Grooving with dinosaurs

[altariel]

This week, to get me through the insufficiently remunerated cat-herding that constitutes my so-called career, I have been besotted with Fairport Convention’s cover of a song by Lal Waterson called Rubber Band. It’s about a band that “keeps on bouncing back” and whose fame keeps spreading, “just like margarine”. Flipping through my Big Book of Fairport Nolij (yes, such a thing exists, and it’s on a shelf but two feet away from me), they seem to have released it as a swansong single when they split in 1979 (i.e. shortly before entering the period of steady productivity and comfortably sufficient success that has lasted until... ooh, now).

Anyway, Rubber Band. It’s extremely funny, and from the sound of it I’m fairly certain it’s a pisstake of the Beatles in their most vacuous “I’ve got a song about an octopus” mode. It jogs along to an ‘um-CHICK um-CHICK um-CHICK um-CHICK’ beat and it makes me cry with laughter. Also, the harmonies are fucking brilliant. There simply isn’t enough accomplished novelty folk-rock in this world. I may revisit that statement.

With this song I descend god-like into the modern age: I am using it to christen my spanking brand new iPod nano-thingy. I wasn’t convinced that iTunes would allow me to put Fairport Convention onto an iPod. “Dear wannabe acolyte of the Church of Apple: Unfortunately, your taste in music is far too crusty for our spanking brand new products. In the unlikely event that you somehow become fashionable, you may try again.” But I seem to have got away with it. Also, I knew the thing would do music and so on (obviously), but I didn’t know it would be fairly stuffed with gadgets and widgets and things to play on the bus. It appears to have all the benefits of a mobile phone without any concomitant and hideous risk of someone trying to talk to me.

Right, down to business. Podfic. What is there out there? Is it all SGA or is there anything for the crusties amongst us who think SGA is a new-fangled invention for the glittering kind of people smoothly at ease with spanking brand new techno-widgetry and NOT QUITE PROPER? Am I going to have to read out stuff to myself? Or can I make people do it for me? Ursula Le Guin has.

What else has been going on? I’ve accidently got to the end of January without reading any books written by men. Ha! That's one in the eye for patriarchy. I’ve booked for Eastercon. I’ve been having Thorts about the telly I’ve been watching (The Wire, The Kingdom, Torchwood), but the lure of the tiny shiny metal music maker is too strong and they will have to remain in my head a while longer. Aah! Here comes the chorus round again...

“I’m the leader of the rubber band
(we’re the members of the rubber band)
And it’s the finest band in all the land
(the best band in the land)
And isn’t it grand being the only band in the land
To play rubber bands...?”

um-CHICK um-CHICK um-CHICK um-CHICK...

Comments

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Those lyrics look as though they might be parodying "Alexander's Ragtime Band".

I'm crustier than you, as I don't even have the first idea of what SGA might stand for.

It appears to have all the benefits of a mobile phone without any concomitant and hideous risk of someone trying to talk to me.

LOL! That seems like a very reasonable attitude to take.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I bet you're right (I'd assumed a combination of Rubber Soul and Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

SGA = "Stargate Atlantis". I'm looking for readings of fanfiction, but I think that most of what there is out there is SGA, which seems to be one of the biggest fandoms out there... but not a show I follow.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks. I thought that the acronym was referring to some sort of media technology. Had I realised that it was referring to a show then on one of my better days I might have got it. :)

[muninnhuginn]

I have to say that, whilst loving the neatness of Looby Loo's Shuffle (not quite filled with the complete Northern Lights plus unabridged Stardust read by their respective authors), I'm beginning to loathe iTunes with a vengeance. Especially when it asks me if I want to download cover art, as if my hard disk isn't half full already, and I'm not sure what archived episodes of "In Our Time" provide: I think visually, at least, one can have too much of Melv.

I don't often recommend commercial ventures, but what you might want to check out for podfic is Audible. (Incidentally, it's where I got the free Shuffle, as I could all too easily queue up 18 months worth of stories without looking at the language tutors).

[communicator.livejournal.com]

I use audible a lot too

[muninnhuginn]

And now El Reg informs me that Amazon have bought it. I wonder if that's good or bad.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

I hope this somehow means I can access the breadth and low prices of the US audible.com, which they won't let me sign up to at the moment.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I've been tracking your progress with it and have my beady eye on it. What I'm really after is people reading fanfiction. Preferably my friends reading out favourite fanfiction, but I'll take anything right now.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I love the cover art! It's all so purty!

I've heard good things about Audible, thank you. What I'm really after is people reading their fanfiction.

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

If Apple can cope with me uploading that German prog-rock classic "Phallus Dei" by Amon Duul II, I'm sure it wouldn't bat an eyelid at Fairport Convention.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

A broad church, then, with room for us all. And I for one welcome our new iOverlords.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I’ve accidently got to the end of January without reading any books written by men. Ha! That's one in the eye for patriarchy.

I can't remember when I last read a book written by a man.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Go you! That's not so much one in the eye for patriarchy as whacking it in the stomach and legs with a shillelagh.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

So, you could post this song for us, or tell us where to get it....

[altariel.livejournal.com]

*thumps forehead* The original is on the Watersons record "Bright Phoebus". The one I've been listening to I have from a Fairport 35th anniversary boxset, but I think it's on "Encore, Encore" (and iTunes have it).

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Let me know if you have any difficulty finding it: umm10 AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk

[edge-of-ruin.livejournal.com]

Hee, looks as though it must be a piss take.

Welcome to iPod-dom! I'm checking every day to see whether Diplomatic Immunity is up on Audible yet (it's out on Blackstone audio but not downloadably). I've become completely addicted to audio books ...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Ooh, it would be interesting to hear that one read, as I never really got to grips with the book. I haven't started on the other ones yet, but I'm about to paint the kitchen (honestly! I really am! It's all packed up and everything!) so they're my plan for that.

[edge-of-ruin.livejournal.com]

Woh! Good luck with the kitchen! I'm looking forward to DI - I love hearing action sequences read aloud - when I read them myself I think my eye tends to slide over the details.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Exactly what I do with action scenes too.

I was thinking of doing some mp3s of some of my Tolkien fic: what do you think?

[edge-of-ruin.livejournal.com]

Oh yes! I think it would be absolutely fabulous! Please do give it a go! Do you have a mic with your iPod - I don't with my older style nano.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I have a mic for the laptop, and then I was going to bung them up on this archive.

What do you think I should do?

[edge-of-ruin.livejournal.com]

Oo that looks interesting! I had now idea this was going on. It's such a brilliant idea.

Where to start? Crumbs. How about Black Captain?

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Isn't it a brilliant idea? It's what swung the iPod for me.

Black Captain, hmm? I shall give it some thought...

[kendokamel.livejournal.com]

Sounds like something I should check out!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Well, I think it's a hoot :-)

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

a) This post made me laugh so much. Take that, Apple and patriarchy!

b) This is the biggest and most well-organized podfic archive that I know of, and it is multi-fandom. I think it's mostly SGA and SPN, but there are other fandoms too.

[ETA - welcome to iDom (*squints* wow, that is wrong and yet appropriate in so many ways), and thankyou so much for linking to the Ursula Le Guin!]

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Yay, I'm glad I made you laugh! (And look at me, almost keeping up to speed with LJ comments...)

That's exactly the archive I'm looking for, thank you! Do you think they would they welcome some Tolkien fic, if I growled it into a microphone? (I even have an Earthsea fic I could contribute.)

iDom

I kneel before my Appley gods.

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

I hope you and you iPod are at the start of a long and beautiful and crusty relationship.

I’ve accidently got to the end of January without reading any books written by men.

Most months I could say this too, but I think my reading of Making Money spilled over into January.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I think me and the iPod are turning out to be a match made in heaven.

It would be interesting to see if I do in fact go most months reading mostly stuff by women: for some reason I particularly noticed this month.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Hee! As my young nieces seem to have an affinity for crusty music, including folk of the sixties, I already know that iTunes accommodates even the most unfashionable taste--or perhaps that out is in again.

I still haven't succumbed to the iPod lure, having a "convergence device" that serves my needs and being, besides, rather allergic to music--though I did just order Pentangle's "Solomon's Seal" on CD for nostalgia's sake.

Authors reading their fic is a fantastic idea. I ran across some very short audio-fic somewhere not long ago, but it wasn't compelling enough for me to note where.

Meanwhile, Audible is a very good service that seems to suck up increasing proportions of my entertaintainment dollar, and I hope the acquisition by amazon will make their content more internationally available.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Your nieces seem incredibly cool, so my tastes must have inadvertently swung back into fashion again.

I followed your Clear Out lead yesterday, opened up my old silver trunk, and promptly threw out the entire contents. It was all stuff from my university days. I found that when I started, I'd put things aside, thinking, "Oh, I can't possibly throw that..." and then, as I got more reckless, everything started to go, and finally I was able to chuck the stuff I'd put aside at the start.

It cleared a couple of unhappy memories that I hadn't realized were still stashed in there, and I felt great as a result. So thank you.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

That's wonderful! I'm thrilled to have been the agent of change.

That feeling of recklessness is quite exhilarating and scary, isn't it?

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It was a fantastic feeling. I'd already woken up in a good mood, and it helped suffuse it through the rest of the day. I really am extremely grateful.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

I meant to mention, too, that your trunk-clearing reminded me of the scene at the beginning of The Deathly Hallows where Harry clears his school trunk completely for the first time in seven years. It seems very clearly intended to signal the start of his new life.

[kerravonsen]

One of the things that came out of the conference I've been going to all week is that one of the talks I went to on Monday, all about accessibility, made me wonder if I should read some of my fiction onto MP3 and put it on my site. Now you've given me another reason: I might actually have an audience of one!

Well, provided you actually want to listen to my fic, that is.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, yes! This is exactly what I want! My friends' voices reading either their own fic, or else fic by others that they love. toft_froggy upthread linked to this archive, but it seems to be Tolkien and B7 lite.

Accessibility is an excellent point.

[the-wild-iris.livejournal.com]

Oh, please don't anyone start recording their stories on to MP3 to make them accessible :). As long as a Web page is properly coded - with text equivalents for non-text content, and content marked up according to its semantic meaning - a blind reader's software can convert it straight into audio.

[ladybarnard.livejournal.com]

Fairport Convention did a version of the song that spawned my LJ name, "Mattie Groves." It's also known as, "Little Musgrave and the Lady Barnard."

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I know "Mattie Groves" well, but I didn't know it had that variant name :-)

[metamorphosa.livejournal.com]

Hurrah for iPod Nano-dom! I *love* mine, yet so far all I've done is upload CDs. NOW I'm going to have to find time to play... :)

(also, yay for Orbital).

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Yes, finding time! I've been using it on the bus and in between teaching.