Recently I fired up GarageBand for the first time, after a decade or more of ignoring the pre-installed app that was sitting on my hard-drive. A few hours and half a dozen Apple Loops later, I had a song, the first I’d created (“composed” doesn’t sound quite right when it’s all loops) since an abortive attempt in my teens to become a guitarist to rival Mike Oldfield. And you know what, it doesn’t sound half bad: the effect is like some of the loungey jazz electronica I used to listen to a decade ago. A few weeks later, it still doesn’t make me cringe with embarrassment, unlike my attempt to sing “The Sun Always Shines on T.V.” at karaoke with colleagues last month.

Read More · 28 December 2015 · Music

Old and Lost Rivers

Time travel.

The sounds of 2015.

South African students have turned on their parents’ generation.

What kind of baby-soothing sorcery is this?

Whale Fall.

Was Stonehenge Welsh?

Grim reading, but important.

The 2015 Comedy Wildlife Awards.

Shrine to a dead cockroach.

Public wifi is a public health hazard.

Aus Liebe zum Automobil.

Time-lapse ride to the top of 1 World Trade Center.

Old and Lost Rivers.

28 December 2015 · Weblog

November 2015