My daughter, who is sixteen has decided that she would like to learn to play the piano. The problem is we don't have a piano nor any expertise when it comes to choosing one. We need something relatively inexpensive,with a suitably wide octave range and that will fold away as we don't have a great amount of space for a large item to stand.
Does anyone out there have any thoughts on what might be a suitable instrument and whether there is a good second hand market?Is E Bay worth a look? Any advice would be most gratefully received.

So there I was minding my own business with the I Pod on shuffle and it throws up this on Halloween of all days.Made me look over my shoulder a couple of times
http://youtu.be/tsTIKzOrVKQ
Anyone got any good spooky tunes for a Halloween shuffle party?

Have I missed a memo? Can someone explain ATM please.

I made one of my infrequent visits to the capital on Friday night and travelling back to St.Pancras on the tube I was reminded of Paul Weller's lyric to "Down in the tube station at midnight"
There he was on his way home to his wife, with a take away curry which would no doubt be luke warm by the time he got there. She meanwhile was polishing the glasses and pulling out the cork. Was she setting the table and folding the napkins too? Who knows perhaps even lighting the odd candle? And all of this at midnight? Is this a London thing? I got home at one, had a glass of water and went to bed.
Any other examples of unlifelike song lyrics?

I guess we are largely of one mind on this but isn't it great when you have a moment where a piece of art; TV, music, film,a book, whatever reaches out and really speaks to you.
I had a moment like that with a particular scene from Alan Ball's Six Feet Under a few years ago and recently tracked down the clip which is attached here. The back story doesn't really matter. All you need to know is that the father (the guy in the suit)is dead and is talking to his son who is still alive.

There are no doubt great truths contained in the various holy books of the great religions as well as the acknowledged greats of literature. But I'm talking about the inspired and inspirational moments from the more prosaic end of artistic endeavour.
No doubt you will have your own examples.

Now I'm as much of a sucker for southern vampire gothic as the next man and enjoyed the first series of True Blood enormously.But I've stalled somewhat on series two.
The parallels between vampires and racial equality in the southern states were well drawn and engaging in season one but now everyone seems to be either a telepath , a vampire, a shapechanger or a maenad.Frankly I've stopped caring about the characters and that's never a good sign.
With four episodes already stacked up on the hard drive and more books and dvds to get through than is quite sensible should I persevere or press delete?
Is anyone out there still hooked?

My I Pod came over all non PC today. First of all it chose Gene Pitney's "24 hours from Tulsa", one of those songs I have heard countless times without really listening to the words.
I was struck by the non PC quality of the story. The male protagonist thwarted in his attempts to get back to the woman he loves by the attentions of a femme fatale. But it isn't his fault. As he points out "All of a sudden I lost control".Could happen to anyone.
But worse was to come. From the same Burt Bacharach collection we were subsequently treated to Jack Jones "Wives and Lovers", which is so dated in its message it has to be heard to be believed.So here it is.
http://open.spotify.com/track/3EPjG4FynvvD9QcTqxDpPk
Straight from the days of Darren arriving home from work on "Bewitched" to announce to Samantha that the boss was coming for dinner.
Any more examples out there of lyrical content well past its sell-by date?

With Santa busily getting ready for his big day and wish lists required I need a bit of help from the Massive.
Does anyone have any experience of those Vinyl to MP3 devices?
I would like to get one that is easy to use, is not overly expensive and gives a good result so that I can listen to some of my old vinyl on my I pod.
I believe they are also available to transfer from cassettes which would be secondary for me but still of interest. Apologies if this has been done before but any helpful advice would be most welcome.

Driving home last night the I Pod selected Gloria by Patti Smith which began a debate in the car over great opening tracks to first albums.
I apologise if this has been done here before but is there a better example than this of an artist's manifesto being presented? Album one, track one,this is who I am and this is what I do.

Anybody had that there swine flu yet?
How about a playlist to accompany all that sneezing.
Pig Audio Dynamite?
Pig Country
Porking guitar blues.
Cracklin rosie
Lil ol swine drinker me

Back in the seventies two mates and I went to see Budgie at our local civic hall.We were about fifteen years old and it was our first live gig.After the show we managed to persuade the huge Welsh roadie to let us go backstage to meet the band.
Surprisingly he said yes and so we were ushered behind the scenes to the less than salubrious and not very well appointed dressing room.
Burke Shelley, singer and bassist was slumped in a chair and he and the band muttered hellos and asked if we had enjoyed the show. One of my friends said that we had and for some reason best known only to him went on to comment that Mr.Shelley was a funny looking chap for a lead singer in a rock band.
He replied that we were no oil paintings ourselves and we were asked to leave.
Thus began and ended our backstage adventure. Any similar stories out there?

The West Wing has been the backbone of our TV entertainment here at Young Towers for some months now but last night we reached the end of series seven and as Bartlett would say, "Whats next?"
We have series one of both the Sopranos and The Wire siting on the shelf but what others should we be considering?
I feel sure this sort of thread has been done before so apologies for any repetiton but I would really appreciate any views and personal recommendations.

When I was on here last night there was an extremely long story about a river godess and fish which appeared to be rather out of place.(Out of plaice?)
Did I dream it or has it been removed?
Perhaps that last glass of red was a mistake.

Whilst packing the Youngsters lunches this morning I heard this Andy Williams tune on the radio.
It used to be an in car favourite when the kids were younger so we got to hear it quite a lot. I could never listen without thinking that it would sound good covered by Elvis Costello. I have thought this so many times now that I even had to have a quick look on Spotify to check that it hadn't been done.
Does anyone else suffer from phantom cover versions?

I have just finished reading "The steep approach to Garbadale" by Iain Banks and very good it was too.
However I am faced with the same dilemma I have faced before when finishing one of his novels and that is whether or not to dabble in his sci-fi ouevre where he writes as Iain M Banks. I have never been much of a science fiction fan but I am tempted because I do enoy his writing so much in his mainstream novels.
But there is also the question of where to start. Are his books sequential?
Where could I possibly seek advice and find honest, informed and trustworthy opinions.
Ah, I think I know just the place