asides Blog

One line thoughts of the day.

I loathe having to go through the “forgotten password” rigamarole just so I can leave a comment on someone’s blog. Yet another way in which spam has ruined the internet.

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Tim Hall | 1 Comment

A lot of prog bands have been playing Christmas standards as encores over the past month. I’ve heard three very different versions of “I Believe In Father Christmas” and two different takes on “A Spaceman Came Travelling”. While I can think of one or two, not many bands have tried to write any completely new Christmas songs? Is is time for bands to try and write a new Prog Christmas classic?

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Tim Hall | 2 Comments

At the moment, Facebook’s only selling point is the network effect from the size of it’s user base. People put up with the appallingly bad user experience and increasingly mercenary behaviour because all their friends are there. I think it’s only a matter of time before a competitor reaches a critical mass of users and Facebook goes the way of AOL and MySpace. It will happen sooner and far more rapidly than many people think.

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Tim Hall | 4 Comments

We will only have a functional digital music economy when artists, labels and web services can all agree on what services are viable as revenue streams and which ones are primarily promotional channels. Too many of the arguments over royalties seem to stem from a blurring of the two.

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Tim Hall | 2 Comments

When you have The Monster From The ID from Forbidden Planet hauled up before Joe McCarthy’s House Unamerican Activities Committee, you know you’re in a game run by Marcus L Rowland.

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Tim Hall | Comments Off

If everyone who tries to be objective and balanced when reviewing music were to give up, we’d be left with nothing but the fanboys and the cynics. Would that be a good thing?

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Tim Hall | 3 Comments

The acid test of whether a support act is good, bad or indifferent is how you feel at the exact moment the singer says “And this is our last song”.

Posted on November 18, 2012 by Tim Hall | Comments Off

Would the world (or at least the web) be a far better place if Adobe Flash had never existed?

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Tim Hall | 2 Comments

One thing I’d really like Facebook and other social networks to do is give me that ability to block all .gif files containing Hallmark-card platitudes…

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Tim Hall | 3 Comments

A question for prog fans. What’s the verdict on Steve Hackett’s “Genesis Revisited II”? There’s no doubting the quality of the original songs, but do you think the new recordings add anything to the original recordings?

Posted on November 3, 2012 by Tim Hall | 2 Comments