Big band jazz, a feast for the ears. Taken at the Manly Jazz festival.
The Saxophone Player
September 23rd, 2008 Comments Off
Leaving the Laptop, Taking the Treo 680
February 10th, 2008 Comments Off
One of my obsessions over the past few years has been to try and reduce my travel technology down to a couple of items — namely a smart phone (Treo 680) and a digital camera (Panasonic FZ5).
The Treo 680 contains all my travel information and contact details and on the road I also use it to browse the Internet and to send and receive emails. I also write stuff and send it out in MSWord format with the help of Documents to Go and my Palm Wireless Keyboard.
With a program called CallRec I can record anything from a phone conversation to the sound of a Indian Sitar. And with an 8GB SD-card full of ebooks and music and a video or two it also helps keep me occupied.
I’ve found my Treo to be so versatile I rarely need to travel with a laptop any more.
Wireless Stereo on a Treo 680
February 5th, 2008 Comments Off
I’ve just bought this very cool Bluetooth stereo headset (Sony Ericsson HBH-DS980) and a smart piece of software called Softick Audio Gateway, a fast 8GB SD card and stuck it all on my Treo 680. Now I have heaps of music (pTunes) and a few audio books I can listen to (Audible) and some videos (TCPMP) I can watch while I’m on the road — and what’s more — it all just seems to work. Very cool!
Oh! I almost forgot — if you decide to call me while I’m bopping to the Beatles, then with this setup I can also answer your call using the headset. The music (and my bopping) will stop automatically and when I hang-up it all starts again, also automatically.
Lucky the Treo doesn’t have video conferencing — dancing is the sort of thing I only do in private these days — nuf said! 
There are many songs to sing
January 27th, 2008 Comments Off
This snapshot was taken at Manly Jazz Festival.
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic ’til I’m gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
The times they are a-changin'
March 22nd, 2007 Comments Off
Nostalgia just up and grabbed me sometime between 8:00 and 8:30 this evening and this is what satiated the need. First the lyrics and then watching an old video of the man singing. I couldn’t help myself, I had to pour another scotch and play it again….
The times they are a-changin’
by Bob Dylan
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.
Off to get a life
April 14th, 2006 Comments Off
I need a break from computers and cyberspace so I’m putting my blog on hold until mid May. My camera’s SD cards are empty and my soul needs a fill up too. I’ll be in and out so I may decide to make the odd post but I won’t be blogging full-time.
A sip of wine, a cigarette,
And then it’s time to go.
I tidied up the kitchenette;
I tuned the old banjo.
I’m wanted at the traffic-jam.
They’re saving me a seat.
I’m what I am, and what I am,
Is back on Boogie Street.
from Boogie Street by Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen: Waiting for the miracle
April 11th, 2006 Comments Off
Waiting For The Miracle
Baby, I’ve been waiting,
I’ve been waiting night and day.
I didn’t see the time,
I waited half my life away.
There were lots of invitations
and I know you sent me some,
but I was waiting
for the miracle, for the miracle to come.
(first verse only)