A local band called Rusty Shackle at Dabdown Festival

http://youtu.be/zB3d6KaKT1U

A local band called Rusty Shackle at Dabdown Festival.

Some vids from the very first Dabdown Festival on 21st April 2012 in the heart of
The Forest of Dean, hosted by The Miners Arms, Whitecoft near Lydney. Featured various bands including Sian & The Sugardaddies, Rusty Shackle, livestock davis & The Lowdown Snakes and The Legends of The West Country THE WURZELS. With nice roast hog, real ale and scrumpy a good day was had by all including lots of kids!

The Legends of The West Country THE WURZELS.mp4

Love Saves The Day festival in Bristol

This looks good fun in Bristol on the Jubilee weekend! A new dance music festival is coming to Bristol in June over the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee long weekend. Love Saves The Day, taking place in Castle Park on Sunday, June 3, with tickets costing just £19.50, has already got some big names confirmed including Annie Mac, Mr Scruff, Bonobo, Roots Manuva, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs and Bristol’s very own DJ Derek.

The new festival is the brainchild of the team behind Glastonbury Dance Village’s Wow! stage, See No Evil and In:Motion.

The partnership promise that they “have come together to put all these years of experience into what will be a celebration of all of it, a celebration of this city and all that makes it so great, but beyond that a celebration of music, parties, and good times”.

Mango cafe on exeter quayside

With the boys in a nice cafe called mango on the quayside. Lots of character very hippyish decor! Nice vine. Dylan background music well now its howling wolf....can't be bad !

@bristol Easter weekend

Loads of good kids activities on this weekend. My boys having now fun now. Get good value from our season tickets.

Easter weekend - bristol chocolate festival.

Another super bristol event. Loads of stalls on the Harbourside, music and activities. Choc and Churros to die for!

Megachange - the world in 2050.

New book out called Megachange looks good. Not forecasting disaster now at 2050. Takes an optimistic view thank god - for those of us with children.

Feeling the pressure?

From the BBC . Looks interesting....

" Feeling the pressure? Is stress triggered by your genes or by your lifestyle? Help us investigate the causes of stress, and get personalised tips for improving your mental wellbeing. Part of a real science experiment. Takes just 20 minutes.........."

Amazing Fishing and Landscape Pictures

Truly some of the best photos I have ever seen.

Awe inspiring images!

And you can buy prints etc.

Moby says Britney Spears 'isn't music'. So what is?

Good piece in the The Guardian about Moby and some rather silly comments he recently made about pop. Coming from an artist who made millions from music for ads its a bit odd!

"In hypocritically describing pop as 'advertising for ringtones', Moby fails to grasp the genre's great emotional highs and lows" etc......

Fresh Crabs from Beer in Devon for Tea!

Bought two crabs from the fish shop on the beach at Beer in Devon on Bank Holiday Monday for £10 ie £2.50 per pound. Lovely litle fish shop with fresh fish from the boats that land daily on the beach below the shop. We saw a big box of large crabs, that had been landed that morning and had been cooked so were still very warm. Eating them for tea a couple of hours later took well over an hour as extracting the flesh, cracking the claws etc is a long fiddly process. Good fun though! Beautiful delicate, nutty, slightly salty flavour. When this fresh crab is not at all fishy.  

 

Day out at Beachenhurst in the Forest of Dean

Was a lovely sunny day last Sunday so went to Beachenhurst Lodge up in the Forest of Dean for a picnic and walk on the famous Sculpture Trail.

The facilities at Beachenhurst Lodge are good for kids and families with picnic tables and it is all clean and safe. Good playground as well. "Formerly the site of Speech House colliery, Beechenhurst is now the ideal base for a family day out with walking trails, cafe facilities and a play area".

Beechenhurst is the starting point for the famous Sculpture Trail, the walk features pieces by famous artists set in beautiful woodland surroundings

See Forest of Dean for background on the area. Loads of things to do and you can hire bikes nearby as well

The Wonders of Bristol Museum

Did a visit to Bristol Museum with my boys. The dinosaurs are good, as are all the exhibits. The South West of England is rich in archeology and history and the museum is well worth a visit. Theres always something new or on display. Good play area as well!

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year Photography Exhibition was super as well even if you wonder how many of the animals pictured will still be on the planet in the wild in 20 or 30 years.

Eclipse by DJ Pod - Ripsnorter UK - Psychedelic Tech-Funk

Some good dance music here. Lots of fun like Ripsnorter nights in Bristol! Its a 188Mb MP3 Free download.

" Text by DJ Pod: Eclipse by DJ Pod. Psychedelic Tech-Funk.
Ripsnorter UK Ripsnorter UK Start following Bristol's Underground Party Crew. 'Avinit since 1997

Tags: psychedelic tech-funk tech-trance psybreaks dubstep electro-house breaks hard-dance progressive


A genre-bustin' mix of psychedelia, funk & meaty beats...This was gonna be my 'Spring 2011 Mix' or something - I set out to do something quite light and bouncy...but it soon took a turn to the darkside! Hence the title.


I'd like to state this was a one-take-mix using my usual DJ set up. But it wasnt. It was painstakingly put together in Ableton Live over several days using my own edits & remixes & some wicked brand new tracks.
Anyway trainspotters, here’s the tracklisting:


1. Soul Taker – Jason Sparks


2. Thequenique – Riskotheque


3. Universal Language – Nick Sentience


4. Fille De La Soie – The Riddler


5. Zooloo – Pleasurekraft Remix


6. Ask The Right Questions – Neelix


7. Galaxy Traveller – Felguk (Neelix Remix)


8. Snakecharmer – Neurodriver (LuQas Remix)


9. Explorer – Triple Agent


10. In The Burgh – Subliminal System (Monkeylogic Remix)


11. Spaced – Orzel’s Machine


12. The System – Pyramid vs Far Too Loud


13. Damnation – Unconscious Mind(s)


14. Shock Treatment – Far Too Loud


15. L.S.Dance – Psysex vs Activator


16. A Beach In Japan – CPU


17. All Get Down – Nick Sentience (Mik Cree Re-rub)


18. Crossfire – Type 1


19. Nocturnal Heist – Nick Sentience vs DJ Pod


20. Reon – Nick Sentience


21. Heaven Hell – Sinister Silence (Audiomatic Vaishiyas Remix)


22. KPH – Orzel’s Machine ".

Tweetdeck - An App worth Using?

Anyone got a view on whether TweetDeck is worth using?

Negative experiences can stop painkillers working

Interesting programme on Radio 4 last night on this subject. Helps explain placebos and homeopathy perhaps!

"A patient's belief that a drug will not work can become a self fulfilling prophecy, according to researchers. They showed the benefits of painkillers could be boosted or completely wiped out by manipulating expectations. Professor Anthony Jones, Salford Royal Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Work from our own lab and those of others indicates that expectations are a key driver to pain perception and to placebo analgesic effects. So this provides further confirmation of that idea in relation to drug effects. "

The Wonder of Ordinary Places - a blog by Julian Hoffman

Just came across this writers lovely blog about where he lives in Northern Greece. Its delightful. It has soul. Beautiful landscape photographs.

"Julian Hoffman is a writer living beside the Prespa Lakes in northern Greece. Notes from Near and Far is his blog on the nature of place".

Wyndcliffe to Tintern on the Wye Valley Walk

Having today done the section of the Wye Valley path from Chepstow to Wyndcliffe by lunchtime we then climbed up the "365 Steps" path up the cliff past Wyndcliffe itself (quarried limestone cliffs) to get to the top of the ridge.

On the top we then walked the Wye Valley Walk path to Tintern Abbey stopping for a picnic on route in a field with good views to Penterry radio masts and hill fort.

Wyndcliffe has a lot of rock climbing routes. See the link below if interested. Having climbed most of the  routes to E3 I would happily recommend Wyndcliffe main crag for traditional climbing, with the lower quarry providing good bolted sports climbs. See: http://www.climbers-club.co.uk/downloads/lwv_wyndcliff.pdf

Chepstow to Wyndcliffe on the Wye Valley Path

We did a nice walk this afternoon from Chepstow to Tintern via the Wye Valley Walk with a picnic on route then got the bus back home from Tintern which all worked out well. This is the first section from Chepstow to the Wyndcliffe car park. The whole walk takes a couple of hours elapsed time.