Whitby Nov 2011

Must try to keep my phone alive over Whitby next time so I don't have to do a full summary review at the end.

I caught most of the bands in the Spa on Friday night. Berlin Black were an brilliant start to the weekend & I watched the whole set with Arthur. I missed Cryogenica but caught the first half of Devilish Presley, who were excellent & well done to them for continuing after the mishap at the start. I didn't see The Mist of Avalon at all but the excitable bassist enthused me to buy the album on Saturday night. Finally Abney Park finished the night so I stuck around for most of their set, great showmanship from them as usual. Flittered around otherwise seeing everyone & checking on Tasha who had volunteered to help out with the coat check!

Checked out some of the stalls on Saturday afternoon but didn't even make it over to the Leisure Centre & I hear the Met was empty!

I was surprised by The Death Notes on Saturday night, having Irish band members being very good. I missed most of The Dark Shadows but I hear they jumped the gun coming on :) Rhombus were excellent & I had a chance to talk with Mya & Ed before & after their set, such friendly guys. Voltaire was absolutely fantastic as usual. We only saw him a few weeks ago in Dublin but his set was as fresh as ever, loved the skull face paint. Plenty of classics & some from the new album, consummate entertainer. Admittedly, Chameleons Vox were a change in tempo but still a magnificent end to the weekend. Their cover of Soul in Isolation was beautiful & their classics were well received too.

Sunday was a very slow starter but eventually myself & Arthur made it to the Little A & Nostalgia, great night with some unfamiliar tunes but will check out Martin's setlist for tracks.

Books for this year included Natasha Scharf's Worldwide Gothic. Yet to read it but chapters look good & photos are excellent, with some familiar WGW faces. While in York, I picked up Liisa Ladouceur's Encyclopedia Gothica, highly recommend it, some funny comments & covers many familiar & some unfamiliar topics. Finally in Liverpool, I picked up Taschen's De Lempicka hardback & the Tate's Alice in Wonderland catalog from their brilliant Alice exhibition.

WGW November 2011

Links to the band’s Last.fm top tracks that are playing in November for listening inspiration.

(Think I have correct The Dark Shadows)

Abney Park
The Mist of Avalon
Devilish Presley
Cryogenica
Berlin Black

Chameleon Vox
The Last Dance
Rhombus
The Dark Shadows
The Death Notes

Dinner

This is Tasha’s menu from dinner over the weekend. Lots of washing up though…

Prosecco

Antipasti, meats, mozzarella, tomatoes and basil, artichoke, olives
Homemade rosemary focaccia

Raspberry Sorbet

White Lasagne
Homemade pasta made by Tasha
Béchamel with parma ham and porcini layered with parmigiano

Rocket, goats cheese and walnut salad

Sea bass with thyme and rosemary
Accompanied with roasted aubergine, courgette and squash

Fresh exotic fruit salad
Cheeses and biscuits

Lashings of wine

Coffee and tea

Info Overload

I had added a lot of news providers for tech, video games. movies, etc. to Twitter but as I also use Google Reader, I’ve been overloaded with repeat posts in TweetDeck.

So I’ve removed all of them from Twitter and now only have individuals i.e. real friends and some celebs there. Any missing sources from Twitter have been brought over to GR.

Still getting a bit of repetition on GR but I’ll just have to trim back the feeds.

Foursquare

It seems Foursquare is getting more and more publicity recently, some good and bad. While I haven’t been able to make full use of the service (I need iPhone or Android phone for best experience), there are a few recommendations to keep it from being a risk to the user and an annoyance to others.

• In Settings, you can link Foursquare to Facebook and Twitter to post updates but it’s probably best just to send mayorships and badges to prevent bombarding your friends with check-ins.
• This also addresses the concern over location privacy highlighted by PleaseRobMe as you are not broadcasting your location anymore. Any friends on Foursquare will, of course, be able to check your location.
• Some check-ins are absurd such as peoples’ private homes, roads, etc. which are a big security risk or just silly. Stick to public venues such as shops, pubs, cinemas, etc.
• Check out this list for all the badges available and make sure to check-in to some of the more obscure places such as playgrounds, gyms and airports, etc.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to sort out a proper device for checking in soon as the service looks fun.