a guy at my kids' school uses a big dummy to carry his two kids. They both just sit on the board now, but at one point he had one in a child seat mounted on the back, and the older one sitting on the board

reminds me of when I once volunteered for a stage hypnotist at uni

I got sent back after about 10 minutes as I wasn't as suggestible as others on the stage. At no point does the hypnotist say – now your hypnotised, he just gets everyone relaxed then starts asking everyone to do fairly basic things like, imagine you are driving a car, imagine you are hot

everyone does it – evan me. You don;t shout out, no I'm not hypnotised. no one does

they send back the ones who aren;t really getting into it, then keep ramping up the things they ask the others to do. By this time they are stuck – they can't suddenly say "i'm not going to pretend to be a monkey", because earlier they were pretending to be Freddie Mercury – everyone would think they were an idiot. so they keep acting like they are hypnotised

oh my – its rather obvious what he's doing isn't it. i'm obviously 2nd rate and uncreative

"go with it" "let it happen"

they should set off the fire alarm and see what happens!

i'm ashamed to say I fetched my phone after he told me to – just in case

we are laughing now – but a religion has been created and is growing fast based on the imagination of a science fiction writer

fat goths

really old teddy boys (a dying breed now)

replaced with

old punks

I once dressed as Gene Symonds from Kiss

some leopard skin leggings from TK Maxx
leather jacket
blonde fancy dress wig sprayed black with a can of spray paint
black and white makeup

it was awesome

they invented lego too

I didn't mean they invented those things – just that they were open to all these influences and were the first to put them on universally popular records, yes "Pop" records.

they could have just carried on playing to screaming girls and going "Yeah Yeah Yeah" but they didn't

I just love the story of the Beatles

all the pieces fell into place – right people, right place, right time, right attitude

if they had all been born a few years earlier they would have had to do National Service instead of going to Hamburg and learning how to play rock n roll to drunk sailors and strippers.

Peterpoddy – "wearn't that original"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1st feedback on record
1st backwards tape on record
1st band to experiment with recording things at different speeds
1st band to use Indian influences on pop records

Just listen to Stawberry Fields/ Penny Lane (a double a sided single). OK now it has lost its impact perhaps because you know what came afterwards – but at the time this stuff was way way way ahead of what anyone else was doing.

agree that the Beatles made some rubbish – Maxwell's Silver Hammer is one of the most awful tunes ever recorded

I think this is excusable though when you consider their work rate (1st single 1962, last album 1969) and their creativity. These days it takes all the bands of close to comparable popularity (coldplay, U2 etc) 3,4,5 years to produce one album that sounds pretty much exactly the same as the last one.

Scientists have proved that the Beatles are best – they used rats and bunson burners and everything

oh and i can't stand Paul Gambaccini 👿

i've seen a few little mx-5 type cars using the saris bones rack

i have one in my garage if you are anywhere near brighton you could test it out – i've been thinking about selling it actually as I never use it

mogrim

the beach boys were in close competition with the Beatles no doubt – but the Beatles led the way. The Beach Boys only had one musical genius, the Beatles had 2 so he was outgunned

The story goes that Brian Wilson heard "Rubber Soul" and was blown away by what the Beatles had achieved – the fact that the Album contained no filler and the studio techniques they were starting to experiment with. Inspired he then produced "Pet Sounds" – only to then here "Revolver" and be blown away again.

The Beatles took "pet Sounds" as inspiration for Sgt Peppar – Wilson's "answer" was "Smile". However he never finished it (not for another 30 years anyway) – and according to Rock Legend went insane trying to "beat" Sgt Pepper

Pantera are not in the same ball park

They are not evan the same sport as the fab four

you make it sound so simple Kimbers!

they might have started out a bit like that (although their hair was regarded as pretty outrageously long at the time) – but the Beatles can in no way be accused of paying it safe.

They went from "She Loves You" to "Tommorrow Never Knows" and "A Day in the Life" in about 3 years – name any other band that developed like that in such a short space of time.

mongoridebike

during the 60s mono was the default format for an LP. Stereo was for Hi Fi geeks and was still regarded as a bit of a gimmik at the time.

Beatles legend has it that for pretty much all the albums most care and attention was paide to the mono mixes (the beatles for example attended the mono mixing sessions for Sgt Peppar, Revolver etc, but didn't bother turning up for the stereo mixes)

in addition to modern ears some of the early stereo mixes sound a little odd – all the drums in one speaker in a lot of cases. Some stereo mixes seemed to be trying to make the most of the new technology – at the expense of the music

if you are a real geek some of the mono versions are slightly different to the stereo ones (different takes used, different speeds etc)

Let it Be and Abbey Road are the only 2 albums which are Stereo only

Harry – I can understand why bands that come after the Beatles might have got extra attention because they were from Liverpool, but why on earth would the Beatles? Your comment makes 0 sense

I'm enjoying working through the mono set. I have also got Abbey Road in Stereo. The difference in the bass is the biggest noticable change compared to the "old" CDs, also sounds much crisper and clearer.

certain tracks like "Ticket to Ride" just sound massive

the mono versions come in perfect miniature reproductions of the original vinyl sleeves, dust covers etc- evan including the free gifts from Sgt Peppar, the postcards from the White Album and the comic strip in the middle of Magical Mystery Tour.

Overpriced – probably
Geeky – very
Satisfying – oh yes

limiting families to 1 or 2 kids would be a disaster long term – we have an ageing population and not enough young people to support them in the future when everyone wants to retire

I've watched a few episodes of the corner – disapointing to be honest. Familiar settings and a lot of the same actors, but it seemed a lot more contrived (it has fake documentary scenes with actors talking to the camera)

It feels like a warm up for the wire

marr

I assume your reacting to him being on the cover of one of the guitar mags this month – i find it hilarious that they felt the need to justify his place there to their readers

he's one of those players who just sounds like himself and is instantly recognisable on record – unlike most of the widdley merchants featured in guitar mags

the walkers sweet chili are nice (escpecially now they are MSG free)

but Tyrels Sweet Chilli are da bomb!

pretty convincing demonstration

no, no CGI – films like the Thing, American Werewolf in London, Alien and Aliens represent a peak of non-cgi monster effects. CGI just looks like a video game in comparisson

wicked film – got the dvd recently after having only an awful vhs before

honestly, for a purchased, non taped off the tv video it was appaling – couldn't make out what was happening during the last transformation bit when the thing changes shape loads of time and is on fire

Blane takes it too far

on one of his street magic shows he appears to levitate. It looks very impressive

turns out that the street audience are reacting to a simple illusion where you stand up on one tip toe with one foot, whilst raising the other. It relies on being done quickly, with the audience having no build up or warning of what you are about to do. Howevet Blaine is not shown doing this on camera

On TV he is shown to raise a foot or so in the air – this was done using special affects with no audience present

thats me told!

you understand I didn't actually take the time to do the maths before I tolf pjt201 he was right – what kind of lunatic could be bothered to do that? 😉

oh and I think I needed something called AVI too – but handbrake told me to download that as part of the process (Ithink)

i used handbrake

I googled for an online guide which actually showed me how to use it to get DVDs on my iPOD in simple steps

Its a a good tool but has obviously been designed by geeks who haven't considered that people might not have a clue what all the jargon means

I expect pjt201 has the correct solution – i think he did a similar thing with one where he predicted a number of horse races? (I didn't see that one)

whether that is the solution given on the show though is another matter – I think he sometimes gives a different, more impressive sounding solution than the more traditional "trick" he actually uses to get the same effect

there is a lot more to this than meets the eye

– she did not follow any of the proper channels proir to starting her filming
– she was recruited by Panorama, to go and get a job on an elderly people's ward and get some juicy footage.
– she got some juicy footage, but not that much really (the programme actually had very little real content, they strung it out as much as they could though)
– the programme took the tone that it was all the fault of uncaring, lazy, impatient nurses. The reality is that the issue is with underfunded, understaffed wards and poor management. She did her nursing colleagues a massive dis-service

get a bag of nuts with your pint

sorted

i like him – he found himself in a position of being a famous TV chef

unlike everyone else in the same position he used that fame to set-up a restaurant to help give a skill to out of work young people, and to promote healthy eating, better school dinners etc.

The only bit that slightly winds me up are his Sainsburys ads – I think there is sometimes a direct clash with the values he promotes on his programmes and in his books – and what the major supermarkets stand for

ton – I can't help feeling that this is a made up tail to keep us all busy on a Wednesday morning 🙂

If Ton is as big as I think he is I find it hard to believe that anyone would get "in his face" like that

i have a free app called handbrake – I used it to convert a DVD to MP4 for viewing on an iPOD touch, but I think it can convert lots of different formats

downloaded to my MAC, but I would assume it comes in a PC flavour too (maybe)?

Zukemonster – you did the right thing by saying the school need to take it up with you

if you try and go about it the "official" way you will waste months going to meetings, arguing etc – far better just to ignore what is patently a stupid rule. you son is riding in with you – you are his parent – the school has a bikeshed which should be used

anyone who tries to tell you you can't do this is just going to make themsleves sound stupid

I think they'll just drop it

check out the first picture in the clothing section of that cyclechic site

mattk

It must make me a bad man, but as soon as I saw it was a test bike I thought the same thing

stories like this are usually revealed to be either not true or exagerated

shame tho cos it iz funny

coyote – your "blue album" may as well be carvings on a stone tablet depicting the music of the beatles through the eyes of a caveman

if your not listening to one of the new remastered box sets your not really listening to the beatles

😉

(says the easily led fool who has spent 200 quid pre-ordering the mono box set – containing many, many songs he already has on CD) 😳