Author Archives: Tim Hall

Seeing people’s “Album of the Year” on the Classic Rock Magazine Facebook Page page, I can’t help feeling that those listing the workmanlike Black Sabbath or Deep Purple albums as best of the year haven’t heard that many 2013 releases.

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Tim Hall | Comments Off

Rany Jazayerli on Orson Scott Card

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Tim Hall
Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons

At a time where pretty much the whole of the SF community is debating whether or not to boycott the film Enders Game due to the virulant homophobia of author Orson Scott Card, this very personal history by Rany Jazayerli is well worth reading.

He paints a picture of a man of humanity and empathy who wrote “Enders Game” and it’s sequel “Speaker for the Dead”, who subsequently lost his mind in the aftermath of America’s national trauma of 9/11.

Since then Card has spend the last decade wandering deeper and deeper into the toxic swamp of far-right conspiracy theories, of which the aggressive homophobia is but the tip of the iceberg. In many ways, he’s not the same man who wrote those novels all those years ago.

If you’re debating whether to see or to boycott the film, then read Rany Jazayerli’s piece before making up your mind.

Posted in Science Fiction | Tagged , | Comments Off

The Very Big Stupid

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Tim Hall

In The Frank Zappa Book, the late Frank Zappa defined The Very Big Stupid

THE VERY BIG STUPID is a thing which breeds by eating The Future. Have you seen it? It sometimes disguises itself as a good-looking quarterly bottom line, derived by closing the R&D Department.

If Enrst & Young’s report “Partnering for Performance” is anything to go by, The Very Big Stupid is alive and well

Step 4: “Ensure business decisions are driven by a data based single version of the truth. Discourage multiple interpretations of master data by different functional areas. Position finance as the owners of the data.”

In that single statement the destructive role accounting too often plays in the business rings loud and clear. A data-based single version of the truth, no interpretation other than that of accounting, which is the owner of the data.  You don’t often see such an off-the-charts level of arrogance and ignorance combined into a single statement.

The assumption that financial people know enough about the supply chain to elevate cost cutting over quality and service and drive all of the decision making is patently absurd, but that is the assumption many folks make.  It is incumbent on operations people at the sharp end of the value adding effort to learn the accounting rules and processes, as well as to learn, master and comply with corporate policies of all stripes, but the headquarters folks have no such need to master the first thing about how the company actually creates value for customers.

Never let the bean-counters make the important decisions.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 2 Comments

Touchstone & Von Hertzen Brothers, The Garage

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Tim Hall

Touchstone at The Garage in Islington

Touchstone came to The Garage in London on their co-headline tour with Finland’s Von Hertzen Brothers.

As this gig, Touchstone were on stage first, and proceeded to put on the sort of impressive show we’ve come to expect from them. Almost the whole set came from the new album “Oceans of Time”, and the new harder-edged material works extremely well live, with Adam Hodgson’s guitar much more dominant in the sound. Kim Seviour has been very dynamic frontwoman and visual focus of the band for a long time now. But now she’s really coming in to her own as a vocalist with material she had a greater hand in writing.

It’s great to see a band like Touchstone playing larger venues and drawing the sorts of crowds they’ve been deserving for a long time. It will be very interesting to see where they go next.

Von Hertzen Brothers at The Garage in Islington

As for Von Herzern Brothers, it took a few songs before what they were doing really made sense. Their sound is a quirky and sometimes rather bonkers mix including polished harmony-driven AOR and off-the wall psychedelia. They have some very retro 70s sounds, their keyboard rig including vintage Moogs and a real Mellotron. Their music shows influences as diverse as King Crimson and Styx withough sounding remotely like a pastiche of anything else. It’s all highly melodic, and they put on a very entertaining show.

The size and enthusiasm of the crowd and the reception given to both bands is a good advertisement for the idea of co-headline tours. Yes, it can be great to see a band play an extended two-hour set digging deep into the back catalogue. But there’s something to be said for a tight focussed set where the band doesn’t have to worry about pacing themselves. And with two great acts, you get two bands for the price of one.

Posted in Live Reviews | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Crimson Sky return to Reading

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Tim Hall

Crimson Sky at The Fleece and Firkin, Bristol

As they say on their Facebook page, Crimson Sky return to Reading on Saturday, 9th November.

Bristol and Reading five-piece progressive rock combo Crimson Sky return to South Street for a third time with new material … and a new drummer! Come on down and see for yourself what all the fuss is about.

Plus very special guests: Rich & Si from Also Eden performing as “Neo Deals” and MC Steven C. Davis.

This should be a great night; the band have been working on new material this year, and this show will be the first opportunity for audiences to hear some of it.

Posted in Music News | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Winny Puhh

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Tim Hall

If this lot had managed to win the qualifier and been the Estonian entry from the Eurovision Song Contest, it would have livened up last year’s finals no end.

Posted in Music Opinion | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Luna Rossa – Dark Room

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Tim Hall

Rather excellent fan-created video for Luna Rossa’s excellent “Dark Room”, the opening track from the album “Sleeping Pills and Lullabies”.

Posted in Music News | Tagged , | Comments Off

You know you’re too deep in the YouTube rabbit-hole when you come to an episode of The Teletubbies dubbed into German. I’m blaming Mertesacker for this…

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Tim Hall | Comments Off

“The End of Britain”

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Tim Hall

The End of BritainYou can’t go anywhere on the web without seeing doom-laden ads talking about “The End of Britain” telling you “How to survive the coming financial apocalypse”. I know better than to click on such obvious link-bait, but eventually curiosity got the better of me. So I put the phrase into Google to see what came up. What came up was this lengthy blog post from Another Angry Voice.

And the whole thing turns out to be much as I thought it was. The End of Britain is a lengthy screed written by obvious free-market fundamentalists followed by a sales pitch for a “high-yield” investments that sound suspiciously like some kind of Ponzi scheme. Their version of post-war economic history is full of misuse of statistics, distortions, deliberate omissions and complete lies, but it’s what you’d expect from people who have read too much Ayn Rand and think public spending on welfare is the root of all evil.

And Another Angry Voice does a thorough demolition job on the whole thing.

Which all makes me wonder, why is so much internet advertising for transparently obvious scams? I’m thinking of these “One weird trick” belly-fat and anti-wrinkle treatments, all of which are essentially con tricks. Is separating fools from their money the only really profitable business on the interweb?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 3 Comments

So I’m a tester, and I happen to be the very first person to order something from a new website. Of course I found a bug.

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Tim Hall | Comments Off