Monthly Archives: November 2003

Last Orders at the Liars’ Bar

Last Orders at the Liar's Bar Book CoverMike Pattenden’s Last Orders at the Liars’ Bar (The Official Story of The Beautiful South) is much more the biography of Paul Heaton than the title (although perhaps not the cover picture) suggests. He’s the architect and driving force behind both The Housemartins and The Beautiful South. Last Orders charts the rise and break-up of the former and the enduring presence of later on the album charts – all the way to the release of their seventh album, Quench.

Pattenden does seem to get underneath the band and the talent that brought the world Perfect Ten, Rotterdam and Song For Whoever. In places it does seem a little (although not overly) sycophantic but it reads well and provides interesting detail on life behind the scenes, and in the pub, with The Beautiful South. Reading it a couple of years after it was published will leave you wanting more for you will know where the band went next – they definitely did not stop recording – which is a little disappointing although hardly the fault of the author.

On this day…

2005: Tracking The World
2004: Grid Lock
2002: This Is How A Thriller Should Read

Thoughts on Helsinki

another picture of a nighttime department store in helsinkilights on a tree in helsinki and in front of mcdonalds

Thoughts on an November in Helsinki:

  • They recycle everywhere
  • The men are gorgeous
  • It’s not as cold as you would have expected
  • I missed the snow – it was a couple of weeks ago
  • I’ve just had the best pasta meal I’ve had outside of Italy
  • And Robbie Williams in appearing in town. You hear his name “Robbbbbbbbeeeeeeeee” everywhere

On this day…

2005: Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
2004: links for 2004-11-13
2002: Things That Make You Go “Huum”

The Trench

Paul Nicholls in the 1999 movie, The TrenchI just watched The Trench, William Boyd’s 1999 Somme story set, entirely, in a 1916 trench in the hours before the Battle of the Somme. Although some may consider this film a little limited, I found it quite moving. Some reviews imply it’s a little stereotypical in its characterisation but the ensemble works well and there are some good performances. Paul Nicholls stars and is rather good – despite the somewhat limited role. While the end is entirely known it’s still a worthwhile ninety minutes. I found myself relieved that I wasn’t put in that position, it surely is one of the most tragic moments in British war history. You may know the end but it’s a thought-provoking film.

Buy The Trench on DVD from Amazon

On this day…

2005: 1700 Tracks And Counting
2004: links for 2004-11-12
2003: More Time Shifts
2001: Privacy Policy

More Time Shifts

I wanted to follow up on my time-shifted media post. Although that was written some time before this one, I imagine that they’ll end up being posted together.

As in many of my posts, I was looking at the concept from a personal point of view. I do believe that the ability to watch what I want when I want to is – on the whole – an advantage to the way I consume media.

When SkyPlus introduces Tivo-style learning about my viewing habits then I will, most likely, find the need to consume television as a linear medium wholly redundant. I am, however, not convinced this is a good thing.

The technology and the concepts are great but there are some things that this personalisation of the media experience will destroy and it won’t all be for the better.

To start with, shared-experiences will be dead. With the introduction of multi-channel television they are almost dead now and I don’t think that’s good. The use of the shared experience should not be underestimated in our ability to socialise. The common ground we used to share about last night’s EastEnders will be gone. I may watch it, but my machine has stored it for a time I see fit. Increasingly, as society fragments into smaller units, this lack of the common ground will reduce the ability (and the appeal) of socialisation. Now, I’m not trying to paint any kind of doomsday scenario where people live in individual bubbles with no other human contact, but this lack of experience can not be ignored. Any community starts with a common ground and that common place may just be last night’s 8pm BBC drama.

Similarly, an ‘appointment to view’, as the broadcasters call it will be useless when my machine records only what I am interested in. This will make broadcasters – traditionally governed by ratings – panic. Without a ratings scheme their whole models crash and burn. Ratings are the justification of much of what they do (even dear Auntie Beeb). Why would you want to own a TV channel if viewers have no loyalty (this of course can lead to a whole new discussion where the BBC is but a programme maker and not a channel, but that’s for another time)?

Broadcasters will also argue that a passive audience allows experimentation. If I am drawn to a new drama by the existing schedule (and millions of pounds are spent researching schedules) then I can love/appreciate it. If I have no prior knowledge than my personal media won’t include it. The results? Broadcasters fail to experiment or sink to attention grabbing lowest-common denominator programming. That can not be good but it is not a wholly convincing argument.

Finally, the passive viewer should not be discounted. Generating my own schedule with any kind of time-shift media is something I will have to put effort into (learning and refining the technology). People will, of course, try this and new systems will be developed but it’s not easy. If you have a mobile ‘phone, pda or computer – how many times have you had to repeat something when the basic concept was supposed to make your life easier? I do not want to re-teach a machine when it forgets because somebody unplugged it. I do not want to have to re-browse a broad selection of programmes again because the machine forgot.

There are, of course, examples of this non-passive media. Video Networks supplies programming on demand. I would. however, be interested in the statisics about who views what. I suspect that in many cases it is in addition to (rather than a replacement for) traditional linear channels.

Many viewers want to remain passive. They want a simple schedule where they watch the familiar and are, sometimes, caught out by the unfamiliar. Teaching a system is effort yet media consumption, particularly television, is designed to be entertaining; almost deigned to be passive. The success of time-shifting will be down to the numbers who reject the passiveness of the existing system.

The skill of the schedulers should not be under estimated. Keeping an audience throughout an evening with a mix of programming designed to appeal is a challenge. Without it we are left with the specialist channles (who, I acknowledge, have their own scheduling issues) but I am in favour of mixed channels with a range of programming that can be viewed as a whole.

You may have noticed that one of my pet mediums, radio, is really excluded from my discussions, Radio rarely has an appointment to listen (Radio Four the exception as a channel, with a few great shows on the others stations). Radio is also much more of a background medium – it doesn’t need (although it may deserve) the attention required by television. Radio is a pointer or a guide to my day: Wogan tells me it’s morning, Daryl Denham tells me it’s almost time to leave the office and Dr Pam says I should have been at home but am stuck on a train. Time shifting that would not work. Having said that, my SkyPlus is full of recorded radio that I want to listen to so maybe I need to consider some more.

On this day…

2005: 1700 Tracks And Counting
2004: links for 2004-11-12
2003: The Trench
2001: Privacy Policy

Shifted Media

My Helsinki flight – despite the turbulence – allowed me to catch up on some blog reading which I printed off before I left for the airport.

Tom, of plasticbag fame, had a brain dump at the weekend – writing unconnected thoughts to the page. One that caught my eye – because of it’s relationship to some of my thoughts – was regarding time shifted media.

As a topic, it’s nothing new (we discussed it ten years ago when I was at University looking at some of the social aspects of media consumption) but technology has moved us a great deal.

Ten years ago, time shifting was really not much more than the ability to video (or cassette record) programmes and watch/listen to them later. The Open University has, of course, been a prime user of this concept with dead-of-night programming being one of the backbones of the service.

Now, of course, all is changed. The BBC Radio Player allows you to catch up on programming regardless of location or time zone and you can see how it can have a huge impact on the lives of ex-pats who want to keep in touch via their favourite radio shows.

I have also written before of SkyPlus, a personal video recorder in the Tivo mould linked to the BskyB satellite service. Their current advertising campaign suggests the ability to create your own television channel packed full of only the programmes you want to watch. And it is true. Regardless of the number of times Channel Four or Living TV show Will and Grace, I’d rather watch it when I want to – which is why my machine has them in abundance.

There are downsides too. Phil Gyford has spoken of the excellent Channel Four comedy-drama, Teachers. I have been hooked since the first series but, for some reason, have not at home for much of the latest series. So my machine is over-loaded with hours of episodes. Now, rather than adding to the ability to manage my own time, each view of my SkyPlus planner reminds me how time poor I am and how I do not get the opportunity to absorb all the material I do want to watch.

Indeed, time-shifting has been an advantage to me – I watch much less dross now. But it also encourages me to record the worthy and adds to my feelings of frustration in a world that provides too much stimulation. I can’t decide what is worse.

On this day…

2008: Sunset Crane
2004: Aliens Eat London Commuters

Flight Time Thinking

I have written before of my business travels to Helsinki but this is the first time I am going in the winter. I am writing this on board the Finair flight. I expect darkness and a cold air but it’s going to be interesting to me. I imagine that any photographs will be of limited use (given that I will be in offices during daylight hours).

The Finair flight is usually very good except for their inability to give me any kind of e-ticket on the London/Helsinki route and, in one easy move, reduce my stress about losing tickets. The flight is about three hours long and gives me the chance to stop and think. I generally travel alone and fellow passengers are not always the greatest conversationalists so I am able to enjoy the relative silence. I tend not to listen to music on flights and so I read. I read work papers and things I printed from the web; I read books and newspapers but, above all, I read them and think for a while.

Today, however, is the first time that I think I have been able to appreciate that time. I’m not sure why I have not noticed this feeling before. My brain suddenly seems uncluttered: there is none of the normal chaos to distract me. No television, no radio and no web-access to stimulate my thoughts in a hundred million directions. No commuters or people to annoy, frustrate or distract me. No, for this brief period, my brain has wandered in the directions it has wanted to and it is a strangely liberating experience.

Earlier this year I also mentioned that I find flying a strange experience. I have done it so much for work (and much, much less for pleasure) that it should be like taking a bus. I do not lie awake at night worrying about a journey and have discovered that the art to staying relaxed in airports is to give yourself time. I don’t really mind where they sit me – as long as I can stow my bag – and I am used to many of the strange noises a plane makes. Yet this exterior of calm hides an absolute fear every time we hit the tiniest pocket of turbulence. Regardless of how many stray air-pockets I have flown through I know my blood pressure must rise alarmingly when the plane shakes.

And so, despite the relative freedom my mind has to wander and wonder on today’s flight, it is regularly brought back to reality at every minor shake of a plane.

On this day…

2004: More Producing
2004: The Point Of Art?

Weather Project

image of the whole sunpeople in front of the weathe rproject exhibitionI visited one of my favourite areas of London earlier today, the Thames’ South Bank where I went to see Olafur Eliasson’s Weather Project at The Tate Modern. There’s half circle of the Sun made up of mono-frequency lamps – the kind which provide the orange glow to our streets at night. Running along the ceiling of the vast turbine hall is a mirror which gives the whole image the look of a whole circle, the sun. You can watch yourself in the mirror on the ceiling and many people do, indeed, lie on the floor looking up at themselves and the other ant-sized people. The lamps really restrict the amount of colour that you can see and that makes the whole atmosphere and experience quite eerie indeed. In fact, despite the orange glow it’s very grey.

picture of the turbine hall sign at the tate modernlong shot of the weather project exhibition, tate modern, londonI am not in a great one for museums and galleries but I really do like the Tate Modern and The Turbine Hall in particular. If you don’t know it, it’s a vast gallery space that once housed the turbines of the bankside power station. It’s huge and always seems to house interesting works – which is what attracts me back on a regular basis to see them.

On this day…

2004: Night Off

Gangs Of New York

Gangs Of New York 2002Earlier tonight, and once again thanks to the joys of dvdsontap, PY and I watched Martin Scorsese’s 19th century epic, Gangs of New York on DVD. Apparently, Daniel Day-Lewis came out of a kind of retirement to film it.

The film tells us America was not quite the happy melting-pot of modern thinking. It’s an interesting mix of epic cinema and predicable story as DiCaprio looks to avenge his father’s death and falls for Cameron Diaz in the process, while all around the poor (literally) fight for survival against the corruption of the power holders. The sights of the coffins brought back from the Civil War remind us of another part of America’s past. If the movie is to be believed, Irish immigrants were marched off one ship to another where they acquire uniforms and the promise of ‘three meals a day’ on their way to a death further south.

Gangs of New York looks stunning but fails to deliver. Day-Lewis has a Munchausen moustache which is more absurd in pictures than it is in character, but still provides an amusing diversion. The movie is long, but apparently not as long as it was meant to be. A difficult film to decide upon.

On this day…

2005: Blog Madness
2004: A Box That Does It All
2004: Eleven Years In The Big Smoke

Another Rant on Phone and PDAs

Forbes has an interesting article on the pda/’phone combination I have been talking about recently. The article is basically saying that consumers need to be familiar with the tool so they can use it. Previous attempts to merge the two devices failed, it suggests, because often the ‘phone element was not good enough.

I think this is very clear reasoning indeed. The Treo 600 seems to come closest to that. My problem, however, is that I am looking for a small, powerful tool to do a number of items and, really, the market has not grasped this.

For starters, why am I looking to spend money on a new ‘phone and/or pda? My ‘phone is boxy but relatively new (although I, luckily, paid nothing for it). It’s a perfectly serviceable Nokia ‘phone with a built in camera that I occasionally use – primarily for images on my blog.

On this day…

2004: I Love Firework Displays

Continue reading

Heavenly?

I enabled comments on the Man of the Moment pages to amuse myself more than anything. Dance over to Justin Timberlake’s pages right now to read about how someone claiming to be called Laura is a little fed up with people who put Justin right up there, “Ok I hear all these people saying Justin Is a God. Yeah he’s good, He’s hot and oh so cute! but Justin isn’t a GOD! There is the one and only God who we serve”.

And to think I almost removed it. If it were a commercial message for a company I probably would delete it. But a commercial for God, well, I don’t really know what to say.

On this day…

2005: Regent Street Lights 2005
2004: Great London Food Market Revisited
2003: Do I Hear Fi?
2003: Another Month Another Man
2003: Bring A Smile
2002: Fly Accipiter, Fly