A random thread for small entertainment things not warranting their own thread..

[Mrs Pingu]

The gratuitous key change in music is overused. Discuss.

[red marley]

Also known as the the truck driver's gear change.

One of my faves - Sunny with three gear changes in two minutes:

http://youtu.be/ILEXei9rfhw

[Mrs Pingu]

The key change with every verse. That ought to be outlawed.

[Andrij]

There are 'performers' out there who can change key mid-song?!   Next you'll be telling me there are bands that know more than three chords. 

[RichForrest]

One of my faves - Sunny with three gear changes in two minutes:

http://youtu.be/ILEXei9rfhw

The acoustic version of the same song on there is great also 

[CrinklyLion]

From the NMeM yesterday

[Ham]

All that Sunny stuff led me to Panteon Rococo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oToSMhH8fUo) and the rest of their stuff https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBgHWAfCeYA&list=RDsdpGDlytX30

A bit like what Manu Chao would sound like if he ever sold out to commercialism? Owes an awful lot to Manu Chao, anyhow.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

The gratuitous key change in music is overused. Discuss.

But how else would Westlife know when it's time to stand up?

[Peter]

For gratuitous key changes, it's hard to beat "I Walk The Line" by Johnny Cash.  It's great for teaching guitarists how to play bass runs, though!

[tiermat]

The gratuitous key change in music is overused. Discuss.

Gratuitous ones, yes, but key changes are an integral part of songs, and essential for some band's style ( see Biffy Clyro)

[Mrs Pingu]

Hence the use of the word gratuitous...

[mattc]

The site posted by Jo gives a brilliant analysis of "gratuitous" vs "integral":

http://www.gearchange.org/muso_intro.asp

(Great find - I thought I was the only one finding this tedious!)

[T42]

As I recall from my quasi-musical days, modulation implies changing from a key I could play in to one where I couldn't.

[Ham]

Why is it that Funk & Soul sounds best on a Saturday night?

Just listening to Craig Charles on iPlayer, it's good, just not the same.

[tiermat]

Why is it that Funk & Soul sounds best on a Saturday night?

Just listening to Craig Charles on iPlayer, it's good, just not the same.

It is because F&S is what the weekend is for!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/W6Cv66PqF9M&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/W6Cv66PqF9M&rel=1</a>

[Bledlow]

Inside Out South had a bit on cycling last night. First part of the programme. 06 Jan, 19.30

[citoyen]

Why is it that Funk & Soul sounds best on a Saturday night?

For the same reason that Jarvis Cocker sounds best on a Sunday afternoon while preparing a roast dinner.

Probably.

[LEE]

The poster for the new 'Hunger Games' movie really irritates me.

She's supposed to be a super-skilled archer. The poster shows her with her finger hooked over the arrow. FFS, didn't they employ anyone on set who knew anything about archery?

Could be worse - Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye in Avengers Assemble was roundly panned for having very poor archery form:

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/03/avengers-hawkeye-archery/

I think Hawkeye was the one whose bow was sort of hinged/collapsible.  When he needed to use it he flicked it and it expanded into a full-length bow...but totally against the force of the bow-string.

That led me to conclude that the bow-string was actually rather weak "knicker-elastic" and hence why he was able to draw the bow with such poor form (That and it being a fantasy film of course).

I could go on about Legolas's rate of fire in LOTR but then again....

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/1o9RGnujlkI&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/1o9RGnujlkI&rel=1</a>

[Pingu]

http://www.concerthotels.com/100-years-of-rock

[Dibdib]

Ditching Sky TV - even with the fat discounts they've offered me, I don't use it enough to justify the price. So I'm downgrading to one of the Six-ish Quid A Month streaming providers, probably Netflix or LoveFilm.

Considering I'm more of a TV box-sets person than a movie buff, I'm erring towards Netflix but does anyone have any experience of choosing between the two?

[red marley]

I think netflix offers a better range and service than Lovefilm. Much of Lovefilm's content is only available via DVD/post rather than streaming. My experience of DVDs is that a good proportion of them (maybe 1 in 8 ) are scratched and need returning which makes boxed set viewing frustrating.

There is a big overlap between the two in terms of content, but for US boxed set binging, the quality of the netflix offerings is better in my view. For example,

On netflix, but not love film:

Breaking bad
Orange is the New Black
House of Cards (US and UK versions)
Arrested Development
Dexter (Lovefilm now has content up to series 7, but netflix has all 8 and generally made previous series available earlier)

On lovefilm but not netflix:

The Shield
Walking Dead
Weeds

But the clincher for me is that netflix has a better range of UK and European TV / films.

Netflix is better at recommending new programmes based on what you have previously watched if that is useful to you. It also seems to offer a more reliable and less processing-intensive technology for streaming and viewing.

[Biggsy]

I'm worried about Gregory Porter overheating on stage.

[tiermat]

DSF5 has released the first list of bands to play this year, thusly:

Johnny Marr, British Sea Power, Stornoway, Steve Mason, Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip,
Summer Camp, We Were Evergreen, Withered Hand, Denai Moore, Nordic Giants, PAWS,
Georgia Ruth, Pins, All We Are, Police Dog Hogan, Raglans.


A good line up so far, shame we will miss it as we will be in Glasgow watching people run round in circles...

[Wowbagger]

Mrs. Wow and I have been discussing television programmes from our extreme youth. As ever, we could not agree on something, in this case when the Granada prog "Magpie" was on. I was right: it was never on when we were at primary school.

However, the main point of this post is the discovery that the puppet cowboy programme "Four Feather Falls" star was no less a person than Nicholas Parsons. FFF was last broadcast in 1960.

[citoyen]

My first memory of Nicholas Parsons is on Sale Of The Century, from the late 70s/early 80s. He was already a "veteran" entertainer by then.

Btw, am I the only one who, whenever he hears the name Nicholas Parsons, mentally appends the words "shouldn't climb trees"?