Musings on the byways of popular culture
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I’m sure those of you with Kindles may be interested in the fact that today (March 13), for one day only, Amazon are offering David Hepworth’s recent book “Uncommon People”, in Kindle format, for a measly 99p, as part of their “Deal Of The Day”. Bargain!
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Now, this is odd. Back in January the book-crowdfunding site Unbound started a campaign for the second volume of memoirs by Martin Newell, whose first volume, “This Little Ziggy” had been earlier recommended several years ago in Word magazine, and was indeed an excellent read. Having enjoyed the first volume, I eagerly signed up to support volume 2, “Taken To The Cleaners”, which promised to cover the illustrious career of Word favourite The Cleaners From Venus.
If you’ve never tried Unbound, I should mention that one of the aspects of its funding process which I’ve always found frustrating is that not only do you pay upfront (unlike other crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter), but there’s no specified timescale for the funding bid. Sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter tell you clearly how much is to be raised, and to what deadline (e.g. £50,000 in 3 months), but the goal is not specified at Unbound. Furthermore, there are books I’ve supported on Unbound which have been crawling towards funding for well over a year, and I’ve NEVER seen any mention of a book “failing” to meet its funding target – it seems everyone’s happy to let even the slowest funder limp on » Continue Reading.
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I just started studying a short FutureLearn course on cyber security, and discovered that the lead educator is one Dr. Steve Riddle, whose name (and photo) I’m sure I recognise from the days of the old Word website. It was a weird feeling, seeing someone from a music-fan context suddenly pop up in an IT education context. It felt not dissimilar to those weird moments when you’re on holiday somewhere distant, and bump into the people who live down your street, or who you know from work. Steve, if you still frequent the Afterword, I promise not to “do a Chris Packham” and pepper my course comments with quotes from obscure XTC songs!
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Just a quick plug for my new blog – would love to see any Afterworders there, so please have a look and leave some comments. It’s looking a bit bare at the moment, but plenty more posts to come!
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A couple of years ago, I was tipped off about an Oxford-based prog band called Sanguine Hum. I bought the two albums then available, and thought they were pretty good, though unable to resist the usual “not as good as those golden-age prog bands” caveat. However, Sanguine Hum have recently released their third album, and it’s a corker. Whether you’re a prog fan from those far off days of the early 70s, or a nu-prog youngster, I strongly urge you to check out their double-CD behemoth, “Now We Have Light”. Not just a prog album, but a prog CONCEPT album, by golly! I really didn’t think I’d ever hear another prog album as dazzlingly original as this one. Here’s a taster – if you like it, I assure you it’s all just as good as this.
