Sunday, 28 May 2006
Bha Niall an seo
Satellite delivers ancient tales to Lewis beach - [Sunday Herald]: "Dr Neil Finlayson, a web consultant and academic attached to the University of the Highlands and Islands, said the commercial applications were boundless. “ This doesn’t just disseminate the stories to a wider audience, it roots them in the place they happened,” he said."
Thursday, 18 May 2006
Punk and flowers - Sandi Thom Review
REVIEW:
Sandi Thom, King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow
Monday May 15, 2006
By Malcolm Burns
Sandi sings her single. "I wish I was a punk rocker, with flowers in my hair". She sings it a capella, the crowd clap in time and her two boy backing band give it some oomph when they come in. But she isn't. Punk, that is. Or even a hair-flowered hippy.
Everyone here must know the hype: girl with guitar puts on web concerts from her basement, attracts 70 then 70,000 virtual fans, then pulls down a lucrative contract from Mr Sony. And all that in just a few weeks.
Though the basement-to-riches on the web story is nicely spun out by Sandi herself through the whole show, the girl is no ingenue. She has a stage presence which is self-aware and at all times in perfect control, groomed at the Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts. More than once she gushes to the audience that this is her first ever headline sell out show. She takes a picture of us, the audience, including her mum, "that's going on my website." It is clear she likes playing live more than playing virtual, and also that she's been performing since she was little.
Back in the basement with my bullshit detector, I find there are cards missing from Sandi's deck. It's hard to be a singer songwriter without dabbling in twee, and we had some of that in songs like Sunset Borderline ("about memories") and What If I'm Right, when she doubts if her lover will be the perfect man who will "always tape the football and let me watch my soap." Hardly front line feminism: there's plenty personal but little political, and nothing punky in her show. She also sounds somewhat more Tooting (physical location of her famous virtual basement) than Banff, where she grew up. She gives good harmonica on couple of numbers. A version of Stevie Wonder's hit Living for the City adds some welcome flavour to the set.
Towards the end of the show Sandi announces that she's been looking for an old friend who now lives in Glasgow. Why was I not surprised when he shouted "I'm here"? Because it fitted the overnight success story so well.
Beneath the hype and what we might call narrative marketing, there does lie some talent: a few good songs, and a beautiful voice. But she doesn't represent a new kind of music, or - far less - a challenge to the way the business does business.
Sandi Thom, King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow
Monday May 15, 2006
By Malcolm Burns
Sandi sings her single. "I wish I was a punk rocker, with flowers in my hair". She sings it a capella, the crowd clap in time and her two boy backing band give it some oomph when they come in. But she isn't. Punk, that is. Or even a hair-flowered hippy.
Everyone here must know the hype: girl with guitar puts on web concerts from her basement, attracts 70 then 70,000 virtual fans, then pulls down a lucrative contract from Mr Sony. And all that in just a few weeks.
Though the basement-to-riches on the web story is nicely spun out by Sandi herself through the whole show, the girl is no ingenue. She has a stage presence which is self-aware and at all times in perfect control, groomed at the Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts. More than once she gushes to the audience that this is her first ever headline sell out show. She takes a picture of us, the audience, including her mum, "that's going on my website." It is clear she likes playing live more than playing virtual, and also that she's been performing since she was little.
Back in the basement with my bullshit detector, I find there are cards missing from Sandi's deck. It's hard to be a singer songwriter without dabbling in twee, and we had some of that in songs like Sunset Borderline ("about memories") and What If I'm Right, when she doubts if her lover will be the perfect man who will "always tape the football and let me watch my soap." Hardly front line feminism: there's plenty personal but little political, and nothing punky in her show. She also sounds somewhat more Tooting (physical location of her famous virtual basement) than Banff, where she grew up. She gives good harmonica on couple of numbers. A version of Stevie Wonder's hit Living for the City adds some welcome flavour to the set.
Towards the end of the show Sandi announces that she's been looking for an old friend who now lives in Glasgow. Why was I not surprised when he shouted "I'm here"? Because it fitted the overnight success story so well.
Beneath the hype and what we might call narrative marketing, there does lie some talent: a few good songs, and a beautiful voice. But she doesn't represent a new kind of music, or - far less - a challenge to the way the business does business.
Tuesday, 9 May 2006
Ho ho ho... but: aaargh!!! this is reality
Guardian Unlimited Politics | Comment | Simon Hoggart's sketch
"It was wonderful: demented, mad, crazed. Did he hear what he was saying? Blazing neologisms flew past like those plasma things airmen imagine are flying saucers."
"It was wonderful: demented, mad, crazed. Did he hear what he was saying? Blazing neologisms flew past like those plasma things airmen imagine are flying saucers."
Monday, 8 May 2006
Hattersley says...
It's all about the epitaph
Roy Hattersley
Monday May 8, 2006
...Because of the damage that it will do to the Labour party, I still regret the bloodletting that lies ahead. But Blair has made it inevitable.
There was a time when the prime minister believed in something. His vision of the good society was one which I did not share. But I accepted that he wanted more than power alone. Now he believes in nothing except hanging on, in the hope of regaining some of his lost reputation. Not even the present Labour party will tolerate that for long.
Roy Hattersley
Monday May 8, 2006
...Because of the damage that it will do to the Labour party, I still regret the bloodletting that lies ahead. But Blair has made it inevitable.
There was a time when the prime minister believed in something. His vision of the good society was one which I did not share. But I accepted that he wanted more than power alone. Now he believes in nothing except hanging on, in the hope of regaining some of his lost reputation. Not even the present Labour party will tolerate that for long.
Saturday, 6 May 2006
this earth being scorched now
Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | 'This feels like the beginning of the end': "What he installed yesterday was a Final Days administration."
Tuesday, 2 May 2006
Labour MPs at last seem to be ready to ditch Tony Blair
Polly Toynbee says: "Party activists meet ridicule on the doorstep. The government's fiascos are letting down good local work. So - Labour MPs at last seem to be ready to ditch Tony Blair."
Please, god, make it true.
Please, god, make it true.
Voting Labour...
is like wiping your arse - not a pleasant experience but it's far worse if you don't.
ho ho ho
Jeremy Hardy apparently - quoted by Tom Robinson here
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tom_robinson/2006/05/post_64.html
ho ho ho
Jeremy Hardy apparently - quoted by Tom Robinson here
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tom_robinson/2006/05/post_64.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
