The Great Vinyl Adventure - Update + Misc

Hello again, my ever so faithful readers; how are you this wonderful holiday weekend? I'm fine, thanks for asking. Well, you might be hoping I'd have picked and listened to my first record by now, but I'm sorry to say I haven't been able to. "But Ian," you say, "you promised you would listen to a record this weekend!" I know, I know, my humblest apologies; but in my defense, I have a legitimate excuse! As I was setting up my dad's old record player, I discovered the ancient beast's needle was broken. Alas, my father had no replacements buried anywhere, so I had to drop $20 to buy a new one off Ebay. This unfortunate setback will last until sometime this week, probably Wednesday, and then I promise (again) I will listen to a record and let you know just what I think of it. My apologies.

But even though I don't have any real articles to speak of, I do have some tidbits I'd like to share with you, a weekly roundup (roundup always makes me think of weeds sadly), if you will.

Article of the week:
Stephen Hawking: The Planet Has Entered a New Phase of Evolution

Song(s) of the Week:

Perfect summer song, makes me wanna visit Jamaica.


I can't wait for them at Street Scene. Gahhh.

Look of the Week:
Lookbook

Random Thought of the Week:
I need to reread Harry Potter 6/7:
6 was amazing if I remember correctly and I need to read it before the new movie comes out! (dunno why I'm excited for that, they're mostly disappointments)
And 7 because I don't really remember much of it, other than it was kind of a disappointment.

Well now that concludes today's ramblings, till next time!

The Great Vinyl Adventure

You thought I wouldn't post again didn't you? Hah! Seems I've proved you wrong. Well here it is, my first real feature, "The Great Vinyl Adventure"! What is it you ask? Well let me take you back, back to yesterday...

My parents have always had a great taste in music, my dad was, and still is, a hard rock nut and is proud to have been to dozens of Led Zeppelin, Cream and Moody Blues concerts. My mum on the other hand is a little more singer-songwriterish; Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel etc. As a result, I've been raised on some pretty classy music. Over the years, I had heard about my parents "vinyl stash", but I had never had the gumbo to go digging for it. Enter summer boredom. Yesterday, after my second round of Cops reruns (I find it ironic how addicting that show is), I decided to find this mythical "stash". After about an hour of huffing and puffing I finally pulled out a beaten up cardboard box labeled "Vinyl". Hurrah! Inside were hundreds of vinyl records (no wai!) just ready for listening. After some dusting off and decision-making I picked 23 albums to listen to over the summer. In my infinite wisdom I thought, "Goodness wouldn't it be nice to share my experiences with my humble reader(s)?" And thus, "The Great Vinyl Adventure" was born!

So, each week whenever I feel like it, I'll share my thoughts with you about each one of these (mostly) classic albums and whether it sounds any better than the versions you can buy online. I'll probably start listening to one tomorrow, any suggestions on which album to start with? Here's the list of the 23 albums I picked:

Abbey Road - Beatles
Back in Black - AC/DC
Imagine - John Lennon
Graceland - Paul Simon
Led Zeppelin I - Led Zeppelin
Live (Killers) - Queen
The Best of Bread - Bread
Don McLean - Don McLean
The Song Remains the Same - Led Zeppelin
The Wall - Pink Floyd
Heartbreak City - The Cars
Beck, Bogert & Appice - Beck, Bogert & Appice
One Trick Pony - Paul Simon
Rio - Duran Duran
Friend or Foe - Adam Ant
Days of Future Passed - The Moody Blues
Presence - Led Zeppelin
Freeze Frame - The J. Geils Band
Built For Speed - Stray Cats
Led Zeppelin II - Led Zeppelin
Business as Usual - Men at Work
Tea for the Tillerman - Cat Stevens
Greatest Hits - Queen (I had actual albums but they were still sealed so no go)

Till next time!