My latest Spotify mixtape. You’ll need Spotify to listen, yadda, yadda, yadda.  Meanwhile, sit back and ‘enjoy’ Noise Is A Condition Of Silence.

It looks like this, if you try CILIP’s Guidelines on public library provision in England for portfolio holders in local Councils.  The guidelines are mercifully short - two and a half pages by my reckoning - but are slightly disappointing for me by not mentioning ‘professional librarians’ once. In particular see the section staffing and activities, but I do notice that staff can be supported by ’specialists’. 

That said I’m broadly supportive of the document, it puts ‘Investment is crucial’ at the fore afterall and reminds councils of their statutory duty.  I’d be interested to see how candidates in the forthcoming CILIP elections turn these guidelines into action, and stop Local Government movers and shakers merely dismissing it out of hand.  (See this, and this, from the Bookseller).

Of interest to me as a non-public librarian are the 10 questions posed on the final page of the guidelines, which are universally applicable to any library service if you replace ‘local community’, ‘local people’, or ‘local council’, with ‘user community’.

I somehow thought that would grab your attention.  Far be it from me to suggest that we live in a junta dictatorship with summary and brutal justice, indeed what the title actually refers to is the UK Government Website Deathlist.  The culling of defunct UK Government sites is now halfway through, according to a report by Tim Buckley Owen in Information World Review, I quote:

By the start of this year, 458 of the 717 redundant government department websites had gone (67%), as had 238 of the 902 quango sites due for the chop (32%). By the end of 2010, 95% of the condemned sites are expected to have disappeared.

I’ve had to use Government websites a lot in my 12 years plus as a librarian, an experience which has been – at times - woeful.  Indeed my main bug-bear with Government sites is the number of broken links that I seem to attract (I’m sure it’s not just me).  DirectGov has made things a little easier.  Perhaps some of that money from the UK tax-payer can be spent on decent UK Government web applications instead of, say, duck houses.

Is this one, left on this site by hotdiscomix.de which I in no way recommend:

BEIJING (Reuters) – China, Japan and South Korea vowed to be after an original restart to talks aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons ambitions, and also presented a coalesced vanguard on regional solvent help at kaufen viagra online a culmination on Saturday.

As I have no wish to perpetuate spam I’ve broken the link and replaced it with bold type. Those of you bolder than I may wish to Google it.  As an aside I’ve always wondered what went on at these nuclear weapons meetings.  It appears that  missiles aren’t the only thing being, ahem, raised.

I recently obtained a copy of Dynamite with a Laserbeam: Queen as Heard Through The Meat Grinder of Three One G (Various Artists). Three One G is an alternative record label that operates out of San Diego, and as you would expect, is the stable to many of the artists on this record.  As the title suggests, it features covers of Queen songs by various artists (16 of ‘em).

Now, I’ve always been a bit ambivalent about cover versions. I’m of the school of thought that a cover version should sound nothing like the original, otherwise, all you’re really doing is high-class karaoke. You’ll be pleased to know then, gentle reader, that your intrepid writer can report that many of these songs sound nothing like the originals or at least twist them into grotesque mirror images. 

The Blood Brothers set things off with a surf -punk version of Under Pressure, before Get Hustle’s drunken jazz take on Another One Bites the Dust.  From here on in, things get a little more interesting and extreme. Indeed, one thing that’s apparently obvious from a quick scan of the tracks, is that the obvious choices of Queen hits are eschewed in favour of more obscure album tracks. Thus Asterisk* give us their take on Ogre Battle, which very much sounds as if the ogres gave up battling, ate the band, and decided to play the instruments themselves.

The Oath provide a nihilistic version of We Are The Champions and do for it, what Sid Vicious did for My Way, but with considerably more aplomb. Go Go Go Air Heart give Death on Two Legs a suitably lo-fi rendition, while Upsilon Acrux treat Bicycle Race to a curious, instrumental experiment.  Sinking Body provide the first of many tracks which are completely unrecognisable in their wholly original industrial interpretation of Who Needs You, which ticks all the boxes for me by being almost as far from the original as you might want to get.

The Freddie Mercury penned The Fairy Feller’s Master Strokemay seem little more than pastoral whimsy, all be it with a gay subtext, however Glass Candy’s version is a superior one, and one of the best tracks found here. The fairy glade is replaced by the altogether shabbier, rain-drenched backstreet of an unknown city, where pimps, prostitutes, and drug-dealers lie in wait for the unwary providing escapes into darker fantasies.  Next up are the excellent The Locust who deal with Flash’s Theme in around 56 or so seconds running time and do so with considerably more attack, urgency and excitement than in the original.

Now, those of you still paying attention will probably agree that it takes some balls to attack the operatic bombast of Bohemian Rhapsody.  Weasel Water makes a game attempt, however the awfulness of the original still shines through. The Spacewurm fare better with Vutan’s Theme (sic). Indeed the sound effects of the original are married to a grungy, electronic reworking that evokes a bio-chemical attack rather than Brian Blessed in a pair of speedos, showing off his big helmet and shouting a lot.  Continuing on an electronic theme Fast Forward offer a wholly joyous cover of Crazy Little Thing Called Love.

There’s something extremely satisfying about The Convocation Of’s version of Get Down Make Love.  While almost conventional in spirit, it embues the track with an altogether seedier atmosphere.   Of course the good thing about it is Freddie’s double-entendres which here, remain intact. Mind you, for that very reason, I’ve always wondered why The Eagles of Death Metal never covered this one.  Bastard Noise don’t so much as steam-roller Lily of the Valley so much as nuke the valley, encase the valley in concrete, and nuke it all over again.  I’m more than impressed that they heard this (well, let’s admit it) gentle love ballad and thought. “We can make over three minutes of noise here!” It’s terrific. If you are a Queen fan I would suggest that this version will be as shocking to you, as say, stepping on a cat’s tail is to a cat.

I’d not heard of Tourettes Lautrec before (they get bonus points for the name), but they do Killer Queen proud by turning a self-conciously bohemian and urbane song into something altogether more angsty and spiky.  The final word goes to my old favourites Melt Banana who provide delicate Japanese female vocals over the deep bass throb of We Will Rock You, before the song destroys itself in a blizzard of feedback and distortion. Most satisfying.

Of course, It’s very easy to take the piss out of Queen. They are rock and roll royalty after all. However I get the feeling that many of these tracks may well have been prepared with a love of the originals in mind.  And let’s not forget, certainly under the aegis of Brian May and Roger Taylor we were given the proto-punk of Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll, and Sheer Heart Attack.  Without doubt Dynamite with a Laserbeam breathes new life into old favourites – and there’s not a big gay moustache anywhere in sight!

It wasn’t until Keith Floyd died that I realised what a huge effect he’d had on my life.  I can trace my interest in food all the way back to Floyd on Food his irreverent, fun, cookery programme.   Both my father and I would sit for half-an hour together in front of Floyd, watching him take a quick slurp, and berate Clive the cameraman. Food looked so much fun. I love cooking. I love food. Thank you Keith.

I scoured YouTube and found my favourite Floyd moment from Floyd on Britain and Ireland.  Here with the late, great, Ray Gravell, he cooks cawl for Kidwelly RFC.

SORT (Social Research in Transport) Clearinghouse http://www.sortclearinghouse.info/

Is being updated, new features from Tuesday 1st September include:

- A clearer web page design layout
- More functions for easier browsing and searching for research
- Frequently Asked Question help assistance
- New email and RSS feed functionality; this enables users to receive automatic updates of new research entries
- Access to previous  newsletters
- A running tally of the top 10 most popular research entries
- Paper of the day link to remind users of the range of research entries
- A link showing the most recent additions
- An easier  system to submit research for inclusion in the clearinghouse
- A running tally of research entry access
- Improved system performance and reduced down time

SORT is an excellent resource and it’s great to see that these changes, all based on user feedback, are going ahead.

Here’s another mixtape. You’ll need spotify to enjoy it:

Dr Ulver’s Delightful Box of Cankers

I took a trip out to Lydiard House yesterday with my son (A small boy) and daughter (a small girl) in Mr Sakamoto (a car). Lydiard is a Georgian House on the edge of Swindon, and is the ancestral home of the Viscounts of Bolingbroke. It’s also something of a hidden jewel in a town (rather unkindly) not known for its places of historic interest.

Only a few rooms are open to the masses (much of it appears to be a conference centre) but it does have some intriguing links with the past – particularly Restoration England. I was aware that there were family links to Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland and uber-mistress of Charles II.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it also had links to John Wilmot the (notorious) 2nd Earl Rochester. It turns out he was a grandson of Sir John St. John one of the house’s owners. With that pedigree I was hoping to find much in the way of depravity, bacchanalian excess, and general rakishness, but I was disappointed.

My children were less disappointed as daughter managed to complete the ‘Hunt the Teddy Bear Quiz’ and son completed ‘Guess the Object Quiz’, although he did think a horse brass was a lemon squeezer.

I wrote this post as I was interested in contributing to the Library Day in a Life project. More on the project here, otherwise my day ran as follows:

Woke up at 6.00am: Shit, Shave, Shower. Breakfast: 1 x Bowl of Fruit and Fibre, 1 x cup of tea, quick net surf while drinking same. Said goodbye to wife and son, daughter still asleep so didn’t disturb.

On the road to work by 6.55am. I have an hour so commute by car to work. Listened to ‘The Holy Pictures’by David Homes. Very Eno-esque, also reminded me of Intastella in places, does anybody remember Intastella?

At my desk by 8:05ish, switched on the PC chatted with staff who were in and others as they arrived. Checked emails. I was opening the batting on the enquiry desk this AM, so had a quick look around the library for any health & safety hazards (found none), made sure PCs were on (somebody else had got there first).

9.00am-10.00am enquiry desk. I spent most of the time barcoding TRB reports as part of our herculean task of barcoding all our stock. Answered two enquiries from members of the public about our report sales.

Après 10am I beginning to flag, but am restored by strong coffee – a brew of my own preferred strength and devising, and ate a banana. Spoke briefly to a colleague about our RSS feeds, seems there may be an issue importing our OPML file into IE7.  Wrote an announcement for our intranet – we’re upgrading our version of Heritage next week and our staff all need to know. Sent it off to our intranet administrator, who followed it up with an amusing conversation about didgeridoos.

Same colleague I spoke to about RSS let me know that our to-do list had been uploaded to our area on the intranet. Had a look, baulked at the number of tasks I’ve yet to do/forgotten – must get my skates on.  The sound of a car being driven at high speed drifts in from somewhere on the test track.

Next, started key wording the Transport Reviews journal. We assign keywords to many journal articles here, in preparation for entering them onto heritage and ultimately they end up on the ITRD database (for which we are the main co-ordinating centre, there are others in France, Germany, and Spain).  Lo and behold, it was now approaching lunch-time and, not unnaturally, my thoughts began to turn to food.

Scanned through our copy of Autocar for useful articles either for the ITRD database or members of staff, also was given an update of ITRD input for June to look through.  Autocar has an amusing tail-piece about the Vauxhall Chevette. Does anyone else remember the Vauxhall Chevette? Set up my details on the PBWiki for “A Day In The Life” ready for adding this post later.

12:45 time for lunch. I had vegetable quiche, sauteed potatoes, salad (with vinaigrette), and fresh roll.  The funeral of World War One airman Henry Allingham played on the TV in the canteen. I was moved to watch a flyover by five replica WWI airplanes. After eating I headed out to the bridge over the track to see if I could find out what type of car had been haring around earlier. No car was to be seen, it began to rain, I headed indoors to my desk and ate fruit (a pear and an orange). I drank more coffee and read an article on the 16th International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival. I’d love to go one year but time and money are never on my side. Lunch over, sated and replete, I returned to the grindstone.

A few quick jobs to deal with just after lunch. I had some subscription business to sort out with Science Direct, plus I ran my instructions for importing our RSS feeds by some of the IT chaps.

Then I spent the rest of the afternoon working on my revision of the ITRD Working Rules (essentially, how to select and classify articles for the database, preferred terminology for data entry, data entry conventions that sort of thing). This is one of my long-term jobs I’d like to clear out of the way this summer. I had to leave work slightly earlier than usual as my wife was covering somebody else’s shift at work and the children – who are off school for the UK summer – required looking after.

On the way home I listened to The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips. Once home I fulfilled the duties expected of a husband and father.