Sunshine Days – The official greatest Hits of Matt Bianco

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I always think that a sure sign of getting older is when your favourite band releases its third ‘greatest hits’ album. Well, if I say third: There has been

So it’s actually ‘Best of’ Nr. 7. Not to worry, any new Matt Bianco album is a good album, and thanks to Amazon it was inside my CD player within seconds of being released. The tasteful cover informs us that it’s a mix between re-recordings of the older (=eighties) and newer (90 +) tracks, 18 tracks in total. With other words’s it’s an update of the A/Collection, which attempted the same feat in 1998. Well, that was 12 (bummer, I’m old) years ago and as I said before, there’s always room for another version of ‘Half a minute’. Well, maybe not this time. While HiFi Bossanova was a brillant reboot of almost J.J. Abramsian proportions, this is a mixed bag. It starts well enough with the title track of the last album and the rebooted ‘Lost in You’, but things sag a bit. The eighties staples ‘Get out of your lazy bed’, ‘Yeh Yeh’, ‘Don’t blame it on that girl’, ‘Dancing in the street’, ‘Good times’ and ‘Half a minute’ all suffer from some degree of muzakisation. Whether this is due to the rather uninspired drumpatterns or synth sounds that sound like something from 1994 or the sparse arrangements is unimportant, but these re-recordings don’t match the originals (or even the A/Collection). Just when you want to email Mark Fisher and complain, ‘More than I can bear’ blows you off your feat with a very contemporary reworking of this classic that sounds even better than the original. The two remixes of ‘Half a minute’ and ‘Wap Bam Boogie’ are equally excellent.

So, it’s a mixed bag: Some good stuff, some excellent tracks, some not so good.

Should you buy it? Of course you should. It’s got a nice hardcover, has smiling Marks on the front, three killer tracks and the rest is still excellent music for the car.

Moving from the Mac to Ubuntu?

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It’s time that we had another geekish post, as there has been far too much footy and other stuff lately So today we will focus on the age old lament of people switching to Linux because they fear Apple’s hardware and software lock in. THis time it’s Salon.com’s Dan Gillmor to make the big jump and I completely understand where he’s coming from. I’ve done it numerous times: after I sold/broke a Mac I swore solemnly to embrace Open Source and would end up buying some laptop and install Ubuntu/Suse/Mandriva/Debian/Red Hat on it, just to pine for the functionality of ease of OS X on a MacBook and end up byuying one 6 months later anyway.

It’s perfectly ok to be suspicious of Apple’s control freakery, but in the end their stuff works. No missing drivers, no blue screen of death, no Kernel upgrades that go awry, no hardware problems. I have Ubuntu Karmic installed on my Desktop where it works just beautifully, but just because I continue working under the hood to MAKE it work.

Not so my MacBook (s). Since my first Powerbook 150 back in 1993 they have performed dutifully from day one, survived numerous drops and my current one dutifully updates my Ipad (which I now carry around with me instead).

So if Simon wants to go down the exciting road of Linux on the Laptop, I wish him luck. Being old and lazy now, I prefer to use what works.

P.S. Looks like Ubuntu isn’t working on his new Levono.

Italy-New Zealand

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Kia Ora,

we’re a bit late for the game of the All-Whites against those eleven men who easily fall over and cry (also known as the current World Champion) but at present (37 minutes) it’s a sensational 1:1 and the Italians either fall over and cry without any discernible contact or shoot on goal, while the Kiwis defend (slightly sheepishly) like lions

38:30 de Rossi falls over in a Shakespearan fashion. Why? Freekick fails to connect

Marcello Lippi looks like a dapper Michael Parkinson in his red track suit. Very stylish.

45:00 Half time. The Italians look like 11 very camp men trying to ram the All-Whites defenses but falling over repeatedly in the process. There is a very close resemblance to this.

65:00 There continues to be general shooting on one goal. Italians still fall over far too easlily

70:00 Great save by Paston. No Italians were hurt during this save.

82:05 BRILLANT SHOT by Wood on Italian goal. just a little wide.

86:00 Nelson gets a yellow card for being injured. Calls for a some psychoanalysis for the referee get louder.

94.23 It’s over!! New Zealand gain another point.

It’s box of fluffy ducks time!!

New Zealand – Slovakia

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Welcome from Fordiebianco HQ, were weare all gathered to watch big one, the one we all have been waiting for: New Zealand against the Czech, er, sorry, the other ones with the past dabbling in racism, Slovakia.

The singing was very impressive by the Kiwis, and I almost didn’t recognise the strange blown up version of their national anthem.

So here we go:

4:08 nice chance after a freekick. Tests the Slovak goalie. Good on them.

6:20 even though the stadium seems to be less than half full, the bloody Vuvuzelas are blathering on.

08:59: nice delivery behind the Slovakia defense. Corner

10:49 Am I dreaming or are the kiwis actually dominating the game?

13:13 oops, toast is burning

14:26 Mark Paston so far making a decent job in the Kiwi goal.

15:29 ditto

17:00 According to Wikipedia, Paston is only first choice goalie becuase of his predecessor’s ‘improper conduct’

20:00 I think Tesco’s decision to stock German peppered Salami was an enlightened one.

22:00 The Mexican wave has apparently started 7 minutes earlier than during the Algeria/Slovakia game.

24:00 Insipid midfield kicking

27:00 According to Wikipedia, Ricki Herbert’s win ration for the teams he’s coached outside the national team is 34.91%

28:00: good shot on the Kiwi goal by the Slovaks.

30:00 Alex Ferguson’s win rate is 57.51%

32:01 good shot on goal by All Whites

33:00 blatant defending error by Paston. Kiwis lucky to get out of that one.

35:00 more shooting in direction of Kiwi goal.

37:00 Former mayor/principal’s wife accused of having sex with his pupils

37:30 Nice shot by Fallon on outer net of Slovaks. Well done.

41:00 Yellow card against New Zealand. Beautiful save by Paston after powerful mid range shot my Hamsik.

46:00 Half Time: Well done New Zealand. Even Alan Hansen is happy with them

48:00 “More urgency” from the Slovakians. Didn’t they go to the loo in half time?

49:00 0:1 ! Goal for the Slovaks. Bummer.

59:00 Slovakia has woken up. It’s all on one goal now.

64:00 another chance for Sklovakia, but way over the box

70:24 Slovaks falling all over the place. They should play against the All Blacks for a change.

72:00 Chris Killan replaced by Wood. No, not that Wood.

77:00 Christie comes in for the Kiwis. In Oamaru a scaffolding comes down

86:00 nothing much happens.

87:40 almost 1:1. bummer

92:00 Goal!!! kiwis equalise!!! Winston Reid for OBE!!!

Nice one Kiwis. And now please destroy the bloody Italians