devolute.net

Coldplay (aka “Radiohead for bed-wetters”) are getting a lot of radio play. Too much. Even on ‘alternative music station’; BBC 6music, they pop-up a surprising amount. Like they were/are with the iPhone, the BBC are currently in a multi-media Coldplay-luvy blitz (although the ‘toys out of the pram’ moment that Chris Martin gave Radio 4 is pretty funny). We’re told repeatedly how big they are. They’re so big because we’re constantly told about them! It’s a vicious circle. With the new album, ‘Viva la Vida’ (aka “The beginners guide to raising your bittorrent ratio”) it’s just more evidence of ripping off others for fun and profit (mainly profit, actually).

Now indie band the Creaky Boards are claiming that they wuz robbed. Sure, this could just be coincidence and a bit of cheeky publicity grabbing from the ‘Boards, but remember this is Coldplay we’re talking about. This is the band responsible for ensuring that any time Kraftwurks gentle Computer Love is played, the younger members of the beige-Mondeo owning public cry, “isn’t this a Coldplay cover?”.

It’s not just melodic piracy either, it struck me that the current visual style Coldplay have recently adopted closely parallels that of teenage-angst mongers ‘My Chemical Romance’. I’m not the only one to notice this.

In short: Music by the numbers (lead by what the market deems profitable, as opposed to musical integrity) : Still tedious.

Image thanks to the eternally wonderful Natalie Dee

Even a 4 year old knows that. Or so said NYUs Clay Shirky at the recent Web 2.0 Expo08 [blip.tv video]. He detailed how things are shifting away from passively watching television and into more interactive forms of media. He uses the example of the millions of hours of work that has gone into Wikipedia and other community-based wiki-like project by a great many people.

“Media that is targeted at you but does not include you may not be worth sitting still for.”

Shirky knows why we watch television. It’s because since WW2 we all have so much free time. Isn’t it better that we interact with something rather than just sit there and consume it? I think he’s right. Collectively, we watch far more adverts on TV than we do using brilliant collaborative projects such as Wikipedia. Has anyone watched television recently? 99% of it is rubbish. Getting involved with media is a lot more fun than an osmosis-like filtering of it into ourselves.

Still, regardless of this, Peep Show does start again tonight and I’ll definately be taking time out from the collaborative Web for that!

Video found via random($foo).

I’ve just been sitting here and the whole house shook for about 4 seconds. So, being the geek I am: go internet go! The ever-useful Sheffield Forum tells me that I wasn’t imagining it. Even more surprising is the news there that it was felt as far west as Manchester and that according to my friends who I’m talking to over IM, as far East as Hull. Wierd. They felt it strongly too. More news later, I guess. It’s always interesting to see how the big media (like the BBC) react to this sort of sudden unexpected news.

Update: The BBC have got an initial report here. Got two pals in North London saying they felt substantial shakes.

Update #2: One guy hurt his leg when his chimney fell on him. My Mums piggie bank nearly fell off the telly. That’s it. No doubt the Japanese/San Franciscans are looking on and sneering at us making such a fuss. Unsupprisingly, it was left to b3ta.com to make the defining point.

Hurrah! A full day of selective quoting from his many speeches, taking care not to mention anything he said about stopping poverty, the US class system or his anti-war stance. The picture of the day can be found here.

Sometimes it feels nice to rant against blatant stupidity and get the support of my peers (read: fellow redditors). I’m happy to be upmodded when it’s something I care about. Sad? Well, maybe. But in this case; when it involves media-scaremongering that makes people terrified of their own neighbourhoods (specially when it’s my neighbourhood), I’ll happily take those votes.

Sad news this weekend as cancer finally claimed Tony Wilson; son of Manchester and focal point of the ‘Madchester’ scene. Okay, cards on the table; he was a bit of a wanker (in his own words!), but he was such a likeable wanker. He was there in the thick of such great things like Factory Records, The Hacienda and Joy Division. He could have made a lot more money out of it all than he did, but he didn’t. Manchester is my favourite city in this country and has seen a lot very positive development over the past decade. I think the music scene is in no small way responsible for this and Wilson’s contribution to this was not inconsiderable. He talked in a way that to some was not especially likeable, but he wasn’t afraid to rock the boat. I remember seeing him on telly, defending his city to a mocking London-centric media snobs. He spoke well about the talent available in Manchester and I certainly agreed with him when he spoke about such things.

As a result he was not only an asset to Manchester, but also to the North as a whole. He fought in our corner. He’ll be missed for more reasons than simply being remembered as managing the Happy Mondays.

R.I.P Tony Wilson: 1950 - 2007 (obituary from HARP magazine)

I had what could be the ideal politics-geek day-trip last Wednesday. I awoke at ridiculous O’clock to travel from Sheffield to Westminster for the first Catch21 Productions conference since I joined them as ‘New Media’ bod. This was held in the Houses of Parliament itself. I was excited to get bumped to the front of the security queue and through St Stephen’s entrance. Inside we held the conference which involved a number of college/6th form kids asking questions to us and our guests. Guests included delegates from Operation Black Vote, The Electoral Commission’s and the UK Youth Parliament and also we were able to have a question and answer session with Charles Kennedy MP, Ann Widdecombe MP, current Education Minister Alan Johnson MP and Daisy McAndrew - Chief Political Correspondent of ITN. The audience asked some good questions which yielded some interesting answers.

Catch21 will be displaying highlights from this event on our YouTube channel. Personally, I enjoyed opportunity to meet some very significant MPs from the three main partys and we all got some ideas of where Catch21 can go as an organisation from a seemingly pretty keen audience. Besides, I get down to London so infrequently the Tube is still a novelty. I wonder how long that will last?

(picture courtesy of the lovely people at OBV)

I’ve been learning to draw with a tablet now my scanner’s completely cacked it. I’m not packing my day job in quite yet.

It was tempting to use MS Comic Sans just to excite Ian’s irrational hatreds, but I swear I’m not certain how much he’d take these days before neighbourhood pets start going missing.

I’m not sure what to make of Mr. Spector’s trial. It seems pretty open-and-shut guilty, but then my information is passed through the diseased kidney that is the mass media. I suppose I’m just quite glad that since I’ve not had much exposure to his work I honestly don’t care all that much. All I’m prepared to express is that if I was on trial for murder, I’d possibly put a little more effort into looking less like Mr. Burns’ evil, eccentric twin.

About time. Great news that it was done by Palestinians themselves. Great news that he’s okay. Great news he’s got a sense of humour: “He appeared with a cleanly-shaven head, saying one of his first acts after his release was “going to the barbers and getting rid of that just-kidnapped look”.”

Pissing off the BBC is the last thing Palestinians should be doing. Compared with the other Western networks, the BBC is their friend and an asset. There you go. The past two blog posts have been very balanced!

Here in the UK, the iPhone arrives in approximately ten tears time. When we finally get it, the crippling restrictions that will be put on it in terms of bandwidth and connectivity by the traditionally stingy mobile phone providers will render it almost useless. It’s smooth, rounded, shiny and you could probably loose it if you sat on one too quickly, but all that is irrelevant if the absence of network support renders it useless. Could someone please tell the BBC this? Listening to the radio this afternoon, it seems that not only are they determined to advertise a product (someone should take a flick through these documents, perhaps?) but they are advertising one that isn’t even available to people in this country! It’s worth pointing out that other equipment is available that does what the iPhone does (well, almost). I think that perhaps the (alleged) generous 20% discount that Apple gives British journos may have something to do with the constant repetition of Apple-propaganda which is very, very boring. We expect this crap in some places, but on the BBC?

Maybe they just feel guilty for what they’ve done to Apple elsewhere? In short: Don’t believe the hype, Auntie Beeb. np: It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back

Everyone should be pretty much aware of not only the musical Genius of Mark E. Smith, but his unwillingness to co-operate and knuckle down for (usually feckless) presenter-led interviews. This Guardian arts blog round-up of the most horrid interviews is a perfect way to celebrate. It includes, of course, the infamous Newsnight appearance after Peel died.

One of my favourites is a recent interview by the lovely, if not a bit soft in the head, Lauren Laverne. So uncomfortable, yet enticing, to watch. Her poor treatment wasn’t very surprising. She introduced him by reciting the same old boring tale that the Fall wouldn’t have been stirred into action, were it not for the famous Sex Pistols Manchester Free Trade Hall gig in 1976. Shockingly, there was actually music in the North of England before the Sex Pistols came to play to a couple of hundred Mancunians. So I heard anyway.

It’s been low-blog count limbo round here for a while. I’ve been over-rung with websites to maul at work so I’ve been somewhat terrified to even look at a TinyMCE text entry box. What else have I done? Well, I’ve been all the way to Westminster in London Village to try and help raise some more funds for soon to be internet-sensation Catch21 Productions. Well, we hope. We’re certainly going to try. I reckon we could do some pretty exciting stuff with it anyway. More on that, hopefully much more, later in the year.

I’ve also been to a wedding, a stag do, paintballing (ouch), go-karting (crunch) and to see some downright awesome bands like 65daysofstatic (for the 4th time!) and A Silver Mt. Zion (for the second time, but this time wasn’t half as good - slackers). I went to watch ‘28 Weeks Later‘ which was disappointing, but not surprisingly so. I just loved the prequel far too much and naturally the usual disappointment in a sequel followed. I also watched the start of Big Brother UK Series 384, but I’m too ashamed to talk about that…

BBQ this weekend down ’sarf. Maybe next week I’ll reveal some shiny new website designs I’ve been working on. Oh larks oh lawdy! Hurrah!

The answer, quite blatantly, is yes. Stephen Colbert is the Greatest Living American. This has absolutely nothing to do with his current attempt at a bit of Google bombing, it’s just a statement of fact that occasionally needs stating now and again. I know I’ve written about Mr. Colbert before, but I’ve been paying even more attention to his shows recently and he’s really making sense of the world. He just won’t shy away from real controversial viewpoints like some of those cowardly lefty pundits; take Anne Coulter for example. His truthiness knows no bounds.

So we pray that, like an eagle soaring through the sky in the bright mid-day sun, Colbert continues to fly high over us all.

The guy everyone loves to hate; Bill ‘Papa Bear’ O’Reilly finally gets shouted down big-time. On his own show. By fellow sensationalist Fox ‘news’ muppet Geraldo Rivera. Great to see it when their own kind viciously turn on each other. Beats anything Attenborough has ever shown on television anyway. Still, in this case Geraldo easily has complete moral supremacy.

More of this sort of thing, please! [oliverwillis.com]