“Then she’ll carelessly cut you and laugh while you’re bleedin’â€?

January 21st, 2008 Posted by Ian W | Doin' the iPod Shuffle | no comments

So here we are at the start of my third week walking to work (although last week I only walked twice) and the Shuffle seems to be getting attuned to my brain patterns (an unadvertised bonus feature). Picking up on the fact that I was late for work this morning it gave me a more up-tempo trip than usual and eased me in gently for the return trip this evening.

There:

• “Bad to the Bone” - George Thorogood
• “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” - The Firm (Not the guys who did Star Trekkin’ but the ‘80s supergroup featuring Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers)
• “Silver and Gold” (Live) - U2
• “Tangram (Future Part)” - Tangerine Dream (This makes surprisingly good walking music)
• “See You in the Next One (Have a Good Time) - The Verve
• “Mexican Cantina” - Fabio Frizzi, Franco Bixio & Vince Tempera (From Carambola a 1974 spaghetti western)
• “I Still Miss Someone” - Johnny Cash
• “Siamese Twins” - The Rainmakers (It’s a shame Bob Walkenhorst hasn’t released any new material since his 2003 solo album The Beginner but at least many of Bob’s live shows, plus several vintage Rainamkers gigs, are available for download at Internet Archive)

And back again:

“Ooh baby, wanna put my log in your fireplace�

January 16th, 2008 Posted by Ian W | Doin' the iPod Shuffle | no comments

The second week of walking to work didn’t get started until today (yesterday the weather was crap and Monday was my birthday so I caught the bus both days). So here’s today’s list -

There:

• “Fisherman’s Daughter” - Daniel Lanois
• “Superstition” (Live) - Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble (A performance that really shows what a great band Double Trouble were)
• “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love with You)” - Johnny Cash
• “The Middle of the Road” - Alabama 3 (A surprisingly restrained song from their latest album)
• “96 Tears” - The Stranglers
• “If a Tree Falls” - Bruce Cockburn (Bruce the musical eco-warrior)
• “Is That Love” - Squeeze
• “The Longest Time” - Billy Joel

And back again:

• “Morning Glory Wine” - Mark Lanegan (This would have fit in better on the way to work but it’s such a good song it’s always welcome)
• “Burn Bitch Burn” - Kiss
• “Rollercoaster” (Demo Version) - Robert Plant (I got a ticket to see Plant and Alison Krauss live for my birthday! Roll on May 5th)
• “Green Ballet II” - Adrian Legg (Legg’s a great guitarist but this hasn’t really got a beat you can walk to)
• “Tremor Christ” - Pearl Jam
• “Lady Luck” - J.J. Cale (Now here’s a guitarist who writes songs that get you moving!)
• “Tangled Up in Blue” - Bob Dylan (I love a good story song and this is a classic)

“Did you know the president has super super super sex?�

January 7th, 2008 Posted by Ian W | Doin' the iPod Shuffle | no comments

Day two Shufflin’ to work and here’s a pop quiz for you - what song is the title of this post from? While you think on that here’s today’s list -

There:

• “Wildflower” (Acoustic version) - Sheryl Crow
• “Since I’ve Been Loving You” - Page & Plant
• “You Know What I Mean” - Phil Collins
• “If I Should Fall Behind” (Live) - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (Steve, Patti, Nils and Clarence get to give their tonsils a workout alongside Bruce)
• “Super Sex” - Morphine (Who needs guitars?)

And back again:

• “Don’t Get Me Wrong” - The Pretenders
• “Find You At Last” - John Hiatt
• “Thundercrack” - Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band
• “Rock ‘N’ Roll Mercenaries” - Meatloaf (You can’t beat a bit of Meat)
• “Glass Jar” - Lloyd Cole (Just over a minutes worth of electronic tinkling from Lloyd’s self indulgent Plastic Wood album)
• “Babe, I Got You Bad” - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (No one writes a love song quite like Nick Cave)
• “Shriner’s Park” - Melissa Etheridge

Less songs today, am I walking faster of are they just longer tracks? You should by now have got the answer to that question I posed at the start; it is of course “Super Sex” by the unique and sadly missed Morphine. Somehow I don’t think they were singing about George W.

Doin’ the iPod Shuffle

January 4th, 2008 Posted by Ian W | Doin' the iPod Shuffle, Rants & Raves | no comments

I recently got hold of an iPod Shuffle for free (no it wasn’t a Christmas present, it was a Tesco DVD Rental promotion, 3 months and you get a free 1Gb Shuffle, so technically not really free) with the idea of using it for my walk to work in place of my aging and rather bulky (by today’s standards) iRiver 40Gb player.

Getting the thing working with Vista wasn’t my idea of fun, plug-and-play it ain’t. I was torn between putting it on eBay or getting a hammer and smashing the little bastard to pieces. Instead I persevered, and after, much googleing and several false hopes, managed to get it working. I’m glad I did as it’s a pretty cool little gadget.

Now for a little background info. Prior to Christmas, in fact for the past couple of months, I’ve had a problem with my feet (the left one in particular). Having seen the doctor I was told there were four possible courses of action - a) avoid whatever aggravates it (working in retail and being on my feet all day this was a no go) b) take anti-inflammatory tablets (this seemed to do the trick) c) steroid injections (this didn’t sound like fun) d) an operation (this sounded even less like fun). While the tablets worked the thought of taking them for the rest of my life was less than appealing but this was the impression I was given by the doctor who told me I didn’t need to make another appointment when they ran out, just phone and ask for a repeat prescription.