I picked up the latest issue of Wired at the airport for some mild distraction on the plane, but there were a few articles I thought might be worth sharing. (I know the idea is to go on holiday and forget about work, but never mind.)

The first article is a conversation with Clay Shirky (who’s book, Here Comes Everybody is well worth a read if you’re interested in how social media, such as Facebook, Wikipedia etc, are altering human behaviour and transferring power from big corporations to individuals).

The main reason I thought it might apply to elearning is the general point of the article, summed up in this quote:

“The problem is that, especially in organizations…We think the only reason people do productive things is to snag a carrot or avoid a stick. But that’s just not true…We have a biological drive. We do things because they’re interesting, because they’re engaging.“

I’ve always believed that if we design elearning to be fun and interesting and try as much as possible to make the users think it’s something they want to do rather than something they have to do, they’ll get more out of it.

The second article looks at how behaviours learned through internet use rewires the brain and shortens attention span:

“A 2007 scholarly review of hypertext experiments concluded that jumping between digital documents impedes understanding. And if links are bad for concentration and comprehension, it shouldn’t be surprising that more recent research suggests that links surrounded by images, videos, and advertisements could be even worse.”

Worth bearing this in mind when designing pages. While it might be desirable to  build learning with an open structure so the learner can choose their own path, it may actually be detrimental compared to just giving them training that follows a linear path.

Although, in relation to the whole ‘internet rewires the brain’ scare stories, I read another interview with Clay Shirky elsewhere where he has pointed out that:

“Riding a bicycle changes our brains. Watching TV changes our brains. If there’s a screen you need to worry about in your household, it’s not the one with a mouse attached.”

So having your brain rewired isn’t necessarily a bad thing! Whilst on the subject of potential drawbacks to doing things digitally, I’ll throw into the mix this research, which shows that people read faster on paper than on a screen. In the case of smartphones, iPads, Kindles etc though, they actually prefer it to paper. However:

“The PC monitor, meanwhile, was universally hated as a reading platform among all test subjects.”

In case you disagree with any of this, I’ll draw your attention to one final article I read by Ben Goldacre (who’s brilliant Bad Science  book thoroughly debunked Homeopaths, Nutritionists and other baseless quackery) which examined research that shows how people will often ignore, discount or explain away any research that contradicts their pre-held beliefs.

With that, I guess it’s time I got back to work…

I’ve been working on a painting for our bedroom over the last few weeks (because I don’t already have too much on my plate with the comic!). It’s a collage of flash drawings based on some of our favourite photos, song lyrics whatever. I’ll post the individual drawings up here as I go along. Here’s the first few…

The news last week that BBC director Mark Thompson wants to lube himself up for the Tories by axing 6 Music came as something of a blow. I own 2 digital radios (one in the bedroom and one in the car) and both were bought for the specific purpose of listening to 6 music. I’ve signed every petition I’m aware of but wanted to make my feelings known to the trust, so over the last week, have written the following letter:

“I feel the need to complain in the strongest possible terms regarding the proposed axing of 6Music as well as the worrying direction that Mark Thompson seems intent on steering the BBC.  

The BBC holds a unique and priceless cultural archive in the form of decades of BBC sessions on the shows of John Peel and others. If it weren’t for 6Music, these would, for the most part, remain locked away. The fact they are systematically added to the 6Music playlist on a daily basis, allowing them to be heard by new audiences is, in my opinion, reason alone for the continued funding of the station. Phil Jupitus said that to axe 6Music would be an act of cultural vandalism and an affront to the memory of John Peel. He hit the nail squarely on the head.  

One of the reasons given for the axing of 6Music is that it would allow rival commercial operations to flourish. However, there is no commercial station which currently offers the breadth and scope of music which 6Music offers. Putting aside for a second the fact that the sessions mentioned above are owned by the BBC so cannot be offered by any commercial station, much of 6Music’s output is carefully selected and curated by experts to provide music programming which is both eclectic and entertaining. It is not just programmed by an algorithm with commercial concerns in mind. Almost every DJ on the station cares passionately about the music they play. 

By comparison, if you look at the daytime output of Radio’s 1 and 2, it is indistinguishable, at least musically, from almost every commercial station in the country. The majority of DJ’s on Radio 1 and Radio 2 are selected for their personality rather than their musical knowledge or taste. Their personalities (and, in most cases, their salaries!) are the only thing to distinguish Radio 1 and Radio 2 from their commercial rivals.

The simple fact is that 6Music is a station that could never be offered by a commercial company. It would be a naive person who thought that if the BBC cut 6Music that some commercial organisation would step up and fill it’s place. The main commercial station which plays alternative music is XFM, but it is just a regional station and does not tend to play the vast range of music found on 6Music, choosing instead to focus on current chart hits. This will always be the case with commercial stations.

There are a broad range of musical audiences catered for by 6Music who are not being served by any other station, either commercial or on the BBC. Off the top of my head, we have the following, but there are others:  

• Funk and Soul show (funk and soul)
• Freak Zone (experimental and Avant Garde)
• Don Letts (punk and reggae)
• Tom Robinson (unsigned)
• Gideon Coe (live BBC archives)

  Axing 6Music would disenfranchise all these audiences, otherwise uncatered for, either by current BBC or commercial output. The proposals are that the best elements of what 6Music currently offers will be incorporated into Radio 1 and 2. To be fair, there are many shows on these stations with impassioned presenters who are genuine music fans. However, without exception, they are marginalised to night time slots. By design, Radios 1 and 2 will always cater to the most mainstream of tastes. Moving a few 6Music DJ’s into late night slots on these stations IS NOT a suitable alternative. It is no more than a token offering.

And it certainly would be late night slots that these shows were forced to. Whilst it’s true that both those stations already occasionally play songs which appear on the 6Music playlist, one must sit through an awful lot of mainstream commercial music to do so. This is the key reason most 6Music listeners do not currently listen to either of those stations. Only Radio 3 and 6Music, despite the obvious difference in their respective output, clearly, distinctly communicate, with a strong voice, to music fans with discerning tastes.

I cannot imagine the vast majority of the Peel sessions would sound at home nestled between Lady Gaga and JLS on the daytime Radio 1 roster. Similarly, if you axe 6Music, its listeners will not simply migrate to Radio 1 or Radio 2. They choose not to listen to these stations for good reason. They will probably just stop listening to radio and will be lost to the BBC for good.

I, probably like the majority of 6Music listenership, grew up listening to Radio 1. In my teens, as I discovered the more eclectic late night output, I drifted away from listening during the day, but continued to listen to the evening shows of John Peel, Steve Lamacq, Mark Radcliffe etc. The arrival a few years later of 6Music seemed like the logical next step. Since it caters to this audience the BBC builds on Radio 1. For this reason, I propose that Radio 1 might finance the continued support of 6Music.    

This may sound like a radical proposal, but it is much the same practice already demonstrated by book publishers. They use their successes to fund ‘the long tail’. They know that there is not much money to be made in the majority of books, so rely on the huge profits from a few blockbusters to fund the production of a huge range of potentially less successful works, knowing that the collective human culture benefits overall. Similarly, it could be argued that since evening Radio 1 shows are probably the main breeding ground for 6Music listeners, money could be filtered from the budgets of Radio 1 and 2 to fund the cultural enrichment which 6Music offers.  

1Xtra has avoided the cuts despite lower listening figures than 6Music because of it’s direct connections to Radio 1. I have read that, for the same reasons, BBC7 is to be rebranded Radio 4 Extra. Might I suggest rebranding 6Music’s name (but just the name, not the output) to more closely align it with Radio 1 since there is already a clear cross pollination between Radio 1′s evening output and the entire output of 6Music. This would raise the stations profile and listenership and make it a more viable proposition.  

I pay my licence and am a strong, vocal supporter of the BBC. I don’t like sport, soaps or reality TV but would never dream of complaining about the tens of millions the BBC spends on those each year. Why should my opinion on what the BBC broadcasts be any less valid though? My personal opinion is that with BBC4, 6Music, the news website and the iPlayer, I have already got my moneysworth from the BBC. Axing 6Music may leave me, and the other hundreds of thousands who listen to the station, feeling short changed and alienated.  

If the BBC were to focus solely on catering to more marginal groups, at the expense of commercial output, it would play into Tory hands and put them exactly where the likes of Rupert Murdoch want them. Therefore, it is vital that the BBC continues to cater to commercial markets. However, their remit, and the justification for the licence, is to provide for audiences which are ignored by the commercial market. The current wide range of BBC radio stations balances both needs perfectly. If you axe 6Music and the Asian Network, then very little remains to distinguish the BBC’s output from that of commercial rivals. This, in turn lends fuel to the argument for scrapping the licence fee.

These changes are obviously being made to appease the Conservatives in case they are successful in the forthcoming election. However, The Tories are entirely in the pocket or Rupert Murdoch who would happily see the BBC dismantled completely to allow his rampant greed to be further fed. What the BBC needs right now is a director who is prepared for the fight and is ready to face down the threats of the next few years voraciously. Not a director who will roll over and start offering sacrificial lambs at the first hint of trouble. He costs more than twice what the previous director did and therefore is poor value for money. Get him out and get someone in on a more realistic salary who is prepared to fight fiercly for the corporation and offer the licence payers better value for money.

It is obvious that the BBC, and Mark Thompson did not expect the outraged public response to last weeks announcement, but I hope that it has given them food for thought and that common sense will provail at the BBC Trust when the final decision regarding these proposals is made.”

I decided not to limit myself to the arbitary round figure of 10 since there are more than 10 albums worthy of a mention. It’s also hard to put them in order of preference, so I’m going to take the easy way out by stating up front that Waxing Gibbous by Malcolm Middleton is my album of the year and everything else came a very close second. Links go to the album on Spotify where available, otherwise to the bands Myspace.

Malcolm Middleton – Waxing Gibbous

And So I Watch You From Afar
Balls as big as watermelons. This album sounds like Mogwai if you hacked out all the quiet bits with an axe and then surgically grafted even more loud bits on. A good thing.

Lord Cutglass
Ex Delgados man Alun finally released his much touted solo album this year under the Lord Cut-Glass moniker. Pretty much encompassing everything I loved about the Delgados in it’s relatively brief running time.

Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport
Set aside ten minutes of your life and listen to Olympians in it’s entirety on the link above. When I first heard it, I tweeted that they could actually be the saviours of music.

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
In last years top ten, I mentioned that I had just heard the pre-release of this and thought it was going to be the album of this year. Certainly, it’s the one on this list that’s seen the most blog hype but it pretty much justifies every word spoken about it. Not as good as Strawberry Jam but still a complete belter of an album

Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs

Dark was the Night

Yes it’s waaaay to long but to complain too much would be churlish when you consider that A) it’s a charity album and B) it contains exclusive tracks by pretty much all my favourite acts…Andrew Bird, Sufjan Stevens (sounding like Rufus Wainwright here), Bon Iver, Arcade Fire, Beirut, Stuart Murdoch, Yo La Tengo and loads more.

Flaming Lips – Embryonic

Low Anthem – Oh My God, Charlie Darwin

The song, Charlie Darwin was the real standout on the ever excellent Rough Trade Counter Culture compilation at the start of the year and when the album finally dropped in September, it was more than worth the wait. Not quite this years Bon Iver but not too far off.

Yahweh – Tug of Love

The List described them as the missing link between Arab Strap and Boards of Canada. So much more than that but as confident a debut album as you could possibly want.

You Already Know – Stop Whispering

In many ways, this album complimented the And So I Watch You From Afar album. They are both different albums and both worthy of being on the list on their own merits though.

The Daredevil Christopher Wright – In Deference to a Broken Back

Produced by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, the album as reminiscent of early Elephant 6 recordings like Neutral Milk Hotel (more of which below) and Of Montreal (back when the wanted to be the Beach Boys rather than the Beegees)

Beer Jacket – Animosity

Jerri

Mumford & Sons

Andrew Bird – Noble Beast

Sufjan Stevens – The B.Q.E.

Honorary mention to albums I discovered this year that came out before now:

Neutral milk hotel – In The Aeroplane over the Sea

I normally pride myself on having a fairly good musical knowledge and being reasonably up to date with all the good bands. I’ve also been a big fan of a few other Elephant 6 collective bands since the late nineties. Somehow though, it took until the middle of this year for me to hear this album, which was originally released 13 years ago! And incredible it is too.

Angil + Hiddntracks – Oulipo Saliva

Would be album of the year if it weren’t for the fact it came out last year. Probably soundtracked my year more than any other. Written entirely without E’s. Either the letter or the note.

1. Let The Right One In

2. Moon

3. Where The Wild Things Are

4. Synechdoche New York

5. Up

6. Encounters at the End of the World

7. In The Loop

8. Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs

9. Slumdog Millionaire

10. Coraline

Also worth a mention: Sleep Furiously, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Star Trek, District 9

[EDIT: I completely forgot about The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, which suffered from some clunky dialogue at times but more than made up for that with Gilliams uniqueness of vision and imagination. Squeeze that one in at number 6 and bump everything else down one.]

I’ve been subconsciously forming an idea for a while which was crystallised a few days ago when I read this article about Alan Moore’s new magazine, Dodgem Logic.

Back in the mid nineties, in the two years between school and work that I charitably refer to as my art school education, I was a huge fan of  Deadline Magazine. It brought together all the things that interested me at that point. There were a few other essentially underground magazines which threatened to go mainstream at the time, such as The Beastie Boys Grand Royal magazine and the Herb Garden, but to my mind, Deadline was the daddy. The inclusion of the comics just gave it another dimension which made it stand out from the more mainstream mags like Select and NME.

Of course, the Tank Girl movie sucked so badly, and crashed and burned so terribly it dragged the magazine down with it, and it left a gap on WH Smiths shelves which has never really been filled again.

The first issue of Dodgem Logic isn’t out yet but it looks like it will be taking much of the same inspiration as Deadline, but tying it around what’s going on in Northampton just now. Moore has hinted that he’d like people to localise the magazine for different cities through an 8 page pullout which will carry local event listings and the like, and I hope someone else picks up the challenge to do that for the central belt, but I’d like to read something which is more tailor built around what’s going on up here.

There’s always been a thriving creative scene in Scotland. Glasgow in particular always seemed to avoid the talent drain which affected a lot of English towns and cities, whereby anyone with the slightest hint of talent would leave for London at the first whiff of success. I guess the A&R men never made it past Hadrians Wall? Whatever it was, it sculpted a supportive local scene which functioned in complete isolation to whatever was going on in the rest of the UK. Exactly like what has happened over the last five years or so in more or less every city in the western world, thanks to Myspace, Twitter etc.

Now there’s an army of  quality bloggers writing passionately to document the latest bands, artists, photographers and writers. The ever brilliant Glasgow Podcart just posted a round-up of some of the best yesterday. Much as this couldn’t have happened without the internet, like Alan Moore, I still like artifacts. Something to pick up, hold and flick through. I accept the idea of producing something on dead trees in this day and age seems like a backwards step but, particularly when it comes to art, it’s more appealing, for me at least, to have something tactile. A physical printed object to hold.

So my idea is this. A magazine which would incorporate music features, short stories, serialised graphic novels and short strips, as well as features on artists and photographers. Initially, it would focus on what’s going on in Scotland right now but it certainly wouldn’t be a chestthumping ‘wha’s like us’ endeavour and wouldn’t automatically kiss any arses based on home postcode.

It would be full colour and printed on the best quality paper I could afford. I want the thing to look so beautiful, you can’t resist picking it up and flicking through it, like a copy of Juxtapoz or Hi Fructose. The sort of magazine you want to collect and keep, rather than throw out when the next issue arrives.

That’s the idea in a nutshell, and now I’m really looking for your input. Please leave comments. How many of you would be interested in reading something like that? What sort of features would you be looking for? More particularly, is there anyone who would be interested in contributing articles or having their work featured? I’m particularly interested in hearing from amateur graphic novelists, or other comic artists but if you are a writer interested in collaborating with an artist to produce graphic adaptations of your work, or vice versa, I’d love to hear from you too so I can get you in touch with each other.

Please leave a comment even if you wouldn’t be interested, so I can get an accurate idea of what sort of reception it might get.

I appreciate that with Trafigura, the likely imminent tory government and BNP gaining a modicum of political credibility in some camps, there are more pressing issues to be concerned about than the Disney release schedule. But I guess I really am that shallow. Two weeks ago, I sent the email below to Disney but am still awaiting a reply. It’s a bit of a rant so feel free to move along without reading

“Hi
I’m a huge fan of the work of Pixar and Studio Ghibli, both of which are distributed in the UK by Disney. I am keenly looking forward to seeing Toy Story 1 and 2 in 3D, although it would appear that, unlike the US where these are being shown as a double feature, I will have to pay twice to see the two films in the UK. This seems typical of the disdain with which Disney treats it’s UK fans.

We are still waiting for the release of Up here in the UK, 5 months after it’s release in America. Similarly, Ponyo, Ghibli’s latest release, comes out in the UK, 7 months after its premier and 6 months after the English language version was first released in America.

If we look back through the last few Pixar and Ghibli releases, we see a similar pattern.

Up – 5 month delay
Howls Moving Castle – 3 months
Spirited away – 12 months
Ratatouille – 4 months

Admittedly, Wall-E and Cars both bucked the trend by coming out just a month after their US release, which is more normal for most other films. I really cant see the reason there is such a delay.

I understand the logistics of film companies reusing the film for different countries, so UK gets the second hand film once America is finished with it, (which incidentally means we tend to see films which are already covered in scratches and marks) but my understanding is that this argument does not apply with digital projectors. Also, most other mainstream films reach the uk no more than a month or two after the US release. An increasing number are released worldwide on the same day. If other studios can manage it, why can’t Disney?

In the old days, where you had to focus marketing to build hype in each separate country for the film, it made sense to stagger releases, but in the days of the internet, the whole world gets to see the trailers and advertising which is meant for America. More importantly, with file sharing being rife, surely it’s in your best interest to give fans a legitimate avenue to see your films as early as possible? I would never download a pirate copy of a Pixar or Ghibli film since seeing the amazing visuals on the big screen is a large part of the experience, but I would imagine it’s harder for parents where their children have seen the trailers online and don’t understand why they can’t go and see the film yet. Five months is a long time for a child. Most young parents grew up with file sharing technology so I could imagine the temptation is there to download the film to allow their child to see it. A temptation which wouldn’t be there if Disney just released their films on a better schedule to begin with.

I’d be interested in your thoughts and explanations on the points I have raised. I will remain a fan, but it doesn’t mean I’m not annoyed!”

I’ll update the post if they ever deem fit to get back in touch.

Also Sprach Zarathustra (aka 2001 opening theme) as played by a school orchestra.

A very rough draft of a logo for a friends website. It was more of a doodle to occupy myself during an overlong conference call and never made it past first draft so I’m just sticking it up here for reference.

As we were driving into Glasgow today we got a wee bit of a shock when we looked up a street and saw this. There were police standing at the end of the street and a crowd gathered. Fortunately, it turned out they were just filming something. I’ve no idea what but it looked vaguely 28 days later-ish since there were all sorts of posters up for many different missing people and burn’t out cars etc. They appeared to be getting ready to film and we got moved along before we could figure out what they were filming but I’d be curious to find out.

[Edit] a quick search on Twitter reveals it to be the set of Ewan McGregors next film The Last Word.