Copyright Complications

My post titled Otis Redding has been altered following a DMCA notice of copyright violation I received on Tuesday.

If you click on one of my links to get to The Vinyl Villian site, you'll find its been removed for repeated copyright violations. Regular readers of that Blog will know that it was mostly out of print 12" singles or such like.

My post about Otis Redding included a link to one of his best songs. My intention was to share one song from an outstanding artist that would hopefully encourage the readers to seek his work out. Just like when I ( and I'm sure you as well ) used to share cassettes and  CDs of my favourite songs with friends and work colleagues. I'm not going to get on a high horse and rant. It was a copyright violation after all. But whose? Otis has been dead for 40+years now. Who is so intent on milking every last drop out of his legacy that they can't allow a small blog with 1 follower and less than 50 thousand page views over a 4 year period to showcase one of modern music's greatest vocal talents?

Update2

As we swelter here in a heatwave my thoughts have turned from updating this Blog to how are my tomatoes coming on and have I watered the potatoes enough. In short it is too hot to be inside and consequently I have neglected this Blog. If I had laptop or notebook I suppose I could be lazing in my garden, or in the Park tapping away on the keyboard and committing my thoughts and views for eternity on the Internet. Unfortunately I have a desktop which despite its antiquity (5 years old- which in PC world is like being over 100)still works - after a fashion- and I am loathe to replace it. My wife wants a Tablet, specifically an Ipad. Me I am very distrustful of Apple and its wares.

The heat has also affected my running. My long run  last Sunday was 14 miles. I left the house just before 7am as I wanted to miss the heat. Luckily I did but it caught me out on my run home from work on Tuesday where after 3 miles I had to stop as I was drenched in sweat and feeling pretty grotty.

The temperature in my  office reached 28C yesterday lunchtime. No air con upstairs for me so  I had to go downstairs and answer phones with the rest of them just to get away from the heat.

My wife will tell you that I am particularly grumpy in the heat but with heat levels here reaching 28c I have gone into holiday mode and I am finding it difficlut to concentrate at work

Of course the heatwave (its officially a heatwave now) has meant that anti social behaviour on the estate I manage has soared as garden parties turn into drunken fights. Luckily benefits can only pay for one or two nights of drunken/drug excess even if your tipple is Frosty Jack cider or Lambrini or skunk, so things will calm down until next payday in a fortnight's time.

In the meantime we go round, interview the complainants try and tackle the pepetrators and wait for it all to kick off again.

Update

I haven’t posted for a while not because I have been in a Neil Young induced rapture but because I haven’t had anything much to say. Now I know this is a big failing when one is  a blogger. I should have an opinion on everything and just write it and publish it . But I have always been of the view that you should keep your mouth shut unless you've got something useful to say. Which probably explains a lot about my life.

 

Me and the wife were at Gateshead Stadium to see the European Team Athletics. Mo Farrah's last lap run in the 5000m was amazing and I completed the Gateshead BUPA 10k in 57:45. Not world record time but almost 6 minute faster than last year.

 

My marathon training is going well, you will often find me plotting routes on runningmap.com  ( one of the many free route planning websites out there).Its 13 weeks to Berlin and I can already feel the buzz of excitement inside me.

  

And that's it really. A normal life I suppose.

In the presence of genius

Last Monday I went to see Neil Young at the Metro radio arena.

Now I hate that venue and all Arena venues but I put that to one side paid £53 to go and see Neil Young and Crazy Horse.

Sometimes, occasionally, rarely you are lucky enough to get to see and hear genius. This gig was one of those times.

During the wall of feedback that lasted  at least 15 minutes at the end of Walk Like a Giant I started to grin.It lasted until the end of the gig. If you were there and saw a middle aged man grinning from ear to ear as he left the venue well that was me. 

No he didn't play Like A Hurricane  which would have made the night perfect but he's got almost 50 years of songs to play and you can't play them all.

I saw him with Crazy Horse 12 years ago in Sheffield (when they did play Like a Hurricane) and I thought that was a one off. My wife who was with me that time said it was almost like I was having a religious experience. If anything last Monday was better, much better.

I will probably never see Neil Young live again, he's 67 now. If he comes near you this year go and see him.

On and On

Been busy at work this last few days. Not bedroom tax issues, simply lots of work, recruiting and feeding backto unsuccessful candidates and paperwork etc. The joys of recruitment and selection in the public sector.

My organisation is about to turn itself upside down in a bid to deal with the challenges posed by the bedroom tax and Universal credit to our income stream. It won’t be long before I’m being interviewed for a job and not the other way round.

At the moment 65% of our income is paid direct to us by the government in the form of Housing Benefit. Universal Credit will roll the clock back to the early 80’s ( sound familiar) and this benefit designed to help the unemployed and low waged pay their rent will get paid direct to the recipient.

 

Public Sector landlords wil then have to collect the rent from their tenants. You may ask what is wrong with that. In principle absolutely nothing, after all my mortgage lender doesn’t know whether I’m going to pay my mortgage or not each month. They don’t get a guaranteed income from the state.

I was claiming benefit, as it happens in 1983, when Housing Benefit was rolled out. So I went from one fortnight getting my benefit plus rent in my Giro ( no mandatory bank accounts then) to the next fortnight just getting my benefit not the rent money. I was miffed as it meant my plan to “borrow” some of that rent money to buy a “treat” couldn’t happen. And this is what is bothering a lot of social housing professionals. Some people won’t pay their rent. Some like me will pay when it suits , some will pay sometimes, some will pay it all. Me? Well professionally I don’t like the idea , personally I think why not.

 

Landlords will just have to try harder to make the case about rent and services and you can't have something for nothing.