Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Electric Bogle-oo
Last week I promised tales of further Derring-Do. Well, I was going to write about completing the Cuillin Ridge traverse on Skye, but Sam's pretty much summed it up in words, and Rik's got pretty photos up too. All I can really add to that is how chuffed I am to have completed one of Scotland's best mountaineering challenges in good time, with good weather and with good company. It really is a spectacular day (or two) out.
On to a different, but still spectacular part of Scotland - the area around Loch Laggan
I went mountain biking up there at the weekend with a different Sam, and after a wet day of cruising around the built trails at Wolftrax, we decided to go for a spin around the Ardverikie Estate.
TV watchers may be vaguely familiar with the area as the site of the ficticious Glen Bogle in Monarch of the Glen. Climbers will no doubt know of the classic Ardverikie Wall on Binean Shuas. Either way, it's a perfect place to go exploring on a clear Autumn day.
And what a day! After setting off into a fairly dense ming (it takes a lot of faith in the weather forecast to cycle directly into some clouds), we gradually saw the clouds lift as we rode on, with the odd wisp still clinging to the lochs. I know it looks pretty cool in the photos but that doesn't even get close to doing the sight justice. Even though I know it's due to temperature differences in the air, it still looks like magic happening right there.
We stormed our way through the first part of the riding - mostly on good Land Rover tracks. Because the area is a deer estate there's actually pretty good infrastructure for getting around, and even the odd holiday home hiding in the trees:
To be honest, after a while I was getting a bit weary of riding on good tracks - part of the fun of mountain biking is overcoming the obstacles that the trails throw at you. Luckily, the trail turned into some incredible singletrack snaking up a beautiful glen.
Unluckily it was the wrong glen and we had to re-trace our steps for about 6km. And the push our bikes most of the way up a munro, made all the more soul-destroying by the fact that the trail looked almost unrideable. If we were going to have to push back down the other side it would have been quite upsetting.
Of course, the downhill was rideable, and utterly fantastic.
Riding this sort of ground is exhilarating in so many ways. Squirming the bike between rocks and ruts focusses the mind like few things I know, and then letting loose of the brakes on the smoother sections brings some raw speed into proceedings. There's no time to think about how broken you'll be if you stack it - all your thoughts are on spotting the best line, or even just one that's kind of safe. Zen monks train for years to achieve and emptiness of mind like this. I suspect they'd be doubtful that riding a pushbike down a hill could lead to enlightenment though. Who cares - it's brilliant fun.
So for any mountain bikers reading this - hell, anybody reading this - get thee to Glen Bogle. It rocks.
On to a different, but still spectacular part of Scotland - the area around Loch Laggan
I went mountain biking up there at the weekend with a different Sam, and after a wet day of cruising around the built trails at Wolftrax, we decided to go for a spin around the Ardverikie Estate.
TV watchers may be vaguely familiar with the area as the site of the ficticious Glen Bogle in Monarch of the Glen. Climbers will no doubt know of the classic Ardverikie Wall on Binean Shuas. Either way, it's a perfect place to go exploring on a clear Autumn day.
And what a day! After setting off into a fairly dense ming (it takes a lot of faith in the weather forecast to cycle directly into some clouds), we gradually saw the clouds lift as we rode on, with the odd wisp still clinging to the lochs. I know it looks pretty cool in the photos but that doesn't even get close to doing the sight justice. Even though I know it's due to temperature differences in the air, it still looks like magic happening right there.
We stormed our way through the first part of the riding - mostly on good Land Rover tracks. Because the area is a deer estate there's actually pretty good infrastructure for getting around, and even the odd holiday home hiding in the trees:
To be honest, after a while I was getting a bit weary of riding on good tracks - part of the fun of mountain biking is overcoming the obstacles that the trails throw at you. Luckily, the trail turned into some incredible singletrack snaking up a beautiful glen.
Unluckily it was the wrong glen and we had to re-trace our steps for about 6km. And the push our bikes most of the way up a munro, made all the more soul-destroying by the fact that the trail looked almost unrideable. If we were going to have to push back down the other side it would have been quite upsetting.
Of course, the downhill was rideable, and utterly fantastic.
Riding this sort of ground is exhilarating in so many ways. Squirming the bike between rocks and ruts focusses the mind like few things I know, and then letting loose of the brakes on the smoother sections brings some raw speed into proceedings. There's no time to think about how broken you'll be if you stack it - all your thoughts are on spotting the best line, or even just one that's kind of safe. Zen monks train for years to achieve and emptiness of mind like this. I suspect they'd be doubtful that riding a pushbike down a hill could lead to enlightenment though. Who cares - it's brilliant fun.
So for any mountain bikers reading this - hell, anybody reading this - get thee to Glen Bogle. It rocks.
Friday, October 05, 2007
Post Rock
So I signed up for the Shuffleathon over on Swiss Toni's Blog the other week, and have already received my CD! The idea of the shuffleathon is for a bunch of strangers to send Toni their address, and he pick out a victim for each person to make a mix CD for. Once you get the mix CD you post a review on your blog, and everyone gets to discover lots of music. Ace.
Mine was made by Mark over at LifeOnPlanetMe and I've now had it for a few days and a few listens. Reviewing each of the 23 tracks individually could get a bit tedious, so I'll just give a tracklisting and then discuss my particular high and low points. I won't pull any punches on the stuff I don't like as I don't believe in pretending to like music that I hate, so please don't take that side of things personally Mark - the whole point of music is to evoke emotions!
Tracklisting:
Whole Lotta Love - Prince. I remember at school there was an urban myth that Prince had some ribs removed so that he could auto-fellate. It seemed believable at the time, partly because of Prince's ludicrous-yet-entertaining sex-dwarf persona, and partly because when you're a teenage boy you want such things to be true. I now realise that it's certainly not true, because if you could suck yourself off, WHY WOULD YOU BOTHER WANKING IN PUBLIC LIKE HE DOES ON THIS SONG? Please, Prince, put it away.
Love Will Tear Us Apart - The Cure. I love the original, and I'm quite fond of The Cure, so I was quite surprised at how bad I found this. Where the original makes you empathise with the bleak subject material by being heartfelt and catchy, this version just makes you want to smack Robert Smith and tell him to cheer the fuck up. I feel a bit absurd for criticising a Joy Division cover for being too dreary, but this sort of thing does give sad music a bad name.
Girls and Boys - Pet Shop Boys. I just don't get the Pet Shop Boys at all - everything they do just sounds lifeless to me. And I hate the original. This made me want to superglue earplugs into my ear canals forever so that I don't accidentally hear it again.
Street Life - Morrissey. Oh, he's just a cunt, alright?
It's not all bad, though. INdeed there's some superb little numbers on there:
Teenage Kicks - Therapy? For me, Therapy? will always represent all of the unsavoury aspects of being a teenage boy. Here, they've made the song their own and turned it into a terrifyingly sinister stalker-dirge. It's actually scary to listen to. And at the end you can just about hear Andy Cairns' distorted voice saying 'Sorry Fergal' but not really meaning it. Ace.
Crazy - The Flaming Lips. The Lips always seem to do brilliant covers, often replacing many of the lyrics with their own seemingly ad-libbed words. In contrast to Gnarls Barley's dense original, this version is a far more spartan arrangement, but the quality of the song isn't dented one bit by this or by Wayne Coyne's alternative narrative.
Keep the Car Runing - Foo Fighters. Having picked one of the criminally over-rated Arcade Fire's truly great songs, Grohl and co. go for a fairly straight cover version, with an accordion taking the place of the original's strings etc. As usual, Dave Grohl's innate likeability shines through and makes this a real treat to listen to.
Hot in Herre - Beck. On just seeing this in the tracklisting I realised that 'Hot in Herre' is really a Beck song that just so happened to have been released by Nelly. The whole song is essentially one long shit chat-up line but as Beck shows here (and Nelly on the original) if you deliver it properly it can be brilliant.
There's a few other songs that I really enjoy (Radiohead's cover is a bit of an old favourite, and Coldplay use their earnestness to bring a heartbreaking quality to theirs) and some that leave me cold (Suede, Metallica, Audioslave, Ian Brown). There's some annoying niggles with a couple of tracks ending a bit abruptly and the sound levels all over the place (I really hate having to fanny about with the volume al the time to hear the songs properly). They're not critical flaws, but things that the dedicated mixtape nerd can fix easily in this glorious digital era.
As you'd expect with a mixtape for a complete stranger, it's a bit of a hit-and-miss affair for me. There's plenty on here that I don't like or am indifferent to, and I doubt I'll be listening to it much. There are, however, a few absolute corkers on here that I'll probably end up ripping and using in a mixtape of my own at some point. The main thing is that Mark's obviously put together some songs he loves and wants others to hear, which is all that you can ask for. So cheers, Mark - the CD may not have completely rocked my world but it did at least get me spastic dancing round my room to Beck.
As for my mixtape, that'll be revelaed soooooooon.
Mine was made by Mark over at LifeOnPlanetMe and I've now had it for a few days and a few listens. Reviewing each of the 23 tracks individually could get a bit tedious, so I'll just give a tracklisting and then discuss my particular high and low points. I won't pull any punches on the stuff I don't like as I don't believe in pretending to like music that I hate, so please don't take that side of things personally Mark - the whole point of music is to evoke emotions!
Tracklisting:
- Let there be Rock - Henry Rollins & the Hardons
- Whole Lotta Love - Prince
- Where's Captain Kirk? - R.E.M.
- Teenage Kicks - Therapy?
- It's Not Unusual - The Wedding Present
- Alphabet Street - Jesus and Mary Chain
- Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue - Metallica
- What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding?
- Been All Around the World - The Pixies
- Instant Karma - U2
- Keep the Car Running - Foo Fighters
- Love Will Tear Us Apart - The Cure
- Crazy - The Flaming Lips
- Hot In Herre - Beck
- Thriller - Ian Brown
- Girls and Boys - Pet Shop Boys
- Can't Get You Out of My Head - Coldplay
- Street Life - Morrissey
- Union City Blue - Suede
- Nobody Does it Better - Radiohead
- Dark Globe - David Gilmour
- Straight To Hell - Moby
- So Long and Thanks for Al the Fish - The Divine Comedy
Whole Lotta Love - Prince. I remember at school there was an urban myth that Prince had some ribs removed so that he could auto-fellate. It seemed believable at the time, partly because of Prince's ludicrous-yet-entertaining sex-dwarf persona, and partly because when you're a teenage boy you want such things to be true. I now realise that it's certainly not true, because if you could suck yourself off, WHY WOULD YOU BOTHER WANKING IN PUBLIC LIKE HE DOES ON THIS SONG? Please, Prince, put it away.
Love Will Tear Us Apart - The Cure. I love the original, and I'm quite fond of The Cure, so I was quite surprised at how bad I found this. Where the original makes you empathise with the bleak subject material by being heartfelt and catchy, this version just makes you want to smack Robert Smith and tell him to cheer the fuck up. I feel a bit absurd for criticising a Joy Division cover for being too dreary, but this sort of thing does give sad music a bad name.
Girls and Boys - Pet Shop Boys. I just don't get the Pet Shop Boys at all - everything they do just sounds lifeless to me. And I hate the original. This made me want to superglue earplugs into my ear canals forever so that I don't accidentally hear it again.
Street Life - Morrissey. Oh, he's just a cunt, alright?
It's not all bad, though. INdeed there's some superb little numbers on there:
Teenage Kicks - Therapy? For me, Therapy? will always represent all of the unsavoury aspects of being a teenage boy. Here, they've made the song their own and turned it into a terrifyingly sinister stalker-dirge. It's actually scary to listen to. And at the end you can just about hear Andy Cairns' distorted voice saying 'Sorry Fergal' but not really meaning it. Ace.
Crazy - The Flaming Lips. The Lips always seem to do brilliant covers, often replacing many of the lyrics with their own seemingly ad-libbed words. In contrast to Gnarls Barley's dense original, this version is a far more spartan arrangement, but the quality of the song isn't dented one bit by this or by Wayne Coyne's alternative narrative.
Keep the Car Runing - Foo Fighters. Having picked one of the criminally over-rated Arcade Fire's truly great songs, Grohl and co. go for a fairly straight cover version, with an accordion taking the place of the original's strings etc. As usual, Dave Grohl's innate likeability shines through and makes this a real treat to listen to.
Hot in Herre - Beck. On just seeing this in the tracklisting I realised that 'Hot in Herre' is really a Beck song that just so happened to have been released by Nelly. The whole song is essentially one long shit chat-up line but as Beck shows here (and Nelly on the original) if you deliver it properly it can be brilliant.
There's a few other songs that I really enjoy (Radiohead's cover is a bit of an old favourite, and Coldplay use their earnestness to bring a heartbreaking quality to theirs) and some that leave me cold (Suede, Metallica, Audioslave, Ian Brown). There's some annoying niggles with a couple of tracks ending a bit abruptly and the sound levels all over the place (I really hate having to fanny about with the volume al the time to hear the songs properly). They're not critical flaws, but things that the dedicated mixtape nerd can fix easily in this glorious digital era.
As you'd expect with a mixtape for a complete stranger, it's a bit of a hit-and-miss affair for me. There's plenty on here that I don't like or am indifferent to, and I doubt I'll be listening to it much. There are, however, a few absolute corkers on here that I'll probably end up ripping and using in a mixtape of my own at some point. The main thing is that Mark's obviously put together some songs he loves and wants others to hear, which is all that you can ask for. So cheers, Mark - the CD may not have completely rocked my world but it did at least get me spastic dancing round my room to Beck.
As for my mixtape, that'll be revelaed soooooooon.
Monday, October 01, 2007
Derring Do
I've been putting off writing about my trip to the Alps because, well, it was a bit of an anticlimax truth be told.
Don't get me wrong, the scenery is incredible and the whole alpine environment is mindblowing, but I just didn't get excited by it.
There were a few mitigating factors - I took a while to acclimatise to altitude and I also contracted a fairly debilitating infection in a tooth - so I'm not sure I was in the right physical state to appreciate any of it. I also got a bit pissed off with nasty loose rock, and the faff of being roped-up all of the time. I was especially peeved at not being able to slide on my arse down easy-angled snow (probably one of the most fun aspects of mountaineering) for fear of falling into a crevasse.
But there's no need to whinge, as Chamonix was a fine place to sit about and take antibiotics, and I'm very glad to have at last seen the Alps. I'll be in no rush to go back (I think fir the same amount of money I could have a MUCH better holiday elsewhere), but I've no regrets going.
And also, on the way back I visited Fontainebleu, which is a magical playground of boulders in a beautiful forest just South of Paris. Anyone who even vaguely likes climbing should go there just to play around for a few days.
There's hundreds, if not thousands, of rocks with 'circuits' of problems to climb in sequence. Each circuit is marked out with arrows and numbers to guide you from rock to rock, and most of the circuits are designed to develop your skill and strength in a whole variety of climbing techniques. It's quite simply one of the most fun ways to climb I've ever experienced as you don't hang around in one place long enough to get bored, and you can easily choose the level of challenge you're up for. And it's knackering in the best way possible. I'll definitely go back.So that was France - not as great as I'd hoped, but still not bad, and all the better for having had soe real fun at the end.
As for real tales of Derring Do - I've had quite a weekend, which I'll tell you about once I've managed to thieve some decent photos from. Watch this space.
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