You know the drill by now – some inspirational links for you to click an enjoy as your Sunday spins into life. Best taken with freshly squeezed juice.
- Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell – fire this beautifully relaxed song up in another window and let it play while you catch up with my other two inspirational links. I’ll wait here for you.
- Thomas Keller cooks his fathers last meal – after being reunited with his estranged Dad, the French Laundry chef cooked a final meal for his father. This story tells how that period of his life transformed him.
- The Book Cover Archive – some of these are truly stunning, I got lost in this site for some time checking out the amazing typography and design. A couple of my favourites : Amsterdam, Auden and Hume.
So, enjoy the Lineman? Where are you finding your inspiration today?
PS – pinch, punch, first day of the month – no returns!
If you are preparing to install Windows 7, or have just finished – then you’ll know what a pain it is to reinstall all your favourite applications straight afterwards. repaving a PC is never that easy.
There is Windows Live Essentials which grabs a few good tools from Redmond (Windows Live Writer being my favourite) – but what about the rest of the useful stuff.
Ninite is an excellent idea – a bulk application installer that simplifies the process of adding some REAL essentials to your PC. Firefox, FileZilla, uTorrent, Skype, paint.NET, Adobe Reader and winRAR are all on my list, and they are ALL included as options in Ninite – alongside many other useful apps.
You just select the application set that you want – and click install – and all of the apps you need are installed quietly and efficiently with the minimum of fuss. Everything is free, and just works with out any intervention.
Genius idea – well executed. Check Ninite out by clicking here.
Ninite – bulk application installer – really useful if you are paving your PC to install Windows 7 this week.
What are your essential applications?
Still with me on this? Another Monday rolls round and I have a bunch of great music that really demands your attention, but don’t take my word for it – click the links to listen to clips on Amazon before you make a purchase of these fine albums to expand your music collection.
- Strict Joy by The Swell Season – there are few sounds as compelling to listen to as Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova – the stars of the lovely film ‘Once’ and now (seemingly) a proper duo on this their third album. A little more upbeat than their previous but still hauntingly beautiful. Miss this wonderful album at your peril.
- Nightbook by Ludivico Einaudi – the follow up to Devenire, contemporary classical music at its finest. This album adds a little bit more electronic soundscape to the mixture. Gentle, ethereal and slightly melancholy – this is beautiful music to relax to, and a great accompaniment to work.
- Swords by Morrissey – at the time of writing, Morrissey has been taken ill during a concert – so I hope he recovered quickly. This isn’t new material – but a collection of b-sides from his solo career. Contains one of my personal favourites ‘Don’t make Fun of Daddy’s Voice’.
What are you listening to? What should I be checking out to build my collection?
Slightly later this week – being posted from my temporary base in Seattle – some Sunday inspiration to check out alongside coffee and papers.
What gives you inspiration today?
Disclosure – this book was given to me as a review copy from the Librarything early reviewers program. Check out my Librarything bookshelves now.
A nice quick read that focuses a good amount of time on the prevention of Getting into Debt – there are some good examples of how the reader can slip into debt.
Later the book shifts focus to the tougher process of getting out of debt, with some good common sense tips about tackling the debt. the examples and ideas are practical, actionable and easily customisable to your personal situation.
I read this in a few hours – it is a bit lightweight, but a good primer if you are facing into a problem of debt.
Buy ‘Getting out of Debt and staying out’ by Tony Palmer at Amazon now
What books are you reading right now?
I’m going to let you into a little secret – being brilliant is absolutely within your reach – just one click (and 50 small steps away).
The fantastic Nicholas Bate has developed a cheat sheet for his ‘How to be Brilliant’ series of blog posts.
I’d take his advice – find some paper, print this off and disseminate liberally – just after you read it your self and start YOUR journey to being brilliant.
Awesome stuff Nick.
On the dark side of the Moon, man has found the answer to all his energy needs – mining an essential element to generate clean, sustainable power for earth. Such an easy solution – until the one man stationed there on a three year contract, is suddenly face-to-face with a younger, more angry version of himself.
Moon is the directorial debut for Duncan Jones – the son of David Bowie, and this movie is great testament to the fact that science fiction can be made on a low budget – but with high style. Visually the film is quite similar to 2001:A Space Odyssey – with GERTY (played by a disembodied Kevin Spacey) playing the part of the protective robot minder.
I really enjoyed this – the story is very clever and the part of Sam Bell (almost single handed through the film) is played admirably by Sam Rockwell. It won’t be headlining your local Odeon – but it is worth seeking out and enjoying.
By coincidence, I’m here in Seattle on the day that Windows 7 is released, its one of my quarterly visits to the mother ship to sync with my team, who are busily engaged in building a great support experience for Online Services and BPOS. I enjoy coming here and hanging with some really bright people and ensuring that I am involved in interesting and valuable projects, but today the focus will be elsewhere on the Redmond campus.
It is a happy coincidence to be here on a launch day – those don’t come around too often, and they seem like fun occasions. I’m not going to wax lyrical about the OS, I’ve been using it for a while and I find it quick, stable and easy to use, and there will thousands of news and blog articles about how good and bad it is, and how Microsoft is either brilliant or diabolical.
Whatever.
I’m really looking forward to seeing the spectacle – enjoying the buzz, and hoping that the whole release is a success. I’m proud of my job, and the company that I work for – and days like these make me realise why.
The second in an occasional series – some suggestions to build up your music collection, but not the new shiny stuff. These suggestions focus on the outskirts, building up your back catalogue to find some gems. Don’t take my word for it – click the links to get to the Amazon pages for these artistes.
- New Order – one of the most influential groups of the last 30 years, I can’t remember a time of enjoying electronic music without New Order being a part of it. From the mammoth Blue Monday through to my personal favourite Technique, New Order have never failed to deliver.
- Frank Sinatra – Every man needs a little Sinatra in their collection – over 50 years in the business gave us some of the most iconic songs by arguably one of the best voices of the 20th century. I love the loucheness of Sinatra at the Sands, and Songs for Swinging Lovers is one my all time favourite albums.
- Stevie Wonder – Long before becoming an American institution Stevie Wonder was tearing up the charts with Motown hits, but leaving the Detroit label allowed him to produce two of the most essential albums of all time – Innervisions and Sons in the Key of Life, both massive albums of the 70’s and demanding a place in your collection.
What classics have you discovered for your collection?
Easily devoured in a short flight – ‘A Day at the Airport’ (Amazon UK link) is an interesting experiment of having an ‘author in residence’ at Heathrow Airport. Of course, it helps that the author in question is Alain de Botton, who has a significant following and some great books under his belt.
Unfortunately the book comes across a little bit as an extended brochure for Terminal 5, however as de Botton spent his time camped out in the middle of the Terminal concourse it is clear that he has exposed some good insight into the travellers he encountered. If you are on and off planes as often as I am, then you soon get to wonder about your fellow passengers, and this book does a great job of telling those stories.
It is a great intro to Alain De Botton, beautifully written and an interesting travel read.
Have you read any good travel writing lately?
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