mrblack.co.uk weblog

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Remember the last holiday to take with your parents? For me it was a damp holiday in a static caravan in Devon. I was beginning to see the world from another perspective, developing my own view on politics culture and a host of other things. During a wet night, I stayed in and watched the small 14� TV set, BBC Glastonbury coverage had just begun, my dad started to read the paper. There in 1999 my real interest in music began as I saw R.E.M playing, music that I could actually relate to.

So why am I writing about this now, well R.E.M have a new album out and I fear it’s not what it should be. If you go back through their discography from Murmur to Reveal you can see a constantly evolving Stipe, changing from a shy mop haired mumbling front man to a true performer, proud of his lyrics, his sexuality and appearance. I am not saying that every song was a classic, but they are broad in content moving from the life of Andy Kaufman (man on the moon) to suicide (everybody hurts) unlike their latest album. R.E.M has been involved with the vote for change campaign, an important issue, but to many including me this changes the way people think about R.E.M. I don’t want a band to appear on Newsnight discussing politics, I don’t want a band to travel around swing states trying to push people to change their vote. A band should play music, if they want a political slant then do so, but remember not everybody in the world listens to you for your political beliefs. Saying this though I have to admit I still love R.E.M, and would love to see them live.

As for me kids, well my love for music is still strong (perhaps even stronger of late), so strong that I just brought an iPod. It should arrive next week sometime and yes it is a geeky thing to like, but the adverts made me buy it.

I say goodbye to Kate this week as she moves out to live about 15mins walk away. I will miss her, but its not too far away. There are benefits to her moving out though; I get my old larger room back with a nice double bed :)

Yes today I ate a quarter of strawberry bon bons.

That is all.

Ed pointed out that a first year at Keele is blogging for the BBC as part of the Ouch! Site. I am happy for they guy, if a little scared, here are a list of scary parallels

1) At Keele University.
2) Doing the same combination as what I did for my BSc (history and computer science).
3) Likes Green Day, I saw them at Leeds, and they rocked!
4) Has a blog, if a little more popular than mine :)

Is there something about the place which attracts people like me (and him) there? Think I will run and hide from fresher me.

This week, i ave been mostly making pictures…

The rest of them can be found here

found a strange little toy, Peer 2 Peer radio by Mercora. Its a sort of IM service which lets people connect to a music stream from your own computer, and you to theirs. Its pretty fun listening to some random user called guy4671122 music collection. The legality of such a service I question , but according to the The Register it all seems above board. I am mrblack, feel free to listen in.