Christmas Shopping

Went for a wander into Newbury this afternoon to get a bit of shopping done – always more fun to take the camera!  Some lovely winter light so took a fair few exposures…

That last blurred car picture is heavily inspired by Jez Coulson’s crazy taxi pictures.  I love Jez’s work & have followed his blog for a while now.  Well worth checking out!  I took a few today but still have to master hand-held panning, I think…

More pictures from today on my Flickr stream.

In other news, the Rage Against The Machine campaign is still going strong and has reached nearly 700,000 members on Facebook.  Go join, then buy the song from Monday if you want to help avoid the X Factor being Christmas No 1 – again!

And now for something completely different…

From mince pies and mulled wine…  to brutally high-volume rap metal!  Yep, that’s right – it’s the campaign to get Rage Against The Machine’s expletive-laced scream of defiance against authority, “Killing in the Name”, to Christmas Number 1 in the UK Charts.  Nothing if not varied, this blog.

That song recalls happy memories from my youth – specifically, a school “talent show” degenerating into a sweaty mosh-pit as one of the bands kicked in with a bit of “Killing in the Name”.  I’ve no idea if the teachers turned off the power ‘cos they thought it was going to turn into a riot, or if they’d somehow got wind of the lyrics to the final verse…  Either way, a horde of frustrated and fired-up teenagers were left with nothing to do but go and lurk around on Southsea Common, trying to look cool.  Ah, good times!

Somehow RATM’s eponymous debut album seems to have eluded any transferral to digital, so I’ve just downloaded a copy and given it a listen.  Was on my own in the flat so able to turn it up good and loud!  I was mainly being nostalgic but on listening, I was surprised to discover again what a good album it actually is.  Being honest, I liked it at the time due to the swearing and some vaguely defined spirit of rebellion; it’s actually pretty damn impressive, in music and lyrics.  Well worth a listen and certainly doesn’t sound like it was released 17 years ago…  Now I feel old!

 

Anyway – back to the campaign.  It’s all started off in disgust at the seeming stranglehold the Simon Cowell “entertainment” juggernaut has on the Christmas No. 1 spot.  Two good people on Facebook, Tracey & Jon Morter, came up with the idea – what better way to protest against mass produced, bland, musical pap than getting its complete antithesis to number 1?!  The Facebook group is up to well over 350,000 and growing fast.  All of us are going to buy the single NEXT WEEK – no point buying it now! – so just maybe, there might be a chance to stop the X Factor single from reaching the top spot.

For all the details go to the Facebook group, or check out #ratm4xmas on Twitter.  Go on, get involved! 

The second signs of Christmas…

Having put up the tree earlier – today it was time for mince pies and mulled wine!

Very nice they were too – more pics of the whole baking experience linked if you click above.  It was a lot of fun, but did rather remind me of why I don’t make pastry too often – it’s a right mess!

Apparently it's Christmas time!

Yesterday was only the first day of December, but somebody decided that was none too early to put up the tree!


After it was up, I discovered that taking photos of Christmas decorations is quite difficult! Had the tripod up and was taking some seriously long exposures, with mixed results. Think some more practice will be called for here...