Content Downloading?

For me, the trouble with Spotify/downloading music/We7 etc is the flicking. Everybody 'knows' loads of new bands and can stand in the pub and say 'have you heard of such and such' but you don't really get to KNOW the music this way. I’m sure most people can still remember teenage days, when you bought an album not knowing when you'd buy another, you listened to that album, the good tracks and the bad, really got under the skin. If something is free I suppose it’s only natural that it become more throwaway. So what are the connotations for music? Even now when I listen to a lot of bands that are recommended to me it all too often falls into what I like to refer to as easy listening, a kind of ‘laboratory indie’ to coin a phrase. It’s pleasant enough but there’s nothing life changing there, not for me at least. Ok, so life changing records can’t be expected to come along all the time otherwise they would probably cease to exist but I just find it so, what’s the word, ‘meh’?

The Presence of Giants

We are all aware of the ever-increasing dominance of chain stores on our high streets, the ominously encroaching blandness. I recently went back to a town that for a long time I called home and there experienced the disappointment of seeing the rather harrowing sight of a familiar little independent shop having been replaced by another all too familiar chain store. There were several cases in this particular market town that have arisen since last I was there (the most prominent victim for me being a reasonably sized book shop) and I must admit that I was surprised by the strength of the feeling of loss.

You might expect the mixed-period architecture to be unaffected but I could swear it is unhappy. I get the distinct impression of something that has had its guts blown out and a mask pinned across its face presenting a big smile. If you listen carefully you can almost hear the muffled mumblings of objection.

The shops that do survive are often the less useful ones, particularly in a town like this. The antiquey type places, the variety that tourists love. Tourists that will come and poke around, maybe buy the odd nik-nak, then go and have coffee at Pret. The danger is, quite frankly, Glastonbury: A beautiful town in one of the most beautiful parts of the country, not to mention an essay in itself. If you want to buy a crystal you need only walk a couple of yards in any direction but if you want to buy food or a hammer and nails you must go and bow before the big supermarkets and DIY stores on the edge of town. Whilst tourists are a useful, in some cases essential, source of income for the local economy it seems a bit of a waste if they feed the giants. Perhaps local shop-keepers should use that in their windows; “Please do not feed the giants”.

First Entry

Over the past six months I have travelled what I am sure is a much trodden metaphorical path, from ‘I will never blog’ via, ‘blogging could be useful’, ‘to blog or not to blog’, ‘I could have blogged by now’, to here; blogging.

I am a part one year out architecture student and I intend to use this space as motivation to exercise my theoretical tongue and express my views and philosophies. As such I expect it could contain my thoughts and ramblings on pretty much anything.