Archive for May, 2006
Why I’m supporting England
Two months ago, a BBC poll that claimed 83% of Welsh fans will be supporting England in the World Cup.
Rubbish.
I’d put the figure much lower, and the outraged replies seem to back that up. Still, whatever the true figure, I’m nailing my colours to the mast and supporting England.
To start with the basics: I was [...]
All Tomorrow’s Parties
ATP was, of course, quite excellent. Indie. So very indie. Probably too much so, but I’m sure Thurston Moore will redress the balance in December. Sue and I joked that the biggest ruckus of the weekend would be an argument over the merits of various Belle & Sebastian albums.
Quite a few bands worthy of note, [...]
The Abbot’s gift
From 101zenstories.com:
A Zen monk, early in his training, is preparing to leave the monastery and switch locations, for that is common in the Zen practice. Before he leaves he goes to the abbot of the monastery to say goodbye. He does so, but the abbot says he has a gift for him. Now, it is [...]
ATP preliminaries
Off to All Tomorrow’s Parties in 24 hours, so no posts for a while. Subject to mobile reception, I’ll be uploading pictures to my Flickr account all weekend, so you might want to have a look if (as looks likely) the weather is keeping you indoors.
Frankly, my ATP enthusiasm is a little subdued right now. [...]
New toys from Google
One pretty and trivial, the other complex and far more potent.
Google Trends: www.google.com/trends
Trends is a logical extension from Zeitgeist, allowing you to compare term search volume. Google News events are matched to spikes (at least, that’s the theory) and everyone goes home happy.
It’s fun, and it has some SEO / e-marketing implications which could [...]
Postscript
While we’re on the subject of filthy lucre, Steve Pavlina has a great article on making money from your blog:
Can most people do it? No, they can’t… [but] I would say that most smart people can. What if you don’t know whether or not you qualify as smart? Here’s a good rule of thumb: If [...]
On big business and narrow minds
Working in the business support sector* gives me a tangential interest in the concept of entrepreneurship and how it can be encouraged in the general public. According to the Small Business Service, 11% of the adult population is “seriously considering” starting a business.
That’s not an insignificant amount, but personally I suspect it would be much [...]
Twee-er than thou
I’ve challenged Tom from Page45 to a contest: compile the twee-est CD you can. I think my entry is pretty strong one, consisting as it does of Aberfeldy, Architecture In Helsinki, The Boy Least Likely To, Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, Cocorosie, The Innocence Mission, The Magnetic Fields, Mates Of State, Joanna Newsom, Of Montreal, [...]