Sunday February 10, 2008 Chris Saul's Blog
Sunday February 10, 2008 Seven or so years ago, I got my first WAP enabled mobile phone - a Nokia 6310i. Whilst on the 371 back from Richmond station to the shared house I was living in in St Margarets, I gave the WAP browser a go, keen to live the mobile revolution, currently the focus of most of the presentations I was giving at Sun at the time.
I wasn't able to get to Amazon's UK WAP page for some reason, but Amazon's German site worked. I bought an album by Catatonia. The process was slow and fiddly, but it worked and my album duly arrived a week or so later. That was pretty much the last time I ever used a mobile phone to access the internet until getting my current Sony - seven years later.
Today, in my inbox, was a mail from Amazon.de telling me that Catatonia's former lead singer has released a new album. Now, that, dear readers, is what I call service. It is also what German speakers might possibly call 'Service'.
If I do buy it, I will still not be using my phone to do so.
( Feb 10 2008, 09:30:24 PM GST ) Permalink Comments [2]
Wednesday February 06, 2008 I took Mrs Saul to see sickening schmaltzfest PS I love you the other week. It was full of cliched US rom-com scenes, overdone sentimentality, contrived slapstick and Irish men saying 'ho horrrr' and 'bejaysus'. I quite enjoyed it.
The only thing that rescued my dignity was discovering the name of the band whose song 'Hey Lloyd, I'm ready to be heartbroken' is played during the opening credits. It's not on the 'PS I love you' soundtrack (no, I didn't buy it, I checked the track listing on Amazon), but a quick Google and I found who recorded it - a Scottish band called Camera Obscura.
I've now got all three of their albums on permanent rotation. Think Belle and Sebastien's best with a bit more production and more conventional rhymes. Brilliant stuff - well worth an hour and a half of 'ho horrr', 'bejaysus' and contrived slapstick to have discovered it.
( Feb 06 2008, 11:00:36 AM GST ) Permalink
Thursday May 10, 2007 I can't seem to get enough ZZ Top at the moment.
Tres Hombres arrived in the post the other day and has been on permanent rotation. The three live tracks at the end are fantastic! Worth getting the album for alone. The live sound is incredibly raw and much rougher than the studio tracks - great stuff.
I came across this video of them playing on The Tube, a cult UK music show from the early 80s. Turn up the volume!
Friday March 09, 2007 Why do musicians have such awful websites?
Why do most musicians have such awful, Flash based websites? I'm sure they look great on the designer's Mac in LA or London's Hoxton Square, but they're appalling when viewed by normal users - they take ages to load even if you have a fast DSL link, you can't bookmark or search them and music invariably warbles in the background whether you want it or not.
Amy Winehouse and Muse's sites are perfect example of something that looks superficially rather cool, but is irritating and unusable in reality. Motorhead's site takes things one stage further and combines Flash with frames. Hideous.
( Mar 09 2007, 11:45:51 PM GST ) Permalink
Monday May 30, 2005 Headbanging on Turkish Airlines I love having all my songs on my iPod. From time to time I rediscover an album I'd bought a while ago and possibly didn't like first time around. On random second or third playing it turns out to be just right for the occasion. Last week, whilst sitting on a plane to Istanbul, I rediscovered Ozzy Osbourne's 'Diary of a Madman' and 'Bark at the Moon'. I'm not a metalhead at all, or at least thought I wasn't, but what a couple of classics! I found myself headbanging my way over the Bosphorous. Look at these dreadful lyrics from Bark at the Moon. Pure genius - They cursed and buried him Along with shame And thought his timeless soul had gone In empty burning hell--unholy one But now he’s returned to prove them wrong (oh no) Howling in shadows Living in a lunar spell He finds his heaven Spewing from the mouth of hell 'Over the Mountain' also has a couple of great lines - Over and under in between the ups and downs My mind's carpet magic ride goes round and round. Over the mountain kissing silver inlaid clouds Watching my body disappear into the crowd. Don't need no astrology it's inside of you and me You don't need a ticket to fly with me - I'm free. This is truly atrocious poetry, but the whole package comes together to make a couple of great albums. I'd love to see him live, but I doubt they'll be letting Ozzy into Dubai. He might bite the head off a camel. ( May 30 2005, 03:37:03 PM GST ) Permalink Comments [0]
Tuesday March 22, 2005 Mazzy Star on a Shuffle, iPod or iRiver? Bought three Mazzy Star CDs, which I'm really enjoying. Not sure why I missed Mazzy Star the first time around. They seem to have released most of their good stuff when I was at Uni, during which time my music budget was nil and the indie discos I went to played more lively stuff. I haven't listened to enough music recently and really must get a decent mp3 player. I think the Shuffle would be best for me. Looks nice, not too pricey. I should get the cheaper knockoff from Taiwan that looks the same but has more features. Since I've got all my 3,000+ songs on my laptop, moving things around when travelling won't be a problem. Ideally I'd like at least a 20GB Shuffle, but I suppose that'll have to wait. iPod and iRiver devices just seem a little too pricey and a little too bulky, particularly after you add a carry case to protect them – yet another device to carry around, which I don't really want. ( Mar 22 2005, 06:14:02 PM GST ) Permalink Comments [3]
