Proud

After we went to the Greenbelt Festival, my son Matt, rather than write a blog, recorded a video blog and posted on his blog. You can see it here

That was good on it's own, but now...now Greenbelt have only gone and put it on their website, next to the official podcast and apparently they all stood around and watched it together. Genius! You can find the "greenbelt version" here.

Resistance

It's rare these days that a group release a collection of songs (what we used call an LP!) that requires me to buy it on the first day that it is available. The last one was Dream Theaters' "Black clouds and silver linings" back in June, but before that...I really can't remember!


This week Muse released their new album "The Resistance" and I actually bought it twice on the day of release! The first time was the CD version, which was for Matt, but being a parent I made a contribution to the cost! As it was absolutely vital that without a seconds delay it was delivered to him, so that he could listen to it (remember those days?), I didn't get to hear it!
Following a new version of iTunes being released recently, you can now buy some albums (about 5 at present) in a "new" LP format. Not the most original name but they are an attempt to overcome the "lack of something to read while you listen to the music" challenge that downloads present. I have lots of friends who dismiss downloading for that reason and this is Apple's answer to that problem.

The initial LP's on iTunes were by Bob Dylan, The Doors, Nora Jones and Grateful Dead so I left those well alone, but then iTunes advised that the Muse album would be available in the LP format and so that was how I purchased the second copy of the new album.

 First point to say, no extra charge, usual £7.99. Second, you get

• the lyrics (to read why you listen to the song)
  
• artwork
  
• Matt Bellamy's notes on each song, the inspiration and what it's trying to say.
  
• sleeve notes (i.e. who played third violin on the last song etc...)
  
• three videos

The software in iTunes goes to full screen so reading the lyrics and notes is easy, even for varifocal wearers like me. In fact I find CD notes quite hard by comparison!

All in all a good attempt by Apple to bring back some of the emotion attached to opening the LP cover and taking in every facet of the new album by your heroes. True you still have nothing to hold, but in reality since the CD replaced the LP we have missed the true impact of the physical experience. This is actually more like that, than a CD ever was. The LP is back!

World in Union

The Rugby Guinness Premiership season started again this weekend and to celebrate, part of the opening weekend, was the "London double-header" at Twickenham. This involves the four "London" clubs playing two local derbies against each other, one at 2.30pm and then one at 5.15 pm. The first game was Saracens vs. London Irish and the second London Wasps VS Harlequins.

My friend John and his family are massive Harlequins fans and he suggested that a crowd of us go along and he arranged the tickets. Now I agreed not really thinking about the cost, but when he asked for £35 for me and both boys (£15 for me, a tenner each for Matt & Will), I was, frankly, amazed!

We got to the stadium at about 12.30pm and parked in a local college for a further £10. As the college had a large playing field we'd agreed to meet up there and have a picnic, before moving on to the stadium, where a small village of food and drink was set up. The major part of this was the Guinness village with food and drink stands, big screens and live music. Inside the stadium were even more bars! We had a perfect view although we were in the middle tier and behind one end

As John is a Quins fan we naturally supported their main rivals, namely London Irish in the first game. Now I've not seen much live rugby, but I know enough to say that "the Irish" started slowly and were 18-3 down by half time. Saracens who were the home team played good attacking rugby and scored two quick tries. The second half though was a different affair, with Irish far more focused and they slowly cut the deficit, by scoring two tries, but importantly missing one of the conversions and two penalties, all of which were fairly kickable. 18-14 down with four minutes to go, we were treated to a grandstand finish, but sadly no more points were scored. Kicking practice required this week as the missed points (8) cost them the game.

As our hosts' team were playing in the second game we, of course, all supported London Wasps (who used to be just Wasps, but as they play their home games in High Wycombe, needed to add London to their name!!!)

Quins have had a fair amount of publicity recently over the "blood gate" scandal, whereby their director of rugby, Dean Richards, initiated a scam where the Quins full back took a fake blood capsule from his sock, bit the end off and squeezed the blood into his mouth so that he had to be substituted and the replacement, a kicker, could take a vital kick. This would have worked perfectly had 1)Sky cameras not filmed the capsule being taking from the sock, 2) the full back hadn't winked at his mates as he came off and 3) the blood coming from his mouth was enough to have killed him if real! All has now been revealed and suspensions and sackings followed. Dean Richards's rugby career is effectively over.

This was Quins first game since the scandal broke and within 45 seconds of the start they were involved in more blood injury headlines! Clearly their Prop forward Robson decided that everyone should know what a real blood injury should look like and therefore proceeded to head butt one of the Wasps players in the first minute. Blood did flow, so we're now clear what the real stuff looks like and this was quickly followed by a red card!! 45 seconds into the season and Quins are down to 14 men! And now the bit you couldn't make up...the referee's name that sent Robson of was Dean Richards! I kid you not.

Somewhat surprisingly the 14 men played some great rugby and took a 12-5 lead. Not good for us Wasps fans, but slowly but surely the extra man started to have an impact and the lead was firstly reduced and then eradicated as Wasps took a game winning 26-15 lead.

As a football fan I was amazed that:-

• Four sets of local rival fans could all sit together in a stadium, drink copious amounts of beer and all get on well! (Imagine Arsenal, Spurs, Wet Ham Chelsea fans in a similar position, the end result would send the Newspaper editors into a tail spin)
  
• Drinking was actively encouraged with a bar no more than 20 yards from you at any time!!
  
• Returning to you seats with a drink was a good thing, not a criminal offence which would get you ejected from the ground.
  
• Two games of rugby only cost £15.
  

Salvation tambourine

I've just been to my first outdoor festival, namely the Greenbelt Christian Arts festival at Cheltenham race course. It was brilliant!

Here are some thoughts/highlights/comments.

• Getting up at silly o'clock on Friday to drive in convoy proved worthwhile and we managed to all camp together in an area not too far away from the action.
  
• I walked miles over the course of the week-end.
  
• The site was split into two main sections. The first was based around the main grandstand and facilities it enjoys. The second area was in the middle of the course and was made up entirely of an area of tents, stands and marquees. The main stage was adjacent to the grandstand in a large area where all could comfortably view the acts.
  
• Over the four days I saw (in no particular order) Athlete, Duke Special, Royksopp, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Sixpence None The Richer, One EskimO, Foy Vance, Martyn Joseph, The Apples, Reem Kelani (three times!), Cornershop, Peggy Sue, a classical concert of 13 pieces by Sir John Tavener and Foreign Slippers (including a girl wearing a hat with a tree on it!). That was just the music.
  
• I went to talks, comedy, a film, the pub (The Jesus Arms), drank lots of coffee and managed to eat and share great times with friends.
  
• I had not expected the range of food available to buy.
  
• Rob Bell was great to finally listen to and his talk ("Drops like Stars") and the "in conversation with..." were both excellent. As a liberal Church leader in USA, he said he was amazed at how free-thinking and ahead of the States, he found the UK.
  
• I didn't get to see either of Simon Mayo's items.
  
• The theme of the week-end was "Standing in the long now" which is a Brian Eno phrase and he was at one time keen to attend but in the end unable to be there.
  
• Robert Beckford has shaved off his dreadlocks.
  
• Both Beer and hymn sessions were hysterical. Imagine "Lord of the Dance" a la Chas and Dave!!
  
• We were very lucky with the weather, although waking up at three thirty in the night to put on another layer to keep warm, in August, is surreal.
  
• I decided before the week-end that Reem Kelani's Palestine folk songs were something I could do without but ended up seeing her three times while waiting for other things.
  
• You need to see the film, "the age of stupid". It's very scary re climate change.
  
• It's amazing in a crowd of 35000, how many times you bump into your children.
  
• What did we do before mobile phones?
  
• The toilets were ok, helped by also being able to use the "proper ones" in the grandstand!