Daz39

That'll be the standard 'tw*t who doesn't respect other's stuff.'

I was born in B-o-A, and lived in Market Lavington, Corsham, Trowbridge and Larkhill. Welcome btw!

Oooh

An unexpected and gratuitous NBD arrived yesterday. Briefly: a friend of my Wife is having their attic converted and this was lurking for many years, unused (unstringed!) up there. So it was FTAGH. What we have here is a well-worn (or is that high mojo factor?) Columbus P Bass. One of those budget brands from yesteryear. It's moderately heavy: 9lbs 8oz, at least compared to my Peavey Millennium, and the frets have plenty of wear. The tone and volume knobs have been replaced and don't quite fit (I think the numbers go the wrong way too!, the bridge appears to be non-original, and half the pickguard screws are missing. This also appears to be one of those with a hidden truss rod access below the neckplate. Once it's adapted to my house I might give it some bend as there is a bit of a choke at Fret 13 on a few strings and further up too. Playing wise: I cleaned it, strung it with some Rotosound 50-110s, and tried it through the amp it came with: a 10 watt Badger Piccolo (tone and volume, curly lead too!). It sounds ok, so I'll try it through my Yamaha THX amp tonight to compare it properly. Had to lower the pickups as far as they would go as I got the bridge saddles down fairly low in the end and my resting on the pickup plucking was making it pop. The neck is chunky, D shape, nut width is 42mm as expected, so it is more effort than my Ibanez-style Peavey's neck. Maple fretboard though does sound nice. If I were to decide to improve it; the heavyweight clover-leaf tuners would go, get some proper P-style knobs, get screws back in the guard and that's probably it. Overall - about what I expected from a freebie. If it works out ok, my kids can have it as a practise instrument.

He's very interesting, if shy and understated. Fantastic musician, check out his solo albums.

It's vaguely similar to copying a story out, or reading it out loud. Anyone can do that - try writing your own and not have it be a bag of crap... Relayer is epic-level creativity.

It's 'Theater' *cough* I saw them twice: 97' in Camden and err 2000 I think in Dusseldorf. Epic band, amazing chops. Drum and guitar solo sections can get a bit boring, and James does struggle with some of the frankly epic singing after 2hrs - but their standards are very high.

Not that obscure but only got into Counting Crows two years ago.

Yeah: some good stuff on Vintage; some really good live bands too.

No! Thats awful. He was something else with that amazing legato and mad chords.

Courtney Marie Andrews and her lap steel guitarist were really good. The rest was a bit of a so so, good musicianship, but kasabian thought it was still 1995.

Exciting!

Yeah, he has amazing technique. The video of him at a bass shop appearance playing Five Magics is awesome. Lots of noodle and a good tone in the mix of Megadeth songs.

Gilmour made me pick up a guitar; Geddy made me get a bass.

You need to read Neil's books to get an insight into his character: curmudgeonly, shy, passionate, curious etc. I have The DVD of beyond the lighted stage to watch yet, I did enjoy their tour DVDs though. 'We couldn't have done it without the soup!'

You did actually say how many women there were in your scenario because you said 'one of the men', implying 2 men and 1 woman. You can't even see when your doing it!!

Several issues I think: Your last clause infers an inherent bias that the female would not be the outstanding candidate, by using 'or.' By creating scenarios where the minority is not the most qualified/suitable - you reinforce the belief that it is unfair to discriminate on their behalf. Also selecting 3 as the pool, and 1 as the female sets a bias against reversing the ratio - as 2 females would seem more unfair to a society where male dominance is normalised. That is the problem - that there is only 1 woman in the interview pool - not that you feel forced to choose one unfairly. Why do more men aspire to distance running?

They are lovely things, very versatile etc. I suppose their infrequency of appearance leads to the variance in listing prices.

The media are everyone's worst enemy, to be fair.

It's not that most white people ought to apologise, but rather be more aware of their privilege and be less entitled about it. As an example: complaining about MOBO awards needing to exist.

Yes. Exactly, Tim R. What the majority see as 'normal' is actually an oppressive state for minorities. I admit I am nearly as privileged as it gets in the western world: I'm white, male, middle class, degree-educated, straight, 40, without major disability/impairment. I even speak fairly accentless English. Any trouble I have finding work or getting ahead is entirely down to my competence. Society raised me to believe I was 'normal' and 'average' - and so blind to the extra few steps I am automatically ahead of people not like me. It's been shown countless times: sending out near-identical CVs with names from different cultures, changing gender or age when asking opinions of suitability for something. Female authors have been using initials instead of their first name for decades. It's quite staggering when you stop to think about it.

Every other awards are not exclusively MOBO awards - I think that's the best way to put it. Privilege blinds us to the discrimination that occurs - If you look back at any awards across any media (film, tv, music etc.) that does not specifically focus on one group by colour, gender, race or religion - it has overwhelmingly favoured white, middle-class, western winners. Most of the judges have been from this group, most of the air/screentime has favoured this, and thus it favours these winners. If someone looks at the MOBOs and thinks 'where did all this music come from?' then that's the result of all of the above. It's always been there, but it has to meet higher expectations to compete. It's partly why Adele was complaining that Beyoncé ought to have won the Best Album Grammy (partly self-deprecating modesty too I imagine).