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Tuneful Things (Part 2 of 2)

By David
Sep 24, 2011

Continuing on with my recap, this year I attended the Pipe Band World Championships for the first time. No, not as a player, only a spectator. They’re held every year on Glasgow Green, and this year was a fair weathered one. I got a little rain and a little sunburn. Top tip: spend the extra and get a Grade 1 arena seat. You’ll want to watch Grade 1, and you definitely don’t want to stand the whole time!

I watched a number of different bands at different levels, and all the Grade 1 Medleys. However, I think I’ve heard enough of these tunes to last a lifetime, seemed like 90% of MSRs had one or more of them: Highland Wedding, Lord Alexander Kennedy, John Morrison of Assynt House & Mrs MacPherson of Inveran. My personal favourites were Scottish Power starting with Castle Dangerous, which was my first ever tune and FMM’s final tune, The Train Journey North.

There was a few “interesting” tune names in the programme too:
- My Clootch is Awee
- Pony Gallop
- Rubber Legs
- Mozart on the Rampage
- Mr F Octave Anno
- Master of the Dark Arts
but the one that caught my eye was: The Cunning Stunt

The same day I was staying in Edinburgh, so my sister too me to see Showstopper!, the improvised musical. It sounds like a pretty mad idea, and it was! I’m still to decide if it was the best or the cheesiest musical I’ve ever seen. There can’t be that many featuring Russian dancing, George Formby and belly-flopping penguins…

When a dead cold lockdown hits St Greenland’s Antarctic Research Hospital, interns Ricky and Nurse Betty are stranded in the blizzard. Will they get back in time to save the hospital, and will Dr Ostrovsky be released by his penguin chorus?

Can you spot someone famous on this year’s Scottish Culture & Traditions Brochure?

This week I went along to see a band called ReSession. These four lads graduated from the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music in Plockton last year. I was thoroughly impressed with their ability, their style and their creativity. Probably a good thing the Scottish Government stepped in and saved the school from closure this year then!

It’s not entirely folk music though, I got the new Foo Fighters album, Wasting Light, as soon as it came out as well as picking up The Colour And The Shape in a charity shop. I think I should get the other couple I’m missing. I finally bought Green Day’s American Idiot. I had a “yarr” copy a while ago, so it was about time I bought it. I haven’t got the new Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s album yet, although I listened to it for a while for free from iTunes. It was pretty good, but I found Blood Sugar Sex Magic in the charity shop this week, so that’ll suffice for just now.

Last up, I bought the new Jonathan Coulton album, Artificial Heart. Now, who the hell is Jonathan Coulton? Well he wrote Still Alive, you know, that tune from the Portal ending credits? (And the sequel). Computer game? Still with me?

I decided to just buy this on a whim, without even listening to the stuff on his website (everything is playable from there). Was it worth it? Oh hell yes!

I’m not quite sure how to classify this album, perhaps under comedy but it’s better than that. I’m trying to decide whether the best song is “Sticking it to Myself”, “Today with Your Wife”, “Alone at Home”, “The Stache” or “Now I Am an Arsonist”. Or those versions of “Still Alive” and “Want You Gone”. Hmm, away to listen again!

Tuneful Things (Part 1 of 2)

By David
Sep 23, 2011

I thought I’d post this just as a recap of musical things I’ve bought or seen lately. Way back in May and June I went to the Lemon Tree to see Lau and Kan. Sharing not just a very short name, they also share a fiddler. Although Aiden O’Rourke plays with both outfits, the style’s are both very different. Lau is like, well Lau, and Kan is like Flook or Brian Finnegan. None of this is a bad thing

I saw Lau a couple years back, but at the time I was not overly impressed. This time round they were pretty much the same except I thought they were excellent. I think that speaks to my constantly changing musical tastes! There was a lot of fantastic and extreme playing. By this I mean that they constantly try to get noises out of their instruments which you would not think were possible.

Kan were a very different style, more tuneful and bright. I’ve never seen Brian Finnegan before (nor did I get to see Flook), but I have all the Flook albums as well as his solo one from last year. In fact a fair few tunes were straight off of that album. However there was plenty more in there which I expect will appear in their CD due for release soon(ish).

Also back in May, there was a Folk Festival up in Portsoy. I went along to the Saturday evening concert where the highlight was the Irish trio Fidil. The lads from Donegal were very good, and like Lau, were not afraid to be creative with their instruments. All three played fiddles but did not restrict themselves to bowing. There was plucking, strumming, even hitting their instruments (well it sounded that way, probably a strategically placed pickup)! I could not buy their album fast enough.

Also in Portsoy over the summer was the Boat Festival. I went up for the Friday night concert. The leading act was the Tannahill Weavers. I’ve listened to a few of the albums for a few years now, so I was quite excited to see them in concert, however I was initially disappointed. They started out with their Arnish Light set, which although I recognised it, the performance was all over the place. Some parts were done far too fast, and their was a bit of a concerned look amongst the lads as they struggled to keep together. After a few sets they managed to settle in, but the excitement had faded. It wasn’t all bad though, I particularly enjoyed Phil Smillie’s whistle playing with his two handed A triples.

I’ve bought a few more albums of the last few months. First up was Manran. I saw these guys in concert in the Aberdeen OTC building back in march (an odd, but decent concert), and I bought the album within an hour of it appearing on Facebook! I must’ve been one of the first people to receive and listen to it (and it was a signed copy too!). It was in my car CD player for a couple of months and I listened it at work almost constantly for a while. The last track (Puirt) in particular is something special. I’m not good with Gaelic so I’ve no idea what the mouth music is all about, but coincidentally I came across the exact same song on the Tannahill Weaver’s Cullen Bay album which I got out of the library the same day!

The other folk album I bought recently was the new Battlefield Band album. After Alasdair White’s whistle class in Ullapool earlier this year, I thought I’d give this a go. I recognised one tune straight away which he taught in the class (Ian Ghlinn’ Cuaich). Like the Manran album it too has been a constant fixture of the car and ipod. I hope Ewen Henderson is happy now that I’ve bought two of his albums this year. He also plays with Manran!

East to West

By David
May 06, 2011

As hard as it is to believe, I’ve never been to the West Coast. Yes, despite growing up a mere 109 miles away, my trip to Ullapool this last weekend was the first time I’ve headed further west than Inverness!

I was headed there for Fèis Rois, the Ullapool Folk Music festival weekend. There was promise of music workshops, concerts and sessions. What I didn’t expect was a weekend of such fantastic weather. The air conditioning in my car caused quite a shock when I stepped out into the warm air. The whole weekend there was nothing more than a warm breeze from down Loch Broom.

Anyway, I had come for the music and had signed up for the flute and whistle classes. I had expected the flute to be taught by Nuala Kennedy, who I saw in concert back in December. Unfortunately she was unable to come due to health reasons, so they shuffled things about and the whistle tutor, Iain MacDonald taught the flute class instead. I didn’t know much about Iain, other than he was one of the three MacDonald brothers from Glenuig. Alasdair White was roped in to teach the whistle instead. Fortunately, there was a free concert on the Friday night so I could find out more about them both:

It was a great night. The classes which followed were very good and we learnt a whole bunch of tunes:

• The Legacy Jig, The Soup Dragon & Charlie Hunters
• Captain Campbell & Cawdor Fayre
• Harris Dance & Skye Dance
• The Bunny’s Hat
• Gan Anim – The first track from the Mary Bergin Feadoga Stain CD
• Major George Morrison, DSO – My definite favourite!
• Iain a’Ghlinn Cuaich
• I’d Rather be Married than Single

Question is, how many will I remember after a few months?

On the Saturday night I went to the concert with Liz Carroll & John Doyle, and the Julie Fowlis Band. Liz & John were both excellent, I gather she was a very popular tutor with all the fiddlers. The Julie Fowlis Band were pretty much just as I expected given that I’ve been listening to all four of her CDs lately!

There was a huge session at “The Session Place” (appropriate!) after the concert. Sharon got Liz Carroll to sit down next to us. How cool is that?

On the Sunday evening there was a Tutors concert. Basically all the tutors played in various groups for hours on end. It was great, though extremely warm. I think halls in Ullapool weren’t designed with a requirement to keep cool in hot weather! I think my favourite piece was by Karine Polwart, Corrina Hewat & Annie Grace. The three singers seem absolutely mad, which is probably what makes them so good.

Anyway, I had a great weekend away. Great weather & great music. Just what I wanted!

Mairearad & Anna

By David
Apr 19, 2011

Went to see Mairearad Green and Anna Massie on Sunday night at the Lampie. I last saw them a few years ago when they were here. I thought they were fantastic then, and they’re still fantastic now!

The two girls are obviously best pals, and just love playing music. It’s a good job they’re both exceptionally good players.

I found their last CD (The Missing Gift) in a charity shop a few months ago, so I couldn’t pass that up. I’ve had it on my ipod quite a lot since then, and I plan to track down their new CD, simply titled Mairearad & Anna.

My verdict: Go see them!

The Part That Wasn’t Needed

By David
Feb 08, 2011

Just a little epilogue to the computer rebuild posts. Reinstalling software was not required after all. All I did was plug the HDD in and Windows 7 just adjusted itself to suit.

Yay for simplicity. YAY!

Packing It In

By David
Feb 08, 2011

So, part three of my new computer log.

Being a small case, I definitely had to take my time with the build. After checking that the second hand board and processor worked properly (and after realising the Intel i5 doesn’t have a graphics part required to run this board on it’s own!) I dived right in.

The Lian Li case uses 8 screws to remove the side panel, so I wouldn’t want to open it too often. The other side panel comes off the same way, and the motherboard screws straight into it. I initially tried to mount the cooler once the board was inside the case, but had to pull it out and do it again. There’s just no room to see what’s going on in there.

I routed the SATA cables behind the motherboard, they just barely stretch. The graphics card fitted in without much problem.

Don’t do what I did and connect the power switch header wrong. I had to dismantle half the thing to sort that out!

If you look closely you can see the CoolIT ECO A.L.C. pump on top of the processor. This was probably the hardest part to fit in there.

The first problem I had was fitting the rear part of the cooler to the motherboard. The H55N has a metal plate behind the CPU. Two of the screws in this would get in the way of the cooler plate. Also, around the holes there are some components which would be crushed by the cooler plate. What I did was hack away some parts of the plastic from the cooler plate. Not ideal, but it works.

Also, the pipes out of the pump don’t have a lot of movement in them, so it took a while to figure out which way to position it and the attached radiator. Also, the front fan is 140mm, so I had to use an adapter to attach it to the fittings at the front of the case. This is not ideal though, as it won’t go all the way in, due to the radiator touching the RAM.

I think I will redo this part sometime soon, either with a proper 140mm fan and offset radiator, or using two slim line 12mm fans. Cooling and sound wise, it is alright. There is less noise than my old machine, but it does spin up under load, and temperatures rise to around 70°C. I have been doing a lot of video encoding this week, so it’s been running at about that since I built it.

The Silverstone PSU comes with an adapter to fit to the normal ATX psu opening on the case. However, it does position it centrally, I would have preferred it offset, so that it doesn’t put so much pressure on the cooler pipes. Also, there are three SATA power connectors, but on the same cable, so I was unable to use it to power the Blu-Ray drive. I had to pop to PC World and get ripped off for a Molex adapter for that.

Assembled, it looks swell on my desk:

And finally, the comparing it to the old Antec 300. Smashing!

Next: Installing software!

The Latest And Greatest

By David
Feb 06, 2011

I have been planning to downsize my PC for a while now. A few months ago I looked and found the Gigabyte H55-N-USB3 motherboard. This seemed to do everything I wanted and uses the (then) latest Intel i3/5/7 processors. However the new hotness of the Intel Sandy Bridge processors was just around the corner. They launched last month, but Mini-ITX boards were hard to find.

It’s a good thing I didn’t go out and buy one straight away though, as Intel announced last week that there is an issue with their related chipsets. Fearing this may mean an upgrade is far off, I started looking for an alternative. AMD have a pretty poor choice in Mini-ITX boards, plus their new hotness is only a few months away. I could have gone for a Zotac 775 motherboard, and using my existing CPU, but that wouldn’t really be an upgrade.

Thankfully, I managed to pick up a nice second hand bundle from the OcUK Forums. It was the Gigabyte board I’d originally looked at. Not quite the latest and greatest, but still pretty decent and a lot cheaper than a faulty Sandy Bridge. I was keeping the Graphics card and the Hard Disks, so my new build was coming together as this:

• CPU – Intel i5 750 @ 2.67GHz
• Memory – 4GB Corsair XMS3
• Motherboard – Gigabyte H55-N-USB3
• CPU Cooler – CoolIT ECO A.L.C
• Graphics Card – Asus Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 – 768MB
• Sound Card – Built in (there aint no room for that anymore!)
• Hard Disk – OCZ Vertex2E 60GB + Samsung F3 1TB
• Disk Drive – Samsung Blu-Ray (these are reasonably priced now, and I just wanted one).
• PSU – Silverstone 450W SFX
• Case – Lian Li PC-Q11B

All the parts arrived on Friday (through the Codify sorting office!). Now to put it all together!

Planning for Downsizing!

By David
Feb 05, 2011

So, I made my new computer today! I thought I’d detail some of the changes to it. My current PC is (was) as follows:

• CPU – Intel Core2Duo E2200 @ 2.2GHz
• Memory – 4GB OCZ Gold DDR2 RAM @ 800MHz
• Motherboard – Asus P5K-V
• Graphics Card – Asus Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 – 768MB
• Sound Card – Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI Express
• Hard Disk – OCZ Vertex2E 60GB + Samsung F3 1TB
• DVD Drive
• PSU – Corsair HX520
• Case – Antec 300

This kit still runs pretty much everything out there. I only had a few problems with it, mainly on the motherboard. The board was a B-Grade item, so never came with a backplate. It also would not go into sleep mode without immediately restarting and the bios would lose all settings whenever it was removed from the power supply.

The main reason for wanting an upgrade however was to upgrade (downgrade) to a smaller case. The Antec 300 is the best case I’ve come across yet. Basic yet tidy. However it is still a full size PC case, and I really fancied some of the Mini-ITX designs out there. I narrowed my case selection to the following:

• Sugo SG05B – This case is pretty small, deeper than it is high. It comes with a PSU, so works out cheaper than most other cases. It uses a slimline DVD drive. I’ve seen a few good examples of systems built with this.
• Lian Li PC-Q07B – This case is probably as small as you can possibly get. I excluded this as it doesn’t fit a dual slot graphics card, which I already own. It does come in a cool blue colour too. I still bought one however, and plan to put my server at my folks house into this.
• Lian Li PC-Q11B – This case looks super sexy. It is like the Q07B, only slightly bigger in all directions. It fits a full size power supply, but I think it’d be best with the Silverstone 450W SFX PSU instead. I also takes a full size DVD drive.

I decided I’d get the Lian Li PC-Q11B a while ago. Now just to fill it with components!

Feeling Inspired

By David
Nov 12, 2010

Social Network Updates & Suchlike

By David
Aug 23, 2010

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