rivalries into the telling of the tale.

Firstly Guyuk is announced Khan as deals are struck with the descendant so Genghis and his brothers. However his reign is short and Monke Khan his cousin and a Grandson of Genghis is pronounced Khan. He sets about reverting the nation to the traditional Mongolian values he believes have been eroded by Chinese influence at court. He splits the empire and new conquests between his brothers and the Mongolian expansion resumes. He dies before an heir is clear as well and this leads to a civil war with Kublai Khan the victor and who then went on to dominate in China and found an entire dynasty.

Here Conn has decided to bring the series to an end with Kublai victorious over his brother and the supreme Khan. I was expecting a final 6th book to map the rest of Kublai's life and his domination of China, but Conn notes that like so many his ending was sad after personal tragedy and he's prefer to finish his account at a zenith. Interesting.

I have really enjoyed all this, firstly as it has taught me a huge amount about an area of history I was very ignorant of and it truely is an amazing story of the rise in such a short time of a nation from servitude to a larger neighbour to the greatest empire on the face of the earth.

My interest in this area stems also possibly from the Rush song Xanadu. You know the one from A Farewell To Kings. It has an impossibly odd time signature intro - not unlike many Rush songs! When I heard that song as a teenager and fumbled over trying to learn to play it (it was one of very few covers my old prog rock band used to play in the early 80s) the mystical setting of this place intrigued me. No doubt the fact that the song was based on the romantic poem by Coleridge and that it found it's place into Rush's body of work which was largely around that time much about space/science fiction/fantasy (2112, Hemispheres etc.) held with my sort of mythical perception of it. Now while there wasn't a pleasuredome created in Xanadu the building of the empire that created such places still is a fantastic story.

With a lot known but again huge amounts not proven or possibly the subject to much speculation based on the questionable validity of the contemporary accounts that have survived the author has a significant amount of licence to place his own interpretations and introduce much additional speculation. This is historical fiction after all and it does work well.

Thoroughly recommended.

It's the economy ... stupid!

2012-01-18T09:30:00.002Z

Remember the Clinton slogan? Well it still is, actually it is more important now than then. The dip at the begining of the 90s is looking like a equivalent of an economic trip rather than a full flat of the face smacking the pavement we seem to be in now.

Two things in two days have got me thinking (I know, I know it isn't good for me).

Firstly an interesting article in Vanity Fair of all places - I'm not a regular reader someone had the link somewhere I so read it ... it is here if you are interested. It was written by Joseph Stiglitz who was Chief Economist for the World Bank. I thought therefore I'd swtich off as this would be another article telling me little - I was wrong. Mr Stiglitz speaks tremendous sense and is one of the few "up there" that seem to actually be able to sort out the wood from the trees. In the article he compares the current economic situation to the great depression of the 30s - the setting is different, the industries involved as well but the parallels he draws are significant and for once someone who agrees a lot of the post '93 recovery has been based on vapour - i.e. not real growth in economies but simply growth fueled by debt. Sadly he also points out the way that the USA (it is a very very USA centric article which is sadly a major flaw) recovered from the 30s was the need for mass industrialisation to face WWII. Heaven forbid that the way out of the current disaster is another major war. He therefore points to the need for "structural transformation" to move the economy to a new model. I couldn't agree more and whilst he points to the USA lack of infrastructural investment the same could be said in the UK. Ask anyone who commutes into London by rail whether they think we need to invest more in our railways for example.

The second thing is that after several years of softening up the locals and nationally with proposals that the govt of the day said were preposterous it looks like the new major hub airport talked about for Kent will get govt backing. Now I know there is a load of stuff about the area, the people living there etc. etc. but this is the kind of large government back structural transformation mentioned above. Along with the HS2 announcement whilst I don't agree entirely with this governments economic policies this is all moving in the right direction for me. I live close enough to the proposed site that it'll be a concern to me. However given where I live is too close to London but East not West so not near Heathrow etc. it has suffered with lack of inward investment. We don't have many major employers in the area and it is a conurbation of over 250,000. It'll be a massive boost to the area - the road and rail link improvements that will have to come can only help us attract new investment into our community. If we embrace it. Sadly I already see the "Not In My Backyard" mentality in the council and worry it'll be a case of people creating a opposition to it which won't stop it but may well mean we're not at the table when we need to be to ensure we get the benefits.

A

2012-01-13T11:49:00.001Z

My daughter doesn't like Maths. She has this bit of a block with it, when she sees something new or a little twist to the sequence of questions is added to stretch you she freaks-out and a mental brick wall goes up. She has been like this since junior school as I remember us discussing it with her teachers in year 5 and 6 definitely. For a short time we even employed a friend as a tutor to help her prepare for the Medway Test - for those who remember that is what we now have to call the 11plus and don't get me started on that crap, divisive, anachronistic piece of nonsense we still have to suffer in the last bastion of selective education that is Kent.

Anyway she got a Level 5 in her SATS towards the end of year 6 - which is above where expected. She is actually good at Maths she just has the block and she simply doesn't like it. From entry at the secondary school she has been in the top set - which in some ways hasn't helped that mind set as she has always been near the bottom of the top set and felt under pressure at times to pick it up quicker.

Well her GSCE is all finished now, they do it in the Nov for her set for some reason, and she got an A.

I'm really proud and pleased for her. She'll never actively study Maths again but she has no need to now.

Gratitude in a sunrise

2012-01-11T08:41:00.005Z

I was privileged to witness a beautiful sunrise over Kent this morning whilst sat on the 7:20 to St Pancras. The sky we a collage of orange, blue and pink. At one point on the journey, whilst in a cutting you can just glimpse the Shri Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara at Gravesend if you look up out of the window. As I saw that amazing sunrise behind the temples turrets I thought to myself "People will travel half way around the world for the seek out sites similar to that, and here it is on my doorstep".

I often forget to be open to seeing what is around me on a daily basis and being grateful for that. It is constant work trying to banish the feelings of resentment and ingratitude for the things I think I don't have.

Almost normal

2012-01-10T13:56:00.001Z

I had to go to the doctors today - my annual "chronic condition review" was needed. That's a horrid thing to call it, sounds like you are one step from the knackers yard. Actually mine is for Hypertension as I used to pompously refer to it as - High Blood Pressure to the non-pompous of you out there. Actually I've not taken medication for it for many years now... er... actually since I stopped drinking. I'd taken drugs to lower it for years before then.

So roll up your sleeve and they pop on that collar thing that self inflates and deflates a couple of times whilst asking you the questions... do you smoke? Ever smoked? When did you stop? How much alcohol do you drink? This is always where the conversation deviates from the norm I think... "Nothing" I reply. "Nothing at all?" says the nurse raising an eyebrow. "No I don't drink". "Nothing at all?" Look is it that unreasonable for people to not drink? She is clicking away... "Oh right I see... So nothing in the last year then?" "No" I presume she has found the note somewhere in large red capitals saying "THIS GUY IS A RECOVERING ALCOHOLIC - HE'S BEEN TO REHAB AND SHIT!"

By then the thingamajig is bleeping and has 132/85 on it's little screen. I'm asked to jump on the combined height/weight thingamabob and after another bleep my BMI is flashed onto another screen... 28.

So I'm almost normal on both counts. My blood pressure is slightly higher than upper limit of normal (120/80 I think) and my BMI is above 25 so I'm overweight but not obese. The nurse says that is ok and no need for me to see the doctor - but I should think about getting my BMI and blood pressure down. So whilst crunching on my crispbreads at lunchtime I've done a look up... I need to exercise more, cut out salt (already did years ago as much as I can - have to have salt on chips you know) and cut my alcohol down. Tricky to cut the last one down any more.

Well I do want to try and lose a few pounds and go swimming more - I suppose I have an official reason now, i.e. my health rather than plain old pathetic vanity.

Book Review - The Cobra Fredrick Forsyth

2012-01-09T13:21:00.002Z

I have in the past generally like Mr Forsyth's work. The Fourth Protocol was a brilliant book of it's time for example, the film adaptation with Pierce Brosnan however sadly was the worst let down of a dramatisation of a book I've read ever! The changed ending made no flipping sense and the acting...

Anyway to more relevant matters. This book takes a couple of characters already familiar to readers of The Avenger. Now that was a really good book again.

This book however sadly is only a moderate single thumbs up from Furtheron. It is OK but there is very little expansion on the characters from the moment you are introduced to them. There are elements of the plot that are frankly beyond fanciful and put it just out of believability space for me.

The basic tenant is that the President of the USA is implored by a grandmother of a boy recently killed by cocaine. He decides pretty much on that single thing to go to war against the cocaine industry. He decides to secretly reframe it as a threat to the nation like terrorism and then persuades the British PM to go along... hmm like I say not very believable and also sadly not new, isn't this the plot of Tom Clancy's Clear and Present Danger?

It does rattle along OK as thrillers go and has some good points and to be fair the twist at the very end was completely out of the blue for me... both of them which is often not the case where the twist is so readily sign posted by the time you get to it in the plot you are almost relieved it is out of the way and really that was the saving grace for me as I was sadly a bit let down by this, probably only because of the quality of his previous stuff is way better than this one.

Back at work, The New Year etc.

2012-01-06T13:06:00.002Z

So back at work now and the Yuletide celebrations are already heading to the distant recesses of my memory banks. That will no doubt be hastened after this weekend as my son will be heading back to university and we'll be back to the regular three of us at home and back to the normal daily/weekly pattern.

2012 - the end of the world... or so some say. Where is the guy who keeps predicting the rapture - does he have another date yet? The Mayan calendar thing is another red herring, it is just like us turning a millennium or what ever I think from my limited understanding. Still if none of us are here in a years time you can tell me then that knew not what I was talking about... :-)

So I'm back to work, my daughter is back at school readying for the onslaught of GCSEs she has this year and she'll soon be up against deadlines for deciding on A levels. Just all a bit same old, same old at the moment really.

I often find January a bit of a dull time, we've had the holiday and New Year, it is cold (well actually mild really at the moment), it's dark and dull (well as I type it's sunny actually) and it seems ages until the clocks change and we have lighter evenings/mornings etc.

So New Year resolutions? I don't really bother any more they always used to be the same and I rarely was successful with any of them so why worry about it. I am however already kicking well on a couple of things.

Diet - I needed to lose a few pounds (stone) so decided to start a diet of sorts, nothing like following books and stuff just simple, cut out the un-necessary - so tea instead of latte, cut the biscuits out etc.

Exercise - I used to regularly swim (very long in the tooth readers will know this) but about this time last year that all ground to a halt when I got back into employment and I never got back into the habit of it. I went yesterday, first time since September! I was ok, slowest in the fast lane and didn't quiet push to get to 50 lengths but it was a start. I hope to go once or twice a week. There is the Swimathon in April which for many years was my regular event, the 5,000m. I might sign up if all is going well at the end of this month. It is the 25 anniversary of the event, now I didn't do the first couple I first did it in 1989 and rarely missed a year for nearly the next 20 but haven't done it in a few years now. So it is on the list of things to hopefully do this year.

Book review - Flying V, Explorer, Firebird: An Odd-Shaped History of Gibson's Weird Electric Guitars by Tony Bacon

2012-01-03T10:34:00.001Z

I'm on the last couple of pages of this book now so I'll give it a review.

I have several of Mr Bacon's books, one is signed by him after I met him at some guitar show some years back. He researches well and writes in a good manner and normally they are excellently illustrated.

This is a good read even if it is a bit jumbled as it is simply a timeline of these guitars starting from the birth of the idea for the "modernistic" trio in the mid/late 50s as Gibson looked to fight back against the fuddy-duddy image that it had from it's association with flat top acoustics, mandolins and archtop jazz guitars. You have to say that the flying V and Explorer must have seemed like something from another planet when they came along.

Whilst focused on the Gibson roots there are several off-piste points talking about the "lawsuit" Ibanez trilogy in the mid 70s and the many offshoots that have come from the Gibson pointy boys lineage, so reference to Jackson Randy Rhodes, all the various V and Explorers that Hamer, Dean, BC Rich et al have exploited in the metal arena.

There are a couple of things I read which made my brow furrow but the area of guitar research is littered with the problem of relying on much word of mouth and there are many unscrupulous dealers who will happily perpetuate a story if it helps a sale. For example Mr Bacon states the solo on Freebird was on a Firebird not Collins famous 58 Explorer - maybe he is correct but I always thought it held up as the legendary Explorer solo. Also he claims that song "over-rated"... I bet he'll get a full post bag over that statement! Also the Firebird X is mentioned in one sentence and hardly giving it any justice, I think it deserved a bit more - but the the RD range has two photos and they sank pretty much without trace.

Also the mystery of the Moderne is if anything made more intriguing. There is a photo showing Gibson execs at NAMM with a mock up Explorer in the Futura shape (as on the patent but not as in production). Now in the interviews they say "we made examples, took them to shows and got feedback". Tony Bacon concludes that the Moderne never progressed from the patent sheet of paper until the "reissue" of '82. But what if there was a Moderne prototype shown at NAMM and that is still sitting in a basement in Michigan somewhere? And is it just me or wouldn't both/either of the Ibanez and Gibson takes on that model have been better with the Explorer hockey stick head?

However I learnt a huge amount about this range. I've always fancied the Explorer more than a V if I'm honest but I'm unlikely to ever own either... In the 70s when I first became clued up on guitars I rapidly realised the rarity of these. There were only 22 Explorers assembled between 58 and 62. Then they were fetching "high" values of $5000 a pop... now everyone wants a Sunburst Les Paul and despite them being (relatively) more available they over took the Explorer and V in values. Now sadly I wish I had had $5000 in the mid 70s :-)

I just noticed on another blog that Mr Bacon's next release is a tome on Squier Electrics, given my ownership for nearly 30 years of my 62 strat I'm interesting in looking getting that.

Toothbrush rant

2012-01-02T14:03:00.002Z

Funniest thing I saw on TV over the holidays... Rhod at his ranting best!

Happy 2012

2012-01-01T10:06:00.003Z

Hello - first post of 2012 - I hope you all have a great 2012!

Furtheron review of the year

2011-12-31T10:41:00.000Z

In the past years I've done reviews of the year so here to keep with tradition in 2011 Furtheron's reflections.

Jan - I got interviewed for a job having spent 7 months in the back end of 2010 out of work. I was listening to Heaven & Hell a lot, recording rockier stuff and putting up pictures of guitars...

Feb - Started my new job, where I used to work it was announced that a full UK pull out of R&D was happening and all my old colleagues were losing their jobs. Gary Moore sadly passed away. I played a gig at the Lamb and Flag in London.

Mar - I was working away from home and my post count dramatically dropped off. I was really struggling with the job - not the work (although it was a stupendously big workload) but more the living away from home all week or a really bonkers commute - up at 5am back at about 8pm.

Apr - One lousy post! I was really lost in the madness at that time. I ended up leaving the assignment away from home, the company luckily offered me one back at my old place helping with the close down which was good as I knew the place, it was a much better commute but was very sad being there as hundreds of people left.

May - Went to see Rush at the O2 with my brother. Posting picked up :-) Bin Laden gone etc. I went through my 7th AA birthday.

June - Tescobank - don't go there! Useless just useless... I hurt my Squier Strat in a stupid accident - I knocked it off the wall getting out a case when I should have taken it down first. My mother-in-law had an unnecessary accident and we had a lot of disruption in family life as a result of that.

July - I was heavily affected by a great BBC play called Stolen about child trafficking. Daughter-of-Furtheron was away in Spain on a school trip... sounded more like a great holiday to me :-) Poor Amy Winehouse surcomed to her addiction sadly.

Aug - I was offered two jobs! In one month! I had got a job lined up in Kent with a similar commute to my old one but it was good not great money and whilst some said the company was good I heard other poor reports. But then I got an interview and an offer of the job in London which I then accepted. We had a terrific holiday in the Lake District even if Son-of-Furtheron did try to kill us with his mountain hike! Mrs F and I went to a lovely wedding in the West Country too... busy times!

Sep - Still amazed with stories of slavery in modern England. The 10th anniversary of 9-11 brought back a host of memories and I left my job and the placed I'd worked in for most of the last 20 years for the last time (most likely) as it is all being closed down and I wouldn't be surprised if by this time next year it'll just be a large pile of rubble. Started my new job.

Oct - I entered my last year of my 40s... this time next year I'll be 50... 50! How the hell did that happen. Books - I was reading like mad now I was commuting to London. One of the major advantages of working in London frankly :-) I had a stunning PRS payment for royalties on my material - well it was several 10s of pounds :-) Sadly Dan Wheldon died which was a huge tragedy, his career looked like getting back on track for 2012 with a good drive and the new car he'd already been helping develop.

Nov - I started to use Soundcloud which is a great vehicle. I started on a series of chairs at meetings that has continued through December and into January I have one already in the coming week. Funny you do no chairs for months then get a stream like that. We had the bus ticket scandal to deal with - actually still dealing with they have so far still not reimbursed us for the extra costs as they promised - frankly Arriva your customer service stinks! Lot of proud parent posts as my daughter became 16 and we had a parents evening and my son had some stunning photos on Flikr.

Dec - Some acoustic solo pieces recorded following a request from someone for something they could use. My use of Soundcloud led to one of the most amazing things of the year - I was covered! Having someone else consider something that I'd penned worthy of them putting effort into learning it and frankly massively improving it then recording it was hugely humbling.

Gig of the year - few to choose from but I'll give it to Rush - they were brilliant as ever.

CD of the year - Blimey that is hard... I'll give it to John Martyn - Heaven and Hell since it was his last probably more due to sentimentality than anything else. Worthy of mention Elbow's Build a Rocket Boys, City and Colour Little Hell and Black Country Communion 2, Yes - Fly From Here (great return with a new singer) were big contenders as were late entries Steve Earle I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive and The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow.

Book of the year - another hard one... The Millennium series I'd not read until this year so they possibly get that as they were fantastically good. Also I read Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks that was another brilliant book

Anyway - Happy New Year to you all I hope 2012 is a good year for you all.

Christmas music round up

2011-12-28T12:56:00.001Z

I got three new CDs :-)

Peter Gabriel - Shaking the Tree. Well not strictly new, I used to have this on cassette (any one under 20 now will need to go to wiki to look them up!) which bit the dust as cassette players reduced towards zero in the house. It is a collection of his hits up to about 2000 ish - great stuff, Red Rain, Sledgehammer, Solsbury Hill, Don't Give Up etc.

Steve Earl - I Won't Get Out of This World Alive. Just under 38 mins - just like an old vinyl record! 12 tracks of utter brilliance frankly... super lyrics (e.g. Melancholy Malady) super playing throughout and Steve's voice just gets better with age. Written in the time after his fathers death a very poigniant tribute. Super duper!

The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow. Fantastic debut from this Nashville duet. They have voices that angels would have and together are just devine. This is probably the debut CD of the year for me without a doubt. If you've never heard of them try and check them out I'm positive you'll not be disappointed.

On other music front I got Tony Bacon's book on Gibson's odd shapes (Explorer, Flying Vee and Firebird) which has a good set of photos and I'm early on in reading but is as ever with his stuff well researched through interviews with Gibson employees of the day etc.

Also I have a new music book - Gordon Giltrap's classics. I'm trying to learn Heartsong at the moment. As ever with him it is almost a surprise to find something in standard tuning but still a challenge to come anywhere near his impecable playing.

I got some blu-rays (Cars2 :-)) and a condenser mic for use in the studio from my wife and son :-) Looking forward to using that at some point soon. I hope you all have a good Christmas yourselves

I should do the annual Furtheron review of the year soon... I'll try and get to that...

Happy Yuletide blessings

2011-12-24T18:31:00.001Z

... to you all. Given I'm not a Christian it is a bit odd that I find myself repeatedly wishing people a Happy Christmas... my son heard the Yuletide thing and said about it... I'll try to adopt it from now on.

Our Yuletide is underway, the turkey is roasting, the veg is for the large part prepared and ready for cooking, all the presents are wrapped and cluttering up my music room before Mrs F and I play Santa and his little helper later tonight and put them under the tree. My daughter has been baking mince pies, we've watched Muppet Christmas Carol and have Carol's from King's on as I type this.

I'm lucky I have my family around me, warmth, more than enough food etc. Others will spend this Christmas on the street, cold and alone. I should be forever grateful of what I have not what I have not.

I hope all you have a great holiday and celebrate whatever you want in the manner you wish to. May the blessings of Yuletide from any deity that you may, or may not, believe fall gracefully on you...

Book Review - The Drowning Pool by Syd Moore

2011-12-23T09:00:00.000Z

Just about to start typing and thought "Shit last time I did a review the flipping author popped up and made a comment. Therefore conscious of the litigious world we live in I ought to mind my p's and q's!"

I bought this book on a bit of a whim. Piley and Mondo have a Tuesday night radio show these days (they no longer comment on here or talk to me now they are famous you know :-() and Syd was a guest on there a few episodes back. Anyway due to that I looked out this book, which I believe is her first novel. It was only 99p for the Kindle edition so given that was a third of what I pay for The Big Issue now and half the price of a skinny latte in Pret a Manger I thought what have you got to lose and in seconds it was on my kindle in my Tor Be Read collection.

The Drowning Pool is a modern ghost story set in the Essex seaside town of Leigh-on-Sea. Sorry did I just say a ghost story in Leigh? Yep that is what I thought too, surely ghost stories need to be set in isolated mansions in the highlands or something. The whole thing is written in the first person as the personal account of the events that happen to Sarah Grey who has moved to Leigh with her young son after the tragic death of her husband. She has a group of very close friends who unwittingly on a summer night hold a sort of seance that starts a series of hauntings of Sarah that leads her to investigate the death of a lady with exactly the same name as her some 150 odd years before.

It is a brilliant story in which the various characters in the modern day life of Sarah end up completely intertwined with the historical characters in the 19th century and the ending is somewhat cataclysmic and not what I was expecting at the start at all.

The one observation I have to make is that the modern day characters live in a world of alcohol and drug filled fun - the use of "recreational" drugs is talked about. I know this is for many very much the reality of modern life - however for me I never got how any drug was "recreational". My drinking was rarely if ever fun. This isn't a criticism of the book at all, in fact it was truly enlightening of Syd to open this world a little to me. It only relates to me reading about characters in a world I simply cannot inhabit ; the "Oh I get drunk once in a blue moon at a friends gathering" and "I'll smoke pot when it is offered to me"... bizarre people what's the point in that! Chemically induced oblivion only has any point if it is pretty much a constant situation for me... A small insight for me into the "real" world. My wife has had a few "girls" nights out as we approach Christmas where she has the rare few glasses of wine or Southern Comfort., me I avoid the Christmas party at work and go to a Step meeting in an Age Concern building in Canterbury... I am lucky that my wife has never really been a big social drinker... although that could be as a result of watching me slowly drowning myself towards death with booze - if she'd had the good fortune to marry a normal guy she might have a better relationship with alcohol herself... 'tis a family illness as they say.

Sorry - back to book. Excellent read with a Furtheron double thumbs up.

Insincerity becomes you...

2011-12-22T09:35:00.000Z

I got an lovely email from some lady called Liz who works for some website somewhere... apparantly they have a fantastic new product, I wouldn't know it is something that has absolutely no interest for me and not an area I can recall ever having blogged about at all on here. Anyway she "ran into my blog" (sic) ran? into it... what it was on the screen and you headbutted your laptop from a 10 yard run up? She says she "absolultely love(s) it"... really? So given your product has nothing to do with guitars, sobriety, recovery, or pretty much any other subject ever referred to on here I get the feeling that isn't quiet the truth...

Now for anyone else - here is something I've stated on here before - or on the blog that went before this that I stupidly deleted once in a fit of some weirdness - I don't do endorsements, not for money or anything. I don't review stuff sent to me, my reviews are of stuff that I've actually bought myself. I have turned down free offers/trials of stuff that is guitar related that I get because this blog is not about that, it is about me and my life it is not about making money or getting a free offer of something.

Another valuable lesson on life's little highway for me (to be honest I don't think Liz will be stopping by the blog again despite her protestations of affection for it so she'll sadly lose out on this little insight) - if you are going to do something, do it well, be truthful and honest with yourself and with those you are engaging with. If I ever did blanket email people with a view to them reviewing and promoting my music for example I'd probably target blogs and sites that actually regularly have that stuff on them!

Book Review - King's Man - Angus Donald

2011-12-20T11:42:00.001Z

We continue with the latest enstallment in Mr Donald's retelling of the Robin Hood saga... through the eyes of Alan o'Dale or Alan of Westbury as he is known in this fictional setting.

The book is written as a memoire of Alan's written in his old age, this is like the others in the series, so the one thing you know whatever scrape Alan may be in he has to survive it or there is a major continuity blunder in store ;-)

Anyway these are good rattling, knightly rampaging romps. Robin and Alan are now back in England following their travels on the crusade with Richard the Lionheart of the previous book. However Prince John covetously is eyeing the throne of England and Richard is captured by some enemies he made on the crusade on his way back to good old Blighty. This is all historic fact but within the factual parts Angus weaves in the acts of Robin Odo, Lord of Locksley, the Robin Hood of the legends to come. He turns Alan into Blondel who is a legendary troubadour who allegedly did go to Germany to try and seek King Richard out whilst the King was being held for ransom. So a mix of historical fact and legend weaved in. It works well and is an easy read without being as totally absorbing as some are. I definitely enjoyed it enough to purchase the next instalment once released.

Christmas nearly here

2011-12-19T17:13:00.002Z

It is feeling more like Christmas - Son-of-Furtheron is home for the festivites, I picked him up over the weekend. Compared to some Christmas time drives to deepest, darkest Wales this one wasn't too bad, a bit of slushy snow on the road above 900ft over the mountains but not too bad. I took today off just in case we had issues getting back but in the end I went out with S-o-F and his mate to the cathedral of consumerism that is Bluewater. Too many people but he got the books he wanted and we then went to see the new Sherlock Holmes film which was good entertainment. The cinema there has the new digital 4K projectors - impressive frankly.

So four days at work left, although a lot of folks are on leave and the campus will be very quiet now all the students will be gone. So hoping it is reasonably quiet few days.

That's it really... not much going on in the Furtheron household just awaiting the day...

Jamie Johnson - you heard him here first

2011-12-15T20:36:00.002Z

Jamie performed at the Songwriter night at the Nags Head last night and blew us all off the stage - we all easily accepted that he was the only real flipping talent there - an amazing voice.

Go here and have a listen to Cloudy Skies. You can download it and play it to all your friends too!

Then go and like him on Facebook to make his day.

A little spruce up

2011-12-15T14:19:00.001Z

You may not have noticed but I've spruced the blog up a little... well on the right hand side where all the boxes and stuff is...

Firstly given it is pretty much the anniversary of my winning the Rock-Til-You-Drop 2010 Outstanding Achievement award I thought I ought to take that off the site. Also I'm liking SoundCloud a lot so have replaced the Reverbnation player box with a couple of SoundCloud - I might think about actually paying for the premium service as I can then have a larger amount of "sets" to put works in which might make sense to then do and vary from time to time what is on here.

Finally I've added a Facebook button to my Facebook music page if you like my music and are on Facebook please click that and then "like" me as a few followers of this blog already have. I only use that page to put up music related stuff so you'll not get all the family drivel about how my daughter hates my leather jacket etc.

That is about it for this week really busy at work catching up before we all go on holidays. I'm off to Wales to fetch Son-of-Furtheron back for Christmas first thing Saturday morning.

Oh yes I went to a Songwriter's Night in Rochester last night and saw a brilliant young singer/songwriter. I've got his card somewhere - once I check out his internet presence I may well come back here and urge you to go listen to him - he was brilliant. The guy who runs the night at one point said the rest of us might was well just sit back and let him play all night!

Some more music on SoundCloud

2011-12-11T15:24:00.001Z

Ok I had originally "kept back" these three as they were intended for a band project idea I never got off the ground. I decided I might as well stick them up on SoundCloud... they are a certainly a bit different from the stuff I've recently been posting :-)

Demons by Graham Hunt - Medway
Looking for a lover by Graham Hunt - Medway
Might just be the one by Graham Hunt - Medway

Golden Moment - Graham Hunt cover

2011-12-10T09:26:00.000Z

I'm very humbled as Nic Evennett has listened to some of my stuff up on Soundcloud and decided to do a "cover" of Golden Moment... well frankly her cover is way better than my original! Click on the linky to listen

Golden Moment - Graham Hunt cover

Here is my original for comparison - I think you'll agree Nic's piano and much better vocal and lowering the tempo to a beat I'd never be able to sustain (I'd speed up I know I would) really captures the original essence of the underlying meaning of the lyrics, a moment of total peace, calm and serenity.

Thank you so much Nic I am very humbled.

Golden Moment by Graham Hunt - Medway

This shows just one annoying thing I've just discovered with Soundcloud - I thought I was being a numpty but the embedded thing I figured out the other day appears to only be available for your tracks when you click on the Share button in SoundClous. I suppose I can see the reasoning, anyone could embed the player thing without you knowing... but given you've put it up on SoundCloud would you worry? Anyway please go click on the link above and give Nic's version a listen.

The OFT

2011-12-07T12:48:00.001Z

These are times of austerity, we all need to tighten our belts, make sacrifies etc. - hence my pension and my wife's will cost us more, hence we're to get a massively below inflation payrise next year but will have to pay £9000 a year for my daughter to get a degree which is the only way she'll be qualified to get a job in a coffee shop soon no doubt.

Right Mr Cameron and others I have one answer for you - Scrap the OFT.   I've read two bonkers decisions of theirs recently that defy all normal logic. (OFT - Office of Fair Trading)

Firstly the OFT have decided that there is no need to limit the interest rates charged by payday lenders. As long as they abide by telling people the rate that is fine. These parasites charge up to 4000% - no I didn't mistype that - 4000% for short term low value loans.   OK unfortunately, dear government, your numeracy education has failed repeatedly over the last few years I pretty much guarantee that most people don't really understand percentages - if they did no one would ever borrow from these people.   So more of the most vulnerable will be forced into spiralling debt due to the decision that "such (price) controls may further reduce supply" (OFT report).

Secondly our local paper closed this week after 156 years loyal service to our community. This put 35 people out of work less than a month before Christmas. The reason the paper closed? The OFT. Yes honestly it can be laid pretty much straight at their feet. The owners were trying to sell that title and some others to a rival to combine with their own (in my view much inferiour) product.   The OFT decided to refer this to the Competition Commission because of the concern about the new owners having a monopoly in a particular area - hey look at water supply in my area or train services... where's the competition there? The new purchasers withdrew the offer that day, citing the cost and length of time it would take for them to take part in such a review. So a matter of weeks later the paper is closed completely all staff lose their jobs and the rival has the monopoly that supposedly was the concern. By the way the OFT were told that this is exactly what would happen if they made the decision to refer this case!

Utterly bonkers!   Hello men in ivory tower... earth calling! So we need to save public money I can offer you the OFT as I fail to see how this is actually helping the man in the street at the moment.

The few...

2011-12-07T11:39:00.001Z

What would you think is the exclusive club in the world in terms of exploration? Those that have best Mt Everest? Sadly no longer you can virtually book that on a package deal these days.

Easy then you think, the men who went to the Moon - there were 12 in total of them... interestingly there is the same number in the club of "men who flew to the Moon but didn't land". (Source Wiki).

No the one that I think probably beats them all, and interestingly beat the first walk on the Moon by about 9 years is the Men Who Have Been To The Bottom Of The Ocean. Truly only 2 men have done it, Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard in the research bathyscaphe Trieste in 1960.

This story reported by the BBC is interesting as there has been a whole plethora of new survey's being done in the Pacific at the moment, the devastating tsunamis of recent past have allowed for an influx of research money.

The estimate now is that the deepest point is actually about 10,944m give or take about 40m based on the accuracy of the kit. 11km to you or me. That is 6.83miles in old money or a couple of furlongs short of 7miles - that is a heck of a long way. You could drop Everest in there from the very very base up, i.e. from sea level and it would still disappear under the surface.

There is a new race on to go back to the bottom - and now these guys can do it with a much more accurate understanding of the sea floor due to this recent mapping. But still seems amazing that there is a place on the earth that man has visited substantially less than we have visited the Moon.

Interesting cheap guitars, TC wizardry, Rice Guitar pickup giveaway

2011-12-07T10:16:00.001Z

So in keeping with the title of this blog something about guitars for a change... actually 3 things.

Firstly - CH Guitars have some different from the run of the mill guitars for sale via eBay at the moment. These include this take on the Fender Broadcaster (to be renamed Telecaster) prototype that Leo first made. Given only one pickup it is more an Esquire-a-like I suppose.

Secondly - how about this. A 12 string Les Paul - ooohhh! Seriously I'm mostly putting this up here in the hope one of you will buy this and stop my head going "buy it... buy it"...

The good news is the prices - £249 for the Tele and £349 for the Les Paul!! Go check out there is also a nice looking sunburst Fender Tele Deluxe copy for only £299 as well.

Now here is the coolest thing I've seen in technology in ages. TC Electronic have a long established reputation for quality kit. They have introduced a new range of compact effects pedals with the "Toneprint" feature. This is in itself already neat - the pedal has a small usb connector on it, you plug that into your computer, go to their website, find a "Toneprint" (i.e. patch) you want from some famous muso and down load it into your pedal. How neat - esp useful I'd have thought for session or covers band players but then... hang on you go to the studio guitar, lead, pedal(s) - you aren't going to hump the laptop are you. So now you don't need to if you own an iPhone.

You download their app for the phone (free) - on the phone you navigate to the TC site find the Toneprint you want and then you beam it to your pedal by holding the phone over an active pickup on your guitar - it goes through the pickup down the cable and viola the pedal is reprogrammed. At first I a) thought this was a gag - check not 1st April b) thought it so Star Trek ... but it does work. Holy Moly!

Finally there is a pickup give away going on over at Rice Guitars - if you go to their Facebook page and click on the link etc. you can win yourself a $250 set of handwired Strat replacement pickups. Got to be worth a go.

Soundcloud test

2011-12-06T12:55:00.001Z

embedded Soundcloud test

Waterfall by Graham Hunt - Medway

Book Review - Trinity Six, Charles Cumming

2011-12-05T13:44:00.001Z

This is the first Charles Cumming novel I've read and I bought it because it was one of those "if you liked that you'll like this" recommendations. So I downloaded it onto my e-book reader - oh yes I'll say a little more on that in a moment... and gave it a go.

Very good in general, very typical modern intrigue filled modern day spy thriller. Of course the problem for modern spy thriller writers is that the old East (i.e. Russia) vs the West (i.e. UK and USA) antagonism of the cold war years has long since gone away. So what does Mr Cumming do to address this? Simple dig up old spies from the cold war and have them spilling the beans to a new generation with the hint of a big modern day scandal if any of this got out. So why Trinity Six... remember Blunt, Burgess etc. well here is a claim of a 6th member of that group of spies recruited in the 30s but this one remains buried by both Russia and the UK to this day... imagine that Margaret Thatcher had never stood up and admitted to Blunts confession made all those years before type thing.

Actually it works well - for me more than interesting in that the hero is a Professor of Russian History where I now work! Some of the scenes are played out at the corner of the road just outside my office... which makes it difficult for me to separate fiction from truth... this happened when Waking the Dead was filmed in an office block I once worked in many years ago and I found myself thinking - "So the murder happened just after I left there. I can't be a suspect or witness then"... err... it's fiction you Muppet!!!! So whilst I've looked for the hero's office it isn't there... 'cos it's fiction you Muppet!!! Oh yes right...

Still we run through London, Winchester, Berlin, Vienna etc. at a rattling pace. Good and bad spooks pop up all over the place and in the end.... well read the book. If you like spy thrillers this is pretty good and I'll be probably reading some more from the same author.

Kindle Reader update

Mrs F bought me a Kindle for my birthday back in October and I've read the last few novels on it. I like it, easier than carting a book about. It is easy to read, or so I've found, only once on one train did I find light an issue but given that is a one off must have been me that day or the light itself. Also it is really good for reference books. I've only bought one or two so far but having them in a slim small little thing means you can quickly check something, put bookmarks in where you need to and quickly pull up the one flipping bit you can never get in the right order. I know I'm trapped into the Amazon paradigm through this one and there are other more open choices out there but all the reviews say the Kindle is very good, I'd agree with that. To be honest I'm a bit of an Amazon whore anyway so what the heck and finally it has worked really well with my account - it was quick and simple to set up and has worked fine since. So I'm an ebook convert now... honestly I'm nearly in the 21st century! Only one thing I'd moan about the Kindle. Someone else can't buy you a book and send it to you currently which is a shame - would be nice for Christmas/birthday if you could buy a book for another person and then it download on the day - I'm sure they will fix that some how.

A couple of solo Acoustic pieces

2011-12-04T12:37:00.000Z

A couple of pieces originally completed as part of a commission for some royalty free soundtrack click on the link

Solo Acoustic pieces

Furtheron Studios

2011-12-03T13:33:00.001Z

I couple of quick (and rubbish!) photos of Furtheron Studios in full flight!

Firstly the chaos that is the music room!

Later on downstairs copying over the recorded material onto the laptop and using Audacity to clear off all the coughing and sniffing before I get settled!

Inspirational?

2011-12-02T14:28:00.001Z

I have a great old friend who I worked with for a good number of years, he was briefly my boss for a while, a man I have a lot of respect for. Very level headed a man who has seen a lot and done a lot and quite a humble chap. He also edges more than a little towards the curmudgeon end of the scale. Anyway one day we were reading an interview that had appeared somewhere from another old colleague of ours who was trying to climb the greasy pole of corporate success. In this interview he was asked who out of his past and present colleagues would he say had been "inspirational". I remember my friend just repeating with almost despairing incredulity the word "Inspirational?". He couldn't quite grasp that anyone we worked with could be inspirational in any way. It was very funny and over some years I've only had to say "Inspirational?" quietly under my breath to him for him to have a beaming smile at our private joke in whatever context that may have been.

In a world where superlatives seem to be losing their value in the currency of language daily everything now is "awesome", "amazing", "fantastic"... if you say something was "interesting" or "good" people look at you as though you aren't joining the party, you aren't on the programme. But truly I try to keep the superlative for use when applicable. My coffee this morning was "nice", it was "good" - it wasn't "awesome".

I watched a series of speakers this morning at an event I was invited to attend. One in particular was very impressive. He spoke for exactly his allotted time, 10 mins, no notes, no PowerPoint slides, no prompts - no hesitation, no noticeable errs and umms, not flustered or too fast nor too slow and stilted. What he had to say was concise but also far reaching, it was educating and thought provoking. It was "very good" and it did indeed enthuse me. None of the other speakers were bad, others were highly enthusiastic and humours, others clear and direct etc. However this one person did shine out - a very special man with a very great talent that he has clearly honed into an applied skill.

In 10 minutes I learnt a lot - and not just from what he said. Inspirational? Pretty close...

Bublé!!

2011-11-30T14:27:00.001Z

In a momentary lapse of reason I clicked on "add to basket" for the Michael Bublé Christmas CD when on Amazon the other week. My wife and daughter both wanted it for the lead up to the festivities of Christmas. Oh Lord forgive me - I must make amends!

It arrived yesterday and on the journey home I walked from the station to my mother-in-laws where Mrs F and Daughter-of-Furtheron were having dinner. We got into Mrs F's car to drive home and they had said CD in the player and preceeded to torture me with it. The drive home is less than 10 mins - I can walk it in 20 and wished I had. Finally I had to crack wound down the window and screamed out "Help! Get me out of here they are playing Bublé". The woman walking her dog seemed a little surprised.

Now Mr Bublé is very popular but every time I hear him I just don't get it at all, it is cheesy, sickly, dummed down crooning, and he is devoid of any emotion in any delivery of any song I've heard, I just see him swaying on stage winking at the prettiest middle aged MILF that catches his eye in the first 5 rows, honestly I really wonder if he started the whole thing as a parody and no-one but me gets it?

To restore my sanity this morning I had John Martyn on the MP3 player on the train and was moved close to tears more than once. There is a man who could, write, sing, play and just pour emotion into his fingers and throat... Mr Bublé take note, music is about emotion not simply play/singing all the right notes in all the right order.

I just found this fantastic version of I Don't Want To Know on Youtube from the great BBC Transatlantic Sessions series... love it!

Now see that's better isn't it... RIP dear Johnny - forever in my heart and soul.

Grateful

2011-11-30T12:41:00.001Z

I was going to post about the economy, the Chancellor's statement (Osborne, not Valorum, though you might think we've gone over the dark side given the perilous state of everything), the strike, the debt mountain - I started typing it on the way into work after reading the paper. But frankly is was a miserable post that concluded we are all doomed, capitalism is reaching it's ultimate zenith of a small number with huge wealth and the rest of us fighting for existence from the scraps from their tables. So I binned it - what's the point?

Now what is worth talking about is that I went to a meeting last night I've not been to in ages. No real reason except that family circumstances make Tuesday less than ideal for me to be out that night every week. I had been invited along by the secretary to be the speaker. Now 6 years or so ago this was one of my "home groups" I was secretary myself and the guy who is now secretary was himself a struggling newcomer who couldn't sustain a fragile sobriety and went back out there for 2 more years of misery before coming back again. He is now sober, well, healthy, working - in fact doing remarkably well in his job, got a nice place to live, a new girlfriend etc. etc. A sober success story and a lovely, lovely bloke.

A lady came in for her first meeting. she wasn't well, her husband had brought her. As I started my story she became disruptive, she didn't mean it, she needed a drink or some pills, her husband you could tell was at his wits end. Two of the regular female members of the group took her out of the room and the rest of the meeting was held with her wailing in the background. I hope she comes back when of a mind to be receptive to it. You don't turn up at an AA meeting in the first place if it isn't shit - it clearly was very shit for her yesterday.

Gratitude - I'm sober. How? Buggered if I know sometimes I just don't pick up a drink now - I know it'll make it all worse not better. I like waking up not feeling like shit, sweaty, head pounding, hating myself and the world and picking a fight with the world from the moment I open my eyes. I'm alive, I'm sober, I'm healthy, I'm warm, I have food in my belly and licence for my telly - to quote Paulo Nutini. He goes on to say that "best of all I've got my baby".... well for me "best of all I've got my sobriety" (I know it doesn't scan into the music - forgive me) without that I'm nothing. And at the end of the meeting "the promises" were read out as is tradition at many meetings... now whilst I can't say "fear of economic insecurity" has left me or "the feeling of self pity" has totaly slipped away in that room with a lot of memories of my early sobriety with some influential friends I'd not seen in a while I did indeed feel that I've made some significant progress over the last 7 years or so... not perfection thankfully my ego has enough of it's own will but some progress to be sure.

Gig Review - Gordon Giltrap Brook Theatre Chatham 24-Nov-2011

2011-11-28T11:58:00.001Z

Another visit by Mr Giltrap to the old Town Hall in Chatham. The Brook makes use of the old Town Hall's main ballroom which is a spacious but still reasonably intimate setting for Gordon's one man show. I've seen him several times here now - Gordon has affection for Kent as he was born in the county and has many family connections still with the area.

As ever Gordon was on top form playing through many old classics, Dublin Day, On Camber Sands, Heartsong, Lucifer's Cage etc. whilst interlacing in material off his latest album Shinning Morn in particular showing off his capabilities using a partial capo on a couple of numbers.

As ever Gordon entertains between the songs with anecdotes, jokes and whimsical tales. He is a man of very pleasant company.

For all the guitar maniacs out there here is my recollection of the guitars used

Vintage Gordon Giltrap signature
Fylde dreadnought
Fylde 12 string - 1970s vintage which Gordon recently acquired and frankly sounded fantastic!
Rob Armstrong "baby" guitar (Lord's Seat and Here Comes the Sun)
Rob Armstrong small bodied guitar - used for Appalachian Dreaming in replacement of the old "boot sale" guitar
Vintage AV3 semi - fitted with a piezo bridge, used on Dodo's Dream.

In particular the Vintage signature model held it's own given it's sub £400 street price against the £2000 plus price tags (at least) of the others on stage. I'd seriously like to get both a 6 and 12 string model of that myself... however I doubt my playing will do them justice!

A brilliant night out - whether you are a guitar nut or not, a night out at a Gordon gig is really good. Now I'm a player and there to be wowed by some of his brilliant technique but as he said "All that matters is whether you like the sound of the tune or not". Spot on and to show that is more than true several times I found myself drifting off into the music, taken to wherever it wanted to take me and only at the end of the piece did I realise I'd stopped trying to figure out how he does the trills so quick or what was the strumming pattern there etc. etc. Truly great music played superbly.

Book Review - The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

2011-11-28T11:34:00.001Z

The concluding book in the Millennium trilogy and a gripping one at that. At the end of the 2nd book there was a tense ending with still unanswered questions (clearly) and this book picks up directly at the final point of the preceding title.

Once again the two heroes of the piece at Lisbeth Salander - who is one of the oddest main characters in any series of books you may find and the journalist Mikael Blomkvist.

So firstly - you can't really read these books out of sequence, especially this one follows so much from The Girl Who Played With Fire that frankly I suspect you'd be totally lost before long. However if you have read the first two there are still a bunch of questions to be answered about what happened to Lisbeth in her childhood and how none of this has ever come to the surface before.

Without trying to give too much of the plot away Lisbeth is in hospital gravely ill and still likely to come before the court on a series of charges relating to the incidents in the previous book. Blomkvist is determined to help her despite her reticence to ask for any help or to engage in any dialogue with authority figures. Finally you start to get beneath the outer layers of her in this book and begin to understand, in part, why she behaves as she does.

The whole plot revolves around several groups and their investigations into the events and also those that will stop at nothing to conceal the original truth and there are a couple of interesting sub plots as well.

And the ending... well just let's say that the seed was very much sown for the next in the series... and there lies the rub and the real life bizarre controversy around this series. If you don't know Stieg died suddenly just after the first three books were accepted for publication. His long time partner had collaborated on these, has the uncompleted manuscript for the fourth and allegedly outlines for up to 6 more. However Stieg died without a will and without marrying his partner Eva Gabrielsson so by Swedish law his father and brother inherited his estate, which with the sudden international success of the novels was not inconsiderable. Eva has refused all offers asking repeated for the total rights to the works, not she claims for the money but to manage them as Stieg would have wanted.

I'd love to read the 4th novel if it ever comes out. There is a trilogy of films (in Swedish) and the first is a soon to be release Hollywood block buster.

In fact sooner or later the whole story behind the real life story may become a book/film... Larsson was himself a journalist who publicly exposed some nasty folks - not unlike Mr Blomkvist in the books. His death maybe simply one of those things but I'm sure there is a list of conspiracy theories as long as your arm as well.

Anyway to sign off on the book - a compelling read if you've got into the characters via the first two books.

The A13 blues

2011-11-24T12:12:00.001Z

Didn't Billy Brag do a Route66 rip off way back about the A13?

Well it was hardly the road of dreams on Tuesday night! We did manage to get to the gig all on time, but the air was blue in the Furtheronmobile at one point. There is a bunch of roundabouts all together all with a gazillion cones around them and seemingly not one iota of a sign that might actually tell you what chuffing exit to take!

Whatever - we got there as I say in time and Daughter-of-Futheron had a great time. Mrs F and I retreated up the road to a little Italian restaurant with a good set menu and had a lovely meal - despite Mrs F's coffee cup falling to bits as she lifted up and coffee all over the place. Anyway on the way back I checked the map - probably should have done more of that on the way up there and we got back a lot quicker than it took us getting there!

I did also have a terrible nights sleep that night - been a long time since I've had a bad dose of insomnia but I really had a rubbish night being fully awake for ages between about 2 and 4 and only sort of dozing through the rest. All normal service was resumed last night I'm pleased to say so it was purely a one off.

Off to see Gordon Giltrap in concert in Chatham tonight... living the dream or what - Southend Tuesday, Chatham Thursday when will my rollercoaster millionaire lifestyle come to an end?

Oh there was some show on the TV last night... looked like some rubbish magazine programme a bit like That's Life with Nick Knowles hosting. Anyway somewhere along the line one of the presenters made some quote about students getting free bus passes... oh dear, Mrs F is a little touchy about bus related stuff following the great bus ticket scandal - so they got a berating email from her I think indicating they should check their facts before shooting their mouths off.

Sweet 16

2011-11-22T10:30:00.001Z

Well maybe not so much of the sweet? No, no I jest honestly.

Somehow my darling daughter is 16. 16!!! Where the hell have the days, months, years gone. Her due date was 21st of Nov. At about 3am that morning Mrs F woke me up and said "My waters have gone"... So into action, called the midwife, called the in-laws, made sure all the bag etc. was ready.   Midwife turns up and says "Given your waters have gone I'm calling an ambulance" - I remember Mrs F strapped to a wheel chair thing being carried down our stairs by two burly ambulance guys with her in one of her uncontrollable gigging fits.

Anyway - as with our son guess what... nothing. All day... nothing, I thought "This'll be like last time and she'll have to be induced etc.".   Anyway with my son packed off to stay with the inlaws I left her on the ward in the late evening, and went home. To bed - be fair I was knackered having been up half the previous night ;-) (expect plenty of comments from female readers after that one ;-))

Just got into that deep sleep at about 11:30 and the bloody phone rings. "You better come in her contractions are starting". So in I go...   about 3am our daughter appeared with a mop of spiky jet black hair... which is odd as that soon fell out and she has been blond (in more senses than one) ever since. I phoned my Mum as soon as I could - about 3:30 - well she had said to call her once the baby arrived :-)

But now she is turning into quiet some young lady. I'm awfully proud of her you know.

Tonight her birthday treat is to see Example (look him up :-)) with her lifetime best buddy in ... Southend! Yes Mrs F and I have to amuse ourselves in Southend whilst the gig is in progress ... Southend, Tuesday night, in November... living the dream or what!

Shameless promotion of son's talents post

2011-11-21T12:42:00.001Z

Go look at this stunning photo my son took recently

How do they get away with it?

2011-11-20T19:34:00.001Z

I looked in a well known high street pawn brokers in Chatham yesterday. I just looked in and saw a '72 style Telecaster Thinline hanging up. It said on the ticket clearly Fullerton USA - £599. WHAT! I went in...

Even before getting within 4 yrds of it I could see it was a wrong'un but I asked for it off the wall for a quick look.

Hmm.... Let us start with the obvious things I noted.

1. No serial on the headstock - I think it highly unlikely one of these would not have one, some early ones may be but.

2. No bullet truss rod. EH! All Thinlines with humbuckers had the same neck as the custom, i.e three bolt with adjuster and a bullet truss.

3. black paint inside the body... what?

4. The bridge was held on by normal woodscrews... through holes in front of the bridge pieces as well as through the centre... again WHAT!

5. no Fender stamp on the bridge saddles, which never looked like been within 5000 miles of the USA!

6. pickups - gold plated. Yes you heard me... I know. No Fender logo across them and only 2 screw fitting - all thinlines had 4 screw adjustment.

7. turn over... four bolt neck plate. Wrong. With a stamped serial number... on a USA post 72 instrument!

8. Strings anchored through a piece of plastic set in the body.... sorry not 6 brass farrules...

So I hand it back to the guy and said "That isn't a USA Fender mate" and start to explain.... He was "too busy" and moved off. I pondered a call to trading standards but what is the point - sadly though a Coldplay wannabee may well get his Dad to shell out for it for Christmas, that would be a travesty.

New song called Partial

2011-11-20T12:32:00.000Z

Click on this link to hear Partial

Influenced by David Mead - using a partial capo, covers the top 5 strings at the 2nd fret leaving the low E open.

Enjoy

Jon Gomm - Passionflower

2011-11-19T10:15:00.001Z

All you can say really is... Holy Cow! Followed by "Pass the chainsaw I need to chop up my guitar collection and give up!"

Buying tickets for gigs these days

2011-11-18T11:47:00.001Z

Coldplay - Emirates Stadium June 2012. Tickets on sale 9am Friday 18th November 2011. I was online, logged in and punched in 3 for the unreserved seating at exactly 09:00... after a couple of mins - can't allocate your request. Try again - 7 min wait... think I'll be clever and start a second window - neat eh! No they've thought of that somehow via Cookies I presume or IP tracing spot it and tell me to start again - bugger. So go again about 09:10 now... more than 15 min wait. Hmm... not looking good. Not unexpectedly it tells me again cannot fulfill the request. One last try - instant rejection... sold out! What a joke.

So I try another site - that says all the cheaper ones are sold out already so I elect for the more pricey reserved seats... yippee success, however we'll need oxygen due to the altitude we are sat at and we're in a different postcode to the stage - how come they are £20 dearer than the nearer unreserved seats? Oh yes - of course they were all sold out... in 10 mins.... so I had little choice. Call me a cynical old git but I bet they are already available at inflated cost on the "fan ticket exchange" sites. The whole thing these days is a total sham. Still I'll have a happy teenage daughter when I tell her we can go to the ball... ;-) And of course we're lucky I have a job where I can have a coffee and have unrestricted access to the internet... how anyone who works in a job like a teacher or lorry driver or policeman etc. is ever likely to be able to buy concert tickets in the modern world is frankly beyond me - seems less than equitable. Maybe the old days of bunking off school to stand in a queue at the box office was in fact actually fairer.

Little acts of kindness

2011-11-16T10:13:00.001Z

On this blog there is a page entitled "My Drinking Story" - it is actually simply an assembly of three posts that I put up on this blog around the time of my 6th AA birthday in May 2010. I put it there when I revamped the template etc on the blog a few months ago. Earlier this week someone read it and left an Anonymous comment saying simply "Thank you". How kind of them, I've no idea if they are seeking a solution to their own or someone else's drinking problem, someone struggling in recovery looking for a bit of a boost to get them through a bad day, hour, week, month or whatever. But how kind of them to just let me know that they had read it and were grateful it was there.

Someone else in the blogsphere who is a long term reader of this blog responded to a comment I made on their blog with another act of generosity and kindness.

Both these things are quite little in the grand scheme of things but they really hit me - it is these little things that really matter. The saying thank you, the acknowledgement of someone else and offering what you can in return.

Service is one of the three sides of the AA triangle - the long serving AA "logo". Service, Unity and Recovery - the three pillars that AA exists on. It is at times easy to lapse into thinking that having a service position in a group, intergroup, region etc. is your fastrack route to ticking that box. But service doesn't have to be about simply helping the wheels of AA be lubricated and keep rolling, important though that obviously is. Service can be - helping stack the chairs at the end of a meeting, giving someone a lift to a meeting, speaking at a meeting and then there is the little clause in Step 12... "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs". Note the last 7 words. It isn't good enough for me to be a "good" member of AA around AA only - I need to work at this everywhere. Never easy. Also though it shows me that I can look for some help, guidance and instruction from those in AA those that at times truly do understand the inner most workings of my head but also I should look to those in rest of society who exercise these principles without having to consider them as AA work in progress they do them naturally or through some other inherent driver.

It is easy to be ignorant, resentful, angry, bitter, argumentative, judgemental it is harder to be open, considerate, caring, kind, respectful. To be honest I don't think our society helps much, turn on the tv and you are bombarded with people telling you this is better than that, the news is full of journalists telling us not just what happened but their interpretation of the motives behind it and the consequences of it etc. The Eurozone crises for example - how much is that now at the state that it is simply since reporters have looked for a new doom and gloom story to again make us resent the bankers and the politicians. The reporting of something as a "crises" rather than an "issue" leads to a "panic" not a "solution". Maybe it wouldn't be different (how can you tell?) but as I say may be more acts of kindness and listening without judging would do us all a better service.

Book Reviews - Agent 6 - Tom Rob Smith and The Legion - Simon Scarrow

2011-11-15T11:58:00.001Z

Agent 6 - Tom Rob Smith

This is the third novel I've read by Mr Smith. All three have had as the central character Leo Demidov. Leo is an ex-KGB officer who has wrestled with his loyalty to state and party with his own inner moral code. The two previous books Child 44 and Secret Speech were both excellent reads and I was looking forward to this one. I wasn't disappointed - it leaps forward in timeline at times (like some films do) from Leo's time in the KGB in the 50s through the 60s and onwards into the 80s. The plot centres on a tragic event which completely throws Leo's life into turmoil - one that will haunt him for the next 15 years.

This is a brilliant book. Really a fantastic page turner with shocks and twists at all page and there is more than one climax in the book - the final ending was for me extremely emotional. There is a great deal of knowledge shown about Russia through the period and you do get under the skin of people living in that regime at those times. It is an interesting insight to a world that I have no personal experience of, this might be a novel but it is a highly educational one at that.

The previous books have received much critical acclaim and this is just as good in my opinion. The one odd thing like the previous two is that all speech is indicated in italics which takes a little getting used to. Not sure why but it has been a consistent style through all three books so Tom obviously has his reasons for it.

Thoroughly recommended - one of my reads of the year so far.

The Legion - Simon Scarrow

The umpteenth volume in Simon Scarrow's Roman series still staring the intrepid duo of Macro and Cato. If you've followed these since the beginning when they started as the "Eagle" series the boys have been to England via Germany and back to Rome and to the outer reaches of the other end of the empire in Syria. Then the "Eagle" moniker got dropped and the lads continued their adventures ending up putting down a slave rebellion on Crete. This latest book takes up the story from where it left off with Macro and Cato chasing after Ajax the leader of the rebellion who had escaped from their clutches at the end of the last book. This time they end up in Egypt chasing Ajax and his band of rebels down and also having to take on the might of the Nubian (Sudanese in modern terms I believe) army in a battle to preserve Rome's control over the bread basket of the empire - the fertile lands bordering the Nile.

It is all good rollicking stuff - with individual fights and battles a plenty. If you've read any of these before there is little different in this one, that isn't a criticism this is a winning formula so why change it. There is one twist revealed right at the end as they finally corner their nemesis Ajax that I hadn't been expecting so touché Mr Scarrow on that one. The other little plot twist on this one is that Cato is rising rapidly through the ranks and now outranks his friend and mentor Macro leading to some little tension between them.

So all in all not a bad read - and the ending? Well the next instalment is ably lined up and I believe already hitting the shelves in hardback form...

The bus ticket scandal!!

2011-11-11T09:46:00.001Z

Here is a good one... frankly you can't make this sh** up!

We have for the last 4 and a bit years bought my daughter a termly season ticket to get to school on the local bus company. Luckily the council just introduced a scheme when she moved to secondary school that allows us to get that at half price - yes unbelievable to many of you but until then in the free republic of Medway you had to pay full fare to get your kids to school! Even at half price that is a lot of money - that latest one cost us £98 a couple of weeks ago... yes folks about £600 a year for about a 4 mile commute! My £4000 a year to London which is 10 times the distance actually seems a bloody bargain compared with that!

Anyway - it has always been a family gag about the bus station. They used to have to look the cost up in a book and then do a calculation manually on a calculator then write the ticket out by hand! Recently i.e. in the summer they "improved" this. Now they... look the price up in a table, do the calculation but then print the ticket on a ticket machine like the drivers have in the buses! However they still have to write on the students name and the stops it is valid between! (Dark ages really :-). They then get a bit of company branded card and laminate it to that. Brilliant. When this new system came in my wife was told it was because the drivers wanted the tickets to all be the same style.

Since then my daughter has been challenged several times regarding the validity of her ticket. On Tuesday morning finally one driver said "This ticket is a forgery you can't use it". My daughter sighed and said - "Ok single to the school then" and bought a ticket. "Can I have my bus pass back". "No you will use it again it is a forgery". My daughter was incensed - by now the whole bus is knowing something is up. She states "That cost my Mum £98 you can't just take it off me". He refused to return it.

My daughter in tears called my wife. The driver refused to discuss the issue with my wife on the phone at the next bus stop. My wife called the bus company - well a call centre located somewhere in the UK nowhere near us - to complain.   I called at 2pm to be told that the driver was "still on the road" - I very nearly wanted to quote HSE at them that given he took the ticket off my daughter at 7:20am I really hoped they seriously weren't suggesting he'd not had a break for the last 7 hours driving a bus with up to 70 people on board about!   My wife called again at 5pm to be told they had identified the driver but not spoken to him yet!

Next day we decided to leave it - no point in racking up expensive calls - it was one of those 0845 numbers which cost a blinking fortune from mobiles. 4pm my wife called - to be told that the following...   (The lady read it verbatim off the incident system)

"Driver took ticket as it was a forgery and Chatham bus station have dealt with it".

Even she was incredulous. We'd had no phone call, no explanation.... nothing.   She noted my wife's anger and returned it to the duty manager of the area with an urgent flag.

By now my position was that we'd never see the bloody ticket again and that either through incompetence or to cover tracks someone had conveniently "destroyed" it. I was having fantasies of me having to go to court to get my £98 back!

Thursday - my wife gets a call in the afternoon at her place of work. A very very apologetic man explained that the ticket had been confirmed as genuine, the driver spoken to and the ticket could be collected from... the place we originally flipping purchased it! My wife went there straight after school with my daughter and it was "sheepishly" handed over by the counter staff, who made no comment and no apology either.

So we have the ticket back... for how long I wonder? I still feel she will be challenged again and can't rule out the possibility of another confiscation as the drivers clearly have limited knowledge of their companies operating procedures. God help them if they do - I think this time Mrs F will give chase along the route, board the bus and there will be the mother of all rows!

We are going to write a letter of formal complaint to the bus company firstly complaining strongly that they need to train their drivers better, that the way my daughter was treated was humiliating and degrading - she was in floods of tears and shaking with upset on arriving at the school, we want compensation for the additional tickets, phone calls and parking fees incurred and finally demand a written apology from the company and hopefully the driver himself to my daughter.   I don't hold out much hope - my ploy will be saying the letter is "open" and will go to the local press if they fail to act within 7 days.

This is all on the same theme as the other posts today - my daughter is a polite, hard working, diligent student. She is on the brink of adulthood and at the point where she can put in the effort and sacrifices to study more, get a job, try to make a difference, pay her taxes, be a role model to others or she could... give up, treat people with disrespect, look to either live of the state, fiddle her taxes or fare dodge etc.

I hear many people crying out for the youth to show respect. You know what? Disrespect breads disrespect! I see it daily - and sadly I have to say mostly by people in my generation or older - it is true the students and youngsters around me show polite respect most of the time the those around them. Who the hell is at fault with the degeneration of our society.... I'm inclined myself to be on the side of the young currently.

The Student protest in London this week

2011-11-11T09:38:00.001Z

A facebook friend commented about the protest in London this week "...shouldn't these bloody students/wasters of taxpayers money be in the f**king lectures they a moaning about paying for?" I politely commented back that it is "reading week" at most London unis this week, meaning many courses have no timetabled lectures and also that Wed afternoon is traditionally sports afternoon as well so that the march was scheduled for a time when the majority of students wouldn't miss a lecture. The tabloid inspired snap judgement made me smile really and reminded me to criticise from a position of little knowledge is a dangerous thing. To be frank the march started at the bottom of the street my office is in - I could barely hear the protest over the droning helicopters and there were more police on the streets than protests and bystanders combined! There could be an argument that the massive police operation was a bigger waste of taxpayers money.

An unashamedly proud parent post

2011-11-11T09:13:00.001Z

I am a proud parent. We went to my daughters "parent evening" last night. They really are awful flipping things. A hoard of parents all feeling madly out of place, this is my daughter's domain, the teachers talk to her with a closeness I find at times odd since I have pretty much no knowledge of them but they know my daughter very well, the building is an old school (some bits about 100 years old I believe now) my daughter knows it intimately pulling us this way and that way. We arrive for an appointment, there are no chairs to wait on so the parents shuffle like naughty kids waiting outside the Head's office. Then the teacher shuffles the appointments apologizes for running late and calls you over. Then the conversation is really with the pupil - rightfully so but I feel at times almost purely an observer in on my daughters life, just given an glance through a normally closed window. The teachers talk about assessments, mocks, exams, grades etc. It is all jargon that most parents no doubt struggle with.

But the phrases that some out are. "Pleasure to teach", "always has an opinion", "is far better than she believes she is", "Shame she isn't considering this for A level", "I'm so pleased she's considering this for A Level she'll do very well", "A is easily obtainable A* is possible", "A* isn't in the bag yet you need to continue the brilliant work", "she listens really well, something not easy to teach to others", "A reflective learner who considers the feedback and always improves her work".

We leave after an hour or so with the impression that my daughter is clearly the best student the school has ever seen and will conquer the world in the future. No seriously she is a very bright young lady who clearly puts effort into her studies, she also clearly listens constructively to the majority of feedback and endeavours to incorporate that into her future work.

Teenagers today seem to get massively bad press.... see my post about the student protest in London this week as one minor example of that. However the majority of youngsters I come into contact with are hard working, care about themselves and others, have strong moral views on particular topics, want the world to be a better place, are fed up with the system us cynical old gits seem to perpectuate and often would put many of the "adults" in the world to shame through both their quality of thought and action.

So I am today an immensely proud parent - not just of my daughter but also the many of her friends we saw at the event last night who I know make up the majority of the younger generation - the ones who frankly given the mess we've made we should begin to entrust the future to more rapidly than we do.

Soundcloud vs Reverbnation vs etc.

2011-11-10T09:05:00.001Z

Following on from the last post.

I've kicked off a couple of discussions on a couple of forums to see garner people's opinions on these.

So if you have any and are a member of LinkedIn then go here or if you are, or would like to be, a member of Rock-Til-You-Drop then go here.

If I get much debate on these I intend to end up summarising in both places and back here at some point in time.

Soundcloud

2011-11-06T08:39:00.002Z

Increasingly I've been finding more and more people are out there on SoundCloud. So I've joined them, clearly MySpace seems pretty much long dead and Reverbnation whilst good is looking a little old and haggard in the fast paced changing world of music dissemination.

Anyways I've a profile and a bunch of tracks up at http://soundcloud.com/grahamhunt-1 please pop over and say hello.

One thing with Soundcloud is that it very much is a mix of producers and consumers - there are a huge number of people on there simply using it as an on-line music juke box - which has been a restriction with Reverbnation for me the only people who join up are normally other musicians, Soundcloud looks a more direct to consumer method.

Having said all of that of course - if I ever get to 100 plays I'll be happy! :-)

Gibson Firebird X

2011-11-05T11:09:00.002Z

Gibson continue to court controversy with another new techno rich offering.

I've not even seen one of these in the flesh but have read a couple of reviews and seen the demos on Youtube etc.

What do I think? Firstly I like the Firebird shape this being based on the second non reverse version. The headstock looks odd, I think it had to be 3 a side for the robot tuning but I think an asymmetric shape would have suited the body shape better. The finish... well personal choice, I'm not madly keen and would have preferred at least some natural or block colour option. The body is ash by the way, different for Gibson. I have a home made Ash bodied humbucker loaded Strat - I like Ash, dense good sounding wood only used from time to time by Fender and some others. Maple fretboard!! Yep Gibson seem intent on pushing the boundaries of their expected norms on this one!

Now the technical bit...

It is too much to cover but lets try. You have three pickups all different magnet types. There is the robot tuning system Gibson have sold on several other models already - now that is bloody clever! If you do use a lot of different tunings it must be worth a look at.

But it is all the built in gubbins that is really the main thing here. On the side of the top bout of the guitar are two banks of sliders blue and red. Blue control modulation, reverb and echo effects, Red compression, distortion and EQ. Each of the three sliders controlling a different parameter depending what effect is selected. You select them by the two toggle switches on the front of the guitar toward the lower bout. They select the effect but also you twist your knob (steady now!) to mix in the amount of effect with the dry signal.

So - already confused! Yes it is hugely versatile - but hang on I've got to select this, twist that move the bloody fader on the side!!! You can store and recall patches... HOORAY!!! So you fiddle set up the sound store it and all set for the show. All of this is analogue electrics - which Gibson make a big noise about and so have some reviewers - although I'm lost as to why really... horses for courses really. I think a lot of the control built in here (more to come later) would fit to digital sound sources a la the Line6 Variax as well.

Oh I forgot - it has piezoelectric saddles so has an acoustic simulation mode as well!

Now - you get to foot pedals as well! This allows quick recall of the patches and also one of them is an adjustable one so you can vary some parameters with your foot whilst playing. THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST BITS OF THIS WHOLE THING!!! Here is the thing I think will suddenly stick, it is simple but innovated genius at the same time. These work by Bluetooth - you know the thing you use to connect your phone to a headset or to download photos from a phone to your laptop - it can do a lot lot more. At last someone really using it for something brilliant. No extra cables etc but external control of your guitars controls. Ever tried "violining" on a Les Paul bridge pickup? Not easy I can tell you... with this idea that would potentially become common place - or jumping to predetermined pickup and control settings from a footswitch. Trust me I think once others get their heads around this we'll see others jumping on this idea - if I made guitars I would be doing it now!!

So a leap forward or a leap too far? Probably too far for most of us. However I see this on sale at about £3,300 - there are a couple of places quoting under £3,000. You all have that sharp intake of breath moment but hang on... Gibson Les Paul Custom £2,799 - PRS Studio £2,749... and you only get normal pickups and no patch / external control on them? Think on it...

Gibson Mini Site dedicated to it.

Comprehensive demo by a Gibson product evangelist!

Step 10

2011-11-05T10:23:00.000Z

Last night I visited a meeting I don't often go to. I'm thinking I ought to go more often plenty of friends there who I don't see as much as I used to, plenty of strong sobriety etc. I felt wonderfully at home and happy.

I was asked to be the initial speaker on Step 10. It was funny I was asked on Monday and said "yes" as any good AA member should do. But Tuesday and Wednesday I was thinking, not for the first time in my recovery, maybe I shouldn't do this - I'm a bit of a fraud I don't do it the way it should be done. Hang on, what way it SHOULD be done, it is a programme suggested not mandated. Anyhow on Wednesday night at my home group a young AA talked about his first year in recovery and touched on the steps including Step 10 and said like all the steps he needs to do it every moment of every day when needed. I woke up at that and thought - "Exactly that is how I live it".

He was at the meeting last night - Kismet - another of those AA coincidences that do stretch my militant agnostic views to the limit at times.

Step 10 is about keeping personal inventory and when wrong promptly admitting it. The 12 and 12 book (essay on all the steps and traditions) talks more about the spot check inventory than either a daily reflective balance sheet or a longer term periodical review. But it is how I have to live these days - working at this hard in early recovery once I had learnt I could live with out the booze but "what now?". If anger rises I have to look at me - pride, selfishness etc. often at the bottom of it. Anger is no good for me that route lies drink. Interestingly the sharing in the meeting had some polarizing views (not surprisingly there are as many programmes in AA as alcoholics!). I side for me with the argument that anger is not good, it is a natural emotion but it is not the way to let it out etc. I used other thoughts at these times, stuff I learnt from a psychiatrist on a course about interpersonal skills which had a lot about Transactional Analysis in it. Rebellious Child, Critical Parent - these are modes where the anger in me will take me and it is not profitable in any relationship. Saying how I feel is ok "I don't feel you are listening, appreciating my position here". "I am frustrated that you can't get x done sooner" etc. that helps. Tell them but get it away from me for a more productive conversation.

Also one great thing that I learnt from someone very early on... "You have to give everyone the right to be wrong"... True!

Book Review - The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

2011-11-03T14:50:00.001Z

The second in the Millenium trilogy.

This book picks up some time after the initial book finished but the two central hero characters are the same. This time we get much greater insight into the illusive character Lisbeth Salander. Through the book elements of her past that have made her the social misfit she is are gradually revealed. You understand much more why she is like she is.

This book is however darker and more brutal than the first. Larsson was himself a campaigner against violence against women following an experience in his own life. This book is more explicit about some of the abuse and the violence more prevalent than in the first book. However as part of a campaign to expose exploitation and abuse of women it does an excellent job.

The narrative is fast flowing with many twists and changes to keep you guessing. It is indeed a shame that Mr Larsson did die so young, he'd have gone on I'm sure to write many more best selling novels. Definitively a thumbs up approval from me.

Post script to St Paul's story

2011-11-03T12:22:00.003Z

Subsequent to the last post.... here is an excellent commentary on the current position from a BBC journalist.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15567206

St Paul's

2011-11-02T13:43:00.002Z

So what is going on at St Paul's then?

The protest is as ever the loose coalition of folks who are against the excesses of capitalism - some no doubt more than others in the mix. Some probably just want a "fairer" system, would like to see that the world economy was not put into recession by the actions of relatively few.

It would have all been a bit of a side show with probably little coverage in the media after the initial glare of publicity. However now various members of the clergy are falling like nine pins over the whole thing. Bizarre! I'm still not sure why they have resigned. First to go was Cannon Giles Fraser - who appeared to have been instrumental in the siting of the camp around the cathedral in the first place when the protestors first turned up and were looking for somewhere near the London Stock Exchange. He seems to have resigned as he felt decisions being taken inside the cathedral were ones he could not agree with. The subsequent initiation of legal proceedings to clear the protestors bear that out.

Then the Dean Graeme Knowles resigned as well. Although for me it is difficult to fully grasp why he went - it seems he has fallen on his sword as the criticism of the cathedral has risen in the press, in particular the lack of a coherent strategy for dealing with the camp.

What a shame really - whilst this continues to give the protestors much more publicity than they probably ever expected it hasn't shone a good light on the cathedral. They have now suspended the legal proceedings as well. Confusion reigns one feels.

It makes one wonder exactly as one of the home made banners displayed at the site says "What would Jesus do?" Should the cathedral be seen to try to restrict the right of the protesters to peacefully protest? There is a perception that this about fairness within society to try to stem the continue inequity between the rich and the poor - not helped by recent statistics showing that executive pay in FTSE100 companies has risen nearly 50% in the last year. I think we either except the Orwellian construct that some are more equal than others or we do try to do something to stop this. Whatever caused the current recession, be it over zealous bankers looking for profit from unsustainable risk, poor legislation by government on the financial markets or the actual policing of the financial markets by the relevant authorities, the bottom line answer is that pretty much everyone is now feeling the pinch somewhere... well not with a 50% payrise you probably won't. That has to be the point of the conversation somewhere here doesn't it?

As a side show Louise Mensch on Have I Got News for You was very funny about the whole situation....

She's a politician... yes an MP... people have voted for her to represent them in deciding the current and future policy of the country... Lord help us!

What do you buy the Aston Martin owning guitarist?

2011-10-28T11:09:00.000+01:00

Now I'm sure this has been a problem for many of you over the years. Well we know have the solution.

Aston Martin guitars and amps!!!

Inspired by the Gibson Corvette guitar (Yuk!) and the Fender Jaguar Strat these are now available for order.

The guitar is a high tech carbon fibre affair made by Status.

Love the logo between the pickups and the Aston style "vent" on the upper bout, although I wonder if any punks out there might find that injury inducing as they thrash windmill style around. Punks playing this... maybe not.

Anyway so you've got the DB9, Vantage or what ever and your beloved has bought you the guitar. You can't possibly just plug it into any old amp can you? No of course not. Enter the Aston Martin amp

I love how this looks - the grill has real 1960s DB4 look about it.

More info at Aston Martins guitar and amp site.

Now for the painful bit...

The guitar is £5,995 and the amp is £7,995!! Available from World Guitars if your bank balance can stomach it. Just one thing, would both these fit in the boot of an Aston? How rubbish would that look scratching you DB9 fighting to get these off the back seats!

RIP Amy Winehouse

2011-10-27T13:20:00.002+01:00

So now we know.

The verdict of "misadventure" brings a close this sad story. "Misadventure" - sounds almost a playful word, a lark, mucking about and something went wrong. Drinking yourself to death is not just mucking about that went wrong.

The official level of alcohol in her body was 416mg per 100ml. Apparently 350mg per 100ml can be considered likely to bring on fatal consequences. The drink drive limit is 80mg.

I dread to think what levels were in my system at times - especially towards the end. I was barred from a pub for life in the last few weeks since I was drinking pints of Guinness faster than they could be poured. I know one day I gave up counting at 20 pints - got off the stool and drove home! Utterly ridiculous - somehow I never killed myself or others.

The story of Amy having been abstinent for a while then picking up again isn't novel either. I hear this time and again in the rooms of AA. I myself stopped for about 6 weeks at one point in the last year of my drinking. But of course then the voice said "So you must be cured now" and I had a pint. Nothing bad happened, so I had another and another and another... Everytime in that last year when I did stop for a few days/weeks when I started again soon it was back as bad, in fact actually worse, than before.

RIP Amy - all I can really say is "There but for the grace of God (who I don't actually believe in by the way but it is a figure of speech) go I"

Interesting BBC programmes

2011-10-26T13:25:00.000+01:00

I'm seriously ill by the way - I have the man flu - which if you are male you'll understand that I am very very nearly at deaths door and how I struggle on is a triumph against all adversity. Hang on why I just slurp my extra strength LemSip....

Right - I'll not dwell on my serious medical condition clearly...

I watched a couple of great programmes last night during a "home alone" period when my daughter and wife were at swimming training.

Firstly Dr Alice Roberts has an entertaining and educational programme on at the moment about the evolution of human beings. This was the second in the series. It is interesting the kind of things they are showing in the development of bipedal humans from tree dwelling apes in the forests. Driven by climate and forced change of habitat as the world changed around our ancestors. Interesting stuff - looking at how we evolved to a particular type of diet, why cooking might be the reason we developed bigger brains than the species before us etc.

Secondly I watched a programme with Marcus du Sautroy, who actually makes me wish I had paid more attention in A level Maths, in which he discussed the recent announcement of measurement of the speed of neutrinos being slightly above the speed of light. He brilliantly (valiantly) tried to explain why this matters, it blows up a lot of Einstein's theory, explains why for mathematicians there isn't a problem with something travelling faster than the speed of light (it just needs to come into existence at that speed, it can never be accelerated past that speed since that would take infinite energy). Now the problem could be a measurement issue, or some such. It was all jolly interesting, and again I listened to string theory in 4 minutes and simply have to say... sorry don't get it!! I doubt I'm the only one. Anyway - if you want to be confused, educated, entertained and bewildered all within an hour worth a watch.

I reflected briefly on the link between these two programmes. It was (in the grand scheme of things) only a short time ago that we were running around hunting game and digging up roots etc. as our only way of survival - now we are arrogant enough to talk about theories of "everything".

RIP Marco

2011-10-23T20:45:00.001+01:00

Only a week after having to share the sad loss of Dan Wheldon very sadly MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli died at today's Malaysian MotoGP race. He had a front end fold on the second lap and sadly instead of him and the bike sliding straight off into the gravel trap for some reason the bike came back across the track and he was hit by two other riders. His helmet came off in the impact and it was obvious from that split second that this was very bad news. The race was abandoned and soon it was announced that Marco had not survived the crash. He was 24. He'd come 2nd last week for the first time ever - had struck a deal to be a brand new Honda next year and would have won GPs soon and possibly been a champion.

A very very sad loss - This year Marco I watched you mature and try hard to get rid of the wild man image some branded you with and the last few races showed you were a true threat to the top riders. Love and prayers to his family and friends trying to come to terms with a tragic young loss.

Quick Book reviews - Death of Kings - Bernard Cornwell, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson

2011-10-21T20:34:00.000+01:00

Death of Kings - Bernard Cornwell.

The latest in Cornwells Lord Uhtred series. This one finds devout pagan, Danish raised Uhtred still fighting for the Saxons. Alfred the Great is nearing the end of his life without seeing his dream of all England united in a single kingdom... the squables with the Danelaw in the majority of the north of the country overshadow this. With Alfred near to death some scheme to take the crown of Wessex for themselves, others eye Mercia the puppet kingdom that is a buffer between Wessex and Danelaw. Others want peace - peace? With Uhtred about? No chance! Even in his 40s he is the most feared Saxon warrior. This brilliantly tells the history around the narrative of Uhtred and his follows.

I love Cornwell's stuff - if you love old history and fictional novels based way back when - read this. Makes you proud to be British and descended from these tough guys! As I sit there reading it on a Kindle in the HS1 into St Pancras... GRRR! Maybe I should shout "Shield wall on me" next time they cancel the 17:27 to Broadstairs and see what happens?

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Lot of hype around these 3 books and the death of the author - however I can see why. Captivating read frankly. Brilliant if odd main characters, twisted plot lines evil villains at each turn, even Nazi's!! One of the best thrillers I've read in ages. Top stuff.

If only I was like the main character - he seems to be able to bed any female between 25 and 60 with no more than a smile and his intellect... cobblers!

I want it all and I want it NOW!!!

2011-10-20T21:51:00.000+01:00

This post is about change, fear, anxiety, faith etc.

I'm slowly getting into the new job. It has been an interesting journey so far. Basically I've been recruited into a new position in the organisation that actually is yet to fully exist. This is because they are only a certain way through all the proposed changes to the division I'm in and therefore I've joined as head of a group that won't exist until all the changes are completed and that is still a little way off. So it is a little bit odd at the moment, there is stuff going on in the existing structure which I'm listening to but not actively involved in. I've been involved in some of the organisational change stuff working with my boss and others on the job descriptions and gradings with HR. Work is beginning to come along that I can pick up on since new stuff, like some bids for new projects don't have an obvious owner other than myself so that is ok.

But overall I just feel not quite there yet. Change takes time and I'm only just knocking on the door of 4 weeks here and in a large complex organisation with multiple drivers, stakeholders etc. it is to be expected that you can't get to know it all in anything like that time.

And I know all this - change curves like this are natural. Some things already feel natural - the morning regime of getting up getting ready and walking to the station - sorry did I say "walking"?! Yes I commute on the train now so have a 20 min walk to the station, a 10 min walk at the other end and the same in the evening... well not totally true the lovely Mrs F most days picks me up about half way back from the station which is exceptionally kind of her. I've sussed out a couple of good places for a coffee/tea break during the day and a couple of nice cafes if I need to get a hot lunch. Like I say in some ways it seems I've been doing this for ages not just a few weeks.

But there is an anxiety about this all, mostly about (as ever) my ability to achieve in the role etc. I'm a born pessimist with a healthy dose of negativity thrown in for good measure. Fear of the unknown and anxiety about the change is not to be unexpected. I need to ride the wave of this out. I need more faith in myself, as a friend once said about a different job move - "You can do the job, they wouldn't have employed you if not" (Simple!) and also faith that whatever the outcome it will all be good. What's the worst that can happen? Well I suppose I could lose the job, but that's surely unlikely. The consultancy I left to come here were sorry to lose me and I've had recent independent corroboration of that, so there proof that I'm not a complete dunce. However in my head there is always the little voice saying "well pulled the wool over their eyes didn't you" - even though I didn't!

It will be - I really like much about the place, people and atmosphere. It is certainly different working in a research university to where I've previously worked but it is certainly a nice place to be.

One of the phrases I hated in AA when I first came about was "time takes time"... but I want it now! I want it all and I want it now! (To quote Freddie Mercury). To think a year ago I was out of work and busy decorating. Not long after that I started beginning to look around for a job - I applied for a ton that I never even got a polite brush off reply from and many where it was "you don't fit the necessary requirements" etc. As ever I put on a brave face to most but inside started to seriously panic that I was never going to find a job again. Now look at me - I had two offers on the table a few weeks back - I had a choice to make! Time takes time...

Sad news

2011-10-17T08:56:00.000+01:00

My post about champions is more poignant than ever in the cold light this morning. I had half thought of holding on hoping to be able to report another British Champion - name Dario Franchitti as Indycar champ for the fourth time. Whilst he is champion the manner of the last race leaves all that in the shade. The terrible loss of Dan Wheldon another great British driver who had conquered America was just so so sad.

Motorsport is dangerous. I watched the movie Senna over the weekend and was in tears around the final few mins when they covered that awful weekend in 1994 when he and Roland Ratzenberger lost their lives - motorsport is much safer now than then but it is still dangerous.

Dan Wheldon was a great driver, sadly not with a regular drive this year which for a past champion was mad frankly. He turned out once this year at the Indy 500 and won! Shows the quality of the man without doubt.

A sad loss and over shadows motorsport...

Champions decided

2011-10-16T18:55:00.002+01:00

It is the end of the motorsport seasons... so we know Vettel is now the youngest ever double world champion, his dominant win at Korea is another in his remarkable year. Will he rewrite all the record books? Possibly the way he is going.

MotoGP wrapped up in Australia aptly enough with Cassey Stoner fully deserving his second world crown - he has been slightly Vettel like on his Honda whilst Rossi has struggled to get around with the Ducati, which whilst Cassey didn't win the championship on it last year, he at least was in the hunt. Rossi unfortunately fell off again today in the nasty Philip Island conditions. I wonder if he is thinking "Maybe I should have walked away from this before now?" Next year will show the man.

Nearer home Matt Neal won the BTCC crown in the last meeting which was not really that exciting as Plato couldn't challenge on a circuit where the outright speed of the turbo powered cars showed. However it was a see-saw year in that championship and if it had rained today in Nottinghamshire you never know...

However to cap them all so far was the deciding round of the BSB last week at Brands. Last race, last lap and Tommy Hill (local town hero) and John Hopkins (USA ex-MotoGP star who has had a chqeuered past and is rebuilding his career) go into it second and third separated by 2 points at the head of the table. Whoever crossed the line first won all. They overtook at pretty much every corner you can, Hill's slide into Sheene (old Dingle Dell) was frankly unbelievable! Then Hopkins was back past going into the last corner but went slightly wide and Tommy was on him as they swept up the straight to the line and they crossed... with Tommy just in front the margin officially 6 one thousands of a second. Unbelievable. Great for Tommy for his first title but you had to feel for Hopkins he raced hard and fair with a bad injury picked up a month or so back but no excuses from him.

What a shame that you have to watch it either on Eurosport or wait like I do for the highlights on ITV4 later in the week. We have some great motorsport in this country it is sadly not given the level of TV coverage I feel it warrants.

Watch this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjePvNcu8n4

My continued rise as an international singer/songwriter

2011-10-12T19:00:00.001+01:00

... well that has to be a bit (er... a lot actually) tongue in cheek to be honest but I do have somethings to be proud of.

I got an email from PRS yesterday which outlined my recent royalty earnings. All bar a little bit of change I'll soon be £50 richer!!! Now that may not cause the bank to call me in for a wealth management interview but I'm pretty chuffed. I have a piece of paper (well a PDF but I can print it out) that has a list of my songs on it and the amounts paid due to the performances of them. See I can show this to my grandkids when I'm old and grey :-)

The income is from me playing my stuff live at various gigs etc. But it does show the value of becoming a member of PRS if you are a musician performing live music. Every venue should be licensed for live music if you are playing there, they have paid a sum to PRS already based on size of the venue etc. for that. Therefore there is a pot of money that PRS has hold of already that should be distributed to the writers of the material being played at their venue. So effectively this is "free" money - all you have to do is join and remember to register your works with them and then your gigs when you perform. In the words of a Russian Meerkat (my daughter still won't believe me they don't come from there) "Simples!". Previous posts of mine on PRS are first PRS cheque I got and SoundCheck Event Review.

Secondly I've had some more airplay courtsey of my good blogging pal 4Dinners over at Scooter Forums Radio. He has a great Sunday evening show 6pm - 8pm where you'll find an eclectic mix of his own favourite stuff ranging from Pistols to GnR to ska and 2Tone etc.. He is also flying the flag for unsigned artists featuring such as yours truly and a few others. So in the last month anyone in the world with an internet connection could have tuned in and heard my stuff - that is a potential audience of billions isn't it? Ok in truth a handful of people will tune in but what the heck I am still getting some exposure.

Couple this with my son having a photograph being used as the back drop for the website for Futures current free download the Furtheron family is pushing the boundaries of popular mass media consumption.

it can be cruely short

2011-10-06T09:33:00.003+01:00

Regular commenter on this blog JohnJayJay posted a comment on my Birthday Post the following wise words

To paraphrase: "Getting older isn't necessarily fun, but it beats the hell out of not getting older...if you know what I mean." (He quotes his mother as the source btw)

Events in the news over the last two days bring that succinctly into focus.

Steve Jobs founder and CEO of Apple Computers has passed away aged 56.

Graham Dilley ex. Kent and England fast bowler has died aged 52.

Now - both of my generation, Graham Dilley I remember watching back in the early 80s when I went to sample cricket at Canterbury with an old school pal.

Life can be cruely short and makes me realise I should live my life with a bit more happiness, smiles and passion and less frowns, angst and resentment.

Sad too to note that Bert Jansch has passed away. Davy Graham, John Martyn and now Bert, they may not be names that every household is aware of but their influence in the folk movements of the 60s and 70s cannot be understated. They have influenced a generation of guitarists and indirectly another generation. Strikes me that in the last year or so we have lost the vanguard of a great guitar troubadour legacy.

CD Reviews

2011-10-05T21:45:00.000+01:00

Long time no reviews... I need to put that right.

Firstly here is a first for good old Luddite Furtheron, funny I work in IT and generally do believe that technology is a great thing, look at what it does give us... just look around you now; simply from the clothes you are wearing, the chair you are (probably) sitting in, the computer you are reading this on, the internet that delivered it, the electricity needed all over the place to do that and provide the light, heating, cooling etc. etc. I'm going on a bit but anyway... the first of these reviews is actually... a download review!!! I know, I know but it is true Furtheron for once didn't buy a hard copy CD so that he could then read the lyrics, timing of tracks to the nearest second, muse on the value of the various engineers on particular tracks etc. I decided to buy something, went to Amazon, clicked on it, downloaded it and bunged it on my MP3 player in a matter of seconds... damn clever all this new fangled stuff isn't it? :-)

Opeth - Heritage

There is more than a sense of irony that my first ever major release purchase on line (I've bought single tracks and stuff before) is actually a new album that harks back to previous time. I've liked Opeth stuff I've heard before (Son-of-Furtheron has some of theirs) up until the point the singing starts then sadly the death metal, throat stripping shouty things are just not for me try as I might since I like the sound of the music underneath.

However I'd listened to this on a streaming service a day or so before it came out and was really pleased that the vocals were not like that. Also musically the whole thing is clearly a homage to the influences from the 70s that have shaped Opeth as one of the stand out groups in modern prog rock. To my ears much more King Crimson than Genesis or Yes but others may look to BJH and others in there as well. For modern parallels it is very reminiscent of Porcupine Tree material. If you are an old prog-head that bemoans lack of new music you like then do try this I think you'll be convinced there is valid prog being created out there in the 21st century and not just from the likes of Yes getting themselves back to a good creative space.

John Martyn - Heaven and Earth

A difficult CD for me to review this. Regular readers of this blog may know that Johnny holds an intensely special place in my heart. I discovered him through BBC Rock Goes to College I think back in the 70s when I saw him perform one of his solo acoustic but with a pickup gaffer taped onto his Martin through a bunch of effects, not least his Echoplex. I won't say it was love at first sight, it took me a while to get into his stuff but that initial meeting blew me away. It must have been about the time I read Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions and was confronted by people doing stuff in music and writing I just found as utterly bewildering at first contact but alluring and exciting as well. I then was a great admirer of John's "band" period with Grace and Danger still one of my all time favourite albums which some Martyn fans will find perhaps odd but the emotion and musicianship on that album still are to me amazing.

As many of you will no doubt know John passed away last year. I'm friends with a cousin of his who is still struggling to come to terms with that on a personal level which shows the mark of the man. Heaven and Earth is a collection of "unfiinished" work that he had been producing in the lead up to his death. Therefore this has been completed after his sad and untimely demise. In that is a worry as you wonder what he would have left on, taken off, changed or added to. Who knows but I'm still very pleased it was released, whereas his previous release On the Cobbles was a part return to the more acoustic troubadour material this is back into the jazzy band flavour which is as I've said stuff I love from him. Phill Collins a collaborator on Grace and Danger and subsequently releases and tours is back with John again and his vocals with John's is a spine tingling combination. A fitting farewell? For me I'd say yes without a doubt, it is clear he wasn't a well man at some points but frankly this is a mighty Martyn release. The real stand out track for me is the Phil Collins written Can't Turn Back the Years - given the subsequent events a more poignant epitaph cannot be created. At least with John we have the legacy of his albums, I defy anyone not to listen to Solid Air, Grace and Danger and Heaven and Earth and not be left with a conundrum of feelings all centring your thoughts on what a genius Mr Martyn was in capturing emotion in music.

Joshua Radin - The Rock and The Tide

I bought this having seen it on the discount rack in HMV. Now I bought Simple Times a while back when we saw him backing up Jools Holland at the Rochester Castle gig in July 2009, before he started to get the bigger recognition. I remember my daughter singing along to a song of his on the radio and I said something about the rest of the album and she was impress/dismayed (take your pick :-)) that I was so hip!

Anyway - this album is actually closer to what I remember from that stormy night in Rochester where Mr Radin was more aghast at playing in the setting of a Norman Castle than anything else. It is less whimsical solo guitar and voice and a bit more band/rock orientated and that is fine by me. I like this album quiet a bit and it is a good driving / train listening album, something not requiring the attention of something like Opeth but with songs that pull you in... Mrs F and Daughter-of-Furtheron like it too hence enhancing it's choice as a car journey accompaniment... Son-of-Furtheron would no doubt refer to this as middle class coffee table music. :-)

Incubus - If Not Now, When?

I discovered Incubus a few years ago and was lucky enough to see an impressive performance of them some years back at the Reading festival - whenever it was that Iron Maiden headlined there. The last CD of theirs was Light Grenades which I thought a brilliant release. Since then they have had a little bit of a hiatus over the last 5 years they return with a really credible platter. They are a very restrained and thoughtful band I feel, they have times of very sparse instrumentation that couple with super vocal performances to deliver some powerful songs which lyrically all appear to be on the theme of love. Strong stand outs are the opening title track itself and Isadore which certainly sticks in my head. Perhaps more laid back than previous outings for them it is none the worse for it and worth a listen if you've liked any of their previous efforts or want to find something a little of the standard radio playlist fodder for Coldplay, Snow Patrol etc. but in a similar vein.

A couple of book reviews

2011-10-04T21:51:00.000+01:00

I owe you all some book reviews... and CD reviews..

Books first...

Conquest 1066 - Stewart Binns

This covers the life of Hereward who is a legendary figure from around the time of the Battle of Hastings about whom little is known about his life. This is an attempt to therefore create a fictional account to embellish his life in which he is made an outlaw at an early age, travels widely and becomes a hugely respected soldier. Up to the point of the recounting of the Battle of Hastings this was a captivating read. Sadly after that you know that his attempts at the rebellion fail so it is a bit of disappointment from then on I'm afraid and I lost interest in it - that is also disappointing since he is portrayed as a man who after that went on to live further adventures but these are not covered. Sad, I'd have preferred a briefer recount of his rebellion and more on his later life story.

For anyone into historical novels it is a reasonable read.

Marks of Cain - Tom Knox

Modern day thriller with a twist involving Nazi's, terrorists etc. There appears to be two different plots for a while that keeps you entertained... however the drawing of them together almost made me wonder if Tom himself got bored of writing two plots and late one night thought what's the easiest way to pull these together... it seemed a little shabby sadly on that bit.

Also some of the possible themes of the book are a bit "out there" in terms of stretching reality I thought. But then he has used real evidence to support the storyline.

All in all a reasonable "airport thriller" but a bit lacking in oomph at the end, it just got a bit repetitive the one twist I thought was there wasn't a twist at all.

Another year done

2011-10-03T09:00:00.000+01:00

The really observant of you all may have noticed a single character in my profile has changed. An 8 and changed to a 9 - yes folks it is my birthday today and I've entered my fifth decade on this planet. My daughter is constantly now reminding me that I have only one year until I'm 50, however I was thinking it funny that we actually count our ages as years past. You are nought when born... funny you don't count money like that or houses... who lives a 0 Station Road? If we counted years like money I'd be 50 already.

An inevitable sign of my age is that I needed new glasses, the biggest problem the last years is reading I have to take them off to read then back on to look at the TV etc. So I've got a pair of varifocals now. I'll see how I get on with them but so far not too bad. Although I get strange looks as I move my head about looking at things at the moment, I'm trying to figure out the best bit to look through for this or that.

Anyway - after we'd been out for an early birthday meal yesterday and a walk along the river my darling daughter busied herself in the kitchen and this is now awaiting my return home after work :-)

For Archie...

2011-09-30T21:06:00.003+01:00

Archie who lived opposite us has died. Ada his wife had not been well for ages and after repeated ambulance calls to help her she went into a home a couple of months back. Archie was left on his own, going to visit her most days. He insisted on going to get his daily paper, the shop is next door but one, but in the snow last winter. My wife dug out his path for him one day.

Sadly in his 90s he passed on quickly after being found to have colon cancer.

One touching thing... he and Ada had just celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary!! They had been a couple since they were both 13 - amazing 80 years as a couple!

How beautiful and touching... I hope Ada doesn't miss him too much. And we'll have some new neighbours - that is a big thing around here, we've been here nearly 20 years and still considered the "new couple" :-)

RIP Archie

2 days into the new job...

2011-09-27T19:48:00.000+01:00

... and I have more questions than answers unsurprisingly. Bizarrely I'm also attending a public launch event of an application that has gone "public" that I'm now the "service owner" of which I didn't know what it's acronym stood for 48 hours ago. Best I keep schtum in front of the media and others and just get introduced to all the right people.

One of the funniest things so far is that everytime I venture out of the office onto the street I seem to get asked where something is by one of the newly enrolled students but I'm as lost on the campus as they are... if not more so if my experience yesterday is any guide. My boss walked with me from point A to point B, I was asking a load of questions of him so didn't take as much notice as I should have anyway... I leave point B with another colleague and head to point C. Now from point C I needed to get back to point A... simple I thought I knew the direction etc and I exit the door and turned left... totally wrong I needed to go right and then in a few moments I notice the back of the British Museum and realise I was going in totally the wrong direction!! Hey ho.

Oh yes then I leave the office my desk is located in - I'm temporarily squatting with another team until an accommodation re-jigg in a few weeks time and a couple ask me if someone is in. I said I didn't know. Only today did I notice the plaque outside, it used to be someone famous's house some years back.

So far then... all good and situation normal for me i.e. not quite in touch with the reality all around me :-)

At last a new song

2011-09-22T13:50:00.000+01:00

It has been a while with work and all that... so whilst on the week's break between jobs I've finally recorded a new song - Round and Round.

It can be listened to at http://www.reverbnation.com/grahamhunt

Comments as ever welcomed.

If we really wanted to save the planet...

2011-09-20T12:07:00.002+01:00

On the drive back from Wales yesterday a couple of things struck me... again whilst I was cruising along the M40 at 70mph a Prius with a bike rack on it came thundering past me. I'm lost if you buy a Prius aren't you saying "I care about the planet"... but then you flog a 1.4l engine to death over 80mph and even better stick your I'm-so-green mountain bike on the back to act like the air brake on an old Russian freighter! Bonkers.

My new car - is a lot like the old one... I like the Peugeot 407 SW we'd had for 4 years that when I saw a "brand new" one for sale as a 2nd hand one at a knock down price I snapped it up. Now previously the 50mpg performance of the old one had impressed me, it is a large estate car after all. Well don't know what they have done in the intervening 4 years but the new one manages as near as damn it 60mpg! In fact the bit between Newtown to Shrewsbury which is all twisty A roads I managed to get 75mpg - why'd you buy a Prius? Funny just before Shrewsbury Mr I-have-a-car-that-looks-like-one-that-once-won-rally-world-championship came bounding up behind me - all revving his engine through the "throaty" exhaust on every bend to be thawted by an oncomming car, van, lorry, tractor. He inevitably zoomed passed me and dashed the 200 yrds in front of me to then slam on his brakes to sit behind the car in front to repeat the performance for us all to marvel at his driving ability... Well if you've a car that can excellerate twice as quickly as pretty much everything else on the road you ought to be able to overtake so frankly pal not that impressive. I checked my mpg thinking "I doubt he is getting 75mpg" and guess what at that very moment he pulled into a petrol station... I nearly had to pull over for laughing!

Now I checked at Shrewsbury as anyone who knows the A5 there will know that it is the secret location of one of the worlds largest roundabout collections. It goes something like.... Roundabout ahead, slow, drop to 2nd or more likely 1st gear, wait for gap or green light, round the roundabout onto next stretch, accelerate up to 60 or 70mph and get into cruising and ... Roundabout ahead, slow... etc. etc. I think there are 6 or 7 on the stretch I do.

So before going through that lot my mpg was as I say a staggeringly good 75mpg then once through and on the clear A5 heading toward the M54 it was 66mpg.

So I mused, how much concrete to make the flyovers to carry through traffic like me over this lot would you need to cancel out the carbon emissions the acceleration/braking cost? Love to be clever enough to work that out... Probably need a long pay back time, I know someone has calculated that the concrete making for the windfarm off the Kent coast recently erected actually creates more CO₂ than the wind farm saves in it's expected lifespan compared to a gas fired power station ... that is before all the rest of the building emissions and the maintenance ships etc.

Here we go again...

2011-09-16T08:40:00.001+01:00

Whitesnake? No that was Here I Go Again...

Anyhows... Last day at work today. "Hang on" say long term regular reader(s) "thought this had all happened before". Indeed, last year 7th July, after 19 years and 1 week I left my old job. After a period as a successful professional musician (i.e. unemployed) I got back into work in Feb this year for a small consultancy an old colleague is now a director of. I've actually liked the company and the people in the most part but as again the regular reader(s) out there will know I hated the being away from home or massively stupid commutes. The company was really nice and at the point where I was saying "this just isn't really for me" an assignment came up at my old firm which I've been on for the last 5 months.

Now the really sad bit is in Feb this year the company I used to work for decided to close the site with 1000s of jobs being lost. In it heyday back in the early 2000s you would struggle to find a space in the car park after 9am and there were upwards of 5000 or more on the site every day. Then in 2003 the first cuts started and I had to make decisions about people losing their jobs - horrible. Over the years since then divisions pulled out like manufacturing and they cut here and reshaped there with much work going back to the USA (it is a USA company). Anyway this year they have hung a For Sale sign over the buildings and hundreds have already left - in the last few weeks I've shaken many hands probably for the last time. I've watched centuries of experience walk out the door which seems madness but then that is business where did it ever say anyway that is was suppose to be fair or good for you etc.

It was obvious this assignment was going to come to an end at some point - the current point is a suitable one, in that they are now deciding on a company to take the service forward and I thought it likely another far flung assignment might be my next option so I looked for a new role. Luckily I've landed a really fantastic job with a top London research university heading up the group that will be responsible for the support of the applications supporting research. Just brilliant. I've signed the contract and filled in all the on-line stuff, after a week trying to catch up on a bunch of things I could do with getting done I'll be up there.

So I wave a final farewell to this site and those people left here in my old group and the one I've been in the last 5 months and I bow out of the consultancy business with no bridges burnt, my line manager saw me on Tuesday and was insistent that if I need a job in the future they'd take be me back without any issues.

Going to be an odd day emotionally I think though.

Musicians have better hearing

2011-09-13T08:40:00.001+01:00

Interesting article from the BBC about hearing issues.

However the problem they particularly talk about the "cocktail party problem" is one I suffer with badly... not that I ever go to cocktail parties ;-)

The problem is the inability to pick out speech against the hubbub of background noise. I really struggle with that - my wife knows it and will sometimes aid me by repeating salient parts of the conversation to me - I'm better one to one but I know that I look at people lips... am I just lip reading?

However to be fair - I'm clearly not a professional musician :-) So maybe I'm outside the influence of this research... I'm not someone who has "never played" and instrument or a professional musician.

I did some years back start wearing earplugs to most concerts - but I've dropped off that a bit, largely as we seem to go to larger venues now, esp The O2 at Greenwich and I find the levels generally less and cause me less short term issues than say places like The Lees Cliff in Folkestone.

This is 2011 isn't it?

2011-09-12T09:47:00.000+01:00

I read with amazement this story from the BBC.

Amazing. This is 2011 and people are still treated like this in this country. I feel ashamed it is going on - now I moan about the cost of shopping as much as anyone but somewhere along the line someone thinks that having slaves (let us not beat about the bush here) is the way to reduce cost and increase profit. I blogged about a BBC play on the topic of child trafficking but to then find that this is happening with adults as well does frankly leave me speechless. People wonder at what is happening to our society - well this is, this is like Dickensian England not the 21st Century.

There is an interesting point - it states in the report that the victims were " "recruited" from soup kitchens and benefits offices and included people with problems such as alcoholism." Indeed recruit from the bottom from those vulnerable and falling out of society, for whom no-one appears to care or will notice that they have gone.

I hope that if this goes to trial and the people who did this are found guilty that a very strong message is sent out - i.e. I mean for these people to get very long custodial sentences.

9/11

2011-09-11T12:08:00.001+01:00

Where were you 10 years ago today?

Everyone can remember can't they? Well I can I was in NYC itself, luckily mid-town not down-town but a day I will obviously never forget.

Being told of the first "accident" - then the second, realising instantly it was no "accident". Watching the towers fall. The noise, the sirens, the panic. The smell and the taste of that awful dust - the taste of death - I still can vividly recall that.

The vacant lost expressions on peoples faces. The kind help we got from some people, our panic, being cut off apart from my family and fearing how long it may be until we were back together.

The getting out of NYC on the Friday - the wedding in CT we somehow ended up being part of. Some great friends/colleagues being there to help and just talk to us. The flight home - were we really getting home or not? The relief once we were airborne, then out of the USA, then half way - then at Heathrow. The onlookers looks as we all stood in the arrivals all just hugging and crying.

The moment I fell into my wife's arms - and the kids being woken with the news that I was home...

Memories for me for life

My heart goes out to all who lost on that day and in the subsequent armed assaults it has led to that still continue. A day the world changed.

POST SCRIPT added 12th Sept.

I check Facebook occasionally throughout the day... I only saw this morning what my wife had posted yesterday evening...

it has been a bit of a strange weekend D-of-F's boyfriend going off to army. Thinking also that 10 years ago today my life could of changed completely with the events in NYC and thanking god that my best friend and beloved husband came home to us safe and sound. My thoughts are with all those who lost their loved ones on the awful September morning x

...beloved husband... I was quiet chocked up

Tough first match - just enough

2011-09-10T11:53:00.000+01:00

Flipping heck!! There was more than one moment where I thought we were going to end up losing that, anyway finally England emerge victorious from their open Rugby World Cup game.

Argentina were really up for - as ever against us. They came out and gave us no time - but then we weren't helping ourselves with the penalties we gave away. Both teams kicking was poor - have you ever seen Jonny miss so many and by so much at times - I wonder if it being a closed stadium had something to do with that? Don't know.

But at last Youngs on and we had a bit more pace and passion and a try came and that was it.

Right so still in with a chance - but boy we need to play better than that.

Everybody has it better than me...

2011-09-09T15:31:00.002+01:00

that is the stupid thought in my head at the moment. I seem to keep bumping into people who are "giving up the rat race" starting new business turning their hobbies into their jobs, going on fantastic holidays etc. etc.

It is interesting to note that also this week I've spoken with someone going through a breakup of a relationship, starting a new job, having some major health issues, having problems with elderly parents, having to move in 3 weeks to a new job miles away and uproot their family....

So I hear both but only focus on the one... bad news.

Had a very disturbing dream last night. So much I've emailed the guy who I smacked around the head in the dream to apologise. He'll think I'm mad no doubt but I had to get it out there rather than keep it in.

Right... now I've dumped that I'm off to hopefully get some better positivity.

Knights and castles...

2011-09-04T19:28:00.001+01:00

Spent Saturday in Rochester at the Medieval Merriment day at the castle.

It wasn't too bad, a set of craft stalls with some vague medieval link and a bunch of recreationalists (is that was you call them) re-enacting life in medieval England. The focus being on the famous siege of Rochester in 1215 when the revolting barons took control of the castle from King John in the long dispute that lead to the Magna Carta and all that. Actually that siege has been recently portrayed in the very bloody film Ironclad, questionable historically etc. but based on the truth of the siege

Anyway a good day out in the sun.

Sunday I went to Ikea for the first time in my life. Another debate in the house due to my claiming my kids were dragging me into the middle classes - I will always consider myself working class as to me it about attitude and what you are for or against in the world they think it to do with job, wealth, salary etc. Anyway doesn't really matter. What a place! We went to Lakeside, a quick dawn raid over the Thames into Essex, we tried to be in and out in under a hour in case they rumbled the Medway boyz were in town ;-)

Luckily Son-of-Furtheron had check quantities and the exact location for picking up what we needed and we short cut through missing most of the showroom etc. Maybe one day I will go back and browse but it really is an odd place for someone like me - the fact you go into the warehouse to load up everything yourself is mighty odd. Anyway he has a new desk and desk light to assemble once back in Wales.

The girls (Mrs F and Daughter-of-Furtheron) are back to school tomorrow - so some gnashing of teeth after their 6 week break. I'm into the last couple of weeks at my current job and then off to new one in London. Many people are now leaving where I've been working (for those behind in my story, where I worked for 20 years until being made redundant last year but I've been back the last 6 months as a consultant). It is very sad virtually the whole site is closing soon, the coffee shops and restaurant are massively reducing. You walk about and where there were once 100s or 1000s now there are very few... the car park is already becoming weedy. Still very much time to look forward not backwards - still very sad though - used to be over 6,000 people working there soon only a few hundred and that is only guaranteed for a couple of years to complete some on going work that can't be transferred, unless a new buyer is found there'll be nothing there at all in 3 years.

not much to say...

2011-09-01T12:38:00.000+01:00

Back in work and counting the days now until I leave and start the new job.

Have been to a couple of really good meetings this week - the sharing was just what I needed and focused me back onto my sobriety - I'd not noticed I'd been letting it slip but then that is what this decease does to you it creeps up on you nudging your apathy, complacency etc. along until you suddenly are back in the throws of it without realising. That is why I go to meetings regularly, a word, a phrase, a story from someone else jolts me back to realising that I was beginning to say this, do that, think the other... and all potentially bad if left unchecked.

So grateful to be still a recovering alcoholic today.

September - soon the rest of the family will be returning to normal routine, Mrs F and Daughter-of-Furtheron will soon be back at school, I'll drop my son back to Wales for the new year and then it'll be my birthday! :-)

Anyway into the last straight of the year and this one has pretty much been a good one - started with getting a job, dipped with the not liking being away from home, rose with the return to a pattern that meant I could be at home, has dipped a bit as I'm back working where I did for 20 years and watching the site be closed around us with many friends shaking my hand for may be the last time pretty much on a daily basis but then has risen again with the kids doing so well in their respective exams (D-of-F got a set of A*,bunch of As and a B in her early GCSEs, and S-of-F was top of his year again) and then new job offer which is a job I am really excited about starting.

Life is good to me at the moment, very good. I will try to sit in that for a while and not demand to grasp it too tightly in case I burst it too early or try to second guess when the inevitable downturn in fortunes will come either. Try to live in the now for a while... why do I find that so flipping hard at times?

The holiday...

2011-08-28T12:00:00.001+01:00

Some more detail...

We stayed in Windermere, in a lovely cottage in a little street just out of the main town area heading towards Bowness and the lake itself - ideal for us, meant we could pick to either walk into Windermere for shopping or to eat etc. or we could go down to Bowness.

The weather was excellent for the Lake District, it only rained part of one day, the Wednesday and a couple of light spits. Given there were storm warnings out for our home area some days that was a bit bizarre really.

Sunday - we walked up to a viewpoint that looked over Windermere and then wandered about Bowness. Son-of-Furtheron was determined to get us walking and so was planning what the guidebook we had (a Rough Guide) said was an "easy" hill walk. This was the Fairfield Horseshoe, you climb out of Ambleside and over 8 peaks all over 500m. Some advice was sought from a walking equipment shop owner as we bought a map we needed and he advised going in a particular direction, the weather looked good so that was Monday's plan.

However after we'd all suffered, my son hurt his knee and was in pain for some of it, I hurt my knee, my wife also ... the only one who didn't was my daughter but she nearly lost her shoe in a boggy bit!!! Once down which was over 8 hours since we started we collapsed into a pub for much needed food, luckily they didn't care about our muddy boots. My son subsequently looked up on a hill walking website and the walk is rated - Hard by them and is actually 17 miles with the up and down bits not the 11 in the rough guide! It took me the rest of the holiday to recover! Going downstairs was still painful several days later!

Tuesday therefore was shopping in Ambleside for new winter coats etc. via the Windermere steamer. Best place about for any stuff like that.

Wednesday the weather wasn't so good so we headed to Kendle to look at the castle and around the shops then went back to Keswick for a typical Furtheron family afternoon tea! We spend more time on holiday finding tea shops to get my 11am coffee and 3pm tea than anything else!

Thursday was a long trip to the Ravenglass and Eskdale railway, a narrow gauge (15") line similar to the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch railway but up some lovely valleys to a little hamlet called Boot. We walked up the valley a bit then saw an old water mill there that still works. Now here is a thought, the miller said that due to 21st century food standards it is not clean enough to make flour for human consumption. That building has been a mill since 1578 - they have the list of all the millers up until the last one died in 1924. Nearly 400 years and now they say it isn't safe? Also you sometimes look at this stuff and wonder if our so called 20th and 21st century progress really is progress at all - this thing has produced flour to feed people for 400 years and produced absolutely no carbon emissions in all that time - totally renewable energy...

Friday we went for a sail on Ullswater to Pooley Bridge and had a couple of short walks (my knees were somewhat better now!).

Then the 300 something mile drive home which wasn't too bad until the nightmare that is the QE2 bridge! I normally go M40 and round the southern M25 but the M40 was closed due to a crash as we got to the M42 junction on the M6 so decided to go M6, M1 etc. Still we were home, car not unpacked but drinking a cup of tea before 4:30pm! :-)

Now back to work :-( Still I start my new job, which I'm so excited about at the university in a month

Back from hols

2011-08-27T18:34:00.000+01:00

I will give a breakdown in due course but had a great time in the Lake District, did a ridiculous (for us) fell walk, went on lake steamers, etc. Had a great time, beautiful part of the world and get this... whilst it was storm warnings and chucking with rain in the south we only had one day with a bit of rain... truly! The Furtheron family lucked in clearly :-)

Curved balls and luck

2011-08-19T10:40:00.000+01:00

I wrote on this here blog not 3 weeks ago about how I had landed a new job that was a similar commute to my old job (and current assignment) but was a perm job in one location without the hassle of a consultants "might be anywhere next month" concerns. Well err.. I got offered another job this week. I am so privileged. I read, hear, see plenty on the news that this recession we are in is hard for people and unemployment is rising and many are really struggling to find any employment and here is me now with a job with a company that don't want me to leave but which I have a major lifestyle choice issue with, another company locally offering a really good job and now a really exciting opportunity in London!

I'm taking the London based one - firstly it is right in the centre and a few mins walk from a terminus with a regular service from my local station. It is with a top university and is at ground zero today - i.e. they are transforming their IT function and have started to create the new one from the top down, I'm the next in at the management layer and have to define the shape, strategies, culture etc. of an entire new group. Working with top notch researchers in many disciplines is going to be a challenge but also what a fantastic environment to be privileged to be in.

I am very very blessed at the moment. Luckily as well this has all come through just before we head off to the Lakes for a family break together - so I can go into that relaxed that I have a future shape that fits me very well and will provide me with some unbelievable opportunities.

There is also a bit of irony around this for me. I never went to uni myself, I flunked at A levels through starting the course late due to a daft idea to try and get a job at 16 which my Dad finally talked me out of, then I was only there until the big record contract was landed with the band, so too much time spent playing the guitar than working and finally I didn't really pick the right subjects for me. But the one A level I did get got me into a training scheme with a local firm and a place on an HND course in Computer Studies... always been a bit of a chip on my shoulder that I'm not a graduate, and I know I've been rejected for jobs even now in my late 40s because of that. And now here I am joining a leading university as part of the IT management team - I should lay that monkey totally to rest shouldn't I? A dear friend and old boss of mine is similar - i.e. came from working class background and no university... he made it to VP in my old company and reports to the CIO in a worldwide respected very high profile organisation whose opinions are considered globally when given. So anyone out there who knows someone who is struggling to find a placement after A levels - point them at us two, you can achieve without a degree you know. :-)

A couple of CD Reviews - Yes, Fly From Here and Journey Eclipse

2011-08-16T09:10:00.000+01:00

I've had a big of an influx of new CDs lately so am going to do a few catch up reviews.

Yes - Fly From Here.

The first new Yes studio album since Magnification which was fully 10 years ago when that was released only the second Yes album to not feature Jon Anderson on lead vocals the first being Drama back in 1980 - which is now fully 31 years ago!

So what is the story then... Yes was restored to the "classic" line up of Jon Anderson vocals, Steve Howe guitar, Chris Squire bass, Rick Wakeman keyboards, Alan White drums back in 2002 when the embarked on a lengthy 35th anniversary tour - there is a good DVD available of a show from San Fransisco for anyone interested in that. The group then took a break when they decided to get back together Jon Anderson was unable to commit due to some health issues with his throat. Rick Wakeman was not prepared for big long tours and didn't want to have anything to do with it with out Jon Anderson... so he left to be replaced by his son Oliver whilst Yes recruited Benoit David to replace Anderson. Benoit having been spotted in a Yes tribute band on Youtube. So back on the road playing the old stuff to the faithful.

Quick rewind... after the album Tormato in 78 Jon and Rick both left then saying that the band had lost direction and wasn't operating as a unit. Then Yes recruited to many peoples surprise The Buggles, Geoff Downs and Trevor Horn to replace them and produced the Drama album. To be honest I always thought that a much maligned album, it had some real highlights, I also saw them at Hammersmith on that tour and it wasn't the shambles I saw reported in some reviews. Poor Trevor Horn took the main beating but he isn't Jon Anderson and was never trying to be - but a passionate Yes fan he has always been. Aftert the Drama tour they disbanded and Geoff and Steve went on to form Asia whose first album is still a fav of mine. Chris and Alan teamed up with Trevor Rabin and started a band called Cinema but when Chris played Jon their demos Jon loved and joined with old keyboard man Tony Kaye and the 90125 album propelled Yes back into the limelight with the radio friendly single Owner of a Lonely Heart... who produced that album... Trevor Horn.

Why all the history... it is in some ways relevant!!!

So put Fly From Here into the old CD player and... instant Yes, the interplay of Steve Howe with Chris Squires clangy bass is undeniably Yes from the get go. Always surprises me that Steve Howe had two very distinct signature sounds one in Yes one in Asia a very very talented man. Then to the vocals - hello that is different yet reminiscent of something. We move on in the tracks... by now I'm scanning the lyrics and sleeve notes etc.

So the line up for this album is Howe, Squire, White (of course) with David on vocals but the Wakeman family name has departed (except for Oliver having provided some additional keyboards on a smattering of tracks) to be replaced with Geoff Downs fresh from last years reunion of the original Asia line up with Howe.

Again it is tugging at me... then the penny drops. This sounds more like Drama than other Yes albums. Hang on who wrote some of this stuff... a name appears Horn who produced it... Horn. Even the picture of the crusties (excluding the out of place youthful David!) has in the middle a grey haired Trevor Horn.

The main "track" is Fly From Here - it was written by Horn and Downs in the Drama sessions but never made the cut for the album but was in the subsequent tour - if that line up had done a follow up album it'd been on it. Well in essence that is what you have here - the 30 years later follow up to Drama just with David doing a Horn impersonation not an Anderson one. The way the lyrics/vocal lines scan are very reminiscent of the Drama material. There are some additional tracks on including a nice solo acoustic signature piece by Mr Howe again.

If you like Yes and thought the Drama album was good/ok then this is a great followup. If you were in the Buggles haters stay away. Is it Yes... without a doubt the sound is Yes but with a different take - a bit like having a coffee with a shot of some flavour added to it... the same but with a different aftertaste. If you like other prog like early Genesis etc. at least give it a listen - I still feel that bands like this knock the socks of much of the rest of stuff about despite their aging looks...

I like it quiet a lot but as I say I wasn't disappointed with the Drama album - Tempus Fugit is a great song. Geoff Downs is a really good keyboard player as his work in Asia subsequently showed.

I got the version with the DVD which then goes into some depth explaining the decision largely between Chris Squire and Trevor Horn to dig out Fly From Here and give it a real big prog polish up.

Journey - Eclipse

So from one band that replaced their singer with one from a tribute band... to another! Wasn't this trend started by Judas Priest some years back if I remember rightly.

I bought this as it was the only thing I could afford in Harrods the other week! Well not totally true I'd heard the lead track City of Hope on Planet Rock a few times and one other track and was impressed enough to think - once I see it going well under a tenner I'll get it. And I'm glad I did.

This is a very very good if very very classic Journey album. Honestly you almost listen to the first few tracks and wonder what old albums they were on - a bit Journey derivative then? Possibly but then if you have a signature sound why not use it. City of Hope is an excellent starter - the drum sound is for me well worthy of mention - top notch driving beat. Edge of the Moment, Tantra and Resonate also stand out.

Arnel Pineda sounds so like Steve Perry at times it is scary! Really it is! Funny the one difference in these two album reviews that stands out is that Beniot David is not trying to be Jon Anderson at all on the Yes album - as I say he sounds more like Trevor Horn but here Arnel really is Steve Perry reincarnate. What the hell does that mater with an album as good as this - I do feel a bit of sadness for Steve Augeri who was ousted to make way but then he return to Tall Stories with my friend on drums and made a bloody good 20 years later followup album Skyscraper... that is worth checking out too.

Neal Schon gets some stick around the internet etc. as a bit of a megalomaniac etc. but his playing on this album is a complete a - z lesson in stadium rock. He doesn't put a finger wrong and has great tone throughout - he is using PRS single cuts and Blackstar 100W amps I believe mostly at the moment... trust me on the evidence of this I'm inclined to mortgage my kids to get the same set up!

An Oasis of beauty

2011-08-15T09:19:00.001+01:00

In all the horrible stuff of the past few days which continue - I had to switch off the radio again on the way to work this morning as whilst I do care about the issues relating to the riots I have recognise my own limits on this stuff so Rodrigo y Gabriela Live in Paris went on the CD player... much more nourishing for my soul. (Reminds me I owe the readers of this august blog a whole bunch of CD reviews). So that was the first thing but more majorly I went to a wedding yesterday and it was lovely in all kinds of way.

Firstly the wedding was an old friend of ours, a second marriage for both parties both with families from the previous one. The great spirit in which you could see these two families joining as one was fantastic. The love between the bride and groom was palpable throughout the day. The setting was fantastic, a lovely country hotel just outside Bristol in the South Gloustershire countryside, the weather was gorgeous. Sadly earlier this year my friends mother passed away and there was a great poignancy to part of the day that she wasn't there - that took my back to 1985 when my wife and I married, in a similar setting, country hotel setting for the reception etc. My Dad sadly had died in the October the year before and there was a great feeling of someone not being there that should have been but knowing in spirit he was.

As we slogged back up the M4, M25 etc. last night I was thinking that that is what life is all about. The ups and downs of it, the set backs and the leaps forward but in all yesterday was totally about love. The grooms two sons in their early 20s did a joint speech at the reception which reflected their Dad's character in great comic style but with such love.

Sorry to go all sloppy on here but I really did feel overwhelmed with it all yesterday and did feel that too often the bad and the ugly is the emphasis in daily life rather than the good and the love. Silly little aside postscript to exemplify what I mean, England have trounced the Indians in the test series and rightly are now at the head of the Test rankings table - we won the 20:20 world cup (shortest form of the game) and are now kingpins in the longest form as well. Already within a day or so the English media is saying "how can England stay on top?" - see negative instantly it isn't pressworthy if it isn't. It can be demoralising - I think I should turn the radio off more, listen to more music more and look for the positivity in the world not the negativity. I think it is fantastic England are the top of the test table - bring on the last Indian test (at the Oval in London this coming Thursday through to next Monday), let us hope it is another game England win in emphatic style inside 4 days like the last two.

equilibrium restored...

2011-08-12T11:33:00.000+01:00

I have to be honest my equilibrium was a bit awry at the beginning of the week. I know some of this was due to the riots - it really did affect me emotionally, I was frankly scared, I don't think for my own personal safety/wellbeing but for my countries, my communities etc. I still feel that there is much much more to be learnt from all this. Sadly there was a protest at the start of this that may have had something political, something about social inequality and about how we communicate with groups and society. But the vast majority of what has been shown is just wanton looting, theft, violence and causing damage for damage sake. Then to try to justify this people talk about the lack of opportunity and that they were trying to take from the rich. Lost on that argument - why were you attacking shops owned by people in your own communities then? Even attacking the large conglomerates makes no sense in that argument as the people who will suffer are the store managers and employees if that company decides that they'd rather not suffer the inevitable insurance price hikes, increased cost of security etc... so they close and people in your community are out of work. Baffled by it all. I think there is a point about how society today glorifies possessions and greed and consumerism and that young people without work feel victimised. However the list of people being convicted includes many with adequate jobs. Times are hard for people but everyone has a choice to make? Do this and harm people or don't and don't harm people. Maybe some better education about love and respect is due - and please don't make that a compulsory flipping GCSE with target grades for various areas - that isn't what is needed at all!

So anyways - I feel a bit better about it all - somewhat as I've now analysed what I can and come to my opinions on the matter and also realise I can do this and that but generally little else to help - I can't don a superman outfit and fix it all which is what I'd have love to have done the other night as I watched the reports of the spread of it coming in.

So the good things in life... England doing so well in the cricket, the Radio4 long wave commentary of the cricket, I'm off to a friends wedding this weekend, knowing where my kids were on the nights in question and that they weren't involved at all, whatever may happen in the country I'm still a darn sight better off here than in much of the rest of the world, being sober, having opportunities, having love in my life, ... in all my life is good at the moment ... and I'm back on a more level keel... :-)

Great recovery post

2011-08-11T16:55:00.000+01:00

Fantastic post on recovery I'd recommend it to anyone who has an addiction problem esp. alcohol or anyone who comes into contact with addicts/alcoholics. Short, to the point and very eloquently written...

http://infactorium.blogspot.com/2011/08/program-benefits.html

England's week of shame

2011-08-10T16:56:00.000+01:00

I've been debating whether to blog on the riots but given it is occupying more of my headspace than I'd like it to I clearly should.

I've not been in anyway as yet directly affected by it. There was small scale disturbances near to us Monday night with some cars and bins burnt but our local police pinned the blame on a group who had travelled into our towns deliberately and had arrested what they reported to be the majority of them.

So how do I feel about the riots? Angry? Yes. Sad? Yes. Confused? Most definitely.

My vision of it is that this is not about the shooting in Tottenham but what has happened is that the police's inability to deal with that and the looting and mayhem that ensued there has led others to realise that this is a great way to commit crime with I believe they think little chance of being caught. The police should have dealt better with it earlier - I don't underestimate the difficulty of that but it spread since they were seen as ineffectual. I hear some say this is about race? I don't see that at all - it could well be about inequality, a society where the glamorous and mega-rich are paraded in front of people daily in the press, the magazines the "reality TV shows", etc. Many kids see high unemployment, services that hit them being cut and no interest from the politicians. The local council cut a scheme for 10/11 year old kids near us, my daughter now 15 had been on that and was incensed. She wrote a well written critical email and sent it to our ward councillor who also is our MP. Guess what? He never even acknowledged it's receipt or replied - she hasn't the vote for the next 3 years and statistically is unlikely to vote once 18 anyway so presumably she isn't worthy of his time. Then politicians stand up on TV and say, we need to understand why these kids are disaffected... LISTEN TO THEM!!! TALK TO THEM!!!

Sadly the last few days will have changed England for a long time to come, possibly for ever. People are calling for more robust policing - good idea perhaps, but remember the G20 and the criticism of their actions then and the "kettling" of student protesters. When we have protests on the streets again on a matter of great national debate will we be calling for robust policing them? But how can the police quickly decide between the two? I'm glad I'm not a policeman today I can tell you that.

There is no simple sound bite answer to all of this but I do feel that the avaricious, wealth, celebrity focused society we have now is one of the major faults. We need kids to believe again - now cutting out of school activities since the politicians, who remember were not so long ago widely exposed to be feathering their own nests with the expenses scandal, tell them the country needs to save money when the debts are so mind bogglingly big makes no sense to them. We need to stop teach kids to GCSE grade targets and teach them about life, living, caring, love, community etc.

I am very impressed by the broom wielding people who have got out and helped clear up - shame that isn't the front page rather than the looted shops and burnt out cars.

Gig Review - Iron Maiden The O2 5-Aug-2011

2011-08-08T16:57:00.000+01:00

One of Son-of-Futheron's 21st birthday "treats" was for us to both go and see Iron Maiden live at The O2. Fortunately over the last few years they seem to have either toured very close to his birthday or Christmas making some of the present buying simple!

For once this was quiet a straight forward set from the boys, in that there were a few tracks off the latest album and then a bunch of classics thrown in - given other tours have seen them playing "Only tracks from the first four albums", "One tracks from the last four albums", The Powerslave tour set, the entire A Matter of Life and Death album etc.

Anyway - as ever Maiden didn't disapoint with a big grand space ship style set and from the word go it was classic Maiden. Steve Harris in front of the monitors thumping away on his bass, Dave Murray and Adrian Smith in usual poses - i.e. Dave with flowing hair and solos a plenty and Adrian with his odd little robot like feet action... of course stage right as you looked at them Janick Gers was straight into his demented marrionet mode - how he moves like that and plays a guitar is beyond me! Nicko kept perfect time from behind the enormous kit and lord of the stage Bruce was in fine voice and running about like a nutter as well.

Interesting fact... Dave Murray has a sig model available from Fender but he doesn't use it at all and in fact in this set used a Les Paul for several numbers - Adrian Smith used his signature Jackson on a few but predominantly his battered old Les Paul Deluxe goldtop... Mr Gers stuck to his usual brace of battered Strats.. and he is the only one of the group not honoured with a Fender signature model, hardly seems fair seeing he has apparently more loyalty to the big F than the others - well except Steve Harris who used his Precision complete with West Ham logo throughout.

Highlights... 'strewth too many to mention... El Dorado off the new album was really good, 2 minutes to midnight, Fear of the Dark, Wicker Man and The Trooper but frankly wholes thing still shows that Maiden continue at the top of their game. Long may they continue to as well!

Busy times

2011-08-08T09:39:00.000+01:00

I was off work for two whole days to celebrate my sons 21st birthday. Thursday we went to the cabinet war rooms in London. Very interesting place, actually the huge museum on Churchill's life was the biggest interest for me. How can one man have done so much in his life? He was instrumental in the introduction of some of major social reforms in this country - namely national insurance, state pensions and labour exchanges. Then of course all the first world war stuff and of course the second world war... what an utterly amazing man.

Lunch was at The Hard Rock Cafe... the original in London. I was defeated by the huge portion that was piled on the plate! We ended the day getting throughly ripped off by having a cup of tea/coffee in Harrods. Mrs F is still mumbling about the £20 bill for the four of us. We declined having scones which were over £8 each!!!

Friday the crack decorating team of Mrs F and Son-of-Furtheron who had completed all the painting of Daughter-of-Furtheron's revamped bedroom called in yours truly to complete the wallpapering... it all looks really good I can't wait to see her reaction when she gets back from Turkey early tomorrow morning.

Saturday was a shopping day and then Sunday we went to Brands Hatch to watch the British Superbikes which was a really good day out too with Son-of-Furtheron trying out the new camera we had bought him for his birthday. I know little about these things but it has 18megapixles... which sounds like a lot and the quality of the stuff he showed me last night was brilliant.

Next weekend Mrs F and I are off to a friends wedding near Bristol. Then the weekend after that the Furtheron family jaunt to the Lake District will be under way!! Busy, busy, busy

Something about guitars!!!

2011-08-03T18:01:00.000+01:00

You know that despite the august title of this blog there has been previous little about guitars on here lately. Actually I've consider starting a new blog with the title "None the bloody wiser frankly" given that is often how I feel as I get older.

Anyway - some guitar stuff...

I was reading this months copy of Guitarist. They had a review of some new Yamaha Pacifica models - namely the Pacifica 611HFM, the 510V and the 311H. Now the 611 and 311 are very similar just the 611 has Semour Duncan pickups, better h/w and a flame maple veneer top. I've played one or two Pacifica's over the years and always been impressed with them, also I'm a Yamaha steel string acoustic nut owning currently three different models! I'd love an old SG as well (don't start Colin I know yours is for sale but just because I'd love to buy your beauty doens't mean I can justify it either to myself or the wealth distribution management oversight committee of Mrs F and Daugther-of-Furtheron who always have conflicting priorities).

What I like about these models is that they are a bit different from the norm. 611 is fixed bridge with a tapped humbucker in the bridge and a P90 at the neck. Cool. I did have a Les Paul Special for a while with P90s having determined I needed a P90 loaded guitar but found I never settled with it and it went when the PRS joined the stable.

However the 510v that I really like the look of. Single humbucker stratalike shape with a vibrato... hmm remind you of the 80s? Indeed but the pickup is the very cleaver Semour Duncan p-rails one which attempts (quite well by all accounts) to capture a humbucker, single coil and P90 sound all in one humbucker sized unit. Yamaha claim in the review that they have exclusive OEM rights to the trembucker sized variant of this now - i.e. the pole pieces are in the right place for Fender like trem string spacing at the bridge position.

Here's a very seductive picture of one in a little red number... they have a nice looking all black number available too...

Also in review was the new Fret King Jerry Donahue signature guitar. A Tele derivative obviously but with some interesting electrics, slightly modified shape on the bottom and the top horn and clever Trev Wilkinson hardware, just look at those bridge saddles - neat. I read the review of this and wasn't surprised that the guitar came out well I've played some Fret Kings and been impressed and JD wouldn't put his name on any old tat. However I assumed this would be in the expensive Fret King range, you know £1,200plus, competing with Fender Standards and Deluxes from the USA. But... £600!!! WHAT! Bargain surely - ok it is Korean assembled but I think today we can all dismiss those fears and ESPs ltd series which are throughly superb guitars are Korean made but now appearing around the £1000 mark.

It got me thinking... I have a collection of axes but it has in it ... a Strat, A Les Paul, a PRS CE22 - all a bit bloody predicatble isn't it. Ok the Peter Cook is out in the left field and the Gordon Smith is slightly pushing against the norm a little... although it is the single cut varient - trust me when I say that search started with the intention of buying a double cut "classic" GS shape but when I played the "60" I now own I feel in love - even my wife who suffered that buying expedition said she knew in seconds of me noddling on it that I'd buy that one. Makes me wonder if I shouldn't try out something like these guys and dispense with the obvious options.

the debt ceiling... or stop the world I want to get off

2011-08-03T09:26:00.003+01:00

Finally the USA government have raised the debt ceiling - I have no idea if that is a good or a bad idea, frankly because I can't even get my head around the numbers. It was raised by $2.4tn... tn? Yes not m (million) not bn (billion) but a trillion. What is a trillion? It is 12 zeros. 12 zeros!!! Let us write out that number long hand then...

$2,400,000,000,000

The mind boggles I can't really cope with that the number is in my simple brains terms stonkingly big. Oh note that was the incremental rise, i.e. that was how much extra they wanted to borrow. Go to your bank and ask to raise your overdraft by that amount!!! The new USA federal government debt is therefore now $16.7tn. The mind boggles. Frankly what the hell do they spend it on? Trying to visualise this in my head led me to think the opposite about small things - say an atom. (Dubious research note here - I got a lot of this info off Yahoo Answers). 250,000,000 atoms all lined up is apparently 1 inch so 16.7tn atoms is 66,800 inches which is just over a mile. Given you or I have never seen an atom with our naked eye that is amazing!

The whole thing is completely funny money. I have worked for large companies before one of which once completed a take over of a rival for somewhere north of $60bn which is a number I can't compute in my head. But $16.7tn -

$16,700,000,000,000

sorry brain overload point.

Here's the next funny thing with it. Who is this money owed to? Some commercial banks... but hang on who bailed them all out a couple of years ago. So the government borrows money from the banks to prop the banks up? Well in some ways... er... yes. But some is owed to other countries, i.e. China is owed 6% of the USA debt. So if the USA didn't pay up could the Chinese send in the bailiff to ask for "goods and property to the value of"? I think that means they can have Rhode Island and Minnesota (give or take)!

But now here's the best bit I heard on the radio that over 50% of this debt is owed to the pension funds since they want a fair chunk of their money in rock solid investments that will only go up not down and which the debtor has the highest credit rating you could hope for. So who owns the pension funds? Surely it is the people as the money is for them and deposited by them or on their behalf by the company they work for. So the government really owes all this money to the people - the people that they are taxing to pay back the debt. Confused?!

What an utter mess. How the hell will they ever ever be able to pay it all back but if they say "you know what we can't pay this" then modern society meltdown. Although part of me wonders if that wouldn't be a bad thing and we all just stop and look at how we are using the greatest technological age of man to date and stand back from it all. People again dying in Africa - we pour more food in there for the timebeing but is the answer to invest in a new agriculture model there... or is the answer to strip down the artificial national boundaries created by Europe's land grabbing greed in the past and allow them to go back to a truly nomadic life without boundaries? People dying in Syria to get the right to write a blog like this, but the rest of the world decides this one isn't our issue - why is this different from Libya? Blah blah blah you could go on all day.

Luckily today I don't have to worry about it. I'm alright, my daughter is in Turkey having a great time, her room is being decorated by a crack team of decorators (Mrs F and Son-of-Furtheron), I have my own money in the bank so I don't owe anyone, anywhere a single penny at the moment - funny that was how my Dad brought me up - shame the politicians parents didn't instil the same discipline in them :-) Tomorrow is Son-of-Furtheron's 21st birthday - 21!!! where have the years gone? And we're off to London for a day out I believe.... Friday I go to see Iron Maiden with my son ... and life is bloody great really. What is a few trillion dollars between friends after all?

Moving on

2011-08-01T10:50:00.001+01:00

Bad Company - first album, Moving On one of my favourite tracks of theirs however that isn't the point of this post...

I can reveal that the life changing event alluded a post of two back is actually not that interesting... I've got a new job that is all. Just couldn't post that on here until those that needed to be told were told, not that any of them have probably any clue about this blog but I just thought that people needed to be told confidentially first. Anyways all sorted now...

I've landed a local - well as local as my old long term job and current assignment - i.e. about 40 mile commute - IT project manager role with a well known and respected company. It'll remove the stress of wondering where the next assignment will be and no longer have to face any weekly or long term working away from home.

It isn't that there is any problem with my current employer, nice company, lovely people and interesting work for the most part but I just hated the being away from home when required. However looks like the new company has a much stricter policy on acceptable use of the web and browsing blogs at lunchtime may be off the menu.

Other stuff in the Furtheron household has been that we have had the pleasure of Son-of-Furtheron's girlfriend staying the last week. S-of-F was giving her the tourist trip around our neck of the woods, Whitstable, Canterbury, Rochester then up to London for a day - I think the girl will be glad to have a break away from his breakneck tourism :-)

Daughter-of-Furtheron returned from Spain with new skills under her belt, I need to buy a boat apparently as she is an expert sailor now she reckons and one day as a snorkeling session finished the options were to walk back over a load of rocks or swim open water about 1500m across the bay directly back to the town. She was the only one who took the second option and beat them all back and one of the instructors admitted to being mighty impressed. Anyway she is off to the other end of the Med today to Turkey on the holiday with her friends family.

We had a big family BBQ in the garden on Saturday for S-o-F's impending 21st. It had to be this weekend rather than next which would be closer as D-of-F will be in Turkey! Great time, many laughs and great food etc and the weather was good for us as well so it was an afternoon in the sun for us all.

Mrs F and I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary quietly as well this week, that was a day! Anniversary, I picked up a new car I'd bought, told the client that I was leaving in September, D-of-F arrived home from Spain... and... well something else might have happened that day, all a bit of a blur!

Disaster!!!

2011-07-29T12:53:00.000+01:00

So the announcement that F1 will be "shared" with BSkyB and BBC next year is a massive blow for me. Anyone who follows this blog will know I like racing, F1 in particular. But now a quick trip to the BSkyB site tells me I have to fork out basically £40 a month or £50 if I want HD so I can watch F1 every other weekend (on average). Flipping heck - £600 a year! And to a company in the Murdoch News Corp empire - well enough in that I have to date in my stand against his dominance of the media steadfastly refused to deal with.

Now the dilemma - fork out the money and bite my lip about my reservations about how a company like News Corp operates or stand up for my beliefs and forgo watching one of my favourite sports.