glittertigger

My musical discovery this weekend was the wonderful Danny George Wilson, a singer-songwriter in the folk/country tradition with subtle lyrics and great guitar technique. He was supporting The Epstein at the Holywell Music Room and much as I like them, I think he outclassed them. He has an album available on Amazon and I'm about to buy it (he sold all the copies he had with him on Saturday).

I have just arranged to be a steward at the Oxford Folk Festival at the end of March (a few hours work in exchange for a free pass for the weekend). Tickets aren't cheap and being a steward has been great fun when I've done it before at Sidmouth and Towersey. Thought I'd mention it in case any of you felt like doing the same and wanted to try and share shifts with me.

The acoustics are never great in the basement of the Zodiac, which may partly explain my disappointment with the gig on Monday night. 


We went to Intrusion on Tuesday which was busier than usual and full of people in exciting outfits. The music wasn't quite to my taste this time, so I spent more time chatting than dancing. I did prove I can (just about) dance in the black lace boots.

I was touched on Wednesday to receive a card made from beautiful paper with flower petals in it. We had an enjoyable evening cooking an elaborate dinner together in my flat, which was much more fun than going out to a restaurant at the same time as everyone else.

I took Friday off work and the morning was spent out in the sun waxing the car. I met invisiblechoir for a lunchtime gig with free (and very tasty) vegetable soup. The band was Borderville, who had potential but most tracks needed polishing and the endings were ragged. I might see them again in a year or two if they are still together.

I went shopping on Friday afternoon and zandev took me out for dinner in the evening. The Star of Asia was almost full, which was good to see as I like the owners a great deal.

On Saturday my father helped me clear my garage and put up more bookshelves. They aren’t quite full yet, but it won’t be long, as on Sunday people kept offering to give me books. Of the couple of hundred books I was offered, I only took ten home, so I feel my willpower held up fairly well.

Saturday evening was spent helping secretrebel celebrate her birthday. The DJs did a fine job and I danced a lot, but resisted the temptation to dance on the table as I don’t think she would have forgiven me if we got thrown out of the Oxford Union. It was a beautiful room and I enjoyed dressing up (and men always look great in black tie).

I just tried to upgrade to a paid account and as I don't have a credit card this appears to be almost impossible. I was trying to upgrade to post a poll about things I don't own! I'll just ask the question in rambling text format instead.

I own minimal technology for reasons including lack of interest, lack of space, the amount things cost to buy / maintain and environmental concerns. Do you think any of the following (none of which I own) really count as necessities? I do have a mobile phone.

Landline phone
Television
Dishwasher
Tumble dryer
Computer (OK, so I use other people's a lot)
MP3 player or any other electronic gadget

I don't have central heating either, although I do have double-glazing, properly lined curtains and storage heaters. I've often read discussions on poverty which cite the lack of some of these items as a form of deprivation, but I think I live very comfortably.

The scenery looked lovely covered in snow this morning and the roads had been salted both promptly and properly, so I was able to have fun driving the sports car to work. Well done to the road-salting people.

On Monday I had dinner with zandev, who I have now been going out with for four very enjoyable months. And last night I stayed in to catch up on phone calls and reading, so I am feeling relaxed and happy.

My usual preference is to focus on the future rather than the past. As many of you know, I worked for 18 months as a forecast analyst, which meant forecasting sales in detail a few months ahead and predicting trends for the longer term. Intellectually it was a great job, but I hated sitting at a desk all day. Even a desk with a crystal ball on it.

I’m now back in R&D and am interested in predicting technology trends, especially those likely to affect the balance between print and other media. I read the trade press and various blogs and am always looking for recommendations on sources of interesting viewpoints. I love talking to people about this, in the office, at trade shows and occasionally socially. So, as you are all people whose views interest me, what do you think is important? Where should I be looking?

I've played lots of short games recently (Carcassonne, Settlers, Trans Europa) which I always enjoy. Especially when I win, of course :) However, I would like to find people who are up for longer games this weekend. Puerto Rico is good. I could cope with Arkham Horror. But what I really want is to find people with a day to spare and a desire to help me christen my new set of Britannia. It's finally been reissued! Anyone interested in any of the above?

At Intrusion on Tuesday, the music was good in a goth way but not particularly varied. There is usually more heavy rock and some bouncier 80s stuff to get everyone dancing. It was great to see davefish and keris again though.

Last night invisiblechoir fed me some excellent port and tried to expand my musical tastes (we overlap in the mid-90s, but otherwise our CD collections are very different). It turns out that I like Goldrush a lot and I was surprised by how much they sound like the Eagles in places (not in a bad way). The Elected are enjoyable too and I confirmed my appreciation of the solo material produced by Cerys Matthews since she moved to Nashville.

( More country music )

Today I am wearing an all purple outfit, including a lovely skirt which secretrebel gave me yesterday. The decoration round the bottom of the skirt is a great match for the purple amulet I found in an art gallery a couple of weeks ago. I've worn the amulet twice and received five entirely unsolicited compliments, which pleases me. After a discussion with angry_marmot and others in a dark side-street last night, we've decided that it's a protective amulet, although my colleagues claim that I'm using it to give them the evil eye. Either way, it seems to provoke conversation. Curiously, the same amulet in green has got almost no reaction at all.

I’m still getting used to this business of putting my thoughts in the public domain, but have decided to share a few of my cultural highlights of last year with you all.

Theatre:
An old favourite here. I very much enjoyed a production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. And i_ludicrous in stockings and suspenders was certainly memorable. An open-air production of Macbeth on a sultry evening with a group of female friends comes a close second, but I didn’t like the way Creation Theatre did the witches.

Books:
The best novel I read was We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver, which gets right to the heart of human weakness and doesn’t pull any punches. The best biography by miles was Stuart, A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters. And the book which made me laugh most was The Vesuvius Club, by Mark Gatiss.

Albums:
My stand-out album was In Between Dreams by Jack Johnson, which gave me a lift on all of the many occasions when I needed one. I fell in love with several country albums too and will cover those separately some other time.

Live music:
The Epstein of course. With an honourable mention for Jose Gonzalez.

Films:
I went to the cinema a few times, but either I saw the wrong films or this wasn’t a vintage year. Casino Royale has great action sequences, but the new Bond isn’t suave enough for me and the torture scene was gratuitously unpleasant. I didn’t see any better films though.