Ian Robinson’s Soapbox

The latest Mark Morford column at SFGate.com. Well said that man! Here it is.

I’ve been playing a cheap Westfield acoustic guitar, that I bought to learn on, for the last few years. I decided to buy a good quality replacement now that I’m sure I’m going to continue playing. Doing research into what are good quality acoustic guitars I came across the usual suspects like Martin, Takamine etc. [...]

The intelligent design proponents (or IDiots as they are known) lost big time in the court case about the teaching of ID in Dover. Happy days. The Judge didn’t just rule against them but went out of his way to show that ID is just repackaged creationism. You can read the ruling in the PDF [...]

Just heard a wonderful album. It’s the debut solo album by Jenny Wilson from Sweden. I first heard her when she was a guest vocalist on You Take My Breath Away by The Knife. Her new album is not available in the UK yet as far as I can see. It can however be listened [...]

Gotta love the cold, sunny winter days. Well at least the rain is off But I do like the crisp mornings. I wrote the following one day driving to work by motorcycle on a sunny, winter day. No radio in the helmet so you have to make your own entertainment! Winter Sun The winter sun [...]

I’ve been listening to The Planets by Holst for a long time. I finally got to hear it live on Friday being played by a real orchestra. Went to a concert in the Waterfront Hall in Belfast to hear the Ulster Orchestra perform the whole Planet Suite and several other pieces. I really enjoyed it. [...]

Went for a 5 mile walk around the grounds of Stormont in Belfast today. I haven’t been getting anywhere near enough exercise recently. So it’s back to the long walks with the iPod in operation. Was listening to Roger Taylor solo stuff today. Bloody marvelous. I think his projects outside of Queen are very underrated. [...]

The Darkness return. One Way Ticket to Hell…and Back. It’s good stuff. Musically it’s very good indeed. Lots of layering of vocals and guitars, à la Queen. Not surprising since this album is produced by Roy Thomas Baker who did the early Queen albums. I think the falsetto vocals are a bit overdone here. It [...]

Been even wetter than usual in Belfast for the last few days. Sometimes its like the air has turned to liquid! I don’t mind rain. You can’t live in Belfast if you mind rain. I have a lot of time for the Rob McKenna character from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. The amount of [...]