I bet most of you haven't even noticed I've been away from LJ, have you? Ho hum.

Ah well, I'm back, anyway. I realised the other day that I've neglected LJ for a good few months now. There's no one reason why, I just haven't really wanted to comment much on anything, really. Being unemployed will do that to you. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I lost my job. Like so many, I'm a victim of the credit crunch. Go me!

I sadly lost my dog on Christmas Day, too. He was very ill, with various ailments, so I had to make the very sad and heart wrenching decision to let him pass. Typical of him to go on a major holiday, though. Attention whore til the bitter end that he was. I miss him.

In better news, the Transformers and t-shirt collection grows. My quite wonderful girl is helping with this, and ensuring my geekdom blossoms and flourishes. She really is the greatest, and that's no lie.

And of course, I'm still youtubing. I think I may start posting the vids back up on here, unless anyone really objects.

I think that brings everyone up to date, pretty much. Any questions?

A milestone for me, pretty much. 100 vids on Youtube - and people are still watching!

You could knock me down with a feather.

So to celebrate - MONTAGE!

Sometimes it's funny, the things that completely surprise the hell out of us when we're least expecting it.

I'm currently experiencing a bit of an 'I'm going to try new things' kick. In an attempt to broaden my horizons (which I feel are incredibly narrow) I'm watching, reading and listening to things I've not done, or even had any interest in doing. I reckon it'll be good for me. Change is usually anathema to me, it's far safer and easier to stay within my comfort zone.

However, I'm determined. And shakenstatichas been a rock, encouraging me subtly, and supporting by suggesting. Now, she didn't directly suggest this, but I know she's a fan, so when I saw two Depeche Mode albums for good prices at HMV last week, I decided to take a chanceand get them. And because I know I'm a 'kin procrastiating git, I asked her if she would listen to it with me, for support, and if I needed to ask any n00bish questions about the music. She very kindly agreed, because well, she's ace like that.

We decided to do this on the Saturday (I could stay up late so that the time difference wouldn't be such a bitch), so I had a little time to read up on the internet about DM and the album (we'd decided on Violator), and to my surprise, I found myself liking what I read. See, I grew up in a very vanilla, conservative household, any talk about 'alternative' subjects such as sex, drug use, LGBT areas and that kind of thing was totally discouraged. It's a wonder I grew up as liberal as I am. And even then I still get twitches of prudity, I won't lie; love scenes in movies scare the crap out of me, and other such silly, prudish things embarrass me. It's stupid; I'm way more liberal than I give myself credit for, but sometimes I shy away from certain subjects for no good reason. Silly, really.

Anyway, the point is I was led to believe that DM were 'dangerous', and 'dirty'. That at least was not a lie. But it wasn't a bad thing. More on that, later.

Flash forward to Saturday night; myself and shakenstatic both on messenger, getting ready to pop my Violator cherry. (oo-er) I admitted I was scared. She admitted she was scared for me.

We both pressed 'play'.

What happened over the next hour was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. We listened. We talked. Awkwardly at first, unsure of what to say or whether we even should. But then the floodgates opened, and ideas and comments and superlatives came forth in a torrent, as we talked and talked, listening to the music. Which I loved, by the way. Remember when I said that DM were 'dangerous' and 'dirty'? Well they are. They're also haunting, and beautiful, sad, yet hopeful. Martin L Gore's words and music struck an immediate chord with me. And that's totally not happened for a while.

This was made all the more spectacular by the fact that shakenstatic was there with me. See, she may have been in Iowa, and I was in Lincolnshire, but after a while it just seemed as if she was right next to me, fingers intertwined in mine, hips just touching.

After the album finished, there was only one thing to do. Listen again. So we did, and talked. And opened up to one another some more, telling each other things that we'd never told anyone. Quite amazing, really.

If anyone ever tells you that music isn't worth anything, don't believe them. For the longest time after I'd split with my ex-wife (who hated music - she's a Dido fan) I thought like that, and barely listened to good music, or stuff I wasn't familiar with. That's going to change. And for myself and shakenstatic, this means many more nights together, listening to music with no distractions but ourselves, letting the music move and wash over us, allowing us to fall in love with it, and each other, all over again.

It was the 70th anniversary of the Second World War yesterday, and to mark it, I'm posting one of my favourite ever poems, written by Wilred Owen on the 8th of October, 1917. It's just a shame that many people don't seem to have learnt anything since then.

DULCE ET DECORUM EST

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, 
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, 
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs 
And towards our distant rest began to trudge. 
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots 
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; 
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! –  An ecstasy of fumbling, 
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; 
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, 
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . . 
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, 
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. 
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, 
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. 

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace 
Behind the wagon that we flung him in, 
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, 
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; 
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood 
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, 
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, 
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory, 
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est 
Pro patria mori.

 

...Do I ever fail at life.

Meh.

I know, I know. I'm a dork. XD

...until Auto Assembly!

*squee*

I'm fed up.

...and you can listen to it here.

nrrrdsphere.livejournal.com

Happy Independence Day for tomorrow, US peeps.

In 1990, a BBC survey revealed that the public regarded the 'TWO' ident as 'dull, but worthy'. This flew in the face of what the incumbent BBC2 controller, Alan Yentob, was going for. Something had to change. And so, advertising firm Lambie-Nairn were drafted in to do a complete revamp of the station's identity. Lambie-Nairn, after all, had a great pedigree. It had been them who, in 1982, had created the successful Channel Four idents. This was however a bold move for the Beeb. Up until then, station idents had been created in-house, this was (at least to my knowledge, anyway) the first time an outside agency had been called in. It was a risk, but oh my, how it paid off.

On 16th February, 1991 (I feel oh so very old) the new BBC2 channel identity aired for the first time. And it was a dramatic, astounding change. 'TWO' was gone, and in it's place, a simple, clean-cut, sans serif figure '2'. And instead of just the one ident, a 'pack' of 11 separate idents had been created. some to match certain genres of programming, and some because, well, they just looked great. And they were very lovely indeed. Lambie-Nairn had done it again; creadted a cohesive, recognisable channel identity that immediately catches the eye, and gets into your brain. My personal favourite was always 'Shadow' - no computer trickery, just a shadow of a '2', rotated and filmed. Genius in it's simplicity.

So successful were the new idents, that by 1997, six of them were still in constant use (sadly 'Shadow' was not amongst them). By 1998, seven years after the originals had first aired, a whopping 12 more had been added. Here's the best of the best from the collection:


And that wasn't all. For various theme nights, there were different idents:

Red Dwarf


Doctor Who


Animal Zone


Overall, the impact of these idents on the channel itself cannot be stressed enough. BBC2 was now a confident, entertaining channel, able to mix US imports with homegrown comedy, arts programmes with nature documentaries, history with sport. It truly was a golden age, looking back. It just underlines the point that with a strong, corporate identity, anything is possible.

In 2001, the viridian '2' was put out to pasture by Jane Root, the new controller (and one of the people most criticised for the gradul perceived 'dumbing down' of the station). What was to come next, people wondered. The answer was, something pretty similar. But this time, more yellow...