I've really been feeling old female led hip-hop lately. Maybe because the new stuff is so weak, but chilling and listening to the old beats has really been cathartic to me. I hope you like this playlist.

Bestival Festival 2011

I'm getting around to this quite late, Bestival was some time ago and although I did the dutiful thing of updating Facebook, tagging friends old and newly made in the haze of my festival days, I neglected my blog and flickr, I can only appologize it's been a busy few weeks.

Well, here's the first in a series of photos from the festival:

Bestival is a four-day music festival held at the Robin Hill country park on the Isle of Wight, England. It has been held annually in late summer since 2004. The event is organized by DJ and record producer Rob da Bankand is an off-shoot of his Sunday Best record label and club nights.^[1] The initial Bestival attracted 10,000 people, growing to 55,000 in 2010. In 2006 it was voted the Best (Medium-sized) Festival at the 2006 UK Festival Awards, and it was voted the best major UK festival in the UK festival awards 2010.^{[2]...Read More}

- I took this photo while waiting to watch: Beardy Man - Watch his 2009 performance here.

Posted via email from Stephen Walrond

A few Spotify Lists

I'm kind of into making music playlists that are centered loosely on a certain theme. These are some Spotify lists which are based on the four seasons, or more accurately on the mood of those seasons.

They're collaborative, so feel free to add your own tracks to them too.

• Winter Playlist.
• Spring Playlist.
• Summer Playlist.
• Autumn Playlist.
  

The Dead Weather

This is not a music blog, so I won't be reviewing the gig accept to say it was excellent. But here are some pictures I took:

Taiko + Kanye = Pretty Good, Pretty Good

Pretty good, pretty good.

Enjoy the video...

Kanye West - Love Lockdown [2008 MTV VMAs]
by soopah256

Summer Sonic: Best to Worst

Summer Sonic was good. Different from the year before, natch, I mean it had a different line up and a whole 12 months had passed in between. But what was most notable was the absence of Marion and Patrick, both of whom swore they would return for more drunken revelry and 'mutual' music education (I'm a music Nazi who demands that everyone see, appreciate and applaud who ever I drag them to see).

This time around my party partners were Liz and Julia, with a few special guest appearances from Patrick Maher, Claire Cassidy, Kate Nottidge and Ellie 'Smile' Lawley, all of whom are good company.

Now onto the important stuff, who did I saw and what did I think of them. OK, let's list them from best to 'not the best'.

• Hot Chip
• Alicia Keys
• Biffy Clyro
• Los Campesinos
• Vampire Weekend
• The Verve
• The Subways
• The Prodidgy
• Bedouin Soundclash
• Xavier Rudd
• The Kills
• Fatboy Slim

Yep, Hot Chip are the best and Fatboy Slim is the worst, the guy came on stage with a banana and pressed play on his CD player and then stood looking toward the crowd for approval... Fatboy, you're the worst!

No Summer Sonic next year, but maybe some Reading Festival, or maybe V Festival, or maybe Glastonbury, maybe Creamfields, maybe Sonnar, maybe Benicasiam, maybe...

Summer Sonic: Who To See?

It's always a struggle deciding upon who makes the cut and who gets cut out of your personal festival schedule. Here's my thinking about Summer Sonic 08.

So, Saturday morning is a no brainer, it's The Wombats followed by Vampire Weekend. Dance dance dance! Whoop! This means I'll miss The Ting Tings but I will probably get to see Polysic as long as they're not on at the same time as Biffy Clyro.




After Biffy it gets trickier, because seeing The Kooks doesn't appeal to me, nor Radwimps, I'm not familiar with Boom Boom Satellites or Devo and have never fully committed to Super Fury Animals.



Then of course the last act again is a no brainer... let the suckers go and see Coldplay, I'll be seeing Fatboy Slim, thank you very much.

Now we're onto Sunday and there's some gold playing today. Again, nice and early for Los Campesinos, followed by Santogold and We Smoke Fags. That should leave time for The Subways, The Fratellis or more likely Hot Chip, a bit of The Prodigy and to finish...



It's a choice between The Verve, Sex Pistols, Paul Weller or Pendulum. It's a difficult choice to make, and far more frustrating than choosing between Justice and Fatboy Slim on Saturday. I have a feeling I will be seeing Pendulum... but only time will tell.

Standing Next To Me

Taiko Today

Well, after todays very negative morning blog entry it was great to then go out and spend a whole day watching some great Taiko!

I knew we had a performance today but wasn't aware that it was for a competition. All the Taiko teams from all over Miyazaki were in attendance and everyone had a great time playing and watching the performances.

I screwed up, about four times, but fortunately Kodama Sensei done the Monket Dance Distraction and no one seemed to notice me fumbling the beats. I'm sure they will notice it one the DVD though, I will post the performance as soon as I've ripped the DVD and edited it.

In the mean time here is another groups performance, I've not seen this footage and can't be bothered to quality check it, its 10:30pm, time for bed, been a long but fun day.

Phrases for Taiko Tonight

Boring Blog Entry Alert!!

Tonight at Taiko I will endeavour to use the following phrases.

- "Please show me one more time"
もういちどう　みせて　ください
mouichidou misete kudasai

-Thank you for your teaching me.
おしえて　くれて　ありがとうございました
oshiete kurete arigatou gozaimashita

- "Is this right/correct?"
これは　ただしい　ですか？
kore wa tadashii desu ka

- "I think I have it"
わかる　ように　なった　と　おもいます
wakaru youni natta to omoimasu

I'm looking forward to using the last one in particular.

Here is a video of the tune:

Music and Other MP3's

Last Ten Songs Played


The Weeks Artists