Here comes tracks 11 through 15….

11. Scaffold - Buttons Of Your Mind

The Scaffold were famous for several 2 minute ditties, silly songs. Many people will know many of them, Lily The Pink, Thank You Very Much, Ging Gang Goolie, Liver Birds etc. but might not know the name of the band who wrote them. This track was on the B-side to Lily The Pink which was coincidentally #1 in the singles chart on the day I was born. Another two minute piece of fluff it has my all time favourite lyric.

And I wonder if I ever knew the more elusive inner you,
For the buttons of your mind were difficult to find and my fingers far too clumsy

I sometimes give off the wrong impression of myself to people, which is somewhat deliberate it has to be said. Stand offish, non-approachable, scary, grumpy, taciturn are all words that colleagues have used to describe me! Ah, if only they knew the more elusive inner me

This is one of two tracks on the The Album that I had to buy as I only had a vinyl version of the song.

Tracks 6 through 10…

6. Ginger - The Man Who Cheated Death

I wanted something bang up to date on The Album and this fitted the bill nicely. Ginger was the singer, guitar player & song writer in The Wildhearts. I particularly like the lyrics in this song.

When the Devil had tried to tempt me,
When there was not a single angel around,
When the Demons they sent me were guaranteed to put me down,
What in Heaven or Hell is ever going to kill me now?

7. John Otway - Josephine

The album wouldn’t be complete without some Otway! Famous for having a hit back in the 70s (Really Free) and then totally flopping this guy has toured the pubs and clubs ever since. An Otway show is an absolute must and if you see one near by make sure you go to see him. I could have put several songs on here, in fact I originally had Poetry & Jazz from one of his newer albums, but I chose this one. I was introduced to Otway by my late sister and her husband and this is a beautiful track from his early days and …

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A friend of mine compiled a CD of music and challenged me to do the same without including any heavy metal or rock (no Maiden? Gasp!). So I accepted the challenge and started selecting songs I wanted to include. As I was doing this it was clear I was choosing songs that meant something to me, so the final product contains all the songs that have meant something to me at some point or other in my life. It also includes a few modern tracks and a couple that I just like. Over the next few entries I will detail what is on there.

The rules were a) No heavy metal or rock, b) Had to fit on one CD, c) A maximum of one track per artist.

Here are tracks 1 through 5….

1. Led Zeppelin - Bron-Yr-Aur

From the Physical Graffiti album, it’s a shame I couldn’t include the next track Down By The Seaside as well as these two belong together. This album always reminds me of being a teenager listening to this with my best mate and just chilling. Thought it works well as an album opener.

2. Cake - It’s Coming Down

One of two …

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Just watched Happy Feet on HD-DVD winner of this year’s animated feature Oscar. Hmm, don’t get me wrong this looks absolutely amazing, especially in HiDef, totally gorgeous. Did they forget to put a story in here though? It’s a bit like Finding Nemo without the charm. A bit like Cars without the emotion. I couldn’t empathise with the main character called Mumble (eh?) especially as he refused to lose his baby plumage for the entire film, yet he till gets the girl and mates (eh?). And let’s crowbar an environmental message in there in the last ten minutes of the film (eh?). I’m just surprised they didn’t utter the dreaded GW words, gah.

Oscar? What? Eh?

I think I have a name for the site. I’ve wanted to call it something other than jochta.com for a while and wasn’t sure what to use. In the end the answer was staring me in the face. I’ve always quoted the lyrics from The Scaffold’s song Buttons Of Your Mind as my all time favourite (this song was on the B-Side to the single Lily the Pink which was #1 in the charts on the day I was born).

        The buttons of your mind were difficult to find and my fingers far too clumsy.

And this site is about my buttons.

I had a stunning view of the lunar eclipse on Saturday night and I reeled off around 150 pictures most of which I’ve yet to look at properly. I’ve posted a few here and a few videos I took. But my most pleasing achievement was to get some of my pictures published at SpaceWeather.com. I’ve sent pictures to them and the BBC before but this is the first time any of them have got onto the site. You can find my contribution at the bottom of http://www.spaceweather.com/eclipses/gallery_03mar07_page5.htm - note the deliberate mistake? It should read afocal projection as the photographic method and not prime focus!

I’ve spent some time altering the layout of the site to get some more consistency. I’ve also added the Flash slideshow at the top of the main page and a Flash lightbox in the photo section.

Rant mode. Why are Valentine’s Day cards so crap? If they haven’t got some mushy poem in them then they have bullshit on the front…

To my wife….

“All the love I have I give to you” - none left over for the children then?

“I love you more and more each day” - I hated you when we got married, but each day I’ve learnt to love you a little bit more. Now I can just about tolerate you.

“YOU (in 2” high letters) are the one I love” - and not the girl from accounts I’ve been shagging for the last six months.

Next year I’ll make my own and say something I mean and the wife doesn’t automatically think is nonsense.

Added some more photos of recent visits to London.

I’ve upped a load of new photos, all astronomical. After the delight of Comet McNaught I dug out some old photos I had of Comet Hale-Bopp. I also took another opportunity this week to get some photos of Mercury whilst it was in conjunction with Venus.