here are a few photos taken at some recent gigs. there should be some really nice quality black and white ones in the gallery at some point soon too..
Ally and Al Mitchell, Nice 'n Sleazy, Glasgow - June 2004
Duglas T. Stewart, Nice 'n Sleazy, Glasgow - June 2004
Chris Leonard, Nice 'n Sleazy, Glasgow - June 2004
Ally, goNORTH Festival - June 2004
Ally and Chris, goNORTH Festival, Aberdeen - June 2004
want to find out how to become an astronaut?http://www.nasa.gov/about/career/index.html
i don't know if i'll get to be one to be honest, but if i don't then i can always take a lift up to to space. i heard a radio interview with the man who is in charge of this project as i was lying awake late at night and thought wow. here's a little bit about it all...
Reach for the stars - by lift
WASHINGTON
PRESIDENT George W. Bush wants to return to the Moon and put a man on Mars. But scientist Bradley Edwards has an idea that is really out of this world: A lift that climbs 99,760km into space.
He thinks an initial version could be operating in 15 years, a year earlier than Mr Bush's 2020 target for a return to the Moon.
Mr Edwards pegs the cost at US$10 billion (S$17.1 billion), a pittance compared with other space endeavours.
'It's not new physics - nothing new has to be discovered, nothing new has to be invented from scratch,' he said. 'If there are delays in budget or delays in whatever, it could stretch, but 15 years is a realistic estimate for when we could have one up.'
Mr Edwards is not just some guy with an idea - he is head of the space lift project at the Institute for Scientific Research in Fairmont, West Virginia. Nasa has already given more than US$500,000 to study the idea, and Congress has earmarked US$2.5 million more.
'A lot of people at Nasa are excited about the idea,' said Mr Robert Casanova, director of the Nasa Institute of Advanced Concepts in Atlanta.
Mr Edwards believes a space lift offers a cheaper, safer form of space travel that could eventually be used to carry explorers to the planets.
Science-fiction writer and former university physics lecturer David Brin believes the concept is solid, but doubts such a lift could be operating by 2019.
'I have no doubt that our great-grandchildren will routinely use space elevators,' he said. 'But it will take another generation to gather the technologies needed.'
The space lift is not a new idea. Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky envisioned it a century ago. And Arthur C. Clarke's novel The Fountains Of Paradise, published in 1979, talks of a space lift 38,615km high.
The difference now, Mr Edwards said, is 'we have a material that we can use to actually build it'. 'The major obstacle is probably just politics or funding...,' he said. -- AP
Cable power
SCIENTIST Bradley Edwards' lift would climb on a cable made of nanotubes - tiny bundles of carbon atoms much stronger than steel.
The cable would be about 1m wide and thinner than a piece of paper, but capable of lifting up to 13 tonnes.
It would be attached to a mobile platform on the Equator. The Earth's rotation would keep the cable taut.
The lift would be powered by photo cells that convert light into electricity.
From: The Straits Times - 26th June 2004
i was so sleepy last night, probably because i was out till really late up on monday and then up too early on tuesday. it's strange that when i'm sleepy i often pick the guitar up when i really should be going to bed. it's strange also how i often write songs then, maybe it's coz i'm almost asleep so i'm almost dreaming or something, or my conscious mind is closing down and the subconscious begins to take over. i'm not quite sure how that works. so last night i ended up writing a song called 'two toothbrushes'. i quite like it. i think. i like the idea of it maybe more than the song. but i'll revisit it in a few days and see how it sounds. i remembered it this morning and started whistling it to myself as i was making that essential first cup of strong, sweet tea.
i'm listening to a male/female duo called 'the contraBand'. i was walking along ashton lane in glasgow on monday and i saw some friendly faces beside a stage that had been set up for people to come along and play a few songs at (part of the west end festival in glasgow). i plonked myself down with these friends and watched some people play and this particular band arrived. they were fun and had nice songs so i bought one of their cds. it's very sweet so look out for them. the EP is called 'where is my mouth'.
we're playing edinburgh on thursday. oh, the gig on saturday, i forgot to mention that. it was really fun, great vibe in the room and i really enjoyed playing with the new band and having friends lending their musical support :). i'm really up for the next one in glasgow, that'll be happening on the 16th july.
oh no. i think i might be getting a cold...... :(
i hope you don't mind if i have a rant, but isn't it depressing that alot of british tv seems to be based around conflict? isn't there enough conflict in the world without trying to make 'entertaining' tv out of people not getting on and fighting? coz that's the genre that these programmes fall under, 'entertainment'. the whole thing is really messed up...i genuinely don't watch much tv at all, but i was idley flipping the remote control the other night and there was a show with the truly awful carol vorderman and the basic premise of this piece of trash was to give some couples a chance in a lifetime to win a beautiful farmhouse in spain but the 'competition' was designed in such a way that they'd all argue and verbally attack each other. it's horrible. the producers even set the show up with clips of these people being disruptive, being confrontational, being rude or being violent. how tragic is that? then you've got b*g bro**er with all the one dimensional characters; total idiots with a collective IQ less than that of a quorn fillet and with tempers and volatile personalities bordering on the edge of psychotic. put them together and watch them fight. and this is good tv? wife swap, again the basic premise is conflict. it's the same tragic formula being used. set nutters/idiots up, watch them intially get on then watch the whole thing descend into a fight. i'm troubled by it coz it goes much, much deeper than just moving pictures on a screen when people are absorbing it without question and alot of people will just accept the slop they're fed and it'll influence their behaviour in the wider world. okay, rant over.
are you okay? have you got the monday blues or are you keeping it together? i've never been asked to play any elvis tunes, until thursday at the gig in aberdeen that is. a drunk guy stumbled up as we (me and chris) were hurridly soundchecking just before we were about to start playing. (you can't beat not being given a soundcheck before the gig for settling the nerves). i think mr drunkstumbly man wanted us to play some dylan too. luckily he left, but came right back up in front of me and chris during a slow song and started rambling so i just closed my eyes and ignored him. when i opened them again he'd gone! i wonder if i have a magical power. that would be great. or maybe while my eyes were closed chris wrestled him to the ground and carried him outside and dumped him in the bins, all the while playing lead guitar and not missing a note. he probably could do that you know. some pics were taken of the gig so hopefully they'll be up sometime soon. it would be great if there were pics of chris throwing this guy into a wheelie round the back. i'll find out soon enough. it was a good trip.
when i got off the train in glasgow i decided to walk all the way home as a training exercise for london. i have a guitar bag that i wear like a rucksack (it's a rok sak!) and i had a bag too, so i thought i'd be like a professional footballer who goes to dubai to acclimatise and get strong before the big tournament. so i walked all the way back, sweating beer from the night before. i'll need to get used to that when i deal with the tube in london. apparently if you crack an egg on one of the seats on the tube you can make a fried egg. on saturday belle and sebastian and friends at the botanic gardens was really enjoyable. it was great to keep bumping into friends and the atmopshere/weather combo worked a treat.
Wilco - How To Fight Loneliness
How to fight loneliness
Smile all the time
Shine your teeth to meaningless
And sharpen them with lies
And whatever is going down
Will follow you around
That’s how you fight loneliness
You laugh at every joke
Drag your blanket blindly
Fill your heart with smoke
And the first thing that you want
Will be the last thing you’ll ever need
That’s how you fight it
Just smile all the time
Just smile all the time
Just smile all the time
Just smile all the time
i'm playing up in aberdeen on thursday and i just bought me and chris some train tickets. "two returns please" i said wearily when i finally reached the front of the massive queue full of genuinely confused/worn out looking people. "98 pounds" came the gruff reply from the man who wished it was 4.50pm on friday and not midday on a monday. couldn't believe it. so i questioned him and he said "oh yeah, sorry. it's £44". i could have been financially ruined right there and then. i'm looking forward to it although i need an energy boost. apparently bananas release some chemical in the brain that makes you happy. i might go get a bunch of nanas and sit under a tree in the sun coz i also read today that people are lacking in vitamin D coz they're avoiding the sun's rays which is a plentiful source of this vitamin. maybe that explains why monkeys are always playful coz they're eating nanas in the sun. as i type this i'm listening to a nick drake documentary that was on bbc radio 6 recently. i heard the one that brad pitt narrated on bbc radio 2 and i stumbled across this one on the bbc's 'listen on demand' player. i'm feeling quite sad. and sleepy. often i get sleepy when i'm sad. i think it's my body's way of shutting down to avoid bad thoughts. do you listen to happy music when you're sad or happy music when you're happy? sometimes it's good to listen to songs that you can emphathise with i guess when you're sad. then u don't feel as alone. listening to some of nick drake's beautiful music here makes me think that there's a bunch of acoustic songs i'd love to record with voilin or flute. or a string quartet! oh well. i'm going to play 'is it too late to work for NASA' on thursday i think coz it's my favourite song to play at the moment.
okay, so there's going to be more gigs added to the list already. they're just in the process of being finalised at the moment and i'm beginning to lose track. i'm really looking forward to all these shows though and getting in a bit of a stride with it all. rehearsals with chris, alan and james are going well and it's proving to be alot of fun. i fancy getting a digital camera to take some pics of the gigs, i wonder what's a good one to buy? hmmmm. i got myself one of those padded guitar cases with straps that you wear like a rucksack on your back. the one i got is called a 'rok sak'. chris got a different one before me, he got his for £10 cheaper coz he feigned a heart attack in the shop and the man felt sorry for him so he knocked a tenner off the price just to get him off the floor. i got mine with a clear conscience for £30 and mine's way better. nah, chris's had a stain on his or something and got a big discount, lucky begger. but it's still not as good! a cat would enjoy sleeping in mine, it's luxurious. it would be like staying in the ritz hotel. but chris's is like a second rate hostel. plus it's made of wicker. it's highly flammable and it's not a rok sak. rok saks are the best. the pockets are big too, ronnie corbett could easily fit inside mine. and he just might, a man can dream. i'd love to carry ronnie around from gig to gig and just unzip the pocket and he'd spring out and do some freeform interpretative dance to my set then at the end i'd coax him back in. i'll see if i can contact his manager.
i think i've had too much coffee.
