Current musical favourites chez (and voiture and iPod) Andy
The Feeling: Twelve Stops and Home. I bought this in HMV after hearing them play one track from it over the PA, and what a good decision it’s proved to be as it’s a very fine album indeed. I do like a band who can write good songs, and this is a whole CD full of great quality. It's very contemporary sounding, but there’s lots of old school references too: 10cc in particular, but definitely shades of Supertramp and I can almost hear Paul McCartney singing a couple of the tracks. Great stuff, and I am most pleased with my impulse buy.
Red Hot Chilli Peppers: Stadium Arcadium. Two Cds; 28 songs, which to be honest is a bit too much to take in so I’ve only really played disk one in the couple of weeks since I bought it. I’ve always enjoyed their stuff and with their last couple of albums they’ve settled down into writing great, catchy, loud, funky rock music and Stadium Arcadium is just that. More than anything these guys are a great BAND. Four musicians who gel as a unit in a unique fashion (rather like U2 in that way). Guitarist John Frusciante I think is a genius, both technically and as a song writer. To think that not so long ago this bloke had done so much drug taking that, amongst other things, all his teeth fell out it’s quite astonishing that he’s come back into the band and remained focused for them to produce their most successful string of albums to date. The Chilli Peppers are a band who are right on top of their game and who are an absolute pleasure to listen to.
The Tragically Hip: World Container. The Hip have been at this business 20 years now and still remain a wondrous Canadian secret. Canada’s most beloved band. I got to see them again in London in July and they as ever produced an electrifying performance, led by the verging on insane stage persona of singer Gord Downie. They have always been guaranteed live dynamite whilst I think some of their studio output I think has been a bit patchy of late. With World Container, however, they’ve produced their most accessible, straightforward (commercial?)album for a long time. It is absolutely bloody fantastic. Top marks to them then for choosing Bob Rock as producer on this one. Rock’s name was openly cursed by the Hip’s internet fanbase when they heard he had got the chair for the new CD as it seems he’s “ruined” other bands he’s got hold of in the studio (eg Metallica). But he’s obviously gelled big time with The Hip as they’ve produced a storming, heads down belter of a CD. Rock has said in interviews that he’s always wanted to do the “classic” Canadian album (he’s a Cannuck himself) and perhaps this is it. I just wish they’d release it outside North America, but there are ways and means of getting hold of such things… Best song title ever as well on this one too: Luv (sic). Genius. It’s a real thrill when one of your favourite bands releases a new album, and when it turns out to be as good as this one is then it really is a treat.
Barenaked Ladies: Barenaked Ladies are Me. More from Canada, but the other side of the Canadian musical coin perhaps as BNL made the transition from ‘just known in Canada’ to huge world success with their excellent Stunt album and ‘One Week’ single a few years back. That was 3 albums ago though now, and they’ve continued on since then with a lesser degree of platinum sales perhaps but with a consistent ability to write whole albums full of great songs. And also with a massive, hugely loyal fanbase. I really rated their last one “Everything to Everybody” but with BLAM they’ve surpassed themselves once again on the writing front. Having fulfilled their big label recording contract they’ve now gone independent and this enables them to do pretty much what they like, so this is another double CD fest (if you go for the full download version) release. 27 songs of ridiculously high standard: no filler apparent at all. Great stuff. As with the Hip BNL seem to love playing over here so we get to see them live on a regular basis in the UK. Get your tickets for their British dates next March as they are a live outfit not to be missed. A band who have a supreme ability to not take themselves seriously in any way (they mess about quite a bit on stage, often improvising whole songs), but at the same time produce some of the most spine tinglingly great live renditions of their ever growing catalogue. I’ll never forget being sat front and centre of the balcony in the Manchester Apollo while they rattled off a string of four or five album tracks and I just could not believe how ‘perfect’ they were at that moment: the band, the performance, the sound, the songs, everything. Stunning, in a word. One of those times when your spine just tingles with the experience and you feel forever indebted to the band for doing such a thing for you.
Anyway: Barenaked Ladies are Me: a top album from a great band.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Ramble On
I have an annoying cold. It's not quite enough of a cold to be properly (miserably) ill, but just enough to keep me waking up with a sore throat and then being sneezy and snotty for half the day, every day. It's also enough to prevent swimming. Ever tried swimming with a snotty nose? Not good - drowning is a distinct possibility - so I haven't been for 2 weeks. Must pick it up again next week, if this fucking cold disappears.
Anyway - still doing the running and have been commuting on the bike as ever. Snot dispersal is easy when running and cycling. Especially cycling as that's what cycle mitts are for.
Hey, what's with the weather anyhow? It's mid October and still no sign of the bike leggings going on as yet. Indeed it's still pretty much shorts and a single top on the way home. It's been a mixed bag of showers and sun all week, and when it's sunny it's proper warm. I noticed there's new nettles out on the running trails - even the plants are getting confused.
Hey - my new bike light is excellent. This week has been the first where lights are needed on the roads of a morning so it is being used in earnest as dawn is now between half 7 and 8 o'clock. OK, so I paid £13o for a bike light but it's a great bike light and makes me feel safe on the road, even in the twilight hours. Well, when I say 'safe' I mean 'more visible'. 'Safe' is not a state of mind which can be in any way connected with cycle commuting. I caught myself daydreaming whilst cycling the other night. Not a wise thing to do as when you daydream the eyes in the back of your head go asleep, and you lose your periferal vison. As everyone knows eyes in the back of your head are essential whilst bike commuting. Just like a £13o light.
Watching "Clerks" on DVD. A true classic and a steal at £6 in the current HMV sale. I never as a rule buy films on DVD as they generally get watched once and then shelved, but cold not resist this one... and the 3 disk edition of Memento for an utterly bargainesque £7. Hours of triple disk directors' commentaries, alternative endings; hilarious outtakes; original screen tests, actors' biographies; 'making of' documentaries; exclusive stills libraries and special web link DVD extras fun. So, I'll likely watch each one once and then shelve them.
Right - must prepare for the weekend.... Ok. That's that done.
It's one of those rare occasions where I can actually have a lie in tomorrow. Of course I won't have a lie in because I'll be wide awake at half 7. Do you grow out of lie ins I wonder? Or maybe we just grow through lie in phases in life. Mind you some people (you ladies in particular) seem to be able to muster a monster lie in at any opportunity. Lie ins are a gender thing? Discuss.
Anyway - still doing the running and have been commuting on the bike as ever. Snot dispersal is easy when running and cycling. Especially cycling as that's what cycle mitts are for.
Hey, what's with the weather anyhow? It's mid October and still no sign of the bike leggings going on as yet. Indeed it's still pretty much shorts and a single top on the way home. It's been a mixed bag of showers and sun all week, and when it's sunny it's proper warm. I noticed there's new nettles out on the running trails - even the plants are getting confused.
Hey - my new bike light is excellent. This week has been the first where lights are needed on the roads of a morning so it is being used in earnest as dawn is now between half 7 and 8 o'clock. OK, so I paid £13o for a bike light but it's a great bike light and makes me feel safe on the road, even in the twilight hours. Well, when I say 'safe' I mean 'more visible'. 'Safe' is not a state of mind which can be in any way connected with cycle commuting. I caught myself daydreaming whilst cycling the other night. Not a wise thing to do as when you daydream the eyes in the back of your head go asleep, and you lose your periferal vison. As everyone knows eyes in the back of your head are essential whilst bike commuting. Just like a £13o light.
Watching "Clerks" on DVD. A true classic and a steal at £6 in the current HMV sale. I never as a rule buy films on DVD as they generally get watched once and then shelved, but cold not resist this one... and the 3 disk edition of Memento for an utterly bargainesque £7. Hours of triple disk directors' commentaries, alternative endings; hilarious outtakes; original screen tests, actors' biographies; 'making of' documentaries; exclusive stills libraries and special web link DVD extras fun. So, I'll likely watch each one once and then shelve them.
Right - must prepare for the weekend.... Ok. That's that done.
It's one of those rare occasions where I can actually have a lie in tomorrow. Of course I won't have a lie in because I'll be wide awake at half 7. Do you grow out of lie ins I wonder? Or maybe we just grow through lie in phases in life. Mind you some people (you ladies in particular) seem to be able to muster a monster lie in at any opportunity. Lie ins are a gender thing? Discuss.
Friday, October 20, 2006
Friday, October 13, 2006
Book it and they will come...
A weekend away mountain biking is often easier said than done when it comes to getting a big group of people together. Best thing is to just pick a weekend, book the accomodation and then invite all and sundry along. And so it was for the Coed y Brenin mountain biking trip this weekend.
Coed y Brenin is near Dolgellau which is south North Wales or north Mid Wales. One of the two. Probably both. North Wales we all know about with Snowdonia and all that but I personally think that the Mid Wales area is criminally overlooked as a tourist area in Britain given that it is uniformly stunning. A couple of years ago I did a work thing at Aberystwyth which is two towns further on down into Wales and the drive was just amazing. Mountain bikers tend to know the secrets of Mid Wales as Rhayader for instance is a well trodden biking area with it’s proximity to the wonderful Elan Valley. Follow the A470: just down from Dolgellau there’s Machynlleth, sat in a quite beautiful valley and its Dyfi Forest is full of mountain biking. Onto lovely Llanidloes,(or nip over the top between these two via Staylittle and the inmpressive Clwedog reservoir); through Rhayader to Builth Wells and head down to Brecon and it’s mighty Beacons. Absolutely glorious, the lot of it. Oh, and then there’s the coastline of Cardigan Bay: Barmouth, Aberystwyth etc and points in between. Take a walk to the top of Cader Idris and you can see most of it. Actually – on second thoughts don’t go: stay away and leave the place to us mountain bikers and climbers.
I digress, back to Coed y Brenin. This place was the first ‘made’ mountain bike venue I think in the UK and I’ve visited it maybe 5 or 6 times now over the last 10 years. The absolute joy/madness of it’s flagship short and sweet “Red Bull” trail has never failed to reduce me to an endorphin fuelled, giggling wreck by the time I was racing round it’s bermed conclusion. Then there’s an afternoon out on the sprawling Karrimor trail round 40k of scenic, single tracked or fire roaded forestry, plus the more recent, more technical MBR route. A weekend at CyB involved doing all of them with the Red Bull at least twice.
The visitor centre/café was also top drawer with Sian (ex Wales champion MTB girlie) and her partner Dafydd serving up wondrous big snacks such as cheese or beans on toast (or indeed both), accompanied by huge mugs of tea. Exactly the thing hungry mountain bikers crave. There was also an excellent bike shop at the site. So, when news filtered through early this year that Sian and Dafydd had given up the center and that the place was undergoing a serious make over with new trails and shifting the visitor centre to the other side of the A470, it was difficult to know whether to be pleased or worried. Best thing really was to go a try the place out again, so that’s what we did last weekend.
Our booked accomodation was an excellent 10 berth bungalow at Ferndale (www.coedybrenin.com) within the forest iteslf, which meant we could ride from the house straight onto the trails (the visitor centre was about 10 minutes away round the easy ‘blue’ route). The house had tons of room, an Aga in the kitchen, wood burning stove in the lounge, "pet" mice on the loose, kayaking quailty river flowing next to it – all very ‘countryside’. Everyone turned up late Friday evening after their long drives – the others were the Reading bike crew, most of whom I’d met before. Rich had bought about 4 tons of food so we would certainly not go hungry and Saturday morning we tucked into eggs, bacon and beans done on the Aga. I think we were out by half 10 which is not bad considering there was 9 bikes worth of faffing to be done. Two inexperienced girls in the group sensibly opted for the easy routes so there were seven of us out on the serious trails for the day. We launched into “The Beast” and the old Red Bull now renamed “Tarw” (which is ’Bull’ in Welsh – see what they did there?). About 50k of great riding, and more for some (Rich C, Dean and Annie) as they finished off The Beast – in the dark at about 7pm.
The new and improved visitors' centre …Well, even though it's a lovely wood building and LOOKS great the old one was so good at catering for us cyclists with basic, big food that this one has a lot to live up to. They now seem to be catering for everyone (walkers and families on days out included – ciabatas anyone?) with waitress service. We ordered and then waitied nearly an hour for our food early afternoon, and they messed up the order when we did get it. Rather than complain we (well, Annie) offered some constructive criticism to the owner who was good about it actually. They were just mobbed - busier than August Bank Holiday apparently. 8 weeks it's been open and they are still struggling. But, they are going to have a re-think over the winter and hopefully get it right for next year. Fair enough. They'll get a lot of bad bress in the biking magazines and web sites for sure which is a pity. The bike shop there is actually smaller than the old one which is madness.
My fears about the trail improvments however proved to be unfounded as the new and improved routes really are amazing. Lots of technicalities though and a place only for the experienced. I think everyone came off over the bars on Saturday with some fairing better than others. Rich E (knee/ankle) and Paul (seriously onto his head and knee) were the worst injured with Warwick also putting a good effort in resulting in a neat hole in his elbow.
Saturday night after a marvellous pasta bolognaise cooked by Sue and Sylivia there was much wine and beer drunk in front of the cozy fire in the lounge. Party games materialised, such as the wicked card game “spoons” and the now legendary “team butts”, which was eventually ‘won’ by team jaundice. I think.
Sunday those intrepid souls who could still ride (Rich E and Paul retired due to their injuries) did the MBR route which for me was the best one as it was just pretty much continuous technicalities. We finished off with a flourish round the bits we’d missed out and the finale was part of the ‘blue’ route back down to our house which was an amazing rollercoaster downhill of a singletrack, blasting through the forest at stupid speeds: possibly the best bit of the whole two days. The weather by the way was excellent. One shower Sarturday and other than that lovely with little of the forecast winds in evidence. Sunday was especially good.
Then it was bikes washed; showers; the remains of the bolognaise to finish off; a quick tidy up; pack the cars; scavenge the left over food and then, sadly, it was time to break up the group and go home.
One of those perfect weekends really and hopefully we’ll do it again sometime. Ah, the joy of mountain biking: book somewhere to stay, all turn up and just get out there and ride.
Coed y Brenin is near Dolgellau which is south North Wales or north Mid Wales. One of the two. Probably both. North Wales we all know about with Snowdonia and all that but I personally think that the Mid Wales area is criminally overlooked as a tourist area in Britain given that it is uniformly stunning. A couple of years ago I did a work thing at Aberystwyth which is two towns further on down into Wales and the drive was just amazing. Mountain bikers tend to know the secrets of Mid Wales as Rhayader for instance is a well trodden biking area with it’s proximity to the wonderful Elan Valley. Follow the A470: just down from Dolgellau there’s Machynlleth, sat in a quite beautiful valley and its Dyfi Forest is full of mountain biking. Onto lovely Llanidloes,(or nip over the top between these two via Staylittle and the inmpressive Clwedog reservoir); through Rhayader to Builth Wells and head down to Brecon and it’s mighty Beacons. Absolutely glorious, the lot of it. Oh, and then there’s the coastline of Cardigan Bay: Barmouth, Aberystwyth etc and points in between. Take a walk to the top of Cader Idris and you can see most of it. Actually – on second thoughts don’t go: stay away and leave the place to us mountain bikers and climbers.
I digress, back to Coed y Brenin. This place was the first ‘made’ mountain bike venue I think in the UK and I’ve visited it maybe 5 or 6 times now over the last 10 years. The absolute joy/madness of it’s flagship short and sweet “Red Bull” trail has never failed to reduce me to an endorphin fuelled, giggling wreck by the time I was racing round it’s bermed conclusion. Then there’s an afternoon out on the sprawling Karrimor trail round 40k of scenic, single tracked or fire roaded forestry, plus the more recent, more technical MBR route. A weekend at CyB involved doing all of them with the Red Bull at least twice.
The visitor centre/café was also top drawer with Sian (ex Wales champion MTB girlie) and her partner Dafydd serving up wondrous big snacks such as cheese or beans on toast (or indeed both), accompanied by huge mugs of tea. Exactly the thing hungry mountain bikers crave. There was also an excellent bike shop at the site. So, when news filtered through early this year that Sian and Dafydd had given up the center and that the place was undergoing a serious make over with new trails and shifting the visitor centre to the other side of the A470, it was difficult to know whether to be pleased or worried. Best thing really was to go a try the place out again, so that’s what we did last weekend.
Our booked accomodation was an excellent 10 berth bungalow at Ferndale (www.coedybrenin.com) within the forest iteslf, which meant we could ride from the house straight onto the trails (the visitor centre was about 10 minutes away round the easy ‘blue’ route). The house had tons of room, an Aga in the kitchen, wood burning stove in the lounge, "pet" mice on the loose, kayaking quailty river flowing next to it – all very ‘countryside’. Everyone turned up late Friday evening after their long drives – the others were the Reading bike crew, most of whom I’d met before. Rich had bought about 4 tons of food so we would certainly not go hungry and Saturday morning we tucked into eggs, bacon and beans done on the Aga. I think we were out by half 10 which is not bad considering there was 9 bikes worth of faffing to be done. Two inexperienced girls in the group sensibly opted for the easy routes so there were seven of us out on the serious trails for the day. We launched into “The Beast” and the old Red Bull now renamed “Tarw” (which is ’Bull’ in Welsh – see what they did there?). About 50k of great riding, and more for some (Rich C, Dean and Annie) as they finished off The Beast – in the dark at about 7pm.
The new and improved visitors' centre …Well, even though it's a lovely wood building and LOOKS great the old one was so good at catering for us cyclists with basic, big food that this one has a lot to live up to. They now seem to be catering for everyone (walkers and families on days out included – ciabatas anyone?) with waitress service. We ordered and then waitied nearly an hour for our food early afternoon, and they messed up the order when we did get it. Rather than complain we (well, Annie) offered some constructive criticism to the owner who was good about it actually. They were just mobbed - busier than August Bank Holiday apparently. 8 weeks it's been open and they are still struggling. But, they are going to have a re-think over the winter and hopefully get it right for next year. Fair enough. They'll get a lot of bad bress in the biking magazines and web sites for sure which is a pity. The bike shop there is actually smaller than the old one which is madness.
My fears about the trail improvments however proved to be unfounded as the new and improved routes really are amazing. Lots of technicalities though and a place only for the experienced. I think everyone came off over the bars on Saturday with some fairing better than others. Rich E (knee/ankle) and Paul (seriously onto his head and knee) were the worst injured with Warwick also putting a good effort in resulting in a neat hole in his elbow.
Saturday night after a marvellous pasta bolognaise cooked by Sue and Sylivia there was much wine and beer drunk in front of the cozy fire in the lounge. Party games materialised, such as the wicked card game “spoons” and the now legendary “team butts”, which was eventually ‘won’ by team jaundice. I think.
Sunday those intrepid souls who could still ride (Rich E and Paul retired due to their injuries) did the MBR route which for me was the best one as it was just pretty much continuous technicalities. We finished off with a flourish round the bits we’d missed out and the finale was part of the ‘blue’ route back down to our house which was an amazing rollercoaster downhill of a singletrack, blasting through the forest at stupid speeds: possibly the best bit of the whole two days. The weather by the way was excellent. One shower Sarturday and other than that lovely with little of the forecast winds in evidence. Sunday was especially good.
Then it was bikes washed; showers; the remains of the bolognaise to finish off; a quick tidy up; pack the cars; scavenge the left over food and then, sadly, it was time to break up the group and go home.
One of those perfect weekends really and hopefully we’ll do it again sometime. Ah, the joy of mountain biking: book somewhere to stay, all turn up and just get out there and ride.
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