The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

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Your current gaming obsession?

by 81 Comments

Sincve it’s raining heavily in Sunny Southend ™️this Saturday morning I have been mooching online and ended up re-reading @pencilsqueezer’s Starfield thread. Later (if I can find the time in my busy schedule) I’m going to continue my 3rd play through GTA-V and this time will probably loosen the wallet strings for the DLC.

So this …

Wake up Donny, I think Rod’s got something to say to you

by 45 Comments

“I didn’t know he was orange until a number of years ago, when he happened to turn orange. I respect either one, but he obviously doesn’t and now he wants to be known as Orange. All of a sudden he made a turn and became an Orange person. I think someone should look into that.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/rod-stewart-speaks-out-on-social-media-after-stopping-concert-to-slam-orange-donald-trump/ar-AA1odKZw

Low. A Best Of please

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Everything I have heard of this group is wonderful. Recently Mimi (one half of the husband / wife core of the band) passed away. I’m staggered that they don’t have a recognised Greatest Hits, so I call on you to submit your favourites, please, that I might buy and compile my own.

I am sure there are some proper fans on here who can help here.

Cheers in advance, Massive

Four Seasons

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Inspired by a comment about Talk Talk’s Colour Of Spring, I find it — cheap irony alert! — all brown and misty and redolent of autumn for some reason. Don’t you find some records just embody a particular part of the year?

I am not talking about Christmas records here, just one that you reach for on the first warm day of spring, or maybe when you find yourself putting on an extra layer when the leaves start turning orange. Alternatively, there are those records that immediately put you in mind of a certain season, whatever time of year you hear them, in a similar fashion to one of those pastries Proust bangs on about.

I think we have a wide enough spectrum of tastes to avoid the “Summer? Let’s slap on the Beach Boys Endless Summer!” option, don’t we? But if it genuinely signifies summer for you, well, just provide a hipper less civilian alternative…

Mid-term malaise or bye bye Boris?

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Shropshire. Surely the place envisaged by Del Amitri when they wrote the song “Nothing Ever Happens” But no, the by-election result there last night — turning a 23,000 Con lead into a 6,000 Lib Dem one — was the big story this morning.

So, is it just a vote against Owen Paterson’s greed and enttitlement, or a wider message to Boris and co and the first brick in the Yellow Wall?

I knew there was a “Steely Dan” chord

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… but I never knew there was a “Genesis” chord.

Reading about Phil Collins’ damaged nerves today (he can’t hold a drumstick in one of his hands) led me down one of those fun internet wormhole link-chases. I re-appeared, blinking in the daylight, at a Rick Beato youtube video of him deconstructing the song “Dance On A Volcano,” beloved of air drummers worldwide since 1976.

I feel so dirty

by 20 Comments

Tonight we thought we’d watcha documentary on the island of North Uist. Some superb scenery, local characters and so on, I thought. And so it was for the first 5 minutes.

After that the tone changes and it turns out to be a long advertorial for the P”stc”de L*tt*ery. It seems that a hundred or so of the islanders have shared a £3m prize in a no-way-planned publicity stunt for the gambling encouraging scumbags.

Literally every story subsequently is an interview with one of the winners asking how they were planning to spend the winnings, with a picture of a large cheque on the mantelpiece behind. Not a pretty taste left in my mouth that’sfor sure.

Readers, have YOU any tales to tell of being suckered by some late capitalism cynicism?

Massively Influential, brilliant, and Thirty Years Old

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No, not Ed Sheeran, you silly boy. Blue Lines by Massive Attack. The first time I ever heard the term “trip hop” a style which, like it or not, was original to my ears at least and has had vast influence on pop music since.

I played it today and apart from the sheer quality of the songs it is a fantastic record sounding utterly gorgeous, warm and enveloping.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MassiveAttackBlueLines.jpg

Bluetooth headphones – to work with me Fiio

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First world problem alert so please look away now if you are not affected by issues raised by this blorum post.

I would like a pair of bluetooth headphones to go with my Fiio player when I’m out and about. The Fiio uses aptX bluetooth. Does this mean one only gets the best sound from a headphone that uses aptX too?

I am looking at Sony and Bose, but the former uses its proprietary LDAC codec and the latter uses AAC. Advice please 🙂