My review of these — a super jam with his guests Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and a crowd-hopping version of “Play That Funky Music” (Part 2.1) and mesmerising renditions of ‘Sometimes It Snows In April‘ and ‘Nothing Compares 2 U‘ (Part 2.2). Here’s part 2 — in two parts, Part 1…
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and part 2.2
NOTICE: Copyright Disclaimer — Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976 (US) allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. Under Copyright & Related Rights Act 2000 (ROI #28/2000) Chapter 6 ‘Fair dealing: criticism or review’ 51.—(1) Fair dealing with a work for the purposes of criticism or review of that or another work or of a performance of a work shall not infringe any copyright in the work where the criticism or review is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement. (2) Fair dealing with a work (other than a photograph) for the purpose of reporting current events shall not infringe copyright in that work where the report is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement.
My review — Seeing what he did with some of the most popular of his tracks on Saturday — it’s no wonder I’m now listening to dance music. This section where he combined ‘Sign “O” the Times‘, ‘Alphabet Street‘, ‘When Doves Cry‘ & ‘Hot Thing‘ in a dark, terse, unfamiliar (but still recognisable) phase — was my favourite bit! (No surprise there — probably!) It all ended far too quickly — a bit like this does — didn’t think at the time that ‘U Got The Look‘ was going to be the last song of the night. Try this sample…
NOTICE: Copyright Disclaimer — Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976 (US) allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. Under Copyright & Related Rights Act 2000 (ROI #28/2000) Chapter 6 ‘Fair dealing: criticism or review’ 51.—(1) Fair dealing with a work for the purposes of criticism or review of that or another work or of a performance of a work shall not infringe any copyright in the work where the criticism or review is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement. (2) Fair dealing with a work (other than a photograph) for the purpose of reporting current events shall not infringe copyright in that work where the report is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement.
Came across this WSJ Blog post from last year by Gary Hamel, one of the great business writers and thinkers.
http://blogs.wsj.com/management/2010/01/13/the-hole-in-the-soul-of-business/tab/print/
” … there’s nothing wrong with utilitarian values like profit, advantage and efficiency, but they lack nobility. Reflect for a moment on the avarice and irresponsibility that produced the recent banking crisis, and wreaked havoc at Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia and a host of other scandal-plagued companies. If corporate leaders and their acolytes are not slaves to some meritorious social purpose, they run the risk of being enslaved by their own ignoble appetites. An uplifting sense of purpose is more than an impetus for individual accomplishment, it is also a necessary insurance policy against expediency and impropriety.”
It is a little ironic however, that a man so associated with the cold, hard, steely reality of business strategy and analysis should now be writing about bringing more warmth and love into business.
As ever though, as with so many of his writings, he does so here with such compelling eloquence.
A brief history of the universe and the origin of complexity—and a reminder of how vast the scale of time is and how small a sliver of it we have inhabited!
David Christian narrates a complete history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the Internet, in a riveting 18 minutes. This is “Big History”: an enlightening, wide-angle look at complexity, life and humanity, set against our slim share of the cosmic time.
Well it is genuinely good to see a new start to things today in politics. I just hope that the new Taoiseach turns out to be a doer as opposed to a spoofer. Perhaps we have got over the style-over-substance approach of recent years in electing this man—who we have resisted for quite a while. Charisma in the media-compatible sense he may not have but if he achieves without it maybe we’ll be the better for it. I hope so—for all our sakes!
A day on the road today—to Limerick and back. Focus group (or “Buzz Group”—why the hell do we have to come up with stupid names for perfectly good names already in MSD?) with Sales Representatives on the Customer Support Services.
Boss did more talking than the participants, driving his own agenda, as usual so I don’t imagine the results—which I spent 2 hours at home typing up—will be of any particular use. The whole discussion just makes me even more sure I’m not going to enjoy the next few months.
At least the road itself and the lunch were nice!
Fascinating piece in this month’s National Geographic part of a new series dealing with the impact of 7 billion people on the Earth. Apart from the most obvious impact it discusses, such as by building cities—essentially vast stretches of man-made materials—it also discusses the concept of “Anthropocene” —The Age of Man. A proposed new name for a new geologic epoch defined by our impact on the planet that will endure in the geologic record long after our cities have crumbled.
From a geologic perspective however, the most plainly visible human effects on the landscape today, like cities, may be the most transient.
RTÉ continued its postmortem of General Election 2011 this evening with the Naked Election documentary on One. Some interesting glimpses of individuals but generally I don’t think it quite captured the intensity of the campaign in the same way as “Dogfight” on Radio One over the weekend. Too many candidates featured so there was no real depth to the portraits provided, unlike the focus on just two—Charlie and Conor—in Dublin South West. (They clearly helped themselves to loose both seats by their complete animosity for each other.)
Well, reviewing the tweets of the day and adding a few on this and other issues certainly got my mind off the day that’s been and turned out to be a rather nice relaxing end to the day—must be the novelty of it all still. Mentally exhausting day in the office today with the announcement of my new duties—meh!
Although it’s probably not so new any more, as you can probably guess from the feed opposite, I have been investing a bit of time in getting to know what all this “tweeting” is about. I have had an account for some time but have not made active use of it. On the recent holidays, a friend (thanks DW), introduced me to the more, shall we say, “subversive” uses to which this new medium can be put which sparked my interest in it a bit more than previously—especially in the context of political debate. This approach is certainly far more interesting than the non-stop commercially-oriented prattle they appear to me to have been hijacked for initially, and indeed, still often are.
There is no doubt that all the activity in the Middle East of late and often-cited role of social media in the events there (the so-called Facebook Revolution) has renewed my interest. For these outlets to have this alleged role, they have to have reached a critical mass for impact. If they are increasing democratic opportunities, especially where there is a clear deficit—then long and fast may they develop. Having said that, it has been rightly pointed out that revolutions have always sought to harness new technology, from the Reformation and the printing press to the Ayatollah distributing tapes, this won’t be the last time we’ll be citing the connection between mass communications and change.
It also occurs to me that that, particularly in the case of the virtual avian variety in this space, they really have the ability to dice events and messages into the most simple textural format (reminds me of the attempt to “WAP” the web some years ago that really never reached any level of serious usage). Again, no bad thing—far too much waffle being distributed—present page most assuredly excluded, I’m sure you will agree!
So, democratic or subversive, that is the question? Well, we can be both—one man’s democratic expression is subversion to another.
One-size socks — surely the most useless piece of apparel ever invented! How in the hell is one size supposed to cater for all foot/shoe sizes — I mean from size 6 to size 12 all to fit into the same size? Complete rubbish!
I learned this a long time ago but yesterday I decided to give some Firetrap one-size socks a try on the basis that they were nice and were called “Slim”. I don’t think this was the description of them, just the name of the style. A quick try-on on getting home and the nicely outlined heels were half way up my ankles — just as on every other time I’ve tried these. Never, ever, ever again will I waste my time. Needless to say they went right back the next day!
It’s HB for me all the way — the only designer brand of socks that I know of that actually makes all sizes. Long may they do so!
Ciarán Collins 