Video killed the radio star?

Morning folks

I trust you are in fine fettle.
After the last ramble-on-and-on-a-thon, which was almost as long as our aborted Ramsay Round recce, this blog is a bit more one-shot-espresso than a double Mocha-choca-cino-with-a-99-flake.

Halloween, clocks changing and plunging into sudden darkness at 5:30pm means that autumn is here.

Not my favourite season (being colourblind means that all the various tones of leaves are wasted on me), it is marginally better than winter, but roll on spring I say!

The youngster and her school choir were invited to a recording studio with a local York band, here is the end product. Not a band I had heard of, but a catchy little tune 🙂

Bogtrotting.

3 years ago today was my last race in Peru.The Misti Sky Race.
A race and mountain I got a bit obsessed about, but sometimes that is only way to approach something that is way bigger than you (and your limits/skillset/cojones size).

(I wrote a blog for Alpkit here: https://alpkit.com/blogs/deeds/return-to-misti-msr-2019

https://alpkit.com/blogs/deeds/return-to-misti-msr-2019

I am still on their homepage , reminding me of unfulfilled business/daydreams in Peru…

Back to reality here in Blighty, to mark the occasion, I entered the Wadsworth Half Trog fell race in deepest, darkest Hebden Bridge. The Full Trog is in February and covers 20 miles of sloppy Pennine bogland, the half trog is just a half of the full and therefore weighs in at around 10 miles.

Fell races are abbreviated with a whole lexicon of abbreviations and acronyms.
– “N” equals navigation required.
– “LK” equals local knowledge (is an advantage)

Obviously I oversaw both of these when I entered on Friday night and was hoping for a clear day.

This was on their social media on Sunday morning:
Perfect trog weather  get the compass out 

Tight lines.

Haven’t been out fishing with the bairn in a long time, not since a red hot day in summer, which now seems about 10 years ago.
Been keen to get to the coast, but it was often a case of
a) No time
b) Crap weather
c) Wrong tide times
d) All of the above.

So, when all the planets seemed to align with Neptune’s Trident, we did an early morning dash to the East Coast, in the hope of catching something for our tea!

Sea fishing is different to freshwater fishing.
It is free! (You need a licence and a permit to fish in most lakes, rivers and canals).
You don’t have a clue what you will catch, (the sea is a big place).
It is.
You get a good feeling how King Cnut (not a typo) felt, as you are constantly battling with the tide, advancing or retreating and most likely getting wet.

Brilliant fun, but generally rather chaotic!

The Nipper always seems to get stuck into some sand art as we wait, but as the waves got wilder we started catching a few.

Final scores were
Old man 3
Bairn 2
(last cast wonder by myself).

After a long ride home, stuck behind a truck doing 30mph all the way, I (badly) filleted our catch and we complemented it with a bag of chips from the amazing Kirkgate Chippy, (I am not sponsored by them, but I wish I was! 😁)

Musical interlude…

In the late 80’s, when I was busy working at Little Chef and doing my best at completely screwing up my A-levels (unintentionally, I so wish I had passed them), there seemed to brilliant bands playing in Leeds every week; at the old Poly, the Uni and the Duchess. It was a time when I naively thought all these good bands would last forever and gigs would always cost a fiver!
One of the best concerts I had the good fortune to witness was The Cramps.
Lux Interior and Poison Ivy, the king and queen of the weird, mixing up punk, rockabilly and B-movies into something quite, quite unique.
Crazy times and happy days!

Raider’s round-up.

The close season means a well deserved rest on the old nerves and regrouping for the new seaspn (which will hopefully be better/less stressful than last season!)

Video killed the radio star?

A seed was planted on the recent Scotland trip (see video below).

It was an absolutely brilliant outing, filmed expertly by my mate John
Like and subscribe to his awesome channel HERE

Although I do take photos (on my crappy phone, which is sooooo tempreramental in the wet or cold), video does seem to capture the occasion just that little bit better.

When we drove to Mongolia in 2012, one of my main objectives was to make a short film about it, for posterity. I took some advice off the Climbing film making genius that is Al Lee (see his fine work HERE) and he told me that the problem is (in climbing films) that the film gets in the way of the climbing which gets in the way of the film!

In other words, the amazing end product you see on YouTube is not just a case of point-shoot-ready, it has actually required a lot of graft (during and after film making) before the film maker presses “PUBLISH”.

This I found out only too well on the road to Ulan Battar, when we were overarmed with a 35mm camera, a GoPro, a Kodak Sport camera and 2 phones, ending up with loads and LOADS of footage, which takes forever to mangle into some kind of watchable film.
(Plus the fact that I have never, ever edited a second of video footage and owe an unpayable debt to my mate, Matthew P, for editing weeks of junk to get a very satisfactory end product here 🙂

The quality of cameras available nowadays is amazing. GoPros were a real gamechanger: High quality footage, simple to use, bombproof and best of all, not a million quid. Action cameras mean that with some effort, it it possible for people outside National Geographic cab make high quality films, (with a lot of work, and a bit of magic/luck!)

However, as I said earlier, I have zilchio (post production) editing experience, which is where YouTube comes in, thank you tutorials!

The offshoot of all of this waffle is that I am thinking about switching this minestrone swirl of words, also known as a blog, into some kind of video format. It would have to be skimmed down and might be a bit rough and ready, but rather than spend 3-4hrs typing, I could spend that time editing and hopefully producing some kind of interesting content.

Why?
For fame or fortune? I am not a massive fan of social media, so am I a hypocrite for now posting videos? Tricky one.
Tiktokanory?
Not really my thing to be honest.
Just wanting to show a wee bit of the great outdoors, but definitely NOT in a “My perfect life is amazing-hashtag-look-at-me” kind of way, because it’s not.
(Never ever used a hashtag and I am not about to start now!)

The biggest drive for me is to learn a new skill; making videos and editing. I am starting from scratch, so please bear with me.

I would be curious to hear any thoughts on this, if you have any 🙂
As always, watch this space…

Top reads!

Need a new book?
Buy this, now!

Available HERE.

And finally…

I am (told and I agree that I am) stuck in the 1970’s.
However, I almost wish I had been born in the 60’s, as just 3 years before I was born, THIS was happening!

Egremont Crab Fair, home of gurning and Speed Pipe Smoking!

Hoping to squeeze in one more wrap-up of 2023, before the blog turns into a pumpkin and self destructs at the chime of midnight on New Year’s Eve, to be reborn as some kind of YouTube channel.

Hasta la proxima amigos 🙂
Johnny