Tag Archives: Thoughts

Future Planning

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The All Is One

The All Is One

I’ve had a reseller account at Heart Internet since around 2004 and was reasonably successful for quite a while but over the last several years people have been dropping off and I’ve found I’ve no energy to work to replace them.

This is where I’ve been hosting my own domains as I had no need to pay for the hosting costs as it was covered by incoming fees from my clients, this has changed and I’m now having to pay some money each month out of my own pocket and it’s getting close to where it’s becoming uneconomical blogging from there.

In preparation for the time when I move from Heart I’ve setup this blog where I’ll be mirroring everything from the other blogs and Ko-Fi.

The added benefit of here is that it has https which everyone seems to complain about the others not having.

This is all in anticipation of change and with me not wanting to be all out there much longer, I’ll be turning back to clocks to the GeoCities days where I blogged about whatever I liked and had a small social media footprint.

New Headphones Then

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I’ve recently made the change from Spotify to Qobuz, there were lots of reasons for this, but one of the main ones was the amount artists were being paid and how aggressively Spotify were trying to minimise this as much as they could by introducing ‘ghost’ music to the mix.

Music that isn’t really produced by active artists and Spotify holds the copyright to, with some rumours even going as far as to say AI-generated tracks.

These tracks were then proactively encouraged to us in our artist radios, Spotify-generated mixes, and weighted to nudge down original artists according to a report in Harper’s Magazine.

According to an article at ear Qobuz pays more than every other music streaming service, this is probably because there is no free tier and that seems to be one of the reasons that their income is higher than other services due to their commitment to encouraging the continuation of music production and their self-proclaimed love of music.

As soon as I saw all this I started the free trial, but it wasn’t long until I upgraded to the paid Duo plan for me and my partner as the sound quality is stunning! This was the next main reason I’d been told about, sound quality.

The lowest quality on Qobuz equates to the highest quality on Spotify and the difference was so noticeable even through ear buds but especially on our good quality headphones (it does make me want to buy excellent quality headphones now though).

The interface is a bit more grown up and there is a magazine section to read articles from music journalists all about music and hi-fi, been dipping into this now and then and it’s been really interesting so far.

When I transferred my files across there was a bit missing but when I looked into it it seemed to mainly be playlists generated by Spotify and one album, which is a shame as I really like that album, but hey-ho nothing is perfect.

Overall after a week of using it I’ve got to say how impressed I am by the service and quality, music discovery is a bit harder but it’s the ease of ‘discovery’ on Spotify that allowed them to get away with the slop they were serving their customers, and I’m sure after a bit of practice I’ll get more used to the way Qobuz works

Film, Music, TV, and Me

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Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

I was originally just going to write about science fiction, horror, and fantasy film and television but after consideration I’ve decided to look at all films and television and include music to review as a lot of my life revolves around these three.

I’ve been thinking about doing something like this for a while as I’ve been a huge science fiction, fantasy, and horror fan since as far back as I can remember but never really got around to settling on a format until I decided to just up and write a blog.

I still remember lying in a bed at my Nana’s house watching all the old films and TV, including Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), and all the other old classics with Vincent Price, Bela Lugosi, and others which I always thought were in black and white but as I got older realised it was the telly that was b&w and some were in colour.

Then there came my Doctor, Jon Pertwee, and all those other weird 70s television shows that you weren’t quite sure of what was going on like Children of the Stones (1977).

1977 came and Star Wars: A New Hope burst on to the scene turning this niche genre mainstream, this was quickly followed by Alien (1979) still one of the best sci-fi/horror films made.

Whilst this mainstreaming of science fiction was going on horror got a makeover from the creepy but kitsch films of an earlier era to more mature genre, The Exorcist (1973) saw a good story with mainstream actors and well-developed effect for the time, this was quickly followed by one of the first mainstream slasher horror films, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and this saw an explosion of what was termed as video nasties.

In fantasy, the 50s/60s saw a raft of fantasy films including those by, or influenced by, Ray Harryhausen, but the 70s were a bit barren. Some good comedy films by The Monty Python squad, but the 80s saw a massive surge with films like Legend (1985) and Willow (1988) which were solid sword and sorcery adventure fantasies but the 80s also surprised us with the ever fun Big Trouble in Little China (1986) and the hilarious codpiece Labyrinth (1986).

And from the 90s on there were just a great selection of well-made genre films and television series that we were spoilt for choice.

I want to explore these old and favourite films and television series and write some reviews which I had never thought about doing at the time.

I also want to explore the new as they arrive and the old and unusual as I find them and will be going to the cinema far more often than I have in the past few years.

So watch out for small but honest reviews, occasional watch throughs of t.v. series and other genre content

Almost as strong as my love of good film (good is definitely a relative term here 😉) is my love of music.

Initially just loving all the golden oldies than my Nan played I developed a real taste for music with energy, especially in the mid-70s onward. Punk, New Wave, Rock, Metal, and much more was tempered by a growing taste for indie bands, singer song writer, jazz, blues, and classical.

This has developed into a really catholic taste, willing to give anything a listen, not discounting genres just finding bands/musicians that are to my taste or not.

So to go along with the Film and TV reviews there’s going to be chat about music as well.