Tuesday 12 April 2011

Technophobia Again!

Pearls Before Swine

Quotation of the day: John Lennon – This is for love i'm doing this. And Art.

Hi, everyone.

My ongoing love / hate affair with technology continues. That new DVD player i bought a few weeks ago has been giving me grief.

Jen at the pub lent me her copy of the DVD of the first season of "The Big Bang Theory" – a series she loves but which i'd never seen. The first time i tried to watch it, the volume kept going from loud to soft to muted altogether. I just figured a plug had come loose somewhere, but had no time to play with it, and watched the the first couple of episodes of the series on my computer instead (well, i just now finished watching the first half and it definitely has its laugh-out-loud moments!), resolving to deal with the problem the next day.
 
The next evening, i tried to watch an episode of "The Sweeney" (season 2) and it played back with no trouble, but the following evening i decided to press my luck and watch another episode of "The Sweeney" and ... i had the same volume problem -- which convinced me that there was a plug that i hadn't seated properly or had put in the wrong jack (and there are a lot of jacks back there!)

Then, i tried to watch the recent (2010) Roman Polanski film "The Ghost Writer," and all i could get was a loud HUMMMMMM!  Grr, grr, i said to myself.  I'm not a technician, why is nothing ever plug-and-play compliant?!?  So i played with the cords a bit (a bit more, that is), unplugged one and eureka! the sound was perfect and remained so throughout this really rather excellent film.


Friday 8 April 2011

Album Of The Year 2011? And Other Gnus

OK, i know, i haven't posted much lately.  I've been busy.  If you have a paid subscription, you're probably really pissed off (oh, wait, i don't have paid subscriptions). (Which would explain why i haven't been able to pay my 'phone bill yet this month.)

But i am writing tonight with my two cents' worth  -- a couple of weeks ago, Mr Postman delivered to me, a CD which may well be my pick for "album of the year, 2011" -- Joe Bonamassa's "Dust Bowl."

For fans of blues-rock (such as like wot i am) this is a must.

OK, obviously it's a bit early to be choosing an album of the year -- it's barely Spring, the streets are mud, i went out this morning without my Winter coat for the first time since October and bloody froze (although it was nice and warm later it was darned chilly at 7 a.m.).

Er, where was i?