Category: Holey Moley!

Tigran Hamasyan Trio – Mockroot Concert

by Peter, posted in Art, Cool, Holey Moley!, Jazz, Music

If you’re into Jazz/Nu Jazz, you have to listen to/watch this concert by the Tigran Hamasyan Trio. Tigran plays some of his material from his new album Mockroot.

It gets pretty intense sometimes and I just love the bass line and the sound that the bass puts out, especially turned up loud with some really nice over-ear headphones.

You can hear what I mean really clearly in Drip at 58:58.

Tigran is an awesome musician and he always has top class musicians accompanying him.

His trio at one stage included the drummer Mark Giuliana, who has also played with Avishai Cohen and Dhafer Youssef.

You can also hear Tigran’s touch on the piano with Dhafer Youssef on his Abu Nawas Rhapsody album.

There’s another guy you want to get to know, by the way – check out this concert by Dhafer in Turkey from 2013.

The section from 10:30 is freakin’ awesome!

I get to chill to these tunes while I do my work – so cool!

A Very Friendly Echidna

by Peter, posted in Animals, Bushwalking, Cool, Holey Moley!

A few weeks ago I was alone on a short bushwalk near where I live and I spotted something  moving on the track ahead of me.

I’d seen an Echidna at the same spot a few years ago with my son, and he’d been startled by us and hid himself in an earth bank, but we were able to tip-toe up to him and touch his spiky back. It was cool.

 

This time, though was to turn out to be be even cooler.

What a cheeky dude!

Echidnas are monotremes, that means they are one of only two mammals which lay eggs (the other is the Platypus).

They might look scary, but are very shy and even touching their spikes does not hurt, unless you poke your snout into them like a Dingo.

I once watched two Dingoes try to eat an Echidna, but it rolled into a ball and just sat there while they tried to roll it over to get to its soft belly. After twenty minutes they gave up and walked away because the spikes made it painful to approach with their snouts. Needless to say, the Echidna survived and just dawdled off after a while.

See the link here for more info about Echidnas.

Drool-worthy Bikes – Bishop Bikes – Henry’s modern classic road

by Peter, posted in Beautiful Bikes, Bicycle Gear, Cool, Culture, Cycling, Holey Moley!, Photography

Well, all I can say is Holey Moley!

I adore Bishop Bikes and this road bike is just a stunner!

It’s built up with mechanical Campy Super Record and Enve wheels, seatpost & bars – very nice.

Enjoy more of the photo stream on Bishop Bikes’ Flickr page.

OK then.

▶More amazing music from Josh Garrels – his new album “Home”

by Peter, posted in Art, Christianity, Cool, Culture, Faith, Holey Moley!, Music

Home – Another great album from Josh Garrels

I love track 5 – “The Arrow”

Have a listen below, he hits some pretty high notes which make the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. Very cool!

To Climb An Iceberg

by Peter, posted in Cool, Holey Moley!

Adventure seekers and professional ice climbers, Klemen Premrl and Aljaz Anderle try to climb an iceberg in Greenland.

Icebergs are very unpredictable and Klemen and Aljaz take their lives into their own hands when they attempt to climb these white mountains floating in the ocean.

Impressive and scary stuff.

Strava Makes Me Look Lousy

by Peter, posted in Culture, Cycling, Holey Moley!, Humour

I’ve never really been that competitive, and if I’ve ever been comparably fit enough to keep up with a high level athlete, it has been entirely a coincidence.

The result is that my style of exercise is to loaf along and enjoy myself, raising a sweat and burning muscles and fat at a slow rate, but at least I am exercising.

So why on earth would I join Strava?

Strava’s big selling point is that you can compare yourself with other people over segments of a ride/run and perhaps use the comparison as motivation for self-improvement.

I have a few friends and work colleagues who use Strava and have been egging me to get on board for a while, so recently I joined.

Having not ridden much at all in the past few months, I promptly set out on a mountain bike ride, at a slow pace, knowing from previous experience that if I over-exert myself on my first few re-entry rides I always get attacks of cramps somewhere between 30-50km into the ride.

The good news is that my pace meant that I did not cramp. The bad news is that I logged the ride on Strava. I was consistently bad on all the segments I passed through, even last on one reasonable climb.

 

I know I will improve, but I also know that I’ll rarely ever be in the top 1/4 of riders, especially on highly popular segments.

For those of us who end up last or near last on the leaderboard, is Strava actually a tool for encouragement or a tool of self-flagellation?

I haven’t made up my mind yet.

BUT WAIT A MINUTE!

Before you put me down as a lazy, whining loser, I have been pushing myself harder as a result of being on Strava and I will certainly get fitter because of it.

So for now, Strava makes me look lousy, and I may always look lousy, but I’m gonna have fun looking lousy and maybe one far distant morning I’ll track a ride and I won’t look so lousy anymore.

Keep riding!

Tigran Hamasyan – The Court Jester

by Peter, posted in Art, Cool, Culture, Holey Moley!, Jazz, Music

One commenter to this video says it just as succinctly as the most erudite music critic ever could – “Holy Smokes!”

Just listen.

Areni Agbabian

Tigran Hamasyan “Shadow Theater” – The Court Jester Official – YouTube.

Hear more from his latest album Shadow Theater here on YouTube:

The Poet

Road Song

Alternative Universe – Holy Smokes again! Impressive stuff!