May 2004 ~ Slow Thrills

Thursday, May 13, 2004

"In Praise of Slow"
I was pleased to hear this on BBC Radio 4's 'Book of the Week' this morning - 'In Praise of Slow" by Carl Honore. The thinking behind it has been a big inspiration in getting me to set up this website. Unfortunately someone nearly crashed into me on the westlink as I was listening to it!

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

Happy days
Belfast is on a bit of a roll at the moment. Largely due to the presence of BBC's Music Live events and the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, and the fact that the best radio station around 6Music has been on FM in the Belfast area for the last month. Tonight they leave hand over to 1Xtra so all is not lost - as least we have another fresh station to listen to, although I'm not as into it as 6music. They played Loop, Jonathan Richman and Television while I was having my breakfast yesterday - you can't really beat that! Thank god I've got a Freeview box so I can keep listening, I was even pricing DAB receivers for the car earlier (price=too expensive!).
Anyway, like I said things are very good here. ATL TV (Across the Line) starts tonight on BBC2NI, though I have to set the video as I'll be out seeing Arab Strap, Iain Archer, etc at the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival.
Also, I haven't been as excited about a local release since Therapy?'s 'Meat Abstract'/ 'Punishment Kiss 7" in 1990, but the debut Torgas Valley Reds single 'Torgas Valley Blue'/ 'Me and My Buddies Would Vote For you' is just fantastic. Clips and info here.
Finally, I have decided to pick myself up and put the website together again. 46 interviews from the archives are ready to publish (there are 68 more where those came from - yikes!), and that rumoured new review section will be ready VERY VERY soon. Honest, I mean it this time!

Sunday, May 02, 2004

Normal service resumed
Both the discussion forum and the gig previews page are back again. Their addresses have been changed by ezboard (without telling me!) so any bookmarks you have relating to them will need to be changed.
The updated archives will be reappearing over the next few days, 28 of the 45 interviews have been finished, a proper index to come.