On Hiatus

I'm away in Cape Town until the 18th of March. The time will be spent lying around in the sun, climbing the mountain, drinking ice cold lagers and enjoying sun downers overlooking the beach.

Updates are not high on the list of priorities.

Double Teamed!

Ah mate, just got double teamed by Vaughan and ZNADAN! for 2 music memes.
First up, my top 5 albums and memories attached.

1) Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - The Smashing Pumpmins: I guess this goes back to somewhere around '95/96. High school. Grunge was in. The Pumpkins were big. I was an unknown, a kid flying under the radar, not cool enough to hang with the cool kids but staying well clear of the outcasts. And I worshipped this album. It's an epic, a masterpiece... one of the greatest rock albums ever written. From melodic pop goodness to heavy fuzz box bad boys, with a good bit of real angry alt rock thrown in for good measure. No matter what your mood you can always find a track off Melloncollie to fit it. And who could ever forget 1979...

...or Tonight, Tonight, or Zero, or Bullet With Butterfly Wings, or Love, or Muzzle, or Bodies, or Thru the Eye's of Ruby, or Thirty Three. God, I'm going to go listen to it right now!

2) London Calling - The Clash: My first years in London, so around 2003/2004. Initially got into The Clash for their epic single London's Calling. Then quickly realized that it wasn't really even their best work. Oh no, this album also includes gems like Spanish Bombs, Rudie Can't Fail, Jimmy Jazz, and Guns of Brixton. It's an album you can listen to straight through and enjoy every song. It's timeless. Find it. Listen to it. You owe it to yourself!

3) Ten - Pearl Jam: Reminds me of chilling in my mate Jay's room as teens, with beers when we could get them. Good times. It's still one of the best grunge albums ever, standing shoulder to shoulder with greats like Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'.

4) Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys: The album that defined 2005/2006 for me. Every track is good enough to be a stand alone single and most of them ended up as such. 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor' was all I wanted to listen to for about 2 months straight. This also became the fastest selling UK debut album of all time.

5) The Ultimate Collection - The Kinks: This is recent and I have no real memories around it. 'Dedicated Follower of Fashion' always reminds me of my dad though, in a funny and good way. It's a long story, but lets just say that he owned a Crombie coat, an Aquascutum jacket, and car with a record player in it! I'm cheating as well because this is a 'best of' album. But still, The Kinks! How good were they! Why did no one force me to listen to them before?!

And now, from Dan, this great free music streamer... with track from the albums above. Did you see what I did? Clever eh?!

"About 25% of sexually active South Africans are HIV positive, according to the government."

That's totally the scariest statistic that I've ever seen. Complements of the beeb. What the long term impact of that will have on working age South Africans who knows. In twenty to thirty years the face of South Africa will have changed completely.

US friendly fire kills British soldier

Gut wrenching stuff... even for the USAF pilots. The subtitles aren't in sync with the video, but they also run on for a bit longer than the video actually shows.

Where you been?

Mama Shamone @ Metro
Originally uploaded by Ian Wilson.

Gawd, what is this blog thing again? In an attempt to write something, anything, here's a recent summary of Ian.

1) Going to A LOT of gigs... and loving every minute of them
2) Taking loads of photo's... of which some are okay
3) Loving the Six Nations... welcome back Johnny you legend!
4) Trying to get back into the habit of work... it's taken a month but I think I'm almost there again
5) Trying to convince myself that I don't need a new 24-70mm f2.8 lens... trying in vain
6) Drinking too much beer... and watching my boep swell in return
7) Looking forward to South Africa in 18 days... sun glorious sun
8) Looking forward to Berlin in March... lederhosen JA!
9) Looking forward to New York in April... expect cheesy tourist pics

Oh yes, and number 10, a large truck drove into the side of my shiny BMW. I was not impressed. Both doors need to be replaced, rear bumper and right hand rear quarter panel need respraying.