Indianapolis, IN

Here I am, currently in rather grey, but unseasonably mild Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.

I flew in yesterday, into Indy's very new and rather nice airport. Nice, that is, in the way any airport could actually be nice ...

I am here for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show. I'll be running the show's web presence. You can visit the show's website here, or the daily blog here.

Indianapolis calls itself the Crossroads of America. It may be, but when I initially considered taking the green option and getting a train here it turned out to be rather difficult. Oh well ...

Downtown is marked for me by its fairly original vernacular buildings and shops, rather than its late 19thC/early 20thC institutional buildings and modern corporate architecture.

More later ...

Today, I am, again, mostly listening to ...

I still think internet radio is the best thing since, oh, I dunno, sliced bread, colour tellie, synthetic inserts for cycle shorts ...

Anyway, here are one or two of my favourite internet radio stations:

• RemoteDJ.com - rare R&B, plus broken beat, bossa, etc ...
• SomaFM.com - over a dozen minority interest stations, including; Secret Agent, Beat Blender, Illinois Street Lounge and the very, very cool,Sonic Universe.
• bbc.co.uk - most stuff from the world of BBC radio, occasionally interrupted because of rights' restrictions, but BBC Radio Five Live International gets me through the day. The virtual compulsory use of iPlayer is becoming an encumbrance though.

All of these stations, plus about 14,000 more, are available through your computer or internet radio device. Then there are other radio facilities such as play it again and podcasts. I manage my podcasts using Nimiq. More of that another day ...

The Van Dike, Exmouth Road, Devonport

It's funny how things suddenly come to mind. There I was just trolling the depths of the interweb when I came across this word; quintessence.

Quintessence: the fifth and highest element in ancient and medieval philosophy that permeates all nature and is the substance composing the celestial bodies; the essence of a thing in its purest and most concentrated form ...

But to me that will never be quintessence. For me Quintessence will always be a bunch of London based Aussies who took on Indian names and kaftans and played a curious blend of Indian classical music and prog rock. Actually, they were rather good, as I recall.

Quintessence were one of the first groups I saw at Plymouth's legendary Van Dike Club in the late '60s. And I do mean legendary ... if not in a literal way ...

The Van Dike was run by the musically based Van Dike family from the old Exmouth Road Chuch Hall in Devonport, originally a separate town from Plymouth.

I used to go frequently with mates from work or Martin, the only other Trot in the village, and thinking back, not only was the roster of emergent groups remarkable, so was the price of entry; three and fourpence to see Mott the Hoople, Deep Purple, Medicine Head (?) ... and six and eightpence to see a posh gig at the Guildhall ... Yes!, The Nice, Jethro Tull ... unbelievable.

And then Martin and I used to walk home from Devonport to Plymstock ... 6-7miles @ 2.00 in the morning ... those were the days ...

Amazingly, I found this repository of old Van Dike programmes here. It's a bit of a trip ... down Memory Lane nowadays, of course ...

Sadly, I had heard that Greg Van Dike had passed away a year or so ago, although I understand he was still involved in music to the end. His children seem to have picked up the banner - in a Lily Allen sort of way ... maybe.

Liquid Lounge

Welcome to Liquid Lounge ... my own music collection.

You can listen directly to a random selection of music streamed directly from my music server.


You will need a music player which can interpret .pls files. WinAmp, MediaMonkey, Real or iTunes should do it if your player doesn't work. You will end up on my ShoutCast server page and have to click PLAY - I think. It's along the top row of options.

Those of you listening, and I know some listen for hours, please feel free to comment.

Thank You For Contacting Me

Thanks for contacting me. I'll get back to you soon ...

Click here to get back to Phonostage.

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Snow

This winter has seen considerably more snow here than last year.

There have been several falls, about 75-100mm, and more nasty, freezing rain.

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures to show how pretty it is.

facebook : today I am mostly social networking ...

Okay ... I admit it ... I have a facebook page.

To tell the truth, it's better that you're here than there.

And it's amazing to find out who your friends are ... well, in facebook anyway.

But feel free to take a look ... here.