Apr 3, 2013 |
I finally received feedback on my book Radio in the Digital Age from the external reviewers. The publisher has sent me the comments and suggestions from anonymous peers, whose advice can range from minor suggestions through to a complete rewrite – or even “don’t publish”.
This is the bit that academic authors dread. Or at least, I assume so. That’s my experience anyway.
After having spent all that time and mental energy putting together what I imagined to be a coherent document, here was the point at which a couple of people could look at it and say “not worthy”.
Thankfully, that was not the case. I have some work to do – a little bit of reordering at the beginning and end, a few extra caveats and citations to ensure that my assertions are entirely justified, and one or two clarifications, and that’s really about it. A leisurely month or so tweaking, re-reading, and refining – and all’s well.
One of the reviewers called it “readable, thoughtful and knowledgeable”, which are all good things to be. The other reviewer remarked upon my tradition-breaking approach to the topic which was “unusual and welcome”. Feedback also included the phrases “carefully nuanced”, “unusually engaging”, “concise, yet comprehensive” and “a sophisticated critical evaluation”. So that’s all lovely and positive.
But then I noticed the words “on target for publication early 2014” and my heart sank. The agreement with the publisher had been for a 2013 release. There’s a university research evaluation called the REF coming up next year, and the amount of funding we get allocated to continue to do research depends entirely on the outputs we submit.
Publications from 2013 are counted. Those from 2014 aren’t.
In short – I need this out. Otherwise, as far as my job is concerned, I almost may as well not have bothered writing it.
A frantic to and fro with the publisher, and it was agreed that if I can make the suggested changes and proofing within the next two weeks (TWO WEEKS?!) then they should be able to get it out before the end of the year. No promises, mind…
So… back into high-stress writing mode I go.
Oct 29, 2011 |
I’ve recently been asked to review albums for Bandcamp. In fact, I’ve been employed to be THE reviewer for Bandcamp. I’m very excited about that. And not just a little nervous.
If you’re not aware of Bandcamp, it’s an online platform for independent musicians on which to showcase and release their recordings. That image above is a screenshot of Snowmine’s Bandcamp page. It’s a great way to sell music online and also a great way to listen to, purchase and download music online, which is a good combination.
There are lots of great features like variable pricing, embedding, the ability to listen to the whole thing before you purchase, the ability to select whatever quality you wish to download, often right up to 24-bit audiophile formats, and the fact that once you have the music, you don’t have to do anything to it. No track renaming or album art embedding required. It’s all done for you.
There’s been a fairly radical update of the website’s front page, with a focus on helping people discover the music that lies within, and they were keen to feature as part of that a sort of ‘album of the week’. My job is to select a release and write about it for that front page. One album per week.
Here’s my first choice for Bandcamp Album of the Week.
I’m on the board of advisors for Bandcamp already, and I like listening to, thinking about and discussing music, so it was sort of a natural progression. Naturally, I’m very excited (as well as incredibly honoured) to be doing this. But there’s a potential problem that I want to address, and that’s the fact that I’m not really a “proper” music fan. I’m more of a musical tourist.
Let me explain.
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Dec 31, 2009 |
Photo by Infodad
So, that’s it then. The end of 2009.
Looking back over the notes, this was a pretty good year, and since I’ve blogged a fair bit of it (though with some significant gaps – must watch that in 2010), I thought I’d do a quick wrap-up of some of the highlights.
But let’s start with a lowlight.
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Dec 30, 2008 |
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 I end up agonising about the order I’ve put things in, and the things that it later turns out I forgot to include.
Fortunately (I suppose), this year, the overwhelming majority of the music I listened to was at least 25 years old (I had a bit of a souljazz binge) – so it would be pointless to try and list my top current records, as it’d just be a list of records that I actually happened to hear, rather than a selection of the best out of a larger pile.
So instead, I thought I’d approach things a bit differently this time around. It’s a year in review, without mentioning records that I like.
Instead, here’s a list of a things I thought were pretty cool about 2008 as I experienced it. These are some of the things I got to do, places I visited, projects I’ve been involved in and interesting stuff I encountered.
They’re not really in any sensible and comparable grouping like pop records would be – and so they are in no particular order. And nor is there a nice round number of them.
This list represents my Top Several Things and Stuff of 2008.
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