Took the once in a blue moon opportunity of going sledging this morning. Actually that's not correct, as a blue moon occurs every 2.72 years and we haven't had snow like this in the west country for about 14 years. So long ago in fact, that the sledge which I bought for my daughter seven years ago, hadn't been used.

Started off with a couple of runs on the deserted Netham recreation ground, on the bank leading down to the Feeder, then walked up the towpath of the River Avon towards Troopers' Hill. Found a good run starting from the base of the chimney, descending steeply in a channel, crossing over a path before ending up in a bramble bush. Half way down, there was a small ridge, enabling a nanosecond of flight if you got your speed up.

After a while I was joined by a few others, who noticed that I seemed to have found the best run, although their own slippy devices were no match for my purpose built technology from the plastic crap shop. They apologised for cramping my style and asked if my back was OK. I told them that it hadn't been to start with, but the sledging into bramble bush therapy was working a treat.

At one point, I upset a small dog, though not its red coated owner, who uttered words of encouragement as I careered across the other path en route to the prickly buffers. It's great how a bit of frozen precipitation can make people sociable. Later on, as I headed home, I passed the red coated woman on a narrow woodland path. Normally, I would have felt aware of being perceived as a potential threat. You know what it's like when you find yourself walking behind a woman late at night or in a secluded place. You try so hard to act normal and unthreatening that you actually make yourself appear more like a stalker. In this instance, the woman said hello and we exchanged a few words as I passed.

A bit further on, there was a white transit van blocking the pathway and I muttered a sarcastic, 'Oh, nice one !' as I approached. I don't know if he heard me, but out of nowhere, a young builder appeared and seeing me with a sledge he piped up, 'Someone's got the right ideal'. His cheery Bristolian disarmed me from my petty irritation at the parking violation.

Since starting to photographically document evidence of parking violations, blocked cycleways, etc. a while ago, I've noticed others in the city doing it, but rather than feeling solidarity, they've brought home to me how futile opposition is, given the apathy of the council and police towards enforcing the law. Pissing into the wind has its drawbacks. It's also reminded me of the potential for nasty confrontations, such as the time I got followed home by a maniac who heard me cursing him for parking on the pavement and forcing me out into the road with a pushchair.

Checked out St George's park on the way home, but the snow was already melting fast and I was more concerned by the sight of the demolished and fenced off play area, undergoing complete redevelopment. It only seems like yesterday since the last time it was renewed, but it appears that the council feel the need to close and redevelop quite a few play areas in parks around the city, possibly in response to even tighter health & safety regulations.

Back home by midday after a five mile round trip, chuckling as I read blogs by Londoners complaining of having to walk a couple of miles in the crippled capital. By the evening however, I was getting a bit tired of the BBC, who devoted 13 minutes of the 10 o'clock news in an overreaction to an entirely predictable weather occurrence - though it was awful to learn of the tragic death of a 16 year old in a sledging accident.

Leaving The Village

A shame that Patrick McGoohan has finally left the village, aged 80. He was the star and occasional writer / director of the cult 60s TV series The Prisoner, set in Portmeirion, an Italianate community designed by the architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, in north Wales. The original facade of Bristol Omnibus Station was dismantled, moved and rebuilt there. (Bottom right in photo)

In the late 80s I was lucky enough to spend a few days in one of Portmeirion's astonishing self catering chalets. My then girlfriend, a radical feminist who'd made me read Valerie Solanas' S.C.U.M. Manifesto (Society for Cutting Up Men) had been invited there by a couple of her friends and I was allowed to come too.

I took my bike on the train while my girlfriend went with the others by car. Perhaps there wasn't room for me ? Whatever, I remember taking the last part of the journey on the Blaenau Ffestiniog railway.



Portmeirion has since been used as the location for an episode of Doctor Who, Cold Feet and a Supergrass video. Paul McCartney and Jools Holland have both visited, the latter reportedly basing the design of his studio and home on that of the village. Patrick McGoohan, who turned down the role of the first James Bond, apparently not liking the way the character treated women, later appeared in Scanners, Braveheart an episode of The Simpsons and much more besides.

Be seeing you ; )

Blue Monday

How do you wake up ? Maybe your partner whispers softly in your ear, perhaps the kids, dog or cat come barging in, or the radio alarm goes off and John Humphries picks an argument. Any of those would be preferable to being woken at 6 a.m. by a 750cc motorbike starting up 20 metres from your head, the owner leaving the engine running for a good five minutes while he popped in and out of his house before roaring up the street, setting off car alarms.

After a crap start to the day, it didn't get much better. The gales had smashed an olive pot in the night, the queue at the bank was longer than I can ever remember, the grocer had run out of free range eggs, the bloke in the pet shop indulged the elderly woman for aions before serving me and it poured with rain, making cycling round this city of petrolheads a nightmare.

To be honest, I was in foul mood before I went to sleep. The tenants next door were shrieking and banging about at 1 a.m. and Guy Garvey had been a self-important prick on 6 Music, after an evening of repeats on the telly.

Psychologists with even more time on their hands than me, have deduced that the worst day of the year is around the 21st-24th January, so unless things are going to get worse, I've peaked ten days early.

Worst Day : Google

Still, I came across some excellent electronica from Sensiva a guy from the north of Russia whose album Giosun sounds a bit like Boards Of Canada and helped dry my bones.

Kulture

Stayed up last night and watched Snow Cake (2006) in which Sigourney Weaver plays a high functioning autistic woman whom Alan Rickman befriends after a tragic accident. A touching, well acted film, only spoilt by the presence of the Stereophonics during parts of the soundtrack / plot.

Fortunately, as an antidote, I'd earlier found Jazzflora - Scandinavian Aspect Of Jazz a compilation of brilliant contemporary Nordic jazz, some of which I've heard Gilles Peterson broadcast before, especially the marvellous Kuusumun Profeetta.

Being Sunday, later on the ubiquitous Stuart Maconie will be broadcasting his Freak Zone on BBC 6 Music, featuring Professor Justin Spear's University Of The Strange, which is always a better option than the Top 40 or Songs Of Praise.

Also got my head around The Bug - London Zoo which has half a million hits on MySpace and comes high on lists for last year's best albums, but had passed me by. I probably wasn't looking that way after everyone ranted about Burial the year before, which I found undynamic and dull.

Much less paranoid and more chilled and meditative are Swod whose album 'Sekunden' on the City Centre Offices label I got hold of lately. I've been listening to loads of ambient / drone during the last year and like the stuff with treated acoustic piano, although if it's the glitchy type, which sounds as if maybe the CD / mp3 is skipping, it's just annoying.

Genius

Not sure whose work of genius this is - not mine !

Love Nor Money

Mark Lawson had a good feature on Front Row (BBC R4) last night, in which he talked to representatives of the music industry, the PRS, PPL and commercial radio, about charges levied and royalties collected from radio broadcasts, including the requirement for workplaces in which employees listen to the radio to buy a licence.

Commercial radio and small business owners now argue that airplay constitutes promotion for bands and want to wriggle out of paying for licences. The PRS and PPL deny that airplay influences the public to buy music, either in the traditional record shop or by purchasing mp3 downloads, especially in today's economic climate and are desperate to hold on to their income streams, if only to preserve their very own existence.

In theory, artists receive a royalty each time their record is broadcast. The larger the listener catchment area and the higher the audience number, the greater the fee. Last time I checked, daytime airplay on national BBC Radio 1 would earn you about £75 a time. Trouble is, until shockingly recently, nobody kept full details of what was played and a method known (ironically) as sampling was used, in which the radio playlist for perhaps one day a week was analysed and extrapolated to give a figure for the week. In practice, this meant that your record could be played ten times a day, six days a week but you wouldn't receive a penny if they happened to have sampled details on the seventh day.

This system was great for the likes of the major label artist, your Madonnas and Take Thats and Phil Collinses, not to mention the royalty collection societies themselves, who had a good slice of pie, but the independent artist was left out in the cold. The sheer amount of paperwork involved in ensuring that everything was correctly registered with the relevant organisations was beyond most people and often, unscrupulous small labels would sign the rights to royalties over to themselves without the band knowing.

The era of the mp3 download has spelt disaster for the complacent suits at the MCPS/PRS alliance, who invited an instigator of the British occupation of Iraq, Geoff Hoon - of all people - to be the guest speaker at a recent AGM at Abbey Road, paid for out of the royalties and licence fees meant for artists. The independent artist, however, at last has the chance to earn an income from mp3 downloads which hasn't been picked over by half a dozen industry suits up the ladder and is no worse off than before.

Yet, there was a middle of the road songwriter, who also happened to have something to do with the PRS, bleating on Front Row last night about musicians and artists not being able to survive, tying in quite nicely with the series of programmes with Melvyn Bragg this week about evolution : If you can't survive, give up, roll over, there are plenty behind you who will continue to make music - have always made music - for no financial reward and very often, that's where you'll find the innovators, the talented, the fresh and those worth listening to. This guy really believed that unless songwriters got paid, there'd be no music.

Doh !

Technobabel

For once eBay wasn't the cheapest option when deciding what external hard drive to get. Maplin's are selling a 160 GB Trekstor for £34.99 so I trekked to the store (geddit) by bicycle, to get one - not before ringing up first to make sure they had some in stock and I wasn't going to waste a visit in sub zero temperature.

My PowerBook's only USB 1.1 and this is USB 2.0 so it's taking its time to have a dump. Still, it'll be good to have lots of space again and not have to compromise. I know I should only use it as a backup really, but I'm not going to go out and buy another one. I've already bought a different one for my daughter, which unbeknown to me, required two USB ports - hence I had to buy one of these ...



... a Pluscom 4 Port USB (though I actually got 2) on eBay for £3.50 each including postage, which a frozen postman brought this morning and as I write, doesn't seem to be working. It's supposed to be Mac OS X and USB 1.1 compatible and yet ? I'm hoping the other one will work on my daughter's old PC laptop, in combination with her external drive.

(UPDATE: Oh no ! This is turning into one of those lengthy, frustrating climbs up the learning curve - as I realise that USB 1.1 is hopelessly inadequate for both of us and I need to get a couple of USB 2.0 PCI Cardbuses, one for a Mac, one for a PC, both compatible with their respective machines and operating systems and both independently powered. There are cheaper unpowered ones around which still wouldn't power more than one USB device at a time. In the meantime, backing up stuff is painfully, ridiculously slow and I'm limited to one USB device at a time. There is another USB 1.1 port or this machine, but it's never worked. It has Firewire, which is capable of very zippy transfer rates, but the external hard drive doesn't. I should have known all this before I bought things.)

My Mum's been trying to get the hang of her USB radio / mp3 player, which is definitely working, but needs taming. My Dad, who was carrying radio valves around Normandy in 1944, has just started to take an interest in uploading digital photos to my Mum's laptop and editing them with free software.

Yet lots of people of my generation and older, some younger, still don't have a computer, or don't like them or know or want to learn anything about the basics, or don't see the advantage of the internet. My daughter's primary school was like that and I fully approved - there was plenty of time for that at home, or later on. As I've demonstrated, even for a part time geek like me it's a real struggle to keep up with technological progress, though most of the headaches occur because I can't afford to buy a new computer every couple of years - which is what you're expected to do and avoids problems with obsolete peripherals, while introducing new ones with untested bugs and gremlins in new software and hardware.

Perhaps the CD industry should be very grateful to those who, for whatever reason, don't really 'do' computers, for they are possibly the only ones left buying them, as everyone decamps to mp3 land. I wonder how long they'll stay around. I have about five CD players / burners in varying states of repair, most of which are obsolete and should be thrown 'out' / recycled somehow - along with a dead PowerMac and another very old one.

Lest I start to go on like Lord Stephen Fry (man can he rant about technology !! - and afford it all).

Shutdown.

Remix Revisited

Came across the Kasia Klich Remix wot i done in Koszalin a while back, being given away as a free download on last fm. Hi Yaro & Kasia ! I still wish I'd done more with the drum track, but there wasn't much time and they weren't my toys. Still, it could be the only track ever recorded with a xaphoon and someone laughing in the middle. Think it came out on Sony Records (Poland) which is the closest I've ever got to a major label. Even the major labels can't sell CDs for more than a few quid these days.

Online

Online and back in the city for the start of another year.

Nine Barrow Down

View towards Poole Harbour and Brownsea Island.



View towards Corfe Castle.



There's an overgrown stone circle in a wood at the foot of the hill by the road, which for some years has been fenced off by the landowner, Rempstone Estates, who've erected signs to warn off trespassers. It's possible that it was built by the same Bronze Age tribes who were responsible for the burial mounds / barrows, on top of the chalk ridge.

themodernantiquarian.com
megalithic.co.uk

The Beast Of Ballard Down

Several possibilities as to how this deer ended up like this.
Locals think that pet dogs could be responsible.
Tourists imagine The Beast Of Ballard Down.



It's more likely that a car was involved at the start, before foxes, carrion crows and other carnivores got stuck in. Who knows, maybe Hugh Fearnley Mutton Chops had a leg for Xmas ?



There are still plenty of live ones left.

UPDATE : Reports in the media, confirmed by the police, of several incidents of poachers leaving jam sandwiches and buns in the road to attract deer, which are then wounded or killed by traffic. Metro news article

Studland Little Sea

Fresh water lake cut off from the sea by the formation of the sand dunes as recently as 1880. A haven for birds, with several hides around the shore, but relatively poor in nutrients and supporting little aquatic life. (Not much bird life about either today)

St Mary's, Swanage

Dusty the donkey (not pictured) made an appearance at St Mary's, Swanage, along with a couple of well behaved sheep, at the Christmas Eve children's carol service. No sign of local resident Jonathan Woss, atoning for his beastliness.

D Locked

My bicycle D Lock refused to open after I'd been shopping in town. Fortunately I hadn't locked it to anything. Unfortunately, I had to carry it two miles home, stopping along the way to wrestle with the key and get my breath back.

YouTube has lots of videos of people opening locks like these with pen tops and a friend told me they were easy to open with one tap of a hammer. I broke the end off the first key while holding it with pliars, but had two backups. I oiled the lock and barrel and twisted the key for a couple of hours, getting nowhere. I watched more clips on YouTube, exasperated as people put the end of a Bic biro into the lock, twisting for at most a few minutes before opening it. One video showed someone with an angle grinder taking a few minutes to cut through. (Where are all those noisy builders when you need them ?)

I read somewhere that it would take an hour with a hacksaw. I only had a small one with an old blade, but got comfortable on the floor and started sawing, imagining that it would take more than an hour, but having no choice. My day had been scuppered and I couldn't go anywhere without sorting it out.

Happily, it only took 20 minutes.

Video - Coniston Leap (Hit The North)

After lots of pffaffing - uploaded the 2004 video of 'Hit The North' to lastfm and YouTube, featuring the soundtrack Coniston Leap, from the album Asylum Seeker. (And no, nothing to do with The Fall!)

Polish Radio Sessions

I've recently remastered the 1993 Polish Radio Sessions from cassette tape. They were originally recorded on a borrowed mini disc recorder, but a friend lost the disc ! I performed three or four live sessions for Przemek Mroczek's program at Radio Koszalin between 1990-93 and for a time, the radio station had recordings on quality analogue tape. As far as i know, none of them survived.

I've uploaded six tracks to lastfm which I plan to release as an EP download in the near future.

Radish seeds

Saving a few pennies by collecting radish seeds from the dried pods.

Desert Island Eavis

Michael Eavis on Desert Island Discs. Priceless. Why doesn't the man have a knighthood ? Or would he refuse ?

Happy memories of having a chat with him in his garden at the farmhouse circa 1985. Desert Island Discs

Rocket

Still harvesting kale and chard twice a week and now the first of the leeks and rocket.

Survivors

Some startling similarities between the new version of Survivors (BBC1) and the series that I followed in the mid 70s. The Volvo and the hanged 'looter' in the supermarket for starters. I was hoping that humanity might have evolved a tad in three decades and gone straight for the garden centres to stock up on seeds and fertiliser, then headed out to a farm and sorted out a horse and a cow or two. Instead, we get petrol wars and the battle for Tesco Metro.

Actually, the farms could get a bit nasty too, cows are a bit cumbersome and I'm no John Wayne. I'd probably head for the coast, or an island, like Heath Bunting and his chums, whose plans for escaping to The Isle Of Skye in such an event are documented here. http://duo.irational.org/siper/

If I remember correctly, it took them a few series of Survivors in the 70s to get their collective farms sorted out, but then it all petered out and nobody wanted to watch hippies arguing over crop rotation methods. Still, they didn't have the (literally) underground renaissance command centre, which we got a glimpse of the other night, (or am I mixing it up with Spooks?) showing that although humanity might not have evolved much in 30 years, governments have.