Armour of Rod

Cambridge Announces Events

2008-06-29T19:34:00.000-04:00

no blogger

2007-02-11T11:38:00.000-05:00

It's my birthday too, yeah?

2007-02-05T19:59:00.000-05:00

So this morning (of all mornings) this announcement is made public. It’s cagey in that the terms of which Apple Inc. will own “all of the trademarks related to “Apple”” are not enumerated. On its surface it’s an unsettling development. The secondary focus will be on iTunes, obviously. But I'm a partisan of Apple Records primarily.

It’s curious that the USPTO database (which hadn’t yet updated when I checked) listed the most recent records for Apple Corps Ltd. as providing goods and services in “downloadable musical sound and video records” and “downloadable sound and video records featuring or relating to music, entertainment and films”. A wonderful bit of strategy on Neil’s part, I’m sure.

This is much cooler: last year I discovered that I share my birthday with Stuart Damon, Craig Stirling of The Champions. !

A Closing

2006-12-21T19:00:00.000-05:00

The closing of Beano’s is a sad occasion but this is a telling quote: “even though most of our singles are now at half price, we’re not selling that many more, which makes me think that they were overpriced and the market was overpriced.”

NME USA?

2006-12-18T21:29:00.001-05:00

NME is going to be publishing a US edition?

Fortune: Beatles / iTunes

2006-11-27T19:26:00.000-05:00

Fortune is reporting that an Apple Computer/Apple Corps deal to bring the Beatles catalogue to iTunes is imminent.

Ihnatko on Zune

2006-11-26T09:01:00.000-05:00

I realise Andy Ihnatko is not without bias but his evisceration of Zune (“the overall experience is about as pleasant as having an airbag deploy in your face”) is amusing, and his candor is refreshing (on Universal Music CEO Doug Morris: “a big, clueless idiot… do you honestly want morons like him to have power over your music player?”).

David Gilmour to release Arnold Layne/Dark Globe single

2006-11-23T20:59:00.000-05:00

David Gilmour is releasing an EP of Syd Barrett songs on 26 December (digital versions will be available for download on Christmas day).

All three recordings are from recent concerts: two live versions of Arnold Layne (one with vocals by Richard Wright; the other by David Bowie) and a solo acoustic performance of Dark Globe.

. . .

2006-11-13T07:22:00.000-05:00

David Munns, the chairman and CEO of EMI Recorded Music North America, said digital downloads of Beatles tracks would be made available “soon” but this had already been established back in April.

A Pint a Day

2006-11-09T20:01:00.000-05:00

Caroline knew I’d be pleased to know that researchers from the University of Glasgow believe chemicals in English cider apples can protect against strokes, heart disease and cancer.

Points for You

2006-11-08T20:51:00.000-05:00

One more thing I became reacquainted with while in England: the panel game Have I Got News for You. There’s nothing remotely like it in the USA. We have the most recent DVD, but I still miss watching it. The BBC ought to do a podcast edition like they did with the Doctor Who commentary tracks.

Adrienne Shelly

2006-11-07T20:02:00.000-05:00

I was saddened by news of the death of Adrienne Shelly, the lead actress in Hal Hartley’s Trust, one of my favourite movies… only 40, mother of a 3 year-old, happily married. The police have quickly determined she had been murdered.

New Dependencies

2006-11-06T20:12:00.000-05:00

When last in Bolton, Lancashire, I developed a dependency on Polos and Codewords. You can get Polos here if you know where to look (and Canada is a short distance away), but not the spearmint ones. There is a vague cosmetic similarity between the Polo mint and a Life Saver. There is little difference once you taste one. Cheap as chi(m)ps in the UK, but $1.50 a roll here. My supply ran out. A friend is sending more.

See, my needs have gotten more simplistic along with my outlook. Heh.

Codewords… a bit harder to explain… yes, I’ve done the odd crossword puzzle but it never caught on as a habit. The Daily Mail runs Codewords. The grid is similar but the object is to deduce the contents based on one or two letters. I picked up a book at the airport to distract me on the plane (this was, thankfully, before ink became a controlled substance). The book lasted me through the summer. When autumn came I began to panic. Caroline found newly-imported Daily Telegraph paperbacks on amazon. The first volume arrived today, enough to keep me going until Christmas, I hope.

As for older affections for cider and proper chocolates, yeah, I’ve still got those.

Happy Halloween!

2006-11-05T10:51:00.000-05:00

Treehouse of Horror XVII premieres tonight. Stupid Fox.

Bit of Webbage

2006-11-01T20:00:00.000-05:00

Ricky, Steve & Karl return to the Guardian for a special series of three free podcasts. Jarvis Cocker provides a Halloween story. But no Treehouse of Horror.

CDs dead?

2006-10-29T10:33:00.000-05:00

Alain Levy says the CD is dead in that no longer will labels be able to sell discs without offering “value-added” material. Warner Music Group had already announced plans in August to release long-playing music DVDs that would include video footage, higher-quality sound and a duplicate set of tracks, potentially encoded as iTunes AACs by Apple Computer.

An Apple Record on iTunes

2006-10-16T19:01:00.000-04:00

“Baby Blue” by Badfinger is available on iTunes from today, the proper 1972 Straight Up-era recording, the first appearance of any Apple record on iTunes save “King of Fuh” which, since it never made a commercial release, reverted to Brute Force). You can only purchase it as part of the soundtrack to The Departed, but it’s a very curious development since Neil Aspinall is said to be very conservative with licensing and would have to have had a substantial incentive to cooperate, even through third parties, with a company which Apple Corps is in litigation with for trademark violations.

Statement

2006-10-11T21:31:00.000-04:00

I almost forgot to mention—the first series of The State is available on iTunes, maybe the only television I’d consider buying in a low-res digital format.

Send me a postcard, drop me a line

2006-10-09T20:39:00.000-04:00

I wasn’t aware that the Royal Mail honoured pop culture or contemporary figures. Next January, stamps featuring the LP artwork from The Beatles will go on sale.

This Is Quality

2006-10-07T08:30:00.000-04:00

I haven’t perused the myspace page, I have greatly enjoyed the Jarvcasts, and I have not acquired the Deluxe Editions—but I want to.

You Only Move Twice

2006-10-05T19:29:00.000-04:00

Since last we met, the Griffiths have moved twice and been to England once. It took me a while to remember where I’d packed my voice, but photos and stories will be forthcoming…

Return of The Saint

2006-10-04T19:52:00.000-04:00

I’ve been reading Leslie Charteris when I can locate any of his works from the local libraries (much of the Saintly canon is OOP). A collection of recordings from the radio series starring Vincent Price turned up in the library’s digital catalog, but it proved useless because the distributor formatted the files in Windows Media. Even though the radio series has been in the public domain for some time, these episodes were crippled with Microsoft DRM. (The library takes pains to exclude Mac OS X users from their “free” downloads.)

Fortunately, someone kindly provided everything extant at archive.org. Some of the episodes appear to be off-air recordings; some are taken from transcription discs. As a historical slice they’re fascinating. The connection to the literary Simon Templar may be occasionally tenuous, but the show is an all-too-welcome distraction to a busy morning…

Can't Talk; Living

2006-02-08T18:27:00.000-05:00

Beautiful snowfall happening, birthday, moving. Much going on, just nothing compelling enough to post… but, as always, watch for the sign of The Saint—he will return, and so will Armour of Rod.

... when I called you last night from Tesco

2006-01-25T18:50:00.000-05:00

Another reason to pine for England.

Mr Barrett

2006-01-07T10:22:00.000-05:00

The Independent has a nice set of reminiscences of Syd Barrett in commemoration of his 60th birthday.