Do you get a round of applause in Word Towers when this happens I wonder?

On the early edition of Newsnight last night there was the surreal experience of Jeremy Paxman interviewing Dizzee Rascal about the Obama win and whether a black person will ever be PM here.

If I knew what I was doing I suspect I could insert a clip from Youtube to illustrate. Anyway, I'm not sure either of them came out of it with enhanced reputations.

But the question I was left asking myself was "Why Dizzee Rascal?" on an issue such as this. Was Paxo trying to get "down with the kids"?

Also one to add to my personal list of artists whose music I have never heard - Dizzee that being!

In years gone by I used to use cassettes a fair bit to preserve the state of my vinyl collection and to compile mixtapes for the car.

My cassette deck has now sat unused and gathering dust for several years now but actually works perfectly well and, at the time, cost me a fair few quid to acquire.

So I'm left wondering whether I should keep it. On the one hand it clutters up space. But on the other, if I do get rid of it, in 10 years time will I be reminiscing on how tape was such a good format capturing the warmth of the sound whilst it is making a comeback among the audiophile cogniscenti.

Or should I just dump it in the loft in the vain hope it will generate some antique value along with acetate roll players?

What to do......

I too went to the Cambridge folk festival last weekend and was once again struck by how many young children were there.

I'm in two minds about this and wonder what others think.

On one hand it surely is never too early to start listening to music and what a great education it must be to start so early with enlightened parents. I wish mine had done something like that but I suspect it is a generation thing.

On the other hand what a waste of time and effort it must be and is it just middle class parents not wanting to stop their festival going habits who drag their offspring along. Said offspring cannot possibly appreciate what they are hearing and their wailing is a distraction during quiet songs. And should they be hearing "sweary acts" such as Martha Wainwright - or indeed Nick Cave in past years.

Which is it?

As I trailed on a recent blog, Mrs Diz persuaded me to go to see Mamma Mia at the cinema last weekend.

This may apall the uber-cool, but I will confess to liking a fair number of Abba songs - much of their output was well written and produced, had a good tune and was pretty catchy stuff. And as a teenager what wasn't to like about Agnetha on TOTP (ahem)?

I went along therefore expecting a terrible "chickflick" film and much rolling of eyes for an hour and a half. To my surprise it was pretty well done, Meryl Streep was great and in places it was quite funny. So I was passing a pleasant enough evening......until we got to the end.

For those who haven't seen the film the story ends and it winds up with the cast romping through a couple of numbers, on stage as it were and in Abba costume. Waterloo was one I recall. That was ok. It was when the credits rolled that I was in trouble.

Playing over the credits was Thank You For The Music. The cinema audience probably had a majority female bias who rather than packing up and leaving then started singing along - not with any great gusto, just singing along. By this time I was squirming with embarrassment and couldn't wait to get out. But no. I was trapped. To the end.

For the avoidance of doubt I was not singing.

Come on. Share if you dare. Have you seen it and did the same happen?

Or where have you felt alone the crowd?

As yet another Amazon delivery thudded on the doormat of Diz Towers yesterday it left me wondering why it is that I buy all the music Chez Diz and Mrs Diz never buys any. Actually she bought the odd thing when we (I!) purchased in record shops but not since we went on line.

Now I'm guessing that the majority of the Word massive is male. So who buys the music on your house?

If it is just us, what do our significant others think about this? Do they not care or is buying vast quantities of music very much a male thing?

And, perhaps most importantly, do you ever buy something that you think your significant other might appreciate but which you have mixed feelings about?

What do I do? I buy what I want but hope for the best that Mrs Diz will like a good proportion of it but I'm never really sure.

I've been having a clearout of the CD collection at Diz towers to make room for some new stuff.

Getting the old heave ho is a ragbag collection of stuff that I can't imagine ever listening to again.....but also more than the odd item that I can't imagine what possessed me to buy it.

And I know we all profess to be supercool in our music collection so how does this stuff creep in?

So here goes - I'm down on my knees and will confess to:

Michael Bolton - Soul Provider

Gulp

Stands back and waits for either:

1. Howls of laughter
2. Support and confessions

Sitting down to watch a DVD on Sunday with Mrs Diz, I was once again struck by how much I resent the film piracy "advert" at the start of the disk. You know the one "You wouldn't steal a car" etc. And on a number of levels:

1. You can't fast forward through or skip it - or if it is possible will someone tell me how!
2. It really does not set the tone for sitting down to enjoy a good film with a glass of wine/insert beverage of your choice here.
3. I absolutely resent it having paid out good money to buy the genuine article to then be harangued for 2 minutes (or whatever)about not buying pirated ones.

Hasn't it struck whoever puts this stuff on genuine DVDs that they just might be preaching to the converted?

Rant over.

The discussion in another thread about not having enough time to listen to everything struck me this week when I finally got around to listening to the last On The Word CD. One of the best tracks on it, I thought, was the John Hiatt track from his upcoming release. Oh good I thought initially, I must buy it. I then thought, well I already have four of his albums and if I'm honest think they are bit indistinguishable, this track sounds like more of the same, so do I really need it?

I have the same thing with the last Sheryl Crow album. When it came out I duly put it in my Amazon basket where it has languished unpurchased ever since. Don't get me wrong, I love much of the stuff she has done but do I really need another album of it?

This has got me thinking - how many other artists are there who I would very happily go and see live but I really don't need another album of their work? And why is that? Is their work just to same-ish with no obvious development?

Any thoughts out there? Which artists do you keep buying out of loyalty but could you really distinguish between their work?