So, I dropped Joni & Amélie off to meet some friends for coffee and cakes and I left to head up into the snowy hills.   There were a few folk around and we all made our way up the diverted path to reach the the viewpoint, it was well worth it.   I noticed a waterfall at the other side of the path, and I took some photographs that I promised myself I’d never take (you know the ones, where the water looks like its not flowing – its do to with shutter speed or something, but anyway I was took them and I’m pretty pleased with the way they turned out in the end).

Took some photographs of the view, headed down and made my way to pick up the girls.  On arriving at the car park of the hotel I noticed that the cars for the Monte Carlo Rally leaving from Clydebank college were all around so I managed to take some photos of them and chat to some of the mechanics and drivers of the oldest car in the rally, it was great fun!

Then headed home, had a nap, went to Mass with Amélie in her new trendy sling, had a Thai green curry, finished the track I was writing for Vito Dance Theatre‘s performance in GoDANCE’12 in the Theatre Royal.   Now. Its time to upload my chosen photograph for my Blipfoto page and a cold Guinness & a wee dram!

Blogging is far down my list at the moment.  My wife and I had our first child on the 6th of January at 19:00.   Her name is Amélie Sofia and was 8lbs 4oz at birth.  We are delighted!

More when I have time, but for now I’m occupied changing nappies, bathing and dressing, helping to make sure she gets fed well, washing up, cooking meals and housework. . . I am a happy man!

Its January 2012. I’ve decided that one of my ‘new year resolutions’ is to setup a blipfoto account and try to take photography just a little bit more seriously (well almost. . ) I’ve ordered a new DSLR Canon 550D camera and have every intention of putting it to good use. I’ve got great ideas that not only will I use blipfoto but will also have a small part of this blog now dedicated to photography and hopefully later some video.

The idea behind blipfoto is simple, you take a photograph everyday and upload it to your blipfoto account. This serves as a photographic record of your year and can be fun way to have a small glance into so many other people’s interesting / suitable boring lives. It was one of my friends and work colleagues, fellow blipper bulldozia that suggested using blipfoto. I also really liked the idea of using a focus (no pun intended) to make your ‘blips’ more interesting. For example, bulldozia tries to include the sky in his blips to give an idea of the weather / climate / mood. For me I think I may change the focus on a monthly rotation, so January could be ‘the colour RED‘, February could be ‘people’, March could be ‘transport’ and so on and so on. . .

I was very pleased to come home to see a good friend of mine had dropped a hand drawn Christmas card with a handmade tea towel in as a Christmas gift.   Working with Jon on his music and production has been a pleasure over the last couple of years and It just so happens that The Grey Earl is one of my favourite illustrators / along with the likes of Quentin Blake and Exploding Dog.   There is just something about the colour and the characters.   Being a great illustrator with an incredible imagination is one thing, but this Grey Earl is also a very unique and underrated singer/songwriter.   Seek him out, buy his artwork before it costs the earth!

Filed under: Art, Design, Music Tagged: Art, Christmas, Design, Gift, Handmade, Illustration, Talented, Tea Towel ]]> http://bubblebeach.wordpress.com/2011/12/22/the-grey-earl/feed/ 0 55.908114 -4.403639 55.908114 -4.403639 bubblebeach 34332b742c0811e180c9123138016265_7 http://bubblebeach.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/vito-dance-theatre/ http://bubblebeach.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/vito-dance-theatre/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 01:26:37 +0000 bubblebeach http://bubblebeach.wordpress.com/?p=2513 Continue reading →]]> I’ve finally got around to posting the link below for the screen dance film for Vito Dance Theatre. I composed the soundtrack from a collection of location recordings from the filming, some live instruments and some programmed beats / glitches.   The film was shown as part of the 2011 Merchant City Festival in Glasgow and is called “Dance ‘Til Yer Heart’s Content”.

My Dad and I had some chat about the time he took me up here in a pram, we passed a place where my brother brought down some deadly ice spikes that almost killed us and also where we would come and fish with my uncle Gerard and my Grandfather.   The snow added something to walk, it makes the whole world look a little bit more interesting I think.   It also will feature in some of the field recordings I managed to take whist up there.  I recorded some melting ice, some dripping water, a waterfall and some footsteps through ice and snow.   It was great to get home to enjoy some of my wife’s  parsnip & apple soup!

Autechre – Incunabula [spotify link]

• Sunday December 18th 2011
• 2pm

This album was released in 1993 and was years ahead of its time in terms of production and use of sounds / glitch / beats.

Rules and details are all here. Please feel free to submit albums and comment below.

1. Bill Wells / Aidan Moffat – Everything’s Getting Older

2. Active Child – You Are All I see

3. Nils Frahm – Felt

4. Olafur Arnaulds – Living Room Sessions

5. Sleepingdog – With Our Heads in the Clouds and our Hearts in the Fields

6. King Creosote / Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine

7. Benjamin Francis Leftwich – Last Smoke Before the Snowstorm

8. Bon Iver – Bon Iver

9. Helplessness Blues – Fleet Foxes

10. Silesia – Jeniferever

Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On”.

• Sunday December 11th 2011
•  2pm

Rules and details are all here. Please feel free to submit albums and comment below.

Imagine the scene: There are hundreds if not thousands of Islanders, male, female & children gathered on a beach in the Faroe Islands.   Motor boats begin to purr and race towards the beach from the open sea bringing hundreds of pilot whales onto the shore.   Before the whales approach the shore, all the males on the beach race out into the shallow beach and attack the whales with a large hook attached to a rope to finally slice through their dorsal area to finish the kill.  Pregnant whales are slit open and their young removed to rot on the beach.

At first glance, the Grindadrap (Grind) looks like a sporting event, but it falls deep in Norse culture and history and included in the arguments to keep the hunt going:

• Communal food is required for the villages
• Keeping the pilot whaling population down (Culling)
• Protecting heritage / culture

Please do your best to spread the information about this annual event, google it, read about it, blog about it and talk about it.   It was last year I first came across it and have signed petitions and tried to mention it when I get the chance.  Lets hope these horrible scenes can be stopped.

Some other reading / petitions / graphic images:

http://www.earthraceconservation.org/faroe-islands

http://www.wdcs.org/news.php?select=254

http://livvegan.blogspot.com/2011/06/grind-pilot-whale-massacre-in-faroe.html

http://www.seashepherd.org/grind-stop

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-faroe-island-whaling

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/nostalgia-carries-risk-for-these-whale-hunters-20100810-11xhh.html

When is the last time you sat down with an album and actually listened to it?

• I don’t mean put the CD on and did something else.
• I don’t mean listened to music as you travel to and from work.
• I don’t mean had music on as you sit with friends and chat.

I mean, actually listen to it?

I’m fortunate enough to work with young people and constantly have the chance to question them in relation to their music, what they listen to, why they listen to it and where they listen to it. Its became clear to me that we no longer think of albums in the traditional sense. I think its too simple to describe an album as simply:

“A set of musical recordings stored together in jackets under one binding”

Its far more than that, for me its recordings in an order that captivates the listener, speaks of a time in history, draws you into the mood of the recordings and spits you out the other end in such a way that you want to put the album straight back on again. Its similar to the way artists build live set lists – its an experience and has to take a certain path, its not and never was supposed to be a “shuffling playlist” – we have created that. Its not wrong, its just not as was intended when the album was put together. Another conversation on this subject was with my own Father; (an addicted professional record collector). He has been a huge inspiration on me musically throughout my years and we spoke about the idea that people no longer listen to music in the way it was once the norm. Albums were like snapshots of time and were a focus on conversation, it was also clear from this conversation that the “jazz cigarette” played a small part in relaxing the listeners in these days so that they often couldn’t speak throughout the entire listening session (even it they wanted to).

Right, on to the reason for this post. After reading an article from Greg Wilson’s blog titled Living To Music where it talks about exactly this. Listening to music with full attention on the music. It got me thinking about my own circle of friends and that between us we have so many different interests in so many diverse genres & styles of music. So, in five simple rules the idea is this,

• We decide on an album every two weeks and set a listening date and time.
• We agree to listen to it without distractions (no telephone/email) in the comfort of our own personal space.
• We use headphones if possible.
• We agree to post a comment about the album (as simple as we like).
• We also contribute to the pool of “Albums Worth Listening To”

So please, I’ve left the comments open on this post and would love feedback and ideas for albums which I will collate and post back about – I’m sure all of us put time aside to have dinner, to read, to go for walks in the park, even if this is just to get between 35 – 59 minutes out of your busy schedule to listen to something you have never heard before – its worth it.

Let me know if you’re interested?

Televison

We now have catchup TV, OnDemand, BBC iPlayer and even youtube & vimeo to watch things on.  The options seem endless at times.

I have just had TiVo installed at home and have been involved in various conversations about whats on when and what to record and to watch on demand, even the idea of an iphone app that I can set my home box to record at any time blows my mind – just in case i’m out and could  miss that natural history show or sporting event.

In my opinion it became clear that television was changing when we began to see the increase in ‘series television’ especially things like Lost, 24, Prison Break, House etc. . . . These shows were simply so addictive and compelling you were unable to wait  for a week to see the next episode so you waited and had the box set where you could watch as many as you could keep your eyes open for.    Its like TV marathons, or endurance viewing.  Trying to desperately ‘get through’ the chosen series.   In addition, the way we refer to the season you are on isn’t that far removed from the way we speak about drugs: “what one are you on?” or  ”Have you got into 24 yet?”.

Lastly, I’d like to say I’ve really enjoyed:

1. The Wire
2. Treme
3. Prison Break (Season 1 & 2)
4. 24
5. Supernatural (Season 1 & 2)

Felix’s Machines — Felix’s Machines.

Filed under: Art, Music, performance, Technology Tagged: Art, kinetic, machines, Music, Technology ]]> http://bubblebeach.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/felixs-machines/feed/ 0 55.908114 -4.403639 55.908114 -4.403639 bubblebeach