The musical equivalent of well-read

The title of this comes from a compliment I once got from Jose. But this post makes me question whether it was really a compliment or not.

During the clear out and tidy up of the roof space (that is slowly killing me)  I came across my CD collection. They were proudly displayed in my room until a few years ago it became apparent there was really no need as everything was on my computer and iPod.

Or so I thought.

Part of the process of the tidy up is to put things into plastic Ikea boxes (or samla in Ikean). As I was putting them in I realised that I had never imported some CDs onto my computer.

[The links are to the You Tube video of the mentioned song for you to hear and remember. I haven't listened to them much past the opening bars. Hope there's no effing, jeffing or inappropriate content.]

Ever keen to right the wrong of BBMak et al not making onto iTunes I set to and spent a happy 6 hours importing and playing tunes from days gone by. I tweeted about it too, mentioned the fact that I was putting on the hits from Nows 29-35 that had previously been overlooked. Needless to say some tracks didn't make it; my iTunes knows of no such artist as Michelle Gayle for instance. But my goodness there were some classics on those Now albums, such as Corona, Rhythm of the Night, The Boo Radleys, Wake Up Boo! (Did they have another hit?), Ini Kamoze, Here Comes the Hotstepper (same question applies), Supergrass, Alright, The Outhere Brothers, Boom Boom. Need I go on?

I found two Brit albums (1997 and 1999 - Billie Myers, Kiss the Rain, Alisha's Attic I Am, I Feel were both nominated. Who knew?!) Mind you, even with those discoveries the only Manic my iTunes knows is of the Monday variety for the Street Preachers will never be on any iPod of mine.

Other CDs I imported were Surrender from Autumn Soul Tour all those years ago (I don't know why, I can still remember singing Better is One Day in parts), Tunes from the Toons (what? It's for the kids!), Cast (bit of Britpop never hurt anyone. Well except possibly the Gallagher brothers) and Travis (for when I want to be depressed). Soundtracks were not ignored anymore, and happily imported is The Thomas Crown Affair, Sister Act, Shrek and Pretty Woman. Good times.

Then I came to the singles box. Oh dear.

It didn't start off well for me with singles. The very first one I ever bought was Boyzone, Love Me for a Reason. Actually, it didn't start of well for albums either, that purchase was Wet Wet Wet, Picture This, no tracks off which got imported during this discovery. Says it all I think. Thankfully it picked up for the firsts, iTunes reveals the first song I ever downloaded, way back in 2005, was Arcade Fire, Rebellion. I get some cool points for that one, right?

Anyway, CD singles. Making on this time I added some classics. Ahem. Who remembers Smashing Pumpkins, Tonight, Tonight? Me, I do! Great strings, shame about the singing. And Fool's Garden, Lemon Tree. Ah the memories of listening to that on my mini hi-fi.

In the box alongside the modern CDs were tapes. Yes, actual cassette tapes offof the eighties. Except I bought them in the late nineties, early noughties. I couldn't play them to listen to them on my computer. I'm sure there's a device I could get on a Sky Mall-esque magazine but no need because the interwebs has reminded me of all I needed. For your musical enjoyment and laughter here are the songs that I bought. With actual money. I haven't heard of any them since.

[Some of the videos won't embed but you can still click through to hear them.]




'It's all about the money. It's all about the dum dum de de de dum'. Apparently those are the lyrics that made Ivor Novello start the awards.



I can only assume, from watching this video, they were some sort of Hanson wannabes.




A bus and a train you say? 'Eighteen wheeler' is probably too hard to fit into a line.



I really don't know what's going on with the flames in this video.

Other cassettes I had from this era included these greats. Sorry.

99 pence?! What a bargain for a piece of chart history.

Again, sorry everyone. I helped it stay at number one.

What was I thinking?!

I will not apologise for this one though.

This is like a badge of honour for any teenage girl growing up in the nineties.

No, it was meant as a compliment and I shall take it in that spirit. You can see why I'm having a hard time though.

My original bucket list

Tonight during the big tidy up I found my original bucket list. I wrote it coming home on the bus from Derry during my undergrad. I can remember doing it quite clearly. Well I say that, I can't actually remember when I wrote it during those three years. Some of the things make me think I wrote it after working in summer camp in 2001, or maybe after TOM in 2002, but by then I had done some of the things on the list, so I'm not sure. Unless I did it in an add-it-to-my-to-do-list-and-tick-it-off-because-I've-already-done-it kind of way. Oh come on, I'm not the only person does that, right?!

But I do remember coming into Belfast along the M2, you the bit that swoops down (I think it might be called Greencastle) and finishing it off. So 'clearly' is defined as 'sketchy on some details' for the purposes of this post.

Of course, I didn't know it was called a bucket list back when I wrote it. I went with the much duller but, I like to think, adequately descriptive 'things I want to do'. I don't know when I last had it, but I had ticked some things off and it was nice tonight to see what else I had done.

So let's review, shall we?

- Live and work in another country. Check. (I might have mentioned it on here.)
- Travel around the world. Check. (See above.)
- Ride on an elephant. Check. (I don't know why this was an ambition. Nice to say I've done it now though.)
- Go to Disney World. (I'm pretty sure I mean the FL one. Not that I've been to the Paris one for that matter.)
- Walk on Sydney Harbour Bridge. Check. (That was a long held ambition of mine.)
- Paint a picture. (I know I mean a nice one, that you could put up in the house - other than the fridge door.)
- Paddle in Lake Ontario. (This puts it after camp, for it is my missing Great Lake.)
- See a giraffe. (Pretty sure I mean in the wild as opposed to the zoo.)
- Visit the Taj Mahal. (Not sure why, just 'cause.)
- Go to the Great Wall of China. (Probably because you can 'see' it from space.)
- St. Petersberg. (Always liked a bit of Russian history, me.)
- Hong Kong. Check. (The handover in 1997 fascinated me.)
- Robbin Island. (I once did a project on Nelson Mandela in school.)
- Mount Everest. (It's like I'd seen the film. Fairly sure I had no plans on climbing it, just wanted to say I'd seen it.)
- Rio de Janeiro. Check. (It was the big Jesus I wanted to see.)
- See the White House. Check. (Did this in 2001 and thus immediately checked off?)
- See Niagara Falls. Check. (Went in 2002. Still have the Maid of Mist poncho. Naturally.)
- Make a pot on a wheel. (I think this one got added in because most of the things were travel-based.)

I'm sure there's things I'd like to add to it. A few years ago Karen Marathon wrote a really great list of 57 things she'd like to do and I'd definitely nick a few of hers. Like climbing Kilimanjaro, not looking at the time for an entire day or cooking a Sunday roast (my cooking is definitely improving although not at a roast stage yet).

That said, (circa) ten years later I'm 8/18 my original list. Not too bad, not too bad at all. Shame most of the other things require a serious amount of money or I'd be right on to them.

Might get out my watercolours tomorrow though. Chalk another one off.

Four videos and a rant

I'll warn you right now, this post is a bit of a mix. And I'm still deciding how much of my hoarding I want to share while weighing up how bored you might get of all my reminiscing. But that's not important right now.

[Sorry the videos cut across the side bar. Hope it doesn't impede your viewing too much. And sorry the first one starts straight away. Good job they all don't. That would be video carnage.]

Video 1
So first things first, a funny cat video. Who doesn't love a funny cat video?! Not me, that's for sure. Please enjoy this offering from The Telegraph. I particularly enjoyed seeing Simba himself as a walk on extra in this one.




Video 2 and a rant
Seondly, I can't not make mention of the World Athletics Championships. You know me, I like a bit of athletics and I love the BBC which is why I was disappointed to discover than Channel 4 won the rights to the IAAF Championships. Gutted actually. I went from being excited about the Championships to, well, not. And with some justification as this second video shows, the anchorman just wasn't up to it. I think this is all from the first day and in fairness, he did get a bit better before he was 'demoted' yesterday (and by demoted I mean axed). However, asking Michael Johnson if he's ever tried the pole vault probably isn't the best line of questioning without having some indication of a cracker anecdote he has.

Anyway, try to watch it without cringing.

   

It makes me appreciate Sue Barker and the master, John Inverdale, all the more.

So now that they've lost Ortis, why is it so terrible? Well there's the adverts. I know that how the BBC works is from the licence fee and how the others work is from money from adverts. But really? Back from a break and one 400m race and back to adverts? And so help me if I see that Clio advert one more time...

And I miss Phil Jones trackside. The woman C4 have isn't very good, a bit patronising and probably because of the rush to ads, comes across abrupt with the athletes. I miss Steve Cram too. He sees things the average viewer or indeed, the camera missed.

There have been a few good things about the coverage. We don't get the little hamster, Colin Jackson, nodding along to everything Michael Johnson says (but happily still get Michael Johnson). Neither is Denise Lewis there to add in cliches. Katherine Merry is very good and Dean Macey is brilliant at the field events, mostly because of his excitement! And he called the 110m hurdles right (the tangle and why Lui Xiang hit the last hurdle) immediately afterwards which C4's actual commentator didn't see apparently. Well, can't blame him, it all happens in 13 seconds. However, keeping an eye on the two British athletes you'd think would be key for the British broadcaster of the Championships. Not so much though, as we got told 'Andy Turner finished some way down the field'. He didn't, he finished fourth and then got promoted to 3rd when Robles was disqualified. That said, Dean Macey's grammar isn't great, sorry I mean cracks me up, but I shouldn't complain. Not just anyone can do TV you know, as poor Ortis showed.

Video 3
Thirdly, a video from UTV (for which you have 23 more days to enjoy). I'm not a UTV kinda girl (see above re. BBC) but Nicky told me to watch this video. I did and I wasn't disappointed. It's pun-tastic just the way local news should be.

 
I imagine there was a lot of high fiving with the cameraman when he came up with another cow pun to include. And I particularly enjoyed the job title of 'Cow Rescue Specialist'. Apparently it's five more rescues til he gets 'Expert' status.

Video 4
Like I said, I like BBC and BBC Newsline is no exception. Donna, Noel, Jackie, they're like family to me now. Not to be outdone by their rivals they had their own animal interest story about an abandoned donkey with hooves that had grown into elf feet (I don't think that's the technical term).

I encountered donkey neglect during my Methodist publication research last year (blog posts here, here and here) because the Irish Christian Advocate used to have an advert from the USPCA or some such about it with this photo.

The advert appeared with amazing regularity. 

I'd take a few Florida Apartment or Flower Show ads any day over a Donkey Elf Feet picture.

Anyway, back to the report. Because it's the BBC I can't embed the video but the link is here. Do please enjoy it. My own highlights are:
- his name. I've said it before, animals shouldn't have human names. Johnny the donkey? Are you kidding me? The report also mentions Brian the donkey. I promise I'm not making this up.
-the 'photographer lady knowing the feet weren't right'. When you see the video I think you'll agree she is the winner of today's No Shit Sherlock Award. Congratulations to you, Photographer Lady.
- the fact that a few years ago it was 'chic' to own a donkey. Seriously? Not quite a chihuahua in a handbag, is it?

If you didn't see it live, you'll also have missed the reporter holding Johnny's cut hoof like it was the most normal thing in the world. Put me right off my Milky Bar dessert I can tell you.

Post match analysis

TinaLostInSpace took a small break last week, ok for most of last week. I'm back on task now though. I'm sure you're delighted. Most of the roof space is tidied and stuff has gone back in (I still need to do a few blog posts about other great finds) and I must be getting into it because I've started into the spare bedroom which houses everything from NC, Singapore and since. It was also in a pretty dire state. Sure, things were in boxes, largely according to time frame and genre but there was so much in there that you couldn't easily get to anything let alone find it. I think I just came home, piled the stuff in the room and closed the door.

Anyway, the purpose of this post was to write about the weekend. It started with Mexican food and ended with watching about five episodes of Mad Men! And in between David's birthday present finally came...international rugby at Lansdowne Road, sorry the Aviva. Whatever.

So, Ireland were playing England in their last warm-up match before the World Cup. And it seems they could have done with a little bit more time to warm-up. But they're off now to New Zealand. One hopes they get it together there instead.

The match started in the customary manner with the anthems. There was a lot of flag waving.

Oi! Get yo' flag out of my face. Ra ra Ireland though.

Things didn't get off to a good start for Ireland.

 At half time we (and by 'we' I mean me) messed about taking photos. This one was the best.

Happy birthday brother!

In the second half things didn't get much better for Ireland. Or any better at all. In fact, things got worse.

That's the one that hit the post. Dammit.

It seems I have taken a photo of Jonny Wilkinson's butt.

There had been a bit of drizzle during the game, it was nothing us hardened rugby fans couldn't take. At about sixty minutes the heavens opened. Like full on downpour. I know it was at sixty minutes because I remember thinking we'd only have twenty minutes to endure of the rain.

I didn't have wet look leggings on, I had the real deal.

I can't really explain how heavy the shower was. At one point David asked whether there was someone behind us with a bucket of water. That was a not altogether unreasonable question.

My seat mates all left. They're not hardcore like us, you see.

Here's a little known fact stadium architecture fans: that roof is painted on.

What's that you say, push the button halfway down to focus? That was nearly a super photo. Nearly.

 At home I watched the highlights of the match and was excited to see that made it to the TV.

It is us. Honestly.

So Ireland lost, but I'm still chalking the day up to a success. I didn't run down the street to get a free condom. Not that I would do that ever. Ok, once, once I did that. Shut up.

Today, tonight, tomorrow and yesterday

My road trip down memory lane continues. Excitingly, tonight I put my first boxes back in the roof space - a box of hard back books and a box of paper backs. There are some more boxes more or less ready to go back in, but I'm going to need more plastic boxes to complete this mission. Which'll mean another trip to Ikea.

Tonight I moved on to the piles of files of school notes that I thought were ready to be boxed only to discover that they were actually of notes I didn't want to keep that should have gone to the dump at the weekend. Oopsy. But in amongst them I found gold! An essay given to me by my Form 3 Chemistry teacher.

I know, essays in Chemistry in Form 3? But it may surprise you to learn that is was a punishment essay! At this point I feel the need to tell you that I never had so much as a lunchtime detention in school so it even surprised me that I had a punishment essay. Then as I read it, it all came back to me. I think the story was that we were supposed to finish off a drawing of apparatus at home for the next class, but it was one of those times when the teacher said it quickly at the end of class (because he'd planned more work than we'd actually done) and only a few people heard him. I was one of the ones that didn't and thus, I was given a punishment essay. Oh the shame. I think I even had a moral dilemma when I got home as to whether or not to tell my mum about it (and I have a feeling, after David's reassurances that she'd never know about it, I didn't.)

If you went to BHS you'll probably already have guessed the teacher in question. But for everyone else, he's best summed up by his nickname, Killer. And not without merit (well, not actual merit, I don't believe he ever killed anyone). The essay we were given was 'Today is today and tomorrow is tomorrow'.

This sort of thing was just up his street. He liked to give pointless essays. It was frowned upon even in those days, but Killer didn't care. He was the man who would spend three-quarters of a double period talking about cricket, school, life, anything at all really before realising we wouldn't have time for the experiment and he'd just tell us what we would have seen happen. I remember one question he often used to ask to class (rhetorically I might add) was 'if there was a rocket out there on that cricket pitch who would get on it?'. To be honest, it's a miracle I ever passed Chemistry.

[I mentioned Killer once before on here before, for his other famous attribute: his handlebar moustache. For balance, I should also point out, he was one of the nicest teachers to me when I was back there as a student teacher.]

Anyway, all that is by way of introduction to my one side 'essay'. Remember, the game was to say it in more words than necessary to get to one side quicker.

Today is today and tomorrow is tomorrow
'Today' is very difficult to communicate. The dictionary describes it as 'this present day' ie that day that is actually happening now. The word is sometimes used in a broader sense to mean 'nowadays' or 'these days' or even 'modern times'. But in its general form of meaning 'this present day' it is a reminder to us of how time passes. 'Here today and gone tomorrow' is a well known  saying which again shows us how important to use your time each day to your best advantage. If you don't take the opportunity that today offers, you may not get that chance again. The circumstances can change, the same situation may not come again.


'Tomorrow' in its broadest sense means 'in the near future' but is usually taken to mean 'the day after today'. The expression 'tomorrow never comes' is often heard. It suggests that the things left 'tomorrow' never get done. I have the opportunity to do something today, but by the time the next day arrives, I may not have as good an opportunity, and by that time the chance has passed by into 'yesterday'.


Yesterday I could have completed a chart and didn't, thinking that tomorrow would do. But when tomorrow arrived it was already too late and now I have to write about today and tomorrow tonight. Now if I'd had to write about 'tonight' or 'yesterday' I could have used the words of a song or two!

Now, is it just me or does that essay finish much the same way as the majority of my blog posts, a sort of attempted witty summary sentence to round things up?

It seems that ending my blogs like this was written in the stars.

Or at least in the stupid punishment essay.

(Did it again there, didn't I?)