Living in Bristol

Having been in Bristol for some two and a half years now, I will shortly be relocating further into the city centre.

With this in mind here’s a list of the top 20 things to do and see in this vibrant city.

http://www.timeout.com/bristol/things-to-do/20-great-things-to-do-in-bristol

Photo credit Charlie Marshall

Interesting sign in the centre of Falmouth today..

Translations anyone?

10 Sources to Bookmark for Colour Inspiration

Really, really nice.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/inspiration/10-sources-to-bookmark-for-color-inspiration-129575?image_id=1871569

Awesome synth – DIY

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix

Waste some time, be creative

http://www.escapemotions.com/experiments/flame/index.html#top

I’ve heard it said

‘Dissertation, dissertation, dissertation!’

That was it, wasn’t it?

Seafoam!

Old product used to sort out engine gunk and incorrect running. American, so limited over here, but just loved the site.

Full website:

http://www.seafoamsales.com/

Massive Attack: Heligoland

Massive Attack have never been known for working under pressure, but after a seven year interlude they have returned. Their debut Blue Lines (1991) was a new sound, not before heard. Almost twenty years on, their fifth studio album Heligoland, is still as fresh, dirty, yet warm and enveloping as ever.

Heligoland, described as ‘the best collaboration of the generation’ by some still pushes the boundaries. Throughout the album you hear sounds not far removed from the likes of Portishead or Radiohead with real ‘world music’ undertones, but still unmistakeably Massive Attack. The opening track Pray For Rain is almost certainly one of the best, with a powerful yet breaking beat throughout, and a solid, yet strangely involving melancholic chord sequence. Follow this with Babel, the cold, close and almost clammy sound of the track and the album is off to a grimy, personal and hugely addictive start. Two tracks in, and you are already irrevocably involved in this masterpiece.

The dingy, offbeat baseline of Splitting The Atom is what we have come to know and love from Massive Attack, although the sound is neither old nor boring, but more like meeting an acquaintance from years ago – friendly, familiar, but still different and new. The excellent faster paced Girl I Love You follows, and you are instantly knocked back by a solid baseline, only complimented by the accompanying horns, which help make the track another instant classic.

Flat Of The Blade, featuring vocals from Elbow’s Guy Garvey is instantly haunting, with a delicious electro twist. The beat, though twitchy is not irregular and provides a haven of consistency while Garvey mystifies and almost finds a type of soul-jazz.  Followed by the sombre Paradise Circus, the silky smooth piano is worked well, with the classic ‘hand clap’ used to maximum effect.  Vocals by Hope Sandoval  compliment the off-kilter piano meaning you really do feel her despair.

A smooth delivery makes Rush Minute all that more enjoyable, although not much more can be said except it’s about the right length, and does just sound as Massive Attack should. Saturday Comes Slow, the penultimate track featuring Damon Albarn however is almost too short. The less imposing, more simple beat and melody fully compliments Albarn’s voice, leaving you wishing it went on and on. A genuine soulfulness is found here, with Albarn almost crying ‘do you love me’ again and again, and you really do want to say yes.

Atlas Air leaves you wanting more, with an addictive sound and even more addictive beat. A well worked techno interlude adds to the intensity of the track that builds to a crescendo then closes with another delicious techno indulgence.

Heligoland sees Massive Attack go back to their roots, but still be completely new after the lacklustre anti climax that was 100^th Window. Only comparable in quality and sheer audible pleasure to Blue Lines and Mezzanine, it is simply a must have for anyone new to Massive Attack, existing fans or anyone looking for a dirty beat and addictive, soul-thumping genius.

Heligoland
February 8, 2010
Virgin

01. Pray For Rain (vocals – Tunde Adebimpe)
02. Babel (vocals – Martina Topley-Bird)
03. Splitting The Atom (vocals – D, G and Horace Andy)
04. Girl I Love You± (vocals – Horace Andy)
05. Psyche (vocals – Martina Topley-Bird)
06. Flat Of The Blade (vocals – Guy Garvey)
07. Paradise Circus (vocals – Hope Sandoval)
08. Rush Minute (vocals – D)
09. Saturday Comes Slow (vocals – Damon Albarn)
10. Atlas Air (vocals – D)

iPad?

Bar my lovely old shuffle, personally I stay away from things with the dreaded ‘i’ prefix.

Available in the UK rumoured around April time, basic 16GB versions to cost around £300-£350 with the top of the range 64GB with 3G (not as standard) expected to be a whisker over £500.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/

Reviewed:

http://www.gomonews.com/why-are-people-so-angry-about-the-ipad/

Falmouth University Journalism course in the Press!!

“J0urnalism college to focus on specialist reporting

A journalism training college is planning to specialise in arts and environmental reporting in a bid to give its students an edge in the media jobs market.

University College Falmouth says it wants to focus on arts, culture and environment issues because they generate the biggest stories on its Cornwall patch.”

Full article here:

http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/training/100120falmouth.shtml

Never take the first offer!

Having recently had a mishap with my Sony stereo (initially costing in excess of 500£) a call to my insurers got the claim in progress. The call was followed up today where I was offered a measly £249.99 on a gift card for PC World (PC WORLD!? For a stereo system?!?).

Having declared I was not happy with that I’ve now to get a quote for the equivalent system from Sony themselves and fax/email it over to the insurers. I imagine the estimate should be closer to what I originally paid.

Just a quick note to say if ever in this situation, don’t take the first offer from your insurers as they inevitably will be trying to save themselves some money.

Support those in times of need

There is surely no-one who in this 24 hour news age cannot know of the tragedy of the earthquake in Haiti. Support the relief effort (as although £12m is a great amount raised in such a short time, it’s still far from enough) and give through Tearfund. Aside from helping those in Haiti, their mission statement:

“Our ten-year vision is to see 50 million people released from material and spiritual poverty through a worldwide network of 100,000 local churches.”

http://www.tearfund.org/

When on the website you can select the amount you want to give, and also where it’s going using the drop-down menu.

This is just the charity I have chosen to give through. Everyone should give as much time, self and financial support they feel they can.

Thanks

The end of the Poly?

Falmouth’s Polytechnic Society (The Poly) announced on Monday that it’s doors would close for the final time. The Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society however will continue to exist.

The final screening was ‘Glorious 39’ at 17:30 on Monday 11 January 2010.

The building on Church Street in the centre of Falmouth was a popular venue for art exhibitions and encompassed a cinema and often showed theatre productions.

Already there has been great support, with even a Facebook group titled ‘Save Our Poly’ now containing well over 3,000 members.

Comments left in the Facebook group included:

‘The best small theatre I’ve been in. Must not close’

‘Save the poly, save our past! Keep it for our joy, fun! Falmouth needs the Poly!’

There has already been much talk about reopening The Poly, but run mainly by volunteers. At this point in time, however, it seems this is just wishful thinking.

Rasterbate..

The art of rasterbation is a simple one. Before you click away and accuse me of being vulgar, that’s not a typo. In simple terms it’s a type of tiled printing enabled by a computer program. Simply upload/insert (in the link to follow you upload) an image of your choice to said program and through a process known as ‘rasterbation’ the image will be enlarged and broken over however many (in this case) A4 sheets of paper.

You have complete control over how many pages the image will span(and therefore how large), as well as contrast/colour/tone  and even the facility to transform to black and white. Also available to (crudely) change the DPI (although working in centimetres).

Below – An example of a ‘rasterbated’ image, taken from:

http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/

Also use the above link if you too want to rasterbate!

Rasterbation! Taken from http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/gallery.gas?169

Digital Research in Media Ethics

“In and beyond the 21st century classroom, the cerebral act of conducting research is changing. Students consult voluminous indices to periodical literature with a point and click. Restricted access to rare books and manuscripts, corporate archives and government publications has opened up. In the electronic arena, global resources have become remotely accessible, and remote resources have become globally accessible. Learning is becoming an ‘on-demand’ digital enterprise.”

An extract from: Digital Research in Media Ethics – Emily Walshe.

While I completely agree with the point made, I still feel, even in today’s ‘get it fast, have it now’ culture there is still a place for the humble book (in spite of the ever more available digital book readers – http://www.ebookreader.org.uk/).

Perhaps callously I still believe people will always desire ‘a good book’ – although possibly only for entertainment. I do believe that print itself is seductive.

‘Difficult balance of reporting the truth and staying safe during war ‘

‘There are few rules for reporters in any war governing the pursuit of their “survive and report” ethos, and even fewer in Afghanistan. Risk can never be fully removed and its laws are variable. The same group of insurgents who welcome a journalist one day may abduct the reporter during their next meeting.’

Full article – Times online

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6828225.ece

‘Pictures of war can carry more moral meaning than thousands of words’

‘The US Defence Department may disagree, but the images speak for themselves.’

Full article – Times online

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/ben_macintyre/article6828145.ece

Reading list:

Journal of Mass Media Ethics – Exploring questions of media morality

Journal of Ethics and New Media Technology

(Volume 16, No 4, 2001)

Edited Ralph Barney, Jay Black

Flat Earth News – Nick Davey

New Media, Old News – Journalism and Democracy in the Digital Age

Natalie Fenton

Fans and Bloggers – H Jenkins

A good working environment

An atmosphere almost as organic as the food.

‘johnny’s cafe believes in re-using & respecting craftsmanship, the environment & good quality wholesome vegan & vegetarian food’

http://twitter.com/johnnysofhayle

Contact with Juice

The team at Juice radio are relatively small, with most staff using time to host, produce and script their own shows, as well as promote air time sales (for advertisments). I have contacted the team at Juice via email and will be following these emails up with phone calls in the near future.

Market position

To properly evaluate and analyse how Juice uses web 2.0 I feel it necessary to compare it with other similar companies both within the same field – ie radio, and perhaps one or two outside of that field – ie news/magazines etc. I have chosen to draw comparisons with Heart Radio Sussex (formerly Southern FM) and local plus national BBC radio. Other media form comparisons TBC.

Conflict

As per previous post, it appears Juice both connects with its audience extremely well and uses web 2.0 extremely well. Now begins the analytical process to decide which to answer. As I feel Juice only connects with it’s audience so well as a result of its advanced use of web 2.0, that is most probably the question to be studied.

Grounding my study

I have chosen to base my case study around Juice Radio Brighton, although I will be drawing comparison with other similar radio stations, and perhaps other media forms altogether. This should allow me to examine Juice Brighton’s position in the market and how they do one of the above (yet to decide which question) with a wider and more informed view.

It appears that Juice Brighton uses web 2.0 extremely well (http://www.juicebrighton.com/), and this in turn appears to allow them to connect with their audience beyond just radio. Offering a local job search, restaurant reviews, a ‘what’s on’ guide and even a Juice loyalty card it appears Juice haven taken the utilisation of web 2.0 to aid their connection and relationship with their audience to the next level.

The choices…

How does a specialist publication connect with it’s audience?

How does an editorial department function during it’s production cycle?

How is a particular organisation using web 2.0?

Case study posts, for BA Hons Journalism

Will all be grouped under the category ‘BA Journalism’. Click on the ‘BA Journalism’ category link on the right hand side to isolate other posts so that only posts within ‘BA Journalism’ are viewed.

Abbreviations

As glanced upon in my previous post (the irritating shortening of Christmas to Xmas – which in itself is the celebration of the birth of Christ – whether you agree with that or not is another thing – it removes the original meaning of the word) I recently was a victim of  ‘Soz mate’ when my delicious Morgans Spiced was elbowed from my hand.

Shortening an apology to ‘Soz mate’ is possibly one of the most enraging nuances within the English language. Surely, if genuinely sincere, the already informal ‘Sorry’ would not  be shortened to ‘Soz’. (If you’re going to do something…)

The ‘Holidays’?

So with another holiday season nearly over, I’d be suprised to find one single person feeling relaxed or recharged. This year especially, I’ve been overwhelmed with mass consumerism. I’m not saying that people are buying more, or that it has got any worse, just perhaps I’m now more aware of it.

What clearly underlined this for me occurred on Christmas Eve. Standing in the aisle of the supermarket with my sister, trying to pick out a couple of cards for my parents. At this point, she turns to me and says ‘ Lew, are we doing cards this year?’

I couldn’t help but bark out a laugh. What would be the point? I wondered, for my beloved sister to pick out a meaningless card (even if the love and good intention was there), write in something nice, for me to open it the next day and probably bin it (or recycle, if I’m feeling wholesome) in a few days, or weeks time?

Now I’m not a killjoy, in fact I relish a bit of  ‘Christmas Spirit’ (CHRISTMAS, not XMAS spirit that is, whatever that means) and a dollop of love as much as the next punter but it just seemed a totally pointless expression, a waste of time, if you will.

Anyway, without dragging you all down, I sincerely hope that you may have been in the small minority able to relax over this period, and will enjoy the New Year festivities.

Right, gotta hit those sales…

£30 Windows 7 upgrade for students (from Vista), and £38.99 Office 2007

All you need is a valid .ac.uk email address and a computer capable of running it. 99% of Vista machines are, with a good amount of XP machines too. The offer is available on Windows 7 Home Premium, and Professional versions.

Full details and application found below:

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/education/studentoffer/

theguardian: Student Media Conference 2009

‘Reporter, writer, blogger, broadcaster?’

The annual Guardian student media conference is fast approacing, and whatever you want to do in the media industry, as a student, this conference is a ‘must see’. With a choice of seminars (given by Sky Media, Five news etc) and keynote speaker Nick Davies it is sure to be an informative and valuable day.

Applications in by October 30, 2009

Conference on 25th November, 2009

More details and to apply:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/student-media-conference-2009

welcome

So now, everyone can blog, and taking that further, everyone can be a journalist (whatever that means nowadays).

After wrestling with many other blogs, and issues of quality, I’ve succumbed and created lewiswilkinson.wordpress.com.

I’ll endeavour to keep it up to date with published articles, images and so forth, so please have a browse around and feel free to leave any comments.

My journalistic interests range from feature writing to reviewing, vox-popping and podcasting, and I hope to explore all of these. I have an avid interest in photography and photojournalism, so check the ‘images’ page for more examples  of my work.

Use the tabs at the top to navigate between pages.