Holiday Good Wishes


Playing For Change: Song Around the World | Stand By Me from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.
My good friend Michael from the Bronte Blues Club sent me the link to this video. A good one for Christmas reflections.

Strange Goings-On In the Twitterverse

Been on Twitter for a number of weeks now. I really like it. Suits my approach to blogging in that I am often reluctant to write huge tracts of text whereas the odd sentence or two comes along quite easily. It’s good in terms of audience as well. Without really trying the number of my followers has grown to 40 or so and I’ve had regular correspondence with many of them.
Having bought an iPod Touch recently I have since had some trouble finding a suitable Twitter app for it. Twitterific is one I’ve used on my desktop mac but somehow for me it does not transfer well to the Touch. Next came Twitterfon. This was better but it still lacked something in terms of looks and usability. Thanks to FruitBytes, I came across Tweetie. This app comes at a cost (£1.79!) but it is a small price well worth paying. It has many benefits over others including the ability to handle more than one Twitter account. Its speech bubble listings and clever use of colour also give it a distinctive look and an element of style.
Reading a few of the latest tweets before being overcome by sleep last night, I came across one of Tweetie’s weirdest features. It takes advantage of the fact that the Touch can ‘know’ one’s location (if you decide to let it), and so Tweetie can find the latest tweets from others in the area. Using Twitter regularly, you get a feeling of knowing those you follow. In many cases they share some interests and so become friends, sort of, even though you have almost certainly never met them (and in all likelihood never will). So to see this new list of complete strangers, well, more complete strangers than your friend-strangers is most err…strange. Perhaps it’s the time of year, but several of their tweets were admissions to being more than slightly the worse for wear. Give it a try. See if you have the same reactions as me.

Obama Twitters No More?

If you should happen to be doing some idle Googling (?) as I was yesterday and if you should search for Twitter as I did (I was on a different computer and had forgotten its site address), you will notice that, at the time of writing, the second entry on the list is the name of Barack Obama himself.
Excited by this, I clicked on the link, expecting some micro-thoughts on his latest recruits, the ecoonomic crisis or even mundanities such as what he was having for breakfast. Disappointed was I to discover he hasn’t tweeted a single line since November 5th!
Now you would have thought that if he could tweet on a daily basis during the madness of a Presidential campaign, he might manage a line or two maybe even once a week during the more relaxed President Elect period.
Hold it! Wait a minute. Was November 5th about the time of his election? Please don’t tell me his Twitter account was just another piece of cynical political marketing? He wouldn’t do that! He’s the Change We Need. He wouldn’t do that. Would he?

Pure Evil and the Power of Language

Old news now. Over a week it’s been since Karen Matthews was found guilty of kidnapping her own child. Yet I feel compelled to write as something that was said during one of the post-trial statements has been bothering me. In his opening remarks, Detective Superintendent Kevin Brennan (above) says ‘Karen Matthews is pure evil.’
He then goes on to describe the events which grabbed the attention of the nation throughout the early months of this year. For those not familiar with this sad tale, Matthews, who lives in Dewsbury, a former industrial town in the north of England, reported her daughter missing one night last February. For three weeks extensive police searches revealed nothing until finally the little girl was discovered in the apartment of Michael Donovan, a relative of Matthews’ partner, a mere mile or so from her home. Joy quickly turned to confusion and then anger as it became clear Matthews was being held as a suspect. These events culminated with the guilty verdict last week.
If he’d described her actions as being pure evil I’m sure most would have either agreed or hardly noticed the comment. It was that labelling of the individual themselves that jarred. Applying the ‘evil’ tag to Matthews herself as opposed to her crime not only makes the comment more damning (which could have been the intention) and permanent, it also adds several unhelpful layers of complexity.
Some time around the birth of political correctness I was working as a teacher. Part of my job was to administer criticism and apply suitable sanctions when pupils did something wrong. During that time it was stressed that admonishment should always refer to the misdemeanour and not the child themselves. Put simply, ‘You are a bad boy/girl’ was frowned upon and discouraged whereas ‘The thing you did was wrong’ was favoured. Generally speaking, this made a lot of sense to me, unlike much of the other petty liberalism of the period. Clearly the crime in question here is far more serious than any child’s prank.
I would want to emphasise I have no argument with investigation or verdict. Matthews and her accomplice undoubtedly deserve to spend a long time in prison and already I have spent too much time and thought agonising over those five short words. Suffice it to say the case was complex and stressful enough without adding comments that raise questions of philosophy, theology and eternal damnation.
There are many more issue connected with this case that are far too complex to go into here: crime and its connections with poverty and unemployment, responsibilities of the social services, the role of the media and stereotyping to name but a few. Do a search. You’ll find plenty.

Hash Tags 'n' Glad Rags

Listening to the Six Pixels of Separation podcast on my shiny new iPod Touch last night, I was struck by an item which highlighted the growing use of hash tags. In this case it was referring to an educational conference held in Berlin: #OEB08. Following the eye-witness reports of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai on Twitter a week or so ago, I do recall seeing this reference to #mumbai but gave it no thought at the time.
I digress here for a moment or two. My flow has been interrupted while I actually search for the aforementioned key. It’s not displayed on the Apple keyboard. A quick search on the web not only reveals the location of # (alt+3 for uk keyboards) but also that many others have struggled to find it before.
It turns out (and remember, I know there’s huge numbers of you technical folk out there who are saying right now ‘Doh! You don’t know that yet?’ I’m talking to the rest of us) that the # key before a search term actually does a job.
This is how the site http://hashtags.org explains it: “Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They're like tags on Flickr, only added inline to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag.”
Hmm. Not sure I quite get that. Bit of real-time research needed here. Been to Wikipedia. A bit clearer, but maths never was my strong point. A few more websites later, it seems that, probably stated too simply, the hash tag improves searchability on a database. So if someone tweets using # followed by a term, eg Stephen Fry’s #oscarwildeday, and then someone uses the same term in their tweets, any searches will find all those entries quckly and easily. Another report I found about the use of hash tags was by anti-bullying site BullyingUK.
And of course, for every idea or innovation, there’s always people who see the negatives. As It happens, I think Paul Nich makes a good point here in his explanation that hash keys only work well when the group is big. He suggests another solution for smaller groups or organisations.
So, I’ll be trying a few # searches over coming days and I’ll let you know how I get on.

Why We Blog

Mitch Joel has raised some interesting questions about blogging in his latest article The Real Work Has Yet To Begin. It discusses the reasons why former bloggers or podcasters give up when ‘the real work’ gives them no time for this activity they see as a distraction or optional extra. He argues that blogging does constitute real work as it helps a company or individual to get more of what the former bloggers term ‘proper work’.
Personally, I think he’s right. Well, he is at least for the job he does and for the level at which he works. Firstly, he’s a journalist. Writing is part of his work and if nothing else, a blog gives him the opportunity to demonstrate his craft. Secondly, being in the social networking and marketing industry, his blog is a practical example of how blogging can help a company to grow and thrive. Furthermore, it gives him the right to write about blogging, podcasting and other web based social networking.
For the rest of us, particularly those starting right at the bottom with an audience of nil, keeping going is not quite so straightforward. What to write about is a major issue. ‘Write what you know,’ they say, and ‘don’t write trivia’ about the family dog or the kids. Trouble is, that’s what’s part of people’s lives. It is what they know and they don’t see it as trivial. I would argue that if they do it well then no problem. One of my favourite blogs is by someone who works in Starbucks. Her entries are of no great importance but the anecdotes she relates and her chatty, informal style have enabled her to build an audience to the extent that she feels confident enough to ask for tips. So, I make no apologies for trivia, particularly when I tweet.
Another good reason for blogging at the bottom and keeping going is at least it is a way of displaying a writing ability and developing a suitable style. And the more we do it, hopefully the blog will improve. And who knows? We might even get an audience.
So if, like me, you’re just starting out, why not treat your blog as a morning constitutional? Get up (a bit earlier perhaps?). Bathroom stuff. Enough clothing to be decent. Coffee. Blog.

Social Networking for the Rest Of Us

In terms of the internet, 2008 has been an important year for ickledot. In addition to stepping out and forming this little company, earning a bit of money and meeting some wonderful people, I have also come to recognise the benefits of what has become known as Web 2.0. I realise this is around half a decade after the movers and shakers turned the internet from a passive ‘get a website and wait for others to come and visit’ to a more interactive world of blogging, Twitter, Facebook et al. From what I read, they are already moving on to version 3.
I have described how this happened for me before but briefly it began in a big way with a presentation by Ian Green of Green Communications, my reading of Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky and following the blogs of influential voices such as Dave Winer, Mitch Joel and others.
Obviously here in Sunny Oxenhope we are a world away from such high fliers (although the internet allows us to be an email away from direct contact and generally if we have something interesting to contribute a reply ensues). What interests me is how this technology can help local businesses - the butcher, greengrocer, hairdresser. How could they become part of the global network and also see their customer base and sales increase? Certainly many such institutions are under constant threat from the big supermarkets and need all the help they can get. Following on from that, is there potential for a local social networking business? If the big corporations can be served by companies such as Green Communications, could local shops and businesses benefit from similar yet smaller scale advice, particularly when sites such as Blogger, Wordpress, Flickr, UpComing or even LinkedIn mean a considerable web presence can be constructed with very little expenditure?
To compare my position with a race or journey, I look way ahead to the leaders, the front runners including the individuals and organisations mentioned above. Looking back though, there is a long tail of social networking stragglers. My excellent local butcher had never heard of Twitter when I mentioned how my tweets about his pies had got a number of responses. He might argue he’s doing very nicely thank you and doesn’t need to get involved in all that stuff. At the very least though it is self-publicity and free advertising. The potential beyond is huge. Just ahead in the race are those who have websites in the same way they have business cards, compliments slips or letterheads. Their sites exist and and are immediately forgotten. Six months later they look tired, neglected and hardly ever visited. I have even come across larger institutions such as museums that still look upon their websites as little more than virtual billboards.
So that’s one of my target for the coming year. To explore how the wonderful world of social networking can be applied successfully to local shops and businesses that are ‘under the radar’ of the big players. Watch this space.

Sherman Robertson at the Bronte Blues Club

Arriving early to avoid the forecasted Pennine blizzards, ickledot was lucky enough to catch the closing bars of the Sherman Robertson Band’s soundcheck. I knew then that we were in for a special night. As the audience gathered, the sense of anticipation grew.

I know I’ve said it before, but the house band, BBC5, were in particularly good form. Apparently singer Michael Ford had been suffering with a head cold for a number of days and whatever it was that lingered in his nose or throat gave his voice a pleasingly gravelled edge.

And then came the whirlwind that was the Sherman Robertson Band! Having heard their session on last Monday’s Radio 2 Blues programme with Paul Jones, I knew what to expect in terms of style, but nothing could have prepared our little gathering for the performance that followed. From Beaux Bridges, Louisiana to Laycock Village Hall! It never ceases to amaze me that such a quality of music can be heard at this tiny venue high in the hills.

Sherman Robertson is a truly wonderful guitarist and showman. To me, the sound was vaguely reminiscent of Robert Cray and a number of others confirmed the validity of such a comparison. I saw Cray a few years ago (at Manchester Apollo: an inferior venue) and to me Sherman has the edge. More grit in the voice and guitar style. The supporting band were superb. Loud, but so clear, tight and obviously having a great time. Unfortunately a quick trawl on the old internet has not revealed any names, but I think I heard that the bass and keyboards players hailed from Leicester and the drummer from Birmingham.

Thanks go also to the organisers for managing to capture this rare talent for the Bronte Blues Club. If not thought of as an essential venue on the British blues scene before, it truly is now. A magical night. And it didn’t snow.

Bit Guilty …

… not been blogging enough recently. Soz. Over the last few days I’ve kept hearing about various things and thought ‘I could write a blog about that’ and then days pass and the chance has gone.

I was very pleased about Obama. Whether you like him or not you have to agree it’s good to have a politician elected without having to ‘dumb down’; appear less bright than he is in order to pander to ‘the common man’, whoever that is. Same with Gordon Brown really. He recently seems to have got the plaudits by being serious, being himself, rather than pretending to be something he’s not.

I’ve been spending quite a bit of time updating another site I run. I first designed it using Freeway about four years ago. Now I’m attempting to bring it into the Web 2.0 era using Rapidweaver. Trouble is, it has grown to be huge and so is taking forever to transfer.

Also been using Twitter a lot. I’m enjoying it more and more. There’s a huge variety of people out there and it is truly amazing what can be said in the space of 140 characters.

OK. I’ll try to write something on a more regular basis from now on.

… and another thing …

All those involved in public life, whether it be sport, politics or the media, also have a private existence, like being on duty or off duty. Andrew Sachs was most definitely the latter. It’s a bit like the guy who punched Houdini when he wasn’t ready.

Ross, Brand Etc, Again

Like many others, I've been giving this issue quite a bit of thought over the last few days.  Firstly I ask myself, do I have a right to have a view or comment?  Along with the vast majority of the other 10 000 or so complainants, I did not listen to the original broadcast. It clearly was not aimed at me or my age group (50+) and I would have neither known or cared about it without all this furore.

As many have said already, what gives me the right is the fact that I pay my licence fee.  While I've always believed the £100 or so I shell out each year is a bargain, it is not an insignificant figure.  For the most part I feel proud to contribute to what I believe is one of this country's greatest institutions.

Still, I was not intending to put my oar in until I heard yesterday afternoon's edition of Running Away on Radio 4.  Under other circumstances it would have been just another of those inoffensive afternoon offerings that reflect the lighter side of life.  In this programme presenter Tim Samuels takes a 'famous guest' to one of their favourite places, gleaning aspects of their life story along the way.  Yesterday it just happened to be Andrew Sachs.

I was expecting a series of anecdotes from his acting and comedy career.  Not the case.  It turns out that Andrew Sachs, the forgotten figure in all of this, was born in Germany, and the early years of his life had him caught up in the rise of the Nazis.  His family only just managed to escape capture and for a time his father was arrested.

And while listening to these revelations, I felt the anger rising.  Ross and Brand obviously had no idea they were dealing with a character who is far more than just an old sit-com comedian; someone who has seen and endured far more in life than they could ever imagine.  We who came after owe Andrew and his generation so much and any form of belittlement like this is most upsetting.

I understand the BBC is required to cater for all ages and tastes, and this includes the young.  But somewhere in the mix there has to be an element of the sort of respect which reflects the fact that older generations were once young and edgy themselves.  But then the times themselves had an edge; one which offered challenges far greater than in today's cosetted society.

Why We Blog

Another recommendation from Hugh MacLeod (I’ve linked to his twitters, even though this video argues it might not be such a good idea). As someone with an audience of practically zero, ickledot finds this video particularly reassuring.

Jonathan Ross et al

Hearing of this latest embarrassment caused by BBC staff, I was reminded of another episode featured on a recent edition of Radio 4's Feedback. Apparently, BBC 6 Music's George Lamb was rude in a similar manner in a shortened interview with the Kinks' Ray Davies.

It might be worth investigating whether this behaviour is part of a trend in radio humour, a bit like what the Office did for the sitcom.  Surely programmes with such large audiences don't engage in such antics without planning.

Geese Have Gone

For all interested parties, just to let you know that our five geese have gone! They’ve not been seen since last Thursday. Strange that no one saw them go and they certainly did not leave a note.
It was great to have them for a second year on our mill pond and we all hope they return in 2009.

Schools Kill Creativity

As mentioned elsewhere, in a previous life I was involved in education in a formal sense, as a teacher. This brilliant presentation highlights some of the reasons why now I am not. Thanks go to Hugh MacLeod for the link.

Stephen Fry in America

Watched the first episode of this series on Sunday night. Stephen Fry is a most entertaining and agreeable travel companion and his journey through the New England states was both enjoyable and informative. My one teeny tiny gripe is that each activity, interview or other item along the way was so short. I know the modern trend in all TV from dramas to documentaries is to keep things moving along at a rate, assuming an audience with the attention span of a gnat. But when the content is so interesting and the pictures so great, I would have liked him to dwell a little longer on each exploit. The interview with Sting in New York, for example, was so short it was hardly worth bothering.

Knowing that Stephen is such a technophile (he’s doing some great twitters on his current trip to Kenya), I was expecting to see a page on the BBC site with clips not seen in the broadcast. Haven’t found anything yet.

A minor criticism. Nothing to get upset about. I will be watching next Sunday.

Goose News

My neighbours and I have a feeling our five friendly geese should be moving on by now and yet here they are still. We seem to remember that by this time last year, the first of their residence here, they had already gone. They seem to walking further. I caught them at the front of our building on Friday, out on the main road which runs through our village, holding up the traffic.

Mark Lawson - A New King of Talk-Shows?

Overstating things a little, perhaps, but I find ‘Mark Lawson Talks to …’ on BBC4 a most refreshing departure from what has become the standard talk show format. The title says it all really. Does what it says on the can, as they say. No fuss, no gimmicks, no audience even - just two people, in a studio - talking.

Whereas most talk show interviews are considered long or ‘in-depth’ if they last longer than ten minutes, Lawson has an hour with his subject so the conversation can be allowed to develop. While conversing at such length may be beyond many of our modern celebrities, most, if not all of Lawson’s interviewees have performed well. They appear relaxed and articulate. The programme does not fall into the trap of giving people an opportunity to ‘plug’ their latest product, and this further adds to the relaxed atmosphere. Often, as in the case of Lawson’s latest guest, Melvyn Bragg, the discussion covers a whole career, whole life even.

The Bragg interview (repeated Friday October 3rd, 2.45 am! Set the Sky+) was particularly intense as he described particularly painful periods of his life - his difficulty in accepting the return of his father after the war, his teenage depression, the suicide of his first wife. Echoes of previous discussion programmes such as the famous Face to Face (ickledot is too young to remember the original broadcasts of this series) perhaps, but here the interviewee has freedom to reveal their innermost thought or not.

Mark Lawson has often criticised those who look upon television of the sixties and seventies as being a golden era, his implication being that there are programmes of quality (whatever that is) around today. His brand of ‘talk-show’ amply illustrates his point. Hope it sticks around for a while to come.

The North in Focus

Those of you who RSS directly to this blog will have missed my flagrant advertising of ickledot’s latest work on the home page. ickledot is extremely proud to have provided scanning and design work for The North in Focus, an exhibition of photographs by Bradford’s own C.H. Wood. This is currently on at Bradford 1 Gallery, in Centenary Square in the centre of Bradford, until January 25th 2009.

This image shows C. H. Wood with his H-B 1920s plate camera (courtesy Bradford Museums, Galleries and Heritage).

Sarah 'Miss Teen USA' Palin

Saw this on Dave Winer’s Scripting News blog this morning. Sarah Palin seemed to be a positive choice as John McCain’s running mate a while ago. If this is a truly reflects her knowledge of matters foreign, perhaps the rest of us have much to worry about.

By Any Means

When I first encountered Charlie Boorman, it was in his first televised travel adventure Long Way Round. In this he and his better known chum Ewan MacGregor motorcycled their way westwards, circumnavigating the planet. It was far better than I had expected as although the pair were accompanied by a well-equipped support team, the challenge was undoubtedly genuine and there were moments of real danger. Similarly the follow-up Long Way Down, a trip from London to Cape Town, was most enjoyable.

So I was quite looking forward to seeing Boorman’s latest effort, sans MacGregor, By Any Means. The challenge of this trip to Sydney, as the title suggests, is to get there on as many different forms of transport as possible.

I’m afraid I managed only ten minutes. I could stand Charlie’s grinning face and bulging eyes not a second longer. I’m not sure whether his presentation style has changed or the lack of a partner has made the difference. He now appears as a cross between a modern-day Bertie Wooster and Paul Whitehouse’s ‘Brilliant!’ character from the Fast Show.

Holiday Return!

Sorry no blogs for the last fortnight or so but as indicated previously, I have been away with chums on the beautiful Ile d’Oloron off the west coast of France. I am determined that on next year’s trip I will be a little more wi-fi savvy and online regularly. Anyway, a splendid time was had by all despite mixed weather conditions.

Holiday Imminent!

To my returning visitor in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Google Analytics is so useful). I am visiting your fair country next week for my September break. Look out Oleron! Tweets only from Saturday onwards.

Trouble in Thailand

So! The troubles grow in Thailand for former leader and football fan Thaksin Shinawatra. As protests become more intense in Bangkok, the knock-on effects for the football club he owns, Manchester City, are clear. A trivial matter compared to the travails of a country, obviously.
A wry smile from ickledot, however, as for the second week running pundit Lee Dixon declared on Match of the Day 2 that there was no better man to be in charge of footballing matters in these troubled times than City’s manager, Mark Hughes. One cannot help thinking that the likelihood of this crisis happening were plain to see when Hughes took the job only a matter of weeks ago and his ‘world-view’ radar may not be quite as finely tuned as his football senses. The sensible option might have been to remain in the relatively secure waters of Blackburn. We shall see.

Steve Parry and Michael Phelps

A couple of days ago the BBC got their swimming pundit and Bronze medal winner Steve Parry to venture out into the crowds in Tiananmen Square and report on proceedings. Unfortunately, he was accompanied by a life-sized cut out of Michael Phelps which had been in their studio throughout the games. What fun ensued as an increasing number of people began gathering round him, mistaking him for Phelps, we were told. I suppose it was a mildly amusing snippet of video to run in between events.

By today, networks throughout the world must have been running low on new angles to cover on the Olympics, particularly as most events were over and only there was only the closing ceremony to come. So there was the BBC reporting on Parry’s adventure once more, only this time with the added twist that the story had been picked up by one of the American networks and Parry was being interviewed by what looked like a morning show anchor team. For some reason they were trying to get him to put on an American baseball cap, presumably to see if he actually looked like Phelps.

Talk about the media covering itself. BBC runs the story. American channel picks it up. BBC reports on American channel. Where will it end?

New Version of Rapidweaver

Rapidweaver 4.1 came out yesterday and today there was RW 4.1.1. This may have been as a result of some of the problems pointed out by RapidIdeas whose post I read this morning. Also, I decided to turn off permalinks again. For some reason it made all my posts appear as summaries which I don’t really want.

More bit changes

Few tweaks tonight. Still more to do. Maybe a little text on the home page to explain who we are. Also turned on the permalinks. Tried this before and everything stopped working. Here goes once more.

A Change of Theme

Not too many people pass this way but those few who have been here once and have returned for some reason will notice a couple of changes. Firstly, I have moved this blog off the home page. Just wanted a pic or two to appear instead of a load of text. Also, am trying out a new design. It’s based on a Rapidweaver theme from SeyDesign. Not getting the best from it yet, but we’ll see how it goes.

An Excellent Sporting Day

It’s difficult not to sound nationalistic, but today’s successes for GB in the Olympics were particularly exciting. Maybe it was due to us having a few years where medals of any colour have been a bit thin on the ground.

Particularly refreshing were the post-effort interviews. First, they revealed just how much effort and emotion had been expended, not only during competition, but in the previous weeks and often years and how much the subsequent reward, the medal, was valued. In addition, whatever each athlete lacked in interviewing technique was more than made up for in sincerity. Having witnessed the clipped comments of those pampered premiership poseurs on Match of the Day last night, it was so refreshing to hear it from the heart for once.

New Technorati Claim

Technorati Profile

Rapidweaver 4.1 Release Candidate 1

Jus downloaded this latest offering from the very nice people at Rapidweaver and posting this using the very latest version of their application of the same name. Am I one of the first?

To celebrate, I am definitely, definitely going to begin updating the website devoted to the history of my local football club. As you can see (but not for much longer), it is desperately in need of attention. And RW will be my weapon of choice.

Claiming My Blog On Technorati

Technorati Profile

Hope this works.

MobileMe debacle

It’s finally been admitted. MobileMe was launched too hastily, thereby causing much confusion, inconvenience and a huge loss of face for Apple. So when are they going to get round to accepting that the problems began with the crap name? Presumably it was aimed at a younger generation, but surely it’s too lacking in what constitutes ‘cool’ even for the most gullible teenager?

I realise they wanted something that did not include the word ‘mac’ so as not frighten off the PC crowd. But MobileMe is not the answer. Hopefully, when all settles down and begins to work smoothly, MobileMe will be quietly dragged off to the place where bad tags go.

Another Jolt of 1968

I’ve mentioned before how much talk there is ths year of 1968. It’s as if those pundits who were around then and remain today can hardly believe it is all of forty years ago. This morning there was an item on the Today programme about the Prague spring, followed by the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia. For me this was a stark reminder of a traumatic few days I spent in Bridlington at the time when all this happened. I was 11 and had only recently joined the St John Ambulance Brigade - bit like the Scouts but with bandages.

As with most other such organisations, a highlight of the year was the summer camp. Initially, this had seemed like a good idea to me, and I remember being keen to go. On the day of departure we were required to meet at Chester Street bus station in the centre of Bradford. It could have been the early start, or more likely the fact that it was to be my first time away without the family, but there were a few tears were shed. Thankfully, this was done within the privacy of home.

Don’t remember a great deal else about the trip apart from going into Bridlington centre on the bus to the cinema. And then came that news. The Russians had invaded Czechoslovakia! There must have been eight or nine boys of various ages in our tent. Certainly I was one of the youngest. The eldest must have been in their late teens, and they immediately began speculating on the events that would surely follow: World War Three was imminent. The Americans would not tolerate such behaviour and Britain would have to support their allies. They would all be called up and everyone was doomed! For the first time in my life I was away from parental reassurance and if these older boys were saying these things then they must be right! I remember being petrified. I might even have blubbed. In public this time.

On my return home, the adults didn’t seem so bothered about the international crisis, perhaps because that generation had seen it all before. After a few days, my world returned to normal. Not quite the same for those in Czechoslovakia, I suspect.

Spooks Spin-Off

Last comment on this programme. It doesn’t deserve more. As one comment said on the BBC site, the very fact that it’s on 3 is in itself a kind of quality warning. Anyway, I watched the recorded second episode last night, originally shown on Sunday in a double bill with the opener.
It took a bit of a sinister turn. When the goodies start doing violence, torture and being first to shoot people, I worry. A negative influence on the young? Probably not. I doubt that many of the young will be watching it. Too busy out enjoying themselves.

TV Dilemmas (2)

Ended up watching Long Way Round ‘live’. I’ve really come to like this repeated series. At first I was somewhat sceptical, feeling that such a high profile film star could go thrugh true adventure and danger a la Ted Simon. But the pictures don’t lie, and last night’s episode showed our two heroes and their support team in some hard and arduous scrrapes.

Then I watched the Spooks spin-off (recorded). Had the production values of the original although there was something about some of the chase scenes that looked wrong. Don’t know whether it was the youthful cast or the futuristic setting, but it somehow lacked that feeling of seriousness and danger, despite quite a high death count. Overall a bit like Threads meets the Double Deckers.

So, might have a look at Britain From The Air on iPlayer tonight.

TV Dilemmas

Every now and again something pops up to remind me I am no longer young. Not old, mind you, but certainly long past the first (or second) bloom of youth. Like sometimes when I’m going out and I think ‘Seeing as it’s warm and I’ll only have trouser pockets, shall I bother taking the mobile?’ And then I think ‘Stupid. It’s a mobile. That’s what it’s for. If you don’t take it out with you, there’s no point having it.’ For someone younger, the mobile is a part of their being. They wouldn’t venture as far as the next room without their mobile, let alone the vast outdoors.

A similar thing has happened just now with the TV schedules. At nine o’clock tonight there’s Britain From the Air on Beeb One, the repeat of Long Way Round on Two (which I’ve been watching, having missed it the first time round) and a new Spooks spin-off on Three. My first reaction was one of disappointment at having to miss at least one of these. Split second later remembered the Sky+ thing but that only records one programme while another is being watched (I think). Then I remembered the iPlayer. If I’m bothered enough to remember, I can watch the third one through the iPlayer!

I suppose the point I’m making is that having grown up in the days when the only opportunity to see a programme was at the time of broadcast, it is still something of a novelty to realise we are now in the new age of viewing on demand. OK, I know the video’s been around for many years, and I’ve owned several. But I have never reached the point of taking the recording facility for granted. And I still feel more comfortable watching a show when it is put out - always have the nagging feeling that if I watch it later, I could be missing something more interesting.

So! Michael Vaughan. Gone.

I have to say, I could see it coming. That rather petulant interview with Jonathan Agnew on the Today prog last week. Obviously the lack of form and defeat against South Africa didn’t do any good. But overall it seems to have been the pressure of the job that finally took its toll. This is at least the second England captain we have lost to ‘burn out’.

People should be worried. There is no way on earth a sporting person should be forced to an emotional edge such that he breaks down in a press conference as did the admirable Vaughan yesterday. No country had been invaded. No murder committed. If this kind of scene has become the norm then we as a nation need to address our priorities.

That was a bit heavy, wasn’t it? Totally out of character.

Wheelie bins

To the Today programme:

So!  There's a shortage of wheelie bins.  

I am so pleased!  There is nothing so ugly as a straddled line of these things along roads and streets, waiting to be collected.

We never asked for them and so they are living proof that we do not actually live in a democratic society.

Bring back the humble dustbin!

Firefox 3 and Delicious

Not too many years ago, if anyone has asked ickledot about bookmarking, he would have thought it meant sitting down for a few hours with a pile or two of exercise books and a red pen, ticking and crossing his way through the night. Now, of course, red pens are hugely non-pc, ickledot’s life has changed completely and bookmarks have a whole new meaning.

Internet pioneers have been on about Web 2.0 and the social networking revolution for a number of years now, and the fact that ickledot is becoming aware of its power shows it is moving into the mainstream. The principle of storing all ones stuff away from your actual computer and into ‘the Cloud’is spreading to all aspects of computer usage and storage. This not only includes blogs, photos and movies but also bookmarking, most notably through delicious.

Delicious now has a new look and domain name: delicious.com.

ickledot downloaded Firefox 3 web browser a couple of weeks ago after it was recommended by friend Tim (who runs an excellent site about food in West Yorkshire). One of few disappointments was the loss of the delicious tagging option. Thankfully this has now returned with added options. Now all my bookmarks are stored in the aforementioned ‘Cloud’ as well as on my machine.

Thanks for news of this goes to Mitch Joel of the Six Pixels of Separation blog.

Mad Men Returns

The second series (I refuse to say season - footballers and cricketers and dogs have seasons) of Mad Men must have begun in the big country to the West. After giving the first lot of programmes a thumbs down a few weeks ago, I was reminded I had forgotten to mention how much my views had changed by the last episode. It really grew on me. A man called Dave Winer seems to think that the first of the new series was very good.

So! Mick Jagger at 65

It was in the news yesterday and one feeling was So What? Mick and his gang have now spent the major part of their career, thirty years and more, having the age question hanging over them like some perpetual curse. And they carry on playing and people turn up to see them in their thousands and the press asks the same old question each time a new world tour begins: Could this be the last?

Then I heard that five minute slot on Radio 4 about 1968 which mentioned that on the corresponding day then he was celebrating being 25. He would be, of course. Do the maths, as they say. But it still gave me a creepy feeling. Only a year before, the Beatles had sung When I’m 64. And now they are.

Last Goose Report

No more goose news after this, I promise. I’ve been out all day but when I returned this evening my neighbour had left a message on the answerphone. Apparently the RSPCA came today and saw the goose. They agreed with my neighbour that it was not in any discomfort and that in all likelihood the leg would heal. So all has ended well. Wanted to take a photo to illustrate this but unfortunately the heavens opened and it poured.

Being fair to the RSPCA

As it turns out, contrary to my report yesterday that the RSPCA had failed to show, apparently they had. About an hour ago I received a call from one of their representatives saying that a colleague had visited, unbeknown to me. She had reported back that she had seen the geese, too far out, and that a boat would be needed to investigate further.

When I explained that our ex-mill pond was only moderately sized, and that the geese were quite prepared to come ashore for bread, we agreed that she might have been at the wrong stretch of water. There is a reservoir a mile or so up the road and she may have been there.

Anyway, they are possibly going to visit tomorrow and have assured me that they will phone either my neighbour or me if they fail to find our pond.

Meanwhile all geese are continuing to eat heartily.

Update: Goose News

As my Twitters indicated, the RSPCA did not turn up yesterday, nor did they phone to give any explanation. More positively, my neighbour who actually owns the pond called to let me know she had returned from a weekend away and that the injured goose was safe and eating a hearty meal in her carport.
Tonight I went out to feed them and they were all there pretending to be ravenous (apparently the same neighbour feeds them regularly as do others - no wonder they’ve come back this year). Injured one remained in the water while the others got out to harrass me for bread. It remains to be seen whether the dicky leg recovers.

Injured Goose

For a second year we have geese residing on our mill pond through the summer. While certainly not tame, they are quite willing to accept a few crumbs and each year the parent, bolder than the others, has been prepared to take such food from the hand. As happened last year, a couple of nights ago one of them went missing. Whereas previously the bird had disappeared for good, this afternoon I arrived home to find that this year’s absentee had returned. Unfortunately, one of its legs was hanging uselessly, and it was only able to hop awkwardly.

After feeding them, I rang the RSPCA. I was reassured that someone would come to see what could be done but as today is Sunday, this might not happen til tomorrow. It could be a worrying night for us all, particularly the goose. Picture shows injured goose in the background.

Carl Bromwich Photography

As ickledot’s twitters have indicated in recent weeks, a new working relationship has been formed with portrait photographer Carl Bromwich. In addition to being a superb photographer with many years experience, Carl is a fine chap and ickledot is proud to be playing a small part in his success.

From Clay Shirky

just so -- connecting the dots in quite incredible new ways.

hope you like the rest of the book -- thanks for reading

-clay

To Clay Shirky

I don't know whether this is a tiny example of what you are on about but it certainly amazes me.  Two or three months ago I go to a presentation about how social neworking on the net can help business and the guy mentions Twitter and the work of Hugh MacLeod.  I should mention that this happened in Bradford, a former textile city in the north of England, near where I live.  So there's thousands of miles between us all here.

I have formerly never heard of Hugh MacLeod and he certainly has not heard of me (to my knowledge still hasn't).  So I set up a Twitter account of my own and followed his twitters and even became concerned when he stopped twittering for a while - he had mentioned that his dad was ill and I thought something terrible might have happened.  Anyway, one day he mentions you and your book.  So I begin following you twittering and I buy the book.  It arrived today, I've read the first chapter now and enjoyed it immensely.

Not too many years ago, none of this could have happened.  As you say - a social revolution.

Guy Tortora at the Bronte Blues Club - A Tortora de Force

Another great night at the Bronte Blues Club. BBC5 in great form to warm up the proceedings, followed by what ickledot considers to be one of the highlights of a great first year: The Guy Tortora Band. As mentioned before, ickledot is no purist and so this performance was right up his street.
First point of note was the clarity of Guy’s soulful voice. Each word heard clear and words worth hearing. A particular favourite was Cotton Was King: a bitter critique of the slave trade. Tortora is supported by a band of superb musicians: Andy Roberts on bass, Janos Bajtala on keyboards and Adam Roman on drums and percussion. If the second year is to bring more like this, ickledot’s ten quid membership fee (paid last night) is the best value he’ll get in 2009.

Charles Wheeler

ickledot was saddened by the news of this great journalist’s death last night. His reports and documentaries were always insightful, intelligent, thought-provoking and often moving.
A number of years ago, ickledot was delighted to receive a personal handwritten reply from Mr Wheeler after he had written to commend a programme which reassessed the presidency of Lyndon Johnson. It had described how supporters of Johnson’s successor, Richard Nixon, had deliberately caused the peace negotiations to end the Vietnan conflict to stutter through the last months of his presidency. Thus Nixon, not Johnson, would be seen as the successful peacemaker. In his reply, Mr Wheeler was kind enough to clarify a number of questions ickledot had raised regarding these events.
Many would not have bothered to take the time and trouble to do this. His personal postcard even included his home address, as if indicating a welcome of further correspondence. It reflected the fact that he truly cared about the issues he reported. He will be sorely missed.

Long time no blog

Well, the whole month of June has gone by and nothing new has appeared on the ickledot blog. No excuses.

Into July and the work moves on apace.
Last Saturday the Industrial Museum opened its Summer of Science Exhibition. ickledot designed the text panels for this display and hopefully there will be some images soon.

As indicated by ickledot’s twitters, some new work has come from Carl the Photographer. Having spent some time working on an archive of Belle Vue Studios, one of Bradford’s former portrait photographers, it is good to see the tradition is thriving and styles have moved into the 21st century.

Home again

S’been a while since I last posted a longer blog. I’ve been on holiday in France, as you may have gathered from my Twitters. Since returning through the murk of a wet Wednesday on the M62 I have been quite busy. A day at the Industrial Museum working on a couple of forthcoming exhibitions and also catching up on things.

Yesterday I downloaded the new Rapidweaver 4 and am using it now on this blog. Too early to tell how good it is yet but it certainly looks like a complete overhaul and no cost to users of RW 3.6. Very good!

A new page shows images of this exhibition, currently on display at the Industrial Museum. ickledot was proud to work on yet another successful project at the museum. See Projects (left).

May 11th

For anyone over a certain age and coming from Bradford, this day marks a special anniversary. On this day in 1985, fifty-six football fans died in a tragic fire at the home ground of the local football club, Bradford City. My friend Dave Pendleton has written a short, moving account of today's Memorial Service, held in Centenary Square, Bradford. Well worth reading.

Result from Testing

After turning off the dynamic php sidebar, my archiving returned. All seems well now. Off to watch Newsnight Review.

Testing Testing

For some reason my blog has stopped archiving properly and only displaying April's stuff. I'm adding this one just to see if it clears the problem.

Reflecting on local election

As I twittered earlier, I was at the count today. It was a grim day for my side but overall you have to accept these things and take the rough with the smooth. It is a shame though that, when such political shifts of opinion occur, some good guys get caught in the fallout. Many excellent councillors lost their seats today, along with a few who deserved it. One I felt particularly sad for was Malcolm Slater who has worked tirelessly for the people of Keighley East over a number of years. He's the kind of man you'd vote for even if he wasn't in your party. Clearly a (small) majority did not do so. It's their loss.

From the Print Fair - 2

ickledot was also impressed with this print by Brigitte Williams, on display at the Catherine Hodgkinson stand. As I recall, each line had a name written at the end; her influences, I think. It's called White Sun. Of course, these reproduced images do not give a true impression of the original.

From the Print Fair

ickledot remembers first seeing the work of David Bromley at the Print Fair (see below) last year The Rebecca Hossack gallery shows his stuff and they had a stand again this year. ickledot was almost tempted to buy one of his small prints. Still thinking about it actually. Bromley is an artist working in Australia. His inspiration is 1950s children's books and comics.

Humph

Been listening to the tributes on the Today programme this morning. Like millions of other people, ickledot feels a sense of sadness he's gone. It's a strange, some might say selfish sadness though. I never met him. Didn't even go to a concert. But he was one of those characters who, if you listen to the radio at all, is a part of your life. Someone you take for granted. And it is rather sad to think that a person whose programmes you've enjoyed for a quarter century or more is no longer going to be around.

ickledot in London

ickledot was on a jaunt yesterday, to London. An excellent day that went like clockwork from a train point of view: Bingley - Leeds - London King's Cross and back again, all in the day. Destination was the London Print Fair at the Royal Academy. Some great work on display but ickledot and chums agreed not perhaps quite as good as last year. Prices have gone up. Unfortunately no pics were taken by the three of us.

Weird goings-on at the pool

ickledot is by no means the best swimmer in the world but a length of the 25m pool at Greens gym can usually be managed in a respectable time. So it was strange today to find on my last length I was suddenly moving very slowly, going backwards even. I was forced to stand up and immediately experienced difficulty in doing so.

Little did I realise that the instructor of the class going on in two other lanes had directed her charges to walk briskly along the length of the bath in one direction. Amazingly, this caused something of a whirlpool effect, hence my difficulties.

It was the talk of the hot-tub, I can tell you.

Madmen - What's That All About?

I continue to persevere with this series, mainly because it was hyped so much as the one that America was going wild over and was written by the creator of the Sopranos. It certainly looked wonderful in the first episode. Clearly a huge amount of dosh has been spent getting the look of an early sixties ad agency just right. Trouble is, after half a dozen or so episodes, nothing in particular has happened. Over and again we have been reminded that ad men in those days drank and smoked a lot, treated women abominably and almost without exception cheated on their wives while maintaining an air of supreme respectability.

Maybe the Americans needed a strong reminder that their so called golden Eisenhower era was not as idyllic as they remembered, but for me it's a bit of a yawn.

Bronte Blues Club - Another Epic Night

Witnessing the Mojo Buford Band at the bronte blues club last night, ickledot experienced a whole range of emotions, the principal one being amazement. How could such an ickle club in a tiny space, barely a year old, provide entertainment of such an epic, stunning standard? There we were, perched on some lonely wuthering height in the Pennines, and yet the soundtrack was from a venue of vaster proportions.
From the opening chords of Tommy Allen's Fender (ickledot is no guitar spotter - the internet thing can be so useful), we all knew we were in for an historic evening. He and the rest of Mojo's band, Chris Lomas and Doug McMinn, were at the top of their game and Mojo himself was wonderful.
In an age when youth and celebrity reign over all it was so refreshing to witness a collaboration which spanned the decades so effortlessly, yielding such joyful results.
Another hit for bronteblues. Congratulations to all concerned.

Domestic Bliss? Nearing completion

Finished off the slideshow today. It looked ok off the projector although one of the pics was the wrong way round. This was due to me flipping it for a text panel and then forgetting to switch it back for the slides. God job I was there as the printer reported that the text on the panels was printing characters other than the intended ones. Luckily I was able to sort it, I think so anyway.

Good food in West Yorkshire

Not too long before the chicken was cooked tonight (free range, of course), my friend Tim telephoned. A fine chap is he and it was good to hear from him. As well as working a full shift on the chalk face of education, being a film buff of some renown, he also runs an excellent website detailing where all the best food can in West Yorkshire can be found. No mean task, I can tell you.

CCTV and litter louts

ickledot realises the use of CCTV cameras is in itself a controversial issue. Leaving that aside for a mo, it was interesting to note that in Friday's reports about them being used to spot litter louts and fly tippers, the emphasis was on punishment.
If a camera should capture a community minded citizen picking up a piece of litter, surely some kind of reward would be in order? A minor reduction in Council Tax? Gift vouchers? A roll of honour in the local paper?
ickledot thinks incentive works better than punishment every time!

A Night at the Bronte Blues Club

You don't need me to tell you the Bronte Blues Club is fast gaining a reputation for delivering Blues of the highest quality and last night was no exception. ickledot was proud to witness a performance from the excellent Doug MacLeod. A superb musician and singer, his set included much of his own material, particularly from his latest recording, The Utrecht Sessions. Most impressive though was his emphasis on performing for us in particular. As he said, his song list changes on a nightly basis, thus ensuring a fresh, unique feel for each venue.

The house band, BBC4 (1,2, 3?) were also in acoustic mood and in great form. Highlight for ickledot (bit of a creep and not necessarily a blues purist) was Jon Crossley's rendition of Randy Newman's 'Louisiana 1927'. Clearly enjoyed by all, the pre-main act chat melted away, so if any pin dropping had occurred, we'd have certainly heard it (well not really, cos Jon was playing, but you know what I mean).

A great night. Thanks to all concerned.

Simon Mayo in the Afternoons

Been doing a bit of driving in the afternoon recently and noticed that for a week or two Simon Mayo has been absent from the airwaves. His Radio 5 afternoon slot has been covered firstly by a chap called Phil and then this week by Gabby Logan. This led me to becoming concerned that perhaps he had left for pastures new. Maybe he has followed Jane Garvey to the lofty heights of Radio 4. PM? The Today Programme? He would certainly be capable of making such a switch as he is an excellent broadcaster, able to deal with a wide range of subjects and circumstances.

A quick look on the BBC website reveals that he has not left or switched after all, but if he had, would he be the first to move from poppy Radio 1 DJ through tabloid Radio 5 to broadsheet Radio 4?

Domestic Bliss? Further Progress

Been at the museum today. Text panels are now finished, in pdf form and ready on disk to go to the printers. The invitations have now been printed. they are basically an A5 version of the poster above with information on the other side. Returning next Tuesday to put a slideshow together.

Frankie Howerd and The Curse of Comedy

Tonight ickledot watched the last of four dramas on BBC4 named The Curse of Comedy. All were absorbing but for me the best was probably last week's piece about Hughie Green, starring Trevor Eve. His portrayal was superb, even though initially he seemed rather unlike Green. Perhaps also, as Green was not actually a comedian, there was no requirement for humour.

This was where, for me, the other three suffered. They weren't funny, at any point. Now I know what you're thinking. They were dramas, not comedies. True, but the writers and producers should have worked harder to make us laugh at some point so they could illustrate why these characters were so popular. Or were they assuming an audience of over 50s who could all remember the originals?

Domestic Bliss?

ickledot is currently working on text panels for the forthcoming Domestic Bliss? Exhibiton, to be held at the Industrial Museum, Bradford from April 19th onwards. A date which is getting perilously close!

Flickr badge added

Added a Flickr badge tonight. Not many photos on Flickr. Will put more on in the coming weeks. Should take about as long as an Olympic torch takes to get round london.

Getting my head round Rapidweaver

On Friday I downloaded Blocks for Rapidweaver. As with most software that promises the world and ease of use, it is not quite so simple. After a while of trying, I now have a home page with this blog in a Block. Think I am going to need a new theme or turn off the sidebar to get full use of these Blocks.

The Store With The Friendly Welcome

Recently, ickledot has been working on this highly successful exhibition at the Industrial Museum in Eccleshill Bradford. It celebrates the famous Busbys' Department Store. ickledot scanned and repaired images from the CH Wood archive and designed the huge window blinds, text panels and slideshows for the display.