w.atching the w.orld unw.ind

Today's lyric:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Hand out the arms and ammo
We're going to blast our way through here
We've got to get together sooner or later
Because the revolution's here, and you know it's right
And you know that it's right."

Thunderclap Newman: "Something in the air"
From the album: "Hollywood Dreams"

With no social or diy-related committments at the weekend, it was a time for some new year pottering.

To free up some space in the tip that is the understairs cupboard, I relocated the cd collection (sorted by artist, of course) into another cupboard where they will no doubt moulder 'til eternity? Well, they're now all iPodded (and backed up onto a separate external hard drive, kept apart from the player itself just in case we get burgled.) I can't remember when I last extracted one to play?*

I doubt that - with my eclectic and small c catholic tastes, they'll be worth eBaying (and I don't know if I can be arsed to bag them up for posting even if someone bought one.)

Then in another cupboard resided my minidisk player, expensively bought for me as a 50th birthday present and flown all the way to Hawai'i and back for our musical entertainment. It sat there with about 50 recordings of cd's and compilations, with only a couple of live recordings left to convert to mp3 stylee. And given that the medium never really took off in a big way, that'll definitely be a non-starter in the auction stakes.

Finally, the relatively small dvd collection got re-organised. Again it struck me that with tv's now coming as standard with built-in hard drives, it won't be long before even the pc-less of us will be able to download programmes and films on demand from an on-screen catalogue, rather than having to put up with what's offered by the broadcasters?

* having said that, I've just ordered two albums which weren't available from the iTunes store

Labels: Musicology

Today's lyric:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Squeeze me baby, till the juice runs down my leg,
Squeeze me baby, till the juice runs down my leg,
The way you squeeze my lemon,
I..I'm gonna fall right out of bed."

Led Zeppelin: "The Lemon Song"
From the album: "Led Zeppelin II"

I don't know actually how an iPod on 'Shuffle' actually selects the track to play? Maybe there's some digital pointer which spins like a demented compass needle and says "Right, matey, you're next!"

Last night, I migrated the last of the Led Zep tracks from the original vinyl, and when I was cleaning up The Lemon Song (see above) I remembered how, as a callow fifteen year old, I was only prompted to listen to the lyrics of the imaginatively-titled Led Zeppelin II by my Mum saying "Ooh, that's a bit saucy, isn't it?"

So I smiled wistfully as it played back a second time, eliminating the crackles and clicks before being digitally committed to memory.

And then, on the commute in this morning, I was thinking that was a blogworthy memory, when bu99er me, the very track popped into the earphones. One track out of 3381 on the iPod?

Spooky...

Labels: Musicology, Ramblings

Today's lyric:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Deep in the night, plying very strange cargo
Our soulships pass by - solo trips to the stars - in the sky

Gliding so far that the eye cannot follow
Where do they go?
We'll never know...
Our soulships pass by - solo trips to the stars - in the sky."

Roxy Music: "Beauty Queen"
From the album: "For your pleasure"

Strange, how quickly nice, relaxing days off are forgotten, in the melee and hurly burly of another day back at the coalface...

But the 'new' albums and tracks downloaded to the iPod brought back some fond memories of times and gigs past (and some wry smiles too, from the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band's trilogy of "I'm the Urban Spaceman", "The doughnut in granny's greenhouse" and "Gorilla").

Maybe some lyrics tomorrow...

Labels: Musicology

Today's lyric:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"I'm moving to a coleheme
With the leather all around me
And the sweat is getting steamy
But their eyes are on the ground
They're just hanging around
They're just hanging around."

The Stranglers: "Hanging around"
From the album: "Rattus Norvegicus"

No, I haven't got the squits, I'm just using up (12) days holiday left over from last year (or else I lose it).

So am using the spare time to re-attack the vinyl collection, but instead of burning it to cd, I'm uploading it directly to the iPod.

As the amount of memory used on the iPod far exceeds the remaining memory on the laptop, I have to delete the iTunes library after downloading imported music, but I'm now worried that with 2/3 of the iPod's memory used, if I were to lose it (or it malfunctioned) it would take for ever to re-load the music, album artwork and lyrics, even for those albums which I own and could retrieve?

Any one have any experience of backing up to a separate hard-drive (bearing in mind how specifically iTunes works?)

Labels: Musicology