Hello and welcome to my website and blog. You’ll find music mixes, links to interesting stuff on photography, articles by journalists that I like and increasingly political opinions.
To earn my crust I work as a journalist and also do a bit of photography. You can browse through my journalism portfolio here or if it’s photography you’re after, then flick through my online photo portfolio.
If you like what you see, then get in touch.
I’ve had a bit of busy January and haven’t had time to even scratch my arse really! But one thing that’s giving me an endorphin boost to get me through the long, cold depressing January is my show on Purple Radio – www.purple-radio.co.uk called Sounds from a birdcage with daburd – every second Monday from 10pm-midnight.
To cut a long story short, I used to do another radio show on a community radio station. It was all consuming and I loved every minute of it but when the show was axed, I lost all focus on my music. I still listened to it but not with the same depth. I used to research into each track and know a bit about it the background, the artist and all sorts of interesting facts – like Moondog - made his home on the streets in the 1930s in New York for thirty years wearing a Viking getup recreating the sounds of the street. He influenced brilliant musicians like Steve Reich and Mr Scruff had a hit doing a funky version of Moondog’s bird’s lament.
Anyhow, I digress. What was I saying? Oh yeah, I had a deeper experience listening to music because I had all this context in my head. I know it probably sounds weird, but there you go. Anyhow, I’ve been doing sounds from a birdcage since September last year and it’s got me all focused again. I’ve been wading through my music library – I no longer know what’s in there because it’s become a bit of an unruly jungle or a bit like my boyfriend’s hair (crazy professor afro!). Anyhow, I’m enjoying my music pootling and finding some lovely gems that I had forgotten about.
That’s all I wanted to say really – j’adore la musica!
A quote from anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny on his blog (translated on BBC website) kind of sums up the mood in Russia saying: “The time has come to throw off the chains. We are not cattle or slaves. We have a voice and we have the strength to defend it.”
What a year it’s been! Has Russia been inspired by the events that have unfolded in the Middle East and North Africa? Is this Russia’s Arab Spring moment?
Russia is changing and I think the internet is facilitating that change. What does 2012 have in store for us?
More photos from the protests here
The more certain a journalist is about something, the more we should be sceptical about what he or she has to say, writes Rod Liddle
“Of course, journalism should hold the powerful to account. But it should also hold the weak to account and expose their own complicity in this weakness. And everything we do should be viewed through a prism of uncertainty and doubt. The more certain a journalist is, the more we should be sceptical about what he or she has to say. Humility, bloody-mindedness, an appetite for saying something which is unpopular and a mistrust of almost everything, not least oneself, are the crucial qualities for a journalist, then.” – brilliant extract from an article by Rod Liddle on a new website launched today to promote free and independent journalism.
Full article here
Just listened to a deeply moving programme on Chen Guangcheng – a blind self-taught human rights lawyer. He didn’t go to school until he was 18, ended up becoming a lawyer and then campaigned against forced abortions.
He’s long campaigned against other issues but it was the family planning issue that got the government’s goat up. The straw that broke the camels back was when he exposed a program of forced abortions as part of China’s one-child policy in 2005. Shandong officials imprisoned him for four years on a charge of “blocking traffic.” They couldn’t even find something illegal to charge him with. He was badly beaten and and since his release has been under house-arrest.
The chinese government yet again flaunt their total disregard for human rights. But it’s heartening to read that bloggers and other activists are trying to visit him – defying beatings.
I hope he finds the strength to mentally keep going and not allow the chinese to beat him into submission – the government’s favourite tactic to suppress it’s people. Beat the fight, the spirit, the soul out of them and until they submit.
China rise up and fight back!
I’m listening to the last of Donal Dineen’s show on Today FM – the Irish radio station. Lots of great live music and interesting folk on The Small Hours.
Here’s a lovely blog post on the show and working with Donal.
http://stranded.ie/2011/11/28/everything-changes-in-the-small-hours/
I saw a TED talk by Eli Parisier about The Filter Bubble – his term for the space that we exist in the world wide web created by internet personalisation. And a very narrow one it is too. Anyhow, I bought the book to find out more. And to be honest, it’s quite scary. Changes that Google and Facebook have made over the past two years, I’ve just accepted and never questioned. But reading this book, has made me more aware of what’s going on behind the surface of these companies and the extent to which the internet is being personalised – to such an extent that we are losing our freedom as filters hone the information it thinks we want based on complex algorithms.
It’s interesting to read how this personalisation of the internet is changing the news world. An example that Eli cites is that of Las Ultimas Noticias, a Chilean newspaper. They started basing their entire content on what readers clicked on in 2004. Stories with lots of clicks got follow-ups, and stories with no clicks got killed. The reporter don’t have beats anymore – they just try and sex up stories that will get clicks.
Worryingly, a lot of web-based newspapers are following this trend such as Yahoo. Where is this trend in personalisation leading us? The internet is supposed to give us freedom, yet companies are trying to personalise our browsing experience to the enth degree?
It’s changing how we consume news and information and it kind of feels like we’re powerless. Anyhow, more food for thought here: www.thefilterbubble.com
I rest my case – Julian Assange is a hypocrite! Read all about it here.
Listen Obama - Palestinian independence ain’t ever going to happen through talks with Israel because Israel will never let it happen, so let them make their bid to the UN for independence. They’ve been shat on from a great height for long enough. Here’s an interesting article by Heather Brooke for the Guardian on the creeping criminalisation of investigative journalists just doing a bloody good job. Organisations (especially the Met Police) are too busy trying to cover up the truth in a bid to uphold their reputation.
