I Have A Dream........

Forty years ago today Dr Martin Luther King Jr., delivered his famous speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., USA.

I am not old enough to remember this event, being still a babe in arms. I am however aware of it's impact on the politics of the day and the watershed it marked in correcting decades of racial inequality and discrimination in "the land of the free".

Reading it again today I see just how powerful the prose was, and yet I am told that those most famous words, "I have a dream", perhaps the most inspiring and inspired introduction of all time, were not read from a prepared text but marked the point at which Dr King departed from his script and let the spirit move him to say exactly what was on his mind. The mark of a true leader and orator.

Regardless of their ethnic origin, I believe the lives of the whole population of America, and indeed the whole western world, are significantly improved as a result of the work of Dr King and his followers.

Summer Burn - Disc 1 Arrives

Today saw the arrival of the first of my (hopefully) two CDs from fellow participants in the Summer Burn. For those of you who have not been reading closely this is an international music swap by folk from all over the world. There were apparently several hundred people involved and so in theory the disc I receive could be from absolutely anyone, anywhere in the world.

Lo and behold, the first CD to arrive is from one of my favourite bloggers - Charles of SixDifferentWays fame! Charles has done a fantastic job of putting together some great summer sounds. My first listen was completed without referring to the beautifully annotated online track listing. (Well, would we expect anything less from 6DW?) Some old, very few new, and from a man living in deepest Texas, USA this elegant little collection contained a surprisingly large amount of British music. Great audio accompaniment to a Pimms sundowner!

1. Belle & Sebastian - A Summer Wasting
2. Elk City - Summer Song
3. Eurythmics - English Summer
4. Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Born To Run
5. Galaxie 500 - Summertime
6. Jesus And Mary Chain - UV Ray
7. Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - Airscape [Live]
8. Salt-N-Pepa - Somma Time Man
9. Smashing Pumpkins - Summer
10. The Specials - Too Hot
11. The Clash - London's Burning
12. The Cure - The Last Day of Summer
13. The Dandy Warhols - You Were The Last High
14. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Simmer Down
15. The Voluptuous Horror Of Karen Black - Burning Up (InterfaceMix)
16. U2 - Summer Rain
17. Violent Femmes - Blister In The Sun

My fave track has to be the Dandy Warhols!

I now wait with eager anticipation for the arrival of the second disc.

By the way, if either Chris in Sheen, London or Steve in Queensland, Australia have recieved the CDs I sent them, please drop a comment on this posting so I know they arrived safely.

A Different View

The move went smoothly enough. At least as smoothly as the property sale and purchase process in the UK can ever be. If our government wants to do something really useful they can stop worrying about the plight of the foxes and bunnies, forget about reforming the structure of parliament and invest some energy improving the property laws in the UK, especially where transfer of ownership is concerned.

Anyhow, this is not intended to be a rant. What I have been through in the past three weeks is not unusual in the experience of many of my fellow Brits.

So at last, after a 2 year wait I am now living in Oxford. I have more space in the house, and a very different outlook from my many windows. I have not been able to get the webcam online again just yet but will be working on that this week. In the mean time I have replaced it with a live feed to the BBC Oxford webcam on the top of Carfax Tower in the centre of the city, about one mile to the north of me.

I spent the Bank Holiday weekend unpacking and finding things which have been in boxes for weeks, and in some cases years! My large sofa, which has spent the past five years at my parents house, is once again taking pride of place in my living room. I have also managed to display some of my larger framed prints as (unlike the 17th century cottage from which I have just moved) my new house has walls which are straight enough to hang them properly.

One temporary downside is that my new Broadband provider is not able to supply me with ADSL until BT have made the installation, something that apparently will not happen until the 5th September. In the mean time I have stumbled across an open Wireless Access Point owned by one of my new neighbours who also seem to have ADSL judging by the speed of connection I am now enjoying. If you are reading this and you just happen to be the kind person supplying me with a much valued internet connection, a big THANK YOU!

In the next few days I will be unpacking the remainder of the boxes, joining a new gym, and buying some new furniture.

Relocation

Sorry I have been silent for so long. I am in the process of moving house. They are absolutely right about it being the third most stressful thing you can ever do.

All my life is now in boxes. The removal van arrives in a couple of hours. By 8:30pm this evening I should be in a new (to me) house in Oxford. I then have the whole of the Bank Holiday weekend to unpack, re-establish some kind of order to my house and find new storage spaces for all my stuff.

Don't be surprised if it is another week before I get the chance to Blog again. BT have given me an expectation that it will take them up to 10 days to install my ADSL connection.

26 Things - At Last

Finally I have managed to carve out enough time from my day to do a decent job of pulling together the 26 photographs I took during July to make my entry to the 26 Things Project.

Now I come to look back at the finished work I can see that I did travel about quite a bit in the 31 days in that month. As well as some images captured here in the village, there are photos from London, Oxford and Brighton in the UK plus Carcassonne, Metz and Nancy in France.

I am not that satisfied with the end result. The quality of the images is extremely variable and I was planning to capture them all in the same style. As it is I just had by Sony CyberShot in my pocket wherever I went and snapped away as soon as I saw something that might fit one of the words.

Tell me what you think. Good portfolio which exactly meets the brief, or a hotch-potch of pictures grabbed opportunistically? Comments welcome.

Enjoy!

London Flash Mob Update

Well, it looks like the first London Flash Mob happened as predicted last night with over 200 participants. However in typical British fashion it was almost a disaster as the Sofa Shop which was chosen as the site for the happening had already closed!

There is full account and some great photos on Mikes blog and a more journalistic approach, but not pretty pictures, on The Inquirer site.

The next London Flash Mob is scheduled for Friday 22nd August. If you want to be part of this internet phenomenon, then plan to be in London on that day. Sadly I have exciting plans which will make that impossible. But that, as they say, is another story.

Silly Little Song

A friend has sent me the silliest little .mp3 file which never fails to bring a smile to my face when I listen to it. I have no idea of its origin or the singer.

Have a listen to it. The file is only 122k and I guarantee it will put a smile on your dial.

Free Music - And Legally Too!

Fans of The Underwolves will be pleased to know that there is a new CD out on JCR Records. The disk is full of remixes of tracks from the groundbreaking "Under Your Sky" album, originally released in 2001. (Ned and Prof. Stretch, if you are reading this, a follow up is long overdue).

Even better news is that they have made one track from this new CD available completely free; the superb Timbales Version of "Shaken" remixed by Fauna Flash. Once again the tribal house masters prove that they are a genius producer delivering top class music for the dance floor.

If you have yet to encounter The Underwolves, now is a great time to get acquainted. I am not sure how long this CD quality freebie is going to be available so best advice is to head over there now and start your download.

Now You See Them, Now You Don't

Something strange is afoot in London this evening. We are about to see the first London Flash Mob and the the emphasis is definitely on fun.

If you did not know, a Mob is an inexplicable gathering of a group of people in a place for a short period of time. The organisation behind this peaceful Mob seems to be fairly thorough using e-mail lists and websites to communicate the arrangements.

Instructions issued so far tell everyone who wishes to be involved to make their way to various pubs around Soho, by 6:17pm today, and stand near the fruit machine in each. At about this time a Mob rep will make themselves known, appear and pass out further instructions. Participants are urged to read the instructions carefully and then hide the piece of paper about their person so that it can not be seen. The instructions will provide the destination of the Mob site, and participants are urged to arrive there no earlier than 6:30pm and no later than 6:30pm. (There is also advice on how to synchronise watches with the Greenwich Time Signal).

Most importantly the time to leave the Mob site by is 6:40pm. It seems the dispersal is just as important to the success of this Mob as is the arrival. Everyone should leave as quickly and orderly as they can and truly disperse.

The Flash Mob idea originated in the USA where the first, in June this year, involved several hundred people ascending the escalators 9 floors in Manhattan Macy's to visit the fancy-rug department where they said they were there to jointly choose a "Love Rug". This was to the unsurprising bemusement of Macy's sales staff. The event caused a stir with news reports on Public Radio, and also coverage in Wired magazine.

For those, like me, who do not live or work in London and so cannot be part of this evening's shenanigans, Mobs are also to be organised in Birmingham and Sheffield and Edinburgh.

What Colour Are You?

I just took the colour test.

Yellow

Mellow and calm, you enjoy life and go with the flow.

Find out what colour you are!

Coming Soon, Some Things

Ok, I know I am late, in fact very late, but I will soon be posting my pictures from the 26 Things project. I have already had one reminder (thank you Alan) and it is only because I spent a week on holiday without any form of internet access that I didn't do it earlier.

While you are waiting, you can go and look at the contributions made by other people. So far there are 413 contributors. By my calculations that means there are 10,738 things for you to go and ogle over while I get mine ready,

So, off you pop - and by the time you have finished working your way through that lot mine should be ready.