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A Quick list of things I've been loving for the past few months

At Least For Now - Benjamin Clementine

London

Adios
Nemesis
Condolence
Cornerstone
Winston Churchill's Boy

St Jude - Florence + The Machine 

(+ Florence + The Machine in general)

Two Weeks - FKA Twigs

Lily Allen 

(Nothing specific, just all of her stuff)

Dreams - Gabrielle Aplin + Bastille

Madonna

(I've just been listening to a lot of her old stuff recently coz I've been playing a lot of old records from my dad's old vinyl collection )

I feel old

As a 16 year old, this is a weird feeling that I have never felt before, and it's scary. In fact it's really scary, it's really scary because for probably the first time in my life I remember old technology. I'm not just talking about remembering the first iPhone or iPod, yes those things have evolved and drastically changed, but the basic foundations have stayed the same, one touch screen device which allows you to listen to music, answer calls and access the internet all in your pocket.  I'm talking about remembering a time when things were done in a different way entirely.
So what's prompted this feeling?
I just finished watching the Finebros latest video in which kids reacted to old technology. Previously they've reacted to things like the Nintendo power glove or the typewriter, things that were around before I was, or before I was old enough to remember. But the latest episode had them react to a VCR player.
Now I know this change in technology isn't anything major like going from horse drawn carriages to electric cars, but it's weird. I can remember watching the Lion king and Mary Poppins on VHS, driving down to Blockbuster to rent a copy of Free Willy and sitting in front of the TV as the tape rewound itself back to the start of the film.

I remember when I was around the age of those kids on kids react, and I had adults talking to me about how they remembered a time before mp3s and CDs, when everything was on vinyl and you could only listen to music in a room with a record player.

It's just shocked me I suppose, how quickly technology changes. I remember going on school trips with disposable cameras, and bringing the developed photos into class a week later. I remember the excitement when we got our sky + box, and all of those tapes of recorded episodes of Coronation street  were replaced with a press of the record button on a remote. I remember how excited I was when I got a portable CD player or when my dad brought home his new Blackberry and we all gathered around it for 15 minutes as we waited for google to load. It may have only been like 10 years ago, but at the time that was the coolest thing ever, the internet in your pocket, now it's fairly standard.

I know I've gone off on a bit of a tangent but I just wanted to take a moment to stop and think about how quickly and how drastically technology has and is changing us. So as I'm sitting here typing away on my computer with our VCR player collecting dust in the attic I wonder, what will I be using when this, supposedly modern computer is up in the attic?

If your interested, heres TheFineBros video which I mentioned:

New record player

After reading and hearing many good things about vinyl, I decided that it was about time I got in on the action. 

So after doing quite a bit of research I went ahead and bought the Audio Technica AT-LP60 USB turn table.  

This is just a quick post giving my first impressions but expect more in the future. 

So for starters, the table arrived 5 days early which was fantastic and although I've only been with it for a few hours I must say that I am extremely impressed. 

The set up was unbelievably easy and I was playing a record within five minutes of opening the box. 

I've never owned a vinyl player so the fact that this was fully automatic (meaning you just push a button and the record starts to spin and the needle lifts and drops) meant that I didn't need to worry about damaging the record or the cartridge. 

Within the past few hours I have noticed an astounding increase in sound quality on the two records I've listened to, "Xx" and "Ceremonials". 

I was sceptical at first but it's true, vinyl just sounds better. 

Expect a few more posts about the player and vinyl in general as I become a more experienced vinyl listener. 

A Quick list of things I've been loving this week

Ceremonials - Florence + The Machine 

Only if for a night 

Shake it out 

Never let me go

What kind of man - Florence + The Machine 

By the grace of god - Katy Perry 

Hi

So whenever I discover something, I always want to let people know about it. 

This eagerness to share my discoveries is what made me want to create Aarian's area. 

So the way it's gonna work is that I'll update this blog with anything and everything that I'm loving. I might wright a whole post about one thing, or I might just create a list of great things I'm enjoying, as I enjoy them.