If you love “Trains to Brazil” by the Guillemots as much as I do, then you really really ought to go listen to the next single “We’re Here” which is simply beautiful. Trust me, strings and everything. Watch the video at nme (Registration Required)
Skiing was one of the few things that I’ve never had the chance to do but really wanted to try. So yesterday (unaffected by the winter Olympics) I had a skiing lesson out at the ‘dry’ ski slope at Warmwell.
Now I’m not totally in the know about dry ski slopes, but I would imagine that as the name suggests, they’re just a little bit less wet than real snow. I also seem to remember that they’re made of a large meshy material. Not here. This slope was formed of what can only be described as Astroturf on miracle grow with sprinklers sticking up through it, which were almost constantly spraying water. Now this may be all very well when you’re moving, but when you’re stood still most of the time because you’re listening to the instructor (and because to move is to risk ending up on the floor), the sprinklers around your feet start to get just a little bit annoying.
So after an hour of mostly standing around, mixed with a bit of trying to remain stood up and a little bit of movement in a downhill direction (which I’d like to think I was getting the hang of by the end), my jeans (I know, poor decision, but I was told it was ‘dry’) were rather soaked.
Still it was great fun and I’ve love to do it again. However, I might just change tack and opt for using a snowboard instead. No, I’m not trying to look cool, rather as I’m already planning to learn to windsurf, I was kind of hoping some of the ideas might be transferable.
Oh and to actually ski on real snow would be quite nice too.
So, what are Apple announcing? Could it be my new Mac Mini? Could it be my new iPod? Cound it be both? Can Tuesday come quickly enough?
Yesterday it snowed, well sleeted, all day. But no sooner had each flake touched the ground, then it was gone and only wet smudge marked it’s life. Being a child at heart, I was really dissapointed that it didn’t stay around, just for a bit, so that I could appreciate it in a way that just can’t be done while sitting in a course.
So I was actually quite excited during my drive to work this morning to see a covering of snow on the top of the purbeck hills. So after the friday afternoon early finish, the camera was grabbed, the coat and hat were donned and I went up onto Grange Hill to be a bit creative with the camera and to throw a snowball or two at my brother. The photos will appear on the photos page just as soon as I’ve dealt with them. Until then be content with the above image.
This post was originally intended to introduce the next stage in the catch evolution, but this kind of got overtaken. In summary, you’ll notice that this is the only post being shown on the frontpage. I wanted to make the page size smaller, so what I’ve done is to cut down the number of displayed posts, added a list of the 5 most recent posts at the bottom of every page and put some serious work into the archives, which I’ve always ignored. My hope is that you’ll read the frontpage post and then go trawling through the archives or visit one of the pages in the menu. It’s still in a state of flux and I’m always open to opinions, but lets have a go with this for a bit.
Edit 25/02: The photos are now available in the out and about album.
We’d just come 3rd (joint 2nd) in the pub quiz thanks to some lucky guesses in the multiple choice Football Years round and some random knowledge accumulated from watching the adverts during Due South on itv3. We got back in the car, I started the engine, selected reverse gear, took the hand brake off and, it didn’t move, it wouldn’t move, not an inch.
When the recovery truck arrived 40 cold wet minutes later, it was moving a little. The handbrake still felt stiff. Oh and there was still the little point of the noise the it made whenever it moved further than a foot. So, at half past midnight, I left my little car outside the local garage (where I’m sorry to say a fair few of our cars have sat after breaking down at some point) where it still sits now. When they’ve got a spare minute, the garage will have a look. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious (or that new bedroom furniture is going out the window, ok, it’s going to stay in the shop). Hopefully any parts are quick to come by. Otherwise I’ll be stuck…
…with my parents spare car! So not as bad as it could be then.
Update 21/02/06 - The brake shoes are fixed, my car is back!
Apparently he can play up front and in goal when needs be. So we lost but the lad is a star.
After a pretty quiet start to the year as far as new music goes, things (unlike the weather) are starting to warm up a bit.
First on the list are Brighton band The Kooks with their debut album ‘Inside In/Inside Out’. It’s up tempo pop/rock with a little twist and it’s great. I’m pleased to say that they’ll be appearing at this years Isle of Wight Festival (June 9-11, go get tickets).
Next up is the ‘The Life Pursuit’, the nth album from Belle & Sebastian. Continuing their trademark pop/folk style, it’s the first new album I’ve heard this year which brings up images of being outside in the summer. If you’ve liked their previous material or have been swaying happily to the single ‘Funny Little Frog’ then you’ll enjoy this album, from a band who are slowly leaving behind the occasional play on certain radio 1 shows for the happy little mainstream world of radio 2.
They may not be quite right for the office presentation, but these 25 Free Grunge Fonts might just come in useful at one point.
I’ll only say this once. If this is what a potential video ipod will look like, can I order one now?
In honour of last night Brit Awards, I present the winners with my own highly sarcastic added comments.
British male solo artist (The award for being James Blunt):
James Blunt
British female solo artist (we asked 100 members of the public to name a British female solo artist, only 10 could think of one and they all said…):
KT Tunstall
Be honest, you know that this is the google logo don’t you? But look at it closely, there aren’t even any o’s. If you had never heard of the big g and you were looking at google for the first time (you could be an alien for example), would you not assume that they were called “gugle”? It’s so hard coded into our brains that we don’t see what’s really there anymore. Scary, no?
You may have noticed that having restored the basic structure of Catch after it’s slight holiday, I’ve made yet another little tweak to the styling. What I’ve done is combined elements from both the last 2 ‘designs’. This was done because, 1) I was getting bored of the dodgy snowflake graphics and 2) because any serious redesign of the site gets less and less likely by the day.
I honestly thought the Mark and Lard’s “American Sports Network” sketches were made up until I read the BBC’s report of last night’s superbowl containing these lines:
Seattle had the better of the first half, but ended it 7-3 down after a controversial touchdown by Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Willie Parker then ran in a 75-yard score, setting a Super Bowl record.
And although Jerramy Stevens gave the Seahawks hope, Antwaan Randel El sealed the win by executing a brilliant trick play to MVP Hines Ward in the endzone.
anyone care to explain?
There are times this week when I’ve pronounced this song as “the best song ever”. For the sake of staying out of the firing line, I’ll instead declare that this is “the best new track I’ve heard in a long long time”.
Who are these ‘guillemots’ you may ask? If you had read my ‘Sounds of 2006′ post you’d know, so I won’t repeat it here. The track itself falls into the increasing trend of ‘feel good indie-pop’. After hearing it a couple of times I found that I couldn’t stop humming it. Now everytime I listen to it, I get a great big smile across my face. It’s become one of the tracks that I have to listen to with the volume turned up (and there aren’t too many of them!)
Go one, go to www.guillemots.com, give it a couple of listens and tell me I’m wrong!
Catch is still recovering from it’s ordeal over the last week. The database should be back again, but don’t touch the photos as they won’t work. I know that the database reload has thrown the formatting of the posts (I’ve manually fixed those on the frontpage) and I know some pictures are still missing. I intend to fix everything in time.
The Explanation:
Last Wednesday I noticed that Catch was offline. As short outages of a couple of hours were not uncommon recently, I didn’t think anything of it. When the site still wasn’t back last Friday, I sent an email to my hosts requesting an explanation. When this Tuesday I had heard nothing and the site was still offline, I registered with new hosts and starting rebuilding the site. I still have no idea why the site went missing.
Let the rebuilding continue…
Updated 03/02/06