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Stranger in a Strange Land - Buy it

Previous Posts

Everytime I read this, it mangles my head for a number of weeks after and this time was no exception. I end up questioning everything about myself, mny interactions with others and society in general. I wonder whether things I do are my own choice or social programming.

I find it incredibly diffucult to read, frustrating, upsetting and at times truly joyous.

My review can be seen on previous posts or the amazon website

Berlin

So, Ailsa and I went for a long weekend in Berlin which is a beautiful city. We were staying at the Park Inn which we booked at the last possible moment. What was brilliant about the hotel was that however lost you were or however pissed you became, the hotel was one of the biggest buildings in Berlin, only beaten in fact by the massive TV Tower which was just next door, impossible to get lost (even for Ailsa).

We did the basics, visit the Reichstag and the Brandnburg Gate, but I would like mention some things I noticed as this was my first proper visit to Germany.

1. German public transport is exactly how you would imagine it


2. The Germans love their beer and like a drink whatever time of day it is


3. THEY LOVE THEIR SAUSAGES!!!!!!!!!! It is unbelievable its bratwurst for breakfast, weiners for 11's, currywurst for lunch. There were dudes that wore mobile sausage vending stall/things, they frickin love it

Coldplay at the Wuhlheide

Review from Gaffa DK (translation bit rubbish)

After a short S-Bahn train journey out of the centre of Berlin we walked through a wooded area to the Wuhlheide Amphitheatre. It was a beautiful day and Ailsa and I found seats in the perfect spot and setup camp. After a deposit of 1€ you got a plastic beer pot and I experienced one of the highlights of this break and probably one of the best inventions of all time, dudes carrying beer on their backs, all you had to do was raise your glass and a guy would come up fill it up for you. BRILLIANT

Richard Ashcroft supported and was absolutely incredible so good in fact if Coldplay had been rubbish it would have still been an excellent gig. It was just him on acoustic and a guy on the keyboard. Highlights where History and Bitter Sweet Symphony.

Coldplay then just absolutely rocked my world for a couple of hours. They started with 'Square One' and just played choon after choon. They were really tight, they all played different instruments at different times, managed to fit in a small acoustic session in the middle. Highlights were every single choon, definitely one of my favourite gigs ever (although still doesn't beat Radiohead at Southpark).

Also because of it being an amphitheatre and due to our position, the sound was brilliant you could hear individual notes played by the guitarist.

NICE

Turin Brakes - Sheppards Bush Empire

Times Online Review

This was so different from the gig at The Jericho, with the whole band they had a much more produced slickness about them they also where able to move up more gears from smouldering vocals and quiet guitars to powerful rocking. Both gigs were brilliant in quite different ways

What I find quite mad is everybody seems to love 'Future Boy', which is also one of my favourite tracks, but I wonder why others think its so good. I wonder if people seem themselves in the track and that's the appeal?? Thoughts please

Coldplay - X&Y (buy it)

BBC Review
Pop Matters
NME

Like the Turin Brakes album it took me a while to really get in to this album, but I suppose it took me 6 months to get in to ‘A Rush Of Blood To The Head’.

What has impressed me is that this is a real attempt to make them the next U2 or REM, the reason I say this is that the tracks have massive, ready to go live sounds to them. They were built in mind with 20,000 screaming fans singing along, from the very first track, 'Square One', which is the obvious kick off to any gig to the beautiful 'Fix You' which starts of quietly and obviously will end with everyone singing at the top of their voices.

The lyrics are not brilliant but they are good and as for musicianship/artistry there is no denying their quality. This is another bloody decent album, that I am sure will do what the previous two have done and just get better and better until it just fits into your existence.

The actual blocks on the front cover are graphical representations loosely based on a binary code known as 'Baudot Code' , which generates a base5 binary representations for each letter or character in the western alphabet.

The 'baudot' code was used extensively in telegraph systems. It is a five bit code invented by the Frenchman Emile Baudot in 1870.

Using five bits allowed 32 different characters. To accomodate all the letters of the alphabet and numerals, two of the 32 combinations were used to select alternate character sets. The colours are irrelvant and are there just for looks.

On the album cover the characters depend on whether the coloured block is there or not, so is the graphic a zero or a one? For example on the album artwork the letter X is 10111 and Y is 10101 and the symbol for & has to be firstly activated with a sort of SHIFT character, which is 11011. So the & symbol is actually 11011 01011.