Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts

Sunday, December 29, 2013

On the fifth day of Christmas....

I had a rest day so no running or bootcamp.  I slept in till 8am, well it was actually 7am but I spent an hour lying there trying to ignore the fact I was busting for the toilet.  After breakfast I took Miss A to the park that had been taken over by a particular group of holiday makers that I will discuss further later in the post.  We then headed down to the beach for a splash and made it just before the Southerly change came through and started blowing sand and causing exfoliation where we didn't need it.  An afternoon walk finished off the day and I settled back to watch Ghost Adventurers with hubby.

Now back to the "particular group of holiday makers" that come to our town every year and basically take over.  There are about 20 tents of them including 2 large army sized tents.  When we got to the park they had set up their equipment including face painting benches, coffee making machines, bbq's, blow up water slides, plastic water slides (the one that go on hills), and various other activities.  They also had two big speakers blaring out loud music.

I come to the park to allow Miss A to play and for me to enjoy the peace (it's not always quiet) of nature and to observe the people enjoying the sun, water and boardwalk.  Not to have to sit in a park and listen to music so loud that if there was someone to talk to, I wouldn't be able to hear them properly.

I also had an issue with the fact that we are on water restrictions and this group was using the water consistently to run their water slides.

Ok, so they do offer some free activities for kids and they can be a lot of fun.  But I don't understand how they can get away with using water like that under water restrictions and playing loud music.  If I was to do that, I would be reported and the camping ground managers would put a stop to it straight away.  So how do they get away with it?  Is it because they invest a lot of money into the town while they are here?  Is it because they offer free activities?

Now I sound like I'm whinging but I am really only concerned about the use of water and the loud music.  The offering of free activities and fun stuff for kids is great.  The investment of money into the town - although I would argue that they most likely bring a lot of their food with them due to the sheer numbers of them and the whole set up of their camp.

While it is wonderful living in a tourist destination, sometimes the tourist side of things can be a little annoying!

I will now hop of my soap box and continue to enjoy my night!

How did you spend the 5th day of Christmas?

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Blog Post 11 - You've got the music in you

It's cold and wet here today.  We had over 26mm overnight and being a public holiday, it means that I will have to write this post quick before little one gets up and wants to play Moshi Monsters on the computer.

I promised I'd write about music a few posts ago so here we are. 

I don't think there is anyone I have met that doesn't like some form of music.  My tastes are pretty much all over the place. 

As a child it was basically what my parents were listening to - country, 60's and 70's.  And what my sister was listening to (since we shared a room I didn't have much choice) 80s in particular Prince, Michael Jackson, then she moved into a phase of heavy metal (don't really like at all).  In my teens I became obsessed with New Kids on the Block, but I also remember really liking Daryl Braithwaite, but mostly NKOTB.

Now I listen to the whole range 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, country music, etc.  However, I do feel that I'm a bit out of touch with what is currently popular.  I have to say that it is only the odd few that catch me.  Perhaps it's because I don't get to watch all the music shows on the weekend anymore, and I'm restricted to the 20 or so minutes of radio time that I have each morning - which really only plays past hits rather than what's a hit now.

Some of you may discover that at times I like to listen to music and share the lyrics on my Facebook account.  One of my fellow bloggers is having a guess the song "competition" on her blog during #blogjune.

There is nothing I like better than singing my heart out to my favourite songs.  As a child I would pretend I was on Young Talent Time and do various moves down the back ramp.  It was especially fun doing it at my nana's house in Gympie - as she had a back patio with stairs in the middle so you could do various positions as you walked down the stairs.  I was destined to be a star - however I suffer stage fright so it never did eventuate.

I haven't bought a CD since 2001.  I have a lot of music on my computer which I have got from various places but not really anything new - I think Pink and Taylor Swift are the newest music on my PC.  I do wonder what will happen when my computer decides not work anymore - all my music will be lost.

Which brings me to how most of us purchase our music now - online.  I don't know much about online music purchasing or iTunes - mainly because I don't have an iPod.  I do have an MP3 player but listening to music via one has never really appealed to me.  Some have suggested I listen to it when I exercise - but I prefer to hear cars coming up behind me or the sound of the ocean/street/neighbourhood.  So I'm a bit behind on this method of technology.

So what will happen to your music collection when the format changes?  I suppose with my huge collection of CD's the same can be said - will there be a point in the future when you can no longer access a CD player.  Although you can still purchase vinyl players so perhaps it will never happen.

What about when you iPod/MP3 becomes full - where do you store all your purchases?  If you store them on your computer and iPod/MP3 player but then they stop working - how do you access your collection again?

These same issues scare me about the move to ebooks.  Are we purchasing for "now" rather than to keep forever?  Are authors/song writers/singers only for "now" rather than forever?

I'm wondering how my daughter's music collection will be stored/housed.  Will it all be electronic in a virtual space?  And what happens when technology fails?

Our library doesn't have music CD's in the collection.  We talked about it recently - is this something we should collect like we have finally introduced DVD's.  I said no it probably wasn't worth it.  Most people purchase songs online.  Many libraries are now offering Freegal - I'd like to hear from those out there that have used Freegal and what they think?  And other music download subscriptions. 

Do you think it is still worth offering music CD's?  What are your loan statistics like if you work in a library who offers music CD's for loan?  Have they dropped off over the years?  Are they still popular?