Whenever I do get a whiff of the news, it's usually dreadful - the continuing state of the economy, the perilous state of examination in this country... I dunno. I don't get excited thinking about the news at all, as much as that makes me the root cause of moral decrepitude. Mother used to (and still does) have the television on permanently at home, often more so there's a noise in the background so she doesn't feel quite so lonely now she lives on her own, but ultimately always watches the news, which is how I ended up watching it all the time when I was there, and indeed, every time I come back. I guess that's yet another tradition I forgot about yesterday, but there it is: Mother always watches the news. Having no live television in Halls, and also in The Scholary, it's completely different: instead of being an always-available resource, I have to seek it out deliberately. Far too much like hard work.
Whenever I go to Janet's though, her television is on as well. Mid-morning BBC repeats and trashy American TV, yes, but also the local and national news (and weather). Seeing as I'm definitely not in the East Midlands anymore, I have a dim view towards BBC South West (or whatever it's called), and don't really think of it as 'real news'. I have no idea where half of these places are, probably more so! I often feel completely unaffected, geographically and emotionally (unless it's about something happening in Truro that day), whereas even if I go home for a day, a quick update from East Midlands Today can tell me things about places that I know, from a news team that I remember and actually quite like (lol following them on the twitters lol), and it all comes flooding back. Even know, miles away and separated from the next bulletin by about 6 hours, I can take an open guess at things that may be happening...Let's see.
- DERBY: Heavy Industry OR something about the Philpotts (still)
- LEICESTER: Local Business OR something about racism in Schools
- NOTTINGHAM: Gun Crime
- LINCOLN: Something about Farmers
Heavy stereotyping I know, but answers on a postcard to the Asylum South West if it turns out to be true. I spent three years in Norwich as well, remember, and BBC Look East felt anything but relevant whenever I saw it. I might come under criticism for saying things like this, but suppose you become completely disconnected from reality like I have and still do sometimes? True, I'm still bothered about Derby, but I was born there and have still spent the majority of my life there. It still matters. I'm sure that there are natives of, let's say Cornwall, who upon moving away and watching 'foreign' news feel exactly the same, whose ears perk up as soon as any local town name is mentioned.
However, I stay up-to-date on other sorts of things. I have resigned myself to the fact that the economy isn't going to really pick up, and watching endless ponderous visual effects laden reports on the matter isn't going to change anything. I don't read the Newspapers these days either. When I was younger, when my dad still lived with us, we used to get the Daily Express in for him (bless his primary reading level), and from time to time we got the Derby Evening Telegraph delivered to the house. But nowadays, a newspaper is another expense that I don't get to eat or drink. Hell, at least Newspapers are lactose free...
I use my twitter feed to follow news that I want, usually. If I'm working at the Cathedral Office, I'll keep a tab open on BBC news for as long as I'm there. Normally I'll write a post while I'm there as well, which is pretty annoying as all this BEDM will have finished by the time I'm working there next. Perhaps I will find new and exciting things to write about daily by then? Or perhaps just the usual possibly offensive, deeply embittered work that I usually write? KEEP TUNING IN IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO FIND OUT. While we're still here though, let's check out what's been happening in my world over the past day...
THE NEW DAFT PUNK ALBUM IS HERE ASDFGHJKL ARGH After months of speculation, the single "Get Lucky (Feat. Pharrell Williams)", and of course the day it streamed on the internet for free, Random Access Memories is finally here. As quite a lot of people who know me in real life know, I am a massive Daft Punk fan to the point of frothing gently at the mouth for the past few weeks, steaming away with anticipation for the retro-futurist duo's latest long player. I think it's absolutely straight up incredible. Daft Punk have seemingly spared no expense imaginable in hiring studio musicians of the highest calibre. Musically, it harks back to the 'Golden Age' of Disco, the 70's and perhaps early 80's. Stylistically, it follows a path that begins with their third studio album, Human After All, which itself was a sharp contrast to the amazing exuberance of 2001's Discovery, which is what people think of Daft Punk's 'characteristic' sound. The change in style can also be felt from the TRON: Legacy Soundtrack they composed. I've had their entire discography on heavy rotation (except for Alive! 2007, because you can't shuffle those tracks really), so I've noticed these things way more than somebody who hasn't. The development of the material is quite complex and well-developed, feeling a little more like high-concept than a Electro-House-Opera-Disco style LP like Discovery. Don't get me wrong! Discovery is brilliant, and I play it a hell of a lot of the time. RAM is different though, which has disappointed some people, but that very difference is where its strength lies. To have made another Discovery, or even another Homework would have been a regression, and this is part of an ongoing movement that they're making; whether or not we agree with it is another question. They are doing what they want to do, because they choose to do it their way.
Phew. Anything else? Well, of course today was also the day that Microsoft announced the successor to their extremely successful home videogame console Xbox 360... The XBox One. Yes, if marketing were ar Snakes and Ladders board they found the one snake that takes you back to the start of the field and decided to cut their losses there. Of course, the console war rages on for it's... 8th Generation (Jesus Christ guys seriously even the cold war ended eventually what the hell) now, with the Nintendo Wii U already released, the Sony PlayStation 4 on the way, and now the Xbox One from the 'big three'. This time, Microsoft are taking a slightly different tack though, and I think it's no accident that the unit is both functionally and aesthetically similar to Sony's ill-fated PSX that was released in Japan in 2003, as a media centre... which is the direction that Microsoft seem to be pulling into. The 'Zune' software brand was renamed 'Xbox Music' not long ago, and the 'Xbox Smart Glass' functionality that allows you to control your Xbox wirelessly using touchscreen devices such as Windows Phones and Surface portable computers show that Microsoft is putting it's entertainment eggs into one big Xbox basket. The userbase for 360s is very high, but the new One won't be backwards compatible (annoying but not terribly vital), but there's concerns about the 'always online' functionality and the fact that Microsoft seem pretty keen about blocking the use of second-hand games - of course a lifeline to retrogamers and those without enough disposable income to buy brand new titles (both of which categories I champion, my Gamecube and its library downstairs being more of a collector's item these days). Today was only the reveal, but the facts so far illustrate a device for which games are a core but not the feature - an improved 'Kinect 2.0' will come with every box that will allow for voice control and Skype calls as standard, and the stats reveal an 8 core processor, 500 GB HDD, Blu-Ray disc drive... The works. Microsoft have called in the big guns to make a serious home entertainment centre choice under the Xbox brand name.
See? I tend to keep away from "real" news, in case reality gets near me... reality is much like nuclear waste: you can see it's terrible effects even from a distance and if you touch it that's game over. Twitter itself is actually a pretty decent tool for what's happening - rightfully so it has been capsized by the news of the Oklahoma tornado that struck, bearing down destruction on...well, everything. If there's something big happening that I get wind of, I'll deliberately seek it out, usually through the BBC News website as a starting point. Perhaps I will change my ways and return to watching news should I ever get a television and pay the license fee, hell I might even buy a newspaper from time to time, but for now, the false limits of my own that I apply to news is what I'm satisfied with.
That's all. For now.
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