Yesterday was the start of the mentoring sessions. People who ran fledgling start-up online music services were getting advice and feedback from people who could help in a series of one-hour one-on-one consultancy sessions.
I’m supposed to be there right now, being one of the mentors, but unfortunately, I’ve completely lost my voice and so would be limited to smiling and nodding – which isn’t all that helpful, really.
Friends of ours from round these parts, Munchbreak have a new song that’s sort of a Brummie update of the Disposable Heroes of Hiphorisy’s ‘Television, The Drug of the Nation‘.
Really brilliant bunch of local guys making some great music. Wish they were on Bandcamp… but they do have a CD for sale.
I don’t own a television set, and while I do watch the odd show, it’s usually at a rate of about one or two programmes per week, give or take – and never on any particular schedule.*
If I have a bit of downtime, and my brain isn’t up to much, I’ll head to iPlayer for a panel show comedy of some kind, or a light and fluffy documentary programme like that Wonders of the Solar System thing I enjoyed half an hour of over the weekend.
But I love great television. Especially well-written television. I’m a huge Joss Whedon fan, I’m blown away by pretty much anything that Jane Espenson turns her hand to (with the possible exception of Andy Barker, PI) and I think Aaron Sorkin‘s a bit of a genius. I think the medium is capable of some fantastic long-arc storytelling, and some of it is easily the equal of some of the best cinema out there. Often it’s even better.
My problem is one of time. But I have an idea that provides me with a very simple solution to that…
I'm an author of books about technology, culture, music and radio. I'm also an award-winning broadcaster and filmmaker, a public speaker and lecturer, record producer and festival director. I am closely following developments in emerging technologies and the cultures and ethics surrounding them, and my projects typically focus on issues of justice, inclusion, and sustainability.
Most of my work involves surrounding myself with incredibly smart and talented people who would have no other reason to ever be in the same room as each other. That's when amazing things happen.
I tend to talk a lot about music (often jazz-adjacent and particularly on vinyl, but also playlists and mixtapes). I'm enthusiastic about food and cooking, the intersection of art and science, new technologies, vintage technologies, education, social progress, silence, innovation, narrative, data commons, culture, sound art and the spoken word. This blog will continue to reflect those diverse and shifting enthusiasms. I may also digress.
I'm from Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland in Aotearoa New Zealand, I have Scottish ancestry, I've spent a decade in the south of Birmingham UK, and another in a forest in the north of Sweden.
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