I was cleaning out my basement and found some boxes that I haven't been into for many years. One had a bunch of old dead tapes... spent an hour hooking up a tape player to the receiver and the old speakers... time was not kind to the tapes at all :(

blonde redhead - misery is a butterfly.

Porcupine Tree - Trains

Ummm....The Raincloud Man ....Big Finish Doctor Who Audio Range....

Natalie Merchant - all of her stuff. Love her.

Ooooo- !

Eilen Jewell - Sea of Tears.

AWESOME!

Pop Will Eat Itself - Ich Bin Ein Auslander

It's Hawaiian shirt day here at the office, so I am listening to the excellent Facing Future by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

Trying Queensryche - Mindcrime Two again. Giving it one more chance before I throw it away. What happened to the good old days of Mindcrime and Empire?

don't throw them away! send them to me!

to anyone:
If you want to download Coldplay....if you like them inspite of everything....like I do you can get a free copy here:

http://www.coldplay.com/newsdetail.php?id=395

Have you listened to Mindcrime 2? It's a painful self-indulgent resting-on-their-laurels album. The new one is WAY better, but still not the same driving force they once were.

I fully intend to spend several hours this weekend listening to some of the Big Finish audio productions (Dr Who range, natch.)

i love Big Finish audioplays. They're really well produced. OK, some of them are a tad cheesy in parts but some of them are simply marvellous. There are a handful that I rate as the best audio plays I have heard. Much better than the stuff that makes it onto radio4 (on the whole.)

They do several regular ranges, usually old, no longer running sci fi shows (Classic Doctor Who, Sapphire and Steel, Blake's Seven), and spinoffs (Companion Chronicles) they're starting to branch out into what they call their Classics range. Starting with Phantom of the Opera.

It's a brilliant way of continuing old stories. So, for instance, Paul McGann is known (amongst other things) for having been the Doctor the longest (or joint longest) time, but only appeared as him once (in the TV movie, mid 90s) But actually he's probably racked up many many hours as the doctor through the BF audio plays. All that character development that didnt get followed into TV was picked up and taken in all sorts of directions. Same with the 6th doctor (Colin Baker). Had a short run and never got to take the charactre anywhere beyond his initial, rather abrasive, arrogant Doctor.

Sci-fi works on the radio. Get the sound effects right (most of the time) and the human brain can come up with somethng that wipes the floor with CGI and it's a damn sight cheaper. Some stuff...you really can't do on tv. Just can't possibly come across. If you are trying to portray something like an environment utterly alien in every way...how do you depict that? If you're playing with dimensions and mauling about in each other's minds... how do you show it and not make it smaller? Also, the audio plays are not made for children. They're mostly accessible to children and woldn't worry the censor over much; but they aren't the core market. So...some of the stories are rather more grown up. Some are silly, or whimsical. Some are very dark.


So...

I've got three (brand new!) Doctor Who plays that have been sitting on my hard drive waiting for my final exam to be over. Har!

Journey: Look Into the Future. Pre Steve Perry.

What made me drag it out of the 'archives' was watching a dvd of Journey's top hits. Randy Jackson is impressive on the video with his thickstringing on the "Raised on Radio" songs. But that fucker sings out of key. Big time.

dawg that was a little pitchy for me