Your Favourite Media, second edition

As promised, here is the next exciting installment of Your Favourite Media, in which I interview someone who is not me.

Hello Tim and welcome to popculturAL! Tell me, what is your favourite kind of media?

Hi! I love vinyl records and music in general. I like to have music around as much as possible so mp3 is a good portable option. Vinyl at home is the best place to listen to music though. I enjoy movies, TV and books as well.

Where do you get your records from?

Real Groovy, Trade Me, plus sometimes Discogs and Ebay. I haven’t been to a record fair for a while but they’re great fun and you always find something there. I buy from op shops too but less often, it’s harder to find good stuff there but a good dig can be rewarded if you’re lucky.

How do you get ideas of what to buy/listen to next?

Tangents. Someone played with someone on some record… The internet.

What kind of music do you mostly listen to?

I'm a rock and blues fan. Mostly guitar-based music, but not exclusively. I like twangy guitar and I’m into great country artists like Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. A friend gave me a Mickey Newbury record recently so I’ve been listening to a lot of him lately. I’ve been thrashing the song “If You Ever Get to Houston (Look Me Down)” for the last couple of weeks. Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Multi Love is on high rotation at home at the moment too. I’d love it if all the Mutton Birds albums got released on vinyl.

I totally agree! Did you ever buy a record that you ended up not liking?

Yes, a Patsy Cline record with 80’s overdubs. I love Patsy Cline, she’s one of my all time favourite singers, but those overdubs really suck.

What do you use the library for?

Books and DVD’s mostly. It’s a great place to rent DVD’s from and books are good to have around the house. My missus gets out a lot of design books which I like to look at too. Our five year old daughter is asking a lot of questions about 'the olden days' right now so we’ve got some history books with photos out at the moment.

What is your favourite record?

That changes constantly, earlier this year it was Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk then their self titled album from 1975. It’s also been Sentimental Hygiene by Warren Zevon and Aldous Harding’s LP recently. Right now it’s Lovers by Mickey Newbury and the new Unknown Mortal Orchestra album (pink vinyl with a photo print and embroidered patch). The Clean’s Boodle Boodle Boodle (with the comic book) and Neil Young’s Eldorado are a couple of my more valuable favourites. I have more Neil Young records than any other artist (about 46).

How many records do you own?

About 1200 LP’s and 12 inches and around 200 45’s.

Wow. Do you keep track of all your records?

Yes, but I’m a bit behind. In more recent years I started including additional information on my list like label, year, country, catalogue number, condition.

What upcoming music events are you looking forward to?

Next week my missus and I are going to Sam Hunt with David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights at the Kings Arms. Then Fleetwood Mac in November. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing Haruki Murakami at the Writers Festival recently too.

I hear Murakami is also a serious record collector. Would you like to share anything else about your music habits?

I’m a bit addicted. I really love acquiring more music, especially the hold-in-your-hand format of vinyl. It’s really hard to not buy vinyl.

We all have our addictions! It's all fine as long as no one gets hurt, right?

Right!

Tim, thanks so much for sharing your love of vinyl records here at popculturAL. Stay tuned, readers, for the next exciting installment of Your Favourite Media in which I interview someone about something that they love and are possibly addicted to, but in a totally healthy and reasonable way.

The Hills Are Alive With The Sound...

A shortish post from me this week.

The body as they say is willing but the brain has decided  to go on complete strike and be bloody difficult. Writer's block sucks.

Big time.

Still it could be worse.  This post could have started with "See Jane run.  See Dick run." which is just about the standard that my brain is capable of at the moment.

I'm going to blame it all on the BBC and Big Finish.

Now I never thought of myself as an audio book fan.  I had, of course, tried some many years ago but somehow I found them just a bit... flat.

Then I got onto Big Finish.  First with their array of Stargate audio books and then with their 8th Doctor Who adventures starring Paul McGann as the Doctor. Wanting to expand my horizons from just listening to science fiction I then discovered the BBC or more accurately BBC4.

It was like finding the holy grail.  Or least what I imagine it would be like.

The variety that the BBC produces is enormous.  From comedies to crime dramas to Shakespeare and Sci-Fi.  I have become hooked.

And like all addictions I just have to share.  So here's just a small taste of what I have been listening to and more.

Murder in the title [compact disc] : a Charles Paris mystery / Simon Brett.

I *adore* Bill Nighy.  So when I found that he featured in a series of radio dramas featuring an alcoholic, womanising actor who seems to constantly stumble across dead bodies where ever he goes I just had to give them a try.

And I'm so glad I did.  The Charles Paris mysteries featuring him are just marvellous with Nighy being... well Nighy..

Cabin pressure. Complete series 2 [compact disc] / written by John Finnemore.

A BBC4 find.  The appeal of this was that it featured Benedict Cumberbatch.  Or the Cumberbeast as he is known as to his many fans.  It also sounded really funny.

And it is. Gloriously so.

 In fact I guarantee this will have you laughing out aloud.

The adventure collection. Volume 2 [compact disc]

As a Doctor Who fan I just had to try these series of adventures read by David Tennant.

Though they don't have a full-cast like the ones above, Tennant's voice worked really well for me.

Then again I'm probably biased.


Torchwood [electronic resource] : the lost files.

The last story in this audio book made me cry.

Really.

I bawled my eyes out.

If that's not a recommendation I don't know what is.

Desert Island Discs [compact disc]

I haven't listened to this - yet.

But it's on my list.

The idea of famous people being interviewed about what book, music etc they would take to a desert island sounds fascinating, so how could I not give it a go.

The big sleep [compact disc] / Raymond Chandler.

I love the movie The Big Sleep with Humphrey Bogart so finding out that there was a audio-dramas - done by the BBC no less, I just had to add it my list of To Be Listened To.

It also features Toby Stephens (member of the RSC,  son of Dame Maggie Smith and the villain in the James Bond movie Die Another Day).

I can so imagine him as P.I. Philip Marlowe.