This is me...

Scenic

2009-08-09T19:18:00.004+01:00

Following on from the Edinburgh 10k, I entered the Great Scottish Run Half-Marathon in Glasgow on Sept 6th. Training for this has been going well, abetted by some great advice from Twitter. Today is Sunday, and Sunday is long run day. Logistics suggested the Glen Fruin Loop or Garelochead Station - Home. Then, in the week, I spotted a sign saying the Helensburgh Half Marathon was today, and the plans changed. I'd discounted running it because I thought it too close to Glasgow, but 4 weeks is a different story, so I entered with the intention of making it a longer than usual training run - especially as the Garelochead route takes in most of the Half course anyway.

Weather forecast said overcast with occasional showers, but the walk down to the pier was in suspiciously sunny and warm conditions, which "improved" in the hour before start. Warming up on the pier reminds you what a great race this is scenically - views out over the Clyde, to Arran and up the Gare Loch.

The race plan was quite simple - no great exertions (this is supposed to be a training run!) and try and run steady 7:30 miles. If that happens, then the year's goal of a sub 1:40 half was possible. Starting at 9.30, and with only about 350 runners, the (shared) roads are quiet and establishing a pace and routine easy.

After a slightly fast 7:17 first mile, I adjust and just keep on running at almost smack-on 7:30 pace. 4 miles in 29:55, 8 in 60:07 and 11 in 82:38. This is now beyond normal run length, and the short hill at just beyond 11 starts to take its toll on the legs. 12 miles comes up in 90:27, but happily there's plenty left in the energy tank, and I push the legs on over the last 1.1 to cross the line - in blazing sunshine - in 98:30 exactly; which I think makes my last mile my fastest! Race tactics were good too - steady pace and gradually reel in the vest in front of you, awarding extra points where it had the words "Athletic Club" or "Road Runners" somewhere on it. Was only passed twice after mile 4, and I repassed one of them at mile 10 - hah!

Very pleased with the time - a massive PB that eclipses a 26 year-old record, but mainly it was a really good run, well paced over a beautiful course, and which should help Glasgow preparations hugely. The section up and back the Gare Loch is stunning, and the comments I'd heard about the marshalling were spot on - absolutely brilliant and very supportive. Having lived here 13 years before doing this run, I suspect it won't be as long before I repeat...

Incidental...

2009-07-15T19:52:00.006+01:00

Hmm, where to begin. Obviously you know what you’re going to get with The Boss. The energy, the commitment, the fun are given. The eclectic setlist – the classics, the requests, the “Jesus, I never though I’d hear him play THAT” - likewise. So what turns a good show (The Boss doesn’t do less than that) into a great one?

Bruce recently said that the audience makes the difference – the only instrument that’s different every night, and when you play the audience like he does, you can see the point. Emirates last year had a good, potentially great, setlist but a slightly subdued audience, so it was “merely” a very good show. Hampden last night had a great setlist and an audience who gave the feedback to let him turn the good to great.

Despite the less than clear signage pointing you at alternative turnstiles for The Pit, which I only noticed after 20 minutes at the allocated spot, I was in place 12 rows back in front of Stevie just after 5.30 and in time for a long, heavy downpour that made the “t-shirt, shorts, new trainers” selection seem unwise. Fortunately the rain abated and the hypothermia risk diminished.

At 8 sharp (as always) Nils wanders out with his accordion and launches into Flower of Scotland. As crowd-pleasing beginnings go, this is a good move, and he is soon joined by the rest of the Mighty E-Street Band and we’re into Badlands.

You simply can’t underestimate how good these guys are – they have to be on their toes for the frequent and random changes; the audibles, the switches, the drawing out of songs. The E-Streeters are the foundation of the show, never missing a beat, taking all that’s thrown at them, rocking thunderously and letting The Boss boss. Next up is an audibled “Out In The Street” and what follows is the usual mix of the old, the new, the obscure and the awesome, perfectly crafted into a 3-hour set.

So many highlights – the obvious high of “Born To Run”, getting to hear “The River” again, “Thunder Road” and the newly jazzed up “Johnny 99” sitting next to “Atlantic City” in a rare Nebraska back-to-back. Singing with the little girl in the pink cowboy hat, clearly terrified, but leading the Waiting On A Sunny Day sing-along brought the house down - you could go to a million concerts and not get a moment like that.

And then, the requests. Who else takes request boards from the crown and picks songs at random to play – nobody. And not safe regular picks from the rotating setlist either. Cover Me doesn’t get much play, but Pink Cadillac gets none – last heard in 2003 according to my setlist archive trawl – “we don’t play this for ANYONE”. This is the closest the band get to looking worried, so Bruce starts himself “so we don’t fuck it up straight away” until they remember it and join in - and it rocks. The show highlight was the first request though – off a sign big enough to hide the drum riser behind, and the one "I never thought I’d get to hear". Incident On 57^th Street was simply breathtaking.

Perhaps he’ll never pass this way again – if he does it’ll need to be a shorter wait than these 28 years – but if that’s the last time I see him live, it’ll be one to treasure. Best gig ever? Probably. Stevie seemed to enjoy it too “Outrageous”, he tweeted…

Full Setlist

Flower of Scotland

Badlands

Out In The Street

My Lucky Day

She's The One

Outlaw Pete

Working On The Highway

Working On A Dream

Seeds

Johnny 99

Atlantic City

Incident on 57th Street

Pink Cadillac

Cover Me

Waiting On A Sunny Day

The Promised Land

The River

Kingdom Of Days

Radio Nowhere

Lonesome Day

The Rising

Born To Run

Hard Times

Thunder Road

American Land

Bobby Jean

Dancing In The Dark

Twist & Shout Medley

Truth

2009-05-05T19:25:00.004+01:00

One of the problems of the rapid rise to success is having to headline in support of your first album. You’re going to have to play all of the material, whether or not it’s all going to work live. Can be difficult.

White Lies showed up at the Barrowland last night on the back of much critical acclaim and a splendid #1 selling debut. Good though the record is and much as their sound seems made for the festival and arena, the boys need to be able to translate and interpret it live. The Barrowland is a decent size to sell out and always a good atmosphere. All the ingredients are there, but I was still interested in how they and the material would make the transition.

A couple of support acts is also standard for the limited main setlist, and Wintersleep from Nova Scotia kicked things off in decent indie-rock style, even having the nerve to finish with a pretty good 10 minute epic. School of Seven Bells, however, disappointed. Once the novelty of the twin sisters singing in harmony wore off (approx 11.6 seconds), it was just sub-new age warbling over guitars and drum machine. Next…

Minimal set, straightforward lighting and all black attire marked White Lies entry. Good. Can concentrate on the music and delivery. They didn’t disappoint. Whilst the album can sometimes seem overproduced, live brings a new interpretation. Stronger and harder, certainly, but you can hear also the gaps (if you follow), which is as important.

A strong start with A Place to Hide and an excellent …Fairground and the crowd are into it. Delivery is strong, and they look like they’re enjoying it. Not a huge amount of chat and posturing, but then they don’t seem that sort of band. The “live-worthy” limitations of having only one album of material are evident, and I suspect 4 or 5 songs won’t make the cut for the second and third album setlists. They are still strong songs in their own right, though, and if they never make it live again at least we heard them.

Guess what - the best songs on the record are the best live. To Lose My Life and Unfinished Business rock hard, and Fifty on our Forehead was excellent. Hardened, extended and rocking, it was the highlight of the main set. Hat tip for the previously unheard Taxidermy too.

The other conundrum is where you play your best song. Open with it or stick it at the end of the encores? White Lies opted to save Death for the end and it’s the right decision. Many much much bigger bands would sacrifice significant anatomy to have a song this strong in their armoury, and it’s a soaring, brilliant end to the night. I recommend leaving it there for good.

A really strong set that highlighted their strengths and showed that with another couple of equally powerful albums worth of material behind them, the migration to much bigger things is almost assured.

Setlist (corrected)

A Place To Hide

Farewell To The Fairground

To Lose My Life

Taxidermy

From The Stars

Unfinished Business

EST

Fifty on Our Forehead

Price of Love

Nothing To Give

The Rip (Portishead cover)

Death

Capital

2009-05-05T18:33:00.005+01:00

Been a long time since I did one of the mass-participation runs; Great North Run 2005, at which I proved that if you’re stupid enough to try a half marathon with precisely zero training, you’re going to get precisely what you deserve and will take precisely “a long time” getting it. The atmosphere in the multi-thousand events is great though, and with that in mind I decided to put my newly rediscovered love of running to the test in the Great Edinburgh Run.

I hadn’t appreciated the profile of the course (why don’t Great Run put them on their website?) until reading a press release about the new world record-holder’s participation and mention of a “very tough course with a couple of steep climbs”. Cue hasty recalculation of target time, which had been around 46 mins, but a good “last run” made 45 seem feasible. 46 was now reinstated (and any hope of “beating my age” by going sub 44 abandoned)

Sunday broke bright, breezy and early, and the drive across the M8 - broken by a stop at Harthill to release a frankly infeasible amount of pre-race hydration - got us to Edinburgh in time to meet cheerleader Lockhart and stroll up to the starting area on George IV Bridge. Ignoring the support crew’s Bacon-roll taunts, I managed to end up at the front of the Orange pen, directly behind the elite athletes; worrying, as it meant there would be hoards of extremely keen folk itching to make a fast start just behind me – so I would have to do the same.

After a slight hitch as the Marshalls didn’t realise they’d have to get themselves and their rope out of the way to avoid getting squished, we’re off. Steeply down to Prince’s Street Gardens at what can be described as a very healthy lick. Then over Waverley Bridge, up to the Royal Mile, down to the Parliament (which I passed without noticing it!) and past Holyrood Palace to the 2k mark. Check watch. 7:45. Aaaargh; too fast, too fast.

Excess speed isn’t a problem now, as the next 2k is uphill on a steepening gradient around Arthur’s Seat (described a “serious and challenging” climb by the C5 commentator. No shit…). Settling into a steadier pace, with those hilly EK & Helensburgh runs helping; over the top and through 4k in 17:10. Better (well, the time is; I’m knackered).

A nondescript but pleasingly flat couple of k, turning onto Cowgate, passing the support team and under the finish line at 6k in 26 dead. Mentally work out that passing “under” the finish line - possible thanks to Edinburgh’s unique streets - means that the rest must be net-uphill, and the next couple of k up to The Meadows are just that. Not overly steep, but enough to notice when you’re blowing quite hard. Through 8k in 35:10, so a good margin for sub-45.

After a flat 9^thk, a small rise entering the 10^th is worryingly morale sapping, and I’m starting to feel it now. One last effort and a generously downhill last k gets me over the line in 44:12.

Genuinely pleased with that on a course that must be a couple of minutes slower than a flat one, and nice though it would have been to shave the extra 13 seconds off, I’m claiming that at 44¼ the age has been beaten anyway.

Official stats are 463^rd finisher out of 7817, 440^th man, and 48^th man in the 40 to 44 category.

Next, the Glasgow Half Marathon on September 6^th.

Mighty...

2009-03-22T08:14:00.007Z

Some time ago, I allowed myself to get drawn in to taking part in The Mighty Deerstalker 2009. Challenge by Facebook; that type of thing. The event is described as a "muddy romp" over either 5K (ish) and 10k (and a bit). In reality, it's a moderately serious adventure run involving water (lots), rough terrain (lots), ascents (lots), descents (lunatic), mud (occasional) and darkness (falling). By use of the not entirely scientific "piece of string along the OS route map" technique, the "and a bit" of the 10k was another 2.5k. Someone else reckoned it was 5, but that's part of the mystique.

Anyway, something in the region of 500 turned up to Traquair House in Innerleithen in the Scottish Borders to have a go at the 5k, with 1000 (including me) lining up in the 10k. The idea is to indulge a little fancy dress and tweediness, but in honour of the #lecitron design concept for this year's Sucata Split (donate here...) I was resplendent in head-to-waist luminous yellow.

Having watched the 5k folks return in states of various dishevelment (winning time just under the hour), the 5.30 kick-off for the main event approached, as did @aigwilson in #lecitron, his wife Maria and (with literally seconds to spare) "Fluffy" Lockhart to add to the band of supporters that, at this point, numbered 1. Mrs Thomas and 2. Matthew.

The race began in front of Traquair House and after an initial hurdle of straw bales, settles into a first k on roads before the first pond is reached. From this point, it's uphill on forest tracks and the local mountain biking routes - with occasional diversions up into the trees and back out again to keep you from getting too comfortable. With obstacles and potential waits to come, this is the chance to run, pass a few folk and find a comfortable position / pace. Climbing up through the trees we hit a set of diagonal beams around trees followed by a brief crawl through a tunnel; then a marshall pointing out that "Well done you've reached the high point", pregnant pause, "of this bit". We're at about 420m, with the start at 150, so we've climbed about 900 feet. All of which we're about to lose. Quickly.

Downhill, initially on dodgy forest floor and then on good mountain bike tracks. Picking up some speed and places, but with some nutters belting past. Back into the woods (pausing only to throw some moves at the mini-rave) and down a very steep slope with occasional planks across the route to go over / under, before a near-vertical final plunge to the road - with a net at the bottom to stop you. Onto the road, past the supporters who've helpfully travelled out in #lecitron, and chap next to me says "That's the easy bit finished". Gulp.

Looping round the banks of the Tweed and splashing through Leithen Water we make our way into Innerteithen itself and then drop into Leithen Water for the River Saunter. 200m through freezing cold water, which is just enough to transition from "uncomfortable" to "painful", before a walk / jog up to the Fort to allow the muscles a bit of time to warm up.

Now onto the technically most difficult section - traverse across grassy slopes before a rising ascent on loose, broken scree. A snake of competitors, face-to-ass, winds up this section in single file, apart from a few eejits bent on overtaking and sending rocks onto those below. Energy conserved, we finally top-out and shuffle across the tree bridges, having ascended back up to 370m, followed by a lunatic plunge down the "Freefall" a straight fast grassy slope, now under headtorch as dusk has well and truly fallen and the lights of the town below make a stunning vista.

Looping back into the woods for more steep, loose descent, with one section so steep it's done in reverse with rope, we're back to Leithen water and along tracks of varying muddiness until we burst unexpectedly into the village. A long, smooth section on road is welcome by this point, especially as it's totally dark, and someone helpfully shouts "only 10 minutes to go". A brief glance at the watch is all the inspiration needed to push on a bit. The final obstacle is the Sump, a muddy waist-deep tunnel under the road, and we're now on the final run to the end. The spirits leap when the House is spotted and even a final dastardly stream can't get rid of the "done it" feeling.

Into the finishing section and they've put an uphill tunnel followed by a crawl under nets in the last 200m, just to make sure you really get the idea, but that's the line crossed. The watch shows a respectable time of 1:56:32 for 266th out of 833 finishers. That was never the objective though - turn up, have a laugh and get through it.

Complaints: marshalling was a little short in numbers and I suspect, for those completing the course later, the route-finding would have been pretty tricky - even crossing the bridge into the town spectators were having to point out the route.

Having said that, a great and exhilarating day out. Seeing the stream of head-torches descending the Freefall when we were driving away at 8.15 was cool, but equally made me realise what a struggle it would be for those still on the hill at this point. Thanks to Andrew, Maria and David for coming along to support. Same time next year everyone?

Killer

2009-03-07T09:41:00.010Z

The risk of anticipation is high. When you've waited to see a band so long, your fear is that they'll disappoint - or at least not match your expectations. There have long been mutterings about The Killers - not up to it live; Brandon's voice too weak; he's too twitchy and manneristic to cut it - so the fear was higher, especially in relation to the height of the anticipation.

Well, what was to worry about. An unusually configured all-standing Hall 4 had sold out in 20 minutes and was absolutely rammed. A good vantage point was secured, dead centre and about 15 rows back, the support band Louis XIV tolerated (trying too hard boys) and the 9pm on-stage time arrived.

About 8 seconds into "Human", all fears were dispelled. This is a tight, effective, live unit (as we used to say when I were a lad) and Brandon executes the "eating out of my hand" routine perfectly. Stage set and lighting was unparalelled, palm trees everywhere and enough wattage to send Al Gore and Jim Hansen into apoplexy.

The crowd, as is often the Glasgow way, are up for it with a capital U. Even the slightly bewildered 13 year old to my right, whose last gig experience was the Manics when he was 8 (which, incidentally he stood for; but there was an official "over 14's only" policy yesterday - why?) seemed to get into the swing of things; following, it must be said, his old dad's lead.

The thing about The Killers is that they make the maximum possible impact from the minimum possible fuss. Brandon hogs the attention so much that the powerhouse of Vannucci, Stoermer and Keuning can just get on with churning out high quality, high tempo pop/rock - albeit abetted by a lurking keyboardist / second guitarist to provide depth.

The setlist has been pretty consistent for the tour, but from the Aberdeen gig on, I Can't Wait seems to have been dropped for On Top - good move. We also got Neon Tiger rather than Shadowplay, complete with it's glaringly obvious crowd manupulating line "c'mon girls and boys, everybody make some noise". Well, it would be rude not to...

One or two minor gripes about placement aside - Losing Touch seems kind of lost in the encores - it's a top top set. Not much that you'd go away thinking "I wish they hadn't played that" and little missed that you yearned for. Pleasant surprise was how well Joy Ride worked live.

Second half of the main set was just unbelievable. From Spaceman (which was, in the words of Shakespeare, fecking awesome) onwards, everything was as close to perfect as you could imagine. The "half slow, half rocky" Sam's Town was good, but oddly the key moment seemed to be the complete loss of stage power for 30 seconds in Read My Mind. Whilst we amused ourselves keeping the song going, I suspect the perfectionist streak in the band was royally pissed off, becasue when they restarted, the remained of RMM was hammered out, followed by an absolutely belting Mr Brightside and an awesome All These Things... which has obviously become the signature-dish live, and I've You-tubed enough versions to know that this was one of the best. There was now real aggression in the playing, and the crowd responded in appropriate manner - it was nuts.

After this end to the main set, the encores seemed to drift - like the old cliche about half-time coming at the wrong time. However, a splendid When You Were Young got the tempo back up to max to finish things off in style.

Awesome gig, awesome set, awesome band.

Full Setlist:

Human

This Is Your Life

Somebody Told Me

For Reasons Unknown

The World We Live In

Joy Ride

Neon Tiger

Bling (Confession of a King)

On Top

Spaceman

Smile Like You Mean It

A Dustland Fairytale

Sam's Town

Read My Mind

Mr. Brightside

All These Things That I've Done

Bones

Losing Touch

Jenny Was a Friend of Mine

When You Were Young

Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again

2009-01-21T21:22:00.003Z

Informed readers will be all to aware of the problems of biofuels - less fuel efficiency, food price increases, hunger and poverty as food land is converted to more profitable biofuel growth not least among them. Now we have another - it doesn't even work...

My old friend the Law of Unintended Consequences

2009-01-03T11:55:00.009Z

My views on matters relating to what I may have been heard referring to as "Climate Change bollocks" are fairly clear, but I'm always on the lookout for the new and innovative ways the behaviour-enforcement gestapo look to twist the screw - or at least try to get their manifesto in place before the coming cooling phase makes us all realise it was just natural fluctuation.

For all that, I am keen on the environment (small e), and believe in stuff like minimising the use of natural resources, energy efficiency, technology, recycling and the like. So this sounded like an interesting story - the amount of power (in watts) generated during exercise is displayed on most of the machines at the gym, so can some of those watts be translated into a means of providing some of the power requirements. Seems like the technology getting to the point where it can deliver, and in a few years it may be commercially viable - although like the "where do we get wind power from if it's not windy" conundrum, "how do we power the gym on the days where everyone's being a slob" might be an issue.

But then they had to spoil it by going on about being a "carbon-neutral gym". Now, as a fan of the law of unintended consequences, I think they might have a problem. Much as some people would like us to forget it, CO2 is produced naturally by respiration. And after an hour at the gym, my respiration levels are what could kindly be described as "significantly raised". So I went off and did some checking on the levels of CO2 emissions for different activity levels, and found this:

Sleep - 25 grams per hour

Inactive - 40 g/h

Normal work - 200 g/h (middle of range)

Intensive exercise - 700 g/h (middle of range)

Which suggests that we gym-goers are producing something like seventeen times as much CO2 whilst exercising than we would if we just sat on our arses watching the telly. Or, in my case, nearly 30 times more than having an extra hour in bed before going to work.

So, in the case of our worthy friends, by actually going to the gym in the first place, they're generating a significantly extended carbon footprint to worry about. Wonder how that fits into the carbon-neutral calculation...

The C90 Challenge

2008-12-31T19:42:00.025Z

Been playing the Desert Island C90 challenge from Scott's blog. This harks back to the teenage(ish) days of creating C90 compilations of appropriate songs for the Walkman. The Challenge - one C90 to take to your desert island. The "A List" selection was:

Side 1 45:00

The Verve - Bittersuite Symphony - 5:58

Obeys rule 1 of my own 1980's C90s, namely that track1 / side 1 has to start slow with a growing tempo. Great, great song and a shit-cool video

Manic Street Preachers - Motorcycle Emptiness - 6:09

Would have been easy to go for A Design For Life by this lot, but this has always been my favourite, with some top lines trying to sound like they fit together to make a song. Original video unavailable for embedding, but this is from their Millennium Stadium bash on 31/12/99 - this was the last song of the "Old Millenium"

David Lee Roth - Just A Gigolo - 4:39

Always a top, top entertainer. You'd want something like this to bring a smile to your face on your desert island. Outrageous video...

The Darkness - Friday Night - 2:55

More "smile on your face" stuff. They should probably have stopped after this album, but what's not to like about the teenage-crush sentiments about doing stuff you hate just to be with the one you love...

Rainy Day - I'll Keep It With Mine - 3:24

One of my favourite albums, a collection of luminaries from the likes of the Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade and The Bangles. Susanna Hoffs' voice never sounded better than on this Dylan cover.

Pet Shop Boys - Liberation - 3:24

Another less than obvious choice - Always on my Mind or Go West would get more play, and It's A Sin nearly made the cut, but I love the feel and lyrics of this one

The Waterboys - The Whole Of The Moon - 5:01

Never really been a huge Mike Scott fan, but this is epic. The music, the sentiment, the everything

Michael Schenker Group - Into The Arena - 4:14

Rule 2 of the Thomas C90's was "there must be an instrumental on each side". And this is the best.

Led Zeppelin - Kashmir - 8:34

Never a doubt as to which Zep song would make it. One of my great life-moments was driving through the Draa in Morocco with this blaring - perfect accompaniment. Also complies with Rule 3 - last track on side 1 must be an epic

Side 2 44:59

Michael Schenker Group - Looking For Love - 4:06

Rule 4 - first track on side 2 must be a genuine hard rocker. Am breaching the "one track per artist" law, but a little-known subclause allows you to duplicate where the other track is an instrumental. Schenker was always my favourite guitarist and this is his purest rock (albeit without one of his trademark solos). No really decent videos kicking around, so audio only.

Rush - The Spirit Of Radio - 4:59

Long-time favourite band, and a disappointingly obvious choice. They've done much, much better, but in this context it had to be this one...

Fish - Internal Exile - 4:41

The Dalkeith woodcutter at his best. Could have gone for a Marillion effort, but I like the observation and anger in this. The official video had a "no embed" tag on YouTube, so here's the audio version only - search for the official one if you want a prime piece of mid-80's fashion gone horribly wrong.

Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run - 4:30

Probably the best album of the 70's, and a perfectly crafted piece of music. Possibly the best driving song ever, too. Another one where the preferred video had a "no embed" tag, so here's a couple of minutes taken from almost exactly where I was standing at The Emirates in May.

The Coral - Dreaming of You - 2:21

Chirpy scousers are not particularly high on my like-list, but this 2.21 of superb pop almost perfectly filled a 2.22 hole in the playlist

The Music - Guide - 4:14

An utterly brilliant rock / dance band from Leeds who put on a superb set at Edinburgh this year. Just love this song - "I love this mess" - but I have no idea where the Manga video came from! It is, however, just about the only link around for this...

Runrig - Tuireadh Iain Ruaidh (Instrumental) - 2:42

Sadly, not a link to be found anywhere to this Instrumental from Heartland. Just a haunting and beautiful piece of music.

Little Steven & The Disciples of Soul - Out Of The Darkness - 3:54

Broooooce's partner in crime, and Silvio Dante from the Sopranos. Love this, although the video's horrific - more Whitesnake in blond-dye days than Little Steven

The Killers - All These Things That I've Done - 5:02

Time for the current fave band, and brilliant though this song is in any guise, it works best in a festival context

Headway - Finish What We Started - 4:41

Favourite new band of 2008, this comes from their 5-track EP - an item last seen when C90s were still on the shelves. Not many videos around, this being a short viral release by the record company

Radiohead - No Surprises - 3:49

The last of the Thomas rules is "last track is a quiet one". Just before they lost the plot, this is just about the perfect end to 90 minutes of music.

Had loads of fun putting this together - even though less that half of the songs on here are my favourite by the artist in question, they still seemed to be the right ones in the compromise of what to include and what to exclude. There's also 2 more 89 minute lists of options being saved for next year...

And so that was Christmas

2008-12-27T20:56:00.006Z

A quiet family affair, with the now traditional pesto-stuffed mushrooms followed by the always traditional roast turkey avec tout les trimmings.

This year Amy was working from 12-5 at the Golf Club and MA had been working on Xmas eve and was in bed, so Matthew and I went out for a 6 mile walk over the top of town. As always, when it's just the two of us, there's plenty of Top Gear-esque dicking around and taking the piss, which seems to vanish in female oversight. Listen: boys (and men) just love to arse around and think that Growin' Up is a decent Springsteen song, but not a lifestyle aspiration.

Boxing Day was going to be a "go and enjoy the leisure club at Cameron House day"; gym for me and Amy and lounging for Matthew and MA, but little sign of life by 1100, so I decide that I'm bored and a run is in order

Through the woods, along to Cross Keys, turn left into Glen Fruin and loop back round to Helensburgh and home. 8 miles and about 500ft elevation change made it officially "a challenge". But rewarding and on a still, cold day, almost enjoyable.

God, it really has been a while

2008-12-23T19:51:00.010Z

I guess, like new year's resolutions and the dodgy cappuccinos in the new deli at work, blogs are better started and not finished. This notwithstanding, it's time to get this road back on the show with a brief run through the highlights of 2008. And yes, despite the earlier concerns, there have been some...

Main amonst which is fitness / weight. A year of pretty intensive gym and running has left me leaving 2008 over a stone lighter than I entered it, and running 4-5 miles at 7.10 to 7.30 pace. Which for a man of my age is respectable. My gym, at Cameron House hotel on Loch Lomondside, has just reopened and is looking good value for the pile of money spent on the refit.

Work has been surprisingly OK; periods of underutilisation interspersed with some interesting and challenging new stuff. As always the best thing is the people. Some good ones left, some good ones joined, but they're what makes it tolerable. Special vote of thanks as ever at this time of year to the customers who think it's big and clever to issue tenders with submission dates in early January. It's not big OR clever to feck up the Christmas of the people who work for your potential supplies, you wankers.

Sporting highlight was taking in Barcelona v Valencia at the Camp Nou - 4-0 and a Henri hat-trick. On my wife's 40th birthday. I know how to show a girl a good time, and no mistake...

Some good musical stuff as well; albums by The Music, Headway, Kings of Leon and OneRepublic deserve mention, but Day & Age by The Killers stands out miles above anything else. Derivative, yes, but clever, lively, challenging and occasionally beautiful. The Glasvegas album was a delight (if that's the right word) too - difficult themes set against an amazing sound; I remain to be convinced how much is them and how much is manufactured, but the basic songwriting seems sound enough to make you hope it's mainly them.

The Music in Edinburgh was an awesome gig, full of energy and quality, and would have been gig of the year any other year - but seeing Springsteen from 8 rows back at the Emirates, with all the enthusiasm, craft and setlist opportunites that he still brings was awesome. And with the full E-Street set-up (less, sadly, Danny Federici who passed away this year) it was a highlight of the decade. Until The Killers in March, of course...

The real highlight of the year, of course was team General Ignorance's Sucata Run extravaganza, three men in an aging Volvo having a hoot raising a decent pile of dosh for a deserving charity. Read all about it on the blog, and prepare for next year's multi-media extravaganza on Sucata Split. Note the Justgiving widget on this page - you know what you need to do...

There have been some downsides, but I won't dwell, because who knows what's around the corner. I hereby resolve to blog more next year, even if this year's blank has probably made more sense and been a more entertaining read...

It's been a while...

2008-05-08T21:31:00.005+01:00

Almost forgot about this place until we were setting up the sites for our madcap attempt to comlete the Sucata Run - a 2000km run from Normandy to Lisbon over 4 days in cars that we have to buy for no more then £250. Money is being raised for gemin-i.org (http://www.gemin-i.org/), an innovative charity trying to use web technology to bring educational organisations in the developed and developing worlds together.

At last, something interesting to write about. Team General Ignorance (http://www.generalignorance.org/) have the benefit of been named after both QI and Blackadder, and with a heritage like that, laughter should be guaranteed.

The widget on the right takes you to our page at justgiving.com, where you can give painlessly and make Gordon and Alastair give us 28% of your donation back in Gift Aid. Ha!

What's to tell

2008-02-02T09:42:00.000Z

Been a while since I posted, but that's becasue there's not been much to say. Seems to be that end of January air of gloom that's been talked about in the papers. It's widely held to be the most depressing time of the year, what with the post-Christmas credit card bills hitting the mat, the weather being so gloomy, and it being ages until any hint of a holiday. Nothing exciting or comment-worthy happening in the news - if you've seen one stock market crash, you've seen them all.

Plus, work's quiet - apart from the incessant stream of leaving do's, which makes you start to wonder whether it's not time to start the process of planning your own.

Summer holiday's booked, but that's not 'til July so nothing to get excited about there - even if there was actually something to get excited about when you're going for a week to a villa so everyone can lie around doing nothing.

The return of King Kev has hardly been overwhelming, although I'm glad that he resisted the urge to go mad in the transfer window and restricted himself to binning Rozenhal, who added his name to the long list of supposedly classy defenders who crumbled at the Toon.

The good news, though, is that 44 is apparently the most depressing age. So, just when you think that last year was crap and this one's shaping up to be the same, comes the news that next year looks like being even worse. Bugger.

Will post again when there's something worth saying...

The Return of the King

2008-01-16T19:53:00.000Z

Well, that was unexpected. For all of us who thought that Kev was happy running his soccer school in Braehead and enjoying a complete absence of pressure, his return to the cauldron of expectation that is St. James' Park is something of a surprise (Caution: This sentence may contain understatement).

I know you should never go back, and previous performance under pressure is a bit of a worry, but in the short term the gloom has been lifted, and the touchpaper of expectation of the Toon Army has been lit.

Reality might bite soon, with the looming relegation battle piling the pressure on, but for now, let's just worry about Stoke.

Later: Well, 5 goals, red card, great entertainment...Normal service has been resumed

Saturday 19th: Dire 0-0 with Bolton, no class, inventiveness or spark. Current service has been resumed...

The Beckoning Silence

2008-01-15T22:43:00.000Z

Now, I've kind of lost track of what Joe Simpson was up to since the film of "Touching The Void" was released - which was a brave attempt to film a virtually unfilmable book. One of those books that you read from cover to cover in one sitting, ending with a knot in your stomach.

Imagine my surprise (as they say) when, browsing Amazon, I came across this DVD - Joe's take on the story of Tony Kurz and his ill-fated attempt with Hinterstoisser, Angerer and Rainer to be the first up the Eiger Nordwand. Loosely adapted from his book of the same name, the film neatly juxtaposed Simpson's views on mountains and why they attract us with a re-enactment of the 1936 climb, showing the desperate retreat of the party after Angerer's injury and Kurz's tragic death within 50ft of the rescue party - 50ft that may as well have been 50 miles.

Simpson gets out on the face and shows us how difficult - even today - what was achieved is, and just how fatal the decision to pull the rope across the traverse was. No matter how many books you read about the route, seeing his desperate scrabble for grip - even with crampons - against a sheer, glassy 80 degree slope was worth 1000 words.

My only mild criticism was the need to hark back to "Touching The Void" at regular intervals; although it made an interesting comparison, it was overdone. That, however, is about all that could be said against a thoughtful film that brought new insight to an oft-repeated story.

The highest praise I can find is that A - my 15-year old and completely disinterested in anything mountainous - daughter sat through the whole thing transfixed. It told a classic story of endeavour, courage and tragedy that inspired and horrified in equal measure.

Big Sam?

2008-01-09T20:55:00.000Z

Gone so soon. Wasn't sure about his appointment in the first place, and results and performances have been significantly less than whelming, but to sack a manager half way through his first season is ridiculous. It's all well and good Ashley sitting with the fans and picking up their vibes, but he gave him the money to spend on some less than inspiring players. Ashley seems to have learnt pretty damn quick the Fat Freddie philosophy that the best way to divert heat from the owners is to sack the manager.

What big name manager, in his right mind, is going to take the job now. Jose?

UPDATE: Thank God 'Arry turned us down. That Ashley thought he was a suitable manager for Newcastle is very worrying.

Change?

2008-01-07T20:51:00.000Z

We're often told that the pace of change in our lives is faster now than at any time in history. Is this true? How much has really changed in the last 100 years. How much NEW has been created, as opposed to refinements of things that already existed at the turn of the last century?

Much as I love cars, they are still pretty well the same design as they were 100 years ago. Internal combustion engine, loud pedal on the right and stop pedal to its left. Sure, we've got better at design and build, and Henry Ford never fitted iPod compatibility to the Model-T, but the basic design is unchanged. The personal hover-car remains the sole purview of George Jetson. Mr Logie-Baird of this vicinity invented a clever way of beaming pictures to a box in the corner of your living room, and Sky now do the same thing at 1080i from near space, but it's still a big box in the corner of the room (Sony Bravia, since you're asking, nice piece of kit). Surely if technology was moving so quickly, we'd have corneal implants and something actually worth watching.

As for society, we still seem to follow the established pattern of the family unit (despite what The Daily Mail may suggest) that goes back for hundreds of years. OK, it tends to break down and re-form a bit more often, but the desire TO re-form still remains. Our sense of community may have actually gone backwards, being more insular and less neighbourly, but then again who really wants Mrs. Miggins at #42 round every day to root through the bins and check whether you're dusting properly. We're still, as we were 100 years ago, drifting gradually from rural to urban, but at least we're not doing 18 hour shifts at t'mill any more. Well, not unless we're an illegal immigrant from the newly expanded EU.

Parliamentary democracy still flourishes as it did at the start of the 1900's - banal, corrupt and autocratic.

Genuine step change has only really been made in a few fields - medicine, where huge steps at combatting killer disease have been made; computing, which has pretty well been invented and become all pervading in 50 years. But I'm still sitting here with a QWERTY and a flattened CRT, despite wireless internet and blogging by mobile.

The field of warfare and destruction of life, however, is our greatest area of progress. 100 years ago, the machine gun was a new invention, augmenting gunpowder as the only way man could kill on a one-to-many basis (bio-terrorism was still in its infancy in 1908). Now we can guide missiles to their target by video-game, kill millions from the comfort of an armchair, and maim any population unfortunate enough to live somewhere near a battlefield for years after "peace" by leaving mines scattered around the place. Oh yes, in the last century we've invented more that's new, innovative and (literally) bleeding-edge in this field than in all the rest of human achievement. Fair brings a lump to the throat, doesn't it.

From the "You couldn't make it up" section

2008-01-03T20:20:00.000Z

Helensburgh Advertiser, Thu 3rd January 2008

"A Peace Camper has been charged with attempted armed robbery at a Helensburgh Post Office.

Richard Pollock is alleged to have entered the East Princes Street branch at 11.20am on Saturday December 22 and threatened staff with a weapon before demanding cash."

Peace Camper. Armed Robbery. ???!!!

The real laugh is that he was granted bail with an address at the Peace Camp. So, no risk of him absconding from there, then.

Of course, what we all must do...

2008-01-02T10:54:00.000Z

...are the 7 words that are the most likely to have me spluttering into my Assam. Usually heard on breakfast TV eminating from some earnest, concerned individual who's trying to ram their way of thinking down our throats and tell us that we must all change for the good of something or other.

Global warming, eating the Right foods, no more flying, watching what we drink, television advertising, having a healthier lifestyle, breast versus bottle feeding, childhood obesity - the possibilities are endless.

The TV seems to be full of people who pop up and lecture us on what is the "right" way to live. Presented as fact, not opinion and ALWAYS, at some point, including the immortal phrase "Of course, what we all must do...". Note the patronising "Of course" - this is all self-evident when you're intellectually superior, but we must make it clear for the little people. Then "what we all must..." - no argument here, this isn't just an opinion, I'm damn well right and you MUST all do as I say. Or you'll die, or your children will be fat, or you'll become a burden on the state, or you'll be personally responsible for flooding Vanuatu.

The new and worrying trend, though, is that these individuals are starting to represent official bodies and influence government policy - usually demanding new or more stringent legislation, taxes, or both. So, we have the Police telling us what the law should be, the BMA demanding more tax on alcohol and the enviromentalists telling us that we can't buy Fairtrade coffee any more, because it has to be transported to us and as a result the polar bears are dying.

We seem to have arrived at a society where the legislative and tax systems are used, not to go about the legitimate business of government, but to define and enforce an "approved" lifestyle. It strikes me, for example, as morally questionable for the state to dictate what type of lightbulbs we MUST use on the grounds of "saving" the planet.

As the boy Peart once said;

"Quiet in conscience, calm in their right, confident their ways are best...those who know what's best for us, must rise and save us from ourselves".

So, this blogging lark...

2008-01-01T21:32:00.000Z

I suppose that the start of a new year is as good a time as any to commit your thoughts to the ether for the first time. Looking forward as well as back, hope that this year will be better than last and all that malarkey. Thing is, when you get to a certain age, you don't always believe that this is going to be the case.

I wouldn't call it a midlife crisis, and I don't know if it's unique to middle-aged men, but I've reached the well-documented point where you think "what am I going to do with the rest of my life". Career ambitions are all well and good, but a different job is just a variation on the same theme. This year? Major milestones for the rest of the family - teenage status for M, 16 for A and the big four-0 for MA. Me? Meetings, telecons, PDFs and spreadsheets. More hours, more frustration and more of the same as last year. Which was crap.

I wonder when I'm next going to do something for the first time - everything seems to be things I've been doing day after day for the last 20 years.

Even the holidays don't hold out much hope - when you've seen Kilimanjaro and the Sahara, the Pyramids and Mont Blanc, after you've spent 4 weeks freewheeling through Yellowstone, the Rockies, Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon and Big Sur, you start to wonder what you can do to top it. Perhaps you should just go "Sod it" and book the 3 week trek to Concordia anyway.

So, what's the answer? Do something about it or sit down, shut up and get on with it, I suppose. Make a change, or accept that this is your life. It's not that it's bad, or anything, just that there's the vague sensation that somehow there's more to it than sleep, work, football and golf.

Anyway, none of this answers the big question about what 2008 will bring - can the Toon eventually lift a trophy? The answer, I suspect, will be as disappointing as the rest of the year threatens to be.