Amsterdam Russ

Cheers, Steve. Kind of you to say so. I've often thought about making my own website to display my better photos, rather than use places like Flickr and Ipernity. All these photo-sharing sites seem to succumb to internal politics after a while, or you find that other members lose interest in commenting and liking the pics of others. Not sure exactly why that should be, but I've seen it happen with both those sites. Flickr, in particular, had so many thematic groups with "laws" associated with them – post one pic, like and comment on five others, put your hands in the air, just like "Simon says" – that it was all too much. Whenever people get together, it seems some always want to make terms and conditions for being a part of the group. I couldn't be bothered with all that pecking order stuff, so I went to Ipernity. Sadly, though, Ipernity is a loss-making site and is sure to go under. That's unless the recently-formed rescue team of members can save the day, but – if they can save the site – they're talking about introducing a 50 euro annual annual fee. No thank you! Where then to display your photos to a like-minded audience? Perhaps oddly, in many respects it actually seems the best place is here!

Still got my Flickr account, although I moved from there to Ipernity around 2011. https://www.flickr.com/photos/rigilbert/ That said, my Ipernity subscription expired last year and I've not bothered to renew it because I think it's too expensive for what it is, and there's a strong likelihood that the site will fold very soon. http://www.ipernity.com/doc/rigilbert?view=1

Yup, the entire Billboard archive has been available through Google Books for a few years. Absolutely amazing what you can find in there, isn't it?

An acetate of a presumed unreleased song signed "To my brother Charlie… John "Someone"". Can't quite make out the last name properly, but it looks like "Higton"...

Signed by Bobby Bland...

On the Toy record label. Mine's red rather than grey.

Ooh, that's nice. Off to buy me a copy right now…

Didn't really notice the cold to be honest. Beer can have that sort of numbing effect. ;-) Once I was on the bike my biggest worry was cycling home through patches of snow and ice and making sure I didn't take a fall, especially as I had my DJ box in one of the panniers.

Coming home from our Northern Soul Amsterdam event on Sunday morning, which requires an hour-long journey on the night bus and a short cycle ride home, this is what awaited when I got off the bus at four am. Worse, the front combination lock had seized up, although I managed to get it open after about 10 minutes!

Thanks for that. Not come across it before, but have bookmarked it now and will have a good trawl later. Looks a very inviting little records shop - and with the opportunity to get "something for the weekend" right next door!

Cheers, Steve. In addition to taking the camera out of the case, I need to go a step further and take it out of the house. It's great when a photo opportunity presents itself from the comfort of your own home, but it's something else to be out there in the field. Soon, I hope...

Thanks, Kev. Looking out the window on what was a foggy day, I saw the small boat making its way down the canal and thought there was potential for a half decent pic. I dashed to get my camera out of its case before the boat turned the corner and went out of sight. I also wanted to capture the craft and its occupants while they were in the clear and away from the dark shadows cast by the trees on the bank to the right. I just managed to fire off this one pic before it was too late. Must look out the window more.

Johnny McCall - I need you - on Al-teen went for a smidge under $900 yesterday, and that was for a VG copy! I know we keep having the discussion about how crazy prices are, but every day seem to bring yet another high in bidding craziness. And I'd love to know who these people are - the ones paying well over the odds for the rash of VG and even G condition 45s that are increasingly for sale. The finger's been pointed at retirees with cash to burn; people coming back onto the scene after having cleared their mortgages or whatever, but I can't believe it's only the older generation of soulies who've been driving up prices these last few years and who continue to do so with no sense of financial care. Is it also newbies into the scene - whether in the UK or elsewhere in the world? Collectors from other scenes looking to cross over and make an impact, perhaps? Just who are these crazy people with the deep pockets???

A cold and frosty morning as seen out the front window of our apartment.

Lou Rawls on TV singing the Axelrod-produced classic "Love is a hurtin' thing"...

Pro Deo - run by Kristof Vermeulen and his wife. The soul/popcorn event was just a couple of doors down from their restaurant and Kristof was one of the organisers.

A couple more Brugge pics (again, both taken with my iPhone) with the partially frozen canal a bit more visible on the second one.

Lovely pic. I see what you mean about the second image, although if your partner is also your soul mate, then go for it. A wonderfully picturesque place is Brugge, that's for sure. We first visited about three years back and had a great time then as well. Nice to visit again and take in a soul/popcorn event at the same time.

Went to Brugge last weekend for a bit of a touristy trip and a visit to a popcorn/soul event. No matter the weather (it was cold when we were there - you can just make out ice on the water), I think it's just about impossible to take a bad photo of the town. I took this panorama with my iPhone.

Difficult to say for sure. Even this thread has numerous pics and comments about people chasing rare and unexpected species. More pics would help, of course...