Russell Davies

stations and film

middle earth exploratory land archive

 

Went to see the British Land Exploratory Archive show a while back. Saw The Desolation of Smaug the other day. There are similarities.

new year

 

2014, The Postman plus one, Akira minus five. Vuvuzela plus four.

recently in ears and eyes

Periods like this, when you have a bit of time for concentrated reading and listening, always get me lumping bits of media and culture together as somehow 'associated'. Not because they're neccesarily or obviously complementary, they just come together coincidentally and end up feeling right.

Suchly, right now, these are all working together for me: 

Accretions from Richard Birkin on Vimeo.

Richard Birkin's gorgeous music (which you can buy here) combined with: 

"I let the bath drain while I was still in the tub, a habit I was attached to, the way the receding water pulled at the body, dragged it down while returning its substance, gravity, density, making the body heavier and heavier as the waterline sank. Finally, there was no water, just bones like lead."

The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner cominbed with:

This pleasingly long and slightly bitter Little Atoms interview with John Lloyd combined with:

The Kennedy app from Brendan Dawes which is worthy of your attention.

favourite tower

31 Days in C - a one man Portsmouth

I saw a slightly odd documentary a while back called Here's A Piano I Prepared Earlier - about the experimental music of the sixties. The two bits that really struck me were about Terry Riley's In C and the Portsmouth Sinfonia.

It occurred to me that I could combine the two by trying to get people together to do a spontaneous, unprofessional version of In C, it then occured to me that that would be loads of work, so I decided to do it myself.

The score suggests an ensemble of around 35 people so I decided that I would record a single part on m'computer everyday during October. Just stick the headphones on and bash it out, no rehearsal, no retakes, trying to collaborate with and accompany, myself.

I haven't read any sheet music since I got an E in my music A level 30 years ago so loads of this is wrong. There are bits around bar 35 I just didn't bother with and I'm sure I didn't get all the dotted notes right (not least because my failing eyesight means I missed quite a lot of them.) For the most part, if I got something wrong the first few times through then I just agreed with myself and compounded the mistake.

I'm also not very good at mixing and mastering stuff so it might not just be the playing that's horrible.

Also, In C is supposed to be about 40 minutes long, but I couldn't manage 40 minutes a day for a month so I aimed for 10 minutes. That means some of the shifting tides of the original come and go rather quickly.

Anyway. Here it is:

 

much-loved EBCBs

Greg took this. Cheered me up no end. 

attributing a scenius

Dan asked a great question after his dConstruct talk:

He asked around it the same time The Oberver got me to write something about smart watches and I asked for help on twitter. Lots of people responded with brilliant, helpful answers. I knew what he meant. I wished there was a way to acknowledge everyone in that piece.

The Observer asked again last night, about 3D printing, with a deadline of lunchtime today. Once again m'twitter colleagues responded with fantastic stuff. The jokes and ideas everyone came up with in a few tweets are for more interesting than the 1000 words I stitched together. When I work out how to do a storify of it I'll try and do that.

But I do want to say thanks to everyone. You're all kind and clever. I know scenius is a terrible, terrible word but you are one, whether you like it or not.

My stupid project for November is to try and write a 'network essay'. I don't know what that means but this experience seems relevant.

food

This is gorgeous. Via Anne. This copy from here. 

never not working