Our last day at Un-Convention – and it’s spent in Petare, known as the most dangerous barrio in Venezuela. We went there to pay tribute to a murdered political activist from the neighbourhood, watch basketball, listen to a performance by Symbiz, visit the place of work and the home of a community worker (with an [...]
Tagged: unconvention, venezuela
In which Jez loses control of the lower half of his body, I use all my Spanish, Symbiz reveal their Machiavellian plans, a community newspaper quizzes us on political philosophy for over an hour, we get invited to a Caribbean island paradise, and then we dance.
Tagged: unconvention, venezuela
Time for Jez and I to take a turn on a panel – this time about Digital Archives. We also shared the session with Buddy & Christian, the brothers from Symbiz, whom we quickly got to know and like. Our panel was flooded in, so we had to keep talking for an extra hour; Symbiz [...]
Tagged: unconvention, venezuela
The start of Un-Convention itself. I get to do a bit of an introduction, Jez has something in his throat, there is music and dancing (of varying levels of skill and complexity), we get to see a model of what Tiuna el Fuerte will eventually look like… and I get to be on the telly.
Tagged: unconvention, venezuela
In which we share an unusual breakfast, Jez and Ruth present at a bi-lingual press conference, Alex explains Cameraboy Will’s patented two-step ‘Vengabus then text’ dating technique, and we witness the strict discipline of the Tiuna el Fuerte hip hop school.
Tagged: unconvention, venezuela
Adventures in Venezuela continued… in which we go up a mountain in an unsafe vehicle, hang out in unsafe places, have accidents, and present a danger to ourselves and others, all in the name of grassroots and independent music.
Tagged: unconvention, venezuela
I’ve started going through the hundreds of video clips that I took in Venezuela last week, and have started editing them down to a manageable size for general consumption. Here’s the first video from our first day in Caracas. I’m also going to (eventually) upload all of the unedited videos so you can get Jez’s [...]
Tagged: unconvention, venezuela
The Caracas crew in the barrio I’ve been in Caracas since Friday with my friends Jez, Ruth, Alex, Rich, Will and Leo… and I’m at a bit of a loss to describe my experience to date. Amazing, inspiring, and occasionally terrifying would about cover it. We’re here as part of an Un-Convention event being held [...]
Categories: culture,Music,Travel
Tagged: Caracas, Tiuna el Fuerte, Un-Convention
I’ve been running a music blog called .com/music for a while now. It started life late last year as just a semi-private thing between me and my friends and colleagues – a way for me to process, bookmark and recommend all of the great music I was discovering on Bandcamp while writing reviews there. Along [...]
Tagged: blogging
I’ve been teaching music radio programming for a good few years now. All right, maybe it’s a decade. Or more. At any rate, it’s something that I really love doing and it’s something that I think there’s a real opportunity to have fun with, particularly given the technology available now. That said, it’s not as [...]
Tagged: Radio
