A very Spanish show

This week’s digital broadcast (or podcast, if you prefer) is out and bouncing around every corner of the interwebs.

It’s a very Spanish affair – intended to celebrate a few of the *many* peculiarities that Bren experienced when he lived in Bérchules, a tiny, remote, high-mountain village in the district of Granada.

The music is Spanish (and yet it isn’t), and the facts are all true – even the one about Bren getting arrested when he lived there.

1. You can listen by streaming the show straight from our website: just click here!
2. Or you can download the show to your computer – or your mobile phone – so you can listen whenever you want, and in the privacy of your own home: just right click here and use the ‘save’ or ‘save as’ option in your browser
3. Or, if you have iTunes, you can get the show from the iTunes store (free of charge!): just click here and listen to it on your iPod, iPhone, iPad, your computer or other iTunes-compatible music player. Better than radio!

The Cornbury Music Festival – Part 4

I’ll tell you one reason why blogging is cool; over time you start following other people’s blogs, then you kind of get to know them through emails and Skype, and then……….. if you are lucky like me, you finally get to meet them!

Oh yeh, at the Cornbury Festival last weekend, I finally got to meet Sophie and Brennig Jones from the blog Brennig Jones (and friends). Actually, it’s not their blog that they are most famous for. They produce a very popular weekly podcast called ‘This Reality Podcast‘ which puts ‘em up there (I’ll give you details about the podcast later because I am like that…. a Mother Theresa type figure but without the teatowel).

Pic.No.1. Sophie and Bren’s ‘This Reality Podcast‘ website – how cool?

So there I was at the festival, and I texted Soph and Bren: “Are you here yet? where are you?“

The reply came back; “Yes, we are here. We are to the right of the Sound Tower, 20 metres back, next to some bins.”

I pushed my way through the throngs, and eventually made it to the right hand side of the Sound Tower, only to realise that the 20 metre area they had described, probably contained about 2000 people. I also realised that I looked like a bit mentally ill, pushing through the crowd, and then stopping to stare at all their faces.

Just as I was about to give up hope of finding them in the crowd, I saw someone dressed in a white ‘This Reality Podcast‘ t-shirt, shouting “Yoo hoo! Annie, over here!”

It was Sophie and Bren….. ‘Houston. The Eagle has landed‘.

After greetings all round, I realised that Soph was holding a recently procured plate of pie and chips. Isn’t that a bummer… having to eat a full meal (standing up) in front of someone you have just met?

We had a bit of a laugh and chatted, and then I realied that Soph hadn’t touched her pie.

“Why aren’t you eating your pie?” I asked her.

“Because I can’t eat it standing up,” she replied, “I can’t cut it up with one hand.”

Awwwww…… how nice is that? She had neglected eating her pie in order to chat to me. Keen to impress, I immediately sat down on the grass so that Sophie could sit next to me and eat.

Soph also plonked herself down, and then said, “erm, sorry to say this, but I think that you’ve just sat in a plate of chilli and rice.”

Sacre bleu. I stood up and turned around, only to find a plateful of chilli stuck to my butt cheek. I brushed it off, to the sound of Steve laughing loudly; “you’ve still got a jalapeno stuck to your ass!”

Sometimes in life, it is hard to retain your dignity.

After finishing her pie, Sophie turned to me and said, “oh, that reminds me, I have got something for you,” and after fishing about in her rucksack, she handed me a ‘This Reality Podcast‘ t-shirt. COOL!

Well Soph and Bren, it was fabulous fun finally meeting up with you. I hope we can do it again soon.

P.S. Thanks for sending me your pictures and videos of the Cornbury Festival so that I could do my blog (*note to reader* I lost my camera see).

P.P.S. Readers….. check out ‘This Reality Podcast’, it’s great. Go to iTunes and type ‘this reality pod‘ in the search box. Or you can download it here ‘This Reality Podcast‘.

Two days in 50 minutes

I’m watching ‘My Super Sweet 16UK’ on Viva. I am gobsmacked. Spoilt little bitches like this actually exist in this country? They should be held down and shat on. Anyway…

This week’s show is out and you can listen to it on iTunes or at the website. It’s a full-on review of last week’s Cornbury Music Festival.

Soph talks about how pretty Joshua Radin is. And how pretty Sean of Contraband is.

Bren talks about interviewing Sean and him being told there’s a bunch of girls outside who want him to sign their breasts.

If you’re interested in little anecdotes like these and four really TOP TRACKS, your listening options are simple:

1. You can listen by streaming the show straight from our website: just click here!
2. Or you can download the show to your computer – or your mobile phone – so you can listen whenever you want, and in the privacy of your own home: just right click here and use the ‘save’ or ‘save as’ option in your browser
3. Or, if you have iTunes, you can get the show from the iTunes store (free of charge!): just click here and listen to it on your iPod, iPhone, iPad, your computer or other iTunes-compatible music player. Better than radio!

Getting ready for the weekend

• Personal mobile phone fully charged? Check!
• Podcast mobile phone fully charged? Check!
• Videocamera batteries fully charged? Check!
• Digitial still cameras (2) batteries fully charged? Check!
• Spare batteries for digital still camera (1)? Check!
• Portable stereo mp3 recorder batteries fully charged? Check!
• Spare batteries for mp3 recorder? Check!
• Condenser microphone (for mp3 recorder) battery fully charged? Check!
• Spare battery for condenser microphone? Check!
• ID? Check!
• Cash? Check!
• Plastic? Check!
• T-Shirts (boxful, maybe 100 of them)? Check!

As you can tell from this checklist, we’re gearing up for something *very* special.

We are preparing for a weekend that promises to be absolutely brilliant. This weekend it is the Cornbury Music Festival. Yippee!

Somehow I’ve managed to wangle us (us in the name of our audio production, This Reality Podcast) full press accreditation and a pair of go anywhere/backstage passes for the weekend.

Forty-four bands appearing on 3 stages over 2 days.

And we can mingle with them all!

I’ve lobbed in a speculative request for a one-to-one interview with Jackson Browne. We’ll do other interviews on an ad hoc basis.

And the public, of course; we shall be interviewing them too.

Last year we camped at Cornbury. This year we’re going to try the ‘day visitor’ experience.

Camping at Cornbury was a piece of cake and a very pleasurable experience, but as we live so close, we’ve decided to come home to recharge our batteries – and the batteries of some of our electrical items.

Not only am I looking forward to a weekend full of music, I’m also looking forward to meeting a bunch of interesting people and having the full-on ‘festival’ experience.

If you’re at a loose end on Saturday or Sunday, why don’t you come up to the village of Charlbury, Oxfordshire and get yourself a bunch of musical listening? Day tickets are an unbelievably affordable £55 each – and under 12s go free.

Music for your ears

Who is the female acoustic singer described as charming, self-effacing, pretty and extremely talented? And just how wonderful does her work sound?

Who is the Oxford-based band who were almost described as a lost Led Zeppelin track featuring Jimmi Hendrix on guitar? And how excellent does their blend of Blues and Rock sound?

Who is the solo singer/songwriter described as being one of the Welshest men in the history of being Welsh? And how beautiful does his work sound?

Who is the Oxford-based band who isn’t an Oxford-based band? And how emotionally moving does their work sound?

How should we pronounce ‘Anemo’?

What errors have we spotted in Ridley Scott’s film ‘Robin Hood’ – and how is this even possible when we haven’t seen the film yet?

The answers to these, and many other questions, can be found in this weekend’s edition of This Reality Podcast – our 115th show! – which you can listen to online here.

Or you can right click and save it to your computer here.

Or you can get it from iTunes here.

It’s free.

It’s a little bit childish.

It’s packed with excellent music.

There are no adverts and, best of all, we didn’t rip off your licence fee to make it.

This Reality Podcast is independently made, it features independent music and is made for independently-minded listeners.

Fancy trying something new?

Because I am a bit like Mother Theresa (but without the teatowel on my head), I thought that I would share with you a weekly Podcast that I subscribe to; quite simply because I like it and you might too.

It’s called ‘This Reality Podcast’, and it’s produced by two (fairly) local people called Brennig and Sophie Jones who live in Witney which is in Oxfordshire, just like me. And they have a blog, just like me, but theirs is called Brennig Jones (and friends).

Bloody hell, thinking about it, we seem to be virtually cloning each other [note to self: buy some radical underwear as a differentiation strategy].

Anyway, I digress. Every Friday evening I download their podcast and listen to it (in part), for three subequent days whilst I take Naughty George on his daily drag. It’s pretty handy like that, because the duration of the podcast is literally three dog-walks long [for the remaining 4 dogwalks of the week, I listen to 'Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4'].

‘So what’s the score with this podcast?’ I hear you cry.

The answer is twofold. Firstly there is some nice easy mentalist banter to listen to, and secondly is the quality of the music. They specialise in unsigned, chilled alternative bands, and (if I knew how to do it), I would probably download 90% of the music they play to my ipod.

‘Ok, you have convinced me to give it a try,’ I hear you cry, ‘how do I go about it?’

Aaah crap. I knew that you would go all technical on me, but still, I’ll try and be helpful like my Mother Theresa alter-ego.

This is what you do if you have an iPod and iTunes account:

First, go to iTunes and open up the the iTunes Store.
Then click on ‘Podcasts’ on the top menu
Type ‘this reality pod‘ in the ’search store’ box in the top right of the screen
If you have done it correctly, ‘This Reality Podcast’ should be the first one in the list (see below)

Pic.No.2. Screen shot of ‘This Reality Podcast‘ website

So give the podcasts a go, and once you have done that, I encourage you to visit the website (like I do) to take the mickey out of one of the presenters (Brennig). Allegedly, he has pointy nipples. Isn’t that weird? 

Anyway…. enjoy, and if you have any recommendations that you can pass onto me, I’ll be glad to hear ‘em.

Gurgle, glug, squelch, gurgle, squelchhhhhh

the sounds you can hear seem to be emanating from my tummy. i blame the pizza and jacket potato skins that i’ve just sent to a better place…

Friday evenings in the house of fun tend to follow a regular pattern:

1. We get home
2. We order a home-delivery pizza
3. We bumble about for 40 minutes doing talking and/or internetty stuff, until
4. Pizza arrives, then
5. We watch an episode of Buffy whilst devouring the crusty goodness, then
6. Soph makes mugs of tea and glasses of squash, while
7. Bren moves the laptops in to the studio, where we
8. Sit in front of the laptops, mixer deck and microphones while we
9. Record another episode of the weekly entertainment show known as This Reality Podcast

Except this Friday, we didn’t!

This evening we shut ourselves in the studio and did the podcast *first*!

I know, what rebels we are!

But as a result of our rebellious speediness, this week’s show is available on iTunes (or is gettable from the website) two hours earlier than usual!

Yes, that’s how amazing we are. Or not. You can choose.

But this week there are four works of musical art for you to enjoy and a telephone call with Milton Keynes’ most famous ex-resident-IT-expert-cum-poet-who-now-lives-in-Nebraska.

And random discussions on a variety of topics.

And hello to Tom Robinson.

So come and join us. Just click on the links above and who knows, you might even crack a smile.*

* The management of This Reality Podcast would like to point out that other facial expressions are available. Thank you.

Gurgle, glug, squelch, gurgle, squelchhhhhh

the sounds you can hear seem to be emanating from my tummy. i blame the pizza and jacket potato skins that i’ve just sent to a better place…

Friday evenings in the house of fun tend to follow a regular pattern:

1. We get home
2. We order a home-delivery pizza
3. We bumble about for 40 minutes doing talking and/or internetty stuff, until
4. Pizza arrives, then
5. We watch an episode of Buffy whilst devouring the crusty goodness, then
6. Soph makes mugs of tea and glasses of squash, while
7. Bren moves the laptops in to the studio, where we
8. Sit in front of the laptops, mixer deck and microphones while we
9. Record another episode of the weekly entertainment show known as This Reality Podcast

Except this Friday, we didn’t!

This evening we shut ourselves in the studio and did the podcast *first*!

I know, what rebels we are!

But as a result of our rebellious speediness, this week’s show is available on iTunes (or is gettable from the website) two hours earlier than usual!

Yes, that’s how amazing we are. Or not. You can choose.

But this week there are four works of musical art for you to enjoy and a telephone call with Milton Keynes’ most famous ex-resident-IT-expert-cum-poet-who-now-lives-in-Nebraska.

And random discussions on a variety of topics.

And hello to Tom Robinson.

So come and join us. Just click on the links above and who knows, you might even crack a smile.*

* The management of This Reality Podcast would like to point out that other facial expressions are available. Thank you.

In the studio/out and about

This Reality Podcast show #110 – which includes a live phone call with singer/songwriter Jessie Grace, a pre-recorded interview with singer/songwriter Ben Walker, four tracks of musical goodness and a bit of rabbiting about any old thing – hit the world last night.

It’s funny how everything seems so fast and frenetic (and just a little bit frantic?) in the studio, yet suddenly, a whole hour has gone by. Weird.

Anyway, it’s 7.30am Saturday, the sky is blue and clear, the sun has been doing its best to warm the planet for an hour.

This afternoon I’ll drive down to Larkhill, on Salisbury Plain, to walk the cross-country course (twice!) for tomorrow’s BE one-day Event.

And drink hot chocolate. And eat a home-made chocolate brownie.

I believe that walking the cross-country course twice is more than equal to a hot chocolate and a home-made chocolate brownie.

They must, surely, balance each other out?

Before I head southwards I’ll ride Tom this morning. I also need to check the lorry over, make sure that everything I need is stored away in its proper place, and rinse out and refill the water containers

I’m taking a proper groom with me tomorrow. This will be the first time I’ve ever used help in this way.

This could be an interesting experience, having professional help, but I hope that having someone there – to do the grooming, tacking-up, studding-up, lunging, tack-changing between the phases and wash-down afterwards – will reduce my stress levels and allow me to concentrate on the riding.

I just hope that Tom concentrates as much as I will!

A bank holiday weekend stretches before us

It’s 8.30pm on (Good) Friday evening and the chocolate remains untouched.

I know! Are we mad or just bonkers? But pizza has been eaten so we’re not completely off our game.

This weekend’s entertainment show that is known as This Reality Podcast has been flung outwards and is nestling on a branch of the tree of iTunes, waiting for you to pluck and devour and enjoy. Or you could go to the website and stream it online. Or download it from there if you choose.

The content this week includes free chocolate*, five free tracks of musical excellence, a free CD give-away, a free T-Shirt give-away, a free review of the film ‘Kick-Ass’ (don’t tell The Daily Mail) and more.

In other news.

I had a day off horses today; yesterday we took Tom show-jumping at a private yard which had a course of the very scariest fillers and fences ever. He jumped like a star.

Next weekend Tom and I are competing at a one-day event at Larkhill down on Salisbury Plain; hope the weather dries up!

We might go cross-country schooling tomorrow but this too is dependent on the weather. We’ll be flat-work schooling indoors if the rain continues to come down sideways.

The plan for the rest of the weekend (outside of horsey-time) is to have lots of bed, lots of films, lots of reading and lots of Easter Eggs.

What about you, what will you be up to?

* Sorry, the free chocolate has gone already!