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Hannah Fury: Sweet Heart

Whilst listening through A Piano: The Collection last year I came to three conclusions:

  1. It’s remarkable that some people can create such incredible and varied music from the same notes;
  2. It’s remarkable that humans respond to the arrangement of these notes – why don’t fish dance?
  3. There’s got to be something “else” that’s given music to us, both as listeners and creators.

I discovered Hannah Fury yesterday afternoon, through one of my neighbours on Last.fm, and I listened to her 2000 debut album The Thing That Feels. It’s been twenty years since I discovered Throwing Muses – their debut shattered me completely. Throughout the years I’ve often wondered if any other music could make me feel the same way.

The Thing That Feels does. It destroys me.

[MellowTraumatic Recordings]
[iTunes UK]

No Comments | Permalink | Tracks of the Day | New Music
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Rebirth

One of the things that crossed my mind when I first saw the commercials for Apple’s iPhone was that one interacts with the iPhone in a more intuitive and simpler way than any equivalent device. I include “personal computers” in that classification. My hunch is that it will eventually change the way in which applications and websites look and behave. It’s with great interest that I read that Digg is now officially on the iPhone and in particular one comment:

I like the interface of digg on iphone more than digg on browser.

1 Comment | Permalink | General Musings
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Apple Applications

A word of (perhaps obvious) advice to Apple Mac newbies:

When you install an application, it’s really, really useful to put it in the Applications folder. There’s a simple rule here: applications live in the Applications folder. Got it?

Please don’t go making your own folder for applications, and don’t leave them on the Desktop either.

Some applications – but not many – require or even demand that they get put in the Applications folder. But that’s because they’re badly written. Most applications don’t care where they run from, so why my advice?

Someday, someone else might use your Mac. Especially if you’re working in an office. Do you really want them to see your e-mail accounts and those photos of your drunken nights of flash mob-twittering? On your Desktop? Probably not.

It’s easier, cleaner and nicer for the new Mac user to create a new user account for them. By installing applications in the Applications folder, when they log in they’ll get instant access to all of the applications that are installed on that Mac. Otherwise, all they will get will be the standard set of Apple applications. Furthermore, they can then set up their own preferences for these applications and they won’t effect anyone else’s preferences.

2 Comments | Permalink | All things Apple
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Comet Recycling

Comet’s current advertising highlights that they now offer a recycling service. Their website states: “As a responsible retailer Comet cares about the environment we live in”.

So much so that they charge £7.50 for the privilege of recycling unwanted goods on a like-for-like basis, when buying new goods. Or £20 if you just want them to pick something up.

Here’s an alternative: ring your local council. Ours picks up for free.

No Comments | Permalink | General Musings
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Giving thanks

We receive most of our web maintenance instructions or support requests from customers via e-mail. It’s usually the clearest way of communicating changes or requests. Regardless of how small or insignificant the corresponding work is, if we don’t speak to them when concluding the work, we always send them an e-mail to inform them that the work they requested is completed.

One thing we’ve noticed over the years is that we don’t always get responses from this e-mail. So we don’t always find out if the work was to their satisfaction. The kind of behaviour we observe can fit into one of three groups:

  • Those who acknowledge everything we do for them, regardless of how small or seemingly insignificant it might be;
  • Those who sometimes acknowledge our work. Usually the most important stuff, or the biggest changes get a reply;
  • Those who never respond.

Which group are our best customers, with whom we have the best working relationship and from whom we get the most repeat business? That’ll be the first group.

No Comments | Permalink | It's Our Business
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Lisa Germano: In the Maybe World

I’ve been meaning to buy some music by Lisa Germano ever since Happiness was released in 1993 but for some unknown reason I never did. Then about this time two years ago, I was really going buy an album or two. But I didn’t – there just wasn’t enough emotional push for me to do so. Still, two of my objectives of my annual holiday are to re-visit music that I’ve left forgotten and to fill some gaps in my collection. This year, Lisa Germano made it there.

I’m wondering now if music finds me only when it’s supposed to? Or when I’m supposed to?

This track is the title track from her latest album. What I love about her music is that there are little things – and sometimes big things – that prompt the songs to evolve differently for what you expected when they started. That, and the way her albums work seamlessly thematically and musically.

[iTunes UK]
[Amazon UK]

No Comments | Permalink | Tracks of the Day | Music of 2006 | New Music
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