James' Tumblelog

Real Classy

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:35:24 +0000

In the wake of the Mills - McCartney divorce, ITV are going to air a documentary on how celebrity children become the centre of attention is such cases and how it can affect them then, and later on.

No. Wait. Pre-April Fools Day shens everyone!

Executive producer Steve Anderson said: “Heather’s life story could have been written for Hollywood. From a poor childhood to a face-to-face showdown in the divorce courts with one of the richest men on the planet.

“Perhaps this is the programme Sir Paul should have seen before he decided to get married.”

(Via MediaGuardian)

Kate Nash @ Hammersmith Apollo 11/Mar

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:01:16 +0000

Back when I booked a ticket to Kate Nash in March I was quite excited about it, but went for the circle - can’t explain why, but didn’t feel like standing down the front as I had done for Nerina Pallot and WsH.

The Black Kids were excellent. The sound wasn’t great, and this might have contributed to me thinking they were doing a cover of Float On by Modest Mouse for a minute or so. Really enjoyed their set and will hunt out a few tracks.

Kate Nash came on stage just after 9pm and started with Pumpkin Soup, which is one of my favourite songs from the current album. The set moved on to some slower, guitar led songs which were ok, but with the poor acoustics and sound quality (as commented by many when leaving last night, and on blogs this morning) these were somewhat lost and difficult to enjoy.

Overall it was quite good, and Kate Nash is excellent, but on a personal level I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

"There's bin an earthquake for crying out loud"

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:02:53 +0000

"There's bin an earthquake for crying out loud": Monkey has posted a link to this video on YouTube, of some viewers who seem a little irritated at the lack of coverage on BBC News 24. Whilst they appear to have dropped the ball, the BBC (in all output) beat Sky News (in all output) by approx 13 minutes.

National Express East Anglia Railway (NEARly)

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:33:40 +0000

One Railway becomes National Express East Anglia today. The franchise hasn’t changed - NE has owned it for some time. Seeing as some trains still have a livery displaying Great Eastern, some First Great Eastern, some First, some ‘One’ (which were updated to ‘One’ just a few months ago) and now National Express.

Who’s paying for this change to carriages every time? Just a year or two ago ‘One’ started updating their fleet to the pink, black and blue interior and exterior, and now it’s changing again. And the franchise is up for grabs in three years - will it change again?

In all of those changes, I honestly can’t recall a major difference between Network South East, Great Eastern, First Great Eastern or ‘One’.

BBC3 relaunch: How was it for you?

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:38:00 +0000

BBC3 relaunch: How was it for you?:

To me the whole channel looks and feels like CBBC Extra. Lily Allen was ok, but the show wasn’t interesting or exciting. Leigh is right - it was a bit So Graham Norton, which I really liked when it was on. Lenny Henry was doing more of these clips on BBC One, and Harry Hill was scheduled at exactly the same time on ITV. Watching the same episode of TV Burp for the third time this week was still funnier. ;-)

I don’t think “the yoof” are always after something like Lily Allen and Friends. The MySpace craze that surrounded Lily Allen has quietened down somewhat. Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno and Stephen Colbert are constantly pulling in big numbers of college age people - would that not fly here?

As desirable as Martin Lewis. :-)

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:19:48 +0000

As desirable as Martin Lewis. :-)

Great $1 camera stabilizer

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:48:23 +0000

Great $1 camera stabilizer

Moyles on Facebook

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:39:43 +0000

Moyles on Facebook: It was set up by a fan. They didn’t set up anything that the blog post claims they did.

Loops and effects in Adobe Audition? This is how you make some...

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:36:47 +0000

Loops and effects in Adobe Audition? This is how you make some decent jingles!

Super Tuesday

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 22:13:28 +0000

It’s Super Tuesday in the US. I’m listening to NPR (WNYC FM) and reading BBC News.

Free the Music

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 23:19:26 +0000

Free the Music: Now via last.fm you can listen to full tracks. I must start going there more often! Also - I didn’t realise how many Alison Moyet songs I recognise. I think I’m a new fan!

News at Ten unveils high-tech revamp

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:28:18 +0000

News at Ten unveils high-tech revamp:

Guardian: “ITV’s resurrected News at Ten will launch with a revamped set including a state-of-the-art touch screen allowing presenters such as Sir Trevor McDonald to interact with images and objects on screen.”

Surely not like this? Will be interesting to see what the News at Ten is like tonight. I suspect lots will turn over to see what’s going on, the papers will get excited about the overnights for it, then the figures start to even out again…

First time I've heard "RSS" on the radio

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:53:41 +0000

First time I've heard "RSS" on the radio:

And it was in an advert for thinkproperty.com on Smooth Radio.

Smooth Radio launched here in the North East yesterday and sounds very good so far on DAB and FM.

The Most Annoying People of 2007

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 23:04:00 +0000

The Most Annoying People of 2007:

I don’t know what it is about this programme that makes compulsive viewing. I like Richard Bacon and some of the talking heads (Spencer Brown, Jo Caulfield etc if you’re interested), but feel a bit uneasy with the format.

Whilst Britney Spears and Chris Crocker might be annoying, they’re not really forced upon us until the media publish stories about them. Many of the people on the show complain about the people in the list and ask them to go away, whilst at the same time appearing on a show talking about the person. Many of them are some way involved in publishing the stories which bring their antics into the media we consume.

Richard Bacon (who provides the commentary) is a host on Five Live, which has covered Paris Hilton et al at some point in their news bulletins, let alone BBC News 24 which decided that for several minutes this week nothing was more important in the world than an altercation at Britney Spears’ house with a shot from a helicopter, commentary from the presenter, the breaking news strap with a headline and all news dropped from the ticker to carry one line over and over about Britney Spears.

Chris Crocker appeared in a YouTube video and subsequently a TV show in the States. He’s not on the TV here (except for when this programme brings him to us), he’s not presenting breakfast radio, or in newspapers, or on advertising billboards.

There’s probably some irony in the programme I’m missing here.

;-)

Airports set to ease bags limit

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 15:36:00 +0000

Airports set to ease bags limit: Having flown during the limit in September, I personally found that there wasn’t enough room for one bag each with the plane two thirds full on all four flights, let alone two. That’s not to mention the long queues at security at each airport, again with the one bag rule.

Digg the Candidates

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 13:54:17 +0000

Digg the Candidates: I really like what Digg have done here for the 2008 elections, and the caucuses sound really interesting.

New Energy Uses for Asphalt

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 23:02:22 +0000

New Energy Uses for Asphalt:

Reason for posting this (in the comments on Digg)…

Dugg by the use of the original Associated Press source rather than some lame spam blog.

Exactly what I thought when I saw it was on ap.google.com. :-)

Virgin Radio France

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 06:39:26 +0000

Virgin Radio France:

Europe 2 (radio and TV) has been rebranded as Virgin Radio. The site looks pretty good, but I still prefer the UK’s Virgin Radio site (see Feist on Virgin Radio UK and France).

The music on VR France looks very good. Will tune in today. :-)

What I learned today

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 21:53:25 +0000

Newcastle is the nosiest place in England. [Via BBC Magazine Monitor]

Also… however small I imagined the Asus Eee PC is, when you’re standing in front of one it’s absolutely tiny, and looks very good compared to the photos on teh intarwebz. I was pleasantly surprised that the local shop had the 8GB for the same price as the 4GB retails online.

[Via: Computer shop around the corner]

What I learned today

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 22:05:42 +0000

You can pay €66 for someone to teach you how over two hours how to lay a table. [Via France 24]