On Sunday evening I was at the Barbican Centre for Very Cellular Songs – The Music of the Incredible String Band. This featured a number of performers singing and playing Incredible String Band songs. The performers included Mike Heron and Clive Palmer who were original members of the band. According to Joe Boyd, who curated… Continue reading Very Cellular Songs
Author: Dave Cross
Apollo Introspection
Last night I celebrated the 40th anniversary of the first Moon walk by going to the Science Museum to see a live performance of Brian Eno’s Apollo. The music was played by Icebreaker who were largely out of sight below the screen while extracts from For All Mankind were broadcast on the IMAX screen. It… Continue reading Apollo Introspection
A Life Well Documented
Recently I realised that two seemingly completely different projects were, in fact, both facets of the same project. They both led me to putting more detail about my history into web sites and (once they are complete) this will mean that my life will become far better documented. The first project started when I dug… Continue reading A Life Well Documented
Opentech Overview
[Update: Details of this year’s Opentech conference are at ukuug.org/opentech] Yesterday was the annual Opentech conference. I’m going to have some more to say about it in some detail over the next few days, but those thoughts are still peculating so in the meantime here’s a list of the talks that I watched. Community and… Continue reading Opentech Overview
Hard Rock Calling
On Saturday I was at the Hard Rock Calling festival in Hyde Park. It’s a pretty good idea to have a three-day festival in London over the same period as the Glastonbury festival as it’s easy for the acts to play both festivals over the weekend and those of us whose camping days are long… Continue reading Hard Rock Calling
Checking Copyright
There’s a lot of material out there on the internet. And the nature of the internet means that it’s easy to reuse that material without paying any attention to copyright. If my browser can display an image, then I can save that image to my local disk and then, perhaps, use it on my own… Continue reading Checking Copyright
Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall
Long-time readers will know that I am not averse to contacting companies to complain about bad service that I receive. This isn’t a particularly fulfilling hobby as you very rarely get any kind of satisfaction. But recently it’s becoming even less satisfying than before. I’ve noticed that email conversations with customer service reps are becoming… Continue reading Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall
The War of the Worlds
Last night I was at the O2 Arena to see one of the 30th anniversary performances of Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds. For some reason it was a year late – the 30th anniversary was actually last year. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was expecting. I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had… Continue reading The War of the Worlds
Guerrilla vs Gorilla
On the train home I was pondering the difference between guerrilla marketing and gorilla marketing. Antonio points out that the Cadbury’s Phil Collins advert might be an example of gorilla marketing, but I think it’s probably deeper than that. According to Wikpedia: Guerrilla marketing is an unconventional system of promotions that relies on time, energy… Continue reading Guerrilla vs Gorilla
Literacy and Professionalism
I remember a time, not very long ago, when people assumed a link between literacy and professionalism. When producing text for public consumption people would always take the time to ensure that their spelling and grammar were correct. Obvious errors in copy would be seen as a lack of attention to detail and would throw… Continue reading Literacy and Professionalism