Tinchy Stryder - Something About Your Smile and 16 Writers

I first heard of Tinchy when I first heard of Grime. Those two went hand in hand.

First of all congratulations on hitting number 1, it's about time and he wholly deserves it.

While I hated Stryderman, and saw its attempt at hitting the main stream getting sunk, I think Tinchy should have made it big a long time ago.

In tribute, here is some of his early stuff, Something About Your Smile which had all the right combinations to make it big from Star in the Hood. What a title for an album, with the merchandise range which came along with it especially the hoods with Star in the Hood emblazoned across the front.





And 16 Writers from Cloud 9: The EP, great beats, great delivery and attitude.



Both Star in the Hood and Cloud 9 are still available from the likes of
Cloud 9:
UK record Shop, Play.com and Amazon
Star in the Hood:
UK record shop, Play.com, Amazon

With the likes of Take me back and Number 1, Tinchy's sound is changing and it is working for him. With the new single from his forthcoming album Catch 22, to feature Lemar, this is only a new beginning for him.

For me it doesn't have the same feel and the new songs start to fall into the background quickly rather than stay on my mind like Something About Your Smile and 16 Writers do.

However, well done and hope it continues.

Please note that the songs posted here are for promotional purposes only. If you do download them,they become your responsibility, please delete within 24 hours and purchase the material as appropriate. SelectiveApathy.com does not host any media files. Please refer to the site disclaimer for more information.

Books Reviews

Now that I have more time on my hands at the weekends , I have been reading a lot more (and even getting sucked into books during the week).

I only managed to bring two books to Germany with me:

Slumdog Millionaire (formerly published as Q&A) by Vikas Swarup
The detail and manner of conveyance found in this book fa surpasses the movie.
I will admit that I watched the movie (which I heard about last year when it premièred at a Film Festival in the USA) before reading the book . This is somehow akin to sacrilege in my own eyes.
However the plot of the movie while similar to that of the book, leaves many gems behind.
This meant that I was able to enjoy the book and appreciate it much more.
It is a shame that it took the movie to bring this book towards the mainstream, in so far as to having the publishing title

and The White Tiger by Araving Adinga.
Winner of The Man Booker prize last year, that is most probably how most have first heard of this book, including myself.
What a book, I spent nearly a sleepless night just to finish it.
Very dark and yet obtusely appealing.
The style of writing in the form of letters addressed to the Chinese premier is particularly effective.
It makes no excuses on character which had the rather profound effect of allowing me to feel deeply compassionate with the protagonist while harbouring secret disgust at his character.
This one is definitely recommended.

That's only two books and now you ask, how am I reading so many books, especially when my German is so poor.

Well it's mostly thanks to The 100 Classic Books Collection for Nintento DS, but I also have several ebooks on my laptop, which are books that I own and keep meaning to read again, especially the Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb.

However I hate spending too much time in front of the computer as this is all I do at work.

So in comes the DS. Over the last two weeks I have read:

The Secret Garden

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Excellent book.

Vivid imagery and drawing you in very subtly. The Secret Garden has the feel of being aimed mainly at a younger audience. It's ability to charm an older one is no different.

The Adventures of Tom Sayer

Mark Twain

Well I don't know about the accents employed in the conversations which made reading this book a bit sketchy.

I remember watching the cartoons etc. when I was younger.

The book definitely conveys the sense of adventure I remember more finely.

The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn

Mark Twain

Most have acclaimed that Huck Finn's adventures make better reading than Tom's.

In a way they do, there's a more dangerous, exciting feel to this book.

Well, that is until you get to the end.

I skipped the whole ending of the book.

Where Tom was having this great adventure playing with the life of Jim, the nigger it was completely pitiful and frustrating.

The Moonstone

Wilkie Collins

I have not had much experience with the crime thriller genre.

Having read The Moonstone, I can however very much appreciate the mystery.

A very well written book which kept me guessing till the very last few chapters.

That in itself makes this an excellent example of the quality of this book.

Currently I am reading 20,000 leagues under the sea.

Continuing the Choong - Spray and Skank Music out 18th May 09

Continuing the promotion of the Fam's comeback and the eminent release of their Pre album.

Choong Family release double A side single 'Spray featuring Pyro' and 'Skank Music featuring Truth & Pyro' on May 18th through Gridlockaz.

The full length video, featuring both tracks, is now available to view online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShHNLYLf5IE




With playback on 1Xtra, Radio 1 and others, Choong is assured a HOT welcome.

Please note that the songs posted here are for promotional purposes only. If you do download them,they become your responsibility, please delete within 24 hours and purchase the material as appropriate. SelectiveApathy.com does not host any media files. Please refer to the site disclaimer for more information.

Music: Utada Hikaru - Apple and Cinnamon

I had to post this up today, mainly because I can't believe I like it so much.

Apple and Cinnamon by Utada from her recently released album (digitally) This is the One. Available physically from 12th May 09 - Amazon.

Produced by Stargate, this track is just simple and innocent and very beautiful.
The usual class from Stargate, beautiful vocals and the simplicity of the lyrics work so well too.



Please note that the songs posted here are for promotional purposes only. If you do download them,they become your responsibility, please delete within 24 hours and purchase the material as appropriate. SelectiveApathy.com does not host any media files. Please refer to the site disclaimer for more information.

Hallo von Nürnberg

Most of you will know that I am in Germany, more specifically Nürnberg (Nuremberg)
Have been staying in Wonheim St Peter since last Thursday and started at iSyst last Friday, so been really busy hence no posts.

So I am living like a proper student in halls while working at iSyst for my Masters Thesis.
After getting good results at my exams, I should really keep thing up and work hard.

Anyway let's break this down:

Wonheim St-Peter
This is Sudent hall run by the Studentenwerk Erlangen-Nürnberg.
The halls look quite eclectic on the outside and the grounds are quite nice.
I'm on the ground floor outlooking an inner courtyard. The 'apartment' seem typical student type.
I have one main room with a bed and table. A kitchenette with a sink, two electric cook rings and a fridge.
A shower room and the usual cupboards etc.
Took a couple of days of getting used to it.
I have wired Internet access through a central server limited to 300 Mb a day.
All in all it's nice but I may have trouble making friends here...but they have some club type things, will look into that.
Now some pictures:

Yes it's messy already and I don't even have a duvet or a pillow case yet (I do have bed sheets though!). That's just my sleeping bag; I get too hot here at night anyway but by morning the sleeping bag is on he floor and I'm freezing.
As you can also see I have a radio. After a few days here that was an essential purchase as I cannot listen to my favourite stations online due to the bandwidth limitation.

Nürnberg

Nürnberg is quite a nice city. Twinned with Glasgow, it has plenty of green spaces and plenty of touristic attractions although I have not been to any yet, just passing through the Altstadt on Monday. But definitely this Easter weekend.
The people seem at times very friendly and at times look at you funny as if you were very much out of place. I found this odd as Germany has the 3rd highest immigration population and there are plenty of 'foreigners' around.
But overall very nice folk. I even had one lady pretty much taking me by the hand and taking me to an address, even though all I could say was "I don't speak German".

iSyst

I am not exactly sure what iSyst is as a company. My first impressions are of a consulting company with some research background.
I am going to be mostly working with a Segway Clone called zzaag that they have built from kit, improving it, modifying to carry loads etc.
Of course I first started looking at things such as making it follow you round.
Today, however I had my first meeting with Prof Rauch and basically said to start with what I know I should be doing - looking at the zaag source code and seeing how it works.
The code is written in BASIC which I'm not familiar with so this may take a while.

iSyst is full of friendly people who make you feel welcome.