Wow so just in from seeing Josh Rouse for the 3rd time in Glasgow. The first was Barfly many a moon ago. The second, the Arches. The third, The Mitchell and this show was absolutely stunning. The sound was sublime. The sounds were stellar. It just worked. Pure magic. A guy called out “Michigan” so of course I called out “Nebraska” (as in Dressed up Like…) and he said “it sounds like you’re from Nebraska….Are you from Nebraska?” to which of course I replied rather simply “California”…paused then said “Close” (which of course anyone who knows US geography knows it’s not)…but I do have some good friends there!
Anyway the show ended with the crowd on their feet, toe-tapping to Love Vibration. Talk about leaving on a high note. Good call. Still vibrating the love, I tell ya!
Anyway, so that was my night. Now I am off to luxuriate in an amazing bubble bath because it’s been a LOONNNNG stressful day and frankly I’ve earned it. Will add Josh pics soon as I upload them to the MAC.
Did I mention it was S T U N N I N G? Next up, if I decide to go, Bonnie Prince Billy. He’s pretty awesome too…don’tchathink?
Oh and, by the way, this weekend is my final show for radiosix.com – for a few months. I’d better pick the tracks one of these days…time’s-a-flying.
SYBD has an app in the works, a possible TV show (a reality type show), and some fun, new, possible collaborations – one with a Diamond gal and another with a lawyer. An exciting blog coming from each I hope! More on that on SYBD…
VDAY’s ON THE WAY
It’s also time to work out what the next animation should be – a story, a tutorial, perhaps something V-Day related (running out of time on that one)…I’ve no idea!
And to top it off, it’s time for some major DIY – chez moi. It’s the first time I’ve ever done a home improvement project. [I am sensing a blog about this for SYBD too...so will save this for that!]
NEW YEAR, NEW MUSIC
Some great gigs coming – Josh Rouse, Bonnie Prince Billy, Ron Sexsmith (shame it’s in Edinburgh, but since I missed Glasgow so may have to make the trek), and next month, of course, it’s my fave new singer / songwriter Benjamin Francis Leftwich. Picked up the Brit-nominee Ed Sheeran yesterday and Bonnie Prince Billy’s latest ‘Wolfroy Goes To Town’. BPB is the master of melancholy.
On SYBD last weekend I penned a blog about finding the GOOD in everything – which I tend to do now. In it, I spoke of a “Calendar of greatness”.
Each day I find things to write about that happened that were for all intents and purposes “great”. Big and small things really. Two weeks into the new year and this new leaf is sticking. I’m keeping it up. Today might just be the fact I painted a room, I’m not sure…
NO BLUES THIS JAN!
Compared to last January, I have to say, I’m feeling “beyond-good”. What a difference a year makes, eh? More work, more money, more joy, more abundance, and especially more positive!
So that’s my update for a while. I really only wanted to write a quick blog when I added my playlists. I know I am a bit ‘laxed when it comes to blogging, personally, but I do it so much elsewhere – SYBD, NS and sometimes So You Media…
Two shows in on Radio Six Intl and I’ve two more to go! Gosh I love doing radio. We have a Facebook page and a Team Radio Six Twitter stream too!
Hey on a Sunday night. Snow’s on the cards (or at least some “wintery showers”). Yay!
Say Hi to Jen
So tomorrow morning we’ll be unveiling the newest animation video. It’s a brilliant story and Ron’s done a fabulous job animating it. The one thing that lets it down (marginally) – was my audio for the interview. Rather foolishly we tried to record it when her baby was gurgling away. Rookie mistake.
In any event I think you’ll really like this one – it’s a true gem. And of course in addition to the story you’ll see some really lovely touches by Animator Ron and great title track, “The Big Bang” by the talented Kenneth Elliot.
So what I’m hoping to do with this one is enter it in some competitions. Does anyone know any place we can enter it into? It’s an unusual genre, at the eight minute mark – it’s a “short” – but also it’s part “animation” and part “documentary”.
Delighted to have bumped into Kevin McDermott of KMO fame last night at a Glasgow Tweet Up. He’s not a Twitter man (yet) but we’re working on that. I am delighted to say he does now have a Facebook page for the band which is an awesome thing.
There’ll be some good links to all kinds of “treats” to follow. For now you can add to the discussion on your fave KMO track or the first time you saw them live. I remember my first KMO show because it was 1) my first concert in Glasgow shortly after I moved here in 92. 2) my first time ever going to the Halt Bar 3) Where I met my friend Jenny Hunter who happened to just be standing next to me and we got talking. She was the first friend I made here and we’re still friends almost twenty years later!
It would have been my friend Kim in Ohio who turned me onto the bank back in circa 1989. That was when they released the awesome Mother Nature’s Kitchen on Island. Kevin is definitely one of the most under rated musicians from Scotland, possible ever (in my humble opinion). Definitely up there with Roddy Frame and Justin Currie for me.
A glaring omission from STV’s “Scotland’s Greatest Album” malarkey!
Anyway if you found this page due to searching Kevin McDermott Orchestra – pop over to Facebook and “like” the page will ya?
So I just found out I missed Other Lives in Glasgow. How the hell did that happen? That’s so annoying. Missing them by a week in California too. I can’t believe it. How annoying when I miss acts I’d like to see.
So I was thinking about their album Tamer Animals which I learned was out by a tweet from Zane Lowe. I immediately went on itunes and downloaded it without even previewing it. Thankfully it’s a great album, and it got me compiling the list of my albums for 2011.
At least I lucked out and saw that Alexi Murdoch is coming to town soon. ‘Course when I looked at tickets for the teeny-tiny venue in the west end, they were SOLD OUT, but as luck would have it, a second night was added. Thank Buddha I gots-me a ticket for Alexi. Last time I saw him was in a tiny venue called Brel. Was introduced to him by my friend Geoff Martyn. Was a brill night.
So as I type these words, I’m listening to tracks being chosen for my new series of Radio Six International. I’ve been systematically going through all the tracks I picked up this year, sifting through some of my choice cuts and then breaking them down into four or so playlists. No mean feat.
There have been lots of wonderful records this year from many of my faves – gals like Heather Nova, Rachael Yamagata, Lisa Hannigan, guys like Ryan Adams, Ron Sexsmith, My Morning Jacket, Matt Nathanson, Mat Kearney, the list goes on and on.
So much great music out there it’s hard to whittle down to the best 40 or 50 tracks! But that’s what I am doing now.
As for NANO word count, I am pretty far behind. Just inching up to 19k and I should be nearer to 26k by today. Oh well that’s what happens when you’re mega busy and try to commit to writing a novel on top of 2 fairly full jobs! My bad. Still, I am determined to complete it – regardless. Maybe I will make up some time next week as it’s Thanksgiving. I picked up my wee turkey crown (sorry all you true veggies out there) tonight on my way home from work. Pretty excited to have a day pottering and cooking. Now just need to invite some people over to share it.
Well I had better get back to it. Without a doubt my favorite artist for 2011 in Benjamin Francis Leftwich – but what makes that hard, is picking JUST ONE SONG from his record for my radio show! Wish me luck!
Little nod to the band, The Three O’Clock there. Half way through NaNoWriMo but I am not halfway on my word count. I think I am only 16,000+ words in. Still going.
So it’s a Monday morning and I am sifting through tracks from this past summer trying to pick an eclectic mix for series two on Radio Six International. Something for everyone. Rock, pop, indie, ambient and maybe a funky country-tinged track from Dave Alvin too. Couldn’t place the name so had to Wiki him and of course he’s Californian (too) and from the Blasters. D’oh, ok, I knew that. Hadn’t thought about them for many-a-moon. He sings in a twangy storyline sort of way. It’s not normally my genre of music, but it’s always good to mix it up, innit?
I’ve got so much new music it’s going to be a challenge to narrow it down. Another challenge? Picking only one song of Benjamin Francis Leftwich. Maybe I’ll just throw a song of his in every one of the shows. After all he’s my love of 2011. Been a long time since I was so into an artist. It’s pure love affair with that kid’s voice. The last time I was so enthralled by an artist (where I had to track down every thing) may even be Nick Drake! Ben’s clearly keeping good company then, eh?
Excited by our new animation. I suspect it may be our best yet. It’s coming soon – hopefully by month’s end. Ron has created more than 30 minutes of animated footage for what will be a seven minute clip! He’s got quite the editing challenge on his hands!
Well back to song-picking, tea-sipping and trying to get motivated to go swim yet another mile. It’s fast becoming my Monday morning ritual…Starts off my busy weeks on the right note. This week will be especially busy given it’s time for yet-another-New-Start-Scotland event at the SECC (the last one I worked was in Ingliston). It’s long days there, but fun meeting so many budding-business-owners and so forth!
Enjoy the sunshine and autumn leaves…
PS: Though not blogging too much here, there are number on the NSDesign blog (three or so from Cannes no less) and one or two on So You Media too! Gets too hard to keep up on all these blogs…I should consider consolidating…
Well I’ve managed to gain some lost NaNo ground, but still not at the ten-thousand-word-mark that I should be on day 6.
Still, I’m not far off it. At 8536 – which according to NaNo stats is an average of 1422 words a day.
I guess I can live with that. What I have is something that could in fact be published, one day. It is my aim that it will be. Right now it’s rudimentary of course, but with a good editor, what I’m doing could be interesting. I reckon.
I am billing it as a triumphant story, life lessons learned from a voyage of self discovery through a series of failed relationships. [Ok so not technically a "novel" but using NaNo for motivation and to force me to sit down and write every day (or almost every day).]
I should crack on well with it all tomorrow, on my day off. Time to close, I am rather sleepy….
PS: Wish I could get my dad writing – he has a pretty interesting and amazing story idea. I love the idea of him writing something at 80. How inspirational would that be?
Well as it’s November that only means one thing to me. Well no that’s not true it means two. First, at midnight on November 1st, National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo) kicks off. NaNoWriMo is writing a novel of 50,000 words in the month of November.
In the past I’ve completed it three times I think. I will be honest and admit that I’ve not always kept it to “novels”, I use it more to force me to write even if it’s nonfiction so I am sure some people out there would say that’s cheating. Stuff it.
The last time I started, I gave up in less than a week. My heart wasn’t in it. So I’ve a 75% success rate. That’s not bad. It’s now 3rd of November and I didn’t start until 7:40pm. That means I am behind several thousand words and will have to write fast to catch up. If I can write another 3300 or so words tonight I’ll be caught up. As tired as I am after waking at 5:51am – that’s highly unlikely.
Shoot I just wasted 175 words of typing writing this blog! Better get back to it. If you’re writing too, good luck!
Just blogged last night on So You Media Ltd last night that our So You’ve Been Dumped Muvizu animated tutorial is getting screened at MachinExpo2011. You can read that update here. It’s a little achievement, but also kinda cool too! We gotta take our little victories wherever we can get them am I right?
A week ago Gary and I went to Edinburgh for a full day at a WordPress event. As I am not a developer as such some of it was either over my head or tedious but there were parts I found inspirational. So I’ll be implementing changes to all my sites as a result. Right now changes are being made to So You Media since it has the least traffic of all my sites.
This morning I added a “translate” link which will translate it to any language. How cool is that? (Might just add it here for 30 or so of you who pop by each month )
I’ve been adding the videos page to each of my sites (all showing the same playlist of SYBD Videos from our YouTube channel) – which is also pretty cool (courtesy of tubepress).
So You’ve Been Dumped will be getting the most changes added to it by 2012 – I reckon. Well we’re starting to implement changes now. Watch this space.
Cabin Fever
Our new animation is getting finalised by Ron and should launch any day now (well probably not until next week…)
It’s one of my fave stories EVER on SYBD about a girl on a cruise who gets a humorous revenge in the end. It’s slightly longer than our other animations because it is such a worth story. I can’t wait to see it myself. I’ve only seen some of the stills which get posted on our facebook page. If you’re on FB please “like” So You’ve Been Dumped Stories. I’d really appreciate it. The more we have on our platform the more we can prove we’re worthy of becoming a wonderful TV show!
Named After My Dad!
Last night out with Ben I decided to treat myself to a little something (well if I don’t who will?) It was one of those things where you’re not 100% thrilled about it but a day later instead of buyer’s remorse you experience delight. I can’t begin to tell you how good I smell now. Ha. It was between this and Cacharel’s Amor Amor. I liked that too. Both the same size and price. Anyway happy with my choice so all’s good. Besides it’s “Ralph” which is my father’s name. A good omen perhaps?
Great news! Well I think so anyway…’am currently working on new shows for Radio Six International. The shows will highlight my fave songs of 2011. Picked up a ton of new music this year it’s been hard getting through it all – but the upcoming shows will feature my top pick of the year – Benjamin Francis Leftwich (even if he ignores all my retweets, the bastardo), Ryan Adams, Rachael Yamagata, Josh Rouse, Lisa Hanigan and more.
I recently had an amazing week in Cannes that deserves a total blog of its own (will try soon), but I returned and have been up to my proverbial eye balls in work.
There is no reprieve in sight until maybe Christmas break (or perhaps Thanksgiving).
We’re up for more awards (Herald Scotland Digital Awards and the Social Buzz Awards in London, hoping I get sent down for that one again!). We’re the official social media sponsors for New Start Scotland. (I’ll no doubt be “manning the stand” so if you’re going please pop by). I am down for a variety of talks and conferences on WordPress, Crowd Sourcing, QR Codes and more. The list is endless. I mean really.
Add to that the need to sort practicalities of MOTs and broken Blackberry phones. I could use a few more hours in the day. I’ll need them to get through this pile of music.
Enjoying The Help which I picked up at Edinburgh Airport two weeks ago. The film opens this week so I’d better finish it before tomorrow!
And I’ve discovered a new plug in whereby I can add videos to my site. Will launch that in the next day or so! Look out for the video tab above.
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