Two more for the road

You know what it's like... you spend ages waiting for a bus and then two come along at once.

Judging by the number of people that reach this blog via cider related google searches there'll be at least 2, if not 3, very happy people that the cider survey is back on track with another 2 varieties.

Up for review tonight are Golden Valley Scrumpy from Gwatkin Cider and Sheppy's Dabinett Apple.

The scrumpy was hotly anticipated after Gwatkin's previous entry in this section, the Yarlington Mill variety, scored an impressive 17 out of 20.

It was not going to disappoint either. A solid dry taste and texture, coupled with the perfect solid gold colour and backed up with an interesting pictorial label, ensured for a high scoring bottle.

It was ever so slightly fizzy and a bit thin in texture but, nevertheless, another fantastic effort from Gwatkin and one that leaves it heading for the top of the table.

Name: Golden Valley Scrumpy, (6%)
Label: 4/5
Looks: 5/5
Flavour: 5/5
Texture: 4/5
Total: 18/20

Sadly, after such a strong effort from Gwatkin Sheppy's were about to let the side down. Dabinett Apple, although a strong, alcoholic cider, had neither the flavour nor texture to win many friends.

It was extremely wet and thin to taste with far too much fiz, something which is quite common for ciders over 7% in alcohol volume.

The main let down was the flavour. Far too flat and with little appleyness, almost like flat appletize. It was actually surprisingly easy to drink, in the way that water can be easy to drink, and given the high alcohol volume could be quite dangerously boring in many ways.

Name: Sheppy's Dabinett Apple, (7.2%)
Label: 2/5
Looks: 3/5
Flavour: 1/5
Texture: 2/5
Total: 8/20

The overall league table currently looks like this.

Cover art and personal radio

Generally speaking I'm not a picky/fussy type, nor am I a perfectionist by any stretch of the imagination. So why is it that, not only do I insist on going to great lengths to ensure all my music on iTunes has suitable cover artwork, but I religiously use only the exact artwork that is used for my personal CD version of the album (assuming I have the CD version of course!).

To illustrate this very point, I've just this second spent far too long searching the internet for an image of the purple/green album cover for Midnight Oil's Scream in Blue [live] album (far left) rather than using the ever-so-slightly bluer version (left).

According to my source (Amazon) the purple/green version is used for the cassette album but I assure you it is definitely the one that adorns my CD and will now also feature on my iPod.

Moving away from my cover art issues, have you heard of LAUNCHcast? I hadn't until very recently and I've no idea how I missed it.

It's basically a free Yahoo service (although premium service is available for a small subscription) that will allow you to run your own personal radio station, configured to suit your music tastes based on your genre/artist/album preferences.

There's plenty of options to rate the music as you listen and therefore configure (and improve) your station's playlist the more you listen - essentially it's Pandora for the UK.

Admittedly I've not used it much yet and maybe I've missed lots of flaws, but so far it's the kind of service I've been trying to find for ages and, as usual, has existed all along.

clingfilm Photography explained

Following on from my first post, and after setting up a Flickr group dedicated to clingfilm photography, here's a little more explanation of my initial 'clingfilm' images.

The camera used was the one picture below which was left at my house after a Christmas party last year. An under five pound secret santa gift of a Pirates of the Caribbean (Dead Man's Chest) Camera set including 35mm re-usable camera, 35mm colour film and a 16 page photo album.



A piece of standard cling film was then secured in place on the inside of the camera, between the shutter and the roll of film, as below.



Hey, presto. Simple as you like.

Now simply take photographs, process as normal, scan into computer and upload onto Flickr.

clingfilm Photography

Hmm, not sure if they teach this in any of the manuals... ...but... take the cheapest toy camera you can find, place a screen of screwed up cling film behind the shutter, slot in some very cheap colour film, and snap away.

The results of my first attempts in Wales a couple of weeks ago are surprisingly interesting. I wasn't sure at first but I'm growing to like the vignetting around the edges and the lack of sharp focus almost anywhere on the image.

Definitely something to play with even further and next time I'll post up a photo of the clingfilm camera itself.

...and absolutely no photoshop whatsoever.

Satchel Blue on iTunes

Andy's already beaten me to the big announcement, but for those that don't already know... Birmingham based band Satchel Blue (yes, that's us!) now have a track available to download via iTunes, and theoretically other music download stores, for 79p.

Download here.

This technically means that if enough of you purchased this track we could actually get into the official music charts (i think).

The track is just one on a charity CD released under Dannyboy Records (DBM004) and features 16 unsigned bands/artists from the Midlands area.

Proceeds from sales go to the Kidzlikedanny charity which rasies money in aid of Autistic children, so download it today, and help a good cause.

So I went to Wales...

... for a week and did some sightseeing (most impressively, Harlech Castle and Criccieth Castle), play a round of golf at Pen Y Berth (well, 9 holes anyway), walked up the 59th and the 40-somethingth highest peaks in Snowdonia (according to a book in the house we were staying in at Croesor), spent far too long recording vocals and harmonica for the forthcoming Satchel Blue album, and then mixed the first version of the album onto minidisc (remember them?), played lots of scrabble and an interesting new game called 'Mensa Connections', and now I'm back to work and, quite frankly, exhausted.

I need a holiday.

PS. Some pics on Flickr - when I've had more sleep I'll put some more up.