Election time blues

•April 25, 2010 • 1 Comment

So true, and as the UK election stumbles even closer I can’t help wondering whether the choice offered is essentially… Would you like a poke in the eye or a kick in the nuts? Please place your choice in the tickbox below.

Having said that as we’re having more of a 3 horse race at the moment you might want to add a 3rd option to the choice above, how about an elbow to the solar plexus. I don’t really have anything against Nick Clegg, but after all he’s still a politician.

While some people I know take what they say very seriously, they never get held to account after they’ve been elected so why even bother listening. In all fairness the only reason I would usually vote is to keep the BNP out of power but they’re not even running in my area. I suppose I should be thankful.

Love and Peace

Dataphiles

Transport police become thought police

•March 22, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Sometimes you read something that really makes you pissed

For me this is pretty much it …

Imagine the scene, you’re a young struggling musician sitting on a train trying to come up with some good track titles (which, from experience can be a really frustrating process) and start jotting down some existing song titles for inspiration. Say you choose amonst others All These Things That I’ve Done by The Killers and Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand. Then, the glorious British Transport Police escorts you off the train for ‘acting suspiciously’.

Honestly?

For me there are two major ironies in this… firstly if anyone was actually doing anything suspicious like say making an architectural drawing of a station or designing new type of bomb the BTS probably wouldn’t even care, they seem to spend all their time glowering at clubbers coming out of Farringdon station or stopping people knocking back a beer. Secondly, the fact that this has become so public might have given The Magic Mushrooms (the band involved) some free publicity. Unfortunately I cant find a web address so I can add to it (or rather there are rather a lot of bands called the magic mushrooms out there) so if anyone knows one please comment it below

Love and Peace

Dataphiles

d written down were The Killers‘All These Things That I’ve Done’, although he had simply written “killers” rather than the band’s full name. Another track written down was ‘Take Me Out’ by Franz Ferdinand.

26 hour days?

•February 26, 2010 • Leave a Comment

I’ve had some major issues with my sleep recently, even when I’ve been exhausted my body wants to stay awake too late. As if the day is too short to contain the amount of waking activities and sleep that I need.

Sometimes I wonder if my body clock would work better if the days were longer, I reckon 25-26 hours would be good. All I need to do is find a nice planet to live on with a suitable spin ;)

Alternately I could always become an eco campaigner … using tidal power actually slows down the earth’s spin, I reckon if everyone started using it in a millenium or two I’d be sorted

Love and Peace

Dataphiles

quietness

•February 24, 2010 • Leave a Comment

I haven’t really had much to write about recently, winter seems to have gone on forever.

I sometimes wonder how noisy the internet would be if it were like a room. All the hundreds of posts made every second clamouring together, so much information flying around. Trends starting and dying in a day.

Sometimes its nice to take a break from it, spend some time with real people in the real world, or spend some time being creative… whatever floats your boat.

I guess you can find anything on the internet but not everything

I think that’s enough random contemplation on my blog for one evening

Dataphiles

3 videos that blew me away

•January 28, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Recently I have felt that the stuff I’ve been seeing on youtube etc. has been a little lacklustre. Until I saw these beauties that is, and here they are for your enjoyment

Khoda -

This is conceptually as well as visually nuts, an entire short (5 min) film was made by making a painting for each frame, which might explain why it took so long to make. The resulting effect is honestly unlike anything else I’ve watched. I really like the soundtrack as well, full of dark motifs although it could have done with a bit of compression/limiting to stop it being quite as fluctuating in volume (the intro is deceptively quiet so don’t crack the volume up too much if whatching for the first time. Still thoroughly awesome and well worth the years put into it

The Blind painter -

Staying with the painting theme, this video is also incredible but for entirely different reasons. This guy has been blind since birth and can paint things that he feels accurately. I know it might look a bit long but it is really worth watching until the end of the vid… If you have any interest in how the human mind works, it’ll rock your world. The only thing it doesn’t tell you is how he does the colours.

Jean Yves Blondeau

This guy has been around for quite a while but everytime I see a new video with him in, it makes me smile. Essentially imagine attaching rollerblades to your entire body and hurling yourself down the sort of mountain road that would cause Jeremy Clarkson to spontaneously orgasm on camera… umm you get the picture. And if you don’t get the picture, just click on the video.

Hope you enjoyed

Love and Peace

Dataphiles

Different Flavours of Spam

•January 11, 2010 • 2 Comments

One of the joys of owning a blog, is having to deal with all of the spam comments that are posted here. Although Akismet deals with  most of them, there are usually a few waiting around whenever I log in.

Some of them I delete instantly… I’m assuming that anyone who’s reading this would be able to find nude pictures of Miley Cyrus, Kim Kardashian (whoever she is) or Brittney without having to resort to scanning through the comments of a music blog. Likewise I’m sure that a bar is probably a better location to find hot available singles in your area than my website.

Some of it though I am sometimes tempted to keep up, either its some vaguely harmless self-promotion, or just downright funny. Spam poetry is always a particular favourite of mine, I often wonder how they even come up with the stuff. The hardest to delete though are the misspelled complimentary ones, they are often quite touching, until you find the same comment posted on 5 other blogs, all linking to the same dodgy website.

Its just a shame that spammers often analyse websites for previous spamming to see if its vulnerable, so inevitably it all ends up being deleted.

Love and Peace

Dataphiles

On second thoughts

•January 10, 2010 • Leave a Comment

I’ve wished loads of people a good decade over the last week or so, but what decade is it?

‘The Noughties’ has got to be the worst name for a decade we’ve ever had (then again before the noughties we never had to really think about it)

What’re we going to call this one though: The Tens? The Teens? The Double Digits?

Personally I think all available options sound a bit rubbish, hopefully the quality of the years will be better than the quality of the name ;)

Love and Peace

Dataphiles

Normal service resumed

•January 10, 2010 • Leave a Comment

My old laptop died in comedy fashion (now turning it on just yields patterns of pretty colours), so I’ve been without internet for a while. My new one arrived in the post yesterday so normal service has resumed. All that’s left to say is to wish everyone a very happy 2010 and a successful decade

Love and Peace

Dataphiles

Smokeless Jazz??

•December 31, 2009 • Leave a Comment

I went to a Jazz club this evening, first time I’ve been since the smkoing ban. It was quite surreal to be able to fully see the acts, and the other people you’re crammed up against in proper Jazz club style. I’m not entirely convinced that coming out smelling of other people is better than smelling of smoke but hey, you tend to come out smelling of other people everywhere you go now.

Still the venue was pretty cool, going for a raised approach instead of underground, in quite surreal surroundings. So if you’re in Stoke-Newington and need a Jazz fix check out The Vortex

Love and Peace

Dataphiles

Two new tracks on the download page

•December 27, 2009 • Leave a Comment

Ever wondered what the best cure for some seasonal overindulgence is?

Put on some pumping electronica and dance it off!

To help you out I’ve added two new tracks to the download page. Dive in, a punky driven track and Exponent, a furious bosh with lots of digital distortion. Have a listen below …

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You may have noticed the download page has changed slightly, there are now only high quality downloads. So you can get these tracks in the format you want for the price you choose (even for free). Hope you enjoy

Love and Peace

Dataphiles