Commit 743afdfcf9384f8652fd5740f5a1550fd4f3eaeb
Standardise local URLs
No domain, no trailing slashGrey Nicholson committed on 7/12/2023, 6:27:21 PM
Parent: a69f9ebed2f421e3fec7d85b134b7671fa2f3365
Files changed
| content/allyouneedis.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -8,5 +8,5 @@ | ||
| 8 | 8 … | <p>Not many artists order a track-by-track remix of their début album. But then not many artists are <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Bloc+Party">Bloc Party</a>, which is probably for the best – how would we tell them all apart?</p> |
| 9 | 9 … | <p>The majority of <a title="Bloc Party - Silent Alarm Remixed" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Bloc+Party/Silent+Alarm+Remixed">Silent Alarm Remixed</a> proceeds much like <a title="Bloc Party - Silent Alarm" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Bloc+Party/Silent+Alarm">Silent Alarm</a>, with some sounds added and taken away and a few extra wolves here and there. <a title="Bloc Party – The Pioneers [M83 remix]" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Bloc+Party/_/The+Pioneers+%5BM83+remix%5D">The Pioneers [M83 remix]</a> bears no resemblance whatsoever to <a title="Bloc Party – The Pioneers" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Bloc+Party/_/The+Pioneers">the original track</a>.</p> |
| 10 | 10 … | <p>It's an immersive, epic stringscape, layered with a rhythmically repeating, disjointed burst of a <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Kele+Okereke">Kele Okereke</a> vocal; this punctuated by intermittent fragments of the song, slightly out of sync with the rhythm. Think a passenger of the Titanic running futilely for their life along a collapsing corridor, in slow motion and in black and white.</p> |
| 11 | 11 … | <p>It seems brief even at 5:47. Perhaps it's because there are so few words.</p> |
| 12 | -<p>They even used it on Top Gear a couple of weeks ago in a piece about the new Honda Civic. What more could you possibly want from a song? <strong>If you download one track this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20060526.mp3">Pioneers Remixed</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| 12 … | +<p>They even used it on Top Gear a couple of weeks ago in a piece about the new Honda Civic. What more could you possibly want from a song? <strong>If you download one track this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20060526.mp3">Pioneers Remixed</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| content/bignewtab.md | ||
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| @@ -11,9 +11,9 @@ | ||
| 11 | 11 … | - url: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11832/ |
| 12 | 12 … | title: "Big New Tab Button at Mozilla Add-ons" |
| 13 | 13 … | rel: related |
| 14 | 14 … | type: text/html |
| 15 | - - url: http://gkn.me.uk/bignewtab/bignewtab-1.xpi | |
| 15 … | + - url: /bignewtab/bignewtab-1.xpi | |
| 16 | 16 … | title: "Install Big New Tab Button from here" |
| 17 | 17 … | description: "For those who trust strangers with their computer" |
| 18 | 18 … | rel: |
| 19 | 19 … | type: text/html |
| content/brandnewcms.md | ||
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| @@ -7,14 +7,14 @@ | ||
| 7 | 7 … | |
| 8 | 8 … | tags: Mooquackwooftweetmeow, Mooquackwhatnotbot |
| 9 | 9 … | |
| 10 | 10 … | links: |
| 11 | - - url: http://gkn.me.uk/weblog035 | |
| 11 … | + - url: /weblog035 | |
| 12 | 12 … | title: "The Twaddlebot has been unleashed" |
| 13 | 13 … | description: "About the Twaddlebot, Mooquackwhatnotbot's older, simpler brother" |
| 14 | 14 … | rel: related |
| 15 | 15 … | type: text/html |
| 16 | - - url: https://gkn.me.uk/thetwaddle/ | |
| 16 … | + - url: /thetwaddle | |
| 17 | 17 … | title: "El Twad" |
| 18 | 18 … | description: "The Twaddle, produce of the Twaddlebot" |
| 19 | 19 … | rel: related |
| 20 | 20 … | type: application/xhtml+xml |
| @@ -24,9 +24,9 @@ | ||
| 24 | 24 … | <p> |
| 25 | 25 … | ...if you ask nicely. Mooquackwooftweetmeow is now, like The Twaddle, generated from arbitrary <abbr title="Extensible Markup Language">XML</abbr> using batch <abbr title="Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations">XSLT</abbr>. If that's completely foreign to you, the rest probably will be (but I'll try my best). |
| 26 | 26 … | </p> |
| 27 | 27 … | <p> |
| 28 | -At <a href="https://gkn.me.uk/thetwaddle/">El Twad</a>, everything is done in nice, distinct articles - there are no piddly little entries like here. So for The Twaddle, each article can be kept in its own file. These files are then each passed through the same XSLT template/filter, resulting in similarly structured pages, each with different content. The filter uses a little <code>class</code>- and <code>id</code>-based trickery to implement the differences between the front page, the Articles page, the other admin pages and the articles; these amount to a different set of meta-blurb around the outside of the main content. | |
| 28 … | +At <a href="/thetwaddle">El Twad</a>, everything is done in nice, distinct articles - there are no piddly little entries like here. So for The Twaddle, each article can be kept in its own file. These files are then each passed through the same XSLT template/filter, resulting in similarly structured pages, each with different content. The filter uses a little <code>class</code>- and <code>id</code>-based trickery to implement the differences between the front page, the Articles page, the other admin pages and the articles; these amount to a different set of meta-blurb around the outside of the main content. | |
| 29 | 29 … | </p> |
| 30 | 30 … | <p> |
| 31 | 31 … | Here, however, it'd be hopelessly impractical - or rather, inconvenient - to have a separate file for each entry. Especially when an entry may be no more that a couple of lines. So everything must live in one big file - <code>mqwtm.xml</code>, The Big, Bad Source File. If I have one source file and want to create many pages (which would be nice), I need many XSLT filters. |
| 32 | 32 … | </p> |
| content/burningapathforustoshare.md | ||
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| @@ -10,5 +10,5 @@ | ||
| 10 | 10 … | <p>From the start the Ghost Town version is more chaotic and less tidy; it seems less premeditated. The introductory guitar lick is distorted – perhaps even a little bit jangly – and it doesn't stick with surgical precision to a single note at a time.</p> |
| 11 | 11 … | <p>I've repeatedly compared ¡Forward, Russia! to <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Maxïmo+Park">Maxïmo Park</a> (well, I've compared lots of things to both of them at the same time, but that's pretty much the same thing) and the comparison is particularly apt for the Ghost Town version. Like The Russia's, Maxïmo Park's songs tend to have a lot of distinct sections, and the song flits between them in different orders throughout. Often in the transition between sections, the music comes to a halt for a second, there's a single drum tap or beat in the middle, and then the bass resumes and the song sets off again, usually beginning a little more subdued than before and then building up again.</p> |
| 12 | 12 … | <p>Twelve does this after the choruses (of which there are only about two, depending on how you count), and the halt is more distinct in the Ghost Town version. There are fewer layers of noise going on and so less to stop, plus the word “low” doesn't carry on for quite as long so the guitar is bashed into you a few more times before stopping. It sounds particularly Maxïmo Parky the second time (before “Ninety nine...”), when there's only bass and no lead guitar upon resumption. Also like The Park, Twelve crams craploads of music into the time interval it takes <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Sigur+Rós">Sigur Rós</a> to complete a single note.</p> |
| 13 | 13 … | <p>And just when you think the song's finished – short of two minutes in – it goes back to “But he couldn't find another way” and skips through another quick verse before finally relenting.</p> |
| 14 | -<p>The album version's pretty good as well. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20061125.mp3">¡12!</a></strong>. Stay tuned.</p> | |
| 14 … | +<p>The album version's pretty good as well. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20061125.mp3">¡12!</a></strong>. Stay tuned.</p> | |
| content/butyouvegottaknowtheirlies.md | ||
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| @@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ | ||
| 13 | 13 … | <p>Like its first B-side, Shoreline is a mid-tempo light-rock-stylee driving song, great for cycling through York in the summer. Each vocal line starts half-way through a bar, so it flows into the next one; the whole thing progresses smoothly. There's even a car's interior in the video – what more could you want from a driving song?</p> |
| 14 | 14 … | <p>Since it's driven by the rhythm section, it sounds far worse on speakers with crap bass. The melody, however, is held solely by the vocals, led by <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Feist">Feist</a>, accompanied by one of the other fifteen band-members ...a male one. You can tell from the video. The sort of richness in sound you'd expect from a song performed by sixteen people is there; it'd be inaccurate to call Shoreline's sound “layered” – it's more like spaghetti than lasagne.</p> |
| 15 | 15 … | <p>Nonetheless, there are several reasonably-well-defined categories of noise present: the rhythm section (comprising the driving bass and drums); the vocals; several lead guitars and other guitarage; and lots of miscellaneous other sounds. Most of the noise lives in those last two layers, with the first two holding the song together.</p> |
| 16 | 16 … | <p>Feist's vocals make the song. It'd be a great song with someone else singing her bits, but her performance adds that extra embellishment that makes it a classic.</p> |
| 17 | -<p>And she doesn't even sound like <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/The+Pipettes">The Pipettes</a>. <strong>If you download one track this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20060512.mp3">Shoreline</a>.</strong></p> | |
| 17 … | +<p>And she doesn't even sound like <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/The+Pipettes">The Pipettes</a>. <strong>If you download one track this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20060512.mp3">Shoreline</a>.</strong></p> | |
| 18 | 18 … | <hr> |
| 19 | 19 … | <p><ins>(The other (male) band member is probably Kevin Drew.)</ins></p> |
| content/changebeforeislipaway.md | ||
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| @@ -8,5 +8,5 @@ | ||
| 8 | 8 … | <p>After a couple of agenda-setting chords, <a title="Noisettes – Iwe" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Noisettes/_/Iwe">Iwe</a> opens with a driving drumbeat topped by <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Shingai+Shoniwa">Shingai Shoniwa</a>'s smouldering vocals. As the music's urgency builds, Shingai's vocal delivery stays audibly restrained. At the chorus, the guitar, drums and vocals all erupt into an all-out rock frenzy. As the guitar fades into the second verse, Shingai slides back into tempered mode.</p> |
| 9 | 9 … | <p>Throughout the second verse she slips effortlessly between menacing temperament and unrestrained screaming, at times dwarfing the instrumentation (which gains a couple of flourishes over the first verse), at times barely discernible above it. All the while the music builds in intensity, so that by the time the second chorus comes around, no change of volume or pace is needed going into it.</p> |
| 10 | 10 … | <p>When the chorus reaches its natural conclusion, the music recedes to mellow chords that by now sound positively quiet. Naturally, Shingai's vocals catch up instantly. Melodiously, over a surprising chord progression, she repeats – she chants – “Iwe”. The rhythm guitar returns and, with the vocals, builds tension to a crescendo. After exhausting one last breath, Shingai leaves a classic rock guitar solo to conclude the song.</p> |
| 11 | 11 … | <p>You could not want for a stronger vocal performance, nor better-suited accompaniment.</p> |
| 12 | -<p>And no, I've no idea what “Iwe” means. <strong>If you download one track this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20060609.ogg">Iwe</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| 12 … | +<p>And no, I've no idea what “Iwe” means. <strong>If you download one track this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20060609.ogg">Iwe</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| content/ensemantic.md | ||
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| @@ -16,9 +16,9 @@ | ||
| 16 | 16 … | |
| 17 | 17 … | --- |
| 18 | 18 … | |
| 19 | 19 … | <p> |
| 20 | -I don't like being wrong. I like it even less when everyone else is wrong and I can't (or shouldn't) tell them, for reasons of etiquette. I suppose I'm just finicky, which is why I spend quite a bit of time reviewing my own websites, <a href="/" title="Mooquackwhatnot">Here</a> and <a href="https://gkn.me.uk/thetwaddle/" title="El Twad">There</a>, enjoying their majesty. Or something. | |
| 20 … | +I don't like being wrong. I like it even less when everyone else is wrong and I can't (or shouldn't) tell them, for reasons of etiquette. I suppose I'm just finicky, which is why I spend quite a bit of time reviewing my own websites, <a href="/" title="Mooquackwhatnot">Here</a> and <a href="/thetwaddle" title="El Twad">There</a>, enjoying their majesty. Or something. | |
| 21 | 21 … | </p> |
| 22 | 22 … | <p> |
| 23 | 23 … | It's OK when I don't know that a rule is being broken, or that something is just wrong. Unfortunately, I'm also just a little bit curious, so I eventually learn the rules, and then notice when things disobey them. |
| 24 | 24 … | </p> |
| content/firefoxmiscellanea.md | ||
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| @@ -5,9 +5,9 @@ | ||
| 5 | 5 … | status: published |
| 6 | 6 … | tags: Mozilla, Firefox, extensions, add-ons, downloads |
| 7 | 7 … | |
| 8 | 8 … | links: |
| 9 | - - url: http://gkn.me.uk/firefoxmiscellanea/rewindforward_en_GKN.xpi | |
| 9 … | + - url: /firefoxmiscellanea/rewindforward_en_GKN.xpi | |
| 10 | 10 … | title: "My modified Rewind/Fastforward extension for Firefox" |
| 11 | 11 … | rel: related |
| 12 | 12 … | type: application/x-xpinstall |
| 13 | 13 … | - url: http://white.sakura.ne.jp/~piro/xul/_rewindforward.html.en |
| content/getsquirefox.md | ||
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| @@ -12,9 +12,9 @@ | ||
| 12 | 12 … | title: "Silliness is its own reward (Technical Jiggery Pokery)" |
| 13 | 13 … | description: "Kevin Gerich's original spoof Get Firefox buttons" |
| 14 | 14 … | rel: related |
| 15 | 15 … | type: text/html |
| 16 | - - url: http://gkn.me.uk/firefoxmiscellanea#getdrunk | |
| 16 … | + - url: /firefoxmiscellanea#getdrunk | |
| 17 | 17 … | title: "Firefox-related miscellanea: Get Drunk" |
| 18 | 18 … | rel: related |
| 19 | 19 … | type: text/html |
| 20 | 20 … | |
| content/hearmesaynow.md | ||
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| @@ -6,5 +6,5 @@ | ||
| 6 | 6 … | --- |
| 7 | 7 … | |
| 8 | 8 … | <p><a title="The Concretes – On The Radio" href="http://www.last.fm/music/The+Concretes/_/On+The+Radio">On The Radio</a> was on this week's Roundtable; I found it quite pleasant but almost entirely forgettable. Far more memorable is <a title="The Concretes – You Can't Hurry Love" href="http://www.last.fm/music/The+Concretes/_/You+Can%27t+Hurry+Love">You Can't Hurry Love</a>, an impeccably-constructed pop song. It's composed in a sugary-sweet poptastic style, but there's no jingly-jangly piano in the execution. The instrumentation, and particularly <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Victoria+Bergsman">Victoria Bergsman</a>'s woozy, ever-so-slightly discordant vocals, seem mismatched with the song's ostensible style.</p> |
| 9 | 9 … | <p>Yes, there are hand-claps (with a tambourine in the middle), but for some reason I reckon they're ironic. They do nothing to sweeten the song's delivery. Can't Hurry Love fools you into thinking it's a sugar-coated pop song, but when you pay attention to it, it actually doesn't sound sugary-sweet at any point.</p> |
| 10 | -<p>Or maybe I'm reading too much into it and it is just a jaunty pop song. <strong>If you download one track this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20060519.mp3">Can't Hurry Love</a>.</strong></p> | |
| 10 … | +<p>Or maybe I'm reading too much into it and it is just a jaunty pop song. <strong>If you download one track this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20060519.mp3">Can't Hurry Love</a>.</strong></p> | |
| content/hiatus.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -7,14 +7,14 @@ | ||
| 7 | 7 … | |
| 8 | 8 … | tags: Mooquackwooftweetmeow, the Friday Fetch-it, Walking Dataloss |
| 9 | 9 … | |
| 10 | 10 … | links: |
| 11 | - - url: http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit | |
| 11 … | + - url: /thefridayfetchit | |
| 12 | 12 … | title: "the Friday Fetch-it" |
| 13 | 13 … | description: "Good music." |
| 14 | 14 … | rel: related |
| 15 | 15 … | type: text/html |
| 16 | - - url: http://gkn.me.uk/walkingdataloss | |
| 16 … | + - url: /walkingdataloss | |
| 17 | 17 … | title: "Walking Dataloss" |
| 18 | 18 … | description: "Too much thought." |
| 19 | 19 … | rel: related |
| 20 | 20 … | type: text/html |
| @@ -22,14 +22,14 @@ | ||
| 22 | 22 … | title: "Flickr Pictures" |
| 23 | 23 … | description: "Colours and shapes and stuff." |
| 24 | 24 … | rel: related |
| 25 | 25 … | type: text/html |
| 26 | - - url: https://gkn.me.uk/thetwaddle/ | |
| 26 … | + - url: /thetwaddle | |
| 27 | 27 … | title: "The Twaddle" |
| 28 | 28 … | description: "Mostly random." |
| 29 | 29 … | rel: related |
| 30 | 30 … | type: text/html |
| 31 | - - url: https://gkn.me.uk/thetwaddle/bollocks | |
| 31 … | + - url: /thetwaddle/bollocks | |
| 32 | 32 … | title: "The Bollocks" |
| 33 | 33 … | description: "Spin-off random." |
| 34 | 34 … | rel: related |
| 35 | 35 … | type: text/html |
| @@ -39,13 +39,13 @@ | ||
| 39 | 39 … | <p> |
| 40 | 40 … | I don't think Mooquackwooftweetmeow has ever really hit its stride. There may have been <a href="/weblog021" title="Planet X-2, for example">a few moments</a> back when the Mooquackwooftweetmeow 4 weblog was new, and perhaps <a href="/planetx4" title="Planet X-4 was pretty good">the odd moment of glory fairly recently</a>; but it's never been a constant fountain of genius. |
| 41 | 41 … | </p> |
| 42 | 42 … | <p> |
| 43 | -Now, I'm not saying that Mooquackwooftweetmeow will <em>never</em> gather momentum and flourish into the most spectacularly astounding website ever, just that it won't be doing so any time soon. <em>Especially</em> since Mooquackwooftweetmeow currently lives in my university webspace and I recently left university, which means there's a pretty good chance it and <a href="https://gkn.me.uk/thetwaddle/">The Twaddle</a> will fall off the edge of the internet at some point in the near future. | |
| 43 … | +Now, I'm not saying that Mooquackwooftweetmeow will <em>never</em> gather momentum and flourish into the most spectacularly astounding website ever, just that it won't be doing so any time soon. <em>Especially</em> since Mooquackwooftweetmeow currently lives in my university webspace and I recently left university, which means there's a pretty good chance it and <a href="/thetwaddle">The Twaddle</a> will fall off the edge of the internet at some point in the near future. | |
| 44 | 44 … | </p> |
| 45 | 45 … | <p> |
| 46 | 46 … | I <em>am</em> doing other stuff—it just all lives elsewhere on the web—so in the meantime, <a href="/">the front page</a> has morphed into a summary of that stuff. The Mooquackwhatnotbot is a clunky old thing, and my connection to the university's servers is a bit dodgy at the best of times; so having The Man host my content is considerably more convenient than doing everything myself. |
| 47 | 47 … | </p> |
| 48 | 48 … | <p> |
| 49 | -While Mooquackwooftweetmeow exists online, it'll <em>always</em> be at <a href="http://purl.org/mooquackwooftweetmeow/">http://purl.org/mooquackwooftweetmeow/</a>, and most probably at <a href="http://gkn.me.uk">http://gkn.me.uk</a>. (Hi, Google cache!) | |
| 49 … | +While Mooquackwooftweetmeow exists online, it'll <em>always</em> be at <a href="http://purl.org/mooquackwooftweetmeow/">http://purl.org/mooquackwooftweetmeow/</a>, and most probably at <a href="/">http://gkn.me.uk</a>. (Hi, Google cache!) | |
| 50 | 50 … | </p> |
| 51 | 51 … | |
| content/ibetyoufindlifehardtolivewith.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ | ||
| 11 | 11 … | <p>During the instrumental break, which essentially serves as a chorus, the guitar and panpipes play off each other in call-and-response style, with the panpipes carrying the lead melody. They sit out the first couple of lines in the second verse and the funkstrumentation again minimises to accommodate Camille. Of course, when it all resumes it's groovier than ever.</p> |
| 12 | 12 … | <p>At the end of the second instrumental break, a few disco-style twinkles “conclude” the song and prompt the obligatory applause. Yep, false ending. The funk beat resumes, backed with general breathiness from Camille, and almost seems to peter out before a reprise of the first verse kicks in, funked up to the max.</p> |
| 13 | 13 … | <p>Throughout, the notes the panpipes hit are often jazzily distorted or discordant, in fact the whole thing has a certain jazziness about it, complementing Camille's voice. Her vocals are half-whispered, half-moaned, increasingly so throughout the song. During the second verse, her “shack up”s (which, in <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Banbarra">Banbarra</a>'s original and <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/A+Certain+Ratio">A Certain Ratio</a>'s more famous cover, were a response to the lead vocal's call) descend to a whisper, but by the song's conclusion are emphatic.</p> |
| 14 | 14 … | <p>Add to this miscellaneous breaths and the occasional whispered “shack up” and the whole thing exudes sultry.</p> |
| 15 | -<p>It's not bossa nova. <strong>If you download one song this week, <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20061104.mp3">Shack Up</a>, baby.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| 15 … | +<p>It's not bossa nova. <strong>If you download one song this week, <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20061104.mp3">Shack Up</a>, baby.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| 16 | 16 … | <hr> |
| 17 | 17 … | <p><ins>(It later transpired that the singer was someone other than Camille.)</ins></p> |
| content/ididyourwifeafavour.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ | ||
| 15 | 15 … | <p>As with much of the rest of the album, <strong><cite>The World Is Saved</cite></strong> (and “Parliament Square” is a particularly good example of this), it's the accompaniment's instrumental flourishes that really make the song—here a jazz-influenced, echo-y piano counter-melody most evident in the second chorus.</p> |
| 16 | 16 … | <p>A modified, dampened third verse takes the place of a middle 8. When the chorus returns it too is subdued and adds a note of fragility: “I'm safer with me here”. The music does kick back in, but only fleetingly, and <em>after</em> the bulk of the words have passed.</p> |
| 17 | 17 … | <p>Perhaps it's just the title, but Winter Killing <em>does</em> bring winter to my mind. Each piano note is a tiny white light peeking through the leaves of a tree; that percussive rhythm is the sound of snow cracking underfoot; the jangling bells are flurries of snow falling beneath a streetlight or, well, jangling bells. If there were a video for Winter Killing, Stina would be wearing a woolly hat and gloves, with her breath crystallising as she sings.</p> |
| 18 | 18 … | <p>Throughout, it feels frosty and <em>minimal</em>—not in a white-cube zen–type way; more in that it sounds completely un-produced, or perhaps un-<em>over</em>produced. There's no wall of sound, no pithy vocal effects and no overdubs. And there's <em>certainly</em> no big, celebratory, radio-friendly, stadium-rocking chorus repeat. In fact, there aren't even any backing vocals: perhaps that's what gives Winter Killing (and the rest of <cite>The World Is Saved</cite>) such an air of intimacy. There's nothing lacking, but equally nothing excessive. It's not laden with grandeur, pretension or ego.</p> |
| 19 | -<p>It's as if she's taken the skeleton of a song and added individual notes, each glistening, until it's <em>just</em> beautiful enough. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20080111.ogg">Winter Killing</a>.</strong></p> | |
| 19 … | +<p>It's as if she's taken the skeleton of a song and added individual notes, each glistening, until it's <em>just</em> beautiful enough. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20080111.ogg">Winter Killing</a>.</strong></p> | |
| 20 | 20 … | <hr> |
| 21 | 21 … | <p>(How do you follow <em>that</em>? I'm still not really sure. It's the mood of “Hotel” by Broken Social Scene married to the rhythm of “5 Years” by Björk (plus a smattering of frost), so those two go well. “Leaving the City” by Róisín Murphy has lyrics that actually follow and make sense, and the style of Stina's vocals is even (sort-of) echoed in the breathiness of Róisín's. “Rewrite” by Sia also follows it nicely, as does <a href="http://aurgasm.us/2007/04/cibelle/">“Waiting” by Cibelle</a>.)</p> |
| content/ieblurb.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -7,9 +7,9 @@ | ||
| 7 | 7 … | |
| 8 | 8 … | tags: Microsoft, Internet Explorer, idiocy |
| 9 | 9 … | |
| 10 | 10 … | links: |
| 11 | - - url: http://gkn.me.uk/ieblank | |
| 11 … | + - url: /ieblank | |
| 12 | 12 … | title: "IEBlank" |
| 13 | 13 … | rel: related |
| 14 | 14 … | type: text/html |
| 15 | 15 … | - url: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/category/6867.aspx |
| content/illwakeupinfiftyyearsandfeelthesame.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -8,5 +8,5 @@ | ||
| 8 | 8 … | <p>You should know who <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Guillemots">Guillemots</a> are by now, so I'm gonna try to steer clear of the obvious. For the unenlightened, <a href="http://www.goodweatherforairstrikes.com/test/2006/03/12/artist-mega-profile-guillemots/">Good Weather For Airstrikes's Mega-Profile</a> includes this week's track, lots of others, and some carefully arranged letters, numbers and punctuation, a fine example of which is “you can't go wrong with a Guillemots song”.</p> |
| 9 | 9 … | <p>The <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Aristazabal+Hawkes">Aristazabal Hawkes</a>-sung (and written) <a title="Guillemots – By The Water" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Guillemots/_/By+The+Water">By The Water</a> – from their Of The Night EP, released via the web this Valentine's Day – is simply lovely.</p> |
| 10 | 10 … | <p>Her voice sounds a lot like Régine Chassagne of <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/The+Arcade+Fire">The Arcade Fire</a>, and <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Feist">Feist</a>; incidentally, all three are Canadian.</p> |
| 11 | 11 … | <p>By The Water is the kind of song that mesmerises right from the start. The fade-in intro builds to an attention-grabbing and assertive opening line; the confident vocals accentuated with some slightly-jazzy piano draw you in. It remains intoxicating throughout its gradual progression towards the slow, quiet coda.</p> |
| 12 | -<p>It's the sort of song you snap out of afterwards. <strong>If you download one track this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20060429.mp3">By The Water</a>.</strong></p> | |
| 12 … | +<p>It's the sort of song you snap out of afterwards. <strong>If you download one track this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20060429.mp3">By The Water</a>.</strong></p> | |
| content/inyoureyesthatcertainshine.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -8,5 +8,5 @@ | ||
| 8 | 8 … | <p>I can't figure out why I like <a title="Jane Wiedlin – Rush Hour" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Jane+Wiedlin/_/Rush+Hour">Rush Hour</a> quite so much. It uses the same driving 8-beat throughout; the chord progression is bog-standard; the instruments are probably all synthesised; the lyrics aren't particularly inventive or clever; <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Jane+Wiedlin">Jane Wiedlin</a>'s vocals are nice, but not astounding; you can spot the guitar solo a mile off; and at the end it just repeats to fade.</p> |
| 9 | 9 … | <p>In fact it's almost stereotypical of a 1980s pop song.</p> |
| 10 | 10 … | <p>But it is impeccably produced. At no point does either the singing or the backing sound at all jarring or contrived. The entire song flows seamlessly from one part to the next, largely due to the way the vocals spill over from one bar into the next. So by the time the song finishes, you don't realise you've just spent the last four minutes listening to it.</p> |
| 11 | 11 … | <p>And Jane's singing is nice – very nice – without sounding sugar-coated; her personality hasn't been overproduced away.</p> |
| 12 | -<p>And she played Joan of Arc in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure – what more could you want? <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20061020.mp3">Rush Hour</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| 12 … | +<p>And she played Joan of Arc in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure – what more could you want? <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20061020.mp3">Rush Hour</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| content/itsforgettingthatwouldbeatitall.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ | ||
| 14 | 14 … | <p>Anyhow, they end up deciding to carry on in the same direction, but have somehow returned to where they were a full minute ago. (Maybe they were going in circles?) <em>This</em> time, however, they have a few extra deep, reassuring guitar tones as companions, and the journey's a lot more familiar—despite not being a verse or a chorus.</p> |
| 15 | 15 … | <p>It soon transpires that the verse was just the other side of a hedge all along <i>(metaphor becoming tenuous, I know)</i>, and it's back sooner than expected, with a couple of extra drum flourishes for effect. There's even a glimmer of hope for the chorus, as this new verse borrows some of its lyrics.</p> |
| 16 | 16 … | <p>Another contemplative pause later (will this song <em>ever</em> gain any momentum?), the bridge returns in full swing; by now it's grown up into a chorus in its own right. Nonetheless, it soon gives way to the chorus-proper, the first half of which—only—repeats satisfyingly.</p> |
| 17 | 17 … | <p>Loath to satiate, though, the song ends on a <em>minor</em> note. It's as if they <em>want</em> you to play it again.</p> |
| 18 | -<p><strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20071123.mp3">So Much Trouble</a></strong>—it's like a wistful stroll through an autumnal park (with a personal assistant).</p> | |
| 18 … | +<p><strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20071123.mp3">So Much Trouble</a></strong>—it's like a wistful stroll through an autumnal park (with a personal assistant).</p> | |
| 19 | 19 … | <hr> |
| 20 | 20 … | <p>(How do you follow <em>that</em>? Try “Don't Falter” by Mint Royale & Lauren Laverne.)</p> |
| content/itsintheeyesofthebeholder.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -12,8 +12,8 @@ | ||
| 12 | 12 … | <p>“Give Me Your Eyes” begins unassumingly with a rising wind noise (which briefly implies a continuation of the weirdness of “Bonus Tracks”) followed by a cautious acoustic guitar verse that ends on a ponderous rising note (I think it's called a seventh). And then all hell breaks loose: a brash, cyclical electric-guitar rhythm dominates what's nominally a restatement of the introductory guitar verse, and leads into sixteen loud, relentless drumbeats.</p> |
| 13 | 13 … | <p>So this is unbridled rock—by now there's no doubt about it. Throughout the first verse the bassline builds up an amount of tension, slowly alternating between two nearby notes; into the chorus there's a cathartic screech of feedback, diffusing the tension and allowing the chorus itself to proceed unencumbered.</p> |
| 14 | 14 … | <p>The end of the chorus is punctuated by another set of sixteen drumbeats, before continuing full-speed into the second verse; the song's filled out by now and there's less of the first verse's tension. The calmly aggressive tone of Nina Persson's voice, along with the instrumentation's insistence, lends a dash of the sinister at the end of that verse—when she sings “it's in the eyes of the beholder, now give 'em to me” it occurs to you that she might actually mean “give me your eyes” <em>literally</em>—!</p> |
| 15 | 15 … | <p>Halfway through the second chorus, the song neatly veers off towards a fairly straightforward middle eight, followed by another set of drumbeats leading into the breakdown. This bit's pretty standard too—a quietly-accompanied verse that introduces a speedy synopsis of the entire song. It borrows the chorus's lyrics for its second half and leads to a half-length reprise of the chorus. The chorus ascends into a solo, culminating in that brash guitar cycle (Nina sings along too); and those damn drumbeats bash the song out of existence.</p> |
| 16 | -<p>On paper, it's actually quite a <em>conventional</em> song, and it's hard to compellingly describe a song that distinguishes itself in its execution, rather than by a spark of compositional cleverness—this is why recordings by bands have superseded sheet music. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20070928.mp3">Give Me Your Eyes</a>.</strong></p> | |
| 16 … | +<p>On paper, it's actually quite a <em>conventional</em> song, and it's hard to compellingly describe a song that distinguishes itself in its execution, rather than by a spark of compositional cleverness—this is why recordings by bands have superseded sheet music. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20070928.mp3">Give Me Your Eyes</a>.</strong></p> | |
| 17 | 17 … | <hr> |
| 18 | 18 … | <p>(I'm guessing this was written and recorded too late to make the album-proper, and that's why it's a bonus track; if that's the case and this is an indication of the style of the next album, said album will rock.)</p> |
| 19 | 19 … | <p>(How do you follow <em>that</em>? Let's say “Chemistry” by Semisonic (since <a href="/youthrewpenniesinandwished">I already mentioned “Memorize The City” a while ago</a>)).</p> |
| content/itsstillnotatree.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -8,18 +8,18 @@ | ||
| 8 | 8 … | |
| 9 | 9 … | tags: Mooquackwooftweetmeow, The Twaddle |
| 10 | 10 … | |
| 11 | 11 … | links: |
| 12 | - - url: https://gkn.me.uk/thetwaddle/ | |
| 12 … | + - url: /thetwaddle | |
| 13 | 13 … | title: "The Twaddle" |
| 14 | 14 … | description: "It's still not a tree" |
| 15 | 15 … | rel: related |
| 16 | 16 … | type: text/html |
| 17 | 17 … | |
| 18 | 18 … | --- |
| 19 | 19 … | |
| 20 | 20 … | <p> |
| 21 | -Mooquackwooftweetmeow's been a bit dead recently, but with good reason. I've been working on <a href="https://gkn.me.uk/thetwaddle/" title="Visit The Twaddle!">The Twaddle</a>, a magazine-style thing I and my most esteemed colleague, Matthew Gardner, set up a couple of months ago. | |
| 21 … | +Mooquackwooftweetmeow's been a bit dead recently, but with good reason. I've been working on <a href="/thetwaddle" title="Visit The Twaddle!">The Twaddle</a>, a magazine-style thing I and my most esteemed colleague, Matthew Gardner, set up a couple of months ago. | |
| 22 | 22 … | </p> |
| 23 | 23 … | <p> |
| 24 | 24 … | The site first came about in mid-December, in response to our college (Hartlepool Sixth Form College)'s new newspaper, entitled “I Was Once a Tree”, or “I.W.O.T.”. To put it mildly, we thought it was a bit rubbish, and set about creating an alternative, better, web-based college magazine. The site's original title was “This Wasn't A Tree”, and we used the acronym, too. |
| 25 | 25 … | </p> |
| @@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ | ||
| 41 | 41 … | <p> |
| 42 | 42 … | Yet one of the regulars on the forums lives in America, and we're getting page views from all over the world - Israel, Germany, Australia, Canada... OK, so I suppose none of them stayed very long. |
| 43 | 43 … | </p> |
| 44 | 44 … | <p> |
| 45 | -I won't bother with a conclusion - just visit <a href="https://gkn.me.uk/thetwaddle/">The Twaddle</a>. | |
| 45 … | +I won't bother with a conclusion - just visit <a href="/thetwaddle">The Twaddle</a>. | |
| 46 | 46 … | </p> |
| 47 | 47 … | |
| content/iviewfromafar.md | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| @@ -17,5 +17,5 @@ | |||
| 17 | 17 … | <p>The vocals are typically minimal – few and repeated. And the lyrics are also quite typical – “You mean a lot to me, you've got a heart of gold” and “You are the colour, my dear” are the sort of nonsense Tom Smith often comes out with, to great effect.</p> | |
| 18 | 18 … | <p>So the first two minutes proceed pretty much like any other Editors song. Then after the brief pause at the end of the second chorus, the driving rhythm disappears. The repeating riff that replaces it verges on the socks-off-knockingly good. It's particularly long among Editors riffs, and its 3-3-3-3-2-2 rhythm lends it a striking complexity. The drumming that backs it is minimalistic but distinctive.</p> | |
| 19 | 19 … | <p>Not to dwell on this wonder-riff for too long, after two iterations Tom's vocals re-emerge, overlaying it with “Fill your life with something else, baby”. The two parts carry the song whilst the bass, drums and vocals all gradually intensify. Half a minute before the end, the wonder-riff makes way for a good old-fashioned cymbal-thrashing, still in 3-3-3-3-2-2 rhythm. It and the vocals take the song to its abrupt conclusion.</p> | |
| 20 | 20 … | <p>Even though there's such a schism between its two halves, somehow it all still holds together as one song. Don't ask me how.</p> | |
| 21 | -<p><strong>If you download two tracks this week, make them <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20060707a.mp3">Confide In Me</a> and <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20060707b.mp3">Colours</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | ||
| 21 … | +<p><strong>If you download two tracks this week, make them <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20060707a.mp3">Confide In Me</a> and <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20060707b.mp3">Colours</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | ||
| content/knockingtheaeroplanesdownwithstones.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -5,5 +5,5 @@ | ||
| 5 | 5 … | tags: Architecture in Helsinki, Do the Whirlwind |
| 6 | 6 … | --- |
| 7 | 7 … | |
| 8 | 8 … | <p><a title="Architecture in Helsinki – Do the Whirlwind" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Architecture+in+Helsinki/_/Do+the+Whirlwind">Do the Whirlwind</a> is a combination of twinkling chimes; garbled chatter; an improbably catchy bassline; an outro; a wood block counter-rhythm; some bongos; multiple Australian singers; the word "quivers"; a cymbal; twee-æsthetic melodies; some increasingly sluggish trombones; a 16-bit video depicting the band as a motley accumulation of cool kids dance/march/strutting along through a succession of weird and wonderful, side-scrolling locales; some increasingly sluggish saxophones; miscellaneous grooveability; probably a sitar; a chorus of harmonising vocals; tapes rewinding; mostly-nonsensical lyrics; some dings; some pops; some whistles; the word "abandon"; plenty of handclaps; and a single extra beat when the phrase "the beat" crops up.</p> |
| 9 | -<p>...which it therefore does twice, obviously. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20061117.mp3">Whirlwind</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| 9 … | +<p>...which it therefore does twice, obviously. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20061117.mp3">Whirlwind</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| content/necessityconquersfear.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ | ||
| 11 | 11 … | <p>Though it's impossible <em>not</em> to enjoy on a visceral level (lest your soul be judged stony and dead), the song's also blessed with intelligence. There are a full four verses (though the second half of the last segués into the final chorus): each and every line would have made a good title for the album, or for this entry, or for some other blog post, or for a personal blog, or for an episode of a TV programme; if “Tiger Ointment and the Cosmic Collision” isn't an actual band in ten years' time, <em>I</em> may have to start one.</p> |
| 12 | 12 … | <p>The lyrics aren't particularly <em>complex</em>, however—every fourth line usually completes a simple rhyme, and that's about it. They're just inventive and thoughtful and <em>good</em>. So intriguing are the verses' lyrics, and so good is the accompanying groove, the words in the chorus don't <em>need</em> to extend beyond <q>Don't lose yourself; don't let yourself be lost</q>. <em>Anyone</em> can sing along with <em>that</em>.</p> |
| 13 | 13 … | <p>Through most of “Don't Lose Yourself”, Laura's voice is actually a bit <em>deadpan</em>—she sings simply and without affectation. Her singing's only punctuated by the backing briefly dropping before launching into the second chorus.</p> |
| 14 | 14 … | <p>But at the end, right where you'd expect a fifth verse, the chorus's instrumental groove instead continues, and Laura comes in with a lyric-less vocal—the type that may well have been ad-libbed—as the song fades away. It's clearly a heartfelt expression of emotion (and not a showing-off exercise), quiet and understated enough to be missed by those not paying attention (or with the volume too low).</p> |
| 15 | -<p>Just that little, quiet sound perfectly conveys the elation <em>I</em> feel listening to this song. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20071026.mp3">Don't Lose Yourself</a>.</strong> Then smile.</p> | |
| 15 … | +<p>Just that little, quiet sound perfectly conveys the elation <em>I</em> feel listening to this song. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20071026.mp3">Don't Lose Yourself</a>.</strong> Then smile.</p> | |
| 16 | 16 … | <hr> |
| 17 | 17 … | <p>(How do you follow <em>that</em>? Try “Can't Be Sure” (from <cite>Reading, Writing and Arithmetic</cite>) by the Sundays.) |
| content/november.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -7,9 +7,9 @@ | ||
| 7 | 7 … | |
| 8 | 8 … | tags: Mooquackwooftweetmeow, drunkenness |
| 9 | 9 … | |
| 10 | 10 … | links: |
| 11 | - - url: http://gkn.me.uk/brandnewcms | |
| 11 … | + - url: /brandnewcms | |
| 12 | 12 … | title: "I've Got A Brand New Content Management System And I'll Give You The Key" |
| 13 | 13 … | description: "The post I always link to to avoid having to explain what the Mooquackwhatnotbot is" |
| 14 | 14 … | rel: related |
| 15 | 15 … | type: text/html |
| content/obfuscatingtedium.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -7,9 +7,9 @@ | ||
| 7 | 7 … | |
| 8 | 8 … | tags: Mooquackwooftweetmeow |
| 9 | 9 … | |
| 10 | 10 … | links: |
| 11 | - - url: http://gkn.me.uk/featuredentry | |
| 11 … | + - url: /featuredentry | |
| 12 | 12 … | title: "Featured Entry" |
| 13 | 13 … | rel: prev |
| 14 | 14 … | type: text/html |
| 15 | 15 … | - url: http://thesaurus.com |
| content/planetx3.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -4,17 +4,17 @@ | ||
| 4 | 4 … | status: published |
| 5 | 5 … | tags: Pluto, Planet X, astronomy, the Solar System |
| 6 | 6 … | |
| 7 | 7 … | links: |
| 8 | - - url: http://gkn.me.uk/weblog012 | |
| 8 … | + - url: /weblog012 | |
| 9 | 9 … | title: "Pluto Isn't a Planet" |
| 10 | 10 … | rel: related |
| 11 | 11 … | type: text/html |
| 12 | - - url: http://gkn.me.uk/weblog020 | |
| 12 … | + - url: /weblog020 | |
| 13 | 13 … | title: "Planet X" |
| 14 | 14 … | rel: related |
| 15 | 15 … | type: text/html |
| 16 | - - url: http://gkn.me.uk/weblog021 | |
| 16 … | + - url: /weblog021 | |
| 17 | 17 … | title: "Planet X-2" |
| 18 | 18 … | rel: related |
| 19 | 19 … | type: text/html |
| 20 | 20 … | |
| content/poursaltintothatwoundofyours.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -10,8 +10,8 @@ | ||
| 10 | 10 … | <p>There are two versions (that I'm aware of): the original, rough demo version—which is what I'm mainly writing about—and a vastly tidied-up version, which uses a slightly different lyric and adds some extra guitar bits. (<em>That</em> one's presently on <a href="http://www.myspace.com/ccmusicuk">CC & the Spades' MySpace page</a>.)</p> |
| 11 | 11 … | <p>The song basically comprises vocals, guitar, bass and drums. It's fairly straightforward by my standards—there are no weird time signatures and no clever rhythms; it doesn't suddenly shift sideways; it's not less than a minute long and it's not <em>seventeen</em> minutes long; there are no wacky instruments and no macho guitar acrobatics. (I wouldn't recommend bringing it home to meet your grandma, though—<i>it uses the “fuck” word.</i>)</p> |
| 12 | 12 … | <p>Where the tidier version finishes with a long-held strum, the demo version stops on a drumbeat, as abruptly as it started—its departure smacks you in the face as much as its arrival did. There's no particular melody or even <em>rhythm</em> to the vocals in the chorus—it's almost as if CC's <em>improvising</em> the vocals here.</p> |
| 13 | 13 … | <p>In fact the whole <em>song</em> is very rough, unpolished and raw: a lot of the time the microphone can't quite contain CC's voice; the bass guitar (which plays up in almost the same register as the lead) is noticeably off-rhythm during the choruses and I think it hits the wrong note at the start of the instrumental towards the end.</p> |
| 14 | -<p>It's this sort of coarse sincerity that defined punk. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20070831.mp3">Gentlemen Prefer Blondes</a>.</strong></p> | |
| 14 … | +<p>It's this sort of coarse sincerity that defined punk. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20070831.mp3">Gentlemen Prefer Blondes</a>.</strong></p> | |
| 15 | 15 … | <hr> |
| 16 | 16 … | <p>(That link is to the rough, demo version as an MP3; it was on their MySpace profile for a while, but the tidier version replaced it.)</p> |
| 17 | 17 … | <p>(How do you follow <em>that</em>? Usually with the same song again... or 8 Hours (also by CC & the Spades; see <a href="http://eashfa.wordpress.com/2006/07/02/things-that-go-bang-in-the-middle-of-the-night/">eashfa</a> to download that too). More usefully, perhaps: Swimmers by Broken Social Scene follows the demo version particularly nicely.) |
| content/promisesofpassionandadventure.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -12,5 +12,5 @@ | ||
| 12 | 12 … | <p>The lead vocals hold the chorus – the title repeated lots – together. They're part-<a href="http://www.last.fm/music/¡Forward%2C+Russia%21">¡Forward, Russia!</a> (but less frantically mental), part-<a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Tom+Robinson">Tom Robinson</a> (but nestle in amongst the instrumentation better) and at times part-<a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Morrissey">Morrissey</a> (but less disdain/depression/apathy–inducing). The backing vocals add a succession of rising "aaah"s to the chorus, which lend the song an epic-like-Dante's-Divine-Comedy-not-like-<a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Doves">Doves</a> feel; they're almost dæmonic.</p> |
| 13 | 13 … | <p>The guitar hook pops up half-way through the chorus, and reappears between the first chorus and the second verse. After the second chorus the lead-up to the bridge is a lot quieter, led by a legato vocal line (of "oooh"s) with the bass playing a take on the hook.</p> |
| 14 | 14 … | <p>In the bridge and final chorus the accompaniment goes at full pelt, and escalates with added hi-hats and increasingly frantic bass half-way through the bridge. The lead singer (presumably the Firefly bloke, since his name's first) comes closest to unrestraint during the last chorus (prompting accusations of Morrissiness).</p> |
| 15 | 15 … | <p>A ten-second guitar solo carries the song to its climax, before returning to the hook to close the song.</p> |
| 16 | -<p>Now try whistling it. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20061111.mp3">Animator</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| 16 … | +<p>Now try whistling it. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20061111.mp3">Animator</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| content/seasons.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -4,9 +4,9 @@ | ||
| 4 | 4 … | |
| 5 | 5 … | tags: calendar, solstice, equinox, perihelion, aphelion |
| 6 | 6 … | |
| 7 | 7 … | links: |
| 8 | - - url: https://gkn.me.uk/seasons/seasons.ics | |
| 8 … | + - url: /seasons/seasons.ics | |
| 9 | 9 … | title: "Solstice, equinox, perihelion and aphelion calendar, 2000 to 2100" |
| 10 | 10 … | rel: related |
| 11 | 11 … | type: text/html |
| 12 | 12 … | - url: webcal://gkn.me.uk/seasons/seasons.ics |
| content/six.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -38,9 +38,9 @@ | ||
| 38 | 38 … | <p> |
| 39 | 39 … | A lot of <abbr class="caps">TV</abbr> programmes (particularly recent American dramas) have their title sequences at the <em>end</em> of the first part; I thought this might be a good idea to apply to the site. So I got rid of the <em>site</em>'s title from the top of the page, and put the <em>entry</em>'s title front-and-centre instead. This was the starting point for Spica. I've kept the links to other parts of the page at the top—they <em>are</em> actually useful: maybe you're trying to go a few entries forwards, so you just want the link to the next entry, and don't actually want to read <em>this</em> entry. The skip-links save lots of scrolling, and are pretty essential for keeping the site easy to use for everyone (especially keyboard-users). |
| 40 | 40 … | </p> |
| 41 | 41 … | <p> |
| 42 | -At the bottom of every entry is essentially a replica of the front page—I'm <a href="http://powazek.com/2005/09/000540.html" title="...in which Derek Powazek rewards readers that actually read all the way to the bottom of the page">embracing my bottom</a>; been doing it since Canopus, <em>and</em> over at <a href="https://gkn.me.uk/thetwaddle/" title="...in which I embrace The Twaddle's bottom">The Twaddle</a>. Or rather: the front page is just an entry page minus the entry—a generic reception page. This was easy to do now that every page shares a single template. I did consider putting all the bottom-stuff on the <em>archive</em> pages as well, but it didn't seem right: no-one's expected to read to the bottom of an archive page, a list of <em>other</em> things to read. | |
| 42 … | +At the bottom of every entry is essentially a replica of the front page—I'm <a href="http://powazek.com/2005/09/000540.html" title="...in which Derek Powazek rewards readers that actually read all the way to the bottom of the page">embracing my bottom</a>; been doing it since Canopus, <em>and</em> over at <a href="/thetwaddle" title="...in which I embrace The Twaddle's bottom">The Twaddle</a>. Or rather: the front page is just an entry page minus the entry—a generic reception page. This was easy to do now that every page shares a single template. I did consider putting all the bottom-stuff on the <em>archive</em> pages as well, but it didn't seem right: no-one's expected to read to the bottom of an archive page, a list of <em>other</em> things to read. | |
| 43 | 43 … | </p> |
| 44 | 44 … | <h2 id="text">What does the text look like?</h2> |
| 45 | 45 … | <p> |
| 46 | 46 … | One thing that <em>wasn't</em> broken in Canopus was the selection of fonts. Vega had used Georgia for titles and links, and a generic sans-serif font for the main text; Canopus changed that to <a href="http://www.sil.org/~gaultney/gentium/">Gentium</a> for titles and links, and Franklin Gothic Book for the main text. Spica uses Gentium, URW Palladio L or Palatino Linotype (the first one that's available) for titles, and Franklin Gothic Book or <a href="http://dejavu.sourceforge.net/">DejaVu Sans Condensed</a> for everything else. |
| content/slightdelay.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -4,9 +4,9 @@ | ||
| 4 | 4 … | status: published |
| 5 | 5 … | tags: Mooquackwooftweetmeow, CSS |
| 6 | 6 … | |
| 7 | 7 … | links: |
| 8 | - - url: http://gkn.me.uk/workinprogress | |
| 8 … | + - url: /workinprogress | |
| 9 | 9 … | title: "Work-in-progress" |
| 10 | 10 … | rel: prev |
| 11 | 11 … | type: text/html |
| 12 | 12 … | |
| content/somethingsdrawnmehereagain.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -8,5 +8,5 @@ | ||
| 8 | 8 … | <p>There's drama in <a title="Over the Rhine – Give Me Strength" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Over+the+Rhine/_/Give+Me+Strength">Give Me Strength</a> right from the outset. In the intro the droning chords, simple drumbeat and ominous electric guitar riff set up an intense atmosphere, which is maintained by the grungy guitar strums that lead into the verse.</p> |
| 9 | 9 … | <p>Dischordant, eerie electronic warbles appear amongst the brooding guitars and vocals, half-way through the first verse and again at the end. Going into the bridge they give way to rumbling guitar, joined in the chorus by lurking, offbeat percussion, that sounds like steel drums heard through an unnaturally heavy fog.</p> |
| 10 | 10 … | <p>All of this accompaniment is offset by <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Over+the+Rhine">Over the Rhine</a>'s usual country-esque singing. The vocals come to the fore going into the second chorus, when the instrumental melody recedes, its echo lingering, as a swirling ambience swells to engulf the resonating vocals. All of this noise is carried into and throughout the second chorus. It all disappears in an instant as the final line is sung, a cappella, and resonates into the silence.</p> |
| 11 | 11 … | <p>When I first heard the song, I thought it was <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Dido">Dido</a> singing; it's not, but she does share a writing credit.</p> |
| 12 | -<p>So she's not entirely awful. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20061015.mp3">Give Me Strength</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| 12 … | +<p>So she's not entirely awful. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20061015.mp3">Give Me Strength</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| content/tfifirday.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -8,9 +8,9 @@ | ||
| 8 | 8 … | |
| 9 | 9 … | tags: the Friday Fetch-it, blogs, music |
| 10 | 10 … | |
| 11 | 11 … | links: |
| 12 | - - url: http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit | |
| 12 … | + - url: /thefridayfetchit | |
| 13 | 13 … | title: "the Friday Fetch-it" |
| 14 | 14 … | description: "in which interesting, obscure, underheard music is recommended" |
| 15 | 15 … | rel: related |
| 16 | 16 … | type: text/html |
| @@ -23,9 +23,9 @@ | ||
| 23 | 23 … | <p> |
| 24 | 24 … | I also came up with the perfect slogan for Last.fm - “Stay tuned”. It works on multiple levels, as do all the best slogans, providing you define being “tuned” as the state of having tunes... which you should. |
| 25 | 25 … | </p> |
| 26 | 26 … | <p> |
| 27 | -Originally, I was planning to make a weekly post to <a href="https://gkn.me.uk/thetwaddle/forums">The Twaddle Forums</a>, primarily as a way to liven the place up a bit, but then decided to turn it into a full-blown blog. I briefly considered using <a href="http://blogger.com">Blogger</a> until I realised that Last.fm's music journal is designed for exactly this. | |
| 27 … | +Originally, I was planning to make a weekly post to <a href="/thetwaddle/forums">The Twaddle Forums</a>, primarily as a way to liven the place up a bit, but then decided to turn it into a full-blown blog. I briefly considered using <a href="http://blogger.com">Blogger</a> until I realised that Last.fm's music journal is designed for exactly this. | |
| 28 | 28 … | </p> |
| 29 | 29 … | <p> |
| 30 | 30 … | So, every Friday evening from now on, I'll be writing stuff on my Last.fm journal. |
| 31 | 31 … | </p> |
| content/thedoorshavemetalplates.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -9,5 +9,5 @@ | ||
| 9 | 9 … | <p>Better than <a title="The Futureheads – Skip To The End" href="http://www.last.fm/music/The+Futureheads/_/Skip+To+The+End">Skip To The End</a>, though, is <a title="The Futureheads – Area" href="http://www.last.fm/music/The+Futureheads/_/Area">Area</a>, <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/The+Futureheads">The Futureheads</a>' stand-alone single released late in 2005.</p> |
| 10 | 10 … | <p>Unlike Skip to the End, it has the pace of <a title="The Futureheads – Decent Days And Nights" href="http://www.last.fm/music/The+Futureheads/_/Decent+Days+And+Nights">Decent Days And Nights</a>, <a title="The Futureheads – A to B" href="http://www.last.fm/music/The+Futureheads/_/A+to+B">A to B</a> and indeed much of <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/The+Futureheads">The Futureheads</a>' eponymous debut.</p> |
| 11 | 11 … | <p>Added to this is <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/The+Futureheads">The Futureheads</a>' trademark vocal harmony hook, à la <a title="The Futureheads – Hounds of Love" href="http://www.last.fm/music/The+Futureheads/_/Hounds+of+Love">Hounds of Love</a>.</p> |
| 12 | 12 … | <p>It's like the best bits of every track on <a title="The Futureheads - The Futureheads" href="http://www.last.fm/music/The+Futureheads/The+Futureheads">The Futureheads</a> (apart from the weird time signature of <a title="The Futureheads – The City is Here for You to Use" href="http://www.last.fm/music/The+Futureheads/_/The+City+is+Here+for+You+to+Use">The City is Here for You to Use</a>) condensed into 2:45.</p> |
| 13 | -<p>And that's another thing; like many great songs (i.e. <a title="Maxïmo Park - A Certain Trigger" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Maxïmo+Park/A+Certain+Trigger">A Certain Trigger</a> bar <a title="Maxïmo Park – Acrobat" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Maxïmo+Park/_/Acrobat">Acrobat</a>) it's far shorter than it sounds, which belies the song's intricacy – it doesn't seem probable that so much song would fit into so little time. <strong>If you download one track this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20060421.mp3">Area</a>.</strong></p> | |
| 13 … | +<p>And that's another thing; like many great songs (i.e. <a title="Maxïmo Park - A Certain Trigger" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Maxïmo+Park/A+Certain+Trigger">A Certain Trigger</a> bar <a title="Maxïmo Park – Acrobat" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Maxïmo+Park/_/Acrobat">Acrobat</a>) it's far shorter than it sounds, which belies the song's intricacy – it doesn't seem probable that so much song would fit into so little time. <strong>If you download one track this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20060421.mp3">Area</a>.</strong></p> | |
| content/thereisliberationhere.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -8,5 +8,5 @@ | ||
| 8 | 8 … | <p>Track eleven of <a title="Róisín Murphy - Ruby Blue" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Róisín+Murphy/Ruby+Blue">Ruby Blue</a> is a fifty-second instrumental called <a title="Róisín Murphy – Prelude to Love In The Making" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Róisín+Murphy/_/Prelude+to+Love+In+The+Making">Prelude to Love In The Making</a>. There is actually a full song, <a title="Róisín Murphy – Love In The Making" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Róisín+Murphy/_/Love+In+The+Making">Love In The Making</a>, whose lyrics appear in Ruby Blue's album insert; Prelude is simply the intro and outro of Love In The Making shoved together. Before Ruby Blue came out, all twelve songs had been released on three limited edition vinyl EPs collectively entitled Sequins; Love In The Making appears on Sequins 2.</p> |
| 9 | 9 … | <p>The song itself is something of a slow-burner. Róisín's vocals provide the melody, layered over a lo-fi percussive rhythm; every so often her voice swells, accompanied by itself several times over. Like most of Ruby Blue, the verse-chorus structure is somewhat indistinct, but it is there.</p> |
| 10 | 10 … | <p>Also present, to a certain degree, is Róisín's tendency to split one lyric over several vocal parts and to spread individual vocals out rather thinly (both particularly notable in <a title="Róisín Murphy – Sow Into You" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Róisín+Murphy/_/Sow+Into+You">Sow Into You</a>).</p> |
| 11 | 11 … | <p>The synth effects prominent throughout most of the album are conspicusouly quiet, but the song still has the same woozy, dischordant quality. Love In The Making sounds – to my ear anyway – vaguely south-Asian. I don't know if that's a sitar; I'm fairly certain there are some instruments that aren't <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well_temperament" rel="nofollow">well-tempered</a>.</p> |
| 12 | -<p>Because of this simplicity, it would be the stand-out track on the album, if only it were actually on the album. <strong>If you download one track this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20060606.mp3">Love In The Making</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| 12 … | +<p>Because of this simplicity, it would be the stand-out track on the album, if only it were actually on the album. <strong>If you download one track this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20060606.mp3">Love In The Making</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| content/thereisnopeacethativefoundsofar.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -15,5 +15,5 @@ | ||
| 15 | 15 … | <p>The piano and strings take turns at providing the leading melody, through an incredibly natural chord progression until, before you know it, it nears the end of the fourth minute and the strings once more build to a climax. And then he starts singing.</p> |
| 16 | 16 … | <p>The singing bit is backed by some funky electric bass, ever-so-slightly reminiscent of <a title="Modjo – Lady (Hear Me Tonight)" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Modjo/_/Lady+(Hear+Me+Tonight)">Lady (Hear Me Tonight)</a>. After only eight lines and forty-odd seconds, the strings once again take the lead, with the piano in tow. Over the next three minutes, the strings and then the piano quietly fade out, and the music comes to a gentle coda.</p> |
| 17 | 17 … | <p>Amazingly, for a seven-and-a-half-minute piece of music – and especially such a simple piece of music, with no sudden twists and turns, and only eight lyrics – La Rit never seems stale. The music never seems to be standing still, nor going around in circles; it always sounds like it's going somewhere.</p> |
| 18 | 18 … | <p>So this is a piece of music that repeats itself for seven and a half minutes, and yet doesn't repeat itself at all. Try figuring that one out.</p> |
| 19 | -<p><strong>If you download two tracks this week, make them <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20060623a.mp3">Set The Fire</a> and <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20060623b.mp3">La Rit</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| 19 … | +<p><strong>If you download two tracks this week, make them <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20060623a.mp3">Set The Fire</a> and <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20060623b.mp3">La Rit</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| content/thestyleswitcherisdead.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -4,9 +4,9 @@ | ||
| 4 | 4 … | status: published |
| 5 | 5 … | tags: Mooquackwooftweetmeow, CSS |
| 6 | 6 … | |
| 7 | 7 … | links: |
| 8 | - - url: http://gkn.me.uk/propermultiplestyleage | |
| 8 … | + - url: /propermultiplestyleage | |
| 9 | 9 … | title: "Proper Multiple Styleage" |
| 10 | 10 … | rel: prev |
| 11 | 11 … | type: text/html |
| 12 | 12 … | |
| content/underasinkingsun.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ | ||
| 22 | 22 … | <p>Three minutes in, although it feels like about half that, the rich swirls of sound die down, returning to the more minimal arrangement of the intro. It's at this point—if not before—that lesser hidden tracks would just have faded out, and you half-expect this intro arrangement to be the song's conclusion.</p> |
| 23 | 23 … | <p>Instead, the same intro riff acquires the accompaniment of the deep acoustic guitar and a violin, which plays a legato, swaying, floating line. The violin stays around while the main, warm riff resumes and Charlotte sings another chorus.</p> |
| 24 | 24 … | <p>Again, she's accompanied by the same swirling sonance, with the addition of the reverberating whooshes of a couple of passing space-dolphins. (Lost In Time could be described as the musical analogue to Ecco the Dolphin 2: The Tides of Time on the Mega-Drive.)</p> |
| 25 | 25 … | <p>The guitar riff from the intro concludes the song with the full resonant lushness of the song's body, and the acoustic guitar resonates into silence.</p> |
| 26 | -<p><em>This</em> is dream-pop. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20070622.ogg">Lost In Time</a>.</strong></p> | |
| 26 … | +<p><em>This</em> is dream-pop. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20070622.ogg">Lost In Time</a>.</strong></p> | |
| 27 | 27 … | <hr> |
| 28 | 28 … | <p>(How do you follow <em>that</em>? With <del datetime="2007-06-23 15:42 +01:00"><a href="/butyouvegottaknowtheirlies">Death Cock by Broken Social Scene</a></del> <ins datetime="2007-06-23 15:42 +01:00"><a href="http://last.fm/music/Under byen/_/Hjertebarn">Hjertebarn</a> by <a href="http://last.fm/music/Under byen/">Under byen</a></ins>. Or, preferably, another two minutes of silence.) |
| content/upherdosage.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -9,5 +9,5 @@ | ||
| 9 | 9 … | <p>The first minute is dominated by this staff's mostly-impenetrable dialogue, textured with Gigi's breaths and the throbbing hums of background machinery. This use of quaint spoken voice samples is quite reminiscent of <a title="Colourbox – Just Give 'em Whiskey" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Colourbox/_/Just+Give+%27em+Whiskey">Just Give 'em Whiskey</a>.</p> |
| 10 | 10 … | <p>After a minute this gives way to the actual song; its backbone is an almost ambient, liquid combination of hi-hat, synth, bass, a funk-infused pseudo-guitar line, some eerie whistling, and miscellaneous blips, whirs, breaths and distortion, all of which wouldn't sound out of place in The X-Files.</p> |
| 11 | 11 … | <p>Gigi's vocals are breathy and sensual; their layering is æthereal and eludes to a fantastical dislocation from reality, with an accompanying inquisitiveness. The instrumentation – especially the mutedness of the grunge-guitar towards the end – reinforces this.</p> |
| 12 | 12 … | <p>By the time the voices re-emerge four minutes in, the whole thing is sounding very much like a drug-induced altered state of conciousness, and eventually descends into catatonic incoherence.</p> |
| 13 | -<p>Yeah, her out of Farscape. <strong>If you download one track this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20060714.mp3">Poison</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| 13 … | +<p>Yeah, her out of Farscape. <strong>If you download one track this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20060714.mp3">Poison</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| content/vega2.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -7,9 +7,9 @@ | ||
| 7 | 7 … | |
| 8 | 8 … | tags: Mooquackwooftweetmeow, CSS, Vega |
| 9 | 9 … | |
| 10 | 10 … | links: |
| 11 | - - url: http://gkn.me.uk/vega | |
| 11 … | + - url: /vega | |
| 12 | 12 … | title: "Vega" |
| 13 | 13 … | description: "Mooquackwooftweetmeow in colour" |
| 14 | 14 … | rel: related |
| 15 | 15 … | type: text/html |
| content/walkingdatalossintroduction.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -10,12 +10,12 @@ | ||
| 10 | 10 … | <p>Yeah. Tough one.</p> |
| 11 | 11 … | <p>Of necessity, I'm going to have to reduce generalisations to only those that apply to <em>me</em>. Generally, though, I'm going to try to challenge assumptions by stretching applicability to the widest sense possible.</p> |
| 12 | 12 … | <p>I'm <em>not</em> going to criticise directed writing or speech in English for assuming the audience is human—at the time of writing, only humans can understand English beyond a few words—but I <em>will</em> use <i>things being assumed when they shouldn't be</i> as starting points for wider thoughts.</p> |
| 13 | 13 … | <hr> |
| 14 | -<p>I've written about this sort of stuff before—simplistic things like my <a href="https://gkn.me.uk/arantaboutforeigners">“rant about foreigners”</a> in which I complained about an American website using units of measure that were familiar to <em>them</em>, but that a wider, non-American audience found awkward or even incomprehensible. I've also written about <a href="https://gkn.me.uk/planetx4">what's in the solar system</a>, trying to use language that most objectively describes the <em>reality</em> of what's there, as well as removing the historical misemphasis particularly of Pluto, but also of the “major planets”. (I only <em>just</em> realised that that entry was relevant to this.)</p> | |
| 14 … | +<p>I've written about this sort of stuff before—simplistic things like my <a href="/arantaboutforeigners">“rant about foreigners”</a> in which I complained about an American website using units of measure that were familiar to <em>them</em>, but that a wider, non-American audience found awkward or even incomprehensible. I've also written about <a href="/planetx4">what's in the solar system</a>, trying to use language that most objectively describes the <em>reality</em> of what's there, as well as removing the historical misemphasis particularly of Pluto, but also of the “major planets”. (I only <em>just</em> realised that that entry was relevant to this.)</p> | |
| 15 | 15 … | <hr> |
| 16 | 16 … | <p>A lot of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregknicholson/">my pictures on Flickr</a> have a theme of decay and imperfection. In <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregknicholson/444944463/">Four</a> (I use <a href="http://forwardrussia.com/">¡Forward, Russia!</a> nomenclature for the pictures I publish) I tried to make a picture of a murky sky over Hartlepool (Great Britain, Earth etc.) look bright and sunny; the result has a clear air of artificiality (quite possibly due to my lack of <a href="http://gimp.org/">GIMP</a> mojo).</p> |
| 17 | 17 … | <p>For <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregknicholson/698883218/">Ten</a>, I drew around the photo by hand, sloppily, creating an outline that was clearly produced in this way. Both of these were an attempt to highlight how the reality of what I photographed gets <em>filtered</em> en route from the camera to the viewer, by artificially filtering the pictures even more; and in the case of Ten, by intentionally introducing imperfections.</p> |
| 18 | 18 … | <p>As another example of me playing with imperfections, I began my Thirteen series by focusing on the most obvious imperfection the camera recorded (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregknicholson/700208520/">part 1</a>)—the overexposure of the Sun. I then focused on the same area but with the imperfection removed and the sky recoloured to blue, the colour you'd expect of a sky; the resulting picture (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregknicholson/700208550/">part 3</a>) is—in my opinion—less interesting than part 1. And finally, I couldn't bring myself to “waste” such a good photo (again, my opinion, of course) by not publishing the full thing as it was “supposed” to look (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregknicholson/700208572/">part 4</a>)—an example of the valiant fight against decay.</p> |
| 19 | 19 … | <hr> |
| 20 | -<p>One more thing: there's an article on <a href="https://gkn.me.uk/thetwaddle/">The Twaddle</a>, a now-mostly-defunct website I run, about the English language (indeed any language) being an intrinsically <em>imperfect</em> representation of what the speaker is trying to express; it argues that this imperfection, the nuances that are applied to any perception that passes through a brain, ought to be appreciated. <a href="https://gkn.me.uk/thetwaddle/english">00101 01110 00111 01100 01001 10011 01000 01001 10011 00011 01111 01111 01100</a> wasn't written by me (the author now prefers to remain anonymous for unstalkability reasons) but it probably comes closest to the type of thing I intend to write about on this blog. | |
| 20 … | +<p>One more thing: there's an article on <a href="/thetwaddle">The Twaddle</a>, a now-mostly-defunct website I run, about the English language (indeed any language) being an intrinsically <em>imperfect</em> representation of what the speaker is trying to express; it argues that this imperfection, the nuances that are applied to any perception that passes through a brain, ought to be appreciated. <a href="/thetwaddle/english">00101 01110 00111 01100 01001 10011 01000 01001 10011 00011 01111 01111 01100</a> wasn't written by me (the author now prefers to remain anonymous for unstalkability reasons) but it probably comes closest to the type of thing I intend to write about on this blog. | |
| 21 | 21 … | <p>(By the way, earlier, “our” applied to anything that <em>can</em> perceive, which I <em>think</em> means any animal.)</p> |
| content/weblog035.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -6,9 +6,9 @@ | ||
| 6 | 6 … | |
| 7 | 7 … | --- |
| 8 | 8 … | |
| 9 | 9 … | <p> |
| 10 | -Last night version 1.0 of <a href="https://gkn.me.uk/thetwaddle/">The Twaddle</a> went live. It uses arbitrary <abbr title="Extensible Markup Language">XML</abbr> and <abbr title="Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations">XSLT</abbr> to generate valid <abbr title="Extensible Hypertext Markup Language">XHTML</abbr> pages... offline. | |
| 10 … | +Last night version 1.0 of <a href="/thetwaddle">The Twaddle</a> went live. It uses arbitrary <abbr title="Extensible Markup Language">XML</abbr> and <abbr title="Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations">XSLT</abbr> to generate valid <abbr title="Extensible Hypertext Markup Language">XHTML</abbr> pages... offline. | |
| 11 | 11 … | </p> |
| 12 | 12 … | <p> |
| 13 | 13 … | The idea of uploading bare-bones articles and an XSLT template, allowing the browser to generate pages as they're required, was <a href="/weblog028">a no-go</a>. But I managed to rig up the transformation offline, to be run as a batch. |
| 14 | 14 … | </p> |
| @@ -121,9 +121,9 @@ | ||
| 121 | 121 … | <p> |
| 122 | 122 … | The text output is just to make the command console more interesting while the batch program is running. It also helps pinpoint any errors, such as typos, which show up as blobs of text in the command console. |
| 123 | 123 … | </p> |
| 124 | 124 … | <p> |
| 125 | -The result of all this fiddling is that I can change pages' contents more easily; I've been able to, fairly easily, implement a few minor changes that would have taken effort before. The final product lives <a href="https://gkn.me.uk/thetwaddle/">here</a>. | |
| 125 … | +The result of all this fiddling is that I can change pages' contents more easily; I've been able to, fairly easily, implement a few minor changes that would have taken effort before. The final product lives <a href="/thetwaddle">here</a>. | |
| 126 | 126 … | </p> |
| 127 | 127 … | <p> |
| 128 | 128 … | In semi-related news, it turns out that PURLs such as <a href="http://purl.org/mooquackwooftweetmeow">purl.org/mooquackwooftweetmeow</a>, without the trailing slash, are possible - it's just partial redirects that have to end with slashes. The Twaddle's now on PURLs, too - <a href="http://purl.org/thetwaddle/">purl.org/thetwaddle</a> - with or without the slash. |
| 129 | 129 … | </p> |
| content/weblog049.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ | ||
| 15 | 15 … | <p> |
| 16 | 16 … | It's not quite <a href="http://www.bootstrap.org/#9B">Purple Numbers</a> but it does the job more than effectively (and it's not half as <span title="Invented word of the day">overkilly</span>). I reckon it's fair to assume that if someone wants to link to a part of your page in another page, they'll have the ability to view your page's source and find the ids. And if they can't, purple numbers would probably befuddle them anyway. |
| 17 | 17 … | </p> |
| 18 | 18 … | <p> |
| 19 | -<a href="https://gkn.me.uk/thetwaddle/">I do it</a> automatically - it really takes little effort. Another point is to use proper titles, not <code>#title4</code>, so that if you add a chunk, nothing will break (and referring urls look much friendlier). | |
| 19 … | +<a href="/thetwaddle">I do it</a> automatically - it really takes little effort. Another point is to use proper titles, not <code>#title4</code>, so that if you add a chunk, nothing will break (and referring urls look much friendlier). | |
| 20 | 20 … | </p> |
| 21 | 21 … | |
| content/weretwoofakind.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -12,5 +12,5 @@ | ||
| 12 | 12 … | <p>The fact that the song can be uprooted from one genre and plonked comfortably into another is testament to Whitfield and Strong's songwriting; the fact that the Slits dared to do it is testament to their great confidence (the punks call it “attitude”, right?). The fact that they pulled it off is testament to their skill as musicians.</p> |
| 13 | 13 … | <p>Oddly for a supposedly-punk record, the song lasts a full four minutes; odder, that's a good fifty seconds longer than Gaye's version. And crucially, without outstaying its welcome – at no point are they just repeating themselves.</p> |
| 14 | 14 … | <p>I'm convinced that <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Ari+Up">Ari Up</a> didn't bother learning the real words and just sang what she thought they were. And “I heard it through the bassline” is just genius.</p> |
| 15 | 15 … | <p>After the first verse and chorus of Gaye's version, I'm completely satisfied with the song – it's already delivered, and it would have been near impossible to screw it up after that, short of rambling on for ten minutes. Sure enough, the song carries on satisfactorily until the end, but without really adding anything.</p> |
| 16 | -<p>But the Slits' version delivers constantly throughout the entire song. The whole thing is... just inspired. <strong>If you download one track this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20060414.mp3">Slits Grapevine</a>.</strong></p> | |
| 16 … | +<p>But the Slits' version delivers constantly throughout the entire song. The whole thing is... just inspired. <strong>If you download one track this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20060414.mp3">Slits Grapevine</a>.</strong></p> | |
| content/wewontsaveyou.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -14,8 +14,8 @@ | ||
| 14 | 14 … | <p>But then with a drone-like, suspended animation Björk vocal (“once more”) along for the ride, in the space of about five seconds, the song swerves to avoid a crossing pedestrian and skids off the side of the road—crashing <em>straight</em> into a black hole, in which all the constituent parts of the song tie themselves up in a knot and collapse in on themselves, like an old-fashioned TV being switched off. More literally, it sounds like a more-warped, grungier version of the end of Phones' Disco Edit of Banquet by Bloc Party. Or a five-second armageddon.</p> |
| 15 | 15 … | <p>Instantly, the driving beat of The Riff resumes. After passing through a quick loop-the-loop and crashing into another supernova, the song breaks down to just the throb and the rippling countermelody.</p> |
| 16 | 16 … | <p>But soon The Riff reappears once more, alongside a new <em>counter</em>-countermelody. —On top of the first, rippling countermelody. And the melody of The Riff. And Björk's vocals. <em>Four</em> layers of melody now accompany the driving rhythm, so we're <em>quite</em> happy to dwell here for a minute or so, until the song concludes with a repeat of the opening explosion, again fading, this time to nothing.</p> |
| 17 | 17 … | <p>Apart from Björk's voice, which sings a <em>very</em> simple line, every melody here is <em>completely</em> original and the rhythm is nothing <em>like</em> Army of Me. It's like calling an ostrich a remix of a velociraptor.</p> |
| 18 | -<p>It <em>technically</em> is, but in reality it's a completely different animal. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20070713.mp3">Bersarinplatz</a>.</strong> ...or anything by Björk.</p> | |
| 18 … | +<p>It <em>technically</em> is, but in reality it's a completely different animal. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20070713.mp3">Bersarinplatz</a>.</strong> ...or anything by Björk.</p> | |
| 19 | 19 … | <hr> |
| 20 | 20 … | <p>(<a id="note-20070713-1" href="#ref-20070713-1">I <3 Björk</a>)</p> |
| 21 | 21 … | <p>(How do you follow <em>that</em>? Probably with either <a href="http://last.fm/music/Goldfrapp/_/Train" >Train</a> or <a href="http://last.fm/music/Kasabian/_/Shoot+The+Runner" >Shoot The Runner</a>. Or possibly <a href="http://last.fm/music/Under+byen/_/Den+her+sang+handler+om+at+få+det+bedste+ud+af+det" >Den her sang handler om at få det bedste ud af det</a> by <a href="http://last.fm/music/Under+byen" >Under byen</a> (who're really rather good, you know).) |
| content/youneverunderstoodme.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -10,5 +10,5 @@ | ||
| 10 | 10 … | <p>Not necessarily. The problem is that lots of pop songs descend into chorus repeat two-thirds of the way through. This chorus repeat's many functions include showcasing the soon-tiring vocal talents of the popstar in question; padding the song out to the usual 3:30, and getting all the pop-hungry kids singing along. All of which is predictably cynical.</p> |
| 11 | 11 … | <p>Oh, and they're generally quite crap as well – that doesn't help.</p> |
| 12 | 12 … | <p><a title="Kate Bush – The Big Sky" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Kate+Bush/_/The+Big+Sky">The Big Sky</a> comprises 15 seconds of verse followed by a good four minutes of chorus repeat; and it's great. Unlike all those pop songs, The Big Sky actually develops during the chorus repeat (henceforth referred to as “the song”).</p> |
| 13 | 13 … | <p>Instruments are added, vocal bits inserted and drums drummed more heartily. It's not marvellous in any profound, significant or even subtle way. But, it's a catchy, æsthetic, upbeat pop song.</p> |
| 14 | -<p>And there's not a single key-change in sight. <strong>If you download one track this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20060505.mp3">The Big Sky</a>.</strong></p> | |
| 14 … | +<p>And there's not a single key-change in sight. <strong>If you download one track this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20060505.mp3">The Big Sky</a>.</strong></p> | |
| content/yourethecablesthatconnectme.md | ||
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| @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ | ||
| 9 | 9 … | <p>But I keep coming back to <strong>Chasing Dorotea</strong>'s unabashedly romantic <strong>The Anchor Song</strong>.</p> |
| 10 | 10 … | <p>Part of the song's charm is its simplicity: two voices singing mostly in unison, backed by an acoustic guitar, with a harmonica decorating the space around the verses.</p> |
| 11 | 11 … | <p>The singers exude tranquillity and relaxation, right from “You've got a sparkle in your eyes, stronger than the brightest sun”. Even the instruments seem carefree as they ebb and flow amongst the vocals.</p> |
| 12 | 12 … | <p>But the real joy is in the lyrics' endless river of metaphors and fond exaggerations.</p> |
| 13 | -<p>This song is guaranteed to leave you with a lower blood pressure, a subdued heartbeat and a wistful smile. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20090213.mp3">The Anchor Song</a>.</strong></p> | |
| 13 … | +<p>This song is guaranteed to leave you with a lower blood pressure, a subdued heartbeat and a wistful smile. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20090213.mp3">The Anchor Song</a>.</strong></p> | |
| 14 | 14 … | <hr /> |
| 15 | 15 … | <p>(How do you follow <em>that</em>? Something slightly more lively but equally lovely: “Spring Came, Rain Fell” by Club 8, from the same sampler.)</p> |
| content/youthrewpenniesinandwished.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -10,5 +10,5 @@ | ||
| 10 | 10 … | <p>Coming out of the chorus, the second verse uses a different melody to the first and sounds more like an addendum to the chorus. By half-way through the second verse, the tune has rejoined that of the first verse. Again the lyrics are punched in at the end of the second verse, with almost mechanical determination. Sketch tersely sings "...more. More. More. More." leading into the warm guitar melody of the chorus.</p> |
| 11 | 11 … | <p>The bridge reassumes the tune of the second verse, as the organ provides an extra melody and the lead guitar hammers out a rhythm very reminiscent of <a title="Editors – Fingers in the Factories" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Editors/_/Fingers+in+the+Factories">Fingers in the Factories</a>. The guitar, organ and drums build to a crescendo and then subside, giving way to the lead guitar and an instrumental chorus.</p> |
| 12 | 12 … | <p>Unusually, the instrumental feels more agreeable and has less tension than the sung choruses. Reduced to just the primary melody and without Katie's brooding vocals, it evokes less hostility. To cap it off, there are tambourine shakes and handclaps on every other line, but shrewdly not on all of them. I don't know why, but somehow it seems better that they're absent from the second and fourth lines.</p> |
| 13 | 13 … | <p>As the lyrics come full-circle, the guitar, organ and vocals combine to lead the song up to its pounding conclusion.</p> |
| 14 | -<p>Handclaps. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20061029.mp3">Memorize</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| 14 … | +<p>Handclaps. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20061029.mp3">Memorize</a>.</strong> Stay tuned.</p> | |
| content/youwroteyournumberonmyhandanditcameoffintherain.md | ||
|---|---|---|
| @@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ | ||
| 13 | 13 … | <p>After a final chorus featuring Laura singing an alto counter-melody, the song arrives at another bridge, and this is where it concludes—no chorus repeat (aptly enough, I feel like I'm repeating myself here) and no fade-out: an extended bridge and then stop. This is the mark of a durable pop song: it leaves you only 90% satisfied rather than outstaying its welcome. Moreover, the guest vocalist actually feels like a <em>guest</em> for a change, instead of an ill-advised attempt at a full duet.</p> |
| 14 | 14 … | <p>The song's lyrics comprise rhyming couplets that, with plenty of hyperbole, depict their protagonist hopelessly in love with a fleeting acquaintance. Despite being pretty straightforward in structure, they simultaneously manage to be poetically vivid and immensely catchy: “Is that you on the bus? is that you on the train? / You wrote your number on my hand and it came off in the rain” is definitely couplet of the week.</p> |
| 15 | 15 … | <p>But it never seems <em>twee</em>, like a lot of Scando-Scottish indie-popsters <i>(seriously, <em>who</em> can tell Camera Obscura and the Concretes apart?)</i>—the rattling drums and precise guitars prevent the sound from becoming syrupy. Earnest and foppish, yes: but not twee.</p> |
| 16 | 16 … | <p>So it <em>is</em> quintessentially English pop music—not only due to Laura Marling's accent, but because of the attitude it exhibits: a combination of resigned exasperation but recklessly unremitting determination nonetheless. You'd not hear that from Belle & Seb.</p> |
| 17 | -<p>It's the sort of song Hugh Grant would sing if only he wasn't so frightfully shy. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="http://gkn.me.uk/thefridayfetchit/20080229.mp3">Young Love</a>.</strong></p> | |
| 17 … | +<p>It's the sort of song Hugh Grant would sing if only he wasn't so frightfully shy. <strong>If you download one song this week, make it <a href="/thefridayfetchit/20080229.mp3">Young Love</a>.</strong></p> | |
| 18 | 18 … | <hr> |
| 19 | 19 … | <p>(How do you follow <em>that</em>? The “aah”s echo the Rakes' “We Danced Together” (an English band); the guitar and overall rhythm, (English) Field Music's “A House Is Not A Home”; and the bridge—<em>annoyingly</em>—“This Fffire”, by Scandinavian-produced Scots Franz Ferdinand.)</p> |
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