Totally can’t get pomplamoose out of my head at the moment, particularly this song :)
If you’ve not heard of these guys, where the heck have you been? Millions of youtube viewers are enjoying their talent, musicianship and best of all, their really good sense of fun!
“Another day another dollar” as the old saying goes. The question is, is the dollar coming or going?
Brat Boy (aka Mick) has recently aquired a new toy - a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens to go with the new camera he was bought for his (special) birthday.
Quite a long name isn’t it. That’s because, “it’s a posh professional lens” we’re given to understand. So now it’s up to Bratters to show what he can do with it ;)
Oh and if you want to know what the name means, and you’re brave enough, ask Mick and he’ll tell you aaaalllllll about it ;)
No 5 in the series of this wonderful internet meme. “Auto-tune the news” is a fun poke at both the fakeness of the music industry, with it’s clever re-pitching tools, and the kinds of bland news items which deserve nothing more than a darned good tune up!
For almost a week now, we’ve been without music in the office, after our old amp (brand name not mentioned for political reasons) blew up (big style! flash, crack, no music!).
After the inital shock, we did a little reasearch to find the replacement. No music in the office may sound like no biggy or even the norm to some but to us, it’s the only thing that keeps us sane!!! So, we searched in earnest for our new music machine.
After a little while, we came across a budget machine made by Tangent. “Never heard of them!”. Neither had we. So after reading the positive reviews, we bought one.
It arrived today, quite a pretty little thing with brushed aluminium (al-you-min-ee-um) case. In true “Christmas” style we unpacked it and plugged it in…
Wow! it sounds amazing! David Sylvian’s Dead Bees on a Cake came singing from the speakers. It’s like listening to a new album!
Something of a catch for Hartlepool, Morrissey rolled into town last night and rocked the Borough Hall on the Headland.
If you’ve not been to the Borough Hall before, it’s a lovely old building which has been given a little TLC in recent years and makes an ideal mid-sized venue for live shows and music. Of course, it’s under-used. Particularly by artists with sizeable followings or deals which lock them into shows at chain-venues.
The gig itself went as beautifully as a gladiolus, with Morrissey storming through hit after hit to the joy of the bouncing throng. It was over, all too quickly.
For the most part people were well behaved, despite the noticable clash of cultures. Silver surfers (me included) highlighted the funky haired hipsters and everyone sung along….The voices of the real, and the imagined cry, the future is passing you by, the future is passing you by.
When visiting venues for our day job, or going to gigs in the evenings for fun, we often take along at least one of our cameras to capture the moment.
The camera we take depends on the venue. Venue’s have interesting entry terms and conditions, they also have stealthy stewards who spring into action when they spot a “professional” camera.
There are two problems with this, firstly the “professional” part of professional photography is much like “professional” dancer, or “professional” singer. It signifies the guy in the tight pants or leotard is making money from doing his thing, his equipment isn’t. Put me in the leotard and give me the mic and I’d probably gain more in the way of chafing and feedback than fiscal reward.
The second problem is one of perception. Well, if a camera has a detachable lens then it’s a “professional” camera, isn’t it? If it’s a small compact camera then it’s not professional, but wait, one guy stopped us for having too long a zoom on our Canon S5 IS, so there’s some other dark algorithm at work here. The Canon S5 IS does look like a mini-SLR so maybe it’s not such an imaginary stretch in a darkened venue for a tiny steward to make.
So, flat, small, zoom-challenged compacts are simply not professional. That’s it.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leica-D-Lux-Kit-Card-Leather/dp/B001NSHO8O/
Leica make cameras which “professional” photographers use.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nikon-D40-Zoom-Nikkor-18-55mm-3-5-5-6G/dp/B000KIX65S/
Nikon make cameras which both consumers and professionals use.
Notice the price difference? The compact is aimed at the professional market, the SLR is a consumer camera.
Sigh…
So venues are asking their stewards to make some pretty complicated and well informed judgement calls, in a split second. Little wonder the click happy masses are often displeased.
Maybe the venues are pressured by a minority of promoters and artists to implement these silly policies, I just hope venues become more tuned to the artist/fan relationship, because some artists really do get it.
We where most impressed with David Byrne at the Sage recently, who announced at the beginning of the gig that people could take as many photos as they liked “until their batteries ran out”. He gets it, he knows people will post images of him and cell phone video clips all over the internet. Great gig, fab new album, he’s an amazing guy.
http://www.everythingthathappens.com/
Apple, the new gatekeepers for worldwide culture have jumped on another BitTorrent app in thier store…
Full story from Wired:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/05/apple-rejects-bittorrent-iphone-app/
With much anticipation and ado, the Android “Cupcake” update hit t-mobile today, and finally G1 users have video on their phones. Wwwwelcome to the 90s!!
I do like the GUI tweaks and the virtual keyboard works quite well, but there seems to be a couple of issues with some of the older apps I have installed. Hmm… http://www.android.com/
How could we have a blog and not talk about how great the Kutiman videos are which were posted on Youtube and caused something of a stir recently?
Well, we can’t. Kutiman is a quietly spoken Israeli producer and musician who goes about the business of being cool and awesome by cutting YouTube posers’ clips and splicing their audio and video together to make something brilliant. Indeed, an entire album of brilliant, called Thru You. http://thru-you.com/
It’s the “Play” of generation YT.
