Brennig Jones (and friends)

With a difference, this week’s podcast comes at you from the two mentalists who seem never to get thrown out of Studio L in Witney.

The difference is the treatment we’ve given to an interview with the organiser/producer of Cornbury Festival.

I took the audio, split it in to five very short segments and underlaid an ambient backing track to soften the start/ending of each segment.

What I want to know is, does that kind of treatment work? If you listen to it could you let me know?

Interviews are starting to become much more of a feature in the podcast and I’m searching for the perfect audio format.

I’m not a great fan of the Q&A interview technique, I would much prefer to try and achieve a relaxed, conversational style.

Although Q&A is the easy option to record and produce, I think it’s an artificial environment that lacks a comfort zone; I believe a conversational style is what works better for the listeners, and that’s what’s important, obv.

The reason I’m asking is because the podcast has (potentially, and only if things work out in the near future) the possibility of a couple of very real, A-List interviews.

And I want to know people’s views because I’m desperate that we get things right before other things might happen.

Thanks.

So.

This bright and breezy bonk bank holiday weekend I am away to sunny Spain to spend some quality time with Daughter. Or perhaps I should say Niña? Or even Hija?

Anyway.

I’m sure she’ll find many ways of keeping me occupied – after all, I know nothing apparently, whilst she knows everything there is to know in the universe.

It must be a large cross for her to bear, being so young and so knowledgeable. I feel quite sorry for her; having to lug her know-nothing Padre around the distrito de Granada whilst taking the pee out of him and loving him in equal measures must be quite a task!

Note to self:  don’t mention the Go-Karting we did a few months ago

I am, it must be said, really looking forward to seeing her but at the same time, to be honest, less than enthusiastic about going. Now there’s a tricky situation!

For strictly personal, non-daughter-related reasons, obv. I’ll get over it, I guess. Probably.

In other news…

• I finished work today. My heart lifts and is borne around the room with its gossamer wings supported by the breeze of a joy indescribable. No more 04.45 alarms!
• I plan on filling as much of my spare time as possible by sleeping. How can this be bad?
• We are going to a gig in Witney tonight
• My horsebox (10t Ford Cargo) is being fitted with a new starter motor tomorrow
• We are going to a gig in Oxford next Thursday. Yes that’s right, I am flying back from Spain early, just to go to a gig!
• We have a night at the theatre in London village booked for the week after next, and a night at a nice hotel
• We are probably going to Italy the week after that
• We are talking about having a weekend in Stockholm in November. To go to the ballet, no less!
• I had a blindingly good idea for a novel in a meeting yesterday

I’m quite excited about all of these things, but the new novel prospect sets my pulse racing and makes me breathe a little quicker. It’s amazing what travelling on the Underground does to the imagination.

I’m really not sure that I’m capable of carrying it off, I think it’s too big and a much too mature and intricate piece of writing for me to deliver but it’s my bloody idea so I’m going to give it a go.

So you see, although I’ve been very quiet lately, there are things going on.

Now then, I need to plan the playlist for this weekend’s podcast. It’s going to be radical, man. And no, that’s not a euphemism for ‘I haven’t done it yet’.

Honest!

So there is this website I dip into from time to time.

I’m not signed up to it or anything, although the summer holidays and all they bring with them into my place of work has made me consider it.

It’s called ‘The Society for Librarians* Who Say “Motherfucker”‘

Here is a snippet of what one might find on said site.  This one comes from pcdoc:

Dear Patron:
yes, we do have a lot of internet computers and yes, many of them are in use right now. Some people may be looking for jobs, some doing research, some working on their resume and yes, we do extend time.
However
It’s 82 degrees outside, nice and sunny, not too humid, pleasant breeze blowing.
Your 8 year old is bored to tears and you are still on the computer, after 3 hours.
Are you working on a resume?
Doing research?
Job hunting?
No.
You’re watching cartoons.
For 3 fucking hours

It’s a relief to see that some library customer habits are the same the world over.

Even if it is fucking annoying.

News just in from the Department of Silly Ideas

All public services in the US City of Chicago have been shut down for the day and the city staff have had to take the day off as an enforced unpaid holiday.

This is being done, we are told, in an attempt to deal with the city’s £184m budget deficit.

What?

While other folk might read this story and think fulsome, praising thoughts along the lines of ‘Good for them, at least they’re trying to do something about the problem’, all I can do is sit here and think…

What?

I’ve heard of the silly season, but has that now become the stupid season?

Am I honestly expected to believe that all of the private/partnership organisations who have contracts with the City of Chicago won’t be charging for their services, even if their contracted services are not taken up?

Really?

Because if that’s what I’m expected to believe, I don’t believe it.

So what’s the real saving here?

Are the police still patrolling the streets? Well yes, of course they are.

Are the fire services still on the same degree of on-call readiness? Well yes, of course they are.

So what is really being saved here, apart from the salaries of the teachers and administrative staff?

Overhead costs on the building services?

Maybe.

A bit of electricity here or there?

Possibly.

But everyone knows that a building standing idle – an asset not in the production cycle – is a loss-maker, everyone knows this simple rule of economics.

Or, to put it another way: an asset not in use is a liability. It ceases to be an asset when it is not in production.

So really, all that’s being ‘saved’ is the salary that would have been paid to the city workers.

Except…

Had these same city workers been in paid employment they would have paid taxes on their salary, and that’s a big bunch of lost income to the US Treasury.

How is taking revenue away from the US Treasury a saving?

No, go on, I’m all ears. Please tell me; how is this exercise saving the city of Chicago money!

Oh, and one final thought.

America, being the over-litigious society that it is; how long do you think the city leaders will have to wait before a collective of Chicagoans club together and sue the living shit out of the city for the day of lost services that they have paid for via their taxes.

Saving?

Don’t make me laugh.

Do I look that naive?

Source:

Peculiar news from Oxfordshire where the local Powers That Be have chosen to rename Kidlington Airport, Oxford.

It’s now called London Oxford Airport.

Yesterday it took me three hours to travel to from Oxford to the 02 Arena. It also took me three hours to get from Victoria back to Oxford.

London Oxford Airport.

When I see those words I expect to see a hyphen between the first two.

London – Oxford Airport, as in ‘London to Oxford’.

Because with a six-hour round-trip yesterday, surely the only way London and Oxford can fit so comfortably together in a sentence is linked by air travel!

Anyway.

The people responsible for the rebranding of Kidlington Airport, sorry, London – Oxford Airport have said that Kidlington is the only airport between London and Birmingham.

And?

As Birmingham International Airport is the only international airport between London and Manchester, does that mean that we should expect Birmingham International Airport to be shortly renamed London Birmingham International Airport?

Where does it stop?

London Glasgow International Airport?

London Reykjavik Airport?

London Sydney Airport?

This is obviously one of those ‘silly season’ stories which, because of the quiet news cycle, is being picked up and played out in the media.

But unfortunately it’s a silly season story being perpetrated upon us by some incredibly silly people.

London – Oxford Airport?

Give me a break!

I have discovered Skype!

Thanks entirely to Allister down at the Sitting Duck Podcast I am now a member of the Skype gang.

Actually I’ve created two accounts, one for me and one for our little podcast because it’s logical to keep things apart.

How cool is Skype?

Free calls Skype to Skype?

I’m sorry, I’m starting to sound a little as if I’m a crazy convert.

Well der!

I’m almost done…

After a difficult series of telephone calls with Daughter last night – but only difficult because, well, you know, she’s a girl – I was able to use the interwebs to spend some money.

• Flights booked and paid for? Check!
• Car hire booked and paid for? Check!
• First set of accommodation booked? Check!
• Second set of accommodation booked and paid for? Check!

In fact, the only thing not yet taken care of is the airport car parking, but that can wait, it’s less important.

Hmm… what else have I done today?

Breakfast in bed for Soph, obv.

And reading; in fact I’ve just finished Neil Gaiman’s peculiarly compelling tale of multiple Londons, ‘Neverwhere’.

Soph’s up.

Yeah, I know!

So perhaps a walk in to Witney next?

And Costa?

We’re meeting Perpetual Spiral for a drink this evening. If we can stay awake.

Because, you know, it’s been soooo hectic today.

I should be using the powers of this caffeine/fluoxetine boost for good, not evil.

I should be harnessing the energy and directing it into the writing of all things good.

Like essays and business plans and novels and such like.

Instead I have been Twittering everyone to death.

And rediscovering Freecell.

I mean, really?

I’m also wasting time re-reading ‘Twilight’ at the moment.

I have been re-sucked in to a non-existent world of vampires that are all about not eating people.

And then, I go and watch an episode of Angel and find that the majority of vampires are actual arseholes who are all about eating people.

And then I start reading the fifth book in the ‘House of Night’ series, ‘Hunted’, which is about a whole school of fledgling vampires in a world where Jake Gyllenhall is a bloodsucker, but it’s ok, because they don’t kill people.  Unless they are power-hungry vampires of the highest order and then they just go a little bit psycho and try to destroy the world.

Am I a mental?

Yes, I know, books are supposed to be, in part, about escapism and stuff, but I’m 30 for fuck’s sake.

And the aforementioned book in P C and Kristen Cast’s ‘House of Night’ series, only arrived so soon because the teenager who had reserved it before me didn’t come in and pick it up.

Yes – teenager.

All of these vampy things are for teenagers.

I have so many books that I haven’t read that are for proper grown-up people, but I decide to revisit a series that I only finished reading maybe a month ago, and continue with another series that I started as soon as I’d finished the first series because I needed a vampire fix.

And just writing  this rubbish about both series makes me desperate to get back to them.

Oh my God.

It’s like the writers have turned me.

Their writing is of the vampiric nature and now I have a sort of bloodlust for their words.

Hmmm.

In that case none of this is my fault and I shall continue reading below my age/intellect (yeah, right) safe in the knowledge that someone else is too blame.

Excellent.

*snuggles up with book/s and episode of Angel all lined up*

This is a debating question and I’m asking because of a like-for-like event

Not long ago I took my Vectra to a local Vauxhall main dealer, Hartwell of Oxford to have a bulb replaced.

That I needed to go to a Vauxhall main dealer to have a bulb replaced in the first place is a shining example of stunningly bad design, but that’s not the point of this post

While my car was up on the ramps (really!) the mechanic performed what the receptionist later called ‘a visual check’.

Which I didn’t ask for, but we’ll let that slide too

The result of performing this visual check was twofold:

1.    It took 45 minutes to have the bulb changed, and
2.    The receptionist presented me with a printed list of vehicle defects

And the cost of putting right these defects?

£700.78

This magic number is made up of:
£296.20, labour
£313.17, parts
£   91.41, vat
£700.78, total

Gulp!

So I took the shopping list of jobs and went to Autocare Express of Witney and had the work done there.

And how much did it cost?

£130.24, labour
£177.93, parts
£   46.24, vat
£354.41, total

So that’s half-price or, to put it another way, a cash saving of £346.37.

As we started this piece with a question, let’s end it with another.

What is it that a Vauxhall main dealer does that’s worth an extra £346.37 over and above the cost of doing the job?

Thoughts?

If you fancy your chances as a music reviewer, now’s the time to step forward.

The This Reality Podcast website (which, uncannily, can be found over at http://thisrealitypodcast.com) now has an indexed-searchable Reviews section.

All that’s missing is content, and that’s not something I can do by myself, so this is where you come in. Hopefully.

If you’d like to write reviews for the website would you like to let us know? If you go to gigs, listen to artists and, obviously, have a keen interest in the music-related world, just drop the podcast a line at ‘thisrealitypodcast@gmail.com’.

Simples.