I’ve been trying to find a way to get over to New Zealand in the next few months. I’ve been asked to present a radio documentary about Zane Lowe, and I need to sit down with some people back in New Zealand with a tape recorder rolling. Of course, there’s no budget, and so I [...]
Categories: New Zealand,Travel
Tagged: New Zealand, Seminar, Travel
David McInerney, Tom Arnott, Adam Regan and me – after a spectacularly successful DJ gig at the Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath I often do top 10 or 20 lists (and sometimes even top 100 lists) of music from the year gone by. I generally spend quite a bit of time over this, and then [...]
Categories: Birmingham,Business,Music,New Zealand,Travel,Whisky
Tagged: 2008, Birmingham, Business, Internet, Music, New Zealand, Personal, research, review, Seminar, Travel, University, web, Whisky
We had another couchsurfer come and stay with us. An American, this time. Steve from the Bronx. Nice man, who had previously been in Vienna, but had spent a long time in Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya introducing the clergy there to the idea of gay Christians. A man who’s up for a challenge, then. He [...]
Categories: Birmingham,Travel
Tagged: Birmingham, Travel
I went to Paris this week, from Saturday to Tuesday. It was my first time there (at least, it was my first time there on purpose) and I was lucky enough to go by rail. I far prefer trains to planes. I’d been brought over by a music internet entrepreneur by the name of Antoine [...]
Tagged: Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Foie gras, France, Internet, Louvre, Music, Paris, Travel
Over the weekend, we had a couple from the Czech Republic couchsurfing at our house. Petr and Dasa arrived on Friday and I picked them up from the train station. I walked them to Bobbie’s work, and then she gave them a lift home (I was on the bike). Of all things, it turned out [...]
Categories: Birmingham,Travel
Tagged: Birmingham, Travel
I’ve just spent four days in Belfast hanging out with musicians, sleeping on their couches and spare beds, going to gigs, doing a spot of consultancy and speaking at a music industry seminar. As you’d expect in Ireland (and under those circumstances) there’s no shortage of stories to tell. I thought I’d start with one [...]
Tagged: Belfast, Farl, Ireland, Music, Seminar, Travel, University
Clutch and I made our way to Stourbridge by train yesterday evening. There was a tasting of Springbank Distillery whiskies happening at a specialist shop there called Nickolls and Perks. I happen to have bought a bottle of Springbank’s 10 Year Old Longrow 100 Proof when last in Edinburgh and had loved it to bits, [...]
Tagged: Birmingham, Springbank Distillery, Travel, Whisky
I was in London yesterday, dispensing podcasting and web advice to an international aid agency. I’d travelled down with Sam Coley, who’s our radio guy at the university (I remember being the radio guy…). We stopped off at Euston station for a bite to eat, and as I was buying my bagel, we noticed Mark [...]
Categories: Travel
Yep, that slide really says ‘Better Blogger Workflow’… So… the conference. I went to Chicago for a conference, not just to go to jazz gigs, wander around and look at public art, travel on the local rail (it’s called the ‘L’ train because it’s short for ‘Elevated’ – who knew?), drink in bars and buy [...]
Categories: Travel
Rail transport. It makes a city work. If I have one regret about the cities I’ve chosen to live in thus far, it would be that I’ve failed to pick places that have decent inner city rail transportation. I’m talking about trains that go from where people live to where they want to go. Auckland, [...]
Categories: Travel
Tagged: Travel
