I went for a walk into the Kings Heath High Street to do a few errands and pop into the local record shop – and I bumped into my friend Jez and Brian from UB40 outside the Hare & Hounds.
It turns out Jez and Sam Coley were making a radio documentary about the 30th anniversary of UB40′s first album, Signing Off, and since I was there, Sam roped me in to do a bit of an intro and a quick chat with Ranking Roger from The Beat so that we could cut together a version for NZ Radio.
UB40 played their first gig at the Hare and Hounds back in 1979 for a friend’s birthday party.
In the above video, which I filmed on my phone, Sam gets the guys to talk about their experiences of New Zealand – and it was recorded by one of our students, Steve Thornton. I thought this bit of the interview might be of interest to my kiwi readers.
A couple of years back now (was it really that long ago?) my friend Stef and I made a website together.
It was called I So Wish, and it’s not online anymore (so that link won’t actually work), but when it was active, it was a nice little community of people who would wish for things, as well as try and help make each other’s wishes come true.
I So Wish was a really nice concept, and for the most part, it worked really well – and frequently brought out the best in people. Some incredible, generous gestures were made to complete strangers, and some amazing (and sometimes heartbreaking) stories revealed themselves through the wishes that were made and the conversation that followed on the site.
Stef did a brilliant job of the web development, and there were some great people who were actively involved as community leaders and enthusiasts who were very invested in the site – as well as some genuine commercial interest. But all the same, life sort of got in the way, and neither Stef nor I could really actively sustain and promote it and we both had other things to focus on.
Additionally, a friend of mine who we had asked to come on board as a community manager tragically died as a result of a life-long illness, and shortly thereafter, we decided to let the website close.
This is a short video taken by one of the artists involved in the Aftershock Project in Manchester earlier this year. In it, some musicians are composing a song together. A week earlier, most of them had never met. A week later, they had performed that song together on stage in front of a packed audience, and returned to their homes in England, France and Italy.
By itself, the video is fairly unremarkable, though it does give a brief insight into the creative process, which normally would be hidden from an audience. Musicians traditionally tend to like presenting finished things.
But what it represents in terms of a methodology, a process and a way of ‘making internet’ with respect to music (and musicking) is something that really interests me – and has formed the basis for much of my academic work over the past year or so.
Because what’s interesting is not the video itself, but the way in which that video potentially links to other, related videos from within the same context – and makes connections from which narrative meaning can be constructed.
Call it associative vernacular mediation.
In other words, just as you can build something unique with a set of Lego bricks, you can create a multi-perspective story using these rough-and-ready vernacular video clips.
Gaurav Vaz, bassplayer for Raghu Dixit, captured old-school 35mm style
I like photography, though I’m not especially good at it. I know lots of people who are amazing with a camera – and their skills appear to be a blend of raw talent, creative flair, scientific knowledge and some sort of black magic. I don’t have any of those things, but I still like doing photography.
Digital is brilliant for me, because I can take hundreds of photos and just show people the few good ones that happen to have worked through sheer luck.
Using Flickr is even better for me, especially with a pro account – because it means that I can upload EVERYTHING completely indiscriminately – and anyone interested enough can figure out what’s good or interesting on their own terms. Who am I to second guess what they’ll find significant?
On Flickr, my message is not “witness my photographic skills” but – “look what happened” (or in this case – “look how smiley my musician friends are”).
In a new Wired magazine article called The Web Is Dead, Long Live The Internet, Editor in chief Chris Anderson (author of ‘The Long Tail‘ and ‘Free‘) declares the demise of the web browser in favour of dedicated apps on devices such as iPads and iPhones (no mention of Android handsets, then).
It’s an interesting article – or rather, the first half is a reasonably convincing and interesting article, and the second half is a slightly less interesting, less convincing one. But Anderson’s technologically determinismistic search for cause and massive societal, cultural and economic effect gets in the way – and he ends up saying little, which is a shame, because there’s actually a good point to be made here – though it is one I’ve sort of made before.
In short:
1) the internet is like electricity;
2) individual pieces of software that use the internet (browsers, email clients, iTunes, etc) are like appliances that plug into that electricity; and
3) you CAN dry your hair with a toaster, but it’s not the best tool for the job.
There’s a piece in the Guardian in which DJ and film-maker Don Letts dispenses a few observations about culture and society.
There’s one line in it that some friends of mine on Twitter (professional musicians and DJs, as it happens) have seized upon and retweeted as a bit of a ‘hell yeah!’ to the bumper sticker soundbite that Letts has come up with:
“The downside of affordable technology is mediocrity.”
Never thought I’d blog about X Factor. I don’t own a telly, and so I don’t watch it, and the very idea of the show is utterly repugnant. Seriously – I despise everything the X Factor stands for. But last night, record numbers of people did watch the show – and lots of them are complaining that autotune was applied to the vocals.
Some people see it as cheating. Comments like “but it’s a singing contest!” abound – both in mainstream media and on the internet. In fact, it’s probably the most talked about thing of the day. People are genuinely outraged.
And while it’s incredibly significant that X Factor has been autotuned… it’s sure as hell not important – and here’s why.
I've been told I'm hard to buy for. I suppose that's because I don't really need much of anything. I'm not that big into owning stuff. Except records. Records make me happy. If you want to make me happy, buy me a record.
With that in mind, here's a link to my Amazon Wishlist. My birthday is September 14th, but don't feel constrained by the calendar. You can buy me presents any time you like...
. My birthday is September 14th, but don't feel constrained by the calendar. You can buy me presents any time you like...