Alasdair Watson

I’m still whoring for viewers for electricana.  Aside from a week’s inabilty to upload photos, I’ve managed to keep to my five-a-week goal, and remain optimistic about doing so.

So, what I thought I’d do at the end of each month is pick the top four photos, make some brief comment on them, and try and see if anyone’s willing to circulate it a little wider, on their own LJs and blogs.  So, here you go.  The code to reproduce this is under the cut tag, if anyone would like to pass it on, as it were.  If people are seriously pissed off by the prospect of something like this turning up on their friends page once a month, I’ll filter/cut it, but I’d rather leave this as a public post.  So…

Electricana: January ’05

Under Electric Light
It’s a simple enough shot, this one, but I like the combination of the lines of the brickwork, and the way they draw the eye down to the light, and the colours.  And y’know, it’s a neon light.  I love neon lights.

Awakening
Sometimes, you really don’t need to work to get a good photo.  I work up early one morning, and the bands of colour in the sunrise did all the hard work for me.

Light of Knowledge
The reaction to this one caught me by surprise.  I honestly felt that this was a “well, it’ll do” sort of shot – the composition is slightly off, and the light effect isn’t quite what I was looking for.  But it seems people like it.  Another one where the scenery did all the work.

An Otherwise Dull Day
Another neon sign, and another simple composition, but this time it’s the limited range of colours here that I like, the way that the neon sign stands out.  It feels like quite a New York photo to me, which is odd as it was taken right beside Sloane Square tube.

Photos taken from Electric Arcana.  Photos and text © 2005 Alasdair Watson.  Permission granted to reproduce this post in whole, including this notice.

Cut and paste code

Another one for the sake of memory, this time, a photography site: Peter Funch.

I really ought to sort myself out with one of them del.icio.us things properly, like…

Mostly for my own reference, but they’re fun reading for anyone. (Item 2 via cairmen, Item 1 via Item 2.)

The Law West Of Ealing Broadway – Magistrates Blog.

The Policeman’s Blog – What it says on the tin.

In a rare display of tact, I’ve ummed and ahhed about this one. Dan Curtis Johnson came up with the marvellous notion of Livejournal Rabbit Hole Day, and I immediately decided to take part. Very much my sort of thing.

So I wrote something. And I was about to post it, when I checked my friends page, to find anw reminding people that (rather more importantly) it’s Holocaust Memorial Day today. I’d forgotten. Yes, I’m a terrible person.

This wouldn’t stop me taking part in Rabbit Hole Day, because there’s room for the two things in my life. However, I looked twice at what I’ve written, and concluded that the little bit of biological apocalyptica I’d decided on seems a bit, well, tactless to put it mildly. I thought about not posting it.

And then I thought: no. One does not honour the dead by doing anything but living one’s life. And, yes, this is a small, stupid, and inconsequential thing, but so’s more or less everything that makes life fun. Understand: I’m not claiming that posting it is a mark of respect, or anything stupid. My head is not that lodged up my own arse. It’s just that I personally do not believe in doing (or not doing) anything in the name of the dead.

But, as I say, the tone, imagery and words I chose for this may not be for everyone, given the day. Hence the cut. Proceed with caution.

Down the rabid hole

Anyone out there know much about wireless networking? Anyone willing to come round and be plied with booze in order to sort out the problems I’m having? Please?

(In short: I cannot get my main computer on our in house wireless network, and I don’t know why – the other two wi-fi devices in the house can get on OK, and indeed, the main machine can see the network, but just refuses to connect to it and get an IP address. More details on request.)

As a result of this, my net activity is a bit curtailed. Email responses may be very slow, electricana is annoyingly fucked, because all the good photos are on the other machine, and all told, it’s a bit arse, really.

In other news, PWEI rocked extremely fucking hard. Didn’t get “Inside You”, but got everything else I could have wanted. They put serious effort in, and as far as starts to the gigging year go, I couldn’t have asked for better.

Now, sleep.

As much for my own reference as anything else, but should any of you out there be planning on coming, and fancy doing a masterclass (costs extra) I’m doing the following ones:

Friday:
4-5: Dalmore and Jura.  Jure 1984 is one of my favourite malts, but I really don’t know that much about the output of either of these distilleries, and Richard Patterson (the speaker) was extremely entertaining just working the stall last time, so this should be fun.

Saturday:
2-3: A Coffee and Malt Experience.  Like I was going to pass up a chance to try different combinations of premium coffees and premium whiskies.  I think this may be Patterson again, which is a bonus.

3:30-4:30: Matching Whisky With Food.  I’m getting a bit better at this anyway, but I’d like to pick up a few tips.

Ia!  Cthulhu!  Etc!

So, I ordered a CD of Lovecraftian Christmas carols (before anyone says anything: 1) I’ll still have it next christmas, won’t I? and 2) Exactly how festive do you really think songs like “I Saw Mummy Kissing Yog-Sothoth” are?).  But there’s been a slight cock up, and what I’ve got is a copy of “A Shoggoth On The Roof”, the songs from a brilliant sounding bit of Lovecraftian musical theatre, as done by these marvellous people.

I’ll be getting in touch with them about sorting this out, but I suspect that “sorting this out” will actually translate into saying “well, you cocked it up, but I really like what I got, so how about I just pay you again and you get it right this time…”

Maybe it’s just a surname thing, but I’ve loved the Sherlock Holmes stories as much as I’ve loved any bit of fiction, since I was old enough to understand them.  Hell, as much as they’re one of the progenitors of comics, they’re probably a progenitor of my interest in them.
I’ve gone on a bit, here

Whisky Live is on the 11th and 12th of March.  If you want to come, book soon – it sold out in early Feb last year, and I don’t imagine it’ll get less popular.  (Those of you from The Frozen North that expressed an interest – care to confirm/deny/reserve couch space for definite?)

(The masterclass details aren’t on the website yet, but should be from tomorrow, I’d expect – the site claims from the 15th, but they probably forgot it was a weekend, or something. I’m probably going to try and do a couple – I’ll throw another post up with details of which, if anyone else is interested…)