I’ve had a few issues with my MacBook Pro recently mainly, I think, because of low disc space. I ran Disk Utility (Mac equivalent of ‘chkdsk’ on Windows) and it informed me of some file system errors too. With OSX Lion arriving any time soon (and for the bargain price of about £20 ($29.99)) I thought I had better get things into shape before upgrading. In order to do this I needed to boot from the Snow Leopard installation DVD.
Jul 152011
Jul 052011
The other week I bought a new domain name – ‘maft.co’. Currently I use ‘maft.co.uk’. Why did I buy it? Well, partly because I could and it was available and partly because it’s three characters shorter. Wow, three whole characters I hear you say in disbelief. Well, three characters shorter from ten is actually 33% so it is actually a pretty big saving. I use The Twitter (@MaFt) a lot where every character counts so links to my site now save valuable space. OK, OK, I admit… the main reason was I just wanted to have a trendy new .co domain name…
Here’s the scenario: My music collection is on my main Windows PC on the middle floor of my house. I do 99% of my work on my MacBook Pro either on the ground floor or the top floor of my house. I like my music but hate iTunes (only use it for syncing iPhone/iPad apps and backups) so using Home Sharing was out of the question – I cannot trust iTunes to look after my music collection properly plus MediaMonkey is so much better with regards to features and functions.
So, how do I listen to my music while I’m working? MediaMonkey doesn’t work too well in WINE, it’s OK in Parallels but running a 2nd OS solely for music isn’t ideal…
May 102011
Just over five years ago my dad was diagnosed with colon cancer. It was treated successfully with only a few minor setbacks in the way of open wounds and infections. After various other tests brought about, I think, by his brother getting cancer at a similar age it turns out he has a gene defect in his third chromosome; the defect, known as MLH1, gives rise to ‘hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer‘ (HNPCC). People with this gene defect have about an 80% chance of getting colorectal cancer at some point in their life – usually between the ages of 40 and 60 depending on the actual type of cancer.
May 092011
MxPx
This is going to be hard to pick only 5 songs…! I’ve been a big fan of Washington pop-punks, MxPx, since 1998. MxPx are a great band – catchy music and great lyrics. They should be huge; especially when you consider that it was MxPx who took Good Charlotte on tour as a support band back in 2000/2001. Still, it has it’s advantages – as a relatively ‘unknown’ band in the UK when they tour here you get to see them in some more intimate gigs. As an extra ‘treat’ for their fans they always record some kind of EP in between main LP releases. These include covers albums, and more ‘raw’ tracks recorded in their own studio. They’ve dabbled with the poppier side (Before Everything And After) and the rawk side (The Renaissance EP) and always come out trumps. Now, to try choose 5 songs…
- Tomorrow’s Another Day (from ‘Slowly Going The Way Of The Buffalo’)
- Wrecking Hotel Rooms (from ‘Panic’)
- Cristalena (from ‘Life In General’)
- You’re On Fire (from ‘Secret Weapon’)
- It’s Undeniable (from ‘The Ever Passing Moment’)
May 022011
Living End, The
I’ve been a fan of Aussie rockers, The Living End, for over a decade although I’ve only ever seen them live once. They play catchy rock music infused with punk and some rockabilly – it’s all good! One thing that helps them stand out is the double bass that they use instead of a normal bass guitar. It gives it a definitive sound and also looks awesome on stage!
I blogged this after Leeds Festival 2009:
It was soon time to teach Shaun how awesome Australians could be with the fantastic The Living End. Not only do these guys play great music (punk-rockabilly is the easiest way to explain!) but they put on an amazing performance too! This was the first time I’d seen a bottle-neck slide used that was not only still attached to the bottle but also still full of beer – although the guitar tech wasn’t pleased to have to clear all that up… The upright bass also makes for good entertainment value with various spins and an extra platform to stand on. You may be able to guess, but I was blown away by The Living End!
- Prisoner of Society (from ‘The Living End’)
- Don’t Shut The Gate (from ‘Roll On’)
- Raise The Alarm (from ‘White Noise’)
- Uncle Harry (from ‘Roll On’)
- How Do We Know (from ‘White Nosie’)
And here’s a couple of photo’s and a video:
Apr 252011
Kids In Glass Houses
I Only have one album from Welsh rockers Kids In Glass Houses – but it’s a great one! Difficult to describe, they’re rocky and punky without being too much of either. Your best bet, if that catches your attention, is to take a listen to them on Spotify. There’s a lovely acoustic version of ‘Matters At All’ on there too. All the songs for this Music Monday are from their album ‘Dirt’ except for number 5.
- Sunshine
- Artbreaker II
- Young Blood
- Giving Up
- Matters At All (Acoustic)
There isn’t really a band beginning with ‘J’ that I would rate highly enough for a Music Monday blog post… So I’m missing it this week! See you next week for ‘K’.
Apr 112011
The Insyderz
More trumpet punk, this time from The Insyderz. Bizarrely I’m not keen on their normal album(s) but prefer, instead, their worship albums. On ‘Skalleluia!’ and ‘Skalleluia Too!’ The Insyderz set out to make Christian worship songs as awesome as they should have been in the first place!
- You Are My All n All (from ‘Skalleluia!’)
- Who Is This? (from ‘Skalleluia Too!’)
- In The Secret (from ‘Skalleluia Too!’)
- Awesome God (from ‘Skalleluia!’)
- All That I Am (from ‘Skalleluia Too!’)
Apr 042011
de Heideroosjes
In what seems like another life I use to swim for Bingley Amateur Swimming Club. We had links with e Dutch club, de Watervrienden Lisse, with whom we did an ‘exchange’ each year. One year we would go to Holland, the next year they would come to England. I made a few good friends from those trips who I am still in touch with, even though I’ve not swam properly for over a decade! In, I think, 1996 there was one lad called ‘Rob’ who introduced me to the Dutch punk band de Heideroosjes – I was instantly hooked! Their older stuff has a very raw, aggressive sound but in the late 90′s they were signed to Epitaph and their music, although still similar in style, has a more polished sound to it. Most songs are in English but there are quite a number in Dutch (various dialects), German and Flemish.
- Lekker Belangrijk (from ‘Chapter Eight, The Golden State’)
- Nothing For Free (from ‘Fifi’ & ‘Smile… You’re Dying’)
- Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden (from ‘Choice For A Lost Generation?!’ & ‘Smile… You’re Dying’)
- Regular Day In Bosnia (from ‘Schizo’)
- Ring Of Fire [cover] (from ‘Ode & Tribute’)