Esbjörn Svensson : 1964 - 2008

I was very sorry to hear of the death of Esbjörn Svensson of EST, in a scuba accident near Stockholm, SWE.

I can't recall how I came across the music of the Esbjörn Svensson Trio, but something about them resonated with me and I just got to love their free-flowing jazz influenced music which somehow also embraced other genres without patronising yet with a wicked sense of humour..

I was lucky enough to see EST twice; once at Bristol's St George's Hall and the second time in New York's Joe's Pub. St George's Hall is remarkable for its acoustics, good enough to be a favoured venue for BBC Radio to record recitals from classical to jazz and world music.

The next time I saw EST was at Joe's Pub. Linda and I sat next to a couple of French women who had last seen EST at ... St George's Hall ... small world.

It's hard to believe that we'll never do that again ...

So thanks EST ... it was a good ride.

WWKiP Day : 14.06.2008

Yesterday was World Wide Knit in Public Day.

Linda and I trolled on down to Princeton North Shopping Center where the ladies, and some gentlemen, were occupying the bandstand and brazenly knitting away in full view of the public!!!!

So Linda dug out her current project, a knitted lace shawl, took her place amongst the knitters and spent a pleasant hour en tricoteuse (?) and chatting about fibre to her's and everybody else's heart's content.

And you just never know ... I bumped into a lady who was born in the same hospital in Devonport, Plymouth, Devon, UK, as me, and someone else whose husband made frequent trips to Cheltenham ;-) ... small world, huh?

Further conversation only went on to confirm my view of Plymouth as the world's biggest village.

See Linda's take on WWKiP Day here.

Niagara Falls, Ontario, CAN

We have just spent a few days at Niagara Falls, on the Canadian side of the border. Niagara is a great place to go ... easily as impressive as its reputation suggests. You won't be disappointed.

However, it has to be said that you shouldn't go if you don't like getting wet.

Of course, Niagara is a tourist hub of world class proportions. That said, early June is a good time to go. The weather was excellent, and there weren't too many queues. Those that did exist moved through fairly quickly.

The best way to get around and gain access to the sights was the Niagara Adventure pass. This includes access to the main attractions - Maid of the Mist, Behind the Falls, etc - and discount tickets for lots of others. It also includes a pass for the PeopleMover bus network for the first day and a discount after that.

For me the highlight was the Maid of the Mist tour. A half hour trip by boat to the base of the falls. It was rather like being at the bottom of a vast pit of water with fire-hoses being aimed at you ... fantastic ...

At the other extreme the Butterfly Conservancy was beautiful. I've never seen so many huge butterflies. They were like a shower of autumn leaves they were so plentiful.

There were plenty of things to do other than in the immediate Niagara river area. Niagara-on-the-Lake seemed a place I'd like to visit again and the Welland Ship Canal has excellent facilities for observing huge ships negotiate the massive locks which lift them over 150 metres over the Niagara escarpment from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie.

Niagara is certainly worth a detour.

WiFi 04a : Sangean WFR-20 - Streaming

Okay. I sorted the local streaming thing.

Of course, it was really a case of RTFMS!!! Oh well ...

The problem was I couldn't link the Sangean to my wlan SHOUTcast broadcast. The Noxon radio has its own configurable webpage on the device to facilitate this.

The Sangean stores its stations and streams on the Reciva server. So you need to register the radio with Reciva.com - the radio's configuration menu tells you a unique registration number. You will then have your own login and a number of tools including "My Streams".

Give your stream a name if it doesn't already have one and its local address which will be something like http://192.168.xxx.xxx:8000/listen.pls.

You then have to force a station update on the Sangean by unplugging it from the mains for a few seconds and switching back on. Your stream will then appear on the menu at Radio Stations >>> Genre >>> My Stuff.

After all that, it works very well.

The .ogg thing has yet to be sorted. However, all audio files are transcoded to +AAC format on the stream so at least I can hear them that way.

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*See my hifi index here.

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WiFi 04 : Sangean WFR-20

I've had the Sangean WFR-20 a couple of days now and I'm beginning to find my way around the thing.

In many respects it compares well to the Noxon iRadio, particularly in terms of sound quality and volume, but in some areas it is either lacking or I just haven't figured how to do it.

The Sangean was quite easy to get up and going. On initial turn-on the unit first of all updated its station list, then searched for any firmware update. The menu, although tortuous, is still rather easier than the Noxon's and the display, while not state-of-the-art, looks a lot better than the Noxon's clunky blue screen. The remote though is not as competent.

The unit also found my wireless network music server - TwonkyMedia - quite easily and navigating through the tree is once again quite simple using the single knob on the front rather than figuring out which button does what on the remote. The radio happily plays the usual formats including .flac, but is not capable of playing .ogg which puts it at a disadvantage to the Noxon which can, and although it can't directly play .flac it does work with TwonkyMedia's .flac transcoder.

Where I have yet to get any success is getting the unit to play my wlan's music stream. I'm not sure if it's a deficiency on my part or the radio's but whichever, it's a big issue for me. *sorted here

The Noxon has the advantage of showing up on the local network as a network device. As such it also has a device webpage which enables the manual input of radio streams in addition to the ones already available at its web radio gateway - vTuner - the Sangean uses Reciva. This means it's possible to input the address of a local network stream, in my case operated via SHOUTcast server. As yet I haven't figured out how to do this for the Sangean, or if indeed, it's actually possible.

Generally, I'm very pleased. The unit does 90% of what I want very well indeed. However, the .ogg codec issue and the inability to play music streamed on my wlan are a significant downside.

Internet radio devices still have a way to go.

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*See my hifi / media index here.

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New Jersey : 07.06.2008

So. What's new in the neighbourhood?

US Route 206 passes just to the west of where we live. Imagine if you will, traffic from the M4 funneled through the old A38 with potholes, traffic-lights every mile or two and trailing through every village and town in the vicinity.

The local council has tried to ban heavy vehicles from the route but their decision was overruled by the state authorities and so it continues to be a rat-run while 40T trucks bash the pot-holes into chasms large enough to swallow the average European car, and the queue for Princeton has expanded from a drive-time annoyance to a virtual all-dayer.

Incredibly, the route continues to feature on the local cycleroutes masterplan. I'm a fairly confident cyclist but 50 metres is enough for me on that road, so how they're going to get people to dice with the truckers, I have no idea. Maybe it was part of the strategy to get trucks banned?

Meanwhile, it's going to get hot. Ah, yes, I remember when I thought air-conditioning was for wimps. That was before I'd tried 35C at 100% humidity. The dial is set to rise above 35C this week. Fortunately, we'll be in Canada ... Niagara Falls, to be precise.

The iPods are charged, the in-car DVD has been borrowed. I'm even going to wash the car ... We're about to set off on our very own road-trip. Hopefully the hotel I've booked is better than the Bristol Travelodge ... I'll let you know how we get on.

And finally, you don't get this often in Yealmpton:

PRESS RELEASE
MONTGOMERY TWP. POLICE
June 6, 2008

Police Respond to Black Bear Sightings

Schools Notified, Awareness Advised

On Friday, June 6, 2008, at 11:42 AM, police received a call from a resident on Bronson Way in the Skillman section of the township reporting a large bear had wandered off from his backyard. Police began receiving additional sightings from the area of Skillman Road and eventually Burnt Hill Road near Route 518. Responding police did not observe the bear, but one resident showed the officer a picture of the animal which is estimated to be approximately 275 pounds.

Police alerted the local schools and other nearby institutions. As a precautionary measure, the schools discontinued outdoor activities for the remainder of the day. Police also notified New Jersey Wildlife Control and the Montgomery Health Department.

Residents who observe a bear are urged to call the police. (Non-emergency phone # below). Also, those wishing to learn more about black bears and safety may visit:

NJ Division of Fish & Wildlife Black Bear Information Page

Linda says it's only a baby ... Hmmm ...

Stuff : 04.06.2008

A week has zoomed by. Unfortunately dogged by illness ... get well soon, Linda. Anyway:

• The Sangean WFR-20 has turned up from Sangean ... about the same time as Amazon said they'd send me another one. Hopefully I won't end up with two. However, so far it seems good, sounds good, although it would be nice to be able to configure favourites through a web interface like the Noxon iRadio. On the other hand 11,500 stations on Reciva should be enough for anyone. I have yet to sort out what to do about podcasts.
• Went to go cycling this evening. The heavens thought differently though. Right on cue the skies opened so given it was quite dark too it was decided to go home and watch Giro d'Italia videos instead.
• Feel free to comment on my articles ... please.