The good old music

I'm with you

Red Hot Chili Peppers new single will be available in 30/08. A come back with a different sound, this is not really bad, the song is ok, but many of us expected something different, something in their old style. "By the way", great cover for this single

And the new song of RHCP

And one of the best videos (in my opinion) of this group

Amy Winehouse

I am a big fan of Amy Winehouse, I was shocked when I heard that she's dead. One of the best singers of the last years is gone. Tony Bennett told for US Weekly that she was "an extraordinary musician with a rare intuition as a vocalist and I am truly devastated that her exceptional talent has come to such an early end. She was a lovely and intelligent person and when we recorded together she gave a soulful and extraordinary performance." Lady Gaga wrote on Twitter "Amy changed pop music forever, I remember knowing there was hope, and feeling not alone because of her. She lived jazz, she lived the blues."

RIP Amy Winehouse

Dirty deeds done dirty cheap

Another one with Joan Jett

Really great voice ...

Joan Jett & Blackhearts - Crimson and Clover

Well, early in the 80's it was one of my favourites. She's 53 years old now, and she has 3 platinium/gold albums.

On March 10, 2008, Jett, as part of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was introduced by Tom Hanks and closed the ceremony with a song from 1964 "Bits and Pieces"
On June 2010, Joan Jett and The Blackhearts opened for Green Day on their UK tour
An amazing lady ....

Choosing The mp3 Player That Suits You

If you've been looking around for an mp3 player, chances are you're very confused with all the different specifications and the vast array of models out there. You've read that you can get your entire music collection on to one mp3 player and that's true - but not every mp3 player. You have also been told that you can throw them around, go jogging with them, climb a mountain with one and all this is true - but again, not every mp3 player will withstand this treatment.

Basically, if you want to get physical with your mp3 player then you need one with no moving parts. In this case, the iPod is not what you want. You would be looking for a machine which saves it's music to memory.

There are basically three types of mp3 player. Hard drive based, memory based and mp3 CD player based. The hard drive mp3 players allow you to store thousands of tunes whilst the memory based version sacrifices music volume for freedom of movement. You can even get waterproof mp3 players! The mp3 CD players read the mp3 music from a CD which you have pre-burned.

So now you have enough information to know what type of mp3 player you should be looking for. Now what about capacity? How much music can you get on the various players out there? Let's take a look ....

If you want your music to sound good you want to be using at least CD quality mp3s. One minute of CD quality mp3 takes up around 1Mb. The memory based mp3 players have a top limit of around 500Mb meaning you can get roughly 120 average length tunes on there. But the top end hard drive versions go up to as much as 60Gb which is a whole lot of music - an anorak's dream :)

Another consideration is battery life. The hard drive mp3 players plough through the batteries at a rate of knots since the disk has to physically turn. The memory based option uses a lot less battery power. Many of the memory based mp3 players use the AAA size battery which is very convenient since you don't need a re-charger and you don't need to search for hard to find battery types. You'll find that most hard drive versions use lithium-ion rechargeable batteries and if you use your mp3 player a lot, your re-charger will be in regular use. Many people simply leave the power lead plugged in when they are at home.

An important factor in your decision should be the size of the unit. If you want to use your player at the gym or while you're out jogging then you'll want the smallest player possible. There are some really tiny models on the market these days. You will usually have to sacrifice some storage with a very small mp3 players but you can usually get enough music on there to have a good long workout.

If you want to use your mp3 player more at home then size will not be such a great consideration. The iPod is still a very compact unit and most people will be able to fit their entire collection on there. Of course the iPod is not your only option and there are many excellent manufacturers out there. Just be careful of some of the cheap imports you see on ebay, often there is no support for these players.

As a replacement for the home hi fi system, the mp3 player is becoming more and more popular. High fidelity purists obviously will never be swayed but to most of us the quality of the mp3 is perfectly adequate for our everyday listening purposes.

In fact many modern players coming on to the market have been designed with both portability and versatility in mind. What better way to entertain your dinner party guests than to have your mp3 player randomly selecting music from over ten thousand of your favourite tracks? No more fumbling around in your CD rack trying to find the disk that lost its cover ;)

Now you know what to look for, go get yourself a player and join the digital music revolution.