A solitary deer, staring back at the camera
This weekend past I went for a short break in the Highlands with Rebecca. A ’staycation’, if you want to be all buzzwordy about it.
Sunset at Oban
We drove up to Oban first, the main harbour town on the Scottish West Coast, then carried on northwards to the more isolated fishing village of Ullapool, away up near the corner, so to speak.
Eilean Donan castle
I was expecting mountains, lochs and beaches, and although that’s pretty much what we got, it was the barren quality of this part of the country that took me by surprise, and the way the light pours down from the sky, and the continual succession of great vistas at every turn in the road.
The promenade at Ullapool
It was also a chance to try out my new camera (a Nikon D3000 for any nerds reading), and while I’ve yet to read the instructions, some of the pictures turned out not too badly…
View from Stac Pollaidh
Stac Pollaidh
I have no idea what kind of sheep this is
Evening sun on Wester Ross coast
I definitely recommend the north west of Scotland if you need to get away from it all without spending a fortune.
For at least the past ten years the tide of journalism has been headed rapidly in an online direction, leaving the cumbersome, expensive, tree-churning newspapers behind in an irreversible state of decline.
You know that. We’ll take it as a given.
As any half-decent journalist knows, however, it’s precisely this accepted thought that’s there to be torn apart if need be.
Perhaps this was one starting point for Milo over at gaseousbrain.com, a blog which has just published its first ‘zine’. Despite having known Milo for a few years now, I hadn’t seen this coming. With the geek image he likes to keep up (all lies) and his mild obsession with new technology, I assumed blogging/new media/podcasting was his true calling.
And he would be the first to admit that over the past year he’s moved much more of his work on to his self-sufficient online world, away from the extremely limiting space afforded by established print publications.
But even for forward-thinking dudes like Milo, it seems the thrill of seeing your words down on tangible, bendy, physical paper is not completely lost.
Last weekend I received in the post a rather nice ‘catalogue’ of the best writing from his blog. Reflecting his main interests, it covers music, gadgets, travel, TV and Britney Spears. Though I’d love to see it in colour, the design is clean, sharp and easy to read.
I think it’s interesting that he’s taken this step, because he’s not the only one returning to the print format, no matter how distinct it feels from mainstream media. At a time when so many traditional media companies are failing to evolve their product in recognition of the way people consume information, the advantage that projects like these have is their freedom.
I’m not suggesting that Milo or any other bloggers-turned-publishers are for one minute aiming to make a living out of this; to overthrow Murdoch and his ilk (perhaps that won’t seem so far-fetched in a few years). I just think it’s a telling trend – one that I think has real currency right now, so long as the producers maintain their distinct personalities and a free-thinking outlook.
Whether or not it heralds any noticeable trend in publishing, Milo still deserves credit for putting the graft in and trying out something a bit different. Keep the dream alive, etc.
Anyway, I can’t say all this without giving the Gaseous Brain Spring 2010 Catalogue a plug. Order yours here. Or, in Milo’s words…
You can buy the STRICTLY LIMITED EDITION luxury B&W printed version, which has already been described on Twitter as “mindblowing” and “a snazzy catalogue”, for the bargain price of £2 at Elvis Shakespeare, Deadhead Comics & Avalanche Records in Edinburgh, and at Monorail Music in Glasgow.
Out of interest, does anyone have any other examples of blogs turned magazines?
Last week I did something I didn’t think I would do – and it didn’t involve any radical Christian denominations or East Fife Football Club.
Something far more unprecedented (at least given my commenting track record on Milo’s blog) . I ordered an iPhone.
Spur of the moment, jumping on the bandwagon… however it happened doesn’t really matter. I had long made a stance against iTunes out of a dislike for its controlling diktats, and I’ve only ever heard bad news about the iPod, so always bought less fashionable alternatives.
But it’s different with their mobile phone. It may not quite be a case of iPhone, therefore I am, but it’s already proving itself an addictive über-toy .
Like anyone else who gets their grubby mits on one of these shiny slabs of techie gold, for a few days I was an intrepid app hunter, downloading and installing anything I thought was even half-relevant.
Having sifted through my first batch, here are the results of my swift analysis, a sort of shopping list for anyone looking to expand their app portfolio.
These are all free, as I’m still wary that the micro-payment road leads down a treacherous slope to macro-payment woe.
The genuinely (and I mean genuinely) useful apps
WordPress
I actually started typing this post out on the WordPress app and saved it as a draft before continuing on my more typing-friendly laptop. If I did more commuting (I walk to work) then perhaps this handy little app would spell more updates to njmitchell.co.uk.
EdinBus
Absolute genius, and so simple. By hooking up to MyBusTracker, this app logs you into any bus stop you want in Edinburgh and tells you when the next buses are due. I’ve already used it to time the point I leave my front door to perfection. Check if your city has its own version. If it doesn’t, make it NOW.
Dropbox
This one requires you to have an account, but Dropbox is such a good idea that if you don’t then you should. Save files to their webspace and access them anywhere, including your iPhone. It even plays audio and video files, so if your iPod is rapidly filling up space, this might be the solution.
Twitterific
I always use Tweetdeck on my laptop and at work, but so far Twitterific wins on the handheld for me. It’ a clean, simple design with full functionality and nice birdie sound effects. What more d’you need?
RunKeeper
One for the masochists. If you go out running this will measure your progress by GPS and give you a live report as you go. I ran twice round my local park the other night and found to my dismay I’d only managed 4.86 kilometres. Technology eh?
The news and sport apps
TIME Mobile
The American magazine presents a selection of its magazine content in slick, easy-to-navigate slideshow tabs. Their photography specials are especially good, but there’s also the kind of quality writing you’d expect.
NYTimes
Like its magazine cousin, the Yank’s newspaper of record got its hooks on the iPhone early. This is another app that gives the lie to those that say that reading long-form journalism on a screen will never catch on.
Telegraph
As I’ve yet to stump up the £2.39 for The Guardian’s much hyped app (and frankly, there’s something sanctimonious about the Guardian brand that puts me off any of their latest triumphs), this will have to do instead for British broadsheet coverage.
SkySports Score Centre
OK, it’s evil Sky, but this is the best app I’ve found for keeping bang up-to-date with live football. You can easily check what’s on by league or tournament, and save the matches you give a damn about to My Scores. Handy that. Only downside is having to see the grinning presenter’s mugshot the whole time.
NB: I’ve installed Mobile RSS Reader too, but still find that my Google Reader is more suited to a bigger screen, although that could be down to the fact that I mostly refer to it at work. Also, I couldn’t find a single Scottish news app. I realise that, in my line of work, that’s pretty unforgiveable, so it’s something I may have to set right.
I’ll post another round-up of discoveries next week: fun, games and music. I’ll probably add to the news & sport categories later too.
Was your favourite app in the above categories missing? Put that right by leaving a comment…
What the inside of the human head now looks like
I’ve been trying to think of a subject to write about for the an end-of-year blog post, and, having ruled out Jade Goody’s cultural legacy, the death of Auto-Tune and the career prospects of Tiger Woods, it jumped out at me.
So-called “choice fatigue”, more than any other topic, seems to me the most easily identifiable cultural trend and the most vital issue of the past year, nay, decade.
If you’re wondering what this suspiciously jargonistic concept could possibly represent in the real world, it’s basically the theory that the array of choices presented to us in the modern world doesn’t actually entail any kind of increased happiness or enlightenment. It’s something that readers of Armando Ianucci’s Observer column might recall him lambasting a while ago, and it seems to be gaining more traction as a buzz topic of conversation in its own right. Hell, it’s so proper it even has its own book.
In the Noughties choice fatigue crept up on us while we weren’t looking, through the rise of internet shopping and eBay, MP3 players and iPods, not to mention the explosion of blogging and online journalism.
But over the past twelve months this galaxy of choice has contracted to a black hole, an infinite, inexhaustible portal to… everything.
In music, Spotify was the big advancement in 2009. Catching on by word of mouth and those oh-so-exclusive invitations (until you realised that every citizen of the EU could procure one), it quickly crossed over into the mainstream by virtue of its amazing selling point: (virtually) all the music you could ever imagine, at your fingertips, for FREE (with ads). Spotify has shifted the emphasis from ownership to streaming, and the sheer quantity of music opened up by this, along with the equally impressive Last.fm and The Hype Machine, is unthinkable.
That other digital buzzword of 2009 (even if it began a few years earlier) also played its part in the trend toward radical democratization. Yes, it’s Twitter I’m talking about. The jury’s still out on its actual worth, but this year the micro-blogging service became the ultimate source of information. Whether it was breaking news, daft video clips, top 10 lists, career advice or blurry photos of your mate’s night out, there was one place where it all ended up. And what does this lead to? Discovery? Exposure?Turning a light on corners of the internet we might never have (or indeed needed to have) seen?
Even in the dusty old Great British Living Room, the cult of choice is taking over. Instead of trying to time our routine around the TV schedule, we can just watch the entire series back-to-back with a DVD boxset, or play catch-up on BBC iPlayer or 4od.
In short, 2009 was the year when infinite choice became the standard, the expectation; a word that’s increasingly used by politicians and commentators in an unquestionably positive sense.
But are we really any wiser, happier or more cultured than we were in a decade ago, before all these advancements? No, we’re not. In fact, faced with so much choice, the public rarely want to experiment, settling instead for repeats of Top Gear and Come Dine With Me, streams of the latest single by Lady GaGa or Coldplay or a quick check of Facebook or YouTube.
Choice fatigue, the feeling you get when you stare blankly at your MP3 player as it scrolls through hundreds of not-quite-appropriate-for-my-current-mood albums.
So what exactly am I arguing for here? As tempting as it is to listen to our inner dictator (what, you don’t have one?) and seize back all choice from the individual (make them watch Brasseye, listen to Boards of Canada and read Charlie Brooker’s columns), that would make for a pretty warped society.
No, the answer lies with how we respond to the multitude of options before us. If the thought of Doctor Who or Avatar or the new Cormac McCarthy novel only vaguely flits through your brain tubes, rule them out. And do it decisively; make a concerted effort never to let any of these things occupy your mind again, and focus your attention wholeheartedly on what really interests you.
There you go, a ready-made resolution: become narrower-minded in 2010.
I’m off to continue my quest through the Sopranos boxset… (I really am).
This was a feature I undertook for Clash Magazine two years ago. I didn’t have much on over Christmastime, so I swatted up, reading both Simon Reynolds’ seminal Rip it Up and Start Again and This Must Be the Place: The Adventures of Talking Heads in the Twentieth Century. Both excellent reads for your inner music geek.
The album in question was Speaking In Tongues, not even my favourite Talking Heads record, but it was fun to have the time and scope to look at a record in depth and in its original context.
So when I stumbled across the article on the Clash website recently, it got me thinking that I’d like to do more of this type of writing. Now if I could only find another hour in the day…
If you like Talking Heads you might find it interesting, so here’s the link.
It’s the geeks’ equivalent of the golden ticket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Except that if you’re a bona fide geek you probably had no problem procuring an invite to Google Wave when it launched its beta phase earlier this year. As one of the blundering, dim-witted masses who take that bit longer to care, I only got mine last week via a friend’s Facebook status update. (Ugh, this post is already way too Mashable-esque for my liking).
You might be expecting me to tell you how it’s revolutionised the way I go about my online business like a budding springtime of web 3.0 futurism. But unfortunately I have yet to get it. And I suspect I won’t until it goes live and more of my web-aware buddies and workmates enter the funhouse.
I’ve only ridden (?) one wave so far, and it came across like nothing more than an instant message chatbox where you see the other person’s typing in real time. It lasted about two minutes before the wave washed up on a beach of inanity and ennui, and I swiftly gave up the experiment.
But as a daily user of Google’s excellent services (Reader, Analytics, Blogger, Documents…), I’m thinking it will all become clear some day.
So are you any further forward? What uses have you found for it? What limitations does it have?
A few weeks ago a friend and fellow music writer called Finbarr Bermingham (a fine Irish name) asked me to contribute to a feature he’s running on his blog, where various scribes are picking their top five albums of the past decade.
I put it off for a while as it’s not the easiest task to whittle down everything you’ve listened to over the past ten years into five standout LPs, but then one evening I thought I’d stop procrastinating and just do it. Finbarr was looking for personal choices, not some kind of authoritative barometer of the decade, so I just shortlisted the albums that had stuck with me, the few I can still enjoy after hundreds of plays.
And the top five I came up with? Well, here they are, in no particular order:
Radiohead – Amnesiac
OutKast – Speakerboxx / The Love Below
Midlake – The Trials of Van Occupanther
The Strokes – Is This It
The Knife – Silent Shout
You can read my reasons for choosing them in full over on Finbarr’s blog.
If he asked me to do this in six months time I’d probably come up with five completely different choices, but there you go. If you haven’t heard one of the five I recommend you give it a spin, as they’re (obviously) all extremely good.
And what are your top five albums of the Noughties? I’ll give you a few weeks to post your comment.
The Brandenburg Gate, focal point for most of Berlin's turbulent history
I’m currently bunged up with a cold, no doubt brought on by a combination of a few too many Berliner biers and the German capital’s even-chillier-than-Scotland autumn weather. But the trip was worth a few sniffles, because I had a great time exploring the place.
The few remaining scraps of the Berlin Wall, the site of Hitler’s bunker (now an anonymous car park) and the new Jewish memorial were all fascinating and humbling, but it was the nightlife that was the main attraction.
While we made a few wrong turns and bad choices, we also found some great bars, such as the graffiti-covered Zapata, the cool DJ bar named after Studio 54 and Silberfisch, a cellar bar that stayed open till 8am.
The quality of the pictures this time round isn’t too good as I was relying on my camera phone, but here are a few anyway, wonky panorama shots included.
My attempt at a panoramic shot of the Reichstag, Germany's parliament building
Another panorama attempt: The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a newish site built with thousands of concrete slabs
Taken 'inside' the Jewish memorial. Looks like rows of skyscrapers to me.
The Fernsehturm, or TV tower, which is visible from practically everywhere in Berlin.
Currywurst, the local delicacy
I’m going to Berlin on Wednesday with a few old friends for five nights. It was a spur of the moment decision driven mainly by us all having to take holiday time off work before the end of the year, and the cheapness of the flights.
Unlike recent holidays to New York, Barcelona and Croatia, where I had either been before, done a bit of research or had a fairly good idea of what to expect from movies and music, Berlin remains a mystery to me.
I’m expecting big, wide public squares, hundreds of kinds of beer, crumbling Communist blocks, nightclubs that stay open till the last person leaves and a huge David Hasselhoff fanbase. But this could just be the stereotypical view for all I know.
Anyway, I’ll be back next week with my thoughts on the German capital and hopefully a few photos – although they won’t be as good as my Croatia pictures as it will just be my pitiful phone camera this time.
In the meantime, have you been to Berlin?
Care to give this clueless tourist a few tips on good bars / restaurants / clubs / sights?
Interview for The Skinny
Just over a year ago I spoke to Yeasayer singer Chris Keating, and, as well as stories of hanging out with Beck and crossing fingers for Barack, he had this to say about his band’s recording plans: “On the last record I feel like we made a lot of mistakes, but I’m happy with the way it came out… we don’t want to remake that record, but we don’t want to start from scratch either.”
Skip forward to September 2009, and guitarist Anand Wilder confirms that the band are putting the finishing touches to the long-awaited follow-up to All Hour Cymbals. “We’ve almost finished it. We had our last celebratory day of mixing yesterday and then we’re shooting a music video in LA in the next few days, and then we come back and then we’re doing recalls of the mixes and hopefully we’ll be able to finalise it by the end of this week.”
But how have the Baltimore-via-Brooklyn psych-funk scientists been occupying themselves for a whole year? Well, they contributed a new song for the Dark Was the Night charity compilation, Keating and bassist Ira Wolf Tuton worked on Bat For Lashes own second album, and Wilder started composing a suitably far-out sounding musical. From February, however, the three founding members of Yeasayer (drummer Luke Fasano has fallen by the wayside) finally turned their attention to their sophomore LP. “Um, well it took a long time because we basically had a lot more time to spare, and we had a little bit more money to play with,” Wilder says. “We weren’t working jobs or anything, so we pretty much just bunkered down in Woodstock, New York.”
The setting, aside from any obvious hippy connotations, had the facilities the band needed. “It was a house in the middle of nowhere, but it belonged to this guy who used to drum for all these big huge acts like Hall and Oates and Peter Gabriel,” Wilder recalls. “So he had tonnes of amazing microphones, all these different guitars, all these drums… It was the perfect environment for experimenting. All the songs went through many different stages, we’d scrap ‘em and start over again.”
After three months of no-pressure experimentation, the band gauged public reaction to the new songs at summer festivals like Bonnaroo and Pitchfork, before going back to hone the raw material. Again, they enjoyed a new-found freedom. “I think the last record was like a series of good ideas,” Wilder says. “I think people got it, they thought, oh they’re combining these different genres and playing with it, but I don’t know if necessarily it ever sounded that great. With this one we’re really focusing on each individual sound being perfect and stripping it down… We’re kinda getting over that whole ‘wall of sound’ thing, and trying to do something that’s lush but a little bit sparer, a little bit more pleasing to your ears.”
Despite the current trend for novel release methods, from pay-what-you-choose to coffee shop record deals, the band want to keep it old-fashioned. “I’m hoping it’s normal!” Wilder laughs. “With the last record we still don’t have vinyl to sell on our tour… So for me I’ll be impressed if, on the day our album comes out, we have vinyl, we have a CD to sell, it’s all up on iTunes, and we have a new website. I’ll be really happy to just think, oh we are a real band!”
As for a working title, Wilder stays tight-lipped. “We do have one but I’m not sure if I’m supposed to talk about it. It’s something very different, it’s good… It won’t be a surprise let’s just put it that way.” So no album title, no details of a new record deal (although the US/European labels “will be revealed pretty soon”) and no due date more accurate than early 2010. What is relatively certain is that Yeasayer will support Bat For Lashes at a couple of shows in Scotland this month, and Wilder will have some words with Natasha Khan: “I didn’t do anything on her record so I’m gonna have to give her a hard time for not asking me!”
