The end of term means one thing, visiting the place I hate the most.

It is Friday 19th of December 2008 and I am sat in the newsroom at university with only seven other bloggers and one has just left while I am writing this.

It is the last session of the online project module and it has been a fun ride, but I won't go into it too much as I have already written one piece about the course.

No, I want to talk about the exciting prospect everyone waits for, rushing to get work done and book flights home and that is holiday. Yes the holiday where we can go back to our stagnant, dull little home towns where nothing has changed and instead of learning new and exciting possibilities we laze at home sleeping and and watching re-runs of friends.

And what makes it worse is that university breaks last too long. Just give me a couple weeks off to have Christmas and New Years, I'll come back on the third if I could.

I suppose it has a lot to do with my home town, which was one of the main reasons I wanted to become a journalist. I wanted to expose my home for what it really is, a stale country side town that has be glamourised by the very newspaper I aspire to work for one day.

"Let's move to Bridport" by The Guardian is a typical 'I don't live in the country side but I love it anyway' view. It ponces about talking about how great the town is because Guardian writer Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall decided to infest his views on how we should all live in a happy little hippy utopia and go to The Bull Hotel to have a jolly nice metropolitan time.

These places are great to visit, but not great to live in.

Bridport is actually a troubled little town. With a huge segregation between the richer arty fucks who prance about south street between their beloved little Electric Palace and the Arts Centre, to the alcaholic jobless druggies who highlight the issue there is nothing else to do.

And the air of superiority in the town where everybody knows your name, but not in a Postman Pat kind of way, but more like Roystone Vasey. They want to know your name because they want to know your business and they want to bitch about you because they can't hold a conversation about anything interesting.

But since moving away from Bridport, I can't bring myself to expose the things I know about the place. It can be beautiful on a sunny day and the market is actually quite interesting, offering wooden ducks looked over by a friend of mine everyone calls 'peck'.

I used to be able to walk down the street on any given day, except sunday of course, just to bump into a friend which could end up a walk or just an interesting chat. Bridport is ok, and great fun for a holiday.

For me Bridport is like an ex girlfriend, annoyingly all my ex girlfriends live their as well, but in the sense that you will alway care for them, you will always smile at the happy memories you had together but there was a reason you parted and those are the same reasons you should never go back.

Miracle Hangover Cures?

There has been some recent press attention about scientific reports that hangover cures are a work of fiction!

Everyone surely must of known this deep down. Only the arrogant wannabe alpha male of a group of lads claims that a greasy fry up and Lucozade in the morning has fixed his constant need to vomit.

A list in today's Guardian by Lucy Mangan claims that these scientists are talking absolute 'nonsense' but are they? I am hungover right now and have tried my usual attempts of trying to cure the heavy head that is lulling around the newsroom today, but still I feel a little bit sick and want to fucking die.

She ALSO suggests the notion of using greasy food as a cure for wanting to hurl last nights kebab. Where is the logic in that? Greasy food is more like a cure for feeling healthy, energetic and enthusiastic.

She ends her article saying that staying in bed getting a 'loved one, dog or paid employee' to deliver the other phantom miracle cures to your bed will help. If I'm not mistaken that is a hangover.

I am sure this article is meant to be delivered with a hint of sarcasm, and I hope that I am being blind and is actually being ironic and pointing out the very same thing I am. But it is not, I would continue to care... but I think I need to be si...

The Great Market Research Swindle

I am about to lie. Yep, I am about to sit in a room full of people and claim I study mathematics. At which university, I have no idea yet… Let’s hope they don’t ask. I may just say Westminster… hold that thought… Nope, My iPhone has failed me and I can’t check if my Uni does such a course, partly because I am underground and have no reception but I thought a miracle might occur.

The reason I am about to lie is that I am doing market research, something journalism and media studies students aren’t allowed to do, but for forty pounds and little effort on my part, a students got to do some terrible, devious things. For what this is for, I have no idea yet but I do know is that I was asked because I had an iPhone and used networking sites such as Twitter.

Oop 7.30, running late. Be back in a minute gang.

So I am on my way back from market research and what a discovery, a new service called Mippin! This service actually offers a decent mash up that is simple to use on my iPhone and has a decent lay out.

The service offers latest headlines, videos and the ability to share it all on my Twitter account, something I haven’t been able to force myself to do because of the effort it demands on my iPhone application Twitteriffic (more like Twitterfuckinguseless). The service worked well and had a user-friendly feel with a charismatic colour design of grays and oranges, it is not too harsh on the eye but minimalistic and appealing.

And these design lay outs are very important to a product user like myself, why would I want to use a service that bombarded me with colours to the point I am clinging onto my nearest commuter begging for a glass of water and a sit down before I hurl myself out of the bus window?

I am proud, proud to have helped product designers with a service that doesn’t try to rival other sites, but offer users the ability to instantly access what they want, while it intelligently collects your interests and delivers them to you.

But it tried to be something it wasn’t, a social networking site. I have Facebook and I have Twitter. I seriously don’t want to have another group of net obsessed geeks telling me what is cool and, after purging my Facebook to get rid of anyone I didn’t know anymore, which cut about 60% of people I went to school with in 1305, I certainly don’t a new group of webheads’ ‘cool new wicked awesome whacked out’ profile picture dominating a home page of a service I would use.

So now I am forty pounds richer, have a new knowledge of a decent mobile service and am on my way to play PES2009 with my friends in Camden. Which is a damn sight better investment on a trip to Fulham that anything Mohamed Al-Fayed ever gained.

Excuse me while I tweet a thought.

"Twitter" I said when I first signed up, "is just a stripped down version of Facebook" . At least that's what I thought when I first signed up to this bubbly looking social networking site. But Twitter is so simple, that it takes away the whole self-centred crap you find on sites such as Myspace.

Twitter actually seems to be able to deliver some quality content as well as a space to vent out your 140 character, or less, thoughts during the day.

Easy to set up and instantly available to your phone, one can 'tweet' whether they are at a computer or on the toilet in a local pub, reception and battery permitting.

However, I put 'Twitterific', the iPhone Twitter application, onto my phone and it simply doesn't do the same job. It just bundles a load of pointless posts from people I couldn't care less for, mostly because I don't understand the language they are posting in.

Don't get me wrong, I am interested in culture and other peoples lives, but I am not willing to learn Japanese to hear how someones egg roll had hardly any egg in it.

All in all, Twitter has it's uses, some especially I like. One Tweeter I found and decided to follow, sounding like a stalker waiting for his pray of information to creep out his abode, was Indiefeed, a profile that posts links on new Indy bands and a clip of their song. Perfect for a band hungry stalker like me.

Photo Source: Zero Influence

Restrospective view of Online Journalism Module

I sit here in the newsroom the day before the last session of Online Journalism and it’s empty, except for the hung over mumbling Kieran who forgot to check his emails. And for the second time this term I am gutted that a module has ended.

Yeah I’ll geek up. I will admit that I am upset about the fact I have to go on holiday and won’t be in the newsroom writing blogs every Thursday and Friday, compiling top tens, writing about music and asking questions to people who have either been in or are still in the industry. To me that is better than any holiday laying around at home watching the sun rise and set while I become absurdly good at the new Call Of Duty because I have nothing better to do with my days.

What I really enjoyed about the module was the constant practice of writing over and over, posting blogs all the time and in the last two weeks I have not been able to rest because a blog every day had to be done.

In the module I have learnt many new things to do with the blogosphere. My whole conception of blogs has changed now because of this. Before all I could imagine was lonely bored guys, or worse, egotistical, fashion driven, self obsessed, narcissistic, 14-year-old, ‘I can’t wait till I am on super sweet 16’, Perez Hilton obsessed girls, sat blogging their pointless drivel clogging up the internet about how ‘they just hate the new Bioshock game’ or how ‘Britney all of a sudden got fat and bald’. Which pointlessly is just a poor quality regurgitation of their favourite glossy magazine.

No, actually the blogosphere is filled with quality journalists and interesting people posting about things you could actually care about, even if there are still people blogging about their cat ‘goma’ and how it sleeps on her laptop. Unbelievably this trash has got adverts on it, which means this blog gets readers!

Anyways, if this tripe can get an audience then through this module, I feel that maybe I could try and break into the blogosphere, and if not at least it is something I can do to keep my writing up. I think I will keep my music blog ‘Scratching the Surface From underneath’ or I’ll just keep trying to develop my own style which has nothing to do with Charlie Brooker at all, not one bit…. Honest.

Music Blog Review

The idea was to simply produce a music blog aimed at a niche market of underground UK bands as well as some from America. The reason I chose to be so narrow with my subject is because I have a much wider knowledge of this certain scene as I used to be in a band that were apart of the same community.

Not only did the knowledge of the scene help me but also the contacts I had acquired over the last five years have helped me gain interviews with band members very quickly.
However, what I was not expecting was to be...not let down, but rather to become a victim of other people’s busy schedules. For example, I had an interview arranged with a musician and told him that I had to have the interview before Thursday. As Wednesday night rolled to an end, my heart sank and a quick profile on another band had to be conceived, constructed and published in a matter of an hour or so.

However, the interviews I did end up doing had a theme of using song titles as the premise of a question. Slightly taken from The Guardian but instead only using the bands song titles with the idea of hyper-linking them to YouTube videos of the songs.

The idea behind this is that the reader can get to see live performances and music videos using YouTube without cluttering the space of the blog. The problem I found with the interviews is that I wanted to keep the posts quite short as to not demand so much time from the readers, allowing the bands Myspace and YouTube to allow the readers to gain their own opinion.

I do feel that the interviews gave my blog instant credibility within the niche market I was aiming at which can be an important thing in a scene of stubborn, elitist music snobs. Just kidding guys.

Scratching The Surface From Underneath: Underground Bands ready For The Bigger Stage: Maps and Atlases

Chicago’s Maps and Atlases can at times be a wall of spazzy finger tapping riffs driven by equally mathematical drumbeats. But that’s just their front, because deep down, they are complex and loving. Away from their hyper active time signatures and Indy yelps, Maps and Atlases can break away and lull you with songs such as the ongoing horrible proving that technical doesn’t have to be intrusive in this scene.

Their finger tapping driven riffs can’t help but make the listener feel as if someone has sped up their favourite Minus The Bear album, but they are more than that. They actually do have their own sound that encapsulates the listener and tricks them into thinking they could do it themselves.

Note to listener, you probably can’t do this yourself!






Photo Source: Myspace
Video Source: Youtube

Scratching The Surface From Underneath. Undergounrd Bands Ready For The Bigger Stage: House Of Brothers Interview!

Beautiful emphatic symphonies that can make the darkest of days seem like you are in the movie. You know the ones. You have your mp3 player on, sat looking out of the window of a car, walking down the road or just at home lying on your bed and you feel like that perfect movie moment is about to happen as the violins and drums kicks back in.

The perfect movie moment doesn't happen, but the music still fits because House Of Brothers are the perfect soundtrack, engaging, exciting and somewhat paranoid.


Lose Yourself

How I play and write music has changed. My opinions about music have changed. The way I perceive music has changed. What I like about music has changed etc etc. However, I was only 17 when Murder Of [Rosa Luxembourg] started and I was about 19 when Scarecrows started. Everyone changes between those ages. Not just musicians. Similarly, people change between 49 and 52. It's all dependent on life experiences; internal thoughts and their processes, external actions and behavioural outputs, and your internal and external reactions to them all.


Deadman

The fact that [The Murder Of.. Scarecrows] ended didn't affect me as a musician at all. As I got older I started to revisit what I initially liked about music - strong melodies, choruses and lyrics - and soon realised that incorporating them into songs made me enjoy music more.I rebelled against all those things in my later teenage years opting to create more physical music. However, I've realised that music is far more rewarding when it affects you mentally rather than physically. For instance, a drummer who can switch time signatures whilst playing the hi-hat with a microphone sellotaped to his big-toe and run through a delay pedal might be physically impressive in a live environment. However, the chances are pretty small that it will affect you mentally when you listen to it by yourself in your bedroom on record. Whereas, someone who only knows three chords, can't sing technically very-well but is a wonderful lyricist doesn't need to rely on physical attributes to succeed - great lyrics are affecting in both live and private scenarios. Of course, I've used two extreme examples, but I hope the differences between the two highlight the point I seek to make - that music that affects you mentally is far more appealing than music than appeals physically.


The Twighlight of idols

[Elliott Smith and Tom Waits] have definitely been influences but I can't hear either of those artists in the music I make. I'm sure they've played their part in me making the judgements I've made when creating music. But neither are directly accessible in House of Brothers. At least no more so than any other artist I have listened to and taken influence from. However, they are both great song-craftsmen who have never been ashamed to utilise simple melodies whilst still experimenting with interesting lyrical content.

These Days

If you've got something interesting about you as a person, even if you're not conscious of what that interesting thing is, it will shine through in your music. If you're not interesting,the music you make won't be either.




Photo Source: Myspace - Taken by Shaun Hencher
Video Source: Youtube

Scratching The Surface From Underneath. Underground bands ready for the bigger stage: Colour Interview!

Sporadic time shifts and technical jangly riffs can often make the listener feel awkward, but Colour find the right mixture of adding pop melodies that has the audience singing along.
From South London, Colour are amazingly still unsigned even though they seem to be everyone’s favourite band. Someone hurry up and add them to your rooster!

I caught up with Bass player Lewis for a quick convo!

Over the moon

Speaking personally, playing live is probably my favourite part of being in a band.Anyone who's seen me play with Colour, or previously with Meet Me In St Louis, will probably attest to the fact that I 'rock out' pretty hard on stage.

I just love performing and believe that, where possible, bands should put on as much of a visceral, visual performance as a sonic or aural one. I also love writing music, especially music that challenges people in some way, usually in terms of interesting time signatures, time changes and poly-rhythms.

I think Colour manages to do this and also stays relatively accessible with the melodic side of things, especially where the vocals are concerned.
That aside, there's nothing more satisfying than completing a new song and then getting to play it live. I guess that last sentence answers the question!

Chutes

Being in an unsigned band again doesn't feel any different really, to be honest St Louis almost felt more like being in an unsigned band as we kept everything DIY in terms of booking and management, whereas Colour has a booking agent and manager.

I think both ways of working have their merits, keeping it all DIY is cool because you have complete control over everything that happens with your band and you get to be much more connected to the whole community side of things.

Having people working to do that stuff for you obviously takes alot of pressure off so you can focus on just being a band and they can use their contacts to achieve things you might otherwise struggle to.

I don't particularly have any advice on how to get recognised, just work hard doing what you love, don't compromise and if you're good at it and put the time in, eventually good things should happen for you!

Shamu

For me i would just like to release some records that we are all proud of, play some amazing shows, meet some awesome people and have a good time doing it.

Obviously it would be fantastic to get to a level where the band was paying my rent, but i came to terms with the fact quite a while ago that playing music will probably always be a hobby and not a career for me, as the music i love to play isn't necessarily enough peoples 'cup of tea'. Playing a show to 100 people that really love what you're doing, where people in the front row are ducking out of the way of me swinging my guitar is so amazing, i would be totally happy doing that every night for a few months of every year.

I love being a part of a close-knit scene which, generally, has a very DIY punk-rock ethic.
That said, it would probably be amazing to play shows to a thousand-odd people every night, not have to work a day job and have a massive rider that involves everything from fresh fruit to class-A drugs! I hope this hasn't made me come off as too much of a cynical bastard.

Conversations

I love talking to people after shows, obviously not if they're telling you how shit you were but it's so nice when people come up to tell you that they enjoyed your set, it makes it all worth while!
It's kind of weird when people say really specific things about your performance or 'talent' but if it's a compliment I always try to take it that way and try to be as humble as possible. I'm just thankful people want to talk to me at all!

To sign off I guess I shall just say, thanks for reading, hope I didn't bore you too much.
Always try to keep the dream alive, if you love to do something, keep doing it! You're doing it for yourself and nobody else, so if it makes you happy and you enjoy it, that's all that matters.
Live on rainbows and dreams People!

-Lewis (Colour)

Scratching The Surface From Underneath:Underground bands reaching the bigger stage: Secondsmile Interview!

Big Scary Monsters have been holding on to this band for quite some time. Self described as “post teen spirit”, Secondsmile have recently released their second full length album ‘Years’ which takes their alternative rock to a more mature, constructed sound.

I caught up with guitarist Thomas Warne to talk about the band.

Tell me a story:

We recently did a short tour of Spain and France. Everything went perfectly well until the final day.
Throughout the tour, our tour manager Steve kept telling us how dangerous it was to have weed on our persons whilst we were driving through France. We didn't really take much notice, but the hire van was in his name, so if we were pulled over it'd be Steve who would get into trouble.
So after two and a half weeks of driving hundreds of kilometers everyday, and not getting pulled over, we'd pretty much forgotten his warning.

So on the last day we got up early and I started the long drive from La Rochelle to Cherbourg. About and hour into the journey three armed police officers waved me over to the side of the road and I turned off the engine.

The first officer asked me if I spoke French, I said no. Then he says "You smoke marijuana, hashish, weed?" and I said "No. I don't even smoke!" He then asked each of us separately the same question and one by one we were searched with our hands on the bonnet of the van. I was thinking everything will be okay because none of us have any weed on us. Then one of the other guys in the band mouthed at me "I have some weed in my bag!"

At this point I looked through the windscreen to see one of the other officers opening all our bags and taking everything out of each one, and basically searching every part of our van.
Somehow, the police failed to find my friends weed, at which point a van pulls up behind us in the lay-by. It was Steve, our tour manager, who was taking the hire van back and had seen our van and came to make sure we were okay. Unfortunately for Steve, they decided to let us go at this point, and searched his van where they found some weed that had been left over from the show the night before.

So we carried on our journey home, whilst Steve and his friend got a grilling from the French police, before they confiscated the weed and sent them on their way. I honestly thought we'd be spending the night in a French jail cell, and felt very lucky that we got away with it!

This is your hometown (and it is cutting you):

We (Secondsmile) grew up and are based in the small West Country town of Bridport. I feel this has been both positive and negative for us as a band/musicians.

I think it's really helped us develop our own sound and not follow other current trends in the music scene. Trying to sound as unique as possible has always been important to us, and as we are so isolated here, it makes it easier I think.

The down side of this is that were away from London, which is where it's all happening within the music scene. A lot of the bands that live in London socialise together and form strong bonds with each other and important people within the industry, which helps them to increase their fan bases and move on within the industry.

Our great and secret show:

Other than trying to keep our sound as unique as possible, the other thing we always try to do is develop. With each release we want to challenge ourselves and our audience, and keep people guessing as to where we might go next with our sound. Our first EP could very easily be filed under emo or post-hardcore, but having lost a singer after its release, we decided to go for a more mature rock/post-hardcore/post-rock vibe. Having toured the album to death, and recruiting a new guitarist, we decided to try a more straight up commercial sounding rock format for our second album.

Having said all that, the idea of boxing music up into nice genres and trying to label every band as this or that is something we are very much opposed to. We believe that any true music lover loves music, not because it "belongs" to a certain genre or because the band dress cool and are good looking, but because of the music itself and nothing else.

So there it is, Secondsmile write genre-less music for true die-hard music lovers. Because at the end of the day, that's exactly what we are, die-hard music lovers.


Good night sleep tight:

Well, this year we recorded our second album in New York, and it's called Years. You can buy it in shops or on i-Tunes or from bsmrocks.com
Thanks for reading/listening/caring about Secondsmile, your support means the world to us and makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. x x x x x



New Single Stars Away

Video Source: YouTube
Picture Source: Myspace

Scratching the surface from underneath. Underground bands reaching the bigger stage: Rolo Tomassi

Sheffield spazzcore five piece Rolo Tomassi have sped up the ladder as fast as their metronome.

Starting in 2005, Rolo Tomassi have supported such acts as I Was A Cub Scout and 65DaysOfStatic, while suprising the scene with their fresh outburst of sporadic timings and synth fused eratic riffs.

So young and yet so talented, Tomassi are barely 20, and yet they show maturity to balance their grind based sound with moments of beautiful micro symphonies.

Their debut full length was released in September this year through Hassle Records. The band are currently on tour with Undergroove band The Ghost Of A Thousand.



Photo Source: Myspace
Video Source: YouTube

Critical Evaluation Of Group Blog

"Top Ten For Dummies " was the name and, well I suppose, it was the game (forgive the sickly cliche). With a variety of topics to choose from, we all made a blog a day with top ten lists. I have to be honest, I chose this group with the idea that it would give me more time to do other work, but it did not. Each post took on average of two hours, because of the research needed. Even the simplest of posts, such as Top Ten Cartoon Characters, consumed a lot of my time.

The idea of course was to spark debate, which didn't happen across any farther than our group and a couple of friends from Facebook due to the rest of the class having their own blogs to tend to. However, I felt that our blog was bringing a fresh interactive element into the world of top tens. Looking online or on print, there seems to be little activity, with publishers saying: "THIS IS THE TOP TEN, DON'T YOU QUESTION IT!"

The blog was hard work, and motivation to post every day was only being fueled by the fact that it was being marked. But the 'office' work in the news room was fun, be it hard work, because of the group I was in.

Being in a group was as I said, fun... But also was hard work relying on people to post their articles at certain times and the group lacked structure in certain areas, meaning consitancy of style was not good. In fact, people decided to style the blogs how they wished, with little care to how the others looked. A group meeting was needed but the usual scenario of an incomplete group happened too many times. People need more than two hours sleep.

Posting on a regular basis was difficult, not only to do with the motivation but the fact that other work was consuming my time and these top tens were not easy. The research involved took a long time, even by looking at top ten websites, research had to be done to come up with a fair top ten. How could a top ten be fair by just posting the first ten you find? You can't, simple.

I think our demographic was a bit broad. Even though we aimed to have a young male "bored office worker" audience, there were posts that seemed to be aimed directly at women. This isn't so much of a negative thing because it could potentially lead to a larger audience, I do however see this as also possibly neglecting niche audiences which create more of a community.

And this is the main aim of our blog that I really felt had potential, was creating a community. The idea of allowing our audience to eventually become contributors I thought was a great incentive for followers to contribute more.

So I think we were on track to achieving our goal of sparking debate. Creating a Facebook group to publicise, and remind people of new posts, was our best form of promotion. Our other goal was to create a blog that would attract advertisers, and our presentation to Kathryn Corrick proved that this could work as she said that our blog was probably the most attractive from an advertisers point of view because of the niche market it could attract.

My own individual posts I found hard to write, because it was mostly research. I found towards the end that I wrote less and less because I let the topics, such as Top Ten Dumb Celebrity Quotes, speak for themselves. This is because I realised while looking at other Top Ten websites, that I didn't pay much attention to the actual writing.

This lead on to the design of the blog, as the writing wouldn't carry itself, we had to look at the layout. It originally started off with a plain layout but we opted for something more entertaining while archiving the posts so it wasn't just one long strand.

I think what we were good at was our enthusiasm and enjoyment of the subjects we chose. We engaged in our topics and got on well as a group because we had fun with what we were doing. The problems I found though was our style consistency. We would sometimes have "Ten" and then other times have "10". This was down to a lack of communication, especially as when a full strength group was a rare occurrence.

If i was to start another group blog, I would probably aim to do something that engages the audience as much as this blog, trying to create a community through debate. However, I would try and aim for a better, more reliable team. I can't take any credit away from any individual member because everyone contributed something positive to the group but I think reliability and reaching deadlines was not taken as seriously as I would of liked.

There probably is no God, but I am still worrying.

“There is probably no God, so stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

This is the slogan that will read along the side of 30 London buses in the New Year, and even though I agree, I can’t help but feel that this will help nothing. The idea of changing people’s views through simple slogans is as idiotic as the views of the people they are trying to change.

A trip to the Darwin exhibition at the natural history museum may help, but even then a fundamentalist will barely batter an eyelid to qualify any statement in order to glorify their intangible watchmaker.

The campaign for the slogans was an idea by the British Humanist Association. The idea was to raise £5,500 but almost immediately Prof. Richard Dawkins matched the bid and after enthusiastic support from the public the organisation has now raised more than £36,000.








That's a good amount of public support, almost too good. Could it be that London doesn't need converting? How religious is our country these days? On the 8th of July this year the blasphemy laws had been abolished and church going has been in decline since the 1950’s, although this has slowed down by people from ethnic minorities.

However, the argument from the British Humanist Association is that it is to counter religious advertising like The Alpha Group who will also be advertising on buses. If you attend The Alpha course you will be told that a failure to believe in Jesus will condemn you to hell.

I don’t have a problem with any of these advertisements, except maybe the so-called moral religious campaign striking fear into the hearts of people instead of the relaxing message from the atheist camp. No, what I have a problem with is that everyone is wasting their time.

If a non-religious person went to The Alpha course, would anything really change? Would someone who doesn’t believe in Jesus Christ be scared of a place that they believe to have been made up? Simple logic tells us no, right?

And it works both ways. Richard Dawkins is quoted on the Atheist Campaign website as saying these advertisements “will make people think”. That is a credible source, but is it true?

When asking my friend who had just been to church if she was religious, she replied she was not extreme, but did believe in a God. I then asked her how she felt about the posters, to which she simply said: “I’m not really bothered. I disagree but I mean everyone can have their own opinion.”

So like John Wisdom’s friend who believed in the invisible gardener, so too will the religious public about their improbable God.

Also, just because it stems from science does not mean it is any more probable to be true, because in the words of Thomas Edison:
“We don’t know one millionth of one percent about anything!”


Video courtesy of YouTube:Have I got News For You Atheist Bus
Picture courtesy of Open Parachute

Video Uploads

Tom Waits Press Conference for his Doom and Gloom tour. He is a character.

Video Source: Youtube

Guardian boss agrees: grim future for national newspapers.

Outgoing head of editorial development at Guardian.co.uk, Neil McIntosh, predicted the end of Scottish newspapers, The Scotsman and The Herald, during a lecture at the University of Westminster.

The soon-to-be European editor of The Wall Street Journal Online supported his old employer, director of digital content at Guardian News and Media, Emily Bell’s prediction of a bleak future for national newspapers

“Of course I agree with my boss,” said McIntosh, when asked about Bell’s recent comment that up to five national newspapers could go out of business.

Bell said: "We are on the brink of two years of carnage for western media. In the UK, five nationals could go out of business and we could be left with no UK-owned broadcaster outside of the BBC."

The Independent is one of the big names expected to struggle as Independent News and Media announced that half-yearly profits tumbled 35.6% at its UK unit, which includes the national daily.

However, McIntosh does not expect the death of The Independent because “Rich people like owning newspapers for political access and prestige,” hinting that the national daily could go down the route of hand out papers like The London Paper and The Metro.

“Some people are saying The Independent could go free.”

McIntosh does expect a better future for online journalism with wallstreetjournal.com one of the few companies hiring this year.

Photo taken from Sophie's Online Project

Links for old people online

http://www.digitalunite.net/ssd/

silver surfer site

http://digitalunite.com/

silver surfer blog site

http://www.digitalunite.net/ssd/?page=ssy&ssy_id=2

silver surfer of the year

http://digitalunite.com/category/silver-surfers-in-the-news/

silver surfers in the news

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4582831.stm

surfers say its vital


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DpOTIWpAjQQ

youtube clip

http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/841242/Reclassifying-silver-surfer/

online article

The Daily Express

The Daily Express, jokingly called The Daily Depress is a conservative tabloid newspaper aimed at the British middle market. With a circulation of over 750,000. The newspaper is known for it's controversial themes, such as it's constant publications of conspiracy theories and its bold statements about the Madeleine McCann case, causing a public front page apology to the two parents.

Looking at the above picture we can see that the online version of The Daily Express is very similar to the print version, pictured below. However, the website has attempted to add some interactivity and new media.

There are pictures, vidoes and audio clips now available although the clips have not been made by The Daily Express themselves, but instead come from another source.

Also the internet version of the tabloid has tried to interact with its readers by having a comment section. However, the comment section doesn't seem to be that widely used in comparison with a more popular online newspaper such as Guardian.co.uk.

The reason behind this is that the demographic for the Express is of a much older, conservative generation, not open to new media as a more liberal, younger audience of The Guardian.

Brand Banished, Ross Suspended... does anyone else feel the BBC are taking steps backward instead of forward?

The dust has settled a little bit and now we can look at the complaints made at Russell Brand's BBC Radio 2 show, guest-hosting Jonathan Ross, for what they really are. A joke. Not a funny joke either, less so than the prank phone calls to Fawlty Towers star, Andrew Sachs, that 3,000 members of the public complained about.

I can understand that it was offensive, but so is a lot of comedy being published on television every day. The problem however, is that t was a pre-recorded program that should of been edited down. The problem lies with the editor of the show.
The Guardian reported that after the BBC admitting they should of helped their stars but instead were worried that:

"if we had gone soft, the Daily Mail would have crucified us. And anyway, our viewers and listeners were telling us it was a story," said one senior BBC News insider. "The problem was that no one with a journalism background was around at a senior level, and Helen Boaden, the director of BBC News, could offer advice - but it was not taken [by management]."

Am I really paying for a company that is scared of a slag rag like the Daily Mirror? After, admittedly, over-hyping a story about their two funniest talents, the BBC have brought on even more shit on their doorstep than if they had left it. A BBC spokeswoman said that they only received two complaints before the event was publicised, which were unrelated to the phone calls, and received the rest only after the event was published.


So here we are, a scared BBC probably either taking things too seriously or a more worrying angle, as suggested by Phil Jupitus, using this as a distraction to "take people’s minds off the bad news, the fact that the country is at war or that there is a massive economic collapse going on.” I must ask... why? Just why?