… I should’na left you, without a dope beat to step to…

Well, almost a year since my last post – yikes! In my defence, it’s been a very busy year and the lack of broadband at home makes doing anything online tricky. Must get that sorted.

In the meantime, Treehugginghippycrap has moved to new hosting and there’s still some work to do tidying things up post move. I feel like the virtual boxes are still cluttering up the virtual hallway… I’ve still been posting like a mad badger to Flickr; photosets of Ireland, Barcelona and more Stonehenge and Salisbury to come (when i get round to titling, tagging and geotagging). I’ve also started posting work related stuff on the company blog (you can find juicy GIS and survey related nuggets over at the Wessex Archaeology site)  and been thoroughly enjoying the microblogging wonder that is Twitter; more about that later.

And taking at least some of the wind out of my sails, gotta love web coincidence: The post title is taken from a classic tune called ‘I know ya got soul’ by Eric B and Rakim, one of my favourite tunes and i thought it summed things up nicely. Looking deeper, it does appear that apologetic posts regarding not posting are quite common on the interweb, and at least some use the same title as this post: I just wanted to check the lyric so googled it and found this site whose owner had the exact same idea. Brilliant. Just goes to show, if you have an idea, chances are someone else had it first. Parallel evolution, coincidence, or those quantum thought waves travelling back in time causing ripples of deja vu travelling forwards towards me; i don’t know.

Talking of ‘I know ya got soul’, if you don’t know this fantastic tune, go find it; it’s on the album ‘Paid in full’ which also features ‘I ain’t no joke’ and ‘Eric B is president’. It also provided the sample used in the chorus to Marrs’ 1987 number 1 hit ‘Pump up the Volume’ and which was reputedly the first UK No.1 to be sample based. So there you go.

Haven’t blogged for a while now, been busy doing other stuff, but saw a minor abuse of power today which reminded me of a tune and prompted me to wonder and hence blog, and thanks to the wonders of YouTube, here is that tune and, thanks to the wonders of wordpress, my associated ramblings: The tune was KRS-1 with this classic bit of hip-hop, the sound of the police. You may not agree with all he says, but you have to admit, the power of music combined with a skilled lyricist is awesome to behold. Compared with a large proportion of mainstream (US) hip-hop of today, this was fresh and had meaning and, importantly, was still an absolutley banging tune; something to think about and dance to. It’s good to see UK folks like the Mitchell Brothers and Kano keeping the UK end up, doing similarly pointed material today, Routine Check for example; raising issues through a storming tune. Talking of the Mitchell Brothers, couldn’t not post Harvey Nicks also; love this tune! Again, thought provoking points based on keen observation, banging tune and some classic lines from Sway and the boys. And finally, couldn’t have a post talking about music that makes you think without posting the grand-daddy of all conscious hip-hop tunes; the message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Love those outfits, boys; i can just see fiddy in the cowboy look for his next video Anyway, enough rambling and back to that pile of draft blog posts that have been accumulating since last year…

KRS-1; The sound of the police

The Mitchell Brothers; routine check

The Mitchell Brother; Harvey Nicks

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five; the message

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Went out today with my camera with the aim of getting some nice shots for the 24 hours of Flickr event. There were loads of folks with cameras; i wonder how many were also participating…?

Didn’t manage to get any at the Soap Soup production of ‘How to deal with Very Bad Things’ as we failed to tell the theatre staff at the Old Vic in advance; bummer as the show was really enjoyable and the puppetry provided many good photo opportunities… Oh well, next time!

I did get a few nice shots on the way home though, bimbling the long way round by the waterfront and College Green. The one of the fountain turned out particularly nicely, i thought.

I’m assuming it was kids (unlikely to be the local pensioner community) who carefully removed all four hubcaps from my car last night. I went to my car this morning and noticed one missing, then a second, which was odd given they were held on with cable ties; going round the other side revealed the other two missing as well. Grrrmmph. It was only last week i was praising the lack of low-level crime and vandalism in my area; obviously spoke too soon.