Jerseys & Spuds
Week from Monday 29th June 2026 - Whoops! here we go again! It's already Thursday and I haven't thought about anything to DIARISE about yet!
It's hasn't been QUITE so haht 'round these parts (or 'round MY parts!) this week, but I've still endured a few hot'n'sticky sleepless nights, and I prefer to stay in the shade with the fan blowing during the day... However, I am obliged to step outside on FRIDAY, because I have another BLOOD TEST to undergo, plus I will be visiting the moneygrabbing DENTAL PRACTICE, in order to pay them a DEPOSIT, ahead of my six-monthly check-up in September ('cos I don't like to do that sort of thing over the phone!). My smile is stuck, so I have to go back to yr POUNDLAND as well...
My VISA CARD expires this month, and I was starting to worry because they hadn't yet sent me a new one. While I was in town, I checked in with my bank to find out the score. The chap told me that the new one SHOULD be in the post... and LO! an envelope containing the slick new debit card was waiting on the doormat when I got home! PHEW! I 'tested' it by successfully logging into my ONLINE ACCOUNTS, plus I went to my PAYPAL account and changed the default payment settings to the new card. We're up and running!
All that SPORTSBALL stuff (I nearly said 'racket'!) is passing me by. I am neurologically incapable of seeing what all the fuss is about. But this weekend sees the start of the TOUR DE FRANCE, so that's something...
Week from Monday 6th July 2026 - This time around, with there no longer being LIVE coverage on free telly, CHANNEL FIVE are carrying the TOUR DE FRANCE daily 'highlights' shows. But the source material is still clearly from 'that' broadcaster. I've been watching with the sound MUTED, because their commentary remains unbearable. I don my "HIGH DEFINITION" spectacles, so that I can follow all the on-screen graphics and text, and enjoy the pictures that way. For the full nitty-gritty DETAILS (brief highlights clips with a decent voiceover; statistics and rankings), I once again turn to CYCLEFANS-DOT-COM and the official TDF website, bookmarked on m'tablet and accessed via the soshul meejer. Mind you, even after only a couple of stages, it's becoming clear that it's going to be "THE POGGY & VINGO SHOW" all over again!
STAGE FOUR was when it all came together for the LiDL-TREK lads. They controlled the breakaway AND the peleton (twelve minutes back at one point!), ensuring MADS PEDERSEN a sprintin' victory, with 'CAPTAIN AMERICA' Quinn Simmons in second place. Much of the day's 'set-up' was down to MATHIAS VACEK, who has earned himself the WHITE JERSEY, as well a virtual GC podium. Mads now has a fairly comfortable lead in the ALL-IMPORTANT green jersey points competition. Hooray! Meanwhile, POGGY & VINGO lost a whole seven-and-a-half minutes in GC! Hoorah! So it's NOT going to be JUST about THEM after all...
I had my six-weekly PHONE CHAT with the Haemo-Onco docs. My 'ratios' are continuing to creep up, but no immediate panic. We're going to do a 'face-to-face' next time, instead of just phoning it in! It's been suggested that I'm due for a MRI to check out my bones, so that'll be fun(!?!). Another thirty-minute session of listening to deafeningly loud 'Metal Machine Music' while strapped down in a coffin...
A 'new' KING CRIMSON album has just landed on my doormat (a couple of days early too, thanks to the BURNING SHED concern!). It's yet another live recording (NYC 2014) of the 'SEVEN-HEADED BEAST' configuration, so no real surprises to be found... let's face it, this latest line-up has been VERY well documented by now. I've given it the ol' first-time run-through... FIRST THOUGHTS: This might be the best version of "THE SAILOR'S TALE" I've yet heard by this KCrim... It was really nice to hear the whole "VROOOM/CODA" performed by these guys... The two "SCARCITY" numbers really stand out and I really wish they'd kept them in the set for longer... I still stand by my opinion that "LEVEL FIVE" and "RED" sound MUCH better when performed by the STICK MEN rather than by the 'big band'. All that extra instrumentation and busier drumming only add unnecessary clutter (IMHO!) Plus, as is often the case with KC live recordings, there's a lot of 'dead air' and audience ambience between numbers. I know that 'TAPER' purists like to 'keep it real', but there's nothing wrong with a little tighter editing now and again.
The amber-triangled ¡SCORCHIO! persists... I had to venture outside only briefly, once to visit the PRINT SHOP in Gozzy and then to the LOCAL SHOP for some 'bits'...
Also this from #OnThisDay #TenYearsAgo - The consistently wide-of-the-mark BING translator (brought to you courtesy of the M!¢r0$ØfT concern) autodetects KURT SCHWITTERS' lipsmacking sound poetry as VIETNAMESE, and makes a brave attempt at 'translating' it, simply by swapping two of the nonsense 'words' around. M!¢r0$ØfT have unwittingly created a sort of RANDOM POETRY GENERATOR.
It's hasn't been QUITE so haht 'round these parts (or 'round MY parts!) this week, but I've still endured a few hot'n'sticky sleepless nights, and I prefer to stay in the shade with the fan blowing during the day... However, I am obliged to step outside on FRIDAY, because I have another BLOOD TEST to undergo, plus I will be visiting the moneygrabbing DENTAL PRACTICE, in order to pay them a DEPOSIT, ahead of my six-monthly check-up in September ('cos I don't like to do that sort of thing over the phone!). My smile is stuck, so I have to go back to yr POUNDLAND as well...
My VISA CARD expires this month, and I was starting to worry because they hadn't yet sent me a new one. While I was in town, I checked in with my bank to find out the score. The chap told me that the new one SHOULD be in the post... and LO! an envelope containing the slick new debit card was waiting on the doormat when I got home! PHEW! I 'tested' it by successfully logging into my ONLINE ACCOUNTS, plus I went to my PAYPAL account and changed the default payment settings to the new card. We're up and running!
All that SPORTSBALL stuff (I nearly said 'racket'!) is passing me by. I am neurologically incapable of seeing what all the fuss is about. But this weekend sees the start of the TOUR DE FRANCE, so that's something...
Week from Monday 6th July 2026 - This time around, with there no longer being LIVE coverage on free telly, CHANNEL FIVE are carrying the TOUR DE FRANCE daily 'highlights' shows. But the source material is still clearly from 'that' broadcaster. I've been watching with the sound MUTED, because their commentary remains unbearable. I don my "HIGH DEFINITION" spectacles, so that I can follow all the on-screen graphics and text, and enjoy the pictures that way. For the full nitty-gritty DETAILS (brief highlights clips with a decent voiceover; statistics and rankings), I once again turn to CYCLEFANS-DOT-COM and the official TDF website, bookmarked on m'tablet and accessed via the soshul meejer. Mind you, even after only a couple of stages, it's becoming clear that it's going to be "THE POGGY & VINGO SHOW" all over again!
STAGE FOUR was when it all came together for the LiDL-TREK lads. They controlled the breakaway AND the peleton (twelve minutes back at one point!), ensuring MADS PEDERSEN a sprintin' victory, with 'CAPTAIN AMERICA' Quinn Simmons in second place. Much of the day's 'set-up' was down to MATHIAS VACEK, who has earned himself the WHITE JERSEY, as well a virtual GC podium. Mads now has a fairly comfortable lead in the ALL-IMPORTANT green jersey points competition. Hooray! Meanwhile, POGGY & VINGO lost a whole seven-and-a-half minutes in GC! Hoorah! So it's NOT going to be JUST about THEM after all...
I had my six-weekly PHONE CHAT with the Haemo-Onco docs. My 'ratios' are continuing to creep up, but no immediate panic. We're going to do a 'face-to-face' next time, instead of just phoning it in! It's been suggested that I'm due for a MRI to check out my bones, so that'll be fun(!?!). Another thirty-minute session of listening to deafeningly loud 'Metal Machine Music' while strapped down in a coffin...
A 'new' KING CRIMSON album has just landed on my doormat (a couple of days early too, thanks to the BURNING SHED concern!). It's yet another live recording (NYC 2014) of the 'SEVEN-HEADED BEAST' configuration, so no real surprises to be found... let's face it, this latest line-up has been VERY well documented by now. I've given it the ol' first-time run-through... FIRST THOUGHTS: This might be the best version of "THE SAILOR'S TALE" I've yet heard by this KCrim... It was really nice to hear the whole "VROOOM/CODA" performed by these guys... The two "SCARCITY" numbers really stand out and I really wish they'd kept them in the set for longer... I still stand by my opinion that "LEVEL FIVE" and "RED" sound MUCH better when performed by the STICK MEN rather than by the 'big band'. All that extra instrumentation and busier drumming only add unnecessary clutter (IMHO!) Plus, as is often the case with KC live recordings, there's a lot of 'dead air' and audience ambience between numbers. I know that 'TAPER' purists like to 'keep it real', but there's nothing wrong with a little tighter editing now and again.
The amber-triangled ¡SCORCHIO! persists... I had to venture outside only briefly, once to visit the PRINT SHOP in Gozzy and then to the LOCAL SHOP for some 'bits'...
#OnThisDay #TwentyYearsAgo
In between doing some signwriting for 'THE SPUD WIMMIN', I dug out that 14-day trial version of KOAN PRO and pretended to be BRIAN ENO for a week. You might recall the "MY PC IS RECORDING A SOLO ALBUM" project of five years ago. For those of you who don't know, KOAN was the fractal "Generative" music software that Mr Eno had a hand in developing. You give the programme some instruments to play with, tell it to follow some rules and parameters of your choosing and then let it 'improvise' within your given framework. I generated some fantastic off-kilter drum tracks to play along with (non-repetitive and HUMAN-sounding), some incredibly REAL piano 'improvs' (Now my PC really does sound like KEITH JARRETT!) as well as some typically Eno-esque ambient washes which will, no doubt, be useful as backings for summat. The only downside to the DEMO version is that it won't record its own output - I got around that problem by recording the results in real time into my wave editor programme. It also tends to throw a spanner in the works by stopping mid-session at fairly random intervals. And it sometimes tries to output the tracks to (non-existent) MIDI channels instead of to the PC's inbuilt synth module. Or maybe that was just me not knowing what I was doing. It all adds to the fun. If only the full programme (if it still exists) wasn't so prohibitively expensive.
In between doing some signwriting for 'THE SPUD WIMMIN', I dug out that 14-day trial version of KOAN PRO and pretended to be BRIAN ENO for a week. You might recall the "MY PC IS RECORDING A SOLO ALBUM" project of five years ago. For those of you who don't know, KOAN was the fractal "Generative" music software that Mr Eno had a hand in developing. You give the programme some instruments to play with, tell it to follow some rules and parameters of your choosing and then let it 'improvise' within your given framework. I generated some fantastic off-kilter drum tracks to play along with (non-repetitive and HUMAN-sounding), some incredibly REAL piano 'improvs' (Now my PC really does sound like KEITH JARRETT!) as well as some typically Eno-esque ambient washes which will, no doubt, be useful as backings for summat. The only downside to the DEMO version is that it won't record its own output - I got around that problem by recording the results in real time into my wave editor programme. It also tends to throw a spanner in the works by stopping mid-session at fairly random intervals. And it sometimes tries to output the tracks to (non-existent) MIDI channels instead of to the PC's inbuilt synth module. Or maybe that was just me not knowing what I was doing. It all adds to the fun. If only the full programme (if it still exists) wasn't so prohibitively expensive.
Also this from #OnThisDay #TenYearsAgo - The consistently wide-of-the-mark BING translator (brought to you courtesy of the M!¢r0$ØfT concern) autodetects KURT SCHWITTERS' lipsmacking sound poetry as VIETNAMESE, and makes a brave attempt at 'translating' it, simply by swapping two of the nonsense 'words' around. M!¢r0$ØfT have unwittingly created a sort of RANDOM POETRY GENERATOR.
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