: Belated update
* Singing lessons are more sporadically successful now, though there have still been some truly wonderful moments. I think the marginal utility of each one is diminishing, though, and I will probably not continue with lessons after Gemma leaves in the summer.
* Not that I'll be going without musical tuition, as I have just started piano lessons. Previously, my songwriting process was pretty much as silly as this: write lyrics, peck at a keyboard of some description until the sequence of keys pressed approximates to the melody in head at the time of writing lyrics, scrawl the resulting tadpoles-on-a-climbing-frame onto manuscript paper before they're forgotten. Hopefully. Needless to say, I'd rather be able to 'properly' play an instrument - I don't know how I got by not doing so, in honesty - and that process is now under way. First lesson was on Friday, and the biggest problem appears to be coordination-related, at least in the sense of using both hands at the same time completely differently.
* Independence has become a white-hot issue again. My pantry is in what could mildly be described as a bad state, to the point where I feel extremely reluctant to use it. While my hall is partly catered, that still leaves me without a hot meal on Saturdays, and I invariably feel rather lethargic on those days as a result. I should go out for food, but it does seem like a waste of money even though the utility gained would probably be more than worth it... Meanwhile, noise has become an issue again, in particular from the birthday party of a student in a room almost next to mine. I tried to tell him to turn the music down and he was unwilling, and everyone gave him slack because of the trivial fact that he was born precisely x years before. Tomorrow, I am going to officially reject my offer of accommodation in halls for the second year, as I am entitled to due to my autistic spectrum disorder, and start searching for private accommodation. Not a shared house, as the drunkards will, but a bedsit. Failing that, a room in a house of postgraduate/mature students.
* I'm planning to time my railway expedition for July 8-22. After travelling on the Caledonian Sleeper from London to Fort William, I will base myself there for a couple of days of walking before moving on to Inverness by coach, most probably to go on rather flatter walks for the next couple of days. A change of pace would follow with the next stopover point, Glasgow; here, I'd like to go on a stadium tour of Hampden Park (and probably go to the Scottish Football Museum at the stadium while I'm there, given that this would only be an extra £1.50), not so much because of any significance to it for me as the fact I've always wanted to go inside a modern stadium but been unwilling to join a drunken crowd the size of a small town and paying £20 for the privilege. A trip to any kind of arts performance might be possible in Glasgow also, sensory overload issues notwithstanding. Then I would spend a week in the north-west, probably spending a few days in the Lake District before moving on to Blackpool and finally Manchester - where I would spend my birthday (July 20) with electronic friends I have yet to meet in person. These plans are subject to change, though.
* I haven't watched an episode of Noel's £250,000 Gambling Game for over a fortnight, and will maintain this hiatus indefinitely until it reverts to its 2005 format of Noel's Big-Money Game Theory. I will continue to watch properly-executed versions of the format, so I will still watch Miljoenenjacht upon its return, which I think will be in the spring.
* Recent CD purchases, not in order.
1. Embrace, This New Day (yes, their most recent album), £2 from the Student Union dumper. The version without World At Your Feet, which is probably a good thing. There are about six songs on the album that would have made better singles than Target, and I Can't Come Down is possibly the best thing they've ever done. Embrace became only the second artist to warrant two albums in my modest collection, after Sarah McLachlan. (I also hold one physical album by each of Garbage and the Pet Shop Boys plus an album of mp3s from each without a physical copy.)
2. Sarah Masen, Carry Us Through, £2 from the dumper. Sounded quite good until I realised the religious symbolism. Am probably going to give this CD away to a liberal christian (yes, they exist) in my hall, the songs that work on a secular level will stay on my PC.
3. Beverley Craven, Beverley Craven, £1 from Help The Aged. Possibly the best £1 I've ever spent. This is how to write pop songs for a versatile female singer - it helps that the singer herself has written them.
4. Kate Bush, The Red Shoes, £2 from the dumper. Joins the aforementioned list of artists with two albums in my collection (slightly oddly, Aerial was the first). Should have bought this before Aerial in all honesty, it's far more accessible. See also the comment on Beverley Craven.
5. Texas, Red Book, £1 from Poundland. (No, seriously.) Not worth much more than I paid for it, but worth it nonetheless. No real standout songs, save possibly Getaway, but not a single duff song either.
6. Melanie C, Northern Star, £2 from the dumper. One of the most underrated albums of all time in my opinion. Far more stylistically varied than any critic will admit, and the title track is still one of the best orchestral pop anthems I've ever heard. (So too is First Day Of My Life, as mentioned in my Top 26 of 2006.)
* Singing lessons are more sporadically successful now, though there have still been some truly wonderful moments. I think the marginal utility of each one is diminishing, though, and I will probably not continue with lessons after Gemma leaves in the summer.
* Not that I'll be going without musical tuition, as I have just started piano lessons. Previously, my songwriting process was pretty much as silly as this: write lyrics, peck at a keyboard of some description until the sequence of keys pressed approximates to the melody in head at the time of writing lyrics, scrawl the resulting tadpoles-on-a-climbing-frame onto manuscript paper before they're forgotten. Hopefully. Needless to say, I'd rather be able to 'properly' play an instrument - I don't know how I got by not doing so, in honesty - and that process is now under way. First lesson was on Friday, and the biggest problem appears to be coordination-related, at least in the sense of using both hands at the same time completely differently.
* Independence has become a white-hot issue again. My pantry is in what could mildly be described as a bad state, to the point where I feel extremely reluctant to use it. While my hall is partly catered, that still leaves me without a hot meal on Saturdays, and I invariably feel rather lethargic on those days as a result. I should go out for food, but it does seem like a waste of money even though the utility gained would probably be more than worth it... Meanwhile, noise has become an issue again, in particular from the birthday party of a student in a room almost next to mine. I tried to tell him to turn the music down and he was unwilling, and everyone gave him slack because of the trivial fact that he was born precisely x years before. Tomorrow, I am going to officially reject my offer of accommodation in halls for the second year, as I am entitled to due to my autistic spectrum disorder, and start searching for private accommodation. Not a shared house, as the drunkards will, but a bedsit. Failing that, a room in a house of postgraduate/mature students.
* I'm planning to time my railway expedition for July 8-22. After travelling on the Caledonian Sleeper from London to Fort William, I will base myself there for a couple of days of walking before moving on to Inverness by coach, most probably to go on rather flatter walks for the next couple of days. A change of pace would follow with the next stopover point, Glasgow; here, I'd like to go on a stadium tour of Hampden Park (and probably go to the Scottish Football Museum at the stadium while I'm there, given that this would only be an extra £1.50), not so much because of any significance to it for me as the fact I've always wanted to go inside a modern stadium but been unwilling to join a drunken crowd the size of a small town and paying £20 for the privilege. A trip to any kind of arts performance might be possible in Glasgow also, sensory overload issues notwithstanding. Then I would spend a week in the north-west, probably spending a few days in the Lake District before moving on to Blackpool and finally Manchester - where I would spend my birthday (July 20) with electronic friends I have yet to meet in person. These plans are subject to change, though.
* I haven't watched an episode of Noel's £250,000 Gambling Game for over a fortnight, and will maintain this hiatus indefinitely until it reverts to its 2005 format of Noel's Big-Money Game Theory. I will continue to watch properly-executed versions of the format, so I will still watch Miljoenenjacht upon its return, which I think will be in the spring.
* Recent CD purchases, not in order.
1. Embrace, This New Day (yes, their most recent album), £2 from the Student Union dumper. The version without World At Your Feet, which is probably a good thing. There are about six songs on the album that would have made better singles than Target, and I Can't Come Down is possibly the best thing they've ever done. Embrace became only the second artist to warrant two albums in my modest collection, after Sarah McLachlan. (I also hold one physical album by each of Garbage and the Pet Shop Boys plus an album of mp3s from each without a physical copy.)
2. Sarah Masen, Carry Us Through, £2 from the dumper. Sounded quite good until I realised the religious symbolism. Am probably going to give this CD away to a liberal christian (yes, they exist) in my hall, the songs that work on a secular level will stay on my PC.
3. Beverley Craven, Beverley Craven, £1 from Help The Aged. Possibly the best £1 I've ever spent. This is how to write pop songs for a versatile female singer - it helps that the singer herself has written them.
4. Kate Bush, The Red Shoes, £2 from the dumper. Joins the aforementioned list of artists with two albums in my collection (slightly oddly, Aerial was the first). Should have bought this before Aerial in all honesty, it's far more accessible. See also the comment on Beverley Craven.
5. Texas, Red Book, £1 from Poundland. (No, seriously.) Not worth much more than I paid for it, but worth it nonetheless. No real standout songs, save possibly Getaway, but not a single duff song either.
6. Melanie C, Northern Star, £2 from the dumper. One of the most underrated albums of all time in my opinion. Far more stylistically varied than any critic will admit, and the title track is still one of the best orchestral pop anthems I've ever heard. (So too is First Day Of My Life, as mentioned in my Top 26 of 2006.)
Music: Beverley Craven - Castle In The Clouds