Has it really been a month?

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post. Well, actually I can. I've been trying to get round to this for ages. I like to think about the internet as a vast sea of content. I think that's a good metaphor - there used to be this great advert in the UK (I think it was for a search engine), of someone with all their bath and sink taps stuck on, drowning. The metaphor was that you could drown in the sea of content that is the internet. So, I've been drowning in all the material for Kirkcaldybands.com in the last few weeks - gots lots of exciting new stuff, posted most of it - many times whilst sitting on planes, in hotels and in cars.

I have had a great batch of material from Mark Nicol (ex Nationwide and Ghost Train, Nationwide are pictured above). Nationwide's original demo sounds great. I only got one track from it, which was "Dusty Bedrooms". Mark thinks this may have been recorded as long ago as 1980, imagine that, 27 years ago!

Since my last post I've also been back in the UK for a week.

I flew through Atlanta on my way to Scotland. I still think Atlanta is a rather strange place. The hotel bus driver took me past a pub on the way to the hotel. Great - I thought somewhere to have a beer and some food before bedtime. However, I went in the pub, having been warned "not to carry anything in the street by the hotel receptionist, as it is a bad area!" and was the only non "African American" person there. Despite a number of funny looks by the other customers, this didn't seem a big problem for anyone there, especially the staff, but it's a shame that 40 years after Martin Luther King died that there is still a form of self-created segregation in the southern states of the US. The pub I was in last year near the hotel was all white!

Some nice food I had in 'Frisco airport before I got the plane. Can you imagine that this was $17 though?

I took lots of nice pics with my new Nikon camera. This is Edinburgh coming into view! I went Continental, I like to support the airlines that fly direct to Scotland. However, having lost my luggage (then found it again 5 hours later) and neglected to deliver the vegetarian food I ordered, I'm not sure I'll use them again.

Scotland can look beautiful at this time of year. I got great weather when I was there in April, then amazingly good weather in October. I believe the bit in between that I missed was not so good.

I do love the kind of effects you can get shooting in the late afternoon light. This was Broughty Ferry looking particularly lovely.

Had a fun day with my sister (magnusmog.blogspot.com) photographing venues in Kirkcaldy for the website. This one, unlike three of the others that are now old people's homes, looks pretty much the same as I remember it when we played there in 1986.

Back down to Edinburgh later in the week, staying in a different Travel Inn this time. This one is in Lauriston place, sad to say I believe this may have been built on top of the classic Edinburgh goth pub, the Tap of Lauriston. At around 10.00 every morning I kept hearing voices.... The above was the answer, the tour buses outside my window, stuck at the traffic lights.

It was great to see the guys again. As a coincidence, my mate Andy of Tom's New Shoes (he's on the right in this pic, Craig who was the bass player of TNS is on the left) was playing with his new band "The Smallest Bones" in Leith on the Saturday when I was there.

Went on a little nostalgia tour of places I used to know. Some of my socialising was screwed up my my cool Sony Ericsson camera phone being no good as a phone in Scotland!

Back to the US via Atlanta Georgia for the Procuri conference.

We had to go up on the stage on the first day in front around 250 people. Good thing it was early on the first day - got it over with quick!

See what I mean, big hall!

My colleague Amit up on the stage.

It was nice to catch up with some of the team in Atlanta again.

They are building some impressive new buildings around where my hotel was in the Buckhead district. Some of these are doing for as much as $1M.

Back home to 'Frisco and is this not the most cliched image of someone in San Francisco you can imagine! Third time on a trolley car, but I'd never hung off the side before! I finally got my green card, having been approved for it back in May. I have a pic of me holding it, but I'm advised I may be a victim of identity fraud if I post that!