Post a good thing that happened in your life today

[Nigel Kirby]

Radio 2 Saturday morning 6am - 8am "sounds of the sixties" with Tony Blackburn

[Bryan]

I've been processing, uploading and keywording photos taken during last weekends trip to the Scottish borders when the sun did shine. I took a few shots in rural Northumberland and spent ages trying to define the exact location on a minor road, but persistence paid off and I found the spot, verified by using street view in Google maps. I've never had a camera which can determine and store locations, but that would be a handy feature.

[spacecadet]

8 hours ago, Bryan said:

I've never had a camera which can determine and store locations, but that would be a handy feature.

Can't help with that. One of my Sony SLTs did that but they took it off the next model. Then they took it off LR so it stopped working anyway.

You could always take a quick smartphone pic which will have the GPS metadata on it. By the time you get home it will show on the phone's map.

[Bryan]

7 hours ago, spacecadet said:

Can't help with that. One of my Sony SLTs did that but they took it off the next model. Then they took it off LR so it stopped working anyway.

You could always take a quick smartphone pic which will have the GPS metadata on it. By the time you get home it will show on the phone's map.

Handy hint thanks !

[Betty LaRue]

On 31/03/2022 at 04:03, Allan Bell said:

I'm happy enough with either Classic FM or Smooth UK playing in the background.

 

Allan

 

I play Classic Country through Alexa.

[Vincent Lowe]

On 01/04/2022 at 01:54, Bryan said:

....  I've never had a camera which can determine and store locations, but that would be a handy feature.

 

I've been using a gadget called Unleashed from Foolography.  It's a tiny gadget that plugs into the camera and links to an app on your smartphone, from which it takes the gps co-ordinates and enters them into the exif data.  A bit pricey but it works a treat.  You can also use it to control the camera and preview images on your smartphone, though I've only used it for gps so far.   Only available for Canon or Nikon.

 

https://www.foolography.com/products/unleashed-18/

Edited April 2, 2022 by Vincent Lowe
Grammar

[Bryan]

4 hours ago, Vincent Lowe said:

 

I've been using a gadget called Unleashed from Foolography.  It's a tiny gadget that plugs into the camera and links to an app on your smartphone, from which it takes the gps co-ordinates and enters them into the exif data.  A bit pricey but it works a treat.  You can also use it to control the camera and preview images on your smartphone, though I've only used it for gps so far.   Only available for Canon or Nikon.

 

https://www.foolography.com/products/unleashed-18/

Thanks Vincent. It's a bit rich for me, as a shoestring photographer, but a clever piece of kit.

[Bryan]

6 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

I play Classic Country through Alexa.

I can't wean my wife off her collection of CDs and DVDs, we are stuck in a time warp. Things could be worse, we scrapped our vinyl decades ago. 

 

However I heard a radio article from a musician who said that the trend to download music has killed the income for many in his profession. The only way they can make money now is by touring and live gigs. Covid had stopped that for most, so many musicians have been forced out of the business. Typically the recording companies paid a pitiful 5% commission on sales, (in fairness they had to pay studio costs and manufacture and distribute the hardware) for successful artists that brought a good income in the days of CDs, but these days 5% of nothing is nothing. 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Bryan

[John Mitchell]

2 hours ago, Bryan said:

I can't wean my wife off her collection of CDs and DVDs, we are stuck in a time warp. Things could be worse, we scrapped our vinyl decades ago. 

 

However I heard a radio article from a musician who said that the trend to download music has killed the income for many in his profession. The only way they can make money now is by touring and live gigs. Covid had stopped that for most, so many musicians have been forced out of the business. Typically the recording companies paid a pitiful 5% commission on sales, (in fairness they had to pay studio costs and manufacture and distribute the hardware) for successful artists that brought a good income in the days of CDs, but these days 5% of nothing is nothing. 

 

I'm in the same time warp. I still prefer CD's to downloading and even play ancient cassettes on my boombox. However, my vinyl collection just gathers dust as I no longer have a turntable. Vinyl is quite popular amongst the younger set in Vancouver. I guess they find it something of a novelty.

[Ognyan Yosifov]

1 hour ago, John Mitchell said:

 

I'm in the same time warp. I still prefer CD's to downloading and even play ancient cassettes on my boombox. However, my vinyl collection just gathers dust as I no longer have a turntable. Vinyl is quite popular amongst the younger set in Vancouver. I guess they find it something of a novelty.

I find it quite romantic to be listening to vinyl records music and I've been thinking to buy a turntable myself.

 

[Bryan]

1 hour ago, John Mitchell said:

 

I'm in the same time warp. I still prefer CD's to downloading and even play ancient cassettes on my boombox. However, my vinyl collection just gathers dust as I no longer have a turntable. Vinyl is quite popular amongst the younger set in Vancouver. I guess they find it something of a novelty.

Likewise our turntable (a Garrard SP 25) is long gone. 

 

My introduction to classical music came through humble beginnings. My grandfather drove a refuse truck and his round included places where posh folk lived. When the change from 78 rpm to 33 came about these people threw out their boxed sets of 78s and would typically ask the binmen if they wanted them. So I would listen to Scheherezade on numerous separate discs.....

[Ed Rooney]

 

 

. . . and while I'm bitching about this and that, let me get back to classical music in general. I've always found the titles overly elaborate and nonsensical. As listeners, do we need to be told Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music) is in fact Serenade No. 13 For Strings In G Major with a K number and an opus number? Unless I'm going to play the piece, why do I need to be told the key? 

 

Since I complained about Alexander Armstrong, he seems to have backed off a bit. And the general selection being played all day on Classical FM is more to my liking. There's pop, rock, mood, talk, and classical on my little radio but no jazz. Hmm. 

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Ed Rooney

[Allan Bell]

I have a turntable and still have some vinyl LPs.  I believe the sound from vinyl through the amp is superior to the sound from CDs.

 

Allan

 

[Allan Bell]

3 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

 

. . . and while I'm bitching about this and that, let me get back to classical music in general. I've always found the titles overly elaborate and nonsensical. As listeners, do we need to be told Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music) is in fact Serenade No. 13 For Strings In G Major with a K number and an opus number? Unless I'm going to play the piece, why do I need to be told the key? 

 

Since I complained about Alexander Armstrong, he seems to have backed off a bit. And the general selection being played all day on Classical FM is more to my liking. There's pop, rock, mood, talk, and classical on my little radio but no jazz. Hmm. 

 

 

Jazz is a speciality so probably played on a devoted channel.  Jackie my lady friend for about 15 years liked Trad but when she played it I left the room.

 

Horses for courses, as they say.

 

Allan

 

[Ed Rooney]

Most music falls into one of two categories -- to pump you up and get you moving or to relax you. The jazz I want to have in the background is the moody relaxing type, surely not Trad. I can get that on my computer but not on my radio. This piece is somewhere half between.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-488UORrfJ0

 

 

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Ed Rooney

[Bryan]

1 hour ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

 

. . . and while I'm bitching about this and that, let me get back to classical music in general. I've always found the titles overly elaborate and nonsensical. As listeners, do we need to be told Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music) is in fact Serenade No. 13 For Strings In G Major with a K number and an opus number? Unless I'm going to play the piece, why do I need to be told the key? 

 

Since I complained about Alexander Armstrong, he seems to have backed off a bit. And the general selection being played all day on Classical FM is more to my liking. There's pop, rock, mood, talk, and classical on my little radio but no jazz. Hmm. 

 

Another reason to defect to radio 3, it's currently Armstrong free but includes Jazz Record Requests, while they occasionally play Jazz on the In Tune Mixtape.

[Ed Rooney]

 

Bryan, I like to be foot-lose and fancy-free -- I don't book restaurant tables or listen to music scheduled by the BBC or any other station. Soon (maybe) I'll get my own music collection down from the iCloud. 

 

And Betty, forgive me for using your 'Good Thing' post for my minor complaints. 

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Ed Rooney

[spacecadet]

11 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

 

I'm in the same time warp. I still prefer CD's to downloading and even play ancient cassettes on my boombox. However, my vinyl collection just gathers dust as I no longer have a turntable. Vinyl is quite popular amongst the younger set in Vancouver. I guess they find it something of a novelty.

We have a rule of keeping the hardware if we keep the firmware. So, still at least one CD player, reel-to-reel, cassette, turntable (though we haven't dropped a needle for 20 years), slide, Super-8 projector and 16mm Steenbeck. It applied to 5 1/4" floppies until the Amstrad died, and 3 1/2" until the Windows 3 tower ditto. I think the 3 1/2" wore out its welcome when you could no longer keep a single digital image on one. So about 2004 then.

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by spacecadet

[Ed Rooney]

 

Mark, there must be some places in London where you can sell those 33-RPM records. I know there are in NYC.

 

 

Here's one: https://reckless.co.uk

 

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Ed Rooney

[Betty LaRue]

9 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

Bryan, I like to be foot-lose and fancy-free -- I don't book restaurant tables or listen to music scheduled by the BBC or any other station. Soon (maybe) I'll get my own music collection down from the iCloud. 

 

And Betty, forgive me for using your 'Good Thing' post for my minor complaints. 

 

Edo, no problem. I’ve most surely said something to brag about on your “bad thing” thread. People over 60 get a pass, don’t we?

edited to add…

besides, Edo, I like people who march to the proverbial different drummer, as I do. My family says I’m stubborn. I say I think for myself and refuse to fall in line with what the masses (or even my family) do/does unless it’s what I want to do. Of course I’m law abiding…but other things….I was the first (I ever saw) to adopt bell bottom pants back in the day in my town. They were dark blue with red & white stars and planets on them. I got a lot of weird looks when I wore them out, enough to almost make me stop because I hated being stared at. I was simply an early adopter of fashion/fads. It took my mom and sisters so long that the fashion was about to go out before they wore them! 😁

Edited April 3, 2022 by Betty LaRue

[Betty LaRue]

When I was 6, I’d come home from first grade, 6 years old, to an empty house. My mother wouldn’t quite be finished with her shift at the glass factory that made canning jars. It was later destroyed in a tornado.

My grade got out of school before my older sisters’ did. We had a console record player, just a little shorter than I was, and my mother had bought a classical music record.
I would come in, carefully place the needle at the edge, then prop my head on the edge of the console. Then I would dreamily listen to Blue Danube, and something where the singers said, “If you go out in the woods tonight, you’re in for a big surprise.” I have no clue what the name was. There were other beautiful instrumentals on the record, and I listened to them all, arms on edge, head on my arms, ears hearing every note and day-dreaming good things.

It was an escape from bad things, like my alcoholic father and what he did to the family.

[Dave Richards]

7 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

When I was 6, I’d come home from first grade, 6 years old, to an empty house. My mother wouldn’t quite be finished with her shift at the glass factory that made canning jars. It was later destroyed in a tornado.

My grade got out of school before my older sisters’ did. We had a console record player, just a little shorter than I was, and my mother had bought a classical music record.
I would come in, carefully place the needle at the edge, then prop my head on the edge of the console. Then I would dreamily listen to Blue Danube, and something where the singers said, “If you go out in the woods tonight, you’re in for a big surprise.” I have no clue what the name was. There were other beautiful instrumentals on the record, and I listened to them all, arms on edge, head on my arms, ears hearing every note and day-dreaming good things.

It was an escape from bad things, like my alcoholic father and what he did to the family.

Hi Betty. I remember a song from my childhood with that “if you go out in the woods” line which I think is called “The Teddy Bears Picnic”.

Edited April 4, 2022 by Dave Richards
added text

[Dave Richards]

22 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

Most music falls into one of two categories -- to pump you up and get you moving or to relax you. The jazz I want to have in the background is the moody relaxing type, surely not Trad. I can get that on my computer but not on my radio. This piece is somewhere half between.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-488UORrfJ0

 

 

 

Edo, I'm with you on the moody, relaxing jazz. I sometimes listen in to Jazz FM but even some of their stuff is a bit too ‘off the wall’ for me. Never heard them play any Trad which I too can’t stand.

I love the music of the Great American Songbook. The superlative Sinatra backed by the likes of the Count Basie big band; perfect when working through my image edits.

I have a good CD collection and my vinyl collection dates back to beyond my copy of the original issue of the Beatles Please Please Me album which is worth a mint (and no, I ain't selling that).

My go-to is usually Spotify where I can build playlists to suit my moods. Just plug into the USB socket on my CD player and it can all be played through my hi fi system.

Edited April 4, 2022 by Dave Richards
added text.

[Ed Rooney]

Yeah, Dave -- Trad can work at a garden cookout . . . if you have a large garden.

 

Sinatra had all the gifts -- the voice, the timing, and the ability to read the lyrics as if he was doing it for the first time. On that Vegas Basie album, he's at his best. My son, who's a musician, played that album for me, for us, the night before I left Montreal. His is a state-of-the-art vinyl system.

 

And I also agree that Betty is slightly wrong in remembering The Teddy Bear's Picnic.

 

If you go down in the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise
If you go down in the woods today, you'd better go in disguise
For every bear that ever there was 
Will gather there for certain because 
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic
 

It was often played as a tuba solo. 

[Allan Bell]

16 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

Mark, there must be some places in London where you can sell those 33-RPM records. I know there are in NYC.

 

 

Here's one: https://reckless.co.uk

 

 

 

Selling 33 RPMs!  Shame on you.  Get yourself a deck and amp and start buying them.😉

 

Allan