Tag: youtube

One Second Everyday

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 3 Comments

It has been a busy couple of years since I began blogging: 2011 saw #project365 where I posted a picture every day; 2012 saw a different project completed and blogged about every month; and 2013 began with the annual attempt at #janathon. Since then I have given myself a month away from the blogosphere, but now I'm back…complete with a brand new project….

Inspired by a fella called Cesar Kutiyama who has been recording 1 second every day for the last 2 years, you can read more about his story here. He has also created an easy to use app – so anyone can do it. You can literally take short videos through the day, if you remember (although you can get reminders), then decide which 1 second part you want to use, then mash them together. Simple. Here is the inspiration…

Today is my birthday so I plan to begin today and by the end of the year I will have a 365 second video of my year. Not entirely sure how it is going to go – I'm not sure I do enough 'interesting' things – but we'll see what happens. I'll probably be posting monthly videos on the blog just to see how we're doing.

 

Beans on Toast at the Cookie Jar!

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ Leave a comment

It has not gone unnoticed that this post has lots of food items in the title. So, if you have come across this post hoping for either a new funky recipe or a video of someone eating beans on toast by a cookie jar you are going to be extremely disappointed.

Last weekend saw a rare visit to Leicester to watch the fantastic, folky and a little bit sweary Beans on Toast. The Venue: The Cookie Jar – a basement venue beneath the coffee shop The Crumblin' Cookie.

Considering 'Beans' wasn't on until 10.15pm, and it was a Sunday night, an impressively sized audience had gathered. Now, if you've ever listened to Beans on Toast before you will understand that musically they are not the most complicated and complex melodies, in fact 'Beans' will be first to point out that they all sound the same. But what you get is a great collection of simple intelligently written songs, with lyrics that immediately strike a cord with listeners. 'Beans' has a way of breaking down the barrier between artist and audience.

It's not just great little songs you get with Beans on Toast, it's an evening of entertainment: funny stories, requests, forgetting verses, impromptu 'beat boxer' from the audience, and my personal favourite….”Right Leicester who likes blowjobs?”.

It was a great set, funny and quirky – bizarre in places – but what you ultimately get is a 'real' singer/songwriter without a glimmer of pretence, and with it a very enjoyable evening.

 

Running, albums and idiots…

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 4 Comments

The weather is definitely attempting to thwart Janathon, we've reached day 19, but it is no match for these babies….

Only the third run with my new amazing 'Puma Faas 250' – yes a very strange name for a pair of trainers – but they coped fantastically with the snow and ice this morning. I think they are ready for a longer run in the morning, although not sure I am.

I drove up to the woods this morning and parked on the top road and didn't even consider taking the incredibly icy road down into the car park. However, various people did. It always amazes me how some people can be so stupid. When you stand at the top of the hill and look down the road into the car park it actually looks very dodgy, what makes people think it will be ok? Now I'm not one to say 'I told you so', and actually I didn't tell anyone, but I was quite pleased to see two cars stranded at the bottom of the hill and one in the ditch. Idiots.

I'd imagine that lots of blogs will contain a few snow shots, so why not?

And in other news……

Spring looks to be quite exciting, with the release of new albums from Frank Turner and Billy Bragg. Billy's new album, 'Tooth & Nail' is out March 18, followed by Frank's latest 'Tape Deck Heart' on April 22.

It has been a while since a Billy Bragg album, so I'm really looking forward to it. The few tracks I've heard suggest it's going back to what he does best: great simple melodies and the voice of an angel.

They will, of course, be touring to promote the albums. I've even pre-ordered the Turner CD to allow me to get in the ticket pre-sale for access to tickets 48hrs before general sale. With only a handful of gigs announced it looks I'm off to Birmingham.

Now I will be looking for volunteers to attend the Bragg gig – I struggle to find anyone to go with – can't understand why????! Have a listen…

Today's snow mileage = 6.36

Total Janathon mileage = 79.66

 

Janathon Day 10 – ‘Get Better’

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 4 Comments

Today is as near as damn to one third through Janathon.

Before tonight's run I had a little read through some Janathon blogs and found that quite a few people had decided not to run for one reason or another. Now in Juneathon I took this relaxed approach to running every day of the month, but not this month. I am determined to run every day and beat the mileage I ran last time. So again, like last night, initial plan was a couple of miles, although once I got going I went for the 4ish miles that I've been doing all month.

Obviously the difference between Janathon and Juneathon is the time of year. This month, the whole idea of running in the dark is getting me down. Only two of the ten days so far have been run in daylight, the rest either pounding the dark streets of the town or donning the head torch and hitting the trails of the woods. So the run tonight started in the usual way….

A pretty uneventful run tonight, although it did feel very cold out and a bit misty. On return the weather forecast seems to be suggesting a very cold spell with possible snow and ice. Something to look forward too!

Today's mileage = 4.35

Total Janathon mileage = 44.13

So the mantra for the rest of the month, with the target to beat last Janathon's mileage, must be 'Get Better'…

 

Janathon Day 6

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 6 Comments

Sunday, the home of the long run, and an early start so that I have plenty of time for the scary pile of marking that needs doing. Although as I write this – 1 o'clock in the afternoon – the pile of marking is still there, well actually I moved it into the garage so that I could no longer hear it.

This morning's run was like a scene from James Herbert's 'The Fog'…

On a 'normal' Sunday without the pressure of Janathon I would have probably put in 8 or 9 miles, but with 25 days left I decided to take it slightly easier as tomorrow will not be a 'rest' day. So a gentle 5-miler was the result. Actually saw a few runners about this morning, which makes a change. Passed a group of ladies doing some sort of run/walk activity, clearly a new year resolution in action. Followed by a fella running at around 100mph, clearly some sort of bionic android alien sent down from a distant planet to make me look bad.

Made time to stop off at the ponds so that Billy Boy could have a dip, also gives me ANOTHER opportunity to play with the fantastic 'Halftone' app I discovered….

Today's mileage = 5.55

Janathon mileage after 6 days = 28.17

Taking the lead from Andrea and her musical related posts, today is my response to the miserable old gits that don't reply to my 'Good Morning!' as I run past: Two-Fingers!

 

Janathon Day 5

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 2 Comments

This morning's run was a gentle 4ish miles around Bourne Woods with the dog. Legs felt very heavy this morning, probably due to the lack of running in December (very bad bout of man flu) together with the start of Janathon.

It was a pretty standard run through the woods, loads of people out walking dogs, but a distinct lack of runners. I don't think anybody in the East Midlands/South Lincolnshire have heard about Janathon. The only decision I had to make on my travels was whether it was left for mud, or right for hill….

I didn't particularly fancy running with wet feet this morning so took the right fork.

Today's mileage = 4.22

Janathon mileage = 22.62

I think today I did indeed 'Do The Right Thing'….