OK - it's time to take things into our own hands. The RR blog is now open again for comments - here. Now where were we ...
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Welcome to The 'Spill!
An open-to-all music blog which originated from the Guardian Readers Recommend community.
Mp3s are for sampling purposes only, and are kept up for a short time only. Mail us if any need to be removed.
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2009
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January
(88)
- Luck of the Steenbeck
- 13
- Lucky ?
- Chips With Everything
- Gremlinfc's adventures in Celluloid
- Make your own luck
- Lucky me
- Winners & Losers
- The Future Of Music and The Internet (and a wee quiz)
- John Martyn (1948-2009)
- Images from tincanland
- Tonight You Belong To Me
- Lippy
- Veggie Haggis!!
- The Return Of The Other Guy From Arab Strap
- Return of Gremlinfc...with a bite!
- What Steenbeck heard on the way to the...
- Talking of haggis...
- Awoo!
- Soul Music
- Spirits Up Above
- "I am not ready!"
- VNV Nation - Beloved
- oooooooooooooooowwwwww
- Have you seen the ghostly playlist?
- Approaching fifty with fridge magnets
- 'Cos You Dance To Disco And You Don't Like Rock...
- Ghost in the Machine
- Boo
- Be my ghost
- The President And The Captain
- Gigs notifications
- The Twelve Tasks of ToffeeBoy - #1 Microdisney
- Long Black Veil - who knew?
- Martin Luther King Day
- Not The Readers Recommend Blog
- Peenie Wallie
- For debbym
- When Love Is A Four Letter Word
- More Songs of Love & Hate
- If you don't have love a dondle will do
- Love is Blue
- B-Mac vrs mc sane
- Don't talk to me about love - FP's unlovely playlist
- The ultimate 70s prog mondegreen
- No I don't want to love you
- The Last Poets - Hip Hop Pioneers?
- 4 Shoey et all: Beating the winter blues
- 2008 - The Leftovers & Overlooked
- Starting a Forest Fire
- The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
- Liberdade- Edição Brasileira
- Freedom Road
- Hippo shoots penguin
- Freemocracy
- Latitude is an Attitude
- Winter Home Disco - The Pictish Trail
- Freedom Rider
- Welcome To Liberty City
- Stay Free
- Ye noble hippies all
- Songs of Freedom
- Spill is ONE
- It's a Mythtery
- Fela/sample
- Belated birthday greetings
- One For Steenbeck
- Quest for Oneness
- Happy Birthday 'Spill
- RIP Ron Asheton
- Be Still My Beating Heart pt II
- I was hoping for a new Mac Mini to be announced to...
- ONE year on..
- A Guilty First Anniversary!
- For ToffeeBoy...
- SOME FAVOURITE THINGS
- The Overs - At Long Last, The Result!
- Myths & Legends
- "Put a Donk on It"'s country cousin
- Near Myth.
- myth! myth!
- Happy Birthdays!
- Mythical Legends
- Local myths and legends - The Lambton Worm
- Escaping the cold.
- An Awards Update
- Three Perky New Year's Day Tunes
- Noyse Annoize
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January
(88)
Scottish BaMS Network
- ....
- Abahachi
- AliMunday
- BalearicBeat
- BeltwayBandit
- Blimpy
- BloodyParadise
- Brian Speng
- CB
- Carole
- Catcher
- DR
- Dangerpuss
- DarceysDad
- Dominia
- Exodus
- Fintan28
- GarethI
- Makinavaja
- Marconius7
- May1366
- Mnemonic
- Noodsy
- Proudfoot
- Sarah G
- SatanKidneyPie
- ShariVari
- ShivSidecar
- Shoegazer
- SkippyisaCult
- SwiftyBoy
- TatankaYotanka
- TatankaYotanka
- Tempusfugit
- Tim (Kalyr)
- ToffeeBoy
- TonNL
- TracyK
- Zephirine
- barbryn
- bishbosh
- cauliflower
- d33pf1x
- debbym
- ejaydee
- el derino
- fourfoot
- glasshalfempty
- goneforeign
- gordonimmel
- gremlinfc
- junks
- magicman
- nilpferd
- rwrrwr
- saneshane
- scarymonster
- severin
- snadfrod
- sourpus
- steenbeck
- swissphil
- tarxien
- tincanman
- tincanman2010
- treefrogdemon
Donds? Dondling? A Dondle?
The Greatest (Music Lists) Book Ever Written!
How to..
Not sure about the computery stuff involved in posting?
78 comments:
Funny, I was thinking of doing this.. not that I had anything to add to the thread except belated birthday wishes for Debbym..
However, I did come across a track which would have been good for last week's topic- Irving Berlin's No Strings, sung by Ella Fitzgerald..
I'm fancy free, and free for anything fancy..
http://www.lastfm.de/music/Ella+Fitzgerald/_/No+Strings+(I%27m+Fancy+Free)
And I just turned the machine on to check my email - but the Provider won't provide, so I popped over here to see what's going down.
Unbelievably, up until a birthday or two ago, I was the kind of gal who cringed, blushing ferociously, in the corner whenever guests burst into "Happy Birthday" to me... I've REALLY enjoyed reading all your greetings & clips - THANKS, MERCI, DANKE SCHÖN, KIITOS (sorry, don't know the Welsh). Had the Mothership still been soaring, I would have posted an apology for having hijacked the thread for my own nefarious means; so I'll just have to do it here instead. I do think RR is the only place I could've got away with this!
@ nilpferd - but then do any of us ever have anything important to say over there - or over here for that matter?
@ debbym - virtual birthdays are fun aren't they?
The Welsh is 'diolch yn fawr'. It's one of about five phrases I learnt when I worked in the depths of Ceredigion for a year; I was assured by the departmental administrator that all I needed to know was the Welsh for (sorry, can't spell any of it): 'Would you like a cup of tea?' 'I'm just going down to town, can I get you anything?' and 'Sorry, I can't speak Welsh.' I was expressly not told how to say 'Could you get me a cup of tea?' Said departmental administrator is now Mrs Abahachi, and despite now having lots of Welsh in-laws I haven't got any further with what is, after all, the language from Hell. But I can sing the national anthem for next time we beat the All Blacks.
Hey, how did Ed get a comment onto the RR blog AFTER they closed it??
Just thought I'd register support for your alternate RR. I don't have anything profound to say, but that's never stopped me posting on the official RR either.
It would have been a tragedy to lose all these great recommendations. (Happy Birthday Debby).
I agree Shoey. And while it is after deadline, I hope Maddy will still consider a worthy suggestion because that whatcimacallit song by whatsisname is awesome (other than the drum solo, which I felt was a little extraneous)
I'd also like to dond the fifth song down from the left.
DsD: I suspect he had the comment window open and didn't actually press the post button until later, as that's what I did (accidentally) last week.
So, to keep the thing going longer than The Man wants next week, just before noon everyone should open the blog in several tabs and open the comment box in each. Then post them one at a time over the rest of the day or even week..... Or not.
I'll transfer this comment to here, and delete my own post (cos I can, see).
Grrrrrrr! There I was about to clamber out onto the freezing wing, and some Brrrrrr Steward's closed the emergency door behind them. Was only going to say to D'sD, glad to be of service to the keyboard hygiene industry.
Gotta disagree with TCM, the version by whatsisname is FAR inferior to the original 7/8 time version by Thingumijig (BlueNode Records, 79RPM, 1946½).
And, of course, the comment with it....
DarceysDad said...
Thank YOU for this week's funniest punning title, SIAC.
Now hold your breath, clamber down under the fuselage, and I'll let you back in the undercarriage door ... I've seen 'em do it in the movies, so it can't be that hard, right?!
@ skippy
whatsisname is better live though.
(Mind, Thingumijig died 20 years ago, so it's not hard to outdo)
[Sniff] My bruver was in Thingumijig [Sniff]. Fancy, the whole 25 piece band (the nose flute player CoughCandy, who'd just turned down a gig with the ISB (and the IMG and WWF)) being snuffed out by an RRPG during their world tour (Greenland leg, Thule, all-nighter).
awww Skipman, I'm so sorry to dredge up sad memories.
Speaking of which, did they manage to find the bodies?
Is that the famous crash where the Big Bopper crashed into Lynyrd Skynrd's plan and both fell on Janis?
With Mama Cass sandwiched....?
The Big Bopper = the Whopper = the Mama Cass sandwich ... all depends where in the U.S. you live.
@ skippy - sorry, didn't mean to hijack your post - just thought it would work best if it was all in one obvious place. Welcome (back) onboard - even if the plane is sinking fast...
@ everyone else (and skippy!) - you see, this is why the world needs the RR blog to stay open! Where else can you read such mindless drivel and such joyful nonsense? Loving it - keep 'em coming...
Time to settle in with Mrs Tin and watch some TV, so will pretend to be outraged by the next comment and ignore everybody.
That's exactly what happened Chris, I wish I'd known they had closed the comments.
Oh good, cos I was gonna follow up on my Stars recommendation but didn't have a chance to get to it.
HAPPY B'DAY DEBBYM - I can't remember if I've said it thus far!!
Here's an update:
http://www.deceptikons.com/article.asp?file=253.xml
Has anybody mentioned "Africa" by Toto yet? - it's underrated. My two penn'orth.
My favourite anti-love lyric is Catatonia's "And as for some happy ending/I'd rather stay single and thin"from Mulder and Scully. It's oh-so-true, and it has a Welsh connection. Croeso to Debby.
Abahachi, I lived in Aberystwyth for 7 years, worked a year and a half of that in a very local cafe (interestingly -or not- owned by Chris' Moyles' producer Aled's parents. I was the person Aled chose to come out to, yet he doesn't seem to mind that twot Moyles using the word 'gay' as a synonym for rubbish. Hmm.)In that whole time the only Welsh I could get my head round was "Bacon roll with red sauce" and "Tea with/without milk". So so proud!
To lose one Readers Recommend may be regarded as misfortune ... to lose two looks like carelessness ... or worse.
Toffeeboy - The Spill's rapid response unit.
It was interesting, last week, that when I asked them to correct their mistake and reopen the comments (which I maintain is possible, cause they did it with Clip Joint) their response was that it wasn't a mistake. So either it's a new policy to close comments at noon, or they have someone new there who doesn't realize they stay open. I still have Alan Evans' e-mail, but I don't want to annoy anyone.
We should all open a comments box at 11:55 next Monday (Or 6:55 if we happen to be here) and then post at various moments throughout the day. That'd confuse them.
It should also have occurred to them that it is incredibly stupid having RR listed on their front page as the most-commented on culture blog, come and join the conversation, and anyone who takes up the offer will find that actually they can't. It's still there, 9 hours after lock-down and counting...
Maybe they're trying to get the RR crew to contribute to other blogs on the site in order to up the signal to noise ratio. God knows it needs it...
Happy birthday Debbym. The brand new sparkling RR completely refuses to load on my folks' computer so the day passed me by.
My theory is that someone at GU Central has either got it into their head, or had it put into their performance goals for the year, to shut the blog on time.
Aaah Rich, I hope your team isn't planning on doing an Arsenal c. 2007/2008, if it's not us, it has to be you.
steenbeck
I don't maind annoying anyone - we all do what we're best at, huh? - if you want to pass on that email.
Then again your BO is supposed to have given you hope and courage and all that.
@ steenbeck
Ooops, sorry ... to clarify, by 'you' I meant 'you Americans'
@ steenbeck
Ooops, sorry ... to clarify, by 'BO' I meant 'B.O.', as in your new prez.
Didn't mean to insinuate that you smell.
@ steenbeck
Ooops, sorry ... in case you do smell. I mean, some people do. Doesn't matter; you're still welcome at RR.
beauty of the internet innit? Who bothers to wash or shave anymore?
OK, I've revelaed more than I shoulda.
nite all
@Tincanman - some of us still get out to gigs :)
Saying that, all this recent talk of first gigs (and how many of us were getting rained on at Knebworth in 1985) makes me wonder if we should have some form of RR gig diary, and arrange some meetups where more than one of us is going to the same gig.
I only realised I'd missed Jforbes at the Fish gig in London back in November after the gig.
Nice idea Tim, not that I'll contribute much, obviously!!
But hang on! Correct me if I'm wrong, but we now provide shared music, a social network, recipes, parental experience support, a virtual bar, future dating service, online history lessons, website reviews, obituaries, wildlife photography, etc., etc., etc ...
I say move over FaceBook, eat our dust FriendsReunited - what we have here, people, is the next Internet phenomenon. Quick, draw up the contracts for founders shares: this time next year, Rodders, we'll all be millionaires!!!
@Darce - all we now need is a catchy slogan, and we'll be quids in.
"The 'Spill - xxxxxx xxxx xx xxx xxxxxxxx since 2008"
enough xxx xxx xxx should increase traffic
The Spill post entitled "Jimi Hendrix Sex Tape Anyone?" is still one of our consistently most viewed pages after all.
Ning. Create your own social network for anything. An online service to create, customize, and share a social network.
www.ning.com/
@Kalyr: actually I'd been considering a boycott of other Grauniad music blogs on the basis that gratuitous abuse of regular contributors shouldn't go unpunished. Not to mention the continuing latitude they give to Swells and McGee to post complete bollocks just in order to provoke people; I end up missing the reasonably sane and interesting discussions because I'm steering cleer of the rubbish. Not to mention the potentially interesting debates that almost immediately become a game of naming one's favourite album...
Perhaps we should post there occasionally, and just include a link to the Spill, where the discussion is so much more sophisticated, open-minded and friendly.
Hey, you guys at The Guardian need to stop moving your blogs around LOL!! I signed up to contribute to Readers Recommend and then got told it had moved over here - WTF!?!?
It's cool - good to know the discussion doesn't just stop dead when it's just got going but judging by the rest of the blogs on this part of GU, it must be a slooooow news day at Guardian Towers.
Thing is - I know this might seem to re-hash the "Boycott RR" debate from the Great Re-Design Controversy, but if they're happy for us to drift over here as a matter of course every Monday, what's to stop us finding out the theme this Thursday night/Friday morning and then coming straight here to do the whole discussion?
Of course, it wouldn't be the whole discussion because we're only a proportion of the RR massive but if emailing moderators and discussing the matter at length both here last week and in the mothership over the weekend hasn't encouraged whoever's closed the blog to either take notice and correct the mistake (if it's a mistake) or change the new policy (if it's a policy), then how much is the traffic we provide really worth to them?
Damn - I was only going to float this as a discussion point, not a call to arms, but I think I've talked myself into it....
Oh, and a late Happy Birthday, debbym!
I have to say that I reluctantly agree with May. Whilst I saw last week's noonMon shutdown, it was only as an observer. This week it feels like someone has been downright bloody rude and slammed a door in my face.
Give us Alan's email addres, steen, I would like to mail him my opinion (politely and thoughtfully, I promise)!
Two quick thoughts while I wait for my disorganised 'boss' to achieve a state of coherence: Regarding the gigs/meeting thing, why not use out last.fm group and last's gig postings to leave each other 'shouts'? And why don't we - each Monday - set a theme to which only Guardian staff can make recommendations?
... or even his email address ...
D'oh!
;o}
May, I was just mentally composing an identical post. I think he Guardian's attitude insults us. I can understand why they couldn't do much about the redesign because that affected the whole site, not just us, but closing the blog early is a deliberate slap in the face. They don't value us as contributors.
Hello everyone, sorry it's taken me a while to come over here with this but: I emailed the desk yesterday to ask whether there is now a new policy to close the blog early, and a debate is occuring as to whether or not "deadline midday Monday" should be a more literal "comments close midday Monday". I haven't heard back yet what the decision is, but have pointed out that RR regulars are very keen for comments to stay open, and also indicated the value of you visiting RR through the week in terms of potential visits to other pages on the music blog. I'll keep you posted...
Maddy, you could perhaps point out that they won't just be losing our traffic from Monday onwards; they will be losing us altogether.
Whilst I do love witnessing RRers manning the barricades, I can't help feeling there's a small perspective problem here.
RR is a Guardian column. The blog is a means of gathering nominations for Maddy to produce her excellent lists. If 'Spillers don't post there, the only noms for the column will come from those who do post there.
The 'Spill is a great forum for tangents and background material but it isn't the main thing for the column's purposes, is it?
It looks like the default setting for keeping a Guardian blog open is seven days. Last week's comments about closing early seemed to centre on someone not setting a flag to say 'keep this open'. As it used to happen without fuss every week, surely it just needs a little concentration in this one area to make the world better again.
Look folks, the New Age starts today. Can we work together and not stand apart? Yes, we can.
@ Chris - agreed 100%. I didn't create this post as an act of defiance, but rather as a simple means of keeping the conversation going while the Grauniad staff sort themselves out.
I too am in the non-boycott camp, but what is really astonishing - and suggests cock-up rather than conspiracy to my mind - is the fact that RR is still up there on the GU front page. Quite apart from us, how many casual browsers are they pissing off because they click on the link and then discover that they can't join in?
Chris, the UN are on the phone for you ... apparently the Secretary General's job is coming up again.
DsCD: I'm up for that. Just seeing how a few bloggers can gear up for war just because someone didn't use the right computer flag really whets my appetite for conflict in the real world with real flags!
As far as I can see from Maddy's post, this is under discussion as a policy decision on the Guardian's part without involving or notifying Maddy. It's not a question of not using the right computer flag. That might happen one week but not two in a row. And I'm not gearing up for war, just a very civilised boycott.
Shall we run this up the flagpole and see which way it flies?
I wonder if flags fly in the other direction in the southern hemisphere?
in seriousness, my question to the RR policy debate is, what's the harm in leaving it open past Monday? Maddy is clear she doesn't consider nominations past Monday noon, so it's not like a TV vote scandal or anything, no one has to chop down more trees for paper to print them on, and its not like we're less likely to purchase a paper because we are posting there.
So staff's debate should be on why it needs to be closed, not on why it needs to be left open.
Hello, everyone! Happy Inauguration day. Byebye Bush.
I personally would be sorry if we have to boycott, for selfish reasons, I suppose--because I look forward to RR so much every week, and because Maddy's likely to take quite a long break soon, and I don't want to mess up her last few weeks before that.
I also feel a little strange giving out an e-mail, but what I did to get their attention was either
a) report myself, by clicking on the "report abuse" buttons on one of my comments, and then saying, "This is Steenbeck, I'm not actually reporting myself, but I do have some concerns..."
b)at the end of maddy's column, but before the hated google ads, there are a number of little icons. The little blue "g" is to contact the guardian, click on that and off you go.
I don't know which one worked, because I did both in quick succession. So we could all try those things, just so as they're debating this, they know how much we care.
@Abahachi:
Agree 100% - the Guardian Music Blog definitely seems to be going downhill. There are too many stupid articles and even stupider comments, far too high a proportion of which are no more than school playground type abuse.
For the rest of you, this comment thread is precisely what Abahachi is talking about. Tesswood's deleted comment was relatively mild - something about journalists being paid to say nasty things about people and dishing it out without being able to take it. And look at the abuse directed at me which the moderators mostly ignored.
BTW, Abahachi - if you look at the "show all posts by this poster" function, Tesswood is a reasonably sensible if infrequent commenter. "avathecat" is just pond-scum, though; something like two-thirds of his posts are abuse directed at other posters, with no actual content or arguments.
I really wonder why I bother, sometimes.
The GU music blog commenters went rotten in my opinion a healthy number of months back, which is why i stopped participating (for the most part) - RR seemed to be the only haven from the trolling and personal attacks and the endless stream of idiots who post up the "this article is stupid" comments (why bother?!).
It kinda reminds me of this, but not quite as sweet:
How many forum members does it take to change a light bulb?
One to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed.
Fourteen to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently.
Seven to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs.
Seven more to point out spelling/grammatical errors in posts about changing light bulbs.
Five to flame the spell checkers.
Three to correct spelling/grammar flames.
Six to argue over whether it's "lightbulb" or "light bulb" ... another six to condemn those six as stupid.
Fifteen to claim experience in the lighting industry and give the correct spelling.
Nineteen to post that this group is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a lightbulb (or light bulb) forum.
Eleven to defend the posting to the group saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant to this group.
Thirty six to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this technique and what brands are faulty
Seven to post URLs where one can see examples of different light bulbs.
Four to post that the URLs were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected URL.
Three to post about links they found from the URLs that are relevant to this group which makes light bulbs relevant to this group.
Thirteen to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including all headers and signatures, and add "Me too"
Five to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy.
Four to say "didn't we go through this already a short time ago?"
Thirteen to say "do a Google search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs"
Three to tell a funny story about their show dog and a light bulb.
One to reply almost immediately saying "First Post !!!!!!"
One to post an ASCII image of the lightbulb.
Three to ask "Wtf is that" because their clients didn't display it as fixed-width.
Seventeen to reply saying that their e-mail client is inadequate and suggest they get Mutt.
One to reply with a perfectly labelled scale diagram of how to change a light bulb correctly.
Thirty-three to reply telling them not to send HTML e-mails or attachments, and why don't they just use Mutt and ASCII art anyway.
Two to ask "but does it run Linux ?".
One to make a comment about the upcoming Microsoft Digital Lightbulb Management 2007 SP2 RGE.
Two to suggest that Apple lightbulbs are superior.
Seventy-five to start a massive off-topic Apple vs Microsoft flamewar.
Forty-two to continue it into a Python vs Perl flamewar.
One lonely poster to unsuccessfully try to start a HP-UX vs IRIX flamewar
One hundred and seventy-eight to respond at various times saying
"Troll!!"
"OMG WTF TROLL !!!!!!one
LOL" "Don't Feed Da Troll!!1", etc...
AND
One group lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again
Also, the last time I looked, trolls were being horrible towards jasonaparkes and kalyr - which is bang out of order.
The only thing Teh Spill has had to put up with is Anonymous ("You loosers, you can't even do a blog") and the satanic Speng!
Oh, and DMCA hassle.
Oh, and the Web Sheriff.
@ blimpy (whoever you are) this isn't the blog for light bulbs...
To be fair I did call Tim Jonze a "Toxic Little Squit".
Don't want to be accused of dishing it out without being able to take it, do I?
Bloody hell Blimpy, that's a bit close to home!
Incidentally... We all know what a troll is, but is there a term for someone who makes generally reasonable points but in an unnecessarily aggressive, if-you-disagree-you're-clearly-an-idiot manner? An ogre?
Aba: isn't that what we used to call a geldof before t'interthing?
We could call it a Gallagher .. oh, wait, sorry, my bad - you said thatbehind the bluster there must be a reasonaable point.
what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what.
Skippy, have you turned into Neddy Seagoon?
Indeed - It's a 60 what post
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
finally it worked, but all that's left are empty paper cups and the lees of the wine, punchbowl empty, crisps finished somebody put their fag out in the catfood. Cah !
but thanks Blimpy it was all my fault
@magicman - we got there in the end!! welcome aboard; the spill is never closed for comments. look forward to your first post!!
@ magicman - Welcome to the biggest cause of sleep deprivation this side of colicky babies!!
;o)
Looking forward to your contributions.
ditto on the welcomes, magicola
Outstanding to see you over here, magicman.
Wowl, this idea of somewhere to post after The Gruniad shuts it's doors really took off. Perhaps someone should create some kind of ongoing "Overflow" blog?
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