Technology

I have always liked technology and up to a point considered myself something of a geek, compared to my like minded friends. Remember VHS & Betamax, well I understood the basics, Betamax was better quality but VHS was more popular so the rest, as they say is history. Then it moved on apace and as always America was at the forefront, except for things like mobile/cell phones and satellite TV. In every other aspect America lead the way but then a funny thing happened.

The likes of Commodore, Atari, Radio Shack and T.I.  were trailblazers in the early computer craze the UK was quietly having its own revolutions, lead by one Sir Clive Sinclair with his ZX and ZX Spectrum, computers were now in the mainstream, especially when the BBC got involved. And I kept up with it all, although my programming ability only stretched as far as Atari Basic. Things were gathering pace, whereas America had its cable TV with many channels we on this side of the Atlantic had basically 4 channels then satellite appeared.

It had been there for a while but at last it became mainstream and for me especially it was a revolution. I was getting channels from the Continent, Holland, Germany, France, Belgium, and others, not just the normal diet of BBC/ITV, News, music, drama and yes some stuff that was not mainstream, it was an eye opener. I use to go on about this new world out there TV wise but all I got was blank stares, I could watch football/soccer in Germany I could watch pop concerts in Holland it was amazing stuff, but lost on my friends.

And of course the march of technology was gaining pace, mobile/cell phones were available, not the brick like phones of the Wall Street film fame but small enough to fit in a pocket which again was like a breath of fresh air. You didn’t have to look for a phone box just use your own personal phone box, but charges were steep at first. And as we moved on video tape gave way to disc and all the time the computer was evolving. Desktops took off, millions of them were sold we all could surf this WWW look up things, send electronic mail in an instance, get updates, all heady stuff.

But just lately I have regressed, I can’t keep up, the pace is going too fast for me, we now have social networks, where everything is instant, and updated for everyone to see and the young people have took it too their hearts and that is where I have now realized one thing I never thought would happen, I can’t keep up. I still read tech stuff and it begins to frighten me in a way as its took a path I could never imagine. People seem to relish publishing everything about their lives for all to read, although privacy rules are suppose to be in place.

Apps have taken over, the mobile/cell phone is everywhere and a lot more powerful beast to the first one I owned and computers have changed. We are in the era of portable and portable means a phone or pad computer, Wi Fi …….. 3G/4G …. all sorts of stuff that is getting ever more complex and the thing that has really hit home is watching my grandchildren with all this. To me its amazing, to them, who have grown up with all this, it is part of life, they don’t know any difference so all the gadgets that make me stand and stare with awe is just a normal progression to them.

They are 15 and 11 respectively and have a computer, desktop, a laptop, mobile/cellphone, a Kindle/Sony reader, Xbox, Sony Playstation, Nintendo Wii,  NDS ( is that right?) flat screen TV’s in their bedrooms a  50inch plasma TV in the main living room with all the satellite channels, their father has a car with TV in the back and a sound system that takes his mobile/cell phone calls without him taking his hand off the steering wheel. And here is the rub, all their friends are the same, its the norm.

I have come across some magazines, newspaper articles dating from the 1970’s/80’s when all this was a brave new, exciting world, but now I’m not sure if its either brave or exciting but more like foolish. We are tracked, we are instant, we are at the mercy of those big corporations who have all this data on us yet allow us to function in today’s world, and it is gather in pace. I have long given up thinking as to where it will all end the kids of today seem happy enough with it all, and they will have to live with it, in the meantime I will put on an old VHS tape on and see what I recorded 20 years ago ….. did we really wear clothes like that LOL.

So I look on YouTube and find music from artist I loved many years ago, I keep up to date with the news, instant if I want, but not to my mobile/cell phone, I just log on when I get home. No pad computer no Android or IPhone, no flat screen TV or computer monitor it can all not pass me by as I know there is not end, by reading the geeky stuff of what is coming along in the future. So get rid of the screens you are use too, you will ‘wear’ your computers, you will be online, always, whether you want to be or not, cars will drive themselves, park themselves and all the time this will be recorded, for whom? I know not and these days I care not.

Oh hell I’ve hit the nostalgia trail.

Its been a long week when you get up at 3:30am – 4am so I’m chilling ……. its 7:25pm UK time and I’ve been delving into my CD’s, yep CD’s, helped along by a bottle of South African red wine, and I’ve come up with things from my past, well teenager past. No surprise really as I’ve picked out The Beatles Help and Rubber Soul CD’s and you know what, you forget how good these songs are.

From Help to If I Needed Someone the very songs evoke memories of the past, when the world was a wonderful place. Brit pop had conquered the world, led by The Beatles and followed by countless others and I don’t know what dragged me back there tonight. I just felt that way out, I had been on YouTube so maybe that had something to do with it, but none the less I like my music, the optimum word there is ‘my’ music. I don’t profess to be a connoisseur of music but I know what I like and its MOR, yes that stuff that people of a certain age fall back on.

I don’t know how many CD’s I have but they range from The Beatles to Martina McBride, with Elvis thrown in somewhere. But along that road there are obscure names that hang like Christmas decoration, they are nice for a while but then you take them down, Norwegian Wood on now. So I have stuff that maybe should not see the light of day but its my light of day and that’s all that matters. I could give you a full list of my CD but by then you would ‘unfollow’ my blog, so I’ll give that a miss.

Nowhere Man on now, oh this music is really taking me back, I admit that I think I may have been born at the right time for many things and music is one them, and I think it a shame that anyone not into music is missing a lot in life. But anyway I would embed video into this rambling but I’m not sure how, so I won’t.

These days music is everywhere, but I wonder if it evokes the memories I have of certain songs at certain times of my life. Like Billy J Kramer, to those outside of the UK it will mean nothing at all, but he was another guy who fronted a very good group, Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas and who made a record, Little Children, amongst many others. But Little Children had a significance. It’s a slow song that demanded a slow dance and I just happened to be in a dance hall with the girl of my dreams at the time, I mean 15, cool, with hair, no wrinkles, my life in front of me, get where I am at here.

And so Iife moves on, and I go to gigs and see why some of these stars are stars, they are superb, but now I’m wallowing in nostalgia, because it wasn’t all roses, crap happened but you tend to block it out if you can, illness and death takes over at some point and you attend more funerals than Christenings, so you grow up but the music stays the same and when you sit down at your computer with a bottle of vino or whatever, and people you have known have passed on and you smile when a certain song comes along, you are at the stage I am at now, just enjoy the moment.

The Weekend is here.

Yes its a Friday, another week where I could curse, which is most weeks, but this is the time I like to look forward too. Nothing special but my wife and I have totally different relaxation moods, she likes the TV, I like my computer. But her TV is soaps, tennis and darts (don’t ask) but that’s fine by me, I have music or more to the point I have You Tube.

Its a vice, I have my own playlist where I can wallow in nostalgia of the music of years gone by. I can re-live the magic of the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s till my hearts content, well almost. I find that You Tube is going more and more corporate and so a lot of previous videos have their audio blocked, which isn’t much use. This bugs me, why so much is available but then other stuff, which I happen to like isn’t.

Oh well there is a plethora of radio stations to choose from and that’s the rub, I can search the internet to find what I want something my wife downstairs has no interest in as she like her big screen, well a reasonable 32″, to watch the likes so Rafael Nadal and company knocking a ball over a net whilst I am going berserk upstairs listening to Fleetwood Mack, The Eagles, Dire Straights, Elton John, The Beatles, you get the drift.

I am of the older generation where none of this was possible, we had records, 33rpm, 45rpm (revolutions per minuter just in case you are wondering) then a marvelous invention came along, tape cassettes, and CD’s oh my, what brilliance. Instead of moving an arm with a needle in to a track you liked you could just press a button and chose your own playlist, and the quality of the sound, out of this world.

We bought all the same stuff we already had on vinyl on cassette and CD, we paid out a fortune, but hey it was fabulous, until stuff was coming out on all sorts of differing formats that we didn’t understand MP3, what on earth was that? You didn’t have to pay either you could ‘download it’ pardon? And so it came to pass Napster was a totally different beast where you could get practically any music you wanted for free, it wasn’t long before the internet was awash with the stuff.

But that was a blessing and not a blessing in disguise as there was too much of the stuff, blimey I like my music but I happened to look up internet radio stations, I was overwhelmed by what was on offer, even did a spot of DJ’ing myself, quite enjoyed it too. But then people were listening to their music with things hung around their necks, IPods they called them, not only that mobile phones, another phenomenon, also played music and so it was all over the place.

But as I write this I am still on You Tube and even though its pitch black of night I find I can listen to George Harrison’s Here Comes The Sun, sung by Paul Simon, Dave Crosby and Graham Nash, I’m spoilt for my choice of music and the choice of artist who sing my chosen songs. I have hundreds of CD’s which I play, sometimes, but for a greater understanding of my music scene, I don’t profess to be a lover of today’s stuff, then the internet, curtsey of my computer, fills the need.

But having said all that I still believe its hard to beat a live performance, its here that you can see why the older pop/rock/country/whatever stars are, stars. From the Bee Gees to Elton John taking in Celine Dion I can honestly say that the thrill of seeing the stars play and sing their own hits take some beating for thrills. I haven’t seen nearly enough live performances over the years, for various reasons, mainly financial, but even local artists or tribute artists sometimes fill the need.

And as I read that digital music is overtaking the physical ownership of music I still like to think I can take out a CD anytime I want, and listen in reasonable quality, to the type of music I like without worrying that there is going to be an interruption to the internet connection some time down the line. Computers have done wonders and devastation in equal doses for music, new stuff is getting heard without the need for agents and established stars are seeing their stuff copied all over the place. That is for better minds than mine to sort out, in the meantime its back to You Tube and Sultans Of Swing.