Five Hundred Words
Thursday, January 12th, 2006 05:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranthFive things that have made me think, lately: 100 words each on
....
Saturday night coming home from London, late and merry; and there in the cold, faltering in the middle of the road because he thought I hadn't noticed him, was the ginger tom who makes a point of trotting out to greet me almost every time I walk down that road after dark. He's a well-fed cat, with a collar: no stray. He's always very pleased to see me, though all he's ever had from me is stroking and (necessarily one-sided) conversation. Seeing him hesitate, not sure of his welcome, made me welcome him more.
I have abandoned iPod for now, and bought myself a shiny Sony, purple and gleaming and curved. Looks great, sounds lovely. The software is tooth-grindingly awful -- slower and less intuitive than iTunes -- and the Connect store (and, indeed, the whole Sony site) won't function under Firefox. In fact, I'm starting to wonder whether the Connect store will function on a PC that has any browser other than IE -- regardless of whether or not that browser's running. I have emailed Sony about this. I'd have used their on-site feedback form, but it wouldn't work.
Made it to the British Museum's Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia exhibition last weekend. Glorious objects, less gloriously displayed. I don't care for crowds, and there were several bottlenecks, as well as cases that I simply couldn't get close to. And I do object to a 'no photography' rule that's not signposted, is patchily enforced, and forbids flashless cameraphones as well as 'proper' cameras, with flashes that might damage the more delicate antiquities. My sketching isn't up to recording the curve of a harness-piece, or the balance of a vast stone frieze.
I went swimming on Saturday, for the first time in months: since I was passing the Oasis pool on my way to the museum, it seemed silly not to pop in. The outdoor pool -- heated to a pleasant 28 degrees -- was almost empty; I had a leisurely swim, pondering the things I'd missed about the Oasis. Not the, frankly, squalid changing facilities, or the view of one of London's ugliest 60s office blocks: but the smell of curry and fresh-ground coffee from the council flats that overlook the pool. Grey clouds above me, above the steam.
The ideal mash-up should feature two songs that I already know fairly well: I'm not there for originality, after all, but for interpretation. Are mash-ups the fan-fiction of the music world? (Or is that cover bands, or those prog rock outfits who stole Your Hundred Favourite Classics and played 'em on guitars and synthesisers?) A good mash-up should put a smile on my face at the sheer cleverness of the combination, or the way it's been mixed. Done right, it's not just two tracks alternating: it's creative and witty and technically polished.
....
Saturday night coming home from London, late and merry; and there in the cold, faltering in the middle of the road because he thought I hadn't noticed him, was the ginger tom who makes a point of trotting out to greet me almost every time I walk down that road after dark. He's a well-fed cat, with a collar: no stray. He's always very pleased to see me, though all he's ever had from me is stroking and (necessarily one-sided) conversation. Seeing him hesitate, not sure of his welcome, made me welcome him more.
I have abandoned iPod for now, and bought myself a shiny Sony, purple and gleaming and curved. Looks great, sounds lovely. The software is tooth-grindingly awful -- slower and less intuitive than iTunes -- and the Connect store (and, indeed, the whole Sony site) won't function under Firefox. In fact, I'm starting to wonder whether the Connect store will function on a PC that has any browser other than IE -- regardless of whether or not that browser's running. I have emailed Sony about this. I'd have used their on-site feedback form, but it wouldn't work.
Made it to the British Museum's Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia exhibition last weekend. Glorious objects, less gloriously displayed. I don't care for crowds, and there were several bottlenecks, as well as cases that I simply couldn't get close to. And I do object to a 'no photography' rule that's not signposted, is patchily enforced, and forbids flashless cameraphones as well as 'proper' cameras, with flashes that might damage the more delicate antiquities. My sketching isn't up to recording the curve of a harness-piece, or the balance of a vast stone frieze.
I went swimming on Saturday, for the first time in months: since I was passing the Oasis pool on my way to the museum, it seemed silly not to pop in. The outdoor pool -- heated to a pleasant 28 degrees -- was almost empty; I had a leisurely swim, pondering the things I'd missed about the Oasis. Not the, frankly, squalid changing facilities, or the view of one of London's ugliest 60s office blocks: but the smell of curry and fresh-ground coffee from the council flats that overlook the pool. Grey clouds above me, above the steam.
The ideal mash-up should feature two songs that I already know fairly well: I'm not there for originality, after all, but for interpretation. Are mash-ups the fan-fiction of the music world? (Or is that cover bands, or those prog rock outfits who stole Your Hundred Favourite Classics and played 'em on guitars and synthesisers?) A good mash-up should put a smile on my face at the sheer cleverness of the combination, or the way it's been mixed. Done right, it's not just two tracks alternating: it's creative and witty and technically polished.
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Date: Thursday, January 12th, 2006 07:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, January 12th, 2006 09:20 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: Sunday, January 15th, 2006 02:06 pm (UTC)