"Steven? Just coming" - Adam & Joe have a cult following

In the media world, 6 Music is like the radio embodiment of its listeners: intelligent, unassuming, perhaps not the life and soul of the party but the one who brings the best records and has the best chat. In other words, since its birth in 2002 it has quietly gone about its business, delighting music fans, carving out a succession of niche audiences and leaving the vain, attention-seeking to its brash FM cousins.

But if your average (Adam &) Joe hadn’t heard of it before last week, he damn well does now. I won’t bore you with the details that you already know, but last Friday the BBC’s latest strategy review was leaked to the media, and that included the proposed closure of 6 Music. Cue a response that was passionate, bewildered, anguished even, from its 700,000 listeners (who, as you might expect, are exactly the type of people who know how to make themselves heard in the blogo-twito-faceo-sphere.)

I added my own thoughts on the weird reasoning behind the announcement on Under the Radar earlier this week, but here I just want to run through some of the arguments I’ve read elsewhere this week. It’s safe to say that Mark Thompson wasn’t expecting such a vigorous backlash …

Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien, from the band’s blog:

It literally is the radio lifeblood for music outside of the mainstream. Not to denigrate Radio’s 1 and 2, but it really is the only station that puts music first, and that’s from a punters point of view and not some bloke in a band. Nowhere else can you hear an archived session track from T Rex juxtaposed next to Midlake’s latest release. As David Bowie, put it … it keeps the spirit of John Peel alive.

Hear hear. And Milo at Gaseous Brain (he’s not in Radiohead but he still deserves a say!) has written a thoughtful dissection of 6 Music that points out its flaws but reiterates its worth:

It is literally the only station we use our DAB radio for, and if it is closed it’s hard to see why having a DAB radio is necessary at all. In fact, I would say the vast majority of people in the UK who own a DAB radio bought it solely to listen to 6Music. If it was on FM things might be different. If it was publicised properly by the BBC things might be different.

Matthew at Song, By Toad meanwhile makes a good point about the huge, unbridgeable gap between underground and mainstream platforms that would be left in 6 Music’s wake:

How the hell are you supposed to progress, to step up, to actually make that massive leap without the developmental step of 6Music, where you can start out with a couple of airplays on one show, maybe get a session on another, and hope to eventually make the step up to a Maida Vale Session and perhaps eventually some Radio1 airplay. Take away 6Music and you have to go from the Song, by Toad podcast to Radio1 in a single leap, which is not only a ludicrous expectation, but also makes the process increasingly arbitrary, because bands develop at different rates.

Nicola Meighan at The List wastes no time in the cultural, political or economic stuff. Instead she lists a succession of reasons and examples why it must be saved:

This week’s 6 Music schedule offers the following: Don Letts’ ace documentary series on reggae powerhouse Trojan Records; interviews with Gorillaz, Fear Factory, Broken Bells and Errors; Steve Lamacq’s pick of unsigned talent.

There are a few priceless videos kicking about as well. Have a swatch of Adam Buxton challenging Mark Thompson to a fight on Channel 4 News …

… or Jeremy Paxman doing much the same (albeit in an interrogative sense) on Newsnight (complete with stifled laughter at the end).

Finally, this infographic by The Guardian illustrates the situation rather nicely.

Who’d have thought that 6 Music could provoke this kind of backlash? Not me. Or Mr Thompson, judging by the look on his face.

That’s all down to my friend Alan Scott, a graphic designer who came up with the new banner, above.

You can see more of Alan’s work at www.alanjohnscott.com or read his own blog here.

Cheers Al!

… is the new film by Jacques Audiard, the French director who made The Beat That My Heart Skipped a few years ago.

A Prophet is similar in some ways (brooding, male protagonist, intense, graphic violence, the depiction of a grim world punctuated by brief moments of beauty) but this time it’s the story of a young Frenchman of Arab origin who catches a six-year jail term at the age of 19.

That’s not to say it’s trying to make any political statement about France’s racial make-up in the same way that, say, La Haine did. (There’s hardly any mention of his crime, save for a snide reference by the prison governor to ‘attacking cops’.) It’s cinema verité first and foremost; an unrepenting, unsentimental look at life on the wrong side of the law.

Malik (played with sullen brilliance by Tahar Rahim) is unconnected when he’s locked up. To gain protection he must kill another inmate for the prison’s dominant gangster Luciani (played with great malevolence by Niels Arestup, who was the father in Beat). From here on he gradually builds his knowledge, cunning and respect, running errands for Luciani while on day release.

As you’d expect from Audiard, the film is masterfully shot. He strips away all cinematic conventions to place everything – the characters, setting, action – up close, at times uncomfortably so. He knows precisely how much to show and how little, so there are passages of flick-book style speed and shots that dwell lazily on a deer carcass or Malik’s scars.

What makes this essential? Maybe it’s because Hollywood forgot how to make films like this sometime in the mid-80s. If you’re looking for hard-hitting, uncompromising cinema that even comes close to passing for real life, it seems like you have to just put up with the subtitles these days.

Gregory Tade celebrates the winning goal

Last night Raith Rovers beat Aberdeen 1-0 in the replay of their Scottish Cup fifth round tie.

For anyone unfamiliar with the context or the sport, there’s nothing remarkable about this fact.

But it was remarkable when you consider these facts:

In the original game, Aberdeen bundled in an equaliser in the fifth minute of stoppage time, to the bafflement of many onlookers who couldn’t see where five minutes of added time had come from. It was a tough blow for Raith Rovers to take, and so often it’s in ties like this where the bigger club (Aberdeen) stroll through the replay.

Before and after the first game, Dons manager Mark McGhee’s comments to the media implied that his team had some divine right to just turn up and the result would go their way. Before the first match McGhee said on the radio that Aberdeen had the better players and it was just a case of putting in the performance, and after the 1-1 draw, he said:

“I couldn’t believe we were losing, it was such an injustice. I couldn’t believe we were on the verge of going out, there was something very wrong … We are going back to Pittodrie now and we can finish the job.”

Last weekend’s results seemed to confirm the likely outcome of last night’s match. Aberdeen fought out a 4-4 draw with title-chasing Celtic, while Raith slumped to an embarrassing 4-0 defeat at home to Inverness Caley. By normal logic, this would mean that Caley are a far better team than Celtic. It’s a funny old game.

To add even more complexity to the fixture, on Monday Raith captain Mark Campbell, who for the past four years has been a constant source of dependability in defence and was inspirational in the first game, was badly injured in a car crash. While it looks like he will make a full recovery, this news must have sent shockwaves through the Rovers camp. The players could have reacted in two ways: resign themselves to defeat, or commit themselves to fighting for every tackle and header and ultimately, the win.

Even on the night it looked like the fates were conspiring against Raith. Defender Dougie Hill was injured in the warm-up and replaced by Robert Sloan, and because of the bizarre rules of the Scottish Cup, this meant manager John McGlynn could only have two substitutes at his disposal. Then in only the 24th minute, striker Johnny Russell had to go off after coming off worse in a 50-50 tackle.

But all it took was one tap-in from French forward Gregory Tade, a half hour of dogged defending, and Rovers now find themselves in the quarter finals of the Scottish Cup.

Much of the media attention today has focused on McGhee’s plight (and if he hadn’t been so smug beforehand I might actually feel some sympathy for him after being spat at by Dons fans), but nothing should detract from this remarkable win.

Now all Raith need is the same kind of incentive to go and beat Dundee in the next round.

Peter Kay: seen by many as the ideal host for the Shit Awards

By our Showbiz Correspondent, Diana Rea

Lady Gaga cleaned up at the 30th annual Shit Awards show in London last night, where she won a hat-trick of statuettes.

The expletive-laden Shit Awards also saw Lily Allen land on stage astride a replica bomb to the sound of air raid sirens. After being named Female Shit, she swore as a horn sounded from beyond the stage during her acceptance speech.

Rap star Dizzee Rascal was named male Shit, telling the audience: “It’s about time as well,” as he collected his award. US rapper Jay-Z won the prize for international male Shit. Rockers Kasabian were named Shittest group, while Florence And The Machine picked up the Shittest album award for Lungs.

It was also a successful night for JLS who collected the award for Shittest breakthrough act, then the statuette for Shittest single for Beat Again.

Two special Shit categories were created to celebrate the best of the Shits over the past 30 years. The Spice Girls’ 1997 performance of their hits Wannabe and Who Do You Think You Are took the Shittest performance award while (What’s the Story) Morning Glory by Oasis was named Shittest album since the ceremony began.

The night climaxed with a performance by Robbie Williams as he collected the award for outstandingly Shit contribution to music. The beaming singer said: “It feels really good up here, Shits. Thank you so much.”

The only Shits missing from the occasion were obvious Shit contenders, N-Dubz.

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.

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?

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).

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.